Through the Eyes of a Servant Chapter 11, a maximum ride fanfic

Through the Eyes of a Servant | Chapter 11 | by: Rachel / Chapter posted August 19th, 2010.

AU | Max/Fang | PG / 3,510 words

When Max accepts a job as a maid in Fang's household, will it be love at first sight? Or will anything and everything come between them?

The idea for this story is my own, and no one else's. Everything else belongs to Jame's Patterson -although I will be next in line for the throne when he retires xD-. I made no money for writing this story, I simply write for reviews.

"Max-"

"Fang-"

She stared back at him, shocked. Her first thoughts were a mix of wonder and surprise. How had he managed to hide this from her? But she already knew. She'd hidden it every day from Fang, for almost two months. And her second thoughts were that she should have seen it coming. And she had. She'd just been afraid to admit it to herself.

But Fang was a different matter. For a period of two months, he'd considered her human. At first, it didn't matter, because she was just going to be another in a series of maids. But to him, she'd become more than that. He'd been agonizing over when to tell her, or when she'd find out on her own.

And it was a big shock on both sides when you were about to take a relationship to the next level, only to find out that said person had wings. But it was true. Max's tawny wings fanned out behind her, and Fang's just barely stood out in the darkness of the room.

It wasn't a question of betrayal. Max didn't have to ask why he hadn't told her, because she already knew that she knew what it was like, and she had done the same thing. Each had kept the secret to protect the other. But no one had expected this.

Fang. Wings. Secret. Afraid. Wings. Hidden. Fang. The School. Wings. Fang. Wings. The silence seemed deafening in the small room as reality came crashing down. It wasn't a dream, a surprising and terrible dream. She didn't feel relief that she wasn't the only one. She wanted things to go back to the way they were five minutes ago.

Sitting there, staring at him and having no idea what was going on in his mind, she couldn't find her voice. The darkest part of her brain had been right. Fang had been hiding the wings all along. His face was unreadable in the dark, and it scared her. Five minutes ago, it had all been alright.

And suddenly, it was too much for her, and all that was on her mind was that she desperately needed to get out of there. She sprang up from the bed, scrambled over the boxes and ran from the room, leaving Fang alone for all of two seconds before he leapt off the bed to run after her. "Max!" he shouted. "Wait, Max!"

She kept running. She sprinted up the stairs, past her father and brothers, who looked up from what they were doing in surprise. Without a backward glance, she ignored their questions, yanking the back door open and running outside.

Fang tripped up the stairs, totally forgetting his cool. He ignored the way Jeb's eyes narrowed at the fact that his shirt was up and that his jacket was missing. Glancing around the room, he noticed the open back door, and bolted through the kitchen, stumbling over a box of Styrofoam. "Wait!" he shouted again, to no avail.

Jeb's eyes widened as he saw a flash of black feathers. Fang disappeared too quickly, leaving Jeb and Gazzy to gape at each other, while Iggy tugged frantically on Gazzy's shirt sleeve to find out what happened. Jeb shook his head. So the time had finally come. She had found the only other bird kid in existence.

Max swung up from the porch railing and onto the roof, her foot slipping slightly. She crawled up, unfurling her wings, which were already partially out. Jumping off the roof quickly, she flapped frantically and immediately went into hyper drive at two hundred miles an hour.

Unfortunately, Fang was quick to follow. "Jesus!" he shouted as he saw her take off, and without an ounce of hesitation, followed her off the roof. And luckily for him, he had raptor vision, and it was a clear night. He saw exactly where she was going – straight over town.

Going as fast as he could, which was still a good one hundred and twenty miles slower than Max was going, he could barely see her. Why had she run from him? He was as shocked as she was. Why hadn't he at least suspected something? Or even said something to her sooner? It had caught him off guard.

He'd meant what he'd said. He'd meant every word of it. But unfortunately, he hadn't exactly been thinking with his brain when he'd started their little make-out session. If they were going to start tearing each other's' clothes off, she was bound to see his wings. And he knew that. Why had he been so careless?

She was now just a black dot in the distance. He was almost over the town now. He could see the line of cars rushing up and down the highway, the faint outlines of buildings, and the bird's-eye view of the town he'd seen so many times before, despite all his mother's warnings.

