Author's Note: This piece was written for a challenge started by VO1 at the Shitennou forums. It's extracted from a longer storyline involving the senshi and Shitennou's kids, and Endymion and Serenity's kids, and it mainly features the youngest group of kids. I wrote it in a way that hopefully will keep you guessing about whose kid Dawn is! I think it's pretty obvious by the end through process of elimination, but if you're still curious, drop me a line.
The background is that the Outers – mainly Haruka and Michiru, but Setsuna and Hotaru had a lot to do with it and also live with them – established a boarding school a couple of hours outside Crystal Tokyo. The Academy is known for training musicians and artists, but they're also strong in the traditional subjects. Sometime when the older kids were going through school in Crystal Tokyo, they made the decision to send all of them to Academy (stories part of that longer storyline would explain more of this decision, although some reasons are hinted at below).
Okay, that's it! Thanks for reading, and hope it's not too confusing.
Dawn in Transition
Between classes, Dawn wandered the corridors, snacking on a handful of honey mustard pretzels and looking for her best friend. The Academy grounds were extensive by anyone's definition – upon their arrival on campus, Leighanna had asked Celia, easily the most directionally-challenged among them, how she managed not to get lost a dozen times a day – but they were nowhere near as large as those of the Crystal Palace, where they used to play hide-and-seek when they were younger.
At this time of day, there were only a number of places Leigh could be. Of course, you could never count on Leigh being where she was supposed to be, so that might explain the matter. Still, was it that hard to find a shrimp of a girl who barely reached five feet nothing and had hair down to her butt? Those were Neil's irreverent words, not Dawn's.
She passed through the arts wing of the Academy, where the classrooms for the visual and performing arts were located, because it was adjacent to the wing where the literature and history classes were taught. As she did so, Dawn spotted a long fall of black hair rounding the corner and quickened her steps to catch up.
She didn't call out, for fear of disturbing the theater arts class that was rehearsing Beckett with the door open. When she turned the corner, she saw that the girl was much too tall to be Leigh, but just as familiar.
The girl glanced black, letting her hair fall dramatically over half her face so that only one long-lashed, light purple eye was revealed. Then she stopped and turned slowly, flipping her glossy hair over left shoulder as if she were a model in a shampoo commercial. "Dawn! I thought I heard someone following us."
Feeling equal parts amusement and affection, Dawn smiled back. Vivienne Tomoe, an aspiring actress, always moved as though she were being filmed. Shy, practical Aunt Hotaru was alternately charmed and bewildered by her vivacious, attention-loving daughter.
"That would be me." She included Vivienne's companion, a boy with startling teal-colored hair, in her question as she said, "I'm looking for Leigh. Have either of you seen her?"
Neil Tenoh-Kaioh raised his eyebrows. "Why would I? She's mad at me, remember."
Dawn sighed. Half the time, Neil hung out with Vivienne and her theater club friends, and the other half of the time, he spent with her and Leigh. She felt like she spent most of that time arbitrating their disputes, since both of them had filthy tempers. Everyone, including their parents, admitted that their tempers were legitimately come by, but their recurring spats were a pain to deal with nonetheless.
"Just because she's mad at you doesn't mean that your eyes fell out of your head," she retorted.
"It does where Leigh's concerned. I believe her terms were something like this: 'As far as I'm concerned, you don't exist. I cannot see, smell, or hear you. If I were to lick you, I wouldn't taste you. If only I could walk through you like you were made of insignificant vapor and mists, my life would be complete.' End quote. I figure it's only fair if it goes both ways."
Vivienne started laughing before he finished. "Great word choice. I should really encourage her to join the theater club sometime," she remarked.
"You have," they chorused together.
"Jinx," Dawn said quickly. While Neil rolled his eyes, ostensibly at her childishness rather than in chagrin at being too slow to say it first, she added, "Besides, you know Leigh would prefer being a playwright to being in front of the lights."
"We're having a shortage of playwrights right now. Catalina graduated and Ian's too busy," Vivienne told her. "Anyway, we've got to get to class, but if I see Leigh, I'll tell her you're looking for her."
After they left, Dawn continued searching. She decided to try the classroom where Leigh had European Literature next period, although Leigh was never early for class, not even her favorite ones. Before she got there, she happened to glance out the frosted glass door to the courtyard and spotted Leigh sitting on a bench with a frown and a notebook.
"You're impossible to track down, you know that?" Dawn asked, perching on the other end of the gray stone bench.
"I try to be," her friend replied distractedly, not looking up as she crossed out two lines with furious slashes and scribbled another sentence in the margin.
When Leigh finally looked up, Dawn saw that her eyes were bloodshot. "Were you up all night writing again?"
"Nope. I'd be in a better mood if I were." Putting down her pen, Leigh stole a pretzel and crunched it in frustration. "I was finishing my science lab. I forgot that it was due today."
"You could've asked me for help," Dawn said reproachfully. "I finished it on Tuesday."
Leigh shook her head, sending her masses of blue-highlighted black hair flying. "It was after curfew, and it wasn't hard, just tedious. And, um, Dawn? I hate to say it, but science isn't your best subject."
"I know," she said ruefully.
Just as Leigh's best and favorite subjects were literature and writing, Dawn's forte was drawing and painting. But Leigh also excelled at science; she just preferred to downplay her abilities in those areas in order to distinguish herself from her siblings. Dawn didn't think this was the healthiest way of going about it, but Leigh was touchy about the subject. Besides, Dawn had her own sibling issues – pot and kettle, that type of thing.
They sat in companionable silence for awhile, enjoying the crisp fall air. Dawn was a little chilly without her jacket, but soon enough it would be too cold to enjoy the courtyard. She tilted her face up to the sun and closed her eyes, letting the waves of gold and red wash over her eyelids.
Her thoughts turned to her current project, which was titled "Cassandra Before." It was to depict the doomed prophetess in a happier time, when she had been the daughter of a king and his queen, a princess of a glorious nation. Troy would know war, a war born in the darkness of men's hearts and minds and blamed only on the lover of one, but not yet.
To her delight, her sister had agreed to sit for it. Dawn opened her eyes again, the corners of her mouth turned up in a small smile.
"Are you thinking about your painting again?" Leigh asked accusingly.
"Maybe. Okay, fine, so I was. It's not like you don't do the same thing with your stories."
Dawn had once described the images in her head, both imagined and real, as a stack of paintings stored in a back closet of her mind. At a single point in time, there was a finite number of scenes she wanted to capture, and the door didn't open without her hand on the handle. There was a peaceful sense of security and order that prevailed.
Leigh had been both amazed and envious of that, since she likened her experience to that of stuffing a suitcase with more than it could hold. When it came time to do other things, she had to forcibly sit on the suitcase and force it closed. She was never sure when the many-legged denizens of that suitcase, which came in all shapes, sizes, and colors (not all of which were pleasing to the eye), would come running after her, refusing to be ignored until they had her complete attention.
Unfortunately, that tended to happen at the worst times, like in class or one of their adoptive aunts' training sessions. Hotaru and Michiru tended to be more forgiving of these lapses of attention, but Haruka and Setsuna despaired of this habit.
"Of course I do it all the time, but this painting seems different." Leigh tucked one leg under her and let the other swing freely, uncaring about the dirt smudges accumulating on her white knee socks. "So how are the sittings going?"
"Well, I think. She'll talk more when it's just the two of us and it seems like I'm engrossed in sketching."
Leigh regard her friend thoughtfully, then said, "You know, you'd make a better model for Cassandra. Your hair is longer."
Dawn laughed. "It's not that difficult to lengthen the hair, Leigh. Besides, I'm too young and too short. I don't look mature enough."
"It's not just the hair," Leigh persisted, "and this is 'Cassandra Before,' remember? She's supposed to be young and happy. Besides, it's more than just the surface differences; I just think your personality matches better with the persona you're striving to create."
