Whee~~! My first GinOC fic…my first Bleach fic for that matter!^.^ Kofa-chan got me so excited to see the tenth chapter of her fic "The Tail of a Fox and the Butterfly" that I somehow ended up with this XD (And yes, that's how long I've been delaying this chapter)

Anyway, tell me what you think and stuff. I have a lot of ideas for this but, like every other fic that comes into my mind that isn't written down immediately, they might suddenly scurry off. =.=

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Bittersweet Memories

Story Prologue: The End of the Beginning

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She blinked. Once. Twice. Even thrice. The scene before her did not change at all. She stared.

And they stared right back.

"Holy motherfucking shit." Her nearly hissed statement made several brows rise, but she could care less. Hell, she was too busy gawking to even care. "Why the hell are all of the captains and lieutenants of the Gotei Thirteen here!?"

That definitely wasn't what they expected.

"You can see us?" a strawberry blonde girl with a fairly large chest asked, rather unnecessarily.

"Matsumoto Rangiku, jubantai fukutaichou," she whispered automatically, and received wary looks. "Oh god…"

A boy with a spiked up mop of snowy hair narrowed his eyes. "Speak when you are questioned, human."

It was her turn to raise her brow. "If you are indeed a tensai as they say, Hitsugaya Toshirou-taichou, then you would have known the answer to that question as soon as Matsumoto's name escaped my lips."

The haughtily-stated (and logically accurate) statement made the prodigy shut up. He glared at her, trying to make her run for it – the main reaction people had with any captain. The rest were also sizing her up as well.

It all started on an annoyingly humid May evening. Actually, it was right smack in the middle of the night. Recently turned thirteen-year-old, Arieanne Laria woke up having a strong urge to take a shower. While it cooled her down somewhat, she ended up being fully awake as opposed to just half. Annoyed, she straightened her blanket but left it spread out on the bed. She couldn't risk tugging the part where her mother's hand lay; it might wake her up.

Never was there a time when she complained of the room assignments when they moved to the house they currently resided in. Not that she had a choice. The eldest had her reclaimed her old room as soon as they had set foot on their grandparents' ancestral home; the second eldest picked Louise's godmother's former room; her five-year-older brother picked the one with a mirror occupying the whole wall; and the maid got the room between the eldest and the third. So where was she going to stay? The bathroom? Not even bothering to argue for the last room, the one with the mirrors (which was originally supposed to be hers. And the utterly vain owner was the one supposed to take the spot beside their mother…She wasn't the maternal parent's favorite, for crying out loud!)

Sometimes, the pecking order annoyed her.

And sometimes, her own nonchalant attitude about almost everything annoyed her as well.

So when she was busy reading a wonderful story about a certain fox-faced captain and an original character named Mamori Yumi she did not pay attention to the sudden fluctuation in the electricity. She was annoyed when the speakers were affected, but that was all. She did not care that she was in a fifty-something old house where both her grandparents and great grandparents had had their final moments, all alone in the same floor that said event happened.

She did, however, mind the noises her ears picked up from the room she and her mother shared. And she undoubtedly felt something in there.

Arieanne twitched. If she swiped away the curtain that separated the said room from the living room and found nothing, it would count as her fifth semi-serious 'encounter' with supernatural beings in the middle of the night in the first year that they moved here.

And so, when she finally decided to stop reading, enough to pull herself out of the non-too-comfortable chair, Arieanne was determined to 'talk' to Them like her sisters had said. She would snap at the Things, whatever they were, and tell them to stop bothering her while she was doing something (as she always was).

She had no idea that the harmless-looking curtain was all that separated her from twenty-six high-ranking shinigami.

"I've been staring at you for nearly five solid minutes, and I still can't believe what I'm seeing." Arieanne shook her head and sighed, only to tense seconds later. "Shit, I think my sister's coming down."

