Fang

Saturday January 11

1:39 PM

Angel walked into the living room, where Max and I were watching television. She hit the mute button and primly sat on the arm of the couch, facing us.

"What is it, Honey?" Max asked, pulling out of my arms and sitting up.

I shot her a displeased look at her withdrawal and grabbed her hand.

Angel stifled a giggle with her hand and shot me a glance that conveyed her amusement at my possessive qualities.

"Keep it up, Angel, and the answer is no." I threatened.

She giggled again, but softly. "Sorry Fang." She apologized softly.

"What is it, Honey?" Max repeated, directing the attention back to the issue at hand.

"I want to go out on a date tonight." Her voice was soft, but sure as if she was discussing the weather and not something so appalling as her dating someone.

"You want to do WHAT?" Max shrieked shrilly, leaping her feet, eyes wide with shock.

I felt his eyes widen and begin to burn, who thought they could date Angel? No one was good enough for the little girl, and that's what she still was, a child, barely fourteen! I would kill the bastard.

"You guys don't even know him," Angel moaned, "Why do you both want to kill him?"

"Maybe because you're wearing that." Max suggested eyeing Angels peach dress, tight across her budding chest and arm then flowed down to her mid thigh. "Without leggings, in January."

"This?" Angel gestured to her clothes, "This is hot, and totally not that slutty!"

I sat up slowly, squeezing Max's hand to remind her we had to be gentle with Angel at this age. "You don't need to dress like that to look attractive, I think Max is attractive no matter what she's wearing."

Max blushed and Angel rolled her eyes. "I know," she said "I hear it in your mind all the time, even when she's dressed like that!"

"Hey now," Max said defensively, looking down at her green and gray striped shirt and light grey sweatpants.

"Besides, you and Fang were my age when you started dating."

"That was completely different." Max said.

"How?" Angel stuck her chin out.

"It- it just was, okay!" Max sputtered.

"And we both had wings.' I pointed out. "We grew up with each other, and we had no concerned adults when we were your age."

We sat in silence for a few minutes, until Max sat down with a sigh and said, "Alright, Angel, you can go but-"

"I can?" Angel hopped up excitedly.

"She can?" I muttered in Max's ear.

Max held up a finger. "On one condition."

"Of course," Angel muttered, sitting back down. "Yes?"

Max smiled triumphantly, "We all get to meet him first."

"You've got to be kidding!" Angel shouted, jumping to her feet.

I raised my eyebrows, what was the big deal about that?

Angel was aghast, though, and ran from the room, thirty seconds later the door slammed.

I turned back to Max with my eyebrows raised.

"One day, I'm gonna start making you actually ask questions." She muttered.

I smirked.

She laughed, "Just trust me, Angel's not going anywhere tonight."

"Fine," I said, throwing my arm back around her. "But we are."

She chuckled and kissed my chin. "Are you asking me out, Fang?"

I rolled my eyes and smirked. "Yeah, Maximum, I am."

Max I and I left at 6, and did as we usually did, ate at a crab shack on the water then dived and played in the bay. We had done this ever since we had settled on the gulf-coast.

We came home around nine thirty, and split up the way we usually did to get everyone together for our Saturday movie night. I went to Gazzy's room and found Iggy there too. Gazzy was examining something small and silver, but before I could tell what it was, Gazzy saw Iggy and me slipped it into his pocket. I raised my eyebrows questioningly, they got it. "It's not going to blow up, Fang, God." Gazzy said, sounding eight instead of sixteen.

"Alright, but move your asses, movie in five and last one there had to make popcorn." I said, figuring I should give Iggy the benefit of the doubt considering he was eighteen already.

We were walking back to the living room, where I could already hear Nudge and Ella arguing over movies when I heard Max shriek.

I turned and flew back up the stairs, visions of Erasers and other old threats dancing in my head. Was Max okay? She better be, because without her… I couldn't even finish the thought.

Max stood alone in Angels room, unhurt, but staring out the open window. "She's gone," Max snapped, turning around to glare at me. "Angels gone."

