A/N: Babes! Hi! I know, I know, it's been ages... Life has been a little bitch and writers' block hit me pretty hard. That said, here's a new chapter, finally! I still don't know how I feel about this cause it's obviously filler (but hey, those are still needed too in a story), and it's also kind of a different format from what I usually write. Like I said, I didn't really know how to continue this in a believable way, so this is a series of... snapshots? I guess? from Max and Victoria's time together. It's a pretty personal chapter for me, actually, cause some of what I'm writing in it are things that my kinda ex gf and I did at one point or an other. Anyways, so sorry if it's confusing in any way, let me know if it is and I'll try to clear everything up!
Once again, a huge thank you to everyone who's been reading and following and just being all around awesome. Thanks, you guys! ^^

"So you've never been to a gay bar before?" Max shook her head, her hands nervously playing with the bottom of her shirt as her and Victoria walked down a dark alley. It had been three weeks since their… hiccup, as Max would call it, and things had once again been looking up. Victoria chuckled. "Try not to look too much like it's your first time. I was such a fish out of the water my first time there, but it's actually really fun. You'll like it, it's right up your alley. Hipster music, geeky girls with flannel… Pretty much every lesbian stereotype actually. And don't worry, you're not gonna get hit on. Girls are respectful, they won't bother someone who's obviously already on a date," she explained as she took a right turn, pulling Max along by her elbow.

'So this is a date,' Max chuckled at the thought. It felt like both of them had been walking on eggshells around one another. Being close, but not too close. The nights they had spent watching movies together would almost always end with them asleep, limbs carelessly thrown over each other. But they would always have an excuse for that. And when they didn't, they would just not talk about it. It wasn't ideal or even healthy, Max knew that and she was pretty sure Victoria knew it too, yet neither of them made the first step.

"Unless of course you want to get hit on, in which case we'll just make it clear that we're friends and not on a date. We should probably make that clear now, though. Just to… You know, just so we know what we're doing." She was rambling again and Max knew she was nervous. She always rambled when she felt that way.

"I don't want to get hit on," Max stated simply and Victoria's eyes gleamed slightly, her head nodding as a small smile made its way to her lips. The brunette smiled back, content that her words apparently had the desired effect.

It was a very pretty bar. Small and warm and… homey. Not at all like what Max had expected.

"I thought you said this was the 'ultimate gay bar'," she stated as she looked around, her eyes taking in the details.

"I did, didn't I?" Victoria chuckled. "What's the matter, Caulfield? Got too caught up in the stereotypes?" she joked as she led them to a table near the bar. "This is where we come if we want to relax. You know, nice drinks, good music, warm people… Not everything has to be a party." Max never asked who "we" were and Victoria never explained.

They talked a little until a pretty waitress with auburn hair in a side braid and a cute french accent came to take their orders. Victoria chatted easily with her in a tone that showed she already knew her. They both laughed when the blonde pretended to be offended when she asked for her favorite wine and the girl told her they had apparently stopped serving that a while ago. She settled with two glasses of mulled wine instead, the waitress smiling as she wrote down the order and left.

"That's Cecile," she explained leaning closer to Max to help her voice be heard over the music. "She's a bit older than us, been working here for ages."

"You seem to know her quite well."

"Not too well. She kept me company one day I was waiting for Taylor. We bonded over the Great Gatsby book which we had both been reading at the time and I make it a point to talk to her every time I come here. She's pretty cool." Max simply nodded, her mind too busy trying to make sense of the weird feeling in the pit of her stomach. Had she not known any better, she would think it was something akin to jealousy.

"There you go," the redhead waitress, Cecile , arrived again not five minutes later with their drinks and a small bowl of peanuts.

"Thanks, babe," Victoria smiled at her sweetly and Max felt her jaw tense.

"Enjoy," Cecile reflected the blonde's smile, only she directed it to both her and Max. "Oh, Victoria," the way she pronounced the girl's name sounded so sexy to Max, it made her skin tingle. She hated it. "I have been reading that book you gave me, it's so good! I cannot put it down," she laughed and Victoria followed suit.

