Maximilian MacMillan

“–Don’t bloody stare at me like that, Macmillan.”

The other night at Bulstrode Park had been beyond embarrassing for Niobe. The light blue gown her mother had shoved her in, the pound of makeup, her grandmother’s pearls… None of that was her. She had been told beforehand to behave herself for the Macmillans, as it would be the first time she’d see Max’s parents since their betrothal was announced. Betrothal… she’d almost forgotten that the whole reason Max was into her was because he was going to marry her someday. And now, three days later, he’d somehow found her in her favorite bar, three drinks in and not nearly intoxicated enough to deal with whatever conversation had to happen now that he was there. She shrunk in her booth, sipping at the remnants of her firewhiskey. 

@maximacmillan​

Max was taken aback by her words. He hadn’t realized he was staring, he was just... surprised to see her there. He didn’t come here to find her, really, but part of him was a little glad he did. “Sorry, didn’t mean to.” He said, knowing well enough some of his friends would have said something more suggestive. Something like ‘How am I staring at you?’ with a little smirk or a wink. But that wasn’t him, and he wasn’t sure he was comfortable with that. But seeing her in her own clothes felt nice, much better than the last time he saw her. Still couldn’t shake off the horrifying look she had during the dinner party, in the blue gown. He hated it, even if he tried to look pleased. It really was only for their parents to be proud, really. “Do you mind if I join?”

“Look, she comes running to me, not the other way around,” Corban rolled his eyes. “You’re kidding, right? You don’t think him bedding that Prewett boy isn’t messing with her head? Don’t be naive, Macmillan. You should deal with him quicker, if you’d have done it in the first place maybe he wouldn’t have broken her heart.”

"I really don’t want to hear about that.” The thought of Niobe crossed his mind for a moment before he spoke. Corban was her best friend, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to go and mess with him, and risk what he was building with her. So he took a deep breath, tried to calm down. “I know it’s messing with her, but at least he’s not coming back. You better wish you did the same.” Still, he really hated that Corban had played with his mind enough, and now, all he wanted to do was to find Rosier and deal with him. He was about to add something, but realized there wasn’t much he wanted to tell the other, so he just walked away. Better to avoid trouble with him.

“…obviously not,” she replied with a crinkle of her nose, a jab at his appearance. rita crossed her arms over her chest, running her tongue over her teeth as she sighed. “there’s not much you can do to settle it, see…i just don’t like you.” she offered with a shrug.

Max let out a small sigh, clearly out of annoyance. He didn’t know what she really wanted, and he sure wasn’t in the mood for vague remarks. Not on his birthday. “Great, I don’t like you either.” He pointed out before standing up. “Now if you don’t mind, I’ll go find some enjoyable company.” He said before turning to walk away.

Max Macmillan + Outfit

rita could only roll her eyes at his response, biting down on her tongue to keep herself from lashing out. she grimaced instead, shrugging. “chin up, darling, you’ll get wrinkles awful young.” she teased at his frown. “i’m just wondering what it is she would want, with…you.” she added, blinking delicately. 

Max looked confused for a moment about her comment. “Do I look like I care about wrinkles?” He replied back, not sure where it came from. “Is it me you have something against, personally? Or is there something else? Because if it’s just me, we can settle this without bringing others in it.”

“Do I need a reason to come talk to you?” Caunus faked a smile as he approached the other, moving to sit down on the other end of the sofa. He wasn’t particularly excited about the idea of Macmillan being betrothed to his sister, but he figured he could at least try to be civil. “After all we are going to be a family soon. Might as well get more acquainted.”

“No. No, I guess you don’t.” He replied with a small shake of his head, making a vague gesture at the open seat to let the other know he could sit. He wasn’t quite used to people just talking to him without a reason, particularly not if they were related to his future wife. Merlin, that felt weird to think about it. “Yeah, that too. Still feels weird, honestly.”

