Disclaimer: I don't own Sailor Moon. I AM Sailor Moon! Muahahahah!
Subject to Change
"So why were you late to Psychology today, Dare?" Motoki asked, sliding a glass of Mountain Dew across the counter to his friend.
Darien caught the drink with a dexterity that Motoki could only assume was born of his years of martial arts, and gulped half the concoction down in one gulp. "The Odango Atama," he said, scowling. "She picked a fight with me, and I lost track of time-"
"Liar! You were the one who picked the fight, not me!"
Motoko glanced up with a wide grin as Bunny hopped up into the stool beside Darien.
"Milkshake, Usa?"
"Definitely, Motoki-onii-san!" Bunny replied, flashing him a huge grin before turning back to Darien and poking him in the arm with an accusing finger. "You made me late, jerk!"
"Here you go, Usa!" exclaimed Motoki hastily, shoving the milkshake in front of Bunyn before another fight could explode between her and Darien. He smiled in relief as Bunny closed her mouth to take a sip of the chocolate concoction. "Hey, you're kinda late getting here today, Usa. What happened?"
"HE happened, that's what!" Bunny explained accusingly around the straw in her mouth, glaring at Darien. "Haruna gave me a detention because I was late to Geometry – because of HIM!"
"YOU're the one who decided to impersonate Barbie Gymnast in gym!"
"I wouldn't have had to if you hadn't gotten us in trouble!"
"I got us in trouble, Odango Atama? You were the reason we had to run the track twice!"
"OOH, YOU – Motoki, do you have a pen?"
Both of the boys blinked at Bunny's sudden mood swing.
"Uh – sure, Usa," said Motoki slowly, reaching under the counter.
Darien's eye twitched as his mind was assaulted by images of all the painful things Bunny could do to him with a pen. "Motoki, don't – "
"Thank you, Motoki-onii-san," said Bunny sweetly, taking the pen from Motoki and uncapping it slowly and deliberately.
Darien flinched and quickly scooted over a seat.
"Note…to…self," Bunny murmured out loud as she used the pen to write on the palm of her hand. Her tongue peeked out of the corner of her mouth in concentration.
"Remember…to…wear…high…heels…tomorrow." She capped the pen and handed it back to Motoki, whose eyebrows were knit in bewilderment. "Arigatou, Motoki-onii-san!"
"NO!" Darien's howl turned heads – soon everyone in the arcade was staring suspiciously at the trio. Bunny hid a grin and popped the cherry from her milkshake in her mouth. Motoki cleared his throat, blushing, and retreated behind a door marked, "Staff Only," and Darien whimpered, holding his head in his hands.
"So tell me again whose fault was it that I was late, Mr. Shields?" asked Bunny brightly, smiling widely at all the people who were still staring at her and her nemesis.
"It was entirely and totally my fault that you were late," muttered Darien reluctantly.
"I'm sorry, I couldn't hear you. Could you say it again, please, a little louder?" Bunny leaned her head towards him to hear better, cupping a hand around her ear.
"I SAID, IT'S ALL MY FAULT YOU WERE LATE TO CLASS!" Darien bellowed, jumping to his feet. "JUST DON'T WEAR HIGH HEELS, PLEASE, ODANGO!"
"Well, if you feel that strongly about it…" Bunny grinned. "Sit down, Shields, everyone's staring at you."
Darien shot a withering look at their audience, and sat down. "Stupid blonde."
"Ah, ah, ah." Bunny shook a finger in his face. Darien scowled at it and bared his teeth, a growl rumbling in his throat. Bunny yanked her hand backwards with a shriek. "EW! YOU WOULDN'T!"
"What? What is it?" Motoki cam rushing out, eyes wild. "Bunny, are you okay?"
"He was going to bite me!" Bunny pointed at Darien, who was now calmly sipping his soda. "Motoki, I bet he has rabies!"
Darien grinned and bared his teeth again, looking for all the world to see like a hungry wolf. Bunny shrieked and scrambled off her stool, grabbing something as she stumbled.
WHAP!
"OW! ODANGO, WHAT WAS THAT FOR!" Darien clutched his head in pain, glaring venomously at the blonde girl.
"Self-defense, Shields," retorted Bunny, hugging her schoolbag/Darien-whapper against her chest. "And I am so definitely wearing high heels tomorrow!" She let out a derisive stream of laughter before dashing out of the arcade.
Motoki sighed and picked up Bunny's milkshake and money from the counter. "I'd wear steel-toed boots to school tomorrow, Darien. Remember the last time Usa used high heels on you."
"So do I," replied Darien mournfully, clutching his foot to his chest on the stool. Motoki couldn't help but snort if laughter at his friend's monkey-like position. "I've still got the hole in my foot."