"Who are you?" a long-raven-haired captain asked. The look he was giving Arieanne was enough to make most people scream and faint on the spot. Too bad for him she wasn't most people.

"You should hide," the girl said, not even giving any indication of hearing the sixth squad captain's inquiry. "Somewhere my mother won't see you if she wakes up…"

"That is not necessary. Normal people do not have the ability to see us," an elderly person reassured.

"With all due respect Yamamoto-Genryuusai Shigekuni, I really think you should move." Her dark orbs trailed on her mother's sleeping form. "In a lot of ways, our family doesn't really qualify the normal people category."

"Finally, you're acknowledging that fact yourself."

Arieanne froze, and so did the twenty-six hakama-clad people. Slowly, almost mechanically, she turned, and found her eldest sister smiling at the doorway. She was already wearing her sleeping attire, shorts and a spaghetti strap top, and she was holding a plastic of something.

"Took you long enough." With her smile transforming into a smirk, she dug into the plastic and held out three big bags of chips. "Thirteen bloody years. As a reward, you get one."

Arieanne stared, something she actually rarely did, at her sister. "You're not going to tell me you don't see anyone."

"You won't believe me even if I did," was the nonchalant reply. "Besides, if you were pertaining to the twenty…six people behind you in the weird black…" Her eyes narrowed. "Soul Reapers?"

Like the rest of the people, err souls, behind her, Arieanne continued staring. "Should I or should I not ask?"

Her sister gave her a look. "You said so yourself. Our family is far from normal. If they are what I think they are, the only person in this house who won't see them is the maid. And the one with the second weakest spiritual abilities."

"For someone who's always his ally, you talk of him as if…" Arieanne shook her head. "I really should get used to stuff like this, ne?"

Her sister stepped into the room and passed an observing look at their…guests. "Move over, I'm going to talk to mommy. And if either of you are here to wait for her to pass, you're going to have to pass through us first."

"Pass through…?" Arieanne blinked several times before a look of recognition was seen on her face. "Hey! How the hell am I supposed to be a match for them??"

"Simple. I've seen the stuff you have." Her sister gave her a look that told her all she needed to know. She wasn't talking about some nonexistent mysterious ability that ran in their family. No, she was talking about the DVD in a pile under the TV. The DVD of 125 episodes of Bleach anime series. And she expected her to know all of their weaknesses. Oh joy. "Now shoo. And Anne, you better set up a field to cut off their…what do they call it?"

"Reiatsu." Arieanne's unhesitating answer earned her different looks from the captains. "And how the…How am I supposed to do that?"

"What were you going to say?" Her sister's silky voice had her shaking her head rapidly. Arieanne thanked whatever higher power made her sister drop the subject. "I don't know. I'm not the one scaring the wits out of people by suddenly appearing behind, beside, at the corners, or wherever we are."

"I don't 'suddenly appear'. I walk. Like any normal human being." The reaction this statement elicited from the elder made her change it. "Like any human."

She opened her mouth as if to speak, but stopped. "Hey, I hear Iris."

"Iris?" Arieanne blinked and listened. Sure enough, the song was playing on the speakers.

And you can't fight the tears that ain't coming…Or the moment of truth in your lies…When everything feels like the movies…Yeah, you bleed just to know you're alive…

"Nice lyrics," a hulking man with a scar on his left eye and a patch on his right commented. His hair was spiked up, with bells at each of the seven tips. The grin on his face more than told everyone that he was only referring to the last part of the verse.

Arieanne coughed. "Okay…that aside, can you guys move into the living room?"

"I can still feel them," her sister called out as soon as the curtain moved.

The youngest child swiped away the cloth and hissed, "Keep it down! You're going to wake her up!"

"Well do whatever it is you have to do," she shrugged. "And you can call her 'Mommy' like the rest of us. Your sister hates her but she calls Mommy that."

"I don't hate her."

Everyone, even the shinigami, tensed at the voice – someone was descending the carpeted stairs and making its way to them. Arieanne sighed when she realized who it was.

