"Mon Dieu." Zach halted at the sight that greeted him through the open doorway of Mamoru's new room.

Amongst the empty IKEA boxes, a few potted plants and a load of random bags of crap were the following: two admittedly very attractive blondes, a new housemate and finally, occupying the spot in the centre of the room, a pair of exquisitely shaped legs, beautifully topped with a pert little backside, all clad in pleasant figure-hugging grey leggings. The said legs were bent sensibly at the knees as their owner reached down to pick up...something - Zach didn't know what, he wasn't exactly staring at her hands.

Naturally, he'd scoped out the blondes earlier. He'd met Usagi when she and the other girls had first arrived at the house in Noel's car, a sunny, excited smile plastered on her sugar-pink lips. He'd been instantly envious of Mamoru, at least he had been until Minako had breezed in straight behind her and winked, looking even more beautiful than she had in the photograph on Mamoru's phone.

From the outset he could tell that there was definitely an air about Minako that wasn't nearly as innocent as Usagi, and he liked that about her. A lot. Her facial features were slightly sharper, she was taller and her body had tighter curves. Her hair was closer to the colour of spun gold than to Usagi's platinum and her blue eyes were much less gentle, more alluring –although that was most likely because Mamoru had mentioned that she was single and the last thing he wanted to do was fuck another flatmate's woman. When that happened, said flatmate tended to bitch and whine until he decided to move out of the house, and then all of Zach's other flatmates ganged up on him and made him foot the difference in the rent until he found them a replacement.

Assholes. The lot of them.

He had told them that everything would always worked out in the end, but they hadn't believed him. Now they had Mamoru, who brought with him a truck load of hot ass. If his flatmates had offered Zach a medal, he would have said fuck yes and demanded they build him a podium in the back garden. By all rights and purposes he should have been considered a glorious hero.

He gave Minako another once-over as she blue-tacked some photographs to a wall and smirked to himself. He'd met her less than a few hours ago and already he'd seen through her little facade. She tried to come off as bubbly, cute and flirty, but he knew so much better. In reality Minako was the kind of girl who would rip a lesser man into shreds.

This third girl however, was altogether extremely intriguing. It was a well-known fact amongst the lads that Zach found legs to be the most aesthetically pleasing part of a woman's body. More specifically, it was that tiny gap in between her thighs, right at the very top, just before they met, that diverted all his blood from the rest of his body down to his rather talented man parts. And from his vantage point, this girl's legs were, to quote Mary Poppins, practically perfect in every way. He gripped the doorknob to stop his hands from reaching out and tracing them.

She lifted up a stack of two or three heavy medical textbooks and looked to Mamoru. Despite the fact that her top wasn't exactly curve-hugging (an oversized, thigh-length cardigan), Zach could tell that her breasts were a little on the small side, but in all honesty, he preferred them that way – maybe it was the French in him, but he'd never really shared Noel's love of the C cup or above.

"Where would you like these?" she asked in a voice that was altogether soft and slightly too proper. When his attention diverted itself from her tits to her face his heart practically froze in his chest and he found himself completely unable to breathe or swallow or blink or indeed perform any other function other than to stare at the young woman before him. She had cropped black hair that almost shone blue, most likely a reflection of the powder blue walls of Mamoru's room, he reasoned, although it did not lessen the ethereal quality to it. It contrasted with skin that was just a little too pale, like she'd been indoors for most of the summer. She also had the cutest button nose and glossy, plump little lips that lifted ever so slightly at the corner of her mouth. Her eyes hinted at Japanese parentage, but more than likely she was a mix. He'd given her a good few seconds of his time back at the pub when he'd seen the photograph on Mamoru's phone but seeing her there, standing so close, so real... it was an entirely different experience. She was almost ethereal.

"On the shelf above the table, thanks Ami." Looking up from making the bed with Usagi, Mamoru noticed his new housemate for the first time. "Hi Zach, have you come to help?" he asked dryly, intending it to be rhetorical. When Mamoru and the girls had begun unloading the boxes from Noel's white Audi A3 Sportback, Zach had made his position clear. He had come down from his room, practically drooled all over Usagi for a full minute, took up one single, lousy load from a car that had already made three trips, and then announced that he wasn't going to waste any more effort on Mamoru until he was sure he was good for the rent money.

Both parties were acutely aware of the fact that Mamoru had just paid a month's rent in advance, plus the deposit. Zach was just being a dick and Mamoru had learned quickly that that sort behaviour was a regular occurrence.

The comment from his new housemate cured Zach of his temporary paralysis, commanding his attention. "I thought we'd already gone through this," he said in response to Mamoru's snarky question.

Ami suddenly whirled around, her eyes wide with shock, abruptly aware that her hind-parts must have been on full show when she'd bent down for the books. "Oh! I didn't realise someone was behind me. I'm sorry I must be in your way." She stepped aside, adding another foot to the already three-foot distance between them.

"You weren't." Zach's peridot eyes only managed to meet her deep blue ones for a few seconds before her gaze dropped to her shoes and her grip tightened on Gray's Anatomy.

He couldn't quite keep a grin from showing. She's shy. He was going to have a lot of fun.

"Um," she stated awkwardly, "that's good, then." She hesitated before giving him a brief smile and turning to make her way to the desk.

Minako shared a knowing glance with Usagi. Mamoru simply beamed. It had been a long time since anyone had seen Ami so flustered.

Zach couldn't help himself. "It was quite the opposite actually, I was enjoying the view. Last time I saw a pair of legs that spectacular, I was fifteen. She was a maid in our house. Early twenties. Lithuanian. Blonde. She rode me like jockey on the home straight."

The heavy book almost slipped from Ami's grasp and for a panicked second Mamoru thought it was going to crash onto his brand new four hundred and seventy five quid laptop, but to his immense relief Ami's quick reflexes saved him from yet another call to NatWest's contents insurance department.

"I-I'm, um-" Ami's cheeks deepened to a rosy flush that spread quickly to her ears. "I-I mean…" She stood rooted to the spot, her normally whirling mind halted to a complete stop. She all but dumped the tome on the desk as her eyes desperately sought a way out, finding it when they landed on Usagi. "Let's organise a tea break," she stated, not even give the blonde time to respond. Instead she bolted out of the room, doing her best to avoid going anywhere near or even looking at the man who stood in the door way.

"Ami! Wait!" Usagi threw Minako a quick look and chased after her.

"I take mine with milk, two sugars!" Zach yelled out as the two girls disappeared down the stairs, a huge grin plastered to his face.

It was wiped off quickly when a bouncy ball successfully collided with the side of his head.

"That's for making Ami blush," Minako said, hands on her hips like she was an annoyed mother, "and keep your voice down, please, Rei is resting."

Zach raised his arms defensively. "What did I do?"

Mamoru no longer found the situation amusing. Because of Zach, two of his helpers were now gone and his stomach was still feeling slightly ill from the fact that a textbook so heavy it should have been classed as a weapon had almost crushed a half a grand's worth of essential technology. When it came to his electronic equipment, Mamoru was not afraid to admit that he was obsessively possessive.

"You made a perfectly lovely girl feel completely embarrassed, that's what," Minako stated, feeling defensive since his taunting had been directed towards Ami, the most vulnerable of their group when it came to such comments.

"I like making perfectly lovely girls feel much more than that." Zach winked before heading back into his room, next door to Mamoru's.

"Pass me that bouncy ball so I can throw it at your head again," Minako called after him.

Zach appeared a few seconds later wearing a dark grey tweed long-coat and a scarf. "Well, considering you've got pretty decent aim,—" he picked up the little pink ball from the hallway and pocketed it, "—no. Finders keepers. And keep your voice down," he said, deliberately using Minako's own words against her, "Her Majesty the Princess Rei is resting."

"Aren't you coming to the game?" Mamoru asked, ignoring Zach's snarky remark towards Minako.

At the question, Zach hesitated for a moment as if he was about to say yes, and then shook his head. "Personally, seeing Ceithin and Noel in tiny rugby shorts doesn't really do it for me," he said with the same forced smile he'd given Mamoru when they'd first met.

"But isn't this Ceithin's first match as captain?"

"I've attended plenty of his firsts. Too many if you ask me." Zach adjusted his collar.

"Do I want to know?"

Zach smirked at the question. "If you ever get the chance, ask him what happened the first time I got him to try absinthe."

"What did he do?" Mamoru hoped it would be something embarrassing. He wanted to begin stocking up on arsenal against his housemates as quickly as possible. He'd only been there for a few hours and already he'd been ripped into for his taste in clothing (mercifully he'd left his green jacket back in Japan), his taste in sportswear, his multitude of foreign and unnecessary gadgets, his (apparently girly and woefully sparse) film collection and the undue care he'd taken when he brought in his houseplants. Basically anything they could make fun of him for, they did. And that wasn't even close to what they'd said to him that night in the pub about being Japanese; they seemed to tone it down when there were ladies present, a courtesy he was hugely grateful for.

"He stole a penguin."

"As in the chocolate biscuit?" Minako asked, curious as to this elusive fourth housemate of Mamoru's.

"No, as in an actual penguin."

"He stole a penguin?" she exclaimed. "Like one of those fishy-bird-animal-things?"

"Yeah," Zach smirked at her attempt of a description, "and he had to get over a ten foot wall to do it."

"That's ridiculous. You're making it up." Mamoru wasn't naïve.

"I'm not. Really, he did. I dared him to, and the fucker remembered the next day that I owed him fifty quid for it."

Minako was slightly doubtful as well. "Do you have evidence?"

"I did but my last phone with the photos was stolen."

"That's convenient." She didn't believe him for a second.

"Jared should have a few on his."

"Where did he find a penguin?" As far as Minako was aware, the south of England wasn't exactly Arctic conditions.

