CHAPTER 7

Usagi rolled out of bed, she had gone to the arcade as she always did before it closed but she hadn't felt like staying until Shingo arrived so she just waved to Motoki as she left the arcade and headed home to crawl into bed. She had heard her door open and close soon after as Shingo went away and back to his own room to sleep as well.

She headed to the bathroom after grabbing a plastic bag to wrap around her cast. She was a lot stiffer today then she had been the day before. Her shoulders ached and as she undressed she was a lot slower then she usually was.

She stripped her clothes then wrapped the bag around her arm before turning on the taps so the water would warm before she entered it. She checked her body for any new bruises and found one on her hip. She frowned as she ran her fingers over it; it was a long line from where her hip had hit the edge of the wood stairs.

She took a quick, awkward one-armed shower and wrapped a towel around her as she wrung out her long wet hair. She padded into her room and got dressed in long black pants and a peach blouse with a white sweater over it so the pressed peach collar sat over the white neckline.

She had to unbutton the peach shirt's sleeve to get her cast through the hole but hadn't been able to do anything with the sweater so she left it so her arm was between her and the sweater.

Instead of bothering to dry her hair or do anything else with it she pulled it up into a bun and secured the long wet strands off of her neck. She pulled a large pink hat over her hair and head and donned a pale camel jacket that also hung over her right arm. She had a tough time pulling on her white fur lined camel colored leather boots but she finally got them on and zipped them up.

Usagi walked down the stairs and didn't see anybody on the main floor. She entered the kitchen and looked for the note that was always there for her on days like these. 'Usagi- we're at work, Shingo left this morning, have a nice day honey.'

It was always the same type of note and it almost seemed impersonal after awhile. Usagi sighed and took the message off of the refrigerator and turned it over to write her own. It was a little sloppy but she had learned how to use her left hand to write years ago. 'I'm out, I don't know when I'll be back or where I am exactly at the time you read this, rest assured that I'll be home tonight like always. Love, Usagi.'

Her own note had a familiar thread to it but Usagi wasn't in a terribly creative mood at the moment and it showed. She outlined her note with the customary heart at the end of her name over the 'I'

She placed the magnet on top of the sheet and it snapped to the door. Usagi turned around and took a walk to the arcade. She decided not to take the bus today and enjoy the fairly decent weather.

Several minutes later however she was starting to regret her decision to walk to the arcade. When Usagi entered the building a pair of eyes swung towards her. Mamoru stood up, pushing his chair back a few inches and stalked towards her.

"We need to talk." He told her, grabbing her uninjured arm.

She gulped. "Uh, sure, all right." She nodded her agreement for a measure of self-confidence. "What do you want to talk about?"

"Firstly, I know I acted like a jerk last night." Mamoru bowed his head in shame. "I had my reasons but I still shouldn't have treated you that way."

"It's all right. I wish I knew the reasons but if you'd rather not tell me, I'm ready to accept that. Everybody has things they'd rather not share." She tried to pat him with the arm still held firmly in his grasp.

"I should tell you, then maybe you can explain it to me or tell me that my information is totally off base."

"Ok." She agreed full heartily, hopefully they'd get it out into the open and then they'd move past it again. However she did realize he hadn't noticed her other arm yet. "Perhaps we should go some place quieter, your apartment perhaps or some place else?"

"How about we just sit down over here." Mamoru led the way to a remote corner of the arcade and seated her before sliding in on the other side of the booth. He seemed to be waiting for her.

"I wouldn't know where to begin, maybe you should tell me what's on your mind." She suggested.

"I'm waiting for you to get comfortable and take your coat off." He explained, his eyes firmly fastened onto her coat.

Usagi for the first time noticed the strain in his voice and she couldn't help but wonder what caused it. She sighed and nodded; pulling her arm out of the one hole she could fit it through and brushed other off her shoulder. "Is that better?" She raised an eyebrow waiting for his reply.

His eyes didn't deviate from her face. "Usagi, I was told about what you've been hiding from me."

"You do?" She asked with her mouth dropping a few centimeters, she hadn't been expecting that. "I can explain. Kami, I knew you'd hate me if you found out." She moaned and dropped her head into her left hand. "This is why I didn't tell you-"

"Usagi." His hand snaked out and grabbed her wrist, pulling it away from her face. "I'm willing to work through this if you promise to never do it again."

She looked up. "Do what again?" Usagi's eyebrows narrowed in confusion. "You mean lie? Don't worry, I only did it to protect him, now that you know I won't keep it from you any more."

"It wasn't just the lie. Protecting him?" Mamoru shook his head. "You really did need to protect him didn't you, because if you knew I found out I'd kill him." Mamoru leaned forward. "I still might."

