Pushing the Sky
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{the EGG and I}
"Shingo," Ikuko called absently from the kitchen, "would you go wake up the girls? I think Shampoo wanted to take Usagi somewhere at nine thirty, and they're not up yet!"
She heard a muffled moan from the living room, and then Shingo trudged into the brightly lit kitchen looking very downtrodden. He pulled out a chair at the table and plopped down. He then rested his head on his arms and sighed heavily.
"Mom, do I have to? Usagi and her new friends are scary," he whined.
Ikuko smiled gently at him. "Yes, but Usagi's new friends are much better than her old ones, don't you agree? I haven't seen them around all summer! What wonderful times," she said with a pleased smile.
"So it's a conspiracy, eh?" Usagi croaked, shuffling into the kitchen, closely followed by Quatre and Shampoo. They were all three clad in their pajamas, and Shingo was pleased to note that they all looked equally famished and dead beat. Heh. So he wasn't the only one suffering from the energy spent the day before. SPLENDID NEWS!
Ikuko, ignoring Shingo's obvious delight, smiled brightly at Usagi. "Oh, no, my dear! It's not a conspiracy at all! I admit, your grandfather and I did discuss the possibility of you gaining new friends and ignoring and neglecting your old ones, but we didn't really push you to do it. You did it all by yourself. Now, we have pancakes for breakfast!"
Usagi made a face. "Grandpa's Pancakes?"
Ikuko nodded, setting a plate down in front of the scowling blonde. "Now Usagi, I understand that you're less then trusting of your grandfather right now after you caught us talking, but that's no reason to turn down good food."
The scowling blonde picked up her fork and prodded the stack of pancakes experimentally. She bent her head over it the steaming pancakes and sniffed experimentally. She couldn't smell anything, but her intuition was saying otherwise.
"Mother," she growled warningly. "If there is anything in these, please don't give them to Quatre?"
Ikuko paused and looked at them concernedly. "Why?" she asked worriedly.
"I'm a guy," Quatre said with a pleasant smile.
Ikuko and Shingo blinked. Ikuko coughed and turned back to the pancakes. "Well," she said, visibly fumbling for words, "You make a lovely girl, Rumiko-chan. What is your real name, then, if you don't mind?"
Quatre shifted uncomfortably. "My name's Quatre Winner," he muttered.
Usagi's meddling mother nearly dropped the plate of pancakes she was carrying. "As in the heir to all that money?" she gasped. "Oh you poor girl! It must be so hard to be a teenage girl under all that scrutiny. Say, why don't you just get your name changed so you can be actually named Rumiko?"
The platinum haired boy grinned ruefully. "I'm not allowed. My father apparently foresaw my tendencies, and in his will stated that if I ever changed my name that my fortune would go to my uncle, whom I'm living with right now."
"What kind of man is your uncle?" Shampoo inquired curiously. She never paid too much attention to politics, but there was a very large something unsaid by Quatre about his uncle.
Quatre started, and then cleared his throat. "He's very conservative, and would most likely try to assassinate me if he found out what I was doing. That's why I've been staying over here," he said, bowing his head shamefacedly. "I'm sorry if I'm a bother," he said meekly.
There was a long silence, which was finally broken by Ikuko sniffling. "I'll bet this is a soap episode. How tragic! No, no, no my dear girl, you're not a bother at all! You can even live here if you wanted to! And you Shampoo! And everyone! We'll be a huge happy family! Oh, it'll be grand!"
The three girls looked at each other and burst out laughing.
Then someone knocked on the door.
Ikuko frowned, motioned for them to eat their pancakes, and went out to the front door. Shingo, Usagi, Quatre, and Shampoo looked at each other confusedly and rushed toward the wall where they all peeked out to stare at the visitor. Well, that was the plan, anyways. Quatre got one look around the wall and threw himself backwards, looking like he had seen a ghost.
"It's my uncle!" he hissed frantically.
Usagi gasped and grabbed Shingo. "You two look like you'd wear about the same size! Shingo, can you lend Q-chan some clothes? Really quickly? Come on Quatre," she whispered hurriedly, "we've got to get you up to a bathroom to wipe that make up off! And get your hair into a manly ponytail! Hurry!!!"
