Disclaimer: I 'm afraid I don't own Sailormoon or any of the characters therein. I do, however, own myself, my special guest appearance in this fic, this fic, and all the other little made-up, insignificant characters who go dwell in story-land after their brief cameos and become my pets.

Author's Note: This contains Mamoru/Usagi, Seiya/Usagi, Taiki/Ami, and Yaten/Minako fiction which will very likely be continued in the near future. Being stuffed full of laffy taffy, Johnny Depp movies, and genuine discredibilty, I've kept this one on the lighter side. That being said, there should be something for everybody. Suki


1

It was by far the single worst day in her entire life.

That morning, she woke late yet again. She was supposed to meet Mamoru for breakfast, but since she overslept, she performed a balancing act of buttoning her blouse, brushing her teeth, and calling her sweetheart up on the phone to let him know she wouldn't be making it to their appointment.

He had every right to be annoyed.

"This is the third time this week, Usako," Mamoru sighed over the line.

"I'm sorry Mamo-chan. Pleeeeeease forgive me! We can reschedule tomorrow."

There was a pause. "I don't think so; why don't we just calm down for a while. Wait out these exams before we schedule any more breakfast meetings."

Usagi dropped her shoe and stood upright. "Are – are you sure?"

She could hear his smile through his tone of voice. "Yes. I want you to do well. And you just obviously don't have enough time for both college exams and me right now."

"Oh, Mamo-chan," Usa murmured. "Is that what you think?"

"No, I know that if I didn't put a stop to it, you'd continue juggling school, work, family, and a relationship. And I just can't let you do that . . .."

"But we'll still have our Sunday meetings like usual?"

"Of coruse."

"Oh! And I have the perfect outing planned for us this wee – "

"Usa . . ."

"Yes?"

"You're going to be late."

"Oh my gosh!" And she dropped the phone promptly into the bathroom sink. "Shoot!" She cursed silently as she reached for the sopping electronic appliance and shook out the water. It was too late. She'd already lost the connection.

Rather than take the opportunity to gain her bearings, Usagi grabbed a bun from her kitchen, clutched her book bag, slammed through the door, stopped, turned right back around when she realized she wasn't wearing any shoes, caught her hair in the door as she was going back in, tripped over her cat Luna's water bowl, and went sprawling onto the carpet, with the bruised knee to prove it.

By the time she finally made it out of her apartment, it had started to rain.

To make matters worse, she had to walk.

When she got to class, she forced down her pride and submitted herself to her professor's criticism. She had to march up to the front of the class immediately, shoes squeaking, dripping as she went. Her presentation went all wrong, and her classmates were practically falling asleep as she spoke.

When class was over, her professor called her up privately to speak with him at his desk.

Usagi went, drooping.

Professor Miagowa folded his hands and regarded the young woman over them. She was really quite stunning, when she hadn't been dragged through the rain. She was petite and fine-boned, like a china doll, with delicate porcelain features to match. She wore her hair in two small, neat buns on the top and sides of her head, with gold wisps streaming from them like sunbeams. Her eyes were blue and wide, as if she found the world around her an extraordinary place. A permanent smile fastened itself languidly to her lips, as if she'd been born happy. Except for today. Today was just not her day.

"Tsukino-san . . .," Professor Miagowa started, "why do you want to be a nurse?"

"W-why, sir?"

"Yes."

"Well, I . . .." Usagi trailed off, wracking her brains furiously for a correct answer.

"Tell me honestly."

She licked her lips and lowered her eyes. She inhaled. Her eyes flickered up determinedly. "I want to help people."

Professor Miagowa leaned back in his chair.

"I want to ease the pain of the sick, and help the broken-hearted to smile again. If I can do just a little, a very little, to relieve the burdens of others, then . . . well, then, I'd say I've done my job." She crossed her hands behind her hands expectantly, like a small schoolgirl awaiting scolding.

But the scolding did not come. Instead, Miagowa rose without speaking and started to gather his papers together.

"You are dismissed, Tsukino-san."

"D-dismissed?"

