Akina's Notes: Hello! Thanks to the reviewers as always! I got a new computer! Yay! My old one died so; I couldn't really work on this, thank goodness for floppies! Well, here's the dance chapter! So get your groove on and boogie down. (Well, O.K., how about you just read this if you don't want to have friend with this… see if *sniff sniff* care…)
Disclaimer: I own nothing. Really, I don't, I'm not that brilliant!
Chapter 14:
Walking with Duo, Usagi felt completely at ease. Their talk was light hearted as they approached the dance. She could already catch the beat of the song playing. It was and upbeat techno song. Looking ahead, she could see flashing lights. Rei had done her job well from what she could see. Getting to the entrance to the huge courtyard, she could see her suspicions were correct. Huge flora plants stood in various places, a number of tables were set up in a large corner. Flowers were scattered everywhere. The people taking the tickets handed out multicolored leis. What caught Usagi's eye though was the large open space that was occupied by dancing, laughing people. The lights she had seen from afar glistened off of the smooth stone floor and danced in the air. It was like walking into a dream party on a Hawaiian island. "Wow," she breathed staring at awe.
"Well, do ya wanna dance or something?" asked Duo. Staring around at the decorations. When Usagi nodded, he led her out onto the floor. Their bodies began to move in sync as the moved to the beat. Duo smiled, not only was she hot, Usagi was a good dancer. It was amazing the way she countered every move he made. He noticed some people had stopped to watch them and decided to pick it up a notch, hoping that Usagi would be able to keep up. When she did, Duo wondered where she learned how to dance. He had learned by dodging bullets, literally. It came in handy, especially at times like now, to help him get chicks. Most girls find it amusing that he could twist his body in so many ways.
When the song ended, he focused on Usagi's face. It was slightly flushed from the work out. "Now, where did you learn to do that?" ha asked his earlier thought question.
"Yoma chasing you all the time can get you to move in way you never have before. Where do you I think is more of a question," she stated in reply. Looking up into his eyes.
He was about to tell her, when he remembered that the way he learned wasn't something everyone wanted to know. "Sorry babe, I wouldn't wanna give away my secret now, would I."
Faking a hurt look, Usagi tried another approach. "You can tell me, right D-chan?" She then gave him the puppy eyes that so often made Mamoru give in to her.
"I'll tell you, but not here. Too many unwanted listeners," said Duo. He then wrapped his arms around her waist. His heart began to race when she snuggled closer to him and put his arms around his neck. Resting her head on his shoulder, Usagi sighed contentedly. They swayed gently to the beat of the song, which happened to be a slow love song. At that moment, Duo felt like he never wanted to let her go. For once Duo felt like he was in the right place. He felt like he belonged.
Relena had been more than pleased with the way the decorum for the dance looked. Rei had done a wonderful job, and she felt that she owed her new friend something. What to give her though was beyond Relena. Looking around, she was again in awe of the exotic beauty that Rei had designed. She looked at Heero standing in front of her. He hadn't said more than two words to her tonight, but with one thought of the cold boy filled Relena with a warm giddy feeling. She wondered what he thought about her. It hurt the way that he so easily ignored her.
Heero noticed her staring and turned slightly. Relena looked pretty in her white dress. True, she wasn't as pretty as other girls, but there was an inner glow to Relena, that attracted Heero to her. There was a quiet confidence to her that seemed to radiate to the air around her. He hated himself for being so distant. If he allowed her to get close to him though, his enemies could use that against him too easily. He didn't want to put her in that kind of danger. Looking at her, he could see the hurt look in her eyes. That look ripped through his heart.
Was breaking her heart worse then putting her in danger?
Relena tugging gently on his sleeve startled Heero out of his thoughts. Looking down at her, he waited to here what she wanted.
"Heero, would you like to dance?" asked Relena. The DJ had put on a slow song, and people were breaking off into couples. When he silently nodded, Relena smiled and walked onto the dance floor. Heero suddenly felt awkward. He had never done anything remotely close to this, and it bothered him. He looked out of the corner of his eye to see what to do. Mimicking the couple next to him, he put his arms around her waist. When she put her arms around his neck, he relaxed in the fact that she didn't say anything that he was doing wrong. She smiled up at him happily as they swayed to the music. For a moment, he forgot who he was, and about what could happen to this girl if he wasn't careful.
