AN - Language notes at the end of the chapter. Sorry, didn't realise everyone would be so curious about the Spanish. :-)

"Raf! Oh my God, get in here! We've been waiting for like hours for you!"

"Fuck off, Mikey, I was busy."

Raf grew three inches between ages ten and eleven, but if Yoshi hoped growing might calm some of his anger, he was disappointed.

He was just as angry, just as quick to attack. Just as often in trouble, though Prentiss's theory that he would be in prison before he hit puberty was hopefully to be disproved.

"Come on, Raf! This is going to be awesome!"

Mike still liked him as much as ever, somehow. Even Yoshi's patience had been tested more than once., but Mike, it seemed, was a friend without fail.

Raf shrugged off his worn backpack and dropped it in the doorway, off the mat. He toed off his dirty sneakers. He looked at Yoshi, bowed in his perfunctory, just-enough-to-be-respectful way, and moved to where the other three were already kneeling.

Mike settled down when Raf knelt beside him. "This is so awesome."

"Jesus, Mike, calm down."

"Rafael." Yoshi looked down at Raf.

Raf bent his head, hiding a smirk. "Sorry, sensei."

Yoshi regarded him. "Very well. Now that we're all here, the lesson can begin."

"Wait 'til you see what he's going to teach us! It's so cool! Leo showed me already, and--"

"Michael."

Mike grinned up at Yoshi. Yoshi maintained a frown, though it was hard. He was really terribly fond of his second son. "Perhaps Leonardo would demonstrate again."

Leo lit up and jumped to his feet, moving up to join Yoshi in front of the other boys. He bowed to Yoshi deeply, grinning.

Yoshi returned the bow, if not the smile. It was good to see Leo's spirits as light as they had been. Having Mike there was good for him. Good for all of them.

Leo drew a deep breath and Yoshi watched the concentration screw his face up. He shifted his feet a few more inches apart, squared his shoulders. Shifted his spine. Yoshi waited, and a slight imperfection in Leo's centering corrected itself until he stood perfectly, the way he'd been taught.

Always a perfectionist, his Leonardo.

Yoshi turned his eyes to the other boys. "Any guess what he's doing? Michael, please don't answer."

Raf shrugged. "He's standing there."

"He's balancing weird," Don noticed.

Yoshi smiled. "Very good. Michael, stand."

Mike jumped to his feet, bouncing light on his toes.

Yoshi gestured to Leo. "Kindly knock him over."

"Yes!" Mike grinned at the two other boys and rubbed his hands together. "Ready, bro?"

Leo smiled through his focus. "Yeah."

Mike charged him.

Yoshi watched Don and Raf during the demonstration. When Mike came at Leo they both watched in surprise. When he slammed into him and bounced off, though Leo didn't move a muscle, their mouths dropped open.

Yoshi smiled to himself. "Michael?"

"I'm okay!" Mike jumped back to his feet. "Awesome, Leo."

Leo grinned and relaxed.

"I don't get it."

Yoshi turned to Raf. "Proper balance is of more than aesthetic importance."

"What's that mean?"

"It means it's more than just looking good," Leo explained as he and Mike took their spots kneeling in front of Yoshi again.

Yoshi nodded. "By centering yourself perfectly, rooting your balance into the very ground, you can become an entirely unmovable object. Like you just saw, any attacker attempting to knock you off balance would do just as well going against a brick wall."

"That's impossible." Don regarded Yoshi, wide-eyed with the nervousness he always got when he questioned Yoshi's teachings.

Yoshi smiled. "Leo? Perhaps Don would like to try."

Leo jumped to his feet again readily, beaming his pride in his accomplishment.

Don stood in front of him and tried pushing with his hands. After a few unsuccessful attempts he butted his shoulder carefully against Leo's chest. Then he stood back and regarded him.

Raf jumped to his feet. "Let someone do it who's not scared to make him fall on his ass."

"Rafael."

"Butt. I said butt."

Yoshi gave him a stern look, but nodded his permission.

Raf ran at Leo and tackled him like a football player trying to down another.

A few moments later Raf was picking himself up off the ground, gaping at Leo.

Leo was practically glowing.

