The alarm clock on the bedside table hummed to life with a monotonous buzz. It was met swiftly with a smack from a blue-nailed hand, silencing it once again. "Ugh," the hand's owner sighed. Max roused slowly, the alarm and subsequent jolt dragging her back to wakefulness. Her mind filled slowly with thoughts, one-by-one, each of them about last night. The night which had ended but a few hours earlier. The most wonderful night of her life. Max felt like an entirely new person. She wasn't sure before, during or even after when she woke, how she was going to feel. How she'd react to what they'd done. She thought of the old Max who would be desperately trying to rewind right now, or facing a tempest of doubts and misgivings at the very least. She smiled at the image, though she was already smiling anyway. Her hand traced a lazy circle around the older girl's stomach.

Chloe hated the sound of the alarm clock. She hated the sound of any alarm clock. Breaking the tranquillity of sleep so abruptly, usually a harbinger of responsibility. It didn't help that so often in her troubled past she'd been trying to sleep off a night of heavy drinking. This morning was very different to the ones before. Nothing could dampen her soaring spirits on this morning. She thought about Max, acting so bold and seductive last night. So out of character for the girl who was normally so shy. Which Max would she find when they woke up, she wondered. As her friend's delicate hand touched her stomach she felt a pulse of energy. She had her answer.

Chloe turned onto her side, pulling the younger girl close and kissing her deeply. She felt Max's hand on her back, holding her tight. Her friend's slender leg was wrapped around her own, her kiss passionate and unabated. Their perfect moment was broken as the alarm buzzed again, met this time with an even more forceful thump. "Dammit!" Chloe said in frustration, her tone immediately changing when she spoke to her young partner. "Morning, sunshine," she smiled warmly.

"Morning...lover," Max grinned.

Chloe was still trying to come to terms with this new girl in her bed. "What the fuck's got into you? Not that I'm complaining, at all!" Chloe smiled, "But...Max...why?"

"Let's just say it was something that was way overdue. And, I'm sorry...sorry I kept you waiting for so long," the younger said sincerely.

"Um...thanks," Chloe smiled as her mind continued to try and understand, "But it still doesn't answer my question. Who are you? And what have you done with my girlfriend?"

"There is no Dana, only Zuul," Max grinned and kissed her partner before answering the older girl's question honestly. "Seriously. I've always known it...you... were all that I ever wanted. It was only my stupid awkwardness that kept holding me back and...well, I'm sick of doing it to you. To us. I'm more comfortable and happy around you than anybody in the world. More comfortable with you than in my own skin. I wanted to have all of you and I wanted you to have all of me. Finally."

"Well shit, Max. That was an answer alright," Chloe smiled warmly, almost tearfully. "Beats the hell out of 'I was going to make you pancakes, but we ran out of time' which is about all I've got," she laughed and went on, "Max. I was going to wait my whole life for you when you went away. I would have waited for last night too, for as long as you wanted. I knew it'd be something special whenever it happened, and it was. Well, for me at least. You?" Max could do nothing but laugh at the question. Laugh and then grab her friend and kiss her ardently. "BUZZ" came the infernal noise and constant intrusion. It was Max this time who dragged her body across her friend's slender frame before ungracefully slamming the top of the poor, battered clock. "We could beat the shit out of that thing all day, but I think we're going to have to get up, babe," the older girl said ruefully. "Kind of regretting the fact that it wasn't another one of our Friday night specials."

"Sorry, hun. You're a business owner now, we totally had to celebrate. Plus...I just couldn't wait any more," the younger girl said playfully, laying on top of her friend and kissing her. She reached over and once again grabbed her camera for a selfie. The two girls smiled, their bare shoulders framed in the bottom of the photo. "This one's gonna be called 'Afterglow', I think," Max said with a laugh.

~oOo~

When they got up, Chloe was the first to head to the bathroom. Max, still completely naked, followed shortly after. "Wonders never cease," the older girl teased, still amazed at her friend's transformation.

"Come on, hurry up and get in. We're gonna be late for work," her young friend grinned, brimming with over-confidence and hurrying the blue-haired girl into the shower. Max was having so much fun with her cool, calm persona. It wasn't really her at all. Inside she felt a cascade of emotions. Wonder. bliss, shock. She felt like she was stumbling around on two trembling and uncertain legs, barely able to co-ordinate her own body. But she figured that what had happened, happened...and wonderfully so. How she chose to react now was up to her. And she loved the disbelief in her lover's beautiful features. It was too much fun to pass up. They dried themselves off and Chloe ran to the bedroom. She immediately went to Max's side of the wardrobe, flicking through each item until she found what she was looking for. Max followed her friend into the room, greeted with a bunched T-shirt to the face. "Shit!" she yelped in surprise. The younger girl bent down picked up her old purple shirt off the floor.

"Now you can officially retire that bad boy," Chloe grinned. "I had grand plans of tearing it off you, but oh well..." she added with a wink. 'No Fucks Given' indeed. Max burst out laughing.

~oOo~

The two girls spent the morning distracted at their respective jobs. Both acutely aware of the distance between them. Distance which they felt shouldn't exist, at least not today. Max struggled to make a coherent conversation with Walter, the older man's wandering mind not at all helped by her own. Chloe was happy that the large shoulder tattoo she'd be doing was booked for later in the day. She feared she'd probably just draw a picture of Max on the poor man's back. They had agreed, almost out of necessity, to have lunch together. Neither wanted to spend too long apart from the other.

Chloe's truck pulled up outside the camera store and Max bounded out of the door just a moment later. "Waiting for me, huh Max?" the older girl asked as her friend got in.

"All morning," the younger girl grinned, leaning over and kissing Chloe passionately, one hand behind the taller girl's head, the other squeezing her thigh. Chloe returned her friend's fervent kiss with her own. Minutes passed and the girls hadn't broken their embrace. Chloe finally moved away, reluctantly.

"We should at least...like...drive around the block, or something..." she grinned at her young, uninhibited partner.

"It's all just wasted time," Max grinned cheekily. Chloe started the truck's engine and drove the short distance to the nearby park.

Neither girl had any lunch on their lunch break, only craving the time together. It was a cool day and they held each other close as they walked. They went to Chloe's regular perch and sat down, both barely able to keep themselves to themselves. "I like to come here and draw," the older girl said, smiling at the tree-painted backdrop. Her notebook was nowhere to be seen today though. Even if she'd wanted to bring it, the notebook and everything else aside from Max, were a distant afterthought. Too far away to bother trying to grasp.

"It's really nice here," Max answered absently. Pictures, scenes and images were far from Max's mind, unless they included her blue-haired lover. The younger girl looked across the bench at her partner. The girl who dominated the scenery and surroundings. Max was unable to maintain her composure much beyond that initial vision. She grabbed her friend again, kissing her, feeling unrestrained and uninhibited.

The girls spent most of their lunch break locked in each other's arms. They tried to feign a civilised conversation when they noticed people walking by. For the most part however, they were in their own little world. A world built out of incredible circumstances and enormous emotional upheaval. A world which they had fought against the Fates themselves to create. They wove a magical tapestry of their very own now. It was beautiful and it was totally unique.