As usual, I disavow any rights to the characters from Pretty Guardian SailorMoon. They all belong to Takeuchi Naoko and Bandai.
Hi, aserene! I was really proud of Ami's and Rei's "recuperation". grimace Minako's was the hardest and one day I may go back and revise it. I'm glad you liked it! And I hope you like this one, too. Hahaha, we have guests today. I don't know how they worked their way in, but I don't own them either!
Well, I forgot the breakout chapter, but I did bring the whole story. So, I can upload Ch. 9 after all. (smile) I hope everyone enjoys!
- Raya
Lonely Harp
Secrets
With an angry, frustrated sound, Minako snapped her laptop shut and stood up. "I'm going for a walk," she announced to Artemis as she picked up a jacket and her purse. The white plush cat stared at her with wide eyes as she strode out the door. As it shut behind her, his eyes turned to all of the wadded up paper that surrounded the computer.
Minako strode down the street, taking care to not look at the people passing by. Somehow, she slipped by unnoticed. In her mind, she laced words together and tore them apart, trying to come up with just the right song to draw the Princess out of her little shell.
She checked her stride as a little girl, no more than five years old, ran in front of her. Unaware that she had almost hit someone, the girl looked over her shoulder and hollered for her friend to hurry up. "Come on, Himeko-chan! Let's play!" Himeko, a very dainty, polite little girl, looked at Minako with large eyes, and then bowed an apology for her friend. When Minako smiled and shook it off, the girl smiled back, and followed after her friend at a fast walk.
Curious, Minako followed the two little girls to a local playground. For the lack of anything better to do, she sat on a swing and began to rock back and forth as she watched the children in the park play all of their various games. Laughter, tears, encouragement, and the bright poppy sound of kids' songs sounded around her.
She blinked, and turned to look to her left as she heard a thread of contrasting melody. A little girl was singing a soft lullaby to her baby doll as she rocked her to sleep. Her face and eyes lit up as the contrast in sound between the lullaby and the bouncy song coming over the speakers gave her a sudden idea. Quickly, she jumped up from the swing and made her way back to the hotel room.
Rei slowly pushed her way into the flower shop where Makoto worked part time. She looked around at all of the bright flowers and western style Christmas arrangements that leant the shop a warm, homey air. With a feeling of amazement, she realized that it was almost the end of the year. She wandered through the displays looking for her friend.
Makoto finished tying a dark pink ribbon onto a soft, upright, white bunny with long ears. The ribbon matched the pink silk lining its ears, and the little pads on its feet. Its blue bead eyes seem to stare at her expectantly as she sat it on the work bench and sighed. 'She'll like it, but will she like it…' she wondered uncertainly.
Hearing the bell over the door, she turned to greet her new customer. She looked a little surprised when she saw Rei wandering through the aisles. Rei didn't like cut flowers very much, so it was unusual for her to come into the shop. Leaving the rabbit, she walked quickly to her friend with a quirked eyebrow. "Hey," she called.
Rei turned with a small smile. "Hey." The two friends stared at each other a moment, each waiting for the other to say something.
Finally, Makoto broke the silence. "What brings you here? Are you looking for something in particular?"
'You,' Rei thought to herself, but could not bring herself to ask the question that was burning on her tongue. "The kids are planning to have a play, and I was wondering if we could get some greenery for the background," she said instead.
"Sure," Makoto said with a smile. "What kind of play are they doing this time?" she asked as she led Rei to the greenery section.
"This one is going to be about Amateresu hiding the sun, and then being tricked into shining again. Erika-chan is going to be playing Amateresu," Rei replied.
"Really?" Makoto asked with a smile. For the next several minutes, the two friends discussed the play and greenery, each dodging uncomfortably around the question they wanted to ask the other. As they made their final selections and took them back to the workbench to work on potential arrangements, Rei spotted the bunny that Makoto had forgotten. Her eyes widened as she saw the ribbon it was wearing.
"It was that shade…" she said softly as she reached out to finger it.
