A/N: Ok, I know, I know.. I said I'd update... that was before life got hectic. I'm going to give you this chapter because I feel like updating and also because I have a few more chapters typed up to this.. I have to get back working on it, and make sense of what I'm doing in the next few chapters.

Chapter 9

The next few weeks went by at a rather fast pace. It was now late October and all of the G-Boys took turns teaching Hotaru physics from last year. She understood it mainly now, and they didn't need to help her as much, which she was glad about, it meant that she didn't have to speak to Duo anymore. Relena helped her with her world economics and she was still having trouble understanding why anyone would want to know about this world crap, as she called it.

It was early afternoon and Principal Marquise had called an assembly. The G-boys, Relena, and Hotaru were standing in a circle, talking before the assembly got started. Hotaru was stood side on to the doorway, which was halfway across the gym, so that she could keep an eye on that area. She caught a movement in the corner of her eye and turned to find and guy, about their age, walking in with his arm tightly around a girl of about the same age, giving her a hard look, as if to say 'Oh, No You Don't! At least not while you are with me.' Duo, who was standing facing the doorway, saw this and made a move towards them, saying, "That guy needs to be taught a lesson in how to treat a woman."

Hotaru put her hand on his shoulder and stopped him. "The honor of teaching him that lesson is mine or Haruka-Papa's. You don't want to take that honor away from us, especially not from Haruka-papa." she told him. He just looked at her, and then back to the couple to see the girl elbow the guy in the stomach area and run towards the group, yelling "Taru!!"

Hotaru turned, smiling, and caught the flying girl (AN: She wasn't really flying, but she was running so fast that it would almost seem as if she were.) in a big hug. "Usa! How'd you know where to find me?" she asked her, surprised that she was here.

"Happy birthday, Hotaru." A feminine voice said from behind the group. Turning, Hotaru found two people standing there, a tall sandy blonde haired man and an aqua haired woman. Smiling, she hugged them quickly, and asked, "What are you guys doing here?"

At the same time, Relena asked "Why didn't you tell us it was your birthday?!? I feel so bad now because I have nothing for you!!"

Hotaru just shrugged and Usagi decided to answer Hotaru's question. "I knew where to find you because I begged Haruka and Michiru until they told me. I turned on the waterworks and that made Haruka crumble and tell me real fast."

The guys had been taking in the newcomers, wondering if these people were threats or not. "Hey!" Duo exclaimed, "You're the man and woman that came to check on Hotaru while she was in the hospital!!"

Hotaru began laughing. "What??" Duo asked.

"You think Haruka-papa is a... Wait a minute!" Hotaru whipped around to glare at the man and woman, "You came to check up on me? Don't you think I can take care of myself? What are you doing here now??"

Michiru looked embarrassed. "I told Haruka that we shouldn't have done that... Hotaru, yes, we KNOW you can take care of yourself... but..."

Hotaru cut her off. "But nothing. Just trust me ok?"

"We trust you." Michiru assured her.

Hotaru smiled at them and quickly hugged Michiru. "Who are you and why are you hitting on my girlfriend?" an angry man's voice asked, coming up on the group.

"Mamo-chan, what are you talking about? No one is hitting on me... It's just your imagination." Usagi looked at the new guy strangely.

"If you say so Usako." The man said as the assembly was started. Hotaru, Relena and the g-boys went to sit in the front row, as was customary for the Queen Of The World and her friends to do so. Haruka, Michiru, Usagi and Mamoru sat in the back row, along with two other new girls that no one had noticed.

The assembly dragged on and as soon as it was over, Relena and Quatra left the school together. Hotaru and the other boys went back to their dorm. Usagi, Mamoru, and the other two new girls moved into their dorm suite. Michiru and Haruka went to meet the principal and find out what they were going to be doing here. Ever since Hotaru had gotten shot, they felt that they should be close to her and had tried to find a way to do so. A couple of teaching positions had opened up in the school, and they had applied. After a nice long wait, they finally found out that they had the job. Usagi had known that Hotaru had been shot, from Rei and her sacred fire (Thanks For Scaring Everyone Rei!!!!), and had begged Haruka and Michiru to take her to see Hotaru. She hadn't known that they were thinking about applying for teaching positions here, but after she found out, she figured that this was where Hotaru was. She had convinced her parents to let her apply to attend this school. When she told Mamoru, he had wanted to laugh, because this was a really hard school to get into because it was one of the top 5 schools in the world, but when she had gotten in, he had applied.