"I told you you'd like it!" The two chatted a little more as Max watched them, their actual words becoming white noise in the back of her head as she focused on their expressions and gestures. They seemed comfortable with each other, but not more comfortable than two friends would be. She briefly wondered if that's how her and Victoria appeared in the eyes of other people, or if theirs was a different kind of comfortable. It took her a second to realize that Cecile was now gone and Victoria was looking at her, clearly having said something and now waiting for an answer.

"I'm sorry, what?" Max blinked herself back to reality. The blonde chuckled.

"Where are you off to, Caulfield?" she asked, but got no answer. "I asked if you'd tried mulled wine before," she continued after a moment. "It's a little weird the first time cause it's warm and tastes kinda like cough syrup," she laughed.

Max cautiously smelled the drink, which made Victoria smile softly. It was one of those things Max would always do; smell before taste. She took a small sip, letting the liquid sit in her mouth for a moment while she tried to place the flavor. "I don't know what kind of cough syrup you've been taking," she stated when she gulped it down, "but this tastes nothing like that. It's good though, it reminds me of Christmas," she nodded and saw Victoria's shoulders relax a little. "Pretty… interesting."

"I am one mental breakdown away from dyeing my hair pink and joining a punk group."

"Hello to you too, Victoria. I'm great, how are you?" Max chuckled at the thought of a pink-haired Victoria as the currently still blonde girl burst into her room before the door was even fully open and plopped herself on the couch.

"Don't sass me, Maxine, I'm not in the fucking mood," Victoria grumbled and Max knew that it was time to stop joking. Whatever had happened, it was clearly big enough to make Victoria do a 180 in less than half an hour. She shut the door and sat on the couch as well. Close enough to provide comfort, but far enough to give the other girl space and the chance to leave if she wanted to.

"Wanna talk about it?" she asked after a moment of silence. "You were fine thirty minutes ago…"

"I wasn't fine thirty minutes ago, I was great ," she huffed. "I should have known that something would ruin that, it's what always happens."

"What happened?" Max pressed on. "Was it your parents?" 'Again,' she refrained from adding. It wasn't a too wild of a guess, she was more than aware of the strained relationship between Victoria and her parents, even if she was still a little foggy on the details.

"It's just so… amazing how one call can make me feel like shit, you know?" Max nodded, her hand rubbing slow circles on Victoria's back as she waited for her to continue. "And they always call. They never text or email, they call. You know why? Cause they want to hear my fucking reaction to whatever they have to say to me! And you know they never call about anything good, obviously, so my reaction is never good either. I swear they're getting off on this shit."

One thing Max had learned about Victoria was that the blonde wanted to vent sometimes. It wasn't strange in any way, everyone needed to vent from time to time, but she had also learned that if she was interrupted at any point, the girl would clam up, raise her walls and refuse to talk no matter what. So Max sat there, hand dancing delicately around the blonde's back, and listened to everything Victoria had to say, biting her tongue and holding herself back from saying what she really thought of the situation. She would have the chance to talk after Victoria was done ranting, she knew that. It was a pretty convenient arrangement too, since, most of the times, Max' input was to state how terrible Victoria's parents were and how she didn't deserve them; which was something Victoria was well aware of anyway, so she could wait to say it.

"They got a letter from that gallery in New York," Victoria spoke up again after a moment of silence used to gather herself and her thoughts. "I fucking told them to contact me at this address, but did they do it? Of course not. So now my parents know I've been rejected. Again. As if they needed yet another reason to call and belittle me. And you know what the worst part is? I really thought I had a chance this time. I mean... I sent in some legit fucking work, Max. Some of my best shots were in that portfolio and the answer was still the same." Max sighed and tightened her hold on Victoria slightly in a show of support. "Maybe it's time to accept that my best just isn't good enough. I could always go back to writing, I guess… I think I was good at that. Of course- well, I thought I was good at photography too, so... my judgment is nothing to go by." Max wasn't certain exactly when Victoria had stopped talking to her and begun talking to herself, but she was fairly certain that was what was going on for the past couple of minutes. "I only leaned towards photography for Mark fucking Jefferson, can you believe that?" she didn't wait for an answer to her question. "So stupid… I was so- I don't know, enchanted by what he did, I thought I could do the same. I should have seen the crash landing from miles away. You know what's weird though? My parents never discouraged me. They never told me I was bad… Just that I could be better. No other input. And it's so tiring… Trying to be better all the time when you don't even know what you did wrong in the first place... I don't know why I still seek their fucking approval after everything, but I do. Maybe cause I think that if I finally get that, then there won't be anything that I won't be able to get, you know? That makes sense…"

