And With This Coming Dawn We Shall Have Waffles by SilverScreech

1

Description: Just a little nothing of a oneshot. Kind of funny and definitely stress relieving. Takes place sometime in the future with the flock staying at Dr. Martinez's. A peak at the life of the flock, minus the danger factor of being on the run. Obvious hints of Fax and Niggy.

Kudos to my awesome betas: therealme1123 & Phoenix Fanatic

And With This Coming Dawn... We Shall Have Waffles, A Maximum Ride Fanfiction

Maximum Ride looked around the nearly deserted kitchen. She's the first up, having taken last watch the night before. She didn't care if they were safe for the moment, seeing as that could change at anytime.

But staying up also meant she fixed breakfast, and after cooking pancakes and eggs for the last half-hour or so, she wasn't in the mood for that right now.

Max silently pulled the fridge open. After carefully looking over her breakfast choices, she plucked a few bagels, three cinnamon raisins and three French toast slices. Smiling, she also lumped a heavy layer of strawberry flavored cream cheese on top.

Heading over to the counter, she grabbed three mugs and filled them to the brim with coffee, pouring in some chocolate syrup and setting it all in front of her as she slurped down her coffee and gulped her bagels.

Not a second after she sat down, her neck begins to prickle. She fought down a shiver as Fang entered the kitchen and headed toward the pancake stack.

Fang treated her to a half-smile and grabbed nine plate-sized pancakes for himself, drowning them in chocolate syrup. Max hid a smile at how alike that was to her morning schedule.

He didn't look like he'd slept much. But of course, that was because he hadn't. He never slept during Max's watch, not that'd she'd ever know that.

Walking over to the fridge, he poured himself two large glasses of orange juice and a soup-sized mug of herbal tea, which he'd come to have a liking to since they'd started staying here five weeks ago.

Gazzy entered moments later, grunted a quick hello to his leader and brother, then headed straight to the counter. He grabbed a severing platter sized-plate and proceeded to quickly loaded it with a gigantic scoop of scrambled eggs, seven pancakes, eleven slices of bacon, and six slices of toast spread with various jams and jellies. A bagel and a pair of chocolate-chip muffins sat dangerously close to the edge of his plate. Eighteen sausage links and two glasses of orange juice and four of cranberry finished off his morning meal.

"Morning Gaz," Max said with a smile as she reached to get herself a pair chocolate-chip muffins, which she had evidently forgotten about that morning. Gazzy nodded acknowledgment before diving into his food.

Despite the fact that even Max had dropped her walls enough to enjoy her food, Gazzy stuck with the ideal that Erasers could jump out at any minute and attack before he could finish, which, quite truthfully would be the cruelest way to get them up.

The conversation was pretty much nonexistent, as Gazzy was preoccupied and Fang was... Fang.

Max exchanged the typical insults with Voice (Well, I don't particularly care if your going to blow up China. I'm a little busy. Sitting around on your butt does not constitute as 'busy' Maximum. Yes it does! Sitting on my butt is a totally worthwhile activity! Ask any teenager in America! And just how many American teenagers do you know Maximum? Ever heard of a little thing called Television, Old Man? I know it may be a little before your time but I'd advise checking it out. It's amazing how effectively the world is destroying itself without you. Or if you're looking for a more age appropriate program, Dragon Tales is on channel five in twenty minutes.).

Max angrily stabbed at the defenseless slice of french toast on her plate.

Fang put a gentle hand on her arm to get her to look at him. His eyes gave her a worried gaze that clearly asked her if she was all right.

Max smiled half-heartedly and nodded. Fang leaned back into his own chair but kept a careful eye on Max as she mentally yelled at the Voice to 'shut the heck up and leave me to devour breakfast in peace.'

Just as Gazzy shoved the last sticky, blob-sized pancake bite of food into his mouth, a voice sounded from the doorway.

"Hello Gazzy! Max," Angel chirped as she walked into the kitchen smiling brightly. Angel turned toward the bar and inhaled deeply. "Yum! Pancakes!"

Six pancakes, four slices of toast, and three cups of coffee later, Angel flopped down in the chair next to Fang. Gazzy followed suit to Angel's left, having returned for seconds.

"Morning Fang." Fang gave her a slight nod and scooted over to give her some legroom at the quickly crowding table. Max broke out of her silent rant against the Voice to give her little baby a smile.

While she was in the break in conversation with the Voice, Max took the chance to cast a glace at the rest of her waken flock. Gazzy and Angel had identical looks of concentration as they shoved random pieces of food into their mouths at record speeds. It was kind of cute, in a rather disgusting way.

Max looked at Fang, who was gazing intently at his teacup. Suddenly she noticed his ragged face and the tell tale bags under his dark eyes. But that doesn't make any sense! Fang's watch had been last night, and even if it had been that night, they were used to missing a night of sleep.

Max and Fang had been alternating for the last five days or so while Iggy took some time off. It was his birthday present from the two of them. One week with no watch, chores, or anything else that was taxing in anyway (which was why Max was cooking breakfast). But it was apparently taking a toll on Fang. He definitely needed rest.

Max made a mental note to corner him later and convince him to let her take double watch. She could turn it into an order, if necessary.

All of a sudden the relative tranquility of morning breakfast was broken by a loud, blustering entrance of Nudge and Iggy.

The entire table raised their heads to look, Max with an amused smile on her face, Gazzy and Angel with grimaces of annoyance of morning-meal interruptions, and Fang with a knowing gaze as they continued a pointless argument. Something that had been occurring with increased frequency lately.

"... the heck? Does that make any sense?! I mean, Starfire has been a love interest of Robin's since they met, Batgirl was more like a sister to him growing up, why would that change just cause they're older?"

