Sorry I haven't posted in a while, but I just kept having trouble writing this chapter for some reason. I had to re-write it like three times before I finally got this one!


Raina's POV

I couldn't believe that had gone so well (minus Iggy's minor tantrum). At first, I thought that the others were going to be ones that had to talk Max into doing it, but Max was actually the one that agreed first, much to my relief.

All of us decided that the Flock needed some time to catch up before they had to sit through a conversation that would probably feel more like a war council meeting of some sort. I wished that they had met again under better circumstances, but it is what it is. Fang, on the other hand, hung back with me instead of walking out (or storming out, in Iggy's case).

"Soo...sis," he said awkwardly.

I had imagined the moment going a little more...elegantly than this.

"Sorry for springing that on you like that," I apologized. "I wasn't sure how else to make you guys even think about trusting me."

He shrugged. I could already tell that he wasn't much of a talker. Hopefully I could get him to talk to me more. I mean that's what siblings are supposed to do, right? Not that I would know what real siblings do, I had never met him.

"Wow..." he said.

"What?" I questioned, giving a short laugh.

"You look just like me," he observed. "You even have that weird dip in your hairline."

I always tried to hide the fact that my hairline made an M shape on my forehead, but obviously I wasn't very good at it.

"That's what every girl wants to hear," I teased. "'You look just like your brother.'"

He laughed. I had just made my brother laugh for the first time. I was surprised at how normal it felt. But his smile fell quickly and his expressioned turned serious at the drop of a hat.

"So, how did you find out about me?" He asked.

I sank into a chair, knowing that explanations might take a while. The whole truth, on the other hand, would take a while to come out if it ever came out at all.

"Well, I wasn't adopted right off the bat, so I remember a little bit of our parents before I got taken away."

I winced at the mention of our biological parents. He was going to want to meet them, especially our mom. He was going to question why they gave him up when he was a baby. I just hoped that he wouldn't hate me for being the one that they had kept while he was the one they had given up. Unfortunately, the answers to all of his questions were going to be dissapointing and ugly.

"What do you remember?"

I noticed that we were both sitting in the same position, with one elbow on the table and one hand gripping our knees. I wondered when I would stop noticing these little details.

"Mom used to mention a baby that she had given up and that she hated dad for making her give him up," I told him.

I hesitated.

"What is it?" He asked.

I cleared my throat. "Well, mom died when I was four."

His facial expression didn't change, but something occured in his eyes that told me he was disapointed on the inside.

"I'm sorry," I said. "I'm sorry that you didn't get to meet her."

He shrugged it off. "Can't get to upset about someone you never met and died over a decade ago. What about dad?"

I clenched my teeth at the mention of him. "Our biological father was a crackhead. That's why I was taken away. That's why you were sold to the School, he needed money for crack. I have no idea where he is and I certainly don't care. "

There was so much more that I needed to tell him about this story, but it wasn't time. He was already overloaded with information that any more might make his mind freeze. And talking about this stuff was already bringing back a flood of memories that made it hard to maintain my composure.

"I'm so sorry," I told him. "I wish I could tell you that you could come home and we could all be a happy family, but I can't and I'm sorry about that."

He gave a humorless laugh. "That's just not how my life works. Besides, I already have a family...even if we've been distant."

"I'm glad you guys are back together," I said. "You all deserve to be together again."

He reached over and squeezed my shoulder. "It may take a while for everyone else to realize it, but because you brought us all together again, you're already part of our family."


Max POV

While Angel and Nudge were girling out, I grabbed Iggy by the hood of his leather jacket (which he totally stole from Fang) and dragged him to a corner with a plant blocking anyone else from fully seeing us.

"What's your problem, Iggy?" I snapped.

He rolled his eyes. "Shove off, Max," he muttered.

He tried escaping, but I stepped in his way. So either he was going to have to break out his wings inside of the hotel and fly over me or he was going to have to knock me out of the way in order to get past me. If Iggy was still a little Iggy, he wasn't going to choose either one of those options.

"No, you don't get to go off the grid for four years with no explanations," I stated, crossing my arms.

He stared over the top of my head in order to avoid eye contact.

"Typical Max," he quipped.

"What?" I asked.

"Always needing to keep track of us," he pointed out. "I don't know how you've survived these last years not knowing exactly where all of us were every minute of the day."

"You know exactly why I was like that," I defended. "We wouldn't have survived any of the stuff we survived if I hadn't been such a pain in the ass. But we're not in that situation anymore. You were blind back then, which apparently you're all cured of now. Things were more dangerous for you."

"Right, I was just the burden," he spat back at me.

"For god's sake, Iggy, for the last time; you're not a burden. All of us had our shortcomings. Nudge never shut up, we all questioned Angel's morality at time and I have a temper. So what? We looked out for each other because we were a family. Yes, your blindness made me worry about you more sometimes, but you always proved me wrong by doing shit that amazed all of us. Just because you and Iggy are on bad terms doesn't mean that you need to take it out on the rest of the group."

He sighed. "Fine. Just one thing."

"What?"

"That shirt really brings out your chest," he commented.

If I wasn't so happy that the old Iggy was starting to shine through, I would have called him a pig and decked him in the face by now, but he got one free pass.

"Thanks," I said.

"For being a mysoginist pig?" He said, surprised by my reaction and quoting one of my oldest insults.

"No, for being Iggy," I said. "But one more comment like that and I will shove my foot so hard into-

-my ass that my asshole will permanantly be in the shape of your shoe," he cut me off. "I know, I know."

"Good," I clarified.

"Glad to know that some of us haven't changed a bit."


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