AN: Aha, I am still working on this. Sorry it's been so long-I've been sidetracked by some other fics and IRL stuff, plus I got a little stuck halfway through this chapter and had to rework it. Anyway here's a longish chapter to make up for my procrastinatory ways.

9: Games

Fallon loves the House.

It's almost romantic, this manor house out in the middle of nowhere, hiding state-of-the-art technology and the secret of the biggest figure in armchair justice behind the quaint façade of neat lawns and vine-covered brick. Like in a spy movie, or a novel. And living in this foreign country in a houseful of other foreigners, with teatime and odd accents—so exotic, so exciting. The computers, the wonderful library! The pool, which he has practically all to himself! And being able to study whatever he feels like, whenever he feels like it, being groomed to be one of the most powerful men on earth—it's heaven. It's a catapult to the stars.

True, his classmates are few and a bit kooky. And there is an exasperating overpopulation of watchful and halfway intelligent adults.

But even the company, though not ideal, is a far cry better than what he had at the orphanage. Evenings would have been spent in the dorm, reading on his bed as a pretext to keep an eye on his belongings and working very hard to digest the creative bungling of the cook there. Not in a warm, well-lit library, stuffed with cottage pie and pudding, with a mug of cocoa at his elbow and all the armies of Africa , half of Europe, and a small bit of Asia at his disposal.

They're an hour and a half into their game of Risk, and all any of them has really been able to do thus far is consolidate their armies. Alt's entrenched in Australia but has been quickly losing his foothold in Asia first to Backup in the north and now to Fallon in the Middle East. In addition to his designs on his friend's territory on the big continent, Backup has a comfortable hold on northern Europe and the northern half of North America; and Dex has been sitting pretty in South America, slowly but steadily pushing his way up the North American coast to take Greenland from Backup.

Fallon laughs at the twitch of irritation that crosses the older boy's face as B and D roll the dice for battle, and Dex's armies come out on top.

"It's not fair, how am I supposed to keep up a defensive front against both of you teaming up on me?" Backup grumbles, inky eyes following Dex's hand back and forth as he removes the black counters representing the defeated armies from the board then shifts his own orange army counters to occupy his newly acquired territory.

"Teaming up? Pff!" Fallon scoffs, laughing again. "What the heck do you mean, teaming up, B, there's four players and we're all trying to win, don't put on like you're a victim."

"Backup is simply concerned that he is becoming a more vulnerable target due to his losses in the north for the last few rounds," Dex states, then smiles at him a little. "It's your turn, Fallon."

"It is your turn, Fallon," B mimics, rolling his eyes at F. "That means you can go now. Just in case you forgot which way is clockwise."

F snickers, and Alt grins a little as D glances crossly at the older boy. "You know, you could be more polite, Backup…."

"You know, you could lighten up for once, Dexie."

D's jaw twitches in this certain way whenever he grits his teeth. Haha, he hates that nickname so much. F can tell, even though he's never said so. He suspects his stuffy rival would rather dye his own hair neon pink than admit he's aggravated.

"Come on, B, this is as light as he gets. He even took off his tie for the game," Fallon sniggers, placing his new army counters.

"I think he's mocking you, D, are you just going to take that?" Backup asks, swapping his 'Dexie-voice' for one of fake seriousness (or at least F's assuming it's fake, because come on, haha) but Dex doesn't reply, just looks back at Fallon with real seriousness and says,

"The game is going to be tied up for a while at this rate. Alt is the weakest player—" (he goes on, ignoring Alt's protesting hey!) "—but he's in a good siege position, and it would take forever to dig him out. Between the two of us, we could probably knock Backup out of the game within three rounds."

"Yes, Mr. Fallon," Backup agrees solemnly, lacing his fingers and sitting up straight, parroting D's expression. "Verily, the foe may be thus cast down, should we remove the silver spoons from our arses long enough to go for the throat." Abruptly his demeanor switches, lounging back with a comically charicatured expression of cocky annoyance. "Tch, what, are you kidding, I could win this game like fifty-seven million times in a row while waiting for you to pull your spoon out. Pff!" he retorts to himself in a nasal voice that's obviously supposed to be F (maybe a little too nasal, but come on, it's a joke).

