Because I Love You – Chapter 1

By MyNameIsCAL

So you can either interpret this as sort of an after Fang fic, or just Fang leaving and coming back. It's more like ten years passed and then Fang came back though, and Angel isn't going to be all psycho and the end of the world wasn't coming. So there's not much intact from Fang, but I toyed around with this idea for a while and thought I'd try writing it finally.

-Fang's POV-

"Thanks for letting me hang around."

Those words, they came out forced. I stood with a backpack slung over my shoulder and a suitcase in hand.

Max gave me a smile. "Hey, no problem. You should bring your girlfriend around for dinner sometime, alright, Fang?"

And here came my forced smile. "Of course. I'll see you around."

Max nodded, opening the door to me.

"Uncle Fang!"

I turned, dropping my things to the floor. Ari, Max's little five year old son, came running at me. He jumped up, and I caught him in my arms, trying not to fall backwards.

"Hey, you," I said.

Ari put his arms around my neck. "Why are you leaving, Uncle Fang?"

"Well, your mother is tired of feeding me, and well, Uncle Iggy needs some help because Nudge isn't around right now," I told him. "But he said you can come visit us whenever you want."

He frowned. "I'll feed you then."

I set him down, ruffling his hair, smiling a little. "That's very nice of you, but I gotta go."

"Will you still come to my tee-ball games, Uncle Fang?" Ari tugged at my sleeve.

"Ari, that's enough. Let Uncle Fang leave now." Dylan emerged from the doorway, frowning as usual. Max let out a sigh.

"Of course." I gave Ari a reassuring smile before picking up my bags. "I wouldn't miss them for anything else in the world."

He grinned, and my response had obviously displeased Dylan because he trudged back into his office.

"Thanks, Fang." Max gave me a hug, throwing me off balance again.

I put my arm around her, wishing I could hold onto her longer. "Anytime."

And then I was out the door and to my car, heading to Iggy's place.

It was a fifteen minute drive from Max's house to Iggy's house. But it was enough time to let me think about the past fifteen years. I left, as you probably know, but I came ten years later, Max already married to Dylan and a kid on the way. She welcomed me back with open arms, unlike Angel who said I would only cause more trouble. Maybe she was right, but at least when we got together for dinner from time to time, Angel would put on a smile and we got along like old times.

Unlike Angel, Iggy took some pity on me, saying Max had been a mess when I left, but also saying it was Dylan who got her to come back, and it was why they had sparked a flame together. My unhappiness was only my own fault. I wasn't going to deny that. And yet it hurt to see Max with Dylan, ungrateful and never around to see his own son excel at so many things. I had watched that kid grow to where he was now. I had been the one to rush Max to the hospital because Dylan had been at work. I was the one that saw Ari come into this world because Dylan hadn't made it in time. I was always there when he wasn't. It frustrated me. No matter how many fights Max and Dylan had, no matter how many times Dylan came home a little drunk, Max still loved him and I didn't understand why.

I let out a sigh, parking Iggy's driveway, as my phone rang. My girlfriend Jade was calling. We had been dating for a year now. But it was getting to the point where she was expecting me to do something more, and I didn't want to. I couldn't commit because my heart was somewhere else. My heart was with Max.

Ignoring my cell phone, I walked to Iggy's front door with my stuff. He opened the door before I could even press the bell.

"You really shouldn't ignore Jade." He let me in.

"I'll call her later." I set my stuff on the floor. "Where's Nudge?

"You know how she feels about your situation." Iggy shook his head. "She feels bad for you, but she thinks you're an asshole for stringing Jade along. I don't think she wants to deal with you anyway. She's stressed out by her work."

I stared at the ground. "That's not nearly as bad as Angel."

Iggy smirked. "Angel wants to chop your head off and feed you to a pack of wolves."

"Does she really?"

"No, but I have no idea why she hates you so much."

"Remind me why I listen to you again."

"Because I'm lonely too."

"No you're not." Now he was mocking me.

He laughed. "Nudge is on her way to Canada doing make up and costume for Gazzy's next movie. That doesn't concern me one bit that my wife is running around Canada with Hollywood's hottest actor."

This time I didn't respond.

"Well, you can have the guest room. I'm going to start cooking dinner soon. How's pizza sound?"

I picked up my stuff again. "Anything you cook sounds fine. Max's cooking…"

"Is crap. I know, Fang. It's alright," Iggy now looked sincerely concerned. "You'll be alright."

Thanks for reading.

If you follow my other stories, I know it seems like I've been slow at updating, and it's because I've been working on some new stuff. I felt really stuck writing for some of my other stories, and I'll get back to them really soon, but I figured I have these chapters for new stories sitting around waiting to be read, so I'd let you all enjoy them. It would give me more room to work too, so I can have a variety of stories to work on and feel productive because I'm just writing something that's going to sit around on my computer for months without being read by anyone else.

Ok…I'll let you go before I start rambling about something more irrelevant, like cows and what not. Angel will be out soon too, which means that can only spark a whole ton of more new ideas –sigh-

Anyway, thanks again. I'll update this one soon.