Feeling some of her enthusiasm drain away, Dawn popped the last pretzel in her mouth and dusted her hands off. "I hope you're not saying that my sister is old and bitter."
"Of course not!"
"Then what are you saying?"
Leigh stopped swinging her leg and tucked a long strand of hair behind her ear. "Dawn, art works magic, but maybe not this kind of magic. Do you really think that listening to her talk at you, without saying a word about how you feel, is going to solve everything?"
Tears stung her eyes, and the fear of it being true, of things going back to the way they were, made Dawn say, "At least I try to be nice to my sister. Kaia and Jason are always nice to you, but you just push them away all the time."
Leigh stood up, her hands balled into fists at her sides. Inside her clenched fists, her fingers were trembling. "Fine, then you take them then! You have no idea how hard it is to live with the Perfect Twins."
She was about to stalk away, but Dawn reached out and caught her wrist. "Leigh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean it. And I don't really want to trade siblings, I promise. I don't think my parents would ever get used to the quiet."
Leigh would be the first to admit that she had a nasty temper, but she also knew that Dawn was the only one who could calm her down so quickly – unlike Neil, who only fanned the flames higher.
"I don't know; it could be an interesting switch. After all, your parents deserve a break. Dad would probably like the chaos, and Mom's used to Dad, so I'm sure she could handle it…" Leigh trailed off pensively.
After a short pause, she sat back down again, smoothing her skirt self-consciously. She wasn't sweet like Dawn, charming like her sister Kaia, or considerate like Jason – she could admit her siblings' good qualities in private. Leigh was wild and unruly, and out of all the people she was acquainted with, she only cared about a small handful of them. That only made those few people in the universe very dear to her, but it didn't make not hurting their feelings any easier.
Suddenly, she asked, "Did I ever tell you that I based one of my characters on you?"
It was something Leigh had never told anyone before. Usually, she wrote people as she wanted them to be, choosing realistic behaviors but more interesting personalities than she saw on a day-to-day basis. It was only after she'd written much of the story that she realized why Eliora had seemed so familiar.
"No," Dawn replied, a little puzzled by the shift of subject and both pleased and embarrassed by Leigh's words. "What's she like? At least, I hope it's a she."
"Oh, it's a she." Leigh smiled a mysterious smile, the half-fond, half-exasperated smile of the author who knew her characters well. "She has blue eyes and loves sunflowers. If coffee ice cream existed in her world – which it doesn't, sadly – she would only get buzzed off that, and never plain coffee."
This last comment, a reference to one of Dawn's quirks, had them laughing before they headed back inside for class and went their separate ways.
As she walked out of her last class of the day, Dawn headed straight for her locker, knowing Leigh would be waiting for her. Although they normally stayed after for activities instead of heading back to the dorms or the Tenoh-Kaioh house, today the activities took a backseat to training.
The halls were packed with students, and Dawn had to duck from random body parts and avoid tripping over instrument cases, tennis rackets, and equipment bags as she made her way through the jam. She had just turned into the hall where her locker was located when warm fingers closed around her elbow, sending dual pulses of surprise and electricity through her. She stopped glanced back, half expecting to see Alexander standing there, but met brown eyes instead of pale blue. Not magic – or not that kind of magic, anyway.
"Hey." With a shy smile, Ryan let go of her arm and stepped back slightly. Just as his center of balance was shifting, he was jostled from behind, throwing him against Dawn.
She reached out to steady him, which turned out to be a mistake. The powers she had inherited from her parents lay mainly in the realm of "spirit" rather than elemental magic like Alexander's. She couldn't read thoughts, but she could sense emotions easily and had a somewhat less powerful ability to read intentions.
Normally, she dampened these instincts. With training from her parents and Aunt Hotaru, she had gotten to the point where she could activate and deactivate her powers voluntarily. But her control wasn't always perfect, especially when she was caught off-guard or feeling particularly strong emotions herself.
Dawn looked up into Ryan's eyes as he fell towards her, and in the split-second that passed, she caught a great deal of his emotions. Mostly embarrassment. A little alarm. A touch of anger. Attraction…
And then with her help, he caught his balance and steadied himself. As he pulled away, Dawn closed her eyes, feeling both relieved and regretful.
"Sorry about that. Are you all right?" he asked.
She opened them again, willing herself to smile as if nothing were wrong, as if she hadn't just inadvertently invaded his privacy. "Of course. It wasn't your fault."
Ryan grimaced and said, "I think I stepped on your foot."
Had he? She couldn't remember feeling any pain, only that burst of panicked excitement before his emotions swept over her. "I don't think you did. I'm fine," she assured him.
"Good. Great." He shifted awkwardly in place, then asked quickly, "Are you heading over to the studio now?"
Ryan was also a member of the art club, although his talents lay in photography and digital media. They had a meeting today, but Dawn wouldn't be able to make it because of practice.
Regretfully, she replied, "No, not today. I have to…be somewhere else." Knowing her answer was too vague, Dawn looked away helplessly. Her gaze settled on Leigh and Neil, who were standing by her locker and appeared to be arguing. Again.
Ryan's eyes followed hers, and the unhappy expression on his face weakened her resolve.
'Just for a second,' she told herself, feeling the lure of forbidden fruit more strongly than ever. She let go of the restrictions on power and focused on him, blocking out her sense of the students walking around them. In that second, what she got was – disappointment. Jealousy. Shame.
Her attention was shattered when Neil spotted them and grinned. "Hey, Thompson! How's it going?"
The tightness around Ryan's mouth eased, and he gave a slight nod to both Neil and Leigh. "Not bad. How about you?"
"Could be better. I believe I'm consigned to spend the next hour and a half being tortured by these two," Neil replied, stepping away just in time so Leigh's elbow hit the air rather than his ribs.
"Well, I'd wish you good luck, but it sounds like you got the better deal," Ryan told him. "I've got to go now – club meeting. See you around." He smiled as he left, but paid no particular attention to Dawn as he walked off in the direction of the studio.
Her disappointment warred with her lingering sense of guilt. The guilt won out, so she kept a tight rein on her power and instead turned her attention to opening her locker.
"Hey, isn't Selena supposed to be training with us?" Neil asked.
"Yep," Leigh said, watching as Dawn knelt on the dusty ground and let her hair fall over her cheeks, obscuring much of her face from view. "So why don't you go find her?"
Neil made a face at her and said, "Okay. I get that I'm not wanted here. See you in a few."
As he loped away, Dawn remarked, "I see you guys are talking again. Does that mean you've made up?"
"I guess," Leigh said noncommittally, seemingly absorbed in braiding her long hair back. "So, what's up?"
"Nothing really. How was class?"
"Boring, as usual. That's about enough said. You're not fooling me, you know."
Dawn closed her locker with enough force to send a dust bunny scudding down the hall. "Come on, let's go. We don't want to be late."
They exited from the south entrance and headed for the Tenoh-Kaioh house, which was really the Tenoh-Kaioh-Meiou-Tomoe house, but Tenoh-Kaioh was long enough by itself. Most of the time, they just tended to refer to it as the House.
The House stood on the outskirts of the Academy grounds, bounded by the gray stone wall that enclosed the wall on one side and shrouded by enough trees to shield it from the casual observer.
Although Haruka and Michiru claimed that they just wanted privacy to raise their children in as close to a normal family setting as they could get, part of the reason it was set off from the rest of the campus was the occasional training accident. Unknown to practically everyone else at the Academy, a set of heavily-warded training rooms was hidden beneath the Outers' home. But all training couldn't take place underground because some of the kids, like Alex, had elemental magic. It was hard to play with lightning and snow in the basement training rooms.
They could see Neil and Selena walking ahead, but Leigh clearly didn't want to catch up with them. For once, Dawn would have preferred the inevitable squabble, but she stayed in step beside her friend.