"Uh, the zoo." Zach made it seem like it was the most obvious answer in the world.

Minako deliberately ignored his tone at this new piece of information. "There's a zoo here?"

"It's more of an animal park, less cages. It's about twenty minutes away from the Manor Fields." Zach saw the opening and went for it. "I can take you sometime."

Minako smile seemed to shine. "That'd be awesome, Makoto would love it, and if all the girls were going Rei would probably be game too."

For a millisecond Zach figured he'd shot and missed, but then his thoughts shifted from sex with Minako against the tropical fish tank to orgy with all of them in the butterfly forest. Ami would look particularly fetching with a pair of Blue Morphos resting lightly on her pink nipples. "Yeah, we should definitely do it." His expression mirrored Minako's.

"Does it have flamingos? Usagi's always wanted to see one in real life and I promised I'd show her one someday."

Zach all but glared at Mamoru. "I don't know. It probably doesn't."

"Well it must have some kind of aviary, right? Maybe she'll settle for seeing a parrot or something similar."

"It sounds like it's a bit of a personal thing, maybe you two can go alone another time." He didn't think it was possible to be any clearer.

"Oh no, it's fine. We can all go together, I can help chaperon with you. You have no idea how much trouble these girls get themselves into." He winked at Minako who gave him a mildly exasperated look but didn't say anything.

At that point Zach decided Mamoru was either a complete idiot or a giant cockblocker. Considering that Zach knew for a fact that Mamoru was not stupid, he concluded he had to be the latter. He assumed there was a mighty big reason for this. Either Mamoru coveted Minako for himself or Mamoru didn't like him. Neither option was good for him.

"What happened to the penguin?" Minako sat herself onto the bottom corner of Mamoru's bed, using the conversation as a little break from the decorating.

Zach took the change of topic in his stride. "We took it for a walk down the street and then Ceithin disappeared with it. We never saw the poor little bugger again."

There was a little trepidation in Minako's voice. "What did he do with it?"

Zach shrugged. "What all Welsh men do to cute little animals in dark bushes."

She quickly changed her mind, no longer having any desire to meet this micro-short wearing animal kidnapper/rapist. She didn't quite believe Zach, but there was no-one yet to discredit him either.

Mamoru rolled his eyes, from what he knew of Ceithin, more than likely he would have gone to put the creature back.

"You can ask him about it sometime." Zach hesitated for a few seconds, like he was considering something. "Anyway, I'm off." He walked along the corridor and disappeared down the stairs.

Minako got up and straightened the bed sheet she'd been sitting on. "You didn't need to do that," she said, deliberately trying to make it sound casual.

Mamoru looked up from setting up his iPod dock next to his aroma diffuser. "Do what?"

Minako turned to face him, not falling for his feigned ignorance. "I've been handling men like Zach since I reached puberty. I appreciate the concern, really I do, but I don't need you to swoop in and save me. I'm not Usagi."

He frowned, feeling like he was a child being corrected. "That's not what I intended it to be, I was just trying to annoy him." He was going to tell her that he was very aware of the fact that she was not Usagi – Minako lacked his fiancée's innocence, her playfulness and general joie de vivre. She wasn't as magnanimous or unendingly hopeful. She could never make him care in the same way as Usagi could - but he changed his mind before the retort left his mouth. Since her relationship with Ace had ended, Minako hadn't been quite the same person, She had matured in many ways, but not all of them were positive, and he realised that the comment would be just a little too cruel, a painful reminder of the rejection she had suffered. He smoothed his features over, she must have taken his attempt to help her as pity, he concluded, and he resolved not to make the same mistake again.

As he made his way out Zach slammed the door downstairs loud enough to hurt their ears. From outside a voice that was clearly Noel's suddenly started yelling. "DAMMIT ZACH YOU FUCKING FRENCH PONCE! I LEFT THAT DOOR FUCKING OPEN ON PURPOSE! I DON'T HAVE MY FUCKING KEYS!"

After a few seconds someone began trying to kick in the front door. "I'll get it!" Usagi's voice rang out in sing-song from downstairs, apparently unfazed by the boiling pot of rage that was situated on the other side of the entrance.

"He says 'fuck' a lot when he's angry," Mamoru informed Minako, preferring to pretend the previous uncomfortable conversation did not happen. Mamoru was not an open person by nature, his feelings for Usagi being the exception which proved the rule.

"I noticed." She moved over to the desk and finished the stacking job that Ami had started. "And I'm willing to bet that if the door slamming didn't wake Rei, the yelling and cursing definitely will have." When she received no response she looked up to see Mamoru concentrating very hard on listening for something. Minako was sure that it was the conversation downstairs between his fiancée and the man who'd seemed quite capable of committing murder two seconds ago.

"Do you need help with those?" Usagi asked in a way that normally would have made Mamoru's heart melt, but was currently making him incredibly suspicious.

"Uh, no thanks, Makoto's getting out the last one." Noel's voice sounded a little hoarse.

"Ok, well, we've got some tea on the boil for when you're done." Mamoru guessed she was giving Noel one of those mega-watt smiles that made everyone think she was adorable.

Minako noticed that Mamoru all but had his ear in the corridor, listening intently. It wasn't like him to be jealous and she couldn't help smiling and shaking her head lightly. "It looks like you're going to have to up your game if you want to survive in this house."

He rolled his midnight eyes. "Don't even joke."

They waited for Noel to thump his way up the stairs with what they both hoped was the last load from his car. Once he walked into the room though, Mamoru could only watch with utter dismay as the larger man dumped his cargo unceremoniously in the middle of the floor, not caring in the slightest if they carried anything valuable, breakable or delicate.

"You have a lot of shit," he remarked off-handedly.

"You could have just asked me to help you carry them up," Mamoru said, hoping desperately that his expensive camera and external hard drive were not in the box or the mass of bags.

Noel simply shrugged. "It's not a problem, but you'd better watch out…" He was smiling stupidly at Minako.

She went for the bait. "Why?"

At her question he curled his biceps which, to Minako's pleasant surprise, were relatively large.

"…because these pipes are about to burst."

Minako's disapproving groan seemed to have no effect on deflating him.

"You may roll your eyes, but you have to admit you're impressed. And now that you have the image in your head, whenever you see a pipe, you're going to be thinking of me and these bad boys."

"That's some pretty devious tactical thinking," she said with a teasing smile.

Noel shrugged. "If I was a war general, I'd be Maximus from Gladiator."

You'd be better, Mamoru almost let the thought slip out, but he checked himself just in time. He put the rather odd thought down to being excited about moving into a new house and meeting new people he actually liked.

"Guys! The tea will be ready any minute!" Usagi called out again.

"Your bird is really sweet. What's her name again?"

Mamoru raised his eyebrows as his mouth formed a line. Noel didn't miss the look."Alright, chill out. I don't mean it like that, I'm not after her or anything. It's just that most of the women around this place are here for a one night only performance if you get me, or they're the greasy man-ish ones who follow Ceithin around because they do physics with him. Poor bloke, he's too nice to tell them to fuck off."

Minako was now becoming downright intrigued over this housemate. He studied physics, played rugby, kidnapped animals, was Welsh and according to Mamoru, stole chips from other peoples' plates. She expected him to be tall and a little bit pudgy, with a hard face, a crooked nose, cauliflower ears, curly hair and bad teeth... sort of like a giant hobbit. He probably laughed a lot and said 'like' and 'butt' at the end of most of his sentences. If he was anything like she imagined him to be, she was sure he was going to be a lot of fun. In the back of her mind there was the vague possibility that he could be good looking, since he seemed to live in a house full of guys hot enough to have successful careers modelling things like Diesel underwear if they'd wanted to, but when she thought about famous men that came out of Wales, her mind went to the Welsh rugby team and Tom Jones, so she stuck with her first instincts.

"We haven't had a proper lady here since Jared's ex, and the last time she was here was when she stayed for a few days in the beginning of the summer," Noel said as they made their way down the stairs.

"My ears are burning." Jared was waiting at the bottom for them to descend so that he could go up.

"I was about to tell them that you have yet to find a woman who can tolerate you for longer than a couple of months."

Jared simply shrugged. "I knew it wasn't going to last with her, she hadn't even seen Star Wars."

Minako noticed he was holding a glass of water and a bottle of paracetamol. "Is she awake?"

"Yeah, I feel really bad. I forgot my phone in my room and I got a call. When I heard it ringing I ran in to stop it but she was already up."

Minako smiled and patted his arm. "Don't worry, she's a really light sleeper, there's about a hundred other things that we've been doing around the house which would have woken her anyway."

In less than twenty minutes of knowing Rei, Jared had donated his room to her and was now running around his own house like her personal butler. The boy had it bad, and anyone who tried to excuse it as nothing more than common courtesy was blind.

She watched as he climbed the stairs and wondered if he was really as nice as he seemed, the last thing Rei needed was for another guy to tell her how beautiful she was and then leave when he realised she wasn't going to put out within the hour. She decided that she'd give him a few weeks to make up her mind.

Admittedly she had the same problem when it came to men, except she couldn't quite bring herself to be as masochistic as her friend. Rei would take rather take the rejection than repeat what happened with Kaidou, but Minako simply couldn't do it. Whenever she was being offered the attention she needed she'd wanted to keep it. It didn't really say very much for her mental state, but how many people could really say they were happy? And those people weren't superheroes. It was stupid really, this behaviour of hers, but for those few hours, when she was the very epicentre of a man's world, she almost thought she was happy again. That feeling was like a drug.

She didn't feel guilty about her actions – she wouldn't allow herself to because she most certainly wasn't alone in what she did - women used men as much as the other way around; it wasn't even that big a deal, it wasn't like she abused her body with drugs or (too much) alcohol or even smoking, and she never did anything without protection; it just meant she was a little more… experienced than the others.