"Okay, now only the brother is missing," she muttered. She looked around and flicked open the living room light. Quite expectedly, the second sister's brow rose. "Don't say anything."

She pursed her lips and smirked. "I won't. Well, why don't we hide their…reiatsu…so Angel can do whatever it is she wants?"

"Nice arrangement; the one with the most honed spiritual abilities and the one who has the least among the three females." With a flourish, the eldest of the three turned and went back to the master's bedroom.

None of them noticed the youngest twitch. Nope, absolutely no one.

And no, absolutely no one saw her yelp and jump when the middle child's face suddenly popped out in front of her. And in turn, no one saw her land flat on her butt. And Gin isn't a fox-faced sadist.

"Did you really have to do that?" Arieanne muttered as she stood rolling her shoulders and neck, the only sign of her earlier embarrassment. "On second thought, don't answer that. I'm not in the mood to receive sadistic comments at the moment."

"Wat'cha talkin' 'bout? I'm innocent," the older smirked.

"Ye'r givin' me a serious doubtin' o' my own sanity, makin' imitations of someone else's accent 'n all. It don't help tha' ya both have th' same freakin' personality," Arieanne drawled, staring pointedly at the silver-haired captain of the third division.

The perfect imitations of his accent, even if he had yet to speak, made the man's grin widen. "How'd ya know 'bout my speech patterns 'n stuff?"

"Believe me, you don't want to know," Arieanne said in her normal flat voice, shook her head and walked past a captain with a weird-looking mask. Without even taking a glance at her sister, she said, "Before you ask me what I'm doing, I'm going just going to turn down the volume of the speakers."

"I can still feel them!"

Clucking her tongue in annoyance, the raven-haired girl plopped back down in front of the computer and stared intently at the screen. She looked up at the sudden silence. "Problem?"

"I thought you said you didn't know how to do this?" the eldest asked, peeking out of the curtain. "It's like you're not even there. Plus I can feel Anne's presence in the bathroom and…how'd you turn on the bathroom faucet with you there?"

"You said so yourself. Our family is far from normal." It was now Arieanne turn to be stared at. "You don't live with that kind of environment and not learn things on your own."

The eldest frowned and went back to start a discussion with their mother.

"What's her problem?" the middle child asked with a raised brow.

Arieanne just shook her head. "They used to get people to teach her how to use her abilities. The rest of us had to discover ours on our own and develop by ourselves."

The middle child rolled her eyes. She turned to the shinigami. "I'm Bryce. You guys are the captains and lieutenants of the Thirteen Protection Squads right? Really nice to meet you. Wait, where's Rukia?"

If only to cover the extensive silence that followed, Arieanne coughed. "Rukia is an unseated officer, by Byakuya's request." Following her sister's proclamation of understanding and inquiry as to who the rest are, she pointed the members of the Gotei Thirteen one by one.

"Captain of the first division and leader of the Gotei Thirteen, Yamamoto-Genryuusai Shigekuni. Sorry, I don't know your fukutaichou.

"Second Division captain and leader of onmitsukidou, Soi Fong. She used to be Yoroichi's…dedicated…lieutenant. Still don't know your lieutenant.

"Your oh-so-favorite person and the one with whom you share that dreadful personality of yours, Ichimaru Gin. His lieutenant is Kira Izuru. Both are of the third division."

Bryce stared at her. "You're talking as if we don't share the same…trait."

"I've long since dropped the smile sis." Arieanne bent her knees and sat cross-legged on the chair, leaning back. "Geez, it's so freakin' hot."

The elder sister wordlessly made her way to the fan and opened it. "Don't remind me. It's one of the reasons why we've stopped being called twins."

"Right. Twins that are seven years apart," the girl snorted. "Anyone with half a brain, scientifically-oriented or not, would know that's not possible. And besides, we're like Yin and Yang."

