New Home, New Life

[Demeter]

Kyo sighed as his bonsai, a family heirloom dropped just a little. "Lani, please rein in the emotions and the hormones before you kill my Red Maple. I wouldn't be able to explain this my grandfather, who gave me the Bonsai. You're scaring Elise. Be satisfied that Cade will be beaten to a pulp should he try anything. That and I think he knows that Zach is happy with me."

Kyo allowed himself a smug little grin at that and scooped up some rice. He used his chopsticks and pulled some meat off of his portion of the grilled salmon Dasan had included. "Did any of you see the looks he kept shooting at us last night?" It felt good to have something on Cade, "Elise, once you're finished here, come up to the studio. I want to see how you look under red lights. Ladies, if you would excuse me, the public wants more photos of Zachariah."

In the garden, Zach leaned against his mother's shoulder. He'd missed her these last six years but Cade would have been around if he'd gone home. Up until two years ago, he wouldn't have been able to hold it together. Now, well, it wouldn't have been easy but he'd have gotten through because Kyo would have been waiting for him.

"Sorry that you had to come all this way to see me. Things have been busy at work. Did you get the copy of that magazine I sent you two years ago? Clients have been beating on the door since then," he grinned.

[Maira]

A low growl got away from Lani before she could stop it, being told to reign in her emotions and hormones by Kyo just hit a button inside of her. Surprised at her sudden flare of temper, an hand flew to her mouth in and her eyes went wide. "Sorry Kyo!" she apologized before bolting from the kitchen out the way that Zach and Saiyuri had gone.

Once she was gone, Olivia and Brielle laughed at Lani. Shay just sighed in sympathy for her older sister. Lily had been quite the emotional rollercoaster since getting pregnant, and most of the time it caught her by surprise as well. Luckily for them, Lily's hormonal mood swings didn't have the potential to kill houseplants.

Elise eyed Kyo when he said that Lani was scaring her. If nobody else had noticed she was a teensy bit wigged out by the wilting bonsai, why did he have to point it out? She sighed lightly and was just about to take a bite of her breakfast when Kyo actually spoke -to- her instead of -about- her. He wanted to see how she looked under red lights. Did that mean he'd caught sight of her scales after all? Feeling strangely self-conscious, she glanced down to make sure her robe wasn't revealing too much skin and adjusted it just a little before she answered, "We can always make it a working breakfast Kyo, it was warmer in your studio than it is down here and I -am- just wearing a robe..." She hoped he'd take the hint that she wouldn't mind getting out of the chaos that was Brielle's horde of sisters.

Brielle caught Elise's mood and she tried to give Kyo a look encouraging him to rescue Elise from her family. "I can keep everybody from trashing your kitchen Kyo if you and Elise want to go play. Once they're all done eating I think we're going to steal Zach away from you for a bit anyway and go back over to Grampa Katsu's house."

Elise smiled briefly at Brielle, which she knew the younger woman understood. They may not be lovers, but Brielle understood her so much better than anybody else she'd come to know over the years.

Livvie, catching the by-play between Elise and Brielle, eyed them both for a moment and finally caught what Lani had noticed the night before. A small smirk tweeking up the corner of her mouth, Livvie dug into her breakfast with gusto. She was definitely the only "good" child left in the family...

[Demeter]

Zach sighed as he escorted his siblings back to Katsu's house. After the girls had finished breakfast, they swooped down and kidnapped him with demands that he take them back to Grandpa's house. He'd given in when he's seen the look all the eyes of his sisters. There was no way out of it. He'd stolen a few minutes with Kyo, mostly so the vampire could give him a pep-talk on dealing with Cade but a quick snuggle had been stuffed in before Lani had wiggled his car keys.

He glanced around the stuffed car and scowled. He'd planned to spend his vacation curled up with Kyo. One week at home, most likely sprawled around for Kyo's camera, and one week relaxing at a hot spring. Now, he was here. He so needed to chew Grandpa Katsu out for this.

The first thing he did was find his grandfather and give him a such a tongue lashing. Zach cornered Katsu in the corner of the garden he'd escaped to. The tongue lashing mostly revolved around Katsu not telling him and for telling Saiyuri when he'd scheduled his yearly vacaction time. He only stopped when Cade rounded the corner and stared at him. Yes, he so wanted to bop his sisters on the head. He did not need or want this.

Cade stared at Zach. He had so many questions. Why had he left so suddenly? Why had he stayed away? Why had there been no contact for six years? And just what was this Kyo guy to Zach. "Hey, Zach, how's it going?"

"I have nothing to say to you, Kincade. If you can' figured out why I'm here, then there is no need for us to speak."

And the lightbulb goes on, Katsu thought as he glanced between the two young men. So something with Cade was the reason Zach was here. He imagined that Kyo was the only one who knew the whole story. Considering the mess his grandson had been when he'd first arrived, Katsu scowled until Cade slulked away.

***

Kyo watched as Zach's mother poked around his kitchen. The girls had gone off to Katsu's house, dragging Zach with them, and Elise was elbow deep in his prop and clothing closet. That left Saiyuri, who'd been left at the house, to be entertained. He leaned, hands safely tucked into his pockets. "You don't like me, do you?" he said as a way of annoucing his prescence, "I should think that by the end of this visit, you'll love me. I'm the sole reason you baby boy is still sane."

***

Cade followed Zach as he drove him. It wasn't hard to naviagate the route when following someone else. He stared at the house for a second. They shared an apartment but these two had a house together? He followed Zach in through the garden gate. "Hey, Zach, wait up. We need to talk."

Zach hissed and spun around. He was not going to intrude on his sanctuary. "Unless you've figured it out, we have nothing to talk about."

"Why did you leave?"

"Think about it, Cade? Or is your skull too thick to get a hint. I left when you moved that guy into our apartment. One night, presumably while you planning on moving said guy into out apartment, you're sleeping with me and the next you're over the moon and in love with someone else."

"That's what this has been all about? You left because I didn't talk to you about Charles?"

"Did talk...I was in love with you, Idiot. Even since we were fifteen, I'd been in love with you. You, apparently, saw me as a convvientent fuck when you needed it."