Duo stared past Usagi's head in a trance like state. What he saw brought him back to reality. "Heero?!" he almost yelled. There, right in front of him was Mr. Perfect Solider dancing with Relena Peacecraft! "Now I know I'm dreaming…" he muttered. Usagi turned her head to see what he was talking about.
Letting go of Usagi, Duo strode over to the dancing couple. "Now, this is something I never imagined!" joked the braided boy.
"Omae o korosu," stated Heero coldly. Relena merely smiled at the braided boy.
"Duo-kun, why don't we just leave them alone," scolded Usagi. She was curious about the two dancing before her, but not curious enough to get her head blown off.
Duo frowned. He wanted to know if Heero had finally found a girl that would get him out of his shell. He knew that he cared for Relena. He was after all Heero's best friend, or the closest thing to one, and if best friends couldn't see whom the other cared about, then they weren't as close as they thought.
Duo didn't pursue the subject though. Instead, he resumed dancing with Usagi. He again took comfort in her slim body so close to his. "Hey you want some punch" he asked when the song ended.
"Hai, punch would be good," said Usagi, pretending to pant. Duo smiled at her then led her off to the punch bowl. She waited off to the side while he went off to get the punch. While she was waiting, she spotted Quatre. "Hey Quatre-kun!" she called.
Looking up, Quatre saw Usagi waving to him and smiled. He made his way over to the girl. By the time he had dodged his way through the crowed, Duo was back at Usagi's side.
"Hey Quatre, how's it goin'?" asked a cheerful Duo. He had a big grin on his face that seemed almost permanent.
"It's good Duo. You?"
"Never been better!" was the reply. Looking at the braided boy, Quatre couldn't call him a liar. His grin seemed even wider than normal, if that was even possible. Quatre was glad that Duo had found something that could make his life better. Looking to Usagi, Quatre could see that she was happy too. There was something else, though. Looking into her eyes, there was a sadness that he couldn't explain.
"Is there something wring Quatre-kun?" asked Usagi with a worried expression. Quatre blushed furiously. He hadn't realized that his observations made him look like he was staring at Usagi.
"Iie, Iie, I didn't mean to stare Usagi-san, I was just thinking," said Quatre, covering up his thoughts quickly. Smiling Usagi nodded.
Quatre looked around again at the wonderful decorations. Seeing, his best friends unique hairstyle pop into view Quatre called him over. Clinging to his hand was Rei. Trowa nodded a greeting to the group and Rei gave a small smile. Usagi however was barely keeping her smirk hidden. She didn't do a good job at hiding it though since when Rei looked at her, she scowled. Usagi winked at her friend, which had the effect of making Rei turn red with anger. Her reaction made Usagi howl with laughter. Sometimes Rei could be so much fun to mess with.
The three guys standing in a group with the two girls each raised an eyebrow. None of them had a clue as to what had just happened. After what seemed like a good five minutes, Usagi stopped laughing. She still kept a giant smile on her face though. Rei was just getting ready to drag the blonde girl off and smack the grin off her face when Relena came up, with Heero in tow.
Seeing the two girl's expressions, Relena asked, "Did I miss something?" The three guys each gave her a dumbfounded shrug, Rei shook her head, and Usagi nodded. Confused, Relena decided to drop the subject at Rei's expression. "You did a great job getting everything set up here Rei-chan," she complimented.
"Thanks, I have a feeling that it wouldn't have come together though if you hadn't lent me the people who worked on setting things up though," replied Rei.
"It was no problem. Besides, it was me who decided to have a dance for my school, I just wish that I could have been more help," said Relena.
"How about you both take credit for this whole thing so we can move on to a different topic," interrupted Usagi. She knew Rei well enough to assume that she wouldn't take credit for the whole thing until the other person did, and if Usagi was right about Relena being the same way, this could go on for a very long time. "I wonder if Haruka-chan will show up."
"I don't know, I didn't think to ask her, d did you?" asked Rei. Usagi shook her head. "She probably won't. I have a feeling that Mirchu-chan was the one who dragged her to these type of things."
