Heron Lake Plateau plight of the lemon children

Quixote pointed out the obvious, first with his statement and then with his body adjusting to a more obvious posture. Screech naturally accepted it, or at least his own body relaxed and his head lowered without further prompting (not that he'd been carrying on with any kind of dominance himself lately). The expression was almost entirely physical though; it didn't enter his gaze, didn't seem to change much overall.

He no longer looked at Quixote though, so that might've been another clue. The deferral came more out of exasperation than anything — Screech didn't know this guy, didn't understand why Raven would sleep with him, and he wasn't about to pledge loyalty to someone he didn't know. It had already backfired for him with people he did know (Rannoch coming to mind), so Screech wasn't exactly quick to trust other people.

After a second he did glance carefully at the Alpha though, and he murmured, She's the leader of the family, and you're just some guy. I get what you're saying, but its not like you're the first one she's been with, he blurted stupidly, and then tried to correct himself in the next breath, and just sleeping with Raven doesn't earn you a rank. Towhee gave it to Raven, not you. He was so level with his tone that it was kind of weird — and really, nothing he said would fix the tension that had started brewing. Screech wasn't about to fight the guy, but he also didn't think anything he said was innately wrong. As far as he knew Quixote just happened to put his dick in the right lady at the right time, and presto! He was suddenly the boss.

He was the boss, and Screech was a stupid teenager trying to make sense of everything. If that earned him a smack in the mouth (or a boot) then so be it; but if he was anything, Screech was consistently opinionated. Besides, he wasn't really challenging Quixote anymore — more like, testing his limits.