To Give Warning Chapter 1 Rabbit Rampage, a sailor moon fanfic

To Give Warning
By Douglas Helm and "Tuxedo" Will Wolfshohl

Authors' Forewords:

This idea first came into being several years ago. We were discussing the possibly of doing a World War II story unrelated to any anime since we both share a common interest in the history of that era. However, that digressed into what impact the Sailor Senshi being present in World War II Imperial Japan might have had on events. From that dialog, the kernel for this story developed. Due to the fact that other stories were ahead of it though, we had to delay production on this work until now. We hope you will enjoy this story as we return to our roots and explore yet another unique concept. Your comments are encouraged.

This story is set in the original Japanese Sailor Moon® anime's "Super" arc, which was aired in Japan in 1994.

This story and our other Sailor Moon stories reside at our Shoujo Fiction dot com website.

Rating: PG

Chapter 1 "Rabbit Rampage"

Sunday, May 8, 1994
Azuba-Juuban District, Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan

"U-sa-gi! Telephone!" came the voice of her mother Ikuko from downstairs. Tsukino Usagi (AKA Sailor Moon, Princess Serenity, Leader of the Sailor Senshi, and ditzy fifteen year old junior high school student) jerked upright from where she had been dozing at the desk in her bedroom. Her textbook had stuck to the side of her face and there was a small damp spot on one of the pages from where some drool had leaked on it. "Wha?" was the petite blonde's response.

Her mother called her again. Getting up, she responded, "Coming Mom!" Coming downstairs, she smiled as she saw her mother standing at the bottom of them. "Nani? Who is it?"

"Makoto dear."

"Arigato Mom," Usagi chirped. She gave her mom a quick hug and then picked up the receiver. "Hey Mako-chan!" she greeted her friend.

"My, you're full of energy this morning, Usagi-chan."

"Hai!" Usagi agreed and then swallowed a yawn as her mother stared at her. "So how's things?"

"I wanted to know if you were busy today after lunch."

"No, I don't think so. Why?"

"I have a new... well sorta new recipe for cookies I'm trying out and I wanted to know if you and Chibi-Usa would help taste test them for me."

"Honto?" When Usagi got an affirmative, she said, "Hang on, Mako-chan, and I'll ask Mom if it's okay."

"Is your homework done?" the middle-aged mother of two asked when her daughter asked permission to go to Makoto's apartment.

"Mo-om...!"

"Usagi..."

"I'll do it later, Mom. I promise." Usagi then played her trump card. "And Makoto invited me AND Chibi-Usa."

That made the woman take pause. "Homework. Tonight."

"Hai, hai... Tonight," Usagi agreed. "Can I go, Mom? Please?"

"I'll check your homework in the morning, Usagi-chan, and if it's not done..."

"Jeez, Mom, I said I'd do it tonight."

"All right and Chibi-Usa can go with you... and no fighting!" she warned her daughter. 'That'll get them both out of my hair for awhile.' "I'll be very unhappy if I find out you did."

Usagi winced but nodded and told Makoto she'd be over after lunch. She would have preferred not to have Chibi-Usa along too but to get some of Makoto's yummy cookies, she was willing to tolerate almost anything.

Skipping upstairs, the petite ninth-grader settled herself at her desk and was about to begin her homework anew when Luna piped up, "What was that all about, Usagi? You look pretty happy all of a sudden."

"Mako-chan invited me and Chibi-Usa over for some of her super yummy cookies." She licked her lips in anticipation. She turned to the feline and asked, "Wanna come too, Luna?"

"No, a quiet afternoon without you and Chibi-Usa bickering would be a godsend," Luna declared, sitting atop the textbook her charge had drooled on earlier, "And your mother might actually read some of that novel. It's to a good point in the plot but she's been so busy, it's been awhile since she could just curl up and read it."

"Um... Don't you think she'd find a cat reading along just the least bit I don't know... odd?" she questioned sarcastically.

"Oh no, not at all, Usagi," the black cat answered in all seriousness, "Your mom likes reading to me. She does wonderful voices for the different characters when she's alone. I wonder if she wanted to be an anime voice actor when she was younger?"

