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Explosive Decompression

altunderscore

6


The door to her room clicked shut behind her; the firm knock of heavy oak on the metal of the doorframe doing quite a bit more to wake her up than the quick cup of coffee in Kate's room had. There was a sort of finality to the sound that had been absent from the air of the other girl's room. Kate's room could only ever be Kate's Room- there was just a level of comfort that existed there that was absent from everywhere else on Blackwell's campus.

Well, Kate's room and under the sinks in the bathroom, as absurd as that last one was.

-And Chloe's bedroom-

Yes, Intrusive Voice. Chloe's room felt good too. Now fuck off.

Being alone in her own room again set her the slightest bit on-edge, but that wasn't entirely a bad thing.

Max balled up her oversized teeshirt, lined up her hamper from across the room, and shot.

Swish

She grinned.

Life was about the little things sometimes.

Little things, like texting first for once.

Bad habits and all.

Max's thumb idly swept over her screen without paying too much attention to the movement as she stepped over to Lisa, trying to remember whether or not she'd watered her the day before. She brushed the hand that wasn't busy bringing up the newest name in her contacts list over Lisa's soil gingerly, nodding to herself when she saw that no dirt had stuck to her skin.

Not too dry. Perfect.

Sufficiently sure that her dear child would survive another day, Max finally felt comfortable enough to stop stalling and text Victoria-

Max: Is Taylor still alive or am I helping you move some trash bags today

Hey thanks, Intrusive Voice

Was it actually toxic if you were mostly just bullying yourself into being productive?

Max pondered that for a moment before writing it off as a question for Kate the next time they hung out. She'd probably know.

Max's internal monologue was stalled somewhat by her phone buzzing in her hand.

-'Tori-: What kind of amateur-hour shit is that Caulfield
-'Tori-: We do the whitecollar blackmail thing around here. Way less messy.

That actually made sense. Victoria didn't seem the murder-y type, honestly. 'Mean Girls'-brand blackmail and social extortion were definitely more her speed. Max was halfway through a text explaining her thoughts on the matter while she got her own shower stuff together when another message shook her phone.

-'Tori-: We'll talk about contingencies for Sweet T going rogue after you decide where you're taking me for lunch

That was actually a great question. There were basically two places in Arcadia Bay to eat that weren't the "hella jank" McDonald's just off the highway. They'd both eaten Fugly Bob's yesterday, and Max wasn't really ready to talk to Joyce yet, no matter how well-aligned her visit with Kate had left her feeling.

There wasn't a kitchen on campus outside of the Home Ec. room, and Max was leery about commandeering Kate's hot-plate as an improvised stovetop for an even more improvised lunch for two.

She stood from her nest on the couch and looked out the window -no Warren staring into her room from behind that corner this morning, thank Dog- as inspiration struck from somewhere towards the sunstreaked, misty horizon.

She had hardly finished typing before the overwhelming urge to erase everything came over and nope Max just send the damn text-

Max: How does Portland sound?

There. That wasn't so hard.

And now we wait.

She didn't have to wait long.

-'Tori-: Portland? You sure you can make it an hour and a half alone in a car with me without going for my throat?

Max's tongue clicked against the roof of her mouth in mild frustration.

This girl..

Max: If we can't do a short car ride then I don't know how we could expect anything more than

Max: wait that was innuendo wasn't it

Victoria's reply came entirely too quickly for Max's taste.

-'Tori-: Innuendo? Moi? I'm sure I have no idea what you mean, Maxine.

They were going to have to have a discussion about Victoria abusing her unfair morning-person advantage in the future.

-'Tori-: Absolutely baseless attacks on my character aside, Portland sounds fine to me. Have you been before?

Not since before she left Arcadia to move to Seattle, and even then it had been years, so she told Victoria as much.

Max: I think I was 8 or so. Mom and Dad took me and Chloe to the Zoo. It was uh..

Chloe had tried to convince her to help steal a parrot. They allegedly needed it for 'Pirate Things'. Mom didn't understand, so they snuck a rubber snake into her purse on the car ride home.

That was a good day, minus all the screaming.

Max: It was kind of a total scene if I'm being honest. I'll tell you about it on the way up?

Talking about things was good, right?

-'Tori-: It's a date. Meet me in the parking lot at 11:00-ish and we'll figure the rest out in the car

That was a little more than three hours from now. Max looked at her shower-bag tipped over on her bed, then out through the window and over the trees and towards the orange smear of sun that hadn't yet completely risen out of the early mist blanketing the bay.

