"When Dawn Comes"
By Kimra
Part X
Firm lips pressing in against hers, pushing her back into the wall with a force of passion that she had never experience before. She trembled in a thousand places but her hands where controlled, skimming over taut muscles, and clamping down in velvet soft hair. She could feel him strain against her, pressing her deeper into the wall, and she wondered desperately if the wall would hold.
What the? Serena gasped, her body jolting her into an upright position as her eyes flew about the room desperately. Nobody. It was just a dream. Her mind was jittery with confusion, and she checked again. But the only people in the room were herself and a sleeping cat.
She couldn't remember falling asleep, though a quickly glance at the clock told her she hadn't been asleep for more then an hour. Hardly enough sleep to make up for last night. Serena fell back onto the soft pillows, her eyes wide as she stared at the roof.
The shock of the moment, of the feelings still pumping through her body with alarming intensity kept her trembling fiercely. There was no possibility of more sleep that night.
Serena get a grip. She told herself repeatedly as the dream shifted through her mind, but it told her nothing. She still repeated it in her head, her body tensing at the images, confusion engulfing her. This isn't helping. She growled and threw her blankets across the room, not caring if it woke her guardian or anyone else in the house. She staggered out of her room and down the stairs heading directly for the kitchen and food.
She raided her fridge with all the impish intensions of a mid-night snack, only to realise as she stared at the gathered food that she still wasn't hungry.
"Why me?" She begged the ceiling feeling forlorn, she couldn't sleep to distract herself, she couldn't eat to distract herself and she couldn't concentrate enough to read her manga. "You want me to suffer don't you?" Slowly she began repacking the fridge, grumbling her disrespect to whatever gods existed.
Something in the air shifted, catching her attention and drawing a small frown across her brow. She focused on the sensation her eyes slitting as she waited patiently for it to make sense.
The shrill beeping of her communicator broke her attention and for the first time in a long time she grinned at the sound.
"Sanity saving Youma." She muttered as she took the stairs four at a time. It amazed her the sound never woke her family, it rang through the sleeping household resonating off silent walls.
It stopped before she reached the room but she didn't falter in her progression. Opening her door she was greeted with the sight of Luna waiting patiently on the bed, the communicator opened but no longer on.
Serena quirked a smile at the disgruntled cat and snatched her broach of the bed side table.
"Youma attack on Main Street." Luna said even as Serena raised the broach.
"Moon Prism Power." And the power engulfed her light flooding the room as the moon responded to her summons. The searing comfort of power tracing through her veins relaxed and distracted her from mortal concerns.
She did her pose, out of habit. But when she went to jump out of her window Luna stopped her.
"What?" Serena looked down at the cat curiously.
"The pen." Luna warned.
"It didn't work last time." Serena complained all the while grabbing the pen and the cat.
"Try something other then 'make me look clean'" Luna chided from her position in the crook of the girls arm. Serena glanced at the cat for a moment and nodded raising the pen even as she continued her run. "Put me down first!" Luna shouted indignant, and Serena released her, never faltering in her run.
"Luna pen, Make Up. Hide my bruises." Are hickey's bruises? She had heard somewhere that they where a form of bruising.
The pens power poured over her and washed away, leaving her feeling and looking the same as far as she could tell. She stopped at a window, staring into the glass at her sailor clad form to try and see her neck, even with the sounds of battle ringing near by. It didn't look like she had any hickeys, and glancing at her exposed skin she could see no bruises.
"If it interferes in scout business!" Luna warned running up behind her and Serena didn't pause to process the words, she dived into the next street coming to a halt before a Youma that floated ten feet of the ground.
She only took a second to note it's stupid appearance before she was giving a speech. She marvelled at the skill it took to blurt out garbage at random, even when you weren't thinking about it. Shame that'll never pass a test for me. Was possibly the last coherent thought she had before the Youma decided to target her.
She dodged as best she could. Nothing in the past few days making her any more agile or any more capable of fighting. Her mind was at least fixed on the task with unrelenting focus. So maybe that made her a little smoother then usual, perhaps that gave her a bit more of an edge then she could have had, but none of the others noticed, and all she could feel was the pounding in her veins like something was going to happen and it had nothing to do with the Youma.
One lucky shoot from the green tinged floating creature and Serena was staring at a piece of… something… that was hurtling towards her.
For a moment she stood there, unresponsive to the projectile. Tuxedo Mask will save me. Was the thing that kept her calm. But as it continued towards her mind decided to un-focus from the fight to something she had not considered yet. Maybe he knows. Her body lurched at the idea, and the possibility that he would not save her because she had been unfaithful. She dodged with every bit of skill she could muster as the attack hurtled pasted her.
It took her a second to recover from the moment and out of the corner of her eye she could see the Youma's disbelief that she had managed to dodge, her friends too where looking at her a bit oddly.
She wanted to crumble under the realisation that Tuxedo Mask might not want her anymore, if he had ever wanted her, but at least before she had never done anything in particular to drive him away. Your being silly, how would he know? Her sense demanded. Maybe the same way he knows when there's a battle. The same way he always shows up in time to save me. Inner battles where always annoying for her, especially when there was a fight she should have been concentrating on.
Something exploded against her, sending her flying into a building wall.
"Sailor Moon!" Lita's voice shot across the empty street with rage and tinges of concern. Serena shook her head managing to stand up from where she had been, her eyes a little unfocused from the collision. Her three friends, Amy, Raye, and Lita where battling the Youma with renewed intensity in their Scout forms Mercury, Mars, and Jupiter. Luna was staring at her warningly and Serena remembered the threat.