# # # # #

While there was no thunder, the rain beat a constant tattoo against the apartment windows belonging to fifteen year old Kino Makoto. The tall, well-developed teen with green eyes and brown hair wore it in a high ponytail. Unlike Makoto, Usagi wore her golden blond hair in her trademark "odangos" and long streaming pigtails. At the moment though, said girl's pigtails were pooling on the floor as she crouched in front of the oven anxiously attempting to will the cookies inside to bake faster.

"Staring at them, Usagi-chan," Makoto told her friend wryly, "Won't make them bake any faster. Haven't you heard the one about the watched pot?" Seeing her friend's disappointed expression, she added, "And I have a plate of the cookies right here. Now come and try one."

"But I like them hot!" Usagi whined. However that didn't stop the petite teen from standing up, going to the counter, where her friend was sitting on a stool, and taking one of the offered treats. "By the way, Mako-chan, arigato for inviting me and Chibi-Usa over. We love trying new things you come up with," she declared before popping the entire cookie into her mouth and swallowing it in one gulp.

"Don't be such a pig, Usagi," eight year old Tsukino Usagi Serenity (Chibi-Usa to her friends) complained. She walked over and hoisted herself up onto a stool beside her taller friend. The girl's strawberry-blond hair was styled in a similar fashion to her mother's although Chibi-Usa had cone-shaped odangos rather than round ones. "A properly lady eats with grace, not like a half-starved animal," the child informed her parroting something told to her on occasion by her mother (Neo-Queen Serenity). To demonstrate, she picked up a cookie off the tray gracefully and took a dainty bite of it. "See?"

'Of for the love of...' Makoto thought. "Usagi, please have another; there's plenty." The teenager blew a silent sigh of relief as her pigtailed friend snatched up two cookies and set about devouring them in typical Usagi-like fashion, instead of starting an argument. Nevertheless, Usagi continued to glare at her future daughter with big blue eyes as she did so. "So, how are they?"

"Sugoi!" Usagi declared, somehow managing to speak around her mouthful without spewing cookie crumbs all over the counter. "These are really yummy, Mako-chan!"

"Yeah, they are," Chibi-Usa agreed but then mocked, "But how the 'human vacuum cleaner' can taste anything is beyond me."

Usagi, who'd been reaching for a forth cookie, drew her hand back. Her face took on a thunderous expression. Makoto stepped in before an explosion could occur. "Have another, Usagi-chan. I made way too many. I won't be able to eat all of these myself." She waved at the plate and then told Chibi-Usa, "You're lucky I'm not your mom."

"Why not?" Usagi asked. Both stared at the tall brunette beside her.

"Yeah, Mako-chan. Why not?" Chibi-Usa repeated. "I bet you'd make a great mommy! I mean you know how to cook all sorts of yummy stuff and your place is always so nice and clean..." 'Even in the future.' "Unlike Usagi's pigsty of a room. And I bet you get way better grades than her." She looked pointedly with her red eyes at Usagi. "I mean Usagi ain't nothing like MY mommy." She said it more to annoy her than to reveal anything about the future.

"Because," the brunette began in answer to the girl's earlier question and careful to raise her voice just loud enough to prevent Usagi from retorting, "If I was your mom, young lady, I'd put you over my knee for being so rude to my friend and YOUR elder."

"I'm too old for that!" the eight year old protested.

"I dunno, sweetheart." Usagi chimed in. "Mom seemed to think you were young enough a couple of days ago." The little girl's cheeks turned bright pink. Not wanting Usagi to go into detail, she immediately grabbed three cookies off of the plate, turned, and hopped off the stool. She then went to sit down on Makoto's couch.

'Um, maybe that was stupid,' the brunette considered as she watched the unhappy child for a moment. She then glanced at her best friend who was looking oddly at her. "Gomen, Usagi-chan," she whispered. She picked up a cookie, took a bite, chewed, and swallowed it before continuing, "Guess I shouldn't have said that, ne?"

The blonde shook her head and replied in a low voice, "It's okay, Mako-chan." She took her friend's hand in her own. "I wish... I mean thanks for stepping in. I shouldn't let her get to me so much but it... it hurts." Usagi's blue eyes took on a pained look. "I know next to nothing about Neo-Queen Serenity and every time I get compared to her, I feel like I'm failing." 'Will I ever be that grand lady she talks about?' She sighed. "I'll make us some tea."