"Yes. Enjoy your vacation." Then, he smiled at her, a secret smile. "I'll be looking forward to seeing you next semester."

Usagi's eyes brightened in recognition. She nodded abruptly, bowed, turned on her heel, and rushed out of the classroom, nearly tripping as she went, before her professor could change his mind.


Seiya Kou stepped out of the limousine and shielded his eyes from the bright sun. It had been raining when they arrived in Tokyo. Now the sun was out suddenly, burning away at him as if it held a personal grudge.

"Where did all this damn sun come from?" he muttered, shouldering his bag.

He didn't get an answer, because at that moment, his brother shoved him out of his way and sent him flailing over the sidewalk as he proceeded to scramble out of the limousine.

"Don't just stand there, baka. Move!" Yaten was good at giving orders.

Seiya decided not to acknowledge this latest order with an answer.

It was Taiki who made the most graceful exit. His long legs came out the door first and established themselves, then his broad-shouldered torso followed. He wore black-tinted sunglasses and a thin-lipped grimace. "So here we are again in Tokyo."

All three of the Kou brothers were ridiculously gorgeous and knew it. Taiki was the eldest and tallest of the three. His brow was broad and smooth, and he had keen eyes that always seemed to be looking two steps to the future. His brown hair went back smoothly, but he tied his long, sleek strands at the nape of his neck, in the fashion of all the Kou brothers.

Yaten was youngest and shortest but still of some good stature. His hair was pale and framed his face in long bangs. He wore a permanent look of distaste and boredom, which Seiya liked to call his "girly look." In fact, Yaten was somewhat feminine, but it somehow only helped to add to his sophisticated charm.

Seiya was the middle brother and had all the traits of the middle child's craving for attention. He could never keep his ebony hair from forming wisps about his neck and forehead, but he tied the greater amount of it back at his neck in traditional fashion. His eyes were dark blue, slanted with thick lashes, and sparkled with a know-it-all hint of mischief. He tended to smirk more than smile.

He was smirking now as he smoothed out the sleeves of his favorite red blazer.

"This is where you'll be staying," Suki said, scrambling out of the car. Suki was their music manager and had shortly cropped brown, curly hair that flew out in every direction and which always suggested that she was perhaps slightly mad.

"It's not home, but it'll have to do," Taiki said.

"It could be better," Yaten remarked.

"Well, what can I say?" Suki shrugged. "It's the perfect place, right near all the important locations. Hey, and there's twenty-four hour security; that should take care of all your fangirls, eh?" She elbowed and winked outrageously at Yaten, who reacted to this by taking two steps away from her.

Suki merely laughed. "All right, boys; let's get you settled." She motioned the bellboy waiting aimlessly at the front of the apartment building. He blinked at her a couple of times before realizing she was gesturing at him.

"This is gonna be just great," Yaten muttered, dripping with fake enthusiasm. "I'm loving this day already."


"What a gorgeous day!" Aino Minako couldn't help but do a little spin as she stepped out of the animation studio. The sun warmed her limbs. If only she were a plant. Then she could photosynthesize. "My luck's going to change soon, I just know it!"

Minkao had just come from an audition for a company looking to hire a voice actress, and she felt confident in her success. Though up till now her career as a young idol had been somewhat unfortunate, Minako gave no thought to hanging up the towel and plowed through each dull job after another, trying to make ends meet until she was famous.

But that was Minako's way. She was genuinely optimistic, not with that cheesy sort of schoolgirl optimism, but with a genuine belief that the world was good and worth living in. Her long, sunny hair (eternally drawn partly back in a fat red ribbon) seemed to reiterate this view, and her clear blue eyes sparkled with an inner vitality. It was not at all unthinkable that she should be friends with the perky – though somewhat clumsy – nurse in training. In fact, she decided to give Usagi a call right then and there.

Stopping on the curb, she removed her cell phone from her handbag and dialed her friend's number.

"Hello?" came a slightly limp voice from the other line.

"Usa-chan?"

"Oh, hi Minako."

"What's wrong with your phone," Minako scrunched up her nose. "You're not coming through too well."

