Rise
B'resheet

Disclaimer: Insert standard disclaimer here. I do not own Gundam Wing or Sailor Moon, including any and all characters or other trademarks associated with either Gundam Wing or Sailor Moon. I do however claim right to any original characters or original situations included in this story.

Usagi sat in the rec room of the base for the lone Special Operations group, Squad 01, her tongue sticking out of the corner of her mouth as she attempted, for what seemed like the thousandth time, to beat the damn final boss of the newest Sailor V video game.

It had been two weeks since she first arrived, to find that Hiiro Yui being picky about his squad had been a severe understatement.

There were two other members, besides Hiiro and herself; one of them was Wufei Chang, who had been introduced as an old war mate of Hiiro's , and the other was Ami Mizuno- a doctor and intelligence analyst officer, who was actually the oldest of them all. Which was much to Usagi's surprise, she looked like she was younger than Usagi herself.

And unfortunately for Ami, and Wufei, Usagi died again just as they walked into the room.

"Whyyyyy?! Why won't you just die you stupid, stupid, dumb son of a-!" Usagi ranted for a moment, before grinning sheepishly up at them, once she realized their presence in the room. "Hou... Morning!"

"Good morning, Usagi. Having issues?" Ami asked with a smile, while Wufei muttered something about "onnas" and their ability to be absolutely weird as he took one of the chairs. Usagi returned the smile as she stood, powering off the console and putting her controller next to a book on the coffee table.

"A few, Ami. How are you guys doing?" she asked, moving to sit on the couch.

"Bored." Wufei muttered, making Ami and Usagi smile.

"Fine, Usagi. Wufei is about to go insane from inactivity, though." Ami answered, sitting next to Usagi and curiously picking up the book from the table. "Zi Wei Dou Shu? What is that?"

"Chinese fortune telling." Wufei answered, quirking an eyebrow in Usagi's direction. "You don't seem the type, Tsukino."

Usagi laughed, slipping the book from Ami's fingers; "I'm not very good at it, the book was a gift from my best friend."

"Your friend was interested in it then?" Ami asked, as Usagi flipped through the book quickly.

"Rei's grandfather was a priest, keeper of a Shinto temple in Juuban, Tokyo. She was his novice, while we were growing up. She took over as head priestess, when he finally retired last year." she explained with a nod; "Rei is proficient in multiple types of fortune telling through her training, and she is almost always correct. Except in one area."

"Which is that?" Ami asked, puzzled.

"Love lives. Rei is as cynical as anyone could be. Doesn't believe in love, the pleasures of sex, oh yes. But love?" Usagi replied with a giggle, handing the book back over to Ami, who opened it to the preface to scan over.

"You actually believe that stuff?" Wufei asked Usagi skeptically, making her stick her tongue out at him, which made his brow furrow. She reminded him of Duo.

"When someone predicts how, when and where something extremely important to you is going to happen, and it comes true? Trust me, I didn't believe before either, but I sure as hell believed after." Usagi answered, standing up and walking over to the kitchen attached to the room and grabbing a beer. "Either of you want one?"

Ami shook her head, but Wufei raised a hand, to which she threw one of the cans as a voice called out from nearly right behind her; "I'll take one too, gorgeous."

Usagi squeaked, and spun around to face the intruder, coming to face a man the same apparent age as Wufei, though she didn't know how old the Chinese man was, with violet eyes and a three-foot long braid.

"What the hell are you doing here Maxwell?" Wufei groaned out, as Usagi slowly handed the beer she had in her hand to him, before quickly spinning back around to grab one for herself. "And don't go scaring the shit out of the newbie, it's her day on-call, she's always packing. Hilde would kill all of us for letting her shoot you. She'd be out of work taking care of your damn business for you, since you'd be dead."

"Nah, Hilde gets the business if I die before I have kids. She'd be jumping for joy."Duo answered with shrug, striding over to plop in another chair as Usagi followed him back to sit on the couch.

"Tsukino, Maxwell. Maxwell, Tsukino." Wufei introduced curtly, making Duo grin at Usagi.

"She probably doesn't remember, but we've met all ready." he said, making Usagi pause and blink, before her eyes suddenly lit up with understanding.

"You're the one that oversees the engineering and maintenance trainees at the academy!" she said, hopping up to sit straighter.

"That's me, Duo Maxwell, at your service. I'm also the one that told Hiiro to go check out your performance at live-fire that day." he said, making Usagi grin and Wufei blink.

"I owe you, then? The shosa won't like me owing you one, you know." Usagi said with a laugh, before Wufei spoke up.

