Author's Note: This story is set between Episodes 2 and 3 of Life is Strange (the third one hasn't come out at the time of this writing).

Changes

Something hung in the air around Max's dorm room the moment Chloe walked in. It wasn't quite nostalgia. She remembered all the times that she and Chloe would sleep over at each other's houses. So many hours spent giggling and making up awesome stories and games from the security of a shared quilt.

But that was in the past. There was nothing nostalgic about the blue-haired girl in the knitted cap who skulked into Max's room. She glanced at the art books stacked neatly on their shelves and the wall of photographs over Max's bed. Her gaze lingered on the photos longer than Max expected.

Twirling around, Chloe grinned back at her friend. "So this is where the God-Queen makes her abode?" She cocked her head to the side; a one-shouldered shrug. "How… quaint."

"We can't all do punk rock posters like you," Max replied. She crossed her arms over her chest and sat back on the bed. "And you really should keep it down, you know. I know your stepdad isn't going to show up, but—"

"But we can't have Prissy Princess Victoria busting us either. Yeah, gotcha loud and clear." Chloe slid off her jacket and tossed it onto the back of the chair by the desk. She stopped and looked out the dorm room window. "Can't believe how quiet it still gets here. Don't you find it just a little spooky?"

Max glanced out the window, too. She noticed the way the window perfectly framed the lawn outside the dormitory, with a grove of trees on one side and brick walls on the other. Everything was a lovely shade of black and blue in the dead of night, like something out of a painting from Picasso's Blue Period. Even the ubiquitous squirrels had gone quiet.

"It's not so bad," she told Chloe. "Gives me a chance to think. I feel normal at a time like this."

Chloe huffed. "Not me. I'd rather hit the next club and crank the volume full blast!" She punched the air as she spun around, rotating her way into a controlled fall onto Max's bed. "So I guess you'll want to call it an early night, then?"

Max glanced at her. "An 'early night'? You're making me sound like a little old lady."

"Compared to me, sweetheart, you are." Chloe giggled. "But I like ya all the same."

They chatted on late into the night. Chloe was still awestruck with Max's time-reversing powers, though the Kate Marsh incident and her friend's increasing nosebleeds had taught her the value of showing a little restraint. Max was impressed that Chloe could be self-restrained in any way. The girl with the blue hair was a walking bomb of emotion; reckless joy in one moment, dark and scarred the next.

When Max felt her eyes began to flutter, she knew she couldn't put off sleep for much longer. She stretched her arms out and made a show of yawning, knowing Chloe would get the hint.

"Not keeping you up, am I?" her friend asked, a teasing smile on her face.

"Nah, it's these classes catching up with me," said Max. She flicked her right hand through the air. "I haven't figured out how to fast-forward yet."

Chloe grinned. "Yet? Please, please tell me you can do that!"

"Well… we'll see."

While Chloe fell back onto the bed, lost in whatever wild fantasy was passing through her head, Max hopped off and made her way over to the closet. She wasn't too worried about changing into her pajamas with Chloe watching; growing up together, there wasn't much left to the imagination between them.

However, there was one thing that she didn't feel comfortable showing off, not even around her best friend.

Looking down at her right hand, Max briefly considered the ways she might reverse time and fix this situation. However, all her ideas were based around changing her clothes before Chloe came into the room—at least four hours ago. Even if going back that far didn't give her some kind of brain aneurysm, she'd never be fast enough to change before Chloe came in.

Stop overthinking it, Maxine, she told herself. You were honest about the time travel stuff. You can manage this no problem.

She took a deep breath and let it out, imagining a hundred blue butterflies escaping her stomach all in one go. A very poetic image, and one that she would've liked to grab a photo of if she only had the chance.

Chloe turned onto her side, propping herself up on one elbow. She gave Max a mild frown. "Hey, are you feeling all right? You look a little wound up."

Max brushed a hair back through her hair. "It's nothing. I was just… going to change my clothes."

"Sure thing. Don't let me stop ya." Chloe bent her knees into her chest, then reached up to tug off her boots. When Max stayed perfectly still, the other girl looked back at her and grinned. "Hey, don't be shy. It's not like we haven't seen each other in our underwear a million times before."

"Not like this you haven't," said Max. She turned around and reached for the package sitting on the floor of her closet. Before Chloe could get another word in, Max yanked the package out and dropped it without ceremony onto the couch.

Chloe's face froze. She didn't react even when Max reached into the crinkling box and took out a small white adult-sized diaper. Advertising on the packaging be damned; it could say "absorbent briefs" all it wanted, but Max knew a diaper when she saw one.

