My jaw dropped in shock at this new information before I finally forced out slightly coherent words.
"H-how? When?" I stuttered, tightening my hand around Fang's.
"The address on the paper I found in the school, I told you that I ended up teleporting there during my escape; it's my parents house," he told me.
I didn't really know what to say now; I wanted to yell at him for not telling me this before, for doing something so unFanglike and reckless, but something held me back, so I settled for getting some answers instead. "So, what happened?" I asked him. "You were missing for almost two weeks; were you at their house that entire time?"
"Yeah," he said, simply. It was almost as though he was trying to test my patience.
"Did you introduce yourself?" I asked, tensely, hoping that he wouldn't have gone so far as to do something that stupid.
"N-not exactly," he muttered, looking away from me again.
"Fine, then what the hell did you do that took two weeks of leaving us worried shit-less?" I regretted raising my voice but I was getting annoyed and needed a question that he wouldn't be able to answer with a simple yes or no.
"I-I only meant to stay for a few days. I didn't go up to them at all; I hid in bushes and stuff in other yards. I just wanted to watch for a few days to see what they were like," he told me, keeping his voice steady for now. "We were right, by the way; my mom was a crack addict. She and my dad kept getting into fights over it, cost and stuff," he said with a look of disgust. "I finally decided that I had seen enough and I was getting ready to leave and come back here, but, when I turned around, he was standing behind me, m-my dad," he whispered shakily. Squeezing my hand, he continued. "I don't really know what happened, but I think he hit me over the head with a pipe. When I woke up, I was tied up in his basement and he was yelling at me, asking me who I was and why I was spying on him. My mom was there too; she was tied up next to me. He started yelling at her too, something about misplacing a stash of drugs. Then he…he hit her and something came over me and I yelled at him and I told him to stop, so he stopped hitting her. H-he switched to hitting me instead," he said quietly, his voice trembling again as he tightened his grip some more. "I-I don't know how long we were tied up there, me and my mom, but it must have been around a week. That bastard came back a few times a day to beat on us; sometimes he used his fists, others he would use things like pipes. He gave us a little bit of food and water each day so that we wouldn't keel over yet. The last day, though, he… he had gotten fired from work and he was really pissed. He…h-he just lost it when he got down to the basement and he just started pounding on my mom and he…" Fang cut himself off as his eyes started to water. I could only listen in horror and hold his hand while he told me the story.
"You can stop," I told him quietly, but he shook his head quickly before speaking again in a cracked voice.
"H-he slammed the pipe onto her head. She…h-her head started bleeding everywhere. I…I-I think he killed her, Max," Fang said quietly. "I mean, we didn't really talk while we were down there together, and I never told her or my dad who I was, but she…s-she was my mom. She told me about a kid that she had fifteen years ago and about how he died and the doctors wouldn't let her see the body. She told me that I looked a lot like him. M-Max, t-that was me. T-that was my mom," Fang whispered harshly, clearly on the brink of tears.
"M-my dad turned to me next and started to bring down the pipe to my head, but I dodged the first time and it slammed into my shoulder. I-I couldn't move from the pain and he was bringing the pipe dawn again. I screamed and…and the next thing I knew…I was here, outside the door," he said, his body shaking along with his voice, still trying to keep from crying. Before he could go on any farther, not that much would be left, I put my arms around his neck.
"Fang, you…you don't need to hold back right now, not when you're with me. It's okay to cry," I told him softly as he collapsed into tears, burying his head into my shoulder. I could feel my thin shirt becoming wet from the warm drops and I felt Fang bring his arms around my waist, clinging to me as though his life depended on it; his sanity probably did. His body was shaking uncontrollably while the harsh sobs racked through his body as he continued to cry against me.
I'm not sure how long we sat there together, him letting out all of the emotion that had been building over the last few months, maybe even the last few years, while I ran my fingers through his hair with one hand and rubbed his back softly with the other. It scared me a bit to see Fang like this, weak and open; he was always the strong one of the flock, but I guess he went through as much crap as the rest of us. Actually, he went through a hell lot more, seeing as what happened while he was gone. He was just better at hiding the pain of it all, but it has to come out sometime.
