Lily

"Going on a date, huh?"

Lily twirled, to face her younger brother and smiled, "Yes."

Her brother, Justin, punched himself on his puffed up chest, "I shall test him."

Lily looked at her brother in horror, "NO!"

"What?" Justin sniffed, rubbing his nose with the back of his hand, "Any man who wants to date my sister must pass me."

Lily rolled her eyes and smacked him at the back of his head, "Stop it with this Bruce Lee imitation pose. It's just the first date, so don't scare him off so soon."

Justin made the typical Bruce Lee fighting stance. Standing at an angle, he had his right leg in front and the left leg at the back, their feet pointing to the side. His right hand was at an angle at the waist for defence while his left arm was up in a fist near his cheek, for attack.

"What-cha!" he shouted, while making several punching motions.

Lily rolled her eyes again and ruffled his hair.

At just 19 years old, her brother was 8 years younger than her. He was actually her half-brother, as her mother divorced her father long ago and this was her brother that came along much later.

Her mother didn't marry her boyfriend yet, though, having been badly hurt by the failed first marriage. Luckily, her mother's boyfriend didn't mind and they were husband-and-wife in everything except that little piece of paper.

As for Lily, it would be a lie for her to say that her parents' divorce didn't have an effect on her but she wasn't exactly against having a relationship.

She just had very high expectations about it.

Perhaps that's why her relationships never quite lasted.

She took a deep breath, wondering about her giddiness when it came to Zero.

She was 26, for goodness sake. Yet, around him, she was like this teenage kid having a crush for the first time.

What was wrong with her?!

She shook her head.

No, it wasn't her fault.

It was his.

He just *had* to look so good when eating her cookies.

Her ears perked up upon hearing a car approaching, "He's here!"

She was sure it was him, even though she didn't look out the window. Justin just rolled his eyes as his hopeless sister and followed her to the front door.

When Lily opened the door, Zero had just parked the car in front of the house and was getting out.

She gasped a bit, seeing how dashing Zero was.

Justin, who was beside her, couldn't help but have his mouth hanging open upon seeing the guy that came to pick up his sister.

Since when did his sister manage to snag a guy *that* good looking?!

He turned to look at his sister, who was going all googly-eye at the approaching eye-candy.

Hopeless.

Totally hopeless.

His sister is long gone.

Lily smiled widely once Zero came to the gate and she pushed her brother into the house, "I'm going now. Tell Mum I'll be fine."

Justin resisted and stepped in front of Lily, putting his hands across his chest.

"JUSTIN!" hissed Lily, "Stop it."

Zero, seeing this scene as he approached, didn't appear perturbed but his interest was piqued.

He had done his digging up on Lily's background and knew this boy to be her brother, Justin. The way he was standing there and glaring at him, however, was not in the files.

A protective brother, huh.

Nice.

Lily's family may not be the 'perfect' one in the sense that her parents were not divorced and such, but he could see from Justin's behaviour that it was not any less because of it.

It only proved how close the family was.

A 'broken' one did not mean it could not be a good home, or a warm home.

An 'unbroken' one did not mean it was perfect either.

What was important, was the love within the family.

Again, without him realising it, Zero's lips were turning up a bit.

Making Lily even more transfixed.

"Hello," Zero said as he reached them.

Justin gave Zero the 'evil eye' (or he thought he did). Zero was unmoved at the weird expression Justin was giving him. He had his eyes narrowed down to slits, his eyebrows were scrunched up and his lips were up in a … snarl?

Was that supposed to be an intimidating look?

Zero was finding it quite hard to not snicker, but seeing how 'into it' Justin was, Zero held it down.

Which he found weird.

Normally, he would just be quite apathetic to everything. Lianne would constantly admonish him for it but he really found expressing himself in any manner to be very tiring.

In fact, there wasn't much that really would invoke emotions within him.

It wasn't that he was unhappy, or sad. He was just as he was. Nothing could quite faze him.

Other than Lianne and Sir, that is.

Now, however, he found himself to be quite amused by the little guy that was trying to intimidate him, in protecting his sister.

When Xing Han was like that with Sir, Zero took it as something natural. He didn't feel particularly amused nor unhappy about it. That's just the way it was.

This, however, was different.

Zero didn't know why it was different though.

It just was.

In response to Justin's protective stance, Zero just stood there and gave him the respect he deserved, "I'm Zero, and I'm here to take Lily out."

"Zero, huh," Justin said with a sniff, his lips curled up, "Better treat her right. She's…"

"JUSTIN," said Lily in complete horror and pulled him back by his collar, "Enough. Zero is a gentleman."

Justin didn't look happy at all until Zero nodded, looking at him and said, "I know. I will treat her well."

Lily blushed and Justin nodded approvingly.

"You'd better," he warned, shaking his head to the left and right a bit while glaring through slit eyes, "Or else I'll come after you."

"I promise," Zero replied, putting his hand over his heart.

He then looked at Lily and with a smile, he said, "Shall we?"

"Yes, we shall," Lily replied and turned to close the door. She glared at her brother and mouthed, 'Wait till I get back'.

Justin didn't appear perturbed at all and just stood there, watching them as they walked back to the car. His eyes narrowed a bit to see that there was another person in the car as well. He noticed it when Zero opened the door and he gritted his teeth.

Looks like he let Zero off too easily.

He closed the door unhappily.

His sister has a lot of explaining to do.

How could she go out with a guy that had another girl in the car?!

… Was it a threesome?!

Damn.

Now Justin didn't know whether to admire the guy, or hate him ...

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They reached the restaurant with ten minutes to spare. Lily was nervous the entire time, constantly taking secret glances at Zero from behind.

She could only see his side profile and even then, it made her heart palpitate so badly.

His jawline was so sharp.

His eyelashes were so long.

His skin was so smooth.

Lily mentally berated herself.

It was a good thing - and a bad thing - that she was sitting behind for she could stare at him without being so obvious.

Or so she thought.

It wasn't as if Zero couldn't feel the intensity of her gaze from behind, but he pretended not to know. Instead of making him feel uncomfortable, though, he felt quite pleased.

But he didn't quite know why.

Perhaps it's because there was no malice in that gaze? No lustful gaze either (something he was quite used to and ignored) but … perhaps, genuine admiration?

It was a surprise to him that he found it pleasing that she found it pleasing to look at him.

The only other person that he could handle staring at him like that, was Lianne. But the way Lily was looking at him felt different from the way Lianne scrutinized him.

Zero frowned a bit at the thought, unable to figure it out. He then put it out of his mind since it wasn't anything dangerous.

Since they arrived earlier than expected, Lily said she needed to go to the ladies first. Zero nodded and Lianne told her, "We'll wait for you here."

Lily nodded and headed off, under the gaze of Zero.

He made sure she reached the ladies before turning his gaze away.

Just then, a blood-curling scream was heard.

Zero reacted immediately, dashing forward towards the ladies, his heart frantic.

That was Lily screaming!