Lovebirds by Haileyamandar

Spoiler warning for third book! You have been warned.
Now, read and enjoy.

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It was a cool, quiet night in Pheonix, Arizona, several days after I had discovered the identity of my father and mother, and reunited with Fang, Iggy, and the Gasman.

Well, you all should know the story already, which is why I won't bother going into detail about our grand escape from the School. Hopefully you all shouldn't be too confused.

Well, so far the flock's lives definitely seemed to have taken a turn, and in my opinion it isn't exactly for the worst. Then again, I am a mutant freak with avian blood in my veins and wings attached to my back. I've also been on the run for about 10 years of my life from mad scientists, Erasers, and yes, even robots in the last couple of weeks. Robot Erasers. So, I suppose that my opinions might just be… What's the word I'm looking for? Biased?

Okay, then, back to the flock situation. There's me (Max), Fang (the socially retarded one), Iggy (the blind guy), Nudge (the chatterbox), Gazzy (A.K.A. Gaz or the Gasman), and Angel (the most adorable little girl you could meet). We're really a good bunch of kids, as you all know.

Well, unfortunately the parent situation isn't exactly so great. Okay, so I now know who my biological egg and sperm donors are, but as for the rest of the group… I'm not sure if they still even want to find their parents, now that they know they were given away freely. Iggy's parents are good examples of greedy piglets.

But it doesn't matter. As long as we have each other, that's all the family we'll ever need. I've been the real mother to all of them, and I'm not sure if I could bear to see my kids taken away from me. In a weird, selfish sort of way.

Well, that pretty much takes care of the boring stuff, which I pretty much repeated to you all. Now, let's get to the point of this whole story.

Once again, it was a peaceful, star-filled night, and there I was, sitting on the edge of a windowsill in my half-sister's room. Ella is her name (in case you forgot), and she was already asleep on her bed, unaware that I was practically leaning out of her window. As far as I knew, the whole house (which was the rest of the flock, Dr. Martinez, and Ella) was asleep, and I was the only one with a bad case of insomnia that night.

But of all people and mutant freaks alike, I should have been the one to know that nothing is ever what it seems to be.

I was deep in thought about what was going to happen… Okay, to be honest, I was terrified of the future. I didn't know what to do. Should I stay with Dr. Martinez, my mother, and Ella, and possibly risk getting separated from my flock? Or should we all leave the house together and settle down somewhere, without my mother?

After all, I had to think of the flock. They may not be entirely comfortable with the idea of living in this house with two strangers (even if they happened to be my blood relatives). It was just the way had grown into. I could already tell that Fang was a bit unhappy with the turn of events, though I wasn't sure why he was so distant in the past few days. Something was bothering him.

Ella twitched in her sleep, but I barely noticed it. Giving a small sigh, I closed my eyes and let myself fall from the window ledge. A second later, two huge, feathered wings unfurled from tufts in my back, and I was lifting higher and higher into the clear heavens above. My wings, I must say, were quite stunning. Brilliant white with tan streaks, and a large foot span from tip to tip. Of course, the other five kids were just as amazing.

What's it like to fly, you ask?

To be frank, it's absolutely amazing. I'd suggest trying it out one day, if you ever become genetically engineered. Of course, grafted wings weren't as successful as wings you had been born with since you were an embryo.

Flying is like when you eat the most wonderful food of all, or when you ride a rollercoaster that gives you the sensation of no gravity. Maybe even like when you get that first taste of that guy's lips… That one special person in your life who you know you couldn't live without.

Whoa, wait a second there. Honestly, I didn't mean that. Forget I said that.

Once I reached about a mile into the skies, I flew in a tight circle overtop of the house, staring at the scattered trees that were a rarity for the area. It was a pretty beautiful night, I must say, and though I felt a worried gnawing at the bottom of my stomach, I couldn't help but feel a little bliss in there, too. There's another thing about flying – if you really get into it, the rest of your worries melt away for a little while.

