"Iggy, how do you fly? You can't exactly see if you're about to slam into a tree." Ella's question was tinged with a gentle curiosity, like she just couldn't stop herself from asking him.
"With extreme grace and style, of course." Was Iggy's immediate response and in his mind, he could almost imagine the kind smile on her face as she responded.
"Obviously."
Iggy's head tilted as he shrugged the jacket off, letting his wings out slowly, stretching them out like one stretched their arms out after a long sleep. Above him, he could hear Nudge and Gazzy laughing as they dive bombed each other. You lost if you got grazed by the wing tips of the attacker.
"...I can show you if you want."
"Um...Will I regret asking how?" Iggy had turned towards the sound of her voice and was walking towards her, cocky smile slipping into place. This was his element.
"Probably. Trust me?"
"Always." The response was immediate and it gave Iggy that warm, tingly feeling in his stomach. Ugh. Feelings.
This is probably a terrible idea. "Close your eyes then and turn around." He paused for a second before taking an educated guess at where her stomach was, wrapping his arms around her. "Scream and I will drop you."
Max made no effort to hide her grin as Iggy flipped in the air, wings folding around himself as he rocketed towards the ground like a bullet. Ella had a tight grip on Iggy's hands around her stomach and let out a whoop of excitement as his wings splayed out mere seconds before they hit the ground, catching the wind and guiding them back up. He might be blind but Iggy may as well have had full sight when he was in the air. The way he could read the slightest breeze, could guess when there was an obstacle in his way by the way the air moved around it-Watching Iggy fly was something special alright. And Ella seemed to be enjoying it well enough.
It was fun, just hovering in the sky, watching the others relax and have fun. It felt like months since Max had last seen everyone look so relaxed, so-
A wing tip grazed her leg and Max looked down in time to watch Nudge grin, swoop away and shout "You're it!" at her. Alright then.
Max twisted her head as Nudge flew away, seeing Angel bank upwards from behind her in a desperate attempt to kill her speed and get away from Max. Too late. With a wicked grin in her direction, Max turned just as Angel looped so the younger child was angled towards the ground, wings slowly flapping to control her descent.
Max didn't have much use for such silly self-preservation instincts. Instead, she just folded her wings around her so she dropped like a rock, snapping her wings out ferociously fast half a second before she collided with Angel and utilised her momentum in a quick barrel roll, so that she was under the smaller child, forcing her to glide upwards to avoid her.
"So, Angel," Max began casually as if Angel wasn't in a desperate attempt to not be it. "What was that you were saying before about me and Fang?"
"Absolutely nothing!" She yelled back over the wind, head turning this way and that quickly in some attempt to find an escape. Max was flying upside-down, mirroring Angel's movements tightly, their wing strokes virtually synchronised. "I said nothing! Go get Gazzy instead of me!"
"Hmmm..." Max put a relaxed hand at her chin in exaggerated thought for a moment before grinning again. "Nah. You're it sweetie." Max twisted, her wing tips brushing the front of Angel's shirt moments before Max angled herself towards the ground and poured on the speed. Adrenaline roared through her veins as she glimpsed Angel in the corner of her eye, determinedly pursuing her. Perhaps a little bit of pride trickled through Max at the way she was stubbornly following her, despite the speed being a touch too fast for her.
Moments before she hit the ground and became a Max-sized hole in the mud, her wings angled up and she felt her shoes graze the tips of the grass briefly before she was gliding back up again, angled towards the tree-line. Elation flooded her body and Max heard laughter above and just behind her as Angel copied her, doing a quick twirl in the air to kill some of the sudden speed she'd picked up. As she turned her head back, she saw Fang lounging in one of the tree branches, watching the chase with a subdued smile on his face.
As Angel carried on towards Fang in the treeline, Max descended and landed gracefully a little ways away. She had a feeling she knew what Angel was up to. She knew she should start flying away right now, but a morbid curiosity made her stay and watch. She sat down on an old tree stump, drawing in breath she knew would be in rare supply shortly.
It definitely wasn't the fact that she almost wanted Fang to chase after her. No one else could match her for speed and technique in the air (when she wasn't going all 'meep meep' on everyone anyway) and, well…it was Fang. He was always guaranteed to push her, one way or the other.