"You're taking our physical differences too seriously," the other grinned. "Just because you were sun-baked from all that stuff you do outside, we're not mistaken for each other anymore if we're not on the phone."

"Not really, it used to be such a pain being mistaken for both my elder sisters." She smirked when she saw the hurt look on her sister's face. "I shouldn't be reminding you that sadism runs in our family. And it is because of that that I rather enjoy having striking similarities with you." The latter blinked, not getting it. The youngest of four stood to get water. "Translation: people on my side that do that are now afraid to go anywhere near two people similar to each other."

Bryce snickered. "Atta kid."

"Hn." She went back to her original post and sat facing the bewildered and/or bemused shinigami. "Continuing the introductions…

"Fourth division captain, Unohana Retsu. The fourth division is Seiritei's medical center. Still don't know who your …Wait, I think I do know her…Lavender-tinted silver hair, fidgety, and a woman…Yeah, I think so…Ah! Kotetsu Isane! Yeah, I do know her.

"Another one of your favorites, Aizen Sousuke, with Hinamori Momo, taichou and fukutaichou of the fifth division, respectively…" Here Arieanne paused and regarded the kind-looking bespectacled man. "Y'know, I think you have a penchant for twisted people."

"Runs in the family," Bryce waved it off. "Next is Rukia's brother, right?"

"You're all about Rukia, but I'm surprised you even remember the way her brother looks like." Adrieanne looked at her sister with an arched brow. "The name's Kuchiki Byakuya, captain of the sixth squad. If you remember him, I'm pretty sure you remember his fukutaichou."

"Mm," her sister nodded. "The one with all the stuff tattooed on his body."

"That's Abarai Renji," she confirmed. "Moving along. I have no idea about the seventh division officers. The eighth squad…"

"Problem?" her older sister asked when the girl paused and pursed her lips. "Can't you remember the name of Mr. Flirty and the girl?"

Arieanne twitched. "You try watching multiple anime to keep your sanity while memorizing theorems and postulates, drilling the lengthy History stuff in your head, while trying to comprehend an aged poem that I can barely read without twitching every two minutes."

"Want me to show you?" she sneered.

"No need," was the immediate retort. "I just remembered. Ise Nanao is the lieutenant. Captain is Kyouraku Shunsui. Ninth division captain is Tousen Kaname. Don't know his…oh wait, the lieutenant is Hisagi Shuuhei. The former captain of the ninth division, don't know his name, saved him before a hollow ate Shuuhei's soul. That's why he got the tattoo of 69 on his cheek. The guy used to have his on the…stomach, I think. That was right before he was hollowfied. Or something."

She smirked when she felt the suspicious looks of the other captains. "Tenth division captain is the so-called 'tensai', Hitsugaya Toushirou. I think you used to call him Shiro-chan because of his age and hair. But I really don't need to tell you that he's way older than he looks, right? …Or not. Matsumoto Rangiku is his vice captain. Eleventh squad captain is the one you dubbed the 'Fighting Freak', Zaraki Kenpachi, and the really cute pink kid, Yachiru. I keep forgetting her last name."

Her sister gasped. "How could you forget such a cute kid's name?? And it's not as if you're any different from her when you choose to act like a kid."

Arieanne chose to disregard her sister's exaggeration and went on with the informal introduction. "The captain and vice captain of the 12th division are Kurotsuchi Mayuri and Kurotsuchi Nemu. The 12th division, although scary, is the Bureau of Technology.

"Finally, the captain of the 13th division is Ukitake Jyuushirou. He doesn't have a vice captain because the last one died, and he hasn't approved of anyone yet."

"Soo…did I forget anything?" Arieanne asked, looking around. The shinigami were looking at her with varying expressions – amusement, caution, and of course, the ever-present interest. Her sister looked sadistically happy – of course count on her to be like that.

Bryce dropped a bag of spicy-flavored chips in front of her sister. "They're wondering how you knew all those stuff."

