Authors Notes:
Whoa there. This is the third part of a series. If you haven't read the first part, this won't make quite as much sense. Actually, it'll probably be really confusing. So I highly suggest you click on my name and check out part 1. Even if you have read it, I suggest you read the last chapter of part 1 again, as it is a journal entry/summary. It'll help you keep up to speed on what's happened before hand without having to read everything all over again. If you're all ready to go however, then enjoy!
Her eyes slowly fluttered open as sleep began to slightly loosen it's grip on her body. Splotches of color made their way into the blue pools of her retinas, not allowing her vision to actually make out anything around her. Her small hands groggily found their way to her eyes and rubbed the sleep out from them, finally allowing her brain to see the world clearly. White encapsulated her the pillow fort around her came into complete focus.
The pillow fort was standing around the two girls as they snuggled close to each other on Chloe's queen sized bed. Smiling to herself, Max gently closed her eyes once again and allowed the memories of the previous night to replay in her mind, like a movie. Vivid colors and clear voices made their way into her brain as the memories played over again. The memory of her and Chloe having a pillow fight, of making out under the freshly made fort as a celebration, of cuddling with her girlfriend and staring at her luscious blue hair as she drifted off into sleep.
'I don't remember who's idea it was to build this thing, but I'm glad we did. It was like we were kids again, building pillow forts and talking about nothing. Something I could use after yesterday. Time sure is getting more and more full of shit as it goes along.'
The gentle hum of Chloe's desk fan filled the room giving off a soft amount of white noise, gently tugging at the awakened state of her mind. A breeze from the open window tickled her slightly, contradicting the white noise that was threatening to put her to sleep. Just as Max was beginning to get the urge to move her body so the air wouldn't continue to keep her awake, she felt Chloe's long slender arms wrap around her frame and her face bury itself into the crook of her neck, before mumbling something against her skin. Smiling slightly at her girlfriends unconscious gesture, the brunette girl gently pressed her body back, nestling it into the girl behind her. Her arms felt warm against her as they pressed against the fabric of Max's t-shirt. A small, steady rhythm of hot breath gently blew over the back of her neck, which didn't seem to bother the small photographer at all. For a few more minutes, Max just took in the experience of being held. Focusing on the way that Chloe felt pressing on her behind, how tightly Chloe was holding her, how her lips seemed to be just barely grazing her. It was intoxicating. A feeling that Max wasn't sure she'd ever get tired of. The feeling of the person you love more than anything in the world unconsciously showing you that you mean as much to them as they do to you.
Once again, her mind began to slowly paint a memory for her, one full of bright colors and vivid sounds. She could hear Chloe telling her how gross boy's were, how Max didn't have any style, she could feel her lips press against Chloe's for the first time. It was an awkward, extremely short lived kiss, but it still felt magical.
'This is just like after the night we broke into Blackwell, only better. This time, I actually have Chloe. No awkward phases of wondering if Chloe likes me or not. I'm more than sure of that now. If it weren't for times like this, just being with her, I don't know if I could survive.'
Lying in her girlfriend's arms was exactly how Max wanted to spend her day. Just being here, with her, in a world that doesn't move. A world with no anxiety, no death, no time fuck ups; just her and her girlfriend. Max once again pressed herself into the sleeping punk behind her, desperate to get as much contact as she possibly could.
'She is probably my main reason for being okay. I know I couldn't keep going on if I didn't have her again. I know I'm just 18, but I know what I feel is real. I know that I only want her for the rest of my life. I would tear apart time just to keep her with me. Just so I could feel her arms around me,'
Her eyes looked down at the arms wrapped around her as a smile beamed across her face.
'This is what perfection must feel like. The glow of the sun making everything beautiful, being completely comfortable, and cuddling with someone who loves you just as much as you love them. An extra bonus when that person is the single most beautiful girl you've ever seen. You hit the Jackpot, Max.'
Being in a situation where there were no sounds in the room, nothing to look at but the white pillows all around her, and the thoughts of the past week running through her head, Max's mind began to wander once again.
'So...why is Chloe here with me anyway? Kate got saved in that timeline. Jefferson is now in prison back then...but why did Chloe come back with me? Okay...so I did do things in each little timeline, and each time I did, something happened. What if when I kissed Chloe, it brought her with me or something? Like when I had that hammer back in the bathroom? God. Why does this all make no sense? Where is the Hitchhiker's Guide with all the answers when you need it?'
