Chapter Ten: The Discoveries
The door of the Tsukino household opens and closes. With the help of slender hands, a plain pair of white sandals slip off tired feet and are placed neatly aside. Long, lightly tanned legs stretch out and then slowly lift up its owner and carry her into the kitchen where clear water ran in the sink to wash vivid colored vegetables.
"You're home! Why don't you help Chibi-Usa prepare the stew while I finish washing these vegetables?" Ikuko-mama says to Usagi.
"Hai!" replies the blond as she puts on a pink apron with a bunny on it. She walks over to the young teen girl at the stove stirring a big pot. Her "cousin" no longer needed the small wooden stool to see over the stove.
Chibi-Usa greets Usagi with a warm grin. "So how was it?"
"We'll talk about that later, after dinner," Usagi tells her. The younger girl nods and goes back to stirring the stew.
* * *
Through dinner, Shingo made many comments about Usagi's day while Usagi made an effort to not reveal anything to prove Shingo was right. There were many laughs and giggles at the table.
After dinner, Usagi and Chibi-Usa cleared the table and washed the dishes. Both girls dashed upstairs into Chibi-Usa's room in the attic right after the task was finished. When the attic door was secure and tight Usagi glomped Chibi-Usa.
"I THOUGHT YOU WOULD'VE DISAPPEARED WHEN MAMORU AND I BROKE UP! I'M SO HAPPY THAT YOU'RE OKAY!"
"Ack… Usagi-chan! It's great you were worried but you'll be more worried when I end up in the hospital because of suffocation," the pink- haired girl forced out.
"OH!" Usagi lets go and folds her hands in her lap.
"So? How was the rest of your date?"
"Um… Fine… I was so surprised when I saw you!"
"I could tell! Seiya's pretty cute!"
"Whatever…" Usagi then studies the changed Chibi-Usa. "You look so different… It's not only that you grew up is it? How old are you?"
"I'm thirteen now Usagi… and you're right… I am different now," the younger girl replies.
"You… look so familiar… your eyes… you really portray someone but I can't put my finger on it…" Usagi tells her thoughtfully.
"Hmm… For starters, how about yourself?" Chibi-Usa says with a sarcastic smile.
Usagi pouts at her. "Well duh! I know that! But… you're not Mamoru's child are you?"
"Wow! Have you gotten smarter or have you encountered multiple father problems before?" Chibi-Usa teases.
"AH! WHAT AN INSULT!" Usagi replies indignantly.
The girl rolls her deep red eyes. "It was only a joke! Jeez… Chill Usagi!" All the while with a smirk on her face.
Usagi stared at her, eyes unblinking and an awed expression on her face.
"Nani?" asks Chibi-Usa.
"You… when you smirked…"
Chibi-Usa looks at her with a lifted brow.
The blonde shakes her head, "Nothing… I was just seeing things… never mind…" She keeps staring at Chibi-Usa's confused look. 'It can't be… but it looked so familiar… so… so… Seiya… but… no, maybe it's just because I'm obsessed with him or something… OH MY GOD! What am I thinking?!'
"Usagi? Konnichiwa? Anyone home?" Chibi-Usa asks, her face a mere two inches in front of Usagi's face.
When the older teen snaps from her thinking she stared into a pair of wonderful deep red eyes, a sudden blush rushing to her cheeks. Her breathing became faster and her breaths shorter.
"Daijobu?" asks a worried Chibi-Usa. She slowly puts her left hand on Usagi's shoulder.
The older girl puts her own hand over Chibi-Usa's.
"Um… Usagi-chan? What are you doing?" asks the troubled thirteen-year- old getting more worried. She looked at Usagi whom was still staring at her, straight into her eyes. 'What the hell is she doing? Maybe I should call for Ikuko-mama…'
Chibi-Usa watches confusingly as Usagi's eyelids slid shut and her body and face moved closer to Chibi-Usa, soft pink gracing the older girl's cheeks. She frowned and suddenly, she realized the actions and exclaimed, "OH MY GOD! USAGI!" The young girl pulled away from her future mother like lightening shooting from a rain cloud, and jumps all the way to the other side of the room.
Usagi's eyes snap open and she realizes what she was just about to do and gasps. She falls back on her hindquarters with a totally shocked look and breathing in extremely deep breaths. "Go...men… n-na…sai…" she stutters.
