"Fall fades -- how it ages when you're away --

Spring blooms, and you find the love that's true;

But you don't know what now to do,

'Cause the chase is all you know."

I wonder what you would say, if I told you right now.

Your face is so calm, now that you're asleep. You're going to have worry lines before you're much older. You don't relax enough. Do you remember how to laugh? I don't know if I do, either, much less you.

I know you think I was stupid, leaving you behind, taking them with me because I thought he was dangerous. He was. You were his sister. I think -- I'm starting to understand why you're still so pissed off at me. For not understanding you. I still don't really understand you -- I don't think I will.

It's all kind of funny. How we've always been on the run, running from Erasers and Jeb and Itex.

And now we're not.

I don't know what you're going to do. You've always been Max, everyone's mother, always in control. Your job to keep us from getting caught by whoever was after us that week, to take care of everyone.

Now what are you going to do?

Your mother takes care of Angel now, and Gazzy's making friends with our neighbors. Nudge goes to slumber parties with the other girls she knows, and Iggy has a steady girlfriend.

The only ones staying lost are you and me.

I can deal with being famous. I can fight Erasers any day, even Flyboys. I can deal with having to save the world.

I don't know what you're going to do, now that you've handed over some of your responsibilities. Not all of them -- you never would.

I know you're frustrated and pissed off and scared, because your flock, your kids, are in someone else's hands now. I know you still don't trust Jeb.

I've been watching you at night. You keep pacing, up and down the room. Like you were a convict, measuring the dimensions of your cell. I wonder what you're thinking about.

You were so angry today, and you wouldn't say why, not even to Ella. You remind me of a caged bird -- battering yourself against the bars, determined to batter your way to freedom if you can, and not to take any substitutes for freedom. You won't be satisfied with friends your own age, or slumber parties.

I can't give you freedom, Max. All I can give you is the promise that I won't leave your side, and the reassurance that I love you.

"And all you see is where else you could be,

When you're at home.

And out on the street

Are so many possibilities to not be alone."

Exactly what it says on the tin: Fluffy Fax oneshot. Fang loves Max. And he wants her to be happy. He'd do pretty much anything for her.

Lyrics are from Death Cab for Cutie's "Your Heart is an Empty Room".

I didn't want to prove that I can so write Fax so much as I wanted to write something that entailed no research, and minimal thought (compared to the research-heavy other fics I'm working on). And it turned out pretty good.

(In the interest of such things: Final wordcount just a hair over four hundred. Shortfic, but not drabble.)