AN: Annnndd I'm back from the dead! That's about all I have to say. *dives under desk to avoid being pelted by rotten fruit*

Hope you enjoy this chapter. It contains plenty of Tezuka torture. And if you squint, you'll be able to see some Pillar Pair hints floating about.

Warnings: Swearing, violence and OOC-ness like whoa.

For Tezuka, the rest of the weekend went just as badly as Friday. Ashiora, having been gone for so long, was determined to make up for the lost time. In other words, she refused to leave Tezuka alone and harassed/tortured him every minute of the day. Their parents, thinking it was just Ashiora's way of showing she cared, left the two of them alone and their grandfather was off visiting an old friend of his. This left Tezuka essentially alone and fending for himself against Ashiora's onslaught of sibling affection.

This included her "morning greeting" on Saturday where she would barge into his room holding a pillow before dive-bombing into his bed, knocking the air out of him as she would cheerily yell "Zao shang hao!" (1) at his face before beating him with the pillow. She would refuse to relent until Tezuka had seized his own pillow and began hitting back. They would continue to fight until Tezuka managed to knock her off the bed or she lost balance by herself and tumbled to the floor. Ayana would call them for breakfast and because Ashiora loved food more than torturing Tezuka, she gave up their sibling battle and headed out. As she retreated, she would madly cackle saying that soon she would break down his defenses and find the one who held his heart. Tezuka pretended not to hear that, if only so he wouldn't have to wonder where she even came up with that and why she decided that now was the perfect time for him to have a relationship.

He also refused to admit that he might have just the slightest crush on Seigaku's freshman regular and a very small, nearly miniscule part of him wondered if Ashiora could actually help him.

However, after she hid his tea leaves and took his tennis racket hostage so he was forced to chase her around the house for the rest of the afternoon to get his racket back, he was starting to think Ashiora didn't plan on doing anything but try to make him go on a mass murder spree. There was the whole thing with her trying to drag him out to buy porn videos, claiming that with his face he could easily pass off as someone twenty years older and getting them would be no problem and hey, he needed to learn how to have sex eventually. Tezuka had refused, of course, but Ashiora ignored it and grabbed him, planning on physically dragging him out despite the fact that she didn't even know where to go. Fortunately for Tezuka, Ayana had put her foot down there and forced Ashiora to go practice her cello.

"You need to practice if you're going to audition for the orchestra in Seigaku," Ayana lectured. "Their orchestra may not be as good as Layla academy's but they still have high standards."

"Okay, okay," Ashiora said, untangling her feet from the coffee table and releasing Tezuka's arm she had been holding in a death grip earlier to stop her brother from running away. "I'll go practice."

She made a face as she headed up the stairs but when she began to play, the notes she pulled out from her cello reverberated throughout the house, filling it with deep, thrumming music.

Tezuka Kuniharu hummed in appreciation as he flipped a page in his newspaper. "Ashiora really has improved hasn't she Kunimitsu?"

"Yes, father," Tezuka agreed.

It was funny how easily Ashiora could frazzle his nerves with her unbelievable antics to the point he was ready to destroy things with his racket but could calm him down just as quickly with her music. It was the same for Ashiora. She was always raging at Tezuka for his lack of expressions, ranting on how she never wanted such a deadpan brother but when she watched him play tennis, all her complaints would disappear and she too, grew calm. They balanced each other, in a sense. That was what made them twins. They understood each other in their own, odd way. But later that night, when Ashiora barged into his room again with a statement that even left him speechless, Tezuka began to wonder just how twisted their understanding of one another was.

"Just in case you didn't know and assumed we were getting regular porn, when I said we were going to buy porn videos, I meant gay porn."

Tezuka stared at her, not a single muscle in his face moving after her statement. Ashiora stared back at him, looking a tad bit perplexed as to why he wasn't saying anything.

"You know," she began, a bit louder in case the words didn't penetrate Tezuka's thick-headed skull the first time. "Cause you don't like girls like that so gay porn would be better for you. For, you know, learning how to do it. And you can uh, figure out whether you top or bottom while watching the videos and-"

"What." Tezuka began, his voice deathly calm and so smooth-sounding he could have passed off as a professional con-man. "Makes you think I would be interested in watching porn in general?"

Ashiora looked at him like he had just asked what instrument she played. "Because you're a fifteen year old guy whose never gone on a date before so you have pent-up hormones that need to be released."

Tezuka felt a headache growing. It didn't help that Ashiora had spoke in such a slow and punctuated tone as though she was talking to a five-year-old.

"I do not want to watch porn Ashiora," he said, his tone indicating that the conversation was over and his decision was final.

