Well, this is the start of my first Fanfic ever. This is new territory for me, but hopefully you'll enjoy it. With luck, maybe I can help give a small boost to a dwindling community of writers. If you like it, please leave a review - I'd love to know if people are reading.

Tagged 'Romance' because of stuff that'll come up later. It'll likely be pretty tasteful though, knowing me, so don't worry too much about it if that puts you off.

Alvin groaned and threw his homework from his bed. "This is pointless!" He cried out more to himself than his youngest sibling beside him.

Theodore hopped off the bed and gathered up the discarded papers. "Yeah, well, if Dave is mad at you, a little homework won't make a difference," he said sincerely, but Alvin interpreted it otherwise.

Alvin groaned again and snatched back the papers, setting them down messily in front of him. They'd barely walked in the door after school when Dave called Simon away to have a private talk. That alone was unusual, but sending Alvin and Theodore to their room just raised questions. The answer was probably that Alvin was in trouble, yet again, but he wasn't sure what it could be for. As far as he knew, he'd been well behaved lately…or at least, as far as Dave would know.

Alvin scrawled down an answer the next question and immediately rubbed it away. Alvin figured that whatever he did, if he managed to get all his homework done early he might get off easy, but this was stuff he usually got Simon's help with. He was trying, but it was all just gibberish now.

The paper tore under the weight of Alvin's pencil. He looked down at it angrily for a moment, then swatted it into the air. "Ok, I give up!" he declared. Theodore hid a chuckle at his brother's frustration.

At that moment, a knock came from the bedroom door. After a brief pause, it opened and Simon stepped inside. "Dave would like to speak with you down in the den," he informed them bluntly and gestured back the way he came. Alvin looked to Theodore with worry and jumped off his bed. Simon looked towards Theodore, "with both of you."

That was different. Surely Alvin didn't do something THAT bad…unless this is something Theodore's responsible for. Alvin looked at Theodore, but only got a look of confusion in return. "Ok, Simon, what's this about?"

"I think Dave would rather tell you himself." The concern in Simon's tone didn't fill them with confidence.

Stepping past Simon, Alvin walked with his youngest sibling across the hall and down the stairs towards the den. In his mind he tried to figure out what he'd done, but couldn't think of anything he hasn't already been punished for. Then again, it's easy to lose track.

They turned into the den and faced their surrogate father. "Hi, guys," Dave greeted them with a sigh. "Take a seat, there's something I need to talk to you about."

The two complied and climbed onto the couch. Before Dave could start speaking, Alvin piped up. "Dave, whatever I did, I'm sorry! I've learned my lesson, I swear!"

"Sit down, Alvin," Dave responded. "This isn't about anything you've done."

Alvin and Theodore glanced at each other, suddenly concerned.

"I don't usually like to bring these things up around you guys, but this is something that could affect all of us and Simon thought you'd want to know what's going on.

"There's this crazy animal rights group that's been trying to say that letting you guys perform is 'animal cruelty' and they're trying to get me into a lot of trouble."

"Ha!" Alvin laughed in interruption. "Good luck with that one! They'll never get anywhere with an argument like that! You're worrying over nothing, Dave," Alvin started to get up from his seat when Dave talked him down.

"Well, actually, they might be on to something." Alvin looked on with disbelief and fell back onto the couch. "Not that I agree with them, but I just got a call from my lawyer, and he tells me that they've found a judge that's willing to hear the case."

"Does that mean you're in trouble?" Theodore questioned.

"Well, no…I think we'll be fine. He's got us covered if this goes to court, but we won't know what's happening for at least a few days." A serious look appeared on Dave's face. "But if somehow things do go wrong, I might have to go away for a while."

"Woah, woah, woah…" Alvin waved his hands around infront of him, "hold on a second. You're saying you might go to jail?" Theodore's jaw dropped.

"Only for a little while if things don't work out, but my lawyer's very good at this sort of thing, I'm sure things will work out."

Simon leant against the doorway and called in to his brothers. He couldn't see them over the back of the couch, but he'd already had this conversation; he knew what was going through their heads. "It actually gets worse than that."

Dave nodded sadly. "I'm afraid Simon's right."

"How can it get worse than that?" Alvin questioned.

Dave opened his mouth to respond, but Simon took over for him. "Think about it: these aren't child labour laws that we're talking about, it's 'animal cruelty'," Simon quoted with his fingers.

Noticing the confusion on his boys' faces, Dave elaborated. "I know that you're my boys, anyone can see that, but it's a kind of legal grey area. The law really hasn't said whether we're a family or not." He sighed. "What Simon's worried about is that with these kinds of charges, it might set a new precedent."

