Life is Strange

Last Minute Gift

Christmas had come and gone with great fanfare in the Price-Madsen household. It had actually been relatively peaceful for the first time in living memory since William's death. Actually, it was never that much of a peaceful affair even before then when Chloe and Max had been together for their usual Christmas sleepover. Two hyperactive tweens both receiving copious amounts of presents from two families and each other? Yeah, peace in that situation was nothing more than a myth. But this year was a special one. It was Max's first Christmas back in Arcadia Bay. And as the final hours of Christmas were drawing to a close, the house settled into a state of relative peace.

Max looked up from the book she wasn't really reading to see Joyce washing up the dishes from supper and went over to dry up for her. Joyce looked up as she approached and grabbed a towel, turning to the brunette with a look that bordered on horror.

"Max, what do you think you're doing? It's Christmas and you're a guest! Go and sit down. You don't have to do this."

"I know." Max shrugged as she proceeded to grab the first dish and start drying it. As she did, she saw Joyce's expression shift. For a second she struggled to read it and it made her more than a little nervous.

"You know, it's good to have you back." Joyce said. The seemingly random statement caught Max totally off guard. Where was she going with this?

"I'm glad I came back." She gave an awkward nod, but was glad her statement sounded as genuine as it was meant.

"Not half as glad as we are." Joyce assured her. "Chloe was falling apart at the seams but look at her now. I haven't seen her laugh as much as she has since October in five years. For the first time, it feels like I've got my little girl back. A chunk of her, anyway. Now she smokes pot and the scars of the last five years are definitely there. But I feel like I can look at her now and see my little girl again. And David- he and Chloe were barely even on speaking terms when you got here. Since you came back, I feel like my family is so much more united than before. David admires the pair of you. The way you put everything together to solve what was going on at Blackwell... Well, he does admire you. He'll never admit it, though. He'd sooner die than admit it. Hell forbid he ever actually shows a softer side." That got Max laughing. She didn't know where it came from, but it felt good. It felt right. It was true that William wasn't there anymore, but despite that she could see what Joyce was saying. She herself could feel a glimmer of the old atmosphere in the house. It had felt a lot of dark times and a lot of fights, but Max could still look at the place and see bits and pieces of their past there.

"On the day my parents sent me around to tell Chloe that we were moving, I chickened out." Max didn't know where the words were coming from, but she couldn't stop herself from talking. It was a confession she'd planned to give to Chloe at some point. To be saying it now when she was so unready felt surreal. "When I found out I was coming over that day, I was gathering the courage to tell her something totally different. When I found out what my parents wanted me to tell her instead, the real reason for me coming over that day, delivering either message just seemed unfathomable. And then you came home. Alone." She saw Joyce flinch but knew she had to press on. "There was no way that day was going perfectly. There was no perfect way for it to go. But what actually happened was the furthest thing from. And then when we moved, I knew I had to keep in touch. But I didn't know how. I just- I didn't know what to say so soon after our lives had been turned upside down. And by the time I did, it just seemed weird after so long. I didn't just lose the chance to tell her what I wanted to that day. I lost the right."

"No you didn't." Max was shocked by the resolution in Joyce's voice. When she looked into her eyes, she could see all the stress and pain of the last five years. But there was also a spark there that just never faded. It was the thing that made her Joyce and it had stood up to bigger tests than just the march of time. "Max, you were dealing with your own share of things. Were there ways you could have done things better? Absolutely. But the thing you and Chloe both forgot was that you were a thirteen year-old girl that had just had the rug pulled out from underneath her and Chloe wasn't that much older than you herself. You all felt that you were so grown up now that you'd crossed the teenage threshold and had yet to learn that you were just getting started. Yes, communication is important, but you can't expect two teenage girls to be masters at it. Or anything else, for that matter. We're all eager to jump on the train to adulthood until we find out where it's going. As far as I'm concerned, you didn't lose the right to anything. And even if you did, you've earned it back in excess by being there for Chloe and proving to her that- despite the doubts she may have had while in the throes of manic depression- you never stopped caring about her. Now I don't pretend to know what was going through each of your heads these last few years or what it was like for the pair of you, but I know I love my daughter. And I know I've never seen her as happy as when she's with you." With that, Joyce put the final dish in the drying rack and sighed before leaning against the kitchen counter. "You and Chloe always shared such a unique bond, but one thing both of you always struggled with was having the confidence to add a personal touch to anything. That was what cost you both, Max. You couldn't deliver your message to Chloe before you moved and Chloe couldn't grieve when she needed to." Max knew Joyce was right. Her words were just the kick the brunette girl needed. In that moment, she made herself a promise. No matter how Chloe took it, she was going to give her the message that she'd originally planned to give her all those years ago. Without warning, she stepped forward and threw her arms around the woman she'd always considered a second mother.