Her breathing began to even out as Angel landed at the foot of Fang's tree, beckoning him down eagerly. Max rolled her eyes as Angel waggled her eyebrows at her whilst Fang jumped down from the branch, landing beside her with that same subdued smile. She saw Angel point at Max and they locked eyes as Max stood up, rolling her shoulders in preparation. Fang mirrored her, his dark wings unfurling as he rolled his own shoulders with a lazy, almost predatory grin.
He held his hand out to Angel, looking straight at Max. She took a few steps forward, ready to turn at a moments notice.
Angel jumped and slapped his hand, grinning widely as Fang kicked off from the tree and began to chase Max.
"Fang's it!" Max heard her yell with glee but she had already turned, using the stump as a springboard as she caught the wind, spying Fang catching up to her as she circled and ascended slowly.
Bad idea Max, very bad idea.
Instead of swooping up to try and intercept her as the others would've have done, Fang continued on for a bit, ascending behind her rather than try to catch her when he knew he couldn't. A quick turn of her head let Max see the large, sweeping way in which Fang was gliding, almost like he was herding cattle.
And straight in front of her was the treeline. In a forest, fast usually meant dead. Well, dead or really, really good.
Fine. She could play at that. The wind rustled a bit stronger than usual and Max caught the current spontaneously, letting it carry her towards the trees fast and hard. Fang did the same and was close on her tail.
One after another they smashed past the treeline and into the forest, tilting sideways to squeeze between thick trunks, branches snapping and catching on their shoulders as they sharply turned this way and that in an almost lethal game of cat and mouse. It was lucky they had such fast reactions, Max realised not for the first time as she folded her wings in, dropping sharply before snapping them out again to dodge a particularly solid looking branch. One wrong move and she was in for one very painful mistake.
Fang was opposite her out of nowhere, the trees between them almost acting as a mirror line as they ducked and weaved amongst the branches. Max barely caught them but just glimpsed the small, jerky movements Fang was making as if he was considering trying to roll between the trees in an attempt to get closer.
Well, now that just wouldn't do.
With her arms shielding her face, Max angled sharply up as she came across an opening in the branches, only a few thin ones snapping against her arms. She broke through the canopy and kept on going up, gradually slowing down as her altitude became higher and the air became thinner. Credit where it was due, Fang's reaction was instant and he was maybe three seconds behind Max as she broke through the clouds, barrel rolling to level out. Dangerously, Fang tilted backwards, wing tips angled up and momentum sent him flying parallel to Max, not quite close enough to touch.
"'Sup." He grinned madly and Max almost fell out the air there and then. She could count on one hand the times she'd seen Fang grin so widely and she was pretty sure heart attacks accompanied most, if not all of them.
"That was nowhere near as cool as you thought it was."
"Don't worry Max, no one can hear you up here. You can admit you're impressed."
"Someone's feeling cocky today."
"What can I say? My magic eight ball came up good today."
Max snorted and rolled again, diving towards the ground with tremendous speed. Fang kept parallel to her, so they were face to face and the pair folded their wings simultaneously as they fell below the clouds, the backyard directly below them with the Flock flying below them. She could see Fang struggling to try and angle himself so he could get close enough to touch and knew, as soon as their wings snapped out he had her.
As if.
Her wings unfurled just enough to catch the wind and Max injected some of that superhuman speed into her descent as she flapped precisely, hitting terminal velocity seconds before Fang did. She knew the chase was nearing it's end and that if Fang was unable to tag her here, she would be scot-free. Relatively, anyway.
Max counted down in her head as the angle Fang was on put him just off level with her head, the wind snatching at their shirts and causing them to ripple. Five. The sound of the wind roaring in her ears, along with her ragged breathing and Fang's panting, was all she could hear as they fell, closer and closer to the earth. Four. She hoped the Flock moved out of the way. She didn't much fancy crashing into one of them at this speed. Three. They must've cut quite the sight, streaking down towards the ground one after the other. Even Max had to admit, they had style. Two. This was it. Do or die. If she was right, she would win, she would've beaten Fang. Of course, he'd probably want a rematch...Now that could be fun. One.
Now!
Max's wings snapped out with confidence, the wind painfully pulling at her wings as her momentum was killed and almost seemed to cause her to hover in place for a second. For a split second, Fang was almost nose to nose with her, eyes wide in surprise as his own wings snapped out and he sharply pulled up and away from Max's sight.
