Thank you Tallulah! You are the best! I really like this chapter and I hope the rest of you do too! Waahh! I'm really pathetic! The only person who reviewed my last chapter was my beta reader! I'm sinking down low on the food chain...Oh well THANK YOU TALLULAH!

This chapter is officially dedicated to Tallulah! YOU ARE THE BEST!

Standard Disclaimers Apply

Chapter 3

(Masago)

Walking into our apartment, I was fully prepared to begin working on my homework so I could keep up my good grades, but Yuki had other plans. I had just set down my stuff and was about to sit down myself and start on my work, when he waltzed in looking like the grease monkey he really is. If his fan girls saw him like this they'd be thoroughly put off; his hair was up in a few small ponytails (more like pony-stubs) at odd intervals, and it looked like he'd been marinating in oil. He didn't even have to clear his throat as he entered my little section of the apartment because I could smell the stench of his body odor mixed with gasoline a mile away.

"I need some parts for my bike." He announced this to me as if it was an extremely important piece of information that could save my life.

"Yeah, so?" I raised one of my eyebrows at him as I flipped a textbook open.

"You're coming with me so hurry up." With that he left the room and I glared at his retreating form. What he really meant was, "I need someone to carry the parts I pick out for me because I'm a lazy bum." Sighing I set my book aside and stood up to follow him, not at all thrilled at the prospect of going to get bike parts. He would pick out a few things, then make me stand there and hold them while he chatted with his buddies; plus he would force me to be a passenger on my own bike.

Jamming on my shoes I went outside to find my brother lounging near my bike still sporting his grease monkey look with a smug expression added on. It was annoying. Very annoying. I wanted to rip out one of his pony-stubs. I restrained myself.

"Where are the keys?" He held out his hand like he expected me to hand them over. Like hell.

"I have them," I sweetly informed him as I got on my motorcycle and pulled on my helmet. "Hop on."

"You're not driving." This was stated in the there-is-no-way-I-will-let-you-do-this tone of voice.

"It's my bike," I shot back, shoving my visor up so I could scowl at him properly; I wanted him to receive the full power of my death glare.

"I'm your older brother, I'm in charge of your safety so I'll drive." Yuki narrowed his eyes at me as he slipped into the patronizing elder sibling role.

"No." I slid the set of keys back into my front pocket defiantly. "How many times do I have to tell you Yuki, you will never drive my bike without a fight from me."

"Even though every single time I trounce you?" Yuki demanded.

"Yup." I got off my bike and stood in front of him, my posture relaxed with my arms at my sides. Yuki shook his head at me and I knew for split second he was thinking about how immoral it was to beat up on a girl (and I didn't even have to look into his mind!) before he attacked.

Every time we wrestled or fought, Yuki's speed amazed me, he moved so fast he was almost a blur; and he always went straight in for the kill. He did his usual thing of going for the nose. I was ready for this so I blocked him, and then the real fight began. It was down and dirty, no rules, no mercy, no prisoners. We ended up on the pavement grappling with each other; my teeth sunk in Yuki's shoulder, Yuki's hand fisted in my hair.

About five minutes later, for the first time in my life, I came out victorious from one of our fights. I had defeated him by pinning him to the ground with my knee in the middle of his back as I twisted both his arms behind him. Proudly I got back on my bike and started her up, as Yuki got on behind me muttering about how degrading it was to have his baby sister driving him around. To me it was a dream come true, I had beaten him soundly and was rubbing salt in the wound by getting to drive him to the junkyard.

As I pulled into the lot where they allowed us to park, Yuki hopped off the bike quickly to make sure no one saw me driving him around. Unfortunately there was no one there to witness his humiliation, much to my disappointment. Pulling my helmet off, I set it on top of my bike, before I followed him as he began the search for much needed parts for his motorcycle. He picked things up and examined them closely, sometimes he'd hand them over to me to hold and other times he'd toss them back. By the time he was done I was loaded down with tons of stuff, half of which I didn't think he even needed.

"Yuki, how are you doing?" Akeno popped out of nowhere, a grin plastered on his face.