"Performance? Live-fire?" Wufei asked, "You took live-fire duties as a trainee?"

"Took them? She was running target for anti-terrorism and SWAT in her free time." Duo spoke up before Usagi could reply; "Hiiro didn't tell you? She took out eighteen AT guys in thirty-five minutes the day Hiiro watched her!"

"He exaggerates!" Usagi squeaked out, as Wufei and Ami turned to look at her in surprise.

"Not really. It was fifteen by your hand, and three by a trap that you had set after retrieving a few grenades from downed squad members." Hiiro said monotonously as he walked in through the same door Duo had, and poured himself a cup of coffee, motioning to the beer in Usagi's hand, as he continued. "Remember, Tsukino, only one of those when you're on-call."

"Yes, Shosa." she answered meekly, ducking her head as he came and sat in the only remaining spot in the room- the one right next to her on the couch.

"Why are you here Duo, you just got a good sized new group in at the academy. You normally don't leave it to the under-instructors for the first time until a good two months in." Hiiro asked, leaning back into the couch until he was as comfortable as he could be, it had been a long night. He didn't understand how Usagi, Wufei, and Duo could all ready be drinking at ten in the morning.

"Relena is making an appearance next week, Trowa and Quatre are on their way here too." Duo answered, "It's all hush-hush as to when she'll actually be getting here, but with the conference starting Monday and running for two weeks... She won't stay away, just because it's the first time it's been held in the colonies, and there are whispers spreading down to Brussels that there is a small but growing number that aren't happy up here."

"Une wants us to guard her, then?" Wufei asked, earning a nod from Duo.

"And she wants Doc Mizuno on hand, as well. Sally can't make it, her mother is in the hospital- they don't think she's going to make it very long. Heart attack."Duo explained, throwing a look at Wufei. "As for Usagi, here- Relena requests that 'if we could find it in our hearts to let someone be up to our standards, she would very much like to have a female included so that she didn't have to have a guy following her into the bathroom anymore.' That's pretty much what she said, anyway. Also something about some gala or another."

"The Diplomat's Ball. It's held the last night, you wanna know what the thing to wear to something fancy is? Watch that red carpet." Usagi said, before grinning at the looks she received; "What? Just because I'm fairly decent at what I do, doesn't mean I can't be girly."

"Anyway, I figured Usagi here would be our best bet at agreeing on someone, since Hiiro picked her, I've seen her in action, and Wufei knows her too, and all." Duo finished, with a shrug as he looked away from Usagi to Hiiro and Wufei.

"I don't have any complaints. Yui?" Wufei said, looking over at Hiiro, who looked to be in thought.

"She's only run as back-up to one of us before. But I think she can handle it." Hiiro said, making Duo grin before cackling slightly.

"You know what this means right?" Duo asked, as Usagi's eyes lit up, and she jumped up to stand on the couch.

"SHOPPING!"

"I so knew that was coming." Duo said, as Hiiro rubbed his ear before grabbing Usagi's arm and pulling her back down to a sitting position.

"Why does it mean shopping?" Hiiro asked glumly, making Duo's grin spread.

"Sir, I know you haven't seen my closet but..." Usagi said, with a slight pout.

"If she's going to be ghosting Relena of all people, Yui, she's going to need clothes that blend in. Even I know that much." Wufei said; "And I will have nothing to do with a woman's shopping trip. I'm going to the dojo."

And with that, he left, heading off in the direction of their training facilities.

"Fine, I'll go get the card. Mizuno, please go with her and make sure she doesn't spend an arm and a leg." Hiiro practically groaned, before getting the hell out of Dodge. They had all learned their lessons about being dragged along on shopping trips during their time with Relena. It was hell, pure unholy hell.

The only one that didn't mind it too much was Duo, and they had all come to the conclusion long ago that it was only because he got to flirt with the salesgirls.

Usagi collapsed on the couch, her hands full of shopping bags, and Ami tiredly drug herself into the kitchen to make a new pot of coffee.

"I got so much stuff! I love shopping..." Usagi sighed out, slipping her hands out of the handles of the shopping bags and sitting up on the couch.

"I'm exhausted. I don't think I've ever done that much shopping in one day." Ami murmured, drumming her fingers on the counter top. Usagi giggled, standing up and stretching her arms high above her head.

"Been a while, for me. Probably the last time I was in Tokyo, a year and a half ago. Now that is good shopping ground, what I would give to have a shopping trip there." Usagi sighed out, walking over to sit across the bar from where Ami was making coffee.

