Tomoe Hotaru was surprised. Standing outside on her porch was her best friend Chibiusa, who was leaning against a white marble column, breathing heavily. Her ash-pink hair, in its usual distinctive odango style, was in disarray, but Chibiusa didn't seem to mind that. She only looked attentively at Hotaru, and her ruby eyes looked imploringly into her own.
"Onegai, Hotaru-chan…," Chibiusa wheezed out in a small voice.
Hotaru stepped aside, letting Chibiusa come into her house, away from the bright sunshine of early noon. The pink-haired fairy jumped in with a lively step, and Hotaru felt the familiar twinge of love for the Princess she had befriended. She closed the door and turned to watch Chibiusa flitting from room to room, skipping here, running there, giving little exclamations of happiness.
She walked to the kitchen, keeping an eye out for the genki girl so that she didn't accidentally bump into her, and poured some freshly made lemonade into a crystal glass filled with large cubes of ice. "But I don't know, Chibiusa-chan," Hotaru called out to the ethereal form that was still twirling about in glee. "I'm not sure it's such a good idea for me to—"
"Oh, come on" Chibiusa exclaimed, now skipping into the kitchen. She collided into the counter, using the momentum to raise her body over it with her tiny hands, and came face-to-face with Hotaru. "Usagi won't mind at all!"
"Because you don't want her to know we're there…."
Chibiusa grinned like a little devil.
Hotaru raised the glass to her friend, and the only sound that could be heard was the clinking of the ice against the crystal. Chibiusa lowered herself back to the ground and accepted the lemonade, still smiling.
"Why do you want me to go with you, though?" Hotaru asked suspiciously. "You usually spy on Usagi-san and Mamoru-san by yourself."
Chibiusa took a huge gulp before answering. "Mm!" she said, looking appreciatively at the lemonade. "This is good, Hotaru-chan! I bet you made it yourself. Arigatou gozaimasu!" Putting the glass down on a table, she leaned conspiratorially towards Hotaru and whispered, "Something is up. I can feel it. Mamo-chan came to our house yesterday, and Usagi of course hogged him all to herself, but before he left, he told her that he wanted to see her tonight—he said that he had something important to tell her—and that she should come to his apartment and stuff, and Usagi acted sort of weird all last night, probably because of what he said, and, come on, Hotaru, you have to come with me! We have to see what's up! Ooh, I bet Usagi will make fun of me, and if she does, I'll ambush her when we get home, and scare her out of her wits, and maybe I'll find some spiders and put them in her slippers…." Chibiusa growled.
Sometimes the girl could be too much, and she knew that there was much more to her alibi than she was letting slip. But Hotaru laughed and gave in. "Hai, hai! What time do we leave?"
And so the two girls walked out to the garden, where they sat on a bench swing under a great leafy maple oak tree, and they planned all sorts of devious ways to spy on Chibiusa's future parents; they also surmised on what could possibly be wrong with Mamoru ("I bet he'll tell her that he's bored of her company, and just wants to spend a little more time with me!" Chibiusa crowed triumphantly), and what he would tell Usagi and how he would go about telling her. As they swung gently in the cool shade with hundreds of brightly colored flowers all around (with tiny, bright yellow ones under their feet so that they caressed the tips of their bared toes), sharing the ice-cold lemonade between them, Hotaru felt that nothing could be more fun than spending time with Chibiusa, and she was glad that she had invited her on this expedition.
"Mou, where is that Usagi girl?" Hino Rei exclaimed. She checked the time again, and tapped her foot in mounting impatience. "I told her to come at two o'clock." She whirled on her blue-haired friend Mizuno Ami, and thrust her silver watch directly in front of her eyes. "Does it not read two thirty-eight now?" But before Ami could register any numbers at all, Rei had pulled her wrist back down in order to cross her arms; now her fingers did the tapping. Her soft lips formed a puff of disbelief. "Hontou ni, that girl has not improved since junior high! Always late! Zettai-yo!"
The Inner Sailor Senshi, in their regular form as normal high school freshmen, were standing outside the front entrance of The Crown, which was usually their meeting place for all social occasions. Dressed in summer clothes made of light, breezy fabric that rippled in the wind, the group was constantly admired from passing men of all ages, but the girls took no notice for once.
"I'm getting a little worried…," Ami said, and she strained her eyes in the direction Usagi usually ran from, but none of them could detect any sign of her.
