Yuugasa Usagi – Chapter 1
Disclaimer: Don't own shows, own the storyline.
Ever notice that the titles of my stories usually have nothing at all to do with the stuff in 'em? Hehe!
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Quatre sat there in the tree he had been sitting in for a good time and played his violin. The others, used to this, didn't wake...not even Duo.
But one person did. Usagi. She stirred awake from her sleep in the sleeping bag that she was in at the time. She realized that the noise that I woken her from her peaceful dream was a violin being played.
Upon exiting the tent, she saw that Quatre was the one playing, but she noticed that his eyes were also closed in thought. She couldn't help but to start dancing the moves she had been taught. The music was just flowing threw her veins.
Now, if anyone were to walk in on the camp, they might think it was odd for a girl to be dancing so gracefully to music that seemed to come from nowhere at such an early hour of the day.
But no one was going to walk in on the camp. It was to well hidden. But, the occupants did wake up to the sound of footsteps on the ground outside of their tents and soon, all four of the pilots that weren't awake jumped from their tents.
Usagi and Quatre paid them no attention. He just kept playing. She just kept dancing. Soon, Quatre opened his eyes to see the angelic girl they had just met only a day before dancing to his song.
He stopped playing to watch her, but as soon as he stopped, she stopped and looked up at him. But he just tilted his head towards the others.
"Wha—oh," she started. She blushed profusely and darted back into the tent that she had set up, with Trowas help. When she poked her head back out five minutes later, her hair was hanging in her face, making it quite hard to see.
"Do you ever think of puttin' it in a braid like mine?" Duo said when he saw her get an annoyed look on her face and brush it away.
"Um, well. I can't braid my hair without screwing it up." Usagi replied as she exited the tent wearing what she had been yesterday.
Duo thought for a moment, this girl trusted all of them the first moment that she had laid eyes on them. Plus she didn't seem like she would spring any deadly attacks on them. "Sit down, I'll braid it for you."
To Wufei, who was watching the seen from where he was practicing his martial arts, thought it was quite odd that Duo was offering to braid this onnas hair for her.
Usagi sat down and sat there perfectly still as the boy, who hadn't trusted her at all the other day, was now braiding her hair for her.
"Duo-san?" She finally said after a while of silence.
"Yeah?" He replied.
"Next time you're going to watch me dancing, will you at least tell me so that I won't be so embarrassed." Usagi said in a quite voice.
"No prob. But you are pretty good, where'd you learn it?" Duo replied as he finished the last of her extremely long braid.
"Just something I've had lessons in since I was little. It helped a lot with my clumsiness. Thanks Duo, that helps a lot." She said as she twirled around and noticed that her hair no longer got in her face.
Those genuine smiles that she gave him made him think that she was way too innocent and pure to be hanging around with this gang. Just when he was about to say something, she snapped her head to the side, looking towards the trees.
'Setsuna...' Usagi thought, then without warning, she shoot off at a dead run towards the Guardian of Time. When she came to a halt, it wasn't a very stable one.
"Usagi-chan, how is everything coming along?" The woman asked her young charge.
Usagi smiled brightly; "Trowa-san, Duo-san, and Quatre-san already trust me. I told off Wufei, so I think that got me at least on his good side... if he has one. And Hiiro, well, he's just like you said he would be."
"Good, Hiiro will come around. Everyone always does when you are around. I swear, you could charm your way into even a Youma's heart."
"Arigatoo..." the young girl said as she blushed.
"Usagi-san!" Rang out Duos voice.
"I better get going, Setsuna-san, sayoonara!" Soon the girl was running off again, her long golden braid flying behind her.
"Usa—" Duo's call was cut off as an object hit his side full force, knocking him and whatever it was that knocked him down to the ground.
"Ouch," Usagi said when she hit the ground, even though most of her petit body landed on Duo.
"Usagi-san?" He asked when he heard her voice.
"Duo-san, my arm hurts a lot. You landed on it." She replied ever so quietly as she sat up, clutching the said arm.
