The Newlywed Game

The stars shown brightly- illuminating Fang so that he looked like an angel. We were lying together, looking up at the stars when he turned and looked at me. When I turned my head so our eyes met, he smiled that heart stopping smile at me.

"What?" I asked breathlessly.

"You're beautiful," he whispered. I couldn't help the blush that crept up my cheeks. Before I said something I knew I would regret, Fang beat me to it. "I love you."

Thousands of thoughts passed through my head- including the idea of running away and hiding from him. Silently, I weighed the options of telling him how I feel and then getting hurt, and the option of running away and possibly ruining every chance I ever had with him.

"I love you too," I finally said.

"Max?" he asked, sounding vaguely like Nudge. "Max, wake up. I want to ask you something." Now I knew for certain he sounded like Nudge, I also knew I was sleeping.

"Stop," I mumbled to the ever persistent Nudge, while throwing my arm over my eyes.

"But Max," Nudge whined, "I need to ask you something!" Hopelessly I tried to go back to my dream, but it was a desperate attempt that was useless. After another second of trying, I moved my arm and got up. I noticed with a sense of jealousy that I was the only flock member awake- other then Nudge.

"What is it Nudge?" I asked.

"Can we stop at the closest town and eat at a restaurant- not like the one in New York, cause that place was horrible and we didn't even get to eat!" I put my head in my hands and thought about it. On one hand, I knew going out to eat might cause unwanted attention like it did in New York, but if it wasn't as fancy as the last restaurant that might not happen...

Eh, why not. "Sure Nudge, but I get veto power. If I don't want to eat at a restaurant we won't- no questions asked."

"Thank you Max!" Nudge yelled- succeeding in waking up the rest of the flock.

"Wha's goin' on?" The Gasman asked groggily.

"We're going out to eat!" Nudge screamed.

"I think you just shattered my ear drums," Iggy muttered, "and trust me, you do not want a blind, deaf, bird kid on your hands."

"Are we really?" Fang asked after walking up to me.

I nodded my head grimly, now wishing I had just said no.

Even though Angel nodded at me with an apologetic look, she squealed right along with Nudge. "Maybe afterwards we can go shopping!" Nudge said excitedly.

"No," I said. "I draw the line at going out to eat." From the corner of my eye I saw Fang smirk. Why couldn't that dream be real? "Now lets get moving. We're pretty close to L.A. and if we start flying now, we should be able to make it for breakfast."

After a few groans (Iggy and Gazzy) and a lot of talking (Nudge and Angel) we finally got in the air. We flew for about a half hour when we started to notice shining buildings and thousands of people. I instantly started regretting my decision because crowds meant claustrophobia and claustrophobia meant a extra paranoid bird-kid. Fang- seeming to feel my distress- flew above me, just close enough that I could feel his presence and not feel crowded.

Right when my fear started to dissipate, Nudge decided she found the restaurant she wanted to eat at. I couldn't find any reason not to and we landed behind it- carefully hidden by the smelly dumpsters.

"Oh, Max! This is going to be great!" Nudge said. "Thank you sooo much!"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Come on, let's get this over with." Fang chuckled next to me and grabbed my hand.

As we walked in to the restaurant- Nudge and Angel leading with me and Fang at the end, Iggy and Gazzy were stuck in between us- a boy who was twenty-ish ignored the hand holding between me and Fang and gazed up and down my body.

Now, I have never really thought of myself as attractive- most of the time, that was the last thing on my mind- but recently I had started thinking about stuff like that, and let me tell you, if I saw me, no way would I ever check me out. My hair was in a greasy ponytail- successfully keeping the nasty hair out of my eyes-, I haven't taken a bath since God-knows-when and I know for certain that my ripped shirt and jeans were not in fashion. So why the heck was this guy checking me out?

Fang's hand tightened on mine as he saw a flirty smile pass on the guys face- his eyes were places I'd rather them not be, too. "Hel-lo," the guy said, his eyes were going lower and lower. I tend to think of myself as smart... ish so it was easy to see that if I didn't do something now, that guy wouldn't last much longer in this world- either I would kill him or Fang would- so I did the only thing I could do thinking so short notice.

I put one of my rings on my left hand's fourth finger. When his eyes were going up, I showed him my hand and mouthed, "Married." Now, he seemed to realize that I was standing next to Fang and immediately his mouth went in an O. He blushed and walked us over to our table not taking his eyes of his feet.

After we sat down Fang looked at me with an eyebrow raised. "What? It was the only thing I could think of!" I defended. He chuckled and took one of his rings and put if on his left hand's fourth finger.

Before I could ask Fang what he was doing, Iggy scowled and asked, "What's going on?"

I heard Nudge giggle and whisper to Iggy, who then broke out into a grin. "Why Fang, why didn't you tell me you and Max got married?"

While I was thinking of a classic Max response Fang responded coolly. "It didn't come up until now." Gazzy cackled and made several glares come our way... but one person was staring at me and Fang with an interest. It looked to be a women who was in their late thirties, with red hair and too white teeth. When she smiled and started to walk over to us I got all panicky and tried to look for an escape root that would get us out without to much of a commotion. Why did I agree to this? How come this always happened to us? Would it kill the School to let us eat just one meal in peace?

Before I had successfully thought out a plan (i.e. we were still in the booth) the lady came up to us and said, "So you two are married?"

"Yep," Fang replied smiling politely.

She nodded and continued smiling. "How long?"

"Not that long." Nudge giggled.

"So you two are newlyweds?"

"Yes..." What was she trying to get at?

"Would you say that you two know each other well?"

"With out a doubt." Iggy snorted across the table.

"How would you guys feel about winning a lot of money?"

"That would be wonderful," I answered, sarcasm dripping from my voice.

Either she didn't notice or she didn't care. "Then how would you two feel about going on 'The Newlywed Game'?"