Mission to the Past
Chapter Nine: An Ice Skating Trip to Remember
"Where's Haruka?" Usagi asked Michiru at Study Buddies in Rei's temple three weeks after the Justice Woman incident.
"She's working on the helicopter," Michiru answered.
"Still?" Usagi said incredulously. "But it's been three weeks!"
Michiru rolled her eyes. "Have you ever tried to repair a helicopter that was damaged in a battle with a Daimon?"
"Well, no," Usagi admitted.
"I didn't think so," said Michiru. "Let me tell you, it's a lot of work. Besides, you know how Haruka is with her machines. They're like her children."
"That's true," Usagi acknowledged.
"Okay, enough talk," Ami said. "Let's study now."
"Where the heck is Minako?" Rei wondered, sounding very annoyed.
"Probably with Duo," Makoto said. "Where else?"
* * *
Minako had the nagging feeling she was forgetting something. Glancing at her watch, she realized what it was. "Oh, no!" she wailed. "I completely forgot! I have to meet my friends at the temple for Study Buddies!"
"D'you think you can still make it?" Duo asked.
"Yeah, I guess," Minako said. She pouted. "I don't want to leave you, though." She suddenly brightened as an idea came to her. "Hey, why don't you come with me?"
"Are you sure?" he said.
"Yeah!" she said enthusiastically. "And we're really near your house, so we can stop by there and ask your friends to come along! Unless, of course, you don't want to," she added hastily, suddenly doubtful.
"Are you kidding?" Duo said. "Why wouldn't I, if it means spending more time with you?"
Minako giggled. "You're so sweet!" She kissed him on the cheek.
No matter how many times they kissed, it never failed to leave Duo in a dazed state, a lovestruck trance. The same goofy smile always appeared on his features, and his eyes always glazed over a bit. He shook his head in an effort to clear it. "So, let's go already!"
The two teens headed toward their destination.
* * *
"Okay, Minako," Rei said through gritted teeth, doing her best not to lose her temper. She wasn't succeeding very well. "Where were you?"
Minako cringed. "Well, I kind of lost track of time."
"Kind of?" Rei snapped. "We've been waiting for nearly an hour! It would be nice if, once in a while, you could get your head out of the clouds and remember your commitments!"
"Rei, lay off a bit," Ami said, trying to calm the angry priestess. "We're all a bit spacey sometimes." Turning to the boys, she said apologetically, "We're really very happy that you could join us. Even Rei. She's just a bit, well..." Ami searched for the right word. "Over-reactive."
"'Over-reactive?'" Rei repeated indignantly.
"Calm down, Rei," Makoto said.
"Yeah, lay off," said Usagi.
"Lay off THIS, meatball-brain!" Rei yelled, lunging for Usagi, who yelped in surprise and fright. Within seconds, the two were engaged in a loud fistfight. Mchiru, Makoto, Ami, and Setsuna sighed in unison.
"And I thought we had it bad, what with Duo and Heero at each other's throats," Trowa remarked.
"Even those two aren't this bad," Quatre agreed.
"Okay, children," Setsuna said, her patience wearing thin. "Stop. It. NOW!"
Setsuna so rarely yelled that it immediately got Rei's and Usagi's attention. They stopped, seemingly frozen. Rei was yanking on one of Usagi's pigtails, and Usagi was pulling on Rei's left leg. The pose was too difficult to hold for long, however; after a few seconds, they collapsed in a pathetic heap on the floor.
"Oww," Usagi whined.
"Get off me, Usagi," Rei grumbled.
"You're the one who's on me!" Usagi cried.
"Oh, for goodness' sake," Makoto said. She walked to the heap and helped her two friends untangle themselves.
"Okay, we are going to study now," Ami declared. Everyone settled around the room and opened their books. There were a few minutes of silence, save the sounds of turning pages, pencils on paper, and erasers.
"Wow, you guys are actually studying for once," Chibi-Usa said, coming into the temple with Hotaru. Then she noticed the five newcomers and ran over to one of them. "Hey, Heero!" she said. "When are you going to bay-sit for me again? I had lots of fun!"
