"Hey," I heard a voice behind me. Fang. I turned around to look at him and smiled when I caught him rubbing his eyes. He immediately dropped his hands.

"My turn," he said.

"Ok."

I got up from my post on the rock and walked to the back of the cave, letting him relieve me of my guard duties. Dragging my feet, I made my way to the middle of the cave and laid myself down to try to catch a few winks.

After ten minutes, I knew sleep wasn't going to come that night. So I did the only logical thing there was to do. I ran past Fang and jumped of the ledge of the cave. And flew. When my wings reached a steady beat, I turned and hovered about fifteen feet in front of Fang. I gave a small laugh and he smirked.

"Come on," I urged waving my hands to him. "The air's light."

He hesitated for a second then stood up and threw himself off the ledge. I flew off in the direction of the trees, knowing he would follow me.

We flew for about five minutes before seeing a clearing below us and dove, bringing our wings out just yards above the ground. I landed first and took off running through the thick trees and underbrush. Hearing him behind me and gaining, I took a quick left as to throw him off. It didn't work. So I stopped dead and he ran into me, not expecting me to be unmoving. The force of him running into me knocked us both down, him falling on top of me.

When I opened my eyes, his face was inches from mine. My breathing became ragged and I unconciously licked my lips, looking into his chocolate brown eyes. Slowly, almost hesitantly, he leaned in and closed his eyes. Then our lips met. At first it was cautious as if we were making sure the other wanted this, but after a few seconds, it became more heated. He pulled back and looked into my eyes and I blinked once before he captured my lips with his own again. He opened his mouth slightly and ran his tongue tentatively along my lip, requesting entrance. I gladly opened my mouth wider, letting him in to explore. It lasted for a few seconds longer until he abruptly pulled away and jumped up as if just realizing what was happening.

"Umm, uh, well we better, uh, get back don't you think?" he asked nervously.

I felt a blush creeping onto my cheeks and tried to hide it with my hair before replying "Sure."

We walked back to the clearing and flew back to the cave, the whole time not saying anything but thinking the same thing. We were both thinking about the kiss we had just shared. I liked it. A lot. But I would never admit that until Fang did and even then it would still be embarrassing. We came into view of the cave to see Nudge looking around, presumably for us. When we arrived at the ledge, she looked at us quizzically.

"Where were you guys?" she asked.

Fang continued to walk to the back of the cave to wake everybody up, so it was up to me to make some story up for our absence.

"Well I wanted to go out and get some air, stretch my wings, you know. And I asked Fang if he wanted to join me." I explained.

I turned away from further questioning and saw Gazzy stumbling towards me, his eyes half-way open with tiredness.

"Hungry.." he mumbled. I smiled, thinking about how cute the 8 year-old was. Especially when he wasn't blowing things up..

"Okay, breakfast in a few then. Any requests?" As if we could take requests. We were in the middle of nowhere, edge of the woods. But I knew no one would be picky about what we ate, as long as we got something to eat.

We could get breakfast in town, I thought but then realized we'd need to eat before making a two and a half hour flight. Okay, that plan's dead... now what?

I looked at Fang, wondering if he would mind getting a small animal and I could find a nearby farmer and borrow a few pieces of corn or something for Nudge. Ever since she and Fang stayed with the hawks, she's refused to eat meat. I guess I can understand that though. I probably wouldn't eat it after seeing those animals killed, either.

"Hey! Fang, you think you can go get some breakfast?" I called. He turned around and looked at me before nodding silently and flying back into the woods.

Fang returned twenty minutes later carrying a lifeless opossum in his hands. I grimaced but then thought Better not let it bother me. It's breakfast... and took it from his hands, placing it over the small fire.

"Watch this, will you? I saw a farm on our way here yesterday," I said to Fang. Again, he nodded and this time I was the one to fly away. I backtracked the way we had come yesterday and within a few minutes, the small farm came into view. I dropped down on the edge of the vegetables furthest away from the house and picked a few pieces of corn, some tomatoes and found a few apple trees. After stuffing all this into my tightened windbreaker, I flew back to the cave just when the meat was done cooking.

