I do not claim to own or be creative enough to have written any part or idea of Bishojo Senshi Sailor Moon or Mobile Suit Gundam Wing.
I, like so many of us, left that up to Naoko Takeuchi and the team of Hajime Yatate and Yoshiyuki Tomino, respectively. And I humbly borrow their creations, staying true to them in the best of my ability, to bring you a love story set a few years beyond their visionary writings.
a destiny equal to the gods
"How long till I exchange emptiness for love?
In case your spirit is alone,
I'll stand alone..."
—Aino Minako
"Setsunakute ii; I'll Stand Alone"
A Heart DividedDuo headed back to the street, just before he got there he stopped looked over his shoulder and said, "You coming?"
"Huh? Oh yeah," Minako said hurrying to catch up.
"Good because I don't have a clue where I'm go…" Duo stopped as he reached the street, "…ing."
"Did you forget my place is just-" Minako stopped as she saw what Duo saw. In the street blocking the exit to the alley were twelve built men each carrying either a lead pipe, chain, or knife.
"Well what have we here boys?" said boss
"Looks like a couple of little lost girls to me," a said one wearing a yellow and green striped shirt.
"You must have taken a wrong turn…"
"Where in Albuquerque?" Duo said in piss-poor Japanese. Despite what he just saw, he grabbed Minako and pulled her behind him.
"Uh what are you doing?" Minako asked him, questioning his machismo.
"You're not just going to let these punk-asses walk all over you, are you?" Duo asked incredulously, hoping that muggings weren't a common occurrence she went through everyday.
"Hadn't planned on it, but you know I can't…"
"Oh I know. Min, there's only twelve of them come on."
"So how we gonna split this up?"
"Well… I'm going to go kick their asses and you're going to cheer me on."
"Oh no you're not going to make me stand by and watch. Just forget it."
"So what's it going to be pretty boy? Do we get a fight or are you going to cower like the little girl you are, and hand over your money?" the one who was clearly the leader bantered breaking up Duo and Minako's argument.
"Money, hey boss how about he just hand over her?" said a thug in red.
Duo raised an eyebrow, and whispered to Minako, "You can have him, but give me some room first." Minako nodded and stepped back as Duo walked out into the center of the guys with his hands up in a Y-ish shape. The two opposite him the boss on the left and stripey on the right approached him faster than the rest. As soon as they were with in range, "Why is it everyone thinks I'm a girl?" he said jumping up and kicking stripey in the chest with his right leg, and in the same motion he used his left leg to kick the boss in the face and flip around. Now he stood where those two once were as they roll on the ground. He grabbed two more one from each side and knocked them together, as they hit the ground he could see the red shirt going towards Minako. Before he could jump over the two fallen men, three more came on him. One from the left with a chain, one from the front with a pipe, as he was going to go after pipe-boy, one with a knife grabbed his hair and pulled.
As red shirt approached her, Minako smiled and then did a roundhouse to his face. When she landed she had her back to him, so she spun around kicking him in the knees. Then she punched him twice in the nose, and gave a swift kick to the gut, as he was doubling over in pain she chopped his back sending him to the ground. "Humph."
Duo staggered back pulling his hair, 'Ow!' he thought. The chain boy hit him a few times, on the third one he said, "Why don't you give this boy a haircut?" On the next swing Duo grabbed the chain and wrapped around his wrist, kicked the knife out of the others hand. As he loosened his grip on Duo's braid, Duo pulled chain boy in and promptly head-butted him. Then pipe-boy came at him full force and smacked him across the face. Hair-boy had just about recovered his knife as Pipe-boy came at him again. This time Duo grabbed the pipe before it smashed into him again and simultaneously kicked pipe-boy back taking the pipe from him, he the proceeded to beat hair-boy away from the knife. And as soon as he let go of Duo's hair he whipped the pipe around and smacked both Hair-boy and then Pipe-boy in the head, knocking them out.
