Gomen… gomen, Usagi calling Helios Helios in the last chapter was just a
typo on my part, more like a temporary brain fart… It should have read
Aisoku and if I wasn't so damn lazy I'd probably go and fix it… U_U Just
wanted to apologize! Uh… I guess I'll take the fuku comment as a compliment
^_^ !!
Part XI
"Mamoru! How many times did I tell you to keep your dirty hands off of my sandwich!?" Haruka bellowed through the house.
"Calm down." Michiru hushed her as she cut away the part of the sandwich that Mamoru had managed to sneak a bite of. "He and Setsuna are talking in the other room, we shouldn't disturb them."
Haruka gladly accepted the sandwich and went back to watching TV.
"Prince you do realize that the future that we know and have built is gone if you and Usagi don't get back together." Setsuna sipped on her tea as the two sat in the observatory looking out at the night.
A silly smirk appeared on his face as he set his cup down and looked over at Setsuna. "Is that necessarily a bad thing?" There was a certain look in his eyes that she couldn't ignore and apparently neither could some one else.
"Mamoru!" A voice unfamiliar to them both but yet some how similar to some one they both knew sounded through the room. A pink haired young woman was crawling in through the window just beside Setsuna.
"Small Lady!" Setsuna stood shocked while Mamoru helped her in the window and to stand on her feet.
"Chibi-Usa, what are you doing here?" Mamoru asked confused, (well wouldn't you be?).
"I came here to stop him from changing our future." Chibi-Usa stated calming herself and taking a seat on one of the iron chairs beside the table Setsuna and Mamoru had previously been seated at.
"Seiya?" Setsuna questioned.
Chibi-Usa got a puzzled look on her face. "Who's Seiya?" She asked. She had no idea who this person was that they were referring to which only reinforced in their minds that he wasn't a part of their future.
"If you're not here to stop Seiya, then who are you talking about?" Mamoru asked hoping to god she wasn't referring to himself.
"Helios!" Chibi-Usa said in a shocked tone. Hadn't they seen him?
"Helios?" Mamoru and Setsuna questioned at the same time. "What would he want to change our future for?"
The pink haired girl picked up the cup that used to be her future father's and began to sip the tea casually. "I betrayed him in the future and now he has come back to the past to set it straight."
"So what's so bad about that? You screwed up, why should he suffer for it?" Mamoru said, still a little disgruntled that she had stolen his tea, let alone his moment alone with Setsuna.
"No, you don't understand. He saw the situation that came to be between the two of us as just a repeat of what happened between you and Usagi."
"What?! Usagi betrays me? With who? I'll kill him!" Mamoru is enraged but calms quickly when he feels Setsuna's hand on his arm.
Chibi-Usa cocks a brow at him and continues. "Anyway… No, Usagi doesn't betray you, but her heart does. I never personally saw it, but Mars always told me that my mother loved some one other than my father. This is what Helios is trying to set right."
Mamoru sat back a little relieved. "Well if it makes you feel better, we haven't seen him or heard from him at all."
"What are you kidding me?" Chibi-Usa stands with her hands on the table. "He helped free your hostage! He's out there prancing around right now with Kakyuu and Odango!"
"What!" Setsuna and Mamoru choke out together. By now Michiru and Haruka have heard the commotion and have come running into the room. "Helios is Aisoku?" Setsuna asks.
"Helios is here?" Michiru questions just coming into the conversation.
"Yes, he's here, posing as a boy named Aisoku and working with Princess Kakyuu, and the girl Odango from another world to break Mamoru and Usagi up." Chibi-Usa calmed down and recapped the events for Haruka and Michiru.
Setsuna looked from Mamoru to Chibi-Usa. 'But Mamoru and Usagi did break up, why is Chibi-Usa still here?' She thought as she just witnessed the madness around her.
~@~@~@~
The Starlights detransformed and began heading back to their apartment. Seiya was taking up the rear of the group but suddenly stopped. "I'll meet up with you guys later, I'm going to check to see if Odango is alright."
"Seiya!" Yaten yelled at him. "What the hell are you thinking? That girl just turned out to be a Starlight senshi, she knows where Kakyuu is and she's still on the loose, oh yeah, added bonus, she knows who we 'really' are too!"
"I know. We'll talk about this when I get home, but right now I have to check on Odango. Morgan looked really upset when we ran into her and she had just come from Usagi's house, I just want to make sure she's alright." Seiya looked at the ground, he could feel Yaten's angry eyes on him. He knew that Yaten could sense how he felt about their mission on Earth this time, so similar to the last time.
"Go, we'll talk when you get home." Taiki said calmly and motioned for Yaten to follow him home.
