So... here I was standing in front of the gym doors at our new school wearing the cutest clothes I could possibly mash together from my beat up wardrobe. Alright I'll admit I had Nudge's help doing that but that's not important. What's important was why I was standing here with Iggy, Nudge and Fang at 9 o'clock at night. For this there could be several reasons:

1) Could it be we wanted to blow up the school? As tempting as that was, Gasman wouldn't miss that for the world.

2) Are we running away from a bunch of whitecoats? Oddly enough, no, we weren't.

3) Could Nudge have dragged home a flyer for a dance at our school and begged us all to go with her? Bingo. I wondered how long it would take before I would freak out from claustrophobia.

I looked at the part of my flock that had the unfortunate qualifications to be dragged along. Iggy didn't look too pleased at being in a crowd but he seemed to be enjoying the music. He would be able to make it through this. I looked at Fang and he gave me a "I'd rather be anywhere but here" look. He wasn't going to enjoy this. I wasn't the one who made him come. I would have rather he stay back with Gasman and Angel, but my Mom insisted on him going.

"Oh my God, Max! This is sooooooooo exciting! It's going to be soooooo much fun!" Nudge looked up at me with a huge smile on her face. She was absolutely ecstatic. I sighed quietly to myself and put on a smile. "Sure is, sweetie."

Nudge signed us all in and we went into the gym. Strobe lights flashed everywhere and music rattled the floor. And surprisingly, I didn't feel claustrophobic. I saw Nudge's eyes light up when she saw her friends.

"Go on..." I whispered to her. She smiled big at me and ran off to dance with her friends. I looked around. Iggy managed to cross the dance floor unharmed (it scares me how he can do that) and was standing by the food table enjoying the music. He would be fine. And Fang was no where in sight, though I was sure he had gone off and blended himself into one of the dark walls at the back. Which left just me. I did a quick 360 check for anyone who might have anything to do with the School. Force of habit. But everything looked clear which meant there was nothing left to do but hang with a bunch of my classmates and try to dance along.

I stood on the back wall watching. It's what I do, it's what I'm good at. Dances? Not so much my scene. Nudge's scene? Completely. Iggy's? Well, he'd enjoy the music. Max's? That I couldn't be sure. Being enclosed into a crammed place wasn't exactly Max's comfort zone, but she seemed to be having fun. She was smiling at least as far as I could tell in the dark. Even with better sight, I couldn't really see. Note to self: comment about the safety risks the dark has in dances on the blog. I smiled to myself. Half the stuff I come up with never makes it onto the blog anyways. I looked back up at Max. She looked so pretty. Nudge had done a good job. She was girly and... Max-y... at the same time. I liked it. Though I would never tell her that. And if that wasn't enough she had to be a good dancer too. I wondered where she'd learned to dance. I'd never seen her dance before. It was weird. Dancing didn't seem like a Max thing. It involved a certain grace as far as I could tell and Max wasn't exactly the most graceful person. Well unless she was kicking you in the stomach. I smiled again. I'd really have to stop doing that. You have more important things to worry about than Max. She obviously doesn't care and it's time you learned that, I thought to myself.

"What are you looking at?" Iggy came up beside me.

"What makes you think I'm looking at something?" I asked Iggy. He's flippin' blind how could he "see" that I was looking at something!

"Well I'd have to say that I've been talking to you for that last three minutes and you haven't responded to me, which must mean you see something quite fascinating that I don't."

"Oh," I said, not really sure what to say to that.

"So... what are you looking at?"

"Do you want honesty or would you like me to find 'something quite fascinating'" I inquired.

"Considering how your voice sounds, I'm going to say that I want to pick honesty because whatever it is your looking at has some sort of fascinating something about it." You know, sometimes you really hate that Iggy has an overly developed sense of hearing. I sighed. Iggy wasn't about to leave me alone until I did tell the truth now and, trust me, that overly developed sense of hearing knows when your lying.

"Fine then. I'm looking at Max." That was good. It was the truth but it didn't give away too much.

"Max does look pretty today. Nudge and her picked really pretty colours." How would he know...oh yeah his new skill. I forgot he had gone around finding out what colour everyone was wearing.