Yoshi set about instructing them, teaching how to position their feet, how to figure out the right center for them. Of course no lesson like that was learned in a day, and by the end of the two hours there were three frustrated boys still knocking each other down easily.

Yoshi dismissed them with a smile. "Remember, any lesson that can be taught in a single class is hardly worth knowing at all. We will continue this Wednesday."

The four of them bowed - with varying degrees of respect - and Mike turned to Leo. "My brother rules!"

Leo grinned, pleased. "I've just been working on it for a while."

"Shut up, you're the best."

"Rafael. Don. Please remain for a few moments."

They waited while Yoshi's two children left the dojo to pound up the stairs and no doubt raid what little food remained in the fridge.

Yoshi regarded his two other children, the ones he had no claim to beyond a few days in a sewer years ago. "The two of you have been doing poorly in your private lessons. Working with weapons is a dangerous thing that shouldn't be rushed, of course, but your progress is too slow. I believe I have a solution to this problem, though."

Raf and Don exchanged glances.

"Tenemos un problema?"

"No se."

"Boys."

"Sorry, sensei. No disrespect." Raf grinned, quickfire.

Yoshi nodded. "Very well. Don, I'd like you to tell me why you think you're having such problems working with the katana."

Don shrugged. His eyes dropped, meaning he knew the answer but didn't want to say it. Perhaps because Raf was there.

But Yoshi had been trying for months to get the boys all entirely comfortable with each other. Don was still too shy at times, and Leonardo was still hesitant around Raf, but for the most part the improvements were vast.

"Don, please."

Don cleared his throat. "I just…the sword always seems so…" He shifted on his feet, glancing at Raf. "So sharp."

Raf smirked.

Yoshi ignored him. "You don't like the idea of cutting into an enemy, do you?"

"No." Don answered that with less hesitation, even in the face of Raf's smirk. "I don't."

"Good, then I believe I have a proper solution." He turned and went to the wall, and pulled from over the katana on their holders the bo that Rafael had been struggling so hard with.

"Hey! That's mine!" Typically, Raf protested instantly.

"No, Rafael. A good warrior earns his weapons. A warrior knows and respects his weapons. You have not yet earned this. Therefore, Don will attempt it."

Don took the bo when Yoshi held it out, looking at it dubiously. "It's a stick."

Yoshi smiled. "Tomorrow we will begin lessons. I think you will come to see quickly how much more than a stick the bo can be."

Don shrugged, shifting his hands on the bo, swinging it a bit experimentally, hefting its weight.

"This is bullshit!"

"Rafael!"

Raf's cheeks were already red with anger. "You never said you were gonna take it away from me! Just because I can't learn as fast as perfect Leonardo--"

"Stop."

Raf glowered at Don and the bo. "Forget it. He can have it. He can have everything of mine if he wants it. I don't care."

Yoshi sighed. "Don, perhaps you'd like to join my sons upstairs."

Don handed the bo back, always respectful of the equipment. "Yes, sensei." He shot Raf a look, apologetic. "Lo siento--"

"Callate, cabron!" Raf's hands were fists.

"Raf--"

"Don. You're dismissed."

Don grabbed his shoes and left the dojo.

"Rafael. This sort of outburst has no place in my lessons."

"What lessons? You took away my weapon!"

Yoshi sighed, small and contained. "You don't like the bo. You've made that abundantly clear. The bo, I think, shares that dislike."

"Great, even the stick doesn't like me."

Yoshi bit back a smile. "But I believe we can find an alternative."

Raf opened his mouth to retort, but hesitated.

Yoshi gestured at the walls. "I've explained almost all of these weapons to you, their uses, their advantages and disadvantages. Are there any that call to you more than the bo? Any you think you would be happier using?"

"I don't know." Raf glanced at the wall, but his glower stayed firmly in place. "The chuks are Mike's. Leo and Don use the swords, and hell if I wanna compete with Mr. Perfect."

"Rafael."

Raf looked away from the wall. "I don't care. It's all stupid anyway."

Yoshi regarded him. "Do you mean that?"

Raf frowned.

Yoshi was hesitant, unsure where the limits of Rafael's bluffs fell. "Because if you mean it, there would be no point in your continuing to come for lessons."

Raf blinked and looked away. "You don't want me here."

"That isn't true, and I think you know that."

