Edit: The theme song for this story is "Something To Believe In" by Parachute.

This is just something fluffy I've wanted to do for a while. (I usually read stories that I like, and think of ways I can do them differently, no disrespect to the original authors or anything.) So I saw a story similar to this, and I was like, "Hey, idea!" And now we've got, well, this. Enjoy. :)

Disclaimer: Maximum Ride is not, nor will ever be, mine. *sigh*

…

Funny How These Things Happen

Part One

…

Post-Max.

It's funny. We've become so used to getting things stolen—Angel, Iggy at one point, Ari, Nudge for a bit, my Mom—that we're not ready when we find things. With our record, you'd think we'd just expect the unexpected, but can you really blame us?

…

Mom was back at home, safe and sound, and for the first time in forever I felt like I could finally breathe easy. She'd told me that she was fine and that she would be able to take care of herself, but I couldn't bring myself to leave her just yet. So, because that's just the kind of generous, thoughtful person I am, I invited myself to her house with the six others in my flying mutant family and we all staked a hefty claim in her fridge. Luckily for my mom, at least, (and for the sanity of the flock in general) lovesick Total had decided to go with Dr. Stupendous to hang out with Akila for the next couple weeks, something about planning their wedding.

One Sunday morning, the flock and I were pin-wheeling around in the Arizona sky, just enjoying the sun and the breeze and the feeling of cutting through the air. Angel, Gazzy, and Nudge were playing tag, racing around us, squealing and laughing. Iggy had gracefully bowed out earlier to head back inside—presumably to hang with Ella, who we all knew had a huge crush on him. Fang was… I glanced around, doing a quick scan of the nearby sky. My black-feathered almost-boyfriend was nowhere in sight.

"Max!" Angel called, waving over to me as Gazzy and Nudge raced away from her; she had just been tagged 'it.' "He dove down there!" She pointed down into the town we'd flown over by accident. Her eyebrows drew together and we flapped closer, so she could better explain. "His thoughts were all muddled and I didn't really understand what was happening. He just saw something and whoosh! Gone."

I nodded, my hands clenching at the thought of what could have made him dash away like that, without any warning. "Ange, you guys should head back to Mom's, just in case whatever Fang saw was dangerous, okay? I'll go check it out. If we're not back in an hour…" I paused, quickly rethinking my statement. "We'll be back within the hour."

She gave me a tiny angelic smile and nodded, flying over to where Gazzy and Nudge were hovering, both equally curious. The two scattered at first, thinking she was coming over as a threat. When they let her get close enough to explain, my trooper and my motor mouth glanced over at me. I nodded emphatically, shooing them away with large motions, like I was some kind of crazy opera actress or something. Even from this distance, I could see their faces darken with worry, but the three of them did turn around and head back for our temporary home. As soon as they did, I shot down to the ground using every ounce of speed those doctors had injected into my partially-human body.

It took me a minute to get my bearings when I finally landed. This strip of downtown was not one I'd been to before on one of our excursions with Mom, and I recognized absolutely nothing, let alone a place where Fang could be. I'm not very proud to admit that my search for my second in command was cut short by a display in one of the shop windows. I walked along the sidewalk, not stopping until I was in front of the shoe store. The window was all dolled up for the summer, with flip flops and sandals in all styles and colors save for a lone pair of clean, brand-new sneakers in one corner.

I glanced at my own sneakers, which were fading out and covered in a layer of dirt. One toe was threatening to fray away completely, since my right foot was annoyingly slightly larger than my left, and the laces were so matted and grimy that I really had given up on using them at all. Those shoes in the display, really, weren't all that different. They were the same style, in a different color—a clean black as opposed to my faded green—and I couldn't help but wish that, just for a second, I could actually afford them. God knew I wouldn't ask my mother for money, and that everyone else in the flock would get new shoes before I even considered it, but a girl could dream, right?

