Me: Yay! Finally some real Fax! Sorry this took so long to update. Life and I were running this race, you see. I was way ahead and winning, but my opponent got faster. Life caught up to me. It's all I can do to keep up with it, and to not trip. The thing is, I'm clumsy (always have been) and I've been tripping a lot lately. So please, keep cheering me on, and one day, I'll make it to the finish line. Chapters might take longer to post, but it won't take a whole month this time. But enough seriousness, enjoy this long overdue chapter.
Angel: It took you long enough for the Fax though! It's been what, eight chapters?
Me: It's called story and character development.
Max: Yeah, yeah. Can we get these off now? *holds up handcuffs*
Me: Nope. Not yet. You have many more trials, with and without the handcuffs.
Max: What more do we have to go through?!
Me: Hehehe... Oh, Max. (I own nothing)
...
I broke away from Fang after a moment. He smiled at me at rested his forehead against mine.
"We should probably catch up to the others," I whispered regretfully. Fang and I couldn't stay in our little world forever. He grasped my handcuffed hand with his, and laced our fingers together. We started flying towards our house, Fang's strong wings beating in time with mine. Swooping in towards the roof, we were met with whistles and some cheering from our family members, informally adopted, and my biological family members. That's right. Mom's home. Landing on the grass, I let go of Fang's hand and run over to hug her. Poor Fang joged along behind me.
"You've been busy while I was gone," she said in amusement.
"More like everyone else made sure keep me occupied with one thing or another," I replied smiling.
"So, a piranha, huh?" she said knowingly. Right. I never told her about that. Oops.
"Uh... funny story. No, really. I should tell you about that sometime," I said. "Maybe over some cookies?" I added hopefully. She laughed.
"Maybe," she replies, as everyone else surrounded us. Angel must have told them. How else would the entire Flock know the event that, err, occurred between Fang and me. Iggy came up to Fang, and pat him on the back.
"Good job, man," Iggy said seriously. "You got the girl in a very memorable way. You'll be telling the story of how you two found love to your future kids for years to come." I punched Iggy on the shoulder. Hard. I happened to be smiling in a very creepy, serial killer way. He couldn't see my face, but he could feel me radiating an I'm-going-to-kill-you-later kind of aura. He backed away a little and stood behind Fang.
"For some reason I feel safer over here," Iggy told me cheerily.
"Is that so?" I replied, putting as much dark, threatening type tone into my voice as I could. I noticed Nudge and Gazzy laughing so hard that they fell to the ground holding their sides, tears streaming down their faces. Angel's laughter was slightly more controlled. She was standing up while clutching her sides in laughter. Ella just laughed at her boyfriend's stupidity, and Mom was smiling ear to ear. I don't think that's exactly how a normal mom would react to her daughter being teased in the way that I was. She's so not a normal mom. That's why I love her. That, and cookies. And, you know, the fact that she's my mother.
"Ah, it's good to be home," she said, laughter clearly showing in her voice. I glanced at Fang to see how he was reacting to Iggy's jibes. Now get this: he was actually blushing. It was only a little bit, and I was probably the only one to notice. I've seen his face enough the last few weeks to be able to tell when there was a little more pinkish red color there than usual. He was trying not to look at me, pretty much looking everywhere else, not moving his head, but moving only his eyes. Great. So I had a blushing Fang to deal with along with Iggy's stupid jokes, half a Flock about to laugh themselves to death, and an explanation to Mom about Sam and not to mention telling her all about these last few weeks. While eating cookies. I think I'm hungry. Imagine that, after dropping my ice cream many feet to the ground. I could try to go find it, but it would be smushed and melted. Sigh.
My stomach growled.
"How about those cookies now?" I asked Mom.
...
