Another update! Whoot! So please review! Having trouble with the net, add the fancyness soon!

Thank you Myrah and SilverwingedShadow for the information! You're a load of help!

Please enjoy!

Create A Chain

Chapter 4:

House Plant Theories

"How are you feeling?" I asked two days later in Fang's cell, a clipboard in hand. He glared at me and the tug at the back of my mind seemed depressed. I clutched the board tighter. "You haven't been eating." I added calmly, seeing his eyes flicker to the metal door. "That girl I sent, you don't miss her do you?" He said nothing. I sat down in my white coat, leaning against the wall.

"You're an annoyance." I said finally. Fang had a look of mild surprise. "Yeah, that's right, you heard me, an annoyance. The nerve you have, following me. Then whenever something goes wrong or something huge happens, the silent treatment begins. All those years I virtually lived at your house, there was nothing out of place, it frustrated me because no teenage boy could live that clean, no one can hide a secret forever!" I banged my head against the back wall, annoyed. "But you're the silent type and I suppose it's the silent one's I have to watch out for." I sighed, my one-sided conversation ending.

"I want to die." Fang's voice cut through the silent air. It was soft, too soft to even be counted as a whisper. My fingers trembled – hope he didn't see – and kept my face calm.

"Because you hate me, I know." I stood up. But it wasn't because he hated me – the tug was stronger – I know he loves me but it's that type of love.

I left Fang in his cell, quickly changing into my counter-part, Sam. I sighed as tried to think of a way to get Fang out of his funk.

Give him up, Max, you'll have to do that when you save the world. Said The Voice calmly. I glared at nothing and scoffed. Who said I had to save the world alone and besides, who said I had to save the freaking world?

The goggles hung around my neck as I looked for something that could be of mild interest to him. I saw it, silver and shiny; I snatched it and hid it between my belt and jeans.

Tugging on the ski goggles I hurried into the room, looking annoyed. "That woman couldn't get me down here fast enough." I muttered, a scowl on my face as the door shut behind me. "So what's up?" I asked, squatting with my knees pressed together, my hands resting on the floor on either side of me as I plopped myself in front of Fang. "Must be something big 'cause she was in a hurry." I jabbed a thumb at the door.

"I want to die." He repeated at the same volume, only this time it felt graver, deadlier and more serious.

"Don't die," I complained, pretending not taking his words to heart, "because then the only interesting thing to talk to is the Monday slop! It moves sometimes you know, I think they laced it with radioactivity." Fang sent me a look that clearly said 'idiot'.

"I want to die now." He told me and my expression grew curious.

"Oh? And how would you go about on this, cutting your wrists with your fingernails, that would take too long to attempt and she'll catch you, along with you teeth, I would know, I've tried, everyone's tried." I looked vaguely curious and disappointed. "But of course, there's nothing better than a blade." I pulled out a small dissecting knife that students would use for dissecting frogs and twirled it between my fingers. "'Course a lot that'll do if she finds this first." Fang's eyes followed the now swinging blade between my fingers. His fingers looked ready to snatch it.

"Why do you want to die so much?" I asked, curiosity evident on my face, I fell back, sitting Indian style, the blade firm in my grip. "I'll give it to you if you tell me."

"The White Coat that sent you," Fang said softly, "she's my girlfriend."

"Did you guys start dating here? That must be a tough relationship." Fang sent me a glare and I shut up.

"She just started working here recently and I guess she's not really my girlfriend anymore after she told me that I was there to waste her time. But the thing is that I…" He fell silent, his eyes holding distrust.

"What?" I asked, I hadn't done anything wrong, have I? This Sam didn't slip that she was really Max, right?

"We're strangers but I'm confiding to you, why?"

"'Cause you want a nice shiny new blade?" I asked, pretending to be unsure, holding the blade up. "Besides, there's a rule between the experiments: Never talk about strangers. So anything you confide with another experiment, they'll keep it a secret, they won't tell a living soul and maybe dead ones if they see one." I added thoughtfully. I thought I caught a ghost of a smile.

"I love her." He told me finally, I widened my eyes, pretending to be in shock. "I promised her I'd protect the flock but I couldn't stand her leaving, I needed to be with her more than the flock because I knew her better than the flock."

"You like constants." My voice came out a trembling whisper. Fang looked surprised on my reply.

