Disclaimer: No I do not own any of the anime characters mentioned...however...I do own Xara, and Sarai so don't use 'em unless you ask meeeeeeeeeeeeeee first!!!

AN: So here I am...writing the next chapter...I hope this was out soon enough for y'all... thanks for all the reviews...they were very much appreciated!!!! Don't have much to say except that this story is supposed to make up for my slow updating of Senshi vs. Tenshi...cause it's taking me some time to think of what gonna happen next...cause at the rate I'm writing that story...it's gonna take awhile...so I'm editing what I was planning on writing so that it's a bit shorter...but back to this story...I hope you like this chapter!!!

Title: Shinigami's Lover
Chapter 1: Firefly
Written By: Firefly's Rebirth
Rating: R...for a bit of sexual innuendos-ish...not too descriptive...and lotsa swearing in English and Japanese....
Warnings: This isn't a Hotaru/Duo fic...I dun really like that pairing too much, however...u'll see what happens!!! A bit of OOC cause it works with the story....

(blah) comments from ur's truly...
[blah] extra comments from SFG...aka...Sarai-chan!!!
Italicizing denotes thoughts.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Hey Heero!! Why are you so late? That party at Relena's ended a loooooooooooonnnnggg time ago!! Did you stay for Relena? Heeheheheheheh..." Duo as hyper as ever was practically bouncing up and down as he questioned his friend.

"I distracted on the way back." Was the short reply as Heero got out his laptop to check to see whether he had received any messages from Preventer HQ. All five were now officially full time Preventers, they didn't always get missions because of the peace, but they were glad that they could use some of their talents to help ensure the peace. It was already 2 years since the Mariemaia's coup de etat (eerr...i forget how to spell that damn word...*sigh*), Duo had finished the war salvage thing, Trowa didn't plan on spending his whole time in the circus, Wufei was already working for the Preventers and Quatre could leave his work to his sisters. This had left them rather bored and such therefore they joined up, only to find that Heero had already unofficially joined and worked as their shadow. (am I rambling?) [*sweatdrops* yes....] (*sigh*)

"Distracted huh? Heero Yuy, the Perfect Soldier...distracted? Hmmm...must've been really important..."

"Duo..."

"Yes Heero?"

"Shut up...I'm working..."

"Okokokok...fine...sheesh...." Muttered Duo as he went off to go bother another person leaving Heero to work away on his laptop. (heeheehee...I'm working on myyyyyy laptop tooooo!!!! Heeheeheeheehee!!!) [yeayeayeayea we kno you love ur laptop...now shut up and keep writing!!!!!!!!!!] (hmph!!)

Heero stared at the screen of his laptop, thinking...Odd girl, she seemed very afraid of something. What she was wearing...not from around here?

As usual, Heero's analytical mind took over, trying to figure out what the mystery was behind the very mysterious girl.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Hotaru was tired, after Shinigami had left her, she had walked for miles until she actually reached a place of actual civilization. She got a place to stay for the night, but only for the night, come morning she had to find another place that she could afford. She needed a job. That morning she spent at a local library to do research. She needed to better know the system in which the world worked. Seeing that her skills would best be applied in helping to keep the peace, she decided that she could probably work as a Preventer. But first, she needed and identity. She technically didn't (well...actually, she didn't exist in this world at all...) exist in this world. She hacked into the central system of the ESUN and created herself. Soon she was a citizen of Japan by the name of Hotaru Tomoe, a firefly that sprouted or came from the depths of the earth, a name that completely suited who and what she was. She then headed towards the Preventers HQ in downtown Kyoto ( I dunno whether or not there is a downtown for Kyoto, but just stick with me k?) to get a job...

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Well Miss Tomoe, it seems that you are perfectly qualified to become one of the Preventers. We're glad that you joined up to help keep peace here...on earth. Of course I would love to be the one to show you around, however I have pressing business in the Sank Kingdom which I really ought to get to. Therefore, I'm assigning a few of our agents who ought to be on vacation, to show you around. (A bunch of workaholics who don't really care for vacations....well...maybe except for one or two...)[Duo? *sighs* *sweatdrops*] I hope you are ok with that."

Lady Une was surprised that such a young girl would join up with the Preventers, she was supposed to be in high school, but it seemed that she needed the job, so she couldn't argue with her choice.

"Yes Ms. Une, I'm perfectly ok with that."

"Great! Well the boys'll be over in a sec, I'll introduce you, but then I'll have to go so you will need to make sure for yourself to get to know them, they aren't exactly...uhhh...how can I put this..."

"Sociable?"

"Uh...heh...something like that..." Une sweatdropped.

Hotaru smiled slightly at the lady's embarrassment but then heard some people entering the door, so she turned to meet them.

