This is a shortie chapter, and I really prefer posting longer bits, but I am determined to actually finish this story. I promise, I'm working on it! And, working on The Game. That one I won't update until I have at least 10,000 words. I have like, 30,000 for parts of the chapters after this, but this chapter…it hates me.
Plus, I mean, 1 review? You guys are breaking my heart, seriously. Sad face here. Love me. Please.
On a happy note: Yaaaaaayyyyyy AMI-CHAN Crystal! She's soo cuuuute! Gah! My inner fan-girl squealed herself into oblivion…..It was wonderful. Happy sigh.
Disclaimer. Still not mine.
"Okay people!" Venus interrupted, leaping into the middle of the semi-circle they'd formed and throwing out a 'V' sign. " The game is ON! Let's warm up and get on with it."
Slowly, everyone moved away from each other, lightly stretching and throwing their powers around a bit. Jupiter was playing with a small ball of lightning and spacing in Mercury's direction. The bluenette was stretching her legs and playing with something on her mini-comp. But the way she was stretched out gave the brunette a dead perfect view. She didn't even realize how hard she was staring at those gorgeous toned legs until a soft voice in her ear shocked her so badly she discharged the ball of electricity she'd been playing with. Uranus sent her a dirty look as her sword crackled with energy and went back to soothing Neptune before Jupiter could even manage a sheepish grin in her direction. With a huff she turned and met the amused eyes of the love senshi.
"Can I help you?" She bit out and Venus just smirked at her.
"Enjoying the view?" She asked casually, nodding her head in Mercury's direction. The bluenette was so focused on whatever she was working on in her computer, she hadn't even noticed Jupiter's electric ball go whizzing past her. Jupiter flushed lightly and looked away.
"Maybe." She admitted quietly and Venus chuckled quietly. There really wasn't any point in denying it. The self-appointed Love Goddess had figured it out and confronted her months ago. Now she kept up regular tabs on Makoto and the genius and the 'progress' they were making.
"Sooooo, you gonna go for it or what?" The brunette shrugged non-committaly.
"I was thinking about it." Venus let out a low squeal and clapped her hands together.
"You soo should! You'd be so cute together!" Jupiter flushed and whipped her head around to make sure no one had heard.
"Shhhh! Gah Venus, keep it down will you? Besides, even if I do tag her…it's not like….I mean I don't know what I could….ya know…ask for." The blonde gave her a dirty wink.
"I could give you some suggestions."
"Yeah?" Venus chuckled and clapped her on the back roughly.
"You're thinking too hard about it. Just…dare her to get naked with you."
"Not like that!" She hissed, mortified. Jupiter buried her face in her hands. Venus snickered.
"Not yet you mean?" Green eyes peeked through gloved fingers at the Ice soldier. Resigned, she sighed.
"Right. Not yet." The love soldier scratched her chin thoughtfully.
"Why not just take her out on a date then?"
"How is that any better? I was going for more….subtle?" Venus's face fell.
"Oh. I don't do subtle."
"No shit." Jupiter yelped and jumped as Uranus appeared beside her. "What are we talking about?" The lightening senshi opened her mouth to respond, but a blonde cut her off.
"What Jupiter is gonna ask Mercury for when she tags her out." Uranus chuckled and leaned in. A temporary truce appearing between the two blondes as they focused their efforts on tortur…ah…..HELPING Jupiter.
"You're thinking about this too hard. Just dare her to get naked with you." Jupiter's groan was audible then, and she shut her eyes, willing them away. They didn't listen.
"Nope. That's what I said. She wants to go for more subtle." Uranus rolled her eyes and clapped the thunder senshi on the back hard enough to make her stumble forward.
"Why? What's the fun of a dare if you aren't going to go all the way? Am I right?" Venus joined in, clapping her other shoulder, and blue eyes met blue eyes over a hunched brunette covered head. Uranus smirked at Venus and a mild stare-down followed. Venus, trying hard not to show how terrified she was as she suddenly realized that the next 'all the way dare' Uranus issued would be at her expense, and Uranus waiting for the younger blonde to crumble. Jupiter huffed and looked skyward.
"Just because you two are ecchi doesn't mean I am. This is AMI we're talking about." Uranus broke off the stare-down, much to Venus's relief.
"Hmmm. That's a good point. Push to far and she'll faint." Now on topic, Venus giggled.
