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They're stationed inside Max's bedroom, Chloe slouched over on Max's couch with filthy boots resting atop a sidetable Max had just wiped down. To the side of the punk sat Max herself, squinted eyes staring straight through the offending boots with all the disdain they could manage. Chloe, completely oblivious, leaned further into the couch's cushion with a smirk.
“Re-lax, will you?” She droned, mistaking Max's exasperation for apprehension, and gave her partner-in-crime a firm pat on the back. “It’s easier than you think, I promise.”
Redirecting her focus to the topic at hand - the freshly-lit joint that sat between Max's forefinger and thumb - Max's brow creased downward.
“Then how come I don’t feel anything?” she mumbled, disgruntled; slim fingers idly twisting the joint between her fingers. It looked so strange in her grasp, so foreign. Like this was Chloe's craft, and in her hands it just some sort of useless replica.
She'd heard all about the delicate art of smoking weed long before it had been explicitly offered to her in person. This particular joint was, apparently, rolled meticulously in blueberry flavored paper and could easily be considered a 'masterpiece' of its kind - according to the artist behind the work. For all intents and purposes, said artist had assured, it should be doing its job just fine.
“If it’s so easy, then why can’t I seem to get anything out of it?”
Chloe gave a wise, knowing nod. “A lot of people do it wrong on their first try.” Finally, the time had come for her to flaunt her expertise. “You can’t just hold the smoke in your mouth, you’ve gotta let it get deep into your lungs. That's how you actually absorb the THC and the cannabanoids and the... you know, the not-planty parts that actually get you high.”
Seemingly proud of her exceptionally unscientific explanation, Chloe nabbed the joint from between Max’s fingertips and made a show of taking a big hit herself. Her eyelashes fluttered over her eyes as she drew the smoke inwards; just like the thousands of times she'd done it before.
Her throat easily filled up with thick grey smoke, leaving a familiar earthy citrus taste on her tongue. Now this was the good shit. She’d make a mental note to thank Frank for his gardening expertise at a later date.
A few beats later, the smoke slithered out of Chloe's barely parted lips; leaving her mouth in a long trail that seemed to draw off forever in the distance - out of Max’s cracked dormitory window, into the Fall breeze, all the way up into the sky. “Wanna give it another shot?”
The staredown Max seemed to give the jay was, quite frankly, a little intimidating. Her expression was eerily intense, and really, Chloe figured it could go either way.
It came as a pleasant surprise when Max had snatched it clear out of the other girl's hand. When she caught that signature Caulfield determination painted across her features, Chloe knew she'd get this girl floating on cloud nine yet.
As Max carefully wrapped her fingers around the joint, Chloe hadn't noticed just how intently she had been staring at Max. She placed the joint between her lips a second time, a smooth fit inside her temptingly soft and tantalizing mouth that made her want to -
No, no, bad Price. Keep your eyes on the end of the joint, monitor the cherry, make sure she’s doing it right. Hormones are to be in check through all phases. Mission: get Max baked as fuck is a critical one.
A slew of flustering, disorganized thoughts were cut short at the notice of the flame on the end of the joint igniting and burning the paper down further. Chloe could feel the corners of her mouth creeping up into a satisfied smirk.
It's party time.
Or at least it was party time, for like, two seconds, until Max started hacking up a lung or two.
Max may have been just a bit overzealous with her huffing. She deduced that since Chloe didn’t seem to be choking half to death on the floor, she probably should've taken it just a bit easier on the inhale. She wanted to make a joke about overcompensating for the last hit, except witty remarks were a struggle when you were busy choking on nothing.
A surprisingly strong hand smacked Max hard on the back, a kind gesture but ultimately ineffective remedy for her hacking. Fortunately, that same hand reached around behind Max and snatched up a water bottle conveniently situated at her end-table. Slinking her hand around to Max's front, she popped the cap off and extended it towards the brunette as an offering.
“Drink up, nerd.” she commanded, entirely phasing out Max's deathly wheezing. “Ease your tragic suffering, you weed noob. Water helps more and hurts less than having your throat ravaged."
There was a temptation to make a comment about how she could be the one to do that if Max preferred, but the poor girl was choking enough as is. Time and place.
