Stranger Things - Imagines

Max Mayfield X Mayfield!Reader - Keeping Your Head Up

A/N - This chapter was inspired by the song Keeping Your Head Up by Birdy. Reader is Max's older sister and this takes place after the end of season 3. It's a bit of a sad one, but I hope you all enjoy it.

The first time you heard it, you hadn't really known what the noise was. You'd only just moved out of the house and into the trailer and with that came a lack of privacy, obviously. Living in closer quarters than usual, you were bound to hear each other more often than you used to. But laying there in the dark one night, you had been fighting to push the noise to the back of your head. And then you had placed it. It wasn't something you got to hear often. Max was one of the most resilient people you knew, Hell, you could barely even remember her crying as a baby, let alone now. But right now, you were certain that you were definitely hearing her cry, choked sobs coming through the thin walls despite her best efforts to stifle them.

You slipped out of bed, pulling your comforter with you, you wrapped it around your shoulders and shuffled your way out into the hallway, making a beeline for Max's door. 

When you'd pushed the door open, the sobs had slowed, and in the slither of light coming from the doorway, you could see the tearful face of your baby sister, looking so startled at your appearance that the crying had seized, at least for the moment. 

"Hi," you hummed, moving further into the room and rubbing the sleep out of your eyes. "I could hear you from my room-"

"Sorry," she muttered, swallowing down the tears that were still fighting to break free. 

You shook your head. "Don't apologise," you told her, pulling up her comforter to climb into bed beside her. She still looked confused, her watery eyes staring at you, brow furrowed. "Just come get me next time," you added, wiggling around into a comfortable position before wrapping your arms around her. "I don't want you to be alone," you added, letting her bury her face into the crook of your neck as the tears began to flow again. 

You'd stayed like that for the rest of the night, letting Max cling to you as she bawled. The last couple of months had been rough for all of you, but she had definitely taken it the hardest. She'd been there. She'd seen him. And even though she'd been sent to school counsellors and group therapy sessions, none of the pain she'd been feeling seemed to be letting up. And even when you were trying to put on a positive outlook, seeing her so lost was killing you. She was a kid. She shouldn't have to deal with any of this and yet, here she was suffering.

The next morning, you'd untangled yourself from her before she could wake up, letting her sleep a little longer to make up for the restless night she'd had. 

You'd been sitting in the little kitchenette with a coffee when she'd eventually come stumbling out of her bedroom, looking a little lost until her eyes settled on you. Her entire body seemed to relax when she saw you, and she forced a small smile onto her lips. 

"I thought you had work this morning," she hummed, approaching you slowly, like a frightened little fawn testing the waters, ready to dart away at the first sign of danger. 

"I called in sick," you told her, shrugging slightly. "Thought we could go to the arcade or something-"

Max quickly shook her head, stopping her approach. "I don't want to."

"Okay," you agreed softly, nodding your understanding. You wanted to hug her. You wanted to tell her that it was okay to go out and have fun, even when you were sad. But at the same time, the last thing you wanted to do was scare her away, so you forced yourself to stay in your seat, watching her carefully. "Well, I brought some movies home from Family Video over the weekend. We could watch one of those?"

She shook her head again. "I'm going to my room."

You swallowed down the lump forming in your throat. "Can I come with you?"

Max hesitated for a moment, looking at you with so much confusion that it was almost comical. "Why?"

You shrugged. "I like spending time with you," you told her. "And I don't want you to be alone when I'm right here."

*Time Skip*

You'd spent most of that day sitting quietly with Max. She listened to her cassettes through her headphones whilst you flicked through a magazine, not really paying attention to the words on the page. But at least this way, when she wanted to talk, she could. When she came out of her little music-induced trance, she had somewhere there waiting for her.

That night, she'd appeared in your doorway before you'd even gone to sleep. Tearful and scared looking, she watched silently as you lifted the edge of the covers to welcome her in, letting out a soft sigh when she crawled in beside you and let the sobs break free. 

"It's okay," you reminded her softly, stroking her hair as she borrowed closer to you, letting you embrace her fully. "It's going to get better; I promise," you added, feeling her grip on the front of your sleep shirt so tightly that you feared you'd never be able to get her off of you in the morning. 

After that, Max spent most of her nights in your bed, crying herself to sleep. And then a couple of months later, she'd come in and cuddled up to you and there hadn't been a single tear. And a few weeks after that, she'd come in to say goodnight and returned to her own bed. And even if the feeling of going to bed without her was a little odd after so long having her next to you, you couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief that she was finally pulling through the other side. 

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