With my hands hooked into the pockets of the windbreaker—one I'd hastily thrown over my wings upon landing behind this strip of stores—I didn't expect a hand to worm its way into the crook of my elbow. I stiffened instantly, my heart rake spiking as adrenaline pumped through my system and I prepared to kick this guy into next week.

All it took was a quick squeeze and a hushed, "It's okay, Max," from Fang to calm me down.

"What's going on?" I asked him softly, leaning into his shoulder like we were any regular couple in a pair of matching windbreakers. (Don't look at me like that! They were on sale and we were desperate, okay? And I'm not one to toss out a perfectly good, albeit cheap, piece of clothing.)

"Across the street." His arm found its way around my waist, and we portrayed the part of the casually shopping couple rather well, if I do say so myself.

I looked at Fang's reflection in the window. He was tense and stoic, but falsely so. Frowning a bit, I searched the sidewalk behind us for something that could put him so ill at ease.

Then I froze, and felt absolutely stupid for not noticing before.

Across the street, a small cluster of people—three moms and two toddlers—sat at the tables in front of a small ice cream parlor. Both kids had their own cones, dripping down their hands as they attempted to lick it, and the moms were sitting around one table, talking like old friends. It was the woman facing us, bouncing a black-haired boy on her knee, who stood out the most, with her inky-black hair and her young, tan face. I sucked in a breath when I took in her features, the way her dark eyes were so expressive and her mouth was capable of such emotion without really moving much.

Fang's arm tightened around me, and we both focused intently on the women's conversation, as if our lives depended on it.

A mom with curly blonde hair was talking animatedly, the kid in the stroller beside her half-covered in a sticky-sweet veil of melted ice cream. "That's really wonderful, Beth! Your own catering business? When are you starting?"

The woman who looked so much like Fang—Beth, apparently—bowed her head at the compliment, deflecting it with practice. "Oh, it's really not all that exciting, Jill. My first event is next week. The Hammil wedding. You remember John, don't you? He was in your brother's class in high school?"

The blonde nodded, her eyes lighting up with recognition. "Yeah, is it his boy?"

Beth smiled slightly, brushing her son's messy hair back from his ice-cream-covered face. "Yes, Oliver. He and his high school sweetheart. They're going traditional—a big three-tier vanilla with butter cream frosting."

The third mother, a woman with short, light-brown hair, tapped the speaker lightly on her elbow. "Isn't that reminiscent of another long-term couple we all knew would tie the knot?" she teased.

Jill's eyes crinkled around the edges as she smiled. "Oh, Donna, how could we forget? Beth and Peter were the sweetest things. I mean, we all knew you were going to get married, even before your surprise pregnancy." Her voice softened with the memory.

Donna sobered up a bit, taking Beth's hand in her own. "It's really too bad you had to lose the baby. How old would he have been?"

Beth's face fell flat, losing any form of emotion. "Fourteen," she replied, utterly deadpan, looking at her hands lying on the table. "You know, I never even got a chance to hold him," she went on softly, barely loud enough for Fang and me to hear. "It was a C-section, and the doctors had to put me under because he was a week overdue. When I came to, he was just…" She closed her eyes, her breath coming out shaky and uneven. Her last sentence was a whisper. "Peter said he'd looked just like me."

I could have stood there and listened to her forever, but when the firm, familiar body next to me suddenly wasn't, I was yanked back to reality pretty quickly.

"Fa—Nick?" I resorted to our Virginia names at the last second, just in case anyone overheard us. "Nick!" He was stalking down the sidewalk, and I could see his wings ruffling beneath the thin material of his windbreaker. I jogged after him, looking over my shoulder at the women as I went. The black-haired mother, Beth, was looking straight at me, her eyes, while red with tears, surprisingly clear. Does she know…?

Then I raced up and yanked Fang to a stop before he could dash around the corner and into the sky. "Where are you going?" I hissed, squeezing his hand.

"Why does it matter?" he growled back, attempting to rip his arm out of my grasp.

