Miko no Chikyuu, Gejo no Nihon
AN: Yes!! School is finally over! ^.^ I'll try and get chapters out more often now, and release some new stuff too. Well anyway I would like to thank these people for reviewing my last chapter, I really appreciate it: Firefly Princess (you really are a dedicated reader/reviewer, thanks so much!), LadyS, Galexz, LiLyusagi-chan, Hikari_angel, Heart Soul, Tenshi-chan, Black Aura-Sama, SailorNorthStar7, SaturnActingChick, SakuraMona, and Allie-chan
Usagi: 19
Hotaru: 17
Duo/Quatre/Heero/Wufei: 19
~~~~Three years later~~~~
Hotaru was walking through one of the palaces many gardens, searching for someone. She stopped in front of a beautiful, clear pond covered with blooming lily pads and surrounded with wild flowers. Kneeling down in them, with her expensive silk kimono, smelling the flowers and picking some from the ground.
"It smells like-"
"Heaven." A deep male voice said from behind her, cutting off her own words. Turning her head around she saw no one. Standing up she scanned the area behind her, but still she saw no one. Then suddenly a rose showed up against her cheek that's when Hotaru grabbed the owner's hand. She saw that it belonged to Heero.
"Heero, I've been waiting for you. But you know I hate it when you sneak up on me like that!" Hotaru gave him a playful slap on his shoulder.
"Then lets call it practice for my duties." He said putting the red rose behind her ear.
"Well you're already a royal guard, what more could you ask for?" Heero didn't answer her question but just stared her straight in her eyes. Hotaru could feel her palms getting sweaty and her face become hot, embarrassed she turned around so he would not see her flush.
"Why do you turn away from me?" Heero asked putting his hands on her shaky shoulders. Hotaru took in a deep breath and walked out of his light grasp.
"No reason." She said as calmly as she could, taking a seat back in the wildflowers.
"You've been this way for awhile now, I know when you're lying. I've known you almost my whole life." Heero said putting his sheathed sword down beside him and sitting in front of Hotaru.
"You don't know what I feel inside." Hotaru said starting to get extremely nervous.
"Then tell me what it is you feel." Heero said holding onto Hotaru's hands gently stroking them with his thumb.
Looking down at their hands and then his face she got a frightened look on her face. "I can't. If I tell you my true feelings both our lives will be ruined. I can't ever tell you the truth, and that's what kills me." Hotaru said fighting back tears.
To comfort her he put one of his hands on her cheek and began to stroke it with the back of his hand. "Well keeping it in is destroying you anyway. You have nothing to lose if you'll just tell me." Heero then decided to inch closer to her, and stopped when their knees touched.
"But I do. We must not become any closer to each other. Please don't put this on me now, my wedding is in less than two months. Forget me and just find a noble woman who would be better for you. For it can not be me, I'm sorry." Hotaru said standing up and preparing to leave, but Heero wouldn't relinquish her other hand.
"Don't go yet. Hotaru I must ask you something." Heero stood up and tried pulling her arm closer to his body but she yanked it from his grip and backed away from him.
"Please." He said with his eyes trained on hers.
"I said no, leave me be, Heero-kun." Hotaru then decided to leave and took off at a quick pace.
~~~~¥~~~~
Hotaru then ran outside of the palace's protective walls and into the town's busy streets. She took in a deep breath and started off at an even pace until she reached a fairly sized temple on the far corner of the town, where she happened to live.
Stopping outside the temple's gates she leaned against one of the pillars and breathed out a deep sigh. She then lifted her hands up to look at them and then touched them with her cheek. 'Heero.' She thought. 'Why do you do this to me?' Closing her eyes she replayed the scene over and over again in her mind.
That's when she felt someone's hand against her mouth. Then another arm wrapped itself around her waist and easily picked her up, carrying her into the cover of trees. The young man then put her down against a tree and she struck his gut with her knee, before hitting his back with her fist as hard as she could. But taking her off guard he threw his arm under her legs, knocking her to the ground when he grabbed both her hands in one of his and disabling her from moving.
"You really got feisty Hotaru." She looked at her captures' face and immediately recognized all his familiar features.
"Duo?!" He smiled down at her but she had a look of surprise. Letting her go he stood up and she followed his lead. "Duo, my gods. You've grown much older from the last time I saw you." Hotaru said looking him over thoroughly, he was taller than her now, a deeper voice, and wasn't the scrawny young boy she once knew him as.
"So have you." He looked her over as well and still had his famous smile on his face.
"Hotaru-san! Are you out there?" Hotaru turned around and out of the corner of her eye she saw one of her maids.
