Title: Sister Moon, Brother Earth [2/?]
Author: Corbeau Noir
Genre: AU, Action/Adventure, Drama
Rating: PG-13
Email: noir_corbeau@hotmail.com
Site: www.geocities.com/corbeaun
Disclaimer: Bishoujou Senshi Sailor Moon was created by
Naoko Takeuchi.
===========================================================
"Hanami" - In Japan this is the custom of observing cherry
blossoms in the spring, which today usually includes a
nationwide outdoor picnic every April. Once only a pursuit
of the educated upper-class, sakura-viewing is now an
extremely popular festival for everyone in the country.
===========================================================
Sister Moon, Brother Earth
by Corbeau Noir
Part 2
~~~~~~
"Where is the --"
"Lower shelf, beside the rice."
Mamoru watched from his perch by the kitchen counter
as Usagi disappeared beneath the cabinet, then popped back
up again moments later slightly disheveled but with the jar
secured in her grasp. She laid it carefully beside the sink,
before turning to him again.
"Now where --"
"Third door, behind the towel rack."
Usagi pursed her lips, rummaged through a few boxes
before triumphantly emerging with a red, slightly chipped
bento box. She laid that too beside the sink, and then
proudly stood back to survey the assortment of condiments
and containers now lined neatly on the tiled counter.
Mamoru watched the scene dubiously. "Are you sure you
don't want any help?"
She waved a hand at him in exasperation. "Yes, yes,
I'm sure. Now just stay put." Usagi set a pot of water
simmering on the stove, humming softly to herself all the
while. Suddenly, she frowned and turned to shake the frying
pan at him threateningly, "You're coming next week, right?
To my school's hanami?"
"Wouldn't miss it for the world." He cocked a grin at
her.
"You better not," Usagi warned with only a half-
teasing smile, and turned to dump a plate of finely minced
beef into the pot. "Oh, and Onniichan?" she added casually,
"Bring Motoki along too."
"As long as you remember he has a girlfriend," Mamoru
murmured, surreptitiously eyeing the pot bubbling on the
stove in front of Usagi.
Usagi paused in the midst of stirring to stick her
tongue out at him. "The path of true love has no
boundaries," she said, affecting a haughty air.
He tore his eyes away from the now ominously rumbling
pot. "Usa, a girlfriend is *not* a boundary."
Usagi grinned at him, a twinkle in her eye. "Fine, a
challenge then."
Mamoru only sighed in fond exasperation, watching
affectionately as his sister bustled about in their tiny
kitchen preparing for their evening meal. When Usagi
finally took the pot of nondescript brown mush off the
stove and brought it past him, he eyed it warily. The
unmistakable odor of burnt curry wafted to his nose and
Mamoru reached instinctively toward it.
"Usa, maybe I should --"
She slapped his hand away hard. "No. Whatever it is,
just no. This is my food. You will not touch it, add to it,
or in any way or form have *anything* to do with it before
it comes in contact with your mouth, oh say, an hour from
now." She glowered hard at him for emphasis, "Understood,
Oniichan?"
His lips twitched in what looked suspiciously like a
smile, but when Usagi watched closely a moment later after
putting the pot in the sink to cool, the face Mamoru turned
to her was the epitome of solemnity. He bowed low.
"I live to serve, Usa-hime."
The shout of indignant laughter rang out in the late
evening air, followed closely by the familiar sound of a
young man's chuckles.
* * * * *
"Now class, you're all preparing for the hanami,
right? We don't want anything last minute now, do we? It
must be perfect!" Old Mrs. Yano beamed, looking at the
entire class. "And as every good Japanese cook knows, the
packaging is just as, if not more important than what's
inside."
Abruptly, Mrs. Yano frowned, only then noticing the
empty seat beside Naru. "Is Kino Makoto absent today?" she
asked.
The girl in front of Naru, Yumiko, raised her hand
timidly. "Ah, sensei, she was here during homeroom."
Mrs. Yano pursed her lips in displeasure and
brusquely made a mark in her folder. "Delinquents," she
muttered under her breath. "It gets worse every year."
She laid the folder back on her desk, and flicked on
the slide show. A picture of a rice ball with a sprig of
parsley appeared on the blank wall of the Home Ec room.
