A/N: So, I forgot to mention in the author's note last chapter that I changed my penname from FaXnEsSisADDICTION, or… something like that, to kelseychicago, just because it's my livejournal username and it's less confusing for me that way. So you know, just in case you didn't recognize me, it's me. Or it could've been the fact that I haven't posted in OVER A YEAR. Yeah, I checked. Wow. Um, yeah. Loveloveloveyou! P.S. I'll try to make this one longer!

Again, I found myself waking up on the sofa-bed next to Fang. I yawned quietly and stretched a little bit before looking at Fang's sleeping form. I really took the time to look at him, noting all the small things I hadn't bothered to notice last time I'd found myself in this situation. Even sleeping, Fang was beautiful. Maybe beautiful wasn't the right word for it, but that's the word I was going with. He'd always had this 'dark and mysterious' thing going on, but when he was sound asleep, he didn't seem as bad. There was still a hint of danger about him, but he almost reminded me of a sleeping kitten, all cuddled up in our shared blankets.

Fang huffed in his sleep, stirring a little so I'd thought he was waking up. Instead, he shifted on the mattress and resettled. I watched a piece of loose hair fall and tickle his nose, and he finally gained semi-consciousness, enough to brush it away. I smiled at him and touched his hair.

"You're so adorable when you sleep," I whispered. Fang cracked his eyes open, smiling and laughing softly.

"Oh really?"

"Yes. You reminded me of a kitten," I said as I petted his hair again.

"A kitten? Wow. Don't ever mention that to anyone, okay?" Fang asked and smiled, pulling me into loose hug under the blankets. I laughed and returned his embrace, breathing into his chest and wanting to go back to sleep.

"I promise," I mumbled.

"We should probably get up. Your mom will be up soon," Fang sighed.

I groaned quietly. "Five more minutes." My eyes were already shut and I could feel myself drifting back to sleep. Fang smiled in agreement.

"I missed you," I thought I heard Fang whisper before I fell asleep.

Fang had woken me up a while later, before my mom got up of course, and we decided to make some breakfast for her and Ella. We're early risers, what can I say? I stuck to making coffee, the one domestic skill I'd been able to accomplish over the years, while Fang flipped pancakes on the stove-top.

Fang smiled over at me, and I gave him an incredulous look. "What?" I asked.

"Nothing," he replied with a shrug. I walked over to stand in front of him.

"No, seriously. What?"

"Nothing," he said again. "I was just thinking about how… I think you'd make a great mom." Fang gave me one of his undeniably contagious smiles, but the thought made my stomach twist and I felt uneasy.

"I mean, if you wanted to be," Fang added. I averted my eyes, nodding awkwardly and walking back to the coffee maker. Once at my post, I proceeded to babble about how the pancakes were coming along, but Fang disregarded my chatter.

"You know, we should probably tell your mom," Fang said, cutting me off in the middle of my rant about undercooked pancake batter.

"What?"

"Your mom. We have to tell her. I mean, she's your mom, not to mention she's going to find out sooner or later."

I groaned, that same apprehensive feeling present in my stomach. "Fang, not before I've had my coffee, okay?" I pleaded with him to drop the subject.

He put his hands up defensively. "Fine. I'm just saying."

"Ugh, I'll tell her… tomorrow," I said, taking charge for the first time in forever and crossing my arms over my chest.

Fang smiled. "In that case," he started, making his way over to the counter I was leaning on, "we should go out today. Do something. Considering the fact that this will probably be the last time we're allowed out of the house for the rest of our natural born lives, as we'll no doubt be grounded indefinitely…" Fang leaned in to brush his lips over mine, resting his hands on the counter on either side of me. I didn't make any effort to uncross my arms but kissed back half-heartedly.

I was about to deny him, because going out was really not on the top of my list of things to do, until I saw his big eyes looking down at me with anticipation. "Fine," I huffed.

Fang smiled and moved away to tend to his pancakes as I watched him and shook my head. Had I just agreed to a date?

Soon after, Dr. Martinez and Ella awoke for work and school. Fang and I offered them breakfast and they ate, thanked us, and left, and the other stragglers woke up one by one until all of the Flock was seated around the television.

They were watching some lame Disney movie, I think it was Aladdin, and I was situated next to Fang, not too close, on the couch. He noticed the bored expression that was playing across my face, and he leaned over to whisper in my ear. "You want to get going? This movie's pretty dull."

I nodded, and thought about making some lame excuse to leave the room before realizing that my Flock wouldn't really care anyway. They were a suspicious bunch, but not when it came to me and Mr. Walt Disney. They'd pretty much all noticed that look of excruciating boredom the first time that Angel and Nudge had convinced me to watch Cinderella. Fang hadn't even been willing to sit in the same room when they'd turned it on.

