She's Never Leaving Me

Lo and behold, Max was still Max and still filled to the very brim with anxiety even when in public. She yelped and turned in her arms, and Chloe quirked a brow at her girlfriend’s gentle peep, making a little room to allow her to move. 

Her eyes immediately locked on the coffees held in Max’s hands, and her already-quirked brow was joined by the other, noting the small amount of liquid that was rolling around on the flat part. Her heart melted, and she leaned down to press a gentle kiss to Max’s lips, pressing another to her nose, before taking both and setting them on the check-in desk. 

‘Funny… Sasha doesn’t start her break for another twenty minutes’. ’

Chloe thought as she turned back to Max and leaned back against the counter, her hands on Max’s waist in order to pull her close once again, smiling slightly.

“How did I ever get so lucky, huh…?Thank you…” forehead leaned down and gently bonked against Max’s, offering a small, loving smile. “I’m not gonna lie, I definitely need a little extra somethin’ today… You got me pooped after last night.”

She was about to lean back in and press a kiss to Max’s lips, when a door opened behind them, revealing both Jay and Sasha, with the man immediately stopping and smirking at the two of them knowingly. “Now, now, you two – I run a classy joint, here. If you’re gonna celebrate Chloe’s promotion, can y’all at least head out to her station. I don’t need a play-by-play account of who or what went down once y’all left, thank you.”

Chloe groaned, and leaned her head back, blue hair flopping backwards as she did. “Jay, man, really? You’re only jealous ‘cause Colleen has you on a sex ban. We weren’t about to do anything like that.”

Jay could only snort at that, under his breath mumbling something or other about there being CCTV, and how it wouldn’t be the first time. Then he turned to Max, smiling at her. “How ‘ya doin, kiddo? Not feeling too rough this morning, right?” He asked, though his intentions were clearly more innocent than his jokey repertoire with the taller girl. “She didn’t hurt you or anything? ‘Cause I know how squirmy she gets in the night. I topped and tailed with her when Colleen made me sleep on the couch – kicked the shit outta me.”

Max was still mildly distracted in the few seconds before Chloe leaned down and pressed their lips together. She quickly came back though, responding to Chloe as if it were an instinct like breathing. It was over too soon and the dread started to settle back in while Chloe gently pried the coffee out from her hands in order to set it on a steadier surface. As much as she wanted to melt into Chloe, and as much as Chloe was being very sweet and affectionate, there was the lingering nausea in her stomach that was doing an excellent job of dampening the mood.

Luckily, she didn’t have a second where she needed to defend herself before Jay and Sasha returned. Jay smirked and started to tease, which lit Max’s face up even more, but there was a particular word that Max latched onto which gave her a reason to shoot a questioning look at Chloe. “Promotion?” she asked, softly, but Chloe was too busy trying to contort herself to look behind at Jay. Max looked between them. It was nice to see Chloe acting familiar with people, that she had friends that she could actually be with. Max’s eyes flitted over Sasha, whose own green gaze was practically stabbing Max in the face, and Max’s sight cowered beneath it.

Jay addressed her and Max quickly looked back up, trying to ignore Sasha’s obvious glare in her peripheral. “N-No, I’m okay…” she answered, shooting Jay a half-smile. “She doesn’t normally do that so maybe she was just saying she was asleep and she was doing it on purpose.” Max knew that Chloe would never (err… maybe not never, but probably wouldn’t) do such a thing, but she also wasn’t about to tell Jay about the fact that Chloe tossed and turned until she became the big spoon and then she wouldn’t move.

“I just came to bring Chloe some coffee… Can’t have her falling asleep on the job…” Max tried to sound a little more earnest when talking with Jay. It wasn’t as if she wasn’t friendly with him, but the details he knew (or could correctly infer) about their romantic life and sex life made Max cringe uncomfortably. “Sorry if I’m interrupting… I won’t stay long if that’s a problem…”

If it was something directed at Sasha she would almost certainly believe that it would be one…

Sasha wasn’t lying – Chloe was, actually, with a client; her first official client as a fully-fledged tattoo artist.

However, just as the blonde left, said client sauntered out of Chloe’s room with his forearm wrapped in clingfilm, before Chloe emerged right after him with a smirk on her face. “Remember, H, you gotta moisturise that fucker, else you’ll get itchy and scratch all your ink out!” She called after him, smirking as he stumbled from the door – most likely in search of a sugary drink to get himself back to full working order.

Sasha brushed past her and Chloe grunted, shoulder moving back as she did, brow furrowing. “Jeez, what’s your damage?” She muttered, before turning her head, spotting Max standing there and staring at the counter – the place that Sasha had been told to man for the day as a semi punishment for fucking up her last client.

And just like that, Chloe smirked and slowly made her way over, looping her arms around Max’s waist from behind and pressing a gentle kiss to her girlfriend’s neck – right over the hickey she, herself, had left on it the night before. “What do I owe this pleasure, huh…? Two visits in two days… people around here will think you like me or something if you keep this up…” She mumbled gently, keeping her voice down to keep things a little more private. Her hands moved over Max’s stomach, pulling her back into the embrace a little more firmly, before slipping out of it ever so slightly, brow quirked in response to Max’s stoicism.

“… You good? You look like you’ve seen a ghost…” She said quietly, clearly concerned. “Casper been making an appearance again? I swear he does it when he knows there’s no one around to prove it…”

Who was Casper? Casper was the studio’s resident ghost – the in-joke they’d set as a team to explain any spooky goings-on in the old building the studio was set up in.

The world around Max disappeared in a way vastly different from how it had last night. Where last night the world had melted away leaving only Chloe and the elation that came with her, Max suddenly felt like she was falling and floating at the same time. She was paralyzed while everything spun in slow-motion around her.

A month ago, when she had gone to Chloe trying to rectify their broken relationship, Chloe’s neck had basically been one large bruise. There was hardly any of Chloe’s pure-white skin left outside of the deep purple and red marks. Max hadn’t asked, even when Chloe was being defensive and the thought of not knowing drove her crazy, but she thought it would be better if she didn’t know. If she didn’t know, then she could be removed from the situation a little bit which meant she could attempt to move on.

Sasha.

It was Sasha.

The one who had left all those marks on Chloe’s neck, who had made her happy the night before, who had obviously spent more time with Chloe than just sitting on the couch watching a movie, was Sasha. The one person that Max was afraid of getting between them had, in fact, swooped in while they were apart.

Arms around her waist made Max yelp out a small squeak. She jumped, a bit of coffee popping out of the open spout of the coffees in her hands, and felt her back landing into Chloe’s solid chest. It took a few seconds for Max to register what Chloe was saying, partially because it was very mumbled and quiet, and also because she was still uncomfortably dazed from her recent discovery. “Y-Yeah, I’m fine, sorry… You just surprised me,” Max stammered with a half-smile that was less than convincing. She closed her mouth and turned in Chloe’s loose grip to turn, the cups of coffee held up by her face so that they weren’t getting crushed between their bodies. “I thought maybe you could use some caffeine… Since we didn’t really get a lot of sleep last night…” There was a slight red tinge to her face, almost a beacon against how pale she had become thanks to Sasha’s announcement.