After a long, stunned silence, we all went back to doing what we were doing before; attempting to clean the kitchen. Or at least make it not look like a herd of angry buffalo rampaged through it.

Both options would be hard to achieve.

I didn't even get to start before Jeb leapt up and started dabbing some type of cream on my jaw gash.

"What the heck, Jeb?" I asked in surprise.

He held up a small white tube. "Neosporin," he replied, "It'll keep it from getting infected and help this heal." Jeb moved forward to dab some more on before adding, "I think this is going to scar…"

I grunted acknowledgement, but continued to sit patiently while he bandaged it carefully before heading for my other various scratches and scrapes, none as bad as the one on my cheek. Meanwhile, the remainder of the flock plus Dylan scurried around cleaning up.

By the time Jeb finished up healing me, I had recovered my energy, although I was still slightly tired. However, I was extremely hungry. Therefore, I went to the nearest pantry and mugged it of its contents. When I was finished and licking some peanut butter of my fingers, I turned back to the rest of the group who were doing similar stuff.

Angel clambered up onto the counter then. I watched interestedly as she cleared her throat. Everyone looked up at her. "Okay, guys," she started. I assume she would be taking over the position of Alpha seeing as Max had been… kicked out. "Now that Max and Fang are gone, what should we do now?"

… She sounded like she had planned this… creepy… but Angel continued, "I suggest we go to Hollywood. We could become famous, like we've wanted to!"

Nudge squealed in delight and Gazzy smiled. I was a bit skeptical, and Dylan looked it too. I was about to ask a question when Angel kept going, "So, since we're all up for it, I saw we should leave tomorrow morning. Any comments?"

I raised my hand. Angel pointed to me and gazed at me expectantly. "Er, I don't really want to go…" I said trailing off.

Angel looked at me in surprise. Then she shrugged. Before she could say anything, Dylan added, "I don't really want to go either…"

Shrugging again nonchalantly, Angel stared at the pair of us. "Then you can stay and hold down the fort," she replied.

Surprised, I nodded. Jeb seemed worried though. "Just you four?" he asked Angel, "That's it?"

"Well, you can come with us too, Jeb! That'd be awesome!" Nudge exclaimed.

Jeb sighed but didn't respond. He apparently sensed that he was fighting a losing battle here. Angel accepted this and clapped her hands together happily. "Then tomorrow we head out!" she said happily, getting off the countertop.

_______________________________________________________Time Lapse... the Next Day, Around Noon...__________________________________________________________

"Are you sure you'll be fine?" The only remaining adult fretted.

I patted Jeb's arm soothingly. "We'll be fine. We won't burn down the house or anything like that."

He still didn't move until Nudge gently pulled him towards the car he would be driving. "Come on, Jeb. They have a phone, they'll be fine. Dylan's in love with Max, he won't try anything…"

Uh…

Nudge tugged on Jeb again, and led him a bit reluctantly to his car. They were driving to California. Jeb gave a half-hearted wave before getting into the car and starting the engine.

Within minutes, Dylan and I were watching the last traces of dust show the path of the car. I turned to him and said, "Race you to the big rock."

He gave me a questioning look. "What? You know I can't fly that fast."

"Not flying, beetlebrain. Running!"

"Oh."

I tried again. "So, in a running race around the house, wanna see who wins?"

Dylan grinned at me mischievously. "Okay! Go!"

He took off. "Hey!" I yelled after him, "Not fair!"

He simply laughed and turned the first corner. I skidded around the bend to find Dylan several paces ahead of me. I hissed and pumped my legs faster.

He was cackling as he turned around the house again, the big rock within sight. I ran faster than I thought I could.

He was almost to the rock, and I was two steps behind him.

I solved all my problems with a leap. I flew high and true and- landed right in front of Dylan. Yes! I was winning!

Unfortunately, he tripped over my feet which had not landed moving fast enough. Which therefore caused both of us to do in a feathery heap, laughing.

Dylan ended up right beside be, almost on top of my right arm. As I watched, he reached an arm up and touched the big gray rock that was our destination. We handed landed right in front of it.

"Hey! Not fair!" I yowled, scrambling to my feet.

"It is too!" Dylan shot back at me.

"You're the one who said go before I was ready!"

"You tripped me!"

I humphed and stuck my tongue out at him. He did the same.

Sensing that no progress on who cheated was going to be made, I simply changed the subject. "So, wanna learn how to fight?"

Dylan raised an eyebrow at me, questioning my motives for my sudden subject change. Crap. He was onto me. "Sure," he said, a little worriedly. Then he spotted a rather major flaw in that plan. "Uh, Spark? Don't you fight with claws?"

"Obviously."

"Well, I don't have those."

Oh. That throws a wrench into the plan. "…Uh…. I know!" I practically had a light bulb over my head. "I can teach you the movements for fighting, and I can help you adapt it to your no-claws style!"

Confused, Dylan nodded anyway. I nodded and told him to face the same way I was, towards the rock, yet far enough away that neither of us would break fingers hitting it by accident.

"Okay, I don't know the name of this move," I started, "But I do know that if you do this into someone's neck or armpit it hurts like crazy." To demonstrate, I shot my arm out straight and slight upwards, fast and powerful.

After observing me carefully, Dylan did the same perfectly. I smiled and continued to teach.

We practiced until the sun started to go down. By this time we were doing some basic sparring, with me being super careful not to unsheathe my claws and scratch him.

Dylan was a natural at fighting. Okay, so he was a bit clumsy and his balance was off, but that would come with practice.

He flowed from move to move almost effortlessly. I easily dodged the blows, and struck a couple gentle ones of my own. It was really noticeable that we were getting tired when Dylan launched himself forward to punch my arm, and when I slid to the side he nearly landed on his face.

Chuckling to myself, I pulled him up. Dylan dusted himself off and squinted at the sky. I looked up too. "It's getting dark," I said, "We should go inside and eat. I dunno about you, but I'm starving!"

"I agree," Dylan replied. When we got inside the house, however, we discovered that we both had the cooking ability of an apple.

Dylan and I ended up foraging through the scarred pantry. I came up with a box of cereal and a jar of peanut butter. Turning, I saw Dylan poking his head in the fridge. It was the only thing in the kitchen that had remained undamaged, most likely because it was actually a bit away from the kitchen. That, and the fact that Gazzy had pretty much guarded it.

Triumphantly pulling a jug of milk and some cheese out, Dylan shut the door with his foot. Together, we sat down and feasted on our odd arrangement of food.

After we finished, and moved to the un-wrecked living room, I turned to my companion, who was dozing with eyes half-shut, and asked, "What should we do tomorrow?"

He frowned and sat up. "Um, maybe we could fly a bit, stuff like that," was his response.

Shrugging, I leaned back and closed my eyes. "That sounds good," I said sleepily. Tired and full of food, it was no wonder I drifted off to sleep quickly.

Spark and Dylan are so childish sometimes…