"Thanks, Joyce. I needed that."

"Go on." Joyce flashed Max that smile she remembered so fondly from her childhood. "Go and do what you need to." Max nodded and headed for the couch, only to find that Chloe wasn't there. She looked over to the sliding doors only to see that Chloe had stepped outside and lit up a cigarette. Bracing for impact against the cold night air, she followed the older bluenette out into the back garden.

The temperature hadn't miraculously risen by a few degrees as Max stepped out. The confirmation was dismaying but unsurprising. Regardless, Max pushed onward towards Chloe. Even a few steps felt like torture, but it was enough to get the taller girl to notice her. When she did look over and spot her, it was with a look of alarm more than anything else.

"Max? What the hell are you doing out here?" Hurriedly, Chloe took her hoodie off and wrapped it around her. It smelled like nicotine and Chloe and in that moment Max couldn't think of a place she would rather have been.

"I just-" Max had to pause briefly to stop her teeth chattering too badly. "I just wondered if you wanted some company." That caused Chloe to look at her with a perplexed expression, but eventually she burst into that musical laughter that Max had spent five years missing so dearly.

"Well I've got to say, this is the first time I've had a girl freeze herself half to death for me." Her choice of words made Max's heart skip a beat. If Chloe noticed, she didn't give any sign and carried on. "You know, I wondered many times back in October if I'd actually make it to Christmas, what with all those times I almost died or actually died around you. I just- I have no idea how your rewind power really works or where it came from, but I'm glad you were there to abuse it like you did." Now it was Max's turn to burst out laughing. It was partly Chloe's choice of words there, but also her acknowledgement of it causing months' worth of tension to be released in that moment. Despite the cold, it made her feel warmer than she had even indoors.

"You think that was me abusing my power?" she asked. "Let me show you how I abuse my power." With that, she walked over to the door and pulled it open slightly, listening to the TV. David was watching some fishing show with a guy investigating attacks on people.

"The bite severed his artery and by the time he'd struggled to shore, his life was ebbing away. While the poet-mortem couldn't identify the bite mark conclusively, I know of only one thing in these waters that could grow big enough to deliver a bite that big and make such short work of human flesh: A moray."

'Perfect!' Max thought to herself as she started to rewind. Not much changed since no one had really done anything of note, but she stopped just after the back door shut itself again and then pulled it back to where she'd had it before, waiting for the perfect moment while Chloe watched on expectantly. And she knew the one thing Chloe wouldn't have expected was the song that came to mind in that moment.

"When the moon hits the sky like a big apple pie, that's-" Max cut herself off before pointing to the TV through the door.

"A moray." She shut the door quickly to keep the heat in as Chloe dissolved into cackling laughter, doubling over and bracing herself against the double-glazed glass of the sliding door and then having to put her cigarette out and hold onto Max to keep upright. It was infectious enough to get Max joining in on the laughter and the two girls stood there in the cool night air holding each other close. Chloe then wrapped Max in her arms and held her properly, causing Max's heart to speed up dangerously. As she gazed up at the taller girl, Max had to be careful to keep the adoration out of her eyes.

"So how do you feel now?" she asked.

