Warning: I suck at making long chapters. ;-;
Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing or Sailor Moon.
Usagi tuned out the animated conversation around her and tried to focus her attention on the significance of the way a line slashed through more lines. She squinted and found that when her vision blurred enough, it'd almost look like a cartoon cat. She giggled quietly at how silly it was.
Ami, however, caught the inane sound and discreetly peered at Usagi's homework. She was a little less than halfway done, which was not bad amongst the madness that had ensued when Minako had burst in with news about the two 'indescribably gorgeous' men she had just met. She herself had been interested, but only for the first two minutes until she noticed Usagi studiously making an attempt at her Economics worksheet.
Usagi was going into fashion design, but what she really wanted to do was cartooning. She was taking Economics as an elective because she wanted the familiarity of the course. Ami had been both afraid and impressed. She had wondered who had kidnapped Usagi and replaced her with such an ambitious clone.
"So why don't you go with me on Sunday, Ami-chan?"
She glanced up into Minako's eager face, taking note of the creepy intentions that glowed in her star-struck blue eyes. "For what?"
"To meet the two guys! Weren't you paying attention at all?" Minako admonished with a wave of her finger.
Ami smiled apologetically. "Sorry, I guess I wasn't. Why can't Rei-chan and Mako-chan go?"
"Exams," she stated glumly with a defeated shrug of her shoulders.
"Don't you have exams, too?"
"I have one on Tuesday which gives me Monday to study for it!"
Ami gave an uncomfortable laugh. Minako would always stay Minako; not even stardom with its unyielding power would change her. "Are you sure your modeling sessions won't take up too much time?"
"Um. . ."
"Minako-chan. . ."
She grinned and flapped her hand dismissively. "Don't worry about it! I'll make it for sure! Now, don't you want to meet those cute guys?" she said in a hushed voice, wriggling her eyebrows suggestively.
"I would, but I'm only five chapters ahead for my Physics class."
Rei and Makoto groaned in the background.
Minako tried to smile without violently twitching as Ami glanced back down. She was about to further comment, but out of the corner of her eye, she spotted her fellow blonde. A sickeningly sweet smile spread across her face as she clambered towards her on her hands and knees. "Usagi-chan, I know you want to go with me!"
"Hmm?"
"Don't tell me you haven't been paying attention, either!"
"Sorry, Minako-chan, but Economics is hard and I hate it and I don't even remember why I wanted to take it in the first place!"
"For the experience," Ami supplied, never lifting her eyes from her textbook. The speed of light was all too fascinating.
"Oh, yeah."
Minako huffed with disappointment and shut her eyes. "You guys are no fun. I'll just have two hunky foreign guys to myself," she taunted, one sparkling blue eye popping open to measure reactions. She grinned wolfishly when Usagi looked up from her doodles and smiled.
"Good luck, Minako-chan."
-----
"Hey, Minako! Over here!"
She grinned in the doorway and headed over, only to find that Duo was alone. She dropped into the booth and glanced around. His friend was no where in sight. "Where's Hiiro?"
Duo reproachfully shook his head, long braid swaying with each movement. "He didn't feel like coming."
"Oh, that's too bad. He's the lone wolf type, isn't he?"
"Yep. So what's good on the menu?"
-----
The sleek laptop beeped quietly in the still hotel room. Hiiro tapped a few keys and pulled up the e-mail, scanning it quickly. He frowned.
It was from Trowa, who was now stationed with Wufei at the Sanq Kingdom since last week. Terrorist activities had suddenly picked up around Vice Foreign Minister Relena Peacecraft. Her personal secretary and several attendants had been seized with homicidal fits. Relena had been lucky to escape with minor injuries. When the offenders had been detained and questioned, they could not remember how or why they had come about to that situation. The government was in a pandemonium trying to find the source. Current possibilities involved hallucinogenic drugs, though none were found in their systems. It hadn't hit the news yet.
-----
She started. "The Sailor Senshi?"
"Yeah, you know anything about them?"
"Just what I hear from the news. . ."
-----
Broodingly, he clicked a button to return the message.
-----
She masked her frown of suspicion with an ignorant smile as Duo asked a few more questions about the Sailor Senshi. He was good at being subtle—like a true tourist who had an insatiable curiosity about the mysterious group of sailor-suited girls—but his questions were fixed and left no room for ambiguity. He would switch topics and then approach from a different angle.
