What Are You Waiting For

Disclaimer: I don't own Crescent Moon.

Last time on What Are You Waiting For: The date may have been a complete failure, but at least I have more evidence against Mitsuru's 'hate' for Mahiru.

Surprise.

Today was a good day. Mostly.

A/N: I'm on a roll! Two chapters in one night! Though technically it's two days because it's one in the morning where I'm at. Enjoy!

Chapter 7: Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend

I'm going to stake Nozomu.

And then toss his ashes in the freakin' sewer.

Every single time I get alone with Mitsuru, and every single time he's on the verge of admitting that he likes/loves Mahiru, Nozomu magically appears to interrupt us!

This is like the fifth time today!

And it's always about those damned teardrop jewel thingamajigs. What the hell are those anyway! Mahiru tried explaining them to me yesterday during the picnic 'date' but I couldn't make heads or tails of what she was saying.

So I've made a unanimous decision.

I'm going on the tonight's mission to get back one of the teardrop thingies.

Weird thing is, every single time I think about it, I get this cold shiver up my arms and back. I have a bad feeling about this (I've been getting a lot of those lately).

But since when have I listened to my feelings? Answer: Every one thousand years. And let's just hope I'm not still undead after a thousand years.

Mahiru told me that they had found one at some museum and that we'd leave the Moonshine at around midnight.

Whoop di do. Seven hour waiting period until the action begins.

I'm going to go stare at that spider's web I saw earlier this week.

--

Midnight. FINALLY.

As much as I love to stare at petty things for hours and hours upon end, it does start to get a bit boring after awhile. Even for people like me. No, especially for people like me (but it's mostly just me).

So, we're on a roof of a building across the street from the museum that supposedly has a Teardrop of the Moon (I finally figured out the 'proper name').

Now, I'm not referring to experience or anything (cough), but wouldn't you usually want to be inside the building that you're stealing from?

(THIS IS A MESSAGE BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE PUBLIC BROADCASTING SYSTEM: Stealing is illegal and morally wrong. Do not do it. Or pissed off ghosts of security guards will come and haunt you and eat your spoiled pickles. THIS MESSAGE IS APPROVED BY THE PUBLIC BROADCASTING SYSTEM)

Everyone gets in group circle to go over the plan and what not while I just float over at the side and watch.

-Twenty minutes later-

Man, if I had known it would be this boring, I would've just stayed back at the Moonshine with the spider.

A few more minutes and they were finally done doing whatever the hell they'd been doing.

So the four dudes transform into their demon form things.

And DAMN! The short dude (Misoka I believe; stupid memory) is HOT when he's in full transformation! And if I could, I'd just sit here and stare at him all day and I definitely wouldn't get bored.

The little werewolf, Akira if memory serves correctly, is just too cute! Must resist urge to pet his ears.

And of course there's the blondie, Nozomu. I am suddenly reminded of Batman. Well, he is a vampire so yeah.

But the highlight of my evening was Mitsuru's transformation. All I can say is tengu boy's been lying a lot 'cause that nose is huge (Pinocchio!)! I wonder if denying the truth is the same as lying, because that would explain the whole giant nose dilemma.

Since they were back in 'Concentration Mode' I suppressed the giggles that threatened to boil over; I will never look at Mitsuru the same way again.

Eventually they all started flying towards the museum and once we got inside, I began humming the 'Mission Impossible' theme song which caused Mitsuru and Mahiru both to turn and glare at me. If you call it a glare from her highness that is. It was more like a 'you're-being-annoying-could-you-please-stop-that' look. Whatever.

It took a few minutes for Princess to find the Teardrop and right when Drop-dead-gorgeous-fox-demon took a hold of it, an arrow came soaring in from some random direction and knocked the Teardrop to the ground.

"Damn it, they're here," Mitsuru muttered.

"Who?"

"Dawn's Venus."

"And let me guess, they're your archenemies that you've sworn death and/or revenge to."

"Pretty much."

"Ah."

