First Time

Note: Amu is eighteen, in her last year of high school, while Ami is twelve and in her last year of elementary school.


Dedicated to Angel Lilith, an author who wrote one extremely entertaining FanFic that will regretfully never be finished. May you rest in peace.


"Having a sister is like having a best friend you can't get rid of.
You know that whatever you do, they'll still be here."
-Unknown

The first time for anything is always the most difficult time. The first time you try something, you have absolutely no idea what to expect from it, having no prior experience to back you up. Knowing second-hand experience isn't as helpful, since it was from someone else's experience, not yours, so the outcome will most likely be different.

For kids, the 'firsts' are all mostly pretty similar. Your first haircut, first time on a bike, first time having a friend, first time pushing yourself on a swing, tying your shoe, writing out your full name, etc. Everyone's faced it, and you get through it all pretty quickly as a kid. The experience that you've gotten at a young age will help you as you grow older.

Now, here's where things get difficult. Boys and girls both deal with different things once they reach the adolescent stage. Some things are similar, like your first car, first date, first job, first day of school, and etc., but there are a still things that girls have to go through that guys don't have to, and vice versa. I'm not a real expert on what the guys have to deal with (something about perverted nightmares and athlete's foot), but I know first hand that the girls have it tough. Getting your ears pierced, your first bra, first time you…um, "become a woman," first time shaving, first time waxing, first time getting a fake tan, first time wearing heels, first time experiencing blisters from wearing your first pinchy shoes…the list goes on and on and on, trust me.

If you're lucky, though, you have a mom, or older sister, or at least a friend who's gone through all those things before you. They'll give you some advice (or you'll maybe have to beg for some guidance, like some people I know), and you'll relax, thinking that you'd know what to expect, since you've gotten some insight on what'll happen.

Think again.

"AAAH!" The shrill, loud-pitched squeal of my twelve-year-old sister breaks the calm and serene silence that I was basking in that early Wednesday morning. Shooting up out of bed, I feel my heart pound against my chest with vigor, despite having been dreaming of getting a massage just moments earlier. The only thing on my mind at the moment is my younger sister's cry for help, and without even bothering, to check the time and brush my hair or teeth, I race out the door and down the hall, barging into my sister's room with every possible scenario running through my mind.

"Ami!" I cry as I search for her in her bedroom. Seeing as she's not there, I make my way towards her bathroom (Yes, my much younger sister has her own bathroom located in her room. My parents considered that since I'm going to be moving out sooner or later, Ami should deserve her own bathroom, despite still being Elementary School. Total unfairness). "Ami, are you in there?' I call through the closed door, trying to keep the panic and worry out of my voice.

"Don't come in!" she screams, having just realized that I was there. "I-I'm indecent!"

I frown, wondering what her problem is. It wasn't like we've never changed together before, so it's not like I wouldn't notice if anything's changed with her body. "I heard a scream," I tell her. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine! Just leave me alone!"

I turn my head and peer out my sister's window, and notice that it's still dark outside. "What are you doing up so early?" I ask through the door, beginning to get impatient.

A pause. "Using th-the bathroom! What do you think?"

"Why where you screaming if you're just using the bathroom?"

By now, Ami's a bit fed up. "What are you, some kind of cop? Just go back to bed!"

I pause for a moment, before a thought comes to me. "Ami, you haven't gotten your, um, period, have you?" I hear a thud, and I'm suddenly panicking again. "Ami! Are you OK? Ami, answer me!"

"God, Amu!" I hear her say, the disgust obvious in her voice. "Way to be blunt!"

I hold back a surprised gasp. "Wait, so you are?" This is a shock, considering that Ami's flatter than I was back when I was her age, so there's really no way that she could have it now. Gee, mom's going a to flip out when she finds out.

There's another thud. "Are you crazy?" I hear her ask. "No, I'm not! Now go away before mom and dad wake up!" She sounds really nervous about that, like the last thing she wants is for anyone to come up and find her. She's forgotten though that mom and dad wear earplugs to bed, so they don't have to hear the other one snore.

A feeling of dread comes over me as a new thought enters my mind. "Ami," I try to say as calmly as I can, "you're not…you're not doing drugs, are you?"

I'm hoping for Ami to yell back, screaming obscurities at me and order me to leave again, but she doesn't do any of that, and my worries begin to deepen. I'm trying to think of something to say, something to make her stop ("Just Say No" and "Smoke or You'll Choke" are two options I'm beginning to consider at the moment), but before I can even think of barging down the door and confronting Ami myself, she opens it and I let out an involuntary gasp.

There, standing in front of me, is my little sister, wearing a bra that's took big and obvious through her night shirt with tissues sticking out. Instead of bloodshot and dead eyes like I was dreading, they're messily done with a dark, dark shade of black eyeliner and I notice a mascara smudge over her right eyebrow. Lip liner is on her chin, teeth, and even her nose and her cheeks look like they're inflamed. I notice that the top half of her bangs are sticking out like pins while the other half is in its naturally curly state. Wondering how that happened, I notice my flat iron plugged in and sitting on the bathroom counter top, the red light flashing like a warning signal. There's a fresh white burn scar arcross one of the fingers on her left hand, and she makes a show of trying to hide it from me, but before I could even make any comments or ask any more questions, Ami comes towards me and starts to sob in my chest with her skinny arms wrapped around me.

