They made it through Indiana, and were well into Ohio when Chloe insisted that they stop for the night. It was kind of bizarre, for they usually drove well into the night before turning in for the day. But the sun had only gone down a bit earlier. The radio displayed the time, confirming that it was only barely after eight in the evening.

But Chloe made the decision when to stop, considering she was the only one who could drive, so Max didn't argue. They stopped to get some food and use the bathroom, then drove till they found a good place to park for the night. Funds were running low again thanks to their recent lack of impulse control. And while it would be simple enough to get more, Max wasn't feeling up to using her power.

The day had been emotionally taxing for the both of them, in one way or another, and the mere thought of using the rewind, multiple times at that, had her head hurting. Chloe didn't even bother to mention it.

She instead busied herself with getting the blankets from the back of the truck. Max worked on gathering up the clutter from the seats, handing it out to Chloe to be thrown away. It was practiced and efficient at that point, and they were soon settling into their respective spots on the seat bench.

It being much earlier than usual, Max found herself awake even after what felt like a small eternity with her eyes closed. No matter how hard she tried to clear her mind of thought, Chloe's breathing or slight movements would snap her back to full consciousness.

"Can't sleep?" The girl herself wondered, her voice seeming loud after the silence. Max let out a breath, shuffling carefully so she could turn to face Chloe. Being so close all of a sudden sort of made her heart stutter strangely, but it was more comfortable than it might have been.

"It's kind of early." She confirmed, looking into the blue of Chloe's eyes. It was somehow less awkward this way.

"Yeah." Chloe agreed sheepishly. "My bad. I just… I dunno. Wasn't feelin' it anymore." She offered.

Max smiled, finally looking away to glance at the back of the cab instead, where Chloe had scribbled with a bold marker. Max didn't recognize the symbols, but the words written were less than optimistic. Someday she'd get ahold of a marker and draw something happy.

"That's alright. Today was kinda weird. Good though, I think." She assured, finding the other girl's gaze again. Chloe grinned.

"Fuck yeah! We totally bonded today, sista." She claimed, teeth showing. Max chuckled, nodding her assent.

Absently, she reached to pull Chloe's beanie off her head. The girl had a bad habit of sleeping in it and crushing all of her pretty hair to her skull semi-permanently. The only way to reset the damage was to take a shower, which wasn't always possible. Max made it a secret mission to save her companion from this fate.

She disposed of the hat, then ran her fingers through the hair underneath to breathe some life back into it. Chloe closed her eyes while she did this, only opening them again after she'd finished. She just stared back for a while.

When the taller girl started to sit up, Max followed suit, and Chloe gestured to the bed of the truck instead. With the blankets in tow, they climbed in, and set up camp. It was cold, but when they snuggled down into the blanket together it was bearable.

Chloe fished her phone out and convinced it to play some music after cursing at it for a bit. Instead of her normal uppity punk or angry rock, she went for acoustic songs, setting a playlist and abandoning the cellular on top of the comforter to play of its own accord.

Max hummed along quietly, watching the stars for a while, losing herself in the cosmos again, as she was prone to doing the nights that they spent in the truck. She was aware on some level of Chloe's fingers idly tracing patterns along her arm, and of her heartbeat that was so near to Max's ear. But her mind was lost in just how endless everything was.

"Do you wanna go for a walk?"

The abruptness of it startled Max, but she was already getting up only seconds later, dismissing her contemplation. Chloe's spontaneity, while sometimes alarming, was somehow endlessly charming, in Max's opinion. It didn't matter that it felt like her fingers were frosting over the second she stepped foot outside the cocoon they'd made. It didn't matter that there wasn't really much scenery to see in the dark. It didn't matter that she could see her breath almost as starkly as she could see the smoke from Chloe's cigarette.

Chloe's hand felt like icicles, but it was held snugly in hers, so that didn't matter either.

Max scanned the trees and ground for something to keep her interest. Chloe smoked so languidly it was almost regal. She looked at the sky again, so Max did too. It was far more interesting than the ground, anyway. They'd parked far enough out of the way that the stars were bright, and the sky was crisp and clear.

Starved of the sky for so long, she drank in the twinkling stars and vastness with a certain breathlessness every time. Only her own exhaled breath obscured the view, but the wind stole it away in moments. Chloe lit another cigarette, wordlessly urging them forward. They came to a stop at a pinnacle, a few yards away from the drop off. It gave a view of part of a city, as well as a distant inky blackness that must have been a body of water.

"That's probably Lake Erie. I don't really know. If it is, Canada's just on the other side." Chloe offered, stamping out her cigarette before bending to pick it up and pocket the butt. She always did this. So birds wouldn't eat them.

