A/N: Today's song is The Violet Hour by Sea Wolf. Enjoy, it's one of my fav songs.

"Um- I guess I'll see you tomorrow?" Max asked, unbuckling her seatbelt. Chloe nodded.
"Sure. I'll pick you up at ten for breakfast?"
"Yeah." Max exited the car, blushing as she slammed the door. She watched Chloe drive away, waving until she was out of sight, and then turned her back to the road. Holy shit. She began to walk, her feet thudding against the pavement as she hurried back to her dorm, to be entirely alone before she had a meltdown. It had been one hell of a day, going right from what if Chloe hates me? right to what if Chloe loves me? They each had their own set of problems, but generally Max preferred the latter. She walked to her dorm in silence as she considered the pros and cons of her current situation, listening only to the crunching of leaves underfoot. With Samuel the caretaker preoccupied with clearing up after yet another vortex club party, there was nobody around to rake the leaves. Max was okay with it though. She liked the sound, and would deliberately go out of her way to find the crispiest looking leaves and step on them.

When Max reached her dorm room, she closed the door behind her and flopped onto her bed, pressing her face into the sheets in an attempt to block out the world. She let the events of the day play in her head, focusing on the good parts especially. She found herself missing Chloe more than she had been this morning, and was about to drop her a quick text when she heard a knock at her door. Max jumped up optimistically, hoping that it would be Chloe on the other side. Her face fell slightly she she opened the door to reveal Victoria Chase, standing with her hands on her hips, giving Max the same glare that soccer moms gave to pushy charity people. Max sighed.
"Victoria." She said, glaring up at Victoria from below. It was hard to be intimidating, as short as she was.
"Max. Tweedle dum and Tweedle dee over there fucked up the biology notes, and I need yours." She said, not a hint of politeness in her voice. Perhaps 'asked was the wrong word. More like demanded.
"And what makes you think I'd give them to you?" Max glared, remembering Victoria's relentless teasing in class that morning. She wasn't going to let Victoria bring her down again. Victoria sighed and rolled her eyes.
"Because if you don't, I'll tell everyone I heard you fucking your blue-haired mongrel of a girlfriend last night." She smirked devilishly. Her words did little to frighten Max, though. They had the opposite effect.
"Whatever, Victoria." She said calmly, closing the door in her face. She heard a muffled shout from the other side.
"Keep your bitch on a leash!"

Max groaned, tipping her head back against the door and letting it rest there. She closed her eyes and imagined the consequences, blushing furiously. What's Kate going to think? but she quickly pushed these thoughts away. Her friends would know that it was a lie, and even if they believed it, they wouldn't care. Max wasn't really the type to surround herself with homophobic assholes, and it as something she prided herself upon. She was pulled out of her reverie by another knock on the door, and he braced herself for the return of Victoria as she opened the door apprehensively.
"Look, Victoria I'm not giving you the damn-"
"Whoa there Max." She heard a familiar voice, and she registered that it wasn't in fact Victoria she was seeing, but Chloe Price herself. Max pulled her into her room before anybody saw, and slammed the door behind her. Chloe was smiling, but a little confused. "What's going on?" Max just shook her head and sat on her bed, patting the space beside her in an invitation. Chloe sat willingly.
"What brings you to my domain?" She asked, shuffling backwards to lean on the wall. Chloe hid her blush with her hair, leaning down to untie her laces and simultaneously let it fall in her face.
"I just missed you. That's all." She muttered.
"Oh." Max said. This was all very new to her, and didn't really know how to respond to Chloe's sudden awkwardness around her. Chloe straightened up, giving up on untying her laces entirely and just tugging her boots off before sliding backwards and further onto the bed. She brought her knees up to her chest and rest her chin on them, looking at Max from underneath her lashes. Neither of them spoke, and they sat in comfortable silence for a few minutes. Max reached into her bag for her diary, and she began to write while Chloe sat contentedly beside her and watched her scribble. It was one of the things she loved about Chloe- she loved that they didn't have to be doing anything, they didn't even have to be talking to be enjoying themselves. There was something comforting about her presence, and Max always felt safer with Chloe around. Her anxiety just evaporated- she didn't feel like she had to hide anything, or impress her or compete for her attention. It was in this moment that Max realised she was very, very in love with Chloe Price. And it was in this moment that she realised that maybe she always had been.

"Hey." Chloe said, causing Max to look up. The sun was setting, casting an orange light over Max's room and turning everything golden. Max met Chloe's gaze, and wondered how long Chloe had been staring before she'd noticed.
"Hey." She replied, watching Chloe watching her with a lazy smile. They stared at each other for a few more seconds before Max shuffled around slightly to face Chloe. She began to draw in her diary, biting on the end of her pencil in concentration as her eyes darted from Chloe to the page and back to Chloe again. She wasn't going to lie, she wanted to draw Chloe because then she would have an excuse for her to stare without it being weird. She took her time, perfecting each line, bringing Chloe to life on the page. As for Chloe, she didn't need an excuse to stare. She would have done it anyway, simply because she could.

Max turned her journal around to show Chloe the finished product, smiling shyly from behind the cover. She used it to cover her face slightly, hiding behind the book so that she couldn't see Chloe's reaction.
"She so looks mysterious." Chloe remarked as Max turned the book back over and placed it in her lap, the drawing face up. Chloe crawled over, peeking over her shoulder to marvel at the artwork some more. "She doesn't look like me, but she does." Chloe said. She tilted her head slightly as she tried to puzzle the image out. Something was different, and she couldn't put her finger on it. This Chloe, the paper Chloe, was better than the real-life one. Yet she didn't know how.
"I don't see much difference." Max said, looking between the drawing and Chloe. "I drew you how I see you." Something clicked in Chloe's brain. Max had drawn her how Max saw her. She had drawn her more beautiful and more mysterious and more confident than she thought she was because that was what Max saw when she looked at Chloe. Maybe it was the years of self-loathing, the intrusive thoughts and the crushing depression and the ever-present fear of abandonment, but it had been a while since Chloe had seen herself as she truly was. She was always looking at herself in the mirror, and the image would come back distorted, highlighting all of her flaws both internally and externally. Max didn't know it, but she had changed something in Chloe that day. Chloe had almost forgotten how it felt to be loved- not only by others, but by herself.

A/N: Sorry for the late update again but things should pick back up as soon as school chills the fuck out with the workload. I'm trying to keep these as frequent as possible. It doesn't help that I can only really write well at night and stepdad is adamant about turning off the wifi at like 11pm. I'm so sorry that this is not every-other-daily if that makes sense. (bi-daily? Is that a thing bc I'm making it a thing) But I can promise that there will be at least one update per week. Usually on the weekend because I actually have time to write then. ALSO sorry for typos but I can't be arsed with this chapter anymore I already lost 1000+ words of it this week which is why it's shorter and GAH this has been a struggle
Until next time ;)
-Vulpixels