Disclaimer: As much as I wish they did Angel and Spike do not belong to me. Any other characters from Angel or Buffy the Vampire Slayer do not belong to me either they belong to Joss Whedon, the original creator of the shows. Any other characters featuring in this fan fiction are mine, although some of the monsters and creepy things that go bump in the night are also Joss's (in actual fact most of them are his wonderful creations). I just put what blab was in my head down with his characters to help me.

Chapter 1: Appropriateness

It was quarter past nine at the Divino mansion on a Saturday night and an argument had broken out among three of the current residents, while most of the other occupants either ran for cover or watched intrigued, four sat on the floor ignoring the racket behind them. Zev, Spike, Ena and Bren refused to let themselves be distracted by their friends show; they were in the middle of a game of Crash Bandicoot. Taft had decided on the worst of times to pick a fight with Della and Lani (as usual), he hadn't meant for it to turn out this way (he never did) it just had.

"What are they going on about now?" Ena asked her companions.

"Mehonaah," Bren answered in her own language that few understood, luckily her twin was one of them or she might have called the nut house.

"Something about the heater in the bathroom and the hairdryer, Bren you've been running into that same wall for the last five minutes." Zev said.

"So I have all right, about face, run into that wall there," the blonde said to her player thingiemadosit as she called it.

"A ninety degree turn might work better to get you started you know," Spike put in but at the glare he got from her he quickly added, "or you could try going backwards."

"Nah, that always comes up with annoying reminders that tell me I'm going in the wrong direction, as if I don't know that. Fine be like that, go that way, see if I care!" her player had turned and started running in the right direction for a change.

"Bren, you're the one controlling her, you must've stopped turning too early for what you had in mind," Ena's voice was calm as she soothed her twin's anger at the video game.

"Oh," Bren looked down at her controller and then back at the screen, "So I did, mef, oh well as long as I'm going in the right direction I may as well not stop to make the pathetic creature lose brain cells."

"Hate to break it to you pet, but I don't think your bandicoot has a brain," Spike said.

"How do you figure?" Bren was being difficult again, nobody minded it was usually funny the things that she came up with.

"It's actually obeying you, how much brains can it have?" Spike's comment didn't bother Bren in the least.

"Well you've followed my orders before, mister I'm smarter than your bandicoot," Bren's comeback was surprisingly good.

"That was uncalled for little missy," Spike countered with mock indignation in his voice.

"Technically Spike, it was called for," Zev rejoined the conversation.

"Oh?" Spike answered, "Who called for it, then?"

"Hello-o, Captain Obvious? I called for it Dummkopf!" Bren was getting bored of the current conversation and decided that the video game needed a little sprucing up. She picked up explosives and as soon as she got within firing distance of anything that moved she blasted it before committing suicide by jumping into the lava at the side of the trail. Ena shook her head, amused by her twin's antics.

"What was that for?" Spike asked Bren, "You killed my bandicoot too."

"Good," Bren said as she stretched back and leaned against the couch, "Right, I'm gonna go separate those three before they rip each other to shreds."

"Over a heater and a hairdryer? Is that really appropriate?" Zev had a good point.

"Well whether it's appropriate or not they're going to hurt each other sooner or later if someone doesn't stop it now, I'd rather they didn't hurt each other," Bren stood up on the couch and was just jumping off it when Della got bored of playing nice and hurled her fist at Taft, this fist was closely followed by Lani's elbow.

At that moment Nab and Blaze came down the stairs to see Della and Lani using Taft for a punching bag, Taft had been caught off guard and was having trouble regaining control of the situation. Blaze looked at Bren standing behind the couch, his little sister shrugged; she didn't know why they were doing this. He rolled his eyes and waded into the three rolling bodies, pulling Della out by the shoulder's, Bren followed suit hauling Lani to her feet and holding the demi-goddess back by her elbows. Taft rolled over onto his back and accepted Nab's hand up; Nab took a clean tissue from one of his pockets and gave it to Taft to get rid of the blood at his mouth.

"Anyone care to tell me what started that?" Blaze sounded ticked off.

"Something to do with a heater and a hairdryer," Zev said from where he now knelt looking over the back of the couch.

"Thank you Zev, anything else I need to know?" Blaze asked the teenager.

Zev shrugged, "I was playing Crash Bandicoot with Spike, Ena and Bren until things got a little more serious."

"Anyone who wasn't playing Crash Bandicoot want to contribute?" Blaze had mastered his anger now and was dealing with the situation in his usual manner.

"None of us was paying them any attention until they started yelling and then we could hardly catch a word," Kitty's innocent face told that she wasn't lying.

