Disclaimer: I don't own nothing so don't sue me!!! Well actually I do own Xara and Sarai so NO TOUCHIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
AN: Yea!! Got lots of reviews!!! Happy happy joy joy!!! Heehee...Finally I finished this chapter...hope you like!!! Thanks for the reviews!! Lufs to all of you!!! Enjoy!!! Oh and in case you didn't know, Shinigami no Koi means the title below....or the Lover of Shinigami...soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo sorry that I couldn't get the chapter out any sooner....it's just that with the break came my trip with the choir to China and Taiwan in which I did write some when I could but not enough to have this chapter anywhere near halfway finished....and then after break came finals....then because of finals my brain was fried meaning I didn't know wat to write...Sigh...at least I finally got it out right?
Title: Shinigami's Lover
Chapter 2: Explanations
Written By: Firefly's Rebirth
Rating: R...for whatever is well...restricted....
Warning: OOC...a bit of angst perhaps....hmmm....what else? I dunno...whatever....
(blah) denotes my comments!!!
[blah] denotes SFG's comments...
^blah^ denotes italicizing. (I noticed that the italicizing doesn't seem to show up when I put it into text format so I'm putting it in those thingys.
# blah# denotes words spoken in Japanese which I was too lazy to actually translate into Japanese that aren't already in Japanese...(did you get this sentence?) [no] (shush, I wasn't asking you) [hmph!!]
*blah* denotes words spoken to her in her head.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"Oh shit..." Duo reiterated. He didn't know that Hotaru had been listening, in fact, none of them knew. Duo continued weakly, " You don't think she heard do you?"
"What a stupid question Maxwell! Of course the baka onna heard, otherwise she wouldn't be running back into her room to cry."
Ignoring the two bickering bakas, Heero, Trowa, and Quatre went down the hall to see what Hotaru was going to do.
Surprisingly the door was unlocked, they entered the dark room to see Hotaru sitting on her bed looking up at the ceiling, a very thoughtful look on her face. "So you guys don't think I'm human huh? Not surprising I suppose, that's what everybody thinks, I'm ok with it."
Quatre spoke up first, "Hotaru, Duo didn't mean anything by it, he was just joking..."
Hotaru laughed rather bitterly, "Joking? Shinigami never joked..." Just then she clapped her hand over her mouth. ^oops^
"How do you know Duo called himself Shinigami?" was the question Heero asked.
"How did I know you were the gundam pilots? How do I move so fast? How come it seems I can read minds? Aren't these all questions you want to ask?"
Trowa noticed that she had evaded answering the question, Heero also noticed, but didn't say anything. If she was smart enough to be able to evade the question like that, then she was definitely worth sticking it out with for the time being.
"Do you guys want me to leave or something? I mean, I know you guys don't trust me or anything..."
Quatre quickly interjected, "No! You can stay, I'm sure they aren't going to make you leave, right guys?" Quatre looked over to Heero and Trowa.
"It's ok, you can stay Hotaru..." Trowa left.
Heero just nodded his head and left.
^^^^^^
I realize that that was a bit disappointing, but I didn't know how else I could do it without making them look like total saps...I dislike sappiness, but it's ok...up to a point, I just couldn't see them being sappy....gomen....
^^^^^^
The next day, they all went to work, Heero rode his motorcycle to work early, he never got rides or anything with any of the other guys. Trowa drove Wufei and Hotaru, they liked being on time, not that Quatre didn't like being on time, but Duo couldn't be trusted to make coffee in the morning let alone driving, so Quatre was left to waiting for Duo since he was the only one who could stand waiting for Duo. (isn't Quatre just too nice for his own good?)
Upon arriving to HQ, Hotaru went straight to her new office, she had to share it with some bubbly, also new, Preventer. She introduced herself as Rini (Chibi-usa wouldn't work since this is AU.) Her hair was impossibly bright pink, and put in two little pigtails, she wore a knee length skirt that flowed like water, and a sleeveless blouse. Hotaru couldn't quite understand why she was dressing like this at the office, but she wasn't one to complain. She on the other hand, wore some black jeans, and a purple tank top. Her hair was clipped back off her face, and hidden where no one could see, she had a gun. And how did she get a gun? It was one of the weapons on display in her room, it was part of the more modern collection of stuff, so she thought she'd keep it with her just in case.
"Hotaaaaruuu!"
Hearing her name being called from down the hall, Hotaru put her work down and went into the hallway.
"What is it Maxwell?" Her voice sounding annoyed.
"You are needed to hack into a very tight database for some info for Preventer use."
"Ok" with that, she followed him into the computer room only to find it empty of anything except for one laptop, in the middle of the room, booted up and linked to the ESUN system.
"I did the easy linking work for you, you get to do the hard stuff so I can see just how good you are..."
"What do I need to retrieve?"
"Uhh...." Looking down onto his clipboard, Duo looked for what he needed. " You need to retrieve information on the...Gundams and their pilots...." He fell silent waiting for her reaction.
Hotaru stared at him for a second before raising an eyebrow, "And this is supposed to be for Preventer use?"
Duo looked at her nervously, "Please, could you please just do this..." He looked at her hopefully.
