A/N Hello to all! To those of you who don't know me, it's nice to meet you. To those who've read my stuff/reviewed/PM'd me before, good to see you again, and thank you for deciding that I'm okay enough at writing to keep reading the things I spew out onto this site.

As I said in the description, this is a continuation of that final scene in School's Out - Forever. Enjoy. :D

Fang and I leaned against each other and laughed and laughed, unable to speak, for the longest time.

'Ow, stop, it hurts!' I finally managed to gasp out, laughter still cramping in my stomach and making it hard to breathe properly. Seeing Fang's face, his lips pressed tightly together to try and hold in any sound, just made me laugh harder until I couldn't stand looking at him anymore; I leaned my forehead against his shoulder, feeling it shake beneath me as we both tried to calm down.

'Was it even that funny?' I asked eventually, lifting my head to risk a glance at his face. He was grinning in a way I hadn't seen him do since before Angel was kidnapped, and if the ache in my cheeks was any indication, I was sporting a pretty similar expression.

'Nope,' he replied, his voice still holding a quiet chuckle as he pulled himself into an upright position from where he'd slumped a little way down the tree trunk we were sitting against. 'Guess when you're stressed to hell a lot of things can seem like comedy gold.'

I nodded, digging my heels into the ground in front of me, pushing my back against the rough bark of the tree and feeling it scrape against the ridges of my spine through my shirt. Everything still felt heightened after my time in the isolation tank, like my senses had gone into overdrive after hours of being shut off completely – the breeze on my face felt like an icy cloth being slapped against my cheeks, the different smells of the pine trees around us and the mangrove swamp downwind mingled together almost overwhelmingly, and the rustling of small nocturnal animals moving about was kinda like two pieces of sandpaper being rubbed together right next to my ear. My skin felt raw, the nerve endings way too sensitive, hyper-aware of everything within touching distance; the heat that Fang radiated as he sat next to me was like a magnet, tugging at any exposed skin on my left side until I felt as though I was having to make a genuine effort to hold the space between us. I frowned, pulling the rolled-up sleeves of my sweater down my arms and over my hands.

'You're thinking,' he stated, and I made a small sound of acknowledgment as I stared out into the trees, the darkness cool and soothing against my eyes.

'Yeah,' I said after a slight pause. 'I'm thinking that… I could do with laughing like that on a regular basis.' I turned my head towards Fang and narrowed my eyes accusingly. 'Why aren't you funny more often?' A smile broke across my face and I dodged backwards as he flicked at my forehead in retaliation, laughter making its way out of my mouth again. I'm not even sure that it was an entirely humorous laugh, either; it was the release of tension, the utter relief that I was here, sitting with my best friend and watching over the rest of my safe flock. And, yeah, I guess the fact that I wasn't in the clutches of a bunch of whack-job scientists helped too.

'What's our next step, then?' He crumpled our empty soda can between his hands as he spoke, then tossed it high into the air in front of him, watching as it landed a couple of feet away from where he sat.

I liked the fact that he said 'our'. Like we were all in this together, like I wasn't on my own.

'I don't know.' Sighing, suddenly exhausted, I let my head fall sideways onto Fang's shoulder. 'I feel like that's my answer to everything at the moment. Everything's "I don't know" or "let's just wait and see" or "maybe a sign from God will fall from the sky and tell us what to do". I feel like I'm losing it – at the end of the day, what if I just don't have a clue what I'm doing?'

Fang's shoulder rose and fell slightly, carrying my head with it as he breathed. I didn't expect him to reply – I just needed to get everything out, say it to someone – but after a moment his low voice sounded from above me.

'You've been managing it so far. We're all here and no one's been busted up too badly-'

'Except for you,' I cut in, nudging him lightly in the spot where Ari had shredded his side to ribbons.

'No one's been busted up too badly,' Fang repeated firmly, and I rolled my eyes. 'It was never gonna be easy. But so far you've been making the right calls.'

Now don't get me wrong, that kind of support is great and all, but I could feel frustration beginning to roil in my stomach.

