Disclaimer: Sailor Moon isn't mine. Get it? Not. Mine. Okay? Okay.
Key
"Speaking"
'Thoughts'
(AN: Author's Note)
Chapter 4
Tsukino Residence
After a few moments of cowering, Kaya realized that no blow had come. Cautiously, she dropped her arms back to her side and lifted her head. Her eyes widened when she realized where she was. No one said anything. The situation was awkward, and everyone was too surprised to say anything. Suddenly, Kaya bolted from the kitchen, snapping everyone out of their trance.
"Kaya…!" Serena exclaimed, but the sounds of the girl's footsteps on the stairs had already stopped, and the slam of a door signified that she was somewhere in an upstairs room. Nobody moved for a moment, their minds racing with questions about what had just happened.
Serena was the first one to move. She left the kitchen, and the faint sound of her footsteps on the stairs could soon be heard by her family. Rini followed, and found Serena waiting at the top of the stairs for her. They looked at each other for a moment, and then nodded. They walked to the closed door of the room Rini shared with Kaya. Rini hesitated for a moment, but opened the door and walked inside, Serena behind her.
They found the small child curled into a ball on Rini's bed, clutching a stuffed rabbit (AN: It belonged to Rini, but she gave it to Kaya) tightly. Soft sobs filled the room. Quietly, the two girls crossed the room, taking a seat beside Kaya on the bed, Serena on her left and Rini on her right. They said nothing. Slowly, the tears stopped. Kaya sat up, face tearstained, eyes red from crying.
"What happened, Kaya?" Serena asked gently. Kaya sniffled, eyes adverted from Serena and Rini.
"I… I forgot where I was… I thought I was home…," she whispered. Both girls were confused by this.
"I… I thought that Mr. Tsukino was… Daddy..."
"What's wrong with your daddy?" Rini asked, dreading the answer. Kaya was silent for a moment, staring down at the ground.
"Mommy and Daddy don't get along. They fight a lot. That's why Daddy left a long time ago," Kaya spoke softly. Serena's eyes widened slightly in realization. Rini, however, remained oblivious to what had happened.
"Why are you so afraid of your daddy?" Rini asked. Kaya didn't answer immediately.
"… Daddy comes to visit once a month, at least. He always fights with Mommy… Sometimes they fight about me, and sometimes about other stuff. Daddy always hurts Mommy… And then… He hurts me…" Rini and Serena sat there, shocked by this information.
"… But you can't tell anyone. I'm not supposed to tell anyone," Kaya said, finally looking at Serena and Rini.
"Do you promise not to tell anyone…? Pinky promise…?" Kaya asked, holding out her pinkies to the girls expectantly. Hesitantly, they hooked their pinkies around Kaya's.
"… Pinky promise…" Rini said, and Serena nodded. Kaya smiled.
"… Hey Kaya? How about I do your hair?" Serena asked, breaking the short, uncomfortable silence. Kaya nodded enthusiastically, and Serena and Rini couldn't help but smile. The trio went to Serena's room, where Serena sat Kaya down on her bed and went to her vanity. She gathered an armful of hair stuff and dumped it on the bed, then sat down. She picked up a brush and brushed Kaya's hair, while Rini watched.
A few minutes later
"Viola! I have finished!" Serena declared with a broad grin. She took Kaya by the hand and led her to the vanity, allowing the little girl to look at her reflection. Kaya's emerald eyes widened in delight and amazement.
Serena had tied her brown hair up into a style almost exactly like her own and Rini's. It was more like Serena's, but the streams of hair falling from the buns were shorter, of course, and fell back behind her shoulders instead of straight to the side like Serena's and Rini's. (It's sort of hard to describe. My friend, Death, made me a picture of a Chibi Usagi/Serena, and I'm using how her hair was in the picture as Kaya's new hairstyle. If you can't imagine it, just take my word for it when I say it's VERY cute.)
"Thank you, Big Sister Serena! Thank you so much!" she squealed in delight, hugging the teenager excitedly. Serena smiled and hugged her back. Kaya turned her gaze to Rini, who was sitting on the bed, watching the exchange with a smile.
