Max had nothing to say as she ate the grilled chipmunk with barbeque sauce. Then she moved on to the raccoon leg.
Fang was in his black muscle shirt and boxers. He stared at Max between bites.
When Max started walking over to the case of drinks, Fang got there first and handed one to her. Of course his hand had left globs of barbeque sauce and grease all over it. Like that really mattered to Max.
She tried some tubers that Fang had experimented with, hoping she wouldn't be poisoned. He didn't seem to be eating any of them. Of course, Max realized he only took the effort to find plant-based food since Max had been reading the field guide earlier.
Max grabbed a chocolate bar and took her drink outside. She leapt up to the helo pad, barely flapping her wings at all.
She sat there and did whatever she could to keep her mind empty. She wanted to think of nothing other than the moment.
Fang landed next to her and sat down. He tossed a bag of corn chips in front of her as he ate cheese curls and caramel candies.
All that was left of the chocolate bar was the stuff melted in between the circling lines on her fingers.
Above them, the tiniest sliver of the moon danced its way across the sky. Endless stars greeted the night visitors with their songs.
Max looked at Fang. His head was angled up at the sky, too. She smiled at him tentatively. Since he didn't scowl, she felt it might be somewhat safe to move closer to him. Then she changed her mind and just lay down, looking up into heaven.
Fang lifted her head gently onto his shoulder, laying back to stargaze, too. The birds' eye view showed them forming the kind of V kids write when they're just learning with crayons.
Max breathed deeply and inhaled through her nose. Fang's body smelled like him tonight. Instead of smelling like mud or fish or blood. She wanted to talk. She wanted to talk so very much. Part of her was screaming to talk.
Fang was completely silent. Max practiced that silence. It felt painful. But as the minutes ticked by in deafening thuds, it gradually became easier and easier. The feel of Fang's muscle, its relaxed state, was a form of talking, Max realized.
Their touch itself was a kind of talking.
Just deciding to be together and to observe such an amazing evening contained more knowledge than a three-hour vivacious conversation could ever hold.
The peace was like a blanket. A fluffy comforter. Not too hot in the summer and cozy in the winter. Time and space made sense in that peace. Life itself made sense.
Max reached out her hand toward Fang's. He simultaneously moved his arm toward her and they entwined their fingers. Softly stroking his flesh with her index finger, Max sighed. Fang's hand practically encompassed hers.
Max tried to speak and found her voice blocked after all the silence. Finally clearing her throat she said aloud, "This is what I want, Fang. Just this."
Fang gently closed his hand over hers. "Okay."
#####
Fang flew ahead of Max. He looked kind of blurry. The way pictures of things moving fast look.
Max shouted to him, "What are you doing here? Where's Nudge? You didn't leave her alone did you?"
"Ever heard of, 'Hello?'" Fang said, grinning. Max radiated a smile back.
Now Max was sitting in a tiny cave in a wall of rocks. Fang flew at her with giant strokes and landed at the opening. She tried to make room for him to sit next to her, but there wasn't any space. He kneeled at the entrance instead and flattened his wings against the outside rocks.
Max sat in darkness. She wondered if this was a trap. She knew Fang wouldn't ever betray her. But what if there was a Fang Two? Would she be able to tell them apart?
The darkness was bearing down on her like the suffocating nothingness of the isolation tank at Itex. "Fang?" she whispered urgently.
Suddenly Fang appeared and took Max's hand in his. He squeezed her hand reassuringly, but disappeared again.
He was still holding her hand, but she couldn't see him. In fright, she jerked her hand away and lost contact with him completely.
"Fang!" she screamed.
Max was covered in sweat and was sitting straight up. She was on a vaguely familiar cot. It was that one at a forest service station in the middle of no where.
"I'm here," Fang reassured. His knees were on the floor and he wrapped his arm around Max as she shivered. Reaching for the forest green wool blanket, he briefly let go of her.
"Don't leave me, Fang!" Max pleaded.
"Shh!" he whispered into her hair. "I'll be with you forever. I promise." Fang stroked her hair and then brushed his fingers on her cheeks.
Max turned her face into his chest. Her fingernails bit into his arms. Eventually losing their grip, she slumped in his arms, asleep.
Fang gently lay Max back down on the cot. He fixed the pillow and kissed her forehead. The wool blanket stretched from her shoulders to her bare feet.
Max turned onto her side and nestled in the blanket. A blissful smile was on her lips as she breathed deeply in slumber.
#####
Max had the wool blanket twisted around her. She writhed on the cot and further entrapped her legs in the blanket's loops.