"I-I c-can't do a-anything r-r-right!" she bawls in between hiccups as she hides her face into my shirt, possibly smearing it with the make up. I put my arms around her shoulders in an attempt to comfort her as I peer over her head to take a look at the bathroom. There's makeup everywhere, of all shades and types rolling off the counter, with the brushes all in the sink. Tissues are scattered everywhere, some covered with makeup that Ami must've possibly tried to rub off. The caps are off of the lip stick and I'm afraid that the eyeliner pencil is now broken, but those issues are pretty small compared to the upset girl in my arms.

I stroke her hair soothingly as I lead her into her bathroom to unplug the flatiron and help her clean up the mess. No doubt that all of this stuff came from the hallway bathroom where I usually do my make up. With stuff in our arms, I lead my sister back to my bathroom to put everything back and to clear all that junk off her face. As she runs her burned hand under the cold water of the sink, I grab a cotton swap and start to dab at her red cheeks and raccoon eyes, using nearly a fourth of the small bottle of make-up remover to get rid of all the stuff she's put on her face, all without saying anything. When that's all done, I look up at the mirror and groan at my hideous bed head. I reach for my brush that's in the other sink and undo all the horrid tangles in my hair. After I try it all up in a messy ponytail, I get started on brushing my teeth, because I can't stand morning breath. All the while, Ami is silently soothing her burn, looking down at the running water.

After a few minuets of that, I turn off the faucet and grab the burn ointment from the medicine cabinet. Ami catches a peek at the pads I keep in there as well, and begins to blush a bright red, undoubtedly remembering our conversation from earlier. Somehow, I'm glad that her concern was just over make up and not 'that,' because, honestly, I'd be embarrassed if my younger sister got her's two years before I got mine. Still, this is a pretty serious business.

I gently apply the cream to my sister's finger, and I can hear her sniffle a bit as I'm doing so. "Aw, don't be upset," I say, trying to sooth her. "You know, I remember when I first tried on makeup," I say while chuckling "I was thirteen, in my first year of middle school, and I had accidentally bought lime green eyeliner instead of brown, and for some stupid reason I didn't even realize it before I tried it on in the girl's bathroom at school. Too make matters worse, I poked my eye as I was doing my mascara, which was really clumpy, so I just decided to take it all off. Unfortunately, I didn't have any remover, so I had to use just water, causing it to run and smear my face. I managed to get most of it off, but I had dark smudges under my eye, looking like I didn't get enough sleep that night. I had to spend an entire day where people would keep asking me nonstop if I was tired. It was so embarrassing that I didn't have the heart to even reply." I gave Ami a sheepish smile as I begin to put the cap back on the cream. "So, yeah, at least you won't have to have to publicly display your embarrassment."

Ami huffed and started to adjust the bra, right before deciding to just rip it off and have wads of tissue paper fly out. She let out a small whine, and looked like she was about to cry again, but no tears came out as she began to gather it all up and stuff it in the trash can. I picked up the familiar looking pink-laced garment and ask, "Please tell me this isn't mine."

Ami's cheeks inflamed again, and she mumbled, "Don't be mad." I just chuckled and shook my head.

"I'm not mad. Want to hear another embarrassing moment in 'The Embarrassing Chronicles of Amu'?" Ami just shrugged but looked at me anyways. She had brought down the toilet seat and was sitting on the lid cushion, using it as a chair while I had my head against the cabinets under the sink, the fluffy bath room carpet (that continently matched the toilet cushion) protecting my bottom from the hard, tiled floor. "The first time I went bra shopping with Mom had to be one of the longest days of my life. We were searching throughout the entire the right size, and the entire time Mom would look down and make loud comments like 'this is too big' or 'I'm not sure if this won't slip off if we get rid of the straps.' She even began asking the male employees about what size they thought I was, since she figured that they were some sort of experts because they were hanging around area for some reason. I just wanted to die right there."

Ami bit her lip. "What happened then?"

"Well, we eventually went to a different apartment store the next day, after getting overwhelmed by all the stuff that happened earlier. This other place was a lot easier. We had an expert take my measurements and they brought me the right size soon enough. Thankfully, it wasn't a male, and it was all over pretty easily, but Mom still wouldn't stop gushing about my 'first bra' and being 'on my way to womanhood,' although fortunetly, for me, wasn't in front of any guys."

Ami's lips seemed to turn up a bit after I finished. "Promise me that you'll come with me instead of Mom the first time I go shopping," she tells me.

I begin to giggle. "Promise," I tell her, sticking out my pinky to make it official. Ami started giggling too has her pinky wrapped around mine.