Usagi pulled away. "Kill him?" She gasped. "For what? You don't even know him. He's an innocent in all this."

She grabbed her coat. "I can't believe you of all people would be this judgmental. I mean I feared it but underneath it all I thought you of all people would be understandable."

"Usako!" Mamoru shot to his feet and followed her out the door. He grabbed her shoulders and turned her around to face him. "You thought I'd understand it!" He yelled into her face. "How on earth do you rationalize that? You dared to lie to me, and to do that? And I should understand it?" He growled his hands sliding down her arms so he could take hold of her wrists. His eyes widened as his hands came across her cast. He pulled up her sweater to revel her plaster-covered arm. "What the hell happened?"

"I was wondering when you'd notice." She mumbled.

"Who did this to you?" He demanded, shaking her slightly as he pulled her closer.

"Nobody did it, I fell down the stairs." She half lied, she might as well continue to protect her brother.

"When did this happen?" He didn't believe her, he didn't know if he'd ever believe her again.

"Yesterday." She swallowed. "That's why I cancelled on you." She bit her lip. "I wasn't feeling up to seeing anybody last night."

"Yet you still came to the arcade." He countered.

"I did." She granted. "But I left right away." She clarified.

"Only to have Shingo follow you shortly after. What did you think? That I wouldn't find out?" He wanted to know.

"I had hoped to delay the knowledge about Shingo." Usagi said sadly.

"Did he do this to you?" He growled.

Usagi remained silent.

"Well, did he?" He shook her. "Tell me!"

"Answer him." Another voice said from behind the couple. "Because I'd like to know myself."

"Shingo!" Usagi gasped.

"Shingo?" Mamoru roared turning around to face the male in question. His gaze had to shift up from his eye level.

Mamoru had expecting somebody as tall or shorter than him because he was unusually tall for a Japanese in the first place. Mamoru hadn't been expecting somebody almost half a foot taller than him.

"That would be me." Shingo shifted his eyes to Usagi. "So tell me Usagi, did I do that?" He asked.

"You don't know?" Mamoru gaped. "What were you drunk and blacked out the memory?"

Usagi swallowed before nodding her answer to her little brother who wasn't quite so little and could only get taller. "Kami." Shingo shook his head. "I can't believe it." He walked up to Usagi and pulled her into a hug. "I am so sorry."

"It's ok." Usagi returned the hug. "It's not that bad."

"Not that bad? Your arm is broken!" He objected to her statement.

Mamoru grabbed the back of Shingo's collar. He didn't care if the needle thin boy was taller then him, he still held no match to his anger. "Stay away from my girlfriend, creep." He broke him away from Usagi's hold.

He ignored Usagi's shocked gasp. "Mamo-chan! Stop!" She ran forward and slid in front of Shingo after Mamoru tossed him towards the wall and aimed a fist at him. Mamoru's hand stopped inches away from Usagi.

"Get the hell out of the way!" Mamoru ordered and when she refused to move he wrapped his arms around her waist and picked her up and placed her gently back down on the ground on the opposite side of him. Then he turned back to Shingo and his hands fisted around his collar lifting him off the ground by several inches.

"Mamoru, please stop, you don't seem to understand!" She muttered to herself. "Which is odd considering I thought you did."

"What do you mean I don't understand? You are cheating on me with this jerk!"

"The only jerk in this situation is you! What are you talking about? I am so not dating Shingo; the only person I thought I was dating was you! But now I'm not even sure I want to do that, if this behavior is any type of example of what I'm going to see."

"What are you talking about?" Mamoru's anger even at this moment of complete betrayal wasn't directed at her. His anger was directed at the man who tricked Usagi into believing in him and liking him. It was the guy's fault entirely.

"What do you think is going on behind your back?" Usagi wanted to know.

"I was told by an inside source that you have been seeing a guy and getting cozy with him very often."

"Define cozy." Usagi said calmly.

"Hugging him, sitting close, talking with your faces near each other, his hand on your face or on your body some place." Mamoru's anger was starting to diffuse.

"Well, could that be because Shingo's my brother?" Her lips pursed and the bottom lip jutted out contained anger.

"Your brother?" Mamoru repeated. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Why didn't you say anything or ask once you heard something?" Usagi rounded on him. "Or better yet, would you like to tell me who gave you this little tidbit?"

"I- Ami told me about him-" Mamoru relented. "I thought if Ami was worried about it and it took her a week of agonizing over it to tell me, then it had to be true. I mean it's Ami."

"It didn't enter your mind once that it's 'I mean, it's Usagi'? Who thinks I could possibly imagine cheating on you? I love you, and call me crazy but I thought you knew that and that I wasn't that type of girl and trustworthy."