She glanced back down at her bed -this time towards her very soft pillows- and weighed her options.

Shower, or nap?

The eternal struggle.

Her phone buzzed twice back-to-back and then chimed shortly afterward. The buzzes were texts.

The chime meant an image file.

Ominous

'No, Max, you're being dramatic,' she rationalized. 'It's too early in the morning for this to be anything but totally innocent.'

Swallowing her sudden hesitation, she unlocked her phone again with a nervous flick of her thumb.

-'Tori-: Fair warning, Sweet T said she'll kill you if you can't learn to keep your hands to yourself

-'Tori-: How's it look btw?

Enclosed was a shot that was so high-resolution that Max had to watch her phone grind to a halt trying to load it all.

Even the camera on Victoria's phone was better than anything Max had used before.

When it had finally downloaded completely, Max's phone took the liberty of diving into the image headfirst of its own volition. Most of the screen was immediately taken up by a streak of pink that was slightly glossy under the shot's lighting. Utterly disoriented, Max tapped her screen to zoom out and-

.. Wowzers..

It was a high-angled shot starting just a bit above the point of Victoria's nose. A strawberry flush spread from her cheeks down into the dark bind of her sports bra, interrupted only by the half pant/half smirk of the blonde's parted lips and the slightly faded bruise that ringed the refined span of her neck.

The hand that wasn't busy holding her phone was bunched in the towel she had tossed over one shoulder. Victoria must have had to lean backwards slightly to get the best lighting because a slight sheen of sweat glittered across a stretch of skin towards the dip of her navel.

A particularly adventurous little bead had even been caught mid-slide over the subtle groove of a lower abdominal down towards the waistband of the blonde girl's leggings and-

Max closed her phone with a sharp huff as her hopes of a nap at any time in the near future were dashed in the span of a few hurried heartbeats.

Ironically enough, any attempt at a (cold) shower would now just bring her closer to her current problem.

Her Netflix subscription had run out two days ago, and she'd spent most of last night playing guitar with Kate and her fingertips were still sore.

-You could always take some pictures, Max-

Max froze. A chill rocked through her, sweeping like a frost from the nape of her neck over the ridge of her spine and down the skinny length of her arms to discharge into the air from the raw tips of her fingers.

She consciously reigned in her breathing as she thought to the black-wrapped bundle lying not-so-forgotten in the corner, buried under boxes of old clothes and hidden from sight.

She remembered the click of a shutter.

The whine of the flash grated in her ears like a wire rasp.

She flinched as something seemed to move in her periphery-

but didn't look

-towards the polaroids hanging on her wall.

The floor was trying to drop out from underneath her again, so she turned her stagger into something a bit more measured and less of an ungainly reel as she caught herself on her couch.

Max preemptively brought a hand up to her nose and stifled a flinch as she noticed which hand it was. Her eyes slid closed as the fingertips of her left hand grazed the space between her nose and lips.

No blood.

No pressure behind her eyes.

No ants underneath the nails of her right hand and no electric prickle through the fine hairs of her arm.

Nothing here except a regular fucking panic attack.

In the time it had taken her mind to get a grasp of what was happening to her, Max's body had been left on autopilot. The fingers that were moments ago busy stemming a bleed that wasn't there had in the meantime furrowed over her mouth and clamped down, vicelike.

-You know what they say about idle hands, Max-

Had her overhead lights always been so bright?

There was a sudden sting in her neck-

-Her hand, it was her hand that was stinging-

-and copper on her tongue, from where she had pulled the skin of her palm into her mouth and bitten down.

Her eyes were squeezed shut, the lids crushed together hard enough that little bright shapes squirmed in the corners of her not-vision, but anything was better than either of the alternatives.

Her ears searched out and found something to focus on: the box-fan in her window, audible over the stuttered scrape of her breath through her clenched fingers.

You're in your room, Max. The fan means you're in your room.

Max's jaw loosened only enough to pull a different stretch of skin over her raw lips and into the bone-white crush of her teeth.

I f you open your eyes, you'll see the same whitish ceiling you always have. There's nothing in here to be afraid of.

Bullshit.

Max threw herself onto her side, jerking as the motion jarred her hand from her mouth and another rusty stain streaked her teeth. The residual light that had been making its way through her clenched eyelids guttered out as she buried her face in the crease of the couch where seat met backrest and pressed desperately into the dark gap she found there.

Dark was good. It meant she didn't have to try so hard to keep her eyes closed.

