I haven't written a story that wasn't based on them being older, with children since probably Trust. And I deleted that because it sucked. Not to mention that horrible first story I wrote, Normal Life or whatever it was called. So we'll see where this one goes.

Island Time

Chapter 1

"I think I'm depressed."

I glanced at the apple I was about to bite into before handing it to Iggy. "Fine, you can have the last one, you big baby."

"No, it's not that," he said. Hearing that the apple wasn't going to cause any suicides, Gasman immediately reached over and took it from the blind boy.

"Then what?" I asked, frowning at Gazzy. Fang snatched the apple from the boy before he could bite into it and handed it back to me.

"It's your sister," Iggy said. "How come she broke up with me, Max? I'll fix whatever it is."

Oh great. Ever since Ella freaking ended it with him, he's been no fun. At all. I would rather hang out with Total than him. I'm serious.

Fang patted him on the back. "She's not worth it Iggy. She's not that good looking."

"Fang, that's my sister."

"And? You've know Iggy longer." He shook his head. "Besides, we're on an island with plenty of eligible girls. You have your pick. Why waste your time with one person?"

"You do realize I'm sitting right here, right?" I made a face at Fang.

"Max, this is not about you," Iggy said. "You're so self-centered. I'm starting to see your point, Fang. No pun intended."

I sighed a little. "Ig, I don't know what's up with Ella. Maybe Fang's right, in regards to you. The rest we'll talk about."

Fang groaned, moving to lay on his back. "I don't think I can handle many more 'talks', Max."

The four of us were sitting on a cliff, looking out at all the kids and scientists running around. Nudge, Angel, and Dylan were off, either busy with helping my mom or with friends. It had taken forever to ditch Dylan today, who had taken to following me around constantly. I planned on spending my time alone, but then Fang showed up with lunch, trailed by Iggy and the Gasman. I couldn't tell them to get lost when they went and got me food, so I reluctantly agreed. If I had known that Fang would reveal his inner thoughts and Iggy would be such a drag though, I would have told them all to get lost.

"Me and Ella used to talk," Iggy mumbled, his head down. Gasman, who was in between us, shook his head.

"Man up, Iggy. Like Fang said, there's a lot of better girls out there. And even if there weren't, think of it this way. Most of the world is dead. That means there's not that many guys to choose from. More than likely, she'll be back."

"He does have a point," Fang said, but when he got another look from me, he let out another groan.

"Iggy, what do you want me to do?" I asked. "Ella told me that she doesn't want to talk about it."

"How come? It thought girls were supposed to tell each other everything?" Gasman asked.

"Yeah, and also have naked pillow fights," Iggy said, sighing. "If only I had eyes."

"I'd settle for just the naked right now," Fang mumbled.

"You seriously keep forgetting I'm here, right?"

"No, I'm just hoping you'll take hints."

Now done with the whole thing, I said, "Look, Iggy, there are tons of girls here. You could easily get another girlfriend, so get one."

"So…basically you're saying you'll get me another girlfriend to make Ella jealous?" Iggy asked.

"Uh, no, I didn't-"

"Great, Max! Me and Gazzy will be making bombs, so come get us when you have one." He and Gazzy got up and ran off, leaving me with my boyfriend. I glanced at Fang.

"I didn't say that."

"I know you didn't. But now you have to do it, so don't complain." Fang scooted over so that he was closer to me. "You know though…if you really do ever want to have a naked pillow fight-"

"Alright, I'm going to take care of it now," I said, getting up. Fang just watched me fly away, not saying anything. I think he purposely did that so he could be alone, but whatever. I didn't want to be with him today to begin with.

"Hi, Max."

I sighed as I landed next to Nudge and her friends. "Hi. Can I talk to you?"

She nodded before walking off with me. "But you have to hurry because I was going to-"

"I need your help with something."

"What?" She asked, frowning a little.

"Nothing serious. I just…Iggy wants me to help him get a girlfriend."

"…Oh."

"And, well-"

"I'm sorry, Max, but I'm just not that into Iggy. He's nice and everything, but-"

"What? No. What?" I sent her a look. "Number one, he's too old for you. Number two, you're not old enough to date. Number three, I just wanted you to help me get him one. You know people better than I do."

