The Cupid 500
Chapter Eleven
LAST TIME: Draco and Harry got drunk off their asses and dragged Kagome into their pit of drunkenness. Usagi had a confrontation with an ex-fling's girlfriend, which wasn't nearly as entertaining as Usagi hoped that it would be. Duo had a close encounter with the scaly blue kind, and discovered that a very drunk Usagi missed him. HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE? OH GOD!! I'M GONNA DIE! But not really, because you all need to know one thing (right now). What's going on with the Twister Playing posse?
"This is stupid," Mamoru complained.
Ami bent over and studiously made another tally on Yohji's upper thigh. "Thirty seven!" she said brightly.
Yohji examined his leg carefully, and then swallowed. "Ami-koi... how high, exactly, do you planning on going?"
Her smile widened, and he grinned back. "It's just that you know," Yohji said with a leer, "any higher and you're going to have to let me write on your own—"
"YOHJI!" Quatre yelled, scandalized. "That is NOT appropriate language!"
"I didn't say anything," Yohji yelped, defending himself against the beet-red Quatre. "I was going--- Ami, what the HELL are you doing?" he demanded.
"Um.... Nothing?"
"Well knock it off! As much as I do enjoy your attention, Quatre's face can't get any redder--- Oh, never mind, there he goes. Hiiro, what the HELL is the matter with you?"
The awful looking man turned and fastened Yohji with the most horrible look Yohji had ever had directed at him. The man gulped and grabbed Ami's hands.
"Before I die, Ami-chan, I want you to know—"
"Oh shut up," she said fondly. "Hiiro, what is the matter? You've been acting strange. Well, more strange than usual. And where's Minako? She usually stays over, doesn't she?"
Hiiro stiffened. "Why would I know where she is?" he growled.
"Because you guys are—"
"We aren't anything. We never were anything!" he snapped. "I'm leaving."
He shoved away from the table and bolted out the door, grabbing his coat on the way. The door slammed shut behind him, and there was a sigh. A small boy entered into the kitchen and sat himself down in Hiiro's vacated chair.
"See what kind of trauma she's causing?" he asked softly.
Ami, Yohji, Quatre, and Mamoru stared at the boy. "I think I probably should have stayed in jail," the older man muttered, putting his face in his hands.
"But then you would have missed out on all this entertainment!" Yohji bellowed cheerily.
"But I get out of jail and prepare to see my delicate little Usako, only to find that she's turned into a rampant heartbreaker! WHY COULDN'T SHE BE LIKE THAT WHEN WE WERE GOING OUT?"
"It's a natural defense mechanism," the boy said immediately.
"Who asked you?" Mamoru demanded rudely.
"What?" Quatre and Ami yelled at the same time.
Yohji nodded, as if it was the most obvious thing in the whole world. "Well you guys know what our little buddy here said. Usa-chan is a Type A, which we know means that she's everyone's true love. Her entire being is wrapped around that the idea of being in love is the greatest thing ever. To her, the worst possible thing that could happen is that she ends up dying cold and alone. So there's probably something inside of her that is reaching out to all of the men looking for love and drawing them towards her. She changes according to what she thinks will win herself someone's love. If one personality doesn't work, well, then—this one might. Right?"
Ami blinked. "Wow Yohji-kun, I'm impressed! Have you been thinking about this a lot? I hadn't even figured that one out," she murmured.
Mamoru's eyes began to water. "But still—"
"Oh, quiet," Ami snapped. "Is there anything we can do, then?"
The little boy, who had been sitting quietly, smiled. "I just need your help with something. There's a petshop in Chinatown run by a certain man that will be attending your friend's party. There is a certain detective that will be very interested to know about all of this...."
Minako laughed and grabbed the hand of the man that she was standing in front of. It was her normal reaction to a breakup—go out and get some guy to buy her a drink. If she was in the mood, she'd have sex with him, and then drink some more. In the good old days that would be enough, because a battle would invariably come right after that, and Minako would be too busy to think about aforementioned breakup.
