Disclaimer:I do not own the bands:From First to Last, t.A.T.u., Plain White T's, AFI, The Used,or Motion City Soundtrack. They belong to their respect record companies and affiliates, and (obviously) I am not one.

Chapter IV: Musicality

Bright lights and colorful advertisements were screaming at them from all directions. There were homeless men playing guitars and trash can drums. There were rock stars in the making, burned out pop idols, and music enthusiasts a like. There were punks and scene kids, emos and goths. Rich kids and poor kids. Preps and geeks. Jocks and trekkies. Everywhere, different people, different sites, different sounds! Everything was just so different.

How he loved New York.

And how Max seemed to loathe it equally.

"Stay close!" She warned Gazzy, who had stopped to drop a quarter he'd found in a homeless man's guitar case. Apparently she wasn't quite as sympathetic. Still, the man gave Gazzy a smile and a nod, directing his next ballad at the quickly moving group of six.

Behind him Fang could hear a sudden change in Iggy's breathing pattern. A sharp intake of breath, and then he seemed to hold his breath before whispering not quite in Fang's ear, "I know that song."

"What song is it?" Fang asked, combing his memory over for the simple melody, and coming up blank.

"Hey there Delilah/What's it like in New York city/I'm a thousand miles away/But girl tonight you look so pretty." Iggy breathed quietly. Fang could not remember ever hearing that song before, but then again he didn't spend hours curled up in a corner memorizing the lyrics to old Beatle's albums. Nor did his ears automatically tune in to the nearest radio.

"Never heard it," Fang answered roughly.

"You haven't? It's called 'Hey There Delilah', by the Plain White T's." Iggy replied.

"Still not ringing any bells." Fang returned.

Iggy seemed to shrug it off, deciding it really didn't matter after all, and continued with his quiet rendition of the song, "Hey there Delilah/Don't you worry about the distance/I'm right there if you get lonely/Give this song another listen/Close your eyes/Listen to my voice it's my disguise/I'm by your side."

And the rest of their walk- jog, Max was in a hurry- went very much like that. With Iggy quietly singing along to whatever caught his fancy. Once "Hey There Delilah" had ended he broke into "Everything Is Alright", apparently by Motion City Soundtrack, ("I could have sworn you were there when I heard it!") which was quickly followed up by "The Leaving Song" which was by a band Fang had actually heard of, A.F.I. He followed that up with a song Fang thought he knew by heart, "The Taste of Ink", by the Used. Turns out he was wrong.

Really, Fang wasn't paying that much attention to Iggy's musical obsession. It hardly mattered to him that the words to "The Taste of Ink" were not, as he had thought, "as long as you're alive again", but were actually "as long as you're alive and care". Admittedly, though, he did like the feel of Iggy's breath against his neck, and his fingers just grazing his back.

But Fang did have to draw the line when Iggy started humming along with Madonna.

"How can you even stand that song?" He asked very pointedly.

"I can't," Iggy moaned, still humming along to "Hollywood".

"Well think of something else! Or else it'll get stuck in my head too." Fang advised.

Promptly, Iggy switched over to what was possibly even worse, Panic! At the Disco, "Time to Dance". That song had entered Fang's mind once, and had not left for several weeks. He was not keen to repeat that experience. But, weighing the options, realized it was better than Madonna and allowed himself to hum along anyways.

By the time they came to their destination, one of the many Starbucks in the area, the entire flock seemed to be one giant humming mass.

"I never want to hear that song again!" Max declared as they plopped down at the first available seats. Well, the first two. Gazzy, Angel and Nudge piled onto one, with Angel sitting on Nudge's lap, and the rest of the flock piled on the second. Max sat on the arm, Iggy on the other arm, and Fang found his place in between the two. With Max's hair grazing his neck, and Iggy's leg brushing his, Fang felt slightly torn. But he didn't know why.

"I'm with you!" Nudge agree, bouncing Angel on her knee.

The flock seemed to reach a mutual agreement on that, and after discussing why never to start humming any song that catchy, they finally reached business.

"I'll go get groceries if you guys want to watch over the little ones," Max said to Fang and Iggy.

"That'd be fine," Iggy shrugged, though Fang had his inhibitions he too went along with it. After all, the two of them could handle a couple of hyperactive bouncy balls, right?

"I want to go with Max!" Angel protested.

"I want to go with Angel!" Gazzy was very protective of his little sister ever since she had been taken back to the school, and he was not about to let her out of his sites if he could help it.

"I guess that leaves you guys and Nudge," Max said, standing to leave.

