The List: Chapter one.

Alright, I know, I know, "another new story?" Yes, it is. I got inspiration for this from another story, and decided to see how it would turn out.

Summary: An illness at birth causes Usagi to slowly go blind. When she has a run in with Mamoru, though, she realizes just how important her eyesight is to her. But what happens when she makes a list of things to see before she goes completely blind, and that list falls into Mamoru's hands?

"Usagi!" A voice called out, and Usagi turned her head, her almost completely blind eyes searching for the speaker. Suddenly, the voice came again, but from behind her again. "Usagi, I'm over here!"

Usagi let out a sigh of frustration, spinning on her heel in the new direction.

"Shingo-san, that's not very nice, and you know it," another voice called out softly from the sidelines. "You know it's hard for Usagi when you do that."

Shingo stuck his lower lip out in a pout, but decided he'd stop teasing his older sister.

Usagi had been born with an eye problem, one that slowly limited her peripheral vision more and more each day. Soon, she knew, she would be completely blind. It was only a matter of time.

Usagi laughed slightly as her eyes alighted on her little brother, and moving over to him, she ruffled his hair playfully.

"No worries, Otouto-san," she replied. "After all, I can still see you right now!"

Shingo smiled, his brown eyes sparkling as he wrapped his arms around his older sister, holding her tight.

"Onee-chan… I don't want you to go blind," he said softly, his face buried in the crook of her neck.

"I don't want to, either, otouto-san," she replied, lightly stroking his hair. "But sometimes, life's not fair, and we have to live with the hand we've been dealt, and be grateful for it, ne? After all, things could be much worse. I may have never gotten to see you grow into the fine young man you are; I could have been born blind. But Kami has decided that I should be able to see some things, and before I go completely blind, I've decided I'm going to see a lot."

Shingo held back tears. He'd never admit it to anyone, but he really admired his sister. Though she was going blind, she was still somehow so cheerful, so ready to go out and try new things, and do new things before the day came when she wouldn't be able to see what she was doing.

Usagi held back a sob as she held the boy tightly in her arms. She couldn't show how scared she was; couldn't let on to how much she dreaded not being able to see ever again. Each day it was the same: she'd wake up, and lay in bed for awhile, fearing to open her eyes in the event that she wouldn't see anything. So far, she'd been lucky, but the first question on her mind each morning would be, 'Is today the day?' And once she'd passed that question, the next would be, 'Is this the last day that I'll be able to see?'

She quickly pushed these thoughts from her head, determined not to let them get to her.

"Ano, Otouto-san, what say we go get some ice cream, ne? We can take the long way, through the park, too, and look at the rose gardens. And then we can stop at the arcade and see Motoki-san, too."

Shingo's eyes lit up with delight, and he nodded his head happily.

"Hai! Let's go!"

"Alright, just let me grab my purse," Usagi responded, a smile on her face. As she stood, her long blonde hair spilled down her back, and she paused to run a finger lightly through the golden strands, looking down on it with a small frown.

'When will I not be able to see the color of my own hair anymore?' she wondered slightly. 'Is this the last time I'll be able to see it? No… no, Usagi! Don't think like that! Be grateful that you can still see today, and make the most of it.'

Heading inside, she quickly grabbed her purse from where it hung by the door, left a note for Ikuko-mama, and went out the door again, smiling down at her brown haired brother.

"Ami-chan, wanna come with us?" She asked her neighbor.

Ami looked up from the book she'd been reading, and a smile crossed her face.

"I'd be delighted!" She exclaimed, shutting her book with a snap and placing it beneath the chair she'd been sitting on. "I'll just tell my mother, and then we can go."

Usagi nodded her head with a friendly smile, and Shingo paced back and forth impatiently.

Finally, a few minutes later Ami reemerged from her house, a small blue purse in hand, a smile on her face.

"Gomen for making you wait. I just had to make sure it was alright. Are you ready to go?"

"Hai!" Shingo exclaimed, rushing over to meet the blue haired girl, and then rushing past her, leaving Usagi and Ami behind, each of them shaking their head, a smile on their face.

"He's such a sweet boy," Ami said quietly, watching as Shingo skipped ahead, oblivious of everything.

Usagi watched him quietly, nodding her head in agreement.

'How many more days will I be able to watch him scamper about, or see his brown head of hair bobbing around the house? How many more times will I be able to see him dance around in childlike playfulness, with his chocolate brown eyes sparkling with happiness?'

She shook her head once more, clearing the thoughts before they could get much further.

'What happens happens,' she told herself firmly. 'I need to enjoy the time I have to see, while I still can. There's no use in dwelling the future.'

"Hai, he certainly is," she responded, a smile on her face. "He's a handful, alright, but he's a great boy."

Closing her eyes, Usagi took a deep breath of the fresh air, rounding a corner with Ami.

"Usagi, look out!" She heard the girl cry, but by then, it was already too late.

CRASH!

Usagi ran smack into someone, and her eyes snapped open in shock as she fell to the hard ground with a light 'thump.'

"Erg," she moaned quietly, rubbing her backside. "Gomen nasai! I didn't see you, and… oh, I'm so sorry!"

"Maybe you should watch where you're going, Odango," a voice snapped at her, and looking up through the enclosing blackness, Usagi found herself staring into a pair of beautiful cerulean eyes.

"I… I'm sorry… I couldn't… ano…"

"Mamoru-san!" Ami exclaimed.

"Ami-chan?" Mamoru asked, confused. "What are you doing out with this chaotic whirlwind?"

