Title: Substitute Sensei

Fandom: American Dragon: Jake Long

Pairing: None.

Rating: PG

Word Count: 802

Summary/Description: Jake and Haley share a sweet, tender moment between siblings. …Yeah, right.

Warning/Spoilers: No warnings. No spoilers.

A/N: The idea for this up and smacked me one day while I was playing a video game; one, might I add, which had absolutely nothing to do with ADJL. :shrugs: Go figure. Anyway, enjoy, and review!

Disclaimer: If I owned American Dragon: Jake Long, new episodes would come out a lot faster.

"Now, you gotta be sure ta…"

"Make a circular, swishing motion with my tail." The purple dragon demonstrated deftly, performing a perfect series of coordinated tail movements. "I already know, Jake. May I again remind you that this is all largely unnecessary?"

Jake glared at his twelve year old sister. Simultaneously, she smiled brilliantly at him. Even in dragon form, she still managed to look disgustingly cute and sweet, with the ponytails that she refused to outgrow, and her gleaming white teeth.

"For your information, little one, that wasn't what I was about to say," Jake lied coolly.

"Oh, really?" Haley folded her arms across her chest, an eyebrow quirked in scepticism. "What were you going to say then, big brother?"

The wind chimes at the front door of the shop tinkled mockingly as Jake quickly tried to think up of something.

"Erm… um… eh… sumthin' else, okay?" he finally said, mouth screwed into a frown.

She sniffed haughtily.

"Okay. If you say so." She began scrutinising her claws with all the pomp of an arrogant, beautiful model at a photo shoot. "Can you please remind me what's the point of all of this? I lost sight of it in the first five minutes."

The black-haired teen scowled at her.

"The 'point' of all a dis is ta hone your dragon skills. Gramps and Fu-dog told me ta see to your training while they're outta town for the weekend."

"Yes, yes, quite. But what Grandpa and our gruff, yet lovable Shar Pei did not know is that I need no further training. I'm already perfect." Another Colgate smile.

Jake scoffed.

"You can call yourself perfect when you can beat me." He leant back against the wall, hands disappearing into the depths of his pockets. "Besides, you should feel privileged. You're gettin' a private lesson from the Am Drag himself." The sixteen year old exuded smugness out of his ears. "Right now, I could be at the Skate Park shreddin' wood wit Trix and Spud. But instead, I'm sacrificin' my time and my social life to help you. Be grateful, brat."

Haley rolled her eyes.

"Somehow, I'm not."

"Whatever. Anyhow, now you gotta implement what you learnt in completin' a task."

"A task? What kind of task?"

Jake smirked evilly, and resisted the urge to rub his hands together gleefully like the villain in a third-rate movie.

"Usin' the swirlin' motion I just taught you –"

"You mean the swirling motion that I had already completely mastered," Haley sniffed in interruption. Jake ignored her.

"– You gotta clean all the toilets in the shop, and the house, usin' only your tail… and a toothbrush."

Haley gasped in terror. It was a queer sound coming from a six foot tall dragon. She looked utterly horrified. Jake tried to stifle a snicker.

"I will do no such thing," she said in sheer indignation.

"Sorry, Hales, but that's the rule. You gotta show that you understand your training by implementin' it in simple tasks. It's gonna help you in battle, too," he added obscurely, as if just thinking of it, "and also teaches you some important morals and values and junk."

Haley stared at her big brother incredulously.

"What kind of morals can I learn from scrubbing a toilet!"

Jake shrugged in a 'how should I know?' sort of way.

"I dunno. Prudence and promptness and perseverance... or sumthin' like that," he said vaguely. "Anyway, this is the exact same method Gramps used when he was first trainin' me, so it's only fair that I should use it on you too, y'know?" Okay, well, maybe it wasn't the exact same thing, but it came close enough, right?

"No offence intended big brother – no, wait a minute, it is – but you're stupid. Grandpa probably just devised that menial training method because you were a special case."

The glower Jake shot at his sister would have left the most formidable of trolls trembling in his boots. Haley simply smiled angelically, which only served to raise the elder dragon's ire.

"Well…" He searched for something to say. "…Look where that 'menial' training got me. I'm the first, one and only Am Drag, yo! How ya like me now?"

"…No better than I did when you were simply my stupid older brother."

Jake growled, and fixed his sister with a glare. She met it head on, unmoving.

Finally, the brunet threw his hands up.

"I give up. This 'being a sensei' thing sucks. I'm gonna jet."

"Good riddance."

"Going to the Skate Park."

"Say hello to Mr. and Mrs. Spud for me."

"I'm going, for real. You can't stop me."

"I wasn't trying to."

Jake gave the other dragon one last glower before he breached the doorway.

"You really are an annoyin' lil brat; you know that, right?"

"I try."

A/N: Let me know how you like it. :-)