lg: ann and kippei

[shattermelt]

Ann had climbed up in her favourite oak tree in the Tachibana backyard and surveyed her tiny empire. It wasn't quite and nice as the grand, old maple in their garden back in Kyushuu, but it was a decent tree for slouching about it. Especially when Oniichan was snoozing in the hammock that was strung out between her tree and the garden shed wall. She had a pocket full of last year's oak nuts, and Oniichan had his mouth partly opened. It was a match made in heaven.

It was perfect!

Grinning like a benevolent imp, Ann leaned a little forward, took careful aim and dropped the nut down at Kippei's mouth.

Kippei was not exactly asleep. He was stretched out with his eyes closed and he had not moved for a very long time, but he was not asleep. Neither was he exactly awake. He wouldn't have called it daydreaming, either, but it was something he did when he was resting or before he went to sleep, or those rare occasions when he had leisure time to close his eyes and nothing else to occupy him. It was, perhaps, more accurate to call it a fantasy, but that sounded more suggestive than most of it actually was.

Not that it was entirely innocent, either. It started with tennis, of course--specifically, this time, and more often lately, tennis with Shinji. Playing a match in his head, the best kind of match, fierce and intense and one where everything went right, because he wanted it to. The way he imagined it could be, the best things all in one game, built out of a hundred pieces of real ones and a few things that had never happened at all, like the decidedly more than suggestive things that could happen at the end of it--or sometimes in the middle, depending on the whim. There were myriad variations and possibilities, and he was following them down a familiar track today, just about to the best part (always debatable, but in any case a really good part) when Ann's nut hit him literally in the teeth.

He started and almost swallowed it in sheer surprise, bolting upright and spitting it out in his hand. He knew where that came from and it was no accident. He craned his neck up, looking for the culprit with a slightly irritated frown.

"Ann-chan! What the hell was that for?" he grumbled, mostly in frustration that he'd been interrupted in playing out his mental scenario.

Giggling, pleased with the reaction and even more pleased with the answer she had readied, Ann beamed devilishly down at Kippei. Hidden in her hand, she had another nutty missile ready to deliver the exclamation mark.

"You were stating to sport quite the boner, Oniichan~ I thought I'd better save you before Obaachan happened by, or you'd never hear the end of it!" There was a source to Ann's endless tricks for teasing her brother and any other hapless male that crossed her path, and that was the collected evil that was the Matriarchy of the Tachibana household. Ann pelted the nut right at his head for emphasis.

Kippei's jaw dropped, and then he clamped it shut firmly as he tried to control the flush climbing his neck. He didn't blush very often, it just wasn't in his personality, but every once in a while, Ann just...

"I was not!" he protested automatically, evidence very much to the contrary. And she wanted him to thank her for 'saving' him? Hell, he was never going to hear the end of it anyway, most likely. Oh god. At least she had no idea exactly what--or who--he'd been thinking about. The tips of his ears were burning now. He rubbed his forehead again, then picked up the nut and threw it back at her.

"You were spying on me?"

Ann easily dodged the nut and laughter that could only come from a very pleased little sister in full cheek rang out merrily. "I wasn't spying, silly niichan~ It was kinda hard to miss, though. Especially from up here." She snickered and let another nut drop. "You're so cute when you're blushing." Yeah, this was definitely Let's Tease Niichan time.

"You were too! What are you doing up there in the first place?" He chose to completely ignore the rest of her comment, as if it might go away. Stop, he told himself mentally. Go away. But his little sister had caught him and oh, god. The heat in his face was doing nothing to alleviate the rest of his problem.

"You had no business..." he began sternly, but he didn't even know what he wanted to say. Interrupting, definitely that, but if he said that he would get all kinds of questions and more teasing that he really could do without. "Saying anything," he finished without much conviction.

Ann was now laughing so hard it was getting difficult to stay in the tree. But she held on to her branch like grim death, because it was the safest place for her to be right now.

"It's my tree!" she explained between laughs. "You know perfectly well that I climb it form time to time. And I was bored and you were a good target for nut-chucking." Because that was also true. The extra dimension provided by his trouser-tent was just a bonus.

She was laughing at him. Kippei frowned and reseated himself in the hammock, tented pants and all. Dammit, now he was uncomfortable and he really wanted to go take care of this elsewhere, but if he did that he would be admitting things and he would just give her more to tease him with.