I headed back down towards one of the scattered trees, and dropped on one of the branches. There were plenty of leaves to give me some privacy from possible spies or petrified witnesses who saw a fourteen year-old girl flying in the sky. Little did I know, I had been followed.

"Hey," came the oh-so-enthusiastic greeting from that oh-so-familiar voice.

I almost jumped out of my panties and crapped my pants, only because he happened to be that one person I had been thinking about in that instant. So, of course I'd be surprised to hear his voice a moment later.

"Fang? What are you doing?" Stupid question.

"Flying. Following you." Stupid reply.

I raised a brow and scooted over to give Fang more room on the branch. He folded his wings and crept closer, sitting down next to me in a crouch. I had my arms wrapped around my legs, studying the boy next to me.

Fang was a handsome young man. Not exactly a bubbly personality, but sometimes I found myself drawn to his mysterious ways. He had always been my right-hand man, the one I could depend on for absolutely anything and everything.

Naturally, I found myself thinking back to that one night where Fang and I were alone in that cave. You should already know about this, which is why I'm not going to repeat the story. Let's just say that it left me in a confused state, and I'm not sure what our relationship really consisted of. Did he still have feelings for me? Did he ever have feelings for me? And as for what I felt towards him, well, I really wasn't sure either. Once again, I'll admit that I was scared of what was going to happen.

I really don't know what I would do without my Fang.

"Can't sleep?" he asked me, his brown eyes almost hinting a little bit of empathy.

I blew raspberries in response, suddenly feeling awkward. We were alone in a tree, probably half a mile away from the house. I wasn't sure what I thought about that.

He turned away and stared at the ground down below us. I tried to read what he was thinking, though Fang had that annoying way of blocking all emotions from me.

But, aha! I could see there was something on his mind, the way he fiddled with his fingers and clenched his teeth. So, getting straight to the point, I dove in.

"What's up with you?" I gave him the "no-crap" look, and I think it might have worked.

He looked at me again, and this time I could really see the emotion in his eyes. Let's see here… I think I caught a little bit of anxiety, some affection, and a hint of confusion. Which really scared me. Fang never showed emotion through eye contact, unless of course he was purposely communicating with me as we thought of an escape plan. But certainly he wasn't thinking of escaping from me?

I frowned and placed my right palm on his shoulder, wondering how he would react. Normally he wasn't the type to accept mushy sympathy acts, but to my surprise he didn't shoo my hand away. He simply ran his fingers through his hair.

"Fang? Won't you answer me? What's going on?" I commanded. If there was trouble ahead, I needed to know all about it.

Finally, he started speaking. "I don't actually know."

Oh, yeah, that made me feel so much better about the situation.

"Umm… That doesn't quite help me out," I replied, giving his shoulder a quick squeeze. I felt him tighten up with tension. "Come on. Don't you want to talk about it?"

For a few moments I had forgotten all about our current dilemma, and about what had been bothering myself. I figured that must be what it was.

"Fang, if you're worried about me staying with my mom, don't worry about it just yet. Besides-"

Fang interrupted, raising his voice, "It's not about that! I promised you I would never leave you again, and that's that. I've just been thinking about…"

I leaned in closer in suspense, waiting to hear the rest. His response was so quiet that I almost didn't hear him.

"…Us."

"Us," I repeated, raising a brow. "I don't get it, Fang."

Suddenly, the young man aggressively snapped, "Of course. Never mind, Max. Forget that I ever said that."

Push came to shove, so I shoved. "Hey, don't do that to me! You've always been able to tell me everything! How come all of sudden you've been so distant, huh?"

He clenched and unclenched his teeth. But to my surprise, he took my hand, stood up, and tugged gently.

"Come on. Let's fly. I found a neat place."

I gave a skeptical look, wanting to press for more information as to why he was acting so weird, but instead I simply gave a smile and stood up. Together we flew into the crisp air.

We soared in silence for a few minutes, until I finally decided to lighten the mood. "Well, Fang, I hope you realize you'll never live this night down. I've got some major dirt on you, now that you've started acting kind of… Emotional."

