Morning light shone through the curtains and dimly lit christmas lights were barely visible still. Small grunts from a blue-haired girl left her mouth as she moved slightly in her sleep, an alerted brunette was confused and didn't know how to help.
All she could do was curl up onto Chloe's side and hope that she would get up or force her awake, her decisions were cut short when the bluenette awoke, "Max!"
Chloe's breath was quick and her heartbeat was increasingly faster then her sleeping self, Max had a worried expression on her face and moved to Chloe'slap and sat down on it.
"I'm here Chloe" Max said softly and held Chloe's cheeks,
"I-I... Please don't leave..." Chloe muttered and moved Max closer into her, wrapping her arms around Max and Max did the same to Chloe.
"I'm not leaving. Never leaving you." Max replied sternly and nuzzled herself over Chloe, fully making Chloe wake up with a strong scent that Max had.
"I know you won't leave... I just... Last night... When you said goodbye, and you talked about your parents... My brain decided to say it was you actually saying goodbye to me or something." Chloe laughed slightly at her words, "It's silly I know..."
"Why would I leave? I love you" Max said with a smile and used her thumb to get rid of small tears escaping Chloe's eyes,
"You... Love me?" Chloe's heart was about to explode with happiness.
"Mhm! I'm never ever ever leave you anddd... uh.. word...." Max forgot a specific word at this point and Chloe told her to say 'word' if she forgot in case she knew how to help her.
"Word I just... Lo..."
"Love?"
"Yeah! I love you! I no leave and I love you!" Max said with a large smile on her face, being pleased as she knew what to say, or well what she thought made sense.
Chloe was smiling back and felt an urge to just kiss Max on the lips, and so, she leaned closer towards Max and held her cheek softly,
Max looked back into Chloe's eyes and felt butterflies in her stomach, this was a new feeling. Completely new, she knew that this was a new human-like feeling and she wanted more of it. It drew her into Chloe's embrase and so the two closed the space between them and kissed.
The two deepened the kiss and got as close as they could be with one another. A few moments of upmost bliss went by and they had to stop to breathe.
Once they let go of each others lips, both began breathing in quickly and leaned each others forehead on the other's and smiled at each other. Both had red faces from blushing so hard and they knew that they both wanted more.
Chloe knew what would happen but she didn't want to overstep her boundaries so she stopped going further for now. Max was still new to all of these human body parts and she had no idea how sex with her would work.
They looked deeply into each others eyes and let go of each other slightly, being less rough then before.
"Chloe?" Max asked,
"Yeah?"
"Do you love me?"
Chloe blinked and looked at the girl who was tilting her head at her, "Huh?"
"I said I love you. Don't you say it back?"
A loving smile went across the punk's lips, "I love you Max. More then you'll ever know."
---------------------
A week had passed and the two had been inseperable, Max was speaking more fluently and was spending more time with Joyce as a human. It was getting more obvious to Joyce that something was off with Max and Chloe's cat-Max but didn't want to pry.
The waitress did notice that whenever Max was there, the cat wasn't and that did slightly concern her but Chloe didn't seem worried about it. Today was going to be the day where she was going to look for Max while Chloe's friend Max was here.
"If you two need me, I'm takin a well deserved shower. Don't burn down the house please" Joyce joked and left the two girls off with themelves,
She went up the stairs and instantly opened Chloe's bedroom door to look for the cat but there was no luck. The windows were locked and Chloe hadn't even opened her curtains yet.
"Max?" Joyce said, still expecting to hear small footsteps somewhere but couldn't. She saw Max's favorite toy and decided to squeeze it in hope for the cat to come there.
Downstairs however, Max heard it and wanted to grab it, the girl began whining and began biting her hand.
Biting her hand meant that her cat-instincts were getting the best of her and chewing something always made it go away. It hurt her hands but she couldn't help it.
"Max? What's wrong?" The punk asked as she saw Max do this,
"Joyce has my toy.." Max confessed and tried to stop chewing her hand by moving i away from her mouth, Chloe held her hand in response.