She burrowed in deeper, her pained noises getting lost somewhere in the black of the crevice she loosed them into and the cotton of the throw-blanket that her wriggling had knocked loose from above her and down over her head.

Cotton, and something -no, somethings- that felt like silk and smelled like lavender and faint sweat as they brushed over her cheek to pool in the space between her lips and the faux-leather of the couch cushions.

Torn strips of a nightgown..

The ones Victoria had insisted she take while she left to look for real bandages.

People said scent was the closest sense to memory, and as Max pulled in another breath and felt the steady and calm phantom-beat of a heart on her lips, she was inclined to believe them.

Her exhale was ragged and metallic, but mostly controlled. That was good.

She took another deep breath just to be safe anyway.

Okay, this is doable.

Max rolled onto her back, only flinching slightly at the bright light prickling through her eyelids as she rose to her feet and opened her eyes.

Her room was as she had left it. The figures on her wall of polaroids were all as still in their frames as they should be and weren't whispering at her.

No pressure.

No itch.

Probably as good as this was going to get, honestly.

Max turned to face the boxes in the corner and bit the proverbial bullet.

She hesitated enough to wind the longest strip of silk around the small tear in her palm first, though. She was taking no chances.

Three quick strides brought her to the pile of boxes and it was the work of moments to unearth the bundle buried underneath them. Max peeled away the black fabric of the dress she wore to the funeral and looked down at the innocuous camera that it had hidden.

Chloe's father's. The Joyce of this timeline had given it to her earlier in the week, a brief flash of memory from the autopilot-Max had informed her.

The lens stared back at her accusingly, but that wasn't where the terror kept coming from. That constant, pervasive unease originated from the little sheets of film inside the plastic husk.

Every single one was a possibility.

A temptation.

Max pointedly didn't think back to the mural of polaroids hanging directly above her bed.

She still didn't know if giving Chloe up was what kept her corner of the world from tearing itself apart, or if it was simply not using her powers that was stopping the storm from just coming back and picking up where it left off.

What Max did know was that if she slipped and looked too hard at any of her pictures- even from her childhood- and she heard Chloe's carefree laugh in the background, or saw a strand of strawberry-blonde hair catch in a breeze that hadn't blown in over a decade, she'd fucking snap.

The only thing keeping Max from smashing the camera against the floor was her love for William Price. Not even her fucking memories were safe anymore.

There was a knock on her door, but she ignored it. Kate was at church and Victoria hadn't had enough time to shower yet. Everyone else was secondary, except for Joyce and maybe Step-Sergeant, but they'd have called first.

Max very firmly set the polaroid camera back down on her bookshelf.

If it was blatantly tilted away from her bed and couch, well, she'd claim it was for feng shui or something.

The knocking hadn't stopped yet, either.

Whoever they are, they're determined.

Her frustrated huff as she turned towards the door became a steady exhale as she realized she was maybe being a little unnecessarily aggressive. Whoever was knocking on her door wasn't doing it to mess with her. In all likelihood it was probably just Dana or even Warren coming to check up on her.

Tearing people's heads off at the drop of a hat was Victoria's thing.

Usually.

Max unlocked her door and pulled it open. The blonde girl on the other side of the threshold was one of the last people she had expected to see, but given what had happened last night, Max really shouldn't be too surprised.

Taylor Christensen batted her eyelashes and smiled as wide as she could manage, which as it turned out, was pretty wide when she didn't have to worry about things like propriety or not being vaguely unsettling. Max had a sneaking suspicion that might actually have been Taylor's goal, but that knowledge didn't do anything to make the other girl's glass-eyed stare or toothy grin any less ominous.

Taylor bounced onto her tiptoes and rocked forward just the slightest bit into Max's personal space before she spoke.

"Hey Max," she said cheerily as she leaned in. "Got a sec to chat?"

She said it like it was a question, but was already through the door and most of the way towards Max's couch before the brunette could put an answer together.

"Sure, I guess. What's up?" Max said, feeling lame before she finished her sentence.

Taylor didn't seem to notice her cringe however. She was too busy picking up the lengths of torn silk on the ruffled seat of Max's couch.

Max flushed, slightly indignant at the other girl's unabashed nosiness. She then blanched as the irony settled in.

Is this what it feels like when I do it?

Max shook her head and moved to pull the door shut behind her. She didn't get how Dana could keep her door open all day long and not go insane. She didn't have long to think about that, however, as Taylor took the brief silence as cue enough to speak up.

"You into scrapbooking now or something, Max?" She said from somewhere off to Max's side.

