The 133rd
"Talking" – quotation marks
Thinking – italics
Author's Note: I just wanted to test a bit. I miss writing fanfiction so I'll just try. It's been sadly too long. I just wanted to remember why I bothered writing in the first place. So please, comment and tell me what you think. Review, Criticize, Flame, they're all the same.
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"Life is hard enough when you belong..." --quoted by unknown (initially came from a song, but I can't remember which)
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It was too bright outside, too perfect. Birds sang, children laughed and giggled alongside devoted parents, and there was not a sliver of conspicuous evil in sight. There was no traffic; no teeming crowds of people shoving each other and being compressed against the busy bodies of strangers as though the colossal city of Tokyo itself was small and brimming. Everything was expansive and open for fun. Everything was happy; everything was as though fate itself had conspired to induce the feeling of security.
Juuban High School had been canceled due to major construction after a youma attack several months ago, the very last that ended in Sailor Galexia's purification. Matoki gave her free ice-cream today, an entire buffet in fact, and if she hadn't been so hungry she would've considered him either crazy or a guy who bumped his head very hard and now had no concept of money and the even more precious value of ice-cream whatsoever. And, for the first time in her life, she had completed every level in the Sailor V arcade game and won two dozens of stuffed animals from the toy vending machine. All of this miraculous things happened in one day. It seemed to be truly perfect in every sense of the word.
But Usagi knew there was no such thing.
She stared up at the ridiculously long stone steps that led toward the Sunset shrine. Usagi inhaled deeply, and for a moment she looked determined, but as she exhaled it was as though her confidence deflated along with her breath before her very eyes, like a balloon being squeezed of its carbon dioxide.
She clutched the two bags of stuffed toys at either of her sides, thinking how much of a travesty it would be to have such adorable stuffed animals and dolls go to waste. She had to remind herself later to donate the toys to some hospital or orphanage, whichever needed it most.
She took one step forward, then two, and then soon she was walking forward two at a time. She just wanted to get this over with. It was always so annoying when she arrived during those circumstances—when her friends were in a "mood".
She was just a yard from the sliding paper entrance doors of the temple—which immediately entered into the living room to where they always met—when she had heard them talking. Laughing, it seemed, almost wickedly together.
Usagi rolled her eyes, clearly unimpressed.
Sighing, she cast a longing glance down the stone steps behind her, considering perhaps to either let herself fall upon them and roll down with a certainty that she'd be dead by the time she reached the end, or simply walk away from the shrine all together and return at least a few months later, just until herdear friends were no longer PMSing.
"That Usagi is such a klutz!" Guffaws stupidly proceeded soon after.
Usagi sighed hopelessly, like a lazy parent that easily gave in to the whim of a spoiled child. Why did she allow them do this every single time?
"She doesn't disserve you, Mamoru!" Usagi heard Rei screech, almost righteously. You'd think they'd wanna keep it quiet. They know I'm coming. Usagi sighed again—she'd been doing that very often, ever since she was dubbed the famous heroine Sailor Moon in fact.
"But you do," Mamoru purred seductively.
Perverted bitch. He never purred to me like that, Usagi pouted, feeling only slightly jealous—but it was always out of habit more than anything else.
Rei and Mamoru had a serious case of the 'on-again-off-again' relationship. It was mainly Usagi's fault. Mamoru loved her too much. Rei loved her too much. They all did, they just had to be reminded once in awhile. To Usagi they might as well have a severe case of Short-term Memory Loss.
Sure, Mamoru was a total man-whore, but that didn't mean he couldn't fall in love. And when a player fell in love, hell broke loose—and when a player fell in love with an honest-to-goodness 'I wanna wait until marriage' girl four years younger than him, more hell broke loose. Rei was beautiful, too, far more enchanting than Usagi. So, naturally, you'd expect the playboy would be a little tempted. Even Usagi, at that time the tender naive age of fourteen, had expected heavy bumps along the way.
Usagi placed her bags of toys on the ground and pushed back the sleeve of her right arm, staring down at her golden-rimmed Mickey Mouse wristwatch. Mickey's gangly ebony arms were askew awkwardly to indicate it was three in the afternoon.
She had decided to wear her least favorite shirt today, the hot-pink long-sleeved blouse with Hello Kitty waving hollowly and cocking its big round head curiously to one side, making the plump white kitten look stupid, her beady black eyes gazing forward as though watching your every move with criminal intent. She didn't know why she chose the hideous shirt in the first place—it had been given to her by her grandmother, who being of her old age and sweet at heart still saw Usagi as a six-year-old little girl instead of the sixteen-year-old young woman she had, through some miracle, turned out to be. Her jeans shorts were plain bleached blue; the blatant plainness clashing with the shirt and making it stand out even more.