But this time.... This time there was no enemy. No enemy, no distraction. No distraction, no barrier from the pain.
She sometimes felt like her curse was like the never-healing wound Hercules dealt Chiron. She would live forever, never being able to truly love someone. Her heart would never be able to keep someone inside of it. There was a gaping wound in it, and the blood rushing out of her heart swept away everything in its path.
Inwardly her face crumpled, but she kept a smiling visage. She wanted to forget, dammit! She wanted to go drown herself in alcohol! She wanted to just forget that she was a piece of shit for just one night.... She wanted one night without the constant ache in her heart.... She wanted one night without the reminder of that goddamn asshole....
So she was smiling, tugging, and flirting with the man with a desperation that betrayed some of her inner turmoil.
Who the hell was he, anyways? He had told her his name, but it went in one ear and out the other. It was meaningless. It didn't matter to her who he was, how old he was, where he worked, or what his life's dreams were. It didn't fucking matter anymore. It was just one night, one kiss, one touch....
And that's all.
It would never be anything more.
He said something, and applied pressure on her arm. Still smiling and saying whatever it was that he wanted to hear, she allowed him to lead her to the nearest bar. He spotted a table, and said something to her. She giggled without thinking about it, and he smiled down at her. She sat down, and he sat down with his hands deep in his blue pockets. She smiled again, and he raised his maroon eyes to her cloudy blue.
"So how do you like this place, Miss Anio?"
Minako smiled automatically. "It's wonderful, I'm sure we'll have a great time," she enthused.
"As soon you get drunk enough to forget the world, right Anio?"
She froze, and suddenly his sleepy eyes were glinting at her like steel. Her hands gripped the seat as she stared at him with wide, round eyes. What should she do? Should she just fess up or continue with her charade? Her mind flickered to the promised oblivion, and her resolve strengthened.
"It's always nice to have a few drinks, if that's what you mean," she said, feigning confusion.
He leaned back against the seat and smirked at her. "Cut the crap. I know your type. Smart girl with tragic love life. Let me guess, you just broke up with some guy and you're using me to get yourself booze and sex, right?"
She forced a hurt expression to her face. "I... I don't know what you mean! How could you accuse me of something like that?"
He didn't blink. "You really want to know?" he asked in that... voice of his. He reached across the table and grabbed her chin. "There are tear marks on your face. You've been biting your lip. There are nail marks in your palms. You forgot to put makeup on. You dressed hurriedly. I was watching you before you saw me. You were walking with your head low and your shoulders were shaking. And your eyes, finally. Pain. You can't hide things like that."
Minako jerked her head away and pressed herself against the seat. "Who are you?"
He smirked. "I already told you that. Another sign. My name's Spike Speigel. Your name's Minako Anio. Your boyfriend's name is...?"
"Game's up, I guess," she murmured.
"Oblivion is never the answer," he said seriously. "You have to face what you're afraid of. You have to hold your head high and always do the most you can with the time you're given here. And then when that time is up, meet it honorably."
She stared at him with wide eyes. "I'm Sailor Venus," she blurted. "My best friend is going to bring on the apocalypse because she's too damn stubborn to get together with Duo. Everyone's in love with her and everyone else is trying to kill her and she's taking it in a stride. Hiiro Yui was the most amazing guy I ever dated and he refuses to even make one civil remark to me. He won't even smile at me. I was cursed by one of my old loves and now I'm never going to be able to love ever again and you won't help me get drunk and no one's here to fight me because all of the bad guys are in England with Usagi because they all love her and I'm stuck h-here in Tokyo telling you all my s-s-secrets!" she managed to bawl before collapsing in a puddle of tears.
Spike grimaced. What the hell was he supposed to do now? He touched Minako's shoulder awkwardly. Responding to his touch, she raised her head, took a good look at his expression, and burst into a fresh set of tears.
"Ah shit," Spike muttered.
"What the hell did you do, Spike?" Jet demanded, coming up beside him. He tapped Minako's arm concernedly. She raised her head, and her lip trembled.
