Thanks for waiting, guys. Here's the next chapter. Just figured I'd get this up before I forgot. Enjoy.

Chapter Thirteen – Game On!

The video started out by pool, held in the hand of Grandma Tracy, which was only known because she was the one speaking. "Hello world," her mature voice said, filled with amusement. "A few of you commented that the boys seemed rather competitive in the last video. It's true. Just watch."

The camera focused on the pool, where a lively game of water volley ball was happening. There was no net, but John was floating on an inflatable float directly in the middle of the pool, watching the happenings. He, apparently, was filling in for the net and allowing for there to be two equal teams.

Scott and Alan were on one side, slamming the ball into the water just in front of Virgil, who sputtered. Gordon, though, avenged his teammate by spiking the ball back over John and nearly hitting Scott in the face. There was yelling, laughing and the occasional dunking. And when John said a disparaging comment aimed at all four of his brothers, they all turned on him and seemingly tried to drown him.

The scene changed to a game of pool in the lounge, where two of the boys were going at it. Virgil and Alan were watching, John nowhere to be seen, while Scott and Gordon played against each other. Again, there was a lot of smack talk and laughing happening, even from the sidelines, and Gordon finally sunk his last ball, crowing his victory over Scott.

The next game was a game of Uno, where the battle was fierce. They were doing their utmost to keep each other from winning, sitting around the holo-table. Alan finally laid down his last card, throwing his arms up in victory, only to be pushed over by John.

A video game competition that ended in a laughing wrestling pile at the accusations of cheating were flung.

A game of twister ending with Virgil sabotaging everyone and all but him ending up in a giant, laughing pile.

A game of catch between Alan and Scott somehow ended with Alan being thrown in the pool.

A diving competition between all five boys ended with Gordon winning, of course, but the rest trying to drown him when he gloated just a little too much.

And then the video showed them all seated on the ground in the lounge, arranged in a neat circle. Grandma was holding the camera, sitting in a chair behind them. Kayo, Brains and Lady Penelope had joined them for this game, and a bottle lay on the ground in front of them.

"I've got them sitting down to play a game that hopefully won't end in anything broken," Grandma explained. "They'll be playing Truth or Dare."

Scott huffed, leaning back on his arms, stretched out behind him. "You should know better, Grandma," he grinned. "This game is the most dangerous of all."

"Which is why I'm adding a few rules this time around," Grandma rejoined. "There is no purposely endangering anyone with their dares. No asking extremely personal questions. If you don't want to answer, you don't have to. But you'll have to answer a different question."

They all nodded; it was nothing new apparently. Grandma had always said that there needed to be rules to this game or it could get out of control.

Alan spun the bottle first, as he was the youngest. They all watched as it landed on Kayo. "Alrighty," he said, tilting his head. "Truth or dare?"

"Dare," the security agent responded. Her back was to the camera, but you could hear her grin.

"I dare you to put an ice-cube in your pocket and leave it there."

There were befuddled blinks all around but then Kayo shrugged. She fished a large ice cube out of her drink and shoved it in her pocket. It immediately began to melt, and it wasn't long before she squirmed a little. "Okay, I wasn't expecting that to be so uncomfortable," she muttered as she reached out to spin the bottle.

John responded with Truth when the bottled landed on him and he relaxed a little, leaning back against the piano leg behind him, ignoring Virgil's arched look. "What's the most trouble you've ever gotten into with your parents?" she asked him, and he sighed.

"Really?" he asked, rolling his eyes. "I got arrested once, when I was in college." He reached around Gordon to shove at Penny. "I fully blame you for that, by the way."

She gave a prim snort. "I wasn't the one with the drugs, John."

Scott was looking between the two, eyebrows raised. "Why haven't I heard this story?"

"Why haven't we?" Gordon asked, motioning to himself and Alan. Virgil was just smiling slightly, exchanging looks with Brains that were very telling—they'd both heard this story apparently.

John shrugged. "Not much to tell. The drugs weren't mine, nor were they Penny's."

"You just happened to have them on you?" Scott asked, still sounding befuddled.

"Something like that." John reached out and spun the bottle, watching as it landed on Brains. "Truth or Dare?"

"Dare," Brains said, feeling that would be the better option than Truth when it came to playing with these guys. Besides, John wouldn't make him do anything too humiliating.

John grinned. "Lick the face of the person sitting on your right."

Brains turned bright red, glancing over at Virgil, who was sitting on his right. Virgil, for his part, just rolled his eyes, flipping John off. With a put-upon sigh, Brains got onto his knees, apologized to Virgil and licked the side of his face from chin to temple.

Everyone was laughing as the engineer sat back down, glaring at the redheaded astronaut. He grumbled under his breath as he spun the bottle, watching it land on Penny. "Lady P?"

"I'll take a truth, dear," Penny replied serenely. For all that she was sitting on the floor, she looked completely at peace and just as lady-like as usual.

"Who is the m-most, uh, attractive person in this r-room?" Brains asked with a smug smile.

Penny blinked at him and then glared, her mouth twisting into a frown. "You would ask a question like that among company as pretty as this, wouldn't you Hiram," she grumbled. He wiggled her eyebrows at her and she huffed. "The most attractive?"

There was a pause as she regarded all of her companions. "Well, Kayo is the prettiest," she said, to which Kayo gave a small bow, shifting due to the water now soaking through her shorts. "And Scott has the prettiest eyes. Alan's the cutest by far." Alan rolled his eyes, shoving at John who was snickering at him. "And Virgil's definitely the most buff. But I'd have to say that Gordon is the most attractive."

