Alright, here's the new chapter, Sorry for the wait! I really hope you like.
But first- the voting results on pairs
Ami/Duo
Mina/Heero
Rei/Wufei
Mako/Trowa
Usagi/Mamoru (that wasn't flexible)
Quatre? I've left Quatre as a surprise. I had a few suggestions, but you'll see who he's paired with as the story progresses.
Please do not get mad over pairs, there were some ties and decisions on whom to pair with whom. For example, Ami/Heero had 3 votes, and Mina/Heero had 5 votes, so naturally I paired Mina/Heero since that was more popular in the votes.
Ami/Heero Mina/HeeroChapter 2
"Hey Heero, what's your problem," Duo asked after they had all said rushed goodbye's to the girls and were entering their cabin.
"My problem? I'm very sure you all counted the girls instantly. Five, Duo. Living there alone. Just like what we're searching for," Heero snapped, grabbing a pair of tennis shoes in exchange for his flip-flops.
'What are you doing," Duo asked.
"Correction Duo. What we're doing," Quatre said, already catching on to what Heero was doing. "We'll search the beaches and the town for the next couple of days straight. We'll meet all the girls," Duo smiled at this point,"and we'll decide who we've narrowed it down to. We already have suspects, but there are many more. After that, we'll look into discovering who the girls are further."
Everyone was already ahead of Duo and out the front door, and he ran to catch up.
"Hey! Wait!" A slight disappointment tinged his voice, despite the fact that they were going searching for girls, because he had wanted to talk to Ami more.
Ami helped set the table two days later, Rei carrying in some glasses and Usagi, Makoto, and Minako bringing food to the table.
They had relaxed the past two days, and it was very refreshing. They had yet to see the boys which Ami had had the strange encounter with yet, and Minako had said that she saw the boys constantly in and out of the house.
Mamoru would be flying in that afternoon, and would be staying in a small motel up the street, walking distance but still out of the house and putting Usagi's parents to ease.
They sat down and Ami jumped out of her seat to grab the juice left on the counter. Everything really had been going great for them so far, and even though it had been just a few days, Ami was very relieved. She was afraid they would hate it and have wasted their time. But the beach was beautiful, the town was enchanting, and the people were friendly.
They were having fun, problem-free, worry-free, and they weren't plagued by memories all the time. In Tokyo, it was a constant reminder of the past year, but here, Ami felt like she could almost forget.
She finished pouring juice for Usagi and sat down, Usagi sending a thank you with a grateful smile.
"Ames, pass the potatoes, I want more. They're delicious by the way Mako," Rei said, as Ami passed the bowl.
"Thank you, my own recipe," Makato said with a modest smile, only taking a moment to glance at Usagi whom was shovelling food down her throat.
They finished and were clearing the table when they were met with a knock at the door.
Usagi's eyes lit up, ignoring everything she had been putting away and running to the door. A taxicab was driving off down the street, and Mamoru had just turned away from looking at the road to the door before Usagi jumped him, screaming and jumping excitedly.
"Mamo-chan! I missed you," she said, giving him a quick kiss.
"I missed you too, Usako." He set his bags down with a sigh as the other girls arrived at the door. He greeted each one in turn, before explaining that he had stopped there before heading to his motel.
Everyone entered and Minako set down a plate from what was left of the meal for him.
Mamoru and the girls sat after and talked about his flight and Tokyo.
"As expected, no attacks. I think just as you guys were in the second part of the school year, you're in the clear now for youma attacks. Nothing. Luna and Artemis are fine, they think that Tokyo will be fine this summer so enjoy your vacation."
"What a relief," Usagi said, "now we'll really have fun!"
And as Mamoru stood to leave, no one in their happy ignorance knew. Knew that this summer, would not be relaxing, would not be fun, and would certainly not help anyone to forget. This was the silence before the storm. Slowly, the troubles of the year before would re-surface, and things that they thought they knew for sure, would all be wrong.
Heero closed his eyes, trying his hardest to ignore Duo's whining as they walked home. They had spent two whole days looking around the town and meeting girls. So far, the only group that fit what they were looking for were their weak looking neighbours.
"Hee-man! Those two girls wanted me! Why did we have to leave," Duo whined. Although for some reason Duo had not been happy about looking around for girls when they started, he had been hard to drag away by the end.
