The Last Flight (A Maximum Ride fanfiction)

He heard the sound of cars and traffic diminish to a dull throb as he headed deeper and deeper into the park. He looked to his left and right warily to make sure no one was watching, and he left the path slipping into a dense grouping of bushes.

"Where have you been? We've been looking all over!" Max stormed up to him scowling, her lower lip out defiantly.

He smiled inwardly. He loved it when she got flustered. For some reason it amused him. Making her flush and splutter made him ... Happy.

It was as if seeing Max on unfamiliar ground, ground she didn't control made her seem all the more viciously attractive. Just a hint of feminine uncertainty, the slight pout of her lower lip, the way she twisted a loose tendril of her hair around her finger. The fierce, hunter/warrior like gleam to her big brown eyes.

He loved the way she could be vulnerable and menacing at the same time. She could loose all control but would never let the look of complete dominance leave her face.

She scrunched her eyebrows down and her eyes flicked to his midsection for half a second then back to his face.

He wasn't stupid, he knew what she'd been looking at, anyone with half a male brain would know what she'd been looking at. And it made him feel powerful knowing that he could distract her in such a way.

And the fact that she'd let her guard down long enough to throw a glance THERE on HIM, made Fang feel like the most powerful bird-boy on the face of the planet ... Though he'd never tell anyone.

"Was out," He shoved his hands into his pockets and brushed past her, his elbow barely grazing her arm.

She turned on him scowling. "We thought you'd been captured or worse! You shouldn't just DISAPEAR like that!"

He shrugged again, throwing an innocent glance over his shoulder.

A slight red tint crept into her face and Fang knew that if he hadn't seen it grow there he never would have noticed the slight change in her skin.

She pursed her pink lips and tried to give him a scathing look, but it came off more as a 'I can't believe this is amusing me' half grin.

She didn't talk to him for the rest of the day, which didn't particularly bother him. In fact, it pleased him. Not because he couldn't hear her voice, but because he'd caused her to become so emotional she couldn't speak to him. He loved knowing he could cause such a reaction in her. It made him feel like he knew her better than the rest of The Flock. He knew that this silence was his and his only. He was the only one of the six of them who could get THAT silence.

They slept in the thicket that night. Hiding as best as they could among the sparse brush and prickly pines. Fang was on watch when it happened.

He was perched in a tree, invisible from the ground, which for him was not that difficult. He was dressed entirely in black, as usual, and had the hood of his sweatshirt up, shadowing his face. He completely blended in with the darkness in the tree, a feat he'd perfected in the short expanse of his pseudo-freedom.

He heard the slight whooshing of night air on wings and turned his eyes to the right scanning the clearing just beyond the trees.

Big wings...

Big pale wings fluttered and something landed on the branch beside him.

Fang stiffened, it wasn't a bird-kid, it was a regular bird, but not just any regular bird. It was a falcon, a pale falcon with bright golden eyes. He thought of the hawks he and Nudge had flown with a few days before and his chest tightened.

The bird turned his head, his eyes adjusting to the dim light. He clacked his beak and ruffled his feathers, lifting his wings to appear larger, more menacing.