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Furiosa stares off at the horizon, the mountains hardly distinguishable from the night sky. The wind whips around her from where she perches on the edge of the lookout tower, but she doesn’t care. She’s messed things up too badly to care. She had to even care. Furiosa isn’t sure where she got that mediocre idea, but for some reason she thought she cared about Max and that Max cared about her. If only she hadn’t opened her big mouth. If only she hadn’t been so blissed out from five orgasms. If only she hadn’t been so stupid. Caring. That’s one thing that’s rust.
“Hey,” calls out a voice.
Furiosa chides herself inwardly for being so wrapped up in her thoughts she didn’t hear him approach. When he sits down next to her, she continues to ignore him.
“I… ummm…” Max chews on the words in his mouth but can’t seem to get them out.
“What am I to you?” Furiosa asks a bit more harsh than she intends, but then again, she wasn’t the one who walked out of their room an hour ago. She feels the anger welling up and she can’t contain it anymore. “You will only stay here if you stay with me, but you come and go as you please. No warnings when you leave, no ‘hey, I’m getting a bit cramped here.’ I’ve offered you other places to sleep if you want, but you refuse. You willingly help out with whatever I ask you to do, not that I can ever know if you’ll still be here when I go to ask you. We have sex for the Mother’s sake! Lots of it. Repeatedly. And not all of it is by any means ‘normal.’ And this is what makes you run?”
Max glances at Furiosa then out to the horizon, not sure how to answer.
“So, what am I?” Furiosa asks again more gently. “I don’t care what the answer is, I… I just need to know.”
Max looks down and fiddles with object in his hands. It’s not easy for him either. After what seems like an eternity, he hands it over to Furiosa.
“Keys?” she says in disbelief. She’s always found it amusing that he prefers the Old World ignition keys to kill switches, but to each their own.
Max grunts an affirmative. He thinks on it some more, mouth opening several times before the words start falling out. “You’re… my safety… my escape. The one thing that’s always there for me… freedom… redemption.”
Furiosa looks over at him and quirks her head. She has to admit, that’s not the answer she expected. She smiles, though, when she feels a warm, callused hand slip into hers.
“I… uh… I’m sorry and… mmm… I, I love you, too,” he finally says. Sheepishly he adds, “just got scared.”
Furiosa’s smile widens. “Oh, Max,” she says as she turns to face him. Her words are cut off as their lips meet, so she lets her body tell Max just how not scared of this Max should be.