DISCLAIMER: I do not own Gudam Wing or Sailor Moon or space or blah, blah, blah..
Setsuna sighed slightly as she absent-mindedly wandered the space ship. Feeling increasingly bored. Usually, this feeling was not unknown to her. She was normally forced to stand at the time gate for prolonged periods of time with nothing to do but watch as other peoples lives progressed.
But since she had come to be here, she was no longer forced to remain at the time gates. Which gave her free time. Wanting to do something with that time and having nothing to do. And her, being the Senshi OF Time, could only find this to be ironically sad in her perspective.
After an amount of roaming about, she made her way to the observatory again. Watching space pass her by like everything else seemed to do before her. She got into this rut at least once a week. She sighed again. Wishing she had something she could fill the seeming void in her life.
"WuFei Chang." She acknowledged his presence in the room. Stepping out of the shadows, he walked forward to stand next to her as the both of them stared out the window. Looking at the bleak darkness brightened only by the distant stars.
He drew a small breath before he began. His face looking slightly strained. "You have grown in my respect, Setsuna." He said carefully. Remembering what happened to Duo when he failed to call her by her name. "Anyone who can make Duo run that quickly deserves some respect." He said with half a smile. Recalling Duos fear stricken face.
He had wanted to remark about her abilities in the face of danger and the mission. He gave her great credit for that. Taking initiative and risking her life when she didn't have to. Though he would never tell her that. Something told him that he didn't have to with this woman. That she already knew him He just couldn't figure out how.
She looked at him out of the corner of her eye and smirked. From what she had seen of this guy in the time gates, saying what he just said to her right then, probably took a lot of effort. And she didn't expect him to say it again.
They stood there like that for a long while. Staring out the window. Having really nothing to say to one another. Although an understanding of sorts did come to pass between them.
"She would be proud of you, WuFei." He turned his gaze toward her curiously and surprisingly. "You don't have to question it." She finished. Keeping her gaze strait ahead.
WuFei could onlyguess howshe knew what his thoughts were on. At first he was angry that she had pried into his life. But it drifted away quickly at what he realized she had said. His face became hard and he continued to stare out ahead of his at the stars. But the sadness could be seen in his eyes. "I'm glad someone thinks so."
The silence was only broken a few minutes later when WuFei's watch began to beep. He looked at it and grunted. Making his way towards the door. He stopped suddenly and turned to look at her. "Breakfast will be served in a few minutes."
"Breakfast?" She repeated in question. She had completely lost track of time while she had been walking about and looking out the window. But then, she was always something of an insomniac.
"I know." He replied in understanding. "Its easy to lose track of time when in space. The time zones between the colonies can also get confusing." He began down the passageway towards the galley. While she followed him silently. "You do not have to walk behind me."
"Out of respect, I will. Besides, I don't know my way around here yet." A small smile crept onto her lips as they walked through the seemingly empty ship. She remembered that the five of them are on a mission. "Just what is the mission that you five are on?" She asked. Not really expecting an answer from him.
"That isn't information I'm about to give to anyone, let alone a stow away." He answered a little gruffly. "But if you wish, you may ask Yuy. He trusts you more that the rest of us. Though I'm not sure what he knows that I don't."
Setsuna nodded her head while making a mental note to ask Yuy about it later. "Is he the leader of the five of you pilots?" She asked him. Remembering how they had looked to him earlier for a solution to the ships pressurization problem. WuFei looked to answer her question with an open mouth, but closed it quickly. Looking to be in thought to her question.
WuFei never really thought about it before. "We really don't have a leader. We are a team. We each have our strength. We each draw from the other what we need." He replied to her. But still looked to be in thought about it. "Though I suppose technically, Quatre could be called our leader. He is the one that keeps this group held together and functioning. Rather than going our separate ways, as we are used to."
He wondered just why he was explaining all this to her. He felt as if she already knew most of this stuff already. Unless she was bluffing. Or maybe she just wanted to hear it from him. Yuy did say they could trust her. "When it comes to Yuy, that becomes difficult to explain. You could say he runs the operation. Quatre keeps us together while Yuy runs everything else. He is the one that keeps his cool at all times. Always knows what needs to be done. And not afraid to do it. So we follow him."
Setsuna listened to him while her thoughts drifted elsewhere. Heero was so much like her, it was frightening. Both bound by duties and responsibilities they would risk their life to uphold. The both of them. They had both been forced these responsibilities on them. And both had been forced to push aside their emotions to do it.
When the two of them entered the galley together, Quatre's and Duo's jaw fell open. Watching as WuFei failed to insult Setsuna and walked side by side to the table. Trowa didn't have his mouth open, but if you looked close enough, you could tell that his eyebrows had raised about a centimeter higher than there normal position.
Quatre almost forgot to set down the plates of food and began apologizing to her and WuFei. At the same time unable to find a way to ask just how or why Setsuna had managed to gain WuFei's respect.
Duo, on the other hand, had a different theory. Putting his hands behind his back, he slouched in his chair and grinned at his fellow pilot. "You know, its not everyday you see WuFei walk into a room with a woman and not have him insult her. I can't help but wonder if the two of you. . ." He wagged his eyebrows suggestively.