"Fine...Whatever, but you'd better give me a good explanation later...." She then sat down and got to work.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"I got all the information there was on the Gundams and their pilots..." She was about to list some of the extra info she got, but some movement, not coming from Duo, distracted her. ^Hn. So it was a test.^ "You can come out of that closet now Heero..."
Duo gaped as Heero grudgingly stepped out of the storage closet. ^Damn she's good. Not even Trowa, Heero, or Wufei would've have sensed anything. ^
Not bothering to question Heero's actions, she asked him, "Is this the information you...needed?"
"Hn."
"Is this all...I need to get back to work...and if you plan on testing my skills at least tell me when you plan on doing so that way I can get my work done ahead of time..." With that, she went back to her shared office.
"Dude she's...stiff...doesn't that remind you of someone?" Duo "nudged" Heero, who just ignored him.
"Whatever." Heero walked off in the opposite direction of Hotaru.
"Geez...what is up with people these days, sheesh, I was only trying to lighten the mood..." Duo then heard giggling behind him. "huh?" He turned around only to be met with an empty room. ^That's odd. I swear I heard a girl giggling...^ He shrugged it off and got back to work.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
So throughout the week Heero tested Hotaru's skills. But without his knowing, she was testing every single one of the pilots to see what they were like and what they could do. She was surprised to find that the gundam pilots were above average people, they had much more endurance, and had higher, much higher iqs.
A week after the first test Heero came upon Hotaru's file. The file that contained her life information. (Why he didn't check it any earlier is a mystery to me.) He saw that it was perfectly clean, in fact, it was too clean for a girl that was as abnormally talented like her. He looked at her birth date, then at the creation date of the file, which is supposed to be at about the same time as when she was conceived, but it was only created about a week ago. And only a week ago did she actually start her job as a Preventer. He narrowed his eyes as he checked her profile. Her parents were deceased, but it didn't say with whom she lived while she was an orphan. In fact, it seemed that her file was a complete fake. (Guess Hotaru didn't do such a good job huh?)
Without turning off his laptop, he went in search for Hotaru.
He found her at her desk, but she was facing the window opposite of the door. She looked forlorn as she watched the birds fly past her window. He saw that she was singing to herself as well, but what she was singing was totally foreign to him, it wasn't any language known on earth. (Let's just say it's a language no longer spoken on earth.)
The Perfect Soldier let the girl to finish her song before clearing his throat to catch her attention. Lavender eyes turned to look into his Prussian blue with a questioning look.
"We're leaving for the day..." Seeing that Hotaru still didn't know exactly what was going on, Heero elaborated, "It's still technically our week off, so we're taking the rest of the day off..." (rite now is about noon.)
"I see...Very well, give me 5 minutes to clean up, tell them I'll meet them in the parking lot."
"Hn."
He stared at her for a few more seconds before leaving.
Downstairs he met up with the other ex-gundam pilots, and upon examining their looks of expectation (waiting for Hotaru to appear that is...), he stated, "I'm going to take Hotaru on my bike today, there are a few things that I need to talk to her about. I hope you don't mind too much, we'll join you for dinner tonight."
The other's were slightly disappointed, they were all (up to a degree) entranced by the mysterious girl. They all gathered into their 2 cars and drove off. Hotaru just came down the stairs to see them drive off, "Why are they leaving already?"
"There has been a change of plans..." His tone was curt.
Hotaru flinched, she had thought that they trusted her, but obviously if the great Heero Yuy was still like this towards her, it meant that she was still not on stable ground.
" You and I are going to have a little talk, then we'll go meet up with the rest of them."
"Very well, it doesn't seem I have much choice anyway."
They then both walked over to Heero's motorcycle. He tossed an extra helmet at her then swung his leg over to the other side waiting for Hotaru to get on. Hotaru on the other hand just stared blankly at the helmet she held in her hands, she looked up to see the intense gaze of Heero's stare, the rest of his face covered by the helmet. He snapped on the plastic cover protecting his eyes looking at her expectantly. Hotaru, feeling a bit uncomfortable under his gaze lowered her eyes, put on the helmet, then got on behind him.
"Hold on..."
She complied, wrapping her arms around his waist. She leaned on him slightly as he revved the engine then hugged him more tightly as they sped down the street. Heero could feel her arms tighten around him when he made a sharp turn taking them off the main street. ^It feels like she's going to just fly off...she's so small^
Hotaru closed her eyes to just enjoy the rush of the wind around her, not questioning Heero as to where he was taking her and what he was planning. ^Next time I shouldn't wear the helmet so I can feel the full wind...the full wind of freedom...^
*You'll never be free of me my firefly...*
Hotaru's eyes snapped open to see Heero's once again staring at hers.
"We're here...where were you?"
"Huh? Oh...I was daydreaming" she quickly replied.
Heero didn't say anything, he just took off his helmet, and walked off towards a little hill, "Come on, we're walking over this hill, just leave the helmet with the bike, it'll be fine."