"Fang… she looks just like you. You can't seriously be thinking that this is a coincidence. What if…" I didn't want to say it. Ever since we miraculously found my mom, the flock had sort of given up looking for their own parents. No one wanted what happened to Iggy to happen to anyone else, and we were all too doubtful that anyone like my mom would ever turn up again. The whole conversation had become taboo.

"Yeah, Max. What if?" He succeeded in yanking his arm away, but instead of running, he just spun to face me. Eyes ablaze, Fang spat, "What is she isn't my mom? What if she doesn't believe me, and thinks I'm a freak of nature, and tries to sell me to the papers? What if she doesn't care? What if she hates you, and the rest of the flock? What if she tries to send me to school? Or college? What if she tries to take me away from you?" His voice had steadily grown in intensity, and now he was practically whisper-shouting in my face.

"Oh, Fang…" I sighed, wrapping my arms around his waist and tucking myself into his chest. I could feel him shaking, how scared he really was. He always thought of the bad scenarios first, since, with our luck, those were the only ones we got. Plus, I knew as well as he did how scary it was when we were apart, how it was inconceivable to think about it ever happening in the future. Fang and I were like… peanut butter and jelly, or Oreos and milk. We were better together. "Fang," I whispered, knowing he could hear, "what if she's spectacular, and loves us all, and makes cookies as good as, or even better than, my mom's? What if she loves you?"

I pulled away, enough to cradle his stoic face in my hands. He tried to act all macho and tough, all the freaking time, but at least he was human enough to look pained now.

"What if she doesn't?"

And there, my friends, was the root of the problem.

And I really, really wished I had an answer.

When I didn't reply, Fang sighed and backed away, his arms falling to his sides. Never before had I seen him look so defeated, or so scared. "I'm going home."

Before he could leave, a hand landed on my shoulder.

"Excuse me, did you drop this?"

I whirled around, tensing once again for a fight, only to find the dark-haired mom from before—Beth. She had a cell phone in her hand—the same one Mom had given me when we got back, as a thank you for, you know, saving her butt—and was holding it out to me. Beth's other hand was curled around the middle of the giggling toddler, his black eyes wide, a familiar face peeking out from underneath a head of dark, floppy hair.

"Hi!" the little boy laughed, waving at us.

"Um, hi," I said back. To the mother, I nodded. "Yeah, that's mine, thanks. My mom totally would have been on my case if I'd lost it." Not really, but who was she to know?

She smiled a bit, and I felt Fang stiffen behind me.

"Um, well, we'd better get going," I babbled quickly. Fang was losing it; I could feel him breaking down just standing there, staring at the back of my head.

Beth's eyes flickered to his face, and they widened the smallest amount. For half a second, I thought I saw recognition light up her eyes, but the look was gone as soon as it came.

"Well, thanks again." I gave a final grin, spinning around and snaking my arm around Fang's waist once more, barely pulling him forward. "C'mon, Nick. My mom will just kill me if we're out too long."

"Right," he mumbled. I felt him turn slightly to look behind us, at Beth standing there in the middle of the sidewalk.

"She pulled a you," I whispered as soon as we were far enough away. "Did you see that? She wiped her face totally blank."

"Yeah, I saw." We turned the corner, and Fang pulled himself roughly out of my grasp.

"Next time," he muttered, eyes darker, colder than I'd ever seen them before and jaw just as tense, "just stop trying to help, okay? Because when you help, nothing ever goes right."

Then he tossed off his windbreaker and jumped up into the sky, wheeling out of there before I could do as much as blink.

And he left me standing there, chest aching, wondering, What the heck just happened?

…

So, there is more. This isn't all there is. Aaaaannnddd… it's all prewritten! *fist pump* So I can post whenever. I'm thinking I'll be back on Sunday, or Monday, maybe. IDK.

Lots of Love,

Your faithful author,

Lea

(PS. There are five "parts" to this. More reviews = the sooner the parts get online.)