Disclaimer: I do not own MSGM or its characters. All such honors belong to Oyuki Konno.

A/N: This is a little something for you before I move on to Rosa Chinensis. When I actually searched for them I was shocked to see that in the seven plus years since people began writing fan fiction for MSGM there were only four (yes, count them, 4!) stories written for Rei and Yoshino. That is an abomination! Come on folks, we can do better than that for this cute couple!

I therefore challenge any and all writers out there to come up with something, anything, featuring these two wonderful characters. It doesn't have to be long, or hard, or deep. In fact, it could be something as simple as . . .

"Rei-chan, come see your new cousin," her mother called from the front door. The little blonde haired Rei Hasekura had been playing with her set of blocks in the living room of her duplex trying to spell out words that she had heard her parents say. It was an activity typical for a toddler of her age but the fact that she had correctly spelled a number of words was a bit daunting. Of course, what she really wanted to be doing was playing with her bokken in the family's dojo, but her parents wouldn't let her play with her sword unless they were there to supervise. Now she was being called away from her playtime just to see some new kid. She harrumphed as she stood up and waddled over towards where her mother was standing with her aunt and uncle. She hated the diapers she was forced to wear. She could never walk comfortably in them.

Her aunt knelt down so that she could see the baby in her arms. The child was asleep, wrapped comfortably in blankets but with her face and one hand exposed.

"Rei-chan, this is your new cousin Yoshino-chan," her aunt introduced them as she gently ran a finger over the baby's cheek. The little girl looked so sweet and innocent in her sleep. She had a tiny button nose and perfect pink lips that puckered and made a sucking movement every now and then as if she were dreaming of something. She had a full head of dark brown hair and the one hand that was exposed showed tiny pink fingers. Rei had been fully prepared to hate this new addition to the family, but was so taken by the cute baby that her heart went out to her immediately.

"Rei-chan, Yoshino-chan has a weak heart so she is going to need your help while she grows up to be a strong little girl," her aunt was saying as Rei gently touched that pink hand. The baby immediately grabbed onto her finger and held on tightly. "She's not going to be able to do all the things that you or your friends can do so can I ask you to please look after her for me Rei-chan? It would mean an awful lot to me."

Rei couldn't speak. It wasn't that she was not capable of speech. Her parents had been able to understand her for the past few months and she had been speaking in full sentences for three weeks. No, she could speak, she was just so captivated by the tiny being in front of her – so vulnerable, so innocent, so trusting, so beautiful – that she was speechless. Rei simply nodded to her aunt as she very quietly fell in love with little Yoshino-chan. She was determined to protect her from all harm. It was a heady vow for a toddler but she knew what it meant and she was determined to see it through. She would remain by little Yoshino's side forever if need be.

-oo-

"Rei-chan you idiot," five year old Yoshino yelled at her cousin, her face turning pink with anger, "I can too stand on the swings like everyone else! You just watch me!"

"Yoshino-chan," little six year old Rei tried to explain calmly to the younger girl with the long brown, twin-tailed braids, "it's not that you can't. I know you can do it. It's just that it's stupid to try. It's dangerous," she said as she watched Yoshino climb up on the swing so that she stood on the metal seat and held onto the chains. Once she was up her eyes took on that look that Rei had seen all too many times: slight fear at what she might have gotten herself into mixed with a determination not to be any different from her friends. Rei just shook her head and waited for the inevitable to happen. She knew Yoshino wouldn't hurt herself too much, but hopefully enough to learn better next time.

Yoshino screwed up her face and her courage and started to slowly swing forward and back, forward and back, letting the rhythm of her heart guide her. Unfortunately her heart was beating too fast and she couldn't keep up. Then the swing started to turn back and forth with her swinging and the more she tried to correct it the worse it got. She had seen some of the older kids standing on and jumping from the moving park swing earlier in the day and had wanted to try it herself. Now she wasn't so sure. Maybe it would have been a better idea to listen to her older cousin. Rei hadn't tried doing it herself earlier. Maybe now Yoshino knew why.

Luckily the swing had not reached any great speed or height by the time Yoshino fell off. The fall, along with the scrapes she picked up on her hands and knees, was enough to scare her even further and allow the tears to start to form. Of course, that was when Rei arrived at her side and pulled her into the warm comfort of her arms. She let the tears flow as she threw her arms around Rei and sobbed quietly into her cousin's sweatshirt. She might cry, but never where anyone else could see or hear her. She was already weak enough because of the hole in her heart. She didn't need to be known as a crybaby as well.