"Shouldn't you be in a good mood?" Leigh asked without preamble. "After all, you were just talking to Ryan."
Dawn didn't say anything, keeping her eyes trained on the back of Selena's head. The younger princess had inherited her grandmother's white hair and her father's sapphire blue eyes, but it was a mystery as to whom the natural curl came from.
"He couldn't have said anything to upset you."
"Why?"
Leigh rolled her eyes. "Because he's completely stuck on you. Besides, you go for guys like him – the type that wouldn't hurt a fly. He likes you, and you've had a thing for him since last April. Why don't you just ask him out already since it seems like he's too wimpy to do it himself?"
Dawn felt her cheeks flush and made an effort to keep her voice level as she replied, "Maybe I don't want to. And maybe it's not cowardice that's keeping him from it."
"Come on. You know how he feels about you, which is more than the rest of us have. Dawn, how many other people have the luxury of knowing the person they like really likes them back?"
"You don't understand."
"Try me." Leigh's eyes were very green, greener than the dying autumn grass and brighter than the paint of the House's shutters.
Looking straight ahead, Dawn quickened her steps unconsciously as she said, "I hate it. You know, I really hate it sometimes. Yes, I know that Ryan likes me, but every time I'm around him, I'm tempted to read him. And every time I do that, it feels like I'm invading his mind. It's a violation of privacy.
"Maybe, like Uncle Kunzite says, my powers will be able to save my life one day. Well, right now they're making my life miserable. It's hard to get close to people who can't block me out, and I can't tell anyone besides you guys how to block me out. I don't even know if other people can shield themselves. And when they don't shield themselves and I slip up, it can be terrible. I can feel when people hate each other, when they're angry with each other, every petty, negative emotion that they like to hide from themselves but can't hide from me."
Leigh stopped in her tracks, shocked by Dawn's admission. She had never known why Dawn, who was certainly much nicer than she was, had so few close friends. She was popular among the students of her year, owing to her personality and her artistic talent, but she wasn't close to any of them except Neil. Leigh was a year younger than her, and they were best friends partially because their parents were so close and they had been close in age, but also because Dawn hadn't made any effort to become better friends with the girls in her year.
She couldn't think of what to say, and Dawn had gone ahead and was already walking up the steps to the front door. By the time Leigh caught up to her, Dawn was speaking to Neil and Selena in the foyer, and they all took the concealed elevator down to the basement.
Haruka and Hotaru were waiting for them, the former sitting in front of the computer console and the latter standing patiently beside her.
"Hey, Mom, Aunt Hotaru. So, what tortures do you have planned for us today?" Neil asked irreverently, yelping as Haruka stood up, took him in a headlock, and rubbed her fingers through his hair. His turquoise-colored hair stood up in short spikes all over his head so that it couldn't get really mussed, but he complained all the same as he wriggled free.
"Nothing too bad," Hotaru told the others over Neil's squawks. "Of course we're indoors today, so we thought we would focus on energy and spirit rather than elemental magic."
Out of the four of them, three possessed elemental magic. Neil had touches of water and air, and Leigh had a particular affinity for ice. Selena, like her older brother Alex, had inherited any of the physical control over the Earth that came from the Neo-King. Instead of lightning, though, she had fire.
"Let's start by pairing up. Dawn, you go with Neil, and Selena, partner with Leigh," Haruka directed.
They separated to the two courts that were marked off. Hotaru walked over to Selena and Leigh, while Haruka stayed with Dawn and Neil.
Neil was just learning to master his energy skills, which mostly consisted of teleportation and pure energy massing that could be used for offensive attacks. The Outers had decided it was most prudent to have him master his air and water skills first, since they were most likely to be noticed if he lost control in public. There was only a miniscule chance that he would involuntarily teleport himself, since energy and spirit powers tended to require more concentration and focus than elemental magic.
As for Dawn, they were pretty sure she had some sort of energy skill, but they hadn't yet been able to figure out what. So far, they had crossed off healing, illusion, and teleportation. That still left a lot of possibilities. Most of the others' skills had been easily identified, but Dawn had spent so much time learning to control her spirit powers that her energy ones didn't break away from her. Unfortunately, it also made them more difficult to identify.
"Neil, we'll work with your teleportation later, since that's less of a group exercise. Let's work with trying to tease out your powers," Haruka said to Dawn.
She explained what she wanted them to do: Neil would direct some of his energy attacks towards her, and Dawn could use her reading of his intentions to prevent them from hitting her. There was some element of risk that she would misread him, but Haruka assured them that she would be fast enough to deflect the attacks with her own powers if necessary.
"It's good to know some of that hard-earned combat experience is finally coming in handy," Haruka joked as she transformed into her senshi form.
Dawn smiled weakly as she took her place opposite Neil. While she had full faith in her aunt, it was never fun to be the target without any formidable defense. After the first ten minutes, when she had some scares that seemed close to her but which were easily dispelled by Uranus, she started to get the hang of things. Neil tried to mask his intentions, trying to seem ambivalent about where he would aim the next hit, but he was so direct that it didn't work very well.
A flicker of light caught her eye as Selena winked out of sight, turning herself invisible by using energy to mask herself in a perfect illusion of her surroundings on the next court. Neil shouted a warning as the bolt of aqua-colored energy flew towards her, and something within her snapped into place. Before Haruka got her winds into place, the energy disappeared.
Neil came up to them, frowning. "That was a close one. It's a good thing you're so fast, Mom."
"That wasn't me," Uranus said, looking at Dawn curiously. "You acted before I could. But I didn't see any shield materialize."
Dawn looked down at her hands, which were tingling like she had just come in from the cold after snowball fighting without any gloves on. Her fingers shook slightly, and she could just see the remains of aqua sparks under her nails and in the space between her fingers.
"Hey, look," Neil said, pointing to them. "Doesn't that hurt?"
She shook her head shakily.
"Are you transferring the energy to the ground somehow? Dissipating it or redirecting it?"
Dawn looked up at them, her cheeks flushed and eyes shining. "I don't think so. I think I'm absorbing the energy. It's harder to turn off my spirit powers now. I can feel your emotions so sharply now, and I think I can even feel people above the ground! Vivienne's about a hundred feet away from the house."
Her smile faded even as Neil exclaimed excitedly, "That's great! You were complaining about how you don't have any defensive powers, but this one's awesome."
"No, it's not. Don't you get it? I'm like an energy vampire. I can't even transfer it to people who need it; I just – steal it from people." Turning around as hot tears started to roll down her cheeks, Dawn ran past Selena and Leigh, who had stopped to stare at them.
Once she reached the first floor, she ran out the door, ignoring Vivienne's startled exclamation, and threw herself on the mossy carpet under the giant oak tree, huddling against its trunk. She was crying too hard to hear the exchange between Haruka and Vivienne; the girl went into the house, looking over her shoulder with concern and curiosity, while Haruka, who had de-transformed, walked over.
She shoved some tissues into Dawn's hand and sat down in front of her. "Okay, Sunshine," she told Dawn, using her father's pet name for her. "Calm down. I know you're too nice not to take pity on me, and I fear tears. Actually, I'm only afraid of girls who cry. The men can suck it up."
Despite herself, Dawn choked on a watery laugh.
"Good. Much better. Now, you listen to me. Having the ability to absorb Neil's attack is not a bad thing. You're not a – what did you call it?"
"An energy vampire," Dawn supplied.
"Right. An energy vampire," Haruka repeated, shaking her head and willing herself not to laugh at the term. "There's no reason to think you won't be able to transfer energy like Luke, Jason, and Kaia can. This is only the first time you've demonstrated this ability, and it's only logical to think that you'll manifest the transfer power as well. The two tend to go together; what's the point of being able to absorb energy if there's no other outlet for it?
"Dawn, this is just like the other powers you have, even though they're spirit-based. You can learn to control it; you won't go around randomly sucking up energy from other people. It hasn't happened at all before, so I'd guess that it takes a good deal of incentive and more work to develop the ability."
