A/N: Hey all! Thanks for reading. I got a huge response on the last chapter, and actually some of your reviews convinced me to change the plot. So, this chapter took a little longer to get up because I completely rewrote it!
A shoutout to my reviewers,
'freckles123', 'reddevil47', 'Annybelle', 'The Bone Lord', 'Alya Kihaku', 'Grimjaww', 'LittleGreeneyedGirl', 'Abhorition', and my guest reviewer. Thanks so much to all of you.
Enjoy!
Chapter Ten: Outside
I walked toward the throne room, directly alongside Max, with Pearl trailing closely behind us. I had seen Max glance over at me several times, clearly expecting me to tell him what was going on. I didn't know what to say, so I opted not to speak at all.
When we walked into the throne room, my mother was sitting in her throne, wringing her hands. Her eyes looked red and puffy. My father was pacing back and forth in front of the large window in the room. They were the only people in the room. As soon as we entered, my father's eyes jumped over to us.
"Leave us." The King growled at the men who had escorted us in. The soldiers left, and myself, Max, and Pearl were left alone with the King and Queen.
"She's gone." My mother said tearfully. "I went to her as soon as you left. But she'd already gone."
"Officer Liam Hellems checked out his war car earlier today." My father stated. He turned, and walked forward with a piece of paper in his hand. He came to stand in front of Max, and handed the paper to Max.
"Officer Hellems serves underneath of you?" My father asked Max.
Max nodded once. Of course, my husband would be in charge of the boy that runs off with my sister.
"Open it." The King commanded. "Officer Hellems handed it to the head mechanic when he checked out his vehicle. It's an order from you, authorizing him leave with a vehicle and 100 gallons of fuel."
Max obliged, and opened the envelope. His eyes skimmed the words quickly, before he looked back up at the King.
"I didn't write this." Max immediately stated.
"I know. It's a forgery." The King stated. "And the man who accepted it is now sitting in a cell." The King walked back to his throne, and lowered himself into it heavily. He looked over at Pearl, and acknowledged her now.
"Has Opal been seeing this man?" He asked her.
Pearl nodded once.
My Father's eyes turned to me. "What do you know about this?"
"I saw her just before she left. Pearl and I did. She told us that she was in love with a man named Liam and that they were going to run away together." I told him.
My mother let out another small, choked sob. "Opal is out there. Out in that wasteland. She'll be dead in a matter of days."
"Maybe he will protect her." Pearl offered quietly.
Max answered her. "I know the boy. He's barely twenty, and recently promoted. A decent soldier, he could probably keep just himself safe. Maybe another person. But Opal isn't just another person. She's different. One group of thugs gets a decent look at her and that'll be the end of it."
I felt fear settle into my heart, and my father spoke again.
"Go and get her." My father stated, looking directly at Max. "And keep it quiet."
"The boy?" Max asked.
The King was quiet for a moment before he spoke. "He doesn't come back."
Max nodded, and the King spoke again.
"One more thing. Sapphire goes with you." He finished.
"What?" Max and I said at the same time. Me go with Max? Outside? The idea seemed ridiculous to me. On one hand I had no desire to go into the death-filled wasteland that lay outside the city. On the other hand, a part of me was curious to see it, and curious to see Max at work.
"Opal needs to come home. She doesn't know you Max, she won't come with you." My mother stated.
"Why does that matter?" Max instantly replied. "If you want her back, I'll get her back."
"She needs to come back not in chains." The King instantly stated. "She is my daughter. The last thing this monarchy needs is one of their Princesses being dragged home in chains. This is something we like to call a 'scandal' and unfortunately in the world of politics it usually doesn't end well if everyone finds out about it. Sapphire will go with you and convince her to come home."
"You don't understand." Max stated. "I'm not taking Sapphire with me, no matter what you tell me."
I felt a slight bit of hurt flare up in me at his words. "Why?" I said sharply.
I saw Max's jaw work as he tried to find the right words. "It's not safe." He finally managed to spit out. He looked at my parents. "You already have on daughter out there that could be dead. You really want to put another one out there too?"
