Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
Warning: Sorry about the spelling and the grammar. English, not my first language, but I do strive to improve. If anyone notices anything wrong, please feel free to let me know and I'll try to fix them as best I can.
An: I hope you enjoy.
When life gives you lemons…
When the earthquake hit, Usagi had the misfortune of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. And really…wasn't it just like karma to decided that she was perfect punching bag once again? It was bad enough that she was late that morning, thanks to that jerk Mamoru, but her usual shortcut through the construction site had landed her buried somewhere underneath the earth with a throbbing ankle and barely enough sunlight to see out of the hole she was trapped in.
Usagi had to work hard to swallow the panic down.
"Hello? Anybody?" she called out desperately.
Through the dim light, she heard the sounds of emergency vehicles in the distance and felt a surge of hope. She cried out in pain when she scramble to her feet; the pain biting like fire in her left foot. Her head pounded and she was sweating heavily when she managed to stand upright. With her back pressed against the dirt wall, she called out again.
"Can anyone hear me?"
She cried out for help, over and over until her voice was hoarse, but no one came. She tried her communicator only to find that she had lost it when she had fallen. Tears filled her eyes when she realized she couldn't contact the senshi for help and unable to help herself, Usagi did what she did best in situations like these.
She let out a long, loud, heart-wrenching wail.
"Shut up," a voice hissed.
A shadow at the other end of the hole moved.
Usagi, with wide eyes and a terrified gulp, then realized she wasn't alone.
5 hours until rescue…
"Ain't this cozy?" Duo asked cheerfully. He ignored the look Heero gave him and sat back with a grin. He reached out and adjusted his jacket, now Heero's pillow, and glanced at the depressed blond girl sitting as far as she could away from them. Other than her occasional croaked mutterings breaking through the silence, no one spoke.
After she had worked out the initial scream when she realized she wasn't alone, and after the sequential blubbering about serial killers and axe murderers and her threats that she knew karate if they tried anything (Duo snorted at that) she fell silent.
She might have felt a bit safer when she noticed that Heero couldn't move. The beam pinning his legs down made that impossible. And Duo, hate as he was to admit it, didn't look as threatening as he should. He was too scrawny and he was pitifully covered in what felt like two tons of dirt.
Hell, the girl might have thought he was a chick. People got his gender mixed up at least once a week. The fact that the girl, through her fright, managed to show some common sense by keeping her distance made him nodded in approval. She kept a suspicious eye on them as her mouth thinned into an unhappy line.
"…never find my body…oh my god. I'm going to die here and a thousand years from now all they're going to find are my bones…Oh god. Rei's going to kill me!"
Duo kept himself entertained listening to her mumbles.
He leaned over to Heero and whispered in his ear. "I never thought I'd find someone even more pessimistic than you, Hee-chan. Man, I wished Wu-man was here."
He whistled when Heero gave him a warning glare.
4 hours until rescue…
Heero managed to hold in the grunt of pain when Duo tried to move the beam. He felt the sweat beading down his brow and held in another hissed as Duo apologized.
"Just move it," he gritted his teeth.
"You're just a glutton for pain, aren't you?" Duo grumbled. His hand, now blistered, reached under the beam again. "I knew you were a masochist. I've always susp-"
"Shut-up," Heero hissed.
"Are you sure you want to do that?" A nervous voice asked. "I mean…the beam. My friend Ami. She's going to be a doctor and she's taught me about things like this. He could be bleeding from an artery and the beam could be the only thing keeping the blood in." She paled at the mention of blood, but bravely gestured to the beam that was lying on his lower thigh and legs. "You should probably wait until someone finds us."
Duo, to Heero's annoyance, did what the girl said.
"Move it," he ordered.
"Nah. She's got a point," Duo shrugged. He looked slightly guilty. "I should have thought about that earlier."
"I'm fine. Move the beam!"
"No can do." Duo moved out the way of Heero's angry hands.
Heero closed his eyes.
He somehow managed to swallow his pride.
"Please."
Memories of being trapped, being paralyzed with fear, in that small closet during his years training to being the perfect soldier came back to haunt him as he laid there. He was too vulnerable like this; unable to move and dependent on others.
The feeling of helplessness left a nasty taste in his mouth.
He'd rather bleed to death.
"Ok, buddy," an understanding hand rested on his shoulder.
Heero barely had time to wonder if Duo had gone through the same harsh training he did when he felt the beam shift.
He kept the hiss of pain inward.
"This is not a good idea," a feminine voice told them.
Opening his eyes, Heero watched with a narrowed expression as the girl limped forward. She stood at the end of one beam and Duo stood at the other.
"Three?" she asked uncertainly. Her delicate hands braced themselves.
"Yeah," Duo's voice was subdue. "Three."
3 hours until rescue…
It took them, according to Usagi's watch, almost an hour of muscle straining minutes to lift the beam high enough for the boy to pull himself from underneath. Usagi felt sorry for the boy when she saw him, paled and sweating, pulling himself backwards on his elbow until he was clear.
She quickly amended that look when she noticed him coldly staring at her.
He wasn't the type to want pity.
Grateful to put the beam down, Usagi limped back to her own corner.
She was tired, sore and aching, and she wondered how long it will be before someone discovered them. She was betting that her parents and the senshi were frantically searching for her. The earlier horrible thoughts about not being found were washed away by her faith in them. They wouldn't give up until they found her.
"It won't be long," she mumbled to herself. She was startled when she felt something fall into her lap.
She grasped the small wrapped piece of chocolate with awe.
Looking across, she looked questioningly at the braid hair boy who wag his fingers at her in greeting. He shook his head when she held up the chocolate and not so discreetly looked at his friend with a grin.
The boy with the short brown hair refused to look at her.
