A/N: Hey kids, I wish I didn't live in a country where I have to preface the chapter with the following...but I do...sooo...

THE FOLLOWING STORY IS NOT INTENDED TO BE AN ENDORSEMENT OF ANY BEHAVIOR CONSIDERED ILLEGAL, AND SHOULD NOT BE READ AS SUCH. THESE CHARACTERS ARE FICTIONAL, PROPERTY OF DONTNOD ENTERTAINMENT, AND ANY SIMILARITIES TO ANY PERSONS LIVING OR DEAD IS PURELY COINCIDENTAL. FAIR USE RIGHTS INVOKED...blah blah blah.

There, see you in the commentary section at the bottom, after our story. :-)

"No - no words. No words to describe it. Poetry! They should have sent...a poet! So beautiful, so beautiful. I had no idea."

I groan softly, holding up a hand to my face, and shaking my head. This is...this is kind of embarrassing, actually. As I watch Chloe on her knees, gesticulating in ecstasy in front of a fancy looking building with the words "The Green Solution" emblazoned upon it. But I will admit that she's just so irresistibly adorable, as she Shatners her way through that line, faux-weeping all the while.

I snap a picture of this, because of course I do; this is too good a moment to pass up.

"Okay then, Jodie Foster. We've come to see the walls of your personal Mecca. So now that we have, can we go and get something to eat? I could seriously go for a sammie right about now." Chloe has been dragging me all over town, looking for 'just the right place' to finally commune with. Breakfast was an afterthought at best this morning.

She holds up one hand to her forehead, the other pointing palm up towards me, as she continues to overact, "Just...just have to give me a few seconds, babe. To drink up the full richness of this moment."

I murmur the first thing to immediately spring to my mind.

"In Xanadu, did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea."

"Hey! A weed dependency is way less problematic than an opium addiction! If you're going to start slinging Coleridge around."

Gotta love that woman; she can still keep up with me on my poetry quotations.

And so it's come to this. I knew once we hit Colorado, Chloe was going to want to look at - or possibly break into and clean out - one of the recreational marijuana shops that the state's become so famous for. I've tried to burst her bubble several times on the matter, but she keeps refusing to have her dream denied.

I reach down for her arm, gently lifting her to her feet. Then butt her with my head, softly, and murmur, "We STILL can't go inside, doof. You can't until next March, and then I can't until September...2016! You're just tormenting us both. Well...you mostly."

Chloe reaches out, gripping my shoulders and playfully rocking me back and forth. "Babe, I got a plan..."

"Yes. That's been your rebuttal the entire time. Now that we're here, would you finally reveal your secret and glorious master strategy, dearest heart?"

I bat my eyelids at her, hoping that she'll finally either A) admit to me that I've got her dead to rights on calling out her bullshit or B) she has indeed come up with some idiotic, half-baked - Ha! I kill me - notion that I can immediately proceed to rip to shreds. Either method gets me and my stomach closer to lunchtime.

"Yeah. Of course. My genius idea is to walk in, give them our ID's, and then proceed with the time-honored tradition of exchanging currency for goods and services."

I wince, and peevishly stamp my foot. "Oh...God! Chloe, seriously, it's like you're not even trying anymore! You KNOW they're going to take one look at our driver's licenses and turn us right out..."

She holds up a single finger, laying it across my lips, smiling at me, with that cocked, perfected rogue grin.

"G'nna bite y'r finger off if th' next words out y'r mouth aren't 'Lets get lunch'" I mumble against it.

"Sure. Time for the big reveal! 'Cause you ARE correct, Buggy. Under normal circumstances, the great state of Colorado does not allow anyone under the age of twenty-one to buy recreational weed."

I start to softly bite down on her fingertip. "Om nom nom...", communicating the need for Chloe to explain things in a manner most expeditious.

"BUT! But...if you have a state medical card, you can go in if you're eighteen!"