"Wu-man is the same way, he wont come to these things unless he gets dragged," offered Duo. He was beginning to get bored with the conversation. Listening to the upbeat music made him want to dance again, especially with Usagi.
Noticing the wistful look on Duo's face, Usagi decided to ask him if he wanted to dance again. "Hey, I like this song, lets go dance." The way that Duo smiled at her, she knew that she was right on target. Taking her hand, Duo almost dragged her out to the floor. She barely had enough time to yell a challenge at Rei, "Betcha can't dance like we can!"
Rei, not to be out done by Usagi, looked to Trowa. He nodded and she took his hand and led him out to the dance floor. Trowa wasn't normally the type who would end up dancing in the middle of a huge crowd, but for Rei, he'd do it. The problem is, he didn't know how good he was. He hoped that he would do well enough to impress Rei.
Usagi and Duo had already started to dance by the time that Rei and Trowa had made their way through the crowd on the dance floor. Rei watched in awe as the couple moved in sync with each other. She never knew that Usagi could do that. It was too bad that she already he a boyfriend back home. If she wasn't seeing Mamoru, Duo would be the perfect boyfriend for her. Smiling at Trowa, Rei began to dance. They did well she thought, neither of them stepped on each other's toes or anything. She knew the came nowhere close to matching each other like Duo and Usagi, but she still felt like they were doing a good job. Soon, Rei lost herself in the music.
After a while of watching her two new friends dance with the two gundam pilots, Relena decided that since most people who where coming to the dance had arrived, she would make the speech she had written. She hoped that she would bore anyone, but she felt it necessary. Making her way to the platform where the D.J. was currently playing the music, Relena straightened out her gown. She didn't like the idea of not being behind a podium, but the platform was the only area with a microphone. Walking up to the D.J., she told him that she wanted to make an announcement after this song was done. Nodding to her, the D.J. moved off to the side a little bit. He moved completely out of the way once he had removed the Cd that had been playing.
Taking a deep breath, Relena started her speech. "Good evening, I would like to begin to thank you all for coming out tonight to the first annual Welcome Back Dance at the Peacecraft Academy," she waited for the cheers to die down. "I will try to make this quick, but I think that we all need to recognize Miss Rei Hino for making this possible. Without her, this dance would not have been possible. Why don't you give us a wave so everyone will know who you are Rei," again Relena waited, first for Rei to make her presence known, and then for polite cheering to stop. "Well, anyway…" she got no further. There was a blinding flash of light and a giant boom that took place. Once the flash died down, everyone looked the direction that it had occurred. Relena was horror struck at the sight of the nearest building, on the second highest story, there were flames engulfing a window and spreading out to other areas of the building. It took her a second to get her bearings straight, but when she did, she realized that the building was a dormitory. 'No!' she thought. 'People are still inside there.' The sound of cruel laughter echoed in her mind. Looking around franticly, she saw the owner of the laughter was a male he looked grotesquely pale and his eyes were a burning red. 'Wait a second, red?!' "A yoma?!" she yelled.
Heero got to Relena quickly and tried to drag her from her place on the platform. She didn't budge. All she did was stare there in horror. "Relena we have to move!" he yelled at her. That seemed to break her trance since she followed him to a safer spot.
Heero looked at Relena and saw the worry and fear in her eyes. Looking back at the floating figure, he couldn't blame her really. He just didn't show it. The only reason that he was the "perfect solider" was because he could hide his emotions. He was forced to since he was afraid that his enemies would find his weakness and use it against him. Heero knew that what he did hurt people, but he would rather hurt them himself instead of having some one else hurt them.
When the burst of light and the blast occurred, Usagi knew what was happening. It had happened so many times to her in the past. She wished that they would leave her alone. 'Damn yoma, damn them to hell,' she thought bitterly. She could feel Duo's body tense beside her at the shock of seeing the building burning. 'I was having a good time too,' she thought sadly. Slipping away as quietly as possible, Usagi mad her way over to where she had last seen Rei. She knew that this yoma had come for the Sailor Senshi. So, she figured maybe Rei knew a way to defeat this thing without becoming one. After all, last time Rei defeated Madeline with some chanting. 'Ya. And left her wiped out. This guy looks a lot stronger than Madeline.' Finally she made it over to where Rei was standing.
