A/N: Dont own maximum ride... otherwise Fang would totally not have left. Please R&R :)!
Maximum Ride: Love Flies
20 years after the events of 'Fang'…
"If in twenty years we haven't expired yet, and the world is still more or less in one piece, I'll meet you at the top of that cliff face where we first met the hawks and learned to fly with them. You know the one. Twenty years from today, if I'm alive, I'll be there, waiting for you. You can bet on it."
I folded the twenty-year-old note and stuck it back in my pocket. It was pointless to read it –I had the entire letter memorized anyways.
Fang had kept his promise that he would not be back before now. I had not seen or heard from him since his letter- No mention of him in the news or anything. He kept on the 'down low'. I smiled- that was my Fang: Saving the world from a distance.
Since Fang had left, I had led the flock around on many more misadventures. So far, there had been no apocalypse, so maybe Fang had been right all along. Mr. Chu had passed a few years ago after an explosion at one of his nuclear plants that Gazzy may or may not have had something to do with. I wasn't about to reprimand him for it because Mr. Chu's scientists HAD been planning to use their nuclear power to begin his latest attempt at world domination. Luckily, the crisis was averted.
I was now thirty-five in human years, and Fang would be too –if he showed up.
I stood alone on the outcropping where we had stayed with the hawks so many years ago while rescuing Angel. Fang still wasn't here.
I refused to allow myself to believe that he wouldn't be coming. He had to come. I had daydreamed for twenty years about this day and I would not allow him to ruin it by not showing.
I knew Fang. He was alive. I knew that the bond between us was strong enough that I would know if something had happened to him.
I sat down on the edge of the outcropping, letting my feet dangle over the edge.
I took off my backpack and unfurled my wings, allowing them to relax on either side of me. It was almost sunset, and I had been here all day.
Dylan had originally expressed an interest to accompany me, but he had realized that I would probably want to see Fang alone, so he had volunteered to cover the 'leadership stuff' for me while I was gone. I was glad, because I really DID want to see Fang alone and Fang and Dylan did not get along very well.
We had discovered an interesting trait about us once we had all hit our twenties. We stopped physically aging. So, even though I had been alive for thirty-five years, I did not look a day older than twenty-one. I couldn't pretend I wasn't partially glad for this- I could not see myself flying around as a granny.
I looked up again at the sky, hoping to see the one person I longed for right now. I knew I wouldn't find anything. I looked back down at my knees, disgruntled now.
Maybe he had just mixed up the days, or maybe he had forgotten where the outcrop was.
On the other hand, maybe he just forgot about you. A snide voice in my head commented, maybe he found someone prettier and funnier and forgot all about you.
No. I shook my head- Fang wouldn't do that. Even if he had found someone else, he would have come back and told me. Fang was not someone that would hide and run away from me.
Maybe he can't come back. Maybe he expired- twenty years is a long time. The snide voice said again.
No. Fang will come- I just have to wait a little bit longer.
I brushed back my hair with my hand. I had just recently had my hair dyed again, similar to the way I'd had it done in New York when we'd been looking for the 'Institute for Higher Living'. It was a darker brown underneath in a shaggy, chin length cut, and the top was strawberry blonde. I wore some light colored jeans and an 'I'm with the Bird Kids' t-shirt that Iggy had bought me as a gag gift the year before.
The sun had almost entirely set, and the night was approaching quickly. I moved away from the edge and started a fire, curling next to it to stay warm. I looked at my watch – it was 9 o'clock. The jerk had three more hours to get here before it was officially tomorrow.
I closed my eyes and allowed my chin to rest on my chest. If Fang was the same person as he had been when I had known him, I wouldn't see his approach. I doubted, unless I concentrated only on sound the way I was doing, that I would be able to hear him approach either. Fang was just scary that way- almost like smoke; he had the ability to seem to melt into existence from thin air.
I must have fallen asleep, because the next thing I knew, the alarm on my watch was beeping midnight. I stood up and looked around. He wasn't here- he wasn't coming.
I dropped to my knees and let the tears fall from my eyes. He promised he would be here. He promised- and he wasn't. He wasn't coming, and I would never see him again.
"Maximum," His voice echoed like a whisper around the cave, sounding exactly the way it used to. His voice sounded the way that it did in my dreams every night. I knew I must have gone insane, I must be imagining things.
"Maximum Ride- it's been awhile." This time, it was not a whisper. Fang's voice rang victoriously through the cave.
I looked up in shock. The fire had gone out, but I could not mistake the figure standing at the entrance to the cave. I couldn't see his features, but I knew who he was: Fang.
My heart, which had been so empty for so long, seemed to be complete again.
I sprang to my feet and dashed towards him, eager to be near him again. I reached him and threw myself into his waiting arms.
What I had not expected was for him to not stop my momentum. He let the force of my hug take us off the edge of the outcropping, with me still wrapped tightly in his arms.
The light of the moon highlighted his face as we fell. He had a light smirk on his face and his eyes were calm as his wings, black as night and much larger than I remembered, unfolded around us.
"Max." He looked right into my eyes and I knew he was the same person that had left twenty years ago. Our feelings for each other had not changed. He still loved me and I still loved him. I unfolded my wings and he let go of my shoulders.
For a while, we just flew. We remembered the hawks and everything they had taught us about flying. It was a dance, and no air show with experienced pilots and pretty planes could ever compare.
It was a few hours before we finally landed back on the outcropping. I turned to face him.
"Max." I could see the hesitation in his eyes. "I'm so sorr-"
"Don't," I cut him off. "Not tonight. We can talk about it tomorrow. Let tonight just be about us."
He nodded and leaned forward to kiss my forehead, hugging me tight. "I love you, Maximum Ride- and I swear that I will never fail you again."
He took my hand and we dove off the outcropping, our wings folding open in synchronization.
We would have tomorrow to talk. We would have days, months, and perhaps even years to talk about the twenty years we had spent apart.
I snuck a glance at the boy- man, I mentally corrected myself- flying next to me. I knew him. I knew his soul and every thought that went through his head. He was mine, and nothing would remove me from his side now.
Together, we flew for the rest of the night, the first flight of many to come. We stayed the night up on the outcropping and left once the first light appeared on the horizon in the morning. I knew that the rest of the flock would be eager to see him.
Dylan may have been genetically engineered to pair with me, but Fang was, and always would be, my true other half –my right hand wingman, my confidant, and my best friend.
We flew into the sunrise towards Colorado, where our house in the mountains and the rest of the flock would be waiting.
I knew, no matter what happened now, that everything would be ok, because he was with me.
I flew into the sunrise, my destiny at my side.