"Big Sister Rini? May I do your hair?" Kaya asked. Rini looked surprised for a moment, but smiled and nodded nonetheless. Kaya's eyes widened with excitement, and she ran to the bed and climbed up on it behind Rini, Serena in tow. Carefully removing Rini's hair from its usual buns, Kaya picked up a hair brush and began to brush Rini's hair.
About twenty minutes later
Rini stared at her reflection in the vanity mirror, stunned and amazed. She hadn't expected Kaya to do this well on her hair!
Her pink tresses were left down for the most part, coming in waves to around the middle of her back. A small, delicate braid on each side of her head had been formed by the tender fingers of her younger friend. They seemed very complicated, especially for a six year old.
"Do you like it?" Kaya asked, her reflection appearing behind Rini's, along with Serena's. The young girl seemed a bit nervous, as she was fidgeting slightly as she anxiously awaited her friend's reaction to what she had done.
"… It's… It's magnificent!" Rini finally said, regained her voice and composure. Kaya smiled brightly.
"Thank you! My mommy taught me how to do it!" she said, giggling softly. Rini and Serena smiled, the pink haired girl turning to the blonde.
"Now I get to do your hair, Serena!" she declared. Before the blonde had even opened her mouth to protest, both girls had dragged her back to the bed.
10 minutes later
"Rini! You…! You didn't ruin my hair!" Serena was in shock as she stared at her reflection in the mirror. Rini had, indeed, done nothing whatsoever to ruin her future mother's hair.
She had decided to braid Serena's hair, like Kaya had done to her own, but instead of two braids, she did one long braid that fell down Serena's back to her knees. By some miracle, Rini had found a very long light pink ribbon, which she had intertwined into the braid while making it. She had but a sparkling diamond bunny clip (which Serena had gotten for her birthday last year) in Serena's hair as well, on the right side of her head. It didn't disrupt her bangs, and it looked very nice.
"Hey! I wouldn't do that!" Rini defended herself with a huff, crossing her arms in front of her chest. Serena stared at Rini through the reflection in the mirror.
"… Okay, so maybe I would do that, but I didn't feel like torturing you today!" Rini said, turning away with an upset 'hmph', sticking her nose up in the air. Kaya giggled, and soon all of the girls were laughing uncontrollably. Serena wiped tears of laughter from her sky blue eyes and let out one last chuckle.
"How about we go to the arcade and see if the others are there?" she suggested, and Rini and Kaya nodded in agreement. The three left the room and went down the stairs.
"Serena? Rini? Kaya? Are you going somewhere?" Ilene called as she entered the hall through the doorway to the living room. She froze upon seeing the girls, eyes wide.
"… Did you do each others' hair?" she asked after a small pause. They nodded slowly, and Ilene suddenly squealed. She turned and darted back into the living room, leaving three confused, sweat-dropping girls in the hall. She returned seconds later, a camcorder in hand. She excitedly switched the device on and pointed it at the three girls.
"MMMMMMOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMM!" Serena wailed.
"Adina told me to film every cute thing you three did," Ilene explained.
"Now, each of you tell me who did your hair! Kaya, you start!" Ilene exclaimed.
"Big Sister Serena did my hair," Kaya said quietly, taking one of Serena's hands in one of her own.
"Kaya did my hair," Rini said, her hand taking Kaya's free hand.
"And Rini did my hair," Serena finished, but didn't take Rini's free hand, as Kaya was in between them.
"Perfect! Now, each of you turn around slowly, one at a time, so I can film every angle of your new looks!" Ilene said, starry-eyed, although you couldn't tell because of the camcorder. Serena and Rini groaned, but did as instructed. Kaya was the last to turn around slowly, and Ilene still had no intention of letting them go.
"MOM! We had to go to the arcade now!" Serena whined.
"Oh, fine! But we're finishing this when you get back!" Ilene said, disappointed. But she turned the camcorder off anyways, and walked the girls to the door.