She sighed lightly, disappointed in the fact that she needed to rationalise what she was doing to herself. How could she let anyone depend on her if she questioned her own actions? She just needed boost her confidence back to what it had been before, things would be better then. She hated feeling the way she did, and what was worse, she couldn't even bring herself to blame him for it.

"You have to tell me her name before we go into the kitchen. She's gone and made me tea, it'd be rude."

Noel's deep voice dragged Minako's focus back into the conversation.

"Usagi," Mamoru said, now less defensive of his territory since Noel had openly stated he was not going to try anything with Usagi.

"Woo-sah-guee," Noel repeated, trying it for himself, "sounds like that spicy green mustard stuff you have."

Minako snorted. "It doesn't, but I'll tell her you said that."

Noel smiled. "Doesn't she have a proper English one?"

Minako tapped him, playing into his teasing. "What do you mean 'proper'? What's wrong with it?"

"I won't remember it for one," Noel retorted, grin still in place.

"That's not her fault."

Mamoru thought about it for a second. "I don't think she's chosen one yet anyway. You'll have to ask her."

As Noel passed the front door he noticed it wasn't quite shut properly. That reminded him that he'd left all the doors to his car open as well. He did a quick check of his pockets before belatedly remembering that he'd given the key to Makoto, and that thought brought to his attention that he hadn't yet seen her come in with the last bag.

"I'll meet you in there." He stepped outside and walked to the little gate that separated the front lawn of the house from the pavement. Looking left and two cars down he spotted her, as he approached he was offered a much better vantage point to see what was holding her up. It appeared that her head and front torso were firmly wedged behind the driver's seat, he leaned in through the other back door of his white Audi and smiled as he realised that she was playing tug of war with some kind of cable. "Need a hand?" he asked.

Her reply came in the form of a surprised yelp. Bright green eyes flashed their frustration at a new target as she looked up from her position. "You scared the shit out of me."

"I didn't mean to. I came to see what's holding you up. Yousabi's made tea."

"Yousu who?" she asked, not quite understanding.

"Erm, Wasagi?" he scrunched his bushy dark eyebrows, realising that that couldn't be right either. "Mamoru's fiancée, you know, your friend whatshername… the funny blonde girl."

Makoto smiled at his utterly useless attempts to remember her best friend's name. "Usagi," she corrected. If he was ever lost in Japan she figured he'd be in serious trouble. It was kind of cute.

"That's the one," he said, satisfied now that he had the correct name. "She's made tea, I came out to see what was holding you up."

Makoto looked down to under the seat where she was holding her phone, its camera flash acting as a torch, and she sighed with frustration. "This thing—" she gave an angry tug on a black cord, "—appears to be stuck somehow. And no matter what I do, I can't seem to get it loose."

"Right. Let's see what a little man power can do."

Makoto rolled her eyes. "Are you still going with the macho jokes?" she asked, the smile from before returning somewhat involuntarily.

"Yes, although that didn't count as one of them. If it makes you feel better, I should only have about three or four of them left in my ammunition."

"It does a little bit. Is Rei up?" she asked, remembering that he'd yelled loud enough at Zach for the whole street to hear when the man had shut the front door.

"I think she is, Jared was saying something about it just a second ago." He leaned in and tried to squeeze himself into the gap between the seats.

"Is she feeling better?"

"He didn't say," he replied, shifting around and inadvertently wiggling his rather rounded butt for all walking along the pavement to see.

Makoto noticed it with a lift of her eyes when they caught the movement, and then when she looked down she also noticed that his head was suddenly very close to hers. She forgot what she was meant to be doing. "Your car has a very clean floor," she said lamely, and instantly berated herself for possibly making the dumbest comment ever.

"Thanks." Noel sounded genuinely pleased. When he had found out that he would be transporting women along with Mamoru's possessions, he'd spent two hours desperately trying to scrub out the random stains of blue Powerade, mud, grass, chip grease and (what he hoped was) chocolate on his seats; he had painstakingly vacuumed up all of those impossible-to-get crumbs of who-knew-what which seemed to be scattered absolutely fucking everywhere; and he had practically emptied out a entire bottle of Febreeze to get rid of the stale musk that permanently hung around in the Audi –most likely due from the infinite number of Chinese, Indian and pizza takeaway runs. "I like to keep things tidy." He racked his brain to remember if he'd shut his bedroom door before she'd walked into the house so that she wouldn't see what an absolute tip it was.

She rewarded him with a wide smile. "I do too."

"Yeah, I saw what you did to the carpet mushrooms. I don't think we have any cleaning products left in the house."

Her face suddenly contorted into disgust. "Urgh, don't even get me thinking about that. Just the thought of you guys living with those– those things in your house makes me shudder." She proceeded to do just that.

He liked that about her, not her apparent OCD – he could tell she could get annoying with that - but how she pulled faces. She was expressive, and it was cute: her eyes had gotten so wide when he'd startled her, her eyebrows creased and her nose crinkled when she was frowning, and she'd switch from each emotion with such open honesty. It was all on her pretty face to watch. and she wasn't afraid to show it.

"You should really get your landlord to fix that corner of the wall, there's obviously something wrong if it's moist enough to allow stuff to grow there."

"We always mean to. I think Zach's stuck about a hundred or so post-it notes on the fridge about it."

"Why doesn't he call?"

"Well that would make sense, but it's easier to just pass it on to the next person." His eyes shifted to the problem at hand and he gave an experimental pull. "It looks like the power plug is jammed in between the seat and the floor. Did you try moving the driver's seat forward?"

Makoto looked at him, the white light from her phone camera illuminating his eyes enough to notice the difference in colour for the first time. She stared blatantly at them for a good few seconds, an opaque and bright turquoise and a deep, dark, earthy brown, a shade or two below that of his hair. They were the prettiest, most unusual features of a person she had ever seen in her entire life. It was like looking into two completely different portals, each to their own world, and she couldn't decide which one she would rather fall into. They narrowed suddenly as he waited for an answer to his question.

"N-no," she stumbled, catching herself, "I didn't want to break anything. Mamoru's spends enough money on repairing and replacing stuff as it is."

Makoto had lost count on the number of times that she and the others had needed to replace: phones, books, bags, make up, the occasional laptop or whatever they were carrying at the time of an attack. A few years ago Ami had managed to figure out how they could manually access and put things into their subspace pockets, but Mamoru's magic was different. He didn't have that same luxury, and it wasn't like he could just go up to a Youma and say, "Hey Youma, could you do me a favour and stop sucking the life out of people for a moment so I can dump my gym socks and other tennis gear into my girlfriend's magical sub-pocket? Thanks." Needless to say his stuff often ended up as collateral damage.

"Is he really accident prone or something?" Noel asked.

"Uh, no, but Usagi is." She knew it wasn't fair to put it all on Usagi, but she had to think quickly. Plus her statement wasn't exactly a lie. Her friend was by no means the complete klutz she was as a young teenager, but her progression from girl to queen was definitely taking its sweet-assed time. Her eyes shifted back to the cord. She tried twisting the plug to see if putting it in a different position would help free it but it wouldn't budge.

"Let's try moving the seat then. If I break the plug, I'll just get him a new one, it's only a lamp."

Makoto smiled. "You'll have to make sure it's from IKEA."

"Yeah, I noticed he's a bit obsessed," Noel remarked as he pulled himself out the car and walked around to her side so he could access the driver's seat.

Makoto deliberately took her time coming out of the car, deciding it couldn't hurt to use the opportunity to show off her attributes, she hoped he was a fan of backsides. Out of all of the girls she had the biggest curves and the longest legs, and she happened to be wearing her favourite jeans.

Noel tapped her on her lower back. "You look like you're in a bit of an awkward position there, are you stuck? Do you need help getting out? I can try and come round and push you out from the front," he asked, cheeky grin suddenly present.

She almost died of mortification. "No no! No I'm fine! I'm just-" She used the backseat as leverage, pulling herself out too quickly and bumping her head. "Ow! Ohhh ow, ow ow ow!"

"Oh shit. Are you ok?" He turned her shoulders gently so she faced him as she hissed in pain, clutching gingerly at her head.

"Yeah," she looked quickly at her hand but there wasn't any blood. "It wasn't that hard." She rubbed the sting away.

Noel couldn't help his smile slipping back into place. "Your cheeks are quite red."

Makoto swallowed. "Um," she used her free hand to point at the car floor, "I was bending so, you know," she floundered, "the blood rushed to my face."

"Yeah." The smile didn't leave his lips, he thought the whole thing was adorable.

She was too embarrassed to say anything else so he decided to let her off the hook and shifted his eyes to the top of her head. "Are you sure you're ok?"

"Oh yeah it's fine, really." She smiled and Noel thought it was one of the prettiest things he'd ever seen.

She noticed as they stood adjacent to each other that she was about eye-level to him. It was nice to meet someone who was just a little taller than her since it didn't happen too often, especially in Japan. "So, do you play rugby too?" she asked in the hopes of changing the subject.

"Yeah, I'm a hooker," he said as he knelt by the driver's seat and started trying to find the lever.

"A what?"

"Yes, that's what I said," he said simply, having experience with this sort of reaction before. "I basically throw the ball in the line out and try and win it when it's fed into a scrum."

"What's a scrum?" she asked, her cheeks still much too hot for her liking.

He stopped himself from ginning at her sudden keen interest in his sport. Poor girl, I must have really embarrassed her, but she had been so blatant in her attempt to show off her admittedly gorgeous arse that he hadn't been able to help himself. It had either been that or stare blatantly at it an then maybe squeeze it, so really, he had taken the more gentlemanly route, he reasoned. "It's a huddle of sorts, and we're all kicking at each other and scrambling desperately to get the ball," he said, bending into the driver's seat and pushing the lever downwards to move it forward.