"Rei-chan, you know it came here for us, we have do something!" she panted. Moving through a crowd of panicking people was not exactly easy.
"Thank you captain obvious," retorted Rei. The next thing Usagi knew, Rei was pulling Usagi by the arm over to more wooded area. When they got over there, Usagi saw that in Rei's other hand was her henshin stick.
"What are you going to do with that beat the yoma to death? We can't transform remember?!" asked Usagi hysterically.
"You might be right, and you might be wrong, when I defeated Madeline, her spirit divided into three parts and a different one went to each of us, The two that went to Haruka and me went inside our henshin sticks, the one that went to you went inside your brooch," explained Rei in a breath.
"So are you saying we can transform?" asked Usagi confused.
"I don't know, but what would be the harm in trying?" Rei answered with a question.
"Right then, here goes nothing," taking out her brooch, Usagi held it up and yelled in a voice that was determined. "Moon eternal make-up!" Much to her delight and relief, the familiar feeling of her street clothes being burned away and replaced by her fuku began to take place. A white light surrounded her and she felt the wings spring from her back. When the sequence ended, in the place of Usagi stood Eternal Sailor Moon. She looked to her friend and yelped, Rei had transformed into her Super Sailor Mars form, but for some reason she was glowing a faint red. "Mars your glowing!" she called.
Looking at her companion, Mars saw that Sailor Moon was glowing in a whit light. "You too, I guess it's from Madeline's energy," she reasoned. "Now, lets go kick some yoma butt." She then began running in the direction that the male yoma was still floating and laughing like a mad man. Running after her, Sailor Moon felt s small shiver run down her spine, 'I had hoped that this fighting business would have been over with after the destruction of Chaos.'
A number of people had seen the two strangely out fitted girls running in the direction of the burning building and the yoma. Only four people knew who they were. Looking at each other from their positions, they each nodded and began to head in the same direction. Part way over to the scene, Heero thought about Relena. Heading back, he made eye contact with Trowa and the taller boy nodded. He then continued to make his way back. He had to protect Relena. She was his mission and he truly cared about her. If that yoma came anywhere near her he would have a hell of a fight ahead of him.
The two Sailor Senshi had finally gotten to the area directly under the yoma. Before they could call out a greeting though, he turned to them. With a flick of his hand, they were incased in green glowing balls of energy. The each tried to escape, but they soon figured out that even the slightest move caused the force fields around them to shoot an energy around them that felt painfully like being shocked by electricity. "So glad you could join me, Sailor Moon, Sailor Mars. Now we just have to wait for your friend and we can be off. You know, it disappoints me that you allowed your selves to be captured so easily. I was hoping that you would have proven more of a challenge, but no," and so he continued to ramble on for some time. Neither of the Senshi listened much since they were slightly occupied with their prisons and trying to escape from them.
"I can't move," growled Mars.
"Me neither!" whined Moon.
"Where is you friend Uranus? I'm going to miss my deadline! Oh bother, might as well go. Master won't be happy, but she won't be terribly angry either. With that, the yoma waved his hand and the three floating people disappeared just as three ruining humans arrived at the scene.
Duo stared in horror up at the sky. The one girl that he truly cared about had just disappeared into thin air. He dropped to his knees in disbelief and grief. His heart knew what had just happened, but his mind seemed to refuse to grasp it. Usagi had just disappeared from his life, and he didn't know if she would ever return. He began to repeat no over and over again. Dropping to his knees, his whole body was shaking. He felt a hand on his shoulder, looking up he saw Quatre's sympathetic face. He tried to smile at him, but his friend was really no comfort, the only comfort to him would be to have Usagi back in his arms, back in the safety of the world around him. 'Safety, ya right.' He thought.
He heard another set of footsteps running to where the group of three was. "Shit!" he heard off to his right. The voice was deep, but feminine. Looking through tear-blurred eyes, he saw Haruka Glaring at the sky above her. She didn't cry, or even mutter another word, but looking at her face, Duo was comforted at her face. From the way that her jaw was set, to the angry glint of steel that was now burning in her eyes, Duo knew that who ever had caused this would have a lot of hell to pay. A lot of hell.