Wishing
Fang
Thirteen
"He's not a child anymore, Max," I sighed for the hundredth time ever since we started this conversation. Gazzy had announced that he was going out with Lilly now at dinner, and now Max was basically panicking. She was complaining about how Gazzy was too young, even though the two are the age Max and I were when we got together.
That was one of the best ages to be back when we were still on the run because Max had finally admitted that she liked me. I could see why Max was reacting like she is; she saw Gazzy as her own little boy, which was reasonable. She had, after all, raised him basically since he was a baby like he was her own son. Even now, when she has a child of her own, she still sees him as her little boy; I understood. I saw Angel as my little girl, but I think I have a good two years before she starts seeing boys like I saw Max.
There was one thing that was bothering me; Riddle already had serious guy friends and I was worried. She was four, she should be thinking that boys still have cooties; she should be running when a boy gets near her. But, nope, she's too sweet to run and instead she happily meets a boy and befriends him. I could tell that she would soon be more of a handful than she already is because of boys. If any of them lay a hand on my baby or Angel- my other baby-, they would be dead in seconds; I was snapped out of my thoughts by Max.
Max whirled on me, murder raging in her eyes, "He is a child, Fang! He's my little boy, and now he's... he's growing up, and it just isn't... it isn't fair!" she exclaims as tears spring up into her eyes. I curse mentally and quickly get up from our bed to wrap my arms around her and pull her quickly into my chest. She fights my hold for a second before she burst into tears and clung onto me as if for dear life.
I lead her back to sit on our bed, her curled up in the fetal position on my lap while I calmly stroked her hair. "You and I have to face it, Max, they're growing up and we can't do anything about it." She hiccups, but nods, giving in; she cries for a few minutes longer before her sobs turn into nothing more but sniffles.
The flock and I felt bad; Max had gone through a lot these past four years and we weren't much of a help. She was juggling bills, a daughter, a boyfriend, school issues with the kids, and she has to worry about the publicity. We were helping out as much as possible by getting jobs, but Nudge is still worrying about college. Over the past couple years, she had turned into a little genius, and she was getting early scholarships already. But, with the way things were going now, she was considering going to a college in Alaska so she could stay at home.
Max looks up at me, "Come on, I need your help with dinner before the Fritz's get here," she sighed tiredly.
"The who's?" I ask, confused.
She gulped audibly, "I forgot to tell you, didn't I? Dammit, I knew I forgot something! You remember how Riddle was talking about her new little friend... Sam?" I nod tensely, the name bringing back memories that I wished would disappear forever. "Yeah, I invited him and his parents over for dinner, and they'll be here in about two hours."
"What?!" I glare at her as she jumps to her feet and sprints out of our room. "MAX!" I yell, chasing after her down the hallway and straight into the kitchen.
When I arrive, Max is on the opposite side of the island table so it would take me longer to get to her. She was staring back at me, a look of determination on her facial features even though I could see the worry in her eyes. "Promise me you'll be good, Fang! Come on, this is your daughter's new best friend and his parents, you have to be nice to show that you're a good father, which you are. It's just that they already think badly of us because of how young we were when we had Riddle; promise me!"
I roll my eyes, angrily crossing my arms over my chest, "I don't have to promise anything," I object.
"DADDY!" a voice exclaims before Max can go back to yelling at me.
Then I'm suddenly on the ground, a very happy Riddle sitting on my stomach as she kisses my cheek. "Hey, Babydoll, what's going on?" I ask wrapping an arm around her tiny waist and carefully getting back onto my feet. I fell down on purpose so that Riddle wouldn't bounce off of me- like Max tends to do- and hurt herself.
Riddle grins at me happily, "I want you to come play with me while Mummy fixes dinner," she says. I look at Max, who was clearly giving me a look that said "this-isn't-over", but she smiles at our daughter anyways.
"Go ahead, Hun, play before Sam gets here," the motherly nature in her makes me love her more than I already do, which is nearly impossible. "Oh, and Fang, I'm inviting Lilly and her family over, too, so they can meet everyone else. Have fun!" she grins at me icily; I frown and take Riddle up to her room even though I was brooding on the inside.