"Ah, as I was saying, the aesthetic is extremely
important when cooking." She clicked again and the picture
on the wall changed to that of a bowl of miso with blocks
of tofu stacked symmetrically within. "Not only does the
food have to taste good in the mouth, it must also appear
lovely to the eye. Presentation," Mrs. Yano jabbed her
finger emphatically in the air, "is the key!"
"Now," she looked around the quiet room, "who would
like to collect flowers for the class."
Usagi's hand shot up in the air.
"Ah, the new student, Chiba." She gestured to the
plastic pail hanging on a peg beside the door. "Go take
that and come back in twenty minutes. Oh, and I truly
appreciate you willingness to sacrifice your time at
decorating for the class."
Naru coughed and Usagi smiled sweetly.
* * * * *
There were some truly beautiful blossoms on the
cherry trees behind the fence, around the old shed.
Surreptitiously checking to make sure no one around, she
quickly squeezed herself through a gap in the wooden fence.
The shed was rusted over, and paint flaked off from
the sides. Usagi grimaced as she stepped carefully over the
rusted nails on the grass, stooping down ever once and a
while to pick a perfectly shaped petal off the ground.
"What are you doing here?"
Startled, Usagi jumped to her feet, turning just in
time to see a tall forbidding girl emerge from behind one
of the surrounding trees. She vaguely remembered seeing the
girl in her class before. "Oh, I didn't mean to disturb
you." Usagi held up the half-full pail sheepishly. "I was
just filling this for an assignment."
The other girl stared hard at her for a long moment.
Usagi fidgeted awkwardly. Then abruptly, as if not finding
what she was looking for, the tall girl shouldered her way
past the smaller Usagi; Usagi's nose wrinkled a little as
she caught the distinctive smell of tobacco from the other
girl.
Later, after Home Ec was over and everyone walked
back to the classroom, Usagi saw the strange girl from
before already seated in a desk in the corner. She nudged
Naru and asked, "Who is she?"
Naru glanced curiously in the direction Usagi was
pointing. "Oh, that's Makoto."
"Makoto?"
Naru nodded gravely. "Yeah, Makoto's one of those
independent types. She lives by herself in an apartment
downtown. I think her only joy in the world is cooking. Or
at least," Naru cocked her head thoughtfully, "she only
smiles while there's uncooked food lying around."
A short pig-tailed girl, Kuri, appeared suddenly by
Usagi's desk, "Don't go near her, Usagi," Kuri warned,
"She's mellowed out the past few years, but when she was in
junior high, she was an ogre! Always picking fights..."
"But she really has mellowed these years," Yumiko
protested, leaning over her chair to Usagi's desk. "Almost
like a different person. I wonder what happened," she added
bemusedly.
The next day, between classes, Usagi noticed the gap
in the fence. She remembered the tall brunette from
yesterday, and on a sudden impulse, she squeezed through
the wooden boards to the other side. But to her
disappointment, the other girl was not there.
"Hey, you're not supposed to be here," a rough voice
came from behind.
Usagi stumbled back in surprise, only to collide
against someone's chest. A hand caught her by the waist,
and spun her around. She broke out from the grip, and
stared apprehensively at the two scruffy teenage boys, one
big, the other skinny, now standing in front of her. She
slowly inched back toward the gap in the fence. "Gomen, I
didn't realize I was intruding."
A glint of recognition suddenly appeared in the
bigger boy's eyes. One hand slammed against the shed beside
her, blocking her retreat. "He-e-e-y..." he drawled,
"Aren't you that new girl? The one everyone's talking
about."
She tried to dodge out from beneath his arm.
"I don't --"
The skinny boy grinned, walking up to where the other
boy had trapped her. "C'mon, let's see that pretty face of
yours." He grabbed her roughly by the chin.
Usagi yanked her face out of his grasp, and glared
furiously at both of them, "Don't touch me."
But before she could shout again, the bigger boy
grabbed her from behind, pinning her arms to her sides.
Panic suddenly thrashed through her body. "What are you
doing?!" she cried, twisting desperately in the boy's grip.
"Let me go!"
Grinning, the skinny boy stuck his face right in
front of hers. "Hey, hey, just looking." She glowered at
him, eyes bright with fury and panic, and he laughed. "But,
whew," he stared at the mesh of scars on her left cheek,
raising a finger to trace the lines, "looks like someone
already roughed you up real bad before."
