Nudge was awoken by Alec, who was tossing and turning on the relatively small couch that they were sharing. She shook his shoulder gently and when his eyes they scanned Nudge's face for a while before he smiled.
"You want to go fly somewhere?" Alec asked her.
"Sure, where did you have in mind?" Nudge asked him.
"While I was flying here I saw this amazing Italian restaurant, and now I'm wondering if you'd like to go?" Alec asked her.
"Just the two of us?" Nudge asked him in disbelief.
"Yeah, I want to get to know you better, and I have feeling you feel the same way." Alec replied. "I might need a new shirt though."
Nudge nodded before running someone's and quickly came out with a black t-shirt.
"Sorry, I think is the only whose shirts fit you and he only really wears, which is weird because I think a brighter color might compliment his eye color better." Nudge told him.
"The true mind of a designer, exactly what I'd expect." Alec replied while taking the shirt from Nudge. "Thanks."
"No problem, but from the look of it we should in town to buy you some new cloths, Fang's shirt barely fits you." Nudge told him. "You know I've been to a French restaurant and a British restaurant, but never an Italian one."
"Come on, we don't want the place to get crowded." Alec told her.
Nudge nodded with a smile, but stopped him before he took off.
"We should leave a note so that Max knows where we are, and doesn't think we've been kidnapped." Nudge told Alec.
He nodded as she quickly got out a pad of paper and a pen and quickly scribbled down where they going and they would be in a couple of hours. She then nodded to Alec and they both quickly took off towards the restaurant, and when he saw it he motioned for her to descend.
"Luigi's all you can eat Italian restaurant, I really do hope they mean all you can eat." Nudge told him as they walked through the double door into the reception area. "Oh my god, that's beautiful chandelier, don't you think so Alec."
"Yeah, I came here earlier and made a reservation for two under Demerov." He told the waitress before he and Nudge took a seat. "So anything else I should know about you?"
"Hmmm… I can hack any computer and attract metal to myself." Nudge replied. "What about you?"
"Ability wise, I can bend the light around myself to appear invisible." He told her.
"Fang can sort of do that, when he doesn't move or talk for a while he disappears into the background." Nudge told him. "Sorry, didn't mean to butt in like that."
"It's okay, I can also manipulate matter it's sort of like the force in star wars." Alex told her.
"Cool! Can I see?" Nudge asked him.
He nodded and focused on one of the pen on the reception desk and suddenly it started to float upwards and after a while started to spin from one side of the room to the other. As I dropped back to the desk Alec saw look of amazement on Nudge's face.
"I call more of the lines of telekinetics though, because I can't change people's minds or anything." Alec told her.
It took a while for Nudge to notice that he paused to see if she had anything to say. "The youngest of the flock, Angel, she can read and influence other people's thoughts. It's a little creepy though to think at any given moment when she's around she could influencing what we are doing."
"The blind kid sensed me over the house didn't he?" Alec asked her.
"Yeah, it seems he just recently gained that ability." Nudge replied as the waitress ushered them forward.
As they sat down by each other their waitress handed them two menus and left after they told her what they wanted to drink.
When she came back Nudge couldn't help herself. "Is this place really all you can or will you stop at a certain point?"
"It's all you eat, that was our founder's main purpose of open this restaurant." The waitress told Nudge.
"Let me tell you I'm pretty sure you just made her day." Alec told her.
The waitress had to hurry to write everything down that Nudge was ordering, and when she got to Alec he talked at a pace that she easily kept up with. When they were done ordering she smiled and walked them over to a bigger table before going to the kitchen and delivering their order. Nudge was smiling so wide Alec was surprised her cheeks weren't hurting from it, and she hugged him tightly.
"Thanks for bringing me here, the last time the flock tried to do something like this we were almost taken to a police station." Nudge told Alec.
"Unreasonable, I mean most likely Max told them she could pay with the credit card she had gotten, so I don't see why they had called the cops." Alec told her.
"She did, they kept on trying to talk us out of ordering the food, but Max held strong. Though in the end we had to leave." Nudge told him.
Once again all he could was nodded as what seemed like the whole cooking staff brought out three pans of each thing on the menu. Nudge regained her smile and her eyes began to shine as she tried to decide on what to try first, and Alec tapped her on the shoulder.
"Let me recommend the lasagna, it's delicious." Alec told her.
She nodded before cutting into the lasagna as Alex spoon some spaghetti onto his plate, and after what felt like 30 minutes they had devoured a pan of everything and when the waitress came back he gave Dr. Martinez' address and his debit card.
"I'll pay for all this, and deliver the rest of this to this address." Alec told her while she swiped his card.
When the food left the door and Alec had gotten his debit card back Nudge made him fly with her a shopping center.
"We have to get some more clothes, Fang wouldn't appreciate you always wears his shirts." Nudge told him.
Alec nodded again while scanning the area around them and then he gingerly slipped his hand into Nudge's. She got closer to him and rested her head onto his shoulder as they walked through the mall until something caught her eye.
