Hello there friends!

This one-shot is a very slight Faxness one-shot that takes place during School's Out: Forever. I want it in a certain spot, so I'll just say that this would be chapter 61.5

Disclaimer: This miracle belongs to the god that is James Patterson

Those of you who have been with me and my flock for the entirety of this fun-filled joyride, you know what we would be doing right now, that is, if we weren't all cooped up (get it?) and "safe" in Anne's farm house. We would be flying through the sky at more than 100 miles per hour, kicking eraser butt all across the country, eating the day away, et cetera, et cetera. But nooooooo. Instead, I was stuck in here doing freaking math homework while the rest of my flock was gallivanting outside with Anne near her pretty little pond; well, the rest minus one, but that's beside the point.

Back to my homework situation.

As many of you already know, my feathery compadres and I were mega street smart (making bombs, outsmarting baddies, the usual), but we lacked mucho in the "traditional education" department (uhh...that "t" wannabe means addition, right?). I mean, I didn't need to know the velocity of my punches when I was in a scrap, cause' I was dang sure it'd hit its target, and that's all that matters, am I right?

Anyway, as you can well imagine, I was sitting at Anne's dining room table, head resting on my hands, staring down these numbers, wondering why I hadn't thrown myself out of the nearest window yet. (Though whether I'd snap my wings out or not is still under dispute.)

And of course, the ever-so-helpful Voice was nowhere to be heard. Sure, when I don't need you, you give me some life-lessons or how-to-save-the-world fortune cookie crap, but when I need you you're as silent as a library.

No answer. Shocker.

Oh, you don't have a voice of your own? They're really easy to come by: just have a megalomaniac inject one into your forearm using a syringe. Fun times, I assure you.

Enough with my ranting; it was time to get off my soapbox.

Now, with all of my pent up frustration about being unable to find freaking "x", you'd think that the flock would've be smart enough to treat my like a hibernating grizzly bear: no sudden movements, don't poke it, and be really freaking quiet. Well, 4 out of 5 of them were; they, as I mentioned earlier, were prancing around the backyard with Anne (la-di-da). The lucky buggers were already done with their homework, and I could've be too, had I not been to prideful to ask for Anne's help; if I could handle a full-grown wolf-man, I can most definitely handle algebra.

And maybe it'd be a lot easier if that one member of the flock who wasn't yet done with his easy-as-heck history homework wasn't so gol danged annoying. Can you guess who it is? If you guessed Mr. Tall, dark, and red-head-loving, you guessed correctly. Sorry, I didn't give out rewards for right answers, but you could have a free roundhouse kick, if you want.

Didn't think so.

At that moment, Fang wasn't exactly at the top of the list of my favorite people. My favorite people to hurt list, yes, but the former, no. Not after that fight we had last night about my ability to be a mom. Also, the fact that the Red Haired Wonder was spoken of during that dispute didn't help either.

Okay, so I was the one who brought her up; but that was beside the point.

So what is Fang doing, you may ask? Lets get the list started, shall we?

(1) Listening to music so loud that it traveled from the headphones of Iggy's iPod (that Fang "borrowed") to my eardrums.

(2) He's humming along to the music very obnoxiously

(3) The pen tapping has got to stop

Yeah, he's wayyyy beyond poking the Grizzly.

"Uhm, Fang?" I almost had to yell for him to hear me over the obnoxious blaring of his music. I had to tightly grasp the sides of my chair to stop myself from flying to the him at the opposite end of the table, ripping the iPod away from him and chucking it across the room.

He didn't even look up from his book. "Yes, Max?" he copied my tone exactly. Not as good as Gazzy, but well enough to make me frown.

My eye twitching slightly, I took a deep breath and spoke steadily, trying my best to control my temper. "Could you turn down the music and perhaps cease and desist with the humming and the pen tapping? Trying to concentrate here."

Not that I cared about math or anything.

He, finally, picked his head up and pulled out his right headphone. He looked at me curiously with his obsidian eyes. I raised an eyebrow at him, silently asking if he was done being obnoxious. He raised an eyebrow right back at me, then put his headphone back in and turned up the volume.

Wait, it got better.

He proceeded to hum louder and to tap his pen against his book, accenting every note. As a final act of defiance, he put his black-booted feet on the table and gave me an insubordinate smirk. That little twerp.

I returned his smirk, knowing his game. He wants to play? Fine; lets play. I let out a low whistle, put my hair behind my ears and smoothed out my papers. "Wow. I didn't know that emo kids are so pugnacious," I said, unable to hold my smirk. Dang, I'm good. Of course, making snide, sarcastic comments is my thing.

I adjusedt my hold on my pencil and trie once again to find the ever-so-elusive "x". When I was nearing a mental breakdown, I was yanked from my trance by a sudden crunching noise. I brushed it off as an act of my hyperactive imagination, then blinked quite a few times when I feel something hit me in the forehead.

Uh, what?

I looked up slowly to see Fang all-to-innocently writing in his notebook, a tell-tale grin on his face. I felt my own face falling into a semi-amused scowl. Okay, now it's war. I searched around the room until I found Fang's ammo: a crumpled piece of loose leaf paper lying on the floor about a yard from my chair. Quick as lightning, I leaned down, picked it up, then pretended to be working on my homework. I looked up to make sure he wasn't looking. Target acquired. I launched the paper ball at his head about five times harder than he launched it at mine.

It hit him smack-dab in the middle of his forehead and landed near the edge of the table. Target neutralized. I sneaked a peak at him and saw him narrowing his black eyes at me, obviously trying to inflict fear.

I couldn't help but giggle. My flock was so dang adorable when they were trying to be scary.