**Max's POV**
Okay, so maybe it wasn't very nice to invite people over for dinner without consulting Fang first. I was used to bringing people over for dinner without having to talk to anyone first, though, so I guess I just forgot. Ever since I met Tess and JJ after all of these years, we just instantly clicked because they understood me. They remembered the flock back when we met in that school Anne Walker forced us to go to. Tess moved to Alaska to be with her husband, Blake, and JJ moved to Alaska because she got a job opportunity.
"Iggy! A little help, please!" I yell, glancing anxiously over at the oven clock. The guests would be here in less than an hour and dinner wasn't even halfway finished. Iggy appears in the doorway moments later, taking survey over the mess I called a kitchen.
He raised an eyebrow, "Is the new chef asking the new one for help?" he feigns shock, putting a hand over his heart.
I roll my eyes at him, "No, the terrible chef is telling the amazing one to make dinner while the bad one cleans the living room." Iggy chuckled, bumping me out of the way, basically telling me to leave him to it. I head to the living room, groaning when I see all of the toys scattered on the floor; Angel and Riddle hadn't cleaned up from when they played dress up. "Angel and Riddle Ride, get both of your butts down here right now!" I yell.
"Uh-oh," Fang was standing at the foot of the stairs, his arms crossed over his extremely gorgeous chest. He was smirking, "Mama's mad girls, I would get down here!" he winks at me cockily and then disappears into the kitchen.
Riddle appears first; she comes running down the stairs since I hadn't had a chance to teach her how to fly. I know, I probably should've gotten that over with when she was two or three, but I didn't want to. As soon as she starts flying, that's the breaking point of when she stops being my baby. That's when she becomes a child, a child that will just get older and older until she eventually realizes being a momma's girl isn't cool. I didn't want Riddle to get older like Angel had; I want to keep my baby a baby for as long as possible.
My little girl looks up at me with her wide dark, dark brown eyes that were almost black; I could see the familiar gold specks in the depths. "What's wrong Mommy?" she asks.
"I asked you yesterday to clean up after you and Angel were done playing dress up, what happened?" I cross my arms, trying to remain stern. She was just so adorable and I would break down for her; I had to get back into Leader Max mode and fast. Going for a fly should help with that; I decide that I would go tomorrow just for a little me time.
Riddle bites down on her bottom lip, studying the messy living room, "Oopsie. I'm sorry, Mommy, I guess we just forgot because we wanted to go upstairs and paint you some pictures when we finished."
"Where's Angel, Princess?"
Riddle taps her bottom lip with her finger on the hand that wasn't holding the familiar black panther. "I think she said she was going to go for a fly because she was really sad."
"WHAT?! She just left?!" I exclaimed.
My little girl looks down at the ground, fiddling with her black panther and refusing to make eye contact with me. "Yeah, Mommy, I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner. But, Angel said not to tell anyone or else she wouldn't help me make you a necklace when she got back. I don't know where she went, but I saw something down in the backyard behind the fence. Angel met the thing and then they both just... left."
I was now panicking; not only was my other little girl missing, but I have company coming over for dinner on the same night. "FANG! NUDGE! GAZZY! CODE RED!" I scream, scooping up Riddle and rushing to the front door. "You," I point at my daughter, "stay here with Uncle Iggy, you hear me?" I cut my eyes at her.
She nods quickly, "Yes, Mommy, I promise!" she pouts her lips and salutes me.
Fang, Nudge, and Gazzy all ran in front of me where I was slipping on my bright red trench coat and buttoning it up while trying to put on my combat boots. "Woah, Max, what's going on? Where are you going?" Fang grabs my biceps to make me stop.
"Angel went off with someone, and Riddle said that Angel told her not to tell me; that means that Angel doesn't want me to know about who she's with. So, I'm going over to some of her friends' houses to check if she's there. In the meantime, I want all three of you to go look around here. If you find her, call me," I ordered, shoving my cell phone into my pocket.
Gazzy looked like he was about to faint, "She went off with someone?! On purpose?!"
I knew without asking that he was thinking about the time when Angel was abducted and taken back to the School. "It's okay, Gaz, I'm sure she's fine," I give my little trooper a forced smile and go to the kitchen to tell Iggy to call me if Angel got back before us. The four of us left, separating; the three of them took to the skies while I went to my car to call some numbers while visiting houses.
**Angel's POV***
"I didn't even know Erasers could have a child," I laughed slightly, stepping over yet another fallen tree. My pink high-tops were slipping and sliding on all of the damp leaves that were once covered by snow. Alaska was slowly getting warmer, and all of the previous five inches or so of snow was quickly melting. When I had agreed to this, I didn't think Drew actually meant that we were going to go hiking just to talk.
