Someone knocked softly at my door while I was thinking, lying still on my bed. Any flock-outsider who had seen me would have thought I was sleeping, but Maximum Ride doesn't take naps—at least not usually. My eyes opened and they traveled across the room to focus on the door.

"Come in," I said quietly.

The door opened to reveal Fang standing there, wearing his jacket. His dark hair was now a little bit longer. It reached the middle part of his neck. I then realized I was staring at him. He smiled unexpectedly and came inside. I sat up, hoping he wouldn't make fun of me. But then I got the feeling that he'd also been staring at me.

"Well, what brings the mighty Fang to my room?" I teased. "It better might be a world-endangering disaster." I warned, raising one finger, but the small smile I had betrayed the whole warning thing.

"Uh, well, I was wondering if you wanted to go fly around with me for a while." He said quietly. I felt my eyes widen slightly at the surprise.

"Right now?" I said, glancing down quickly, looking at my watch. "It's eleven pm." I said looking back up at him. "Mom won't let us." I moaned.

Upon realizing what I had said, we looked at each other for a moment and then burst out laughing. Like parental permission had been a huge problem for us.

"Okay, okay," I said, trying to stop laughing. I finally managed to stop down to giggles, and then all trace that was left of the laughing fit was a wide smile. "Let's go." I stood up and grabbed my jacket, neatly folded on top of my chair, on the way out.

We walked through Mom's house until we reached the front door. Everyone seemed to be sleeping. The few moments we spent to cross the hallway I was wondering why we should go out so late at night. I got a butterfly-like feeling in my stomach at the thought of being alone with Fang. Completely alone with him.

"Mom!" I yelled. "I'm leaving with Fang! Be back in an hour!"

Total, asleep in the hall, woke up to look up at us, but said nothing. He snuggled closer to Akila.

"Okay, sweetie." She said from the kitchen, sounding a little distracted. Fang and I stared at each other in shock.

"Wait." He whispered. "She's let us return at midnight? And go out together at night?"

"I love my mom." I said simply, smiling.

He shook his head and, in seconds, we were airborne.

And it felt wonderful.

My wings, spread as wide as possible, caught the air and so I rose upwards, moving them powerfully. The wind tickled my feathers, but it was a nice sensation. It was pitch-black out there, only my raptor-vision could let me distinguish the blur that were the trees in the nearby forest.

Fang and I kept flying silently. We coasted down to a landing at the same time, and our unspoken coordination made me smile. We reached a sort of hidden cave in a mountain. The only way to reach it was, well, flying. There had been a way to access it by probably climbing it, but that part of the mountain had fallen, and now it was sort of a cliff. It looked like a nice place to sit down, so I did, letting my feet dangle. Even the soft whispering of a river was heard nearby. The vegetation was beautiful, but not lush. It was a wonderful place. I looked up, and saw the sky. It was overcast. Not a star was seen, but even this had its own beauty. What? Can't I get my little own poetic self out for a while?

Fang interrupted my chain of thought. Well, more like continued it. "This place is beautiful."

I nodded. "But why did you want to go out for a walk tonight?"

He grew quiet, as if saying 'oh, that…'. I was ready to repeat it again when he spoke.

"Well, Max," he said. "I felt like we needed to… talk." He sat down beside me.

I felt myself stiffen, not only at his closeness, but at what 'talk' might imply.

"Uh… talk? 'Bout what?" I said, playing dumb.

"Well, you know, Max…" he sighed, unsure. "I know how you feel when I'm with another girl." I turned bright red. Thank God it was dark tonight. "And I'm not really happy when I see you with boys, may I add." I turned even redder. Ugh, was it so necessary to talk about this? Reading my mind in the Fang-like way he has (which is nowhere near annoying, unlike Angel's), he said, "Before you start thinking it's unnecessary, yes, it is. We used to be so close before… until we turned older."

"Yeah, God bless hormones," I hoped my embarrassment wouldn't filter into my voice as I looked down at the bottom of the cliff—well, where it was supposed to be anyway. And it was a total mistake.

Because if I had been looking, I would have seen Fang's determination lighting his face.
Or him leaning in, light and soundlessly.
Or, actually, him kissing me.

My system went right into hyper-alert, and his lips softly molding against mine made my stomach tingle.

Automatically, my arms sprang from my sides to place themselves on his shoulders. He tilted his head and there we were, a sweet innocent little kiss turned into a full make-out session. Wonderful.

About two years later—well, maybe five minutes—we broke apart. I looked into his deep, dark eyes.

"Max, I love you," he whispered into my ear. His warm breath made it tickle.

"I do too, Fang." I found myself saying.

I kissed him softly. "Forever?" he then asked.

"Forever." I nodded, smiling.

"Forever it is."