Me: This is such a fun story to write!
Max: I don't see how writing a story of my uncomfortable life is fun.
Angel: That's because you're the one who feels uncomfortable. To everyone else, it's funny.
Fang: ...
Me: DON'T BLUSH, MAX!
Max: you don't know what you're talking about.
Nudge: How come we haven't shown up lately?
Gazzy: Yeah!
Me: Sorry about that. I'll try to do better... NOW ON TO THE READING! R&R!
Max POV
Now, how do we find the key? A systematical search of the entire city would take somewhere between forever and a lifetime. No kidding. I'm not about to tell you where I live. It could compromise our position. Call me paranoid, but I'm not going to take any chances. Not when it comes to my family. Let's just say, it's a fairly large city, with so many hide-a-way places that someone could hide an army, and no one would know. Just saying. I could grow old and die, and still be attached to Fang.
We sat on our midnight blue sofa, it's softness surrounding me like a cloud. But a little less damp. Trust me, I've felt a cloud before. We spread a map of the city onto the sleek black coffee table. I stared at it in desperation.
"This is hopeless," I said. "The entire city..."
"I know how we can narrow it down," Fang offered. I stared at him blankly. He tilted his head slightly in my direction. His hair, darker than black if that was even possible, swept into his face as he glanced at me. Fang smiled ever so slightly as his eyes focused on mine. I felt heat rush to my face as I remembered that morning.
Get back on topic, Max. You'll never get anything done if you blush whenever Fang looks at you. Angel said. Mentally, of course.
I can't, I (mentally) wailed, I keep wondering WHY!
Well, I could tell you what he was thinking, but I don't understand some of it, and it would probably make you blush even more, was her reply.
I would be staring at her open-mouthed right then if she wasn't, you know, speaking to me mind-to-mind. I jerked to reality. Fang was snapping his fingers in my face. I blinked at him, wide eyed. Apparently, he'd been trying to get my attention for a while.
"What?" I asked.
He smirked at me. My heart gave a little flutter. What the heck is wrong with me?
"Well if you don't want to hear it..." he began.
"Hear what?" Then I realized what he'd said earlier. I cursed silently as I smacked myself on the forehead. "Right. So what was your idea?"
He grinned, a slow, devious grin. "I thought that you didn't want to hear it," he teased. Again, the flutters appeared. This was starting to annoy me. But this time, there was something else. A pain, deep inside my chest ached. It wasn't like an Eraser breaking my arm in three places. It was a duller, deeper kind of pain; less sharp and centered, but even more painful somehow. Like my chest was contracting, and my heart was caving in.
I couldn't bear the pain much long so I burst out, "Well, don't keep me in suspense!" Nice save, huh?
"They were only gone an hour. Thirty minutes out and thirty back, not to mention the time it takes to hide a key. That limits the distance that they could have gone."
He stuck a thumbtack in the mall parking lot, where this all started. Fang's forehead wrinkled a little, and his face had a very serious, concentrating look. It was kind of cute. Wait. Cute? Why am I all of a sudden thinking like this? Focus, Max. Focus.
"Assuming that none of them recently developed the ability to fly at super-sonic speed like you can, I've limited it to this area." He circled a large part of the map. "I know that it's big, but we've faced bigger."
I know that it didn't help much. Barely at all to be honest. But he'd tried. And I loved him for it. Um, not in the way that it might have sounded right there. But in all seriousness, we had to start looking.
"Do you want to work from farther out then go in, or start at the mall and go from there?" I asked. My heart was still having spasms.
"Let's start from the mall," he replied.
...
I sat down, leaning against the alley wall. Sighing, I closed my eyes. We've been at this for over seven hours, and nothing. The shadows seemed to jump out at me in the darkness of the alley, and it was starting to creep me out a little. It seemed like every rat that scurries by was an Eraser jumping out at me, and every spider brushing against my cheek sent a shiver down my spine. I'm not squeamish about this stuff, but such a long time without an attack sent up a red flag on my radar. Sitting down was a bad idea. Now my butt's wet from the dampness of the earlier rain. A few stray clouds scattered around the sunset. Not that I could see it since we started looking in the alley. But now the moon was up, a bright half moon that lit up the area, allowing our search to continue. It's surprising how long it takes to search an alley. But there's the dumpsters, full of the most disgusting stuff anyone could think of.