Usagi finally twisted an arm from the other boy's
clutch, and hit the skinny boy's hand away from her face.
"I said get your hands off me!"
The skinny boy grinned, rubbing at the hand she'd
slapped. "So-o-o-o...You like it rough, huh?" he said
gleefully, reaching for her once again.
This time she didn't bother saying anything, and
instead drove her free elbow behind her hard into the other
boy's stomach.
The bigger boy yelped, and tossed her to the ground.
"Itachi!" he spat at her, holding a hand to his side, and
took an angry step toward her. Usagi grew cold at the look
on his face, and she frantically tried to get up from the
ground.
"What are you guys doing?"
Both boys stiffened, whipped around to face the
speaker, then relaxed immediately upon recognizing the
newcomer. Usagi froze on the ground when she saw who it was.
The bigger boy affected an air of boredom and drawled,
"Oh, it's only you."
"Heard you finally decided to act like a real woman,
Makoto." The skinny boy leered at the brown-haired girl,
"What, you want a boyfriend?"
"Never knew you were interested, Ichiro-kun." Then
her voice flattened. "You two are on my turf, and you both
know how much I love trespassers."
The skinny boy laughed. "Back off, *Makoto-chan*," he
smirked, purposefully using the insulting diminutive.
"You've gotten soft, and I ain't never gonna take orders
from a girl." He nodded at the bigger boy, and the bigger
boy nodded back and took a menacing step toward the tall
brunette.
It happened so fast, Usagi barely saw it; the big boy
was suddenly on the ground clutching his face, blood
running between his fingers. The skinny boy squeaked.
Makoto lowered her fist and calmly smoothed out the
skirt of her sailor fuku. "Get out."
The two boys scrambled up, nearly tripping over their
own feet in their haste, and quickly disappeared into the
bushes behind the shed.
Usagi lay wordless on the ground beneath the cherry
tree. The tall emerald-eyed girl only glanced at her once
without saying anything, and then walked away.
* * * * *
Naru stared at Usagi. "Why do you want to know where
she sits for lunch?" she asked.
Kuri rolled her eyes in exasperation, "Usagi, didn't
you hear me when I said she's a troublemaker?"
Usagi frowned a little, unconsciously gripped the
edges of her bento box, "She can't be as frightening as you
say."
"Oh, of course not," Kuri smiled. "She's worse."
Suddenly, Naru started, "Hey, Usagi, where're you
going?"
The golden-haired girl waved back reassuringly from
where she'd walked a few feet away. "Don't worry, Naru, you
guys go on without me." She ducked under a low branch, and
then called back, "I'll just have lunch over here today."
An alarmed look on her face, Naru cried out, "You're
not...?!"
But as Usagi's tiny figure disappeared into the
undergrowth, it became apparent. Kuri groaned faintly in
horror, "...oh, kami help us, she *is*..."
* * * * *
It wasn't too hard to find the other girl. Even
seated among the tall uncut grass, her hair gleamed like
burnished copper under the sunlight that streamed through
the leafy branches of the trees overhead. The girl looked
up in surprise as Usagi seated herself calmly on the grass
beside her.
"It's a beautiful day, don't you think?" Usagi asked
her amiably.
Makoto only stared at her, and shook her head in
bemusement. "What are you doing?" she finally growled.
Usagi blinked innocently at her. "I'm having lunch,"
she replied simply, and as if to illustrate just that, she
slid a pair of chopsticks from her red bento box.
Makoto glared at her. "As I'm sure your little
friends told you, I'm not a very nice person."
Usagi only smiled cheerfully. "'Nice' is overrated,
don't you think?" she asked all too casually.
Makoto snorted disbelievingly at that.
"And besides, I believe they also said you breathed
fire and could take down forty grown men with both hands
behind your back and a leg behind your ear."
Surprised, Makoto let out a short bark of laughter
before she could stop herself. "Fine," she said, irritated
at having a reaction drawn from her, "Eat here if you want;
I'm outta here." She stood up to leave.
Usagi lurched from her seat, grabbing her by the arm.
"No, please, I--" The tall brunette looked down at her, and
Usagi flushed, hastily letting go of her arm. But her voice
was composed and steady when she spoke. "I wanted to thank
you," she said quietly, "for what happened back there."