"How do you know I haven't been going around draining people like – like a youma?"
Haruka took her hands, the hands she almost couldn't bear to look at because they had drank up Neil's power so eagerly, and gripped them firmly. "Hey. Look at me. That hasn't been happening, Dawn. Think about it – you told us right away that you felt your other abilities sharpened because you had more energy. If you'd been drawing it from other people, you would have felt a similar augmentation of your powers. And you haven't, right?"
"No. I haven't."
"Great. I know you've probably heard this before, but let me say it again. No power on its own is intrinsically evil; what matters is how you choose to use it."
Dawn, whose senses were still heightened by the power rush, couldn't help reading her emotions and intentions. 'Are you just trying to make me feel better? Or do you really believe that?'
The answer came through pretty clearly. "You're not an energy vampire, Dawn. I've seen plenty of youma and daimons and people from other worlds, and you, Sunshine, are not one of them."
When Dawn smiled, pulling back her hands to wipe the drying tear trails off her cheeks, Haruka heaved herself to her feet.
"I'm not as young as I used to be," she muttered, dusting off her hands and putting her hands to the small of her back before rolling her shoulders and neck. "Why don't you go in and wash your face, and we'll call it a day? There's only about twenty minutes of training left anyway, and I'll use it to force Neil to practice teleporting. It wouldn't do for him to get too complacent. He thinks I haven't seen him wasting energy by teleporting from his room down to the kitchen every morning, but I have."
The next day, Dawn started setting up an easel and her palette in the attic of the House. She loved the attic more than any part of the House. The kitchen, living room, music rooms, and study were located on the first floor, and all the bedrooms were on the second floor, with the cantankerous younger Tenoh-Kaioh children separated by their older siblings. Naida and Neil's epic fights made his quarrels with Leigh seem positively friendly.
The attic was the children's space entirely, and it was huge, spanning the entire third floor. Two of the attic's main attractions for Dawn were that it had a lot of natural sunlight from the skylights during most seasons, and it also had a large marble fireplace on the north side. The adults rarely went up there, letting them have their privacy. Looking around, Dawn could identify at least one object that belonged to each of them, even Naida and Neil, whose bedrooms were just a floor below. She saw one of Vivienne's scripts, Astra's physics textbook, Neil's old guitar, and Selena's math exam from last year.
While she waited for her sister to arrive, Dawn played with the lighting by drawing the curtains up and down and adjusting the tint on the skylights. Finally, she cracked open the nearest window so the smell of turpentine wouldn't become overwhelming. She was used to it, but Casandra had complained about the fumes during the last sitting.
At last, she heard the sound of footsteps on the stairs and settled the unfinished canvas on the easel.
"Hey." Her sister stepped in, blinking slightly at the brightly-lit room.
"Hi," Dawn replied nervously.
After her initial sketches had been completely, she had begun painting in the figure of Cassandra first, which had required Casandra to don a light Ionic chiton in deep blue that draped beautifully and contrasted well with her skin tone and hair color.
Dawn had decided against the heavier outer cloak, the himation. She had finished the body by this point and was pleased with how she had rendered the intricate folds of the drapery over the feminine form. Now, she was working on the face, and would finish by filling in the background. The figure was in the foreground, standing by the shore from which the Spartan invaders would arrive, and the massive defensive walls of Troy in the background.
"How much longer do you think it'll take?"
She concentrated on mixing the dabs of paint that would give her a golden rather than white or peachy shade for the skin. "Not much longer. Maybe once or twice more after this. Just the face and hair are left, and once those are done, I won't need you to sit for me anymore." She added, "You can sit down over there, right in front of Zarina's Christmas cactus."
In their previous sessions, Casandra had needed to stand for Dawn to accurately capture the figure's stance. Now that the figure was complete, she could sit in relative comfort, without changing into the chiton.
"I'll need to go in about an hour. I promised Selena I would bake scones with her."
"All right. Thank you for taking the time to do this for me," Dawn replied without a hint of sarcasm in her voice.
Casandra shifted her feet, feeling guilty at her peremptory tone. It was hard for her to find common ground with her little sister. They hadn't played together since they were very little, and even then, she had preferred to spend time with Selena, and Dawn had played with Leigh, who was a year younger. They weren't close, and with so many "cousins," they didn't need to be. But Dawn and Joshua, their older brother, were close.
Now Josh was attending college in Crystal Tokyo, and whenever it was just the two of them and their parents at home over break, things could get tense. Casandra had a tendency to make cutting remarks, but Dawn never retaliated.
Even though she knew she wasn't supposed to be talking, she burst out, "Look, I heard about what happened in training yesterday. Are you okay?"
Dawn glanced up from her work in surprise, accidentally getting a smear of paint on her pinky. "Yeah, of course."
She didn't want to think about it right now. Getting upset would ruin her concentration, and she tended to work best when she was in a good mood.
Instead, she thought about the shade she would use for the eyes. She and Casandra had the same shaped eyes, but Casandra's eyes were a unique, arresting color. It would have been difficult to mix the perfect hue to match it, but Dawn thought she would like to have tried it. For "Cassandra Before," though, she thought it was probably most accurate to go with light brown.
When Dawn didn't say anything else, Casandra said uncomfortably, "You know, you can talk to me. If you want. About the things that are bothering you, or just in general."
On an ordinary day, in an ordinary week, Dawn would have smiled, thanked her, and continued working. Today though, she just kept quiet. She didn't even try to read Casandra. For one thing, it had never helped, and for another, while Casandra possessed few spirit abilities, she had extremely strong mental shields.
Her emotions only escaped when she was angry, and Dawn didn't want to read those slashing, angry gusts. She and Josh had often remarked that it was a good thing Casandra hadn't manifested any fire or lightning abilities; otherwise, she probably would have burned the house down a dozen times over in their youth.
"Fine. Be that way. I was just trying to be nice," she snapped, annoyed and embarrassed at the cool reception to her genuine effort.
Dawn's hand paused in its movement, then stopped and put down the brush. There wasn't any point in trying to paint when her model kept speaking.
"I'm sorry. It's just hard for me to talk about."
"Well, why are you so upset about it? You have a new skill. It's great," Casandra said, trying to sound encouraging.
"I wasn't hurt, but I was afraid I would hurt people. Aren't you ever afraid of yourself?" Dawn asked, looking directly at her sister for the first time during their conversation. She half-expected Casandra to say no. Her sister always projected overwhelming confidence in herself and in her abilities. Though there were times when Dawn knew Casandra doubted herself, they seemed few and far between.
"Of course. I've hurt people in training before. Don't you know how Josh got that scar on his cheek? It was me. I was just starting to learn the pure energy attacks, and I caught him with the edge of a whip."
Dawn blinked, startled at the revelation. It had to be before she had started at the Academy, but Josh had never told her about this incident. He'd told her parents when he came home for break that the scar came from a nasty collision during a basketball game.
"It's still there," she said tentatively. "It's very faint, but you can see it when he tans. Why didn't Zarina or someone else heal it for him?"
Casandra's smile was bitter as she said, "Oh, she did. But he asked her to leave the slightest bit. He said it was a reminder – for himself. About being cocky and respecting people's feelings. I always thought I needed it more than he did. After all, I was the one who lost my temper.
"Anyway, you didn't do anything like that to Neil."
"I sucked up his energy," Dawn countered.
She rolled her eyes. "Please. He throws around energy all the time, especially when he's showing off. Weren't you in the middle of training? If you hadn't absorbed the hit, it would just have bounced off and dissipated back into the environment. It's not like you took something from him.
"I feel like you younger kids are living in a dream world most of the time. Stop blowing things out of proportion and think about things logically."
It was true, but not entirely true, and Dawn didn't like hearing it. "And you wonder why I don't like talking to you?"
