Title: Everyone Loves Rashid
Summary: Rashid is devastated after recently discovering that Quatre has gone missing. By chance he intercepts a group of strange young women that unknowingly give him a much-needed reminder within the walls of a small bakery.
Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor Moon or Gundam Wing.
They treated him just the same as they had other customers with the exception of waiting on him much more frequently than what was considered normal. The dining area was composed of four round decadently carved cherry wood tables with four matching chairs surrounding it. Makoto had carved them herself during her phase of wood art infatuation. The girls had argued that they were too fancy to occupy a simple bakery but neither Usagi nor Makoto could bring themselves to let the furniture be buried in some storage container to collect dust. The idea to sell them had been brought up, but Makoto (and even Usagi to an extent) had slaved over those things for so long they couldn't quite bring themselves to part ways with them yet.
So, after long debates and some few choice words, Makoto and Usagi had won out and the tables stayed. It had proven to be a mistake. Most customers hadn't even taken notice of the intricately worked furniture, unknowingly scathing Makoto every time they carelessly left stains or crumbs on the table. She followed each uncaring customer with a towel, scornfully rubbing away unwanted residue left behind by previous occupants as she grumbled about their wrong doings. However, that day the tables had been void of Makoto's constant cleaning.
When Minako had first noticed her brunette friend's absence in wiping down the miniscule amount crumbs from the tabletops, she skeptically scanned the room to quickly find Makoto seated at a table with a troubled looking man. He had healthy olive skin, a strong build with broad shoulders and what looked to be long thick limbs that hinted at being muscular beneath his loosely fitted garments. From the looks of it she guessed he was of Arab descent.
She watched as Makoto's expression contorted to one of concern. With a wicked smile, Minako hastily cut out two pieces of cherry pie from a fresh display, topping them with a swirl of whip cream and charmingly approached the table. She placed the plates loudly upon the tabletop, the clattering capturing both Makoto and the unknown man's attention. At a closer view she noticed the sharp edges of his chin through the thick brown beard that had connected to his wolverine-like hairdo. He was older—in his 30s perhaps—and it was a nice change from the younger children that often filtered in through the bakery in hopes of scoring a date with one of the owners. Who could blame them though? It wasn't like they knew that despite looking 25 each of the bakery's owners were ancient.
The unknown man's aged and somber eyes flitted to her for a moment before settling on the two pieces of pie she had brought over.
"It's on the house," Minako announced immediately, winking sweetly as she ignored Makoto's glare. "By the way it's her favorite and the recipe is unbeatable." She had whispered that last part in his ear, but Makoto was still able to hear it.
The green-eyed woman rubbed her temples in slight annoyance. It was just like Minako to try and play matchmaker during a serious situation. Couldn't she see the man was deeply troubled by something? She had only come over here after realizing his position hadn't changed in the last two hours he had been sitting there and thought it only kind to try and see if she could be of any assistance to him.
It turned out he was stressing over the disappearance of someone close to him—a young man. He wouldn't go into detail about how he had gone missing, but Makoto was able to pick up enough to realize it was dire. She had spent a good amount of time trying to coax him, reassuring him that things would be fine. Seeing him so depressed often made her wonder if perhaps a bit of supernatural intervention would save him some pain but regretfully resigned from the idea. The last thing they needed was to meddle in current affairs and by his association she figured he was connected to a lot of high profile people that they would do well to avoid.
"Thank you."
He ate reluctantly but sure enough his taste buds had been invigorated and he couldn't help but perk up as his eyes widened in surprise.
"This is," he started, Makoto nodding proudly as she waved her hand shamelessly for him to continue, "This is…"
"Yes, yes, I know," Makoto smiled finishing the statement for him, "the best slice of cherry pie in all of creation."
"I was gonna say in the universe," Rashid said with a laugh.
"Hey, that works too," Makoto replied with a nod. "It's good to see you smile Mr.…" she drifted off realizing she hadn't known his name.
"Rashid Kurama," he said, wiping the corners of his mouth with a napkin before extending his hand.
She took it adding, "Makoto Kino, it's a pleasure."
The hours flew by and before they knew it, all five owners were around the table, intently listening to Rashid's tales of the mobile suit wars. He was careful to leave out any affiliation to the Winner Corps or even the Maganac Corps and laughed at the awe that was plastered across Usagi's readable features.
"Don't you get the updates about the war?" he asked. He knew this was a small town but he hadn't thought the technology was so primitive they wouldn't at least receive the radio news regarding their current topic.
"We do," a woman whom he had now known was named Rei said, "but it all seems irrelevant. No one really knows this town even exists so we don't get much talk of war here. It's pretty amazing, actually, how disconnected to civilization this place can get."