Max did exactly as instructed, naturally, and slugged back at least half the bottle in a single chug. Chloe threw an arm around Max's shoulder to offer shoulder pats of reassurance in some kind of attempt to coax her out of the lasts of her fit. Fortunately, her stoner wisdom proved to be of some substance: the unignorable itch in the back of Max's throat calmed into a dull ache.
Chloe found herself glued to Max's expression, intently studying its dissent from displeasure to something she'd never seen on that face before.
After a moment of tense quietness, Max spoke up.
“Whoa.” And then it hit her. And it was totally not what she expected.
It was if her body warmed itself up from the inside out, her brain was swaddled in a million fleece blankets, and that unfairly small point of contact between her and Chloe was the best feeling in the entire world. None of these things registered at the front of her mind, though, as she stared down at the flame of the joint with widened eyes, transfixed on the way the sparks flew off the tip as it burned downwards.
“Hey, hey, don’t waste the whole thing by using it as incense!” Chloe defensively snatched her dearly beloved from her partner’s hand, making a display of huffing and puffing in displeasure. The façade faded in no time at all, though, as she realized - holy shit, she finally got her best friend stoned! “So… How’re you feeling?”
“I feel…” Max started the thought with something in her mind, but that sentence certainly didn't have an ending to it. Was there even a word for what she was feeling? This weird body-tingly, floaty, happy mind-space where words didn’t really matter anyway, so why did it matter if she -
Oh, yeah. There was a word for it. “High.” she finished, after what was definitely almost a twenty second pause.
And at that, Chloe burst out into a full-bellied laugh that eventually ended with her teeth bared in a wolf’s grin. It shone with bright, unbridled joy. Sharing something like this with Max was, to put it mildly, hella fuckin' sweet.
“Ah, the joys of being a newbie with no tolerance.” Chloe reminisced, taking another hit (or two, or three) for herself. After losing possession of the jay, Max was pretty sure Chloe went onto some tangent about how she started smoking as a tween, and how now she needed to smoke, like, two bowls to get stoned, or needed some of that really dank indoor stuff and - something, something, something.
All Max could seem to focus on was how awesome the arm draped across her shoulder was. Without the slightest hint of her usual hesitance, she wiggled her body closer against Chloe’s in an attempt at increasing the surface area of their contact.
“Ah?” Chloe's expression didn't betray her surprise.“Man, Caulfield, just because you got one kiss does not mean you get an all-access pass to all of this.” She punctuated the tease with some vague gesture at her body using her free arm.
Max grumbled back an endearingly firm "shut up", rubbing her face onto Chloe’s shoulder and slinging her arms around the lithe girl’s frame. “Like I said, it feels nice. You signed yourself up for this. And, besides, admit it... my hugs are awesome, and you know it.”
Chloe snorted, and patted Max firmly on the shoulder again. She took another hit, then; the joint almost spent. She gave a hum of contentment - or amusement. Max couldn't quite peg which.
“So does wittle Maxine want me to tuck her into bed all cozy-like now? I could even tell you a bedtime story. In fact, I’ve got just the perfect one in mind: there once was a girl who smoked, like, a thousandth a gram of weed, and immediately dissolved into a big pile of sappy mush-”
“Shuuut it,” Max droned again, pulling her body away just slightly to better face Chloe. She intertwined her hands around the other girl's back. “You know, you could always tell me to let go, and I will.”
“I didn’t say you had to let go.” Chloe scoffed, pointedly averting her gaze. Was the Chloe Price actually flustered? The slightest flush of her cheeks pointed to 'yes'. "I was just saying."
“Yeah, duh. That’s my point, loser.” Now, Max was the one flashing Chloe a devious smile. She’d won this round, and she knew it. Her victory prize was settling into Chloe’s side again, with the blue haired girl’s arm wrapping around her own and pulling the two closer together.
The duo laid together in a blissful silence for a while. Chloe had finally finished off the roach and was rapidly approaching the same pleasant peak Max had gotten herself up to dozens of hits ago.
And, damn, Frank must've finally learned a thing or two, because this strain was the shit. Every ache in her body had long since dissolved, her mind was cleared of its usual endless streams of bullshit, and every physical touch in the world was blissful electricity. She immediately understood why Max had snuggled up to her. She was thankful as hell for it.