"Do you maybe wanna hear what I think?" Max asked a few seconds later.

Victoria chuckled softly despite herself. "I'm not gonna like it, am I?"

"Well, that depends. I don't have to say anything if you don't want me to."

"We both know that's not true, Maxine, so you might as well just go ahead."

"You don't deserve this," Max' voice was soft but firm and Victoria knew that she meant what she was saying. "You don't deserve to be treated this way by your own parents and they're assholes for thinking that it's okay to act like this."

"Tell me something I don't know," the blonde muttered.

"You're an amazing photographer and, as much as it surprises me to say it, you're a pretty great person too. You know, beneath all the bitchiness, the attitude and the vibe of entitlement you give off." She chuckled when Victoria punched her shoulder playfully and mentally patted herself on the back for managing to ease some of the tension.

"You're an asshole."

Max feigned a shocked and hurt expression. "Wow, and right after I told you you're actually pretty nice. Gee, thanks, Victoria."

"Yeah, right before you listed all that's bad about me!"

"I didn't list everything that's bad about you," Max mumbled, knowing fully well that the blonde would hear her. That was the point, after all.

Victoria laughed as she pushed the brunette away from her, using maybe just a little be more force than necessary. "I can't believe I chose to start hanging out with you."

Max laughed at that but showed no intention of replying. She blushed slightly, instead, and pushed Victoria back. 'Yeah, I can't really believe that either,' she thought but chose to say out loud.

"No. Stop- Stop!" Max burst into laughter as Victoria pulled her abruptly closer to the train tracks. "If I die, it'll be on you, you know," she pulled her arm back and shoved the blonde playfully. She chuckled as Victoria made her way to one of the benches and sat and pulling her down with her. The train wouldn't be there for another fifteen minutes so it was nice to have a place to sit for a bit. "So um… Can I ask you something?" she begun, loving the feeling of Victoria's hand rubbing soothing circles on her palm.

Victoria looked at her curiously, a strange gleam in her eyes. "Sure."

Pause. "What are we?" The blonde's movements faltered but didn't stop.

"What do you mean?"

"Are you… Are we just- you know, 'hanging out'?" Max blushed slightly but pressed on. "Are you my girlfriend? What is this? I mean… We've been getting closer and- I think you're my friend, but it also feels kinda… Well not so... friendly per se. I just-" Victoria chuckled causing Max' blush to deepen.

"Do you want me to ask you?"

"That would be nice actually…"

"I'll be your girlfriend if you'll be mine," the blonde smirked.

"That's not a question."

"It's as close to a question as you're gonna get." She said knowingly and laughed, Max soon following suit. There was an old woman sitting next to them, intently and not at all discreetly listening to their every word. She smiled at the exchange and it made Victoria's heart flutter. Seeing someone obviously older being this okay with that, it gave her hope.

"So… What are we?" came the question again, making Victoria groan and roll her eyes. This was going to be fun.

(Sweet-T 14:34): Call me you little shit!

(Me 20:20): Come by my room. And don't call me little shit, you slut! Xx

It took Taylor all of three seconds to find herself knocking firmly on Victoria's door.

"Where's the fucking fire, Tay?" Victoria laughed as Taylor stood there, her arm still raised and ready to continue knocking.