Max figured the best way not to lose the psychological warfare game was to keep the blonde girl firmly out of sight so she couldn't do anything to weird her out and wait that was all kinds of stupid what was she thinking-

She quickly turned, making sure to keep a direct line on Taylor at all times.

There we go. Perfect.

Taylor, to her credit, seemed completely unaware of Max's newfound caution and instead busied herself by looping one of the long bits of fabric around the pinkie finger of her left hand. Max only realized Taylor was waiting for an answer when the leggy blonde met her eyes and quirked an eyebrow inquisitively, glancing momentarily down at the other piece of silk on the seat and over towards the small pile of loose polaroids on the table next to it.

Max had been meaning to let Kate and maybe Victoria pick out any pictures they liked from that stack before she boxed them for the near future. She hadn't meant to leave them just laying out, but then again she hadn't expected to sleep over at Kate's last night or to have a visitor this early either.

Max noticed Taylor was still waiting for an answer and mentally kicked herself.

"Not really," she shrugged, stepping closer to Taylor before she could go rummaging any deeper than she already had. "I cut my hand a few minutes ago and didn't have anything to cover it with, so I improvised."

'Not entirely a lie..' she thought to herself while making a show of flashing her palm at Taylor, letting the other girl see her crude handiwork.

Taylor pursed her lips together for a moment and then shook her head with a small laugh.

"You've been a magnet for injuries these last few days. You sure you're not cursed or something?"

Taylor was joking if the smirk on her face was any indication, but Max wasn't so sure. She let out a tired sigh in response and swept a stray lock of hair out of her eyes.

"I'm not usually this much of a mess, I swear."

That was the truth, too. Max couldn't remember the last time she'd been this, well, wrecked.

Taylor invited herself to sit down on Max's couch and immediately kicked her slippers off to lay back without messing up the cushions any more than they already were. Taylor yawned, and suddenly Max was reminded that she could have been napping right then.

Taylor bit her yawn off with a wordless grumble before looking at Max's hand again out of the corner of her eye.

"You know, I might not have anything for that cut in my room, but I know Victoria keeps a pretty good first aid kit in hers. " Taylor offered helpfully, bringing a hand up to her chin in thought.

The tip of Max's tongue flicked across a dry bit of her lower lip and she winced as she irritated one of the small tears there.

"I ah.. think I'll be okay." She said as evenly as she could manage, then continued when she saw Taylor's eyebrow rise in curiosity. It was better to head this off before the other girl could spring whatever trap she had planned.

Max cleared her throat.

"She actually gave me some stuff for my face the night before last, and I'm pretty sure she's busy right now, anyway." Max finished, her tone filled with a nonchalance she didn't actually feel. Even still, whatever calm was present in Max's mind evaporated as Taylor responded.

"She is busy right now, Max." Taylor said as she sat up and turned to face her. "That's why I'm here."

That eerie smile was back.

Max swallowed.

"It's one hell of a coincidence that you wind up with a busted lip and scratches on your face the same night Victoria turns up with some frankly wild bruises of her own, isn't it?" Taylor asked in a way that couldn't be anything but rhetorical. She arched her back briefly in a stretch and crossed her legs at the ankle before she leaned forward and continued, her expression one of faux-curiosity.

"You know how I spent last night, Max?" She asked and then paused, intentionally giving Max space to respond.

Max, for her part, folded her arms across her chest and tilted her head.

"How?" She asked, keeping her tone as even as possible. More difficult than it should have been, all things considered.

She's just worried about her friend, Max. Don't take it personally.

Taylor's fingers laced together in front of her as she perched an elbow on her bare knee.

"I spent last night doing my best to make sure Courtney Wagner didn't find out you strangled my best friend the same way I did. Do you know how much makeup it takes to hide that kind of a bruise in a way that doesn't make it even more conspicuous?"

Max opened her mouth, but apparently Taylor wasn't intent on giving her time to reply anymore.

"But then again, that wasn't the first time I've had to clean up a mess you've made, Max." Taylor stood up, but didn't approach her. Just being eye-to-eye was enough.

"Do you have any idea how bad Victoria has it for you? Or for how long? "

The blatant confusion on Max's face was the only answer Taylor needed. She scoffed and continued.

"I didn't, for the longest time, but in hindsight I don't know how I could have missed it. She's only ever treated one other person the way she's treated you, and that was years ago. Even her thing with Kate was apparently mostly about lashing out at anyone playing with her favorite toy." Taylor shook her head as though she didn't believe what she was saying.