"Will you help me get drunk?"
Jet was frozen in his tracks. He raised an eyebrow at Spike, who mouthed the problem. Jet sighed a bit and nodded in response. He nudged Minako over to the side, and sat down beside her.
"Listen girl, by the looks of it Spike has already given you some advice. Don't listen to him, unless it made sense to you. You just do what your heart tells you. That's all you can ever do. If you know that what your heart says is not good for your life, then listen to the logic of you brain. Depart from all emotion and just go with that. You obviously know that a healthy relationship is not one-sided, so you left him. What are you going to do now?"
She raised a tear stained face. "I want to get far away from this place. I want to leave and never come back. I want to never have to deal with love ever again. I want—"and here she paused, because--
--there was something on her leg. A melodious giggle floated up from under the table, and Minako watched in mute horror as a boneless, redheaded snake slithered up from the darkness. The being wrapped its arms around Minako's neck and planted a sloppy kiss on her cheek.
"Mmm mmm good!" the thing yelled happily.
"Ed, get back here! Oh, hey Spike. Jet," a woman said coming up to their table and putting a fist on her hip. "Who's the girl?"
"Hello Faye," Jet growled.
"Just broke up with her boyfriend. Apparently they were madly in love. She's also Sailor Venus," Spike said, looking contemplatively into the salt shaker that he had just dissected.
The woman arched an eyebrow. "Sailor Venus? Bullshit. She's probably just some random crack head wandering the streets with a sob story because she's too much of a loser to get a job," Faye yawned, waving a hand airily.
Spike eyed his female companion and sighed when Jet slammed his hand down on the table. "Dammit, Faye, look who's talking! Women!" he groused, scowling darkly at the woman.
Faye's eyes went to Minako, who was watching Ed cautiously out of the corner of her eye. "Proof," Faye said with a grin.
Minako glanced up, brows furrowed. "Huh?"
"Proof! Show us that you are who you say you are," she challenged, crossing her arms.
Minako didn't even raise her head, but muttered a few words under her breath. Suddenly she was Sailor Venus, and Spike, Jet, and Faye were staring in amazement. Ed snuggled closer.
"Warmth of love, yahoo! Rain, rain, go away, come again some other day," she sang. "Cheer up Vee-vee, no one wants to see you so sad!"
"I don't believe it!" Faye hooted. "This is great!"
There was a shimmer of barely noticeable light and Venus was Minako again. She looked into Ed's smiling face, and grinned reluctantly. "You're pretty cute for a kid, you know," she sniffled, ignoring Faye's tirade of speech.
Faye paused, and then snorted. "You don't know her. A few days in the same ship as that kid and I guarantee that you'll go crazy. Say," she said, eyes shining dangerously. "Since Ed here is pretty much sexless anyways, how about you join us? We could use another female around! What do you say?"
Minako blinked, surprised. "What is it that you do?"
"We're bounty hunters," Faye breathed, endeavoring to make it sound like a cool thing to be. "We travel throughout the galaxy hunting down doers of bad things. That's pretty much what you do anyways, right? And seriously, there's no better way to get over a guy than to hang around these two assholes for months. I swear, they'll make you want to be a lesbian, or jump on the first guy you see off the ship," Faye complained loudly, flopping down beside Spike, who looked at her like she was carrying some kind of communicable disease.
Hiiro tipped the bottle up and stared at the empty insides. That wasn't right. Hadn't it been full only a few moments before? An ache ripped through his chest, and he clamped it down.
It was her fault.
That damn blonde haired, blue eyed Senshi of Love. If she had never turned those eyes to him and if those lips hadn't formed those damning words....
Those simple, damning words.
The three words capable of making a great man fall.
And, dammit, he fell fucking hard.