After a while, his crying softened and he finally brought his head away from my shoulder and looked up at me, still shaking from the breakdown. It was a Fang that I had never seen before; his face was flushed and his eyes were swollen. I kept my arm around him and let him lean against me as he whipped the tears from his eyes spoke up once again.
"I-I'm sorry. You shouldn't have had to do that. I'm supposed to be the strong one," he muttered and apology, accepting my silent offer and resting his head on my shoulder. I swear, that boy reads minds, though.
"Fang, you're always the strong one. Sometimes you just need to let it out and rely on someone else to be there for you instead of the other way around. I mean, come on, even I've lost it a few times and you were there to comfort me, so I can do the same for you," I told him and he nodded silently.
Since we were already having one of our close moments and getting all emotional, I leaned down and brought my lips to his in a tender kiss. I could feel him return the affection as he moved his lips along with mine. It was soft and comforting, like last night. Fang wrapped his arms around my waist, resting his hands on the small of my back, and pulled me closer to him while I brought my arms back around his neck and let my fingers become entangled in his hair. I wanted to stay like this forever, relaxed in his arms, feeling like the only thing that was in the world was me and Fang, but soon we heard the sound of the doorknob turning and knew that Iggy and Ella were back from the movies. Time flies when you're having fun, I guess.
We broke apart and settled back into the couch, our breathing uneven and our faces flushed. As expected, Ig and my sister walked in and looked over in our direction.
"Hi, Max," Ella called out, setting her purse down. "Your faces are red. Something happen?" she asked. It would have been too good to be true to think that she wouldn't notice.
"N-not really. We, um…we just went out for a fly," I lied quickly. It was kind of true; I was sure as heck on cloud nine for the last few minutes.
Ig threw his jacket down and took a seat next to us on the couch. He grabbed his book from the coffee table and opened it onto his lap, scanning it over with his sightless eyes. I was used to this by now; he did this almost once a day. Time passed while we watched TV absent-mindedly and I subtly sneaked my hand back over to Fang's, taking it in mine. After a while, Iggy suddenly put the book down and stood from the couch.
"I'll be in my room," he muttered, before quickly leaving the room. I looked over at Ella, hoping for an answer to the weird behavior, but she just shrugged.
"He started acting really weird after the movie. On the way back he looked really distracted and kept turning around, trying to hear everything around him, I guess," she told me.
"I'm gunna go talk to him," I said as I stood up from the couch and made my way down the hall to Iggy's room. I got to his door and politely knocked.
"Go away!" I heard him call from inside. Of course, we all know me and I opened the door anyways to see him lying on his bed on his back, looking up towards the ceiling without looking.
"Ig, you okay?" I asked as I came into the room, closing the door behind me.
He hesitated for a moment, probably debating whether or not to lie, before finally answering. "No," he said quietly.
"Ella said that you started acting weird after the movie. What's going on?" I questioned him as he sat up on the bed and turned in my direction.
"It was during the movie," he commented, correcting my information. Whatever, it didn't matter when he started acting weird, just why! "It was a good movie, by the way. I-it had really good effects," he said solemnly.
"Did Ella tell you about it?" I asked, not really caring about the movie. I didn't want to waste time getting to the point, but, if I humored him, he might tell me faster.
"No, I mean, she did, but I knew before," he told me in a strange voice. "I-I'm really happy that I got to see that movie."
"Okay, I get it, Iggy. It was a really good movie. Now, can you please tell me what's going on?" I asked, wanting the information he was hiding, feeling like I was missing something really important from what he had already told me
"No, Max, you don't get it! I got to see that movie! I saw it!" he yelled at me as the pieces finally fell into place in my mind.
"You don't mean…Ig, can you see?" I asked hesitantly, waving my hand in front of his face like I had done in Antarctica. He didn't flinch.
"No," he muttered in a depressed voice. "I could, though. It went away a few minutes ago," he said shakily, his voice starting to tremble. "I-it always goes away."
"Has this happened before?" I asked, wanting to ask him why he hadn't told me before.
"Y-yeah," he replied, starting to shake.
"How many times has this happened? Why didn't you tell me?" I started my interrogation.
