21
Minako made her way out of her room, her long hair dancing behind her, wet after the long, nice shower she had just taken.
Her friend was making sure Hotaru was getting ready for her doctor appointment, and she knew the small blonde girl was with them as well. So that left her with some free time to herself, and she was in the mood for a nice green tea.
She started humming a melody to herself, smiling, and not paying attention to where she was going. So of course she crash into a wall. A wall that wasn't suppose to be there in the first place.
A warm wall.
A warm wall with two strong arms that wrapped around her waist, stopping her inevitable fall to the ground.
She frowned, looking up into teal eyes. Her hands spread on the silvery haired man that was currently holding her, and she blushed at the contact. But then she smiled, her hands traveling trough the man's strong chest.
"Oh my! You're strong!" she exclaimed, winking at him.
He blinked at her, frowning, and Minako could of sworn she saw him blushing lightly "Are you ok?" he asked her.
"Oh yes!" she assured him, still smiling "I was just appreciating the view here!" she joked.
Kunzite cleared his throat, obviously uncomfortable, and letting the young woman go. His arms now falling next to his tall, strong frame "Do you need anything?"
The young blonde woman rolled her baby blue eyes at him "It's called a compliment!" she exclaimed, exasperated now "I'm not asking for you to say something back, but the least you could do is say thank you!" she scolded him.
He frowned at her, blinking. But then he smile.
A manly, knowing smile.
"I don't think you need me to give you a compliment" he said, his hands deep in his pockets now, as he took a step to the side, letting her pass.
She growled at him, and was about to go to her original destination, when she heard him whispering in her ear "You already know you're a beautiful woman, Minako"
She stopped dead on her tracks, turning around to face him.
He simply winked at her, absolutely loving the blush on the young woman's cheeks, before turning around himself, and walking away.
Minako stood there, blinking away her surprised. And trying really hard to fight down her blush. Why was she blushing, anyway? She shivered, remembering Kunzite's warm breath on her ear, and then she shook her head. Crazy man!, she thought to herself, walking down the stairs.
She saw the silvery haired man standing next to his sister, talking about something, and the young blonde woman decided to ignore them. She walked to the kitchen, expecting to find a humming, happy Makoto cooking something. As usual.
But the tall brunette girl wasn't there, and the blonde frowned at that. She could already smell the sweet scent of a promising cake coming from the oven, but the teenage girl wasn't anywhere around.
"That's weird" she said to no one in particular, pouring water on the tea pot.
And that's when she saw it.
She frowned at first, not really understanding what her eyes were telling her. But the moment she recognized the tall, slender frame laying on the grass outside, she knew something was wrong.
She ran outside, kneeling in front of the unconscious brunette girl.
"Makoto, Makoto!" she called out to her, shaking her. But the brunette girl didn't react at all, and Minako noticed the small wound on the girl's forehead, bleeding slightly. And she guessed someone must have hit her on the head. Hard.
"Oh, God..." she breath, standing up, scared now.
She needed to go find Kunzite, she needed to tell him about this. She needed to get the girl inside...
A hard hit on her head surprised her, and she fell flat on the grass, right next to the unconscious brunette girl. Darkness followed, surrounding her.
...
Nephrite opened his eyes.
He could feel a terrible headache already pressing his head, and a warm liquid on the back of his neck told him he was bleeding. He was sitting on a chair. Hands on his back, his long legs tided to the chair.
Someone had hit him hard on the head when he was searching around the woods, and now he was...
Where the hell am I?, he frowned, looking around. It looked like a basement.
There was no way for him to know how long he had been unconscious, but the day light coming from the small windows told him it was still morning. Probably almost midday.
A soft groan got his attention, and he took another look around, narrowing his eyes to try to see on the barely illuminated basement.
He saw two figures laying there, tied up to a column.
Green eyes looked up at him, and his frowned deepened, worried now.
Don't move" he warned the brunette girl "You'll make your headache worst" he then looked at the still unconscious blonde woman next to Makoto "How is she?"
The brunette tilted her head to the side, looking at Minako "Sleeping?" she ventured, looking back at him "What the hell...?" she didn't finished her question, already guessing the answer. And her green eyes went wide open, as she struggled with the robs that were holding her down "Haruka!" she exclaimed "We have to warn her!"
"Keep you voice down" Nephrite said, in the most reassuring tone of voice he could master, as he tried to reach his back pocket with his hands "I'm on to it"
One perfect brown eyebrow shut up, questioningly, and Nephrite smiled at her "Just trust me" he said, as his fingers worked fast on his cellphone keyboard.
...
"You look worried" Haruka said to her brother, as she took a seat on the couch, going through her mail.
She didn't got an answer from him, and she wasn't really expecting one, knowing he tended to be a quiet, silent person when he had something on his mind.
So she simply stayed there, her hands working fast on the envelopes. Bill, bill, publicity, bill, she stopped at the big, brown one. It had no tags, no name written down.
Nothing at all.
She opened it up, taking the few papers out. Only, there weren't simple papers. The were pictures. Black and white photographs. A shot of Makoto standing next the oven, with a red circle around her head. The words 'I see her', written down at the bottom of the photograph.
Another one was an image of Hotaru playing the violin outside the house, with Minako and Michiru sitting right next to her. Again, red circles around their heads, and the words 'I see them' written down.
She looked at the next picture, and her throat went dry. There, in black and white, in a really bad definition because of the poor light, she could see two naked bodies laying on a bed.
Two naked bodies she recognized immediately, on a bed she knew all too well. The word 'Interesting', in uppercase, red letters.
She swallowed hard, her hands shaking now, and she looked at the next picture. And her heart stopped beating.
She saw her daughter there, smiling at something she couldn't see, as the small girl stood in the middle of the backyard, playing with the small black cat. And in red letters, the words 'I see HER too', crossed the photograph from side to side.
The sound of a phone ringing reached her ears, and she looked up at her brother. Her face white, her body shaking, as she saw her brother frowning at his cellphone.
"That's weird" he commented, reading Nephrite's number flashing on the small screen. But the look on the tall blonde woman worried him "What is it?" he asked, noticing for the first time the photographs she had in her shaking hands.
Haruka didn't answered him. Instead, she threw the pictures at him, and ran upstairs.
Kunzite took the pictures, his eyes narrowing at the images of all the people living on that house. He looked at his cellphone then, and read the text his partner had just sent to him.
'Inside' was all Nephrite had wrote.
But it was enough for him to understand his partner was alive, and hopefully unharmed, but unable to do anything at the moment.
And it was time for him to take his sister and the girls still upstairs, and get them the hell out of there.
A strong punch on his head made him fell down to his knees, and he looked up in time to see the butt of a gun coming down on him, hitting him hard on his forehead, knocking him out.
The last thing he heard was a scream coming from upstairs, and a male voice whispering in his ear "Finally, they noticed"