"Oh, this is so cute." Nudge told Alec as she showed an orange and white polka dot bikini. "To bad the top doesn't work with wings."
"Go get what you can on, I'll do my best to see if I can find a compromise." Alec told her.
"Thank you, thank you!" Nudge nearly yelled before running to the changing room.
After a while of searching Alex found a one piece bathing suit that matched the bikini that Nudge found and went to the check out.
"I would like to buy this and the matching bikini." Alec told the guy at check out.
"Okay, how will you paying for this?" The clerk asked him.
"Cash." Alec replied as he pulled out exact change.
After that was over with, Alec knocked on the changing room door, and as soon as it opened Nudge pulled him inside. He laid the one piece onto her back and lightly marked where he had to cut for her wings, and after he cut the holes he had Nudge try it on to see if he had to make any adjustments. She hugged Alec tightly and laughed as he picked her up spun her around.
"I already paid for it so you can wear it under your clothes." Alec told her.
For a while longer the two of them shopped for Alec and afterwards he had at least 10 outfits, and against her protest he had gotten Nudge three outfits. They flew back to Dr. Martinez's house where Max was waiting outside for them with the rest of the flock, and when they landed Alex noticed everyone's eyes were on him even the blind kid.
"Do I have an extra head or something?" Alec asked them.
"You seem different." Iggy told him.
"We're all different." Alec replied.
"He doesn't mean in the same way as us, you seem more troubled than any of us." Angel replied.
"I really appreciate it if you stayed out of my head from now on Angel." Alec replied casually like he had known her forever. "My past is just that my past."
"So I guess you won't be talking about it then?" Fang asked him.
His question made everyone, except Alec, look at him in surprise.
"Not right away anyways." Alec replied.
"What are you willing to tell us then?" Max asked him.
"Depends." He replied.
"What does it depend on?" Gazzy asked him.
"Do you have any cookies?" Alec asked them.
"Lucky for you I just got done baking at least five dozen cookies." Dr. Martinez told him from the door.
Together, the flock and Alec walked into the house to the kitchen. Everyone sat around the table, including Ella and Dr. Martinez, as Alec bit into a cookie and looked around the table.
"So, where should I start?" Alec asked them.
"Your recombant DNA, that mainly what I suspect is the most different." Iggy told him.
"Hmm… My DNA, something I even try to remember." Alec chuckled, and everyone sensed that the laugh was forced. "50% human, 30% avian, 10% canine, 6% reptilian, and 4% unknown."
"Unknown?" Nudge asked him.
"Something the whitecoats added in for some reason they didn't even know what it was, but if I saw the DNA sequence I might be able to name it." Alec replied.
"Canine, as in part Erasers?" Max asked him.
"Sort of, but no, not completely though." Alec replied as he bit onto his fifth cookie.
"They screwed you over dude." Gazzy replied.
"Yep, but I've used it to my advantage." Alec told them as his voice got lower. "They didn't expect their perfect soldier to be rebellious."
This time when he laughed it was full heart as he seemed to revel on the memory until Nudge touched his shoulder.
"Perfect soldier?" Max asked him
"At first I was fully going along with their plan." Alex started pushing a plate of cookies away from himself.
"What plan?" Fang asked him.
"The plan was called 'The Huntsman' I was made to hunt you guys down, but as I watched you guys in actions I realized a few things. One, I absolutly was in love with Nudge. Two, I didn't want to kill you guys. Finally, if I killed you guys they would've just killed me next." Alex told them. "As they saw me devitating from their little plan they took drastic measures to ensure my cooperation, but it didn't as all of you see. When I finally got out I made a pact t find all of you and protect the flock until my last breath."
"What is there to say that you're telling the truth?" Fang asked him. "For all we know they could be feeding you information about as of right now."
Nudge tensed as soon as Alec got to his feet but instead of retaliating he grabbed the hem of his shirt and took it off to reveal too many scars to count.
"Do you think this is all fake?" Alec asked him somehow keeping his voice level.
Nudge gently slipped her hand into his and squeezed his hand. Alec pulled her slightly closer and slipped his arm around her waist.
"You guys might not trust Alec, but I do." Nudge told them.
"I'm going to bed." Alec told them as he pushed in his chair whispered something to Nudge and left through the window.
Nudge looked at the flock and followed Alec out the window, she knew where he went, but he had told her to take a long route to throw off anyone following her. When she found him again he was waiting outside a cabin in the middle of the woods.
"If I stayed any longer I might of blown up." Alec told her.
"I know, Angel told Max that you had gone through a lot, but I guess she forgot to tell Fang that." Nudge replied as Alec unlocked the door.
While she was on her way to the cabin, Nudge had noticed that it had started to snow slightly, and when she looked at the inside of the cabin she couldn't help but gasp. The place was completely decked out for Christmas, the tree was touching the ceiling and there were Christmas related things all over the place. Nudge quickly climbed into the bed as she felt a cold breeze go over her whole body, when she felt how warm the bed was she almost dozed right until she felt Alec climb in right beside her.