Suddenly, she stopped in the air, and he grinned to himself. Had she gotten tired that quickly? Wasn't she used to this flying thing? His arm reached out as he came ever closer, fully prepared to grab her and haul her back to her house to get her to listen to him if he had to. But then she did something he didn't expect – she dropped, from three hundred feet in the air.

She barely managed to smile to herself. Even in her shock, it felt good to be one step ahead of him. As she fell back, knowing fully where she was going, she smirked, relishing the one second of pure surprise on Fang's face before he dropped, and followed her. She rolled her eyes. He thought she was committing suicide or something.

At the last second, she whirled around, the top of the building below her rising up to meet her. She whipped her wings out, parachuting down. Sadly, Fang didn't quite see it coming. "Crap!" he yelled, and whipped his wings out just in time to go tumbling onto the hard roof of the tall office building. Max watched in a mixture of amusement and horror.

So smooth, a smug-sounding voice said. Max whirled around. Who was that? But the only two people on the rooftop were her and Fang. And Fang was probably bleeding internally.

She shrugged it off, glancing at Fang. He would probably be down for a while. And she was certainly in no mood to face him now. Biting her lip, she turned around, unfurling her wings all over again as she prepared to take flight. But when she felt a firm but warm hand on her wrist, she turned around to see Fang behind her.

"I think we need to talk," he said quietly.

"Will someone please tell me what's going on?" Iggy asked irritably, the silence eating away at him. Jeb and Gazzy were still in shock, gaping like idiots at the back door, which was now hanging open. "Uh, guys?" Iggy tried again, but they didn't reply. "Hey!" he yelled, snapping them from their little trance.

"It looks a lot like Fang just found out that Max has wings," Gazzy said breathlessly, "and it kind of seems like he found out by accident." Gazzy was fourteen, and he'd pretty much heard everything. He didn't have to be a rocket scientist to know specifically how this could have happened.

"Ack, no visuals, please," Iggy groaned. Of course, he didn't notice as Jeb nearly had a heart attack all over again. "Anyway, if she was the one who got busted, why was she the one that ran out screaming? Normally, you'd expect him to, like, throw a bucket of water on her and pray that she melted."

"Well, about that," Gazzy said hesitantly, not really wanting to be the first one to admit that it was true, "When Fang chased her out…it kind of looked like he was keeping secrets, too." Iggy took a minute to ponder that.

"Fang's a secret cross dresser?" he asked, confused.

"Fang has wings!" Gazzy snapped. "Well, that would explain why he just jumped off our patio and flapped his way after her!" Iggy's jaw dropped.

"Well," he grinned, "What have we learned today? One, Fang has wings, which is probably just a reaction to being thrown into toxic waste and not specifically because he's been to –cue scary music- the School." He and Gazzy slapped high-fives while Jeb rubbed his eyelids tiredly.

"Two, you should never leave two teenagers of the opposite gender in a bedroom alone together," he chortled as Jeb shot him a glare that could have put Max's copyrighted snarl to shame. "And third," Iggy continued, "Fang is a sissy girl who has never eaten ribs."

Their laughter ended abruptly as Jeb slammed his fist down on the coffee table. "This is serious!" he snapped. "I always suspected it, but this really means that Max isn't the only one! And now that they know it works, I'm worried that they'll try this again! That they'll try to find her again!"

"Look, it's not that I'm not worried about Max," Iggy said. Max was his little sister. He loved her more than anything else in the world, Nudge and Ella included. "But I'm happy that she found someone like her. And I know that she can handle anything that comes at her now that she's older."

"But she's still just a kid," Jeb groaned. "Yeah, she's different from when she first got kidnapped, but the School is stronger than she is, too strong for even her to fight. I'm worried that this time," he bit his lip, "they won't let us have her back. If hanging around Fang makes her more of a target, I'm worried about her."

Iggy knew that those words were a code for 'maybe Max should stop seeing Fang'. He glared at his father. "I'm worried, too. Maybe I'm the only one who realizes how serious they are." I know what it's like to feel that way. "But she's almost an adult. She knows what's right for her. Sooner or later, to Fang or to the School, you're going to have to give her up. Let her go."

"No!" Jeb said furiously. "She's my daughter! It's my job to protect her! And she doesn't know what she wants yet! She hasn't seen all the options yet! She could be safe with someone else, someone like Sam, even! Someone safe!"

