The Second String Chapter 1: Married?, a sailor moon fanfic

THE SECOND STRING
Chapter 1: "Married?"
A neo-Sailor Moon fanfic

By Bill K.

The lift door opened and Cere walked out onto the heliport atop the Crystal Palace. At once she was hit with a gust of wind and had to steady herself against the increased air pressure. With a hand against the wall for balance, Cere looked up into the dimming light of evening. She searched for something specific and, after a time, she found it.

High in the sky, above the city, above the people and above the problems of the world, glided a brilliant white horse, his wings spread majestically. The equine rode the wind currents with practiced ease, his mane and tail fluttering behind his magnificently muscled form. A glint of the dying day's light caught the crystal horn on his head and twinkled briefly in all colors of the rainbow.

Astride the majestic Pegasus was a young woman. Her legs pressed into the sides of her snow white chariot, allowing her hands to be free. They came up and brushed flowing trails of pink hair from her face and neck, guiding them behind her. The pair, horse and rider, seemed to the observer as melded, two beings acting with one heartbeat. As Pegasus soared up into the sky, riding an updraft to its height, the young woman leaned forward casually and lightly cupped her left hand around the horse's neck.

Spotting another observer on the heliport, Cere walked over and joined her.

"She been up there long?" Cere asked, glancing up at the woman and the stallion dancing in the air.

"I don't know," murmured Hotaru. "I've only been here an hour and she was up there then." Hotaru looked down and then glanced at Cere. "She told me what happened with Sailor Chaos. I thought she was getting over it. But . . ."

"But she just won't let go sometimes," Cere finished the observation. "I thought Ves was stubborn until I met Usa. I mean, Sailor Chaos could be up to a thousand years in the future. What can you do now to prevent something from happening that's so far off?"

"I don't know," Hotaru said, looking back up at her best friend. "But she's determined to try. And when she's determined to do something . . ."

"The word 'no' disappears from her vocabulary," Cere smiled. "How long did you plan to stay out here? It's kind of windy."

"I'll be all right," Hotaru replied. "I don't have to go until eight and I want to be here in case she needs a friend."

"What's at eight?"

"Yutaka's final ends at eight," Hotaru confessed with barely concealed pride.

"His final final?"

"If he passes, he graduates," Hotaru sighed. "He's already got a job lined up with Yoshioka Terraforming."

"And you two are going to do a little 'celebrating'?" Cere asked, smiling again.

"It's the first time together we've had in a month," Hotaru offered, blushing on cue. "But if Usa needs me . . ." She bit her lip. "Oh, I hope she doesn't need me."

The two young women turned when they noticed Helios and Usa approaching the heliport. The Pegasus glided to the center of the pad, then beat his wings furiously to ensure as gentle a landing as possible. Once on the pad, his rider slipped from his back. Instantly he transformed back into Helios.

"That was quite the workout, Maiden," Helios grinned at her, his soft eyes betraying his adoration for her.

"Oh, Helios, I'm sorry!" the Princess gasped, caressing his cheek. "I got so lost in thought that I lost track of time!"

"I did not say it was taxing," he smiled, grasping her hands in his. "Merely that it was longer than our other flights." He gently kissed her hands. "Have you reached a decision?"

"Decision?" Cere inquired as she and Hotaru approached. "What's up, if I can ask?"

"Oh, same old," Usa sighed. "Trying to figure out how to keep my crystal from falling into the hands of Sailor Chaos." She blew at her bangs. "And failing."

"Well, you've probably got a thousand years to think up something," Cere offered. "It's not like you're on deadline or anything." She smirked. "Maybe a night of cuddling will help. I know it works for me."

"Or if you want to talk some more about it?" Hotaru added.

"Don't you have to be somewhere at eight?" Usa asked.

"Well," Hotaru grimaced, "if you need me . . ."

"Go. Be with Yutaka. Tell him congratulations from me," Usa told her friend. Hotaru eyed her skeptically. "Like Cere said, I've got a thousand years to think of something. Go have fun with your guy."

Hotaru touched Usa's arm and gave her a grateful look. Then she headed for the elevator on the heliport.

"Sure there's nothing else going on?" Cere asked.

"Nothing definite," Usa told her. "I think I'll take your advice and go cuddle with him. But thanks for caring."

As Cere moved off, Usa slithered her hand into her beau's. Helios looked at her curiously.

"Did you have a preferred spot, Maiden?" he asked.

"How about one of the east balconies," Usa suggested as they headed for the elevator. "I want to watch the moon come up."

"And so we shall," he replied. She squeezed his hand just a little tighter.

Yutaka emerged from his quarters in the palace mentally fatigued. It was as if the entirety of his college experience massed up and struck him at once. He was drained, mentally wrung out, and that was affecting his physical appearance. The youth let loose an exhalation that seemed to try to expel everything he'd gone through.

