Hi-ya! This is the next chapter, and thanks for all the great reviews. You guys are awesome.

Four years ago (11 years old)

"Fang, hurry up! We were supposed to be back home twenty minutes ago!" I say as Fang walks luxuriously behind me.

"Chill, it's not like we will get in trouble. We are usually an hour late. Right now, we are early." His voice had lost the high pitch of a child but is now young and boyish. His body is thin and lanky but a little muscled from playing JV basketball. I always hear girls talking about him but I can never understand why they have a crush on him.

I look at him now, really look, and I can see it. He is kind of beautiful with his raven black hair and obsidian eyes. If you look closely, they have gold flecks. I had noticed this long ago though.

They shine at me now in the growing darkness. Yes I can see why.

But to me, he's still just my best friend, nothing more. I can't see him as anything else.

He's still a little shorter than me, I realize then. That makes me smile.

"You're such a slow poke." But I fall into step next to him. We lapse into a comfortable silence as I listen to the quiet fall of our footsteps. I close my eyes and let my head fall back, face facing the stars that are coming out.

The quiet lasts a while until Fang breaks it with his warning. "Max, watch out!" I run straight into a light pole. I clutch my forehead and rock back and forth on my butt while saying words that would get my mouth washed out with soap if my mother heard.

"Ahhhhh. Ow, damn it. Damn my clumsiness."

"That has nothing to do with clumsiness. That was just pure stupidity, walking with your eyes closed like that. You're bound to run into something."

I glare up at him.

"Shut up shorty." He scowls.

An explosion interrupts his response and I quickly scramble to my feet. To the left of us is a wide expanse of field. You can just see the tips of a dying flame. My fingers find the edge of Fang's shirt and tug.

"Let's go check it out." My voice escapes in a whisper.

He nods and is first to step off the sidewalk. I follow after him and then pass him. I see a slope down and jog forward, leaving my best friend behind. "Max!" He hisses. "Max, get back here!"

I continue forward until I am stumbling down the hill and into the open space.

Standing in the rubble of some object is a boy my age with strawberry blond hair that turns pink in the fading sun. Beside him is a younger boy, eight maybe, with bright blond hair.

Fang stumbles to my side and grasps onto my upper arm. "Max!" He stops when he sees the kids and falls silent.

They turn to us and the older one smiles. "Sup? I'm Iggy."

The younger one smiles then, big and wide. "I'm Gazzy." His voice is a tiny squeak.

Now

"So, how did the date go?" I ask looking up from the book I am reading as soon as Fang Steps through the hotel door.

He shoots me a glare and stands there for a moment before relenting with a sigh. He throws himself down onto the random bed in front of me. He lays his chin on his folded hands as he looks up at me through his hair.

"Horrible."

"What did you do?"

He glares at me again and shifts up onto his elbows and loosens his tie. "What makes you think I did something?"

"Well, you're..." I gesture wildly at him. "...you."

"Thanks." He deadpans. "That makes me feel so much better." He stands up from his spot and starts stripping off the suit until he's down to his boxers. Then he flops back down in his previous spot on the bed, cloths already forgotten in some corner.

"Anyway, a bunch of people just kept coming up to me, asking for an autograph. It was just terrible."

"Damn. Maybe next time."

"No. Absolutely not. You are not forcing me to go on another date with some stranger."

I pout. "It's not my fault you keep screwing it up."

"Screwing what up?" Iggy says walking in with wind-swept hair. Janie had taken them to the park but I decided to hang back and wait for Fang to come back from his date.

"Fang screwed up on his date with Crystal."

"Kaylin."

"What ever." I wave off the correction.

Iggy snort/laughs. "They screwed?"

My face heats up in a deep blush from the image that pops into my head. "That's not what I meant and you know it." My heart pounds.

"Well, what if they did?" He grins, enjoying my reaction.

I squirm uncomfortably.

"Knock it off Igs. You know as well as I that that's not true." Fang scowls.

"Yeah, I bet they didn't even kiss." Gazzy teases.

"No, Fang doesn't have the balls to kiss a girl." I say.

"Besides, he looooooves you." Nudge says bending forward and making a heat with her hands.

My face has gone back to its normal shade so I swing off the bed I am on and flop onto Fang's instead. I sling my around his naked waist now and his arm automatically comes around me.

"You know it." I smirk.

Nudge's face heats up and she starts to squeal while fanning her face with a hand.

"Okay, enough." Janie steps forward. Durring this whole confrontation, her face has been getting steadily red, but now it has gone down to a pink flush. "We need to figure out sleeping arrangements since you five insisted on getting one room, and not even a suite even though you can afford it I might add." She takes a deep breath. "So what's going to happen? Obviously I'm getting my own bed."

I take around the hotel room for the first time.

It's a pretty big room with a little ten by ten kitchen. There is a small bathroom across from it and a window on the far side of the room with the certain drawn. There are four beds along one wall, each evenly spaced by two and a half feet, and a Flat screen TV on the opposite wall. The TV sits on a large desk with drawers.

I didn't see a problem with the room. I have seen worse.

After my quick assessment, I pull Fang to the bed closest to the window. "Fang and I are sleeping here."

I flop down on the bed, leaving Fang leaning against the window frame.

"No." Janie says. "You're not sleeping with a boy."

"Why not?" I sit up curiously. "We always sleep together."