I softly hold the fingertip between my teeth and and exclaim, "No."

"Wait, what do you mean 'no'? I haven't even finished explaining..."

"No! We aren't up and moving to Colorado and having you apply for a card."

"Good news! I don't have to! Because at the start of 2014, Colorado entered into a reciprocal agreement with a bunch of other medical marijuana states."

I release Chloe's finger from my toothsome prison and ponder exactly what she's managed to put together. "So...that means...oh shit! THAT'S why!"

Chloe just nods once. "Yea-huh."

"THAT'S WHY you went through all that pain and and suffering, not to mention the money spent, getting an Oregon card. Making ME get a card, too. Right before we left Arcadia Bay. I mean...damn."

You've never known personal shame until the love of your life convinces you to go and fake suffering a history of debilitating migraines just so you can qualify for an MMJ card. Still, I'm kind of surprised it worked. At the time it seemed like a lot of cost for little to no payoff. Especially when she told me she couldn't explain why 'until later.'

I shouldn't have gone along with it at all, but - sigh - YOU try saying no to a gorgeous skater punk with double-jointed fingers. Who knows how to use them. Oh God, there's this thing she does where...

*ahem*

Moving on.

"So we can just go in, show them our drivers license and our med cards, and they'll let us in and buy?"

She nods again, insufferably pleased with herself. "Yup yup yup! Same bullshit purchase restrictions as the other out-of-towners, can't buy more than a quarter ounce at a time but, shit, whatever, we're here for a week, right?!"

"Chloe, please don't spend all our money on weed, okay baby?" I ask in a soft, and only half-kidding tone of voice. I love that woman with all my heart, but she gets a little zealously single-minded on certain subjects. Which usually leaves it to me to assume the clever guise of a responsible legal adult.

"I promise. Seriously hon. I figure no more than half our money. A quarter, tops!" She starts holding that ridiculously beaming grin, bouncing like she's waiting for me to tell her it's okay to run into Disney World now.

"All right...all right. Let's do this. You're hair-brained scheme is...actually undeservedly clever, in a disturbingly sexy way. If only you could take all this foresight, talent and planning, and apply it to something more profitable."

"You mean like white collar crime?"

I groan, shrug and smirk, "Just promise me you'll only be defrauding billionaire hedge fund managers out of their ill gotten gains? And then take me to the Caribbean, where the sun and ocean will no doubt do wonders to soothe my savaged conscience. "

She takes my hand, and starts to lead me towards the door. "I'll stop after the first two-hundred and fifty million. Honest."

"Yeah well. Okay. Fine. I'll admit, I'm really kinda excited to see inside this place too."

So yeah, here's the thing of it, so you understand a little more of where we are in our relationship at present: I'm kinda into weed now, too. Admittedly, I only started because of Chloe. Well, that and I WAS curious to see what the big deal was. I'll never be the hardcore, daily wake-and-bake stoner queen par excellence that she is - and to be honest, some days I wish she'd smoke less - but I probably get blazed two or three times a week myself now. But not always crazy, stupid, couchlock-baked. Most times I'll get JUST enough to get me into a good, creative mindset. I've really come to appreciate the different strains of marijuana - or I guess we're supposed to call it cannabis now?

Seriously though, a good pure sativa strain? It can be an AMAZING thing. Skewing the mind, without screwing with my body. I'll always have my talent and my eye, and my artistic training, but if I get just stoned enough, it puts me in touch with something deep inside, sometimes. Brings up inspiration, lets me see connections, feel emotional depth that doesn't otherwise always come naturally to me. I remember wandering through Zion National Park after a smoking session with Chloe a couple weeks ago, and just gaping at all the beauty, so incredibly moved. Literally to tears. It was all I could do to remember to take pictures as I went. Later on, when I sobered up, I expected my photos to all be pointless - just shit, really. But no. It...it actually worked out, really well. And Chloe and I both found this awesome indica/sativa hybrid strain that...okay, look I'm just going to say that if we get the dose just right, sex becomes positively addictive. Just this incredible, spiritual, soul wracking, body tingling, multi-orgasmic...

