Poisoned From Within
By Bashfulglowfly
Chapter Four
The next afternoon, Mamoru was riding his motorcycle when he saw a blond boy hopping along the sidewalk, clinging to whatever he could to help him stand.
It was Shingo, Usagi's brother.
Mamoru pulled the motorcycle over and took off his helmet. He turned and looked at the approaching boy. It was obvious that Shingo had been in a fight and something had happened to his leg. "Well, it looks like you handled things just fine." He called.
Shingo looked at him and frowned.
"I was at the café where your sister works yesterday. I saw those boys who were bothering you."
Shingo's face cleared. "You were one of the guys that stood up to help the manager get them out."
"That's right."
"And you were hitting on my sister."
"I tried hitting on your sister…she shut me down." Said Mamoru. "Is your prosthetic broken?"
"Yeah, I think so. Usagi's going to be pissed. These things aren't cheap." Shingo ran a hand through his hair.
Mamoru got off the motorcycle and walked over to Shingo who was leaning against a wall. He shook his head. Shingo was right; Usagi was going to be pissed. Not because of the broken prosthetic but because of the black eye, split lip and other assorted bruises her brother was sporting.
"Here. I'll help you get on my motorcycle." Mamoru wrapped an arm around the boy's waist to steady him.
"Wait. What?"
"Get on my motorcycle. You can't keep going like this. And I know someone who can probably repair your prosthetic."
"You do?"
Mamoru nodded. Shingo looked at him steadily then nodded back. Mamoru helped the boy over to the motorcycle and supported him as Shingo got awkwardly on the back. Mamoru handed him the spare helmet he kept on the motorcycle at all times. "Put this on."
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Shingo stared across the parking garage to the elevator. Mamoru's assigned parking space was pretty far away. He looked at the older man. "So, how do you propose to get me to your apartment?"
Mamoru smiled at him. "Easy. Just don't hit me in the head with your backpack." Mamoru then pulled the boy off the motorcycle into a fireman's carry. "How old are you?"
"Sixteen."
"Thank the goddess you don't have any real meat on your bones otherwise I wouldn't be able to do this."
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Nobuyuki stared at Mamoru as he entered the apartment sideways with a boy slung around his shoulders. "Went back to your barbarian roots and decided to capture yourself a bride? I should tell you though, that one isn't going to be able to provide you with children."
Mamoru flashed a rude gesture to the other man. "This is Shingo, Usagi's brother. You should remember him from the café from yesterday." Mamoru dropped Shingo to the sofa with a bounce.
Nobuyuki took a look at the boy's face. "Didn't handle things all that well, did you?" he said dryly.
Shingo flushed. "No, I guess I didn't."
Mamoru stripped off his jacket and hung it up in the closet. "His prosthesis is broken. Think you can fix it?"
"Let me see." Shingo pulled up his pant leg. Nobuyuki crouched down and examined it. "Titanium. Pretty hard to break, but it's the smaller parts that broke, not the actual leg." He looked up at Shingo. "Yeah, I can fix it."
"How?"
Nobuyuki punched him lightly on the arm. "Don't you worry about that. Can you take the leg off for me? It will be easier for me to fix it."
"Yeah, I can do that." Shingo leaned down and un-strapped the leg. Nobuyuki took it from him and disappeared down the hall to his room. Mamoru felt Nobuyuki transform and knew that Nephrite was going to take care of things.
"Do you have homework?" asked Mamoru.
"Yeah. I guess I can work on it while I'm waiting."
"Good idea." Mamoru rested a hand on Shingo's shoulder and released his healing powers. He felt Shingo tense beneath his touch and released him. Mamoru knew that hadn't fully healed Shingo but when the boy tensed; he figured that Shingo was nervous about being touched by strangers. "You should tell your sister about what happened."
"No." The boy's tone was flat and blunt.
"She needs to know so that she…"
Shingo interrupted. "I'm not telling her. She has enough to take care of without me whining."
Mamoru went over to the refrigerator and pulled out two sodas. He walked back over to the sofa and handed Shingo one before sitting down in the armchair across from him. "What do you mean by that?"
Shingo sighed and looked Mamoru straight in the eye. "Our parents were killed last year. We lost EVERYTHING. And I lost my leg. I was sent here to Tokyo and Usagi followed. We got put into the System. Somehow Usagi managed to become my legal guardian. But there were so many expenses. Usagi didn't finish high school. She dropped out her final year to take care of me. She's working three jobs. She doesn't need any more stress."
