It's Okay by flYegurl

Fang wasn't the kind of guy who ran around yelling and laughing and playing with kids. He wasn't even the kind of guy who liked to go swimming, even in the summer when he was obviously boiling hot in those black clothes of his. He didn't particularly enjoy long conversations, and didn't really have fun with games.

Right then, Fang was watching silently as the rest of his flock played in the lake. Angel was wearing her green one-piece, which looked absolutely adorable on her, playing a splashing game with Nudge. Gazzy had on a pair of swim-trunks with sharks all over them, and was, quite discreetly, struggling to set off small-cherry bombs underwater without the fuse going out… without much success. Nudge, as usual, was wearing a bikini. Max had on a stylish, form-fitting tankini, and her hair fanned out around her as she floated on her back in the water. Iggy had just dived underwater.

Fang wore his normal black jeans and T-shirt, his knees up to his chest, his chin resting on his arms. He noticed when Iggy surfaced then began to head towards the shore; he didn't have to come up for air, as all of the flock had gills now. When Iggy was at a depth of about three feet, he finally stuck his head up, his broad, trademark grin on his face and water gleaming on his torso. He shook droplets of water out of his strawberry-blond hair, which had grown fairly long in the past two years.

Fang admired Iggy's long, lanky arms, which managed to have just the right amount of muscle. Iggy was just about the most beautiful guy he had ever seen.

Max paddled towards the shore, clambered out, and began to trot up the hill towards Fang and sit down.

"Hey," she said, and Fang nodded in recognition. He continued to stare at Iggy.

Max sighed and shook her head.

"Boy, do I know that look."

Fang managed to tear his eyes away and look towards the flock leader.

"What?"

Max grinned and poked Fang playfully in the shoulder.

"You were checking Iggy out."

Fang was abashed, and his cheeks turned red as he blushed more than he ever had before.

"No I wasn't," he protested, managing to keep his voice level. Max rolled her eyes at his obvious denial.

"Fang, believe me. We're both hormonal teenagers here. I know what it looks like when someone is checking someone else out."

Fang got the heat in his cheeks under control, but the tips of his ear were still bright red. He shrugged and turned back to look out at the lake. Iggy had flown into the air and was prepared to do a cannonball. Quite a sexy cannonball, too…

Fang shook those thoughts out of his head.

"Well, you're wrong. I wasn't."

They both remained silent, staring towards the lake for some time until Max spoke up again.

"You are so delusional, Fang. You think I don't see? That none of us see? You stare at him constantly. You stutter and act embarrassed when he takes his shirt off. You refuse to go to public bathrooms at the same time as him. Seriously, Fang, the only one who hasn't seen your obvious crush is Iggy himself, and that's just because he's blind."

Fang frowned, and mentally chided himself for being so obvious. But he couldn't help it; when he was around Iggy, his head got all fuzzy, and his judgment was hazy.

Max reached out and laid a hand on Fang's shoulder.

"Fang, listen. We are all mutant bird kids here. We all have our quirks and special-ness and our own identities. We all have our own opinions and preferences. The way we act is pretty much totally unearthly to the rest of the world. We have wings, Fang. That pretty much sets us on a different plane from the rest of the world."

Fang didn't respond, not understanding what Max was getting at. Max huffed at his obvious obliviousness.

"Get this, Fang; none of us care what your sexual orientation is. We don't care if you like boys, or girls, or both, or neither. We're a family here, and we all have to stick together. We've been friends through thick and thin. If we were all blood-relatives, we couldn't be any closer. And you can hide how you really feel by hardly speaking and showing no emotions, but it's not going to cancel it out."

Fang looked back at Max, and suddenly felt quite a bit more comfortable then he had mere moments ago.

"I… I thought it was part of the mutation. That they mutated me to feel this way," he admitted, his face retaining the same expression. Max stuck out her tongue at him.

"That's because you're stupid," she told him. "Lots of people are gay. It's not a mutation, it's just the way they are."

