Hey guys! I've practically dropped off the face of the earth . I'm sowry! But I wrote an awesome story that I LOVE and I hope you do too! So... I hope that makes up for it... (Yes...? No...?) Eh whatever.

I had this idea swimming through my head during FCAT testing, it wouldn't leave me alone. And it cost me a good 20 minutes total out of my tests. Hope you like it!

I'm sorry if it seems a little rushed...

FANG'S POV:

I landed softly on the cave floor, my footsteps barely scraping it at all, before a huge yell made me jump and almost mess my pants.

"Fang?" Max's voice growled.

"Max..." I start off gently, smiling slightly.

"Wipe that smile off your face asshole." And it did, it dropped along with my hopes for a happy reunion to the bottom pit of my stomach.

"Come on Max, for old times sake?" As soon as the words came out of my mouth, I wanted to take them back immediately.

"Old times sake?" She spat at me.

I knew this wasn't gonna be some happy reunion filled with hugs and kisses and tell-tale stories of things missed in both our lives.

I sighed and ran a hand through my dark hair, trying to calm my breathing. "I was trying to protect you."

"Bullshit!" She yelled.

"Jesus Max!"

"WHAT!"

I breathed in deeply, "All I wanted was for you to be safe. All I wanted was to help you. I would have done anything."

She doesn't smile, doesn't frown, she doesn't even flinch.

"You didn't help me Fang, you made me weak, you LEFT me, vulnerable. I had to be dragged to my mother's house so she could take care of the Flock and I could wallow in self-pity. You left me with kids that were OUR kids, and a boy programmed to be my "perfect half" and love me forever. And I can't seem to wrap my mind around how that was any worse than staying."

I think my heart broke the same time my mind numbed but before my voice left me. I was speechless to say the least.

"Max..."

"You said you wanted to 'protect' and 'help' me." She continued, staring me down with a hard penetrating look.

"You say that like it's a bad thing."

The look in her eyes is so fierce I want to shit in my pants right there and then, but I pull through.

"You were so busy trying to be my savior that you left me all alone. I get that you were trying to help, well I don't but I try to, it's just... it felt like... all the time."

There, in the cave, I feel tears coming. The only way to keep them from falling down my face is to find the anger sustained inside of me and push back with it. It's then that I realize I'm only angry at myself. And all the rage I felt, slowly diminishes as Max looks at me with those big brown chocolate eyes of hers.

"I didn't plan it," I told her. "I didn't go around thinking I'd leave. You were everything to me. Even when everything was happening, I didn't want to believe it was happening. But it was."

"So leaving the Flock..."

"Was one of the hardest things I ever had to do."

"And me?"

"You, you were, by far the hardest. But I did it, because I loved you." Her eyes closed for a moment, and opened again, but this time they were glossy as tears began to form in the corners of her eyes.

She stepped back a bit and I had to refrain myself from stepping forward and pulling her to me, wrapping my arms around her waist and kissing her neck and jaw, the way I knew drived her crazy. But I couldn't, that right had been taken from the minute I left that letter on the counter and had flown away soundlessly.

"Why didn't you ever come back?"

I sighed, "I couldn't."

"You... couldn't?" And it seems like a punch in the gut when she says it back to me.

"You know you're not all that accessible."

"I'm inaccessible to most people," she snapped. "But you," she growled, "you could've tracked me down with two phone calls."

"I... It... didn't... feel that way." I lower my head slightly.

"That's a load of crap and you know it."

I looked up to find her facing me. The wind is whipping her hair back and forth so that she looks like a mystical sorceress: beautiful, powerful, and scary all rolled into one.

She looks at me, and really looks at me. Seeming to scan me with lasers; she shakes her head, curls flying, and starts for the cave entrance.

And suddenly, it's like I've been looking at this all through someone else's eyes, and now I'm here. This is the moment I've been looking forward to and dreading forever. And here she is, right in front of me, and she's walking away.

I grab her, and for once, she doesn't back away. But then she looks up at me, and then she loses it. And then she's crying, and I'm holding her, and she's drenching my shirt but none of it matters. Because she's here, and she's with me, in my arms, and for a moment, I can pretend the past didn't happen.

But then her sobs stop wracking her body, and the tears slow, and her cries turn to sniffles as she wipes the back of her hand across her face. And then she's looking up at me again.

And she smiles.

It's so completely random that I smile too, and we both just stand there for a while, grinning like idiots.

And then I reach out for her hand, and she lets me.

And suddenly it's so natural, and so normal, yet such a privilege. And I rub my thumb over her knuckles, and bring them to my lips, and kiss them. And I keep her hand there, on my stubby cheek.

Because this is Max I'm touching. And she's allowing it. And not only that, but closing her eyes and leaning into it.

"Is this real?" I ask no one in particular. Max's smile could light the darkest, midnight sky. It's so big and bright, it's beautiful; it's everything good in this world. "Mmmm," she answers.

I hold her to me, and everywhere she touches me a fire seems to ignite within me. "Am I allowed to do this?" I ask her, as I take her hands and slow-dance her around the dusty, rocky cave.

I spin her and stop. One look at her face tells me what I already know, that she's happy, because her whole face is smiling now. "You're allowed," she whispers.

Strands of her hair still swirl in the slight breeze, her lips are parted in a slight smile, and her caramel-colored eyes glitter with amusement in the faint light.

I spin her out, and pull her back in quickly, already misses the warmth radiating from her skin.

I hold her, and bury my face in her hair, breathing in the scent of her, of the wind that's been forever seared into her scent.

I plant a kiss on her neck, and loop my arms around her waist, and then kiss her again behind the ear. A spot that, judging by her sharp intake of breath, stills drives her insane.

And she opens up to me then, as one arm reaches up and runs through my hair, the other twirls the hem of my shirt with her fingers.

And we just continue to hold each other.

And then she looks up at me again, and I get lost in her eyes.

I reach forward, and run my finger along her neck, and then her jaw, and then settle to cup her small chin in my rough hand.

And I stop.

And I look from her eyes to her lips, asking for silent permission, hoping to be granted it.

We stand there for a moment, staring at each other.

And then we slam together.

Her legs are off the ground, wrapped around my waist, and there's a deep power coming from the inside of my chest, threatening to burst.

One hand is busy supporting her, the other tangled in her hair, and hers in mine.

And it's too much and we topple over and we land in a tangled heap.

Her eyes crinkle as she laughs, and it's beautiful. Like a million little songbirds rising from her chest.

Her head is in my lap and I'm laying against the cave wall. My fingers twirl her hair, and I kiss her forehead as she looks up at me.

"Where are we now?" she asks me.

I don't even need to think about the answer:

"Together."

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Besos!
~Laura