This one will be slightly shorter, but I'll update very soon, so hopefully that'll make up for it. ;) Everyone enjoy, and, as always, review, review, review!

-Tigress

Dess's POV

Tension was in the air when I woke up the next morning. Sandy was wreaking havoc on our lives, and Lolly couldn't take much more. Dallas was already at breakfast when I woke u, so I crept downstairs to survey the battle front. Lolly sat on the opposite side of the table from Sandy, as far away form her as she could be, and Sandy kept shooting looks at Soda. I could gone over there and hit her myself.

"Look, it's the birthday girl herself!" Two-Bit yelled, eating a toaster-heated waffle.

"How's eighteen treatin' ya?" Dallas asked softly, sliding a hand down my forearm as I sat down a seat away from him.

"Fine," I slurred, not feeling like talking. I still had a headache from the beers last night, since it was my first time drinking. "Na much be'er 'n seventeen did." He laughed.

"You'll get there." I drank some coffee, chased it down with a Pepsi, and had a ten minute argument with Soda, who claimed that Coke was the best and that, since his name was the beverage, should know. This ended when everyone in the gang and Sandy had taken a side and we were yelling at each other, and we finally realized what idiots we were. Then we stood there until Darry said, "Okay, she gets presents now, after that little episode."

So we traipsed into the living room, which, I realized had a coffee table. This wasn't anything new, but the stuff piled on the table was. There were five or six presents on the table, and knowing these boys, everything in them was good. It was a good haul, seeing as my old birthdays scraped in a present or two of good quality, one from Lolly and one from Aunt What's-Her-Bucket, and then a bunch of little things from other friends.

"Mine first!" Soda exclaimed, pushing a small, rectangular box into my hands. "Actually, it's mine and Steve's but that's okay." I had to smile. I slipped my fingers under the wrapping and tore through, popping the box open. A cool weight fell into my hand, and, even if my view was obscured by excess paper, I knew what is was. It was a blade.

I moved the paper aside and gasped. It was a beautiful semi-gravity blade, with a solid handle of stained wood. I flicked my hand, knowing it was a gravity and not a regular switch, and the blade flickered in the light as it opened and swung into place with a precise snick. I slid my hand up the handle and pressed my thumb against the blind side of the blade. It gave easily and flipped back into place.

"It's gonna open and close for you easier than a switch," Steve told me. "You'll have to get used to not fumbling for the release, but it won't extend in your pocket, either."

"Thanks you guys. I wanted one of these since I saw Two-Bit do his balisong trick.

"What, you mean…this?" He pulled out his pride and joy, a six inch butterfly knife, and flipped it eight or nine times. The rhythmic clicking and flashing still captivated me.

(A/N: everyone who doesn't know what a butterfly knife is, Google it. Bit's blade was a butterfly in the movie.) We clapped and laughed; he never wasted a chance to show off with that thing.

"Okay, me and your brother's next," Darry ordered, holding out a thin but solid package. I pulled off the paper, and out fell a handsome, leather-bound sketchbook and a set of inking pens.

"Whoa," I murmured, running my hand over the soft leather and opening the tablet. The heavy, artist-quality paper was on three rings, so it couldn't fall out if I bent the book too far.

"We didn't know you liked to draw so much," Darry told me.

"How did you find out?" I asked.

"I saw the sparrow," Soda replied with a grin, referring to a drawing of a sparrow I'd seen in my window. I'd finished inking it with odd pens I'd found around the house just recently. "Now you won't have to filch for pens."

"You guys…you know me way too well." Lolly shrugged.

"We try. Here's mine. Don't open it here, and don't eat me when you see what's inside. You'll be happy you have it one day." I took the meticulously wrapped form from her, examining it. I couldn't, for the life of me, decide what it was. After a moment of puzzling, I put it down beside me and looked expectantly from Two-Bit to Dallas. Two-Bit shrugged.

"Don't look at me, I made the cake." I looked at Dallas.

"Okay. But wait, Darryl has something else to give you." He looked darkly at Darry, who crossed his arms.

"Fine. You two can date…for now. And don't think I don't know where he sleeps, Dessarea Mae Curtis." I gave him my sweetest smile to hide my shock. What had Dallas given for this? He looked at me, then stood up.

"I'll be right back. Dess, close your eyes and don't peak." I closed them and heard him leave, and then the conversation started.

"Soda, what's he doing?"

"C'mon, Stevie. He hid his present in my room."

"Oh yeah."

"Wait, am I the only one who doesn't know about what this is?" Darry asked.

"Of course," Lolly replied. "Only you and Social over there."

