I know, I know. I should be more religious in my updating, but I'm doing the best I can.

This was originally going to be two chapters, but I decided to meld them together.

I don't usually go for mushy stuff, but here we go!

Fly on xx

Max's POV

I soared above the treetops, enjoying the cool air rushing past my feathers.

Yah, that's all a lie.

I was extremely pissed, because Fang wouldn't let me fly to my big-fire-setting-place. I was effectively grounded. I crossed my arms and stalked ahead of the restrictor. It didn't work. He was much taller than me and kept up easily with his long legs.

"I don't want to talk to you right now" I grumbled. "You don't just tie my wings up."

"Yeah, right" he snorted. "Knowing you, you'd probably tear out the rest of your feathers in some way or other."

I shot him my best death glare and carried on. Katniss had already helped Rue build her giant firepit and left her to set it. We reached the point of where I needed to be and I dumped my pack within easy grasp. I began hauling branches from fallen trees to the center of the clearing. Fang assisted and did most of the heavy work, although I tried to do it myself. I will have you know that I am very far from a weakling.

"Okay, we're done" I puffed, casting a practiced eye over our bonfire.

We had deliberately used greener branches to create lots of smoke to attract the careers. The pile of wood was decorated with dry grass to help the fire along and I smiled, satisfied.

"Not too shabby" remarked Fang.

"I know, I'm not stupid" I snapped, still angry.

"Hey," Fang said, walking over to me. "What's wrong?"

I avoided his gaze.

"Nothing" I mumbled.

"Come on," he murmured. "Tell me."

I scrambled to make up an excuse. I didn't want to go into the real reason and I had not thought of a backup to tell him.

"I don't like not flying" I blurted out. "The ground isn't enough once you've had a taste of the sky."

"That's why you've been ignoring me?"

He raised an eyebrow. I hung my head, playing the role of the naughty child. I was slightly surprised when he wrapped his arms around me and I hesitantly returned the gesture.

"I'm not in the sky" Fang mumbled into my hair. "And I just don't want you to hurt yourself more."

"That's the only downside" I replied, pretending to pretend.

"Stay down for me?"

I pulled back.

"I can't stay on the ground forever."

His eyes betrayed his fear for me. It made me angry that he thought I couldn't take care of myself, especially in my element. I wrenched myself away and strode over to my pack, intending to find the flint that Rue had given me. Fang caught my hand and spun me round. I ended up pressed against his chest with one of his hands at the small of my back and the other cupping my cheek. My own hands were resting against his chest. Our faces were centimeters apart and I could almost taste him. My light brown eyes met his dark ones. This close, I could see little gold flecks in his irises , which made him all the more attractive. I closed my eyes and waited for the inevitable. Fang's lips touched mine and the world exploded into colour. Fireworks of all kinds burst and wind rushed through my ears. Nothing else existed but us and I never wanted to stop. We fit perfectly together. I tangled my fingers in his hair and kissed him back. We collapsed to the ground, not breaking apart and pressing up against each other. Fang was the one who pulled back fist and I reluctantly clambered to my feet.

"We'll finish that conversation later" Fang promised, smirking.

With me watching, he picked up his pack and disappeared into the waiting forest. Suddenly, the trees around me were teeming with life. Ants marched through the undergrowth in search of sustenance, a couple of squirrels darted around the branches, dancing with each other along the leafy limbs, but most of all were the mockingjays. They were everywhere, fluttering to and from nests, teaching their young to fly.

For the first time in a long while, I felt whole. There was a big hole in me when Gazzy died and nothing I did could fill it. Yet when Fang came along, a golden light had healed the gap and given me strength.

I was knocked out of my muddled thinking by a huge column of smoke rising up on my left. Rue had gotten her fire going and hopefully gotten away quickly. I stepped over to my own stack of wood and lit it with no problem. I used a leafy branch to waft air towards it and help things along. As soon as I was satisfied, I left.

I noticed that at some point, Fang had slit the ropes binding my wings. Grinning, I stretched them wide, grimacing a bit where my secondary feathers were still crumpled. I would have to man up and either pull them out or suffer every time I flew. For now, they were fine.

A massive explosion told me that something had happened down at the lake, hopefully in our favour. Satisfied, I did a running take off and was soon at the meeting point. No one else was there yet, but it didn't worry me. Rue wouldn't get there until the next morning and Fang the upcoming evening. Before I rested, I calculated how many of us were left. Turns out, there were seven or eight of us left. Less than usual, due to the ferocity of the careers this year, I supposed. Pondering this, I chose a good tree and took a nap.