At that, a strange expression passed over the
Makoto's previously stoic face, and she murmured, "Don't
thank me; I didn't do it for you." Her lips quirked into a
small mocking smile. "It had nothing to do with you."
Usagi blinked, startled at seeing a familiar lost
look in the other girl's eyes, a look that she'd seen more
than once in her brother's eyes and her own in the mirror.
"You have my gratitude," she finally said earnestly, "no
matter who you did it for." And then Usagi bowed briskly.
"I'm sorry to have intruded. Please continue your lunch."
Makoto watched her go without comment, not stirring
until the other girl's golden head had disappeared
completely into the foliage. And then she sat back down on
the grass and sighed quietly to herself.
* * * * *
Walking up the stairs with an armful of books, Mamoru
nearly tripped over the tiny black body in the front of his
apartment building. "Hey kitty, where did you come from?"
he said, using one hand to unlock his apartment door.
The cat ambled toward the open door.
Mamoru quickly blocked the doorway with his body, "Oh
no, sorry, you can't go in, no animals allowed."
The cat imperiously ignored him and slinked in
between his legs and into the building.
"Hey!" Mamoru called out in protest, and quickly
hurried after it. He dropped his books on the kitchen
counter and turned to find the cat making itself home on
the matted green cushions of the old couch. The feline only
blinked at him when he tried to shoo it away. Finally, he
sighed and sank down on the couch beside the cat.
"What will I do with you? We can't keep you." His
fingers ruffled through the short black fur. "I guess we'll
just have to see after Usa gets back from her hanami
preparations."
The cat arched against his hand and purred.
[End "Sister Moon, Brother Earth" - Part 2]
===========================================================
Author's Notes:
Woah...Part 2 did *not* go the way I thought it would.
It was as if Makoto just grabbed the keyboard and took off.
Her character is coming out stronger than expected; that's
not really a bad thing, though, just unexpected. I wonder
what will happen when I get to Rei...
Part 3 is already partly written (two pages anyway)
and Mamoru will finally be getting some spotlight. Until
then, ja!
Feedback will be loved, snuggled, and returned with lots
and lots of gratitude.
--------------------------
noir_corbeau@hotmail.com
www.geocities.com/corbeaun
--------------------------
===========================================================
10.5.02
Author: Corbeau Noir
Genre: AU, Action/Adventure, Drama
Rating: PG-13
Email: noir_corbeau@hotmail.com
Site: www.geocities.com/corbeaun
Disclaimer: Bishoujou Senshi Sailor Moon was created by
Naoko Takeuchi.
===========================================================
"Hanami" - In Japan this is the custom of observing cherry
blossoms in the spring, which today usually includes a
nationwide outdoor picnic every April. Once only a pursuit
of the educated upper-class, sakura-viewing is now an
extremely popular festival for everyone in the country.
===========================================================
Sister Moon, Brother Earth
by Corbeau Noir
Part 2
~~~~~~
"Where is the --"
"Lower shelf, beside the rice."
Mamoru watched from his perch by the kitchen counter
as Usagi disappeared beneath the cabinet, then popped back
up again moments later slightly disheveled but with the jar
secured in her grasp. She laid it carefully beside the sink,
before turning to him again.
"Now where --"
"Third door, behind the towel rack."
Usagi pursed her lips, rummaged through a few boxes
before triumphantly emerging with a red, slightly chipped
bento box. She laid that too beside the sink, and then
proudly stood back to survey the assortment of condiments
and containers now lined neatly on the tiled counter.
Mamoru watched the scene dubiously. "Are you sure you
don't want any help?"
She waved a hand at him in exasperation. "Yes, yes,
I'm sure. Now just stay put." Usagi set a pot of water
simmering on the stove, humming softly to herself all the
while. Suddenly, she frowned and turned to shake the frying
pan at him threateningly, "You're coming next week, right?
To my school's hanami?"
"Wouldn't miss it for the world." He cocked a grin at
her.
"You better not," Usagi warned with only a half-
teasing smile, and turned to dump a plate of finely minced
beef into the pot. "Oh, and Onniichan?" she added casually,
"Bring Motoki along too."
"As long as you remember he has a girlfriend," Mamoru
murmured, surreptitiously eyeing the pot bubbling on the
stove in front of Usagi.
Usagi paused in the midst of stirring to stick her
tongue out at him. "The path of true love has no
boundaries," she said, affecting a haughty air.