With each and every breath that was colliding with the back of her neck, Max could feel a longing in her brain to look at her girlfriend. To gaze at her longingly and watch her as she slept. However, the feeling of Chloe's arm's around her were making her chest feel light and fluttery, safe and secure. If she moved, it may risk waking her up and losing these cuddles, but if she kept lying here, she would eventually get too anxious and have to force herself to move. So, Max decided to have the best of both worlds.
'Okay Max, time to try and not wake the sleeping bear.'
She turned ever so slowly in Chloe's arms, trying not to wake her; and not to break the contact. Gorgeous blue locks that were dangling around a peacefully beautiful face were all that encompassed her vision as she finally settled herself back on the bed. The second she turned around, she could feel the wanting to kiss her girlfriend surfacing beneath her. Her eyes couldn't break away from Chloe's lips as she stared longingly at them.
'I'm sorry Chloe...but I can't help myself.'
Small kisses were being planted softly on the punk girl's lips as she slowly awoke. Her eyes fluttered open as she witnessed her girlfriend planting one kiss after another on her, causing the bluenette to smile and kiss her girlfriend back with a passion.
Lips stayed locked on each other for a full minute, unmoving as the two girls held each other. It was a kiss that Max wished she could live in for the rest of her life, but eventually the lack of oxygen proved to be too much for her to handle.
"Mmmm" Chloe hummed as she pulled away from the now panting brunette. "You should wake me up like that every day."
Smiling at her girlfriend Max replied "I will try. But no promises that it'll always be so innocent."
"You are such a tease, Max."
"You know you love it."
"I do, and you." The sleep in Chloe's body was beginning to fade as she turned over on her back and held Max close to her body. "So, what are we up to today, Maximum cuteness? Just lying in bed with each other all day, clothing optional?"
A blush was working it's way over the young photographer's face as she spoke. "I really want to. I just want to shut out the world and kiss you all day long...but...we have to find out what happened with yesterday."
"Why? Why do we have to be the ones? Why can't someone else do it? Anyone else at all in the entire world? Why don't we go to the police and ask them for help or something?" Chloe pouted, over dramatically.
"I dunno...maybe because we've already done it once before? Because I have time traveling powers that no one else does? But wait a second. Did you just ask me to go to the police? Who are you and where is my anti-establishment girlfriend?"
"Ugh, you always have to be right. Fine. But Max..." Chloe was now sitting up on her bed, pulling her knees to her chest. "As much as I love you, I can't do this...this whole "save everyone" thing all the time. I'm so scared..."
The weight of the words were beginning to press on Max as she sat up next to Chloe and rubbed the small of her girlfriend's back softly. "What's wrong? Chloe, are you okay?"
"Max I...I'm dead meat. Your time travel powers don't work on me anymore...so...if I were to die...that would be it. I'd never be able to come back. I'm just so sacred Max because now I have a reason to be alive. I want to get old with you...but I don't know if that's..." her voice was beginning to trail off as her breath hitched slightly in her throat.
"Chloe...I know I'm not an actual expert on this...but something tells me that all of that is over. You will not die. I won't let you. I didn't go through everything I went through to let you go again."
"But I died like 20 times around you the last time we went on an adventure." Her voice was now slightly on the verge of breaking as her eyes were turning pink.
Feeling the tears coming, Max grabbed both of Chloe's hands and looked her deep in the eyes, trying to calm her down. "I know. But all of those were accidents. The one in the bathroom...I was given these powers to save you with them. That's the only explanation I can understand. Why else would the butterfly give me my powers again after you died? I think our destiny is to fix Arcadia Bay, together. But the rest of the times were all just accidents. The train was because of Frank. If he hadn't have come around, we would've been perfectly fine. Then...Jefferson..."
Instantly feeling the pain running through Max, Chloe turned her body and wrapped her arms around the smaller girl. "okay. I believe you Max. Just...I hate to sound so petty but...I want to be with you. I want to grow old with you and spend as long as possible with you. I want to make you as happy as you make me. So can we like...find a way to stop anything bad from happening to me? Some kind of Crazy Time Traveling Life Insurance Policy?"
Chuckling slightly at the words, Max let go of Chloe's hands and looked off the side of the bed, picking up the camera Chloe had given her. "Yeah. That would be easy. But Chloe, I can't...I can't live without you. So this isn't selfish. If you died, I don't think I could go on again. So don't be sad." Max smiled as she looked up into her girlfriends eyes. "You're never leaving me."
