Chapter 9

Finally

Max's pov

I was stuffed from dinner, ok not stuffed, but full.

Fang was in the shower, and I went and put the kids to bed, Angel and Nudge were already asleep so obviously Total was too, and Iggy didn't need to be tucked in anymore, but I did still say goodnight. Then I tucked in the Gasman.

'Wow that went fairly quick tonight' I thought as I went back to go to sleep. I was going to sleep on the couch, but I didn't want to scrunch up my legs, or hurt them so I couldn't walk tomorrow. So I went to lie on the bed to sleep.

Fang's pov

I stepped out of the shower and got dressed. As I was brushing my teeth I was thinking about Max. I wonder what she is doing. 'I bet she is trying to fall asleep on the couch' I thought as I rinsed out my mouth.

'Ha, she has no idea, but I never planed on letting her sleep on the couch, I am going to move her. She is not sleeping on the couch, I won't let her, I will.'

I walked out of the bathroom and shut off the light. It was total darkness. Now, we bird kids have better night vision then regular humans, but it still isn't perfect. I couldn't see anything, so I walked in blindness over to where I knew the couch was. I stubbed my toe and hit my shin on the way, but it was no big deal.

I got to the couch and reached down slowly, not knowing where exactly she was, and not knowing how far down the couch was. My fingertips lightly touched something, Max I think, and I slid my hands, barely touching her to where I couldn't feel anything anymore.

'This is way too wide to be Max' I thought to myself. With a sudden realization, I understood that it was the couch, and that she was not on it. 'Oh, she is tucking in the kids' I thought. 'That is why it was so dark when I walked out'.

I walked over to the bed and was going to wait for Max to get back, with the lights off so that when she laid on the couch, I could do my whole, appear out of thin air, thing that she hates so much.

I was shuffling my feet to avoid tripping and making noise. I got to the bed and lifted up my leg to climb on to the bed. I felt the bed under my leg and leaned forward, putting my body weight on it. Then it moved, and I started falling. I reached out, acting on instinct, and grabbed the blanket to keep myself from falling. The blanket fell to the floor with me, and came crashing down with me.

There is more then a blanket here, I thought when it landed on me, heavily. That would be when I realized that Max had fallen to. I panicked, grabbing the blankets and throwing them off to the side, hoping that Max was ok. I got to Max and could see the faint outline of her face looking at me with wide eyes. She kept her eyes on me as she reached up and turned on the bedside lamp.

To do this, her arm reached right over me and she had to scoot over closer to me, or she wouldn't have been able to reach it. When she flicked it on, her eyes were still wide, and she now had a curious expression on her face.

"Are ya ok" she said groggily.

I nodded. "You" I said, concern laced through my voice. She smiled and relaxed her arm which was just now going back to her side from turning on the lamp. She was really tired, I could see it in her eyes, and her arm fell short of her side, and ended up lying across my chest. She closed her eyes and let her whole body relax. I don't know why I did it, maybe because she looked so vulnerable, or maybe because she was just so dang cute.

I put my arm around her waist. Her eyes snapped open and stared deep into my eyes. I was waiting for her to pull back, but she didn't. She did the last thing that I expected.

She kissed me. I was too shocked that I didn't respond at first, and she started to pull back. As soon as I started kissing back, she smiled. Then froze. She pulled back.

"Sorry Fang, I don't" I was just now noticing our position, she was laying on top of me and my hands were wound gently through her hair. I removed my hands, and put them around the back of her neck, pulling her closer, into a hug.

Yes, a hug, from me Fang. What? I was happy, and she deserved it. That shut her up, real quick.

She tensed, and I waited for her to push me away, and run, like she had before. Even if she started it, I still didn't know what was going to happen. Then she relaxed again. And rolled sideways off of me, but kept her hand around my chest. Then she laid her in between my shoulder and my chest.

After a minute I put my hand under her neck to give her more support, and make both of us more comfortable. She sighed, but not like a frustrated sigh, more like 'I just found a buffet of chocolate and other heavenly foods, that doesn't ever run out' kind of sigh.

"Good night Fang" she said looking up at me.

"Yes it is" I said back to her in a quiet whisper, and then, without paying attention to the fact that we were laying on the floor, we fell asleep.

Max's pov

I was flying, when I felt a tug on my wing, and fell onto the floor, landing on something extremely hard, but softer then the ground.