And standing there in the corridor was the one elixir he needed most. Hotaru looked up at him hopefully, ready to celebrate if the news was good and console if the news was bad. Her violet eyes were pools of anticipation and her timid smile filled him with a welcome sense of familiarity.

"I passed," he wheezed. Hotaru leaped into his arms and latched on to his strong back and neck.

"I knew you would!" she squealed.

"You did?" Yutaka asked with a skeptical look.

"Yes I did," pouted the girl. "You put enough work into it. You just had to pass! It wouldn't have been fair if you didn't!" She smirked. "Besides, you're very smart."

"I must be," he grinned. "I picked you as my best girl."

The pair melted into an impassioned kiss, with Yutaka's hands cupped under Hotaru's bottom for support. A maintenance tech passed by in the corridor and gave Yutaka a fraternal smile.

"I love you," Hotaru said sheepishly, like she was afraid he would be insulted.

"And I love you," Yutaka replied and sent Hotaru's heart to thumping. "Oh, and I've got some other news! I petitioned Palace Administration for quarters of my own. I want to get my own place - - a place we can share."

"Yutaka, that's great!"Hotaru gasped.

"And if it comes through, maybe then we can," he began, then faltered, "well, maybe then we can get, um, married - - some day."

"Yutaka," Hotaru whispered, awed by the implications of his statement. She seemed to quake in terror for just a moment. Then a smile bloomed on her face and her eyes lit up with joy. "Oh, Yutaka, that would be wonderful!" But the smile faded. "You're OK with me being a Senshi - - aren't you?"

Yutaka grew serious.

"It's not something I like," he said solemnly, "thinking about you putting yourself in danger. All of the times you came home busted up. Laying in the hospital after you put everything on the line."

"That only happens because I'm so small and sickly," Hotaru alibied. "I'm working to get stronger."

"I know you are," Yutaka brushed her hair along her forehead. "You are getting stronger. But I can't help worrying. It's a dangerous job, for anyone."

"I know," Hotaru whimpered. "But I have to do it. Usa needs me, and I made a vow. I have to do it." She grimaced. "You understand, don't you? You wouldn't ask me to give it up, would you?"

"I guess not," he sighed. "Asking that would make you cry. I never want to be the one who makes you cry." Yutaka cupped his hand under her chin. "But I won't ever stop worrying when you go out as Sailor Saturn."

"I'm sorry," Hotaru bit her lip. "I wish there was some way I could keep from worrying you."

"Tell you what," Yutaka smiled. "Give me a half dozen babies and we'll call it even, OK?"

"Yutaka!" gasped Hotaru, wide-eyed. "Are you trying to kill me?"

Cere wandered in to the quarters she shared with the other Amazons. She wasn't in the room long.

"No date tonight?" Jun asked. She was writing Minister Gomez while Palla-Palla sat in her doll corner and tried not to fall asleep.

"I figured Usa might need me," Cere offered. Then she rolled her eyes. "Besides, he's in another one of his 'moods' and needs to finish."

"So how's The Princess?" Ves asked looking up from a video game. She tried to affect an air of calm and failed miserably.

"Still brooding," Cere sighed. "This has got her so bugged."

"If you knew what we went through, you'd understand," Jun said with little relish for recalling it.

"That's right, Cere-Cere," Palla-Palla nodded. "What Jun-Jun and Ves-Ves and The Princess went through was very scary. Palla-Palla just heard it and she was scared!"

"Maybe that'll teach you to stop peaking into other people's minds," snorted Cere.

"Palla-Palla couldn't help it," the teen swallowed penitently. "Ves-Ves was having a bad dream about it." Everyone turned to Ves, who colored despite herself.

"Maybe she just needs to get away," Jun suggested. "Get her mind off of it."

"Yeah, she's so fixated on finding a solution that changes her future," Cere nodded. "Maybe if she doesn't think about finding a solution, one will come to her."

"How does that work?" Palla-Palla asked.

"Sometimes you try too hard to do something that you block yourself," Cere explained. "If you stop thinking so hard about it, the block goes away and the solution can come to you."

"Like Miss Hotaru-Ma'am when she tries to move things with her head?"

"Good example," Jun responded. "Hotaru could be so much more than what she is. But she's so afraid of her power that she blocks herself."

"Yeah, she's too squeamish," Ves nodded. "Too afraid she might hurt someone. I never had that problem."

"Yes, nobody could ever accuse you of over-thinking a situation," scowled Cere.

"Well if you're familiar with her history, you understand why she's like that," Jun continued. "That whole 'Mistress Nine' thing really marked her. The Princess is a little like that, too. This 'Sailor Chaos' business is just 'Black Lady' cubed. It's like if one of us went into the future and found ourselves back in the Circus under Nehelenia again."

With that, Palla-Palla grew silent and introspective.