Haruka and Michiru, after they did what they needed to, went and asked Hotaru if she would join them for a birthday supper. She agreed, under one condition: Relena could join them. They readily agreed to this, although they didn't know the reasons Hotaru wanted her to come along. Relena and Quatra arrived back not long after and Hotaru asked her if she would like to come along. Relena agreed and the four went to a very fancy, very expensive restaurant that Relena had suggested.

They were there for about two hours and after the meal, Haruka and Michiru brought out their gifts for Hotaru. Haruka had gotten her a Katana that had a gold hilt, studded with Saturanian crystals, in the colors of midnight black and deep violet. Michiru had gotten her a brand new electric guitar. The guitar had been specially made for Hotaru and was a deep violet with Hotaru's name and the symbol of Saturn on it in gold lettering. Hotaru had taken guitar lessons before she moved here and was really good at playing it now. "Oh, thank you! These are beautiful!" Hotaru told them after she had opened her gifts.

"We're glad you like them." Haruka said. Then the check was brought to them and they got up to leave. Haruka paid for the meal, and they got into Haruka's car to drive back to the Academy. "You know, Usagi has been really worried about you since the day you left without telling her. She thought of you as a sister, and that was a hard blow to her." Haruka told Hotaru, who was sitting up front with her, watching the road.

Hotaru just shrugged as she caught a movement out of the corner of her eye. Telling Haruka to stop, she studied the area where she had seen it. "Great." She muttered and jumped out of the car.

"Hotaru, Where The Hell Are You Going?!?" Haruka shouted after her.

Hotaru never answered as she ran across the road and shoot at the darkness. Relena had instinctively lid down in the back seat when Hotaru had jumped out of the car. When the shoots had rung out, Michiru and Haruka had thrown themselves down onto the seats. Hotaru walked farther into the darkness and a couple more shoots rang out.

A few seconds later, Hotaru came running towards the car at top speed. Jumping into the car, she commanded, "Go! Put The Petal To The Metal Haruka-Papa!" Turning around, she commanded, "Stay Down Relena!"

It took a minute for Haruka to comply, but when she saw figures coming out of the darkness with guns in their hands, she raced off. Grabbing the cell phone the Preventers had given her, Hotaru dialed Lady Une's number. "We Have A Situation!" she yelled into the phone as soon as Lady Une answered.

"I Don't CARE Who You Send As Long As You Send SOMEONE!!!!" she yelled after a pause.

There were seven vans following them at top speed by now, with people in the first van shooting at them. "If My Car Gets ONE Scratch, I Swear, I'll Kill Them All With My Bare Hands!!!" Haruka yelled.

Murmurings were heard coming form the phone, and Hotaru was agreeing with them. No one understood what Lady Une was saying, but Michiru was too afraid to care. Hotaru hung up the phone not long after and stated, "She's sending the guys in the Gundams so they can easily take out the vans."

Relena wanted to heave a sigh of relief, but she knew that she wasn't out of trouble until the guys actually arrived AND blew the vans up. They didn't have to wait long though, because five minutes later, the Gundams appeared out of nowhere and began to shoot at the vans. Within minutes, the vans were blown up, and everyone headed back to the school.

As soon as they arrived back at the girls' dorm room, Haruka blew it. "What The HELL Did You Think You Were Doing?!? What Kind Of Freaking Damn Stunt Was That?!?"

Hotaru just glared at her as the guys arrived. She wasn't about to let out about her being Relena's bodyguard. "What did she do?" Duo asked, curiously.

"She got out of the car and ran into the shadows shooting a gun at a MILLION PEOPLE! Where The HELL Did You Get A Gun?!? Where The HELL Did You Learn To Use It?!?" Haruka explained, then turned to Hotaru to chew her out.

"As the Goddess of Death, I know every way to kill a person. So it's only natural that I know how to use a gun." She replied in a deadly voice, before walking to her room and slamming the door.

"Oh, Great! We have another person calling themselves Death!" Wufei said, sarcastically.

"Oooo Duo, you got your girlfriend to call herself death, How Cute!" Quatra began to tease Duo.

Duo blushed. "She barely talks to me!"

"But you like her, don't you?" Quatra kept teasing him. Duo was turning redder and redder with embarrassment. Haruka was turning redder and redder as well, but not from embarrassment, it was from anger. "Touch her and die!" she told Duo.

Duo did nothing to defend himself against this onslaught because he had promised Hotaru he would tell no one that they were bro and sis. Quatra had been teasing him a lot lately, but yet he said nothing. This kind of surprised Quatra.

Hotaru was hearing everything, and she finally got fed up with it. She came out of the room as Quatra said something else about Duo, the great God of Death, blushing and being in love with Hotaru. "Oh, Shut UP! Duo's My Brother!"

Everyone turned to gape at her.