Makoto watched her friend for a few minutes in silence, occasionally nibbling on another cookie. 'I think I mixed too much flour in the batter,' she thought critically. Looking around for the pad on which she'd written her latest recipe down, she considered the ingredient list.

"Here," Usagi's voice said, pulling the tall girl from her musing. She placed a cup of tea before her and then came around to take a stool beside her brown-haired friend. "So would you really have done that?"

"Ne, done what?"

Usagi glanced around, apparently looking for Chibi-Usa who was idly using the remote to flip through TV channels, before saying in a whisper, "Spank her?" When Makoto simply stared at her, she prodded, "If you were her mom, I mean."

The brunette teen blushed a little but admitted, "Well... Yes. I hate how she treats you, Usagi. If she was my daughter and she behaved that way... then yes, I would." Her green eyes flashed challengingly at her friend. "She should appreciate the family that she has!" 'She doesn't realize how lucky she is.'

The tall Sailor Senshi could see some of the same rebellious spirit in Chibi-Usa that she had in herself after her parents had died so tragically. It festered into an anger that eventually lost her all her friends and turned into violence. Usagi had helped her when no one else would and turned her life around. Makoto thanked the Kamis for that. Maybe she could do the same turn for Chibi-Usa. "Usagi, I think you owe Chibi-Usa for letting that bit about your mom spanking her slip."

"That was mean of me I guess," Usagi agreed in a low voice before sipping her tea and eating another cookie. "I'll make it up to her, Mako-chan." The petite teen was silent for a few moments before saying seriously, "I... just don't know how to act around her. I know I'm gonna be her mother someday but I'm not and..." She shrugged and drank some more tea. "I'm glad I'm too old for a spanking or Mom would definitely use it the way she nags me about stuff."

"Homework not coming along so well?" Makoto guessed.

"HAI!" Chibi-Usa interrupted. The girl got up and came over to the counter. "Usagi hasn't even touched her homework!"

Usagi, who'd been about to bite into another cookie, stopped and glared at the young girl. "Nani?"

"Home-work, you know that stuff they give us in school," Chibi-Usa asked sarcastically. "The stuff Ikuko-mama was talking about before." The little girl put her hand on her heart then proudly declared to Makoto, "Mine's done!"

"That's not fair!" the pigtailed blonde whined, "Yours is majorly easier than mine,".

"Help yourself to some milk, Chibi-Usa-chan," Makoto interjected, attempting to circumvent a full-fledged fight breaking out between her two guests. When the girl got her milk and had retreated to the couch again, Makoto said in a low voice, "Come on, Usagi-chan, do you wanna flunk? We're ninth-graders now, not little kids. We have high school entrance exams to study for."

"But Mako-chan, it's so boring. You're starting to sound like Mom," she griped and stuffed a cookie into her mouth.

Makoto toyed idly with a cookie she'd picked up and then asked, "Do you like your mom ragging on you about your homework?" That got a shake of the head. "And do you think Mamoru would like a stupid wife?"

"He's just around me because he wants Serenity," Usagi pouted. The teenager took up another cookie but started to shred it as she continued, "Sure, he says he loves me but look what happened to him with Queen Beryl. Or even when..." Here she paused in the destruction of the cookie to glance at Chibi-Usa. "SHE arrived. I'm Sailor Moon and his destined love yet he dumped me to protect her."

"But didn't Mamoru stand up to Beryl in the end?"

"He was Prince Endymion at the time for PRINCESS Serenity."

"And Mamoru wants to protect you, and boys can do truly weird things when they're in love. Just look at Umino." Makoto sighed and sipped her tea when Usagi looked stubborn. 'Why can't she apply that effort to other things? I'd love to have a boyfriend that cared for me like that,' she mused and then had to laugh at herself. When the blonde gave her a questioning look, she explained, "Usagi-chan, you are by far the most strong-willed person I know. You never, ever, give up. I was just thinking that I wish you'd apply some of that tenacity to other things... like schoolwork."

"Your grades are only a little better than mine. Besides, I bet you haven't done your homework yet either," Usagi speculated.

Makoto blushed in embarrassment. "I know... I guess I sound like the pot calling the kettle black." Usagi brightened a little. "But I also know I don't wanna see my best friend and future queen failing." After taking another sip of tea, she added, "Don't you want your parents and Mamoru to be proud of you?"