"Oh, hello, Chibi-Usa," Heero said, smiling at the little girl.
Hotaru turned crimson at the sight of Heero.
"Hey, you're the one who beat Heero seventeen times straight at a giant robot battling game, right?" Duo said, grinning broadly.
"Yup," Chibi-Usa said happily.
"Not everyone can do that, you know," Duo said. "You should be proud. After all, you could say that giant robots are Heero's specialty."
Heero gave Duo a death glare. He had the feeling he would be hearing about this for quite a while. Duo just kept on grinning.
"Don't you two have homework?" Michiru asked the young girls.
They shook their heads. "Nope," Chibi-Usa said. "Finished it already."
"Then go bug someone else," Usagi said.
"They're not bugging anyone," Quatre objected.
"Well, Hotaru's not," Usagi agreed. "Chibi-Usa, on the other hand..."
Chibi-Usa sniffed. "Well, I can see we're not wanted here. Let's go, Hotaru."
"Okay," the black-haired girl agreed. They ran outside.
"Well, aren't you nice to your little cousin," Wufei remarked to Usagi with light sarcasm.
"If you had to live with that little spore, you'd lose your temper every now and then, too," Usagi retorted.
Ami sighed. "Let's see if we can spend more than five minutes at a time doing actual work." They resumed diligently studying.
"Rei?" a husky male voice called, ringing through the halls of the temple. "Rei!"
"What is it, Grandpa?" Rei asked, putting down her books and heading to the source of the voice.
A short, bald man appeared in the doorway. "Rei, I need to make a call, and Chad needs a fire reading," he said. "Could you do it?"
Rei sighed. "Okay," she agreed reluctantly. "What does he need to know?"
"Well, his guitar's missing," Grandpa Hino said.
Rei nearly fell over from the sheer stupidity of it all. "Why can't he just look for it himself? I'm busy!"
"Well, he's got an audition tomorrow, and he wants to practice as soon as possible," her grandfather explained.
"If he's singing, maybe it would be kinder for everyone involved if he didn't find it," Rei joked. The girls and Grandpa laughed. The five boys had the feeling they were missing something.
"Yes, well, he's not singing, so can you please do a fire reading?" the old man said.
"Yeah, okay," Rei said.
"Thank you so much!" Grandpa Hino said. "Chad will be so happy." He walked off, presumably to make his call.
Rei turned apologetically to the group. "I'll be right back," she promised.
"What exactly is a fire reading?" Quatre asked curiously.
"Well, I say a pReir, and kneel at the sacred fire, and if all goes well, it shows me what I need to know," she explained. "Usually, I can get something out of it. It doesn't always work, though. Be back in a few minutes." She left the room.
She returned shortly, sighing. "It was under his bed the whole time," she groaned. "Why can't he ever keep track of his own stuff?"
By this time, Ami was looking ready to strangle someone. "STUDY, DANG IT!" she nearly screamed.
Everyone meekly obliged. A few minutes of productive action passed. Then Rei remembered something. "Hey, Usagi," she said. "You still have my Reiarth manga!"
"Uh, I do?" Usagi said, trying to feign innocence.
"Yes, you do," Rei said tightly.
"Oh,
I'm really, really sorry I forgot," Usagi wailed. "But I promise I'll bring it next time!"
"That's what you said last
time!" Rei shouted.
While they bickered, Quatre asked Ami, "Do you always get this little work done?"
"Oh, no," Ami said. "Usually, it's much less."
* * *
"Study Buddies was a lot more interesting with those guys here today," Makoto commented as they helped Rei clean up the temple once the boys had left.
"Yes, and not exactly productive," Ami said disapprovingly.
Suddenly, they all heard a familiar noise in the sky outside. They ran out to see if it was what they thought it was.
There was Haruka's helicopter, looking as good as new, flying above the temple.
"Haruka!" Michiru cried happily. "You finished fixing it!"
