\nHe should have known Ann was going to come after him at some point the minute
\nhis bastard of an older brother had shown up. Well, he had known, to be honest,
\nthough he had been avoiding thinking about it.<\/p>\n
\nShe gave him a couple of days of space before cornering him while the guys practiced
\nsingles (except for Kamio and Ibu, who were double-teaming Tachibana). "So,"
\nshe said, settling the box of water bottles down on the ground. "’Mika-chan’?"
\nHer grin was sly as she stood.<\/p>\n
\n"I fucking hate being called that," Michael growled.<\/p>\n
\n"I could tell," she said, sounding just like her brother at his driest.
\n"He really pisses you off, huh?"<\/p>\n
\n"Been doing that since we were born," Michael admitted, after a moment.
\n"The bastard." He waited for the inevitable round of questions—and
\nwaited, and waited. She didn’t ask.<\/p>\n
\nInstead, Ann chuckled. "I think that must be the natural function of older
\nbrothers," she said. "Kippei can piss me off just by breathing."<\/p>\n
\nMichael blinked. "He can?"<\/p>\n
\nAnn rolled her eyes at him. "Of course he can. We’re siblings, y’know? If
\nwe didn’t fight like cats and dogs, we wouldn’t be normal."<\/p>\n
\n"But—" Michael was having trouble processing the notion, and this was
\nan excellent digression from the topic of his own brother. "You and Tachibana
\nfight?"<\/p>\n
\n"Oh, yeah. Not as much these days, since I think he’s growing up on me or
\nsomething, and it’s like trying to pick a fight with the wall, but we manage."
\nAnn waved a hand. "He spends way too much time in the bathroom, fussing with
\nhis hair, for one thing."<\/p>\n
\n"He does?" Michael boggled.<\/p>\n
\n"Uh-huh. He’s really vain." Ann grinned. "You don’t have to tell
\nhim I told you that."<\/p>\n
\n"Of course not," Michael managed, still trying to process these revelations.<\/p>\n
\n"And according to him, I spend way too much time on the phone." Ann
\ntossed her head. "Which is silly, but what can you expect from a guy?"
\nThere was no way Michael was crazy enough to answer, but Ann fixed him with a
\npiercing stare. "What do you and Lucifer-san fight about, Michael-kun?"<\/p>\n
\n"Everything," he said, automatically.<\/p>\n
\nAnn cast her eyes heavenwards. "Obviously," she said. "So tell
\nme about it."<\/p>\n
\n"We’re twins," Michael said, and waited for the usual round of questions.
\nAnn just nodded, so he went on. "And there was this prophecy about us, that
\none of us was gonna go bad someday. Everyone… thought it was gonna be me."<\/p>\n
\n"That’s a nice sort of thing to saddle someone with," Ann muttered.
\n"Why you, and not him?"<\/p>\n
\nMichael snorted. "Look, if you’d known him, you wouldn’t have to ask. The
\nbastard was born knowing how to do everything right. Me, I was the fuck-up. It
\nmade sense that I’d be the rebel." In any case, it made more sense than the
\nway things had actually turned out.<\/p>\n
\nAnn shook her head. "Mm-mm-mm."<\/p>\n
\n"What?"<\/p>\n
\n"Nothing," she said, still shaking her head back and forth.<\/p>\n
\n"What?" he demanded.<\/p>\n
\n"It’s just… That’s a really shitty thing to do to a kid," she said.
