Original pub. date: 5/2/2010

Spoilers: "Love Games"

Disclaimer: No one mentioned belongs to me.

Fiona is munching on some hamachi when she hears her brother come home. No, not 'munching' - it sounds so pedestrian. And speaking of pedestrian, there's Declan, just reeking of whatever two-bit, 'Daddy has financial problems' perfume his little girlfriend wears. He strolls into the kitchen, looking entirely too smug and self-satisfied for her liking. His eyes glitter and his hair is mussed.

"Another successful date?" she asks dryly, licking a minuscule drop of soy sauce from the corner of her mouth. Declan's smirk doesn't waver.

"Depends on what you mean by 'successful,'" he says. He runs his hands through his hair, his grin ever-present.

Fiona throws up her hand to stave off his answer. "Please. I was being polite. Whatever heinous activities you're involved in, I don't ever want to know."

"Relax. Heinous activities don't exactly fit into Holly J's busy schedule."

Fiona's shoulders relax a little bit. It's too much information, and at the same time, she is glad to hear it. Frankly, Declan is entirely too good for Holly J, as far as Fiona is concerned. That, and she takes his mind away from more important things. They're Coynes, after all, and they have to keep to a certain standard.

"Pity," she says. "At least that way she could keep you around a little bit longer."

Declan flips a bar stool around and straddles it. "And what exactly is that supposed to mean?"

"It means what it always means," says Fiona coolly, enjoying having the upper hand for once. "You have a pattern, Declan. You like them uncomplicated, and then you get bored." Now the smile blossoms on her face, subtle but gleeful. "And any time you break the pattern, you end up alone." One way or another, he always ends up alone. He's just much easier to handle when he's the dumper and not the dumpee.

Declan opens his lips as if to protest, but she's not in the mood for his weak rebuttal. "Didn't Sophie break your heart?" she continues, feeling a bit ruthless. Declan is rarely imperfect, but women seems to be the one subject at which he fails utterly. "Didn't Jane decide she'd rather have Spinner?"

"That's different," he says. "Jane and I should never have happened." She notices he doesn't even touch the subject of Sophie.

"You're on a losing streak, Declan."

"They're friends, you know," says Fiona. She tries to make her tone airy, as though she was noting a mild observation, like the weather. "Jane and Holly J. I'm sure they've had conversations about you. Girls talk, you know. And I highly doubt Jane had anything favorable to say."

"You're kind of a bitch, you know that, right?"

"So I've been told," she says dully. "Declan, you're a far higher caliber of person than Holly J Sinclair can ever hope for. She's probably just with you because of our mother's connections. And Jane was only with you because you were new and dangerous." Fiona popped another bite of dinner into her mouth, chewed and swallowed because while she might have been a bitch, she wasn't an animal. "You should be with someone who's actually worthy of you. Someone who deserves you."

"Someone on my level, you mean," says Declan. His tone is flat and he meets her unblinking gaze with a steely one of her own.

"Well, of course." Fiona plucks a piece of sashimi in her chopsticks, and holds it out. Declan opens his mouth obligingly. Fiona manages to swallow her smile this time, but she can't help wondering how he's so disastrous at relationships when he's obviously so easy to manipulate.

"Holly J is smart, beautiful, ambitious, and doesn't take crap," he says, a grain of rice on his lip. He smiles and it falls. "How is that not on my level?"

"I just don't like her."

"You're jealous," says Declan.

"Jealous?" Fiona takes enormous care in keeping her tone perfectly level.

"That I'm happy, and you're not. Didn't you and Riley fail miserably?"

Fiona has to look away at that. "This isn't about me. And I'm not jealous." She and Riley were both using each other as a futile attempt at feeling like a normal teenager in a public high school. Fiona just happened to have been the one who recognized the other's sham. It had been mildly beneficial, but ultimately more trouble than it was worth. With any luck, Declan will similarly come to his senses.

"Whatever you say," he says, rising. He gives her a pointed look: "Sis."

Though she'd never admit it, his casual lack of respect stings. She watches him leave, and with every step further away he takes, she feels more and more frustrated and alone. She pushes away her plate, half-eaten. She's lost her appetite. The whole situation reminds her too much of Sophie. With any luck, things will go as wrong here as they went there, and Fiona will pick up the pieces and get Declan's head on straight once more.

It's not as though she wants Declan to be miserable. But he used to only need Fiona for happiness, just as she only needed him. The lifestyle they led, there was little to no point in trying to find anything more than a fling. She thought Declan realized that, but maybe she was wrong.

Maybe she was always wrong.