"Since when did age become my argument? I'm just saying they're perfect for each other. Besides, you can't deny that he has feelings for her, with all the hints he's been dropping. He's just waiting for Babs to give him some hint of recuperation."

"Oh yeah? Well, from my observation Barbra Gordon is extremely observant. If all these hints Dick has apparently been dropping have been so obvious then why hasn't she picked up on them and either made a move or let him down gently?"

"Maybe she's not as observant as she thinks she is, maybe he's been dropping hints left and right and is so crazy for her that he can't ever seem to get her out of his mind! Maybe she's driving him insane because he can't put together the three forbidden words he wants to say! Maybe he really does love her but doesn't know what to do about it because they would still have to work together if she rejected him! And besides he values her friendship so highly he couldn't handle it if she completely turned him down and they couldn't be friends anymore. Maybe he's just scared."

Iggy whispered this last part in exasperation. Nudge looked at him long and hard, then shrugged.

"Or maybe you make to many assumptions."

Max rolled her eyes as the two continued their argument. "Hey Fang, pass the pepper." He did, meeting her gaze across the table. They stared at one another for a moment, Fang studying her hard.

"What? Do I have something in my teeth?" Max rubbed her finger across them to check but Fang shook his head.

"How can you possibly miss that?" Max cocked an eyebrow.

"Miss what?" Fang let loose an exasperated sigh and slumped back in his chair. "And I thought men were supposed to be the dense ones..."

Shaking it off, Max shrugged and returned to her breakfast. Would she ever understand men?

Iggy and Nudge reached the table a moment later, Iggy with a half-hearted smirk on his face. He'd won the super heroine debate, but Nudge was still as dense as ever. 'How the hell did Fang handle this toucher for so long? This is insane!' Iggy thought as sat down in a random empty chair.

"Morning everybody!" Nudge chirped cheerfully. She may have lost the debate, but it was only a silly, pointless argument. Besides, Iggy had let her have the last chocolate donut.

Max smiled at them both. Nudge plopped happily down besides Gazzy and proceeded to shovel scrambled eggs into her mouth. Thank God for food, the only surefire Nudge-shut-up-method in existence.

"Morning Nudge, Iggy," Fang said. Fang shot Iggy a sympathetic look for which he received a sad smile as Max shot Fang a semi-shocked glace.

Fang uttering a single unnecessary syllable before noon was rare. It was turning into a rather odd morning. It wasn't that anything was exactly wrong. But something was... off somehow. Like she was missing something really important.

Dr. Martinez chose that moment to stumble into the kitchen. Without greeting the others, she shuffled over to the bar loaded with breakfast stuff and shakily filled a regular-sized mug to the brim with piping hot, black coffee.

The vet staggered over to the table, nearly spilling the coffee several times before slumping into a chair next to Nudge. Her thin hair is vying with Nudge's for first prize in the messiest category and her soft eyes are half-closed and bleary.

Dr. Martinez took a large gulp of coffee, hissing slightly as it burned her tongue but guzzling it down anyway before laying her head down and falling asleep on the table.

Dr. Martinez is not a morning person.

A new quarrel has struck up between the two bickerers, this time concerning teammates of the aforementioned, Beast Boy and Terra. This time however, Fang joins in, supporting another character, Raven, as the changeling's love interest.

Both Iggy and Nudge refute his claim, insisting that they are complete opposites. Max keeps her mouth shut, though secretly, she agrees with Fang. There's something alluring about the empath's dark mystique. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but there was defiantly an attractive quality, a familiar attractive quality.

If Raven was a boy and not fictional, she might even go for her.

At eight O'clock Max pushed her chair aside and rose to her feet. She wrapped the remainder of a chocolate muffin in a napkin, to be relished later on during a brief break as flock leader. She's meeting Ella during first hour today, since Ella has it free, and will be back later.

With a quick reminder to Fang not to let the "bomb brothers" blow up the house while she's away, Max leaves the kitchen.

Angel soon followed her lead, muttering something about waking Total before she grabbed a blueberry muffin and a shallow cup of OJ for the mutt and hurrying out of the room.

With both Angel and Max gone, the debate slowly died down. Iggy motions in the general direction of Gazzy who grunted in response.

Together they rose to their feet.

They'll be busy all morning, testing out some new souped-up cherry bombs in a field nearby before Max returns. Gazzy said, "Catch ya later," to Fang and Nudge and the unresponsive Dr. M before rushing outside.

Fang slowly sips his tea, relishing a rare moment of silence as Nudge slowly finishes off the last pancake.

Eventually, Nudge dabbed her mouth with a napkin, dumped her dishes in the sink and skipped off to find Angel to play Twister II.

Fang rises soon after, but before exiting the room he stops to gulp down another cup on tea. Setting the mug into the sink, he glances back at the table and shakes his head before grabbing a fresh cup and filling it to the brim.

Fang set the steaming mug on the table, just out of reach of the sleeping veterinarian. Finally Fang to exited the room to do whatever it is Fang does.

Twenty minutes later, Valencia Martinez slowly opened her eyes. Her gaze swept around the now empty room and she let out an exasperated breath.

She muttered something in Spanish as she registers the time, just past eight-thirty. Shoving herself to her feet, she spied the steaming cup of coffee and smiled before taking a huge gulp.

Dr. M grabbed the last donut, thoughtfully tucked away next to the empty egg platter by Max, and took a huge bite. She then scurried out the door, breakfast in hand, ready to begin another day at the office pretending she lives a semi-normal life.

That one daughter isn't six towns over with her sister.

That the other isn't a avian hybrid who's surrogate family doesn't eat her out of house and home literally everyday.

With all this in mind, she gets in her car and starts the engine.

The End.