The attractive brunette Kino Makoto agreed, but before she could get two words out Aino Minako, who stood next to her, suddenly hooked her elbow around the tall brunette's neck, so that she had to bend her head in order to withstand the sudden weight. "Perhaps!" Minako whispered theatrically, so that all the girls could hear. "Perhaps she ran into a certain tall dark handsome man, and he stole her away into the park, and she can't run away to us because she has been put under a magic spell, and the only way she can get out of her romantic trance is for us to bust in on her while she's being kissed by that guy, whose name conveniently rhymes with (cough) Mamoru!"
There was a general silence after Minako had finished, and after a few moments Makoto continued as though she hadn't been interrupted: "Perhaps we should call her."
"Unnecessary," said a small clear voice at their feet.
The four girls looked down as one, and beheld the sleek black form of Luna and the shiny white furball that was Artemis. The cats, standing prettily on their paws, their tails swishing patiently from side to side, looked up at the Senshi with an eerie intelligence in their eyes—even for cats.
Not too surprising, though, when one considered that they came from another planet, could speak Japanese and transformed into humanoids at will.
Luna spoke up again. "A phone call will be quite unnecessary. Usagi wanted me to relay a message over to you: she is not feeling very well, but she wants you to have a good time at the track. She says not to worry, that she only has a little headache."
The Senshi frowned but could not counter such a request. They were already late for the race as it was.
"Well…," Makoto said, but her voice betrayed her worry.
Minako, too, hesitated. "A small headache? That's unusual… usually nothing gets in the way of Usagi getting the chance to see the Outer Senshi."
Luna stepped forward. "Oh, go on, girls! Have fun watching Haruka-sensei. It's been a long while since you've seen her race, right? Go have fun!"
The girls finally agreed, but they extracted a promise from Luna before they left, that she would tell Usagi they would be calling on her after the race was over, and so she should be ready for their visit. Luna promised with a thankful smile.
"Ja ne!" Rei, Ami, Makoto and Minako all waved good-bye to the two cats on the sidewalk, and the good citizens of Tokyo that walked past and witnessed this pretended not to notice such odd behavior.
"If I were just a leaf blowing in the wind," Haruka said mildly, "I would be ripped apart by this crowd's cheering." She turned to Michiru and grinned.
"Your kind of crowd, hm?" Michiru returned with a small smile. "But even if you hadn't anticipated such a crowd, I certainly did. Your reappearance in the racing world has brought out all the die-hard fans once again." She paused so that her words would sink in. "They have missed you, my dear."
Haruka's response was to laugh in delight. Her voice was low, rough, and incredibly attractive. "Ahh… it feels good to be in the spotlight again. If they have missed me, I can tell you that I have missed them more." She snaked an arm across her partner's slim shoulders, and lowered her face into her hair, which was the color of the waves surrounding a tropical paradise. She whispered in Michiru's ear, her lips barely grazing the soft skin, sending shivers down the elegant girl's spine. "You get this at every concert. It certainly is a rush, ne?" Michiru closed her eyes and gave a small, knowing smile. Haruka nuzzled the tip of her nose up and down her girlfriend's neck, breathing in deeply the fragrance that was all seductive, all Michiru, then returned to her ear… closer this time… lowering her voice a little more so that Michiru felt rather than heard the words: "Is it better than being with me?"
But Michiru only laughed, pushing the tall ash-blonde tomboy away with a bold smirk. "Your fans are awaiting you, Haruka-san, and you know you mustn't keep them waiting…." Haruka's reply was a look of sincere need and agony, but Michiru stepped further away and said softly, "We can always do this later."
Haruka suddenly seemed to see something beyond Michiru, but looked back at her quickly in dismay. There was a mass of girls coming their way, and they both knew what that meant. "Please let me…." Haruka begged.
"No! It has been far too long for your fans. Suck it up; go and greet your fans!" and Michiru pressed Haruka towards the loud and slightly threatening mass, so that she had no choice but to face the arduous task of shaking hundreds of hands, and signing hundreds of pictures, and hugging and kissing hundreds of eagerly upturned cheeks.
And this was only before the race began.
Michiru watched from a little distance, and smiled with all her heart. At last Haruka was able to enjoy this again, without having to worry about any evil lurking nearby, waiting to enslave the planet.
"Miiiichiiiruuuu-saaaaaan!"
Michiru turned and smiled when she saw the Inner Senshi coming to greet her, and found it amusing that they were in such a hurry as to barrel down the escalator to ground level while flattening any stray teenage girls who unhappily found themselves in their path.