"I-it started about two months ago. I wanted to tell you, but with everything that had been going on with Fang, it seemed like a bad time to bring it up. It was really random at first. It happened, like, maybe once every week or two. But, now it's been happening two or three times a week," Iggy said, his voice cracking. I would think that he would be happy to get to see again, but it seemed more like he wanted to cry.
"Why are you so upset about this," I asked, feeling bad that I hadn't noticed anything before, as I took a seat next to him on the bed.
"I-it's just that, I lost my sight about seven or eight years ago. Even though the pain of losing that never went away, I-I got used to it. I accepted that I wasn't going to see again. Now, it's like I'm being teased, and, it this is just a temporary thing, if it goes away permanently again, I-I don't think that I would really be able to h-handle that," he told me, his voice cracking in several places again. I could see the tears that had started to flow down his cheeks. He let out a choked sob as I tried to bring my arms around him in a comforting hug that he pushed away at first before giving up. He pulled his legs up to his chest and let himself fall against me as another sob ripped through him. I never thought I'd see the day where both Fang and Iggy would cry, and for two totally different reasons.
He didn't let his moments of weakness last long and soon sat back up to support himself before speaking up once again.
"I don't care if you tell Fang about this, but don't say anything to Ella or the younger ones," he told me before adding, "Please,"
"Don't worry. I'll keep quiet," I promised as I stood from the bed. "Is there anything else you want to talk about before I go?" I asked, knowing that he would want some time alone.
"I just have one question. When me and Ella got back, Fang's eyes were red," he pointed out before continuing. "Was he crying?" he asked, getting to the point.
I hesitated with my answer, but he already knew that Fang had started talking to me again, and he was already mad that I had kept that from him, so I figured that it would be best not to lie. "Yes." I told him simply.
"But you won't tell me why, I'm sure," he asked.
"No, you want to know, go asked him yourself. I'll let him tell you when he's ready," I told Iggy, making my way over to the door.
"Fine. Another time though. Clearly, he's not ready yet," he said as I opened the door.
"Yeah, wait on that for a while. I'll see you later," I told him. I realized that it probably wasn't the best choice of words when I saw his face drop as I left the room.
I turned to walk back to the living room and saw Fang leaning against the wall like Iggy had done the night before.
"Is he okay?" he asked quietly so that no one would hear him.
"I don't know. Did you hear what he said?" I asked him.
"No, but it wasn't hard to hear him bawling from out here. What happened?" he questioned, a worried look crossing his face.
I told him what Iggy had told me and also informed him that Iggy had found out about Fang speaking to me.
"Crap. How did he find out?" he asked, his face showing that he was worried that I had gone behind his back and told him.
"Same way that you found out that Iggy was crying. He eavesdropped on us last night," I assured him.
"Well, shit happens, I guess," he muttered. "Well, what do we do now," he asked, changing the subject. I knew that he wasn't talking about what to do about Iggy, just what to do to kill some time now.
"I don't care. We could go watch TV," I suggested.
"Or I could kiss you," he said. I thought he was joking until he leaned in and closed the distance between us. I didn't protest at his choice of action and began to kiss back. It was a short kiss since we didn't want Ella to come around the corner and catch us, but I enjoyed it anyways and made the most of it. I moved my lips with his, letting him keep control of the pace. He pulled back after a moment and gave me a soft smile before turning to head back to the living room. I was about to follow when he suddenly turned back around, gave me a quick peck on the lips and chuckled softly before turning the corner and making his way back to the couch as I followed, my cheeks stained a light pink.
***IMPORTANT***
*Please read*
*****Yes, yes, how could I put Fang through something so horrible. Well, because I wrote the fanfiction and that makes me God. That's why.
Thank you to everyone who has been reading, especially to those who started at chapter one! I love you and your reviews! Please keep sending them in; they make me so, very happy. Tell me what you like. Tell me what you don't like. Tell me what you think I should do better and how to make the story better. It will help me a lot. Also, I am running out of ideas about where to go with this story and what to do next, so please, please, please send in some ideas that you might have. I will love you and you will get major points, as well as recognition for your idea. Thank you, once again, to everyone! *****