Welcome to Gaia! ::

Her baby? As Markus had seen no evidence of infants, he could oly assume she meant some animal or object close to her heart. After all, his Les Pual was uis own baby. So cherished that he did not let his brothers so much as breathe on it. "Father, Step-Mother, I too shall retire. Good night, Alykzander, see you in the morning." Then he went upstairs and to his room. There, he took off the fancy clothes and replaced them with flannel pajama pants and a Rolling Stones tee. Still he was not tired, and was in no mood to make music. He roamed the West wing a little until he came upon Domanik's door. He knocked.

"Go away."

So, Markus knocked again, still not saying anything.

"Mark, I know it's you. You're here to give me the 'I'm your big brother' speech. Well, forget it."

"Domanik, I didn't come to make speeches. I came to visit my brother."

The door flew open, and Mark knew that Dom had been standing by the door.

"How'd you know it was me?"

"Easy. Max isn't here and he's self-absorbed anyway. Niklos is probably hiding in his room like the girl he is, and Alyk is too...well, he would've left me alone. Learn from him." He moved to close the door again.

"No, you will listen. I didn't come to make speeches, but then if I have to, I have to. Either talk to me, or I will talk to you. What's your problem, couldn't you at least be polite? Even Alyk managed that much, even Niklos managed that much."

"Shut Up!" There was bite to Dom's words. "You don't know what you are saying! Being nice to them, well, for me, it's like if you stopped being a wimp and played violin again. That woman is NOT my MOTHER! THOSE VILE, UNCOUTH GIRLS WILL NEVER BE MY SISTERS!" His anger glowed from his eyes, as it told in his voice and showed from his deathgrip on the doorframe.

"Brother..."

"DON'T call me that! If you insist on being friendly with them, you know longer have that right." He slammed the door, and Markus retreated, wandering again.

Max walked in from the garage, the expression on his face alarmingly close to dreamy. Unfortunately, his euphoria was doomed to a short life; his father was waiting, grim faced, on the stairs. "Hello, Maksim," was what he said, but both of them knew what he really meant: Yours will be a fate worse than death, oh Son Who is a Constant Thorn in My Side.

Max smiled politely, mentally preparing himself to do battle. "'Lo, Dad," he said evenly.

"Did you have a good time at Elena's?" asked his father. His eyes were harder and colder than the marble on which he stood.

"It's Helena," Max corrected blandly, "And yes, I had an excellent time. We engaged in several rather exhilarating activities that required a surplus of stamina." He smiled again, though it was rather more antagonistic, now. "Then we went swimming." In fact the furthest Helena had let him get was an admittedly steamy make-out session, but Dear-Ol-Dad didn't need to know that.

"I see," his father said stiffly. As Max had predicted, he didn't acknowledge the painfully obvious implications one could draw from a sentence like that. "I am glad that you were entertained, but you forgot all about the dinner I have been reminding you of for weeks."

Max's eyes widened with affected shock. "Was that tonight? Oh, dear. I would have brought Helena with me." Another sharp smile full of insinuations. "Well, good night, Dad." He tried to push past his father, but was stopped by a painfully firm hand on his shoulder.

"Know this, Maksim," said a soft but coldly furious voice in his ear, "You will not get away with this sort of behavior any longer. I've put up with it for far too long. You are 18 years old, and you will grow up on your own, or so help me, I will make you." The distinguished gentlemen pulled back from his son, nodded, and departed without another word, which was probably best, as he missed an obscene hand gesture that otherwise would have been directed at his face.

After giving himself a moment to get under control, Max continued up the stairs to his room. Things were still fantastic, after all; he was officially going out with Helena. That thought alone was enough to bring a small smile back to his face.

Hearing a fairly loud knock at the door, Naomi had a good guess on who it was as she took off her headphones. Sure enough, a moment later Emily was outside the door peering in. Only Emily knew that one had to knock loudly if Naomi was on the computer, for that usually involved her headphones or music in some way that obsucured her from reality.

