The collection of girls sat around a table at a Japanese food restaurant. Rose was noticeably drifting off and on in sleep. Becca and Kairan took turns poking Rose in the side and tickling her to wake her up. She hissed at them playfully a few times, but didn't really hold any true malevolent intent toward the two. Mischievous, yes, but not truly malevolent. She'd have to talk to Kain to figure out how to get them back.

They had been served dinner and were near finishing it. Becca was sitting next to Rose, Kairan across from her, Diana next to Kairan, and Metowaka at the head of the table. Diana suddenly started grinning impishly.

"Hey, Meto," she began in a singsong voice. "You'd do absolutely anything to prove you're a Brandon Lee fan, wouldn't you?"

"Um . . ." She looked at Diana with expected suspicion. "Depends on what it is."

"I dare you to drink that entire bottle of soy sauce to prove that you love Brandon Lee."

"Why would I want to do that?"

Diana gasped and turned to the other girls. "I don't think she loves Brandon Lee anymore!!"

Kairan and Becca made gasps of mock-surprise as well, while Rose blinked blankly. Metowaka's eyes widened.

"I didn't say that!" She grabbed the soy sauce, flipped the top off without hesitation, and held it up into the air.

"This one's for you, Brandon, baby!" She tipped it back and swallowed the contents without a break for air. Rose shot a look at Diana.

"That was mean."

"No, it was funny."

"FIRE IT UP! FIRE IT UP! FIRE IT UP!" she cried as she slammed the bottle down on the table. She glared crossly at Diana a moment, then her face pinched in on itself as she put a hand over her stomach.

"Uhhh, I don't feel very good. I don't think that soy sauce agreed with me."

"Ohh, poor Meto," Rose sighed, trying to hold back laughter.

"Ah, I'll be okay."

"Hey," Kairan stated. "We all spent the day together and had dinner out. You know what this means!"

Becca, Metowaka, Diana and she all exchanged a look, then shouted simultaneously, "OVERNIGHT!"

"Oh no," Rose groaned. "Look, guys, I just got home—"

Sensing her about to back out of it, Becca leaned over and put an arm around the crossbreed's shoulders.

"And since none of us have seen Rose's apartment, we're going to have it there."

"Now, wait a minute!"

"YAY!" the other girls cheered. Rose let her head sink down into her hands.

"No rest for the wicked, it seems," Rose sighed.

The drive back was rather silent, broken every once in a while by a groan from Metowaka who proclaimed loudly that she shouldn't have had the soy sauce and glared nonstop at Diana the way back. Rose, who was in the driver's seat, sighed deeply and shook her head.

Climbing up the stairs, she noticed light pouring out from under the door. Rose winced; Kain had apparently come to see where she had gone. She unlocked the door, her friends behind her making a noisy ruckus. She pushed open the door and swung a hand in for the other girls. They walked in curiously.

"Not bad, Rose," Kairan stated, looking around. She smirked at the framed parchments of papyrus with ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs and the Greek paintings.

"Picked up on your mother's decorative habits, I take it?" she inquired. Rose glanced up where she was looking and blushed slightly.

"It's what I grew up around."

"Hello, Rose," a voice greeted from the hall. She winced and looked up to see Kain striding toward her.

"Hullo, Kain," she responded. Diana and Kairan gave her sharp looks, noticing the missing 'uncle,' and Metowaka would have done the same had she been able to keep her mind off her stomach.

"Uh," the crossbreed continued, looking at her friends, "you know Becca already, but this is Diana and Kairan, and the one behind them is Metowaka—"

Said girl suddenly made a strange groaning noise and leaned away, the soy sauce forcing its way back into her mouth. Rose, recognizing the girl's distress, indicated quickly to Kairan where the bathroom was. The older girl nodded and pulled Metowaka into the bathroom to rid her stomach of the contents that made it so unhappy. Becca headed in after the two girls worriedly, and Rose looked at Diana accusingly. The other girl had the good grace to look embarrassed.

