Seeking Love
Chapter 12
The sky was turning a dark maroon, and Serenity opened her eyes to an ivory ceiling and a mural of a mermaid swimming in pink coral. Sitting up to a window cracked opened, and curtains blowing in a cool breeze welcomed Serenity back to the present. The moonlight streamed in layering the room in a incandescent glow. Looking around, she saw Kunzite slumped in the chair next to her bed. A slight amount of drool dribbling its way down his chin from the corner of the lip. He's pretty cute... when he's asleep, Serenity thought.
Slipping out of the warm bed, she took a fuzzy wool blanket to cover him. He was sleeping like a rock. Moving his onyx hair out of his eyes with her small hand, a hand shot up and wrapped around her wrist. Serenity jumped back in alarm, her heart beating outside of her chest.
"You're up I see," said Endymion. His eyes still closed.
"You gave me a scare! Don't do that!" Quickly grabbing a sweatshirt laying on a nearby table, Serenity pulled it on. The girl barely had any clothes covering her, and she wasn't even wearing a bra. Sitting back on the cushioned bed, Endymion re-positioned himself to sit straight up in his chair.
"How long have I been sleeping? Have you been here the whole time?" asked Serenity.
Endymion responded in a groggy, but soothing voice. "The others found us at the base of the grandparent tree." YAAAWWWN... "Said we were sleeping, but they couldn't wake us up. Carried us all the way back here, and called a doctor. That's when I finally woke up, and that was two days ago."
She noticed he hadn't answered her latter question, and let it blow to the wind. "The last thing I can recall... was spraining my ankle." Her feet moved in circles, they seemed fine now.
So she doesn't remember, Endymion thought looking disappointed. He didn't know what to do about the situation. Maybe it had all been a dream, an odd one at that.
"Where are the others?" Serenity asked.
"They're around. Couldn't find that weapon, so Ami and Zoisite started their own research on one. You'll have to ask them more about it when you see them. What they said went over my head. Something about DNA restructuring."
"Oh - sounds like them, always talking in scientific jargon. Good then." She let herself lay down on the bed again. Her body was still exhausted, it felt like she had run a marathon - without shoes.
Endymion's eyes caught the delicate curves of the woman's body. Her clothing draped around her waist and bosom. What a strange strange girl. "Hey," he stood up, "want to go somewhere with me?" he asked spontaneously.
Serenity opened her eyes again, the mermaid still staring back at her. Her body was telling her no, but her mind was sick of this room. "This sounds all too familiar, but okay, I'll join you on your little quest."
"I know, I promise we wont go looking for any lizards. How about you find some shoes.. and more decent clothing." He looked away in shame, the two layers of fabric were not enough to cover her budding chest.
The two walked through the silent dark halls. Serenity would have guessed that they were back at the capital with how familiar the place felt. Guess the Royal Family didn't have a knack for decorations. Serenity didn't say a word to Kunzite, she had no clue what to say. All she had on her mind was a lot of blank spaces. It wasn't true that her last memory was her sprained ankle, but the man would think her delirious if she said things about 'seeing with her eyes closed' or 'her trying to save him from falling into a hole.' She sounded loopy even to herself.
Endymion led Serenity to a large room. The walls were made of 100% glass. There weren't even seams to where one piece started, and another ended. Serenity could barely tell she was in a room. Endymion had brought the wool blanket with him, and started to roll it out on the marble floor. Laying down on it, he called the wistful girl over. "Come look."
Giving him an objective continence, she laid down next to him - but not too close. Serenity looked above them. A storm was brewing, dark gray and purple clouds had filled the night sky. Sparks of lightning flashed, leaving crooked lines of pink, green, and blue imprinted on her retinas. It was beautiful! It looked like a dance, a play, put on by the Gods. "Woooow," was all she could get out of her mouth. The sky was mesmerizing.
"I know, right? Just another place I let myself wander to when I was a boy."
"You seemed to always find yourself 'wandering' to strange places huh? Didn't you have any friends?" asked Serenity jokingly.
"I didn't." Endymion said in 'matter of fact' way. Serenity couldn't tell if he was kidding or not. He continued, "I didn't have many friends growing up. The only people I ever played with were the guardians, but we were sorta forced to. I was never outgoing, most people thought I was shy." Endymion rolled onto his side, his arm propping his head up, his eyes staring at Serenity.
"I would never have guessed that," she responded. "Whenever I talk to you, you sound like the master at being number one, an absolute elitist."