"Heehee, this is gonna be great!" Bunny giggled to herself, tiptoeing down the sidewalk early the next morning. Already, the day had been priceless. Getting up an hour before school started (so that she would be able to "catch" Darien on the way to school) and having time to take a leisurely shower and brush out her hair, the shell-shocked expression on her mother's face as she sat down to a steaming heap of scrumptious, syrupy pancakes, and now, the tranquil stroll to school… This would be a great day even if she wasn't planning to stomp a hole through Darien's right foot so that it matched his left!
"Ooh! There he is!" she exclaimed in an excited whisper as she peeked around the corner of a building and spotted her prey a block away. Several pedestrians stopped to stare and wonder at her odd behavior as she sat down in the middle of the sidewalk and pulled a pair of lethal-looking red stilettos from the school bag sitting beside her on the cement. "Tighten the straps …there!"
Bunny smirked in satisfaction and stuffed her regular school shoes into her bag. Then she tottered unsteadily to her feet, bracing herself with one hand plastered to the wall of the building beside her. She watched the reflection in the window of the nail salon across the street, counting down the seconds.
"Three….two…ONE!"
Bunny lunged tipsily out from behind the building. She had misjudged by a second, though, and her arms windmilled crazily around for an agonizing moment before she crashed face-first into the sidewalk. "Ow…" She had totally missed the jerkwad!
"A bit forward, aren't you, Odango Atama? Throwing yourself at me like that?"
"In your dreams, Shields," groaned Bunny, pushing herself up into a kneeling position, rubbing her nose tenderly. "I'd jump an Ewok before I'd jump you."
"Hmm, is that so?" Mischief quirked Darien's lips, and Bunny stiffened. "I hope you didn't spend too long on your homework last night, Odango Atama, 'cause you're not going to get to turn it in today!" With that, he snatched up her school bag from the sidewalk beside her and disappeared into the crowd of early-morning pedestrians, his laughter echoing in her ears.
Bunny sat still for a moment. "He…just…stole my bag…." She rocketed to her feet, swaying wildly on her heels. "DARIEN! MY SHOES ARE IN THEEEEEEEEEE EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERE!"
"Well, I suppose I should expect it by now," said Bunny's first period teacher, Mrs. Rikiro. Her hands rested lightly on her hips as she frowned down at Bunny. "Really, Bunny, how do you expect to pass Biology if you never do any homework?"
"I DID do it!" Bunny protested earnestly. "It's just – well, it's really weird, and you probably wouldn't believe me – in fact, I don't think I even want anyone to know, it's so embarrassing –"
"And what are you wearing?" continued Mrs. Ririko, heedless of Bunny's uncomfortable babbling. She stared pointedly down at Bunny's lethal-looking footwear. The class, which was enjoying yet another spectacle of Bunny being chewed out by a teacher, snickered behind their hands. "Don't tell me you walked to school in those!"
Bunny opened her mouth, but the woman waved a hand. "No, you know what? I've decided I don't want to know. Just go sit down, Bunny, that's a zero for the day – "
"Mrs. Ririko?"
The teacher and student both turned – well, in Bunny's case, it was more like spun – at the voice addressing Mrs. Ririko. Bunny's fists clenched as her eyes landed on the ebony-haired upperclassman standing in the doorway. Sighs escaped the lips of the other female members of the classroom, who gazed, starry-eyed, at the school's resident hunkmeister.
"Well, if it isn't my favorite honor student!" exclaimed Mrs. Ririko, pleasure spilling from her voice. She shot a look at her wayward blonde pupil. "You could do with taking a leaf out of Darien's book – he always does his homework – "
"Actually, Mrs. Ririko, Bunny did hers," interrupted Darien.
Mrs. Ririko was too busy blinking in confusion to notice the sly smirk the junior shot at Bunny, but Bunny caught it. Her fists began to curl in apprehension.
Darien – a bashful smile curving his lips for the sake of his audience – slowly pulled a familiar pink bag from behind his back. "She accidentally left her bookbag behind when we were at the arcade yesterday…" His voice trailed off suggestively.
Mrs. Ririko's eyes bulged.
Whispers and gasps broke out among the students.
Bunny screamed and lunged.
"YOU!"
WHAP!
"BIG!"
WHAP!
"FAT!"
WHAP!
"JERK!"
"OW!" Darien bellowed, grabbing his severely bruised skull with one hand and Bunny's arm with the other. "WHAT WAS THAT FOR?"
"Like you don't know!" Bunny hissed at him, brandishing her pink schoolbag dangerously in his face. "Now everyone thinks we were TOGETHER at the arcade! We weren't even AT the arcade yesterday, you conniving cobra!"
"Did you just learn alliteration in English class?" demanded Darien, still rubbing his head.
