"Jadeite, you're certain that you sensed a power comparable to a Chosen Warrior coming from that boy?"
Bowing his head in respect to Queen Beryl on her throne, Jadeite nodded. "I was in contact with him at least long enough to determine that, though I do apologize for not being able to bring him in." He smiled thinly. "Though I did manage to determine that he has some sort of an emotional connection to the Chosen Warrior that has currently been giving us so much trouble."
"He could prove to be doubly useful, if such is really the case," Queen Beryl said, seeming both pleased and pensive at once. "Jadeite, whatever your next scheme, see that you make every possible effort to secure him."
"As you wish, my queen," he said, bowing deeply.
He could still remember the scent of charred flesh on that schoolboy's hands when he had attempted to fight on the level of a Chosen Warrior in spite of his many, obvious handicaps; if he was anything like common rabble of his kind, such a memory could only make him hesitate to do so again. Still, the fact that he had an emotional connection to the Chosen Warrior that was giving them so much trouble was something to be considered.
"On the subject of my next plan," Jadeite said, smiling. "I may have an idea."
~SM~
As he finished brushing his hair in preparation for bed, Trevor turned suddenly when he heard Usagi's screaming come from the furo. Tossing the hairbrush onto his futon, he ran out into the hallway.
"Usagi, are you all right?!"
"Trevor-nii! It's awful!" she wailed, slamming open the door so she could throw herself into his arms. "I've put on so much weight!"
Blinking in surprise, Trevor looked down at his younger sister in the towel that she was still wearing. "Um, Usa-ko, I don't know if that's something to be screaming about."
"Oh, Trevor-nii, you just don't know how it is for girls!" Usagi wailed, hugging him all the tighter as he reached out to pat her back. "You're a boy, so it's good for you to be big and strong! It's not the same for girls!"
Patting his younger sister's back as the two of them continued to stand together, Trevor didn't know just what he might have been able to say in response to something like that. He just stood there and held her while she tried to compose herself. When her wailing started to calm down to just sniffles, he helped her to get back to their room.
"Thanks, Trevor-nii," she said, cuddling him closer as the two of them made it back into their room.
"Yeah. You should probably start getting ready for bed now, Usa-ko," he said, stepping away from the screen so Usagi could use it.
"Yeah, I guess that would be a good idea," Usagi said, though she still sounded distressed by what was going on.
"Usa-ko, are you sure you're all right?"
Usagi sighed, coming out from behind the screen dressed in her own pajamas. "I'm still not sure what I should do about all this weight I'm gaining!" Wringing her hands, Usagi came back over to him and hugged his right arm. "I need to talk to Mom and Dad! Come on!"
"All right," he said, feeling more than a bit strange about the whole situation, but wanting to support Usagi all the same.
The two of them made their way into the kitchen, and Trevor turned slightly to see Mom and Dad – and even Shingo – starting to come in as well. It looked like he wouldn't have to call them.
"You know, you shouldn't worry so much about your weight, Usagi-chan," Dad said, as the four of them settled down at the table while Shingo went off to get some food. "People always look better when they have a little meat on their bones. Especially when they're young."
"Usagi's problem is that she keeps eating too much," Shingo said, as he took a bite out of the bun he'd gotten from the bread box.
"And, she also spends a lot more time eating than studying," Mom said.
"True; and she could also could stand to get a bit more exercise," Dad added.
Trevor chewed the inside of his right cheek; there wasn't a single thing that their family was saying that wasn't true, but they could have been a bit nicer about things. When Usagi left the room, wailing again, Trevor followed quickly after her.
"Trevor-nii, why didn't you stand up for me in there?" Usagi moaned, turning to him with such a plaintive expression that Trevor felt like he should have said something, in spite of the fact that he still didn't know what to say.
"Well, I…"
Luna jumped in through the window that he and Usagi habitually left open for just that reason, and Trevor was shamefully glad for a moment for the distraction.
"You know, Usagi, you really should start thinking about getting more exercise," Luna said. "A Chosen Warrior should be in top condition. Not to mention, there's also your health to consider."
"Oh, Luna-sensei, not you, too!" Usagi wailed, throwing herself at him so she could cuddle him again. "Oh, everyone's against me tonight!"
~SM~
After the two of them had gotten a good night's sleep, Usagi felt much better than she had. Trevor-nii had probably just been a little too overwhelmed to speak last night; that had been a lot of people against him, and he probably just hadn't known how to react. It wasn't easy when everyone ganged up on you like that; she'd had it happen often enough, and it always felt just awful.
