Embarrassing

"Max-"

"No, Fang. I told you that you were supposed to show up at-"

"I overslept. And look, I got you an apple."

"I don't care. And where's your shirt?"

"I told you, I just woke up." The teen patted his bare chest. "Didn't have time to throw one on."

"But you had time to find me an apple?"

"Yes."

Max let out a loud groan before pushing passed Fang and walking off, further down the beach. Fang stared after her for a moment before looking down at his side. Angel was there, as it had been her Max was with when he showed up. She and some of her friends were building sandcastles. Fang smirked a little bit down at her, but the girl just stared up at him.

"You weren't sleeping."

"How do you know that?" he asked Angel, still smirking slightly.

She decided not to point out the mind reading thing. "Your hairs wet. You went swimming with someone."

"Iggy," he told her before looking down at the apple in his hand. They were in the middle of the beach, the day sunny and promising. For anyone else. Since the apple hadn't worked, Fang had to find a new way to make up with his girlfriend. Or make out with. He was leaning more towards that one.

"Here you go, Ange," Fang said then, rubbing the apple on his still wet chest before holding it out to her. "I ain't hungry."

"Ew! I don't want that." She frowned at him. "That's got your cooties."

Shrugging, Fang handed it off to one of Angel's friends, a little girl with pigtails. Not even pretending he knew who she was, Fang just patted Angel on the head before heading out to figure out how to get his girlfriend back on his side. He was thinking a little talk of how much he loved her and maybe a fried squirrel would do the trick.

"He is so hot," one of Angel's friends said, giggling along with the other four girls sitting in front of the telepathic one. Angel just frowned at them, shaking her head.

"No."

They ignored her though as the girl with the apple, Kara, giggled loudly, cradling the shiny red fruit in her arms as if it were a child. Her and Fang's child.

"Did you see the way he has his hair now?" Terra, a ten year old with blonde hair, flipped her golden locks over her shoulder. "How it's cut and stuff?"

"Nudge did it for him," Heather, the oldest of all Angel's friends said. At the ripe age of twelve, she thought that she was the leader of them all. And usually Angel would fight something like that, but she had kept down that desire so far. This was mainly due to the fact that this was the first time she'd had real friends. Sure, once or twice she'd made friends with kids her own age, but it was rare. It was so…nice to just be a part of a group, not having to worry about anything, be so carefree.

"And did you see how ripped he is?" That came from Kim, a ten year old girl from Japan. She had some really cool powers that never made it into Western Hemisphere Schools. She could actually levitate things. Angel was so jealous. Not that she ever let on. No way.

"He's not ripped," Angel mumbled, going back to her sandcastle. "At all. He's just got abs 'cause that's what he's made to have. He's too skinny. And ugly."

"Fang's hot, Angel. Just admit it," Kim said, tossing some sand at her. Angel glared at her.

"Can we just build sandcastles? Please?"

"And did you see how dripping wet he was?" Kara was still smiling down at her apple.

"More like dripping sexy."

Angel threw sand at Heather now, frowning. "Don't say that. Stop it."

"Why are you being such a brat, Angel?" Terra frowned.

"I'm not. I just don't think Fang is cute. That's all."

"No one said he was cute," Heather said, shaking her head. "He's hot. There's a difference."

"Well, he's not that either."

And he wasn't. At all. Fang was just…Fang. Not…sexy. God, just thinking that word made her stomach hurt. Fang? Fang? Her Fang? Max's Fang? The Flock's Fang? Ew! God, why did Fang have to even come bother her anyway? It was all his stupid fault. His stupid, unhot, not sexy fault.

"You're so lucky, Angel," Kara sighed, smelling her apple now. Seriously, Angel wanted to barf. No joke. Boy fever had hit all of her friends early. This wasn't shocking, considering they were on an island with nothing better to do really, but it had somehow managed to skip over Angel. And even if it hadn't, she would never think of Fang as…hot. It was a horrible thought all in itself.

"Am not," she said.

"Are too. Don't play like ya don't like 'im," Jenna, one of the other girls, said with a sneer. "Look at 'er cheeks! Fire red."

"Are not!" They were though, as Angel blushed profusely. It wasn't because she did like Fang or something. It was just because of the things they were saying. It kept driving home in her brain that they were talking about Fang. Fang. Her Fang.

"Angel likes Fang, Angel likes-"

"Shut up!" She jumped up now, ready to run off and tattle to Max. That was honestly what she had been diminished to. A tattletale. Max's little baby. That almost made her sicker than the thoughts of Fang being considered hot. This wasn't the first time she had heard her friends speak this way about the teen, but it was the first time it had affected her this way.

