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Max walks down the hallway of the dorms towards her room, a big smile on her face. It was late at night so everyone was asleep, and the hall looked surprisingly dark and long to Max despite her creeping through these halls in the dead of night more times than she'd willingly admit.
It feels like it takes longer than it should to reach the end, where her room lies, but it might be because she is excited to see Victoria again. A week away from her was surprisingly difficult, she'll admit, she hadn't expected it to be. But she just kept thinking of what Victoria would say, or how she'd react, to the things her parents had said and the things they'd done.
To be honest, Max wouldn't have been surprised if Victoria had stayed quiet the entire time – afraid she'd say something wrong, probably, or embarrassed to be under her parent's scrutiny.
Victoria had promised to stay awake for when Max arrived home. Promised to wait in her room for Max. So, eagerly, Max stands in front of the door to her room and pushes down on the handle, opening the door gently. The light is still on.
"Victoria?" she says, her voice a half-whisper. She peeks her head around the door, and immediately her heart jumps.
It's Victoria all right, asleep on Max's bed and cuddling her pillow. Her hair is sticking up in some places, and her mouth is a little flopped open, pressed against Max's pillow. Max honestly can't help the huge smile that encompasses her face, it's something of instinct, because although a sleeping Victoria is cute, a sleeping Victoria who had not meant to fall asleep is far cuter.
"Tori?" Max says, tiptoeing her way over and gently stroking her girlfriend's arm. Victoria would want to be woken up, Max knows, otherwise she wouldn't have tried to stay up. "Hey, Tori, I'm sorry to wake you."
Victoria stirs awake, her eyes slowly opening as she lifts a lazy hand and rubs at her face, slowly inhaling a breath of air as she brings herself awake. "Max?" she says, her voice quiet and dazed with sleep.
"It's me." Max replies, leaning down and kissing her forehead. "I'm back."
And this seems to bring Victoria to her senses. "Shit." She says, bluntly. She sits up, blinks a couple times, her arms stretching out either side of her as she yawns. "I fell asleep."
"It's okay." Max says. "It took me a little longer than expected to get home."
"You're back." Victoria says. She pulls Max into her arms, Max falling onto the bed rather uncomfortably, but enjoying the feeling of Victoria's arms around her after a week of missing them. Max hears Victoria take a large breath in, feels her heart warm when she realises Victoria missed her just as much. "I've missed you."
"I missed you, too." Max replies, her hands running up and down Victoria's back. "And I got you a present."
They pull apart from one another, but, like magnetism, they stay close, mere inches from each other. "You did?" Victoria says, surprised. "I wasn't – I mean, I wasn't expecting you to get me something."
Max nods, reaches down into her bag. "I know. I just saw it and I thought of you."
And she smiles then, because the plush is so cute and she hopes that Victoria loves it. And when she pulls it out of her bag, almost with anticipation, she balances it on one of her hands and presents it to Victoria.
Victoria looks at it quizzically, and for a moment Max thinks she's messed up, bought some silly gift that Victoria hates, but then Vic takes it from Max and smiles at it, brings it to her chest and hugs it.
"It's so cute." She says, her voice still lazy from sleep. "Like you."
She kisses Max gently then, pulling back after a moment to stare down at the tortoise. "It is just so cute." She says.
"I saw it, and it reminded me of you." Max says and Victoria's brown eyes look at her, not like she's an idiot (which is what Max had expected) but interested, obviously curious how Max had reached such a conclusion. "I saw it, and I thought about how slow they are, but how that doesn't stop them from going the places they want to go and that, yeah, sometimes they go the wrong way and have to turn around and do it all over again, but that they don't mind because they always have their home with them." Max smiles, leans close and grabs Victoria's spare hand. Slides her thumb over Victoria's soft knuckles. "And I thought that it was a bit like how our relationship works. We make mistakes and sometimes we have to work at what we have, but that it's okay because we always have each other, and even if we mess up, we know that we have that security."
And the way Victoria looks at Max as she finishes that makes her heart break. She's astonished at Max's words, clearly, but most of all her eyes immediately tear up, her grip on this little stuffed tortoise tightens, and she just – starts shaking, only lightly, only for a moment, but then she is crying and Max doesn't know what to do, so she pulls Victoria into her arms, a hand on the back of her head, and shushes her gently.
"Tori," she says, "it's okay. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset you."
And that makes Victoria cry harder, shove her head into Max's shoulder. Max can feel her tears wet her top.
Max grips her tighter, feels her face frown with worry, because she doesn't know what to do. What can she do but hold her?
So she does. She holds Victoria, gently, roughly, tightly, softly – however she needs to be held, Max does it. And she waits for the tears to stop, and it takes a while. By the time Victoria is done, her sleepy makeup has ran down her face, Victoria is gasping for breath, her chest violently rising and falling, and then, with lips wet from salty tears, she kisses Max. Kisses her hard, like you wouldn't believe. Kisses her roughly, possessively, but so softly – almost like she's trying to prove that Max is here, that she exists. So Max kisses back with just as much fervour.
And when they finally part, now both of them breathless, Max cups Victoria's face in her hands, and whispers that she loves her. Victoria says it back, desperate for her to know that she does love her, loves her so much sometimes it hurts. Will love her until she can't anymore.
"I didn't mean to upset you." Max says, once they've calmed down. She kisses the tears from Victoria's face, kissing every little part of her cheeks until the whole of her is covered in Max's kisses, and the tears don't exist anymore.
"you didn't" Victoria replies. "I just –" she pauses, looks into Max's blue eyes as if she was searching for something, and clings to it once she has. "It was just so sweet, and I think you're the biggest dork I've ever met."
"Well, now you're just flattering me." Max replies, a cheeky smile filling her face.
Their third kiss is soft and beautiful.
"Max, I swear to God I will never stop flattering you."
Max smiles, a little confused at her intensity, and nods. "I know." She says. Because she does.
They stay up for a while, entangled in each other's arms, but neither can stay awake for much longer – Max is tired from the journey, Victoria is tired from the crying. And when they fall asleep, they are still wrapped up in each other, and their little tortoise sits between them, a happy smile on his face.