A/N: Excuse me for the long absence. :( I was kind of in a mini-block (and getting re-obsessed with Macross Frontier; Sheryl = best. female. chara. ever.) and kind of needed a jump-start. Thanks to everyone that's been reading thus far! (On a side note... Xiaolin Chronicles? Um... "YAY!" much?)

On a completely related note, have you guys ever been kissed by a maltese?

DISCLAIMER: Xiaolin Showdown is not and never will be mine. It's intellectual property of Christy Hui. Layla is a character concept borrowed from fellow fanficker Kidd Death. He's a personal friend of mine who gave me the A-okay!

Shinki ruffled his sister's hair. "Make sure Kimiko knows that Luna isn't quite as rowdy as Bandido."

She gave him a thumbs-up. "Si." Mari ran off.

Shinki clapped Raimundo's back. "You sure have luck with that Kimiko. Seems she already knows you."

"Shut up..."

~*Insert Witty Chapter Name Here*~

You've gotta be kidding me. It's the only thing Kimiko could help but to think as she stared down the small, delicate, and white snout of yet another dog. The large and black eyes stared back in mild curiosity as the smaller and fluffier variety of canine regarded her with general disinterest, simply raising its head when she'd entered the room. Kimiko grimaced. At least this one isn't trying to attack me. After a few more seconds of staring, the dog lost interest in her and laid her head back down, her tail moving lazily and ears twitching around slightly. Kimiko wearily inched towards the dresser, keeping close to the wall. Now where is my hairbrush...?

"KIMIKO!"

"GAH!" DAMN IT, MARI! Kimiko thought to herself as she fell to the floor.

Mari slammed the door shut, frantically moving about the room while the little dog on the bed had shot up on all fours immediately, excitingly barking out to get her friend's attention, spinning in circles and jumping about. "KIMI! Where are you?"

"OW! MARI!" she yelled from her place on the floor. "You're stepping on my finger!"

Mari yelped in surprise and immediately drew back before helping her up. "Dios mio, Kimi. I'm sooo sorry!"

"As sorry as you were thinking about your killer dog?" Kimiko asked dryly.

Mari cried, "I swear I forgot! Se me olvido!" She hugged her tightly as Kimiko took on an exasperated expression. There was no way she was gonna be able to stay mad at this girl, but she'd damn well put up a fight.

"You forgot about your own dog with teeth bigger than my pinky?" she demanded.

"It's that Bandido is normally really friendly and he comes off too strongly on strangers. He only attacks you when he doesn't know you, but he gets used to people really fast!" she explained, ignoring the demanding barks from the bed.

"And this one?" Kimiko sighed.

"Harmless," Mari quipped quickly. "Cross my heart and swear to-"

"You don't have to do that," she interrupted, pushing her friend off and standing up. Mari quickly scrambled to her feet and swept up the little dog on the bed, who immediately started attacking her face with its tongue. "Luna! Para!" she laughed. She looked at Kimiko and held the dog out to her, grinning as Luna started sniffing and reaching towards her.

She sighed in resignition and took the dog into her arms, peering down at her. Luna craned her neck up and licked her nose, earning a look of surprise from Kimiko. Her tongue was soft and light, feeling almost like velvet, not rough and forceful like she'd expected. She lifted the maltese into a more comfortable position, feeling the soft fur that almost felt like hair, the swell of the dog's stomach and the rolls of fatty skin conforming into her fingers. She looked at Mari, rubbing Luna's silken floppy ears. "She feels like a really soft teddy bear."

"That's mi Lunita," Mari agreed affectionately, rubbing the side of the dog's face and smiling when she leaned into her hand. "Definitely a lap-dog."

"Where does she sleep?"

Mari gave her a sheepish look. "On the bed. But she always sleeps at the foot of it, not in our faces."

Kimiko rubbed the bridge of her nose. "Mari, I swear..."

"Te huro that you won't even feel her on the bed! Te lo prometo!" she told her, grabbing her shoulders. "She's such a good little doggie!"

"But- Oh don't you do that!" Kimiko whined, "You know that I hate it when you pull the sad face."

Mari cried, hugging her friend tightly. "Come ooooon, Kimi! This is Luna's house too and I don't have the heart to kick her off her own bed!" In the midst of their exchange, the dog waddled over to the foot of the bed and curled up into a little ball, her head on her paws, floppy ears twitching lightly and her tail tucked into her side. Mari forced Kimiko to look at the dog. "Look at her, Kimi. She's a tiny little thing." Mari started to ramble off, "I mean, she's a little fat for her breed, but she's only eight pounds and she doesn't even look as fat as she is. She moves when she needs to and all she likes to make sure is that she has a nice and comfy place to sleep, bu-"

"I hate you," Kimiko scowled. Mari blinked and cocked her head to the side. "She can stay."