“And that’s that.” Chloe proclaimed, snubbing the roach into a makeshift ashtray of cardboard and adjusting her second arm over Max. She glanced towards the photographer whose face was firmly planted against Chloe’s collar. “So, what now? I know a ton of shows that are totally awesome to watch while baked. You ever hear of Steven Universe? It’s totally like, a kid’s cartoon, but then it gets all deep and shit and-”
Max nuzzled her face further into Chloe as a silent no, and released her grip around Chloe’s waist in order to allow herself a better look at her face. The sudden absence of contact displeased the both of them more than it should’ve.
“Let’s just…” Max tried, voice softening with each word. “Hang out.” Chloe’s one arm hadn’t left Max’s shoulder, and the smaller girl made a point to pull it closer against her body and re-assume her position rested atop Chloe's collar.
“I'm kinda starting to get why you do this all the day, Chlo.” Max purred against the other girl's skin.
“I don’t do it all day, asshole. Only in the mornings, before meals, before showers, and before bed!”
“Uh-huh.” Max droned, eyes rolling so hard she could nearly feel them exit her skull. “So… Does it feel like this for you, too?”
The question wasn’t one Chloe was quite mentally-prepared to answer, and it took her a few seconds of squinting and head-tilting to get any kind of response out of her mouth. Fuck, she was baked, too. God dammit, and she was supposed to look cool and impress Max here.
“What do you mean?” As if you couldn't have at least figured out that one, dumbass.
“Like, the… you know…” Max gave something of a head-nudge towards Chloe’s arm; the very one she clutched protectively over her body.
“Oh, that? Yeah, I know what you mean. Some of the real good stuff makes touch feel like, two-hundred times awesomer than usual. Dunno what exactly the deal with it is, but cuddling and shit is like, totally awesome. Especially when it's with cute chicks.”
She... didn’t mean for that to sound so outstandingly gay. Why did she feel the need to add that last sentence? That was definitely not the right thing to say.
Oh well. Too late now. Some people aren't lucky enough to get superpowers that can prevent them from making an ass out of themselves.
Max hardly reacted at all, only humming pleasantly in response. “Yeah, it is.” Chloe's heart rate began its descent back to not-heart-attack-mode, and she took a deep breath inwards.
It was only when Max glanced up at Chloe with those doe eyes of hers that she realized she'd been holding her breath the whole time. The sudden eye contact between the two forced Chloe to avert her gaze and pretend she couldn’t feel her face heating up by the second. That's two strikes, now, Price. You're being the lamest right now.
“But, um…” Max mumbled, and tugged harder on Chloe's arm as if to get her attention. As if she didn't already have it. (Always.)
“Hm?” Ignoring the flush of heat that'd just made its way up to her cheeks, Chloe managed to return Max's gaze once more. She made every effort to suppress any and all nervousness as she moved in and tilted her head, as if that would help her hear any better. “What about… you know, like… I mean, have you ever...”
Groan. If Chloe didn’t stop her sooner than later, Max would’ve done an entire dance routine around the point before getting to it.
“What, like doing it while high? Yeah, it can be pretty cool. Why? Feeling feisty, Caulfield?” She joked. Mostly.
“No, no, I didn’t mean that! Just like-” Max’s embarrassment was palpable in the groan that followed. She despised the fact that she had to be so blunt lest Chloe play Mad-Libs for her. “Kissing, and stuff. I mean, I’m sure you’ve kissed a lot of people like this, so I... I don't know, I thought it was worth asking about.”
Ouch. Something about that comment shot a pang of some kind of hurt through both of them - and on instinct, Chloe’s fingers wrapped tighter around the part of Max’s forearm they’d settled upon. The unpleasant feelings within them both immediately dissipated.
“Well, I mean, yeah, I sure as hell think it rules,” Chloe started, desperately seeking the right words. It was best to keep things curt, she knew that, it wouldn’t do her any good to start retelling tales of past hook-ups just for example's sake. But without citing particular experiences, how exactly could she explain it in a way that -
“Can we try?” Max’s voice once again tore straight through Chloe’s inner monologue.
