The table was silent for breakfast, save for the clinking of silverware as they ate. All six bird-kids were seated around a mountain of freshly cooked pancakes - an event that was usually marked with excitement and fanfare - but was instead met with cautious steps and tentative attempts as conversation. All of which were quickly stomped out.
Max and Fang were still studiously ignoring each other, their eyes glued to their plates as they ate. The rest of the family were not so comfortable with the silence: Nudge and Gazzy fidgeted in their seats, throwing wary glances back and forth. Angel was taking turns to glare heavily between Max and Fang, cutting her pancakes with much more force than necessary.
Iggy, however, seemed most uncomfortable. Seated in between the two exes, he sat rigid in his chair, his usual smirk and morning banter ominously absent. Iggy's sightless eyes roamed the table, sometimes lingering a moment too long before moving on again, as though he was afraid to stare, even if he wasn't actually seeing anything. The blonde also became incredibly restless as the meal went on, taking any and every opportunity to excuse himself from the table; sometimes it was as simple as refilling his glass, while other times he said they needed more sugar or syrup.
The silence was deafening, though no one dared to break it for the longest time.
Nudge had tried to end it as soon as she sat, but when her morning greeting was met with cold glares, she quickly shut up. Iggy, always the most boisterous at any given time, didn't try a greeting, instead opting for solemn nods to each as they arrived. Gazzy had never been a morning person, usually half asleep through the first meal, but the eerie quiet had pierced him more than the noisiest conversation. He sat straight and alert, trying his hardest not to disrupt the stillness.
While everyone seemed unnerved by the quiet, Angel seemed to get angrier with every word not said. She didn't even try a greeting or any kind, seeming to wake up angry and continuing on that way. Every once in a while, when someone would drop a fork or clink a glass, her glare would be diverted from the two oldest to the offender, who would shrink away from the youngest sibling's intensity.
It was Iggy's fourth trip to get more orange juice when she lost it. Slapping down her knife with a reverberating clank. The five sitting around her jumped.
"This is ridiculous," Angel said, breaking the steady hush. Her voice sounded forceful and booming after so long without it. All eyes were on her. "Is anyone going to explain why Max isn't sleeping in her room anymore?"
Gazzy and Nudge paused, pancake halfway to their mouths to stare. Max and Fang shared an incidental look with each other before turning sharply away. Neither said anything.
"Oh please," Angel continued on ruthlessly, "It's been two weeks already! Are we just supposed to pretend that everything is perfectly fine around here, because it's not. We're all tiptoeing around you two; this house is a mine field and somebody's got to explain what happened!"
"Let it go, Ange," Fang growled in his low baritone.
Rolling her eyes, Angel turned back to her food with a huff. Her movements were exaggerated and hesitant.
Three of the bird kids watched the youngest out of the corner of their eyes, They couldn't be sure, of course, but they had grown up with Angel, and could definitely tell when something just wasn't right. Max didn't though. She was distracted. Sure, she knew there was no way that Angel wasn't going to give up so easily, and Max half-heartedly threw up walls in her mind, but it was too late.
Angel had always been extremely perceptive, able to pick out which of her siblings would be the easiest targets.
Max had her blonde head turned towards the window, when it happened. Her head snapped back to the table, her eyes finding Angel's. The fork that idled in her hand slammed down onto the table with an earsplitting clang. "Angel!"
Picking her head up, Angel looked every bit her name. All blue eyes and innocent face, she asked, "What?"
"Don't act like you're some sweet little girl, Angel!" Max cried, standing up, sending her chair skidding across the floor behind her. "We both know you tried to get in my head."
Angel opened her mouth to speak, but Max cut her off.
"No, Angel. You had no right," she hissed, backing up. "You promised me. You promised that you wouldn't invade my privacy like that."
"Max, I'm -" se started, small tears pricking her eyes.
"Whatever, Ange. I have to get ready for work." Max turned, her hair whipping behind her as she stormed out of the dining room. She knocked into Iggy, a glass and a pitcher of juice in his hands, in the doorway, turning him around and sending orange liquid on the floor.
She continued on, roughly pulling a towel from the hall closet and locking herself in the bathroom.
She turned the shower on with a quick turn of her wrist. Max blew out a long breath as she leaned her palms against the counter. Her head was down, her long blonde hair falling in her face, though she couldn't see them. Her eyes were closed and she focused on her breathing; focused on anything but the fierce anger boiling through her veins.
Angel had no right to invade her mind like that. Max wasn't even upset at what Angel might have saw - it was just the principal of it. If Max didn't want to share something private, there shouldn't be a way to force it out.
They had talked about it.
XxX
Before they had moved into this house, about eight months ago, Max had confronted Angel. There had been a rather bad fight between her and Nudge the night before: Nudge swore that she hadn't broken Angel's favorite sparkling hair clip. It was one of the few objects that Angel prized. With it's elaborate silver bow glazed over with silver and gold sparkles, it was only found in a small, now boarded-up palm-reading shop in San Francisco. It just so happened that when they were all packing up their belongings from the motel room they were stating in, Angel could't find it. She tore the whole room apart, unpacking everyone else's bag, upturning the furniture, all to no avail. Angel swore she didn't lose it, and that Nudge had always wanted it. Of course, Nudge denied any involvement in stealing, but Angel insisted, and refused to leave until the clip was given back to her.
Two days the flock was forced to stay in the motel, through countless fights. Angel had tried multiple times to find out through her powers whether or not Nudge had it, but could rarely get through. Finally, however, Angel powered through any and all walls Nudge had concocted to keep her sister out, bursting into her mind with such force that it left Nudge screaming, writhing on the floor. She couldn't sleep for days afterwards.