He tore his eyes away from the now ominously rumbling
pot. "Usa, a girlfriend is *not* a boundary."
Usagi grinned at him, a twinkle in her eye. "Fine, a
challenge then."
Mamoru only sighed in fond exasperation, watching
affectionately as his sister bustled about in their tiny
kitchen preparing for their evening meal. When Usagi
finally took the pot of nondescript brown mush off the
stove and brought it past him, he eyed it warily. The
unmistakable odor of burnt curry wafted to his nose and
Mamoru reached instinctively toward it.
"Usa, maybe I should --"
She slapped his hand away hard. "No. Whatever it is,
just no. This is my food. You will not touch it, add to it,
or in any way or form have *anything* to do with it before
it comes in contact with your mouth, oh say, an hour from
now." She glowered hard at him for emphasis, "Understood,
Oniichan?"
His lips twitched in what looked suspiciously like a
smile, but when Usagi watched closely a moment later after
putting the pot in the sink to cool, the face Mamoru turned
to her was the epitome of solemnity. He bowed low.
"I live to serve, Usa-hime."
The shout of indignant laughter rang out in the late
evening air, followed closely by the familiar sound of a
young man's chuckles.
* * * * *
"Now class, you're all preparing for the hanami,
right? We don't want anything last minute now, do we? It
must be perfect!" Old Mrs. Yano beamed, looking at the
entire class. "And as every good Japanese cook knows, the
packaging is just as, if not more important than what's
inside."
Abruptly, Mrs. Yano frowned, only then noticing the
empty seat beside Naru. "Is Kino Makoto absent today?" she
asked.
The girl in front of Naru, Yumiko, raised her hand
timidly. "Ah, sensei, she was here during homeroom."
Mrs. Yano pursed her lips in displeasure and
brusquely made a mark in her folder. "Delinquents," she
muttered under her breath. "It gets worse every year."
She laid the folder back on her desk, and flicked on
the slide show. A picture of a rice ball with a sprig of
parsley appeared on the blank wall of the Home Ec room.
"Ah, as I was saying, the aesthetic is extremely
important when cooking." She clicked again and the picture
on the wall changed to that of a bowl of miso with blocks
of tofu stacked symmetrically within. "Not only does the
food have to taste good in the mouth, it must also appear
lovely to the eye. Presentation," Mrs. Yano jabbed her
finger emphatically in the air, "is the key!"
"Now," she looked around the quiet room, "who would
like to collect flowers for the class."
Usagi's hand shot up in the air.
"Ah, the new student, Chiba." She gestured to the
plastic pail hanging on a peg beside the door. "Go take
that and come back in twenty minutes. Oh, and I truly
appreciate you willingness to sacrifice your time at
decorating for the class."
Naru coughed and Usagi smiled sweetly.
* * * * *
There were some truly beautiful blossoms on the
cherry trees behind the fence, around the old shed.
Surreptitiously checking to make sure no one around, she
quickly squeezed herself through a gap in the wooden fence.
The shed was rusted over, and paint flaked off from
the sides. Usagi grimaced as she stepped carefully over the
rusted nails on the grass, stooping down ever once and a
while to pick a perfectly shaped petal off the ground.
"What are you doing here?"
Startled, Usagi jumped to her feet, turning just in
time to see a tall forbidding girl emerge from behind one
of the surrounding trees. She vaguely remembered seeing the
girl in her class before. "Oh, I didn't mean to disturb
you." Usagi held up the half-full pail sheepishly. "I was
just filling this for an assignment."
The other girl stared hard at her for a long moment.
Usagi fidgeted awkwardly. Then abruptly, as if not finding
what she was looking for, the tall girl shouldered her way
past the smaller Usagi; Usagi's nose wrinkled a little as
she caught the distinctive smell of tobacco from the other
girl.
Later, after Home Ec was over and everyone walked
back to the classroom, Usagi saw the strange girl from
before already seated in a desk in the corner. She nudged
Naru and asked, "Who is she?"
Naru glanced curiously in the direction Usagi was
pointing. "Oh, that's Makoto."
"Makoto?"
Naru nodded gravely. "Yeah, Makoto's one of those
independent types. She lives by herself in an apartment
downtown. I think her only joy in the world is cooking. Or
at least," Naru cocked her head thoughtfully, "she only
smiles while there's uncooked food lying around."