"I don't know what this is about, Max." My father growled out. "You are the best Deathlord we have. You and I both know this isn't a matter of your ability to keep her safe. Whatever personal feelings you have about this, get over them. Go get my daughter."
I saw Max exhale, frustrated at the Kings words. But he nodded all the same.
Personal feelings? I wondered what it could be that was causing Max to have such strong feelings against me going. So much so that he'd blatantly told the King he wouldn't take me. We were dismissed from the throne room, and Max and I headed to our quarters to prepare.
We didn't say anything on the walk back, and I felt a tense silence between us. I wanted to speak to him, but Max had a way of putting up walls when he decided he was done communicating. And right now, it felt like a twenty-foot tall solid cement wall had gone up between us.
We got to the room, and it took me a while to find clothes that were desert-worthy. I selected a pair of pants that were sand-colored, as well as a shirt to match. Over it I wore a scarf-like cloth that I wrapped around my body. It went down to my knees, and tied around the waist. It had a hood built into it, so it was easy to hide my unusual hair. There was also a piece of cloth that I could put up to protect my mouth and nose from the sand. For shoes, I chose desert boots.
When I walked out of my room Max was waiting, fully ready. I imagined it had taken me much longer to get ready than him.
"We need to get moving." He told me. "Before it gets dark."
I nodded and put my hood up before I followed after him quickly. We reached the exit of the palace, and I thought I was going to have to hurry after him through the city, too. But, before the doors opened he turned his head to meet my eyes before he reached a hand towards me. I took it quickly, and for a moment it felt like the wall between us had lessened just a little.
But then the doors to the palace opened, and his eyes focused forward again and the wall between us was instantly back.
We walked quickly through the city, all the way to the Garage. Once we were in the Garage, I got to see for the first time just how much influence Max had.
People stopped working when he walked past them. The place grew silent, and the men stopped what they were doing to watch him pass. I wasn't sure if it was out of respect, or out of fear. Perhaps a bit of both.
He spoke a few words with a man before he ordered me into one of the vehicles. The war car roared to life as Max turned the key in the ignition, and I felt the whole car shaking around me.
I'd never been in a car before.
My hands immediately jumped to hold onto the door, and I saw Max smirking out of the corner of my eye.
"Ever been in one of these before?" He asked me as he flipped several switches on the dashboard.
I shook my head no quickly. I didn't dare try to talk. I was terrified.
"I was going to tell you to hold on. But you've got that handled." He remarked.
"That's not funny." I finally managed to spit out.
"It is a little." He answered. The door to exit the garage opened before us, and Max drove the vehicle out into the desert.
The sun hit my eyes hard. I squinted and eventually covered them from the blinding light. My eyes were not used to this.
I heard the sound of Max moving around in the car, before he nudged me with his arm.
"Here." He told me.
I peeked an eye open to grab hold of what he was giving me.
Sunglasses.
I slipped them onto my face, and saw that he had also put down several sun visors in the car for me. Now that I was able to see I could look out the windows. I had only been outside a handful of times in my life when I was much younger, and not for very long.
We were zooming through a mountain pass, and the rocks zipped by as Max wound through the maze of stone with incredible dexterity. We rode like this for a while longer, but soon the mountains ended and the world suddenly opened up. As far as I could see was rolling sand and endless blue sky. I looked out at it in awe, amazed the world could be so vast. I loosened my hold on the door, and pressed my fingertips against the glass as I looked out at the massiveness of the world. The sun was a bright ball of light in the sky. So hot, so powerful. No wonder Max was so tan.
"It's beautiful." I finally managed to whisper out. "There's so much of it." I turned to look at Max, and he met my gaze but didn't say a word. He held my form in his eyes for a few moments before he turned his gaze back toward the desert.
We tore across the planes in the car, Max's hands so sure as he guided the vehicle. But he didn't speak to me, he just kept his eyes focused ahead. We drove for several hours as the sun slowly began to go down in the distance. We stopped just as the sun was cut in half by the earth.
We stopped in the middle of the desert. "We'll stay here for the night." Max told me.
"We're stopping?" I asked him. "Out here, in the middle of nowhere?"
He nodded. "This whole place is the middle of nowhere. You can't drive, and I need to sleep. We'll hear if anyone tries to come up on us."
