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Fang, playing the gracious host, had booked all of us rooms. Not in a hotel, as he'd previously claimed, but a shabby inn. Still, to our low standards, this place was right up there. Nudge and I shared a room with a queen size bed.

"Take a shower, Max," Nudge had insisted. "You smell like..." her nose wrinkled. "Crap."

"Thanks," I'd replied sarcastically, but did so anyway.

Now I was scrubbing the grime off my body under a hot stream of water, and trying to decipher what I'd said to Dylan. Had I meant it? Or was it just a spur of the moment thing? Dylan's eyes had lit up, and while I had been blushing furiously, he'd kissed me. I had then proceeded to threaten to kill the flock if they let out a peep about the whole thing. I so did not need Fang knowing about it.

Why? The Voice, normally silent these days, spoke up.

Why what? I thought back innocently.

I could almost hear the Voice sighing in frustration. You know, Max. You have to figure out your feelings in order to move on with Dylan.

Thanks! Any more obvious tips to give me? I thought snidely. I got no answer; not that I'd been expecting to.

I finished up my shower, no nearer in my quest to figure out Dylan or Fang, and pulled on a tank top and pyjama bottoms. Nudge was already in bed, staring up at the ceiling.

"What's up?" I asked, brushing my hair back with one hand so she wouldn't see the expiration date. I lay down next to her and turned off the light.

"I don't know," Nudge exhaled. Her beautiful eyes looked sad. "These days... the whole flock is 's like we're not even a flock anymore. And..."

"And?" I whispered. I didn't have the heart to tell her that I would soon be gone too.

"I wish..." she trailed off, mumbling.

I got a very sudden and unwelcome blast from the past. When Ari had said those words to me. And I knew what Nudge was talking about. She wasn't wishing that we were in a five star hotel. She wasn't wishing that I would stop being a wuss these days. She wasn't even wishing that things would be the way they'd been right before Fang left us, one of the happiest times of my life but not hers. She was wishing things would be the way they'd been when we were on the run. Sure; we'd been hungry. Hell yeah, we'd been tired. Of course, we'd been running for our lives.

But we'd been together. Properly, I mean.

When Angel was alive, and things were uncomplicated between Fang and I, and Dylan wasn't around... Even with all the bad in our lives then, it had somehow been so complete. So happy.

We lay in silence for a while, and I wrapped one arm around her. I wasn't sure if she was asleep, but I whispered into the darkness what I'd said to Ari, so long ago, a few days before he'd died.

