=Dex threw his tools across his bedroom in frustration. He was in the middle of trying to bend the little pieces of metal for Biana's necklace, but he couldn't get them to curl evenly. It didn't seem so hard! Just take the sets of pliers, hold it over an open flame, but NO, it just HAD to come out uneven every time. He sighed, rubbing his face, but sprang upwards when the door clicked open.

There, standing in the door frame, was none other than Sophie. She was dressed in a jade green tunic, tan, close fitted pants, and a frown. "Is everything okay? I heard a thud as I came up here."

Sophie, Sophie, Sophie. Dex almost smiled as the true essence of Sophie came through her personality. The true Sophie he had once been in love with. "Yeah, I just can't get the petals to bend evenly, and the pictures-gosh. We only have paintings in the lost cities, and paintings that small would be miserable. I just don't know what do to. I want to make this necklace for her so I can give it to her at her Gala, which is a few weeks away, but still, It takes a really long time to make chain, and it'll take forever to etch these details in." He put his face in his hands again. "I just don't know how I'm going to pull this off."

"Hey, it's okay." She knelt next to him, and put a hand on his shoulder. "You don't have to figure everything out right now. First, let's work on the petals. As for the picture part, I'll talk to Mr. Forkle about you and I visiting the lost cities, getting a camera, and printing out the pictures. Everything else can come later. You'll finish it before the Gala, don't worry. Here, how about I hold two pliers, each with a petal, and you can bend them both, measure them out, side by side. It'll go way faster."

He nodded, and pulled a few spare pliers out of the drawer. He cleared a bunch of machine parts off a stool, and drew it closer to his metal working flame (not to be confused with his alchemy flame, mind you). She sat down, and silently took two of the pliers, holding them open.

"Load them up!"

Dex did as she commanded, and the long, painstaking process began. Sophie's hands kept shifting, and Dex kept dropping the pliers. Nevertheless, it was technically faster, just as she had promised him before. He would carefully scan the petal pieces at different angles, though each one would take over ten minutes. When they finally finished, they sighed in relief.

"That was exhausting," he announced, leaning back in his chair.

"Agreed. I'm glad it's over. They turned out great!"

"I hope I never have to do that again, or, if I do, I make some high tech machinery to help."
She nodded, "that'd be nice."

"Thanks for the help," he smiled tiredly. "Are you staying for dinner?"

"No, sorry, I promised Edaline I'd be home for dinner, but I think you guys are coming for dinner this weekend."

"Really? That sounds good." He escourted her to the leap pad. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"See you tomorrow." She waved, before shouting, "Havenfielfd!" and dissapearing with the light.

Dex made his way to the living room, and plopped onto the couch next to his mom.

"Hey honey, Sophie just left?" She had the television remote in her hands, and looked like she was about to start a human movie.

"Yeah, what are you going to watch?"

"It's called 'Mulan', humans drew pictures to make motion to tell the story, and did a voice over. They call it: 'animation'" She beamed, making gestures reflecting her own amazement, her hands arching across the air.

"That sounds incredible!"

"I know!"

"Is the disk in?"

"All I need to do is turn it on."

"Mom, you're awesome."

"I know."

The movie finished a few minutes before dinner, and left Dex with a new appreciation for animated films. Mulan was incredibly tough, lead soldiers in a war, plus fought against prejudice and sexism, while still finding love. In a way, he felt strong and impowered too. He was in a good mood when he sat down at the table next to his dad, not noticing the triplets looking at him fearfully.

"So, did you guys enjoy your movie?" Kesler asked as he took a huge bite of the veggie roast.

"It was awesome!" He exclaimed.
"And what about you three?" his dad turned his attention to the triplets.

"What about us?" Bex asked quickly.

"We did nothing!" Rex defended.

Dex and his parents looked at one another. The triplets had done something.

"Alright, what did you do?" His mom asked, but the triplets remained silent.