Ashiora could have cared less what kind of tone he used. "You can only deny yourself for so long," she continued, waving her hand. "So, who's the one? I figure it's someone from your team since you spend most of your time with them and they're the only people who can tolerate the early retardation of your facial muscles-which is the only explanation of why you show so little expression-and not be driven up the wall. Is it the brown-haired pretty boy who had his eyes closed? He looks like he could balance you out since he's always smiling and-"

"I do not like Fuji," Tezuka cut in. "And what makes you think I even like guys?"

Ashiora gave him another look. "Cause you kept sneaking glances over at the table with all the Seigaku regulars when we were having sushi yesterday. If you were trying to be subtle, you weren't very good at it. So yeah, it has to be one of them but I'm still trying to figure it out. Come on Kuni, drop me some hints or else I'm never going to be able to help you get together with your fated one."

"Out."

Ashiora blinked. "What?"

"Out!" Tezuka thundered, his glasses glinting dangerously in the light.

Ashiora's self-preservation seemed to kick in then and she quickly ran out the room, closing the door behind her. Tezuka took a deep breath in his now silent and sister-less room, the headache and murderous impulses slowly subsiding. Until...

"I still think you should buy some gay porn," Ashiora said from behind the door.

Tezuka gave into his impulses and went for his tennis racket.

Sunday followed the same as Saturday. Ashiora woke him up with another dive bomb, they fought until Ayana called them down for breakfast, Ashiora left while madly cackling, Tezuka chased her around the house (this time, she was holding his Japanese literature essay hostage), Ashiora tried dragging him out to buy porn until Ayana made her go practice her cello and then tried to wheedle out the name of his crush until Tezuka kicked her out of his room and/or looked ready to beat her with his racket.

Kuniharu "hmm"-ed as he drank his coffee while reading the newspaper. "They sure haven't changed," he idly commented as he listened to the stampede of footsteps upstairs.

"Indeed," Ayana agreed, smiling a little. "It must be nice, seeing each other again after so long."

"Kuni, tennis rackets are not weapons of violence!" Ashiora yelled as she flew past the stairwell, brandishing a fuzzy stuffed leopard in front of her like a shield.

Kuniharu chuckled, shaking his head a little. "Children."

After what had happened to him on the weekend, Tezuka had every right to be in a foul mood Monday.

Surprisingly, he wasn't. He went along with his daily morning activities as though he had not faced forty-eight plus hours of torture by his female double. He left for school at his usual time and arrived at the same time as Oishi to unlock the club room. He changed for practice and began warming up with the other regulars, just like usual. The only thing that seemed different about Tezuka that morning was the small, near miniscule smile on his face.

"Tezuka looks...happy, nya." Kikumaru was the first to comment on it, his tone awestruck.

"He must be really glad Ashiora is back now," Oishi said.

"I'll bet. If one of my siblings was gone for so long, I would be really happy when they came back, nya!"

Ryoma scowled and continued stretching. He stubbornly refused to acknowledge of the bubble of jealousy in his chest and refused to believe some girl (even if they were Buchou's sister) could make Tezuka so happy.

Sometime near the end of practice when everyone was doing their cool-down exercises the peaceful serenity on the school grounds was shattered by one piercing yell.

"BEN DAN KUNIIIIIIIII!"

Horio dropped the tennis balls he had picked up as Ashiora appeared from around the corner, looking angry enough to spew fire from her mouth.

"Kuni you jack-ass, you unbelievable fuckwit!" Ashiora howled, shaking her fist at Seigaku's tennis team captain while everyone else watched on, most frozen with wide eyes and jaws dropped to the ground. "I can't believe you screwed up my alarm clock so I would wake up late, miss morning orchestra practice and have to get mom to drive me to school!"

Tezuka turned to face her, his stern captain face on. "Waking up on time is your own responsibility Ashiora. You let your own guard down."

Ashiora's eyes narrowed as she scowled. "So this is how you get revenge." She turned on her heels and stomped away, muttering curses under her breath as a dark aura surrounded her.

After Ashiora turned her face, the small smile on Tezuka's face briefly returned before he saw the dumbstruck expressions of all the other tennis team members.

"What are you all standing around for?" he barked. "Continue with your exercises!"

Everyone quickly snapped back to attention and hurried on with what they were doing, though many of them kept sneaking glances at their captain. Tezuka had returned to his usual stoic and emotionless self but some of the members swore they heard Tezuka lowly chuckling at some point.

"Tezuka?" Oishi weakly began.

Tezuka glanced over at him. "What is it?"

"Did uh, something happen between you and Ashiora? She didn't seem very happy with you..."

"It's nothing," Tezuka dismissed, looking back to the other members.

"But she mentioned something about-"

"It's nothing Oishi," Tezuka stated again, this time more firm.

Oishi, wisely, let the topic drop.

(1) Zao shang hao-"Good morning" in Chinese