"Um, yeah..." I said. My mind was wandering back to Max again. I shook my head and pretended to push the hair out of my eyes to distract myself.

"You like Max, don't you?" Iggy asked turning to me. I looked up. WHAT!, I thought. Where the hell did that come from? I thought about it carefully, how to get out of the question... then I realised, um, everybody LIKES Max. He didn't say love. See, over reacting needs to stop.

"Yeah, everybody likes Max..." I prayed he would just accept that and end it.

"Well yeah, but what I mean is that you like like Max, you know..." Shit. There was no way to get out of this one with Iggy. But I couldn't say I liked her like that. I wasn't even sure if I did. I figured I'd try lying. With any luck, Iggy had drank too much punch to realise.

"Uh, no not... not like that. You know she's just a friend." Ok. I'd have to say that was a pretty sad lie. All I could hope was that whatever God there was, it didn't care about lying and that it was on my side.

Iggy smiled. Dammit. "Your lying." he said.

I spoke before thinking. "How is it lying if I don't even know myself?"

Iggy looked puzzled for a second and then leaned back against the wall grinning in triumph. He had found out what he wanted. "Oh you do know, you just don't want to think that way." Ok. That was really weird. It was all psychologically.

"Huh?" But Iggy was gone. Now I was kinda scared for once. Iggy knew more than he should. I just hoped that he would keep his mouth shut.

I laughed out loud. There were only ever like two times that ever happened. And one of those times involved birdseed. I laughed again remembering that. Even Fang laughed at that. Where'd he go anyways? He had better not left, or he'd get yelled at later. I sighed. I wouldn't find him. If he didn't want to be seen, you couldn't see him. We still hadn't figured out if this was one of those skills we keep getting, or if he was just good at it. It probably was a bit of both. I went back to laughing and dancing with my classmates. Surprisingly, I found that I was actually having fun. And I would have never thought I'd be good at dancing. It was just too graceful for me. But what do you know. I'm good at it. I turned and saw two big bright eyes looking at me. I saw a hint of a smile. But when I looked again, it was gone. Was probably just the strobe lights screwing up my eyes. As much fun as I found dancing was, it got really tiring. I felt like I had just flown for like 10 hours straight. I'm tough, but I know when to stop. I went at sat on the floor by the wall and sighed. The DJ spoke into the microphone at his station.

"Ok guys, we're gonna start slowing things down in a few minutes, so start trying to find that special someone!" I laughed. I picked a good time to stop dancing. As easy as slow dancing is, I'm not exactly bachelorette number 1, if you know what I mean.

I looked up and saw Iggy walk away from the back wall and back to the food table. I looked down where Iggy was standing before and, what do you know, there's Fang sitting on the floor against the wall. And he looked scared. Wait. Fang, scared? I had to look twice. But that's how he looked. I didn't think the dance would have been that bad for him. I should have convinced my mum to let him stay home. This really wasn't his thing and it must really be bothering him. I sighed. I guess I should probably go talk to him. I stood up and walked towards the back wall.

"What's wrong?" I asked him as I sat down next to him by the wall.

"Hmmm? What? Oh, nothing." he said quickly and he turned away.

"You sure? Cause if the dance is really bothering you that much we can go," I couldn't see him upset like this.

"Oh, no. No, the dance is fine." He wouldn't look me in the face and his voice was really scared. I was starting to get angry at him. He wouldn't tell me what was bothering him.

"Ok, listen. I know something's wrong and I'm not going to stop bothering you until you tell me. You know that. Now start spillin'." Fang actually looked at me this time and he gave me a look that said, "like I would tell you in a million years" that made me want to punch him out. But then I remembered he was upset and forgot that.

"I don't know... maybe I'm just not having fun." I rolled my eyes.

"Well your not going to have fun sitting here on the floor. Come on! Get up and dance!"

"Uh..."

"What? Come on!"

Fang sighed. "I... I don't know how to dance."

I laughed. "Seriously? I didn't know how to dance either and I learned. Here I'll show you." I stuck out my hand to help him up.

"Uh....." Fang looked at me. Then he looked over at Nudge. I looked over too and saw Nudge give him a huge smile and bambi eyes as if to say to him, "go on,". That got Fang on his feet. He couldn't resist those eyes anymore than I could. I laughed and dragged him over to the dance floor.

