The only book out of the Maximum Ride series that I followed while writing this was The Angel Experiment and bits of Schools Out Forever. This story takes place in an alternate universe where The School was shut down by the United States government and Max and the gang relocated and begin to live with their bio parents. This didn't work out for Iggy, Angel or Gazzy, who all live with Mrs. Martinez due to parental neglect or abuse. Fang's bio mother is deceased, so he also joined the household with Max and the gang. Nudge lives in an apartment with her biological mother, Tasha, but still visits frequently.
Also, just a warning- this story has crude language, mildy sexual situations, somewhat out of character characters and is unedited (OHNO!)
P.S. Yes, this story contains a lesbian pairing. In fact, it will be mentioned kind of a lot. If you don't like that, please don't be a jerk about it. Just don't read this.
If you're okay with all of that...Read on!
It had been eight years, eleven months, and 29 days since the last time Max saw Angel smile- and yes, she counted.
On Angel's tenth birthday both she and her brother discovered that their mother had sold them to The School. It was something Max and Fang had known, but agreed to keep between the two of them for the sake of the youngsters. After all, The Gasman had just started as a lineback on his middle school football team and Angel was happily content in the mass amount of books given to her by Dr. Martinez.
They were happy, so why ruin it?
Then, everything just kind of fell apart.
Max and Fang got in a fight, which in itself wasn't odd. What was odd was the topic of the fight. Neither of them could remember what it was about if you'd ask them now, but somehow the details behind Angel and Gazzy's mother were leaked out.
Angel and Gazzy were in the next room over and had just finished cleaning up after Angel's party. They both stopped what they were doing and listened with horrified expressions and tears in their eyes.
They handled the situation differently. Gazzy rebelled for a while until it began to strain his relationship with the gang. Ultimately it was Nudge who whipped him into shape after lecture upon lecture on why he shouldn't be a jerk.
Angel just stopped feeling.
Max had been hopeful that the birth of Ella and Iggy's son, Skua, or her own daughter, Skye, would be enough to make Angel smile or something. As it was, she avoided the two youngsters all together. Eventually the two kids became horrified of her and her cold, expressionless face.
Nudge once suggested that Angel just needed to meet a nice boy. Max agreed and arranged for several blind dates. The boys all agreed that Angel was far more beautiful than other girls, but she was also frightening. Max counted it as a win though, because for five seconds of the experience Angel was annoyed and at least that was something.
Despite Angel's big issue, she excelled in many areas and continued to make Max proud.
As a genius, she graduated from high school at twelve and gained her doctorate in Neuroscience at sixteen. She had read more books than Max could count and she had become a locally renown ballerina.
She couldn't do things like cook or clean, but Max didn't bother to teach her how to do either of those things because she somehow felt that Angel was beyond it. They had each other anyways. Or so Max thought.
It was almost Angel's birthday. As a child the gang threw her great parties. She showed no interest in them. Eventually, the day was became just like any other.
The heat from the first wave of summer had struck hard, leaving the entire family deciding to make it a swimming day. They all gathered in the backyard and jumped in their pool. Skua, who had been born with no wings, but gills, was the best swimmer of the bunch. He was in fact so good that Ella lied about his age so that he could compete against older kids on the swim team.
The brown winged Skye, who was girlier and more concerned about her hair than the heat, was furious when her obnoxious cousin pulled her into the water, "You're next dad!" Skua warned Iggy. His father shrugged his shoulders and took one step away from the ledge of the pool.
The blonde boy froze when he spotted his Aunt Angel coming towards them with a thin stack of papers in her hands. Skua let himself sink to the bottom of the pool so that he could avoid the awkwardness of having to face her.
Max opened her mouth to say something, but before she had the chance, Angel blurted out;
"I'm moving out."
Everyone grew quiet.
"What are you talking about?" Max laughed dryly, "We haven't discussed this at all!"
"It's not up for discussion." Angel retorted calmly.
Gazzy climbed out of the pool and approached his sister, "Maybe we should sit down and think on this, yeah?"
"It's already done. I'm leaving on June 3rd."
"June 3rd?! Angel, That's in five days!" Gazzy put his hands on his sister's slender shoulders, "Do you know h-how long it takes to find an apartment and a stable job? You need both of those things before you can move out!"
"You sound like Max." Angel looked to her feet before facing her brother once again, "I don't need you to be Max. I need you to be my brother and support me in the decisions I make."
The muscular man threw his arms in the air, "Fine, you know what? Fine! At least tell me where you're going-"
Neither of them had seen Mama Bear approach and were thrown off guard when Max came barreling in between them, "No, not fine. Angel, inside right now!" She grabbed the slightly shorter girl by the arm and practically drug her into the old farm house.
