A/N: First Across the Universe fic… please be kind?

Anyway, I had this idea when I was thinking (again) about how much Max resembles Kurt Cobain in the movie (seriously, Joe Anderson has an incredible likeness in face and singing voice…). I realize, of course, that Max was NOT supposed to be Kurt since the movie took place in the 60s and Kurt was 90s. If you didn't read the sentence before this one, please go back and read because I don't want flames about that particular topic. (ahem) But, I just thought this would have been funny. ;)

Disclaimer: I don't own Across the Universe or Nirvana songs. And this is not meant to be Jude/Max. Just throwing that out there.

Jude leaned impatiently towards his friend on the other side of the table, drumming his fingers against the wood. He was starting to feel the littlest bit annoyed with Max at this point. Max had caught Jude when he was taking a coffee break and insisted that Jude wait for him to finish whatever he was writing. He mentioned something about needing Jude's opinion on the song as well. That, of course, had been nearly an hour ago and Max still wouldn't let his friend leave the table and his pen seemed to never cease scratching against the paper.

"You think you're going to be finished with that poetry any time today?" Jude asked for the fifth time that hour, no longer with a joking edge to his voice. "I kinda have some things I need to do."

"It's not poetry," Max snapped without looking up from the paper. "I'm trying to write a song."

Jude couldn't help but roll his eyes. "As if there's much of a difference… it's all lines and rhymes…" he muttered just loud enough for Max to hear. Max finally looked up from the paper and glared at Jude for a brief moment.

"Fine. It's not finished yet, but since you're so impatient," Max replied irritably. He then pushed the sheet across the table to where Jude eagerly snatched it up. He wanted to read the thing and get it over with so he could return to his art studio.

Max leaned back in his chair and played with the pen that he wrote the song with. He trusted that Jude would be honest and let him know if the song was any good or not. Max was kind of hoping that he would have some kind of raw talent at songwriting that would be discovered today. He really hoped this was the case.

It was just that Max felt so uncreative, having roommates like Jude, Sadie, and JoJo. He felt like he wasn't adding to the creative flow of the apartment. Besides, he had always wanted to try writing a song anyway. Being a rock star certainly couldn't hurt his ego

As the minutes stretched out, Max had a feeling that Jude was prolonging the moment just to pay him back for making him sit at the table for so long. He could see Jude's eyes reading the same lines over and over deliberately. Scowling, Max decided that he would have to replace Jude's charcoal with short pieces of black licorice fairly soon and let Jude consider it his karmic consequence, but at the moment he was too anxious to see the fate of his song to really start planning anything.

After what felt like hours, Jude finally looked across the way to Max and studied him closely. He then looked back down at the sheet and began to read out loud. " 'I'm so happy 'cause today I found my friends/They're in my head'?" he recited, clearly quoting Max's song. He looked over at Max again. "Isn't that a little overdramatic?"

"Oh," Max replied, "You really think it's too over-the-top?" He tried not to look too crestfallen.

Jude looked back down at the sheet. " 'Light my candles in a daze 'cause I've found God'," he continued to read, picking another random line in the song before him. He looked back over at Max. "Yeah, I think it's a little too much."

"Shit," Max swore and took the sheet back. "I guess I'm not as good as I thought I would be."

Jude shrugged. "It doesn't really matter. You can keep writing if you wanna. I just want to get the hell back into my art space and finish that drawing I started this morning." He then took off to avoid any more friendship duties to perform for the needy Max.

Max stared down at the song again and chuckled. "Wow, this song really does suck," he muttered and crumpled the sheet to throw out a window.

A/N: Yeah… that's it. It would make me happy if you already knew what Nirvana song I used, but in case you don't, it's called "Lithium" and is my favoritest song ever from them. :)

Please review?