Chapter 2By:

Chapter 1
By: Kohan

"Papa, did you get the mail? Papa?" Hotaru called as she walked into the house. She was a girl of medium/small build, her black hair and purple eyes contrasted greatly with her pale skin and rosy cheeks. She swung around the banister of the stairs and dropped her book bag on the floor. "Papa? Where are you?" She opened the door to the kitchen and peeked in. Her father was still in his lab coat, for he was a scientist, and he was sitting on a barstool, he had his back to her. "What is it papa?" Hotaru said, he turned around and she could tell that he was upset by something.
"Usagi just called." he said. "She just got back from the doctors."
"Oh, she has the flu right? She'll be okay in a few days..."
"It's not the flu, Hotaru-chan." Her father said. "Usagi...Usagi has leukemia."
"She has what?" Hotaru said, grabbing onto the table for support. "Leukemia? Cancer?" Her father nodded, and Hotaru began to cry. "Is she going to be alright?"
"If they find a bone marrow donor," Her father said, hugging her, "If they don't, she only has three months to live."
"What? This isn't possible..."
"I'm sorry, Hotaru-chan,"

***

Rei, a beautiful girl with raven hair and royal purple eyes walked into her house where her father and stepmother lived, each out at the moment. Before opening the refrigerator, she put down her books and turned on the answering machine. It beeped twice, letting her know that there were two messages, then the first came on.
"This is (Insert corny salesperson name here) from Jijolus auto, we have your appointment scheduled for tomorrow at fi--" Rei skipped that message...what would she care about some stupid auto guy?
"Hi Rei...this is Usagi...could you call me when you get a chance...it's important...ja ne." Rei frowned, Usagi never left messages unless it was important...really important. She picked up the phone and dialed Usagi's number, her mother answered the phone.
"Hello, Tsukino-san, may I please speak to Usagi-chan?"
"One moment," She said in a nasal voice, and Rei wondered briefly if she had been sick.
"Hello?" Usagi said, her voice was sad...it was strange.
"You called Usagi...what's the matter?"
"I went to the doctors today...I don't have the flu."
"That's great!"
"They said they found...something...in my blood...leukemia," Usagi said, Rei almost dropped the phone, and it was more then a few moments before she found her voice.
"A-are they sure...?"
"Hai...they said if they don't find a donor..."
"N-nani...?"
"I'll have only about three months to live."
"Usagi-chan..."
"I have to go, Rei--, I'm going to the hospital now."
"I'll meet you there...I'll tell Hotaru...we'll get tested,"
"Arigato, Rei-chan...see you there." Usagi hung up, the line clicked. Rei put down the phone and wiped a tear from her eye. She called Hotaru and told her the plans, Hotaru agreed and said she would meet them there. Rei quickly scribbled out a note to her stepmother and grabbed a heavy coat.

***

Usagi packed the last of her things, including her favorite stuffed animal, and gave her black cat, Luna a pat on the head. Turning around to glance at her room once more, she picked up her suitcase and entered the kitchen, where her parents and younger brother, Shingo were waiting, coats in hand, and together they left for the hospital.

Usagi was happy to see that her two friends had made it, Hotaru and Rei were standing outside the hospital, hugging themselves from the cold, their breaths coming in white puffs. As she drew closer, she could see that they had both been crying, for their eyes were puffy and their noses red.
"Hey guys, thanks for coming." Usagi's parents nodded, and they entered the hospital in silence. Usagi was signed in at the desk by her parents, and Rei and Hotaru checked with the secretary on when they could have their marrow tested. She said it could be done by the doctor in about 5 minutes, they would be in the regular examining room...and she hoped they weren't afraid of needles. Hotaru shrugged, and said that she didn't mind them, but a quiver of fear came over Rei.
"N-needles?"
"Yes...I'm afraid rather large ones...please sit in the waiting room, the doctor will be in to see you in a few moments." She pointed to the waiting room, where three boys were already sitting. Hotaru and Rei took a seat as far away from them as possible, and sat silently.

"What're you here for?" A boy with chestnut brown hair in a braid and cobalt blue eyes asked them.
"We're getting our bone marrow tested for our friend. She has cancer." Rei replied stiffly.
"Oh. That's too bad. We're just here cauz' our friend broke his arm...again. He wanted to set it himself, but we refused to let him. I'm Duo Maxwell."
"Hotaru Tomoe, this is Rei Hino."
"Omae o korosu, you bastard!" A shout was heard from one of the examining rooms, then a loud conversation was heard.
"Now, now, Mr. Yuy, this will only take a second..."
"Don't touch me, damn you! Get away, I can fix my own bones, thank you!" Suddenly a boy with chocolate brown hair came skidding out of the examining room. He was wearing a pair of jeans and a green tank top (sounds farmiliar, ne?). "I'm never coming here again...you...you..bastard!"
"Heero, calm down, the doctor just wants to set your bone and put it in a cast..." Duo said.
"No."
"Injustice that I was brought here by Maxwell for you, YUY, and now we're leaving?! Without you getting treatment? INJUSTICE!" A Chinese boy said, he had his arms crossed over his chest and was glaring at the boy called Heero.
"Aw, shove it Wu-man." Duo said. "Ignore him," He said to Hotaru, "Ignore them both...they're always like this." Hotaru nodded.
"If that doctor is operating on you, or...something...you just tell him to keep his hands to himself!!" Heero warned the girls who sweat-dropped.
"Er," The doctor said, he was standing in the doorway of the examining room. "Tomoe Hotaru and Hino Rei?" He said, and pulled out two rather large needles. "I have your needles ready."
"Holy shit, you have got to be joking," Duo said to Hotaru who shrugged, she wasn't in the talking mood. "Well, good luck says I, we be off now."
"Bye." Hotaru said, and walked into the examining room with Rei.

