*IMPORTANT*
*PLEASE READ*
Okay, people, I have a few things to say to the people who actually read this before the story stuff. First, this is intended to be a one shot but I don't really know what I might do with it. Review on any ideas you might want me to do with it. Second, you will not be seeing much of anyone other than Max and Fang. Sorry to the fans of any of the other characters. Third, I have decided to start taking requests because I have a laptop now and will actually update my storys. Fourth, I don't know if I will be updating my other stories because the work that I had done on them has been erased from the old family computer by my evil setp-father of doom. I think he might be an eraser undercover. I might update those and I might not. Let me know if you want me to in a review on either this story or that one. And finally, fith, I do not own Maximum Ride, -insert random funny sentence about what would happen or would have already happened if I did own the books- All rights reserved to James Patterson. Now please enjoy our feature fluff-filled fic! And please, please, PLEASE, people, DO NOT send me a PM because I WILL NOT get it! My bording school does NOT allow me to cheak my e-mail and I do not know how to see PMs in any other way, meaning I might nit get your message for a few months. Try to only send reviews unless someone would like to tell me another way to see my messages. It would be greatly appreciated and I would owe you a million thanks.
The stars always look so much brighter when we sleep in the woods. I hate it. It's like God is saying 'everyone else can enjoy this night much more than you because every time you stay in a nice place something messes it up but, when you sleep in a crappy place, you almost want to enjoy it.' Sick jerk. But at least, in the woods, we don't have to try to blend in as much.
We were just south of a small town in Arizona called Palo Verde and about fifty yards from a river that supplied us with water and fish. It's about 10 o'clock so that means it's time to settle down for the night.
"I'll take the first watch." Iggy offered.
"And I'll take the next." Fang said.
"What? You think I can't handle the early watches?" I spoke up.
"Just because you can doesn't mean you should. You toke the last watch this morning. That means that you've gone longer without sleep than the rest of us. Now shut up and go to bed." Fang said with his typical Fang-like smug. I hate him sometimes; him and his stupid logic. Reluctantly, though, I climbed into a tree and quickly fell asleep.
I jumped awake some time later. I don't remember what woke me up but I felt like something around me was a little off. I checked my watch and figured out that it was time for my watch.
I could see Fang sitting by the fire and saw that his knees were pulled up to his chest, even though his back was facing me. I stood up and walked over to him. It was about this time that I realized that he was shivering, despite sitting as close as he could to the fire and wearing a jacket. Bad sign number one.
"Fang," I called with no response. It didn't even look like he heard me. Bad sign number two.
"Fang," I said a bit louder as I placed my hand on his shoulder. He jumped, startled; he hadn't even known I was there. Three strikes and you're out. I took a good look and noticed several things wrong; he was even paler than usual except for his cheeks, which were flushed, he was sweating despite his harsh shivering, and his eyes had a slightly glossy look to them.
"What do you want, Max?" Fang asked; his voice a bit more raspy than normal.
"Your watch is over." I replied.
"Oh, um…thanks." Fang said, looking at his watch.
"You should go to bed. You look exhausted." I told him.
Fang nodded and stood unsteadily for a few seconds before falling, oh so very gracefully, back onto the ground. That was the final straw. I sat down in front of him and was about to put my hand to his forehead when he suddenly jumped up and ran off into the woods.
Instinctively, I took off after him. I found him kneeling by the river empting the contents of his stomach for the unknowing fishes. I sat beside him, using one hand to hold back his hair and the other to rub small, comforting circles on his back. When he had finally finished, he fell back, too exhausted to move, onto my lap. We stayed there for a few minuets before I finally decided that we should head back to camp.
"Fang," I started and waited for a reply.
Fang let out a small groan to let me know that he was listening.
"Fang, we need to get back to the others. Can you walk?" I asked and he let out another groan, lower and a bit more pained than the first, which I took as a 'no'.
Since he was too tired to walk, that left me to carry him. I pulled his arm around my shoulders and gently lifted him off of the ground. It took us almost ten minuets to get back but we made it nonetheless. When we got there, I helped him over to the fire and grabbed my sleeping bag to let him use because Mr. Macho thought that he wouldn't need one, and such, didn't bring one. He lied down and quickly fell asleep as I kept a close eye on his condition.
Hours later, though it felt like days, everyone, except Fang, was awake. I knew I needed to tell the others about Fang; they were already worried because Fang was always up before almost everyone else. I also knew that we could not stay here; we needed to get Fang somewhere where he could get proper rest and help. Of course, a hospital was out of the question so I needed to think about what was close by. That was when I remembered that I was only about thirty-five miles from Phoenix; where Mom lived. If we flew at an easy speed of eighty miles an hour, then we should get there in about half an hour. It was almost eleven-thirty so I needed to wake up Fang so that we could get to Mom's house in good time.
I walked over to the sleeping Fang and shook his shoulder lightly.
"Fang, you need to get up now." I told him with no reply. I shook his shoulder again, a bit harder this time and spoke again.
