AN: Dear readers,

I regret to inform you that I will be discontinuing this story. It's too much of a hassle, and life keeps getting in the way. I want you to know that every review has meant a lot to me…

IP: -bursts out laughing-

Me: -chucklesnort- Okay, I had to have gotten at least one of you. Wait, was that cruel? Well, whatever, this is your Christmas gift. MERRY CHRISTMHANUKWANZAA EVERYONE, and don't expect much for New Years! …Guess how many reviews last chapter got. Go on, guess. None. Can I have one as a Christmas present/Hanukah present/Kwanzaa gift /holiday gift/other? Here, have an extra gift…

Disclaimer: I do not own Maximum Ride, if I did, the Fax would survive guaranteed. I do, however, own the excessive use of the phrase "What just happened?"

And so on and so forth. To the chapter!

(3rd Person PoV)

Angel shook Katie's arm, whispering to her to keep from waking Mason. "Katie. Wake up. Hey."

Katie murmured something Angel distinguished as "Demonic little imp…"

"I'm gonna' go out on a limb and say Freddie-Krugar-with-a-chainsaw dream." Angel jumped as Mason leaned up onto his elbows next to Katie. Angel had expected him to still be asleep in the other bed, across the room. Suddenly, Katie went white and stiffened. She shot up in bed, eyes glazed over with sleep and fear.

"Gonna' go out on another limb and say Freddie-Krugar-with-a-match dream."

(KPoV)

I glanced around frantically; I couldn't remember where I was. From my left I could hear someone laughing, not maniacally, just, at someone's expense. As I listened more closely, I realized what had happened.

The flock had caught up with me, found me hiding in a vacant alley. I didn't remember the man being quite that menacing. We had all continued on to the Sally Jackson Motel, what seemed to be one of many diamonds in the rough. Ms. Jackson, a kind woman in about her 30s or 40s, ran the building with her son and his friend, Percy and Grover. Sometimes another friend helped them out, a girl named Annabeth. For anything. Except the bathroom.

It was a great place to stay, comfortable and welcoming. We had booked 4 rooms, and paired up. Me and Mason, who I promptly pushed off the bed for laughing at me, Nudge and Angel, Iggy and Gazzy, and Max and Fang. After much snickering on the parts of Iggy, Mason, and myself towards the flock couple, we had all gone to bed. After much deliberation consisting of a few minutes in separate beds, Mason and I had found the distance to be too much. We had just found each other again, we weren't going to let go.

"Katie," Angel began. "You…you need to go talk to Iggy." Now I understood her hesitance. This was…disturbing.

"Do I haaaave toooo?" I whined, already bracing myself.

"Yes." The three of us answered at once. I pushed myself up off the bed, but was stopped when Mason grabbed my wrist.

"I'll go, uh…be somewhere else." Angel exited the room, disappearing into the hallway.

"Hey. Uh, there's something I've been meaning to tell you all day." Mason became awkward, a far cry from his usual gracefulness, er, steadiness. Yeah, steadiness. "Actually, I kind of realized it a few years ago, but you weren't here then." He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. We were now sitting side by side on the bed. "It's about you…and me…and…feelings."

I tensed. "Thanks for the forewarning." Funny, the entire room was white and blue, blue being my favorite color. This fact was suddenly very interesting. I began to count the little paint marks in the ocean blue wall.

"Yeah. Look, Katie, I know you're good with stuff when it's not you or related to you, but I don't know…how to say this, exactly." He saw my eyes flash a bit, knowing it was a vision. Something told me he was adjusting well to that. "You already know."

Yes. "Wha'? No, what?" He sighed. I needed to hear him say it if I was going to believe him.

"Katie…I like you. I really, really like you. Maybe even…well, maybe even love. I dunno'." I saw that he was also intrigued by the skill of hotel wall painters. I looked over. He looked back. Oh, shit. Pardon my Spanish ('Cause that definitely wasn't French.). His eyes were…burning. My hand reached out, completely of its own will, and laced my fingers through his.

"I, uh," I coughed. "I…really like you too."

He looked like he was trying to see my thoughts in my eyes. He failed miserably. "Maybe even love?"

