I don't own any of the characters although the twisted plot is my creation. Sorry about the obscenely long time between updates...RL bit me. However I will finish this fic. My proof? I'm about halfway done with the next chapter.
Quatre rubbed his chest. His heart hurt. That girl, the tall one who was part of the cleaning staff, was never far from his thoughts even if she would have nothing to do with him. When she was in his household, it was literally impossible for him to ignore her existence. She drove his Uchuu no Kokoro to distraction. Her presence, according to his Uchuu no Kokoro was still impossibly large. He had never met someone with such a large, such an overwhelming metaphysical presence.
But no longer did she rumble in his poor heart like nearby thunder. No longer did she remind him of one of Earth's lush, wild forests with the muggy hint of a storm and the tang of the scorched ozone that can only come from lightening striking somewhere nearby. Within his heart, he had watched her presence slowly darken during her time on L4. Now she was that same lush, wild forest during a raging storm where lightening strikes trees and the scorched ozone smell was overpowered by the scent of scorched and sometimes burning plant life. She was the essence of a night when all of the sensible people and animals took shelter for the duration of the storm and prayed to their creator. Someone or something on L4 had riled her up.
Her presence had finally reached such a pitch that he could no longer avoid the issue. Quatre needed to talk to the girl. Such rage was unhealthy and destructive – a fact that he was well acquainted with on a very personal level. He still deeply regretted the actions that he had taken after his father's death, spurred on by his overwhelming rage, grief, and sense of betrayal. His lingering regret, like a foul taint upon his already shadowed soul, would not allow him to ignore the girl's feelings. She would not wish to speak with him about her problems but he would be tenacious. He could not allow her to make the same mistakes that he had made.
…
Hiiro was in the process of giving himself yet another physical. Ami Mizuno seemed to have that effect on him. As he waited for the cuff to finish taking his blood pressure, he recalled exactly what had prompted yet another self-imposed physical.
He had been going about his daily life when his vid-phone rang. Expecting it to be one of his fellow Gundam pilots, he was understandably shocked when it was Ami on the other end of the vid-phone. His entire world shifted on its axis in that moment. Even as his head reeled with the implications of her phone call – As her literature partner, he had given her his number but had never expected her to ever actually use it because no one entirely sane ever called him. And she certainly appeared to be entirely sane. When she had begun to cheerfully chatter at him, his responses had been monosyllabic grunts – not that his lack of participation seemed to stop her. Rather she offered him a rather large, rather scary smile that made the small hairs on the nape of his neck stand up and raised warning flags within the part of his mind that ensured his continued survival. Then the scary smile faded and she hitched their man-made child higher on her shoulder, as if she needed to keep her hands occupied. Her face had unaccountably grown pink and she had begun to stutter.
Eventually, she had asked in rushed Japanese, "W-Would you l-like to…to go out with m-me? Tomorrow night?"
His brain melted down, his lungs ceased to breathe properly, and his heart began to hammer as if he had just completed a particularly difficult mission. The next few minutes of his life could only be attributed to insanity, brought about by one too many head traumas and a severe case of spontaneous oxygen deprivation.
"Out?" He parroted stupidly in English. "Tomorrow? Saturday?"
She nodded, her head moving a touch too fast.
"Hai!" She nodded her head jerkily, oblivious to her continued use of Japanese. "T-To work on our project. It seems impossible to go out and have fun as a single parent with a child. I would like to see if two young parents and a child would have a better time of it."
Her face was so red that it reminded him of the one time that he had had a sunburn. He had been sunburned shortly after his first arrival on Earth, unused to the surprising heat created by natural sunlight. He had never been sunburned while living on the colonies, under their artificial sunlight. The entire sunburn experience had been unpleasant and painful. Noticing the redness of her face brought his attention to the fact that his own face was unaccountably, and rather uncomfortably, hot. He desperately hoped that his face looked nothing like hers. He had never blushed in his life and he most certainly was not about to start now.