Minako was in a fighting mood now, as Duo was messing with those three she came up behind one of the other four standing and tapped him on the shoulder, when he turned she punched him hard in the nose. He let out a scream as he sunk to his knees. The other next to him turned to see Minako and swung at her with his pipe, she took the nose-boy's chain and used it to defend herself. The thug came as her again, and she ducked grabbing nose-boy's shoulders she swung around with her feet straight out. Passing under the pipe she kicked him and knocked him off to the side. Having dropped his pipe, Minako used the chain and whipped him with it across the face, when it came back covered in blood she dropped it. Feeling bad she backed away from the fight.
Duo now looked at the last two standing he smiled holding the pipe in one hand and tapping it against the other. They didn't move, instead they gave each other a glance and waited. A chain came over Duo's head and was around his neck; Stripey had woken up. Duo gasped and dropped the pipe; the other two came at him and took turns punching him in the stomach. Minako stood back not really watching anything; she couldn't quite grasp that she had made the man bleed. When she finally looked up she saw the Boss getting up holding a large knife; he was coming at Duo. But Duo couldn't see him and even if he could he was currently being strangled and beaten. Minako snapped out of it and ran for the guys. She jumped using nose-boy as a stool and used that height to take out one of the two beating on Duo. Having knocked him down she was now next to Duo and between him and the boss. Duo took the advantage of her surprise attack to fling Stripey over his back chain and all into the other guy. The Boss man swung at Minako and just as before with the pipe she ducked out of the way. Not connecting with anything Boss stumbled on his momentum. Minako was still bent over and only a few feet from where Boss was standing back up. Duo took this chance to use Minako as a table. "Mina, freeze." He said as he jumped sideways across her back and kicked the boss square across the face with his steel toe. Coming down on the other side of Minako she stood up and as they were facing each other Stripey tried to get up again and they both struck a I'm-going-to-kick-your-ass-if-you-even-dare-pose. As if on cue he passed out again. They both looked at each other and then at the 12 beaten men on the street.
Minako smiled, "Whoa, that was like less than 3 minutes."
"Yeah, I know I'm getting slow."
Minako laughed as she looked back at Duo; "Oh Duo your nose is bleeding."
Duo put a hand to his face, "It's more my lip than anything."
"Oh. All right which one hit you?" Duo looked at her with an expression to say which one didn't? Minako smiled again, "Come on let's get that cleaned up." She took Duo by the arm and led him home.
"Mina I'm fine really," was about all he had said the whole way home.
"Oh come on Duo, let me take care of you."
"Mina, really, I've had worse cuts before." By the time they reached her apartment his nose had completely stopped bleeding and his lip was not a big injury in Duo's book. Minako unlocked the door to her apartment; Artemis was waiting again as usual. Minako led Duo to his room as if he had just had the crap beaten out of him. "Mina, please stop. I'm all right."
"I know, but I just want to help."
Duo smiled, "You are," and he kissed her. While doing so he winced in pain.
Minako pulled back, "Duo kissing isn't supposed to hurt." Duo nodded holding his lip. He sat down on the edge of his bed, and Minako went to get a washcloth. When she came back she put it to his lip and gently cleaned his lip and face. Duo kissed her hand pulled it away and then kissed her lips again. Minako kissed him back, but having only known Duo a few days she stopped at this and left the room.
She went into her room to get dressed for bed; before she could Artemis came in, "What happened?"
"Nothing we got jumped. Well okay I think we did the jumping though."
Artemis looked at her, "Huh?"
"It was a mugging gone awry; we kicked their butts."
"Mina, you shouldn't be fighting like that."
"Oh Artemis, you worry too much, if Sailor V can beat up a hundred monsters on her own in England, than I can sure handle a few thugs with Duo." She said walking out of her room.
"Mina!" watch what you say.
"OHH! Artemis go take a nap or something!" she said angrily re-entering Duo's room. "Oh he makes me so mad."
"Your cat?"
"Yes. He thinks I'm a little frail girl and I can't take care of myself. Sad thing is he's the one who taught me how to fight." Minako said sitting down on Duo's bed.
"At least he's never beaten the hell out of you." Minako looked at Duo with her head on her knees. Duo moved his legs so that Minako could scoot back and he explained, "The guy who gave me my Gundam, well once I went to free him and the other scientists, and they talked me into letting them beat the crap out of me so they could repair it."
