AN: Hopefully this will take away some of the hate you are all feeling for me. I know because I feel it for myself right now.
Max's POV
All of us have been really on edge. We're still waiting for the higher ups to call and tell us what they want to do or want us to do about this situation we happen to be in. Fang seems particularly on edge though. Which is not the best for Iggy, who decides to take this as an opportunity to mess with him.
Fangs POV
We're screwed. We're screwed. We're screwed. Is it sad that this is the only thing running through my mind right now? Well then let me explain myself, with that assassin earlier; we got really lucky. 'The Dragons' are not the type of people you want to have paid off to come after you. How do I know? They tried to recruit me before. I just thought their methods were a little too...distasteful.
"Hey Nicholas!" Iggy calls from the doorway to the gym where I'm sitting in the middle of them room brooding.
I don't have time for any of his stupid jokes. "What?" I snap at him.
"What do you get when you cross a ninja turtle with an emo girl?" he asks me, unfazed as usual by the hatred in my voice.
"I don't care," I say in response.
"You!" he exclaims then laughs.
"You do know it's not polite to laugh at your own jokes right?" I ask.
"I can't help it when this one was just so spot on." Iggy responds.
"I'm getting sick of you," I say in a blunt monotone.
"I can't imagine why dear Nicky!" he says in a high girly voice.
"Are you begging for a fight?" I ask angrily. "Because at this point, that's what you're going to get."
"I couldn't be begging any more obviously than if I was on my knees," he says, adding a more serious tone to his voice and moving from his position at the doorway to inside the room.
"Finally. Took you long enough," I say and stand from my sitting position.
"I'm sorry, but I had to mentally prepare myself to fight the big bad Fang. Youngest Director the Agency has ever seen. You have quite a reputation going for you. Of course you must know this yourself." Iggy says.
I keep my face blank, but grimace on the inside. Of course I know about my reputation. Everyone does. Doesn't mean I like to hear about it. Or that I'm proud of it. Is being good at being a professional killer really something to be proud of? That is a rhetorical question by the way. But if any of you people out there are interested, it pays good.
Iggy and I start to circle each other. Looks of concentration mirrored on both of our faces as we try to figure out who will attack first. Iggy makes a lunge for me which I quickly dodge, but of course he knew that's what I'd do so when he senses me dodge he kicks out at my side. The force of his kick knocks me over. I let out a grunt as I fall to the ground.
"Something wrong Nicky?" Iggy taunts.
Looks like there's no avoiding this. So I stand up and face him again. No holding back now. I move closer to him and aim a punch at his face. He narrowly dodges it, but I follow it with another punch in his gut. He doubles over panting for a split second before he retaliates by swinging out one of his legs and knocking me off my feet. I feel a bead of sweat make its way down the side of my face. Looks like he's not going to make this easy for me.
I can't tell you how long Iggy and I are down here fighting, but at some point we both stop for a breath and to assess our injuries. I have the misfortune of having a black eye(he caught me off guard) and I'm aching pretty much everywhere, but I won't let him know that. He, however, got the worst end of the deal. He has a busted lip, a slight limp, and bruises everywhere.
"Truce?" Iggy asks breathing heavily.
I give him a curious look and ask, "Conditions?"
"I'll stop the teasing and call you Fang. We don't hate each other, yada yada yada. We be best buds and all that," he says.
As repulsing as being friends with Iggy is, I know we can't keep this up so I say, "Fine," and let out a huge breath as the tension left my body. I was coiled up tighter than any spring.
"So...friend," Iggy starts, "You and Max huh?" he asks and raises an eyebrow.
"You and Nudge huh?" I ask back, lifting an eyebrow of my own.
He laughs loudly despite the pain he must be in and says, "Touché,"
I shake my head slowly back and forth before putting my thoughts on Max. We're going to have to go back upstairs to get our injuries treated soon enough and I know the moment she finds out we were fighting she's going to think we're stupid or something.
"We've gotta go back up," I say to Iggy.
He nods as he realizes what this means, "She's going to kill us," he says, a look of pure terror on his face.
I nod.
"At least she's yours and not mine," Iggy mumbles.
"What's that supposed to mean?" I ask.
"That means you die first," he says with a smirk.
Crap. I give him a glare before muttering, "Let's just get this over with," and head to the elevator while he follows.
When we get to the top floor and walk out, Max is sitting at the island in the kitchen by herself drinking something from a mug an looking extremely restless.
She looks up when she hears the elevator ding. She takes in Iggy's appearance and then mine before nodding to herself.
"You two had a fight I see," she says calmly.
"Yeah," I confirm.
"And did that solve your problems?" she asks, still using a controlled calm voice.