"Diana, would you please go out to Becca's car and get the bottle of soda water she carries around with her."

"All right." The young woman raced out the door, and Rose winced at her stained carpet and sighed. Kain had been watching the proceedings, a neutral expression on his face, with one slightly raised eyebrow. Seeing Rose's look, he chuckled slightly.

"Rose, it's simply a carpet. And besides, this is a minor inconvenience compared to trying to get dried blood out of tapestries. Now that is a challenge." He glanced down at the mess, frowned lightly, and snapped his fingers. She felt a ripple of power, and the muss was gone as if it had never been there before. She grinned up at him, wishing she could say things she knew she couldn't with three of her friends in the apartment. Realizing Diana was going to ask questions when she got back, Rose hastily ran into the kitchen, got a couple of paper towels, wetted them down, and proceeded to get the carpet wet so it looked like she had cleaned it. Diana pushed the door open and came back in, looking mildly annoyed.

"I couldn't find it. Becca has so much junk back there that . . ." She trailed off in a helpless shrug, then saw the carpet was clean.

"It's okay, Diana," Rose responded, "I got it clean easily enough. It was needed." She turned back to the master vampire who watched silently, not really sure how to handle the situation. Demons and creatures from other worlds he knew what to do with; death threats and blackmail were child's play. But he had no idea what to do with four teenage girls who had never known the threat of a vampire or any higher predator, for that matter. Rose looked up at him and shrugged apologetically.

"They invited themselves over for the night. And knowing them," she shrugged. "I will most likely see you tomorrow, Kain. They're going to be here all night and are going to be loud and obnoxious."

"Hey!" came three voices, two in the bathroom, one behind her where Diana was standing. A corner of Kain's mouth twitched, but he kept a straight face and nodded a good-bye to Rose before heading out of the apartment and shutting the door softly. Rose shook her head and sighed, wondering what hell was going to show up that night.

That hell introduced itself to Rose three hours and half a bottle of 7-up for Metowaka to drink to settle her stomach later in the form of "Truth or Dare." Rose, who had never played the game before, found her enhanced senses working for her, as she could pick up on the increasing heart beat of quickened breath when he friends were nervous or excited. She had grasped the rules (or, nearly lack there of) relatively quickly, and had been amused when Kairan had objected before they started playing, "And no daring to tell the truth, okay?" They had been playing the game for the last hour or so, and Rose had tried out a few dares, but mostly stuck to truth as cautious newbies tended to. Finally, the game jumped to Diana asking the questions. She looked around at her circle of friends, deciding whom to torment. He eyes lit up as she settled on her target.

"Rose! Truth or dare!"

Rose groaned, inwardly hiding a smile. "Truth."

Diana grinned malevolently and Rose's eyes widened, realizing this time it looked like she was going to be up a creek without a paddle.

"Is Kain really your blood-related Uncle?"

Rose stared at the girl in shock before flopping back on her back, shaking her head. Ooohh boy, she was in trouble. She sat back up and grinned at Diana.

"That's kind of a silly question, Diana! Do you really think I'd call him Uncle if he wasn't? Come on. I grew up calling him that."

Diana eyed her, but nodded, accepting it, until Becca pointed out, "You didn't exactly answer the question, Rose."

'SHIT!' Rose swore to herself, glaring at Becca. Diana leaned forward, eyes narrowing. Even Metowaka and Kairan were watching intently.

"That you didn't," Diana agreed. "Come on, Rose, a yes or no is the only answering I'm taking."

Rose growled to herself slightly, and looked at the girls. They all stared at her, and the crossbreed realized she was not getting out of this. Plus, she was a horrible liar to people she liked and trusted, so she knew if she lied, she wouldn't get away with it.

"No," she finally stated shortly. Kairan grabbed the pillow she had been leaning on and smacked Rose over the head with it.

"I thought so!"

Rose leaned back to evade the blow and decided quite firmly that from now on she'd be picking 'dare' as the next question would inevitably if she had slept with him or not. And that was just one place she did not want to go with her friends even if they wanted to know the answer to it.