Sorry for the over-two-week wait. I've just been contradicting myself and posting the first parts of all the other fics I've had sitting around on my desktop for a long time. The response has been amazing and really encouraging.

I do not own Maximum Ride. MR belongs to James Patterson.
I do not own Red vs Blue. RvB belongs to RoosterTeeth.

"I'm starting to regret coming here." North said, as he found his sister snagging food out of the fridge. Nobody could tell her when to eat. She was in charge of herself.

"Starting? You never wanted to come."

She kicked the door shut and hopped up on to the kitchen counter, spooning vanilla pudding into her mouth from the large bowl she retrieved.

"Well, I can't say that I'm not glad I met the other winged kids. They understand us."

"No they don't," she interrupted, voice muffled by the pudding she still hadn't swallowed. "They're frankensteins or something."

North watched with hidden disgust at his sister's lack of table manners.

"Don't you think that …maybe that's what we are as well?"

"I don't care what we are. As long as we're as far away from Ricky and his stupid circus. I don't think I could have stood another minute there."

"But are you happy here?"

South opened her mouth to reply when the huge Eraser guy came into the kitchen. He saw North and South looking at him and froze in his tracks, like he had been caught doing something bad or, more likely, thought he was intruding on a private conversation.

South put the pudding down beside her and hopped off the counter with a glare shot in his direction. She left the kitchen, but as she walked past her brother, she said softly, "No. I'm not."

North sighed as his sister left. Anyone else who saw her would say that she was leaving in a huff, but he knew that she was leaving because she was scared of the Eraser. North kinda was too, but he choked the bubbling fear down. It was just an instinct.

The Eraser had never tried to hurt them after this "truce" thing they had implemented. So he put the bowl of pudding back into the fridge and shut the door, but that was all the longer he could have stayed in the same room as him right now. So he followed South.

Wyoming twisted his mustache as he observed the crumbling remains of what were once his storage warehouse. It was a nervous habit he'd acquired and couldn't help but make full use of at this very appropriate moment.

"What are we going to do, Flowers? I was stockpiling rations in there for years. All we have left is the food in the fridge. You know that's not going to last, mate."

Flowers stood to his left with his hands on his hips and his head cocked to the side. It was like he was trying to literally find the positive angle on this.

"You know, while this does knot the knickers, it was good that the warehouse wasn't close to other buildings! Too bad we didn't think to have a disco during the inferno! The kiddos would have liked that."

"Flowers, they were inside the inferno. I'm sure that dancing was the last thing on their minds. I know it wasn't concerning me at the moment."

Flowers laughed.

"Well, while you can buy all this food again at the store, there's no Wal-mart where you can buy family. You need to sow it in a home and raise in time –watered with love and affection."

It was Wyoming's turn to laugh. While Flowers was a little unusual, he was always great for a morale boost, or at least a good laugh. He was needed in a place like this where many of them had lived dark and hopeless lives. Wyoming never had a better friend.

Flowers folded his arms. His smile never faded, but his tone dropped briefly into serious.

"They'll realize they're a family soon enough. Don't you worry about that."

With that, the blue-winged man returned to the main building where everyone else was waiting. Wyoming was left to sigh at the crackling embers one last time before he moved to join him.

However, the door to the main building opened again and out walked two of the newest arrivals. One was the arsonist and the other was the runner. Their Eraser friend must be inside still.

They didn't see Wyoming as he ducked to the side of the building, giving them the privacy they obviously needed for the moment. Still, he could hear every word –a secret bonus.

"So, Connie-"

"Don't call me "Connie." We don't want them to know our identities. We don't know if we can trust them yet."

Hm. An untrusting one, Wyoming thought to himself. He wasn't sure if he liked this girl's attitude or not.

"Trust them? They healed us. Why wouldn't we trust them? Do you have a bad feeling about them, Connecticut?"

Ah. They've chosen codenames. Smart.

"No. Not yet. Still, I think it's best we lay low."

"That's gonna be hard to do. I don't think Maine could be subtle about anything."

"Maine" must be their Eraser friend. And it should be relatively easy for them to lay low. All the have to do is not burn down my buildings and they should be dandy.

"Hurry up, Washington. We've got to take advantage of this "hospitality" for as long as it lasts."