I handed the food to Nudge and with a small "Thanks," she started eating the "borrowed" edibles. Oh well, I thought. When you're on the run, you have no money and you have to support yourself and five more kids, someone has to give up (unknowingly of course) a few bites.

After we were all done eating, we took off for town. We were heading for DC again, reasons unknown to me. We were flying north for about an hour before Iggy said "Uh, Max? Bad news, due north-west." I looked and spotted about ten Erasers heading our way. "Guys, split up!" I yelled, "Angel, Nudge, take the left. Gazzy, Ig, right. Fang, up top! Go!" As an afterthought, "Angel, Total goes in the backpack. Don't drop him!"

Looking to my right, I saw Gazzy and Iggy preparing themselves to fight, and when I looked up at Fang, he looked down at me, his eyes calm as ever. I looked to the front and saw the Erasers just fifty feet off. A few more seconds and they were on us, kicking, punching, clawing and biting. I saw a creamy, boxy Eraser and laughed as I remembered Fang's comment comparing them to flying refrigerators and us to ballerinas. The next thing I knew, I was falling a few feet. That laughter cost you, Max my Voice told me.

You think I didn't catch that? My face is throbbing! I mentally snapped at it.

"Sorry, did that hurt?" a voice came tauntingly to my ears.

Ari...

I looked up and saw him, sloppily hovering, his hands held innocently behind his back. Even though there's nothing innocent left of him... I thought.

I turned to the sound of Nudge's laughter as Angel controlled the Erasers with her mind. Randomly, they would fall out of the sky hundreds of feet to their death. Their very painful death, that is.

It took only a few of the Erasers falling to get the rest to realize they didn't stand a chance once she got to them, so on Ari's command, they flew east into the rising sun.

"Well guys," I said once we were gathered, "I think we better go back to New York if they know we were going to DC."

I wonder how they knew though.. I thought while looking at my arm and the chip. I looked at Fang and he seemed to know what I was thinking and gave a grim expression.

"Ok, let's go."

A couple hours later, we arrived at the edge of New York City and dive-bombed to the ground. The further we walked into the town, the more pain twisted Iggy's face. "You okay, Ig?" I asked.

"Yeah," he said, forcing a smile.

"Ok then.. if you're sure."

I knew he was in pain with so much noise invading his sensitive ears, but if he wasn't going to admit it, I couldn't do anything about it.

We reached the heart of the city just when the sky was turning to a dark purple for the night. We walked around until we found a tall building to stay for the night. It was under construction and the walls have just been put up with holes cut out of the sides for window installments. Perfect for escaping.

A few minutes later, we were up in the top and settling in.

We all said our goodnights, stacked fists and went off to bunk. I looked around and everyone was asleep already. Flying really took it out of them. Then I turned to look at Fang. Well, everyone was asleep but him. I silently walked over to him and laid myself down, preparing to sleep. We always slept next to each other. It gave us both a sense of comfort, but tonight, it was a bit awkward. If you'll remember our little rendevouz in the woods, you might figure why.

"Wanna talk about it?" he could always tell when something was wrong with me.

I gave a half-hearted smile and said "Sure."

"Is it about what happened this morning..?"

I hesitated "...Yeah," I said finally. There was no use lying, he always knew.

He grimaced. "Oh."

"We don't have to talk about it if you don't want to."

Please don't talk about it please don't talk about it please don't talk about it, I pleaded.

"Well, I'm not sure why it happened. It just seemed... right, I guess."

"Oh, ok then. Night."

"That's it?" he asked, surprised.

"Well, there's not much to say except it happened and I liked it," I quickly slapped my hand over my mouth, realizing what I said.

He blushed slightly before supplying a cocky "Really?" with a lopsided grin.

I mentally slapped myself. Sighing, I sat up and put my elbows on my knees. Fang followed, curling his knees to his chest.

"Well, so you know, I liked it too.."

I looked at him in bewilderment. Fang! Admitting something like this! Wow, I must be in a parallel universe or something!

"But even though we both liked it, we can't let it happen again. We can't be involved in any way. For the flock," he said with a slight tinge of disappointment. I felt it too.

"Yeah, flock," I mumbled. Laying back down, I muttered a quick "Night, Fnick," and chuckled.

He laid back down and scooted closer, wrapping his body into mine.