"I say we just look into our neighbours for now, learn more about them and if we see someone else to fit the profile, then we'll question them," Quatre suggested.
"Fine, but it's late. I want to go home and sleep," Wufei said, "tomorrow is a new day."
The next day, Mamoru came back from his motel early and they all went swimming. Ami had framed the picture of herself and her father Usagi had broken the first day and put it in the living room that morning to ensure that it was not ruined.
"Hey guys, mind if we join you," a voice called from the other side of the yard. Duo and his friends, all in swimming trunks, were approaching.
"Sure," Minako said, running over and grabbing Heero's hand, who tried his hardest not to grunt and act normal. Duo rushed over to Ami's side, giving a 100-watt smile.
"Hey pretty lady!" Ami blushed slightly at his antics.
"How are you, Duo?"
"Fine," he replied, "I wanna go swimming! Come with me!" Ami gave a shy smile, and did not miss the double take Duo gave Ami and her bathing suit, which made her blush redder. Usagi and Mamoru were splashing each other in the water, while Minako tried to flirt with Heero. Rei, Wufei, Makoto, Trowa, and Quatre were all sitting on the deck, talking.
Ami wondered why she had automatically trusted Duo as he goofily ran to the water, waving for her to come in. Ami followed a bit unsurely, and Duo automatically swam out to the deep end. Ami swam around where he was, having been planning on a good swim anyways.
"So," Duo said, floating on his back once he was deep enough, "Where are you from?"
"Tokyo," Ami responded absent-mindedly and she swam near him, settling on treading water. "You?"
"Me? Oh, I'm from America," he said quickly, realizing Ami had incriminated herself further by being from Tokyo.
"I figured," Ami responded, "you had a bit of an accent." Duo sighed in relief at his quick lie.
"So, why are you here, all the way form Tokyo," he asked.
"I could ask you the same thing, being that you're from America," Ami said with a laugh. Duo nodded.
"We just wanted to see Japan." Ami sighed, having to answer.
"Well, we're here to relax from our senior year. It was a long year." Duo smiled at the girl in front of him. She seemed honest enough, but looking at her eyes, there was something kept reserved.
--
"I want to make a sandcastle," Usagi announced by the deck, "who wants to make one with me and Mamoru?" Quatre figured since each of his friends seemed to have chosen a girl to talk to, he would sit with Usagi and Mamoru.
"I will help," he said, as the three walked towards the shore to begin, Usagi carrying plastic cups and some of Ami's old toy buckets from the shed.
--
Wufei couldn't help but think about how weak Rei was as she talked to him. She lived at a temple, from what he knew so far, and lived only with her grandfather and one other male, who's name he had forgotten. Weak Onna. If she was a priestess, then her religion promoted peace. How could she be a senshi?
Wufei nodded at Rei to continue, no longer lost in his thoughts and trying his hardest to look interested, however the onna was looking more sceptical at his act by the minute.
--
"So, Heero, where are you from," Minako asked and she and him sat in the sand, their feet in the water.
"Another part of Japan," he said, his answer vague.
"Oh, that's cool," she said, frowning at him. He was so hot, but so un-social.
"Me, I'm from Tokyo," she said, trying to make conversation.
"Hn."
Minako laughed.
"Wow, you don't talk much, do you," she asked.
--
"I love cooking and martial arts," Makoto responded to Trowa's question. He wasn't talking much, but he was occasionally asking questions, although he disclosed nothing about himself.
"Martial arts," he repeated, suddenly interested.
"Yeah. Well...I mean, I used to get kicked out of school for fighting, but I don't fight at school that much anymore," Makoto said.
--
Returning from the beach, Ami grabbed her towel from the deck, and wrapped it around herself. Usagi nearly sat on her sweater on one of the beach chairs, and Ami grabbed it with a laugh. Usagi smiled sheepishly.
Ami reached into the pocket of her sweater and came up empty handed. She frowned. She quickly dug into the other pocket. Empty. She felt her heart quicken. It was the only picture she had.
"Ami?" Rei's voice interrupted her thoughts, and she looked up. Rei had the picture in her hand. A relieved smile took over Ami's face.
