* Finally getting to part of the reason I named this story Iggy. But still lots of FAX to come.
oooOOOOOooo
As promised, training days lasted about two hours. Fang did a great job preparing the new kids-in theory. They were naturally quick and strong and they knew how to hit. They just didn't know how to get hit yet. Every time one of them got clocked, we had to stop and see if they were okay, if they needed ice. There was so much apologizing. But they were slowly getting better at it.
Except Miranda. She was tough from the start. Like me. Well, no one's as tough as me. Ha ha. She seemed to have it in for Dylan. I don't know what he did to deserve it, but she was taking it out on him. She fought him with everything she had, leaving bruises and a bloody lip. Miranda got as good as she gave, though. She walked away with a split lip and plenty of bruises of her own. Even so, Dylan must have gone easy on her. Lord knows he could have done a lot more damage.
As training broke up, Dylan started to walk back to the house. Before he could get too far, Jump blocked his way.
"What's your problem? Don't you know you're not supposed to hit girls like that?"
Dylan snapped back, "She started it. Out of my way." And he shoved Jump out of the way.
Suddenly, Dylan wasn't able to take a step. He glared at Jump. "Let me go!"
Miranda stepped in, "Dylan's right. I did start it. It's just training. We need to toughen up. He shouldn't have gone easy on me."
Dylan managed to take a step while Jump was distracted by Miranda.
"You better let me go now or I'll give you a bloody nose! You little jerk. You can't hold me forever!" Dylan yelled.
Fang started to intervene, but I held him back. I wanted to see how this was going to play out. We'd step in if we needed to, I figured.
I wondered how long Jump could hold him there. We all just stood and watched. Dylan's muscles struggled as he tried to free himself. Jump was shaking. I wasn't sure if he was scared or struggling to keep his hold on Dylan. Turns out it was a little of both. He finally lost his grip and Dylan started for him.
"Stop!" I yelled.
"He's got it coming!" Dylan yelled.
"I know. But you're a lot bigger than him. Do you really want to do that?" I asked.
His knuckles were white.
He turned away from Jump and toward me. "So why is it everyone around here is allowed to make a fool out of me and it's okay?" He shot a brief look Miranda's way, too. Then without waiting for a response, he stormed off into the house, slamming the door shut behind him.
When I turned around, Jump was ghost white.
"Is he gonna get me when I don't expect it?"
I put a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "No. He was just trying to scare you," I said. "But that wasn't cool. I would save that talent for your enemies, not your friends." I took a few steps toward the house and without turning around, I said, "If you do that again, I won't stop him. And if you ever do that to me, I'll do worse than Dylan."
When I got back inside, I told Jeb to start making a supply list and take a few kids out of the house to shop. The people at Costco knew Jeb by name, even if it was a fake name. We were going stir crazy and with so many of us in the house, we were dangerously low on food. Dylan was on the back deck, obviously still angry.
"Is it okay to come out?" I asked.
"Why ask?" he said. "You're just going to do whatever you want anyway."
He knew me well.
"I couldn't let you beat him up," I said.
"I wasn't going to," he said. "You didn't even give me a chance. Did you really think I was going to hurt him? That's what you think of me?"
Okay, now I felt bad. I sighed, "Of course not. I told him you were just trying to scare him. But I saw the way you went after Fang."
"That was different and you know it."
"Okay," I agreed. "You're right. I'm sorry."
"Yeah, except now they all think I'm some kind of homicidal hot head that's going to break their necks for looking at me cross-eyed."
"They don't think that," I tried to reassure him. "I'll make sure they don't think that. I know things have been hard for you lately."
I had to address the crack about everyone making a fool of him. Everyone meaning me. I guess I did wound his pride pretty badly. He'd be able to get over me easily enough, I was sure. But he was right, I made him look like a fool. Plus Miranda always making him goofy when she was around him. I thought maybe that was the issue between them. And now today's incident.
"So," I started. "You're still mad about the way things ended between us?"
"Things didn't end. You ended them. You didn't miss a beat jumping from me to him."
Ouch. But he didn't know the half of it. He thought it was three weeks between the break up and the reunion. He didn't need to know any more than that.