"Oh . . . uh," Usagi laughed, sometimes sounding nervous, sometimes sounding like an evil can opener gone rabid, thanks to the static. "I accidentally dropped it in the sink this morning."

"Oh, well, that sounds like you," Minako said nonchalantly, relieved to hear that everything was going normally. "Listen, why don't you and I meet for lunch today? I know you don't have a class right now, and I just got finished with an audition down at the studio . . . I feel like celebrating!"

Usagi's voice brightened audibly. "Oh my gosh, Mina – you got the part!"

"No!"

"That's great, I'm so –. Wait. You didn't?"

"Nooooo, but I have a really good feeling about this one."

"Okay, well . . . good enough reason, I guess. I'm in the mood for Italian today."

"Great!" Minako grinned. "Pizza Hut it is!"

"But I was thinking – "

"Meet you in twenty." Minako hung up the phone. She breathed in deeply and smiled. Her luck was going to change all right; she just knew it.


"Wait – Minako! Ugh." Usagi pressed the off button on her cell phone using one hand. She did this because her other arm was preoccupied with carrying her grocery bag. "She just couldn't wait for me to drop of my groceries, could she?" Usagi muttered, and swung the paper bag from her left hip to her right.

As she did this, she tried to shove her phone into her school bag and do an about face all at once. Unfortunately, this required that she keep her eyes on only one thing that she was trying to accomplish, and the other thing that she was doing at that moment was turning around.

Straight into a striding pedestrian.

The full momentum of Usagi's swift turn and the walker's brisk trot combined created a disastrous affect. The brown paper bag went up. The brown paper bag went down. And the contents went everywhere. They burst forth into the air like a volcano eruption of Campbell's Soup cans, lettuce, and instant ramen.

Nor only that, but Usagi immediately sustained an injury to the side of her face and came crashing down on the sidewalk straight onto the afore-mentioned bruised knee.

Naturally, she was quite busy, or she would have noticed that her collision partner had a few casualties of his own. His glasses had flown off, clattering to the grown as he fell back onto his further leg to regain his balance from the impact.

Poor baby.

The glasses rocked smugly on the pavement next to Usagi's knee, which she clasped to against her body tensely like an infant and moaned, "Why, God?"

The stranger looked down rather bewilderedly.

"Hey."

Usagi looked up.

"Watch where you're going."

WHAT!

"You ran into me!" she snapped.

"I'm sorry," he said, bending over to reclaim his sunglasses, "I seem to recall it was you who turned around so suddenly."

"I beg your pardon!" Usagi managed to place a little fist on either hip while trying to scramble up from the still-damp pavement. She took a brief surveillance of the damage. Half the cans had rolled across the street – and those were the ones that hadn't been crushed by flying traffic. "Hey, you're gonna have to pay for those, you know," she extended an index finger at him menacingly and pointed with the other arm.

The stranger's gaze trailed down her limb and continued on to where she pointed. A few wisps of lettuce blew about like leafy tumbleweeds. He looked back. "I don't have to pay for anything," he informed her matter-of-factly.

Usagi felt the familiar sting inside her nose but resolved right then and there never to cry in front of strange men. She saddled up to him defiantly, placing herself squarely in front of his line of vision so he would have to look at her. "Y-you – you're a – an idiot!"

To her dismay, he leaned forward and down a little, meeting her challenge – literally – head on. "Do you know who I am?"

"Wh – no!"

"I'm Seiya Kou."

"Alright, well – Seiya Kou – the least you could do is help me pick up my groceries."

He leaned back a little. "You – don't know who I am, do you?"

She blinked at him, eyebrows still furrowed, and the whole effect was rather sweet, though unintentional.

"Hm," he shrugged and replaced his sunglasses. "That's a first." And he immediately walked deftly around her and continued on his way.

"Hey!" Usagi called after him. "Hey, where are you going?"

"Home!" he replied, without turning around.

"You – you aren't even going to help me?" Usagi called plaintively, her voice ending on a pathetically high note.

He tossed his hand over his shoulder casually.

As she watched his retreating back furiously, Usagi concluded that she had never met anyone more arrogant in her entire life.