I wasn't entirely sure how I wanted to punish Fang for the blatant breach of trust, but that in itself ended up being a pretty good punishment. I'd immediately left Iggy when he told me he'd made some food and that it was down in the kitchen waiting for me, the others were finishing up.

Fang saw me first when I entered the kitchen, but I quickly continued scanning the others, doing a mental head count of my Flock.

"Are you alright?" he immediately asked, standing.

I ignored him and headed for the counter where a plate of sandwiches sat waiting for me beneath clear plastic wrap.

Mom was at my side, brushing hair away from my forehead. "Are you alright?"

I looked up at her and nodded, taking a bite. "I'm alright I think. Iggy filled me in on what happened." I shot Fang a quick, pointed look in my peripheral that I know he saw.

Mom put her hand to my forehead as I chomped down on my sandwich. "You feel normal now, but let me know if it starts flaring up again, alright? That temperature can have some bad consequences if left unattended. Organ failure, organ death, sterilization—just keep me in the loop, alright?"

I nodded, flicking Nudge's ponytail as she walked past me to put her plate in the sink. "Have you talked to the others yet?"

Mom's eyebrows dropped. "About what?"

"The house," I said slowly, relieved when a smile broke out on her face.

"Oh, no, I thought you and I could go look at it first," she said. "I want you to make sure you think you guys would be safe there. I can always keep looking, but I have to say, it's really nice."

"What house?" Fang asked behind us, but I made a point of keeping my eyes away from him.

"Are we moving?" Nudge asked after a second, a little excitement on her face.

"Maybe," I told her. "Mom was telling me she found a bigger house across town. Lots more room for you guys, a little more privacy in the yards."

"Oh my god, that would be awesome," she gushed. "Can we take off from the yard? Because we can't really go flying in broad daylight here, not without—"

"Maybe," I interrupted. "I do want to check it out, like Mom suggested."

"It's Sunday, so we could probably go poke around the outside later today if you guys wanted."

"It looks nice," Angel piped in from the table next to Fang. She tapped her head once and gestured to Mom when she saw the confused looked I was sending her.

Nudge jumped up and down n her toes, asking Mom all kinds of questions about the house and if she could come with us to go see it. I glanced back over my shoulder, starting on a second sandwich, and glared at Fang, who was listening to Nudge and Mom, his plate and cup empty in front of him.

"Oh yeah," I heard Angel tell him. "She's pissed. You can stop wondering."

Fang stood abruptly and moved to put his plate and cup in the sink before swiftly leaving the kitchen altogether. Good.

"Max, you're gaining weight," Nudge commented. She reached past me and pulled at my wrist, my hand subconsciously gripping the counter with white knuckles.

"Gee, thanks Nudge," I muttered sarcastically around my sandwich. "You're too kind."

"No, I mean, when we found you at the School, you were so skinny," she amended.

"Oh, yeah, nearly a year on an IV diet can do that, I guess," I commented flippantly, finishing the last bite of my second sandwich and reaching for a third.

Mom sighed and tucked some of my hair behind my ear. "Finish eating, shower, we'll head over to the house whenever you're ready."

"Sounds good."

"Is this an open invitation?" Nudge asked, looking at me with wide, pleading eyes. I glanced over at Angel, who was smirking down at her own food.

"Let's just make it a girls' trip," I suggested, grabbing another sandwich and heading for the stairs.

"Gazzy is gonna be so bummed," Angel sighed mockingly.

"Oh, I'll bet," I said with a wink.

I finished my food, showered and dressed before peeking into the boys' room and letting Iggy and Gazzy know we were headed out for a little while. Fang was there, too, but I could see his jaw clench when I addressed Iggy and Gasman specifically.

The house itself was huge, and I expected nothing less from a house with five bedrooms. We couldn't go in without the realtor, mom explained, but since no one was living in it, she figured it would be okay to poke around the outside.

Like she'd said, the area across the street from the house was heavily wooded, which could act as protection for both us and anyone after us, but I put it in my mental Pros column anyways since it would be easy to lose attackers in the woods than worrying about being attacked from it.

Nudge and Angel were more interested in the balconies coming off two of the bedrooms in the back and the huge pool below in the backyard.

"Oh my god, we could totally jump from the balcony into the pool," Nudge was saying, looking between the two.

"Uhm." I peeked over the edge of the pool, which was empty since it was still only the beginning of winter. "This is really not deep enough for that," I told her, watching her face fall. "But I'm sure you will totally have fun anyways."

Angel pushed her wings through the slits in her coat and flew up to one of the balconies, causing Mom to jump a little.

"Please be careful," she called up. "I'm not sure what kind of security alarms this place has."

"These rooms are huge," Angel called back. "There are five of these?"

"Mom gets the master bedroom, of course," I told her. "But the rest are ours to divvy up."

"There are two living rooms and a den, along with a kitchen and dining room on the first floor," Mom read off the pamphlet she'd taken from the plastic container on the For Sale sign when we'd arrived. "And then there's an open basement. We can always turn a room or two on the first floor into another bedroom."