A short pig-tailed girl, Kuri, appeared suddenly by
Usagi's desk, "Don't go near her, Usagi," Kuri warned,
"She's mellowed out the past few years, but when she was in
junior high, she was an ogre! Always picking fights..."
"But she really has mellowed these years," Yumiko
protested, leaning over her chair to Usagi's desk. "Almost
like a different person. I wonder what happened," she added
bemusedly.
The next day, between classes, Usagi noticed the gap
in the fence. She remembered the tall brunette from
yesterday, and on a sudden impulse, she squeezed through
the wooden boards to the other side. But to her
disappointment, the other girl was not there.
"Hey, you're not supposed to be here," a rough voice
came from behind.
Usagi stumbled back in surprise, only to collide
against someone's chest. A hand caught her by the waist,
and spun her around. She broke out from the grip, and
stared apprehensively at the two scruffy teenage boys, one
big, the other skinny, now standing in front of her. She
slowly inched back toward the gap in the fence. "Gomen, I
didn't realize I was intruding."
A glint of recognition suddenly appeared in the
bigger boy's eyes. One hand slammed against the shed beside
her, blocking her retreat. "He-e-e-y..." he drawled,
"Aren't you that new girl? The one everyone's talking
about."
She tried to dodge out from beneath his arm.
"I don't --"
The skinny boy grinned, walking up to where the other
boy had trapped her. "C'mon, let's see that pretty face of
yours." He grabbed her roughly by the chin.
Usagi yanked her face out of his grasp, and glared
furiously at both of them, "Don't touch me."
But before she could shout again, the bigger boy
grabbed her from behind, pinning her arms to her sides.
Panic suddenly thrashed through her body. "What are you
doing?!" she cried, twisting desperately in the boy's grip.
"Let me go!"
Grinning, the skinny boy stuck his face right in
front of hers. "Hey, hey, just looking." She glowered at
him, eyes bright with fury and panic, and he laughed. "But,
whew," he stared at the mesh of scars on her left cheek,
raising a finger to trace the lines, "looks like someone
already roughed you up real bad before."
Usagi finally twisted an arm from the other boy's
clutch, and hit the skinny boy's hand away from her face.
"I said get your hands off me!"
The skinny boy grinned, rubbing at the hand she'd
slapped. "So-o-o-o...You like it rough, huh?" he said
gleefully, reaching for her once again.
This time she didn't bother saying anything, and
instead drove her free elbow behind her hard into the other
boy's stomach.
The bigger boy yelped, and tossed her to the ground.
"Itachi!" he spat at her, holding a hand to his side, and
took an angry step toward her. Usagi grew cold at the look
on his face, and she frantically tried to get up from the
ground.
"What are you guys doing?"
Both boys stiffened, whipped around to face the
speaker, then relaxed immediately upon recognizing the
newcomer. Usagi froze on the ground when she saw who it was.
The bigger boy affected an air of boredom and drawled,
"Oh, it's only you."
"Heard you finally decided to act like a real woman,
Makoto." The skinny boy leered at the brown-haired girl,
"What, you want a boyfriend?"
"Never knew you were interested, Ichiro-kun." Then
her voice flattened. "You two are on my turf, and you both
know how much I love trespassers."
The skinny boy laughed. "Back off, *Makoto-chan*," he
smirked, purposefully using the insulting diminutive.
"You've gotten soft, and I ain't never gonna take orders
from a girl." He nodded at the bigger boy, and the bigger
boy nodded back and took a menacing step toward the tall
brunette.
It happened so fast, Usagi barely saw it; the big boy
was suddenly on the ground clutching his face, blood
running between his fingers. The skinny boy squeaked.
Makoto lowered her fist and calmly smoothed out the
skirt of her sailor fuku. "Get out."
The two boys scrambled up, nearly tripping over their
own feet in their haste, and quickly disappeared into the
bushes behind the shed.
Usagi lay wordless on the ground beneath the cherry
tree. The tall emerald-eyed girl only glanced at her once
without saying anything, and then walked away.
* * * * *
Naru stared at Usagi. "Why do you want to know where
she sits for lunch?" she asked.
Kuri rolled her eyes in exasperation, "Usagi, didn't
you hear me when I said she's a troublemaker?"