***

Usagi looked around the room she would be staying in, she would be alone. G-R-E-A-T, all she needed was solitude...yeah, right. Usagi threw down her suitcase on the bed.
"I'm so sorry, sweetheart."
"Yeah, well...doesn't look like there's anything you can do now, does it?" Usagi said, and sat down. Her mother looked a little hurt at that.
"I thought we might leave you to get aquatinted around here, and come back after dinner...I thought that since your friends will be here for awhile..."
"It's okay." Usagi said, "I don't need you to stay." And with that, she turned around and sat by the window, not turning around to see if her parents had left or not.

***

"Isn't there another way to do this?" Rei asked, eyeing the needle the doctor held in his hand nervously.
"I'm afraid not, and you should be prepared, I've given you a bit of pain killer earlier, remember? It may not help much, since it didn't go into the bone...and this needle will be."
"Doctor, maybe you should do me first." Hotaru said, holding out her arm. The door was knocked on, and the doctor sighed irritably.
"Come in, for Kami's sake!" He said, and the door opened, the boy they had seen earlier with the chetsnut braid and cobalt eyes came in.
"Uh, Heero forgot his jacket...he didn't want to come back." He said pointing to a black coat on the bench. "Hey, it's the purple-eyed girls from before! How you doing?" He asked, suddenly he saw the needle the doctor was holding. "Right, I remember seeing that needle before...okay, I'm just going to go..."
"If you don't mind, I have a paitent to work on, pick up your items and be quiet, please." The doctor turned back to Hotaru. "Do you need something to hold on to?"
"She isn't holding onto my hand." Rei said, remembering some previous exparience with Hotaru's 'firm' grip.
"She can hold my hand!!!!" Duo yelled, and ran over to sit next to Hotaru. The doctor sweat-dropped and stood next to Hotaru. She took hold of Duo's hand and looked at a wall opposite of the doctor.
...
"Owww...owww...you could have warned me dammit...OW!" Hotaru's eyes grew wide as the needle pushed into her bone. For a fleeting moment she wondered if perhaps she was squeezing the kind boy's hand too tightly... (AN: I'm not sure if this is how they actually test your bone marrow, I know that they do an operation to withdraw a lot of marrow, but just bear with me, K?) Suddenly, Hotaru felt the needle withdraw from her arm, but the pain didn't subside a lot. She let go of Duo's hand, hoping she didn't hurt him to badly, and by the look on his face he was amazed at her grip.
"Wow...hey, that hurt!" He said, holding his hand.
"I'm.......sorry....." Hotaru said through clenched teeth, the doctor was bandaging her arm, and she was having trouble holding back her bite of pain. The doctor put her red marrow in a tube and labeled the white label on it. He got out the other needle and prepared it for Rei, who was practically in shock.
"Does she have to hold my hand to...?" Duo said, still nursing his hand.
"No...I can...handle...it...what's a bit...more...pain...gonna cost me...?"
"You sure about that, 'woman with a wild grip'?"
"Yeah." Hotaru said, "Sure..." Duo turned around to leave, then turning at the door he tipped an invisible hat and winked.
"Pleasure doin' business with ya' ladies!" The door closed.

"Ready?" The doctor asked Rei, who nodded, holding tightly onto Hotaru's hand. She had her eyes shut firmly, and breathed deeply. In an instant, the doctor had 'stabbed' her with the needle. Rei's eyes shot open, and she bit back a cry of pain when it made contact with bone. She held onto Hotaru's hand for dear life, and hoped to Kami-sama that she would not faint. She consciously felt the needle pull out of her arm, however, and still held her tongue at the pain. The doctor put her marrow into a new tube, and labeled it.
"You ladies were a pleasure, now, we'll have your marrow tested, and tomorrow we'll get the results. If your marrow is matching, we will withdraw more from you in an operation and give it to your friend." They both nodded, clutching the bandages on their arms, moaning a little.
"Excuse me," Hotaru said to the woman at the front counter. "Could you please tell me what room Tsukino Usagi is in?"
"Yes, Room 209 B." The woman said, "You just hand your marrow tested? Yes, her little brother and parents are coming in to have theirs tested in a few hours...hopefully one will match." Rei nodded and walked over to the map. 209 B, huh? She found that it was located on the second floor, and they took the elevator to visit Usagi.

***

AN: Well, there ya go, chapter 1! Poor Usagi...sniff...I'm depressing myself!! I shouldn't do that, cauz' it's evil. Anyway, I had to get this chapter written because my History teacher (Let's just call him Mr. A for now, K?) messed up on my report...we have this theory (we being my friend Cody and I) that he just randomly typed in numbers for the report. (This is because like half the population of our grade got about the same grade [A-]). We have a reason for this...we have checks where you get 40 points or 0 on your notes, and Cody didn't turn his in (meaning that's a ZERO for you, bud!), and he got 40...so, it makes you wonder a bit, ne? Anyway, so now that I'm done with this, I can do other things like...TR:IM! So, Ja ne!