"Where are we going now max?" Nudge was asking me curiously. "'Cause you know I was thinking we could go to California. The boys got to go and I think we should all go because then maybe we could decide on a place to settle down you know?"
God I only knew too well. We needed to find somewhere where they would never find us. We needed to settle down. We needed to figure something out. I needed to figure something out for us. This is not fair I'm fourteen for crying out loud.
I remembered Fang saying something about an island a while back. God it felt like a lifetime ago. It was after I had cut my arm. Very emo of me might I say. An island… we would need an island in the middle of nowhere…somewhere where no one went…Bingo!
"Antarctica!" I said. Any normal group of kids whose ages ranged from six to fourteen (or was it fifteen now?) would have looked at me like I was certifiably insane. This crew, however, was used to me carrying drawn out conversations with the voice in my head so my sudden outburst of the word Antarctica did not frighten them.
The first one to speak was Angel. This is most likely because she heard my thought process.
"Antarctica? But, isn't it really cold there? We don't really know how much cold we can deal with." She paused. "Do we?"
My gaze immediately went to Fang and our eyes met. While I was tested just as much as he was, my tests were more geared toward…physical endurance. His were more along the lines of…pain. He had all the painful tests done on him. I had all the ones that tested our abilities. I was forced to run for miles, to work my body till I couldn't physically move no matter what they did to provoke me. I remember coming back to my cage (which gives a whole new meaning to coming home from school) and falling asleep as soon as my face hit the coldness of my steel cage. Then I would often wake up to the soft stroke of hands on my down feathers. I would pretend to be asleep just to be able to continue to be comforted. Those hands though quickly learned to tell weather or not I was really sleeping.
He broke my gaze just so he could say five words. "We can go to Antarctica."
"Okay, then, let's meet the penguins."
We hadn't been flying for long before Fang left to fly a bit ahead. I wondered why he did that until I looked back to see angel struggling not to cry. I fell back to stroke her hair from above.
"Angel, baby what is it?" I asked honestly concerned. It took a lot to make my flock have to work so hard not to cry.
"It's Fang's memories. Sometimes when he remembers I can't help but listen. It's like watching a car crash. You know it's gonna be bad but you can't stop" She said quietly. I noticed she wasn't looking anywhere near Fang's direction. My guess was that it was an attempt to keep his thoughts out.
"It's okay baby. I'm working on it. It's gonna be fine." I sent her happy images, or at least tried to. She smiled at my attempt and kept flying.
I looked over to see Fang flying stiff and firm. He was upset about something though only I could tell.
"You gonna be okay sweetie?" I double checked with Angel. She nodded and continued her attempts to keep Fang's thoughts out of her head.
I nearly had to use my hyper speed to catch up to Fang. He was flying fast. Probably because he understood that his thoughts were a little too intense for Angel and he didn't want her to hurt. He was so great that way. Like a real father.
Bashing my self back to reality with the hard head of mine, I tapped Fang's back with my wing though I was sure he had already heard me coming.
True it his form he didn't even look up when he asked in his oh so charming way "What?"
"I just wanted to see what was up with you is all." I said.
"Nothing, except life." He said cynically. O.K so our lives basically sucked but did he have to get so mean about it?
"Okay Crabby McCrabby-pants." I said a little hurt but at those altitudes nothing can keep you down. Except gravity but that is a different thing.
Deciding that he wasn't going to cooperate right now and that if I continued to bug him I would be brought down from my own personal high I flew ahead. I didn't think it was that bad anyway.
I let my mind wander and focused on nothing in particular until a blinding flash of color burst behind my eye lids.
I opened my eyes to see a beautiful sunset. Have you ever seen a sunset from above the clouds? If you have then I think you will agree with me that it is the most beautiful thing in the world. I allowed myself to breath in the warmth that flowed through me. I was so free right now. I couldn't help but close my eyes at my moment of bliss.
Suddenly I felt something. I turned my head quickly only to see Fang watching me. A look had clouded his eyes. It was unlike anything I had ever seen in him and it made my cheeks flush pink.