Alt and Fallon both burst out laughing, while Dex sighs long-sufferingly.

Fallon sniggers too, but is considering. Backup is an odd duck, there's no denying it. There's something a little off about him sometimes that F can't quite put his finger on, though he's certain he'll figure it out eventually—a split second lag to react to jokes or surprises sometimes; a sudden intensity in his eyes at apparently random moments, like smouldering pitch. The guy's just a bit weird, no other word for it. F hasn't made up his mind yet quite what he thinks of him.

He's funny, though, absolutely hysterical, with his deadpan statements and dead-on impressions, and that covers up a lot of sins.

Then there's Dex, who has the sense of humor of a piece of damp cardboard. It's pretty safe to say that from day one Fallon found him irritating at best. And, well, every superhero needs an arch-nemesis. They're all rivals here, but Dex—Dex just really pushes all of his buttons, just by breathing and existing. He always has to show off how smart he is, and he always has to do it by being boring.

Like right now—pfft, as if Fallon needs D's help forming a strategy! He's pretty sure he's smarter than the other boy. Following his suggestions appeals to F about as much as giving the stuck-up snot his dessert for the next month.

(Even though it's actually a pretty good strategy, which makes a lot of sense, and as he looks at the board it's clear that Dex is right and that after taking down Backup it wouldn't be hard to push Alt all the way back into Australia and eventually shove him off the island, and then it'd be a showdown just between the two of them, he can see it in his mind's eye like it's been laid out on a neat timeline labeled 'Path to Inevitable Glory'. Which is a pretty tempting name for a path.)

"Well?" says B, raising his eyebrows expectantly.

Fallon twiddles the dice in his fingers, then grins. "Nice try, Dexie, but you better watch your butt. I think I'd rather go naval."

Then he attacks Brazil over the Atlantic, striking to invade the heart of D's little empire.

It takes several turns, but between Fallon driving into his side and Backup recovering in the north, Dex doesn't stand a chance. F has the unmitigated pleasure of seeing his stodgy rival pushed off of the edge of the world first, even before Alt. D's jaw tightens and his eyes narrow as Fallon sweeps his last pieces grandly off the table, letting them clatter across the library floor, but simply says, "Well played."

The new God-Emperor of Most of the Southern Hemisphere Except Antarctica Which Doesn't Count Anyway (and Australia But Whatever) is in high spirits for exactly twenty-seven more rounds. That's how long it takes Backup to eradicate A. It's also the number of rounds before Addison pokes his head in and tells them curfew is in five minutes.

"Whaaat? But we're not done, Addison! I'm not done winning!"

The man just smiles. "You boys are in here every night. I'm sure you'll get another chance to win. Stella and Jerzy will be checking by in ten to make sure you're in bed—and by in bed I mean teeth brushed, lights out. So get to it."

"Oh well. Better luck for us next time, right?" Alt smiles in a way that's not nearly confident enough to be cocky and so lands in some pathetic zone Fallon refers to as Well Since I Never Win I've Learned to Be Happy About Being A Loser. Elbowing Dex, he earns a small smile from the other boy, and their stupid losery camaraderie, which is clearly just happiness that Fallon doesn't get to call his victory complete, makes him want to spit.

"Oh, so because you guys suck are going to be babies, you just want to start over, right. Tch. I see how it is," he mutters, kicking bad-temperedly at the leg of D's chair. Turning up his nose slight, Dex ignores him.

"We could always finish tomorrow night before starting a new game," B says. For less than an instant there's that strange inkblot look in his eyes, but A jostles him, scoffing, and it's immediately dispelled.

"Uh-huh, and D and I will just sit and watch you guys flail at each other for hours. That sounds splendid."

"Good point, A," Backup says far too genially, and D, who's already started putting away the game pieces, interjects, "Come on, everyone, we're supposed to clean up and I'm not going to do it all for you."

"Oh, get over yourself, Dexie," F snaps, shoving his chair back so hard he knocks several army counters to the floor and stalking out of the library.