I swear to Miyazaki, I didn't melt as much as Max looking at Fang. "Yeah," I hoped I sounded more confident than I felt. "Maybe even love." His eyes seemed to change color, getting brighter, but it may have just been the way I looked at him. He leaned in.

I resisted the urge to tense up, wondering for a second if he knew of my lack of personal experience, then remembered he probably had no idea what he was doing either. His eyes were half closed, and I shut mine completely. One of his hands gripped mine tightly while the other rested on the side of my neck. I sensed the bed shift as he leaned in a bit further. I felt his cool lips brush my cheek, and a tiny spark lit there. His arms went around me, and mine around him.

"Not too fast." He murmured against my neck. "Let's make sure this is right." I nodded into his hair, getting some sort of dirt grime mixture on my cheek.

I pulled away a bit and swiped my cheek across my shoulder. I smirked. "Mason, man what have you been sleeping in?"

He rolled with the punch. "Hmm. I'm not quite sure, but I think it leaked from a trashcan. Squeamish?"

"Nope." I smiled. Yeah, this was as close to love as I'd ever thought about. I'd wondered if I'd end up with someone, alone, or just plain dead, but I knew that if it was the first one, we'd need to be able to be friends and together couple type people at the same time. I frowned, now that I could remember the reason I was awake in the first place. "Gotta' go talk to Ig."

Mason tried to gulp inconspicuously, but failed. "'Kay. I'll be here."

"Yes you will." I got up and left the room. Once I was alone in the hall, I leaned back on the door and took in a shaky breath.

What just happened?

I opened the door to Iggy and Gazzy's room. It was dark, and a shadowed figure sat on one of the beds. His wings were wrapped around him slightly, his arms around his legs with his knees pulled up to his chest. He looked over as I entered.

I flicked the light on and shut the door. "So…" I tried as I sat by him on the bed.

"I've been meaning to talk to you. It's important." I was about to say that it had better of been for me to wake up at 1:30 AM to "talk." More like listen, as he didn't give me a chance to speak. Some talk.

"You've been here for a while now, and I feel a sort of connection with you." No you don't. "You feel it too." Since when? "I think…I think it's love at first sight, or, y'know, sound." Do I get a say in this?!

"Do I get a say in this?" He looked surprised, like his logic was infallible. "'Cause…well, 'cause I'm sorry Iggy, but I don't…I don't feel…the same way."

I think I may have just pissed him off. No duh, Angel told me telepathically. Iggy stood from his bed and pulled me up with him. One of his arms went around my waist, and the other held my cheek. His fingers brushed my hairline, almost tenderly, but it didn't feel…right. I didn't know him.

"You're not thinking straight. Here, let me help…" He began to lean in. My mind was a blank slate. I did the only thing I could think of. I punched his now-freakish face.

He staggered back a step, and I tore myself from his grasp. I dodged around him to the door, but only opened it partway. "If I'm right, you're in a river in Egypt."

He raised his eyebrow. "What?"

I smirked to myself. "Y'know, de-Nile." I exited his room, and returned to my own. I flopped down on my bed, my arm splaying itself across Mason's face. He gently took it in his hand and moved it to my side. I could tell that that was going to take some getting used to, seeing as I would have whacked him with his own fist. As he put his arm around my waist, I had one bleary, sleep-deprived thought:

What just happened?!

We were in a sort of dining room place, sitting on a long, worn wooden bench. It was connected to a chipped wooden table with a blue tablecloth over it, like a picnic table. Most people would complain about comfort, or splinters, or blah, de blah, de blah. The entire building had more character than some people can ever hope to have (AKA: Whitecoats).

A rubber band flicked my arm for about the katrillionth time in the last 5 minutes. "If you don't stop that, I'm taking it away." I was seething. I had gotten that weird amount of sleep where you're not rested, but more sleep is impossible, I was wedged between a guy who could look impassive while eating and a guy who shoved a whole grilled cheese sandwich in his mouth in under 20 seconds and swallowed it without chewing, I had had the top two most embarrassing and awkward conversations of my life the night before in rapid succession, and to top it off, I physically could not stop blushing!

So this was why Max didn't appreciate the teasing. Huh.