"Ok..." She put the helmet down, thinking. ^We arrived at our destination, yet I didn't even notice...Shinigami is still watching me isn't he? Why can't I ever be free of him?^
This time not only did his voice answer her silent question, but his outline could be seen in her head as well. *Of course I'm watching you koi...and you'll never be free of me because you belong to me*
A very impatient Perfect Soldier interrupted the voice in her head. "Are you coming or not, or are you planning to daydream the rest of the day and night away?" His voice was derisive and cold, freezing Hotaru into a stone.
"I...I'm coming...." She shook the thoughts of Shinigami out of her head and quickly followed Heero up the hill.
They went over the hill to be met by the sight of a crystal clear lake surrounded by a light forest. They sat on the shore and stared at it for a while, both sitting in silence. [There seems to be a lot of staring going on here...] (Yes...and there'll probably be a bit more...)
"What is it that you brought me out here for? It certainly wasn't for a date, otherwise you'd be a bit more polite."
"Hn...."
She took a side-glance at him, studying his profile curiously. Even though she could feel what kind of a soul he had, she still couldn't decipher what he was thinking or how he would respond to different situations.
"I know you aren't who you say you are..." he started out, his eyes hidden in the shadows of his hair, "You don't really exist in this world, your identity is fake, your abilities are far beyond those of normal humans, and...you are a threat to all of us..."
Hotaru was shocked. She didn't expect him to just straight forward tell her exactly what was wrong with her...It stung.
She sat in shock for a minute before she was able to answer quietly, "How am I threat to you guys? I haven't done anything harmful to you guys yet have I?"
"No, you are a threat to our stability. It's like your being here will start a chain reaction of events that will eventually throw our world into chaos." ^Not only that, you'll throw all of our emotions into chaos...we don't know what to make of all your emotions just rolling off you in tsunami waves...^
"How will my being here cause chaos, I haven't done anything in my life that could possibly...."
She was cut off. "No...you aren't even actually registered in our world. Sure you have a file, but this file was created the day after that night I ran into you. Meaning that night, when you seemed to be running away from the Shinigami himself," At this she flinched. "was the first night here...in this world. I'm not saying I believe in the supernatural, but there is something not right about you being here. Even Quatre feels you don't belong here."
"You can't prove that I'm not of this world, I have lived here, only I was never registered that's all, I was born in secret, and raised in secret...I belong in this world I do, so please don't say I don't..." She looked at him desperately.
His tone softened slightly from his cold edge as he said softly, "But then what can explain the fact that your physical abilities are far beyond normal, and also, your mental abilities are practically...telepathic."
She couldn't answer. Hotaru bit her lip, and lowered her head hiding her face behind a curtain of black hair highlighted in violet.
"I can't explain any of that, it has too much to do with my past. The past that I'm trying to escape...Please.... please don't touch my past, it's too.... horrific."
Heero couldn't help but feel something pull at his emotions. "Wakatta..."
"......"
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Hotaru and Heero had only talked for an hour, but for both of them, it seemed like a millennium. Heero didn't say any more of how she was different. He understood that she didn't want to speak of her past, but he still felt threatened by the innocent girl. He let her fall asleep on the shore, and he himself lied down to think, himself falling asleep.
He woke up 6 hours later to find the sun setting, and Hotaru still fast asleep. Everything about her now...seemed normal, the way her chest rose and fell with each breath she took, the smallness and frailty of her body, the smooth pale cream color of her skin, and the beautiful Asian features of her face. He tore his eyes away from her to look at his watch.
"Oh shit!" he muttered, "Oh shit...Quatre isn't going to be too thrilled..."
He leaned over to Hotaru and shook her shoulder to wake her up, "Hotaru, get up, we're going to be late for dinner." ^Crap, I guess I was more tired than I thought, all those thoughts about the mysterious firefly seriously has my head messed up at this point.^
"Hm? What's wrong Heero?" Hotaru's eyes were half opened. "What happened?"
"We fell asleep for about 6 hours and we're going to be late for dinner with the guys..."
"Oh..." With that, she got up stretched a bit to loosen up her tight muscles then followed Heero back up the hill to the other side where his motorcycle was parked.
This time, Hotaru didn't wear her helmet and nor did Heero. They both loved the feel of the wind on their faces and through their hair.
"It feels like flying." She unwrapped her arms from Heero's waist and held them out like she was flying. "Like this, I feel I can fly free from everything. I feel free from everything..."
Heero took a quick glance back at her before asking, "Were you not free in your past?"
At this Hotaru was shocked, she stiffened up and automatically put her arms around Heero's waist again for balance. She answered soberly. "No...I wasn't free, and I'm still not free, that's why I'm running right now. I'm hoping to get away from something, someone, but he's still after. I'm hoping to enjoy the little freedom I get before I need to move on again."
Heero didn't reply. They rode the rest of the way to the restaurant in silence.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"Where have you guys been?" was the what Quatre practically shouted when Heero and Hotaru walked through the doors of the restaurant.
Hotaru smiled her disarming smile while answering, "Gomen Quatre-kun! We fell asleep at the lake, it was so beautiful!!! It was crystal clear and the sunset was wonderful too!"
Quatre and the rest couldn't help but to smile, Hotaru had this odd affect on all of them.