"If you come clean now, you won't be punished as much." His dad tempted.

"We went into Dex's room to see what he was working on." Lex explained nervously, his eyes starting to water, and Dex felt his stomach drop. "We saw that he had his music player out, you know, the one he built so he could have human music, so we turned it on, and started dancing. We didn't touch anything but the music player-honest!-But we bumped into one another, and metal hit the floor. We tripped, and landed on it. It was really hot, and-"

He was already up the stairs, fear swirling in his throat. "Not the petals-please not the petals." He murmered as he mindlessly threw the door open to his room. On the desk were thirteen pieces of squashed metal. The necklace. As he dropped to his knees, his siblings ran up to him, their parents in tow.

"We're really sorry," Bex said sympathetically.

"Really sorry." Rex emphasized.

"Is there anything we can do to help?" Lex asked.

Dex looked back at his, his face frozen with the shock. His siblings stepped back. They had never seen him like this.

He gave, and gave and gave, but this is what he got.

"We'll help you fix them," Lex offered.

He could barely shape the words with his mouth for a moment. "No," he said breathlessly, feeling a sudden burst of hopelessness in his chest, mixing with the anger in a bitter, salty solution. Harshly, he continued. "You've done enough. You've all done enough." He wanted to yell at them, so badly, for what they had done, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. He could never bring himself to do it. He had been trained to protect his siblings.

Quietly, his mom herded the triplets downstairs, while his dad put a hand on his shoulder. "I'm sorry they did that, they don't know any better-"

"Yeah?" He cut his dad off, "well maybe they should. They're eleven years old, and should be treated like it."

"Look Dex, I know you're upset, but they're triplets, it's unfair to expect any better. It's just a necklace."

"That's just the excuse you tell yourself after they do something wild." He stood, and walked into his room.

"Dex, wait-" he started, but Dex closed the door in his face, locking it.

He could hear his dad sigh on the other side of the door, wait a moment, then retreat downstairs. Dex walked over to his desk, and picked up a piece of squashed metal, examining it carefully in his hands. Tears welled in his eyes silently, and eventually spilled down his cheeks. All he had ever done since the triplets were born was take care of them, sometimes more than their parents did, sometimes to his expense.

This wasn't the first time the triplets had wrecked one of his creations, but there was something about this necklace that made him almost... frantic to finish. He hadn't thought that he could finish it before Sophie came, but now he REALLY didn't think he could finish. Especially if the triplets were on a destructive accident spree.

He thought about all the times he couldn't hang out with his friends because he had to watch the triplets. All the times he cleaned their cuts or kissed their bruises. All the times he had watched over them, kept them from trouble, and they just- they just come into his room, without a care, and squashed his project.

A project that was simple in design, but almost completely different than his usual skill set. A project he had promised a girl who helped him. A girl who he was starting to fall for-who he didn't want to fall for. A girl who would break his heart. A project that if he quit now, he knew he would regret it. A project to fulfil his side of the bet. A project to make her smile, even just once. A project destined to lead to the breaking of his heart. Yet he would do it anyways. For her. A project he cared about, with all of his heart. And they squashed it.

They had squashed the craftsmanship, the time it took to finish it, the time stressing to get it done, the words of encouragement Sophie had given him, the hope-the thought-that he could finish this necklace on time. How could he finish the necklace if the triplets kept going into his room and squishing everything?

Dex held the piece of metal in his hands, and slid to the floor, clutching it to his chest, the tears still coming.

How could they disregard what he cared about, when he cared about them so much? When he had taken care of him like they were his own kids, while his parents were caught up in their own lives. Could he not enjoy himself? Could he not do something for himself? Did he constantly have to give and give and give to these three kids, who just paraded around, doing whatever they liked, not caring who they'd effect. Knowing they'd only get a slap on the wrist before being sent away to go and do it all over again. When did it end? When did it end? When did it end? Was he going to be stuck like this forever, would they be like this forever? Would he be living alone, in the future, while the triplets came over at their own whim, messing up everything he created, leaving him without a care, leaving him a lonely, unsuccessful technopath, who couldn't make a girl happy, much less one fall in love with him.