Defensively, Casandra said, "So I suck at giving at advice. But I'm still your older sister. I'm trying to look out for you."
"It's nice of you to start now. You're only about fifteen years too late."
Now she was more surprised than angry. "What are you talking about?"
Dawn turned around and busied herself with starting to scrape the dried paint off the palette. "Nothing. Just forget it."
Casandra jumped up and stalked over to her. "Hey. If you have something to say, say it to me. Why are you packing up?"
"Our time is up." Dawn nodded to the big old grandfather clock on the other side of the room. Even though the Crystal Millennium was racing forward with all sorts of technology, Michiru preferred antiques, and decorated the house correspondingly, so the House had a lot of wooden rather then synthetic furniture. "You're supposed to bake with Selena now, aren't you?"
"It can wait."
"I don't want to argue with you, so you should just go."
Incensed, Casandra said, "You're acting like a spoiled brat. Would you just spit it out already?"
Tears sprang to Dawn's eyes. "Why is it that you've always said that about me? That I'm a spoiled brat and I always have my head in the clouds? I don't do stupid things, and I don't think Mom and Dad spoiled any of us. I hate the way you talk to me. I've always hated it. You make me feel like – like a bug, or worse than a bug. I'm always getting in your way and too stupid to know better."
"That's not true. I don't think you're stupid." The heat was washing out from her cheeks, leaving her pale and cold.
"You don't? When I started at the Academy, you told me you wished our parents weren't so famous because you didn't want the teachers knowing we were related. That summer that Uncle Endy let us work in his private gardens, you wouldn't let me help you and Josh with any the planning because you said I would mess it up. It's always been like that. Don't you know how that makes me feel? Don't you realize that if I doubt myself now, maybe you had something to do with it?" She was too angry and upset even to cry.
Casandra looked away, wringing her icy fingers. When she looked back, Dawn didn't need to her powers to see the overwhelming sense of regret and sorrow she felt.
"I'm sorry. I don't know what else I can say, but I really, truly am. I know I was cruel when we were younger, and I wish I could take it back, but I can't now."
"Why did you do it? Why did you say those things to me?"
She sighed and sat on the floor with a thump. After a moment, Dawn joined her, and Casandra started to feel the slightest bit of hope that her ever-forgiving sister would forgive her once again. "I was the dumb one, and I was really immature. Before you were born, I was the baby, and the only girl, and I was used to getting attention. Then you were born, and, well, it seemed like everyone loved you more than me.
"Our parents were busy taking care of you, of course, because you were so young. I didn't understand that. I wasn't even three. Josh liked to pick you up and make you laugh, and Dad even had a special nickname for you. I always thought they thought you were more special than me. And you are."
"But I'm not."
Casandra tried to smile at her. "Yes, you are. You were always happy, and sweet, and nice. Everyone said so, and you are. On top of that, you got the artistic talent in the family. It helps you connect with Mom and Dad on that level, and I envied that. It was just such a messy combination of things, Dawn.
"When I was younger, I was jealous of you, and at the same time, I just didn't understand that you were younger. I expected you to be able to do all the things that I could, even when you weren't old enough to, and so I thought you were stupid. But I never thought that once you grew up a little. Then I was just jealous, about the art, and about how everyone liked you more. You and Josh have always been closer, and I feel left out."
"Why didn't you want people to know we were related?"
"Dawn, it was like five years ago." When her sister just raised her eyebrows skeptically, Casandra sighed and said, "Fine. The truth is, I had a really hard time in school before the Academy. I don't know if you remember it, but I hated school, and I had a hard time making friends with anyone.
"Once I got here, everything was great. I loved everything about it. I didn't want anything to change, and you coming was a change. I can't really explain it, but I felt so comfortable and so secure here that I thought if you came, it would bring back all those envious feelings. What if everyone knew we were sisters and compared us, and just like before, I would be less artistic, less friendly, less everything?"
In a strange sort of way, it made sense, and that helped a lot. Equally strangely, it made her feel better. But it also drastically shifted Dawn's view of her sister.
"Why didn't you ever tell me about any of this before?"
Casandra stared back at her, wide-eyed. "Jeez, Dawn, because it's embarrassing! I was so mean to you, and it was really petty. I didn't know you felt so badly about it now. You always seem fine and, well, I hate this word, but 'well-adjusted.'"
Before Dawn could reply, they heard light footsteps on the stairs, and the door swung open as Selena stuck her head in. "Are you guys done yet?"
"I'll be down in a minute," Casandra replied.
Selena, who was certainly much more perceptive than her friend, took in the situation with a single comprehensive glance and vanished without another word.
"Dawn, I'm trying to be nicer."
"I know you are."
Heartened by her smile, Casandra said, "I'll try harder, I promise. And I'm really sorry. Do you think we can…I don't know, try and start over?"
"Being sisters?"
As Casandra flushed, Dawn reached out and gave her an awkward sitting-down hug. "I'm just teasing. But I don't think we need to start over entirely. Let's just move on and try and do things a little differently."
"Maybe a lot differently," her sister muttered, still looking guilty.
"Do we have a deal?"
"Yes."
They didn't do anything to seal the agreement, just stood there looking at each other in the dying afternoon sun. It was strange, Dawn thought, how light the room seemed even though it was just getting dark.
As they walked down the stairs together, Casandra in front, she said, "I'm sorry you didn't get much done today. Maybe we can pick it up tomorrow? I have some time at night, maybe around eight?"
"I won't be able to get the studio tomorrow night, and it'll be too dark here. Can we maybe meet up before class?"
Casandra hated getting up early, but she agreed without hesitation. "Sure. I'll meet you outside Serenity Hall. Does seven work for you?"
"Perfectly. Hey, do you remember how surprised Aunt Sere was to find out that she had a hall named after her?"
Casandra laughed, adding her own memories of that occasion. When they reached the ground floor, Serenity's daughter met them with flour sprinkled liberally in her hair and smeared on her nose.
"This is a total disaster! You've got to help me rescue the scones from Neil."
Dawn laughed. "Good luck with that. See you later."
"Oh, but you should join us! Unless you have to be somewhere?" Selena asked, looking at Casandra.
But Casandra wasn't even looking at her, and for once she didn't need prompting to include her younger sister. "Yeah, you should. Come on."
"Well…okay."
They spent the rest of the afternoon making a mess of Michiru's normally-pristine kitchen. The first batch of scones was burned, since they forgot to set the timer while they were cleaning up, but the second, given a liberal sprinkling of colorful sugar stars by Selena, turned out beautifully.
On Saturday, Dawn and Leigh walked back to their dorms from the House. Only Dawn had had training, but Leigh had tagged along to "torture Neil," she claimed.
"Any luck?" she asked as Dawn and Aurora emerged from the elevator.
Dawn shook her head. Still no evidence of transfer ability. Setsuna had suggested she work with Aurora, whose ability endowment included a massive amount of energy storage. Leigh had her money on Uncle Kunzite being the likely candidate, so Dawn didn't tell her that she was beginning to suspect the ability might have come from Aunt Minako.
Instead, she continued her account of the conversation she'd had with Casandra – it took some time to tell, and they kept getting interrupted. Dawn ended by saying, "You were right. Sitting there and not talking about how I felt wasn't helping at all, and now…things seem to be going pretty well. So, thanks."
"Of course I was right! I'm always right," Leigh said, adopting a pompous tone and tilting her head to stick her nose up in the air. The effect was ruined by the fact that she was also trying to balance an apple on the bridge of her nose.
"So…why don't you take your own advice and talk to Kaia and Jason sometime?"
The apple dropped to an ignominious fate on the ground.
"What? Are you kidding me? Completely different cases. The Perfect Twins are nothing like your sister. If you guys hadn't talked, I would've suggested your next painting be Saint George and the Dragon, with you as George – no offense, darling – and Casandra as the Dragon. Although I wouldn't mind if you substituted Neil for the dragon," Leigh continued mock-thoughtfully, "his hair's almost the right lurid teal color you started seeing in fantasy drawings at the end of the twentieth century."