The rich aroma of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies floated from the oven to the counter where Fang, Mom, and I pulled up chairs to sit on. I swear I was drooling. We'd sat and listened to Mom tell us about her trip. Apparently, when a horse breaks it's leg severe enough, my mother, being the caring veterinarian that she is, likes to stay a few days for observation. The horse, named Sugar (obviously a female), had broke her foreleg during a bad jump. She's a show horse, and her rider, Jessie, was taking her out for a practice run when things went sour. Sugar's broken leg was almost bad enough for surgery, and Jessie had called Mom in to come help. Now that Mom was confident that Sugar was healing properly, she was able to come home. Mom took the cookie pan out from the oven and set it on the counter. Putting the cookies onto a plate, she saw my glances and motioned that it was okay for me to eat them. I gladly picked up a few. Well, more like all of them. Don't judge. I just really like cookies.
"Save some for the rest of us," she said jokingly. "At least give one to Fang." I looked at all the cookies in my hand, about nine total. Grimacing, I handed Fang three of them and put two on the plate for Mom. Mom looked at the cookies in Fang's hands in surprise.
Turning towards him, she said, "Wow, Max must like you more than I thought." I blushed. This whole blushing thing was becoming a really bad habit. His hand grasped mine. I glanced down at our newly interlocking hands, and tightened my grasp for a second.
"Maybe," I replied.
She smiled. "Now tell me about what I missed while I was gone."
I proceeded to explain our adventure, starting with the ride to the mall on the day that this all began, and all the way up to today. I may have left out some of the more embarrassing moments with Fang and me getting dressed, but only the ones that any sane teenager wouldn't want their mother to know about. It took a long time to tell Mom everything that had happened. We had to pause for a lunch break right as we got to telling her about the pet shop, and how we got Sam. By the time she was all filled in, Iggy was ready to make dinner. He rubbed his hands together.
"I'll make burgers," he said. "We'll make this a barbeque night." Fang dragged me out of the kitchen so I couldn't ruin the food with my presence. He wouldn't normally be in such a desperate rush to get me away from anything cooking, but Fang does not mess around when it come to his meat. So we decided to take a quick flight to pass the time. With a running start, we launched into the air.
"Dr. Martinez said to be home before dinner starts, or you won't get anything to eat!" Nudge yelled after us. Flying in loops and twirls, we seemed to fly as one person. I guess you could say that we knew eachother so well that no words were needed. The feeling of the wind through my hair and the last light of day warming my face relaxed me, more than I had been in a long time. We mutely agreed to go back home based on the fact that we could smell the burgers cooking. Landing smoothly on the ground, we walked up to the door. I put my handcuffed hand on the doorknob to and turned it. Fang, probably on impulse, used his other hand to put my windblown hair behind my ear. I smiled up at him. I don't normally use terms such as 'cute', or 'sweet', and normally I would scowl at anyone trying to mess with my hair, but with Fang, it was different.
...
Sighing contently, I leaned back in my chair. Iggy never failed to please when it came to food. Don't ask me how the blind one can barbeque the perfect burger, but I think it has something to do with his heightened sense of smell. Being blind, his other senses had to work double-time to make up for not being able to see. Either that, or he's magical. I haven't ruled anything out for sure yet. Whatever it was, I was grateful. I could almost forgive him for his teasing earlier.
"Alright, everybody," Mom said. "I know I'm tired from my work, and from what Max told me, you've all had quite an adventurous time. I think it's time for bed." The younger kids trudged up to bed in disappointment. They were expecting to stay up later than their bedtime, but Mom was home now. I don't really enforce bedtime like Mom does.
"That goes for you older kid too," she said pointedly to Iggy, Fang and me. We went up to bed too.
I flopped onto the bed and sighed. I didn't feel like changing into pajamas. Fang sat on the edge of the bed next to me.
"What a day, huh?" I said quietly.
"Yeah, but you got to admit, it was a pretty good one," he replied.
"Tomorrow will even better," I yawned. He leaned down and kissed my forehead.
"Goodnight, Max." Fang murmured. I smiled to myself. I don't remember if I said goodnight back to Fang, but today tired me out more than I'd like to admit. I drifted into sleep within seconds.
...