The
helicopter landed and Haruka jumped out, looking happier than anyone had ever
seen her. "You bet!" she said
enthusiastically, grinning from ear to ear.
"So, did anything exciting happen without me?"
"Not really," Setsuna said.
"Well," Rei said, "we decided that, since next Saturday is December first, we'd go ice skating. You know, in honor of winter and all that."
"Sounds great," Haruka said. "Well, I'm taking my copter for a spin. You want to come, Michiru?"
"Sure," the blue-haired girl agreed. "Just wait until I get my stuff together."
"Okay," Haruka said. The group landed back inside. Haruka continued to ask if shed had missed anything while fixing her precious machine. "Were there any Daimon attacks? How about tests? Projects? Do I have a ton of homework to catch up on?"
"No, yes, no, definitely," Michiru told her without missing a beat.
"You mean you haven't even been to school these past three weeks?" Ami gasped.
Haruka looked at her blankly. "Of course not," she said. "What was I supposed to do, put aside my baby for school?"
The group stared at her and decided it would be best not to ask any questions.
"So no Daimon attacks, either, huh?" Haruka continued.
"Nope," Makoto said.
"Maybe we've scared them off," Usagi said hopefully. "Or finished off the last of them."
"I hope so," Haruka said. "They're really beginning to tick me off."
"What I don't see," Makoto said, "is why we have to wear those masks. I mean, we've never been recognized before."
"She's got a point," Rei acknowledged.
"Well, uh," Minako said, trying not to sound flustered, "you see, usually, when we save someone, they are too freaked out to pay much attention to what we look like. But, since lately there have been a lot of people around who know us pretty well, they could recognize us, so better safe than sorry, right?" She pReid they would buy her on-the-spot lies.
Haruka shrugged. "Whatever. Come on, Michiru." The blue-haired girl took her things and headed out with Haruka. In a few seconds, the remaining girls could hear the whir of their helicopter taking off.
Minako breathed a quiet sigh of relief. They'd bought it after all. For some reason, she felt she couldn't tell them the true cause for her sudden anxiety. She couldn't tell them it was because the stakes had never been so high for her. She couldn't say it was because, before, she hadn't cared if they were recognized; she had known it would be bad, and that whoever recognized them could be used by their enemies, but she hadn't cared on a personal basis.
Now, however, things were different. Now she had Duo to consider. And she was absolutely terrified of him discovering her greatest secret.
But why couldn't she say that? She wasn't sure. Partially, it was that, if they knew, they would treat it as being sweet and romantic, and make it seem shallower than it was. It wasn't sweet and romantic; it was just true.
Minako felt that someone was watching her. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Setsuna's intense garnet eyes fixed on her. Inwardly, she sighed. She supposed there was no escaping Setsuna's scrutinizing gaze, or the fact that Setsuna probably could tell more about Minako's feelings for Duo than Minako herself could.
Quite suddenly, there was a hand waving in front of Minako's face. "Hello, earth to Minako, come in Minako!"
Minako snapped out of her brooding thoughts. "Huh? Oh, sorry, Usagi. I'm listening."
Usagi looked skeptical. "Oh, really? 'Cause I've asked you the same question three times now, and you still haven't answered."
"Well, ask me again," said Minako. "I'll listen this time."
Usagi sighed. "I said, are you looking forward to going skating next Saturday? Geez, you're an even bigger space cadet than usual today."
"She's probably thinking about Duo again," Makoto said mischievously.
Minako's cheeks turned deep crimson, but she ignored the brunette's teasing remark and said to Usagi, "Oh, yeah. Definitely."
* * *
"This is really not good," Hadesa hissed. Steam was practically coming from her ears. "You're the last one I've got left. I've already located a target for you. He's a pacifist, so it should be easy. Now, go!"
The Daimon obeyed.
* * *
"So, have any of you guys skated before?" Rei asked Heero, Duo, Trowa, Quatre, and Wufei that Saturday on their way to the ice skating rink.
Duo shook his head. "Nope, but I'm willing to try anything once."