"Leigh, your siblings would listen to you."
"Yeah, and then they'd ask me why I wasn't doing my homework," Leigh scoffed.
"Well, have you been doing your homework?"
Leigh frowned thunderously. "That's besides the point. Anyway, since when did you get so hyped up about talking? Any chance you've finally decided to talk to Ryan?"
Dawn sighed, knowing the subject was closed for the moment. "No, I haven't. I think he's avoiding me. I don't know why, but he seemed kind of upset on Thursday. I can't figure it out."
"Well, was he upset when you guys first started talking?"
"No. At least, I don't think so. I kind of…accidentally started reading him. But it's not my fault! It's because he knocked into me, and—"
"Uh huh. Overwhelming sexual tension, loss of control, I get it."
Dawn's cheeks turned pink as she said without much heat, "I hate you, Leighanna Crystal. If you don't watch out, I'll tell your dad on you."
"a) Ooh, scary, and b) I think my mom would react much more negatively," Leigh informed her.
"Yeah, but you get more upset when your dad grounds you."
"This whole conversation is nullified by the following facts. One, I'm too old to be grounded. Two, I'm like a hundred percent sure you wouldn't tell on me."
"Agree with point two, would argue with point one, but it's just not worth it."
Leigh rolled her eyes at this quibble. "Anyway, getting back to the subject at hand – so when did you notice Ryan getting upset?"
Now that they were nearing the dorms, there were more students in the vicinity and hence within earshot of this interesting discussion. Dawn glanced around furtively and hissed, "Shh. Can we leave out names, please? I think it was when we saw you, actually."
A smirk of understanding lit Leigh's pixyish features. "Dawn, sometimes you are adorably dense. You know who was with me?"
"Um…I actually can't remember. Someone was with you?"
Leigh waved her hands dismissively. "I'm not surprised; he's pretty forgettable. But who else was there? Neil. Who are you always hanging out with – besides me, of course? Neil. Who's a single guy that a few hopelessly deluded girls, for completely unfathomable reasons, lust over? Neil. Put it together, now. Do you know what j-e-a-l-o-u-s spells?"
"Aren't you leaping to conclusions there?"
She stared at her. "Please, Dawn. You know how the boy feels. Did you do or say something to make him mad? No. So what else could it be? He was starting to blush and get all lovey dovey and then boom! Your attention goes to Neil, all the little hearts circling around his head go poof, and then he's left desolated."
It kind of made sense. All the "love" words aside, that is. It was strange how bizarre explanations were starting to make a lot of sense to her lately.
"I don't know, Leigh. Even if it's true, I don't see what I could do about it, short of making a general announcement that I don't lust over Neil."
"You could tell him how you feel," Leigh suggested. "It would even the playing ground."
"I'll think about it. But things have been getting pretty complicated lately. I just want us to go back to being friends like normal, and I want to figure out this energy transfer thing first. Okay?" That was Dawn's polite way of saying "Drop it."
"Okay."
It was a rare day when Leigh voluntarily abandoned Dawn to walk with Neil. But on the day they all had training together again, she trumped up some excuse to pull him aside, letting Dawn and Vivienne walk ahead of them.
"What now?" Neil asked warily. "This isn't about the chocolate pudding in your sheets prank, is it? Because I wasn't anywhere near the girls' dorms yesterday."
"As if you had the brains to break into them." When he seemed about to protest, Leigh held up her hand and said, "Save it. Not interested. I know who did it, so I just have one question for you."
He raised his eyebrows. "Wow. A question. No death threats, no begging for favors–"
"I don't beg you for favors."
"Really? Because there was that one time you hid Uncle Keth's sword, and–"
Leigh slapped her hand over his mouth. "That's old news. Now, will you just hear me out? Simple question: I don't suppose you're going to be dating anyone anytime soon?"
When she removed her hand to let him answer, Neil was too startled to make a show of rubbing his mouth. "Huh? Don't you hate it when I date? You call it…what was it again? 'A disgusting and unholy confirmation that not all girls find me repulsive?'"
"I surprise even myself sometimes," Leigh responded, looking pleased with herself. "Anyway, I was just curious. Let's just say I like to be prepared. Your answer?"
"Not that I know of. My heart was crushed in 'twain after the fair Susanna dashed my hopes—"
"More like her brother caught you making out in the courtyard," Leigh interjected disgustedly.
Neil grinned unrepentantly. "Well, let's just say it didn't work and I'm taking some time out to heal my poor, rejected heart. Although I wouldn't say no if the luscious Alexa took a sudden interest in me and my crushed heart. Or maybe just my fantastic mouth."
"Eww," Leigh said disgustedly, pushing Neil towards Vivienne and Dawn disgustedly. "Get away now, I'm finished with you."
He loped ahead, clearly laughing at her, and beat the three girls to the House.
The rest of fall and fall term passed fairly peacefully. Dawn spent her time trying to manifest any type of transfer ability, which she was not successful at, and trying to finish "Cassandra Before," which she did succeed at. It was done before winter break, and she thought of it as her best work yet. It had been chosen to be featured in the February art show, which was something of a Big Deal even beyond the gates of the Academy, and Dawn was torn between feeling ecstatic and anxious. Going home for winter break helped; once she was away from the Academy, holiday events filled her time.
She and Casandra hadn't made significant efforts to spend time with just each other, but they did spend more time together, usually with in groups with Selena, Leigh, Alex, Neil, and Vivienne. Even when there were more people around, Dawn felt the change. They still didn't talk about everything under the sun, but they were much easier around each other.
She hadn't realized the change had been that drastic until their parents remarked on it over break, looking simultaneously befuddled yet pleased. Unfortunately, they wouldn't be able to attend the show, since they were both scheduled to be out of the country on a diplomatic visit. Josh would be in the middle of his spring semester then, and he also wouldn't be able to get away. Dawn was disappointed but not terribly so, since at least one of her aunts and uncles had promised to come for the show, and of course all the Outers and the kids who were still attending the Academy would be there.
Even though she hadn't figured out the energy transfer yet, two things kept her from despairing. The first was her resolution to keep her powers firmly in check and stop reading people – especially Casandra and Ryan. It made her interactions with them easier, and even though there were times when it was near impossible to resist, she held herself to her promise.
The second was the elaborate games her father and Uncle Zach had devised. They forced her to use her energy absorption powers in such creative ways that she almost didn't mind using them.
A week before the show, Leigh and Neil somehow coaxed her into an "extra training session" to take her mind off things. That in itself should have made her suspicious, since neither of them particularly liked training. And whenever the two of them agreed to join forces and cooperate, it usually meant evil schemes were in the works. But Dawn was so preoccupied with the art coming show and the art club's preparations for it that she missed these obvious warning signs.
They had coerced Haruka into supervising their session. She split them into two teams and had Leigh and Neil, much to their mutual annoyance, 'fighting' Dawn and Selena. Since they were allowed to use their elemental powers, there were buckets on the sides of the room filled with water, and the ventilation shafts were open.
About halfway through the session, the intercom buzzed, and Haruka stopped them so she could answer it. Dawn and Selena had scored more points and taken less damage, since Neil and Leigh, characteristically, were having a hard time working together without arguing. It helped that both of Neil and Leigh's abilities were both elemental, whereas Selena and Dawn had a nice mix of spiritual and energy abilities. Selena relied on Dawn's reading of the situation and scored most of the offensive hits.
"Yes?"
"It's Vivienne, Aunt Haruka. Mom says there's an important call for you."
Uranus sighed gustily and de-transformed. "I'll be right up. Thanks, Viv." To the four of them, she said sternly, "You know the rules. Don't do anything while I'm gone, or you'll be grounded for the rest of the year."