I can't let them find out. Even if he knows, even if he's not going to save me anymore. She wanted to cry again. She probably would have if Luna hadn't been staring at with a promise so blatant that Serena couldn't ignore what it meant. "One Youma, then you can worry about Tux Boy." Serena muttered to herself reassuringly and shook her arm a little to release tense knots that had formed when she wasn't paying attention.
She withdrew her tiara as the scouts continued to battle, focusing her attention on the Youma, ignoring all other things. This is what she had wanted the creature for in the first place. Watching it with animosity her expression creased in concentration.
The battle continued, with her poised on the outskirts, tiara in hand but not charged or moving. She let her friends continue to attack the creature, it wasn't there worst foe, there was no trouble dispatching it, but she feared the second it was gone reality would return to her and she didn't want that.
"Sailor Moon." Mars growled managing to pause and stare at Serena. "Anytime your ready." The scout of fire gritted her teeth a look of unrelenting annoyance flashing through her eyes.
With a sigh Serena drew the tiara back, charging it with her power and watching to be certain the other scouts weren't in the pathway of her attack.
"Moon," It burnt into her hand with it's power, as it always did. "Tiara," She spun on her heel, her friends watching her, her eyes focused on the creature. Will I ever see him again? And she hesitated, giving the creature all the chance it needed, it threw an attack at her, a ball of something green, and possibly electrical raced her way. "Magic." Her voice was dead on the word, her usual flare impossible to mimic at that moment of depression. She hardly registered the fact that the attack aimed for her managed to dodge the tiara, but she did notice the grip around her waist.
She couldn't have ignored the arms that pulled her out of harms way had she tried, it pressed in against the bruise on her back, but fed her the powerful reassurance she had needed that he hadn't abandoned her.
"Tuxedo Mask!" She squeaked as she spun in his hold to face him. Barely a breath apart they stood until she realised exactly where she was and she blushed a furious red taking two steps back. He gave her a half smile, something she couldn't recall him doing before. It gave him the appearance of nervousness and it made her feel extremely odd. "You saved me." Her voice was weaker then she wanted it to be. She wanted to have the usual cheer she portrayed.
"Don't I always?" She could see the frown over his mask, his voice a little uncertain.
"Well you could have done it sooner." Mars snapped from across the street. "Before she hit the building and lost the few bits of sense she had in that ditzy head of hers."
Serena tried to feel indignant but it didn't happen, after all she knew it was true.
"Yeah Se… err Sailor Moon." Jupiter was bright red at her slip. "What's with you today?" Jupiter folded her arms across her chest staring at Serena with much less anger then Mars had.
"Is that the Luna Pen?" Mercury's voice piped in quickly. Serena glanced down to where she had clipped the pen onto her uniform and gripped it tightly. She looked up and met Mercury's frowning expression.
"So?" It came out with bitter anger something she knew she was not renowned for and her friends expressions all clouded over with uncertainty. "I'm going." Serena snapped at them and began her retreat from the confrontation, forgetting Tuxedo Mask in her desperation to be alone.
She didn't get to see three scouts turn predatory eyes on a meek looking cat or a shadow of a hero slipping into the darkness after her.
Serena stopped short two blocks from the fight, her neck tingling with awareness. She turned abruptly and came face to face with her saviour. She licked her lips out of nervousness a small frown playing on her forehead. She couldn't help but wonder if he knew, especially now, that he had followed her. He had never done anything like that before.
"I'm usually the first to leave." His smoky voice drawled, and she felt odd. They had never had many conversations, and those few they had where under situations of duress.
"Well I felt like a change." Serena replied firmly, glad she was still hidden under the Luna Pen's disguise, but afraid he could see through it. She tried not to appear nervous under his gaze but it didn't help that his expression was unreadable behind the mask. He turned his head form her.
"Did you?" The drawl was gone, the same emotionless and flat tone of Tuxedo Mask was back. She felt a little relief for that. The relief went away quickly as he stood there, looking as insecure as she felt.
"Yes." Then there was silence, a silence that stretched at all her nerves. She was desperate to know what he was thinking, what he knew but she held herself back. Any thing, one wrong word and he might figure it out. It was a chance, if he didn't know she refused to do anything to allow him to know. The guilt in the depth of her stomach was testing her ability to appear calm. "What's this about?" Serena chocked out when the weighed silence got too much for her.
His eyes moved back up to her face, a tiny frown obvious.
"Nothing." He went to walk away and she was overwhelmed with the fear that he would leave forever. Something was happening, she didn't know what it was, but this conversation held such importance and she couldn't understand why. Sure she knew nothing about him but she still didn't want him to leave.
"Wait!" She grabbed his arm, hard. The words where on her tongue, a hundred questions, a million apologies but nothing came out. He had turned back to face her his expression hidden in shadows and under the mask. She hated that mask, especially at times like this. "You didn't just follow me for nothing." Serena swallowed the words, wondering why she was dragging the conversation. Sure she had a crush on him, she was even willing to go as far as to say she loved him at times, but it didn't explain the need to finish what ever there conversation was about.
"You took a hit back there. I was just making sure you where okay." A lie, such a lie that even she could see through it but it didn't stop her from appreciating it.
"Yeah I'm fine." Serena replied smiling, for his sake if not her own. There was the briefest flicker of a smile on his lips before he turned once more and she let his arm go. "Thank you for rescuing me again, Tuxedo Mask." Serena called out as he disappeared into the darkness.