"Sounds violent."

"It is."

Makoto squatted instead of bending over and he noticed that action immediately. He felt just a tiny bit guilty for it, but he never liked giving women the upper hand and if he was going to get anywhere with this one, he wasn't going to deviate from his tried and true methods.

She gave the lamp cord a tug and then another. It came loose. "Finally!" She started wrapping it around the lamp's stem and was considerably more careful as she stood up. "So that's all the unloading officially done."

He shut the doors and then followed her as she made her way to the house with the lamp and the last bag of Mamoru's belongings.

"Are you playing in the match today?" she asked, cheeks still rosy and still not quite recovered from the incident.

"Yeah, but Ceithin's captaining this one so he went over earlier to organise a few things. I'm going later this afternoon." He spotted an opportunity and went for it. "You can come watch if you like." And maybe I'll score a try and look fucking awesome and you'll let me kiss you and then we can come back here and shag.

"Yeah, Usagi said something about that." Her face began to cool slightly with the onset of a gust of icy wind. "We'll definitely come."

"Brilliant. I don't suppose you have my car key?"

"Oh! Sorry, hold on." She pulled them out of her side jeans pocket, it was a little awkward since she had other things in her hands, but she managed to do it successfully, only to drop them as she handed them over.

"Don't worry, I've got it." He picked them up from the floor, eager to avoid her having to go through the embarrassment of bending down in front of him again.

The second his had touched the ground, a loud and distinctly American voice began yelling from above. "YOU DON'T NEED TO BEND DOWN AND SHOW ME HOW TIGHT THAT ASS OF YOURS IS! I SAW IT THE OTHER DAY, REMEMBER? WHEN WE HAD THAT SHOWER TOGETHER IN THE GYM? AND THEN YOU DROPPED THE SOAP? AND THEN WE HAD REALLY HOT BUTT SEX? REMEMBER THE BUTT SEX? I REMEMBER THE BUTT SEX! I AM SO GAY FOR YOU, NOEL GRAHAM-ASQUITH. GAY FOR YOUR GODLIKE SCOTTISH ASS CHEEKS! Hey Makoto," Jared said brightly from his position on the first floor, switching suddenly to a normal level of volume, "I think Usagi and Minako were looking for you, something about there being some tea."

Makoto was caught between wanting to laugh hysterically and the shock of what he had actually said. "Thanks, Jared," she managed to get out through her massive grin, not nearly so embarrassed now about what had happened in the car.

Jared winked, as if he'd done it on purpose to help her out, and then shut his window, not bothering to wait for the slew of insults which were sure to follow now that Noel had had a few seconds to recover. He turned his attention back to the girl sitting on his bed, underneath the sheets.

Rei cocked a dark eyebrow at him as she sat up perfectly poised. "Do you realise that I'm now questioning your sexuality more than his?"

"Yeah, but he's feeling way more embarrassed than I am right now so it was worth it." He began laughing as he caught some of the rather colourful insults which managed to make it through his closed window into his bedroom. "He's going to be so awkward around me now when we hit the gym together. It'll probably last for weeks. It's just too easy."

"I don't think I'll ever understand how men think."

"If it helps, I'll never understand why women need to go to the bathroom in groups."

She looked at him for a moment, no hint of amusement on her fine features. "I think I'm going to head down for tea."

"Ok, but as long as you promise that afterwards you'll finish showing those meditation hand things you do. Seriously, the only kind of meditation stuff I learned was from a homeless Indian guy back in San Diego. And he was drunk the entire time. I've never really been able to trust his instructions."

Rei all but rolled her eyes. "He should get together with the student yoga teacher."

"Huh?"

"Never mind. Why are you so interested anyway?"

"What, meditation and stuff?" he asked, crossing his legs at the ankles. "I've been trying to get into it for a while. A lot of people are into Eastern philosophy at home. It's like, all the rage, but there's been something about it that I've never been comfortable with. I don't think I do it right."

"Well sometimes people find it hard to relax properly, I wouldn't have really thought that would be a problem for you."

He laughed at that, deciding to take it as a compliment, even if she may not have meant it that way. "That's not it. I think it's the other way around, I think I get too relaxed. Whenever I've tried I always end up either falling asleep or tripping out. I've had some wired ass dreams in the past because of it so I figure I must be doing something wrong."

That piqued her interest. "What sorts of dreams?"

"I don't really remember them," he frowned slightly, like he wasn't happy with that fact, "but what I do know is that I sometimes wake up with my heart beating faster. I mean really fast, like I've been running or something. Like I was having some terrifying nightmare."

Rei sat up straighter. "Maybe you should see a doctor about it? Meditation doesn't give you bad dreams and increased heart rate. It's supposed to do the opposite."

"Nah," he waved it off, "it's not that big a deal. And more than likely it's because I probably ate something suspect beforehand, like a two week old quesadilla."

She decided it would be best not to ask him what a quesadilla was. She thought about what he said for a moment. "Maybe I'll help you meditate sometime if you're genuinely interested, but I'm not Buddhist, what I do is different."

"Yeah you said that before."

She sighed, hating that she felt the need to say the next part, but courtesy dictated that she do it. "And I would like to thank you for allowing me to use your room, I should have just taken a taxi home, it was inconsiderate of me."

"Hey, don't worry about. I really don't mind having someone crash on my bed for a few hours, many people have done so before, for much longer periods of time and for less deserving reasons." He was also going to tell her that they weren't nearly as hot, but he sensed that she wouldn't have taken it as well as he would have liked. "Plus, taxis are ridiculously expensive. If you're still tired Noel can give you a ride home, they should almost be done emptying out the car."

"Nevertheless," she said as she pulled away the sheet and swivelled so that her feet touched the floor, "you allowed me to sleep on your bed," she looked down, slightly embarrassed by that fact, "and I was rude to you before."

"Hey, it's forgotten, I would have been cranky too in your situation."

It did not escape Jared's notice that his comment did not sit well with her. It was probably because the reason given for her being in her state was complete bullshit, although he wondered if it was also because he'd called her 'cranky'.

"Shouldn't you be helping unpack?" she asked curtly.

Jared shrugged. "I loaded it all into the car at Brunel Hall, Mamoru's got any army of women helping him now, experience has taught me to stay away from that sort of crowd. Besides," he said with a smile, "I could ask you the same question."

Rei's lips pressed together. "I was helping until you kidnapped me," she said, half teasing, half annoyed.

"It's not kidnapping when I have to put you in my room because you've fainted." His smile was quite wide when he said it, knowing he was probably pushing on a button.

Rei dropped the element of teasing and frowned. "I did not faint. I was just a little dizzy and you were being overly dramatic when you carried me up here." He was closer to the truth than she was, but she was never going to admit that. She was most certainly never going to tell him that she was more than just politely grateful that he'd taken her to a comfortable bed and let her sleep either, especially since it was all her own fault: she'd been on Senshi duty two nights before and had unexpectedly encountered a rather large Youma. It appeared right after she'd just stopped someone trying to steal GPS systems and other electronic devices out of a row of parked cars.

Luna and Artemis had warned them that the Youma would find them eventually, travelling to wherever the energy levels were most powerful, but none of the Senshi had realised that they would get there so soon. Ever since they'd been in the UK, their almost nightly rounds of the city had consisted mostly of handling thugs and keeping the peace. Usagi said she felt like Spiderman, except without the web slinging. It had generally been a boring task, but it had kept their skills sharp (for Minako in particular it had brought back memories of her days as Sailor V. Most of them were unwelcome and for that reason it was an unspoken rule between them that London was mentioned only when necessary, and visited if there was no other choice).

In regards to the Youma, more than anything Rei was embarrassed, it had managed to get in a few damn powerful hits, but to her credit it would have been easy to dispatch if it hadn't surprised her and if she hadn't been trying to keep the whole fight quiet (which was next to impossible since she was in the centre of town). Her saving grace was that she had managed to lure the creature into a park and destroy it before the others had arrived.

Minako had been furious that they hadn't detected it sooner; she hadn't outwardly said anything, but Rei knew that she was - the way the blonde's face had hardened when they'd had their telecom meeting with the cats, how her smile had changed from genuine to deliberate the day after, acting just a little too normal when the others had been visibly shaken by how they had let themselves become so complacent.

Out of them all, Rei should have at least had some inclination of the new threat, but she'd felt nothing. Even with hindsight, she couldn't remember any omens or signs that she might have had but missed at the time; she'd sensed nothing. She'd gotten slack, and it led Rei to skipping class the next day and spending all day and night vision-seeking in her room.

That's what had drained her to the point where she'd fainted like a weak little heroine from a romance novel. For the completely stupid reason of not having a place to light a fire, she'd had to use a much more energy-sapping method to detect any enemies, one which she still had yet to perfect; and then, on almost no sleep, she'd gone to help Mamoru move in to his new house.

She had woken up a few moments after her fainting spell on the couch to see Usagi's worried face peering way too close to her own. Minako could be heard in the background, no doubt making up some totally plausible excuse as to why Rei was lying there like some little weakling.

She'd squeezed Usagi's hand as she sat herself up, upset that she'd made her friend worry. "I'm ok, it was just a little dizzy spell." But as she tried to stand (and failed), she found herself swept up into some random man's arms and was suddenly being carried away.

"What are you doing?" She tried to jump out of his grasp, her head thumping in defiance.

"Relax, I'm just taking you to my room because it's the only one that's available. Ceithin locks his door and I dare you to step into Noel's or Zach's and come out alive."

Zach hadn't really been able to argue with that. Besides, he hadn't been too keen on having some passed out girl on his bed that he wasn't going to boink later. "He's probably right."