Consequently, no one really took any notice in the fact that Fang and I both got up and walked upstairs at the same time. Fang stopped at his room to throw on some big boy pants, (he'd been wearing his batman pajama pants up until that point) and I got dressed and looked in the mirror, seriously considering brushing my hair before deciding against it and throwing it into a ponytail. I met Fang in the hallway and asked, "You ready?"

He nodded and started down the stairs. I followed behind and mumbled a "Going out" as we passed through the living room on our way out the door.

The air was warming up, as it was late morning by then, and the fresh air reminded me how much I missed being outside at times other than my tear-filled escapades to trees in the middle of the night. I decided that today, I wasn't going to think about it. I was going to put the entire situation out of my mind and have one last day of freedom.

After Fang and I had taken off, we flew in synchronization as I watched the happenings in the town below us. "Where are you planning on taking me?" I asked, realizing that I had absolutely no idea where we were headed.

"I don't know. I honestly didn't have anything planned; I just wanted to get out." Fang shrugged and I rolled my eyes at him. There really wasn't much to do around mom's house.

Fang and I spotted the mall up ahead and decided it was a decent idea, so we swooped down for a landing behind the building. As we walked around to the front and through the front doors, I couldn't help but feel unusually… normal. We were just a couple of teenagers going to hang out at the mall, unsupervised. Completely average. Though, there was nothing average about us, and I sure as hell wouldn't be feeling like a normal teenager for long.

Now, I don't know how most malls are set up, (I haven't been to 'most malls') but when you walk into this mall, you're standing at the front of a food court. A huge food court, with lots of people in a limited amount of space, all chattering and laughing and moving at the same time. Obviously, I got uncomfortable fast. I felt my social anxiety begin to kick in as Fang took my hand and led me out of the maze of people. The food court fed into a less cramped hallway, and I was thankful to be out of the commotion.

"Thanks," I mumbled. "It's like a freaking zoo in there." Fang laughed and pulled me further down the hallway.

"Where would you like to go, Max?" Fang asked as we ambled through the mall, walking past stores but not venturing into any of them.

I shrugged. "I dunno," I said as we walked past the Baby Gap, and I made sure to look the other way and gently tug on Fang's hand to keep him from seeing it and dragging us in.

We strolled aimlessly for a while before stopping in a music store and listening to a bunch of sample music, walking around in Boarder's and grabbing books off the shelves at random to read three pages, and stopping in Hot Topic so Fang could buy a ridiculously overpriced Fall Out Boy t-shirt, until we found ourselves strolling through the awkwardness that is Spencer's Gifts. And let me tell you, whoever this 'Spencer' guy was, he was a major pervert.

"Why do normal kids love malls? I mean, they're really not as entertaining as they seem," I asked as Fang tried to discreetly gawk at some less than kosher Halloween costumes.

"Not sure," he mumbled, still gawking, before turning to face me. "Probably because the average teenager is a lot more superficial than you."

"Hm. Makes sense. I'm hungry," I stated. Though, there was no way in hell that I wanted to go back to that god-awful food court.

"I saw a pretzel place back there," Fang offered, and I nodded. I followed him out and down the hall to the alleged pretzel place. Fang and I each got two pretzels and we got a massive blue slushie to share.

Fang and I sat on a good people-watching bench to eat. I had my face buried in a cinnamon sugar pretzel when I saw a woman with a stroller walk by. I felt queasy again.

Fang must've seen the woman too, because he stopped eating momentarily to wrap an arm around my shoulder. "It's scary, isn't it," he mumbled. I didn't answer.

"You know, we really have to figure this out soon. I mean, do you know what you want to do yet?" Fang asked. I looked down at the pretzel in my hand with disgust, suddenly not at all in the mood to eat.

I shrugged my shoulders and swiped at my eye with the back of my sleeve. I was not crying; the air was just really, really dry in the mall and it made my eyes water. Really.

"It's okay. We'll figure something out," Fang said again, and I was really getting sick of his empty promises. I didn't say anything, and soon we left the mall to head home. During the flight, I thought I was going to puke blue slushy all over someone's nice yard, but I didn't think it was from motion sickness.

When we walked in the house, Fang stopped in his tracks. When I looked up, my stomach dropped to the floor. Jeb and Dr. Martinez were sitting at the kitchen table, waiting for us.

A/N: Hahaaa BUSTED! So I was going to write more of the mall stuff, but I've been stricken with immense amounts of inexplicable, sudden onset stomach pain, so yeah. Um, I forget what I was saying, but yeah. Reviews are love!