Oh man... haven't updated in a while. Actually, more than a while.
Oops. Heh heh... you guys forgive me, right? Uh... maybe not.
Well... anyways, here it is! Finally! I hope you aren't dissappointed... let's just say it starts out slow but builds up to a little action, that you will be hating me for. Oops again.
I don't own GW or SM. I don't know where you got the idea that I did.
Wufei glowered on the whole way home, pondering on his current predicament. But try as he might to find a loophole, it seemed that he was stuck with it.
All in all, it was a pretty fair deal, he supposed. He couldn't deny that he didn't deserve it... but that didn't comfort him any. In the end, all that stood between him accepting the deal was his pride. And even he knew pride wasn't enough to throw away a mission for.
But then why was the decision so hard? He knew under no circumstances could he fail this mission, after complaining how easy it would be. A joke, he had said. Inwardly, he cursed himself for getting so full of himself. And he would be brought down by a girl no less! And the others couldn't be allowed to find out... he would never hear the end of it if they did. Maybe Quatre... after all, he might be dragged into it as well. But then Wufei would have to tell Quarter the lie he gave Rei, and that most likely wouldn't sit well with the Arabian. Hell... even he objected to it, and he made it up! Though he wasn't given much of a choice at the time
That was that. He would tell no one about his encounter with Rei, and agree to her commands. Even if he would look like a fool.
But that did not mean that he would be happy about. If Rei was getting herself a slave for a month, then at best she would have a stubborn, rude and arrogant one.
Finally reach in the apartment, he yanked the door open. Walking inside, he slammed the door, causing the sleeping Quatre to wake up with a start. Duo's and Trowa's curious face popped out of the kitchen to look at him with confusion. Wufei was slightly amused to see Heero pointing a gun at him from a bedroom door. Not sparing a second glace at any of them, he made his way to a corner of the living room and sat down in a classic lotus position. Clearing his thoughts, he began to meditate.
"Uh... Wufei?" A timid Quatre voiced, trying to rid his eyes of sleep, "Are you alright? You seem a little... stressed."
Wufei ignored him until Quatre finally gave up, and went back to a fitful sleep.
Trowa gave alight shrug as he went back into the kitchen. Heero had gone back into his room at some point, but Duo followed, much to his chagrin.
"Get out Maxwell. I'm working."
"Wow! I actually get words instead of the customary grunt? This must be my lucky day!" Duo said with cheer and sarcasm.
Heero growled, shooting Duo one of his famous death glares in hope that the loud American would spontaneously combust.
"Nope, spoke too soon. It seems like we're back to grunting and growling once again," Duo mourned, mock tragically. "What're you working on anyways? Still crying over the loss of your laptop?"
Heero froze, his steady typing coming to an abrupt stop. Heero fixed Duo with his unwavering gazy, and the American found himself reflexivly gulping. Again.
Duo felt very uneasy, not oblivious to the fact that Heero was looking at him like a vulture would roadkill. The comparison was only strengthened by the fact that Duo seemed to be glued in place, unable to move as Heero seemed to close in.
"How did you know my laptop is missing?" Heero asked in a deadly quiet voice, and Duo could practically hear the gears turning in his head.
Quickly, he made up a half-lie. He coulldn't reveal his suspicions about Ami yet, after all... nothing was solid yet. "Just a guess. After all, you're not working on it now, are you? And I've never sen you without it before."
Heero's eyes narrowed, as if weighing the truth in his statement. Finally he seemed to accept it and he moved on to the next line of questioning. "What's in your pocket, Maxwell?"
Duo blinked and looked down at his pocket, seeing it a little less wrinkled than the rest of his jacket. It was a little stiff, as if he had a piece of cardboard or folded sheet of paper in it. Or... a picture. In fact... just like the picture he had snatched from the temple, with Ami and four of her friends in the shot.
"Answer the question, Maxwell."
Being the person he was, he naturally tried to avoid it. "You're not having a very good day, are you Hee-chan?"
The only response was a growl, and a slight twitching of the trigger finger, which Duo did not miss. Oh joy.
"Ok... sheesh. It's just a little something I snatched from the temple that you had me save you from earlier... happy?" Duo gave up, throwing up his hand in exasperation. "I don't see how it affects you anyways... just a bunch of girls."
"Give it to me."
"Huh?"
"Give me the picture."
"Woah, wait!" Duo said, clasping his hands over the pocket, "It's mine! I rightfully stole it from the shrine! If you want one so bad, then you go and steal one yourself!"
"Give. Me. The. Picture."
"No."
It seemed that was the end of negociations from Heero, as far as he was concerned. He launched himself at Duo so fast that all the Deathscyth pilot could see was a blur of messy hair. As Heero knocked Duo backwards violently, the American tried his best to turn over, and sheid the picture in his pocket, slowly clawing his way towards the door. However, the Wing pilot seemed to somehow get a chokehold on him, causing his efforts to be twice as hard.
"Le... t me g... go" Duo hacked out, still scrambling towards the door, with the added weight of a pilot on his back. "M... mine."