Drew shrugged, "They didn't either; they thought they could do... you know unprotected without having the chance of getting my mom pregnant. Turns out, Erasers can reproduce other Erasers, even though I don't prefer to call myself that." He winces as if being called an Eraser really did hurt him; Angel felt bad for her friend.
Her past with Erasers was extremely bad, and she knew it hurt him when she flinched away from his touch occasionally. Like, when he tried to take her hand to help her over a log and she literally yanked her hand away. It's just the thought of Drew being one of those beasts that scared her to death, and it brought back memories. All of those days being tormented and hurt by the beasts were getting between her and Drew. After she yanked her hand away from even touching her, Drew hadn't made a move to touch her in any way.
"Really? How come you don't like to be called an Era-... I mean, you know what?" she winked at him playfully.
But he looked dead serious, "It's because my parents were really bad people when they worked at the School. They hurt... you, Angel. When my mom and I came to pick you up, she immediately recognized you and your family. You were one of the experiments that she and my dad were forced to watch and hurt or capture when they worked there. She feels terrible and so does my dad, but the pay that the School gave was the only thing keeping them alive... free. I don't want to be an Eraser; I don't want to be one of those things that hurt innocent people."
Angel forced herself to get over her fear, and she reached over and grabbed his hand, intertwining their fingers. "Then, what do you call yourself?" she asks interestedly, feeling him relax slightly when she grabbed his hand.
"A werewolf," he chuckles at himself.
Giggling to herself, Angel nods, "Alright then, you're a werewolf and I'm a bird."
They don't say anything for a little while in a comfortable silence, just focusing on the life and the nature surrounding them. "Do-," Drew sighs, "I mean, do you ever wish that you could be normal, Angel?"
Angel shook her head, "I do sometimes; the entire flock sometimes wishes they were normal. At one point, we even tried to find our parents for some kind of reassurance that we were once normal, but not anymore. We don't want to be normal," she glances down at their hands when Drew slightly squeezed hers as if for some kind of comfort.
"Why not?" he looked confused.
"It's just that if we were normal, we wouldn't even be the flock because we probably would've never met. We wouldn't have bonded in the School, and we wouldn't have become the family we are. Sure, we've been through a lot- and I mean, a lot- of pain, but we went through all of it together. When one of us was down, we had four others to help cheer us up again. I don't need my mom because I have Max, and I don't need some workaholic dad because I have Fang, and I don't need a best friend because I have Nudge. Everything I need, is right there in my flock."
Drew grins, "I see your point. I would much rather only have wings instead of a furry body and wings."
"Wait, so since your parents had artificial wings, you got real ones?" Angel asks.
Her friend nods, "Yeah, it's kind of cool. It's just that I have to be in... Eraser form to use them, and I hate looking like that. Sometimes, I'll change and then I'll just look at myself in the mirror; I give myself nightmares occasionally."
Angel takes a deep breath, "Can I... see?"
"See what?"
"You... in werewolf form," Angel tugs them to a stop, taking both of his hand in hers. She wanted to see him like that; she wanted to see him morf. She wanted to get used to it, and then maybe she could stop flinching away from all of the sudden movements that Drew continuously made while they were walking.
Drew stares at her, wide-eyed, "No. I don't want to scare you, Angel. You're my first real friend since... forever, really."
"And, as your friend, I want to see," she demands.
"You'll run," he insists, tugging his hands away from hers.
Angel furiously shakes her head, "Please, Drew, I can take it, okay? I promise I won't run from you," she grabs his arm before he can start walking again.
"Fine," he breathes out, shutting his eyes tightly. Angel stood back, watching as Drew sat on the ground and that was when it started; the first thing that happened was his already long hair got longer and longer. It seemed to attach to his shirt, covering his back and his chest and then covering his legs and then his face. His mouth snapped open and shut as a muzzle was forced to grow where his nose and mouth once was. His hands and feet were turned to paws, his shoes disappearing amongst all of the fur and claws.
"Oh, my God," Angel breathed out as glowing green eyes opened to stare at her. He got to his feet, still at his usual height until someone suddenly tackled him to the ground and they went rolling across the slick leaves in a blur of fur and feathers.