When the Senshi's Away, the Cats Will Play

Chapter 6

Luna sighed, and snuggled in close to the warm pillow she was sleeping against. It even conformed nicely for her, seeming to snuggle right back. She would have drifted off, back to sleep, except for a little girl giggling.

'Is Chibi-Usa back?' Luna thought to her self. Opening one green eye, she focused on the little girl in question. "Oh, yes. Artemis and I came to stay with Koneko. Looks like she's cheery this morning." She kneaded here pillow, and laid her head back upon it, noticing the soft, relaxing purrs coming from it.

'Wait purrs?' Very, very slowly she lifted her head and took a careful look at the pillow. Strangely the first thing she really noticed was that Koneko was kneeling beside the bed, looking at her with a happy smile. Then she looked down at her "Pillow" to find Artemis, laying "Spooned" along her back, one of his rear legs tossed over her own, and there tails wound together in a rather intimate way.

Fighting down the rush of warmth she felt at the sight, and feelings, she looked at the once again giggling Koneko. "Um...Would you please help me, Koneko-chan?" Hoping the little girl would pick her up, extracting her from this position before Artemis realized what was going on.

Koneko smiled, nodded, and lightly tapped Artemis on the head. "Wake up Mr. Artemis!" She said in a soft, but cheerful, voice. Luna's frozen look of shock completely unnoticed by the girl.

Artemis blinked, then yawned and blearily looked about. Seeing the position that he and Luna shared, then finally her face (Completely missing her expression in his sleep fogged vision) he muttered "Must still be dreaming. Oh well." His face moved close to Luna's and he kissed her, softly, before laying his head back onto the bed. "Wish this were real!"

Koneko giggled happily. She knew boyfriends and girlfriends kissed, and since Artemis kissed Luna, they MUST be boyfriend and girlfriend! She was so happy for them!

Luna, however, wasn't having as easy a time wrapping her brain about what just happened. Her thoughts honestly sounded more like 'He kissed me! Artemis just KISSED me! That felt really good...BAD! I meant that felt really go...BAD! I wonder how he learned to kiss so well! WAIT! That is not important!' she spent a few more moments trying to figure out what was, and wasn't, important.

Artemis for his part was coming to his own realizations. 'Man, this is a good dream! Luna's lips are so warm! Wait. I...I shouldn't feel heat in a dream. Or presure for that matter!' He opened his eyes and looked over Luna and his positions. 'But, this is a scene like from a dream?'

Noticing the giggles from behind him, he turned and found koneko, with mischief in her eyes, looking at them.

"Luna and Artemis, sitting in a tree..." She began to sing.

"Wait, this is real?" Artemis asked in shocked amazement.

"K-I-S-S-I-N-G!"

'OH HOLY MOON!' Luna thought. 'I ENJOYED that KISS!"

"First comes love!"

Artemis looked at Luna's face, and saw her blush even through the black fur.

"Then comes marrage!"

Luna looked back at Artemis 'Am I actually...In love with him?' she flipped over, untagling their tails as she did so.

"Then comes Artemis with a baby carrage!"

"LUNA...DON'T!" Artemis cried out, just before Luna pushed against his stomach and chest with all four feet, launching him off the bed with the combined strength of a cat and panicking woman.

"I...need to think!" Luna said, hopping up and hiding atop Koneko's bureau.

Artemis lay on the floor and groaned. "She didn't use claws, so that's a good sign."

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Luna didn't get much time to think, as it turned out. "Koneko! Time to wake up!" Mrs. Shimaka knocked on the door, before opening it. She found her daughter, wide awake, and holding the white cat, Artemis, and apparently trying to talk the black cat, Luna she remembered, into coming down from the dresser.

"Koneko, where did those cats come from?"

"Ms. Luna and Mr. Artemis came so I wouldn't be scared last night." Answered the little girl. "They slept with me, then when I woke up the cuddled together, and then they woke up and kissed! Now Ms. Luna won't come down, though."

Mrs. Shimaka chuckled. "Cats don't kiss, Dear." Picking up Luna she thought to herself 'They can look embarrassed, though.'

