Sorry it's been so long. Without further ado, I give you chapter nine!
Chapter 9
Max's POV
"Okay, up. My watch." I pulled Fang out of the swing a few hours later. I had left shortly after our talk and cried my eyes out, only to return to the same silent park. My eyes were no longer puffy and red -- a sure sign of crying -- and the flock was still sound asleep.
"No. We still have stuff to figure out, Max." He said, holding his ground on the swing. I nodded and sat down in front of his swing. This enabled me to hear him better and he wouldn't be able to swing. To do so would give me a large and nasty bruise…and probably induce a fist fight.
Instead of just sitting on the swing like any normal person/mutant would, however, he jumped up and pulled me to the merry-go-round.
"Okay, what now? A bird girl can only handle too much tragedy before shooting the messenger." I said slyly. He knew that if I got too upset, I might actually take it out on him, but only because he would fight me back and put me in my place, though.
"No, I don't think there's much more tragedy. What are we going to do about Eve?" He asked me, all joking over. I shrugged.
"She can do whatever she wants, I guess. Stay with us or leave or whatever, I guess." As long as I had my family, I didn't truly care what Eve did. When --if-- she left, as long as my family stayed with me, I would be happy.
"Okay, but can we trust her? Now we're only going on instincts about her, since Angel's powers are on the fritz. And, based on recent revelations, we're not the best judges of character." Fang pointed out kindly. I shrugged again, no answers in my head.
"Well, I guess…I mean, what choice do we have? She helped us rescue the others." I told him, feeling a small soft spot for the new avian.
"And she knew exactly where we were. Something is weird about her." Fang whispered, leaning towards me a little bit. I nodded.
"Yeah, I totally agree. But, what else can we do? You know that I can't just kick her to the curb like yesterday's catch of the day." I said, shifting so I sat on my feet. I ended up a little closer to Fang than I'd meant to and he seemed to take the quite accidental movement as some sort of sign.
He moved closer until our shoulders were touching. I leaned against him, a comfortable pillow after a stressing day. Again, Fang took this as a sign and wrapped his arm around my back, resting it on my hip.
I looked up into his eyes, to tell him to cut it out, no doubt, and lost my train my thought. His dark, onyx eyes stared back at me, pleading, almost, for me not to run again. I stayed. I couldn't move. His gaze rendered me immobile. He lifted my chin slightly; my lips unconsciously parted a little. He moved closer and closer, the moment lingering and stretching on and on. I closed my eyes, ready for his lips to touch mine for the fourth time.
They came, soft and moist. Our breath mixed together. His lips moved urgently on mine. We parted soon after. He hugged me closer. But my mind wasn't on his lips; it was far away.
"So, what does this mean? About us, I mean." Fang asked softly, destroying the perfect moment. I looked into his eyes and instead of them making me lose my train of thought again, they gave me courage.
"I don't know. I honestly don't know anymore, Fang. I don't know anything anymore. This is all too confusing." I told him honestly. He moved me away a little, but kept his arms around me.
"I know. But, right now, I just…just want to talk about us for a change. We can focus on that for five minutes, can't we?" He asked me.
"Fang, they're can't be an us. We're teenage mutants on the run. Teenage mutants with obvious feelings for each other. If we ever broke up, fought, something like that, the kids would freak. We could end up splitting them up again. I would die if that happened. I love you all too much for that." I took a deep breath before continuing.
"We could give them the wrong idea if we dated now. Think about it, Fang. What message would they get? 'Max and Fang are dating with no adults around.' Think about how that would look. These kids are all we have. Maybe…maybe one day when we're all settled down you and I can be an 'us.' But right now, on the run, I don't think it's in the cards." I had started my little speech off strong, my voice loud and clear, but by the end, my voice was so quiet I could barely even hear it. But Fang had. His face fell and he dropped his arms from around me.
"Oh. Okay, I guess." Fang said with a small frown.
"I'm sorry, Fang. You do understand, don't you? These kids are all I have and they aren't stupid. They'd know what's going on." I tried to explain myself better. He shook his dark hair.
"No, they're not all you have, Max. You have me and you always will." Fang's voice was so soft I had to strain to hear him.
"You know what I mean. I need you, but not the way I need the others. I need you by my side. I need you to survive. I wouldn't be here if it weren't for you, Fang. You know that. But them, they're like my kids. Like our kids, I suppose. And you, well, I see you as so much more. But there just isn't room for a relationship right now." I told him, stroking the hand of his that I held affectionately.
"I get it. One day though, you and I will be together. We were meant for each other, Max. And it's only a matter of time until you see that too. Until then, we're just friends though, huh?" he asked me, pulling his hand back to himself. I nodded.
"I guess so."
"Well, at least we'll have something to look forward to, then," He saw my questioning glance and explained, "We'll always have each other, you and me. But, if we're not together now, we'll have something to look forward to in the future. One day, whether you like it or not, we'll be together. And when it happens, I'll be there, well duh, but I'll be there to say 'Duh, I told you so.'" I laughed loudly at his explanation.
"Very nice. Now, get some sleep. We have a very busy day tomorrow. No need to fear, I'll be watching." I told him, both of us standing up simultaneously.
"Okay. Good night, Max." Fang said, hugging me. I hugged him back and walked over to the swings. He settled down next to Gazzy on one of those double, twisty slides.
My watch was quiet, although I didn't do much watching. My brain was still in full thinking mode. I thought about everything. Eve, Fang, Jeb, and … her. I didn't dare say her name, even in my head. She'd hurt me so badly. I couldn't believe I'd ever trusted a human being. Nudge and Fang were right; it had been too convenient. But, she was so kind to me. Even removing my chip…
Wait! My chip... what if she didn't remove it? Oh God, things just have a way have starting off bad and getting worse as it goes on.
But, my problems could wait until morning. No need to scare the children tonight.
The rest of my watch continued in silence. I let all my problems and worries go and concentrated on making sure my flock (and Eve) was safe.
Okay, and end chapter! I hope you all liked it. A bit of FAX there for you. I have a secret. Come closer…closer…closer…OW! Okay, too close. Just kidding. Okay, so there are 23 total chapters, there will hopefully be a sequel, and the story ends with exactly six flock members. Okay, so that last bit doesn't really do much, but if you think really (or not so really) hard about it, it's actually huge!