The smile from Chloe's face was one that melted Max's heart as she leaned in and kissed her again. Chloe allowed herself to completely melt into Max, drop all of her guard and just left the brunette complete her. It felt as if the kiss was filling in the holes that Chloe had left inside of her. Everything that ever made Chloe hurt was getting plugged up, all of her insecurities were melting away as she finally let Max become her everything. Her mind was a blank as she concentrated on nothing but kissing her, until she heard the hum of a camera eject a piece of film.
Pulling away quickly, Chloe looked at Max with laughter in her eyes. "You hippy. Did you just take a selfie of us making out?"
"Maybe...this way if I ever have to come back here, it'll be during a moment that I will want to come back to. Hell, I may just come back here for the fun of it sometimes."
"You brat. I can't come back to here whenever I want to kiss my girlfriend. So why can you?!"
"Because I am the time master! Bow."
Chloe laughed as she got up and walked over to her closet."Okay Max. If we have things to do today, we need to get going. So as much as I hate to say it, get some clothes on."
Max watched Chloe leave the bed and tried not to stare at her butt. She could feel Chloe's mood lighten up as she walked away from her, making her heart soar. It felt right to finally see Chloe pulling down her walls, let Max in. To see all of the anger now gone. All of her abandonment issues felt like they were melting away. It was only taking one week, but Max slowly making her more and more complete. She felt like the worlds greatest girlfriend for a moment, until a thought crept into her mind.
"Chloe, I just thought about something."
Still deep into her closet as she searched around for a specific shirt to wear, Chloe called over her shoulder "what is it babe?"
Giving into her desires, Max glanced down at Chloe's butt as she slightly bent over to look deeper into the closet."You never actually asked me out. We aren't technically official."
A small chuckle escaped the punk as she turned back around to her girlfriend. "Max, Max, Max...people don't really 'ask people out' anymore. You just both eventually decide that you're only going to do romantic things to only each other exclusively. It's not all mushy romance films and declarations of love."
Not letting that stop her, Max looked over at Chloe and put on her best fake whining voice. "But Chloe...I want to be asked out...I've never been asked out before. I want that romance from the only person I'm ever going to be with. I want to tell people how cute it was when you asked me out when we're old together in a nursing home. I want all the old and young ladies to be jealous of how amazing you are."
That made Chloe blush. "Okay, that makes sense. So then, Max Caufield, would you be my girlfriend?"
"That's it? That's not gonna melt any hearts when we're old ladies, Chloe."
"Dude, I'm not a mush machine. I can't just spew out cute shit whenever you ask me to. If you want something cute and meaningful, it is going to take some time."
"Okay, okay. I can wait. But you better make it worth my while, Price."
"Don't worry Max. I will." Chloe spoke softly with venerability.
Max soon followed suit and got out of bed herself. Walking over to Chloe's desk and unzipping the large black suitcase she was keeping her clothing in, Max picked out a shirt at random and slid it over her shoulders before sliding on her traditional gray hoodie. Fighting the urge to turn and watch Chloe dress, Max slid on her typical pair of jeans and laced up her shoes before spinning around and smiling at her girlfriend.
Turning back toward Max as she began to slide a shirt over her, Chloe smiled a devilish smile. "I knew you couldn't resist watching me dress."
"What if I actually couldn't?"
"Well, then I'd be screwed because I really want to do the opposite with you."
Fighting the blush on her face, Max changed the subject. "Okay. So I'm thinking we need to go somewhere that we can find more information about the Prescott's. Any ideas?"
Chloe shrugged on a black t-shirt before straightening it. "Hm. Well we could always break into their house. I mean, you're pretty good at snooping through peoples shit in their house. No offense. Plus with your bad ass rewind, we wouldn't have to worry about getting caught!"
"Yeah. Let's just break into the richest people in the entire town's house in the morning when they're all probably wide awake. I love it. I don't think rewind will help much if we can't even figure out how to get inside the place. I'm sure it has some crazy gate shit around it."
"Fine then. You name another place that we could find all sorts of tabs on the richest family around here? Somewhere else that is full of information on what the hell they're up to?"
It was as if Chloe had said the perfect combination of words; because at that exact moment, Max knew exactly where they needed to be. "Yeah...I think it's time we go to the cops."
Authors Notes:
Hey yo. Welcome to episode 3 everyone. I hope you enjoy a nice, fluffy little chapter! This episode will be full of mystery and exploration, so there won't be too much more fluff to be had. But that being said, I hope you enjoyed it anyway!
Sorry in advance if this episode comes out slower than previous ones. I just have so much going on in my life right now, and not all of it is good. But I promise it will come out, however quickly I can make it. But until then, be sure to stay tuned! Same Bat-Time! Same Bat-Channel!
Until then, stay golden.