"Your Gundam?"
Duo explained what a Gundam was, and told her all bout Heero, Trowa, Quatre, and Wufei. How they all met, and how they fought together. He even confessed that really when he went to "free" the scientists he was supposed to kill them and destroy the lunar base. Minako in return told him about the day Artemis gave her her pen, and took her to England. How she met Usagi and the others and how she died, a couple of times. They sat up and talked for hours. Artemis tried to listen in, but with the door shut he couldn't be sure what all was being said. He used Minako's communicator to call Luna to complain that Minako was acting strange and naïve.
As morning hit the colonies, Relena rolled over to hug Heero, but he was not there. Heero had been up for hours sitting on the windowsill staring out at the front gate.
"Heero come back to bed."
Heero didn't respond or move.
Fed up with the constant moping that had gone on for the past two days, "You know sometimes I think you care more about him than you do me."
That got Heero's attention, "What!" Heero stared at her in disbelief.
"Well you haven't slept ever since you knew he was missing, and Heero sweetie you are clinging on to his coat."
Heero looked down, "Oh." He set the coat down on the edge of the bed as he sat next to Relena. "Relena, you know no one could ever be more important to me than you. If you were missing I wouldn't just be sitting here waiting for your return, I probably would have started a colony wide search, no I could probably get a world wide search going for Queen Relena."
"How many times do I have to tell you, A. I'm not Queen anymore, and B. I'm not going anywhere, I'm happy right where I'm at." Relena hugged Heero. She tried to pull him down on the bed, but he wouldn't give and instead she knocked them both over onto the floor.
"Ow." Heero laughed
Relena simply smiled and kissed him…
Morning came and Minako was still not in her bed. Artemis ran to the door to Duo's room but no one came to the door. Artemis the over-worrier that he is decided that this had to stop—he again called Luna. In Duo's room, Minako and he had talked so long last night that when she started falling asleep she was way too tired to make it back to her own room.
Usagi opened the door to Duo's room, she saw Minako's yellow boots, and two pair of Duo's shoes neatly placed by the bedside. On the bed Minako and Duo we sound asleep curled up together under a blanket. "Minako," Usagi whispered. "Minako-chan." Duo woke up and could hear Usagi calling Minako, without opening his eyes he poked her side a few times to wake her up.
"Hmm." Minako said opening her eyes to look at Duo, who still looked asleep.
"Minako!" She said in a harsh whisper.
She lifted her head to see a slightly upset Usagi staring at her. "What?" Minako whispered back.
"What do you think you're doing?"
"Well I was sleeping until you came barging in here. Hey wait a minute how did you…"
Usagi raised her keys, "You gave me a copy remember."
Minako sat up rubbing her eyes, "Usagichan, what are you doing here?"
"Luna told me that Artemis said you were acting weird and I was supposed to come over here right away."
"Is that so," Minako said flinging the blanket back as she climbed over Duo and went into the living room to find Artemis. "You selfish little…"
"Minako!!" Usagi yelled at her, "Artemis is not the one in the wrong here."
"Oh and just what is that supposed to mean?" she said turning around to face Usagi.
Duo winced when he could feel an oncoming fight as Minako left clearly mad at Artemis. When they left he opened his eyes and sighed, "This is not good." Artemis jumped up on Duo's face. "Ahh. Stupid Cat." Duo said flinging Artemis off the bed just seconds before he started clawing his face. "Uh. Artemis. What is your problem?" Artemis came at him again, "Stop it! I didn't do anything here. What the Hell is your problem? Answer me I know you can!" Artemis stopped. "That's right kitty, we need to talk."
"How did you?"
"I'm an alien remember I can sense these things. Minako let it slip, how do you think I know?"
"Well I wasn't putting alien past you."
"Artemis, I'm not an alien, I'm just a normal boy from After Colony 200."
"Where are you from?"
"Planet Earth. I am American. Okay so I live in outer space on L1."
"Where?"
"A colony by the moon. I come from the future."
"And I'm supposed to believe that why?"
"Uh, because it's the truth."
Artemis didn't say anything.