Okay. I'm blushing now, and I'm going to stop.

Long and short: it's not something I would suggest doing day in, and day out, at least not for me - and someday I'll probably have to cut back, especially when college starts, but for now? It's like a nice glass of wine after dinner. It's something Chloe and I share, and we enjoy together. All the relationship docs say you should make an effort to share some of your lovers interests.

So I get stoned with her. And in return she...she...oh shit! We have ALL the same interests now! Damnit! Wait...wait..I'm sure I'm forgetting something...

"Hi there! Welcome to The Green Solution. Can I see your IDs please?"

The guy at the counter is cute enough, I suppose. Clean cut, well dressed. Definitely not the stoner archetype. And the lobby itself is nice: bright, white, clean. Pretentious artwork, chill soundtrack. If you like Gorillaz from around 2005. Which I will admit, I sorta do, a little bit.

The whole place looks far less like a seedy den of sin and debauchery, much more like the place you go to find out if botox and collagen injections are right for you.

"Allll right. Hmm." He's looking at our out-of-state licenses and our out-of-state medical cards six times over, and it's almost a good five minutes before we get them back, as he enters what's probably ever piece of information on them into a computer. Geesh, this is not at all like trying to scam of bottle of Fireball at the corner liquor store

"Everything looks in order. Sorry for the wait, we don't get a lot of these reciprocal agreement cards coming through here, believe it or not."

Chloe smiles winningly. "No problem. No problem at all. Gotta keep it all on the up and up, right?"

"No kidding. If you had any idea how much the M.E.D. still breathes down our...well. Anyhow. it'll probably be another five minutes before someone can meet with you. Why don't you girls have a seat."

I've already found a comfy chair, and look up from the latest copy of some local alt-paper called Westworld, as I watch Chloe do her Happy Dance!™. She's wiggling her bottom and poking her fingers up in the air and...oh God she's so cute when she's insufferably pleased.

She flops down into a chair next to me, leans back, clasps her hands behind her head and murmurs, "All right. You can begin with the adulation and fawning. Want me to give you some suggestions?"

"What? You mean like 'Oh Chloe, your devious cunning is only matched by your incredible ability to properly separate out colors and whites before doing the laundry?"

"Yeah! Hey...wait..."

"Or, 'You have no idea how wet it makes me when you have us commit borderline fraud in multiple states in order to get access to legal weed'?"

She pauses, her eyes widening, lips twitching at the corners. "R-reeeeally?"

I lean in and whisper, "Want a chance to find out?"

I can see the hamster in Chloe's brain, the one that keeps her mental wheels turning, completely freeze up, her jaw drop...

I love it when I break her mind.

I kiss her ear and say, "Drugs first, food next! Then tawdry hormonal hijinx after all that. And not a minute before!"

She grins, glancing downward, a blush still coloring her cheeks. "Yes, Ma'am."

A few minutes later, they call us in, and the actual shop area behind closed doors is just as fat-fancy as the lobby, if not more so. The wood paneling, for instance, is an extra nice touch.

We get assigned our own personal...I don't know what you would call her...cannabarista? Budtender? Legal Dealer? Personal Jesus is probably the term Chloe would go with. It's all slick, professional packaging, glass jars filled with weed, along with God knows how many weird sorts of pipes, oils, and...Groovy Bears? Seriously, they make gummy bears that get you high now?

That...is actually kind of cool.

But I still think allowing Chloe to come inside may have been a horrific tactical error.

She and the salesgirl, who DOES have dreadlocks and itchy looking hemp clothing named Misha - er, I mean that's HER name, not the name of her clothes - get along famously. It's one P.M. on a Tuesday, so she doesn't seem to mind Chloe chewing her ear off with a thousand questions. I just sort of tune out their conversation and busy myself with looking over some of the things in the display cabinet.

