Disclaimer: I don't own Maximum Ride.

"Hey Max?" Nudge asked as we were eating breakfast, "Could we go swimming today? I mean, it's such a nice day, because it's all sunny and there aren't any clouds, so the water will be warm, which is nice, because I like warm water, but sometimes, when it's hot out, I don't like it when it's too warm, but it isn't that hot today, so we should go swimming."

"Are you finished?" I asked, wondering how she managed that entire sentence in one breath.

She nodded.

"Okay, we'll go swimming today," I agreed, "It is a nice day."

Nudge, Angel and Gazzy cheered.

I sighed in contentment. This was the life. No school, no Erasers, no Itex, no stressing.

A girl could get used to this.

I was sitting on a lawn chair beside mom's pool, sipping some lemonade and eating a chocolate chip cookie. I bit into the cookie, closing my eyes as I savoured to warm, sweet, chocolaty chewiness. Pure heaven.

"Enjoying yourself?"

Fang. That was another part of this perfect summer. I was with Fang. He wasn't being an ass and leaving me, saying that we might be able to meet up in twenty years. No, he was just being…Fang. He was here for me.

Now if only my other best friend was here too...

"Yeah," I said, wriggling my toes, "this is perfect."

"Max!" I heard Angel shriek, "Iggy dumped me into the water!"

I raised an eyebrow an Iggy. "Really?" I asked, "Can't find anything better to do than to terrorize eight year old girls?"

He looked confused. "What did I do?" he asked.

I was about to smack him on the head for being so annoying, when I heard the Gasman snicker. Of course. He was throwing his voice again.

Iggy, realizing this too, quickly tackled Gazzy into the pool, while Nudge and Angel laughed. Gazzy surfaced, and while Iggy was distracted, reached out his hand to tug on Iggy's ankle to bring him into the pool as well.

The look on Iggy's face when he came up was priceless.

"Yeah, real nice. Go ahead, pick on the blind guy," he said, putting on a fake pout.

"Please, Iggy," Fang called, "spare us from your pity party."

Iggy pretended to look hurt, before silently climbing out of the pool to push Ella in. She screamed and surfaced, sputtering. Iggy was laughing.

"Iggy!" she screamed, "What did I say about being so damn quiet all the time? At lease make some noise to warn me when you're going to push me in!"

Suddenly, Iggy stopped laughing.

"You-you're wearing a white t-shirt, aren't you?" he said, stammering.

Ella's face turned beet red as she looked down. Sure enough, her shirt was white. It was soaked through. Her bra was black with a bunch of little pink hearts all over it.

Do you all remember one of Iggy's talents? Yup, he can see things if they're on a white background.

Cue the awkwardness!

"I-I…I'm just g-going to go change," Ella managed to get out.

Iggy's face had also turned red. "S-sure, uh, you go do that," he said, looking at his feet.

"Max," Angel asked, "What's wrong with a white shirt?"

Next to me, Fang's mouth curved into a smile. "You're gonna have to answer that," he whispered in my ear.

"Well, sweetie," I began, "White shirts get…sort of see through when they get wet. So, when Iggy pushed Ella into the pool, he could see through her shirt, so it was embarrassing for both of them."

Angel furrowed her brow. "But Iggy liked it!" she said, "He was thinking that she was the… 'damn sexiest thing' he'd ever seen. Why would he say that, Max?"

"Angel! I was not thinking that!" Iggy hissed at her, "And could you please keep your mouth shut when Ella's around?"

I smirked. "It sounds like somebody's got a cruuush!" I sang, loving every moment as I saw Iggy's face getting more and more uncomfortable.

"Shut up," he retorted, "I do not have a crush on Ella. She's your sister, for crying out loud! And I'm practically your brother, so wouldn't that be like, incest or something? I'll never get a chance with her."

"Well, well, well, Iggy, getting all heartbroken over a girl, are we?" Fang asked, enjoying Iggy's torture as much as I was. "And by the way, it's not incest if you're not actually related by blood. Lucky you."

Iggy's face lit up pathetically before composing itself back into what he deemed to be a "cool" expression.

"Whatever, I don't even like her. I just think she's pretty. There's a difference!" he protested.

"Actually, you don't think she's pretty," Fang put in, "You think she's damn sexy."

"Fine!" Iggy said loudly, "Who cares if I think Ella's sexy? It's not like I haven't heard you muttering in your sleep about how hot Max is!"

"Uh, guys?" Ella said, stepping outside, "What're you talking about?"

