"I can't believe I'm doing this. I can't believe I'm letting you let me do this. This is a terrible idea."
"Cool it, Mad Max. You've seen how much I smoke, and I'm perfectly fine. Well, relatively fine. And let's face it, if anyone has earned the right to break a handful of laws, it's you."
"Chloe, I already broke like... five laws just trying to survive this fucked up week!" Max huffed and slumped against the back of the bench, staring out from the same spot where, just a week prior, she watched as a gigantic storm threatened to tear apart the town she loved. She felt aged, like the seven days took years to pass. She wasn't even halfway through her first semester at Blackwell and she already felt like an old woman.
The only girl in the world who knew the truth was trying desperately to tend to all the trauma and psychological wounds. Unfortunately, she didn't know much about how that stuff worked, so she did the next-best thing and offered to let Max toke up with her. The lighthouse seemed like a decent place since the house was kind of a danger zone. "Okay, so don't think about the legal aspect. Just remember that there are people in this country who take this stuff to deal with pain, anxiety, depression, and more. And you are most definitely in pain." Though it sounded like she was searching for an excuse, she was also trying in her own way to process just how much Max had suffered. She was a hero, no matter how much she denied the title.
"Okay, fine, how do I do this?"
Chloe chuckled, trying to be understanding of the fact that her friend was so adorably straightedge. "I'll go first, just watch me. It's easy. You inhale, hold, exhale, boom. And go slow. Sometimes the first time is easy, sometimes it can be a little surprising. Your tiny hipster ass could be caught off guard." She lit up the blunt she'd prepared and took the first two hits, coughing softly as she passed it off.
Max took the joint like it was radioactive and going to melt her flesh off, and Chloe had to stifle another laugh. All those after-school specials had a way of warping your mind, like just looking at one of those things could turn you into a junkie. But innocent as she was, Max wasn't a total idiot, just understandably nervous. Still, what Chloe had said made sense. She had earned this, dammit! As ordered, she pulled it to her lips, breathed in, held it a moment, and breathed out. She had the ragged cough of a first-timer and didn't bother with a second take before passing it back. "Jesus, Price, warn a girl! Augh, it's like inhaling straight-up fire!" she bitched, in between fits of coughing.
This time, Chloe couldn't hold back and began giggling like an idiot before getting another two hits. Despite complaints, Max took it from her and tried again, knowing not to drag it so hard this time. "Sorry kiddo, I guess I kinda forgot what it can be like..."
After a while they got into a comfortable pattern of puff-puff-pass, speaking little, if at all. Max had spent an entire week thinking and talking and moving and doing and planning and fixing and solving and she was so goddamn tired of it. And, thankfully, Chloe really did know when to shut her mouth – even if it was obvious that she wasn't used to the idea of a comfortable silence.
Max's head was becoming comfortably fuzzy, and she found that it really was helping. She wasn't thinking so much. Her limbs were heavy. The weight was off her shoulders, as was the tension. She gave a contented sigh, and as she smiled, Chloe grinned back at her. "There's my girl. Feeling it?"
"Mmm, I guess? You'd know better than I would..."
"Thank fuck for that. Mad Max, you... You really did something impossible. And I know it still hangs over you like a ghost. I'm sorry for peer pressuring you into this, but if it's doing the job, then I can live with the guilt." Eventually there was little left but a bit of paper and ash and Chloe quickly stubbed it out and dumped the remnants in an empty beer can, discarded nearby from the cliff's previous occupants.
Guilt. Max knew about guilt. She'd done things she wasn't necessarily proud of, but one stuck with her more than the others. "Chloe... There's... I need to... Earlier..." She stared straight forward, and felt an arm suddenly sneak around her shoulders as Chloe pulled her closer.
"Careful there, Maximilian, it's been a shit week and neither of us want to deal with any new drama." Chloe was just trying to keep things easy, but it just made her feel more nervous again. She needed to get this off her chest.
"One last thing, and then I promise we can spend a couple months shooting the shit and not giving a fuck, okay?" Max looked up into Chloe's face, unaware that she was currently making her irresistible puppy dog eyes.
"Oh, fine..." Chloe might have sounded angry about that, but her tightening grip around Max's shoulder told her another story, the one that the blue haired monster refused to speak aloud. Max came first. Always.