"Ain't that the truth," Minako and Makoto agreed in unison. It sometimes got dull around the town, but they knew it was for the better that they resided there.
"Oh!" Usagi jumped up excitedly with a slight squeal. "My hubby should be home soon, I should get back to the house!"
"Hey, I'll walk you," Minako said, getting up so she could grab her coat.
"But then whose gonna walk you back?" Usagi asked. Mamoru and Usagi lived in a quaint western style home a few blocks down, equipped with four rooms, 2 baths and a good sized porch—clearly enough space for all of them to fit. But the girls were tired of constantly witnessing their disgustingly long-lasting affection for each other and opted to occupy the 2 apartments above their bakery instead.
Minako scoffed as if she were insulted.
"Big girls don't need escorts." She didn't realize that she had accidentally insulted Usagi, and flinched when spotting the pigtailed woman turn red with rage.
"What's that supposed to—"
"Oh just forget I mentioned it," Minako said as she pushed her out the door. Any protest Usagi made afterwards was muffled by the glass door that shut behind her.
"Should I tail them?" Ami asked, looking idly from the table at the pair of fleeting blondes.
"It's alright, Minako should be fine on her own," Rei replied, leaning back in her chair with a sigh.
It was true. She would be fine. Even Usagi would have been okay walking alone but some habits were just too hard to break.
"Say Rashid, you mentioned earlier that you're a mecha pilot yourself," Ami stated, returning her attention to the brunette male at the table. He nodded in affirmation. "Is that how you got to this town? By a mobile suit?"
Makoto visibly stiffened, the action alerting Rashid though he smothered the feeling immediately. These women had been nothing but sweet to him. He didn't want to disrespect them by suspecting the worse. However, it was unwise to push aside his instincts in favor of a few kind and pretty faces. It was, after all, a bit strange that five young women in their twenties would dote on him all day. He was flattered, but for a brief moment he wondered if perhaps he should be skeptical.
"I'm actually here by plane."
"Why here of all places?" Rei asked, leaning forward to rest her elbows on the table. She looked at him squarely with a pair of deep amethyst eyes. Why, if he looked long enough he would've thought he was in space staring at a cosmic anomaly but he digressed.
"Well I heard this place had the best cherry pie so I had to see for myself." He commended himself for the witty response. If Minako were there he was certain she would have given him a thumbs up in approval. To his delight Makoto laughed to his left and patted him generously on the back.
"I like you Rashid. You may stay." He couldn't help but smile in response. Luckily, Rei too was amused as she smirked while playing with a saltshaker on the table.
"I'm really here for work," he said carefully. Hopefully they wouldn't ask what he did for a living.
"What kind of work?" Ami asked.
He groaned inwardly and tried to think up a quick lie. "Mining," he said. Now he had to think up what kind of material he could possibly mine in this Podunk town where they hadn't even had a proper airport with a landing strip. Upon arriving he had to improvise on that one. Fortunately his ship didn't acquire too much damage.
Ami raised a skeptical eyebrow and hummed a disbelieving Mmhmm. Between the three women that still remained in the bakery, he knew she'd be the hardest to convince.
"There's a rumor going around that meteorites carrying Gundanium alloy landed somewhere around here a few decades ago so I thought I'd come see if it were true." He vaguely remembered there being a meteor landing point somewhere close by and hoped it would suffice in covering his lie. It seemed to work fine by the way Ami's eyes lit up.
"Oh, and if you do find Gundanium how do you plan to procure it? I heard it could only be fashioned in space." By then Makoto was lost in the conversation. She yawned loudly and excused herself, busying her hands with the daily closing routine behind the display counter.
"Haven't really thought that far ahead," Rashid admitted bashfully as he rubbed the back of his neck. Ami smiled kindly towards him. He glanced off-handedly towards Rei just to be pegged by those amethyst eyes again. For someone so young looking she sure did emulate the aura of a sage, especially in that sharp gaze.
"Are you going to be the only one looking for these meteorites?" Rei asked, eyes still piercing through him as she sat poised across from him. It certainly was no fluke that she appeared older than her exterior suggested. Just the fluidity and grace of her movements hinted at being that of a mature woman. He only wondered how such an exquisite person could end up in such a dismal place. Hell, all five of them were extremely misplaced here.
They didn't have the typical accents of the locals, nor did they share in the same small-mindedness that came with small town living. They appeared cultured and calm, especially around strangers and newcomers like him. That wasn't exactly common—not when there was a war raging just about everywhere else in the universe.
"So far yes," he said. In truth he was there to intercept a caravan that he suspected had information in regards to Quatre Winner's recent disappearance. Some Maganac Corps members were waiting on his call in other neighboring towns, which were over 300 kilometers from Springsteen, where he was now. Though he didn't come in a mobile suit, they had.
"Do you need help?"