*Still smiling that smile of your huh Firefly?*
^Go away Shinigami! You aren't going to ruin my days here! No begone^
*Dammit bitch!*
His voice disappeared faster than usual.
"Why don't we get to dinner then?" Trowa, quiet as ever, suggested.
"Yea, lets dig in!!!!!!!!"
"Good god Maxwell...."
At the dinner table everyone was enjoying themselves immensely. They sat, in this order, clockwise; Quatre, Hotaru, Duo, Wufei, Heero, and Trowa.
Quatre asked as quietly as he could to Heero, "Did you have your chat with Hotaru?"
The whole table had heard the question, and everything was still. That is until Duo decided to give those two their privacy and started to jabber loudly with Hotaru, while Wufei on the otherhand was trying to get him to shut up. Trowa listened in on Quatre and heero's conversation with interest.
"Hn. She and I had our talk."
"What did you guys talk about?" (Trowa)
"I just approached her on the fact that she doesn't belong to this world."
"What?! You didn't. But does she...?" Quatre trailed off...
"It's her own business, and if she wasn't, I wouldn't really want to know."
"You didn't question her past did you?"
"Iie. It's none of my business, so I don't suggest any of you question her, she's very sensitive about it, it's also painful for her, just like our pasts are painful for us."
"I understand, and I'm sure the other guys'll too. We've all had our fair share of painful pasts." Thus ending the conversation.
Hotaru glanced at Heero, her eyes saying their thanks for not revealing any of their conversation.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
The next day at work, Hotaru was once again hard at work when there was a knock on her door.
"Come in..."
In came Duo bounding in the door, "Hey Hotaru! Watcha doin?"
"What else...work..."
"Damn...you really sound like heero sometimes...sheesh....oh...hey where's Rini?"
"She's obviously not here...Maxwell...don't you have anything else to do?"
"Of course not..."
Hotaru's eyes widened at the sound of Duo's voice. It had lowered into a deeper sugary conniving voice. ^ Kami-sama tasukete...^
"Shi...shinigami..."
"Heh..." He smirked, "Didn't expect to see me huh? Well I didn't like how you just discarded me last night, so I decided to pay you a visit..."
Hotaru looked shooken, Shinigami visiting her over what happened last night meant that she had seriously pissed him off...
"What do you want?"
"Why do you always ask that, you know what I want...I want you to come back with me..."
"Shinigami, you already know my answer, I don't want to go back, why can't you just leave me alone?" At this she stood up and looked him directly in the eye.
He smirked, and walked towards her inching his head towards her til they were only an inch apart. "I can't leave you alone, you belong by my side, for all of eternity you do..." His voice had dropped down to a whisper, " Anta wa Shinigami no koi...#you belong to me.#" With that he brought his lips onto her's closing the distance between them, one hand on her back holding her and the other lifting her chin. Her eyes closed when he said his last few words, she had given into him.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Heero was once again heading towards Hotaru's office, Lady Une had just arrived back and wanted to see her. He was right in front of her door and was poised to open it when Hotaru crashed into his arms knocking them both to the ground. "Sorry...." Was all her heard from her as she got up and tore down the hall, tears dropping to the ground.
Heero, confused looked up towards her door to see that Duo had just walked out.
"What did you do Maxwell?" Heero didn't notice that Duo's eyes were slightly narrower and his look slightly ominous.
"I don't know, I might have accidentally mentioned something about her past...I don't know...she just burst out crying and when I tried to comfort her, she bolted."
Heero and "Duo" both stared down the hall in the direction that Hotaru had taken, Heero slightly apprehensive, and "Duo" smirking.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Hotaru sat underneath the cherry blossom tree sniffling to herself. ^ How can I be so weak? He comes towards me and I practically fling myself into his arms. How can I be such a fool? ^ Hotaru continued to berate herself while still trying to wipe away her tears.
"Well well, it seems that Hotaru-sama isn't as strong as she used to be..." came a voice.
Hotaru's head snapped up in surprise, "Whose there?"
"Hm...not only that, she seems to be totally oblivious as well..." came another voice.
Hotaru looked in the direction of the 2 voices and saw 2 figures standing in the shower of cherry blossom petal.
One girl with bright red orange hair like that of the sun, waving down to her waist. And one girl with ebony black hair streaming straight down past her upper leg. They both wore sarong like skirts only the open part was in the front, one golden red, one midnight black. " Sarai....Xara...."
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Ooh....Xara and Sarai have appeared....Who are they, and what do they want? And just to clarify things, Xara in my other stories would be the Senshi of Nothingness, the void, and dimensional stuff...Sarai, is her exact opposite, she's the Senshi of the Sun, of energy, power. So where Xara takes away, Sarai gives...I kno the color scheme doesn't quite work well...but oh well...u'll notice that in each story, I'll give them both another overlapping character that is also in the SM storyline....but it doesn't apply in this story so don't worry about it....So anyways....i hope you liked this chapter, I certainly enjoyed spending a lot of time on it...(Sarcastic as usual). Please review!!!!!!!!!!! Question's and such can be asked through reviews or email (toolipz87@yahoo.com). Thanks for reading!! R&R!!!!!!!!!!!!
