Rise
B'resheet
Normally, I'm not a big one for doing ANs at the beginning, but I figure I should get this in now.
After doing a bit more research, I went back and fixed something in the prologue. Usagi's rank as a trainee has been changed to Cadet First Captain. The rank of "Cadet First Captain " is taken from West Point tradition, and is the highest position in the Corps of Cadets. As a commissioned officer, Usagi's first rank will be Second Lieutenant.
On with the show.
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.
"You returned that look, you know. So, when you answer me, I will answer you: why did you look at me that way?"
Hiiro stopped at her words, dropping his hand from where it still hung, reaching for the door, to shove into his pocket, before looking down at his shoes. He mulled her words over in his mind, before turning that attention to himself. He had looked at her the same way? He had, but...
Why? Why had he looked at her like something deep in his mind was on fire? He knew what he had wanted to do once he had seen that deep fire in her own eyes, but...
"I'm attracted to you." Hiiro said simply, looking back up her, and finding surprise in her eyes. Her blush, which had finally started to cool off, flared up again and she turned her head to the side, unable to look up at him as she replied, very quietly.
"I couldn't hear you." He said, blinking at her murmured words, making her jump and look up at him.
"I'm attracted to you, too. That's why I looked at you like that." she repeated after a moment of silence, crossing one arm over her chest to grab onto the other, nervously fiddling with the fabric of her sweater. "I should go to bed now."
"Hn..." Hiiro nodded, slowly, pulling his hand out of his pocket and reaching for the door. It was Usagi that stopped his movement this time, however.
"Shosa?"
"Yes?"
"Are you sure?" Usagi asked, making him blink at her.
"I all ready said, you'll be fine-" he started to say, but was cut off by a shake of her head.
"No, not about that, about- about..." she tried to explain when he paused, but couldn't finish the sentence.
"About me being attracted to you?" he finished for her, and Usagi nodded quickly, looking down at her feet.
Hiiro turned to face her fully, and hesitantly reached out to tilt her chin up with a finger, answering when she was once again looking at him. "Yes. If you're going to ask if that's why I decided to recruit you, don't worry. It's not."
"Okay. Thank you." she said with a firm nod, smiling at him.
"Get some sleep." he said, before turning back and leaving the room, shutting the door softly behind himself.
Usagi dropped herself down on to her bed as soon as the door was shut.
"Fuck... How am I ever going to be able to look him in the face again?" she wondered out loud, covering her face with her hands, and shaking her head.
Usagi silently slipped into the rec room the next morning- bright, early and fully dressed except for her wet hair still wrapped up in a towel. She paused at the sight of Hiiro alone in the kitchen, waiting on the coffee pot, completely dressed and ready for the day.
Excluding the required cup of coffee, of course.
Usagi smiled at Hiiro as she slipped into one of the stools across from him, "Good morning, Shosa."
"Morning. Want some?" he asked, and she nodded, making him grab another cup from the cabinet. "How's your head."
"A lot better than it should be." she replied, reaching out and wrapping her long fingers around the empty vessel. Usagi, still unsure of herself after the words they had exchanged last night, watched him from the cover of her eyelashes as he filled her cup, and then his, as soon as the maker had finished.
"I should apologize." Usagi said quietly, after a moment, making Hiiro blink slowly in confusion. "For last night. Somethings are better left unsaid."
With that she picked up her cup, sipped from it, before turning to leave. Wanting to leave before she said anything more.
"Tsukino." Hiiro said, stopping her before she even got out of her seat. With an inaudible sigh she turned around to face him.
"Yes, Sir?" she asked, looking back up at him, the uncertainty in her eyes apparent even to him.
"There's no need to apologize. It's better that we know, even if we can't do anything about it." he said, surprising her, making her unconsciously settle down into her seat.
"You sound like you know from experience, Shosa." Usagi said, smiling softly at him, and it was his turn to blink.
"I suppose. From a time when I was not quite as... aware of things, you could say." he muttered with a shake of his head, and she grinned sardonically at him.
"Boys are pretty thick about such things for a very long time, and girls understand it, but they throw it way out of proportion for just as long." she said in way of reply, "Some longer than others, as well."
"You can say that again." Hiiro grunted out, taking a drink of his own coffee, and Usagi laughed fully at his words.
"You know what I speak of! Those woman problems Duo hinted at last night?" she giggled out, as Duo dragged himself into the kitchen, grabbed the biggest mug they had, and poured himself a very large cup of coffee.
