Okay, thank you to Superfreak9201, Indigowolf, and Greenmjolnir, for being my first reviewers. This chapter is a bit different- I just want to try a few things out. So, tell me what you like and then I'll keep going with it. And, I still need a story title. I don't like Realization very much, and I don't think it has much to do with the story, so, I want to change it. If you have any ideas, pleeaase review.

Disclaimer: sorry, I forgot to do a disclaimer last chapter. I don't own any of the characters, unless I decide to add new ones in later. This goes for the rest of the story.

Okay, Greenmjolnir, I didn't really think about the bullet thing. They definitely would have heard the bullets. Thanks for telling me; I'll try to think about that stuff from now on. Now, on with the story!

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Erasers. As that thought popped into my head, I immediately felt my legs start moving of their own accord, heading into the cavern. Once again, I stared.

Fang sat in the shadowed corner, in the exact position he had been in when I'd left. There were no erasers in sight. "Fang?" I asked timidly, "Are you okay?"

He looked up at me, finally moving. "Yeah, I'm fine." He raised one of his eyebrows, asking, in his silent way, what would be wrong.

I walked forward, sitting down next o my friend. I slowly placed one hand on his shoulder and watched his eyebrows shoot up as I whispered, "Look, about what happened- well I don't really know what happened, actually. But, my point is-" I stopped and slowly pulled my hand away. Knowing what I would see, and hating it, I turned my hand over and looked at it.

My palm shone bright red, glistening in the evening light. My fingers tickled as the crimson blood flowed down them. I looked back up at Fang.

"What happened?" I demanded to know. When Fang didn't answer, I forced my hand back onto his shoulder, making him wince slightly, and started feeling for whatever had done this. "You know, this would be a lot easier if you would just tell me what happened," I continued as my hand ran down his back and over his wings, making sure nothing was broken. When I discovered that the wound wasn't on his back, wings, or shoulders, I hesitated. I knew that Fang was only tolerating me because he knew that I wouldn't let him go unless he forced me to, which he didn't want to do. I really didn't want to force him into that position, but I was definitely going to figure out what had done this to him.

I let my hands run along his sides, trying to get any indication of where he had been hurt. Suddenly, I remembered his awkward flying. He hadn't been trying to dodge the bullets; he'd already been hit by one. I went back to his wings, doing a more thorough examination now that I was pretty sure that that was where he'd been hit.

Then, I felt it. Moving his feathers apart, I saw a bullet-sized hole that seemed to be bleeding pretty badly, though, thankfully, the bullet hadn't gone through anything important, but I knew that it wasn't enough to have made the blood pool outside or to have soaked his shirt. So he'd been hit more than once. Great. "Fang, why didn't you tell us?" I asked the question that had been bothering me for what seemed like ages. He looked at me in surprise, as if I should know, then shrugged, looking away.

"Fang, please," I begged, horrified to hear my voice breaking. "Please, just tell me. Why won't you ever tell me?" I felt my face burn as a tear rolled down my cheek. I looked away. What was I doing? I shouldn't be crying over something stupid like this; I shouldn't be crying at all. But, still, it hurt. We were the flock; we were a family. We should be able to talk to each other- something Fang hadn't been doing in a very long time.

I looked back up at him, expecting to see him looking at me like I was insane. But, when my vision cleared, I saw him staring at me, not like I was insane, not even surprised at my words. Fang's face held an expression I couldn't place. "I'm sorry," he whispered, quickly looking away. I blinked in shock. Fang didn't apologize. It was just one thing that made him Fang. Not to mention, this was a really stupid thing to apologize for. Now I new what the expression on his face had been. It broke the Fang Rules too. Regret. I looked at my fellow flock member. This was a side of him I had never seen and, had it been anyone else, I would have said something mocking. But, this was Fang, and I was pretty sure that I wouldn't see this side often. If I made fun of him for it, I knew that I wouldn't see it again.

I stared at him, concentrating on his face until he turned to face me. "Where did the other bullet hit?" I asked, hoping that he would answer this time.

He didn't disappoint me. "I got one more in my wing." Under his direction, I examined his wings, finding one more bullet hole, close to the first, but it was too small to have created that much blood.

"Fang, there's at least on more. I know there is, so don't bother lying to me."

He studied me for a moment, then slowly moved his hand to his shirt, lifting it about six inches. I gasped as he revealed what I knew was the wound that had bled so much. Fang's stomach and side were covered in the shimmering crimson liquid.

"Fang, we have to get a bandage on. Take your shirt off." This time, he did look at me like I was insane. "What?" I asked. "Look, we have to do it. Okay?" He slowly nodded and continued pulling his shirt up as I went to the bags that had been shoved into a corner and started rummaging through them. Finally, I found the First Aid kit we had picked from a dumpster a while ago. I pulled some of the bandages and a roll of medical tape out of the white box and headed back to Fang.

He had completely gotten his shirt off now, so I could see that the rest of his chest was covered in the crimson liquid, as well. I quickly picked out a bandage roll, unrolled it, and gave one end to Fang. He looked at it questioningly. "Do you know if the bullet's still in?" I asked, hoping that it wasn't.

"It's not. I got it out while you guys were flying," he replied. I sighed in relief, then felt a pang of guilt as I thought of him in pain, trying to pull a bullet out of his own chest.

"Well, I guess that will make this faster, then. We need to wrap this around it, tight, so the blood won't come out so much," I explained.

He nodded, his brow creased in thought. "Okay, so how do we start?"

"Um, the others will be in soon, so we'll need to hurry, but, to start, we'll need a wet wash cloth. We just need to wash the blood off." I turned back to the bags, grabbed a washcloth, soaked it using one of the water bottles, and returned to Fang's side. Hesitantly, I raised the washcloth to his shoulder, going next to his wings, back, then chest. I noticed that the whole time I was cleaning the blood off, he stood frozen, barely breathing. Quickly, I dabbed the now blood-soaked cloth on the hole in his chest. As I did so, I saw him tighten in pain, although I knew he wouldn't say anything about it.

I quickly finished wiping the blood and told him to place his end of the bandage on the bullet hole. After he'd done it, I wrapped the bandage around him a few times, tightly, to stop the circulation and taped the other end down. "Alright, now we just need to put bandages on your wings." I grabbed the smaller bandages and placed them on the wounded spots in his wing.

I heard him shuffle his feet, self-consciously. "Are we done yet?" he asked.

"Yeah. Um, yeah, we're done." I slowly started walking away. "I better go check on the others."

"Max-" Fang called, half-questioning. "Thanks."

I felt my face lift in surprise. "Yeah, sure."

"Max, wait." I turned around and almost jumped back when I realized that Fang was now less than an inch away from me. I felt his had slide around my waist. "I need to tell you something," he muttered as his lips closed around mine. I felt the tears start running down my face again as I slid my arms around his neck, pressing myself against him and still trying not to touch his bandages. I savored the kiss, creating a permanent file in my brain to store it in. If only this could last forever.

"Uh, guys?"

—

Okay, I hope this was all right. Did you like it? I had to give the Max/Fang lovers something. But, for all of you who don't like it much, this story is not based around Max and Fang, so don't worry. I just wanted to switch it around a bit, see what you like. But, if you want the story to get better, you have to tell me. Review! Please. If I messed up with the medical/bandage stuff, I'm sorry, I don't really know much about it. And, it might take a little longer for me to update the next chapter, because school is ending and all my teachers decided to turn evil and load projects on me. Plus, I don't really know what I want to do with this, which is why you need to REVIEW! Just tell me what you want. Remember, constructive criticism always welcome. All right, I've wasted too much of your time. Cya- Dringer