"Kusu…" the other girl breathes.
"I'm… I'm not what you think! I… I don't know why I did that…" Usagi replies, ashamed that she attempted to kiss her own daughter.
Chibi-Usa takes a few deep breaths; she calms down and pulls on a relieved look. She covers the length of the room in a few strides to Usagi sitting on the floor looking miserable. "It's ok," she tells her with a little smile and sitting down beside her.
"Nani?" asks the older girl, with misty eyes.
"I know why you did that and it's ok," Chibi-Usa assures her.
Usagi looks at her a bit curiously. "You know why?"
Chibi-Usa grins at her. "I look like someone you want to be with don't I?"
The other girl looked at her with narrowed eyes. "What are you saying?"
"I," Chibi-Usa puts her right hand on her chest, "look like… Seiya."
Usagi stares at the so sure look of her future daughter and then starts laughing hysterically. "You! HAHAHA! Look like… SEIYA!? HAHAHAHA! That would mean you're Seiya's daughter! HAHAHAHA! That's the funniest thing I've heard all day! AHAHAHA!"
A smug smile creeps up on the red eyed girl's face. "I am."
The blond now rolling on the hardwood floor stops instantly. She studies Chibi-Usa's face and breaks out laughing again.
"I'm serious." Chibi-Usa's clipped reply stopped Usagi's laughter once again.
Usagi wipes the tears from her eyes, sits up facing Chibi-Usa and smiles at her. "You're kidding right?"
The latter responds with a firm shake of her head.
A ghostly white spreads across the seventeen-year-old girl's face. She starts chuckling uncomfortably. "Oh c'mon Chibi-Usa… don't play around."
"I'm not, Usagi. Believe me…" she replies insistently.
After those words, Usagi's white face instantly changes into beet red. "Aaaaaah…" was all she could manage to utter.
Suddenly, Chibi-Usa breaks out laughing like a lunatic and falls back onto the floor with her hands over her stomach and feet kicking in the air. "HAHAHAHA! YOU SHOULD SEE YOURSELF! HAHAHAHA!"
The other girl widens her eyes and watches confusingly. But then something snapped and she realized that it was just a joke. "YOU LIAR! YOU LITTLE BRAT!" She lunges at Chibi-Usa.
Pink hair flies as she rolls over a few times and gets away from Usagi, letting the older girl smash into the hardwood floor. 'Hehehe… Usagi- chan, I never said I wasn't….' Chibi-Usa thought as both of them sprang up. A noisy chase then erupts in the attic and makes its way to all parts of the house.
* * *
"Odango Atama…" he breathed in her ear. She smiles and her hands gently grip his strong arms encircling her waist from behind. She felt so secure and safe, like she belonged there with him. She sighs happily and relaxes onto the firm chest behind her. She leans her head back into the crook of his neck with her eyes closed and breathes in his mixed scent of sweet shampoo and a special fresh smell that made her think of a large field full of flowers with a soft breeze on a spring day.
"Usagi," a very familiar girl voice calls. "Usagi!"
Painstakingly, she opens her eyes and prepares to glare at whoever was calling her in her and Seiya's secret haven under the cherry blossom tree by the sparkling lake.
What she found surprised her. Standing a few feet away was a pink- haired girl. "CHIBI-USA!?"
"Usagi," she calls again.
"How'd you get here Chibi-Usa?" the girl asks with a frown.
"Usagi!" Chibi-Usa calls louder this time.
"Nani? What do you want?"
"Usagi?"
"NANI!?"
Suddenly, the warmth behind her disappears and she whirls around to find Seiya no longer stood there. All she saw was the brown bark of the cherry blossom tree.
"USAGI," Chibi-Usa's voice calls again.
The teen whirls around again, mouth open, ready to scream at the girl whom destroyed the perfect moment for her. Upon doing so she realizes that everything else vanished as well. Including Chibi-Usa.
The blonde takes a few steps back, her hands clutched against her chest. The darkness settles in around her and a shiver runs up her spine, an icy shiver. Her eyes dart around, searching for… anything. Anything in the blackness.
"Usagi?" Chibi-Usa's voice suddenly echoes. "Usagi!"
The girl responds by looking around for the speaker, expecting to see pink odangos and deep red eyes. Suddenly, everything shakes around her, including her!
