Let's think about the word "feather" for a moment. What do you think of? Birds? Bird-kids, perhaps? That's right; it's Maximum Ride time!!! :D
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"AUGH! Fang, I will KILL you as soon as I can get out of this bed!"
Fang winced noticeably, covering his face from outside the treehouse. The screams and insults had been going on for almost an hour now, and they weren't getting any easier to listen to. Dr. Martinez had assured him that Max didn't know what she was saying, that she was just in pain, but Fang knew better. Max knew what she was talking about, and she meant every damn word.
"Still?" Ella asked him, raising an eyebrow. Fang just shrugged as Iggy landed on the branch beside him, somehow managing to balance flawlessly, resting a tender hand on Ella's shoulder. The strawberry-blonde bird-kid scoffed audibly.
"No, she's just screaming for fun," he said sarcastically. Ella gave him a death glare that he couldn't see.
"You never know with Max," she pointed out, and Iggy grinned, laying sprawled on the thick branch.
"Touche, my dear."
Fang smiled slightly, but the small joy faltered as another screech rang out. "Goddamnit, Fang, why the hell did you have to go and do this to me? I will kill you, I swear it!"
To his great annoyance, Iggy laughed out loud, hanging upside down from his branch, wings spread out in all their grandeur. "I hope when Ella and I finally make our decision that she doesn't scream at me like this," he chortled, face red with gathered blood. He swung back onto the branch gracefully, wrapping a feathered wing around the girl. "I might just fly away and never come back again."
Rolling her eyes, she pushed him away. "I'm rolling my eyes, Ig," she told him, voice dripping in exasperation. "And you will not leave me if that happens, because I will personally hunt you down and violate you."
Iggy grinned. "Oh, you will, will you? All the more reason to do it, then!"
Fang looked to him in disgust. "You have some serious issues, man."
Iggy assumed an innocent look. "How so?"
"Did you not just hear what you just said?"
Iggy laughed, but another course of screams interrupted his response.
"Angel, get the hell out of my goddamn head!" Max screeched, and a very dejected-looking Angel appeared in the doorway. "It hurts enough already! You're not doing anything but signing your own death certificate!"
"Okay," the blonde-haired little girl soothed quietly, stepping out of the tree house, eyes flitting to the onlookers on the branch. She had grown into quite the beaytiful young woman, Fang noticed suddenly. Not only had she taken interest in medicine, but she had become far less sadistic in the past few years. Looking weary, she fluttered up to the roof a few feet above their branch, perching there like a wounded cherub.
"Nothing?" Fang asked, worry creasing his face. Angel just shook her head, slumping against the tree trunk, wincing as Max's voice seemed to pierce the sound barrier.
"FANG! AUGH! Get in here so I can kill you for doing this to me, you goddamned bastard! I hate you! I'm going to kill you for doing this to me!"
Ella looked to Angel curiously. "Egg or living?"
Angel wiped her brow with the tip of her wing. "Living, we think. Your mother says it shouldn't be much longer, so," she raised her hands to show double-crossed fingers, "fingers crossed."
Iggy grinned, elbowing Fang in the ribs. In response, Fang growled, really not in the mood for this. "Yeah, fingers crossed that she doesn't let her anger at Fang spread to the rest of us, eh? It's not like we told him to stick himself up her--"
"Okay," Fang interrupted, covering Iggy's mouth with his hand. He glowered at Angel and Ella, daring them to say anything more on the matter. "Let's just stop this conversation right now. I'm really not in the mood to talk, and--"
"Fang, get your feathered ass in here this instant! I mean it! You're only making it worse for yourself, you selfish bastard!"
"What's this about Fang having feathers on his patootie?" a new voice chimed in. Fang glared as Gazzy swooped down, taking up a perch next to his sister. He ruffled her already-messy hair goodnaturedly, earning him a glare. The blonde-haired boy's smile faltered, and Fang knew he was more than likely getting a telepathic talking-to.
"Yeah, well, Max would know, know wouldn't she?" Iggy snickered, looking pleased with himself. Ella wrinkled her nose, smacking him hard on the arm.
"Ow!" Iggy cried, clutching at his arm as though it were about to fall off. "I've been violated! How dare you hit the blind guy?"
Ella grabbed him by the shirt. "Oh, please," she hissed. "You know exactly where I am, you phony."
Iggy rested his hand on the Hispanic girl's chest with a mischevious grin. "I don't know what you're talking about." Ella promptly pushed him off the branch, sending him tumbling.
"Nice, man!" another new voice chortled. Dylan and Nudge came into view, landing on the roof in unison. Nudge glowered at her friend.
"You're awful," she scoffed.
"Oh my God, Fang, why have you done this to me! You'll pay for this, I swear it!"
Dylan fixed his attention on Fang, a glint in his eye. "At least one of us knows how to get some. Tell me, man," his eyes seemed to beg with Fang. "What's it like?" Nudge promptly copied Ella's gesture and sent a chortling Dylan tumbling through the air.
