"You can't hurry love. No you just have to wait. Love don't come easy…"
Standing outside the downtown diner, Nephrite felt himself grinding his back teeth as the jukebox started up again. Much to his surprise (and likely to Kunzite's disgust), he'd found himself, after lengthy exposure, rather enjoying most of the music played on the diner's gaudy machine. But this particular song seemed only to underscore how painfully long he might well have to wait to find his sweet Lita again. Consequently, he loathed it with a passion that only grew with each playing.
Still, he'd wait as long as it took.
After numerous attempts to astrologically divine her location, that of her senshi sisters and his prince, he'd gotten nowhere. And yet when he'd gone to break the bad news to the other men he'd, by some sort of dumb luck, all but stumbled over her. Or at least he thought it was her.
It had to have been her, he thought desperately.
He'd have recognized that amused giggle anywhere, not to mention her vibrant rosewood mane, in a familiar ponytail, bouncing out the door as she left…on the arm of another man.
Nephrite ground his back teeth again at the memory as jealousy clawed at his insides.
He'd given chase, but to no avail. She and the other man had disappeared entirely into the crowds that were downtown Tokyo on a Friday night. And so he'd had no choice but to return to the diner and pray to Gaia that she would return…preferably alone.
From what he'd been able to have Jadeite sweet talk out of the server he'd all but knocked over in his pursuit, the girl whom be believed to be his lost love was Kino Makoto, another waitress at the diner. From that point on, he'd made up his mind…he simply wasn't leaving until he saw her again. So he waited.
He could now say, with authority, exactly how many black and white tiles were on the diner's floor (368, not counting the kitchen or ladies room), had heard every song in the jukebox at least twice, and had, courtesy of some very kind if overly flirtatious waitresses, sampled a good third of the strange items on the menu. The things they called root beer floats and malts were particularly tasty. Chocolate phosphates and chili cheese fries, however…ugh!
He shook his head wonderingly. It was hard to imagine the elegant Jovian princess he'd known working for a living in such a common place instead of attending court galas and preparing to rule her planet, but then it was a completely different world. He was just new to it this time around.
In any case, he'd been waiting for the past two and a half days, leaving only for an scant hour or two when Zoisite insisted, telling him that he, Zoisite, would personally watch for her while Nephrite was gone, and that if he didn't at least take a shower and shave he'd be more likely to scare her off than win her over.
Nephrite smirked slightly at that, rubbing his again smooth chin. He'd done as Zoisite had suggested, but only because he wanted to look his best for her when they met. One did, after all, only get one chance in any given lifetime to make a first impression. But scared by a two-day's growth of beard? Hah! It only went to show that Zoisite didn't know Lita very well. Princess she was, but she was also made of sturdier stuff than that. There was not much that scared his strong, tough lady.
The smirk, however, faded to be replaced with a sickly frown as he considered that he might well be now one of those few things. He had no idea what memories she might have their past, if any. But he vividly and horribly recalled their last meeting. It was the one that had ended with her blood on his hands and the fall of the Moon Kingdom and Silver Alliance.
Just thinking about it made his stomach, and all the overly fried food therein, churn sickeningly and Nephrite closed his eyes as the vile scene replayed itself before his eyes, shuddering at the painful clenching of his heart. A chill that had nothing to do with the increasingly damp and cold weather made its way down his spine. In desperation he plunged his hand into his coat pocket, fingering the little slip of a fortune which Kunzite had given him. Its hopeful message comforted.
His own memories of his time with the Dark Kingdom after the fall of the Silver Millennium were sketchy, which Zoisite had surmised was an after-effect of being resurrected the way they had been. He did know that he'd had hostile run-ins with the reborn senshi. What he did not know, however, was if he had actually had any contact with Sailor Jupiter.
"Terra, I hope not," he muttered feverishly, checking his watch for the thousandth time. 8:30 PM. When was she going to show?
The chill splash of raindrops on his face and dappling his coat made him swear and reach for the umbrella that Zoisite had insisted on giving him earlier. Great! Now his hair was going to frizz. He'd probably look like a damned poodle when Lita saw him…not exactly the look he hoped to present to the girl whose heart he wanted to win back.
