It was with a quiet groan that Fang sat himself down on the couch that night. His body was aching dully, a pleasant tiredness spreading throughout him. The bruises were already coming out on his ribs and Gazzy had taken great amusement in poking them over and over again until Fang had threatened to paint all his clothes the brightest, most obnoxious pink he could find.

That had stopped him pretty quickly.

It was with a hint of grim satisfaction that he watched Max throw herself down on one of the free chairs, groaning just as he had, rubbing her ribs with a wince. Of course that was until he moved, accidentally knocking his shoulder as he adjusted himself. A slow hiss involuntarily escaped him and Fang heard sniggering from her place on the chair.

So it was going to be one of those nights then.

"Oh, man up," Max said, tone teasing. This was quickly followed by a noise of surprise and lots of groaning as Fang lashed a cushion at her and she jerked too quickly to avoid the truly devastating missile.

"Oh, woman up," Fang replied, tone just as light while Max let her head drop back with a hiss, sliding down the chair. She hadn't even bothered moving the cushion from where it had ended up on her shoulder. Without lifting her head, she just lifted her shirt up enough to show him the bruises coming up over her ribs.

Uh oh.

It took Fang a great effort to tear his eyes away and tell her, "That's nothing." When she lifted her head up, eyebrows raised he just yanked his own shirt up, exposing his own bruises before he could lose his nerve.

The thing about Max was, it was easy to see when you got to her. Her face flushed rather attractively (like it was now), and her eyes got a touch more intense as she would cock her head almost curiously. It took a few seconds before she scoffed and seemed to force herself to relax, her hand letting her shirt drop (oh thank god).

"Admit I kicked your skinny ass then?" Fang's eyes narrowed at the challenge.

"I seem to remember being the one on top when we finished."

"Did I tap out? No sir, I did not." Fang was secretly thankful for her avoidance of what happened after.

"Don't make come over there. I know your feet are ticklish."

Now it was Max's turn to narrow her eyes.

"Come anywhere near me and they'll never find the body." She warned as Fang stood up with a lazy half-grin. He did his best not to wince as he stretched but god damn, his ribs were hurting something fierce. It was worth it to see Max grab the pillow and wave it (in a rather intimidating fashion, he might add) at him as if it would warn him off.

"A cushion," Fang all but drawled. "Terrifying."

"Not as terrifying as what I'll do to you if you even think about touching my feet."

He managed a grand total of two steps forward before the cushion had been bounced off his head, swiftly followed by another hitting his torso. Fang hesitated for a moment, blinking in an almost dazed way as his eyes moved from the cushions on the floor to where Max was now standing with a smirk.

"Did you just assault me with a cushion?"

"Cushions, actually. Plural."

"Oh." Fang blinked again, not quite knowing what to do. "You do realise this means war, don't you?"

"I've got a black belt in cushion-fu, and I'm not afraid to use those ninja skills against you." The smirk grew into a grin and Max beckoned to him like she was out of one of those old martial arts films. "Do your worst."

Fang just shrugged before quickly grabbing the cushions on the floor. Before he could throw them however, he was interrupted by noises coming from the kitchen. Iggy and Ella's voices to be exact. Fang cocked his head towards the noise, cushion hanging limply from his hand as he tried to hear what was being said. Max moved up beside him, as stealthy as a bruised, not so ninja bird kid could.

"He should've heard us," Max said with a small frown after a small time where Fang couldn't make out anything. "Iggy would've heard us if he was concentrating."

"Well, I mean if there's bacon around and he's tired, I can definitely understand why he hasn't..." He got a roll of the eyes for his excellent skills of deduction as Max moved forward to the kitchen door frame on tip-toe. Honestly, if Fang wasn't so curious as what was going on in there, it would've been hilarious how 'Tom and Jerry' it was. As she reached the wall and pressed herself against it, sliding towards the door Fang swore he could hear her humming the Pink Panther theme to herself.