"Dylan, I really am sorry about all that. I thought we were getting past it. You're part of our family now." I meant it. "You're a great guy. A great friend. But I love Fang with all my heart. I think he's my destiny."
"Dr. Hans told me you were mine," he said.
"I don't think you can engineer destiny. They've been playing God with us all our lives. We should at least be able to find our own love," I said. "Besides, we're all young. Too young to settle down like that. Fang and me just happened. I wasn't looking for it. Believe me. It's caused a lot of problems the past couple of years."
He was still brooding. Or maybe he was just thinking about it. At least he wasn't angry any more.
"Are you okay?" I asked.
"Yeah," he said. "I'll get over it."
"But will you forgive me?"
He looked up, surprised at the question.
"Of course," he said. "I already have."
"Will you forgive Fang?"
It took some time for him to answer. "I will, eventually."
Satisfied, I walked back into the bustling metropolis that was our house. We had to get out of here. We were all on top of each other and it was driving me crazy.
oooOOOOOooo
Dani knew Dylan would be awake this early in the morning. He always was. She thought of a way to spend time to get to know him better. She knocked on his bedroom door.
"Come in," he called.
Dani opened the door and peeked in. "You got a minute?"
"Sure, you're up early, what do you want?"
"I was wondering if you would give me guitar lessons," she said. "Fang told me that you're teaching yourself and Iggy. Can you teach me too?"
"Yeah, you can join us next time we get together."
"No, I want it to be a surprise," Dani said. "Nudge and I want to do a song together the next time we all have song night."
"It'll take a while before you can play an actual song," he told her. "Maybe I can play and you girls sing. It could still be a surprise."
"Hmm. All right. But I'd still like to learn."
He took her hands and looked at them. "You're going to have to cut your nails. At least the ones on your left hand. You could let the ones on your right hand grow long."
She frowned. She was trying to grow them. "Do I have to?" she asked. "And won't that look stupid?"
He picked up his guitar and handed it to her. He placed her fingers on the strings and told her to press down hard.
"Ow," she complained.
"Yeah, you'll have to cut them. It'll be easier to play. It takes some getting used to and you'll get calluses on your fingertips."
She was beginning to reconsider. She thought it would be easier. But she was determined.
"All right. I'll cut them. When can we start lessons?" she eagerly asked.
"I'm always up early. You could come here a couple of mornings a week. Wanna start tomorrow?"
oooooo
A couple of weeks later, Dani was still having a hard time putting her fingers in the right spot.
"My hand's not big enough to go around. The guitar's too big for me. This is a lot harder than I thought it would be," Dani pouted.
"I'm sure girls with smaller hands than yours play guitar," Dylan said, rolling his eyes. "Try D again. It's not that hard."
She put her hand back on the neck and strummed.
"Now change to A," he suggested.
She tried. "I stink at it," Dani huffed.
"You're giving up too easily. I've never seen you give in before."
"I'm usually good at whatever I try," she laughed. "Or maybe I try only things I think I'll be good at." She leaned her chin on the guitar and looked at Dylan. "You seem to be good at everything."
He chuckled, "I was kind of engineered that way. To be, like, super human." He was a little embarrassed. "Besides the wings."
"You're a really good fighter," she said. "And you can play guitar. And sing. You're super smart, right? And cute, too."
He blushed.
"I can heal myself, too."
"Really? Can you heal other people?"
"I don't know. No one's let me spit on them," he laughed.
She laughed. Dani wasn't really sure if he was serious about having healing spit.
"Can I ask you something?" she changed the subject.
"Sure."
She wasn't quite certain how she wanted to word it. "Do boys like girls who are," she paused, "bold?"
"Bold? Bold how?" he asked.
"You know, making the first move. Asking him out or something. Or should a girl just wait for him?"
He thought about it. He wasn't sure he liked how bold Miranda was. But then, she was using her mojo on him to make him attracted to her. He definitely didn't like that. "Well, I don't know that I'm the best person to ask. I guess it depends on the guy. Some guys would like it." In that instant, Dylan wondered if she was going to make a pass at him. "Why?"
"I'm getting tired of waiting."
There was an awkward silence. Dani changed the subject again.
"You can see really far, can't you?"