Ultimately, this culminates in my girlfriend drooling over this...okay, I'm trying to figure out how to describe it. I guess it's like a vaporizer, you know? One of those things that lets you smoke liquid nicotine, but you use hash oil instead. It's long and chunky, and looks like a sonic screwdriver;like, if the Doctor was a stoner or something.

(Doctor Who! That's what I can make Chloe watch with me in the future! She's been resistant for some damn reason, up to now.)

Chloe laughs with glee, holding it up. "Babe! Look! This is...totes amazing! I've been drugs-ing the wrong way for years now! I should take this up instead."

I shrug slightly and hmm. "Well, honestly? Sometimes you get a bit of this cough, and if vaping instead of smoking helps make that go away?"

We share a moment, just looking into each others eyes. She breaks the spell, by softly saying, "Yeah. Well. I'll...I'll get a small, cheap one. This things almost three-hundred."

I hold out a hand when Misha starts to pack it back up.

"I've got this."

Chloe blinks, and starts to protest, "No. Max, no! This is way too much...I can't let you..."

"You don't have a choice. Because unlike you, I still actually have some spending money saved up of my own. And I'm going to buy this for you. Consider it a super-early birthday gift. Or late."

She swallows, and looks sweetly pained. "Hon...oh, Max."

She tilts her head down and I lean in to kiss the tip of her nose.

"Just promise to use your powers only for good in the future, okay?"

She cups my cheek, and pulls me in for a full kiss. That turns into a nuzzle, and then another kiss, and then okay, Misha starts to politely clear her throat.

As I'm laying out the cash for Chloe's new best friend, she grabs it, waves it around with a flourish, then points it towards one of the other cashiers, calling out, "Expecto Pot-Stone'em!"

I cover my face with both my hands and groan.

"Holy shit. Promise me you'll NEVER do that again, Harry Pot-Head!"

She blows on it like it's a gun barrel, and then manages to twirl it around in her fingers in an impressive display of skill, before slipping it into the pocket of her flannel.

We finally get out of the shop with Chloe's new vape thingy, along with a quarter ounce each of...no. I don't want to say it. I find the names they give weed strains so embarrassing that I could just die, so I won't even bother, except to say that Chloe gets an indica, I get a sativa, and we both pick out a nice hybrid oil...

...and a package of Groovy Bears. And some sort of drops you put under your tongue. And pair of disposable pre-loaded vape pens. And...

*sigh* Let's just say we're going to be eating nothing but ramen noodles for the next two weeks once we get out of Denver. Still, we're young. We've got plenty of brain cells to kill before I have to settle down and start college. What other time in my life am I going to get a chance to have this kind of mindlessly self-indulgent fun?

I finally got my sandwich though, from this place named - I kid you not - The Cheba Hut, where I had a chicken ranch club called The White Widow. I know Chloe is all into this stoner culture stuff, but frankly, I'm getting a little bored of it for today. I must have made a grumbly remark about it at one point, because Chloe and I start talking about it.

"I know I get kind of crazy with this stuff, at least with regards to Colorado, babe, but look at it this way: Last year, a bunch of people got together and stood up to the bullshit that the government was feeding them for decades and said 'No. You're wrong, and we're taking our power back.' And they did. I mean...how often does THAT kind of thing happen? It's pretty mind blowing when you think about it. It's as much about freedom and self-determination as anything else."

I hate to say it, but she did have a pretty good point. One I hadn't actually thought about before. Not that I think of Chloe as a political person but...more than me, for sure.

We grabbed another sandwich for the road, and ended up in Washington Park, which apart from being absolutely huge and gorgeous was surprisingly quiet for the time of the day. So of course, Chloe couldn't wait to try out her new gadget, and I suppose I got talked into sampling along with her.