I'll spare you the boring details and just give you a brief synopsis of the 'battle':

Okay, so the guy with the bow seemed to be trigger happy. Or in this case arrow happy. He kept shooting them off over and over again and it was as if his quiver of arrows was never ending. And that shaman dude was sending out spell after spell at us (and by us, I mean the others; I was floating high and safe from harm).

And while the demons were fighting off the spells and arrows, they were also playing hot potato with Mahiru. It was actually pretty amusing to watch. At one point Akira almost dropped her while he was like ten feet in the air. Now that was funny!

Anyways, it continued like this for most of the time. And I actually did something useful! When everyone was distracted, I grabbed the Teardrop that had been forgotten on the ground. Huzzah!

But my victory was short lived by what happened next.

Misoka yelled out to Mitsuru and then tossed Mahiru towards him. And right when he was about to catch her, an arrow came their way.

Now, I could say the typical cliché of how it was all in horrifyingly slow motion, how time suddenly stopped right at that moment, but I don't want to lie to you (plus I abhor clichés)

In truth, it all happened so fast that I barely had time to catch my breath before registering it. The arrow had hit Mahiru in the side and even from my post I could tell it was in deep.

I flew towards them while Mitsuru was landing. He carefully laid the princess on the ground and I flinched at the amount of blood loss.

First aid class from ninth grade kicked in and I quickly went through the various steps we were taught. I heard myself and Mitsuru both let out sighs of relief when I said, "She's alive. But she's losing blood as we speak. We gotta get her back to the Moonshine."

I could sense more then hear the tengu's thoughts of anger and revenge. "Mitsuru! We don't have time for nonsense like revenge! You have to take Mahiru to safety, now!"

He paused but then gave a brief nod and scooped up Mahiru.

"Mitsuru! What happened to Mahiru? Is she okay?" came Akira's voice as he approached us.

"She was hit. Tell Misoka I'm bringing her back to the Moonshine," Mitsuru said surprisingly calm, but there was obviously a hint of fear in there as well.

The werewolf's eyes widened at hearing of her injury but complied, "I'll tell him. What about the Teardrop?"

I quickly caught Mitsuru's eye and showed him the Teardrop in my pocket. He nodded and told Akira that he had it and we were off.

--

When we got back to the Moonshine, it was no surprise that it was vacant. The old guy and hot chick went to some palace, or at least that's what Mahiru had told me.

Speaking of Mahiru, she wasn't looking too well. She was still losing blood and her complexion was getting paler by the minute.

I gave out instructions to Mitsuru which he complied to without complaint or question. We eventually got the wound to stop bleeding at such a fast rate as well wrapped in clean gauze.

I couldn't tell who looked worse. Mitsuru or Mahiru. Mahiru looked physically ill and was almost as white as a cadaver. Mitsuru, however, was going through so many emotions at once that I could barely sort them out. One I easily caught onto was guilt.

Grabbing his shoulders, I forced him to look me in the eyes and spoke slowly but forcefully. "Listen to me, Mitsuru. This is not your fault. This was an accident. She doesn't need you to be wallowing in self-pity right now. She needs you to be strong and hopeful. She needs you right now, more then anything. If you still think this happened because of you, then feel guilty later. But not now. Not now."

I think that helped him a bit. I could sense some of his emotions settling and could barely feel his guilt.

A few minutes later, the others showed up and were gathered around Mahiru's bed. Misoka assessed her injury and commented on the wrapping and I caught Mitsuru's smirk. Smug bastard; I did most of it.

The fox demon declared that the princess was on the edge of life and death. All we could do was wait.

Of course, me being me, I can't wait very long. I told Mitsuru I'd be back in about an hour or so.

As I spoke, I handed him the Teardrop. "Don't use it. Not just yet. When I get back, I'll let you know if it'll be needed." I forced Mitsuru to swear that he wouldn't use the Teardrop to bring back Mahiru and I was gone.

A/N: Where's Rozalia off to? You'll find out next chapter! Reviews are MY best friend!

Brain: Let us change into our makeup and costumes!

Pinky: Oh, we get to play dress-up! Can I wear this bunny costume? Or do you prefer me in the taffeta tutu?

Brain: Forget the costumes, just try and look old and depressed.

Pinky: You mean, like you?

-"Pinky and the Brain"