At Lake Mead, the night Max got there, before they left to find Angel.
The three of us, Nudge, Fang and I, sat on the edge of the cliff, just in front of the cave, watching the stars come out. This moment was perfect in every particular. A warm breeze ran it's fingers through my hair and left roses of my cheeks. With Fang on my left and Nudge on my right, I felt completely at ease. Then the thought of Angel hit me, and I felt sick. I was sitting here, enjoying myself, while she was being dragged through hell. I clenched and unclenched my fists, feeling helpless. But I did know that Nudge was nearly out of energy, and we needed just one night of rest before we continued. Speaking of Nudge, she was uncharacteristically quiet. I glanced over at her, to see her fighting to stay awake. "Nudge?" I said.
"Huh?" she said sleepily, blinking at me.
"How about going to bed, before you fall asleep here and fall of the cliff?"
"Good idea." She slurred, before stumbling back into the cave. She fell onto the floor and curled up around her little rag blankie. She was asleep within seconds. So now it was just me and Fang, sitting on the edge. I lay back, the better to see the sky, and he lay beside me.
Laying underneath the
stars
Strung out and feeling great
Watch the red orange
glow
Watch it float away
"Fang?"
"Mm?"
"I'm glad I have you. If I didn't, I think I'd be really lonely."
He reached out and put an arm around me, pulling me closer to him. I came, and rested my head on his shoulder. "I'm glad to have you too, Max." I heard the smile in his voice, and I looked up to see it. The moonlight illuminated his face, glinting out of his eyes. He looked down at me, and then we were face to face. He smiled again, playing with a lock of my hair.
"Your hair looks like moonlight." He let the hair drop, where it fell on my face. He brushed it aside. His fingers touched my cheek as he did so, and I felt fire where he'd touched. Then he put his hand around the back of my neck and pulled me into a kiss. It felt like fire, filling me from the inside out, warming me. I put my arm around him, pulling him closer, then I was lying on top of him, and it was better than a thousand dreams could imagine.
A couple of months after Max was taken.
Fang lay awake in his bed, missing Max like his heart would break. He'd been thinking in the last 67 days, ever since Max was taken. He'd been trying to figure out what love really was, and now he thinked he had it. Love was when one person believes that he, she, or it can't live without some other he, she, or it. He thought 'believes' because he now knew that you could, indeed, live without that other he, she, or it. You didn't want to live, though. But he kept on living, so that the kids had a place. It was hard though. Harder than you could imagine. So hard that he spent all his time feeling like he was going to just break under the pain of it all, every single second.