Eliana and Hajime stayed home working on homework that would be due Monday and doing a bit of straightening up. They'd been watching a movie in the living room when Eliana fell asleep slumping over and consequently resting on his shoulder.
Hajime didn't notice at first that she was asleep, but when he did, he gently tried to wake her. When she didn't wake, he carefully scooped her up in his arms, and took her to her room. Laying her down on the bed, he pulled an extra blanket out of the closet and covered her with it. On a whim, he leaned down and kissed her forehead after brushing her hair out of her face. Softly, so that he was positive that she couldn't hear, he spoke.
"I love you Eliana..." Standing up straight, he left the room, shutting the door behind him. Sighing, he turned and started to make his way to his own room after turning off the TV in the living room. "Why can't I just tell her when she's awake and alert?" he berated himself silently.
In the morning Hajime had to head out to get some more groceries from the store- Eliana was still asleep, most probably tired from the use of her power the day before. When he got home he did his usual routine without really thinking. "Tadaima."
"Ah, Okairi, Hajime." Eliana called, popping her head around the entryway to the kitchen with a smile. "Oh good! Did you get some more eggs and milk?" she asked. She was wearing an apron and had a spatula in hand. "I just used the last of the eggs to make some pancakes. I wasn't sure when you'd be back though."
Hajime blinked in surprise. So used to saying that to an empty room, or to just Apollo, he hadn't expected a response.
"I did get some more eggs and milk, yes," he answered after a few seconds regaining his bearings. Walking into the kitchen, he had to regain his bearings again. She looked so cute with the apron on. And her smile! He smiled back at her, fighting down the urge to kiss her. "What are you making for breakfast?" he asked.
"Pancakes, bacon, and eggs since your back with some," she told him, looking over her shoulder, still smiling. "I saw a bag of pancake mix and decided to give it a try. Its actually a little hard. I don't want to burn them, but I don't want to under cook them either," she said. "I have started the bacon already, think you can get the eggs going and set the table? Don't want to leave this unattended," she told him, turning her attention back to the frying pan where she worked on the pancakes. She seemed like a little newlywed housewife.
Hajime nearly groaned, but didn't. He didn't want her to think he was being ungrateful for cooking breakfast. He put a hand on her shoulder as he passed her, lingering a bit before he did what he was asked to.
"Sure," he said instead, and put the milk away before grabbing a few of the eggs and proceeding to make them. After the eggs had finished, he set the table and got glasses of milk for both of them.
She was aware of his lingering touch, but didn't think much of it. It was chalked up to one of his casual touches again. Although she felt an odd flutter from it. She wondered if perhaps it was somehow related to her sudden irritation the day before, but she couldn't see how that was possible, and so she ignore it as well. Dishing up the plates she joined him at the table, taking off the apron and returning it to the drawer she'd found it in. They ate in mostly comfortable silence, and Hajime volunteered to do dishes and so Eliana went to take a shower. She discovered however, that she hadn't brought a change of clothes in with her. She could feel that Hajime was in the living room, and she could hear the TV playing softly. So she wrapped a towel around her and opened the door, trying to be quiet so she could slip out. Her pale skin was still damp from the steam of the shower, and her hair was for once unbound and wet, proving to have a soft curl in this state.
Hajime wasn't paying attention much to things, as he had tuned in to a program that he had wanted to watch, but after a moment or two, he did notice. Choking on his drink, he felt the heat rise in his face.
"E-eliana," he stuttered, turning and looking away. He was still trying to stop coughing from choking on his drink. "You could have asked me to bring you a change of clothes." He didn't mean to sound like he was scolding, but that's how it came out.
She'd hoped to sneak past him without him seeing her, but that had failed. She blushed when his eyes locked onto and then she hurried to him- forgetting her near naked state when he started choking. She froze when she reached him and he scolded her. "We- co-consider it payback for when you did the same!...?" she tried to sound firm about it but it came out more of a question than anything. She patted his back, trying to help him clear his lungs of the water he'd inhaled. "Sorry... I just thought I could slip out real quick. Are you okay?" she asked, far more worried about him then her state of dress- or lack thereof.
"In my defense, I didn't think that you were here," Hajime said, finally able to breathe clearly again. He was still trying to avoid looking at her, but really, all he wanted to do, was pull her into his lap and to kiss her until the sun went down. Leaning forward and putting his face in his hands, he sighed. "I won't look. Go on to your room, k?" He was doing his damnedest to be a gentleman, and she was making it rather difficult for him.
