AN: BookHunter, you requested Thalia/Max, and here it is. If I get hate messages for this pairing, I promise you'll be the first person I hug over the Internet.
Thalia swore off boys. Max swore boys would be her destruction.
Neither of them expected to fall in love.
"You're pathetic, you know," Thalia says. She looks at the unfinished letters on Max's desk. "Writing to him when you know he'll never answer."
Max's face heats up. "I wish he would come back," she whispers. She gets off the sofa and takes one letter off the stack of many, similar letters. She wrote those letters to no one when she was frustrated, and they had accumulated over the few months since Fang left. She reads over the letter she is holding, then crumples it up in her hand. "It's not fair." It seems like she is about to stomp her foot in frustration when Thalia grabs her wrist, stopping her.
"Lady Artemis wanted me to talk to you to see if you would join the Hunters of Artemis. She says you're important. I've been here for three weeks. I've made no progress. If you don't give me a straight answer soon, I'm going back to my lady." Thalia gives Max a pointed look.
Max widens her eyes like a deer caught in the headlights. "But you can't. I don't know whether I want to or not. I mean—"
"You're pathetic," Thalia reiterates.
But Max already knows that.
Thalia takes the letter out of Max's clenched fist and begins to read it. After she does, she throws it back in Max's face. "I love you and wish you would come back?" she quotes. "I'd understand if you wrote angry letters, but these letters are just plain desperate. He left you. Get a new guy. Swear off guys forever. But whatever you do, don't beg for him to come back," Thalia advises. Her words fall on deaf ears as Max grabs another sheet of paper from her desk, this one so tear-stained that it is almost impossible to read it.
"What is that?" Thalia reads over her shoulder in curiosity. "Is it from that guy who left you? Canine or whatever?"
"His name is Fang," Max protests.
"I don't care what his name is." Thalia rubs her temples. This girl is driving her crazy, but it is also endearing how much in love and blind she is. It is—dare she say it?—cute. "He left you. I heard that you were once tough. What happened to that girl?"
At Thalia's words, Max blushes. What had happened to that girl? She gathers her resolve. "How do I get over him?" she asks Thalia, not really expecting an answer. Thalia doesn't seem like the type to have enough experience to know how to help Max through this.
But Thalia surprises her when she nods and motions for Max to follow her out the door. "By the way," Thalia says, "bring those letters you wrote for him. Bring the letter he wrote for you too."
Max hesitates, and Thalia wants to punch her. Instead, she grabs the younger girl's hand to pull her out the door.
Neither of them can deny the tingle that starts up where their hands meet.
"How did you get a fire started?" Max eyes the blaze in front of her warily, wondering if it is hazardous to her health. She stands in the backyard, letters clutched toward her chest, as if she is afraid of letting them go.
"Your flock member. Iggy," Thalia explains.
"What are you going to do? Throw me into the fire?"
"No." Thalia looks at the letters clutched in Max's hand wickedly, a determined look lighting in the back of her eyes.
Max recognizes the look on her face. "Oh, no way. I'm not throwing these away…" Thalia blocks her out and grabs a letter from her hand, throwing it into the fire. It burns slowly, and Max watches its progress with her eyes until it is little more than blackened dust.
"Just burn them. Burn them all," commands Thalia. When Max hesitates, Thalia grabs her shoulder and shakes. "You want to get over him, don't you? Well, do it."
"I don't see how this will help," Max says uncertainly. She shifts uncomfortably.
"You need to get rid of all evidence of him in your life."
She takes the first letter. Her hand grips it hard and she swings it back, fully intending to throw it into the fire and watch it burst into flames. But at the last minute, she backs out, scared. "I can't do it."
"Shit…" Thalia says exasperatedly. "You are so damn frustrating."
Max is about to say something to protest when Thalia locks her arms around Max's neck and kisses her boldly on the mouth. Max's first reaction is to reel back in shock. But as the kiss grows longer, she forgets about her inhibitions and doubts. Maybe it is just a rebound kiss to help her get over Fang, but it feels real nonetheless. Max leans into the kiss, feeling Thalia's strong arms snaking around her shoulders, holding her in place in case she decides to leave. Max almost snorts. She won't run away. Not like with Fang. Not ever again.
It is Thalia who pulls away first. She has a mischievous grin on her face and her eyes twinkle with mirth. "Now, are you ready to throw those letters in?"
Max pauses for a minute. The letters are her connections to Fang, wrapping around her memories of him so that he doesn't fly away completely. She doesn't want to forget him—he is her first love. And yet…
Max surprises Thalia by throwing all of the letters in, except the letter Fang wrote her himself. Thalia raises her eyebrows. "What about that one?" she asks, pointing to it.
"Maybe one day." Max shrugs. "I don't know if I can do it now."
Thalia smirks. "Well, maybe I can make that one day come faster."
They kiss again.
AN: That felt rushed. So sorry. :(