Bunny flushed and scowled. "Don't you dare try to change the subject!" She hit him with her bag again. "My shoes were in here! Because of your hilarious little prank, I had to walk the three blocks to school in stiletto heels! Do you know how painful that is?"
"Can't say that I do," replied Darien with a malicious chuckle.
"Well, YOU DO NOW!"
STOMP!
"AAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!"
"This is all your fault."
"Is not!"
"Is too."
"Is not."
"Is too."
"Not not not not."
"Is is is is is is."
"NOT!"
"IS!"
"CHILDREN!" The secretary loomed over them with a dangerous growl. "I ran out of Midol, and I am THIS close to duct-taping both of your mouths SHUT. You do NOT want to mess with me."
Darien's eyes bulged and he began to splutter. Bunny turned a furious red and hid her face behind her hands in mortification. The secretary smirked wolfishly and clicked away, back behind the desk.
"That was soooooo embarrassing," Bunny muttered, voice muffled behind her hands. "I HATE you, Shields."
"What, you think I enjoyed hearing about Midol? I'm a GUY, for God's sake!"
"I thought we established yesterday that you were actually female?"
"ODANGO – "
"MIDOL!" came the shriek, and Darien hastily closed his mouth.
Silence reigned again. Darien shifted, trying to get comfortable in the hard plastic seat that sat outside the principal's office. Bunny tugged at her skirt, messed with her bow, and fiddled with her hair, jumping a mile in the air every time a phone rang or a computer beeped.
"Aren't you Mrs. Ririko's favorite student?" she whispered finally, looking at Darien. "If she likes you so much, then why'd she send you to the principal's office?"
"You think I can fathom anything in that old bat's mind?" Darien replied incredulously. "Who knows why she sent me here – you were the one inflicting bodily harm." He cradled his injured bare foot in his lap for a moment, straightening the bandage that the nurse had wrapped around it before hustling them into the discipline office. "Geez, you couldn't have impaled the other foot? This one already felt the wrath of your high heels."
Bunny flushed, averting her eyes. "I meant to," she admitted. "I guess I just, ah, got distracted and forgot."
"Sure you did," retorted Darien. "I bet you just forgot the difference between left and right."
"I did not!" But the darkening of the blush on Bunny's cheeks betrayed her. She began to sniff. "Why are you so MEAN to meeeeeee, Darieeeeeeeeeeen?"
"The principal is ready to see you two troublemakers now." The secretary scowled at them and jerked her head at the door.
Darien silently thanked God that the secretary had arrived just in time to cut off one of Bunny's wailing fits. Otherwise he might be deaf right now.
"Oh, man, we're gonna dieeeee…." whispered Bunny frantically, grabbing his sleeve. "Quick, Darien, we can still make a run for it – "
"No such luck, Odango Atama," Darien grabbed the doorknob.
"Mr. Shields, Miss Tsukino." The principal looked up from his sheaf of papers, eyes stern behind his half-rimmed reading glasses. "Come in, take a seat."
"Um – I'm really sorry," Bunny squeaked out, cowering slightly behind Darien's back. Darien began to laugh at her, then quickly turned the sound into a cough when the principal threw him a reproving glare. "I didn't MEAN to make a hole in Darien's foot. I tripped. Really!"
The principal eyed the blonde. "I would believe that, Miss Tsukino, given your propensity for, ah, stumbling." Bunny flushed. "But I also know what a…ah, explosive, relationship the two of your share – "
"WE DON'T HAVE A RELATIONSHIP!" yelled Bunny and Darien in concert, glaring first at the principal and then at each other.
The principal loosened his collar nervously. "Yes…ah…well. What I mean to say is that it is quite within the realm of believability to think that you, Bunny, deliberately gored Darien's foot. After all, I don't think any of us have forgotten the, ah, Spring Fling incident."
Bunny and Darien both flushed, studiously avoiding each others' eyes.
"However, Darien, from what I hear, is not entirely to blame. Both of yoru behaviors is becoming disruptive, so you are going to be punished." Bunny paled. "What my psychiatrist has advised me to do with you two is to – Good God, what was that!"
The principal and the two students whirled around, ears still ringing with the bloodcurdling scream they had just heard.
Bunny's fingers clenched around her brooch as they all barreled out of the office. Her heart pounded in her throat. Oh my God…what if it's a youma!
A/N: Ooh! Cliffhanger! How thrilling!
You guys all rock – I have NEVER had so many reviews for a story. All my angsty stories COMBINED have never had this many reviews. You guys are all so sweet, and there's too many of you to even name…Just suffice it to say that I LOVE you ALL, and if you like this story so far, check out my latest one-shot, To Risk the Thorns. Believe it or not, it's got a happy ending!
Thanks, guys! Love ya!
EightofSwords