Warning: This story does deal with mental illnesses, and possibly some drug abuse. Read at your own risk.
xXx
"The Cures: A Way to a Happier Heart"
Usagi visibly blanches as she reads the sign, leaning slightly with the car as it turns into the entrance next to this precursor of hells soon to come. The uniformed man at the wheel glances at her in his rearview, but all she can see in his dark brown eyes is judgment. The path leads several miles down until the blonde is sure they'd gone to great lengths to keep this place, this loony bin secluded.
A moment later they pull up to the building, and the car rolls to a slow halt. Usagi gazes blankly at the steel cage that separates her from the front half of the car and waits for the officer to open her door. Slowly, she steps from the car, lugging her single duffel bag behind her. The man doesn't bother offering to carry it for her, so she drags it behind her as she follows him to the door.
He stands there bored, looking around disinterestedly while the woman inside, who she can't identify as a nurse or a receptionist, approaches the glass. Pulling out her ring of keys, she unlocks the entrance and allows them to step inside. Usagi's blue eyes jump around, but only one other person is in this room with the woman. A strange man circling the island of waiting seats, throwing glances in her direction every few seconds.
He makes her nervous, and she pulls her duffel bag closer to herself as though it will protect her. In mere moments, the nurse/receptionist has hold of the strap and is pulling away her only defense. With horrified awe, Usagi watches as the woman unzips her bag and starts laying her things out in the floor.
The officer leaves, his escort role having been fulfilled, so it is only Stranger Danger and the nurse/receptionist decorating the lobby with her belongings. She stacks the clothes off to the side, and is getting to the brunt of her search, apparently.
"Um...what are you doing?" Usagi finally asks. The nurse/receptionist looks up with a crinkled brow, her name tag finally visible, which reads 'Suki.' Suki shakes her head and places Usagi's razor into the plastic bin at her side, which the blonde notices has her name written on it in black magic marker. Her hairdryer quickly follows.
"This is standard procedure. You're bags have to be checked and cleared. We have to remove any potentially dangerous objects and put them all in the sharps bin. If at any time you need to use something in it, you just have to ask one of the nurses." Suki explains, in a tone that's nothing short of condescending. Usagi tilts her head, looking at her silver hairdryer in confusion.
"I see. Good thing you took that hairdryer out because I was seriously thinking of blow-drying myself to death tonight." Suki makes a face that might be suitable for someone who just ate a whole lemon, and Usagi turns away to hide her snort of laughter with a short cough. Here she realizes Stranger Danger has gone from glancing at her to all out staring, so she quickly edges closer to the nurse.
He continues to circle the island of waiting seats like a boy playing musical chairs on his own, and with no music. Usagi turns in time to see her CD player making its way to the sharps bin. With some indignation, she says, "Why are you taking my CD player? It's not sharp or dangerous in any way."
"Well, we have to run it through security to make sure it's okay." Suki replies, irritated but not nearly as much as the blonde, pigtailed girl standing in front of her. For a moment, she considers attacking the nurse right there so maybe nurses and aides would come rushing in, injecting her with tranquilizer like they do in all the movies. She settles for throwing her arms up in frustration, and rolling her blue eyes toward the ceiling dramatically.
Stranger Danger starts walking towards her, and panicked she lets out a yell and jumps on the other side of Suki, converting her into a human shield. How did she get stuck here? Where did it all go wrong?
xXx
The Cures', or the 'loony bin' according to Usagi, resident doctor leads her into a private room. Apparently she needs a physical examination, which she hasn't had since high school five years prior. Or was it six? She jumps up onto the counter, swinging her legs out in front of her, while the doctor fetches a tongue press.
"Let me guess, you want me to say 'ah'," Usagi giggles, opening her mouth obediently. She stares at the wall as the doctor looks down her throat. Through the rest of the routine, she doesn't move her gaze. When it's over, Usagi leaves the office feeling somewhat violated and a little more cynical of the weeks to come.
The new nurse, she left Suki with Stranger Danger in the lobby, leads her down the hallway. Usagi doesn't raise her eyes the whole time; instead, she focuses on the nurses shoes and follows them until they stop in front of a room at the very end. She turns toward Usagi before saying, "This is your room while you're staying at Cures. You'll have a roommate, but she's in her therapy session right now so she won't be along until later. Yours will start tomorrow by the way; the nurse will come get you when it's time."
The nurse pauses, as if waiting for Usagi to ask a question. She doesn't, and the nurse bustles off. Usagi trudges into the room, feeling like a prisoner on death row, whose execution starts tomorrow. Death by slow torture. Still, she locates the half of the room that isn't occupied and slowly unpacks her duffel bag, minus hairdryer and CD player, she thinks gloomily.