The teen scanned the officials. "If it weren't such a logical conclusion to come up with, considering the current circumstances, I'd be saying that they're wondering how you knew what they were thinking. Which some of them are."

The elder shook her head, watching in amusement as the youngest shut down the computer (maybe because the story she was reading had "Ichimaru G." showing right below the title?) and retrieve a set of DVDs. And don't forget the spiral notebook and blue pen.

"With all the stuff you take note of, you'd think you wanted to become a scientist or something," she commented as Arieanne set up.

"I probably would have considered it if you guys didn't snatch the opportunity away from me before I got a chance to butt in," the younger retorted dully. "Now get back to sleep. If I remember correctly, you're meeting a client at eight. It's already four, go back to sleep."

"I didn't tell you about that," the older frowned.

Not even bothering to bat an eyelash, or look at her elder sister for that matter, Arieanne settled herself on one of the chairs in the spacious room. "Sister dear, you're forgetting that I dream about random trivial things."

"…"

She looked to her right when she felt something shift. Her sister was looking at her contemplatively. She raised her brow.

"One of my friends told me…You'd be a lady killer if you were born a boy," Bryce stated slowly. "I was just reminded of that fact because you sound so like…one of the sexy characters in that anime you watch."

"Which one?"

"The one with a whole plate of bishounen."

"Again, which one?"

"…The one with lots of sports."

"Should I repeat that?"

"Tennis?"

Arieanne tore her eyes away from the opening animations of the third DVD of X Series, also known as X Project or X/1999. "That particular anime is called Tennis no Oujisama. I'll leave the why to you."

"Dreamseer or not, that talent is utterly useless if you don't hone it."

The sudden declaration made everyone in the room arch their brow in some manner. Arieanne herself was looking at her sister once again. "I'm perfectly fine with what I'm given. And it's not like I don't try. This past year I've been able to summon visions, not dreams. My abilities are under my control."

"Which went haywire and was practically reduced to nothing after your breakup with that boyfriend-on-a-whim of yours," was the sneering retort of the older. Seeing her sister rigid like that, the expression on Bryce eyes softened. She sighed and made to return to her room upstairs after taking a pitcher of water with her.

Not without leaving a cryptic advice, of course.

"Continue like that and you won't survive this family's competition in everything and anything."

--

Arieanne smirked as the ending credits of the anime she was watching flashed through the screen. "Fascinating. Bloody fascinating."

She took a deep breath and eyed the rest of the living room's occupants. Some of them were dozing off; some had watched the show with her, and some of them…

…Were drooling with hunger?

Sighing, she went to retrieve a vacant mini-table and filled it with food. She then put it in front of the twenty-six people, saying one word: "Eat."

"We can't eat human food," the short – err, young – captain stated bluntly.

"It's spirit food. Made of spirit particles," she said with the same candor. "It's your choice whether you want to starve to death. I don't know about you but I don't really want the death of Death Gods be from starvation."

Yep, that shut him up real quick.

Arieanne yawned and looked at the golden hexagonal clock hanging above their heads. Six thirty. "Time to get moving, then. I don't want to still be here by the time they wake up."

"Ye'r talkin' as if ya hate 'em." By the accent alone, one could instantly guess who had said it. But one never knows, in that household full of sadomasochistic copycats…

"I don't. Self-exile," she shrugged, watching as Renji picked up his food and went for one of the three French doors, one sliding door, and the pretty normal kitchen door. "My choice."

A raised brow from one of the few that had not jumped for the food. A certain ice block of a captain. "Why?"

"It's not good for competition," was the nonchalant reply. "Though of course there's still a need to put the acting abilities to the test and pretend to be the family type. Which I'm not, with the exception of – Renji! What the hell??"

Her sudden exclamation caused everyone to look at her and the subject of her outburst. The redhead was sprawled face-first onto the floor, a length of chain dangling from a metal ring on his neck. Arieanne's mouth formed a thin line to suppress the strangled cry forming at the back of her throat as her eyes trailed on the chain.

