A/N: So Max and Fang had a pretty rough night. I didn't want to make you wait too long for them to make up, I left them on such a sad note. This chapter is kind of a character piece more than anything else, since Fang has some serious ground to recover before he can get anywhere with Max, but it's necessary and still full of sweet moments between Max and Fang. Things pick up again (pretty awesomely) in the next chapter, but this one has to happen first.
Thank you to Nola96, Help Me I'm Shipping, zroc, and assorted guests for your encouragement. It makes me excited to keep writing for you!
Day Five - Morning
Fang's mouth tasted of sleep and stale wine. It was gross. He sat up, half-tangled in the sheets. He ran his hand down his face, swung his legs off the bed, and leaned forward to stand, idly scratching at his morning wood and wincing at the tenderness there. Arms and wings reached wildly in a lazy stretch before he turned around and caught sight of Max, still hidden from the world by a wing wrapped around her, the other half-out on the bed behind her. Memories of the night before came flying back like a punch in the gut. The way his wife curled protectively around herself made her look small and alone and he felt remorse like a rock in the pit of his stomach.
Fang frowned and turned resolutely into the kitchen.
Max awoke some time later to the sound of running water and drawers slamming shut. She groaned at the nasty taste in her mouth and drew in tighter around herself. She woke for the second time when a pan clattered on the stovetop and the vent fan fell silent.
Fang came back from the kitchen and let out a heavy sigh when he saw Max holding herself rigidly still beneath the covers. She was unfairly good at plenty of things, but pretending to be asleep was not one of them. He started to push her hair out of her face and she jerked back, knocking his hand aside with the bony edge of her wing.
"Don't touch me."
He drew back and observed her solemnly. Dappled wings shielded her from his gaze and she drew her knees up to her chest, nearly disappearing beneath her feathers. Wordlessly, Fang turned and strode back into the kitchen, piled his work onto a wicker tray, and padded back towards the bed on bare feet. He kneeled on the mattress and shuffled closer to the feathery lump to set the tray down next to her. He sat back on his heels and waited.
A few seconds later, a whisper sifted out from between her feathers.
"I know what you're up to, and it's not gonna work."
She shifted uncomfortably under his stare and his silence. She groaned angrily and sat up to glare at him. "You can't just buy your way back onto my good side." She grimaced as she folded her stiff wings against her back and blinked heavily.
Fang's eyebrows rose when he saw her puffy eyelids and the dried tear tracks running crusty rivers down her cheeks. His heart clenched.
"That's not what I'm doing."
"Oh, yeah?" She sneered at him and gestured to the tray. "You've got all my favorite breakfast foods. Don't tell me this isn't some kind of bribe."
"It's an apology."
"Psh, right. I know a bribe when I see one." She scowled at the bacon before snatching at a broken piece and shoving it into her mouth.
"Won't you let me fix this?"
She just grabbed another piece and refused to meet his eyes.
Fang sighed and stared at the ceiling and listened to her crunch her way through the bacon. When he heard the fork and knife clinking against the plate, he looked back at her. "Look, Max, I-"
"You hurt me."
She looked up at him with the widest brown eyes and Fang wanted to crawl into a pit and die.
"I'm sorry."
"You made me feel naked."
"I know. I'm so, so sorry, Max." He watched her fight to control her breathing. "Last night sucked. I suck. You're everything." He ran his tongue across his lips and watched her eyes threaten to brim over with tears. "You're crying."
Her nostrils flared and she stared fixedly at the cluster of grapes. He reached out to catch a tear before it fell. She chewed on her lip, probably hard enough to break the skin, and he pulled it away from her teeth with his thumb. He cupped her cheek tenderly, bent his head, and took a deep breath.
"You and I haven't done any of this before. It's like…like when Jeb busted us out of the School and we didn't know how to be free because we'd never had freedom before. It was insanely basic, but we still needed to learn it." He looked at her from beneath his brows. "This is another slice of that freedom, and we're going to learn it. I'll probably mess up again. Because I have no friggin' clue how to do any of this. But you're the one I want to learn it with." He took a staggering breath. "I'm sorry I hurt you. That's mostly because I'm clueless. Like I said, I want to get better at that. But I'm more sorry that I was too drunk and stubborn to stop when you asked me the first time."
"Or the second time."
He nodded once. "Or the second time. That's worse because I freaking know better. I just….wanted so badly to figure it out. To figure you out." His lips twisted in a smirk and he rubbed her chin with his thumb. "You're still a mystery to me, Max."
She looked up at him with wide eyes for the second time, and this time, with fear. The whisper clicked softly on her tongue. "What if you can't figure me out?"
He frowned.
"What if I'm broken?"
"Oh, Max." He pushed the tray aside and crawled over to her. He wrapped his arms around her firmly and she pressed her face against his black t-shirt. It reeked of bacon grease. They breathed together, rocking back and forth, and he grazed his lips against her ear. "What happened to all that talk about needing practice, and about not letting Itex have one more minute of our lives? Huh?"
