A/N: A birthday gift for my gay nerd friend Gabby. Also because we love Alt!Victoria and Alt!Max way too much.
This is going off the assumption that Alt!Max - Maxine - is very different from the Max we know. While reading it, its probably better to keep that in mind.
Maxine Caulfield is definitely not in love with Victoria Chase.
No, not at all. All Victoria is to her is a good friend, especially in the sense that she helps Maxine assimilate into Blackwell in less than a week flat. That helps, especially when they're in a such a rich environment, in a school where your work has to mean something alongside your social status.
( Daniel is a great artist, but with the frequency he's shoved into lockers, Maxine doubts that he gets very good exposure. Meanwhile, people like Taylor have enough connections to generate enough interest to get people to really look at her art. Maxine feels bad about this, but there comes a time when she realizes what she really has to do to further her career. )
They met briefly in Seattle, once. Or maybe Maxine is imagining the amount of times she'd walked into the mall with her friends and seen the most gorgeous, intimidating girl demanding the attention of everyone in proximity.
Victoria isn't so intimidating when she softens up to you, she discovers relatively quickly. Victoria is more eager to please than Maxine would expect, once she sees the potential in her.
Maxine befriends her one day, after her photographs catch Victoria's attention and she sweeps by her desk in Jefferson's class. Victoria takes her photo in between her fingers without asking, and Maxine is up in an instant, brows furrowed and tongue sharp.
The shock on Victoria's face at her outburst is a look that Maxine thinks about whenever she's down - it's absolutely amazing, to have watched those icy sapphire eyes widen, red lips parted slightly. Victoria had huffed and turned on her heel, walking away pointedly.
She comes back later, practically threatening the shorter girl into coming to a Vortex Club Party with her. This is something she doesn't relent on, even when Maxine rolls her eyes at her. All she does is corner her against her locker, speaking icily. "I'd better see you there."
( Later, Maxine learns that threatening is Victoria's special brand of begging. It wanes away eventually, slips into Victoria casually texting her multiple times to make plans. Maxine enjoyed it while it lasted. )
At the Vortex Party, things quickly spiral into a mess of things. She discovers that Hayden always overdoes it, to the point where he either blacks out or has to have one of the others on the football team carry him to his room. Dana and Taylor prefer to dance instead of get shitfaced, Nathan is surprisingly more loose than you'd expect, though she thinks that's more the alcohol - and pills she sees between his fingers - than the atmosphere. Logan flirts with anything that has tits and moves, Courtney tries too hard to not to stick by Victoria's side the whole time by standing near the drinks.
Victoria is very, very attractive.
If you succeed in a Vortex Club party and someone likes you, you're in, Victoria mentions to her while she's drinking from a red party cup. Maxine does a good job at focusing on her face instead of the way her lips move for a bit, and just nods and sips at her cup. "You don't look like such a fuck up, though your clothes could use some work. Who the fuck dressed you, Max? Your photos have style, you don't."
Max smiles, the edges of her eyes crinkling. "Maxine, never Max. Maybe you can help me?"
It fucking works.
Now, she thinks she might have Victoria eating out of the palm of her hand, instead. She's in with the Vortex Club, with a lot of pushing from Victoria, and a bit from Nathan. No one can argue with the King and Queen of Blackwell, and certainly not when they invite Max out even more often than they invite them. Not that anyone tries to argue, except for Courtney.
( Maxine guesses she's jealous. She catches the sour looks she throws at her during smoke sessions. )
One day, they're smoking alone, at Victoria's request. This is a complete mistake, possibly, because whatever they're smoking is the most potent shit she thinks Victoria's bought from Nathan. The joint is already dying out by the time Maxine asks, head hazy, Victoria's arm pressed against her's.
There's clearly something wrong, because Victoria won't keep her gaze. She keeps looking out the window, or at the photo collection the brunette has set up in her dim room.
"What are we smoking?" Max questions, tongue thick in her mouth, and Victoria looks at her. Though everything is slow, she swears the blonde stares at her lips, and then at her eyes.
