It wasn't that far from the White Trail to the cinema, really. With the days of traffic delays and interminable red lights long over, it ought to have been a straight shot between locations, but by and large the streets were still a pain to travel. Here and there abandoned cars and other debris -- including the occasional tumbled down building facade -- littered the roadways and slowed Dani’s progress. A knot of anxiety sat behind her breastbone for the whole drive, her knuckles white from where she gripped the steering wheel too tightly. On some level she knew that it was more than just normal leaving-the-protective-walls-of-the-shelter jitters, but it wasn't until the last turn before Walsh Tarlton Lane that it finally struck home that she hadn't seen Max in person since --
Stopping the car in the middle of the street, she took a deep breath in through her nose and held it for a moment before exhaling. Then she did it again. A small voice in the back of her head insisted that she was being ridiculous, that Zeckendorf surely couldn't have any hold on her now, but a chill set into her limbs all the same. Dani rubbed at her arms and flipped down the visor to check her appearance in the mirror. She looked like someone who worked too many hours and skipped too many meals, but at least the eyes that gazed back at her didn't look as haunted as they suddenly felt. As good as it was likely to get. Putting the car back in drive, she eased it forward again.
Finding Max waiting for her when she pulled up to the cinema, Dani’s stomach did a flip. He looked so familiar sitting there, in spite of the unsteady ground that still lay beneath them, and for a moment she wasn't sure how to even begin. The easy, uncomplicated greeting of the past was out of reach. The texts they'd exchanged over the last few months had gone a long way toward beginning to mend the rift left between them after their last face-to-face conversation, but a part of Dani still held reservations. She was trying to make room for the new side of him, to reconcile Max’s loyalties, his actions, his lies and secrets with the man she had considered a friend. Still considered a friend. Climbing out of the driver’s seat, one hand automatically tugging the front of her light jacket smooth at the same time, she paused for a moment to look over Max before stepping away from the car. He'd been dealt a miserable hand lately, and having walked seven levels of her own hell, Dani could see the signs written on him.
“Hey,” she said. Even on a good day Austin was still only half a step away from being a ghost town, and in the dense near-silence the softly spoken word had no trouble traveling between them. She glanced at the abandoned theater, the isolation of their surroundings setting her on edge. Or maybe it was the fact that for months she'd been ignoring the hole in her life where Max used to be, telling herself that it didn't exist, and the pretense was much harder to hold on to when confronted with him here, now. A sudden flash of frustration at their awkwardness and emotional distance flashed through her. The city was in shambles and the rest of the world slouching toward destruction, so what was the point in a cold reception? Dani held out her open arms and offered Max a hug in greeting.