A:N: I don't own Mad Max Fury Road or any of its characters.
Because I adore Cheedo and The Dag and I am convinced they are closest to each other than with the other girls. They've even got a cannon friendship-glove thing going on, I'm convinced of it.
Anyway, here it is. Enjoy and leave a review!
They found him lying on one of the prominent cliffs of the mountain. The shape of his body was near invisible against the dark stone under the night sky. Barefoot and with thick blankets wrapped around themselves, the two sisters tiptoed closer. This was the place Cheedo and The Dag went sometimes when they needed to remind themselves that the walls of their home wasn't their prison anymore. Maybe The Fool needed to remind himself, too.
He was lying dorsum against the flat surface of the cliff, legs crossed and hands cushioning the back of his head. Cheedo shifted backwards, afraid to interrupt the strange man in his solitude, but The Dag ever quick to reassure her best friend, squeezed her hand.
"Say, what are you doing out here all by your lonesome?" asked The Dag, her musical voice cutting through the silence like a sharp knife.
With a start, The Fool propped himself up on his elbows and bent his head back and to the side, pinning them in place with his dark gleaming eyes. Cheedo huddled closer to The Dag who seemed less than bothered. Ah. His shoulder visibly relaxed when he recognized them, and with an indifferent grunt he laid back down.
"Do you suppose he wants us to leave?" said Cheedo meekly to her sister.
"It only counts if he asks us to."
Max pursed his lips, watching the sky move above. Here they come again, he thought. Speaking of him as though he was an apparition. Their approaching bare feet made gentle noises against the rock surface. He tried to look without moving, but he couldn't see them in the corner of his view. And then there was silence.
"Will you sleep open-air?"
He looked up. She was just suddenly there without warning, just there beside him, staring down at him with a curtain of bright hair framing her face. Awkwardly, he opened his mouth in an attempt to answer, but he closed it again. The Dag tilted her head at him, and it reminded The Fool fleetingly of a curious puppy.
"Sky," he finally pushed out between chapped, plump lips. His brows drew together, bothered by the sound he emitted. Was that his voice? It sounded more like the groan of a rusty engine than anything else. He licked his lips as The Dag anchored her neck to look straight up at the stars.
"It's dancing," she remarked with delight. The small clouds were moving swiftly above and the stars seemed to twinkle.
The Fool watched nervously as the tall young woman swayed, balance wavering slightly as it would with anyone that ventured to watch the sky at such an angle. If she kept that up, she was going to loose balance and if she failed to catch herself properly... Well, it was an awful long way to the ground. He wasn't having any of it.
"Uh," he began, lifting a hand and awkwardly tugged at the hem of her blanket.
"Sit," The Fool said curtly when The Dag looked down at him.
Alright, The Dag thought smugly. Quietly, she did as he asked but she took it one step further and spread herself on her back right next to him. She was smiling, front teeth peaking forward between her lips as she huddled closer to the heat of his body.
Max blinked, staring straight up but unseeing into the sky, stiff as a board, feeling as misplaced as snow in the desert sand.
"Look," The Dag said, eyes up as she threw her blanket over herself and Max, a gesture that seemed to come by itself, as she had shared warmth with her sisters this way every night. "The constellations!"
He did look. But he did not see. He didn't have her imagination. To him, the deep dark blue firmament was nothing but just that; plain night sky.
"Do you see it, Cheedo?"
The Fool frowned and realized with a startle that there had been another present. He looked to the lanky girl, ashamed to admit to himself that he'd forgotten about this little one. She was standing still, holding the blanket tightly around herself, watching the sky with the same enthusiasm The Dag did.
The breath he took before he tried her name seemed heavier than usual. "Cheedo."
The younger girl jumped with a tiny gasp and stared down at the The Fool, pulling the blanket tighter around herself. He had never spoken directly to her, (save for the time he'd snapped his fingers at her). Much less said her name before. In fact, she didn't think she'd heard him call any of them by their names, not even Angharad or Furiosa.
He pressed his lips together, eyes flickering awkwardly over her face before he patted the ground next to his other side. He released the breath he didn't know he was holding when the girl's face gradually brightened with a gentle smile.
"Did you know the sun loves the moon?" The Dag's voice filled the silence again. "It's just a story, of course. But have you heard it?"
He didn't respond at first, but then he shook his head at The Dag, briefly distracted by small hands lifting his other arm and crawling under it.
The Dag lifted her hands out from the blanket and started drawing something invisible with her fingers in the air. "The people in the Green Lands loved and appreciated one being most of all." She pointed at a tattoo on a slender graceful finger. "The Sun. But as majestic and bright as he was in the vast skies..."
Max critically watched her fingers as she spoke.
