All That I Wanted

Chapter 8: Claim

Max woke up to an indecent amount of pain in her head, grumbling and rolling out of Chloe's full body hold. She shuffled behind her, hips pressing close as she managed to hug the brunette from behind even while half asleep. She tightened her grip, squeezing gently around her waist. Max groaned again, trying to find her voice with several attempts at clearing her throat.

"Hey um, Chloe where are my meds?" Tears were brimming, much to her refusal. She willed her body to be silent while Chloe managed to stand and speed over to her desk, nearly tripping over the trash and clothes. Grumbling. She heard a paper bag rustling, and the shake of a bottle. Chloe handed them to her and excused herself to go get her some water. She focused on the sound of her footfalls in the hallway, down the stairs until she couldn't hear them anymore.

She held the bottle in shaking hands, cursing the world. Her head only felt like this when she pushed the borders of her rewind, and she had but that was a whole day ago. The affects were obviously worse, and she also cursed the fact that she didn't have a choice. At all.

"It'll be ok, you big baby." Came a voice, her voice, from the foot of the bed. She met her gaze, watched her walk around the bed like a stalking lion.

"Good morning to you too."

Maxine kneeled in front of her, gently taking a hold of her face and soothing the skin with cold fingers. Max flinched at the touch, but there was a pull to give into it. A strange comfort. A hold, control that thrummed back and forth, their shared power. The same soul, voice, body, mind. Different goals, one a slave one the master.

But she's still me.

I am her.

" I know who you are and how you feel. We got off on the wrong foot many times, Max. But I want you to know we're gonna make sure you heal before we do anything big. Go"

"Is that an apology?" She rasped, swallowing thickly.

"You could call it that. I'll see you later."

In a blink she was gone and Max was left trembling, shaken and parched. Chloe returned with a glass of water, sitting beside her curled up legs and taking the bottle from her hand. She opened it, popped out two pills and helped her take them, petting her hair afterwards.

"Thank you, so much." She whispered, letting herself fall back into the pillow behind her."Sorry that was a rude way to wake you up."

"Nah, I should've set an alarm. My bad, girl."

She smiled up at her, taking in her ruffled appearance and sleepy eyes.

Mine.

She reached for her hand and Chloe met her half way, holding gently.

"Do you want to keep resting? Or take a bath? Breakfast? I can bring it up here for you." She tilted her head at each idea, each one spilling from perfect lips.

"I do be kinda hungry." She admitted, stomach empty and small.

"Aight, breakfast it is." She leaned, lithe body crouching to place a kiss on her forehead, then her lips. She reached up, pulling Chloe closer by her shoulders, feeling her shoulder blades through her thin shirt. Chloe tripped up for a moment, before turning her head to the right, making the simple kiss deeper.

She pulled away after a moment, patted her leg and made her way downstairs.

**********
A moment of calm.

Warm and big and grounding, feeling the carpet under her bare feet. Smelling breakfast and hearing her mom singing.

How could I have taken all of this for granted?