A/N: Please listen to the music while you read this to help you understand the chapter.
***
The next afternoon, Cale and Rile sat on the couch in their apartment, both reading tablets. Rile dangled his legs over the side of the couch arm and jammed his back against his older, more tolerant brother.
Alex walked in and plucked two staffs off the wall.
"Cale. Training room. Now."
Rile swung his legs over the couch and stood up. "This should be interesting."
Cale set aside his tablet. "What's this about?"
"You. You're making me nervous." Alex tossed him the staff and walked into the brothers' training room.
She walked across the pads on the floor and set her smart phone on a small shelf. She tapped it and the lyrics to "Troublemaker" filled the room.
She whirled and launched her attack at Cale, staff a blur. He brought his staff up and kept her at bay.
Rile leaned against the wall and folded his arms across his chest, gaze intent on the battle before him.
"I'm a troublemaker, Cale," Alex said. "Listen to the words."
"I did exactly what to provoke this?" Cale's staff clacked against Alex's again and again.
"You care. That makes me nervous. This is what I do when I'm nervous." Alex tried to sweep his feet.
Cale blocked and brought her staff up with his. "You're like a sister to me."
"I'm not your sister. I'm an alien freak on the fast track to destruction."
Alex lunged and Cale only partially deflected it. The staff dug into his side and Alex blasted him. She swept his feet and he went down hard.
"Save your caring for your future clan. Don't waste it on me." Alex dropped her 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."
His 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 grin.
Alex scrabbled away and hurled a blast at Cale, who snaked out of the way. Alex gained her feet and Cale tackled her.
"Stop attacking anyone who cares about you." Cale grabbed her wrists and sent the fiery blast wide.
Rile ducked. "This is getting better and better. Let me add my music." He brought out his smart phone, tapped it, and "Bombshell Blonde" rolled through the room.
Alex head-butted Cale and kneed his belly at the same time. He hissed and lost his grip on one of her wrists. Alex rolled to her side and tried to blast him again.
Gabe walked in. "What is going on?"
"Don't ask. Just enjoy the show," Rile said.
"Alex, Cale, stop now," Gabe ordered.
"Busy!" Alex sang back. She lit both hands only to have Cale twist her arm behind her back. "Dammit, Cale."
"Have you learned your lesson?" he asked in her ear.
She tried to slam her head against his but he jerked back in time.
Rile laughed. "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 both went down and rolled on the ground, wrestling, Cale keeping Alex's hands from blasting him.
"That looks like fun." Rile laughed and ducked as Alex fired at him.
He wasn't laughing as Alex and Cale both charged him and brought him down. They both piled on top of him.
"Enough," Gabe said. "Are you three juveniles? Someone explain to me."
"Not me," Alex said from the pile on the floor.
"Just sparring," Rile said.
"I don't believe you," Gabe replied. "Stand."
"This is more fun," Rile replied.
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.
"Alex must learn to not attack her friends," Cale said. "I'm not warned off."
"Me either," Rile said.
"Cale, Rile, you're dismissed," Gabe said.
"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 said.
"Gabe, you and I will speak," Cale said. "You're not dismissing me. Rile, please make sure Alex doesn't do anything stupid."
"Hello, I'm right here," Alex said.
"It's stupid to hang around here," Rile said. "Let's eat."
"Be back in an hour," Gabe said.
"An hour to eat? Sounds like po-boys," Alex said. "Hurry up, Rile."
"Bring me an Italian po-boy," Cale said.
"There is more to life than eating," Gabe said.
"No po-boy for you then." Alex caught Rile's arm and dragged him toward the door. "Streetcar Sandwiches. Do you want the Belly Buster again?"
Cale watched as the door clicked shut, then turned back. "Alex attacks those who care about her. But not you, Gabe. Why is that?"
"Don't question my pact with Alex." Gabe stared down at his smallest brother.
"Pact? Much like commerce. No caring, no love, but a pact? Is that why you're safe from assault?" Cale tilted his head.
"Not your business." Gabe turned away.
"Business, that's what it is. What would Father say?"
Gabe whipped around. "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," Cale said. "Regular staff fights that she loses but it doesn't stop her. I think he's disgracing the clan less than you."
Gabe thumped Cale's chest. "I don't care what you think. You're wrong. Drop the whole matter. Leave Alex alone. It's 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. "Excuse me. I'm heading to Streetcar Sandwiches. I'm hungry."
*****
That night, in Alex's apartment, Gabe fiddled with the ugly afghan on her couch. "Do you regret our arrangement?" he asked, not looking up.
Alex stood up from the couch and walked into the kitchenette. "I'm making chocolate martinis for both of us. Then we'll talk."
She brought the frosted, triangular green glasses and handed one to Gabe. She sat down next to him and said, "No, I don't. Do you?" She drank deeply from her glass and regarded him over the rim.
"No."
"Let me guess, Cale gave you crap about us." Alex swirled her drink. "That's brother number two who objects. You can back out. I'll be fine." Alex finished off her martini, tilting her head back to drain the glass.
"I don't care what they think or say. I wanted to make sure that you were okay." Gabe studied his martini but didn't drink it.
"Okey-dokey, right as rain, and whatever platitudes you want to hear. Drink. It helps."
Gabe sipped from the glass as Alex watched. Once his glass was empty, she plucked it from his hand and set both glasses on the side table.
"I'm tired." Alex lifted the afghan and slid under it.
She rested her head on Gabe's lap. Gabe ran his hands through her hair, 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 dedicated reader and voter
annelobreta
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Her polished and poignant time travel book is the only one that convinced me to love time travel!