"Me, neither," Quatre said.
"Same here," said Heero.
"No, but it sounds fun," said Wufei.
"I tried it once," Trowa remembered. "It was a lot of fun."
"It's not hard," Rei assured them. "Unless, of course, you're a klutz like Usagi."
"Hey!" Usagi cried in protest. "I'm not that bad!"
Rei shook her head. "Sorry to break it to you, but your ice skating days were ancient history before you even got started."
Usagi got a hurt look on her face. She turned away and began to sulk.
However, she cheered up immediately once they reached the rink. "Oh, yeah! We're here!" They looked up at the building. In the summer, it was a lake surrounded by shops, where you could rent rowboats or have lunch, but in the winter, it was turned into the Juuban Ice Rink.
The group entered. After renting skates for those who didn't own them, they struggled for a few minutes with the arduous process of getting them on. Eventually, they managed to succeed, with the exception of Usagi. She was hopelessly entangled in the laces.
"You're pathetic," Rei grumbled, doing for Usagi in ten seconds what Usagi had failed to do in ten minutes.
"Everyone ready?" Makoto asked.
They all chorused, "Yes!"
"Come on, let's go!" Chibi-Usa said impatiently. They headed out to the ice.
Heero and Trowa were soon comfortably gliding around the rink. Quatre was a bit tentative, but got the hang of it after a few minutes. Wufei proved to be very graceful. Duo and Minako skated together at a moderate pace. Rei, Ami, Haruka, Michiru, Setsuna, and Chibi-Usa were average. Hotaru had to stop and rest every now and then, but was fine aside from that. Makoto was excellent, as always, and Usagi was miserably pathetic.
"EEEEE! HEEELP!" Usagi screamed.
Minako tore her eyes away from Duo, something she was doing less and less often lately, in time to see the out-of-control meatball-head careening towards her and Duo.
"Watch out!" Usagi yelled, but it was too late. She slammed into Duo and Minako. The three fell down and skid a long way on the ice before coming to a rough stop against the corner.
"Sorry," Usagi said meekly. "You guys aren't mad at me, are you?"
Duo and Minako looked ready to throttle her for a moment before bursting out laughing. Usagi gratefully joined in.
Meanwhile, Trowa and Makoto haad been, as usual, unable to control their primal urges to show off, and were putting on quite a show. All the skaters "oohed" and "aahed" as they spun around the rink. Everyone clapped enthusiastically when Trowa managed to gracefully lift Makoto up, which was an uncommon feat.
"Way to go, Trowa!" Quatre cheered for his friend. Feeling someone tap him on the shoulder, he turned around. "Yes?" he asked the person who had tapped him, a woman with purple hair and big matching eyes.
"Excuse me, sir, could you do me a favor?" she asked politely.
"Sure," Quatre said. "What is it?"
The woman smiled wickedly. "I need you to give me your heart! Now!"
"What the--?" Quatre cried. Bewilderment overtook him as the woman snapped her fingers and turned into a large, purple witch, dressed in a very skimpy violet skating outfit.
"I won't fail!" she cried. "You are mine!" She held out her left palm, revealing a black star. Within seconds, she was holding Quatre's Heart Crystal, and the blonde was on his knees, gasping for air.
"Hah!" the monster shouted triumphantly. "Let's speed up your death, shall we?" Cackling evilly, she skated a quick circle around Quatre. Her sharp blades cut right through the ice, and Quatre fell into the freezing cold water of the lake beneath him.
"Quatre!" his friends cried, skating over to help him. Heero and Trowa, being closest, grabbed him by the arms, and with help from Duo and Wufei, pulled him out.
Meanwhile, the Sailor Senshi were huddled in the corner, discussing what to do about their predicament.
"There's no way we can transform here," Haruka said.
Ami nodded. As usual, she was way ahead of everyone. "I know. But I've got a plan that just might work. She turned to Makoto. "We'll need your skating skills."
"Alright," Makoto said. "What do I do?'
