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The alarm clock blared on the nightstand and Talon reached out to swat it off irately. He hated meetings with the producer, he hated when they were scheduled for the morning, but most of all, he hated that he was expected to be there as soon as the studio opened to take part, despite the fact HIS shift didn't start until the late evening.

Growling darkly, he shifted away from the warmth of Yeande's still-slumbering form in the bed beside him and blindly groped for some pants to pull on before shambling out of the room, disheveled and tired.

First thing was first, he was going to fix himself some coffee and hope it would keep him from falling asleep in the shower.

As he padded down the stairs into the darkened lower level of the house, he paused in puzzlement, seeing both the kitchen and living room light on. Damn kids....how many times had he told them to turn the damn lights off before they went to be--

The thought was derailed by the sound of pots clattering, which made him jolt. What the hell...?

Edging into the kitchen, he felt the bottom drop out of his stomach at the utter MESS the floor had become. And sitting in the middle of it all, happily oblivious, was a child he had never seen before in his life.

"What--" he started to say, before his attention was drawn next to the living room where the TV was left on, blaring the empty blue screen of a long-finished movie.

On the couch, sprawled and asleep, was Zhane and--who the hell was THAT?

His eyes wandered between the happily-cooing infant making an utter disaster of his kitchen, and the sleeping blonde sprawled over his son who appeared to be lacking a shirt.

He was silent for a moment, as if trying to decide whether all of the chaos was some sort of trick of the brain, before his anger snapped things back into focus.

"What......the ********??" he erupted, immediately jolting Zhane awake on the couch as he blinked blearily at his surroundings. First at the TV, then at Nani, then at his father standing in the wreck Seiji had left the kitchen.

....aw, dammit....

Still clawing through the haze of sleep to bring himself back to full awareness, Zhane rose from the couch, flinching a bit under the angry eye of his father as he first surveyed the wreckage of the kitchen, and then put a hand on Nani's shoulder.

And the night had gone so well, too...

"I'll clean it up, don't worry about it." he told her.

"You're damn straight you will..." Talon growled, his long ears flattened back. Getting a better look at Nani, he found he didn't like her any more than he had when he'd initially walked in on her and his son. He fixed her with a disapproving glare which seemed to ask anything from what the hell she was doing in his house to what kind of mother let their baby run wild while she slept in front of a movie.

Zhane fidgeted uncomfortably, and then stepped in front of her, placing himself between Nani and Talon.

"I'll handle it, Dad, all right?" he said quietly. "Just lost track of time, that's all..."

Zhane set his jaw, feeling his own anger at the situation starting to rise as he heard Nani's murmured apologies. She shouldn't have had to apologize....sometimes things just happened. His dad, of all people, should have known that.

As things began to put themselves away and tidy themselves up, Talon, noticeably flinched, the anger momentarily fleeing from his expression to be replaced with surprise. He could already feel his temples throbbing with the onset of a headache as he reached up to rub at his eyes, muttering obscenities as he did so. Why? Why was he expected to deal with this kind of s**t when he just got up?

"Go home." he said tersely to Nani at last, not looking at her or Seiji as he did so.

"I'll walk you out, Nani." Zhane offered quickly, two pairs of green eyes locking on one another as he moved past his father.

You and I are going to have words after this... Talon's gaze promised

I know it. Believe me, I know it.

"Nani, you don't have to--" he started, reaching out to her, but she was already gone in a shimmer as if she'd never been there. He blinked, his hand dropping back to his side uselessly.

Great...

The first friend he'd met in a long time.....first person he'd he'd felt an actual -connection- with, and she'd been scared off because his dad had decided to throw a tantrum.

God damn it...!!

Grabbing up the remote, he punched the power button, turning off the TV before dropping it back to the couch and whirled on his heel to storm out of the living room. He did not anger easily, but when he did, his temper was nearly as sour as his father's. And right now, he was bordering furious.

He needed to call her. He needed to tell her things were okay...that she didn't do anything wrong. That his dad was ALWAYS like this.

As he moved past the kitchen, his upper arm was caught.

"We're not done here." Talon warned him, narrowing his eyes even as he gave his arm a yank, pulling it free of his grasp.

"I'M done here." Zhane growled, stalking toward the hall in the direction of his room. "Just leave me alone."

"I said we're not done." Talon called after him. "Do you hear me? ZHANE!!"

The response was a door being slammed shut, while at the same time, two other doors opened as Phaerna peered out of her bedroom in confusion at all the noise and Yeande appeared at the top of the stairs, wrapped in a robe.

"Who's yelling? What's going on?" Yeande inquired as Talon's forehead thunked against the wall in sheer irritation.

"I don't even ******** know anymore..." her husband grumbled.

As the hours had gone by, Zhane had quickly run out of ways to tell people he didn't want to talk to them. This had been accomplished by he and his father screaming at each other until he'd had to leave for his meeting, followed by his mother's more gentle attempt to find out what had gone on so she could draw her own conclusions, and at last by Phaerna asking if he was okay.

No. He was not okay right now. He was very -not- okay.

He laid stomach-down on his bed, his anger eventually having dissipated into fuming, and then finally to a sort of melancholy numbness as he turned the small blue seashell she'd given him at the lake over in his fingers, watching the sun play off of it as it filtered through his window.

That hunted look in her eyes before she'd vanished bothered him....she probably didn't want anything to do with him after she'd had the fear of god put into her in front of Seiji that way.

His hand reached out for the portable phone he'd borrowed from its cradle in the kitchen and punched redial, listening to the now-familiar sequence of blips as it dialed the number she'd given him before they'd parted ways their first meeting.

On the sixth ring, he sighed and hung it up again, laying it back down. He'd been trying to call her since his dad had left, and either she purposely wasn't answering, or had her phone turned off.

He had hoped to talk it out with her one-on-one, but if nothing else, there was always Email. At least there he'd be able to explain his side of things uninterrupted and let her make her decisions from there.

Rolling over, he pulled himself out of bed and crossed the room to sink into his chair, jostling the mouse to scare away his screensaver. His cursor paused, however, on its way to the Email program as he noted the small popup window sitting foremost among the ones he'd left open.

FairyImp has come online! Send Message?

He stared at it for a long moment, having no idea how long it had sat there while he'd been idle, and then clicked yes and began to type.


Bluekirin: Nani? You still there?

He was surprised to have received a reply, and in that vein, such a quick one. As he read over what she had to say, though, he felt his heart sink. Why was she blaming herself for what had happened....?

Bluekirin: You don't have anything to apologize for. I was the one who said it'd be okay to go back to my place, and I should've gotten you up and I didn't. I fell asleep too.


he moved to click send, paused, and then added onto his post a bit more.



Bluekirin: My dad doesn't like anybody. Not ANYBODY except maybe my mom. Please don't take it personally. I'm sorry if he scared you and Seiji...he pisses me off so bad sometimes.

Bluekirin: I wouldn't hate you, Nani. Especially not over something like this. When you left, I thought you might be gone for good and it just made me so mad at him...


He felt his teeth clenching as he recalled the events from earlier and he forcibly pushed the thoughts out of hand. It was done with, there was no point in getting pissed about what he couldn't help...it was time better-invested in repairing the now-rickety bridge between himself and Tinania.



Bluekirin: Heh, you're not the first person who's told me I should get out. My aunt says if we keep on like we are, me and dad are eventually going to bite each other's heads off.