"I guess..."

"And do you like Rei yelling at you?" Usagi shook her head. "Then when you leave, go home and prove to them you can work hard at something other than being lazy and eating."

"I'm not lazy!" the blonde protested.

"Yes, you are!" Chibi-Usa shot back and stuck her tongue out.

"Ignore her," Makoto instructed. "And Usagi... When we're supposed to be studying, you doddle, munch food, and read Rei's manga."

Usagi was silent for a long moment and then grumbled, "You just asked me over here so you could nag me about my homework, ne?"

"Of course not!" her friend replied loftily with a grin. 'I was lonely.' She would never tell Usagi that though. Instead, she inquired with a devilish expression on her face, "I asked you over 'cause I really wanna know what's the skinny on you and Mamoru-kun's last date. I heard from Minako it was majorly hot." She smiled as Usagi's eyes lit up. If you wanted to cheer up Tsukino Usagi, get her talking about her two favorite things: food and Mamoru. 'I just don't know which she treasures more,' she mused with a mental smirk.

# # # # #

'I am NOT sulking,' Chibi-Usa told herself firmly as she channel surfed. 'Nothing's on...' She looked over to where the two teens were sitting idling chitchatting. 'Oh man... Now they're giggling! This is so boring!' She certainly didn't want to join them. Instead, she turned the television off and started wandering around Makoto's apartment. She looked at various things while occasionally glancing back at the two older girls who had their heads close together in low voices.

Regarding the tall brunette, the little girl frowned and felt her stomach knot. 'I can't believe she said if she was my mommy, she'd... ' Chibi-Usa felt her cheeks going pink as she chopped off the unpleasant thought. 'I mean I love Usagi... It's just that...'

Returning her attention to what was in front of her, the girl spotted something intriguing. Crouching down to get a better look, her eyes widened slightly when she saw that it was a photo album. It was under a pile of other books. 'Boy, this looks old!' Chibi-Usa guessed as she worked carefully to extract it. "Come on..." the little girl muttered, "Come on..." 'I wanna find out what Makoto looked like when she was a kid.' That might give her some leverage. Despite her best efforts, she couldn't budge it.

Scowling, the youngster got one hand under the pile of books that pinning the photo album down and lifted. With the other hand, she grabbed its spine and yanked. "Hah!" she cried as her prize popped free.

"What do you think you're doing, young lady?"

"AAA!" Chibi-Usa yelled as Usagi's voice thundered close beside her. The books went flying and the strawberry-blonde girl toppled backwards to land on her butt with a thump. The album was still clutched in her hand. She looked up at Usagi standing above her with a scowl on her face. "Don't do that!" she hissed in an annoyed tone of voice.

"Well, what were you doing, Chibi-Usa?" Usagi asked, hands on hips and her blue eyes blazing. Makoto stood beside her, arms folded with a slight frown marring her face.

"Jeez, Usagi, I was trying not to be bored to death while you two were having a giggle fest," the eight year old declared while getting up, "Then I found this photo album. I wanted to have a look."

"In other words, you were snooping!"

"Curiosity killed the cat," Makoto commented.

"But satisfaction brought it back," Chibi-Usa countered with a grin and a giggle. She scowled as Makoto took the album from her and opened it. "So what are those pictures?" She always liked looking at old pictures. No pictures of the girls (much less any of their ancestors) survived into the future. It was hard to believe sometimes that they were ever little like her. That was one reason but the next was equally as important. 'If I can keep them occupied, they won't start talking about boring stuff,' she assumed as the ponytailed teen went over and sat on the couch.

"Chibi-Usa-chan, this is my family album," Makoto explained as the two Tsukino girls joined her on the sofa. "See..." she indicated while turning the book so that the first page of photographs could be seen. The center one held Makoto, though a few years younger - a preteen - and a man and woman who Usagi assumed to be Makoto's parents. "My mom and dad," Makoto answering her friend's unspoken question, pointing to each.

Usagi squinted at the picture. "Um... Mako-chan... Your dad is missing his eyebrows." She quickly apologized realizing she was making fun of the dead.

