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Iggy sprinted up the steps, reaching the brown door before his companion, unlocking and holding it open for her. She brushed past him, not sparing a glance on her way to the kitchen.
A chorus of "Hey!"s sounded from the living room, where Angel, Fang, Gazzy, and Nudge sat around their old T.V., watching some movie Nudge had picked up last week. Max looked fondly on them as she dropped all her grocery bags onto the counter; normally, she would ask the younger ones to help, but she couldn't bring herself to interrupt them when they looked so content and... normal. Sure, they had their moments where it wasn't completely obvious that they were genetically mutated bird-kids that grew up and escaped from a secret government lab, but they so rarely looked like this.
All four were huddled on the carpet, their backs against the front of the couch, a blanket draped over them. They looked younger somehow, more vulnerable like this; their eyes were wide and trained on the screen in front of them - they didn't even move when a hand made its way out of the blanket,reaching over blindly to the bowl of popcorn resting on Fang's lap.
So instead, Max sent them a soft "We're back," and started unpacking the many food stuffs alone. Bag after bag, she gently took them out, first placing them on the counter together before placing them individually in their correct cupboards and shelves. It was a laborious job that was sure to take up much of her time, but she didn't mind as much as she usually would have.
When most of the food was packed away, Max turned, a loaf of bread cradled in her arms, destined for the shelf next to the door. When she turned, however, she nearly dropped the bread in surprise; there, sitting on the counter in front of the cabinet was Iggy. Max wasn't sure how long he had been sitting there, or how she had failed to notice him, but it was obvious that he knew she was there.
Max collected herself, "I got to get into the cabinet, Igs."
Iggy didn't move though. His hands were braced against the marble countertop, his legs dangling, so long that they almost touched the floor. His head was bowed, his sightless eyes closed.
"Igs? Bread?" she asked again. This time, Iggy acknowledged her, raising his head to meet her. He slid off the counter, giving Max enough room to put away the last of the groceries. When she closed the cabinet, she looked around the kitchen. noting how clean it looked now, cleaner than it's looked in days, before turning to leave.
"Max, what's up?" Iggy asked.
Max turned to him, realizing that Iggy was much closer than she expected. She shrugged, "I was going to go read this book I got yesterday. It's about this girl who finds out she's a mermaid, and her family lives near the ocean, and everyday she has to go and be a mermaid every morning or else she goes crazy - "
"Max."
She paused, her hands in mid-air as she stopped talking.
"That's not what I mean, Max," Iggy said, his tone much more serious than Max was used to.
"Then what do you mean?"
"You've hardly spoken to me since the store. You're not really mad about that, are you?"
Max crossed her arms over her chest, feeling uncomfortable. "Yeah, actually, I am a little pissed about that. I mean, what were you even thinking?"
"The guy was an asshole, what's the difference?"
Max side-stepped the blonde into the hall, "The difference, Ig, is that we're trying to blend in. I've given this speech to the kids a thousand times, hell I've given it to you at least a hundred times, and you completely disregarded it."
"He was touching you, Max. Touching you! Not to mention the things he said after he left - you might not have been able to hear it, but I did, and I sure as hell wasn't going to let him get away with it!"
Max stopped walking and spun around, knocking into Iggy, who wasn't paying attention to her steps. "You don't think I hated him touching me? That I wanted to knock his damned teeth out? Because I did!"
The blonde took half a step back, "Then why didn't you? Then what's the point of this argument if you wanted to do the exact same thing?"
"Because you shouldn't have done it! I didn't do anything because we're trying to blend in. Knocking out two grown men in the middle of a grocery store without so much as a scratch? In plain view of a store-full of people and multiple security cameras? That is not blending in, Igs," Max turned, her hair swinging into Iggy's pale face.
He followed her into their shared room, closing the door with a soft click behind him. He sighed, walking over to sit on his bed. "The camera in the produce section wasn't working," he said.
Max stopped, her body completely stretched as she reached for a book on a higher shelf than was comfortable. "The green light was on, it was definitely working. Trust me, I checked the minute his slimy hands got anywhere near me."
"I didn't say it wasn't on, I said it wasn't working. There wasn't a tape in it, so nothing was getting recorded. Nothing's been recorded since we've moved here, in fact."
