Hellions of Arcadia

Chapter 16: Take Me There (Valentines Special)

A/N: Tomorrow is Valentines Day! So here is a small fluffy Valentines Special to celebrate!

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"Listen, Max." Chloe starts with a deep sigh. "I know things have been hard between us lately. I totally get it, let's just take the day off and relax a little."

I lay beside Chloe, my back pressed to her chest, in complete silence. My alarm has failed to go off, but I woke up early anyway, and because I did, Chloe was up too. (I have a tenancy to go pee when I first wake up.) There's nothing I really want to say back, so I lean back and lay my head into the curve of her shoulder.

Chloe reacts immediately, bringing me in closer and smiling into the curve of my shoulder, I can't help but smile too, even if she couldn't see it.

"Fine." I admit with defeat. "But I have work at 4 today." I'm not missing work again. I've already had enough days off recently, and I'm already under watch because of that 'incident' that happened yesterday. I know that Lena is understanding enough to only give me a warning on that one, but I have to be careful, not letting that happen again.

What the hell was it, even? My rewind just... failed on me in the middle of work. I've been noticing that it's been getting weaker these past few years, but I've never been close to it outright failing like that.

"Don't worry about it, I already called Lena and got you out." Chloe removes her face from my shoulder and smooths my pixie hair down.

"Wait. You did what?" I jolt away from Chloe, exposing my bare skin to the cold air of the bedroom. I quickly rethink my decisions and hide beneath the covers once again.

"Yeah, we worked it out and came to an agreement about you taking today off so we could relax a little bit." I can't believe this, Lena and Chloe talked about me behind my back? I know it was just about work, but I still want to have a say in that. Unfair.

"You two may as well have gotten dinner and a movie, too." I tease, giving Chloe's shoulder a light push. She lets out a oof sound, and drops dramatically on the bed. With a chuckle, I roll on top of her, placing my forearms on each side of her head and lifting myself up off of her, so I'm not crushing her, though the thought is nice.

Chloe looks up at me, glistening eyes, and I smile down at her, deep admiration for the beautiful girl beneath me. These past few days have been so hard, wildly flinging between emotions so unnaturally that it feels almost inhumanly possible. But if Chloe wasn't here at my side, I might have broken under the weight of it all.

I lean down and press a gentle kiss to her lips. Chloe's clearly a little surprised, as her reaction is delayed, but she leans into me, kissing me back with strength and fervor. After a long while, I lost count of how long we kissed, I pull back, wiping my lips on my sleeve.

"Fine, we can have it your way." I say, fully excepting defeat. "But you're not allowed to cook, because you burn everything."

Chloe scoffs, "good for me, then. Less work I have to do." I shove her harder on the bed, and she erupts into laughter. I can't help but smile along, anything Chloe does makes me feel better.

"Let's get dressed." I stand up, shivering as the air touches my skin, the colder weather outside is starting to leak into the walls. Chloe watches from underneath the covers for a few beats, before shedding the sheets to stand beside me.

Since I don't think I'll be leaving that much today, I use that to my advantage when picking my wardrobe. I go for sweatpants and a comfortable pull up hoodie, minimal effort required, and I'm comfortable as hell.

Chloe goes in a different direction, putting on her jeans and a checkered flannel to go over top the tank top she sleeps in. Her hair is down and disheveled, blue and strawberry blonde locks sprayed everywhere from rolling her head all over her pillow. I smile and push the strands behind her ears, not getting rid of the problem, but minimizing it at least.