* * *
"USAGI! Wake up!" says Chibi-Usa impatiently, shaking Usagi by the shoulders. When the result was only Usagi flopping like a fish and eyes still closed, Chibi-Usa shook harder.
"Mmm…" the older girl grumbles in her throat and struggles from Chibi- Usa's grasp.
The young teen sighs and rolls her eyes. She thinks for a minute and clears her throat, getting her voice ready to sound mature and deep. She leans close to Usagi whom was softly whimpering in her sleep.
"ETERNAL SAILOR MOON!" booms out Chibi-Usa's voice. "I AM SAILOR GALAXIA! I DEMAND THAT YOU GIVE ME YOUR STAR SEED!"
Instantly, Usagi's eyelids fly open to reveal terrified sapphire pools. She slowly turns her head to face where she thinks the speaker might be. Her frightened expression meets the triumphant and cheery one of Chibi- Usa.
"I see that got you to wake up," she replies with a very familiar smirk.
"ARGH!" cries Usagi and throws her quilt over her head in an attempt to get away from the brat that suddenly got dumped back into her life.
"C'mon Usagi… I think you'd want to get up now, it's 10:30," Chibi- Usa tells the hiding teenager in a motherly fashion.
"It's only ten?!" came Usagi's muffled response.
"Only? Our date's at 11:30," the younger girl says, making herself sound surprised.
"What date? I never made a date with you last night! I only remember chasing you around the house and then getting really tired!"
"Well, a certain handsome ebony-haired teenager called us this morning and since you were in such a deep slumber I took the honor of talking to him and graciously accepted his gentlemanly request for a date with us."
The quilt covering Usagi flew down to the foot of her bed to reveal the girl sitting straight up and staring intensely into the younger Usagi's face. "Nani?" The word formed slowly.
"We're going to Laser Gauntlet with Seiya today!" Chibi-Usa tells Usagi with a grin.
Flames suddenly explode into Usagi's eyes as her mouth opens to reveal sharp fangs and her head blows up to ten times its size in front of a fiery backdrop. She looms over a horrified Chibi-Usa, orange flames dancing around her. She looks at the smaller girl like she just brought on the end of the world. "NANIIIII!?" her voice thick with rage and anger.
Chibi-Usa jumps back a few feet, a safe distance away from the demonic Usagi. "Ahehehe… Um… All your other friends will be there!" she tries to change the latter's mood.
"Did I ever say you could make my decisions?!" Usagi doesn't wait for a reply and keeps going. "IIE! I never said that! And you just answer the phone for me and make a date with Seiya?!? You can so totally ruin our friendship!"
"CALM DOWN! You like him anyway! And he likes you! You know what? You're seventeen and you're going to go back to school soon! C'mon! Make good use of your summer! And puh-leeze! Friendship? You want more than a friendship Usagi!" With that Chibi-Usa whirls around and says without looking at her, "Hurry up and get ready. You wouldn't want everyone to wait for you like always. Oh, and don't forget to wear all black."
Usagi snaps out of her devil look and watches Chibi-Usa walk out her door. 'Was that Chibi-Usa?' Usagi lets out a deep sigh and smiles. Even if the girl was a brat, a pain, a loud mouth, a pest and an irritating pest at that, nosey and unbelievably sweet in such an evil way she's still Chibi- Usa. Her future daughter. Her and whom else's? No time to think about that now…
The high school student gets up and folds her moon and bunny quilt at the foot of her bed and heads to the bathroom to wash up. Afterwards, she goes back into her room to decide what to wear. After all, she's going to see Seiya today. She blushes with a smile at that thought. She closes her door and looks at herself in the door length mirror hanging there. She studies her reflection.
Her long blonde tresses reached almost to her ankles now and all she's ever done with it is do it up in odangos. Maybe that's the style that she was born with so why fight nature? She giggles at herself and combs her right hand through the soft and silky hair, content with how healthy it was. She loved her hair so much; she'll always leave it long and flowing like a golden waterfall.
Usagi bounces over to her brush and other hair things on her make up table. She quickly fashions her hair into perfect odangos like she's always done for so many years she almost can't remember. She then bounces back over to the mirror on her door, studying her reflection again.
White pajamas fit her comfortably and she starts posing to admire herself. She chuckles at her silly actions and goes over to her closet. She opens it and gazes at the contents.
