Ami finally reached campus. She was amazed at how far she had run and
allowed herself a moment to think about what she must have had looked like
to others, running blindly through the streets. It was amazing no one had
stopped her. Then again, maybe someone tried and she never noticed.
When she saw her house come into view she finally stopped. She was so tired and she didn't feel like dealing with any of her roommates right now. And what if Serena and Mina were still there? Why had they not told her who they were right away? Maybe they hadn't been planning on giving her memories back.
She knew she had to face them eventually but right now all she really wanted to do was fall into bed and sleep for the next thousand years.
Suddenly from behind her a pair of arms slid around her waist, pinning her arms to her sides as a masculine voice whispered into her ear, his breath tickling the sensitive skin on her neck. "Mmm. Hot and sweaty. Just the way I like my woman."
"Zoicite!" Ami yelped, struggling to turn around and face him.
A soft chuckle caused her heart to slam into her throat. She wasn't ready for this. She couldn't deal with this. Not right now. Not so soon after...
"Zoicite, let me go!" Ami said, finally pulling free of his embrace.
And suddenly she was facing him. The man she had loved for a millennia, the man who had killed her and her friends once, and the man she had helped kill.
And he still had the cutest dimple ever.
Focus, Ami, focus she told herself but it was like the brain that she could always rely on in the past had just deserted her and all she could do was stare.
"Ames? Are you okay?" Zoicite asked, looking at her rather strangely.
"Um...yea. I'm just...feeling a little sick." Ami ended weakly, just wishing that he would go away.
Zoicite reached over and place a hand on her forehead, "Well, you do seem a little hot. You should go to bed and rest. And no homework! It's not like you aren't ahead in your classes anyways. I'll just take your books to make sure."
Zoicite pushed her into her house while he was talking and into her room. He pushed her onto her bed and grabbed her bag, overflowing with papers and text books, throwing it over his shoulder.
"You can come get this when your feeling better."
"But..."
"But nothing. Go to bed." he said with a gentle push, causing her to topple over onto her bed. After taking off her shoes and pulling the covers over her, he gave her a kiss on the forehead and closed her door.
"Damn him." Ami muttered, seeing the suspiciously self-satisfied look of her boyfriend's face as he left. For a second she fumed, forgetting all about the past and focusing on how Zoicite was the only person in the world who could force her to rest when she was sick. The man simply did not listen once his mind was made up. It was so infuriating. But a small part of her smiled at the way he took care of her.
And sleep claimed her before she could do or think another thing.
* * * * *
"Now what?" Mina asked, look around at the other faces surrounding her.
None of them had been able to find Ami and had finally regrouped back at their hotel. Rei and Darien had told everyone about what they had found at Zoicite's apartment and Mina and Serena had filled everyone in on their day with Ami.
"Ami knows the truth. Now, we let her decide. If she wants to talk to us, she knows how to get a hold of us. Mina had given her our phone number here. We'll try calling tomorrow and see if she'll talk to us." Serena said.
"And if she doesn't want to talk to us?" Rei asked quietly.
"If not, I'll leave my home phone number and address with her." Serena said firmly, "I won't force her to talk to us. She's got a lot to deal with right now and if she wants time and space, I'm going to let her have it."
* * * * *
Ami woke up and groaned. It felt like all of her muscles had tightened up into one enormous knot. This was why people were supposed to stretch before and after strenuous exercise.
Suddenly a flood of memories from the previous day hit her and she remembered why she hadn't stretched out before her run.
"Oh God. What am I going to do?" she asked the ceiling.
* * * * *
"Ami! Telephone!" someone yelled as Ami was finishing getting dressed.
Ami looked at the phone for a second before picking it up. She had a good guess about who was calling her.
"Hello?"
"Hey Ami." Came a soft voice from the other end.
"Serena."
"I'm sorry."
That was all it took. All her doubts about Serena fled in the face of the empathy in that one small phrase. The tears that Ami had been holding back suddenly rushed to the surface, breaking all her control. She wept over the phone, curled into a ball on her bed as Serena made soothing noises.
"Serena..." she finally got out as her sobs came under control.
"Can I come over?" Serena asked.
"Yea. Um...Mina can come too."
"How about Rei? I think she'll kill me if she can't come."
That got a weak chuckle from Ami as she heard an outraged voice in the background that could only come from Pyro, "Yea. That sounds good."
"Alright. We'll be there in a few."
Ami hung up and wiped the few remaining tears off her face. She felt better than she had since regaining her memories. Maybe she had been focusing too much on all the bad memories. What about the good ones? And her friends. She had just regained friends that had stood with her during the best and worst parts of her life. Surely getting them back was worth any price.
Zoicite's face flashed briefly in her mind's eye at that thought but she shoved it away, determined to deal with things as they happed and not worry about them before.
