Chapter I

We were here

"We walked these streets like Queens, our faces in the wind. And everywhere we were, we made the city sing. We sang 'forever young' we had our fingers crossed. And when the city sleeps, it dreams of us..."

"Hello, Future me! I'm Max Caulfield...but hmm I guess 23 year old me would know that; unless you are some type of weirdo, digging up things that aren't yours then for shaaame." Wagging her finger towards the camera when she suddenly becomes distracted by the shuffle of footsteps getting closer.

"MAAAXINE!" a friendly yet sarcastic voice is heard off camera "Ugh, cereal Chloweee it's Max! Never Maxi"

"Right right" Chloe with a laugh and loving smirk jumps on to the old familiar bench next to her best friend. Here they are looking out the Cliffside towards the endearing sea. The weather is kind to them as few clouds hide the sky and the wind is gentle and calm. A Perfect day for the girls to record a video for their time capsule.

"Hey are you filming? Chloe puts her face right up to the camera inspecting it as if the answer lies in the lens.

"I said I wasn't ready."

Sitting back and Giving Max a playful shove as she settles in

"Oh pssh when are you ever?" With a friendly retaliation Max flicks Chloe on her nose while exclaiming and pointing towards the camera.

"Say hi to your future self already, she's waiting!"

Chloe begins to enthusiastically wave at the camera "Hey me! Are we rich yet? I need a new skateboard, wait do you still skate? Does food come in pill form? Is 88 miles the speed limit or wouldn't it be 87? You know because if you got to 8.."

"Chloe!"

Max puts her hand over Chloe's mouth. "I said say hi, not ask like a bajillion questions!" Max laughs as Chloe still attempts to speak but nothing is heard but mumbles

"Okay motor mouth" Max sighs but still giggling as she frees her friend.

"Let's take it slow" Chloe lets out a loud 'HA!' as Max finishes her last sentence

"You're so immature Elizab-" Chloe interrupts once more with a mean playful look on her face as she puts her face up towards Max

"Don't you dare Caulfield." Both girls stare at each other before bursting out in laughter.

"Okay, okay let's start!" Max excitedly jumps up and down as the girls turn their attention towards the camera once more.

"We decided to film a little message for the time capsule, and um if you can't tell already we are at the famous lighthouse! We weren't sure how to set this up but we…"

Signaling towards Chloe giving her a warm smile.

"...Figured that the best place for it would be here."

"Totally!" Chloe shouts "As long as we've known each other, this has been a place to call our own. And even though we leave traces of our wonderful friendship all around the bay nothing beats the towns beacon of hope. We talk for hours, we play and run around the lighthouse up and down the steps even though we're not suppose to. We talk about our future, which is how we came up with this and OH! We tell each other secrets like that one time Max totally fell … "

Chloe sentence begins to trail off as she looks over to Max, she sees her arms crossed and her eyes narrowed beaming right at her

"Uh… um nevermind!" giving off a nervous laughter.

"ANYWAY"

Max continues "Like my fellow pirate here was so kindly saying, this has been a playground for many things, both conversations and running around alike. It's precious to us, and ten years down the line we hope that when you, um when we come back here it still holds up."

Chloe slides over closer to Max putting her arm around the brunette continuing where Max left off.

"We're not sure what the future brings, ten years is a long time you know? And...and a lot can change, almost too much to remember. So we hope this helps you never forget, okay? Because we will always be best friends."

Chloe slightly chokes up the last few sentences as she begins to wipe away a few tears streaming down her cheeks.

"Are you crying?" Max says with a giant smile on her face but her eye's clearly show she's holding back.

"Wh-what? No, you are, shut up."

"Aww, Chloe" embracing her best friend in a hug "Oh I know! Let's take a picture with the camera I got for my birthday!

"Max begins to fumble around in her bag for a few seconds before bringing out her Polaroid camera. "Pirates on 3!

One!

Two!

Three!

PIRATES!"

Present day September 27th 2018 10 years later.

"Oh my dog we were such dorks back then!" Max laughing as she wipes away tears from her face

"What do you mean were? And did I make a back to the future reference? Man, I've always been cool."

"Ha! Yeah right! Did you see yourself bawling like a baby?" Both girls begin laughing as they share a quick kiss.

"Oh like you're one to talk!" Chloe remarks as Max smirks leaning over off the couch towards her laptop.