"Ah...here they are." In walked Trowa with his unibang forever hiding one of his emerald green eyes, Quatre with his kind smile, Wufei with his whole "women are weak" speech, and...

"You..." Heero said the second he laid eyes on Hotaru.

She looked at him, silent, contemplating what to say when the silence was broken.

"Ummm...do you two know each other?" Une was surprised.

"Iie, but I do believe we had a run in last night."

"Oh...ok..." Then turning her attention back to the boys present, she said, "Sorry for calling you here on your vacation, but I figured you guys would need something to do so...Where's...?

"He's on his way..." was the quick reply from Trowa who saw what was coming.

"Oh. I see. Ok. Well then while we're waiting for him to come, why don't I introduce this young lady here. She's a new Preventer, just joined today, and her name is Hotaru Tomoe." She's Japanese, and has quite a high IQ which would be very useful to us here at HQs."

Quatre smiled his greeting at Hotaru while introducing himself. "I'm Quatre Raberba Winner from colony L4. I'm more of a delegate than anything, but I can pilot ms as well. I'm pleased to be of your acquaintance and hope that we'll be friends."

Quatre Raberba Winner...where have I heard that name before? Aaah yes...I remember, he's the one that I drove crazy with the Zero System during the Eve Wars. He's very polite. An heir to practically a whole colony. Interesting fellow.

Quatre sweatdropped when he noticed that none of his other friends were introducing themselves. *sigh* "I guess I'll need to introduce the..."

"No thank you Winner. I don't need help introducing myself to a woman, or should I say...a little girl that probably should still be in high school."

Hotaru narrowed her eyes dangerously and glared.

Wufei looked at the girl in slight surprise. "I'm Chang Wufei, ms pilot and a damned good one at that. I believe that women are a completely weak sex and are hardly worth wasting time on."

Chang Wufei, sexist bastard. No wonder, I had him confused about justice didn't I? That's why he joined Mariemaia 2 years ago. Hmph, he's still arrogant even after all these years. He hasn't learned a thing. (You see him join Mariemaia in Blind Target which takes place after the Eve wars, and before the Mariemaia Incident.)

Trowa then cleared his throat to clear the tension that was growing between Hotaru and Wufei. "Trowa Barton, ms pilot and tactician."

Trowa Barton, my dear poor Nanashi. The poor little lost soul which I sent away from hell to be free. Where did I get that? (Hotaru doesn't completely remember what she was in the past, which will be explained probably in the next chapter.)

Hotaru nodded her greeting towards Trowa and then directed her attention towards the Perfect Soldier.

Heero Yuy. Perfect Soldier. Suicidal. Odin Lowe Jr. Wing Zero. Zero System.

Hotaru was having a barrage of thoughts when she looked into his eyes. She could "see" the thoughts and emotions rolling like waves off his body, yet his eyes didn't reveal anything.

"Heero Yuy, ms pilot." Was all he said.

Lady Une sensing more tension spoke out. "Well then when the last member of your group comes, you can all get started in showing Miss Tomoe around and such. I really must get going. Good day." With that, she was headed towards the door when it burst open.

It was a blur of motion. All one could see was a flying brown braid rushing in the door before unseeingly, crashing into the new Preventer.

"Oooowww...sorrysorrysorrysorry...I didn't mean to crash into you, I wasn't watching where I was going..." The brown haired boy was bowing repeatedly at the figure before him who looked at him rather shocked. She took a step back.

"Uhh...Maxwell, please meet Miss Tomoe, a new Preventer." Lady Une sweatdropped at the actions of one of the best of the Preventers.

"Oh...heheheh...hi..." Duo straightened up, showing his large violet eyes, pointed nose, and ivory teeth.

Hotaru gasped and stepped backwards, staring at him.

Seeing this Duo said, "Look, I'm sorry for scaring you when I crashed into you, I guess I was in a hurry to meet you!!"

"Suck up." Was muttered by a certain Chinese pilot.

Hotaru, though her eyes were completely blank, was still looking at him warily.

"By the way, I'm Duo Maxwell, I might run and hide, but I never lie!!"

This was the last straw for Hotaru, she backed up against the wall, still staring at Duo weird. It can't be. It can't be. Shinigami can't be... (Lady Une left right after she introduced Hotaru to Duo.)

"Uhh...Miss Tomoe, are you alrite?" Quatre was worried. One second, the new girl was perfectly fine, aloof almost. But then the next minute, she seemed on the edge of a nervous collapse.

"I'm fine. Ummm, why don't we get started on that tour of Headquarters huh?"

Quatre looked at her uncertainly, "Sure, whatever you want. How 'bout we all take her around for some time, that way she gets to know each one of us ok? We'll be back soon." And with that, he led Hotaru out of the room.

