Part 11, finally a part up earlier than it should be rather than later. You can tell i had nothing to do today, right? =P besides hoover the stairs and phone doctors and things. Updates might cease for a little bit soon, blood test came back clear so its a specialist next, yaaaay... This chapter is Fang attempting to cheer Max up. Its fluff and not much plot =P so yeah, if you dont like fluff dont read.

dallascowboysncountrymusicfan: You liked that fluff, you should like this =P and now you mention it...it does kinda remind me of peter pan XD

happyasusual4: no worries lol, my reviews are always really vague...thanks for thinking though =3

5253Racer: Thankyees for reading :)

Part 11

Fang sneaked glances at Max as they made their way back towards the park. She looked exactly how he was feeling beneath his stony façade. Her head was angled towards the ground, her step slower than usual. She hadn't needed the reminder of what they'd lost. All the thoughts she'd stored at the back of her mind, images of her family blotted from her conscious so she could carry on, were dancing behind her eyes.

Fang tightened his hand around hers. They needed a holiday. Bad.

It was this that prompted the suggestion of eating out for once. Not in the dumpster exploration sense, but at a proper restaurant, with tables and forks and napkins and entrees. Max hadn't jumped at the idea first, her usual paranoia of public places kicking in at the mere suggestion, but Fang insisted. He'd be just as nervous as she was, but she needed this. Something to distract her.

They wandered slowly down a street near the park, having no idea where to actually go to find a place to eat out. All of the restaurants along this road looked posh and expensive. Not that it mattered about the money now they had a bank card, but more the fact they'd stick out like a sore thumb in their tattered, bedraggled clothes. Finally, after about ten minutes searching, they decided on a restaurant on the corner of the street.

It was, to say the least, huge. And certainly posh. Fang pulled open the heavy glass door with ease, motioning Max to go ahead of him. Inside the foyer, it looked even bigger than the outside gave it credit for. Like they'd walked from the street into a manor house. Around the tables, poshly dressed people sipped wine and laughed at murmured jokes. Max pulled a face.

The certainly weren't going to blend here.

They set about looking like normal, hungry people, waiting as patiently as a starving bird kid can for a waiter to notice them. Not surprisingly, it didn't take long.

"Can I help you?" A waiter with a piece of white material flopped over his arm stepped up to the menu podium, eyeing the teens in a discerning manor. He viewed them with a slight look of disgust just visible by the grimace in the corner of his mouth. He probably wanted to turn them away and help kick them out the door.

"Table for two please" Fang stated smoothly, his stony face set to its usual seriousness. Max gave the waiter a smile, wishing Angel was here to play her Bambi eyes on the guy. His look of distain didn't shift.

"Are you waiting for your parents?" he asked snootily, looking up behind them towards the glass doors. No one on their way in. He sighed, annoyed at having to deal with riff-raff off the street. Near the park was no place to put a restaurant of such caliber.

"I'm treating my boyfriend with my birthday money," Max lied, keeping her smile plastered across her face, hoping to God it didn't look fake. Fang repressed raising his eyebrow and instead took her hand, giving the waiter a curt nod coupled with his usual, piercing stare.

"Apparently I'm not allowed to pay," Fang added evenly, rolling his eyes slightly at the waiter. "Women, right?"

Finally, the waiter let a small smirk grace his face. It was a tiny, hardly noticeable like Fang's own smile. "One moment please, and I'll find you a table." There was still reservation playing in his eyes, but the waiter tuned and walked out into the restaurant, assumedly to find a spare couple of seats.

Max elbowed Fang in the ribs, who gave her a 'What?' look. She rolled her eyes exasperatedly, and he flashed her his ever so adorable smirk. Max couldn't help but smile with him. He'd got them a table after all, even if it was at her expense.

The waiter soon returned, picking up two over sized menus and beckoning them to follow. He looked flustered, like he'd had an argument with someone and lost. Thinking nothing of it, the couple followed, still hand in hand, as he led them to their table.

Settling into a two seat table in a corner, Max looked about nervously, checking for exits. The kitchen wasn't too far away. That could be an emergency exit point if necessary. That and the huge windows that lined the place could also be a valuable escape route, if not a bit exposed if there were people outside. Sighing, she sit back and looked up. Above them was a huge skylight, orange sky could be seen though it. The sun was setting. Beautiful as always.

"We got $200 out, right? That's probably going to cover the tip." Fang mumbled, his face buried in the menu in front of him. Max picked up her own and almost had a heart attack. Good thing they had this card, or they'd have to make a run for it before they spent any money. She scanned the menu herself, noting the wide variety of stuff to choose from at ridiculous prices.