"Uh, speak for yourself, Zach. My room is spotless." Noel had cast a quick glance at Makoto to see if she believed him.

Rei couldn't care less why she was being taken away, the fact was she was being carried off by some guy that she barely knew. "Put me down." The intensity with which her eyes met his meant that Jared did exactly as he was told.

"Please go Rei!" Usagi ran over to her and hugged her fiercely. "We told you not to run that marathon yesterday after you gave blood!"

Rei rolled her eyes, at best, the three men would have known that it was a blatant lie, at worst, they would have believed it and thought Rei was a complete idiot. "You've got to be kidding me," she whispered.

"I came up with the marathon bit," Usagi whispered back, "I thought it would make you look good." She sounded pleased with herself.

"I'd give you a lift back," Noel said apologetic, "but the car's still full of stuff."

"Don't worry about it, there's eight of us here we'll manage." Ami gave her her most reassuring smile. "Get some rest, you need it."

"You've got two doctors telling you to get some sleep." Mamoru said, adding his own two cents.

Faced with bombardment from the others, Rei felt she had little choice. "You're not qualified yet," she mumbled, her temples pulsating as she reluctantly accepted their opinions. She turned to Jared and was suddenly all business. "May I use your room, please?"

He smiled at her, which irritated her already fragile nerves. "I already said you could. Are you going to let me help you?"

"No thank you, I'll manage."

"It's the one next to the bathroom."

She nodded in thanks and took another step, only to practically collapse again. Jared was right there to catch her. "Yeah, ok, let's try this again."

He picked her up, ignoring her half-hearted protests and took her away. Ami followed them to make sure she was alright.


"Are you well enough to come downstairs for tea or do you want me to leave you in peace?" Jared asked.

"This is your room, you may do as you like." Rei picked up the glass of water he'd brought in and took a sip. "Thank you for this."

"No problem," he said. "So, what possessed you to run a marathon after you gave blood?" He was leaning back in his swivel desk chair and obviously had not believed a word of Minako and Usagi's excuse.

She simply looked at him, raising that fine eyebrow of hers again.

"I get the hint," he said, amused at her apparent haughtiness, "it's none of my business. I'll see you down there."

"Thank you."

He got up and opened the door, only to find that Minako and Ami were standing right there, the blonde about to knock. "Checking in on the patient," she said with a sly grin on her face.

"If she's a little irritable, that's my bad," he said before he left.

"I am not irritable!" Rei called out, but he was already out of the room.

Both girls waited until they heard him reach the bottom of the stairs before they began their respective tasks. Ami whipped out her Mercury computer and started scanning; Minako felt her forehead and looked on with concern.

"First of all, you are not doing that again."

Rei pulled away from Minako's overbearing motherliness. "Doing what?" she asked, frowning.

"You know very well what. I didn't realise how much energy you were using last night. How long did you vision-seek for?"

Rei had the choice of lying, but downplaying how long she was vision-seeking would only lead Minako to believe that it was even more exhausting than it truly was. "All night, and most of yesterday as well," she admitted.

Minako's bright eyes bulged and Ami looked up from her computer having paused her typing.

"You were in your room the entire time? You had a full day of classes, no wonder Usagi and I couldn't find you for lunch. Rei, what were you thinking?" Minako's voice had stayed level and that both worried and annoyed Rei. Minako was internalising it, she was somehow blaming herself for this.

"Don't." Rei's violet gaze was fierce. "It was my weakness, I am the one who should have seen the Youma coming and I am the one who acted rashly. I should have known my limits. I'm a woman Minako, not a child. You can't monitor my actions and tell me what to do and not do. It was my choice."

Before Minako could say anything, Ami did. "No-one would have stopped you from what you were trying to do, but you could have used my help, I could have monitored you, or at least been there to see that you didn't push yourself too hard." She didn't seem worried when she said it, if anything, Ami's eyes were almost upset. "Making yourself weak like this puts us all in danger, we're a team, remember? It doesn't work unless we communicate."

Minako nodded in agreement and pointed to Ami. "What she said." She looked at Rei. "You worried us. We all make mistakes, we miss things, we get angry about it but we do everything together."

"I'm sorry." Rei looked away, half way torn between remorse and anger at being criticised, especially when Minako so often kept things from everyone else.

Satisfied that she had made her point and seeing Ami put away her computer, Minako relaxed. It was always hard going trying to get Rei to open up and admit her flaws, let alone ask for help. Things had unfortunately become exponentially more difficult once her grandfather had passed away and the whole Kaidou incident had occurred. "We can't protect her unless we do it together." Grinning at what she was about to do, she wrapped Rei into a hug and pulled Ami into it, causing a small, unexpected squeak from the petite girl. "We're sisters, we have to talk about everything, otherwise there's no trust."

"Ack! Minako!" Rei pulled away and rolled her eyes. "Please, it's embarrassing enough that I crashed out on some American fratboy surfer's bed, there's no need to make it worse."

The more serious conversation forgotten, Minako smiled devilishly. "So you noticed?"

"Who wouldn't?" Rei gestured to the area above his desk. There was a montage of photographs, much like his front door, except here there were less pictures of him shirtless, and more of people who looked like friends and family. There was a mural on a piece of wood above his bed, it was of an overly bright scene of a beach with a rolling wave, typical of a lot of surf art. It was hand painted and Minako wondered if it had been done by him. If it was, it was impressive.

"You know what else I noticed?" Minako asked.

"The surprisingly sparse and tidy room?" Ami answered with a teasing grin of her own.

"I was going to say the washboard abs in the photos, but now that you mention it," Minako looked around, aside from the light blue sheets of his bed being rumpled, and the desk itself, which was a mess of wires, journal articles, books and papers, as well as the tall stack of CD wallets, binders and hard drives near the door, the room was quite clean, "you're right. See Rei? He's hot and tidy. And unless I'm mistaken," she tilted her head to the right in order to read the title of one of the thick books on the desk, "Applied Intermediate Macroeconomics...yep, he's intelligent too, and doing one of your subjects I might add."

"Him studying Economics does not make him intelligent."

"It's better than him studying Art History or something equally superfluous."

"Minako! That's not a very nice thing to say." The outburst came from Ami, who then giggled. "I seem to remember that you almost chose that subject."

"Lucky for me I didn't. Nope, I saw the error of my ways and chose Sociology, Social Policy and Psychology. Triple threat baby!" She smiled, putting up three fingers instead of her usual V sign.

"Yeah, you and psychology, that's not a dangerous combination." Rei received a swat on her arm for her sarcasm.

"Stop trying to change the subject, he's obviously very into you, as evidenced by the fact that he carried you, like the princess that you are, into his bedroom and then spent most of the time after that worried that you would be woken up somehow."

Rei frowned and sat up from the bed. Ami automatically began helping her make it up. "I don't like him."

"Liar," Minako replied reflexively.

"No, I really don't."

Minako picked up the pillow and fluffed it, tossing it back onto the bed after a few seconds. "Why not? He's been perfectly nice to you. And I noticed he hasn't stared at anyone's boobs, not even once."

"So? That just shows he's not a complete asshole."

"I think he's a swimmer," Ami mentioned, "and on the whole the team seems very friendly, so I would assume he would be too."

Rei and Minako looked at each other.

"So," Minako said carefully, "you went to the try outs?"

Ami looked up at Minako, her pink lips quirked slightly into a small frown. "Did I have much of a choice? You probably would have kidnapped me and dumped me by the pool if I hadn't."

Minako threw the pillow at Ami's face, but it was caught just before impact and tossed back. "That was plan B," Minako said smiling.

"Well wonders never cease, your hair-brained scheme worked." Rei's teasing earned her a body shot with the pillow from Minako and another laugh from Ami.


"It's the Manor Fields. No, not the park by the museum."

Noel couldn't help noticing that Mamoru had a strained expression on his face.

"Usako, it's a giant field. It's not exactly hard to miss… You've passed here before; it's the big open green space with the manor house? Right off the main road. Remember that squirrel that tried to crawl up your leg...Yes! That's the one." He was nodding his head in an exaggerated manner, apparently forgetting that she couldn't see him. "So you go left once you get onto Whiteladies Road, and walk down until you reach- what? N- Usako, I know how I got here. Why would you want to turn right? You'll end up in Shaplands." He clutched at his hair to stop himself from taking out his frustration on her. As his hand left a trail of messy, black spikes Noel had the strangest feeling of familiarity; he was almost tempted to slap his hand away, as if he'd done it many times before.

"You know what? Just get Ami to Google map it or something on her Merc-" his eyes shifted to the men walking beside him, "uh, I mean Mac Book." There was a pause as he listened to Usagi talk.

"Watashi mo anata wo aishiteiru," he said finally, a smile playing on his lips. He lowered his phone and was about to hang up when Usagi's voice piped up again. He hurriedly placed it by his ear. "Sorry, I missed that. What did you say?"

Noel noticed a sudden onset of distress in Mamoru's features. "N- Wh- because I always say it in Japanese?"

Both Noel and Jared were now listening intently, wondering what Mamoru had said to make Usagi raise her voice loud enough so they could almost hear her.

"I said it all those times before in English because I figured you'd appreciate the practice." He sighed into the phone. "No." His eyes shifted to the two men on either side of him, lowering his voice significantly. "I thought saying it in Japanese would be more intimate." He went particularly quiet at that word.

"Dude, what did you say?" Jared asked, having guessed anyway and simply aiming to make Mamoru more uncomfortable. He was ignored.

To both Noel and Jared's confusion, Mamoru ducked down in a vain attempt to hide what he was saying, "I wanted to say it the way I always used to when we were at home."

Jared was pretty sure he heard Usagi say something like 'So why did you just lower your voice right then?'

