Sooo here's the new chapter. Hope you like it. Please review! It will give me inspiration!

KarleeRay

I wake up to the warmth of a fire and notice with a start that the sun has gone down.

"Hey…there she is," Fang coos softly into my ear and pulls me into his arms as I sit up. My lips turn up into a smile and I snuggle up to his chest, thankful for his warmth. The nights out here are extremely cold while the days are extremely hot.

Dylan sits across the fire from us, his chin resting in his hands. I suddenly feel very sorry for him.

"Hey Dylan…why don't you come over here and stop being such a loner?"

He stares at me blankly and I give him a small smile that he does not return. He does, however, end up getting up and coming to sit next to Angel, Fang, and I.

The silence that follows is somewhat awkward, and I scramble in my head for something to say to Dylan to make him feel not so left out.

"What do you think the others are doing?" Angel asks, softly, staring blankly into the fire.

"Stop," I reprimand her lightly. "Don't hurt your eyes. We don't need another blind bird kid running around." My referral to Iggy, makes my eyes start to prick. God, I miss them so much. The need to see the rest of my family is almost unbearable.

I feel Fang stiffen up and know he is experiencing the same emotions. My hands run absent mindedly up and down his arms as an act of comfort.

"I bet they're missing you guys as much as you're missing them," Dylan offers, gracing us all with the beauty of a small smile.

My brow furrows. "I bet they're missing you too, Dylan." How can he say that like he hasn't been a part of everything we've gone through these last couple of months?

He snorts at me and shifts his gaze to the sky. "I mean it," I persist. For some reason, I feel the strong need for him to believe my words. "We've been through so much together in the short time that we've known you. I mean, God! We survived a freaking apocalypse together and you still don't think you're worth anything to them? You're a part of us now." I reach out and take his hand into my own. "Whether you like it or not."

Fang goes rigid beneath me and I quickly yank my hand out of Dylan's. Great Max. Could you go five minutes without messing something up?

I look down at my feet, praying that Fang understands that I was just being friendly.

"You think so?" Dylan sounds genuinely surprised.

"Yeah." My eyes don't leave the ground.

"Thanks Max." I look up to find Dylan smiling warmly at me and I can't help but smile back.

"I'm gonna get some air," Fang mutters and I feel the absence of his arms around me. He stands up and walks away from us, fists stuffed into his pockets.

Inwardly, I sigh. Why did everything have to be so complicated?

I considered going after Fang and consoling him but then decided that Fang was a big boy who needed to learn to trust his girlfriend. Yeah, there, I said it. I, Maximum Ride, am Fang's girlfriend. Who woulda ever known?

Angel's voice filters into my head. He's upset.

I know. I know. But I didn't do anything! I protest. I was just trying to make Dylan feel less left out! He can't be mad at me for that, right?

I look across at Angel out of the corner of my eye. She's staring intently into space. She's listening.

Nah. I think he's just jealous. You didn't do wrong anything, Max. Her eyes flicker over to mine. You're the leader. You're used to comforting and that's all you did, comforted someone who needed it.

I nod slightly, feeling encouraged by her words. She was right after all. I didn't do anything wrong. Still, I hated the thought of Fang being angry with me. Things were just smoothing back out with us and I was fretting at the thought of him leaving me over something so trivial, even though at the back of my mind I knew Fang would never do that.

Dylan scooted closer to me, and I let him, feeling tired and defeated. He smiles warmly at me. "So… you really think that I'm one of the flock now?"

I sigh. "Sure. Yeah. That's one way to look at it." My heart was so not in this conversation.

He's quiet for a moment. "I meant what I said you know? I'm never going to give up on you. I can't. You're literally the only one for me."

I choke. I thought we were past this! I am about to protest when he slides a hand onto my thigh. I freeze. Whoa there. I thought this was a friendly conversation!

I begin to stand when a voice stops me dead in my tracks.

"If you have any idea what's good for you, you'll take your hand off her leg and move away," Fangs says, the quiet deadly tone of his voice making me want to tremble.

Dylan stares up at him, not removing his hand, so I do it for him, throwing it back at him with forcefulness. I quickly stand and Fang grabs my arm and pushes me behind him protectively.

"And what if I don't know what's good for me? Am I going to have to kick your sorry butt again? Seriously? It was fun the first time. Now, it's getting old." Dylan sneers, bowing up to Fang. Fang growls, and begins to lunge but I know him too well and am already in between them before they can do anything.

"Stop!" I growl, extremely annoyed that these two can never seem to keep their anger in check. I bet you all predicted that they both skillfully ignored me and you all would be correct.

"Max," Fang grounds out, struggling to keep his voice even. His body trembles with rage. "Get out of the way."

I cross my arms over my chest and glare at him, but his attention is not on me. All of his focus is on Dylan. Fang seriously looks like he could kill the kid. I would never understand why they had to hate each other so much. They couldn't even be in the same room without going at it.

"Would you two grow up already?" I snarl. "I mean come on! Get over yourselves! This is ridiculous and I'm sick of it! Back up!" I give Dylan a hard push that sends him stumbling backwards.

"He started it," Dylan protests. Figures. Put all the blame on my guy.

"And I'm finishing it. Go cool off, both of you!" When neither of them moved I turned and gave Fang a hard shove instead. Then, I took a threatening step back towards Dylan and he threw his hands up and backed away in surrender.

"Gah! You two are pathetic!" I growl and stalk away from them both. I go as far away from them as I dare without letting them get completely out of my sight. You just can't be too careful.

I lie down on the ground and try to ignore the chilly night air. It's kind of creepy out here all alone. Everything is so unbelievably dark that it's hard to see anything really, though there's not much to see in the first place.

After a while, my teeth begin to chatter and my body starts to tremble against my will. Gah, it was cold!

I stayed there as long as I could, hoping that they got the point that I did not want to be around them, and then grudgingly got up and headed back towards the fire. Fang and Dylan were, for obvious reasons, sitting on complete opposite sides of the fire, and Angel was curled up next to Fang. I melted a little. They were so cute with their arms wrapped around each other. I swear if I had had a camera with me, I would have snapped a picture and kept it with me for the rest of my life. Resisting the urge to smile at Fang's relaxed, loving expression towards Angel (that is not an expression that we get to see very often), I pointedly sat down beside Fang and Angel, hoping that Dylan took the hint to butt out. However, I did not even attempt to touch Fang, just so that he knew I was angry with him too.

The fire felt AH-MAZING on my freezing skin, and I quickly found myself drifting back to sleep.