Now she was twisting out of control in the air, angled straight towards the ground and god, that was hurting her wings something awful. Max gritted her teeth and sheer will kept her wings solid against the unrelenting air, stopping her tumbling descent. A mixture of adrenaline, elation and pride flooded Max's system as she levelled out on her descent. She'd done it, ha, beat that Ang-
And then, seconds before she was about to land gracefully on her feet in a running landing, something hard and heavy smashed into her sides, and they were sent tumbling across the grass, dirt being sprayed up as Max and her attacker rolled one over another, eventually slowing down. On instinct, Max's wings wrapped around the aggressor, keeping them close until they stopped.
They stopped with her on top of a panting Fang, cocky smile still in place, chest heaving. His dark, right wing had looped over Max, stopping hers from entrapping him, just as Max's lighter left wing had done the same around him.
"Gotcha," He panted breathlessly, eyes intense and locked on Max's in the way it did when he was considering doing something usually stupid.
Max's wings and shoulder muscles burned in that oddly satisfying way one's muscles burned after a long workout. Her own chest was heaving as she sucked in breath, the sudden impact shocking her.
"You...cheated." She managed to gasp out. "That was...stupid...and dangerous…and-"
"Incredibly cool...and fun." Well, at least he was as breathless as she was. "I got you...fair and square."
Kiss him hard and senseless.
Oh, fuck it. She was done dancing around this.
"Congrats." She breathed out after a moment of electric silence, and before she could hesitate or doubt herself, she leaned down and pressed her lips against Fang's with just as much purpose as she had flown with. It took a terrifying, long second for him to respond but when he did, Max was very happy that adrenaline ruled her head. After that, every other thought was pretty much along the lines of 'Holy hell, Fang can kiss.'
The kiss gradually slowed down, from hard and fast and eager to slower, closer, more intimate as Max felt a hand at her back, fingers slowly tangling in her hair as her own hands moved to twine themselves in Fang's long hair. Her lungs were burning something fierce but she didn't care. In the back of her head, she was still freaking out that 'Christ, this is Fang, and you, and you're both kissing, what the hell-'
It was easier to ignore that itch as a pleasant haze spread throughout Max, just as warm as the sun on her wings had been. There was just Fang, Fang's wing around her, Fang's hand in her hair, Fang's lips at hers, responding softly and gently. It was with a small exhale that they broke apart, breathing still heavy but more muted somehow. Despite the daze in her mind, Max swore she heard Fang make the smallest of disappointed noises.
You kissed him. Goddamn, that was good.
She made sure not to take her eyes off Fang, not removing her hands from his messy, windswept hair. She noted (with absolutely no complaint) that his hands hadn't moved either.
"I...You...you just..." Christ, she had made Fang stutter? "Wow."
Yeah, wow pretty much summed it up. Max made a small noise of agreement in the back of her throat. She didn't think that lovely tingling sensation at her lips would let her speak properly for a few moments.
"Are you going to kiss me every time I catch you now? Believe me, I really won't be complaining." Max couldn't help but laugh at that, Fang's lips (she had been kissing those a moment ago) tilting up in a crooked smile, eyes gleaming.
"I'll consider it," She responded, leaning down so she was nose to nose with him. "That doesn't mean you win by the way."
"Of course not. Rematch then?"
"Naturally."
Max rolled off him and stood up, helping Fang to his feet. She couldn't help the small smile on her face, much as she suspected Fang couldn't stop his either.
"You're it." Fang murmured to her when he was stood up, standing close to her.
"Mhm." Was this the part where they took off and she started chasing Fang again? She wasn't much fancying that now that she thought about it. Her stomach was rolling in a sickeningly excited fashion and Max thought she might throw up if she started to fly again.
Ah, there was the inevitable panic. Push it down Max, push it down. You only went and kissed Fang, he kissed you back and it was amazing. That's all. Nothing major, don't freakout, he won't leave like-
And then her internal panic was cut short by lips once more upon hers, and they were sweetly sliding away again, lips soft and gentle, insistent and eager all at once as their rematch was promptly forgotten about.
OF course, they'd forgotten about the audience above them. They were soon reminded though when a cacophony of noise descended on them, the Flock shouting and laughing as Max and Fang split apart, red-faced and grinning.
She knew they had to talk soon. That could wait for a while though, she thought, as Gazzy and Iggy high-fived a reluctant Fang whilst she was jumped by an excited Nudge and smug Angel.
A/N-That was both the hardest and most enjoyable chapter I've done so far. This started out a far different way than I expected it to go.