Max took a deep breath, no longer fighting the fuzziness in her head, trying to use the fact that she felt so free and easy to push her forward. "I realized that my power had another use. I could... I could use pictures to go further back in time. I was looking at that old picture of us making pancakes..." Wait, shit, it didn't exist anymore. She'd destroyed it. "Um, anyway, I was suddenly thirteen again. The day William... Um, I-I stopped him. Ruined his keys. Convinced him to take the bus. He was alive Chloe! And I was in the Vortex club and I think I was shacking up with Victoria? Sorry, alternate timelines, it was all very Back to the Future." She rubbed the back of her neck and forced herself not to see the reaction on her best friend's face.
"I'd probably still be there now. But you... There was a different accident. You were paralyzed. Millions in hospital bills. You asked me... All I had to do was... just crank up your IV to eleven. I-I did it. Then I went back and let William leave again. Everything was back to 'normal'. But not me. You died so many times, but that's the one that won't leave me alone. I killed you Chloe. And even if you forgive me, I understand if you don't, but... I can't forgive myself."
There was a long, long pause, and this time it wasn't comfortable. The hand at Max's shoulder tightened and she felt herself pulled in closer still. She didn't say anything, but Max could hear the terrifying sound of her soft sniffling.
"I always thought that my life was so shitty. Step-douche and Rachel Amber and Frank and my debt and getting kicked out of Blackwell. And I mean, yeah, it sucks sometimes. But you've only been back in my life a week and it's like nothing changed. Hanging with you makes things easier. And I know it's shitty of me to say about me from another universe, but I guess that kinda puts stuff in perspective. And if you did what you did, I'm sure it was justified." Chloe gave another sniffle and stared at the sun as it sank below the horizon. "How... was I?"
"No blue hair, but just as beautiful, just as spirited. We watched Blade Runner and you told me you hated the word 'hella'." Max was shocked to hear Chloe react with a bright, raucous laugh that managed to actually startle her. It was infectious, and she inevitably started to giggle as well, even as a few tears fell from her eyes.
The two continued to laugh and cry, finally starting to let out all the bullshit that had accumulated over the week. Finally it subsided and Chloe planted a kiss to the top of Max's head, eliciting a bright blush from the tinier girl. "I love you, Max. I don't know if there's anything you could do that would make me hate you. Angry, sure. But, y'know, just a bit."
"Nothing...?" Max said, very tentatively. Her voice was quiet, with maybe just a twinge of hope.
"Well, I'd prefer you not get too hardcore with testing that theory. But yeah. We're a dynamic duo, changing timelines and saving entire towns. Even if the ungrateful fuckers never actually recognize it. But I guess Batman didn't make a ton of friends either." Chloe finally took note of the glowing cheeks and cocked her head to the side. "Hey, c'mon, that should've gotten a bigger laugh, Caulfield. Don't tell me you're crashing already."
Max fiddled with the zipper on her hoodie, quietly pushing it down and back up. She was refusing to look back at Chloe. There was one more thing. Perhaps it was best to just launch into it, see what happened, and then rewind if shit got too deep. "I love you, Chloe. Um. But like, that other kind. The capital-L kind. I always did, but I guess I just figured it was some stupid confused schoolgirl thing. That's why I was so shitty about keeping in touch. I didn't want it to hurt, to grow distant while trying to pretend we were still close. Even when I got back, I guess I figured you'd be so different and you wouldn't even remember me. But as soon as we were back together, I couldn't shake it. That's why I kissed you. The dare was just an excuse."
The look on Chloe's face was all she needed to see. Her right hand shot out and...
Nothing happened. Normally there was at least a headache when nothing happened. But this was nothing-nothing. So now she just looked like a doofus holding out her hand after confessing her big stupid idiotic crush on her best friend.
"Was that... Max!" Chloe's arm was ripped away from her, and the brunette never felt more alone in her entire life. She'd lost her powers, she'd lost her best friend, and it was all over now. "You just tried to rewind!" Chloe was on her feet now, glaring down at Max as the girl tried to shrink into her hoodie.
"I couldn't, I think I-"
"Shut up, we'll get to that. This is more important!" Chloe snapped, and Max saw that terrifying fire in her eyes that was only reserved for the likes of David.