“I will if she wants it,” Corban shrugged his shoulders. “But if you’re gonna do the whole over protective brother act, I’d direct it towards Rosier. He’s the one that fucked her over and is now dating a fucking blood traitor.” The boy spat, rolling his eyes.

“I don’t think she really knows what she wants, give her some slack.” He replied, clenching and unclenching his fists. It was getting hard to control it, but thinking about how disappointed Niobe would be if she knew was... a small help at keeping him from throwing punches at the other. “I’ll deal with him later. But at least he’s not going to mess up with her life anymore.”

There was a moment, when Niobe’s back hit the wall, that she felt the need to free herself. She jerked forward, pushing herself almost closer to Max–and that’s when she remembered where she was. She’d gone to see him, and despite her gut response, the look in his eyes had her settling back towards the wall, waiting to see what would happen. By this point, she knew neither of them had much experience, but he could’ve had her fooled with the way he was looking at her. Anticipation pooled in her stomach as he moved closer, lips parted slightly as her eyes closed, expecting a kiss on the lips. His lips moved closer, and she whimpered gently as they touched her skin, corner of his lips touching the corner of her’s. Her eyes opened halfway, turning her head slightly to recapture his lips against her own. Her arms moved to wrap around his neck, drawing him closer, and as clumsy as she felt, she also felt needy.

Max didn’t know what he was doing, he wasn’t exactly thinking about what he should do. He was just following what his instincts were telling him. And when her head turned and their lips met, he knew he was done for. There were no coherent thoughts crossing his mind anymore - not that there were many on a regular basis anyway. And with her arms around his neck, pulling him in a little more, he had to press one of his hands against the wall as to not completely slam into her. His other hand reached up, slowly moving to cup her face. He knew now that neither of them had much experience, but that didn’t matter, because it felt good to have her lips against his, and he didn’t want to pull away.

Niobe didn’t take a moment to look back at Max until she was firmly seated on his bed, flask still in hand. She opened it, eyes trained to his form as she took a swig. She couldn’t place what it was about him, but she liked what she saw. Didn’t like much of anything, but she’d decided she liked him a lot. His eyes were probably the softest blue she’d seen in her life, like one of those gowns her mother would’ve made her wear when she was younger. His hair looked like sunlight when it bounced off of the walls in her bedroom through her window. He felt both completely foreign and all too familiar, and yet she knew very little of him. Sighing, she held her flask out to him, an offer.

“I’ve played better.” It was like she said after every game–because it was true. There was always something she could improve on, and it wasn’t a bad thing to her. She felt as he sat in the bed near her, gravity pulling down and sliding her a little closer. She chuckled a bit when he looked down, almost embarrassed. “I mean, I was looking.” She had been. It felt like an extra boost of confidence to see him out there watching her with whatever they’ve been doing. Her good nature fell as he admitted Rabastan looked terrible. “No, I did, too. Fucking idiot… You wouldn’t think he’s a Lestrange.” She took another swig of her whiskey from her flask. “Most frustrating part is he can actually play well. I don’t know what the fuck happened to him today.”

Max eyes the flask as she held it out to him. He already had a drink or two at the party, and he wasn’t much of a drinker. He came to the conclusion not too long ago that drinking made him perhaps even more impulsive. And he was trying very hard to avoid picking fights with people, or punching walls. But this was Niobe, he couldn’t imagine she’d anger him enough for that. And it certainly wouldn’t be a small sip that would completely mess him up. So Max picked it up, taking a quick gulp from it before handing it back.

“Maybe, but you still played well.” At least, she did to his standards. Not that she needed to know his standards weren’t exactly high; but in his eyes, she was still the best player in this school. a small frown pulled on his face when she spoke again, turning to face her. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean for you to look. I hope I wasn’t a distraction.” He said, not exactly realizing the hidden message people could get from those words. “Feels like the whole team can play better. Probably was just a bad day, you’ll do better next game.”