"I don't know." Chloe confessed. "I remember when you showed up two months ago, I felt angry beyond belief. But at the same time, I was ready to take you back in a heartbeat. Now I feel like the anger was stupid and I just should have gotten to the second bit. What about you? How do you feel?" The question caused Max's mind to spin. From her chaotic reunion in October along with finding out Jefferson was an absolute psycho to standing here now, her mind had been continually blown from one day to the next. David had definitely softened up since they'd first met. That didn't mean he was any less of a hard-ass at Blackwell, but that was his job as head of security. Chloe, on the other hand, still seemed to regard him with a level of scorn. Then there was Chloe herself. She'd changed so much since Max had seen her back in 2008. She'd been forced to grow up ahead of time by many cruel twists of fate. At times, Max had wondered if there was any of the original Chloe left at all. But here she was now with a Santa hat perched on her head and a paper crown over the top of the Santa hat. It looked goofy as hell and totally like something the old Chloe would have done. For all of fate's efforts, it showed that Chloe could never have been completely broken. No matter how close she got. It showed fate was just a bitch. And as for how she was going to come remotely close to putting any of that into words...

"I- I'm just glad I'm back." Nailed it.

"Not nearly as glad as I am." Chloe said, resting her chin on Max's shoulder as she pulled her into a tighter hug. "I can promise you that." Max desperately had to fight to stop her brain short-circuiting. This was it. This was the moment she needed. She'd been given a chance. Now she just had to take it.

"Chloe, I-" She was cut off, almost jumping into Chloe's arms as an ear-splitting boom from off to the left ripped through the air. She looked over as panic rolled in her gut, remembering the sound of the gunshot in the junkyard and watching Chloe fall lifelessly to the ground with that hole in her forehead-

"Max?" She barely registered Chloe's voice from behind her. "It's okay! It's okay! Someone's got fireworks!" Fireworks? Max struggled to control her breathing as she looked up and saw the burst of bright green and orange fizzling out in the night sky. More bursts of blue and red followed it and Max felt herself relax considerably. She still felt herself twitching every time a bang went off, but as Chloe tightened her grip around her even that settled down. It wasn't tight like Jefferson's had been when he was dragging her to the car as she was losing consciousness. It didn't serve any purpose. It wasn't objective in any way. It just was. What it specifically was escaped her, but that was okay. She couldn't come up with any elaboration to describe it, because she absolutely didn't need to. It just felt right. And at the end of the day, that was all it needed to do and to be.

"Chloe-" Max swallowed the lump that was forming in her throat. "There's something I wanted to tell you. I've been sitting on it for over five years now and I just can't any longer. I just- I-"

"You know I love you, right?" Chloe's words hit like a punch in the gut. She whirled around to face the older girl unable to hide her stunned expression.

"You love me?" At her words, Chloe could only chuckle. She was still too breathless after laughing so hard earlier, but Max was convinced that she would have laughed harder if she'd had it in her.

"Yes, dummy!" She let out an exasperated sigh and stared down at Max who was looking up at her in awe. "God, you're such a sap." It took Max a full ten seconds to realise she was beaming up at the taller girl like an idiot.

"I love you too." The admission made Max feel like a tremendous weight had been lifted from her. And with it, a sly grin crept across her face. "You know, I had one other present to give you today."

"Oh, really?" Chloe cocked her head to one side, her grin betraying her mock confusion. But unlike last time, she didn't seem at all caught off guard when Max leaned in, wrapped a hand around the back of the taller girl's head and pressed their lips together. Suddenly, the gunshot-like popping of the fireworks was forgotten. It was completely overwhelmed by the hearts of the two girls beating as one. Fireworks of their own were going off in their minds with such intensity that it rendered the real ones irrelevant. They stayed like that for longer than Max realised, oblivious to the cold until they eventually broke apart for air and became acutely aware that their skin had erupted in goosebumps and that they were shivering.

"I hope you found that as worth waiting for as I did." Max said gently, trying to hide the nervous blush that was creeping through her cheeks.

"Max, I wanted to tell you how I felt that day too." Chloe replied, her shivering hand reaching up to caress the shorter girl's face. "I just- when I found out you were moving I couldn't bring myself to do it. I knew that if I did, or if you confessed to me, I'd be on my knees in front of Mom and Dad begging them to adopt you. But I couldn't have done that. I couldn't have dragged you away from your family."