"Is it broken?" He asked he with concern in his eyes.
"I don't think so. Jeez, remind me never to run threw the forest when you call my name. I might just end up with a broken limb." She said with a low laugh.
"And remind me never to call out your name in the forest, just in case you forget." He replied as he got up. He stuck out a hand to help her up and she took it.
"Thanks." She said once she got to her feet. She again rubbed the sore arm, but put on a good face to show that it didn't hurt as much as it did.
However, no matter how much of her clumsiness was gone, she still had some left. Which because a proven fact when she tripped over a root that had popped out of the ground.
Crack.
"Oh, see, now it's most likely broken." She mumbled into the dirt her face was lying in.
"What'd you say, Usagi-san?" Duo asked, completely oblivious to the sound of her bone breaking most likely.
Usagi lifted her face off the ground, "I said that I think it's broken now, didn't you just hear it crack?"
"Oops, sorry, that was me. I must've snapped this branch off right when you landed." Duo said with an impish grin plastered on his face.
Usagi mumbled some incoherent Japanese that sounded like "baka." She stood up, without Duo's help, and walked briskly back towards camp.
"Usagi-san what--" Quatre was about to ask, but stopped when he saw the look in her eyes.
Usagi just went right past the kind boy, right into her tent. She emerged seconds later with a bundle of something, then she ran towards the lake that was not to far from them.
"Usagi-san, matta (wait)!" yelped the little Arabian, but the girl was on a warpath and was determined to get washed up.
Quatre dashed after her, God knows what she would do when she saw that someone was already in the lake taking a "bath." Duo had doubled over with laughter and was wiping tears from his eyes.
Usagi continued at her brisk walk, even as Quatre told her to wait. When she got to the lake...she wished she had listened to him. Her eyes bugged out at the site she saw.
"Ahhh!" She screamed, as she looked away, her face the deepest of crimson reds. "Oh, my God. I'm--gomen, gomen nasai, Hiiro-san!" She said as the pilot hid himself under the water.
This, no doubt, would make her never want to look at Hiiro ever again. Even if she had only seen his backside, it was enough to embarrass the living hell out of the girl.
"You can look now, Usagi-san." Hiiro said once he had gotten his clothes back on.
"Iie." Was all she said while shaking her head side to side, causing the braid to fly back and forth. Her hands still covered her crimson face, while the pack she had carried with her lay on the ground at her feet.
"I'm dressed, Usagi. You can look." He said again in that tone of his.
"Iie." Usagi answered, only this time it came in a little squeak. If he could have, Hiiro would've rolled his eyes.
"Onna, what the hell happened?" Wufei's hard voice asked when he saw her face. When he didn't get an answer out of her, he looked to Hiiro.
"Let's just say she saw my backside and leave it at that," the trigger-happy pilot said.
Soon Duo, Quatre and Trowa came running from the direction of camp. Duo took one look at Usagi and fell over laughing, then he yelped as Trowa smacked him in the head.
Quatre was shocked at the site. He knew this wouldn't have happened if she had just listened to him, but alas, it did.
Trowa walked towards the teenage girl, "Usagi-san, what happened?"
"Trowa-san...I just saw something I didn't ever want to see at this time in my life." She said, her face fading a few shades lighter.
"What do you mean?" Trowa asked. Then it hit him, "oh, nevermind."
Usagi nodded her face still in her hands.
"Hey, we're all clothed here, you can take your hands away from your face." He whispered to her.
"I know, but I am really embarrassed." Usagi replied.
"Well, think about how Hiiro feels." He said to her.
Slowly, very slowly, she removed her hands, a big smile on her face, "yeah...you're right."
"Aren't I always?" He said in a playful tone that he'd never used before.
"Trowa-san!" She said as she smacked his arm playfully. Then she turned to face Hiiro, though her eyes were to the ground. "Gomen again, Hiiro-san. I was just kind of pissed because I tripped in the woods after I talked with--" she never finished her sentence.
"Talked with whom?" Hiiro asked.