"You gotta watch out for the innocent ones though. I bet the quiet ones are the real freaks…." She trailed off and Uranus sent a surreptitious glance over her shoulder before slinging an arm around their leader's shoulders.
"Certainly holds true for Michiru." The blondes cackled with glee and Jupiter sent them a look, begging the heavens for a reprieve. She must have had some extra karma because her wish was granted. Not involved in the hentai giggling fest, Jupiter felt the rumbling of the ground first. Turning her head, she caught sight of what was barreling towards them and jumped back out of pure reflex. Venus, who still had a hand around her shoulders, was yanked back with her. That left Uranus, standing alone for a brief second, before the large and especially violent wall of water slammed into her, carrying her away into the woods.
Together, green and blue eyes turned to face Neptune. She sent Venus an icy glare that nearly put Mercury's powers to shame and with a huff returned to lightly sparring with Pluto. Next to Jupiter, the blonde left standing whimpered, shivering under a heavy coating of snow that had fallen over her.
"I'm doomed." The brunette could only nod in sympathy.
"Yeah. You aren't going to make it out." Venus whimpered, pouting out her lip.
"What…..what do you think she'll ask for?" Jupiter sent her friend a pained glance and she involuntarily shuddered.
"Ah….." She could give no answer, certain that it was going to be much much worse than anything she could come up with. Venus shook off the snowy slush, puffing out suddenly in pose, and Jupiter closed her eyes as ice splattered her face. Kami but that was cold!
"I, Sailor Venus, shall prevail in the name of love!" Jupiter blinked at her in irritation, still wiping white fluff from her bow and after a tense few seconds, Venus deflated. "So, what are you going to do about Mercury? Our help kinda…." They both trailed off, staring down the watery muddy trail that marked Uranus's untimely departure.
"…washed out?" Jupiter finished and Venus let the sweat-drop loose.
"Yeah…. Well…. I still say you should still ask her out on a date." Jupiter rolled her eyes.
"Like I said, I was aiming for subtle." Venus shrugged, as if this was of little importance.
"So don't tell her it's a date. Kami Jupiter this isn't a rocket scientists hard place!" At the dumbfounded look she got in return, Venus pushed on. "Just tell her you know how stressful school can be and you wanna go out and do something fun. One whole day with no studying! Then take her to like the zoo or an amusement park and out to dinner. She gets to think it isn't a date, and you get a full day of Ami." Jupiter stomped her foot, exploding. She was done with her 'help.'
"That is such a…." and then it hit her and she blinked slowly, cocking her head as Venus lowered her arms from where'd they'd impulsively moved to protect her face. "That's actually a good idea."
"Well of course! It's my idea after all." Jupiter nodded, already thinking.
"That could totally work. A non-date date…." Venus whapped her on the back suddenly and with enough force to send the strongest senshi stumbling forward into the soaked ground.
"Glad I could be of service." Jupiter popped back up, angrily swatting mud from her tiara. Help or no, Venus was going down. Before she got the chance to get a head start on sparring, the blonde leaned in close.
"When this is all over," The blonde began, whispering conspiratorially, "you should borrow that doujin." Jupiter sputtered in disbelief, her anger forgotten.
"And risk going through what you just did? No thanks. Why would I want that blasted thing anyway?" Venus only tipped her head closer.
"Because…" she stressed playfully, "Each 'Training' section features a different pair. And in section three, Jupiter gets Mercury." She waggled her eyebrows at the lightening senshi and emerald eyes flicked in the Ice guardians direction.
"Yeah?" She asked quietly and the blonde shot her a grin.
"Oh yeah. Worth the read for sure." The brunette shifted from foot to foot nervously and bit her lip.
"I dunno…" She trailed off, putting off her inevitable surrender. If she at least tried to resist, maybe she wouldn't feel so guilty enjoying it later? Venus smirked and shrugged.
"Well, it's totally your call of course. I'm sure your imagination keeps you plenty busy. But let me just say that the author, whoever she is, gave Jupiter a hell of an imagination too." Jupiter swallowed hard, weighed the pros and cons briefly, and succumbed.
"Okay okay." She whispered hastily, glancing about for spying eyes. "But wait till this is all over and we're heading home. Less chance of me getting caught with that thing. No one can know." Her blonde companion rolled her eyes.