'Well sure, but I've never been in control!' Pausing to make sure I hadn't woken any of the others, I continued more quietly. 'Everything I've done has been a lucky guess, or a barely-escaped disaster, or something that the freakin' voice in my head told me to do. You know what it's like? It's like when you're flying in a heavy wind, or you catch a cross-current; suddenly you're not the one steering anymore and all you can do is flap and hope. Every move I make is just another flap that I have to pray doesn't send us all barrelling into a tree or crashing into the ground.'

It was starting to become a kind of habit, this whole spewing-out-all-my-insecurities-to-Fang thing. A weird, confusing, and not-slightly embarrassing habit. He didn't respond this time, and I was glad; I really didn't want to talk about it anymore. No need to prolong the discomfort of talking about how helpless I felt. No need to keep the lid open on that can of worms.

'So I've got a question,' I said after a few seconds of silence. 'If you knew that the other Max wasn't me straight away, why exactly didn't you do something about it?' I tutted, laying it on thick. 'I'm fairly certain I raised you better than to mindlessly follow the orders of an imposter.'

I could almost feel Fang's scowl, his roll of the eyes, then my head was suddenly jolted up as he shrugged me hard off his shoulder.

'Hey!' I protested, the sharp movement making my still-fuzzy head spin a bit.

He raised an eyebrow slightly, turning to look at me head on.

'Your head was too heavy.'

I glared at him childishly.

'Yeah, well… Your shoulder was too bony.'

I managed to resist the urge to add 'so there' and stick my tongue out at him. That may have been overkill.

Then something happened.

Just as I was moving to look away from him, to turn my gaze back to the trees and the darkness, his eyes caught mine. And they just sort of… stuck.

I blinked, not quite sure what was going on; a small frown creased the spot between my eyebrows as I found myself incapable of looking away from him. I opened my mouth to speak, but my throat suddenly felt as though it had closed up completely and no sound came out. What the heck is happening?

Jeez… Why did I feel like all my organs had just been liquefied? Nice imagery there, Max. Real poet you are.

Fang's face looked like mine felt: kind of confused and uncertain and surprised. We sat staring at each other, caught in this weird unbreakable silence, then I jumped as his hand brushed mine, just for a second. The crease between my eyebrows deepened and I scrutinised his face, as if I might be able to see right through it and into his head, see the thoughts running through his mind if I looked hard enough. Was that an accident? It must have been, surely. Fang and I… We aren't like that. I remembered the Voice talking to me after I'd seen Fang kissing that red-haired girl – 'maybe you have feelings for him'.

But that wasn't how things were. It never had been. Fang and I had always been a pair; I knew it was bad of me to think it, bad to separate him from the rest of the flock, but he was my best friend and he had been my best friend pretty much from day one and Fang and I weren't like that. Right?

Sucking in a deep breath, I pulled my eyes away from him and sat up straight, rubbing the palms of my hands against my jeans.

'You know, it's getting pretty late,' I said stiffly. 'Been a long day and all…'

'Yeah.' I flicked a glance at Fang but he was facing forwards, looking out into the forest, his face giving nothing away. 'You gonna be able to sleep okay?'

I grimaced. Oh yeah. That.

'I don't know. Probably not. Worth a try, though.' There was another moment of silence, not nearly as comfortable as it usually was. 'You taking first watch, then?'

'Sure.'

'Okay. Night.'

'Night.'

There was a kind of unspoken agreement that we were going to skip out on our normal hand-stacking routine, and after a couple of seconds of just sitting there with my fingers twisted together in my lap, I stood up rigidly and moved over to where the others were sleeping.

Lying down on the forest floor, the earthy smell of slightly-rotten fallen leaves filling my nose, I shot one last look over at Fang; he was still in the same position, staring out into the night, the empty Coke can lying crumpled on the ground in front of him. I let out a sharp breath and closed my eyes, still trying to work out what had gone down in my head.

Uh-huh – something had definitely changed.

A/N 'Something changed right then, but I didn't know what.' - one of my favourite lines in SOF. :) Hope you all liked it.

I'll definitely be putting up more one-shots soon, some based off my own version of Nevermore (called After Angel, if you liked this then check it out), and some set at different points in the actual series. Might put them all in one story and turn it into a collection of one-shots. *shrugs*

Let me know what you thought of this one. You get cyber hugs and hypothetical cake/cookies/whatever floats your boat if you review! So review! :D