A/N: So I decided to up the social awkwardness of Kendal... you know, because he's so disillusioned to what love is due to his work in the film industry. ENJOY!
Chapter 9
Three Months. Sixteen hour days. Six days a week. It was barely summer. The blonde actress was TIRED.
Minako couldn't believe how much time passed. Three months felt like a snap! But it was also three months of keeping a big secret from the cast and crew. Kendal had been dating her secretly during this time. And they both kept it hidden quite well. Though it grated her to no end when he politely rejected the advances of women around, she would sometimes be tempted to insert herself in and stake her claim.
But she couldn't do that... no. Company policy rang very strongly in her mind; both knew if they were caught, there might be some serious consequences on her end. She was also finally getting along with all the women who were playing the Sailor Senshi. What helped was Kendal's redirection of the Senshi and their "personalities". They took one week off to restore the set. During that time, he not only rewrote parts of the script, but also made his advances on a certain Senshi of Love.
She was thankful, though, that he had no recollection of his past and that he was indeed a warrior of Endymion. There were several times, though, when he came to her apartment unannounced located just across the street from the set. His purpose? To visit Minako. He made sure to be very careful when visiting her lest beginning rumors amongst the workplace. There were several times her communicator went off. He kept very silent when she would answer. It was usually Mars or Mercury either calling for back up, or checking on Minako to see if she was alright.
A few times, the senshi jokingly teased her on how Kunzite was doing. She scoffed and said, "What do you think?"
Whoever this "Kunzite" was, Kendal had no clue nor did he care to know. As long as she was his, he was content. He also inquired about that blond man, Jadeite.
She laughed and gave no further answer. He used a tactic she did not expect at all. She was spilling information to him about that man within 20 minutes.
Minako had her hair pinned up in braids, and she collapsed in her bed. What a day.
Tomorrow, she would return home via plane. All the filming needed for Sailor Venus was finished.
There were a few odd scenes that still needed to be taken care of, but it did not require her presence.
She felt her bed shift beside her. She immediately sat up and hissed, "What are you doing here?!"
Kendal re-adjusted himself to lay flat on his back and turned his head to look at her. He smoothly answered, "Resting."
"Uh, not on MY bed," she retorted crossing her arms and earnestly wanting to shove him off of the bed.
He smirked and tried capturing her in his arms. She shrieked immediately knowing this tactic quite well and backed away. She stood on the other side of the room. He propped up his head using his arm and elbow as he remained laying on the bed. "Come lie down."
Minako frowned. "Get out of my bed."
He smirked, "Afraid?"
"Heck no!" she argued and crossed her arms, "God only knows how disgusting and dirty you must be from all that filming in the great outdoors! Again, get off my bed."
He remained silent before looking over to his side and reaching for one of her pillows.
"Oh, hell no!" she started beginning to stomp towards the bed. She saw his smirk as he pulled it to his face and began rubbing his head all over the pillow.
Minako shrieked as she tried tearing the pillow away from him desperately wanting to keep it clean. Their little tug-of-war soon turned into a rolling war with him using his body to pin her still. She narrowed her eyes at him.
"How dare you," she spoke with narrowed eyes.
He began to give the ghost of a smile. "I am going to miss you."
So that's what this was about. Minako now understood.
"It'll only be three weeks," she replied as his smile vanished.
"I won't get to be around my beautiful Venus," he answered.
She scoffed, "You'll get to see me all you want when you return to Japan."
"Stay," he commanded her starting up again with the kisses.
She gave a little yelp before trying to shove him off, "No! NO! Not another hickey! I will not try and explain that again to the make-up artists!"
He looked back at her with a smirk. "How will you remember me without a physical reminder?"
"Oh," she started trying to wiggle away, "there are not many men in the world like you. I'm sure I'll remember my first boyfriend after becoming a Sailor Senshi."
He sighed and finally rolled to the side. She thanked God that he finally freed her. He didn't remain silent though, "Please... remain safe. Don't do anything stupid."
She smirked, "So I cannot protect Tokyo from threats? I don't think my sisters-in-arms would appreciate that too much-"
"I'm serious," he replied gazing upon her seriously, "I sense it. Something really, really bad is getting ready to happen."
The senshi of love made a mental note. She needed to ask Jadeite and Zoisite if they remember Kunzite (or Kendal in this case) always had premonitions of future enemy battles. If this was the case, she needed to make sure to warn the team of a new threat... or an extention of the old one.