Smiling for the first time that day, Usagi happily ate the candy, savoring the sweet taste on her tongue.
Then the temperature dropped and Usagi felt a chill go down her spine.
A Youma was nearby.
2 hours until rescue…
Duo couldn't place the uneasy feeling he felt grip him. The sunlight was still shining in through the cracks of the building frames that blocked their escape. He tried to peer through the twist metal wreckage of their ceiling, but saw nothing. It was possible that being trapped down here for hours was making him paranoid and antsy. But one look at Heero and Duo's hand was already in his boot, fingering his gun.
Minutes went by, but nothing out of the ordinary happened.
Instead of calming him down, Duo felt his alarm grow.
At one point, Duo saw a shadow pass above them. He opened his mouth to shout, but found a hand covering his lips with a whispered 'shhh'.
The girl trembled. She had moved impossibly fast and held his mouth shut before he had time to blink. She gave him one last fearful shake of her head before she released him.
They waited in tensed silence.
The next moment, he heard an animalistic roar, and the ceiling caved in.
Automatically, he shoved the girl towards Heero and threw himself over both of them.
When something heavy hit his head, he blacked out momentarily. He came to his senses when he heard gunfire.
With the ceiling gone, the sunlight came pouring in; lighting everything into clear view.
Duo briefly allowed himself to take pleasure in looking at the girl he had draped himself on. She was prettier than he had expected with pale skin and big blue eyes. One half of her blond hair was loose and the other was done in a lopsided ball with hair streaming from it. Her heart shape face was smeared with dirt and sweat, and Duo knew he was a sap when he thought that it made her more cute.
Then Duo looked back to see what Heero was shooting at.
1 hours until rescue…
Heero couldn't wiggle out the cocoon the creature had trapped him in. Beside him, he felt Duo do the same and let out some loud creative curses.
The girl, by sheer luck, managed to dodge being tussle up like a Christmas turkey and was playing cat and mouse with the creature.
Heero wasn't sure how much longer the girl would last.
The half spider-half humanoid thing looked amused as its eight eyes focused on the pale girl. It made a motion, like it was about to leap forward, and it laughed when the girl stumbled.
The blond touched her ankle and an expression of pain crossed her face. When her shoulders slumped, Heero thought that she was surrendering. She looked on the verge of tears.
He found himself wrong with his assumption.
He watched with impassive eyes, as she straightened her back. She fought through the pain and pulled herself up on her feet.
Her face was determined.
She picked up several pieces of debris and with the dumb resilience he had only previously associated with Relena Peacecraft and Duo, she threw it at the creature with a shrill voice.
"Gah. Her aim is terrible!" Duo said with a mixture of horror and hilarity.
Heero ignored him and watched as the creature made to bore down on the girl. He renewed his struggles to get out of the binding.
"Hey you!" Duo called out, trying to distract the creature. "Hey, Ugly!"
The creature turns towards them with annoyance.
Heero could barely believe his eyes when the girl, using the distraction, swept out her uninjured leg skillfully, and with military precision, knocked the creature down. With a dancer's grace, she twirled once and brought a pole down and smashed it into the creature jeweled forehead.
It vanished in a spark of light.
Rescue…
Usagi didn't know what to do in the resounding silence. She placed one hand on the back of her head and tried not to look as panicky as she felt.
"What the hell was that?" the braid haired boy asked as he struggled to sit up.
Usagi limped forward. Her brain was racing, aching because she was thinking like she hadn't thought before, as she knelt between them.
She reached for the braid haired boy first.
"Luck?" she asked hopefully. She used her nails to try and break through the cocoon.
"No, that thing," the boy clarified. "What was it?"
"You mean you don't know about the Youmas?" Usagi asked dumbfounded.
"We're out of towners," the boy exchanged glances with his friend.
"There's a knife in my boot," the other boy said to her, voice emotionless.
Usagi had them both free in minutes.
"So?" the most talkative boy prompted. "Youmas?"
With a disbelief that the boys didn't know what Youmas were, Usagi found herself explaining until her voice couldn't handle the stress and it faded off in a painful rasp.
"This is one crazy town," the boy, who introduced himself as Duo Maxwell, said with a shake of his head.
Usagi couldn't help but nodded her head in agreement.
"So everyone trains?"
Usagi gave him a confused look.
"You know," Duo Maxwell moved his feet imitating Usagi's earlier move on the Youma. "Everyone trains to defend themselves, right?"
Usagi nodded eagerly. If that's what the boys want to believe than she was more than willing to let them. It meant that her secret of being a superhero was safe for another day.
"Cool," he said. He was interrupted by several voices.
"Rei!" Usagi grasped at her throat. She began coughing violently. She grabbed at Duo's arms with shinning eyes. She managed to whisper out a few words. "Friend! Rei Hino."
Duo nodded sagely. He cupped his hand to his mouth and shouted. "Yo! Rei Hino!"
Several faces peered into the hole.
Usagi could have cried when she saw Rei's worried face next to Ami. Makoto gave her a relieved smile and Minako a wink when she noticed the other occupants.
Usagi had to wait several more minutes while they searched for a rope or ladder. She couldn't help herself. As soon as she was out of the hole, she drew Rei into a startling hug.
"You Odango," Rei grumbled. But the dark hair senshi held Usagi just as hard. They turned when they heard Ami's protest.
Duo and his friend were limping away despite Ami's suggestion that they wait for an ambulance.
"Nah," Duo shrugged. He grabbed his friend's arm and threw it around his shoulders, helping the other despite the growl. He shifted so that he drew more of his friend's weight. He gave Usagi a grateful nod. "Thanks."
Usagi nodded back.
She never saw them again.
But every year since, on that date, she received a box of chocolate.