"Why does she have your toy.." Chloe muttered,
"She's trying to find me- cat me."
"Oh."
They knew that Joyce would be suspicious sooner or later but really didn't know that she was going to be doing this right now. There wasn't a plan or anything so they had to chance it and hope Joyce didn't car eanough; Joyce does.
Thumping down the stairs, Joyce came down with a stern expression and was holding the tpy in her hands. Max was about to grab it but Chloe pinned her down with her arms and stopped her from doing so.
"Chloe, where is your cat?"
"She's somewhere"
"Don't say that, where the hell is she?"
"She's safe don't worry..."
"Chloe seriously. Where is Max. And how come she disapears whenever this Max comes round?" Joyce folded her arms and Max felt guilty, Joyce had treated her with kindness and didn't want to be a burden. The woman obviously cared about cat-Max, would she look at human-Max the same again though.
"I uh-..." Chloe didn't know how to respond and Joyce was getting annoyed,
"I thought we werent keeping secrets from each other anymore Chloe!"
"I-I can explain..." Max said intrupting Joyce,
"Yes, please explain."
Max looked into Chloe's eyes and smiled softly, "Please don't hate me Joyce..." Max said and got up from the sofa,
Joyce sighed and expected the worst, but she was completely suprised.
The girl infront of her shrunk and out came a long maine-coon cat, the cat the waitress was looking for. After shaking out of her clothes, she moved over to Joyce with droopened ears and looked intently at Joyce.
"Oh.. Oh my..." was all Joyce could say, "How- When.... Max... Max is Max?"
"Yep..." Chloe responded with and watched her mothers reaction, "Please- Don't tell anyone mom. Even she doesn't understand it."
That was true, Max's parents left her when she was just 6, a kitten, and couldn't of been taight anything or even remember it. She had no idea what she was, all she knew is that she could turn into a cat and human at will.
"You knew?"Joyce asked as she moved towards the kitchen counter and leant on it,
"Yeah... The night she was chewing everything, she changed into a human when I woke up."
Cat-Max was brushing herself against Joyce's legs, trying to make the woman more comfortable. It did but it felt weird.
"Max..? Can ya speak when your like this?"
"Meww" Max responded with and walked towards her pile of clothes, she got into them and changed her form back into a human.
After a few quick brushes of hair off her face she responded, "I can't speak... welll I can- Just not in english."
Joyce stared at the girl, now without any fur or anything physical that looked remotely feline. Maybe just two sharper canines but no one could notice without paying as much attention as how Joyce was giving at this moment.
"Are you... scared of me?" Max said in a saddened tone, she looked up at the woman she practically called her mother and hoped.
"I..." Joyce had to choose her words wisely, the girl could speak more and she knew of it. If she said something wrong, she could ruin their relationship with one another.
"I'm not scared of you Max... I really aint- It's just- How... You're a cat... This can't be natural right?"
Max shook her head, "I never learnt what I was... I have no idea what I am but I do know one thing. That im not just a cat and im not just a human."
Chloe moved from her position of the sofa and stood behind Max and held her shoulder lovingly,
"Are... you two?"
"No!" Chloe responded before Max could understand,
"Huh? What does she mean Chloe?" Max asked, she still didn't understand the words relating to 'partner' as Chloe didn't want to teach Max those just yet.
"Let the girl learn Chloe" Joyce smiled softly, she was accepting that Max was a major part of Chloe's life now and wanted to make Max comfortable.
"Didn't Kate say that we would be... a cute... word... What was the word?"
"It doesn't matter kitty-Max alright, lets just go onto another subject-"
"Couple!" Max shouted and smiled as she rememebred the word, "Kate said that and you said no. What's a couple?"
"What have you been teachin' this poor girl? How have you not told her somethin' as basic as that?" Joyce chuckled and Chloe blushed, "Don't blush now hun, just tell Max what it means or I will."