"Ok." I consented. He turned the car off, and I opened the door and stepped down out of the vehicle. My feet crunched as they met the packed sand.
I focused my eyes to the west, on the sun. As it set it lit the sky up in a beautiful kaleidoscope of purple and pink and red. My breath caught in my throat as I watched it set, and out of the corner of my eye I saw Max walk up next to me.
I didn't look away from the violet-streaked sky until the sun had slipped below the cusp of the earth.
"Why didn't you want me here?" I finally stated to him as I looked away from the skyline. It had been eating at me ever since his adamant disagreement on my presence with him in the throne room.
He didn't say anything, just looked at me with his steel eyes.
I scoffed.
"What a surprise." I couldn't help but mutter. His habit of going silent just when I needed him to speak was beginning to wear on me. "You have nothing to say."
He cocked his head to the side before he spoke. "It's not safe out here."
"You can keep me safe out here." I responded. "Or at least my father seemed to think so."
Silence, again.
I exhaled heavily and walked several paces away from the car, and from him. I didn't want to have a row, but I was frustrated. It was hard to be with someone who was like him. He was so distant the majority of the time we were together. I didn't want to be angry about it. He couldn't help it after everything he had been through. But it was hard to not get frustrated. I cared about him, I wanted to talk to him. He had seemed so much more open lately, which made it harder when he shut down again. I was just going to have to learn that he didn't always want to talk to me.
I tried not to think about it, and instead focused on the ever-changing skyline. I watched as the sky turned from light blue to navy, and as the stars began to peak shyly from their hiding places. I removed my hood from my head, and let my hair fall down my back. There was silence between us for a long while, and I could hear his feet shifting behind me. I wondered if he was going to speak first, or if he was going to make me ask again. He finally spoke.
"I don't want you here." He told me bluntly.
I felt annoyance flare up in me. He didn't want me here? I turned around quickly, my hands on my hips. "You only like me when I'm sitting at home waiting for you?" I countered.
He crossed his arms and leaned against the car. He sighed, clearly frustrated, before he spoke. "Sometimes I have to do things out here. Things I don't want you to see."
I looked at him as the world fell dark around us, and I began to understand why. We might run into trouble out here. And Max was the deadliest Deathlord we had. I'd heard he was ruthless. I tried not to let it bother me because when he was with me he was completely docile. But there was a part of him that was a brutal killer.
With me finally quiet, he began to speak again.
"I think you're finally not afraid of me. Or, at least you're not as afraid of me as you were." He continued. "Everyone is afraid of me, because of what happens out here. I don't want you to be afraid of me too."
I took several steps forward to close the gap between us. His eyes never left mine as I walked toward him, and I lifted my hands to his face. I gently trailed my fingertips across his cheek, over the rough stubble there. He sighed heavily as I did, and closed his eyes.
"Max." I said quietly.
He opened his eyes, and his steely gaze searched my sapphire one.
"I know you would never hurt me. I'm not afraid of you, and I never will be again." I told him. I believed my own words. I had watched him punish himself every day for what he had done. I believed that he would have never willingly hurt me.
He raised his hand to my neck, and gently pushed my hair away from my skin. His fingers traced along my neck and collarbone, and I wondered if he was imagining the bruises that had long since faded. He didn't say anything to me in response to my words. His fingers just traced softly over my neck. I wasn't afraid. I had no reason to be afraid of him when he was like this.
"Hey." I said to him softly. He tore his eyes away from my neck and brought them back to me. "You're not gonna hurt me." I told him.
He only offered me a small, half smile before he pulled me toward him, and his lips pressed against my forehead affectionately. I knew he didn't want to hurt me. But I also knew that he had no control over the tricks his mind played on him.
"What happens out here doesn't change anything, ok?" I told him. "What you have to do out here, and what you do with me are not linked. I know that."
"I just don't want you to change." He told me softly. "You're so beautiful, so innocent. You don't need to see what happens out here. I don't want you to know what happens out here."
"You can't protect me from it forever." I told him.
He shook his head. "I have to at least try."
