Disclaimer: Once again, I don't own anything you may recognize. Thanks to everyone who reviewed my last Max Ride fic!
Pictures of UsA tiny noise woke me. Even from deep under the covers of my bed, I could tell there was someone in the room with me. Someone very close. There was a small scrape as the desk of my nightstand slid open, and I shot out my arm and clenched my fist around a small wrist that was digging through my stuff.
"Gazzy!" I yelled, popping out from under my comforter.
"She caught me!" he howled. "Execute Plan B!" With that, my flock pounded up the stairs into my room. They were more like a herd than a flock, really.
They jumped onto my small double bed, all of them, even Fang and Iggy. I could already feel my legs going numb.
"Happy birthday, Max!" they shouted, more or less in unison.
Huh? What? Birthday? Oooh. Right. Birthday. None of us really knew our birthdays, but I had picked October 23rd. Just 'cause I liked it.
"Hey guys," I grinned at them, and they smiled back like the lunatics they are.
This was the first of any of our birthdays (test-tube appearance days, call it what you want) to be celebrated in a sage house since we had left our mountain one. Well, the first to be celebrated at all, really. We were in a three story, squarish Victorian, dark green with white trim. Very picturesque. Best of all, we were on the beach. Best of all after that, it was a private beach. One of those lonely windswept deals that nobody would come to when they could go to the one with the parking lot twenty minutes away. There was a big cliff to our backs and they ocean to our front, so we were pretty isolated.
Ooh, another best I forgot to mention. The house was huge, so we all had our very own rooms. No more sharing, which was totally fantastic, since I wasn't sure how much sleep I could get between Iggy's snoring and Total's sleep talking. My room (my room!) was on the top floor. A big bay window looked out over the ocean, a considerably more relaxing view than some of the ones I've fallen asleep to.
"We love you, Max!" Angel said, wrapping her skinny arms around my neck.
We were renting the house from an old lady who could hardly see, so we were about as safe as we could get. Yet another of my favorite things.
"Awww! I love you guys too!" I said, hugging as many of them as I could reach.
Iggy started backing away towards the stairs, and Fang suddenly noticed that he had to go tie his shoes…over there.
"Just 'cause I'm ancient doesn't mean I'm blind!" I called after them, laughing. "Be nice to senior citizen Max on her birthday!" They slunk back into the room, trying to look sulky, but I could tell they were fighting grins.
"Would you like me to get your wheelchair, granny?" Fang asked me, sitting back down on the square inch of space left on my bed.
"Yeah, 'cause you're so weak and like, decrepit." Iggy rolled his eyes. "You totally couldn't deck us right now."
"And don't you forget it," I said mock severely. "And now, m'darlin' munchkins, if you don't mind, I'd like to get dressed."
The younger kids slid off the bed and toppled down the stairs. Ig and Fang followed a little more sedately. I sighed as I heard Nudge wail. It looked like I was gonna have to patch up some scrapes already. And I'd been awake, what? Ten minutes?
A/N More fluff! It's a pretty short chapter, sorry. This is actually not a oneshot. But it's not long either, so review if you want me to finish posting it!