"Jeeze Jupiter, relax. It's not a drug deal going down or anything. What's the worst that can happen?" As if on cue a tree erupted in flames behind them as Mars finished off a violent 'Burning Mandala'. Violet eyes sent a scathing look at Venus as Mars ran a finger across her throat in a death threat. The love goddess looked back up at Jupiter, her eyes filled with horror and even the lightening senshi swallowed hard.
"Um, that. I believe something like that is the worst that could happen." The blonde shuddered and let out a shaky breath.
"Yes. Right. Well, after practice then." Jupiter nodded her assent and Venus wandered off to enjoy her last few moments of life.
Without meaning to, Jupiter let herself get lost in her mind. Imagining how things could play out this week. Different dares, different responses. What else could she ask for? A real date? A good-night kiss? What could they do for a full day together? Just the two of them….. Before she knew it, everyone was lining up at the forest edge, ready for the battle to begin. Uranus had stumbled out, dripping wet, and had wordlessly settled nearby Neptune, squeezing water out of her fuku sullenly. Mercury, Moon and Mars, having missed the whole episode, watched her with wide disbelieving eyes. Pluto only sighed, completely used to lover's spats that could have and had, even on the best of days, demolished large sections of house.
"Okay, you all know the original rules of course." Venus stepped up, addressing her troops. "We all head into the woods, in different directions. Mercury set her mini comp for fifteen minutes. When times up, she'll send up the flare and it's game on." Beside her Mercury tore her eyes away from the growing puddle under Uranus and motioned to her mini-comp.
"I've designed a holographic flare for this session. The objective used to be to find each other and spar so a flare marking my position was acceptable. Since the point now seems to be running for my life," She sent a dirty look in the Love goddess's direction. "A holographic flare can be sent up remotely from wherever I am so as not to give away my location." Uranus leaned over to Jupiter, gaining back some of her spunk, and whispered lightly in her ear.
"Guess that takes away your advantage huh?" She teased lightly and the brunette felt the heat rush to her cheeks.
"Who says she's for sure who I was going after?" She tried to defend, crossing her arms. The blonde cracked an amused grin.
"No one. It was just an, educated guess is all." Jupiter rolled her eyes and tried to look irritated as Mercury shot them both a confused glance.
"Everything okay?" She asked, tilting her head slightly and Uranus chuckled. Jupiter put her hands behind her head, shooting the bluenette a smile.
"Oh yeah. Everything is just fine. All good here." Mercury blinked at them both as Uranus stifled her giggles.
"Okay then." Beside her, Uranus stretched and bounced on her feet as a sudden rush of wind whipped around her, spattering the nearest senshi with sea-water. Now mostly dry, she was eager to get going.
"So, we didn't cover how you tag someone?" Venus scrunched her nose and sneezed out salt-water before speaking.
"What?" The taller blond rolled her eyes and grinned mischievously, .
"Do we just spar till' the other person cries Uncle or what?" The Princess was utterly confused.
"What do our Uncle's have to do with anything?" Half of the senshi face-planted. The other half were slightly more elegant about it, and just face-palmed.
"Baka! Not real Uncles! It means to give up." The Princess's mouth formed a little 'o' and Mars rolled her eyes.
"Kami, you are just as bad as Venus sometimes."
"Hey." Their leader muttered, indignant. Violet eyes just stared her down until she relented.
"What about our broaches?" Neptune stepped up.
"You mean you have to take the other scouts bow?" Mercury sighed as they all turned to her again.
"That would work. It would allow for close quarter sparring." Jupiter swallowed hard. She had to grab Mercury's bow to tag her out? Her bow that was located….right by her…. She flushed lightly and from beside her, Uranus snickered. Pluto, pretty much aware of what was going on but unwilling to comment on it just tapped the ground with her staff.
"Shall we proceed?" A row of nods, a click of Mercury's timer, and they were off.
Jupiter poured extra strength into her legs, wanting to put as much distance between her and the wood's edge as possible in the fifteen minutes that she had. She knew she could outrun Mercury in that time. That way, once the flare went up, she could double back and work a pattern. Hopefully 'stumbling' on the genius in the process. Her face felt warm at the ideas flitting about in her head, making it hard to concentrate. She nearly ran headlong into a tree, and had never been more grateful that they spread out so far. She could practically hear Venus in her head.
"If a Jupiter runs into a tree in the forest…" A loud bang sounded and she looked up to see the sparkling fire-works of a holographic flare explode into existence. She smirked and skidded to a halt. It was game-on.