Okay! Here's the next chapter, and thanks SO MUCH for the amazingness of your epic reviews (does that make sense? Yes, it does.) aaaaand favoriting or alerting my story and mee! hehehehe :D so anyways. Without further ado. Next chapter.
Max stood there helplessly, her arms around Gazzy, who was shaking. Angel was sitting dejectedly in a chair, with no more hope of getting any connection with anyone, when she suddenly waved her hands and gave a shout.
"MAX! I got Iggy! Let's see...he's got Nudge...she's unconscious...oh god..." Angel winced. "You probably don't even want to know what he thinks of the eraser..."
"Nudge is unconscious?" Max said frantically. "And did you say erasers?"
"Not erasers, eraser. There was only one hanging around. Iggy looked around, but there were no more," Angel explained. "I can't believe Fang just left, and didn't even try to help Nudge or anything when she got attacked! He couldn't have been that far away!"
Max just groaned.
"He's getting closer to home..." Angel was muttering. "Closer, closer..."
At that moment, Iggy burst through the window with Nudge in his arms. "Take her," he said, gasping for breath. "Take her and lie her down. She got hurt pretty bad. Just...I just saw one eraser, there were no other around. Just one. Please, bandage her before something else happens."
Max didn't need to be told twice. She dashed over to Iggy and took Nudge carefully. Placing her on the bed, she ordered Gazzy and Angel to bring her bandages, and soon she was at work on Nudge's injuries. She had bleeding scars all over her body, and Max teared up a third time that night. She splashed water on Nudge's face, who woke up from her dream and whimpered.
"You're going to be okay, you're going to be okay," Max said soothingly to Nudge, pushing her matted hair away from her face. "Don't leave me like Fang left me. Don't leave me like Fang left me," she enunciated, which made tears trail down her cheeks.
Through heavy breathing, Nudge managed a nod...she was okay. Max cried in relief, stood up, and turned to Iggy. "You're hurt! Sit down, I'm going to wrap up your arm. It's bleeding to heavily. Right now. GO," she ordered him harshly, when he wasn't obeying.
While Max was trying to palliate Iggy's pain, Angel was roaming - more like limping - around the room restlessly. "You guys! I got Fang! Barely, but I'm getting some of his emotions! Oh wow, he doesn't feel too good right now..."
"He shouldn't," Max snapped, and then said more quietly: "At least, not completely. Where is he right now?"
"I don't know. Oh! Wait...he just thought the word 'cave'. Do you think..."
Max leaped up out of her chair, and finished Iggy's bandaging with a flurry. "We are so stupid!" she shrieked. "Of course he'd be at the cave he told me he'd meet me in twenty years! The cave where he first learned to fly with the hawks. I'm going, you guys, and alone." When Iggy started to stand up, she shook her head. "No, Iggy, you should stay. Nudge needs you," she said softly. He couldn't argue with that.
"Max, can I come, can I come?" Gazzy asked eagerly. "I really wanna see Fang again!"
"You will, honey," Max bend down to ruffle his hair. "I just think I should do this alone, but then I'll hopefully be able to bring him back..." Max bit her lip. "I hope. And then you can all see him again! Besides, he was going to come back anyway!"
"Stay safe, Max," Angel told her, giving her one of the big hugs that Max missed so much. "I will," she replied. "Go and sit down, Angel, you're going to weaken yourself more." Max thought about telling them about the elixir, but didn't. She wasn't completely sure that she'd find Fang.
"Will you be able to fly?" Iggy asked, his voice a near whisper from the strain.
"I will," Max smiled, and then smiled bigger, grinning wide and showing her straight white teeth in a long time. "In fact, it's what I've been dying to do for the last month. Stay safe, you guys, I love all of you." With that, she climbed up on the windowsill, losing her weakness, spread out her wings, and jumped into the sky.
The flight was not a long one, but it felt like minutes in heaven for Max. She spread her arms wide, and felt the air swish between her fingers as if she'd never flown before. She yelled in joy for the first time in weeks and somersaulted through the air over and over again. Her laughter rang out clear in the peaceful night sky.
