Valedictorian- A Maximum Ride Fanfiction

11th Period

WHEN REN AND Sebastian returned from the depths of the cave, Max was gone.

"..What happened?" Ren asked, voice a soft whistle of wind as he sat down next to Iggy, curling up into himself and curving his wings out. His leg had been tended to, Fang realized, patched up expertly with white linen and precise tight knots. He looked towards Sebastian, cocking his head in a silent 'You did this?'. She shrugged, 'Yeah, maybe.', with a roll of black eyes.  At least she was back to normal. He snorted, going back to watching Iggy attempt to make conversation with Ren.

And failing.

It actually sort of looked like Iggy was talking to a wall until Ren chuckled, wings making a single flap.

"Yeah, well, my legs match my jeans now, I guess." He fingered one of the many tears, red speckled fabric folding under his touch. There were some tears that had been made for fashion, some made from god-knows what, and the new ones from the battle he'd just been caught in the middle of.  Iggy's lips quirked, and Fang wondered just what the hell was going on. It all seemed sort of surreal, this easy interaction, and the argument with Max was still imprinted in the back of his mind. Burning letters of all the wrong things he said and Max's face right before she spread her wings and took off. It looked like she was about to cry, and he almost didn't notice when Sebastian snorted and Ren stretched his wings out in a mock showcase. "Shut up, at least I can fly."

"Shut up, at least I can walk." She shot back, and Ren clicked his tongue. Sebastian shifted from her position of leaning against the wall, a mockery of Fang's own position the first day that the flock arrived; and turned her head around. "Where are the kiddos?"

"Arguing." Fang answered smoothly, head jerking towards the entrance of the cave where the roar of the waves drowned out Nudge and Gazzy's yells. Sebastian raised a quizzical eyebrow, and Fang shrugged. He didn't need to elaborate. Not to her, at least. Ren poked Iggy's knee.

"Nudge is angry at Angel and Gazzy is protecting her." He offered, not noticing the glare that Second In Charge sent him. Not that he could, but weak, bro; weak. If Ren had been a girl Fang would have made some snide remark about Iggy being lovesick or whipped or something. But he wasn't, and thinking about it was giving him a headache. He turned his attention back to Sebastian. 'Why?' he mouthed.

"I was teaching, and I quote, 'The Gasman, all caps' the joys and wonders of explosive science." She made a mock explosion, jazz fingers signifying the spreading of doom as she made a 'bwoooosh' sound. Iggy suddenly looked very interested. Sebastian smirked.

Again, read; headache. Fang sooo did not want to deal with whatever mayhem this chance meeting was going to produce. Having arguing baby chicks and a mom that flew the coop was bad enough. He was not going to add explosives. Just. No. Nuh-uh. Cease and Desist.

"You know your way around bombs?" Iggy asked, incredulous, and maybe if Fang had been paying attention he would have seen Ren deflate a little. Sebastian nodded, eyes all pride, and Iggy waltzed his way over like he owned the place. He'd memorized the layout of the cave in the past couple of days, and the blind boy placed a very casual elbow on Sebastian's shoulder. For some reason, Sebastian glanced towards him. Fang raised an eyebrow.

'What.' He mouthed, and even though it was silent one could feel the deadpan.

The grin he got in return was down-right evil.

"Quite a bit, actually." She mused, straightening out and taking both of Iggy's hands in hers. "I actually have a secret lab down here." At his sharp intake of breath, she grinned and grabbed the boy's wrist, dragging him further down into the cave. Iggy only complied all too happily, and as they disappeared off into the darkness she called out, "Ren, take care of the emo!" Ren sighed.

Then he produced a first aid kit Fang had never noticed before. 

"So this is some super cave or something? Are you secretly Batwoman and Renbin?" Ren scoffed,  setting up shop in front of him, and Fang quirked a crooked smile.

"Protecting the crime flooded streets of Seattle, right. Please." He pushed an antiseptic pad unto Fang's cut on purpose, then, and Fang let out a small hiss. God, that burned. He hated things like this- it reminded him of the School- but Ren was tending his wounds with a semi-annoyed face so Fang bit his lip and took it. Take it like a man, he told himself. And though Ren's face was usually passive, his eyes held all his amusement. " But no, not as far as I know. Seb's the one that likes to run around. This cave runs really deep, she has some stuff stashed.. somewhere. I don't even know. She just gets them." 

"What is she trying to pull, though? Suddenly taking to Iggy like that." Not that the Igster's sudden increase in friends bothered him, but it might have bothered Ren; and if there was anything Fang was good at, it was distracting himself with other's emotional issues so he could forget about his own. He should totally be a therapist. He could be rich. 

"She's.. upset." Ren muttered, taping together the larger wounds. All the smaller scratches had healed already, and Ren probably knew that by tomorrow the larger ones would be gone too. Stitches were meaningless. "She's worried that you guys might hate her, so I think she's trying to make herself look appealing. But." He paused, ripping off another piece of tape, "She really does like blowing things up. No fire, but explosions are okay. It's a paradox." He patted Fang's chest after he finished. "Want me to look at your wings?"

"You're so weird." Fang muttered, but turned around anyway. Ren started running his fingers through his feathers, and Fang felt his spine tingle. He never really got to do this, if he wanted a nice, pleasant, quiet wing sorting Iggy was really the only option and even then the kid was blind. Angel was next, but Angel always preferred Max. Any other member would just chat aimlessly or in Max's case, attempt to bring up difficult topics for the betterment of the flock. It was a nice change of pace. "You're so waifish."

"I get that a lot. From Seb." The black wings rustled pleasantly as their scapular and secondary covert feathers were straightened and re-bent into place. Ren's hands grasped the muscle right where the wing joined into his back and made small motions with his thumbs, and Fang couldn't hold back the small groan at that. Really, really good.  Just the right amount of pressure, too. He could feel the stress melt out of him like goop.  Maybe it wouldn't be too bad bringing Ren along with them, if only for this.

"You're good."

"I had practice." Ren shot back immediately, repeating the same process for the other wing as Nudge brushed past them. The argument was done, and Fang could make out the silouhettes of Gazzy crying and Angel comforting him. "I did this for Iggy and Nudge earlier. I'll do it for Max, too, when she gets back. Where is she, anyway?" 

Fang stopped short at that and sighed again. His wings drew back in, stress once again building up, and Ren retracted his hands. 

"To be honest, I have no idea."