Author's Note: This week has been hell, I have SAT's Saturday, and a test and a quiz tomorrow. However, IT'S HALLOWEEN! Who cares if I do my homework? …Okay I care. Still, we should take advantage of the night and I know I am! ::stuffs a snickers into mouth and keeps typing:: On with ficcie!

            Hilde sat on the edge of Ayeka's bed, brushing her daughter's hair. It had grown down to her knees, and the only good thing about its style was that it was its own. Hilde didn't know what possessed her daughter to cut it so strangely, short in front with two long pigtails coming out in back. "You know, you're getting older and boys will be interested…" Hilde started.

            Ayeka groaned. "Is this that talk? Mom, I'm sixteen, I don't need it again. As I said before, there isn't anyone like that for me." Hilde sighed. Her daughter seemed to be so sure she'd never have a boyfriend or get married. When asked about her hopes for a career, she usually dismissed it with some confusing remark about the meaning of life. It was very aggravating for her parents, who only wanted the best for her. Ayeka stood and put the brush away. Then she twirled around and held up her arms. "What do you think?"

            Hilde smiled. "You look wonderful, now let's go." They left Ayeka's bedroom and proceeded down the hall and a set of stairs to a large room. Several guests had already arrived, and Ayeka ran down into the arms of her friend, Serena. Hilde looked around and noticed there was a group of young people off to one side. They were all very good-looking, and looked rather confidant, but Hilde couldn't recognize them. When Serena and Ayeka joined them and a Hilde saw a few motions associated with an introduction, she felt better. Good, more friends.

            Then she turned her head and something flashed in the corner of her eye. She looked back at the group and narrowed her eyes. What was that? It couldn't be that they were…!

            Ayeka looked at the group. She smiled and nodded and hugged, while her heart warmed. There was something about these people, even though they were all such different personalities, that strummed a chord in her soul. It was like she knew them. The one named Setsuna, who was quite a bit older than the others, seemed particularly interesting. Ayeka smiled at her and said, "I feel like I've met you before, have you ever visited Colony X18999?"

            Setsuna gave one of her calm smiles and nodded. "I have, I taught there for a year." The others traded looks. They hadn't known that.

            Ayeka gasped. "Now I remember! You taught an art class I took one summer while visiting Aunt Misaki!"

            Something happened to Setsuna then. Her composed exterior seemed to fall and she leaned forward to give Ayeka a hug. Ayeka was somewhat surprised by this move, but reached up and hugged the woman back. Setsuna stepped back and looked at Ayeka with eyes ready to shed tears. "You were the girl with the unique dreams. I still carry a photograph of you holding that painting you did in my class." She took it out of her purse. Holding it out for Ayeka to see, she said, "I always felt like you had taken a look into my soul."

            It was a very disturbing painting for a child to make. The colors were all deep purples, greens, grays, and red. The background was a black landscape with a green light haloing it. It bleed into gray near the top, and the foreground was dominated by a phantom, purple figure that had bright red footprints trailing behind it like blood. On closer inspection, one could see the blood was actually tiny flowers.

            Ayeka blushed. "My parents told me to stop painting after I came home with that. I tried rainbows, but they never looked happy." Her eyes turned sad. Setsuna put the picture away and rested a sympathetic hand on Ayeka's shoulder.

            "Try again, maybe now that you're older they will be able to understand." Ayeka nodded. Then Odin came over and introductions were administered again. The break in Setsuna's mask of composure had been repaired and she was once again herself. Ayeka remained quiet, however, for the rest of the party.

            The next day, Serena found her friend in an unused room with sheets over everything. They were clean, so they must have been placed there recently. Ayeka was sitting on a stool in front of an easel and staring at it. A smudge of black paint was on her nose. Her purple hair was tied up rather messily and she had paint all over her hands. Serena walked around and asked, "What are you doing? Oh!" Serena stared.

            It was very bright. The scene before her was so familiar it was eerie, but that couldn't be. What Ayeka had painted was a silhouette in front of a backdrop of white crystal. The figure reminded Serena of Ayeka—a bit. Ayeka looked at Serena nervously. "I don't know, I think I've lost my touch."

            Serena gaped. "Are you kidding? That looks great! Oh! Can I go show Mom and Dad?" She reached out.

            Ayeka smacked her hand away. "Don't touch! It's oil paint, so it'll take a few days to dry." She carefully picked it up by the frame in back and set it aside. She set a fresh canvas on the easel and studied it. Serena watched as Ayeka withdrew. It wasn't a physical act, but she could see Ayeka's mind suddenly become very distant. Serena felt an itch in the back of her head and decided she was thinking too hard. She walked away and left her friend to her painting.

            Serena was going down the hall when she tripped over something. "Ouch!" she said. She looked up into the red eyes of a very odd cat. There was a crescent moon on its forehead, quite unusual. "Hey there, my you're cute!" she said, and she scratched its head. The cat purred.