"Buy her a CD would you?" Max asked, carefully counting her money. Fang could see several twenties, even more fives, a tan, and about a million ones. Who knew they had that much money?

"And I don't mean the cheapest one in the store. Which ever one she wants, she gets." Max added, forking over sixty dollars, in cash.

"Some of that's for lunch though, in case we don't see you." She warned as way of parting. With that, Max seemed to have her final say, and left the café, with two blonde children following in her wake.

Max may not have realized it, but she just made a huge mistake. Fang and Iggy, sixty dollars, New York city.

Hell hath cometh.

Or something like it at the very least.

"The Virgin Mega-Store we go!" Iggy said, pulling Fang up by the wrist. Nudge quickly followed, dashing after the two and into the busy New York sidewalk. Fang felt slightly uneasy going towards the place of his shoplifting venture, afraid someone would scream out "There's the shoplifter!" and the red lights would go off and suddenly he'd be surrounded by the New York S.W.A.T. team. Of course, that had never happened before and it was a very unlikely occurrence, but still, he held onto that fear.

As they stepped off the curb, Fang could feel a sudden tug at his sleeve. Iggy's slender fingers had wrapped themselves around his upper arm, holding on tightly as if nothing was different. But it was. Iggy was usually content to let his fingers gently graze his arm, or put a finger through Fang's belt loop. The sudden physical contact was, in a word, alarming. Not at all in a bad way, but alarming all the same.

"Can you believe she gave us sixty dollars?" Iggy whispered in his ear.

"Hardly," Fang answered. Because that was true, and he had a sneaking suspicion that she had purposely given them counterfeit, just to see them get arrested.

"CDs aren't that expensive, and neither is lunch, what are we going to do with the rest of it?" Iggy asked, though it seemed to Fang that his friend's mind had already turned out a list of things to do with it.

"I don't know, why?" The question was very pointed.

"Well... you're birthday is next month." Iggy replied cleverly.

"It is." Fang said blandly, not really seeing the point.

"I want to get you something!"

"Why would you do that?" Fang answered without thinking, because the truth was, he didn't really want anything for his birthday. He just wanted to wake up, eat, and go back to bed. A day without drama. That was all he'd need for what he would call a "good day".

"Because you're practically my brother, Fang. It's nearly law that I have to get you something."

"I-"

"Fang, I am going to get you something. The question is, is it going to be something you'd actually like? Give me some ideas here."

"Iggy, do you think I have any idea what I'd want?"

He shrugged, "We're going to the Virgin Mega-Store. You'll get some ideas there."

"Not much of a surprise," Fang pointed out.

"Well, Nudge and I could go and pick out something really random if you'd like."

Fang took a second to stare back at him, "Please, don't scare me like that."

Iggy laughed, "Now you see why you're going to at least give me a few choices?"

Fang cringed at the thought of Nudge helping to pick out his birthday present, "Yes, yes I do."

"Good," Iggy smiled.

Realizing Nudge had not said a word in the entire conversation, he took a quick head count to find Nudge a few feet behind, staring up at a giant screen projecting a picture of the Backstreet Boys.

God save me, she's turning into a teeny-bopper, Fang thought as he reported Nudge's current position to Iggy. He took it with equal distaste. Then, both went after her before she had time to properly soak in the release of their next album, thank god.

Though Nudge put up a fight, the two eventually managed to drag her away from the giant MTV screen.

"But everyone listens to them!" She protested.

Iggy coughed, but Fang could have sworn in sounded like, "Six years ago."

Keeping a careful eye on Nudge, the trio carefully made their way to the Virgin Mega-Store. Fang hated to admit it (or maybe scared was a better word,) but when Iggy didn't reach out to put his fingers around Fang's arms, he was slightly disappointed. And oddly enough... slightly jealous of Nudge, whom Iggy seemed to have selected as a guide, for he let the tips of his fingers rest ever so slightly on her shoulder.

As his mind began to wander, Fang started to think of Max. Of how he'd fantasized about her when he was younger, about how his thoughts would always revolve around the flock's self appointed leader. In his mind she was perfect, she was wonderful, and there was nothing better. Now, he knew otherwise.

She'd turned into something he could hardly imagine, and he could never forgive her.

He'd known Max almost all his life. Since he was sixteen months old, to be exact. They'd grown up together. Him and Max and Iggy, just the three of them for the most part. But it was just now that he was realizing how wonderful she truly was.

wonderful

Fang was eleven years old, and she was his first crush.

He thought she was perfect, and in his eyes she could do no wrong. Max's word was law and he was willing to obey. She was all he could think about, and even as his mind seemed to wander else where, his thoughts would always return to her. Her and her pretty crystal eyes and soft grown wings. She was so much more than the girls he'd seen on the TV. She had personality and determination, a pride and responsibility to her.

