Between, 3/3
Title: Between
Author: postpossibly
Characters/Pairing: Jude, Lucy, Max, eventual Max/Jude
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Totally not mine, guys.
Author's Notes/Warning: Based on the Vienna Teng song of the same name.
Summary: One last step and he doesn't know if he can take it.
They don't come together easily; nothing ever really does.
"You don't look fucked up to me," Jude says as he climbs into the cab. He's elated to be back home, in New York again. Yeah, it's home now, not Liverpool and he's done feeling guilty over that. He is.
Max is different, yeah. He's got this ugly little mustache that as soon as he falls asleep, Jude's gonna shave off and he's even thinner than he was, but he is still fundamentally Max.
"Yeah, well," Max grins sardonically as he starts up the cab, "Everything below the neck works fine."
They all come together on that little roof. They're a family again, yeah, but different.
Max feels himself settle back into something resembling his old life, but it isn't all the same. Prudence isn't always Prudence; instead, she sometimes has bullet holes in her small frame, and sometimes, when she sleeps, she's so still, that Max just has to wake her up, just to make sure he hasn't shot her by accident.
(again?)
(sorry.)
She forgives him(dearprudence,forgivesallofhissins), curls up with him on some nights, just to get him to sleep.
Jude is the one who has changed least, maybe. Jojo can still play as if he sold the Devil his soul, but it's sadder now, when he plays. Sadie makes up for that by shining brighter and brighter, and sometimes, Lucy will join in. It isn't necessary for Lucy to cry anymore to make her OldLucy, but NewLucy is still foreign to him, sometimes.
Maybe it's because she isn't a part of JudeandLucy anymore.
Something critical tore them apart over the war, and somehow, he knows it has to do with him, the drawings that are fading the ones Lucy can't stand to look at. It makes him sick, to think of it, but it has to be.
"So what if it is?" Prudence says, curled up in his lap as Sadie dances with Jude while Jojo looks on with amusement. She looks up, eyes wiser than anything Max has ever seen. "Maybe they needed it."
Max doesn't answer, just pulls her closer and watches Jude grin crookedly as Sadie tries to direct him.
"Why didn't you go back to her?" Max looks at Jude, not caring if he disturbs his sketching. Jude draws in Sadie's old room now, and yet, it's strange that he keeps the door open, but only really allows Max in.
"I did," Jude says, almost dreamlike as he glances up at the jumble of bottles catching sunlight, chases away jungledark.
"You didn't," Max sits up straight, mouth in a line. "You two aren't..." he grasps for some of the words he's lost, fumbles as Jude looks at him, pencil slack in his fingers, "Aren't..." He makes a noise of frustration, unable to describe what they had been in his eyes.
"Together?" Jude supplies.
Max gives a vigorous nod. "Not like you used to be."
Jude can't even really explain why. He's never been good with words, especially when Max is straightforward like this.
So he gives no definite answer, and Max quiets for a moment.
There is something, where Lucy used to be, but now it's a Max shaped hole and at the same time, where Max used to be, Lucy has taken. Jude doesn't know what to do about this, but all the same, he spills it all out to Jojo between the older man packing up his guitar, onetwothreefour drinks, and a staggered walk home made of confusion and things he's not sure Jojo told him.
Jude wakes up to find himself sprawled on his(Sadie's) bed. There's sunlight filtering through the glass he's got placed on the widowsill that altogether blinds him as he sits up. Instinctively, his hand raises to block it and there's a hiss of annoyance that he hasn't heard in some time.
Jude lowers his hand and there's Max, scowling and much too awake.
"Wha'?" Jude asks groggily.
And that's just like Jude, isn't it, to ask the most obvious question with the near most obvious answer?
"Put it back," Max gets up, demanding. Jude blinks at him owlishly, squawking as he jerks his hand back down. And the combination of glass and light hits him again and there it is:
Jude written in redgreenbrown, mixture of humanforestjungledarkandsunlight.
Everything Jude is, that Max helped him become, right there.
There are tears sliding down Max's face. Jude moves from the light and Max grasps at him, pulls him to face him, forehead to forehead.
"Max?" Jude asks softly, feeling as if he were on the edge of a yawning cliff, uncertain and scared. There is something in Max's tears and stillness and the grip on Jude's face that he's trying to say and Jude can see it just in the corner of his eye.
"Max?" He says again, desperate to connect the dots.
It's his decision, whether or not to take this last step out of jungledark and maybe into something brighter. Love can't fix everything, but it helps.
He presses his lips against Jude's and hope's he understands.
