(A/N) Hey, sorry it took me a while to update. I know what I want to do in the story, but it's been taking me forever to figure out how to get there. Thanks to Kelsey Goode for giving me some ideas. I'm gonna use a few of them, but I think I'm going to change them to work for what I want. Feel free to keep giving ideas people, because I may change my mind later. Anyway, this chapter is a little less dark. In fact, I found the flashback really cute after I wrote it. Who knows, maybe I'm crazy...let me know :D

Disclaimer: I do not own Maximum Ride...or sadly Iggy and Fang. :(

Max POV

I woke up but left my eyes closed for a moment (something you learn to do around Walter and his "Surprise Punishments"). With my eyes closed I began to assess my current situation.

I was suffocating in heat. I couldn't breath. I could barely move. There was a static-y sound coming from my left. I was itchy, and I was hot. Perhaps the worst of all, I had no idea where I was. It felt like I was rocking gently, and by that I was confused. Through my eyelids I could feel bright light, light that couldn't be from any ordinary light-bulb that Walter would by. I could be a fire. It did seem to be the source of the blinding, suffocating heat. But it was...above me?

I made a list of possibilities:

1. I finally died, and the blinding light was either Heaven or Hell (the heat suggested the latter)

2. The house, or something, was on fire (probably due to some sick idea of Walter's. Trust me, with him around, you can never know what to expect.)

That was about as far as I got before deciding to open my eyes a slit and check it out. I saw a face, horizontal to the direction I was looking in. I sluggishly tried to figure out what was going on, before my memory kicked in. Fang. Fang had saved me.

"Max!" He sounded relieved. I ignored him for a moment.

I glanced around, and let a gasp escape me. I was outside! I hadn't been outside in a year. Mostly, I stayed in my room or the Ballet Studio. Unless I was receiving "punishment" I didn't even go near windows. Going, or seeing, outside was against the rules. I looked around myself in shock.

Outside. Wow. I'd almost forgotten how magnificent the sky could be.

I realized, feeling a bit foolish, that the bright light and the heat were the afternoon sun beating down on me. The rocking was that of Fang carrying me. The static-y sound was a couple of birds, chirping from a nest in the tree we were currently passing.

I opened my mouth to ask where my sisters were...and caught myself. I hadn't spoken in two years. I wasn't about to start now, with Fang, just because he'd momentarily rescued me. I wasn't even sure if I knew this boy anymore.

"Max?" He sounded worried. It wasn't like him. He'd always been stoic. It seemed I didn't know him anymore. When I knew him, he hardly ever showed emotion. Except around you! My inner-self argued. I ignored me, and raised my eyebrows at him in a "What?" expression.

He seemed at a loss for a moment. What to say now? He stopped walking for a moment, and gave me a blank stare. I stared back patiently. He'd figure it out in his own time.

"Max, where do I start?" He seemed to have figured it out. I shrugged and gestured for him to put me down. He gave me a stubborn look and, before he could react, I rolled out of his arms. As my feet hit the ground, my sore legs buckled beneath me. Fang caught me at the last second and helped lower me to the ground.

I looked him in the eyes, once again wondering where my sisters were. I desperately wished he could understand my helpless expression. Amazingly, he glanced at my house before answering my question. "They're packing their things. You guys are coming to live with me."

I rolled my eyes. Across the street was so far from my house! I mean, Walter would never think to look at Fang's house. I knew this freedom wouldn't last long, but in my head resolved to make the best of it, however brief it may be.

Fang seemed to understand my eye-roll as well. "My mom called the police. You're parents have been arrested, and the police gave us permission for you to stay with us instead of going into foster care. They said that since we've adopted before, that the courts will probably let us get custody of you. You should be safe now." All of that happened in the few minutes between the Ballet Studio and outside?

I tried not to roll my eyes again. "I know it's a long shot, Max, but please try to be optimistic. We're going to do everything that we can to keep you protected. I'm going to do everything I can to keep you protected. From now on. Promise." If there was one thing that I knew could never change about Fang, it was that he always kept his promises. I took a deep, contented breath.