Falling back I asked him. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing." He said calmly. I couldn't shake that image of that look in his eyes. Those eyes had held so much it was hard to sort through them.
I settled on flying close to Fang until the sunset had turned into a darkening twilight.
"Okay, let's go down and make camp." I yelled to the flock. I was so loud Fang dramatically cupped his hand over his ear and acted like he was falling out of the sky.
When we were all settled on the ground I got out the two tarps that we had acquired (okay stole but what's the difference?) and Fang got the blankets.
Gazzy and Iggy left to get firewood and Fang went in another direction to get food with Angel since he could protect her and she could min-control animals and make them just jump right into the fire. Nudge and I decided to hold down the fort ourselves.
While I worked on airing out the blankets we had, Nudge had set about de-rocking the forest floor. It wasn't long before Iggy and Gazzy flew back with their first load of wood and then flew out to get a second.
I quit my attempt at cleaning house so I could get the fire started and by the time I had beat the sticks into submission, Fang and Angel were back with 10 mice 3 rabbits and a bird nest.
It was nice to just sit around the fire and eat. Sure we didn't eat till we felt like we would explode, but we were fine. We were together and I didn't need anything else.
The flock quickly fell asleep after dinner, leaving me and Fang to fight over who got first watch. I knew if I fell asleep on my own Fang wouldn't wake me up and that always pissed me off, especially since he tried to do it every night. I didn't want to deal with this tonight.
"Okay how about we skip the fight and stare off in different directions mkay?" I said. I meant it as a sarcastic witty comment but Fang didn't seem to take it as such. He shrugged and sat down with his back facing me. This was odd. He would normally have at least said some sarcastic comeback in return but no, he just sat there.
This was too much for me.
"Alright, what bug bit your ass?" I asked sitting down next to him. I'll be honest here, I didn't expect him to answer. There are just some things Fang doesn't talk to people about including me. I assumed it was one of those things.
"Do you remember in the cave a month or so back?" He asked, not looking at me.
Immediately I froze. Yes I remembered that. My mind went back to it every so often and I couldn't help but wonder why I flew away. I knew why. I was scared. I was sure that if we were alone in that cave together then we would have done something stupid which would obviously not have been good. I wasn't sure about bird fertility but don't they have like five babies at a time or something like that? I wasn't willing to risk anything at that point. Was I willing now? Did I want that whole package? Mom, dad genetically mutated bird kid flock? I looked over at the sleeping flock. I was a mother already. I had kids and in that instant I thought, someday maybe I'll want to have my own kids. Maybe someday soon.
"Yeah, I remember." My voice sounded a little hoarse.
"Max…I didn't mean to do that. I got caught up in the moment and I guess my bird kid hormones got the better of me. I'm sorry. I understand if you don't like me that way. I still love you like a sister. I did think that you liked me a little after that kiss on the beach and I still think I like you as more then a sister but I just want you to know I won't try anything like that again."
That was one of the longest, if not the longest, sentences I had ever heard Fang say. It surprised me that it was so long. The words that formed the monologue, however, hurt me. I didn't know if I liked Fang that way. I knew I loved him like a brother but could we turn into something more? The flock didn't really say anything about it that I heard and I was having trouble sorting through my family feelings for Fang.
You are growing up, Max. Fang is part of your past and it is up to you whether he will be part of your future.My Voice said in it's perfect imitation of a customized fortune cookie. It was not helping me.
Yes, but what I would like to know is do I like him more then a brother? I thought back.
You are the one who must decide on your feelings. I can only advise you.
Well advise me right now and tell me if I love Fang!
The voice took an approach completely different from anything I had expected. Who is the person you want to talk to when you are sad? When something good happens who do you want to tell? Who do you want to save you from disaster. Who are you willing to lay down your life for? Who understands you better then you do yourself? Do you see his face?
All throughout this little conversation I had been sitting with Fang in complete silence. As the Voice finished its last question I heard Fang.
"Max? Are you okay?" I snapped out of my head and made myself focus on what was in front of me and what was in front of me was…Fang, beautiful, perfect Fang. The boy who I always went to when I was sad or upset, who heard about anything good happening to me before the others… He had saved me from disaster before and he was the one I wanted to save me again. I would die for him. He understood me better than I did myself because he recognized my feelings for him before I did. I finally saw his face.