"I agree that it would be best to finish the project with thorough and accurate results. Where and when shall we meet?"
Events had moved rapidly as details were hammered out. When Ami had finally hung up, Hiiro was left staring at the vid-screen, shell-shocked.
"What the Hell just happened?" He demanded of no one in particular.
Shaking his head, Hiiro had decided that it was necessary to deviate from his regular schedule – there seemed to be something wrong with his blood pressure. Rapidly, he had haul out the equipment necessary to give himself yet another physical. But even as he examined himself, he mulled over the fact that during their conversation, Ami had reverted to Japanese when she was stressed. And he had responded to her, albeit in English, clearly demonstrating his own knowledge of the language. While neither gaff was terrible in and of itself, it bothered him that neither of them had noticed either discrepancy during their conversation. He had only realized what had happened after his conversation with Ami had been long over. And Ami, with her fearsome intellect, would not fail to notice the discrepancies either. Even as he cherished the additional information about Ami, Hiiro worried about his reactions to her. It was not a healthy thing for someone in his profession to miss such glaring errors. Even minor errors threatened his continued existence and the future of the human race. If he made such a large mistake while operating his gundam… The very thought of the consequences made him shiver.
Ami was becoming something of a problem – a distraction and an addiction. He would have to do something about her – soon.
…
Usagi had captured Trowa's left arm as soon as they had left the house, her own hand tucking into his elbow. For awhile she had chattered at him, lovingly comparing flavors and types of ice cream and debating with herself which would be the best to eat. He had listened, slightly awed by the effort she put into such trivial matters. He had never heard of most of the flavors and combinations that she was listing although, to be honest, he had never eaten ice cream before either. Keeping his face expressionless, he listened attentively in an effort to prevent himself from committing any noticeable social gaffs during their outing. Eventually, Usagi's seemingly ceaseless words trailed off into a companionable silence.
Now he watched her watch the world around her, a look of wonder on her face. He knew that she was Earth-born – she had to be – but her delight in even the smallest things puzzled him. He knew for a fact that Earth had vid-phones, electrical cars, and voice-activated electronics. But even those little things, things that had been around for centuries, always seemed to hold her attention and fascinate her.
Seemingly sensing his regard, she looked up at him, then flashed him a brilliant smile, one that lit up her entire face and made her eyes sparkle. He forgot how to breathe, his heart stumbling in his chest. Never in his life had anyone regarded him with such obvious joy. Not even Catherine, beloved sister that she was to him.
Usagi took a deep breath then made a face, breaking the spell. Trowa found himself silently gasping for breath, his body demanding the oxygen that he had deprived it of.
"The air… Why does it taste this way?"
His eyebrow arched at her unusual verb choice.
"It is recycled. It always smells this way."
Usagi made a face and opened her mouth. Whatever reply she had been about to make was cut off in a loud, piercing squeal. She hopped up and down lightly, tugging on his arm.
"Trowa! Trowa! Look! The ice cream stand in front of the park is open!"
And with that, her hand slid down his forearm, grasping his hand in hers. Then she took off sprinting, forcing him to run too or be dragged. He chose to run.
Why was she so excited? The ice cream stand was always there and was definitely open for business.
Nevertheless, he found himself hustled into line by his smaller companion. Impatiently, she danced from foot to foot, occasionally attempting to peer over the heads and shoulders of the people in front of them. As she was so very short, it never worked quite the way she wanted it to. It was amusing to watch – even if it made her impatient and cross. Wisely, Trowa swallowed his smile.
When they finally reached the counter, Usagi proceeded to order something large and elaborate that, apparently, required expansive hand gestures in order to convey the order properly. When she finally finished with her order, Usage thumped back onto her heels and eyed Trowa expectantly.
"What would you like, Trowa?"
He blinked at her, expressionless. Usagi, however, seemed to be learning the knack of interpreting his minute changes of expression. Either that or it was a particularly telling silence. However she came by her intel, it seemed to aggravate her. She stomped her foot and glared at him.
