The Runaways – Chapter 34
By MyNameIsCAL
I'm going to start fastforwarding a little, so I can reach one of those in the future endings, but without having a huge gap with too many things not evened out.
-Fang's POV-
I've been walking for a while now with crutches. The pain was still there, but by now I was used to it, although with winter here, and the weather colder than it usually was, it seemed to make it worse. Although the holiday season was approaching, and even though it would bring a bittersweet feeling, there was still some excitement to the idea that we would be together, happily. I had never really celebrated Christmas with my family. In fact last year, I think I had ended up at the mall.
"We're going to put up a tree and everything, I promise," Max told Gazzy and Angel. "Ella is going to come home too. Mom says she'll take us Christmas shopping this weekend."
The only person who seemed a little down by all of this Christmas talk was Iggy, but as the topic changed to food preparations, he seemed a little happier.
"So what do you want for Christmas?" Max asked me.
I lay on the bed, taking off my knee brace. "I don't want anything, Max."
She took a seat on the edge of the bed, looking a little unsatisfied. "Well…"
I wrapped my arms around her, resting my chin on her shoulder. "It's enough for me to just be here with you. All I'll ever ask for is you, Max."
Max turned to face me and I leaned in and kissed her, feeling her arms come around my neck. When we broke apart, her smile seemed to be glowing. She had her hand rested against my cheek, fingers in my hair.
"I promised Mom I'd take out the trash," she said, still grinning. "I'll be back soon."
I gave her a smile in return and watched her hurry out of the room.
The next morning we rose a little earlier than usual. I wasn't not particularly excited to go to the mall, but the others were, and well, I wasn't going to ruin it for them. But this would also be the most walking I would be doing since I had gotten back on my feet. Max worried about this, but I told her I would be fine.
"Why don't you and Fang go together and I'll keep an eye on the younger ones, alright?" Max's mom took me by surprise when she suggested this.
"Are you sure? I thought you had to go to your office today," Max protested.
But her mom shook her head, telling Max that we would meet up for lunch in two hours.
"Well…where do you want to go first?" I asked.
She stared at the list we had made of things we wanted to get the others. "I guess we'll get Iggy's gift first."
"So then the record store." I started forward. "I haven't been there in a long time."
And yet it didn't seem like that long ago I was stalking Max in the mall every Friday night. Max must have been thinking the same thing because she smiled as we passed the burger place.
"I remember smiling at you," Max said.
"I was surprised you didn't run away or something." I shook my head. "You were never afraid of me, Max."
It was painful, shopping. I would never admit it to Max, but my leg really hurt from just going around the record store. At least by lunch time, we had gotten gifts for everyone. I felt bad for not being able to carry the bags, but she insisted it was stupid of me to feel guilty since it wasn't even possible for me to be able to.
"I have to go get a few things and swing by the office," Dr. M said to us as we met up at the burger place for lunch. "But here's so money. Get some food. I'll pick you up around three, okay?"
"Thanks, Mom."
Dr. M nodded, taking some of our bags to the car as she left.
"Well, shall we get a table?" Max pocketed the money.
-Gazzy's POV-
We sat and ordered quickly. All that walking made me hungry, but looking at Fang, he looked worn out already, his arm around Max as she listened to Nudge and Angel talk about all the things they had seen in the mall. Iggy was twirling his fork around, and I hoped he wouldn't accidentally send it flying in someone's direction.
"So where else do you need to go?" Max asked.
Angel glanced at me. "Well, we still gotta get gifts for Fang."
I held my laughter back, afraid it would make Fang angry, but he seemed amused. Sometimes I forgot that under the rock surface he had built up, underneath it all, he wasn't too different from the rest of us.
"You don't have to get me anything." Fang's eyes feel on Max. "I'm just glad we're okay, you know?"
Well, it wasn't everyday you heard Fang say something nice like that.