Koneko looked at Artemis "Yes you can can't you Mr. Artemis?" Then she kissed the top of the mostly white, ignoring the red tint showing through his fur, cats forehead.

Mrs. Shimaka set the other cat on the bed, then went to her daughters closet. "Good news, Koneko-chan! We're going to visit grandma!"

"Goodie!" The little girl squealed. "Is daddy coming?"

"He'll come up this weekend. Now help me pack your things."

The two Shimaka women were soon packing, the two cats watching from different perches. The mother thought that her daughter asking the black cat about which dress to pack was just too cute. Of course she didn't notice the cat nodding or shaking her head at each choice.

"Ms. Luna says I should pack this dress!" Holding up a soft blue sundress.

"Well, Ms. Luna has very good taste!" She said, folding the dress to pack. It was a nice dress, actually.

Luna, for her part, was just enjoying not having to think about Artemis.

After the bag was packed, mother and daughter went down for breakfast, the cats following. Detective Shimaka was waiting for them "There are my two ladies! Where did those cats come from?"

"This is Mr. Artemis, and that is Ms. Luna!" Koneko chirped thinking her father was being very silly. Of course, she had forgotten he only knew them as human.

Mrs. Shimaka, seeing her husbands perplexed expression leaned forward and kissed his cheek, whispering "They are Artemis and Luna's cats. I think they named them after each other."

"Ah!" He crouched down. "Well hello there, Mr. Artemis! You two Ms. Luna!" He looked up. "Do you know how they got in the house?"

"A widow is how. The one in spare bedroom was open."

"They came so I would feel good last night! They slept with me!"

"More likely, they got locked out of the house, and wanted a warm place to sleep." Mrs. Shimaka said with a laugh.

Mr. Shimaka stood up. "I don't know. My mother had a cat, Tiger, when I was little. I swear they knew when some one was upset and would climb on their lap and make them pet him. I think old Tiger thought if he felt good, then they must feel good as well!"

The two Moon Cats thought that sounded logical. Of course, they are Moon CATS.

Soon, the family was at the table, and Artemis and Luna rather enjoying their own portion of eggs in saucers on the floor, since Mrs. Shimaka never let a guest leave hungry.

"So, you excited about visiting Grandma?" Detective Shimaka asked his daughter. He smiled when she just nodded, her mouth full of food. "Good, you have fun while your there!"

"I will daddy!" Looking over at the cats, she asked "can Artemis and Luna come, daddy?"

"I think they should stay with their family, Dear. They'll be here when you get back!" He winked. "Both sets of them!"

"Okay, daddy." She said, with only a little pout.

Looking to his wife, the Detective turned to the travel arrangements. "Sgt. Hibuki will pick you up and take you to the train station at two. Are you both packed and ready?"

"Yes, Dai! I just wish you were coming too!"

He smiled, and squeezed his wife's hand. "Just a couple of days and I testify, then it's all over. I'll sleep at the station, till then." He winked. "Some of the guys are already planning which drunk tank to toss me into!"
She giggled. "As long as it isn't with the 'Working Girls', I don't care!" Causing her husband to chuckle, too.

Kuragi was terrified. The Gaki was angry, armed, and in his house. More importantly he was at the foot of his bed! "I didn't know!"

"Perhaps not." Gaki replied, absent-mindedly flipping the knife in his hand open and closed, the butterfly knife clicking like a metronome. "But this is still going to cost you. Let's say, triple what we originally agreed?"

"Three Times?" The Yakuza businessman paled.

"You're right. Four times the original price!" Gaki walked to the mans balcony, pocketing the knife. "I'll contact you with the location to bring the money tomorrow evening." Then he seemed to vanish.

Kuragi ran out to his balcony and searched around and below it, then ran back inside to find his supposed bodyguards.

Gaki, for his part, just chuckled as he watched the half-dressed man from the roof. He then calmly walked over to the other side of the apartment building, and climbed down the fire escape. He slipped into the car waiting for him and nodded to the driver. "It is on. Are the other boys ready?"

"Yeah, we have the van and Toku called to say the boat has been secured." He chuckled. "He also said heroin is going to shoot up in price on the street."

