(a/n: This is my first fanfic in years so it certainly won't be perfect. LiS certainly has given some good inspiration. I'll do my best to post more, especially if reviewers seem to like it!)
...
"Thank you so much for coming, Max," Kate said as she paused again in her drawing. Max, still sitting on the chair across from her, pulled out of her own reverie while just enjoying the silence between them to look over at her friend. "You have no idea how much it means to me. It's like you're my guardian angel."
Max felt her face flush slightly, suppressing the sudden flow of Super Max pride welling up within her. "I just care about you, Kate. I don't like seeing my friends hurt."
"I know," Kate said, laying down her pencil. "You're a good person. Probably… probably the best person I've ever known."
Max tried to stop blushing again, and noticed Kate's eyes flicker to the picture lying on her bedside table. It seemed like the girl was thinking about something, trying to make some sort of decision. "What's the matter, Kate? Is something wrong?"
Kate's eyes flew back to her, and Max noticed a light blush in her face now. "No!" the girl said quickly. "No…" she repeated, more gently. "I just…" Her eyes fell for a moment. "Max…" she said, lifting her face again. "...Is it true?"
"Hmm?" Max replied. "Is what true?"
"I mean…" Kate stuttered, gathering herself. "When I asked about Warren… you know he likes you, right?"
"Yeah…" Max said, feeling a bit uncomfortable. Not with Kate at all, but rather the subject of Warren.
"But you don't feel the same way, do you?"
Max blinked. She mostly tried to avoid thinking about it, but when it was laid right out there… "No…" she said quietly. "I don't. I feel bad about it, especially with all the times he's put himself in danger to help me, but…"
"But…" Kate said, now looking more uncomfortable herself. "So is it true?"
Max raised an eyebrow at the girl, still not sure where Kate was going with this.
"I mean…" Kate said, strangely blushing again. "It's something I normally wouldn't ever think of someone, especially someone like you…" She cut off suddenly and looked up at Max.
"Just spill it, Kate," Max said, her curiosity fully piqued by now.
"Do…" Kate began, though seeming unsure started again. "...Are you gay?"
Max stared at the girl across from her. Well that was unexpected. Actually, it made perfect sense with how the girl had led up to it, but just the fact that it came from Kate, super religious, pure, Kate, was unexpected. Wait, Kate's so religious…
"Um…" Max replied, a multitude of confusion in her head.
Does Kate know? Well if that's true, then she must hate me since she probably thinks gays are evil or something right?
Wait, how does she know? Max was teased all the time of course, usually by Nathan and Victoria, but she didn't think anyone around her truly knew about her. Not even Chloe did, after all...
"It's…" Kate said, rushing to fill the silence, "It's okay if you are! Of course you know how my family is and everything, and well, how I am, but I've met a lot of people especially since coming to Blackwell, and you, and you're just such a good person that if you are then it couldn't really be a bad thing like I've always been taught, and… oh, I'm so sorry if you aren't! I don't mean to insult you or anything, or however you'd take it. I've just heard people talking, and I see how you are with Warren and everything…"
"Kate…" Max said, pushing out of her chair to kneel down at Kate's feet, taking a trembling hand in her own. "Don't worry about it. You're not offending me in any way. You just caught me off-guard. But… yes." Despite Kate's words, she hoped she wouldn't regret the truth.
She looked nervously up at Kate, waiting for the righteous judgment that was bound to come down on her at any moment. In the back of her mind she also started preparing to use her power and try to avoid this whole conversation somehow.
What actually happened though she completely did not expect.
Kate smiled.
"I… I see," Kate said, blushing a little again. It was clear she hadn't had many conversations like this before. "So… you like girls, right?"
Max blinked up at her, then almost burst out laughing. Instead her mouth broke into a smile. "Yes…" she said with a little giggle. "That kind of is what being gay means for a girl."
"Stop it," Kate said, swatting at Max's head but hiding a small smile herself. "You're making fun of me."
"I'm sorry," Max said, her smile faltering. "I don't mean to…"
Kate lifted her face again though, showing her smile. "It's okay," she said soothingly. "But if that's true, um… do you… do you have a girlfriend?"
Max blinked again. This was another question she wasn't exactly prepared for from Kate Marsh. "No…" she said without thinking, before a memory of a stolen kiss from Chloe came to mind. Of course Chloe never seemed to think of her in that way. She'd made that very clear multiple times. Plus she was still hung up on Rachel…
When she came back to the present, she looked up to see Kate smiling again. "I see," Kate said.
"Mm Kate?" Max asked. "Why all the questions?"
"Oh…" Kate said, turning back to her drawings and starting to scribble as if avoiding Max's eyes. "I just thought… You're the only one who's been there for me… I've had time to do a lot of thinking here the past few days, and although it goes against everything I've ever been taught… well, I've apparently already made out with like half the school…"
"Kate…?" Max asked, pressure rising within her chest. "What are you saying?"
Kate didn't reply, but her scribbling became more furious.
"Do… do you like me?" Max dared to ask.
Kate's pencil suddenly stopped on her paper. A moment passed as she stared at it, but then she looked slowly back up at Max. "Do you like me?" Kate asked, barely above a whisper.
"Of… of course I like you," Max replied, stumbling over herself. "You're, you're a great person, and talented, and…"
Kate shook her head. "But do you like me… you know… like you might a girlfriend?"