Fang's POV:

Aside from that bit of Iggy awkwardness, the day was pretty uneventful. We fooled around in the pool a bit more, and ate lunch. While Iggy made lunch, he was studiously avoiding Ella. He bumped into her once, going to get some eggs, and his face was starting to match the colour of the little hearts on Ella's bra.

I was getting a little confused though. Even though our lives seemed to be going perfectly, Max sometimes seemed a little...unhappy. Ever since I came back, she'd have little moments of sadness, when it seemed like she forgot about everything else.

I might be the Emotionless Brick Wall, but I'm actually pretty good at detecting other people's emotions. I'm just not so good at...emoting my emotions.

But, there wasn't much to do. I didn't really like swimming, thanks to a certain exercise I once did at the School that involved my head getting pushed under water to determine how long I could hold my breath for.

The only thing was, even after I passed out, they still kept my head under water, wondering if I could have magically have stored oxygen in my blood or something, to wake myself up.

So, I when I didn't wake up for about five minutes, they deemed that that was that, and let me go.

I woke up throwing up water.

Yeah, not the best experience.

So, there wasn't much for me to do. Unless…it was a really nice day. Perfect for flying.

"Hey Max?" I asked, leaning over to her, "do you want to go flying for a while?"

"Sure," she said, "just let me put on a pair of shorts."

Five minutes later, we were soaring above Dr. M's house, just soaking in the sun.

There's nothing like the feeling of flying. Sometimes people dream about it, but the real thing is so much better. You just get a shot of adrenaline, that powers your wings, and you feel unstoppable. I loved it.

"This is great!" Max called, yelling over the wind rushing in our ears.

"I know!" I yelled back.

We hadn't been flying in a while, so it felt really good to shake out my wings.

"Hey Fang?" Max asked.

"Yeah?" I said,

"Race you," She said mischievously.

I sighed. Max always had a competitive streak.

"That's not fair!" I protested, "You'll just go all super-speed on me and leave me riding in your tailwind!"

Max seemed to be stumped by this.

"I know!" She suddenly said, her voice brightening. "I'll just not use my speed! I found out a few months ago that I can…turn it off, I guess, so I don't go super fast. It's perfect!"

Well, there's no arguing with that. After two years of dating Max experience, I knew that it was usually better not to argue with her. Yeah, she definitely wore the pants in this relationship.

"Okay," I said reluctantly, "on the count of three?"

"One," she started,

"Two," I said, wondering if I was about to be humiliated by losing to her,

"THREE!" We both shouted, taking off.

Actually, when Max didn't go all crazy with her speed, we were a pretty even match. Sometimes I was ahead, sometimes she was. We were having a blast, sometimes swooping low to pass each other, sometimes doing flips when we were confident enough in our lead to show off a little.

On one of those flips though, I accidentally crashed into Max.

My chest was pressed to hers, and caught off guard, she forgot to flap. We plummeted to the ground. Max shrieked, her arms instinctively tightening around my neck.

Luckily though, we were pretty high up, so we didn't go splat before I remembered to flap again. We steadily rose again, but Max's arms never let go.

Our faces were inches apart, and I became hyper-aware that there wasn't any space between us. We were pressed together really tightly.

How long had it been since I last kissed Max? Days? Weeks? That didn't matter. All that mattered was that her eyes were closing, and I was closing the last couple of inches between us.

When our lips touched, I forgot everything, and lost myself in the feeling. I think I forgot to breathe.

I don't remember how long we stayed like that, wings flapping in sync to keep ourselves from falling, just kissing. It might have been minutes, it might have been years. I had no idea.

During moments like this, I honestly forgot everything that was stressing me out. Even Max's mood swings.

When we finally broke apart, my breathing was ragged.

"Hey Max?" I asked when I had caught my breath, "Who won?"

"In the kissing skills department? You. In the race? Well, we aren't exactly finished yet, but I'm pretty sure I was winning anyway."

"We'll see about that," I said, breaking apart from her grasp and shooting forward.

"Hey! No fair! You got a head start!" Max called after me, laughing.

"That shouldn't be a problem though, should it, Ms. Hotshot?" I asked, not slowing down.

"Shut up!" she yelled, "I'll catch up with you!"

Then she poured on the speed. I didn't really register what was happening, but then suddenly, there she was, about a hundred metres in front of me, laughing.

I smiled to myself. Max never did play fair…but somehow, I still loved her.

When in doubt, use Fax!

R&R?