Make It Better by heyshalina

Hola.

What I went through to write this one-shot, man. I forced myself out of my lazy day for this. I stopped watching A Very Potter Sequel for this. I stalled writing the next chapter of my multi-chap for this. But that's okay, because it is finally done! So come, one and all, and read. It's a cute, sweet, potentially plotless and hopefully amusing one-shot. :P And really, who doesn't love a little Miggy fic? I know I sure do :) So if you read, please review! It'll make my day. Enjoy!

Props and thanks go to flYegurl for giving me the fox trap idea from her own story Nightmare (check it out wink wink hint hint).

Disclaimer: I do not own the flock, Hide and Seek, Maximum Ride, or the general Coloradan wilderness. Such a shame.

"Five, four, three, two, one; blastoff!"

"We're playing Hide and Seek, Gasman."

"Oh, right. Come out, come out; wherever you are!"

"Better."

I clapped Gazzy on the back, scanning the area. It was game night, and we chose to play Hide and Seek. Not that it was a normal game night, nor it was normal Hide and Seek. We're not normal, and therefore our childish games are not either. It was almost six at night, and the sun was about to set. We had to get this thing done fast so that Iggy could make us dinner. It was taco night. Yum, tacos.

"You ready, Max?" Gazzy asked, hopping up and down on the balls of his feet.

"Ready, Gaz." The one rule of game night we had was that Angel and Gasman got to choose one of the older kids (A.K.A me, cough cough) to team up with them. Hide and Seek involved a lot of searching skill and an attention span longer than six minutes, the latter which Gasman did not possess. The forest and canyon behind our house wasn't exactly the size of the park down the street from your auntie's apartment, and my flock weren't exactly helpless little kittens stuck up in trees.

"Let's go kick some butt."

I turned to my little trooper, who was (as he insisted) decked out in complete war attire. He had his camouflage cargo shorts on, a dark green tank top, a bandana tied around his bicep, and a microphone set around his head that had no use whatsoever. I ripped it off of his head. He pouted and grabbed it back from me, smashing it onto his head again. Maybe the kid wanted to be the new G.I. Mutant. Don't ask me.

"Do you remember that bird call I taught you?" I asked him, and he nodded enthusiastically, bringing his hands to his lips and making a high-pitched warble just to show me. "Good. Now let's split up. Meet at the cliff at the sound of the bird call, which you can only sound if you can't find anyone else, okay?"

"Roger that, Captain Maximum!" Gasman gave me a salute, and I saluted him back.

"Fall out."

"Aye, aye." Gasman didn't move. I stared at him.

"Gasser." I snapped. He blinked.

"Yeah?"

"Get out of here."

"Oh, right."

As soon as Gasman was out of sight I tore off in the opposite direction, trailing away from the E House and into the forest. I stopped after I had sprinted a good five miles away, standing as perfectly still as I could and trying not to pant. Knowing my flock, most of them would move as far away as possible, save for Angel. I knew that she was probably hiding under the porch or somewhere relatively close to the house itself. Nudge would have helped Iggy go several miles before breaking off on her own back toward the cliff area. Fang...he was a bit harder to figure out. He could be down in the canyon, up a tree, or even right behind me. He was a creeptastic ninja like that.

I strained my ears, listening intently at the still nature around me for a few minutes. After I was satisfied (Well, not satisfied, more like pissed off that these jerks hadn't made it easy for me) that there was no one in the vicinity, I turned to a pine tree and began to scale it, conducting a quick sweep of the area before I broke the treeline. No one in sight. Damn. Then there was the smallest sound of a leaf being stepped on, and my face broke into a sneer. Before I climbed again I paused.

"Zac Efron is so cute, isn't he?" I asked the air around me sweetly and loudly. "Almost as adorable as Justin Timberlake."

Just as I expected, the tiniest squeal issued from fifty yards through the forest. Shaking my head and laughing silently I dropped from the tree, sprinting toward a big oak tree with part of the side hollowed out into a convenient Nudge-sized crevice. I spun around it, grinning and crossing my arms at the steaming eleven-year-old. Her curly hair was sticking out in many directions.

"That's not fair!" She protested, stamping the ground with her new boots. "Everyone knows that Zac Efron is so much cuter than Justin Timberlake! Zac Efron is just...just..."

