AN: This is not my real Fang x Aelixi fanfiction, just a fluffy little short-ish story I came up with at random. I do not own Maximum Ride, sadly, but if I did I would rewrite "Fang" and make the series BETTER instead of it starting to go downhill like it is now (sad face). Oh, and I don't hate Max. Actually, I totally support Faxness! It's just that…well…if MY character was in Maximum Ride, I would totally support her + Fang more than Max + Fang. So…yeah.

Another little 'disclaimer' would be that yes, this story does sound a little like "Good Morning Sunshine" by E and R, and there is a reason: I got inspired by that story to write this! It was just so short and sweet that I had to write one of my own. Thanks to E and R for writing such an inspiring little blurb!

"Fang, we need to stop for something to eat," I turned to the tall, dark, and mysterious figure in question flying silently next to me, pointing to the ground in case he hadn't heard me over the wind.

Turning his black eyes to me, he nodded in agreement and leaned into a sharp nosedive, heading closer to the trees below. "Do you have any idea where we are?"

I looked around, my hawk-like vision making it easy to search for recognizable landmarks. "Uh, I have no clue—wait! Look, there's a house over there! I think…oh my gosh, are you serious?" I laughed happily, doing a couple of energetic loop-de-loops in midair. Fang raised an eyebrow at me, confused.

"Look!" I commanded, pointing at the house. "It's Dr. Martinez's place! Can you believe our luck?"

"No way," Fang chuckled as well. "I wasn't expecting to go past here on our path south. I mean, that Itex branch the kids were talking about in my blog is in, like, Texas."

Mentally, I calculated how far we'd flown all ready. "Well, since we came from that research lab opening ceremony in Oregon, we must be taking a curve towards the Itex branch instead of a straight line."

Fang nodded. "Let's see if Dr. Martinez and Ella are at home."

The two of us swooped down to the house in perfect tandem; tucking our wings tightly in and covering them with a jacket in case the doctor had company.

"Ellllllllllllll-laaaaaaaaa," I called. "Dr. Martiiiiiiiii-nezzzzzzzzzz? Are you guys home?" I called as the two of us stepped inside the unlocked residence.

"Who is it?" Came a muffled voice from the back of the house.

"It's your two favorite bird kids, Fang and Aelixi!" I joked, stepping into the living room.

There was quiet talking from another room, and then Ella burst into the room happily, ferociously hugging the both of us. "Ohmygawsh, it seriously is you!" She squealed. How has everybody been? Why in the world are you here? Did the rest of the Flock come?"

I laughed. "Whoa, whoa, one question at a time! We've all been fine, thanks very much, and no the rest of the Flock isn't here. As for why we're here, well, some kiddos on Fang's Blog found a small Itex branch in Texas and we're going to make sure it's shut down. Max, Iggy, Gasman, Angel, and Nudge went to investigate a different branch that bloggers found in North Dakota. We went south a little more than east on our way down here, so we ended up in this general area and decided to make a pit stop before we head out again."

"Oh, did you come from that lab opening in Oregon that was supposed to help all of the genetic mishaps that you freed?" Ella asked, piecing everything together. "I heard that the facility was really nice."

"It looked pretty cool," Fang shrugged, "but it's still kind of whitecoat-y. At least it's there to help and not hurt."

"Totally. So, do you guys need food or sleep or what?"

"The former would be great, and the latter would be helpful if you have the space," I admitted.

Dr. Martinez emerged from one of the back rooms pushing hair out of her face and pulling off a sweatshirt. "We have the space, just not a lot," she confessed. "We're rearranging the furniture at the moment, so we only have one bed free of junk, plus we have to be out of here to catch a plane to a veterinary awards meeting in 30 minutes. Other than that, though, we're all set."

I shrugged. "One bed is fine, as long as it's not a twin size."

They both laughed. "It's not. You and Fang might be a little squished, but nothing too terrible."

"Cool-o. Do you have any food on hand?"

"Sure, just raid the fridge for whatever looks good. We have to get ready to leave, so just make yourselves at home."

Needing no more prompting, Fang and I fell on the food with gusto, eating enough to feed an army—well, Fang ate enough to feed an army. I, stuck with my super messed-up stomach from the whitecoats' experiments, couldn't eat near as much without throwing up or something totally nasty. By the time we were done, both Ella and Valencia were on their way out the door with suitcases, calling last-minute instructions.

"If you want to take a shower, feel free—you know where the bathroom is!"

"You can stay here as long as you want, just ignore the doorbell if it rings."

"Say 'hi' to Max for me when you see her again!"

