Bittersweet (Andrei)

"Any time," she said.

She let him hug her and listened to his words with a small smile. She knew all of that and it was one of the reasons Anya got so irritated when he talked about how much better it would be if he didn't care. She happened to like his softer side. It was rare enough already.

"It worked too," she said with a small laugh. "You stopped sulking and pining over the hurt. Seriously, though. It's probably a good thing you came by today. I probably wouldn't have been quite so heated, but I had to babysit for a friend today. It heightened my sensitivity, I guess. So tell me about your first impression of your daughter."

She turned to sit indian style on her couch so she was directly facing Andrei. This was basically Anya's way of killing whatever negativity or seriousness still hung in the air, replacing it with some lightness. Besides, she was curious about this niece. That and she was journalist and a cat. Curiosity was her epic flaw.

She scoffed a little at some of the comments but all-in-all she was amused. That was until he fessed up about his concern of Olivia's motives beyond this point. She couldn't blame him. It was always a possibility.

"You know if you do fuck it up, I could always still meet her," she teased. "I'm not a journalist for nothing. Random statistic interview could work for getting to know the girl. Nah, I wouldn't be that mean. As for Alex, I think she would be happy that the overprotectiveness will shift a little and not constantly be directed on her. The girl could use some breathing room."

Yes, she was determined to keep the mood light. So if that meant teasing her brother, she would do it.

She raised an eyebrow at his comment about not being that bad. She would counter that and list examples if she thought it would be worth it. It really wasn't especially when he continued on. She scrunched her face up in distaste and shook her head.

"I don't get how you can stand that," she said. "I mean I get ice cream is supposed to be yummy for most people but you're a vampire. I thought you couldn't eat that crap in the first place."

It was no secret she couldn't stand ice cream at all and of course she had to voice that distaste even just mildly. Granted, she found it weird that a vampire could actually like it, especially her brother.

"Only one way to find out how that squirt will feel about this," she said. "You have to tell her. My suggestion is tell her before you confront Olivia. The more you think of Kitty as your daughter and the less you worry about Olivia until you actually face her."

Okay that was one of the sweetest things she had ever heard come out of her surly brother. That was saying a lot because she couldn't remember the last time he was ever sweet about anything. It was a rarity that Anya instantly decided to commit to memory. She knew that she would most likely have to wait a while for him to ever talk like this again. That didn't mean she couldn't take advantage of it a little. So when he said he expected her to keep this to herself, she blinked innocently at him.

"Who would I possibly tell this once in a blue moon's occurence to that would, my dear sweet brother?" she asked. "Granted I could make an interesting article about how even a surly vampyric assassin can be all crusty and grr on the outside but is really an ooey gooey marshmallow on the inside. It would be an amazing piece to put something like this down in his history."

She was teasing him, of course. She wouldn't actually do anything like that. Even if she did, she would keep it discreet. Her goals never included embarrassing her loved ones or anyone for that matter. Whenever she decided to write anything about any specific individual, she normally generalized the information somehow. For smaller pieces at least. The more in depth ones sometimes couldn't be generalized.

"Well that makes sense," she said. "I wish you luck with that one though. Even if you don't need it."

She laughed at the harmless threat and shook her head. She couldn't help but be amused. Then again, she knew she was one of the very few that would likely never get a real nasty threat from him. At least not ones he meant to carry out.

"Go ahead," she said. "I'll just pester you right back and we'll be going in circles for the rest of our lives. If you want to waste time with that, far be it for me to stop you."

She stood up as returned the topic to his ex-. She stretched lazily and nodded.

"Probably a smart idea," she said. "Plus, I'm actually kind of tired. I forgot how exhausting babies can be."

"I didn't say that," she pointed out. "I said I would pester you back, which only means it would be more than the little sister requirement dictates. And to be fair, mama and papa are probably stuck in some sort of constant eye roll because they forgot how to stop."

Thinking about it, it wasn't hard to believe. Between Andrei's perpetual bad attitude and her own numerous bad life choices, their entire existence had to be eyeroll worthy. It just seemed fitting. She smiled at him.

"Things will work out, Rei," she said. "A little positivity wouldn't hurt you, but call me tomorrow so I know you haven't done something stupid and got yourself killed."