"Fang, I don't wish that the cave incident had never happened. I was confused and I didn't know what to do and all I knew was that if we kept kissing it would turn into something bad and I didn't want that to happen and I…" I didn't get a chance to finish my rant because Fang had smiled. It was enough to let every thought I had ever had fly out the window. He moved his mouth on to mine and it just felt so right. Moving with him was as natural as flying for me. I didn't want to stop for anything so I tried not to but at some point I stated to feel a shooting pain in my lungs that told me if I didn't breathe soon I would die. (I hate those stupid living creature limitations.)
I pulled back to rest my forehead on his and I just let our breathing mingle. Our chests moved together and I couldn't feel anything other then him.
"Well that was a nice response." I said, hoping to make him smile again, no matter how small it was. It worked. Fang smiled at me and it was so beautiful, so amazing, I would do anything for that mouth, but, I had to be a good girl right now and focus on not ravishing Fang. So to pull me out of the obsessive trail I had gone down just now, I asked the question that I knew was on both of our minds. "What are we going to tell the flock?"
He frowned, a sight I was used to seeing but after his smile it seemed almost darker then usual though I knew it wasn't. "What do you want to tell them? I would like to think we are dating now but should we really tell them that?"
"I don't think we should tell them. Their world is rocky enough as it is and I don't know if exposing them to all of this is wise." I really did think that. The fact that I was terrified about what the flock would think didn't play that heavily into the whole thing (note: that was a lie.).
"I agree. So do you just want to go on our merry way?" He asked.
"No, I want to stay here with you until morning, no matter what." I replied (note: that was
the truth.)
"Okay." Was all he said before he hugged me close and rested his chin on my head. I sighed, happy that this whole thing was settled.
The next morning I opened my eyes to find the rest of the flock sleeping. I felt warm and happy and I did not want to move. I moved my head a bit to do a tired 360 and I noticed that the thing I was using as a pillow kept moving. I looked down to see Fang's arm around me and a print that fit my head perfectly placed on his chest.
As quietly as I could, I moved his arm off of me and got up to make breakfast. Before getting out the popcorn I planned to serve (again) I looked down at Fang. He was so perfect, beautiful. I haven't called a lot of things beautiful in my life (because not a lot of things have been) but Fang was beautiful, and so many other things. He was perfect. I wanted to stare at him forever but he woke up (Wow I didn't know my stare was that powerful!) and turned to look back at me. This gave me the opportunity to look at my personal favorite part of Fang: his eyes. They were deep and warm like the chocolate in a chocolate chip cookie. It was a comforting look. I loved that look.
I raised my finger to my lips to signal him to be quiet then waved my hands, telling him to follow.
We reached a clearing close enough to the flock that we could hear if anything happened but far enough away that if we were quiet nobody would hear us.
As soon as we stopped Fang pulled me into him and kissed me. It was loving and amazing and fiercer then his other kisses. His mouth tasted so good. I wanted more. I bit down on his lip and in return he hoisted me against a tree and wrapped my legs around his waist. As I was putting my hands in his hair I heard a cry from our campsite that chilled my blood
"Flyboys!"
I immediately tried to pry myself away from Fang even though he had already put me down. We ran, together, into the clearing and immediately threw ourselves into battle. I kicked one hard in the chest and made it stumble back. I then, remembered a movie and decided to try something new. I jumped onto the Flyboy's shoulders and kicked my legs hard so that it landed on its back with me on its chest. It was then a simple twist of the thing's head before the little spark in its eyes died. Deciding I liked that trick, I did it to three more Flyboys before turning around and seeing that my flock had finished them off.
"Report!" I yelled though, judging by the debris there hadn't been any real danger.
"I'm fine!" Angel's voice floated over the robot corpses.
"Me too!"
"I got a couple of bombs on them so I was fine."
"I'm good. I took down two with roundhouse kicks and then I tried that one move you were using Max. That was really cool. Did that come from that one kung-fu movie that we saw? 'Cause I thought it looked familiar."
