#heyyyyyyyy

do you hear BRUTAL BY OLIVIA RODRIGO playing? oh, that must be CAMILA BARRERA breezing by. i don’t know if you recognize them, but they look like INDE NAVARRETTE to me. i heard that SHE has been in town for TWENTY SIX YEARS, which is crazy considering they are TWENTY SIX years old. yeah, they live over on ELECTRIC AVENUE, and i heard that they work as a BOOKINGS MANAGER @ AMOR STUDIOS ( IN TOWN ). i love that they remind me of SMUDGED AND BLEEDING EYELINER AT THE END OF THE NIGHT, BIG BULKY HEADPHONES, QUIET MOOD-LIT ROOMS, & THE VIEW THROUGH A WINDSHIELD MIRROR WITH DICE OVER IT,  but … ugh, their playlist is so weird. why are HYSTERICAL WOMEN, LIKE A G6, HERE COMES THE SUN, & LEAVE ME ALONE in the queue?

at first, the gymnasium felt like a dream jane entered too early, before her body remembered how to belong again. it's overwhelming, as the atmosphere presses against her from every direction. not painful per se, but heavy in a way that makes her acutely aware of how long she existed alone, in the narrow, fever-dimmed corridor of her own personal hell. for weeks, her life was reduced to fragments: a ceiling which swayed when she tried to focus; the taste of everything dark and wrong rising in her throat, again and again, until the very act of breathing became negotiable. not to mention the heat nesting in her bones, trapping her inside herself. but beyond it, always just out of reach, something steady waited. someone steady. but she doesn't have to fantasise about better days any longer, for max is here. the mage lets the moment freeze as she looks at her— really looks, trying to reconcile memory with actuality. she's prettier than she remembers. "i made it." she mimics, a shy smile gracing softening features. "i am glad i am here, also. missed you a lot."

the zoomer lives up to her self proclaimed title, and moves fast, closing their distance with an urgency that grips janessa's chest with something edging close to relief. opposing palms seek her shoulders, and she is pulled forward, into immediate and undeniable affection. the embrace is not tentative, nor is it careful; it's tight, arms applying the kind of pressure that follows quiet desperation, like max is making up for every time she couldn't be close, every day absent from her company. jane notes how warm she suddenly feels... and not in the oppressive fire that made her skin feel unbearable, kind of way. this is concrete; it wraps around her without wanting anything in return, without demanding as the world so often did. ( @songtaken doesn't treat her like she'll break. ) jane closes her eyes and lets herself live in the firm, blissful knowledge of her newfound reality, even if it's only temporary. this girl seeps into jane in a way nothing else has, filling the hollowed-out spaces left behind by sickness and absence. her own hands lift, hesitant, questioning the truth of her situation— then they rapidly clutch the fabric at max's back, fingers tightening to anchor herself there.

she isn't sure how long they stay interlocked, but jane reluctantly retreats first. ( though hands remain joined. ) she lets her gaze drift, taking in the room once more— not as a paralyzing blur, but in pieces she can manage. the lights; the movement; bodies swaying in nervous but content synchrony as music turns romantic. she pulls in a shaky breath, contemplative, and looks back, "everybody is dancing," she says thoughtfully, tone shaped carefully around observation, though uncertainty lingers quietly beneath. "they are... close." she bites her lip and shrugs gently, like if her wishes are denied, it's not a concern. "we can…" she begins, then pauses, and repeats the cycle three or four times, words stretching as she gathers the fragile threads of her confidence and holds them together. "try? if... if you will like to try? it looks nice." normal. something people who love each other do.

IF I CATCH YOU, YOU AIN'T GETTING AWAY FROM ME!!!

-Mara