Disclamer: I am in no way responsible for the ownership of said Moon, or any of her friends. I am a starving college student, so even if you wanted to sue me, you wouldn't get jack!

Italics: Thoughts

Chapter 4: "Five More Minutes"

Mina strolled through her apartment. She had so much on her mind. The new arrival to her and her friend's lives was quite interesting. He seemed to know more than he let on. Artemis also had warned her about possibly aiding the enemy.

No enemy would cause such a loss to his own. Besides, it was really cool. She ran through the events of the previous night. After Jonathan dispatched the Hell Knight, he had collapsed from exhaustion. This worried the girls, but they all checked his vitals, and when they determined that he was stable, Darien helped to bring him back to her place. He had been asleep for 12 hours now.

It was a little after 11:00 a.m. when she heard the first stirrings of life behind the guest room door. She was so amazed at the recent turn of events. Had he not shown up, they might have not been able to survive that fight. She shuddered as she recalled how her powers only slightly damaged the creature.

Then she remembered how the street looked after that big explosion. There were bits of gray matter and ooze for half a block. The left over creature bits splattered on every car, light post, street sign, and piece of ground behind ground zero. Wait, how did he do that? she suddenly thought. As if reading her mind, Artemis came out of her room and said, "That was no ordinary shot."

She jumped at the sound of his voice, "Huh? Did I just think aloud?"

He looked up at her with knowing eyes, "No, I can just read you well enough to tell. Also, I was thinking the same thing." He was scooped up in her arms and carried back to her bed. She settled on the large queen size mattress with warm sheets and set him down. She never had problems with others hearing her talk to Artemis, but today was different.

He made a mental note to talk to her about it. But first, there was the matter of the gun.
"Well, we never have tried to shoot them. We only guessed that it would do nothing. Maybe next time, we will get to test that theory."

Mina nodded "Yeah. Only if he doesn't shoot. I saw something as he fired." Artemis looked at her for a moment as if to say, 'go on'.

"I know that it was dangerous," she said, "But as that bullet, or shell, was racing over us, it was glowing!" Her eyes widened at the word 'glow'. That only brought a hardy laugh from Artemis.

"What?" she looked at him indignantly.

"Mina, guns fire at super high velocities. The glow was probably from the heat generated from the friction in the air." She always hated it when he lectured her. She was sixteen now, and he was only a cat. Well, a cat that was from the future and an advisor to the Queen. But here only still a cat.

What he didn't let on, however, was that he saw the glow too. He didn't want to scare her, so he made his usual cover of lecturing. Oh, I know how she hates it, too.

"Should we wake him?" Mina suddenly asked.

Artemis looked off into the distance, "Well, if I were from America, and I'd have to fight a monster late at night, I would probably have jet lag and a monster headache." He tried unsuccessfully to make Mina laugh, but the pun was too low, even for the 'mistress' of humor. She was worried about him, having been thrown through a glass window, then firing a huge gun, and not to mention after carrying all of her shopping bags and falling from Rei's roof. He had one long day!

"On second thought, maybe we should just let him sleep." she decided.

Mina wondered what her friends had done after the excitement last night, so she called Serena on her phone.
"Hello? Is Serena there?" Mina asked when she didn't here the familiar voice of her bubbly friend.

"I'm sorry, Mina, but she slept over at Rei's house last night. I thought she said all of you were going to be there. Why are you at home?" Asked Mrs. Tuskino. Mina blushed, "Well, I was really tired last night and I couldn't get to sleep, so I went home." she lied.

"Oh, well she is probably still there. Take care!"

"You too." Mina replied. Well, I wonder… Her thoughts trailed off to the possibility of Serena lying to her parents again about Darien, or whether or not she was really at Rei's.

Oh Mina, you need to stop reading so many romance books! She knew that her Serena was a good kid, even if she was the biggest goof ball in history, and the kindest she had ever met. "I need to get dressed," she suddenly said aloud.

"Ok. Did you fill my water dish yesterday?" Artemis asked. Sometimes, the advantages of having a cat that could talk really outweighed the disadvantages.

"Yes. You drink too much." Mina said sarcastically.

"Well, as long as you don't tell Luna about my 'drinking problem', we're alright." And with that, he left her to change in peace.

She thought about going casual today. It was nearing Christmas time, and the temperature outside was dropping every day. It was almost 40 degrees today. She decided on a pair of blue jeans and a long-sleeve, pink T-shirt with a blue jacket with an orange 'Sailor V' logo on the back. She was never one to brag on her own, but the merchandise was loud enough. Artemis had told her one time that it was amazing how the public couldn't put two and two together.

"I hope that you don't mind me leaving you here?" she really didn't ask the question; it came out more of a statement.

"Oh no! Someone needs to make sure that he doesn't get into trouble while you're out!" Artemis made a show of puffing out his small, white chest trying, unsuccessfully, to make himself look bigger.