Usagi gulped, 'Uh... think of something quick, Usagi!' "Duo." She replied, though she knew she didn't sound at all convincing.
"Usagi-san, why don't I take you to a pond that I found so you can get cleaned up with no one else around." Trowa said to her.
"H-hai." Usagi replied as she grabbed her belongings from the ground and walked with Trowa towards the said pond.
"Are you going to be traumatized for the rest of your life?" Trowa finally asked when they were out of earshot of the others.
"Iie, just for most of my teenage years." She replied.
"How old are you, anyway?"
"Sixteen, and don't say it! I know I don't look sixteen." Usagi said as she shot him a look.
Trowa nodded and usurered a hand in front of them, "there you are, Usagi-san."
Usagi's eyes lit up when she saw the shining blue waters of the pond, "oh! Arigatoo, Trowa-san!" she threw her arms around the taller boy and gave him a hug before bounding off to the pond.
"I'll wait about five yards away, where I can't see you. Okay?" Trowa said as he walked off.
"Hai!" Came her cheerful reply. Usagi undid her braid and striped herself of her cloths. She squeaked when the cool water hit her skin, but she soon go used to it and went through the routine of bathing herself.
"By the way, Trowa-san...you can call me anything but Usagi-san. I hate that!" Trowa heard Usagi call out; he could just imagine her nose scrunching up in disgust.
The only ones now that still called her 'Usagi-san' were Quatre and Duo. Duo only because he had seen what happened when he didn't and did not want to repeat that little unsaid incident.
Trowa sat down against a tree and closed his eyes, listening to the sounds of the forest. It had been quite, Oz hadn't attacked, nor had they received missions. Maybe it was true; maybe the wars really were over. If so, then why were they still hiding out?
Usagi got out of the water, dried herself and put on new clothes, though they looked almost like the ones she had previously been wearing. She left her hair down to dry and walked in the direction Trowa had when he left her.
He heard her footsteps, but didn't open his eye... that is until he got a head full of cold water. "Gah!" He screamed, jumping up as the cold water dripped down from his head to his back.
Behind him stood Usagi, trying to look innocent, but a big smile was on her face. Trowa just looked at her with that I-know-you-did-it-so-you-might-as-well-laugh-about-it looks, but the girl who could laugh on the dime kept a seemingly straight face.
"My, my, my...did you get a little wet there, Trowa-san?" She said with an impish grin much like Duo's.
"Yeah, wonder how that could've happened." He replied giving her a knowing look.
"Yeah. That's a big mystery, ain't it?" She said as she whistled innocently. Trowa walked over to her and towered above her, causing her to stop immediately and gulp.
Without warning, Trowa picked up the small girl, walked back to the water, and tossed her back into the ponds deeper end. Usagi screamed as she flew back into the water. Only when she surfaced did she look at him.
"Trowa Barton, that was not funny." She said with a slight pout, which was only part of her plot.
Trowa, who had an amused smile twitching at his lips, walked over to the girl unknowing of what she was going to do. He stuck out his hand for her to grab.
Grab she did, and yanked on it hard. Causing the tall boy to tumble into the water. He surfaced sputtering water. Usagi looked at him with crossed arms and a grin, "see what happens when you throw someone in the water?"
"Hai." Trowa replied, still trying to get over the fact that he was tricked by a sixteen year old girl.
She got out of the pond and reached her hand out for his, he didn't want to relapse on what had just happened so he just grasped hers and let her pull him up.
"Lets get back and change into dry cloths before we get sick." Usagi said as she ran towards camp, Trowa being dragged behind for she hadn't let go of his hand.
"Usa-chan, either slow down or let go of my hand. You're about to make me fall." Trowa said to the girl in front of him.
'Usa-chan,' at the sheer mention of the name, she came to a dead halt. Tears welled up in her eyes as she thought about the last time that she had been called Usa-chan.
Galaxia sat there in her throne laughing as she held the Star Seeds of Ami, Rei, Makoto, and Minako—also known as: Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, and Venus.