Instinctively, Theodore looked over to Simon to explain. Simon looked away and let his eyes wonder aimlessly. "What it means is that, if Dave's found guilty, in the eyes of the law we'll just be his pets, and not his boys."

The conversation went on for some time longer. Dave made an effort to put his boys' fears to rest, but his own concern betrayed his attempts. Simon had heard it all before and knew the stakes, so he did his best to clarify when necessary, but just knowing the situation didn't help to ease the tension.

Finally calling an end to the unpleasantness, Dave decided it would be best to just call it a night and deal with it when the time comes. After all, nothing had happened yet; there was no reason to worry about nothing.

While Dave prepared a late dinner, Alvin, Simon and Theodore retired to their room.

Simon sat on his bed, effortlessly working through his homework while Alvin repeatedly bounced a ball against the opposite wall to procrastinate. "Hey!" Alvin had a sudden epiphany as he caught the ball. "If we have to go to court, that means we miss out on school, right?"

"Yes, and your point is…?" Simon questioned. Although the topic hadn't left their minds, it was easier for them to look at it casually when they weren't sat down and confronted with it. It wasn't a comfortable topic, but the seriousness left the situation as soon as they settled on their beds. "You still have to do your homework, Alvin. You'll never learn anything if you don't study."

"Hmm," Alvin mocked thoughtfulness. "I think one bookworm in the family is more than enough. Besides…" he grinned, "I can't help it if I'm too traumatized to study."

Simon just rolled his eyes in response.

After a brief moment of silence, Simon turned and looked at his younger brother. Theodore sat on the edge of his bed, staring at his shoes - his usual brightness downed out in thought. "You're awfully quiet, Theo."

"I'm just worried about Dave," he responded sadly, not losing focus. "What if they take him away?" Simon closed his book and smiled while walking across the room to join his sibling.

"I wouldn't worry about that," Simon comforted, "one look at us and I'm sure that judge will know what to do."

"He's got us locked up like animals!" The recorded voice of Alvin screamed at the courtroom. "He won't let us eat! He won't let us sleep! He just makes us work all day long and he won't let us stop! Oh no…he's coming!"

Alvin groaned as the recorded call clicked to an end. Simon rubbed at his temples to calm the sudden headache. This is not going well…

The Seville family lawyer stood in objection. "Your honour, that call is completely out of context. My client grounded his children after returning home to find the lower floor of his house flooded. He was simply having them do chores to repair the damage."

The judge turned to the prosecutor – a slimy looking man in an expensive white suit. "Depriving them of basic rights and forcing them into labour is an act of abuse. We have numerous other calls that echo this evidence without this shallow pretext. Your honour, abuse is abuse regardless of what you call it," he countered. The judge looked thoughtful for a moment, then nodded his head and called for the prosecutor to continue.

Alvin groaned again, this time a little too loud. The echo in the court drew the judgemental eyes of everyone in the room. Tired of being put on display, he decided he'd had enough of this scene. He'd sat there this whole time being the 'good child', just like he'd been told, but what good was it doing? Their lawyer said seeing them there as a family would help, but so far all it did was let the slimy man in white point to him and make it sound like this was all his fault. The whole thing was making him sick to his stomach.

Without saying a word, Alvin dropped off the seat and started walking out of the courtroom; all eyes on him for his apparent walk of shame.

Dave leant back so he could whisper to the others. "You guys should go with him and make sure he doesn't get into trouble." They nodded in agreement and silently followed their older brother from the room.

By the time his brothers caught up with him, Alvin was wandering down the hallway, tugging at the collar of his formal vest. They'd thrown on an extra layer over their standard clothes to look 'nice' for the judge – a lot of good that did!

"Alvin, just what do you think you're doing?" Simon questioned once they were close enough to be heard over the passing chatter. "Dave needs all the help he can get, and you walking out isn't exactly doing him any favours."

Alvin sighed. "I know, I know! But you heard that guy in there; he's blaming me for everything! I can't just sit there and take it…I need relief!"

Simon raised an eyebrow and smirked. "Couldn't even behave for a few hours, could you?"

"Actually…" Theodore interjected, "I'm getting kind of hungry." He rubbed his belly for emphasis.

Simon sighed. He stopped to think for a moment then reached into his pocket to produce a handful of coins. It wasn't a lot, but it was just common sense to bring some change along when you knew you'd be out all day. He counted it up as he spoke, "well, I guess now that we've walked out there's not much harm in getting something to eat. It might help to get your mind off things." Satisfied with the total, he returned the change to his pocket. "If I recall correctly, we passed an ice-cream shop on our way here. How's that sound?"