"Calm down." Heather stood too, kicking her own sandcastle in. Then, looking at Angel, she said, "If you don't like him, then you won't mind us spending a little bit of time with him, would you?"

"Well, no, but-"

"Great. Then we can go camping tonight, like we planned."

"Max said she was going to take us," Angel told the girls. And she was. That's why Max's had been with Angel in the first place before Fang showed up. She told Angel that she'd take her and her friends deep into the jungle to camp for the night. Tell scary stories, play pranks. That sort off thing. It would be a lot less fun with Max there. Fang though would be fun, or so Angel hated to admit.

"So? We'll go tell her right now that we don't want her to. That we want Fang." Then, smiling, Heather said, "Or you could go, Angel. All alone. If you can handle being around him."

"I can," she said, crossing her arms. "Gosh."

"Then do it. And we'll know if you're lyin'," Jenna told her.

"Tell him that I'll bring the apple," Kara said, still staring down at it. "That I won't ever, ever eat it."

Angel just rolled her eyes as she stalked off. Great. How was she going to get out of this one?


"I love you so much." Fang shifted slightly in the sand, pressing his lips against Max's neck. "I even roasted you this squirrel. All 'cause I love you."

Max just took another bite of the squirrel, not really caring for Fang's confessions of love. The squirrel was way more impressive. Come on.

Fang laid a hand on her stomach, wishing she'd put down the stick skewered squirrel so they could really go at it. Maybe the food was a bad idea.

"Max," he mumbled, slipping his hand between her shirt, liking the feeling of her cool stomach on his flesh. "Maybe you could put the meat down and-"

"Max! Fang!"

Groaning, Fang moved away from his girlfriend while Max just kept eating, watching as Angel walked into the clearing with them. Fang wanted to glare at her, but just went to his usual deadpan expression, waiting for her to state her business so he could back to doing his own. Or at least attempting to. He was sure Max had completely different ideas of getting it done than he did…

"What, Angel?" Max asked as she stared at the little blonde girl. "What's up?"

Looking back and forth between her guardians, she closed her eye for a moment to calm herself down before saying, "Max, I don't want you to take us camping anymore."

Max blinked. Then she let out a sigh of relief. "Oh. Okay then. But you know I won't let you go, Angel, if you don't have someone that I trust to-"

"I want Fang to go."

The shirtless teen almost did a double take. He would have, at least, if he were that kind of a person. As it was, he wasn't, so he just sat there, silently dumbfounded. Then, slowly, the corners of his mouth fell into a smirk.

"Hear that, Max?" Fang elbowed her gently. "She wants me to go."

"Why, Angel?" Max was staring at the girl, able to tell from a mile off that she was upset about something. "What did I do?"

"Nothing," she muttered, kicking at the ground. "It's just…"

"It's just 'cause I'm way better than you, Max." Fang patted her on the shoulder, apparently not sensing the young girl's discomfort. "Clearly-"

"Stop it, Fang!" Angel stomped her feet slightly, glaring at him. He was taking aback by this, just watching her now. "Stop it. This is why I don't like you."

"I was just teasing, Angel," he said. "Max isn't mad at me. Are you, babe?"

"Yes."

"Max-"

Sighing, she said, "This isn't about you teasing me, Fang. Is it, Ange?"

"No," she whispered, staring down at the ground. Standing, Max went to lay her hand on the child's shoulder, staring down at her.

"Then what is it, sweetie?"

Kicking at the ground of the clearing they were in, she mumbled, "All my friends want Fang instead of you, Max."

"That's okay. My feelings aren't hurt." Honestly, Max was pretty sure Fang didn't realize how hard it would be to watch after all the girls later in the woods. She felt bad for him more than anything. Oh and happy for herself. There was that too.

"No, it's not okay," Angel hissed, looking up at Fang now. She was glaring so hard at him that Fang felt the need to stand too. "How come you have to do that, Fang?"

"Do what? Stand up?"

She just kept shooting those damn daggers. "You gave Kara that apple. And then you had to go and… You're not hot!"

He blinked. Then he looked to Max who just shrugged. "Run that by me again?"

"You're embarrassing, Fang. God, why can't you just be normal like Iggy and Gasman? You always have to show off and make all my friends like you. That's nasty. I hate you."

"Angel," Max said, frowning at her. "Don't say that."

"I do. I hate you, Fang."

"What did I do wrong?" Fang shook his head at her. "I don't show off. And I just gave her the apple because-"

"Heather called you sexy!"

That got another blink. Then Max glared at Fang who was smiling.

"Knock it off, Fang."

"What?"

"Stop smirking."

"I'm not."

"She's a little girl."

"I know that."

"Then you should be freaked out that she thinks you're sexy."

