Simple Math Is Not So Simple by Nightwingstar

Oh ho! After finishing the ever ADD book of MR4 I have come up with this one shot that everyone will gripe at me about. Btw, I cheer for Iggy.

WARNING! This is set after MR4, THEREFORE, if you have not read it AND/OR you don't want it mildly spoiled then stop reading now.

All the others who are speed readers and have time, enjoy!

Simple Math Is Not So Simple

I've been foolish. No, not foolish, I've been right. Confronting the problems faced between the world and us and she still doesn't admit it! Gah! She's driving me nuts! She's going to give me gray hairs before I'm eighteen, I actually think I have at least five already!

But then you look at her… I mean REALLY look at her and I see so many things. The guarded gaze behind the smiles that can only barely reach her eyes. The stance of her body was, though fluid and graceful, proud and firm. A smile (if there's a God he granted it to her), a freaking genuine smile followed by sweet laughter is heavenly even if we are damned.

She thinks I can read her mind. She's predictable but no I can't read it. The flicker of pain or the major emotions she tries to hide, I don't understand at all. And she calls me the emotionless one.

Now she's playing with Akila, running up and down the beach, a stick waving over her head and she's laughing. It's that kind of laugh – you know, the kind that makes the sparkles in the air like fireflies on a new moon – the one that knows we're free. A kind of laugh that makes you wonder: if she were to die right here and right now, would she regret nothing? Would she regret not saving the world? What about leaving the flock behind? Would she realize she was actually jealous of the red head? Would she realize that she actually loves me?

That… I love her?

"What's your deal?" Max asked me as she came up at a light jog, the stick dragging beside her, Akila padding softly a few feet behind.

"Nothing." Her gaze was guarded again while she wore a smile that would deceive anyone but me, though I'd never let her know that.

"Uh-huh." She squinted with an I-know-you're-hiding-something-from-me look. Fantabulous.

" Yeah-huh. That Voice of yours have any new news?" Max scoffed beside me.

"Never anything useful." She flopped into the sand, playing tug-o-war with Akila as Iggy prepared dinner and the flock prepared camp miles away.

"Uh-huh."

"Really Fang, what do you expect from me?" She glared as I sat beside her.

"To be honest and not to be so indestructible."

"But that's boooring!" Max lay down on the sand, giving up the stick freely. "But seriously, if I weren't indestructible then would I be able to save the world countless times?"

"That's ego talking." I pointed out. "You always needed our help and you've acknowledged it too." She glared at me, her eyes signaling touché.

We fell silent, watching the sunset over the ocean, unable to strike up a conversation.

It made me curious, why did she make it so hard? On the boat she had a hard time accepting that we were together, that she was jealous, that… that I kissed her in DC… I'd wish she'd let me love her or her love me, that way I would have to push my way in.

"Fang?" When did the sun go down? The moon was illuminating the water lightly, the waves crashing in a muffled manner. "Where are you?"

"Here." I mumbled, moving a bit so she could see me again.

"Oh. What were you thinking about? You were too still."

"Stuff."

"Way to be vague, Fang." She gave me a thumbs up, I grinned a little inside.

"You wouldn't like it."

"I don't like a lot of things, like Total when he speaks French to Akila, when McDonalds puts too much onion on the cheeseburgers, or when I find a dinky little piece of string lying on the sidewalk. Doesn't mean I won't endure it. Tell me." The last two words were in 'leader voice'.

"I was thinking about you and me."

"You're right, I don't like this at all. It's worse than the piece of string." I rolled my eyes.

"Why do you make it so hard? To acknowledge someone cares? That there's a possibility someone wants to stay by your side for all your existence?"

"A possibility is a probability. You know I suck at math."

"You don't need a bird brain to figure out one plus one equals two."

"And yet you fail to realize one minus one equals zero." Max retorted. "I'm not that stupid – and don't you dare say it." She glared.

"What?" I asked innocently, well as innocently as I could.

" 'Could have deceived me.'" She glared harder.

