Day Seven

Note: Sorry I didn't get this posted yesterday, but I lost my wallet and spent the majority of the weekend driving around searching…

This was another image prompt based on a picture by user Hot Hot Heat on Deviant Art. (Check the Shitennou-Ai LiveJournal archives for December 7, 2011 to see it.) This picture is much more atmospheric and tough to describe than the last one. It's a picture of blurred Christmas lights on one side and a close-up of an ornament on the other. The tone is predominantly blue, so I adjusted the prompt slightly.

Who: Makoto, Ami
When: Crystal Tokyo
Prompt: Blue Christmas


Sailor Jupiter looked out over the sleeping, snowbound city and sighed wistfully. Building the utopia of Crystal Tokyo had been the dream of the Sailor Senshi since they were first introduced to the idea (albeit in paradoxical time-traveling sort of way) in their youth, but as the Great Sleep now stretched into its second year she became acutely aware that, as a song a certain absent man once played her a little drunkenly on a beat up acoustic guitar says, the waiting is the hardest part…

Unfortunately she had another song stuck in her head at the moment and since the tuning knob of her brain-radio seemed permanently broken, she decided the best way to get it out of her skull would be to belt it out herself…

"I'll have a BLUUUUUEEEEEEE Christmaaaaaaaas without YOUUUUU!"

As she stood there singing (screaming, really) at the transparent walls of the Crystal Palace and the snowy landscape beyond, she was reminded of a fateful conversation some years ago about another corny Christmas song she hated. That memory and the emotions it conveyed wormed their way into her throat and her voice noticeably wavered on the next line.

"Your pitch is a little off, Mako-chan." An overly charitable voice spoke from behind her.

The taller woman turned to glance over her shoulder, her face cherry red in embarrassment at someone having overheard her caterwauling, "You weren't supposed to hear that."

"No offence, but I think the whole Palace could hear that." Sailor Mercury smiled and joined her friend at the edge of the balcony, "I could give you lessons if you want to learn how to sing."

"Nah." Jupiter declined and turned to lean on the cold crystal wall, her back to the city, "The only pitch I need to be good at is softball. That's the first thing I want to do when this god-forsaken snow melts; get a game going!"

"We could go down to the gymnasium and practice?" Ami suggested.

"It's not the same." Sailor Jupiter sighed, "Not without the sun shining and the wind blowing, the smell of the turf and the feel of the dirt on the pitcher's mound."

"You seem rather restless lately, Mako-chan." Ami frowned at her friend, unsure of what other distractions to offer in support.

"Stir-crazy would be more accurate." Makoto replied with a chuckle, "It's to the point where I think I might ask Usagi to put me to sleep with the Silver Crystal, too."

"You miss him terribly, don't you?" Ami guessed correctly.

"When it comes to him I'm as transparent as these walls." Jupiter knocked her knuckles against the crystal and sent an echoing noise through the halls not unlike tapping on an expensive wine glass.

She gazed across the hallway through another series of transparent walls into the central foyer of this level of the Palace. While the bottom floors were reserved for kitchens, the gymnasium, and storage and the ground floors were home to conference rooms and the all-important throne room, the upper levels were home to the Sailor Senshi and the soon-to-be King and Queen of Crystal Tokyo. They were less austere than the lower floors thanks to the furniture, decorations and knick-knacks they all brought from their previous homes, but

The central room which served as their communal dining room, lounge area, and informal meeting place was currently occupied by a large fir tree decorated with blue and white lights and an array of pastel colored baubles. The light distorted as it shone through the glassy crystal walls making the lights blur and refract in strange, but not unpleasing ways. The light that shone onto the floor was not unlike that of a stained glass window.

"I had gotten so used to Neil being around." Makoto sounded as though she were confessing, regardless of the fact that there was no sin or secret among their group, "All of the guys, really. It's so weird how natural it felt for them to become part of our lives."

"I don't know if natural is an apt description." The shy Senshi at her side quipped with a slight blush.

"Well…" Makoto smiled, "As natural as these things can be for us, I mean."

After a long moment of companionable silence Sailor Mercury assured her, "They'll be back, you know?"

"Yes, like Frosty the Snowman." Makoto grumbled, "They'll be back again some day, but who knows when?"