Wait, more important? Bad important? Good important? Chloe, what the hell are you doing? She could only watch in horror as her friend began to pace back and forth, fuming, huffing and puffing. If Max wasn't scared for her life, it would have been pretty cute. Jesus, Max, get a grip, now is not the time...
"You unload all this stuff on me, and then tell me the sweetest, most adorable thing I've ever heard in my life, and then immediately try to rewind it? So- So what, was this just a trick? You were curious and you'd see how I reacted to you professing your undying love for me? Was any of that stuff true? Did you really kill another me? Do you..." Her voice trembled and cracked here, and Max's confusion only grew. "Do you really l-love me?
"Of course I do! How couldn't I?" In a whirl, Max was pulled up by both hands until she and Chloe were face-to-face. Chloe was still angry, but now in a more flustered, embarrassed sort of way. The look someone got when they realized they had maybe, possibly fucked up but were too proud to admit it.
"Prove it." She finally said, and stared Max down. "None of that playschool shit. No dare, no shenanigans. You kiss me right now, Max Caulfield, and there had better be goddamn fireworks."
It was phrased like a request, but said like an order. Either way, it was pretty clear now, even to the oblivious Max. She held back the desire to giggle, not wishing to damage Chloe's ego too much. She tenderly placed a hand to each burning cheek and pulled Chloe in until their lips met. And no, this was no 'playschool shit'. The dare-kiss was barely a peck. This kiss was magnetized and electrified. Two poles snapping together and fitting just-so. Max may have proved her point, but she was far from done. She leaned more into it, her head tilting to the side, her lips parting ever so slightly. She could feel the other girl's hands coming to rest on her hips, and it took a good deal of concentration to not think too hard on that. With the appropriate leverage now obtained, Chloe shifted them until they were once more seated on the bench. Max's hands moved from Chloe's cheeks to let her arms wrap about her neck.
Neither girl was entirely sober enough to process time appropriately, so it was impossible to be sure just how long the embrace went on. It was certainly long enough for Max to wipe her memory banks of anything even approaching a first kiss so that she could file this one away as her first real kiss. When they finally pulled away, they were panting, chests heaving just slightly, faces flushed, eyes still a little watery.
"...sorry, Max... That was low."
Max shook her head desperately and pulled Chloe in for a tight hug. "No, I... I shouldn't have tried to rewind. I was spoiled this week. I was able to fix my choices instead of learning to live with them."
"So, what, you think it was the weed or...?"
"No, if something were stopping me, I'd..." A memory came over, the only two times she'd been completely barred from using her powers. She shuddered at the thought of it. Max was definitely not ready to go there yet. "I'd know. There'd be a headache or haziness or something. It's just gone. No answers, no explanation."
Slowly, Chloe's hands traced fingers through the sandy locks. The brunette was grateful to finally be close to her best friend in a non-platonic way, even if the circumstances sucked ass. "You'll always be my Super Max. Guess we just have to be careful from here on out."
"Honestly, I'll be glad to be rid of the pain and the nosebleeds. It was too much to bear. And I know I have you to look out for me..." Max said this part a little quieter, more bashfully, unable to make eye contact with Chloe. "Does this mean..."
"Uh-uh, Max. Chloe doesn't do labels. What this means is that now I can indulge in all my Max-related fantasies. For real." She grinned, but Max wasn't sure she exactly approved of that answer. To her surprise, Chloe's shit-eating grin quickly dissipated and she started to look almost as bashful. "But I guess... if you wanted... from time to time... once in a while... you could maybe say something to the effect of... 'I have a girlfriend'. But just to scare away creepy dudes! And Warren. We tell Joyce, and we tell Warren. Everyone else will have to just sit around and guess."
"His poor heart. But why Joyce?" Max's head canted to the side slightly.
"She wants you to be my Good Influence. If she knows just how much you really mean to me, she'll get off my back~" It was pretty obvious there was a lot more to it than that. But Max didn't want to press anymore. She was tired of pressing. She was free of her powers, and she had a kinda-sorta-girlfriend, and she was ready for life to go back to normal. She stole one last fleeting peck from Chloe's lips before hopping up.
"Well then, bacon and coffee and telling Joyce you've got the hots for me. Sounds like a plan." She let out a bizarre sound that was somewhere between a squeak and a gasp as Chloe threw a chummy arm around her neck, nearly choking her, and ruffled her hair.
"To the Two Whales, First Mate!"