Though members of the flock had taken to dropping in on Dr. Martinez and Ella at least a few times a week, Max had insisted on making some kind of home that was exclusively for them. Having more strength than the average human adult and being able to fly definitely lightened their workload. Within a few weeks of careful planning with Fang and Dr. Martinez (who knew the area well and could supply any essentials), Max had come up with a construction plan for a large tree house that was to be built in one of the largest trees in the huge forests nearby. A large hill, almost a mountain, around twenty miles from Dr. Martinez' house, served to cast a shadow on the grove of larger trees at its base. They all grew to about a 130 feet with dense canopies, and branches at least a foot wide.

They chose the second tallest tree because it left ample space in its crown between the branches, and had so many leaves that they were almost completely invisible to anything above (except maybe inquisitive birds), and out of reach of anything on the ground. The tree house itself had a floor that stretched out over the immense branches of the tree, measuring approximately 400 square meters. The walls were little more than seven feet high, and a ceiling was mostly unnecessary. Just to be on the safe side, Max had asked Dr. Martinez to purchase several sheets of large, plastic canvas to stretch from the top of one wooden wall to the other, just in case rain penetrated through the leaves into the canopy. Not really trusting the amount of weight their makeshift home could handle, Max had left it up to them to turn their respective rooms into comfortable sleeping areas, and what resulted was a mess of sheets, pillows, blankets, duvets, thin mattresses, and anything else that could be put on a bed, strewn across the floors of the room, looking disturbingly like a slumber party gone very, very wrong.

Though the living space was positively gigantic for a tree house, it still only allowed for three rooms, and a very large kitchen (well, it had a Bunsen burner, table with chairs, and several cupboards in it). The room in the middle was Angel and Nudge's. Two layers of thick wood on either side separated it from Iggy, Gasman and Fang's room (the biggest of the three), and Max's room on the left. Hers was the only one that didn't look like someone had set a bomb off in a bed. She'd lined her walls with several duvets to allow both for some privacy against the noise of the others, and provide warmth, covered her thin mattresses with more duvets, and then arranged a sort of nest out of everything else to form a comfortable enough sleeping area. She left the few clothes she possessed in a small pile in the corner of the room, but otherwise didn't have many uses for it besides sleeping in.

Anything that required water in the flock's living conditions, be it washing dishes, washing themselves, bathroom requirements, or really anything else, was done by or in a small stream that they'd discovered in the forest. It sprang from a spring far up on the mountain, and flowed down the mountain only 500 feet from their tree. A small waterfall upstream had pounded a pool into the forest floor, which was perfect for bathing, though Max knew that, in winter, they were going to have to probably spend most of their time, if not just live, at Dr. Martinez' house.

When she and Fang returned from one of their late-night flights and chats at the lake (it was a couple of miles west of the tree house, easily reachable from both her mother and step-sister's house, and the flock's home), they found the lights peaking out of the leafy canopy, leaking out of the pane-less windows of the tree house.

"Ugh, I told Iggy to put them to bed." Max muttered as she landed on the small platform outside the opening of the house. Fang, landing lightly behind her on one of the branches (two people could not fit onto the platform), snickered, but quickly put on an expression of completely fake, totally ironic, and not-at-all believable innocence when Max turned around to glare at him.

Letting out a small sigh, she swept the curtain in the doorframe aside, and stepped into the lit-up kitchen, closely followed by a somewhat curious Fang. Iggy wasn't normally one to disobey orders, unless it was necessary (which it never was; Max usually knew what she was doing), Fang speculated.

The spectacle that awaited them inside was, to put it nicely, somewhat mind-jarring, if not downright blowing-the-fuses-in-someone's-brain. Nudge was seated cross-legged on the floor , a clipboard and pencil in her hand while yelling out, "Model #1, Outfit #35, Model #2, Outfit #36, Model #1, Outfit—"

The door to Angel and Nudge's bedroom opened and out came Angel, looking both frightening and strangely adorable dressed in a backless, flowery dress with a huge pink bow on the front, her wings halfway unfurled, her face so covered in make-up that not an inch of her skin was visible. She gave Max a lovely smile, then marched straight towards Nudge, who was chewing on the end of her pencil in artistic concentration, pivoted, then walked back to their bedroom.

She disappeared inside, and in the opening appeared Gazzy, although it took Fang and Max a moment to recognize him. When they did, their mouths simultaneously popped open in shock.