Then I woke up lying right next to- and by that I mean half way on top of- Fang. We were wrapped in blankets, and I had no idea how I got here. Then I thought back to my dream, and realized that Fang probably yanked the blankets off of the bed, and I came with them.

Jerk.

I reached over to the lamp, over Fangs chest (a fact that I was hyper-aware of) and turned it on while asking "Are you ok?" Well that is what it was supposed to be anyway, but it came out as "Are ya k?"

He nodded, then asked quickly "you?" I could tell by the concern in his voice that he didn't pull me down here on purpose, it was an accident.

I nodded and tried to pull my arm back. I was too tired and it just fell across Fangs chest. I closed my eyes relaxing, knowing that if Fang didn't want my arm there, then he would move it himself.

Then I felt am arm wrap around my waist. I snapped my eyes open, and saw Fang looking at me. His eyes told me what he was feeling, even if he tried to stop them from. They said that he couldn't stand to be rejected one more time, it may just kill him. I wanted him to kiss me, but I wasn't sure what I would do if he did. It didn't look like he was going to, so I did what I had to do. And I mean that my body made me do it, I had no control.

I kissed him. And by kiss I don't mean little peck, or full out make out session. It was somewhere in the middle. He just sat… laid there, frozen. That was when I realized what I had done. I started to pull back and felt hands wrap through my hair and he began to kiss back, tentivaly. Almost like he was waiting for me to run away again. I told myself that I was not going to do that, for three reasons, 1.) I was to tired 2.) I started it and 3.) I enjoyed it way to much.

But I did pull back, not knowing if he wanted to do this or not.

"Sorry Fang, I don't" then he hugged me. Yes, you heard me right, Fang hugged me. That was when I noticed how I was laying. I was lying on top of him and he was lying under me. He just kept on hugging me until I hugged back.

That told me that he did not regret what had happened at all. Wait what had happened? I fell off of the bed, then I kissed him and he kissed me, then he hugged me, while I was lying on top of him. What a night.

I laid my head on his chest, sighing contently.

He put his arm under my neck and I must admit that I was comfortable. I don't know how I was though, my head was lying on a very hard surface, almost like tile, (yes he is that muscular) I was on the ground, and it was awfully cold out. But I was in bird kid heaven. I don't know what the real heaven is like because I obviously am not normal, nor have I died, thank God. So I am going to assume that the bird kid heaven is somewhat like this, because this was the happiest I had been since I can remember. I was happier now then when we escaped from the school, which is saying something.

"Good night Fang" I said, hoping that he wasn't going to be like 'what are you doing, get away from me! Freak!' in a more compressed way, of course. I have never understood how he does that, and it amazes me how he can say so little, but so much at the same time, with hardly now words.

"Yes it is." Like that! He said three words, but they meant so much, and they told me so much about this!

Yes it was. He had just told me in those three simple words that he was not ashamed that me, the leader, Maximum Ride, had just kissed him only after falling on him.

I think that this was even better then when he had admitted that he needed me.

That was a first; he had never ever said that he needed anyone. I had told him shortly after that I needed him to. Another first.

With that I fell asleep.

Fang's pov

I jackknifed into the sitting position not knowing what was going on. Next to me, someone moaned a little, and reached up for the collar of my shirt. Max.

'What is she doing here?' I thought with a shock going through me. My next thought was, 'dang I woke up' I had been having a dream where Max fell on me, and then she kissed me, and we slept on the floor. Ha! I must have fallen down here, and that is where I got that from! I laughed silently to myself. 'But that doesn't explain why Max is lying next to me' I stated to myself. 'Ahh, I am still dreaming' I thought next. Good, for once I was having a good dream. I guess I might as well make the most out of it.

So I slowly got up, not wanting to wake up my sleeping beauty, and picked her up bridal style. I laid her gently on the bed, and kissed her forehead, debating on whether or not to lay on the bed with her or just go to the couch. I figured that this was all a dream, so what the hell, I might as well sleep with her. Not the perverted kind, you freak, the kind where I lay next to her, and fall asleep.

So I did just that.

SEVEN HOURS LATER

Fang's pov

"Oh my god."

"What? What is going on?"

"Fang and Max are…"

"Are what?"

"Are in the same bed… together… sleeping"

My eyes snapped open. I don't think that I was really awake, but hearing that Max and I were in the same bed sure as hell woke me up. That was when I noticed that my arm was around someone's waist, and I had one leg under mine, and one on top of it. And that I was pressed up against a back. A back with wings. The only back that I could think of was Maxes.

