Disclaimer: I do not own either D. Gray-Man or Maximum Ride.

A/N: In "Black Lace" I got a lot of help for flying terminology that I didn't know from Maximum Ride. Also, the little voice in my character Celesta's head was kind of derived from Miss Max's Voice. The story is told from Max's point of view, like in Maximum Ride. Also, each chapter has a theme song. This one is

Mm! Final note! To see what I mean about Fang and Kanda looking alike, Google search "maximum ride manga". It's scary! DX

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"Yo, Iggy? What's up?" I asked. The blind, strawberry blonde kid at my right had suddenly stiffened up.

"I heard something. Big. But it's not big enough to be an Eraser. More like… tall. And definitely human." I let out a breath of relief. We could handle anything, just so long as it wasn't crazed mutant half wolf people. Us being half avian, we were stronger than regular humans. We could kick some serious ass.

"Max?" Little blonde Angel came into my scope of vision. "Can you please check it out? Their thoughts are scary." Oh, yeah. Plus being half bird, Angel can read minds. She's the only person who has weird powers.

"I'm not weird, am I?" Angel asked. Oh, shit. I gotta think before I say stuff like that.

"No, honey, I'm sorry. I didn't mean it that way." Jesus, Max, tact much? "Here, Fang and I will check it out. Iggy, you're in charge."

"Be careful, Max!" Called Nudge. Ducking out the door before more words came out her mouth, Fang and I were out into the woods surrounding our house. Prepared to fight or take flight, we walked out into the gathering twilight. Suddenly a crash hit our ears. Fang was running toward the sound first and I fell in step.

"Great job, moyashi. Honestly, can you not grasp the concept of stealth?" As we neared, I could see a tall red-haired kid with an eye patch and a white haired kid on the ground looking up at Fang's long lost twin brother.

Okay, I truthfully don't know if they're related, but still. Carbon copies of each other, scowl and all. Minus wings. Dammit, I always forget the wings.

"C'mon, Yu. It's getting dark, and you know Allen's gotta be dizzy from that cut in his arm." The red head said with (possibly faked) emotion.

"His own fault." The alleged Yu replied lazily. "Besides Lavi, you just don't like the sight of bl-" He suddenly stopped when my foot broke a twig. Drawing a lethal looking sword, he turned toward where Fang and I were hidden in the bushes. "Show yourselves- now!"

"Fang, up and away!" I whispered. Just as we were about to take off, a flying… person?! Wait, that's wrong; no wings or anything. Just a girl, about my age, maybe a little older. She looked somewhat surprised to see us, our wings out and prepared to take off. She then smiled, and I realized she wasn't a threat to us.

"Lenalee? Please tell me that it's you, and not somebody else!" the red head said and took a tentative step forward.

"It's me Lavi!" She called back. Fang nudged me as if to say "Why in the hell are we not in the air?!" I kind of wondered why, too, but these people didn't seem to be after us… just completely hopelessly lost. "And, uh, I think we found the people Komui told us about!"

"How do you know about us?!" Fang nearly shouted. That was uncharacteristic of him. It was, like, six more words than he usually said. "Who sent you?"

"Uhm, let's not turn this into a fight. We'll explain everything. But uh, you don't happen to have a place where we can clean up our friend, do you?"

"Get lo-"

"Yeah, sure." I interrupted Fang before something stupid came out of his mouth. He glared at me. I tried to ignore him. "You're probably not going to be welcomed with open arms, but you can stay."

"Thanks." The girl- Lenalee- said. She had a really cute smile. It reminded me of my Angel. "Come on, you guys!" she went over to help out the white haired kid (was that one Allen..?) and we were off. We had probably gone thirty feet before Yu stopped and turned suddenly.

"Yu?" Lavi asked. "What's up?"

"Shut up, baka usagi." He replied. "I thought I heard something."

"You must've imagined it, Kanda." Lenalee said. "I haven't heard anything, and Allen's eye isn't reacting, so it can't be an Akuma."

"Idiots." He made a 'che' sound. Fang signed to me "What the f***?" before I punched his arm. "Have you never been outside of the Black Order? There's more danger in life than just the Akuma. Right?" He turned his storm-blue gaze to me. I was glad of the dark, because I was certain I would be blushing dark red. Fang could see as well in the dark as I could, and was obviously not pleased. That gave me a small satisfaction… for some reason.

"You know about the Erasers?" I asked. "You know, big freaky mutant werewolves? Who are bent on killing us?"

He glowered at me. "No, I'm talking about the other creatures we'd have a hard time against, baka."

"OH MY GOD, Yu was just being sarcastic?! The apocalypse! It's the fricken' apocalypse!" The red head got a kick in the shins that downed him. I think I like this guy.

"You guys!!!" Lenalee's voice went whiney suddenly. God, I hated that sound. It was the same voice moms used when their kids were being bratty. "Come on, stop fighting! This isn't the time!"

"Yeah, Ba-Kanda." Allen muttered. "We're on a mission."

Kanda 'che''d again and stalked ahead. "Hey, wait a second!" Fang yelled. "You can't just go off and barge into our home!"

"Fang, easy, easy!" I grabbed his arm in case he tried to take off this guy's head. That's when all hell broke loose.

No, not really. Actually what happened was probably worse, if that's possible. I would've taken hell in a second.

Fang was apparently having a day, and had ripped free of my arms, intent to kill on his face. I was honestly worried for Kanda, until he sent Fang literally flying. Against his will, mind you.

When Fang had lunged at him, Kanda hadn't seemed even remotely concerned. When he was within striking distance, he gave a roundhouse kick stronger than anything I could ever dish out. I could kick some serious ass, mind you, so saying I couldn't send that power at someone is a huge compliment. But it didn't end there.

Kanda drew his sword, and Lenalee had screamed at him to stop. Then, something really weird happened to Allen's eye. My mind got rid of any sound or feeling after that. The world slowed down as Fang's skin ripped and was replaced by a huge, black skeleton thingy. I remembered the shock. I had known Fang since before I could remember, and nothing like this had ever happened. I remember Lavi shoving me out of the way, told me something. I think I said something back, but maybe not.

I think it was the first time I was scared for just myself. Not once did the flock cross my mind. I felt broken; had I lost Fang?

When my senses came back, I was sitting with my back to a tree. Lenalee had her hand on my shoulder, and I wanted to cry so badly. But I didn't want to look weak; I wasn't that strong.

"Max?" came a voice I was very familiar with. A voice that never stopped talking…

Nudge.

The entire flock came into my view, including a teary Angel and… Fang? Fang was okay!

I'll spare the gory details, but there was much crying and much hugging. Angel had sobbed to me "I can't believe I didn't know you left with a different Fang! I thought… I thought…"

"Shh… baby, it's okay." I stroked her hair. You don't need to feel like you always have to know. You're gonna take my job, sugar.

We had finally gotten back to the house. I tucked in the youngest kids, insisting Iggy get some sleep, but he had refused. Wanted to know more about our unexpected guests. Sheesh.

"Okay." I started. "Who are you, first of all? Names and where you're from, who you work for, why you're here… the whole nine yards."

"I wasn't expecting the Spanish inquisition." Muttered Lavi.

"Nobody expects the Spanish inquisition." Iggy replied.

So! How is it? I've been rather tempted to turn one of the Exorcists into a half avian after the flock tries to rescue Angel… but maybe not… mmm.

If you can't tell, this is supposed to be the first book. A little before the first chapter. After this next chapter, I will stick to the book more closely. Review???