Background: Started in the summer of 2002.

Disclaimers: As per usual, don't own characters or series but writing and idea is my own.

Author's Note: I know that some of the things in this chapter are probably not realistic. But, hey, it's a story. Thanks for reading!

Ch. 1

"Hey, are you okay?"

"Yeah." She clutched her throat as she felt it come up again. She'd been coughing up blood for the past few days. Her parents didn't know. She wasn't about to tell them.

She wanted to die. What better way to do it than this, huh? Dying slowly from the inside. She'd slept much more than normal—well, what was normal for her when she had school—and now she was tired, deliriously tired. Her meals were getting meager; a few pieces of meat and vegetables with rice, an orange, and water. When she got home from summer school, she completed her homework, studied a bit, exercised strenuously for an hour, took a shower, and reorganized some of the stuff she'd brought home from school before she went to sleep.

She coughed into her hand. Blood splattered onto it. Again. His eyes widened.

Still coughing, she excused herself before running into a nearby bathroom. She ran the water. Red turned into pink and swirled down the drain. More red joined that. Then her breakfast. Finally it stopped and she sighed with relief as her body relaxed. That metallic taste of blood really bothered her. She gargled water and spit it in the sink. Then she popped a mint in and chomped on it until her eyes watered as she left the bathroom.

It was getting harder for her to walk. When her father dropped her off this morning, it took every ounce of strength for her to not collapse when she stepped out of the car. Each step was painful and difficult on her knees. She was surprised that she climbed the stairs all the way to the third floor. That must've taken its toll. Her right foot turned out as she put it down, throwing her off balance. She fell forward and would have kissed the floor if Mamoru hadn't caught her.

Mamoru Chiba. A sophomore at Juuban High School and 16 years old, like her, Mamoru was rather tall for his age (5' 8"!). He had bluish black hair with blue eyes to match. She thought he was kinda cute. He hardly ever smiled though and rarely interacted with anyone who wasn't part of that exclusive group he was in. No matter how much she tried to elicit a laugh out of him, he didn't so much as twitch a muscle; his group seemed to laugh in his place. She'd only really met him last summer and had barely talked to him during the school year. She found he was rather cold and stoic most of the time. She was therefore rather surprised when he asked her if she was going to summer school at Albert Einstein.

"Hey Chris!" She said with a smile.

"Hi," he said smiling back. He stopped to drink at the water fountain before continuing down the hall. She was about to say something else when another voice cut her off.

"Hey Usagi . . . "

"Huh?" she said blinking. "Hi Mamoru." She waited for him to finish drinking for he obviously had a question for her.

"Are you taking summer classes at Albert Einstein?"

She blinked again. How had he known? Creepy. Slowly, she replied, "Yeah. Why?"

"Well, I'm taking classes there this summer. The lady that was scheduling our classes said that there were other people coming from Juuban."

Surprise was evident on her face. "Oh. Well, cool."

He must be awfully stuck up (a self-centered jerk) to be so cold and rude to everyone. And yet Mamoru was being awfully concerned. The guy showed concern and when does he ever care about anybody beside himself? He seemed really worried though, because he actually waited for her to come out of the bathroom.

"Whoa. Are you sure you're okay?" Mamoru steadied her by grabbing her shoulders.

"Yeah. I'm fine. My foot just slipped." The truth was she wasn't fine; she was anything but fine. But since when does one admit weakness to an enemy? Well, he wasn't really an enemy but she wasn't comfortable in his presence. That cold, stoic demeanor she'd heard about from others made her keep her distance.

"No, you're not." He said rather accusingly. "You were coughing up blood!" He wanted to shake some sense into her but was afraid that that would harm more than help. "Come on. We'll let the teacher know . . . we'll explain to her the situation . . . and I'll take you home."

Her head shot up. Somewhere between him catching her and accusing her of lying, his shoulder had become a comfy pillow. Usagi had closed her eyes and listened to his semi-baritone voice, feeling the way it caused a rumble in her ear. She felt safe there. Safe?!

Maybe the pillow was just a little too comfy. How could anyone feel safe with someone you didn't know? If you knew what that person was thinking and how to act around him, there wouldn't be any insecurity. However, most of the time you don't and that's the scarier part: the not knowing, the risk of being betrayed, having your faith and trust in someone broken.

In any case, fatigue had been setting in and she had barely heard any of what Mamoru was saying. She felt the world swirling around her but was too tired to even lift her arms, to reach for something to steady herself. At that moment, the word "teacher" filtered into her head and she immediately regained some semblance of consciousness.

With a fleeting glance at her watch, she shrieked, "We're late!" However, the mad dash she attempted to make was aborted; the consciousness of her brain was greater than that of the rest of her body combined. When she stepped forward, her knees had buckled and if not for Mamoru's quick reflexes, she really would have hit the floor this time. Even now, her face was mere inches from the dusty linoleum tiles. She wrinkled her nose in distaste as Mamoru hauled her back into a standing position.

"Are you going to tell me your foot slipped again?" he deadpanned. His expressionless face made him appear bored.

She grinned sheepishly. Raising an eyebrow, "Oh, I'll tell you alright." However, she never got a chance as another wave of fatigue inundated her senses. She fell limply against him as his arms tightened around her. Mamoru had to literally drag her down the hall as he pulled her arm around his neck and placed his other hand around her waist.

Luckily for them, the classroom wasn't too far from where they had been standing. "Hang on." He whispered, more to comfort himself than her.