Maximum Ride: Forevermore

Chapter Six

Fang looked like he wanted to object, but he knew better. His mouth flew open, then closed again, slowly, swallowing whatever he was about to say. He was probably about to protest, but everyone knows protesting against me is about as effective as protesting against a brick wall.

"Alright," he sighed, wrapping his arms around me again. He scratched that place between my wings that made me all fluttery, and I sighed. I knew it wasn't the last I'd hear of the whole Queen thing, so I'd take every chance I'd get to relax and forget that there were hundreds of mutant kids flapping, crawling and scuttling around down there, waiting for a leader to help them get back on their feet. Or hooves, or whatever. "How you feeling?"

"Better," I answered mildly, even though my head was spinning. Given what had happened in the past ten minutes, I didn't exactly blame my light-headedness on me being tired. "You?"

Fang, not unusually, was silent. But only for a minute. "Good." He cleared his throat and pulled back, sauntering towards the hammock and throwing himself on it. "The kids are good, too." So now he was distracting me - fine. He was probably just overwhelmed by everything - we all were. Another quick scan of his face confirmed that he wasn't feeling guilty about anything, so I pushed my never-dying suspiscious thoughts about Lucy to the back of my mind. And believe me, the back of my mind is pretty full up.

"You think we could go visit them?" I asked, standing over the hammock. "I haven't seen them since... you know... the world ended."

Fang smiled, one of those broad, too-dazzling-to-look-at-directly ones, and grabbed my hand from where he lay on the hammock. "Later," he said, still smiling, but his eyes were warm. I could feel one of those nervous, excited giggles rising in me, and he pulled me down onto the hammock.