Author's Notes: Finally, chapter two is up. Watch out for falling swear words and enjoy!

When Alister finally caught up with Valon and Raphael, he wished he could dive right back into his sewing room. All three of them were in the living room, but Valon's attention wasn't on the large television or the door that led to the dining room. No, Alister wasn't that lucky. Instead, the young boy looked right at him and once again sized him up.

"What now?" Alister snapped.

"Erm, what are you wearing?" Valon asked, not even trying to mask his glee of what is to come.

"Clothes!"

"Erm, you look like a rent boy on the prowl!"

Raphael shut his eyes, obviously trying to imagine a happy, peaceful world full of angels who'd give Valon the swift sword of Death. Or, so Alister hoped. He didn't know what his best friend was thinking, but he knew his own thoughts and they were to skin Valon alive and make a trench coat with a funny hat.

Folding his arms, Alister replied, "I look like someone who actually has goods to flaunt."

"You mean you couldn't make a shirt that fits?" Valon asked before failing to control his laughter.

"That's enough!" Raphael almost snarled.

Oh, but Valon didn't stop there. Of course not, that wouldn't be any fun. "But, Raphael, you told him to put some clothes on!"

Before Raphael could say anything, Alister snapped, "This is a BELLY shirt? Get it? A belly shirt!"

"That's for girls!" Valon snapped right back.

"I said enough!"

Both young men fell silent once the eldest Doma member finally managed to get a loud word in, but they still glared at each other before Alister finally looked away. He could sense Valon snickering behind him, but he tried to ignore it as Raphael headed over to the dining room and the kitchen. Once there, Alister announced that they were having lasagna tonight and for some reason, Valon found that absolutely hilarious as he doubled over yet again.

"What's so fucking funny?" Alister demanded, ready to pounce and not in a good way, either.

"You cook?" Valon inquired, his eyes getting that "look" again. The very same look that made both Raphael and Alister tempted to knock his teeth out.

"Yes, he cooks." Raphael glared at Valon and thankfully, it shut the boy up. "You have a problem with that?"

"Well, no." The child shrugged. "I'm just surprised he does." He narrowed his cold blue eyes. "But, why is he announcing dinner? Since when does he give the orders here?"

Raphael looked down at the youth. "Since we first got this house."

Finally, a knife to twist into Valon, and of course Alister took advantage of that. "Outside the house, Raphael leads, but inside, I am King!"

"Don't you mean Queen?" Valon just had to ask, and the redhead finally blew up.

"That's it!" He leapt toward the Aussie upstart, but Raphael held him back. "Please, Raph, let me kill him, please!" Those laughing blue eyes gave him a aneurysm.. They weren't serene and strong, like Raphael's. They were ruthless and Alister wanted to gauge them out and toss them into the ocean. Valon couldn't have been here longer than an hour and already Alister wanted him dead. "A Queen? You little shit!"

That smug little brat didn't stop there. He grinned. "Struck a nerve, didn't I?"

"Stop it," Raphael said, his deep voice enough to soothe the slender savage beast.

Alister took a deep breath and a step back. "Raph..." Still, he glared at Valon. "If he weren't here, I'd be cooking your fucking eyeballs!"

He wished it would scare the boy into submission, but those damned blue eyes said otherwise. Valon merely smirked yet again. "I'd beat you to the ground easily."

"And I would beat you."

When Raphael said that, he didn't speak out of arrogance, he spoke out of fact. Alister knew that and had known it for as long as they've known each other. He also knew that the only reason why he ran the house was because the Golden Boy actually couldn't. As far as Alister was concerned, it was a great arrangement and seeing Valon suddenly lose that mischievous look in his eyes made things even better.

"Anyway, this is the dining room." Alister waved a hand over the sparse room, decorated only with a simple black wooden table and black chairs. He beamed with a certain pride that no doubt irritated Valon and boy, did his heart leap at the thought of irritating him. "We don't have much here because we don't need much here."

"We don't often eat in the dining room, anyway." Raphael added before pointing out the kitchen, which looked like something one would see in a Home and Garden magazine.

Valon didn't look too impressed. "Can't we go somewhere else, now? Maybe we could leave Alister to cook."

"I don't start dinner until sundown, brat." Damn that little shit...

Thankfully, Raphael saved the day once again by moving over to another room. What should have taken about thirty minutes to explore the two story beach house ended up taking so long that Alister thought he aged about ten years, and all because Valon just couldn't take a gulp of SHUT THE FUCK UP! He had questions and comments for everything and then they reached the excerize room.

"Wow! You have an excersize room? Great! What's with the butterfly machine though? I guess Alister needs smaller tits."

Alister felt his muscles tense so much, that his skull would have split in half with fiery flames shooting everywhere, but Raphael saved both the day and Valon's life once again.

"Why don't you get Valon's luggage from the car?"

Now, Alister didn't feel so tense. "Fine."

"Wait!" Valon took a step forward holding out his hand as if to say 'STOP!' "You're not going to do anything, are you?"

Narrowing his eyes, Alister replied. "Of course not. You say a lot of stupid things, but I'm not going to do anything to your precious stuff. Christ!" He stalked away before Valon could come up with another smart remark.

Once outside, Alister could feel the ocean breeze through his red hair and he felt much better. He should have felt like ten thousand heels for letting Valon get under his skin, but he didn't. He remembered what Raphael advised him, but like most advice, Alister found that it was easy to say, hard to do.