"The key is next to the microwave, so be sure to lock up when you're done and leave the key in the fake rock outside."

"If you get any calls from the office, just ignore them."

"There are extra clothes in the dresser in the guest room if you need to change."

"Good luck in Texas!"

We waved from the porch until their car disappeared around a bend in the road, feeling totally content.

Fang turned back into the house, removing his jacket and stretching out his wings. "I'm gunna go take a shower. There's enough dirt on me to plant corn in, for Pete's sake. Going through that dust storm earlier was a really bad idea."

"Okay, well don't use all the hot water," I insisted, closing the front door behind me and locking it. "I'm going to want to wash all this grime off as well."

"Will do," came the gruff reply. Finding a newspaper next to the toaster, I sat down at the kitchen table and scanned the news randomly, hearing Fang locate the extra clothes and then the water turn on. Staying true to his word, he was out of the shower in a few minutes as to preserve the hot water. He came out of the bathroom fully clothed in a new assembly of black along with a cloud of steam.

I laughed. "Hot shower much? I'm surprised you don't look like Bob the Tomato!"

Grabbing a small towel, Fang continued to dry his hair as he located the TV remote and turned on the news channel.

"You could just read the news and save electricity," I chirped, throwing the newspaper at his head and prancing to the extra room in search of clean clothes, deaf to his low complaints. When I got to the bathroom, it was still steamy and chokingly warm. I had to laugh at the message written with a finger on the fogged-up mirror: Fang was here. Shutting the door, I used my own finger to write another memo below the current one: Fang is a weirdo.

Turning the water on, I quickly undressed and stepped into the steaming hot water, instantly feeling my muscles relax at the massaging rain-like cascade.

After a good 10 minutes of washing and rinsing, the water began to get colder, so I finished in a hurry and stepped out, drying with a fluffy white towel and slipping into my new clothes: a dark purple tee-shirt with wing slits and navy blue-black jeans. Taking another towel, I began to dry my black hair that was still streaked with snowy, slightly lavender, iridescent white highlights from our makeover session months before.

As soon as I stepped into the living room where Fang was reluctantly reading the paper, I knew I was totally going to have to eat my own words.

"Hot shower much, Aelixi?" Fang raised an eyebrow accusingly. I threw the towel at him.

"Shut up. Now, I don't know about you, but I'm gunna hit the hay and get some shuteye before we have to head out again. I mean, really, who knows when we'll be able to sleep in a comfy bed next?"

"True enough," Fang admitted, folding the newspaper neatly and rising from the couch, following me towards the extra room.

The bed was decently sized, but not as large as one would hope. Fang and I would be a little squished, and no doubt. Not wasting any time, I immediately peeled back the covers and got comfortable, trying not to whack Fang with one of my black-y purple wings as he got in on the opposite side, not facing me. I fell asleep almost immediately.

The dream was dark and mysterious at first. I was unable to move, trapped in an inky blackness that could've been a room, a hall, a whole building, anything. Out of nowhere, a sliver of light appeared as the sound of door creaking open echoed through the darkness. I could hear snatches of a muffled conversation.

"Yes…the girl…that's right…earlier experiments…faster…tests…"

I heard footsteps and, in a flash, I realized why I couldn't move. A dog crate, size too-small-for-a-bird-kid. The whitecoat opened the lock to my cage, coaxing me out like I was inferior. I refused to move, locking hands with the person in the cage next to me—Fang, years younger than the one with me at Ella's house. Strong hands tried to pry me from the dark prison while another unseen whitecoat kicked at Fang's crate, trying to make him let go. I kicked out, and was rewarded with a curse of rage, but more hands grabbed my arms—pinned my wings back painfully, clapping them in braces so I couldn't move them—I tried to hold on to Fang; I could hear Max across the room trying to break out of her cage and Jeb's voice in the background, directing, shouting, coaxing for me to cooperate.

The muscular hands finally ripped me away from Fang, away from my cage, and I was carried roughly out of the darkness—it was bright—sliver tools—needles—I tried to thrash away as they checked the long scar on my back; the scar where they had messed with my muscles to make me fly faster—kicking—screaming—the harsh light hurt my eyes—I couldn't see for awhile—pain—agony—I could hear Max screaming again, like she was watching from her cage, rooms away—I yelled and wailed, thrashing out at anyone who came at me—I must have fallen off the surgical table, for I was plummeting, through unknown space before hitting a hard ground—more pain—screaming—

I woke up, sweating, freezing, a shriek still in my throat as I realized that I was on the floor in Ella's house. Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh, thank God.

