AN- Fax fic! Because FANG depressed me and needs to be fixed or someone (Patterson) is going to be beaten painfully with sticks and aluminum bats.
Just saying.
Anyway, there's no point to this. It's just all drabbles. I was in the need for some writing, came across the word and thought, "Fax!" Thus, this was born.
Enjoy!
1. to fail to hit or strike: to miss a target.
"Missed again."
It's the taunting grin that drives her off the wall. Not the fact that they've been fighting for the past hour and she's yet to take a swipe at him or Iggy's constant snickering in the background. It's that grin, that 'come-on-now-Max-I-know-you-can-do-better-show-me-what-you-got' grin.
She pauses for a moment, reassesses the situation and fakes a right jab before swinging her left hand, hoping to take him by surprise. His own hand catches hers and he pulls her closer.
"You used to be good at this," he says.
"Still am," she promises.
Then she lifts her knee up in hopes of doing some rather cheap-shot damage. But of course Fang is a superhero, because he manages to twist away before contact that be made.
2. to fail to encounter, meet, catch, etc.: to miss a train.
It's twenty years later and she's here. Her feet touch the cliff and her wings fold in and she waits. Because he's here. Because he promised he would be and she needs to see his face peak out from behind a rock before her heart breaks into a million pieces. She waits. The wind blows and the air cools. The sun begins to darken and he still hasn't shown. She kicks a rock and waits until nightfall before spreading her wings and taking a running dive.
He arrives. His feet touch the cliff and he kneels down to examine the shoe-prints. He curses himself and kicks at a rock in frustration.
It's twenty years later and he's too late.
3. to fail to take advantage of: to miss a chance.
So, they're alone. They're also fifteen and hormonal and completely and totally alone for the first time ever. So they're kissing and there's some touching and her heart is beating kind of fast and he keeps whispering sweet nothings in her ear and there's this….need. To go further, to explore parts of each other they'd never seen before.
With no mind-reading child to hear their thoughts, no annoying kids to barge in on them, and no teenage boy to make dirty jokes.
His hand drifts up her shirt and touches skin and she gasps at the heat and electricity and warmth she feels radiating from his skin.
"Do," he whispers, his lips tracing her collar bone (where did he learn to kiss like this?), "Do you want to?"
"Wanna wha?" she asks rather stupidly, unable to form a coherent sentence when he's so close.
He pulls away and her brain clears and their eyes meet and oh.
"Um, I don't…we don't have…I mean," she blushes and fumbles for words but he's Fang.
So he gets it.
He kisses her one last time and his hand slips down her shirt and he goes to move. But she grabs his arm. He looks at her and she looks at him and there's something she needs to say and….
Angel bursts into the room, carrying a stuffed bear the size of her ("Iggy won him for me!) and Nudge is chattering to Gazzy and Dylan ("No, she's only Hannah Montana with the wig on") and Iggy follows lazily.
And whatever might have happened isn't going to now.
4. to fail to be present at or for: to miss a day of school.
"I don't feel well," Max insists even though she feels like a coward for running away from her problems rather than facing them head on.
Annie presses a hand to her forehead and frowns, "You don't feel warm…"
"I also don't work the same way as a normal human," Max reminds her, trying to keep as much snark out of her voice as possible.
Annie purses her lips (guess she didn't succeed) but nods, "Alright. I'll call the school and let them know you won't be in."
As she leaves, Angel skips inside.
"I'm sooooo sorry you're not feeling well, Max. I'll make you a get well card at school!"
"Thanks, Angel. Just promise me you'll be on your best behavior and that will help loads."
"I promise," Angel declares, eyes sparkling.
"I'll keep an eye on all of them."
Both girls look up and see Fang leaning against the doorway, his arms crossed.
"Angel, go downstairs and get your stuff," he says, and after a quick hug, the younger girl does as he asks.
He waits until she's out of ear shot, "So are you really sick or what?"
"Why do you care?" she asks rather defensively.
He shrugs. "If you need a day off, you can just admit it. You don't need to be Wonder Woman."
"I don't need to be Wonder anything," she snorts, thinking of certain degrading nicknames she's created.
Fang rolls his eyes, "Whatever. Just feel better."