WuFei's face turned red with anger at Duo's suggestion. Which was Duo's point. While Setsuna scowled at him. Wishing that she had her staff to whack him in the head with right then. The scowl slowly turned into a smirk. As she noticed that he had conveniently placed himself across from her at the table. And was slouching greatly in his chair.
Leaning back in her own chair, she slouched slightly herself. Looking nothing more than content to the world around her and make herself more comfortable in her own chair. Only to deliver a swift kick to him under the table. Where his legs should be widely spread apart.
Everyone at the table heard a loud "THWACK" noise and looked at Duo, to see his eyes grow really large. Slowly, he moved his hands out from behind his head and lowered them under the table. He fell backwards in his chair to the floor. Clutching that which had recently become more precious than his braid. Sobbing quietly to himself.
WuFei was grinning ear to ear. He turned around to look the woman whom he had come to respect more and more recently. "Setsuna, you and I are going to get along just fine."
Heero walked into the galley and stepped over Duo, looking almost like he hadn't noticed him curled up in a fetal position on the floor at all. He stood Duo's chair up and sat himself in it "Duo, when you're done, the left rear engine number 762 seeds to be looked at."
Duo nodded slightly and began to slowly crawl his way out of the room into the passageway while he whimpered visibly. Heero helped himself to Duo's untouched breakfast. WuFei, Quatre, and even Trowa all broke out in laughter. While Heero and Setsuna shared similar smirks.
-
Serena beat the staff against the floor a few more times just to make sure that it would not work. Or might work for that matter. Hotaru watched curiously as Serena used all methods to torture to the poor staff to get it to work.
She was about to give up when suddenly the time gates flared to life. Serena squealed with joy while Hotaru jumped up to see what would happen with the time gates. A graying mist appeared before the gate, but other than that, no images. They noted with some disappointment.
Serena ran her hand over the staff while watching the time gate. Hoping that something would happen. When her hand came across something she didn't notice on the staff before. Looking at it, if felt like a button, but she couldn't see it. Unsurely, she pressed it.
The gates flared to life again. This time an image appeared over the mist. A bunch of oddly dressed ninja people at a ninja school were fighting. "Hah!" Serena exclaimed. "All this time we thought it was magic. Turns out this thing had buttons on it."
She pointed the staff at the gates like you would a T.V. remote and pushed the button again to see the image be replaced by another. This one had a bunch a muscular men with glowing blonde hair.
"Oh! I've seen this dimension before!" she went to explain it to Hotaru incase she hadn't seen this one before. "This one had a bunch of powerful good aliens to fight to protect earth from evil bad aliens and-"
Serena didn't have a chance to finish as Hotaru put her hand on Serena's and looked pleadingly at her. "Please Serena-sama. I want my Setsuna-mama."
Serena smiled down at her. "Of course, firefly. Don't worry. We'll bring Setsuna back. I promise." She looked back at the gate and began to flip through the channels more quickly. Looking for any sign of Setsuna.
After about an hour, looking though all sorts of unusual dimensions, she started to go through the channels even faster. Not knowing just how many different dimensions there were. For all she knew, they were limitless.
"WAIT!" Hotaru exclaimed as she was flipping through the channels. Serena stopped flipping to look at the dimension they had stopped at. One where people fought with weird monsters that same out of balls.
"Go back a few channels." Hotaru told her and Serena flipped back a few channels. Looking for any sign of Setsuna. Finding a woman appear on the mist with green hair pulled up in two half buns, they both exclaimed "Setsuna!"
"But where is she?" Serena wondered out loud. As though the staff could here her, the image back up and both saw that Setsuna was on a space ship. Flying about in space. The image focused back on Setsuna again.
"Setsuna-mama is in space on a space ship!" Hotaru exclaimed happily. Glad to have found her at all. And she thought it was cool too that she was in space. She had always wanted to go to space.
Serena handed Hotaru the time staff and took a few steps backward. "Don't worry Hotaru. I'll bring Setsuna back. Everything will be okay." She got a running start and made a run at the time gates. Only to pass strait though the mist and land on the other side of the gate.
Looking about and seeing that the mist still surrounded her, she walked through the gate again. Reappearing in front of Hotaru again. They both looked sadly at Setsuna in the image. They found her, but what good was that when they could not get to her?
Hotaru leaned the staff against the time gate and the both of them sat down in front of the gate to watch what it was that Setsuna was doing or what she was going to do. The scene changed again. Setsuna was now sitting at a table eating breakfast with five cute guys.
"Whoa! Sets-chan is making a lot of cute guy friends in that place! Go Setsuna!" Serena cheered her on through the gate. Watching the scene s if it were a cheesy romance story. (Ironic, ne?)
Hotaru took the moment to study the other people in the image. One of the guys looked kind of familiar. But she couldn't figure out where. Odd.
Unnoticed by the both of them, the staff and fallen into the gate. But not to fall to the other side of the gate. Inside the Gundam hanger of the ship, no one noticed or sensed the bright flash of light and the clatter of a staff that landed in the hanger. More importantly into the cockpit of a familiar and open gundam.
Short chappy and I am sorry. Falling into a bit of a rut with this story. Don't worry it shall continue. RR please, Hopeful the next chapter will have more to it. Soon, the mission begins.