"Fang, wake up. We need to go." I said, louder. This time he shifted a bit in the sleeping bag and let out a small moan.
Angel and Nudge walked over to me and began asking questions like, 'What's wrong with Fang?', 'When are we leaving?', 'Where are we going?', 'Will Fang be okay?' and of course I had to reply to them.
"Guys, calm down. Alright, everyone, Fang is sick. We are going to leave as soon as we are packed and everyone is ready to go. We will be going to my Mom's house; about a thirty minuet flight. And, yes, Fang will be just fine." I told them, trying to act as calm as I could and not let my worried emotions take over. After I finished talking to the Flock, I walked back over to Fang to see his eyes slightly cracked open.
"Fang, do you think you can fly at all?" I asked him and he was able to talk this time.
"I don't know but I doubt it." Fang mumbled feebly as I helped him to stand up. He was shaky but he was standing. I turned to see that the others had finished packing up so I told them that we would be leaving in five minuets. Then I turned to Fang, planning on asking him about flying.
"I think I can fly for a few minuets but not the whole half-hour." Fang told me, reading my mind before I could get one word out. I nodded and called to the flock, telling them that it was time to take off. (Get it? Take off; because we're birds- never mind.)
We had been up for about ten minuets and I notices Fang's absence. Looking back, I saw him about twenty feet back and about ten feet below us. I dropped my pace and fell back to him.
"Are you alright?" I asked, worried.
"I'm fine." Fang said. His voice was strained so I knew that he was lying threw his teeth. He shut his eyes in pain before suddenly curling his wings around him and taking a sudden drop towards the Earth below.
I called out, "Iggy! Back twenty and down coming on twenty with a steady drop! Help me catch Fang!"
Iggy followed my directions and we caught Fang with about a hundred yards to spare before the ground. Fang had lost consciousness, meaning that Iggy and I would have to carry his dead weight the rest of the way to Mom's.
We made it to the house twenty minuets later; right on time, according to my estimates. We knocked on the door and it didn't take long for Mom to answer. Mom's face lit up when she saw me but her smile disappeared as soon as she saw Fang and her doctor instincts took over.
"Hi, Mom," I started. "Fang's sick and we were in the state so I thought, 'what better place to go than a vet'." I said with a smile, trying to lighten the mood; and failing miserably, I might add.
"Hi, Max. It's good to see everyone again. Bring Fang inside to one of the bedrooms so he can lie down." Mom told us, quickly.
Iggy and I brought Fang to one of the spare rooms while Mom ran to her room to get her medical supplies. We put Fang in bed and pulled the covers up just as Mom came in with her big bag of doctor stuff. She stuck a thermometer in Fang's mouth and we all waited until it beeped. While we waited, Mom asked me questions about what had happened. Things like 'When did he start looking sick?', 'What are his symptoms?', and 'Did he eat or drink anything strange?' I answered all of her questions without much trouble. Somewhere around the middle of that conversation, Iggy left as he mumbled something about going to see Ella. When it did, Mom pulled it out.
"So, what's the verdict?" I asked.
"He has a 103 degree fever." She told me with a worried face.
"I can assume that's bad?" I asked, since I had no medical knowledge because the rest of the flock and I almost never got sick. The last time one of us got sick, Jeb us still living with us in the mountain house, so I didn't need to know how to cure a sick person.
"Now would be a good time to learn, then." The Voice told me and I knew it was right so I paid attention to what Mom was doing. I noticed that Fang had been striped to his boxers, so I inquired as to why.
"We need to bring his body heat down." Mom answered and a few minuets later, she seemed to have finished tending to Fang for the time being.
"So, do you know what he has?" I asked.
"It just looks like a nasty case of the flu. With proper rest, he should be up and running in about a week." Mom told me with a reassuring smile and with our fast healing, that ment about a day. She left after that, leaving me alone with Fang.
I watched Fang sleep for a while as his chest rose and fell steadily. I didn't move for who knows how long; I would guess about three or four hours. During that time everyone else in the house came in to see how Fang was doing and left later except for me; I never left the room. Iggy had come in with Ella and I could have sworn that I had felt some connection between the two of them.
During about the third hour, Fang started to toss fitfully in his sleep. He let out a few moans of discomfort and talked in his sleep. I only caught fragments of what he was saying since his volume kept wavering in and out.
"Max…" Fang moaned, catching me by surprise and pulling me out of the trance I had fallen into because I had no one to talk to and keep my mind from wandering. It took me a few seconds to realize that he was still sleeping. I was about slip back into the trance when Fang let out another moan.
"Max…don't go…" Fang let out, sparking my curiosity and making me pay attention to what else he might say. I also wondered where he thought I was going.
"I'm…sorry…don't…leave…me" Fang said as he started to toss and turn some more and I realized that he must be having a nightmare. (No comments from those I the back who are whispering about how long it took me to figure that out! I am very aware of the slowness of my mental thought process!)