"It's awfully quiet in here, where do you think the others are?"Ami asked, grabbing two cups out of the cabinet, making Usagi shake her head.

"I don't know, Wufei is usually in here making his dinner around n-"

"You braided idiot!" came the irritated yell, interrupting Usagi and making her turn and blink in the direction of the showers.

"Well, that certainly sounded like Wufei, but-"Usagi started to say, but this time a shriek made it into the room breaking her off;

"Save meeeeeeeee!" Duo whined as he ran into the room and hid behind Ami, ducking down under cabinet level. Ami by this time was having a hard time holding her laughter in, while Usagi blinked in continuing confusion.

"This is Duo's first visit since you joined us, isn't it?" Ami asked her with a giggle, Usagi just nodded in response; "I thought so. Don't worry- you'll get used to it pretty quick. It happens at least once a day, everyday he's here."

"Mizuno! Tsukino! Have either of you seen that idiotic, weaker-than-an-onna Maxwell!?" Wufei yelled, hair dripping wet and barely pulled back into it's normal pony tail, storming into the room. Usagi turned, blinked once, and pointed to the doorway leading out to the courtyard.

Wufei immediately continued his storming in the direction she pointed.

"Is he gone?" Duo squeaked, popping up to look around the room.

"Yea. What'd you do to get Wufei that riled up?" Usagi asked curiously, blinking up at him as Ami passed a cup of coffee over to her.

"Cut the hot water when he was in the shower." Duo replied, grinning a little; "I think I'm the only one that can still piss him off that much. We're those kind of friends, y'know. Love-hate and all that. Anyways, I should probably go and really hide."

With that Duo scrambled off the way he had come, leaving Usagi and Ami shaking their heads at him.

"Boys." Ami muttered.

"Boys, indeed." Usagi echoed, grinning at her before sipping from her coffee. "I should probably go take care of all that stuff, seeing as how I did some personal spending as well. Shosa will walk in, see all those bags, and have a heart attack before I can even say anything."

"Why will I have a heart attack?" Hiiro asked, coming in from the direction of the showers, clothed in only the pants of his field uniform, with a towel over one shoulder.

"From the amount of bags. Usagi spent some personal funds as well while we were out, so the amount is probably twice what you were expecting." Ami answered with a smile to Hiiro, seeing as Usagi was attempting to control her chin, and pull it back up to join the rest of her face.

Usagi thanked the gods that Hiiro was oblivious to her reaction, and she finally snapped her mouth shut, before smiling and nodding her ascent to Ami's explanation.

"Hn." Hiiro arched an eyebrow at them, before actually looking at the amount of shopping bags that lay on the floor. "Women. Crazy."

Usagi laughed at his muttered comment, standing and taking her coffee with her, stopping to collect her new belongings. "I'll be in the laundry for a while, probably want to tell Wufei not to attempt to resume his shower."

"Hey Wufei?" Duo asked from his position up in a high limb of one of the few trees on, or near, the base grounds.

"What, Maxwell?" said Chinese man snapped from where he stood at the bottom of the tree.

"Why do you think Hiiro picked up Usagi? Why he even bothered to show up?" Duo asked; "'Cause I mean, I've told him about numerous trainees or other Preventers agents that I thought he might appreciate the skills of. Why do you think when he finally ended up listening to me it was some scrawny, fairly inexperienced young woman? And he actually picked her up!"

Wufei was silent a moment before he replied; "You're thinking into it too much, Maxwell."

"Maybe. I wish I could have been there- I watched the tapes after I heard, but it would have been cool to actually have been there. Maybe then I'd know." Duo mused, while Wufei just shook his head. Maxwell sure chose odd things to try and be insightful about.

"I'm going to go shower. If you ruin it again, you're loosing your braid. And I'll get Yui to help me." Wufei threw up the tree to the now-silent figure, before turning and walking back to the main living area.

Usagi knelt on the floor of the laundry room, book in hand as she waited for her last load of wash to finish. Lost in the text, she didn't notice that she wasn't alone in the room until Hiiro set his laundry basket down next to her, and himself next to it.

"You're still in here?" he asked as his back slid down the wall, ignoring the small yelp she had given when the basket had hit the floor.

"Shosa! H-hai! Gomen ne, erm, I've probably used up all the hot water by now." Usagi apologized, running a hand through her loose, shoulder-blade length hair. "I hope it all fits in my closet..."

Hiiro chuckled at her words, making her stop, blink and then stare at him. "I'm serious! Between the things I got for this whole thing with Relena and the stuff I bought for my self... The amount of clothing I have has tripled." she pouted, Hiiro just smirked back at her.

