2

"MAAAAAAAAAAX! MAAAAAAAAA-oh yay, you're alive!" Nudge, my sweet motormouth, let out an audible sigh of relief. I gave her a one-armed hug as I gracefully landed on the front steps of our home, Fang right behind me.

"Nice to see that you guys got on well without me and Fang," I said, reaching over to ruffle Gazzy's hair. "Mornin', trooper."

Gazzy yawned. "Where were you guys?" He blinked up at me sleepily. "Nudge was ready to call the police, that's how freaked out she was."

We all laughed. "That'd be a tough one to explain, don't you think?" I said, tucking in my wings.

"But what were you doing?" Nudge persisted. "With Fang?"

Iggy snickered. "Do you really want to know?"

"Iggy!" I furiously lunged at him, but he nimbly dodged my advance. Oh yeah, Iggy's blind, but that doesn't stop him from being an expert chef/bomb-maker/comedian. Well, he thinks he's a comedian, but seeing as I'm at the brunt of a lot of his jokes...

"We were just flying around," Fang smoothly interjected, brushing past me. "Nothing much."

"Ooh, why didn't you invite me?" Nudge whined. "That must have been so pretty, with the sunrise and all. Did you see the hawks again? Aren't they amazing? How early did you guys get up? Can I come with you next time?"

I inwardly groaned. See, this is why I need some time to fly solo. I love Nudge and the other kids but sometimes it just gets overwhelming. I looked over at Fang with a pleading expression on my face. Fang instantly understood. "It was only this once, Nudge," he said, pausing in the doorway to his bedroom. "Max and I just happened to get up early." But he followed up this terse little speech with a significant look at me that said, It is definitely not just gonna be this once. And I'll admit my insides did a little jig when he did that.

"Aw," Nudge said, but she was quickly diverted by the appearance of Angel. "Angel! I fixed the TV and now we can finish watching the third season of American Idol!"

Angel drowsily rubbed her eyes, one hand still clutching her stuffed bear. "That's great, Nudge!" She looked up at me and beamed. "Morning, Max."

Okay, so before, when I said Angel was my baby, I didn't mean that literally (like, ew, I'm fourteen-thank God we didn't stay in the School long enough for them to start wondering about mutant offspring). The thing is, Angel is six, and I've been taking care of her since she was really little, so I'm practically her mother.

"And I'm your baby!" Angel said, wrapping her thin arms around my stomach. Oops. Forgot to mention that Angel can read minds. No biggie. "I'm going to go change, Max, but you'll have to help me with my buttons," she said before going back into the room that she shared with Nudge. I swear six-years-old Angel is twenty times more mature than Gazzy at age eight, or even Iggy at age fourteen.

Iggy was puttering around in the kitchen, trying to find something to eat. "We're running low on cereal," he called over to me.

I sighed. "Like, how low?"

"If we don't go get food today, we're gonna be starving by tomorrow." Geez, thanks for that upbeat reminder of how our liveskinda suck.

I joined him in the kitchen. The refrigerator was pathetically empty-there was nothing but a few eggs, a carton of orange juice, a stale loaf of bread, and half a pack of bacon left-and the cupboard were in a similarly dismal state. "Wanna catch some rats?" I said, not anticipating the alternative.

"Ewwwwwwwww, no more rats, please," Nudge moaned as she flopped onto the faded couch in front of the TV.

"Fine. I'll go shopping."

"For clothes?" Nudge's brown eyes widened in excitement.

"For food. Honey, you really think we can afford clothes?"

A frown crossed her face. "Can't we just shoplift Walmart again?"

You've done a great job teaching these kids morals, Max. "Umm...do you need anything?"

Uh oh. Bad question. Immediately Nudge's face lit up and she began going on and on about how she saw this adorable outfit on America's Next Top Model and how she figured she could get the same look with a cheap pink cardigan and a white tank top and a jean skirt and...

"Nice one," Iggy muttered to me as he began frying the bacon. I scowled.

Gazzy piped in. "Max, if Nudge can get new clothes, can Iggy and I get some stuff, too? We're running low on aerosol spray cans."

I had no idea what he was talking about but I bet I could guess. "Is this for making explosives?"

"Definitely not. Gazzy and I just need lots of hairspray to maintain our 'dos," Iggy sarcastically responded, putting the crispy bacon on a chipped blue plate and getting started with scrambling the eggs (does it seem weird that we eat eggs? Just a thought.)

"You guys get hairspray for your hair? Oh my gosh, Max, that is sooo unfair because if anyone needs hairspray around here it's me." Nudge gestured helplessly to her wild mane of hair.

"Um..." I wondered if I should explain that Iggy was not being serious. "Well, Nudge, you are more than welcome to steal from the boys' stash of hair products."

"Hair products?" Fang reappeared from his sanctuary just as Iggy and Gazzy simultaneously let out sounds of protest. "With hair as great as mine?"

I rolled my eyes while Iggy laughed and gave Fang a fist bump. Boys. "Gazzy, can you set the table? Nudge, pour the orange juice."

"Okay!" Gazzy eagerly raced to the cabinets to get the plates and the sight made my heart swell. They were just great kids. Sometimes I'll bitch about my duties, but a lot of times being a leader is really fulfilling, pardon the cheesiness.

A/N: Thank you for your reviews, they really make my day :-) I apologize for how these chapters kinda seem filler-ish so far, but we're getting somewhere (i.e. the shopping trip :o). Also, I managed to sneak in an eensy bit of Fax ;). Reviews = love = updates!