He replied by flashing me one of his rare smiles, which made my heart melt. I didn't quite know why.

"Well, Max, you haven't exactly been acting like a lady."

I laughed, he laughed, which made me feel better. Suddenly he swerved in flight in front of my path, forcing me to veer away.

"Hey!" I called, pretending to be deeply insulted. Like that ever worked. Fang smiled again, but said nothing.

In the distance I saw a couple of rock masses, maybe two miles in height. Not all that impressive in size, but I must admit they were kind of pretty. And that was where our flight path was headed.

Minutes later we were landing gracefully in a cliff, tucking away our wings and settling down in the dirt. It was chilly, so we relied on each other for warmth, huddling together in awkward silence.

I was the first to speak, of course. "So, I admit this place is pretty. But what's so amazing about a clump of rocks?" I poked him in the side.

He poked my forehead in response and said, "Well, first of all, it's private. Second, there are a couple of hawk nests here." Not that hawks would be awake in the middle of night. Which was suspicious to me. I glanced at Fang, and looked down at the dirt.

"Do you like your mom?" he asked me, and I only needed to give him a smile for him to know the answer.

"Of course. It's great to finally know who my mother is."

He nodded once and leaned back on his hands, starting to get deep in thought again. I, too, leaned back and used my arms as support. I felt our arms brush, and to my surprise and disappointment, Fang tensed up again. Which furthered my suspicions.

"I think Iggy might have a thing for my sister…" I ventured, while thinking of more things to say.

"Huhn," he said under his breath. I smiled and leaned all the way back on the ground, putting my hand on my stomach.

"What about you? Did you find anyone when we separated?"

He looked astounded that I asked such a thing. "Of course not! …What about you?"

He smiled, waiting a few seconds before I started speaking. Just to make things more exciting for him. "Hmm, now that you mention it, yes, I did."

Fang sat up.

"He was really, really hot."

Fang clenched his teeth.

"He had dark skin and some suave black hair."

Now he was practically going hysterical.

"His name started with the sixth letter of the Alphabet."

I could see him struggling to figure out what letter that was.

"And the best part is, he had some pretty sweet wings."

He looked at me unbelievingly, and I practically laughed in his face. "No, you stupid head, I didn't meet anybody while we were separated. I was too busy saving the world and thinking about how I would never see you again."

Fang looked so relieved that I almost felt bad for teasing him like that. Almost.

"But if you haven't thought that description sounded familiar, than you are one stupid boy," I said, crossing my arms across my chest. Fang blinked at me.

Once again I thought of that night when I was sitting by the fire with Fang. I remembered how I flew away from him, leaving him to be alone for the night. He had clearly shown his affection for me, and I practically rejected him. That's when I realized what might have been bothering him.

My face felt flushed, but I ignored it as I sat up and looked at Fang straight in the eyes. How could I not see it before? How could I have pushed him away for this long? The poor guy. He wasn't exactly a patient person, either.

I was in love with Fang. And I was taking a big risk, because I was pretty dang sure by then that Fang loved me, too, but I could be wrong.

But it was time to finish what we had started.

I took a deep breath and snaked my arms around his neck, hoping he wouldn't flinch away from me. He didn't. In fact, I think he liked it, because he hugged my hips in return.

I know what you all might be thinking. "Why all of sudden? How come you ignored your feelings for so long?" Well, let's just say I had some in-between things to work out before I thought about my relationship with Fang. You know, save the world, protect the flock… And now, after all of that was over, this was the perfect time to tell Fang how I felt. And to say sorry.

"Fang," I said quietly, looking up at his dark eyes. He blinked softly as I went on, "I'm sorry for making you wait for so long. Thanks for waiting for me."

I closed my eyes and pushed my face into his chest, while he held onto me tightly, as if he was afraid that I wanted to leave. But I wouldn't have the heart to do that to him. Not now.

I felt him kissing my hair, and I lifted my chin to meet his face. The next instance, I was sucking his warm lips, my arms still wrapped around his neck.

I think he accepted my apology.