I woke up before Fang did. Chuckling to myself, I turned to look at him. He was in the perfect position. This was my chance. I poked his face. His cheek, to be more exact. He shifted a bit, but didn't wake up, so I poked him again. I'm pretty sure that I was enjoying this a little too much, but it's amusing to poke a sleeping person. This was when his guard is lowered to most. Poke. Poke. Maybe a poke wasn't enough. What else would I do? I tweaked his nose, pushed it up to look like a pig's, and pinched it shut. He just started breathing through his mouth once I held it closed. Well, if he wanted to play it that way, I would have to play along. I put my lips up to his ear and whispered wake up to him. Nothing. He must be really tired too sleep through all of this. I said it louder. A little louder and I finally got a response.
"GAH!" he yelled and tumbled to the floor. I was pulled to the end of the bed, but just managed to catch myself before I fell. I teetered on the edge, but it was my suddenly uncontrollable laughter that sent me sprawling on top of Fang. He rubbed his head, somewhat dazed, before I felt the rumble of a chuckle in his chest.
"What was that for?" he asked.
"To wake you up," I replied. I pressed my lips against his for a small amount of time. You know, just to make sure he was awake.
"Good morning to you too," Fang said. Yeah, he was definitely awake now.
"What the plan for today?" I asked.
"Let's go on a date," he said mischievously.
...
Fang had Iggy pack a picnic fit for many normal people. In other words, perfect for us Avian-Americans. We could each plow through a large pizza by ourselves. Even Angel, the youngest of all of us could down a medium pizza and a hearty portion of a fudge brownie and still have room for something else.
Fang blindfolded me. Apparently, he wanted it to be a surprise. He held my hand to guide me as we walked to the picnic site. I know what you're thinking. Why do we have wings, yet walk to wherever our date is going to be? For one, I'm blindfolded and have no idea where we're going. Also, we might spill the food. You don't mess with our food. He squeezed my hand to signal that we'd arrived. I took off the blindfold. We stood in a field, grass surrounded us. I could see the glimmer of the lake a few yards away, our house just beyond that. I'd never really come this way before, whenever we went exploring, it was always in the woods on the other side of the house. Turning around, I saw a lone tree, an oak if I'm correct.
"This is where I come when I need to think," Fang said. I flew up to a high branch, Fang just a wing-beat behind. I landed and sat down.
"It's beautiful," I whispered. And it was. The view was incredible. A breeze tousled my hair. Fang handed me a sandwich.
"Enjoy," he said. And so I did. Even a sandwich made by Iggy was better than anything I could make. I still enjoyed it.
...
Fang POV
We sat in a comfortable silence as we finished up our food. That's one thing that I love about Max; she can handle silence without feeling the need to clutter the air with noisy chatter. Not many people could do that. Hearing a faint sound, I grabbed Max's hand and lifted into the air.
"I think I hear Dr. Martinez calling," I said. She tilted her head trying to hear.
"I think you're right," she replied. Flying towards the house, I saw Dr. M standing outside with a megaphone. She really is priceless. We landed in front of her.
"Oh, so you heard me. Great! Now, I know I've been gone, but now that I'm back, I have to be the mother and give you chores. You guys are on dishes duty." Darn. Oh, well. I guess we had been negligent about certain things. Max and I went inside to the kitchen. It honestly wasn't that bad, we just had to load the dishwasher and wash a few of the more fragile dishes. Max filled the sink with soapy water and started to wash, while I put everything into the dishwasher. I glanced over at Max. Moving quickly, I scooped up some soap bubbles.
"Hey, Max," I said. She turned towards me.
"Yeah?" she replied. I held my hand out and blew the bubbles at her face.
"Payback for this morning," I said, smirking. We were about to get into an all out soap war when Dr. M called.
"Max! Fang! I'm doing laundry, gather up all your dirty clothes!" On the way to Max's room, I grabbed a laundry basket form the laundry room. I held it while she piled the clothes in. I started heading towards the door.
"Wait," Max said. "There's a pair of your jeans under the bed." All I could think was, Oh, no. The note! How could I forget about the note?! Oh, crap.
"Here," I said handing the basket to Max. "I'll get it."
"No, I got it," she replied, oblivious to my desperation. Please don't check the pockets. Please don't check the pockets. Of course, she checked the pockets. Dr. M told us to always check the pant's pockets before putting the pants in the wash. She held the note in her hand.
"What's this?" she asked.
You should have told Max, Fang. You should have told her everything, Angel whispered.