"Touché." She ejects the CD and puts it back in its case which is titled 'watch first' and places it on the coffee table.

Wowsers, ten years ago… all of this! Chlo and I… we were so young! We knew so little, about life, about love, and nothing at all about what would soon happen after this. But through it all it made us stronger, it showed us love can really conquer all battlefields, all you have to do is try. I mean look at her, so happy so relaxed now that the only real thing out to get us these days is taxes and the landlord. She's really all I've ever wanted, and she's perfect!

Max unknowingly has her face in a state of awe and love as her blue eyes give her best friend, her partner in time, a gentle gaze. Long gone now is the blue hair, replaced mostly by her natural strawberry blonde strands. With a small bang on the left with the electric blue color shining through serving as a memory. The trademark purple beanie only makes an appearance during the colder months, and the three bullet necklace, now a peace symbol. It wasn't a drastic transformation, but over the past few years she found solace in living for her loved one's. Instead of holding the world around her in contempt. This has always been her, besides she was still a smart ass.

"Uhhh, Houston we have a uhhh problem here, we seem to have lost Max, over." Chloe waving one hand in Max's direction while the other acts as walkie talkie giving her best Captain voice. "We read you loud and clear Captain Price, commence with the tickle attack, over."

Max quickly comes to as she is suddenly tackled on the couch by bluentte.

"Chloe!" Max shouts with joy and laughter "No fair!" Max playfully fighting back "Stop, I'll give you something cool if you do!"

Chloe confused yet intrigued she rises up, but still straddling the brunette "Cool you say?" raising an eyebrow and biting her bottom lip Max has her full attention.

"Yeah!" Max quickly reaching over towards a couch pillow and swinging it at Chloe. "Cool side of the pillow!" Laughing hysterically at her own joke as Chloe falls over to the side of the couch

"Gah! That was so sooooo lame Caulfield."

Laughing while having the palm of her hand pressed on her face embarrassed by her girlfriends joke.

"But you looove it." Max closes the distance as she snuggles up with her lover, placing a kiss on her nose.

"Lets see what else is in the capsule!" Max lunges forward towards the box clearly faded and worn with its struggle against father time and mother nature.

Ah, this is my stuff! Picking up a Ziploc bag that separated the girls belongings. Chloe and I decided to put three items in our respective bags, whatever we wanted, maybe something that at the time represented us either as a person or something giving meaning to our friendship but it had to be a secret from each other. I wonder what she put in here…

Peering over, curious as to what items the 14 year old Chloe Price would've love to reminisce about. She slowly moves her hand towards the other girls stuff to get a peak but is quickly stopped.

"No chance babe!"

Chloe playfully remarks as she grabs the brunettes wrist. "Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe we said our items would be a secret and we would surprise each other in ten years time." Chloe grabs the box and slides it over to her side smiling at a dramatic Max whose head hangs in defeat and lowly whispers "I have shamed you."

Laughing at the brunette "Come on cutie lets rewind" giving Max a knowing wink and smirk as she grabs her belongings.

"So who goes first?!" Max excitedly shouts moving her body side to side as her hands are clasped up to her chin. "I have some change in my pocket lets use one of the coins" Chloe grabs a quarter out of her pocket "Okay, Maximus Prime you're heads and I'm tails, ready?" with their eyes locked on to the coin as it goes high In to the air flipping over and over until it lands in her hands.

"Heads!" she shouts showing Max the coin

"Show me what you got baby!"

Grabbing her bag filled with relics, each with a story of their own, she opens it and looks in. "Alright what first?" Reaching In she grabs out a book, faded but still very much intact "Oh my God this is my very first photography book!" Looking at the cover 'How to photograph absolutely everything.'

"Chlo! You got me this for my 12th birthday you always knew me so well!" Max hugs it toward her chest for a moment and opens it up flipping through the pages. "I would look through and read this for hours! Dreaming one day that I'll be the one to take photo's like these, and imagining we could travel all over the world and see the sights and sounds."

Handing over the book towards her girlfriend "Talk about a total flashback, I remember being with my Dad at Barnes & Noble absolutely lost at what to get you I must've driven him hella crazy going back and forth through the aisle I kept saying to myself 'only Max would like a book for her birthday' and my Dad would laugh and hand me the occasional book to speed up the process until he finally said 'Well Max likes photography right, how about that?' And I had a sudden brainblast as I ran over to the Photography section."

