Meetings
And there she was.
...Sometimes, Max thought people talked too much.
They needed it. People needed to talk, needed to socialize. Humans were pack creatures, and she was no different.
But sometimes, there just weren’t quite words.
People talked about wanting to lose their memories. About wanting to re-watch something for the first time, to re-play their favorite game like they had the very first time.
Max wanted to relive the moment she saw Chloe the first time.
It wasn’t anywhere near the best Chloe had ever looked. But, really, it hardly mattered. It was the impact of seeing her, for that first time, that really got her.
She had been wearing Rachel’s jacket - brown tweed, that smelled like dust. The soft, mostly-yellow light from the crack in the doorway had touched the edges of her left side, and one of her eyes had been dilated from it.
Max’s first thought was that the punk look wasn’t supposed to be her type.
Chloe’s lips parted - and she would never quite forget that, either. The way her chapped lips separated, sticking together just that tiniest bit in the nipping, chlorophyll-scented air.
“Oh.”
And, really, what better first word to be spoken between them?
Max wasn’t a risk-taker.
But she didn’t even really have time to think, before her lips were parting too, because she could never forget that perfectly flawed voice. Even unfiltered for the first time, she couldn’t mistake it.
“Chloe?” She breathed - and she was supposed to panic, the first time they met, but instead her voice was choked and disbelieving.
A pause, that seemed to last forever and end before it could even really pass.
“Max?”
“Viccy!”
Her lip tightened.
She couldn’t deal with this. With more of this. But Dawn never missed a chance to mess with her, to get her flustered, and that was exactly why Victoria hated her so much.
She turned against her better judgement.
Her nerves were frayed. Her heart was odd, not quite beating right. Some stew of emotion bubbled in her gut, and she didn’t dare parse any of it.
And seeing Dawn again broke her.
She grabbed the girl’s wrist, and her grip was tight enough to bruise.
“Quiet. Now.”
Dawn threw up her eyebrows.
And grinned.
“Why, you minx - can’t ever get enough, can you?”
She couldn’t even be angry right.
Nothing was right.
But, even though Dawn loved messing with her, she ran along with her when Victoria rushed to the closest door.
Well. The closest door that she knew didn’t lead to the balcony.
She yanked open a door - and it was to a closet, thank God, though she couldn’t even take the time to think about how absurdly risky this was.
Dawn’s eyes sparkled like amber in the dark.
“Geez - what’s got a bee in your bonnet this time, Viccy?” Amber whispered - and her breath was hot and humid against Victoria’s face.
“Shut up and fuck me.”
Dawn grinned.
“As her majesty commands.”