Holy shit.
That was the last thing Chloe ever expected to hear from that girl of all people.
Her expression must've given away her immediate shock, because Max made a visible effort to move away. Chloe made certain she wouldn't, her response coming in the form of a tightened grip and rushed words.
“Yeah, dude, I mean,” she actually stuttered, putting every ounce of effort her brain could muster into regaining some sense of composure. “It’d be pretty cool for you to, you know, get to know what it’s like, and stuff. Beats watching TV, that's for sure.”
Playing it cool. Going good. Nice.
Okay, next step: so she knew Max wanted this, but how was she going to actually, you know, get started? This was her best friend after all, and though she’d kissed her before - on a stupid double dare, of all things - she knew she had to be the one to initiate this time, and knew she had to tread carefully. The very thought of being even an inch closer to Max made her palms sweat, and that was just unbearably lame.
Three strikes, she should've been out by this point. But there was zero way she'd back down now, because Chloe Price does not get nervous around girls.
Even if those girls have been her best friend since, like, forever, and it might make things totally weird.
Even if those girls are as awe-inspiring, charming, and downright attractive as Max Caulfield.
Even if those girls are staring up at her with half-lidded eyes and parted lips that stirred up a feeling deep within her stomach that made her nauseous in the best kind of way.
Unable to stand another second of hesitation between them, Max was the one to take the plunge. Thin hands haphazardly grabbed at the back of Chloe’s head, pulling their lips together in a messy kiss that Chloe swore stopped her heart. She was still for a second before her brain allowed her control of her lips again so she could move them back against Max's, and, holy fuck, she was glad she did.
Max being the one to take the lead in a situation like this had Chloe positively dumbfound, and her sudden lack of knowing how the hell to react had increased that feeling tenfold. To compensate, she shoved her lips against Max’s harder yet, determined to prove her ultimate makeout prowess. When she ran the tip of her tongue along Max's lower lip - ever-so-carefully testing the waters - she was left with the lingering taste of blueberry.
After a few seconds of teasing Max's inner lip and barely touching tongues, she pulled away, ignoring the hot burning desire in her chest. The last thing she wanted to do was make Max uncomfortable, so she should chill out. See what was up with her. The very least she could do was give the girl some air.
The two leaned their sides back into the couch, still tangled up in each other’s limbs and facing each other. Max's complexion was flushed a bright pink and her mouth hung agape once more, allowing for deep and labored breaths. Chloe felt particularly proud knowing she had worked Max up like that with so little effort.
As her mind cleared its way through a thick cloud of lust, Max turned her face far away from Chloe's out of sheer embarrassment. She could not believe she just did that.
Chloe's mind, on the other hand, was too preoccupied with all sorts of whining about Max being too far away again.
But it was time to keep it cool again. Naturally.
“So, uh,” Chloe coughed, doing her absolute best to break the tangibly awkward silence that befell upon the two. “Decent as you imagined, or what? And did I totally just freak you out, or do I just have something on my face you don't want to look at?”
Max took a moment to process the question as well as her own shame, very hesitantly settling her focus back onto Chloe.
Onto her face. Her eyes. Her mouth.
Mostly her mouth.
"Um," she began, eyes darting every which way while desperate for an answer. "Yeah, it was super cool."
Super cool, huh? Chloe could take that.
Every silent moment reeked of teen awkwardness, the two constantly unsure of what to do with themselves. They were still practically on top of each other, faces hovering inches away from one another, and neither seemed to have any intention of getting up. After another unbearably uncomfortable beat, Max's eyes narrowed uncharacteristically provocatively - directly at Chloe. The look sent a shiver straight up her spine.
"Did we have to stop?"
Absolutely not.
There was barely a second of hesitation before Chloe eagerly smashed her lips against Max's, hands tugging at the front of her shirt to bring her closer yet. The soft warmth of Max's mouth under her own allowed her desire to overpower the innocent cautiousness from earlier.
Max accepted Chloe's upping the intensity as the challenge it was, realizing the unspoken contest between the two. This time, she was the one to forcefully push her tongue past Chloe's parted lips and into her mouth. The intrusion elicited a groan of contentment from the punk - a sound she'd never heard her make before. She instantly swore it would be her sole life mission to hear that noise as often as she could.