"That's where we're running away to, right?" Max recalled, smiling. Chloe seemed surprised she remembered, then thoughtful.

"Yeah. I think that's a good idea." She agreed. She was smiling, but her voice didn't sound like it usually did when she was joking. Max wasn't sure if she should laugh.

"But, uh, only if the government finds us." She added weakly, chancing a chuckle. Chloe didn't really react, her expression neutral.

"I guess. We could go anyway. Canada's pretty."

Silence fell as Max tried to decode what that might mean. Now? After? Was she joking after all? It sounded too sincere to be a joke, though. She glanced at Chloe, seeing her bottom lip caught between her teeth. She must have been thinking hard about something.

"Look, Max; I like this… thing we've got going on. I don't know what to call it, but we just sort of… Work. I can't even explain, but it's sort of like I've known you forever. I know that sounds lame, dude. I know we only met a few weeks ago." She winced, biting her lip. "I've never really felt so comfortable around someone else. I'm usually always worrying about stupid shit and overthinking things, and it really takes it out of me to be around people. I get irritated, and mean, and I wind up pushing people away."

Max considered this new information. She'd had a suspicion that Chloe put on something of an act, even for herself. She liked to talk a big game, but her confidence was actually very fragile. Max couldn't talk; While she didn't really have any self-esteem issues, she also wasn't particularly confident. Maybe her neutrality came from the years away from society. Maybe it was just her personality.

"I think that's part of the reason that Rachel left the way she did. To be honest, I probably started to irritate her with my internalized self-hatred and shit. I wanted her attention all the time, wanted her to love me, but all I could talk about around her was how much I suck. Well, me and everyone else." She sighed, scrubbing a hand over her face.

"Sorry, tangent. Look, bottom line, even though I love Rachel, I'm still constantly worried about making sure she likes me. And it's not that I don't care what you think of me. But like… I don't know. The way you look at me sometimes it seems like you think I'm the coolest thing in the world."

Her cheeks were red, more so than the cold would cause. Max felt herself blushing too, caught red-handed in her feelings for Chloe.

"But mostly, it's like I'm hanging with my best friend all the time." She finally concluded, glancing over with a crooked grin. Max mirrored the expression, squeezing the icy fingers that she was still clutching. Chloe's hair got swept up in the breeze, since Max had taken her hat off, and it whipped around her face wildly. The smaller girl got caught up in watching it.

Too caught up. She was caught off guard when Chloe was suddenly very close. Her misty breath was blinding as it mingled with Max's, which began to come out rather erratically, admittedly. The proximity had her thinking, yet again, that Chloe was going to kiss her. There was no smoke to be shared, though.

She wasn't left to think about it too long, breath taken away as Chloe lurched forward after a second of hesitation and pressed their lips together. It was brief, but she still couldn't remember how to breathe properly for seconds on end.

Chloe was busy panicking, hands wringing together when they weren't running through her hair, stringing together every curse she knew as she paced back and forth across about six feet. Max watched her breathlessly, torn between consoling her and watching this nervous, honest side of Chloe that she didn't show very often.

"I-I'm sorry Max. I do stupid shit like that when I get nervous, and I-"

Max frowned, reaching out and anchoring Chloe to the spot with a hand fisted in her jacket. She finally managed to catch her eye, trying to calm her anxiety by pouring her feelings into her gaze instead of trying to blabber them as words.

"Don't be sorry." She mumbled, squeezing the fabric tightly. She dropped her gaze to the ground, the words breaking through her emboldened state and leaving her feeling shy. Chloe had kissed her! "Wowser."

Chloe snorted, finally moving from where she'd been frozen like a deer. Maybe it hadn't been the best thing to say, but at least it had gotten Chloe feeling a bit better. She had managed a tiny smile, at least.

"Where did you even learn that, you nerd? I thought you grew up under a rock. Did you make it up?" She asked. Max smiled, giggling a little as well.

"I think I heard it on a cartoon I watched in the hospital, before they started really locking me down. I guess it just stuck." She explained, glad that Chloe was back to her usual self, but antsy to discuss the situation. They needed to talk about this. It couldn't wait.

"Dork." Chloe murmured. As usual, it was more affectionate than derogatory as she wrapped Max in her arms and rocked them a bit. Max could feel the girl's nose against her neck, sending a shiver down her back as Chloe sought to shield herself from the cold.