AN: Yea!! Got lots of reviews!!! Happy happy joy joy!!! Heehee...Finally I finished this chapter...hope you like!!! Thanks for the reviews!! Lufs to all of you!!! Enjoy!!! Oh and in case you didn't know, Shinigami no Koi means the title below....or the Lover of Shinigami...soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo sorry that I couldn't get the chapter out any sooner....it's just that with the break came my trip with the choir to China and Taiwan in which I did write some when I could but not enough to have this chapter anywhere near halfway finished....and then after break came finals....then because of finals my brain was fried meaning I didn't know wat to write...Sigh...at least I finally got it out right?
Title: Shinigami's Lover
Chapter 2: Explanations
Written By: Firefly's Rebirth
Rating: R...for whatever is well...restricted....
Warning: OOC...a bit of angst perhaps....hmmm....what else? I dunno...whatever....
(blah) denotes my comments!!!
[blah] denotes SFG's comments...
^blah^ denotes italicizing. (I noticed that the italicizing doesn't seem to show up when I put it into text format so I'm putting it in those thingys.
# blah# denotes words spoken in Japanese which I was too lazy to actually translate into Japanese that aren't already in Japanese...(did you get this sentence?) [no] (shush, I wasn't asking you) [hmph!!]
*blah* denotes words spoken to her in her head.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"Oh shit..." Duo reiterated. He didn't know that Hotaru had been listening, in fact, none of them knew. Duo continued weakly, " You don't think she heard do you?"
"What a stupid question Maxwell! Of course the baka onna heard, otherwise she wouldn't be running back into her room to cry."
Ignoring the two bickering bakas, Heero, Trowa, and Quatre went down the hall to see what Hotaru was going to do.
Surprisingly the door was unlocked, they entered the dark room to see Hotaru sitting on her bed looking up at the ceiling, a very thoughtful look on her face. "So you guys don't think I'm human huh? Not surprising I suppose, that's what everybody thinks, I'm ok with it."
Quatre spoke up first, "Hotaru, Duo didn't mean anything by it, he was just joking..."
Hotaru laughed rather bitterly, "Joking? Shinigami never joked..." Just then she clapped her hand over her mouth. ^oops^
"How do you know Duo called himself Shinigami?" was the question Heero asked.
"How did I know you were the gundam pilots? How do I move so fast? How come it seems I can read minds? Aren't these all questions you want to ask?"
Trowa noticed that she had evaded answering the question, Heero also noticed, but didn't say anything. If she was smart enough to be able to evade the question like that, then she was definitely worth sticking it out with for the time being.
"Do you guys want me to leave or something? I mean, I know you guys don't trust me or anything..."
Quatre quickly interjected, "No! You can stay, I'm sure they aren't going to make you leave, right guys?" Quatre looked over to Heero and Trowa.
"It's ok, you can stay Hotaru..." Trowa left.
Heero just nodded his head and left.
^^^^^^
I realize that that was a bit disappointing, but I didn't know how else I could do it without making them look like total saps...I dislike sappiness, but it's ok...up to a point, I just couldn't see them being sappy....gomen....
^^^^^^
The next day, they all went to work, Heero rode his motorcycle to work early, he never got rides or anything with any of the other guys. Trowa drove Wufei and Hotaru, they liked being on time, not that Quatre didn't like being on time, but Duo couldn't be trusted to make coffee in the morning let alone driving, so Quatre was left to waiting for Duo since he was the only one who could stand waiting for Duo. (isn't Quatre just too nice for his own good?)
Upon arriving to HQ, Hotaru went straight to her new office, she had to share it with some bubbly, also new, Preventer. She introduced herself as Rini (Chibi-usa wouldn't work since this is AU.) Her hair was impossibly bright pink, and put in two little pigtails, she wore a knee length skirt that flowed like water, and a sleeveless blouse. Hotaru couldn't quite understand why she was dressing like this at the office, but she wasn't one to complain. She on the other hand, wore some black jeans, and a purple tank top. Her hair was clipped back off her face, and hidden where no one could see, she had a gun. And how did she get a gun? It was one of the weapons on display in her room, it was part of the more modern collection of stuff, so she thought she'd keep it with her just in case.
"Hotaaaaruuu!"
Hearing her name being called from down the hall, Hotaru put her work down and went into the hallway.
"What is it Maxwell?" Her voice sounding annoyed.
"You are needed to hack into a very tight database for some info for Preventer use."
"Ok" with that, she followed him into the computer room only to find it empty of anything except for one laptop, in the middle of the room, booted up and linked to the ESUN system.
"I did the easy linking work for you, you get to do the hard stuff so I can see just how good you are..."
"What do I need to retrieve?"
"Uhh...." Looking down onto his clipboard, Duo looked for what he needed. " You need to retrieve information on the...Gundams and their pilots...." He fell silent waiting for her reaction.
Hotaru stared at him for a second before raising an eyebrow, "And this is supposed to be for Preventer use?"
Duo looked at her nervously, "Please, could you please just do this..." He looked at her hopefully.