Usagi frowned a little, unconsciously gripped the
edges of her bento box, "She can't be as frightening as you
say."
"Oh, of course not," Kuri smiled. "She's worse."
Suddenly, Naru started, "Hey, Usagi, where're you
going?"
The golden-haired girl waved back reassuringly from
where she'd walked a few feet away. "Don't worry, Naru, you
guys go on without me." She ducked under a low branch, and
then called back, "I'll just have lunch over here today."
An alarmed look on her face, Naru cried out, "You're
not...?!"
But as Usagi's tiny figure disappeared into the
undergrowth, it became apparent. Kuri groaned faintly in
horror, "...oh, kami help us, she *is*..."
* * * * *
It wasn't too hard to find the other girl. Even
seated among the tall uncut grass, her hair gleamed like
burnished copper under the sunlight that streamed through
the leafy branches of the trees overhead. The girl looked
up in surprise as Usagi seated herself calmly on the grass
beside her.
"It's a beautiful day, don't you think?" Usagi asked
her amiably.
Makoto only stared at her, and shook her head in
bemusement. "What are you doing?" she finally growled.
Usagi blinked innocently at her. "I'm having lunch,"
she replied simply, and as if to illustrate just that, she
slid a pair of chopsticks from her red bento box.
Makoto glared at her. "As I'm sure your little
friends told you, I'm not a very nice person."
Usagi only smiled cheerfully. "'Nice' is overrated,
don't you think?" she asked all too casually.
Makoto snorted disbelievingly at that.
"And besides, I believe they also said you breathed
fire and could take down forty grown men with both hands
behind your back and a leg behind your ear."
Surprised, Makoto let out a short bark of laughter
before she could stop herself. "Fine," she said, irritated
at having a reaction drawn from her, "Eat here if you want;
I'm outta here." She stood up to leave.
Usagi lurched from her seat, grabbing her by the arm.
"No, please, I--" The tall brunette looked down at her, and
Usagi flushed, hastily letting go of her arm. But her voice
was composed and steady when she spoke. "I wanted to thank
you," she said quietly, "for what happened back there."
At that, a strange expression passed over the
Makoto's previously stoic face, and she murmured, "Don't
thank me; I didn't do it for you." Her lips quirked into a
small mocking smile. "It had nothing to do with you."
Usagi blinked, startled at seeing a familiar lost
look in the other girl's eyes, a look that she'd seen more
than once in her brother's eyes and her own in the mirror.
"You have my gratitude," she finally said earnestly, "no
matter who you did it for." And then Usagi bowed briskly.
"I'm sorry to have intruded. Please continue your lunch."
Makoto watched her go without comment, not stirring
until the other girl's golden head had disappeared
completely into the foliage. And then she sat back down on
the grass and sighed quietly to herself.
* * * * *
Walking up the stairs with an armful of books, Mamoru
nearly tripped over the tiny black body in the front of his
apartment building. "Hey kitty, where did you come from?"
he said, using one hand to unlock his apartment door.
The cat ambled toward the open door.
Mamoru quickly blocked the doorway with his body, "Oh
no, sorry, you can't go in, no animals allowed."
The cat imperiously ignored him and slinked in
between his legs and into the building.
"Hey!" Mamoru called out in protest, and quickly
hurried after it. He dropped his books on the kitchen
counter and turned to find the cat making itself home on
the matted green cushions of the old couch. The feline only
blinked at him when he tried to shoo it away. Finally, he
sighed and sank down on the couch beside the cat.
"What will I do with you? We can't keep you." His
fingers ruffled through the short black fur. "I guess we'll
just have to see after Usa gets back from her hanami
preparations."
The cat arched against his hand and purred.
[End "Sister Moon, Brother Earth" - Part 2]
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Author's Notes:
Woah...Part 2 did *not* go the way I thought it would.
It was as if Makoto just grabbed the keyboard and took off.
Her character is coming out stronger than expected; that's
not really a bad thing, though, just unexpected. I wonder
what will happen when I get to Rei...
Part 3 is already partly written (two pages anyway)
and Mamoru will finally be getting some spotlight. Until
then, ja!
Feedback will be loved, snuggled, and returned with lots
and lots of gratitude.
--------------------------
noir_corbeau@hotmail.com
www.geocities.com/corbeaun
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10.5.02