He looked like he was in a lot of pain so I figured that it would be a good idea to wake him up. I shook his shoulder lightly without any response so I shook harder and Fang suddenly jerked awake and he launched himself into a sitting position, his breathing was harsh and labored and his eyes were wide and fearful; altogether, it was a very, very, very un-Fang-like appearance.
He stared at me for a moment before pulling me into an extremely tight embrace which felt like he was trying to protect me from some threat that was unknown to me. After what seemed like forever, he seemed to get a hold of himself and on reality and Fang realized what he was doing. He quickly released me as his face began to redden and I don't think it was from the fever. Fang lied back down onto the bed and pulled the blankets up just enough to hide the blush. (Coincidence? I think not!)
We sat in silence for a few minuets before I finally spoke up.
"Do you want to talk about it?" I asked, knowing that he knew that I was referring to what ever had freaked him out so much.
Fang let out a soft groan and shook his head. I let the subject drop for now but we both knew that I would bring it back up later. We sat in another few minuets of silence until Fang moaned. I looked at him to find his face scrunched up in pain. He moaned again then shot up out of the bed with his eyes screwed shut in pain and his arm snaked around his stomach.
He cracked his open, looked at me and spoke feebly, "Max…I think I'm going to be sick."
"Can you make it to the bathroom?" I asked quickly, trying not to freak out. Fang shook his head with a groan. I grabbed a bucket that Mom had let behind in case Fang needed it. I handed the bucket to Fang just as his stomach heaved and anything that might have been in there was poured forcefully into the bucket. I did the same thing that I had done the night before, holding back his hair with one hand and rubbing his back soothingly with the other. After a moment, the vomiting was reduced to dry heaving and then finally stopped. He lay back down onto the bed, panting.
I quickly took the bucket to the bathroom and rinsed it out. I saw the window on the way and realized that it was already dark outside. I went back to the bedroom to find Fang sitting up in bed and watching me. The thing that I couldn't understand was the hint of fear that I could see in his eyes. I figured it had to do with whatever he had been dreaming about.
"Fang, do you want to tell me about what happened earlier?" I asked. Fang didn't say anything at first but finally nodded. (Shocking, isn't it? Mr. I'm-too-macho-to-show-emotions-or-talk-about-my-problems was betraying both of those policies in one day but I'm not complaining.) I sat down in the chair next to the bed.
Fang hesitated for a few seconds then spoke. "I…well, I had a dream and the Erasers and Flyboys came back. They attacked us and the Flock and while I was fighting with one of them another got to you and I…I couldn't protect you. I got to you too late and you…you died." Fang said. His voice faded near the end but I still caught what he was saying. I could see that he wasn't going to be able to say any more and I wasn't going to push him, for the sake of his mental stability.
"Fang, it's already night. Why don't you get some sleep?" I told him.
"I don't want to sleep." Fang said. I figured that he probably didn't want to have any more nightmares.
"I won't go anywhere. Nothing is going to happen to me." I told him.
"Fine, I'll go to sleep on one condition." Fang said.
"What?" I asked.
Fang grabbed my arm, yanked me onto the bed, and into his arms.
"There, now I'll sleep." Fang said.
"What are you doing, Fang?!" I asked, shocked
"Keeping away the nightmares." Fang said, drowsily as sleep began to take him over and he soon was pulled into the darkness of unconsciousness. After a while, I heard him mutter my name. I was worried that he might be having another nightmare but I relaxed when I saw him smile as he pulled me closer. I figured that I was most likely going to be here for a while so I might as well enjoy myself. I wrapped my arms around Fang and snuggled into his chest. Soon I fell asleep as well.
I woke up to see that Fang was already awake and staring at me. It took me a moment to figure out what he was staring at but when I did I saw that I had pulled him closer in my sleep and now we didn't have any space between us. I started to let go when Fang pulled me back against him.
"I could get used to waking up like this." Fang said with a smirk as I took a quick peak at the clock and saw that it wasn't even three in the morning yet. I also took a look out the window to see a perfectly clear night then turned back to Fang who was once again staring at me.
"How are you feeling?" I asked.
"I feel a lot better now. No nightmares either." he replied.
"We should go back to sleep now." I said.
"There's one thing I want to do first." Fang said softly then leaned in and placed his lips firmly on mine. As soon as I realized what he was doing (And no, this did not take long! Yes, I am talking to those same people in the back that are snickering!), I started kissing him back and this time I remembered to breath threw my nose. Fang wrapped his arms around my waist and tilted his head to deepen the kiss as I wrapped my arms around his neck. We stayed like this for what felt like an eternity before breaking apart. Fang leaned towards me and whispered in my ear.
"I love you, Max." Fang said softly.
"I love you too, Fang." I replied.
We both lied back down on the bed and fell asleep again in each others arms. Before I fell asleep, though, I caught a glance out the window at the stars in the night sky and I could have sworn that they were just as bright as the stars in the woods had been last night. Maybe I was wrong before. Or maybe the stars are just as bright in the woods as they are when I'm with Fang.