This was all news to Max, but the blonde girl didn't seem like she was ready to stop yet so she remained quiet. Taylor in the meantime had started pacing and needed to turn on her heel to fully face Max again. The expression on her face was tense, from the stress rising in her cheeks to the quiver at the corner of her lips. When she spoke, every ounce of tension was audible in her voice.

"Can you imagine how happy I was when Victoria flopped down on my bed blushing like a schoolgirl trying to play coy about her new crush? Especially after everything that happened this week? Do you have any idea how long I've waited to have that conversation with her, after that cunt Rachel and that fucking nutcase Prescott balled her up and threw her away?"

Taylor's voice didn't break, but it bent over her words in a way made Max dizzy as they slipped like steam through her teeth.

"I was ecstatic, Max. I was over the fucking moon for her. And then I looked."

Taylor paused, and for several long moments her eyes didn't leave the floor. The only movement across her body was the slow shake of her head.

Finally she looked up, and Max had to look away. Even then, Taylor's ragged voice was enough.

"It was the same shit, Max. Victoria, once again so tied up in someone that she didn't care about the bruises or all the bullshit. Do you know how fucked it is to see your best friend smiling at you like nothing's wrong while she gushes about the girl that tore her apart?"

She did.

-Rachel was.. I loved her, Max..-

She remembered a handmade bracelet on Frank Bowers' wrist and a journal full of loveletters hidden in a vent.

She remembered a picture in Mark Jefferson's Dark Room, signed in a flowing girlish script.

And how many times did you call her, all those years you were in Seattle? At least Rachel never abandoned her, you hypocrite

Taylor was still speaking, but Max had to do something to get out of her own head or she was going to snap another tooth. She exhaled firmly and stepped forward, close enough to Taylor that she could grab the other girl carefully by the arms. Taylor paused mid-sentence at the sudden contact, so Max took that moment to speak.

"Look, Taylor, trust me when I say I know how unhealthy this could end up being. You're not the only person worried about Victoria, either. I don't know much about what's happened to her in the past, but I do know that I'll do anything I can to make sure another person I care about doesn't have to suffer for my mistakes."

If Taylor thought Max was being figurative when she said 'anything', well..

Max took a breath.

"I just- I get it when you tell me you can't stand to see your best friend put herself through the fucking wringer any more."

Max's blue eyes searched out found Taylor's, and she managed to fight down the urge to look away this time.

Deep breaths, Max

She spoke.

"That fight was the result of a lot of pressure that had been building up for a long time, Taylor. I didn't go into that bathroom the other night intending for things to go the way they did, and after everything had happened and it was just me and Victoria sitting there in the dark, it was just-"

Max brushed her hair out of her face again with a free hand and huffed out a breath.

"It's just, I don't know.. Once someone sees you at your worst, there's not much left to be ashamed of, you know?"

Taylor's lips pursed together, making her look skeptical in an almost aggressive sort of way.

Just fucking explain yourself, Max

She took a moment to collect herself before she continued speaking.

"Taylor, you know Victoria a lot better than I do." Max conceded. "You know how singleminded and stubborn she is, and you know that she doesn't always have to focus that on tearing people down."

Max saw something flicker behind Taylor's eyes, so she kept going.

"Victoria could have put a video of me crying my eyes out on Facebook or ran away or even just called the cops after what happened. Most people would have, really. Instead, she sat with me and talked me through it until she knew that I was okay. I figured if I was comfortable enough to ugly-cry into her nightgown on a nasty bathroom floor, I was comfortable enough to tell her she's kinda cute when she's using her evil powers for good, is all."

Max took a deep breath, completely winded, as her head turned to hide some of her flushed expression from view.

In the meantime, the mysterious flicker in the blonde girl's eyes had blossomed into a full blown flash-

Oh god, she knew that face

"So that's when you kissed her?" Taylor said slyly as she abruptly stepped close, firmly into Max's guard in a way that made the brunette slide backwards on reflex. Unfortunately for Max, her bed had left her very little room to maneuver and she was forced to choose between leaning back over it like a weirdo, or just sitting down like a normal human being.

The choice was harder than it should have been, all things considered.

The springs of Max's mattress groaned underneath her as she dropped down with a muffled -whump- but that just left a smug blonde staring down at her for the third time in as many days and damn was that getting old.

Initiative, Max. What would Chloe do?

Max met Taylor's eyes head-on.

"If you don't want me kissing your best friend, then maybe don't have such a hot best friend?"

In an instant, Taylor went from confident and borderline predatory to absolutely gobsmacked.