"Fine...Whatever, but you'd better give me a good explanation later...." She then sat down and got to work.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"I got all the information there was on the Gundams and their pilots..." She was about to list some of the extra info she got, but some movement, not coming from Duo, distracted her. ^Hn. So it was a test.^ "You can come out of that closet now Heero..."
Duo gaped as Heero grudgingly stepped out of the storage closet. ^Damn she's good. Not even Trowa, Heero, or Wufei would've have sensed anything. ^
Not bothering to question Heero's actions, she asked him, "Is this the information you...needed?"
"Hn."
"Is this all...I need to get back to work...and if you plan on testing my skills at least tell me when you plan on doing so that way I can get my work done ahead of time..." With that, she went back to her shared office.
"Dude she's...stiff...doesn't that remind you of someone?" Duo "nudged" Heero, who just ignored him.
"Whatever." Heero walked off in the opposite direction of Hotaru.
"Geez...what is up with people these days, sheesh, I was only trying to lighten the mood..." Duo then heard giggling behind him. "huh?" He turned around only to be met with an empty room. ^That's odd. I swear I heard a girl giggling...^ He shrugged it off and got back to work.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
So throughout the week Heero tested Hotaru's skills. But without his knowing, she was testing every single one of the pilots to see what they were like and what they could do. She was surprised to find that the gundam pilots were above average people, they had much more endurance, and had higher, much higher iqs.
A week after the first test Heero came upon Hotaru's file. The file that contained her life information. (Why he didn't check it any earlier is a mystery to me.) He saw that it was perfectly clean, in fact, it was too clean for a girl that was as abnormally talented like her. He looked at her birth date, then at the creation date of the file, which is supposed to be at about the same time as when she was conceived, but it was only created about a week ago. And only a week ago did she actually start her job as a Preventer. He narrowed his eyes as he checked her profile. Her parents were deceased, but it didn't say with whom she lived while she was an orphan. In fact, it seemed that her file was a complete fake. (Guess Hotaru didn't do such a good job huh?)
Without turning off his laptop, he went in search for Hotaru.
He found her at her desk, but she was facing the window opposite of the door. She looked forlorn as she watched the birds fly past her window. He saw that she was singing to herself as well, but what she was singing was totally foreign to him, it wasn't any language known on earth. (Let's just say it's a language no longer spoken on earth.)
The Perfect Soldier let the girl to finish her song before clearing his throat to catch her attention. Lavender eyes turned to look into his Prussian blue with a questioning look.
"We're leaving for the day..." Seeing that Hotaru still didn't know exactly what was going on, Heero elaborated, "It's still technically our week off, so we're taking the rest of the day off..." (rite now is about noon.)
"I see...Very well, give me 5 minutes to clean up, tell them I'll meet them in the parking lot."
"Hn."
He stared at her for a few more seconds before leaving.
Downstairs he met up with the other ex-gundam pilots, and upon examining their looks of expectation (waiting for Hotaru to appear that is...), he stated, "I'm going to take Hotaru on my bike today, there are a few things that I need to talk to her about. I hope you don't mind too much, we'll join you for dinner tonight."
The other's were slightly disappointed, they were all (up to a degree) entranced by the mysterious girl. They all gathered into their 2 cars and drove off. Hotaru just came down the stairs to see them drive off, "Why are they leaving already?"
"There has been a change of plans..." His tone was curt.
Hotaru flinched, she had thought that they trusted her, but obviously if the great Heero Yuy was still like this towards her, it meant that she was still not on stable ground.
" You and I are going to have a little talk, then we'll go meet up with the rest of them."
"Very well, it doesn't seem I have much choice anyway."
They then both walked over to Heero's motorcycle. He tossed an extra helmet at her then swung his leg over to the other side waiting for Hotaru to get on. Hotaru on the other hand just stared blankly at the helmet she held in her hands, she looked up to see the intense gaze of Heero's stare, the rest of his face covered by the helmet. He snapped on the plastic cover protecting his eyes looking at her expectantly. Hotaru, feeling a bit uncomfortable under his gaze lowered her eyes, put on the helmet, then got on behind him.
"Hold on..."
She complied, wrapping her arms around his waist. She leaned on him slightly as he revved the engine then hugged him more tightly as they sped down the street. Heero could feel her arms tighten around him when he made a sharp turn taking them off the main street. ^It feels like she's going to just fly off...she's so small^
Hotaru closed her eyes to just enjoy the rush of the wind around her, not questioning Heero as to where he was taking her and what he was planning. ^Next time I shouldn't wear the helmet so I can feel the full wind...the full wind of freedom...^
*You'll never be free of me my firefly...*
Hotaru's eyes snapped open to see Heero's once again staring at hers.
"We're here...where were you?"
"Huh? Oh...I was daydreaming" she quickly replied.
Heero didn't say anything, he just took off his helmet, and walked off towards a little hill, "Come on, we're walking over this hill, just leave the helmet with the bike, it'll be fine."
