Chapter 38

Christmas Eve

Fang Pov

"Okay, I just want to warn you, Aaron very well may attack you." Kale said.

I looked at my hair, it was weird seeing it spiked up, it reminded me of something Iggy would go for. "Why would she attack me?" I asked

Kale grinned. "Well, you're Fang, she already thinks you're hot, and She loves you as a fictional character as well as a real person. She's Likely to go fangirl on you."

I rolled my eyes, "I hate fangirls." I didn't really think of Aaron as the fangirl kind of person.

"Oh she's not, only in extreme cases, you are an extreme case. She's not a total fangirl even when she goes fangirl. I promise she won't scream like a banshee." Kale said. "And no I'm not really into doing hair. I just learned how to do this and I'm pretty good at it." He added hearing my thoughts. He pulled at part of my hair one last time. "I think Max might freak out too, but I'm not sure." Then he opened the door and pushed me out.

Max was leaning against the wall across from the door waiting for me. Her mouth dropped open. I sighed, "That bad?"

Max continued to stare. "No, it's not bad. It's," She seemed to have a hard time framing a coherent sentence. "It's uh, well, you look…good."

Angel looked out of her room, "You were thinking he looked hot!" She declared.

Max blushed. "Thanks Angel."

"Thanks Max, I need you to protect me, Kale says Aaron will go fangirl on me when she sees me."

"The mighty Fang needs protecting?" Max asked with wide eyes. "Do you really think I'm up to it?" She continued it mock modesty.

I kissed her forehead before I grabbed her hand and pulled her up to the loft with me.

"Merric isn't here yet, you are dead." Kale said catching up to us.

"No, I think she is dead, this boy is mine." Max informed him.

I turned and grinned at Kale, "She is very possessive."

"Hey!" Max said leaning into and nearly pushing me down the steps.

"Well you are!" I defended.

"It's true." Kale piped in.

"Merry Christmas Eve people!" Gazzy yelled as he reached the top of the steps just before us.

Aaron gasped staring at me with an odd look. "Holy crap holy crap holy crap,"

"Oh no."

She glared at Kale, "Why did you do this to me?" She demanded. "Look at him! He is sooo hot!" She moaned.

Kale laughed as Max glared, "He's mine."

Aaron looked offended, "I don't want him! Regardless of how hot he is I like my guy! I just want to hug him."

"I'm right here." I said.

Aaron stared at me, "I wish you weren't"

"Wow thanks!" I said sarcastically.

"Can I hug you?" Aaron asked.

"No! Go find Merric and hug him." I shot back.

"Can I hug you?" Max asked.

"Yes,"

Max hugged me as Aaron huffed, "Show off."

"Ah! No more fighting over me! I know I'm awesome but this is too much." I said putting my hands in the air.

Aaron laughed; she really had gone fangirl, that's scary. Max punched me.

"Please? A friendly hug?"Aaron begged.

"Fine, but never again," She ran over and hugged my then quickly stepped back.

"You don't smell as good as Merric. Sorry, it's the stupid Fauxhawk, they make me lose it."

"It is pretty amasing." Max said knowingly.

"Merric's here." Kale informed us.

Merric appeared on the landing seconds later. He still looked out of it. Something was bothering him. His hair was spiked up just like mine. Aaron sprinted over to him in a very nonfangirl like way. She kissed him lightly running a hand threw his hair. I saw a yellow tint come into his eyes as she did so. He kissed her back full force. She seemed to melt into him.

Merric was smiling wolfishly when they broke apart,

"Can I have my Marky back now Snipe?" Aaron asked. I was completely lost.

"you are the one who triggered me." He replied.

"What?" Aaron and John demanded in unison.

Snipe/Merric shrugged, "I have certain triggers, the petting, Ryan's death, stuff like that."

"Weird, Now can I have Marky back?"

"Don't you love me?" he whined

Aaron rolled her eyes, "I love you both I guess but Marky does better with other people."

He shrugged, "Fair enough," He shook his head and the yellow left his eyes. Merric gasped.

"Dang it." Merric said. "He did it again didn't he?"

Aaron nodded and kissed him again. "What's troubling you?" She whispered breaking away.

"Nothing." Merric whispered but his eyes said different.

"I know you're lying, but I'll let it slide for now." She whispered.

Merric smiled, "Thanks."

"Hey Fang, can I talk to you?" Merric asked quietly some time later. It had to be around eleven.

"Wha- um, sure I guess." I said. People don't usually ask to talk to me. They take the dark and silent thing as a back off sign. I have to go to Max. She doesn't ask to talk to me but that's mainly just her ego issues.

Merric nodded towards the stairs. "Can't talk here, meet me out side."

"Okay." I walked over to where Max was sitting with a sleeping Angel in her lap. "Hey, I'm going to go fly for a few minutes I'll be back later." I whispered in her ear.