Makoto blinked, looked at the picture more closely, and then started to laugh, "Oh, I remember that. I was a big cook, even when I was ten. I... I got a little 'enthusiastic' one day and tried to do a volcanic onion." She blushed at the memory. "Boy was my dad sore at me!"

"Volcanic onion?" both of her friends asked.

"You take an onion, separate the rings, stake them like a volcano, and then fill with oil before lighting it on fire." She chuckled at her friends disbelieving expressions. "It's quite a sight if it's done right, especially when you're an aspiring chef. In that case..."

Usagi and Chibi-Usa continued to stare at Makoto for several seconds after her explanation. "See?" the strawberry-blonde demanded of her mother, "I've never done ANYTHING like that!"

"No, you just stole the Ginzuishou... twice," Usagi countered, making the little girl scowl and cross her arms in annoyance.

"Now let's see," the brown-haired teen continued as she turned several pages until she found the one that she wanted. "Ah, here we go. This is what you guys really wanna see... Me as a baby!" This immediately stopped the glaring match that mother and daughter were having.

"KAWAII! You were so cute!" Usagi exclaimed upon seeing the picture of baby Makoto. "Oh look, you even had a ponytail back then!" She pointed at the small tuft of brown hair in the photo.

"More of a topknot I think."

"Topknot?" Chibi-Usa asked, looking from the picture to regard Makoto curiously. "You mean like what the samurai had?"

"Sorta fits too considering I'm Sailor Jupiter and samurai were warriors."

"And who's this?" Chibi-Usa asked pointing to a photo in which a stern looking older fellow was standing beside Makoto's mother who was holding a baby Makoto on her lap.

"Ojii-san. My mom's dad. I never knew my grandparents on my father's side. I don't even remember him." She pointed to the picture. "I just have the photos of him. He died when I was three. Obaa-chan used to tell me about him though. Like how he got hurt during the Second World War."

"That happened a long time ago, ne?" Chibi-Usa asked while looking at one of the pictures. They had only touched upon the subject in her class.

"Hai," Makoto and Usagi said together.

"I wonder how old I'll be when I'm pregnant with Chibi-Usa?" Usagi mused.

The little girl made a sour face. "I keep telling you, Odango Atama," she squawked, "You ain't my mommy."

Makoto prepared for an explosion but all Usagi did was close her eyes, take several deep breaths, and then asked, "So, Mako-chan, what was your grandmother like?"

"Oh..." Makoto took on a distant look, a soft smile touching her lips. "She was around until I was ten so I remember a lot. Let's see..." The teenager flipped the pages until she came to one picture of a cute six year old Makoto standing in front of an elderly woman. Both were dressed in yakata and were smiling at the camera. "This was at Tanabata [Star Festival]."

"Oh wow, you and her look a lot alike," Usagi exclaimed. "Even with the age difference, I can tell you two are related." 'I wish Chibi-Usa would see it in us.' She considered and then curious wondered, "Do you have a picture of your grandmother when she was younger... maybe around our age?"

"I think so..." Makoto replied and started turning pages slowly. It took a couple of minutes for her to find the page that she wanted. When she did, she held the photo album up, resting it on her thigh so that both Usagi and Chibi-Usa could see it clearly. "Whoa..." both girls breathed. It was a black and white picture of her grandmother and a couple of other girls dated 1943 wearing worker uniforms. They all appeared to be high school aged.

"Yeah, I know. Except for the hair and the height I could pass for her."

"I think someone who knew you well would be able to tell you apart, Makoto," Usagi argued seriously, "I mean she's not..." The blonde then pointedly glanced at Makoto's bosom and then at the picture. "And your face is a little different, more angular. Hers is a little fuller..."

Makoto regarded the picture of her grandmother for several seconds and then smiled. "I loved her a lot, Usagi-chan. She loved me too." She flipped a few pages and smiled. "Here... Obaa-chan, Mom, and me that Dad took. We were going to the shrine on New Year's." She smiled down affectionately at the photograph of herself (age eight), her mother, and grandmother as they smiled for the camera. Usagi wanted to move on to a happier topic but Chibi-Usa asked a question.

"Did she teach you how to cook?" Chibi-Usa asked curiously. "Do you miss her?"

"Chibi-Usa," Usagi hissed.