Coming down from her tip-toes slowly, Max turned to look at him incredulously, "How could you possibly know that?"
He shrugged, "You can hear it.. Well, okay, you can't hear it but there's a certain... whirring, maybe, like when a VCR is first inserted. Very distinctive, and very absent in the produce section."
"But cameras don't even use tapes anymore. It's all digital, which is probably why you couldn't hear it."
"So all the rest of the cameras use tapes except for the produce section?" he asked sarcastically. "C'mon, Max, give me some credit here."
Max's arms lifted and dropped uselessly at her sides, "Fine, so the camera wasn't working, a million people still saw you."
"Yes, those four old women buying squash in the corner will be scarred for life, I'm sure," he said carelessly, laying back, and tossing a tennis ball up to the ceiling.
Max groaned, finally grabbing the book and all but falling down on her bed across the room. "You're impossible, d'you know that?" she said, her arm falling over her eyes. "Why did you even care what those guys were saying about me?"
Iggy stopped, the tennis ball in his hand above his head. "I just... didn't like it, is all," he said.
"Well, what were they saying, at least?"
He sat up suddenly, throwing his legs over the side of the bed, "It's not important, Max, it's over."
Iggy's tone came out sharper than he intended, and he immediately regretted it. Max removed her arm to look up at him in surprise.
"Igs? What did they say?" she asked cautiously, sitting up as well.
"It was nothing," he said, "they were assholes."
"Well, I could have told you that," she said, rolling her eyes. "I'm just curious."
"Don't be," Iggy said it much harsher.
"What is the big deal? Is it some sort of secret?"
"Why do you care so much, Max? It's over, done with, just let it go!"
Max stood up finally, "Why do you care so much?"
Iggy was pacing, running his hands through his hair almost violently. Max watched him confusedly, staying quiet as he walked.
Finally, suddenly, Iggy stopped, his back to her, his hand paused mid-stroke. Then, so suddenly that Max took a surprised step backwards, Iggy spun around.
"Are you over Fang?" he asked.
"I, uh, what?" she stuttered, confused at what had just happened.
"Are you," he asked again, more clearly this time, as he took a step forward, "over Fang?"
Max nodded, "Yeah, I'm over him."
"Completely?"
She nodded again, "Completely."
Iggy stepped forward, deliberately slow.
"Igs, what are you talking about? What's this got to do with the guys at the store?"
Iggy was less than an arm's length away now, and slowly, slowly, he reached up a hand. With light fingers he traced the curve of Max's arm to her shoulder, until he paused. Iggy's pale hand now rested just below the girl's jaw, his thumb sweeping up in such a gentle touch that she shivered. Max's lips parted under his soft touch, and slowly, ever so slowly, he leaned forward. Inch by inch Iggy leaned in, until they were a hairs width apart; there he stopped. The blonde paused, breathing short, measured breaths that Max could feel with every intake. She stood there, not daring to move as Iggy waited, and slowly she could feel herself being undone: her breathing became slightly harsher, her lips trembled, her eyes slipped closed as she waited for the blonde to make the final move. But he was a statue.
They stood like that, waiting, until finally, Max couldn't take it anymore. She all but threw herself forwards the final inch, fisting Iggy's teeshirt tightly. Iggy stumbled back a step but recovered quickly, holding Max around the waist.
Her mouth parted under Iggy's tongue as Max raked her fingers through his strawberry blonde hair. Iggy held her close, relishing in every swipe and difference in pressure, memorizing the girl's mouth. He'd waited so long for this - never actually ever thinking he would be able to experience it.
Max tilted and pressed closer, trying to deepen the kiss, but, as much as Iggy would have loved to, he couldn't. Not right now.
The strawberry-blonde moved his hands from Max's waist up to her arms, and gently held, pulling the girls away from him and reluctantly unlocking their lips.
Iggy knew his hair was mussed, his cheeks flushed, but it was nothing to what Max must have looked like. He could hear her panting, trying to catch her breath, and Iggy mentally self-fived. He made Max sound like that.
"I hated how those guys talked about you. I hate when guys - however creepy or attractive or whatever - talk to you because I can't do anything about it. I have no reason to stop them," Iggy paused. "But I want to change that."
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