Max had to keep talking before what she was saying caught up to her. It was the only way.

"All I'm saying is that it's really easy to see what Victoria has going for her when she's not in the process of verbally gutting you is all."

There we go. A bit less blunt, but still sincere.

She still hadn't directly answered Taylor's question, though. That wouldn't do at all.

She blushed, but kept speaking nonetheless.

"So yeah, that's when I kissed her." She swallowed, pausing for a moment to run her tongue across suddenly dry lips. Saying it out loud felt strange, but good. She felt the corner of her mouth twitch upward just the slightest bit as she remembered exactly what came after their first brief kiss.

"It wasn't super aggressive or romantic or anything like that. Just a kind-of awkward 'thank you', really." She said, letting her voice drop from its former nervous timbre down into a more level and almost disappointed murmur. Max allowed her eyes to once more fall down towards her lap and her shoulders folded inward a bit as she spoke again, carefully not giving Taylor enough time to interject.

"I actually almost lost it again when she pulled away as fast as she did, to be honest." She confessed somberly. The heavy, frustrated groan she heard from somewhere above her and the awkward shuffle of Taylor's feet against the carpet was all the indication Max needed that the other girl wasn't completely against her on this one.

It was fortunate that Max's fringe was long enough to hide her face from the blonde standing above her.

"Mhmm.." Max mumbled in agreement with Taylor's awkward shuffle. "I thought I was going to die."

Max huffed, milking the strange stretch of silence as well as she could. Max could tell by the incessant restless shift of Taylor's weight from foot to foot that the girl was uncomfortable and unsure of what exactly to do with herself.

She smirked and looked up.

"And then she kissed me back. A real bodice-ripper, too. Didn't know she had it in her to be honest." Max said, savoring every flicker of emotion across Taylor's shocked face.

She stood up, brushing past the blonde girl on her way.

"After that she dragged me by the hand back here to my room, threw me onto my bed right -there-, and then we had an adult discussion about our relationship at her very firm request."

Taylor turned to face her. Max smiled.

"It was magical."

There was a silent but tense beat as the last ten or so seconds played and replayed inside Taylor's head. When she spoke, her tone was flat to an almost confrontational extent.

"Bullshit, Max." Taylor said, bringing her hand up to her face in frustrated disbelief as the brunette laughed again.

"Only a little." Max joked as she reached for her phone to check the time. A few minutes after 9:30. Plenty.

She cleared her throat and met Taylor's eyes briefly.

"We really did talk about everything that happened. Long story short, we agreed to keep things tactically unofficial at least until we stopped looking like mascots for a domestic violence awareness campaign."

Max noticed Taylor's mildly scandalized expression and quickly amended her statement- "Her words, not mine."

Technically they'd had that conversation the morning afterwards, but that wasn't the point at all.

Max swallowed.

"Anyway, we're going to Portland for lunch around 11 today and with any luck between now and then we'll figure out our dynamic or something." She shrugged.

Taylor's head tilted to the side.

"Portland?" She asked. Her curiosity must have overridden her disbelief at some point because the words had barely left her mouth before she was asking another question. "She wanted your first date to be in Portland?"

"My idea, actually. She seemed keen, though." Max said, some of her earlier trepidation returning to her voice as she spoke.

Maybe it had been too soon-

"I like it." Taylor said, nodding her head decisively.

Max's reply was as eloquent as it was profound.

"Huh?"

Taylor's eyebrows puzzled together gently in response.

"No, really. I like it." She said. "It's far enough away to get both of you out of your comfort zones while still being close enough not to be a total disaster if things don't go well."

She seemed to think she'd misspoken, if the hurried waving of her hands in front of her face or the quick flash of embarrassment across her expression were any indication.

"Not that I think things won't go well." She amended swiftly. "I was mostly poking you earlier about Victoria to make sure you understood what all this could look like from an outside point of view; I really think you two are cute together for what it's worth."

Taylor cut off her short tirade with a sharp intake of breath. When she exhaled, she was much more collected.

"Anyway, do you know where you're taking her?" She asked with a leading tone to her voice that Max picked up on immediately. The brunette shook her head slightly.

"I haven't been since I was really little. You have any suggestions?" She said as she smoothed out a spot on her bed to sit down on, then gestured for Taylor to sit down too. The energetic blonde complied immediately, dropping onto the foot of the bed with a bounce, and turned to face Max before replying.

"You've got a few choices, but there are two really good ones." She said, her excitement visible in her eyes. "There's an Italian place in downtown that she really likes, but it's a bit upscale for a first date; the type of place you kinda have to dress up for, y'know?"