I was woken by a cannon firing. I sat up quickly and judged by the sun that it was about seven in the evening. That's if the gamemakers hadn't altered our perspective of time. Fang should have been back by now. I couldn't see his smoke column, which worried me. Slinging my pack over my shoulder, I started out on foot to where he should have set his fire and stopped as soon as I heard a sound. It was faint, but I could just make out a loud guffaw, probably one of the careers. I edged closer and after a few minutes, I could make out the faces of Ari, Clove and Cato. They appeared to be circling a tree.

I cussed under my breath. Fang was probably up there. I looked around for neighbouring trees to climb, but the idiot had chosen the one without anything near it. I rustled my wings in annoyance.

"Stupid!" I quietly smacked myself on the forehead. I ran away from the group, not bothering to hide, and took off, circling back over to Fang's tree. I grinned and waved at the careers below, who were scowling at me.

Cato gripped his sword, Ari flexed his bulging muscles and Clove fingered her knives, unable to do anything because of the height I was at and the speed I was travelling. I dropped onto a branch at the very top and climbed down to Fang. The first thing I noticed was his shoulder dripping with blood.

"Seriously?" I said, pulling some clean rags out of my bag. "Can I not leave you alone for a minute?"

"That would be nice" he muttered.

I whacked him over the head with a rag and started binding his arm. Another cannon fired and I looked up briefly, wondering who it was.

"How is it you got stuck up here?" I asked, to make sure Fang stayed conscious and to distract myself from thinking of Katniss. "Stuck up a tree again, yet no tracker-jacker nest to save you this time."

"The careers didn't bother stopping at the second fire to look for anyone, they just carried on in that direction and found me still trying to light mine."

"Ah, so it wasn't your fault?"

"No it was Ari's. He told them to move on without looking."

I silently finished binding up his arm and told him to climb higher. He did so obediently enough.

"Okay, I'm gonna have to fly overhead and pick you up" I told him. "The easiest way to do it would be for us to hold each other's wrists, but that's going to put a lot of strain on your shoulder. Can you do that?"

Fang grimaced and nodded. I pushed myself out the tree and snapped my wings out, aiming for the three below us. Swooping low, I kicked Cato and Clove in the chest, sending them flying away into the underbrush. Unfortunately, Ari stuck his hand in the air and managed to collect some of my feathers in his hands, ripping them out. I managed to keep back a scream of pain, but then I noticed that it was the crumpled feathers he had gotten, so I turned and grinned at him.

"Thank you" I called. "That needed doing anyway!"

With that, I climbed the sky, blood streaming from my wing. I made a circle around the tree and snatched the boy out of it. Dipping slightly because of his weight, I strained harder to keep my height and speed and soon, we were out of sight. I banked left, gripping Fang's wrists hard, and made my way to a little stream Rue and I had found when Fang and Katniss were sleeping. Lazy butts.

I made a little effort to slow down and get as close to the ground as possible. Fang rolled onto the rockbed with a small oof and I swung round and landed beside him.

"Come on" I said, helping him to his feet. "Let's get the wound clean."

We both sat by the stream for a while, not talking, just washing the dirt and blood from our bodies. It felt good to be relatively clean again. We stretched out in the dying sun to dry side by side and I wondered where Katniss was. I closed my eyes, listening to the forest. Falling asleep would have been easy at this point.

My eyes snapped open and I quickly sat up when trumpets blared. This usually meant an invitation to a feast to force tributes to face each other. But we didn't need a feast, so we could just stay here.

"Tributes" Claudius Templesmith's voice boomed. "A new rule has been determined. If more than one tribute from the same District is alive when all other tributes are dead, then that District will win and all surviving tributes will be sent home."

My eyes widened and my breath caught. We could all go home. Me, Fang, Katniss and Peeta could still survive this. I turned to Fang and saw his eyes burning with hope. I flung my arms around him, burying my face in his shoulder. Tears formed in my eyes, but I ignored them as Fang rocked us back and forth, murmuring soothing words in my ear. I pulled back to look into his gold flecked eyes.

"I get to keep you" I whispered.

"I think you've got that the wrong way round, but-"

I cut him off with a kiss and colours exploded once again. I was starting to think that maybe, just maybe, it wasn't all for the Hunger Games.

Maybe some of what I felt was real.