Of course the DJ had to put on a slow song right then. As much as I was like OH GOD!, it would be easier to teach him how to slow dance. I couldn't I believe I was dragging Fang to dance with me. My brain had gone from "Oh god! Fang's upset!" to "What the hell do you think you are doing?". I was shaking all over. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. You can do this, Max. It's not like you're going to kiss him! I told myself, but stopped in my tracks at the thought of kissing. Max, do not stop now. Pitched in the voice. You got yourself into this, and you're gonna get through it. Don't worry, it's going to work out fine. Hell of a time to decide to show up Voice. But it was right.

I dragged him over to the far corner in the shadows. It would help make things that much less awkward if no one can see us, I planned mentally. I stopped and faced him. I looked up at his face and met his dark eyes. He was so much taller than me. I swallowed loudly as I reached down to grab his wrists and hoped I didn't look as scared as he did looking back at me. I suddenly felt my face getting red and I quickly looked down at his hands to hide my smile. I hoped. I took one more deep breath for good measure and placed his hands on my hips. I was shocked at how right their weight felt there. I got shivers down my spine. I forced myself to look back up at his face and let go of his wrists to put my hands on his shoulders. But as soon as I did, it wasn't just his hands on my hips, it was his arms wrapped around my waist pulling me closer. There was no hiding the fear on my face now. Even though it was Fang, this was A LOT closer than I needed to be. I was pushing it before.

"This," Fang whispered into my ear as he squished me gently. "I can do."

I panicked for a second, and I think he could tell because it wasn't me showing him how to slow dance anymore, it was him leading me. Still not meeting his dark eyes, I did try to make a run for it, but he had me now, his arms still wrapped around me tightly. I shuddered out a shaky breath and he stopped twirling us in circles. I kept my face down, but I soon felt one arm release itself from my waist, though the other still held me tightly. The hand came up under my chin and forced me to look into his chocolate chip eyes. He raised his eyebrow slightly to say wordlessly, why are you so scared? I could feel my face flush again, but I couldn't look away. Then I saw the slight smirk I loved cut across his face and I couldn't help smiling too.

Then what I felt was really really weird. I felt like... like crying. I didn't feel in the least bit sad, but I could feel the tears sliding down my cheeks despite the control I fought them with. The hand holding my head up immediately moved across my face, wiping away the tears.

"Shhhh..." Fang whispered gently. I regained my control and I stopped crying. But before I could even think, I wrapped my arms around his neck and leaned my head on his chest.

"Shhhh..." Fang whispered again and kissed the top of my head. The hand that had wiped away my tears was now around me again, rubbing circles up and down between my wings like he knew I liked.

I wasn't sad, I wasn't angry, I wasn't scared, I wasn't happy. I was... more than that. Something bigger. Something I'd felt once. When I was little. I'd felt like this with Jeb once. Just once. But then he left, and took that away and slapped it back in my face when I saw him with the whitecoats again. And it was then that I promised myself I would never feel that again. Never would I let that stupid feeling hurt me so much. It had hurt everyone. But my promise came too late. After Jeb had left, when I had to fight off the terrible nightmares that haunted me as I slept all by myself, Fang decided to make an appearance. We had always been friends, and besides Jeb, who apparently knew about the nightmares without me telling him, Fang had been the only one I'd ever told about them. I don't think he even knows that I knew he came to comfort me every night. But the feeling grew. And before I knew it, that stupid feeling that I had promised myself I would never feel again had forced its way into my brain again. But I choked it out. I wasn't going to get hurt again.

I managed to hold off the feeling. But every time, Fang would get too close to me, the feeling would explode out of my control and I'd have to run, get as far away as possible and fight to gain control again. And when he started kissing me, it just made it even worse, because I could see that I was hurting him when I ran off. I had started to think that maybe I was just being stupid, that it wasn't the feeling that had hurt me, it was Jeb. And Fang would never hurt me, would he? But when he kissed that red-haired wonder in the hall, I just got another huge reminder of why I had been fighting for so long to control the feeling.

