Cycle of Our Souls: Heart's Love
Part I
Raven Moon
aka, M is for Mars
Disclaimers and the like:
The characters mentioned in this story do not belong to me, and I'm not making any money with this.
Hi again. :) This story is a sequel to Cycle of Our Souls: Heart's Fire. While it isn't absolutely necessary to have read that one, it would be helpful. The chapter after this is Cycle of Our Souls: Heart's Thunder, about Lita and Nephrite.
Anyway, this is similar to the first one in that all text between the lines of "-" symbols takes place in the Silver Millennium, and in those sections I use the Japanese names except for Serena/Usagi and Malachite/Kunzite. And, also, the text between the lines of "---asterisk---" symbols is Mina's thoughts and takes place a few weeks after the end of Sailor Moon R, and before Sailor Moon S.
Like I said, the song in here isn't by me, but by Dave Matthews, and is called "Little Thing." The lyrics I use are not the ones you would find on a Dave Matthews lyrics web site, but are the ones I took directly from listening to the version of this song on "Live at Luther College". The reason I went to all that trouble? These lyrics are better (if a little garbled since enunciation isn't Dave's strong point) and they fit the story more closely. I used most of the little speech he made before singing the song in here, too.
I enjoyed the feedback I've received for the original "Cycle of Our Souls," and I hope I get some on this one, too. So... review me:)
"Oh, Gods, I'm going to be late!" Mina Aino cried with a glance at the clock. If she didn't run, she was going to be late for school... it was creepy how much like Serena she was getting to be. Grabbing up her bag, Mina hurried from her house, a piece of toast in hand. "This is the third time in a week! Artemis, what's wrong with me?" she asked her guardian cat.
"Save your breath for running, Mina!" he yelled back.
The blond ducked her head and sped up, running with everything she had and not paying a bit of attention to where she was going. Suddenly she hit something and fell sprawling, her bag flying through the air one way, her toast the other.
"Oh, gomen nasai! I didn't see you!" she cried, jumping to her feet and helping the man up as well. Her breath caught in her throat as he shook his strange silvery hair back to reveal a truly beautiful face - fine, but strong, features, darkly tan skin and silver-violet eyes. "I... gomen... I should've been paying attention..." she stuttered.
He smiled slightly. "It's all right, I wasn't watching either. Actually, I'm a little lost. Perhaps you could give me directions?"
Completely forgetting that she was late, Mina smiled as brightly as she could. "Hai, of course. Where are you going?" He told her, she directed him, and then Artemis nudged up against her leg. Glancing down at her cat, the girl suddenly remembered the reason for her earlier haste. "I'm glad I could help!" she called to the rather startled young man before hurrying off.
He continued on his way but stopped after only a few steps. Turning around, he was about to call the girl back, but she was gone. He frowned sadly and shook his head. "I didn't even ask her name," he said to the empty air before him. "I should've asked her name."
---insert line of asterisks here---
Gods... what a day that was! I was late for school, of course, and then late for the Senshi meeting after school... I spent all day listening to everyone yell at me! I even, if you can believe it, forgot about running into him. I forgot all about those strange, magical eyes and that shiny silver-mint hair... how in the world could I have forgotten? I was turning into Serena!
It was those dreams. Everyday for a month I overslept because I'd spent the night tossing and turning my way through some stupid dream I could never remember when I woke up. That was the strangest part, actually... I woke up so happy, but completely clueless as to what the dream was about. It was frustrating. I wish I could've remembered... I wish I had known... but oh well. No point in spilling milk just to cry over it.
Later, when I remembered running into him on the street, I wished I had asked his name or told him mine or something, not just run away like a fool. I wanted to see him again, but I figured he must've been a tourist or something since he didn't know where he was going. I moped, then laughed at myself. Mina no baka! He's just some guy you ran into on the street... you can't even say you met him.
That was before the coffee shop, of course. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
---insert line of asterisks here---
"Thank Kami-sama it's Saturday!" Serena Tsukino cried to the group in general. "I'm so sick of school I could scream."
"Me too!" Mina agreed brightly. "I've been late almost every day this week."
"I remember," Artemis grumbled under his breath.
"Hey, where do you want to sit, minna?" Raye Hino asked them, gesturing at the parkland spread out before them.
"Ohhhh, by the lake!" Serena squealed. "Look at the sun reflecting off of it! It's just like a postcard!"
"Jay, Darien, come on! We're gonna sit by the lake!" Raye called over her shoulder. "Those guys are so slow... what's taking them so long?"
"Well, Darien wanted to ask Jay about this miniature rose bush he's trying to get growing in his apartment. He's had to throw out two of them because they died, and the third looks to be on its way," Serena explained.
"The food's gonna get cold!" Lita Kino said, indicating the giant picnic basket in her arms. "I worked all morning to make this stuff, so they better hurry up."