"I heard my name. What'd I do this time?" he wearily grumbled out, taking several large gulps before dropping his head onto the counter.
"Nothing, Duo." Hiiro answered, and Usagi giggled, earning herself a glare from him.
"Hungover, Duo?" she asked sweetly, shrugging off his look easily, and reaching across to softly pet Duo's hair.
"Yeeeees." Duo practically cried in answer, earning an "Awww." from Usagi, and a continuance of the tips of her fingers raking through his hair. This earned her a look from Hiiro that was half-way between anger and amusement at her audaciousness, at the giving of her affection to one of his best friends when she knew that he wanted it. If not in view of another, then in the privacy that was impossible for them to attain.
Usagi looked up at him slyly, a smirk playing on her lips, and her posture showing a sudden confidence in herself.
The exchange was not missed, but wisely, Duo kept his mouth shut for once. Pretended he hadn't seen the exchange between commander and subordinate.
"If you keep that up, Usagi, I will kiss the ground you walk on." Duo sighed out, making Usagi giggle and stop, to which he pouted at.
"Drink lots of water, take an aspirin, and then go take a shower. You'll be fine, Duo." she advised, as he straightened up, and took another gulp of coffee. "Or we can make you a Prairie Oyster, but that doesn't seem like it'd be your thing."
"How does a youngster like you know how to get over hangover?" Duo asked in a jokingly skeptical manner, to which Usagi cackled at.
"I was a college student once, Duo! I learned the first time I woke up with a hangover on the day of a test!" she managed to giggle out, before picking her cup off of the counter, hopping off her seat, and giving them a small wave. "I've gotta dry my hair. Bai."
Both of them watched her retreating form, Duo looked away to turn to Hiiro as she left the room, giving him a slap on the back. "Be careful, man, that's dangerous ground you're walking on."
"Anywho, I'm going to go take her advice and find a bottle of aspirin." Duo said before quickly wondering back off, before Hiiro could reply to his comment.
"Shit."
"You pissed Yui off this morning. What'd you do?" Wufei asked Duo from his position in the driver's seat of their car, following Hiiro and Usagi, who were both on motorcycles.
"Nothing. Don't worry about it." Duo said, glancing into the review mirror to look at Ami in the back seat.
"Maxwell, hardly anything you do pisses him off anymore. What'd you do?" Wufei continued, irritated, speeding up as Hiiro and Usagi suddenly cut through a lull in traffic to race a head.
"I'll tell you later, if you still want to know. Just focus on keeping up with those two suicidal maniacs." Duo said, watching as the pair quickly navigated traffic, until they where several cars in front of them.
"Maxwell. If I tried to keep up with Yui on a bike, I'd get us killed." Wufei replied, gripping the steering wheel. "Now. Mizuno won't go running her mouth about your stupidity, so what did you do?"
"I made a comment on Hiiro's stupidity!" Duo finally bit off, frustrated at his friends bullheadedness.
"Hiiro's stupidity? What did he do?" Wufei asked, honestly confused, turning and blinking at Duo. Duo paused, before turning around to face Ami.
"Sorry, Doc, but could you cover your ears. Just for a moment, please?" Duo asked, making Ami roll her eyes at him, but she did as he asked, and he turned to look at Wufei, settling back into his seat.
"Our fearless leader is lusting after the newest addition. I'm pretty sure anyway."
"He'swhat?! That son of a bitch! He finally gets a hard-on for a woman, and it's a subordinate." Wufei growled loudly, "I can't believe him."
"The bad thing is, she's returning the favor." Duo continued, "They'll behave themselves for a while, I'm sure, but if they break down and Une finds out, she'll flip. You can only get away with that kind of shit in the civilian sector, man."
"I know. Fuck." Wufei muttered under his breath, "Do you think it will effect his judgment?"
"No. I know Hiiro well enough to say that much, no- he won't let it affect him. He's been a 'leave no one behind' type since the end of the Wars, anyways, so there's not much to affect in that area. And he won't leave her out of something she's needed in, either- he's not stupid, and she would kick his ass." Duo defended, and Wufei nodded.
"Okay. We'll just wait and see then. Not anything we can do until something actually happens, anyways." he sighed out in reply, as Duo turned to tell Ami to unplug her ears.
Usagi leaned against the side of the small privet hanger where she and Hiiro waited for Quatre's shuttle to land, and for the others to catch up to them, helmet tucked under one arm, the hand of the other twisting a lock of her hair in thought.
