"CHAPTER NINE"

Amara Ten'ou poked her head out of the high school locker room, looked around the area before stepping outside completely. The coast was clear, no sign of Kyo Musashi anywhere. Which gave her another day out of his sights before tomorrow's race.

Oh, how joyous that thought was.

She gripped the dark blue duffel bag with both of her arms, making her way out of the metal gate and across the spacious lawn of Crossroads Senior High School. Her memory reminded her of the last time she had gone this way by herself, how it was very similar to the night she and her mystery man had met.

Only this time, she wasn't running from anybody. She was just on her way home from a nice round or twenty around the track. No harm to anyone at all, not even herself.

There was a high-pitched scraping noise a few feet away, it seemed. Amara stopped where she was, listened closely only to find that the ringing had disappeared again. She couldn't place it anywhere, even if she tried, and she was trying to figure it out so hard that it was giving her a headache now...

She looked over her shoulder right as she started walking again, measuring her steps the best she could. Right on cue, the ringing/scraping began again, the sound sending a shiver down her spine. Her heart beat faster as the possibilities flashed through her head. Could be a knife against a rock, that being the main idea that came. But who possessed it? And what for?

Right as Amara faced forward again, her foot caught itself on a root that was hidden from her view. Immediately, she felt herself falling. Falling. Falling...

Strong hands tightly gripped her shoulders as she, bag and all, crashed into a hard chest with a grunt. The sandy-haired girl looked up to see emerald eyes staring back at her, concern etched deep into them. "Hey, Ten'ou," he greeted.

She looked away, the memory of yesterday afternoon coming to mind. The fight, the helplessness. The kiss. Her lips started tingling again, and it took all of her strength not to ask him about it. Just one simple question could reveal too much.

"You look like you've been caught sneaking steroids into the locker room," he said with a small laugh. With a teasing tone, he asked, "That wasn't what you were doing, right?"

Her eyes shot back to her face, and she spotted the mile-wide grin curving his lips. His green eyes sparkled with both amusement and merriment. Amara couldn't help but glare at him and shove herself away from his body. "Of course it wasn't."

Instead of pressuring her like she thought he would, Allen merely shrugged his shoulders and left it at that.

Confusion flashed thorugh her mind. He's actually...dropping the subject? This was definitely a first. A first to add to the list of other firsts. A list that she hoped no one except Michelle would know about.

"What are you doing out here," Allen asked after a long while.

Amara shook her head, walked past him with the duffel bag still in her hands. "Maybe out here trying to still my nerves. Maybe to help a friend of mine on track."

"Let me guess. Now you've been given the task of transporting this friend's clothes home. Or maybe to hold onto them for a while?" He had fallen into step with her.

"Perhaps."

The brunette snorted. "You're pretty secretive for someone I've known for two days now."

"All a part of my defensive personality, Toriyama."

"Yeah? Well, it freaks me out sometimes."

"Glad I've found a new accomplishment." She shook her head again. "Okay, I know your hidden intention is not to follow me around all the time. Something's eating at you."

Amara saw the man beside her smile out of the corner of her eye. She became curious at this sudden expression, and she wondered what might come out of his mouth next. The one that spilled out thousands of wisecracks and seemed to laugh at everything she said or did. The one that made her mind spin with unanswered questions and made her want to reveal everything to him...

Not taking the silence any longer, she asked him, "Well?"

Allen let out a rumble of male laughter that made her nerves tingle. "I wanted to talk to you about something."

Amara's ire rose, and she didn't stop herself from piercing him with another glare. "Let it out. No need to be grinning like an idiot about it."

That smile of his faded a tiny bit, his green eyes still locked on hers. "I saw an amazing woman last night."

Her arms tightened around the dark blue bag of hers, and she forced a smile of her own though her pulse skittered a bit. "Oh." She swallowed and said, "Great. I bet the date went well?"

"I said nothing about it being a date."

"Oh," she repeated. Her eyes shot to the ground at her feet—now the sidewalk they had gone down yesterday—before going back to his gaze. "I figured—"

"I think you might know her. Dressed in dark blue and gold...like a sailor girl or something."

She wrinkled her nose. Sailor girl? "You mean a Sailor Scout?" Though she personally preferred the term "Soldier". The name "Scout" made her feel like...one of them. The thought of it made her inwardly shudder. That group of weaklings.

Allen nodded his head. "Yeah, thanks. She even had a gold tiara with a topaz-colored stone in the center. Goes by the name...Sailor Uranus."

Amara looked away again, narrowing her eyes. The way he said her name. Such reverence. Awe. Never had she heard such praise about her... But she got past the fact that it was Allen talking about Uranus of all people, asking, "How'd you meet her?"