All four of the Inner Senshi fell as the Starlights, who were beaten badly, watched.
"No way! Why? Why? For us?" Yaten asked.
"To... save... important... people..." was Ami's dying reply.
"Important people?" Taiki echoed, not understanding.
"Yes... both Sailor Moon and the Starlights... are important... to us..." Minako replied as she faded away.
"Oh, god! Even if you might fade away?" Seyia screamed.
"Please... in our place... protect Usagi-chan... and this world!" Makoto asks as she faded away.
Usagi put ChibiChibi down, and crawled over to the fading Rei, crying. "Rei-chan... Rei-chan! Rei-chan!" She screamed as she picked up her fallen Senshi's head. "Everyone!"
Ami, Makoto, and Minako faded, except for Rei.
"Wait! Mako-chan! Minako-chan! Ami-chan! Don't leave me! Don't leave me alone!" Usagi yelled.
Rei reached up and put her hand on Usagi's head, "Usa-chan... you... are... too... sweet... be... strong!"
"Rei-chan! Don't... We promised to be together until the end! Please don't leave me alone!" Usagi said between sobs.
"Don't... forget... you... have... Mamoru-san..." Rei said, but gasped in pain. "Sorry... I... can't... protect... you..." she said, then faded away.
Usagi sat there, watching the little orbs of Rei's existence fly into the air. She touched one, breaking it into pieces. Sitting there for a moment in shock she finally said, "Rei-chan! no..." in a low whisper. Then she screamed, "NO!!!"
"Rei-chan..." she said in a barely audible whisper.
"Usa-chan, are you alright?" Trowa asked as he touched her shoulder.
Usagi sniffled, "yeah, I'll be fine." She dashed away her forming tears with the back of her hands and turned to face Trowa with a smile that didn't even reach her eyes.
"What's wrong?" He asked, not even knowing why he cared.
"It's just...the last time someone called me 'Usa-chan' was when they were..." her voice broke.
"Were what?" He didn't understand at all why this was hard for her to say it was just a name...wasn't it?
"Rei-chan...she called me that before she died...Galaxia-sama killed her and the girls." Usagi said with a far off look in her eyes.
"Would you prefer if I called you something else?" Trowa asked, bringing the golden haired girl back from her memories.
"Iie. I think it's time I put them to rest. It's hard to believe it though, isn't it?" Usagi said.
"What's hard to believe?"
"That I would be the type of person that has had to watch her four very best friends in the world die, and to be the person who killed their killer. Even if I didn't kill Galaxia-sama, but Chaos who had possessed her."
"Yeah, it is. Let's get back to camp before we really do get sick." Trowa replied, though he was confused. He put a comforting arm around the year younger girls' shoulders and she whispered a thank you.
When they got back to camp, they were certainly a sight to behold. Both of them were dripping wet. Trowa had his arm around Usagi's shoulders as if comforting her and protecting her at the same time. And Usagi's face no longer had the cheerful smile that she had left with.
"Usagi-san, what's--" Quatre started to ask, but stopped when he saw Trowa mouth 'not now.'
Usagi walked into her tent, as did Trowa, but she didn't come back out.
"Trowa, what happened with Usagi-san?" Duo finally asked when they were all eating supper...without Usagi.
"It's up to her if she wants to tell you." Was all Trowa said. Soon he got up with a plate of food and walked to Usagi's tent and murmured something that the others couldn't hear.
When he walked back, the plate was no longer in his possession; a pair of lifeless looking crystalline blue eyes was blankly staring it at.
"Weak onna." Wufei muttered.
"Wufei, I thought you believe in a honor code. Where the hell in that code does it say that people who have lost people dear to them, even if they are women, need to be treated with disrespect? I thought the code was to help the weak, not insult them." Trowa practically yelled at the Chinese pilot before getting up and walking to his tent for the night.
"He's right." Hiiros monotone voice said causing everyone to direct their surprised looks to him but the soldier just got up and walked into his tent.
