Title: How I Knew
Author: Rann
Series: Dead or Alive XTreme Beach Volleyball
Notes: Tecmo, greedy bastards they are, own the characters and game, not 
I. Of course.


	I met Christie on the island of that damned idiot Zack. I'd been 
tricked into coming by him saying there was a tournament. Pfah. Not any 
real kind of tournament. Just girls running around in swimsuits, playing 
volleyball on the beach.
	... Which issn't to say there wasn't fun to be had doing that.
	It was a nice island, really. Pretty. Nice beaches, a great little 
swathe of jungle that I really enjoyed hanging out in. Eh. Ninja, wild 
areas with lots of shadows, natural pairing I suppose.
	When I met her, I was mostly shocked by how much she reminded me of 
myself. Her cool, uncaring-sounding taunts reminded me of the way I 
tended to greet Kasumi. Maybe I understand why the brat is always trying 
to make up with me, now, because I couldn't stand being rejected like that.
	Of course, I wasn't going to be all simpering about it. I'd seen some 
of the other girls on the island trying to woo volleyball partners (or 
bed partners, who knows?), and it was practically sickening. Hitomi 
especially. She... gushed. It was disgusting.
	No, not that kind of gushing.
	Still, overtures needed to be made. So I hopped around, making a bit of 
that ridiculous island currency, and bought a few little things. They 
went over well, not that you could tell. Christie didn't exactly go 
ga-ga over them in great detail, but she did agree to join up with me 
after a few days.
	It went very well from there. We were both cool of manner, neither of 
us liked to show our emotions that much. There was never a lot of doughy 
little talking. We met up each morning, we played some matches against 
other teams. We worked well together, and I actually enjoyed having her 
on my team a lot. She gave praise when it was deserved, and only then. 
And she never made a big deal of it when I wanted time to myself, and I 
think she was both quietly surprised and unspokenly relieved that I 
never made a big deal of her own private time.
	I kept up the flow of presents sent to her room, partly because I 
wanted to keep on her good side, partly because the stupid money 
wouldn't be worth a damn thing once I left the island anyway. And, well, 
partly because I enjoyed buying swimsuits and other things for her. 
She's an absolutely amazingly beautiful woman, one of the most 
attractive I've ever seen. She always showed up the next morning wearing 
the suits I sent her, but without a giggly word or simpering smile, just 
her usual self.
	She returned the favor in kind. In fact, some of those suits were the 
only way I could be sure that there was a little something more between 
us than just casual sports-playing friends. Particularly the last one 
she sent during our vacation, this little pink number. I don't think 
I've ever shown off more of my ass than when I was wearing that thing. 
But it's okay. I've got a great ass.
	Just gratifying to know Christie thought so, too.
	But none of that was really what cemented us as a... couple? Pair? Eh, 
whatever. No, what really did that happened the last day of our stay on 
Zack's island.
	My insipid sister had teamed up with Tina Armstrong. While I usually 
knock on Kasumi quite a bit, she'd been doing better than I'd give her 
credit for this game, and Tina was no laughing matter. Had a spike on 
her that'd leave a week-long impression in your face. But Christie and I 
had honed our teamwork to an exact science, and were one of the most 
formidable teams on the island.
	Still, it had been a long and grueling match. We'd gone double deuce 
-four times-, and the score was now nine to nine. Whoever made the next 
score would win the game regardless. All it would earn us was a big 
armful of Zack dollars, but that might mean one more really great 
swimsuit or a couple of interesting trinkets to take home. But more than 
that, it was a matter of pride, of honor. Of the fact this god-damn 
fucking game had dragged on so damn long and we were -not- going to lose 
it now.
	Christie served up the ball, and it sailed just over the net and across 
the other side. Tina thwacked it upwards some, and Kasumi batted it back 
over the net, then stayed in close. I fell back a little, lacing my 
fingers and letting the ball hit my hands near the thumb, propelling the 
ball over my head and back to Christie, giving a quick shout to let her 
know it was on its way. She ran forward just enough to thrust both hands 
up, sending the ball up into the air and close to the net for me. I 
leapt up, swinging my arm around for the spike, and at the same time, 
Kasumi leaped high into the air to try and block me.
	I'm getting to the point right here, so you can stop squirming around.
	My hand hit the ball, and the ball, consequently, hit Kasumi. Now, 
normally, a number of things would happen. She might be knocked back and 
the ball would tumble down, likely to hit the sand and score us the 
winning point. Or, she might have been strong enough that she could 
resist the force of the ball, knock it back to our side, and win the 
game for Tina and herself. But neither of those is QUITE what did happen.
	The volleyball struck her directly on her huge chest. (Runs in the 
family. Hell, apparently runs in the fighting circuit.) Time seemed to 
slow down, like a movie effect. I could SEE the ball steadily pressing 
in against her tits, and her bikini-covered mammaries squashing down 
under the impact. The more it pressed in, the wider her eyes got. The 
volleyball just kept pushing against her breasts, like it was burrowing 
in to make a winter home, as her body slowly started to drop back down 
and fall back.
	And then, the natural bounciness of my sister's eye-magnets asserted 
itself. The ball, still seeming to move in slow motion, was propelled 
back away from her as if it had been shot from a cannon. It flew 
forward, striking the net, which gave under it, bending outward towards 
my own stunned gaze, before it was sent flying in the other direction 
again. Kasumi, who hadn't even landed yet, was hit right in the face, 
the impact enough to spin her a full 360 in midair before finally 
thumping facefirst in the sand and laying there, out cold.
	I think Tina's jaw was coming close to hitting the sand, too. Looked 
like you could have knocked her over with some loud music.
	Not that I could pay too much attention to her. I was trying to keep 
myself from throwing up while I was laughing so hard. I can't remember a 
single time in my life that I'd laughed that much or that hard, and it 
actually hurt quite a bit, but I just couldn't stop myself. It was too 
damn funny! The look on her face as the ball hit her tits, and that 
little cartoonish spin right in the midst of falling, all of it, it was 
too good! And the fact that there were people watching, and Zack 
probably had the whole thing on tape, just made it even better.
	I remember getting myself under control enough to turn towards 
Christie, because I was going to say something. I don't remember what it 
was, exactly. Maybe I was going to apologize for my childish outburst of 
mirth. Maybe I was going to try and explain that things between myself 
and my sister had never been very good, and this wasn't just a juvenile 
mocking of her pain. I dunno, some excuse or another to get her to 
forgive me for laughing like a jackass.
	But that's when I saw Christie laying on her side in the sand, curled 
up, laughing her damn head off, too.
	THAT was when I knew we'd be together for a long, long time.

-End


             .---Anime/Manga Fanfiction Mailing List----.
             | Administrators - ffml-admins@anifics.com |
             | Unsubscribing - ffml-request@anifics.com |
             |     Put 'unsubscribe' in the subject     |
             `---- http://ffml.anifics.com/faq.txt -----'