He looked up in surprise to spot Makoto over the display counter with a rag, watching him questioningly for an answer as she wiped the glass tops in a circular motion. He smiled appreciatively before shaking his head.
"I wouldn't want to trouble you," he said.
"It would be no trouble at all," Ami replied, looking eager, much to his dismay. He really should have put more thought into his lie. Dangling such a promising scientific discovery in front of the blunette's eyes was a cruel accident. Despite her previous reservations about him, she appeared very interested in his fabricated reason for being there.
"Well there is a lot of danger involved…" Rashid tried to explain as inconspicuously as possible.
"Danger?" Ami asked.
"Someone say my name?" Minako walked in with the chime of the bells, a broad grin shining on her bright face as she stood with hands on her waist.
"Oh brother," Rei said with a semi-amused look, "you're always coming in on the most opportune times with your punch lines."
"Hey," Minako started to say, "it took a few centuries –er," she quickly paused and glanced to Rashid before coughing with her quick self-correction, "years to finally get my timing down. I'm gonna milk it as much as I can."
"We know." Makoto droned, shaking her head in dismay. "We've known for about a few hundred years you'd be milking this," she mumbled softly to herself.
"Anyhow, what's this going on about danger?" Minako asked, seating herself once more at the table with their latest customer turned guest.
Rashid's cheeks turned somewhat rosy when all four pairs of eyes fell on him again. It was certainly a mystery why they felt the need to unsettle him with their inquisitive stares and in some cases flirting gestures. He didn't know for sure but he was willing to bet that after he finally opened up a bit more about himself, both Minako and Makoto were batting their eyes more frequently and touching him more often. They weren't offensive advances like groping. No. It was only ever a gentle brush of their fingertips across his hand, a playful tug at his sleeves or in Minako's case, a teasing pinch of his nose.
Makoto's touches ranged from rough to soft, a dynamic that he found enormously intriguing. She had some strength in those limber arms and was capable of restraint when she needed it.
In a brief moment he wondered if Rei were casting some type of mythical spell on him too. Her regality and piercing gaze stoked an unearthly fire in him that he couldn't understand. Was it attraction? She was certainly beautiful. He had often caught himself staring at her in awe before he forced himself to look elsewhere. In those brief moments he noticed with wonderment the delightful curve of her full rose lips when they lifted into a smile, and the milky smooth texture of her skin upon her delicate features. Not to mention that ravenous black hair that shined like silk as a dark canvas of perfection against an equally captivating pallet that was her face.
Ami, he supposed, was the least threatening save for when she chose to examine him, which happened about three or four times already since the mention that he was a mecha pilot. The pool of her eyes glimmered with an opaque blue luster, impervious to penetration or invasion. He couldn't tell by looking in those eyes if she liked him or felt indifferent, but somehow out of the four of them she had managed to make him feel the most comfortable. It was probably to do with the fact that her reaction to him seemed the most common. She was the first and only woman out of the five to keep herself withdrawn in the way that a mere acquaintance would.
The others, particularly Usagi and Minako, were highly outgoing and open. Makoto, he deduced, only opened up to try and coax him out of his depression—which strangely enough he had forgotten about and suddenly he felt sullen again. Rei, he assumed, was just naturally alluring and he half suspected that her perceived openness was merely an illusion he had created in his poorly hidden fascination with her beauty. Now that he stopped to think about it, she was much like Ami in that though she was at the table, very little about herself had been shared apart from her name.
"Mr. Kurama is heading out to a nearby meteorite landing to salvage some Gundanium alloy if its there." Ami took the liberty of answering in lieu of Rashid's slow response time.
"And that's dangerous how?" Minako arched an eyebrow in skepticism.
"Because I might not be the only one looking for it," Rashid cut in, finally feeling better about his lie as he continued to weave in more convincing details to deter any of these women from wanting to travel with him. "There are pirates and other scientists that may have their eyes on that site."
"And you would go there alone?" Minako asked, her voice sounding incredulous as she observed him. He was somewhat taken aback by the amount of know-how that suddenly appeared in her gaze, as if tactical planning had been part of her history as a bakery owner.
Both Rei and Ami had shifted as if to agree with Minako's question, their body language indicating they highly discouraged his solo intentions as well. Normally he would shake off such a notion coming from women in their mid-twenties with no clear evidence that they were experienced in his field of work, but for some unknown reason he was beginning to regard their opinions with deep consideration. Then again, he had regarded Quatre in the same light and he was only a boy.
"You look like a sturdy man, Rashid. I'm sure you'll be able to handle yourself out there." He looked up to find an encouraging smile upon Makoto's face while the others faced her with varying expressions of disbelief.
"Thank you Miss Kino," he replied with an appreciative nod.