"Hotmazing, I know." I tapped her on the head with my fingertip, rolling my eyes. "Now take your Zefron-loving butt back to the house, Nudge. I found you."

"I get it." Nudge stuck her tongue out at me as she trudged away. "You don't need to rub it in."

"Yes I do!" I called back cheerfully. Okay, one down; three to go. I started to climb the evergreen tree again, feeling quite proud of myself. Maybe we would get back before dark after all. Next I had to find Sir Silent. It was pretty probable that Gasman would find Iggy and Angel eventually, but it usually took Iggy, Angel or I to find Fang. And then finalmente, mis amigos, I would have my tacos.

I launched myself from the top of the tree, unfurling my wings and flapping to get myself above the branches. I saw some tree tops flatten with the sound of a shout and an explosion, and shook my head. Gasman was insane. Now I had to find Fang. I flew farther from the house, almost out of earshot. The road down the mountain was only a few miles away, and that was the boundary. Someone had to be out here. Where to look, where to...

Suddenly I jerked in midair, cocking my head downwards as I heard the shout. It rippled with pain and cracked horribly. It didn't say anything recognizable and instead echoed across the area, its sole purpose to be heard. My breath caught and I attempted to hover in the air, swinging my head frantically around at the ground. The scream continued.

It was Iggy.

I turned my body and dove down, slicing the air and cutting up as I hit the ground. I kept running, trying to find where Iggy's shout had come from. I weaved through trees and bushes, ducking under spiderwebs and avoiding stray raccoons. I tripped over one and cussed, flicking the thing off as it hissed at me. Stupid raccoons.

"Iggy?" I called, dodging another branch. "Iggy, where are you?"

"Max?" I heard him shout. His breath was hitched in the back of his throat. "God! Max, help!"

"Iggy I'm coming!"

"Okay!"

"I'm hurrying!"

"That would be nice!"

"...Almost there!"

"Just shut up and help me!"

I whipped around another tree and skidded to a stop. Iggy was lying in a pained fetal position at the base of a tree, his arms pressed to the ground and his forehead digging into his wrists. Sweat poured down his neck, and it looked like he was crying. I was about to step forward when I realized the large puddle of blood lying under Iggy's right leg. His left leg was bent up underneath him while the right one was lying under some ferns. I looked at it, astonished.

Then I realized that there was something on his foot.

If he had moved his leg one more inch, his ankle would have been mutilated. The fox trap had dug into the muscles above his ankle, missing most of the bone and instead ripping his flesh into ribbons. What a pretty picture. Maybe I should put it on Facebook for everyone so I don't have to describe it. It made me want to puke.

"Oh...Iggy..." I rasped.

"Get your ass over here and get it off me!" Iggy roared, digging his fingers into the grass. "It hurts like hell and the squirrels are not helping!"

"Uh, okay." I stammered, running over and kneeling beside him. There was blood everywhere. Damn damn damn calm down Max it's just blood damn damn oh God damn...I looked at the rusty trap, biting my lip and forcing myself to focus. I had no idea what to do. I couldn't just call the my-brother-has-an-animal-trap-on-his-foot hotline. Although that would have been gloriously helpful.

"Get it off, Max, get it off!" Iggy cried, choking and wheezing in pain. "It hurts like a-"

"Don't you dare finish that sentence with a swear word." I threatened.

"-Rope burn." Iggy snarled sarcastically, giving me the worst look I've ever seen. I smirked despite everything.

"Okay, let's see what we've got here." I said, rubbing my hands together. I took the trap in my hands and Iggy yelped, coughing from his tears and trying desperately not to start sobbing. More blood poured out of his ankle. "Oh my, this is a doozy."

"Hey, Doctor Max." Iggy broke in. "I don't mean to interrupt, but I have a freaking animal trap on my foot!"

"Touchy, touchy." I muttered, looking at the metal contraption again. There was a little gap between the two bars of teeth that was big enough to get my hands through. I nodded and briskly got to my feet, running and grabbing a small stick from beside the tree. Iggy started to panic as soon as I stood up.

"Max?" He asked hysterically. "Max? Max, where are you going I have a trap on my foot you can't leave me that's morally wrong Max!"

"Calm yourself, Shirley." I replied, kneeling at his head now. "Here. Have a stick."

"Is that Fang's stick?" Iggy asked, contorting his face into a look of disgust. "You should really wash that."