"Yep, me and Fangy are best buds now," Iggy decides to add in.
"I see," she says, "Now did that happen before or after you two almost killed each other?"
Neither Iggy nor I respond to that. She nods to herself again then says, "That's what I thought,"
She gets off her stool and starts to walk to another room before she turns around and says, "Clean yourselves up, you both look like crap." then continues her walk out, her blond hair swinging behind her in its ponytail.
That was so hot.
"I think we got off easy," Iggy comments after she left.
"Yeah me too. So maybe we should get cleaned up? You don't look too hot bud," I comment to Iggy.
He chuckles and says, "It's not as bad as it looks,"
As if right on cue, Nudge and Dreslin come running out. Nudge with an expression of worry and Dreslin one of amusement.
"Max told us you two had a fight, Iggy are you okay?" Nudge exclaims as she starts to check on Iggy's still bleeding lip.
"You know I have a limp too," Iggy tells Nudge.
"Aw you poor thing. You need to sit down and elevate it. How bad is it? Is it a sprain? Oh I hope not," Nudge says.
"I love how much concern I'm getting," I say.
"Shut up Fang, you did this," Nudge tells me.
"It's not like he didn't deserve it," I try to defend myself.
"Fang, I at least know you're fine, although you might want to get some ice on that eye." Dreslin says.
"Thanks for the advice," I say wryly and put some ice in a bag for my eye then leave to take a hot shower and maybe relieve some of my aches and pains.
Max's POV
"I can't BELIEVE those two IDIOTS! What were they thinking?" I exclaim as I pace back and forth in front of Ashley. "What good is a beat up Iggy and Fang gonna be if we get attacked or have to go on an assignment? No good! That's what! They're going to need at least a day to recover. We're lucky they didn't break any bones because they wouldn't be going anywhere if they had! Iggy has a limp you know, that's bad enough as far as I'm concerned. I just can't BELIEVE them! I was close to hurting them myself, but they are lucky I'm such a nice person that I let them get away with it!"
"MAX!" Ashley stops me.
"Yeah?" I say and stop pacing.
"Yeah they're idiots, but can you please stop ranting and pacing? You're making my head hurt," she says.
"Oh. Sorry," I reply and sit on the bed next to her.
"I understand where you're coming from and I think we all just need to calm down and wait a little more for a call. I think the problem is y'all are too impatient," she tells me.
I sigh and say, "You're right,"
"Maybe you should go check on Fang, see if he's alright. Make up for your lack of concern from before," she says and gives me a meaningful look.
"I'll think about it," I mutter and walk out of the room.
Angel's cooped up in her room and Gazzy is working on another bomb so I know not to bother either of them. I walk to the kitchen/lounge area and see Iggy kicked back on the couch switching up ice packs with Nudge and Dreslin sitting beside him.
"How you feeling Igs?" I ask semi-politely.
"Been better," he replies.
"I know and that's your fault, so where is Fang?" I ask.
"Best friend? He went to take a shower," Iggy says oh so excitedly.
I immediately head for the elevator to get to his room. On the way I tell myself to not explode when I see him. Be calm. I take a deep breath at his door then knock.
"Yeah?" Fang says as he opens his door. He's still wet from his shower and holding a bag of ice to his eye. He's wearing a black tank top that's clinging to him and black shorts.
"Um...I just came to see if you were all right," I mumble as I lose most of my anger looking into his eyes.
"Oh yeah I'm good," he replies and steps away from his door so I could come in.
"That black eye sure doesn't look good," I say as I walk in.
"Its fine Max," he tries to assure me as he sits on the bed.
"Doesn't look fine." I say and stand in front of him to get a better look at it.
"It is, he just got a lucky shot in," he says.
"Mmhm," I say distractedly. I take the ice bag from the hand at his face. I take my own hand and lightly touch it.
"That doesn't hurt does it?" I ask him.
"Not a bit," he says.
"What about this?" I ask and apply some pressure to it.
I see him wince a little.
"Fine huh?" I say and place the ice back on it.
"You worried?" he teases.
"You do realize you were stupid for fighting him right?" I ask back.
"It was bound to happen." he replies.
"But you know now is not the time. What if we're attacked again? Having you or Iggy injured is not what we need," I tell him.
"Calm down Max. I'm not so injured that I won't be able to kick butt if I need to," he says soothingly.
"It's not that simple," I say and shake my head.
"Yes it is," he says and puts his arms around my waist and pulls me towards him.
"No it's not," I say.