Iggy was glaring at his eggs across the table, Mason glaring at me for threatening his little rubber band on my right, everyone around me doing something that didn't involve pondering a quandary. Fang, to my left, was as impassive as I assumed he had been before I got here, whereas Max was a bit flustered, probably holding his hand underneath the table. Angel, on Iggy's right, kept glancing around, monitoring the thoughts around her. Nudge and Gaz, to Angel's right, were…playing footsie under the table?

Angel snickered, loving the drama going on. But for some reason, I didn't think that she really understood. She barely understood the concepts of love, stress, and heartbreak. She only knew that people felt them, and had a vague understanding of why.

"Dude, eat yer food or I'll eat it for ya'." Ah, Mason. Blunt, to the point, without boundaries, not letting people think…at all…ever…

My jaw clenched. Do not hit your boyfriend, do not hit your boyfriend, do not hit your boyfriend…

Your what? I did not think that. Yes you did. I did not. Yes you-you heard nothing, I say, you heard nothing!

A fork was darting away from my plate, almost faster than most people could track. Wait, what? Mason tried to be discreet about chewing…my food!

I glared at him icily. "Totally hate you right now." I muttered under my breath. A certain feathered idiot next to me snorted, as Mason smirked and opened his mouth.

"Aaaaauuuughlhghlhh." I could see his (my) partially chewed breakfast. The little hangey-ball, the, uh, uvula was dangling.

I frowned, feeling my face contort into a twisted mask of forced indifference. Leaning towards Fang, I suddenly lost my appetite. Too bad I was going to make myself eat anyways.

However, I scrapped that idea at what Angel said, practically announcing it for the whole table to hear. "Aww, their first lovers tiff."

Screw indifference, I was pretty sure my face was frozen in a part frown grimace; I probably looked like a demented clown. Next to me, Fang froze and let his orange juice dribble back into his cup. Actually, it seemed like everyone except Spike-head had gone still. He just kept on shoveling food into his mouth.

"Their first what?" Iggy's chilling voice cut into the silence. He seemed…flabbergasted. Or, incredulous. "Aren't they practically siblings?"

Well, we do have the DNA for it. "Uh…no?" I could only hope he dropped it.

"What the !$?&ing hell?" He didn't drop it. Max's yell for Iggy to watch his language went seemingly unnoticed.

"I believe," Mason began, practically radiating an aura of restraint. "She said that she and I are not 'practically siblings.'"

"Well, then explain what you are." Iggy rose from his seat, Mason standing to meet him. Iggy had major height on him, and mutant strength…Mason had pissed off-edness and street experience…

But something about the look in their eyes told me that they were protective…possessive of something…

An ice cold whisper. "Just what are you to her?"

Me?!

They're fighting over ME?!

…

What?! I don't know either. Actually, no one does. Except, maybe Mason. Yeah, thanks. 'Cause they were only treating me like an object. That's no reason whatsoever to be pissed.

I think my eye was twitching.

"Well if you knew her as well as you think you do, you wouldn't have to ask." From there, I just started staring off into space. I couldn't make sense of their words, and I barely registered the rising volume. The others joined in, I think, and there were some mentions of "…not an object," and "sexist pig." I did the only thing I knew wouldn't get me involved.

I picked up my fork, and ate my breakfast.

About five minutes of slight pandemonium and/or bird-kid warfare later, Blindo stomped back to the room, as Spikey stormed out the door.

I looked up at Fang.

"…What just happened?!"

AN: I dunno', what do you think just happened?

IFX: I dunno', what do you think just happened?

IP: -headdesk-

Me: Ahh, Christmastime. I hope you've enjoyed your present, just as I hope I'll enjoy mine. Now…how to waste time until Santa comes…reading your wonderful reviews, maybe?

R&R? Also, anyone here read Fullmetal Alchemist? I'm working on it! Oh, and I'm wondering if anyone caught the hint last chapter as to one of the wider speculated plotholes in the MR fandom. I have several theories, but this is one of the ones that actually makes sense. So, ah…I ran out of things to say.

…

I'm gonna' post this now. Oh wait! Guys, I put Katie pictures up on my DeviantArt. Have you checked them out yet? Also, I have a poll here, "Who would win in a fight?" Give your opinion. Mine? It involves Chuck Norris.

Bye! PS: I haven't edited this. Heheh. -sweatdrop-