Makoto looked at her in shock. 'Could she possibly…' she thought to herself a little excitedly. "What was?" she asked, struggling to sound nonchalant as she turned back to the greenery. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched as Rei jumped and gave her a look.
Rei studied her a moment, and then screwed up her courage. She tried to sound just as nonchalant as she turned back to the rabbit and replied. "Usagi's bow. It was just that shade…"
Makoto froze, and then turned to meet her friend's eyes. "Yes… At least, it was at first…" The two girls stared at each other, and then spun away, and focused on the greenery once more.
Ami sat the lecture hall and waited for her American Literature professor to arrive. Idly, she clicked her knitting needles as she studied the differential equations problem in front of her. Her eyes narrowed as she tried to solve it mentally. With a sigh of pleasure, she put the needles down and quickly scribbled an answer on the page. She flipped the paper over, and then frowned in disappointment when she realized that she had finished all of the problems that she had copied.
Smoothing her face to hide her disappointment, she put the papers away and picked up her knitting once more. As she looked at the pink and white muffler, she smiled. It had taken a very long time to find just the right shade of dark pink, but it was looking just the way she wanted it to. Idly, she wondered if she should make a hat, muffler, and mitten set for each of her friends. She frowned as she realized that she didn't have much time before Christmas.
She had just decided that she was far enough ahead in all of her classes to be able to slack off a little, when the banging of a door made her raise her head and stare wide eyed. Two blonde women ran quickly into the hall and took their seats by their friends just as the bell in the hallway rang to signal the start of lectures.
"Made it!" the platinum blonde with long pigtails gasped as she slumped down onto her desktop.
"Nice… going,… Serena," her golden blonde friend panted as she pressed one hand to her chest. She shared a grin of accomplishment and a high five with her roommate.
"What's the excuse this time, Mina?" their friend with long black hair asked as she raised a dark eyebrow. "Your car wouldn't start? Serena's alarm clock didn't go off? Channel 2 was playing a rerun of Entertainment Tonight?"
Ami watched as Mina glared at her friend, and then playfully tossed her head. "No, Raye… We actually got out the door on time this morning! Unfortunately, some idiot decided to slip on black ice on the Anderson Bridge and close it down, so we had to take the long way around," she replied a little self righteously.
Ami's eyes widened, and then narrowed in puzzlement. She turned her eyes to the other "Amy" in the class as she closed her book and looked up in surprise. "On the Anderson Bridge? Mina… That was last night, not this morning…" Mina and Serena stared at their blue-headed friend in disbelief.
"Last… night?" Serana asked, her voice slowly rising. "You mean I ran all the way from Holyoke for nothing?" Their brown haired friend, Lita, who had just entered the hall raised an eyebrow, and then rolled her eyes as she shut the door behind her.
"Holyoke?" she asked as she joined the group. "Why on earth did you park all the way over there?" she asked curiously, and then shook her head. "Never mind. Guess what?"
"What?" her four friends chorused as the rest of the class looked on curiously. Years of generating attention made the five girls oblivious to it now.
"Professor Heinz isn't going to be here this morning," Lita said, giving an uneasy glance towards Serena. "Apparently, his car wouldn't start. Class is canceled."
All around them, fellow students broke into smiles and began to pack up their books. "Noo…" Serena wailed. "That's not fair! If we don't show up, we get an automatic five point deduction unless we have a doctor's excuse. He can't do this! Besides, I got here on time today!" Ami smiled as Serana's friends tried without success to comfort her. "I made it! I got up on time, fussed at traffic, ran all the way from Holyoke… I even got my homework done! He can't do this to me!" she pouted.
"C'mon, Serena, I'll buy you some breakfast," her friend Mina said at last. "That'll make you feel a little better…" Finally, the four girls were able to convince their friend to leave the room.
Ami smiled as she continued to knit. Her needles sped up as she tried to make the most of the unexpected free time. The smile vanished as a thought ran across her mind. 'I wonder if they remember, too…'