***

Kyo saw the confrontation through the kitchen window. Saiyuri's back was to the window. "Shit," was all he said before he was moving through the house to the back door. He caught the end the conversation, if one could call it that, as he jogged around the corner.

"You...You love me?"

"Loved, Kincade, please take note of the tense used. I've moved on, even if you messed me up for several years. I refused to be sucked back into your life again. I'm no longer content to be second best. Get out of my garden." Zach turned and saw Kyo, inches short of snarling and tearing Cade's throat out. "Get him out of here, Kyo. I don't want him here."

Kyo growled low in his throat as he gathered Zach up. "Go upstairs and get some sleep. I'll take care of this. Your mother, at last check, is in the kitchen." He let Zach go and advanced on Kincade. "Off my property, now."

[Maira]

"Kyo," Saiyuri told the vampire softly, "its not that I don't like you, its that I'm protective of Zachariah. He's my baby who dissapeared without any word and no contact at all until we got that magazine in the mail. The only reason I knew he was alive at all before we got that magazine was because my father, when I begged rather shamefully, finally caved and told me that Zach had come to live with him." The next was said with a small but genuine smile, "Then when we arrived here and I saw the two of you the way you were on the couch I admit it bothered me. Not because you're a man, certainly not because you're a vampire, but because Zach never even told me he had somebody special in his life."

Not sure what else to say to convince Kyo that she didn't hate him, she asked totally out of the blue, "So, did Zach ever tell you that his uncle, my brother, is named Kiyo?" She never got an answer because suddenly Kyo cursed and then rushed past her to the back door and out to the garden. One look out the window behind her left Saiyuri baffled, why were Cade and Zach arguing?

Despite what Kyo said Saiyuri was -not- in the kitchen at all. As soon as she'd seen what was going on she'd hurried to the door that led to the garden and she now was fuming. Her feline hearing had always served her well when she wanted to know things others didn't think she should hear and now was one of those times. When she heard Zach coming up the garden path to the house, she stepped out from her hiding place behind the door and met her son with open arms and a kiss on the forehead. "Do what Kyo said sweetheart, I'll take care of this," she instructed her baby and the brushed past him, her anger so deep that the few plants that were encroaching on the path shrivelled and turned black. Dasan would have a bit of work to do to coax those poor plants back from the brink of death...

By the time she reached Kyo where he was trying to shoo Cade out of the garden and off of his and Zach's property, Saiyuri's eyes were blood red her fingers were tipped with razor sharp claws, and black dragon wings had torn through her favorite shirt. She was a vengance Custos and -nobody- hurt one of her babies and got away with it.

She stalked past Kyo and grabbed Cade as he tried to get away from the woman who had helped raise him. "You have a lot of explaining to do boy," she snarled as she scooped him up, her claws digging through his clothes and into his skin, and launched herself into the air. It may have been morning but there was a low cloud cover and Saiyuri could find her father's house with her eyes closed whether by driving, walking, running as a leopard, or flying.

She didn't care that Cade was shaking. She didn't care that Dominic and L would probably scold her for letting her temper run so wild with a child she'd always loved as deeply as one of her own. All that she cared about was making sure that the boy's father promised to discipline him properly so that she didn't take matters into her own hands and rip him to shreds.

As soon as she felt her father's house beneath her, she folded her wings and plummetted through the clouds dropping like a rock from the sky into her father's garden. Only when she cleared the rooftops of the house did she throw her wings back open to stop their descent. When she spotted who she'd come for, she winged over to him and his lover and tossed his son at his feet.

Landing more lightly, and gracefully than Cade had, Saiyuri glared daggers at Lysander. She didn't give him a chance to ask what had happened, she just raged at him, "Your son drove my baby from me Lysander! He broke his heart and stomped on the pieces. And if you had just trusted me when I'd said there was something between them, if we had just known, I could have protected him! I figured, that if he really was involved with Zach that your influence would at least make him loyal, but apparently his human heritage won out in the end. My baby was in love with him and when Kincade moved another man, his new lover, into their apartment it tore Zach apart." Then, without even taking a breath, Saiyuri lunged in Cade's direction snarling at him, "If I EVER catch you near Zach again, whatever your punishment your father gives you will pale in comparisson to what I have planned." With that, Saiyuri launched back into the sky, shrieking with anger and rage.

Dominic, having seen Saiyuri go all Custosy before, was even shaking. He'd never seen her -that- angry before. Not sure if Lysander wanted to handle Cade on his own, Dominic asked his lover, "Do you want me to stay or go?" When L told him to stay, Dominic nodded and turned his gaze on Cade before saying matter-of-factly, "You're lucky you know. If she didn't love you so much she likely would have killed you. I've never seen that look in her eyes before and she has killed for something she had less personal involvement in before."

[Demeter]

Lysander wasn't surprised to see his son dropped in front of him. Cade had been avoiding him. "Thank you for the delivery, Saiyuri. I've been meaning to talk to my idiot child. As a side note, I've always known that there was something between them but I just didn't know the extent, or lack there of, of the relationship."

If Lysander was affected by Saiyuri's altered apperance, he didn't let it show. Once the vengence Custos was gone, he tapped Cade's shoulder with a foot. "Really screwed up this time, haven't you?"

Cade groaned as he sat up. "I didn't know that he was in love with me!"

"Thats because you don't listen or look. However, two loves at the same time? Did you even think to mention that you'd meet someone to Zach before you moved him in?"

"I thought we were just friends with, ya know, benefits."

"And now you've list one of your oldest friends because you didn't think. I'd suggest not going near Zach for the duration of this trip. Any family events, you stay away from him. You don't speak, look, or even think about thim." Lysander watched as Cade slinked away. He couldn't punish him because his son was an adult and he'd wager his car that the experience had taught him more then any punishment could.

And yet, he'd still have to watch Cade. His son was hard headed and more like him then he cared to admit. He, at the very least, had never balanced two lovers at once. He sat back down next to Dominic. "This trip just turned into a big, ball of stress. What do oo you say to taking a couple of days, just you and me, at the house in Scotland? Haul in some supplies and not leave the bedroom?"
***

Watching Zach's Mother fly away with Cade was decidedly less satisfying then yanking out the bastard's heart and turning it into mush. How dare the halfling come onto his property and harrass his lover. Kyo snarled, he was the one who'd protect Zach from here on out. Zachariah was his.