Once her clothes are put away, and her other random belongings, she removes the last item from her bag, one she had to fight to keep. Blue eyes clouding with tears, she sits the picture frame, glass removed, on the small table next to her bed. The woman smiles up at her from the photograph, her dark brown eyes twinkling with laughter. Dark, wavy blue locks fall around her face and down over her shoulders. The woman with the elegant beauty and kind heart she never knew. The woman she killed.
Climbing into the bed, Usagi doesn't let her tears fall. Instead she closes her eyes and thinks back, back to when this whole fiasco started.
Flashback
The four-year-old Usagi lifts her head as the front door opens, like a wary rabbit listening for a predator. The jingling sound of keys fills the room, and she jumps clumsily to her feet, rushing to greet the newcomer, "Daddy!"
"Not now, sweetheart," the tall, brunette man scolds, placing his keys on the counter and his briefcase, before walking towards his office with a cell phone pressed to his ear. "No, Akira, we won't settle. There are plenty other companies who would triple that offer. Tell them to up their bid or--"
Usagi watches tearfully as the door to her father's office slams shut, and slowly goes back to play with her dolls in the living room.
End Flashback
That same man, twenty years older, stares at her from across the visitor's room table. Usagi is already committed to hating the sea foam green color of all the walls, supposedly a relaxing color, and hasn't spoken to any of the other patients. With a nonchalant expression she doesn't feel, she glances at her father every ten seconds or so, but he doesn't speak. After several minutes of silence, he breaks.
"I don't understand, Usagi. I don't understand why you'd do this to me." Usagi inwardly flinches, wishing he would've run her through with a spear rather than say those words. Her blue eyes find the sea foam green tabletop. He victimizes himself, and she doesn't raise them again.
"So that's it. It's always about you, isn't it Dad?" With those words she rises from the table, exits, leaving a stunned Kenji Tsukino in her wake. She walks by the day room, as the nurses call it, not expectant of the two arms that shoot out to drag her inside. Suddenly and dreadfully, she is face to face with the nutcases she'd been trying to avoid.
"Well, the new girl finally decides to show her face." Usagi looks up, horrified, at her assailant, discovering an almost mirror image of herself. Only slightly more crazy and grinning like mad, which probably isn't far from true, Usagi remembers. "I'm Minako, and I have bulimia. What about you?"
Usagi takes in the fact that the girl, Minako, does look sickly underweight. She tries to pry Minako's arm from her shoulders, but the girl has an amazingly strong grip. Finally, she surrenders, and says, "My name is Usagi."
"No rank yet? Well, I guess that's okay for now. Let me introduce you to some of the others." Before she knows what is happening, Usagi finds herself in one of the bolted, plastic chairs that lines the walls facing a group of, well, misfits. Minako sits beside her and loops their arms together, keeping her pinned to the seat quite effectively. "Guys! Everyone! This is Usagi, the new girl."
Minako winks one sparkling blue eye at her and points to the first person in the row of chairs on the opposite side of the room. His dark brown hair falls into his eyes as he glares at the television, apparently dissatisfied with the show playing. "That's Hiiro. He's Schizoid," she pulls out some book or pamphlet with a Cures logo on the front, and flips through it until she locates the page dedicated to Schizoid Personality Disorder.
"See, it says, 'emotional coldness, detachment or flattened affectivity, invariable preference for solitary activities, few, if any, activities provide pleasure.' All these things describe Hiiro perfectly," Minako grins at her, and Usagi can't decide whether to take her fellow blonde seriously or not. She points to the person sitting one chair over from Hiiro, a man with black hair tied in a tight ponytail.
"That's Wufei. He's got anger issues, and he's very sexist," she goes on, laughing as Wufei glares at her.
"Shut up, woman!"
"See, I told you," she winks again and moves on down the line to another ponytail wearing boy. His steely blue gray eyes are staring at the television screen, or perhaps some place beyond it. As she explains his story, Minako lowers her voice, "That's Takuto Kira. You might recognize him as the lead singer to Route L. He found out he had throat cancer, and when they operated to remove the tumor, he lost his voice. Shortly after, he attempted suicide by wrecking his motorcycle. He survived, and after he recovered they sent him here."
Usagi finally pulls her arm free, standing abruptly, "Look, I don't care about any of this. I just want to get out of here. I don't want friends, and I don't want to know these people. Just leave me alone!" With that, she storms from the day room, leaving a silent Minako behind.
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Yeah, I know, new story. My first published multi-cross, I'm still working on my other one. Anyway, so far the cross is Sailor Moon, Gundam Wing, and Full Moon wo Sagashite. I'm not sure what other characters I will add, but if you have a request, I'd certainly consider. Just know, I don't do Yu-Gi-Oh, I haven't watched enough of Naruto or Full Metal Alchemist to include them, and even though this is AU I don't think Inuyasha would mix well. I'll probably throw in some Fruits Basket, and there will definitely be more senshi.
Other than that, feel free! Review as well, please.
♥SachiNyoko♥