Fang just patted his bare chest. "I spend hours working out, Max. It's nice to have it appreciated."

"By children?"

"By you. You could call me that sometimes. Sexy. Or hot. Even attractive would work for me."

"You sound like a chick."

"I need attention too sometimes, Max."

"…Well, you are attractive."

"Thank you. So are y-"

"Would you both be quiet?" Angel crossed her arms, pouting now. Okay, so maybe she is a baby. But she was Max's baby and that meant that she got her way. Always. "Stop being cute, Fang, around my friends."

"What do you want me to do, Angel?"

"Don't come around me no more."

"What?"

"Only when I'm not with my friends."

"Angel-"

"Except for tonight. You gotta take us camping tonight or else they'll think that I like you."

That brought his smirk back up. "Is that's what's wrong, Angel? That you-"

"Don't tease me! And ew. You're nasty."

"Not according to, oh, every other girl ever in existence."

Max made a face at Fang. "What's up with you today? Talking and being so insecure. Knock it off."

Ignoring her, Fang walked closer to Angel who looked about ready to spit on him. Or, well, that's what her brother would do in that situation. Angel would probably kick him.

"Angel," he whispered as he came closer. "Do you have a crush on me? Huh? Is that it?"

"No!" She hit him in the chest as he moved to lift her up. Apparently forgetting that she had the ability to control his movements, she fought him as he hugged her to him, holding her above the ground. "I don't like you, Fang!"

"I know," he chuckled, still holding her to him. "I'm joking. That'd be weird, huh?"

"Yeah."

"Like how it's weird that your friends like me?"

She had stopped fighting him at that point, but really wanted him to put her down. "Yes."

"You should be happy, Angel, that some many people like me."

"Well, I'm not."

"I know." He sat her down then, giving her a pat on the top of the head. "It's hard having a hot father."

"You're not my dad."

"But I'm the best you got. Deal with it." He smiled at her again, glancing at Max. "Besides, Angel, you should know that I only have eyes for one person."

"Who's that?"

"Fang-" Max started.

"Myself. I mean look at me." He took a step back from Angel, flexing. "I'm hot. I'm freaking awesome."

Giggling, Angel smiled back at him. "I don't hate you, Fang."

"I know. You love me. And that's okay. That's not a bad thing." He stared at her. "And those girls? Your friends? I don't even know their names. The only girls that are important to me are you, Nudge, and Max."

"Forever?"

"And ever."

"Okay." She bounced a little then, her mini temper tantrum over. Turning to leave, she paused for a moment before looking back at him. "So you'll take us camping tonight?"

"Sure."

"And you'll wear a shirt?"

"For you? I'll wear a freaking parka."

Giggling some more, Angel left, leaving her two guardians behind. Max and Fang both just stood there for a moment, watching her disappear into the forest before both moving back to sit in their usual spots. This was their make out clearing, after all.

"So apparently you turn young girls on."

"Yeah, make me sound more like a pedo." Fang shifted closer to her. "Kinda weird though."

"Not really," Max said, picking the squirrel back up off the ground. "All girls have that first crush, you know?"

"Who was yours?"

"I'm different," Max told him.

"Oh?"

"Yeah. The only guy I was around when we were kids was Jeb. And he's, like, my father."

"Yeah, you make a good point."

"Some of Angel's friends are a few years older than her," Max pointed out. "She just hasn't gotten into that phase yet."

"And she better never."

"Oh?"

Fang nodded, wrapping an arm around his girlfriend's shoulders. "Nudge is bad enough. Have you seen that loser she's been all over recently?"

Max just patted his bare chest. "She has to grow up sometime."

"Not on my watch."

"By the way, babe, Daddy Fang is so much sexier than unemotional Fang."

And it was to Max. She hated to admit it, but seeing him interact with Angel the way he did when they were alone always made her happy. He really loved her. And that was hot to Max the same way single dads were hot. You know, until you got to know them. And boy did Max know Fang.

"You know, Max," he began as he slide ever closer to her. "Only you can truly make me Daddy Fang."

"And you ruined it." Max jumped up then, leaving him behind. "Thanks for the squirrel though."

Fang just fell back onto the ground, staring up at the treetops. So girls thought he was hot. Twelve year old girls, sure, but hey, it was a start. At least someone appreciated his hard work.

"Camping," Fang said, patting his chest again. "Camping."

…Shit, he really did have to do that camping thing. That meant he and Max wouldn't be together later that night. Keeping Angel happy was worth it though, he supposed.

"Completely worth it," he muttered to himself. Totally.


I've been in a real Angel and Fang mood recently. I guess I'm just missing Island Time. They were together all the time during that.