We're the Same
Disclaimer: I don't own Maximum Ride, blah blah blah…
"You're the same as me," He had told her the first time they met, his dark eyes boring into her own.
She hadn't even asked how.
The other times they had come across each other consisted of curious glances and averted eyes, passing each other on the street. She didn't find him hiding in the alley anymore, and she didn't find herself hiding there either.
When she saw him in the crowded supermarket, her mind had been made up. She wanted to talk to him. If they really were the same, as he claimed, would that mean something? She hadn't been sure.
Prepared to corner him outside, she darted out of the automatic doors after him, her mouth opening to call him back. The California sun beat down on her bare arms, made her sandals feel sticky as she wiggled her toes, her clothes itchy and dry. Stopping short, she came to a halt next to the coin-operated horse beside the grocery store.
He walked alongside several other children. He could easily have been the oldest, but not the tallest. He was talking, they were laughing, and the way they all walked… It was with a light skip, without any of the skipping business going on.
Her resolve crumbled in a heartbeat.
Sitting back at home, in the tiny apartment, she tried to think. If she were the same as him, were they as well? Why did she suddenly chicken out and run away? The fact that no answers came to mind made her frustrated, and she left for a walk.
Passing by the alley where they had first met, she remembered the way his eyes had seemed to glow in the dark, and how he had looked more like an angel than a demon, despite his dark aura.
Squatting at the edge of the pond in the nearby park, she thought of the way he had looked at her, as if he could see who she was.
"How am I the same?" She asked herself, skipping a rock in along the still water.
The next day, it was sunnier than before, and she decided she wanted to stay inside.
The weather man had reported that the highs would be somewhere in the 100s, and she turned on the fans.
Wearing a pair of shorts and an old t-shirt, she left the apartment to buy herself a soda from the vending machine.
He was standing there, reading over the label of a can of Dr. Pepper. Hesitating, she stepped forward, one of her hands flying to her back. Reaching behind her, she ran her hand along what was there, something she rarely thought about any more.
The white-coats had told her there were no others like her. They had told her that they would leave her alone. They had told her she would be living alone in a place of her choosing.
They had told her a lot of things. She believed them to be true. Most of them.
He looked up, popping the tab of the soda can.
Her hand was still behind her back.
"How could you tell?" She asked before she had time to think about the words.
He was hardly fazed. Shrugging his shoulders, he took a sip of his Dr. Pepper. "It's easy for me to see."
That was hardly an answer. Frowning, she fingered the coins in her hand. "…It shouldn't be."
"It is."
"For you."
"Yes."
There was silence. He took another sip before he said, cautiously, "You looked familiar to me."
There it was. She hadn't thought about it, but somewhere, in the crevasses of her mind, there was the inkling of a memory. Three five year-olds, two boys, one girl. Iggy, Fang, Max.
Her repressed memories surfaced, and, as she stood there, staring straight at him, the five year-olds grew up, parted ways, cried, laughed, smiled, frowned, glared and stared. They screamed something at her.
"The same."
Looking at him, his silence, and his dark clothes, she twitched the wings at her back faintly. It had been so long since she knew they were there. Since she thought about them, since she moved them.
"Fang."
His voice caught her off guard.
"Fang. That's my name," He repeated.
"I know that," she told him, frustrated.
The answering grin made her smile back at him.
"Then we really are the same."
A/N: Hmm… so, I'm procrastinating again. And this doesn't make sense, I know. It confuses even me. And I REALLY have to go to the bathroom.