I didn't let him talk anymore. I stood on my tiptoes and I kissed him. Our lips met, and shivers flew down my spine. I felt his fingers tangle in my hair, and felt his tongue brush against my lip softly. I opened my mouth for him, and as his tongue touched mine I felt an all too familiar stirring in my lower abdomen. Before our kissing could get more intense, he broke away from me and spoke.
"Look up." He told me.
I obliged, and as soon as I did I gasped.
The sky had gone completely black as we had kissed, but all of the stars had come out. Above me I could see streaks of stars spilled out across the sky, glittering in long rivers like every shimmering dream of beauty I had ever dared to imagine.
I stared above me and watched as shooting stars fell across the night sky. "It's incredible." I whispered. "It's so massive." I looked up above me still, overwhelmed by the sheer expanse of space. "Isn't it just the most beautiful thing you've ever seen?" I asked him.
I dropped my eyes to look at him, but he wasn't looking at the sky.
He was looking at me.
Only me.
He was looking at me so intensely that I took a step back from him as I met his gaze.
"Yes." He finally stated, not moving his eyes from me.
I didn't think he was talking about the night sky.
"Why are you looking at me that way?" I asked him quietly. I had never seen him look at me that way before.
That wasn't true, actually. I had seen him look at me that way before. When he had called me Jessie.
He didn't answer me, but he didn't break my gaze either.
"Max?" I asked him.
"Because I love you." He finally answered me. "I love you very much, Sapphire."
My heart stopped. My eyes began to well up with tears at his words. Max loved me. Max had just told me he loved me.
"Max." I whispered his name. My voice was choked as I tried to speak.
"You don't have to say it back." He continued. "I don't expect you to, not after what I did to you. But I wanted to tell you. You had to know, especially since we're out here. In case something happened to you, or to me." He cut himself off sharply and hesitated before he spoke again. "I told Jessie how I really felt about her just before she was killed. I was always glad that I did."
I was speechless.
There was a time where I didn't think that Max and I would ever even have a real conversation, let alone be in love with each other. But I realized now that he did love me. Against everything that he had learned about the world, he loved me. But it wasn't just that. As I looked at him, leaning against the car and looking at me with his steel eyes, I felt my heart flutter. He was so handsome, standing there. So beautiful. I had always thought him handsome, but now that I knew him so well it was different. I was slowly beginning to peel back each complex layer, and the more I learned about him the more I felt that I had met a truly beautiful soul.
I knew how much it must be killing him that he felt this way. After everything he had been through. Being in love with me meant he had lost a battle with himself. He had decided against everything he knew to let himself love me. To trust me, to let me in.
He dropped his gaze from me to his hands after I gave no response. As soon as he did, I moved my fingers to his chin and forced his gaze back to mine. I looked into their steel depths, and I saw something foreign in them.
Fear. He was afraid I was about to hurt him. But there was also hope. I had never seen him anxious before. He was always so cool, so collected. He reminded me of the metal his eyes so closely represented. I had only seen his true emotions a handful of times. Although I was sure he'd seen me at nearly every end of the emotional spectrum by this point.
I broke my gaze with him, and kissed lightly along his neck. I worked my way up his jaw, and finally to his lips. When I kissed him, he immediately looped his fingers through my belt loops and pulled me toward him.
When I pulled away, his eyes were searching my face for an answer. I could see them flitting nervously over my features, and I smiled softly as I decided what I was going to say.
"I love you." I told him quietly. It was true. He was unstable, dangerous, angry, violent. But he was also so much more. So much of him had been lost for so long, and every day I saw parts of him come back to life. He was transforming before my very eyes, from a man who hated everything and everyone around him, to the most beautiful soul I'd ever met. He was so much more than his hatred. Buried deep within him, he was kind. He was caring. He was gentle. And I had brought that out in him. I was transforming him from the silent, broken warrior that I had first met into so much more. He was becoming human again.
I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that he loved me. He didn't even have to say it. I knew. I think I had known for a while, now.
And I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that I loved him too. Despite all of the odds against us we had fallen in love with each other.
"I love you, Max." I told him.