"It's disrespectful to chuck nuts at people," he grumbled. "You should be more polite to your older brother." And not tease him about bodily reactions he couldn't help when he was thinking about the hopeless crush he had on someone he shouldn't be thinking about, because he couldn't help that either.

Ann almost, almost felt sorry for him, but that definitely wasn't a cigar so he got to suffer. "You're not people," she pointed out instead, loftily. "You're oniichan, and you're fun to chuck nuts at. Who's the lucky guy?"

He wasn't people? What the hell, An-chan. However, that was nothing compared to the shock of her last comment. He sputtered a bit, unable to find words, staring up at her in disbelief.

"What?" he managed finally. She wasn't seriously asking...

Ann blinked down at him like a kitten in a tree, and tilted her head. "Who's the lucky guy," she repeated. "That you were dreaming about just now? Gotta be someone real special if you're interested," she added with complete conviction. Oniichan would never notice anyone who wasn't top of the line, but it also made that person the luckiest one on the planet. (Except Tezuka, but he didn't know that yet. And it had better not be him, or they'd have a problem...)

Kippei just stared at her, his annoyance and frustration draining suddenly away, and he felt tired as he laid back and threw an arm up to cover his eyes. Somebody real special. Yeah. The familiar ache lodged in his chest, deflating his mood along with his pants, and he wondered why she couldn't just leave well enough alone.

"How do you know?" he muttered. "Was just random, nobody in particular." Flat out lying, and he was bad at that, but no way in hell was he telling her the truth, and if she was far enough away and not looking him in the eye, maybe he could get away with it. He so did not want to talk about this with anyone, least of all his sister, who would probably be sympathetic but not really understand.

Silence reigned from on high for a long time while Ann eyed her brother sharply. He was lying through his teeth and he was unhappy. It could be a clever ploy to lure her down from the tree and within punishing distance, but she decided to risk it. At worst, she'd get her revenge later by stuffing his mattress with . . . more nuts!

Ann scrambled down quickly and nimbly, to stand next to the hammock and her droopy -- if you could use that word for someone who was lying down -- niichan. "No, that was not someone random. You wouldn't be moping if it was just random hottie, you'd be up and hosing me or serving wet tennis balls at the tree above my head or something." She gave the hammock a little push, to make it swing very gently with Kippei on board.

Kippei scowled up at her. "Since when are you so smart?" he growled. Go away, he told her mentally, thinking hard at her as if telepathic suggestion might suddenly start working for him. "I am not moping. I am perfectly fine."

Ann snorted, only pretending to take the bait. "Oh, thanks a lot! I guess my IQ pills are working." More softly, she kept on prodding. "You're dreaming about someone special whom you don't appear to be dating, nor are you chasing him down so he can find out how lucky he is. Looks like moping to me. Why? Is he taken?"

Kippei sat up so he could scowl more effectively, bracing his hands on the edges of the hammock. "Leave it alone, An-chan," he growled softly. "I am fine, there is nothing to talk about. Go away." Obviously telepathy wasn't working. And she was totally guessing, she had nothing to go on and she didn't know anything, so he didn't have to tell her anything. Still, she was remarkably good at guessing. He spent a couple of random seconds wondering whether it would be better or worse if Shinji was taken, and decided it didn't matter much. Either way, he was still off limits.

Her eyes widened just a smidge at his words and his tone. This was more serious than she'd thought at first, and worrying. And mysterious, too. "You're not fine," she insisted. "And if you don't tell me about this, I can't help you see how you're probably making a big mistake by hiding out here when you should be chasing him down and giving him ... you!" Pausing for a moment, she decided to add a completely moot disclaimer. "Unless you know the guy's a straight and homophobic jackass, which he isn't because you'd never be interested in someone like that."

Kippei snorted, and ran his fingers through his short hair. Great, just great. An-chan had a clue, now, and she wasn't going to let it go until she'd solved the mystery.

"You can't help," he told her shortly. "I don't know, I don't think he is, but it doesn't matter." It really didn't, because he had no business being interested in Shinji in the first place, and he had tried to stop, but he'd given up on that awhile ago. He was just stuck being crazy about someone who was completely out of his reach.