Silence ruled over the room in which the pilots still occupied, Duo was still trying to catch his breath.

Wufei broke the silence. "That onna is even weaker than I thought."

"Did you see how she was completely shaken at the sight of Duo, then when he mentioned his name, it made things worse." Was Trowa's statement.

"You hear that Maxwell. That girl was afraid of you. I guess you won't be getting anywhere with that girl huh?" Wufei sneered.

"Hey! I resent that! But I agree, it is odd. How come such a cute girl is afraid of poor innocent little me?"

Wufei snorted. "Innocent? More like the devil."

"I'm not Shinigami for no reason."

"You still believe you're Shinigami? When are you gonna grow up?"

Trowa interjected. "We need to check up her background. Not that I don't trust Lady Une's skills, but, there might be something in her past that might affect her now."

They nodded in agreement.

"Hn..." What's up with this girl?

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Ms Tomoe..."

"Just call me Hotaru."

"Ok, Hotaru, it seems that there aren't any rooms here at HQ available because of your unexpected arrival, so...you'll be staying with us guys in one of my houses."

"You guys?"

"Uh, yea, Trowa, Wufei, Duo, Heero and I all live in my house here because they wouldn't do too well with the others...because of our...pasts..."

"You mean the Gundams?"

Quatre sucked in air, surprised. How did she know about us? Nobody should know who we are except for the few that met us during the Eve Wars. "How did you know?"

"I researched you guys, then judging by the fact that most of you guys aren't exactly...friendly, I just figured."

Quatre was surprised at how observant Hotaru was; she noticed things that wouldn't have crossed his mind twice. He thought it odd that she didn't seem to know completely what the world was like, how people acted towards each other. In fact she seemed to be one who led a very sheltered rich life. Also noticed that Hotaru had calmed down a great deal since leaving the room where they had all met. In fact she was back to her normal indifference. "Well could you just not tell anyone about it, I mean, it wouldn't do too good for the world to know that the ex-gundam pilots, even though they saved the earth, still had access to military weapons. It would cause quite a stir. I hope you understand."

"Of course. I understand that keeping the ESUN stable is very important, if anything happened to tip the balance, Earth would be thrown into war once again."

Quatre had introduced her to the other people she would be working with, and was on his way to showing her his house (or should I say, the g-boys' house, they've lived there for quite a while).

He led her inside showing her to the yet unready guest room. "Sorry, but we weren't exactly expecting visitors or anything, it was...or is, our weapon collection room...you can move things around if you like...Duo was having too much fun decorating the house and..." He trailed off as he watched Hotaru take a goooood look at the room.

It was kinda dark, there were weapons hanging off the wall, a very wide variety of weapons. It seemed that at least one weapon came from each nation. She noticed that there was a double bladed scythe hanging on the wall. The handle was curved a bit to make it easier to twist, yet it was made of some old stuff she couldn't describe, only that it was sturdy. The blade itself looked dangerous just sitting there, it gleamed lightly from the light going through the curtain covering the windows. "Where did you get the scythe?"

"Huh? Uh well Duo picked it up in some temple in Tokyo. It seemed that no one wanted it because it didn't look very good, and was too heavy to carry. We got that glaive in the same place, it is a very odd glaive, and it's also double bladed."

The glaive she noticed sat right above the clothing drawer against the wall opposite that of the bed. It was indeed double bladed, only the blades weren't the same size. The larger one was as curved as the scythe, but the shorter one was only one third it's size, it also flattened out at the top, making it look like the letter G.

"Are these weapons usable?"

"Well, if you could lift it then, yes. It seemed that the other four wanted them in good condition for use though I'll never understand why. So uh...are you ok with this room?"

"It'll do, I hope you won't mind if I added a few things for myself."

"No, no...go ahead, it's your room."

"Thank you Mr. Winner."

"Just call me Quatre, we don't need to be so formal, especially since we'll all be living in the same house."

Hotaru smiled slightly. Perhaps it won't be so bad, living with a mortal reflection of Shinigami. I have other's I can "hang" with. "Thanks Quatre."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Later that night after all the pilots had given her a little tour (Heero accompanied Duo using the excuse that Duo wouldn't do his job correctly) they all returned to Quatre's home which is named Aoi Sora (Blue skies) because for some reason, you could always see the blue sky from there. Heero was surprised that when Hotaru met up with Duo, she didn't seem frightened anymore, it seemed that either she was able to control whatever she was feeling or she really was surprised.
By the time they arrived at Blue Skies, it was already nighttime, and Hotaru was still exhausted.

"Good night. Thank you for dinner."