"…Sorry." She said again, her sigh warm against Max's skin. "For, uh, for panicking. And saying sorry. I guess that is a shitty thing to say after you kiss someone. I just… I never know what you're thinking. I mean, sometimes it's really obvious. Sometimes it's like we've got the same brain. But other times, I just pull a blank. I don't really know how to even talk to you about this, because you're just so…"

Chloe made a frustrated noise as her words failed her. Max tried in vain to comprehend.

"Like right now! I don't know what you're thinking! I don't know if you're freaking out, if you think I'm fucking insane, if you hate me…"

She had taken up pacing again, and Max's throat felt dry. She knew she ought to say something. Chloe needed to be comforted. But Max didn't know if she had words to explain her feelings. She'd never felt quite the same before. And she'd never thought about how she would tell Chloe, how she could verbalize the ache she felt around the girl.

Stopping short mid-pace, Chloe looked at her. Her expression was bordering on sad, maybe desperate even. It didn't suit her, but she still looked like a picture. Tragic beauty.

"Look, I… I don't really know what the fuck I'm doing, alright? I probably shouldn't have kissed you. I mean, we're only even here together because I'm looking for Rachel. Fuck. I'm just so god damn impulsive all the time. And I'm really confused." She admitted, her shoulders curling in towards her center.

"Rachel is… She's so important to me. I mean, I've been in love with her for so long. But-" She sucked in a breath, and it was a little shaky. But she pressed forward. "But even though I know I shouldn't, I really wanted to kiss you. I still do. I know we haven't been together very long, but you're already so fucking important to me."

It made Max's pulse soar, to hear Chloe say that. To finally know where she stood in regards to Rachel Amber. To know that, maybe, she mattered almost as much to Chloe as the other girl meant to her.

"Max, please, say something." Chloe urged, biting her between her teeth. "Or I'm going to keep saying stupid shit. Please."

After a moment of thought:

"Let's go back, it's cold." Max suggested, smiling softly. Chloe seemed confused, brows knit as she sought answers to silent questions. Max gave her hand a squeeze, smiling a little harder, hoping she'd understand. She almost definitely didn't, but they'd get there, eventually.

They walked back silently. It was obvious, from the buzzing, anxious energy that radiated from her, that Chloe still wasn't sure where they stood. The scenery change felt necessary, though. Not only to get out of the frigid wind, but also to hopefully leave the awkwardness behind. The truck felt cozy, the familiarity a comfort after the foreign landscape.

Chloe glanced at her once they'd settled in on their respective sides with the blankets smushed in with them. She opted to turn the engine on for just a bit to warm up, and the sound of the air whooshing through the vents filled the silence. For Chloe, it felt heavy. Max felt lighter than air for once.

She hoped she could get Chloe there, too.

It was kind of hard to get the angle right while avoiding the clutch and Chloe's boney shoulder, but she kissed her with all the confidence she could muster. That would make them even.

"I'm sorry for confusing you. I don't try to, if that makes you feel any better." She offered sheepishly. "And, um, I'd be okay with it if you kissed me. If you want to." She added.

Chloe laughed at last, bumping their foreheads together softly.

"Oh yeah?" She inquired sarcastically, eyes reflecting Max's own dim reflection. For the first time, Max found herself sort of pretty.

As per her usual, she couldn't help but snap a photo. The camera had been resting under the seat, and her hand had grown accustomed to reaching under for it. Chloe didn't even have time to react as she quickly lined the two of them up and took the shot blindly, so they could both be in it.

Chloe didn't say anything as Max tucked the camera and the new photo under the seat to be dealt with in the morning. Maybe she'd given up on joking about Max only taking pictures of her. Probably because it wasn't a joke anymore.

After she'd put the camera away and settled back into her seat, Chloe motioned for her to lay down. It was later, now that they'd spent so much time walking, and though giddiness had left her feeling high, she could also sense some exhaustion creeping into her limbs and eyes. So it was without argument that she did as the other girl suggested, waiting for Chloe to turn off the engine and get comfortable before laying all the way down.

They both worked to tug the blankets up and pile them on to keep warm. Nose to nose, Chloe snaked an arm between the fabric and Max's side, letting it drape there. Though they'd declared it bedtime, they both sat awake for minutes that stretched on to feel much longer, just staring at each other. Looking into Chloe's eyes like that for so long felt almost as engaging as a conversation. Maybe more so, in a way.

Finally Chloe shifted, kissing Max's forehead before guiding it closer to her chest, using her arm to close the space between them. She let out one last sigh before going entirely limp, and in a few minutes she'd fallen asleep. It made Max smile, slowly wrapping her arms around the girl's waist so that she had something to hold onto, too.