"Fuck! Fineee" Chloe rolled her eyes, "So... a couple is like two friends who are really close and kiss each other-"
"Like us? Are we a couple?" Max interupted and Joyce just laughed loudly, Max was confused and tilted her head.
"MOM STOPPP!!"
"The hell are you two doin in your room?"
"None of your buisiness!"
"We have morning kissys" Max says with an innocent smile and Chloe's heart just bleeds in awe at the innocence this girl has.
"I don't wanna know how many violations this could cause..." Joyce muttered but still supported them.
"ANYWAYS." Chloe shouted and continued, "When these two friends kiss and shit they go on these things called 'dates' and find out more about each other. If everything goes on well they could be called boyfriend and girlfriend, or girlfriend and girlfriend, boyfriend and boyfriend and so on..."
"So.... we are girlfriends?" Max finally realised what the word meant and after pretty much a month of unknowing of the word, she finally knew it! It was her new favorite word and she loved it.
"Fine Max...." Chloe laughed and sighed,
This bizzare interaction that happened between the two of them made all of the three of them closer. Joyce now knew of Max being a were-cat and the two girls were now an 'official' couple.
"If I hear a cat-like moan later then i'll know what you two are up too", Joyce said as she entered the kitchen to turn the kettle on.
"MOM!"
"Whats moaning?"
"Max don't say that word. It's not for your innocent mind."
"But Joyce said it-" Chloe put a finger ontop of Max's lips to stop her from talking, it did but it made Max hiss in annoyance.
"She can still hiss then? How many times have you annoyed poor Max with you're silly attitude?" Joyce raised an eyebrow and smirked,
"Too many." Chloe sighed out and laughed, she never thought that she would've told her mom about Max, this was just happened with luck. She never in a million years thought that Joyce Price would accept Max 'Price' in with open arms right after finding out that she was a were-cat and Chloe respected her mother even more.
---------------------
A number of hours went by and the three of them were talking about Max's life as a cat and learning about her experiences.
"When Chloe was... uh... younger? Was that the word?"
"Mhm" Chloe responded,
"Yeah... Uh, Chloe younger, I remember her and hero- William trying to teach me how to jump onto their shoulders by luring me with treats. And I remember William laughing when my tail got caught in Chloe's hoodie word thing... It hurt." Max was recalling,
"Hero? Oh- William saved you didn't he?"
"Mhm! If he never found me then I would've died... Then I wouldn't have met you both!" Max said with too much enthusiasm then intented, she partially forgot about William's death and just thought he was missing. She rememebred quickly and looked saddened,
"Max thought dad was missing all this time..."Chloe said and began stroking Max's hair,
"Yeah... William never came back... I did look for him but I never saw him..." Max felt sorry for reminding them both of William and wanted to change the subject,
"It's alright Max, he brought you to us and I wouldn't change it for anything." Joyce said and smiled,
"I'm sory for bringing it up..." Max muttered.
"We can talk about him Max, remembering the good times are always better then being reminded of the sadness they left behind." Chloe reminded her, the words she chose to say stuck in Max's head. They were strong words, words that Chloe pracitcally read of a sctipt for.
"I'm sorry to ruin this beautiful moment between us but, I have to go to work now." Joyce said and got up from the sofa,
"When will you get time off again..?" Chloe asked, she did miss it when her mom was at work as she spent so much time without her mother when David was here and she wanted to make up for missing time.
"We'll see Chloe... And Max, keep an eye on her alright?"
"Aye aye" Max responded with and had a small smile on, the waitress left shortly afterwards.
"What are we gonna do now?" Max asked and looked at Chloe who wasn't staring in anything in particular, she was zoned out from the world while still stroking Max's brown locks.
Chloe sighed softly and blinked out of her moment, "Do you wanna do anything today?"
This made the girl think all around her head, she did fancy hunting for something today but she knew that Chloe would give her an awkward reaction like the last time... She could ask for more speaking lessons but that's boring too... She wanted to do something bigger and more adventurous.
"Can we go to a party?"