"Cause you'd kill it," Soda muttered darkly from the other side of Lolly, or at least that's what I thought I'd heard. Then Dallas came back downstairs.

"Did you look?' he teased.

"No," I replied, eyes still closed.

"Okay. Hands out." I obliged.

"Don't jump." I nodded, and he placed something small and warm in my hands. Tiny paws clutched the edges of my hands for dear life, and I swear I heard a mewl. Dallas knelt in front of me. I heard it, but didn't see it, because my eyes were closed, and he pressed down lightly on the thing in my hands.

"Open," he breathed, and I did. In my hands was a little scrap of fur, a silver-blue tabby kitten, staring up at me with blue eyes. Dallas's hands were gently on its hindquarters, holding it down in my hands.

"Kitty!" I said, clutching it to my chest. It licked me and purred loudly. "Oooh Dally, he's so cute! Where on earth did you get him?" He was scrawny. I could tell this was no purebred, but truly a street cat. "God he's soft, Lolly, pet him." She did, then took him from me so I could hug Dallas and breathe in the familiar scent of him.

"I can't tell you where I got him, you'd bomb the place and steal his siblings," he smiled, putting his arms around me to hug me closer. "By the way," he whispered so only I could hear. "It's nice to have a girl who's the same age as me every once in a while." I laughed.

"It's nice to know we don't have to hide anymore. What did you do?" But before Dally could reply, Darry called us apart.

"Okay, I didn't say I wanted to watch it," he said sharply. "And, Dallas, who said she could have a pet?" Dally stood up to his full height, which was still three inches shorter than Darry, and said in a quiet voice, "I did." They stared at each other, and I thought maybe they'd start fighting right there. Any idiot could tell this wasn't really about the cat. Darry was trying to teach Dally that he was still on top, but it wasn't working very well. They stood there and breathed down each other's throats, not daring to blink. Full silence. Until…

"Get you hands off him, you dirty Soc, and if I ever see you do that again, I'll save some money and kill you myself," Lolly growled. We all whipped around to see what she was frothing about, and eyebrows went up in shock. She was standing over Sandy, who was clutching Soda's arm. Soda looked bewildered, and Sandy looked frightened. "Guys, could you leave for a bit? Me and Social need to have a little bit of a talk." We nodded and scrambled over ourselves to get outside, after which ensued a violent but dead-silent fight for the spots in the window. I ended up in Dally's lap, which infuriated Darry, but I could tell by the tremendous smirk on Dally's lips that he enjoyed it immensely.

Lolly's POV

I glared at the Social until the gang left, then crossed my arms and breathed deeply.

"I'm not going to yell at you. I'm not going to scream or throw stuff or threaten you with horrible things."

"Then you're not mad?" she asked hopefully, and I almost laughed. Almost.

"Oh, I'm furious. Going AWOL isn't my style, though. That's Dess's job." There was a solid whack on the window, and I grinned. "I will tell you this once. I want you to leave as soon as possible. You've overstayed your welcome here. I don't care if you rent out a room here in Tulsa, or if you go rough it at Buck Merrill's, or whatever. Just get the hell out of my house and get away from my boyfriend. And, if I see you near him again, I swear to God I will kill you."

"You said you wouldn't threaten," Social shot back snottily, and I knew there was no way she realized how five-year-old she sounded.

"I know. That wasn't a threat. That was a promise."

"Yeah, well I think you're just jealous of me." This time I really did laugh.

"Holy shit! How could you possibly think that I envy you? You're weak, you're conniving, you're a really bad loser, and you're not tough enough to cut bread, let alone live in this house! Why would I be jealous of how goddamn proper you are? I bet you've never been out of a dress, even! You can't see how good I've got it, can you? Or maybe you can and you're just bashing me for it! Get out. I am so done with you." She stuck out her bottom lip.

"You wish you had the kind of money I have, so you wouldn't have to live here." I turned on her, my mouth falling open in disbelief.

"You are really thick, aren't you?" I asked in a shocked tone. "God, if that's what it takes, I'll get Soda in here so he can tell you himself." I stalked over to the back door and wrenched it open; ready to yell for Soda, but finding he was already on his way over.

"I read your lips," he explained. "How hard should I put it?"

"As hard as you damn well please," I replied sweetly. "Just make sure she gets it." I went outside and sat down next to Des and Dallas, peering through the window myself. I felt eyes on me, and soon I had to look at the rest of the gang.

"What? I was protecting myself." They shrugged, and Dess checked my shoulder playfully.

"So I'm a loose cannon, huh?" she asked. I shrugged.