Now, when will I enter…? she pondered. Usagi was a somewhat of a nosy girl—it was one of her secret guilty pleasures. She listened on.
"Usagi is just too dumb…" Usagi heard Ami sigh wearily.
Usagi shrugged. She had to admit, she did drive Ami crazy at times with her sheer incapability of understanding complicated diagrams, situations, words, and the like. The blue-haired genius often got irritated when Usagi had no clue when she spoke in 'big words'. But what was the point of calling them 'complicated' or 'big' if she could understand them? There really was a reason why they called it complicated!
"She nearly poisoned me!"
"What? Really?"
"I mean with her cooking."
They all laughed. Even Usagi, inwardly of course.
It had been Makoto who spoke first, then Minako afterwards with the ridiculous question.
"Eh heh…" Usagi sweatdropped, chuckling. Well, she was terrible at cooking…
But really, they were going to betray her for that? A simple and harmless food poisoning? Her ignorance? Jealousy because she had a handsomer boyfriend than all of theirs combined? It seemed they were running out of ideas...
Oh well.
It'd all been done before.
She had gotten accustomed to their ridiculous reasons to overthrow her. She wasn't perfect, but she had gotten better on her behavior after the Three Lights. Usagi had been hoping her slight maturity would satisfy them for good. No such luck.
She would go through various scenes where they would betray her all her life ever since Sailor Moon. She'd arrive at Mamoru's apartment, forgetting something or just wanting to see him, and find him knocking up some broad, sometimes Rei. She'd get attacked by them after a youma fight where she was a little too clumsy or late in the action—even after she had successfully saved their ungrateful asses from said youma. But the most common of all? She'd overhear them plotting against her after miraculously arriving early for a scout meeting. Was it so hard to believe that she could actually be punctual? Damn.
Even so, all was so ridiculously cliché. She was getting sick and tired of it, and always had ever since the tenth time they had betrayed her.
Today was the 133rd time.
"She's not fit for our leader, or princess."
"Rei will make a great princess," Mamoru vouched.
Jeez, Usagi rolled her eyes, two months ago it was Minako. You guys are so fickle. She took a deep breath, and then, Okay, time to make my appearance! Usagi readily stretched her arms to the back of her head, feeling her joints crack sickly. "Ew! Gross," she whispered, quickly withdrawing her arms.
Usagi took a step forward…
And tripped.
Her weight was too much for the tender paper sliding doors, and she found herself collapsed on the sailor scout's shoes. They stared at her, dumfounded, from across the room.
"Tada!" Usagi cheered perkily, determined that her intended dramatic entrance would not go in vain. "Ow." She rubbed her pained head sheepishly.
"Usagi!" Ami choked. Apparently the blue-haired genius had been sipping tea when she had tackled the door down.
"That's me," Usagi said, rousing herself off the now-disordered shoes and broken paper door. When she was standing, she found Rei sitting on Mamoru's lap. Usagi wanted to laugh, but thought better of it. It was obvious at how ridiculously incapable they were at hiding their affair, so much so that it was hilarious.
"You're early!" Mina cheered, her brows collecting pebbles of sweat. She was obviously trying to act as though their whole conversation beforehand had never happened. So much for dreams of being an actor, tutted Usagi mentally.
"Did you hear anything we just said?" Rei asked carefully. She was glaring at Usagi homicidally, but Usagi didn't think the raven-hared priestess was aware of that herself. Mamoru had thrown her off his lap as quick as he could, so she was now lying in an awkward position on Makoto and Minako's.
"Pretty much, yeah." Usagi responded evenly. Now, the grand finale! Usagi contorted her face into a feigned look of pure sadness and heartbreak. "W-what's going on?" She whimpered convincingly.
After a moment, Rei stood on her feet looking dignified, a venomous scowl contorting her haunting pulchritude. "Usagi, you are not fit to be our leader…or princess!"
"Again?" Usagi wanted desperately to say. Instead, she took a few steps back, as though the words alone were a painful blow. Rei looked on triumphantly.
Seeing the blonde lunarian princess appear weak and vulnerable, the others were encouraged to step forward as well…
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Haruka stared at the sopping wet blonde girl that gave a charming, toothy smile, her very expression laughably sheepish. The professional NASCAR racer leaned evenly against the frame of the large doorway and, after eyeing the tiny blonde before her from head to toe, smirked nonchalantly.