Fang dipped to pick me back up, but I leaned out of the way. I struggled for a moment, but was soon on my own very sore, and very swollen, two legs. I hobbled towards Fang's house without another look at him. As I crossed the street and stepped onto his very kept lawn, I couldn't help the wave of nostalgia that overtook me.

(Flashback)

We were laying, side by side, and watching the clouds go by. The sun was low, setting, casting a warm afternoon glow across my best friends' lawn. The smell of freshly cut grass wafted to me, and I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply. A chirping, whistling, caught my ear, and I opened my eyes to find the source.

"Look at the birds!" I pointed to a tree by the mailbox of my best friends' house. Fang, next to me, quirked his mouth to one side and sighed. His version of contentment.

"Aren't they beautiful?" I asked, knowing that I probably wouldn't get an answer from him.

"Yeah, but they're so loud." He surprised me with a response.

"That's one of the best parts, Fang!" He gave me a funny look, and I felt the need to continue. "They're talking to one another. They're talking because they're happy, and they love one another. They're voices are so beautiful and melodic. They're joyful, can't you see?" He frowned at me for a second, while pondering my words.

"I guess...but what does love have to do with talking?" I took a moment, trying desperately to word my answer correctly. Somehow, deep down, I felt that this moment with Fang would be significant some day.

"Love makes people happy I guess. Happy people want to tell other people. Besides, you have to tell people when you love them. How else would they know?" He shrugged. In my 7-year-old mind, it seemed important that he grasp and understand this. I continued, to make sure that he got it. "If I don't say, 'Fang, I love you', how will you know?"

"Max!" He whined. "I just do. You're eyes, I can read them. Just like you can read my eyes...even when I don't want you to. People in love...they just know. Anyway, you aren't old enough to love me yet!"

"And why not?" I snapped, indignantly. "I'm seven and a half, thank you very much. That's a perfectly reasonable age to be in love!"

"It is not!" He argued.

"How would you know?" I asked him, putting my hands on my hips.

"'Cause, when I asked mommy when I could marry you she said that seven isn't old enough to be in love!" He answered, as if the answer were obvious.

"Aw. How old is old enough then?" I asked, my spirit down.

"How the heck should I know?" He asked, exasperated. "I'm only seven! I just know that we aren't old enough to be in love yet! We'll just have to wait."

"Fine then. We'll wait, but you better promise not to forget." He nodded, and grabbed my hand as I lay back down next to him in the grass again.

"Max?" He asked after a moment.

"Hmm?"

"In case you are right, I love you. Now you know, and I never want to say it again."

"Fang, you have to say it again when we're old enough to be in love." I reminded him, and he sighed next to me.

"Hopefully it won't be this complicated then." He told me, looking back at the chattering birds.

I couldn't help the edges of my mouth quirking up at the memory. We never spoke of it again, and I wasn't even sure if Fang remembered. A few months after that day, Fang had reached the girls-have-cooties-phase. We were still best friends during that time, but we couldn't touch or talk about being in love or he would catch them. So, the conversation was buried and eventually forgotten.

I hadn't realized that in my moment of reminiscence I'd stopped walking. Fang was glancing at me with concern in his eyes. He tried to keep his face calm, but I could still read his eyes like a book.

Of course I still knew this boy. How could I have thought differently? I grew up with Fang. No matter how much he changed, I would always know him, and he would always be my best friend. This thought brought to my lips, the closest thing to a smile I'd had since my father died.

I would always know Fang.

So???? What do you think?? You can let me know with a lovely review :D.

Also, at the risk of giving away my own foreshadowing, this wasn't just a fluff chapter. It's kinda relevant-ish later :) Plus, I thought after that extremely dark chapter you amazing readers deserved a peek into the light side of this story. Please review and let me know what you thought!

l

l

l

V ---That's supposed to be an arrow to the review button!!! ;P