It had better taste good.

"When did I get upgraded to boyfriend?" Fang asked, still hiding his face behind the enormous menu. Max flushed slightly, picking up her own menu to hide behind.

"I had to tell him something convincing," she mumbled a response just loud enough for him to hear. "I couldn't exactly go 'Well, my parents wear white lab coats and play with genetics, but we're fine on our on thanks' could I?" She heard Fang chuckle. Been a looong time since he'd done that,

"Well would have made good conversation," Fang replied a few seconds after, flopping his menu onto the table and running his finger down the list of steaks.

Figures, Max thought, resting her own menu back against he table now her flush had gone. She had absolutely no idea what to have. She was also pretty sure they'd have to order more than one thing to fill up their starved 3000 calorie crunching appetites.

"Excuse me, are you ready to order?" it was the waiter, back again and armed with a pad and pen. He seemed to be cheerful enough, the redness in his face having faded to a very slight pink. Fang looked up, noting the fake smile with ease.

He'd seen Max's too many times.

"Ladies first," Fang gestured to Max on the other side of the table. "Especially since she's paying," he smirked very slightly. Max stuck her tongue out, ignoring the look the waiter gave her for it as she dove back into her menu,

"I think I'll have the prawn cocktail thingy, and then…the maple glazed roast pork loin with all the stuff it comes with…how big is that?" Max asked, looking up at the waiter. He blinked, looking down at Fang who simply shrugged. Slowly, the waiter pulled his hands apart in front of him in a prediction of the size of the pork loin. Max cocked her head.

"Not very big…I'll have two of those." The waiter blinked at her again as she continued. "And a bleu cheese salad, with an iced tea and a coke." She looked up. The waiter was still giving her funny looks. "What?" she asked. "Got to save room for dessert."

After a few moments the waiter flicked his pad open and wrote as much of the order as he could remember down, already deciding these kids were having him on. They didn't look well dressed enough to even be in here with their parents, let alone on their own with birthday money. Maybe she stole it… he thought, now looking at Fang.

"The Lobster Bisque," he said simply, not looking back down to the menu. "And a Prime rib. Do bottles of water?" The waiter nodded. "One of those as well."

The waiter looked back at Max. "Are you sure you'll be able to eat all of this?" he pressed again, running his pen down the list on his notepad. "Two pork loins is a lot of meat, they aren't really that small…"

"Nope, I'm a heart eater." Max waved off his concerns and folded the menu shut, holding it out to him. He took it, giving her one last, slightly annoyed look and turned to Fang. He seemed to be nose deep in the menu still.

"I'll take that for you Sir, and bring you bread and drinks." he said, reaching to take the menu away from him. Fang folded it and held it out, but didn't let go when the waiter took and tugged slightly on the opposite end.

"I'll get a lasagne too," he said as he let go, dropping his arm back onto the table. "And an ice tea." The waiter blinked a few times, nodded and took the menus away. Fang turned his attention back to Max, who was playing with the tablecloth nervously.

"Think they were shocked by how much we ordered," he commented. Max brought her eyes back up to meet his and nodded.

"Hopefully they'll just let us eat it and go, I mean, you'd think they'd want us to buy more, wouldn't you? To spend more." She looked back down at the tablecloth, gently pulling at the threading.

Their drinks and bread rolls turned up soon afterward. As Max was buttering her fifth roll, she noted the waiter returning with a rather large and snooty looking man. He had a curly mustache turned up in a silly fashion and looked like he was exploding out of his trousers. Fang turned to follow her gaze as he popped the last of his roll into his mouth. Sighing, he turned back to look at Max, speaking after he swallowed.

"Least we got the free bread," he muttered, putting his butter knife down and reaching for another roll. By the time he broke it in half, the waiter and his new companion had stopped at their table.

"Hello there." Yup. His voice was as snooty as he looked. "I'm the manager of this establishment. I understand there's some issues with your order." He was looking at Fang, who was quietly buttering another piece of bread. After he finished, he looked up at the man beside him.

"I didn't think there was an issue," he said, taking a bite from his roll. The manager didn't seem to agree.

"It was reported to me you ordered a rather substantial amount of food for just the pair of you. Are you waiting to be joined by your parents?" Fang chewed his bread slowly, taking his time to swallow before answering.

"Not that I'm aware. We're just hungry." he stated, taking yet another bite, hiding a smirk as the manager started to go red like a tomato. Max was quietly munching on her on roll, her eyes flicking between the ever reddening Manager and Fang's cool, calm exterior.

"Well, we wouldn't want to waste food, especially if it didn't need to be ordered." Manager Man continued politely, now taking a glance at Max.

