A thunderstorm had just started up, and let me tell you, it ain't fun to fly in wet weather. My feathers were sopping wet, as was every part of my body.
"You look wiped," Fang said for about the fifth time. "We should find some place to crash until the rain lets up." I was exhausted, but not about to admit it. I shrugged, like it was no biggie.
"Fine,if you insist on it," I replied valiantly, like I didn't care, "we'll stop for a while. I guess." I started to descend, and spotted a niche in the nearby rock canyon that would do nicely. "Aha!" I said triumphantly, glad I'd spotted it before Fang. Because he usually found the good places first.
"How about there?" he spoke suddenly, pointing. I looked and had to suppress a sigh. Instead of a tiny niche, of course he found the ultimate jackpot in our world- a cave.
"Into the Batcave, then," I said a tad too dramatically. I dived at ninety degrees until I was just about to turn into a pancake, then righted myself and glided silently into the cave. I was in a good, no, giddy mood, because I was with Fang, and right then it didn't seem so complicated. It seemed okay- like we could just be friendly and that was all.
Fang probably thought my behavior was just plain disturbing, as I could kind of guess from the raised eyebrows I got from that maneuver. He didn't say anything, though.
Soon I'd started up a fire, crackling merrily, etc., in the background. I'm skilled that way. I turned around to find Fang already engrossed with his laptop. Great. Clearly, he wasn't in the mood for socializing. Not with me anyway. I rolled out my sleeping bag and flopped down, hoping I could just go to sleep and not have to deal with the awkward silence anymore.
"Do you have a plan?" After a few minutes of silence, his voice sounded like a gunshot in the darkness.
"Um, school the doctor?" I offered a moment later. It was a lot more solid than a lot of the plans we'd had, I reasoned with myself.
"What was the condition?" He asked, out of the blue. Still typing; probably trying to seem nonchalant. I wasn't fooled. I turned over in my sleeping bag so my back was facing him, and mumbled something incoherently about "stuff".
"You're going to have to tell me at some point," he said after I didn't give him an intelligible answer. His tone was calm, but I could detect the subtlest note of tension. Bossy, bossy Fang.
"No, I don't," I replied in a sing-song voice, knowing he hated that. "You'll never know. You'll have to live not knowing."
Fang didn't say anything further, because I'd made him mad. Smiling to myself, I closed my eyes. Now, maybe if I could just piss him off every time he asked me difficult questions...
~~~
I woke up feeling comfortable and content. I was pretty puzzled as to why, until I became aware of my surroundings.
I was... with Fang. My head rested on his chest, my legs tangling with his, and he was totally asleep. I'd rolled onto him overnight, I realized. My face burned in the darkness, but I didn't make a move to get away right then. It felt so right. He was warm and I felt safe, cuddling with him and I wanted to stay like this forever and...
... why was I being such a weak damsel? For god's sake, I was Maximum Ride. The person who was supposed to save the world, the leader of the flock. The ultimate warrior. And here I was, feeling like reliant on Fang's body heat.
I cautiously disentangled my limbs from his, doing it so carefully that he was still asleep by the time I'd gotten out of his wonderful embrace completely. I gave him another look, memorizing his face. So he did sleep after all. And his face looked a little bit more open when he was this way. He looked peaceful.
And incredibly handsome.
I jumped out of the cave and whipped out my wings, so not wanting to think that again.
You've got to figure this out soon, Max, my Voice spoke up. You're hurting them both in the meantime. But you also need to take into consideration the fact that Dr. Gunther-Hagen has the serum, and that means Dylan is the best choice.
"I don't care what the best choice is!" I yelled into the sky, knowing nobody could hear me. "I'll do what I want! Shut the hell up!"
You have to make better decisions, the Voice said, then fell silent again.
I flew around for a while, trying to figure out my problems- Fang and Dylan. Different in their ways, yet I cared about both of them. Fang had always had my back, and my heart- until he'd left, because us being together meant the flock wouldn't have a good leader. Dylan, on the other hand, had never left me.
But Fang. My mind always came back to him, even when I was trying to convince myself to be with Dylan.
Fed up with my clumsy decision making, I sped up and headed to the nearest town. I found a chain restaurant on the outskirts, and in back of the building was a supplies truck, full with food ready to be unloaded into the restaurant. Perfect.
I jacked a couple packages of bread and muffins, then flew back to the cave, steeling myself to see Fang. And vowing to kill myself if I blushed or gave any hint of what had occurred while he was asleep.
He was standing at the cave entrance, looking completely presentable while I probably resembled a hairball. "Where were you?" he asked.
I didn't look at him, thinking my face might give something away about before. "Got breakfast." I tossed him some food and sat down beside the burned out fire to eat my own. He sat down beside me. Like, his body near my body. Oh, God.
I wolfed down a muffin, hoping that eating like a hyena would somehow disguise the flushing red of my cheeks. "So, today," I said between mouthfuls. I couldn't think of anything to say beyond that at this point.
Fang started on his fourth muffin, and his elbow touched mine for a millisecond, sending a shock wave through me. "What's your plan?" He looked at me expectantly. Because I was the leader. I'd always been the leader. Even when Fang was a leader himself, it seemed I was... the alpha leader?
I opened my mouth, not knowing what to say, but something came out anyway. "We're going to break into the doc's lab today."
He stared at me for a moment, chewing. "Got big plans, do you?"
I shrugged. "The usual. Go in, beat up some guards, grab the antidote, beat up anybody else we need to, get out, go back. End of story."
"I see." He accepted it. Even when my plans were crazy and made no sense, which was more than half of the time, he believed me. He had faith in me. He trusted me.
I think.
Keep the reviews comin' guys! Tell you what, if we can reach 100 reviews before I finish writing the story, I'll write an additional quick fax scene as a prologue or something. And there's no such thing as too much fax! Thanks guys.