"Here she comes! Come on!" Hotaru grabbed Duo's hand and dragged him through the forest until the temple was out of sight.
"That was close, she's got the eyes of a hawk. We're lucky, I usually never escape her gaze." Hotaru smiled at Duo, her long lost friend at last found.
"You know I've been looking for you for several years now, and finally my search is over." He took back the grip they had just minutes earlier.
"Come with me, my hideout isn't far from here." He then took a stroll with her through the woods talking to her the whole way.
~~~~¥~~~~
"Here we are!" He said throwing his arms out, smiling. "Home sweet home! Well at least for now." He then took hold of her hand again and pulled her inside. "The rest of the gang isn't here now, probably out hunting or something." He then let her sit down on a very soft, cushioned mat.
"Duo were did you get all this stuff? Some of it looks quite expensive." Hotaru asked scanning the enormous cave, filled with different paraphernalia, some of it made of gold.
"Mostly just stole it. I mean soldiers have been raiding a lot of towns around here lately." Duo said sitting down next to her.
"Why?"
"Don't know. All I know is the Emperor has been on edge lately." Duo then pulled out some rice crackers from inside a small bag he had. "It's probably not as good as you get it but it's still food." Duo said offering her one, which she gladly accepted. Together they sat until the sun's rays began to fade and darkness engulfed the cave, with only the light of fire revealing what was around them. Since the other men had since returned Hotaru and Duo had isolated themselves in a corner of the cave, away from everyone.
"So have you seen Wabigoto lately?" Hotaru asked leaning against a cave wall with Duo beside her.
"No. But I did return to my home about three years ago, and heard about her. She had gotten married to some jerk and had a baby girl with him. When I got right in front of her home, I froze. I just couldn't bring myself to see her." Duo then looked at her.
"You mean Wabigoto had a baby?! I didn't think she would have gone that far with him!" Hotaru then blushed realizing her comments were leaning toward the perverted side. Duo just laughed at her embarrassed behavior.
"You're just like I remember!" Duo said, pretty loud.
"And so are you!" Hotaru smiled at him and the two just sat there as if frozen in time. Duo reached his hand out to run his fingers through her jet-black hair. "My gods. I can't believe how much of a woman you've become. I can't even describe how beautiful you look to me." He ended his strokes with his hand on her neck.
Hotaru's frame became as stiff as a rock at the warmth of his hand. Duo gradually came closer and closer to Hotaru's face until at last she could feel his hot breath. Hotaru wasn't sure how to react, sure they were close friends but did she really want to be more than that or not? Slowly Duo brushed his lips against hers and then left it at that. But that was enough to make Hotaru turn redder than a cherry.
What just made her blush even worse was that Duo started laughing. "It still makes me laugh at how cute you act when you get so embarrassed." Duo continued to laugh and eventually Hotaru just joined in his happy revelry.
"You know I should get going since it's already dark out." Hotaru got up to her feet.
"I should probably come with you since there can be a lot of thieves out there this late and they aren't as nice as me!" Duo said smiling, making Hotaru smile as well. No matter what he had done earlier she had to admit Duo was one of the nicest guys she knew and she never wanted their relationship to fade.
~~~~¥~~~~
"I think we should stop here just so no one sees us." Hotaru just quickly checked the temple grounds, making sure no one was there. "Well thank you Duo for taking me home, I really appreciate it." Hotaru held her hand out to shake his. Duo did take her hand but instead of shaking it he kissed it.
"I'm just glad to see you again. Could we meet again tomorrow?"
"I'll see what I can do." Hotaru smiled as she began to walk away.
"Well then I'll just come here tomorrow, good-night!" Duo shouted as loud as he could, making Hotaru freeze and glare at him.
"Shhh, Duo shut up! Do you want them to hear?!" Hotaru was still glaring, but Duo didn't seem to care about what she said.
"I just wanted to say good-night." Duo smiled, turning around and disappearing in the woods. Hotaru just rolled her eyes and tip-toed into the Temple hoping not to wake anyone.
~~~~¥~~~~
Hotaru, as quietly as she could, slid her door shut and prepared to change into her sleeping gown. As she was reaching for her obi she heard a person clear their throat in the corner of her room. Quickly spinning around she saw her hawk-eyes maid, who seemed ready to tear Hotaru apart.
"Your very late." She said in a quiet but angry tone.
"I'm sorry but I'd lost track of time inside the palace. It'll never happen again I swear." Hotaru quickly thought up as quick as she could to avoid trouble.
"Liar. I know you were with a young man. One of the other girls told me they saw you leave with a dirty, common young man." She got up out of her seat and approached Hotaru.