"Where the hell did Dartz find that boy, anyway?" The luggage turned out to be a single carry-on bag, which didn't surprised Alister, but he certainly felt relieved. Had Valon been one of those kids who just had to lug around a bunch of bags, then there would have been an overdue death. Was he overreacting? Yea, Alister knew he was, but anyone who accused him of having tits needed some overreaction.

On his way back into the house, he encountered Raphael, who looked like he hadn't slept in ten years. Gee, even Raphael is already sick of that little kid.

"So, what do you think of him?" Raphael folded his arms, his blue eyes narrowing. He looked like was about to brace himself against a barrage of Alister claws. He was right.

"What do I think?" Alister dropped the bag, not knowing or caring what was in there. "How can you ask that? Isn't it rather obvious?"

Raphael smiled. "You got off on the wrong foot with him."

"No, he started that shit." He mocked Valon's accent. " 'You look like a girl '. I loved that! Yes, Raph, I know it's true!" Alister added because he knew Raphael was going to say it. "But, I don't need to be reminded! Then, there's 'I just think you're quite fuckable.' How can any child say that?"

"We don't know where he came from or what happened to him." Raphael looked up towards the stairs which led to where everyone slept. "He won't say. All I know is that he was taken from a Detention center to an island where he had to duel others like him."

Alister raised an eyebrow. "I assume Valon won."

"Yea, he did." Raphael nodded. "But, he won't say anything beyond that."

"So, he's really little different than we are." Alister lowered his head. He looked at the bag of Valon's stuff. "He says he wants to be stronger. We all want that. I wonder what his reason is." I know what mine is! "Does he believe what we believe? He has to." Alister sighed. "I guess I won't know now." He picked up the bag.

"This is just the first day, Alister." Raphael stood aside, allowing Alister to pass him. "Just so you know, neither one of you are innocent. I know that he said some things he shouldn't have, but you're three years older than he is. You could have just let it slide."

Alister scoffed. "Let is slide? That's not in my nature and you know it." He turned back to his best friend. "Besides, I think I got to him too, when I asked him if he thought violence was the answer to everything."

Raphael's blue eyes widened. "Hey, you may be on to something."

"YO! Where's me stuff!"

Valon's voice echoed through the walls like loud music. Alister rolled his eyes.

"I better get going with his stuff."

As Alister headed towards the stairs, Raphael's voice followed him. "Maybe you can actually talk to him. Get to know him. Why not? We all have to work together."

"I know...I know, but he better not talk about my 'tits' again!"

-----

Valon didn't say anything about Alister "tits". Instead the boy sat on the twin bed closest to the door. That actually surprised Alister since he thought that the boy might steal the bed the Raphael slept on: the one nearest the balcony that overlooked the ocean. It was a nice, good sized room with minimal decoration. A large, flat screen television stood in front of the twin beds, but it was off. Before Alister could even sit the bag down, Valon glared up at him.

"I don't like you, go away!"

Nice. Alister almost threw Valon's things at him, but he didn't. "I'm just giving you your stuff, that's all." Then, he saw THOSE. Something that both horrified him and shocked him the way that blatant hypocrisy always does. See, according to Alister, Valon had BREASTS. They sure look like breasts as they poked out of his black shirt. Okay, so they weren't women's breasts, but they were still--FLABBY. The bag slipped out of Alister's fingers as he gaped at Valon's chest.

Valon simply frowned. "What? What's wrong with you. Why are you looking at me that way?"

Alister felt tempted to reach out and grab those bitch tits, but he didn't. Instead, he leaned forward and pointed. "Look at this! Look at these FLABBIES!"

"What do you mean flabbies?" The boy gasped, bristling at Alister's words. "I don't have flabbies!"

"Yes, you fucking do!" Alister continued pointing as if the "flabbies" were a triple D cup rather than just typical boy boobies that most grew out of eventually. "You, you little brat! You dare talk about me when you're the one with the fucking flabbies? If there's anyone who needs that butterfly machine, it's you!"

"I don't need that! You're the one with the 'flabbies'!" Valon shot back, which drew a snort from Alister.

"These aren't 'flabbies', brat." Alister pointed at his chest. "These are called pecs. You don't have pecs." He pointed right back at Valon. "You have 'flabbies'.

"That's enough!" Raphael entered the room, followed by a grey cat. "Alister, did you forget what I told you?"

With a slump of his shoulders, Alister shook his head. "No, I haven't forgotten."

"What did you talk about?" Valon asked, eyes widening like a little kid full of wonder. He seemed innocent now, but Alister knew better.

"You, you brat!" He snapped before he could think of anything else to say. Now, he felt like ten thousand heels pounced all over him.

Valon narrowed his eyes. "Me? What about?"

"That it's important to try and get along." Raphael walked over to his bed while the cat jumped right on it. "The two of you have done nothing more than snipe at each other and this is your first day here, Valon. You two want to fight? Save it for at least a few days! But, remember, Valon, Alister is my best friend. If I catch you crossing the line, I'll shut you up myself, got that?"

The boy obviously did because his face fell before nodding. Alister felt like a great weight had been lifted from his shoulders. He wanted to smile, but didn't.

"Anyway, I'll go ahead and prepare for dinner," he finally said, which made Valon quickly look up.

"You said you didn't make dinner until sundown!"

"Maybe I lied!" Alister stalked out of room, fuming once again.

Once in the kitchen, he just shook his head as he leaned against the sink. "Yea, get to know him." On one hand, he put the blame squarely on Valon's shoulders for making fun of someone's "tits" when his really were "flabbies", but on the other, Alister knew otherwise.

If he ended up never really knowing Valon, then he had no one but himself to blame.