When the two of them started getting ready for school that morning, Usagi looked over at Trevor-nii as he continued dressing up. He was so kind, to keep looking out for her the way he did; even though it seemed to be getting him into more and more trouble with the Dark Kingdom these days. Usagi almost wanted to ask him to stop, since it seemed to be getting him hurt more often than not lately, but when she remembered how hard he kept working even in spite of all the odds stacked against him…
What would he feel like if she asked him to give that up?
The two of them made their way to school, moving a bit faster than they usually did since she'd made Trevor-nii work a bit harder than usual to wake her up this morning, and settled down in their seats for the lessons for today.
~SM~
Usagi had been insistent about him taking her bento this morning; almost as soon as Mom had handed it to her, she'd given it to him and insisted that he take it. He didn't know what to make of it, and had tried to hand it back to her as soon as the two of them had made it out of the house and he could talk freely; but no matter what he'd tried to say, Usagi had insisted that he take the bento that Mom had prepared for her. He'd finally given in, taking the bento that Mom had prepared and putting it on top of his own.
When the lunch break came around, and the class set out their bentos to eat, Trevor looked over at Usagi where she was sitting. His younger sister's hands were clenched tightly on top of her desk, nails almost digging into the opposite hand as she squeezed tighter and tighter.
"Usa-ko, would you like me to give you your bento?" he asked, worried that she might hurt herself if she kept going like that.
"Well, um… Trevor-nii…" she trailed off, clenching her jaw and seeming to force herself to look away.
He sighed. "Usa-ko, I don't think this is healthy for you."
Usagi stood up from her desk more abruptly than he'd ever seen her do, bowing deeply to him. "Thank you very much, Trevor-oniisan."
Blinking harshly at the sheer formality of the way Usagi had just addressed him – she never did that – Trevor closed up his bento and stored it neatly away. He'd had enough food to get through the day, and this was a lot more important than just a half-skipped meal. Hurrying out after Usagi, he found that his younger sister was making her way out of the school building amid a group of other girls who had gathered around her.
He didn't know anyone in the group but Naru by sight, and he realized that it would be awkward if he tried to tag along with Usagi when she was with a group of students that he barely knew, so Trevor made his way back to his own seat and pulled out his bento again. He didn't want to make things anymore difficult for Usagi than he was starting to suspect they already were. So he'd wait, and try to talk some sense into his younger sister later.
Returning his attention to his own food, Trevor took only a single look back at the door that Usagi had left through.
Once classes had ended for the day, Trevor met up with Usagi and all of the other girls who she'd been talking to during lunch-break. He wondered just what was going on, but he didn't want to be rude by making a scene.
"Good afternoon, everyone," he said, looking around at the group of four girls – including his younger sister – who had gathered around him and were now smiling up at him.
"This is your brother, Usagi?" one of the girls whose names he didn't know – with short dark-brown hair cut straight and even along the bottom – asked, smiling up at him. "He's really cute!"
"I heard that he had to miss a year of school, to recover from the burns after his old house burned down," another girl, this one with short, curly auburn hair – who was also stockier than any of the other girls in the group now surrounding him – said, looking at him with sad eyes.
"Oh, how awful!" the first girl whose name he didn't know said, wrapping both of her arms around his left – Usagi was already hanging onto his right – as she cuddled close to him. "Losing your home must have been so sad!"
"Uhm, thank you," he said, as the four of them began walking.
Their group continued on their way; not toward his and Usagi's house, which left Trevor wondering just where it was that they were all going. At least, he wondered that up until they all came within sight of a large gym; the name at the top of the video screen just above the doors of the gym, spelled out in lights that were naturally still turned off in the daytime, was "Shaperin".
"Lose 1 kg in a day! Lose 5 kg in two days!" droned the advertisement; he wondered how much Rie Goto had been paid for making the video playing here. "Lets all get into shape together! At "Shaperin", we are currently running a free trial."
"What?! Free!" Usagi exclaimed happily.
"Can't get any cheaper than that!" Naru said happily.
"Come on, Trevor-nii," Usagi said, pulling him along as the other girls continued on their way into the gym. "I've already got your gym clothes, too!"
"Uh, thank you, Usa-ko," he said, as he let his younger sister pull him into the building.