When she wasn't looking his way, or was engrossed in something else, he'd simply sit and stare at her. Thinking about how perfect it would be if right then and there it'd been just the two of them. One day, of course, she caught him. He blushed and looked away quickly. She did the same.

He'd often sit and ponder that moment, if perhaps it'd meant more than he'd thought. If maybe she'd been staring at him too...

"Fang?"

He tossed a look over his shoulder at the bed next to him, where curled beneath a dark blue comforter was Iggy, half asleep and trembling with fever.

He immediately turned onto his other side, so he could look at Iggy properly. He could see sweat droplets the size of bullets running down Iggy's forehead, and his color, even in the dim moonlight, looked off and sickly.

"Iggy?"

"What 'cha thinking bout?" was the hoarse reply.

Fang blushed intensely, "Just hoping you get better soon."

Iggy smiled, "You're a horrible liar."

Careful to hide behind Iggy, Fang cautiously entered the store. (Filled with tourists from wall to wall.) Looking just as twitchy as ever. He still held on to the (ridiculous) fear that he was going to be arrested. He knew quite well this was an irrational fear, that if he was to be caught he would have been caught when he was stealing the CDs, not when he was coming back into the store. Still, he reasoned, one could never be too careful.

Nudge was captivated from the second they managed to weasel their way through the sea of tourists. She had almost magnetically ran to the pop section. Max may have said any CD, but if she picked out anything to do with Hilary Duff Fang planned on clubbing her over the head and walking out of the store as fast as she could. Never, never, never would he allow that CD within a twelve foot radius of him.

"Don't tell me she's..." Iggy muttered next to him.

"I think we have a teeny-bopper on our hands," Fang replied, confirming only the worst.

The two, with great pain and remorse, carefully picked their way across the store, keeping that curly brown head just in site, should the opportunity arise that they needed to make a quick exit.

"What CD is she looking at?" Iggy whispered as they neared the over excited bouncing girl.

"Oh god... Max isn't going to like this," was all Fang could reply.

The CD clutched between Nudge's fingers was a CD by the Russian dance-pop group t.A.T.u. Fang knew who they were thanks to this little thing called the internet, but he doubted that Nudge knew that the two girls, Lena and Julia, posed as teenage lesbians.

Personally, Fang had no problem with that, but he knew that if Nudge got the CD and showed Max (if she recognized the group) he'd get in trouble for "exposing" her. But if he didn't get it, Nudge would tell Max, and Max would yell at him for not following her directions.

In times of crisis like this there was only one thing to do, consult Iggy.

"Nudge, just hang out for a second okay? I'm going to talk to Iggy," Fang said, directing his first comment to the girl, and the second more or less to the boy.

Quickly, Fang managed to drag his companion behind the R&B section before the other had time to speak, because he was not about to be the one to explain this type of thing now. And definitely not in the middle of the Virgin Mega-Store. Especially not when he was at risk for being arrested.

"She picked out Taboo," He said, tripping over the Russian name awkwardly.

Iggy cocked his eyebrow quizzically for a second before he put two and two together. "You mean..." His voice fell, "t.A.T.u?"

"Yes," Fang hissed, "the same."

"Which album?"

Fang quickly bit his tongue before how the hell am I suppose to know? Could fall out. Instead, he peered over the CD rack at Nudge, managing just to make out the name of the group and the words "wrong lane". Not to mention a very suggestive picture of the two girls.

"Something wrong lane." He reported.

Iggy muttered something very close to, "She just had to pick the lesbian album!"

"What?" Fang hissed, stepping on Iggy's foot sharply to remind him to keep his voice down.

"The first album was a gimmick set up by their manager. You know, the whole lesbian thing. They broke away from him for their second album." Iggy said with a roll of the eyes, as if this was all common knowledge. But it wasn't, because honestly that was news to Fang.

"So... their second album?" Fang said, choosing not the let his temper win.

Iggy laughed, "You'll never get Nudge to take that one! It's much less dance-pop than the first, A), and B), she's already got her heart set on this one."

He did have a point.

"So, what do we do?" Fang asked.

"We buy it for her and pray to god Max hasn't heard anything about them. Otherwise, Nudge is going to through a fit. And who knows, maybe she'll see something else before we leave."

Of course, that didn't happen. Though they claimed to be "just browsing", the trio was really trying to convince Nudge to give up the CD she had taken such a love to. It didn't happen, needless to say. Nudge was simply stubborn when it came down to things, and without some very pointed pushing (the type she would easily pick up on and then report to Max), she was not going to give up her dance-pop.

