Iggy: Bell, why the heck did you wake me up for this?

Me: I've been up for -yawns- three hours writing this. You are going to help me write an AN and you are going to like it!

Iggy: Oooh, touchy.

Me: -glares-

Iggy: -eyeroll Fine, fine, just get on with it

Me: Yeah...this chapter isn't great...in fact, it's really bad and if I think of something better, I'll post it later. But this is Gazzy's favorite memory that he's had with Fang -yawns-

Iggy: We should really go back to bed...

Me: Yeah...anyway, I hope that you guys enjoy the chapter more than I do...

Gazzy sat silently at the table with his deck of cards on his left hand side, and his mini, unfinished house of cards to the right. So far, he'd used up 25 of his 54 cards, making the base five triangles long and he had decided to work his way up from there. He'd done one and a half levels of this before he'd suddenly stopped and dropped his head onto the smooth wood of the kitchen table in complete and utter boredom.

Leaving his head on the table, he stared at the brown wood and listened carefully. There was not a sound to be heard throughout the entire house. It was kind of freaky actually, Gazzy thought. Our household used to be buzzing with life. Iggy would be in the kitchen making a cake or something while telling me not to lick the icing until I'd finished mixing it, Nudge would be sitting on a stool near the table, chattering away about some magazine she'd read or a new song she'd heard or whatever, Angel would be playing with Total and trying to sneak some cake mix for him to eat, Max would be watching and assessing the situation while trying not to get in the way of Iggy's cooking rampage, and Fang…

Gazzy stopped short and brought his head up slowly from the table, staring at his house of cards.

…and Fang…was here.

Gazzy reached out and forcefully knocked the cards off the table, making them spin like pinwheels caught by the wind until they hit the floor. After this act, the house continued to remain silent. Gazzy picked up a card that hadn't fell and twirled it between his fingers.

"Fang! Will you play Uno with me?" Gazzy asked, waving a deck of cards in Fang's unamused face.

Fang put his book down on his desk and turned to face the gleeful six year old who was bouncing up and down in front of him with a pack of Uno cards.

"You want me to play with you?" Fang asked, obviously surprised by the younger boys actions. "Why didn't you ask one of the others?"

Gazzy's shoulders slumped slightly when Fang said this. His first thought was that the older boy who, like Iggy, he looked up to in so many ways, didn't want to play a game with him.

"Angel doesn't understand the game properly and keeps shouting 'Uno' when she has four cards left, Nudge is reading her magazine, Iggy's blind so he can't play, and I don't know where Max is," Gazzy said really quickly, the words streaming out of his mouth before he could think it through.

Fang looked at the younger boy evenly.

"It's okay," Gazzy added, heading for the door. "You don't have to play. I'll-"

"No, I'll play with you, Gaz," Fang broke in, and the Gasman spun on his heels and turned to Fang, his face expressing pure happiness.

"Really?"

Fang nodded and sat himself down onto the floor, patting the spot in front of him. Gazzy smiled excitedly, sat down and started dealing the cards eagerly. He dealt eight cards each.

"Isn't it seven each, Gaz?" Fang asked, counting his cards as he held them in his hands and fanned them out.

"Yeah, but I don't like the number seven," Gaz said, looking down happily at his cards.

Fang shrugged in response, and then the two birdkids began to play.

Throughout the game, the two didn't say much. Fang was his usual quiet self, and Gazzy was just so overwhelmed by the joy of someone playing a game with him that he felt no need to speak. The only person that had ever played Uno with him was Jeb, and he'd left a while ago. Gazzy didn't really know what to think about this. He'd pretty much accepted that Max was running the household now and that Jeb wasn't coming back. He'd also really started to bond with Iggy, too. Together, the two of them could really get up to mischief and go against Max's iron will when it came to rules. But, as much as he hated to admit it, sometimes Iggy couldn't play the games that he wanted to play, or, at least, not in the same way that Jeb played with him. He really did miss Jeb.

"Uno," Gaz said, knocking twice on the floor.

Fang looked up from his ten cards in bewilderment, then directed his gaze down to Gazzy's cards.

"Did you cheat?" He asked, narrowing his eyes.

"You can cheat in Uno?" Gaz asked, frowning. "Jeb never taught me how to do that."

The side of Fang's mouth flicked up into a half-smile. Gazzy knew that, for Fang, that was practically like a grin as wide as the Cheshire Cats.

"Best two out of three," Fang said, shuffling the deck carefully.

"You're on," Gazzy said with a grin.

Ten minutes later Gazzy leaned forward and knocked on the floor again. "Uno."

And, once again, Fang looked up from his cards and stared at Gazzy, who smiled triumphantly back.

"How do you do that?" Fang asked curiously, putting his cards back on the deck and shuffling again.

Gazzy rubbed his hands together in a mock-evil way. "You may never know."

Fang raised his eyebrow in a typical Fang-like way. "Come on, Gaz, tell me."

Gazzy's smile widened until he was grinning from ear to ear then he shook his head. Fang frowned at him.

"Best three out of five?"

"Bring it," Gazzy said, watching carefully as the older boy dealt the cards out once more.

Of course, it was no surprise to Fang when Gazzy suddenly said 'Uno' less than five minutes into the game. Gazzy laughed proudly as Fang threw his cards into the air and leaned back against his bed. "Okay, you win Gazzer," Fang said, looking at the young kid with a rare smile. "I don't know how you did it, but you win."

"Uh-huh," Gazzy said with a nod. "And what else?"

Fang raised an eyebrow at him.

"Say that I'm the greatest Uno player ever…and that I'm better than you."

Fang crossed his arms across his chest and carefully looked at the little mischief maker. Gazzy's smile faltered, worrying that he'd pushed the older boy too far.

"I'm the greatest Uno player ever," Fang said, getting up and walking to the door. "And I'm better than you," he added with a smile, before disappearing out the door.

Gazzy laughed hard at the joke, but stood and chased Fang down the hallway. "That's not what I meant!"

Gazzy let the playing card fall to the floor with the others and he drummed his fingers absently on the table. He'd always been really good at Uno and none of the Flock could ever beat him. Fang was his first victim after Jeb had taught him how to play.

Looking back, he could now see how unusually laid-back Fang was while he was playing with him. It was like, for one afternoon, he dropped the whole stoic and emotionless act just to play a game of Uno with him and mess around a little bit. He didn't treat Gazzy like a little kid and brush him aside like the others had.

Maybe it was because he was surprised that I'd wanted to play with him and not one of the other members of the Flock, Gazzy thought to himself, then shook his head quickly. What does it matter anyway? He's gone. Being the best at a pointless game like Uno isn't going to change that.

Brushing all other thoughts about Fang from his mind, Gazzy stood from the table and walked out of the kitchen, leaving the playing cards scattered across the floor.

Me: Yeah...not some of my best work...but I have some better things lined up for Nudge, Iggy and Max to make up for this :)

Iggy: Wow, it's really windy outside...

Me: -nods- I can feel the whole house shake. Alright, let's get to bed.

Iggy: Best idea you've had tonight

Me: you didn't like my chapter D:D:D:

Iggy: ...

Me: Iggy?

Iggy: ...BEDTIME!

Me: -sigh-

Iggy: Kidding :P

Me: Sure.

R&R?

-Bell and Ig