Hey guys, welcome back to the fic. I had a bit of free time today, so I decided to write another chapter for this. May as well if I can, right? Since these are short, unrelated chapters, it's much easier to find the time.
Chapter Two: Breakfast Fails
As the early afternoon sunlight filtered through the kitchen window, Max sat at the table nursing a lukewarm cup of coffee. She'd left Chloe asleep, not having the heart to wake her. Had it been the other way around, she was certain Chloe wouldn't have extended the same courtesy to her. Still, it gave her a good opportunity to take some photos. There was no way Chloe would let her take them if she knew. They would provide effective blackmail material if need be and record precious memories too. As she was finishing off her drink, the all too familiar shuffling of feet and muffled cursing at tripping over shoes came from the hallway. It could only be one person.
Max looked over her shoulder just in time to see Chloe staggering into the kitchen, bleary-eyed with disheveled, faded blue locks of hair sticking up in every conceivable angle. "Afternoon. I was beginning to wonder whether you would actually get up some time today."
Too tired to offer up a witty rebuttal, Chloe casually flipped her off as she stumbled over to the coffee machine. Without her morning caffeine, she couldn't function. Too lazy to make a fresh batch, she poured herself a cup from the coffee already in there and took a large gulp.
"What do you want to eat today?" Max asked, not trusting that Chloe was awake enough to cook anything. Between them, they'd nearly burnt the house down on multiple occasions. With Max's clumsiness and Chloe's lack of concern for safety, not to mention her unnatural tendency to get injured, they'd been doomed from the very start. Still, somehow they managed to keep it mostly under control. It was a miracle really.
A sly grin tugged at Chloe's lips then. She didn't even have to say anything for Max to realize what her answer was going to be. Predictably, she replied with, "You."
All Max could do was respond to that with a melodramatic eye roll. "Look, that might have been a little bit funny the first time. The fiftieth time… not so much."
"Come on, it's a classic answer," the blue-haired punk protested sleepily.
As much as she complained, Max secretly never grew tired of Chloe's stupid, repeated jokes. Just like Chloe never got bored with Max's seemingly endless supply of bad puns. They both realized the other was just teasing and it had turned into a game between them. "One you're grossly over-abusing."
Since her first idea had been shot down, Chloe gave the question some thought, "Fine, then I want pancakes." She demanded this with an almost childlike excitement. If Max looked past the blue hair, tats, and punk clothing, she could still see the teen Chloe hiding underneath. The differences went beyond being skin deep of course, but her outward appearance was definitely the most obvious at a quick glance.
"You can help then," Max replied as she grabbed a frying pan, greased it up and put it on the heat. Resigned to helping, Chloe drained the rest of her coffee, slamming the mug down on the side. The clattering sound made Max wince, surprised that the mug was still standing after that violent hit. "Jeez Chloe, careful. You'll break something."
Chloe shrugged as she moved over to the sink to wash her hands. "If a mug can break from that, then it isn't worth buying."
"Not everything can be Chloe Price proof," Max pointed out, wondering just how many things in this world were. From her experience, not many.
Drying off her hands, the bluenette slid in behind Max and wrapped her arms around the shy hipster's waist. While she was there, she placed a kiss on her girlfriend's neck. As anticipated, the contact made Max crumple up slightly, her neck being a particularly ticklish spot. "It just goes to show how in our current economic climate that quality is overlooked in favor of mass production."
"Who are you and what have you done with Chloe?" Max asked teasingly, returning the favor by craning her neck and briefly kissing her lips.
When they broke apart, Chloe started to act all offended and hurt. "Ass, I can sound all smart and deep if I want to."
"I know," Max turned around to face her and kissed her again, this time much more involved. Most days, it was difficult stopping herself from just constantly kissing Chloe. Of course, her girlfriend was all too happy to oblige. The second Chloe's hands began to wander, starting something completely different, Max pulled away from her. Food first. After that was a whole different story. "Now, stop distracting me so much and get me some ingredients. There won't be the need for an egg hunt in this house, lucky for you."
"Are you going to hold a grudge about that forever?" Chloe asked as she gathered the ingredients together.
Just for the hell of it, Max decided to be extremely over dramatic about this. "I spent ages looking for those damn eggs, so yes. Minutes of my life wasted."
"And even more complaining about it every five minutes," the bluenette cheekily added as she cracked an egg into the bowl on the side.
Max voted to stick out her tongue before she grabbed the electric whisk from one of the cupboards. When everything had been added to the bowl, she began to mix it all together, making sure to get rid of all the flour lumps as best she could. Satisfied, she turned the mixer off and put it to one side. As she turned around she could see Chloe biting her lip, desperately trying not to laugh.
Eager to get to the bottom of this sudden amusement, she crossed her arms and assumed her best 'no nonsense' expression. "What now?"
"You've got some batter on your cheek," Chloe pointed out through a snicker. Just as Max was about to wipe it off, the bluenette caught her hand. "Ah, ah, I've got it." Instead of using her hand, Chloe leaned in and licked the pancake batter off her girlfriend's cheek. Before she pulled away, she placed a light kiss there too for good measure.