"Now who's the idiot, Yoshino-chan," Rei whispered softly into her cousin's ear. From anyone else it would have sounded like scolding, but from Rei it conveyed her deep love for her dark eyed younger cousin along with an understanding of why she had had to at least try. Yoshino could listen to that kind of scolding all day long. "Come on Yoshino climb up on my back and I'll get you home where Mom can take care of those scrapes."

Yoshino held tightly to Rei's neck as the bigger girl carried her the two blocks to the duplex the two families shared. She envied Rei the strength of her body but wouldn't substitute her guardian angel for anything; even a healthier body. She had decided early on that she would suffer anything just so long as Rei-chan stayed by her side.

-oo-

"Rei-chan you idiot," came the scream from beyond the wall of Rei's bedroom. Yoshino's bedroom was exactly opposite her own in the floor plans of the mirror-imaged duplex and the walls were so thin that she and her younger cousin could converse fairly well through the wall at night without having to raise their voices and possibly disturb their parents. Rei sighed at Yoshino's scream and wondered what she had done this time to deserve her cousin's wrath.

"What now Yoshino," Rei called from where she sat at her desk doing her first-year middle school homework. Yoshino was one year behind her at Lillian Elementary and should have been hard at work doing her own homework.

"I did what you said and told the boy that confessed to me that I appreciated his feelings but that I couldn't return them now. I just got a text from him saying that he was willing to wait for my feelings to change. Now what am I supposed to do?" Yoshino wailed in despair.

Rei sighed again. One of the boys from Hanadera Middle School had confessed his love to Yoshino two days ago. Yoshino had been so flustered that she had told him she would have to get back to him. She had been waiting for Rei outside the entry to Lillian Middle School as soon as school had ended for the day. Yoshino had told her the story as they walked home from school together. Boys were always confessing to Rei even though she looked more like a boy with her tall height, slender figure, and short haircut. Yoshino had come to her for advice since she had more experience in turning the love struck boys down gently.

"You could always just tell him that you're gay," Rei said just loud enough to be heard through the wall.

"Eeehh?" she heard her cousin screech, "you're joking, right? Then it would be all over school that I'm gay! I don't want that!"

"Why not?" Rei asked, "at least the boys wouldn't confess to you anymore."

"Yeah, but then the girls might start confessing! I don't want that either. I think that there are already a couple of girls that are eyeing me kind of weird."

"Then just tell him you're in love with someone else. You don't have to say who, just let him know that your heart already belongs to another. He'll go away," Rei suggested.

There was a long, quiet pause from the other side of the wall.

"Y-yeah, I think I can do that," Yoshino said in a voice that Rei could barely hear. "Th-thanks, Rei-chan."

"No problem. Now let me finish my homework so I can head to the dojo," Rei called. "You can come along if you want."

"Yeah, I'd like that," Yoshino replied. Rei thought she sounded happy; like she could hear the smile in her soft voice. "I'll be done in about a half hour if that works."

"That's fine. I should be done and dressed by then. Just don't take too long or I'll go without you."

Yoshino didn't answer. She must have gone back to doing her homework Rei thought with a smile. Who would have thought that her little Yoshino would have had a boy confess to her, especially one from a grade higher? More importantly, who would have thought that Rei would have felt such a strong surge of jealousy rush through her when Yoshino had told her about it? She had only barely been able to keep herself from finding the boy and beating him to within an inch of his miserable little life. The strength of that emotion had scared her a bit. It had taken a couple of minutes to calm herself down enough to give Yoshino her advice. Of course, Yoshino never knew about the rush of jealousy. Rei had learned a long time ago how to hide her emotions when it came to her feelings about her little cousin.

She blushed just thinking about it. Her feelings for Yoshino had changed from cousin and protector to something more over the past year. She wasn't ready to call it a romantic love yet, but she wasn't stupid enough to rule out the possibility. She quickly finished her homework and changed into her training gi. She never bothered to wear the full kendo uniform when she was practicing solo kata. She also liked the way Yoshino looked when she was watching her practice.

A small smile touched her lips as she thought about her cousin and her advice as she grabbed her bokken. "Huh, tell him she's gay. What the hell was I thinking? It just sort of slipped out. Maybe Freud was right."

She closed her bedroom door and headed downstairs to where she could already hear Yoshino talking to her mother.

-oo-

"Rei-chan you idiot," Yoshino said softly from her hospital bed. "Of course I still love you. I never stopped loving you. I wanted to be able to walk alongside you and hold your hand. I didn't want to continue being a burden to you."

"You were never a burden to me Yoshino-chan," Rei said vehemently.

"I didn't want you to have to continue carrying me," Yoshino continued as if she had not heard her cousin's denial, effectively shutting Rei up. If she didn't get this out she wasn't sure she would ever be able to.