It wasn't very coherent thought, but it was thought none the less, as her mind mulled over everything from what she wanted for lunch to why her commanding officer had to be so damn good looking. With a sigh, Usagi raised her eyes up from the pavement to look over to her side at Hiiro, who sat on his motorcycle, own helmet in hand, staring up at the paneled ceiling of the colony.
She realized he was looking back at her belatedly, as her mind had once again wondered off to various other related subjects. With a blush and a flash of a smile she looked away, returning to her study of the tarmac.
"Does it bother you? How often you look at me, only to find me staring at you?" Usagi timidly asked, not looking up.
"Not particularly. You don't look at me with some impossible dream in your eyes, so I don't really have a reason to be." he answered, as Wufei, Duo, and Ami pulled up, parking next to their bikes.
"What do you mean?" she asked, but Hiiro shook his head in response.
"Nothing." he said, standing from his bike and setting his helmet on the seat.
"When are they supposed to get here, Yui?" Wufei asked, slamming his door shut behind him as he got out from the car.
"Less than five minutes." Hiiro replied, checking his watch.
"You think they've changed much? I haven't seen either one in over a year." Duo commented, hands in his pockets.
"Not really, Yui and I saw them last month. Neither one of them has ever changed." Wufei replied, as a sudden sound of engines came from the ground below them, and then moved into the hanger behind them, forcing silence as none of them, Duo and Usagi included, could yell loud enough to speak over the sound echoing from the hanger.
The engines finally cut, and the group made their way into the hanger as the steps were lowered from the shuttle.
From the shuttle emerged two men, one significantly taller than the other, and a young blonde woman who was just behind them, talking animatedly to the blond male. Usagi blinked at the woman, before letting out a sudden whoop.
"Mina-chan!" she said with a squeal, making the woman look up, and she instantly beamed at Usagi.
"Usa-chan! What are you doing here?" she asked, as the two groups approached each other. "You never got me your address at the academy! Did your parents forward my communications to you?"
"Hai, hai! I'm sorry I never got back to you, I never had a moment of free time until I came up here." Usagi answered, giving her friend a brief hug. "What are you doing in this neck of the woods? All ready finished with university?"
"Most of the way. I finished my bachelor's a month ago, now I'm working for Mister Winner here while I do my M.B.A." Minako answered smiling at the blond next to her; "Mr. Winner, this is Usagi Tsukino- we were in school together, before I moved to London."
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Sir." Usagi said with a bow of her head, Quatre smiled brightly at her.
"Certainly, Lieutenant Tsukino. You must be Hiiro's new squad member, yes? I wish I could have been there, Trowa and I watched the recordings after Duo told us." he replied, making Usagi turn a blank, unblinking stare at Duo.
"Can you not keep your mouth shut?" she muttered at him, her cheeks slightly red; "Making a big deal out of nothing!"
"So modest!" Minako giggled, before holding her hand out to Duo, as he was the closest to her. "Minako Aino, it's nice to meet you...?"
Duo grinned and shook Minako's hand; "Duo Maxwell, very nice to meet you."
Usagi looked away from them with a roll of her eyes and a murmured, "She's still a flirt."
Quatre laughed, and even Trowa, still silent, grinned slightly.
"You brought an assistant, Quatre? What happened to never having a twenty-four hour assistant?" Wufei asked, cocking an eyebrow in the businessman's direction.
"I gave up! Minako isn't just an assistant, either, she has a BA in business administration. I'm prepping her as a V.P." Quatre explained with a laugh, running a hand through his messy blond hair, before smiling at Hiiro and Wufei. "It's good to see you again, wish it could always be this often."
"Hn. You have the details on Relena's flight?" Hiiro replied with a nod, and Trowa handed him a slim case with a CD inside. Hiiro slipped the CD into his pocket; "We've all ready sent all our equipment over to your mansion. And Tsukino is going to be ghosting Relena, with me as her partner, per her request."
Trowa cocked an eyebrow in Hiiro's direction, before glancing over at the petite woman that had been pulled into Minako and Duo's conversation. "She can handle it?"
"She can handle it." Hiiro answered, before their conversation was interrupted by Minako giggling and peering at Wufei and Hiiro.
"She done her creepy little trick on either of you yet?" Minako asked, making Usagi nudge her in the side.
"What?" Wufei asked, bewildered by the odd, bubbly blonde, while Hiiro just stared at her.
"Has she read your mind yet?"