Although she had a fairly large collection of outfits she didn't know what to wear today. She turns her head back to the mirror on her door; she looks at herself for a bit more. Slipping out of her pajamas, she folds them neatly into her closet and puts on a bra. Her reflection catches her eye and, again, she goes back to studying herself.
In one year's time her body has become more mature and womanly curves started to really develop. She's also grown a bit taller and she poses more to see if she looked… sexy. This time, she laughs at herself and turns back to her clothes in the closet.
Finally, she picks out a black tank top with small silver letters saying ETERNAL. She matches it with a pair of black jean shorts. After rummaging in her sock drawer she finally found a pair of black ones and puts them on to rush downstairs after glancing at the clock, it was past 11:10.
The dark clothed girl dashed down the stairs and into the dining room. Sitting at the table waiting was Chibi-Usa with a single slice of buttered toast on a plate and a glass of milk. She looks at Usagi with a smile.
"Great outfit! You took long though so this is all you get," she tells her, pushing the plate and the glass towards where she was standing by the table.
The blonde slumps over and looks at the toast and milk with teary eyes. She sniffles. "Only a piece of toast and milk? How am I going to survive till lunch?"
"Oh, you will," Chibi-Usa says in an all too cheery tone. "Now hurry up! You better finish the milk and take the toast with you!" She pushes away from the wooden table and stands up.
"NANI!?"
"Don't whine! If we don't leave now we're going to be late!" Chibi- Usa walks to the door and starts to put on her pair of sneakers. "So? You going to eat or what?"
Usagi looks sadly at her breakfast. She sighs and drinks her milk in two gulps; she then quickly grabs her toast and stuffs it in her mouth. Crunching hungrily, she walks over and sits beside Chibi-Usa to start putting on a pair of her sneakers too.
"Why are we dressed in all black anyway?" asks Usagi with a mouth full of toast.
Chibi-Usa stands up. "Because when the game starts it will be dark."
"So?" Usagi gets up too.
"Duh! Camouflage!"
"Oh!" the taller girl replies, embarrassed she didn't figure it out.
Chibi-Usa turns on her heel and opens the door. "I bet you'll be the first one down even if you are dressed all in black!"
"HEY! WILL NOT!" Usagi goes after Chibi-Usa, closing the door behind her.
* * *
"Hey! Usagi! Chibi-Usa! Over here!" a cheery blonde shouted as she waved.
Both teens ran over to meet their friends.
Usagi was astonished to see the rest of the girls weren't wearing all black.
Ami had on an icy blue sleeveless turtleneck with khaki shorts and blue Adidas sneakers.
Rae wore a red and black mid sleeved shirt with "Mars" printed in sparkling silver letters, matched with a faded jean skort and dark purple Air Nikes.
Makoto dressed in a forest green sleeveless dress shirt, mid calf khakis and light green Nikes.
Mina, wearing an orange tank top with the Chinese word "Love" in white print and matched with white flares, seemed like the brightest one out of them. She matched her flares with white and orange Adidas running shoes.
"You guys are so bright…" comments Usagi slowly.
"Of course… It attracts attention," explains Mina, posing and batting her eyes at Usagi.
Usagi responds with a skeptical look. "Won't you be attracting too much attention while we're in the game?"
"In the game? What do you mean?" asks Mina.
"You know… while we're playing in Laser Gauntlet. You guys will be seen so easily in the dark," replies Usagi.
The four girls stare at her blankly for a moment.
"Oh well!" sings Mina in an embarrassed manner. "As long as you know how to play good, who needs camouflage?"
The other blond dressed in black rolls her eyes.
Chibi-Usa sees Ami look around impatiently. "Is there something wrong Ami-san?"
"Huh?" asks Ami. "Um… Iie… nothing wrong…" she mumbles looking at her shoes.
"She's looking for Taiki," whispers Makoto into Chibi-Usa's ear.
"Ooooh…" the younger girl replies with a smile.
Ami's cheeks turn pink. "Hey! Am not…" she retorts with a little smile.
"So, Ami… Did he ask you out yet?" Mina asks with a little nudge.
"NANI!?" exclaims Ami, getting redder.
"Girls, girls… Chill! Here they come okay?" says Chibi-Usa coolly.
The girls look down the street and found the younger girl was right, the Three Lights were slowly strutting up the sidewalk together.