"We all wish."
~~~

Something touched my shoulder lightly in the middle of the night. I awoke instantly, punching thin air and completely alert. "Wha-?"

Fang stood in the shadows of the dark room. I checked the clock- only a couple hours after I'd fallen asleep. Nudge was still in a deep slumber. I climbed out of bed, disengaging my arms from Nudge, and crossed my arms. "What the hell?" I whispered angrily.

Fang was looking goddamn handsome somehow, while I probably looked like a raccoon had attacked my hair. He probably hadn't even gone to sleep yet. His short hair looked slightly tousled, but it was a good look- Nooo. I wouldn't think about him.

His dark eyes looked almost amused at my anger. "We need to talk."

"We need to sleep," I replied, not keen on having a one-to-one with him, in which he would probably grill me about my expiration date- Something I didn't want to talk about, since I was basically in denial. "And how'd you get in here anyway, you creep?"

He smiled the crooked half smile that made my heart beat a little faster and held up the key to our room. I stifled a gasp and fingered my own key. There'd only been two keys and I'd given one to-

"Nudge." I groaned. "You snatched it off Nudge, did you? Why couldn't you just be a normal person and knock?"

"I thought we might like a little privacy," he replied, and then gestured to the window. "Let's go. Find some place to talk."

There was no shooing him away now, I could tell in his eyes. I sighed. "Fine. For a few minutes I'll endure talking to you." Some emotion passed through his eyes for a millisecond, something I couldn't decipher and frankly, didn't have the energy to. I opened the window and jumped out nimbly, allowing myself to plummet for a few heart-stopping seconds before I unfurled my wings.

Whoosh. I didn't look behind to see if Fang had followed me; just soared up into the sky, enjoying the feel of air rushing past me, being off the ground and in the dark, vast sky. In the corner of my eye I saw his silhouette pass across the moon, flying several yards away.

I spied a tall building a few minutes later, and with unspoken agreement we angled down to the rooftop. I hit the ground running, and left my wings spread out to cool off.

"So."

I turned around to face him. He was closer than I'd anticipated; a few feet away. "Yeah."

"Can I see it?"

I knew what he was talking about. The string of numbers printed across my neck. I nodded and turned, folding my wings in.

I felt my breath catch as his smooth hand lifted my hair away from my neck; and his fingers brushing softly over the skin there made shock waves go through my body. He swore under his breath as he saw it but didn't move away. I didn't either. I was enjoying this so much. And I could feel him leaning closer, his warm breath tickling my neck, and his clean Fang smell took every other smell of the setting away. All I heard was his breath, all I smelled was his aroma. All I felt was his long fingers. And I suddenly was overpowered by an urge to turn around and kiss him- to feel his skin even closer.

Thankfully, before I could, he pulled away and stepped back. I was suddenly embarrassingly aware that I was breathing raggedly. I counted to five, getting my bearings and trying not to feel disappointed. I turned around then.

His obsidian eyes were inscrutable. "This sucks."

"I know," I sighed. "Does this mean that you have one? That the flock has one?" I asked. "We're all going to die once we're, like, almost sixteen?"

Fang shook his head slowly. "I don't know what this means." He looked at me again. "I just don't want... the flock... to lose you." I wasn't sure if he included himself in 'the flock'.

"Well, it's inevitable now," I said, trying to keep my voice steady. "The only thing we can do now is try and make sure that you guys never have to go through this." I gestured to my neck.

He looked at me, and I tried to figure his gaze out. But, as usual, all I saw was my own reflection. And my hair was as messy as I'd feared.

"You shouldn't have to go through it either," he said in a low voice, a voice that made my insides flutter. "But there's one thing we need to do tomorrow."

"Yeah? What's that?"

"You need to tell the others about your... expiration date." He sounded pained at those last two words. "They should know. They'd be happier in the long run knowing it now rather than when... it's too late."

I crossed my arms. "Nuh-uh. Not going to happen, Fang!"

"Why not?"

I considered giving some BS answer but decided to tell the truth at this point. "I... I can't," I confessed. "I just can't stand seeing them sad. Not after everything else that's happened." We both thought of Angel.

"You need to tell them," Fang said urgently. "How do you think they would feel afterwards? That they never got to say goodbye? That they never knew because you were too selfish to tell them!"

My anger erupted. "I'm selfish? You dirtbag! I don't think that our last time together would be happy if they knew I was about to die!"

A slight pause. Then, without warning, Fang surged forward and grabbed my shoulders, and got right in my face. Our noses almost brushed each other, and our bodies were oh-so-close. "You'll tell them, because they'll be miserable forever if you don't. Wouldn't you be? So you'll tell everyone. Tomorrow. Will you?"

I opened my mouth, and gasped "Yes!" think I mostly said it because I was startled of our sudden close proximity.

He let go suddenly, looking strangely relieved. "Good. Let's go back." He turned half way, then turned back to look at me. "And Max..."

I swallowed, recovering. "Um, yeah?"

He sighed, and right then, I could almost read what he was thinking. The pain. "This hits everyone hard, Max. Including me." Then he jumped, before I could respond, whipped out his gorgeous black wings, and soared so high I couldn't see him anymore.

My mind whirred as I flew back. And he had meant by that what exactly...?

Would I ever know what he was thinking, damn it?

-duh duh duhhh-

I've got some twists planned for this story! Keep Reading and reviewing! Thanks!