"What brought all of this on?" Max, who was still soaking wet, paced around the living room in a panic. Angel, who had thought to bring a towel, held it out to her mother-figure. Max ignored the offer, mostly because she didn't notice it but also because she was too proud, "Is it a boy? Because they're stupid!"
"No, there is no boy." Angel stood from her spot on the old red sofa and stopped Max by standing in front of her, "It's just... I'm going to be nineteen in two days. I'm ready to grow up and stand on my own two feet now."
"Angel, that's ridiculous." Max almost flinched when Angel draped the towel over her soggy shoulders, "You're still a kid. Trust me, you don't want to be an adult yet! It sucks!"
"I'm sure it does, but it's time."
"No!" Max roared, "This IS NOT up for discussion. This is my god damned house and you'll stay here and like it!"
Angel turned, placed her paper work on the TV stand, faced Max and while looking her square in the eye, said, "No."
"Excuse me?" The older snarled, "Do you want to say that again?"
"I said no." Angel felt something in her chest, something she hadn't felt in a long time; fear.
"I will lock you in your fucking room if I have to. You're not going anywhere unless we make a solid plan, find you a safe place to stay with accepting people- because, Angel, you're not ready to live on your own. You can't even cook for Christ's sake!"
"I can microwave." Angel persisted, "And I have made a plan. I'm moving out in five days and into the Sunnyside Apartment Complex. I'll be moving in with a Scottish immigrant named Valerie. She's OCD and compulsively cleans. Between the two of us, I'm sure we can make something to eat. Also, I've saved up money for years from recitals and odd jobs. I'll be able to get by for at least a month before I have to find a job."
"Angel..." Max's anger dissolved into sadness, "Why didn't you tell anyone that you were thinking about this."
"I did." Angel explained, "Fang. In turn, I help him."
Max's stomach flipped and just like that her fury had returned, "He knew?" Max whirled around, "Oh, I am going to give him a piece of my mind!"
Angel picked up her papers again and watched, "I'm sure you are." She muttered under her breath.
Fang had just returned from work when Max grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and pinned him to the bed, "Whoa," Fang smirked, "Miss me much?"
"Don't even fucking joke right now." Max hissed.
"A...are we doing some sort of BDSM thing? Because that's hot and all, but I just got home from work-"
SLAP.
Fang's face stung as if he had just been stung by a swarm of tiny bees, "What was that for?" He tried to sit up, but Max wouldn't let him.
"You told Angel she could move out?!"
His face whitened, "She told you about that? Damn it, I told her to wait until I got home!"
"It's true then..." Max's grip loosened and she rolled off of her husband and onto the mattress, "Why... why would you do that? She can't be on her own. She needs us... needs me."
"First of all, it's got nothing to do with age. She's ready, whether we like it or not. Do you think I'm thrilled to see her go? I practically raised that kid and she wants to leave. That's hard. I hate it. But she's going to be okay. She's strong." He sat up and brushed Max's hair behind her ear, "That's all because of you."
Max groaned into a pillow, "Why didn't you tell me?"
"Angel asked me not to... and also..." Fang swallowed down hard, "There's...something else."
Max bolted to an upright position, "Something else?" She seethed.
Fang nodded solemnly, "I was trying to find out more about it before I told you... Angel located my father."
The room grew silent, but before long, Max was squealing and hugging her love, "What's his name? What does he do? Is he a nice guy? Does he look like you? Ohh- does he have any other kids? Is he married-"
"Uh," Fang cleared his throat, "His name is Percy Nisi, he owns an Italian restaurant, he is actually decent, he two children including me and he's recently widowed- also..." Fang reached into his pant pocket and removed a photograph. In it were three people, a mother, a father and a daughter of roughly six. Max looked at the father and gapped. He was the spitting image of Fang, dark hair and all. Even the little girl looked like Fang as a child.
"That picture is old." Fang went on, "But yeah."
"Where is he? Can we see him?"
"Whoa now." Fang held up his hands defensively, "He does live nearby, but he doesn't know about me yet. I think I'm going to slowly ease into it, if at all."
"Fang!" Max smacked his chest, "Don't you think the man deserves to know he has a son? And a grandchild, no less! "
"I don't know..." Fang folded his arms over his chest and sighed, "What if he doesn't even want a son?"
"He probably never knew he had an option." Max pointed out.
"Well..."
"Fang..."
"I just-"
"Fang."
The two locked eyes, "Trust me, okay?" Max put her hands on his cheeks and kissed him, "I'm normally right."
"Something like that." Fang muttered, "Alright. Give me a few days to figure out what I'm going to say, alright?"
"I swear!" Max squealed.