"Like hell if I know. Nathan said it's that good shit though." Victoria says, and Max laughs at the words, watching Victoria flush the softest pink. It's either that, or a trick of the lights. She wants to bet on the former reason, however, so she does.
"This could be totally laced, and we wouldn't know."
"Wh... Do you not trust me, Maxine?" Victoria frowns, looking almost offended, almost hurt. It's such a funny experience to see her reduce Victoria to that in less than a second. It feels so good to knock down the intimidating front Victoria puts up.
It's so good that Maxine leans forward and presses her lips against Victoria's, slipping her hand behind Victoria's neck. She hears Victoria's breath hitch, feels the warmth of her breath dance uneasily against her lips. When Victoria's lips don't move against her's, she presses more insistently, twisting her fingers into the blonde hairs on the nape of her neck.
As expected, that works. Victoria whimpers against her mouth and kisses back feverishly, brings her hands up to Maxine's hair and grabs fistfuls in her hands. Maxine finds herself straddling Victoria's lap, laughing warmly against her lips and pressing them against Victoria's again. It's a mash of teeth and tongue, and Victoria moans into her mouth every time Maxine bites at her lip and runs her tongue along it soothingly.
That night is the first time they make out, under the influence of marijuana and the stupid hipster glow of her string lights. Despite Victoria's lukewarm threats, Maxine leaves a few marks against her shoulders that stay hidden the next day underneath her cashmere sweater.
Things change after that, only slightly. Victoria texts her more often, whether it's due to concern or boredom. They go out more often, just the two of them. Sometimes it's Two Whales, sometimes Victoria will drive them somewhere cool just out of Arcadia Bay. Maxine's favorite place is the hipster dive just outside the town, a small cafe where they hold weekly poetry slams.
Maxine's favorite place is also in her room, on top of Victoria.
And then, things get weird, for a while.
Whenever Maxine dreams, she sees things she swears she's never seen before - a girl with blue hair, guns, an incoming train. She dreams about Victoria's cashmere sweater splattered in white paint, dreams about snide remarks from Victoria's mouth that have certainly never been thrown at her. Nathan's fingers against her neck, his breath hot as he sneers in her face, a look she's never seen on him before. Posters of that one missing girl whom she's never met before. That one geeky kid - Warren, she thinks - grinning at her with a black eye worn like a badge.
She always wakes up in a cold sweat, memories fading out quickly, and Victoria is the first one she wakes up with a phone call. She never has to explain to Victoria, when the girl comes running in, in some stupid anime shirt and short black shorts.
All she has to do is kiss her and pull her into bed. Victoria tries to ask what's wrong, but truly, Maxine never knows what to say. What could she say that doesn't sound like some idiotic ramble?
'That I'm going crazy, maybe. That I'm seeing crap I've never seen before.' Maxine thinks bitterly as her lips latch onto Victoria's neck, and manicured fingers tug at her shirt.
It sounds crazy, and she knows it will to Victoria, too. So she keeps their mouths busy instead.
A few times, she wakes up with warm crimson dripping down her nose, staining her pillow sheet. These are the worst, these are the times where Maxine thinks her heart will burst out of her chest. Her brain thrums with pain worse than usual, pulsating, and she can't do much but shoot off a text to Victoria and curl up.
The first time, Victoria freaks out. "What the hell did you do?! What happened? Maxine?"
"I don't know, I just- I just woke up like this." Maxine snaps back with a grimace, and Victoria sucks in a few breaths to cool herself down, and forms that familiar expression she knows well. She sucks up her own concern - it's still so clear to Maxine in the glimmer in her eyes - and first cleans up Maxine's nose with a wet rag, instructing her to keep her head down. Pinches the bridge of her nose, keeps one hand firm on her back to straighten her out.
Every time after that, Victoria comes in without much question, never later than a minute after Maxine has texted her. She forms a routine; she stops the bleeding, wraps a sweaty Maxine up in her blankets, and changes the pillow sheets.
And then she comes to bed and wraps her arms around her, yanking her in close. Sometimes, through the agonizing blare of her headache, she thinks Victoria presses kisses against the back of her skull.
But she never questions.
Maxine Caulfield isn't in love with Victoria Chase, but she definitely thinks she could be.