SAKURA TAISEN/WARS and all related characters, names and indicia are TM & © SEGA and are used here without permission.

Author's Note: This fiction has fallen in the middle of deep audition season, and I will be slow in updating, I apologize. Thank you to all who are reading and reviewing and emailing, I will try to give little bits and pieces as I can.

Rated: PG-13 for innuendo

To The Motherland

Give Them Something To Talk About

"What happened?" Kaede's eyes were wide.

"Is everyone all right?" Sakura dashed into the library past Kaede, and Iris lingered behind, lifting an eyebrow at the disaster against the far wall.

"We're fine," Kanna answered, somewhat sheepishly. Reni bent down beside Sakura and silently began to pick up the books which had slid under the shelf so it could be righted.

Orihime smirked. "Dio di pieta! Kanna, Maria, what exactly were you doing to cause such a mess?"

Unnoticed, Maria slipped the commission letter quickly into her pocket, covering the gesture by adjusting the holster on her shoulders.

Kohran adjusted her glasses on her nose and chuckled. "Wow. A huge bang in the theatre and it isn't my fault. Kanna, were you and Maria fighting?" the engineer's eyebrows furrowed at the remote possibility.

"Uh…" Kanna was not prepared with a lie, and would not dare break Maria's confidence. At least, not so quickly, and not with Maria standing right there, with her gun. Maria had commanded Kanna not to get anyone else involved. After all, if this Russian Secret Police was enough to worry Maria, it must be pretty deadly.

"I don't think they call that 'fighting,'" Orihime whispere conspiritorially to Sakura, who blinked as if she could not imagine what Orihime was getting at. Maria clenched her jaw. If she did one thing before retiring from the Hanagumi, it would be to dispell the rumour that she and Kanna were anything more than the best of friends and founding members.

"WHAT the…? How in the world did THAT happen!" Yoneda gripped his head in stun from where he stood in the library door. Maria busied herself picking up books. Kanna frowned. Sure, silence from Maria was expected and rarely questioned. Now Kanna was left to explain the situation alone. Though… Kanna had been the one to knock over a bookcase…

"I, uh… I… I leaned against it… and…" Kanna stumbled.

"One person leaning against a bookcase of that size couldn't possibly knock it over!" Orihime persisted. "Even someone of your size, Kanna! But, if you AND Maria were leaning against it… and leaning kind of heavily if you know what I m—"

"ORIHIME!" Kanna flushed as crimson as her tank top, an angry humiliation.

"You're blushing! That's a sure sign th—mmmf!" Reni covered Orihime's mouth with her hand and shook her head, frowning the way only the Wunderkind could. Orihime fell silent, but pouted dejectedly, bereft of her moment of revelation.

The rest of an hour passed in silence, the only conversation regarding who had which particular stack of books and where which book should be set into the shelves. Four girls and Yoneda managed to stand the bookcase back up gently, so it did not topple in the opposite direction and start a domino effect. Iris, still the smallest even at age fifteen, sat up on the top of the shelf to replace the highest books.

No one questioned Kanna or Maria any further about how the bookcase had fallen, though several were not satisfied with Kanna's explanation that she'd leaned on it. Especially after it took five of them, Kanna and Maria included, to stand the bookcase back up – empty. Knocking it over full would have taken a fight brutal enough to hospitalize Maria, or some other situation similarly brutal enough to hospitalize Maria. Since Maria was uninjured, everyone else was left confused. Kanna would have had to have been 'leaning' with some serious intent. Kohran kept studying the top of the bookcase, undoubtedly mapping a blueprint in her mind of where Kanna's charted maximum force would need to be applied to knock it over. Then Kohran glanced at the rolling staircase, and gave a short nod, having apparently explained the mechanics in her mind to her own satisfaction. Reason was unimportant to the engineer, just plausibility.

Kanna caught Orihime studying her and Maria from time to time, trying to deduce what was going on between them, but neither was talking. It was without a doubt, though, from Maria's avoidance and Kanna's discomfort that there was a huge and juicy secret there. Orihime just had to invent what it was. Kanna, whose life is normally an open book, was writhing under the strain of a very frightening secret and what she was sure was every member of the Hanagumi examining her and concluding that she and Maria were in the middle of some illicit act. It would just be so much easie rto tell them the truth – that she had been furious that someone was daring to put Maria's life in danger again, but she had an order from her commander and best friend to keep silent. After all, it's possible that just telling the rest of the Hanagumi about Maria's commission could put them at risk as well.