"You will have ice cream Trowa!"
He shrugged, then directed his attention to the ice cream vendor. It really was not worth fighting about.
"Chocolate."
"Large" Usagi put in, glaring at him still. "And on a cone with whipped cream and sprinkles."
Silently he nodded his assent and paid the requested amount. Usagi had a positively enraptured expression on her face when she accepted her icy creation. Gingerly, he took his ice cream cone. He watched for several moments as she ferociously attacked her ice cream cone, manners and dignity completely forgotten. He watched, fascinated and repulsed, for several minutes until something sticky and wet trickled over his fingers.
He looked down, annoyed to find his ice cream melting all over him. He gave it a particularly hard look. If anything it began to melt faster, if only to spite him. Usagi noticed his predicament at about that moment as evidenced by her shriek of indignation.
"Trowa-kun! You're not supposed to let it melt! Lick it! Quickly! Save your ice cream!"
He looked first at her then the ice cream then back at her. Silently, he arched an eyebrow. Usagi stomped her foot, nearly catching his foot underneath her own.
"Just do it!"
He sighed and tentatively licked his dubious treat. Taste exploded in his mouth – he made a small, deeply appreciative noise at the back of his throat. He had had chocolate bars before – who hadn't? – but this was somehow different….more… This was heaven in a cool, sticky package.
Much to his shame and Usagi's clear delight, he found himself greedily licking up the tendrils of melted ice cream before setting to work on the main body of ice cream eagerly.
"Everyone loves ice ream" Usagi intoned with deep satisfaction. Her tone was so smug, so irritating that Trowa promised himself to get even with her later… Right now he was busy.
…
Artemis flopped theatrically onto Minako's bed.
"This is the stupidest, most harebrained scheme that you've ever come up with! You're abusing your powers, Minako!"
Minako tossed her head before she began rooting around in her dresser for pajamas.
"You're just jealous that you didn't think of it first!"
Artemis snorted derisively.
"What can we possibly be accomplishing by running around pretending to be our own satisfied customers?"
"We're drumming up business, of course!"
"A successful business is not the main purpose of our lives in this colony cluster! We're here to protect these people! Your powers are to protect and preserve life, not to trick the masses out of their hard earned cash!"
"Artemis, I'm protecting and preserving our lives! And I'm not tricking them! I can do everything I was telling them that we did!"
"But you don't have to do any of this! You could live more than comfortably off of the money Usagi-chan gave you!"
"I don't want to live off of her charity!"
There was a moment of stunned silence from Artemis. Minako took the opportunity to grab her pajamas, bang her dresser shut, and storm into the bathroom, slamming the door behind her. When Minako reemerged from the bathroom, she dumped her clothes in a corner of her bedroom and moved to sit stiffly on the edge of her bed, her expression a study in controlled patience.
"I'm the head of her guard, Artemis. I should be able to take care of myself. If I can't do that, how will I be able to take care of her?"
Artemis slowly, carefully, crept into Minako's lap.
"I didn't realize that you worried about such things," he admitted.
Absently, Minako began to pet his fur; a gesture designed to comfort both of them.
"How could I not? In this Time, my duties are beginning to stare me in the face. I'll have to step up and be the head of her Senshi soon. And the ruler of Venus! If we had done this properly – if Chibiusa-chan hadn't screwed up the Time Stream, I'd be ready." Her expression broke, betraying her true feelings. "But I'm a stupid, scared teenager! I'm not ready for any of this Artemis!"
"How do you know that you'd be ready for any of this if you had a few centuries to prepare? You don't! The other you – the you-that-might-have-been – probably didn't feel particularly ready either. Ruler of Venus and Leader of the Senshi are both very important, difficult tasks – ones that you will succeed at beautifully. No pun intended. You were brilliant when you were the only Senshi to be awakened and ruling Venus is in your blood. Some part of you is still that princess from the Silver Millennium. When the time comes, she'll wake up and help you do what needs to be done. And you won't have to do any of it all alone. You'll always have me, Mina. And I'd follow you into Hell and back again."
