Disclaimer: Sailormoon Stars and concepts belong to Takeuchi Naoko-dono, Toei and Kodansha; Ren Akari and the Imperial Knights of Kinmoku belong to Cassandra Sisenta; Tsuko/Neo-Keeper and Kuroi/Neo-Striker also belong to Cassandra Sisenta; the Neo-Inner Starlights (Taiga, Yukiko & Suta) belong to Senashenta, as do the "New" Starlights (Hikaru/Hunter, Josei/Dancer & Amai/Dreamer).
Notes: Yaaaaaay! I love our OC Starlights characters. -
EIEN NO YUME NI MUKATTE
Day 1: Wishes
Beyond the yellow frills of the curtains, rain fell in slanted sheets, pushed westward by the blowing wind. What had at first promised to be a beautiful day had quickly turned sour with the darkening of the sky and the booming of thunder, and Yukiko Kou stared out at the storm with fascinated eyes.
"Taiga-san will be happy. She likes thunder storms."
The comment was aimed toward her lap, where a brown, beige and mahogany ball of fur—which she had named "Aki"—squeaked vaguely and attempted to burrow into the leg of her pink and purple striped pajamas, only to be foiled at the last second: Yuki scooped the ferret up and gave him a stern stare.
"Aki-chan, you stop that or I'll put you right back in your pen."
Whether Aki actually understood what she was saying didn't matter. She set him back down, and he scurried off to shuffle through the blankets on her as-of-yet-unmade bed, disturbing Maemi in the process, and making the tabby-striped cat bat at him in annoyance.
Yuki's other cat, Umeko, was curled up in the corner of the room, sound asleep and completely ignoring the commotion created by her comrades, while their mistress continued to stare out the window at the roaring elements beyond.
"Ne, Yuki!"
A sharp knock on her bedroom door was followed quickly by a rush of air as it opened, and Taiga stuck her head into the room.
"Ohayo, Taiga-san!"
"Ohayo..." the brunette have a half-wave, then stepped to the side as Aki darted past her feet and scurried out into the hallway. "You know, if he sneaks into Suta's room again, there's going to be hell to pay."
"Suta-san can be so mean to Aki..."
"She won't really hurt him," Taiga assured her with a shrug, "anyway, you'd better hurry up and get dressed, or you'll be late for work... and didn't you say you had something to do this morning, too?"
"Oh—hai!"
Yuki's eyes went to the clock on her nightstand—and she all but leapt off of the bed, startling Maemi into grumbling and moving once more. Taiga watched with amusement as the blonde scrambled around her room, getting dressed in record time, and then stuffing her uniform into the pink-and-grey bunny-shaped backpack she always carried with her before turning to dash past her out the door.
"Arigato, Taiga-san! I'd almost forgotten!"
"Sou ka," Taiga grinned, "have a good day, Yuki!"
The was a short silence as Yuki hurried down the stairs, and then the loudest slam as the front door to their shared apartment was forcefully shut. Down the hall, a half-shouted string of curses sounded from Suta's room as she complained to no one about the sheer amount of noise the younger girl made every morning.
For a moment, the Taiga chuckled to herself—and then a blur of fur at her feet caught her attention, and she scooped Aki from the floor on his way past.
The ferret's pen, which was roughly the size of their couch, lined half of one wall of the living room. Next to it was the pen that Yuki's rabbits, Sachi and Toshi, lived, when she didn't have them out to play.
It's a wonder Suta and I haven't had to move out to make room for all of Yuki's little friends.
And actually, Suta was the reason there wasn't more of them—she had drawn the line at an otter, which Yuki had rescued from who-knew-where. The animal, which had a broken hind leg, had been sent to a local veterinarian, instead of staying with them.
Shortly after that, Kakyuu-hime had (very politely) asked the Neo-Maker-in-Training to please not bring home any more furred or feathered creatures—so now, she collected fish. The thirty-gallon aquarium that had, somehow, appeared in their music-room, next to the piano, over the course of one night, was teaming with tropical fish of every possible color and conformation.
Taiga had long ago accepted Yuki's kinship with animals as simply a part of everyday life. She liked them, anyway, though Suta spent most of the time complaining about them.
Then again, Suta complained about most things...
"But," she told Aki in a secretive whisper, as she deposited the ball of fur into his pen, "for his sake, I really hope Ren-san likes animals."