"That's tooo adorable Chlo" the two girls share kiss, before resting her head on Chloe's shoulder as they take a look through the book for a few pages before setting it gently down on the table.

"One down! Two to go!"

Max reaching once again in to her bag this time pulling out a CD labeled 'The Maximum Power Mixtape' she carefully takes the CD out of it's case and inspects the backside for scratches. "Aw! I remember when we made each other these! It was an argument, we tried to prove who had the better taste in music, obviously it's me."

"Man, I don't even remember what songs I picked!"

Chloe remarks as she takes the CD sliding it into Max's laptop. The computer begins to make little noises indicating it's reading the disc when suddenly a window pops up on the screen and the first song begins to play. An acoustic guitar builds, followed by an electric, and the sudden kick of drums.

'Look at the stars, look how they shine for you, and everything you do, yeah they were all yellow…'

Max burst in to laughter as she hugs Chloe "Coldplay?! Oh man I haven't heard this song in ages!"

Chloe puts her face into her palms and mumbles. "Those were darker times…"

The brunette still giggling "Hey Chloe you know how I know you're gay?"

Chloe more than ready for the joke. "Because I'm in love with you?"

Both girls break out into hysterics as they reminisce about putting the list of songs together for one another as the song accompanies their memories and slowly fades out.

"And last but not least!" Max puts her hand in to her bag for the final time bringing out a journal. A pink book, very much in the same condition as the other items. With the cover reading 'Max Caulfield for her eyes only… (Don't you dare Chloe)'

"No way! My first journal! I don't remember even putting this in here, after awhile I thought I had just lost it!"

Showing it to Chloe as she scoffs "I totally read it anyways." Sticking her tongue out in her girlfriends direction. "Yeah right! Before I thought I lost it this never left my side!"

Chloe giving a knowing smirk "You think so huh? If I recall correctly, I remember reading a certain small little story about how you totally barfed on your crush at a practice for Romeo and Juliet… hmmm what was his name again?"

Hiding her face in her journal as she recalls the experience. "Ugh, Evan Wilson. I swore that day I was never eating cafeteria food again."

Reaching over, the brunette slaps Chloe on her shoulder "Hey! You weren't suppose to know that! I just told you an accident happened!" Chloe laughing as she shields herself with a couch pillow. "And I obviously knew you were hiding something!"

Max giggling "You're such a jerk!"

"Wowsers, this was a place I could come to just to clear my head, just reflect my thoughts of the day with no feedback or judgement. Before I eventually told you of course!"

Max flips through the first few faded yellow pages before stopping "Hey look at this one! Oh my dog I was so dramatic"

'February 14th 2008

Welp, that didn't go as planned, maybe I'm not cutout for the romantic life. Before I could give Evan his gift he was already being surrounded by some other girls Michelle and her posse! Ugh, I hope that doesn't become a typical group I have to deal with In life. Anyway, So I decided to keep the chocolate heart, totes fine though, more for me! Chloe surprisingly gave me a stuffed monkey that was holding a heart that said I'm bananas for you haha it's adorable. She always knows how to make me smile. Hey, I know! I'll give this heart to her instead! She deserves it way more anyways!'

Max closes her journal and recalls the memory "I still have that monkey! It's in one of the storage bins. Right next to captain berry bear, peanut was my favorite stuffed friend."

Chloe smiles "And that's never changed, I'm still totally bananas for you."

Max puts her journal down and crawls across the couch and kisses Chloe on her forehead and whispers "You can prove that later" giving her girlfriend a playful wink.

"Your turn!"

"Alright, step right up it's the moment you've all been waiting for!" Chloe triumphantly raises her bag in the air "The main event starts now!"

Max with her head cocked to the side and eyebrow raised "Oh get on with it!" laughing as she brushes her hair to the side eagerly waiting on her girlfriend.

"First up!" Chloe reaches in to the bag of never forgotten mementos and unveils a light blue and pink bracelet, made of strings that intertwine with one another and different little jewels with letters on them. On one side the letters spell out 'Max C.' and on the other 'Chloe P.'

"The friendship bracelet that you made for me! I remember the day you gave this to me you were acting funny and shy about it."