I raised my head completely and gave him me sweetest, most charming full-mouth smile. "Trying to burn holes in my head by staring at it? I don't think you've developed laser vision yet. Better luck next time." An accomplished feeling filled me as I saw is face turn red in anger. I let out a momentary chuckle then went back to my math, silently condemning my teacher to the tenth circle of hell.

CRACK! "Ow!" I whispered sharply, my head hurting where the paper ball had smacked into it. I picked up my head and blew a chunk of hair away from my eyes and saw Fang's shoulders shaking with contained laughter.

I clenched my pencil so hard that I feel it break inside my fist. I sighed deeply and release the two pieces of wood. See what he makes me do? He makes me wreck my stuff. Jerk. I swiped the discarded paper ball of the table and smile deviously. Time to play dirty.

I crumpled up two more pieces of paper, thankful that the high volume of his music would block out the crunching noise. Talk about a change of heart. I picked up the three crumpled papers and fired them at him, one after another.

CRACK! CRACK! CRACK! The papers hit his black-haired noggin with complete accuracy. I heard him grumble with anger, making me grin with satisfaction. I peered up at Fang to see him giving me the universal you're-so-dead-meat glare.

Darn! I wished I had a camera!

I shook my head at him, my sweet smile returning. "Darn, still no laser vision? Keep on truckin' Sparky; you'll get there." I waited a few moments, expecting a scalding retort.

Nothing. No-ting.

"What? I'm not worth a witty comeback?"

Nada. Zip. Zilch.

"Are you serious with thi-" I started, swiveling towards him, but stopped when I seaw an empty chair and an abandoned textbook. "Fang?"

"Yeees?" I felt my neck prickle at the smooth voice coming from behind my chair. I stood up and turned to face him, my brown eyes blazing. He was standing about two feet behind me, his hands behind his back, an oddly familiar cocky smirk plastered to his face. Why did I recognize that cocky smirk? Oh, yeah.

It was my cocky smirk.

I opened my mouth to say something scathing but Fang removed his hands from behind his back and dumped the contents of Anne's paper recycle basket on my head before I could utter a single syllable.

When the basket was empty, Fang let it fall onto my head with a thump.

"Oh, geeze! Didn't see you there Max! I'm so sorry!" he saids apologetically, but it didn't take much to see that he was full of crapola.

I pushed the plastic basket off my head, some papers lingering on the snarls of my hair, a witty retort bouncing on the tip of my tongue. I prepared to release it, but Fang's trademark half smile seemed to trap in inside my throat. Unable to speak, I settled for my best/worst scowl, simultaneously trying to remove the lump from my throat and to slow the sudden hyper-drive of my heart.

Fang observed the paper stuck in my already messy hair and his half smile turned to a full-blown smile that could have stopped the rotation of the Earth. Unable to speak, I just stood there like an idiot, my scowl deepening. He took advantage of my speechless-ness and removed the paper from my hair my ruffling it up with both hands.

"Oh sorry, Max! Did I mess up your hair?"

Okay, that was the last straw. No, not because he messed up my hair. It was the last straw because he thought that messy hair would bother me.

I launched myself at him with a snarl, catching him off guard, though after a few seconds he was fighting back vigorously. Soon the two of us were rolling across the dining room floor. I kneed him in the stomach, trying to get the edge, but he retaliated quickly by sharply twisting my wrist.

Dang, does this bring back memories. Back when we were younger, Fang and I would wrestle constantly, one always trying to one-up the other. But now we were bigger, fiercer, and, of course, much more bloodthirsty, so now it was way more interesting.

The advantage switched from me to him then back to me, but eventually he bested me, leaving me pinned by my wrists to the floor while he hovered over me, his knees near my hips. Being genetically engineered to be full-o-stamina, we were barely breathing hard.

"Just like old times, huh Max?" his condescending voice mocked me but his smile made my already-higher-from-wrestling heartbeat go up even higher.

Hold the phone; He was smiling...he thought he won...his guard was down...

Hello.

I gave him a smirk I reserved only for charming my way out of a situation, making his guard lower even more. Also, I think his cheeks flushed a teensy bit redder than they already had from exertion. Interesting.

I arched my back, taking him by surprise. Before he got over his shock, I pushed him off me then flipped over so that our positions were switched. "Yeah Fang," I said, pinning him by his wrists and planting my knees near his hips. He struggled against my grip but was unable to break loose. I leaned over him, my hair falling like a curtain around his flushed face, which was just inches from mine. I grinned, clearly the victor. 'It is just like old times: with me on top."

"Am I, um, interrupting something?" I jerked my head toward the voice to see a very confused Total looking at me like I'd grown two heads.

Ya know, it wouldn't shock me if I had.

"What are you talking ab-ohh..." I blushed furiously, realizing what Total thought that Fang and I were doing. With my face mere inches from Fang's and the way that I was all but straddling him, it would've be weird for Total not to think like that.

Total cocked his head, looking about half as embarrassed as I felt. "Um...should I leave?"

I all but jumped off Fang before standing up straight and brushing imaginary dust off my pants, my face still red. "No, no, it's fine. I was just teaching Fang here a lesson," I said, my voice smooth as silk. I started to walk away with my head held high, being the suave bird girl that I was, but I slowed my pace when I hear Total start talking to Fang.

"Were you and Max just...?" Total started.

Fang chuckled, and I felt my blood boil. "No, no. But I wouldn't blame her if she wanted to," he said, then adds loud enough for me to hear: "The ladies just can't seem to keep their hands off my lately."

An image of Fang kissing the Red Haired Wonder flashed through my brain, making me clench my teeth and fists. I turned around and made my way back to where Fang was still lying on the floor. Taking advantage of his position, I stomped my foot down on his stomach, hard, earning myself a satisfying "OOF!"

"Huh; I guess they can't keep their feet off you either."

Let me know what you think!

-Katiebunchesofoats