:: Haunted Eyes ::

by D-chan

Sailormoon/Megami Kouhosei (Pilot Candidate)

Rating: PG

Pairings: Usagi+Hiead/Hiead+Usagi

Warnings: swearing

Disclaimers: I don't own Sailormoon (rights to go DiC and the new company and Naoko Takeuchi) or Megami Kouhosei (which goes to Bandai and Sugisaki Yuriku). Mirror, Mirror belongs to M2M, not me. =P So there. I love that song... So pretty, so sad... *considered making a songfic with it*

Notes: *gapes* Holy... I come home from school today, check my reviews and I got way more than I expected! ^_^ You guys are so wonderful! Arigotou! That was much more than I expected! I think I had 50 when I posted the new chapter last night and I had more than 10 extra when I came home. Thank you so much!

This chapter is nearly a page longer than a standard one, so be happy. =P Also, see the notice below afterwards... *smiles secretively*

Marie ~ Sadistic... Well, basically a sadistic person is someone who takes pleasure in hurting others. *grins* My English teacher taught it to me last year and since then I've been using it a lot...

HikariTsuki ~ Aw, thank you! That was a very nice review. ^_^ Made me feel a lot happier.

Tsunami-chan ~ Don't worry, I'm not about to quit. I think I'm nearing the end of the fic now. *smiles*

Chibi Chibi ~ Gomen but AnZ is currently on hold... And the only FF8/SM fics I have are one-shots... Unless you meant the FF9/SM one; I'm sort of working on that. ^^;

ScorpioNightShadow ~ 'Course I remember you! ^_^ And if you want info, there's a fantastic site called The EX Files (http://www.satinflame.net/resuko/megami/main.html). Really great for information and especially eye candy. ^_~

On with the story! ^^;

* * Chapter Seven * *

'Stupid!'

Hiead resisted the urge to punch a large hole in his wall as he stood beside his bed, gritting his teeth in anger. What he had done had been impulsive and so completely stupid; it was something he would have expected to do that idiot Zero to do, not him!

She had fought against him; she hadn't wanted it. Good. But even hours after the kiss he had taken from her, he could still feel and see everything; her lips, her attempts to get away, the shock in her blue eyes... Everything.

'You're an idiot, Hiead Gner. A fucking idiot.'

The worst part of it, he thought, was that he wanted to kiss her again, with or without her consent. In fact, an alarmingly large part of him was hoping she would try to cross him again just so he could kiss her again.

Damn teenage hormones.

'Think of something else,' he told himself, glaring accusingly at his bed. 'Think of something else... The Cueval test...'

Why had he seen a vision of himself? That had been him; he was sure of it. But why was he holding a gun... Why was he hiding behind a hood?

Why was he hiding at all?

* * *

"Why do you keep doing that?!"

Usagi dropped the tool she had been holding, giving Kizna a startled look. "Huh?"

Kizna was giving her a narrow look. "You keep touching your mouth. All the time. It's getting really annoying!"

A blush spread across the other girl's face, a blush the cat-eared girl didn't miss. "It's nothing," she mumbled. "Sorry."

Kizna took a wild stab in the dark. "Did some guy kiss you?" The way Usagi's shoulders stiffened and the way she quickly turned her head away to hide her face told her she was right. "My God, Usagi, why didn't you tell me??"

"You don't seem to like me," Usagi said acidly; Hiead's attitude was starting to rub off on her. 'I'm sure that's one thing Pluto did not want to happen,' she thought dryly.

"It's not that I don't like you..." Kizna faltered. "It... It's just Ikhny. She's my best friend and all," she finished in a small voice. "So... I'm pretty pissed at Hiead--"

"I'm not Hiead!" Usagi suddenly screamed, taking a step back. She looked horrified but her face was burning brighter than before. Kizna put two and two together.

"Hiead kissed you?!"

"Kizna!" hissed Usagi, motioning for her to be quiet.

The pink-haired girl shook her head. "Hiead... Kissed you... Unbelievable," she muttered. "That bastard can actually have feelings?"

Usagi shook her head. "Other than anger and self-hatred... No."

"Huh?"

"He told me to stay out of his way," she said in a hushed voice. "And to stay out of his head. All he wants me to do is provide support when he's fighting. He wants me to be a Repairer, not a friend, not anything more. And... And he thinks he can hurt me by doing that kind of stuff."

"Is he hurting you?" asked Kizna, an odd look on her face.

"I have a boyfriend already," admitted Usagi.

Why was Kizna looking at her so strangely? "Do you really...?" Usagi nodded and suddenly Kizna smiled. "I'll do you a favor, then. I'll tell Hiead to lay off next time I see him. He doesn't have any right to toy around with a Repairer, candidate or not. Especially if they're his own partner; at the rate he's going he won't have anyone wanting to help him."

"Oh... No, don't--"

"Don't worry about it, it's no problem," said Kizna cheerfully. Then she winked encouragingly at Usagi. "I have a way with men, you know." Remembering Kizna's way of "dealing with" Zero, Usagi controlled a wince but said nothing. She could only pray that Hiead didn't hurt Kizna, too.

* * *

Two nights after the Cueval incident found Hiead lying in bed, and for once he was the one still awake, not Zero.

"Leave her alone!"

Damn Zero's partner.

"No one needs a horrible, unfeeling bastard like you messing up their lives any more, Hiead! It's bad enough what you did to Ikhny!"

Ikhny. Must be that girl he attacked and knocked out cold. He briefly wondered if she had wakened yet then decided he didn't care.

"You'd think it was bad enough with the Victim trying to destroy us, now you're trying to corrupt and hurt innocent people like Usagi and Ikhny!"