"Good," Yuki replied giving his friend a one armed hug.

"Find everything you needed?"

"Yup."

"Well then come and meet my new friend, I picked him up off the street. I couldn't believe how good he was with auto mechanics." Akeno and Yuki headed off leaving me to follow with his stuff. Akeno never acknowledges me because I'm a girl and he thinks I shouldn't have a bike. He just pisses me off usually. We walked into his little auto shop where there were three cars in various forms of doctoring. One was up on jacks, another was stripped down to its bones with the pieces scattered around like children's toys and the last was just sitting there. From under the last car a pair of feet stuck out, most likely Akeno's new "friend." Sighing I set down the parts I had been carrying for about half an hour and leaned against the wall.

"Kiriya come out and see Yuki, the one I've been telling you all about!" There was no response but a few seconds later a guy with shaggy black hair and black eyes rolled out from under the car and looked up at my brother and me.

"Hello." He got up and wiped his hands clean on a red rag before reaching out to shake each of our hands. "My name's Kiriya."

"I'm Yuki." My brother grasped his hand in a firm handshake; the way you shook Yuki's hand the first time decided how he would treat you. From the looks of it, it appeared that he had a good handshake and Yuki would give him a chance to prove himself.

"Masago." I shook his hand noting the calluses on it and his firm, steady grip, "I'm Yuki's younger sister." I knew Akeno wouldn't tell him anything about me and my wonderful brother would forget purposely to try and scare anything male away from me. He had told me a long time ago that there was no way I could date until he was cold in the grave and even then if I dated he would haunt me. I had responded that that was fine with me; I would just skip the dating phase and go straight into marriage. He had nearly choked to death on his beer; it had been hilarious.

"It's nice to meet you, Masago, sister of Yuki." He smiled as he let go of my hand and I graced him with a show of my teeth (a form of smile that I usually use to intimidate). "I would have thought him your body guard rather than a brother from the way he places himself in front of you."

"Yeah well the knucklehead is like that," I told him as I watched him, trying to drink in as much detail as possible so I would never forget his face. Something deep inside me whispered to me, telling me that he would be important later on and I should not forget him.

"Hey, a little respect! I'm the one who raised you!" Yuki scowled at me.

"Yeah, exactly…why do you think I am the way I am?" I raised my eyebrows at him.

"That's not nice, I'm not the one who warped you, that was Raiden!" Yuki exclaimed.

"So you did nothing? Who was the one who taught me how to fight? Who taught me all the cuss words I know?" I gave him a look that clearly said 'give up I have you backed into a corner.'

"So maybe I'm partially responsible," Yuki admitted.

"Thank you for conceding on that point."

"Hey Yuki I got something I wanna show you," Akeno interrupted and I rolled my eyes knowing this meant I had to stay here and be a good little sister while they went and talked of manly things.

"How long you gonna be? I have homework to do," I snapped; it was nearing the end of the school term and I didn't want to fail.

"As long as it takes," Akeno replied as he and Yuki left. Stamping down on any childish urge to scream or fling something at them, I sat down on the dirty floor. Kiriya stood there seemingly torn between getting back to work and entertaining me.

"Don't worry about being hospitable to me, Akeno hates my guts so he'll probably give you a raise if you're mean to me." I explained this to him as he nodded and sat down on the creeper.

"Well my momma raised me right, she told me to treat every single woman I met with respect." Kiriya cracked his back as he said this. "You seem familiar, have we met before?"

"No, not that I know of." I continued to watch him, wondering what he was thinking…what was going on in his mind. Reaching out mentally, I went to touch his mind and see what was going on, but there was a wall there. It was a natural barrier that blocked people like me from getting into his mind. Focusing harder I zeroed in on it to see if there was a way through it but there didn't seem to be one. Frustrated I gave the equivalent of a body slam against the barrier and instantly knew I had done something wrong as pain raced through me and I was thrown into a pit of darkness.

Well please R&R! I need people to love me so I can continue...I need support...I'm a starving artist...not reallly...