"You just have a thing for blondes, Pen," John laughed. "And Alan's much too young for you."

"But have you seen Gordon's arms and chest?" Penny responded, her smile turning a little lascivious as Gordon blushed. "All that swimming makes for a perfect physique." John narrowed his eyes, smirking, and Penny all but grinned at him. Gordon mumbled something, hiding his face.

"Okay! Moving on!" Alan called out before the conversation got even more out of hand, and Penny gave the bottle a spin. "I choose dare," Alan responded, before she could ask as the bottle landed on him.

"Allow Kayo and Grandma to give you a makeup makeover," Penny said. Alan stared at her for a moment and then shrugged.

The video cut to them all sitting back down, in a somewhat different configuration as before, but all still relaxed. Alan's face had makeup on his face, very tastefully done. "You look quite pretty," Gordon laughed. "I especially like the purple eyeshadow."

Honestly, the makeup did look very good, although a little out of place on the boy. There was the purple eyeshadow, which complimented his eyes, and winged eyeliner. They'd gone a more natural route with his cheeks, but his lips were a subtle pink. He wasn't really one for makeup, but he didn't look nearly as uncomfortable as Penny thought he would have. Alan didn't comment, and spun the bottle.

"I'll take truth," Virgil said when the bottle landed on him.

"Uh huh," Alan grunted, leaning forward to rest his chin on his fist. He stared at his brother for a long moment. "How did you know you were in love?" he asked, smiling slightly.

Virgil looked a little startled by the question before his face flushed slightly. "Um…when I found that seeing them smile was the best part of my day. When I realized I was happy to be in their company even when we weren't talking about anything. When all I wanted was to see them after a long rescue."

There was a chorus of "awws" from the people in the room, and about half the gathering squished Virgil into a messy group hug. Alan was grinning, pleased by the answer, and he gave the camera a wink. "He's a softy, our Virgil," he said, and Grandma chuckled.

Virgil finally freed himself and grumbled as he spun the bottle. It landed on Scott, who immediately picked Truth with a comment about not wanting any sappy questions thrown his way. Virgil rolled his eyes. "I dare you to be more careful on rescues," he muttered.

Scott threw a throw pillow at his brother, but Virgil caught it before it could hit him. "C'mon little brother, a real dare."

"Yeah," John snarked, rolling his eyes dramatically. "We all know that's not going to happen."

Scott turned to glare at him, but Grandma halted any commotion that could have started with a stern, "Boys."

"Fine," Virgil said, thinking. "I dare you to dance ballet for the camera."

Scott's glare intensified, and Virgil gave him a smug look. The others all started crowing, egging him on until he got up, backed up a few paces and did a few quick moves ending in a spin that was entirely too professional for it to have been spur-of-the-moment. In fact, all of the moves he had done had looked practiced and perfected if a little wobbly in his socks on a wooden floor.

"Scott did ballet through high-school," Grandma explained, much to Scott's consternation as he slumped back into a sitting position. "He also did figure-skating."

"So manly," Gordon teased.

"Ah yes," Penny hummed. "Dancing with women in skin tight clothing, lifting them, dipping them. I mean, it makes more sense than that 'manly' game with the men in tights talking each other over a ball."

Scott grinned then, reaching for the bottle. "I got so many dates," he said, giving the bottle a spin. "Truth or dare, little brother?" he asked Gordon.

"Truth," Gordon replied, stretching a little. The others didn't say anything about him not picking dare, even if it was out of character for him; it was obvious his back was aching.

"What's the most embarrassing thing you've ever done?" Scott asked, grinning widely. Gordon had a history of embarrassing moments, it would be interesting to see which one was the 'most' in his opinion.

Gordon sat for a long moment, stroking in his chin in thought. "The most embarrassing thing…" he grimaced then. "So, when I was like seven, I was hiding in Mom and Dad's closet to scare them, right? Only, it was late at night and everyone was supposed to be asleep…and before I could manage to scare them I saw far, far more than my poor innocent brain should ever have seen."

There was horrified silence from the group and then everyone burst into hysterical laughter. "Only you, Gords," Scott choked, and even Grandma was chuckling from behind the camera.

"I always wondered why your parents insisted you needed The Talk that early," Grandma laughed, and Gordon's face—already bright red—dropped into his hands. "Of course," Grandma continued, humor filling her tone. "That's not as bad as when Scott, Kayo and John decided that it was time for Alan to have The Talk, not knowing I'd already given it to him."

Alan groaned, flinging a hand to his face as the others all continued laughing. "They were so awkward!" he cried. "It's like all of them forgot how to speak!"

"Hey, Sprout," Scott said, shoving at him a little. "Give me a break. I didn't think I'd have to deal with that until I had kids of my own."

Gordon opened his mouth to say something, but an alarm went off, startling everyone into moving. Grandma sighed, and the camera lowered. "Well, I suppose that's the end of that."

And the screen went black.

BarbaraBatGirl 10 hours ago
Do all their games end in physical contact of some sort?
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Ransackthelands 9 hours ago
Oh Gordon. There are a lot of us that have been there. I feel your pain and offer you some of my brain bleach. It doesn't work but…yeah…
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TommyClimbsTreesToo 8 hours ago
Scott does ballet?!
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LippyDippy83 7 hours ago
But who's drugs were they John? Why did you have them? I want answers!
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Susan Weeber 6 hours ago
Aww! Virgil's in love and its so sweet! Who's your sweetheart, Virgil?
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Matt Mosulfelt 5 hours ago
Thanks Grandma! I enjoyed that!
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