Seiya started walking in the direction of Usagi's house. "Please be ok Odango." He said to the moon. He stopped and stared curiously at it. It seemed so distant as if it had shrunk from the last time he had looked up at it. Something was not right. He picked up his pace and started running to his destination.
Usagi heard a pounding on her door and assumed that it was Morgan coming back from flipping out. "Yeah, yeah, yeah, I hear ya!" She said as she set her popcorn bowl down. When she opened the door it revealed a huffing Seiya. "Seiya?"
"Oi Odango." He waved nonchalantly as he caught his breath. "May I come in?" He asked seeing how she was blocking the doorway.
Usagi came out of her stupor and realized how rude she was being and moved aside to let him pass. "What are you doing here?"
Seiya shot her one of his sexy grins. "What? You're not happy to see me?" A blush came to Usagi's cheeks and he could see that wasn't true. "I just came to see if you were alright."
"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?" She asked confused as she resumed her seat on the couch and offered for Seiya to join her.
Seiya allowed himself to relax a bit as he sank into the soft cushions of the couch. It felt like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders just hearing that she was alright. "We ran into Morgan as she made a mad dash down the street. What happened? She looked really upset. She didn't do anything to you did she?"
Usagi was confused. "What would she do to me?" She flipped through the channels until she landed on the one she was looking for. "We were just watching her show and she suddenly flipped out and left."
Seiya looked from Usagi to the television to see a cartoon version of Morgan acting on the screen. "She's… she's…"
"I told you she was a cartoon character, but did you want to listen? Noooo…" This came as no big surprise to Usagi, but Seiya was in utter shock. Now he knew why Morgan was flipping out when he saw her, obviously she hadn't known either.
"Odango…" Seiya regained his composure and turned to Usagi. "Odango, you should stay away from her."
"What?" Usagi asked putting down her handful of popcorn. "Why? She's my friend."
Seiya had concern written across his face. "Odango, she's dangerous, she's…"
"No Seiya, what's gotten into you?" Usagi put the bowl down on the coffee table in front of them.
"She's a sailor senshi!" He finally got out. "She's a Starlight."
Usagi's eyes widened. "That's great!"
"No, we don't know if she's on our side or not, we've never heard anything about her, to make matters worse, she knows where Kakyuu is." Seiya looked down.
Usagi moved closer to him on the couch and looked at him with a smile. "That's a good thing. I'm sure she's our friend. I can just feel it, and now you're going to find your princess! That should make you happy."
"It doesn't." He said in a whisper but Usagi caught it.
"What do you mean, I thought you'd want to go… home…" Her voice was wistful as she trailed off.
"I… I don't want to leave again. I want to stay here… with you." He said as he brought his face up to look into her eyes. So beautiful.
"Seiya…"
"Shhh. You don't have to tell me, I know. I just thought that since you and your boyfriend broke up that I might have a chance, but I know that could never happen." He looked down defeated.
"And why not?" Usagi said with a playful smile. "Why couldn't we ever be together?"
Seiya looked up from his hands to her face once again and saw that smile, that slight seductive smile that was on display just for him. This was his moment and he wasn't going to waste it. He felt Usagi's hand on his as he brought his other hand up at the base of her skull and slowly lulled his passion onto her. A searing kiss that they had both been waiting for and it seemed so right. The bright moonlight that had been filtering in through the window disappeared to leave only the flickering light of the television.
"Seiya, I want you to stay here with me." Usagi said as they broke away.
A goofy grin played across Seiya's face as words could not express how incredibly elated he felt at that moment. His Odango wanted him to stay with her. "But what about your future, your set in stone future and the thing that you were so afraid of losing?" Seiya asked, afraid that he had just reminded her of her problems and she would change her mind. But it would be better if she did it now than to wait until it was too late, ne?
Usagi smiled once again as she took Seiya's hands in her own. "Obviously my future isn't set in stone, you weren't originally part of my future and now I know that I can't have a future without you." She kissed him lightly as she felt a tear coming to her eye. "And the ting that I was so afraid of losing… right now I'm more afraid of losing you." She hugged him tightly so that he couldn't get away. "You can fill that void for me and you can some day replace what was lost."
Seiya buried his face in her hair that hung in front of his face as he wrapped his arms around her small body taking in every ounce of her and never wanting to let go. Everything about this moment was intoxicating. He took a deep breath in and spoke one word to her as he exhaled now that he knew his place in life, in the universe, here with Usagi. "Aishiteru."
"Aishiteru."
~@~@~@~
The lights around them seemed to dim and Haruka looked up to the sky where the bright moon should be. It was missing, the night sky was empty except for the twinkle of stars. "What happened?"