They made a quick stop in the locker rooms to change their clothes and shoes, and then Trevor found himself being pulled along again as the five of them began to make their way down the hallway to the exercise room itself. When they turned a corner leading to their right, however, Trevor looked up to see a man with short, fluffy, feathered blond hair and glasses coming out of another room to meet with them. For a fleeting moment, as the two of them looked each other over, Trevor had the uncomfortable feeling that the two of them had met before.
But that didn't make sense: he'd never been to this gym before, and so he couldn't have met anyone who worked here.
When the instructor – the blond who'd met them all when they first came into the gym – started directing them to various pieces of equipment, Trevor couldn't quite help the feeling that the man was watching him in particular. He tried to tell himself that it didn't matter, that the man was just curious about why a boy would be going to a gym with a group of girls, but Trevor couldn't quite help the way he tensed slightly every time he found the blond's eyes on him. He didn't think they had met before, but he couldn't quite help the feeling that they had.
~SM~
It was all Jadeite could do to keep himself from grinning: he'd never thought to simply be able to have the schoolboy come right to him. He'd made so many plans, each with the end goal of claiming the schoolboy's vast reserves of energy for Queen Beryl and the Dark Kingdom, that to have him come right in when he was merely planning to deal gather the energy of the foolish humans who had become so completely obsessed with their appearance that they would risk their very health to obtain the coveted "perfect body" was amusing in the extreme.
As he took the three idiot girls aside, turning so as to move deeper into the sub-levels of "Shaperin", he directed the schoolboy to wait while he got the fool girls settled. The schoolboy didn't even question the excuse he presented, clearly feeling that the any embarrassment his fool friends might suffer would be far more important than the danger that they were being placed in. It was almost laughably easy to persuade both the girls and the schoolboy to follow the plan that he had constructed with pitifully docile obedience.
It was simply one more reason that humans were pitiful fools compared to any youma; to say nothing of a Dark General – one of the Four Kings, no less – such as him.
"Thank you for waiting so patiently for me," he said, smiling to put the schoolboy at ease so that he would be all the more docile while Jadeite led him to have that wonderful bounty of energy drained from him.
He'd selected the perfect Youma to take the schoolboy's place, thereby appeasing whatever pitiful, meaningless relatives he possessed while the Dark Kingdom feasted on that wonderful banquet of life-energy that the schoolboy who might have been a Chosen Warrior in another life gave off as a matter of course.
"You're welcome," the schoolboy said, following along with him like a good little fool when Jadeite beckoned him forward. "I don't mean to be forward, but… are Naru-chan and the others doing well?"
"They'll be fine," he said, playing the reassuring instructor as he had learned to do during the time that he had spent running this amusing little farce of a gym. "I'm sure they'll be more beautiful than ever, once they finish with their first treatment."
"First treatment?" the schoolboy asked.
Jadeite couldn't quite resist smiling; he was sure to make it gentle for the schoolboy's sake. "Well, do you think that any woman would give up on being beautiful after just one treatment?"
The schoolboy looked away, an expression of uncertainty on his face; Jadeite had to firmly resist the urge to chuckle. It looked like the schoolboy was just as familiar with the foolishness of women as Jadeite himself had become during the course of his work. It was a rather amusing thing to consider, truly.
Coming to the room that he had set up to drain the energy of the fool women that presented themselves to him, Jadeite carefully steered the schoolboy to the back of the room. It wouldn't do, after all, to have the schoolboy become suspicious of his motives before he and Henshu were properly prepared for him. As they continued deeper into the room, Jadeite gently steering the schoolboy's attention away whenever he would start to pay a bit too much attention to the items around him.
It was almost laughably easy to manipulate the schoolboy's docile politeness: just tell him that what he was doing was a bit rude, and he'd stop doing it without even a single word.
Sensing it when Henshu came in, Jadeite smiled wider as he closed with the schoolboy.
"A coffin…?"
"Not precisely," he said, as the schoolboy turned to look at him once again. Jadeite grinned. "It's a very special containment unit," he said, narrowing his eyes in amusement as the schoolboy turned to him with an expression of discomfort on his face. "Made just for you, schoolboy." Before the schoolboy could do more than start to widen his eyes, Henshu grabbed his neck and the eyes of both his loyal youma and the schoolboy himself began to glow. "I should really thank you, schoolboy. You've been such a good help for me by coming here. I'd wondered how I was going to find you again, and now you come to me."