"Emma! Come in, come in! Heaven forbid you get trapped with one of the not-so-nicer brothers out there. You feeling alright? You looked really tired down there!" The younger lady got up and opened the door as Emily walked in. That's how it worked: Naomi was Omi and Emily was Emma. Just with this sister though; the rest she went by usual name. If there was one sister who she'd got to for personal troubles and some good advice, it was Emily. Madeline was good for one needing a cheer-up and all, but Emily was one who could give some really great advice. If Naomi had her choice, she'd tell only Emily about the counsler meetings and depression issues.

Of course, she wasn't telling anybody; any notes taken there and suggestions were hidden in a spot only Naomi knew. Why? Cause Mom would freak. Her sisters would freak, and they'd see her as even more of a burden than she was now. And Lord knows what else could go wrong with that.

Hearing the question, Naomi somewhat shrugged as she sat back on the bed, leaving room for Emily if she wanted a seat.

"Alright, surprizingly. There was no food fight or any obvious agruements, which surprised me greatly. Let'se see, not too long after you left, I've come to realize that Domanik is gonna be the biggest pain-in-the-arse, and he poorly excused himself from the meal. Manners of a wilderbeast. Alyekzander, the blond one, seemed alright; slightly sarcastic and detatched, but probably cause Madeline and I probably scared him with the earlier tickle fight...........hehe, he ran as if he was chased by demons or something.

Then.........who is left? Ah, Markus (one of the older ones, probably the oldest) was actually really nice, and he and Adrienne carried a nice conversation. The youngest one, Niklos, was pretty nice as well, but for some reason went red mid-conversation and left in a hurry. Hope he's ok. And theeeeen, whoever the other brother is (he left earlier today to go somewhere) never came back and attended the dinner, so if......Mom's husband is PO'd-looking later, that'd be my guess as to why." Naomi concluded.

"Overall, not bad at all. Dunno if they all left or there's still someone down there at the table, but I"m guessing not.

Oh, and if you want any ice cream cake, feel free to take it out of the mini-fridge thing over there; I dunno why the chefs want to let food go to waste so easily."

Thud

Thud

Thud

The sound was dull, but it still enraged Domanik. And then, it seemed to go away. Possibly someone had realized that this was his room, and had left to play wallball elsewhere. Then there was the buzz of spoken words outside his door. He poked his head out, and saw only Alyk walking down the hall. He was about to retreat once more into the solitude of his room, but then he saw Madeline, reclining against the wall.

"What are you doing?" he demanded. "You're not supposed to be here. I mean, my father is being kind enough to grant you and your vile sisters a whole wing of my home. Why don't you stay there? Just because you're a charity case doesn't mean you have full run of the house! Go away. Better yet, get out." Pure and unadulterated hatred was clear in is brown eyes, contorting his usually handsome features into something grotesque.

"You act as though I wanted your slut of a mother for a nanny. I didn't make her chose us over you. That was her own choice, although, now I think I see why she made the choice she did," He spat.

If Dom was a little surprised, it didn't show. He was used to people backing down by now, or at least getting frustrated and going away. None of his brothers ever fought with him like this, but then, he'd never been this angry with any of them. Only this girl seemed to make his blood boil enough to want to forget his honor and take a swing. "Ifs are for those slimy weaklings who can't accept life the way it is. Your mother didn't stay home. Just like mine didn't live. Just like you can't seem to show any respect for your betters."

"I told you! I didn't steal your mother! She chose to work here! There were other jobs! She could have found a different one! But no! She chose this one! She chose to be a slut and marry my father before my mother's bed was cold! Then, she brought her spawn, none of which have any discernable manners, to live in mine, and my brothers' home! So excuse me if I don't roll out the welcome wagon! Because, the turth is, princess, that you are not welcome here!" He didn't realize how loud he was getting. His angy words echoed off of the walls and floors.


In another part of the house, Markus was staring at the violin. Maybe if he could bring himself to play it, he could get Domanik to behave before he...too late. He could hear his brother's dulcet tones as he viciously yelled at someone. Well, whoever it was could likely handle it, and if he interfered now, one or both of the fighting parties might resent him. He'd have to talk to them both later.