"Where are you going?" Michiru asked Setsuna as she held her henshin stick above her head.
"I have to go the gates of time. I have to talk to my future self." She said calmly before calling out her transformation phrase. In a flash of brilliant colors Sailor Pluto replaced Setsuna and quickly disappeared with a wave of her time staff.
Mamoru stood and stared at where she had just been. What was going on? Everything was happening and changing so quickly, he had so many questions and not enough answers. Chibi-Usa turned to leave also. "Where are you going now?" He asked afraid that if he let her out of his sight she would disappear forever.
"Don't worry Mamoru, you and Usagi have broken up but I'm still here. I have to find Helios." She said in a determined tone. "I have to stop him." With this she was out the door and heading into town.
~@~@~@~
The apartment was dark and neither of them bothered to turn the lights up from their faint glow. It was unbelievably dark outside. "The moon has left Earth's pull." Taiki commented as he looked absently out the window.
"I guess she was alright." Yaten smirked letting the problem that plagued them sit on the back burner for a moment. "He finally got his wish." He joined Taiki's side to look into the now seemingly empty sky.
"It's too bad that he's going to have to leave her now." Taiki said looking to Yaten for his reaction.
Yaten's face fell. He thought of the fact that Seiya had finally found the love that he had been searching for and so had he, but they were both going to have to leave them behind out of their love and duty for their Princess. "I know."
Taiki knew about Yaten's meetings with Minako as much as he tried to cover them up. It had taken a strong willed young woman to get past his defenses and Minako filled that position perfectly. Taiki felt an aching grow in his heart as he thought of the water senshi that he was also going to have to leave behind. It was inevitable.
~@~@~@~
Kakyuu sat on the couch in the living room as she heard the click of a bedroom door closing. Helios joined her in seconds. "She's sleeping." He said as he walked towards the door.
"You do know what's going to happen don't you." Kakyuu questioned him, perhaps he wasn't aware of how much he was hurting himself.
Helios looked back at her with his hand on the knob with a certain glisten to his eyes. "I know. I need some air." He was gone.
He walked out on the sidewalk and looked around at the night that was taking place around him. He looked to the side and thought of a time not too long ago when Odango laid Mamoru out on the pavement. He laughed a bit at the memory and unfortunately he knew there were more to come. "I came back in the past to heal my broken heart and only ended up breaking it again because I was blind."
"I didn't mean to break your heart." A voice came up behind him as he turned to see Chibi-Usa standing behind him.
Part XI
"Mamoru! How many times did I tell you to keep your dirty hands off of my sandwich!?" Haruka bellowed through the house.
"Calm down." Michiru hushed her as she cut away the part of the sandwich that Mamoru had managed to sneak a bite of. "He and Setsuna are talking in the other room, we shouldn't disturb them."
Haruka gladly accepted the sandwich and went back to watching TV.
"Prince you do realize that the future that we know and have built is gone if you and Usagi don't get back together." Setsuna sipped on her tea as the two sat in the observatory looking out at the night.
A silly smirk appeared on his face as he set his cup down and looked over at Setsuna. "Is that necessarily a bad thing?" There was a certain look in his eyes that she couldn't ignore and apparently neither could some one else.
"Mamoru!" A voice unfamiliar to them both but yet some how similar to some one they both knew sounded through the room. A pink haired young woman was crawling in through the window just beside Setsuna.
"Small Lady!" Setsuna stood shocked while Mamoru helped her in the window and to stand on her feet.
"Chibi-Usa, what are you doing here?" Mamoru asked confused, (well wouldn't you be?).
"I came here to stop him from changing our future." Chibi-Usa stated calming herself and taking a seat on one of the iron chairs beside the table Setsuna and Mamoru had previously been seated at.
"Seiya?" Setsuna questioned.
Chibi-Usa got a puzzled look on her face. "Who's Seiya?" She asked. She had no idea who this person was that they were referring to which only reinforced in their minds that he wasn't a part of their future.
"If you're not here to stop Seiya, then who are you talking about?" Mamoru asked hoping to god she wasn't referring to himself.
"Helios!" Chibi-Usa said in a shocked tone. Hadn't they seen him?
"Helios?" Mamoru and Setsuna questioned at the same time. "What would he want to change our future for?"
The pink haired girl picked up the cup that used to be her future father's and began to sip the tea casually. "I betrayed him in the future and now he has come back to the past to set it straight."
"So what's so bad about that? You screwed up, why should he suffer for it?" Mamoru said, still a little disgruntled that she had stolen his tea, let alone his moment alone with Setsuna.
