A/N: So, that song over there on the side? Ignore the video itself, this was just the best translation I could find for the song. It's such a pretty song... Anyways, it's the one that's played during the chapter.

“Nao-chan~”

I almost hit ‘end’ on my phone to at least get his voice to stop being so cheery this early in the morning. Sitting up, I blearily stared at my alarm clock for a moment.

Who gets up at seven on the weekend?

When I’d come home from school yesterday, I’d ended up having to practice with uncle most of the day, despite my hand and my schoolwork. He’d recently decided that I should increase practice with my non-dominant hand even though kendo happened to be a two-handed sport. Somehow he’d gotten it into his mind that, that was the solution to my not being able to perform for the board until my wrist was checked on in a month from now. Apparently it would keep my skills “sharp”. This idea of his had been the theme of my entire week after the beach trip.

By the time I’d gotten to my room that evening, I was so tired that I didn’t even bother to snap at Ren for his “goodnight Nao-kun”.

Needless to say, I was tired. That, combined with the fact that I’m not a morning person, made this a horrible time to be awake.

“Nao-chan, I just wanted to say that I won’t be coming to Takashi’s house today~” He continued.

What?

“It’ll just be you guys~ Have fun!”

“Wait, Honey…”

“Bye!”

“Honey!”

My protest was met with dead silence and a quick glance at the screen told me that he had actually hung up on me.

Wait, this meant that Mori and I were going to be alone.

Dropping my phone, I let my head collide with my pillow. Why wasn’t Honey coming? It wasn’t fair, making me be alone with Mori after everything that had been going on recently, not that he could know about any of it.

Damn.

Time passed with me still laying there, unable to to will myself to get up. I didn’t want to. That would mean adjusting to the idea of getting dressed and going to Mori’s. By the time I finally did get up, over an hour had passed. I was in no better a mood than before and found myself glaring at the window.

I planned on walking, yet the sky looked like rain.

Stubborn to the point of insanity, I decided to continue as I’d planned. At least I was smart enough, however, to stuff my exercise clothes in my school bag instead of putting them on. Instead I found a simple blouse and jeans ensemble to put on, that way if I did get soaked I would at least have something to change into. It took me at least ten minutes after that to locate my rain jacket and put it on.

And pour it did. I hadn’t even made it two blocks before I ended up tugging the hood of my jacket up to attempt and keep my hair as dry as I could. When that didn’t help much, I ducked into an alley between two buildings so that I could adjust it. That happened to be the moment when I heard it.

A soft, whimper-like whine.

My first thought was that I should walk away. There was no way that I was getting involved with some stray animal that had been caught in the storm. Even knowing that, I ended up feeling as if my feet had been glued to that spot.

When I turned, my eyes were met with the sight of a drenched, shivering puppy pressing itself up against the side of the building. It couldn’t have been very old from how big it was and had red fur that was so matted and dirty that I couldn’t have begun to guess it’s breed.

I couldn’t…

________________________________________

By the time I had made it to Mori’s house, I was soaked and shivering. I had been about to reach for the doorbell when the door swung open to display Satoshi, a bag draped over his shoulder.

“Nao-senpai!”

Shocked, he grabbed my good hand without a second thought and dragged me inside so that he could firmly shut the door behind me. Satoshi then dropped his bag and stared at me with wide eyes.

“Taka-nii!”

My jacket moved slightly as Satoshi turned his attention to the hallway beyond where we stood. I took that moment to wrap not just my casted arm, but my other arm around the lump in my jacket, hoping that it would stay still. Just when I turned my eyes to the hall as well, Mori appeared in it from around a corner. He took one look at me and spun back around, disappearing once again.

“Taka-nii is probably getting a towel,” Satoshi mused as he turned back to face me. “That way you can dr- uh… Nao-senpai… what’s…”

As if not quite sure how to ask his question, Satoshi gestured towards the lump I was attempting to cover up.

“Um…”

Mori reappeared in the hall just as my jacket shifted once again and that whimpering noise started up. The two brothers’ simply stared at me.  Sheepishly, I moved my hand over where the puppy was concealed, hoping to calm it down by petting it over the fabric. Without a word, Mori slung the towel he’d brought over his shoulder and moved over to where I was, putting his hands out expectantly. I stared at them for a long moment before slowly unzipping my jacket and moving the puppy.

His eyes widened at the sight of it and he wrapped his hands under it’s forelegs, holding it up to get a better look. Almost instantly the puppy calmed down and began wagging its tiny tail.

“Satoshi,” Mori began calmly as he lowered his arms, settling the puppy in the crook of one. “Before you leave ask someone to prepare a bath.”

