Dr. Nudge, Fashion Expert

(Also entitled, "Fang in Furs")

Pacific Centre, Vancouver

"Wow, Max," said Nudge weakly as we browsed the downtown streets. "This place is huge."

"Yeah," I said, surprised myself. I rubbed her shoulders. The poor kid still looked a little queasy from the ordeal, and I couldn't be more proud of her. "Wanna go try on some clothes?"

The old Nudge grinned, eyes bright. "Yeah, can we?"

I took her hand. "Absolutely."

If I kept spending money at this rate, we were going to be out fast. But it was worth it. I had to make it up somehow, and what better way than this?

Nudge and I, for the rest of the day, acted like girls for once. We browsed through PC's guadiest selection of clothes, just for fun, and tried on everything that we could (without having to take major baths first, of course). She found this red jacket with these great big black and white feathers around the collar and hood and on the cuffs. It was quite positively the ugliest thing I'd ever seen, but at the time, it looked pretty dang cool. And:

"Those boots are retarded."

"Like you'd know."

"I WOULD know!"

"How?"

"They've got stripes, Max!"

"I know!"

"Wahahaha!"

Pacific Centre houses over a hundred and forty stores, including The Gap and Banana Republic. The main one here was a place called Holt Renfrew.

Their furs. Were. Amazing.

"Are they real?" Nudge said nervously, petting one.

"I'm not sure, sweetie," I said, mesmerized by the pictures in the catalog. "They'd sure keep us warm in the winter, though."

"D'you think Fang would like them?" She said suddenly.

I frowned. "What, think he'd like women's fur coats to sport in the street?"

We both cracked up over that one. Fang, with his long, girly hair in a shapely fur coat...maybe some matching heeled boots...oh lord, the image...

"Wahahahaha! Oh my God, get him a matching purse!"

I was holding my ribs. "N-No, anything but...fwahahahaha!"

"Or a boa!"

"Boots!"

"Can I help you ladies?" said an employee, bemused at what was up with the two of us practically rolling in the aisles. "No, we're good," I wheezed, and Nudge supported herself on a low shelf. We looked at each other, and a moment later, we were floored again.

"So?" she prodded again, later, as we began to check out some things from the Canada Goose and Theory brands.

"So what?" My ribs still hurt.

"Do you think Fang would like to see you in one of those furs?" She said slyly, checking her nails. I felt myself flush and said, "Why, you think he goes for yetis?"

"Oh come on, Max, you'd be gorgeous! Remember New York?"

Yeah, I remembered. But that was then, not now. I'd never seen myself as particularly model-material, anyway. "So what's your point?"

She groaned in exasperation, and before I could protest, she pushed me by the shoulders into the nearest mirror. "Look at you for once! Are you blind?! He's liked you for like, forever!"

"Nudge -!"

"Well he has! And you like him too! I saw you kissing!"

Okay, we needed to change the subject here -

"I don't know what you're -"

"Be quiet and stare at yourself a little longer, huh? Consider. Fang equals 'extremely hot guy'. You equal 'extremely hot girl'. And now that we've got some free time..." She looked at me expectantly, as though wanting me to finish the thought. "You can..."

I played dumb, terrified of where she was going with this. "Play dress up?"

"I'm going to smack you."

"Look, we can't be together!"

"Why not?" she demanded, grinning. "You're perfect together! Like siblings, almost!"

"That's the problem! We're siblings! It would...it would just be really weird!"

Why didn't I do this? I did love Fang. What was I thinking?

"The foreign air has got to your head," I grumbled, but she wasn't letting me off that easy. She held up a suicidally-cool shirt threateningly and said, "Max, I swear to whatever merciful deity there is that if you don't do something about this, start living for you for once, then I'm going to make you."

"But -"

"No buts!" She stomped her foot and shoved me into the dressing room amid the stares of other shoppers. "Get in there! We're gonna stay until we make you sexy!"

"But that's impossible!"

"Hah, I know!"

But this was kind of fun. And she had a point, we did have a lot of free time now...I turned my back to the curtain and actually glanced in the mirror. My hair would need chopping again. I might need a good scrubbing, too. I'd need a lot of things to start looking how I'd always wanted to look, if for ten minutes. We were still kids; what was wrong with playing a little pretend? And yet, I was older now, too, I could see it in my eyes. They looked to hold more age than a normal teenager's.

I sighed, and allowed myself a playful smirk. Fine. I'd try living for myself for a bit. The opportunity was too good to pass up. And Fang...maybe. That was a ton of work in itself. We'd have to see.

We'll certainly have to see.

A/N: As you can see, the girls know best; maybe it's because they're younger that they can see through both Fang and Max's pig-headedness, lol. Will Fang find a way to gain Max's affections? Will Max ever get to be somewhat like a normal girl and accept her love for Fang? Will this turn into an extremely mushy story?

I'll only answer that last question there: absolutely not. I don't know how to write mush, and am not even gonna try - and I don't think Max and Fang would approve, anyway, what with their fast-paced, dangerous lives, lol. In the future...who knows. Maybe. We'll just have to see.

*bows before Dogwithnonose* Thank goodness; whew! Writing scenes like these make me so nervous...lol.

Stay tuned everyone, and thank you all for reading and reviewing!

--Yessi and Beta Crew