"Yeah… I need her and I thought she needed me…" Fang trailed off, I wanted so badly to yell, SHE DOES! SHE DOES! AND SHE REALLY WANTS TO KISS YOU RIGHT NOW! But that would sound awkward coming from a complete stranger who supposedly had eye surgery and could see into the future.

"I like constants." I told him after a few moments of silence. "I like the constant that the sun rises only to disappear in the twilight. I like the constant that I have two hands and I like the constant that I feel like I am needed." Fang scoffed.

"Needed, here?"

"Yeah, I know what you're thinking, needed for experimenting. Yeah but they depend on me most of the time, they don't try to do weird things if I don't want it. They don't want to force a prediction because it could be all screwy and stuff, I know, they've tried, so they just wait for me to suddenly have one. So it's nice that I'm needed because I'm a very weak person. But you have that constant too, don't you?" I cocked my head, playing with the knife. Fang's eyes flickered with life. "That's why you want to die. You want to be needed but not by anyone, her. This flock that you're talking about, I'm guessing there's more than two people in it?" Fang nodded, "They don't matter because they are not her. You don't really care right now that they might need you, you just want her to need you. And I suppose it's the constant of needing someone that brings everyone here, either that or being tortured to death but regular people usually suffer from the former." I offered a waning smile.

"I told you, give me the knife." His fingers reached out to snatch it but I pulled away, holding it firmly in my hand. I laughed playfully, shaking my head.

"I told you I'd give you the knife, I never said when." I grinned, showing off my teeth. "Besides," I started as I stood up, the knife still firmly in my hand, "I think you're so much stronger than me." I knocked on the door, pretending to want to be let out. I pushed the door open slightly, my leg already out the door when I heard Fang speak.

"You're wrong." It was deadly and murderous, as if he wanted to kill me and I inwardly shuddered as I offered a comforting smile.

"Just wait, a day or two, if you still want to die then, I'll give you the knife." I slipped out, slamming the door behind me and locking it. There was a janitors closest beside the well-protected door, I slipped into it, hugged my knees to my chest and cried.

I suppose that's punishment for me...

I tapped my pen on my desk, pretending to keep log of my studies. I watched Fang from the surveillance on my computer screen. He had not moved, not even when food was given - he hadn't eaten in the past two days - and with a stomach like his, it was like not eating for five.

I sighed, setting the camera to record and turned off the light in my office before leaving it.

It's a punishment to see him acting this way, it's a punishment that I'm the only who can see it because I'm the one who's attempting to keep him safe but how can I prevent him from killing himself?

I walked up the steps to my apartment tiredly, I opened it and closed it quietly behind me. I stifled a yawn as I pulled a soda from the fridge and began to sip on it while gazing about the room. Everything we had left behind was here. The luggage, the laptops, my sketchbooks, and the jewelry. Heck, it was Fang's truck I drove everywhere, even to the School.

My old sketchbook was open to a masterpiece in the making. The outlines were sketchy from when I last worked on it all those months ago, I would have to ink it and color it in due time. I set the soda down and began to flip through the earlier pages. There were doodles when Fang managed to steal my sketchbook and write or draw something weird or funny in it. And a drawing I had forgotten about…

It was of a girl, who looked only ten, from the waist up, her eyes alit. In her cupped hands just beneath her chin was a lotus flower, seemingly floating and emitting light that lit up her colorless eyes. I saw the girl as Angel and then suddenly Nudge before I remembered how much Fang liked this sketch.

I closed my eyes; he knew I hated to give away drawings. Would it mean something to give him this or would he crumple it?

I sighed, what to do, what to do… I glanced at the clock, nine forty-seven. I could finish this by midnight at the earliest… I set the book aside, heading to the kitchen to pop in a TV dinner into the microwave from the freezer. Moments later I was rummaging through the bags, pulling out my art supplies, the soda was set far from the paper, as not to ruin it.

I colored the drawing slowly, adding small details and giving more effects to some areas. It was the first time color had filled the apartment and it amazed me. My couches were black, my walls and carpet, a blinding white, the metal was silver, and everything else, black. But this drawing held greens, pinks and browns. There was magenta in the corner and a light peach giving the girl a natural glow.