"Lita, I think they should be more worried about Serena eating it all than it getting cold!" Raye said with a laugh.
"Raye!" Serena cried hotly, sticking her tongue out at the dark-haired girl.
"Hey!" Mina suddenly said, startling them all. "I know that guy! I ran into him on the street the other day and he asked me for directions." She pointed and the other girls followed her arm, squinting.
"Are we bird watching?" Jay Dalinger, Raye's boyfriend, asked as he came upon the small group.
"Mina says she knows that guy over there," Amy Anderson explained. "The one with the white hair."
"Nai, Amy, not white... silver... silver with a greenish tint to it," Mina said dreamily.
The other girls shared a knowing glance, but Jay was staring at the man intently. "He looks... vaguely familiar..."
"Familiar?" Raye asked sharply. "Familiar from where?" Jay had been, at one point in his life, their enemy Jadeite. None of the girls knew whether the other three Dark Kingdom generals were alive or if they could be considered friends... or foes. They had been on very careful watch ever since discovering Jay's true identity.
Suddenly the spell was broken and Jay shrugged and shook his head. "I don't know... I think it was my imagination. So where're we eating, firefly?"
"By the lake," Serena said grumpily, "but the food is going to be ruined if we don't get over there!"
Darien Chiba laughed and threw an arm over his girlfriend's shoulders. "Then I guess we'd better hurry along, huh, meatball head?"
"I know where you've seen him before," Amy said to Jay as they walked. "I think he plays at Jackson's Java in Azabu."
"That coffee shop?" Mina asked, perking her ears toward their conversation.
"Hai, I bet that's it," Jay agreed after a moment. "He's their house musician, ne?"
"Something like that," Amy said with a nod.
"I have an idea!" Serena cried, knowing exactly what was on Mina's mind. "We could all go over there tonight and hear him play!"
Mina's grin was so bright it threatened to blind them all. "That's a marvy idea, Serena! I've heard that place has really good coffee... and that... oh, what's his name? I don't remember, but everyone says he's really good. Have you heard him play, Amy? What about you, Jay? Darien, you know people who live in Azabu, don't you? Do they think he's good? I bet he's great. He just looks like he'd be a good musician, doesn't he?" Mina prattled on and the others shared a secret smile. It was going to be an interesting evening.
The group arrived at Jackson's Java on the dot of eight o'clock. Mina pointed to the sign outside the door. "'Malachy Levinworth, tonight at eight o'clock'! That must be him! Oh, minna, we're perfectly on time."
"Yeah, for once," Raye commented with a wry grin in Serena's direction.
The girls found the group a table fairly close to the stage while Jay and Darien went to order. "I don't even like coffee," Serena was explaining to Lita, "but Darien says they have really yummy cinnamon-flavored stuff, so I'm gonna take his word for it."
"That's right, Serena," the brunette told her, "it's good to expand your horizons."
"Shhh," Mina hissed, "he's about to start!"
"Malachy's kind of a strange name, don't you think?" Lita whispered to Amy.
"It's Irish," the blue-haired girl whispered back, "but he doesn't look very Irish. I think there's a saint in Christian theology named Malachy... but he doesn't look very saintly, either."
Just then the guys returned, so everyone was busy fixing coffee to his or her exact tastes -- for Serena that meant dumping nearly the entire sugar dispenser into her cup and then still making horrible faces after the first sip. "It's disgusting!" she choked out. "Darien, are you trying to kill me?"
He laughed, apologized and went back to order her some tea.
"This next song," Malachy was saying, "has a little story behind it. See, the other day I was walking down the street over in Juuban and this girl ran into me at a hundred kilos an hour. Knocked me right on my ass, to tell the truth." There was a smattering of laughter, but at the Senshi's table everyone was listening intently.
"This girl, she was tiny... not young, just tiny," he continued, "and absolutely gorgeous... lots of very blond hair. I was lost, so I asked her directions... I don't remember where I was going... but she said, 'Go down here, over there, around there, go over there, then you're there' or something," -- a little more laughter -- "so anyway, I walked away, and I got a few paces down the sidewalk and I stopped and thought, 'Damn... that girl was kawaii!' So I turned around to tell her so, and ask her maybe her name or
for coffee or something, but she was gone.
"I mean, I was sure if I turned around she'd be standing there, but..." He'd been lightly strumming his guitar through the whole story, but now he began to sing,
"She talked so good,
But when I turned around,
She was gone,
Oh, she was gone...
I didn't even get her name,
But I thought,
'Goodness, girl, oh your face is in my mind,
And your voice in my ears still echoes.'
Oh, I bought you lovely flowers
And went to stand where we met that day
In the hopes that you would return,
But no, no, no, no..."
Mina, at this point, was about to jump up out of her chair. "Kami-sama, minna!" she whispered to her friends. "I think he's talking about me!"