"You know in my history books they never mentioned the Sailor Senshi having annoying talking cats."
"History books?"
"Yeah in school we learned about the types of heroes and heroines people used to idolize. Among the best were Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and the Sailor Senshi. Be proud you made the top five. But where I come from you guys are considered myths, make-believe, comic book characters."
"Really?"
"Yeah, and just like everyone knows that photojournalist Peter Parker is Spiderman, we all know that Sailor, uh, Mars wears red right? [Artemis nods] is a Shinto priestess named Rei. And Jupiter cooks, and Mercury is a doctor, like I said you're in the history books."
Artemis couldn't believe this he'd been wrong about Duo, well mostly. He still didn't like the fact that Minako slept in his bed last night.
Minako and Usagi's argument continued in Japanese. Minako would start speaking in English just to make Usagi mad, but that wouldn't work anymore because Usagi had plenty of time to sit around and learn a new language. And, why not English, after all Mamoru "spent" a year in America.
"Minako what were you doing in there? You don't even know him."
"No you don't know him, and I WAS SLEEPING!!!!!!! Can't you people get it through your heads we weren't doing anything. Haven't you ever just stayed up all night talking to someone?"
"Yeah that's the greatest thing in the whole world."
"Well we were talking 'til about two hours ago when I started to fall asleep."
"That's not what Artemis said."
"What Artemis said?! So now my CAT has more credibility than I do? What the hell do YOU think we were doing?" … " I don't believe this…." She repeated to herself as Usagi talked.
"Minako how am I supposed to know what you were doing? You never talk to me anymore. I used to know every little last detail about your life and now, now strange men are in your house and your sleeping with them."
"Usa that just sounded so incredibly wrong. Duo is staying here because it's my fault he's even in Tokyo. And I'm not 'sleeping with him' I'm sleeping next to him. Context Usagi it makes a big difference."
"How is it your fault?"
"Oh I don't know because I pulled him through a rip in time?!"
"NANI?!"
"Never mind that, Usagi for the past two days I've been happy. Truly happy and you come here wake me up and tell me I can't be just because I didn't stop by to let you know what is going on?"
Usagi stared at her a little in disbelief, a little in guilt, and a little in confusion.
"Usa-chan," Minako continued, "I've actually found someone that I'm crazy about, and for the first time in my life he, HE's crazy about me too. Why is that so wrong?" she said sitting on the couch.
"It's not Min, but aren't you taking this a little fast?"
"Okay maybe Artemis thinks I'm taking things fast, but in my book going to a few museums, an amusement park, a ball game, a play, a few restaurants, and dancing is not going too fast. Usagi it's not like I just grabbed him and started making out in a corner somewhere."
"You did all of that in two days?"
"It's called motivation, look it up." Minako said getting up from the couch. "You once said that you just wanted to be a normal teenager, right? Well ever since Artemis found me I have had to give up so much, and then the one time you wished us back to normalcy I was forced to give up all memory of my friends and being a senshi. I had no idea why I wasn't playing volleyball, why I didn't have a boyfriend at the age of 15, why I didn't seem to have any friends in my own school, and to top it off I couldn't even remember the year I spent in London. Usagi when you wished for a normal life, you got it, when I wished for a normal life, I moved. Now I have that quote unquote normal life and you can take it, I don't want it. All I want is to be needed, to have a boyfriend, to…know…what…I want." Minako sank to the table.
"Minako I just wanted for you to be happy… And safe, happy and safe."
"What lousy timing you have."
"Minako." Usagi said sitting next to her.
"You know up until this week I used to think I was deformed. Did you know I'm the only girl I know who had never had a boyfriend. And then I finally meet this great guy, and it ends up I had to pull him through the walls of time. I can't find a normal guy, no that just doesn't seem to be my destiny."
Usagi laughs a little, "Minako other than being from another time, in what way isn't he normal?"
"He likes me."
"Minako. You shouldn't say such things, lots of guys like you."
"No, no they don't."
By this time Duo and Artemis were standing in the doorway. Duo slowly regaining his understanding of Japanese, was mostly following the argument.