Would Fang know I poured my heart into this drawing? I gazed at the girl, now finished, would he know that she's telling him to shine? Would he know, my thought was slow and sad, how pretty the flower is?

The flower was most important in the drawing and although the face was at the center of the drawing it was the flower that gave off the light and the attraction to the fact. It was the flower that made the girl so lively. The girl in the drawing needed that flower and the flower needed her, otherwise both of them would have gone unnoticed in my sketchbook.

And then a thought occurred to me.

A plant needed someone. It needed attention… it needed life to live…

My eyes swept around the apartment, Jeb had left me a fern to look after but I had chucked it out the window the second he left the day after I settled in. I have no plants…

Tomorrow was Saturday, I didn't have to go in till noon, if I could get a few plants and sneak them into work…

I glanced at the clock, two oh-six. I had spent two more hours on this drawing than I intended, whoops.

The following afternoon I had hidden four small plants in my office.

I walked into Fang's cell to check on his progress, a clipboard in hand, and one of the potted plants in my lab coat pocket.

"You don't want to die." I told Fang coldly when I entered the room. Fang stared blankly.

"If you wanted to die than you would have done it, slit your wrist or something, there's a part of loose metal in the corner, why didn't you go for it? Or even take apart the camera? There are sharp things there.

"No reason to live." I thought I heard him mumble. I looked away, nerved.

"You used to gaze at this all the time when I had my sketchbook at school." I pulled out the drawing from my clipboard and showed it to him. "I finished it last night." I saw the gears in his mind moving. He thought it was a ploy to get a reaction or a way to get some sort of information from him. I taped it to the wall across from him and I watched his gaze follow it.

"I want you to do me a favor." I said cautiously, watching Fang react to words. A White Coat asking an Experiment for help? Unheard of! "This is just for you, I suppose you can consider it a gift." I set the plant on the ground, just two feet away from him. His gaze fell at the small sprouting plant. "Could you take care of it for me?"

He didn't reply and I didn't expect him to.

I slipped from the room. I hated it. I hated it so much, I hid my hurt expression as I nodded calmly to another scientist who seemed to be wheeling dying experiments around in their crates.

I hated the silent treatment; it burned my face and my heart and made the rest of my body feel numb. The silent treatment was to torture himself but he never realized it tortured me. Whenever this silent treatment begins it's because something didn't go right and this time, it was me.

I watched Fang for a few hours from my office, sipping on a bottle of water that was with my lunch. He kept on staring the drawing but he never moved, not even a fraction of an inch, he didn't seem to want to care about a plant.

No… this plan was backfiring…C'mon Fang, you think things so deeply in your silent treatment, you have to see the symbolism in that plant, you've got to… don't die… I bit my lip, I had to do something…

"I read a comic once." I told Fang from the other side of his cell, I was sitting just below the drawing so his gaze could semi fall on me. "It was only about five or seven pages long and I could only find it on the Internet. It's a sad comic but it has a constant." His eyes flickered to the Sam me as I gazed out of the yellow tinted goggles. "I read it a few days before I was shipped off here. And I remember it so well…" I looked away, feeling the silent treatment taking its emotional hold over me, my face burned that it felt as if it didn't belong there and my heart felt like it was closing and preventing me from living as the rest just felt numb.

"Plants are interesting things…" I began, "And if that lady brought a plant inside here she's risking a lot."

"Why?" His eyes flickered with life for a moment.

"Plants carry spores -I'm sure you know that- and spores can contaminate experiments or act up peoples allergies but it's really important that it doesn't effect experiments or the chemicals they're making." I waved a finger. "I mean, it would be common sense, right?" Fang glared. "So in giving you one, she had to drag it all around this place, spreading its disease like wildfire. Jeez, you must be special to her, Mr. Ex-boyfriend." He continued to glare.

"Besides, plants are really interesting things." I moved myself until I was kneeling beside the plant, touching a green leaf. "They don't hate, they don't love, they are indifferent but they are wanting and needing at the same time. I don't suppose you know someone like that, do you? I mean, yeah, it's odd but if there was one person in my life that couldn't hate me or love me, who was indifferent and would lead me in the right direction, I'd be grateful. Plants are just the same, though they can't speak-"

"Then why don't you take the damn plant?" Fang snapped, emphasizing on the 'damn', it was the first time I heard him say something with such ferocity and anger. I fell back in surprise only a moment later have Fang throw the plant against the wall, the ceramic pot breaking on impact. His dark eyes held anger and contempt towards me.