"I am too old enough!"

"Nudge, stay on topic. Can you get him a girlfriend or not?"

"I thought you were supposed to do it?"

"I was, but I don't know how to. I mean, it took me forever to get my own boyfriend."

"Yeah, but then you had like two guys fighting over you! You're way more experienced."

"Nudge."

"Well, you are," she mumbled. "Besides, Max, I thought that Iggy was all hung up on Ella? Which, honestly shocks me. I mean, come on, Ella's nice, but she talks way too much."

Oh, irony, why have you waited this long to reenter my life? I shook my head. "Nudge, focus. I just need you to help me get him a girlfriend, alright?"

"Alright, I guess," she said before running off back to her friends. I watched her for a second before walking around on my own again.

We had been here for months now, but I was still basically a loner. All the others had friends. Even Fang…kind of. I just don't like other people, I guess. Angel says I'm antisocial, but I think that I just have too much to do. Today was my one day off I had had in awhile, but I was stuck looking for Iggy a girlfriend. How stupid is that? At least I had ditched-

"Hey, Max."

Screw my life.

"Hey, Dylan," I said, frowning when he fell into step with me. "I thought that you found something to do?"

"I did. Now I'm here."

Right. I sighed, trying to think of something to get rid of him. "Actually, I was about to go see Fang, so-"

"I just saw Fang. He was going to talk to your mom about something."

"What?"

"I dunno. You wanna go find out?"

I was hoping that mention of Fang would deter him, but apparently not. "Not really. I kind of am busy."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

"With what?"

I refused to look at him, because every single time I did, I thought of how freaking hot he is. I mean, Fang's good, but Dylan's still hotter.

"Something stupid. Iggy wants a girlfriend and I have to help him get one."

Dylan was staring so hard at me that I couldn't look away any longer. "How?"

"I don't know. This is all just so stupid. I can't just make a girl like him."

Dylan shrugged. "I don't know, you seem pretty good at faking it, so maybe you could get her to do the same."

Ouch. I looked straight ahead again, frowning. What was up with him? No one freaking told him to follow me around. He could go off and do his own stuff. I seethed silently, if only because I didn't want to get mad, not on my off day. Tomorrow, I had a meeting about going on a scouting mission, which I didn't really want to go to anyways. If Ignoring him was the worst part of my day, I guess it wouldn't be so bad.

Dylan followed me around for little bit after that, but when it was clear that I wasn't going to say anything else to him, he left. Whatever. With him gone, my day went back to being some what fun. I mean, I still had to find Ig a girl, but that could wait. I mean, what's the rush? He has the rest of his life.

The next person that bothered me was Ella. The cause of Iggy's pain. When she called out to me, I toyed with the idea of feigning not being able to hear her, but she was yelling so freaking loud, no one could pull that off.

"What?" I asked as I went over to where she was sitting. "Where are all your friends?"

"I don't know. Maybe I just wanted to hangout with you."

Shrugging, I sat down next to her. "Alright. What?"

"I said I wanted to hangout, not I had something to talk about."

I held down a groan. Ella had been really trying on my attitude recently. I mean, she freaking broke Iggy's heart for no apparent reason and it was really stressing me…I guess. I think that I'm supposed to say that. Honestly, if they would both quit bringing it up, I would probably forget all about it. Because, really, Dylan affected me more than their little baby relationship concerned me.

"Well…What have you been doing today?"

Ignoring my question, she asked her own. "So…are you and Dylan on again?"

"What? No." I made a face. "I was only with him, ever, because Fang was gone."

"Is that why?"

I felt someone standing behind me. Looking up, I saw Fang. "Stop spying on me, creep. And why were you talking to my mom earlier?"

"Now who's the creep?"

"Sit," Ella said, scooting over in the sand. "You can help too."

"Oh goody," Fang mumbled, sitting next to me. He had been in a better mood recently, though I wasn't sure why. Mine had been steadily decreasing. Maybe when one of us is feeling good, the other has to feel horrible. Maybe. "What's up?"