Theodore perked up immediately.

"Then it's a plan. It shouldn't be too hard to find."

"Of course not!" Alvin chimed in with a smug grin on his face. "Well, not with me leading the way, I mean."

"I suppose you know exactly where it is?" Simon knew where this was going, but by now had learned that there was no point in fighting it.

"You know it!" Feigned pride filled the chipmunk's demeanour. "In fact, I know a shortcut. I can have us there in no time. Trust me!"

"Two hours!" Simon complained as the trio returned to the halls on their way to the courtroom. "Your little shortcut took us two hours! How, may I ask, does that count as being 'short'?"

"Well it got us there, didn't it?" Alvin responded. The little detour had taken them far longer than it had to and ended up costing them almost all of Simon's little budget, but it gave them a welcome distraction from the trial.

"In any case, we're running late. Dave's probably worried sick about us." Simon realised it probably worked the other way around just as much, but for some reason felt compelled to be there for his surrogate father in this time of need. He figured there was nothing he could do, but he still didn't like being away in case he was wrong.

Theodore chomped down on the last of his ice-cream cone and caught up to his brothers, who walked slightly ahead of him. "How do you think Dave's doing?" He questioned with a hint of concern.

Simon put his arm around his little brother. "I don't know, but I guess we're about to find out." The three came together at the courtroom door, hesitating briefly before stepping back inside.

The trial continued on like nothing had happened. The two lawyers took turns poking holes in each other's arguments and citing various examples from the chipmunks' lives that even they couldn't remember clearly. Despite showing up far later than expected, the three didn't seem to miss anything special.

Of course that wasn't entirely true. Both sides had called so-called 'experts' to argue on their behalf. Dave got plenty of support from old friends and business associates as character witnesses, but was equally condemned by the prosecutor's cast of disgruntled associates and 'concerned citizens'.

By the end of it, no one in the Seville family knew what to expect. They were all tired and confused, but mostly concerned; it all came down to one man's judgement.

"How do you think he's doing, Simon?" Theodore whispered beside him.

"I'm not sure, but I think we have a good shot."

After a few minutes of silence and hushed conversations, the judge drew the attention of the courtroom. He gestured to Dave to stand before delivering his verdict. "Mister Seville, I have carefully considered all the facts as presented and I have come to a conclusion. It has been made abundantly clear that these three in your care consider you a father figure and love you dearly; and that you have only their best interest at heart." Dave turned and smiled at his boys, confidence returning.

"However," Dave's heart sank, "It is clear to me that forcing performances from them to accommodate your own needs is an act of considerable cruelty. You may justify it as being 'for their own good', but that doesn't excuse your actions." The judge licked his lips, delivering the verdict clearly to the court. "I therefore must find you guilty as charged."

Alvin's previously-drowsy eyes shot open. "What! He never forced us to perform!" he shouted angrily. The courtroom erupted into a chorus of whispers. Dave was stunned and looked around with worry.

Theodore dove over the divider infront of him and latched onto Dave. "No! You can't take him!" He screamed.

The judge banged his gavel and made a gesture, ordering the court officers to intervene. Alvin sprung to his feet and intercepted, standing directly between them and Dave.

"Alvin, Theodore, please…!" Simon begged them to calm down to no avail. As one of the officers moved forward, Alvin sprung up and hit him hard, almost knocking him off his feet.

"You stay away from Dave!" he shouted at the stumbling officer. Alvin was much stronger than he looked, but he had his limits. He focussed an angry glare at the officers, but was quickly pulled away by a second officer behind and lifted off the ground. He swung his arms, hoping to connect with something, but had no success.

It took the effort of two more to pull Dave and Theodore apart, although neither of them were aggressive like the red-clad chipmunk. Theodore was pulled away kicking and screaming while Dave simply struggled against their efforts to move him. He frantically tried to reason with them, but his pleas fell on deaf ears, "Wait, what about my boys? You can't just leave them here!"

It was then that he noticed Simon had pressed through the ruckus caused by his brothers. He wasn't fighting the officers - he seemed to be unnoticed by them for the most part - but his face showed signs of panic. Still, Simon was reliable. If he only had time to get a message to one of them, it was best it was him.

Dave turned back to face the wide-eyed chipmunk in his wake. He took a deep breath and spoke as deliberately as he could. "Simon, take your brothers my parents' place and wait for me to call, alright?"

"But, Dave –"

"No 'buts', Simon!" The officers pulled him through the doors and out of earshot. Simon could only stand in the courtroom crestfallen.

"…we don't know where they live."