Max stared for a second. That's generally what she meant, but it made sense Kate wouldn't be sure. "Yes. Yes, I like you… like that. Kate…" she began, raising her hands to lay them on Kate's sweatpant-covered knees. "Are you saying you want to be my girlfriend?"
Kate just stared back into Max's eyes for a moment before her face broke slowly into a smile again. "Yes," she said in a small voice, then cleared her throat and said more loudly, "Yes. I want Max Caulfield to be my… my girlfriend. If she wants me, of course."
With that, Max pushed up on her toes between Kate's legs to hug her around her stomach, laying her head on her chest. "Kate, I… I don't know what to say. I never expected that you'd…" She didn't finish though, just closing her eyes as the two girls held each other close.
"Max…" Kate said softly after a short time.
"Mm?" Max murmured, still enjoying the embrace.
"If you're going to be my… girlfriend… then, I want you to show me what people, what girls, do together as lovers."
Max opened her eyes and looked up, seeing the earnest expression on Kate's face. "What… do you mean, Kate?"
Kate's face flushed again, though not too deeply. "Well, I guess I just assumed that… you know…"
Max raised a questioning eyebrow.
"You've probably… been with… someone before, right?"
Max, somewhat anticipating that question, took a deep breath and held it in, then looked down.
"It's okay," Kate said, reaching up to gently stroke Max's hair. "I don't mind. I've been through so much, needed so much. I want you to show me. Show me what love is like."
"Kate…" Max said in a reluctant voice. "I… I don't know if this is the right time." But when she looked up into the girl's eyes she saw moisture, but also a deep, intense yearning.
"Please, Max," Kate whimpered. "Show me I can be loved."
Max suddenly felt inhibitions flee her, and without any further thought pushed herself up further and captured Kate's lips in a kiss. Kate seemed a bit surprised at first at the sudden movement, but unlike her peck on Chloe's lips this time their lips stayed pressed together. Kate quickly recovered and began moving her lips against Max's own, and the girls tightened their arms around each other again as they kissed deeply with all the abundant love they had to give.
Eventually their mouths parted, but they still held each other, gazing deeply into each other's eyes. Max watched Kate stare back with longing, but also unmistakeable anxiety, and after a moment Max pulled back further.
"I… I'm sorry," Max said. "This isn't right. You're not well, and… but I want to, I so do, it's just… I feel like this isn't the right time." She glanced over at the hospital room door with its various signs and the nurse call button set next to the light switch. Never mind the girl who sat waiting beyond it. "Or the place."
"You're right," Kate said, sniffing. "Of course." She relaxed her hold, letting Max pull further away and stand fully up in front of her. However, she still looked earnestly up into Max's face, and a smile broke out across her face again. "You've already made me feel loved. And… and I have you now, right?"
Max just stared back for a moment. "It's so nice when you smile, you know. Until now I hadn't really seen it for a long time."
"Well until now I haven't had a reason to smile for a long time," Kate replied, pulling her legs up under her on the chair.
"Actually, hold on…" Max said, and she glanced around until she spotted her bag. She quickly went to it and found her camera, then turned back to Kate while still crouched by her bag. "Keep smiling," she said, pointing the camera up past the drawing table toward Kate. Kate's smile actually widened as she snapped the photo, and she stuffed the camera back into her back.
"You'll come visit me again soon, right?" Kate asked.
"Of course," Max said, glancing back over her shoulder as she organized her bag and snapped it shut. She grinned. "I have to see how your drawings turn out, after all."
Kate pouted, and picking up her pencil leaned over the table again.
"Just teasing," Max said, standing up and slinging her bag over her shoulder. "I think now I'm legally obligated to visit my new girlfriend, aren't I?"
Kate looked up, just the hint of a smile touching the corner of her mouth. "You better, Mister," she chided.
"Hey, I'm no Mister," Max replied, and stuck her tongue out before swaying her hips a bit in her secondhand jeans. "I'm a girly girl." Then she spun and reached for the door handle.
"Oh, I want to help you with Nathan too," Kate said, and Max turned to look back over her shoulder again.
Max had almost forgotten about the jackass she and Chloe were about to go after. "Oh…" she said. "Well, I suppose we'll just try and start in the boy's dorm. If I can find his room…"
"I'll find his room number and text it to you!" Kate said brightly, and jumped up to run over to grab Max's arm.
"Thanks," Max said with a smile. "That'll help."
"It's the least I can do, darling," Kate said, giggling and leaning up to give Max a kiss on the cheek. "Nathan Prescott doesn't stand a chance against us."
When Max entered the hall in a slight daze, she could still hear the giggling behind her.
At the sight of her friend, Chloe got up and raised an eyebrow at the door. "She seems to be doing better," the blue-haired girl said suspiciously.
"Yeah…" Max replied somewhat dreamily.
"Super Max strikes again, eh?"
Max's dreamy feeling suddenly abated. "Shut up," she said irritably.
"Come on," Chloe said grabbing her arm and starting to drag her down the hall. "Let's go pay a visit to Nathan Prescott. That little prick is not gonna be happy when he sees us."
Max glanced down at Chloe's hands before getting her feet firmly under her to keep pace. Yes. She totally needed a more complicated life right now. Good going, Max.