"Aelixi?" Fang's voice sounded worried from above me. I looked up, seeing him leaning over the side of the bed, pale as death. "What the heck happened?"

"Uh, nightmare?" I guessed. "What do you mean, what the heck happened? Are Ella and Dr. Martinez back?"

"I woke up and found you thrashing around, tangling yourself in the sheets, whimpering. I was about to awaken you, but you started screaming bloody murder and fell off of the bed before I could do anything. And no way, they won't be back for a couple of days."

I groaned, feeling a bruise on my hip. "Yeah, definitely a nightmare." I levered myself to my feet and started to crawl back into the bed and noticed Fang rubbing his leg. "Sorry, did I kick you?" He gave me a half-grin, totally Fang-style.

"Yep. It's better than sharing a bed with Nudge, though, she's practically a windmill." It was clear that he was trying to keep the mood light—making an attempt to get my mind off of my freakish dream.

I sighed, getting comfortable again, and was about to start counting some major sheep when I felt someone massaging my shoulders. Fang. I couldn't help but smile, remembering all those years ago when Jeb would calm me down after my nightmares.

I tended to dream of the whitecoats more, seeing as I'd had more experiments done on me than most of the others. Iggy was the original test kid, but once his vision went ker-plop they decided to appoint me head guinea pig of the bird-kids. The vision experiment actually worked on me, making my eyesight better, but it wasn't worth the endless hours of being poked, prodded, and examined. As well as with my eyes, the whitecoats had messed with my wings, heart, stomach, and lungs, making them more efficient and such—that is, except my stomach. That particular experiment took a nose dive in the end, landing me with an extremely small stomach, making me unable to eat as much as I would prefer.

The only happy thing in my life at that point was Fang. While Max and the rest of the Flock had been locked in cages on the other side of the room, Fang and I were always put right next to each other with only a small space in between our cages. Sometimes, I'd come back from some insane sort of surgery and the whitecoats would even push our crates together so that we could press ourselves against the barred "wall" we shared, trying to gain some comfort from each other. The only thing we had was each other, and we were determined not to let go for anything.

So, needless to say, having Fang to help me chill out was definitely helpful in the whole getting back to sleep process, seeing as my adrenaline was still zipping through my veins like the Apocalypse was coming. It took a total of about five minutes for me to relax, and then I was gone to dreamland. And guess what? No dreams, baby.

When I woke up, I was soooooooooooooooo comfy. I was sleeping on my side scrunched in a comfortable little ball with my head partially resting on a black pillow, except—oh my gosh. There was no black pillow. Opening my eyes, I immediately felt blush stain my cheeks bright red. I was curled up next to FANG the "black pillow". Whoops. My bad.

Fang opened his eyes slowly, smirking at my sheepish expression. "Nice one."

I flushed even deeper. "Good thing we're practically family, right?"

He snickered at that one, yawning and stretching his wings out behind him before getting slowly out of bed. "Another long day. I can't wait."

I followed suit, climbing off of the squishy cushion and padding towards the kitchen to find some food.

After eating some cereal and guzzling practically half a gallon of milk, I stood up to find my jacket but instead found two long ropy arms circle me from behind in a reckless bear hug.

"What, I don't get a good-morning hug?" Fang said from behind me, sounding amused. My face colored even more.

"Uh, I guess…?" I stammered, turning around and hugging him back. As soon as we were done squeezing the life out of one another, I raised an eyebrow at him curiously. "Okay, so who are you and what have you done with Fang?"

He just laughed. "It's still me, but maybe Max hooked me up to some guy-hormones the last time I was in the hospital."

"Good one," I giggled as well. "I can totally see Max doing that." Then it hit me. ", are you saying that—"

"I'm saying that I love you," Fang admitted, planting a chaste kiss on my lips. I nearly had a heart attack. He chuckled at the look on my face then tilted my head up so that my lavender-y grey eyes were looking into his black ones and kissed me again, making my brain short out.

"Well, that was new," I laughed nervously when we broke apart.

Fang grinned at me, then asked, "Are you ready to hit the road?"

I regained my composure, grabbed the key, and walked out the door. "Totally. Let's blow this popsicle stand."

After the house was locked and the key hidden, we jumped into the sky, feeling the warm sun on our wings as we headed towards Texas. Fang flew right above me, synchronizing his wing strokes with mind as to not knock me out of the sky, the two of us holding hands carefully and neither dust storm nor gust of wind could've ever made us let go.

AN: I hoped you liked my little fluffy moment; it was really fun to write! I would've posted sooner, but my power went off and I had to rewrite some of the stuff that wasn't saved. Reviews appreciated! The end.