"You'll be fine. Relena will stay in Quatre's mansion here. The closets there are bigger than your room here." he finally muttered with a shake of his head, making her giggle when she pieced together what he said.

"When are the other two supposed to get here? With her, or before?" Usagi asked, marking the page in her book before setting it down. "And what were their names again? I didn't really catch them."

"Quatre Winner and Trowa Barton. They're getting here tomorrow, Sunday. We're expecting the Prime Minister late on Monday." Hiiro explained; "Her arrival time could change at any moment, though."

Usagi nodded as the buzzer on the washer went off, and she stood to check her things in the dryer. "Have you met her before, Shosa? The P.M. that is, Maxwell made it sound as if you all were pretty familiar with her."

Hiiro silently watched her for a moment, as she checked her clothing, kneeling in front of the machine to pull them out to toss into an empty basket next to her.

"We all met during the Wars. I went to school with her for a brief time." he finally answered, looking away from her as she turned to pick up the basket and set it on the counter.

"I was eleven during the Eve Wars, twelve when the Marimeia Incident occurred." Usagi said softly, dropping the basket on the counter before walking back to the washer. "It seems like such a long time ago, now. My twenty-second birthday is next month."

"Hn..." Hiiro replied non descriptively, making her toss a sardonic grin his way.

"Don't want to think about how close you are to thirty, Shosa?" Usagi asked with a laugh, transferring her clothing from one machine to the other.

"I'm twenty-six. That's not terribly older than yourself, Tsukino." He retorted, grabbing his own basket and walking past her to wait.

Usagi blushed, ducking her head to quickly finish emptying the machine while it faded. "Gomen nasai, Shosa. I thought that well, you all just looked young. There weren't many teenagers that fought in the Wars and survived them."

"Do you speak Japanese to everyone?" Hiiro suddenly asked, scrunching his brow at her. Usagi looked up from her clothing, a smile on her face.

"No. Just to people who understand me. A one sided conversation isn't very fun."

"How did you know that I understand you? I've never spoken a word of it to you." he continued, truly confused by this time.

"I just did. Since I called you Shosa, that first time, I've known." she answered, straightening and blinking at him, "There was no hesitation when your mind heard the word. I could read it in your body language; everyone sends some kind of signal when they hear a word they do not understand, unexpectedly."

Hiiro stopped, and really looked at her as he asked; "You read body nuances that well?"

"Did you not look very closely at my file?" Usagi asked, before covering her mouth at his quirked eyebrow.

"I was learning how to be a negotiator in international situations in university, Sir. Hostile or cordial, Sir. As well being ever the social butterfly- I... I know people, the instant I see someone, I can read their body language." she quickly explained, dropping her hands to clasp them behind her back in her nervousness.

"It's all right, Tsukino. I honestly didn't look at your file. I asked certain people certain questions, and they all gave good answers. By the end of your run in the live-fire, I had heard and seen enough to be interested." Hiiro said with a shrug, "It's as simple and as complicated as this: pretty much every instructor you ever had stopped by to talk to me about you that day, Tsukino."

Usagi beamed at him, and returned to loading her laundry into the dryer; "I loved all my instructors at the Academy, and I have a lot of respect for all of them. Which is kinda odd for me, my teachers before that... lets just say we didn't get along very well."

"That's why they're hired as instructors, Tsukino. Une knows what young people need from their trainers, and she knows that not everyone is the same. She and Lucrezia Noin set up a very specific system for which trainees get which instructors." he explained matter-of-fact-ly, making her smile as she shut the dryer and pressed the start button.

"So, we got anything started for tonight yet? Seeing as no one is on call after ten, so we can all drink, and it'll probably be our last free night for a while, and all."

"You remind me of Duo, and that worries me."

"Usagi, I think with Wufei and Hiiro having you around, they'll loosen up a lot more." Duo said, obviously buzzed but still completely coherent.

"Why do you say that Duo?" Usagi asked, before taking the shot she had in her hand and tossing it back.

"Because," Duo said, pausing long enough for her to slam the shot glass down onto the bar top in front of them; "You actually got both of them to drink with us."

Duo turned and pointedly looked behind them where the aforementioned two, as well as Ami, were sitting in their rec room, in front of the big screen, and had turned a movie into a drinking game. "And they're actually enjoying themselves."

Usagi laughed, before grinning at Duo. "You want to play too, don't you?

"Very much so." Duo answered, making her laugh again, louder this time.