Mom flipped over the paper and I spotted floor plans for the three levels. The master bedroom looked like it was at one end of the house, two bedrooms faced the back, two faced the front. The two in the front were smaller by a bit, and didn't have the balconies that the back two had. The house itself didn't have a garage like other similar houses on the street had.

"Whoever bought the house when it was being built probably requested to turn it into another room," Mom explained when I'd mentioned it.

"Our gain," I murmured, leaning over. "It's the only room on the first floor with a proper door. We can stick two in there as a bedroom." Mom nodded. "Have to be bird kids though, I wouldn't feel comfortable sticking Ella down there away from everyone else in case someone got in at night.

"I agree," Mom mumbled. She looked up at me with a grin. "So you like it?"

Angel hopped off the edge of the balcony and landed in front of us, Nudge joining on my other side.

"We like it," Angel declared, glancing at Nudge.

I glanced around. Woods in front of us, a spacious backyard that was backed up against another thick string of woods. Our neighbors weren't nonexistent, but you couldn't see their houses through the trees that lines the property. It was perfect.

"Alright, I'll call the realtor in the morning and see what I can do," Mom said, gesturing for us to head back to the car.

-x-

Angel and Nudge immediately bounced into the house to start telling the boys about the new house. I passed them wordlessly, making the very conscious decision to ignore Fang, whose eyes I felt on me the whole way.

I followed Mom into the kitchen where Ella was at the kitchen table doing homework, Iggy at the stove already at work on dinner.

"Was it nice?" Ella asked with a grin.

"Oh yeah," I told her, sitting down. "There two rooms in the back have balconies. There's a pool. We didn't get to go inside, but from the windows it looked really nice inside."

"You can come when I do the tour of the inside with the realtor," Mom said, leaning down to kiss her on the top of her head. She dropped the pamphlet in front of Ella.

"So who gets what room?" she asked, flipping it over and seeing the floor plan.

I pulled my legs underneath me and leaned across the table. "That's Mom's," I said, pointing to the biggest bedroom with the bathroom off it. "These two I was thinking were yours and mine, I was thinking of sticking Fang in this one and Iggy and Gazzy can share this one."

"Hey, why do I have to share a room with the Gasman?" Iggy asked, turning around to face the table.

"Because it's a new environment and you can't see," I told him. "Also, we're short on rooms. I'd rather double up the bird kids than have male-female pairs."

"I will veto that," Mom piped in, raising her hand. I pressed my lips together and gestured to Mom, even though Iggy couldn't see me. He shrugged one shoulder in defeat and turned back to the pot in front of him.

"Where are Nudge and Angel?" Ella asked.

I slid my finger down the page to one of the big living rooms. "This room will be theirs. Plenty big enough for them, and it still has a door."

Ella looked up at Mom. "I can stay at the high school though, right? Or would I have to switch?"

"I think I can appeal to let you finish out your last semester here at least," she mused. "It's one semester, you'll live if you have to switch, though. You'll be moving for college soon anyways."

"Sounds good," Ella murmured with a nod. "I look forward to seeing it in person. And finishing this calc homework."

"Ew." I sat back in my chair properly with a laugh. "Can't help you there." I looked over at Iggy. "Let me know if you need any help."

"Ew," he mocked. "You can't help me here."

-x-

It wasn't until dinner that I said anything to him. I sat there, fork in one hand, dinner roll in the other, glaring daggers at him. I chewed slowly and I swore I saw him blush two or three times, but it was hard to tell when he wouldn't look at me anymore. Not when he knew I was staring at him.

Nudge and Angel continued to talk about the house and all the shenanigans they thought Gazzy would get into, creating rules like "No explosives near the pool." But I and Fang both remained silent.

Finally, after a few minutes of awkward silence fell over the entire table, the only sounds being forks on plates, Fang sat up straight in his chair. "Would it help if I said I was sorry?" he said quietly across from me. "You started talking first anyways—ask Iggy."

"Dude," Iggy said quickly before I could say anything. "Don't pull me into this."

"What, you scared?" Nudge teased.

"Of you and that fork? Yes. Of Max, hell yes. Of Fang?" Iggy only shrugged and I had a feeling that a testosterone fueled brawled would begin after dinner.

"Max, I—" Fang started.

"Don't," I snapped, "say anything to me right now. What you did was an invasion of trust, not to mention rude. You knew how I felt and you still egged it on."

"Angel does it every day. She invades everyone's privacy all the time," Gazzy shrugged. I threw him a look and he immediately hunched over his plate and hurried to finish. So the rest of the flock knew, too.

"I don't tell other people things I hear unless absolutely necessary or funny," she grinned.

"And unlike you," I said, glaring at Fang. "She knows when it's appropriate."

"I don't think that was the best word to describe what you meant," Angel smiled. "Try, I know when it's a blatant disregard for the feelings of others."

"I'm sorry," he tried again. "Come on, it wasn't that bad and it's not anything that's really a secret here."

"Just," I sighed, taking my plate to the sink. "No."

