Title: (This is What Makes Us) Girls
Genre: Family/Friendship
Rating: K
Disclaimer: I no own
NO BETA. BEWARE OF ERRORS.
Summary: They were flowers in the spring, blooming into the women they would become. – Cannon. Drabbles.
Dolls – By: Ayumi Hamasaki
"I will call the judgement of love upon you!"
Minako was the first to awaken.
She wasn't sure if was a blessing or a curse when Artemis stumbled upon her at the tender age of thirteen. She had barely been out of middle school, looking forward to studying abroad in England and fitting in with the European kids.
Sometimes she shook her head when she thinks about how she had been. She pretended to be a super hero, working with the police over petty crimes as practice for the bigger evils in the world. Artemis hadn't wanted to divulge what the core mission was right away; he had tried to protect Minako as much as possible. She was so incredibly young.
Ace put an end to her childhood causing her to fake her death.
With the Dark Kingdom finally exposing itself Minako began changing. Something bended, twisted, and snapped. She started to remember. One night the memories had been overwhelming. She recalled a fire, a man with silver hair whom she desperately loved, and the feeling of a cold blade penetrating her abdomen.
Both physical and mental scars began to show. She slowly lost herself to the cause. It wasn't until she found her fellow senshi, her comrades, her sisters, did the insane drive lessen. Then she had caught a glance at Sailor Moon and her life felt complete again.
What had been surprising were the girl's lack of memories. Minako wanted to protect them, especially her Princess. They were like how she had been once. Naïve and sweet as young girls should be.
But part of Minako was selfish. She was at a point where she didn't know where she ended and where Venus began. She didn't want to be alone in that. She only felt a little regret when her fellow senshi began to look at her the way they used to look at Venus.
She mourned the loss of Usagi's innocence the most, but rejoiced at being reunited with Serenity.
Minako had turned into a complicated young woman, and at sixteen only knew one thing for sure. Her life's mission was to keep her Princess safe.
Broken Frame – By: Alex and Sierra
"I am the Champion of Justice."
Sailor Moon was a fluke.
It was a thought that crossed Usagi's mind on numerous occasions. There were times when she wanted to confront Luna about it, ask her mentor if the feline had ever realized. There was never a guardian of the moon; Queen Serenity had that title.
What drove Usagi crazy was how no one questioned it. No one tried to seriously stop her from becoming a senshi. Yes she had been asked to stop fighting, but her guardians never forced her. She had never been trained as a warrior in her past life, and her previous mother had not even begun grooming her for the silver crystal when the end came.
Princess Serenity had been trained to be a lady. She was poised and demur; she never raised her voice and always portrayed a calm demeanor. Princess Serenity had been miserable. Usagi remembered vividly how she died, killing herself with Venus's sword. Suicide was not something the teenager could ever comprehend.
Maybe it was Serenity who had created Sailor Moon. Usagi was sure that was the only way it could happen. She remembered how her past self had envied her guardians. The princess has been painfully naïve, being a warrior was not a game.
Sometimes she pondered about her life prior to Luna's appearance. She couldn't quite remember how things had been before she was granted powers. She couldn't remember a time before she became Sailor Moon. She loved the girls dearly, and she was deeply in love with Mamoru. She couldn't quite say she was unhappy with the way her life had changed; some of it was for the better.
Some of it was for the worse.
There were nights where she woke up in a cold sweat, shivers wracking her body and a scream caught in her throat. Nights she woke up in the dark trying to focus on the street lights which streamed in from her bedroom window instead of a ghost of an enemy whose life she had ended with the power of the Silver Crystal.
She mourned over the people she had killed. It didn't matter that they were the enemy, or that they had threatened her planet or her loved ones. At one point in time those enemies had people who loved them as well. No one started their lives being a villain.
Instead of sharing these thoughts she kept them hidden deeply. A sweet smile always on her face and an understanding gaze forever in her eyes. She was tired, but she would never stop protecting her planet and the ones that she held dearest to her heart.
Hope – By: BoA
"You're so strong today...Every time, you seem different. Are there other parts of you I don't know?"
Her voice startled him out of his thoughts.
"Have you wondered how things would have been if we were normal?" Usagi's tone was a quiet one and the sadness in her eyes was almost overbearing.
They were sitting at the top of Tokyo Tower, overlooking the city and drinking in the night skyline. It was breathtaking from their perch. Had they been normal they would have not been able to be as high as they were with no fear of falling to their deaths.
Her sailor fuku hugged her body and her red boots hung off of the ledge leisurely while her long pigtails moved gently with the wind. He couldn't imagine her not being Sailor Moon. She was iconic. She was his hero.
With careful words he answered, "I wonder about a lot of things Usako."
It was the truth. He wondered how it would have been like if his parents hadn't died, if he had never met Usagi, if his life had gone down another path due to his own choices. But being Tuxedo Kamen was as natural as breathing, and Mamoru couldn't see his life any other way without his alter ego.
Usagi gave him a rueful smile and shook her head. He studied her as she turned back to their view. Was she only sixteen years old? This woman before him was not the same girl who used to cry over a spilt milkshake.
"I love you," Mamoru stated.
He was pleased when her cheeks became a delicate pink and she gave him a sweet smile. He didn't know how to bring her out of the mood she was in. All he could do was be there for her as best as he could.
Stay – By: Rihanna
"Douse yourself in water, and repent!"
They were fated to be together.
It was the only rational thing Ami could come up with. Really, the five of them didn't have much in common. Actually, Minako and Usagi had plenty in common, but the other three were social outcasts and rejects. Rei was considered a witch by her catholic classmates. Makoto looked as if she were a Yankee. Then there was Ami, she had been called worse names than just 'Ice Queen'.