"Betrayal again?"
"Yup."
Haruka sighed. "Come on in, then," she offered hopelessly.
Usagi half-skipped into the colossal manor. "Y'know, you guys should have a map for this place," she commented conversationally as she entered the ridiculously large sitting room. "I'll get on that," Haruka replied dismissively, not really paying any heed to her beloved princess and only surviving heiress to the White Moon Kingdom's all-powerful thrown. Usagi pouted, her arms folded tartly across her chest.
"I'll get you an extra shirt and jeans, Koneko," Haruka called as she headed up the spiraling marble staircase that plummeted from high above. "Can I have one of yours? Michiru-san's are too tight on me," Usagi called back, "The one with Spongebob and Patrick doing an aerial on an off-road motorbike! That's cute!"
Haruka paused halfway up the stairs, a shapely brow raised skeptically as if in offense. She peered over the younger blonde carefully. And then, "No way! That's my favorite!"
"Aw! Pweeeeaaase?" manipulated Usagi, wringing her hands before her in a childish begging gesture, her bottom lip protruding forth ridiculously as her eyes watered like a hurt puppy's. Haruka rolled her eyes as though immune to The Look, but, as she proceeded up into the bedroom floor, she was intent on going to her own quarters and fetching the shirt anyway along with matching blue polyester shorts.
When she returned, she found Hotaru sitting on the sofa across from Usagi—having popped up somewhere around the time Haruka was obediently fetching clothes for her princess—who was standing in courtesy of their very dry and very expensive furniture. In the little eleven-year-olds hands she stroked a diminutive stuffed parody of a black-furred yellow-eyed Siberian wolf, designed to fool the adolescent mind into believing such carnivorous canines were adorable harmless creatures with impossibly big eyes and a huggable impression. And yet, Haruka could not place why she believed it suited the little Firefly so well…
Other stuffed toys, to which Haruka had never remembered seeing before, were bulging out of two shopping bags seated effortlessly upon the glass-and-iron antique coffee table. The NASCAR racer scoffed faintly. Supernaturally enhanced sub-dimensional pockets were certainly handy, apparently. The toys didn't even look soaking wet, unlike their owner.
"I think there should be stuffed toys that look like lamps! Antique ones! And they'd light up just like them, too, only it'd be a nightlight stuffed inside the center! Wouldn't that be cool, Usa-mama? Wouldn't it?" Hotaru swooned, stroking the stuffed wolf-doll even faster as she grew more excited. Usagi blinked, "That… is the cutest idea ever! Maybe you could go to Build-A-Bear workshop and suggest all those brilliant idea's to those inventor people? Whatever they call them…"
Haruka coughed into her sleeve to gain attention from the two.
"Bless you," they both replied.
"Hotaru-chan…" Haruka sighed, suppressing a growl, "Could you please leave us for a moment? Why don't you go play with Diana?" Hotaru beamed and agreed with gusto, skipping out of the expansive room. Once gone, Haruka tossed the dainty blonde her shirt and shorts.
"Thanks." Usagi proceeded to discard her dampened clothes and put the dry one's on while Haruka turned away.
"This is a living room, y'know," Haruka reproached calmly, even as she turned her back to Usagi.
"And what of it? I'm not going to walk all the way up the stairs just to change. I'm just going to stay until Puu gets here, which will be soon I'm sure." She replied nonchalantly as she shrugged on the shorts.
"Why didn't you just go up there and get it yourself? That way you could change in there."
"B'cuz you don't trust me in your room. Not anymore…"
"You had no right to go through my drawers!" Haruka grated, flustered.
"And you had no right to have stacks of playboy in you and Michiru-san's bedroom. Tsk-tsk, what would she say if she knew?"
"That's enough!" Haruka whipped around, her face entirely bright red. Usagi was already dressed, beaming as she stared at the shirt she wore. With a contented sigh she dived onto a long Lazy Boy sofa. Deflated, Haruka slumped into a loveseat across from her.
There was silence.
Awkward silence…
There was always awkward silence eventually when she came…
Boooooriiiiing.
Several minutes later, Usagi sighed for the one-hundredth thirty-third time. Haruka twitched at the sound, for it had already become too annoying to bear. "Why do I have to do this…?" She blurted at last.
Haruka paused, for now her previous annoyance suppressed. "Well, if you stayed any longer they'd just let all hell break loose ten-fold, Koneko. You know how they get when they don't calm down." She leaned forward, her elbows propped over her knees.
