AN: Just want to share with you that this story isn't completely linear. It is in a way but it jumps quickly between ages for awhile.
Second Helpings
It took Usagi a long time to realize that their first encounter wasn't exactly how her perception ordered it or how an eight year old girl ionized their chance meeting. At twelve when she was recollecting about it, her mother stepped in and set her straight. Ikuko had seen the boys terrorizing her, and she putting Shingo in a safe place to keep him from harm while she dealt with the hoodlums. She had backed off when she noticed Mamoru handling it and then talking to her.
When he left, Ikuko came over and was so proud of her daughter that emotion over took her and shared the story with her papa when they got home. Both were so pleased to have such a wonderful, accepting child. Mamoru would just groan if he thought they encouraged it, as it would be like adding a match to a forest fire.
Mamoru wasn't pleased with her nature. It took him spelling it out for her that very same night. She could never understand why he called his grandmother the caretaker. "Odango brain! Honestly, sometimes I don't understand why I even tolerate you!" They'd had squabbles over their vast differences in higher functioning, but it was usually well-natured and carefree. Tonight Mamoru learned just how vastly dim she truly was. But it wasn't in her nature to question things that were working or probing too deep into painful territory when the person appeared happy at the moment. Why dredge up painful things and bring down the mood?
"Well then tell me!" She insisted.
"The caretaker works at the bloody orphanage where I live!" Mamoru snapped. "Haven't you ever wondered why I never invite you over there?"
"Frankly, no." Usagi responded, but she was still reeling by what his living at an orphanage meant. She spoke on autopilot, giving her time to process. "I just assumed that all parents involved would prefer it if the female of the friendship didn't go over to the male's house." Usagi blinked several times at him and then lunged.
He was taken unexpected by this and usually he was good at predicting her unpredictable nature. This time she got him. He was already through with his anger, laughing at her thoughts, so innocent that when she did get him and they ended up on the ground, flying off the porch to land with a thud, Mamoru had two responses he could chose. Like Usagi, his were ingrained and he didn't even need to think about it. Rather than get angry again, he hugged her close and laughed. Though his back hurt, she was where she should be, with him, keeping him from going crazy.
"I'm sorry." She was moving though, away from him and he snatched her back.
"I'm fine. It takes more than a fall of a foot to slow me down." She was eying him as if he'd gotten a head injury. "And?"
"Well, it's just that you're about five feet now, aren't you? And then another would actually be six." She put her chin on his chest, looking down at him. "That's a six foot fall. Are you sure you're all right?"
"That's correct, but I'm right as rain."
"Rain's right?" She tilted her head in confusion. He shook his head and stood up, helping her up after he got to his feet. He wasn't going to explain that one to her.
"Why'd you suddenly knock me down as if you're trying out for a linebacker's position?" When Usagi was going to ask him about that, he cut her off. "Clearing me from my feet?"
Usagi opened her mouth and then she closed it, burring her chin into her chest and a deep sigh escaped through her nose. "I was over come with the pain of your loss." She had to blink back the tears that threatened to slip and he pulled her into a loose embrace.
"Look, I never knew them, so I can't say I really feel their loss."
"But the absence is still there." Usagi buried her face into his chest. "It must be horrible. Why didn't you tell me earlier?" She pulled back and frowned just as suddenly.
"Now what?" He reached out and captured the one tear that managed to slip down her cheek.
"You can't stay there. I'm sure if we told my parents, well you'd be allowed to stay with us. You could move in with us and be like another brother. They could adopt you."
Mamoru pulled her back in when she went to go talk to her parents. "They already know, why do you think they've been praising you as being such a wonderful child all these years?"
"No!" Usagi rounded on him again. "You can't mean that! Its not something to praise, everyone should be kind to everyone else. Not because they feel pity for another being less fortunate." Her face was scrunched up in a confused anger.
"Not everyone is like you, Odango." He mocked gently. "They don't have your heart of gold. Your parents mean well and they've always treated me kindly. They've never treated me like the rat the cat dragged in, tolerated until they can find a way to get rid of it. Or a showboat of their daughter's kindness to be paraded in front of all their friends like finding a lost specimen. They've been good, treating me like a member of the family."
"How could they know you all these years and not adopt you?" Usagi frowned. "If I had known I would have insisted."
"I would have said the same thing I say now. No." He pulled her hands up to his chest, locking them there with his fingers around her wrists. "I'm going to be eighteen in a few years and then I'm going to get my own apartment and a job. I want to be part of your family, part of your life, but I don't want to be your brother. The group home is nice, the caretaker is old, but she treats me well and is fair. She used to be a teacher so we're well educated."
"It's not the same as having a family." Usagi responded mutinously, not trying to ruin it for him, but wanting her way, which was she thought the warmer way.
He shook his head softly at her. "Being adopted isn't anything different, not at my age. They wouldn't be my parents, and I wouldn't be the only child. It would be difficult to fit into that design. I can have a family, some day, one of my own and I will always think of your parents as mine too. Your brother as my brother, but don't you ever dare ask me to call you sister."
Usagi actually shuddered at the notion. "Perhaps your right. Eighteen for you isn't as far off as it is for me." Though she had a feeling he was keeping something from her. Something important, like being an orphan. "That's only, what? Three more years?" God and she had six. That seemed like forever on her end.
He must have read some of her anguish on her features so he tugged on her hair. "Come on, lets go in and see if your momma has any more pie."
"Mmm... second helpings." Serena wrapped her arm around his and lead him back inside. Just like him, second helpings of family if he had accepted. But he couldn't, and she'd understand that.
It took another few days to realize, however inconceivable it was now, but Mamoru had been running away from those other boys. He had been in the lead tearing around the corner and then racing up passed her and keeping the high ground in case they came after him. He only turned to face them when he saw she was being picked on. What she didn't know is why they backed off so quickly and with warnings about tricks. Perhaps that's what had gotten him into problems with them in the first place. He'd played a trick and they were just warning him against further ones or he'd be in trouble.
Usagi stood at her window that night and looked across the city to where she thought the orphanage was and decided that she'd be there for him every bit he was there for her. She was already doing so, but she made a promise to herself now that no matter what, she would follow through. Her hands covered her heart and she prayed he'd be happy, at least while she wasn't there with him so she could make him so when they saw one another.