"Okay Nudge is good." I interrupted, knowing that if I let her go she would end up at something completely off subject like shopping in roughly five minutes. "Fang, are you good?" I knew he was but I had to make sure.
"I'm fine." Two word answers, okay so he didn't want to talk.
"Alright, let's move out, I think I saw a Comfort inn or something in the town near here. We could probably do with a rest for a day especially since we will be leaving the border soon and God knows we could all use clean underwear about now, so let's go!" I made my speech, packed my stuff and gave everybody the okay to go up.
Thirty minutes later we landed (okay, so I was the only one being reluctant) and went into a small Comfort Inn. I got us two adjoining rooms. Each room had two beds, along with its own table and two chairs per room.
We've stayed in worse conditions.
I decided to try and get some laundry done. I told everybody to gather their dirty clothes and give them to me. Angel and Nudge had there's together within the first five minute, which left Nudge the chance to shower and Angel an opportunity to play with Total Iggy and Gazzy needed a little bit more time to determine whether their socks were dirty or just naturally that color. Fang was in the shower and by the time he got out I had A full load of laundry to take down.
"Fang, get dressed and bring your dirty clothes down." I yelled into the boy's room before going down the hall to put in my clothes. I had just put in the first load of laundry when I felt a prickly sensation at the back of my neck. I spun around, tensed up and ready to fight… then promptly relaxed when I saw it was just Fang.
"Hey, do you have your laundry? 'Cause I just put in the first load, which means…" I had suddenly noticed that Fang had a slight smirk on his face.
"Fang, what are you doing?" He was almost touching me now.
"Listen, I'm sorry I didn't get to talk to you after the fight. I was just a little upset we didn't get that much time together." He kissed me lightly after he finished.
"Why don't we stay here for a few days? Antarctica is a ways away and we don't know if we will get a chance to rest like we can now." Fang reasoned with me. I could feel why he really wanted to stay behind his words, I felt it too.
"Lets go tell the Flock then, I think they were talking about going swimming in the pool down the hall." I suggested. We were at the door when he kissed me. We stood that way for a minute just wanting to be with each other, but I had a feeling that if we kept it up Iggy would hear us and that would certainly not be a good thing.
"Come on, Iggy is gonna hear." I said, voicing my thoughts.
"One more." he replied, breathing the words into my ear. It sent a shudder up my back and forced me to reach back up to kiss him.
"Ok now we seriously have to go." I tried again after a bit more kissing.
He sighed, "Fine." He opened the door for me and let me pass, forcing me to brush against his chest.
"Hey, guys?" I called in. "Listen, I know you want to go down to the pool but I have to take care of the laundry so you guys, just go down without me and Iggy, I swear if anything happens to anyone on your watch you are dead meat." I turned into the other room to see the flock already in their bathing suits and grabbing towels from the bathroom.
"Good," Iggy said as he passed us on his way to get his own towel, "'Cause we were gonna go anyway." With that the Flock left.
That left Fang and I alone.
Fang turned to me, locked the door and the rest is, as they say, history.
We were relaxing in the bed together (I don't want to scare the children talking about what state we were in but Lets just say that we were very, very close.) I was I was in the middle of drawing a wing when I heard feet running from outside the hall.
Oh (insert swear word of your choice here)!
I raised my head to lock eyes with Fang. We only had a few seconds. I leaped off of him and tried to find my clothes. I found all of my clothes except for my underwear. Looks like I had to go commando.
I was only in my bra when I heard the door open and close. I flung my shirt on and buttoned my jeans as best I could. I was just buttoning my jeans when the door flung open to reveal the entire flock staring at us.
I looked over towards Fang to see if he looked any better then I undoubtedly did. Oh boy. His shaggy black hair was messier then usual and standing on unnatural ends in the back. He wouldn't have looked too bad…other then the fact that his jeans were inside out! A shirt I could have explained but jeans were a bit harder. His shirt was even inside out. I sighed knowing that I would have to face the music sooner or later, and turned to my bird kid family, who were staring (except for Iggy of course because he's blind if you haven't noticed).at the bedside table. I looked over my shoulder, curious, to see none other then my plain black underwear lying on top of the phone. This was too much. Did every force in the universe just hate me that much?