\nShe paused. "I’m not going to get hit by a lightning bolt for saying that,
\nam I?"<\/p>\n
\nMichael had to laugh. "No," he said. "No lightning."<\/p>\n
\n"Then I’ll blaspheme to my heart’s content." She cocked her head to
\nthe side. "You don’t really think you’re a fuck-up, right?"<\/p>\n
\nAnn had a gift for catching him off-guard, that’s for damn sure. "Umm."<\/p>\n
\n"Thought so," she murmured, fixing him with a look—the same look Tachibana
\ntended to give the guys when the goofing off got out of hand. "Don’t be such
\nan idiot."<\/p>\n
\n"Fuck, you’re bossy," Michael grumbled.<\/p>\n
\nAnn grinned at him. "Dealing with all them, you kinda have to be," she
\nsaid, and looked out over the tennis courts. "I was kinda mad, at first."<\/p>\n
\n"What?" Michael blinked at this latest change of direction.<\/p>\n
\n"About getting a secondhand angel," she clarified, still studying the
\nguys.<\/p>\n
\nMichael bristled. "Secondhand—" <\/p>\n
\nAnn held up a hand. "Hear me out," she said, and he subsided. "Look,
\nwhen you came down here, you didn’t come to us in order to counter Hatter. You
\nwent to Seigaku. They’re clearly the favorites to win Nationals, right?"<\/p>\n
\n"They’d already defeated Rikkai," Michael admitted, and left the corollary—that
\nRikkai had defeated Fudoumine—unspoken.<\/p>\n
\n"Exactly my point," Ann said. "Everyone expects them to go on to
\nwin Nationals, I think—in spite of Rikkai’s demon." She snorted. "And
\nthey had the nerve to turn down angelic assistance and pass it off to us? That’s
\npretty damn insulting, if you ask me."<\/p>\n
\n"Um." Michael was at a loss. "Sorry?"<\/p>\n
\nAnn shrugged. "It’s not your fault. It’s Seigaku’s captain who needs the
\nlesson about not underestimating his opponents." Her grin was sudden, and
\nfierce. "They don’t expect us to win. No one expected us to make it out of
\ndistrict preliminaries, even. This being in Nationals thing? Just a fluke, as
\nfar as everyone else is concerned."<\/p>\n
\n"That’s a lot of hard work, just for a fluke," Michael said, jerking
\nhis head at the fierce battles taking place in the practice matches.<\/p>\n
\n"Exactly." Ann’s smile turned thin. "If we," she said, her
\ngaze sweeping over the boys and Michael, too, "had any intention of following
\npeople’s expectations of us… we’d never have gotten anywhere. You know why we
\ndon’t have a coach, Michael-kun?"<\/p>\n
\nHe’d wondered, but hadn’t pursued the topic. "No?"<\/p>\n
\n"The boys ran him off," she said, tone dripping with satisfaction. "Used
\nto be that only upperclassmen played tennis around here. Didn’t matter how good
\nyou were; if you were a freshman, all you did was pick up balls."<\/p>\n
\n"That sucks," Michael said.<\/p>\n
\n"Doesn’t it? The guys thought so, too," Ann said. "So they split
\noff, and formed their own team, and when their sempai hassled them, the guys fought
\nback. Now we have the tennis club, and their sempai play other sports."<\/p>\n
\n"…So what happened to the coach?"<\/p>\n
\n"Kippei beat him up," Ann said, matter-of-fact. <\/p>\n
\n"He did?" Michael studied Tachibana. Yeah, okay. He could see that,
\nactually. "Cool."<\/p>\n
\nAnn wasn’t done yet. "So when Seigaku gave us a hand-me-down angel, I was
\npissed off. For one thing, I’d thought Tezuka had more respect for us."<\/p>\n
\n"I think he does respect you," Michael offered.<\/p>\n
\n"Yeah, yeah, I know." Ann’s smile was rueful. "I cooled off eventually.
\nBut that’s not the point. I was pissed off that he thought we couldn’t hack it
\nin Nationals without help."<\/p>\n
\n"Like I’ve been that much help," Michael scoffed. "You guys were
\njust fine without me."<\/p>\n
\n"Maybe we were," Ann agreed. "But I think we’re even better now."
\nShe stretched, lacing her hands behind her head. "No one expects anything
\nof us. We’re the school no one’s ever heard of, the school that’s an accident.
\nIt’s just a matter of time before we drop out of the play-offs, right?"<\/p>\n
\nMichael snorted. "Yeah, right."<\/p>\n
\n"We’re going to win." Ann’s voice was quiet, and dead serious. "Screw
\nwhat everybody else thinks of us. To hell with their expectations. Just because
\nthey think it doesn’t make it true, right?"<\/p>\n
\n"Absolutely," he agreed, grinning. <\/p>\n
\nAnn leaned over and flicked his forehead. "So apply that to yourself, idiot,"
\nshe said. "Same standards apply to you, as long as you’re one of ours."<\/p>\n
\n"One of yours?" Michael repeated, rubbing at the sore spot.<\/p>\n
\n"Aren’t you?" Ann’s smile was sweet, and utterly devious.<\/p>\n
\n"I thought you didn’t want a secondhand angel," he said.<\/p>\n
\nAnn grinned. "What would we do with anything else?" She looked at the
\ncourts, where the matches were starting to wrap up. "Looks like they’re about
\ndone. Here, make yourself useful." She kicked at the box of water bottles,
\nscooting it toward him, scooped up an armload of towels for herself, and trotted
\noff to the guys.<\/p>\n
\nMichael picked up the box and followed after.\n<\/p>\n
… Damn, but he liked these kids.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ann discusses older brothers with Michael.