"Chloe, my family are my family. You're my life." Max told her as she pulled the taller girl closer. "I love them, but it's totally different. They actually basically demanded I come back to Seattle after the Blackwell scandal. I told them no. I told them I'd found someone worth staying for. And you know what Dad said to me? He asked what the hell took me so long!" At that, Chloe burst out laughing. But as she looked, Max could see a slight wetness to her eyes. She chose not to focus on it, afraid of bringing the taller girl's defences up, but instead pulled her in for another kiss. To her surprise, she felt a finger on her lips stopping her.

"Not yet, hippie!" Chloe said, grinning mischievously. "I have a present for you too. It's upstairs. After that, we can make out all you want." Max knew she'd instantly failed miserably at hiding her excitement. Chloe took her by the hand and led her back into the house, the warmth washing over them like a blanket that instantly stopped her shivering. As she was pulled past the kitchen area she could swear she saw Joyce cast a knowing wink at her. Something about that eased a worried tightness in her chest that she hadn't even known was there. In hindsight, maybe a part of her guessed what was about to happen. What she was about to do. The thought of it happening under Joyce's roof had seemed almost scandalous and the fact that she'd just seemed to show approval meant the absolute world to Max. That said, she wasn't aware of it in that second. Her head was full of nervous static as the blue-haired girl she loved more than anything or anyone else in the world gripped her by the hand and led her upstairs to her room.

Chloe practically shoved her door open with a bang before slamming it shut behind her and Max as they entered. Before Max even knew what was happening, the two girls were fused at the lips again and she found her hands wandering adventurously down to the hem of Chloe's shirt. It was a totally un-Max move to make and yet seemed weirdly right at the same time. This was her and Chloe and in that moment it felt like anything was allowed and the impossible was quite possible. Chloe herself seemed to be of the same mind as she pulled the shirt off so fast that Max didn't even register that the kiss had been broken at any point. Had the kiss been broken at all? Had Chloe somehow managed to get her shirt over her head while maintaining lip contact the entire time? Did she have powers too? Could she secretly make herself non-corporeal to perform amazing bedroom feats like that? The thought and any care for it left her mind as quickly as it had arrived as the two girls moved over to the bed and laid down. Max felt her hoodie and jumper vanish in one fluid motion as Chloe began trailing kisses down her neck. In that moment, the brunette felt all her strength leave her body as she relaxed back and let herself get lost in sensation.

They didn't know how long they were there for. Time wasn't a factor to them. As far as they were concerned, they could have grown old and aged into the dust over the course of what was probably the best couple of hours of their lives and they wouldn't have cared. It had been everything they'd been longing for over the last five years and so much more. No matter how vivid their imaginations, it could never have prepared them for the reality of it. Both girls lay there panting and breathless with sweat covering every inch of them as they basked in the afterglow of what they'd just done while trying to process the magnitude of it at the same time.

"Are you- Are you out of breath already, Che?" Max gasped out, wishing she had some cold soda or at least a glass of water right then. "You getting soft on me?"

"You wish!" Chloe snapped back. "I- I just need- a minute... Turns out- cigarettes and- and stamina... Yeah, they don't really go well together." Max gave a breathless and exhausted laugh as she flopped back onto the bed and wrapped her arms around Chloe, nuzzling into her neck in a way that caused her to yelp out. "Ah! Max! I'm still really sensitive!"

"I know." Max giggled as she flicked her tongue out onto one of the many hickies that covered the taller girl's neck and got another tantalising indignant yelp from her. Not that Max could judge. Not only had she given them to her, but her own neck was a mirror image. She could feel it even without touching it. She was about to do it again but Chloe stopped her with another kiss.

"You know, I'm glad you could be here for Christmas, Max." She affectionately pulled the shorter girl closer to her and pulled the covers over both of them to hide the fact she was shivering and becoming increasingly aware of how bad it would be if David were to walk in on them now. He'd gained a lot of experience in respecting Chloe's personal space by now and was really getting good at it, but good didn't mean perfect and she wasn't about to take any chances. "Here's a question: would you rather have a double bed so that each of us had extra room or stick with a single so we have an excuse to stay closer together?" The question came completely out of nowhere and in that instant she saw Max's brain visibly misfire.

