"Why?"

"Do it." Max closed her eyes, thought not without a moment to huff her dissatisfaction.

With her eyes closed Max can't help but notice the sensation of being held against his chest. Romantic notions be damned, it was uncomfortable as hell. He was too warm and his steps were jarring despite how light he seemed to be on his feet. It was making her head throb, although it didn't take closing her eyes to notice this fact. He tripped forward and Max tensed, eyes squeezing shut even tighter as she braced herself to be on the receiving end of the brunt of the pain.

It was a shock in and of itself, then, when she failed to notice any such discomfort. There was a jerk and then it was smooth sailing again. In fact, he no longer jarred her and the sensation struck a cord with her. It was wonderful and familiar but-

She opened her eyes and was floored to see the ground growing smaller beneath her.

"I told you to keep your eyes closed," Fang snarled and her eyes turned from the ground to him, taking in his irritation and – beyond that the appendages covered in what she imagined was soft black down feathers. His wings were a raven black much like his hair and she couldn't believe it. He had wings.

"You have wings." Her brain had trouble processing this detail. How was it possible? She had found Iggy just yesterday – how on earth had she managed to discover two other birdkids in this short week when she'd gone her entire eighteen years beforehand with not so much as a glimpse of someone else like her. What were the chances?

He glared down at her and Max was to preoccupied with the awe currently short circuiting her brain to concern herself with such trivial matters such as Fang's ever-present glare or glower or scowl. They didn't impress her. But his wings. Had he been what was following her earlier? She wanted to ask but when she opened her mouth words had trouble forming. So she just repeated: "Wings- how?"

"Keep talking and I'll drop you," he snarked. While Max would be the first to call his bluff in this it didn't stop her wing from giving a reflective twitch, as though prepping her for the freefall. The twitching, while generally a typical reaction that went unnoticed throughout her day, was not so easy to hide when an arm was currently draped across her back and playing a key roll in keeping her aloft. So when her wing twitched it brushed ever so slightly against Fang's arm. Unfortunately, he seemed to notice as his eyes went round and he did the unthinkable.

He dropped her.

Air went streaming around her and Max went plummeting faster than she cared to be doing while facing the wrong way. Hunters or poachers be damned, Max shouted up at the clumsy emo birdkid, "I'm going to kick your ass for that, you idiot!" The wind stripped away the words and she had no idea if he had actually heard them.

Whether he heard her shouts or not, Fang seemed to come back to himself and dove down with a speed that could only be brought upon by sheer panic. Because she was currently plummeting toward the earth going who knows how fast. Now was probably the time to stop planning the demise of certain black haired avians and focus on stopping her rather abrupt decent. Her mom would kill her if she died.

Throwing her weight around Max struggled to turn her freefall right-side up. It was more than a little disorienting to see the ground rushing up at her but at least for the moment it had stopped spinning. The wind whipped through her hair, sending it streaming up behind her as the cold stung her eyes until they began to water. With one last curse toward Fang, because this was going to hurt like hell, Max flung out her wings in either direction.

Something caught between a scream and a grunt escaped her lips and it felt as though the wind were trying to rip her wings from their sockets. Ignoring the pain as best she could she pumped her wings with a strong sweeping stroke. The trees slowed their race toward her and she did it again. Three more saw her airborne in proper birdkid fashion and Max heaved a sigh of relief. Fang dropped down beside her in a flurry of black.

"Are you okay?" He was breathing heavily, as if it hadn't been her very nearly screaming for her life moments ago. She glared at him and rather than reply snapped out a leg and kicked him in the side. He grunted and dropped several feet as his hands went to his side and Max crossed her arms.

"Ever do something like that again," she warned as she dropped down beside him, looking him dead in the eye, "and I will end you." Fang coughed out an apology and she nodded her satisfaction. Miraculous revelation or no, he dropped her.

"We," he wheezed and Max felt a twinge (but just a twinge) of guilt that she might have cracked something, "we need to get out of here." Between his dropping her and her righting herself Max had heard several more gunshots and couldn't help but agree. She glanced around quickly in an attempt to ascertain their location. Between running through the trees and her dizzy spell – not to mention her near reacquainted with the ground – she had lost track of where she was.

Spying the lights of their town off in the distance Max angled herself a little to the left of it and turned toward Fang long enough to deliver a rough, "follow me," before taking off. The tale tell sound of feathers assured her he had. Confident he would be able to keep pace Max flew for all she was worth, realizing that the longer they stayed here the greater the chance one of the hunters would notice the giant birds lounging around above the trees.

She flew like this for nearly seven minutes without bothering to check that Fang kept pace behind her. In the open air, even skimming across the trees as they were, it was hard to lose track of someone. It wasn't far until they reached her house and Max blanched at the idea of leading him there. She assumed he needed to get out to the sky about a soon as she and didn't know if he lived in this town or the next one over. Either way, her house would be their best bet.

Turning sharply to the left when she spied a clearing that marked the beginning of their property Max took a moment to gather her bearings before throwing herself at the ground and landing gracefully on the grass before tucking her wings back between her shoulders carefully. She surveyed her surroundings and was confident there was nothing amiss. Looking at her house she spied no lights and assumed this meant everyone inside was still asleep. Glancing behind her Max was mildly surprised to see Fang standing there patiently She hadn't even heard him land.

Rather than the blank expression of indifference he seemed to carry about him from day to day, Fang actually seemed to be feeling something. Shock. The after buzz of panic. A smidge of pain with a dash of irritation. Complete and utter awe. Max, for once, couldn't blame him.