Once Max got down into the basement she noticed Mike sitting on the couch playing Adventure. She cautiously approached him, not wanting to scare him. She soundlessly sat down on the couch as far away from him as possible, not wanting to burst some personal bubble he surely had, and her not wanting to be close to him anyways.

Apparently her sitting on the couch had caught his attention since when she looked over at him he was already looking at her, the Atari controller laying next to him. He gave her a curious look as if he was silently asking her why she had come down to join him.

"I couldn't sleep. I just decided to come down here and watch you play your games," She explained as she hugged herself, it was a habit of hers she had picked up recently.

He nodded slowly at her then asked, "would you like to talk?" Max quickly shook her head, "I came down here to watch, not to talk." She noticed Mike frown a little as he nodded, letting out a sigh. Did he want to talk to her or something? It almost seemed that way.

"Besides I don't even know what we would talk about if we did," She then added quietly. "I don't know, anything. Life, school, what we like, our dreams," he suggested back, to her it was quite clear he wanted to make conversation with her and she couldn't understand why.

"That wouldn't be much of a conversation for me," She said as if it were obvious. She didn't like talking to others except about skateboarding, bands or video games. "Why not?" He asked curiously as he set the controller on the floor and turned to face her, sitting criss cross on the couch.

"My life is boring and shitty, you happy?" She shot back, really not in the mood. She had hoped they wouldn't have to talk if she joined him but he of course wouldn't let that happen. It was Mike Wheeler, she should of expected it because a majority of the time he was predictable.

Mike made a concentrated face for a moment as if he was thinking, biting his lip and glancing down. Max couldn't help but to stare at him as he thought, finding his expression to be, in a way, cute. She shook her head though to clear her mind of those thoughts, thinking them to be stupid and wrong.

"Well, why do you think that?" He asked after a moment, looking back up at her. She threw her head back and let out a loud sigh. "I do not want to talk about my life, alright?" She said seriously as she looked back at him and gave him a warning but pleading look. Mike noticed the look she gave him and nodded slowly, feeling bad for having asked the question.

He bit his lip again as he tried to think of what to talk abour that would help him at least learn a little bit about her without getting too personal.

After a moment Max got off the couch and started heading towards the stairs, not wanting to stay if he was going to try and talk to her. Mike was quick to get up and follow after her, grabbing one of her wrists gently but strong enough to stop her. She stopped and looked back at him before glancing down to him holding her wrist.

"Look if you're going to try and have a conversation with me I'm going back upstairs. All I wanted was to come down and watch you play your stupid video games so I could be a little less bored," she said to him in a slightly harsh tone. "Okay, you can just watch me play," he said back as he let go of her wrist and nodded. She narrowed her eyes at him, not believing him at all.

She knew if she stayed and watched he would try to talk to her again. Despite that though she decided to stay and watch, all she really wanted was to be with someone because it made her feel safe. And oddly enough she didn't feel too uncomfortable in his presence at the time being. Maybe it was because he was now showing her kindness.

She knew she was being naive by doing all this, figuring he would just be mean to her again next time they would see each other but she was warming up to him, to this gentle, kind side of him. She hoped that she would continue to see this side of him instead of the mean one.

Mike continued playing the game as Max watched, sitting on the couch to him a little more closely than she had the first time, trying to give him tips throughout the game. As he played she would occasionally shout directions at him or rush him to avoid the dragon or get a key which was kind of distracting but Mike didn't mind, she at least seemed to be content.

At one point though as the dragon was chasing him she placed a hand on his shoulder and shook him a little, exclaiming, "go! Turn turn!" Her sudden touch startled him and he didn't turn in time, the dragon got him. "Shit Max you scared me, don't do that again," he said as he set the controller down and looked over at her, giving her an amused smile to show he wasn't being super serious.

Max flushed a little as she removed her hand from his shoulder and nodded, "Sorry, I get way too into video games." "I know you do," he said back with a soft chuckle. Max nodded back as she looked away from him and fiddled with her hands on her lap.

"Wanna play?" He then asked her as he offered the controller to her. She looked back at him and nodded happily as she took it from him and started the game over.

Mike watched her intently as she played, laughing a bit whenever she would yell or swear at it. She played for quite a while and Mike was impressed with her video games skills. Of course he knew she was good at Dig Dug but he didn't know that she was good at Adventure too.