"So do you guys have something to tell us?" Nudge asked, looking shaken but trying to hide it. She strode over to us…and accidentally touched the bed. She got a blank look in her eyes before turning an amazing shade of red. The next time you see a fire truck, look at it and know that that was the color of Nudge's face.
"Nudge, sweetie…" That was all I got out before I heard a shriek from the doorway.
Angel, looking nauseas, ran into the bathroom crying. Nudge ran into the other bathroom, still that amazing shade of red.
Iggy was looking suspicious and confused but Gazzy looked like the world had just bottomed out.
"Fang why don't you take the boys for a walk and talk to them, I'll take care of the girls." Fang nodded, perfectly fine with the idea. (Yeah because he didn't have to deal with the two kids that had basically witnessed us in the act!)
The boys left and I stood in the doorframe between the two rooms trying to decide who to go to first. I figured Angel because she had looked a bit more traumatized then Nudge.
Breathing deep I turned into the boys room to knock on the bathroom door where Ansel was hiding.
"Angel? Sweetie, do you wanna talk? I tried to sound soothing and calm about the fact that a six year old girl, who I had raised, saw me lose my virginity to the boy she looked at as a father, through the mind of her best friend none the less!
"No! I don't want to come out because then I'll see what happened through your eyes and I don't want to see that! Nudge only saw it from the bed's point of view and that was enough for me! I hate my powers!" That was the first time Angel had ever said anything bad about her powers in all the time I had known her.
Suddenly, she flung open the door, with a crazy look in her eyes and started yelling. "WHY CAN'T I JUST MAKE YOU FORGET?!" As she said the last word I felt a swirling sensation in my head and then, everything went black.
Fang (POV)
I was standing in the hallway when I heard yelling. The elevators weren't that far from the room but it was still impressively loud.
I heard Angel's yell and got a prickly feeling at the back of my neck that always happened when something was wrong.
"I think we need to go back, guys." I said trying to sound calm even though I didn't like the feeling I was getting. It was strange, like a part of me had disappeared.
Iggy nodded, hearing the worry in my voice, which meant Gazzy had no choice but to follow us.
It wasn't long before we got to the room and I could hear sobbing behind the door. I pulled the room key from my pocket as fast as genetically mutated reflexes could allow. What I saw on the other side of the door nearly stopped my heart.
There was Max lying, unconscious, on the floor. Nudge was sobbing and whispering almost silently.
"What did you do, Angel, oh my god what did you do?" over and over again.
Angel, in contrast, was looking down at Nudge with a pitying, almost disdainful look.
"Angel what did you do?" I said my voice scaring even me. I couldn't help it. I loved Angel but Max was my world. Especially now. I moved to kneel by Max's limp body trying to determine if there was anything wrong with her. "Angel, so help me god if you did anything to hurt Max…" I trailed off threateningly. If she did anything that took Max away from me she would be dead. I wouldn't have to kill her for her to be dead to me.
"I don't know what I did but whatever it was I'm glad I did it." Angel said defiantly. There was a new look in her eyes and I wondered if she had finally snapped. "Whatever I did made her stop thinking about what you two did. That was disgusting! I didn't want to see that and she wouldn't stop thinking about it…so I think I made her forget. I hope I did anyway."
I looked at Angel and tried to cover up the horror I was feeling towards her but I could feel my eyes widen and my face pale. I was about to move away from my position by Max to talk to Angel (or murder her, either way, at that point I thought I would win) when I heard a soft moan from behind me. I turned quickly to see Max moving. I put my hand gently on her face and pushed some loose hair out of her eyes before calling out softly.
"Max?"
She moved a bit more as though trying to figure out the lay of her body, before opening her eyes to look at me.
My breath caught in my throat as I saw the look in Max's eyes. It was…confusion she was confused about something and I didn't like the fact that se was looking at me with that confusion.
"Max?" I called again hoping she would stop looking at me like that. She opened her mouth to say the most heart wrenching thing I could hear her say.
"Is that what my name is?"