Approximately five minutes later, Quatre walked downstairs, talking laughingly with Shingo. "Yeah, sorry we can't play Resident Evil, Shingo. Maybe tomorrow?"
"Yeah," Shingo said, forcing a laugh out. Inside, however, he was seating bullets. THIS WAS INSANE, AND IT WAS ALL USAGI'S FAULT! HE WAS GOING TO KILL HER! VENGEANCE WOULD BE HIS!!!!
Upon seeing Quatre, his uncle smiled pleasantly. "Oh, good, you're ready already. Ikuko, I'd like to thank you personally for allowing Quatre to be here so often. You've been a great help to him, and have really helped pull out of his depressive slump. With that said, I'll be off," he said, taking Usagi's mother's hand and making to kiss it.
He was, however, substantially hindered when Usagi pushed her way in-between them and yanked his hand away from her mothers. Damn the man, she thought behind her pearly white smile. She pulled a slight blush to her cheeks.
"I'm very pleased to meet you sir and I really hope that Quatre can come by again soon," she gushed.
There was an odd noise from the blonde boy, who covered his face (evidently to cover his laughter) and ducked outside. Quatre's uncle smiled benignly at her.
"What a lovely girl," he murmured. "I'm positive Quatre will be seeing more of you," he said with a peculiar little smile. He probably would have kissed her had if Usagi hadn't been pumping his hand up and down grimly. He coughed and carefully extracted his hand from her grasp, bowed slightly, and exited. Usagi glared after him.
"Bastard," she muttered.
"I thought he was very charming," Ikuko said smilingly. "Now go eat your pancakes," she commanded.
And so they did.
HAHAHA ::breathe:: HAHAHAHAHA! Suckers.
As she watched Usagi and Shingo bicker back and forth, Shampoo leaned back in her chair and sighed happily. This was the kind of family she had always wanted. Either a younger brother or sister, and a mother who cared about her. Or a mother, period. Living with her grandmother was really, really, really bizarre. Then there was the fact that her resident hag was always pushing her to capture Ranma in matrimony. It really got old after a while. Speaking of Ranma….
Shampoo glanced up at the clock and blanched. Throwing her arms up into the air and letting out a war cry to shake the bones of Genghis Khan, she grabbed Usagi's arm and yanked her out of her chair.
"WE'RE GOING TO BE LATE!" she bellowed in the blonde's ear.
"YOU DON'T HAVE TO YELL IT IN MY GODDAMN EAR!" Usagi screamed back.
"LOOK WHO'S TALKING! NOW COME ON! LET'S GET DRESSED AND GET TO NERIMA!"
"SHUT UP!" Shingo roared.
They both stared at him and then retreated. Shingo just sat there in total shock. He had just vocalized his first Man Roar. HE WAS GROWING UP!!! HE WAS BECOMING A MAN! Happy tears streamed down his face as he stuffed more pancakes into his mouth. His manly mouth. Damn, he was good.
Upstairs the scene was utter chaos. Usagi and Shampoo were throwing around clothes and hairbrushes and toothbrushes— it was strongly reminiscent of a war zone. Shampoo chucked a tube of toothpaste at Usagi, who sadly enough didn't turn in time. She caught it, yes, but she caught it right in her eyes.
"ITAI!" she screeched.
Shampoo's mouth formed a shocked little 'o', and then she covered it with her hand. A fuming Usagi stomped into the bathroom and slammed the door behind her. Shampoo paused for a second, and then burst out into peals of evil laughter.
THIS CHAOS IS TOO MUCH FOR ME! Usagi thought frantically. I'm not used to this yet! God, I just change one thing about my life and make plans to rule the world and look what happens! Complete and utter chaos! Maybe Shampoo's used to this, but I'm used to a nice, structured life, AND THIS IS NOT VERY STRUCTURED! NO STRUCTURE! IT'S FALLING APART! WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO?