The metal door slammed shut when the voices silenced. Wyoming twisted his mustache again roughly.

Oh, how right you are, miss. Oh, how right you are.

With that he walked in too, going to the fridge to take inventory of their food in the kitchen. They would need to ration it out until 479er could go on a food run.

However, he saw that they had already raided the fridge. He became irritated that they didn't announce that dinner was served, but it seemed like it was a more first-come-first-served thing. The refrigerator was practically emptied. Ugh. Teenagers.

But Wyoming was never known as one who got angry. It was only in extreme circumstances, and this was not, in his book, an extreme circumstance. They would get food. The kids would just be really hungry in the morning once they realized there wouldn't be any breakfast since they ate all the food already.

He walked into the dining room which was only hours before a makeshift hospital for the injured bird kids. Now, it was a madhouse. They were yelling and laughing and teasing and pouting. It sure smelled like teen spirit. South was brooding in her seat, guarding her horde of food like a smoke-spewing dragon as North looked like he was in overload mode –shaken by the intense volume of the other teens. Maine looked quite content as no one quite had a great enough death wish to try to sneak any food off his plate. They liked their fingers attached, thank you very much. Washington had his plate nearly picked clean the second he turned his head to talk to Connecticut beside him. She even stole food off his plate too, but he probably wouldn't have minded if it was just her. Even 479er was participating, nearly jumping across the table to claim fistfuls of her favorite foods, shrieking triumphantly as she flopped back into her seat. Wyoming chuckled.

Carolina walked past him with a plate of food, probably to escape the insanity. He didn't blame her, but he wondered how he was going to ever get that much crushed blueberries out of the floor.

"I saved you some."

York roused from sleep. He blinked a few time to get his good eye up and running again. His eyes would have been crossed if they both worked when he focused on the plate of mashed potatoes and practically a whole thing of broccoli being shoved in his face.

"That's a lot of broccoli."

"It's the only thing I could grab from the table without getting my arm ripped off. You should have seen me almost elbow that new girl in the face to smuggle this much mashed potatoes out of there."

York took the plate and ate happily even thought the potatoes were cold and he had no proper utensil to eat them with. Carolina watched him intently.

"How are you feeling?"

York shrugged.

"Got a little bit of a headache, but I've never tried healing that many people before. I'm just gonna sleep it off. No biggie."

Carolina remained thoughtful, her lips pursed firmly as her pale green eyes looked him over as if into his soul. He wondered if anyone ever told her that she needed to blink more often.

"I'm not sure you should have done that then. We don't know with everyone's "powers" what effects it could have on you or the rest of us."

"What do you mean?"

"She means that using your powers to heal Washington after he used his powers might make bad things happen." Connecticut appeared out of nowhere. "It's like using a wish to undo your previous wish. Or a when you have a rechargeable battery. The more you keep using it and recharging it, the less charge it will be able to hold over time."

Carolina's wings twitched as she was irritated that the girl had just barged right into the conversation but secretly glad for her comment. It was exactly what she wanted to say. Carolina's stare switched to the brunette whose brown irises dodged to the floor.

Connecticut shrugged. "It's what I keep telling Washington," she added in a whisper. With that she left them.

York swallowed the mashed potatoes he had in his mouth before continuing.

"I'm fine, 'Lina. Really. I'm one hundred percent okay." He flashed his smile, thankfully food-free, which actually did comfort Carolina some, but she wasn't convinced nothing could go wrong.

"Thanks for the mashed taters. I'll see ya in the morning."

With that he sat the dirty plate on the coffee table in front of him and flopped on the couch, curling his brown wings around himself quite contentedly. Carolina suppressed a sigh and turned around to head back to the room the girls were staying in. Frankly, everyone could use some good sleep.

As she walked through the narrow hallway to answer the call of that all-too-comfortable hammock she knew was waiting for her, she noticed movement in a side room. Granted, she hadn't exactly explored the compound yet. They'd only been there a short time (but with all the fiascoes it seemed like longer) so she hadn't really familiarized herself with the layout of Wyoming's buildings. However, she thought it was safe to assume that no one should be in the room that looked like a maintenance closet. She backtracked her steps and hesitantly pushed the door open farther to see a figure whip around to face her. It was Connecticut again.