Dead skunks for example.
I wasn't getting in that. So I pushed Fang in. Well, it was more like I flipped him in. I grabbed his left arm with both hands and flipped him over my shoulder into the trash. Ah, the look on his face. Priceless. So I stood there awkwardly with my arm hanging in the dumpster as Fang looked around.
Then a shadow moved behind me. I spun around, or spun as make as I could, and saw nothing. Weird. I turn back the other way and came face to face with some guy. He looked about sixteen, was Caucasian with bright blue eyes, and was obviously drunk. His stained white t-shirt smelled suspiciously like sewer mixed with the dumpster behind me, and his basketball shorts were even worse. He wore a blue bandanna around his head, and his eyes kept roaming up and down my body, which gave me a really bad feeling, mixed with desire to kick his ass. Problem? One arm was in a dumpster. Worse problem? I saw the glint of a knife at his side.
He smiled. Most of his teeth were yellow and rotting. The rest were missing. It was almost worse than the dumpster. He pulled out the knife with one hand.
"Now play nice, sweetheart. It'll be over soon. We'll have some fun, then you can be on your way," he slurred. His voice was gravely and strained. He stepped toward me. The knife glinted at me violently. I wasn't going to take this crap! Stumbling forward, he reached for my arm with his free hand and stretched his knife out to my neck. As his knife made contact, I kneed him in the gut. He doubled over, and clenched his stomach. While he was down, I snapped my foot out and kicked him underneath the chin. His head snapped back. He landed on the ground with a thud. Fang's head popped up.
"What's going on?" he asked. Then he saw the drunk on the ground.
"Ah," he said. No explanation needed. I burst out laughing.
"What?" he asked.
"Well-" I choked out. "It's hard to take you seriously with that banana on his hat." I started laughing again. His hand shot up to his head as he pulled the old banana from his head. Then he threw it at me.
"Oh, no! You're asking for it, buddy!" I grinned. We then pelted each other with rotting food. I know. Dumpster food fight!
...
We walked in the door, smelling like rotten fish that baked in the Sahara Desert for three weeks. Let's just say, it was bad.
"Agh! Gazzy! What did you eat?!" Iggy yelled from the kitchen.
"It wasn't me!" Gazzy yelled back.
"I think it's Max and Fang," Angel stated.
"Ewwww! That is disgusting. Go take a shower!" Nudge called. And by the sound of it, she was plugging her nose. Was it really that bad? I smelled my hair and gagged. Yeah, it was bad. But then what she'd said registered in that thing called a brain. I looked at Fang and realized that he was looking at me too. How was this going to work?
...
My left hand was against the wall in the shower, and Fang's right hand was on the wall on the other side of the shower curtain. Fang had already had his shower. I had to help wash his hair, but he was clean. He might smell a little still. But he was clean.
Being so close to him was a little creepy when I was taking a shower. Wouldn't anyone think so? I was finish cleaning all the junk from my body, and I'd gotten all that I could from my hair, but I wasn't ready to get out yet.
The warm water massaged my aching muscles. It ran along my neck and down my back. It was relaxing.
"Ok. Hand me the towel," I told Fang. The towel was flung over the curtain. I caught it and wrapped it around me. One handed. And trust me, it was no easy task.
Opening the curtain, I saw that Fang had already gotten as dressed as possible without ruining another shirt. Meaning, he was wearing black jeans, but no shirt. And I have to say, he had muscles. He wasn't a bodybuilder type build. I mean, ew. But you could tell that he was athletic. I stepped out, careful no to slip and went over to the sink. Turning the water on, I ducked my head under. Fang wordlessly started to wash my hair. His hands were gentle as he rubbed my scalp. Fingers soft, he wash out all the muck that had gotten into my hair during our food fight. My heart squeezed. After he finished, I got dressed (no mirrors) and we walked down the hall into my room to go sleep.
Me: ..*on the ground dying, reaching out to the Flock*...Done.
Angel: Don't be so dramatic. It only took you...what? A week?
Nudge: I only had one line!
Total: At least you were in it. *sniff*
Me: I AM SO SORRY! TOTAL!