"It's Ms.," she corrected mindlessly before disappearing behind the kitchen door. "Good luck out there!"
He had to wonder if she was wishing him luck with the three remaining owners or if she'd meant to wish him luck for his falsified mission at the nearby meteorite site.
"Well I guess I should be off," he said, pushing himself up from his chair with a gracious bow. "It's dark outside and I wouldn't want to force you to stay here past closing time."
"Oh don't worry about it, Rashid!" Minako fanned away his statement with her hand as she leant back against her chair to balance it on its hind legs while her feet rested crossed on the table. "We're pretty lax about closing time. In fact, we hardly ever close at the hours posted on the door."
"We don't have hours posted on the door," Rei stated blandly, eyeing her blonde friend warily.
"Damn!" Minako said with a snap of her fingers. "I knew I forgot something."
Rashid laughed heartily, the sound catching everyone pleasantly off guard as they turned to face him. If anyone was surprised to see him standing there with tears in his eyes, they didn't show it. Minako planted her feet on the ground again and pushed herself up to place a hand on the man's shoulder, a slow warmth washing through him from that origin in a soothing fashion. Rei and Ami were right behind her, smiling meekly as he sniveled slightly before wiping his eyes clear of the unsuspected cry.
He didn't know why it happened, but for some reason seeing these women so young and carefree had been a nice reminder of brighter times. Being immersed in a war-ridden mindset where children were made into soldiers, Quatre specifically and his fellow Gundam pilots, made him forget that such light-hearted enjoyment was still possible. These women may not have known where he came from or what side he fought for, but they treated him as an equal and that's what he liked most about each of them. When he found Quatre, he would certainly have to bring him here to experience for himself the softer side of life.
"It was truly a pleasure to meet you all here in this welcoming bakery," Rashid said after he had finally cleared his throat enough to speak. "I would have never guessed that such a place would have such an impact on me." Nor could he ever fathom that a group of young adult women could teach him such an important lesson of hope. Whether it was by intention or accident, it didn't change how deeply appreciative he had been to receive it.
"The pleasure is ours completely," Minako said with a smile, Ami and Rei nodding to her sides.
Makoto emerged from the kitchen with a large pink box wrapped in a frilly material. White lace lined with thin strips of gold, emerald green, ruby red and sapphire blue was tied together in a neat bow. Unknown to Rashid, the girls had the ribbon custom made to signify all of them.
To them it felt like a nice token of promise. Though it accompanied a box of salivating treats and snacks, it was their secret way of telling people they were still there and if the world truly needed them again, they'd be ready.
"I couldn't possibly take that without paying."
"Don't you dare," Makoto said in warning, pointing at him with an intimidating look that he couldn't help but shiver at.
"Besides, it's the least we can do for having to endure Minako's shameless advances for so long," Rei commented with a sly smirk. She would've included Makoto on that statement too except the brunette was right next to her and prone to hitting.
"I know what I like," Minako said with a smug grin, leaning adoringly against Rashid's arm as she gave him a wink.
He blushed furiously, feeling exponentially unbalanced at the amount of charm she carried so effortlessly.
Ami saved him when she grabbed the box from Makoto to hand over to him. Minako shifted her weight away so he could take their gift to him and pouted slightly.
"I'm going to miss you Rashid. Please write me."
Rashid choked down an abashed sounding yelp, picking up slightly on Rei mumbling something about how the blonde was always trying to reenact love stories between star-crossed lovers that featured a soldier and a small town girl.
"Please be safe out there," Ami said sincerely as they reached the door.
Minako and Rei remained by the tables, leaning with their arms crossed as they watched him stand on the threshold. They nodded encouragingly towards him, their wise eyes returning in a peculiar way that made them appear as if they were guardians.
Rashid's attention was then diverted when a strong hand touched the same shoulder Minako had leant on. He turned to meet a fortress of green, so solid and sturdy.
"Your friend is gonna be just fine. He's lucky to have someone like you looking for him." He was touched by her words and nodded gratefully.
He shuffled reluctantly from the threshold and looked over his shoulder to see Ami and Makoto standing at the door waving. Minako and Rei soon joined them, smiling softly as they stood there. He waved and turned away, stepping further from the bakery with reinvigorated steps and newfound determination.
For the first time since hearing of Quatre's disappearance he was hopeful.
Err I am nervous about this one XD. I was off handedly browsing through sites and somehow ended up landing on Rashid's profile and felt prompted to write something featuring him since he's such a strong supporting character and I love him so much. Heh, hopefully this is received well. It all makes sense in my head but I understand if it doesn't translate well to others lol. I might possibly be writing more connected one-shots in this bakery-verse but we'll see. Anyhow, thank you for reading. As always any questions, comments, thoughts or concerns are always welcome!
-4Shame