A/N: Please listen to the music while you read this to help you understand the chapter.

***

The afternoon sun cast long shadows across the living room, where Cale sat cross-legged on the frayed afghan draped over the couch, reading a book. Rile was beside him, his gangly legs hanging off the armrest and his tablet cradled in his lap.

Alex opened the door of their apartment and stepped inside with a purposeful stride. She wore a black t-shirt and loose-fitting shorts, each hand grasping a wooden staff that had been hung from the wall.

"Cale," she said, "training room. Now."

Rile's eyes lit up, and he leapt to his feet. "This should be interesting," he said, anticipation coloring his voice.

Cale closed his book - an old, leather-bound tome - and set it aside. "What's this about?" he asked.

"You. You're making me nervous," Alex said as she tossed him the staff and stepped into the brothers' training room. She moved gracefully across the tiled floor, her smart phone playing "Troublemaker" in the background.

Rile leaned against one wall and watched them silently, arms folded across his chest.

Alex launched her attack at Cale, their staffs a blur of wood clacking against each other.

"I did exactly what to provoke this?" Cale asked through clenched teeth, struggling to keep up with her wild moves.

"You care. That makes me nervous. This is what I do when I'm nervous," she replied as she tried to sweep his feet off the floor.

Cale quickly lifted his staff, blocking her attack and sending sparks flying. "You're like a sister to me," he said.

"I'm not your sister. I'm an alien freak on the fast track to destruction," Alex spat back as she lunged at him again. He only partially deflected her blow, and the staff dug into his side painfully. She blasted him, then swept his feet out from under him. He fell hard onto the ground.

"Save your caring for your future clan. Don't waste it on me," Alex said with cold finality as she dropped the staff onto Cale's chest.

"That's cheating," Rile said.

"I'm a cheater and a liar," Alex replied. Cale struggled to sit up, "Stay down," Alex warned. "Learn your lesson."

Cale's foot whipped across her ankles and this time it was Alex who went down hard.

"Gonna stop going easy on her?" Rile asked with a sly grin.

Alex scrambled backward, her eyes blazing as she cried out and launched a stream of power at Cale. He reacted quickly, diving to one side and narrowly avoiding it. With a grunt, he dived on top of Alex and pinned her arms to the ground. "It's not worth it!" he shouted through gritted teeth. "Stop attacking anyone who cares about you!" He tightened his grip on her wrists, forcing her to miss as she released another blast.

Rile ducked. "This is getting better and better."

Alex lunged forward, driving her forehead into Cale's muzzle and simultaneously lashing out with a knee that connected with his solar plexus. He grunted in pain as his grip on Alex's wrist loosened. She spun away from him and prepared to strike again, but then Gabe burst into the room.

"What in the name of the Creator is going on here?" he demanded.

"Don't ask," Rile said, a smirk playing at his lips. "Just enjoy the show."

Gabe bellowed an order for them to stop, but Alex just laughed defiantly, her fingers sparking with electricity. In a split second, Cale had managed to twist her arm painfully behind her back, causing her to cry out in frustration. "Fire truck, Cale!"

Cale leaned in close to Alex's ear, and his breath tickled her skin as he said, "Have you learned your lesson?"

Alex tried to slam the back of her head into Cale's face, but his reflexes were too fast.

Rile stifled a laugh. "That's a no."

"Rile, explain." Gabe poked his youngest brother in the chest with a claw.

Rile hissed at him. Alex went completely limp and, as Cale tried to support her, she fouled his legs. They went down as they wrestled, arms and legs flailing in their attempt to gain control.

Rile snorted with laughter and ducked as a bright beam of power flew past him. "That looks like fun!" he yelled.

He wasn't laughing as Alex and Cale both charged him and brought him down. Alex landed on top of Rile, while Cale pinned down his arms.

"Enough," Gabe said. "Are you three juveniles? Someone explain to me."

"Not me," Alex said from the pile on the floor.

"We're just sparring," Rile insisted unconvincingly.

"I don't believe you. Stand up, all of you," Gabe ordered.

"This is more fun though," Rile replied with fake innocence.

Alex disentangled herself at top speed. She stood and brushed her pants.

"Alex felt the need to punish me for caring about her like a sister." Cale adjusted his shirt. "She underestimated me. It's a common enough occurrence."

Rile patted him on the shoulder. "Pick up the shattered pieces of your life and move on."

Cale hissed at him and Rile flicked his tongue out.

"I was explaining to Cale that I was a troublemaking, short-lived alien." Alex ran her hands through her hair. "I thought he would understand better with a staff to follow up my words."

"Why did you feel that Cale needed this explanation?"

"He danced too much with me. I regularly cauterize the black hole where my heart used to be. He can save the whole caring bit for your future clan." Alex flipped her hair back.

Cale stepped forward, shaking his head. "Alex needs to learn to not attack her friends like this. I'm not scared off."

Rile nodded in agreement beside him, but Gabe quickly cut them off with a sharp snap of his fingers. "Well, you two are dismissed now."