"Be careful! Another youma may attack again!" Ilene called at them as they walked down the street.
"We will!" they chorused with a wave. Ilene waved back, and then shut the door. Serena and Rini sighed in relief at the same time.
"I thought we'd never get away," the said in unison, then looked at each other in surprise, but it quickly turned into a glare.
"JINX! YOU OWE ME A SODA!" they said, still at the same time. Kaya only giggled.
At the arcade
"Oh, no! We have another Meatball Head on our hands!" Raye groaned, but the twinkling of her violet eyes showed that she was only joking.
"Hey!" Serena and Rini yelled, glaring at Raye.
"Relax. I was only joking," Raye said with a roll of her eyes.
"How come we weren't invited to the makeover party?" Mina complained, pouting.
"It just happened. We didn't plan to do it. It was just… To calm Kaya down, really," Serena said. Everyone's attention was immediately on the champion of justice. Serena quietly explained what had happened. Everyone (the Inners, the Outers, and Darien) sat in a stunned silence at the news.
"… I never would have guessed…" Michelle said quietly. Serena nodded.
"It shocked Rini and me, too…" she said, looking around for Kaya. She let out a gasp when she saw where she was, and was gone with a swish of her long braid.
"Trust Serena to forget about something important at the first sight of food," Raye muttered, looking at the counter where Rini, Hotaru, Kaya, and now Serena sat. Rini and Kaya were sipping vanilla milkshakes, Hotaru was munching on some cookies, and Serena was now sipping happily on the chocolate milkshake that Andrew had left at the counter for her when she had come in. He stood behind the counter, laughing at Serena's sudden mad dash to the counter as he watched the group of girls eating his food.
"I swear, Andrew spoils them way too much," Darien said with a sigh. The others nodded in agreement.
"Hey! Andrew! Are you done fattening them up yet? Just stuff them in an oven and cook them, already!" Lita called, eyes twinkling with merriment. Andrew looked at them, a mock serious look on his face.
"I don't know…" he called back, reaching out and plucking Kaya from her stool. He lifted her over the counter, taking her milkshake and setting it down on the counter. He stared up at her with a pretend calculating expression on his face, lifting Kaya up and down through the air above his head a few times. Kaya stared down at him, head tilted slightly to one side, confused.
"She's still way too scrawny," Andrew finished his analysis with a grin. He sat her back down on her stool and handed her the milkshake she had been enjoying. She quietly went back to sipping the milkshake.
"You should see the way mom forces her to eat at mealtimes. She won't let her eat any less than three plates," Serena said, pausing in her milkshake slurping only to inform Andrew of the information, then went right back to her beloved desert. Andrew sighed and looked at Kaya.
"We need to find a way to fatten you up! You're way too skinny!" he declared. Kaya blinked, looking up at Andrew with her large emerald eyes.
A sudden explosion destroyed the peaceful environment, accompanied by the ground trembling violently. Many people in the arcade were thrown to the ground, including Andrew, Serena, Rini, Hotaru, and Kaya. When Andrew managed to get to his feet, with the help of the counter, of course, he found that the large group of girls, plus Darien, had disappeared. His eyes widened, as he frantically looked around for them. They were nowhere in sight.
Author's Note
I think I'm going to leave it here… Yeah, real bad cliffhanger, I know. I was going to include more, but I decided that now might be a good time to leave it here. My main goal for this chapter was to explain why Kaya freaked out last chapter. I sure know how to change moods, eh? It went from sad, to happy, to semi-suspenseful, if you can call that crappy ending semi-suspenseful… Well, at least I got it up, right? Yeah, I was late with this chapter, as well… I'm very, very sorry about that! School's becoming a pain, what with the big yearly tests (they're called FCAT here in Florida) coming up… Well, I'll update as fast as I can, and try to defy my laziness! Until next time, readers!
Oh! That reminds me! We have a new reviewer upon our little train of reviewersness! Everyone give a warm round of applause for Wolfbane2005! -claps-