She nodded and then went to her room. Once there she leaned against the door, her face growing very flushed. She put her hands to her burning cheeks and sighed. 'What is wrong with me? Am I getting sick?... Have I ever been sick before?'
It took a bit to compose herself but she finally did and dressed, pulling on the only other pair of casual clothes she owned, a teal summer dress. She went back out to the living room, her hair still damp and down. "Ah. You've watched this show before. What's it called?" she asked, settling down on the couch beside him.
"It was an American show a long time ago. I guess they found it and are re-running it here. It's called Mythbusters," Hajime said. He laughed a little when it showed one of the main guys with a missing eyebrow. "His name is Adam I think. They were conducting an experiment and there was a minor explosion that cost the loss of his eyebrow." Looking at her, Hajime blinked. "You look beautiful with your hair down," he said after a moment. Reaching for his drink, he realized it was empty. "Oh. I'm going to grab some more water. Would you like anything to drink?" he asked, standing. She smiled, used to this too. He called her things like pretty or beautiful as a matter of fact she'd learned, not affection. "Water sounds good," she said, tucking her feet under her. Still... it had been a while since he'd called her beautiful, and she found that she like that he thought so. 'I suppose at least around the house I could leave it like this more often,' she decided, fiddling with a lock of the near platinum blonde hair.
Hajime went to the kitchen and got a glass out for Eliana, and then filled both his glass and her glass up with water before taking them out to the living room.
"Here you go." Sitting down, he took a sip of his before setting it on the table. "Do you want to watch something else? We don't have to watch this," he said, motioning to the TV.
"This is fine. I understand English just fine so-"she giggled. "Besides, Adam is rather amusing," she told him, taking a sip of her own water.
It was a few days later she'd asked the girls to meet her out at a park- asking Hajime to stay behind with Apollo until she was sure they could keep Mia at bay from him. Secretly she didn't want to risk that inexplicable anger to threaten her reasoning again and so she didn't want him around Mia unless she was sure Mia wouldn't hit on him like that again.
She asked each girl to transform and give a demonstration of their ability to the others. After all if they were to start working together they needed to know what they were working with. "I'll also- with your permission be setting up a link between your minds and mine. I won't go searching through your thoughts or anything so don't worry. It will just allow me to tell you when and where there is trouble." she explained.
"Sure," Aurora and Mikoto both agreed readily. "You want to do that before or after the demonstration?"
"Well if it's alright with each of you I'll do it right now. I might feel a bit odd. It's sort of like building a bridge between our minds so- please just bear with that until I'm finished. You should adjust to the sensation fairly quickly."
Mia and Megan both nodded as well, but as the strange sensation stared to take shape in their minds, a whole horde of inky black creatures attacked.
"Just standing around in the park? That's not very smart..." came a terribly screechy voice. Metallia was standing further away, her tattered black Victorian dress waving in the wind as her writhing black hair had a life of its own.
"Oh my goodness!" said another voice. "Do you girls need help?!" Another young woman had jumped close to them and let fire a blast of icy air. It froze one of the creatures, letting it fall to the ground to shatter. Her black hair, fading to white, hung loose about her shoulders, curling about her face. A gold tiara sat on her forehead, accented by a sapphire jewel. The rest of her uniform was blue as well, but it was different from both Megan's uniform and the rest of the Senshi's uniforms as well. A pair of thigh high blue boots she wore, a pair of white socks just visible. White stripes went up the boots. The skirt was short, blue with a white waist band, a blue star centered in the middle. A white bow stretched nearly to the ground, attached to the back of the skirt. The blue top was short, leaving her stomach exposed. The sleeves looked like they were made of icicles, but colored the same bright blue as the rest of her uniform, as was the sailor flap. A white bow was attached at the bottom of that, a blue star broach centered. A blue choker with a white star graced her neck, and blue star earrings dangled from her ears. Her gloves were white, fingerless, with blue bands of color at the top, near her elbows, and at her wrist. A creature leaped at her and she held up a hand. Ice flew from her palm to freeze it, and it fell, shattering. "I'm Sailor Asteroid Ice, and I'm here to help you!"
Once again Eliana was struck with how useless she was. She had the strength to fight, just not the means. Knowing she was just going to cause trouble if she stayed in the field she looked to the girls. "I guess this will be the lesson on teamwork i was hoping to give you. Go, I have something else to attend to at the moment." And with that she vanished.