"It wouldn't be, we'd eat it." she chimed in between bites of rolls. Fang simply nodded in agreement. I it was possible to go more red than tomato, the manager went there.

"Perhaps you'd be more comfortable in a different restaurant," he added, a fake smile much like the waiter's plastered across his face. Fang frowned slightly.

"But we want to eat here., and we have money. What's the problem?" He queried in one of the longest sentences Fang had ever said.

The manager opened his mouth to reply, but was cut off by police sirens blaring out from the street. The waiter smirked, and Max wanted to punch him. Why the hell did they need to call the cops?! They just wanted t eat something decent! Fang was already on his feet. They were in a corner after all, not much you can do in the way of escaping if they had you cornered from the off.

Policemen swarmed in from the front doors and the kitchen, surrounding them before Max really had a chance to get out of her corner. Fang, by principle, wasn't going to dash off without her.

"Come on kids, we'll take you to the station ad call your parents." One officer suggested in a soft voice, obviously she was the 'Good Cop'. 'Bad cop' could be seen near the entrance to the kitchen a stick already in his hand. Max flinched as it hit his palm with a loud 'thwack'. Fang was searching the place for other exits, shimmying round the back of the table to get next to Max.

"Cops outside as well. U and A?" he whispered to her, motioning up to the ceiling. She took a glance up and noticed the skylight once more. Great. There was only one way to get up there. If here were cops outside they couldn't just break through a window and make a run for it. They could be hiding anywhere. After a few seconds, she nodded.

"On three." Police were closing in, surrounding their little corner. She felt Fang's muscles tense next to her, ready to jump.

"One." Fang took one jump onto the table and leapt off it, opening his large, black wings wide and moving them powerfully to keep airborne. All of the police officers mouths hit the floor in amazement, giving Max enough time to get onto the table and leap off, unfurling her own tawny wings. Fang was heading for the skylight at full speed, tucking his wings in and covering his head as he smashed through the delicate glass. Max quickly grabbed an untouched breadbasket and followed Fang out the skylight, tucking her wings in to avoid ripping them to shreds.

Outside, police officers stood and stared as the two teens flew across the sky and away from the commotion now coming from the restaurant. After a full circle way up in the clouds to check no one was watching, they descended into the all too familiar park, into the tallest three they could find.

"Gawd, was I wrong to think we could get a single nights peace…" he muttered irritably, leaning his head back against the thick tree trunk with his eyes closed.

"Was a nice idea though, Fang…" Max's voice broke the silence a few moments later, so soft it was almost lost in the wind.

"Shame it didn't work out. Didn't help at all." he replied just as quietly, clenching and un-clenching his fist in annoyance. After a few seconds, he turned his head in the direction her voice had come from. He could see her hair pressed against the trunk where she rested her head, but nothing more. She shrugged, not really realising he couldn't see her.

"It's the thought that counts," Max mumbled softly. Another Jeb phrase. They needed to read a few books or something, seriously. He was still quite beat up about it not working out. After all, he just wanted her to forget about not being normal, and all the crap they went through every day.

Having to fly out a skylight in front of 50-odd gawking people hadn't really helped that much.

Something tapped him on the arm. Turning, he saw Max's hand holding out a basket of bread, her face peeking just round the tree trunk. Smiling at her, he took a couple of the rolls and bit into one, wishing he'd thought to take some butter with him. Though it probably would have ended up with glass in it.

"Thank you," Max whispered as she nestled back onto her branch, taking a roll out the basket herself to nibble it. Fang heard, but he didn't reply. They sat in silence as they finished off the rolls between them, Max jamming the empty basket between a fork in the branches before settling back into her place and closing her eyes.

"Max..?" Fang's voice sounded through the silence.

"Mm..?" she queried, keeping her eyes closed as she started drifting off to sleep. It was a quiet evening, it wouldn't take long to drift off withstood anything to prevalent to worry about.

"Am I still boyfriend, or just Fang?" Max opened her eyes. Now that caught her off guard. Peering back round the tree truck, she could see Fang sat in a similar way to how she had been. His head was leant back against the tree, his eyes closed. One leg was extended along his branch, the other flopped lazily over the side, hanging in the air.

"We'll see," she whispered, hoping he wouldn't look round. He didn't, just smiled very slightly to himself as he slipped a little further down the tree trunk, getting comfortable.

"Night," he whispered back, folding his arms into his lap.

"Night…" Max mumbled, letting a smile grace her own face as she settled back against the tree trunk and tucked her chilly hands into her jacket.

The whole day had been a complete waste of time, then…