*End of Chapter Ten
The door of the Tsukino household opens and closes. With the help of slender hands, a plain pair of white sandals slip off tired feet and are placed neatly aside. Long, lightly tanned legs stretch out and then slowly lift up its owner and carry her into the kitchen where clear water ran in the sink to wash vivid colored vegetables.
"You're home! Why don't you help Chibi-Usa prepare the stew while I finish washing these vegetables?" Ikuko-mama says to Usagi.
"Hai!" replies the blond as she puts on a pink apron with a bunny on it. She walks over to the young teen girl at the stove stirring a big pot. Her "cousin" no longer needed the small wooden stool to see over the stove.
Chibi-Usa greets Usagi with a warm grin. "So how was it?"
"We'll talk about that later, after dinner," Usagi tells her. The younger girl nods and goes back to stirring the stew.
* * *
Through dinner, Shingo made many comments about Usagi's day while Usagi made an effort to not reveal anything to prove Shingo was right. There were many laughs and giggles at the table.
After dinner, Usagi and Chibi-Usa cleared the table and washed the dishes. Both girls dashed upstairs into Chibi-Usa's room in the attic right after the task was finished. When the attic door was secure and tight Usagi glomped Chibi-Usa.
"I THOUGHT YOU WOULD'VE DISAPPEARED WHEN MAMORU AND I BROKE UP! I'M SO HAPPY THAT YOU'RE OKAY!"
"Ack… Usagi-chan! It's great you were worried but you'll be more worried when I end up in the hospital because of suffocation," the pink- haired girl forced out.
"OH!" Usagi lets go and folds her hands in her lap.
"So? How was the rest of your date?"
"Um… Fine… I was so surprised when I saw you!"
"I could tell! Seiya's pretty cute!"
"Whatever…" Usagi then studies the changed Chibi-Usa. "You look so different… It's not only that you grew up is it? How old are you?"
"I'm thirteen now Usagi… and you're right… I am different now," the younger girl replies.
"You… look so familiar… your eyes… you really portray someone but I can't put my finger on it…" Usagi tells her thoughtfully.
"Hmm… For starters, how about yourself?" Chibi-Usa says with a sarcastic smile.
Usagi pouts at her. "Well duh! I know that! But… you're not Mamoru's child are you?"
"Wow! Have you gotten smarter or have you encountered multiple father problems before?" Chibi-Usa teases.
"AH! WHAT AN INSULT!" Usagi replies indignantly.
The girl rolls her deep red eyes. "It was only a joke! Jeez… Chill Usagi!" All the while with a smirk on her face.
Usagi stared at her, eyes unblinking and an awed expression on her face.
"Nani?" asks Chibi-Usa.
"You… when you smirked…"
Chibi-Usa looks at her with a lifted brow.
The blonde shakes her head, "Nothing… I was just seeing things… never mind…" She keeps staring at Chibi-Usa's confused look. 'It can't be… but it looked so familiar… so… so… Seiya… but… no, maybe it's just because I'm obsessed with him or something… OH MY GOD! What am I thinking?!'
"Usagi? Konnichiwa? Anyone home?" Chibi-Usa asks, her face a mere two inches in front of Usagi's face.
When the older teen snaps from her thinking she stared into a pair of wonderful deep red eyes, a sudden blush rushing to her cheeks. Her breathing became faster and her breaths shorter.
"Daijobu?" asks a worried Chibi-Usa. She slowly puts her left hand on Usagi's shoulder.
The older girl puts her own hand over Chibi-Usa's.
"Um… Usagi-chan? What are you doing?" asks the troubled thirteen-year- old getting more worried. She looked at Usagi whom was still staring at her, straight into her eyes. 'What the hell is she doing? Maybe I should call for Ikuko-mama…'
Chibi-Usa watches confusingly as Usagi's eyelids slid shut and her body and face moved closer to Chibi-Usa, soft pink gracing the older girl's cheeks. She frowned and suddenly, she realized the actions and exclaimed, "OH MY GOD! USAGI!" The young girl pulled away from her future mother like lightening shooting from a rain cloud, and jumps all the way to the other side of the room.
Usagi's eyes snap open and she realizes what she was just about to do and gasps. She falls back on her hindquarters with a totally shocked look and breathing in extremely deep breaths. "Go...men… n-na…sai…" she stutters.