"Minako! I don't read minds, I read body language!" Usagi sputtered out, exasperated by her friends antics, as Duo grinned behind them.
"Whatever, you might as well be reading minds." Minako waved off, with a smile, as she glanced at her watch. "We should probably get going. Lady Une said she would call 1300 standard time, that's only thirty minutes away."
"Of course, of course. Let's get going." Quatre said, shooing everyone towards the vehicles. "Someone should be here with our car at any second."
"This place is huge!" Usagi squealed as she pulled her helmet off, after parking her motorcycle in front of Quatre's mansion.
"This is his smallest one." Hiiro muttered, from beside her, hanging his helmet on his handle bars. "His largest is his permanent home in L4."
"I've heard that one might as well be it's own colony." Usagi commented, setting her helmet on her seat and walking up to stand at the bottom of the steps leading up to the front porch and entry.
"Hn..." Hiiro just grunted, and Usagi stuck her tongue out at him over her shoulder as the others pulled up behind them.
"You should talk more." Usagi said softly to him, "You know, actually say things."
With that she turned and skipped over to slip an arm into Minko's. "So who's giving me the grand tour?"
Minako giggled, "I need one, as well, I haven't been here yet."
"Come then, we'll find out where the servants but everyone at, and I'll show you where everything is before Lady Une calls." Quatre offered with a smile, before leading them inside, a few men streaming out of the building to collect the things from Quatre's car.
Usagi stood in the closet of her room, buds in her ears as she bobbed her head to the music pumping from her mp3 player. Hiiro had been right, the space she was currently putting her things away in was at least as large as her room on base, and the bedroom itself was as large as the apartment she had shared with Rei in Tokyo. Most of her things had all ready been hung in the space, as they had arrived in garment bags- the things for when she was standing behind Relena in meetings. Suits, skirts, and so forth.
"Usa?" came the call from her room, and Usagi pulled one of the bud from her ear.
"Yes?" she called back, walking out of the closet to find Minako looking for her, her head peering from her door.
"There you are! May I bug you? The guys are all in some privet video conference with Lady Une, Doctor Mizuno is getting to know the nurses on staff, and I'm bored." Minako asked, earning a smile and a laugh from Usagi.
"Of course, come in, have a seat. I'm all most finished." Usagi said, pressing the stop button of her player, and wrapping the cords of the earphones around her neck. "How have you been doing, Mina?"
"Pretty good." Minako said, slipping into the room and settling onto Usagi's bed, running her fingers over the surface of Usagi's unrolled 'tool kit' as Hiiro called it. "Working for Mr. Winner is hard, but he's a good teacher, and everyone at the company is very nice. What about you? I saw the live-fire run you made, that got you your placement, I didn't know it was you when I saw it though."
"Duo must have told everyone he knew about that. I can't believe he made such a big deal out of it." Usagi complained, returning to her task at hand. "I got my black-belt from Rei's father shortly before I left for Brussels, which is in my file! I know how to fight hand-to-hand. Meh."
Minako giggled, tucking a lock of blonde hair behind her ear. "Come now, how are you actually doing?"
Usagi sighed, and stepped up to stand in the doorway, leaning against the frame.
"Same. Good, but working hard. And dealing with wanting to kiss my superior officer every time I'm alone with him." Usagi said, staring up at the ceiling; "I am seriously screwed in the head, Mina."
Usagi turned, and stepped back into the closet, leaving Mina staring after her; "You mean Major Yui?"
"Yes."
"Oh hell, Usa. Does he know?" Minako asked, leaning forward and resting her palms on the edge of the bed.
"Yes. I told him." came the slow answer from the closet and Minako slipped off the bed in her surprise.
"Ow!" she yelped, standing and walking over to stand in the door way, so that she could look at her friend; "What did he say?"
"He told me first." Usagi replied with a sigh, putting her jeans and uniform pants in a drawer as Minako stared at her in shock.
"Major Yui told you he wanted to kiss you?" Minako asked, once she was finally able to get her vocal cords to work.
"His exact words were "I'm attracted to you," but yes. Basically. I think he wants to do more than that, but I'm not sure." she answered, confusion in her voice, as she dropped the flap of her duffel bag shut. "You can't tell a soul, Mina. If administration finds out, we would both be in deep shit."
Minako nodded her understanding, following Usagi back into the bedroom, and joining her when she sat on the bed.