            "Oooo, that feels good," the cat said with a woman's voice.

            Serena snatched her hand back and stared. "You can talk!"

            The cat licked her paw and said, "Of course I can, what good is a royal adviser if she can't speak? I am Luna, at your lady's service." Serena eyed her new vassal uneasily.

            "Uh-huh, Okay, right. I think I'll be going to my room now." The cat loyally followed her new queen down the hall.

~ 2 weeks later~

            Heero Yuy eyed his son from the opposite side of the room. The boy was restless, and beginning to act a little more than preoccupied. He watched as Odin absently turned the pages of the book he was holding. The book was upside down. What this meant, Heero could only guess, and he hadn't been looking forward to this day. His son was now in love, the unrequited kind from the looks of it. Who could it be? What luckless chit had crossed his son's path and had an opportunity to do this?

            Odin set the book aside and got up slowly. Heero looked down quickly and acted uninterested until his son was in front of his desk. Heero looked up. Odin was staring intently at the letter opener and asked quietly, "Dad, how did Mom find out that you liked her?"

            Heero was thankful it was such an easy question. "Well, it was sort of a mutual thing. You see, women like your mother have this strange ability to sense what a guy isn't saying. As I didn't speak much—still don't according to most—this was priceless. It has also served her well as a politician." He raised an eyebrow. "Why do you ask?"

            Odin sighed. "There's this girl I've liked for a while," so they were old acquaintances, elementary school? "—and she's never shown much interest in me in that way, but I can't figure out if I should tell her."

            Heero felt like sighing. Here was the hard question. "Well, there's no easy answer to that one. The bottom line is that if she's an old friend, she may see you as just that. Then again, she may share you feelings and be rather shy about it. All I can recommend is go ask your mother."

            Not getting the answer he wanted from his father, Odin decided he was really running out of people to ask. He left his father's office and went across the hall to his mother's home office. She looked up from the phone and smiled. She listened to whatever the person on the phone was saying, muttering positively once in a while, then hung up. "TO what may I owe the pleasure of this visit?"

            Odin sat in a chair and said, "Dad told me to come to you, because he couldn't help me." Relena waited patiently for him to word his request. "How did you know Dad loved you?"

            Relena grinned. "It's just one of those things I picked up from him. I read between the lines of his every action and expression, of which there weren't many."

            Odin leaned his head on the chair arm. "I can't do that, so I might as well ask you outright: How can I tell if a girl likes me?"

            Relena's eyes lit up. "You have a crush? Who? Do I know her? Does Lana?"

            He'd known this would happen if he came here. "I'm not about to release that information to the public."

            She smiled. "Forgive me, but as to your question, it depends on who it is. If you study people and watch her carefully when with others and then when she's with you, well, that should tell you." She paused. "Unless she has very good discipline, then it's an entirely different task. As I said, it depends on the individual."

            Odin left the room and went down the hall. His sister, Lana, poked her head out her door and smiled at him. "How'd it go?"

            He shook his head. "It was just like you said, they couldn't tell me." Lana sighed and let him into her room. Odin sat on the baby blue comforter and hung his head. "You'd think I'd have figure it all out by now, I'm in college for crying out loud!"

            Lana sat next to him and said, "I could always ask, you know, as a fellow gal."

            Odin shook his head. "No, I couldn't ask that."

            She shook her head. "Well, you better do something soon, or she'll end up whisked off her feet like Serena." Then she turned to work on her newest hobby.

            Ayeka looked around her adapted studio. The dreams had returned when she resumed painting, and now were coming out in paintings she couldn't remember doing. She picked one of the more recent ones up and frowned. They had all turned rather morbid. Then she looked at the others and slowly went through her work, picking up pieces here and there until she had a small stack. She set them out in front of herself and stared. Yes, arranged in just this way, they formed a larger painting, a group painting.

            She bit her lip and looked away. It was two distinct parts, one a group of people in silhouette, the other a distant figure which was definitely supposed to be her. The most disturbing party was the ghostly form of a hand over the group. In each of its pieces, it wasn't identifiable, but now it was very clear.

            Ayeka stacked them and shoved them under a sheet. She didn't like it. She painted without being aware of it, and the dreams were only getting worse, and in many her friends were being hurt. Maybe she should stop painting, it was all a big mistake to take it up again.

            Frustrated with her failure, Ayeka stomped out of the room and went to find Mrs. Luna. The new President was spending some time with her white cat, Artemis, when Ayeka came in. "What is it?" she asked.

            Ayeka folded her hands and asked, "Could you get the fifth study cleared out? I know it was a both to get everything covered up, but I'm finished. Where could I get rid of my paintings?"

            Serenity smiled. "I'll take care of it all, don't worry." Ayeka walked out, satisfied.

Author's Note2: Sorry this isn't any longer than usual, but time and inspiration have been lacking. I spent two day's worth of free time just to do this much, and the SAT's are in the morning! ::starts pulling out hair:: Sorry, folks.