Disclaimer: I do not own To Love Ru
Yuuki Household, Earth
Mikan Yuuki woke up to another day of anxiety, stress, and worry, and it hadn't helped that she had been cooking for six people since her brother's sudden decision to go out into space to save Lala. Supposedly there was some ancient forge he could use to keep this 'Creed' person from ever rising to power. Mikan didn't really understand most of it, she had gone to make dinner for everyone when Rito explained everything, and she had only come in after he declared his intent to go into space with Black, Zastin, and Nakajima, after he volunteered. She knew he was just trying to prove himself to Momo after he got beat up trying to save her. She could tell he had a thing for Momo, which had honestly surprised her since she knew Momo had her eagle eyes on Rito alone.
Her brother was still stupid to let him go, and Mikan honestly thought that Momo was going to laugh off his attempt to join. Instead she didn't even argue, and that whole night Nakajima was learning all about Momo's Dedial and the plants she knew he would need to know about when they got to Mistletoe. In fact, Mikan had been quite suspicious as too her motives, but she hadn't given it second thought after they had left and Momo stayed behind. She had half a mind to confront the Devilukean girl before they left, figure out what her angle on letting Nakajima go in her place with her Dedial, was all about. She regretted it at dinner time when she figured out why she wasn't worried.
Earlier
Mikan had been chopping up ingredients for her Miso broth to go with the main dinner, and she knew she had some time before the last dish was ready to be served. She washed her hands, wiped them dry, and hung her apron up as she left the kitchen. "Celine?" Mikan called out, going up the stairs to her room, "Celine, Dinner's almost ready!" She knocked on their shared room, opening the darkened room just enough to let light from the hallway shine into the slowly darkening room. She oddly found Celine's basket empty and devoid of the plant girl, which puzzled her greatly. She hadn't heard the child romping around the second floor, nor had she heard her rush down the stairs with her normal vim and vigor. She had thought that the plant girl was just sleeping, after all she was still a child, but the lack of Celine was starting to worry Mikan.
She had checked Rito's room, Lala's, Nana's, Momo's, the other upstairs rooms she would be able to get into to, and even the backyard. No Celine anywhere. "Where is she?" Mikan confronted Momo, who sat next to Nana while she watched the zoological program on the television, and read a book on some alien plants, "Have any of you seen Celine, at all today?" Mea and Nemesis, who both sat doing their own thing on the floor, both shook their heads.
"She's probably just in Lala's room, she is smart enough to recognize that Lala's not going to be coming back for a while," Nana states, "That girl and Lala were playmates, if not practically sisters, because when she wasn't with you, Shizu, or Mikado-sensei, Lala and her both watched Magical Kyouko together..." Mikan shook her head, trying to fight back the anxiety encroaching on her.
"No, I checked up there, I checked everywhere and she's not here!" Mikan states, starting to freak out and hyperventilate, "She never would leave the yard, not with anyone she didn't know, and anyone else would let us know if she was out and wandering about!" She turns on Momo, like a light flicked on in her head. Mikan slowly turns over to the Devilukean girl and practically gets up onto the table. You!" Mikan practically yelled in a deep threatening tone, "What did you do?"
Everyone else turned to Momo, who in turn set down her book calmly before gazing Mikan straight in the eye. "I didn't do anything," Momo states, "Nakajima invited himself along with Rito and Black; Celine decided one night of training wasn't enough for him..." Mikan practically jumps onto the wounded girl ready to punch her, if Yami hadn't just walked in with Takoyaki and sweets for Mea and Nemesis to eat latter.
"What's going on?" she asks neutrally, pulling back Mikan with her hair and keeping her a good distance from Momo, "What did you do, Momo-hime?" Momo merely sighs, and goes back to reading her book, uninterested in answering.
"She convinced a child to tag along on a dangerous mission!" Mikan states, yelling and crying out at Momo, "She somehow got Celine to go with Black, Nakajima, and Rito to Mistletoe!" Yami pulls Mikan closer to herself, hugging the younger Yuuki sibling.
"Celine's more than able to take care of herself, she offered to go with Nakajima and make sure the plants kept themselves away from the others," Momo offers up, quite grumpily, "You think I wanted her to go, Mikan?" Momo states, turning back from the couch to face Mikan, who was still encompassed in a hug with Yami and slowly calming down. "I told her Nakajima had it, I said 'he beat up people for me, Celine', that's what I told her," Momo states, "She told me, 'he may be eager, but that won't keep him from making mistakes'." Momo got up, unsteadily and woozy from the painkillers Mikado-sensei had given her, and slowly walked up to Mikan and Yami. "She said: 'He likes you, I can tell he really does, Aunty Momo,'" she mimicked in a falsetto, "'That is why I'm going to protect him, because I know you love him too, even if you can't tell yet...'" Suddenly Mikan let go of Yami, to help a stumbling Momo.
"Oh Momo, I'm sorry, I didn't know," Mikan stated, trying to help Momo from tripping on the carpet, "Celine said all that?" Momo grabs onto Mikan's shoulders, looking her straight in the eyes, before enveloping her in a hug. After a few seconds of shock, Mikan realizes Momo is crying. "It's okay Momo, she'll be okay," Mikan stated, trying to pat her shoulders comfortingly, "She's got Rito, Black, and Zastin watching her back, and Nakajima will keep her safe above all else, she'll be fine, and when she gets back, we'll all be okay!" The sobbing continues.