"I was scared you'd think it was stupid!" Max quickly speaking up "I was thinking you'd probably never wear it and would just respond with the answer we give to our parents when they give us clothes for Christmas 'Oh gee Thanks Mom I love these sock's …'

Giggling as she listens to her girlfriend explain herself. "Oh babe you're still so dramatic" Chloe slips it on her wrist "A little tighter than I remember but still fits!" Waving her arm around in front of Max "I wore this everyday until I decided to put it in here I loved it and I still do!"

With her rekindled relationship with her bracelet she digs into the bag for the next relic.

"Item numero dos!" Holding up a silver necklace with a charm of a butterfly "Aw my parents got this for me out of the blue one day. It was such a surprise to me, I remember both of them coming up to my room and usually when that happens I'm in some sort of trouble."

Laughing to her self as she dangles the charm in front of her "I remember them saying how special I was to them and they said when they saw this they could only think of me."

Lowering the necklace into the palm of her hand as it slowly spirals down she closes her hand "They were always so sappy I love those goofballs." Giving a smirk to Max as she reached a final time into the bag.

"This is My favorite family photo! We were at the park that day nothing entirely special but my Dad loved taking photos when we were out of the house so he wanted a family picture it's one of the few that I actually love, you know me being an inspector and critic of everything! My Pops was surprised when I asked if I could keep this one." The photo shows Chloe on the swing each hand grabbing the ropes while her parents on either side with their arms around her. "I love you Dad" pressing the photo to her lips giving it a quick kiss I'll come visit soon. I promise."

Max nodding "We sure will William we will be home for the holidays soon!" Max taking Chloe's hand and begins to remind Chloe on her previous statement.

"Never settle for the first thing huh? Except for me!" Max turning her head to the side and conceitedly brushing the purple bang out of the way as she sarcastically says "I'm Perfect" popping the 'P' to accentuate the joke. The girls laughing as Chloe responds "Pa-huh-lease girl" snapping her finger to the side "I only chose you because you gave me chocolate."

Max playfully hits Chloe on her head with the journal "Well I guess this is a bad time to tell you I'm running out." As she does, the gentle vibration shifts a object out from the pages. "Hmm what's this?" Grabbing it by its edge she reveals a photo giving it a once over and realizing quickly it's the one they took while filming the video for the time capsule. The girls with their arms around each other, with tears streaming down their faces towards their smile. The bottom has a caption which reads

'We were here'

Showing the Photo to her counterpart "Aw, look! Pirates of Arcadia bay together, always."

Chloe takes the photo in to her hands, her face glowing, her lips breaking into a smile.

"Max?" the blunette softly calls out.

"Yeah babe?" Max sitting one seat over as she combs through her written past of her younger mind.

"What do you think we would say, you know… our younger selves? About all of this? About how one day you would comeback to me in my darkest hour, super powered." Giving off a light laugh as she begins to put the photo down on the table and looking at Max locking her blue eyes with the brunette. Softly staring at the girl who has been her personal super hero.

Although Max never wore a cape, she was content In her jeans, her normal t-shirts, her hair longer tied back in a ponytail as it once was. And just like Chloe, she had a dark purple dyed bang that lightly hid her right side of her face. She never had a cool hero name that the world would revere. But that was okay because She was just happy being Max Caulfield.

Chloe continues as she sits closer to Max taking her hands and in hers, locking fingers.

"About how You saved my life, saved our town and not once did you back down form the unknown. You know For a girl who likes to think she's shy you sure know how to deal with life head on."

The punk at heart sticks her hand in her bag once more to grab one more item.

"About how I tell you I love you, and you say it back."

"About how one day I would dare you to kiss me and you did…"

Grabbing the fourth item out of her bag, she slowly slides off the couch on to one knee holding a small box in her hand.

"You've always had an answer for me no matter the situation, you have been my beacon of hope for as long as I can remember. So Maxine Caulfield…"

"Will you marry me?"


A/N So this is my first story like so many here! I'm super excited to share it with all of you, I really hope you all enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it. I already have the next few chapters Under way so once a week looks to be manageable for now. A few things to note the Opening line of this chapter is a Lyric from the Music duo named BOY and that specific lyric inspired the thought and title for this first chapter! And I'd like to thanks Lyta Halifax for the warm welcome and giving me the slight push I needed to decide to write my own!