Duo chuckled. "It's alrite you're living here now so you don't need to act so formal!"

She bowed (typical Japanese tradition) and went into her room which was down the hall, the farthest room in the house.

A silence settled around the living room which was right in the front of the house. (Duo's munchin' on a bag of chips.) [I don't think those exist in the Gundam Universe] (Whatever...It's my story!!)

"Uh well, today was definitely an interesting day." Was the first thing Duo said when he finished. "Hotaru seems really quiet though, and that's something we don't need around here."

Duo shrunk as glares were thrown his way.

"Duo, you know you don't mean that. Hotaru's really nice, she's just shy." Quatre was defending the reserved girl. "She might seem indifferent, but she must have gone through a lot. Just like we did."

They sat in silence again contemplating.

"It's interesting how she see's people. She seems to think of them as below her as if she were some rich snob." Duo commented.

"She doesn't seem to know how to treat people other than those that she knows is of higher rank than her." (Trowa)

"That onna actually said she could beat me in a one on one match when I said that most of the women didn't do any actual fighting even though they were trained."

The rest just smirked at the hotheaded Chinese boy.

"She doesn't seem to know this world very well." Stated Trowa.

"I agree." Quatre nodded, "While we were heading here earlier this afternoon, I noticed that she knows our political past and present situations very well. She seemed to be able to understand why something, whatever it was, happened. But when it came down to just normal people, as in, how people react, and just natural things, she seems like a mechanical doll that doesn't understand the concept of emotion."

"Weird."

"She's also very observant. Things that we take for granted, she mentions. She seems to be able to see what the situation of something is just by a glance."

"What do you mean?" (Trowa)

"When we passed by a park, we noticed that there was a small riot going on. So we stopped and parted the crowd to see what was going on. We saw a man holding another man by the shirt, his fist raised, and bloody from punching the other man. Behind the first man is a tall and beautiful woman, dressed in very showy clothing. I automatically assume that they were fighting over the woman. Right?"

The other's nodded. Quatre continued.

"Well I was just going to send them home when, Hotaru goes up to the men and says, 'Put the knife down, murder is a very serious crime.' The men just glared at her and were about to continue the fistfight. Of course I was about to interfere when all of a sudden Hotaru lashes out and strikes the man, with the bloody fist over the neck, knocking him out instantly. He drops the other man who stumbles and drops a knife. I hadn't seen this knife, no one had. The two men were surrounded and somehow they didn't notice that the man that was about to be punched had a knife hidden in his sleeve. Even you wouldn't have noticed Heero. So she sent the would-be murderer to jail, and sent the rest of the people home. But that's not the end."

"What more?" Wufei couldn't stand hearing about how great this new WOMAN was.

"The woman standing by the side, she too was sent to jail. Hotaru, just immediately cuffed the woman and said, 'Nice try.'"

"What?!" Duo was definitely shocked "Is she out of her mind?"

"Well in the end we found out that the woman had indeed caused the fight. She had somehow goaded them into it. Now tell me, is that possible? How could Hotaru possibly have known what that woman was doing?"

The others were speechless.

"As I said before, she can just about tell whatever is going on, in fact, she knows about us."

"What?" This was the first time Heero had spoken all afternoon since introducing himself.

The other's looked at Heero in surprise, who would have thought that this would bring a reaction out of the Perfect Soldier.

Trowa inquired, "How did she find out?"

"She said that she just figured, based on our attitudes or something. It's really surreal."

"That's impossible for a human. I mean, even Heero can't do that, and he's supposed to be perfect. And didn't you say she runs at an unnatural speed Heero? And wasn't she wearing some really weird clothing? Amour or something?"

"Hn."

Just then, though nobody noticed, Duo's eyes darkened. "She's not from this world. She doesn't belong in this world. She's not human."

Duo's eyes returned to normal, he blinked a few times before saying, "She can't be real right?"

The other's just nodded in agreement.

Just then they heard footsteps running lightly down the hall away from them.

"Oh shit..."

I hope that wasn't too long. It seems that writing the 5th chapter of Senshi vs. Tenshi at the same time as this causes me to write longer and longer. In fact, it doesn't seem all that long to me anymore. Anyway I'm sorry about how there was a lot of talking here, I needed a sort of transition before starting the next part where some action takes place. This story will definitely move faster than Senshi vs. Tenshi, and hopefully updated more often so that you don't get too bored waiting for me. Ok...so I need to know which senshi I ought to just throw in there as a minor character...I'm not planning on pairing them up, but I'm I might change my mind...anyway...I hope you enjoyed this chapter and don't forget to review!!

P.S. Should I make my chapters shorter or longer? I can never decide when to leave off...*sigh*...input is very welcome...flames...anything!! R&R ja!