"Same train of thought, weird. Gosh, it's like we were meant for each other or something." I impersonated Nudge, making a hand motion or two. Max cracked a grin but that quickly faded.

"But you get it right? How your math contradicts mine?"

"Yeah, you're missing a vertical dash."

"Right now's not a time for jokes." The 'leader voice' again.

"Sorta, not really, nope."

"I don't want to be separated from my Mom." Max began, her fingers intertwined as she lifted her arms to the sky. "But because I love her, I have to let her go. In that part of my family something has to go. There's Ella, Mom, and me but it's either their lives or mine. Three minus one is two. Ella'd be devastated if Mom died, likewise if Ella died instead, guess that leaves me. Do you get it? How one plus one would never work?"

"We're always together as is, what would change?" Max laughed bitterly.

"That's like asking if one tank of gas in a Hummer would do absolutely nothing." She glanced at me, her brown eyes shining with pain in the darkness. The guard was down, she was open like a book, and every single emotion was displayed before me. "To put someone over the another, to love them with everything I am and everything I'm not is beyond me. I'm save-the-world Max not I-like-to-care-about-my-friends-and-family-only Max. If I love you, then I'd have to be distant. 'Cause in the end one plus one would equal one minus one." Max brought her arms down and her hands rested on her stomach.

"But you've seen the movies, it never works. Besides, they're after the whole flock, not just you."

"We're not like the movies." She growled. "I'm the top priority. If you snag the leader, you snag everyone."

"So, if I get you… I get the rest of the flock? No thanks, I only want you." I grinned before kissing her.

"No…" Her voice was feeble against me and I didn't want to listen.

"Just give up, this is the part where you surrender." I pressed harder and even felt her respond. I could imagine her mind going 'Okay, I'll give up just this once, after this he's in big trouble.' But I could care less.

I pulled away searching her eyes for something, anything. Her eyes were still alive and sparkling, a glow graced her features, a smile was slowly creeping to her lips, and she slapped herself.

"No!" She shot up to her feet, startling Akila who was lying down in the sand a few feet away. "We can't be anything! Not while the world's in danger! Not while we're stupid and fourteen! Not when – not when – "

"There's a flock to take care of." I whispered, knowing one day she'd pull that on me.

"Exactly!" Her look was hysterical. Of course I've already seen this coming. I've already thought of 267 ways for Max to reject me and about 281 more ways for her to accept our togetherness. One down, 266 ways to go. "Iggy must be done with cooking by now, I'll go ahead with Akila, see you there." And she was already running down the beach, Akila hot on her heels.

I saw that coming too. 59 ways involved her running away, 124 involved her flying, 21 was a mixture of the two.

Way to let a guy down easy, Max. Way. To. Go.

"Oh yeah," Max's voice reached my ears moments after I laid down, staring at the stars. "Someday, Hawkboy." She bent over me and pecked me on the lips and running back the way she came, Akila tripped over me as she attempted to turn around. I heard Max laughing in the distance.

Okay, I didn't see that coming in the 548 ways I thought she would accept our sort of togetherness. Guess that makes it 549.

I guess I'll have to keep trying until my rejections whittle down to zero. 266 rejections to go…

Man, Fang! Don't you have something better to do other than just think? So um... have I mentioned I really really dislike my cousin? surely you've been filled in on my paragraph rant... maybe... He's known to my friends as A) The son of the Devil or B) Diseased Cousin. Stupid cousin who doesn't listen to his elders when I say "cover your mouth! You might be sick!" And freaking gets me sick. My throat feels like it's only a cm or two big instead of the five inches I'm used to. Of course I'm exaggerating on the five inches. Darn hacking coughs.

And yes, this is a oneshot.

Mindless thinking by the way, the idea was brought up in my band class when the band director was yelling at everyone but me and three songs made the body firm. Seriously, MR4 equals ADD and no, I don't mean add, we're done with math today. :Waits patiently for flames of "I'm not done with MR4 yet!" I know it's coming, don't lie:

Adieu
Nightwing