Max rolled her eyes playfully at the action, feeling the familiar tug of a smile at her lips. She should have expected her to do something like that. "I hope you don't have any contagious diseases."
Chloe dismissively waved away her concern. "Only being awesome. Besides, if I did you'd have caught them by now."
"Very reassuring." Her punk girlfriend's logic had always been a special case. She a way of making anything sound rational, even if it obviously wasn't.
Chuckling at the slight pout, Chloe leaned in to steal a kiss. "Sharing is caring."
Of course, for someone like Chloe Price that only worked one way. Max knew that better than anyone. "I'll remind you of that next time we have to do the dishes… which might be fairly soon I hasten to add."
A mischievous twinkle entered blue eyes. "Whenever that is, I think I might have a convenient appointment elsewhere."
Max shook her head, suppressing the smile threatening to break. "I bet you will."
After some time had passed, all of the batter had been used. The resulting pancakes were oddly shaped and had an uneven distribution of color. The first few were either underdone or nearly burnt. Not only that, but the stove top was a mess of half-cooked batter and flakes. Joyce made it look easy.
"Well, these pancakes have an… interesting shape," Chloe commented as she brought the plate to the table.
Max rubbed the back of her neck, sighing at the mess. "I tried to flip them like a pro and… yeah, limited success."
Once the table had been set and all the extras brought over, the pair sat down and plated up. "You made them so they can't be that bad."
"Thanks for the vote of confidence…"
Despite the ominous looking food, Chloe still dug in anyway. She very rarely passed up food, especially when it had been made by Max. Besides, how things looked wasn't the important thing. The taste was all that mattered. After applying a healthy helping of syrup to her first pancake, Chloe took a huge bit and chewed.
"Not bad at all, Caulfield. I approve," she mumbled through bites, putting her thumb up to reiterate her point before shoveling more pancake into her mouth.
Max moved out of the way of the food splash zone, knowing that her girlfriend had an interesting idea of table etiquette. "At least finish your mouthful before you start talking. I nearly got sprayed with half-chewed mush."
Thankfully, Chloe did take her pleas into account and finished chewing before responding this time. "Sorry, Super Max. Didn't mean to target you."
"It's fine. I know you didn't mean to." It was very obvious to Max when Chloe meant to do something like that. The usual shit-eating grin hadn't made an appearance, so it was safe to assume it had been an accident.
It didn't take long for them to plow through the stack of pancakes, with Chloe eating a solid 70%. She always did have a healthy appetite. When she finished off her last bite and helped Max polish hers off too, she sank back in her chair and sighed. "Man, I'm stuffed."
It never ceased to amaze Max how much Chloe could eat. That hadn't changed. "For like three minutes. I swear your stomach is a bottomless pit."
"Probably," Chloe agreed, picking at her teeth and, after a stern glare from Max, decided against just flicking it onto the floor. Instead, she wiped whatever had been stuck on the plate. To gain a bit of favor back, she collected the plates together and washed them up. Once everything had been put back in its original place and they'd had time to let their food settle, Chloe took hold of Max's hands, gently swinging them as she offered up a coy smile. "So… back to bed?"
"You've only just got up," Max mentioned playfully as she leaned against one of the kitchen counters, knowing exactly what her best friend was getting at. There were few times when she had the upper hand on Chloe Price, so she had to make the most of it.
Seeing through her teasing, Chloe brought Max's hands up to her lips and pressed a kiss to the backs. "I wasn't planning on sleeping… but what I do have in mind requires you."
Deciding to keep up the act, Max titled her head to one side curiously. "What do I get for entertaining your request?"
"Well, you'll find out if you accept. I can give you a little teaser now, though." Without any hesitation, she leaned in and kissed Max again. Her girlfriend was extremely receptive to her advances, as anticipated. Chloe braced her hands on the countertop, pressing gently into Max as she kissed her. She slid her tongue effortlessly into Max's mouth, taking the time to explore. The shy hipster wrapped her arms around Chloe's neck, pulling her closer. Even though she was a bit more confident in herself now, she still took one a more submissive role most of the time. Happy to receive and hesitant to initiate. While Chloe didn't really mind, she did wish Max would just do what she wanted instead of waiting. Maybe one day.
So, I see this one happening a little further into the relationship than the last chapter. I won't be giving exact timings for each chapter since they don't lead directly on from one another necessarily, but I will provide comments in the notes about it from time to time.
Remember, if there is anything you would like to see in this fic, just let me know at any time via comments/reviews or pm. I'm open to ideas and I will credit people in the notes for ideas used, naturally. Obviously, the more ideas I have, the longer this fic will last. I have a fair few ideas already, but more are always welcomed and help me come up with new ones myself.
Some basic thoughts on contributing ideas, they can: be from any time in the relationship; include other characters (such as Kate/Rachel etc.) and must be mostly, if not completely, fluff based. Apart from that, there are no particular criteria apart from it being Pricefield, although I don't mind including other ships as a secondary, minor ship (as long as they don't conflict, of course).
Right, I have to head off back to uni now, so see you next time!