"As my sister's boyfriend, would it be awkward for you if I dated her ex?"

Fang frowned, opening his mouth to answer. I beat him to it.

"Excuse me? No. No. Absolutely no."

I got Fang's frown this time. "And why not, Max?"

Not wanting to deal with Fang, I kept talking to my sister. "Ella, I might not be too versed in girl world, but I am almost sure you can't date your sister's ex. Nearly one hundred percent sure."

"7th Heaven."

"Whatever the heck that means, the answer is still no. No."

Fang was getting increasingly angrier. "Why, Max? If you're completely done with him, why not?"

I sighed. "Fang, it's not that."

"Not what?"

"What you're thinking."

"What, Max? Got a new power? Do share. What am I thinking?"

"You're acting like this is some made up rule that you've never heard of before. I mean, come on, Fang, could Iggy date my clone?"

I had crossed his boarder. "Her name is Maya. She's dead, Max. Off limits."

"Please. You were only with 'Maya' because I wasn't there, so come off it."

When I got shoved to the ground, I immediately realized that I was going to have to kick Fang's butt. How embarrassing. For him.

"You better tread lightly, Max, because I have no problem with punching you."

I tried to sit up, but Fang held me down. His face was in mine and it was like he had a completely different mouth. His normally mint tasting one now smelled foul.

"You punch me and I cut your-"

"Guys, it's not even that serious," Ella said, now worried.

"Oh, I dare you." Fang shoved me one more time before getting up and walking off.

"Yeah, Fang, run away," I yelled after him, though I was going to be bruised from where he held me down with all his might. I'd never admit to that though. Never. "You coward."

I got the finger, which made me even angrier. Pushing up from the sand, I ran after him, ignoring the calls of my now distraught half-sister. Fang immediately took off flying, but I jumped in the air just as quickly.

Flying above Fang, I quickly pulled in my wings as I got over him, dive-bombing the jerk. As we hit the ground, Fang flipped underneath me before shoving me off. I started to get up, he shoved me back down. Now just done with the whole thing and not even sure how the fight started, I reached up and punched him in the face. Fang ate the punch, like I knew he would, but I could tell he was debating on whether or not to punch me back.

By now we had a good group watching us and I'm sure it was only matter of time before someone that cared broke us up. Now that I had hit him, I wanted to get a punch of my own.

"Come on, you big baby. Or did you not care about my clone at all?'

That got me one. I didn't think it would hurt as much as it did, really. I still equated Fang's hits to those of when we were children and were fighting over the remote at the E-Shaped house or when I teased him a little too much about being better at sparing, running, flying, or just about anything else. My Fang had grown up.

I didn't plan on hitting him again, but I did, shocking Fang and flipping us over. I was pounding into his stupid face when he shoved me again, just hard enough to throw me off. He stood and pulled me up before punching me in the face again. I was going to hit him, but someone else got to him.

"Dylan!" My anger with Fang faded as the root of our fight got into the mix. As angry as I was at Fang, I did not want him fighting Dylan. Number one, I had an inkling that Dylan was stronger. Number two, I don't ever need a guy fighting my battles for me. Ever. Especially the one that caused the fight.

I tried to pull Dylan off Fang, but that made Fang miss his mark and hit me in the face. Again. I don't think he cared much.

"What's going on?" I suddenly felt someone pull me back ,holding my arms above my head in an awkward position and, as they had been out when I attacked Fang, pinning my wings in a painful way. Quickly, Fang and Dylan were subdued too.

I looked up at my guy and found that it was Andres, one of the scientists and one of my mom's friends. She had taken some sort of weird liking to him, which kind of grossed me out, but also gave me hope that she would stay the heck away from Jeb. Here's to dreaming?

Fang broke away from his holder, Daniel, and immediately took to the air. With him being gone, I was let go, as was Dylan.

"Max, are you okay?"

I shoved Dylan off when he tried to touch me and ran off, passed all the other kids that had gathered, in the opposite direction of Fang. All I freaking said was that Ella couldn't date Dylan. And she couldn't. Ever. So what's the big freaking deal?