"It was on the floor behind Usagi's chair," Rei explained. Ignoring how all the guys were looking at her, Ami responded quickly.
"Thank you," Ami said, accepting the picture. Perhaps she should find a frame for this picture as well...
That afternoon, everyone was tired from the hectic morning. The guys had headed home with the excuse of being tired as well. Mamoru was sleeping on the armchair in the living room by the window. Makoto and Usagi were both sharing the couch, and Rei was sleeping on one side of the loveseat while Minako slept leaned against the arm of the side. Ami closed the curtain in the living room, the house still having plenty of light but not overly so, so that they could sleep. Strangely enough, Ami wasn't tired. She grabbed a book form her room and spread out on the carpeted floor of the living room with the book.
A knock on the front door caused her to look up a few minutes later. Who would want anything from them here? Perhaps it was one of the neighbours.
Ami walked over to the door and opened it up, not opening the screen that separated her from whoever it was.
A girl about a year or two younger stood before her. She had long, stringy, light brown hair that fell around her face and went down to her hips. She had on a pair of jean shorts and a baggy white t-shirt. On her shoulder she carried a large, beige handbag. Her green eyes were rather dim as she stared at Ami, yet on her face was a very large, almost scary, smile.
"HI," the girl said VERY loudly, causing Ami to open up the screen door, step out and shut the front door, not wanting friends to wake up.
"Hello," Ami said, tipping her head slightly at the widely smiling girl.
"Hi Ami," the girl said, only a bit quieter. Ami frowned deeply at her.
"May I help you? How do you know my name?"
"How could I not know your name Ami," she said, "you fit your description perfectly, just perfectly!"
"My description?"
"YES! Robert told me about you, and you look exactly like he said!"
"Robert?" Ami felt pain when she heard his name. She was so confused at the moment.
"How...how do you know Robert? Why...are you here?" Ami asked slowly, trying to place her words.
"I'm Robert's sister," she said, still sounding bright and cheery.
"Well then, you must have the wrong Ami," she said quickly, "I only knew one Robert, and he had no sister."
"Is that what he told you," the girl said, her tone suddenly changing from cheery to rather dark.
"Pardon," Ami said, suddenly feeling unsafe as her hand gripped the door of the scene. Why did she have to step outside?
"He lied," the girl repeated, "he lied to you! He had a sister, and I'm her!"
"That's not possible," Ami said, her voice fading as she stared at the girl before her in disbelief, feeling a rush of memories come back to her.
"Well, I guess you can't ask him, since he's dead. Dead, DEAD, BECAUSE OF YOU!" The girl took a step towards Ami, and Ami took a step back, against the door, her breathing quickening, shocked.
"What do you want," Ami asked weakly, trying her best not to cry at the pain re-surfacing.
"What do I want? WHAT DO I WANT?" The girl raved and mumbled, no longer making sense as she fidgeted constantly. Ami saw her reach into her big handbag, and gasped when she grabbed something that shined when the light hit it.
A knife.
"You! You're the reason my brother is dead, you're the reason I'm hurting! You! You! You! You're a filthy liar!" Ami grabbed the girls hand as she went to strike her with the knife, the two fighting over it. The girl- she was strong. She was unbelievably strong.
"You're the LIAR," Ami found herself shouting as she fought with the girl. The girl freed her hand and brought the knife down again towards Ami. Ami moved aside quickly as the knife went crashing into the screen, ripping a large slit through it. The girl came at Ami again, and knocked her against the screen with a crash.
Inside, Rei opened her eyes. Through the window in the living room on the side of thehouse, she had heard a crash. She quickly noticed that everyone else was awake too. Usagi tiredly crawled to the window and peaked outside. She saw nothing on the side, but another crash and shout followed. The five jumped to their feet and ran to the door.
Ami threw the insane girl off of her, and the girl simply got to her feet and grabbed Ami again, tackling her off of the porch and onto the lawn with a thud. The girl tried to dig the knife into Ami's throat, but Ami was pretty strong herself and managed to keep the knife away. The two rolled around fighting like that, and that was when Ami's friend ran onto the porch, shock quickly registering on their faces, just as their neighbours ran out of their home, the guys all gasping when they saw the murderous horror movie scene before them. The girl reached into Ami's pocket and pulled out the picture that Ami had dropped on the deck earlier.