"Kusu…" the other girl breathes.
"I'm… I'm not what you think! I… I don't know why I did that…" Usagi replies, ashamed that she attempted to kiss her own daughter.
Chibi-Usa takes a few deep breaths; she calms down and pulls on a relieved look. She covers the length of the room in a few strides to Usagi sitting on the floor looking miserable. "It's ok," she tells her with a little smile and sitting down beside her.
"Nani?" asks the older girl, with misty eyes.
"I know why you did that and it's ok," Chibi-Usa assures her.
Usagi looks at her a bit curiously. "You know why?"
Chibi-Usa grins at her. "I look like someone you want to be with don't I?"
The other girl looked at her with narrowed eyes. "What are you saying?"
"I," Chibi-Usa puts her right hand on her chest, "look like… Seiya."
Usagi stares at the so sure look of her future daughter and then starts laughing hysterically. "You! HAHAHA! Look like… SEIYA!? HAHAHAHA! That would mean you're Seiya's daughter! HAHAHAHA! That's the funniest thing I've heard all day! AHAHAHA!"
A smug smile creeps up on the red eyed girl's face. "I am."
The blond now rolling on the hardwood floor stops instantly. She studies Chibi-Usa's face and breaks out laughing again.
"I'm serious." Chibi-Usa's clipped reply stopped Usagi's laughter once again.
Usagi wipes the tears from her eyes, sits up facing Chibi-Usa and smiles at her. "You're kidding right?"
The latter responds with a firm shake of her head.
A ghostly white spreads across the seventeen-year-old girl's face. She starts chuckling uncomfortably. "Oh c'mon Chibi-Usa… don't play around."
"I'm not, Usagi. Believe me…" she replies insistently.
After those words, Usagi's white face instantly changes into beet red. "Aaaaaah…" was all she could manage to utter.
Suddenly, Chibi-Usa breaks out laughing like a lunatic and falls back onto the floor with her hands over her stomach and feet kicking in the air. "HAHAHAHA! YOU SHOULD SEE YOURSELF! HAHAHAHA!"
The other girl widens her eyes and watches confusingly. But then something snapped and she realized that it was just a joke. "YOU LIAR! YOU LITTLE BRAT!" She lunges at Chibi-Usa.
Pink hair flies as she rolls over a few times and gets away from Usagi, letting the older girl smash into the hardwood floor. 'Hehehe… Usagi- chan, I never said I wasn't….' Chibi-Usa thought as both of them sprang up. A noisy chase then erupts in the attic and makes its way to all parts of the house.
* * *
"Odango Atama…" he breathed in her ear. She smiles and her hands gently grip his strong arms encircling her waist from behind. She felt so secure and safe, like she belonged there with him. She sighs happily and relaxes onto the firm chest behind her. She leans her head back into the crook of his neck with her eyes closed and breathes in his mixed scent of sweet shampoo and a special fresh smell that made her think of a large field full of flowers with a soft breeze on a spring day.
"Usagi," a very familiar girl voice calls. "Usagi!"
Painstakingly, she opens her eyes and prepares to glare at whoever was calling her in her and Seiya's secret haven under the cherry blossom tree by the sparkling lake.
What she found surprised her. Standing a few feet away was a pink- haired girl. "CHIBI-USA!?"
"Usagi," she calls again.
"How'd you get here Chibi-Usa?" the girl asks with a frown.
"Usagi!" Chibi-Usa calls louder this time.
"Nani? What do you want?"
"Usagi?"
"NANI!?"
Suddenly, the warmth behind her disappears and she whirls around to find Seiya no longer stood there. All she saw was the brown bark of the cherry blossom tree.
"USAGI," Chibi-Usa's voice calls again.
The teen whirls around again, mouth open, ready to scream at the girl whom destroyed the perfect moment for her. Upon doing so she realizes that everything else vanished as well. Including Chibi-Usa.
The blonde takes a few steps back, her hands clutched against her chest. The darkness settles in around her and a shiver runs up her spine, an icy shiver. Her eyes dart around, searching for… anything. Anything in the blackness.
"Usagi?" Chibi-Usa's voice suddenly echoes. "Usagi!"
The girl responds by looking around for the speaker, expecting to see pink odangos and deep red eyes. Suddenly, everything shakes around her, including her!