"Ah," I acted as if his gaze didn't affect me and I didn't notice it at all. I kneeled once again and began to pull the ceramic fragments away from Fang's reach as to not cut himself. "It would seem this poor plant has fallen." I smiled weakly at the thought. I scooped up the plant and let it sit in its pile of dirt. I gazed at it sadly, knowing Fang was watching my every move.

"I always wished, if I could choose a power, it would be that of plants. I told my mother and she laughed at me." I said quietly, stroking a now broken leaf. "Because I would understand their calmness, their patience, and their forgiveness. And I had hoped with this plant, you would understand it too.

"Plants are very patient but always there. They used to wait for me when I went to school and ready to greet me when I came home late. They used to depend so deeply on me before I came here. If I forgot to take care of them, they'd die. And when they'd wilt, they'd forgive me when I brought them back to health. And it was always exciting when a new flower would bloom because it gave me the feeling I was doing something right…" The words flowed from my mouth with ease as a serene look swept over my face.

"To be needed," I began again, my eyes looking back at Fang's, whose eyes seemed to be unreadable, "is very difficult. I am not needed most of the time, they are starting to say I'm a failure. I would like a plant where I am but too many scientist watch me." I withdrew my hand from the plant. "They need someone and I suppose since she's giving this plant to you, she's giving you a reason to live."

Fang's fingers clenched around his jeans and I noticed that his eyes look shaken as if he were trembling all over. "Why?" The words came out soft.

"Am I telling this to you?" A soft smile crossed my lips. "I don't know, I suppose that's how I am, I don't really like it when people are sad, I do my best to cheer them up. I try to look deep into the things that everyone is given and try to give a word of encouragement by what was given. But I suppose you wouldn't understand that because I can hardly understand that.

"Don't worry," My gaze fell on the torn plant, no doubt dying of shock as I spoke, "I was like this before you got here. I wanted to die so badly, it was when they were forcing them, and I brought myself out somehow. I don't really remember, I just remember being in that funk for a long time because I had no help in getting out of it."

"What if…?" Fang trailed off. I furrowed my brows in confusion. What if what? "What if that's all she can be?" Fang asked me quietly. She, that's what he referred Max.

"What is all she can be?" He gave me a saddened look even though a glare was hidden behind it, telling me once more I was an idiot.

"A house plant." The corners of my lips twitched up. Sorry Fang, I can't be a houseplant, I love you too much to be one but I do need you.

"Maybe."

Not much to say. so:

Challenge: What is something you would never expect Fang to do? (I'll tell you mine in the next chapter XD)

Preview:

"But you're Max, you're the Sam I grew up with, who couldn't take no for an answer, who fought back at everything, who thought of freedom above anything else."

"And you're Fang," I said coldly, "you're the Nick I grew up with, who was as talkative as me and as of late doesn't talk at all. You always stood by me through everything, you're the best friend that helped me vandalize stop signs when we were thirteen and I got grounded for a month because of it. Told you we should've run faster." I grinned a little. "It doesn't change anything."

"But there's a connection!" Fang snapped in frustration. I felt the tug grow frustrated and angry.

"Connection?"

"When we were five, they put us in a room and this purple light came on, it hurt you Max, don't you remember?" I looked at him blankly.

"If it hurt, I'd imagine I suppressed it." I told Fang quietly. "Even if I was given my memories back, suppressed memories don't come with ease."

"But you have to remember!" Fang grabbed my shoulders firmly causing me to look up at him square in the eye. His eyes were hurt and I heard a small amount of urgency in his voice.

"We share a connection, that tug in the back of your mind, don't you feel it? Right now you're scared, you're sad, and you want to do something badly but I can't tell what it is because you've been trying to close it off. And I know you know what I'm feeling, you don't even have to look at me." I looked away, feeling the tug. It was sad like me, frustrated, urgent, and needing. It wanted something and if Fang was really the tug, he wanted me. I jerked my head back to look at Fang as an image flashed through my mind, we were kissing on the rooftop.

"You were thinking that?" I asked, pulling myself from his hold. I watched him nod slowly.

Adieu

Nightwing