Seiya woke up in his bed the next morning with his clothes from yesterday still on. He didn't remember getting in bed the previous night.
"Haruka came and dropped you off last night. I told her to put you in your bed. It would've been awkward to strip you down and put you in your pajamas so we just left you in your clothes." Taiki stood in the doorway to Seiya's room, already ready for school.
"You should have seen yourself Seiya! You were drooling and you were mumbling Usagi's name under your breath! It was hilarious!" Yaten appeared from behind Taiki, also ready for the day, and snickered.
Seiya scowled and looked at his alarm clock. It was 5:45 am, fifteen minutes before they had to leave for school.
"Why didn't you get me up earlier?!" He shouted and scrambled out of bed. After tripping over his sheets several times, being in the rush he was in, and falling on his face once or twice, he finally managed to stand up. Yaten stood in the doorway with Taiki, both trying to suppress a loud outburst of a laughing fit.
Seiya quickly opened his closet and found his school uniform, then slipped into the bathroom.
"Yaten wanted to see what your reaction would be. So I didn't wake you, and besides, you liked to sleep in as late as possible when we were here two years ago." Taiki said through the bathroom door
"Another reason you and Usagi are perfect for each other!" Yaten laughed really loudly at his joke and got a look from Taiki.
"Shut up, Yaten!" Seiya shouted
He slipped on the uniform. 'Good, it still fits perfectly.' Seiya sighed and got to work brushing his teeth. Then, once he was done, took out his hair brush from the bathroom drawer. He quickly started to brush his hair and ran out of the bathroom to grab his breakfast.
The bathroom door flew open and Seiya rushed out, purposely whipping Yaten with his hair in the process of rushing to the kitchen, causing a yelp from his silver haired friend.
Seiya grabbed his toast and put it in his mouth, it hung there while he put his hair into the white hair tie it was always in at his back.
He rushed back into his room and found Yaten looking through one of his dresser drawers, probably trying to find some sort of blackmail for revenge for last night's argument. Seiya rolled his eyes and pushed the boy out of his room while he grabbed his shoes.
The three ran to the elevator of their pint house and quickly pushed the down button to the first floor.
"C'mon! c'mon! c'mon!" Yaten was rapidly trying to close the elevator doors so they could go downstairs to the lobby.
"Yaten! Stop! You're killing that button!" Seiya shouted and received a heated glare from his two companions. This was no time to make jokes.
The front deskman became utterly surprised as three teenaged boys ran through the apartment building's lobby at top speed towards their ride that was waiting out front. 'Haven't seen those boys in a couple years. Wonder when they got back?' he thought. He quickly adjusted his cap and tried to find his place in the sports magazine that he was reading when Yaten, Taiki, and Seiya had charged through the lobby.
The three boys all piled into the tiny car that had been awaiting them and set off for Juuban High School. Yaten was complaining about running while panting for breath the whole car ride. Seiya smirked at this; he knew how much Yaten hated running.
They all sat in silence in the car once Yaten had caught his breath; looking out the window at Tokyo. They passed a lot of kids walking to school, although a different school, and probably a younger age range, all carrying books and backpacks with them. Some looked their way and gasped at the sight. It was unusual for Three Lights' car to go down there now because they hadn't gone to Juuban High School for more than two years.
They stopped in front of the school. It had already started. They got out of the car and started to walk to the office. There was nobody in the school courtyard and Yaten and Taiki savored the silence. It was nice for them to be able to walk for at least a couple minutes without being mobbed by rabid fan girls and just loud people in general.
They received a nice greeting from the staff when they walked into the office. It was the same as the last year they were there, all the same teachers, apparently no new teachers had been recruited and none had quit.
The lady at the front desk was still quite the talkative one that always liked to rave on and on about when she was a famous singer back in the old days at a local café. She mainly enjoyed talking to Taiki though because she thought he was the most polite of the three. And he always provided her with good information about the old days too, since she grew up in a very small town that wasn't very involved in the world at the time.
They got their schedules and headed over to their first class, homeroom. They were in all the same classes as each other, so they would always be together, unlike last year when they had mostly different classes.
"Man!" Yaten complained as they were walking down the hallway towards their first class, "Why do I have to be in the same gym class as Seiya?!"
Seiya snickered at this. He could now watch Yaten get all sweaty from just two minutes of running. It was pretty funny, considering all the looks he probably got from people who weren't even tired yet. Plus, he could prank Yaten by doing a lot of things to his clothes and his locker. Seiya could come up with at least twenty ideas for pranking Yaten already. But he would have to be sneaky as to not get caught by Yaten or any of the teachers.
They finally arrived at their homeroom. It said Third year math on the sign above the classroom and looked like their first year homeroom from the outside but was different on the inside.
Taiki opened the slide door to the room and found a lot of kids looking at them. Then they heard a lot of gasps come from the group upon their return. Some kids they recognized from their first year, but others weren't familiar at all to them.
There were a lot of posters around the room, all about math. Taiki admired this, but Yaten and Seiya silently groaned under their breath. The windows looked over the courtyard and Seiya could see the Janitor hauling his supplies to the gym, sweaty and very weak framed.
