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Many of the players from Alex's team had gone over to congratulate the winners, leaving Alex behind as he took one heavy limping step forward and had his leg crumple beneath him, making him nearly fall to the ground. Since apparently it was too soon to be walking he just stayed put, not able to make his way over to the increasingly growing crowd of zombies in the middle of the playing field.

It wasn't long until Yin was lost from Alex's view by the press of zombies around him. He hoped the other boil didn't mind all of the attention he was going to be getting.

Since walking right now was out of the question, Alex eventually just sat back down, gingerly lifting his leg and letting it lay straight, waiting patiently for it to knit back together with Fear properly so that it would actually become usable again.

Eventually he was distracted from his plight by his cousins as they one by one made their way over to him and sat down as well, talking excitedly about what a good game it had been. Justin fell into place beside Alex, giving him a firm clap on the back and an amused grin. Mostly they talked about Yin's touchdown, Alex's dad's touchdown, Alex throwing a touchdown, and Alex getting pummeled into the ground. Apparently his fall was 'epic' and they all wished they had gotten it on video to upload to boo-tube.

Alex, while still faintly embarrassed about the whole thing, couldn't help but laugh along with them.

Once Alex could actually see Yin again, he waved him over to join in the mini celebration and game recap.

Alex had sat happily listening to all of the retelling's of the games highlights for the most part. Though he was often casting glances towards Yin, mostly concerned because he still didn't know if the other boil was okay after taking so many hits to the ground. He seemed to be alright, though perhaps a little uncomfortable and...did he look a little bit unhappy with the mention of Alex's leg coming off? It was really not that uncommon of a thing to happen, though since his arrival at the academy he hadn't had anything happen to wrench the leg loose yet, which was a nice respite the norm.

He turned towards Yin with a ready smile when he spoke. "Thanks! I wish it could have lasted longer but..." He shrugged. "Well, when they send everyone after you at once I guess it's pretty difficult for the defense to hold them all back." He was touched that Yin seemed so concerned, however, and this seemed like as good of a time as any to ask how the other boil was doing.

"How about you? I saw you take a couple of hard hits out there." He frowned in concern, pointing to Yin's shoulder "Did your arm get hurt? You were rubbing at it earlier like it was bothering you."

Alex looked at his own leg at Yin's words and nodded his agreement. Physical injuries from games such as these were quite common, and if Yin said he was fine, he probably was, right? He began slowly bending his leg at the knee to see if it would respond, and it did, so he flashed Yin a bright smile. "Well my injury appears to have fixed itself, finally." This was good news, as the zomboil did not particularly want to spend the rest of his afternoon being helped around.

"That's it for now. They might decide to start up a new game, later. I'm hoping for capture the severed head, personally." Alex mused, though if they decided to play another game, it probably wouldn't be until much later. After dinner, perhaps, in the darkening dusk.

"Is there anything you'd like to do right now?" Alex asked the other boil, suddenly. Yin was a guest here, after all, and Alexander should probably attend to any needs or desires the weremantis had. "And hey, you won another game against me! Maybe you can think up another prize for me to give you."

Yes, because that had ended so well last time, Alex.

Alex continued to smile, though he frowned inwardly. Yin wanted him as a prize? That was a little...weird. And probably did not at all have anything to do with what Alex's first thought was. As he suspected, however, Yin continued on. Oh well, he just wanted a story! That was easy!

Wait...one that was mentioned today...by family members, Alex assumed. That really just. Could not. Be good.

Oh dear jack, not the toy shop story. Alex's smile faded as he gaped at Yin in horror. His cousins were all snickering behind their hands, if not full out laughing. "You..you heard about that..?" Great, just great. Never had Alex even considered that bringing Yin home to meet his family meant that the weremantis was going to get to hear every embarrassing detail of Alex's undead life. Well, all things considered, (ie, a certain picture Alex had taken that Yin had found) Alex could stand to regale Yin with a story of his adventure in the ...'toy shop'.

"Ok then, just...let me know when you want to hear it." He said, shooting a glare at his cousins who were still sniggering, but flashing a smile at Yin like this was absolutely not even a problem in the slightest bit.

Oh, Yin was yawning. That meant he was tired, right? He did look a little..rough around the edges, come to think of it. "You're tired." He didn't ask, he stated it with a small frown. "What if I request you go and take a nap? Nothing is happening for a while anyways. Just... a lot of visiting. If you want I can walk with you upstairs and check on that new pet since he's in a kennel in the bedroom?"

Alex was glad that Yin was deciding to take a nap as he had suggested. The other boil really did look quite tired, and Alex felt fully responsible. He hadn't been expecting Yin to get up and move towards the house so quickly, however, and struggled his way too his feet, testing out the flexibility and durability of his leg as he did so before half walking, half limping to the weremantis's side and making their way to the house and ultimately, to Alex's bedroom in a painstakingly slow manner.