* * * * *
Serena hung up the phone and gave a small smile at all the anxious faces surrounding hers, "We should head over there."
"I think I'll stay here." Darien spoke up from where he was sitting, "Ami needs you guys right now and we were never as close as you all were."
Serena nodded and gave him a hug before picking up Luna. Mina grabbed Artemis followed Serena out the door with Rei. They were quiet for most of the walk there, all of them lost in their own private thoughts.
When the reached the house, Serena rang the bell. It was Ami who answered. For what seemed like an eternity they faced each other. Then, as if by some unspoken cue, Ami and Serena ran towards each other. As they hugged each other, four more arms circled them. Four girls hugged each other, talking excitedly about anything and everything, not really listening to each other in their relief of finally seeing each other.
And two cats were squished into the middle of it all. But they were willing to go without breathing for a little while longer.
* * * * *
For the rest of the day the girls sat in Ami's room talking about what had happened to them over the past few years.
"Where's Lita?" Ami finally asked.
After a moments silence, Serena finally answered, "We don't know."
"So...Why now?" Ami asked, finally broaching the topic that they had all been avoiding.
"There is a new enemy. One I can't fight alone." Serena finally admitted.
"Is it...Is it the general?" Ami asked hesitantly.
"No. We didn't even know they were alive till we saw Zoicite. And he is the only one that we've seen. He might be the only one still alive." Rei said.
"But if he's alive, then we can't afford to assume the others aren't." Luna said.
"But we don't think that they are still under Beryl's control." Mina said, earning a glare from Rei.
" 'We' don't know anything about Zoicite." Rei said, "Darien and I couldn't find anything pointing one way or another."
"Darien?" Ami asked.
"Darien found me. He was the one who finally forced me to admit I need you guys. He...well, he got his memories back without my help." Serena said.
"Yea. He didn't want to come in case you didn't want him here." Mina said.
Ami looked at Serena for a second. She wanted to talk to her about something, but she didn't want to do it with the other scouts in the room. She would have to find a way to get Serena alone.
From there the conversation turned towards the new enemy that they were fighting. Unfortunately, they didn't know much. All they knew was that Serena had hurt them a lot but had not killed the leaders. And now, they seemed to finally be building up strength again. Ami was a little disturbed about how these new monsters seemed be avoiding battles. She could tell that Serena was frustrated by their lack of information.
Almost without thinking, Ami summoned her mini computer to her and began typing in the information that the other scouts were giving her. When she looked up, she saw three grinning humans and two smug cats looking back at her.
"What?" Ami asked suspiciously.
"Welcome back, Ami!"
* * * * *
Hey all! Not a lot to say here. This is mostly a detail chapter, not much going on but necessary for everything to make sense. So I'll just get to the part that you are really waiting for.
happygolucky111 - Jupiter is coming. Any suggestions on what her bar should be called? As for Ami and Zoicite, I'll get that in there soon. And mush is coming. Lots of mushy goodness for Ami and Zoicite as well as Darien and Serena.
Lady of Pluto - Thanx for all the help! I'm fixing everything you mentioned with this update. And you made me laugh with your last review there. I'm glad I managed to surprise you with my villains.
Codie - I'm updating as fast as I can. Really. Ami is starting to deal with things in this chapter. Just wait till she tries to deal with Zoicite though. *evil laughter*
MoonWonderer - hee hee. Yes, Ami still loves Zoicite. Wait till she gets a chance to talk to Serena in the next chapter.
Camie - Thanks! Don't worry about reviewing every chapter. I've got like 17 chapters to this monster. Anyways, I'm glad you like it and I hope you keep reading.
BenRG - I've always seen Ami as kind of shy. There was an episode that I keep thinking of as I write this, where Ami is convinced that her friends are just using her. It showed that Ami isn't the most confident person when it comes to matters dealing with people. So I'm trying to show how unsure she is. I just hope that is coming out.
Silver Dragonfly - "Pussle"!?! lol! And then there was "I love it. I mean how good can it be for him to be the only male surrounded by 9 female senshi in incredibly short skirts all the time..." Too true! He needs some other guys to help keep him sane, because everyone knows the scouts aren't. Suddenly I am feeling inspired to write more of this from Darien's POV.
Venus Smurf - Don't worry. I was looking at what I still want to do in this story and suddenly realized I'll be writing for a looonnnggg time. I still can't believe this is chapter 17. *sigh* Ah well. So did you decide if she was going to forgive him? I know what I want to happen but occasionally things don't work out the way I want.
Bluejello - hee hee. umm...I think I'll just have Ami ask him point blank. Wouldn't that be fun?