And he needed to comfort what was his. He was sure that Elise had heard everything and would relate the tale to everyone else. Kyo scrambled up the stairs to the third floor master suite. Zach, still fully clothed (and wasn't that a sign of how distressed his lover, who normally slept in the nude no matter what, was) and curled under the covers of his bed. Kyo, toeing off his shoes, crooned to his lover before snugging up behind him.

Zach didn't have the volite temper that his family was famed for. Zach, must like his element of water, did what was asked of him until he broke. Sure, if pushed far enough under the right circumstances, Zach could rip into someone and leave nothing but tatters when that temper broke. Given Zach's nature, Kyo expected him to crumble rather then let that temper whip out. The prescence of Kincade threatened to shatter the cracks Kyo had so carefully patched up. He would not allow Zach to be broken by a thoughtless idiot.
***

"Dude, this had better be good. I've nearly defeated the game."

"Zach's found someone else."

Charles glared at his phone and saved his game. This was bound to be a long conversation. "And?"

Cade glared at his phone. "And he was in love with me."

"Is he in love with the new guy?"

"They have a house together."

Charles chuckled. "You're screwed Cade," Charles leaned back. "You've realized that you let a great thing go and he's found someone else."

"What should I do?"

"Whaddaya mean?"

"How do I get Zach back?"

Charles sighed. There were days when he wanted to smack Kincade over the head with a 2x4 brick of wood. "You don't get him back. You don't deserve him."
***

Zach sighed. He'd be content to remain in bed with Kyo. After some wiggling, Zach kicked his jeans to the floor. He hated sleeping in clothing. A few more moments of wiggling, complete with with Kyo muttering at him to knock it off, and Zach was clothing free. He cuddled into his pillow, purring when Kyo spooned up behind him.

His mother knew about Cade. He wasn't sure that this was a good thing, as he didn't want Cade dead...even if he was a bastard.

"You're thinking again."

Zach grinned. "I can't help it."

Kyo propped himself up on one elbow. "You better not be thinking about Cade while naked in my bed. That's just wrong."

"What are you going to do about it if I am?"

Kyo grinned and rolled over to balance himself over Zach. "Well, I'll just have to distract you."

[Maira]

Dominic watched the exhange between Lysander and Cade in silence. When the older vampire let his son slink away without a punishment his eyebrow couldn't help but creep up his forhead a ways. He was about to say something when L suggested visiting their house in Scotland. Immediately a wicked grin took up residence on his lips and he answered, "Scotland sounds perfect."

Then, feeling Saiyuri's flaring temper returning from where ever she'd gone, Dominic got up from the bench and started to drag L out of the garden proper and toward a more secluded area. As he walked, and searched the sky with his eyes, he told L, "As for stress that we need to get away from, I think she's about to come back in to land again. We may want to get out of sight fast."

*****

Saiyuri wasn't feeling much better, but she wasn't feeling completely homicidal anymore so she figured that before the clouds below her opened up and drenched the city below her she should probably go back to her father's house. Turning in the direction she could feel it pulling at her from, Saiyuri hurriedly winged her way back.

Like her ex-husband could sense her, she could smell him still present in the garden. Seeing that he and Lysander had dissappeared from sight though, she left them be. In all honestly she likely would have anyway as she had two missions. Normally her first reaction to a freak out was to call her friend Cian back in the States and cry to him and beg him to get her drunk and take her dancing. Since he wasn't present and since her father probably wouldn't look too kindly on her going "out on the town" like a kid, she decided to track down her husband. So, her first mission was to find Thiery. Once she found him she was going to get them both a little happy on the sake, then she was going to tell him what had happened between Zach and Cade.

As the boy's father he definitely had a right to know, her real reasoning though was so that he'd know to watch her if Cade came around. Everybody in the family knew she had a temper but Thiery was one of the few people who could actually control her when her temper was high. She may be furious with the boy but if she hurt Cade she'd hate herself for it later. To her, this situation was very similar to the situation between Lani and Gareth and she hadn't taken that one well either.

While the house may have been full of people, Saiyuri easily found Thiery's scent and followed it to Katsu's media room. She wasn't incredibly surprised to find him curled up in the dark, watching some old flick. Silently, except for the rustle of her wings that she wasn't yet able to will away thanks to her temper, Saiyuri entered the room and shut the door behind her. Flipping the lock once she was inside, she padded barefoot over to stand behind the chair her husband was sitting in. Leaning down and wrapping her arms around his shoulders, Saiyuri told him, "We need to get the sake out of my father's mini bar over there and have a talk." When he turned and looked at her, she tried to relay to him with her still red, glowing eyes that she really really needed to talk.

*****

Even though she had been perusing Kyo's studio, much to her delight, Elise had been able to hear the goings on out in the garden. Open windows and dragon hearing made it so she didn't even have to hide behind doors to evesdrop. What she heard made her hiss in anger. She didn't know Zach incredibly well, and knew Cade even less, but as Zach was Brielle's favorite brother Elise couldn't help but feel protective of him too.

The confrontation was quick and she was worried it was going to get out of hand when suddenly there was a flare of a Custosic aura and then everything stopped. That flare was finally enough to drag her out of Kyo's costume closet and she ran to the nearest window and looked outside just in time to see who she thought was Saiyuri flying up through the clouds carrying who she assumed was Cade.

A little taken off guard at the turn of events, Elise just watched, her head tilted slightly to the left in contemplation, until the pair dissappeared into the low clouds. Once they were gone, she left the studio wearing one of the costume dresses and carrying a sword she'd found laying about with the other props. It wasn't really a prop though which was why she was taking it with her, she wanted to ask Kyo if he'd meant to leave such a fine weapon in with all the other obviously fake ones.

Only, when she reached the stairs that led up to Kyo and Zach's suite upstairs, she smelled Kyo's fresh scent and frowned. He was busy. So, since Brielle was still over at her grandfather's house, Elise took herself to their room, grabbed her camera and tripod, and headed out to the garden to get a few shots using her auto-timer feature. They were never as good as somebody else using the camera, but she could always improve them with a bit of computer photo-editting.