"No, you don't understand. He saw the situation that came to be between the two of us as just a repeat of what happened between you and Usagi."
"What?! Usagi betrays me? With who? I'll kill him!" Mamoru is enraged but calms quickly when he feels Setsuna's hand on his arm.
Chibi-Usa cocks a brow at him and continues. "Anyway… No, Usagi doesn't betray you, but her heart does. I never personally saw it, but Mars always told me that my mother loved some one other than my father. This is what Helios is trying to set right."
Mamoru sat back a little relieved. "Well if it makes you feel better, we haven't seen him or heard from him at all."
"What are you kidding me?" Chibi-Usa stands with her hands on the table. "He helped free your hostage! He's out there prancing around right now with Kakyuu and Odango!"
"What!" Setsuna and Mamoru choke out together. By now Michiru and Haruka have heard the commotion and have come running into the room. "Helios is Aisoku?" Setsuna asks.
"Helios is here?" Michiru questions just coming into the conversation.
"Yes, he's here, posing as a boy named Aisoku and working with Princess Kakyuu, and the girl Odango from another world to break Mamoru and Usagi up." Chibi-Usa calmed down and recapped the events for Haruka and Michiru.
Setsuna looked from Mamoru to Chibi-Usa. 'But Mamoru and Usagi did break up, why is Chibi-Usa still here?' She thought as she just witnessed the madness around her.
~@~@~@~
The Starlights detransformed and began heading back to their apartment. Seiya was taking up the rear of the group but suddenly stopped. "I'll meet up with you guys later, I'm going to check to see if Odango is alright."
"Seiya!" Yaten yelled at him. "What the hell are you thinking? That girl just turned out to be a Starlight senshi, she knows where Kakyuu is and she's still on the loose, oh yeah, added bonus, she knows who we 'really' are too!"
"I know. We'll talk about this when I get home, but right now I have to check on Odango. Morgan looked really upset when we ran into her and she had just come from Usagi's house, I just want to make sure she's alright." Seiya looked at the ground, he could feel Yaten's angry eyes on him. He knew that Yaten could sense how he felt about their mission on Earth this time, so similar to the last time.
"Go, we'll talk when you get home." Taiki said calmly and motioned for Yaten to follow him home.
Seiya started walking in the direction of Usagi's house. "Please be ok Odango." He said to the moon. He stopped and stared curiously at it. It seemed so distant as if it had shrunk from the last time he had looked up at it. Something was not right. He picked up his pace and started running to his destination.
Usagi heard a pounding on her door and assumed that it was Morgan coming back from flipping out. "Yeah, yeah, yeah, I hear ya!" She said as she set her popcorn bowl down. When she opened the door it revealed a huffing Seiya. "Seiya?"
"Oi Odango." He waved nonchalantly as he caught his breath. "May I come in?" He asked seeing how she was blocking the doorway.
Usagi came out of her stupor and realized how rude she was being and moved aside to let him pass. "What are you doing here?"
Seiya shot her one of his sexy grins. "What? You're not happy to see me?" A blush came to Usagi's cheeks and he could see that wasn't true. "I just came to see if you were alright."
"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?" She asked confused as she resumed her seat on the couch and offered for Seiya to join her.
Seiya allowed himself to relax a bit as he sank into the soft cushions of the couch. It felt like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders just hearing that she was alright. "We ran into Morgan as she made a mad dash down the street. What happened? She looked really upset. She didn't do anything to you did she?"
Usagi was confused. "What would she do to me?" She flipped through the channels until she landed on the one she was looking for. "We were just watching her show and she suddenly flipped out and left."
Seiya looked from Usagi to the television to see a cartoon version of Morgan acting on the screen. "She's… she's…"
"I told you she was a cartoon character, but did you want to listen? Noooo…" This came as no big surprise to Usagi, but Seiya was in utter shock. Now he knew why Morgan was flipping out when he saw her, obviously she hadn't known either.
"Odango…" Seiya regained his composure and turned to Usagi. "Odango, you should stay away from her."
"What?" Usagi asked putting down her handful of popcorn. "Why? She's my friend."
Seiya had concern written across his face. "Odango, she's dangerous, she's…"
"No Seiya, what's gotten into you?" Usagi put the bowl down on the coffee table in front of them.
"She's a sailor senshi!" He finally got out. "She's a Starlight."
Usagi's eyes widened. "That's great!"
"No, we don't know if she's on our side or not, we've never heard anything about her, to make matters worse, she knows where Kakyuu is." Seiya looked down.
Usagi moved closer to him on the couch and looked at him with a smile. "That's a good thing. I'm sure she's our friend. I can just feel it, and now you're going to find your princess! That should make you happy."