Gizelle - If I don't continue this, I think there are several people who would track me down and try to kill me. Seriously, some of my reviewers can be down right violent at times. I love them! Hope you like the new stuff as much as the old!
When she saw her house come into view she finally stopped. She was so tired and she didn't feel like dealing with any of her roommates right now. And what if Serena and Mina were still there? Why had they not told her who they were right away? Maybe they hadn't been planning on giving her memories back.
She knew she had to face them eventually but right now all she really wanted to do was fall into bed and sleep for the next thousand years.
Suddenly from behind her a pair of arms slid around her waist, pinning her arms to her sides as a masculine voice whispered into her ear, his breath tickling the sensitive skin on her neck. "Mmm. Hot and sweaty. Just the way I like my woman."
"Zoicite!" Ami yelped, struggling to turn around and face him.
A soft chuckle caused her heart to slam into her throat. She wasn't ready for this. She couldn't deal with this. Not right now. Not so soon after...
"Zoicite, let me go!" Ami said, finally pulling free of his embrace.
And suddenly she was facing him. The man she had loved for a millennia, the man who had killed her and her friends once, and the man she had helped kill.
And he still had the cutest dimple ever.
Focus, Ami, focus she told herself but it was like the brain that she could always rely on in the past had just deserted her and all she could do was stare.
"Ames? Are you okay?" Zoicite asked, looking at her rather strangely.
"Um...yea. I'm just...feeling a little sick." Ami ended weakly, just wishing that he would go away.
Zoicite reached over and place a hand on her forehead, "Well, you do seem a little hot. You should go to bed and rest. And no homework! It's not like you aren't ahead in your classes anyways. I'll just take your books to make sure."
Zoicite pushed her into her house while he was talking and into her room. He pushed her onto her bed and grabbed her bag, overflowing with papers and text books, throwing it over his shoulder.
"You can come get this when your feeling better."
"But..."
"But nothing. Go to bed." he said with a gentle push, causing her to topple over onto her bed. After taking off her shoes and pulling the covers over her, he gave her a kiss on the forehead and closed her door.
"Damn him." Ami muttered, seeing the suspiciously self-satisfied look of her boyfriend's face as he left. For a second she fumed, forgetting all about the past and focusing on how Zoicite was the only person in the world who could force her to rest when she was sick. The man simply did not listen once his mind was made up. It was so infuriating. But a small part of her smiled at the way he took care of her.
And sleep claimed her before she could do or think another thing.
* * * * *
"Now what?" Mina asked, look around at the other faces surrounding her.
None of them had been able to find Ami and had finally regrouped back at their hotel. Rei and Darien had told everyone about what they had found at Zoicite's apartment and Mina and Serena had filled everyone in on their day with Ami.
"Ami knows the truth. Now, we let her decide. If she wants to talk to us, she knows how to get a hold of us. Mina had given her our phone number here. We'll try calling tomorrow and see if she'll talk to us." Serena said.
"And if she doesn't want to talk to us?" Rei asked quietly.
"If not, I'll leave my home phone number and address with her." Serena said firmly, "I won't force her to talk to us. She's got a lot to deal with right now and if she wants time and space, I'm going to let her have it."
* * * * *
Ami woke up and groaned. It felt like all of her muscles had tightened up into one enormous knot. This was why people were supposed to stretch before and after strenuous exercise.
Suddenly a flood of memories from the previous day hit her and she remembered why she hadn't stretched out before her run.
"Oh God. What am I going to do?" she asked the ceiling.
* * * * *
"Ami! Telephone!" someone yelled as Ami was finishing getting dressed.
Ami looked at the phone for a second before picking it up. She had a good guess about who was calling her.
"Hello?"
"Hey Ami." Came a soft voice from the other end.
"Serena."
"I'm sorry."
That was all it took. All her doubts about Serena fled in the face of the empathy in that one small phrase. The tears that Ami had been holding back suddenly rushed to the surface, breaking all her control. She wept over the phone, curled into a ball on her bed as Serena made soothing noises.
"Serena..." she finally got out as her sobs came under control.
"Can I come over?" Serena asked.
"Yea. Um...Mina can come too."
"How about Rei? I think she'll kill me if she can't come."
That got a weak chuckle from Ami as she heard an outraged voice in the background that could only come from Pyro, "Yea. That sounds good."
"Alright. We'll be there in a few."
Ami hung up and wiped the few remaining tears off her face. She felt better than she had since regaining her memories. Maybe she had been focusing too much on all the bad memories. What about the good ones? And her friends. She had just regained friends that had stood with her during the best and worst parts of her life. Surely getting them back was worth any price.
Zoicite's face flashed briefly in her mind's eye at that thought but she shoved it away, determined to deal with things as they happed and not worry about them before.