The two took turns ravaging every inch of each other's mouths with their tongues, nerves on fire but self-consciousness subdued enough to allow rise to the groans that came from the depths of their throats.
Amidst their osculation, Chloe had managed to expertly lift up and maneuver Max directly on top of her. With the brunette straddling her lap, they found their position much more comfortable, and Max was left with what she decided was a most excellent view.
Chloe took advantage of the new position and slid her hands toward the bottom hem of Max’s shirt, fingertips lightly treading across the exposed skin between her shirt and night-shorts. The sensation of Chloe’s freshly-filed nails tracing across her hipbones made Max shudder; goosebumps rising over her skin in trickles.
Taking Max's wider-mouthed kisses and shakier breathing as a sign of encouragement, Chloe continued to run her nails ever-so-delicately up the small of Max’s back. She could feel the bumps and chills she'd caused and felt another surge of pride ripple through her chest. She did that to Max. She was the first one to do it to her, no less.
Unfortunately for Chloe, her period of control was short lived - after shaking herself out of a euphoric daze, Max managed to bite down on Chloe’s lip, hard enough to shock the older girl and cause her to lose her grip on Max's backside. Max threaded her hands into the roots of blue and purple and blonde strands, tugging on them roughly, pulling her closer, closer, and closer, and demanding control of the kiss.
The reversal of roles didn’t seem to bother Chloe too much, though, if the delighted growl that rose from the pit of her chest was any indication.
That was all Max needed to empower her with the boldness needed to take things a step further.
Max changed her course, placing open-mouthed kisses up against the corner of Chloe’s mouth, her jawline, the pulse of her neck, and settling just slightly lower. She pampered the area with hesitant nibbles and traced invisible lines across Chloe’s collarbone with the tip of her tongue. She had never done anything like this before - only ever read about it online, not that she'd ever admit that to anyone - but the chorus of breathy expletives coming from above her told her she was doing something right.
"Fuck, Max."
After finding a particularly sensitive spot and taking a single pause to contemplate, Max bit down, and suckled. Hard.
The husky moan she earned from Chloe was absolutely perfect.
When Max finally pulled away after placing a few more careful licks and affectionate kisses around the area, she noted that the sight of the mark she’d left was just as satisfying as the noise it elicited.
Jolting herself upwards at this sudden revelation, Max flashed Chloe a coy smile, and hopped directly off of her.
“Max?” Chloe whined, confused and hands desperately reaching out towards her partner. How the hell could she blue-balls her at a time like this? She was just about ready to leap up from the sofa and shove Max against the nearest surface, but before she had the chance, the other girl was on top of her again - now armed with a camera in hand.
“The hell’s that for, Caulfield?” Chloe asked, putting her all into keeping her voice leveled and hiding the shakiness of her breathing. “Wanna document our adventure? You’re kinkier than I thought.”
Ignoring the comment and staring through the lens of her camera, Max had centered an incredible image in her lens. With a click and a flash, she preserved her new masterpiece: a bright red bruise right at the crook of Chloe’s neck. It was massive and painful looking and certain to last at least a week, and would undoubtedly attract the attention of anyone who so much at glanced towards Chloe.
“I thought if you got to keep a reminder, so should I.” Max chirped, clearly pleased with herself.
The polaroid slid out of the camera and Max shook the photo about as it developed, ignoring Chloe's hisses of protest and desperate grabby hands, then showed her the photo. When she finally stopped whining for long enough to look, her face was stuck between awe and absolute pride.
That's gonna be a nasty one. Awesome.
Camera discarded to the side and Max settled back atop of Chloe, she resumed her preferred position of wrapping arms around the blue-haired girl's neck. She nuzzled her face into the newly-formed hickey, dotting it with lazy pecks. “Mmm…” she hummed lowly, eyelids drifting closed as if ready to pass out at any second.
“Really? It’s nap-time, now?” Chloe did her best to hide the desperation in her voice. It was not a very good attempt.
“Maybe...” Max murmured, continuing to mouth her way up Chloe’s neck. She stopped at her earlobe, gently taking it in between her teeth. ”In a bit. You still feel good.”