Notes: Episode 160, "Dream to be an Adult! The Amazoness' Bewilderment" (Or, "The one where the Quartet help the Senshi with the Coming of Age thing.")
Episode 160
Minako poked her head into the room. The lights were low and she couldn't make out more than vague shadowy shapes. This would never do; Minako was here very specifically to see. She extended her hand and a softly glowing ball of golden light appeared in her palm. Always a favourite trick. She tossed it in the air and stepped into the room. The ball followed, obediently hovering six inches over her head.
"You're not supposed to be here," a quiet voice said at Minako's ankles. "Luna barely allowed Neo-Queen Serenity to visit."
"Pooh, there's lots of things I'm not supposed to do," Minako whispered back, not looking down. "When has that stopped me?"
"Approximately never."
"Damn straight."
She reached the cushions at the far end of the room and knelt down. Artemis joined her, his back straight and his tail swishing.
Minako gazed at the impossibly tiny grey bundle in the center of a continent-sized pink cushion. Watched as her sides expanded and contracted in a steady rhythm. Watched as Diana introduced herself to the world with the most adorable display of cute Minako had ever seen.
"Pretty proud of yourself, huh?" she asked Artemis, though her eyes remained glued to the sleeping kitten.
Artemis somehow managed to puff his chest out even more.
"I guess you earned it. C'mere, sweetheart." Gently, Minako lifted the kitten.
Diana didn't stir. Only an hour old, and already so content, as though simply being here with everyone was all she'd ever wanted. Minako cradled the kitten and kissed the top of her fuzzy head. "You're a good girl, Diana," she whispered.
Artemis watched Minako and Diana, and as he felt tears welling, he didn't try to stop them overflowing.
... ... ...
"Minako-samaaaa!"
Minako stopped her patrol of the palace grounds just as Diana skidded to a stop at her feet. She'd been in business mode, her eyes sharp and alert for anything out of the ordinary, but all that drained away as the tiny kitten flipped end over head then scrabbled to right herself.
Countless enemies they'd faced over the millennia, and Minako might be done in by a kitten saboteur.
Oh well, at least she'd die happy.
"Minako-sama!" Diana repeated through her adorable panting.
Minako scooped her up, supporting her under her front arms while her back legs dangled free. Diana was utterly content to hang like that. She was a willing furry ornament.
"We've been over this. Just call me 'Minako'." She tried to sound firm. She was pretty sure it came out like cooing.
Diana took it seriously all the same. She looked as indignant as it was possible to look while dangling five feet off the ground by your front legs. "I cannot! The great Senshi must be respected at all times!"
Minako could've recited it with her. Very nearly did. But she couldn't stop trying to break the kitten of that habit. If nothing else, her success would drive Luna crazy. "How about just 'Minako-chan' then?"
Diana considered it very carefully. "Okay Minako-chan-sama!" she agreed, and Minako very nearly pitched forward it was so damned cute. She wanted to correct Diana again, tell her this compromise was not in the spirit of her attempt. But it was SO CUTE. Well, maybe leave it like that for a little while.
"Minako-chan-sama!" exclaimed Diana, much to Minako's delight, "I talked to Makoto-sama like you said!"
A broad, smile appeared on Minako's face. She tried to keep it as evil-free as possible. "What did she say?"
"She got very very quiet and thanked me." A crease appeared between Diana's tiny kitten eyebrows. "As I was leaving I think I heard some words which were not nice at all!"
Minako howled with laughter. A nearby gardener had run halfway for shelter before realizing they weren't under attack.
The reaction just seemed to confuse Diana even more. "Did I do it wrong, Minako-chan-sama?"
Unable to hold out for one more second, Minako folded Diana in her arms and tickled her under the chin. Diana giggled and batted at Minako's fingers. "You did PERFECT, Diana. You're a good girl."
The squeal Diana made was full of joy and likely some high-pitched variation on "yay!" It was a bit of a struggle, but after a paw or two in the eye, Diana was draped across Minako's head.
If there was a better way to finish her patrol than with a cat accessory, Minako didn't know what it was.
"What is this thing called a 'pun' Minako-chan-sama?" Diana asked as Minako continued her circuit.
Minako grinned at her willing protégé.
... ... ...
Minako poked her head into the room. The lights were low and she couldn't make out more than vague shadowy shapes.
Fine with her.
She felt numb. She felt the numbness in her impossibly old bones. Centuries ago Minako had lost track of how old she was (untrue, she knew how old she was to the hour). It didn't matter, she said. She felt twenty and how she felt was the only thing that mattered.
Today she felt every one of her millions of hours.
"Diana?" God, was that even her voice? "Diana, are you in here?"
The soft crying was her answer. Minako's eyes adjusted quickly to the darkness, and at the far end of the room she found the cat, on a pink cushion the size of a small continent.
Minako knelt down. "Diana?"
"He's gone!"
"Yeah," Minako said. Even that much was a struggle.
Diana flung herself at Minako, who caught the sobbing cat easily. "Was he proud of me, Minako-sama? Did I get to make him proud of me?"
Minako hugged her close and buried her face in her soft grey fur, fur every bit as soft as the first day Minako had touched it. "He was proud of you." Her voice was thick, but certain. "You're a good girl, Diana."
Diana cried into Minako's chest, and Minako stayed on the floor and cried with her, and told her again and again that she was a good girl.
... ... ...
"Minako-sama!"
Minako stopped on her way out of the palace grounds. It was a dark, dreary day in Crystal Tokyo, but they all seemed like that now, didn't they? She vaguely remembered when every day had seemed full of sunlight and promises. Had they ever been that young?
Minako tried to find a smile. She hadn't really smiled since Ami had died a few hundred years ago and started all this, but she'd gotten good at faking it.
That was before Serenity a few months ago, though. And Rei just yesterday …
She was out of people to even bother trying for.
But Diana was different. Diana had always been different. So Minako dug deep and found a smile, and as she gazed down at the little cat (not so little anymore), she found the smile was a lot more genuine than she'd expected.
"Minako-sama, you cannot leave!"
The laugh Minako felt rising was a bitter one, but she pushed it down. "Leaving's all I CAN do, kiddo."
Diana locked her down with an angry glare. She looked so much like Luna then, and Minako felt another wave of loss and weariness wash over her. "Small Lady needs you!" the cat insisted. Her voice had long outgrown its high-pitched squeak, but Minako sometimes fancied she could still hear it, and that made her feel better, for a moment.
"She's queen now," Minako said, shifting her bag to the other shoulder. It contained everything she couldn't bear to part with. She wasn't sure how to feel about how light it was. "This is her show, but she'll never really take the stage while she's got me in the wings."
"But—"
Dropping to one knee, Minako held Diana's eye. "She doesn't need me," she insisted, and there would be no arguing it. Her expression softened. "She DOES need you." Diana geared up to protest, but Minako cut her off. "We all need our cats. Trust me."
"I …" Fear and uncertainty flashed across Diana's face, but they faded as her determination won out. "I will do it!" Diana vowed.
"I know you will." Minako ran her hand through the grey fur one last time, trying to commit the feeling to memory. "You're a good girl, Diana," she whispered, and stroked her thumb across the cat's cheek to brush away the tears.
As she stood again, Minako's own eyes were dry. She winked at Diana and held up two fingers in a V-for-victory, then turned and walked away without a glance back.