"Ok..." She put the helmet down, thinking. ^We arrived at our destination, yet I didn't even notice...Shinigami is still watching me isn't he? Why can't I ever be free of him?^
This time not only did his voice answer her silent question, but his outline could be seen in her head as well. *Of course I'm watching you koi...and you'll never be free of me because you belong to me*
A very impatient Perfect Soldier interrupted the voice in her head. "Are you coming or not, or are you planning to daydream the rest of the day and night away?" His voice was derisive and cold, freezing Hotaru into a stone.
"I...I'm coming...." She shook the thoughts of Shinigami out of her head and quickly followed Heero up the hill.
They went over the hill to be met by the sight of a crystal clear lake surrounded by a light forest. They sat on the shore and stared at it for a while, both sitting in silence. [There seems to be a lot of staring going on here...] (Yes...and there'll probably be a bit more...)
"What is it that you brought me out here for? It certainly wasn't for a date, otherwise you'd be a bit more polite."
"Hn...."
She took a side-glance at him, studying his profile curiously. Even though she could feel what kind of a soul he had, she still couldn't decipher what he was thinking or how he would respond to different situations.
"I know you aren't who you say you are..." he started out, his eyes hidden in the shadows of his hair, "You don't really exist in this world, your identity is fake, your abilities are far beyond those of normal humans, and...you are a threat to all of us..."
Hotaru was shocked. She didn't expect him to just straight forward tell her exactly what was wrong with her...It stung.
She sat in shock for a minute before she was able to answer quietly, "How am I threat to you guys? I haven't done anything harmful to you guys yet have I?"
"No, you are a threat to our stability. It's like your being here will start a chain reaction of events that will eventually throw our world into chaos." ^Not only that, you'll throw all of our emotions into chaos...we don't know what to make of all your emotions just rolling off you in tsunami waves...^
"How will my being here cause chaos, I haven't done anything in my life that could possibly...."
She was cut off. "No...you aren't even actually registered in our world. Sure you have a file, but this file was created the day after that night I ran into you. Meaning that night, when you seemed to be running away from the Shinigami himself," At this she flinched. "was the first night here...in this world. I'm not saying I believe in the supernatural, but there is something not right about you being here. Even Quatre feels you don't belong here."
"You can't prove that I'm not of this world, I have lived here, only I was never registered that's all, I was born in secret, and raised in secret...I belong in this world I do, so please don't say I don't..." She looked at him desperately.
His tone softened slightly from his cold edge as he said softly, "But then what can explain the fact that your physical abilities are far beyond normal, and also, your mental abilities are practically...telepathic."
She couldn't answer. Hotaru bit her lip, and lowered her head hiding her face behind a curtain of black hair highlighted in violet.
"I can't explain any of that, it has too much to do with my past. The past that I'm trying to escape...Please.... please don't touch my past, it's too.... horrific."
Heero couldn't help but feel something pull at his emotions. "Wakatta..."
"......"
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Hotaru and Heero had only talked for an hour, but for both of them, it seemed like a millennium. Heero didn't say any more of how she was different. He understood that she didn't want to speak of her past, but he still felt threatened by the innocent girl. He let her fall asleep on the shore, and he himself lied down to think, himself falling asleep.
He woke up 6 hours later to find the sun setting, and Hotaru still fast asleep. Everything about her now...seemed normal, the way her chest rose and fell with each breath she took, the smallness and frailty of her body, the smooth pale cream color of her skin, and the beautiful Asian features of her face. He tore his eyes away from her to look at his watch.
"Oh shit!" he muttered, "Oh shit...Quatre isn't going to be too thrilled..."
He leaned over to Hotaru and shook her shoulder to wake her up, "Hotaru, get up, we're going to be late for dinner." ^Crap, I guess I was more tired than I thought, all those thoughts about the mysterious firefly seriously has my head messed up at this point.^
"Hm? What's wrong Heero?" Hotaru's eyes were half opened. "What happened?"
"We fell asleep for about 6 hours and we're going to be late for dinner with the guys..."
"Oh..." With that, she got up stretched a bit to loosen up her tight muscles then followed Heero back up the hill to the other side where his motorcycle was parked.
This time, Hotaru didn't wear her helmet and nor did Heero. They both loved the feel of the wind on their faces and through their hair.
"It feels like flying." She unwrapped her arms from Heero's waist and held them out like she was flying. "Like this, I feel I can fly free from everything. I feel free from everything..."
Heero took a quick glance back at her before asking, "Were you not free in your past?"
At this Hotaru was shocked, she stiffened up and automatically put her arms around Heero's waist again for balance. She answered soberly. "No...I wasn't free, and I'm still not free, that's why I'm running right now. I'm hoping to get away from something, someone, but he's still after. I'm hoping to enjoy the little freedom I get before I need to move on again."
Heero didn't reply. They rode the rest of the way to the restaurant in silence.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"Where have you guys been?" was the what Quatre practically shouted when Heero and Hotaru walked through the doors of the restaurant.
Hotaru smiled her disarming smile while answering, "Gomen Quatre-kun! We fell asleep at the lake, it was so beautiful!!! It was crystal clear and the sunset was wonderful too!"
Quatre and the rest couldn't help but to smile, Hotaru had this odd affect on all of them.