She still wasn't very warm, but Max's heat would seep out through the night enough for the both of them. The girl's fingers were especially chilly, even through the fabric of her shirt, but it wasn't too bothersome, in the grand scheme of things. She'd take thin, frosty fingers tangled in her shirt over prodding scientists any day.

Resolved to sleep before she could notice the chill properly, she cleared out her mind.

-.-.-+-.-.-

When she woke again, Chloe was already driving, Max's head in her lap. How she'd managed to sleep through the other girl getting up, she didn't know. It was fine, though. Just this once.

"I can see right up your nose." She announced.

Chloe blinked, then glanced down at her and cracked a grin.

"That's the thanks I get for being nice and letting you use my lap as a pillow?" She demanded, but made no move to correct the position. Max snickered, sitting up nonetheless, and scooted over into her own seat.

"You should have woken me up." She insisted, nodding at Chloe's silent question of whether or not they should stop at McDonald's for breakfast. She could tell that the girl was asking by the way she gestured to it.

"You're really cute when you're conked out." Chloe retorted, shrugging as if she didn't need to offer any other explanation. She continued, regardless. "When you're awake, you always look vaguely troubled. It's nice to see you relaxed."

Max blushed with the revelation that Chloe liked to watch her sleep. Though, considering what Chloe had said and done last night, she supposed it shouldn't be too surprising anymore.

That was still sort of unknown territory for Max. She wasn't sure if it was appropriate to kiss Chloe again already, or at all, but she wanted to. The air seemed a bit strange though. Sharp, a little treacherous. She wasn't sure if that was just her being afraid, or if there really was an awkwardness between them.

She'd just have to let Chloe sort it out. There was only so much she could do with her very limited social skills.

They decided to go inside, eager to use the bathroom and stretch after the night under the stars. And it was subtle, but Chloe sat on the same side of the booth as Max. Small, but not insignificant. The invasion of personal space meant more than they probably let on to passerby.

Max settled into the space against Chloe's ribs, the girl's left arm thrown over the back of the seat to accommodate the sharing of space. It was cozy, like it should have been happening all along. Why else would they fit so perfectly?

"You look like you're taking those hash browns really seriously." Chloe chuckled, sipping at an orange juice.

"I am." Max responded severely, not missing a beat. Her sense of humor was beginning to skew very suddenly in Chloe's likeness. There wasn't much to be done about it.

The girl herself snorted a giggle, shaking her head. She offered Max the juice then got up to ditch the trash. After finishing the OJ off, the brunette followed her out and they were on the road yet again.

The drive seemed sort of slow, but it was actually just Chloe going the speed limit for the first time since they'd met. It didn't go unnoticed, but still, Max hesitated to say anything about it. Maybe she was just getting tired. The lifestyle they were keeping wasn't exactly the easiest. She could probably use a few nights at home to recoup.

But they were close now. They neared the finish line with each mile, it was in sight. There was no way they were turning back, not anymore.

Max glanced over as Chloe's hand folded over hers. The girl wasn't looking at her, in favor of the road, but her cheeks were a little pink. It was endearing, and Max didn't think twice about flipping her hand to lace their fingers together.

Scenery passed by in a blur that denoted hours passing with their hands still tightly knit between them, only parted on the rare occasion that Chloe had to shift gears. They briefly passed through Pennsylvania, where they stopped for lunch, and then the signs for New York became frequent. Max could feel the nearness of the end approaching, but was powerless to stop it as the signs melted from her view in the car's mirrors.

Chloe seemed to get more and more tense the further they went, and Max wondered if it was from nerves, or if she was feeling the same sense of impending conclusion. But what she'd once thought of as anxiety about seeing Rachel was perhaps better classified as anxiety of seeing Rachel and having all of this come to an end.

A few wrong turns had them looping around some country homes, and Chloe just kept getting turned around. Only after they'd been crisscrossing the area for a couple hours did Max realize that Chloe was stalling.

They ditched the truck in the driveway of a generous couple outside of the city, opting to rely on their own feet and public transportation, rather than bother with the seemingly unmoving traffic. They didn't wander very far in before Chloe suggested they find a place to call it a night. The sun was barely down, and it was the perfect time to ask around bars if they'd seen Rachel, but Max didn't argue. Just like she hadn't mentioned the stalling earlier.

They laid in a hotel bed, the alarm clock radio on quietly for the noise. It was too early to sleep, but neither of them could admit it without risking blowing Chloe's cover. Why Max was playing along, she didn't know. Chloe had to know she knew. But something about admitting it out loud changed things. At least they were pretending, for now.