Meanwhile, Chloe slowly came back to reality. She dropped her eyes from the diaper to the floor and pushed herself to sit upright.

"Um, okay…" Chloe looked at Max, not quite meeting her eyes. "So, when did that happen in the last five years?"

"It didn't," Max admitted. Letting the diaper fall onto the couch with a soft crinkle, she crossed the room and took a seat beside Chloe. "It started after that whole business with Kate on the rooftop. At first it was a few near-misses in the bathroom, but then it was waking up in damp sheets every night." She bit her bottom lip. "Soaked right through the mattress pad."

"God, Max, I'm sorry." Chloe draped her arm around her friend's shoulders and pulled her close. "I really am."

"It's not your fault. Just another wonderful side effect of my powers, I guess."

"Like your face getting random periods?" Chloe shook her head. "You know, I hate to say it, but I don't think I'm ever gonna be as brave as you, kiddo. I can't imagine living with all that just for the sake of some kickass superpowers."

Max looked up at her. "And I'd never want your home life, so I guess we're even."

They looked at each other in silence for a moment. Then Chloe laughed and they were hugging as hard as they could manage. Max dropped her head onto her best friend's shoulder like it belonged there. And of course it did.

After a while, Chloe let go. When she looked at Max, she had that devil-may-care smile on her face—usually not a good sign, as Max had learned these last few weeks. "So… you know how I've been a kinda shitty friend lately?"

"You haven't been—"

"Shut up and, yes, I have." Chloe looked away for a moment, glancing back toward the wall of photographs behind them. "Look, that whole Kate Marsh business? I used you up real good that day, Max. You have these awesome life-saving powers and what do I do? Abuse them for shits and giggles down by the railroad." She smacked her forehead. "Hell, you even had to rescue my dumb ass from getting squashed by a train!"

Max remembered that terrifying moment all too well. She decided not to tell Chloe how many times she'd almost seen her die right there, screaming out her name barely a second before—

Don't you dare think it, she told herself.

"We didn't know how far I could go," Max said out loud. She patted Chloe's shoulder, letting her hand rest there.

Chloe reached up and grabbed her hand. "Well now we do. And starting now, I'm gonna work on being a better friend, especially if you're gonna keep saving my dumb ass with nosebleeds and time travel." She bit down on her lip before she added, "So, don't worry about the diaper thing, dude. If you want, I… well, I mean, I can help if you, um…"

Max blinked. "Chloe, are you offering to…?" She dropped her head, feeling the blush on her cheeks that she couldn't quite hide. "Change me?"

"It's no big deal, amirite?" Chloe put on another devil-may-care smile, though Max could read the hint of guilt in her eyes. The same silent pleading she'd read that afternoon at the lighthouse. "It's just underwear. Nothing I haven't seen a hundred times before."

"Have you even changed a diaper before?"

"Well… how hard can it be? Especially for your skinny butt, sista."

Max almost laughed at how hard she was trying. She wondered how much farther she could push Chloe's bravado like this.

But it was the thought that counted. And truth be told, those tapes were a bit tricky.

"If you insist," said Max. She glanced at the package across the room. "So should I…?"

"Just scoot your little butt on over and drop those drawers." Chloe winked as she got up and grabbed the diaper sitting on the couch. "Promise I won't bite."

Max nodded and turned around until she was lying on her back. She kicked off her shoes, pulled down her jeans, and tucked her thumbs into the elastic around her panties. After a quick look at Chloe, who stood waiting with her arms crossed, Max blushed and pulled her underwear all the way off, letting her clothes pile up on the floor.

"Geez, would you look at this," said Chloe as she unfolded the diaper. "And they call this a size small?"

"Just be glad you're not wearing them," Max remarked.

Chloe grinned as she slid the garment underneath her friend's butt. "Now there's an idea. Step-douche would have a heart attack if I turned out to be a tattooed pot-smoking hippie in a diaper. And I could stick it to Mom by making her change me, too."

Max giggled. "Oh, God, I don't wanna picture that!"

"Geez, chill." Chloe was still smiling as she maneuvered the front of the diaper over Max's privates. Of course, she wasn't doing a good job of masking the epic crinkling that seemed to fill every corner of the room. Max watched her stick the tip of her tongue out the side of her mouth as Chloe began to work the tapes into place, one at a time and as slow as possible.

All things considered, she hadn't done any worse of a job than Max's first time diapering herself.

"There we go," said Chloe, giving Max's rear a tiny swat. "Another dry night for Captain Crinklebutt."

"I appreciate the help," Max replied.