“Um, excuse you,” Xander said, pulling his plate towards himself. “These are my chips, mine,” he told the other. “I offered to get you some, but you said no, so don’t go eyeing my curlies like that,” he said, pointing an accusing finger at his face and glaring at him playfully. “Unless that’s hunger for me, then we could skip the chips entirely and feast on each other instead,” he joked and winked at his friend teasingly, just this side of obnoxious. @finestra-starters​

Max took a moment after Xander spoke to look up from his friend’s plate. “Maybe I changed my mind?” He said, raising his eyebrows at the other. The chips were incredibly tempting now that they were in front of him, and it was taking him everything to resist from just grabbing a few. Which meant a lot. But as the other spoke again, a frown formed on his face. “I’m not sure I know what you’re talking about.”

“sorry, i thought i was the one asking questions?” rita quipped with a raised brow, not liking his attitude in the slightest. “every word that runs out of your mouth makes me wonder more and more what it is people like bulstrode want to do with you.” she spat in a mutter, rolling her eyes.

“No one’s asking questions, Skeeter. This isn’t an interrogation.” He replied with a frown, giving a small shake of his head. And his frown only increased when she mentioned Bulstrode. “Why are you bringing up Niobe? Is this about her?” He asked, although he was rather confused at how she was connected to all this.

MAX MACMILLAN + TASK 3

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Under the cut, you’ll find the caption for each picture. If you want your character to make a comment on those, please message me! (I will be making the singular post edit as well and post them all together tomorrow or Friday) If you want your character to have taken one of those, that is also possible, just message me!

“I don’t think the closed door of my dorm would have kept her away.” He responded, knowing he will have to face her sooner or later.

“Yeah, probably not.” He said with a small shrug. “Regardless, I think you won’t have a really nice time when she finds you.”

As the other spoke, Corban let out a groan as he realised who was standing behind him. Part of him knew he should probably try and be civil for Niobe’s sake, but… he wasn’t in the mood to be civil, he was in the mood to be a little shit. “Ah, Macmillian. Surprised you’re on your own and trialling my best friend around like a puppy. Don’t worry, I’m not particularly fond of your company either, your sister, however, much better company. Especially when she’s screaming my name,” The boy smirked, tossing another rock before turning to face the other. 

He should try to keep calm, at least for Niobe’s sake. He knew the two of them were close, and if possible, he’d like to be able to get along with her friends. But Corban was just so infuriating, Max couldn’t stop himself from shoving the other. “Don’t you fucking touch my sister again.” He hissed, hands closing in fists. He had to remind himself this was Niobe’s best friend - how she could tolerate him, he wasn’t sure - in order to not let his fists crash with his face. Which was proving to be harder than expected.

Send “UNF” to pin my muse against the wall with DESIRE

As of late, the two of them had found themself hanging out more and more. And the more it happened, the harder it was becoming for Max to keep his distance. Particularly when they were alone in his dorm. And this time wasn’t different, apart from the fact he gave in the impulse. He’d just let her in, but she didn’t have time to go quite far as he pulled her back, switching position so that she was the one against the wall. Both of his hands were against the wall, right beside her, as he let his eyes trail down all the way to her lips. Although when he leaned closer, he shifted slightly, so that his lips pressed against the side of her face, not too far from her lips.

Rabastan lifts his gaze lazily, an empty chuckle escaping his parted lips. “I suppose I should have. Would have saved myself this shit show of a party.”

“Might have saved you from Niobe’s wrath too.” He let out without really thinking. He hadn’t seen her yet, but he just knew she wouldn’t be pleased. 

he seemed as pleased to see her as she was him. “well, i asked a question, generally, when that happens, people would like an answer.” she replied sarcastically, rolling her eyes. he’d answered her question already.

He stared at her for a moment, silently. Of all the people, it had to be her, and he doubted all she wanted was an answer to that question. “Something tells me that’s not all you want. So what is it?”