[Demeter]

Thiery peered at his wife and sighed. He silently hoped that she hadn't seriously injured anyone. When she poured the sake into water glasses, Thiery lifted a brow. It seemed that he would be taking Cian's place for this round of freak outs. He didn't mind, though water glasses filled with sake was a bit much.

Thiery leaned back in his chair, flicked off his movie and watched for Saiyuri. "Who did what this time, Saiyuri? This isn't about Zach's young man, is it?"

***

Zach watched Kyo sleep. He sprawled out across the bed, one foot dangling over the edge and the sheets tangled around a leg. He slept like a dead man, especially after a romp around the bed. Zach knew that very little could wake the man from a dead sleep.

Once, before they'd cemented their relationship, he'd snuck out of Kyo's apartment. Naturally he'd tripped over and crashed into every single peice of furnature but Kyo slept on. Car alarms, fog horns, and earthquakes couldn't wake the man. Zach was a little envious of that talent.

And he was willing to put up with so much. Zach figured that only a patient man could wait six months, weather a very hot and cold attitude, for a man to get over himself and give in. He'd caved faster then Uncle Dominic but he'd already accepted the fact that he was attracted to men. He just had to tackle the fear of being tossed aside by someone he loved again.

Zach grinned. He'd snuck out of the apartment to avoid some very awkward questions. He''d let Kyo believe that his reluctance in giving in to him was because he didn't know if he liked men or not. He'd have a hard time explaining just why he'd known exactly what to do that first time.

When Kyo groaned, Zach snickered. "Been a while since you were that...acrobatic in bed. I don't feel sorry for you."

Kyo tossed a pillow at Zach. "You seemed to enjoy it at the time. How are you doing. Headache?"

"Surprising, there's no headache and I think I'm fine. I'm sure that there will be another scene and a whole lot of explaining but I feel fine about it."

"I told your sisters."

Zach sighed. "I knew you were up to something at breakfast. Was there frothing at the mouth?"

When Kyo nodded, Zach laughed. "Sounds like my sisters."

[Maira]

Brielle had been dropped back off at Zach and Kyo's place shortly after Saiyuri's return to Katsu's house. The look on her mother's face told her that something big had happened and she NEEDED to know what it was. As her mother had on her typical freak-out face, Brielle knew there would be no way of getting it from her until morning at the earliest and she wanted to know -now-.

When she waltzed in the front door, she winked at the portrait of Zach, and then skipped her way up the stairs. She was on a mission to find Elise, who had stayed behind all day, in hopes that the other woman had heard something about what had happened.

Only, when she went to their room, Elise was nowhere to be found. Baffled, she checked all but Kyo's studio (it was locked anyway) before going back downstairs and checking all the rooms down there. Not finding Elise anywhere downstairs, she took a quick stroll through the garden and frowned when she found Elise's tripod, but not Elise.

Contrary to popular belief in her family, Brielle did actually have the ability to reason things out and upon finding Elise's tripod in the garden, and remembering that the studio was closed, Brielle knew exactly what Elise was doing. If Kyo had a dark room, Elise would be tinkering away in there.

A triumphant little "ha!" escaped her as she ran back indoors and up to the third floor. She rapped on her brother's bedroom door only twice before walking in (a habit from childhood). The fact that both men were nude only barely registered with Brielle as she smiled quickly at Zach and then turned to Kyo, "I'm sorry to bother you Kyo but Elise seems to have locked herself in your studio. She's probably playing in your darkroom, if you have one, and if we don't get her out and feed her she'll forget to have lunch. She gets a bit lost in her work sometimes which I'm sure you understand."

Only after she had stopped speaking did the situation fully sink in with Brielle. Her eyes moved between Kyo and Zach, took in their state of undress and the rumpled bed sheets, she probably should have blushed or something but instead she just bit her lip before apologizing, "Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt."

*****

Saiyuri, unlike her husband, didn't find the water glasses full of sake excessive. She would in the morning when it all hit her but for now she was fine with it. When Thiery asked what was wrong now, and mentioned Zach's new boy, Saiyuri took a big swallow then answered, "No, its not Kyo. I really like Kyo actually." Another swallow. "Its actually Cade. I guess he and Zach were involved, like I had suspected all along, but the idiot boy broke Zach's heart. Cade is why Zach has been gone for six years." Another swallow.

[Demeter]

Zach cursed as he tried to cover himself with a blanket. "Christ, Brielle! Can't you wait until you're invited in before opening a door. For all you know we could have been going at it still! Out!" Zach growled and pointed a finger until Brielle backed out of the doorway and closed the door behind her.

Kyo chuckled as he climbed off the bed to pull his clothing on. "I like your sister, Zach. She's much like you....just female with squishy bits. Where are your keys."

Zach, face buried in a pillow, groaned and vaugely motioned in the direction of the dresser. He had one of two sets of keys to Kyo's studio. The vampire, much like Elise, had ahabit of forgetting to eat when absorbed into his work. Zach had even gone through the trouble of installing a sort of cubby hole in order to pass food and other things to Kyo when he was locked away in his dark room.

Kyo chuckled and, after buttoning up his jeans, swiped up the keys. He leaned over the bed and kissed Zach when he rolled over. "I'll be back in a moment. Don't get dressed." He grinned at Zach and walked out of the bedroom door. Brielle was sitting on the stairs apparently one fo them. He wiggled the keys at her. "I suppose we should get rescue Elise before she dies of starvation."

He waited until they were on the second floor landing and he was flipping through the keys on the ring (really, why did Zach have so many keys?) before he spoke. "You know something happened, don't you? Cade stopped by while Saiyuri was here. I'm sure you can imagine the rest." He unlocked the door. "Oi, Elise, you alive?"

***

Normally, Thiery was the calm one in the relationship. Normally. Normal didn't apply to his children. Granted, his outbursts weren't as dramatic but they did make a statement. Flaming Sake in a waterglass was his response to learning that Cade had broken his baby boy's heart.