"I'll be careful," she replied in a sober tone, all playfulness now drained out. She gave him a smile, "Perhaps I can schedule a meeting with the senshi team when you return-"
She squealed when he grabbed her and held her in his arms breathing in that same perfume she used since day one of filming. "No need. I met the senshi I had a desire to get to know."
She forced herself to become comfortable in his arms. Though she knew he wanted to do more 'pleasurable' things with her, his strict code of conduct on and off the set between workers kept him from furthering their adventures. She was thankful that he would always stop himself. She counted on it. She was actually a bit afraid of going all the way with this man... her dreams sparked memories of old and his betrayal with the other Shittenou. Yes, they were great allies and friends, but she was extremely hesitant in wanting to share her body with a man who tried slitting her throat when the Moon Kingdom was destroyed.
'No,' she mentally corrected herself, 'His mind was brainwashed during the Silver Millenium at the end, and his body was in a coma the time the Dark Kingdom Generals fought against me and the other senshi...'
"What are you thinking about?"
"Huh?" Minako snapped out of her thoughts and listened as the man's deep voice once against vibrated in his chest.
"You stopped talking," replied Kendal.
She had. How could she tell him a very guarded secret Usagi and Mamoru told her to keep silent?
"I can't say," she replied finally, "Sailormoon made me swear to not say a word of the topic on my mind."
There was silence for a good five minutes.
"Does it have to do with Kunzite?" spoke Kendal.
Minako's blood ran cold. How could he know about Kunzite?!
It was almost like reading her mind. Kendal could feel her body stiffen up in his arms. He kept her locked there in his embrace. For some time now, he suspected that his dreams of protecting a love-sick prince, sparring with Sailor Venus, and falling in love with said woman were extentions of a past memory. He also remembered how he guarded that relationship very carefully. His fellow warriors had no clue he was in love with the Senshi of Venus. The memories felt real. Minako's mannerisms mirrored the woman he saw in his dreams. And his desire to fight beside her never extinguished. The sensations he received just before a monster appeared or was announced over the Venus' communication device, further cemented that her thoughts may have trailed along the lines that he may have some ties to the Sailor Senshi. His desire to create this movie was to attract Sailor Venus out of hiding- of course he knew all the women's personalities were wrong from the beginning. His dreams didn't just remain of Venus. He got glimpses of the other women too as they interacted with Venus. But he desired to scramble their personalities to rile Venus out of her hiding place to come find him.
It was pure fate when she came to that airport. With her civilian persona, he would have never guessed it belonged to the woman who haunted his dreams. A woman who grated his nerves to no end in the beginning happened to be the very woman he was searching for.
Minako dared not say a word.
Several minutes had passed by before he said, "I'm Kunzite, aren't I?"
Those four words rang in Minako's ears for the entire flight home and when she went to baggage claim. She was so desperate for sleep, but the haunting memory kept ringing in her mind keeping her awake. As a matter of fact... it had been almost 42 hours since she last slept. Her night before the flight was a sleepless one.
She could not believe that Kendal figured it out!
How? Did she drop too many hints that suggested it?
She never spoke a word of it. The night before her departure to Tokyo, she snuggled her body closer to his chest finally commenting, "You're a better lover than Kunzite was." He held her that night remaining in her room. She heard his calm breathing when he fell asleep and felt his body relax. That partially may have been why she couldn't sleep.
She never told Kendal that he wasn't that man... and yet...
As she made her way out to the pick-up area, she missed the moment her ride came to get her. It was Zachariah and Ami. Ami left the car after it came to a stop and quickly ran out hugging her long time friend.
Minako smiled brightly and returned the gesture noticing something different with her friend. She glanced down at Ami's belly. Was her friend getting fat from all of Zachariah's wining and dining?
Ami smiled brightly as she laughed, "My husband and I are expecting."
Minako squealed in excitement and hugged her friend once again tightly. She looked back at her friend once again and down to her belly, "Congratulations! How far along?!"
Ami began leading her to the car, which Zachariah was finishing putting all her suitcases in the trunk. As they returned to their seats, belts were buckled and the engine roared to life once again. Ami smiled as she rubbed her growing tummy. "The baby is 28 weeks along."
Minako gave another excited squeal and smiled brightly. "Ah! I am so excited for you both! When did you find out?"
Ami began to blush, and Zachariah began to laugh. Minako didn't know what was so funny. He answered for his wife, "We went to the doctor two days ago when she began lactating."
Minako gave her friend a smug smile. Ami's blush brightened, "Zach, we didn't know I was carrying our child!"
The man gave a wickedly handsome smirk to his wife. "Well, we sure had fun making her..."
"Stop it!" she commented.
