A/N: Since my last chapter took so long to get out, I've been working my tail off trying to get this one out early (I hope y'alls appreciates it 'cuz it's four in the morning right now and I haven't slept yet. Gotta love sleepovers!). I think Max is kinda OOC in this one, but I couldn't think of another way to make her… ah, you'll see. *wanders off to find food*

Disclaimer: Yada yada not mine.

Chapter Eight —

In the end, Ella donated one of her t-shirts to the cause, and I ripped it up into thin strips. After booting the boys out of the room, we wrapped the cloth a bit lower than they did so as to divest ourselves of a great deal of annoyance. It didn't work as well, because the cloth was unable to strap down the curve of our wings, which was the part that stuck out the most — luckily, it did flatten them a bit and allowed us to wear clothes that were a bit lighter, as long as they did not cling to our bodies.

"It's time for dinner!" I yelled, slamming open the bathroom door while still pulling on a loose t-shirt. The four of us practically bowled each other over trying to get out the door (well, maybe not Ella) because we were starving. The chintzy airplane rations we had received were long gone, and I, for one, was ready to indulge.

"Gahh!" I almost crashed into a girl outside our door before making a hairpin turn and jetting down the hall. "Sorry!" I called back, hoping she could still hear.

There was a huge swarm of people all around me, all heading to the lobby, so I stuck to the wall because there was a clearer path through there. I was four doors to the lobby when suddenly, a door swung open directly in front of me.

"Oh cr—" Even my ultra quick reflexes were unable to register in time for me to stop. I crashed directly into the door, banging it into the person who had pushed it open and practically smashing my face flat in the process. I heard a familiar oomph on the other side of the door as the force of my body slammed it shut again.

The door opened as I sat up and rubbed my face jadedly. My nose felt like it had been bashed in.

Fang came out, clutching his stomach.

Oops.

He stared at me in disbelief, and then shook his head wearily. "I should have known." Rubbing his stomach, he slowly straitened his back. "Are you aware that you almost disemboweled me with a doorknob?"

"You shouldn't have opened the door so fast," I retorted, trying to ignore the giggles and murmuring all around me. "I think you smashed my face flat."

"Nah," he muttered, shaking his head. "Your skull is too thick for that."

"Excuse me? What did you say?"

"Nothing."

Sighing, he cracked his back and walked over to me, putting his hand out for me to take. "Let's head over to the lobby."

"Roger that." I grabbed his wrist and pulled myself up, wincing as my head suddenly throbbed. "Oww."

"You okay?"

"Yeah."

We walked over to the lobby in silence, as people buzzed around us happily. There were at least a hundred people gathered there already, and the lobby was beginning to look like Disney World on Christmas Eve (nice analogy, huh?).

Looking around, I saw a carpeted ledge over in a corner, and looking back at Fang, I tilted my head to it. He nodded, and followed me over to the ledge.

"So. How are you doing with the boys?"

He sighed and sat down next to me. "Same old, same old. Gazzy and Iggy have been fighting all day. First Iggy was refusing to talk to Gazzy because of the Sharpie thing, but then Gazzy got mad and refused to talk to Iggy too. That was fine with me, but then they got bored, so they started bothering me. I told them to watch TV or something, but then they started fighting over the remote, so I told them to figure out the bedding arrangements. Then they started fighting over that too, which was why we went over to your room. And then… well, you know what happened then."

It was probably the longest thing he had ever said in the entirety of his life. I nodded sympathetically; I could totally imagine that happening with them.

His stomach growled, and then my stomach echoed it. We both grinned. "I wonder when dinner is," I said with a sigh. "I'm gonna die of starvation soon. Maybe I should go see if the others are down yet."

"Don't go." Fang's head nodded slowly, and then he leaned up against my shoulder. "Stay here a while longer." His lashes fluttered a few times and then he closed his eyes.

Now what do I do?

