Work Text:
The first time Lucas noticed her freckles was on a slow afternoon at the arcade.
The place buzzed with the usual noise, buttons clicking, machines chiming, the low hum of kids shouting over games. But all of it faded into the background as Max Mayfield leaned over the machine, trying to beat Lucas Sinclair’s highest score in Dragon’s Lair.
The screen’s glow caught her face for just a second, revealing a small freckle on her nose that Lucas had never noticed before.
And then another. And another.
Since then, Lucas’s eyes hadn’t left her face.
He didn’t even realize he was staring. Not really. It just… happened. Like his brain decided that counting them was suddenly the most important thing in the world.
“Lucas…” Max called out.
Nothing.
“Lucas…”Still nothing.
“LUCAS!”
Lucas jolted, snapping back to reality. “Yeah?!”
“Did you even hear a word I said?” Max asked, narrowing her eyes.
“O-of course I did!” Lucas said quickly, even though his brain was still stuck somewhere between freckle number eight and nine.
“Then what did I say?”
“Oh—um—are you ready to leave?” Lucas offered, flashing an awkward smile.
“Oh my gosh, no. I asked if you wanted to play another round,” Max said, rolling her eyes.
“Oh… yeah. Yeah, of course!”
They played for another twenty minutes, though Lucas barely registered any of it. Every time Max leaned closer to the screen, the light would hit her face just right again, and
Okay, that’s definitely more than ten…
By the time they left, the sky had started to dim, the air cooling as they walked side by side down the quiet street.
“Why were you staring at me so hard while I was playing?” Max asked suddenly.
Lucas stiffened. “I-I-I wasn’t staring at you…”
“Okay, whatever you say…” she shrugged, clearly not convinced.
They made it back to Lucas’s house, greeting Mrs. Sinclair before heading upstairs. His room was warm and familiar, the faint sound of the TV filling the space as Max stretched out on his bed.
Lucas sat beside her, comic book in handbut he hadn’t turned a single page
.
Instead, his eyes drifted back to her face.
Twenty-three on that side… no, wait, was it twenty-two?
He squinted slightly, trying to recount.
“Stalker,” Max said without looking at him, “are you staring into my soul again?”
Lucas jumped and quickly raised his comic.
“H-huh?”
“Don’t act like you weren’t just staring at me for the last twenty minutes.
Why do you keep looking at me?”
“What do you mean?” Lucas said, trying to recover.
“I can’t look at my beautiful girlfriend anymore?”
The words came out faster than he meant them to and immediately, he felt his face heat up.
Max glanced at him.
“I’m not saying that. It’s just… every time you look at me, it’s like you’re dissecting my face or something.”
Lucas hesitated.
Okay, don’t say it. That sounds weird. Definitely don’t say it
“Maybe I am dissecting your face but for a tubular reason!”
Max raised an eyebrow.
“Uh-huh. And what’s this ‘tubular reason’?”
Lucas swallowed. Too late to back out now.
“I-I-I was… um… counting your freckles…”There was a pause.
“You were counting my freckles?”
“U-um… yeah.”
Max turned fully toward him now, propping her head up on her hand.
“Okay, stalker… how many do I have?”
“H-huh?”
“You heard me.”
Lucas hesitated.
She’s gonna think this is so weird.
“Do you really want to know?”
“Yes, Lucas. I really want to know.”
He took a breath
.“You have twelve freckles on the right side of your nose, ten on the left, twenty-three on your left cheekbone, twenty-seven on your right cheekbone, fifteen on your forehead, and twelve on your chin…” he said, his voice getting quieter toward the end. “Which… totals ninety-nine freckles on your face.”
Silence.
Lucas stared down at his comic, suddenly very interested in literally anything else.
“Wow…” Max said softly.
“I didn’t expect you to pay that close attention to me…”
Lucas rubbed the back of his neck.
“Yeah… I didn’t either. It’s just—” he stopped, searching for the right words.
“It’s just something about you. It’s like… my brain doesn’t wanna focus on anything else.”
Max tilted her head slightly.
“Is that supposed to be a bad thing?”
“N-no! Of course not!” Lucas said quickly.
“Your face is p-perfect, everything about you is perfect!”
Max let out a small laugh.
“So smooth, stalker…”
Lucas groaned quietly, burying his face in his hands.
Why did I say it like that?
Before he could spiral any further, Max leaned in and pressed a soft kiss to his lips.
Lucas froze. Completely.
His brain short-circuited.
When she pulled back, she was smiling one of those rare, real smiles that Lucas secretly tried to memorize every time he saw it.
“Aww, Lucas,” she said softly.
“You’re such a dork. I love you.”
His heart skipped.
Lucas blinked at her, surprised.
He was usually the one who said it first.
But this time “I love you too, Max,” he said, a little quieter, but just as sure.
For a moment, neither of them moved.
The TV played quietly in the background, filling the silence neither of them felt the need to break.
Lucas glanced at her again.
He didn’t count this time.
He just looked.
And somehow, that felt even more important.
“So,” Max said after a while, nudging him lightly, “what else have you been secretly observing about me, huh?”
Lucas smiled, finally relaxing.
“You really wanna know?”
“Obviously.”
And just like that, the rest of the afternoon slipped by as they traded small observations little things they’d noticed but never said out loud.
The kind of things that didn’t seem like much
but somehow meant everything.