Were they all friends by default?
They didn't have to be friends. Ami thinks that the reason they felt that particular sisterhood with one another was because of their past lives and their shared experiences. Then she ponders and tries to remember.
Venus had been hardened and calculating in ways Minako would not be for many years. Their leader had demanded respect and expected nothing less than perfection. She was confident and always poised. Opposite of her human counterpart who often times showed how insecure she could be.
Jupiter had been taller than Makoto, a giant among the Lunarians. She was strong and sure, if not a little cocky in her abilities. Mako-chan was sometimes painfully shy and uncomfortable in her own skin.
Mars and Rei were nearly the same. Only Rei was nowhere near as ruthless as her counterpart. Mars had been brutal in ways Rei could not bring herself to be.
Then there had been Serenity. Beautiful, kind, and selfish. Mercury had died protecting someone who ended up throwing their life away.
She tried not to think about how Mercury had been. The woman was equivalent to a super computer. Mercury barely had any emotions to show, she kept everything inside and kept herself level headed. Ami and Mercury were too similar for comfort.
The senshi's souls were bound together, forever and always. Still, that didn't mean that the five of them had to like each other, only tolerate one another. Be civil, courteous, and continue their duty; the invisible drive which pushed them endlessly forward.
It baffled Ami sometimes by how much she cared about the other four. Maybe it was because they were forced to risk their lives together, or the fact that they had to rely so strongly on each other. Maybe seeing each other had become a habit, like a bad relationship.
Only their relationships with each other weren't bad. Ami couldn't quite place it. She analyzed and turned the thoughts over in her head many times. There was no reason why the five of them got along so well, and no reason as to why they actually enjoyed each other's company the way they did.
It was nice, especially for someone who never had a friend before in their life. They made her happy. She didn't question it; she only knew that she would be loyal to them forever.
Tennis Courts – By: Lorde
"You will refrain from underestimating women!"
The cool breeze brought the smell of flowers with it.
She kept her eyes down as she swept the temple steps and cleaned them of stray leaves. It was a beautiful spring day, Phobos and Deimos flew leisurely overhead. She had to finish the last of her chores soon if she wanted to be on time to meet with the girls.
Rei was content. Before her powers awakened she had no friends. She was either feared or admired, but there was no human companionship in her life. When she was a little girl the sacred fire had shown her a group of friends that she would be close to. It had taken that vision seven years to come to fruition.
She mindlessly picked up a dead leaf from the ground and set it aflame between her fingers. Fire was in her blood, it always had been.
She had no regrets with becoming Sailor Mars in this lifetime. Mars was her and she was Mars, there was no difference between the two. Rei embraced her inner fire wholeheartedly. She knew that the other girls struggled with the acceptance. Despite it being a few years since they had begun this journey of endless trials and tribulations, the others were still growing into their skins.
Just because she didn't mind being a senshi was not to say she was fearless. Rei was afraid of death, of having regrets in her life, of being a disappointment to her grandfather. But this was her path to walk, she chose to embrace it and move forward. There were the occasional hiccups in her stride, and there would always be the nightmares.
Sometimes she would see a flash of blond from the corner of her eye, a glimpse of a gray uniform and cocky grin. Her heart would clench and her stomach would lurch with instant fear. He wasn't haunting her, she knew this. He was one of her tumbles, but Rei was nothing else if not resilient. She kept her head held high and her hair perfectly in place.
Confident and calm for the sake of remaining sane and keeping the girls on the same level. Rei loved her fellow senshi as if they were her sisters. They were all extensions of herself, when one felt pain they all felt it, same for joy.
Had she not chosen to stay along as Sailor Mars then she would never have the family that the five of them had forged. Rei couldn't imagine her life without the others, and she hoped that she'd never live a life without them again.
Rolling in the Deep – By: Adele
"The Guardian of Protection."
It was raining.
Makoto watched from her apartment window. The flashes of lightening bringing long dead memories with it. The nightmares all swirled and merged into one long horror show, but they played only on occasion and they didn't bother her as much as they used to. No, it was the man with long brown hair and playful blue eyes, a voice which had whispered promises during the most intimate embraces. Roses, strong hands and sweet kisses.
She fiddled with her earrings and took a sip of her floral tea. The electricity in the air always made her on edge. It always felt as if she could feel each lightning strike at her fingertips. It wasn't until she awoken as Sailor Jupiter did she realize just how possible that was.
Sometimes she would see him in a boy passing her on the street who would have his hair, or his laugh. A stranger would have his eyes or his height. The other's teased her about her obsession with her "old sempai", they couldn't understand. He haunted her.
She missed him as much as she did her parents, and she didn't even know who he was.
Was this part of the senshi curse? Yes the power to help others was incredible, the gaining of a new family and support group was something that Makoto would forever be grateful for. However, the feeling that half of her would always be missing made a small piece of her die on the inside.
Did the others feel this way sometimes? She couldn't imagine Usagi experiencing this hollowness which forever plagued her.
A loud clap of thunder startled Makoto out of her thoughts in time to hear the doorbell ring. The girls were finally here for their biweekly sleepover. It was something the five of them did together to retain some semblance of normalcy in their hectic lives.
Shaking off the loneliness which had been settling in, Makoto stood up to answer the door.
FIN
MoonLLotus: I tried to keep this as cannon an in character as possible. I feel that there's more to the five inner senshi than what we were given in both anime and manga. This has probably been done before, but I wanted to write it. Flames are welcome, please review!