Chloe Price had a problem.
Her problem currently being that Christmas was less than a day away, and she had a super awesome girlfriend to buy presents for, and no really great presents for said super awesome girlfriend.
Sure, she'd bought her a couple of things, like some more film, and shit like that. But nothing truly amazing had fallen into her lap yet, and Christmas was tomorrow, and she really needed something super fucking awesome for Max because you could bet Max had found her something super rad that would make anything she got look lame.
When asked what she wanted, Max had told her that "Any present you ever give me would be awesome because it came from you," which was such a corny, Max thing to say, and completely unhelpful to boot.
Our blue haired friend was a very frustrated, irritable person currently.
So of course who else would she run into but Nathan Prescott, super rich douche of Arcadia Bay and self proclaimed king of stupid Blackwell Academy and the stupid Vortex Club?
Sure, following the events of...everything, he was supposedly a much better person now, getting the care he needed, but Max was more forgiving than she was, so she couldn't find it in her to care about his reformation.
"Oh look, Arcadia's favorite delinquent." Nathan sneered upon approach, and his companion, a girl just a bit shorter than her, laughed as Chloe tensed up.
Max had asked her to please, please stop carrying guns around (something about: "for your own protection, Chloe Elizabeth, and if you don't listen to me I will in fact make your life hell") but the nineteen year old had never felt entirely safe without a weapon, especially not around Nathan fucking Prescott.
Hey, Max didn't need to know about the knife, did she?
Though knowing her, she probably already did and just was refraining from scolding her.
I mean really, what was Chloe possibly going to do? Shoot or stab herself? What was with her girlfriend's ridiculous anti-weapon policy anyway? Jeez, it was like there wasn't any trust here...
But we digress.
Her hands balled into fists, she replied,
"Hey asshole," Blue eyes narrowing in her face. She didn't need to be banned from another mall, she reasoned, as she attempted to not immediately reach for the knife in her boot.
Even with his "reformed" ways, Nathan Prescott didn't strike her as the non-violent type ever, and she had plenty of reason to constantly be on guard.
"Can you even afford to be in this mall?" The girl with Nathan, Chloe was pretty sure she remembered her name as Victoria, said.
Truthfully, no, Chloe normally couldn't really afford to be in this mall. She'd driven a town away, since everything in Arcadia was kind of run down, and the mall here was a bit more...upscale. But, ever since she and David had begun to see a little more eye to eye, he paid her to do odd jobs around the house or whatever, and he had even given her some extra money, all to "buy your mom and that Max kid something nice."
She never thought she'd see the day where she was glad David had become a cop, but hey, money is cool, and he wasn't such a bad guy after all anyway.
"Fuck off." was the reply that jumped to her lips, oh so naturally. "I've got shit to do, get out of my face." Pushing past the two, Chloe tried to figure out if she should just leave or not.
"Hey Price, tell our favorite old friend I said hey." Nathan called after her, and she could almost hear the smirk in his voice.
Now, that had been intended as a slydig to hurt her and she knew that, but it actually gave her an idea...
xXxXxXxXxXx
Turning the key in the ignition of her old, worn down truck, she sat in silence for a moment, staring at the scene in front of her.
Frank was doing better for himself now, as the damn RV had been washed recently, and was parked in front of an actual house now.
Dogs ran around in the fenced in yard, barking happily, chasing each other in circles. Frank had always rescued dogs, and now it seemed he was trying to actually make that his regular work. There had to be at least eight of them, so it seemed to be working out.
Hey, it beat selling drugs to kids, so there was that. At least he was doing some good now.
Chloe took a deep breath, and stepped out of the truck.
One dog in particular froze upon her arrival, then she watched as he relaxed and ran up to the fence to meet her.
"Hey Pompidou." Chloe said with a smile, reaching down and running her hand across his head and scratching at his ears. The dog wagged his tail appreciatively, and a few others, upon seeing this, came up to meet her too.
"Hey, what are you-! Oh, it's you. Hey girl." Frank had appeared from around the side of the house, and came over to greet her. Three more dogs followed, one small dog in particular keeping close at his heels.
"Hi Frank." Chloe said, opening the fence to let herself in, injecting some cheer into her voice. "Merry uh, Christmas. Eve. I guess."
Frank stared at her for a minute before cracking a grin of his own. "Merry fuckin' Christmas. What brings you here, Price? Not often you visit, really. How's your little girlfriend...fuck, whatshername...Max? Yeah. How is she? You better not be dragging her into any shit. That's a nice kid there."
Chloe nodded. Max was a "nice kid", if Frank wanted to put it that way. Max was wonderful, and most people could agree on that. But hey, Chloe didn't always go out of her way to cause trouble, it just sometimes found her.
But that wasn't the point.