The ex-pilot's eyes fell from his empty beer bottle, hating everything around him. He had always known that love was no good. How could it possibly be worth anything when it was making him so wretched? The world around him seemed bitter and tinged with the color dried blood. His heart beat hollowly in his chest, and his skin itched all over, like all of the moisture had been sucked dry. His skin was so dry it felt like paper, but he was so hot inside, he was half afraid that his skin would burst into flame--
That was what love truly was: fire. An inferno of the heart. The fury of the ignited soul. The numbness as thought melted away, leaving a person wide eyed in amazement that something so wonderful could burn so brightly.
And if one wasn't up to it, the flames would destroy him or her.
"I don't see how she could handle it," Hiiro mumbled.
"And so," laughed someone from another table, "I just glared at him and told him that I could do it! No one was going to keep me from what I wanted!"
Usagi, arms wrapped around Duo, laughing.
How could she have possibly lived— and even thrived— under the constant blaze? And Minako herself! "Burned" by love so many times, yet ever ready to throw out her heart on a line, always ready to take a chance on someone....
Always ready to reel back the broken pieces.
"And so I grit my teeth and watched the pitcher wind up and I saw the ball rocketing toward me and for one horrible second I thought that I couldn't get my arms to move—"
And then there was him, sitting in the dark corner, waiting quietly for an invitation— and not even that would be enough. Minako had flirted, cajoled, pleaded, and then, finally, all pretenses had been shot down and she had been brutally honest with him.
"I want to see you, Hiiro," she had said simply, watching him with blue, blue eyes.
"—but then I thought to myself: okay Naota, you can't even lose until you just swing the goddamn bat—"
So he let her see him. Not all of him, no. His soul was twisted too tightly around himself for anyone to ever understand, let alone see it. He had tried to tell her. He had tried to explain to her that he didn't need anyone. He had tried to tell her, in the most not way possible, that he was terrified of her. He tried to not tell her that he was dying inside.
She hadn't listened. She had poured herself into him anyways and he had rejected her, pushed her away, ignored her, tried to hate her, tried not to care....
And she left.
"Well," came a new, impatient voice. "Did you hit the ball?"
"Nah," the man said mildly, the smile plain in his voice. "But I swung the bat. And that was worth loosing. I knew at that second that I had a chance. It was just... you know?"
"It was just... you know?"
The words echoed over and over in his mind.
Damn, damn, damn, damn, damn! What kind of moron was he? In an action completely uncharacteristic of Hiiro Yui, he growled, yanked viciously on his hair, and bolted from the bar.
"So what you're trying to tell me is that this is my brother," Usagi said, eyeing the beaming man with distrust.
"Yes," her aunt smiled.
Usagi's eyebrows knit together. "The one that died."
"Yes," her aunt said, her smile not loosing one ounce of its sincerity.
"The one that died, and has since enjoyed frequent Earth parties and is happily engaged to various princesses he has saved in distant lands?"
"Yes, well, we don't approve much of his... affinity with the ladies, but there's not much to be done. It's not as if we can kill him for his transgressions," the old woman cackled.
"And so he's the brother that my mother somehow neglected to inform Shingo and I about? The one that is the prince charming of the modern universe? The one that probably would have gotten killed by an angry father had he survived?"
A gleeful shout rang out across the hall as the object of conversation flung himself towards his nearest friend.
Her dear auntie sighed and massaged her temples. "He is indeed. Don't mind him," she said, pointedly ignoring his rather enthusiastic way of greeting one of the women, "he really was quite charming. Dying , you know, has odd effects on come people. Some, like yourself, come out relatively unscathed. Others, like our dear Yuu, go a bit mad."
Usagi's mouth curved into a smile. She always reacted well to nutters. They were so much easier to get along with then the damn sane folk. The man that they had been talking about caught sight of them and let out a joyful roar.
"SISTER DEAR!" he bellowed enthusiastically.
The blonde woman suddenly found herself enveloped in a bone crushing hug. "Can't breathe, Yuu," she croaked, already envisioning the horrible cracking noise as her bones snapped in half.
He dropped her immediately and folded over in a tidy bow. "Forgive my lack of propriety, my lady sister. As I'm sure our aunt has warned you, death has odd effects on a few people. I myself have suffered a rather unique consequence," he said as he straightened back up. He paused, looking sorrowful.