"Yes, I certainly do, Chibi-Usa-chan," Makoto answered. "Both her and mom taught me to cook. Obaa-chan taught me a lot of things about life too. If I was down in the mouth, she was able to pull me out of whatever foul mood I was in." She chuckled. "If I was doing something she disapproved of, she'd just give me a look and kept on looking at me until I stopped."

"And that worked?" Usagi asked then glanced at Chibi-Usa.

"Oh, most of the time, but then I didn't want to disappoint her. Besides my parents, Obaa-chan was the most important person in my life when I was little. I wish they were still here." She flipped the pages again and smiled down at another picture. "This is the last picture I have of Obaa-chan. It was taken during Hanami [Cherry Blossom Festival] at Ueno Park." Makoto's grandmother was dressed in a bronze-colored kimono with a dark brown under-kimono. The obi was made up of tiny gray and white checks. Behind her was a large man. By his bulk, Makoto had always assumed he was a sumo wrestler.

"Oh hey, there's Usagi!" Chibi-Usa exclaimed suddenly jabbing her finger at the fat man.

"What? Where?"

"Right there!" the little girl quipped while tapping the man, "Nobody but you is that large!"

Giggling, the youngster danced away from Usagi as the blonde leapt to her feet and started chasing the eight year old around the apartment. "Come back here!" she thundered. Makoto sighed, and left the two girls two it as she carefully put away her precious photo album. "Come back here!" Usagi thundered as she continued her pursuit. "I'll show you some sumo moves!"

"You'd crush me to death!" the younger girl declared as she ran around nimbly avoiding the teen. Usagi however was not only older but faster; she had to be after all to make sure she got to school on time given her habit of waking up late. Eventually, she caught Chibi-Usa who started to struggle. "Let me go, Usagi!" the youngster demanded as she squirmed and tried to get free as Usagi started tickling her, "Heee d-don't do that! Baka Odango Atama!"

Makoto sighed and rubbed her forehead. 'Why do they always do this?' she wondered as she watched Usagi and Chibi-Usa beginning to wrestle. She winced as the pair toppled off of the couch to the floor. "THAT'S ENOUGH!" she finally shouted as the voices grew louder. Wading into the tangle of arms and legs, she pulled the two combatants apart, not caring if she wasn't very gentle. 'I don't want the neighbors calling the police...' "Usagi, there's more cookies to eat. Come and have some. I won't eat them all."

None of the girls noticed that something had fallen to the floor or in the process of the two Tsukinos being separated that the object in question had been kicked under the couch.

Usagi, looking shame-faced glanced at the window, and then announced, "Gomen, Mako-chan, thanks anyway but I think we should go home." She could tell that her friend was upset and she felt her face blushing. She bowed. "Thanks for asking us over Makoto but if we're gonna walk home, we should go now while the rain's stopped and it's still light out."

"Well, while you two get ready, I'll pack up some cookies so you can take them home with you. Give some to your parents and Shingo for me," Makoto suggested. "And Usagi, when you get home, study? Please?"

"Hai," Usagi reluctantly agreed. "Come on, Chibi-Usa-chan."

"But I don't..."

"Either come with me right now or I'll phone Mom and tell her you were being rude!" Usagi hissed.

"Me?" Chibi-Usa squeaked but the look in Usagi's eyes stopped her tirade cold. "Okay fine," she grumbled and started to get ready to leave.

# # # # #

Several minutes later, both Tsukino girls were walking down the sidewalk. "Ne, Usagi-chan," Chibi-Usa began as they paused at a red light, "Was Mako-chan grumpier than normal?"

Usagi, who was carrying a container of the homemade cookies, glanced at her daughter and then said, "I think Mako-chan is tired of us fighting, Chibi-Usa." The little girl winced. "So am I."

"Well, you started it," Chibi-Usa muttered.

"I think the problem was I refused to end it," the older girl countered as they started across the street.

"And what's that supposed to mean?" Chibi-Usa demanded as she put her hands on her hips and glared at Usagi.

"It means, young lady, that instead of doing something to stop the fight like an adult, I continued fighting with you and disrupted Mako's home," Usagi explained as she continued down the sidewalk. She came up short as the younger girl stopped and waited so she could cross the street the other way. "Hey, that's not the way home."