In spite of their chorused agreement, the minute the elevator door closed, Neil said, "Come on, let's switch partners and get on with it. Whoever gets Leigh has a five-second advantage though – it's such a drag working with her."
"Watch it," the petite girl snapped, all traces of their former truce gone.
"What? I'm only telling the truth. You just missed the perfect opening and lost us fifteen points with that little stumble there." Neil mimicked her tripping as he said in a high falsetto voice, "Ooh, I might fall and break a nail. Selena's soo scary; I'd better let Neil take her."
Dawn said quickly, "Stop it, Neil—"
But she was too late. Leigh's eyes flashed dangerously as she warned, "You take that back."
He smirked, taking a step closer to her as he said, "Yeah? Why don't you make me?"
Worriedly, Selena stepped up to them and tugged on Neil's arm. "Neil, what do you think you're doing? Calm down and shut up."
He shrugged her off, keeping his eyes locked on Leigh's. "Well? Scared to take me?"
"In your dreams! Get out of the way, Selena," Leigh directed, moving fluidly into a fighting stance.
"What are you doing?" Dawn hissed in panic.
"I know what I'm doing, Dawn," Leigh said confidently. "I'm teaching this jerk a lesson. A long, overdue lesson."
Before Selena and Dawn could do anything else, Leigh had the water out of the buckets and floating in the air. It crystallized rapidly into blunt-ended icicles, which she threw at Neil, one by one, taunting him as he ducked and ran. They smashed into the wall behind him, shattering into dozens of pieces.
Dawn was torn between getting Haruka or one of the Outers, who would surely put a stop to this, and stopping them on their own. She weren't sure they could manage it by themselves, but if they could, it'd be better for everyone involved.
Neil straightened from the crouch he had dropped into, an icicle moving through the space where his head had been a split second ago. Dawn froze as she read his intention to draw in air from the concealed vents that allowed him to access the outside air supply without suffocating the rest of them.
As he summoned a huge gust of wind, Leigh prepared to hurl what looked like ten buckets' worth of frozen water at him. Selena shouted a warning, but when the dust cleared, they saw Leigh lying against the far wall, and Neil stuck on his hands and knees in a pool of ice but otherwise unhurt.
Selena ran over to Leigh, running her hands over her face and hands. Dawn followed more slowly, and when she got there, she saw that Leigh's skin looked pale and grayish.
"Leigh?" she whispered.
Her friend opened her eyes slowly, as if her eyelids were too heavy to lift. "Dawn? I feel so tired…"
"Are you okay? Are you hurt?"
Leigh shook her head listlessly, closing her eyes again. "No…just so tired… I think…maybe I…overdid it."
From where he was stuck a few feet away, Neil called, "It sounds like she drained herself with the last attack! You know how Aunt Hotaru warned us about not using up too much of our life force. She needs an energy transfer, now!"
Dawn and Selena stared at each other in horror. "Neil and I don't have any aptitude for that," Selena said.
"Go get Aunt Hotaru!" Dawn ordered, her voice thin and shaky with fear. While Selena ran over the elevator, she knelt by Leigh's side and rubbed her hands.
"She won't get here in time," Neil said, renewing his attempts to free himself from the ice.
"Shut up!"
"You have to try to transfer some of your energy to her, Dawn. You can do it. But please, you have to try." Neil's voice cracked on his last words, and Leigh shifted slightly.
As Dawn looked down at her, she echoed softly, "I know you can do it."
"The more time that passes.."
"All right, shut up and let me think!" she cried, glaring at Neil. Dawn closed her eyes, trying to think of all the ways they had tried to coax the energy transfer ability out. She had asked Kaia, Leigh's older sister over break – if only she were here now! – and Kaia had described it as the polar opposite of energy absorption. But even that was difficult…
Looking deep inside herself, Dawn gathered the threads of azure blue energy from within her center. They slipped from her grasp, and she nearly cried with frustration. Forcing herself to concentrate again, instead of using imaginary fingers to move them, she imagined a brush, delicately dipping into the energy-paint and brushing it on the center of Leigh's forehead.
"Hey, you were right. You really do get a huge power rush from it, don't you?"
Dawn's eyes flew open to see Leigh sitting straight up, her cheeks flushed and her eyes shining. She fairly pulsed with vitality, but her skin still looked grayish despite the healthy pink and peach color behind it.
With a wave of her hand, Leigh freed Neil, who walked over to stand by them. "You okay?" he asked, offering her a hand up.
"Of course. You didn't have to be so theatrical about it. I think we scared poor Dawn to death."
The two of them looked down at her, for she was still sitting on the ground in shock. "You're okay? What's going on?"
"Please don't kill us," Neil said, dropping to his knees in front of her. "It was all Leigh's idea, I swear."
"Traitor," she muttered.
"You really feel better?"
"I'm fine," Leigh assured her.
Dawn asked, "Then why is your skin still that horrible gray color?"
The other girl smiled brightly. "Oh! That stuff Viv gave us works really well, doesn't it? It's just make up. She says they used it last year when the theater club put on La Bohème and they needed Yvonne to look like she was dying of tuberculosis."
"Look at your hands," Neil pointed out helpfully. "Selena put it on Leigh when she ran over to her."
Dawn glanced down to see some mysterious gray substance smeared on her fingers, from when she'd been rubbing Leigh's hands. "You tricked me? It was all a joke?"
They nodded, looking guilty and wary. "We just thought… it might help if you… had a situation where you really needed to use it, and we were sure you'd be able to! And you did!"
"But didn't Selena go get Aunt Hotaru?"
"Well…she's in on it too. Selena, I mean, not Aunt Hotaru. Aunt Hotaru would probably have killed us if she knew what we were up to, but Aunt Haruka said it was okay. She's been monitoring us from the next room to make sure Leigh and I didn't accidentally kill each other," Neil explained.
She sighed heavily, feeling relieved and strangely lightheaded instead of angry at having been duped. "Oh, well. I can't say I agree with your methods, but I guess it's nice to know that I can absorb and transfer energy."
"I hope you didn't give me too much of your energy," Leigh said sheepishly.
Haruka and Selena came in then, and the blond-haired woman reached down to check her pulse. "A little fast, but you should be fine. Do you think we need to have Hotaru take a look at you, Sunshine?"
She shook her head, getting unsteadily to her feet, and Neil and Dawn moved to either side to support her. "I'm okay. Just tired, and very relieved."
"In that case, you should know that I'm very proud of you."
"For learning how to transfer energy?"
"For keeping a cool head in the middle of a crisis. You did everything right – first you tried to keep your friends from doing something idiotic – stop grinning, Neil; if you ever do something like that whether adults are around or not, you'll wish you'd never been born – and then you sent Selena to get me. While you waited, you did everything you could to help Leigh, including trying to master a skill you weren't sure you had. And you did it."
"But it wasn't real."
Haruka ruffled her hair. "The important parts of it were real."
While Dawn thought it over, Leigh asked tentatively, "You really aren't mad?"
"I don't think so. Not much, at least, although I hope you won't ever do it again. I was really upset!" She threw her arms around her friend as Leigh promised, hugging her back equally fervently.
When she drew back, Dawn confirmed, "I'm not mad at any of you, but…it wasn't very nice, even though I know you had good intentions. Why did you let them do it, Aunt Haruka?"
"I don't imagine your parents or even Kenneth will appreciate my methods, but we've always had some differences in opinion," Haruka said matter-of-factly. "I know it wasn't nice. But I've been in positions where it was just Michiru and me, fighting together, and there were times when we desperately needed these powers we knew we had, but didn't quite know how to use. Things aren't pretty when you're trying to get it during battle, when your comrades are hurt and it seems like the enemy is everywhere. It's very difficult to be in that position, and very dangerous.
"We all hope that you kids will have the chance to grow up having more normal, peaceful lives than we did. So far, that seems to be the case. But with the kidnappings ten years ago and threats like the Black Moon… We want to be sure you're as well prepared as possible."