Minako was not easily fooled. She was familiar with this manner of questioning—afterall, she had participated in these activities back in England with the police.
Which led her to wonder just who Duo Maxwell and Yui Hiiro were.
-----
Hiiro snapped his notebook shut and shrugged on his jacket. He was trapped between the unexplainable and the unexplainable. He was neither accustomed to it nor did he enjoy it.
The sky outside was a milky blue. He slipped out of the hotel room.
-----
"So, where are you from, Duo?" inquired Minako as she leaned comfortably against the wall of the elevator. The machinery of Tokyo Tower was a soundless hum.
"L2. I'm from the colonies."
The elevator cruised to a stop and the doors opened.
"Really? I'm actually headed there next month," she remarked thoughtfully as she stepped out and subtley changed the subject. "What do you do for a living?"
He met her eyes. "I'm in the shipping trade. Minako—"
She pasted on a bright smile and cursed in her head. He was a sly one. "Yes?"
"Would you like to do this again sometime?"
The hard light in her eyes gentled and she flushed becomingly. "That sounds great, Duo."
-----
He dropped the pile of books neatly onto the narrow table. The sound made a muffled echo through the empty library. Hiiro glared at the very top book and turned back to the shelves.
Somehow, he had wandered from the medical section to the supernatural and occult. Information on drugs had been limited to LSD for its fear and paranoia-inducing properties. But as Trowa had revealed in the e-mail, no drugs had been found in their bloodstreams.
He glared at the books with distaste. Demons and possessions were ridiculous—he didn't know why he even bothered with this garbage. Hiiro blamed Duo for the horror movie he had been so stubborn about watching on the television in their hotel room. With jaws clenched, he flipped brusquely to the first page.
The chair across from his scraped back gently. Hiiro flicked his eyes up from the text just to keep track of the people surrounding him. A striking woman smiled enigmatically.
"Hello," she greeted cordially.
He grunted back unenthusiastically.
She continued as if she hadn't noticed. "I couldn't help but notice the kinds of books you were gathering. Are you a superstitious person?"
"No."
"May I ask why you have such a inconsistent interest in science and demons?"
He didn't answer because he didn't feel the need to explain himself to nosy people.
The woman smiled indulgently. "Kaiou Michiru."
He frowned and gave her another look. "Yui Hiiro."
"After the assassinated Pacifist?"
"Hn."
"I see," Michiru stated thoughtfully, then folded her slim hands gracefully in front of her. "You look familiar, Yui-san. May I ask where you are from?"
"L1," he muttered, staring hard at her. Now that she had said he looked familiar, he too began to wonder where and when he had seen her from.
"The colonies? You wouldn't happen to know Mr. Winner?"
Two faces overlapped in his mind's eye. "The violinist," he affirmed, recalling the reunion celebration Quatre had held a year ago on L4. It had been the last time he had seen Quatre person to person, although his face was now on the cover of hundreds of magazines across the Earth and the colonies. He was not only worth billions, but was also the galaxy's most eligible bachelor.
The tender-hearted Quatre had decided to take the responsibility as the Winner heir as opposed to joining the Preventers. It had been a smart choice.
Kaiou Michiru had been there, a special guest of Quatre's, performing on the violin with another woman on the piano. Word had it that the pianist was the fastest Formula One racer in Japan. Hiiro didn't care for such trivial information and he hadn't stayed the entire time to meet them. He had never been a fan of large social gatherings.
"Do you think demons exist?" she inquired politely, breaking his train of thought.
"No."
She tucked a strand of wavy aqua hair behind her ear, not in the least disconcerted with his succinct answers. The melody still looped endlessly in her head, but somewhere along the way, another refrain had been added. It was tender, immature—this much she knew, though she hadn't the time to analyze it thoroughly yet. She also had the feeling Yui Hiiro had instigated it. "There are many different forms of demons, Yui-san, and those books cannot help you. Those are urban legends. The real demons all have to do with the heart."
Hiiro couldn't decipher the meaning behind her words. "The heart?" he repeated, hoping to draw more information from her.
Michiru nodded and stood. "Think on it. It was nice to see you again, Yui-san. Perhaps we'll meet again," she said mysteriously and left before he could get another word in edgewise.
He watched her go, twice as tense and troubled as before.
