Disclaimer : I do not own any Maximum Ride characters.

A/N : I know they are smart for four-year olds, but that's just the way it goes.

Max's P.O.V

Ow. I thought, as a person shoved me into my crate. They were mean people; they made me run on a treadmill for many minuets.

I sat up in my crate and rubbed my forehead, where I had banged it when I landed. I knew there was going to be a bruise where that beast-like-thing gripped it.

I looked around my crate room. Nothing seemed to have changed; I was still the only crate in here, so I lay back down and fell asleep.

WHAM! I woke to the all-too-familiar sound of the door being slammed. I sat up fast and whipped my head in that direction, to the right. In came two more beasts-like-things, and one more of the mean people, holding a crate. I just hoped that whatever was inside this crate didn't die in four days, like all the others had.

The mean person placed the crate next to mine, and left, the beasty things following. Before they left, one of them snarled at me. I remembered him, and clearly he remembered when I tripped him on his training course, which caused him to have three days in the punishment lab.

I looked over into the other crate, out of curiosity. In there was a boy, huddled at the back of his crate, glaring at me curiously. I tilted my head to the side, trying to find out what was abnormal about this boy. Because if he was in this crate room, or even in this building, something was different about him. He looked normal to me. He had black hair that almost covered his black eyes. He was also wearing a black t-shirt and black pants.

"Who are you?" he asked.

I smiled. This boy could actually speak, unlike all the other creatures I had got to know. "My name is Maximum. Or Max for short. What's yours?"

He shrugged, and then turned until his back was to me. I lay down, used to the other crates not having names, and watched him.

Almost like he could feel me watching him, he turned around to face me. I smiled at him, and then closed my eyes, trying to find sleep again. But I couldn't, no matter how many times I counted sheep. Just like all the other nights.

Suddenly a pressure was on my hand, and I opened my eyes. The boy's hand was laying over mine, and he was looking straight into my eyes. He smiled faintly, and then closed his eyes too.

I closed my eyes again, but this time, I fell asleep.

Fang's P.O.V

I looked over at Max, watching her. I could tell she was having trouble sleeping, so I reached through both our bars and placed my hand over hers. Her big brown eyes opened and looked into mine.

I smiled faintly at her, and then closed my eyes, pretending to sleep. For some reason, I could tell that I was really going to like Max, and I felt protective of her.

When I opened my eyes again, she was asleep. I smiled a real smile at her, even though she couldn't see it. Then when I closed my eyes I fell asleep, tightening my grasp on her hand.

I awoke again in the middle of the night to the sound of crying.

I blinked and looked around, sitting up. But there was a pressure on my hand, preventing me from moving around. I looked down at my hand to see Max's smaller one grasping it in a death grip. Then I looked at her face. There was tears streaming down her face, and she was whimpering and twisting around, unable to get free from the nightmare to which she was in.

She rolled onto her stomach while I squished myself against the side of my crate, getting closer.

"Max, Max, wake up. It's only a dream," I whispered while shaking her gently.

As soon as my skin touched hers, she was awake, sitting up in her crate so fast that she banged her head on the top. She winced and turned towards me. That's when I noticed a small line of blood gliding smoothly down her face.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

She looked in the eyes, and nodded. Then she lay back down, on her side, not facing me. I guess she was embarrassed.

I lay down once again, facing her. After a few minutes of watching her attempt to fall asleep again, I reached through our crate bars and traced circles on her back with my finger. She immediately relaxed, her shoulders slumping, breathing deeper, heart rate slowing. Soon she was asleep.

I found a way to sit up, but still trace circles on Max's back, and I did just so. I looked around my new crate room. There weren't any other crates here, except for ours. There was a window, and if I listened carefully, I could hear the screeching and whimpering of the monkeys being chased and eaten by beast like things.

I flinched and tried to focus my attention on something else in the room. Like the weird bump I could feel on Max's back. I looked closer at her back, then gasped. The bump she had on her back looked like the same one on my back. Did that mean she was the same as me?

I unfurled my black wings, and tried to look at my back. I did have the same bump as she did; or rather she had the same as me. I smiled again; I wasn't the only hybrid. There was another like me.

Knowing this, I felt even more of a need to help and protect Max. I would become her friend, her shoulder to cry on and maybe even like her brother.

I sat back against my crate bars made a promise to myself.

I would protect Max if it was the last thing I did. I would escape this awful place with her, or I would die trying.

I would make her free.

Okay, so there is chapter one. A little out of character for Fang, but hey, no one said he was always emo-like. Maybe he became that way when they escaped or something. So was it good, okay, horrible, make-you-want-to-break-your-computer-screen-just-so-you-wouldn't-have-to-read-this-ever-again, or what? Tell me, and any comments that are bad, can only help me improve. That or I'm completely hopeless . . .

R&R!

Press the button, you know you want to. It won't bite . . . hard.