Chloe lifted one of Max's arms so she could wriggle up and lay her head on her stomach. Max smiled, carding her fingers through the blue locks like she'd thought about doing many times before. It was different than when she pulled off the beanie. It was lingering, special.

She felt Chloe's bones melt as she began scratching lightly at her scalp, nails barely there. Committing the soft-spot to memory, she indulged Chloe's desire for scritches, fingers on autopilot after a few minutes.

Should she bring it up? All the unasked questions about where they were going and what they planned to do? What they were to each other, and where they stood? About Rachel? It was all unknown to her, and maybe to Chloe. But was it really her place to bring it up? They probably hadn't talked about it yet for a reason.

Chloe was above her when she opened her eyes again, drawn away from her thoughts by the motion. She met the girl's electric blue stare until her eyes closed and they kissed. It took her by surprise, as all of their few kisses had in one way or another, but she quickly eased into it, holding Chloe close to her.

While you still can.

Jefferson's tone, this time, making her blood run a bit cold for a moment before she remembered that it was just her own scathing thoughts. It was always his voice that reminded her of her reality. She wished she could forget that clinical sneer of his, but it lingered at the back of her mind.

It kept her on the run.

Chloe made a little noise into her mouth that had her head spinning, and her fingers twisted into the back of the girl's shirt, clinging as if she was going to fall if she didn't hold on. It sort of felt that way. She wasn't quite sure which direction was up, and it felt like she was floating, but it didn't matter, because she knew Chloe wouldn't let her fall into the sky.

The girl had a smile on her face when she pulled back, and Max was breathless. She wanted a picture, but her bag was too far away to reach. She fluttered her lashes like a shutter, taking a picture with her mind instead. Copying every detail; The faint reflection of herself in Chloe's eyes, flushed and framed in fanned-out auburn hair. The dark circles like faint bruises under Chloe's eyes, contrasting the life that sparkled in the color of her irises. Her hair was almost the same color as her eyes in the hotel lighting where it fell in her face, but her roots had grown out substantially to show her natural blonde.

Max ran her fingers through it again. It was still soft even after all of the abuse it'd been through. Chloe made that same quiet sound, collapsing on her side and giving herself over to the attention again.

"We should shower." She mumbled faintly, without any sort of conviction. Max smiled, sitting up and releasing her hold over the other girl so they could comply. Chloe seemed a little bummed about the loss of contact, but kept it to herself.

Chloe never hesitated to get naked, and she made no exception this time, starting the water before quickly ridding herself of her wrinkled clothes. Maybe she enjoyed it? Max couldn't match her pace, but she wasn't far behind. The other girl was already dripping with water, but she still looked pretty with her hair slicked back and lashes clumped together. She offered a crooked smile before opening her arms and trapping Max's back against her chest.

Max's skin felt on fire where Chloe pressed against her, holding her tightly while the water washed over them. She'd never had that sort of closeness with anyone, and she wasn't really sure what to do with her hands. Eventually she settled for draping them over Chloe's against her own stomach, letting her head loll back a bit to rest on the other girl's shoulder.

She felt Chloe's nose against the side of her neck, and turned her head that way to catch a brief glance at Chloe's eyes. Chloe stared back, and she wasn't smiling, but the emotions dancing with the sparkle of her eyes weren't negative. It was how Max probably looked too. She only wished that Chloe could promise this forever. That she didn't have to wonder if it would be Rachel Amber in her position in a week or so.

The other girl vanished from her mind when Chloe pressed a quick kiss to her jaw. For now, she'd take what kisses she could get. They might not be a sustainable resource.

A/N: I know this took forever for me to get up, and I'm sorry for that. I went on a temporary hiatus for a few reasons: I went through and edited all of the chapters thus far. Mostly just spelling and grammar errors, and maybe a sentence here and there. It's not anything big enough that you would need to reread if you didn't want to. It's just a little bit smoother now.

I've also gotten an editor of sorts, and I had to give her time to not only catch up, but get and beat the game. She put in a lot of effort to be the editor, and she's already helped me with this chapter, in particular, a lot. She'll be checking over each chapter before I post now.

There was also a some back and forth on the content of this chapter, and I wound up rewriting a huge portion of it, and then that had to be edited again… You can see where I'm going with this.

The moral of the story is that I'm off hiatus now, the story is back on and hopefully better than before, and updates she return to pretty much the same interval as before. I do apologize for the wait, and thanks to anyone who stuck it out and waited!

I hope I can look forward to some feedback, even if it's just complaints. But either way, thanks for reading!

KuroRiya
九六りや