77- The Next Thing

Summary: Lucas surprises Max with something totally tubular.

Requested by: Kazzyk

Max sighed.

"Need something?"

Max shook her head.

"Is something wrong?"

Another shake of her head.

It was Lucas's turn to sigh.

"Max, I can tell something is wrong."

Max bit her lip, she'd been trying not to put her mask on since she woke up.

"Sorry."

Lucas raised his eyebrows. "Are you going to tell me?"

Max fiddled with her sheets. "It's hard to explain."

"And so is the 'there's a literal monster making me see things and trying to kill me' explanation." Lucas pointed out.

Max snorted.

"It's just," Max started. "What do I do now?"

"You get better." Lucas stated.

Max rolled her eyes. "I know. But after the physical therapy for my leg, after the therapy, what then? Just back to the normal life?"

"I think it will be a different normal." Lucas told her. "We're going to be there for you. We'll have weekly hangouts just like we did. We'll have fun."

"And I'm looking forward to that, for sure." Max hesitated. "It's just that..."

"What?"

"I didn't want this. I either wanted to die," Max ignored Lucas's flinch. "Or get better and have better relationships. I didn't want my leg to be broken, for Vecna to target me, or to get stuck in a 1 month long coma."

Lucas sat in thought for a moment.

"Okay, first of all, I am very glad that you didn't die." Max gave him a small smile. "And second, yeah, it sucks, but maybe this is the way you get better."

Max looked at him with raised eyebrows.

"Because you got targeted and everything, we realized there was something wrong. We actively tried to help instead of the lame 'are you okay's. It was also like a wake up call for you. Like, hey, I should probably address every crappy thing that's happened to me instead of bottling it up."

Max rested her chin on her hand. "Yeah, you're right. Thanks Lucas."

Lucas nodded. "Anytime Max."

But even though she agreed with him, Lucas could see that she was lost in thought of what was to come next.

And in that moment, Lucas decided he was going to make whatever came next one of the most coolest experiences in Max's life.

"Coming!" Eddie yelled.

He shook his head. This person just kept knocking.

"What?!" he yanked opened the door to find a very out of breath Lucas Sinclair.

Eddie ushered the younger man inside and got him a glass of water.

"Geez, Sinclair. Did you run a marathon."

"Biked...all... the way... from...hospital." Lucas panted.

Eddie shook his head. "I swear kid, one day your going to run yourself right into the ground."

"Not today." Lucas quipped after finishing his glass of water.

"You know you could have called someone to give you a ride right?" Eddie asked.

Lucas shook his head. "Steve and Robin are working. Nancy and Johnathan are on a date."

"Well, what about me?" Eddie pointed out.

Lucas paused. "Huh, yeah I guess that would've worked."

Eddie sighed. "You really need to use that nerd inside of you once and a while."

"Okay, we're getting off track. There's actually a very important reason I came here." Lucas told him.

Eddie waited for a moment. "Use your words, Sinclair."

"So, I know you know where to get them and I could really use them for cheap because..."

Eddie interrupted before he could go farther. "No. No way."

Lucas stopped, looking hurt. "Wait, what?"

"Look, I know that I sell drugs and maybe I make them look 'cool' or whatever but you kids are not even remotely ready for anything like that."

"Eddie."

"And ever since Chrissy, I've been trying to cut back on both selling and using."

"Eddie."

"I can't even think of a reason you would want to use drugs, Lucas."

"EDDIE!"

Eddie paused from his long lecture and looked at Lucas.

"I'm sorry. I should've been more clear." Lucas said. "I don't want to buy drugs, Eddie."

Eddie took a long breath, bending over. "Oh, thank goodness. I didn't think that conversation wouldn't come up for a long while. I need to prepare better speeches on saying no to drugs for you guys."

Lucas smiled. "I think that was a pretty good start."

"Really? Why thank you, elder Sinclair." Eddie grinned at him. "So, what do you want to buy from me?"

Lucas explained what he wanted. Scratch that, needed.

Eddie agreed to check around and only had one question at the end.

"Why do want these?"

"For Max." Lucas stated honestly.

Eddie looked at Lucas proudly. "You're a good kid, you know that Lucas?"

Lucas just shrugged.

"Where are we going?" Max asked. "Cause this could count as kidnapping and I know a..."

"Good lawyer, yeah we know Max." Steve smirked from the driver's seat.

Max turned to Lucas, a questioning look on her face.

"I told you before, you'll just have to wait and see."

Max glared at him.

The two of them had picked up Max from her last physical therapy session. She was officially able to walk on her own after four months of grueling exercise.

"We're here!" Steve called, pulling up to a very familiar looking hill.

Max eyed it suspiciously.

"Thanks Steve." Lucas said and climbed out of the car.

The couple walked up to the top of the hill, where Lucas got the picnic ready.

"What is this?" Max asked.

"A celebration." Lucas stated. "Don't worry, the Party has a whole, well party planned for you at the Steve's. But you didn't hear that from me."

"Who thought a surprise party would be a good idea with all that everyone's gone through?"

"Well, we were supposed to tell you we had a small hangout planned. Actually Dustin was supposed to do that but look how well that turned out." Lucas smirked. "So, now I'm supposed to tell you, but I figured, eh, what's the harm?"

"Well, I'll make sure to act like I thought it was something small." Max smiled. "If we're doing that, what's this for?"

Lucas opened the bag he brought. "This is for us."

Max sat next to Lucas and took the sandwich he had in his hands, ignoring his protests.

The two of them had a very fun time, with each of them stealing the others food. Just like old times.

As he finished his Doritos, Lucas cleared his throat.

"I actually have a surprise for you."

"Oh? And what would that be?"

Lucas grabbed his backpack. "Close your eyes."

Max didn't do as she was told.

"I'm serious. I brought a blindfold just in case."

With that, Max's eyes clamped shut.

Lucas double checked they were closed before pulling out the surprise and placing them in her hands.

"Open."

Max gasped.

In her hands were two Kate Bush concert tickets. She looked and saw that they were for the week before they went back to school in Indianapolis.

"Lucas!" she looked up at him.

"I told you I was a Kate Bush fan." he told her.

Max launched forward and gave him a hug.

"Why?" she asked as she pulled back.

"Do you remember the chat we had back before you started PT?"

Max rolled her eyes. "We had many, stalker. You're going to have to be more specific."

"The one where you weren't sure what to do next." Lucas clarified.

Max's eyes lit up in realization.

Lucas continued. "I wanted the next thing to be something totally tubular."

Max giggled.

"How'd you get them?" she questioned.

"Eddie. Dustin kept talking one day about how he knew where to get all kinds of things for cheap." Lucas explained.

Max grinned.

"Thank you Lucas." she whispered, pulling him into a hug.

"Anytime Max." Lucas whispered back.

They hugged for a very long time.

And possibly kissed.

AN: Hope you liked it, Kazzyk! I'm not a doctor or anything so I didn't know how long Max would be in PT but I figured 4 months was long enough. Also, I just realized in all 76 prompts I've done I've never had Max call Lucas stalker, so I'm going to start doing that! Requests are open!