Feeling like maybe she was on the verge of a heart attack, she stuffed the toothbrush into her mouth, scrubbed furiously for two minutes, threw on her favorite green sundress, grit her teeth, and cut her hair off at the small of her back. Much to her complete surprise, at this point her hair decided that since it was now freed of the godawful weight of ankle long hair, that it would become curly. Usagi stared at her reflection in utter astonishment. She looked like a totally different person. Her hair curled in loose ringlets becomingly around her shoulder blades (since the curls made it shrink)… but her bangs looked like crap. She reached into her pocket and gripped the crystal tightly, willing her bangs to grow. And grow they did. And suddenly Usagi Tsukino was no longer a childlike young girl.
Shampoo pounded her fist on the door, startling Usagi out of her fascination. Gulping slightly, she opened the bathroom door and pushed her curls slightly behind her shoulders. Shampoo glared at her, made to go downstairs, and did a double take.
"Oh my god," she gasped. "Your hair! What did you do to it? It looks great!"
Usagi grinned, confidence suddenly restored. "Oh, who would have thought that the weight from all my hair was straightening it out? Looks cool, huh?"
"To put it lightly. Now come on, we're going to be so late! Kasumi wanted us over there at ten for tea or something like that!" Shampoo stuffed her fists in her eyes. "AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRGGGGG!!!! I HATE DISAPPOINTING KASUMI-SAN!"
Alarmed, Usagi grabbed for Shampoo's hands and dragged them away from her eyes. "Come on, stop it! We can still make it quickly! I can run really fast," she offered.
Shampoo sighed. "I hope so. LET'S RUN! RUN LIKE THE WIND!"
They shot down the stairs, paused for a bewildered second when Shingo popped out of the kitchen and bellowed at them, burst into motion again, raced out of the door, and ran right into Kaze and Chaos, who were looking (as usual) very amused.
"Well, well, well," Kaze said with a raised eyebrow. "If it isn't the… suddenly… curly haired… blonde and her Amazon sidekick. So that's what happened to Chaos' hair," he mumbled with an appreciative expression directed towards Chaos' black ringlets.
Usagi noted with a flare of jealousy that Chaos' hair looked better than hers did. Grrrr. Chaos must have seen the expression on Usagi's face, because she laughed and slung an arm around Usagi's tiny shoulders.
"Oh, suck it up. You know we're nearly identical-- It's not my fault that the darkness is naturally more alluring than the light," she said with a smirk.
Usagi's hands curled into fists. "Why you stuck up little—"
"Is that your car?" Shampoo suddenly gasped, jabbing a finger at the little black sports car. The three looked back to see what she was pointing at, and then looked aback at Shampoo with worry. She was beginning to froth at the mouth.
Usagi gave Shampoo an experimental push. "Er… Shampoo-chan? Is anyone in there?"
"Can I touch it?" the Chinese girl asked dazedly, totally ignoring her blonde friend. "We need to get to the Tendo dojo in Nerima, and we're super late and oh god if I got to sit in that car—"
"We can give you a ride. I needed to talk to Usagi anyway," Chaos said with a tiny frown as she began to back away from Shampoo, who was looking like maybe she was about to hyperventilate.
"OOOOOOOH MY GOOOOOOOOOOD!" Shampoo screamed, dashing for the car. Once she got there she put her arms as far as they could go around it and sighed blissfully.
"You know," Kaze said finally, "you have some really weird friends, Usa-chan."
The blonde sighed and touched her forehead. "I know, I know. I'm not entirely used to it yet, either. All this insanity is catching up to me. I think I may be on the verge of a premature death," she confessed.
Chaos laughed. "You know you can't die unless by some bizarre chance of fate we die at the exact same second. We share a split soul, you know," Chaos said inspecting her nails.
Usagi threw her arms up into the air. "And to top it all off, I can't die because I only have half of a soul! WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH MY LIFE?" she demanded to no one in particular, waving her arms violently as she stomped over to the car.
Approximately five minutes later they were in Nerima and Shampoo was a quivering mass of euphoria, Usagi was busily signing the papers to sign up for "The Cosmic Dare" as Chaos had labeled it, and they were pulling to a stop in front of the dojo. Usagi gave Chaos her pen back, gave her a quick hug (earning her a roar of rage) and leaped out the car, pulling Shampoo with her. Kaze stepped on the gas right as Chaos opened the door to get out, effectively slamming the door back closed and cutting off the string of profanity.
