Hey everybody! This is my first time with a Maximum Ride Fanfic, so I'm gonna need your help and advice if you want another one. Hope you enjoy! Oh, so I don't forget,
Disclaimer: I do not own Maximum Ride, that work of genius belongs to James Patterson. (Goes off to complain to Espadas about the unfairness of it all)
PS. This has spoilers for things up to the end of the second book.
The fading light of day cast a weird glow on Max's face as she flew back to the cave where the Flock was waiting for her. She'd went out to scrounge up some kind of meal, leaving Fang in charge.
Today had been a surprisingly good day. Probably the first one since they'd discovered that Anna was a . . . traitor, to be polite. To Max's shock she'd found a package of six bottles of water, an entire box of slightly stale doughnuts, and cans of just past the sell by date ravioli in a supermarket dumpster. It wasn't exactly cuisine, but the Flock would be thrilled.
While Max knew garbage diving could be profitable sometimes, she couldn't help but feel like she was being too lucky. It seemed like some of the most horrible and painful times seemed to follow the most happy times of her life. They'd escaped the School and lived with Jeb, but then he'd disappeared. They'd been happy in their home, and then Angel had gotten kidnapped. They'd finally found a home with Anna, only to find out that, just like Jeb, she was a traitor. Max was waiting, certain that any second now a flying Eraser was going to show up, or maybe a fiery meteorite was going to fall out of nowhere and hit her.
Max was suddenly snapped out of her doom and gloom thoughts when she noticed someone's stray blanket snagged at the edge of some tall grass. She paused in midair for a moment, debating if she should swoop down and get it. 'Where'd it come from? It could be a trap,' she thought anxiously, with a slightly heightened sense of paranoia.
'See the whole picture Max,' the Voice intoned, and if Max didn't know better she'd have been sure she heard a hint of sarcasm.
'Wow, you sure are good at reading fortune cookies!' Max thought sarcastically.
Doing a quick 360, Max noticed a heavy laden laundry line, complete with two more blankets. Max snickered, she hadn't known anyone used clothes lines anymore, it was like a flash from the 50s. Now knowing where the other blanket was from, she hesitated to scoop it up. This blanket belonged to someone who, by the look of the run down house, didn't have much to spare.
Struggling with her conscience, torn between the image of bringing back the blankets to a happy flock, and the guilty feeling of knowing that stealing was wrong, Max flew down to the blanket. 'The Flock,' she reminded herself. 'The Flock's the most important thing.' With that thought firmly in mind, she picked up the blanket and stuck it into her backpack with the food and turned to the wash line. Looking around cautiously to make sure no one was around, she ran to the line and grabbed one of the blankets before taking off into the air.
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With a slightly troubled smile she gracefully landed at the entrance of the cave they were staying in. Instantly the youngest of the Flock came flooding out of the small, baby elephant sized hole in the cliff face.
"Oh, get back in there," she ordered with a smile. "There's not a lot of room on this ledge."
They stepped back inside, eyes wide with excitement. Max shook her head as she walked into the darkness that was to be their home for the night. She felt like Santa Clause at Christmas time.
"You brought us a surprise!" Angel squealed. "Fang, Iggy, come over here! She won't let us have it till you do!"
Fang and Iggy walked over from the back of the cave where they had just started a fire.
"Naturally, Angel's right," Max said, trying to keep her mind blank. It sure wasn't easy surprising a six year old mind reader. Smiling, she rifled around her bag to get what she was looking for. She watched as their faces lit up with excitement as she pulled out each item. Fang seemed especially taken with the ravioli, like she knew he would. They all prepared to descend upon the food, but Max called their attention back to her with, "Hey, did I say I was done?"
They hustled back to her, and Nudge turned her wide puppy dog eyes at her as she exclaimed,
"What else do you have Max?"
Even though Max had meant to drag it out, she couldn't resist
"Ta-da," Max said, feeling a little silly as she handed one of the blankets to Angel and one to Gassy. Suddenly coming to a decision she added, "They're only borrowed though, so don't get too attached okay? I'm giving them back in the morning."