* * *
"USAGI! Wake up!" says Chibi-Usa impatiently, shaking Usagi by the shoulders. When the result was only Usagi flopping like a fish and eyes still closed, Chibi-Usa shook harder.
"Mmm…" the older girl grumbles in her throat and struggles from Chibi- Usa's grasp.
The young teen sighs and rolls her eyes. She thinks for a minute and clears her throat, getting her voice ready to sound mature and deep. She leans close to Usagi whom was softly whimpering in her sleep.
"ETERNAL SAILOR MOON!" booms out Chibi-Usa's voice. "I AM SAILOR GALAXIA! I DEMAND THAT YOU GIVE ME YOUR STAR SEED!"
Instantly, Usagi's eyelids fly open to reveal terrified sapphire pools. She slowly turns her head to face where she thinks the speaker might be. Her frightened expression meets the triumphant and cheery one of Chibi- Usa.
"I see that got you to wake up," she replies with a very familiar smirk.
"ARGH!" cries Usagi and throws her quilt over her head in an attempt to get away from the brat that suddenly got dumped back into her life.
"C'mon Usagi… I think you'd want to get up now, it's 10:30," Chibi- Usa tells the hiding teenager in a motherly fashion.
"It's only ten?!" came Usagi's muffled response.
"Only? Our date's at 11:30," the younger girl says, making herself sound surprised.
"What date? I never made a date with you last night! I only remember chasing you around the house and then getting really tired!"
"Well, a certain handsome ebony-haired teenager called us this morning and since you were in such a deep slumber I took the honor of talking to him and graciously accepted his gentlemanly request for a date with us."
The quilt covering Usagi flew down to the foot of her bed to reveal the girl sitting straight up and staring intensely into the younger Usagi's face. "Nani?" The word formed slowly.
"We're going to Laser Gauntlet with Seiya today!" Chibi-Usa tells Usagi with a grin.
Flames suddenly explode into Usagi's eyes as her mouth opens to reveal sharp fangs and her head blows up to ten times its size in front of a fiery backdrop. She looms over a horrified Chibi-Usa, orange flames dancing around her. She looks at the smaller girl like she just brought on the end of the world. "NANIIIII!?" her voice thick with rage and anger.
Chibi-Usa jumps back a few feet, a safe distance away from the demonic Usagi. "Ahehehe… Um… All your other friends will be there!" she tries to change the latter's mood.
"Did I ever say you could make my decisions?!" Usagi doesn't wait for a reply and keeps going. "IIE! I never said that! And you just answer the phone for me and make a date with Seiya?!? You can so totally ruin our friendship!"
"CALM DOWN! You like him anyway! And he likes you! You know what? You're seventeen and you're going to go back to school soon! C'mon! Make good use of your summer! And puh-leeze! Friendship? You want more than a friendship Usagi!" With that Chibi-Usa whirls around and says without looking at her, "Hurry up and get ready. You wouldn't want everyone to wait for you like always. Oh, and don't forget to wear all black."
Usagi snaps out of her devil look and watches Chibi-Usa walk out her door. 'Was that Chibi-Usa?' Usagi lets out a deep sigh and smiles. Even if the girl was a brat, a pain, a loud mouth, a pest and an irritating pest at that, nosey and unbelievably sweet in such an evil way she's still Chibi- Usa. Her future daughter. Her and whom else's? No time to think about that now…
The high school student gets up and folds her moon and bunny quilt at the foot of her bed and heads to the bathroom to wash up. Afterwards, she goes back into her room to decide what to wear. After all, she's going to see Seiya today. She blushes with a smile at that thought. She closes her door and looks at herself in the door length mirror hanging there. She studies her reflection.
Her long blonde tresses reached almost to her ankles now and all she's ever done with it is do it up in odangos. Maybe that's the style that she was born with so why fight nature? She giggles at herself and combs her right hand through the soft and silky hair, content with how healthy it was. She loved her hair so much; she'll always leave it long and flowing like a golden waterfall.
Usagi bounces over to her brush and other hair things on her make up table. She quickly fashions her hair into perfect odangos like she's always done for so many years she almost can't remember. She then bounces back over to the mirror on her door, studying her reflection again.
White pajamas fit her comfortably and she starts posing to admire herself. She chuckles at her silly actions and goes over to her closet. She opens it and gazes at the contents.