AN: o_o Okay, I'm making it so that Michiru and Haruka can speak English. . .because they seem like the types who can speak it. :P They're those really educated types, you know? XD Kay, anyways. . . .
*cackles loudly and rather insanely* Plot twist!! I see people were expecting Minako to take Usagi along, hrm, hrm? Sorry to disappoint you, ne, but I had to stick in the plot somewhere. XD Don't worry, next chapter will have uh. . .more plot and more Hiiro-Usagi interaction. O_o And because of that interaction, there will be some OOCness. . .mostly on Hiiro's part heh heh x_x() Although I do try to make up for that OOCness through, um, ulterior motives on Hiiro's behalf. Did you guys think I just killed Mamoru off for no reason and Usa and Hiiro were gonna get together and live happily ever after? >=D Not quite so. . . I must include more trials and tribulations for them to face!
And from now on, it'll be less confusing. . .I hope. Heheee() The first two chapters were produced from an occasional abstract-type mental state, thus the weirdness and contradiction and whatnot. I think now it'll become more concrete. ^^;;
Arella Hallo: Ohh, I see now ^^;; I think I'm quite terrible at dialogue, so I find my comfort zone in descriptions. I apologize for the crappy dialogue. xD Thank you for keeping with the story and reviewing! ^_^
the Desert Fox: Lol, definitely! ^_^ That's where it was inspired from, actually. I love that scene! It's very funny. Heheh, nope, the other guys can't speak Japanese at all, which would make it very difficult for me to have meaningful interaction. xD I just realized that. Doh. Insane Duo o_O;; I would run for my life. Lol, j/k. I love Duo. ^^ He's cute! Hrmm, that also makes me wonder what I'm going to do with Quatre since he's not in the Preventers. Uh oh. =x
Liquid Ice: YEAH!! Rei and Usagi are probably the closest friends out of all the senshi. I mean, Rei has a unique way of showing Usagi how much she cares about her, but they're really that close! I actually used to hate Rei _ but after I watched more of SM, she really grew on me. She is one of my favorites now ^^! I'm curious about other authors in the GW/SM area, too. xD I actually like this section more than the SM crossovers because it seems more intimate and familiar here. ^^;; It's just so big and wide in the SM crossovers section. x.x;; Ne, ne, you -must- update! Lol, I won't stop nagging you until you do! xD Don't worry about the grammar stuff! I'm thirsty for the cool ideas you have left unfinished. T.T I understand about never getting to finish them, though. x_x It's hard. . .I feel you! As for Hiiro XD!! I can't say he's been hit by Cupid's arrow, but it's so funny that you mentioned that! I had the next chapter written out already and then I read this review and I was like "Liquid Ice-san must be psychic!! @_@!!" Hehe, but Hiiro doesn't have those mellow-mellow feelings for Usagi. . .yet. ^_~;
Allyna: *eyes sparkling* Cool and different and wonderful. . . wow @_@ I'm shocked speechless! ^__^ Thank you for such. . .exhilarating words! Seriously, I was gaping/hyperventilating as I read that over and over again. ^^;; Lol, I understand about not liking to read long chapters of stuff. o.o I suffer from that occasionally, too. ^^;; Thank you for taking the time to read this, though! Ugh, school ! Good luck on finals! I haven't even had my midterms yet, thank God. o.o School started last week for me, but I'm already behind on reading. x_X Lol, thank you very much for that awesome wish O_O 400+ reviews. . .wow. xD It'd be like a dream come true. ^^
Jupiter Angel: Eeh~? You have an internet class?! XD No fair! I want one! Lol, what I wouldn't give to have an internet class. . .I'd totally ace that. ^^;; It's like the only thing I know how to do. And, I know! They -are- such a cute couple! :D Although I'm not opposed to Hiiro being with the other Senshi, I think Usagi and Hiiro are so adorable! XD Rofl, I think that little snippet is done.;; I was going to make an omake for this chapter, but I can't really think of anything. o.O My creative juices have dried out for the day. x_x
Usagi Asia Maxwell: Yay! :D So you see the metaphor type stuff!! Lol, I actually hate analyzing books and literature for that stuff, but it's actually pretty fun to write it in. ^^;; I used to think it was such a waste of time analyzing stuff 'cause I thought the author probably didn't actually consciously put it in. o.O But after writing some semi-meaningful stuff, I see now that they probably did. ^^;;Chibi Koneko: Lol, that's true. Sesshie is a taiyoukai afterall. *sigh* X.x Lol, sorry, they didn't meet. They will next chapter, though O_O and then chaos will ensue. ^^ I can't wait for more "And I Thought My Family Was Weird," by the way! :D The sudden plot twists. . . @_@!! Very cool!!