The schoolboy's head was beginning to tilt back, his eyes still glowing as Henshu took on his form, and Jadeite grinned all the wider at the sight of it. Once Henshu had fully taken his form, and the schoolboy's eyes had fallen closed entirely, Jadeite gathered him up and placed him almost gently inside the container that he'd had constructed to hold him while his energy was harvested for Queen Beryl and the Dark Kingdom. The subtle glow of the crystals that would drain the schoolboy's energy reflected off his face for a few moments before Jadeite closed the container.
"So, what did you find out, Henshu?"
"The boy's name is Trevor, and he came here with his sister and her friends," Henshu said, in the voice of the schoolboy whose form she had taken.
"Well then, I suppose you know what to do," he said, turning to smile at Henshu.
"Of course, Master Jadeite," Henshu said, bowing with a smile on her face.
Thank you so much for your generous donation, schoolboy, he mused triumphantly, as Henshu turned to leave the containment room and he turned to look at the container for a few moments more. Queen Beryl would be very pleased.
~SM~
Pressing her right hand against her stomach, Usagi continued walking down the sidewalk away from Shaperin. None of the others had stayed behind to walk with her when she left, but when she looked up, Usagi saw Trevor-nii running up to meet with her.
"I was looking for you back at Shaperin, Usa-ko. Did you leave early?"
"Yeah," she said, making her way over to Trevor-nii so that she could lean softly against him.
"Well, that's not good," Trevor-nii said, as she wrapped both her arms around his right and the two of them started making their way back home. "You should really try harder to finish what you start, Usa-ko."
"I know, Trevor-nii," she moaned, leaning in closer to her older brother's side as the two of them began making their way back home. "I'm just so hungry right now!"
"Oh?" Trevor-nii asked, as the two of them continued on their way home. "Are you going to exercise more after you eat? Or, I know! We could head back to Shaperin after you finish eating."
"Trevor-nii…" She hugged his arm tighter, knowing that he was just trying to make her feel better. "I really just want to go home, okay?"
"All right, Usa-ko," he said. "Just, think about what I said, okay Usa-ko?"
Leaning against Trevor-nii as the two of them continued on their way back home, Usagi hugged him tighter as the two of them arrived back at their house. Greeting Mom when she met them at the front door, Usagi led Trevor-nii to the kitchen where the two of them could get some food. Mom seemed a bit annoyed with her… or, not annoyed so much as… some emotion Usagi wasn't quite sure she could recognize. Trevor-nii didn't seem really interested in having any food, but then he'd gotten to eat both of their bentos at school, so he might not want to eat anything until dinner.
Making her way back to her room, Usagi smiled at Trevor-nii as he caught up with her and the two of them settled down on her bed. Luna-sensei came in through the window then, but it was kind of weird: she looked right at Trevor-nii, and then jumped into Usagi's lap and clawed her right on her left thigh when she tried to ask what the cat was doing. Trevor-nii left after a minute or so, saying that he was going to talk to Mom about something, and Usagi smiled at him.
Then she turned to Luna-sensei, frowning.
"What was that about, Luna-sensei?!"
"Usagi, that was a youma from the Dark Kingdom!" the cat said, sounding like she was trying not to talk too loud.
Usagi froze; she hadn't been ready to hear something like that. "Are- are you sure? I mean, really sure?"
"I know a youma when I sense it, Usagi," Luna-sensei said, looking and sounding completely serious again. "Trevor is most likely in grave danger right now! Tell me, where was the last place the two of you went before you came home?!"
"We went to a gym called Shaperin," she said, standing and picking up Luna-sensei as she headed for the window.
Whatever the Dark Kingdom was trying to do to Trevor-nii, she'd put a stop to their evil plans! She'd go back to Shaperin, find out just what it was that the Dark Kingdom was trying to do to all of the poor people they were luring in with their wicked schemes, and she'd bring Trevor-nii back home!
~SM~
After he'd finished speaking to the fool boy's mother – an amusing story, that: he'd have to tell Master Jadeite that the most promising course of action was to immerse the boy in an illusion of fire, then they could siphon off the energy his fear produced until he withered away and died – planting the idea of making her way to Shaperin so that she could take part in one, or preferably more, of their treatments, Henshu made his way back to the girl's room. Apparently, the boy and his sister were closer than either she or Master Jadeite had been aware of, since she had just discovered that the boy slept in his sister's room.
It was a rather interesting thing, the way that the memories of those whose forms she would borrow unfolded slowly within her own mind; almost as though she was slowly becoming them herself.
When she came back into the room the boy shared with his sister, however, Henshu found her gone and the window standing open. Narrowing her eyes, Henshu concentrated on the memories that she had absorbed from the boy Trevor.