Max nodded.

"The other one's a smaller Japanese place about a block from the waterfront, but Victoria's a huge sushi snob so unless you wanna be called some sort of weeaboo slur, I'd advise sticking to nigiri or sashimi and avoiding rolls and spicy-mayo altogether."

Max nodded again, trying very hard to look like she understood more than half of what Taylor had said that time.

She wasn't as smooth as she thought she was, apparently, because Taylor shook her head and brushed a stray lock of hair behind and ear idly with a lightly exasperated huff.

"They've got other stuff too if you're not really a fish person, but I'd still recommend asking her to pick out something for you to try if you haven't had authentic sushi before."

Taylor nodded to herself before her eyes widened suddenly.

"Oh yeah! Mochi ice-cream is amazing and don't leave without getting some. Dress-code is less formal than the Italian place, but still wear something cute because I wanna have something to tease Victoria about when you two get back."

Get ice-cream and be cute. She could handle that.

Taylor's arms climbed above her head and she screwed her eyes shut tightly as she stretched, a quiet groan escaping her as she did so. When she was finished she looked in Max's direction again with a knowing expression on her face.

"Now, speaking of Victoria, I have to go do her makeup so nobody calls the police or something while you're off making a scene wherever the two of you decide to go." She said as she stood, visibly fighting down the urge to stretch again.

Max understood exactly how she felt.

Taylor faced her again momentarily before walking towards the door.

"While we're talking about makeup, the marks on your cheek shouldn't be too hard to cover up evenly if you're careful, and your lips could pass as just being chapped with some effort. If you need some help, just send me a text a few minutes before you meet up with Victoria and I'll come see what I can do, 'kay?" Taylor said, and despite her best efforts, Max couldn't find a shred of deceit in the blonde girl's tone.

"Sure thing." Max said, letting a genuine smile sneak across her face momentarily. "Thanks, Taylor."

Taylor smiled back.

"No sweat, Max." She said as she opened the door. On her way out, she turned and faced her again, still smiling.

"Just remember, if you hurt Victoria again, I'll kill you."

The last thing Max saw before the door clicked shut behind her was the glint of morning sunlight off of Taylor's teeth.

She shivered and flopped backwards onto her bed, taking comfort in the soft mound of blankets she steadily burrowed into.

Note to self: 'Tori is only the third scariest blonde at Blackwell.

That probably shouldn't be making her feel less nervous about their date, but it really was, and Max wasn't going to be looking gift horses in the mouth any time soon. From every indication Max had seen, Victoria was a big softie on the inside, as long as you got through the prickly outside first. Like a cactus or a kiwi or something.

A sloppy smile found its way onto her face against her will as she thought about how Victoria would feel if she knew the current fantasy she was starring in inside Max's head involved a tree full of grumpy blonde coconuts.

She could actually hear them bitching at her, complaining that she had the audacity to wash up on her beach, then complaining when when she went to leave, and then getting sappy and aggressively embarrassed when Max told her she was the prettiest bunch of coconuts on the whole island.

Max's yawn made her just aware enough to reach over and turn on her alarm. A nap was feeling like the best move after all, especially if she was able to chase this little daydream a bit further.

She was asleep before she noticed the pun.


11:15 AM found a pair of girls standing in Blackwell's parking lot next to a spotless white Miata. The taller of the pair, a blonde, was immaculate by every definition of the word. From head to toe, Victoria Chase was the absolute picture of elegance.

Max Caulfield, for her part, was best described as charming- her hair was still slightly damp, for one. Her personal definition of "cute, but a little fancy" meant throwing a cardigan over her usual animal-print shirt and wearing the least-scuffed pair of Chuck Taylors in her closet.

Victoria gave the brunette across from her a once-over for about the twelfth time since Max had stepped out of the dorm and shook her head.

"Bold move not taking Taylor up on her makeup offer." She said as she pressed the unlock button on her key fob. Max smiled idly and shrugged one shoulder as she opened the door and settled into the passenger seat of the Miata, waiting until Victoria had sat down and shut the driver's side door behind her before replying.

"It was either letting her work her black magic on a barely noticeable scrape, or not take a shower. Sacrifices had to be made." Max said, pointedly ignoring the fact that she could have done both if she hadn't snooze'd her alarm a time or two too many.

What Victoria didn't know probably wouldn't hurt her.

Victoria's scoff was audible even over the car's ignition as the blonde girl pushed the clutch in and put the Miata in-gear.