She nodded, "See you later."

I opened the window and jumped out. I wasn't lying this way. See, I was flying. Just not for very long. I flew around the house and saw Merric. I followed him from the air for two minutes before he stopped and climbed a low tree branch. I landed and climbed one of the branches opposite him and waited.

He sighed, "I'm sorry to drag you into this but John won't help me, and neither will Kale." He took a deep breath and pulled out a syringe. "This is a strength and speed enhancement, Hex gave me one when I was there, that's why I can run even faster now. We all have them, John, Katie, and I. John snatched this one for Aaron, so she can keep up with us. She doesn't know about it. I don't know what to do about it. I know she would be all for it but she doesn't always think things through. And it hurts, it hurts like crazy. She will never be able to have a normal life if I give her this, it will alter her blood and possibly cause a split personality, I don't know if I can do that to her."

I sighed, "Wow."

He nodded, "I hate this kind of thing."

"Yeah, me too." I considered things; this kid was in a really tough spot.

"It's the kind of stuff I would talk to Aaron about. But she won't see it my way and I'll cave."

"Let me think about this before I give you an answer." I said resting my hands on my knees.

We sat in silence for what seemed like forever, I was having a hard time with this one, like I said, people don't come to me for advice very often. I ended up looking at it as if I were in his position. "You need to talk to her about it, She loves you more than anything, talk to her and she will listen to you. Tell her about the risks and that you aren't sure about it. Tell her to think about it to try and see it from your side before she makes the decision and leave it up to her." Was my final decision.

Merric nodded. "Thanks."

Wow that was easy, I figured he would want to debate it with me and look at all possible options. He really just wanted advice.

"Can you tell Aaron that I'll be back later? I need to run."

I nodded, "It's cool man. Assuming you don't beat me home."

Merric jumped down from his branch and took off running. It had to be around twelve now, we were spending Christmas Eve/day at Aaron's house so it was all cool but still. I heard the steady beat of a pair of wings. Max landed beside me seconds later.

"Hey you." She said sitting down beside me. "What's up?"

"He asked me for advice." I told her.

"Wow, did you give him good advice?" she asked.

"I hope so. He seemed to think it was good."

"What did you tell him?"

"To talk to his girl about it."

"What is it with you boys and referring to us as 'your girls'?" Max asked making air quotes around "Your girls."

"It's a guy thing; you would say it's sexist and dumb."

"I already say that."

"What is your problem with it? You call me "Your man"" I said.

Max shrugged, "Men don't mind it."

"Neither do you."

"Fine whatever."

"Hey What did you do with Angel?"

"She's asleep on Aaron's bed."

"Oh, cool. What about the Gasman? I saw him passed out on a couch."

"Kale's room."

"Iggy staying in line?"

"Hey who's the leader here?"

"Right sorry."

We sat in companionable silence for some time. Finally Max spoke up, "You know we can't stay here. We will have to leave soon. We have a world to save."

"I really like it here Max." I whispered. "I know we can't' stay but we should come back here some time. I'm not saying we would have to settle down here, just, relax here when we're free and when we're out saving the world we need to watch out for Hex, gain any information we can to help them out. We both know Merric will have to go back to take Hex down. It's his calling and he will answer it."

Max nodded. "I like it here too and we will defiantly do that by why don't you think we wouldn't settle down here?"

"Because, if we settled down we would have to buy a real house, we would have to get jobs and lives. It's just not us. We will always be on our own, not necessarily on the run but always on our own always out here. And honestly, I like it out here. I feel free out here."

"Didn't you once want to settle down? Isn't that why you kissed me?"

"Max, that was forever ago. I-we've both grown up a lot since then and I get so bored when we stay with your mom. Even here, when we aren't hanging out with the pack, everything is boring. I like being safe but I like being free just as more."

"Wow you're talkative tonight."

I shrugged, "I have my moments."

She smiled. "You're cute when you have your moments."

"Why do you keep saying that?"

Max flushed, "Well you are, and you make a funny face when I say it." She whispered.

"Really?" I had no idea that I was making a face when she said I was cute.

"Yeah, it's like your thinking, 'oh, I never thought of that." She informed me.

I smirked. "huh, that's exactly what I think when you say that."

"You never thought of that?" Max asked.

"Well, I never really thought I would hear anything like that from you."

"Oh. Well I guess I've grown up a lot too."

"Yep." I sighed and leaned into her, "You are always cute Max."

Max leaned back into me pushing us me into the trunk of the tree. I smiled. "Don't flirt."

I kissed her cheek, "I can't help it."

She jumped down from the tree and I almost fell. "We should be going back, I don't trust Iggy and Ella."

I nodded and jumped down beside her. "Let's go."

Almost over people, four more chapters at the most I think.

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