*Still smiling that smile of your huh Firefly?*
^Go away Shinigami! You aren't going to ruin my days here! No begone^
*Dammit bitch!*
His voice disappeared faster than usual.
"Why don't we get to dinner then?" Trowa, quiet as ever, suggested.
"Yea, lets dig in!!!!!!!!"
"Good god Maxwell...."
At the dinner table everyone was enjoying themselves immensely. They sat, in this order, clockwise; Quatre, Hotaru, Duo, Wufei, Heero, and Trowa.
Quatre asked as quietly as he could to Heero, "Did you have your chat with Hotaru?"
The whole table had heard the question, and everything was still. That is until Duo decided to give those two their privacy and started to jabber loudly with Hotaru, while Wufei on the otherhand was trying to get him to shut up. Trowa listened in on Quatre and heero's conversation with interest.
"Hn. She and I had our talk."
"What did you guys talk about?" (Trowa)
"I just approached her on the fact that she doesn't belong to this world."
"What?! You didn't. But does she...?" Quatre trailed off...
"It's her own business, and if she wasn't, I wouldn't really want to know."
"You didn't question her past did you?"
"Iie. It's none of my business, so I don't suggest any of you question her, she's very sensitive about it, it's also painful for her, just like our pasts are painful for us."
"I understand, and I'm sure the other guys'll too. We've all had our fair share of painful pasts." Thus ending the conversation.
Hotaru glanced at Heero, her eyes saying their thanks for not revealing any of their conversation.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
The next day at work, Hotaru was once again hard at work when there was a knock on her door.
"Come in..."
In came Duo bounding in the door, "Hey Hotaru! Watcha doin?"
"What else...work..."
"Damn...you really sound like heero sometimes...sheesh....oh...hey where's Rini?"
"She's obviously not here...Maxwell...don't you have anything else to do?"
"Of course not..."
Hotaru's eyes widened at the sound of Duo's voice. It had lowered into a deeper sugary conniving voice. ^ Kami-sama tasukete...^
"Shi...shinigami..."
"Heh..." He smirked, "Didn't expect to see me huh? Well I didn't like how you just discarded me last night, so I decided to pay you a visit..."
Hotaru looked shooken, Shinigami visiting her over what happened last night meant that she had seriously pissed him off...
"What do you want?"
"Why do you always ask that, you know what I want...I want you to come back with me..."
"Shinigami, you already know my answer, I don't want to go back, why can't you just leave me alone?" At this she stood up and looked him directly in the eye.
He smirked, and walked towards her inching his head towards her til they were only an inch apart. "I can't leave you alone, you belong by my side, for all of eternity you do..." His voice had dropped down to a whisper, " Anta wa Shinigami no koi...#you belong to me.#" With that he brought his lips onto her's closing the distance between them, one hand on her back holding her and the other lifting her chin. Her eyes closed when he said his last few words, she had given into him.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Heero was once again heading towards Hotaru's office, Lady Une had just arrived back and wanted to see her. He was right in front of her door and was poised to open it when Hotaru crashed into his arms knocking them both to the ground. "Sorry...." Was all her heard from her as she got up and tore down the hall, tears dropping to the ground.
Heero, confused looked up towards her door to see that Duo had just walked out.
"What did you do Maxwell?" Heero didn't notice that Duo's eyes were slightly narrower and his look slightly ominous.
"I don't know, I might have accidentally mentioned something about her past...I don't know...she just burst out crying and when I tried to comfort her, she bolted."
Heero and "Duo" both stared down the hall in the direction that Hotaru had taken, Heero slightly apprehensive, and "Duo" smirking.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Hotaru sat underneath the cherry blossom tree sniffling to herself. ^ How can I be so weak? He comes towards me and I practically fling myself into his arms. How can I be such a fool? ^ Hotaru continued to berate herself while still trying to wipe away her tears.
"Well well, it seems that Hotaru-sama isn't as strong as she used to be..." came a voice.
Hotaru's head snapped up in surprise, "Whose there?"
"Hm...not only that, she seems to be totally oblivious as well..." came another voice.
Hotaru looked in the direction of the 2 voices and saw 2 figures standing in the shower of cherry blossom petal.
One girl with bright red orange hair like that of the sun, waving down to her waist. And one girl with ebony black hair streaming straight down past her upper leg. They both wore sarong like skirts only the open part was in the front, one golden red, one midnight black. " Sarai....Xara...."
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Ooh....Xara and Sarai have appeared....Who are they, and what do they want? And just to clarify things, Xara in my other stories would be the Senshi of Nothingness, the void, and dimensional stuff...Sarai, is her exact opposite, she's the Senshi of the Sun, of energy, power. So where Xara takes away, Sarai gives...I kno the color scheme doesn't quite work well...but oh well...u'll notice that in each story, I'll give them both another overlapping character that is also in the SM storyline....but it doesn't apply in this story so don't worry about it....So anyways....i hope you liked this chapter, I certainly enjoyed spending a lot of time on it...(Sarcastic as usual). Please review!!!!!!!!!!! Question's and such can be asked through reviews or email (toolipz87@yahoo.com). Thanks for reading!! R&R!!!!!!!!!!!!