There were very few things that the new leader of the Starlight Senshi didn't know about her team.
xOxOxOxOx
She was humming under her breath.
It was a song that she had known for as long as she could remember—one that seemed to have called out to her, when she was young—and one that would always have a special place in the history of the planet Kinmokusei.
"...egao hitotsu chiisana hoshi..."
Yuki remembered the day she had first heard Nagareboshi He as if it were yesterday, though it had, in fact, been nearly ten years: she had been seven years old at the time, and at a shoe store with her Mother, when it had come on the radio.
There was something about it...
That had been the day she decided that she wanted to be a Starlight. Of course, it had just been a childish dream—until the afternoon, five years later, when Taiki Kou had appeared from nowhere and accosted her while she was playing games at the local video arcade.
I told everyone I'd be a Starlight, and now I am!
That fact gave her no small amount of glee.
Still humming, she headed down the hallway toward Ren's apartment once more.
"...taisetsu ni shite ta yo..."
She trailed off when she reached her destination—
The door was unlocked and open, and, if she wasn't mistaken, the chain-lock that Ren had warned her about the night before... wasn't that it, lying on the carpeted corridor floor, a couple of feet away from her?
Confusion and worry clashed in her expression as she poked her head into the apartment; "Ren-kun?"
Silence.
Frowning a bit, she pushed the door open farther and let herself in. "Ah—are you alright? I—I just came in because the door was open!" There was still no reply. The apartment itself, aside from the broken lock, seemed to be as it always was. Still, she was concerned—she headed toward his bedroom. "Is anything the matter? What's going on? I've never seen the door open before. Is there anything that I—"
As with the front door, the door to his bedroom was open as well. Inside, six out of eight of the Imperial Knights were gathered—and they froze immediately upon the sight of her.
Akai seemed to have been in the middle of saying something. Kagami was seated quite comfortably on the edge of Ren's unmade bed—and Ren himself, who was very obviously angry about something, was being held in place by Endo, who was looking quite amused as he attempted to keep the smaller man away from their former-leader.
Tohma and Rui were standing off to one side, looking pained...
They all stared at her.
Yuki found her face turning quite a bright shade of red. "I—I—I have to go! I'll see you later, Ren-kun!"
Spinning, she beat a hasty retreat, heading for the hallway again—and then paused before leaving. A nagging voice was muttering in the back of her head, prodding about courtesy and manners. Running back, she peered into the room again—no one had moved.
"Oh... and good morning to all of you!"
That done, she hurried back to the front door and escaped into the hallway, where she paused for a moment to catch her breath. Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, oh my God...
Voices from inside. She couldn't hear what they were saying. She wasn't sure she wanted to.
Still blushing furiously, Yuki cast one last glance toward the front door, which was still hanging open, and then headed down the corridor like her life depended on it.
xOxOxOxOx
"Ohayo gozaimasu, Yuki-chan!"
"O-ohayo Jina-chan..."
"Neeeee... Yuki-chan, are you okay?"
"Hai. I think."
"You're blushing!"
"I am not!"
"You are too!"
"Am not!"
"You are! You are!"
"Jina-chan!!"
"What happened, huh? Was it Ren-sama? Was it?"
"Uh... i-iie..."
"It was, wasn't it! What'd he do?"
"I said 'no'!"
"Oi, Jina. Leave her alone already."
Yuki tugged at the hem of her uniform and smiled gratefully at Amako, who winked in reply, forgoing a verbal response. Jina stuck her tongue out at her, and then waved a hand, dismissing the other girl completely, then turned her attention back to Yuki.
"So then why are you all red, Yuki-chan?"
The question made her blush again, and Jina giggled as if it confirmed her suspicions. Amako chuckled, but shook her head as she straightened her apron and started digging through the storage shelves for a pad of paper and a pen.
"I ran here because I was late!" That much was true—or, half-true, at least. Without looking at Jina, she dug through her backpack for an elastic, and pulled her long, blonde hair into a high ponytail: she hadn't had time to deal with it before she left home that morning.
"That doesn't explain anything." Jina complained, crossing her arms over her hunter-green uniform.
"Here, Jina." Amako interrupted once again to shove a notepad and a pencil at her, and then handed a set to Yuki as well. "We open in two minutes," she checked her watch just to be sure, and then added; "so just forget it for now, okay?"