[Maira]

Zach yelling at her to get out didn't phase Brielle at all, she just giggled and turned around and walked out. She had caught Zach naked a couple of times when they were kids and he had a very similar reaction. Granted, there hadn't been a naked man in his bed at those times. Just before she closed the door behind her she shouted back over her shoulder, "If I'd come in during the middle of something -I- wouldn't have cared, Kyo has a very nice ass." Then she scampered the rest of the way out of the room to avoid any flying objects.

After just a couple of minutes, Kyo came out and found her sitting on the top step, she laughed at what he said about rescuing Elise. She got up and skipped down the stairs after her brother's lover. When they reached the second floor of the house and Kyo started talking again, Brielle was a bit surprised at his topic of choice. She eyed him curiously and answered him, "I saw Mom when she got back to grandpa Katsu's house, it wasn't pretty." And then they were at the studio door and Kyo was opening it, hollering out for Elise.

From her place in the darkroom, Elise heard Kyo's voice. She couldn't make out exactly what he was saying thanks to the closed door between them she shouted back at him, "I'm in here!" She wasn't exactly sure if she'd be heard but at least he might get a general idea of where she was.

After she had finished taking shots in the garden, she had decided to develope the film right away. She'd brought her laptop and she was sure that Kyo would have a scanner she could hook up to it to get the shots uploaded to her computer. So far, from what she could tell, most of them weren't too bad and the focus on others, while not perfect, would lend for some very interesting effects once on the computer.

She was just taking a particularly interesting shot out of the chemicals and hanging it on the line to dry when she heard Kyo's footsteps followed by Brielle's come into the darkroom. As she had other photographs still in the chemicals she didn't bother to look up, but concentrated on her work. "Hey guys," she mumbled as she tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear and switched another photo from one tray to another.

[Demeter]

Kyo studied Elise's photographs in his office. The space was a corner of the living room that Zach had neatly sectioned off with traditional shoji screens. After they'd pried Elise from the dark room and stuffed a few sandwichs down her throat the four had gathered in the living room. Zach had rehashed the whole miserable affair from first glance to that afternoon.

He'd cuddled Zach close when he told the girls about the thoughts of killing himself and the seemingly endless years of living with the knowledge that he just hadn't been tempting enough to Cade. He already knew everything but hearing the tale again made his heart ache. Zach hadn't done anything except love the bastard but Kincade just hadn't noticed. That alone was enough reason to wish for his death.

Kyo was eternally gratefull that Brielle had gotten them out of a another family dinner. By now the whole of Zach's family knew the basics. He didn't need to relate the facts twice in one night. While Brielle and Elise were out with the family, he and Zach would enjoy a quiet night at home."

"You have a choice between freezer burned pizza or the science experiment gone wrong growing in your mother's best tupperware," Zach called out from the kitchen.

Kyo blinked. When was he last time they'd had dinner at his parents place? It must have been around Christmas. While his parents genuinely liked Zach, they still didn't approve of his lifestyle. Mostly the fact that he spent hours photographing naked men and women part and being famous for it that they didn't approve of. "Go for the pizza. The tupperware has probably gained sentient thought by now."

In the kitchen, Zach chucked the tupperware back into the fridge. He'd have to scour the dish before returning it. After plopping the pizza on a baking sheet and shoving it into the oven, Zach wandered into Kyo's office. He sprawled out on a pile of floor pillows. "We need to go to the store."

Kyo left the photos on the desk and sprawled out next to Zach. "Do we have breakfast?"

"Of sorts. Left overs from that picnic Dasan made this morning."

Kyo groaned and buried his face in the pillows. "You take Brielle. I'll entertain Elise."

Zach quietly chuckled before snuggling up to Kyo to cuddle before dinner.


Lily nudged Shay. "What's going on?" she hissed when Shay looked at her, "everyone is glaring at Cade. I swear if something happened and you didn't tell me because it might stress me and the baby, I'm going to stab you with my chopsticks."

When Shay gave her the basics, Lily gave Cade one of those don't-piss-of-the-pregnant-lady glares she'd perfected over the last seven months. She leaned towards Shay. "Can I stab him with my chopsticks?" she asked while fingering the shiney pieces of laqured wood.

Dane, sitting next to the Lissa, whom he considered to be the only other sane person in this family, watched as Cade stared down. "You ever get the feeling that this family is one big cosmic joke and we are the audience?" he asked. He'd only come on this trip because Larkin had begged and bribed him with outrageous sexual favors. He was holding the vampire to the favors.

There came a time wehn men forgot old differences and banded together. This, Sean decided, was one of those times. He stood off to the side of the resturant with Gareth, Sebastian, River and Logan. While Gareth and Sebastian thought that pounding on Cade was a suitable punishment for breaking their little brother's heart, they didn't want to get between Cade and the girls. They'd probably be eviserated along side Cade.

At the "adults" table, Katsu watched as his son-n-law pried the sake bottle from Saiyuri's hand. She would need to be sober to hear the whole story. She could get completely smashed afterwards. Katsu contemplated his own serving of Sake. The fear of coming home to find Zach dead instead of hunched over a pile of texts was still fresh in his mind. He'd only be confident that Zach would get past whatever had driven him to Japan when he'd first seen Zach out with Kyo.

It hadn't been when Zach had introduced him. He'd been out with Dasan, having a good night on the town, when he'd seen the two of them. Zach had been smiling and laughing and alive. Katsu swirled his Sake around. "Saiyuri, lay off the sauce, would you? You need to be sober when you hear the whole tale."

[Maira]

As Elise had heard what had happened between Zach and Kincade, and then Saiyuri, she wasn't surprised at all by that part of what Zach told them. The part about why he'd come to Japan in the first place made her blood boil. If she hadn't decided long ago not to get involved in Brielle's crazy family politics she likely would have gone against all the rules of her mother's people and gone hunting... Damn Cade.

Brielle was having quite the opposite reaction than Elise was having. While Elises blood was boiling, Brielle's was running cold. She wanted nothing more than to go to her brother and snuggle him. Instead she just fumbled for Elise's hand. Elise was a great comfort to Brielle in many ways and right now, the little squeeze that the other woman gave her hand was enough to let her know that Brielle wasn't the only one affected by Zach's story about the past.