"Yeah, a lot farther than everyone else. Sometimes I can see so far, it's almost like seeing into the future," he said, looking at her with his bright turquoise eyes.
"You can see the future?" she asked. "Can you see it when you want to? Or does it come to you by surprise." Her grey eyes riveted on his.
"It just comes to me sometimes," he said softly. "More and more lately." He studied her for a moment, as if he could see right inside her. "You can see like that too, can't you?"
She broke the gaze. "What, me? No. Not like you. I think I can see farther than the others, though." She shrugged it off. Dani wasn't able to look him in the eye again.
She looked down at the guitar. "Maybe I'll stick to singing and let you guys play." She handed it back to Dylan. "I guess I won't need lessons."
"Let me know when you and Nudge want to practice," he told her before she left his room. Pretty girl. He hoped she wasn't waiting for him, she'd be waiting a long time. He was hooked on Miranda's line already.
The rest of the day was training and eating. Eating and training. The new kids were taking hits better. Once they realized they healed quickly, they weren't as scared of getting hurt. The group was starting to come together. Getting to know each other. The younger girls were especially thick as thieves. Birdie finally picked a new name. She decided she didn't want to be only how she appeared. She was dark and broody looking, but she wanted to be happy and sunny. So, Sunny became her new name. Everybody liked it. So far, John was still John. It seemed to suit him and nobody had given him a nickname yet. That night, they all watched Star Wars-Iggy's pick, of course. Dani finally got what he was talking about.
oooOOOOOooo
Dani was trying to spend time with all of the new kids. They were all trying to get to know each other better. But she found herself looking forward to being around Iggy most of all. She could talk about almost anything with him. He never seemed to be trying to impress her. She liked that about him. In the group, he was the sarcastic wit, the dry humor. But one on one, he was attentive and his geekiness was endearing.
They sat in the grass, talking, after walking to a field of wildflowers Dani spotted while flying around one day. They could have flown, but it was easier to have a conversation on the ground. As they talked, Dani sat close to him and made sure her hand or shoulder would brush his occasionally. He didn't seem to be taking the hint.
She sighed heavily out of frustration.
Maybe he wasn't interested. Maybe he was too shy. There was only one way to find out. She could ask him how he felt or she could just kiss him again. What was the worst that could happen? He'd say 'thanks, but no thanks' and she'd be a little embarrassed.
Then out of the blue, his lips were on hers. Caught unaware, she sat there, thinking, how did he do that? He couldn't see her and he didn't feel for her, yet he planted his mouth squarely on hers. She was momentarily startled. Her lack of response caused him to pull back and subtly put space between them.
"Uh, I'm sorry," he said, uncomfortably. "I thought you were flirting with me." His face reddened.
Dani practically pounced on him, pushing him on his back and pinning him down in the grass. She smashed her mouth on his and kissed him hard. Too hard. She was actually hurting him a little. Iggy rolled until she was on her back and he was leaning over her. He kissed her full lips softly and slowly until she relaxed. She could feel the small scar on his lip as he brushed his mouth against hers. Not quite kissing, but teasing, it made her yearn for more. They lay in the grass kissing, unaware of time, before breaking apart.
"Well, that ended up much better than it started off," she laughed.
"Yeah, I think I'm gonna have a bruise," he smiled, touching his lip.
"Sorry," she said, self-consciously. "I guess I was a little too enthusiastic."
"Enthusiastic is good," he grinned.
"When you first kissed me, you caught me off guard. I didn't want you to think I wasn't interested."
"No, you were pretty clear," he said.
"So now what?" she asked.
"What do you mean?"
"Am I going to be your girlfriend?"
He blushed. She sure wasn't shy. "Do you want to be?"
"Absolutely." She kissed him, gently this time. "But maybe we could be kind of quiet about it for a while. Jeb doesn't seem to be too keen on Max and Fang being together. I'd rather not be under the microscope, if you know what I mean."
"Me neither," he agreed. "But," he paused, "Fang already knows that I like you, and that we kissed in my room."
Dani smiled. "That's okay. Something tells me he's a good secret keeper. We should be getting back to the house. I think they expect us to make dinner again."
Holding hands, they walked home, grinning like a couple of Cheshire cats.
oooOOOOOooo