So, Fang took to praying while Iggy instead developed an odd habit of smirking whenever Nudge spoke.

When they'd finally tired themselves out looking at pop music and it seemed that they were ready to check out (one hour later, the damn store was so big) when Iggy suddenly grabbed his hand.

Seen anything?" Iggy asked, pulling him over by the wrist.

"Seen wha-, oh." Fang said, realizing what exactly what Iggy was asking, "No, not really. I mean, I haven't really been looking." Quickly, Fang did a sweep of the store, looking for anything that jumped out at him. Because he really didn't want to spend another hour walking around with Nudge on his heels, talking about silly tabloid news rumors. He hated to break it to her, but he wasn't at all interested in Britney Spears's marriage, and he really didn't give a damn about Paris Hilton and her little trifle with Nicole Richie.

There were a couple of cardboard cutouts around. One advertising the rapper 50 Cent's new movie soundtrack, and another advertising the British Invasion, neither really seemed all that interesting. For one thing, Fang really wasn't interested in rap music (read: he condemned it's horrible noise and it's sleazy, disgusting lifestyle), and for another, Iggy already had a fair collection of Bealtes CDs as it was, so he really didn't need to buy one. But, thankfully, he did see a third. This one was a rather large cut out of Sonny Moore. Apparently the band From First to Last had released a new CD, called Heroine.

"Actually," he said, as he did, he reached for Iggy's wrist to pull but instead, he found himself grasping Iggy's hand in his own. Fang really hadn't meant to, at least, he didn't think he had as far as he knew.

In any case, he blushed a bright shade of fuchsia with sheer embarrassment, which Iggy mirrored just as profusely, and the two immediately pulled away. The brunette cleared his throat nervously, and in response Iggy mumbled something to the tune of "I'm sorry, I really didn't mean to..."

Inadvertently as he did so, Fang scuffed the toe of his shoe against Iggy's, causing another great wave of choking awkwardness and embarrassed shame. They both bowed their heads and immediately shoved their hands in their pockets for fear of another moment of unenviable and awkward touch between the two.

Fang recalled that an official awkward silence was seven seconds or more long, at least according to Nudge. If that was true, they'd already had several.

"Th-there is something." Fang stuttered after a long moment and cleared his throat again, "Over here." He said, this time keeping a fair distance. Not that he didn't want to be near Iggy, it was that he couldn't trust himself around this best friend any longer.

"What is it?" Iggy asked, cautiously he reached his fingers out from inside his jacket and gently brushing his fingers against the jewel cases, though he was careful not to let his hands venture too far from his own body it seemed.

"From First to Last, it's their new album." Fang said, picking up one of the CDs and examining it for himself as a distraction from Iggy and their own troubles.

He had their first album, regrettably it was one of his five finger discounts. It was probably his second most played album at the time, the first being Guns and Roses's Appetite for Destruction. If you could wear out CDs, as far as Appetite for Destruction went, he'd very nearly done so.

"Heroine?" Iggy asked as he picked up a jewel case himself, analyzing it with his slender, pale fingers. From what Fang could gather, the blonde boy liked the album too, though knew that in Iggy's mind nothing was ever going to beat the Beatles. Fang liked the Fab Four well enough, but Iggy was bordering on obsession. All of his extra money (what little of it there was) went towards even more Beatles memorabilia. Albums, tee shirts, and the like. He had it all. Fang liked to listen to their CDs sure, but honestly, there had to be a point where you could put someone in the psych ward for this type of fandom. And if there was, Iggy had probably crossed it after the 700 page biography. Which Fang was still reading him, three months after he'd bought it. (Last Fang remembered, they were at page four hundred and sixty-seven. As one could imagine, running from maniac scientists didn't give one much time to read.)

"Yeah," Fang said, allowing himself ever so much to smile at the prospect of owning the album. But he couldn't help swearing when he saw the price, which was a mere twenty-three dollars. Quite a bit more jacked up than the original had been (at least, last he checked.) Which had been free to him, but fifteen dollars, ninety-eight cents for the average, law abiding citizen.

Twenty-three dollars wasn't that much, but pair it with a second CD and lunch for three, sixty dollars would be gone very, very fast.

"Twenty-three bucks," Fang added quietly.

"Well, the t.A.T.u. album is cheap," Iggy explained, Fang could see the cogs in his mind turning swiftly, numbers flying through his head. He was nearly a human calculator. "It's about twelve dollars, so that makes thirty-five bucks total. Well," He added, thinking it over, "with tax it's about thirty-seven, thirty-eight dollars. Not too bad, really."

