I never forgot how hurt she looked when I chanced a look back at her. Moron. She hardly spoke to me anymore when I did return to the rest of the group. She didn't talk much to anyone anymore actually. I miss what I used to have with Max, even if it wasn't as much as I wanted; at least it was better than this. Nudge was mad at me and so was Gazzy. Both of them believe I hurt Max, which I guess I did, so neither of them will speak to me. Angel was beyond confused, but wisely chose not to interfere with my love life any farther, and Iggy, well, he was still Iggy; trying to make the awkward rift in the family go away. Honestly, if it wasn't for Iggy, I think this whole thing would have become so unbearable that I would have left.

I really miss Max. out of everyone else I was closest with her. I wish I could take everything I've done to hurt her away. I should forget about my love for her, but I couldn't.

My thoughts were suddenly interrupted my footsteps. I froze. I was on watched duty. I silently rose to my feet and prepared my self for an attack and was ready to wake the others if need be. But what came out of the shadows of the trees was not an Eraser of another one of our enemies. I froze, completely numb, without a thought running through my temporarily empty brain. It was Max limping towards me. Blood covered, crying hurting Max.

My brain kicked back into overdrive. A million questions popped into my mind, and a million thoughts. I jumped down from the ledge I was perched on and landed a few feet from Max. I took a few running steps to close the distance between us and pulled her into my arms holding her as if I would never let go. She didn't push me away, but crumbled in my arms, crying.

"Max, what's wrong? What attacked you?"

Even crying and covered in blood, she looked amazingly beautiful. She didn't answer me, but kept crying. I kept holding her, slowly rocking her. She finally replied to my second question with a single word, "me"

My brain was racing again. Why had she hurt herself? Was this my fault? Is she going to be okay? I help her and flew upward, back to the mouth of the cave we were sleeping in. I leaned back against the wall and took off my jacket and shirt. I used my shirt to try and wipe some of the blood away from her face, the covered her with my jacket. She curled up in a ball and put her head in my lap and drifted off to sleep.

I kept her there all night, gently rubbing her face and holding her hand. I think I finally drifted off to sleep around sunrise, for when I woke up the sun was up and Max was gone. I panicked, and ran back into the cave to see if she was there. I saw her lying down and Iggy's hands running all over her body. At first I was jealous. How dare Iggy touch her, then realized that she was slapping his hands away as he argued with her saying he needed to make sure she hadn't lost too much blood. When Iggy heard me he looked up but couldn't see me. I mumbled something and walked over and sat down and put Max's hands in mine. Iggy seemed to sense that I could take care of it and that I needed to, so he walked away and said something to the others so they all left, leaving Max and me alone.

As soon as the others were out of ear shot, Max began to speak to me.

"I'm so sorry Fang. I was being selfish. I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry!" She was crying again. I did my best to calm her down.

"It's alright Max, I'm not mad at you. Calm down. It's okay." My words seemed to have no effect on her.

"I'm sorry, Fang, I'm so sorry."

I don't know why I did it but I did. I just leaned down and kissed her. She froze beneath my lips for a moment then closed her eyes and kissed me back. It was a brief kiss, and I pulled away after only a few seconds and whispered "I'm sorry Max. I love you."

She didn't respond but took my hands in hers once again and we just sat there for a bit. Finally I realized that I needed Iggy to help her. I kissed her gently on the forhead and then flew out of the cave to find Iggy. I didn't have to search for long since he was just at the edge of the forest. I brought him and the others back in, and brought him over to Max. His fingers ran over her arms and chest, and then turned and told Gazzy and Nudge to get him bandages, a needle and thread. Most people would be terrified of a blind boy giving them stitches, but Max was calm now and didn't mind. I think she would have been more scared if I did it even though I could see.

Iggy expertly fixed Max up and bandaged her head where she had a wicked gash and her chest with an equally as big gash across it. When he pulled her shirt off to put stitches across her chest I looked away from Max, but never left her side, and held her hand the whole time.

When Iggy was done, he flew down to the forest and found a river to rinse himself off in. Angel and the others stayed in the cave and began to make breakfast for everyone.

After breakfast, Angel and Nudge went off to swim, and Iggy and Gazzy went off exploring the area, leaving me and Max quite alone again. I had a feeling Angel was behind it, but didn't care. I sat down by Max in silence.

From where we were sitting we could look out over the forest. Neither of us said anything, either because we were too scared to ruin the moment or because there simply was nothing to say. After a while Max got up and went about to start making us dinner, and I went to go find everyone and bring them back. I found Angel and Nudge swimming around and they seemed to have made friends with a few of the fish, or at least Angel had. Total was with them, although not in the water. I sent them back to the cave and went on to keep looking for Iggy and Gazzy. I found those too in a clearing the woods, building something. I helped them carry their creations back and we all flew back to the cave.

The next few days passed until one night when Max decided we should try to be normal, and live a normal life.

"What do you mean normal? Isn't how we are living normal?" Angel asked turning to Max

"Not exactly like this, sweetie, I mean, like with a proper family, with a mum and a dad."

"You are the mum Max, and Fang can be the daddy."

"We could be, but we can't teach you."

"What do you want to teach me?"

"Everything, the things you learn in school, I want to do something worth while with my life and I need to learn things to be able to do anything. I need to go to school. We all should."

Everyone was silent. I looked up to Max questing, but she was looking down. Iggy was the first to respond, and eventually everyone agreed with Max. We would start school after this summer.