"What are you going to do?" Minako asked Usagi softly, staring her directly in the eye, reading the sparks of emotion that flew threw them. One thing she saw, in particular, made her frown and tell her sternly; "You are going to have to do something eventually, Usagi."
"I'll worry about it when the time comes. Right now, there are bigger things that I have to worry about." Usagi said with a sigh, "Like the fact that I'm going to have to stand through hours of political meetings for the next two weeks."
"I heard you were 'ghosting' the Prime Minister, what does that mean exactly?" Minako asked, making Usagi look up at her and blink.
"I forgot, sometimes, that not everyone understands the words we use. I'm going to be her primary side-guard, her shadow." she explained, rolling up the canvas bag that held her primary firearm, as well as a set of lock picks and other such things that made up her tool kit. "Her last line of defense."
"Wow. That's a pretty hefty assignment for a new graduate." Minako whispered, and Usagi nodded.
"Everyone seems to think I can handle it, though."
Usagi sat, facing Quatre's chef, in his huge kitchen, a cup of coffee sitting on the bar top separating them.
"What're we having for dinner?" Usagi asked, making him smile at her; "Lunch was wonderful, by the way."
"Thank you. With how busy Master Quatre and his associates are, it will probably much of the same sort. Grab and go." he answered, and she nodded, picking up her cup and sipping from it.
"Have you known Mister Winner a long time?" she asked curiously, resting her chin against the rim on her cup.
"I've been working for his family since before he was born. All most thirty years." he replied, and she blinked at him in surprise.
"Wow." she murmured, before drifting into silence, slowly slipping away at her coffee until Hiiro walked into the room and took the seat next to her.
"Coffee please, Michael." Hiiro grumbled, making the chef nod and motion to one of the younger men in the area next to him to fulfill the request. Hiiro mumbled his thanks when the cup was passed across to him, and he took a long slow swig of it before standing and saying to Usagi; "I need to speak with you."
She looked up at him and blinked, before she stood and followed him out of the room and into the empty halls; most of the people working in Quatre's home were gone, out shopping to restock various needed supplies for as many guests as they were going to be hosting, or were on their day off.
"Shosa?" Usagi asked, after they had been walking in silence for a few moments, and had stopped at the large windows overlooking the garden. "What did you want to speak to me about, Sir?"
Hiiro silently studied her out of the corner of his eye, she was dressed comfortably- a simple white tank top, with a well fitting pair of sweatpants, hair messily pulled back and pinned up by means of a pencil stuck in her hair. Her cup of coffee held only by her fingers gripping the rim.
"Duo knows, and I wrung it out of him that he told Wufei, as well." Hiiro stated simply, and Usagi immediately switched the grip on her cup till she held the vessel securely. "He promised not to tell another soul, but knowing Duo..."
Usagi nodded, her posture going tense, and it took her a moment to speak through tight lips; "Thank you for letting me know, Shosa."
"Call me by my name, Tsukino, even Mizuno calls me by my first name." he muttered, and she blinked up at him.
"But Ami is a doctor. And she's older than you. She can get away with it." she stuttered out, with a shake of her head; "I couldn't Sir, it wouldn't be proper."
Hiiro echoed her movements, shaking his head at her reply.
"Call me by name." he repeated, and she gave him a lopsided grin at his instance.
"If you will call me 'Usagi' instead of 'Tsukino', then I will call you by name." she retorted, setting her cup on the large window sill, before sitting down on it herself. "And before you reply to that, remember that Wufei at the very least will give you weird looks for calling me by my first name."
"Fine." Hiiro answered with what Usagi thought was a roll of his eyes, "I'll leave it be."
With a giggle at his reply, Usagi turned to look out the windows at the lush garden before her. They stood, and sat, like that in silence for quite a while, before she softly broke the comfortable air that surrounded them.
"You could always use my first name in privet, though."
Hiiro looked down at her, her eyes hadn't moved, and he would have thought she hadn't said a word, except for the pink that tinted her cheeks.
"I would have to use your name in privet as well, then." she continued, finally looking up at him, before smiling suddenly and changing the subject.
"Want to spar? I need activity."
Author's Note:
Muwaha. I'm on a roll.
I hope I didn't just jinx myself.
Anyway, for those of you that don't know, a Prairie Oyster is one of the craziest things ever thought of to get rid of hangover (in my opinion) and includes a raw egg yolk and Worcestershire sauce primarily, and some other things depending on the recipe you use. Don't break the yolk!
B'resheet
12/02/07 - 10:38:22 PM