He chuckles then says, "You are so stubborn," before he moves my hand with the ice pack from his face then brings my face to his. Is it bad that just one kiss can undo everything in me? The longer his lips move with mine, the farther away that voice in the back of my mind that says I shouldn't gets. Fang pulls me so that I'm sitting on his lap and trails kisses from my cheek to my collarbone and down to my neck then back up. I allow my hands to explore his torso as he does this. His wonderful abs and toned arms. He eventually brings his lips back to mine for one more lingering kiss before he pulls away and says, "This is simple,"
"Is it?" I ask quietly.
"It is," he answers.
"Yeah? Well put the ice bag back on your eye if you want to keep the swelling down." I say and give him the ice before sliding off of his lap.
"You going somewhere?" Fang asks when I stand up.
"I gotta go take care of something." I say.
"Sounds like you're going to kill someone," he says and stands up too.
"No I'm not. Just have to get some information," I say offhandedly.
"That might involve torture. Can I help?" he asks teasingly.
"No it's not like that." I say.
"Well I'm going up too at least. Can't stop me from doing that, can you?" he asks.
"I could, but I'm not going to." I say.
"Then thank you for your mercy my queen," he jokes again.
"You're welcome." I say and turn to walk out the door.
Now let me explain what I'm about to do. I'm going to force Nudge to tell me what's going on between her and Iggy. If she thinks I don't notice then she is sadly mistaken. Especially since she was doting on him and his injuries. I'm only being secretive about it with Fang because she obviously doesn't want anyone to know since she hasn't just told me about it herself.
We come out of the elevator to see that Nudge and Iggy are still on the couch, but Dreslin left.
"Nudge, can you come talk to me please?" I ask when I walk in.
She looks unsurely at both Iggy and Fang before saying, "Suuuure," and following me to her room.
I close the door behind us and turn to face Nudge who decides to sit nervously on the bed. "So what's up Max?" she asks.
"You and Iggy? Spill it right now."
She glances around before answering, "I don't know what you're talking about."
"Yes you do know. Don't think I haven't noticed. I'm not stupid." I say.
She looks at me for a split second before letting out a huge breath of air and saying, "Fine. You win. What about it?"
"So I'm right?" I ask.
"Yes yes you are," she says exasperatedly.
"How long? And why Iggy?" I ask.
"About a year now. Whenever he came around there was something about him that I just...liked you know? Isn't that how it is with you and Fang?" she asks.
I didn't exactly expect her to turn this on me. I look away from her.
"Oh don't get embarrassed on my account. Don't think I didn't notice that you and Fang are together now. That's insulting. Especially with my level of relationship expertise that teen magazines and TV has given me."
Now it's my turn to look at her like she's crazy.
"Don't give me that look. Now talk to me. Give me all the dirty details." Nudge says in what must be her gossiping voice.
"And now I believe it is my turn to leave. Nice talking to you Nudge," I say and walk out the door.
"You're no fun!" Nudge calls after me.
When I walk out to where I left Iggy and Fang, I see them talking with serious expressions on their faces. Something must have happened.
"What's wrong?" I ask.
They both look at each other before Fang turns to me and says, "Max, we just got the call from the Agency."
Relief floods through then me say, "Good. What do they want to do?"
This time Iggy says, "They want us to get rid of Jeb."
What? "Get rid of? You mean..." I sputter out.
"Yeah. They want us to kill him." Fang answers.
Now I know I should be happy that they want us to kill this evil, vindictive, brain washing psychopath but it doesn't please me as much as it should. In fact, knowing who Jeb is makes me want to kill him less and lock him up with the crazies more, but I guess it has to be done. Now the remaining question is..."Who's gonna do it?" I wonder aloud.
"Actually, me and Iggy have already been discussing that. The Agency didn't specify on who, just the get it done part. We think that the two of us should go do it ourselves since for everyone else it's a lot more personal and they might hesitate."
"You mean the three of us right?" I ask.
"No Max, I mean the two of us." Fang says gently.
"What are you talking about? You have to take me too!" I say in a slightly raised voice.
"No we don't," Fang says calmly.
"Yes you do! He tried to set me up and mutate on me remember!" I exclaim.
"Exactly, you're too emotionally involved. You can't get in this Max." Fang replies.
"We'll see about that," I mutter under my breath before walking away.
Fang's POV
If I know Max, I know she's not gonna let this go. Which means she'll be coming along on this assignment whether we know it or not.
"Maybe we should just let her come?" Iggy cuts into my thinking.
"Nah man. It's best this way," I respond.
"Whatever you say. So are we gonna tell the others or what?" he asks.
"Maybe we should wait until afterward. We don't want any of them to have last minute changes of heart or nothing." I answer.
"Okay I guess. So when should we do this?" he wonders.
"Tomorrow night," I say.
Tomorrow night all of this will be over.
AN: Review please.