She reappeared beside Metallia. "You look well after so long in prison. I suppose resting outside for nearly two hundred years help with that," she pointed out, her staff in both her hands as she looked at the woman. She felt rather responsible for this whole mess. After Queen Selenity had imprisoned Metallia, Sailor Sun had been regularly reinforcing the prison that held her. It was one of her few exceptions to being an observer. But after Chaos was destroyed, the prison had been weakened, and unfortunately she hadn't noticed until it was far too late.
"Well you heard her, let's clean house," Sailor Earth said, giving her dagger a twirl before stabbing it into the ground. "Wooden puppets!" Wooden vine like roots shot out of the ground, binding as many of the creatures as they could reach.
"Nothern lights barrage!" Sailor Aurora shouted, spinning her wand in the air and then slicing down in the direction of her attack.
"Star Purifying Flame!" Sailor Starfire yelled, and flames spread from the star shaped compact in her hands, taking out more than a few of the creatures. Sailor Asteroid Ice had been deemed the biggest threat and the creatures were swarming her, but she was able to hold her own and to help the others.
"Ice fields of Death," she whispered, and even though it was a whisper, her voice echoed, cold and eerie. Scores of creatures turned to ice and fell, shattering against the ground.
Metallia jumped, looking at Sailor Sun. Holding out a hand, a wicked blade appeared. Instead of answering the question addressed to her, she lashed out, sinking the blade into Sun's side.
"Do not dare to cross me!" she hissed, before stepping a decent distance away and watching. Some of the creatures were scoring blows on the other Senshi.
Hajime had been walking to the park, worried because Eliana was taking longer than she had said she would. When he got to the park, he expected to see a group of Senshi talking. Instead, he saw inky black creatures starting to overwhelm a group of five Senshi, and Eliana on the ground, bleeding. He didn't waste time thinking of the consequences, but twisted his ring and ran towards the mess. His power radiated, and he regretted having to use it. Punching to the side, he threw a creature out of his way.
"Stand down or suffer the everlasting hatred of the Moon!" he shouted, but none of the creatures listened, still swarming. His eyes flashing, he took out his sword, raising it into the air and then bringing it down, slamming the tip into the ground. A black wave of power radiated outwards, disintegrating all of the creatures. Metallia began trembling, and she disappeared. Hajime ran over to Eliana, helping her up. "Please, please be okay..." he said softly, putting a hand over her wound.
As she'd hoped, Metallia had her full attention on Sailor Sun now. She'd keep the woman busy at least so the girls didn't have to worry about her. Worse came to worse she'd trap them both within a Sun barrier. She blocked a few of her thrusts with the dagger using her staff, but she really wasn't cut out for this sort of combat and she ended up losing her footing for just a moment. That was when she felt pain rip through her side and she cried out, falling to the ground.
She felt Hajime when he twisted the ring, her attention having been focused on fighting off Metallia. And then he stopped it all in one moment. No- he was going to lose it if she didn't stop him... She could feel pain threatening to swallow her. As he gently lifted her she bit back a whimper as she found his hand and twisted the ring to make him stop using his power. "I- I'll be fine," she told him, gasping in pain. "S-sailor Earth c-can heal me so-" she blinked, attempting and failing to keep back tears.
The others were there within seconds. "Here, let me see her wound," Mikoto said, her hand glowing a dark green already. She pressed her hand over the wound. "What were you thinking? You can't use your power remember?"
"Yes, but- I knew Metallia would focus on me if I confronted her. And I didn't want you all to have to worry about facing her," Eliana explained. She'd lost a good bit of blood and was feeling a bit light headed, even with the healing. Unfortunately she couldn't be healed as a normal human could. She also couldn't die as easy as one either though. "It was the only thing I could do to help..." she said, her eyes closing.
Hajime had done a good job of controlling his power, even if the effects of it were still there. His sword back in its sheath, he twisted the ring, going back to his civilian clothes. His eyes were shaded slightly darker grey, but as he was focused on Eliana, no one could tell. She was still alive and well, and that was enough to keep the darker him at bay. Taking a deep breath, he let it out slowly, trying to calm his shaking hands.