"He was lonely," Cheedo finished for her with a bright voice and met Max' eyes from where she was leaning her cheek against the flat of his shoulder, now more comfortable with him. The young woman had shared her blanket with him as well, the same automatic gesture as The Dag had done as soon as she was next to him. Max wouldn't deny that the warmth he felt, laying cocooned between them was nice. He couldn't remember the last time he'd been this warm during the night. No wonder they huddled together like second nature.
"The Sun grew wearier with time, and he wondered if this was his price to pay for being the brightest and most brilliant of them all; to watch everyone close be unreachable while they basked in his splendour."
Cheedo sat up, leaning on one elbow and faced him. The blanket slipped down her bare shoulder and Max tucked his chin as he watched her. "And then one summers day," she spoke. "As the Sun was slipping away with a sad sigh, he caught a glimpse of her."
"The Moon," The Dag countered, turning on her stomach and Max eyes flicked between the two of them. "The Sun looked at her, mesmerized and bewitched by her sad beauty. He realized as he descended that her glow was never seen, never witnessed by anyone in the darkness she surrounded herself with."
"Soo..." Max trailed, trying to humor them. "He'd give her a shine? Courted her?"
The two girls shared a knowing look and smiled at each other.
"Well, he gave it a good try," Cheedo tilled with a nod.
"For certain. And more. He'd wait a little longer for her when the summer nights came, and then he'd come back when dawn and dusk met, just to catch a glimpse of her, just to see another part of her he'd never seen before. 'Go', she would whisper to him at every passing. 'Our fates are decided. We can never be.' 'Moon of my Life' he would call back to her before she fled the light."
"And then he'd restlessly prowl the skies during the day, 'I need her, I need her!' he'd speak sadly even as he spread his light. For as sure as he'd rise every morning to his loneliness, he had fallen in love with his silent, sad and coy companion."
The dark haired girl sunk down beside him once more, nuzzling her cheek against his shoulder. Max shifted stiffly to accommodate her and the girl moved with him.
"The seasons went by," The Dag continued, looking down at the tattoos on her fingers. "Every day the same and the Sun grew weaker and weaker with sadness. And then one day, as he waited eagerly to see her in the darkening evening, she appeared as beautiful in her sad glow as the first time he saw her and realized she needed him." The Dag bit her bottom lip holding back a grin. "And then she saw him, and a firey glow lit in her eyes and she said 'Alright, I've tried to be polite. Stop feeling sorry for yourself, mate. I don't want your bloody light, I don't need it, I'm fine right here. I don't owe your self-entitled little smeg arse a single fuck. Take a day off, quit bothering me and get stuffed!' And then she walked into the winter darkness, alone, just as she liked it. The End."
Max arched a brow at The Dag who looked very proud of herself. Cheedo was trying to hold back titters on his shoulder.
"That's... not how the story goes," he answered simply.
"How would you know? You haven't heard it," The Dag answered smartly and turned on her back again.
Silence followed and The Fool was left with his thoughts. The Sun had assumed the Moon's whole life based on his own need for companionship. He could clearly see the parallel to the girls and their former adversary. If the story would have ended with the Sun's needs met, even if the Moon had gone along willingly, would it have been right in the end? He shook his head, a subtle crooked smirk growing on his lips. Damn the girls and their stories. He wasn't sure what was bothering him the most, the fact that The Dag's silly little antics had made him contemplate in seriousness about the weight of the meaning in it, or that he realized that he'd drive the War Rig all over again if it meant getting the girls away from their unwanted and oppressing Sun.
Cheedo yawned, mumbled something incoherent and snuggled closer to Max. He was frowning. This behavior towards him reminded him of how Cheedo would behave with the others, the ones she sought refuge with as soon as she was uncomfortable. In a sense, she was treating him as one of the girls. It touched something human inside him that had been sleeping for a while. Perhaps it was this that kept him from pressing her away.
"She's been very tired, lately," The Dag mumbled beside him after a while.
It took him a few seconds to realize she meant the little one now snoring on his person.
"She hasn't slept very good, bad dreams, restless nights."
The silence that followed was loaded. He knew what she wasn't saying but was asking him. The strange man studied her face for a moment before he grunted with a nod. "I'll let her sleep."
A sigh of relief left her and she smiled gratefully at him with sleepy eyes. "Good on you, Fool," she yawned, turning into him and throwing a slender arm over the blanket covering his belly.
He blinked in the darkness. "Max."
"Hm?"
"Names Max."
The young woman pressed her face into him.
"Right. G'night, Max."
It still felt unreal. Hearing his name from someone else. Someone physical.
Silence followed. Everywhere except in his head.
Her voice and his name echoed in an endless loop.
Max, Max, Max, MAX, MAX, MAX, MAX, MAX, MA-.
And then there was silence-
-when he realized he liked the sound of it.