"What?!"
That fool girl, Usagi Tsukino, she was the Chosen Guardian that had been causing so much trouble for the Dark Kingdom? However, when Henshu considered the idea more deeply, she realized that such a thing made a greater amount of sense than she'd thought at first: adopted or not, this boy had had the potential to be a Chosen Guardian himself, and it was only natural that the two of them would be drawn to one another. Master Jadeite will want to know about this, she mused, grinning as she swiftly followed the trail of the girl who had been causing Master Jadeite such trouble.
She wondered just how Master Jadeite would reward her for the information she was about to present to him.
~SM~
When he had finished dealing with the last of the humans who had come in to give their energy to the Dark Kingdom, Jadeite made his way back down to the lower level where the schoolboy and that foolish woman – the same one who had been so eager to give herself over to the Dark Kingdom the last time that Jadeite had come to this silly little city with all of its silly little humans – were resting inside their respective containment devices. Smiling as he made his way closer to the woman so that he could observe her in more detail while she underwent the treatment that she foolishly thought would give her the beauty she so desperately craved.
It seemed that this particular woman had nearly been drained of the last dregs of her life-energy, and would soon die to make way for the next foolish woman that would soon be taking her place. The sound of running footsteps on the stairs leading down into this part of the gym he had spent so much of his valuable time constructing and furnishing drew Jadeite's attention then, and he turned to look towards the front entrance of the room he'd made his way down inside. Narrowing his eyes, Jadeite gritted his teeth as he saw the running form of Sailor Moon making her way down into his base.
"Release Haruna-sensei and your other prisoners at once!" the annoying Guardian shouted. "Taking advantage of the dreams of girls who want to be thin! You're an unforgivable enemy of all women!"
"Sailor Moon," he snarled.
"You bet! I am the Pretty Guardian who fights for love and justice! I am Sailor Moon! And, in the name of the Moon, I'll punish you!"
It was something of a problem, knowing that he would need to keep a watch on his other prisoner while he had Sailor Moon herself to contend with, but he did have other options…
"Deal with her!" he shouted, commanding the other foolish humans who had been working in this place; the ones whose minds were now completely under his control.
Turning away at the sounds of panicking shouts behind him, Jadeite made his way back over to the containment unit that he had had designed to drain the energy of that foolish schoolboy that had come in with that group of girls. Henshu had told him the name of that boy, but Jadeite found that he didn't particularly care to remember it. In any case, it wouldn't matter once he had brought the containment unit back to the Dark Kingdom.
The last of his energy would be drained, and that annoying Chosen Guardian wouldn't be able to do a thing about it.
The sense of his loyal youma Henshu making her way back down into the basement where his other minions were battling against that annoyance of a Chosen Guardian brought a brief smile to his face as Jadeite continued on his way over to the containment unit that he had stuck the schoolboy inside. Bringing it to the Dark Kingdom would be somewhat difficult, but Queen Beryl would be extremely pleased once he returned to her with it. Snapping his head around as he sensed Henshu's energy suddenly disappearing, Jadeite ground his teeth as he hurried over to the containment unit.
When he sensed his control over the minds of the men he had had control of since he had taken his post within this gym slipping away, Jadeite shook his head in pure annoyance. Yes, it was true that he'd lost one of his greatest assets, and the control over the humans he had been using to run this gym of his, but all of that was rather secondary now: he'd collected a great deal of energy from the foolish women who had come into this place, and he still had the schoolboy to bring back as well.
However, when Sailor Moon herself appeared before him, Jadeite ground his teeth; it seemed as though he wasn't going to be able to bring the little lost schoolboy back to the Dark Kingdom. Queen Beryl would still be pleased by the energy that he had collected, yes, but when he thought of how much energy he would have been able to harvest from the boy if he had managed to bring him back to the Dark Kingdom, Jadeite couldn't help but to be angry about this.
"Hold it right there!" the annoying Guardian shouted, standing before him. "I know there's someone else in danger here, so out with it! Where is he?!"
"Sorry, but I'm afraid I don't have the time to play with you anymore," he said, smirking through his annoyance as he gathered himself and teleported back to the Dark Kingdom.
~SM~
Once Jadeite was gone, Luna turned her attention to the darkened space in the room that the General had been attempting to make his way toward while Usagi began yelling for him to come back.
"Usagi, come here," she called back over her shoulder. "Jadeite was trying to make his way toward this thing, so it must be important."
