"So, what's for dinner?" Usagi asked, plopping down into a seat positioned as far away from her father as possible.
He looked up, his left eyebrow twitching. "Whatever it is, you ought to take small portions tonight, Usagi. After all, you spent enough money shopping today to feed a small country. No, make that a medium-sized country."
"Papa, I said I was sorry."
"Sorry doesn't pay the bills."
"Does 'I love you?'"
"For the fifth time, no."
Usagi pouted. "Papa, I told you, as soon as I become a famous idol OR I marry an incredibly rich husband, you'll forget all about this money stuff."
"I'll believe that when I see it," Kenji muttered.
"Enough of that, both of you," Ikuko hissed as she brought out the nights vegetable: carrots.
Usagi's face fell. "But mom, I hate--"
"Your brother likes them," Ikuko interrupted, her jaw tense.
Normally, it wasn't enough to deter Usagi's whining. But for now, it was enough to make her close her mouth and comply.
"Where is he, anyway?" Kenji asked quietly, his eyebrows knitting together.
"Still upstairs," Usagi answered. "I told him to come down, but--"
"Could you go get him, Usagi?" Ikuko asked. "I still have things to do in the kitchen."
Usagi started to ask why her father couldn't go see what Shingo was up to when she thought better of it. She should have realized that 'things to do in the kitchen' was code for 'talk to your father about Shingo.' She didn't like the fact that her mother hadn't just come out and said that, but she was willing to ignore it for the time being. She nodded and pushed her chair back, moving to go see what Shingo was up to.
Although, she was already fairly certain she knew what Shingo was doing. He would more than likely be lying on his bed, curled up on his side and staring at the wall. He'd been doing the same thing almost constantly ever since the incident outside of the Crown Arcade. Even when he'd been told that no one had been killed, Shingo had not been cheered. It had been a fight to get him to do anything: including eat, shower, and go to school. Every once in awhile, he'd become active, but he was by no means healed by his experience. Usagi had heard her parents whispering about getting some professional help when they thought their children were asleep. She suspected that's what they were talking about now.
When Usagi reached his bedroom, she stopped and knocked at the door. Normally, she wasn't so polite, but they were all walking on eggshells with him now, herself included. She didn't know how to interact with a brother who wouldn't even look at her.
"Shingo?" Usagi called out. "You awake?"
There was no answer.
Usagi sighed and pushed the door open a little. She peaked through the crack and saw that Shingo was indeed in his bed, but his eyes were wide open. She walked in the rest of the way, flinging herself onto the bed so that the springs creaked and bounced underneath her weight. She waited.
"Well?" she asked after awhile.
Shingo sat prone for a moment before pulling his gaze from the wall. He looked at her and said, "What?"
"Aren't you going to tell me I shouldn't eat so many sweets because I'm about to break your bed?" Usagi joked awkwardly. She swallowed. "Or something. You insult people better than I do."
Shingo snorted and turned back to the wall. "Right."
Usagi frowned and reached out for her brother, laying a hand on his shoulder. She was surprised when he didn't automatically pull away. "Come on, Shingo. It's dinnertime."
"So?" he asked, acting as though he couldn't even be bothered to pull away from her.
Usagi bit her lip. "So you have to eat."
"I'm not--"
"You haven't been hungry for almost two weeks," Usagi said loudly. "That's not natural, Shingo."
Shingo snorted. "Maybe for you."
His insults had never made her smile before, but this time, she couldn't help but grin a bit. "That's more like you. Now, why don't you come downstairs and eat a little." She paused, waiting for his response. "Mom made carrots for you."
"You hate carrots," Shingo said, as if that had anything to do with how their mother planned the menu.
Usagi rested her chin on his shoulder and said, "I'll eat some and make that awful face you like so much."
Of all things, that seemed to perk Shingo up. "Really?"
"But only if you come downstairs."
"Well, I couldn't see the face if I stayed up here, stupid Usagi."
Usagi sat up straight and put her hands on her hips. "Don't call me stupid!"
Shingo sighed wearily. "What did I do to get saddled with such a sister?"
"Why you little--" Usagi grabbed a pillow and proceeded to beat him with it. When Shingo started to flail, threatening to kick her somewhere painful, Usagi leapt up and threw her whole weight onto her little brother, though she took care to keep the pillow away from his face.
"That will teach you to insult your very wise and very beautiful sister," Usagi ground out.
Shingo wheezed. "My incredibly fat sister, you mean. Careful, Usagi, you'll break every bone in my body if you keep this up."
Usagi felt her cheeks color. "You are such a brat! I come up here, very concerned about you, and all you do is insult me!"
"I thought you wanted me to insult you."
"...That is completely different."
"Is not."
"Is too."
"IS NOT!"
"IS TOO!"
"Shingo! Usagi!" Kenji called out in his "scary voice." "Both of you need to get down here this minute, or your mother and I will eat your dinners too!"
For Usagi, this was the worst possible thing that could be done to her, carrotts or no. She immediately leapt off her brother and started to run out the door. However, at the last minute, she rethought her decision. She reached back and grabbed Shingo by the wrist, quite literally dragging him the rest of the way.
"ACK! Usagi! What are you doing?"
"You are going to eat dinner with us, and you're going to enjoy yourself," Usagi ordered as she pulled him down the stairs. "And just for being so mean to me, I will not eat the vegetable tonight just so you can see my face."
"Exactly," Ikuko interrupted just as Shingo and Usagi reached the bottom of the stairs. She smiled serenly and held out a fork with a carrott attached to the end. "You're going to eat them because I said so."
Usagi's face fell, her shoulders drooping so much that she probably resembled a monkey. "But Mama..."
"No buts," Ikuko said, pushing the fork into Usagi's face.
Usagi looked up at her mother, tears filling her eyes. "You're always so mean to me..."
Kenji and Shingo both groaned. "Here we go."
"You yell at me just because I go out and have fun like a normal teenage girl. You threaten to turn me out on the street like some stray animal. And now you try to feed me the absolute worst food in the world." Usagi's lower lip trembled. "It's not FAIR!" she wailed, continuing to cry with her mouth wide open.
Shingo covered his ears. "I came down for this?"
Kenji rubbed his eyes underneath his glasses. "Why does she have to have such good lungs?"
Usagi sniffled and started crying even louder. "You're all so-- AHH!"
Ikuko smiled as she pulled the now empty fork from Usagi's mouth. "There, now that wasn't so bad, was it?"
Usagi looked up at her mother, gagging and coughing, while her brother and father laughed at her predicament. Finally, Usagi forced herself to swallow. "That wasn't nice," Usagi muttered, glaring at her mother.
Ikuko reached over and patted the top of Usagi's head. "You'll thank me when you're seventy years old and still have 20/20 vision."
Usagi pouted and folded her arms across her chest. "Somehow, I doubt that."
"All right, everyone!" Ikuko exclaimed. "I expect clean plates and no complaints from anyone tonight."
Usagi sighed even as her mother kept prattling on. "I bet Sailor V doesn't have to eat carrots."
AUTHOR'S NOTES
This scene got cut because this really slowed everything up. Originally, Ikuko was going to bring up the other conference at this point in the story, but I ended up spending way too much time on the Shingo stuff. Rather than cut a bunch of it and try to make it readable, I decided to just have a shorter scene the next morning and make this a lost scene.