By the time his teeth are brushed, through, he's talked himself back into a good mood. After all, he had practically had that game in the bag. Ok, so maybe he didn't beat everybody, but he has before, and he could have tonight. Besides, he beat out Dex, and that's really the fun part. Alt is too nice when he wins, and when he loses, lording it over him isn't much fun. It's actually kind of pitiful. Backup is fun to beat for the millisecond he actually seems annoyed, but he quickly shrugs it off. Dex, though, he simmers. Few things fill Fallon with the sort of glee that wiping the smug smirk off that prat's face does, and that's saying something, because it really doesn't take much to amuse him. And after all, they will rematch tomorrow, first in class and then again on the Risk board. He'll have plenty of opportunity to rub his snot nose in his defeat.

Dunking Dex's toothbrush in the toilet before the other boy gets back to the dormitory helps too.

He's clicking off the bathroom light and heading back toward his room when he hears Dex and Backup coming down the hall around the corner.

"— very clever," Dex is saying in his fakest civil voice. "But depending on that sort of manipulation probably won't work once he realizes you're doing it."

There's Backup's light laugh. "Ahaha, oh D, I think you're just a little worked up about losing. It's just a game, and like A said, you'll get another chance to do better. Don't be so touchy."

"You know I'm not talking about Risk," D retorts, his temper finally lit. "Nobody here is stupid, Backup. Don't treat us like we are."

"Me? I don't know what you're talking about. You said it. And you're the one who seems to think everyone else is too dense to see through my oh-so-clever 'manipulations'—where are you going? Isn't it a little rude to walk off in the middle of a conversation?"

"I'm going to bed," snaps Dex, then rounds the corner to find Fallon leaning against the wall, eyebrows raised.

"Hi, Fallon," he starts, relaxing deliberately, then his eyes flicker back and he sighs. "I suppose there's no point in pretending you weren't listening in just now."

And that just pisses Fallon right off. What a self-righteous little—making it sound like he's the sneaky one, 'listening in' on a conversation while D is talking smack behind his back. Because the resigned, red-handed look on his rival's face clinches what he more or less figured: F is the 'he' that supposedly doesn't realize Backup is manipulating him.

"I know what you're thinking—"

"You always like to think that, don't you?" Fallon cuts him off. Good feelings gone. Dex seems to have that ability, to immediately suck all the joy out of the air just by being around. "You lost because B 'manipulated' me into going against you, is that it? I mean I know you're a sore loser, but that's really something."

"He would have beat you easily if Addison hadn't stopped the game," D says evenly. "He had three complete continents and you only had one. If you weren't so—"

"So what, Dex? Just what am I?" Fallon growls, bumping their chests slightly. They're roughly even heights so he leans forward aggressively, knowing D will read insecurity into it if he goes up on his toes to look down at the other boy. Because he does annoying things like that.

"Arrogant!" Dex snaps back, not flinching.

"Oh, I'm arrogant? Am I arrogant, Dex? So arrogant? How arrogant?" He jostles him again. "You're the world expert on arrogance, so I'm interested to hear."

"Enough to not see it when Backup tugs you around." Hazel eyes bore into blue, and he lowers his voice to hover just above a whisper. "Come on, F, at least try to be serious for once in your life. Don't you think there's something…off about him?"

F lets out a snort of laughter. Is his arch-nemesis actually trying to confide in him? Or is this just another attempt at manipulation? "You're just sore because I teamed up with him instead of you."

"Perhaps." Dex clearly doesn't give that idea a speck of credence. And Fallon is supposed to be arrogant, pff.

"It's not arrogance when someone really is superior," F informs his frowning rival with a smirk.

"I wouldn't know it from the way you—"

"Let people manipulate me, right. D, did it ever occur anywhere in that big fat puffed-up brain of yours that maybe it has nothing to do with Backup, and I just can't stand you?"

Dex scowls at him. "I'm going to bed," he announces snippily, turning on his heel. "You should too, before Jerzy comes around."

"Don't forget to brush your teeth," Fallon calls after him, smirking.

Backup manipulating him, pfft. They all manipulate each other, all the time, so even if he was trying to manipulate F (which, ok, let's get this straight, he attacked D because he wanted to, not because B talked him into it, got it?), how was that any different from any other person or time in the House?

Laughing to himself at his rival's paranoia, F skips off to his room in high spirits. He's pretty sure the God-Emperor of the Southern Hemisphere won that little exchange, too.