Poindexters and Numbskulls
“Woah!”
Max glanced at Chloe, flexing her fingers experimentally. They were starting to go numb at the tips - on her left hand, anyway. He right was still threaded through Chloe’s, warm and tingly.
Chloe had skidded to a stop in front of a massive, skeletal outline of a building. It looked like it was in the middle of construction - but nobody was working on it, and there weren’t any guards.
Max stared at it, and wondered why.
“Big in-progress building!” Chloe crowed - seemingly unconcerned with such frivolous curiosities. “Hey there, big guy.”
Chloe waved. Max giggled, squeezing her off-hand.
Chloe sent their joined hand a glance, and Max felt a flush creep up her cheeks. If Chloe noticed, though, she didn’t say anything.
Max stared at the husk.
Big. Empty. Windows half-busted out. Paint job peeling away in layers. Iron skeleton exposed to the nipping air.
Rust was staining the support structure, splashed across the dull chrome shine carelessly.
“...Hm.” She said under her breath.
Chloe glanced at her.
“What’s up, Max?”
She titled her head thoughtfully, not really thinking about Chloe.
Still, she squeezed the girl’s hand.
Chloe squeezed back this time.
Her thoughts began to trickle out, without her even really thinking about it.
“Just… the rust.”
“The rust?” Chloe said, running her thumb along Max’s knuckles. Max didn’t really feel it.
“Yeah. It’s… like stains. Bloodstains, maybe. From a nosebleed, on a cloth. An encroachment. Not really meant to be there. And yet, that’s… that’s the natural part of this. That’s nature, taking it back. And taking away our work. Encroaching on this husk, that people have abandoned. It…”
She tilted her head the other way. Moonrays glinted off the broken windows.
“I dunno. It makes you think.”
She glanced at Chloe.
Who was staring at her.
Just like that, awareness came back to her. She flushed to her roots, and wilted a little. Her shoulders hunched in.
“Sorry. It was dumb.” She whispered.
For a moment, Chloe didn’t respond.
“...A nosebleed. That’s what you said.”
Max glanced at her, confused.
Chloe didn’t meet her eyes.
“Like stains from a nosebleed. ...That’s a weird way of putting it.”
Chloe met her eyes then.
“You said you get nosebleeds, right?”
It wasn’t really a question. Max could hear that in Chloe’s voice.
Her dark blue eyes shimmered in the light - and something in them pierced her.
She hunched in on herself a little further, not quite sure what Chloe was getting at.
“Yeah...?”
Chloe stared at her for another moment.
Then, suddenly, she pointed up at the building.
“Hey, Max.” She whispered. “Look.”
Max looked.
And, peeking through the fourth floor window, was a deer.
She blinked.
“How… how did he get up there?” She whispered, leaning forward for a better look.
Chloe wasn’t looking at the deer.
She was staring at Max.
“...He must’ve liked the look of the rust.”
Max glanced at her.
And rolled her eyes.
“Deer aren’t attracted to rust, Chloe.”
Chloe smirked.
“How do you know, huh? You talked to many deer recently?”
Max felt a smile tug at her lips. “Oh, yeah, loads. I’m the genderswapped Dr. Dolittle.”
Chloe snorted.
“Dork.”
“Punk.” Max fired back.
Chloe smiled, and leaned down.
And nuzzled her forehead.
Max blanched.
“Dope.” Chloe murmured, smile still stuck on her lips.
Max couldn’t breath - but that didn’t mean she was letting that go.
“Dimwit.” She whispered breathlessly back.
“Nerd.” Chloe leaned in a little further.
“Bonehead.” Max could smell sap.
“Bibliophile.”
Max felt a heartbeat pounding in her ears.
“You couldn’t’ve known that word already, Price.” She whispered - and she was afraid Chloe could hear her thundering pulse. “Numbskull that you are.”
“Some of your cleverness must’ve rubbed off.” Chloe murmured back - and there was no mistaking it anymore, she was going for a kiss, and Max wasn’t sure what to do-
She was panicking.
“Poindexter.” Chloe muttered, and the smile on her lips was so perfect that her blood began to boil, and a flush was crawling up her cheeks, itchy and uncomfortable-
She-
She couldn’t think, she had to think-
She wanted to lean away, but she couldn’t because Chloe’s voice was absolutely wonderful and she had a much more extensive vocabulary then Max had thought she had-
It was a very stupid thought to have, especially right now, but she couldn’t exactly comprehend much of anything right now, so she’d have to forgive herself for it-
“Uhm.” She said, because she couldn’t. Think.
And Chloe smiled - the one that made her skin crawl, because it was so teasing and wide and fucking sexy-
God, that was the word, the one she hadn’t wanted to think.
Sexy.
Chloe was fucking sexy, and she couldn’t handle it.
Chloe was right there-
...And then she wasn’t.
Max blinked.
...Huh?
Chloe grinned, like nothing at all had just happened.
“Hah. You couldn’t think of an insult.”
She began to walk off, one hand in her pocket and the other pulling Max with her.
“I win.”
And Chloe’s voice was so utterly smug, that something flared in Max’s chest.
...She’d have vengeance.