She looked at him expectantly.
He wriggled his eyebrows meaningfully at her.
Her eyes narrowed.
"Fine!" he exploded. "I see that mother has taught you no manners whatsoever! No dramatic flair! No sense of melodrama! It's the art of a truly gifted man!"
"It's also the art of a truly gay man," Usagi said, taking her brother by the arm.
He looked offended. "Why I never!"
"Kissed a guy before? There's a first time for everything," she said briskly, leading him towards the punch table, intent upon getting him wildly drunk and possibly into unconsciousness. She noticed the danger too late, and by then it was too late to stop and run--
"MOTHER!" Yuu roared, picking Usagi up and slinging her over his shoulder.
The only way to describe the following situation was "pure and utter chaos". Ikuko, startled by Yuu's overly enthusiastic greeting, flung her arms up and screamed becomingly. Her wine glass hit the fire-breather in the eye, making him twist in a wholly ungodly way. The flame from his redirected mouth burnt its merry way through a woman's hair. The woman, upon realizing that her head was ablaze, screamed and flung herself into the punch bowl. The table collapsed, causing Draco, Kagome, and Harry to giggle madly and dash around in circles once they had gotten out from under the crumpled table. The three ran into a silver haired demon, who brought out a rather hefty sword and began swinging it around menacingly. An adorable braided boy, apparently deciding that it was his duty to protect... well, anyone, attacked the other boy head on. Chibiusa did not seem to appreciate that her date (apparently the braid) was in danger, and so began firing random energy blasts at the silver haired boy.
Usagi blinked, and rubbed her eyes. Yuu put her down, and grinned widely at her. "I love... being," he said happily, waving an all-encompassing arm at the throng around them.
"You're a bloody genius," she said in awe. He was now her god. "Would you mind terribly if I built an altar to you?" she asked breathlessly.
He brushed floppy blonde bangs out of his eyes and grinned at her, alerting her to a sudden shift in topic. "You don't remember me, do you? Well, obviously not. You were only created... well, you were created at the age thirteen. I was made about three years before that, but I got to start out as a seventeen year old. No pesky growing up for us," he said, beaming with pleasure.
Usagi froze. "What the hell are you talking about?"
Yuu paled. "You mean they haven't told you yet? Oh bloody hell," he groaned, rolling his eyes skyward.
The blonde drew the remains of her fragile sanity together and let her eyes express the monumental depth of rage that was building in her. Yuu looked worried.
"Dear sister, you can't go blaming mother for this. She and father were unable to reproduce, and since they wanted someone special, Aunt Elizabeth took them shopping for souls, and they chose us. Once they had our souls they stuffed them into these bodies, fell madly in love with them, and then raised them as their own. Of course, it was only a few years later that it occured to them that it was a little bit strange how the salesman practically thrust our souls at them without actually looking at any of the other ones," he mused.
Usagi had never felt so lost in her life. "You're saying that...." And that was about the extent of her thought process. She hit a mental wall with a terrific amount of force and felt the beginning jigs of a migrane.
Okay. Time to get a hold of herself. Damn brother. Seemed like he was just another tool used by fate to completely and totally rip apart her sanity. A groan slipped out of her, and she dug at her temples with her fingers. Why did her life have to go like this? Why? She was a good person! She never hurt anyone who didn't deserve it in the first place!
"Nng," she whimpered.
Apparently feeling awful for her, Yuu gathered her in a tender hug.
"I know that you're going through a rather difficult time right now, and I feel terrible for you. But just imagine how poor Duo feels," he said, managing to sound concerned and completely malicious at the same time. Dig brother! Dig those dirty fingers into the bleeding wounds! It's not like emotional scars need to heal or anything....
Usagi blinked in an owlish manner. "What?"
Yuu nodded wisely. "Yes, yes indeed. He's just broken up with the girl of dreams, and when he expected to get back together with her in a few days, she suddenly vanishes. So as she is away in England trying desperately to make believe nothing happened, he's trying to heal himself, but he can't, because—"
"SHUT UP!" she screamed.