"Course it's true. Nobody wants me. I don't want them to. I don't care if I don't come back. I don't care."

Yoshi turned to put the bo back on the wall, and his eyes caught on a pair of weapons he hadn't put up yet. A new addition to his dojo. Weapons he was not fully trained on himself.

He hesitated, regarding them. He moved to the table they lay on and lifted them, hefting the heavy iron. He would have to order a practice pair, but… "Have you heard of the sai?"

"The sigh?" Raf snorted.

Yoshi turned, the jagged three-pronged daggers in his hands. "The sai," he repeated.

Raf's eyes went to him, and down to the weapons. His eyebrows lifted.

Yoshi moved to him slowly, regarding the daggers. "Sai are a tricky weapon. As you see, they are shaped different than anything else I've got. They are small. Sharp. They cut in more than one way."

Raf's eyes - unusually bright, Yoshi saw as he moved closer - were caught on the weapons. "They look kinda wicked."

"Yes. They are rather wicked. They're deceptive, Rafael. They look as if they might be used to stab out, to strike at attackers. They are called daggers. But the sai's appearance is deceptive." He held one out.

Raf hesitated, looking unsure, but took it. It dropped a few inches, as if the weight surprised him.

"The sharpness of it is deceptive," Yoshi continued. "You see these?" He reached out and tapped his finger on the two short, blunt prongs at the ends. "They are called tsuba. They look dangerous, but they are entirely defensive."

"Defensive?" Raf looked at Yoshi, anger forgotten. "You mean you're not supposed to stab people with them?"

Yoshi smiled. "You could if you had to. But that's not their function." He turned and went back to get the bo Rafael had failed with. He set the other sai down and turned back to Raf. "I am an enemy. I am a great deal larger than you, and with this weapon, as you have pointed out many a time, I am even larger and have greater reach."

Raf studied him, his focus sharp.

Yoshi had to fight a premature feeling of triumph. "I know you, Rafael. You have fought larger opponents before. Often you come out the victor. Why?"

Raf hesitated. "'Cause I know how to kick--"

"Rafael."

He stopped, sighed. "I don't know. Because…I'm not scared of them."

"Even though they're larger?"

"Bigger they are, harder they fall, right?"

Yoshi smiled. "Exactly. Size can be a great disadvantage. You can use an opponents size against them. Especially with weapons like these." Yoshi held the bo in both hands and slowly extended it at Raph. "In order to strike you, I must extend. I must come in to your space. Why is that a disadvantage?"

Raf blinked a few times, rapid-fire. A habit of his when he was searching for an answer he knew he remembered. "It's like you said in the lesson today. Balance is important, and when you have to reach so far it's harder to balance."

Victory nearly made Yoshi grin. He contained it, clearing his throat. "Exactly. Now. Consider the weapon in your hand."

Raf did, looking down at the heavy sai. He looked up at the bo's end, coming inch by inch into his space.

He lofted the sai, touching the end of the dull tsuba with his finger.

Yoshi kept coming, slow-motion as his initial attacks in new lessons always were. He studied Raf's face, hoping. Weapons were such an instinctive thing, and Raf's personality was so mercurial that the fit would have to be right or no weapon would be more successful than the bo.

Raf shifted, his feet apart, watching the bo. He held the sai in front of his face, brow furrowed.

Suddenly his eyes widened and he grinned. His eyes were locked on the end of the bo, waiting, watching.

And when the bo was close enough, in his own space, he lifted the sai so that the end of the bo fell between a tsuba and the pronged middle dagger. His wrist twisted, slow as Yoshi was moving, experimental.

The bo was caught.

Raf pushed his arm, and the bo moved with the sai, trapped.

Yoshi straightened, smiling.

"Oh…" Raf shifted his wrist to free the bo. He regarded the sai, and then looked at Yoshi. A question in his eyes.

Yoshi nodded. "Very good."

"Oh!" Raf clutched the sai. A smile spread over his face, sudden and bright and sincere where his grins usually had an edge. The smile of a child. Of a young boy who had done well and knew it. Who found something that fit him, and knew it.

It was the first real smile Yoshi had ever seen on his face.

And when he spoke, his voice was young. No longer sharp, no longer defensive. "Can these be mine?" He cradled the single sai to his chest, possessive.

