Alone

Minako looked at the sleeping woman leaning against the bed next to hers, tears shimmering in her eyes. The scene before her had left her breathless, such love... Such untainted emotion...

Tears ran down her cheek and she felt as though she might explode. She'd never felt such strong emotions before... Never but once...

The scene replayed itself in her mind, the scene of Usagi-chan watching them push away the woman she now worked to save. Could it be that Usagi-chan... That Usagi-chan had fallen in love?

But she'd thought her moon princess loved Mamoru-san! How could this be?

How could she have missed it?

Staring once more at the sleeping woman, she fell asleep. Darkness greeting her with open arms.


Usagi sat silently while the teacher talked, her mind anywhere but on the strange numbers and markings that lined the board. Instead they drifted to Minako, where was her fellow blonde? Where was the warrior of love?

A soft knock on the door had her head swiveling to the side, only to see a brunette enter the room, Makoto. Where had she been this morning?

"Kino-san, your late!"

The girl nodded and walked towards the woman, bowing silently before speaking aloud, dark words that froze her blood.

"Haruna-sensei, I was at the hospital. Aino-san is giving blood, she won't becoming to school today."

Her chair squeaked back and long blonde hair whipped as her body shot into the air. Her friend had already been hurt... They had already been hurt...

All heads in the room turned to her, their eyes piercing her like sharpened knives. She ignored them and stared her friend in the eye. She saw only narrowed eyes glaring back.

"Tsukino-san," spoke the teacher after a moment, "will you please take a seat?"

She ignored the woman, her eyes still penetrating the girl before her, blue eyes still staring into brown.

"Mako-chan..."

"Yes Tsukino-san?" came the cold words. The class silenced and the two stared each other down. A hurt look on the blonde's face.

"How..."

"She's protecting her," spat out the dark haired girl, interrupting her before she could complete the sentence. She didn't need to, the woman before her already knew.

She fell back into her chair, weakly letting her head fall and a tear drop to the hard oak desk with a tiny splash. The room was deadly quiet, the splatter echoing through the room of children waiting with baited breath as the friction rubbed raw against them all.

The sound of another chair scratching harshly against the linoleum floor and the soft click of heels against the floor broke evenly through the silence. Usagi might have even looked up, only she couldn't find it in her to see the pity looking down at her.

A small hand on her shoulder made her jump slightly. But she never lifted her head, that is until the sound of the shy voice broke through her, like liquid ice.

"Usagi-chan,"

Ami.

She felt more tears falling. Their splashes like the rain.

"Please excuse us Haruna-sensei,"

She felt two hands pull her to her feet, two hands numbly push her through the halls. She could only stare numbly as her feet walked numbly before her. Makoto's message ringing coldly in her ears:

She's protecting her...

Haruka...


Eugeal smiled as she watched the red head sitting before the computer tap her fingers anxiously. Obviously wondering why the daimon had not appeared, she wanted to laugh at her, laugh at how incompetent she was. But she couldn't, at least not now...

She might blow her cover and it wouldn't do to get caught spying.

She didn't have long to wait. Not long at all.

She moved away from the door and down the hall, the shadows flickering around her. Not long at all...

Her maniacal laughter echoed around the mansion.

Not long at all...


Rei felt a surge of power flow through her, anger and sorrow screaming at her, bellowing out it's name. She clutched her sides as it did, the people around her turning to stare. One yelling to call the nurse. She didn't care, nothing mattered to her but the one thought that raced through her mind.

Her princess was in trouble.

She pulled herself from the ground and ran out the door, her hair whipping through the wind. The yells of her classmates lost to deaf ears. Her princess needed her...

Usagi-chan needed her.


Minako felt the surge of power flow through her, stronger than the emotions she had felt now, stronger than the love shown before her. She clutched her heart, the aqua haired woman awoke as well, gasping in pain.

A grunt from her side told her that Haruka was conscious as well. But what could have been strong enough to reach all three of them? What force could hold such emotions they made three women breathless?

She saw the teal eyes look at her in concern, respect having come overnight. She looked back and drew herself tall. She deflated from the whispered words...

"Usagi-chan."

She felt as though she'd been punched in the stomach. Her princess, her friend felt this? She scrunched her eyes up as another tidal wave of emotions crashed through her, and felt the comforting presence of the other woman beside her.

She wondered for a moment why it felt so familiar.

But then she could only think of the young blonde who felt so much pain. She could only think of her princess that she would die for. Her blue eyed princess...


Haruna tried not to glare, she really did. But when Mizuno-san had left with Usa... Tsukino-san, she couldn't help it. She couldn't help the anger that filled her, or the detention that popped from her mouth. Really she couldn't.

But Kino-san should have known better, were they not the best of friends? True they had all been a little distant lately, and it was also true that they all had been a little cold but still! What had just happened was unreasonable!

She looked out the door the two had left from and saw the flash of pain that flashed across Kino-san's features.

She couldn't find it in her to care.


Mamoru smiled darkly from the rooftop as he watched the sleeping woman grimace in pain. Knowing she deserved it, she had stolen from him the only thing he held close to him. She had ripped away his love, his life.

Her heavy breathing showed how completely vulnerable she was, and he felt a need to rise within him to stop it, to wrap his hands around the air passage and make those terrible eyes shut forever. Those eyes that his Usako now loved.

A small movement captured his eye and he saw the aqua haired woman bow over in agony. He felt something within him stir at the movement.

He felt sorry for hitting her, he really did. He hadn't meant to, but she'd made him so angry. She'd made him feel that terrible feeling in his gut when he could not protect his princess. He hated that feeling. And knew it was no reason to hit a woman.

He really hadn't meant to.

But he had...

He sighed and turned away, he didn't like watching ladies suffer. Not real ladies like her and Usako. It made him feel terrible, and that awful feeling would attack him head on. He didn't like that sensation. He didn't like it at all.

But she gave it to him, and he reluctantly lived with it. Those teal eyes glaring with shock and despise.

The impression of small bugs eating away at his heart. Of hurricanes of sand gnawing away at his stomach.

He hated that feeling.

The feeling they called guilt...