"Oh look! You're alive!" She hastily made her way inside, her eyes scanning the room for anything out of the ordinary. "Where the fuck have you been?" she asked as she turned around to look at her best friend, her eyes widening in recognition. "You were on a date!"

"What?"

"No wonder you took like six hours to text back! I was fucking worried, just so you know."

"How the fuck do you know I was on a date? I didn't know it was a real date."

Taylor laughed and gave Victoria a disbelieving look. "Sure, you didn't. Anyways, your clothes say otherwise." She eyed the girl from head to toe. "You wore that same outfit on your date with that dude a few months ago. It's your date outfit, don't deny it!" Victoria could only roll her eyes and try to control the blush she felt creeping to her cheeks. "So. Tell me everything!" Taylor beamed excitedly. "I think I know who the date was with, but. Who was it?"

"Hipster trash Caulfield," Victoria stated and Taylor laughed.

"You can't keep calling her that if you're dating."

"We went out once and you're already saying we're dating."

"Once? Vic, please. You to spent the entire Christmas break together and you've only "gone out once"? Hah, sure, that's believable."

"That's not- Ugh, fuck off, Tay." The blonde rolled her eyes, but she couldn't stop a small smile from reaching her lips.

"Seriously, though, babe. Are you? You know, dating? Is it official? Should I find what to wear to the wedding?"

"Is that you being serious?" Victoria laughed. "Anyways, yes we are seriously dating, but I wouldn't be too fast to buy a dress yet. I mean, we legit just talked about being… official. Ugh, I hate that term."

Taylor's entire face lit up as a grin made its way to her lips, soon growing to a full-blown smile. "That's so great!" she exclaimed maybe a little bit too loud as she rushed to give her best friend a hug. "Fucking finally too!" she laughed. "You two have been dancing around this for months, it was getting so annoying."

"Well, excuse me that my love life inconvenienced you, Taylor, it won't happen again," she said sarcastically as she pushed herself away from her friend. "You can keep it between us, right? For now at least."

"Babe. Don't offend me. Despite the number of rumors I've started in my high school career, I know how to keep a secret when it matters. Especially one of yours."

"I know, I know, just making sure," Victoria laughed.

"You seem different," Taylor said softly after a second, her eyes closely looking at the other girl's features.

Victoria squinted. "How so?"

"I don't know," she raised her shoulders. "Like… Lighter. Happier."

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but I kinda feel like this too. It's- it's nice." Nice was an understatement for what Victoria was feeling, even after she had to stop herself from getting too excited about everything.

Their first kiss as official girlfriends was nothing like the kisses they had shared until then. Where the previous ones had been rough and desperate, this one was soft and tender. Cute even. It was Victoria who had made the first move, the night after their little talk at the train station as they were coming back from a coffee date. They were standing at the bus stop, probably the least romantic place for a kiss to happen, and yet everything just seemed to click into place. The way the light fell on their faces, the slight breeze that made Max curl in on herself slightly and press her body against Victoria's, the lack of people and commotion around them… It was then that Victoria raised her hand slowly and ran her thumb over Max' lips. She felt more than heard the shorter girl gasp ever-so-slightly and she knew she was on the right path.

"Your lips are cold," she said softly, her eyes never leaving Max'.

"They are?" Max's fingers touched her lips at the same spot Victoria's thumb had just been. "It is pretty chilly..." she said huskily as she looked up, her eyes darkening slightly.

The blonde's hand rested against Max' cheek then while her other hand found its place on her waist. "Let me just check again," she mumbled and slowly, almost painfully so, leaned in, bringing their lips together. She pulled back a couple of seconds later, her thumb returning to touch the side of Max' lips. "They're not anymore…" It was cheesy and, at any other moment, it would make both of them groan and roll their eyes, but at that moment it was perfect. It may not have been the first time they had kissed, but it certainly felt like it. And they both wished it wasn't going to be the last, not for a long time.

"Ask me something." They were having a lazy Sunday. Max messing around on her laptop while Victoria was laying in bed, a joint between her fingers and smoke coming out of her mouth. She had promised to stop, but she hadn't reached that point yet. It was far too relaxing for her to quit.