The entire hall fell silent, and Usagi went beet red. Groaning quietly, she tried to cover her face with her hands. She knew that she was going to make an idiot out of herself eventually. It had ceased to be a matter of if and rapidly become a matter, instead, of when. At least she knew that it was over.
She smiled prettily at the party-goers, who, upon being reassured by the pretty woman's smile, immediately began talking again. Ignoring Yuu's amazed expression, Usagi took him gently by the arm and applied as much pressure as she was able to. And, being a super hero and all, that meant a lot of pressure.
He hissed slightly and tried to yank his arm out of her grip. Usagi was having none of that. She dragged him gently down to her level. "Listen, brother, I don't know what the hell you think you're doing, but listen up. I am not in love with Duo Maxwell."
At those words, something inside of her—that something that protected the love for him that she hid away—vanished. It felt like God had kicked her in the stomach and then dragged her brain out through her belly button. A soft, pained whimper escaped her lips, and she doubled over.
Relieved of the pressure on his arm, Yuu rubbed it ruefully and then knelt next to her. "You probably shouldn't have said that, Usagi," he said quietly.
She didn't hear him. All she heard inside was the sound of nothing. No clamoring voices screaming at her to eat her own shit and get back together with Duo. No consciences shrieking for her to forget Duo and go with Ran. No doubt, no fear, no anger, no bitterness....
Nirvana was the word. Blessed nothingness. The moment when you overcame all emotions. That was it exactly. Her heartbeat pounded dully in her temples as she slowly straightened back up. Blue eyes lifted and met her brother's. The look on his face was bittersweet.
"Love live magical solutions and hidden catches," he muttered, wrapping an arm around her shaking shoulders.
"What happened?" Chibiusa asked worriedly, appearing at Usagi's side.
Yuu glanced down at her. "NIECE!" he roared happily.
Chibiusa took the time to look affronted before taking off to anywhere but where her beloved uncle was. Yuu took this as his cue to chase her relentlessly, and so ran after her joyfully, looking for all the world like a little puppy dog.
For once in the short time she had known her older brother, she was grateful. She, as any dutiful sister would, had caught the subtle sub-text of his loud greeting to her daughter. YOU OWE ME, BITCH, was technically what he was saying.
And she did owe him. She owed him big time. Usagi, struggling not to fall apart, made her stumbling way to a round table positioned on the edge of the dance floor. Carefully eyeing the chair to make sure that it wasn't going to go anywhere when she tried to sit, Usagi edged closer to the innocent looking chair. Upon deciding that it was only a chair and NOT an instrument of her early demise, she thankfully dropped onto the chair... and then onto the ground.
The damn chair moved.
That was when she decided that it was a good time to burst into tears.
She was not having a good night.
Incidentally, Belldandy wasn't having a very nice night either. Keiichi had vanished somewhere into the crowd, Urd had wandered off with some evil scientist or another, and Skuld was chatting animatedly with a blue haired woman on the mathematics of wielding a large, destructive gavel.
So she had retreated to a punch table, feeling very lonely and very stupid. No one else was alone. Everyone had someone else to be with. Even the moronic little high schoolers had banded together to form a drunken trio of fools.
And then there was Belldandy, a beautiful first class goddess. Alone.
It was times like these that made Belldandy question human nature. In the normal social setting men would fall all over themselves to come within three feet of her. But then in this party setting everyone seemed attracted to the most animated person. For a while that had been the blonde princess, whose name was constantly being screamed at her from across the ballroom. But then the focus was taken off her for a while when her brother appeared, only to shift to the beautiful both of them when she screamed at him in the middle of a dance. Then she vanished, and the brother had all of the attention as he chased his wayward niece across the floor.
Again, leaving Belldandy alone.
Feeling truly pathetic, she turned back to the punch and desolately sipped her punch. Some sort of sound teased at her ears, and her eyes followed accordingly. What she saw was heartrending to say the least.