Being as brief as possible, Ami outlined her plan. "Her blades cut straight through ice. Makoto, you need to get her to chase you. Then you lead her in a circle and into the center. You'll need to jump away from the circle as soon as she steps on, or else you'll fall down with her."
"What if she climbs out?" Rei queried.
Ami held up her mini-supercomputer. "I did a scan on her. She melts in the water."
"That's weird," Michiru remarked.
"Well, I'm off," said Makoto. Skating in the monster's direction, she yelled, "Hey, big, purple, and ugly! Over here!"
The monster turned toward Makoto. "Little wench!" she cried. "I'll show you!"
"Come and get me!" Makoto taunted. She started skating as fast as she could.
"I'll get your Heart Crystal, too!" yelled the Daimon, starting to chase her.
"Makoto, watch out!" cried Trowa.
Everything's going according to plan, Makoto thought. She turned to complete the circle. Inches from the monster's starting point, she cut a sharp corner into the circle. A split second later, the monster followed, and Makoto leaped out of the circle just in time to miss plunging into the frigid water. As Ami had predicted, the Daimon melted with a hissing noise.
Quatre's Heart Crystal bobbed to the side of the hole. Chibi-Usa stooped and picked it up, then walked over to Quatre and replaced it in his body. Slowly, he stood up, still shivering from the cold.
"Quatre, we have to get you to a doctor," Trowa said urgently.
Quatre nodded. Trowa helped him skate over to the exit and led his friend to the First Aid Office.
A calm male voice boomed over the loudspeaker. "Skaters, please evacuate the rink. Please be very careful of the, um, very large gaps in the ice. Remember, we are not responsible for any injuries. If any occur, please go to the First Aid Office. That is all. Thank you."
A wave of skaters started heading for the door. As the crowd pushed its way out, the nearby benches became crowded with people taking their skates off.
Heero wobbled over to a bench and sat down. He was about to take off his skates when he heard Duo's voice saying, "Heero, your arm..."
Heero looked at his arms and drew a sharp breath. With his left palm up, he could see a bloody gash going from his elbow nearly to his wrist. "I guess I'd better head off to first aid, huh?" he said, trying to figure out what had happened.
"I'll come with you," Duo offered, standing up.
Heero shook his head. "No, I'm fine. I must have cut myself on the ice when I was helping Quatre up," he recalled.
"Are you sure you'll be okay?" Duo asked with concern.
Heero gave him a look that plainly said, "You're talking to the guy that set his own broken leg." Out loud, he said, "Yeah." He walked off, wobbling a bit on his skates. He had been too busy worrying about Quatre to notice before, but his arm hurt badly.
Hotaru saw Heero walking to the first aid room. More importantly, she saw what had happened to his arm. Standing up quickly, she said, "I have to go to the bathroom. I'll be right back, okay?" She ran off in her socks after Heero.
Heero was walking down an empty corridor when he heard his name called. Turning around, he could see the same black-haired girl that had mended his sprained ankle a few months back, Hotaru Tomoe.
"Show me your arm," she said quietly.
Wordlessly, he held it toward her. She put her hands on it and concentrated. Her eyes dimmed for a moment, then brightened again.
Heero watched in amazement; his arm was completely healed.
"There," Hotaru said, smiling a bit. "All better. I'm sorry I can't do anything about your friend. I can only heal wounds, not illness."
"Thank you," Heero said. "That's twice now you've helped me."
Hotaru's smile grew a bit. "Think nothing of it. Just don't tell anyone, okay?" She walked off without another word.
Heero stared after her for a few seconds before returning to his friends.
* * * * * * * *
Notes: Well, if you're still reading this, thank you. The end is near, so don't give up and get bored yet. E-mail me, but NO FLAMES!
FYI: I don't think the Juuban Ice Rink is actually a lake in the summer...^.^; But its name IS Juuban!
Disclaimer: As you most likely know by now, I don't own Gundam Wing, or Sailor Moon, or anything else I happened to mention in this fic, or enough money and property for you to get anything if you sue me.