It was Usagi's innocence that baffled him. With all that went on, with the Victims, with everything, no one should have that pure a heart or soul anymore. Everyone had at least seen a Victim up close; that had to be bad enough to at least frighten them into acting different that what a normal teenager must have acted like many years ago.

"If you're not going to respond positively to her actions, then don't respond at all! Stop messing with her head!"

She was just a Repairer; they could all be replaced. If they couldn't be, they wouldn't have replaced that other girl with Usagi.

"And anyway, she might be in a relationship with someone else! Someone that pretty..."

Alarmingly enough, Hiead had found himself agreeing with one thing: she was very, very pretty. Cute in her own way, pretty in another, and very dangerous to someone like him.

Grunting softly, Hiead turned over on his side and stared ahead at the wall. Perfect. At this rate he would never get to sleep and would be exhausted before their match the next day... Their match with the Senior Candidates. It was going to be perfect, his chance to prove himself by defeating a Senior Candidate.

And Usagi would be right there with him, doing her best to give him the advantage over his adversary, whomever it may be.

Hiead closed his eyes briefly. 'For the most part, Repairers are needless. The pilot should be able to handle everything on his own; it needs to take both brains and strength to kill off the enemy. Why put them into two separate people? Why use one person for one purpose and another for the other? The majority of people who receive an EX reaction are male; this is just a way to make the females in existence feel useful. Pitiful.'

But Usagi had said herself; she was only a replacement for his original partner. She didn't know as much... And yet she was satisfactory (Hiead didn't dare give her any more praise than that) in her work. She was strange.

And come to think of it, he had never really asked her how she had survived in space without a space suit. That woman was creepy and strange... Hiead was beginning to wonder if she was even from Zion. Was there perhaps a planet they had overlooked; were they wrong in claiming Zion was the last living planet? No... It couldn't be possible, could it?

Ugh. He would never get any sleep now; he didn't even feel remotely tired. Carelessly throwing his covers aside, the soft sound muffled by Clay's snores, Hiead stood up. The floor was cold beneath his bare feet and he was clothed only in his boxers and a large white t-shirt.

Well, no one would be up, not even surveillance. Stupid thing they did; shut down the human surveillance at night. Well, they needed sleep, he supposed; just because he had a bad case of insomnia didn't mean the rest of the ship had to.

He didn't quite know where he was going; he only knew that he had to get out of that room. Still barefoot and completely silent, Hiead slipped out unnoticed and began his journey down the cold, empty halls.

He must have been wandering a while; he didn't know quite how long, but a soft voice caught his attention at one point. Without another thought, he changed his course to follow the voice.

"Mirror, mirror, hanging on the wall..."

Hiead paused just outside the room he heard the voice singing from. It was very, very quiet, hushed, as though the person didn't want to waken anyone else.

"You don't have to tell me..."

Familiar...

"Who's the biggest fool of all..."

He dared a peek through the crack of the sliding door.

"Mirror, mirror, I wish you could lie to me..."

Usagi. She was curled on the floor in the middle of a classroom, singing to herself. Her tone sounded so sad, so lonely.

"And bring my baby back, bring my baby back to me..."

Hiead gritted his teeth. Enough of this. If she kept on being depressed like that she wouldn't be able to concentrate during his battle tomorrow. Not caring if he scared her, he shoved the sliding door open with a loud bang. Usagi screamed and fell back, staring up at him in shock.

He glared at her and was instantly at her side, kneeling beside her. "Stop that," he ordered.

"S-Stop what?" she stammered.

"Stop acting like an idiot. You need to concentrate at my battle tomorrow and offer me support," he said harshly. "You won't be able to do that properly and it will cost me the victory."

As if she'd grasped a bit of backbone, she retorted, "Oh, so it's a matter of winning or losing, not anything else? Don't you care what happens to yourself?"

He leaned even closer, so close their noses almost touched. If looks could kill she would have been dead long ago. "If anything happens to me, it'll be your fault," he stated quietly. "So I suggest you stop acting like an idiot and get proper rest... Now."

"Demo--"

"Are you stupid or something?" he hissed. "You don't pay any attention, do you!" Then, without warning, he pushed her flat on the floor and covered her mouth with a passionate kiss.

* * *

Chibi-Usa stared at her mother after her words trailed off. "Then what, Okaasan?" she asked in a hushed whisper. "Then what?"

Neo Queen Serenity raised her eyes to the sky, which had begun to grow dark a while ago. "It is getting late, Small Lady. Time for rest now."

"Demo--"

"I will finish tomorrow," her mother promised. "I will make my first stop in your room as soon as I am awake and ready."

Chibi-Usa was clearly disappointed but she knew she would never hear the rest if she didn't consent. "All right," she agreed and hugged her mother. "Oyasumi nasai, Okaasan." Good night, Mother, she had said.

"Oyasumi nasai, musume." The queen watched as her daughter ran out of the garden, obviously eager to welcome sleep so night would pass and morning would come, when she could hear the rest of the story.

Serenity sighed softly and made her way inside as well. She was uneasy to tell her daughter as to what had happened next, although she could remember everything that had happened clearly, as clearly as though it had happened only moments ago. It had been the one night she would never forget.

*hums* Bet you can guess what happened next. *hentai-ish grin* I'll be skipping to the morning after in the next chapter, so anyone that wants me to write an unedited version of what happened let me know. *smiles* If I get 14 requests I'll do it. I know, 14 seems like a lot, but it's kinda my favorite number. ^^;; Or if I get a little 10-14, I'll seriously consider doing it. But those that request it have to review it. It's only fair. ^^

Also, the next chapter may come out a little later than the rest did, from a day to maybe even a week late. It depends; I need to figure a few things out before I can go on writing the next chapter; everything needs to fit just right. ^^; Gomen! I'll work as fast as I can!