She didn't intend for her statement to carry such resentment, but the frustration was building. This was the why she avoided the subject as much as possible, even when her three best friends in the world were experiencing the same discontent, though to wildly varying degrees.

Rei and Jiro weren't exactly what you would call a couple considering their entire relationship was based on outwitting, outperforming, and out-snarking each other at every opportunity. He was only a few hundred miles away keeping watch over the Far East as the world slumbered and still within range of normal radio contact, but the two hadn't spoken in weeks that Makoto knew of. They were most likely involved in some ridiculous pride-fueled competition to see who could last the longest without making the call.

Minako and Kadeen (which Makoto called him instead of Ken because no one else did and she liked the way it sounded) were both instantly on the same wavelength when it came to establishing Crystal Tokyo. As the leaders of their respective groups they had an immediate, if silent, understanding that their duties would take precedence over whatever relationship they were cultivating. Oddly enough for the overly energetic and vociferous Sailor Venus, whatever relationship she and Kadeen were involved in was being kept exceptionally low-key.

And of course Ami, probably the best person Makoto had ever met at compartmentalization when it came to her needs, worries, and emotions, barely spoke of Zora who was no doubt having the time of his life sitting by a fireplace perusing endless stacks of literature (probably wearing those tiny reading glasses that made Ami blush every time he brought them out) as he watched over a frozen Europe from the comfort of a lavish London flat. Even still, Makoto knew the blue haired Senshi was feeling the sting of separation without her "Study Buddy" as she teasingly referred to him.

When the Great Sleep arrived and the snow began to fall it was the unanimous decision of Mamoru and the Shitennou that latter would travel back to the areas of their birth and watch over the four corners of the planet while it slept. With the Earth in such a vulnerable state the Outer Senshi could not be spared in their efforts to defend the outer reaches of the solar system and the Inner Senshi were all required to remain in Crystal Tokyo just to keep their new Palace operational. Between the computers monitoring the planet, the energy required to maintain the Sleep, and the task of keeping their new King and Queen safe, there was precious little time for anything else which made the Shitennou's reappearance and purpose, puns intended, crystal clear. They were meant to travel abroad during this transitional period and protect their lands as they had once guarded in the distant past.

"Everything was going so well the last few years." Makoto spoke again after another long minute of silence, "It felt so right. It was like Usagi's dream of having this huge, happy family was coming true." She shook her head and turned back to the snowy city again, the cheer of the Christmas tree shining a little false in her eyes right now, "Just like always, as soon as we start to feel just a little bit normal and comfortable, something like this pops up."

"I understand." Ami agreed though she added with some irony, "But we're not normal."

"Boy you said a mouthful." Makoto reflected.

"But to that point…" Ami continued, "Neither are they. I guess that's why we- I mean, our… um… I mean, our ability to work together is not… complicated."

"Tell that to Sailor Mars." Jupiter laughed as did her friend.

As another silence settled her thoughts drifted west where she could imagine Neil, the man who would soon be reclaiming the name Nephrite when the world awoke, stalking angrily through the snowbound streets of New York City. (They had decided that basing their operations out of major population centers throughout the world made the most sense.) Though Makoto was drawn to nature through her Senshi heritage, she had grown up in cities and suburbs and felt at home in Tokyo. Neil, however, would rather live in an isolated shack in the middle of nowhere like Thoreau. She could imagine him going just as stir-crazy as her stuck in a high-rise somewhere in Manhattan slowly pulling out each strand of his thick lion's mane of hair one at a time.

In the years since they had met Makoto and Neil had become close. Nothing had been consummated between them yet (or any of the other couples as far as she knew) but there was an unspoken notion that time no longer mattered and therefore there was no need to rush into anything.

"You know." Ami began, "The satellites will properly align in a few days and you would probably be able to contact him briefly."

"No, that's alright." Was Makoto's almost instant reply, "We both know how each other feels and we knew it would be a long haul before it's all over." She hesitantly chuckled, "Besides, what would I say? How's the weather?"

"You could sing to him." Ami suggested in all seriousness.

"Ami." Makoto pushed off the wall and leered over her shorter companion with a stern mask like a drill sergeant covering her normally jovial features, "I want him to come back one day."