He exits the room and she falls back on the bed, trying to chase away images of red-haired girls wrapped around boys that are not their boyfriends.
Or, she reminds herself (sadly) her boyfriend either.
5. to notice the absence or loss of: When did you first miss your wallet?
So she's lying in bed (what else is new?), and his laptop is always on, always at her fingertips as she snoops through everything she can find.
She discovers letters, addressed to her but never intended for her eyes; pictures he must have taken on the sly, of her, the Flock and one he somehow managed to get someone to take of the two of them, arms around each other; and one message, three words long that squeezes around her already fragile heart until the cracks widen and it falls apart.
It's the first time she really, really gets it; he's gone.
And he's never coming back.
6. to regret the absence or loss of: I miss you all dreadfully.
He's cold. And lonely. And his is so much harder than he ever thought it would be but he's Fang so he's not going to admit it.
He catches rats by himself and eats them raw over a barely lit fire and sees blonde hair and brown eyes in every flicker of the flame.
He closes his eyes and pretends Nudge is there, chattering away. And there's Iggy and Gazzy, deep in the corner, plotting something diabolical. Angel's curled up in Max's lap and Max….
Max is gorgeous. Max is there. Max is his, forever.
He opens his eyes and is hit with a blunt force object made of pure disappointment when he realizes it wasn't real (even though he should have known all along).
And he misses them (her) more than he can possibly stand.
7. to escape or avoid: He just missed being caught.
He runs down the hallway, ducks into the kitchen and makes a run for the basement. His feet pound the carpet, then tile, then wood beneath him as he urges himself to run faster. As soon as he's in the enclosed space, he realizes how screwed he is; there's no escape. Then he spots albeit small but escapable route.
A window.
He charges forward and leaps on the couch right beneath it for leverage. The footsteps chasing him grow louder and it's only minutes before they'll be downstairs. He pushes at the small glass but nothing happens and he realizes he's probably too big to fit.
So, there he stands, ready to meet his maker.
Suddenly, a hand grabs him by the collar of his shirt and drags him into a small opening in the wall he never noticed before.
"Wha-" a hand clamps down on his mouth.
"Shhh," she whispers harshly, "Do you want him to catch you."
They wait and listen as the footsteps march downstairs, then stop at the threshold of the basement.
"Fang! I know you're down here!" a familiar voice shouts.
"I don't see him, Iggy. He must not have come this way," a smaller, just as familiar voice says.
Iggy mutters under his breath and they hear him march upstairs, Gazzy's smaller steps following. Max waits, then begins to laugh.
"He wants to kill you!"
Fang grins, "Don't know why. I mean, I did just totally pop out from behind the couch just as he was making a move on Ella. I may have also admitted how he still has a pair of Mickey Mouse boxers."
"Serves him right for always picking on us," Max mutters.
"So," he begins, his voice suggestive, "We're gonna be stuck down here for a while. However will we pass the time?"
Max smirks but leans forward to kiss him anyway.
They're still there thirty minutes later when Iggy finally discovers them.
8. to fail to perceive or understand: to miss the point of a remark.
"Maybe you should go to a doctor," Fang suggests as Max's head disappears into the toilet for the third time that morning.
"I already saw my mom, Fang," she manages to say in one of the brief pauses, before she has to dive back in.
"And, she didn't give you a concrete enough answer," he reminds her, finally making himself useful and gathering her hair behind her as she heaves.
Once she's finally done, he helps her stand shakily to het feet and leads her to the living room, where she's commandeered the couch, TV and remote.
"She did."
"She didn't give you anything to take for this."
"Well," Max says, smiling softly, "There isn't anything to take for this."
Fang runs a hand through his hair. "Max, there's plenty of vaccines for the flu. You just need to let me take you to a doctor and-"
"How would we explain the abnormalities? Besides, I'm not sick, Fang."
He pauses and their eyes meet and his widen just a fraction of an inch and she starts smiling because he finally gets it.
"It's food poisoning. I knew we shouldn't have eaten at Iggy's last night, no matter what he said about the chicken."
Or, she thinks as she slaps her hand to her forehead, maybe not.
AN- The last one is more OOC than usual but I wanted to go something funny after the angst fest that the other ones brought on. Hope you enjoyed!