Respectful.

Yoshi had to clear his throat before he could answer. "They do seem to like you."

"It doesn't mean anything, really. I mean…no one even knows what day I was born."

"Shut up, Don. It means a lot! No one knows when the rest of us were born either. They gave us days, and now they're our days." Mike crossed his arms over his chest, stubborn. "Now, are you gonna come in and enjoy your party or do we have to get the weapons out?"

Don dropped his eyes, shy but beaming all the same. "Okay."

Mike tugged him in instantly. "It's just us, anyway. You don't have to be all nervous or whatever. Hey dad, he's coming!"

Don jumped when Mike shouted, but his heart felt lighter the higher up the stairs they moved.

His parents gave him a party. They invited friends from school and Mike and Leo, and Raf but he couldn't come because he was in the state home and it wasn't easy to get him out. It had been big and fun and his parents had both been there the whole time, which was almost amazing.

But Don liked this more. Just the four of them and Master Yoshi. He knew them all well, not like the kids at school he hardly even talked to. He liked them and they liked him. It was more honest.

He pushed open the door and Mike pushed him through and he grinned, red-cheeked.

Leo and Raf stood on either side of a small, lopsided cake. Yoshi stood back, hands behind his back, that small smile on his face.

"We made it!" Leo said in a rush, before he even said hello. "We made the cake and dad only watched and didn't help. And Raf decorated it when he got here!"

Felis cupleanos, the cake read in messy icing.

Don grinned and almost said something about how the words were misspelled. But he didn't, because maybe it wasn't a funny thing that he could spell Spanish words better than Raf.

He didn't have time to think about it before Mike started pushing him closer.

"Come on! Everybody sing! We're gonna do this right!"

Mike didn't give them time before he began his own loud, cheery version of 'happy birthday'. Leo and Raf joined in, and even Yoshi sang softly from where he stood watching.

Don was grinning so big it made his eyes squint, but he could see well enough to lean in and blow out the crooked candles when they were done.

Mike cheered and Raf and Leo clapped, and Yoshi went back to get plates and silverware.

"You got a present," Raf said with a grin.

"I already got presents," Don said in protest, though of course he was more than happy to hear he had more stuff coming.

"This is our present, though." Leo grabbed a bright wrapped box from the table beside the cake. "Here!"

It was heavy. Don grinned. "What is it?"

"You're supposed to open it, idiot."

"Rafael." Yoshi moved back in, knife in his hand.

Raf held up his hands. "Sorry. You're supposed to open it, cabron."

"Enough," Yoshi said quickly, but though he sighed he was smiling as he started cutting Don's second birthday cake.

Don tore the paper off the box and blinked at the picture and the words describing what was inside. For a moment he thought it was wrong - sometimes his parents wrapped up gifts in old boxes that still had pictures of other things on them. Don got a big stuffed bear once in a box that had a TV on it.

But when he peeled off the tape and opened the box…

"Wow."

"We know how you like electronic things," Leo said fast, excited, his weight shifting back and forth from one leg to the other. "And you said you like to watch shows about everything, so…" He grinned. "Now you can make your own shows."

Don pulled the styrofoam blocks out of the box, and carefully lifted the video camera out. "Wow!"

"We have tapes for you too, but dad didn't bother wrapping those." Mike grinned and nodded towards a neat stack of VHS tapes.

Don beamed, lifting the camera to his eye. "Wow." He dug into the box and pulled out the manual, and seeing the pages and pages of instruction and detail was almost better than seeing the actual camera.

"Guess you like it, then." Raf smirked.

"Shut up." Don grinned, aiming the camera at him. "Or I won't make you a star."

Raf made a face, looking at the lens.

Don giggled and set the camera carefully down, flipping through the instructions. "Thanks, guys! Thanks, Master Yoshi. This is awesome."

"Well, the card says it's from all of us," Raf said suddenly. "But I don't have any money and it was Leo's idea and I really didn't have anything to do with it."

"Rafael, we told you--"

"I know." Raf grinned. "I'm just saying. That's why I brought him a present just from me."

Don beamed. "Another one?"

Raf shrugged. He dug in his pocket. "Like I said, I don't have any money. It's nothing cool like a video camera."