Jina pouted. "Demo—"
"Grow up, Jina." This was from Yori, who muttered the words under her breath as she passed between the green-haired girl and Yuki in her normal no-nonsense way, black-purple hair fluttering behind her.
Normally, Yuki considered the taller girl to be a stick-in-the-mud. Today, however, she was willing to take any help she could get. Before Jina could regroup for another attack, she scurried out of the back room and into the kitchen to check on the coffee machines.
"Yukiko-san?"
The Manager's voice. She turned to look at him, smiling brightly and still fighting down the redness in her face, and bowed quickly. "Ohayo gozaimasu Sakosawa-san!"
Sakosawa Hakku was the Manager of the Uchu ice-cream parlor and snack bar, and the second in what would surely by quite a long line of them, given the Uchu's success. In general, he was quite forgettable—brown hair and eyes, not short, not tall, not anything special—but Yuki found him to be a very wonderful and likable person, and probably the closest thing to a Father-figure she'd ever really had in her life.
"Anou... what are you doing?"
"Ara?" A surprised blink. "Checking the coffee?"
"That's my job." He gave her a patient smile. "And you know that."
"Ah. Uh—hai." A nervous giggle. "Gomen, gomen!"
Sakosawa shook his head, and was about to say something else when Amako poked her head into the kitchen. "Ne, Yuki, come on, Yori-san's about to open the doors and we've got work to do!"
"Haaaai!"
Once more, she hurried out of the way.
She seemed to be doing a lot of that, lately.
xOxOxOxOx
"Oi, Yukiko-san."
It had been a long day.
Between Jina's teasing and Yori's muttering, Yuki was about ready to give up and go home... and lock herself in her room and not come out for the next ten years.
"Oi. Yukiko-san."
That morning's little scene at Ren's apartment aside, she was supposed to have met him for breakfast—and, one huge post-traumatic-stress moment later, had completely forgotten that fact.
She had been in such a hurry to get to work and pretend the entire affair had never happened that she'd inadvertently ditched him.
He'll probably never speak to me again...
"Oi! Yukiko-san!"
"Ara?" Blinking, Yuki jerked out of the completely blank stare she had been giving the wall, and spun to face the Manager—spun so fast she completely knocked an entire tray of drinks out of his hands and onto the floor.
They clattered, crashed, splashed, and generally made a complete ruckus as they hit the tiled floor, and Yuki gave him a horrified look as milkshake and cola spilled out across the kitchen, while Amako and Jina stared in surprise, and Yori murmured something insulting under her breath. Again.
"Ahh! Sakosawa-san! Gomen nasai!"
"Oi..." the man shook his head, rubbing at one ear, and kicked absently at one of the now-empty glasses. "Yukiko-san, what's wrong with you today? All you've done is spill things or stare off into space—I know you're one of Her Majesty's Starlights, but I think you might be taking the whole "star" association a bit too far today." Yuki was already scrambling for a towel, but he yanked it out of her hands as soon as she found one. "Yamete, Yukiko-san. Stop and listen for a second—the drinks can be cleaned up in a minute. I just came back here to tell you that Akari-sama is here."
"Akari..?" She blinked slowly, "Ren-kun?"
Across the room, Amako and Jina began to giggle, and Yori rolled her eyes as Sakosawa smiled. "Iie, not Ren-sama... but I figured you'd want to know, anyway."
Yuki rubbed at her apron absently. "Who is it, then?"
"Endo-sama, actually."
"Endo-sama..?"
Endo had never been to the parlor.
"Do you want to take his order?" Amako asked, waving a hand for emphasis. "He's at one of my tables, but you've got the whole Palace-life thing, and he's one of your friends, so I figured..."
She let the offer stand, as Yuki peered out the kitchen door toward the restaurant itself. "Endo-sama isn't really my friend, Amako-chan..." she just couldn't figure out what he would be doing there. "He's kind of my superior..."
"So's Ren-sama," Jina pointed out with a giggle.
"Urusei, Jina." Yori snorted.
"So..?"
Yuki shrugged, "aa. Hai, I guess."
Amako gave a vague reply, and headed back out onto the floor with Jina bouncing behind her, while Yori started brewing more coffee. Digging through her pockets, Yuki retrieved her notepad and pen, and headed out toward the table where Endo was seated, looking more than a little out of place.