Max hadn't thought Victoria was the type to drive stick, but then again there were apparently plenty of things Max didn't know about the blonde girl.

You learn something new every day, Max.

Max sincerely hoped she had enough days to get a solid bead on Victoria Chase.

The blonde seemed to know Max was thinking about her because her eyes lingered on Max's for a long moment as they sat at the stop-sign at the exit of Blackwell Academy's grounds.

In the distance, through the sea-fog, Max could see the lighthouse.

She focused on the searching green wash of Victoria's eyes instead.

Her expression softened momentarily for a reason Max couldn't discern, but a familiar rose-colored tinge came to the other girl's cheeks and that was all the familiar territory Max needed to orient herself.

Victoria's lips parted and joined listlessly twice before she was able to put what she was thinking into words.

"Caulfield, I know I've said this before, but you're somehow making those marks work for you." She laughed, but there was a hint of something that wasn't exactly happiness mixed with everything else in the tone of her voice.

Victoria blinked, long and slow, and absentmindedly shifted to neutral and pulled the brake, making sure they didn't roll into traffic.

Max was confused, but stayed quiet, choosing instead to watch the play of emotions shift and flicker across Victoria's face. After a few moments, the blonde girl's eyes drifted open with a soft exhale.

Victoria's lips parted again, but they didn't close. Instead, a warm hand crept -steady and gentle- around Max's shoulder to curl softly in the damp hair at the back of her head.

Max's eyes slid shut, and in moment her world was compressed down to the soft, slick heat of Victoria's lips on hers. An involuntary, stilted gasp pulled more of Victoria into her; her scent, her taste. There was a buzzing in Max's head that seemed to fill her full to bursting every time Victoria made a needy little noise in the back of her throat and dripped like warm honey into the pit of her stomach with every brush of a cinnamon tongue-tip across her own. She felt the warmth of a cheek under the fingers of her right hand, but couldn't recall bringing her hand up to cup Victoria's face.

The blonde pulled away and their lips slid apart with a soft, wet noise, but she hadn't managed to retreat more than millimeters before she leaned back down to press the two of them together again.

Max felt the hard ridges of fingernails dig slightly into her scalp and something in her belly clenched down at the sensation. A wordless, raw sort of sound escaped her and was answered immediately by a greedy mewling keen from Victoria's throat that ended only when the taller girl was finally able to pull herself free of Max's lips.

"Why did you make me wait all morning for this?" Victoria panted quietly, forehead to forehead with the smaller brunette.

Max's eyes were having trouble focusing, but she responded as best she could.

"You're blaming me for this after that picture you sent me?" Max replied, stealing another quick kiss as a fingertip methodically traced a path down the firm, smooth span of VIctoria's stomach underneath her sweater.

"For fucks' sake that was a hint, Caulfield. You were supposed to say something cute back and then come and find me, but instead-" Another kiss, this time punctuated with a brief press of teeth, "- you didn't reply at all and I thought I was coming on too strong and scared you away or something."

Despite the headiness of the mood, Max snorted.

"If you couldn't tell by now Victoria, I kinda like strong." Max said, pressing one last, firm kiss on Victoria's slightly bruised lips as she collapsed back into her seat with a heavy, contented sigh.

Moments passed in a spell of quiet broken up only by the sounds of heavy, panting breaths as both girls steadily regained their composure.

"I kinda like a lot of things about you if we're being honest though, 'Tori."

Victoria froze like a deer in headlights, but didn't make a sound in response. The only thing that let Max know she'd even heard her was the almost incandescent flare of red across Victoria's face.

Max laughed as she reached across the center console and squeezed Victoria's shaky hand in hers.


It was a comfortable silence some time later as Victoria dropped the brake and slipped the Miata back into gear, letting the car finally pull out onto the road towards Portland.


A/N|

Hi.

Sorry it took a month, but between a very busy work schedule and catching the flu (the regular one) it was an ordeal finding time to write. That being said, this chapter and last chapter were initially going to both be Chapter 5, but that would have been almost fourteen-thousand words. This way was better, I think.

Anyway, I have been working on a backlog so we don't have to wait so long between updates if the world decides to end between posting dates. Expect updates bi-weekly for the foreseeable future, and I'll post updates in my profile on Ao3 if there are any changes, so keep a lookout.

Chapter 7: Settler should be out near the end of the month, and with that we'll be close to the 45k word mark. That's such a milestone, and I'm really excited to reach it with you guys.

Please review if you can, and wash your hands.

Love y'all
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