He looked at me with such surprise. I didn't know how he could be so surprised. I realized he would never forgive himself for what had happened at the beginning of our relationship, when he had hurt me. And he didn't expect me to forgive him, either.
"What?" He asked me, his voice hardly above a whisper.
"I love you." I repeated to him. "Is it so hard for you to believe that someone could love you?"
"It's hard to believe that you could love me." He answered.
He pulled me toward him, and I gasped as he pulled my body against his. He kissed me roughly, and I felt the fire stirring within me as I kissed him. My hands on his chest felt his racing heartbeat as it beat for me.
When we broke for air, he spoke.
"Say it again." He ordered me.
"I love you, Max." I whispered again.
I saw his eyes shimmer with a foreign emotion. Happiness. I had made Max happy. Despite myself, one tear slid from my eye down my cheek.
As soon as he saw the teardrop his tone of voice changed.
"Is something wrong?" He immediately asked. He reached his hand forward, and brushed the teardrop away from my face.
I shook my head, and gently ran my fingers through his hair. "No." I told him quietly. "I'm just happy. I never thought I would hear you say that."
I saw the smallest of smiles on his face, and he ran his fingers through my hair before he pulled me toward him to kiss me again. The longer we kissed, the more passionate we became. He removed the cloth covering my head, and then I felt his hands slide under my shirt. His fingers brushed along my stomach softly, and eventually ran up to my breast. I gasped quietly as his fingers found the sensitive skin around my nipple, and as I gasped he took the opportunity to bring his lips to my neck. He kissed down my neck to my collarbone, and I looped my hands around his neck as he did. As soon as I'd held onto him, his hands left my breast and found their way to my hips. He lifted me like I was nothing, and brought me to the hood of the car. It was still warm as he laid me back against it. I looked up, and I could see the stars glimmering behind him.
His fingers found their way to the hem of my shirt, and he lifted it over me, leaving me in only a bra. I shivered as he did. It was quickly becoming cold out here. He looked down at my body, and I heard him exhale heavily as he looked at me. His fingers traced over my bare form, up to my bra where he unclipped the garment before tossing it to the side carelessly. His fingers lingered over my breasts before they traced down to the button on my pants.
"Here?" I asked him urgently.
He smirked. "Who do you think is coming?" He asked me.
I glanced around at the open, empty desert. "Point taken." I told him.
His lips found their way to mine again, and I knocked his jacket off of him before I got his shirt off too. I felt him undoing my pants, and he removed them so quickly I was shocked when I felt him thrust inside of me impatiently. I cried out loudly, and he gripped my hips to hold me still as he pushed himself inside of me. When he was fully inside me, he allowed me a few seconds to adjust to him before he began to take me with a ferocious desire. There was no one around out here, and I cried out unabashedly as he made love to me. He took both of my hands in one of his, and held my hands above me as he continued to pound into me. When my eyes opened, I was looking at Max, and behind him at the rest of the universe.
Our eyes met, and he kissed me softly. When we broke our kiss, I whimpered quietly as he continued to push me towards the point of orgasm. His free hand roamed over my body, gripping my breast, my ass, my thigh, my hips. I heard him moan loudly as he intensified his pace. He suddenly pulled me up toward him, and I wrapped my legs around his waist as he did so.
One hand gripped my hair and pulled my head back. He kissed me again, his mouth rough against mine as he began to get lost in his lust for me.
"Goddamnit, woman." I heard him growl. "You have no idea what you do to me."
I didn't get to respond, my orgasm crashed over me in a sudden wave. I cried his name out as I came, and he gripped me against him as he came as well.
I panted, clinging to him desperately as my orgasm finished its last rolling shudders over my body. He kissed me gently, stopping my panting for a moment. He pulled away from me, and when our eyes met he was looking at me so intensely that I knew he must love me. I knew it deep within my heart. I didn't need him to tell me it, but I liked to hear him say it.
"I love you, Sapphire." He told me. "I love you. And no one is ever going to hurt you as long as I'm still breathing."
A/N: Thanks for reading! Please leave a review.
I'm trying to find a happy median between the Max from Fury Road, and the Max from the other three movies, particularly his feelings towards his wife in the first one. Lemme know how I'm doing!