"I'll take her back to the apartment. You girls can come along if you would like." The new girl, Andromeda, volunteered to come, as did Megan and Mia. He nodded, starting off with the rest of them following. Handing Andromeda his key, as she was closest to him, he let her unlock and open the door. Silently, Hajime took Eliana to her room and laid her down, kissing her forehead gently before retreating and closing the door behind him. He looked at the conglomeration of girls. "I know all of you, but you are new," he said to Andromeda. She nodded.
"I am Andromeda. I have just arrived from the asteroid belt outside Jupiter. My Queen told me that there were disturbances here on Earth that I needed to come and investigate. I think that I have found the source." She looked pointedly at Hajime. He nodded, looking up. For the first time since he had used his power in front of the girls, which had, in truth, scared Megan and Mia, they saw his eyes. They seemed even darker now, nearing to a stormy grey rather than the pure silver of their original color. Andromeda took a step back.
"I am the disturbance. The Silver Crystal has been corrupted by the millennia of wrongs done to the moon, and it has taken on a will of its own." He took a deep breath and put his hands to his head, forcing the darker self back. Looking up again, his eyes were once again pure silver. "It is trying to take me over. Eliana is helping to keep the power in check, but each time I use it, the seal weakens. I try to not use it, but today was an exception. I needed to." He clenched his fists at his sides. "If we lose her, I fear for my control over my darker self..."
The others agreed, rather shaken by the display of his power. Eliana had passed out on the way back, her head lulling against his shoulders. As he laid her down she didn't stir at all.
It was after his explanation that Apollo- not small Apollo but full sized wings and all- came out and growled low. "Sit down or I will pin you down. Until she wakes back up I'll have to keep your power in check. Since you went and let her get hurt." the big cat took another step forward, for which the girls took one back. "Oh calm down. I'm Apollo, Sailor Sun's companion." He put one huge paw on Hajime's chest, his body glowing with his energy.
Sighing in resignation, Hajime sat on the couch, letting Apollo boss him around. He knew that this was to help save everyone from him, but he wasn't sure he really appreciated being treated like the bad guy. There was no option to explain that he had got there too late to prevent what Metallia had done to Eliana. Mia had realized in the park that she couldn't quite compete with the emotion that Hajime felt for Eliana, so she decided to just be his friend.
"I will go get us water," Andromeda said. Her speech was rather stilted, as if she had come from another century, not another planet. Hajime nodded, truly weary.
"If I had known... I would have worked harder," Megan said finally. She'd known from the aura that it was bad, but not as bad as what she'd learned today. "I would have made sure that you didn't have to use that power." Hajime shook his head.
"There's no reason to feel guilty. Eliana and I decided to keep the truth from you in order to keep you all safe," he said quietly. He was looking down. Sensing that Apollo was angry at him for more than just letting Eliana get hurt, Hajime just chose to stay as quiet as possible. Andromeda came back with a tray of glasses of water for everyone, Hajime accepting his gratefully.
"Well I know one thing," Mia said finally. Artemis was with her, he having come along for the ride. Luna was with Mikoto. Both had run to notify Apollo of what was going on when the fight had started, and had ended up staying at the apartment when they'd felt Hajime's power. Artemis looked up at her, confused. Her tone was determined and strong, something that he knew from her, but this was not the spoiled child from before. "I'm going to work harder so that Eliana doesn't ever get into a situation like this again," she added. Megan nodded and agreed.
"I do not know Eliana as well as you others do, but I will agree. I wish to work alongside you, and to learn your ways. I will not abandon comrades on the eve of battle," Andromeda added quietly. Hajime nodded, smiling a little, relieved that they were deciding to work together, rather upset that it had taken Eliana's injury to persuade the most stubborn of them.
Mikoto and Rosemary also bother agreed as well. They stayed for a few more minutes and then all the girls- and Luna and Artemis- left.
Once the door shut and he could no longer feel them near the building Apollo shoved Hajime, the whole couch toppling over. "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!" He demanded hotly. When Hajime started to ask what he was doing, Apollo didn't let him finish. "Not only did Eliana end up hurt, but you have the audacity to KISS her?!" His hackles here raised and he was glaring at Hajime, his golden eyes flashing with anger.
"You don't own her," Hajime said, his voice ice. This he knew, would catch Apollo off guard, which it did. Hajime was able to extricate himself from the huge cat's paws. "I did nothing untoward to her." Brushing himself off and gathering up the empty cups, he took them to the kitchen before returning to the living room. "And if you didn't notice through your jealousy, I am well able to handle myself at this moment in time."