"Huh?" came Max' voice from across the room.

"Ask me something," Victoria repeated sitting up slightly. Max turned around in her chair to look at her girlfriend. She smiled as she got up and made her way to the bed, nodding for Victoria to move away so she could lie down next to her.

"Okay… What are you afraid of?" Max asked while getting comfortable on the bed and turning to her side to face the blonde. They had played this game before. They would take turns asking questions to one another for however long they felt like. Or until someone hit a nerve; that always put a sour end to it. The only rule was that the one answering had to always be honest.

"Being forgotten," came Victoria's reply a second later, and it was obvious to Max that the girl had thought about this before.

"Oh wow, that's deep. Now I feel bad about my fear of spiders," the brunette chuckled.

Victoria laughed, "it's a valid fear, worry not little Maxine. I'm not gonna judge your fear of small insects." She patted Max' head softly, causing the girl to groan. "Okay, my turn. What superpower would you want to have? I'm partial to invisibility or time manipulation, myself." Max paled.

"I don't do superpowers…" she whispered hoarsely and sat up.

Victoria blinked in confusion as she raised her upper body and supported herself on her elbows. "Not even time manip? You're always late, god knows you need it," she joked not knowing the full effect of her words.

"Especially not that." There were tears welling up in Max' eyes, a signal that something was really wrong. "Never that," she mumbled trying to will herself not to break down right then and there.

"Hey… Hey, come on, what is it? You can tell me, babe." She felt Victoria's fingers brush a strand of hair away from her face and behind her ear.

"It's…" Max swallowed thickly before continuing. "It's a story for another time…" she settled. "A time with a lot of alcohol involved, actually…" she added quietly. Victoria had no idea what was going on, but she knew that she had struck a pretty big nerve. Their game had never ended this fast before.

"We should… Shit- We should stop…" Max' voice trailed off, her voice aroused and her tone not in the least bit convincing.

Victoria pulled herself away from Max, her pupils dilated and her breathing heavy. "Right." She ran a hand through her hair and tried to get a hold of herself. "I got carried away, I'm sorry."

"No, don't apologize." Max let her fingers travel softly up and down the blonde girl's arm. "I'm the one who should be doing so, actually…"

Victoria's eyes snapped abruptly towards Max, her gaze intense. " Never . Never apologize for this, Max. Never apologize for not being ready. We have all the time in the world, no one's chasing us. We don't have to do anything we don't want to," she leaned in and placed a tender kiss on Max' lips. She smiled a sweet smile as she pulled back; one of those smiles that she reserved just for Max, as the brunette had come to understand.

"I really do like you, you know," Max murmured, leaning forward again and making Victoria chuckle into the kiss.

"Gee, thanks. I really appreciate it. I think we may have a problem if you didn't actually like me," she laughed. "For what it's worth and as much as it pains me to say it, I really do like you too."

"Fuck off, Victoria," Max laughed as she lightly pushed the taller girl away from her. "So… Movie? We can watch that anime OVA you wanted to."

"Is this because you left me hanging like five minutes ago?"

Max blushed. "No."

"It so is! I'm taking advantage of this, just so you know," Victoria's eyes lit up as she laughed. "And yes, anime OVA it is. Oh, I'm so ready for you to try and make it up to me by doing me all kinds of favors."

"I might just have sex with you right now if that's the alternative."

"You won't do that," her tone was serious. "You will, however, go downstairs and buy us junk to eat while I put on the movie." She threw Max' t-shirt at her and moved to put her own back on. "If there isn't at least one thing with chocolate on it, you won't be let back in the room."

"This is my room, Victoria!" Max protested as she was pushed out the door. "You can't just- You can't just claim it!"

"Too late for that, Maxine. What yours is mine!" She slammed the door at her girlfriend's face.

A/N: Still contemplating on whether or not I should just bite the bullet and write smut tbh. I've written my fair share of smut in my young life so it's not like I'm completely new to it, but I haven't been practicing in a while so... it could get awkward xD