Seiya looked to the front of the room and saw a girl on her hands and knees on the ground in front of the class. She seemed to be talking to something and hadn't noticed the new arrivals come into the room.
He quickly shut the door behind them while Taiki went up and explained things to their teacher since he seemed to be confused upon their arrival. Apparently, the office hadn't told their teacher that he would be getting three new students in his class.
The girl that Seiya was staring at had long blond hair, about to her thighs, and was wearing the female uniform of Juuban High School. Her frame seemed to be pretty strong, yet fragile at the same time. But there was something Seiya, Yaten, and Taiki, once he had rejoined them, thought was immediately recognizable. She was wearing a cherry colored bow in her hair that stood out above everything else.
Finally, the girl seemed to notice the sudden silence and slowly turned around, still on her hands and knees. Light blue eyes met dark blue, violet, and lime green. They slowly widened in recognition and she quickly turned around again to get in to squatting position.
Seiya still couldn't see what this girl was talking to, but he merely caught a glimpse of it before she picked it up and stood up. It was something with more than two legs. 'A puppy maybe?' Seiya thought to himself.
The girl turned to them once again, but took a few steps towards them this time, smiling brightly. But that smile didn't quite reach her eyes. Sadness and pain seemed to have fixated themselves in her blue eyes, replacing the more brilliant, bright cheerfulness that the Starlights had once known.
Yaten sighed with irritation. He tried to roll his eyes and suppress the smile that he knew was there but he couldn't quite keep it back. "Hi, Minako-Chan." There was something about seeing the senshi of love again that awakened something inside Yaten again. He knew what, but he didn't like to admit it to himself or anybody else.
Seiya rolled his eyes and, realizing this was his chance to embarrass Yaten in front of the class, shoved Yaten forwards, right into Minako.
The Silver haired boy yelped with surprise as he stumbled in the blond. They both fell to the floor, Yaten on top of Minako. It reminded him of the time Chibi-Chibi had pushed the door open at a cabin on vacation, yet at the same time, pushed Seiya on top of Usagi.
Yaten stared at Minako's face. She was smirking mischievously, a glint in her eyes. "Couldn't stay away, huh, Yaten-Kun?" she said and earned a lot of snickering from their audience.
A small white cat came over to Yaten then and started to rub his arm, purring intently. Yaten blushed, realizing that he had just fallen on Minako in front of the entire class. 'Oh, great! I just embarrassed myself in front of the whole class on my first day in here! Great! Just great! Seiya's gonna pay for this!' he thought and quickly got off of Minako.
"Um…Gomen, Minako-Chan." Yaten apologized while he gripped her small hand and gently pulled her off of the hard floor. Once again, the small white cat leaped back into her arms.
Seiya had just noticed that the animal that Minako had been holding was a cat, and was now trying to remember its name. Puzzlement showed on his face as he thought, so he did not notice the now furious Yaten send him a cold glare.
Taiki just stood there the whole time, searching the small classroom for his previous crush. When he spotted the blue-haired girl he blushed. She had been staring at him the whole time through those dark blue jewels. He quickly looked away. But one thing he thought was peculiar was that he didn't notice any golden haired heads in the entire class.
'She couldn't have moved away, could she? Haruka said she still went here. Maybe she's in a different class?' Taiki thought and brushed an auburn strand out of his eyes so he could look at his new teacher.
"Well, class. It seems we have some new students here in our class. Or maybe returning students, I should say. Most of you may already know them well. Minako, since you seem to know them fairly well already, why don't you introduce them?" Their teacher's voice was deep and hollow, while he motioned for the four students to step away from the door.
"Hai, teacher-san." Minako blushed slightly and grabbed Seiya's shirt with her free hand, startling him out of his thoughts. "This is Seiya-Kun!" She grinned brightly again, this time directed at the class full of excited students that were following her every move.
"H-Hi" Seiya mumbled, his cheeks felt hot and he knew Yaten was snickering off to the side. His eyes scanned the room, row by row, searching for that cheerful face he had come to know so well. His Odango. His Angel.
Minako quickly dropped her feline friend on the floor and grabbed the other two Starlights, who were too busy snickering at the blushing Seiya to notice Minako's quick movements. She pulled them over to where she and Seiya were standing, and practically shouted, "This is Taiki-San!" she nudged Taiki and his violet eyes stared back at the class with as much seriousness as he could muster with Seiya around.
"And last, but not least, this is Yaten-Kun!" Minako leaned on Yaten a little bit, but he didn't push her off. He actually kind of liked it.
"Okay!" this time the teacher's voice boomed across the class, startling everyone by his sudden intrudement. "We don't have much time for this lesson, since it is very off topic from math, and we have already taken up half the class with other nonsense." His eyes wandered to the three boys and Minako, "So I suggest that everybody take their seats. Just take whatever open seats there are boys. There should be enough."
Taiki quickly shuffled over to where Ami was sitting and sat in the seat next to her. Luckily it was free. Yaten was dragged off to where Minako was sitting, and was forced into the free chair next to her. Seiya, on the other hand, was puzzled on where he was going to sit. He couldn't find his Odango anywhere in the class, so he decided to sit next to a seemingly lonely person in the very back row. The person had their hood up so it shielded Seiya from seeing their face. But she was clearly a girl; she was wearing the girls' uniform with the ruffled skirt and sandals.