"No!" she screamed. "No, not Fang! No! No!" Sobs erupted from her chest.
Fang was beside her in an instant. He sat on the cot and touched her hair. "It's okay, Max," he consoled her.
Her face turned to him and he swept a long lock off her face.
Contorting her lips into a demonic snarl, she scathed in sharp staccato, "Never touch me again." She took in a quick breath. "You will never, ever touch me again, Jeb!"
Fang had moved far away from her until he heard Jeb's name. He moved closer now, trying to hold her.
"I hate you! I will always hate you! I don't care who loves you – even Mom! I will hate you forever because you killed Fang!"
"Max," Fang whispered in Max's ear, holding her up.
Max turned in bed, her open eyes seeing nothing but phantoms. "You will die. You will die and the whole world will die with you! In pain! In agony!"
Fang brushed his fingertips over Max's lips, desperate to ease her out of her nightmare. "Shh! Shh! Shh!" he rocked her like a child.
Now Max was maniacal. Her voice was louder than Fang had ever heard. "The world is not worth saving if Fang is not in it! You are a liar! You! You are a killer! A killer! A kil-ler!"
"Max," Fang shouted, grabbing her face.
With a scream Max dug her fingers into Fang's face and roared, sounding quite like their formidable enemy, the Erasers.
Fang swatted her hands away and she lunged forward to attack.
"Jeez," he yelled, pinning her arms to the cot.
Max's face changed immediately and her head fell to the mattress.
"You're alive!" Max wailed. "Fang! It's you! It's really you! Fang!"
Fang had released her arms and she grasped Fang in a powerful embrace. "I thought you were dead! I thought Jeb killed you! I thought I was alone …"
Running his hand from the top of Max's head to the base of her spine repeatedly, Fang soothed, "I'm right here, Max."
Max pulled away to look at his eyes. "Thank God, Fang!"
She kissed his cheeks, his forehead, his lips, his eyes, the tip of his nose, his chin. Like a chicken hungry after a night's sleep.
Fang pulled her away gently and made her lay down. She pulled him to her. He tried to move away but she wouldn't let go.
"Max, you need to sleep," he whispered, pleading with her.
"Lay down with me," she ordered him. The only answer that Max would let Fang choose was "yes."
In defeat, Fang lay on his side, wrapping his arm over Max. Her head was snuggled under his chin. Sleep came quickly, both exhausted.
#####
Max had turned to Fang and was rubbing her legs against his. He woke up hearing Max talking in her sleep, "I want to, Fang. Please. I want to."
She moaned drawing his body to her.
As Fang attempted to extricate himself, Max's eyes spoke with true consciousness, "Were we having sex?"
The very word was a power that Fang could not conquer, forcing his eyes to her face. She was flushed in all the right places, and his heart pounded relentlessly.
Laying on top of her, propped up on his arm, he put his mouth to her ear and whispered, "Did you want to have sex?"
Max's arms came around his back like snakes trapping their prey. "Yes," her answer rang out. It was the voice of Max, Leader of the Flock. It was Max who would get her way, always. It was the voice of power mandated by the sun and the moon and the stars.
So familiar to him, Fang's mouth sought out that voice. His tongue made love to that voice. He adored that voice.
Max's tank top was slipping higher above her waist as Fang kissed her passionately. His hands explored the unchartered territory. There was perfect symmetry on this landscape. He could not escape its lure or deny his fingers their expedition over it.
Max vocalized her passion in a high voice. Fang's harmony in a low, quiet plea was creating a fantastic overture to what promised to be an unforgettable event.
Max took command of Fang's hand, dragging it under her panties. It was unwilling to go there but weak against Max's dominance.
"Nnnnnnno," Fang pulled away with every ounce of strength. "This isn't the right time for this," he pleaded.
Max tried to pull him back under but he had cast his anchor and wouldn't run the danger of drifting at sea.
"I can't let myself be this close with you, knowing that I can't stay permanently."
Max whined in protest, her legs rubbing against his.
"You are more than a body!" he whispered. "I love Maximum Ride. Human, bird, Eraser! Whatever you are, she-devil, I love you. Not this." He groped her panties, thrilling her senses. Unintentionally. Really bad move. Resist!
Max saw that the battle was over. They'd have to make camp for the night and continue to war against each other under the most hospitable of conditions.
Max gently pulled Fang down to her again. Her defeat was evident on all sides.
Fang slipped his hand under her tank top to run reconnaissance. Make sure things were just as he had left them last time he was there.
Satisfied with his findings, Fang warily allowed sleep to bring them under the wool blanket, together.