I edited a few things, 12-7-06.

My Best Friend's Brother
Written by: Jill Annette

CHAPTER FIVE – COLD NIGHT

"It's so cold!" Rei exclaimed as she shoved her hands into the pockets of her jacket and snuggled closer to her boyfriend. You heard right, her boyfriend! She smiled at the thought and rested her head beneath his chin.

"It's November, what'd you expect?"

Usagi, off to the side of her friends, rolled her eyes. Just a couple weeks ago Rei was eating ice cream in the park and now she was complaining about it being so cold. The blond shook her head and told herself to stop acting as if she were jealous of her friend and Yuuichirou. She peeked out of the corner of her eyes, watched as the two shared a kiss and then she sighed. She kicked at the dirt beneath her feet. Okay, so she could not help but feel jealous for what her friend had: love. Dejectedly, Usagi stood up from the porch swing and started inside the house.

Rei looked up from the hollow of Yuuichirou's neck and asked, "Where are you going?"

"Inside," Usagi smiled. "It's cold out here." Then she shrugged before stepping inside.

The house was much warmer. Usagi caught a glimpse of Mr. Hino down the hall as he slipped into his bedroom. Mrs. Hino herself had passed away years before Rei and Usagi became friends. Usagi did not know much about Mrs. Hino because Rei never gave too much information about her. If she sorted through her memory hard enough, Usagi remembered that Rei mentioned that her mother used to smell like lilacs and her hair was so black some people pointed out purple gleams when the light hit it just right.

Mr. Hino was another story altogether. Usagi did not see much of him. He was almost always at work or inside his bedroom. There were a few times Usagi caught him in the kitchen or the living room but she never got much out of him. Still, Mr. Hino knew who she was, she had no doubt about that and he was perfectly lucid. He was just a broken man.

"It's why I went to school to be a therapist."

Usagi jumped at the sound of Mamoru's voice. "I- I didn't, I wasn't—"

Mamoru shook his head. "I know what your thinking." He pulled Usagi over to a door that was always shut and she had never ventured into. "It's written all over your face."

The door led to a small closet. Despite its small size, the storage was filled to the gills with memorabilia of a woman who no longer existed. Photos were spilling out of a box on top of the layers of other boxes. On top was an eight-by-ten photograph of their mother and their father smiling as if nothing could ever go wrong in their life. They were much younger and so much more hopeful.

Mamoru shut the door fast and it sounded down the hall and up the stairs, echoing the truth. "It still hurts to look at her."

Usagi looked up to see Mamoru's face but he had turned around and left the room. She debated on either going back outside to not watch Rei and Yuuichirou make out and enjoy their company or following Mamoru for about two second before she bolted up the stairs two steps at a time.

"Mamoru!" she exclaimed.

His bedroom door flew open. Mamoru stuck his head out and grinned. "Don't want to be left alone?"

Usagi shook her head. "And your sister is kind of busy."

Mamoru nodded his head to the back of his room, an invitation for her to join him. "I bet the real reason you're here is because you want to hear about my mother."

Usagi shrugged as she sat on his bed.

He told her. There was no hesitation as he began his story from one of the earliest memoreis of his mother as she came home from the hospital with a bundle in her arms. The bundle was his sister, Rei. Indeed she smelled of lilacs. Mrs. Hino would take them out to the park to play. In fact her whole life was for her kids. Then one day, she came home and sat the family down around the table and told them what a doctor had told her when she went in for a check-up. Their mother never believed in keeping things from anyone, much less her children. Besides, children are much smarter than people might think and catch on a lot quicker than they hope.

A few years passed as the kids watched their mother deteriorate; watched as her sickness ate her from the inside out. Before long they did not even recognize her. Until one morning she didn't wake up. Rei was eight and Mamoru had turned fourteen just five days before. Though they were expecting for their mother to die, when it happened no one could accept it. It took a lot of time and ten years later, though the wounds still hurt, they had healed a good deal.

Somehow through the recollection of his mother, Usagi and Mamoru ended up lying side by side on his bed. They were facing each other, faces inches apart.

"And so, here I am." Mamoru finished.

"Here you are," Usagi said barely above a whisper.

She quickly glanced at his lips, she couldn't help it. They were so close and the bedroom was filled with so much emotion, so much love from this man. Usagi looked back into his deep blue eyes. Mamoru's eyes were so much different than Rei's. Her eyes were almost violet in color while Mamoru's eyes were the color of the sea at midnight. So dark a blue you could see your reflection but you could not tell the depth.

Usagi closed her eyes and wondered what it would be like to be able to stare into his eyes whenever she felt like it and not feel the slightest bit embarrassed. She wondered if he would be the kind of guy she could fall for and if he would catch her – or at the very least, fall with her.

A warmth spread around her and Usagi snapped her eyes open. Mamoru pulled the blankets over them and he brought her closer to him. "Thank you for listening to me."

Curled into his warmth, Usagi replied, "Thanks for telling me."

Instead of seeing his smile, Usagi felt it. His lips grazed her forehead as he wrapped his arms firmly around her.