Minako swept her cat up and hugged him to herself tightly, her eyes prickling with suppressed tears.
"I love you Artemis! You always know what to say to make me feel better. What would I do without you?"
"Crazy, dangerous things."
Minako laughed a bit tearfully.
"Probably. Good thing I have you around then."
"And you always will."
Minako sighed. "Can we talk about the business in the morning?"
"Of course."
And with that cat and girl went to bed.
…
Makoto groaned. Whoever was at her door was irritating. It was the middle of the night and some moron had been ringing her bell for the past five minutes at precisely thirty-second intervals. She knew, because she had been timing him for the past two minutes. She was tempted to try to ignore him for another few minutes – she really could not think of anyone on L4 that would intentionally ring her doorbell – but decided that another two minutes of this would drive her homicidal. As it was, she was merely tempted to break all ten of her visitor's fingers – twice.
Huffing, she flung her blankets aside and stormed through her bedroom and living room. She yanked the door open, already glaring death.
"What?"
The sight of her employer standing on her doorstep brought her up short. He blinked up at her mildly, an expression of confusion on his face.
'Which is only fair' she thought grumpily. 'I nearly swallowed my tongue!'
"Did I catch you at a bad time?" the blond man inquired mildly.
A surreptitious look at his watch showed that it was only about 9:30 on a Friday night. Not very late at all. She tried to smooth out her features into something resembling polite interest or even something less homicidal. The curl of her lip combined with his half step back made her doubt her effectiveness.
'It's always a bad time on this miserable colony filled with these wretched excuses for human beings. Usagi-chan picks the worst causes.' Instead of saying that out loud, she bared her teeth in a smile and gritted out, "I was sleeping. As you can see, I'm not very friendly when I first wake up."
Her employer smiled sympathetically but wisely refrained from commenting. Instead he regarded her with large, liquid eyes swimming with emotions. Makoto very carefully avoided analyzing what she saw there.
"May I come in?"
Makoto weighed her options as she openly eyed the young man in front of her. She did not particularly enjoy her job but she did not want to leech off of Usagi. He was not particularly imposing or strong looking. She could probably punt him through the wall without becoming her sailor senshi self if things got out of hand. And she was, despite frequent phone calls, a bit lonely and bored. This could be mildly interesting. She could always break his fingers later, claim it was self-defense to the police, then flee the colony before he could level charges and buy a judge. The added bonus to that was that she could never be forced to come back to this hellhole ever again.
That last thought made her lips twist themselves into something more pleasant, accommodating, and terrifying. She noticed with dark amusement when Quatre twitched and took another step back. She tipped the door a little wider in invitation and he came inside anyway.
He looked around with curious, appraising eyes as she lead him down the short hallway and into the cramped living room.
"Have a seat. I'll make tea."
"Oh no! Really don't trouble yourself! I know I'm already quite an imposition and –"
"I need tea" Makoto interrupted.
Quatre wisely closed his mouth and nodded.
Silence descended between them as Makoto brewed the tea. After their first sips of the beverage, Makoto demanded, "Why are you here?"
It had never been her way to shy away from something difficult or unpleasant.
Quatre rubbed his chest, over his heart.
"You're so unhappy… so terribly angry… " He began.
Makoto felt her grip tighten on her teacup but allowed him to continue.
"…Your presence was always too large, too strong, and so overwhelming within my Uchuu no Kokoro. No human has ever – could ever – feel like that. It was distracting. It was like having nearby thunder rumble through my house and into my heart."
Makoto's grip tightened further but she still could not think of what he was accusing her of, exactly, so she was uncertain what exactly she should say or do to protect herself and her mission.
Quatre, seemingly oblivious to her turmoil – or simply ignoring it – continued on.
