We landed about seven miles away from Mom's clinic at nightfall. The weather was only about 40 degrees, and the whole flock (minus Fang—he literally emits body heat) was shivering in our shabby garb, so we decided to land and build a fire to warm up before we kept going. When we landed, Fang pulled me aside. I glanced sideways at him. He was glaring at me.

"What?" I asked defensively.

"You know what," he said.

"No, I really don't."

"You knew I didn't want to come here."

Oh, great. A fight was coming. I glanced back at the flock. Angel and Nudge were oohing and aahing at Iggy and Gazzy's homemade fireworks. Don't even want to know how they got the materials… I turned back to Fang and rolled my eyes. "Is that all this is? Your manly macho pride got a little bruised because Mr. Tough can't fly by himself?"

Fang's jaw clenched. "No."

I put my hands on my hips. "You know, Fang, maybe you should just tell me what this is really about, then."

Fang's whole face shut down and he waited before answering, "No."

I narrowed my eyes. "What?"

Fang looked at me with emotionless eyes. "Max, hold on-"

But I was already on a roll. "So it's ok for every one else to have weak moments and show their feelings or whatever –"

"Max-"

"-But the minute some one suggests maybe talking to them or actually telling them how you really feel-"

"Max-"

"-You freeze up and don't let any one in and just brood to yourself and never let anyone try to help!"

"Max!"

"What!"

Fang studied me. "Why do I have the feeling we're not talking about my foot anymore?"

Okay, that was just stupid. I'd let far too much slip. I tried to backtrack. "Er, what makes you think that?"

Fang eyed me. "I'm pretty sure that 'having weak moments' and 'telling people how I really feel' have to do with a different situation."

Mentally slamming my head against something really hard. Oh. Slam. Crap. Slam.

"Um, well," I started blustering. "I, uh… let's…get going. We don't want to miss Mom at the clinic."

Fang's intense gaze never left mine. "Who's the one 'not letting anybody in' now?"

I took a step closer. "Still you."

He narrowed his eyes. "Oh really?"

"Yeah. Really."

He took a step closer. The light from the fireworks and the flames from the roaring fire Iggy had made highlighted his cheekbones. "Well, then, why don't you tell me how you 'really feel', Max?"

I narrowed my eyes. "Why don't you, Fang?"

He was so close I could see his dark eyes flash. "Maybe I will."

I took another step. "Go ahead, then. What's holding you back? Maybe you don't want the flock to get hurt or split up again."

He took another step. "I could say the same for you. Maybe you just think it could be worth taking a chance."

Another step. "Maybe you're scared to take a chance."

Another step. "Maybe you shouldn't be."

Now we were almost nose to nose, or in this case, my forehead to his nose, both breathing heavily in the dim light.

I felt the back of my eyes sting with tears. Great. Now I'm crying, I thought and looked down. "Maybe you're just scared you'll get hurt."

"How could you get hurt?" Fang asked softly, much different from his tone just a minute ago, and gently touched my cheek with his hand. Oh, my…

I didn't dare look up. "I-"

"Max, if we don't get going soon, we're gonna miss Dr. M at the clinic," Iggy said, walking over to us. "Oh," he said, realizing Fang was with me. "Am I interrupting anything? A little pow wow, perhaps?"

I pulled away from Fang quickly. "Nope, not interrupting anything. You're right, we should get going."

We took off into the night. The wind ruffled my feathers as I pulled away a bit from the flock and flew across from them. Five dark silloughettes glided over the silver slice of moon. It was one of the most phantasmal things I'd ever seen.

You know, it's times like these when I think I should just give up the whole "save the world" jig and become a poet.

We found the clinic, walked inside the doors, and found Mom packing up her medical stuff.

"Max!" Mom gave me a huge hug when she saw me. "It's so good to see you!"

I grinned at her. "Good to see you too. We aren't going to be staying long, but we were wondering if you could fix up Fang's foot."

Mom's brow furrowed. "What happened?"

Fang spoke up. "It's pretty minor, actually." I snorted.

"Yeah, right. Minor if you want to look like a duck with your feet turned inside out for the rest of your life." Fang glared at me.

Mom raised her eyebrows. "Well, let me take a look at it."

We ended up staying at the clinic for about an hour, while Mom bandaged Fang's foot. She discovered that it actually was pretty minor, and that he was lucky it was just a sprain. The huge chunk of mortar and brick that had fallen on it only caught his heel somehow.

After she wrapped it up in a ton of gauzy stuff, Fang felt around his heel and winced.

I sat down beside him while the rest of the flock watched Mom finish packing up. "So. You okay?"

He flinched again from the pain. "Yeah."

I rolled my eyes. Why do I even ask?

All of a sudden, Fang got this weird expression on his face. "Max," he whispered. "I think I just got a new power."