"It doesn't." He said in a whisper but Usagi caught it.
"What do you mean, I thought you'd want to go… home…" Her voice was wistful as she trailed off.
"I… I don't want to leave again. I want to stay here… with you." He said as he brought his face up to look into her eyes. So beautiful.
"Seiya…"
"Shhh. You don't have to tell me, I know. I just thought that since you and your boyfriend broke up that I might have a chance, but I know that could never happen." He looked down defeated.
"And why not?" Usagi said with a playful smile. "Why couldn't we ever be together?"
Seiya looked up from his hands to her face once again and saw that smile, that slight seductive smile that was on display just for him. This was his moment and he wasn't going to waste it. He felt Usagi's hand on his as he brought his other hand up at the base of her skull and slowly lulled his passion onto her. A searing kiss that they had both been waiting for and it seemed so right. The bright moonlight that had been filtering in through the window disappeared to leave only the flickering light of the television.
"Seiya, I want you to stay here with me." Usagi said as they broke away.
A goofy grin played across Seiya's face as words could not express how incredibly elated he felt at that moment. His Odango wanted him to stay with her. "But what about your future, your set in stone future and the thing that you were so afraid of losing?" Seiya asked, afraid that he had just reminded her of her problems and she would change her mind. But it would be better if she did it now than to wait until it was too late, ne?
Usagi smiled once again as she took Seiya's hands in her own. "Obviously my future isn't set in stone, you weren't originally part of my future and now I know that I can't have a future without you." She kissed him lightly as she felt a tear coming to her eye. "And the ting that I was so afraid of losing… right now I'm more afraid of losing you." She hugged him tightly so that he couldn't get away. "You can fill that void for me and you can some day replace what was lost."
Seiya buried his face in her hair that hung in front of his face as he wrapped his arms around her small body taking in every ounce of her and never wanting to let go. Everything about this moment was intoxicating. He took a deep breath in and spoke one word to her as he exhaled now that he knew his place in life, in the universe, here with Usagi. "Aishiteru."
"Aishiteru."
~@~@~@~
The lights around them seemed to dim and Haruka looked up to the sky where the bright moon should be. It was missing, the night sky was empty except for the twinkle of stars. "What happened?"
"Where are you going?" Michiru asked Setsuna as she held her henshin stick above her head.
"I have to go the gates of time. I have to talk to my future self." She said calmly before calling out her transformation phrase. In a flash of brilliant colors Sailor Pluto replaced Setsuna and quickly disappeared with a wave of her time staff.
Mamoru stood and stared at where she had just been. What was going on? Everything was happening and changing so quickly, he had so many questions and not enough answers. Chibi-Usa turned to leave also. "Where are you going now?" He asked afraid that if he let her out of his sight she would disappear forever.
"Don't worry Mamoru, you and Usagi have broken up but I'm still here. I have to find Helios." She said in a determined tone. "I have to stop him." With this she was out the door and heading into town.
~@~@~@~
The apartment was dark and neither of them bothered to turn the lights up from their faint glow. It was unbelievably dark outside. "The moon has left Earth's pull." Taiki commented as he looked absently out the window.
"I guess she was alright." Yaten smirked letting the problem that plagued them sit on the back burner for a moment. "He finally got his wish." He joined Taiki's side to look into the now seemingly empty sky.
"It's too bad that he's going to have to leave her now." Taiki said looking to Yaten for his reaction.
Yaten's face fell. He thought of the fact that Seiya had finally found the love that he had been searching for and so had he, but they were both going to have to leave them behind out of their love and duty for their Princess. "I know."
Taiki knew about Yaten's meetings with Minako as much as he tried to cover them up. It had taken a strong willed young woman to get past his defenses and Minako filled that position perfectly. Taiki felt an aching grow in his heart as he thought of the water senshi that he was also going to have to leave behind. It was inevitable.
~@~@~@~
Kakyuu sat on the couch in the living room as she heard the click of a bedroom door closing. Helios joined her in seconds. "She's sleeping." He said as he walked towards the door.
"You do know what's going to happen don't you." Kakyuu questioned him, perhaps he wasn't aware of how much he was hurting himself.
Helios looked back at her with his hand on the knob with a certain glisten to his eyes. "I know. I need some air." He was gone.
He walked out on the sidewalk and looked around at the night that was taking place around him. He looked to the side and thought of a time not too long ago when Odango laid Mamoru out on the pavement. He laughed a bit at the memory and unfortunately he knew there were more to come. "I came back in the past to heal my broken heart and only ended up breaking it again because I was blind."
"I didn't mean to break your heart." A voice came up behind him as he turned to see Chibi-Usa standing behind him.