"I went to Earth once or twice a few years back. It was a fantastic place." His voice softened as he remembered Earth then gained strength when he returned his thoughts to her. "You used to remind me of one of Earth's forests during a spring storm. But lately… lately you've been darkening. In my heart you are now that same forest during a typhoon. You feel like…like you have lost you peace, your balance."
The teacup shattered in Makoto's grasp. Shards of cheap china stabbed themselves into her hands, accompanied by the sudden, refreshing distraction of a relatively minor injury. Makoto did not make a sound as she was injured, instead thanking any god listening for the distraction, for the chance to gather herself before replying to the irritatingly observant man.
Quatre, however, cried out loudly enough for both of them.
"Miss Kino! Your hands!" He looked around her kitchen wildly for a moment then snatched up a dishrag from next to the sink. Carefully she accepted the cloth.
"There's a first aid kit in the bathroom" Makoto said helpfully, her mind racing with ways to distract and ultimately get rid of her guest.
Nodding, Quatre hurried off which left Makoto with several seconds of alone time. Plenty of time to think up a very convincing lie…Unfortunately, none came to mind. She was simply going to have to tell the truth as she shoved him out the door – after he finished plucking the china shards out of her palms.
Decision made, Makoto was calm when Quatre hustled back into the room with her over-sized first aid kit. Armed with a pair of tweezers and the shattered cup's saucer, he bent over her hands and began plucking the china out of her cuts.
The silence stretched between them, taut and uncomfortable.
"Am I hurting you? You can cry."
Makoto snorted.
"This is nothing. Really."
And in the scheme of things, it really wasn't anywhere close to the worst wounds she had ever received – those had ended in her death. Still, Quatre frowned and pressed his lips together.
"So –"
"I don't want to talk about it."
"But –"
"It's none of your business."
Truthful. Unfortunately she could not complete the second part of her plan as he was nowhere near finished with her hands.
"I could help you."
Makoto snorted. "I doubt it."
"Really, I would help you to –"
"The only person that can help me doesn't live on this colony cluster."
"Oh. Well, we'll just have to call him…or her."
Makoto laughed, grudging but honest.
"You're a good man. Nosy and irritating but you have good intentions."
Quatre blinked up at her.
"Uh…Thanks."
There was a beat of more comfortable silence then Quatre tried again, his expression earnest.
"I understand how you feel. Really. During the war – the last real war – "
"I don't want to hear about it."
Quatre looked up at her with wide, wounded eyes. Makoto flinched but hardened her heart. She knew where this was going. Her voice was low, fierce, when she spoke.
"You're going to open yourself up to me, give me a key to your heart, then expect me to give you one in return. I won't. I gave the keys to my heart away a long time ago – long before your last war or anything that came before it. My keys are far away with that important person – the most important person in my life. And while I'm on L4, far away from that person, the locks on my heart will remain shut. There is no one and nothing here that is in need of rescue."
Quatre stared at her, transparent in his thoughtfulness.
"As you wish."
He rose and silently made his made to the door where he slipped out without saying goodbye.
The sinking feeling in Makoto's stomach confirmed what she had heard behind his words. He would be back. He would try again. He was, apparently, a determined nuisance.
Makoto sighed and settled back in her chair.
…
It was in the wee hours of Saturday morning when Rei and Yuuchirou found their way back to the Temple. Rei's grandfather had fallen asleep on the porch, waiting for them. Tenderly, Rei covered the feisty old man up, then allowed Yuuchirou to escort her to her room. At the entrance to her private territory within the house, they both paused. Rei looked up at him, anxious and awkward. She fiddled with her hands and looked everywhere but at him. Finally, when she could stand it no longer, she glared up at him, ready to yell at him for not kissing her. Just when she opened her mouth to speak, though, he leaned down and caught her mouth with his own. This kiss, unlike the ones preceding it, was not sweet or innocent. It was soft, it was gentle, and it was…hungry. His hands, large and warm, came up to catch her around the waist and pull her into him. And Rei, impulsive, passionate Rei, found that all she could do was hold onto him tightly and, for once, let him lead her.