"No, idiot." I rolled my eyes. "I'm rolling my eyes. Now put it in your mouth."

"Ew!"

"Do it." I demanded.

"With Fang's stick?" Iggy gasped. "I don't roll that way, Max."

I shoved the branch in his mouth, listening to him sputter and spit without enthusiasm. "Bite down." I ordered. "I'm going to get this thing off of you. It's gonna hurt."

"Oh, goody." Iggy mumbled.

"I'll just get out my handy dandy pliers," I said cheerfully, whipping my trusty tools out of my belt loop. I learned after the incident when Gasman got his wrist tangled in chicken wire to never leave home without a good pair of pliers. "And we'll get this nasty little thing off."

I grabbed a rock and crawled over to Iggy's foot again. I crammed my pliers into the space on one side of my foot and the rock on the other, and then thrust them both in opposite directions, straining with all my strength. Iggy tautened his neck and shouted in pain as the teeth dislodged from his leg. I started to pant, using all of my energy to get the damn things open.

"Take your foot out, Ig!" I cried. "Take it out now!"

Iggy bent his knee and ripped his leg from the trap, cutting his foot a bit more in the process. He crawled forward and collapsed on the ground a few feet away. I let go of the trap and it snapped shut, sending my pliers flying and conjuring sparks from the rock. I sat there gasping for a minute before going to Iggy again, who was lying prone on the ground in exhaustion.

"Take off your shirt." I ordered. Iggy didn't even dignify it with a witty response. He floundered on the ground and ripped his shirt off of his sweaty chest, cussing under his breath. I took it and ripped it into shreds, wrapping them around Iggy's ankle and tying them off. They immediately soaked through with blood, but it was better than nothing.

"Hey, Max?" Iggy asked, not turning his head.

"Yeah, Ig?"

Iggy scoffed. "I hate Hide and Seek."

I chuckled. "Me too, Iggy. It's a stupid game. But for the record, I found you."

Iggy shook his head. He turned over and sat up on a tree trunk, breathing heavily. "Damn." he rasped. "Well, now we know that machine wins over Iggy. People don't even need to use technology to kick my butt anymore."

I flung my hair back, wiping sweat from my forehead. "They didn't need technology to kick your butt in the first place."

"Nice, Max. Real nice."

"Thanks. I try."

Iggy moaned, moving to clutch his ankle and then deciding against it. "That stings."

"Yeah, well."

He smirked and looked up at me, trying to put on a baby face to the best of his thirteen-year-old ability. "Max, I have a boo-boo." He whined. "Make it better. Puh-weeze?"

I smiled, crawling beside him. With one quick motion I leaned down and kissed him quickly on the lips, bringing my head up again and blushing almost as much as Iggy was. An urgent bird call echoed through the air, and I rubbed the back of my neck before jumping up and helping Iggy to his feet. Two blue jays cocked their heads at me like they were going to go spread some juicy gossip, and I held a finger to my lips. One chirped at me before they flew away. The bird call came again and I sighed.

"That's Gasman." I told Iggy awkwardly, shifting from foot to foot. "We better go back so we can fix that ankle of yours."

"What do you think will be more awkward?" Iggy asked me as I started to help him limp along through the forest to the nearest clearing. "Me having a mutilated ankle, or me having your lipstick on my face?"

"Iggy?" I asked, raising my eyebrows, amused. "I don't wear lipstick."

"You don't?" Iggy asked, sounding disappointed. I shook my head, realizing he wouldn't see it. "Damn. You just crushed my dreams."

I thought for a minute. "And we could always say the raccoons did it. Those things are vicious."

"Touché."

We started to fly back to the house, our feathers brushing the whole way. "What's Fang going to think?" Iggy wondered out loud. "And the kids. They'll be freaked."

"Angel probably already knows, so at least that's done with." I pointed out.

Iggy was silent for a minute, and then smiled widely at me. "Hey, Max."

"Hey, Iggy."

"Us, the flock. We're family, right?"

I glanced at him. "Yeah..."

"So this is technically incest."

I choked, and Iggy started to crack up. "Do you want me to put that trap back on your ankle?" Iggy continued to laugh at me, and I crossed my arms.

"I should totally be dead by now." Iggy snorted. "What's wrong, Max?"

"You're lucky you're cute, Iggy."

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