DISCLAIMER: Maximum Ride belongs to James Patterson.

A/N: Everyone, are you reading the comic version? It's serialized in a comic anthology magazine called Yen Plus. I was never really interested in the series until I after I started reading the comic... then I started reading the books.

-- Go Ascend With Ivy --

"I'm caught in the twisting of the vines.
Go ascend with ivy, climbing.
Ignore and leave for me
The headstone crumbling behind." -AFI, "God Called In Sick Today"

Jeb had been gone for years and, as the oldest flock members, Max and Fang had assumed the roles of "mom" and "dad" to the kids. Iggy was sort of like their second-in-command as the "oldest big brother", or something. Not that he didn't want to be the "dad".

He might have been blind, but that didn't mean Iggy hadn't noticed how close Max and Fang had gotten recently. He supposed it was partly due to teenage hormones, which he was experiencing quite a bit himself. But Max and Fang had been playing "mom" and "dad" to the flock for so long, they were already used to thinking of themselves as a set, as a pair... and maybe even as a couple?

Max was completely oblivious to Iggy's feelings towards her - he made a point to hide it from her because he didn't want to make things awkward between the three of them.

Max and Fang were definitely getting closer to each other, too close in Iggy's opinion. Just this morning, Gazzy had confided to him that last night when he'd had a nightmare, Gazzy went to Max's room - whenever any of the younger kids had a really bad nightmare, Max would let them sleep in her bed for the rest of the night - and was surprised to find Fang sleeping in Max's bed with her. Gazzy had asked Fang if he had a nightmare too. To which Fang had replied, smirking, "No, Max did."

Iggy couldn't help wondering, were they just sleeping in each other's beds or were they actually doing... the other meaning of "sleeping together"...?

- to be continued -

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