Angel and Gassy ran off with Total on their heals to put the blankets on opposite sides of the fire before going to help Nudge and Iggy try to find out how to cook the ravioli without burning it.
"Maybe I should have grabbed a pot," Max muttered sarcastically to herself before realizing that one essential member of the Flock was missing. "Shouldn't you be making sure that they don't ruin the ravioli?"
Fang almost smiled from where he leaned against the wall, and Max had the sudden image of a certain red haired girl with her lips pressed against his as they. . . With a sudden shake of her head, she tried to forget that oh so unpleasant memory. Angel was staring at her with a strange look on her face, and Max grimaced.
"Voice again?" Fang asked with some concern, studying her pained face intently.
"Nope," Max muttered, glaring at her feet. "So, is there a reason you're risking your favorite food to be burned to cinders?"
"Iggy's got it," Fang said, choosing to ignore her change of subject. "Anyway, Iggy and I were checking the cave out, and we found another entrance."
Max looked up from her feet with an anxious glance toward the happy Flock who were laughing by the fire.
"Do we need to leave?!" Max asked, lowering her voice even further.
"You didn't let me finish," Fang reprimanded her, a rare smile flickering across his face. "It's too small for an Eraser to get through, but we could probably get through it easily enough. It drops out straight over the ocean, so in an emergency we could take off from there."
"Sounds good," Max admitted, "It's always good to have a second exit because. . ."
She cut herself off when she realized that she was almost babbling, and Maximum Ride did not babble, unless she was lying on the fly to some feds, but who could blame her then? Fang was looking at her with a half smile, letting her know that he thought it was hilarious. Without saying anything else she went to go 'help' Iggy cook the ravioli.
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Max smiled as she tucked the blanket up around the tired and full versions of Nudge and Angel.
"Go to sleep," she said, kissing Angel's forehead, not that that would be much of a problem tonight.
"Aren't you sleeping with us?" Angel asked quietly.
"I will be later. I have watch duty first tonight." Max replied as she turned and stood up. She was about to head for the entrance of the cave when Nudge called her back. Trying to remember what she might have forgotten, Max crouched down beside them again.
"What're we going to do now Max? I mean, we found the Institute, got captured, escaped, blew a hunking huge hole out of the wall, and now-"
"Nudge, stop okay, I got it, I was there for all that," Max said, rolling her eyes. "The plan is to lay low for a while, until they let down their guard."
She paused for a moment, considering before continuing reluctantly,
"And I guess we can look for your parents, if you really want to."
There was silence for a moment before Angel whispered,
"I don't really need to find my mommy anymore Max. I have you instead, and if I wasn't with you, I'd be sad."
Max was a little choked up at the sincere emotion in Angel's answer, but before she could suck it up and move on like nothing ever happened, Angel had continued with,
"You're our mommy, and Fang's our daddy and I want it to stay that way."
Max didn't even get a chance to argue that that idea was crazy before Nudge began,
"Yeah, she's totally right! Look at you two, it's obvious. You didn't see Fang after you went on that date with Sam, he was really upset. He kept pacing around, muttering, 'if he hurts her, I'll kill him.' Course he wasn't happy that you two had a good time either. Plus, if you need advice, who do you go to? Fang. Who do you trust enough to lean on? Fang. Who-"
"And when you say no to something, he says yes, like with Total," Angel interrupted, gesturing to Total, who was laying at her feet. "Just like a real mom and dad."
"You guys are crazy," Max muttered, standing up, taking a quick glance over at Fang to make sure he hadn't heard anything. He was over by the other blanket, talking to Iggy and Gassy, so she guessed he hadn't. "Now get to sleep!"
Max was still mulling over what Nudge had said when she walked over the boys. Fang had seemingly disappeared, even though she knew that he was probably just exploring somewhere.
"What were you guys talking about?" Gassy asked when she had sat down beside them to tuck them in.