"No...no, we won't all be okay, because they're going to Mistletoe, chasing after my sister's ghost story," she sobs into Mikan's shoulder, "My practical niece, a girl I helped raise, decided to sneak onto a ship and 'help', and she's barely two years old in that form Mikan!" She almost falls to her knees, but Mikan is slowly lowering her to the carpet already. "I should have stopped her, but I was still in shock; I was desperate Mikan!" Momo cries hard, "I got broken up with, I got beaten up because I wasn't able to focus, I got tortured and dropped onto a school rooftop while I was unconscious... if Rito hadn't saved me I'd be dead and my sister would still be lost to us, somewhere in space..." Mikan feels the anger start to evaporate as Momo keeps speaking. "And I didn't even have the courage to thank him, to tell him 'thank you for risking your life to save my sister'," Momo cries, pulling away from Mikan's shoulder to breathe, "How did she even know... how could Celine even tell, when my heart..." Mikan had let her own waterworks flow, just as upset as Momo was, the anger she had been displacing onto Momo now gone. Now the two girls, who cared very deeply for two different people, were just both very troubled.
Lacospo's Spaceship
Lala was staring out the window of the extravagant suite she had been given by Lacospo. She hadn't thought her ploy would work, but the toad had fallen for it like it was a delicious fly being dangled in front of him. She knew she had to hard sell it to Azenda though, because she knew the female assassin was very dubious of her willingness. She had even tried to get Lacospo to fire on Rito and Momo after she had Lala in her hands, and Lacospo had responded by going to the dark side of Earth's moon, in preparation for the trip home. The natural satellite kept the Lunatique's sensors from scanning their location, and Lala even admitted it was smart to hide in the darkness, like the cockroaches they had become. Azenda hadn't liked that retort, and almost managed to mar her face with a thin dagger, had Lacospo not called his 'wife' off of her.
She had been bored ever since Azenda had tossed her into this room with nothing to keep her occupied, not even a book. They probably believed she could build some kind of key out of the pages and the binding, and manage to trip the doors lock and escape into the ship and take a shuttle out of there. They were smart, because she had devised about six different ways to escape, if she only had that book to utilize even one of them. She would even like a pair of chopsticks at this point, or a packet of salt. The escape plan using the salt packet was probably her most creative one too, so she was sad knowing she wouldn't likely get to use that specific one. She just resolved herself to staring at the stars and searching for any constellations she could familiarize herself with.
There were also trepidation's about whether or not Rito understood her, about reading the letters she had left. She honestly couldn't even believe she had the foresight to write out possible ways her capture and subsequent release could go about, and then just casually mention she had traveled through time. She knew that one would be a bit harder for Rito and the others to swallow, but she also figured Rito was genuinely going to believe her because she hadn't lied to him before. At least not about something as drastic as this regarding her own life. She also knew that the others were going to be quite skeptical about it, but they would realize she wasn't joking about going to Mistletoe, about getting the Ninth Blade fixed before the spirit of Creed Diskenth corrupted Rito.
She honestly had been hoping to retrieve Bladix, and subsequently Creed, before he had been brought together with Rito allowing him to get a grip somewhere in the recesses of Rito's mind. Unfortunately that plan fell to pieces the moment Azenda came into their lives once again, causing Rito and the others pain in the process. She had actually thought she had made too drastic of a change to the timeline, fearing she would lose Rito all together and create a spiral of events she couldn't even begin to predict. Thankfully Rito had pulled through, and she had even noticed he had been made stronger because of it. Now, all she had to do was survive this experience with Azenda and Lacospo, and pray that Rito would save her before the man or his crazed wife decided to do something drastic that resulted in loss of life on either side. She didn't want to marry Lacospo, she didn't want to lose Rito to his darkest impulses, and she didn't want the bleak future she saw to come true.
Looking out at the retreating stars, Lala couldn't help but worry for her beloved Rito, and dread the coming days with Lacospo. Her Father wasn't expecting her decision for a few more weeks, meaning that if she returned to Deviluke with Lacospo, even under the threat of force so as much as she was, she could still stall any wedding plans the frog could have for her. Her Father's space force and orbital weaponry would insure that nothing would happen to her, as long as she remained an obedient political prisoner and out of Azenda's clutches. Honestly, she didn't even understand why Azenda hated her so much, enough to risk injuring any bargaining chip they would have had over her Father and Rito. Maybe it would be something she would have to go over with Azenda, if she could ever get the former assassin queen to open up to her.
Azenda's hatred alone towards Golden Darkness, her own friendship with Yami, that was at least understandable, but not the undercurrent of hostility she seemed to share towards herself and her sister. She knew her father didn't quite care for the insurgents and assassin's that went after his own sphere of influence, her father wasn't unknown to the darker side of politics after all, but he preferred to face his problems head on and with honor, not underhanded tactics. The Galactic Police were more likely to target assassin's, then her own father. Her father hadn't even broached the Talha Galaxies black market quadrant, wherein the Assassins Guild stationed their power base.
"Perhaps it's something my Mother did?" Lala ponders out loud, thinking back to a time when she was small and Momo and Nana weren't even being considered by her father and mother, to stories her mother told her. The sudden knock at the door rattled any good thoughts from her head as the door slid open to reveal the beige headed tyrant at her door.
"We need to talk," Azenda states, crossing her arms and draping herself against the doorway. Lala stared back at her with curious aquamarine eyes, as the assassin queen stares her down with cold eyes and disdain splashed across her features.
A/N: I'm not dead! =D I finally got rid of my writer's block, and plan to finish this story up finally before I move on to another story I have in the works.
I also have a blind poll up on my profile, so please vote for up to three of your favorite choices!