She also did not take the hair clip.
So, while the rest of the flock wrapped Nudge in a pile of blankets and comforters, Max flew into the nearest forest with Angel. She yelled and kicked and screamed and threatened until her voice was hoarse and her throat sore. Angel cried more than any of them had seen in a long time. Her shoulders shook violently, her knees gave out and she had to sit down, her hands covering her face.
Through her choking, shuddering breathes, she said, "I-I'm sorry, Max, honest. I didn't want to hurt her, it... it just happened!"
Seeing her baby like this, broken and sobbing, softened Max's anger, if only a little. She got down on her knees in front of Angel, and pried the little girl's hands from her face.
"Max..." she whispered. "Max, please don't be mad at me. Don't be mad, Max, I didn't mean it. I didn't, Max, I swear."
"Shhh, Sweetie, I know," Max soothed. "You didn't mean to hurt Nudge; it was an accident. But I need you to not do that again, okay?"
Angel nodded.
"And I mean ever. No more mind reading within the flock; not unless they give you permission, alright? I can't have this happen again."
Again, Angel nodded.
"Promise me, Ange. Promise you won't do it to us again - any of us."
Angel held Max's hands tight and met her eyes. "I promise."
XxX
The steam from the shower filled the room and fogged the mirrors when Max finally got out. She wiped a clean spot to see her reflection in the mirror. Picking up a comb, Max tried to untangle her web of hair, and, with a single-minded determination, got it to lay flat. Soaking in any last drop of steamy heat, Max opened the door and slipped out to the hallway.
Iggy;s room - now her room - was noticeably cooler than the rest of the house, and made goosebumps pop up all over her arms and legs, where she wasn't covered by her fluffy towel. Rubbing a towel over her head, Max tried to dry her hair, but only managed to tangle the blonde strands. Max growled in frustration, throwing the towel on the bed.
She was halfway through pulling on a pair of skinny jeans when the door banged open. Max spun around, the pants twisting around her thighs and causing her to tumble down.
A familiar laugh echoed through the room as a blonde head collapsed onto the bed.
Max flicked her hair out of her face to see her brother, "Iggy? What the hell, I'm getting changed!"
He rolled his sightless eyes, "Yes, because I am so going to spy on you. Please."
Squirming on the floor, Max managed to pull her jeans on all the way. Now, as she laid on the hard wood, her hair still damp, she wore only jeans and a bra, and laughed.
"It's not the point that you can't see, it's just the principal of it!" she said.
Iggy grimaced and pulled the damp towel from under him, tossing it on the floor. He waved his hand dismissively, "Principal, schmincipal. If you're so concerned about it, get some clothes on already."
Max huffed, but still smiled as she flailed around for her shirt.
"But really, Max," Iggy continued, "the kids deserve to know what happened. It's just.. weird around here when the two of you are in the same room."
Standing in front of the mirror now, Max froze in the process of pulling up her hair. She guessed that he was right; it was awkward when the were in the same room, and she supposed it wasn't exactly fair to keep the rest of the flock in the dark. She justified it before as not concerning them, but it kind of was, as they all had to live in the same house.
Max nodded slowly, continuing with her hair. "Yeah..." she said slowly, "Yeah, I guess they should know. I'll tell them tonight."
Behind her, Iggy let out a long breath, "Good. I was really hoping you'd say that because... I kind of already told them."
Max spun around, her hair falling down behind her, "You what?"
Iggy raised his pale hands in front of him, "Max, calm down. You just said that they have a right to know, and now they know!"
"Yes, but they shouldn't have heard it from you!"
"And who were they going to hear it from? You? Fang? I waited for that - I waited two weeks. Two weeks of hushed questions and quieted speculations whenever one of you entered the room. Your family has been tiptoeing around you two like you're bombs just waiting to explode and it's maddening!"
Max didn't say anything. How could she have missed it? I mean, sure she had felt a trickle or two of tension still between her and Fang, but Max had thought it was only her, not that everyone else felt it too.
But then what about the eerie and awkward silences? There used to be a time when none of them even remembered how silence sounded, and now that's all they hear.
In the back of her mind, she had always known, she had simply just chose to ignore it. She was supposed to be their leader - she always had been. She was supposed to protect them, make sure they were one hundred percent in all aspects; and that was the one she had failed at.
Max could feel the guilt and shame creep up her body, chilling her to her core as the horrible realization made itself known to her. Iggy was right.
She swallowed thickly, pulling back her hair blindly.
Iggy sat silently on the bed, his hands clasped between his legs.
"Look, Max - " he started quietly, and there was an astonishing difference in his voice. Where before he was harsh and hurtful, though not loud, it was now soft, and slightly apologetic.
"No, Ig," Max said, shaking her head, "No, you're right. I'm... I'm glad that you told them." She wiped at a tear on her cheek. "At least they know now."
Iggy heard the tremble in her voice and stood, coming towards her. "Max..." he said, wrapping her in a monstrous hug of his ridiculously long limbs.
Max held him tightly, laughing shakily at her irrational - and highly embarrassing - behavior.
She pulled back, wiping at the leftover traces of tears with the back of her hand. "I gotta go to work."
Iggy nodded, "Yeah, right. But we're still on for the grocery store after your shift?"
"Definitely," she smiled. Both turned away, though as Max stepped foot into the hall, she stopped and turned. With hurried steps she stood in the doorway again.
"Igs?" she said.
Iggy turned around, a hand still lodged in his pale, strawberry blonde hair.
"Thanks."
With that, Max spun again, and carried herself to work.
What she did not see was that, as Iggy turned back around felt the warm sun on his skin through the window and pushed his hair back, he smiled.