Tony finally got his sister, Vo, to leave the room by the simple expedient of threatening to get out of bed. Since it was painfully obvious that he was nude beneath the sheets, she left with amazing speed. Yelling out that she would start breakfast and to get his ass dressed.

Tony grabbed the pillow Xander was trying to suffocate himself with and tugged. Xander held on tighter and refused to let go. The battle waged for a few moments until Tony gained the upper hand by tickling Xander’s ribs. The boy yelped and lost his grip. The pillow went flying across the room to join its brethren on the floor.

Tony turned back to Xander and found him with the sheets pulled up tightly over his head. “Xander, what’s wrong?”

Xander pulled the sheets tighter and refused to answer. It took some tugging and maneuvering, but Tony soon consigned the sheets to the floor with the rest of the bedding. Xander lay there, gloriously nude, but with his eyes screwed shut. Tony took in the red face, the unhappy expression and sighed. “I’m sorry, Xander. I had no idea Vo would come in here. I’m sorry she embarrassed you.”

Xander shook his head ‘No’.

“Then, what’s wrong with you?” Tony asked, in exasperation.

Xander finally opened his eyes and Tony was stunned by the misery there. “I screamed. Like a girl. Please tell me no one was around to hear me.”

Tony managed to conceal his grin; he pulled Xander against his chest and held him tightly. “Xander, there’s nothing to be embarrassed about. I wasn’t exactly quiet last night.”

The sound was muffled against his chest, but Tony plainly heard what Xander was saying. “But, *you* didn’t scream like a girl.”

Tony pulled Xander’s face to his and kissed him deeply. Xander’s eyes were glazed when Tony finally let him go. “Xander, I’m glad you screamed. I have every intention of making you scream as often as humanly possible.”

Xander shivered at the dark promise in Tony’s words, and the glint in his eyes.

Tony kissed him again and rose from the bed, “Come on, let’s take a shower and get dressed. Vo isn’t the most patient woman in the world, if we aren’t in the kitchen soon she’s liable to come back in here.”

Xander allowed Tony to pull him out of the bed, groaning when several of his muscles protested the movement. He staggered into the bathroom and leaned against the vanity while Tony got the shower started. “What kind of name is ‘Voracity’, anyway?”

Tony pulled Xander into the shower, “It’s not the name she was born with. She changed it a couple of years ago. And trust me, Voracity is *highly* appropriate. I should have spanked her more when she was younger.”

**********

Vo sat at the kitchen table drinking her coffee while her agile brain rapidly examined the evidence and dismissed lies from fact. Lie, *Xander* was no rent-boy. No matter what Peter ‘The Worm’ Taylor had said. Fact, *Xander* was young, very young. And, sometime in his recent past, abused. The marks on his back bore grave evidence to that fact. Fact, her big brother was head over heels, even if he didn’t know it yet. Lie, Tony wasn’t being blackmailed; strike two for The Worm.

She knew a lot of people would have been horrified by the fact that their brother was engaged in a sexual relationship with a man twenty years his junior. But, she wasn’t most people. Tony had a lot to offer, much more than money and prestige. He liked taking care of people, hell; he *needed* to take care of people. And Xander obviously needed to be taken care of. ‘Yes, both of them need the other. And I’ll be damned if anyone will break them apart.’ She finished her coffee and had to smile, almost hoping someone would try. She hadn’t had the opportunity to do damage in a while. This could be fun, in more ways than one.

**********

Tony pulled another set of sweats out of his dresser and gave them to Xander. The boy was moving slowly, very slowly. The hot water had helped some, but he was still in pain. Tony got dressed and helped Xander do the same before pulling him into the kitchen. Vo jumped up as soon as they came through the door and got each of them some coffee. She looked over Xander’s clothes and grinned at her brother, “Shopping. Definitely. Now.”

Tony inhaled the steam from his coffee and took a large gulp, letting the caffeine do its magic. “Yes, Vo. Shopping. After breakfast, I’m starving and Xander is probably in worse shape than I am.”

Vo nudged Xander gently, trying to get him to raise his eyes up from the table’s surface, “You hungry? I was going to cook, but I didn’t know what you liked to eat. Now, Tony here, he’ll eat anything. And I do mean anything. You should see some of the stuff he eats.”

Xander turned bright red and sunk deeper into his chair. Vo looked at Tony, startled by Xander’s reaction to her teasing. Her brother had a huge grin on his face and Vo turned red herself. ‘Eeewww, too much information, don’t want to know. Bad brain, bad; don’t go there Vo’. She fought down the urge to smack her brother and bustled around the kitchen, making everything she could think of to distract herself from the images in her head. It didn’t take long before the table was covered with food.

Xander picked at his food at first, but hunger finally overcame any embarrassment he felt. He ate until he couldn’t eat anymore and smiled shyly at the woman sitting next to him. “Thanks, that was really good.”