The two stared at each other, a mental challenge going out. However, what the two girls didn't know was that, in their minds, they were both demanding of each other the same task, "Prove my suspicions wrong or you're going to be sorry."

The air was tense, but it was finally Carolina who broke the silence.

"The room where the girls stay is this way. You're probably exhausted too. Wyoming will decide whether you can stay longer later."

Connecticut nodded slowly, her face now impassive as she searched for the angle, the hidden threat. She eventually interpreted it as, "Come where I can keep an eye on you. You'll have to start proving your innocence now."

Neither moved as the brunette's nod was not acceptable to the ginger as an answer. Eventually, the brown-winged girl came out from the small room, avoiding the green-eyed, soul-piercing gaze of Carolina once more.

She was lead to the room and Carolina immediately claimed the hammock. Connecticut just lay on the floor.

"You can sleep on the futon or the beanbags. You don't have to sleep on the floor."

"I like sleeping on the floor," Connecticut deadpanned.

Carolina furrowed her eyebrows at the reply but there was no conversation to be had. She was truly worried that this new girl might have nefarious plans, but there were, like, a million other people here. As long as that Washington kid didn't use his freak electrocution powers, they would easily overpower the newbies. And it's not like that Eraser, Maine, could do anything silently. They would hear him a mile away.

All of this she told herself so she could allow to sleep. She would be no use to anyone if she wasn't able to keep her eyes open. So she shifted until she found the perfect position in the hammock and closed her eyes. She was still in her pajamas from the previous night, but, this time, she was wearing shoes. It was probably a habit she was never going to get rid of now. Besides, it was entirely possible that they would have to make a run for it in the middle of the night.

It was only a matter of time before Erasers found this place. It was unusual that they didn't already. Come on! They knew they were in the area. Still, she tried not to jinx her good luck.

She would investigate tomorrow -get a better feel for the area and where exactly everything was in the compounds. She felt much more satisfied now that she had a plan of action for the next day. Going over her plan in detail in her mind was what finally allowed her to slip peacefully into sleep. Connecticut had a slightly harder time falling asleep, but she eventually surrendered too.

South came in next and flopped ungracefully and impolitely on to the futon, the door slamming against the wall as she flung it open. Nevertheless, Carolina tried to give her a glare, but the purple-winged girl was already snoring by the time her head hit the futon.

479er was last to join. She shut the door with much more caution and took care in stepping over the huddled form of the brunette on the floor. She yawned loudly before snuggling in the covers of her bed.

She couldn't remember if she ever had this many bird kids staying with her before. She kinda liked it. It balanced out all the testosterone she had to hang around on a daily basis -not to mention it livened up the place quite a bit. She had a feeling she would be sad to see them go, but that's just what had to happen. They had to move on and get into society. It was better that way. Still, that didn't mean she didn't miss them.

She brought the blankets closer to herself and willed sleep to come faster before she started getting too nostalgic. Soon her snoring could be heard in harmony to the three others' as the bird kids had their first night of uninterrupted, peaceful sleep for the first time in their lives.

I'll try to get back to the once-a-week updating hopefully. Although this next week is going to be kinda crazy. I'm going to be going to two funerals. My great-grandma died so I'll be out of state for her funeral. (She was 89 and hasn't been in good health so it's for the best that she's in a better place.) I'm also going to be going to the funeral of a kid I used to know back in middle school. He overdosed Friday and died. He was eighteen-years-old. ...Yeah. Quite sobering. So, as you can imagine, I'm not exactly making fanfiction a priority right now-more like a normalcy. So, prayers would be appreciated both for my family and my friend's family and his friends.

Alright, away from the depressing topic! The plot thickens...sorta. I'm sorry that this chapter is a bit filler-y. I just felt like I really had to get away from York and Carolina (and yet I still couldn't do it completely). Anyway, I've been talking with my brother (my beta, advice-giver, and just plain listener), and he's helped me get a good direction going since I've been kinda lacking on this story now. I have a plan for later on, but I need the group to bond and mesh first. Character-driving story practice. Heh heh.

Some shameless self-promotion. I have many more Hetalia stories out as well as one that I'm going to post soon. So, if you're into that anime, you might want to check those out.

Thank you so much for your support and encouraging comments! Feel free to fav or review if you so desire!
Looking forward to it.