When the two women finally left Zach and Kyo's house to join the rest of the family for dinner, they made it past the gate and behind the wall that surrounded the property before Brielle latched onto Elise and started to cry. The car they had used was only a few steps away but Elise didn't bother moving them, she just held Brielle as she sobbed and cursed Kincade. The man was family as well, had practically been a brother to them all, and while she wanted to hate him she just felt so damn conflicted.

Rather unexpectedly, Elise found herself humming. Not like a normal human hums a tune, but how a dragon hums to their eggs or dragonets. It was a soothing, barely audible vibration that ran through not only Elise's body but Brielles as well. In only a couple moments Brielle was calm again and was eyeing Elise a little oddly. Only when they finally got in the car, Brielle driving, did she ask Elise, "What in the world was that?" Elise just smiled and shook her head. Brielle knew that Elise was somehow involved with dragons (she'd seen her scales on more than one occasion after all) but she didn't know that Elise was half dragon herself... That would have to wait until they were back in the States and she would only give all the details if they decided to try being a couple rather than just friends with very fun benefits.

*****

Shay couldn't help but giggle as Lily asked if she could stab Cade with her chopsticks. After just having told Lily about the day's happenings and everything else that Kyo had revealed to her and the rest of her sisters that morning, Shay honestly was ready to let Lily loose. It would be the mildest punishment Cade could expect to recieve from the members of the family that knew what was going on.

Lissa, trying to keep tabs on her monster children, looked up from her oldest when Dane spoke to her. With a sideways glance at her small brood, she answered, "Oh yes. Though, sometimes I always wonder if the audience is insane for wanting to be involved in the cosmic joke." At that moment, the youngest of the twins decided that his high chair just wasn't a suitable place to sit any longer and he unfastened himself and stood up doing a little tarzan yell (complete with pounding on his chest) and jumped onto his father who was standing a short distance away. Lissa just looked at Dane as if to say, "See, I'm crazy!"

When Thiery took her glass of sake away, the leopard inside of her came to the surface just a bit and she hissed at him. The leopard loved her mate but honestly, what male got between a mother and the idiot that harmed one of her cubs? Only when Katsu spoke to her did Saiyuri realize that her feline side was so close to the surface and she shoved her down and apologized to Thiery, "Sorry sweetheart, she's being pushy tonight..." Then to her dad she just told him flat out, "I should have heard it long ago but somebody neglected to tell me." While she may have been hurt that Zach didn't tell her, Saiyuri was furious with her father for not doing so.

[Demeter]

Katsu looked at the ceiling. "Somebody was sworn to silence. Zach didn't want any drama over this." He fiddled with his chopsticks. "Think about it Saiyuri, the first thing you'd do would be to rush over here to fawn and fuzz over him and then drag him back to deal with the whole Kincade problem. Trust me when I say that dragging him back would be worst thing possible. After that, when he was settled in here, he found a life that suited him. If you'd found out then, the whole thing would be rehashed and I don't think he'd be able to handle it. Now, well, now he can handle it."

When Saiyuri questioned him, Katsu grinned. "He can handle it because he has Kyo to support him." He swirled and sipped at his Sake. "And now, now we have dinner," he said as a whole troop of waiters bearing large trays appeared in the middle of the group."

***

Zach wondered how pissed his mother would be if he chickened out and moved to Fiji. He wouldn't Fiji. Fiji would mean tropical drinks with little umbrellas and Kyo running around shirtless and wearing short shorts. He then considered that his mother would probably hunt him down and shake the whole story out of him. Zach stared up at his grandfather's house and silently vowed to grab Kyo and run away to a day of being pampered at a Onsen. One of Kyo's friend owned one and owed him a favor. He looked over at Kyo. "Do I have to do this?"

Kyo nodded and frog-marched Zach to the front door. "Yes. She called last night, at midnight, to wrangle a promise out of you to speak about this."

Zach cringed as he was marched into the living room. Everyone was there. Even Grandma Dion and Grandpa Tobin. The only person not present was Cade. He greated his grandparents and then settled into the story.

[Maira]

Saiyuri was still pissed at her father the next day but luckily for him she had a distraction. Dion and Tobin were flying in for a surprise visit. Apparently Dion missed her grandson and now that they were all allowed to visit him she'd wanted to go. Not to mention, Saiyuri had told her the basics of -why- Zach had left with no word to Japan and had never come home. When she'd found out the night before, after getting home from the family dinner, that her mother and step-father were flying in she had called Kyo and Zach's and begged for them to come to Katsu's house the next night to explain everything that had happened to the family. When Zach had finally agreed, Saiyuri had thanked him and hung up.

Now with her mother and Tobin sitting in the room her father used as a living room, along with the rest of the family, the only two people missing were Zach and Kyo. While they waited, Saiyuri puttered around in the kitchen. This wasn't a formal gathering so a meal wasn't required but snacks always went over well with her family and it had been a while since she'd tried her hand at Japanese cooking. "Like this Dasan?" Saiyuri asked as she worked on the rice balls. They were one of her favorites, rice balls with some sort of sweet bean paste in the middle, and she'd wanted to know the correct way to make them for ages. When Dasan nodded her approval, Saiyuri smiled and finished her last batch of them.

She had just carried a second tray of snacks out to the livingroom when she heard the front door open. Knowing who it was, Saiyuri went greeted her son and his lover and led them to where everybody else was already sitting and talking. Poor Tobin was being mauled by Gareth and Lissa's twin boys and Saiyuri couldn't help but smile at the sight, especially when he still managed to greet Zach and Kyo while being used as a jungle gym.

Saiyuri went back to the kitchen for one last tray of snacks and grabbed her own drink, a huge coffee to fight back the last remnants of her hangover from the night before. Everybody else had their drinks already, two sodas had even been set aside for Zach and Kyo and once she set down the tray and took up her place on the arm of the chair that Thiery was sitting in, Zach explained everything.