A week later, Dawn was completely recovered, and Neil and Leigh had ceased making their profuse apologies to her. Part of it might have been due to the fact that she guilt-tripped them into helping the art club host the art show, but she knew they would have attended it anyway.
Casandra was going, and she helped Dawn and Leigh get ready. Well, she really only helped Dawn, since Leigh refused to wear a dress. Instead, she was wearing gray slacks and a forest green sweater.
Dawn was wearing a cranberry-colored woolen winter dress over black tights. As she sat at Casandra and Selena's vanity, her sister remarked, "This is a good color for you."
"Thanks," Dawn said gratefully, closing her eyes as Casandra dusted powder lightly over her skin and moved on to a light coat of lipstick and very subtle eye shadow. "I don't think anyone wears red as well as Mom does, though."
"That would be pretty impossible," Casandra agreed. "But you look so pretty tonight. We should take a picture for Mom and Dad."
"Right now?"
"Wait, I'll take some of you guys by the painting," Leigh interjected. "I don't have my camera with me now, but I'll bring it to the show."
"I guess that makes sense. What time is it now?" Dawn asked, trying hard not to move or sneeze.
Leigh, who was sitting on the bed and swinging her legs, looked over at the clock. "Seven twenty-five."
"Oh, I have to go! I promised the others that I'd do a last check of the gallery and make sure all the names and titles are correct."
Casandra stepped back and evaluated her work with a critical eye. "Can't anyone else do it?"
"Well, Aunt Michiru's hosting, but she and Aunt Haruka are at dinner with all the guests right now. Greg and Mara said they would check on the hors d'oeuvres and drinks, and Alyce and Jared are printing the programs, so I said I would do it. Besides, it'll keep me from being too nervous if I have something to keep me busy," Dawn explained.
"All right. You look great. Don't smudge your makeup, and we'll see you there."
After she ran out, then back in again for the shoes she'd forgotten to wear, Casandra asked Leigh curiously, "Don't you usually help her out with this type of thing?"
The younger girl smiled mysteriously as Casandra settled herself before the mirror and started to do her own makeup. "Yeah, but I have a hunch that someone else will be giving her a hand tonight."
"You are a sneaky, devious little child," Selena commented. "I approve entirely."
"Why, thank you," Leigh replied laughingly.
Dawn was surprised to see one of the doors to the gallery propped open when she arrived, and peered in curiously. To her surprise, Ryan was there, wearing stone gray dress slacks and a black sweater, and adjusting a tilted sign by one of the framed photographs.
"Hi," she said.
He turned and smiled warmly at her. "Hi back. You look really nice."
"Thanks. So do you. What are you doing here?" she asked as she came all the way in.
"The others told me you were going to be here all by yourself, so I thought I'd help out."
"You didn't have to go through all this trouble," Dawn said unthinkingly. "You've already done a lot of the prep work." There wasn't anything she could to do take it back, so she moved to the other side of the room, checking the paintings, sculptures, and framed sketches on that side to give herself something to do.
"You've done a lot of work as well, and I'm glad to do it." He moved to stand next to her, and she felt herself blushing against her will. The painting they stood in front of was "Cassandra Before."
"It's a beautiful painting," Ryan remarked, although his eyes were on her instead of the gold-framed painting.
Dawn kept her eyes on the painting, trying to focus on the brilliant sunrise she had painted behind the enigmatic, white-robed figure. Most of the shades in the sky were pastel, but the rich blue of the robes, the verdant green of the shrubs, and the aged stone of Troy's walls give the painting a vividness that caught the eye.
"Thank you. I really like your photographs," she complimented in turn. She had been the one to hang them in the gallery two days ago.
Conversationally, Ryan said, "You know, your friend Leigh gave me a hint that tonight might be a good time for me to talk to you."
She felt herself turn redder than a tomato. "Um, you know, sometimes Leigh's imagination gets away from her. She wants to be a writer, and she – well, anyway, you shouldn't feel like you have to listen to her or anything. I hope she didn't bother you."
"Actually, I was really glad to hear it. But I'd kind of already decided on my own to talk to you, so I like to think that it was just the universe giving me the go-ahead."
The gallery was a wide-open space with beautiful lighting, great ambiance, and superb ventilation. But for some reason, Dawn felt it shrinking second by second, and she wondered why she was suddenly feeling short of breath. "What did you want to talk to me about?"
"I think you're fantastic. You're beautiful, kind, and fun to be around. You're one of the most talented people I know, and I really like spending time with you. I'd like to spend more time with you."
"Oh," she said inadequately. "That's – really nice of you, Ryan. I'd like that, too. Um, spending more time together, I mean."
His expression changed from intense to frustrated. "Is that a yes?"
"A yes? To what?"
"I'm trying to ask you…if you'll go out with me."
"Oh," she said again. "Well, then, yes. Okay."
For a whole minute, they just stood there, smiling at each other foolishly.
Leigh's eyes lit up when she saw Dawn and Ryan walk in together, hand in hand. Depositing her half-full tray of canapés onto a random chair, she scurried over to Neil and held out her hand. "Pay up."
"What are you talking about?" he asked, pausing in the middle of picking up an empty glass that had once held sparkling cider.
She pointed across the room gleefully. "I told you he'd do it."
Neil sighed. As he dug a couple of bills out of his pocket, he said, "I don't know about this, Leigh."
"Hm? Don't know about what?"
"She looks happy. But Thompson…he might be too quiet for her. He better treat her the right way."
She burst into giggles. "Neil, don't tell me you're going into big-brother mode now. Both of your sisters are older than you, and Dawn's the same age."
"Don't be ridiculous," he said automatically, turning away.
"Unless…"
"Uh uh."
"What?" Leigh asked innocently.
Neil turned back and glared at her. "Don't even go there. I know what you're thinking, and it's not true."
She raised her eyebrows. "What's not true? Did I say anything yet? You're getting awfully defensive." He didn't say anything, and Leigh backed off when she saw the unhappy look in his eyes.
"Anyway, she'd never think that way about me," he said gruffly, which she knew was true. Had known this truth and guessed about the other one. "I'll get over it."
"I'll keep an eye on her."
"Okay. Thanks." Neil looked away quickly, then smiled genuinely. "Hey, look, it's Uncle Nev and Aunt Mako!"
He and some of their other adoptive "cousins" moved to mob Nevan and Makoto, and Leigh watched him go with a thoughtful look in her eyes.
All in all, Dawn was over the moon. Leigh had snapped a picture of her and Casandra by "Cassandra Before," and many people had admired her painting and the efforts of the art club. Once she had stopped being nervous, she had had a lot of fun talking with Leigh, Neil, and her friends from the art club. Ryan had stayed with her most of the night and endured the introduction to her Uncle Nevan and Aunt Makoto.
Dawn hadn't told anyone what was going on, but she was pretty sure some of the kids had guessed. None of them had told Nevan and Makoto, but the considering look in her tall uncle's eyes as he sized up Ryan before smiling and offering a hand made her wonder if her parents were going to hear about him.
It was around midnight by the time she was back in her dorm, showered and in her pajamas. Before she turned out the light, she opened the envelope Makoto had given her and smiled at the familiar handwriting.
Dear Dawn,
I'm so sorry Dad and I couldn't make your show. We're pretty disappointed too, and your dad keeps saying, "Next time for sure!" I want you to know how proud we are of you. You've grown up so much during this last year, and you're becoming a lovely young woman, one wh2o is not only beautiful, but also wise and compassionate, with a loving heart. I know it was a hard year, but you've managed to stay true to yourself and always sensitive to the feelings of the people around you. We miss you terribly when you're away, but I'm always happy to know that you're filling lots of other people's lives with sunshine.
Love,
Mom
AN: So…have you guessed whose daughter she is? ;)