Although she had a fairly large collection of outfits she didn't know what to wear today. She turns her head back to the mirror on her door; she looks at herself for a bit more. Slipping out of her pajamas, she folds them neatly into her closet and puts on a bra. Her reflection catches her eye and, again, she goes back to studying herself.
In one year's time her body has become more mature and womanly curves started to really develop. She's also grown a bit taller and she poses more to see if she looked… sexy. This time, she laughs at herself and turns back to her clothes in the closet.
Finally, she picks out a black tank top with small silver letters saying ETERNAL. She matches it with a pair of black jean shorts. After rummaging in her sock drawer she finally found a pair of black ones and puts them on to rush downstairs after glancing at the clock, it was past 11:10.
The dark clothed girl dashed down the stairs and into the dining room. Sitting at the table waiting was Chibi-Usa with a single slice of buttered toast on a plate and a glass of milk. She looks at Usagi with a smile.
"Great outfit! You took long though so this is all you get," she tells her, pushing the plate and the glass towards where she was standing by the table.
The blonde slumps over and looks at the toast and milk with teary eyes. She sniffles. "Only a piece of toast and milk? How am I going to survive till lunch?"
"Oh, you will," Chibi-Usa says in an all too cheery tone. "Now hurry up! You better finish the milk and take the toast with you!" She pushes away from the wooden table and stands up.
"NANI!?"
"Don't whine! If we don't leave now we're going to be late!" Chibi- Usa walks to the door and starts to put on her pair of sneakers. "So? You going to eat or what?"
Usagi looks sadly at her breakfast. She sighs and drinks her milk in two gulps; she then quickly grabs her toast and stuffs it in her mouth. Crunching hungrily, she walks over and sits beside Chibi-Usa to start putting on a pair of her sneakers too.
"Why are we dressed in all black anyway?" asks Usagi with a mouth full of toast.
Chibi-Usa stands up. "Because when the game starts it will be dark."
"So?" Usagi gets up too.
"Duh! Camouflage!"
"Oh!" the taller girl replies, embarrassed she didn't figure it out.
Chibi-Usa turns on her heel and opens the door. "I bet you'll be the first one down even if you are dressed all in black!"
"HEY! WILL NOT!" Usagi goes after Chibi-Usa, closing the door behind her.
* * *
"Hey! Usagi! Chibi-Usa! Over here!" a cheery blonde shouted as she waved.
Both teens ran over to meet their friends.
Usagi was astonished to see the rest of the girls weren't wearing all black.
Ami had on an icy blue sleeveless turtleneck with khaki shorts and blue Adidas sneakers.
Rae wore a red and black mid sleeved shirt with "Mars" printed in sparkling silver letters, matched with a faded jean skort and dark purple Air Nikes.
Makoto dressed in a forest green sleeveless dress shirt, mid calf khakis and light green Nikes.
Mina, wearing an orange tank top with the Chinese word "Love" in white print and matched with white flares, seemed like the brightest one out of them. She matched her flares with white and orange Adidas running shoes.
"You guys are so bright…" comments Usagi slowly.
"Of course… It attracts attention," explains Mina, posing and batting her eyes at Usagi.
Usagi responds with a skeptical look. "Won't you be attracting too much attention while we're in the game?"
"In the game? What do you mean?" asks Mina.
"You know… while we're playing in Laser Gauntlet. You guys will be seen so easily in the dark," replies Usagi.
The four girls stare at her blankly for a moment.
"Oh well!" sings Mina in an embarrassed manner. "As long as you know how to play good, who needs camouflage?"
The other blond dressed in black rolls her eyes.
Chibi-Usa sees Ami look around impatiently. "Is there something wrong Ami-san?"
"Huh?" asks Ami. "Um… Iie… nothing wrong…" she mumbles looking at her shoes.
"She's looking for Taiki," whispers Makoto into Chibi-Usa's ear.
"Ooooh…" the younger girl replies with a smile.
Ami's cheeks turn pink. "Hey! Am not…" she retorts with a little smile.
"So, Ami… Did he ask you out yet?" Mina asks with a little nudge.
"NANI!?" exclaims Ami, getting redder.
"Girls, girls… Chill! Here they come okay?" says Chibi-Usa coolly.
The girls look down the street and found the younger girl was right, the Three Lights were slowly strutting up the sidewalk together.
*End of Chapter Ten