The same princess from before was sitting, slouched against the wall, arms wrapped around her knees, head on her arms and sobbing unabashedly.
Her full goddess instinct kicked in, and she was sitting by the woman in less than an instant. She reached out a hesitant hand and touched the woman's shoulder.
"Are you alright?" she asked softly.
The woman raised a tear-stained face. Her lip trembled, and even more tears spilled down her cheeks. "I'm jealous of you," she announced despite the obvious pain she was in.
Belldandy blanched, but recovered nicely. "What on earth for?"
The blonde sniffled, and tilted her head back. "Because I am a ferocious egomaniac. I wanted to be first on that list. I wanted to be important... more important than anyone else," she explained. "I have to be, you see, or else I can't explain my bitchiness."
Even though she hadn't felt the feeling herself, the goddess had a vague idea of what the princess meant. But still... that wasn't why the tears were coming so quickly.
She opened her mouth to ask another question, but the woman carried on without being asked. She obviously needed this off of her chest.
"You know, though, it's my bitchiness that has really gotten me into all of this trouble. See, I'm a type of person who absolutely anyone anywhere anytime can fall in love with. But I can't necessarily fall in love with them, you see. But... I did fall in love. And because he was so wonderful I had to break up with him. I'm still not really sure why we even began that stupid tradition. I guess it was because I dumped him first because I still felt like I had some sort of destiny to carry out. Then when we got back together his pride insisted that he dump me. And then my pride took it further and made me dump him next time... you begin to see my problem. Because then I actually fell in love with him. But my damn pride DEMANDED that I not give in...."
"What happened?" Belldandy prompted.
"And then Yohji gave me the idea for the perfect revenge. To not react. See how that would be wonderful? All the times before I had done something spitefully evil to him, and then we kissed and made up. By not doing that evil thing, that implies to him that I don't give a damn. And so he started going out with someone else, whom I instantly hated. But hey—I was going out with her ex too, so...."
Belldandy didn't say anything. The blonde gave her a weak smile. "You're a good listener. I know my story's really stupid too. Giving up love for Yohji's and my dual revenge on our exes. But then Yohji fell in love with one of my friends. And then everyone was in love except me. And then people that were in love with me kept popping up, and I was grateful for a while because it kept my mind off of him.... But then everything began making me think of him and I knew I was going to go crazy if I didn't get away. So I came here. Then my friend calls me up to tell me that Duo broke up with his new girlfriend. But then here there was Ran, who I honestly think I could love, and I mention that to my friend. The aforementioned friend tells me that my ex gave up all rights to me to Ran. I was hurt. I tried all night to convince myself that I didn't love him, and I finally said it straight out. And..."
"And?" Belldandy asked softly.
"Something broke," the other woman said miserably. "It's gone. My love for him. There's a big hole where it used to be."
"But isn't that a good thing?" Belldandy asked curiously. "You're no longer chained to him, right?"
A new tear slipped down the woman's cheek. "But if I'm free now, and I don't love him, shouldn't I feel happy? I think I should, and that's really funny, because I don't. I feel absolutely miserable, and I don't know why," she whimpered.
They were both silent, leaving Belldandy to contemplate a new view on human nature.
It seemed that some chains were more welcome than others.
Author's Notes:
Haha, I lost this chapter! I updated chapter 12 as chapter eleven, so nothing made any sense and people were all like... blah, what's going on? And I thought that was silly because I REMEMBER IT MAKING SENSE. But then I go back through and read it, to find out that... well CRAP. There's a chapter missing!
So I found it, and I'm giving it to you! Aren't you HAPPY?
And, as for my update status.... I've run dry on LOKI pretty much. I know how I'm going to end it but have no idea how to get there. Sympathy for the Devil is trying my ability to allow horrible things to happen to my characters! Pushing the Sky is plodding along although NO ONE IS READING IT (mostly) and I've got about fifteen one shots going. I AM A MULTI-TASKER!
I'm also distracted.
Why?
Green Day. October 21st. Reliant Center. Tickets? Mine.