By now, everyone had gathered in the doorway, and I could smell popcorn burning, forgotten in the kitchen.

"What's going on?" Iggy asked, shoving his girlfriend, Nudge, behind him.

"Where's Angel?" Gazzy questioned, stepping into the room, I noticed Ella slip her hand into his, and glanced at Max. She saw it too.

"She's okay, guys." Nudge said, peering around Iggy. "She's just running late is all."

We all swung around to stare at her. "Nudge?" Max asked, dangerously soft. "Did you know about this?"

"Well," Nudge bit her lip, recognizing the voice too. Her fingers played nervously with the hem of her shirt. Iggy grabbed her hand and squeezed. "Its just her first date, and she was so excited and she really likes this guy and he has wings too and he's really sweet and its not fair that you wont let her date because you say she's too young but you guys were her age and-"

"Hold up." Max ordered her voice sharp as the crack of a whip; Motor mouth Nudge closed her mouth with a snap. "You knew that Angel, who is only fourteen, by the way, was planning on sneaking out with some strange boy who also has wings, after everything we have been through AND YOU DIDN'T TELL US?"

Nudge's lip began to wobble; the girl was tough as nails in a fight, but such a- such a teenage girl the rest of the time.

Max looked ready to explode. "I'm gonna go look for her, Gazzy, Ella, your with me. Fang, you and Iggy stay here in case she comes back." She pointed at Nudge "You, I don't even want to look at right now."

She turned and jumped out the window, Gazzy and Ella following, still holding hands. I closed the window, shutting off the flow of cold air, and looked through the glass for a moment, watching Max and the others fly out of sight, and praying to every god I could think of for Angel's safe return.

Then I turned around, the smell of burning popcorn, worse this time, wafted up the stairs. "Iggy, will you deal with that? I want to talk to Nudge for a minute."

There was a moment of hard silence, punctuated only by Nudge's soft sobs. Iggy shot a warning look in my general direction, even though his eyes wouldn't focus, it only mad it more threatening, I imagined, for people who hadn't changed his diapers. I smiled, although he could see it. Message received.

He brought her hand for a kiss and I looked away, happy for them, but God, it was still weird to see them like that, even after two years.

I waited until I heard him banging around in the kitchen before pulling her into my arm. "Shhh…" I said. "It's okay,"

I wasn't mad at Nudge, I didn't think what she did was responsible, but I knew why she did it. She was a romantic, and it was in her nature to get caught in the drama and see Angel as a Juliet, minus the ending. It was the same reason all her notebooks were still pink and decorated with sparkly stickers, and why she devoured Twilight and other teen romances.

Max knew it too, but she was angry. Angel had always been her baby, and Max didn't like knowing she was growing up. Max would have calmed down by the time she returned.

I held Angel until she stopped crying. "Thanks," she said, catching my eye and letting me know it wasn't for the tissue I handed her.

I nodded, proud of her for speaking only one word.

"I'm gonna go help Iggy."

I smiled when she left. Well, it was good while it lasted.

Iggy and Nudge went to bed when the kitchen was cleaned, but I sat up, and around one, the search party returned, dragging Angel with them.

"Not one word." Max said wearily when Angel opened her mouth. "Bed. You guys too."

She flopped down next to me with a sigh, and I pulled her against my body. "I could strangle her." She laughed helplessly. "Do you know where we found them? They were paint balling, of all things. He's a bird kid too, Fang, and he looks at her like you looked at me at that age. But he's dangerous, he pulled a knife on us." I stirred angrily at that, the knowledge that she could take care of herself not affecting my decision to hit that punk-

"But the way he looked at her…" Max continued, not all fazed by my sudden aggression "He's not going to go away. And she looked back the same way…. What are we going to do?"

I kissed the top of her head. "We are going to go to bed, and talk to Angel in the morning."

She yawned, and I remembered how young she was, still a teenager. "What would I do without you, Fang?" she asked sleepily as we stumbled to bed.

"You'll never know."