"Honestly, we don't know yet. The scientist that gave you to us said you were human with a few complications, so I don't exactly don't know what that means." She was about to retort with some witty comeback when we heard the door-the front one-slam. A car started and drove away. We waited, and soon Soda came out, running a hand through his hair.

"She up and left. Didn't even take her things."

"We'll leave them in the lawn for her to come back and get," Darry said gently. "And, this could be a bad time to tell you, but Shep's party is tonight." The guys perked up, leaving me and Dess puzzled.

"What's this about a party?" I asked.

"Every month, Shep has a party for the whole East side at his place," Soda explained.

"It's always the best party of the month, hands down," Two-Bit continued. "And if we're lucky, we'll have two fights today, one for Lolly and one for Dess when she meets-" Dallas promptly removed Dess from his lap and sat on my brother, pawing his mouth shut.

"If we're lucky, Dess won't meet anyone," he said forcefully, over Two-Bit, who was laughing so hard he was snorting dirt.

"Mmkay, mft geroff muh," Two-Bit slurred, trying to wrench Dallas's hand off his mouth. "Ur hehvy!" Dallas laughed and removed himself from Two-Bit's back, pulling his friend off the ground and brushing the dirt off his shoulders.

"This fine specimen, ladies, is yours for a grand total of all the chocolate in you house and a ridiculous cable bill! Oh yeah, and all the beer you're worth!" he said in an announcer voice, gesturing to Two-Bit fakely. Two-Bit struck a pose, which was so cheesy we laughed our brains out. Then we went inside where, to our surprise, we found that it was twelve-thirty. The party, which still wasn't for another six hours, loomed in the distance. I went into my room to prepare an outfit, wanting to get away from the eyes that were still looking at me funny.

Dallas's POV

Dess and I finished cleaning up the living room by ourselves. She gathered together the sketchbook and pens, slipped the switch in her back pocket, and picked up the wrapped rectangle that was Lolly's gift.

"I still wonder what this is," she murmured, turning it over.

"We can find out in a bit. For now, we have to find your cat." She almost dropped the things she was holding.

"Oh cripes, where'd he go?" She started looking, but didn't have to go far. The kitten was curled up in Darryl's favorite chair, in a nest consisting of someone's shirt and half the sports section. "Thank you for him, Dally. I love him to bits." I smiled.

"Does that mean I have to start looking for a job replacement?" She smiled back.

"You might want to." Dess gingerly picked up the cat and repositioned it in her arms. "I thought you hated cats."

"Me? Nah. I wouldn't pick one for myself, but Lolly let it slip that you loved cats, and I know this girl a few houses down whose cat just had kits…I put two and two together."

"You're known to do that."

"What'll you name it?" She thought for a moment, absently playing with the kit's ears until it got fed up and toothed her finger.

"Ouch! You little hood! I think I'll call him Prosper, after Mom's cat." I nodded. I remembered Prosper.

"Your dad got it for her when you guys moved here," I recalled. "She named it that for good luck."

"He was."

"He was," I agreed. "Let's go see what this is," I told her, plucking at the wrapped mystery she still held. Prosper yawned in agreement. We went to her room, and she quietly shut her door. She dropped Prosper, who went to go sniff yesterday's shirt, recoiling from it."

"Aww c'mon," I defended, picking it up and chucking it in the hamper. "It's not that bad."

"I've smelled worse," Dess agreed, lying on her stomach across her bed. "Let's see what we have here." She shot me a mock-secretive glance and pulled off a sliver of paper, lifting the edge of the hole playfully. Then she gasped and slid it under her bed.

"Nope, it's not for you," she told me, smiling guiltily.

"C'mon," I wheedled. "It can't be that terrible."

"Oh, it is. You just leave it be, Dallas M. Winston."

"Alright, alright. Anyone ever tell you how pretty you are?" She cocked an eyebrow with an expression that reminded me freakishly of Two-Bit.

"What in God's name do you take me for, boy?" I laughed. Wow. The joy she gave me…

"I ain't much of a hotshot around you, am I? Just another bumbling idiot that this family seems so capable of kicking out." Dess's eyes widened in surprise. "What?"

"Nothin'," she replied. "It's just…you…you never claimed them like that. When did you start feeling like we're your family?" It was a strange question, I know, but I got it. It finally felt like I was where I belonged. I loved these guys. They were my family. Before they'd just felt like another stopping point, like the Ghosts in New York, and they all looked at me like they were wondering exactly how much longer I'd stick around. But now…I couldn't imagine leaving my brothers and sister.

"That's-that's a real good question," I replied, frowning. "I think…maybe the day I met you. Or right after." She grinned and sat up, grabbing me around the neck and kissing me on the cheek

"Funny how these things work out, huh, hood?"