Still, it was nice. Just lying there on the grass with her, hand in hand, staring up at the blue sky, maybe a little over-baked...but at the same time, I had to admit that I felt a tremendous sense of peace, like the rest of the world had been put on pause, and it was just Chloe and me. Like I could just stretch the minutes and the hours out forever if I wanted to, reliving this moment over and over again and...

...oh shit!

"Max? Cutie? Why you holding out your hand in the air like that?"

"I...uhm. I...I'm trying to rewind time, I think? I got worried for a moment my power came back."

Chloe gives me a long, appraising look, and my cheeks blaze red, as I foolishly realize that I haven't been that lucky after all. Or cursed.

But she does lose it for a moment, dissolving into an absolute giggle fit.

"Oh! Oh...Oh God! Oh my God! You are SO fucking high right now."

I start to laugh, trying to hold my hand over her mouth, "Shit, dummy! Don't go yelling it to the world!" It was a good couple of minutes before we could manage to calm down, having somehow managed to end up tangled in each others arms. And then there might have been a bit of making out.

Or a lot of making out...

It's Chloe who actually breaks the kissing streak and murmurs "Hey Max?"

"Mmmm? Hey...where kisses go? Come back, kisses."

She combs her fingers through my hair and breathes out, "Babe, this has been a lot of fun today and everything...but lets make sure we don't spend the whole week mega-baked, okay?"

I blink, vaguely dazed and confused. Damnit, I really am a lightweight with this stuff.

"What? Oh...yeeeah. Yeah, that's...that's really great, sweetie."

"Because I know there's all this stuff you want to see, like the Rockies, and there's biking, and hiking..."

We both start breaking out into giggles again, because they rhyme.

"Just a shame if we missed it all, s'what I'm saying. "

I try my best not to laugh too hard, grinning lazily as I say, "Oh my God. Who are you, and what did you do with my punk rock girl?"

She pokes me in the sides and says playfully, "I. Can be. Responsible too. You know."

"Yeah. I see. I...I like it." I lean in and kiss her earlobe.

Chloe shivers and murmurs, "You...you're getting turned on by my being the responsible one?"

"Ohhh yeah..." I respond in a low, somewhat sultry voice, or what I think sultry is for me. "If we were back on Sparklefists, I would be seriously tearing off your shirt with my teeth right now."

I settle instead for a lot more cuddling and kissing and enjoying the company of the love of my life out in the open air. Then Chloe and I TOTALLY destroy that extra sandwich we bought, before finally calling it an afternoon.

The rest of the trip is as awesome as we could have hoped for. Colorado is like Oregon turned up a few more notches. The scenery is spectacular, the hiking is badass, and there is a LOT to do, like culturally and stuff, in Denver itself. I hate to say it, but even take away the legal weed, and it's still a pretty chill place to live.

I'm glad we got to see as much as the state and surrounding Denver area had to offer in a week; I'm happy to know I won't have to spend time worrying about whether Chloe is really thinking what to do with her life in the long term. I think.

Although wasting all of Sunday, lazing about in the RV, getting baked, making out and watching Doctor Who (yay!) was in my opinion, a pretty worthwhile way to spend the day as well.

Just as long as it's not all the time..we've only just started this crazy trip together.

A/N: So I'm going to assume there are at least one or two law nerds in the audience getting ready to write "But Hugo! In the real world, Colorado doesn't have any reciprocating agreements with the other states for medical marijuana." Yup. And I doubt it's as easy to get a med card in Oregon as it is in California. But I figured a little creative legal fiction made things flow a lot smoother than something like...say...Chloe bribes a shop owner to let her and Max look around in the middle of the night. That seemed like something patently ridiculous. I've been over 21 for so long, I forget how limited life can be to some extent when you're still under that age.

Funny though, this started off as just a cute joke (Because Chloe in Colorado? Comedy gold!) but I wasn't quite expecting it to be as involved as it ended up being. I realize this sort of subject is probably not everyone's cup of tea, but I hope folks enjoyed it for the most part.