"That's not the Minako I know. What's wrong?"
"Everything. I'm not normal, I don't want to be normal, and yet I do. I'm just so completely lost and confused."
"Minako-chan, everything will work out, you'll see. Just be patient and keep your head."
"What? What the hell is that supposed to mean? You have got to stop hanging out with that crazy caped husband of yours. Things will work out, when? Be patient, I have. And Keep my head; in what way have I lost it? Oh just because I didn't spend a millennium chasing after the same guy doesn't mean I don't know how it feels to love someone."
"Minako I never said that."
"You know if you hadn't come over here this morning, I would still be asleep dreaming nice, happy, soothing dreams. But no I can't even do that!!! 'Oh Minako I don't even know you any more.' Well if you'd stop looking down your nose at me maybe you would!"
"Mina!" Artemis said from Duo's arms.
"And you. Oh you started all of this… I oughta…"
"Mina calm down." Duo said walking over to her. "Artie, was just a little overprotective." She let him hug her and buried her head in his chest.
"More like jealous." Usagi butted in, in English.
Duo looked at Usagi. He wanted to tell her to leave, but it wasn't his place to say anything.
"No I mean it. That stupid cat called my stupid cat because Minako didn't return to their bed last night. And then I get this whole Minako's in trouble kinda sob story and I rush right over here being told that not only don't I know my best friend but now she's a cheep floozy whore." Usagi said.
"Oh now I think you'd better leave." Duo began.
"Oh and what are you going to do baka?" Usagi said frustrated
"I'm going to throw your royal ass out the window and see if you can transform fast enough to sprout your Eternal Wings. And then, then I'm going to watch to see if you can save your own life or if you magically land on a big pile of rose petals."
"How dare you."
"No how dare you, I can't believe you come barging in here uninvited, and in best friend capacity try to tell her that she's ruining her life all because she spent the night in my bed. Oh no not that. Please if you're such the best friend then why is it you don't know that Mina has been progressively depressed for the past 8 months?"
"Oh and just how would you know that?"
"Because I listened to her. I heard what she said, and it just so happens not only can I sympathize I can empathize." Minako cried into Duo's shirt not at all wanting to stop him from verbally bashing Usagi.
"Well…I can…" Usagi began trying not to cry.
"Usagi maybe you should leave?" Artemis said softly.
"You called me over here."
"I know but this has all gone terribly wrong."
Usagi nodded, "If you want to get out of here let me know." And she left rather upset.
Duo sighed and hung his head, placing it on top of Minako's. "I'm sorry I shouldn't have done that. She was trying to help, I think."
Minako laughed slightly, "No, you said exactly what I was thinking."
"But Mina, I think I was a bit harsh."
"Yes, yes quite harsh, but…" Duo waited for her to continue. "…I love you for standing up for me."
"You what? Can you repeat that?"
"Which part? Where I was agreeing that you were totally rude to my friend."
"After that."
"Oh you mean when I said that I loved you."
"That would be the part."
Minako hugged Duo tight and continued to cry into his chest, "Well I do, you've been just perfect to me, and I'm going to miss you so much when you go home."
"Go home?"
"I contacted Setsuna, she said that she could send you home tonight."
"Tonight, Mina. That's… That's so soon."
Author's Notes: I don't really know why it has taken me so long to post this. Please forgive the hectic life of a grad student.
The entire rest of this story has been on my hard drive for years. It's just the actual deciding where to divide it up, transferring it to html format and then of course picking out the song lyric for each chapter. Not to mention attempting to write author notes years after I'd written it.
This chapter seems like one big dialogue. Well a fight scene and a big dialogue, anyway.
This "initial chapter" of the Duo & Minako romance must come to a close fairly soon. It's sad; I know… but time distortions can't be left alone for too long, especially when he keeps talking about the future. So tune in next time hopefully not too far in the future for the conclusion of Duo's trip to 2000AD.
----------------------------
A small glimpse:
"Are you ready?"
"Hai." Minako said softly. Duo scooped her up off the couch and put her feet on the floor. As they walked out the door, "Duo, what'd you do to my hair."
"I braided it."
Minako was silent.
