Max sat on the boulder facing the valley below them, watching the sun set. The warm dry desert breeze tousled her curly dirty blonde hair, and caressed her weather-worn face. She sighed heavily as she closed her eyes, wearied from another day of running. Well, flying anyways.
Max leaned back and let her head fall, before opening her eyes. When on the run, one simply could not enjoy the luxury of leaving one's eyes closed long.
She looked at the darkening sky; the first stars just showing their radiant faces. She suddenly felt like a little child again, sitting on Jeb's lap and asking if the sky was a whole separate world of oceans and white islands. Feeling the tale-tell stinging in her eyes, she scrunched them to keep the tears from forming.
Blinking quickly, she rubbed at her eyes, determined to stop herself from crying again, tired of her previous cry-baby performances. Fang's hand on her shoulder made her jump, and she prepared to disassemble a flyboy, but his smirk made her glare at him.
"Didn't tell you to quit being a freaking ninja?" "Yeah, but I chose not to," he gave her that crooked Fang smile, and she forgave him. Not that she was going to tell him that. Giving him a mischievous smile, Max coyly replied, "Sorry Fang, this isn't a Democracy; it's a Maxocracy. Or did you forget, Mr. Retired Ninja?" She batted her eyes for extra effect, and embarrassingly dissented into something akin to giggles.
Straightening, she sent him a precautionary glare, telling him without words that he was to forget her moment of weakness. He smirked and nodded, but sat down beside her. He then wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her against his side.
Max did not pull away, but she didn't relax either. He frowned slightly, but mentally shook it off; at least she wasn't pushing him off anymore. They watched the last of the sun disappear below the horizon in silence.
As the stars dominated the night sky, Max relaxed ever so slightly, and Fang took her hand in his, squeezing slightly to show his gratitude. A shooting star light the sky for a few seconds, streaking a bright white trail as it raced through the heavens. They watched the spectacle with something as close to childish innocence as they could get, wishing for childish hopes.
Something happened when it disappeared, something was different, and they could feel it. Fang leaned down slightly, shifting his body to face hers. Max leaned up slightly, the remaining tension from earlier gone with the star. Fang leaned down farther still, tentatively brushing his lips against hers.
They lingered like that for awhile, touching lips, but not really kissing. They watched each other through half-lidded eyes, waiting for the other to make a move. Max spoke first, whispering quietly, as if afraid to break the moment with her speech. "I'm scared Fang. Not just about the others, and trying to survive every day, but I'm scared of us." She looked into his eyes intently, looking like a scared little child.
Something in his heart fluttered when she said the words, and his heart fluttered again when she showed him her fear; instead of hiding it and acting tuff. He paused for a moment before responding, contemplating the right thing to say. "I know; I am too. But it doesn't change how I feel about you."
They pulled back slightly and stared at each other. Fang's eyes were glassy obsidian with the barest hints of grey in the sunlight, but they had changed into a smoldering onyx in the dark, and they told Max more about Fang then she thought she had known. Max's eyes were a light chocolate brown with honey and sepia streaks in the waning sunlight, but they had become a glittery dark chocolate, and they were telling him more about her then he thought he had known.
"I love you Fang," Max leaned back into their almost-kiss as she whispered the words that scared her so much. "I love you too Max," Fang whispered back to her the words that had been ripping at his heart before he leaned further and sealed their words with a real kiss.
Max lost all brainpower after Fang began to kiss her, but she remembered wrapping her hands in his shaggy black hair and his arms squeezing her closer to him. They kissed without thinking of time, but the next thought Max had was, My lungs feel like they're on fire.
They broke apart gasping for air, Max clutching at the base of her throat, and Fang panting a more quietly while looking at the ground. He tentatively reached out for her hand, and he lifted his gaze to meet hers.
Max had a thoughtful almost fond look at her face while she gazed at him absent-mindedly. He stroked her hand with his thumb while he waited for her to speak, taking as a good sign that she hadn't flown off again.
Max fixed her gaze on Fang's shoulder, thinking hard about their relationship, but finding herself thinking of their little moments instead. Finally, she squeezed the hand that was comfortingly holding hers, and met his steady gaze. "I want to be more than just best friends with you Fang."
The only reaction she got was a slight rising of his eyebrows. "What's that supposed to mean," she gave him a slightly quivering glare, unable and unwilling to completely hide her fear of his answer. He brought his other hand up to cup her face, and stroked her cheek with his thumb. He studied her eyes intently, looking for something, or so she thought.
At first she was uncomfortable, but then she began to study his eyes, and suddenly found herself lost in their depths. Even if he didn't say it out loud, Max knew his answer. "So do I," he said softly tracing the lines of her face with the hand that had been cupping her cheek.
She smiled when he did though, squeezing his hand in thanks for doing so. She leaned in to kiss him again, no longer afraid of her feelings, knowing it was reciprocated. No sooner had their lips touched, then a muffled and disgusted, but poorly concealed "Ewwwww," squeaked out from behind them.
"Gazzy!" Angel's disgruntled chastisement quickly followed, and before Max could voice her command, Angel led them out, a slightly guilty look on her otherwise innocent face. Max raised her eyebrow at them and waited for an explanation.
"I'm sorry Max! We were just curious where you two had gone to, so we went to look for you when we saw you talking and were waiting for you to finish talking," Angel quickly answered before her brother finished opening his mouth, probably having heard him busting them in her head. Max gave her a questioning look, and Angel turned up the not-guilty-hurt-puppy-I'm-so-innocent look.
Max sighed, knowing the darn Bambi eyes would be the end of her. Suddenly remembering Fang's proximity, Max quickly put distance between them. "Well it's nothing, we were just…just, um, talking closely so you wouldn't hear us 'cause we, um, knew you were there," Max quickly spat up the lame though as quickly as she could.
Angel raised her eyebrow, the incredulous look on her face raising Max's blood pressure. Wasn't Angel the one on trial? "You know I can read minds, right?" Max purposely thought of shaking the smug look of the pretty little mind-reader's face. Said pretty little mind-reader's face quickly lost its smug look to the imminent joy of Max.
Fang gave her a private look, and Max instantly felt guilty. "Uh, sorry, we were talking just between the two of us, but the truth is, uh, we, um, we're sort of," Fang raised a single eyebrow at the words 'sort of'. Max sighed and decided if she didn't want people to beat around the bush, she had better lead the way; no pun intended. "Fang and I are done being just friends. What will we be? We don't know yet."
Max fought the blush that threatened to consume her face, but only partially succeeded. "Max, are you okay? Your face is turning kind of pink," Gazzy peered at her concernedly, his innocence even more embarrassing to Max. "No, she's fine Gazzy, just a little embarrassed. Besides, it's about time they got together!"
Max lost the battle as her whole face turned red, Angel cackling like a mad scientist (and they should know), Gazzy laughing and pointing, and Fang just smirking. Max grit her teeth and glared at all of them. Just as she was about to deliver her threatening leader speech, Fang grabbed her hand and kissed it, smiling over her hand and grinning, like some cocky gentleman.
But it was enough, Max wound down and pecked him on the cheek in return, satisfied further when the faintest hint of pink tainted his cheeks. With a mock-frown she turned to the little ones and asked what they were doing up so late. "To bed with you rug rats", she said smiling and shoeing them back toward the cave.
Max and Fang followed them in, their hands and fingers linked as if to symbolize their new relationship. As they entered the lip of their rocky cavern, Max stood up on her tiptoes and kissed Fang on the lips. Fang, the safe sleeping flock, and the star filled night sky made a magnificent sound in the symphony of Max's life, and even when they had to run for their lives in the morning, she couldn't have asked for a better night.