A/N: Woah! So many hits so soon! I almost cried! Thank you all so much!

Disclaimer: I'm not James Patterson

Chapter Nine: Mirrors

Fang POV

I shuffled from foot to foot with my hands in my pockets in the kitchen, my left fist slightly more swollen than the right.

Beside me on the floor, still in bruised, bloody, and beaten state, was the pentacle of my discomfort and hatred:

Dylan.

And, standing not seven feet away from me was the love of my life, the most amazing girl I've ever known in my entire life…and she looked pissed.

"What. Fang? Dylan? What are you doing here? Are you okay? FORGET IT WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING LEAVING ME!"

I felt like she slapped me. Hard.

"Listen Max, I just needed to return your…mutant. I'd feel bad if I left him like this in a San Diego park."

"Oh, wow, compassion, haven't seen that for a while."

My cheeks flushed with frustration and embarrassment at the same time.

I stretched out my wings, "Well, I guess I'll see you later then."

"Fang!" Angel's small voice rang out through the halls. Crap.

Her ocean-blue eyes, that we all know are nowhere near as innocent as they look, peered up at me with pain and utter anger boiling deep within them.

"Where are you going? You can't leave now, not after she's saw you again, this close to her…"

I was startled for a second at first at having Angel's voice in my head after not having it for so long.

"Angel stay out of his head." Max's voice was cold and hard.

"Sorry, Max." she replied timidly, tip-toeing to the corner of the room in the process.

Max then averted her gaze to meet mine, "Well, are you staying or not?"

"Let's talk outside."

Max POV

Ohmygah, ohmygah, ohmygah, ohmygah…he's here! HE'S HERE!

Okay, Max, deep breaths, composure, don't let yourself look weak.

"Well, are you staying or not?" phew, it was level.

Fang looked up at me with his coal black eyes, the same I had been walking and flying all over San Diego to see again, now coming closer and closer to me.

"Nudge will you haul Dylan into the living room and get some peroxide on his…everywhere?"

"Sure Max." Nudge, Gazzy, and Iggy each took legs, torso, and shoulders of a very mangled Dylan and carefully lugged him into the living room as instructed.

Fang jerked his chin up in indication that he was ready to go outside. I slid open the glass door and threw myself into the air, making sure it was the most beautiful, elegant, and powerful take-off I'd ever accomplished; just to make him think twice about leaving again.

I glanced down to see a small smirk on the corner of Fang's mouth, slightly shaking his head.

Good, that means I'd gotten to him.

We flew for a few miles until we landed on top of an abandoned motel in the middle of nowhere and sat there in awkward silence for a couple minutes.

Until of course I opened my great giant gab.

"So what's going to be the deal, Fang?" Don't let him know you've been depressed beyond your wildest dreams and spent an entire day walking around internet cafés in San Diego looking for his sorry butt.

Fang drew in a deep breath and exhaled in a hiss. A small puff of breath reminded me of how drastically cold it was in the middle of the desert at night. On top of an old motel. With nothing on but a t-shirt and a three-quarter length, light windbreaker.

I wrapped my arms around my torso and allowed a cold chill to rattle through my bones.

At which point my senses went on high alert when I felt Fang's presence edging closer…not long after the weight of his leather jacket, with all its Fang-filled smell, was draped across my shoulders.

"Thanks." I mumbled.

"I never expected you to find me this soon. I also never expected to have this whole ordeal hit you this hard. Your hair is limp, meaning you aren't brushing it although you have all the resources you would ever need at the house. You punched three more holes in your belt, indicating obvious weight loss, which is further explainable by the hollowness of you collarbones and the edginess of your cheekbones. You have dark bags under your eyes because you haven't been sleeping properly. Your wings are uncared for, with feathers sticking out at various, unnatural angles, showing that you've been flying around too much, aka avoiding the rest of the world…Max, what have you let yourself come to? This is so uncharacteristic of you, I don't know whether I should stay here and pacify all that you've done to yourself…or if I should leave again because I know it's the right thing to do for everyone else."

Whoa, talk about monologue. There'd only been a handful of times in my life that I'd heard Fang talk that much, that deeply, and, unfortunately, that accurately. My heart was pounding. It was like I stood in front of a mirror and critiqued myself it was so insanely accurate.

I had no idea he'd paid that much attention before.

"I didn't think you would notice anything…especially not at night."

I was sitting with my legs curled up to my chest, looking straight ahead into the infinite blackness that was the desert at night.

Fang leaned ever closer to me, sitting so close it was almost overwhelming to my senses.

He used his forefinger to trace along my forehead, down the side of my cheek, to the base of my jaw, angling my face toward his at this point.

"How could I not have, Max? I'm pretty sure I notice things more readily on you than I do on myself half of the time."

My turn: "Yeah, like how you haven't shaved for a few days, pending laziness. You're using a different hole on your belt, proving that all you're doing is watching peppy cheerleaders on ESPN and eating Cheetos. Your eyes are distant, more so than usual, meaning you are thinking too hard on something, also evident by the crease line on your forehead from thinking too much. I'm not the only one that's a mess right now, Fang."

The corner of Fang's mouth turned up ever so slightly, I'd gotten him again.

"So what do we do from here then?" he asked, all seriousness in his tone of voice.

I tugged his jacket around my shoulders and shrugged. "That's all up to you, you already know what I want out of this."

The next thing I knew Fang's calloused hands angled my view toward his face, his eyes intense, his jaw set; "I never meant to hurt you, Max. I never meant for any of this to happen, not this far. The last thing I would want for you is to be this self-destructing, I never expected you to, not move on. That's just not ever like you to fully give up, on anything. Let alone yourself and the Flock."

Tears stung the edges of my eyes, brimming around the corners and racing down my cheeks. "Will you please come back Fang? I've never felt like this in my life, I feel like I am totally lost and every day feels like a year. I don't know what is best for the world, and I honestly don't believe you being gone and Dylan being here will fix anything with the Flock." I threw my fists up in a fit of rage, "I mean really! You have the decency to bring back a totally mangled Dylan but you just don't know if you could stay here with me? Do you know how many times I've slept in your room, just to feel like I'm kind of close to you? How many days I spent lying in bed, unmoving, undetermined, and unsure of anything else!"

"I'm sorry." Fang cut me off by grabbing my shoulders and thrusting my body to face his entirely. He pulled me into himself and buried his face into my neck. "I'm so sorry, Max."

Then, he looked up and leaned in, his lips landing eagerly on mine, something that felt so natural, so right that I melted. I thrust my arms around him and let loose. All my emotions that I had bottled up over the past months poured out of me like a river. Fang moved his hands to angle my head just right. I reached up timidly to feel his face, his rough skin feeling like home to me, everything so natural and real.

He pulled me closer to him and I laid my arms across his broad shoulders, like we were made for each other.

He couldn't leave now.

A/N: Ta-da! And there's Chapter Nine for ya'll! Chapter Ten will likely be up next week too. Stay tuned, take care, and keep reading!

~hawkstar2