Once Max had quit playing she handed the controller back to him as she yawned. He put it back and once he got back over to the couch he noticed her resting an arm on the arm rest, her face against her arm. She looked like she was sleeping and he couldn't let that happen, it was risky to have her sleep down in the basement.

"Max wake up," he said in a hushed whisper. She stirred a little and didn't wake up until he shook her a little. Mike laughed then led her back up to his room so she could get settled and sleep there.

Once they got in there he shut the door and Max asked curiously, "your parents still aren't home?" "My dad has been working a lot more lately and my mom is often doing stuff with Holly," he said with a shrug like it wasn't a big deal and had become normal.

Max nodded and was jealous, she wished her parents were gone as much as his so she wouldn't have to worry about them or deal with them.

Mike opened one of his dresser drawers and pulled out a pair of pajamas. Once he shut it he said to her, "I'm going to go change in the bathroom. If you want to you can borrow a pair of Nancy's pajamas, her room is next to mine on the right." Max nodded then he left to go change.

She headed into Nancy's room and looked around a bit, admiring it. She opened each of the dresser drawers as she looked for pajamas. Once she found the correct drawer she picked out the only pair she had that was long sleeved. She then returned to his room and changed while he was still in the bathroom. The pajamas fit her pretty well to her surprise and she was thankful for that.

Once Mike got back in the room he smiled a little, glad Max had found a pair that worked and fit her. He put his dirty clothes in his hamper then got into his bed, pulling the covers over himself. Max followed suit as she laid down and crawled into the sleeping bag.

"Goodnight Max," Mike said softly as he then turned his nightstand lamp off, causing the room to be enveloped in darkness. "Goodnight Mike," she said back as she curled up and tried to sleep. It took a little bit but she eventually fell asleep, though it was a light sleep.

***

In the middle of the night Mike woke up to hearing some whimpering. He sat up and looked down to check on Max. Surely enough she was the one whimpering and she seemed to be having a nightmare.

He got off his bed and sat down next to her as he gently shook her awake as he said her name, "Max!" It took a few tries but he eventually woke her up.

Once she was awake there were a few tears streaming down her face. She looked at him for a moment before hugging him tightly. He was surprised but knew she needed comfort so he hugged her back without argument. Max didn't care that she was hugging Michael Wheeler, she just needed comfort.

They sat there for a little while, her refusing to pull away from him as she cried into his chest. He didn't realize how broken she truly was. He eventually started rubbing her back a little in order to try and calm her.

After about ten minutes she calmed down and pulled away, wiping her cheeks with one of the sleeves of the borrowed pajamas. "I'm sorry," she said embarrassedly. She felt stupid and weak for having cried in front of him. She shouldn't have let herself become that weak in front of him. And she felt bad for making him worry about her since she didn't want him to, it felt so wrong.

He shook his head, "it's okay." She nodded and sniffled a little as she then got comfortable back in the sleeping bag and he took that as a sign to go back into his bed so he did. He wasn't sure if she would be able to fall back asleep or not but he hoped she would.

A few moments later he felt her crawl in next to him. He was confused but realized maybe she needed comfort while she was sleeping, maybe that would prevent her from having nightmares. "Is it okay if I do this? I just... want to be next to someone," she said quietly.

She liked the feeling and warmth of being next to another person and felt it would help her sleep a lot better because she would feel safer. She actually felt very safe with him which was saying a lot because there was pretty much nowhere where she did feel safe. The only place she felt truly safe in was the arcade but even sometimes she would feel uneasy there too.

"Yeah...yeah, it's fine," he said back politely. He hadn't expected her to be so vulnerable and close with him. That just proved how broken she really was.

He went back to sleep but woke up a little later to feel her snuggle up against him. He turned around to face her and reluctantly wrapped an arm around her. She accepted it and snuggled more closely as she mumbled softly, "thank you." "Hm mhm," he mumbled back as he rested his chin on the top of her head and laid there, staring into the darkness.

They both fell asleep momentarily, going on to have the most peaceful sleep either of them has had in a long time.

***

Okay so here's the second chapter This was really bad and boring ik but the next chapter will better hopefully
Idk I have no confidence in my writing lol