"Well, in future I don't want you fighting over hair dryers and heaters, there are civilized ways of dealing with problems, I'm sure you can find one." Blaze made it clear that the subject was closed before he beckoned for Bren and Ena to follow him back up the stairs. The twins looked at each other and shrugged before they followed their older brother.

Blaze led them up to his room and gestured for them to enter; he followed shutting the door behind him. Both of his younger sisters stared at him, the same questioning look in their eyes. As if that wasn't freaky enough they both tilted their heads to the same side in perfect unison.

"Ok, you two really have got to stop that, you have no idea how scary it is." Blaze told his sisters.

"Stop doing what?" Ena questioned him.

Blaze rolled his eyes, "Doing the same thing at the same time, it gives me the shivers." He punctuated this with a small shiver, the twins giggled in the same way, "See? There you go again."

"Sorry, but what was it that you wanted us up here for?" Bren asked getting down to business.

"Huh? Oh, right, that. Find yourselves a seat; somewhere in this mess," Blaze looked around his room as his sisters sat on his bed, "We're going to Mexico."

"Woo-hoo," Ena yelled.

"Wait just a minute, where in Mexico?" Bren wasn't sounding as thrilled about this as Blaze had expected.

"Nogales, Mexico, it's just over the border from it's counterpart in Arizona, why?" Blaze was confused by Bren's reaction, "I thought you'd like to come, I mean sure it's work but it'd be more of a working holiday."

"You've never been to Nogales, Mexico before, have you?" Bren wasn't eager to tell Blaze why she'd reacted that way.

"No, have you?" Blaze was curious.

Bren nodded, "Mmhhm, you could've called that a working holiday too, a different kind of work on a holiday from Mara."

Ena looked at her twin, "You mean that's where you got the money to buy this place?"

Bren looked uncomfortable, "Some of it."

"So where did you work? Fast food place, clothing shop, a diner? Give me a hint." Blaze pressed his sister for more information.

"Come with me," Bren said, looking downcast.

She led her siblings up the hall to the room that she shared with Ena, shut the door behind them and disappeared into her walk-in wardrobe. When she emerged, Bren received a "Wow," from her twin and Blaze just stood his face showing disbelief. She was fully clothed in black leather, her tank-top ended two ribs below her pushed-up breasts, the mini-skirt was revealing to say the least, starting on her hips and ending a short way down her thighs. This was finished with heeled boots that had steel capped toes and went to just below her knees.

"Can you guess now?" Bren asked her brother.

"You were a prostitute?" Blaze was having trouble comprehending this.

"Stripper, I was a stripper. I worked in the biggest strip club in Nogales, it was good pay and I swear that is the only reason that I worked there. I'm certainly not proud of that particular part of my past."

"How much did they pay you?" Blaze was taken aback by his sister's previous career.

"$900 on the nights I was on stage, $500 on the nights that I came in, they got 75 of all the profits that I made off stage, I got to keep the tips," Bren looked down and hugged herself.

"How long did you work there?" Blaze asked.

"When you called me and told me that Ena was in hospital and you two needed to get out of there soon then I got desperate and hitch hiked there. I worked for about three weeks, $900 every second night that's," Bren paused thinking, "$9900, then there was the nightly fee on top of that, $10500, $1000 of tips in the whole time that I was there and $3000 for what I did. All up it's $24400."

"That's a lot of money for three weeks of work," Ena admitted, "how much did this place cost?"

"$50000, without the renovations to the house and stables and all of that extra work, that added another $25000 to the place," Bren fidgeted.

"So that job paid for half of the property?" Blaze wasn't happy about this.

"Like I said Blaze, I'm not proud of that job and if I hadn't thought that we'd needed so much so soon then I wouldn't have gotten it," Bren meant what she said but it didn't stop Blaze from being angry at her.

"So it's my fault for rushing you?" Blaze's temper was rising.

"No, I mean…" Bren's hurt showed in her face, Ena noticed and shooed Blaze from the room to prevent him from hurting Bren's feelings any more.

"If I go back there then I'll have to face that part of my past Ena, I don't want to do that yet, I can't," Bren was upset about Blaze's reaction and that was what she'd been scared of.

"I know, Bren, I don't blame either of you, he'll cool off eventually, just give him a bit of time," Ena hugged her twin, "everything'll be fine, you'll see."

"But Ena, for this particular project we'll need information, where else to get it but the main strip club, that means I'm going back to work there and I don't want to," Bren had been holding back her tears but now she could no longer hold them, she gave in and buried her face in Ena's shoulder.