By the time he was done, Saiyuri's eyes were full of unshed tears and she had slid off the arm of the chair to sit on her husband's lap. His arms around her were steadying and the only thing keeping her from crying outright. She couldn't look at Lysander or even Dominic. They had raised Cade, she may have loved the boy and done what she could to provide a motherly influence in his life, but the two men had raised him. Cade wasn't a bad man, never had meant any harm Saiyuri was sure, she just couldn't help but wonder how he had missed what she had known for so long. While she may have been oblivious to many of her children's love lives, she'd always had a special connection with Zach and while she may not have ever caught them together she'd always had her suspicions. If she of all people had known something was going on, how the hell had Cade missed it?!

Across the room, sitting with his lover, Dominic had his his hand on L's thigh. The two of them were getting some rather interesting looks. He didn't miss that Saiyuri -wouldn't- look at them at all and that hurt more than the looks everybody else gave them. Never one for words, Dominic stayed silent. He figured if anything was going to be said on Cade's part it'd be from L.

Lily, Shay, Livvie, Lani, Brielle and Elise were all crowded together on a couch, the four sisters in the middle, and the sisters were all either holding hands or leaning against each other. Their baby brother had been hurt, that they'd known thanks to Kyo. What they hadn't known was that they had come very close to losing him. That scared them beyond anything else. Their family may have been huge and totally insane, but that didn't mean they'd be devastated to lose one member of it.

[Demeter]

Kyo kept an arm around Zach's waist. He knew how hard this was for his lover. He honestly couldn't imagine how he'd go about telling his family that he'd contemplated killing himself. The fact that Zach wasn't curled up in a sobbing ball was a plus. As was the fact that this was all out in the open now. No more hiding for Zach.

Zach cast his eyes between his parents and Lysander. If they even thought to cast the blame onto them, he'd have to do some talking. He didn't blame Lysander and Dominic for this. Zach supposed he knew the reason for his time with Cade. When they'd pasted the point of casual experimentation, all of his siblings had seemed to be finding that special someone in their lives. Lani and Sean, Gareth and Lissa, Shay and Lily, Sebastian and River, Logan and Livvie, all together and enjoying themselves. And he'd wanted that.

He supposed that, at the time, he'd been in love with the idea of love and Cade had filled that role. He'd convinced himself that the only way of living was to be with Cade. Afterall, it only made sense. Their families were friends, it only seemed natural that someone should end up together. But what he'd had with Cade was non-existant to what he had with Kyo.

He looked at his family. "I don't want any of your to feel sorry for me. It was a very confusing time in life. I was dealing with the knowledge of being gay. It wasn't that you'd wouldn't approve of the lifestyle. It was that I was gay. Not to mention that everyone, at the time, was hooked up with someone and that seemed like a lasting relationship. Those relationships have lasted. I was the only one left out and Cade was there. If any blame is going to be cast, it should be on me," he said back on the couch with his arms crossed over his chest, daring anyone to sat something different.

[Demeter]

(I can't help myself...they are putting around)

Kyo tiptoed into the bedroom. One quick look told him that Zach was still out. Yesterdays family meeting had gone from bad to worse quickly. Once the shock had worn off, there had been shouts and accusations. And Zach had tried to refree the whole, miserable affair. As an outside to the family, Kyo wondered why they hadn't seen this sort of situation coming. Toss a bunch of teens together and someone was bound to sleep with someone else.

Kyo sat on the edge of the bed and stroked Zach's hair as he slept. He'd gotten the feeling that Zach's fragmented family had always gotten along, more or less, but this was a whole new situation. The whole Lani and Gareth thing had been rehashed but that, Kyo thought, was a whole different ball of wax. That was contained within Zach's immediate family. This yanked Zach's oldest sister's father's family into. And then add in just how it ended and that Zach had been rather messed up by the whole event.

Kyo decided that the mess could have only had one messy ending and that and been played out last night. Zach had tried to calm the frayed nerves but the shouting had just gone over his head. The loud voices, the stress and the dug up emotions had caused his head to pound and ache until Kyo, pulling water in from the garden pond, blasted everyone with a spray of water to the face. In the shocked silence, Kyo hauled Zach up from the floor and supported the man. He'd been whimpering, Kyo remembered, and his skin the color of bleached bones. He'd pointed at Katsu and told the old man to explain before taken Zach home.

Once there, he'd poured Zach into bed and coaxed him into swallowing a pill. Before long, Zach was asleep and that had been over tweleve hours ago. Brielle and Elise had come back about an hour later to say that things hadn't gotten better.

*~*~*~

Standing in his garden, Katsu wondered what would happen now. Katsu had put his foot down, saying that there would be no arguing in his house. Everyone had scattered after that and he'd taken the time to calm Saiyuri down. She'd stopped, mid-yell, when he'd just dropped to the floor. Not fainted or fallen, Katsu thought, just sat down quickly and tried to bury his head. The migraines that Zach got were the nasty, debilating sort and they were prone when the boy was stressed, tired, overworked and just plain overwhelmed. A day or so of quiet and he'd be back together.

Everyone had gone their seperate was after that. Cade had left, followed by Larkin and Dane. Lysander and Dominic had made their apoligies to him and gone back to their hotel. He'd called that morning but been told that the Gallagher party had checked out earlier that morning.

Katsu groaned, scrubbing hands over his face, and wondered if his family would heal from this.

*~*~*~

Lysander, with a heaving sigh, shut the door to the cottage in Scotland. They'd left Japan last night. Larkin and Dane had left almost immediently, calming that they didn't feel comfortable being involved in the situation. Cade had lit out. Lysander didn't even know where he was.

And they'd left for Scotland. Leaving after such an arguement, without resolving things, may not have been the smartest thing but he doubted that anyone would enjoy the vacation now.

[Demeter]

Zach sighed. The indignities he suffered at Kyo's shows usually led to Kyo sucking up to him. Which, he supposed as he sipped wine and kept his back to the wall, was why he did it. But Madame was a very trying woman.

Elderly, french and a patron of the arts, Madame had a thing for his ass and tried to pinch it at every turn. Zach often thanked all the deities that Madame was happily wed to a much younger italian pretty boy. Who also tried to pinch his ass.

Madame and Pretty Boy also purchased Kyo's portraits so Zach put up with it. Somehow, being at this show was an easy way of getting back into the grove of a family vacation. After the explanation, things had been quiet for a few days until Kyo had invited the girls to the show. Naturally, the invite was extended to the whole family but Zach wasn't sure how he felt about the whole family seeing his naked body on display.