"THIS WAS MY BROTHER!" She screamed, "THIS WAS MY BROTHER!"
"HE HAD NO SISTER!" Ami shouted equally as loud, as the girl dropped the picture and lunged at her again. Ami held the knife away from her neck, kicking and thrashing. This time though, Ami had her friends for help. The girl was thrown off Ami by Mamoru a moment later, just as Makoto was pulling the knife from her grasp. The pilots joined the group, surprised that Ami had held her own against the girl. Ami sat up, tears blurring her vision slightly, yet her refusing to let them fallas Mamoru opened his cell phone to call the police to come get the girl.
"Oh no you don't" the girl said, suddenly grabbing for Mamoru's cell phone, whom was shocked that she had been able to grab it, and making a run for it.She took off down the deserted road, leading to the forest.
"This isn't over," she was shouting, "you'll pay with blood for his death!" Minako and Heero took off after her, but the girl was gone once they turned the corner of the street. Returning to their friends, they saw everyone surrounding Ami. Ignoring their questions, Ami grabbed the long-forgotten picture from the ground and ran off in the opposite direction of where the girl went, down the long dirt road.
"Ami! Wait!" Usagi, Rei, and Duo ran after her, and Duo sped ahead of the two girls and grabbed Ami's wrist, stopping her in her tracks. She turned to look at him, just as Usagi and Rei caught up. He was met with a tear-filled glare.
Duo was shocked by this, and let go of her wrist, his hand falling limply to his side as she ran off.
"Why'd you let her go," Rei asked angrily, as the three gave up and turned to walk back to their friends.
"I don't know," Duo confessed, shaking his head, "I don't know."
Mamoru sighed in frustration.
"I have to cancel my cell phone now, before she makes crazy calls off of it," he was explaining to Minako.
"But she still has all of the numbers in your phone at her use,"Wufei pointed out as Duo rejoind the group.
"What happened," Quatre asked.
"We were napping, we came when you did," Makoto said.
"Use the knife," Heere said. They all looked at him funny.
"The girl didn't have gloves on. Since Ami, the girl and Makoto are the only ones who touched it from what we saw, you can still give it to the police and find out who she was," Quatre explained for Heero.
"Go put the knife in a paper bag, and take it to the police on the island," Trowa said. Makoto headed inside.
"What about Ami," Minako asked, standing and looking down the road.
"Ami's okay. She'll come back when she wants to talk. If not, she has a cell phone. We'll check up on her in a bit," Rei said.
The guys went back to their house, after making Usagi promice she'd tell them what happened once she spoke to Ami.
The rest of the girls headed to the police station to give them the knife, and Mamoru used a neighbours phone to call his cell phone company and cancel because his phone was stolen.
Ami walked along the shore, her flip flops in her hand as water gently splashed against her feet.
She was so lost. Everything had been going great. Now what? Ami sighed. She had run off and upset her friends. But she wanted answers, needed time to think.
That moment with the knife had brought back some of her worst memories of the year before.
Had she been lied to? Deceived? It was too painful to imagine.
Seeing that the sun was setting, she decided to head back. Everyone would be worried.
Slipping on her shoes, Ami headed home.
By the time she was there, it was dark. One of her friends had put the porch light on. Ami opened the door and entered quietly. The house was lit up, and turning the corner, she saw everyone sitting in the living room.
"Ami!" Usagi, the nearest one, ran to hug her.
"Are you alright?"
"I'm fine," Ami lied, giving the best smile she could muster, "Sorry I ran off."
"That girl didn't hurt you?" Ami saw Minako approaching.
"No, the worst she did was knock me off the porch."
"Well then," Makoto said, "we have some bad news. Before yu tell us exactly hwta happened, you should know. We went to the cops. They dusted for finger printes. Yours and mine are on there. However..." Makoto paused.
"What?"
"The girl wasn't wearing gloves, right," Rei said.
"Right," Ami said, picturing the girls shaking pale hands.
"They dusted it again and again. The girl had no fingerprints."
Sorry it's not long, it's the best I could do for now! I really wanted to post something for you guys!
Thank you to everyone who reviewed, I really appreciate it! And about typos (I am the queen of typos, but I'm trying!)