(and he has to, when he feels jude press back)
Author: postpossibly
Characters/Pairing: Jude, Lucy, Max, eventual Max/Jude
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Totally not mine, guys.
Author's Notes/Warning: Based on the Vienna Teng song of the same name.
Summary: One last step and he doesn't know if he can take it.
They don't come together easily; nothing ever really does.
"You don't look fucked up to me," Jude says as he climbs into the cab. He's elated to be back home, in New York again. Yeah, it's home now, not Liverpool and he's done feeling guilty over that. He is.
Max is different, yeah. He's got this ugly little mustache that as soon as he falls asleep, Jude's gonna shave off and he's even thinner than he was, but he is still fundamentally Max.
"Yeah, well," Max grins sardonically as he starts up the cab, "Everything below the neck works fine."
They all come together on that little roof. They're a family again, yeah, but different.
Max feels himself settle back into something resembling his old life, but it isn't all the same. Prudence isn't always Prudence; instead, she sometimes has bullet holes in her small frame, and sometimes, when she sleeps, she's so still, that Max just has to wake her up, just to make sure he hasn't shot her by accident.
(again?)
(sorry.)
She forgives him(dearprudence,forgivesallofhissins), curls up with him on some nights, just to get him to sleep.
Jude is the one who has changed least, maybe. Jojo can still play as if he sold the Devil his soul, but it's sadder now, when he plays. Sadie makes up for that by shining brighter and brighter, and sometimes, Lucy will join in. It isn't necessary for Lucy to cry anymore to make her OldLucy, but NewLucy is still foreign to him, sometimes.
Maybe it's because she isn't a part of JudeandLucy anymore.
Something critical tore them apart over the war, and somehow, he knows it has to do with him, the drawings that are fading the ones Lucy can't stand to look at. It makes him sick, to think of it, but it has to be.
"So what if it is?" Prudence says, curled up in his lap as Sadie dances with Jude while Jojo looks on with amusement. She looks up, eyes wiser than anything Max has ever seen. "Maybe they needed it."
Max doesn't answer, just pulls her closer and watches Jude grin crookedly as Sadie tries to direct him.
"Why didn't you go back to her?" Max looks at Jude, not caring if he disturbs his sketching. Jude draws in Sadie's old room now, and yet, it's strange that he keeps the door open, but only really allows Max in.
"I did," Jude says, almost dreamlike as he glances up at the jumble of bottles catching sunlight, chases away jungledark.
"You didn't," Max sits up straight, mouth in a line. "You two aren't..." he grasps for some of the words he's lost, fumbles as Jude looks at him, pencil slack in his fingers, "Aren't..." He makes a noise of frustration, unable to describe what they had been in his eyes.
"Together?" Jude supplies.
Max gives a vigorous nod. "Not like you used to be."
Jude can't even really explain why. He's never been good with words, especially when Max is straightforward like this.
So he gives no definite answer, and Max quiets for a moment.
There is something, where Lucy used to be, but now it's a Max shaped hole and at the same time, where Max used to be, Lucy has taken. Jude doesn't know what to do about this, but all the same, he spills it all out to Jojo between the older man packing up his guitar, onetwothreefour drinks, and a staggered walk home made of confusion and things he's not sure Jojo told him.
Jude wakes up to find himself sprawled on his(Sadie's) bed. There's sunlight filtering through the glass he's got placed on the widowsill that altogether blinds him as he sits up. Instinctively, his hand raises to block it and there's a hiss of annoyance that he hasn't heard in some time.
Jude lowers his hand and there's Max, scowling and much too awake.
"Wha'?" Jude asks groggily.
And that's just like Jude, isn't it, to ask the most obvious question with the near most obvious answer?
"Put it back," Max gets up, demanding. Jude blinks at him owlishly, squawking as he jerks his hand back down. And the combination of glass and light hits him again and there it is:
Jude written in redgreenbrown, mixture of humanforestjungledarkandsunlight.
Everything Jude is, that Max helped him become, right there.
There are tears sliding down Max's face. Jude moves from the light and Max grasps at him, pulls him to face him, forehead to forehead.
"Max?" Jude asks softly, feeling as if he were on the edge of a yawning cliff, uncertain and scared. There is something in Max's tears and stillness and the grip on Jude's face that he's trying to say and Jude can see it just in the corner of his eye.
"Max?" He says again, desperate to connect the dots.
It's his decision, whether or not to take this last step out of jungledark and maybe into something brighter. Love can't fix everything, but it helps.
He presses his lips against Jude's and hope's he understands.
(and he has to, when he feels jude press back)