Gazzy took a second to pose in the doorframe, batted his eyelashes at them, then waddled towards Nudge in a bra-and-panty, black lace set that was not only a few sizes too large for him, but also, understandably, not fit for his body type. Somebody (probably he himself, knowing the Gasman) had parted his hair in a side-parting and colored his lips bright red. When he pivoted in front of Nudge and began his walk back to the bedroom, Max could see that the straps of the bra were specially fashioned to secure around the wings, making it especially dependable, if probably absolutely impossible to put on or remove without help. As if that wasn't enough of a daunting prospect to Max, who had a queasy feeling about the existence of this "outfit", the panties also turned to be the kind of the butt-floss variety. Thankfully, Gazzy wore a pair of underpants underneath, which just served to make the whole lingerie set look completely ridiculous.

"That one was for you, Max," Nudge announced with a smile as the Gasman disappeared in the bedroom, to be replaced with Angel, this time dressed as a guy, in a pair of faded jeans, a stylish white polo t-shirt, which didn't fit her at all, and a simple black leather jacket, all of which was too big for her. She had to heft the legs of the pants up with hands which were covered by the leather jacket, and did her best not to trip and fall flat on her face. Fortunately, Nudge hadn't forced her to wear matching shoes.

"I call that outfit." Fang said with a smirk, and finally noticed Iggy sitting by the wall on the right, a slightly despairing look in his blind eyes as he turned towards Fang's voice.

"It was for you anyway." Nudge mumbled, while staring with concentration at the notes on her clipboard.

Max, finally recovering from her shock at the underwear set, hid a small grin and put her fists on her hips in a threateningly mother-like pose, glaring at everyone in sight.

"Stop!" she yelled, as Gazzy stepped out after Angel had disappeared. "Have you all gone nuts?! It's past eleven o'clock, way past your bedtime, and you know that. Get out of those clothes and get ready for bed."

"Aw, come on, Max, just ten more minutes?" Nudge asked imploringly. Gazzy hastened to strike a girlish pose and bat his eyelashes, as if this could change her mind.

"No, clean up you three. And Iggy," she turned to him with a scowl that was evident in her voice, "Way to be a good babysitter and take control of the situation."

He, at least, had the decency to look ashamed.

Half-an-hour later, Iggy and Max sat at the kitchen table, finding comfort in chocolate pudding, which Iggy had prepared, and Fang was admiring himself in the long mirror hanging next to a cupboard on the wall.

"This doesn't look too bad." He finally judged, and turned around to peer over his shoulder at his back, which had a zipper right down his spine. The zipper let his wings pop open comfortably, and when he had to disguise himself as a human, it zipped the jacket shut again with the wings inside. The leather was padded well enough to hide the bulges of the wings, but it also made Fang look ridiculously buff, which he obviously enjoyed.

Not that Fang wasn't already ripped, but where his body was leaner, athletic and toned, he lacked the bulky muscle of a broad-shouldered Banana Republic model, which was what he looked like right then.

Max yawned and slid a finger around the bowl to get the rest of the pudding out.

"Good stuff," she murmured to Iggy, too tired to be quite coherent. "I think I'll turn in. Make sure you Mr. Self-Esteem So Low He Can't Bear To See His Reflection turn off all the lights before you go to bed."

"Hey," Fang protested as she stood up with another yawn.

"What, it's true." She said, giving him his own innocent expression back.

"Fine, I'll admit that I'm devastatingly sexy and can't stand not looking at myself every chance there is, just to see the gift to women God placed on this Earth, but that's not what I'm trying to keep you here for." He said, smirking. She raised an inquisitive eyebrow at him.

"You know Nudge had an outfit for you too." Fang said with a smug grin. "It'd be only right for you to model after having the honor of looking at this—"

The door to Max's room (she was the only one who had one) slammed shut, cutting him off mid-sentence.

Fang sighed a theatrical, long-suffering sigh, and fell into a seat next to Iggy, who appeared to be suffering from a severe case of hysterics.

"It was worth a try." He murmured his lament, as Iggy snickered into his pudding bowl. "Gimme some of that."

--

A/N: Alright, so I decided to put a pinch of humor into the story, though it's probably going to put a mix of action, angst, violence, and humor.

I hope you enjoyed it. Don't forget the Review Love!

Cheers!