Once they arrived, Alex went inside, immediately kneeling down to peer inside of the kennel.

"It looks fine, though I wonder if it might be getting hungry. I'll have to try and feed it something around dinner time and figure out what it likes."

Alex straightened to his feet, turning towards the weremantis with a half smile. "Well, have a good sleep, I guess. If you need anything I probably won't be... OH!" His eyes widened as though he just remembered something, halfway through his sentence.

"I forgot, Ava and Shae aren't here, so you don't have to uh..worry about them. Mom sent them to stay at a friends house until we leave. Anyways...ya, I'll see you later." He backed away and turned to make his way out of the room.

Alex was smiling to himself as he slipped out of the room and began making his way down the hall. He could still hear the weremantis that he had left behind, as the other boil was deciding to take a shower before he had his nap. He had no intention of coming back to wake Yin up, knowing that the mantodae needed to get some rest and Alex was not about to interuppt that process.

He was feeling much better now then he had been all day. Things between him and Yin seemed to be a lot better since playing the game of bruteball. Yin was smiling again, joking around. It was nice for everything to feel more normal again. Or, at least, as normal as they could get with this large secret still looming over the zomboil, the secret that he was keeping from Yin and intended on keeping from him as long as he could, which might be forever, for all Alex knew. Thinking about it wasn't going to make it go away, however, so he shoved it to the back of his mind for now. Instead he just focused on the good, which was that things were improving since the...problem..the night before.

Alex knew that now might be the best time to talk to his mom, no avoiding it anymore, so once he was downstairs he made his way towards the kitchen, assuming she might be in there already getting things ready for dinner. He did have to stop for a little while to chat with some family who were sitting around in the dining room. They joked about Alex's fall in the game, but congratulated him on a job well done for the single round of play where he had done so well. It was good to hear words of praise from other family members, especially for a role the zomboil had played in a physical sport. Physical activity wasn't exactly his forte, on most occasions, so this was a rare turn of events indeed.

Eventually, he was able to extract himself from the converation at hand, and crossed the rest of the span of dining room to the kitchen entrance, and took a peek inside with a ready smile for any aunts, cousins, or mother that might be working within. "Hello, Ghouls!" He said cheerfully, shambling into the room fully and shuffling over towards his mom even as everyone waved and said hello back to the zomboil.

"Alexander." His mom greeted him, looking up from the meat she was currently pulling off of bones with her bare hands. "Have you come to help us out some more?" Her face was so hopeful that Alex actually felt bad that he had only come to talk. Why did his mom want him in the kitchen so much anyways? She had three daughters and another son, and he didn't see any of them helping her in the kitchen, or ever seen her ask them either! Alex reached over and snagged some of the raw meat on the counter and popped it in his mouth, chewing it up with a smile.

"Well I see somebody is feeling better, though I hope you've learnt your lesson about drinking." She eyed him with a smirk, and Alex's smile faded, his mood souring just a tiny bit. She didn't seem to know that Alex's disposition earlier had more to do with other things and less to do with the hangover he had been nursing. Though he had to wonder, how the night might have been different if things hadn't gotten so out of hand with Yin and the twins...

"Mom, I think now would be a good time to talk about..what happend last night?" He nodded towards the back door, and his mother sighed, biting down on her bottom lip before nodding up at her son. "Yes, I suppose you are right. I don't know if I want to hear any of this but....No, I need to know, so that was can figure out what to do." She looked so sad, her expression so full of pain it was almost heartbreaking

Until Alex remembered the sight of his sisters trying to force Yin into the giant fridge again, then he could dismiss that pain, since it was born of complete ignorance. His mom was going to hear the truth, all of it, and she was going to have to do something about it, finally. Alex didn't answer her, he just rapped his knuckles on the counter top and straightened up, shuffling away from the counter and towards the back door, his mom untying her apron and hanging it on the wall before following after him. He opened the back door and waited for her to pass him before following and shutting the door behind them.

Soon enough they were sitting on the steps, Alex basically just a taller, masculine version of the petite woman sitting at his side. He wished this could be easier, and he had to hold on to memories of all the horrible things his sister's had done, all the terrible situations they had put Alex through, before he felt like he could do this. Before he could begin, however, he had to ask. "What do you already know?"

His mom paused for a moment, rubbing her hands along the tops of her legs before clasping them and looking down in her lap. "I know only what your youngest sister told me, Alexander. That the twins were planning on pulling a mean prank on your friend and that she had told you, and that you had gone to 'rescue' him. By the time I knew anything about it, and tried to find Shae and Ava, they were gone. Probably out in the woods, I don't know, they wouldn't tell me when they came back where they had been." That seemed to be about as much as she was about to say on the subject, so Alex, with a deep breath, continued.