The woman had to bring it up... he rolled his eyes. "You judge all too quickly for my taste."
"You're taste? Who said I was judging? Observation, that's all."
"Can't you just be silent for once. You know, enjoy life."
"What, you think I don't enjoy life now?" Serenity sat up.
"I bring you here, and all you do is criticize my behavior. It's not like you really know me!" said Endymion, why did he even try.
"Think what you want. I just speak my mind, there shouldn't be anything wrong with that. I guess you just like your girls to keep everything to themselves, silent."
"I never said that." Endymion rolled around onto his back. This was getting ridiculous.
Serenity focused back onto the sky above her. The lightning began subsiding, and there hadn't even been light raindrops to run down the glass. "I'm sorry..." she puffed out. "Most people are use to me being so forward."
"It's alright. I guess it is hard to meet new people, since we've grown up with the same ones all our lives."
Serenity went through her memories growing up. Now that she put her mind to it, he was right. There was only ever Mina, Makoto, Rei, and Ami. She was always happy though, and that's why it never seemed odd to her until now that she had been so isolated.
"My name is Mina," Serenity sat up and held her hand out to Kunzite.
Endymion gave the girl a raised eyebrow.. "My name... is.. Kunzite," he said hesitantly. A blank slate?
"It is nice to meet you." They shook hands. Endymion wasn't ready to let go, the last time they touched - that he recalled - was when she was desperately trying to save him. Her hands were soft, surprising for a warrior. He brought her hands to his face, strawberries - of course. His other hand rose up and caressed her cheek. Now her eyes searched his in confusion. The spark ring was still there hugging her iris, a continuation of the lightning storm. It had all been real after all. She has no clue what happened to us, he pondered.
He felt a hand press against his chest, and then suddenly pushing him away breaking the entrancing spell.
"What do you think you're doing?" asked Serenity.
"I-I... " he had no clue what to say. "I don't know" he said.
He's back to his usual self. "You were totally and completely trying to hit on me!" she said in astonishment and realization.
"No! No, that's not it."
"Mhmmm?" Like she'd believe that for a second. "I might not have had many friends growing up, but I know men."
"It's not like that!" Endymion protested.
"Better luck next time," she scoffed. "I'm going back. I bet everyone else is worried sick about us." She stood up, and sauntered back where they'd come from.
What an odd woman that Mina girl. She wore so many different faces. Endymion wondered if he would ever have the chance to see past her hard shell exterior. He started to feel a pull towards her. He didn't know what it was, definitely not passion, more like a strong curiosity and longing understanding.
Year: 22nd century, 50th Earth Cycle
"Barricade those entrances," a man in a dark black uniform yelled at his men. Gun shots rang out in the distance, an explosion went off a few miles to the east. A little boy, probably 5 years of age, looked up at the bottom of the man's boots. He'd been hiding in the sewage tunnels since the announcement of evacuation spread, 6 hours. The boys hair had grown past his ears, and brushed against the back of his neck. Mud, and other unthinkable bodily secretion covered his torn clothes and poorly fitted shoes. Hugging his knees to his chest, he kept a piece of cloth wrapped around his mouth to keep out the stench, and to quiet his breathing.
The man passed, and more black shoes stomped on the grate above him sending more debris down. The boy closed his eyes, trying to think of better times. A caretaker making him fresh waffles with strawberries syrup drizzled on top. His stomach grumbled, he hadn't had a scrap of food in two days. He waited by the drains to scavenge for decent edible trash. Since he could remember, he'd been on his own. There were some adults who would give him life advice, or treat him like a temporary son, but he always ended up back on the streets. He might of only been 5, but he knew well enough what was going on, he had to – to survive. "To each his own." An old crippled woman had said to him, weeping on the street corner shaking out an empty can.
"Hey, hey you!" a whisper from the darkness. "Ya, you boy." A face came out of the shadows, another boy with a hanky held to his nose. "How long ya been down here? Any luck?"
His visitor looked to be two years older then him, lanky legs and arms. No meat to speak of on his bones. Looked like he was in the same state as him, homeless and hungry.
"Nah, no food been here for days."
"Hmm.. Stand up," the other boy ordered.
"I'm not a dog."
"Get up," the older repeated.
Warily, he stood up. The other looked him over. Grabbed at a few pieces of his clothing. "You'll do. If you want to live, follow me."
"Why should I?"
"Why shouldn't you? As I see it, your gonna die here anyway."
