Uumm, so, I'm seriously late to the party, but I love LiS and this is proof.

She and Chloe are lounging in her room at Blackwell. Max was trying to study at first - really, she was - but the enigma that is Chloe Price captured her interest instead and 'rebelled' her mind, because why should she study when she can do something much better? Like staring at her best and probably only real friend.

"You're cute, you know."

But then those words just had to come out of her mouth. Sometimes her body just does things without her permission, and this is one of those times.

Chloe pauses in the middle of her attempt on fooling around with her guitar, her fingers pressing over the strings in an awkward pattern that definitely doesn't form any chord, looking up at her, quirking an amused eyebrow and an even more amused smile, though Max can still see a sense of confusion dancing in those expressive blue eyes.

"Umm, what?"

The way her blue hair dangles as she flicked her head slightly to the side distracts her for a moment - because wow, that hair looks good - but then she snaps back into reality, realizes she's been staring, and her face heats up.

"N-nothing." Max hates how she stammers, knowing that Chloe knows it's a lie, because it is, and she looks back at her book as if she needs to learn trigonometry right at this moment or else she'll die.

She supposes, if she looks to Chloe, she can die… from embarrassment because she can't handle the crap-eating grin on Chloe's face.

"Sureeee, Maximilius."

Yup.

Chloe's looking at her weird. It's in her tone.

Ugh.

After a couple of seconds passes in which she keeps her head down and her posture rigid as a statue, Max dares herself to steal a glance at Chloe, just to see her expression.

Her eyes widen.

Chloe seems like she's trying to jam that acoustic guitar, but her fingers lazily hover around the neck of the instrument and her strums are soft, and she's not even looking at the guitar, she's staring down on the floor as if it holds the secrets to this universe.

But the most important thing to Max is the blush that colors her cheeks.

Chloe Price is blushing.

Chloe Price is blushing.

It fills Max's insides with giddy-ness - is giddy-ness a word? - and it's either because a blushing Chloe is as endangered as a confident Max, sad but true, or maybe it's because she makes the bigger girl blush, of all people, and it makes her feel powerful.

Max doesn't know why, but she suddenly feels a little more daring, so, in a low murmur, she says, "The way you talk to me," pretending not to be watching Chloe with interest.

Chloe doesn't register the question at first, but when she does, her blush subsides - though it's still there - and she looks up, clearly confused.

"Huh?"

Max wills away the lump in her throat. She needs to do this.

"That's what's cute. The way you talk to me. You, um, try to be edgy and punk with me like with everyone else but it's… it's like you can't help but coddle me like it's in your pricey nature."

Chloe furrows her brows, trying to look disinterested or confused or whatever emotion she's trying to convey, but she's red down to her neck, which shows Max her real emotion, and she chuckles.

"I don't- you- it's not-" Chloe keeps stuttering. Chloe. Stuttering. After a couple of hilarious-filled seconds, the girl that's not so edgy anymore slams her hand to her face, and through gritted teeth says, "You talk nonsense, Maximus Prime."

It only makes Max laugh even more, which makes Chloe mad even more.

"Didn't know you were into robots" is the last thing Max says before she lets the silence fill the room naturally, with Chloe trying to glare at her - it looks more of a pout, really - and Max smiling in triumph, the concept of studying entirely forgotten.

But then Max thinks about it more, and not for the first time, she questions why she's being given this special treatment, and for the first time, she speaks her question out loud.

"Why, though?"

Chloe looks up, and when she answers with a "hmm?", it doesn't sound as rude and cruel as it should be, which increases Max's curiosity.

"Why're you, like, gentle with me, even when we both know I can take your maximum priceless Price-ness?"

Chloe frowns, positioning her guitar on top of the bed before letting it drop, causing a very un-hip sound to burst out of her instrument. Jesus, how can Chloe be so careless sometimes? Max doesn't get it.

She then cranks the 'I don't care' vibe to the max, crossing her legs and her arms, chin tilted up, one thin eyebrow raised.

But her cheeks are still red all the same.

"First, that was lame, Caufield. Second-" the thin eyebrow raises higher "-oh, so you want me to give you shit?"

Max struggles to keep the smile from her face, and Chloe's pretending to not notice.

"Umm, no." It sounds like a question. "I just wanna know why." Knowing it'll throw Chloe off her game, Max tilts her chin down and widens her doe eyes, frowning like she's sad and scared, even doing so far as to link her two hands together and rests them on her seated thighs. "Am I crossing a line?"

And throws Chloe off her game, it does.

"I, umm, I don't know, man. You're you, amazing and a saint and all that hipster-freckles, so why would I want to dish out my priceless-Price on you when I can do it to anybody else?" Chloe blinks then shakes her head, the red on her cheeks increasing its intensity, and she hardens her face, standing up and pocketing her hands. "Plus, what you said is weird, and I don't know what you're talking about, and I wanna puff another tuff."