"Prescott told me to tell you he said hey." She muttered, in response.
Frank snorted. "Of course the little fucker did. Must be having an off day." He shrugged. "But again, what brings you here, girl? I know you ain't coming out to see me just to pass on pointless messages for that kid."
Chloe started to reply to this, but was cut off by the mutt that had been hiding behind Frank cautiously stepping up to her feet, sitting at them and whining at her.
It was a cute dog, with short fur in a reddish brown shade, with big brown eyes and floppy ears. As it wagged it's tail, which thumped softly against her boot as it looked up at her, blinking, she had an idea. And then, right after, had her mind made up.
She stared back at this dog for almost a full minute before glancing back up at Frank.
"I'm here to get a dog. Thinking it'll be this dog, if that's okay." She grinned.
He smiled back at her, and no matter how many times she'd seen it, that still always managed to surprise her.
"I think that'll be just fine."
xXxXxXxXxXx
Christmas Morning
"Okay come on, dude, just get in the box. I'm not even gonna fuckin' close the thing all the way." Chloe huffed, as the dog- a little girl one, unnamed but not for long, refused to budge.
Chloe knew for a fact that Max thought the opening to Lady and the Tramp was adorable. Chloe knew for a fact that Max would probably die of happiness if she herself received a puppy in a hat box on Christmas morning. Chloe knew this because Max had said this, the first time they'd watched it together as children, and Chloe forgot nothing.
Okay, that was a lie. Chloe forgot a lot of things. She just didn't forget most things pertaining to Max, aka the love of her life.
However, the damn dog disagreed with the stupid hatbox. Did the dog even know how hard it had been to find a good hatbox? She'd had to leave her with Kate Marsh yesterday (who'd promptly squealed about how cute she was and how much Max would love it), driven back to the damn mall in the damn other town, bought her mom and even David a present, and then searched the whole damn place for a hatbox.
There were no damn hatboxes.
In the end, she'd settled on an old thrift store back in Arcadia she'd spotted out of the corner of her eye.
There, she had found a hatbox, but she didn't really want to buy the hat in it. All she needed was the box to make her plan work.
However, the woman running the shop had insisted she couldn't very well sell this stupid vintage hat without it's hatbox, and then she'd wanted fifty fucking dollars for a stupid old hat when all Chloe really wanted was the stupid fucking box, and in the end Chloe had given in.
When she'd returned to Blackwell to pick up the dog, she left the stupid old hat, a tiny frilly bonnet type thing with a fucking VEIL, on the statue outside the school.
Take that, old man.
And now the stupid dog didn't want to get into the stupid hatbox? No way.
It was five a.m and Max was asleep upstairs in her (really at this point, their) bed, and Chloe had spent the whole night keeping her away from the garage with the help of Joyce and David conspiring with her, and now the dog didn't want to get into the box.
Chloe was running out of time, here, as Max was very well known for waking up extremely early on Christmas morning and immediately running to the tree. She had maybe half an hour, an hour if she was lucky, and the damn dog wouldn't cooperate.
"Look here, little girl, I put a blanket in here. A fuzzy, soft frickin' blanket. I'd sleep on this blanket. I have slept on this blanket. And I'm not even gonna close the lid! You only have to be in there for like, 30 minutes tops."
The dog just stared at her.
Chloe sighed and got up with the dog, heading into the kitchen. She didn't dare make any noise or flip on any lights in the house, in case it alerted Max somehow that it was time for gifts.
She quietly opened the cabinets and grabbed some crackers. Saltines were okay for dogs, right? She'd just drop a couple in there to keep the damn thing satisfied for the next 30 damn minutes and then she'd creep back upstairs and wait.
The lights on the tree were the only light she had to go by, and she stopped for a second to appreciate it. The four of them had driven out to cut their own tree, because David said it was his tradition, and Chloe had thought that actually sounded pretty cool.
He'd let her and Max do the actual chopping, which had been even cooler, though Max looked like she was going to faint at the thought of Chloe handling an ax.
Again, where was the trust?
Underneath their tree, which they'd covered in lights, tinsel and ornaments, sat a bunch of presents. Max had been on top of it and had put a pile of presents for everyone under there ASAP, Kate had come by with some, Warren had left one for her and Max, and David had clearly spoiled her mom, which made her smile.
Her mom had also filled stockings for all of them, which were hanging from the mantle with their names written on them in glitter, which Chloe was certain she'd be finding all over for months to come.
It was nice to be happy, and have a normal family holiday. She'd always miss her dad, but David was good to her mom, and he looked out for her, and that was good enough for her now.
Plus, she had Max back, and it was more than nice to have Max not only back around, but as a constant fixture of love and friendship. Every look, every kiss, every thing about Max was wonderful and she was so fucking lucky to have her back around.