"I'm not exactly alone…" Mamoru tried his best to keep his cool. "You know who I'm with, I told you earlier, Noel and Jared."

Jared started making whipping gestures, complete with loud sound effects.

"No I'm not embarrassed!" Mamoru whipped his head around and glared death at the blond. He sped up his pace, walking further ahead. "It's a big deal because you're making it a big deal."

"For fuck's sake, Mamoru, sack up and tell your fiancée that you love her. It's not hard!" Noel yelled out, louder than necessary. "If I was lucky enough to date a girl like yours, I'd be telling her 'I love you' every day. You just don't appreciate her." He looked at Jared and they both smiled at the trouble they were most likely getting Mamoru in.

Mamoru swivelled around and flipped Noel off. "He's being a jerk…No," he sighed, "I don't think that he's wrong. You know I love you and appreciate you… Usako, you're being ridiculous, I saw you less than two hours ago."

"Usagi, drop him for someone who has a pair!" Jared was beaming by that point.

Mamoru turned around. "Fuck off!" he said aloud, not caring if Usagi or anyone else hear for that matter. "No, they aren't funny." There was another pause as he listened to her side of the conversation. "Oh, so if you think they're funny then everything's fine, well that's not fair...No I didn't find them funny too." He sighed and then shook his head lightly, letting out a soft laugh. "Alright, maybe a little. I'll see you in... well, whenever you get here."

He stood still as he finished up the call, waiting for the two others to catch up to him. "You're both assholes," he stated simply. He was not one to curse, but he believed there were few other terms which could adequately describe their behaviour.

"And you, amigo, are what us people with dicks call 'pussy whipped'."

"How would you know? You don't have one."

Jared had no choice but to grab his crotch. "You want to check?"

"I'll take your word for it."

"Ignore him and listen to me, let me give you some advice, mate." Noel dragged Mamoru in close. "Women," he said, "are like y-fronts. Great for support and comfortable on your bollocks, but you wear them for too long and they start to feel clingy-" He was cut short as Mamoru suddenly yanked him backwards. In what seemed like Matrix-like slow motion, Noel saw a football float past his head, missing him by almost nothing. Through the shock of being unexpectedly pulled into the opposite direction that his feet were moving in, Noel also noticed that Mamoru had taken a step back, which put the side of Jared's face in direct line with the revolving ball's path.

At the last minute, Jared managed to catch sight of the alternating white and black as it rotated towards him through the air and raised his arms to block as quickly as possible, but the incoming force was too strong and he ended up smacking his own face as the ball collided with his hands.

There was a belated yell of "Heads up!" and a few "Oofs!" as the football bounced off of the blond and landed a few feet in front of Noel.

Jared stumbled slightly before bending over and clutching his head for a few moments. "Fucking ow," he stated as he glared at the people staring at him from the makeshift pitch they were walking alongside.

Noel picked up the ball, pelting it across most of the field in the opposite direction to the pitch and then looked at the guy who had misfired. "Warnings come before the fucking ball twats people across their fucking heads, you fucking idiot."

The footballers began to hurl abuse at him for having their ball kicked almost two hundred feet away from them, but he ignored them and turned to Jared. "Grow some balls, it's embarrassing enough when people find out I live with an American, I don't want them to know you're a complete girl as well."

"Yeah." Jared understood what he really meant. "Thanks man." He flipped him off.

Seeing that Jared would be fine, he directed his attention to Mamoru. "How the fuck did you do that?"

"Do what?"

"That 300 shit you just pulled."

While not realising Noel was referencing a film, he did get the general message. "I have excellent hazard perception," he said, rather pleased with himself, "you should see me on my bike in Japan. When the police pull me over it's to tell me how amazing I am."

Noel glared at him with his two coloured eyes. "You're a twat."

Mamoru shrugged and carried on walking. "I would have saved Jared too if he hadn't called me pussy-whipped." He turned around and smiled. "You were saying something about women and y-fronts?"


"There are a lot of people here, Ami." Usagi said as she stared out onto the massive field. "I thought sports societies usually meet on Wednesday afternoons and Saturdays."

A gust of icy wind brushed through the group from the field, prompting Ami to pull out her white Tam crocheted beret from her coat pocket. "For most it's probably the first game of the year, hence it being on a Sunday," she hypothesised as she put it on. A few wisps of her black hair stubbornly refused to be tucked in, so she gave up, irritated at its unwillingness to do her bidding. "I think the rugby pitches are further back."

"We get to walk through a cold field full of sweaty people and mud. Joy."

Usagi frowned at Rei, whose sarcasm had been turned up to full power since they'd left the boys' house and gone home to get changed. "What's with you? Are you still feeling sick from this morning?"

"No, I'm just- never mind." Rei felt slightly guilty at having been in such a bad mood for no discernible reason.

"Well I'm not complaining. Hello male athletes." Makoto was all but beaming as she took in the sight before her, "I think today has turned out rather well," she commented as they started to make their way to the other side.

"I feel guilty, like I should be doing more exercise or something."

Rei gave Usagi a quirk of her eyebrow. "Between what you do with us at night, and the very different things we hear you doing with Mamoru at night, I'm pretty sure you get plenty of exercise, but if you feel like you need to lose a few extra pounds, you can always have my Senshi shift tonight."

Usagi went about as red as sunburnt lobster. "We aren't that loud."

"Maybe not, but the walls and doors in our flat are paper thin-" Ami nudged Rei lightly to stop her from continuing and embarrassing Usagi further.

"Pay her no mind, she's just jealous you're getting it regularly," Minako said, coming to the defence of her princess.

"I am not!"

"So why are you being so bitchy?"

Rei frowned as she tried to come up with a plausible reason. "Maybe I am still a little tired."

"You slept all morning and most of this afternoon, I don't think that's the only reason. And I am taking your shift tonight. There's no way you're doing it."

Rei rolled her eyes. "As if I'm going to let that happen."

Minako stopped. "I'm serious, don't push it."

"I'm fine," Rei challenged.

"I don't care." Minako would have none of it. "The Youma have finally noticed we're here and started migrating from Tokyo. They aren't like the stupid robberies and fights we've been covering for the past few months."

"It's not like we haven't fought worse before."

Minako's gaze flickered briefly towards Usagi at her statement, but other than that she pretended as if she hadn't been interrupted. "I don't want any of us exhausted to the point where we're useless." Her light eyes were hard as her gaze swept over Rei and the other two girls as well, making sure her command was understood by all.

Usagi sighed, hating that Minako didn't look at her during her talk, like she wasn't a part of the team. She kept her mouth closed though, since it had been the source of most of their arguments over the past year.

"We don't have to be too vigilant, if Ami's right, and if the intel Arty and Luna sent us over from the Outers is anything to go by, they're just the leftovers from the Dark Kingdom. But we should still be careful. They've had a lot of time to build up power and we're all out of practice, especially with using magic."

Rei couldn't help feeling a little guilty at that point.

Feeling a need to dispel the sudden tension Makoto smiled. "Don't sweat it. Since when have Ami, Luna or Arty ever been wrong?" she asked as she grabbed the girl in question and hugged her across the shoulders.

Minako's scarf flew out of its position and suddenly the soldier was gone, replaced by a young blonde girl of eighteen. She did her best to tuck it, yet again, into the cream coloured woollen jacket. "This won't stay put. It's so thin the wind keeps blowing it out."

"You should have worn your multi-coloured one, it's thicker," Rei suggested in a tone much less hostile than before.

"It's still at the dry cleaner's." Minako cast a sideways (and slightly accusatory) glance towards Usagi, whose fault it was that her favourite – and only – cashmere scarf had almost been ruined.

She would be the first to admit that she hadn't really been angry at Usagi, but while she was waiting for the giant red wine stain to be removed it was annoying having to make due with her other ones, which were cheaper and lighter and less designed for spending time on a windy rugby pitch during the depths of winter.

"You could have borrowed one of mine."

"They're all black, black looks too harsh on me in daylight."

"Suit yourself, you're the one who's freezing." She looked up at the cloud-covered sky. "And I wouldn't exactly call this 'daylight'."

"I'm not that cold, and it's polyester so it's doing a good job of keeping me warm. Or at least it would be if it would just stay in place." She caught the tail end before it flew into her face again and tucked it back under the jacket's collar. Of course she'd be walking amid hundreds of the hottest guys in the entire university and she'd have to look like a Charlie Chaplin skit.

Since they were on the subject of clothes and what they looked like in them, Makoto piped up. "You think this looks ok?" She tried to ask the question casually, but from the immediate and unanimous chorus of "Yes!" from the others it seemed that she hadn't done a very good job of it. She'd asked the same thing at least three times before they'd left their flat and she was still not convinced by their answer. "I don't look like a giant chocolate marshmallow?"

"We bought you that jacket for your birthday, which is North Face by the way," Rei stated, "and it's down, which makes it a lot warmer than what I'm wearing."

"Yeah, but you look beautiful, like always." Makoto did her best to keep the bitterness out of her voice, the girl had collapsed of exhaustion and she still looked like royalty.

"I will gratefully accept that compliment and then tell you to shut up because you're being dumb. And I'll also tell you that I think giant chocolate marshmallows are quite nice."

"You aren't being helpful."

Rei simply shrugged. "Well if you won't accept the truth what else am I supposed to give you? You look really good."

Usagi tilted her head slightly, scrunching her lips on one side as she thought. "I think your outfit is cute."

Makoto's gave her a hopeful smile. "Yeah?"

"Yeah. The Uggs match the jacket, and those dark jeans always look hot on you."

"She never lies," Minako said.

"If I was Noel, I would totally notice how pretty you are," Usagi said, reaching over to hug Makoto.

Her face blushed. "I'm not trying to impress him," she tried feebly.