* * * * *
Serena hung up the phone and gave a small smile at all the anxious faces surrounding hers, "We should head over there."
"I think I'll stay here." Darien spoke up from where he was sitting, "Ami needs you guys right now and we were never as close as you all were."
Serena nodded and gave him a hug before picking up Luna. Mina grabbed Artemis followed Serena out the door with Rei. They were quiet for most of the walk there, all of them lost in their own private thoughts.
When the reached the house, Serena rang the bell. It was Ami who answered. For what seemed like an eternity they faced each other. Then, as if by some unspoken cue, Ami and Serena ran towards each other. As they hugged each other, four more arms circled them. Four girls hugged each other, talking excitedly about anything and everything, not really listening to each other in their relief of finally seeing each other.
And two cats were squished into the middle of it all. But they were willing to go without breathing for a little while longer.
* * * * *
For the rest of the day the girls sat in Ami's room talking about what had happened to them over the past few years.
"Where's Lita?" Ami finally asked.
After a moments silence, Serena finally answered, "We don't know."
"So...Why now?" Ami asked, finally broaching the topic that they had all been avoiding.
"There is a new enemy. One I can't fight alone." Serena finally admitted.
"Is it...Is it the general?" Ami asked hesitantly.
"No. We didn't even know they were alive till we saw Zoicite. And he is the only one that we've seen. He might be the only one still alive." Rei said.
"But if he's alive, then we can't afford to assume the others aren't." Luna said.
"But we don't think that they are still under Beryl's control." Mina said, earning a glare from Rei.
" 'We' don't know anything about Zoicite." Rei said, "Darien and I couldn't find anything pointing one way or another."
"Darien?" Ami asked.
"Darien found me. He was the one who finally forced me to admit I need you guys. He...well, he got his memories back without my help." Serena said.
"Yea. He didn't want to come in case you didn't want him here." Mina said.
Ami looked at Serena for a second. She wanted to talk to her about something, but she didn't want to do it with the other scouts in the room. She would have to find a way to get Serena alone.
From there the conversation turned towards the new enemy that they were fighting. Unfortunately, they didn't know much. All they knew was that Serena had hurt them a lot but had not killed the leaders. And now, they seemed to finally be building up strength again. Ami was a little disturbed about how these new monsters seemed be avoiding battles. She could tell that Serena was frustrated by their lack of information.
Almost without thinking, Ami summoned her mini computer to her and began typing in the information that the other scouts were giving her. When she looked up, she saw three grinning humans and two smug cats looking back at her.
"What?" Ami asked suspiciously.
"Welcome back, Ami!"
* * * * *
Hey all! Not a lot to say here. This is mostly a detail chapter, not much going on but necessary for everything to make sense. So I'll just get to the part that you are really waiting for.
happygolucky111 - Jupiter is coming. Any suggestions on what her bar should be called? As for Ami and Zoicite, I'll get that in there soon. And mush is coming. Lots of mushy goodness for Ami and Zoicite as well as Darien and Serena.
Lady of Pluto - Thanx for all the help! I'm fixing everything you mentioned with this update. And you made me laugh with your last review there. I'm glad I managed to surprise you with my villains.
Codie - I'm updating as fast as I can. Really. Ami is starting to deal with things in this chapter. Just wait till she tries to deal with Zoicite though. *evil laughter*
MoonWonderer - hee hee. Yes, Ami still loves Zoicite. Wait till she gets a chance to talk to Serena in the next chapter.
Camie - Thanks! Don't worry about reviewing every chapter. I've got like 17 chapters to this monster. Anyways, I'm glad you like it and I hope you keep reading.
BenRG - I've always seen Ami as kind of shy. There was an episode that I keep thinking of as I write this, where Ami is convinced that her friends are just using her. It showed that Ami isn't the most confident person when it comes to matters dealing with people. So I'm trying to show how unsure she is. I just hope that is coming out.
Silver Dragonfly - "Pussle"!?! lol! And then there was "I love it. I mean how good can it be for him to be the only male surrounded by 9 female senshi in incredibly short skirts all the time..." Too true! He needs some other guys to help keep him sane, because everyone knows the scouts aren't. Suddenly I am feeling inspired to write more of this from Darien's POV.
Venus Smurf - Don't worry. I was looking at what I still want to do in this story and suddenly realized I'll be writing for a looonnnggg time. I still can't believe this is chapter 17. *sigh* Ah well. So did you decide if she was going to forgive him? I know what I want to happen but occasionally things don't work out the way I want.
Bluejello - hee hee. umm...I think I'll just have Ami ask him point blank. Wouldn't that be fun?
Gizelle - If I don't continue this, I think there are several people who would track me down and try to kill me. Seriously, some of my reviewers can be down right violent at times. I love them! Hope you like the new stuff as much as the old!