"Hi." Seiya said to the girl, "I'm Seiya Kou." When she didn't respond he just shrugged and looked towards the front of the classroom. The teacher seemed to be getting out a book, or magazine. Actually, it looked like a lot of magazines. He carefully selected several from the stack and passed them to the first person in the first row, who handed them down once he had taken one.
The teacher gave each row several magazines and looked at the clock. It was almost time for their break, they would be going to their next classes really soon.
He sighed. "I guess we'll continue this lesson tomorrow then. Please put the magazines in your desks so we can look at them in the next class. You're dismissed." He said that just as the bell for their ten minute break rang. It was ten minutes so kids could relax a little more. Seiya was thankful for it so he could find Usagi.
Seiya quickly shoved the magazine into his desk and slipped on his backpack. He ran to go outside before it got too crowded to actually get some fresh air.
He ran quickly. Passing kids of all sizes, big and small. Each one gasped when they saw him, faces fixed in an expression of awe. Some fan girls tried to follow him through the hallways, but he lost them soon enough.
Finally, he got outside. Seiya soaked in the still groggy atmosphere and sighed. The sun shone through the fog a little bit, and some of the snow and ice had melted since they got there. But not much.
Seiya looked around at the courtyard. There was no body outside right now, probably because it was too cold to be really, so they took the long way to their classes, which was indoors.
He bent down and picked up a leaf. It was frozen solid, and frost outlined its veins. Seiya admired this. He thought it was so beautiful.
Seiya's thoughts were interrupted by a high pitch screech. He knew it was female, because he didn't think a male's voice could go that high. He frantically looked around as he heard it again.
Finally, he spotted the source. It was the shy, hooded girl that he sat next to in homeroom. There was a boy about sophomore ranking throwing rocks at her. He winced as he saw a large rock connected with her eye and he heard another high pitch screech of pain.
"OI! Stop that! You're hurting her!" Seiya angrily raced over to where they were and stood in front of the helpless girl. She was shivering in fear and seemed to be holding onto her ribs.
"Why should I, huh? She's too stupid to run away! I think she wanted to be stoned!" the boy smirked at Seiya and motioned at the girl, stone in hand.
"She's defenseless and helpless! You have no right to do this to her!" He shouted at the boy, his face was pure rage; his midnight blue eyes were dark as he glared at the boy with them.
"Then why don't you fight me huh, pretty boy? That'll settle things!" evil showed in the young boy's eyes, and Seiya immediately flared up inside.
"No. Seiya, don't. That won't settle anything." Seiya and the boy were surprised as a female voice interrupted their quarrel. It was smooth and firm.
"Well, the coward finally speaks!" The boy snickered as the girl rose from the ground, slightly quivering from the stress of her newly forming bruises and aching muscles.
Bringing her hands up to the edges of her hood, she spoke with gentleness in her voice, "Please, Seiya. I know you need to protect people, but its fine. I'm okay. I don't need any help right now." With that, she pulled her hood away from her face to reveal golden hair pulled back into a single, large bun. Her sapphire eyes were dull, yet Seiya could still sense her shine.
"Odango!" Seiya exclaimed and quickly grabbed her before she could stumble and fall to the icy ground.
"Odango…why did you hide? Odango?" he looked down at her and saw tears brimming in her eyes, just about to start pouring down her pale cheeks. Then Seiya noticed the dark colored bruise on her cheek, and almost cracked. His head snapped towards the young boy who was bullying her.
"Get out of here!" he yelled and shot a warning glare that sent the boy running to his next class.
Seiya embraced Usagi as she hid her face in his shoulder. They both sat down next to the base of a tree as she continued to sob.
"Odango… how did this happen?" he questioned and she started to sob even harder. He held her closer to him as she calmed down enough that she could lift her face to look at him.
It broke Seiya's heart as he looked at her. Usagi's eyes were all red and puffy from crying, and tears still poured down her cheeks and onto his shirt, dampening it slightly.
"I-I-It's b-been horrible!" she exclaimed and Seiya pulled her into his lap so they could be more comfortable. "Mamo-Chan! H-He left us when we n-needed him most! A-A-And, we don't have enough m-money!"
Seiya kissed the top of her head and asked, "Who's 'we', Odango?"
"Ch-Chibiusa and I…" she said, and he stiffened a bit.
Then he slowly lifted her chin to face him, sapphire eyes meeting midnight blue. "I will take care of this." He said reassuringly, while wiping away all the tears that had slipped onto her cheeks. Her bottom lip trembled as he said, "But we need to talk about this somewhere private. So we're going to my apartment right now." He said firmly
With that said he lifted Usagi off of his lap and stood up. He bent down and took Usagi's hand out of her lap and pulled her onto her feet.
When her legs refused to move and started to buckle, he reached under her knees and back and lifted her like a baby off of the ground. Then he started to make his way to the starlights' apartment building, one step after another through all the ice and snow that awaited him on the way there.