Chapter 1: Early Early Days

The first thing she remembered was the eyes.

Creepy though that may sound, they became a constant part of her everyday life; pretty honey-brown orbs that expressed so much and so little all at once: weariness, annoyance, terror (usually, she found, this was always followed by a smell so terrible it almost always made her cry) and always, always love. There was always that.

So yes, Phoenix's first memory was her mother's eyes. If that made her a creepy weirdo-baby, she was cool with that.

〜（ゝ。∂）

The first time Phoenix / Fifi / Ninja Nix (with all these names, she still wasn't sure how she had ever remembered to respond to them all) spoke, it had been to an uproar of noise, coos (courtesy of Angel and Nudge) and, to her childish dismay, cuddles. This was mostly due to a conversation she had overheard a few days ago, though at the time she was a far cry from understanding it.

"She'll say momma first, you know." The woman with the honeyed eyes had said matter-of-factly, clutching Phoenix tighter to her chest. Phoenix didn't mind this; it was warm.

"...Hm." That was definitely the voice of the dark man, who was almost as warm as the woman and tended to rock her more. She liked him, too.

"Don't you 'hm'! She will! I can feel it." Removing her face from the crook of the woman's shoulder, she looks up and notices with childlike fascination that her face was red. This, of course, meant that she had to find out why. So, with all the care of a surgeon, she smacks her in the face with a chubby hand. That abruptly ended the conversation.

"Up!" This had come out more like 'Upsh', since her clumsy baby tongue hadn't quite mastered the 'p' sound. "Up!"

All noise in the room abruptly stopped, and heads turned to look at where the baby girl lay sprawled on a blanket across the floor, arms waving in the arm as she turns onto her back.

"Did she just-"

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure she-"

"OMG, SHE JUST SAID SOMETHING! Fifi, say it again! Come on, you can do it!" Phoenix vaguely recognizes that the chocolate brown hands descending from the heavens to smooth down her hair-tufts were the same ones that dressed her most of the time. Unfortunately, she had no patience for tuft-smoothing, so when the dark man comes over to peer down at her along with everyone else, she looks right at him and demands again, "Up."

"I'm pretty sure that's not 'momma', Max."

"Shut up before you ruin the moment."

The other noises drain into the background as the dark man reaches down and picks her up, cradling her to his chest and rocking her gently from side to side. She instinctively curls against his chest and rests her head in the crook of his neck, but still not satisfied, she demands yet again, "Up!" Though this time it is more of a wail than anything.

"Hey, maybe she means this!" Her vision is suddenly filled with blonde hair and blue, blue eyes, the boy that always smelled weird if not bad having shoved his face right up to hers before proceeding to unfurl his wings and give a few experimental flaps. Her face brightens at this, and the boy grins before jumping up and hovering in the air for a few moments before coming back down. She can feel the arms around her tighten, before the strangely comforting whoosh sound following a small draft of air distracts her. Then, suddenly, they were airborne, the dark man and her. Not too high though, for the ceiling of the cave restricted this, but she was finally up up up, and she expresses her joy by clapping her hands and releasing a series of adorably high pitched giggles.

So maybe her first word wasn't 'momma', but everyone in the room seemed terribly happy anyhow.

A/N: Well, that's the first chapter, I guess! I'm a hopeless Maximum Ride fan, and I've always imagined how life would go for little Phoenix what with the apocalypse having gone down and all, so I thought to myself: why not try and write it? Cx If it was unclear, this is taking place back when the flock was still stuck in the caves to escape the nasty aftereffects of the apocalypse.

Reviews are appreciated. No sugar-coating please, HIT ME WITH THAT BRUTAL HONESTY!