"It's the way over to Mamoru's," Chibi-Usa informed her.

"We're going home," Usagi told her daughter, "Now come on."

"But I want to see Mamo-chan."

"He's at work," the teen pointed out, "And I have homework to do. Now come on." 'I owe Makoto that for making these great cookies for us.' The child scowled. "Listen, Chibi-Usa-chan, I don't know what your problem is today but fix it! I don't care what sort of carrot you got up your nose but I love you and nothing you do is gonna change that!" Usagi declared. Reaching out, she firmly grasped the younger girl's hand. "Now, home!"

# # # # #

Makoto let out a groan and flopped down onto her couch. She had a headache the size of Mount Fuji! "I love Usagi," she confided to her plants, "But sometimes that girl drives me up the wall. She can be so mature sometimes but then it flows away like water down a drain!" She let out a sigh and closed her eyes.

After sitting like that for some time, she got up again and went to make herself some tea. "I'll use Obaa-chan's recipe. That always seemed to work for Granddad when his leg started hurting him, or so she told me." Makoto paused in filling the tea kettle. She started to chuckle and shook her head. 'I wonder what the others would think if they knew I talked to my plants and discussed my problems with them?'

While she was waiting for the water to come to a boil, the phone rang. Picking it up, "Moshi moshi, Kino residence!"

"Hey girlfriend!" came the normally bubbly voice of Aino Minako.

"Mina-chan?" Makoto asked, "Are you okay? You sound like you got laryngitis or something..."

"Gotta be quiet," her friend whispered. "I'm sorta grounded."

The brunette lifted her eyebrows. "Grounded? You?"

"Ha! Ha!" the beribboned blonde huffed sarcastically before asking, "So?"

"So what?" Makoto asked, taking the kettle off the burner and starting to prepare herself tea.

"So did you talk to Usagi about the you-know-what?"

"No."

"No?" Minako squeaked and then things on her end went very quiet before she asked in a quiet voice, "No? But Makoto..."

"Chibi-Usa came over with her. I couldn't exactly ask Usagi to come over for a watch-the-hunks movie night with her in the room, now could I? Chibi-Usa would wanna come over and we all agreed that there would be no kids allowed." The ponytailed teen made a face. "Of course, sometimes I'm not sure who the bigger kid between the two of them is."

"I take it they fought?" Minako speculated after several seconds of silence.

"Minako, if Chibi-Usa was my child..."

"Listen, Mako-chan, just... talk to Usagi, 'kay?"

"I don't know why it's gotta be me," Makoto grumbled.

"Because I'm grounded..."

"And will you be 'ungrounded' by next weekend?"

"Um... I think so. But Usagi... It has to be you because Rei's got stuff goin' on at the shrine. Ami's dad's in town so you're the best choice. I need to know if Usagi can come 'cause then I can tell my parents that even Usagi, who has worse grades than I do, is going. But if I don't start working on my parents soon, they'll just think I'm making things up." And then in a cheesy cowboy accent, the blonde continued, "However, li'l darling, if'n they knows I'm bein' left be-hind, then me parents will grant me clemency."

"Fine," Makoto reluctantly agreed. "Now hang up, Minako-chan. I have a headache... and it's the size of Jupiter now."

Minako said her goodbyes and hung up. No sooner had Makoto replaced the receiver, then the phone rang again. "Moshi moshi?"

"So?"

"No, Rei-chan, I didn't ask her."

"Why not?" Rei demanded. "Don't tell me you're getting as irresponsible as Odango..." Makoto hung up the phone before the fiery shrine maiden could finish her rant.

When the phone rang again, the brunette seriously considered not answering it but with a sigh, she did so but didn't say anything. "Mako-chan?" came the tentative question after about five seconds of silence.

"Hey Ami-chan," Makoto said a bit more contentedly, "What's up?"

"Um... Am I bothering you?"

"Not really. I just have a lulu of a headache."

"Oh, Makoto-san, I was just wondering if you could please give me some advice with a recipe? I mean if you're not busy that is."

Makoto smiled. "Ami-chan, let me just pour myself a cup of tea and then you can tell me what the situation is."

"Arigato, you're a lifesaver."

End of Chapter 1

Coming next in Chapter 2 "A Late Night Visit"