"Of course you aren't," Minako said. "Just like Rei isn't wearing her favourite black, wedge heel boots in a field because she knows they make her wiggle when she walks."

"No, no," Rei was not going to allow that to go unchallenged. "I'm wearing these boots because my coat is black and the heels stop the hem from dragging in the mud."

The coat reached mid-calf anyway, but Minako dropped it, a knowing smile on her lips. That was most likely the reason why Rei was being bitchy, she never liked the idea of doing things to impress men, but despite her dislike she had dressed up more than usual that afternoon; it seemed that Jared's little Prince Charming stunt had earned him a smidgen of approval in Rei's eyes. Minako was grateful for any little steps forward, especially ones which further distanced her friend from thinking about unpleasantness, whether Senshi or man-orientated. She wondered briefly when she could start doing the same for Ace and then was almost poked in the eye with her own scarf. She was on the point of ripping the thing off her neck and cursing the windy November day when her thoughts were interrupted.

"Hey, that's them! Mamo-chan!" Usagi's excitement got the better of her and she picked up speed immediately, making a bee-line for her fiancée and his new housemates. No-one had time to stop her.

"Five quid says she gets hit in the side of the face with a football," Rei said, opening the bet as she watched her so-called 'leader' race through the maze of sports, heedless to the fact that she was cutting through pitches and being dodged and yelled at by angry players of all games and sports.

"Rei! That's not funny." Ami admonished lightly, although she did nothing to stop their Princess either.

Makoto's emerald eyes did a quick scan of the field around her, realising that Usagi was heading into an Ultimate Frisbee match. "Fiver it's a Frisbee."

"You're on."

"Maaaammmmooo-chaaaan!" she yelled in high-pitched happiness as she zig-zagged and weaved like Forrest Gump during his college football days.

"I think she's going to clear it." Minako's voice held a hint of disbelief as Usagi ran though the last pitch. "Holy crap she has!"

All four girls watched in amazement as Usagi arrived completely unscathed at Mamoru's side. She gave a quick hug to Jared and then turned to beckon them over, completely oblivious to the slew of insults and hazards she had left in her wake.

The other four made their way to the side line in a much more cautious manner than Usagi had. When they arrived, the first thing Jared did was look at Rei and ask if she was feeling better.

She gave him a polite smile. "Yes, thank you."

Minako deliberately ignored the exchange, although she did sneak a wink at Makoto. "Where's Noel?" she asked as she finally gave in with the scarf and all but tore it from her neck.

Makoto nudged her discreetly, knowing Minako asked the question for her benefit.

"Over there." Mamoru used the hand that was wrapped around Usagi's shoulders to point him out.

"Oh yeah, I see him!" He was on the other side of the pitch. Both teams had formed two lines in front of him as he stood behind the sideline. He threw the ball in and his team caught it.

Usagi decided that was a good enough reason to cheer loudly, but her voice echoed out alone since there weren't actually that many people watching. She frowned and looked up at Mamoru. "Where is everybody?"

"What do you mean?" Mamoru's midnight eyes searched the field briefly before he looked down at her.

"Where are all the fans? There's barely anyone here."

"Aw, that's cute." Jared patted Usagi on the head. "We're it, honey bunches. It's not really a big match, and even if it was, it's not like back home. Fans usually consist of housemates, girlfriends and teammates who aren't playing at the time."

"Oh." She seemed disillusioned, having expected big crowds and bleachers packed to brim like on TV. She forgot those were American shows. "Well, which one's Ceithin?"

Jared pointed to the other end of the pitch where a scrum was currently being formed. "The really big guy who's impossible to miss."

Minako frowned. "Who, that one?" she asked, pointing to the slightly burly man who had managed to pick up the ball from under the mass of interlinked bodies.

"No, that guy." He pointed to the man that had disentangled himself from the scrum and had started running up the pitch towards them. A few of his teammates were shouting at him to get behind Noel as things began to speed up.

"Oh, my… gosh." Usagi's mouth hung open as she watched him sprint. He was huge, well over six feet tall, his hair was lighter than even hers and plastered to his skin as sweat glistened down his perfectly chiselled face. "He's gorgeous!"

Mamoru looked down at her with an expression that could only be described as a what-the-fuck look.

She grabbed him in a hug and smiled. "But not as hunky as you!" She kept the smile on her face, unwavering as she blinked her eyes over-dramatically before giving in and pouting her bottom lip when she realised he wasn't going to break.

His frown remained for a second longer before he broke into a small smile and squeezed her briefly across the shoulders.

Her attention turned back to the game. "Look at him run, though! Wow! He's really fast!"

"He's not what I expected," Minako said, her voice taking on a rather breathless quality. She swallowed, finding that her mouth had become a little bit dry.

"Ceithin never is," Jared's said as his eyes stayed glued to the pitch. "Shit…" He said that last word with a huge amount of trepidation. Everyone watched as Noel caught the ball from one of the other players and made a dash to the halfway line.

"Watch your back!" Jared yelled pointing out the obvious. Noel managed to pass the ball on just before he was tackled hard and knocked off his feet. The ball changed hands a second time, then a third. Ceithin caught up at the ten metre line and the ball was thrown to him. The pass was too high and everyone thought he was going to miss it, but at the last second he leapt into the air. His fingers just grasped at the ball enough to bring it into his hold as he landed on the ground and didn't even pause, pelting forward at full speed.

"Oh my!" Ami had her hand over her mouth as she watched, transfixed.

Ceithin's path was clear, it looked like he could take it straight to the try line.

"Shiiiiit… shit, shit, shit! FUCK! RUN CEITHIN! FUCKING RUN!" Jared punched Mamoru on the arm in his excitement. "Cheer now!" At his command everyone started screaming as Ceithin steamed towards them, running too fast to be caught up by anyone else, either on the opposite team or his own.

"Come on Ceithin! Shoot that goal!" Usagi screamed. Everyone was too excited to correct her. Even Ami started yelling.

It looked like he was home free. He was at the twenty two metre area. He was going to make it! It was going to be glorious!

And then it all went to shit.

Just as Ceithin thundered up to the group, ball in hand, his mind set solely on one target: to get himself passed that white line and throw himself blissfully into the ground for his first try as captain, in his first game as captain, his eyes caught something unusual. Jared was there and so was Mamoru, along with what appeared to be a group of girls he didn't recognise, but as he blurred past, one of them –he didn't know who since he was moving too fast to have seen properly- was waving something bright and pink in her hand. And for some unfathomable reason, she let it go.

Minako was cheering as loudly as she could, her arms lifted in the air as she watched a man sprint past her who was beautiful even with a gum shield in, sweaty hair and caked in mud. And then, a gust of wind blew behind her. "My scarf!" It flew out of her grasp, like the traitorous slippery creature that it was, only to float delicately over the pitch for a few seconds and then smack itself straight into Ceithin's eyes.

"Oh shit!"

Ceithin stumbled and slowed and most likely would have simply fallen over if he wasn't suddenly high-tackled across the neck from the left side while someone took out his legs from the right.

His body flew several feet into the air, flipping vertically for a few seconds whilst everyone held their breaths.

Minako's eyes were almost bugging out of her sockets as she watched what in her mind was agonisingly slow motion as he came crashing – practically upside down - on to the hard earth, head first.

The pitch was dead silent, the only noise coming from the athletes around them, but even those players had stopped to look at what had happened.

After a few seconds, when people realised that Ceithin wasn't going to get up, they suddenly all started moving.


"Ceithin!"

The familiar sound of that name had him try and open his eyes, but his consciousness was begging him to drift back into oblivion.

"Oi! Ceithin! Mate, wake the fuck up."

That sounded vaguely like Noel. He wondered if he was dreaming, unsure really of where he was. In his mind's eye he saw an object of brightness, like the end point of a large golden bright chandelier, but it disappeared quickly and suddenly his whole head felt like it was being stabbed over and over again. It was excruciating.

He realised that someone was trying to slap him awake.

That was definitely Noel.

The most his body could respond with was a mild grunt and a haphazard flinging of the arm.

"Shit, I think he may really be unconscious."

"Stop hitting him! He may have injured his neck!"

Ceithin's mind honed in on the familiar voice. Endymion?

"Oh, fuck. Hadn't really thought of that."

Typical, he thought, trust Baleop to blunder into everything. Just because he's a bloody seer he never thinks to use common sense

His mind gave in, and he dropped back into unconsciousness, but there was something that wouldn't let him stay there and he suddenly felt himself ripped out of sleep by a bright light. It only lasted milliseconds but it was more than enough to shoot his eyes open and have him regret it an instant later. He couldn't even bring himself to swear.

His skull felt like it had been cracked open. His neck and left shoulder were throbbing painfully and the grass was wet and uncomfortable underneath, but as much as his body screamed at him to do it, he couldn't close his eyes, because staring back at him was someone more familiar to him than his own reflection.

Careful blue eyes locked onto his own grey ones and for a moment Ceithin was lost in time, but the face moved, looking away from him to someone else and suddenly the déjà vu passed and he was back on a rugby pitch, with Mamoru the new housemate hovering over him.

Noel was in the background, still in his rugby kit, muddied and looking worse for wear, but standing up seemly without the agonizing pain ripping through his skull. Lucky bastard.

His vision blurred again and he suddenly felt sick, his spinning head sailing him through waves of nausea. He felt another presence kneel next to him and suddenly a heavenly vision looked down on him with sky-coloured eyes.

They were the most beautiful things he'd ever seen in his entire life, framed with a face so lovely he wasn't sure it was real. He wanted to touch it, he needed to feel her golden hair. Blurred in his vision, she looked like an angel. He found himself trying to stand up.

"Woah! Hold on there mate, where do you think you're going?"

Noel was at Ceithin's side in a second, helping Mamoru to stabilise him as best he could.