He pulled back and looked at her seriously. "I say, fuck 'em. I chose you." She pulled her lips into some sort of smile and Fang beamed down at her.
Max scrunched her nose and sighed and pressed her forehead against his shoulder. "I know you didn't mean to hurt me. I knew it last night, too." His hands paced up and down her back soothingly. "And I guess I forget that you're as dumb about this stuff as I am." She curved her neck up to kiss him gently on the Adam's apple. "So maybe…maybe we could try again. Without the wine."
He nodded firmly in agreement. "Without the wine."
She pressed her face against the warmth in the crook of his neck and he hugged her close again. He glanced at the breakfast tray and kissed her neck. "And I'm sorry about the toast. You don't have to eat that part if you don't want to."
Max reached under his arm to poke gingerly at one blackened piece with pursed lips. "Yeah, I'll probably pass on that."
Max peered at Fang over the top of her sunglasses. The rain had finally packed up and gone home and she and Fang were sunbathing in the thread-bare beach chairs they found in a closet. Well, Max was sunbathing. Fang had been staring at his laptop screen for the past hour.
"Whatcha lookin' at?"
His eyes flicked to her and back to the screen. "Nothing."
Max leaned over the arm of her chair to look over his shoulder and he angled the laptop away. He raised one eyebrow and she leaned back into her own chair.
"Whatever, I'll read your blog after you post it."
"S'not my blog."
"Oh, yeah?" She leaned over again and he met her with a kiss, shutting his laptop between them.
"Seriously, Fang? What's so bad that I can't see?"
He shook his head slightly, face infuriatingly impassive. "It's a secret."
"Is that any way to start a marriage, dear?" she deadpanned. He smirked and kissed her on the cheek, lingering for a second to breathe in her skin and sunscreen.
"Fine. It's not a secret. It's a surprise."
He stood up and trailed his fingers across her bare shoulders, laptop clasped against his hip. "I'm gonna head inside." He bent to kiss her cheek once more and his palm brushed against her flat stomach before he turned, grabbed his chair, and shuffled back to the bungalow through the sand.
Max rolled her eyes and settled back down into her chair and smiled under the hot sun.
One Fang-less half hour later, Max stretched and turned towards the bungalow. She was bored. She gathered up her sandy towel, her aluminum chair, and the blue cooler they'd lugged out there and grumbled all the way to the porch where she let everything fall in a heap. She heard something bang inside and crept through the door cautiously.
"Fang?"
He grunted from in the kitchen and she heard a cabinet slam shut and a drawer pull open. She walked in on him and about a dozen tea lights scattered across the counter.
"What are you doing?"
He didn't even look up at her. "All of these are unscented."
"Okaaay?" She stepped back as he pushed past her with cupped hands full of candles. She followed him into the bathroom and was engulfed with the thick aroma of coconuts and lime. Her eyebrows shot up. The massive tub was full and the jets were running and Fang was stiffly laying the candles around the edge, lighting them as he went.
"What is this?"
He lit the last tea light and turned around. She watched his gaze slide up her sandy body before he met her eyes and offered a half-smile. "It's for you."
"Uh…why?"
He just shook his head and turned around to pull fresh towels out of the cabinet. He pushed them into her arms and his fingers grazed against hers. She shivered at the shock and offered him a tentative smile. He kissed her upper lip softly and touched her bare belly, her hips, her lower back, raising goose bumps across her skin with a feather-light touch. He pulled back and held her gaze. His thumbs lingered on her hip bones.
"I'm going to fly out to pick us up some dinner. I'll shower when I get back." Max could see the sand still crusted in the crease of his elbow and around his neck.
"Are you sure? I could clean up quick and come with you. Gimme a chance to figure out where to go for the summit thing tomorrow."
Fang shook his head and gripped her elbow, turning her gently towards the drawn bath. "You enjoy this. I'll be back soon." He kissed the side of her neck with hot lips and then Max heard the bathroom door click shut.
She wasn't exactly sure what just happened. Maybe Fang was still trying to apologize? But they had talked through it just a few hours ago and it was water under the bridge, Max told herself. Clearly a mistake, won't happen again, and definitely no more wine anytime soon.
She sighed and set the towels on the toilet lid. She stripped out of her sandy bathing suit and climbed carefully into the tub, holding her sun-streaked hair back with one hand. She moaned in delight and shivered at the stab of ice-heat that raced from her submerged toes up her leg. The heat engulfed her and she sunk down to her chin, letting the water jets keep her arms afloat. She let her eyes slip shut. It would probably be okay, she thought, if Fang took his sweet time coming back with dinner.
A/N: Hmmm, what is Fang up to? Guess you'll have to wait to see. Bwahaha!
Next chapter will go up tomorrow evening, I think. Because I love it and I want you to see it soon. I guess that means I'd better hurry up and figure out what they'll do on Day Six.
Oh, and review, please! You all are wonderful!