Laughing slightly to herself, Usagi turned around to see a boy looking at her curiously. He was, she realized upon closer inspection, a very cute boy. He had absolutely amazing blue eyes, and the greatest black hair (which was pulled into a little braid). He was perched on top of a brick wall, staring at her. She smiled at him.
"Hi, I'm Usagi Tsukino. I'm here looking for Ranma Saotome," she explained.
"That's me," he said guardedly, looking for all the world like he wanted to run away.
Oh yeah, she suddenly remembered. There were two of them. She grinned self consciously and scratched the back of her head. "Eh, sorry. I forgot that there were two of you. I'm here looking for the other one."
"What do you want with her?" he demanded quickly.
"Well Jesus, way to be hostile. I wanted to apologize for the way I've been acting and ask her if she wanted to spend today with me in Tokyo," she said with a little frown, wondering why this guy was being so peculiar about the other Ranma Saotome. Maybe she was his sister. And maybe she (girl Ranma) had been talking to her brother about what a terrible person Usagi was. And how much she hated her. And how mean she was.
A horribly distraught look came over Usagi's voice as she envisioned this. Ranma, catching sight of her face, jumped down and rapped her on the head.
"You okay?" he asked concernedly.
Ready to lash out at him for hitting her on the head, she screwed up her face to yell, and froze when she saw him flinch backwards. She took a deep, calming breath. He had only wanted to know if she was alright. And hell, they didn't even know each other. Breathe Usagi, she told herself, just breathe.
"I was just having a mini waking nightmare about Ranma telling you about how I've been treating her and how much she hates me and everything." She shifted uncomfortably. "I actually probably wouldn't be here if she hadn't looked so damn unhappy the last time I saw her…." Then she laughed. "But why am I telling you this? Where is she? Can I talk to her?"
Ranma studied her, and then shrugged. "I'll try to find her, but I don't guarantee anything," he said, sounding bored as he sauntered inside.
Usagi sat down to wait.
*
Inside Ranma was having a huge dilemma. Should he go, or shouldn't he? Usagi had seemed totally sincere when she told him why she was there. It didn't seem like a trap. But you never knew, still. He had enemies who were very sneaky, Usagi not being the least of them.
"Ranma, what the hell are you doing there?" Akane demanded furiously as she stomped down the stairs. "I thought I told you to get out of my house!"
Ranma's head jerked up and he glared at her. "Stupid tomboy," he muttered. What else could he say?
Akane's face went red with anger. "Ranma," she growled warningly.
His heart suddenly plummeted as he realized the hopelessness of his situation. He was trapped in an engagement he could never feel comfortable in. Ranma truly felt that maybe if they had met in different circumstances… if he knew a language besides violence… if she trusted him… then maybe love would be possible. Maybe. But the way things were, he was destined for a life of… nothing. A life filled with this void. A life dealing with the knowledge that he had been beaten by a girl. A life filled with the constant pain of knowing that his soul had been crushed by the one who was supposed to love him.
He stood up suddenly and walked into the kitchen, reaching for the pot of cold water that his father always kept handy. Dumping it over himself, he shuddered as the familiar change overtook him. Once the change was complete, she walked back up the stairs to change into her only girl clothes: a black shirt and a pair of overalls that said "CHINA". Not particularly wanting to deal with Akane, she exited through the window. Crawling silently across the roof, she peered down over the edge.
Usagi was still sitting there, waiting patiently for news. Smiling despite herself, she decided to make a grand entrance. MUWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
"Yo Usagi!" she called.
Hearing her name called, Usagi stood and spun around towards the house. What now, she asked herself wearily. Her eyes widened when she saw Ranma doing a handstand on the edge of the roof. Seeing that she had caught the blonde's attention, she bent her arms, and then snapped them straight, sending herself springing upwards. The redhead did four tight midair flips and then landed neatly on the ground, arms out. Grinning devilishly, she bowed.
"Holy shit," Usagi said witlessly, before letting out an earsplitting whoop. "GO RANMA! WAHOO!!!!!!"