I must have reacted to the memory, because Fang just squeezed me tighter and softly whispered "shhh..." into my ear again. I realized we must be dancing again, we were spinning in circles.

I fought that stupid feeling. I wasn't going to let my pointless weakness hurt Fang. So I thought, maybe I can make Fang happy, but still control the feeling. So the next time he kissed me, I gave in a little, I didn't run away right away. But soon the feeling exploded and almost took me over and I had to run. I felt so bad, I had just hurt him more.

Then we met my Mom. And I got that feeling again. This time I was confused. Why would my Mom hurt me? And Mom trusted Jeb. Maybe Jeb didn't mean to make the feeling hurt me. I still didn't trust Jeb. But maybe I could trust the feeling.

It was then that it all made sense. And I think I started crying again. Fang stopped spinning us and just held me there. I had figured it out. Why I was crying, why I had dragged Fang to dance with me, why Mom had made him come in the first place. Because I was letting go. I was forgetting what happened so many years ago and finally trusting my feelings again. I had let the feeling take over, and I had dragged Fang to dance with me. Mom had made him come because she knew I would have. And I was crying because of how much it hurt to finally realise for how long I had hurt him. I lifted my tear streaked face off his chest to look into the chocolate eyes that caused that stupid feeling to explode every time.

"I'm sorry." I mumbled.

"Shhh... It's ok. It's fine. You know I don't care."

"No. I'm really, really sorry. Not just for this. But for everything. Every stupid thing I did and for everything I can't explain since.... since Jeb left." The tears started to pour faster and my head fell forward onto his chest again.

"Shhhh... I told you already. It's ok. I know. I've known forever." Fang mumbled into my hair. I sniffled.

"What?" I looked up again and Fang's hand came across my face again to wipe away the tears.

"I've always known. Don't worry about it. You don't have to tell me anything. I know now why you always run away. Why you always look so scared. Why the hurt is so deep when you finally let yourself cry it out. And why you've pretty much been in an emotional breakdown for the last little while." He almost laughed and smiled the smirk. Again, I couldn't help smiling.

"See? There we go, a smile." I snorted and looked down. But the smile was quickly replaced by a frown.

"How... how did you know? And... and why aren't you angry at me for hurting you all the time."

"Well, Angel gives me tid bits now and then, but it's mostly your eyes," he said tapping the bridge of my nose with his finger. "Your face might try to mask everything you feel, but your eyes say everything if you're looking." He smirked again and I quickly closed my eyes so he couldn't see. I felt his hand come up and brush a piece of hair out of my face. Then he kissed my forehead.

"Too late." he said. "Oh, I almost forgot to mention. You talk in your sleep."

"What?" I said opening my eyes wide.

"Those nightmares you have... yeah... they're um.... very graphic."

"What did I tell you?" I said quickly, panicking.

"Shhh... don't worry. Nothing you wouldn't have told me anyways."

"Yeah right," I said and smiled. He smirked back.

"And," he added. "I'm not angry at you because I know why you always 'hurt' me, as you put it. You had good reason to. If anything, it's my fault for pushing you when you were still so confused."

"Huh?" I said. "And don't blame yourself. That's just makes me feel worse. It's my fault. End of story."

"Ok," he laughed. "Whatever you say."

I looked around the room then and noticed all the lights were off, and everyone was gone. I started to panic. Where were Iggy and Nudge and what happened? How long had I been stand there with Fang? He clued in pretty fast to my panicked expression when I looked back up at him.

"I told Iggy to take Nudge home and we'd be back later. You were still crying then so he got the point without further explanation. Nudge doesn't know though, so she's going to have a lot of questions for you." I groaned at the thought of the Nudge channel. Fang actually laughed.

"Wait. How did everyone leave? Wouldn't they have seen us?"

"Not when they can't see you." I raised an eyebrow to that. Fang's arms unwound from around me and he took a step back. He disappeared. He was gone for a few seconds, and I started to get worried. Suddenly some invisible object wrapped it's arms around me from behind, lifting me off the ground. Then I could see Fang again.

"Stop that!" I said, giggling. He put me back down.

"So," I said. "How long have you been able to do that?"

"Does it matter?"

"Not really."

"Then let's fly."