I looked around and noticed that not only were my legs tangled with someone else perfect legs, but my arm was under her head, and my other arm was around her waist. By her, I mean Max.

"What?!" said a very cold voice. I looked over to who woke me up and saw Gazzy and Iggy standing there, Iggy looking like he was going to kill me. 'That's what woke me up' I thought to myself.

I looked around confused. Normally I wake up better then this, but now, I was way out of it. Max was beginning to stir and her hands began to move down to her feet, and feel blindly around. For a blanket I think, but I'm not sure.

Then I felt hands pulling on the collar of my shirt, I was about to throw a punch at whoever was pulling me, but I saw it was Iggy. Now I was even more confused.

"I need to talk with you" he growled out angrily.

"Igs?" I said, not knowing whether or not it was really him, and not wanting to attack in case it was, but not wanting to not, in case it wasn't.

Max's pov

I was dreaming of fluffy bunnies prancing in a beautiful meadow when I heard it. No, I'm lying. I was dreaming that I kissed Fang, and then we fell asleep together when I heard it.

People whispering. I recognized the voices though so I didn't freak out. It was the Gasman and Iggy; I couldn't make out what they were saying. I was in that dreamlike state where you can hear what is going on, but if you respond you will wake up.

Then I realized how cold I was and I started reaching for the blanket. I felt arms around my waist then, and a leg pressed up against mine. I did not know what was going on, and I was starting to get worried. I was fighting to open my eyelids when I felt someone get off of the bed, and the legs and arm that were wrapped around me disappear. 'They took my pillow' I thought.

"They were your pillow" Jeb said to me.

That was when I sat up, fully gaining consciousness. The sight I saw before me scarred the hellotta me. Fang was getting dragged across the room by Iggy. Or Iggys clone, I don't know which.

I jumped up, only to trip over a pile of blankets that were piled at the bottom of the bed.

Gazzy laughed and said "calm down Max, Iggy said that he wants to talk to Fang" he said glancing at the door after Fang and Iggy.

A minute or two later Fang came walking back in looking at his feet. He looked at me out of the corner of his eye, and then flicked his eyes to the door.

Fang's pov

I walked out into the hall with Iggy, my whole body tensed, ready to attack 'Iggy' if he tried anything. For all I know, Max is still sleeping, and he will not hurt her.

"What the hell happened?" 'Iggy demanded. I didn't say anything, but nodded my head, thinking that if they made an Iggy clone, they wouldn't have made him blind, so he would be able to see me. I was waiting for him to respond to that to make my decision so to whether this was the real Iggy or not.

"Darn it Fang! She is like my sister, and I walk in there this morning, and you are sleeping in the same bed as her! What did you do!" he yelled quietly, not wanting to wake everyone, but wanting to get his point across.

That convinced me that this was really him, so I decided to tell him what I knew.

"I'm not sure" I said barley above a whisper and I knew that no one but Iggy would have been able to hear that, even with our enhanced hearing. Iggy had the best and I doubted if he could hear it.

"You. Don't. Know. How. You. Ended. Up. In. A. Bed. With. My. Sister?" he said thought gritted teeth. Then I knew what he meant.

"That defiantly didn't happen" I said only slightly louder. He said nothing so I continued. "She kissed me last night, and then we fell asleep together."

"Promise?" he said, making me promise that was all that happened.

"Promise."

"She was kissing you, on a bed, and you fell asleep? What is wrong with you, you are a guy aren't you?" he said, back to his old self again.

But now he had succeeded in making me re-think last night's actions. Was that what Max wanted? Did she kiss me on accident, and then was too tired to run away? Was she now regretting what happened? I walked back inside the hotel room with Iggy at my side.

I caught her eye and flicked my eyes to the door that Iggy and I had just walked through, signaling to her that I wanted to talk to her.

She got up from the bed and said that she was going to check on Nudge and Angel. Iggy distracted Gazzy the best he could, but Gazzy just stood there looking confused and slightly disgusted at the same time.

I inconspicuously followed her outside.

"Fang, what happened?" she said securitizing me.

I shook my head, embarrassed, not wanting to say anything. She glared at me, and even though it had no effect I still knew that she meant business.

"He came in saw me and you on the bed and assumed… so he was planning on killing me" I said quick and quiet, hoping she would not get what Iggy assumed.

Her face turned bright red, so she knew what I meant.

"Sorry" she said, apologizing for not only what Iggy said, but also for what happened last night, I could hear both in her voice.