"Shh!" Serena said. "Let's listen!"
"I can't remember where I was going.
I can't remember where I was leading to,
Or what lead me to you,
But you made yourself in my head,
The look of you, the sound,
The way you cackled at me for not knowing where I was going.
But always I love this way!
And hands you pull,
My hands are on you again.
Please, I beg you, oh I beg of you,
See me, please find me again, love."
"He's gotta be talking about me! Can you believe that? Gods! Should I yell at him?"
"Calm down, Mina! Wait, let him finish the song," Amy told her.
"I'm lost again,
And I sit here drinking coffee or water,
Depending on the time of day,
But, oh, you're always with me like a ghost of a mother,
Oh, you're with me like the pain of a father.
I wish I could call you something other than 'The Girl That I Saw Then.'
I would recognize you in a second
Even though I only saw you for a minute, maybe less.
I don't hold my hand where, but I held an goddess
And I lost her, lost her.
I can't remember what I used to be,
But I'm laid in, laid in by the memory of a love that never got born."
"Oh!" Serena breathed. "Isn't that just the sweetest thing you've ever heard? What if he is talking about you, Mina?"
"How many beautiful little blond girls can there be in Juuban?" Darien, having returned with Serena's tea, countered. "Two is plenty, and you haven't reported running into anyone recently, meatball head."
"Other than you, Muffin," she said, "and that was on purpose."
"Oh, lady, do I even cross your mind with more than just a laugh?
Did you think as you walked away, my dear, you were in love?
Oh, I hope you did, because then you would be feeling the same thing as I am now.
Ohhhh, you little thing."
As he sang the last line, Mina sat back in her chair with wide, delighted eyes. "It is about me. As soon as he finishes this set, I'm gonna go talk to him!" she said excitedly.
"Can you imagine how many girls must come up to him after hearing that song?" Lita asked dreamily. "He's so kawaii... I bet he gets a couple zillion claiming to be the girl he's singing about."
"Hai, and not just blondes," Raye agreed.
"You a little jealous there, firefly? Gomen nasai, but music just isn't one of my talents," Jay said teasingly.
"Iie, but you have plenty of other talents that more than make up for it," she replied with a wink.
Mina giggled and stirred her coffee with a sigh. "It might not be me, though. Or maybe he doesn't mean it, he just thought it would be a good thing to write a song about. Or maybe it is about me and he's some hentai who just wants... well... you know."
"That's it for me tonight, minna," Malachy was saying, "but I'll be back tomorrow, same time. You've been great! Arigato!"
"Well now's your chance to find out," Lita told her over the applause. "Go talk to him!"
"Yeah, girl," Raye urged, "you've got nothin' to lose!"
"And if he tries anything, we're right here," Jay said, twisting his face into his version of a Frightening Glare.
"Go on, Mina. Remember what he said? He's haunted 'by the memory of a love that never got born.' Do you want to be haunted by the same thing?" Serena said reasonably.
"Ok," she said with a grin, "I'll do it!"
"Ganbatte!" the others cried as she walked toward the side of the stage. She cast a smile over her shoulder at her friends, cleared her throat, and tapped him on the shoulder.
It had been a damn long day. First, he'd been stood up that morning at the park, then he'd broken three guitar strings writing his new song... the new song... about the girl from the street. Malachy Levinworth sighed and shook his head. He knew he'd never see her again -- there were zillions of girls in Tokyo -- but he couldn't let go of that small glimmer of hope.
That's why he had written the song. He figured the girl might come into the coffee shop one night and she might hear it and the story might sound familiar... and, hell, she might even recognize him. There was no doubt he would recognize her: that long, pale blond hair held back by the cheerful red bow; those sweet, wide blue eyes so full of light and laughter... he sighed again and turned around to put his guitar back in its case.
That's when he felt the gentle tap on his shoulder.
I still laugh when I remember the look on his face. He turned around all annoyed, ready to snap at me, but then he stopped and his eyes got all wide and his jaw dropped open; I thought he was going to faint, really! He stood there for the longest time like that, just staring at me, and I had no idea what to say or do... I was so nervous! Finally he smiled and I just... I melted.
I looked up into those gray-violet eyes of his and I felt my heart in my throat, and then in my stomach and then pounding in my head... how could I have ever thought any little crush was the same as this? It hurt, and it felt wonderful, and it scared me, and it made me feel so safe. Frankly, I'd never been more confused in my life. At least, not that I could remember.
And that was another thing. He seemed so familiar! It was alarming, but when I looked at him, and saw that smile, that flash in his eyes, I could've sworn I had seen it before. It warmed me and chilled me at the same time, and that was the most frightening thing of all: how could I feel so drawn to, yet, strangely, so... almost repelled by... this man at the same time?
End I