Chapter 25

Heh. Actually, this one was a lot of work. I hope ya comment ;)

"Thurs-day! Thu-u-u-rrrrsdaaaayyy! Thursdayayayayay, it's Thurrrrrrrsdaaaaaaaaay!" Ella sang in a high voice, twirling around the hotel living room. Iggy slumped out of their room and yawned. He smiled in Ella's direction and shuffled over to the couch, popping out the recliner to rest his almost-healed leg. It was taking all three of them longer than we thought to get better.

"Fang, would it bug you if I was that upbeat?" I asked, plopping myself down on the couch.

"GOOD MORNING MAX!" Ella sang loudly as she spun by my ear. Angel, almost getting run over, jumped quickly back, and then sat down next to me.

"Very much." Fang answered me. I smiled tiredly and nodded, and then suddenly made a grab for the remote. I snatched it out of Gazzy's reach - he resorted to pouting.

"Ooh, look at me, I'm Max. I like watching American Idol! I can't believe Tim left he was such a hottieeee," he whined in a pretty terrible impersonation of my voice and me.

I laughed and rolled my eyes - and then froze. So did everyone else, including Ella, stumbling slightly at the end of a twirl.

Gazzy. Bad impersonation. That was wrong. Angel broke the silence by whispering in my ear.

"I need to tell you something. It's important."

I stood up and nodded numbly to Fang. He stared back at me with his intense black eyes. Angel led me into my room. I walked in slowly and turned. She locked the door swiftly and faced me, hands on her hips.

"Surprised?" she asked in that sassy voice she used when she wanted something. I shook my head sadly. The doorknob jiggled. I somehow could feel that it was Fang, and I unlocked it with my mind. He slipped in and re-did the lock.

"We're going to have to tell them. Iggy's going to be devastated," I whispered. Angel raised her eyebrows.

"Max, you know we can't do that," she said.

"And why the hell not?" I asked, forgetting she was just a little kid. Lately, Angel hadn't been acting like much of a little kid. Fang met my eyes again in understanding.

"Could you do that to Dr. M? To your mother? Destroy everyone's mood just a week before her wedding?"

I took a deep breath.

"No."

"What are we going to tell them then?" asked Fang gently, sitting down next to me on the bed. I closed my eyes and pulled myself together. Without another word, I passed Angel and stepped back into the room. Everything was completely still.

"Iggy," I said, turning to him, "They offered for us to meet our parents. What do you think?"

He blinked. Ella took his hand in her own and squeezed it.

"I just want to say one thing," said Iggy. I nodded for him to go on.

"I hope," he said solemnly, "That none of your parents turn out to be as crappy as mine."

I gasped, hearing the bland, flat, matter-of-fact tone to his voice, and found myself hugging him tightly.

Since our hyped-up morning had gone almost as wrong as possible, Fang and I had gone back to our room. I could tell he was a little… down, but he was trying not to show it.

"Max, don't stress," he said, like it was just that easy. I groaned loudly and pulled a pillow over my face. I listened to his almost silent footsteps cross the floor lightly and bring him to a stop. The pillow was pried gently from my hands and set aside.

Fang's face loomed over me, inches from my own. He was sitting up on the edge of the bed. Despite everything, I smiled. He returned it, his dark bangs – they were so long at this point, he shook them out of his eyes every other minute – falling across his forehead and onto mine. He tilted his head down so that our foreheads were touching and closed his eyes.

That was weird for him. I liked – loved – looking into his eyes, and he knew it. Usually, he'd stare back unblinkingly with his stupid, gorgeous, fathomless onyx eyes until I had a need to melt into them.

I could feel him breathing on my throat. His breath was warm and quickening, and mine started getting shallower in response.*

With his eyes shut he looked almost vulnerable, but in a Fang way, not a sissy one. I watched his face get calmer. Damn it, his eyelashes were practically longer than my pinkie. But I could tell he was hurting.

I slid his shirt up hesitantly, running my fingers over the bandages covering his chest. He didn't move, still just there, as I reached behind him and gently undid the barely-white bandage. I slowly started unwrapping it while I lay under him – he stayed sitting, leaning down over me. The strip fell off of him in a heap onto the sheets. I gathered it in my hands and sat up, sliding out from under him.

"We should probably get you some clean ones," I said quietly. Fang remained unmoving where he was.

I tossed the bandages in the trash and grabbed some new ones from the bathroom cupboard. I pushed Fang lightly back by his shoulders so that he was laying down on his back. He breathed calmly and slowly, almost like he was asleep.

I wrapped a fresh white strip around his lower chest, winding it around as I moved up, and pulled his shirt over his head. When I finished, I took a rag from the bathroom, dampened it with cold water, and sat down at his side.

"Are you alright?" I whispered, pressing the cloth across his forehead. He had to be in pain, from everything that was going on and from his injury.

"Max." he said. On top, it sounded composed. Underneath... I squeezed his hand gingerly and leaned back against the headboard.

I guessed Iggy's plain sadness had brought this on, on top of everything else that was going wrong.

It was like a whiplash of everything we'd avoided, and it was probably killing him inside as much – probably more – than it did to me that all we could do was wait.

*You expected a kiss there, didn'tcha? Well, some of you were complaining about Fax. I hope that satisfies you for now. And sorry about the late update D: Anyway, next chappie shouldn't take long, unless I get lazy….