"Why?" I whispered looking deep in her eyes, trying to communicate that I was not in the least bit sorry.

She nodded. "We will talk later. They gotta eat, and we need to get out of here" she said.

She turned and walked back inside. I was happy to see that she was walking almost normally, which meant that she was feeling almost ok. Good, I don't like it when she is in pain; it hurts me when she even gets a tiny scratch, which is bad to be so sensitive when you're in this 'business.'

So we ate breakfast, and Gazzy kept shooting us weird looks, almost like we had left imprints of each other when Max and I were pressed up against each other. Nudge and Angel would giggle every time they looked at us, and they had huge smiles on there face, and they just didn't go away. I would say that it was annoying, but after last night, it will take a lot to annoy me.

Iggy came up to Max after we got done putting all the dishes back downstairs where the complementary breakfast was. "Hey Max can you walk ok?" he asked expecting an honest response.

"Ya" she said, to my surprise, I couldn't detect a lie in her answer.

"Then you can fly, I think, it may hurt, but it will no matter what, because you haven't stretched your wings in a while.

"Thanks" she said, obviously overjoyed that she could fly again. I on the other hand, was not. That meant that I couldn't carry her now, I loved carrying her when we were flying. She was so happy and carefree.

We walked down to the desk and thank God that same desk clerk wasn't working, or she may have said something to Max about being my girlfriend, and I would have to kill myself, if the embarrassment didn't do the job first. Ok fine, I wouldn't have gone that far, but I would have died of embarrassment.

The only problem with this new guy was just that, he was a guy. And unlike Iggy, he wasn't blind, so he was shamelessly checking out Max.

"Ewe. Lets get out of here. That guy is thinking gross things" Angel said making a gross face and squeezing her eyes shut. Suddenly I felt a presence in my brain.

'Angel' I warned.

'Sorry, I am going to stay here, I don't want to hear his thoughts, they are very mean and rude and gross at the same time' she thought back. I couldn't tell her to leave, I did not want her to hear whatever he was thinking about Max, I could only imagine, and for Angel's sake, I wouldn't.

'Thanks' she thought to me. Oops she wasn't supposed to hear that, I guess it is good that I didn't think that.

We walked outside of the lobby and started walking to find a place where we could take off. I walked up to Max's side and began walking next to her.

We got to the edge of town and looked around. No one was outside, it was to cold, at 70 degrees, they thought it was cold, and if they knew about us, they would call us the freaks.

Max started to roll her shoulder, opening her wings, and I put my hand on her shoulder.

"Max, I'm gonna carry you" I said, not knowing what I was doing, just that I wanted to hold her.

"I can fly" she said, stating that she did not need help anymore. "I am ready to fly."

"I know. I am not ready to let you. I want to carry you" I said to her, hoping against hope that she wouldn't reject me, I don't know if I could take it.

Her eyes widened and then she started walking toward me. I began to have a fear of getting slapped by Max, not necessarily the pain, but more of the emotion behind it. She might hit me, but I would just feel bad that she had to hit me, not that it hurt. Her arms opened slightly, and I realized that she was not going to hit me.

She was going to let me carry her. I smiled slightly at her and picked her up. Iggy was now looking in our direction with his head tilted to one side.

"Guys, what are you doing?" he said slowly, in a tone that suggested that he didn't want to know the answer.

"I don't know if I can fly yet" Max said quickly, not wanting to tell Iggy the truth, I assume.

"Why is your heart beating so fast? Both of yours is." He said with a smile in his tone.

Max's pov

Neither of us responded. I just looked up at Fang. His eyes were smiling. And yes, that does make sense, I have known Fang my whole life, and I can read any emotion that passes through his eyes.

I smiled one of those tiny, awkward smiles, and then pulled my head back from Fang. We were pretending that I had not kissed him last night, and I was starting to notice a pattern. We were acting like something did not happen, if it would potentially embarrass us. Hum, interesting.

But of course, he did say that we would talk later, and I, for once, wanted to.

Fang took off from the ground, and I was once again amazed at how strong he was. I mean I consider myself strong, not to sound stuck up or anything, but even I could not take off with someone almost my weight with nothing more then a small running start. 'Man, I love how strong he is, he is so… just perfect' I thought to myself.

'Can I tell him that?' a sweet and youthful voice asked me in my head.

'NOOO' I thought franticly before she could say anything.

'Why?' Angel asked with curiosity, ya right! She just wanted me to say why.