"Who told you they saw us?" Hotaru soon realized the error of her words.
"So you do acknowledge that it's true! But who it is that told me is not important. You have much more to worry about now!" The maid took hold of Hotaru's shoulders and turned Hotaru around. "Well it wasn't untied at all." She said probing at the obi's extremely tight tie around her waist.
"What! Do you honestly believe that I would do that!" Hotaru practically screamed out.
"Quiet you disobedient little girl! I told no one yet but if you anger me any further I will tell Mizurei-sama! But listen to this, if I ever catch you talking or even looking at that man again I'll give you a fair beating first and then leave you to Mizurei and the Emperor! You got that?" She began to lower her voice to a near whisper then and was shoving her face into Hotaru's.
"Yes ma'am." Hotaru clenched her teeth, lowering her head so the maid would not see the intense anger written on her face. As the maid left to retire for the night, Hotaru collapsed on her futon and cried herself to sleep.
~~~~¥~~~~
The sun had since risen in the east, and it was a very mild and beautiful day outside with clear sky's and a nice cool breeze. Tokyo was very busy today and a lot of business and trading was occurring in the town but there was one person there to take advantage of those less witty than her.
Usagi was walking through the crowded streets and was looking for food and much more importantly to her, Hotaru. Usagi had been living in Tokyo for at least three months now, and had always been searching but she had never seen anyone that had even resembled Hotaru.
'Maybe she's changed so much that I can't recognize her anymore.' Usagi thought turning down a relatively empty alley-way. Reaching the end she saw a man carrying several roasted ducks with him. Usagi's eyes lit up, she hadn't eaten in at least two days and if she didn't get some food in her stomach soon she'd collapse.
'Well what have I got to lose? They look so good!' Usagi ran up behind the man and stopped a few feet short from him then pretending like she had accidentally tripped she crashed into him from behind and his ducks fell on the dirty ground, but Usagi didn't care she'd just wash them off later.
"Ah! You clumsy little woman watch it!" The over-weight man berated her beginning to collect the food.
"I'm so sorry but I tripped, let me help you." Usagi handed him at least three ducks before grabbing one and trying to conceal it behind her back, which didn't work out the way she had planned.
"Hey give that back!" He screamed pointing to her back. That's when Usagi panicked and ran off with the duck in hand, but the man was more persistent than she thought and he chased after her, gaining on her non-the-less.
As Usagi turned a corner, in hopes of losing him, she crashed into a young man and the duck went flying in the air and she landed on top of the young man. As the duck hit the ground she pulled herself off the young man but that's when the older man came around too and grabbed onto her ankle.
"I got you, you little thief!" He pulled her out into the street, dropping one hand filled with ducks. Usagi tried to kick his hand off but his grip on her was strong.
"Stop it you two!" The man she had crashed into yelled out and took the man's grip off of Usagi, and helped her up. Usagi looked at the young man and saw he had blonde hair like hers and sea-green eyes.
"She stole from me! I have all rights to punish her!" He screamed out shaking his fist at her.
"Listen she's my maid and I'm sorry for the trouble she's caused you, I'll assure you it won't happen again." Usagi looked at him with astonishment, he was actually standing up for her.
"And what of all the ducks she made me drop and ruin?"
"I'll pay for every one of them, and you can be assured she'll be punished for her actions." He took out a small red silk bag he had which kept his money and handed him about five gold coins. Grunting he walked away picking up the ducks on the ground including the one Usagi had stolen.
When he was finally lost in the crowd Usagi turned to the young man who had stood up for her. "Umm, thanks I suppose." Usagi couldn't really think of what else to say because no one had really ever stood up for her before, especially one of privilege.
"It's alright. I hate how people like him abuse the less fortunate, all you want is something to eat right?" The young blonde man asked.
"Yes, I haven't eaten in days."
"Well would you please accept my invitation to come to my house for lunch? I would be honored to have you as a guest." He looked very sincere but Usagi wasn't very sure weather or not to trust him.
"Your inviting me over and we don't even know each other's names."
"Well if you would like my name it's Quatre Raberba Winner. And what's yours?" Usagi was a little surprised he'd used his first name before his last, as if they had actually known each other intimately.
"Usagi. Usagi Tsukino." She said a little unsure of weather or not she had said it in the right way. But his smiling indicated that she was, so the two of them silently walked away from the busy streets of Tokyo to eat in peace, alone.
TBC………..
AN: Well we're getting into the romance now, Usagi's will develop more in the next chapter and also something big will happen to the ruler-ship of Japan. Review if you'd like to see what happens to everyone next.