Which ended on one of her digits.

"Por amor de dios, mi vida es loca," she muttered, closing her eyes. (For the love of God, my life is a mess.)

"Oi, why the sudden need to speak in Spanish?" As usual, her sister had taken it upon herself to surprise her sister and her 'guests' by suddenly popping out of nowhere. And one would think any one of the twenty-six shinigami would sense her.

"¡ Mierda !" (Shit!) the poor frustrated teenager hissed. "You scared me. I totally forgot about your existence."

While the rest were eyeing her in obvious amusement, the second child of the oh-so normal family casually observed from the stairway. From each of her sister's fingers and toes, a chain connected to one of the souls there. The teenager had a cuff on each of her wrists and ankles connecting to Kira, Ukitake, Byakuya, and Unohana, respectively. Her waist was encircled by a metal structure similar to that on her neck and her limbs. That one was connected to Aizen. The one on her neck was attached to the silver-haired fox-face.

"Um, what's happening here?"

Greeeaaat.

Twitching, Arieanne looked at the higher levels of the carpeted stairs. The eldest. (When did she get out of the room!? And when did she return upstairs? Bloody hell, it was giving the youngest a migraine) Oh wow. What next? Her brother?

"Should I be happy that we can see each other and talk without anyone trying to kill or maim somebody, or is somebody already doing that?"

She twitched and risked a glance at the concealed back stairs right behind the sink and beside the other bathroom. Her year-older brother was standing there, hand casually on the wall beside him for support. Drowsy eyes and messed up hair or not, he still looked striking.

Rangiku swooned.

Arieanne coughed to break the lengthy silence that followed. Somehow, she found herself doing that quite often in the past – oh I don't know – three hours? "Based on everyone's locations, don't you think the logical answer to that is right in front of you?"

Her brother fixed her with one of his early morning glares. "I thought you said logic wasn't your thing."

"And I also said Science wasn't. But lookie here, I'm better at it than you are and you're the renowned hunky-prodigy-of-sorts that excels in said subject," the girl all but sneered. She smirked when she saw the expressions on the others' faces. "Now excuse me while I rid my stomach of its contents."

Lance, her brother blinked. "That was pretty good."

"Excuse me?" A raised brow.

"You actually have something in that skull of yours."

Twitch. "Excuse me? If I remember correctly, I have always had better standings than thou."

"Okay, the two of you. We'd just like to remind you that murder isn't legal in our country, and that it's hard to hide a bloodied corpse." Before anyone was actually maimed, the two elders quickly cut in. Angel walked over to Lance's side, and Bryce took Arieanne's. From the looks of things, it was pretty evident that that was the usual case.

"Actually, I have a few ideas about not having to hide corpses," the youngest smirked. Several shinigami shuddered upon seeing the look on her face.

"That, I hope, you won't be elaborating on, anytime soon," Bryce chastised.

Arieanne just shrugged and turned. "Whatever. Dibs on the masters' bathroom. I have dance practice."

The second child eyed her suspiciously. "Did you sleep?"

"Not at all."

"Che, whatever. I'm using that bathroom," the only boy declared. Everyone gave him blank looks for showing his holier-than-thou attitude so early in the morning.

"One word Lance: Atobe." The two elders looked at Arieanne in confusion, while the only boy looked to be gloating.

"I'm fine with that. He's pretty good-looking, according to people; he doesn't have a vice captain so that's a testimony to his leadership skills; he sits at the top of two hundred other Hyotei players; he's the only son of a bloody rich family; and his skills are top-notch." Yep, the vain guy was gloating. "And I've got two words for you Anne: Shut the bloody hell up."

It took a whole second for him to recognize the sound of stifled laughter.

"What?" he asked in that perfect imitation of Atobe. And pulling it off without even trying.