"I'll get another bottle, and we'll join them." Usagi replied, hopping down from her stool to walk around to the freezer and pull a bottle of tequila out, as Duo grabbed their shot glasses, before walking over to sit on the couch, both of them on either side of Hiiro. "So what are the rules?"

"Every time the onna says the unlucky man she's chasing's name, we drink." Wufei explained; "Every time she calls it out for no reason it's two."

"This chick sounds familiar." Duo snickered out, giving Hiiro a sideways look. Hiiro just grunted in response.

"Previous woman problems, Shosa?" Usagi asked in a fake-innocent voice, blinking her lashes when he glared at her. "What?"

"Hn."

Usagi giggled, before leaning over to fill the empty glasses on the table. "So what's the guy's name?"

"You'll know it when she says it." Wufei muttered, making her cock an eyebrow in his direction, just as a dainty, light, feathery, feminine voice came from the TV.

"Odin..."

Duo started cackling loudly, as the other three picked up their shot glasses, and downed the liquid within; Usagi following shortly after, before asking Duo; "What the hell is so funny?"

"Nothing! Inside thing, don't worry about it!" the man managed to choke out in between bellows of laughter.

"Duo." Hiiro grumbled.

"Y-yes?" he squeaked out, before stopping completely when he heard the safety of a gun being released. "Shutting up now."

Hiiro clicked the safety of his gun back on, satisfied, before it mysteriously disappeared to where ever it had come from. Usagi didn't see where he put it, even though she was sitting next to him, and watched him as he did so.

She was busted watching him, as well. Though he caught her so discreetly, their eyes locking for a long moment, that none of the others noticed. Even despite the strong blush that lingered as Usagi looked away, and busied herself with again refilling their glasses.

"I am so going to have a hangover tomorrow." Usagi muttered to herself as Hiiro helped her down the hall to her cubical called a room, as he headed to his own.

"Make sure you start drinking water tonight." Hiiro recommended, opening her door for her. Usagi nodded, and instantly brought a hand to her head at the pain it caused.

"Shosa?"

"Hn?"

"May I have a moment of your time?" Usagi asked, stepping into her room before turning to look back at him.

"It can't wait until tomorrow, can it?" he asked in reply, and she smiled a slightly nervous smile at him.

"I would rather it didn't, Sir." she answered, and he paused a moment before nodding. Usagi's smile brightened at that and she stepped further into the room, Hiiro following and shutting the door- not fully, but enough that some privacy was insured.

"Are you sure I can handle this, Shosa? I mean, it's not like it's a big deal for me to participate. It was only a request, not a condition." Usagi said quietly, sitting down on her bed and looking up at him. Hiiro leaned against the wall, not even two feet from her. These damn rooms are too cramped.

"We'll be close by at all times, Tsukino. It'll be fine. And all the others guards for all of the other politicians will be around as well. We aren't expecting anything you won't be able to handle as her ghost." Hiiro stated, adding; "Besides, whenever I can be I will be right next to you."

Usagi smiled then, an exhausted smile, but a true smile anyway.

"Thank you, Shosa."

"Hn. Get some sleep, we've got an early day tomorrow." Hiiro said, turning for the door.

"Yes, Sir." she replied, standing up, and instantly being inches away from him. His hand was nearly to the door when he paused, turning to look at her again.

"Tsukino?" he asked, making her tilt her head at him in query; "Why did you look at me like you did? After I put my gun away."

Usagi stopped, her eyes going wide and her cheeks suddenly hot. She stared at him in silence for a moment, before realizing that he honestly didn't know.

"It'd be better if I didn't tell you why, Shosa." she said, looking away from him and down to her feet. "For the sake of my sanity, if not for yours."

"I would have you tell me Tsukino, else I'll just find out some other way." Hiiro prodded, "I'd rather not have to do that."

Usagi's blushed deepened, and she slowly raised her eyes to meet his. "You returned that look, you know. So, when you answer me, I will answer you; why did you look at me that way?"

Author's Note:
Squee. Anyway...

Only one note: I'm going to be changing the rating.

As much as I might try to deny it, I've got a dirty mouth and it leaks into my writing. It's really hard for me not to have anyone really cursing, and with the situations planned, it can't be avoided, not with me being the one doing the writing away. Also included in my reasoning; they're all adults, they're going to do things adults do. They're also soldiers and they're going to eventually be in intense situations where profanity is going to be, if not called for, at the very least somewhat expected from certain characters.

With that rant done and said, as of the next chapter, the rating will be going from "T" to "M" on the rating scale.

Thank you for the reviews, I hope everyone sticks with me through the long haul.

B'resheet

12/01/07 - 11:25:31 PM