Theanimedude: Well, I suppose it's about time I come back, eh?
Fang: Hn.
Theanimedude: … Oh Lord, where's Nick this time?
Fang: No clue. Don't really care.
Theanimedude: Geez, at least you're honest.
Fang: Hn.
Theanimedude: Alright question this time around is from TheStuffILike, for Dylan.
Dylan: Wha-me?
Theanimedude: We haven't even introduced you yet…
Fang: (growls animalistically)
Theanimedude: Okay, so, there are a lot of different opinions on Dylan flying around, and I'll be honest- I don't outright hate him. I mean, he had good intentions, even if he did do some kind of stupid things.
Fang: ROWR!
Theanimedude: (types a wall up between Dylan and Fang) Da keyboard haz da powah. Anyways, Dylan. Your question is a dare to eat a caned spider.
Dylan: "Caned spider?"
Theanimedude: Yup. I guess you just have to whack a spider with a cane and then eat it.
Dylan: ... I've done worse things.
Nick: Which one? (holds up a tiny spider in one hand, tarantula in the other)
Dylan: Um, smaller one.
Theanimedude: Oh lord. Um, this isn't going to be funny. Nick, disclaimer.
Nick: Theanimedude owns Sara and I. He also own Camo and Espio, as well as Dak. The original ideas for characters Cato, Kimmy and Kiki were supplied by Pennycat11. The following is a fan-based parody. Maximum Ride and all its respecting characters and titles belong to James Patterson. Please support the official release.
Theanimedude: Story now. He ate the spider. This wasn't a very funny author's note... And since it isn't, I'll say it again-
I know you've been coming and reading. I appreciate that. But seriously, I really appreciate reviews too. Soooo I'll give you the next chappie, and you give me some reviews? Please? Will it help if I say please?
Nick the Eraser: Live and Learn chapter 1
Nick hadn't left his bed ever since he got there. We realized how big a risk we were taking, but… Nick was worth it. After all, we'd caused him some grief in the past, intentional or not. We loved him. We seriously loved him. We had to show that to him then. And the fact that Doctor Martinez and Ella were willing to offer their home to us until he healed didn't hurt either.
We brought food up to him; we talked to him in turns. He talked all the time now, and he acted really cheerful. He was great, but he never got up. He just refused to. We took it in stride for a little while. But then as days turned into weeks, and weeks turned into MONTHS, and we'd been in one place for all the time, I got really worried. Everybody else was just happy to have a home and be alive. Nobody else saw a reason to be worried. Nick was happy, the flock was happy, Christina was happy.
And yet, I couldn't shake the feeling that something was seriously wrong.
No attacks from derasers, erasers, strikers, blenders, nothing? Why were we so safe? It didn't make sense. Safety does not compute. So what could have happened that would make our lives so utterly secure?
But maybe it was time to just go with the flow. Maybe it was alright that everything was… well, alright. And that only left Nick's adamancy to remain in bed on my list of problems. I waited until late one night and visited his room, seeing him how he'd always been lately- lying on his bed. Sara was curled up beside him, not under the covers, but clinging to him nonetheless. Christina sat at the foot of the bed, going through an old picture book that I thought I recognized.
"The better to see you with, my dear!" she growled in a low voice that raised a few chortles from Nick, but had Sara flinching and clenching tighter around him.
"That mean ol' wolf's nasty, huh Christy?" Sara asked, pale eyes wide, trusting and fearful.
"You know it, she told her in response giving her a grin. "But he's nothing your brother couldn't handle."
"Ain't that the truth," Nick puffed up his chest with pride, smirking in a snarky way.
I smiled and knocked on the already open door to alert them to my presence, and they each looked over to me with surprise.
"Hey, Max," Nick greeted me, forcing himself to sit up and pulling Sara into his lap. "What are you up to?"
"Just thought I'd check on you," I said honestly, leaning against the door. "You plannin' on gettin' up any time soon?"
His face fell as Christina looked at him with consideration. "Yeah, you seem alright to me."
"I am alright," he murmured. "I'm just... I don't know."
"Don't know what?" Sara asked him, staring at him with hope on her face. Bambi eyes just sort of came naturally to her when she wasn't in a fight. She was just so amazingly adorable. I was so glad that she was still alive.
"I just... I don't want to talk about it," he said, his eyes downcast.
"You can tell us anything, you know," I reminded him in a soft tone. I was getting more used to it these days.
"I..." he whispered something under his breath before pushing himself out of bed, wearing jeans and a blue t-shirt, his new uniform. "I don't feel like I have a reason to."
"What?" I asked, bewildered.
"Think about it, you three," he told me as he walked over to the door where I was standing. "We've been perfectly safe for the past few days. We have a home. Everybody's having a good time. As long as there's that, I don't need to leave this room."
"And if we stopped visiting you, would you come out then?" I asked him, not even attempting to hide my undertones of doubt.
"I guess so," he told me. "I don't have anything against you guys, but I'm more tired than I've ever been in my life. And I can finally just relax. So that's what I've been doing. I'll come out if you really want me too."
"No, that's alright," I responded with a smile. "I know exactly what you mean. I'll leave you three alone."
I couldn't suppress the warm feeling I had as I left the room. Nick had looked so peaceful, so happy. And there ain't nothin' wrong with that.
3-3-3-3-3
"I'm sorry," Christina whispered long after all the others had gone to bed. Nick looked over to her from his spot beside her on the bed with confusion.