I didn't respond. So instead I resorted to just looking at Fang inconspicuously out of the corner of my eye. Yep, but the only problem is that a certain 6 year old mind reader whose name I wont mention just happened to let slip to the subject in… scrutiny, that I was staring.

He looked down and smirked at me. "What are ya starin at?" he said in his perfectly manly but not forced, but still perfect and amazing voice. Wow, that sounded like Nudge there for a minute. Sorry.

"There is something on your face right there" I said pointing to his right cheek. There really wasn't, I just wanted to see his reaction. Normally this would be nothing new, we always had stuff on our faces, but we had just showered, so we were expected to be clean.

His left arm flinched. His left arm was the one that was under my legs, right at the top of my thighs. When it flinched, it came dangerously close to my butt. I

didn't say anything, but I can tell you this, it is a very good thing that he moved it lighting fast, or he may not have had a left hand, scratch that, a left arm.

So he moved it, and went to wipe the thing that was on his face (ha ha jokes on him). That is, till he licked his hand and wiped it on my face. My eyes widened as I realized what he had done. Then when I was about to do the same thing back (I will not back down and take it!) Nudge asked why I was going to lick Fang. I was soo not going to lick Fang! I was going to lick my hand, and wipe it on Fang. I am not concerned about hygiene, being on the run, soap is a very limited resource, but that does not mean that I don't think that licking him is gross, cause it is.

"We are not licking each other!" I shouted to Nudge.

"What?!" Iggy said looking over at a spot a few inches above Fangs head.

"Nothing" I said loud enough for Iggy to hear, then "truce" to Fang. Sure, he calls a truce before I get a chance to get him back. I wiped my spit covered hand on his face, then replied,

"Truce." He looked evilly at me for a second, and then his eyes softened.

"I was going to get you, but you have no where to go, so I will let this wait until you can get a slight chance to run" he said, with a slight smile on his face.

The rest of the flight was fairly peaceful, other then the constant string of "I'm hungry's" that were coming from Nudge. Fang and I didn't talk much, but it wasn't a super awkward silence either. It was more of a relaxing, and give you time to think, silence.

"Oh look! Max, there's a mall! We need to go shopping, soon. I need to clothes, we all do, these are so torn and dirty, and we need to go. Can we go please, please please go! We have to!" Nudge said.

I was going to shout out a really quick 'no' before she could get her hopes up, but then I remembered Fang's shorts. It had been nearly a week since I had borrowed them from him, and now they were so torn, and bloodied that I wasn't sure that he would even want them back… they were pretty comfy, and it was hard to find shorts that weren't tight, or short. That seems to be all girls wear these days, and when your fighting, and you can't do a high kick because your shorts are too tight, then you are screwed.

Rather then the 'no' I wanted to yell out, I said yes. There were so many happy squeals from the girls, and Gazzy even looked pretty happy. Iggy hated shopping about as much as I did, because he always had to hold on to the back of someone's shirt, or run into something every five seconds.

We landed about 1/2 of a mile from the parking lot (so like a mile from the actual store) and waited for a few minutes to see if someone came running into the woods yelling about how they saw people falling or flying. After Angel gave us the all clear (I told her to scan people's minds that got too close to the woods in case they saw something) then we walked out casually. I will tell you now, if you happen to grow wings, and be able to fly, don't try landing and then pretending like nothing happened, it takes serious acting skills.

'Oh great, here goes the hell trip' I thought to myself.

Fang's pov

I always acted like I didn't like shopping, but in reality, I do. But only because I get an excuse to look at Max without anyone saying anything to me. And, man oh man, when Nudge and Angel make Max try on skirts, I could just go buy them an ice cream. No I really couldn't, because I have no money, but if I had money then I would.

'Here it goes' I thought with a mental grin.

A/N Are you happy now? i hope so, becasue this was VERY hard to write. are they still in character? i think so, but do you? review and tell me. dont forget to reveiw or i will be upset. the response for my last chappie wasnt very good, so i hope this will be better. thanks.

did you hear that the max ride movie is going to be animated?! isnt that rediculus?! i am so mad

have you looked at 'dirty little secret' yet? good, i hope so cuz if not you are missing out. big time.

i love you if your name is maximumchrisyt, MFINGA, Skittle.Rocker, FAXloverTOtheMAX, philokiller, Lily-Ride-Cullen, M333gan, Shayne Rider,Miz636, or kat-fly-fan. you have all reviewed more then 3 times. thanks. and if i missed you, review or PMand i will fix it immideatly. thanks!