"She's just got to stop living in the past," Ves declared. "I did things to survive way back when, but I don't beat myself up over them. It happened. Can't change it. You move on."

"I wish it was that easy," Jun judged. She glanced at Cere. "Oddly enough, that does make sense though."

"Blind pigs and acorns," huffed the scarlet-topped teen.

"Who are you calling a pig, Priss?" bristled Ves.

"I'm sorry. Am I insulting pigs?" Cere volleyed back.

"I'm going back to my letter," Jun sighed, knowing where this was headed.

"Whatever!" Cere motioned with her hand to halt the comeback from Ves. "This is pointless and I'm in dire need of a hot bath. But the rest of you should take some time out from what you're doing and look in on Usa. When she gets this way, she either holes up in her quarters or does something incredibly rash. Try to get her back on coordinates, if you can."

"Maybe," Ves pondered as Cere disappeared into her room. "Maybe I can get her to spar with me. She's not burdened with things so much when she's trying to keep me from knocking her out." Ves dumped her video game for the internet. "I need a new move, though. She's got all of mine down."

"Only you would think of that," Jun mumbled to herself. It took a moment for Jun to notice Palla-Palla standing next to her.

"Palla-Palla is going to go beddy-bye now," the teen said.

"OK. Need help?" Jun asked, noting the teen's subdued mood.

Palla-Palla shook her head, kissed Jun on the cheek and then Ves, then headed for her room. Jun stared for a moment, then went back to her letter.

Cuddled together on a lounge chair on the third floor east balcony, Usa and Helios silently watched the moon rising from Tokyo Bay. Their arms snaking around each other and her pink hair mixing with his white on their foreheads, the couple lay still and enjoyed the sky go from blue to indigo. Occasionally one would speak, but this night did not seem conducive to talking.

"I wonder when she's born," Usa wondered out of the blue.

"Sailor Cosmos?" Helios asked.

"I don't even know her real name," Usa fretted. "I wonder what we did end up naming her?"

"I cannot say," Helios said. "Although I have always been partial to Menalippe."

"Menalippe?" Usa asked, twisting around to look at him.

"A girl I knew once when I was young."

"I'm not sure I want to hear about this."

"We were children, Maiden," Helios assured her. "Playmates growing up on Elysian."

"What's she doing now?"

Helios inhaled to steady himself. "She died," he told her, "during Nehelenia's attack on Elysian."

There was an awkward silence.

"It would be a means to honor her," Helios continued. "And it is a very lyrical name. But if you have another idea . . ."

"I'm just afraid people will call her 'Lippy' for short," Usa replied. "Maybe people will be different in a thousand years. Just as long as we don't name her Usagi."

"You fear she will be burdened by the reputations of her forebearers?"

"It's what I had to go through. What I still go through sometimes," Usa said. "I want our daughter to start with her own identity, not mine or Mom's."

"You seem quite concerned with something that may not occur for a thousand years or more, Maiden," Helios observed. "Was that what you were so fixated upon while we rode?"

"Some of it," Usa said. Helios sensed that her hesitation involved not wishing to offend or invite ridicule.

"Maiden, if you have something you wish to say, speak," he coached. "I will not ridicule you and I will not be insulted - - unless you wish to change the way I dress."

"I'm just saying . . ."

"My robes are comfortable," Helios maintained. "Now what is it that has you so undecided? I sense it involves Sailor Cosmos, but that it is more."

"Helios," Usa heaved, like she had come to a decision. "Do you want to get married?"

"I have always considered us joined, Maiden," he replied. "I do not need a ceremony to proclaim that you are my one true love and that I will always be by your side." He twisted to look at her. "Do you wish such a ceremony?"

"Yeah," she said. "Right away. As soon as possible. Because maybe that throws the future off just enough . . ."

"Maiden," Helios interrupted, "to enter into a joining for such a reason does not bode well for that joining. You must wish to be my companion for the rest of our lives. This must not be an act of defiance toward a future you find unappealing."

"Oh, it is!" Usa gasped. "I want to spend my life and whatever afterlife I might have with you. I don't know what I'd do without you." She grinned. "But if we can poke Chaos in the eye at the same time, why not?"

"And if it does not forestall the future you glimpsed, as you hope?" he asked.

Usa shrugged. "I've still got you. That's not a bad consolation prize."

"Do you feel you are ready to make such a commitment?"

"Helios, I was ready when I was twelve," Usa exclaimed. "It's just that Pop would have killed you." Her hand came up and caressed his face. "If I had to spend the rest of my life with just one other person, I'd want that person to be you."

"Then let us wed," Helios smiled. "When do you wish it to occur?"

"As soon as possible," Usa replied, almost giddy.

"Then we must tell your parents," Helios proclaimed, "and mine."

Usa grimaced. "Do we have to?"

Continued in Chapter 2