With seemingly superhuman strength, Heero managed to flip Duo over, and slip the picture out of his pocket at the same time. He then immediately let go, picture in hand. He gave the gasping American on the floor a look that clearly said 'Now was that so hard?'
'Yes' Duo glared back at Heero's silent question. 'Mine.'
Finally, Heero turned his gaze to the picture. He successfully kept all emotions from his face as he looked into a pair of very familiar eyes. Minako. Aino, Minako. The blonde that both captivated him and managed to dissappear within the few days he had known her. The one that was most likely a sailor senshi, the ones they were hunting.
He then met Duo's eyes with a heated glare. He knew... that baka had somehow figured it out. And that meant that Minako was now in danger, and he couldn't let that happen. Not until he got some answers first.
"Why did you steal a picture of them, Duo?"
"Because I felt like it. And besides, the laptop was too big to steal."
"Laptop?" Glare.
"..." Oops.
"..." Growl.
Sweat drop. 'Oh shit.'
Ami blearily got up from the desk, where she was still working on the laptop. There was nothing on it. NOTHING! This was in it self, very frusterating, but at least she had the satisfaction of knowing that it was her virus that managed to do this. Hah.
Right now, however, it was almost 11:00 at night, and she was fighting off a bout of sleep that threatened to overcome her. Coffee seemed like the only option she had left... cafine did have its uses.
Taking a dirty cup from the sink and washing it free of the tea leaves that used to be in it, she set it on the counter, feeling something bump her elbow. She was too late to catch the vase of roses that went crashing to the floor. The fragile porcilin shattered into a thousand pieces, looking like daggers of ice against the dark tile of the kitchen floor. Sighing, Ami bent down to start cleaning up the mess.
A hand quickly swept up the roses and tried to salvage the ruins. It wouldn't do good to destroy Minako's present before she even got it, of course.
Ami's eyes caught a little black disk slip from between the leaves of one rose. It fell on the floor, and bounced, rolling to a stop as it hit one of the shards of porcilin.
Distracted, Ami set the roses on the counter. They no longer had any light of importance in her eyes. That looked like it was a... bug. An electronic bug, one used for evesdropping. On closer inspection as she held it in her hand, she found that it was true.
Someone was spying on them. Someone that went by the name of Heero Yuy. Someone that could possibly know their identities, and could be the preventers sent after them.
Someone that was after Minako.
A shadow fell over Ami, and her eyes opened wide with shock. Was it him? Heero? Had he come to fight?
Blearily, she recalled that she had left her transformation pen back on the table in the livingroom. She had nothing to fight with. Grabbing a jagged piece of porcilin, she spun around with it raised like a weapon in her hand, prepared to face the worst.
A very transparent Usagi sat on the edge of her hospital bed, looking down at her still form with what looked like a hundred tubes stuck in her body. She had to escape from herself somehow, and this was the only way she could. She would sit outside of her body for only a few minutes, only to be dragged back by the force of her soul. Usagi always felt exhausted everytime she tried to do this, but it was the only way.
In this form, she was less than a ghost. Mearly a spectator to the hospital world around her, unable to be heard, to be felt, to even speak. She couldn't move very far from the immoble body of hers, the pull of her soul wouldn't let her. She had no voice, no sense of smell, or sense of a solid form. She only had her eyes, and she feasted on everything she could see.
She only had a few minutes left. Three if she were lucky, and if she put up a good enough fight. And she would use these few minutes to soak up all she could of her suroundings.
The door to her room opened, and she raised her head in surprise. There hadn't been visitors yet, although she did see the pink roses on her table from Minako. Her see through eyes met those of the one she longed for the most, her Mamoru.
... and he looked right through her. He couldn't see her, couldn't possibly every know she was there.
She watched with sad eyes as he pulled up a chair and spoke to the body behind her, instead of to her. She watched him speak to the souless vessle, instead of the soul, and felt her heart breaking.
He would never be able to see her. No matter how much she wanted him to. No matter how hard she tried. There was nothing... nothing she could do. She was just... too weak. Like a little girl.
She was fighting with her soul, and she was losing. She knew that she only had a few seconds left. Looking at Mamoru's gaze, she saw it fixed on her body, as the pull became too strong.
'I wish you would come back to us.' She saw his lips moving in a perfect synch. She had no sense of hearing... and no voice to answer him with.
So she answered with her soul. 'I wish I could, love.' And her body gave a final jerk, calling out to the soul. A single, substancless tear slid down her non-existant cheek, falling on the matress. And then she was gone.
The invisible tear stayed on the matress for a second after she left, and then disolved away to nothingness. It didn't even leave a patch of moisture, as it wiped away all evidence of the soul's presence.
Uh... stuff with Ami will be cleared up in the next chapter. I hope. Let's just say I'm trying.
Had to add the last bit of gloom in this chapter... depressing, ne? Poor Usagi
The scene with Heero and Duo was the funnest to write! Uh†funnest a word? I don't think so... oh well.
Please review! Flames! Comments! Praise! Anything!
... please?
Love,
Inverse-chan