"You are such a nerd." He hissed out, conscious of how loud he was speaking now. "Cut it out before he hears you."

"Oh, like you can talk." Max hissed back to him but she stopped as she reached the door and peeked her head around for a few seconds. When she pulled it back, she had a surprised expression on her face and seemed to have to stop herself from having another look. When she made her way back to him, she was making small shooing motions with her hands like she had when they were kids.

"Go on, it's time for bed now." Fang just raised an eyebrow at this.

"I'm not five Max. That one doesn't work anymore." He paused for a moment before going. "What did you see?"

"Nothing Fang. We should...We should just go." Well, her voice didn't sound worried but Fang knew she was good at making herself sound confident when she wasn't at all.

"What was going on in there Max?"

"Ig...Ella...Oh hell, just drop it Fang. It was private. None of our business."

"Alright." He said, nodding his head. Max almost let out a sigh of relief, but quickly caught it (and Fang's wrist) as he made to move to the kitchen door.

"What are you doing?" She hissed at him. Fang tried his hardest to ignore how warm her hand was around his wrist and he most certainly did not hesitate before answering because of how close they were. No sir. The Prince of Darkness did not hesitate.

"...Looking, seen as you're refusing to tell me anything." Max's grip tightened and curiosity won him over. The cushion he had been holding came up and smacked Max in the face, allowing Fang to slip his wrist free. He turned and threw it at her to give himself enough time to make it to the door frame and he had to stop himself from humming the James Bond theme to himself.

Now that. That was ninja.

Fang didn't know what he had been expecting when he looked around the door. He certainly hadn't been expecting to see Iggy pushed up against the counter, Ella standing close in front of him. Even though he knew Ella was one of them, one of the good dudes (gals, whatever), he still had to squash that brotherly instinct to move in, move Ella away from his sibling.

Ella had one of Iggy's hands in hers and seemed to be brushing it over her mouth. Fang immediately felt a rush of discomfort at seeing it and jerked his head back around as he heard her say, "That's what a smile feels like. I don't know if you can remember how they look but..."

Max was right. He shouldn't be hearing this.

Max was glaring at him and she hit him over the head with the cushion half-heartedly before throwing it back on the couch. Fang didn't even bother defending himself as he sat down, Max next to him and there was silence for a while.

Max was the first to break it, with a quiet voice.

"She was showing him what a smile felt like...Christ Fang, he can't remember what someone smiling looks like because he's been blind so long." Fang knew how she felt. A regret that, while they took down Itex, they couldn't find someone to help the only one of them who'd been physically impaired by those whitecoat bastards.

"I forget sometimes," Fang told her quietly. "He's so good at getting around, at really getting what makes someone tick, at making those bombs of his, I forget sometimes he's blind." Christ, he felt terrible for that. Every time he realised what he was doing, he felt awful for it but to see Iggy's loss represented so rawly….

Fang had never really seen Iggy as a vulnerable person before. It hurt something awful to get an idea of what his brother was really going through. He couldn't imagine what it'd be like to go without seeing Max's cocky smirk, her full-blown grins, the way her eyes crinkled a bit when she was laughing without restraint.

"Well, there is one positive to it all, I suppose." Max wasn't looking at him as she spoke, her eyes to the floor. He knew she was feeling pretty bad for Iggy as well. "Never thought Iggy would be Ella's type though. Or her, his type." She sighed and ran her hand through her hair before standing up.

"I'm going to bed. Give those two a bit of privacy."

"Yeah. Yeah, good idea."

They walked together in a comfortable silence up the stairs, Max stopping outside the girls room. She caught Fang's wrist again as he made to go past and he stopped, turning back to her. She was rubbing the back of her neck almost nervously.

"I-goodnight Fang." Quickly, she leaned in and gave him a lingering peck on the cheek. He couldn't help the small smile slide onto his face and when she pulled back, Max had her own subdued smile playing at her mouth before she pushed the door open and went inside her room.

A/N-I got them Iggy feels.