Author's Note: Here's something I was inspired for while listening to the song "Give me Your Eyes" and staring out the window. It's Fang's thoughts after twenty years, right before he's meeting Max, as if the events of Angel never happened. I know it's not the whole song, but I had to fix it a bit to suit the fic. Hope it's not too bad.

Holding Hands

A Maximum Ride fanfiction

Look down from a broken sky

The sky was a gloomy grey, the clouds arranged so one had the illusion of the sky shattering on top of them. It seemed to match his contemplative mood. Fang swerved to duck beneath a plane, glad for once that his feathers were so dark. Once upon a time, he had wished them red-brown and white, like Max's. Max. It had been twenty years since he had seen her. Twenty years since she had kicked him in the shin. Heck, it had been twenty years since he had seen any of the Flock. Well, Nudge was a famous fashion model under the name Monique Daisy Shasta Cleopatra Krystal White and he had seen her on television, but that didn't really count. He had never actually figured out if the irony of her surname was intended or not. And he probably never would.

Traced out by the city lights

Twenty years was a long time. Probably everyone had forgotten about him now. He looked down. The ground was a dim blur of brown-black, the only changes being the occasional patches of light that were sleepless cities. He hadn't seen one of those for a while. Not many wanted to live in the middle of nowhere, next to Lake Mead. He had heard the phrase "Leave a lantern in the window so they'll find their way home" before, and wondered if there would be anything waiting there, marking the cave near the eagles' roost. Wondered if there would be anyone waiting there. He sighed, and spread his wings to coast a little higher.

My world from a mile high

Once upon a time, he and the rest of the Flock had made this cave on the banks of Lake Mead their home, their world. It had become that because that was where they all were. And back then, where they all were was where they called home. Now, they were scattered all over the world. Nudge was in California, or maybe New York, he wasn't sure which. Gazzy and Iggy, now Dr. Zephyr Young and Professor Jeff Marks, had gone on to develop a bomb that transformed matter into dust and were being besieged by scholars in Germany. When he finally spotted the mountain, still somehow familiar, he felt a pang of homesickness. This was the home of the Fang from twenty years ago. He wasn't even sure if the Nick Walters of today was welcome here. In this place he had settled for his family. And he knew, somewhere deep in his soul, for neither his heart nor mind would let him think it, that he probably wasn't.

Best seats in the house tonight

He was still the same, per say, as he had been twenty years ago. He still had his dark hair, his darker eyes, his wings. He still had his quiet seriousness, still had a smile, of sorts. He could still look down from the sky and appreciate this view that nobody else in the world could share, except for a few bird-kids – no. They were no longer children. Never really had been. It's hard to be a child when on the run from the authorities. It didn't matter how many business trips he took cross country, when he dozed, and glared out the window at the earth below, knowing in his mind that he could have made the trip in three hours, rather than taking six hours to get to the airport, board the plane, be informed that his plane was late, swear under his breath, get glared at by mothers of young children, and still end up having to transfer planes in New York. When he was in the air, knowing he was safe because he knew his wings, it was the best thing he could have wished for.

Touch down on the cold blacktop

Hold on for the sudden stop

He dropped down suddenly from the sky, gravity pulling him down, speeding headfirst towards the ground, the exhilaration of speed lightening his heart. He righted himself a few feet above the rock, and landed silently. The rock was cold beneath his palm when he brushed it, nudging away the vines that had grown over the entrance in the time that they had been gone. He paused, before entering, and noticed, with a sinking feeling in his heart, that other than his touch, they hadn't been disturbed for years. He closed his eyes slowly, before the tears came, but a single one leaked out beneath his eyelid and trickled onto his pale cheek, glistening in the moonlight. Even if Max didn't remember the date, didn't remember his last wish, he still owed it to himself, to her, to at least try. To grasp at those tendrils of hope that, like a spider web in the morning dew, seemed so close and so obvious, but fell away to nothing in his hands. He breathed in, once, deep, and stepped inside.

Breathe in the familiar shock

He had replayed this moment over in his mind a thousand times, a million likely scenarios swerving around, each more ludicrous than the next. He would step into the cave, and Max would be there, she would punch him in the stomach, then she would tell him that she was engaged to Dylan, to be married the next day. He would step into the cave, and it wouldn't be Max, it would be the clone that looked so much like her, who would tell him that she had died, that Itex had risen again and caught her, breaking her wings so she could never fly again. He would step inside, and there would be a short plaque, a memorial for Maximum Ride, the girl that had died to save the world, the girl that had stolen his heart so many years ago. He would step inside, and nobody would be there, nobody but the ghosts of who they had once been, because Max had moved on without him, because he too had gone on, and left her behind. He didn't dare think of some happy ending, because that wasn't what they would get. Because if there was anything he had learned in the world, it was that once upon a time never existed, and happily ever after was a lie.

Of confusion, and chaos

But there was someone there, standing on the ledge, hair silvery in the moonlight. Fang stepped closer, not sure if it wasn't some city girl that had somehow found her way to this place. It seemed like Max, to him. Some part of her posture and bearing that reminded him of the girl that had kept his heart, even after so long. He stepped forward again, long, slow strides that hardly rustled in the night. The girl turned slightly, and he froze instinctively. The moon highlighted a broad forehead, arched eyebrows, an aristocratic nose, lips he knew so well. Something in his chest crumbled, a barrier he had carefully made from the fragmented love he had once had, and he found himself crying, the tears leaking down his face, dripping off his chin onto his business suit. Not sure if they were falling for grief, for joy, or for love.

He stepped closer again, so close he could touch her shoulder. So he did. She whirled around, snapping a high kick that would have shattered the ribcage of any human man, but barely knocked Fang's breath away. She settled into a fighting stance for an instant before spinning into another kick, lunging at Fang's stomach. By now, he too had dropped into the easy, loose stance he used when sparring, and blocked the kick. The girl- no, woman now- looked up, her face clearing, her eyes widening, and reached a hand towards Fang's cheek. "Fang?" she whispered, and for the first time, he noticed the tears on her cheeks. He could only nod.

Give me your love for humanity

She embraced him in that spontaneous way that she had, and he hugged her back. He was suddenly reminded of the bomb Gazzy and Iggy had made. The one that transformed matter. The effect of it was in theory, because if it was ever launched on earth, it would destroy the whole planet. Maybe that wasn't such a bad thing. Maybe it was something humanity needed, a blank slate. Maybe the twenty years of separation had been a good thing. Maybe it had created the blank slate that he and Max needed to start over. She drew back, and he looked at her, memorizing the way she looked, so he could hold it in his mind, his heart, for the many years to come. She reached out a tentative hand, toward him, and he caught it in his own, brought it to his chest, over his heart. Their eyes met, and the look that passed between them passed the words in their hearts that they could not speak.

Ones that are far beyond my reach

"Friends?" asked Max quietly. Fang nodded. Friends. In time they might be able to make it something more, something like what they had had before. It would take a lot of stretching, but together, they could do it. If they held hands, just like they had before.

Author's Note: What do you think? Is happily ever after really a lie? I won't make you review, because I can't, but would you please? It means a lot to the authors.

-Tolemac