"Mn fubulubah."

"What?"

"'m fme." He tried to concentrate as hard as his foggy brain would allow. "I'm fine!" The last word came out like an angry slur.

"No, you're bloody well not."

"Fuck offfff Noel. I'm notta ba- I'm fine." At that word he tripped over his own feet, and would have lost his balance completely if he wasn't being supported on both sides.

"He shouldn't be moving around like this, we need to try and get him to sit down at least."

Following Mamoru's instructions, Noel tried to guide him back onto the grass but Ceithin was both taller and stronger than either of the men holding him up. Somehow he managed to slip out of their grasp and tried to make his way on his own.

"Bloody hell! He's a slippery bugger."

Ceithin did his best to flip Noel off but was unsure where his housemate was, or even if he was lifting the right two fingers. It didn't matter though, since he managed to stumble into the arms of his mysterious blonde beauty, only to find out that she was a he, and American, and an asshole.

"You need to lie down, brah, your coach is calling an ambulance, they're going to take you to the hospital to check you out. Come on man, at least sit."

Ceithin pushed him away. "Where is she?" he demanded, not caring in the least for what Jared had to say. His eyes were glazed over and worryingly unfocused. "Where?"

He stumbled out of reach just before Mamoru managed to get a firm grip on him. Some of his other teammates came in to help, but he shook them off.

"Where's who?" Noel would not give in so easily. He was stockier than most and was able to hold Ceithin steady.

"The blonde."

By that time the coach had finished on the phone and took Ceithin's other side, trying to help balance him. Together he and Noel attempted to help him back on to the grass. "Come on son, we need you to keep still while they come to pick you up."

"No!"

"Oi, come on now. I need you to listen." With the coach's stern voice Ceithin became slightly more compliant.

"Mate, come on." Noel tried to fight against Ceithin's weakened strength, but he was finding it difficult. "You need to lie back down."

Ceithin's head drooped, the thumping pain being too much for him to keep it upright. "Urgh. This fffucking hurts."

"Yeah, I know mate. Let's get you horizontal."

"You're not getting into my pants!" Ceithin sounded genuinely worried.

Noel smiled as he did his best to guide his friend down to sit on the ground. "Wouldn't go there if you paid me."

Ceithin grinned stupidly with one side of his mouth. "Bollocks." In the corner of his eye he spotted the pink scarf and the beautiful woman who was holding it. "Her!" he yelled. He tried to walk but the grip his friends had on him pulled him back and he lost his balance, taking the two people holding him down with him. At least they'd gotten him to sit down.

Minako left the group of Jared and the girls, trotting towards them to see if she could help.

"I wouldn't do that Minako, he didn't sound happy." Makoto's warning went unheeded.

"What the fuck happened?"

Her green eyes turned to the new voice behind her. "He was tackled quite hard. I think he has a concussion."

Jared frowned. "I thought you weren't coming."

Zach sniffed lightly from the cold but his gaze stayed fixed on Ceithin as Mamoru, Noel and some other teammates managed to get him to lie back on the ground. Minako hovered just behind them, giving them a few feet of space, worry clouding her pretty features. "I changed my mind. Bloody hell," his eyes glanced to the road where the faint sound of a siren was heard, "tell me that's not for him."

"Look at him. Does he look ok to you?"

Jared's statement worried Usagi and she leaned into Rei, whispering. "Can we do something?"

Rei looked briefly at Zach and Jared before whispering back. "Mamoru's there. If there's anyone who can do something it'll be him."

"I could probably still try," Usagi offered, "no one would notice if I snuck away and, you know..."

Makoto bent a little so she could whisper as well. "But people would notice if you used it. It's not exactly discreet."

Usagi bit her lip. "I don't like the idea of not helping when I know I could."

Rei leaned in again. "I wouldn't worry, he's moving around, I don't think it's too serious."

"Rei!" Usagi exclaimed and then belatedly slapped her hand across her mouth, but the two men were too busy watching their friend, concern etched on both of their faces. "People can die with these sorts of injuries. They seem fine one minute then, poof that's it."

Rei's expression was sour but she turned to Ami in order to humour her princess. "Could you do a check?"

"Of course." She waited until Makoto, Rei and Usagi discreetly moved in front of her before she brought out her Mercury computer. "Two people collapsing in the same day, it almost feels like we're back home," she remarked quietly as her fingers flew over the keys. After a few seconds, however, she frowned, turning the computer to her left. She pointed it towards where Jared and Zach were standing, but before she could get any readings she noticed that Jared had sensed something was going on and had turned his head to look at her. She lowered her hands immediately, opening her subspace pocket and all but dropping her computer into it, before giving him a small smile.

"Hey, you reckon he's alright?" Usagi asked the group in general. She cast a glance at Ami, too impatient to wait for the girl to find a way of secretly telling her what she'd found.

"I'm sure he'll be ok." Ami patted Usagi on the shoulder. "I wouldn't worry."

The relief was evident on the blonde's face. "Oh, good."

Makoto noticed there was something else though and she sent Ami a questioning look, but Ami simply shook her head lightly indicating that they'd discuss it later.

"This is fucking ridiculous." Zach's impatience got the better of him and he made his way to the huddle that had formed around Ceithin. "How are you?" he asked as he leaned in.

"Urgh."

His green eyes crinkled as his face broke into a grin, "Yeah?"

"Urgh."

"You said that already."

Ceithin looked at him with glassy eyes. "Where's she?"

"Where's who?" Zach looked up at Noel, who shrugged.

"I have no bloody clue. He's not exactly been coherent."

Ceithin tried to sit himself up. "The blonde pink."

"What?"

"She'sss blonde, with the thing…" Ceithin leaned over to Noel. "Urgh… dizzy," he said and threw up.

"OH MY FUCK!" Noel practically threw Ceithin away as he jumped back. The unexpected loss of his support meant the coach didn't have time to compensate and Ceithin toppled.

"S- sorry…" he mumbled, unsteadily wiping his mouth as he lay on his side, grateful that he was being craddled by something solid, even if was muddy and cold. Now if only the world would stop bloody spinning.

Noel shook what gook he could off of his hands and walked back towards the girls, leaving Ceithin in the capable hands of Mamoru and the coach. As he approached he whipped off the maroon and white rugby shirt, dumping it behind him with no apparent intention of picking it up, disgust etched onto his face.

Four pairs of female eye diverted their attention from the invalid to the suddenly half-naked man walking towards them. "Is -is he alright?" Ami managed to say as she deliberately fixed her eyes on his face and tried to stop them from drifting down to his massively broad shoulders, large pecks, decent abs, tiny shorts, thick thighs and tight calves. She failed spectacularly. Her question received a grunt in response.

Makoto, however, made no attempt at decorum and simple stared wide-eyed. He was a little on the pale side, but that was expected from someone with his background, and in all honesty, she didn't really care, because well, her brain had stopped working. Most of the people she'd met so far in the UK had been average in height, and at times a little wispy. Noel was not. Not in the least. He reminded her of those paintings on a Mills & Boon cover. She wondered if all rugby players had bodies like him, and if so, she swiftly came to the conclusion that it was about time she started following the sport…

He reached them all too soon and bent down into the gym bag that he'd left there when he, Jared and Mamoru had first arrived. He pulled out a maroon Hoxtorn University jumper and slipped it on, much to the disappointment of Makoto and the other girls, even Rei.

Usagi decided that she would be spending most of her time at her fiancé's new residence.

The ambulance arrived and started driving slowly across the grass to get to their location.

"Finally." Jared noticed that Mamoru and the coach were having trouble with Ceithin again and he started getting agitated. "I wish these people would just give him some space. The whole team doesn't have to damn well stare at him so close."

"He can handle it." Noel smelt his hand and then scrunched his face, wiping it on Jared's sleeve and then smelling it again.

"Well, this is definitely an odd way to meet and get to know people, I sort of feel like we're all family now." Makoto looked over to Jared having sensed his discomfort and giving him a cheery smile.

"No kidding."

As the ambulance finally made it to where Ceithin was, everyone backed away except for Mamoru and the coach.

That seemed to worry Ceithin. "Where'sssshe?"

"Ceithin, calm down."

He tried to move, struggling and obviously in pain.

At that point Minako stepped forward. "I think he means me." She was almost in tears.

Despite how pitiful she looked, Zach noticed how the coach was practically glaring at her. He'd have to find out what the hell happened later.

She sat next to Ceithin. "I'm really sorry," she said as her eyes flew over him, debating what she should do. She tentatively took his hand in hers. "Really, it was an accident."

"You," he whispered.

She leaned in closer to hear what he was saying but the two ambulance men arrived and asked her to move. She looked up at them and realised what they were trying to do.

"Oh, of course." She stood up and moved out their way, hugging herself tightly as she looked on with equal parts guilt and worry. Her blonde hair whipped around her face as a sudden gust of wind blew past her.

Ceithin thought she was a beautiful sight and he wanted to let her know. A nauseated and incomprehensible "Urgh" was as close as he came, though. His eyes felt very heavy and it was incredibly hard to think.

"Hello Ceithin, I'm Joseph and this is Mark. We're going to take care of you, alright? Are you in pain?"

That prompted Ceithin to raise his voice. "Wait!"

"Ceithin, we need you to keep calm. We can't help you if you don't help us."

"But I have a mass-" he struggled to keep his eyes open. "I hava massirecion…"

"Pardon?"

"I have a massive erection!"

"Ok then." The ambulance driver smiled widely. "I wouldn't worry about that right now."

Ceithin wasn't listening. He lifted his arm in an attempt to point at Minako, but as he flopped it around, unable to keep it steady, he ended up pointing at Zach instead. "Frrr you..."

The last thing he remembered was Zach lifting his eyebrows and saying "No, you fucking don't."