Fang remained silent. But he was grateful to Max for telling him this.

Max suddenly let out a deep breath and leant back on her hands, as if a great weight had been lifted off her chest.

"Whew!" she said, sounding cheery. "You have no idea how hard I thought it was going to be to convince you! When I gave this spiel to Iggy two years ago, it took us about an hour of talking for him to finally believe me!"

Fang was suddenly very nervous.

"You talked to Iggy about me being gay?" he asked, his voice horrified, and he sat up straighter. Max let out a laugh.

"See, there you go being stupid again. No, idiot. I talked to Iggy about us not caring whether or not he was gay."

Fang stared at her unbelievingly.

"But… he was like, the biggest sexist womanizer ever!" he exclaimed. In reply, Max moaned.

"Don't remind me. I totally thought he was straight. But then I realized that he wasn't exactly into it. You know, he didn't ever sound at all like he was turned on or aroused or anything when you described 'chicks' to him. In fact, he really seemed like he was forcing himself. It turned out he was just trying to hard to seem 'normal'." She paused for a moment to pick a blade of grass from the ground, and began to tear it into small pieces. "When I talked to him, he couldn't believe it. He hadn't known that anyone was gay. He thought he was the only one." Max frowned. "I guess I should talk to Gazzy and Nudge and Angel about that, huh? We don't want them to be confused like that about their orientations."

"Yeah," Fang answered, still in a slight state of shock.

"Anyway," Max continued, waving her hand. "It took me forever to explain that he wasn't abnormal or gross or a freak of nature or anything. Then it took me even longer to convince him it was okay. Then to convince him that we didn't care about it, and supported him for who he was. Finally, he convinced me to never tell you about him."

Fang suddenly felt quite angry.

"Why?" he asked, sounding more harsh and emotional than he had wanted to. Max raised an eyebrow.

"He thought if you knew that you'd feel uncomfortable around him." Max saw the protest on Fang's face and held her hands up quickly in defense. "I know, I know! I told him that you would never do any such thing, but he was absolutely convinced that you'd think he was gross or something. That was when you sort of had a thing for me, so we all thought you were straight."

Fang sighed and slumped, his head in his hands.

"What am I supposed to tell him?" he asked, peeked through his fingers at the happy, glowing Iggy, now playing with Nudge and Angel, all smiling and laughing.

"Just tell him who you are," Max said. "And how you feel. I'm sure it'll all turn out alright."

With that, Max gave Fang one final smile and a pat on the back, then turned and made her way back down to the water.

Max happily joined in with the rest of her flock, splashing and laughing and having fun. And Fang began to feel an aching desire growing in the pit of his stomach. He wanted to go down there. He wanted to play and laugh with Iggy. He wanted to splash around in the cool water in nothing but his swim trunks and have fun.

Steeling himself, Fang stood, gritted his teeth, and carefully removed his black shirt and pants. He stood there for a moment, feeling self-conscious in his black swim trunks, but steadfastly made his way down and into the water.

He was greeted by squeals coming from Nudge and Angel, who shrieked with glee and immediately jumped on him.

"FANG!" Nudge cheered. "Oh-em-gee, I can't believe you got into the water! You never swim!"

"Uh, I guess I changed my mind," Fang answered hesitantly, and turned to see Max smiling encouragingly.

"Come on, guys, don't crowd him," she said, pushing Nudge and Angel away. "Treat him just as you would treat anyone else."

Fang smiled at the hidden meaning in Max's words. He was relieved. For some reason he had thought that the rest of the flock knowing he was gay meant he would have to give Nudge and Angel fashion advice and stuff, but nothing had changed. He was just him.

Nudge and Angel stepped away and Fang was left facing Iggy, who was smiling almost nervously, looking twitchy.

"Hey!" he said. "Glad you could make it. I could almost smell your sweat from must have been sweltering."

Fang grinned in return and punched Iggy's shoulder lightly, relishing the feeling of touching him without feeling awkward or embarrassed.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm glad too.'