"I didn't want to have to keep trailing behind you, or worse drag you down like an anchor. I wanted to be able to walk shoulder-to-shoulder with you. I wanted our relationship to be an equal partnership. That couldn't happen while I was still weak and you had to keep looking after me. That's why I had the surgery.

"That's why I returned your rosary. I want a relationship like Yumi-san and Sachiko-sama; where each partner gives something to the other and where each partner learns from the other. I needed to be able to start fresh and whole, with a strong body so that you could stop worrying about me and start looking at me like . . . like a woman, not an invalid. I never hated you Rei. I love you more than anything or anyone in this world."

"Me too," Rei said softly as she took her cousins hand in her own, "I've never looked at you as anything other than a woman Yoshino. I have always loved you more than anyone as well."

"Then," Yoshino said in a whisper, her free hand cupping the cheek of the woman she loved, "may I please have your rosary back? Will you please make me your petite soeur again?"

"You may have my rosary Yoshino, just as you have my heart, but you will never really be a sister to me. You know that don't you?" Rei asked as she took the rosary from around her own neck and placed it gently around Yoshino's. She then leaned down and stole a quick kiss from her cousin's soft, pink lips.

"I know that," Yoshino replied with a small grin after they separated. "Hey, do you want to see my scar?"

-oo-

"Rei-chan you idiot," Yoshino screamed at her grande soeur at the Yamayurikai Christmas party of Rei's third-year, "Why didn't you tell me you weren't going to Lillian University?" There was a look of total shock on Yoshino's face and Rei knew she was in for it; and rightfully deserved it. "What's worse is that it seems like everyone but me already knew!"

"I'm sorry Yoshino. I didn't know how to tell you," Rei tried to apologize. Of course it didn't work.

"Why?" was all Yoshino asked as tears started to flow. Yoshino never cried in public. That's how Rei knew exactly how much she had hurt her dear cousin and petite soeur. In all the years they had known each other, since she was old enough to have friends other than family members, Yoshino had not once cried in front of anyone except Rei.

"Why?" she repeated with a slight sob and Rei went to her and took her into her embrace. She led her petite soeur to an unoccupied corner of the room as everyone else turned away to give them some privacy.

"You know I've always wanted to take over the family dojo, and Lillian doesn't offer what I wanted to study," Rei tried to explain.

"What do you want to study?" Yoshino asked between sniffles.

"Kinesiology. I want to study the movement of the human body to help me better understand what it takes to properly train the students in the dojo. And until I actually take over the dojo I can get my teaching certificate so that I can teach PE at one of the local schools here," she explained in a quiet voice.

"O-Ok, I can understand that," Yoshino said still sniffing, "b-but that doesn't explain why you didn't tell me."

"I was afraid to," Rei answered her quietly as she wiped away a few of Yoshino's tears in the same way she had for so many years. "I was afraid that if I told you before it was too late to apply to Lillian that I'd end up changing my mind. You know that if you had put up enough of a fuss I would have gone to Lillian whether I really wanted to or not. I love you too much to hurt you, and I'm sorry that I did, but I needed to do this for myself.

"Also, I really want to totally share my life with you Yoshino. I was very happy being your protector growing up, but I never learned how to be anything else. Even with the way we are now I still see myself as being an extension of you, not as an individual. I think we need to get away from each other for a little while to discover not only who we really are, but who we can be. If you never have a life of your own, how can you truly share that life with someone else? We've leaned on each other so much over the years I wonder if we have ever learned how to stand on our own."

"Ok, Rei," Yoshino finally gave in, "I trust you, but I'm going to miss you so much. So where are you going to university?"

"I'm going to Todai," she answered with a grin.

"YOU'RE WHAT! You got in to Todai? Rei-chan I am so proud of you," Yoshino yelled and threw her arms around Rei's neck.

Rei figured she had been forgiven once again.

-oo-

"Rei-chan . . . you . . . idiot," Yoshino panted with a throaty purr as she tried to get her breath back, unable to hide the satisfied smile on her face, "where . . . the hell . . . did you learn . . . to do . . . that?"

Rei just looked up at her from where her head lay down near Yoshino's bare hips with a smirk. "You'd be surprised what you can learn when you do a little cross-research in kinesiology, bio, and human anatomy," Rei chuckled.

So, what do you think? Are you up for the challenge? Sorry, no prizes except for the normal fame and fortune you get from FF (LoL). For those of you looking forward to Spring Break, just think of it as one more paper that you have to turn in to your old, eccentric, grey haired English professor, CelticX. And if not, hey, have a great time!

BTW, I'm not sure if the story's title is supposed to refer to Rei, Yoshino, or this author ^_^