"For what?"
"Where'd you get this scar?" he asked her, his hand going over the ghost of a gash in her arm. She looked up at his concerned face and laughed quietly.
"Something that happened a long time ago," she responded in a whisper. "I don't really remember."
"You never forget a scar," Nick whispered seriously. "Like this one here."
He gestured to a small, vaguely pink line, about an inch long and a centimeter thick that was stationed directly under his left ear.
"I got that when I was four," he told her. "A bunch of erasers ganged up on me, and one got a claw pretty deep in there."
"And you remember that?" she asked with bewilderment. "Haven't you been in plenty of fights for your life?"
"Too many to count," he agreed. "Though as of times of late, they've been fights for my family's lives."
"Yeah," she muttered, looking down at her scarred arm. "Don't get mad, okay?"
"Hm?"
"Ari did this," she went on. "I didn't tell you because I didn't want you to worry about it."
"That son of a..." he stopped, swearing under his breath. "When is he going to stop coming back? Max and I have killed him a few times now."
"Don't ask me," she shrugged. "Does it matter?"
" ... Not really," he said after some thought. "We're safe here."
A slow, comfortable silence passed through as she leaned her head against the side of his neck.
"You wanna know what's kept me fighting these past few months?" he asked her, staring up at the ceiling as his arm wrapped around her thin waist.
"Hm?"
"Don't laugh," he went on. "It wasn't the flock. It wasn't Max, heck, it wasn't even the fact that I was alive. I'd considered suicide a couple of times, even." She stared at him in awe. Her Nick had considered suicide? No way.
"Baby, don't talk like that," she whispered, hugging him tighter against herself. "I don't want to think about that."
"It's true," he murmured into her hair. It smelled much cleaner than it had used to. "One day, though, the day after I actually met everybody, I was alone on a cliff, just staring into the clouds. I thought to myself, "What if I could just fly out to a deserted island and be with the flock forever?"
"I knew that it was impossible," he kept up. "There was nowhere the school couldn't find us, and Max would never leave her flock. But there was always "what if." So I had to hold onto "what if" no matter what. That's what kept me going. And this may not be a deserted island, but it's safe. And we can stay here as long as we want to."
"Wow," she whispered. "That's... a pretty cute story."
"Well," he chuckled nervously. "I told you not to laugh."
"Laugh? I'm trying not to cry!" she responded. "I never thought things could happen that way with you."
"Well, they did."
Another comfortable silence came and went.
"I guess you were kind of my "what if," she told him. "You taught me how to fly, how to love. I do love you. You're all I've really got."
The silence that followed wasn't comfortable for either of them.
"I'm sorry," they whispered simultaneously.
"For what?" Christina asked him.
"I'm sorry I acted like I didn't care about you when I thought Sara was dead," he admitted. "I should have paid more attention to you."
"And I should have just given you your space," she berated herself. "I wasn't your main concern right then. I didn't have to be."
"Right now, though," he whispered. "You are."
He leaned forward and kissed her, and she knew that everything would be just perfect from then on.
3-3-3-3-3
"Oh my..." her hand went up to her mouth as she looked down at him, kneeling before her. "Don't you think we're a bit young?"
"We don't know when we're going to expire," he told her, his eyes focused on her own. "Now might be the only time."
"I-I-"
"I've made my choice," his eyes were focused on her intensely; his gaze pleading and determined at the same time. "What's yours?"
"Doctor Martinez!" Christina shouted down the stairs before turning to run to her.
"That's your choice?" Nick called after her with confusion.
She was so excited she thought she might burst. Nick had asked her THE question. He wanted to marry her!
"What?!" Doctor Martinez gasped when she delivered the news. "D-Don't you think you're a bit young? Isn't it a bit early?!"
"Like Nick said," Christina continued, gasping for breath. "We don't know when we're going to expire! We might not get another chance!"
" ... There are some legal problems here," the doctor told her as Nick came into the room. "But... It can be arranged in private."
"Yes!" Christina jumped at Nick and threw her arms around him, to which he laughed, lifting her into the air. "Oh my gosh, I can't believe this!"
"Everybody you want to come is already here, right?" Doctor Martinez asked them with a warm smile.
"Except maybe C and E," Nick said thoughtfully, putting her down, though not letting go. "Rick too. Alpha... do we invite Alpha?"
"I think Leroy should come," Christina responded. "He deserves a spot in our wedding."
"Our wedding." Nick smiled at the thought. "Alright, let me call Rick. I've got his phone number."
The door slammed open as Max dashed in, shortly followed by everybody else.
"I heard screaming," Max told them, out of breath. "What's going on?!"
"Oh, nothing," Nick said innocently. "It's a surprise."
"Oh!" Angel clapped her hands over her mouth, her eyes widening.
"No way!" Sara mirrored her stance, looking back and forth between the couple. "You're not serious!"
"What? WHAT?!" Nudge looked at Angel and Sara in a bewilderment.
"What the heck is going on here?!" Iggy was the most confused, seemingly.
"You'll all find out eventually," Christina said mischievously, sticking out her tongue.
3-3-3-3-3
"They're all ready?" he asked him one last time.
"For the love of God, yes," he whispered exasperatedly. "We're almost ready to get this all under way. Just go."
"By then end of this, he'll be either dead or ours," he smirked.
"Yeah, so don't screw it up. Get a move on."
"Roger."