"Ano, Mamoru-san, you should be a little nicer to her. This is Tsukino Usagi. Usagi, Chiba Mamoru."

By this time, Usagi had risen to her feet, and she stuck out her hand with a forced smile.

"Gomen, Mamoru-san. I didn't mean to run into you like that. I hope you can forgive me?"

"Hmph. Kami gave you eyes for a reason, you know. You should learn to use them a little more."

Usagi's eyes snapped open wide, shock etched onto her face.

"G-gomen. Ami-chan, you can take Shingo out for ice cream. I'm… I'm going home." That said, she spun on her feet and ran back the way she'd come from, leaving a very confused Mamoru in her wake.

"Was… it something I said?" Mamoru asked, raking a hand through his ebony black hair.

Ami spun around to face him, her nay blue eyes filled with an uncharacteristic heat.

"Mamoru-san, how dare you!" She exclaimed, pointing a finger at him accusingly. "It's hard enough for her already, and then you have to go and say something like that, which makes it ten times worse!"

"Something like what?" Mamoru asked in exasperation.

Ami scowled at him, and peeked over his shoulder to make sure Shingo was still in view; he was, and was watching the two of them curiously.

"Usagi is going blind," Ami explained quietly, her eyes shutting for a brief period of time. "Each morning when she wakes up, more and more of her vision is gone. There's going to come a morning where she'll open her eyes, and not see anything anymore."

Mamoru's jaw dropped in shock, his eyes wide with disbelief.

"Oh, Kami, what have I done?" he muttered to himself.

Ami just shook her head sadly, and walked past the man, walking up to Shingo.

"Ano, Ami-chan, where'd Usagi go?" Shingo asked tentatively.

"Your onee-chan went home, Shingo-san. She decided she didn't want to go out for ice cream today…. Ano… she said her head hurt. But she told me to go with you anyways, does that sound good?"

Shingo glared at the dark haired man.

"He had something to do with it, didn't he?" Shingo asked spitefully. "He said something to her. I saw the look on her face. Ami-chan, I think we should go home and see if Usa-onee-chan is alright."

Ami's face fell, but she nodded firmly.

'Smart boy,' she thought to herself as they headed back the way Usagi had gone. 'Very smart boy.'

…

Usagi sat in her room, rubbing her eyes to stop the flow of tears. She scowled bitterly to herself.

'What does that baka know, anyways?' she thought furiously. 'He doesn't understand anything.'

"Kami gave you eyes for a reason, you know. You should learn to use them a little more."

Mamoru's voice rang through her head, and she steeled her resolve, the tears finally coming to a slow halt.

'I need… to make a list,' she thought to herself. 'I do need to use my eyes more, to see things that I treasure, or to see things that I've never seen before.'

Quickly, she moved over to her desk, pulling open the top drawer and taking out a notebook. Flipping it open to a blank page, she tore it out, and quickly wrote at the top:

Usagi's List of Things to do:

Quickly, she jotted down the first thing that came to her mind. With her first goal down, she quickly came up with a list of twenty five things she would do before she went completely blind. With a satisfied smile, she folded the piece of paper up, and shoved it into her pocket. Putting the notebook back into the desk, she stood for a minute, staring outside.

'Will I even be able to accomplish all of these things?' she wondered idly. 'It's only twenty five, but nonetheless, will tomorrow be the day that I'm blind, and I won't even have had a chance to see any of them?'

She snapped back to attention when a head of brown hair and a head of blue hair appeared in her vision, with the brown hair racing to the front door. Laughing, Usagi went down the stairs to meet them.

"Onee-chan!" Shingo cried out, wrapping his arms around Usagi's waist tightly. "What did that jerk say to you? Are you alright? Can I kick him?"

The questions came endlessly, and Usagi laughed, holding up a hand to halt his flow of words.

"Iie, otouto-san, I'm alright, really. I'm sorry I didn't go with you for ice cream… how about we go tomorrow morning, alright? Besides… I need to talk to Motoki-san. So, what do you say, hm?"

Shingo nodded, a grin plastered across his face.

"Hai!"

With a smile, Usagi pushed him, and he went running into another room, presumably to play some of his video games. With him safely out of ear shot, Usagi's smile faded, and she looked at Ami.

"I'm sorry, Ami-chan. I ruined our trip to get ice cream."

Ami shook her head slowly, a small smile on her face.

"Iie, Usagi-chan. It's alright. Ano…" Here Ami's face flushed with embarrassment, and she looked down. "Gomen, Usagi-chan. I told Mamoru."

Usagi looked as though she'd been punched in the stomach.

"You told him?" she whispered in shock.

"He had a right to know what he'd said, Usagi!" Ami defended herself, though her eyes were a bit unsure.

Sighing, Usagi nodded her head in agreement, after a moment of hesitation.

"Hai. I suppose he did, at that. Arigato, Ami-chan. Do you want to come with Shingo and me tomorrow? Hopefully, nothing will spoil our trip."

Ami nodded her head with a smile.

"I'd like that."

"Great! We're probably going to be going at around one in the afternoon, so we'll stop by, alright?"

Ami nodded her head, blue hair bouncing slightly.

"I'll see you tomorrow, Usagi-chan."

"Hai, sayonara, Ami-chan!"

"Ja ne, Usagi-chan."

Shutting the door behind her blue haired friend, Usagi let out a small breath, her smile fading into the distance.

'And now we'll just hope tomorrow isn't the day,' she thought to herself, and went to join Shingo in playing some Sailor V.

…

Well, there it is. I really thought this would be a good idea, but if not, I'll stop. Anyways, I hope you guys enjoy it!

Lady Tsukino