Vo was almost surprised at how protective she felt towards the younger man, “You’re welcome, Xander. And in payment for my generosity, you can go shopping with me. *Both* of you.” Xander laughed when Tony groaned pitifully, “Not shopping, Vo. No, anything but that.”

**********

So, Xander received a whirlwind education on fashion and style. Voracity was matter of fact and to the point, “Never buy something because someone else says it’s *In*. Because, if it’s in today, it’ll be out tomorrow. Always stay with the classics. And be comfortable. It doesn’t matter how good it looks if it’s a pain to wear. And wearing clothes with someone else’s name on it to be *cool*, generally means you aren’t cool. I mean, really, why would I want to walk around in clothes with the name ‘Tommy’ all over them? My name isn’t Tommy; I wouldn’t want to be named Tommy. And for my sake, and yours, buy clothes that actually fit. I’ve seen people wearing clothes so big; *three* people could fit inside. They look ridiculous. It’s really hard to talk to a person when they look like a clown.”

Tony grinned, but had to agree. He gave his own suggestions, and Xander soon had more clothes than he’d ever had in his life. He tried to protest, but the siblings wouldn’t listen. But they finally finished, or at least he thought they had. “Come on.” Voracity said, impatiently, “We still have to buy shoes. Oh, and a nice watch. If we hurry, we can make it to Gerald’s before he closes.”

“What’s Gerald’s?” Xander asked Tony, in a whisper.

“My tailor. You’re going to need a couple of suits.” Tony said, absently. “Vo. What about a tux?”

Vo stopped dead in her tracks and whipped around to stare at Xander for a moment. “Yes, definitely. Armani?”

Tony looked Xander up and down, picturing him in one of Armani’s black classics. “I think that will work just fine.”

**********

Xander allowed himself to be measured and turned and poked and prodded. *Gerald* was pleased. Or so he said. “I have some new suits by Hugo Boss that will go wonderfully with his build and coloring. Armani for the tux?”

Tony and Vo answered in stereo, “Yes. Definitely.”

**********

Tony and Vo spoke quietly in the den while Xander was putting his new clothes away. Vo had been patient, but she wanted answers. “All right, Tony. What’s going on?”

“I have no idea what you mean, Voracity.”

“Don’t give me that Tony. Who is Xander? Where did he come from? And where did he get those marks on his back?” She poked and prodded until her brother finally gave in and told her the whole story. He grabbed her and made her sit back down when she went for the door, “I’m going to *kill* somebody.”

“Calm down, Vo. Frank Harris has been taken care of. He’ll never get near Xander again.”

Vo smacked her brother on the arm, hard. “Ow, what the Hell was that for?”

“You *bought* him?” she hissed. “Tony, how could you?”

“What did you expect me to do? Leave him there?”

“No. Don’t be stupid. You *should* have taken Xander and then burned the place to the ground.”

Tony’s face turned dark, “I thought about it. Believe me, I thought about it. Ben and Hamid talked me out of it.”

“Ben and Hamid? They’re here? Where?”

“I don’t know. They were here last night.” Tony went down the hall to the room where Ben and Hamid had been staying. He found a note on the pillow. ‘Tony. We thought you might like some privacy and went to a hotel. We’re at the Wiltshire. Call us tomorrow; we’ll go out to dinner together. Ben.'

Tony returned to the den and his impatient sister. “They went to the Wiltshire. I’ll call them later.”

“Okay. I need to get going. I blew off a lot of stuff today and I need to get caught up.” She kissed Tony on the cheek, “Tell Xander I said goodbye and I’ll see him later.”

Tony returned the kiss and gave her a hug, “Thanks for today, Vo. And for not freaking out over Xander.”

“No problem, big brother. I like him. You’d better take good care of him, or else.”

**********

Xander stared down at the packages covering the bed; he had no idea where to start. Tony came into the room and leaned against the doorframe, just watching for a moment. “Need some help?”

Xander jumped and whipped around, “Jesus, you scared me. And, yeah, I could use some help. Where do I put all this stuff?”

Tony grabbed Xander’s hand and led him through a door, opposite the bathroom. It turned out to be a closet. A *big* closet.

“Wow, this is bigger than my old bedroom.” Xander said.

Tony laughed, “There’s plenty of room. I’m sure we’ll be able to find a place for your things.”

Xander turned red, again, “Tony. Thank you. For the clothes and stuff, I mean. You didn’t need to spend all that money though.”

Tony pulled Xander into his arms and looked straight into his eyes, “Xander, I *like* spending money on you. I plan on spending more money on you. It makes me happy.”

Xander half smiled, “You’re weird.”

“Probably. But it’s a nice kind of weird. Come on, let’s get your stuff put away so we can go to bed.”

“Huh, Tony. I don’t think I can do that again.”

“Do what, Xander?”

“You know, *that*.”

Tony laughed and kissed Xander until they were both breathless, “That’s okay. Tonight, let’s see if you can make *me* scream like a girl.”

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