I was painfully aware of his nearness to me, as his hair tickled my neck. His soft inhales and exhales seemed to keep time with mine, and I smiled slightly at the thought. Trying not to move my shoulder, I slowly turned to look down at him. Fang looked so… innocent with his eyes closed, not at all like a mutant freak who could down any normal three hundred pound man with one hand tied behind his back. I blinked a few times, trying to get used to seeing Fang in a t-shirt without his wings showing. It was slightly disconcerting to see no angular points poking out of his back.

My shoulder was starting to get tired, but I didn't want to make Fang move, so I sighed and hunkered down. Hopefully Principal Hanley would decide to let us go for dinner soon.

Glancing around alertly for any sign of trouble, I only saw happy faces and carefree chattering around me, so I decided to close my eyes for a while. I wouldn't fall asleep — just rest my eyes for a little bit…

I blinked quickly as the level of noise in the room changed. The room had fallen very quiet, and immediately I was on alert. Principal Hanley had started giving out instructions for dinner. Rats — I had fallen asleep after all. I guess the plane flight had tired me out more than I'd thought.

Then I blinked again, because I was sideways. Lifting my head, I found that I had sagged over a little and I had been resting my head on top of Fang's. Glancing around furtively in case anyone had seen my embarrassing display, I saw no one looking in my directing. I gave a sigh of relief. If anyone had seen me cuddling up with Fang…

The thought made my face flush as I remembered the incident on the plane. What had happened with that? Did Fang really put the armrest up? And why? He has more than once indicated more than sibling-ly love for me, but that had been a long time ago, and he never mentioned it since. There had been the cookie incident, but he hadn't really been about to kiss me, right? Shaking my head to dislodge all the disorder, I slammed the confusing memories back into the locked drawer of my mind, to ponder over another time.

"Ugh. Is it time for dinner yet?" Fang's voice was disgusted as he lifted his head from my shoulder. I looked at him, and then had to stifle a laugh. The place where his head had been resting on my shoulder and the place where my head had been resting on his were both mashed down, so his hair stuck out underneath it, giving him a cat-eared look that was strangely fitting.

"What?" He eyed me suspiciously, and then shook his head quickly, smoothing down his hair self-consciously. The "ears" stuck out again as soon as his hands passed over it. "What is it?" When I continued to giggle, he glared at me and stood up.

I stood too, rolling my shoulder to wake it up. "Don't worry, it's really nothing." He glared at me again, and then purposefully strode into the crowd. I followed, apologizing to people I bumped as I walked deeper into the huge group. I could still see Fang's kitty ears bobbing around in front of me, so I continued to follow him.

"Ah! Max! Fang! Over here!" Nudge's voice broke the silence before she quickly clapped her hands over her mouth. Principal Hanley glared at the direction where she was, but she could not see who the speaker was, so she left it with just a poisonous look.

"As I was saying, I would like to end by reemphasizing a few rules. Firstly, I was told that there were some boys who went into the girl's hallway. That is strictly prohibited, as your teachers should have told you. If I hear of any other cases of this happening, the offender will not be let off so easily." I grinned at Fang, who looked over at Iggy and shook his head. Iggy, even though he could not see us looking at him, sensed our looks and turned his face in our direction, sticking his tongue out at us.

"…which is dangerous and unruly, and gives our school a bad reputation. Since you should all know not to run in the hallways at school, I would expect you all to extend the same graces to all hallways, be it at school, in Taiwan, or on the dark side of the moon. Am I understood?"

There was a general hubbub of "yes's" and "uh-huh's" as she looked around at us. "Okay. Then you are excused for dinner. There are three restaurants within two blocks of this hotel, and there will be at least three teachers going to each one every half hour. Please find a teacher who will be going to the restaurant you want to eat at and stay with them until you are finished eating. That will be all."

I think we all sighed a collective sigh of relief as we were dismissed; I know the entire flock did. "Well, let's go get dinner."

"Right," agreed Nudge, nodding her head self-righteously. "By the way, Fang… What happened to your hair?"