Kanna glanced at Maria. The Russian was sitting on the floor at the foot of the bookcase with a stack of books, setting them back on the shelf in order. Kanna imagined Maria was regretting telling even her best friend about the commission, now. Or maybe she wasn't feeling anything at all. After all, look at her.

Maria was functioning just as she always did, doing what was needed, doing as she was told, keeping silent, and showing nothing. There was something fascinating about the implacable façade her friend wore at almost all times. Kanna had seen it break, many times – and occasionally even been the reason for it breaking – but it was always mended and donned again. To look at her now, though, one would never know the depts of sorrow and heights of rage of which she was capable, not to mention the bouts of deep laughter and the way her eyes light up in joy like moonlight on snow. She did not look capable of those things. Maria was like a calm sea, so beautiful and still until a deadly storm arises.

To the untrained eye, Maria looked physically almost frail. Though Kanna was aware that nearly everyone female was frail compared to herself. To know that the delicatedly maintained composure and beauty could kill was an anomoly to Kanna that deserved the attention of a great puzzle. Kanna had seen Maria in the cockpit of her Koubu, uniformed and bellowing orders, her cannon exploding a burst of ice at every foe, turning to the next before the previous body had even hit the ground. Kanna had seen Maria on the stage at the theatre, in a white and gold military dress uniform with epaulets, gloves and a cane, looking every bit the dashing hero.

But this here was also Maria, the feminine young woman sitting on the floor with her legs bent to one sid, supported by her left hand as her right hand replaced books on the bottom shelf, her hair draped over half of her face. One title caught her attention and she opened the cover, and Kanna chuckled softly, having caught the soldier 'goofing off' even if only for a total of forty-five seconds.

Then Kanna realized that Orihime was watching her studying Maria, with what she must certainly interpret as a loving look. Kanna quickly looked away, blushing furiously and raking a hand through her tousled mop of red hair. A sideward glance caught Orihime's huge grin.

Damnit! Nothing was going on between Kanna and Maria! Of course, Kanna blushing like this was doing nothing to convince anyone of that fact. Kanna grumpily dumped a huge armload of books onto a middle shelf and strode off to retrieve another from the desk where Reni and Kaede were putting them in the proper order.

Geez. Just because someone has a very close bond with a friend. Of course Kanna loved Maria, she's her best friend. And is it so wrong that someone's best friend can see that they're beautiful? Kanna isn't blind of course! And just because Kanna understands Maria better than just about anyone else, even when she understands her least? Just because Kanna can tell how alluring all the aspects of her best friend can be doesn't mean that sh—

Oh, for pity's sake… Kanna dropped a stack of books immediately after picking them up. "I'll… be back in a minute…." Kanna ran out to go throw cold water on her face, fiercely ignoring Orihime's knowing smirk.

Responses to Reviews:

Hesquidor: Shows what you know. My BIKE was abducted by world-travelling aliens. ;)

Dillian: Well I'd been operating on the assumption that Maria was 9 when her family was exiled, but apparently she was much much younger. Most of her memory would be based on what her parents told her when she was older, but traumatic stuff sticks well in flashes.

Uchiha-chan: Drat. Hehehe... I was trying to be subtle. Yes, yes, a KxM, but it's my first slash, so this might be... hesitant. ;D

Hellcat666: Working on a Sumire one next! I relate best to Maria and they say write what you know ;) chains Maria in a dungeon! LOL, seriously, my favourite part about writing for Maria is how much she can overcome. And I admit some bits are autobiographical, and apparently subconscious, until I let a friend read the story and they say, "Hey... YOU did that...!"

The Watchers: Thank you for the review! Oops, I knew there's be a continuity error. I did get the information from a Stalin database, but it could have been an error. Hmmm... I will either fix the dates or just pretend history is different, depending on how old it makes the Hanagumi to do so. And I had not seen your story, but I will look for it now :)