As the skies fully opened up and he heard a rumble of thunder, though, he actually found himself smiling. Lita, he remembered, had loved the rain. Storms, after all, were her element and they also were a passionate reminder of her home planet. He wondered if she still danced giddily in them, welcoming the rain and lightning like an old friend. His grin broadened as he thought back to one particular storm.
The first time they'd kissed had been in the rain and it had been magical. She'd blamed her impulsivity on the rain.
A terrified female shriek from the dark alley next to the diner made him jump, jolting him from the thoughts of that sweetly innocent first kiss. It wasn't Lita screaming. Of that he was sure. But whoever it was, she needed help. It was his duty to act.
He had just reached the alleyway and was brandishing the umbrella like a club, when he heard an all too familiar voice, its tone wonderfully, thrillingly alive and altogether scathing.
"Next time you decide you want to mug some innocent women, you better think again, you rotten, stinking, good-for-nothing creeps! I'm gonna jerk a knot in both your cowardly tails!"
The sounds of banging trashcans, yowling cats, male swearing, feminine threats and fists meeting flesh were loud in the night. A blur that he recognized as the waitress from Friday night raced past him into the diner, yelling something about calling the police.
He tensed, but waited. As long as she could handle matters, it wouldn't do to rush in half-cocked when his notoriously hot-tempered Lita was already in a bad mood. He could already hear the storm growing more intense, most likely in reaction to her volatile emotional state. And that was the sort of thing that could result in a thunderbolt to the ass in short order, or at least a tongue lashing and box to the ears.
The wisdom of his inaction was proved a moment later when a street tough clad in a great deal of black leather and silver studs and sporting a bloody nose was bodily hurled from the alley, landing on the cracked sidewalk with all the grace of a sack of garbage. Seconds later a second battered thug came out on the run. He scooped up his would-be partner in crime and they hotfooted it away from the alley, each blaming the other for getting them involved with the psycho brunette.
"That's my girl," Nephrite whispered with pride. Without thinking he stepped into the dim alleyway, smiling admiringly as he caught sight of her dusting off her hands, backlit from the street beyond.
She was radiant.
Her now drenched skirt of felted wool hung heavily around long legs and her pale jade sweater was plastered wetly to soft curves. Rich reddish auburn curls were darkening to chocolate in the rain, accenting the flawless cream of her complexion. With his exceptional night vision he could actually see the individual crystalline drops that spiked and added luster to the dark lashes surrounding her emerald eyes, which were now glittering with rage.
Nephrite's breath caught somewhere in his chest. But what mattered breath? He'd found his princess and she was as ravishingly lovely as that moment she'd first impulsively kissed him in the rain!
In his glee at finding her again he must have made a sound or a motion, because she immediately resumed a fighting stance, glaring defiantly into the darkness of the alleyway and beyond.
"Okay…" Makoto challenged boldly, tossing her head so her sodden pony-tail slapped against her shoulder. Her fists were upraised toward whoever might have been out there, "You want a piece of me?!"
A brilliant smile lit up his chiseled face and his sapphire eyes gleamed star bright as he tossed the umbrella aside, stepping forward into the light so that she could see him. She was only steps away.
"Yes," he rumbled, his voice heavy with feeling, "but I'll give you a fair trade. My heart for yours, Lita love."
A thousand and one emotions seemed to play over her suddenly ashen face in a matter of seconds as she sucked in a shocked breath and whispered faintly, "Nephrite…"
Slowly she extended a hand toward his face, curving slender fingers around to cup his cheek, trying to convince herself she wasn't hallucinating. Nephrite turned his head, brushing his lips across the soft tips of her fingers, then caught her hand in his, pressing a tender, almost reverent kiss against her palm. Makoto let out a squeak, no louder than that of a mouse, jerking as if she'd been hit with an electric shock, and then her eyes rolled up into her head as, for the first time ever, she dramatically swooned.
Nephrite caught up his fainting Victorian maiden as she slumped gracefully forward into his embrace and chuckled as he lifted her higher into in a secure bridal hold. Now that he'd found her, he had no intention whatsoever of letting her go anytime soon.
"If you wanted me to hold you, sweetheart," he murmured, brushing a kiss across her forehead, "you only had to ask."