"What do you mean, Luna-sensei?" Usagi asked, making her way over to where she was standing. "There's nothing over- It looks like a coffin!"
"Yes; Jadeite was particularly interested in whatever was inside this," she said, leaping up to land on top of the coffin-shaped device that Jadeite had been so interested in. "Whatever's inside it must be very important."
"Right!" Usagi called, pulling the top free from whatever device that Jadeite had been so interested in. "Trevor-nii!"
She gasped, watching as Usagi pulled her older brother free from the device that had to have been draining his energy if the way he'd fallen comatose after he'd been removed from it was any indication. Usagi smoothed back his hair, beginning to cry softly as she held him.
"Usagi," she called softly, trying to get the girl's attention while still being gentle; this had to be a hard thing for her to have to deal with. "Usagi, come on. You should get Trevor back to your house, so he can start to recover properly."
"Uh-huh," Usagi said, still sounding miserable; Luna sympathized, but she knew that they couldn't afford to waste time. "Luna-sensei, do you think you could give Trevor-nii something to keep him safe, if the two of us are going to keep getting into danger like this?"
"I'll see what I can manage," she said, not wanting to get Usagi's hopes up, but wanting to help all the same. "You just see that he gets home all right."
"I will," Usagi said, already beginning to make her way out of the gym.
Making her own way out of the gym, not wanting to spend any more time than she had to on the grounds that had been claimed by the Dark Kingdom, Luna continued on her own way to Usagi's house. She'd have to think about just what it was that she could do for Usagi's brother, since he was clearly going to be a frequent target of the Dark Kingdom's machinations, but considering her own problems with her memories of the Moon Kingdom and the Silver Millennium, she didn't know just what she could manage to do.
She'd need to meditate before she took any sort of action; she would need to know just what it was she could do, before she started doing anything.
~SM~
When she finally made it back home, with Trevor-nii still unconscious in her arms, Usagi climbed back in through her open window and settled her gentle adopted brother down on her bed. Transforming back into her normal self, so no one who might have been in the house would have the chance to see her like this and start wondering about what she'd been up to, Usagi settled herself down by his side. Smoothing his hair back down again, Usagi settled down by his side.
She'd never forgive the Dark Kingdom for what they had done to her brother; attacking innocent people was horrible enough, but when they went after her family that was just too far!
"I'm sorry I led you into such deep trouble, Trevor-nii," she said, crying as she struggled to keep her eyes open. "I should never have insisted that you come to Shaperin with us, then you wouldn't have ended up like this! I'm sorry," she said, bowing even in spite of the fact that she knew he wouldn't be able to see her. "Please, forgive me."
Bowing again, deeper this time to demonstrate the depths of her sincerity, Usagi gritted her teeth as she looked down at the sleeping form of her brother. She wasn't going to let things go on like this: she'd do even better than she had been before! She'd stop those Dark Kingdom goons before they had the chance to hurt anyone else like they'd hurt Trevor-nii! With her mind made up, Usagi got up and made her way toward the kitchen.
She needed to talk to Mom: she had to know just what kind of soup would be good to help Trevor-nii wake up again. Moms knew everything about taking care of their kids, so asking Mom was the best thing she could do to help Trevor-nii wake up again.
"Mom, do you know what kind of soup would be best for restoring someone's energy?" she asked, as she made her way into the kitchen as saw Mom standing there, already starting to prepare dinner.
"Restore someone's energy?" Mom asked, turning around to look at her. "What do you mean, Usagi?"
"Well," she looked down slightly; she didn't like the thought of talking about it, since it was her fault that Trevor-nii had ended up in that situation in the first place, but Mom needed to know if she was going to be able to help. "Trevor-nii is sick, and I wanted to know if you knew a way to help him get better."
"He's sick?" Mom asked, turning away from the counter where she had been preparing dinner. "This sounds serious. Come on."
The two of them made their way back to her room, Usagi leading the way as the two of them entered her room once again. Biting her lower lip, Usagi opened the door and made her way inside again. Standing back as Mom checked on Trevor-nii to see how he was doing, she watched as Mom checked over him to make sure that he was all right. When she found out just how sick he was, though, she hurried out of the room.
Closing her eyes briefly as she started to cry again, Usagi hurried over to her brother's side and sat down next to him. Smoothing back his hair, Usagi sat down at his side and looked into his sleeping face.
"I'm sorry, Trevor-nii," she said, beginning to cry again as she looked down at him. "I'm sorry I got you into this mess. But I'll do better next time; I promise."