Disclaimer: I don't own Max and Fang, and I never will :

Chapter 1:

"Don't ever leave me again," I said in a tiny voice.

"I won't," he promised into my hair, sounding most un-Fang-like. "I won't. Not ever."

And I had been naive enough to believe him. I had been stupid enough to let him back into my heart. Now I found myself staring at his back as he broke his promise, leaving me broken and bleeding once again.

I wish I could scream at him, to remind him, to make him see reason. But this time there was no anger on my side, only sorrow. My lips traced his name in silence, and my heart shattered into a million pieces as he moved further and further away from me and closer and closer to them.

After we destroyed Itex, I took up the duty of finding everyone's parents. I didn't know how much it would hurt to see them leave me. But most of all, to see him leave. I guess, deep down, I had always thought it would be the two of us against the world, forever. It's never been so painful to be wrong.

I turned around sharply, unable to bare the sight of his retreating figure. I quickly rubbed the back of my hand against my eyes and bit my lip in order to hold back the sob building up inside my throat.

And then I took off. I just … opened my wings and took off. I didn't even tell him good-bye. I don't know how far I flew, or how long I had been in the air. By the time the sun started to set I hated my wings, I hated the fact that I could fly, I hated myself. If I wasn't like this, than we would have had a normal life, and if I would have met him, I wouldn't have lost him like I just did.

I didn't recognize the city I landed in. There weren't many bright lights so I assumed it was just some in-the-middle-of-nowhere-nothing-bad-happens-here kind of town. I walked into the first lighted building I caught sight of. It turned out to be a bar. I walked up to the counter slowly, there was no reason to hurry anymore, and sat down on one of the high stools.

"Can I get you something, sweetheart?" The man behind the counter asked politely. I guess I looked old enough to drink to him, and in the right state of mind too. I started to raise my hand to wave the question away, a polite no thank you, maybe. But I changed my mind half-way through the gesture.

"What do you have?" I asked instead. What the hell, it's not like I had much of a life to live anymore, no responsibilities or obligations. Might as well celebrate the freedom, I thought bitterly.

The bartender placed a glass of funny-looking green liquid in front of me.

"On the house," He said.

It even had an olive in it. On a different occasion I would have burst out in fits of uncontrollable laughter at the sight of it, but I picked it up and took a sip.

"You're not from around here, are you?" The man asked, interrupting my session of wallowing in self-pity. I shook my head, only half-conscious I was having a conversation with a normal human being … in a bar.

"Then might I suggest the Town-Side Inn, the hotel across the street, Miss. Travelers always enjoy their stay." He came off as sincere, so I nodded. I had to go to sleep eventually. I drowned the rest of my drink and stood up.

The alcohol, mixed with my depression was making everything seem rather unstable. It was amazing that I managed to cross the street, check into the hotel, and get up to the right room. Everything was so quaint and warm and welcoming that I wanted to scream. And I did.

I fell on the double bed in the third-floor room, shoved my face in the biggest pillow, and screamed my lungs out. After I was done, I stared at the dark ceiling for a long minute before bursting into tears. They were unstoppable by that time, and I was unsure of how I had been able to hold them in for so long. I cried and cried until the red numbers on the digital clock beside the bed blurred into one red line and I passed out from exhaustion.

Perhaps a hotel hadn't been such a good idea. Last time I was in one, Gazzy and Iggy and Nudge and Angle were sleeping in the adjacent rooms, and I was sharing a king-sized bed with Fang because they only had three stupid rooms in the stupid place.

It's been a while since I've posted anything, so feed-back would be greatly appreciated. If any of you have read "A Valium Incident, A Valium Plan" and are interested, be on the look-out for a bonus chapter for the stoty in the form ofthe one-shot: "Can You Remember?"

Ani