Iggy rolled his blind eyes. "Don't you realize that the only one who knows what's best for Max is Max? It's her choice! There's no reason that she has to settle for something less than what she wants. And it wasn't like she was going to choose someone as simple-minded and normal as Sam! For the last time, let her go!"

At that second, the phone rang, breaking the tension between Jeb and Iggy. "I'll get it," Iggy sighed and walked over to the phone, the only one they'd set up so far, now that Max was paying for things like food. "Hello?" Iggy asked into the receiver.

"Iggy?" A perky voice asked in reply, and Iggy's heart thudded. "E-Ella?" he asked shakily, glad to hear her voice and praying that it would be an over-the-phone breakup at the same time. He bit his lip hard as he remembered Nudge's voice when she had run away. He walked away from his father and brother, into his bedroom and listened.

"Iggy, it's been forever!" She squealed. On the other end of the phone, Ella was sitting on her bed in her very pink and fluffy bedroom, flipping through a few pictures she and Iggy had taken together, a picture or two of prom and things like that. "I can't believe I got your number!"

"I can't believe it either," Iggy said faintly, although he had to smile. He could practically see Ella now. She sounded just like had when he left. She hadn't changed. "It's great to hear from you, though." He smiled in content as he flopped down on his bed. She had probably called just to chatter on and on about life and how much she missed him, which was just fine.

She surprised him by saying the opposite. "Look, it's great to talk to you, but I have to go soon. I just wanted to tell you that I have a few days free from my schedule, so I wanted to come and see you for the holiday. I planned on coming up the morning of the fourth and staying until the seventh. Is that okay?" she asked.

Iggy sighed. Maybe seeing Ella was just what he needed to reassure himself that he had made the right decision. He hated that a part of him was nagging him that he should have chosen Nudge, when he'd promised Ella everything. This would ease his mind and put away any doubts. "Sure," he chuckled. "That's perfect."

"Great!" she smiled up at the ceiling. "This is gonna be great, Iggy." In her heart, she hoped that Iggy would ask her to marry him. He would get a job, she would get a house, and finally, finally, they could be together. "I love you, Iggy," she said whole-heartedly.

When he heard that, he wanted to die. Because really, he couldn't bring himself to say the same thing back to her. "Yeah," he said quickly, then pressed end. Clenching his head in his hands, he rammed his fist into the wall behind him. He ignored the throbbing, and honestly wouldn't care if the bone had broken.

Because compared to this choice, nothing hurt worse.

"So," Max murmured as she dangled her legs off the roof of the building, mimicking Fang's uninterested and emotionless look. "So," Fang replied, his eyes moving to look at Max's wings every few seconds. Exasperated, he turned to look at her. "Max, I'm confused. Why did you run away?"

She looked down. "I was surprised. I didn't know that about you."

"But you have wings, too," he persisted.

"I know!" she sighed. "But I didn't expect you to have wings. I fought for two months to hide them from you, always afraid that you were going to find out. I kept wondering if we were going to get serious enough for me to tell you. And I feel betrayed that you didn't tell me, but I don't have any room to talk, because I didn't tell you, either."

"I get it," he nodded. "If it had been a little longer…if I had been sure that you wouldn't leave at the end of the summer…I would have told you. But I didn't know how things were going to work out. And I was always obsessed with hiding my wings from you. I guess…I guess I was careless," he said sheepishly, remembering twenty minutes ago.

They fell silent again, staring over the drop. The cars that littered the downtown streets didn't stop to look up or to take pictures of the two kids sitting on the edge of a tall building. There were a million thoughts going through Max's head at light speed. Fang just sat in shock.

"How did you escape the School?" Max asked quietly. Fang looked up in surprise. Max bit her lip. "I mean, if you don't want to tell me, you don't-"

"They let me," he answered, and she looked at him incredulously. "I made the decision to escape, but they didn't open my cage or anything. They let me figure it out, to see what I would do. They wanted to study me, and they already thought I had stayed there long enough. So my escape was my final test.

He looked down. "I don't mean to be like Edward Cullen or anything, but I've killed people before, Max. I killed people getting out of there, and I was elementary-school age. The same kid that ate pop-tarts and was just learning to spell out words killed around fifty people."