"No, no." He thought, and took a shakey breath. "This was just one time. This was just one necklace. I'm just overthinking. Things will change, they have to change. They're not bad kids." Memories of standing up for the triplets flew through his mind.

The time the triplets met their mom's parents for the first time, who were very against their daughter being married to a talentless, being a bad match, and having triplets with him. After scrutinizing his siblings, Dex stood against his grandparents, saying the same thing he had just thought. "They're not bad kids." The time some veggetable selling lady at the market threw the rotten ones at his siblings, just because they had 'looked at her funny.' "They're not bad kids." The time he introduced his siblings to all of their mentors, and one of them, one of Rex's, had wrinkled her nose at them, asking if they were the notorious triplets. "They're not bad kids!"

Right?

Dex felt awful as he heard a little voice in the back of his head start to wonder if they were actually good kids, or if it was his way of defending his family. They couldn't be bad kids. They just couldn't be.

He went on like this for about another hour, before he heard a soft knock at the door. A triplet. He was now sitting on his bed, facing away from the door, numbly stroking the piece of metal in his hands with his thumb.

"Dex?" Lex's soft voice broke the quiet as he opened the door. Dex didn't turn to look at his little brother. "We're really sorry that we squished the petals, we didn't mean to."

Dex only stared blankly at the wall. He hadn't cried for a while, but now his eyes stung again with water.

"We feel really bad, so we made earrings to go along with the necklace. Dad let us borrow his alchemist flame and some metal. Bex sketched them out, along with the measurements, Rex did the actual shaping of them, and I held them steady while he did it." Lex paused, as if waiting for him to say something, then continued. "I overheard what Sophie suggested while she was here, about the one person holding the object still, all that, and she was right. It really works! So, I thought, because I'm so good at it, maybe you'd let me help you fix the petals. I have the earrings here with me, dad made sure the metal matched the necklace's. See?"

Dex turned slowly to his brother, sliding his legs over the edge of the bed. In his hands, Lex held a pair of golden earrings, though slightly mishapen. For the most part, it wasn't a bad start, the section that went through the earlobe was a bit crooked, but the two chains of two differet lengths coming down from each of them were pretty good. At the end of each chain was a butterfly that was roughly cut, and in need of more precise shaping. The butterflies on the longer chains looked like they were flying upwards, while the ones on the shorter chains looked like they were flying side ways. Softly, he smiled. They weren't bad kids after all.

"Thanks, Lex." Affectionately, he ruffled his little brother's hair. "You guys did a great job, but let's mold them so they're a little smoother and easier to wear, okay? Then we can start the petals."

Lex beamed, and nodded eagerly, "okay!"

They got to work, Lex holding the pliers as Sophie had, and Dex shaping the metal carefully. By the time they finished, Kesler walked in.

"Hey kiddo, it's time for bed." Their dad smiled, addressing Lex. Dex didn't have a 'bed time'. "What are you guys working on, the necklace?"

"Yeah, and we perfected the earrings the three of them made." Dex smiled back.

"Well, glad everything turned out well. Now it's off to bed with you, you little imp." Kesler ushered Lex out of the room after Dex gave him a quick kiss on the forehead. Gosh, he loved these kids.

"Thanks for your help, Lex!" He called after Lex as their dad closed the door, but his voice was lost in Lex's excitement.

"It was so much fun, dad! I mean, I only held the pliers, but still! Maybe he'll let me help again- heck, maybe he'll teach me how to make machines, or jewelry, or both!"

Dex heard their dad chuckle, "you should ask him tomorrow, I'm sure he'd be thrilled."

"I will!"

He smiled to himself, and sat back in his desk chair, as he confirmed quietly, "they're not bad kids."