Crystalstorm21: Thanks! ^^;; Even though I didn't think it was very good, hehe. ^^
themoonmaiden: Wheee~! Aww! You don't have to review every chapter! @.@!! Although I won't complain if you do ;D I'm just honored that you're even reading my stuff! *nodnods* Somehow, I just can't break up Haruka and Michiru. I think they're such a beautiful couple. . .I personally think they're a better couple than Usagi and Mamoru. _ In Stars, especially, I was just struck with sadness when. . .you know. . .stuff happened. Lol, I'm not sure if you've seen all of it, but I think you have, ne? ^_^ Usa and Rei -are- good friends. . .and I can't stand how those unspeakable betrayal stories make Rei the evil one. She'd never do that, never! Although, I think she was probably a little jealous when they found out Usagi was the princess in the anime. . . o.O But that's a whole other rant. Rofl :D I didn't mean to get your hopes up about the Senshi counterparts! I just didn't think any sensible ideas would stem out of it. x_X It would get more complicated. . .too complicated, I think, lol. ^_^ And the omake thing--REALLY? I wanna read! It was inspired by that SuperS episode. ^_^
Heero's Bunny: LOL! Handcuffing Hiiro to a chair. Oh dear. . . . All the things you could do to a handcuffed Hiiro. . .though he'd probably get out of those cuffs somehow, just because he's Hiiro. ^_^;; Ack, I'll update, I'll update. X_X I don't wanna be tortured!
Sunshine Fia: *nodnods* Poor Usagi, even though she's sorta over it, she's still dwelling on it. *sighs* Lol, I know! How could Mamoru kill himself?! How could he make Usagi sad? How could he even think of doing such a terrible thing?! *touches the tips of her fingers together a la Mr. Burns style* Nothing is as it seems. ^_~ True intentions will be revealed in time. . . ^^;; It shall be revealed in time. . . . Sorry about Usagi and Hiiro not meeting here, but they will next time. ^_^ It'll be an interesting meeting, too! :D Ohh, you almost made it! Just gotta separate the / and \, and the two @'s by a few spaces. ^^
Angelight: O_O;; @ the disembodied hands()() ^^;; Not yet, though! There will be maybe one or two more chapters before that happens. ;; I know what you mean by the inners interactions--they're so personal and comfortable with each other, even though they're all so different. :D What great friends! Ahh! I actually never saw the episode where Minako posed as Sailor Moon. ;__; I wanted that episode so badly, but I couldn't find it. I didn't get to watch a lot of S because for some reason, my cable didn't (and still doesn't) support Cartoon Network. o.o I used to watch it on UPN, some local channel, but they didn't show any after R. It sucked. T.T And I couldn't find it online. x.x Lol, I understand the thing about Usagi and not being able to separate from her. !_! I find it hard to write about anyone else, too, although I sorta have an idea as to why. I think what I like most about her is how reliably naive she is. . .in other words, how much she and I are not alike. Haha, I'm so jaded and Usagi is just so undefiled by that stuff. I guess people say she's led the charmed life, but even fighting hasn't changed that. Hehh, I think it's cool and very admirable. ^^;; Other stuff I can relate to, though, like the emptiness inside of her head, and her clumsiness, and her poor grades. _;; Yayay! Think, think, Angelight-sama! Thinking is fun when it's not about school!! :D I hope you're working hard on the next chapter to Cross My Heart. ;D
Sailor Grape: 0_0!! was my reaction when I was reading your review. Lol, well, it started with your name. XD I (and I'm sure billions of other people) have been wondering where in the world you went! I keep hoping to see an update for MSWG! I first started reading it at MediaMiner and then I found it here. :D I'm sorry about your writer's block T.T but I'll try and wait patiently for the next chapter. XD I've noticed a lot of people going into the HP realm, and unfortunately (or fortunately), I've never gotten into HP. ^^;; I'm glad that you my story has caught your interest and I'm actually very exicted that it's confusing. XD I like doing the anime thing. . .where you start somewhere and then slowly reveal more and more about the past and how the characters got to the situation they're in now. ^_^