Allen shrugged his shoulders, the movement easy to detect even without watching. "I was being chased by a demon when she and two other Scouts came. But I remember her the most. Reckless, feisty, strong." He chuckled softly. "I gave her the kind of reward she deserved."

For not doing anything at all? For letting Sailor Moon and Sailor Neptune take over when she could have helped? "And what was that?" she asked, knowing full-well exactly what.

"A kiss. Of sorts."

"Why?" The word was out before she could stop herself from uttering it.

This confusing man beside her stared at her for a few minutes, then shrugged his shoulders again. "She looked like someone I've met before."

"Who?" Another automatic question. She flinched, felt a blush creep along her face. Shut up, Amara!

"I don't know for the life of me." His own answer was dragged out. He was either curious about her interrogation...or he was lying.

Amara bet her money on the latter.

Allen's eyes darted to the many buildings around them, the green depths sparkling even more than before. The sight caught her by surprise. All of this by talking about a mystery woman. Yet he never knew that the identity of said mystery woman—and the darkened shadow from that other night—was walking beside him.

"So..." she said slowly, "are you going to see her again?"

"I wish. She looked like she didn't want to leave my sight. I don't blame her." He crossed his arms behind his head, his grin wider than before (if that were even possible). "Nobody can get enough of Allen Toriyama."

There he goes again... "Somebody might decide to shoot you for that over-sized ego of yours. Better to watch your step."

"Where's your cousin? Michelle, right?"

The sudden change in conversation made her falter in her steps. Amara stopped and gave him another one of her piercing glares. She grounded out her answer so he'd know that his little trick wasn't appreciated. "Probably out to lunch like every other rational person at this given hour."

"And she left you at the high school?"

"Had to. There was no way I was going to follow her just to go to lunch."

He nodded his head slowly. "Practical."

Amara frowned at him. What was it with him? Infuriated her, yet she didn't want to go off and do her own thing. How he kept calling her a friend, even when friendships were something she avoided like the plague. There was a deep swirling feeling in her chest, a complex combination of different emotions, some indecipherable. Part of her wanted to tell him everything, part of her wanted to hide. Part of her wanted to hit him, part of her wanted to keep her distance.

Part of her wanted to see what it'd be like to actually kiss this man, not just a simple brush of the lips.

Michelle's words range through her mind again. "...Maybe Allen Toriyama only feels something towards Sailor Uranus, not Amara Ten'ou."

This caused a yearning deep within her soul. Yet she should feel nothing. Nothing at all...

"Hey." Allen's bass voice brought her back from her self-made abyss. "Are you okay, Ten'ou?"

Amara blinked, shook her head. Realized her mistake and nodded. "Sure." Her voice sounded hollow, empty. She cleared her throat right as the blush came again, and she turned her head away from his probing gaze.

"Hmm..." She could hear the concern that he was fond of showing when she didn't need him to. Soon he'll ask what's wrong and... "Pride?"

She snapped her head back around to look at him, a gasp escaping her lips. "Yes."

"I don't blame you. I'd be the same way in your shoes."

"Yet you were rescued by three Sailor Soldiers." One Scout, two Soliders.

He nudged her lightly in the arm. "That couldn't be helped. I was running for my life!"

"True. True."

A long silence stretched between them, but it was the same comfortable silence that she usually finds with Michelle. It soothed her spirit a little, yet it was weird and still strange for her to feel this way around Allen...

"Ten'ou," he said all of a sudden. A brief hesitation before," Think we can get together for a while some time tomorrow?"

You're kidding me. What brought this on? But her mind did a run-through of her calendar. What she found made her wince. "No. I can't. Tomorrow's Sunday, remember?"

He found, nudged her arm again. "Okay, then," the told her softly. "What time's the race?"

"Eight o'clock in the morning. But it lasts for three hours. I highly doubt you'll be able to sit through an ordeal like that."

"You never know. I might be able to live that long." He grinned. "Just give me the benefit of the doubt." Then he shrugged his shoulder, said, "I'll come down to congratulate you when you win."

Amara shook her head with a frown. "You don't need to do that."

"Sure, I do. Just to make sure Kyo doesn't lay a hand on you." Allen looked at her for a few moments before saying, "Trust me."

"It's not that easy," she replied quietly.

"Trusting others is never easy. That's why people get out there and do it anyway." He exhaled a big sigh before looking in front of him again. "Come on, Ten'ou. Let's go find something to eat."

All she could do was follow him. Arguing wouldn't help matters. He'll just fight back, giving everything he's got.

Right now, she just didn't have the strength to deal with his so-called logic. So she left it at that...

A/N: Two more weeks of waiting. Hope you can stand that long!

-BDR