Don looked at the camera longingly.

"But!" Raf pulled his hand out of his pocket, holding a piece of paper up in victory. "Here."

Don blinked at it. "What is it?"

"Just look at it, dork."

He took the paper. A little square of cardboard. It had his name on it - Donald Tell, and his parents' address. And words at the top.

New York Public Library

He blinked. "A library card?"

Raf shrugged. Now that the gift was given he looked suddenly sheepish. "Uh. You know, 'cause you keep saying how boring it is at home. And that's good for a lot of libraries around the city, and there's one a few stops down from here, and I thought maybe sometimes you could go there instead of waiting for hours here for your folks. And you could take books home and it would be less boring? Jesus, Don, I don't know! Stop staring at me."

Don realized he really was staring. He dropped his eyes back to the card. "How'd you get it?"

Raf was getting red-faced. Everyone's eyes were on him, even Yoshi. "Uh. I snuck out of the home."

"Rafael." Yoshi's voice was stern.

"What? I do it a lot. There's all kinds of ways in and out of that place." He grinned, cocky for a moment. "Um. And yeah. I just went in and lied to 'em, said my name was your name and my parents worked at night and couldn't come get the card with me, and I faked like I was gonna cry or something, and bam. They gave it to me."

Don smiled. "Thanks."

Raf shrugged. "It's nothing, anyway."

"It is something." Yoshi held out a plate of messy birthday cake to Don, and his hand rested on Raf's shoulder for a moment. "It's a thoughtful, considerate gift."

"That mean I'm not in trouble for sneaking around and lying and stuff?"

Yoshi smiled kindly. "No."

Raf sighed. "Thought not."

Sometimes things went so well it was easy for Yoshi to forget that two of his children weren't his.

Don came so often, nearly every day after school to play with Mike and Leo if not to study with Yoshi himself, that he felt like a third son.

Was a third son, as Rafael was fourth. Just…not officially.

Still, it was easy to think of Don as his own, and hard when something came along to remind him that the boy's fate wasn't in Yoshi's hands.

"I don't know, Yoshi." Miss Prentiss sighed through the phone. "I can't get over just being disgusted by the whole thing."

Yoshi could hear the sounds of his own two sons playing together in the next room. "I don't understand why they can't…"

"To talk to the wife, it's because she's got to move back to Arkansas or somewhere unholy like that, and doesn't know if she'll be able to raise a child when she gets there. The father? Well, the father's a selfish ass."

She sighed again, worn down and bitter like every time she talked to him lately. "They never should have adopted in the first place, but I didn't care because they didn't hurt him. Even if they were remote they were parents, and it was nice not to have to worry about Don."

"Does he know yet?"

"I think so. The parents decided on the divorce shortly after his birthday."

Yoshi shut his eyes, anger making his fist wrap around the phone cord. "They would simply give him back. After years raising that sweet boy, they would…"

"I know, Yoshi. Believe me, you'd be preaching to the choir. I tried to talk them out of it. But there comes a point when it would be cruel to leave Don with someone who had to be convinced to hold on to him."

"Damn it."

"Pretty much, yeah."

Don would be crushed. He would be sent back to that home, the same one Raf hated so much.

Perhaps that would be something. Perhaps they would be happier together.

He couldn't fool himself with that thought, though. Rafael despised the home and the staff and everything about the place. Yoshi could just imagine Raf's rage realizing his friend was going to be sent back.

He remembered long ago, when Raf told Mike he had hurt some staff member who hurt Mike.

He had a very bad feeling that the peace of the last few months was about to get disturbed, and heavily.

Note about the language:

For the most part it's safe to assume that anything out of Raf's mouth in Spanish is a profanity. He likes the naughty words, si?

From the last chapter, the phrase Don was working on in his mind, porque somos cansados, just means 'because we're too tired'. Raf's retort to Yoshi, no me importa dos cajones, means essentially 'I don't give a crap'. Cabron, Raf's favorite word, means bastard, jerk, like that.

From this chapter:

Tenemos un problema: We have a problem?

No se. : I don't know.

Lo sieto- : I'm sorry-

Callate : Shut up

Feliz cumpleanos, which Raf misspelled on Don's cake, obviously means 'happy birthday'.