Usagi shook her head curtly, frustratingly dismissing what Haruka explained. "No… what I'm trying to say is…why can't Rei and Mamoru just be together? Why can't we just go on with our lives? Maybe if they actually got what they wanted then they wouldn't have to be so fickle and quit PMSing…"
"There's no use. They'd always want you back sooner or later."
"But why? They get what they want—annoying ol' Usagi is out of the picture—they're free to do whatever they want, they've managed to flick off Destiny. Why can't they be satisfied?"
"Even I can't live without you, Koneko. You're special to all of us whether you realize it or not, and we all need you, each in our own unique and special way."
I'm not oxygen y'know… Usagi scoffed. "Oh, I realize it alright…" she sighed, "I just wish you all weren't. Sometimes I wish I'd never met any of you. Sometimes I wish my future didn't exist…"
"Don't say that. What about chibi-usa, and Crystal Tokyo…?"
"But that's just it, isn't it? Nothing's ever for me. It always has to be for the good of the—the future or t-the people or my future children. That's just your stupid bait that keeps reeling me in, away from what I want, from a chance where I can choose. Why don't I ever have a say in anything? I never wanted to be a princess—least of all Serenity. I hate Serenity. I just wanna be…normal…" Usagi almost looked as though she was at the brink of hysteria, stuttering and choking the entire time she spoke, but the tears or sobs never came. She was just angry, Haruka realized. She was sad and angry at the same time. Not a good combination.
Usagi Tsukino was a person, not just a reincarnation of someone far more important or a key to world peace. "Aren't I supposed to have a choice, like everyone else?" She looked boringly into the lanky racer's smoky-blue eyes, as if staring at Haruka would give her an answer that she'd want. She was right, Haruka knew. The racer herself had been given a choice on whether to become the Soldier of the Wind or not, and she chose to accept it. "I know this is selfish of me—and I'm sorry, really—but I'm only human. I was only fourteen!"
Haruka gazed at her hard, her eyes smoldering not out of anger but of reproach. After a full minute she let herself lean against the backrest of the loveseat with a gruff sigh, running lengthy agile fingers through her hair. "See, this is why I hate it when they go on those routine betrayal shit… we always end up talking about this." She peered between her fingers over at the dainty blonde across from her, her hand over her face in exasperation.
Usagi leaned back, deflated. She didn't like talking about it, too, but she supposed it was always her emotions that got the better of her. She wasn't very good at controlling them, after all. Now, however, she didn't want to talk anymore.
The double doors opened and shut from the lobby only one huge room away from where they were. Sharp heels clicked echoingly, likely heading towards them. The clicking stopped abruptly, as if pausing, upon the doorway.
"Usagi?"
Haruka glanced over her shoulder with a start. "Michiru? I thought you were away?" The teal-haired woman was supposed to be on a three-month tour in Europe. The professional violinist had the decency to blush. "Well, I missed you. And, besides, being so far away from my family I simply could not concentrate." Haruka smiled fondly at the sight of her lover blushing…
"Ahem…wow, this is awkward," Usagi coughed into her sleeve to hide her snicker. Haruka turned her gaze sharply, glaring at the blonde in a half-pout half-evil eye. Michiru giggled. "Don't knock it till you try it," she cooed. Usagi grinned lopsidedly, almost awkwardly, not knowing what to think of the words. "Uh, pass," she chuckled good-humoredly. Michiru lifted her bare shoulders in a shrug. "Too bad."
"Now wait a minute!" Haruka shot up from her seat, flustered. "Don't encourage Koneko about that!"
"Don't tell me you're jealous." Michiru quirked one shapely brow.
"Yeah, jealous," Usagi tried to stifle her laughter by shoving her sleeves into her mouth. It was just far too ridiculous not too laugh at.
"And what's wrong if Usagi likes women?"
"Yeah… HEY! Wait a minute!" Usagi shot up from her seat very much like the way Haruka had, startled. That was not what she expected.
"She's supposed to marry Mamoru, THAT'S WHY!" Haruka hollered, flustering deeper. Usagi glared at Haruka. "As if I need to be reminded!" She pouted. She had no say in the matter of marrying the college graduate—the future was set ever since Chibi-usa had arrived.
"Ahem…"
The threesome turned to the doorway. "Setsuna-mama is here!" Hotaru cheered from behind the tall scientist, who sported a black turtleneck sweater and a gleaming bluish-green formal skirt with a pair of matching high-heeled dress sandals. The white lab coat was folded and dangling over her right forearm.