"You're in trooouuubbble," Rile said to Alex.

"Maybe Gabe is the one is trouble." Alex lit her hand and shook a sparking finger at Rile. "I know you are."

"Excellent." Rile grinned.

"Gabe, you and I will speak," Cale said. His voice was cold and carried an authority that had Gabe nodding in compliance. "You're not dismissing me. Rile, please make sure Alex doesn't do anything foolish while Gabe and I are busy."

"Hello, I'm right here." Alex waved her hand and rolled her eyes at the conversation.

"It's stupid to hang around here," Rile said as he grabbed Alex's hand. "Let's eat."

The corner of Cale's mouth twitched into a smirk as he nodded at Gabe. "Be back in an hour, I'll be done speaking with him by then."

"An hour to eat? Sounds like po-boys," Alex cheered with a glint of mischievousness in her eye as she grabbed Rile's hand and dragged him toward the door. "Streetcar Sandwiches. Do you want the Belly Buster again?"

"Bring me an Italian po-boy," Cale said.

Gabe frowned at him. "There is more to life than eating."

"No po-boy for you then." Alex dragged Rile toward the door.

Cale watched as the door clicked shut and then turned back to his brother. The tension in the air was palpable, but Cale did not shy away from asking the question that had been troubling him. "Alex attacks those who care about her. But not you, Gabe. Why is that?"

"Don't question my pact with Alex." Gabe growled the words, his body stiffening imperceptibly as he glared down at his youngest brother.

"Pact? Much like commerce. No caring, no love, but a pact? Is that why you're safe from assault?" Cale tilted his head slightly, eyes narrowed in thought as he regarded his eldest brother.

"Not your business." Gabe turned away sharply, seemingly unable to bear looking into his brother's face for another second.

"Business, that's what it is. What would Father say?"

Gabe whipped around, anger and pain flashing across his features before he remembered himself and scowled again. "Father is dead, slaughtered like the rest of our clan. He has nothing to say. I'm in charge and I won't disgrace our family name. Not like Rile."

"Alex attacks him too because he cares. Regular staff fights that she loses, but it doesn't stop her. I think he's disgracing the clan less than you are by being so cold towards Alex."

Gabe stepped forward and jabbed his finger into Cale's chest, frustration boiling in his voice. "I don't care what you think. You're flat-out wrong about Alex and it is exactly what she wants."

"Alex isn't always sane in what she wants," Cale replied. "I'm not wrong. Think carefully if you want to assume leadership. Father may be dead but I didn't think his legacy was. Will your actions earn our race's wings back?"

"Alex is willing, it's not sex, and I'm not a disgrace like Rile. You, Rile, and I will carry on Father's legacy once we return to Olam," Gabe said, hard lines around his eyes and corners of his mouth.

"Then and not now?" Cale shook his head slowly and gave a rare show of anger. He exhaled heavily and said, "Fine, I'm leaving. Streetcar Sandwiches is calling my name." Without another word exchanged between them, he turned on his heel and strode off.

*****

That night, in Alex's apartment, Gabe ran his fingers over the multi-colored threads of the ugly afghan draped over her couch. He fidgeted as he asked, "Do you regret our arrangement?" without looking away from it.

Alex made her way into the kitchenette and retrieved two glasses from the back of a cupboard. She mixed vodka with chocolate liqueur and cream before pouring carefully into each glass and topping them off with a sprinkle of cinnamon. She brought the frosted, triangular green glasses to him and handed one to Gabe.

She sat down next to him and said, "No, I don't. Do you?" She took a sip from her own drink and looked at him intensely over the rim of her glass.

"No."

Alex nervously twirled her glass of martini between her thumb and forefinger. She glanced at Gabe before averting her gaze, focusing on the last sips of her drink. "Let me guess: Cale gave you crap about us. Brother number two objects to our relationship too, doesn't he?" Alex drained the last of her glass in one gulp, then set it down firmly on the bar.

Gabe stirred his own drink with the a plastic straw, not drinking any. "I don't care what they think or say, I just wanted to make sure that you were okay," he said quietly.

Alex forced a smile onto her face and tried to sound cheerful. "Okey-dokey, right as rain, and whatever platitudes you want to hear. Drink up now, it helps." She gestured towards Gabe's martini.

Gabe raised the glass to his lips and Alex watched with anticipation as he took a sip. Once he'd finished, she reached out and removed both glasses from the table and set them aside.

"I'm tired," Alex murmured, lifting the thick afghan blanket from the couch and curling up beneath it for warmth. She nestled her head in Gabe's lap and he stroked her hair softly, watching it slide between his fingers.

"I care for you, but I must leave," he said.

Ah, no more four letter "L" word.

Alex felt things inside her die, degree by freezing degree.

He knows what I am. I know what I am: not something that can be loved. So be it.

"That's why we're together." Alex closed her eyes as the tight ache in her chest resumed its painful clamp. She was glad the alcohol helped her to fall asleep.

***

A/N

Dedicated to my long-suffering critique partner