Iggy's POV
Any other time I talk to Sage, I'm fine.
Usually she's the nervous one. Well that totally changed.
My hands were sweating, so even though I wanted to hold her hand, I couldn't.
And you know those butterflies you get in your stomach? I had those too.
So let's see… sweaty hands? Check. Stomach threatening to hurl up dinner? Check. Now all I needed was to mess up my words when I spoke. Hopefully I wouldn't do that.
We'd flown all day towards the western side of the continent because Max was looking for someone.
So now we were in the Rocky Mountains. On a ledge, I believe, but kinda like a cave in the fact that it was closed over.
We'd all done our own thing after dinner, which consisted of mountain rabbit and desert rats over the fire which I started.
Max and Fang went off flying somewhere, so I was in charge.
Nudge, Angel and Gazzy were falling asleep and telling stories by the fire.
This left me and Sage. I really wanted to speak to her.
"Sage," I began.
"Yeah?"
She was lying down on her stomach and I was sitting next to her, stroking her soft hair.
"I kinda wanted to talk to you about something…"
"Ok"
I fell silent for a moment, preparing for whatever reaction Sage might give me.
"Sage…I…well over the past couple days…I…" great. The talking thing did happen.
"Let me just tell you straight out. Sage, I know that we've only known each other for a short while, but I really…Sage I really like you!"
Total silence for a minute or two.
Then I took her face in my hands and pressed my cold lips against hers, and a feeling I wasn't too familiar with began to take over.
I held her face in my hands as she held me around my neck.
The kiss was everything I'd ever expected a kiss to be.
It was fierce, desiring, passionate, and my lips didn't leave hers for quite a while.
When they did, my arms were wrapped around her waist and we were both breathing heavily.
I held her in my embrace as she fell asleep, and waited for Max and Fang to return.
Sage's POV
Max had us stop on this ledge thing.
I guess it was where we'd take shelter for the night.
Fang and Gazzy had gone out for food, and Iggy started the fire. Kinda strange since he is blind.
What Gazzy and Fang brought back was rabbit and rats, better than anything they'd ever served me back at the Institute.
Max and Fang had gone off somewhere, doing who knows what, and Max put Iggy in charge.
Angel, Nudge, and Gazzy were drifting off to sleep by the fire and talking about what Max and Fang could be doing.
"Maybe they're looking for a place for us to stay," said Nudge excitedly.
Yea right.
The fire had made the cave all cozy and warm, but it was dying down.
I was a bit tired, so I lay on my stomach, my chin resting in my hands.
Iggy was stroking my hair, something he did so normally now that nobody even questioned it anymore, and just listening to the night sounds.
He was so, amazing.
No one had ever connected with me like Iggy did, not even Caleb, another bird kid like ourselves who I had watched die before my very eyes.
He was sick all the time, so those whack jobs who call themselves scientists decided to put him down. I wanted to scream when I saw them put the needle into his back. When they took it out, he fell limp immediately.
I'd never forget Caleb who was more like a brother than anything else to me.
"But that was in the past, and this is now" I thought to myself.
"Sage," I heard Iggy say.
"Yeah?"
"I kinda wanted to talk to you about something…"
"Ok"
Iggy was quiet, probably thinking about what he'd say next.
"Sage…I…well over the past couple days…I…"
I waited for Iggy to say what he wanted to say.
"Let me just tell you straight out. Sage, I know that we've only known each other for a short while, but I really…Sage I really like you!"
I was stunned.
I felt Iggy's rough hands take my face as his lips touched mine.
My stomach got all fluttery and my head swam with thoughts that I'd just have to deal with later.
I wrapped my hands around his neck as his kisses got more intense.
It felt as if we were like this for an eternity.
When he let go, we were both breathing heavily.
"I love you" he whispered as I fell asleep in his arms.