But despite Iggy's assurance that it wasn't "too bad", Fang knew that meant they only had twenty-three for lunch. Only a little more than seven dollars per person, and what restaurant in New York sold anything for less than twelve or fourteen dollars per person? But, then again, street vendors were cheap, and Max was getting groceries anyhow.

"Don't you want anything?" Fang asked as he took the wad of cash from his pocket, "I mean, you're birthday's coming up too."

Iggy laughed, "Not for a while."

"December eighteenth." Fang recalled.

The Flock had all chosen their birthdays after escaping from the School with Jeb. They knew their approximate ages from their days at the school, where they were constantly separated by age. They knew Max was fourteen, and being that it was a Maxocracy, (the damn thing) she'd gotten (or rather awarded herself) first picks on birth dates. She'd chosen June (twenty-first) for her birth month, and from there Fang and Iggy had little choice. Fang had been forced into October (the sixth), and Iggy into December. Nudge, Gazzy and Angel had all had free range in their choice of birthday because no one else was their age. Nudge was February (sixteenth, she wanted it to coincide with Valentine's Day), Gazzy had April (twenty-fourth), and Angel had called January (the first).

Max's fifteenth birthday had already come and gone. They'd celebrated with what they had, cookies and a Barnes and Noble gift card (they hadn't any other idea what to get her). Max hadn't really minded, and in fact seemed to enjoy the gift card, but if the sixty dollars he was holding was any indication of their current financial status, then Fang suspected there would be some much bigger celebrations to come.

"See? Three months away, don't worry about it." Iggy said, brushing him of.

Fang decided then was the appropriate time to drop it, though he wasn't planning on forgetting Iggy's birthday by any means.

"What was that all about?" Nudge asked, as they returned to the check out. She'd been leafing through the latest edition of Teen People, which she seemed to be trying to signal to Fang that she wanted him to buy. Fang, of course, chose to ignore her. Unless she didn't want lunch, she wasn't going to get it.

"What was what about?" Fang asked as casually as he could, trying, trying very desperately, to hope that she wasn't referring to him and Iggy.

"Back there, you grabbed his hand and then you wouldn't look at him." Damn Nudge, she saw too much.

"Nothing, nothing at all."

Nudge frowned, "Fang, you're a horrible, horrible liar and you know that."

"Well, you're horrible at reading people. There was nothing going on over there."

Of course, they both knew that something had happened over there, but only one knew the nature of the encounter.

Iggy seemed to not be listening, and was instead standing to the side and humming, but Fang knew otherwise. He was tuned keenly into the conversation, listening quite intently to their every sound. It almost seemed as if he wanted to hear something specifically, but what Fang hadn't the foggiest of ideas.

"Come on, give me your CD." Fang said, walking up to the counter. Nudge obliged and handed him the CD, and Iggy slid Heroine in front of the cashier, who was a middle aged woman with bleached blonde hair and a stare that clearly read, "why are you even in this store?". After a second of staring at the trio, she reluctantly scanned both items, and read off the total. Thirty-eight dollars, just as Iggy had said. Fang handed her two twenties, and she made the appropriate change. It was a soundless encounter, as Fang could plainly see that she thought little of the group he saw no need to contradict such a thought.

They left the store quickly, Nudge complaining of hunger and Iggy making polite suggestions of restaurants along the way, with his fingers just grazing the small of Fang's back. Who really wasn't listening, and was instead thinking. He was thinking about Max, well, somewhat Max. Mainly, he was thinking about Iggy.

What was that about, back there? What had they been really saying? Fang couldn't help but wonder. If what they were doing, really wasn't just an awkward part of adolescence, but was something different. Something... more.

The trio sat down on a nearby bench to allow Nudge to examine her CD properly, and allow Fang and Iggy to share yet another awkward silence. There seemed to be a lot of those happening as of recently.

Nudge sat on the far end of the bench, Iggy in the middle, and then Fang, next to Iggy. The two uncomfortably shifted next to each other, neither daring to face the other. But they could both feel the electricity, the chemistry between them. And as their fingers brushed once more, it was undeniable, at least from Fang's perspective.

Fang, the strong, silent, stoic boy that he was, was falling for his best friend. And falling hard.

A/N: Sorry the update took so very, very long. But, to make up for that, it's quite a bit longer. Plus, this is probably one of my favourite chapters so far. And the one we've all been waiting for.

Also, I did make a referrence to several pop culture bands here (see disclaimer), including the band t.A.T.u. no offense was meant to either Lena, Julia, anyone involved in the band, or the fans.