Shit, she was getting sappy in her old age.
Quietly, she sneaked back into the garage, dog under her arm, and settled the little one carefully into the box and bribed her with some saltines.
Now, the dog seemed content to stay.
Carrying the box carefully back towards the tree, she gently set it down and patted the dog's head before placing the lid just slightly off center, so it wasn't more than half closed. "Good, Max is gonna love this."
"I'm gonna love what?" came Max's sleepy voice from behind her.
Chloe slowly turned to face her girlfriend.
Max was yawning, her short hair rumpled from sleep, a piece on the side sticking out at an odd angle. She was wearing a pair of Chloe's shorts (they were very short on her, and a normal length on Max- god, she was so tiny and cute) and one of Chloe's shirts. Her eyes were bleary, but still a gorgeous gray blue, and everything about her was just perfect.
Our blue haired friend's heart was currently beating very fast, and she was overwhelmed with love and affection and a slight rush from getting away with this just in the nick of time and not letting Max ruin her own surprise.
Chloe was also very tired, but she could forget that.
"Presents, babe. You're gonna love presents. But we have to wake David and mom first." She said, crossing the room in just a few strides and wrapping her arms around the smaller girl.
Max frowned ever so slightly, and it was so damn cute, and Chloe bent to kiss first her nose, then her lips. Even in her sleepy excited state, Max had remembered to brush her teeth first, which was a plus. Though honestly, Chloe could care less about her morning breath, she was that damn grateful to have her back around.
"Cmon, let's get some cocoa and then go wake the corporal."
It took roughly an hour for Joyce and David to be okay with getting out of bed, but they finally did. And thank god too, because Max had some caffeine and wasn't feeling very patient, and Chloe was sure she was going to implode if she waited any longer to get down to the presents.
Chloe ran downstairs ahead of everyone, to make sure that the dog hadn't left her box and messed the whole delivery up.
Sighing in relief upon seeing it undisturbed, she peeked just barely under the lid and saw the dog, curled into a ball and snoring softly. A smile on her lips, she replaced the lid at it's half closed state and sat down a few feet away from it, anticipation making her insides squirm.
Her mom and David settled into the couch, and Max sat next to Chloe, bouncing slightly. It hadn't taken long for Max to wake up fully and become hyper, and Chloe wondered if letting her drink coffee first thing was such a good idea after all.
Hey, she'd suggested cocoa and Max had insisted on coffee, and who was she to argue on Christmas?
She let David go first, receiving a gift from Joyce. She let Joyce go next, who opened a gift from Max in the form of a photo album filled with pictures of all of them, and some old ones she'd reprinted of William. Max was next, opening a gift from Joyce in the form of a gorgeous deer pendant that she'd thought Max would love.
Which she did.
Then, when Max tried to hand off a gift to her, she simply shook her head. Her gifts could wait. Yes, she wanted to open them, but there was something way more important first. Chloe was giddy, and she wanted Max to know why, and she could not wait for that any longer.
Max just stared at her, eyes wide.
"What do you mean, you can wait?" Slight suspicion could be heard in her tone.
"Just, listen, I can wait. I think you should open a present next."
"I literally just opened a present, Chloe." Max replied, raising an eyebrow.
"Just. Open another one." Chloe said in a singsong voice, grinning widely.
Max just stared at her. Joyce and David were smiling on the couch behind her, but Max couldn't see that.
"Ooooookaaaaay." Max said slowly, reaching towards a gift under the tree, behind the damn fucking hatbox.
"No, not that one." David said softly, and Chloe could see him trying not to laugh.
Max looked completely lost now.
"Maybe try that one." Joyce chuckled, pointing to the hatbox.
Poor Max looked so confused as she stared at the hatbox, but she rolled with it. Chloe discreetly highfived both the adults on the couch as she watched Max reach for the box.
A small, soft, sleepy little bark came from the box right as her hand almost made contact with it, and the confusion before disappeared as something clicked.
Max's face lit up.
The brunette lifted the lid, and the dog hopped out and into her lap, and she stared down at it in silence for a minute.
Then the dam broke.
Max Caulfield was crying, and had somehow slumped to the floor, hugging the dog. "You...got...me...a...dog...and you...lady and the tramp..." She muttered incoherently, as the dog licked her face, it's tail wagging so quickly it was a blur, and Chloe was full on grinning now.
"Merry Christmas, Mad Max!" She yelled, flinging herself into the pile on the floor with her girlfriend and the dog.
Max was still crying as she kissed her, but she was smiling too.
"Merry Christmas, Chloe. I love you, you giant dork." she said, and Chloe just laughed.
This was the best Christmas she'd had in years, and it was just the beginning of many more great Christmases she knew she'd share with her one and only partner in crime.