"Alright," Mom tried to intervene. "Let's finish up and clean up the table. Ella, you need to finish your homework. I think everyone can use their space for a little while."

Immediately Gazzy jumped up and stacked his plate on Iggy's empty one and took both to the sink, Nudge moving to put things back in the fridge.

"Max," Fang called as I tried to leave the kitchen. I stopped and glanced over my shoulder at him, staying put when I saw the look on his face. "I know this has happened before, and you also talk in your sleep sometimes, so I'm sure the rest of the Flock has experienced you like that before. But like I said, you didn't say anything I don't already know, right? I love you, and I'm fairly certain everyone here knows this. Above all, I'm pretty sure you do. And if you don't, this is me embarrassing myself and telling you now." I watched his face gain a red tinge in his cheeks and fought the urge to flee. "I'm sorry I upset you and embarrassed you, but I'm pretty sure now we're even…"

A silence befell the room and I actually turned to stare him.

"Dude," Iggy said finally. "That was—"

"An entire paragraph!" the Gasman exclaimed. Even Mom seemed a little surprised. Nudge and Ella's jaws were dropped, but Angel was looking around at everyone's shocked faces.

Angel laughed. "You don't hear the things he thinks in his mind, it's like a book." Fang kicked her under the table. "What? I think you hit the nail on the head that we all knew."

"You're different, Angel," Nudge said, crossing her arms. "You know everything everyone thinks."

I just continued to walk down the hall, my mind blank. I didn't know what to think. One thing he said was for sure, that hadn't been easy for him, and we were probably even on the embarrassment front—to a point. But he didn't need to say all that in front of everyone, Mom and Ella included. I closed the bedroom door behind me, hit by a new, refreshed wave of embarrassment.

-x-

I sat on the bed, my head against the wall. I watched the late sun setting, the lines the light drew on the wall moving in different directions by the second.

How could Fang do that to me? He knew why I was against valium. He knew, yet he thought it would be funny to…or did he? Did he really think it was funny? Or was he just trying to learn the truth? I scratched my head and groaned. I knew the most about Fang, but I didn't know the answer to this and that's what bugged me the most. He said he loved me, and I was sure I'd said it to him before, but he clearly meant it differently this time…

A knock on my bedroom door pulled me from my thoughts and before I even answered it I knew who it was.

"I don't want to talk to you," I told Fang, but he brushed past me anyways.

"Too bad," he muttered, closing the door from over my shoulder. "We need to talk about this."

"About what?" I asked flippantly. "How you keep messing with my head and I let you get away with it every time?" I started ticking off on my hand. "Trying to kiss me when we were kids even though I asked you not to, leaving me not once but twice—the second time even after promising—"

"Max," he said sternly, glaring. "Please. Please just listen."

"Alright," I sighed loudly, moving across the room to sit cross-legged on the bed. "Proceed."

"You know how the other night you were telling me to stop harping on you when you knew you had royally messed up?"

"I remember," I confirmed unhappily.

"That is me now, alright? I know. I get it. We should have left the room."

"So why didn't you?" I challenged. "You knew how I felt about it, you knew what was going to happen. Why didn't you take the initiative to leave? I mean, that's actually one of your specialties…"

Fang's face smoothed out and I recognized the poker face. He took a second to himself before he frowned and sat next to me on the bed, rubbing his eyes with the heels of his hands tiredly. "Because seeing you there like that, it reminded me of the School and I just…I got carried away when you started to talk…"

I pressed my lips together. "Sometimes I forget it's only been like two weeks since you broke me out."

He picked up one of my wrists and examined it like Nudge had. "You've been looking healthier lately."

I nodded and poked his cheek. "You, too, Mr. Bird Flu."

"It's taking me too long to feel completely better," he muttered, turning to face me. "Still tired way too often, too easily."

"You sure that's from being sick and not just because you're out of shape?" I teased. I blinked and suddenly I was lying on my back, Fang hovering over me. My arms were pinned next to me, and Fang had a devilish grin on his face.

"Who's out of shape?"

Do it, a voice in my head whispered. And I wanted to. So I did. And it surprised him just as much as the thought of doing it had surprised me. But he reacted quickly, his lips responding to mine almost as soon as they touched.

His hands moved off my wrists, one moving to tangle in my hair, the other moving to my waist. It was fast, moving too fast, and suddenly I felt like I was shrinking back into myself, falling back on old habits as I pushed Fang off me and quickly made my way to the door, not listening to see if he was following.

Mom was still down in the kitchen, helping Ella with something in a book. "I'm going to fly to the lake and back," I explained breathlessly in a rush, gesturing weakly over my shoulder. "Promise I'll be back in less than an hour. I just need to get out for a bit."

"Are you alright?" Mom asked, moving to stand. "Yeah, I'm fine, no fever. Just…need air."

"Alright," she said with a slow nod. "Back in an hour. I'm counting."

I quickly made my way into the foyer, pulling on a coat and shoes before taking off from the porch, my body feeling hot for a whole different reason this time…