"Just one thing," she whispered onto his collar bone.

"Mm-hmm." Usagi could feel his vocal cords vibrate against her cheek as he responded.

"What are we doing?"

"Getting warm." Mamoru's reply was simple, steady. "It's cold outside."

---

"Usagi!" Rei's voice traveled through the house. "Usagi! Where are you hiding?"

The door swung open on its hinges, waking the sleeping pair.

"Mamoru have –"

The girl stopped in mid-sentence, mouth ajar. In front of her were her brother and her best friend. In bed. Together. Rei coughed.

Usagi slowly sat up and rubbed her eyes. Her blond hair was in a disarray of tangles. Rei flinched as the blanket fell from her shoulders, almost afraid of what would (a naked Usagi) or would not (her clothes) be behind the blanket. The sable headed girl sighed in relief when she found her friend fully clothed. Mamoru had long since jumped out of the bed and tried to slide out of the room but Rei caught him at the door.

"What in the world is going on?" Rei asked, her eyes shot from her brother to Usagi and back again.

"Definitely not what you think." Mamoru scratched the back of his head.

Usagi nodded, "Yeah, it was cold."

Mamoru all but groaned at Usagi's comment. His sister was going to blow a fuse.

"It was cold?!" Rei exclaimed. "Cold? So you jump in bed with my brother?"

Usagi shook her head, "That's not how it happened."

"Ugh!" Rei threw her hands in the air, "Whatever."

"Rei, listen—" Mamoru tried, reaching out to put a hand on his sister's shoulder.

However, Rei shook his hand off and grabbed Usagi and dragged her out of the room. "Let's just go to bed in my room before my brother tries to take advantage of you."

Usagi glanced back at Mamoru as Rei escorted her to her room. The fair-haired girl managed a small wave good-bye before she was shoved into a door at the opposite end of the upstairs hallway. The entire time (which was really just a few seconds) Usagi thought that she would not mind being taken advantage of, if it was Mamoru who was taking advantage of her.

The door slammed behind the two girls and made even Rei, herself, jump. "Now, explain to me how this happened."

And Usagi began the story.

---

Honestly, all Mamoru wanted to do at the moment was laugh. How many sisters walk in on their brothers with their best friends? Not that he and Usagi were doing anything. No, just sleeping – or acting like they were sleeping. They were fully clothed and hands were in respectable areas.

Maybe it was just the fact that he was thinking of moving his hands from those respectable areas and to more sensitive places on Usagi's body about the time his sister barged in. Not that Mamoru would have violated Usagi.

Mamoru fell onto his bed. He had worked himself up a little, he guessed, when he told Usagi about his mother. There was so much left over emotion from the story he had to put it somewhere and holding onto the small blond helped. Of course he did not feel anything for her. Did he? He summoned her in his thoughts: her blond hair, baby blue eyes, and thin, curving, developing body. Mamoru groaned. Okay, he had to admit it to himself that she was attractive and he was attracted.

---

"Do you like my brother?" Rei asked out of the blue.

The girls were lying in Rei's bed and Usagi was half asleep once Rei decided to start asking questions again. Usagi spent a good portion of an hour explaining to Rei the events of the evening which, to her, was anti-climactic. Usagi mumbled in her attempt to go to sleep and made no sense. Rei shook her and asked again. The blond really did not want to answer this question.

"Usagi!" Rei yelled.

"What?" she whined, rolling over to face Rei. "You're going to wake up the whole neighborhood."

Rei laughed, turned to her friend and said, "Well, if you don't answer my question, I'm going to try real hard."

Usagi whimpered. "I just want to sleep."

"Or," Rei shrugged. "I'll just take your avoidance of the question as a yes."

"I really don't know Rei." Usagi said, burying her head into the pillow.

"It's a simple question really." Rei said. "I was just wondering, you know." She looked into Usagi half-opened eyes to make sure she had her friend's attention. "I mean, it'd just be weird having my best friend and brother date."

Usagi nodded and closed her eyes. "I know," she whispered.

Still, Usagi could not keep herself from thinking about how it felt to be held so close to his body, to be covered in his warmth.

"I just don't know who I'd choose if you guys got together and it didn't last." Rei whispered to her sleeping friend. "He's family but you're damn near family too."

The blond opened her eyes, "I wouldn't jeopardize our friendship like that Rei."

"Okay," Rei nodded and closed her eyes. "Okay," she repeated, convincing herself what her friend said was true.

Usagi reached out to Rei and pulled her close to try and keep the chill from reaching either of them.

"It's so cold," Usagi muttered beneath her breath.

---

I'm doing much better for those of you who asked. It's been a couple months so I've recouperated a great deal. I mean, for two months I did write (I think that's WAY more than enough time). lol. Anyway, I decided to give you some "attraction."

Hopefully it wasn't too corny. Plus of course, now you know what the deal is with Mamoru and Rei's parents... even though no one really asked. ;-) Keep it groovy.

Thanks for reading (and reviewing).