Blushing, Ranma tugged on her ear. "Yeah, yeah, yeah, it wasn't that good," she muttered. "So… what are you really doing here?" she demanded.
Usagi grinned. "Just what I told you. I wanted to take you out for a day in Tokyo. Honestly, I think it would do you a world of good just to get the hell out of here, even if It is only for a day. What do you think?"
Hearing Akane's furious bellow from inside, Ranma nodded hurriedly. "Oh I think it's a good idea. Now an even better idea would be to… um… get out of here," she said, nodding wisely as Akane burst out of the dojo.
Faced with the girl's fury, Usagi went pale, and then suddenly grinned. "Oh," she enthused clapping her hands together, "I simply love high speed get-aways! Aren't they just marvelous?" she gushed to Ranma before winking and leaping up onto the wall and taking off down the street. A little ways down she leapt onto the top of a house, and turned around, obviously waiting for Ranma to get her act together.
The redhead girl looked a bit taken aback that Usagi was even capable of that Shrugging it off, Ranma took to the rooftops after the retreating blonde. In a matter of seconds Ranma running beside the blonde, who was laughing.
"What's so funny?" Ranma yelled.
Usagi grinned fiercely and sped up. "I LOVE SPEED!" she whooped, throwing herself off the rooftop and bridging the distance to the next one with her knees bent and her arms thrown outward. She hit the shingles of the roof and did a round off, ending with a little "ta da!"
Ranma smirked and flipped off the edge of the roof, and then did two more flips upon landing. Usagi laughed and grabbed Ranma's arm.
"Okay, you realize that one day you're going to have to teach me how to do that," she said, tugging on Ranma's arm. "But I have an even better trick," she laughed. "Watch this," she said, getting a tighter grip on Ranma's arm.
She closed her eyes, and Ranma was only able to catch a glimpse of a glowing crescent moon on Usagi's forehead before the world erupted in silver. The next thing she saw was a large building in front of them, with a stream of people either leaving or entering.
"How did you do that?" Ranma gasped, spinning Usagi around to face her.
The blonde girl laughed slightly and shook Ranma's arms off. "I'm just talented that way. Now—"
Suddenly there was a loud ringing, and Usagi blanched. Without even thinking about it she pulled her communicator out of her pocket. She pressed the video button and Venus' face appeared on the screen.
"Usagi, where are you?"
"Er… at the mall," she muttered bleakly. What a way for Ranma to spend her day.
"Wonderful! There's something for you to attack right now. Go get 'em, tiger! We're on our way!"
Usagi sighed and closed the transmission and made to stuff it back in her pocket. Before she could, however, Ranma plucked it out of her fingers and examined it closely. Then blue eyes locked with hers.
"You're Sailor Moon, aren't you?"
Usagi opened her mouth to deny it, but then sighed. "Oh what the hell. Everyone's finding out. God, see what happens when I take magic piano lessons? Eh, Ranma, you're not going to, well, tell anyone about this, are you?"
She looked affronted. "What the hell do you take me for? That would be—"
"Okay, okay, okay!" Usagi yelled laughing. "I'm sorry even suggested the possibility. Well then here it goes. AHHHH! Look what I taught myself to do. Okay, normally I say "Moon Eternal Power" but that's really dumb, don't you think? Sooooo. I taught my crystal how to respond to this!"
"LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION!"
Then there was a ripple of power, and ESM was standing before Ranma, looking very pleased with herself. Ranma coughed slightly and tried to take her eyes away from Usagi's costume.
She thinks you're a girl! If she catches you staring at the very… short… skirt… she will kill you! Snap out of it!!! GYAAA!!!!!!!!! What the hell is that????
"WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?" Ranma yelped, jumping backwards as whatever it was threw a car their direction.
Usagi looked up to see what it was that Ranma was having a fit about, and nearly fainted.
"Ranma, I'm sure I don't have to tell you this, but that is not good."
"No shit," Ranma snapped. "So what are you going to do?"
Usagi blanched and fidgeted around for a second, before giving up. "I have no idea," she mumbled as she watched Beryl floating above the mall parking lot, laughing.
OOOOOOOH NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN? I don't know yet, I'm too lazy to write anymore. Go away. *makes shooing motion with hands*