Mamoru was shocked. His slender, delicate princess was working three jobs? "Where all does she work?"
"Well, you know about the café. She's also a cashier at a convenience store and she's part of a cleaning crew that cleans offices at night."
"Does she ever sleep?"
"Yeah. I try to be real quiet when she does. But the apartment we live in isn't the best. The other tenants are noisy and the street has a lot of traffic." Shingo looked Mamoru in the eye, pride very evident across the boy's face and body. "I'm going to work hard and graduate from high school then university. Then I'm going to get an excellent job and support my sister!"
Mamoru smiled. He understood the boy's stubborn pride. "Perhaps your sister might meet someone and marry him."
Shingo shook his head. "I don't think she'd do that until she was sure that I was okay and situated."
"Well, what if someone convinced her to go out with him. Would you mind?" asked Mamoru.
Shingo put down his pen and leaned back against the sofa. He looked around the living room then stared at Mamoru for a long time. "What do you do for a living?" the boy asked.
Mamoru smiled slowly. "I'm a medical student at Keio University. I plan on becoming a surgeon."
"General or specialty?"
"Not sure yet. There's still a lot more that I have to learn, so I have time."
"Huh." Shingo eyed Mamoru for a moment. "Fine. You may ask my sister out." The boy's tone and posture would have rivaled many of the self-important princelings that Mamoru remembered meeting at his father's castle in Atlantis. "But I doubt that you'll succeed."
Mamoru only smiled.
Nobuyuki came out from his room holding the leg. "I think that I got it fixed. Let me know what you think." He handed it over to Shingo.
Shingo accepted it. A look that Mamoru couldn't identify crossed the boy's face. Shingo looked at Nobuyuki and Mamoru then put the leg on. He stood up with Nobuyuki discreetly hovering just in case. Shingo walked back and forth across the room for a bit. He smiled at Nobuyuki and bowed. "Thank you for fixing my leg. It actually feels better than before. You have a magic touch." Shingo turned to Mamoru and bowed again. "Thank you for bringing me to your friend." His eyes narrowed. "If you do succeed in getting my sister to date you, fine. But just so you know, if you hurt her…I will kill you."
Mamoru stood and returned Shingo's bow. With great seriousness, he replied. "I would expect nothing less from a loving brother."
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It took a great deal of asking and convincing to get Usagi to go out with him but after two months Mamoru managed to get her to agree. To say that their dates were unconventional was an understatement. Between Usagi's three jobs, Mamoru having to battle against the Senshi as well as his medical school schedule, their dates were at all times of the day or night and could last from 20 minutes to, rarely, three or four hours.
The places that they met were almost unconventional as the times. All-night diners, tea shops, the shopping district at midnight to gaze at the windows, parks in the early dawn, the small neighborhood bar near Usagi's apartment and Mamoru's apartment. They never went to Usagi's apartment because her landlady was nosy and was known to call the police or Children's' Services on her tenants and Usagi couldn't afford to move.
It was at the bar one night, they watched a brief news segment about the latest battle between Prince Endymion and his Shitennou versus the Senshi who had tried to attack a group of elderly tourists from Nagasaki.
"Prince Endymion is soo handsome." Said Usagi. She looked at Mamoru and blushed. "Sorry, I shouldn't have said that."
Mamoru laced his fingers through hers. "It's kind of hard to compete against someone like that."
Usagi giggled. Mamoru had a way of not making her feeling ashamed of herself whenever she felt like she made of fool of herself. "But you're here with me. He's somewhere else." She looked at him from underneath her lashes. "I guess in some ways he's everyone's fantasy. For women he's a strong and handsome protector who could sweep them off their feet. And men want to be him."
"What do you think he's like at home?" asked Mamoru.
Usagi shrugged. "Well, hopefully he doesn't have a pot belly, a drinking problem as well as a wife and four kids."
Mamoru leaned back and roared with laughter. He kissed Usagi deeply. "You are priceless." He looked at her. "There's something wrong. What is it?"
Usagi played with a button on his shirt. "You won't like it. Most people don't."
"What won't I like?"
Usagi looked up at him, sadness clouding her normally bright eyes. "I feel kind of sorry for the Senshi."
Mamoru's voice was cold and blunt. "They're evil. Why would you ever feel sorry for them?"
"Because they are cursed."