"Haruka…" Setsuna began, pausing only for a moment.
"Hmm?" Haruka lifted her brows casually in regards.
"Remind me to install a coat-hanger beside the lobby entrance. I simply don't know where to put this at times," she finished, gesturing to her lab coat. Although nodding, Haruka was somewhat perturbed at the request, having the strangest feeling of some reluctant errand boy—or girl. Whichever way she preferred it.
Michiru pressed the tips of her elegant shapely fingers to her mouth to suppress her amusement. Clearing her throat with a sort of mellow calmness, Setsuna continued, "Now, Princess Serenity, please follow me."
Usagi frowned. "How many times have I told you…?"—she paused at the sight of Setsuna's pleasant amusement contorting into a smile—"Oh, forget it!" She pouted, her arms folded across her chest. The official guardian of time proceeded opposite of the four, toward the kitchenette, Usagi trailing behind grudgingly, leaving Hotaru with her devoted foster parents. She stopped and turned around before they entered the hall that tunneled towards the other room, and called, "Oh, can you put those stuffed animals in an orphanage or hospital charity for me? Hotaru can pick four, and the rest will go to charity!"
"We'll get on that," Haruka answered for the three of them, sounding dismissive. Usagi sighed exasperatedly.
They entered the kitchen. "Oh goody! What's in your fridge? I'm starving!" Usagi pranced across the room to the colossal steel fridge.
"You will eat once you arrive at the dimension I will put you in for now," Setsuna explained patiently. Unholy noises clattered, clicked and boomed as Usagi rummaged through the refrigerator. "Yay! Popsicles!"
Setsuna let her eyes close in agitated meditation, a light vain emanating from the temple of her forehead. "Princess, please withdraw from my refrigerator."
Usagi peaked around the large steel door of the fridge that stood ajar at her side, a blueberry rocket Popsicle dangling from her mouth. She blinked at the discomforting grimace on the taller woman's face. Plucking the frozen treat from her mouth, she defended, "Hey, a princess has her privileges, right?" And she proceeded in hunting for soda.
Setsuna was behind the teenage girl in a blink of an eye. And with no more than the faintest "Eep!" the blonde was transported from the manor's immense kitchenette to the shadowy realm of which the Gate's of Time respectfully resided in a burst of dramatic lighting effects.
"Hm, where'd my popsicle go?" Usagi sulked.
"This is no time to act foolishly, Hime. Must you behave this way every time?"
"Well, someone's gotta be cheery in these circumstances. Or at least pretend to be," Usagi mumbled. She glanced towards the sailor soldier of time, her eyes suddenly smoldering with a dull melancholy that made Setsuna uncomfortable, and added pointedly, "It's certainly not the first time. Right?"
Setsuna almost missed the childish pouting her princess had done only moments before. It was difficult, however, on whether to decide if she were depressed with loosing her Popsicle or rather something to do with her fairly inconvenient duty to the universe. Setsuna hoped only for the first presumption.
Setsuna coughed into her gloved fist, as though the noise would lessen the nonexistent tension. She raised her towering key-scepter even higher, letting it sway from one side to the other, a dark light emanating from the black orb fastened atop the intricate rod.
From out of the inky darkness materialized a large lavender door, elaborately ornamented with elegant silver lining and one large hoary gargoyle knocker. The door was colossal, and its surface was intricately carved with the history of its respectful dimension, images of wars, peace, love, and hatred—everything that made up an entire living world.
Usagi never got tired of the sight. There were so many doors, each as beautiful and colorful as the last.
"Well," She mumbled sulkily, "I guess this is it…" Setsuna's face was expressionless as she nodded to her princess.
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Authors Blurb:
Fist of all… Whoop! Me back from the dead! :D
Okay—now that that's done with—before you go all rabid on me and start flaming me with unimaginable profanity to which I am far too innocent to know or understand, hear me out.
This one-shot was not meant to offend or bash any of the characters in the Sailor Moon fandom whatsoever. This was not meant to offend or bash any of the many, many, many authors that have ever written a fic based on the cliché "Betrayal Plot" in all of Sailor Moon Crossover Fanfiction history. This was, however, in all honesty, created to bash the betrayal plot in general, and only the plot, because for some reason it cannot die no matter how many times I throw clusters of garlic at it or stab it with my trusty Buffy-the-Vampire-Slayer stake. Savvy?
So… no offence.
Thank you...! 3
—Moony