"Because I am responsible for you and I don't want... things to happen. Why can't you sleep with Nudge?" She crosses her arms awkwardly.

"Because she kicks in her sleep and I wake up with large bruises, on the ground, or both. I can't sleep with Gazzy for obvious reasons, or at least they're obvious to me, and I can't sleep with Iggy for fear that he might do something to me. You already claimed a bed to yourself and, not to be rude or anything, but I wouldn't want to sleep in the same bed as a woman I barely know. That's just weird. And by 'things' if you mean sex then no. Fang and I don't have that kind of relationship, not to mention there will be four other people in the room." I take a deep breath. "Any other questions?"

"..." She's silent for a moment. "You're not sleeping with Fang." I roll my eyes.

"Fine." Fang says, apparently tired of listening to the argument. He kicks off the window. "I'll sleep on the floor. It's no big deal."

"That works too." I point at him without taking my eyes off of my manager.

She finally nods in consent and fang grabs a pillow and lays next to my claimed bed.

We all lay down and someone turns off the lights. As soon as It's dark I pull back the covers and a body slides in next to mine. Our backs press together like always. A content smile plays across my lips.

I hope the nightmares don't hit tonight, I think. But they always do.

"Ready?" Janie asks as a stage hand adjusts my mike.

I grin and give a thumbs up. I can hear the crowd roar through the curtain and it makes my blood pulse with energy induced adrenaline. Stage hands clear the space as we get into position and the curtain begins to open.

I start to bounce on the balls of my feet in the beginning of a high, and when I can see the crowd, I raise a hand above my head in a greeting.

"Hey guys, what's up? How's everyone doin' tonight?"

I get many answers but all I can hear is a roar in my ears. I turn to the band and in exaggerated exasperation say, "Well say hello. They are your fans you know." I turn to the crowd acting worried. "You are fans right?"

I get a bunch of 'no's mixed with laughter.

I widen my eyes. "Really? You're not? Well I guess we should come back another time then..." I make my voice sound sad and I start to walk off stage but a bunch of screaming makes me stop and look at the fans.

"What's that? Oh, so you are fans. That's great! Say hello to your fans guys."

"Sup." Comes Fang's one word greeting.

"Hi-ya!" Nudge says with a wave and bounce.

"How's it goin'?" Iggy.

Twelve year old Gazzy says, "Hey."

His voice cracks and he slaps his hands over his mouth. I double over laughing and the audience joins in not a second later.

"Ooo, someone is going through puberty." I tease. "Watch out ladies." I warn and I swear I see some people faint. There was a guy too.

Gazzy glares at me with fading pink cheeks.

"Alright, enough chit-chat. You guys ready?" There are screams. "Alrighty then."

We start to play.

I come off the stage panting and make it to the dressing room without tripping, amazingly. When I walk out in my jeans and hoodie, I find everyone already changed, in the main commons room.

"Max, come over here for a sec." Janie waves me over.

I take my time and stop and the sweets table for chocolate chip cookies. I frown at them. Still not as good as mom's. Without a word, I hand one to Fang. Not surprisingly, he eats it in silence.

Janie was tapping her foot in annoyance. "As I was saying to everyone else, you guys have an interview tomorrow so we are staying in the city again."

"Interview?" I question.

"Well, you're kind of going to be on live TV."

"Great. So Max can embarrass us all by destroying the entire set with one single trip." I scowl at Iggy.

"I'm more concerned about you and Gaz blowing something up." Nudge pipes in.

I roll my eyes and silently agree with Iggy. You can't trust me with I front of a camera. Some how I always end up screwing up even more. I glance at Fang and know that he's thinking the same thing. Janie sighs.

"Well, go do what you want for the rest of the day. Just be back at the hotel by ten."

We all do a little fist pump and Gazzy shouts, "Yes! Freedom!" And we all laugh.

Then we fall silent.

"...So what do we do?"

"I have an idea." Iggy grins at the Gasman and I know we are probably going to get arrested.

We go to the zoo instead of what the pyromaniacs wanted to do because they wanted to wait until it get s dark. The zoo is Nudge's idea, a bad one at that, and we end up getting kicked out. I had ended up tripping over a churros and I went over the railing into the penguin exhibit. I was attacked by a bunch of black and white angry birds. Lucky they can't fly.

My so-called friends had a good laugh as I was chased around, freezing my ass off. So that is how the Fallen Angels were banned from the only zoo in the little city of Springdale Arkansas.

Then we went to laser tag, courtesy of Fang and I. We ended up teaming up on everybody. We won of course, partly because we used Iggy as a shield.

When the sun started going down, Iggy and Gazzy dragged us to a field. So we stood there with the two pyro brothers and four hours to spare.

"Bombs away!" Came a shout and I cover my ears. There is an explosion and the ground rocks beneath me. There is an exhilarated laugh from Iggy and he stares at the dying flame in utter joy. Gazzy stands to the side, watching with a big smile on his young face.

I can't help but smile as well. I end up giggling for no reason and I think that the smoke has gotten to me.

Then bright lights are on us and our laughter fades. We stand frozen and there is a cop on a megaphone.

"Freeze and put your hand where we can see them. You are under arrest for the use of explosives on privet property!"

"Shit." I curse under my breath.

Dun dun duuuuun! Awesome right? Well I like so... Whatever.

See you next chap.

-Fantasy