As she sat up, she heard the diaper rustling against her bedspread. For once, it didn't seem quite so loud. But she knew it was her paranoia talking. Because she'd never gone outside her room wearing it, even under her clothes, no one else in her dorm knew. It was the last thing Max put on before bed and the first thing she took off when she woke up.

She only prayed that Samuel wasn't the sort to go rooting through other people's trash when he did his weekly garbage collection.

Chloe, meanwhile, began to undress herself. In a whirlwind of clothes that spread themselves across the dorm room floor, she was stripped down to her bra and panties. Even her knitted cap made its way off, letting Max finally see the full extent of her friend's electric blue hair. Oddly enough, the color really did suit her face, especially around the eyes.

"Okay, lights out," said Chloe, oblivious to Max's gaze as she crossed the room and hit the light switch by the door.

Max regarded her friend in the moonlight that came in through her window. From the right angle, Chloe looked a touch angelic. A semi-nude warrior princess, with colored hair that gave off its own light. A perfect example of chiaroscuro, as Mr. Jefferson would have said. Of course, there was no Caravaggio painting of a punk rocker in her underwear as far as Max knew.

Answer truthfully, Max Caulfield, her subconscious whispered. Are you now or have you ever been so attracted to your own best friend?

She didn't know what she was feeling. But she knew what she wanted.

"So, you got an extra blanket or something?" Chloe crossed her arms as she turned to Max. "This isn't my first time crashing your couch or anything—"

"Actually…" Max's voice caught in her throat. She swallowed and willed herself to keep going. Patting a spot on the bed beside her, she said, "If you don't mind sharing, there's plenty of space."

Chloe's eyesbrows lifted. "What's this? Little Max Caulfield is losing her personal space issues?"

"Really?" Max rolled her eyes. "I don't know if you noticed, but you did just put a diaper on me. Sleeping in the same bed is nothing next to that."

"True dat." Chloe shrugged and crossed the room. Max threw the covers off and slid closer to the wall, giving her friend plenty of room to lie down.

As Chloe drew the sheets back up, Max felt warm beside her friend. But considering how freezing it was outside—a typical late October in Portland—Max didn't mind the body heat mingling with her own.

"This sure takes me back," Chloe whispered. She turned over under the sheets, facing Max in the dorm room gloom. "Remember when you used to sleep over at our place? Mom and Dad would make us s'mores and then we'd stay up after lights-out 'cuz we couldn't fall asleep."

Max smiled back. "Of course I remember. Those were great slumber parties."

Chloe didn't say anything for a moment. She closed her eyes and Max couldn't quite tell if she'd fallen asleep.

Then she heard—

"I miss ya."

Max blinked. "What was that?"

"I said, I miss ya, Max." Chloe's eyes shot open, now brimming with unshed tears. "I mean… shit, you were gone. And then Dad was gone and Mom was…" She closed her eyes again. "If it wasn't for Rachel, I would've curled up and died myself."

Max nodded. Then she reached out and put her arms around Chloe. The other girl didn't resist. Instead, she hugged Max close and buried her face into her shoulder.

"Goddamit," Chloe muttered. "I wish I could've gone with you to Seattle. I've give anything not to live in this shithole hick town, you know? Why you'd have to come back?"

"I don't know." And that was the honest truth for Max. She'd been racking her brain for answers for several weeks now.

It was destiny, she supposed. Whatever had brought her here—not her dream about studying photography under Mark Jefferson, but some other force entirely—had plans of its own. It was all connected, she knew. The tornado. Rachel Amber's disappearance. The Vortex Club. The school. All swirling around some invisible breaking point.

And sooner or later, she'd figure it out. With Chloe by her side, alive and well.

"Maybe I came back for you," Max said, brushing at her friend's hair. "Maybe some part of me missed you and didn't want to go through Seattle without at least one friendly face."

Chloe sniffled and lifted her head. She gave Max a look of confusion. "You really mean it?"

"For realsies," Max answered. She leaned in and gave Chloe a kiss on the cheek, not surprised to taste a few tears there. "Just for you."

With another sniffle, Chloe smiled. It was the happiest Max had seen her in a while.

Then she felt Chloe's hand trailing down her lower back, coming to a rest on the seat of her diaper. Max flinched when Chloe gave her a little pat on the butt. She could hear the thing rustling from underneath the sheets.

"I don't say it often enough, but you're a good friend, Max." Chloe tilted her head and gave Max her own tiny peck on the cheek. "Especially for putting up with a freak like yours truly."

Max didn't have any answer for that. She was still giddy at the feeling of Chloe's hand on her diaper. It felt like it belonged there. So she snuggled up against her friend's chest, closing off the last of the space between them. Chloe sighed, and within minutes, they were falling asleep just like when they were kids.