Not a single eraser blocked her path, which just added to the intense happiness she was feeling. However, her happiness dropped just as she sighted the cave, and a new mixture of fright, joy, anticipation, anger, and guilt filled her from head to toe. She was going to see Fang for the first time in weeks. She had seen Fang a few minutes ago, but that didn't count - she had barely gotten a chance to look at him before he'd left her. For the second time in her life, even after promising that he'd never leave her again. Max thought that Fang totally deserved what she had written in her first letter to him.
She neared the cave, slowed down, and skidded to a halt on the edge of the cave. She peeked inside, her heart beating right through her chest, and saw him. He was sitting with his arms around his legs, and his head was buried in his arms. No, Fang's not crying, she told herself fervently. He's not crying. He's NOT crying.
She was shell-shocked to watch him like that, the Fang she knew breaking down and releasing everything inside him. He was still silent, but she knew how he felt. He had probably never unleashed any tears in his life, other than when he was born. Even then she wondered if he had cried. He was sitting in front of a pile of wood. Flames were growing and shrinking on top of the chips.
Max slowly walked inside, and stood in front of him, waiting, until he lifted his head. A bomb of emotions went through his wet eyes, but disappeared, just like that. His hair was still perfect, even though it was messed up...Fang could look hot any way he wanted. His black clothes were rumpled and his cheeks stained with tears, but Max saw just the Fang she'd remembered. He had gotten even more handsome in six weeks.
"Why did you leave me?" she asked, her hands on her hips. Her voice wasn't too harsh, though - it was calm and deadly.
"Did I not explain all of it in my letter?" he groaned.
"Was there any reason to not explain why you left? Would it have hurt us?"
"Yes, yes it would have," he said warily. "You would have come after me, and you would have gotten hurt."
"Yeah? I would have gotten hurt?" she said furiously.
"No, no no!" Fang said, exasperated, his voice getting louder. It was one of the few time she'd heard him talk with so much emotion. "You would have done fine! But if you had come, Iggy would come with you! You wouldn't let the flock come, but that's only Nudge, Gazzy, and Angel left, so what would they do at home? Would your mother be able to handle four children, including Angel?"
A silence followed this. Max finally took a deep breath, and her voice came out croaky. "You know I would have," she admitted. "But if I'd done the same thing, I'd have told you and everyone else without a doubt. Maybe not even everyone else, but you."
Fang was silent, and Max knelt down to look him eye-to-eye; he was still sitting with his back against the cave. Finally, Fang nodded. "I know. You don't know how hard it was for me to leave you, and not tell you where I was going. It was harder than stopping smoking, at least I think, and you know how I feel about you. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Max. But I guess you have someone else now." Hurt passed through his eyes, and Max felt like squeezing him tight.
"Ugh! You misunderstood it, Fang! That stupid 'perfect other half' came by and mashed his disgusting lips on mine. Before, he even checked to make sure you were watching, and I was too stupid to realize! I hate, him, Fang, I hate him! He lied to me about you, and that's something I will never forgive!" She guessed Fang could see the fierceness in her eyes, because he stood up and looked at her in wonder. Max stood up too, so he wouldn't watch her melt under his glance.
"So you're single?" his voice was hopeful.
"Not for long," she said, and smiled. Her smile disappeared in seconds. "But if you weren't such a douchebag, I never would have become single."
In swift movements, Fang had her pinned up against the wall, one hand gluing her hand to the wall, and one hand lingering dangerously close to her throat. "Do not call me a douchebag. At least I left for something worthwhile," he hissed. Max could see the flickering fire reflected in his impossibly dark eyes.
"All right, fine," She told him, breathing rapidly. His face was inches from hers, and she could feel his heat warming her body. "You're not one."
He loosened his grip, and let me go. Max moved closer to him, and he wrapped her in his arms, the arms she had missed for so long. "I just thought..." he hesitated.
"You thought what?" Max asked, looking up at him. "That Max doesn't need you because she's better off without you? That the world is more important than Max?"
"You are my world," he whispered, and his lips were on hers. She kissed him back, throwing her arms around his neck, and the movement was so quick that he stumbled and fell, her on top of him. Max didn't even think of letting him up; she only laughed and put her mouth on his again. "I love you," she murmured. She felt him smile against her lips.
SO? How was that? I LOVE MUSHY ENDINGS! :D (btw it's not the end of the story yet...I haven't forgotten about Niggy! I also need to end it with all that stuff about what happens next...but in the meantime please REVIEW and let me know how I did!) Thanks for reading!
xoxo