Fang stood up on the branch, hands in the air. "I am surrounded by perverts and avid feminists," he said loudly, not realizing his mistake until the words left his mouth.
"What's wrong with being a feminist?" Angel asked suspiciously. Fang just shook his head in exasperation.
"Look, forget I said anything. I don't need another woman mad at me."
Max chose that moment to express her anger toward him. "Remind me to pummel you when I get out of here, Fang!" she hollered. "I'll never forgive you for this!"
Dylan swooped up from below and bowed in the air. "Alas, my good Fang, you are a better man than me!"
Iggy, who had taken to sitting by Gazzy in order to avoid his vengeful girlfriend, leaned over to whisper loudly in his best friend's ear. "That's the secret!" he whispered giddily. "You gotta pretend to respect the women!"
Angel turned to glareat Iggy, and Fang was sure that he was in trouble until Dr. Martinez appeared in the doorway, looking more than a little frazzled. Everyone froze where the were, perverted and sexist debate long forgotten as they looked at the doctor hopefully. The Hispanic woman slowly broke into a weary smile. "Well, I see that Max has quite the crowd waiting for her," she laughed quietly. She gestured to the Flock. "Come in, come in." Fang looked at her warily, and she laughed. "Max is docile, I promise."
Bickering aside, everyone looked to Fang expectantly. Sighing, he descended onto the porch, hands shaking, and entered the treehouse. And what met his eyes was the most beautiful sight he had seen in a long time.
Maximum, his Maximum, lay on the bed, sheets drawn around her. Her wings spanned past the headboard, even in there half-bent state. And there, in either arm, was a small bundle. That was the sight that took Fang's breath away. He stood stock-still, eyes widening. But Max just rolled her eyes with an exasperated grin. "Get in here," she told him. "I'm not going to kill you." As Fang drew near, she added a single, menacing word. "Yet."
"Two?" Fang asked weakly. hand flying to his forehead. Max rolled her eyes.
"No, I had Mom cut the kid in half just to throw you off." She extended the smaller bundle toward him. "Here. Hold her."
Taking the small bundle, Fang pulled the blanket back numbly to see a tiny, sleeping face, black whisps of hair gracing her head. When she opened her eyes with a yawn, Fang inhaled sharply, not expecting to see his own black orbs mirrored back at him. He smiled slightly, and looked to Max.
"Any signs of--"
"Wings?" Max offered. Fang nooded, and ahe smirked. "Smaller than Angel's little chicken wings, but they're there." She nodded toward the little girl in his arms. "Hers are a stunning bright blue."
Surprise covered Fang's face. "How is that possible?"
Max just shrugged. "Don't know. But they are, and I'm almost jealous."
Fang raised any eyebrow. "You're jealous of our infant daughter's chicken wings?" Max just scowled, so he nodded toward the bigger bundle. "What about that one?"
Max's smile returned, and she pulled back the blanket to reveal chocolate brown eyes and whisps of light brown hair. "Male, with dark brown wings that remind me of Nudge's," she said with a grin. She nodded him over, and he realized that the others had filed in and were watching him silently.
"The first children of Paradise," Nudge mused whimsically, earning her an elbow in the ribs from Dylan.
"Hush," he told her. "I'm already crying my eyes out."
Fang held back a laugh, kneeling down next to Max's bed with a wide grin upon his usually stoic face. She smiled at him, taking their daughter into the same arm that held her twin. "Thank you for these gifts," she said quietly. Fang's assumed a smirk.
"Anytime, Maximum," he replied, leaning in to kiss her on the forehead. Bad idea, he realized as she grabbed ahold of his collar tightly.
"I'm still going to castate you for making me go through this once I get out of here," she growled, and Fang didn't douby her for a moment. He backed away worriedly admist chortles and suprressed laughter.
"Good to know." He looked over at Iggy, Dylan, and Gazzy. "Which one of you is next?"
"Me!" Iggy squealed, "falling" in a manner that both hands landed on Ella's chest. Looking at him in disgust, Ella pulled him up to her face.
"Nice try, cassanove," she growled. Iggy just smiled at her expectantly, causing her to roll her eyes. "You're lucky I love you," she muttered, throwing him down onto the floor. He laughed the entire time.
Gazzy, however, raised an arm with two fingers sticking up into the air. "Impregnation, round two!"
Ella scowled, raising a single finger in his direction. He just smiled broader, returning the gesture. "Yep! That's what you and Iggy are gonna do!"
Fang couldn't help but laugh along with the others as Gazzy made his escape with Iggy, Ella running after them, shaking her fist after them.Tears in his eyes, he looked to a very serious-looking Max.
"Seriously, though," she said to him calmly. "I'm going to chop your balls off." She glared at him, passing him his daughter. "You have been warned."
Somehow, though, he didn't believe her.