"Nothing," Max said quickly.
"Liar, liar pants afire," Iggy muttered and she glared, then realized that he couldn't see the glare and said,
"I'm glaring at you right now Iggy. Now get to sleep, I'll have Fang wake you up for third watch."
With that she walked out to the ledge of the cave, far from the soft light of the campfire and into the light of the crescent moon. Max sat there for a few minutes at attention, trying to stay focused, but her mind was repeatedly brought back to what Angel had said.
"Stop doing that," Max said out loud, twisting around to glare at Fang. He smirked and sat down next to her. "Shouldn't you be asleep? Your shift is after mine, I'll get you up then, so just go away okay?"
"So what were Nudge and Angel talking to you about?" Fang asked, ignoring her order to go away. "You seemed pretty upset."
"Nothing," Max snapped, she just wanted him to go away, and she definitely did not want to tell him what Angel had said.
"Uh uh Max, you don't get an easy out," Fang said. "You wouldn't tell Iggy and you wouldn't tell Gassy, but I swear if you don't tell me, I will march right back in there and ask Angel, and you know she'll tell me."
Max stared at him in shock for a moment, partially because he never talked that much, and partially because he had just trapped her. Either choice, he would find out what she'd talked about.
"She was going on and on about how I'm like a mother to her," Max said, keeping her blush down, and then mumbled, "and how you're like a father."
"What was that last part?" Fang asked smirking.
"She kept going on and on about how you're like a father to her, but I just couldn't see it," Max said sarcastically, letting her anger take over. "I mean, what person in her right mind would want Mister Dark and Brooding as her father?"
"So she thought you were the mom and I was the dad?" Fang said, ignoring her words because he knew she didn't mean them. "That's interesting."
"What's interesting about that?" Max asked, irritated.
"Gazzy just said the same sort of thing to me last night," Fang replied before he fell silent. Max was determined to act like it had never happened, so she turned resolutely back toward the quiet night.
Her mind, however, couldn't help but be curious as to what exactly Gazzy had said. Giving up she asked aloud, knowing that Fang hadn't left yet,
"What exactly did Gazzy say?"
"Oh, just that he thinks that we're in love," Fang said offhandedly. "He thinks we should get married and adopt the Flock, you know, make the whole family thing official."
"What?!" Max cried out, turning around to face him. "There's no way he said that!"
"Well, maybe not," Fang said, smirking at her reaction. "He just said that we were like his parents, and he didn't feel like he needed to find a whole new family. Whatever happens, he wants us together."
"I think are life has finally driven those kids crazy, how could anyone think we're in love?" Max questioned, turning her back to him once again, determined to lock the thoughts of their being together out of her head. "It's impossible."
"Why?" Fang asked, his mouth so close to her ear that it made Max's hair move.
"Because we're just friends," Max said, trying to tell herself that her heart was pounding because he had moved so fast, not because of his proximity. "We don't like each other like that."
"Speak for yourself," Fang said as he wrapped his arms around her into a playful hug. Twisting around while extracting herself from his arms Max exclaimed,
"What're you playing at?!"
"I love you," Fang said simply. "And not in a brotherly sisterly way."
Staring into his dark eyes, Max found her heart pounding like she had just been in a fight. The boy she'd met at school had never made her feel like this, was this how love was supposed to feel?
'Oh get a move on Max,' the Voice said, and for the first time, Max thought she heard an emotion in it, excitement.
"I think I love you too," Max said hesitantly as she touched her lips to his.
When they pulled apart, they heard a soft, tinkling laughter from inside the cave. Angel was sitting up, staring at both of them as if she had known it was coming all along. They blushed and Max muttered,
"Well, I think my watch is over."
Max jumped up and ran over to where the girls were sleeping, her face aflame. This was definitely going to be interesting.
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Well, I don't know if this was any good, but I've already written a second one, so if you want to read that, feel free to tell me which was better. I know this one rambled on and on at the beginning, but that was just because it was my first Maximum Ride fanfic. Please Review!