The eldest was laughing, the second was snickering, and the youngest had a very amused look on her face. It was the nocturnal creature that explained the situation to her ignorant brother. "First off, you said five words. Second, you're holding up three fingers. And third, you just humiliated yourself in front of all these people."

"All these…?" Lance frowned. "Is there anybody here that I'm not seeing?"

The laughter died immediately.

"You don't see or feel anyone or anything at all?" the eldest inquired with a raised brow. "I expected a lot more from you."

"I told you Anne wasn't the one with the lowest abilities."

Said person twitched. Did gloating run in their family much like everything else? "Oi, get moving. Bryce, you have an appointment at eight. It's seven thirty."

The person she got along with out of her three siblings stared at her, blinking.

"Meaning you're late. Again."

"Ficken Sie!" (Fuck!) the girl cursed in German and ran up the stairs to get her effects.

Arieanne turned to the eldest. "You're supposed to be in the office by nine and you take a whole hour to bathe. Plus dressing up and whatever it is you do to get ready."

"Y'know Anne, not everyone in the family is a tomboy like you," Lance drawled, smirking in a fashion that caused several black-clad females to swoon.

"I was supposed to say not everyone in this family is as vain as you but that, unfortunately, is not the case," the youngest stated bluntly. She looked at the child preceding her. "And you have classes at ten, take two hours at least to prepare, and your travel time averages twenty minutes. Do the math."

She was met with another blank stare.

"Meaning all of us are running late for our appointments, meetings, classes and practices, respectively." As recognition dawned on her older brother's face, she commented, "For someone dubbed as 'the smartest male in their batch', you're pretty slow."

Her brother twitching in annoyance made another triumphant smirk appear on her features. "Oi, not because you have more brains than I do, means you can gloat about it!"

The room went silent.

The triumphant look on Arieanne's face was replaced by a series of blinks. "Eh?"

Bryce chose that very moment to prance down the stairs and dump a set of clothes on the dumbfounded kid's head. "Hey, did I just hear Lance compliment you?"

"I…guess?" The youngest child's lips curled up into an innocent feral smile as she recovered from her initial shock. Lance sputtering somehow pulled her back to reality and made her recognize the opportunity. "I didn't know you thought that."

"I don't. But now that it's out, I might as well say it. Don't you dare inflate that already swelling ego of yours," the older teen scowled.

Arieanne's smirk widened.

Lance huffed. "Among the four of us, you've got the best brains. The best talents. The best of everything. You've been saying things like monosodium glutamate ever since fourth grade when I only got to know about that in third year. And you pick up stuff fastest. You don't even study for exams."

The expression on Arieanne's face was enough to make even Byakuya back off. "Sweet bloody heavens, somebody give me a recorder!"

Lance ignored his sister and said the last one glaring at her. "And if you had entered that school when I did, I was afraid that you'd overshadow me, like what happened in our previous school."

She whistled. "Really? …Wait, when did I overshadow you?"

A trademark Laria glare. "Your teachers see you borrowing an eight hundred paged book at recess and return it at lunch. And when they ask you about it, you give them an elaborate explanation. You make some boys and a majority of the girls drool when you feel like talking back then. You don't even touch your books during exams; you sleep the whole bloody day!!"

Bryce stared at him. "And? All of the things you mentioned are more or less expected from us."

"Still do, actually," Angel chirped.

Lance looked at the eldest, horrified that she had taken her side. "She bloody graduated with high honors!!"

This time, it was Arieanne who blinked. "Thank you, but I don't think I have to remind you that not doing so would mean a total disappointment to…I don't really know…everyone?"

Another awkward silence.

"Do I really have to be the one to always remind everyone of their appointments?" the youngest teenager seethed.

And that was all it took to detract their attention from her merits to the problem of who gets to use which bathroom.

"I'm using the masters!" the eldest called.

"I'm using that one!"

"Dibs on the masters after Angel," Lance smirked.

Arieanne just stared blankly at all of them. "We have three bloody bathrooms, people."