"I don't know exactly what happened either, only Yin could say for sure and I don't think he really wants to talk about it. When I found them, they were trying to force him into the large fridge, and probably planned on locking him inside. He can't handle the cold, mom! It would have killed him!" But she knew that already, of course. Alex had told her and that's why she had bought the heater for Alex's bedroom. "I managed to make them let him go, but he was pretty upset. And not even for the reasons you might expect. He was just..devistated that he had fought back against a ghoul, and had possibly hurt one of the twins in his struggle to get away from them. He was going to run, or at least wanted to. He had it in his head that he needed to leave, but I managed to talk him out of it. I was too worried about him to leave him alone and find you, so I took him upstairs to my room for the night."

Alex finished, because his mom knew the rest, having come up to the room herself to check on them.

"Anyways, you know this isn't the first time they've done things like this! Ask Isabella! You know she wouldn't lie. She told me that they threatened her to keep her mouth shut about their plans to go after Yin. There is something wrong with them, mom, and you need to do something about it." He was getting a little bit worked up now, his voice was strained. His mom was looking up at him now, her face so mournful he instantly felt horrible and wrapped an arm around her. But he wasn't going to let this go.

"You have to do something."

She leaned into him, and nodded, her long loose curls bouncing with the motion. "I know, I know. I will. I'll discuss it with your father later, after every one has gone. Alexander...I'm sorry." She pulled away from him, looking up into his eyes with sincere regret. "I should have been keeping an eye on them, like you had told me to. I just..they're just children. My children. I can't believe they would...but no, you are right, and you've been telling me." She closed her eyes and sighed, leaning against the house now.

"How are things going between you and Yin, anyways? Things seemed a little...strained between the two of you this morning. Did anything else happen last night that I should be aware of? I mean, besides the cider drinking." She was obviously trying to change the subject, and Alex couldn't really fault her for it. She probably needed the distraction. But using his relationship (or lack there of) with Yin as the distraction tool? Alex wasn't exactly happy about that.

"There was a problem, and it's been dealt with." Alex answered, not wanting to go into any details. "Yin got angry with me, I went and hung out with the cousins, and then we talked about it this morning, and things are....fine." Things weren't fine, and Alex knew it, but he was damned if he wanted his mother prying into this personal business any more then she already had.

"That's....good." He could tell from her voice that she didn't exactly believe him, but thankfully, she didn't press the issue either. "I should probably get back to the kitchen now, Alexander. Would you care to join me?" She asked, teasing him a little and he had to smile, but shook his head, his mop of white hair flopping over his eyes.

"Nope. I think I'd rather go and spend some time with the rest of the family, actually." He pushed himself to his feet with a groan, still feeling stiff from the hard tackle he had taken during bruteball. "Yin is sleeping, so I should get some visiting in while I can." He streched his arms out behind him, then let them drop to his sides as he thumped his way down the rest of the stairs and stood at the bottom, waiting for him mom to stand and open the back door on her way back to the kitchen. He opened his mouth to say something to her, hesistated, then continued on anyways.

"Hey mom...do you really think that...with time..he might feel the same way about me someday?" He asked, eyes dropping to the ground. This was...so embarassing. But he needed her to tell him what she thought, some kind of assurance that it might actually be possible. He trusted her to tell him the truth.

"Of course, Alexander. With time, anything is possible." She answered softly, a gentle expression in her eyes just before she turned and slipped back inside the kitchen, shutting the door behind her with a soft click.

It wasn't much to hold on to, but it was definitely something. Maybe he could even bring himself to tell the other boil someday. Reaching up to run his hand through his hair, he turned, and shuffled away from the back door, intent on finding some friends and family to spend the remainder of the afternoon with before dinner time.

Alex hadn't really meant to leave Yin to sleep for quite so long. Well, he had thought at first that he aught to just let the other boil sleep but when dinner time rolled around and he had yet to see him...he started to worry a little bit, and was a little concerned that Yin would be angry that Alex hadn't woken him up. He'd really just gotten very caught up in visiting and lost track of the time, but the smell of food coming from the kitchens made him glance up towards the pumpkin sun, and he suddenly realised that hours had slipped by without his notice.

So, when he and his cousins made their way into the kitchen to steal what food they could, Alex made sure to get an extra plate and fill it up for Yin as well. He still had to go upstairs and feed his new pet, so he figured he could always bring the weremantis his dinner at the same time. That way the other boil couldn't really get upset at Alex for not waking him sooner, right?

Right!

So, after grabbing the plates of food and escaping out the back door, Alex then made his way around the house to the front, somehow maneuvering all the plates of food in his arms so that he could open the door, and then kicked it shut behind him. He began making his way to the stairs when I flash of green and brown caught his eye, and he turned his head to see that Yin was already up, and sitting at one of the couches. "Yin!" He greeted happily, and then hissed so as not to alert the zombies in the dining room next door. "I got you some food...are you hungry?"