“Sure thing, Taka-nii!” Satoshi replied instantly, turning around and darting down the hall in the direction that Mori had come from in the first place.

“Um… Takashi-kun… I…”

“You found it?” he guessed.

I simply nodded.

“Good job.”

With that, he pulled one hand from the puppy and patted the top of my head. It took all I had to keep from blushing. When he pulled his hand away it was to grab the towel over his shoulder and offer it to me. Taking a rather deep breath to keep my face cool, I smiled and took it from him. As soon as he let go of the towel, Mori returned his hand to the puppy’s back.

“Do you have something to change into?” he asked.

I nodded and he gestured for me to follow him before starting down the hall. Quickly wrapping the towel around me, I darted after him. Within a minute I realized he was leading me to somewhere to change. When Mori came to a stop outside of that room, I thanked him and quickly stepped inside to strip out of my soaked clothing. By the time that I’d finished, he’d already announced he was leaving to wash the puppy. With this in mind, I draped the towel over my head and began searching the house for wherever it was he’d gone.

The room wasn’t that hard to find. The door was propped open, Mori kneeling down next to a tub that had barely an inch of water in the bottom. There was a faint smile on his face and as I drew closer I could see that he had his hands covered in soap as he rubbed the little puppy down. Much to my surprise, it seemed to be enjoying the attention Mori was giving. It wasn’t until he reached the showerhead and I got it down for him that he even noticed I was there.

“It seems to like you,” I commented lightly.

“Thanks,” Mori replied, taking the showerhead and beginning to gently rinse away the soap. “And it’s ‘he’.”

I blinked, leaning forward so I could peer over his shoulder.

“Oh.”

At that moment Satoshi suddenly appeared beside us, peering over Mori’s shoulder in a similar manner to what I was doing.

“You should name him Aki,” he decided cheerily. “Look at how bright colored he is!”

I tensed, biting my lip to keep from instantly rejecting the idea. It wasn’t like Satoshi could have known what that name meant to me. My family had long since been a rather off limit subject.

“That’s a good name,” I managed to say, hoping my voice sounded normal.

Mori paused, the puppy voicing a complaint when he pulled the shower head away from it’s back. His eyes flickered to me for a second, then he slowly reached for the plug that would drain the tub. At the same time I quickly stepped over to where I could see towels hanging up on the wall, dragging one of the smaller ones down to hand it over to him. Mori thanked me quietly as he took it and began rubbing the puppy dry.

“Aki.”

I blinked, realizing that he was testing out the name.

“Well, I got to go!” Satoshi announced suddenly. “Mitsukuni-nii called and said that Chika needed me to come over for some reason, so I’m going to go ahead and go! Nice seeing you, Nao-senpai!”

“Oh-goodbye,” I replied as he waited for Mori’s nod in response before darting out the bathroom door.

The only sound in the room after that happened to be the noises of complaint coming from the puppy as Mori finished drying it off. It only stopped whining when he’d finished and pulled the towel away. I almost laughed when I finally got a good look at the result.

It was like looking at a little fluff-ball.

In response to our studying him, Aki simply let out a loud, squeaky bark and jumped up so his paws hit the side of the tub. Unfortunately for him, the tub was quite slick and he ended up sliding back down, tumbling head over heels, and just ending up in the center of the still wet tub. This time I did end up laughing.

“Here…” Mori told Aki, reaching in to pull him out of the tub and sit him down on the bathroom floor.

For a moment the puppy just stood there, wagging his tail. Once he’d apparently made up his mind, however, he padded over to where I stood and sat down, a low whine starting.

“He likes you, too.”

“I guess so…”

Not wanting to have him keep whining, I leaned down to pull Aki into my arms. I could only marvel over how soft his fur was even though it was still slightly wet.

The two of us stood there for another long, silent minute, just watching as the little ball of fur adjusted himself in my arms and settled down happily. As soon as I pulled my eyes from him, however, I gave Mori a bright smile.

“Thank-you for not getting upset about me bringing him in.”

Mori blinked, obviously surprised, before smiling in return. As he had done when I came in, he patted the top of my head before heading for the door.

“I wouldn’t get upset.”

Not quite sure what to say in response to that, Mori led me back to the room that he’d let me change in. When I took around it this time, I realized that it led to another door, which revealed a large practice room. Without a word, Mori crossed the room and pulled open a set of doors on the other side. When I joined him to see what he was doing, I found out that there was a rather nice stereo packed into the closet.

“To keep it out of the way,” Mori explained.

After that he gave me an expectant look which I deciphered rather quickly. I gave the puppy in my arms a slightly reluctant look, realizing that if I was going to get the CDs packed in my bag I was going to have to move him from the position he’d settled on so that I could use my good hand to find them. When I felt Mori’s eyes on me, I glanced back up at him to find that his amused expression had returned. Silently, he offered his arms. With a sigh I handed Aki over and made my way over to my bag. Once I’d located the CDs, I returned and plucked in the one that I’d ended up listening to the most over the time since Honey had lent them to me.