There was silence, and the youngest of them could very much imagine tumbleweeds passing by somewhere nearby.

"Nobody bloody heard me," she muttered, turning to get her things.

"I'm using the Masters!"

"No, I am!"

"Nope, I am!"

All four siblings glared (in Arieanne's case, stared) at the others. Finally, Angel came up with a solution that ended the bickering, whether they agreed with it or not.

"Pecking order."

Bryce winced.

Lance grimaced.

Arieanne twitched.

"Damn."

--

"Wow, you're already dressing up. You've always been the fastest when it comes to things like this. Wonder why though. You're the one least late for anything. Except when it's with us," Bryce rambled from behind the curtain of the room Arieanne shared with their mother. She was watching the shinigami, who, fortunately, had chains long enough to keep them out of the room while her sister put on her clothes. "You done yet?"

Long-nailed fingers pushed aside the curtain. "Why?"

The elder eyed her sister's outfit with a critical eye. Casual black jeans snitched from Bryce's very own wardrobe and never returned, white super flats with black markings, and a loose collared blue top. "Why aren't you wearing the stuff I got for you?"

"Because I'm going to a practice, not a party," Arieanne answered dryly, stepping out to use the full length mirror. A quick peek over her shoulder revealed the reason for her unusual act; Lance was hogging the full length mirror in their room. "He has a bloody mirror occupying a whole bloody wall in his bloody room. Why doesn't he bloody use it??"

"To annoy the hell out of you?"

She didn't even bother to bat an eyelash at her sister's innocent reply.

Bryce looked at the shinigami still chained to her sister. Said sister parted her hair exactly thirty degrees from the middle, ran a comb through the thinner side thrice, did the same on the thicker side, and swept them back with another down the partition. "Are you planning to take them with you?"

"What other choice do I have?"

The manner in which Arieanne answered made her twitch. The girl even had the nerve not to look at her and mind breakfast. Breakfast! "I've never seen you practice."

"Jealous?" The girl looked up from her breakfast with a smirk already in place. "You've seen me perform…on the very front of the bloody runway."

"Testament to your skills," the older grinned proudly.

"You're so cheesy."

Bryce pouted. "I want my sister back."

Aizen, who was listening to their conversation, looked at them. He traded glances with Gin.

"Sorry, girl went on a vacation around seven years ago and hasn't returned ever since." Arieanne didn't bother to look up to see the injured look on her sister's face. "Try calling her back, but I doubt that would work."

A moment of blissful silence.

"Should I say it?" Bryce blinked at her sister's sudden question. "You're late. Translation: estas muerto, señorita." (You're dead, miss.)

"Shimatta!" (Crap! – Japanese) the elder gasped. She gave her sister a warning glare – that wasn't really working since she was cramming stuff into a large red leather bag. "I expect you to wear what I dumped into your hands this morning. If you don't want to wear it while practicing, bring something to wear. But put it back on once you're done. That said...I'm going!"

Arieanne did nothing but blink at her as she rushed out of the house. "Why does she do this to me?"

A loud "Adios!" was heard before the tall gates slammed shut.

Arieanne sighed, finished her breakfast and headed back to the room. Because they had nothing else to do, the shinigami followed her. The maternal parent was asleep once again. The teenager reached over the sleeping adult and retrieved the money the maternal parent left in the brief moment that she was awake.

Sighing, she picked up the bundle that Bryce literally dumped on her head earlier. The outfit consisted of strappy silver step-ins, cream pants, and a long sapphire blue blouse. Arieanne blinked at the last article of clothing. It looked like something a model might wear on the red carpet. And it did not help that there were silver accessories placed neatly in the pocket of the pants.

At least Bryce had kept in mind that she had long ago abandoned light-colored outfits. But she still had a pressing issue at hand.

"Bryce," Arieanne hissed, "¡ Yo mataria tu !" (I'm going to kill you! - Spanish)