"Yeah, Wufei, he is." Duo said before going to his tent, but not without a loud yawn.
Quatre didn't need to say anything; his silence in this was enough to make Wufei feel horrible about what he had said. The little Arabian walked to his tent, looking one last time at Wufei, then closed the door of it.
Wufei thought for a moment—well, actually, about an hour—about what Trowa had said. He'd been right, and Wufei knew it. But it was still hard to believe that someone who had been so incredibly quite and stoic before was now the one telling him off and acting like a teenage boy of seventeen should act...young.
A calm and quite voice soon broke into Wufeis thoughts when he heard, "in a honor code, people sometimes lose that which the code was really made for. For this, they can cause people great pain and suffering, but they wouldn't know it because they were blinded by what they thought was the code they were taught to live by. Sometimes those people just need something or someone to remind them of what the code really is."
He looked up to see Usagi standing there, her face stained with the tears that she had cried. The girl didn't offer a smile like she would have before, she only placed her plate down with the others and walked back to her tent.
There it was. There was the truth, right there, bluntly put before him not only once but twice. The Chinese pilot got up finally and went to his tent to sleep on the words that had been spoken to him that night.
Two days after the 'incident,' and some skillful talking on Trowas part, Usagi finally emerged from her tent. Although she was still sad, she was back to her cheerful self again.
"Morning everyone!" she chimed in the happy tone that everyone was used to hearing.
Instead of his usual grunt of a welcoming, Wufei actually said a word, "Morning." Granting him five brownie points.
Upon hearing the whole sentence, Duo fell off his seat in surprise.
"Hey, Wufei-san." Usagi said with a smile, happy that she had finally gotten some of the respect that she wanted from the boy. Taking her usual spot next to Trowa and Hiiro she watched the cherry blossoms, something she hadn't seen in a while, rustle in the light wind and fall to the ground.
She had yet to earn Hiiros trust, but she would work on that later. She might as well get the trust of the others since she couldn't go back to her time. After everyone had finished eating the breakfast made by Quatre, Trowa led Usagi back to the pond since she didn't want to take the chance of getting lost.
When Usagi got out of the water, she went and sat next to Trowa. "You know what? I will never be able to go back to where I came from. But I don't care. There were to many bad memories there, to many reminders of the countless battles that I had to fight unwillingly. Do you think that I'm running from the past, Trowa-san?"
"No," was his short reply. She sat, looking up at the sun happy to feel it on her face again when Trowa spoke again, "when you called me 'Nanashi' when we first met, you were right. I have no name; I am just a kid who was working on Heavyarms when another mechanic killed the real Trowa Barton. I took his place because I was fond of the Gundam.
"I can't remember anything of my childhood; it's like the memories are forever erased from my brain. When I was working, people called me Nanashi, ever since I could remember, that's what I had told people to call me. All of the others, with the exception of Hiiro, have their real names. I don't have a name at all, or a past. I have just always been Trowa Barton, pilot of Heavyarms, and enemy of Oz."
Usagis smile played on her face; he was the first one of the five to entrust her his past. "Well, Trowa seems to suit you just find. And it's not the name that defines a person; it's the person who defines the name. There is nothing wrong with that." At this, the golden haired angel stood and pulled up her friend and they walked back to the camp.
Trowa thought about what she had said about a person defining the name. After much thought, he knew it was true. No matter what his name had been, his attitude and way of life wouldn't have been any different.
Usagi knew he put thought into it, now if only she could get Hiiro to open up like that. She sighed inwardly; it would be a lot of work to get the trigger-happy perfect solider to even utter a polite phrase to her. But she knew somehow, she had to do her mission.
'One down, four to go. Well, I think Quatre will be easy once I spend a little time with him, so makes that two down and three to go.' Usagi thought.
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*Tosses her kitten, Snickers, from her lap. * Hey-o, hope you liked that chapter! Long, but I am going to try and make each on about ten pages each! The next chapter will be out soon. I'll post one chapter a day until I have to actually write the next one. Love ya!
Ema