"Uh- what?"

"Oh, come on." Chloe sighed. "Look, after what happened at Blackwell, I know you don't feel comfortable living there. Don't tell me you've forgotten all those sleepovers we used to have! You would come over, set your sleeping bag up, join me on the bed with that beat-up old laptop and the collection of, like, two DVDs I had since they were so fucking expensive because VHS was still a thing back then-"

"-and then we'd grab some snacks and watch them while probably paying more attention to each other than the movies since we'd watched them so much before passing out together on your bed anyway." Max concluded. "I remember, Chloe. And I cherish those memories just as much as you. But there's so much that's different now. It's been five whole years and I saw Joyce wink at me on the way up here. She knows exactly what you were planning to do. And you weren't exactly stealthy. Do you think she'd be okay with me just being around here all the time?" Chloe could only chuckle at that as she rolled her eyes playfully and brushed some hair out of Max's eyes.

"Max, it's possible she's almost as grateful as I am that you're back." Max noticed Chloe couldn't keep the glad note out of her voice. "Beforehand, she literally bought you your own toothbrush because you were round here so often. You might as well have lived here. You ate round here most nights, stayed in my room just as much as I did and were literally my entire world for basically as long as I've been in the world. You coming back has brought all that back into reach again. For me and for her. I think she'd love to be able to grab back even a small piece of those old times just as much as I would. And hell, this room has seen our adventures young and- well, I can't really say old, but definitely younger and older. I could totally get a double in here if we needed to. It's a wide room."

"That won't be necessary." Max assured her. "If you're absolutely sure, then I'll do it. I'll tell Wells that I've found other living accommodations and want to move out. Once I've filled out the paperwork, I should be out of there in a week. But only under one condition. You need to get it cleared by Joyce at minimum. I don't care how we do it. We could flag it up at breakfast with me playing reluctant and hoping she'll step in and confirm it or we can just grow a pair and ask her. I don't give a crap. But this place is in her name and I wouldn't feel comfortable just doing something like this out of the blue."

"Same old Max." Something shifted in Chloe's eyes right then. Max didn't know what it was, but in that instant Max seemed to find herself looking into the eyes of the Chloe she used to know five years ago. The Chloe that had been there before everything hit the fan. And as she did a double-take, the younger Chloe seemed to vanish while her eyes remained the same. But deep down, she knew they'd never been any different. It was all the proof she needed that for how strongly Chloe's rebellious side and stonewall defences had come to the front, she hadn't really changed at all at her core.

"Same old Chloe." Max grinned, an odd sense of relief flooding over her. Something told her Chloe was feeling it too as the taller girl rolled over onto her back and let Max lie on top of her, the brunette's head nestled on Chloe's chest as she played absently with her hair.

"It's getting longer." Chloe observed as she ran her hands through it gently. "You gonna cut it back? Maybe put it into a ponytail like you had before?"

"I'll think about it." Max mumbled sleepily as she settled into Chloe's embrace. She felt Chloe's arms wrap around her with a sense of protectiveness and burrowed in against her as hard as she could without crushing the life out of her. Not that she thought Chloe would have objected to that. Still, crushing the life out of someone she'd literally just established a committed relationship with probably wasn't the best way to start things off. For obvious reasons, she didn't exactly want to kill Chloe straight after their first time together. Fair to say she was more than a little bit attached to her. They'd been forced to weather five whole years apart, but that was over now. They were back together and Max planned on being there to stay. As far as she was concerned, after the last five years apart the two of them could strap in for at least the next fifty together. And she wouldn't have it any other way. "Merry Christmas, Chloe."

"Merry Christmas, Max." Chloe mumbled tiredly as she laid herself down properly and ran a hand across the back of the smaller girl's head affectionately. "Now go the fuck to sleep." And Max did. After all the excitement of Christmas day, she was more than ready to drift off into a contented and dreamless sleep.

End!