Max looked down. "No one told me that there was another kid with wings. Why didn't I ever meet you?" she looked up at him, and he shrugged. "I was all alone for those months. When I got back, talking was strange because I hadn't used my ability to speak in so long."

"I didn't know, either," he replied. "But I don't think that there are any others. The School didn't have the funding for so many bird-kids, so we were the only two, just to prove that the operation worked." She nodded.

And they were silent again. Max cast Fang a sideways glance. He was still the same person that she loved, she had to remember that. The fact that he had told her she loved her didn't change. But somehow, it felt like a wall was dividing them. And she didn't want it to be that way.

She wanted him to hold her, to comfort her, to tell her that everything would be okay. But he didn't. He sat in his closed-off bubble, completely silent. Yet, it had never bothered her before. So why now? "I don't want you to feel separated from me," she struggled for the right words. "But if you want me to leave…I will."

Wanting to scream in frustration when she got no answer, she stood up and walked away. Out of the corner of Fang's eye, he could see it as she walked away from him. He wanted to stop her, but he couldn't find the will to stand up. She walked to the far end of the building and looked down, whipping out her wings in the process.

And just as she was about to leap off, he jumped up from where he'd been sitting, catching her wrist at the last second. She looked at him questioningly, seeing hurt and…vulnerability in his eyes. And that was very un-Fang-like. "Fang?" she asked cautiously.

He grabbed her other hand urgently. "I meant what I said back at your house. I still mean it. I want you to know that you're the best thing in my life, and I don't want you to leave. I love your wings, and everything else about you. And that I love you, I really do, more than anything else in the world."

"Fang," she was shocked. Was this really him?

"Let me get this out, because I probably won't say it ever again," he said breathlessly. "When the summer ends, I want you to stay, even when you go into high school. We don't have to make a decision this minute, but I want you with me, always. I don't want you to go."

"I wouldn't," she shook her head, and it was the truth. He smiled, and held her face in his hands, kissing her tenderly. This is it. This is…love? She'd wondered about that for a long time. And when they broke apart, she looked him in the eye. "I'm not going anywhere."

And he kissed her again.

Together, they flew back to her house. And Max wondered why it was that flying with two was so much better. Was it the way Fang's wings lightly caressed hers as they moved in synchronization? Was it having someone to fly with, for the first time in her life?

They landed in the driveway, slowly walking up the steps to the front porch, hand-in-hand. When the opened the front door, it wasn't any surprise to the others that they were together. Gazzy waved as if nothing had happened, Jeb cleared his throat, and Iggy shot him an I-told-you-so grin.

Jeb smirked. "I'm glad you two made up." And Max smiled, tugging Fang downstairs. "Oh, and Fang?" They both froze. "If you ever hurt Max, I'll rip your wings off and staple them back on." Max grinned harder as Fang grimaced.

They walked into her room, and she looked at him. "You don't have anywhere to be tonight, do you?" He shook his head, and grinned. Just for tonight, he didn't care if anyone found out. Just for tonight, he didn't care what anyone thought. Tonight, he was with Max.

He pulled her into a hug, his arms tightening around her. He picked her up bridal-style and walked her over to the bed, setting her down gently, then taking his place next to her and wrapping his arms around her. She snuggled into his chest, and he buried his face into her hair.

They fell asleep in each other's arms.

An hour later, Jeb crept down to the basement. One of Iggy's little jokes had him paranoid, and if Iggy was right, there would be hell to pay. He opened the bedroom door quietly, only to find Fang and Max asleep on top of the covers, clinging to each other silently.

He smiled softly, flicking off the light switch and closing the door with a soft click. Who would have thought that Max would have found happiness in the very place she had protested so loudly against?

She'd really made her home here, hadn't she?

Yay, everything's going right for Max and Fang again! :D Only everything's not okay with Iggy. Next chapter - Ella time! xD Oh, this is gonna be fun.

I've gotten so many good reviews for the story, I never knew it would turn out so well. Three months into the story now! I know it may not seem like it. I haven't been able to update as much as I'd like, but I was wrong about my high school schedule. It's actually gonna be really easy, which means more updates for you! 8D

Thanks, Kristina, for my cookie :) Death threats are nice, but it's always nice to be loved xD

Review! 8D

~Rachel