"'Shoot up in price' will it? What a fascinating choice of words." The assassin chuckled.

The younger assassin looked at his boss. "Sir...I'm not sure about the girl. I mean, the adults sure, kill them both no problem. And if those Senshi are stupid enough to interfere, whack them too, but the little girl doesn't deserve it!" He shuddered to himself.

Gaki looked at the driver, frowning, but nodded. "Okay, we'll leave the girl alive...But it's coming out of your share if the oyabun wannabe throws a fit."

"I can live with that."

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"Why did I let you talk me into this?" Luna glared at Artemis as they hid under a bush. The under cover police car picking up the Shimaka girls only a few feet away. "We could just change into humans and say good bye to both of them, at the car. We don't have to go to the train station." Luna wouldn't admit she WANTED to go, but she was trying to be realistic. Really. She even tapped the tool that would allow them to do it. "I have the pen right here!"

"Because you want to see Koneko off, too! Now remember, when the door opens, run in and hide!"

"You do realize they will catch us, right?"

"Think positive!"

Luna just shook her head. Both cats watched as the humans stepped out of the house, and walked to the car. Mrs. Shimaka let Koneko in the back, leaving the door open, then went to help Officer Tanaka put the luggage into the trunk.

Artemis and Luna dashed into the still open rear door, and hid under the seats. Artemis holding a paw up to his lips so Koneko knew to be quiet. Neither realized they left the Disguise pen behind.

Sgt Hibuki looked back and smiled at the girl's giggles, not really knowing what caused them.

Soon, they where off, and no one noticed the two cats till Artemis poked his tail out from under it by mistake. Mrs. Shimaka leaned down to look under the seat "how did you get in here! Bad kitty...Kitties!" She reached under the seat and pulled both cats out by the scruff of their necks. "How did you get in here?" The pointed look she gave her daughter revealing how SHE thought they did.

The sergeant looked back. "She didn't move from her seat, though I bet they are why she was giggling before we left. They did it on their own."

"Sarge, aren't those the cats..."
The Sergeant looked over at his partner and just mouthed "Saw nothing!"

"Um, yeah...right."

Mrs. Shimaka, and the two cats, missed that exchange, as she set Luna on her daughter's lap, while Artemis found him self on her own. "Can you drive them back to the neighbor hood? I forgot to find out Mr. Chiba's address, but the cats come over all the time."

"Sure, no problem ma'am." He glanced back with a smile, then looked forward.

He only had enough time to widen his eyes before the other car hit them head on!

Artemis, who was just sitting on the mother's lap, was launched forward, fortunately landing feet first against the now shattered window, the safety glass barely holding together. Luna on the other hand was clutched tightly in Koneko's arms, and stayed with the girl, by some turn of fate.

A man wearing a helmet climbed out of the wreaked, car checking to make sure the cops where both out. A van pulled up next to the car, several more men climbing out, two with clubs and one with a stun gun. They pulled open the door, and stunned Koneko's mother, dragging her into the van. Another man reached in and grabbed Koneko, pulling her, and the black cat in her arms out. Ducking back into the van, they tore off, leaving the other car where it crashed.

Artemis stood up and ran to the back seat "LUNA!" He yelled, not caring who heard him. He was just about to hop out, seemingly to chase the van on foot.

"Help..." Sgt Hibuki wheezed. "Oh please help..." He was looking right at the white cat...gasping for air while blood ran down his forehead. His partner was halfway through the windshield but somehow was still breathing. Artemis was left with a choice.

Jumping to the console, he stepped down on the mike's button. "Help! I need help here! There was an accident and two officers are hurt!" 'I'll find you Luna...and you Koneko! And when I find them!'

The snarl of rage would have been far more fitting on a tiger, then a small White House cat.

AN: Muwahahahahahahaaha...but what are we going to do? Artemis is pissed, but what can a little house cat do? I wonder.

Course, there is still Tuxedo Mask in the wings, but can a rose tossing hero, and a cat, really match a troop of trained killers? Before they can kill their victims? This is what we call a "cliff hanger" children. Don'cha just hate me?