"Uh, Usagi, does he know everything?" Shingo asked, feeling slightly neglected now that he wasn't being threatened.

"Not yet. I was keeping it from him for you." Usagi shrugged slightly as both pairs of male eyes narrowed on her.

"You have my permission to tell him everything. He seems like an upstanding male citizen." His mocking tone didn't go unnoticed by anyone.

Mamoru took a step forward and Shingo took one back as his hand shot out. "I'm Chiba Mamoru, I apologize about my actions earlier, I got jealous and was mislead by one of Usagi's best friends that I had thought was the most trustworthy, I know now that I was lead astray. However yesterday I had decided I was going to fight for Usagi." His meaning glance was sent towards Usagi and her lips twisted wryly. Shingo took his hand in a handshake. "It's nice to meet you but I still need to know why Usagi's arm has been broken by you."

Mamoru's hand tightened on his refusing to let him go. "Just because your family doesn't make up for any pain that you cause her."

"That goes double for you." Shingo's backbone returned. "I think it would be better if Usagi explained it to you. But Usagi-" Shingo's attention turned to his sister. "You and I will talk about the arm when you return home."

"Bye Shingo." Usagi waved with her good arm and watched him leave.

Once Shingo left Mamoru turned to Usagi. "How are you feeling?" He asked running his hand down her sleeved arm. "Does it hurt?"

"It did when it broke, but it doesn't right now." Usagi told him. "Should we go some place to talk about this?"

"Defiantly and I hope you'll find it in your heart to forgive me for listening to Ami." He said sincerely.

"Let me hear what you were told and I'll base my opinion on that. But as it stands so far I don't think I could ever stay mad at you because I love you too much and that it'd hurt me so much to separate myself from you." Usagi said as they walked, he wrapped his arm around her waist and she rested her head on his arm.

"Kami Usako, I love you." He pulled her closer as he looked down at her. "Are you cold?" He noticed that she still hadn't donned her jacket again.

"Surprisingly, no." She looked up at him with tears in her eyes. "You haven't called me that for a while."

"What haven't I called you?" Mamoru asked.

"Usako." Her lips twisted into a wry smile. "I missed it."

"I'll apologize forever if it'd make up the pain I caused you because of my jealousy. Two people and one implied that I was an ass for not talking it out with you instead. I felt that I couldn't speak to you until I controlled my temper or else I would have blown up and wouldn't be exactly responsible for my actions."

"I would have preferred to know what you were thinking instead of being shut out." She added.

"I know that now, and I'm very sorry. I realize apologizing won't be good enough but I am sorry." His head dropped to rest on her shoulder. "Does it help if I say I really, really do love you Usako?"

"It helps." Usagi nodded.

Mamoru looked up and noticed that they were outside of a jazz club. "How about we head in here and talk?"

She agreed and they entered together. They were shown to a seat and settled down as far from the stage as possible. "I should perhaps start with my brother."

"Let me go first, I think it's more important that we get this mistake out of the way first."

"All right."

"It actually started last month. Shortly after you cancelled on the entire group after the fall party. Ami had come into the arcade when Motoki was busy and I was sitting alone. Ami slid into the seat opposite me and she was angry. She told me that I was dating a stranger and that I would be shocked by what you were doing. I don't know why she'd send me on a goose chase if she knew it was your brother. Regardless that was all she said on the matter until a week ago but I knew she was angry with you and worried about saying something. Or at least she was pretending to be distraught about you. A week ago she 'came out with the sordid details' of the last few months."

Zhang saw her go into the room with her mother only a few minutes ago but already he was getting impatient. Ami had avoided him at every turn and he was sick of it, he'd get to the bottom now or he'd give her up and live with Usagi's nagging.

Finally Ami left the blue paint covered room her mother's office was in and joined her as she walked to her next destination. After a few minutes of silence he realized that Ami was going to pretend he wasn't there for as long as she could.

"Hi, I'm Zhang, I don't know if you remember, but we had met on a nicer footing. The day Usagi introduced us you were much more polite to me. Don't you get sick of stubbing people?"

"Don't you get tired of stalking people?" She asked raising a blue eyebrow.

"I'm not stalking you." He denied. "I've been trying to get you to notice me or at least not hate me."

"Then you are fighting a loosing battle." Ami said snidely.

"Why do you hate me?" Zhang stopped walking and pulled her to a stop as well.

"Because, you're an idiot that doesn't know his place. Why can't you leave decent people alone?"

"What are you talking about? I like you."

"But I'm not the only one am I? No, you have to go after the already spoken for ones as well, don't you?" Ami bit out.

