Disclaimer: If I owned SM/GW, I wouldn't write fanfics. I'm writing a fanfiction, so therefore I must not own SM/GW. See where simple logic can get you? Great, isn't it?

A/N: Dear god, I haven't written in ages, I'm really horrible, I know. I did update one story. Heh. Hehe.

A single figure crept along a wall, more out of habit than need. Breathlessly he was drawn to the flame, but it was not the helpless and fatal attraction of the moth. The flame marked where a lone woman was, where she was waiting for him. His caution was definitely not necessary – actually, she insisted on the secret meeting place, not him. However, he didn't completely resent her wish to keep their relationship, or whatever it was, from the others. Hiiro Yuy had never been one to flaunt his emotions, and he was sure Rei had her reasons.

There she stood, just as she always did, but this time, Hiiro could see something different, something completely wrong. Usually, her magnificent eyes were as brilliant as the flame she held effortlessly in her hand, and her gaze held enough heat to match a wildfire at its height, enough heat to burn straight through his skin, and deep into his soul. But not this morning. The violet orbs seemed to be looking inside Rei's head rather than any object of her surroundings, and their depths were as cold as Hiiro's own eyes, the ice-eyes from which his nickname came. Once within a couple yards, he overcame his habit and walked normally to stand beside her, touching her shoulder lightly. She spun quickly around to face him, meanwhile maneuvering her body out of the reach of his touch, but her eyes wouldn't meet his. Why wouldn't she look at him?

"Hiiro, this is it."

He merely grunted in reply.

"I mean it's over." She turned to leave, but his hand shot out to catch her wrist. She struggled briefly, but she knew his strength could easily overcome her.

"Rei," This time it was more of a growl than a grunt, "I don't care about your past. I am Hiiro Yuy, not Endymion."

"Hiiro, let me GO!"

"I can hear your thoughts right now, and I won't let it pass. I won't stand here and let you tell me I'll hurt you. You can't think that."

"Watch me, mindreader. I can think whatever I want. This time, I'm not going to be caught unawares when it happens. Men are all scum; I should've remembered my lesson." With that, she wrenched herself out of his grip while he momentarily loosened his hand, and disappeared into the darkness.

"Rei," his lips whispered without his command, but the sound merely dissipated into the abyss.

Today was the first time in days everyone had actually met together as a group, and for the first time, the females outnumbered the males. As a group, the boys had rarely gone into the deeper part of the city, except to meet with Treize, and the last of those meetings had been unfortunately interrupted. Now was really the first time their property had suffered severe damage, as most of the battles the boys had been involved in were far away from those makeshift headquarters. However, in this case, Quatre had decided to organize large groups to get all the materials required.

"Alright, Lita, Amy, and I will obtain parts for repair of internal systems; Hiiro, Rei, Usagi, and Duo will order the raw materials for structural repair, and –"

"Excuse me, sir," an abnormally late Amy interrupted as she arrived, "but Setsuna and I would like to do some research on these time-space anomalies. Therefore, if each group could take one of these instruments, it will pick up and record data on anything abnormal."

"That sounds fine. Anyways, you four remaining will be er…purchasing nutritionary items necessary for human sustenance."

"GROCERY SHOPPING! What a complete waste! Why am I going grocery shopping?"

Wufei showed a few hesitations. However, Duo applied some gentle verbal persuasion ("Ah, suck it!"), and the group was quickly on their way.

As Rei, and several other of the girls had suspected, the gundam pilots didn't exactly walk into a home improvement store. Of course, the boys had 'suppliers', contacts. Amy, in fact, was a bit suspicious herself.

"Mr. Winner…"

"You may call be Quatre, as I only know your first name, Amy."

"Well then, Quatre, why exactly are we coming along? It seems that nearly everything you're purchasing will be delivered later. No real use for us at all."

"To be on the safe side, I've pretty much planned for you girls to be staying with us indefinitely. I'm not quite sure how that happened, you understand. We agreed to have Rei and Usagi come, in return for Rei's aid in certain areas, and in return for Hiiro's life," Quatre snickered softly to himself, "Then, you and Setsuna came along, and Lita and Tara subsequently. It would seem awkward, I suppose, for lack of a better word, to turn any of you out. Magical girls – heh, there's not much protocol, or precedent. Well, I digress. In conclusion, it is foreseeable that the six of you could be expected to help out – that includes running errands. I'm just trying to show you where things are."

"But Quatre, why in the world would you trust us? I'm assuming that your security is fairly delicate, at the least. You've never met us; we have nothing that might recommend us to you."

"For one, you've never done anything remotely untrustworthy. More importantly perhaps, our security system is very sensitive. Not one you could fool. Also, the five of us will serve as our own security. We may be pretty young, but we have some experience – and we'll notice if something seems fishy."

"Interesting…" Quatre watched tentatively as her blue eyes lost focus and the blue-haired head turned to another direction.

"It seems I'm picking something up." Her tone was quite nonchalant, but when she took a quick look at a small device, her expression became worried.

"And it's not passive."

"Ah, and does that mean what I think it does?"

"It does."

Amy had always looked the most fragile out of the six girls, paler and more delicate than even Usagi. But when she and Lita took off running, he found himself hardly managing to keep up.

Rei's mood retained traces of the turbulent resentment from the encounter this morning, but then again, the sun was shining brightly for the first time in weeks, and Usagi looked happy, almost healthy. It certainly pleased her that Usagi had found a friend in Duo.

'But she should be looking to Hiiro.' she thought, turning back to her own little drama. Even though she had finally pulled herself together enough to deal the first blow to her heart, she could not bring herself to shatter it – to tell her princess the truth. As if on command, her companion spoke up for the first time on their outing.

"Rei."

"No, Hiiro."

Hiiro's heart beat violently; he could feel it all the way up his throat and spine. Ice, he thought, ice was always a bad sign in Rei.

"At least, you could have talked to me about this. It is my life."

"Hiiro, I made my decision!"

Though her words were still harsh, the passion had again entered her voice. Rei may try to hide behind a wall of ice as he had often done, but her own internal flame would make short work of those seemingly strong battlements, just as it had done to his. He chuckled, or something close to that.

"You're so stubborn."

At Hiiro's knowing, condescending tone, every muscle in Rei's body tensed, and Hiiro was immediately ready for her to turn on him, grabbing her arms as she attacked and holding her there, making her look at him. Rei's fire had exploded completely, and the blazing of her violet eyes left Hiiro breathless and incapable of movement.

Perhaps he was the moth. He had just gotten burned, and he kept coming back. He would come back, Hiiro knew, until his wings turned completely to ashes. Yet, even without wings, he would struggle, and creep along the ground in search of that flame.

A high pitched scream charged the air as lightning rent the suddenly darkened sky in half. Rei spun quickly to aid her princess. Hiiro followed, but he did not notice the tears streaming from her eyes.

A/N: oh my. I updated. That's a surprise. Still not terribly long. But longer than I'm used to. No, there's no question of a Usagi/Duo romance. They're just friends. Remember that. Haha, and that's as close to a fanfic-shoppingtrip as you're ever going to get in this story.

Er…question. Should I use other pairings? It would give me a lot more fodder, and I'd probably manage longer chapters, minutely more frequently updates. I don't really have many ideas on those couples. Perhaps some Amy/Quatre, and I could foresee some Minako/Wufei in the far FAR future. Input?

As always, comments and suggestions are always welcome. Even negative ones.