Number 1:

Song- Love Me For Me by Ashlee Simpson

A.N- Max/Prudence friendship. Slight mentions of Jude/Lucy, Prudence/Rita, Prudence/Max. Takes place after Max is out of the hospital and Prudence returns, but before Jude comes back.

Lyrics that influence this fic the most- "Don't care where you think you've been, and how you're getting over. If you think you've got me down, just wait it gets much colder" "Here I am, as perfect as i'm ever gonna be" "Shut up, come back. No i didn't really mean to say that" "I'm mixed up, so what? Yea you want me so you're messed up too" "My head is spinnin' but my heart is in the right place. Sometimes it has to have it's self a little earthquake"

"Pru, come here?" The voice was soft and raspy, and it all sounded like one word, but Prudence understood perfectly well, stopped in her tracks, and turned into the room without a second thought.

She offered a small smile and sat down on the edge of the bed. "Max?"

He was leaning over, staring at the floor. At first look with how he'd been acting lately, the others would have been worried, but Prudence just seemed to know things were okay right now. He didn't respond to her though, and she inched closer. "What's up?"

She refused to treat him any differently than she had before. It was "What's up?" and not "Are you alright?". The others could stick to the tender love and care. Every single one of them knew that they all hated it, but at certain times, making things seem normal was just too hard. She could be compassionate without being different.

Finally he looked up and offered her a smile. It was small and drained, but so distinctly Max that it made her beam. He shrugged a little, carelessly. It was so much like him to call someone over with no clear meaning or request. Only, had it been Before, he would have suggested something rash and fun right about now.

But now he didn't. And Prudence felt obligated to uphold the tradition. "You want to go out?" she offered hopelessly. "Grab a drink, flirt around…" she trailed off. Just the mention of theses things made her think about Rita. And not the good parts.

The two had broken things off last week after some less than pleasant complications and she still hadn't told anyone. Normally, Before, she would talk to Max about these things, but now they hardly talked at all, and when they did she surely wasn't going to start complaining. It was her turn to be there for him.

However, keen-sense to Prudence as always, Max pursed a deeper frown at her shifted expression. "You okay?"

Apparently role-reversal wasn't one of their best skills.

She was roughly pulled from her thoughts and stammered, "Y-yeah." She smiled again, a little too fake, with a little too much hope. Prudence wasn't good at bottling up her feelings, and she didn't have a way to express them. Not through art or music or anything like that at least. She'd kill for those talents. She'd also kill to have Max back to himself again.

When the two had first met, it was a one night stand. She was broken and he was cocky and it was never anything more. Once they were done with that, they really got to know eachother as people. They had become the closest in the house actually. And it was nice. They'd spend hours laughing about, and at, Jude and Lucy, and he was the first one to know about her crush on Sadie.

She didn't realize she'd sighed aloud during the stream of memories.

He seemed timid to ask again, but finally Max broke the tense silence. "You wanna talk?"

She wanted to shake her head no, for his sake. For her sake, she wanted to cry or hug him or have some form of being assured things could be normal again. He didn't talk like that anymore, and she didn't want to push him.

But, emotions getting the better of her, she instead replied, "Do you?"

There was a beat of silence, because he knew she wanted him to tell her things, things he just wasn't ready to say. Almost awkwardly, he put an arm over her shoulder and rubbed her back. "I'll listen."

Certain people were constants, always there for one another. Prudence took the step in realizing that things between her and Max will probably never be the same again. He'll probably never be the same again. And neither would she. But they were trying. And for her, that was plenty enough.