There were others but he, and his infamous cowboy hat, were on display as well. He stood, back still the wall, and listened to the crowd as they talked about how now Kyo's portraits were, how anti-conformist Kyo was. Others spoke of how hot the models were.

Rolling his eyes, Zach turned to look for Kyo. He stood, with the gallery owner, talking to some reporters. And then he saw his sisters enter the gallery, his mother in tow. He glanced back at his portraits and groaned. That cowboy hat had been a present for his mother for his tenth birthday. And now he was naked with it on his head in front of a large crowd.

He didn't even try to hide. He just hissed at Brielle. "Why the hell did you bring Mom?" he asked.

[Maira]

Everybody had felt badly about the family fight. Katsu had glared at almost everybody for two days after what they had all put poor Zach through. He had it on good authority from Kyo that the boy had been in bed for a day with a migraine. Finally, when Kyo and Zach invited the girls to a showing of Kyo's work Katsu was able to breathe easy. It meant that both of the boys had forgiven the family their insanity and were ready to continue with the visit.

Knowing the nature of much of Kyo's work though, Katsu was more than a little surprised when Saiyuri tagged along. He knew she'd seen the piece at Kyo and Zach's house and he couldn't help but wonder if she thought that was the only piece like that...

*****

When they reached the gallery where Kyo's work was on display, the troop of Zach's female family members split up into groups and wandered around. Lani steered their mother toward what appeared to be some of the more tame artwork, Shay and Livvie went directly for the section featuring nudes, and Brielle accompanied by Elise, made a beeline for Zach himself. When Zach hissed at her, Brielle just giggled but it was Elise who answered, "We didn't bring your mom Zach, she got mad that she wasn't invited to her "son-in-law's" gallery show..." The look on Zach's face had both girls smiling.

[Demeter]

Zach gnawed on his lower lip as his mother drifted from print to print. She was closing in on the "Zach Corner." How would she react to the discreet little sold tags attached to framed prints of his naked body. Zach sidled towards Brielle. "You suppose she'll just not noticed that it's me?" he asked both Brielle and Elise.

When both girls just looked at him, Zach groaned and turned to press his forehead against a whitewashed pillar. "I know, I know, she gave birth to me. She'll notice that it's me. But can't a guy wish for such a thing before his mother's happy illusions about her youngest are mercilessly shattered?"

When Brielle leveled a raised eyebrow stare at him over her wine glass, Zach rolled his eyes. "Next to Livvie, I'm the good child. Good Children do not wiggle their naked asses at a camera. Oh Sweet Goddess, she's almost there. I'm going to go hide behind Kyo."

Zach scuttled away and stood behind Kyo. He absently listened as the Artsy friends discussed something or else while watching as his mother drew near to the photo of him holding a cowboy hat over his crotch. He smiled, softly, when he felt Kyo grab his hand. "She's not going to kill you, you know. I'm fair game but I don't think she'll kill you."

Kyo had seen Saiyuri come in and he did wonder what she'd think of the portraits. Zach knew the moment Saiyuri saw the first print. Her back went iron rod straight and he heard, all the way across the gallery, the sound of something sucking down air.

[Maira]

Brielle couldn't help but snicker at her brother's expense. She had to admit, being the "good" child definitely had its disadvantages. Not that she'd ever had that particular problem as she had never really been anything but the problem child... When Zach started to freak out as Saiyuri neared the prints of him, and he ran and hid behind Kyo, both Elise and Brielle turned and watched as the woman in question finally reached the pictures Zach was so worried about her seeing.

Upon hearing Saiyuri suck in air, and seeing her spine straighten, Brielle glanced at Zach and teased, "I think you are no longer one of the "good" children Zachariah." Elise smacked Brielle's arm causing the dark haired girl to gasp in pain and glare.

Then Elise turned to Zach and told him, "Look, just because you aren't her sweet innocent little baby boy anymore doesn't mean she isn't going to love you. It may take her a while to get over the shock of seeing you like that," and here Elise gestured at the nearest nude of the man, "but she's not going to disown you." Zach looked at her unbelivingly and Elise told him flat out, "I've never seen a mother who loved her children more than your mother loves you guys. Never."

This last comment Elise said in part because of how Saiyuri had reacted to the argument she overheard in Zach and Kyo's garden and part because of how upset she'd gotten on the day that Zach had explained in detail everything that had happened between him and Cade, and what had happened after. She truly never had seen a mother, or any parent for that matter, who cared so deeply for her children.

*****

Saiyuri had been a bit hurt by not being invited to Kyo's gallery show and when she'd found out about it had invited herself to tag along with her daughters. The girls had all seemed a bit leery about letting their mother tag along, but in the end couldn't really tell her no. She was their mother after all and not the other way around.

Once at the show, Saiyuri had a good time looking at the variety of Kyo's prints and she couldn't help but admit that the boy had amazing talent and vision. And then she glimpsed something that made her do a double take. She changed her direction to check out the print that had caught her eye and once she got close enough to see it more clearly, she gasped and stood up straight with shock.

She looked around quickly to see where Zach and Kyo were and when she spotted the pair of them, Zach hiding behind Kyo, Saiyuri quickly looked away. But she wasn't sure where exactly she should look. If she walked away from this particular grouping of prints she might hurt the boys' feelings, but if she actually stayed and looked at them she might utterly embarrass her son.

Just then, Saiyuri's cell phone rang and she had never been more grateful. She quickly turned her attention to fishing her phone out of her purse to silence it by answering and walking toward one of the open doors that led to the gallery's garden so as not to disturb the other patrons of the show.

*****

Lani watched as her mother joined her in the garden and said into her cell phone, "I hope you don't mind me calling you out here but you seemed to need a bit of a rescue." When her mother spotted her, Lani waved her cell phone and then hung it up.

Saiyuri looked at her own phone curiously for a moment, then shook her head and closed her phone too and dropped it back in her purse. "Thank you sweetheart, I really did need a rescue. I'm sure Kyo's pictures of Zach are great but I really don't think a mother should be oggling her son's nude portraits. Lani laughed and nodded before answering, "I figured as much."