"YAY!" Mari cheered, hugging Kimiko tightly. Luna sneezed and resolved to go to sleep just as the girls climbed into bed, getting settled. Kimiko smiled and got comfortable, starting to close her eyes.

"Psst!"

Kimiko groaned and turned onto her other side. "What?"

Mari looked at her friend with happiness written all over her face, her turqoiuse eyes practically gleaming in the little light that was in the room. She reached under the covers and squeezed her friend's hand. "Bienvenido a la familia, Kimi."

When Kimiko thought of waking up in the morning, she expected to feel a streaming of sunlight through her curtains, hear the blaring of an alarm clock and the sounds of her father getting ready for work. She expected to drag herself out of bed and feel the sudden sting of the shower before she finally woke up. She would have gotten dressed and then walked down to the kitchen to pull out a box of cereal and start eating before her father would start ushering her to hurry and get into the car. She expected that after that, they would have gone to Keiko and Mari's house to pick up her friends and then get dropped off at school for a day of torture.

What she did not expect to feel when she woke up in the morning was the roughness of a dog's tongue.

Shocked into awakening, she shot up and looked down the muzzle of the very dog that'd been trying to attack her yesterday, who took to barking at her in protest of the sudden movement. "What the…"

"He wanted to apologize," Raimundo told her from the doorway.

Kimiko looked up at him and then to the side to see Mari, still knocked out with her curls spilled messily all over the place, taking up about two-thirds of the bed with her badly arranged limbs. Luna was sitting at the foot of the bed, her tail shaking at the second-oldest Pedrosa sibling. She semi-scowled at her friend before looking back to her adoptive brother as Bandido easily trotted over to Luna, his goofy little tongue hanging out. "Why are you in here?"

"My house, girl," he reminded her with a smirk. "Somebody needed t' wake you guys up and I always come in to take Luna here out to pee." Her eyes narrowed at him while he sauntered over as she self-consciously brought the edge of the blanket to cover herself more. At this, Raimundo rolled his eyes. "Calm down. I'm not gonna eat you." He picked the small and fluffy dog up, earning a whine from Bandido. "Shh. Baixo," he commanded, swiping the other dog off the bed.

Kimiko still eyed him suspiciously. "I don't trust you near me."

Raimundo shrugged. "Don't matter t' me. You're not the first person t' say that and you won't be the last." He bent down on one leg and put Luna's collar and leash on before doing the same to Bandido. "C'mon, little guys," he grinned as he rubbed their ears.

His apathy irked her. It shouldn't have, but it did. And before she knew it, her mouth shot off: "So what you're telling me is that you're not someone to trust."

He stood. "No. I'm tellin' you that I don't care what people think about me or whether they trust me or not." He placed a hand on his chest, holding the leashes with his other. "I have the trust of my family and my friends, so that's all I need."

Her eyes narrowed. "You're so noble."

The Brazilian smirked and turned away. "I try to be."

"I wasn't being serious," she told him with an irritated scowl.

"Girl, you don't need t' state the obvious," he told her at the doorway. "I sorta got the message already." She ruffled in anger, her temper getting the better of her. "But thanks anyway," he grinned mischievously before ducking out. Kimiko gritted her teeth, clenching her fists tightly, her nails digging into the flesh of her palm as she suppressed the urge to throw something after him. She looked down at her friend, staring at her as she drooled away innocently. Kimiko smirked sadistically and turned her body, bracing herself against the edge of the bed and placing her feet on her friend's side.

"Mari~," she sang sweetly, knowing she wouldn't get an answer. "Time to..." Kimiko grunted as she started to push the Hispanic off of the bed. "Get..." She pushed harder, grinning as her friend was close to the edge, moaning out in protest. "UP!"

"KIMIIIII!" Mari cried sleepily as she smacked into the floor, wincing as she rubbed her bottom and the back of her head.

She peeked over the edge, smiling her best innocent smile. "Good morning~"

Mari glared at her blur. "Te Juro. Te odio. I swear that I hate you."

"Love you too; now get up! We have school to go to!"

She yawned irritably. "Yeah, yeah."

A/N: This is a really sad and weak update considering the length of time, but I really had to put SOMETHING up. :x TT_TT I'm so sorry.