"... oh."

Chloe's cute when she's trying to pretend like she doesn't care because really, Chloe's always been the one to care about everything and everyone, even as the self-proclaimed badass girl that she is now.

So Max sort of wants to kiss her.

Chloe's patting her leather jacket, muttering curses, and Max just stares, and it's hard to tell if Chloe notices her staring because the red doesn't get redder, but it doesn't disappear either.

Yeah, like-liking your best friend like that is cliche, but Chloe doesn't exactly make it easy for her to not crush on her, with her witty jokes and supportiveness - even if she shows it in her own way - and that laugh, god, that laugh.

And the way she looks at Max is even better. It's like Chloe's looking at this amazing girl called Max instead of just Max.

It reminds her of the way she herself looks at Chloe-

Wait.

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

"Chloe, do you like me?"

Chloe actually jumps, her arms raising up clumsily like she's trying to shield herself from something, then she clamps her mouth shut and pretends as though she's deaf, her hands continuing to roam her leather jacket.

She's avoiding the subject.

Cute.

Oh, and her face is so red at this point she's practically a tomato.

Even cuter.

"Ugh, where're those damn cigars…?"

"Um, Chloe-"

"Cigars, man, always leaving when you need it the most-"

"Chloe-"

"I swear it's in here, ugh-"

"Chloe."

The punk girl flinches at her tone, snapping her mouth shut. Max uses this silence to stand and walk to her, looking up to face her.

It's cute. Chloe's literally the bigger person here, she's taller and older than her and Max has to tilt her chin up to look at her, yet Chloe's eyes are wide and her mouth opens and closes. She looks genuinely looks scared of her.

"Do you like me?" Max's voice has always been soft, but with Chloe, it's even softer, even smaller, and she doesn't even make her voice sound like that, it just comes naturally, sort of like how Chloe's voice softens when she talks to her.

"I…" At this distance - or lack of it, Max supposes - she can hear her swallow. "Stop blabbering nonsense, hippie."

Chloe's eyes keep darting up, to meet Max's eyes, and down, to her spiky, chain-filled boots. Her lips are pursed, and Max can feel the faint wind of each exhale. The red is still there, painting her skin, and it serves to make her look cuter. Though, with how hot her face feels, Max is pretty sure she herself is blushing too.

What an interesting observation, one that leads to an even more interesting realization, which leads Maxine Caulfield into believing kissing Chloe Price is a needed, late-due action.

So, being the responsible young adult that she is, Max does exactly that.

Chloe is frozen for about one, two, maybe seven whole seconds, and when she reciprocates, there's no roughness or power or a sense of dominating everyone would expect from the punk rebel. Instead, there's this tenderness and warmth and softness and, whoa, has a pair of lips always been this addicting? Or is it because it's Chloe?

Max feels weird with herself too. She doesn't hesitate, doesn't freeze, and just kisses Chloe. There's this passion in herself that she doesn't know she has, and she pours it all out into Chloe, showing just how badly she wants this dorky punk.

And they just kiss. Max's balance sways when she has to stand on her tippy toes so Chloe's arms gently encircles her waist, holding her loosely, tentatively, as Max explores those rich waves of blue, her nails digging deeply in a disorganized pattern.

Chloe lets out this little hum, and it drives Max crazy, quickly pulling, deepening the kiss. And her hands slowly trails down as the grip on her waist tightens, and Max finds that she likes how strong Chloe's shoulders are and how surprisingly smooth her skin is.

When their lips part, they don't pull away from each other just yet, standing there, leaning into each other, Chloe's nose touching Max's forehead.

Wow. She did it. She actually did it. And not just that, but she's been- she was the one to initiate and dominate it, she was actually the one taking the lead.

Max feels Chloe's chest vibrate as she says "Wowzers", and she puts her hands there, right on her collarbone, tracing small patterns on it. Chloe's strong - at least stronger than her - and yet, that kiss… she had been anything but the Chloe Price she knows, yet she's exactly the Chloe Price she knows.

And Max herself had been no different. She was passionate, explorative, and maybe a little clingy, but she was bold and confident in everything she was doing.

A brash, emotion-driven Max had kissed a shy Chloe Price.

"Huh... That's Interesting."

My small headcanon is that Max and Chloe acts a little differently around each other when no one's looking at them. Like, Chloe will be this gentle, cuddly teddy bear and Max will be more rebellious. I know it's probs not canon, but a girl can dream, ey?

I also want to branch out my writing skills by writing in the present tense. I haven't done that before and, to be honest, the 'tenses concept' in the English language still boggles me, so that's why I made this decision. I hope I didn't make any mistake, otherwise, I need to study more.