"You know," she said quietly once we separate, "I didn't even know that there were even different sizes for them before I tried yours on." She bit her lip as her cheeks became red again. "It looked really wrong once I put my shirt over it, and I figured that since it was too big, I ought to fill it out a bit, but that just became a huge mess." She pouted as she ran her non-burned hand through her hair. "I didn't think that it would be that big, since your's are pretty small…" she mused, while my cheeks began to heat up. I don't think that she even knew that she had bruised my ego.

"Yeah, well…" I tried to think of something to say. "You owe me some new eyeliner," I tell her, remembering the broken one I had to throw away.

Ami broke out into a grin. "I'll get one in lime green, just for you sis." Despite my flushed cheeks, I laugh along with her, happy that she just isn't depressed anymore.

Suddenly, she lets out a yawn, and I realize out early it still is. "Do you have the time?" I ask her, since my phone is back in my room. Ami reaches into her shirt and pulls out the miniature analog clock that hangs from a silver chain. I gave it to her for her birthday last year, since she never wears a watch and is always asking me for the time. She's never taken it off since.

"Four-fifty-two," she tells me, and I let out a low whistle.

"How long have you been up?" I ask her. She just shrugs.

"Since three-forty-five, I think. I couldn't sleep and wanted to get ready for school, and since I wasn't really sure about how to, you know, do it correctly, I figured I'd need more time and it took a while to get all the stuff from your bathroom to mine and I had be super quiet while-"

"Now you're rambling," I cut her off, smiling at her sheepish expression. "You know, instead of going through all that trouble, you could've just asked me for help."

Ami shrugged again, like she hadn't even given the idea a that much thought. "I figured you'd be like Mom and Dad, and say stuff like 'oh, why do you want to grow up so fast' or 'you're perfect just the way you are' and things like that."

"You're forgetting that I was you're age not that long ago," I say to her. "And did you not just hear about 'The Embarrassing Chronicles of Amu'? I think I've suffered enough teen angst for the both of us, so don't ever go thinking that I don't know what you're going through."

"I don't know," Ami says. "I mean, I still haven't even gotten my period yet." She whispers the word "period" like she's muttering a curse word in church, and again, her cheeks flame up. "I think I'll be suffering more teenage drama than you have in future," she tells me.

"Well, lets hope not," I tell her as she lets out another yawn. I can notice her eyes beginning to droop and the faint dark circles under her eyes, and I know that it's not from the makeup. I probably have them too, but I can get through a day of school with just one cup of coffee. I'm used to staying up late on school days due to studying, but Ami's too small and young. I can't let her go like this.

"Ami," I say softly, and she looks at me, her amber eyes dull. "You should go to bed. Then, in the afternoon, after you wake up, I promise I'll take you to the mall to buy some of that eyeliner."

I'm planning on buying a few things for Ami a well, like her own makeup brush and flatiron, but Ami's tired voice asks, "What about school? And Mom and-"

I wave a hand in the air. "I'll take care of Mom and Dad. Besides, you can miss just one day of school."

"What about you," she asks, the words are just mumbles now.

"We're just reviewing today, and I already know the material." Plus, Ami wasted the remainder of my foundation, and people are definitely going to question my dark eye circles at school. Best thing to do is restock later in the afternoon, once we hit the mall and I get Ami her own shade to use for small blemishes and such.

"Mmm…" I hear her moan, and I help my tired younger sister up from her seat and towards my own room, turning off the lights on my way out. I lay her down on my bed and pull the covers over her, hearing a faint "good morning" some out of her mouth, and I smile at her sleeping face. Suddenly, I realize how heavy my legs feel, and I'm too tired to support myself so I just get under the covers with Ami. She doesn't seem to mind as she snuggles closer to me and continues to doze off.

And now that I'm closer to her, I realize that I might just need to get a new bottle of perfume as well, since I know for a fact that my sister doesn't naturally smell like jasmine and lavender.

Ugh…I'll deal with it in the morning, er, I mean afternoon.


A/N: I personally never even knew Angel Lilith. I never even wrote her review for her story, which I regret, very, very, much, considering that if I do so now, she wouldn't be able to know how much I actually enjoyed her writing. I was devastated when I read her brother's letter, and moved and inspired once I read xxToxicMemoryxx's dedication to her, so I wanted to write up my own. It's probably the least I can do, and doesn't make that much of an impact since I didn't even know her, but I was a fan of her writing and I am sad that she passed away.

I'm making this into a three-shot, dedicated to the little sisters of Shugo Chara! and Angel Lilith. There will be two more chapters, but it won't be posted up until next week, since I won't be at home then. I will, however, make this the first multi-chapter Fic that I've completed.

And if you haven't already, go read Angel Lilith's FanFic, Making Music. Despite that it won't ever be completed by her, it's still something worth reading. It's one of my favorites on this site, and hopefully you'll like it just as much as I did.

Thanks for reading.

**PS-I didn't have time to check for mistakes. If you notice any, let me know please. I do not my tribute to have imperfections.**