"Just whom are you talking about? I flirt with a lot of women, but its all harmless." He demanded.

"You mean there's more than one girl you've got to betray her love?" Ami asked with eyes mockingly wide.

"No, there's only one girl that I've shown real interest in. You would know who it was too if you weren't so blind."

"Sweetening me up won't get me to help you to swoon her." She tried to sting.

"Wasn't the intention. Perhaps you'd better tell me what has you so angry." He suggested charmingly.

"I'm talking about Usagi!" She stomped her foot in frustration. "I've kept this bottled up too long and I had to tell Mamoru and I've learned that it wasn't good enough. I need to tell you how worthless I think you are!"

"What did you do?" Zhang roared. "You didn't tell Mamoru that Usagi and I were cheating on him did you?"

"What? Afraid your secret will get out?" She ridiculed.

Zhang ran a hand through his hair in frustration as he looked around the hospital wing they were in. He grabbed her wrist. "Come with me." He pulled her into a spare room at that didn't have a patient in it. "I need you to tell me exactly what you did so I can help Usagi fix it."

"Why? So you can continue lying to all those connected?" Ami's eyebrows rose slightly in a depreciating look at him. "I don't think so."

"No, so I can fix the mess you caused. Usagi and I are not cheating on her boyfriend. I am her friend and nothing more."

"Likely story." Ami laughed bitterly.

"It's true. I met Usagi the day before I met you when she came to the hospital in distress over her brother. Ever since I met you however I have only had eyes for you and trying to find a way to get you to even look at me the same way in which I feel for you. My god! If only you knew the entire story! Usagi's devastated that Mamoru isn't talking to her any more and it's because her friend backstabbed her!"

"I did no such thing. Usagi dug her own grave." Ami defended.

"Not as much as everybody else seems to think."

"Would you stop speaking in riddles and tell me what's going on?"

"I'll tell you exactly what's going on if you promise to make it up to Usagi by telling Mamoru that you were wrong about her relationship with me and that you jumped to the wrong conclusions. After all it is the truth and you'll be doing it eventually but hopefully this way it'll help avoid causing pain to the already pain ridden Usa-chan."

"Fine, I promise, now tell me. What was it about her brother?" She leaned forward, hope shining in her eyes yet clouded by doubt. "I suspect I should take every word you say to me as a lie, but I'm willing to believe the devil, Kami save my soul." She rested her hands on her hips by crossing her arms.

"Her brother has a medical condition. He has for a very long time. Usagi will probably kill me for telling you but I know that if it'll save her relationship she'll forgive me." Zhang sighed. "He has acute to several seizures daily. Well he did until two months ago…"

"I have been taking care of him ever since, but some times he relapses and now I am unable to do anything because I have become too weak to be responsible." Usagi finished. She had heard Mamoru's side and it had become her turn to explain the situation. "I promised Shingo a long time ago that until he wanted it to become publicly known I would keep his condition a secret so he wouldn't become out casted by his peers. I have also promised him, although I'm not sure I ever said it allowed, that I'd drop whatever I was doing if he needed me and be there for him. It's the only two promises I have never broken."

Usagi rubbed her eyes. "I suppose I also kept it a secret, not because I was ashamed by him but my parents were. They made a rule since he was born and it was known that he had it that I couldn't tell anybody and they weren't allow into the house whether or not anybody but myself was home."

"Oh Usako." Mamoru rubbed her back as they sat in the same side of the booth at the club. "I'm so sorry. I hadn't realized how hard these last few years have been on you. I would have understood if you told me. But I understand your position. If the roles had been reversed I probably wouldn't have been as forthcoming either. If you need help talking to your parents about their lack of knowledge into the situation I'd be happy to help. I could help argue that Shingo needs professional help now more then ever."

"It seems that everybody likes to say that to me recently. While I agree if the newest treatment proves it's really not working then I'll take all the help I can. But if it's just a few small events like this every month, then to me the treatment is working and there is no point in including anybody else."

"I have a friend who'd probably be willing to help out. He's a physical therapist and if he can't do anything then I'm sure he knows somebody in the seizure field who could offer the occasional assistance."

"I'd rather not deal with it right now." Usagi complained.

"Why not?" Mamoru questioned. "It's important. It's about your future and your safety."

"I'd rather not deal with it right now because my boyfriend is actually speaking to me again after a week of the cold shoulder treatment." She told him as she brought his face down towards hers.

"Oh, I forgot about that. Have I told you how sorry I am about the mistake?"

"Several times, but I don't trust words as much as you do. It's time you proved it to me with actions." And Mamoru proved how sorry he was and just how much he loved her with a very powerful kiss.