"Konnichi wa, Endo-sama! Welcome to the Uchu! It's nice you decided to come, since you haven't been here before. Or maybe you have... just before I started working here. I guess I wouldn't know about that, would I?" Her somewhat rambling welcome was bright enough, and Endo blinked for a moment as the short, blonde girl in front of him smiled happily. "What can I get for you, today?"
A quick shake of his head, "actually, I didn't come for a drink, Yuki—"
"Ara? No? Do you want something to eat, then?"
"Iie."
Her expression went blank. "Then... what are you here for?"
"I just came to apologize for this morning."
"Aah..." despite the flush of red that began to color her face once more, her curiosity got the better of her. "Um, what... were you all doing... anyway?"
Endo's lips quirked. "Akai has a bad habit of doing bed checks. Especially in regards to Ren."
"Why?"
"He seems to think," the man said, and seemed to be trying to find the best way of saying the next part, "that Ren might be trying to sneak you into his room at night. Though I'm not sure where he got that idea—Akuma and I have been as tight-lipped as possible about that facet of your little relationship."
Yuki was sure she was the color of a cherry.
Endo was staring at her.
She needed to say something! Anything!
"Endo-sama—"
"It's alright, Yuki." He seemed unconcerned, "what the two of you do at night is your own business. Why do you think Akuma and I decided to move out of that apartment?"
There was nothing for her to hide behind, damn it!
And was that Jina, giggling at her from across the room?
"We—there's—there's nothing—" breaking off, she looked down at the floor... and then, tugging at her apron nervously, asked; "Endo-sama... if... if I had a couple of questions... do you think you could answer them for me?"
"Questions?" One eyebrow raised.
"Just—just about Ren-kun!" She hastened to assure him, "I just—he doesn't talk much, and there were—some things that—"
She was going to crawl under a rock and die.
No, really.
"I suppose I know him as well as anyone else." Endo shrugged, "what is it you'd like to know?"
Hesitation. Yuki tugged at her skirt.
Silence. Endo waited for her to speak.
Movement. Something brushed up against her back.
A voice. Amako. "Sakosawa-san says you can take your break now, if you want."
Thank God!
"Arigato, Amako-chan," the other girl continued on her rounds, and Yuki sat down at the table across from Endo. Sitting, with the expanse of wood between them, and the chair behind her, she didn't feel quite as exposed. "Aa... about Ren-kun... how—how did he become a Knight?"
A blink. "The gaki doesn't tell you anything, does he?"
"Iie..." there was a tone of sadness in her answer. "Not really."
Across her from, Endo shifted. "I'm the one that recruited him, actually. The little thief tried to steal my wallet from me, so I beat him senseless and then offered him a place in the ranks of the Imperial Knights. He was a little surprised, to say the least."
"Oh." Yuki's head came up. "Why was he trying to steal from you?"
"He was a street kid. Stealing was his way of life."
"But... but what made you ask him to be a Knight? I mean... instead of throwing him in jail..."
"There was just something about him that told me he'd be worthwhile. He has a good heart, despite the toughness he tries to pretend goes all the way to his core..." a half-smile, and he nodded toward her, "but you know about that, ne?"
Why was everyone so set on embarrassing her, today?
"Anyway, that was a long time ago."
Time. That was another thing she had been wondering about—wondering, and at the same time, afraid to ask. She opened her mouth and then closed it again. Finally, she whispered, "how... how old... is he, really?"
Endo's eyes turned serious, and he considered before answering. "You shouldn't concern yourself with that, Yuki."
"Demo... Endo-sama... I—I really... I really would like to know..."
Another long pause, then; "old enough."
"Endo-sama..."
"Yuki... it doesn't matter."
"But..."
He crossed his arms, his eyes closing for a moment. "When the Imperial Knights were first gathered... it was during the beginning of Kokoro-hime's reign. We were around for a good number of years before the next Starlights were found, and we trained them when they were..." somehow, he knew he was going to regret telling her. "Those Starlights were Raider, Caster and Weaver."
She didn't need actual numbers to know what he was saying. "That was... that was four generations ago!"
"Hai."
"He's... he's... he can't be that old!"
"You know how old Satsu is, ne? Ren has a good forty years on her, if not more. To tell you the truth, we all stopped trying to keep track a long time ago." The expression on her face made him frown. "You Starlights, and the Knights... we age differently, and you know that."
"But... but..."
He seemed sad, somehow. "I told you... you didn't really want to know."