Minako was dying with laughter.
"I gained about ten pounds. I had no symptoms of morning sickness, and my body hid the pregnancy well. We assumed it was all the fine dining that brought the extra weight to my body," spoke Ami.
"Which she could use," added the blond man smiling.
"Oh hush Zach," commented his shy wife.
Minako smiled for the two. She knew they would be great parents.
BOOM!
Zachariah immediately swerved his car out of danger as another vehicle exploded into flames as it was flung into the air. He hit the break and turned the car just in time to miss on coming traffic.
CRASH!
He hit the gas pedal and began weaving in and out of traffic.
"Zach!" yelled Ami, "We need to get back there!"
"You, Ami, are sitting out from this fight! I will not risk our child getting hurt-"
VEEEEERRRRRR! CRASH!
Explosions began going off beside the vehicle rattling it.
Minako turned her head trying to find the source of the trouble making. Her eyes narrowed when she saw a flying figure in the sky, preparing an attack in his hands. He was aiming straight for their car. The Senshi of Venus transformed after a flash of light revealed the warrior. She launched her attack from the side window of the car. "Slow down your driving! I need to get out so I can fight this thing!"
"I'm almost home free Venus," replied the photographer as he drove around some slower cars getting ready to be ingulfed in flames.
"Zoisite! Let me out of this car! Leave me here to fight. Get Mercury to safety. If things get really bad, I'll reach out to the other Senshi including Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto," confirmed Venus as she prepared herself to leap out of the moving car. Zachariah nodded his head in understanding. The car did slow to human running speed, which gave the blonde senshi the opportunity to get a running start and launch another attack at the offender.
She gave this male villain everything she had not wanting to be merciful one bit. She saw all the damage caused and immedately wanted it to stop. Looking up in the sky, she saw the new Youma vanish just seconds before the attack made impact. She narrowed her eyes. Where did he go?! She began to look around her shoulder trying to find where he might appear. It was never fun to play such a guessing game out in the open. She reached for her communicator, "SENSHI! COME IN-!"
She never saw the impact coming.
'Owwww...'
She opened her eyes taking the first look after being knocked out. Though only seconds had passed from a head-bashing blow, her vision was split and began focusing in and defocusing. 'Oh, what a mess...' Venus thought. She felt a foot step on her back from behind feeling the heavy weight of the being crushing her back. She began to wince as he stepped into her view and crouched down. A nasty smirk was on this villain's face. "Look at you now..." taunted the man looking very similar to the woman she dusted weeks before. "It's the woman who killed my sister."
'Dang it...' Minako thought really wishing she had some back-up. It would be another five or ten minutes before she could fight again. Her vision was still split, her head felt very foggy and dizzy.
"All alone, just like my sister," spoke the man grabbing Venus' face. His long nails began to dig in her skin. She dared not show the pain she felt.
His smirk widened.
"Maybe I should take you in place of my sister. Maybe do a little retraining in your brain first, hmmm?"
Venus really, really hoped someone was on their way.
"Yes, I think that's better than killing you. You are a beautiful one after all... Perhaps I could make you my own prize."
She despised the villains that rattled off their plans before they executed them. Maybe she could keep him talking before help comes? Maybe that would stall him.
"W-what are you going to do to me?" she weakly asked.
She squeaked when he grabbed her body and hoisted it over his shoulder. She hissed even more as a new wave of dizziness hit her senses. Oh yeah, she had a concussion, a nasty, nasty concussion...
He laughed at her pain. "You, my dear, will soon find out."
Minako didn't know what came over her, but she heard screaming from the man carrying her too. She felt paralyzed as both of their bodies began to fall, only this time, hers was caught. Time slowed down. She saw the silver hair and felt the strong arms. She caught sight of a very stoic and angry face. She felt her body set down to the side, and she watched as her vision blacked out and came back.
She watched her knight in civilian clothing, "Don't EVER touch her again." His voice sounded like an Angel of Death. He produced another sphere of electricity in his hands shoving it in the man's mouth. It was more than enough to fry the offender, who began to fade away as the wind blew the dust.
Kendal stood tall. She lowered her head and began closing her eyes not sure how he got here, but she definitely felt safe. She felt his arms pick up her body and begin to carry her. Where? She was not sure. She didn't question him. She knew it was somewhere safe. She allowed darkness to overtake her. Perhaps she might sleep well for the first time in almost two days.
Author's Note #2: Drop a comment! I'd love to see my story near 100 reviews. WOO HOO! Chapter 10 is ready and waiting (except for basic editing). Epilogue might or might not be written... haven't decided.