The two boys went into the darkness, and came upon a barred gate. "See here, you're gonna go through that gap, get to the end of the tunnel. Walk up the ladder, and go get us some food."
"There's no way I'm going to fit through there." The space was only a half a foot wide. "How'd you know I'm gonna bring back the food anyway?" he asked the stranger.
"Cus. There ain't any other way out. Now go! You only got a few minutes."
"Fine." He saw no other way for this to play out.
He put one arm through the gate. His shoulder passed through, his foot. He started struggling when he tried to get his hips through. Taking a deep breath in, he popped out on the other side.
"Good, now get goin."
He tried to run as fast as he could, he barely had any energy left when he found the ladder with his hands. Climbed upwards, the stench started disappearing, and was replaced with fresh baked bread and meats. Checking the area, he saw no one, Scrambling up out of the hole, he saw loaves all around him. He had to be by the royal kitchens. Grabbing a roll, he stuck it in his mouth. He shoved whatever else he could in his clothing, down his pants, in his shirt, wherever. Climbing back down the ladder, he made it back the grate.
"Hand me the bread," the stranger said.
How was he suppose to trust this other boy. The thought crossed him that the older would run away once he gave him the goods. Why not just eat all the bread here? - but that would take time. He'd have to give the bread up, or he wouldn't fit back through. He handed the bread over. The other boy didn't run.
Squeezing back through, the stranger gave him a pat on the back. "Nice, I guess we can be friends now huh?" there was a smile on his face.
"Ya" he said disconcertingly, "I guess we can." It had been a long time since he last remembered anyone giving him a smile.
"Whacha name kid?"
"Taki."
"Nice to meet'cha Taki." He put his hand out like an adult, a shake to seal the deal.
Present Day
Hearing familiar voices, she followed them to a room with a warm fire blazing. She saw that Mina, the Prince, Makoto, Rei, Jadeite, and Nephrite were all drinking something toasty in ceramic mugs. Taking a seat next to Rei, she was welcomed with a big hug from her friend.
"You're finally up! We thought you were turning into sleeping beauty!" Rei exclaimed.
"You feeling alright gurl?" asked Makoto.
"Ya, I'm doing fine. Just tired," replied Serenity.
"You're up!" Ami and Zoisite had just walked in to join the group. She ran over to Serenity and planted a kiss on her cheek. Ami rarely showed emotion, but when it came to Serenity - she was the worry wart.
"Good news everyone, we can go back!" said Kunzite.
"Bad news, we can't go back until tomorrow," finished Zoisite.
"Why? What's the hold up?" asked Makoto.
"Since we failed to find the weapon in the woods, Ami and I have been busy creating a new weapon of our own," said Zoisite. Serenity remembered Kunzite telling her about this..
"We just finished!" added on Ami. Stars were in her eyes, she looked like Mina when she finally got her hands on a new designer purse. "We've calculated, designed, and are in the process of building a variety of new weapons to fight not only the Lacerta Dauthus, but also any other demon we'll face. The downside, it's going to take another day to complete though."
"How is it suppose to defeat other demons, it wont be specialized?" asked Rei.
"That's the genius of it all. It all has to do with DNA. All living things have underlying coding, like a computer chip. As long as we have a sample of DNA from our target, the weapon recodes to break apart the DNA strands," explained Ami, "Kills it instantly. One shot."
"Wow! That's so cool, I knew you two had it in you," congratulated Mina.
Ami and Zoisite beamed at each other. One would have to guess that the two hadn't been doing only research in that lab of theirs.
"Did you two think about what would happen if it got in the wrong hands? If it can recode to any DNA strand, couldn't it be used against us?" asked Serenity, she had to play devils advocate.
"If we don't let it get into the wrong hands, we wont have that problem," said Nephrite.
"I think Serenity has a point," said Endymion. He had been standing in the doorway, sneaky as always.
He's taking my side? That's another first, thought Serenity.
"I think I could put a safety on our design. Something that will make it self destruct if we want it to," suggested Zoisite.
"I have a better idea, we could have our DNA activate the devices. It would need our own personal blood to turn on, but that would mean no need to worry about it being in the wrong hands." said Ami.
"Let's collect some blood then," said Zoisite.
"Since we have another day on Nephros, I think we deserve a 'real vacation'" Kunzite said. "Whose up for a swim, some watermelon, and sun?"
Thanks for the reviews everyone! :D You are all keeping me strong! Also, sorry if you got double notifications for chapter uploads, I saw waaay too many mistakes, and my OCDness called for me to fix them.