“I’m still not quite sure what I want to do…” I began as he adjusted the settings on the player. “I just know that there’s a song on here that I really like.”

As I read off the back of the album, I paused when I finally hit the song I’d settled on.

“It’s silly… but… well…” I began, trailing off without actually giving the title of the song.

Mori shot me a curious look, glanced at the puppy which had actually begun to fall asleep, then stepped away from the stereo to set it down towards the corner of the room. When he returned to my side, he studied me, obviously waiting for me to continue. With a sigh, I glanced back down at the back of the case.

“Again, it’s silly. It’s a love song… but… here, just turn on number nine.”

Nodding, he turned his back to me and adjusted the stereo accordingly. When the music started playing, I dropped my eyes so I wouldn’t have to see his face. As if to make doubly sure that I wouldn’t have to see it, I closed my eyes, simply focusing on the lyrics. As they wash over me, though, I actually have to fight the urge to just glance and see what expression he’s wearing. It would be entirely too easy to read too much into the song choice, I think.

“Story is just… a really pretty song,” I muttered once it had finished. “What do you think about it? I’m not quite sure if it’s the best choice, but…”

“It’s good.”

When I finally opened my eyes and drew them up to his face, his expression was unreadable. A faint smile reached my lips even as my nervousness grew.

“I’m glad you like it.”

When silence fell again, I turned my back to the scene and began to speak. If I looked at him while talking, he might have been able to read how nervous just playing the song had made me become.

“The problem is the dance itself. I don’t know what to do.”

“How did you use to do it?” he replied simply.

“...I…”

I couldn’t answer right away. The words were there, I just couldn’t say them. I’d always had help. As I’d know he would, Mori stayed silent and waited for me to draw up the strength to answer. It was as if he had an unending reserve of patience when it came to the reactions I had like this, ones that if I were him I would get irritated at having to deal with repeatedly.

“Okaa-san helped me a lot. Otou-san would do what he could, although it was normally just cracking jokes and breaking the tension that would build when I was working on something difficult. Akihiko… well… he’d try and follow the motions. He would say that the best way he could help would to just try the dance and see if I got any ideas. For a little kid… he was pretty smart… In all, building a dance was a family thing.

“Akihiko,” Mori echoed.

“My… my little brother.”

“Oh.”

Silence fell once again.

Then, suddenly, footsteps sounded behind me. I didn’t move, fighting back feelings that should have been beaten a long time ago. It felt hard to breath, let alone to keep tears from welling up. How in the world did I expect to do this now?

The footsteps stopped behind me.

“Then… why not me?”

“What?”

He laid a hand on my shoulder and I allowed myself to be spun around. Where his hand touched seemed to burn, although no in a bad way. Just… it was as if all my nerves had been set on edge. When I was facing him, I couldn’t help but gasp- my ears hadn’t done how close he was any justice at all.

“Practice with me.”

It took a full minute to make my mind function enough that I was able to draw up a response. Even then, it was a poor one.

“Practice… with you?”

Something similar to a smile appeared on his lips as he gave a small nod, not bothering to explain any further. That hand of his never left the shoulder that it had settled on.

“It’d be strange,” I replied, this time not attempting to put any actual thought into the response, something I regretted once the words were out. “I mean… you’re… and I’m…”

I couldn’t find the exact words I wanted. Actually, I wasn’t even sure if I knew what they were.

He was tall and I was short?

He was someone that was something so much different than a little brother and I wasn’t quite sure how I would react when put as close to him as dancing would require?

He was doing more than he needed to, I wasn’t worth him putting in this much effort?

He was so close right now that I was finding it hard to think?

The final words were the only ones that I knew were completely true. Whatever the answers to the question that Miku had asked me that night at the sleepover, I knew that there was one that I had discovered. The reaction I had around Mori, my inability to think when he was inches away…

They weren’t the reactions of someone who thought of their friend like a brother. Mori was something… something I couldn’t place. Or perhaps I just didn’t want to face placing just yet.

“I want to help.”

I felt my cheeks burn as I struggled to come up with a decent answer to his offer.

“Okay.”

A/N: So, I've finally gotten into the arc I've been working hard to reach! I love how many chances these meetings will give me to have fun. Oh, and don't be afraid to tell me when you think that Mori might be acting out of character. It's so hard to figure out how exactly to write him in these situations. I feel pretty comfy with it, but I'm biased being the person writing it and all, lol.

Anyways, until next time! Bye!