Mina only looked down at him with those big blue eyes and said, "I know that I can count on you." and with a wink and a grin, she was gone.

Well, Artemis thought, Looks like movie day! He sauntered over to the living room, which was spacious even for an apartment, and jumped up on the couch. He made an event of pulling the remote over to his location, then curled up alongside it. With a paw, he punched the power button and scrolled through the onscreen menus. He had learned how to do this as a cat, because of the times when Mina was at school, and it was too cold outside to explore. He had seen almost every part of the Juuban district anyway.

When he finally found the movie he wanted, he selected it and began his long half sleep process. While in this position, he was able to appear asleep, when in fact he was wide awake and aware of his surroundings. Well, not today.

Whoa, what happened? Jonathan thought to himself as he sat upright in the bed. He had slept so soundly, that the sheets were still almost made up. He overrode his urge to fling the sheets off of him, and slid out from under them. He was still mainly dressed, but his long, wavy, brown hair was mussed. I must look like a rooster, he thought. He walked to a door on the wall opposite the bed and opened it. There was a small bathroom which was recently stocked with a tooth brush, a towel, and tooth paste. There was a note on the mirror, in English, that read,

"Jonathan,

Thanks for the great time last night at Rei's! We all really enjoyed the time. Oh, and the Sailor Scouts showed up and told us to leave. They brought you back to my place. There is shampoo in the shower. I will be in and out all day, so make yourself at home. See ya!

Mina"

Jonathan looked at the note and smiled. She did those little things…

He quickly brought himself out of the stupor he was in, and turned on the shower. He hadn't taken one since the previous morning, but this particular shower felt surprisingly different. It felt very warm and relaxing, almost as if it were healing is body. Mina had a taste for beauty products. The shampoo that she picked out for him helped to transform the rooster into a wavy sea of brown. It smelled of a woodland scent, kind of like pine. He wondered what kind of shampoo she used to keep that long, golden mane in check.

He quickly finished with his hair and then he became aware of the aching in his back. The memories flooded his senses as he remembered the events of the previous night. He remembered how it felt to shoot that thing, and also the reaction from the girls. Yeah, that was pretty cool. I helped out the Sailor Scouts. What a story. I wonder if anyone will believe me? He finished his shower and brushed his teeth with the provided utensils.

When he returned to the bedroom, he noticed a shopping bag sitting on his leather jacket on a chair. He opened the bag and gawked. There, lying in a folded pile, were clothes for… him! When they were out shopping yesterday, she must have picked up some things for him. He wasn't paying attention very well. He took the items out and looked at them. A year ago, he wouldn't have been able to fit in them. He was really thankful to his Karate teacher and his dad, both of which had put him on a strict exercise regimen to work off some excess weight.

He was only slightly aware of his new found flat stomach, broad shoulders, and slightly taller physique. He never was really good at being confident in himself. In fact, he never really thought about himself before. He only noticed now that the ensemble she picked out for him was a medium size light blue, long sleeve, T-shirt and a pair of loose khaki slacks. Normally, the shirt would have not been able to even fit around his chest, but since he toned his body, the shirt fit him all too well. He noticed that if the shirt were any tighter, it would have revealed his stomach's definition. The slacks were another number. They were not too baggy and not too tight. He looked and felt greater than he had in months!

Feeling really chipper, he left his room and strolled to the living room. He spotted Artemis watching a movie on TV. He laughed a bit to himself. Well, he has to find something to keep his attention while she's gone. Jonathan wasted no time in taking full advantage of this opportunity.

Artemis was faintly aware of the shower turning on, and then off again. He was almost, well… scratch that, he was asleep. And dreaming of a great day where he and Luna were kid free, literally. They had a wonderful date planned, with a cater and a singer… wait, that singing was coming from someone really close… And before even finishing a thought, Artemis was swept up in a powerful arm. Jonathan was singing along to a song called, "The Warrior" by an eighties band called "Scandal". This was definitely an experience that Artemis was not prepared for. He let out a scream, a human scream and flailed his little arms and legs, but to no effect. Jonathan made a conscious effort not to laugh at his wail, and turned down the radio he had suddenly blared.

"Well, that was fun! What else does she have here?" he asked, mainly to Artemis, but he quickly turned his attention to the large glass entertainment center. "Wow! There are a lot of oldies in here!" Jonathan was feeling really, really spontaneous as he cracked open a CD case. Before Artemis could loose his brunch, Jonathan popped the CD in the player and put him back on the couch. When he could finally concentrate on anything besides his stomach, his ears started to hurt. Aw, no. He found it. That dreaded piece of crap that I thought she was rid of by now! Artemis really hated this song. Jonathan seemed to just enjoy making him feel miserable. He started to make a show of singing along to "MMMbop". Yeah. Wow. He really was just doing that for fun. Really.

I will never get to have a peaceful day! Artemis screamed to himself.