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Domanik ducked aside with ease, her furious swing missing. How rude! She was actually getting violent over her tramp of a mother. He lowered his voice, no longer yelling. "Perhaps if your father had planned better, perhaps if he'd loved your mother, he wouldn't have left her in such a mess. It's clear to me that neither of your parents care for you or any of your sisters. Your father fated you to starve when he died, and your mother gleefully abandoned you."

Then of course, another sister had to investigate. He turned his venom on her as well. "Before you go sticking your abnormally long nose where it doesn't belong, and whipping out such high-classed violent threats, I suggest you get all the facts. Madeline started this argument, not me. I merely suggest she leave me alone, and then she began harassing me. So, please, stop your rude behavior of eavesdropping and intterupting others."

"Well, I apologize for following your unnaturally large mouth with my abnormally large nose (you could wake aliens with that voice); perhaps if you had just kindly told her she was in the wrong spot, there would have been no arguement. We just got here today; we're bound to get lost at least once. And I can't help caring for my own sister's safetly, sorry if that's a sin to you.

And I love how you ignored pretty much my entire arguement as well as Madenline's key points.

And if I remember correctly, your voice was the first one I heard, not Madeline's. That, and you're calling our mother a slut, so you're asking for someone to yell at you there. So unless you can prove otherwise, get your own facts straight."

Seeing Madeline take her leave, Naomi decided she had had her fun. She'd pay for it later, but she cared not. He asked for it completely and honestly, asked for it. She got back to her room along with Emily. "ARCKGH! I hate having to do that." the girl sighed and flopped onto the bed, puncing it once or twice. She had to use all her willpower not to punch that moron in the face.

Alyekzander, like any one else in the vicinity, could easily hear Domanik and Madeline arguing. "Hell's bells, looks like I warned her too late." Still, even Domanik would not get too unruly. Alyekzander stopped walking, frowned and turned back to walk the way he had come from. He did not hurry, though, so Naomi had found her way to Domanik's door first. Too late to even see the punch thrown, and noting that voices were now lowered, Alyekzander determined the argument was as under control as it was going to get. So he did not speak until the girls had left.

Or at least, he thought he would speak. And yet, taking a look at his younger brother, what was there to say? They had not asked for these girls to be here, they had not stolen this woman who now saw fit to usurp their mother's place. What was there to say to his brother who chose hatred over Alyekzander's own choice of aloofness?

"I hope you are satisfied, at least. For all your wrath and vinegar, it changes nothing. Good night, brother." Alyekzander turned and once again headed for his room. Domanik would surely say nothing of interest and hurled insults were not worth his time waiting for. Once in his room, Alyekzander immediately stripped down and flopped face first on his bed. Today had been entirely too long; he lacked the will to even slip into pajamas. Anyone foolhardy enough to storm into his room uninvited could kiss his bare, upturned rear end.

Emily sat down carefully next to Naomi, and, when the girl was done punching pillows, ran a hand over her soft brown hair. She could remember doing that when Naomi had been no more than two, asleep across the laps of Cecilia and herself. There wasn't anything she could think of to say that would help. Outside Dominik's room she had, as usual, simply stood in the shadows and let her sisters handle things; it would have surprised her greatly to find out that anyone had noticed her at all. She wasn't a coward. It was just her way.

That and, traitorous as it was, she found herself agreeing with Domanik on a purely intellectual level, but maybe that was because she did not regard her mother as the same mythically wonderful creature her younger sisters did. Could she honestly say that fate had done her family a disservice in the marriage? No, she could not. In fact, everything he'd said was true, as cruel and cutting as he had made it sound. She, for one, was not unhappy with their change in situations; she would be able to go to the collage she'd wanted, now, which wouldn't have been financially feasible before. Publishing her book would be easier, because she could finally hire a decent agent. Not that it didn't grate on her nerves to hear her family insulted that way, but she considered herself quite capable of rising above her own irritation. But then, she'd always been better at functioning on a purely logical level than any of her sisters; they apparently were simply unable to get past the imagined theft of their mother and the meaningless hostility of their new stepbrothers.

Of course, Emily couldn't really say any of that. It certainly would not help Naomi calm down, so she just sat beside her sister, silently stroking her hair. After several minutes, she spoke up. "Didn't you want to show me something?"

Markus was as oblivious to Madeline as she was to him. Eventually, though he felt his aloneness disturbed, and he said to te girl, "Evening, Madeline. I hope Domanik didn't hurt your feelings too badly. I would have interfered, but there were two things holding me back. First, I didn't want to take sides against my own brother. An idiot and an a** he may be, but he is still my brother. Secondly, and most importantly, I wanted to see how you fared against him. If I had rescued you from him, He woud only have tried the same thing again when I was away." During his speech, he'd crossed to the girl. He furrowed his brow. If he'd been her real brother, he'd have hugged her, but he feared she may take that the wrong way. Still the girl did look in need of comfort.

He patted her head in an unsure way. Then, he sat behind the piano, and played for her a lullaby his mother used to sing to him, on the nights her mother had off, presumably singing to her. The tune was a bit high for his voice, but by dropping the whole thing an octave, he was able to sing the words softly. It was a silly song, but he enjoyed it. He switched a couple of words in the first verse though, otherwise it might have been awkward:

"Lavender's blue, dilly dilly,
Lavender's green
When you are Queen, dilly dilly,
I shall be King"

It didn't rhyme, but that didn't matter. He finished the song:

"Who told you so, dilly dilly,
Who told you so?
'Twas my own heart, dilly dilly,
That told me so

"Call up your friends, dilly, dilly
Set them to work
Some to the plough, dilly dilly,
Some to the fork

"Some to the hay, dilly dilly,
Some to thresh corn
Whilst you and I, dilly dilly,
Keep ourselves warm

"Lavender's blue, dilly dilly,
Lavender's green
When you are Queen, dilly dilly,
I shall be King

"Who told you so, dilly dilly,
Who told you so?
'Twas my own heart, dilly dilly,
That told me so."

Madeline smiled sweetly at him. "Its fine, I needed it actually." She stretched slightly, although she added silently 'the bit about my dad did hurt.' She hadn't really thought of her father all that much. Since he was dead and all, but wasn't he well off? What happened to that money? How'd they end up in a gutter? She wasn't able to listen to the song, in fact she was more troubled now. She sat down, thinking. She stood up again and smiled at him. It was a troubled smile but a smile all the same.
"I'll see you around." She yawned for effect. "G'night."

Max moved past his brother's rooms, making no effort whatsoever to be quiet; in fact, he poked his head into each room as he walked by. Markus' room was empty, but Alyk's was decidedly... not. Making a face, Max slammed the door quickly. Leave it to Alyk to make annoying him completely not worth it, he thought, shuddering. Well, hopefully Dom would be more entertaining; Max could certainly always count on him to throw an amusing temper tantru-- Max opened the door and paused, looking uncertain. His brother was playing videogames, Halo by the sound of it, and the expression on his face was dark even by his standards. "Hiya, Dom. What's up your a**?" He put his hand up to his mouth in mock concern. "Did the little girls make you mad? That was very wrong of them."