The next weeks were basically over in a blink of an eye, even tho they were basically all the same. Full with training, training and training. Training in AICA, Training with Team 1 and training with Setsuna.
He got better and began to stand his ground against her but damn she was one hell of a warrior with her Garnet Rod. Also they now began to function as an unit. Especially when they were both fighting with long weapons. If only he got a light sword.
Apart from training with her, he also trained with the other Senshi, but mostly fighting alongside, very much to Haruka's discontent. She still hadn't had the chance to spar against him.
Too bad. Not.
He only wished he could have spent more time with Rei in the last time but except for two small trainings where they trained fighting along each other, which one time ended in quite a heated dispute, he didn't see her much.
He also proposed the idea to train the Senshi with weapons if they haven't yet.
Especially Hotaru and Chibiusa took a liking in training with guns and shooting at the range.
It didn't take long, till both of them requested their own guns. And after a lot of persuading their mothers both were allowed to get their own weapons and gear, if it would be stored with Team 1 too.
SunTzu both took them to Bob, the Chief Armorer.
Hotaru wanted something compact with stopping power, Chibiusa opted for something quiet she could use out of the shadows. As if her hair wouldn't be prominent.
Kids these days.
Nodding understandingly, Bob, the big man, disappeared in his workshop and came back with two Cases.
One was containing a Kriss Vector SMG in .40 for Hotaru and the other a HK MP5SD for Chibiusa. Both cases included optics and other accessories too.
The kids were happy, even if the "gifts" were more than questionable and after picking up Micro Chestrigs and Plate Carriers for them, the rest of the afternoon was spent at the range.
Strangely enough, SunTzu didn't got hit worse by Sailor Pluto the next day. On the contrary, Setsuna-Mama, even wearing flannel to sport the right look, joined the girls for basic training at the range the next afternoon, coldly stating that being trained in all kinds of weapons wasn't the worst the worst thing to be in these times.
The woman that made staff based combat an art also was quite the good shooter.
"I already have some experience." She stated mysteriously between two magazines she shot from SunTzu's Block 2 Rifle, hitting the target with round after round.
The two younger Senshi needed some training though, although Hotaru was a natural talent. He instructed them and corrected their stances when necessary.
From outside it probably looked like a very twisted family outing.
One time he told Hotaru how to more effectively use the front grip and she landed the next salvo with loud pings directly at the target.
She secured her weapon and smiled like she just won Olympic gold.
"See, just listen to the old man sometimes." SunTzu told her. Setsuna was standing next to him and turned around to him, almost leaning onto him. Their gazes met and for a fraction of a second he saw a fire in her dark cherry red eyes, but this time it was not anger towards him.
More like a longing… no, that couldn't be. Not her. He saw that wrong.
Probably anger because his remark. She quickly looked away and went over to the next alley where Chibiusa was training.
Soon they finished up and the two teenagers were satisfied with today's progress. Setsuna was back to her usual Ice Queen demeanor.
When they were back at the armory, he got word that the supply with Blasters and Blaster Ammo, still wasn't really sufficient and that they had Major problems. Bob complained, that if they had the budget they could just buy without the GA assignment but that wasn't an option right now.
Later that night he thought about that and also remembered that Ami made some comments that war was expensive. Did they have a budget problem?
He could imagine that the governments of the world weren't too happy with a young Queen leading the planet and protecting her crown as official instated Reign by the Galactic Alliance.
He had an idea in sudden and called AICA. There was that feeling in his gut telling him something.
"Hey AICA, can you check the stock trade for Earth products for me? On a Galaxy-wide level. I need the sectors where most money could be made."
"Just a Minute, calculating now. By the way, I'm a starfighter not a slot machine!"
"I love you too."
Two minutes later AICA came back again.
"Results show, that Earth on a Galaxy-wide level of stock trade is pretty unimportant right now. What stands out and I predict a steep growth in are the entertainment and media sectors. People in the Galaxy are acquiring a taste for earth's music and movies. Right now companies are working on a way to get movies converted to Holo Dramas."
Interesting.
"AICA, take the rest of our bonus and invest in these sectors. Let me know somewhen if It worked out."
"If you say so. Not my money. Good that the Kingdom pays my fuel and Tibanna Gas."
Let's hope it stays like that, SunTzu thought. But let's give it a try, the few hundred credits wouldn't kill him, he didn't need much as he was.
The days went by with Training, training and more training. The moral was great, the last two missions proofed that the Taskforce was on a good path.
Since everything went so smooth lately and training paid off, the three wingman decided to go out for a drink. Since he never done it the girls decided to show him the Izakaya experience. They had a small room for themselves and ordered food and drinks, the pilots opted for beer, of course, while Michiru opted for Lemon Sour.
The food was good and the drinks cold.
"Setsuna will join for a drink too." Michiru announced after looking at her phone.
A few minutes later the older Senshi arrived, wearing a black pencil skirt and a black blazer, coat under her arm, entering the room where the other three were sitting around the table.
"Hello Setsuna, how are you?" The girls asked.
The dark haired woman sat down too, next to Michiru who sat opposite of Haruka, who in turn sat next to SunTzu.
She let out a big sigh.
"Hard day at the hospital today. I really could use a drink. How are you two?"
"We're good, kicked some Terra Squadron ass today. And the Larty-Pilots got their share too." Haruka announced proud.
"Don't forget that Marvin almost got you, if a certain Bavarian wouldn't have helped!" SunTzu chimed in, mocking Haruka.
"Oh yeah? As if you would have dodged that Gunship's Missile in combat!" She said back, angrily.
"Of course, a rookie in a ARC would have dodged that." SunTzu countered and nodded a hello to Setsuna. The waiter came and brought a glass of beer for the later.
"Sorry, they're always like that." Michiru excused the two squabblers to Setsuna.
"Looks like they became good friends." Setsuna replied, observing the two pilots in their heated discussion.
"Friends? More like siblings. Ever competing siblings." She shook her head and leaned in to Setsuna. "Exactly what Haruka needs tho. Someone to hold her ego down a bit. And I don't know if SunTzu would have settled in so easy without Haruka. They can be annoying from time to time, tho."
"I can imagine that." Setsuna said still eyeing the pilots.
The two woman clinked glasses.
"Guys, you don't want to toast with us?" Michiru said with a fake angry voice.
Both pilots abruptly went silent and grabbed their glasses.
"Kanpai!"
They enjoyed their food and the two pilots downed beer after beer. Michiru didn't go slow with drinks either and switched to Oolong Hai. The pilots were debating again and really started to work on her nerves tonight.
She leaned in to Setsuna again, who was having her second beer, pretty tipsy already
"Tonight they're even worse than usual. Just because our super pilots won a little training fight against people that have exact same big ego. Well except Marvin maybe. Pilots." She sighed and took a big sip of her Longdrink.
"Teasing is a sign of affection." Setsuna told her, looked at the two ever fighting pilots and took a sip from her beer.
"Haruka, come here and give me a kiss! All that fighting and not showing me affection." She pouted.
Haruka got up and rounded the table, letting herself down to her girlfriend and hugged her.
Setsuna and SunTzu looked at each other and shared a warm smile.
They toasted to the couple and finished their drink.
"I'm going now, Hotaru sleeps over at the palace but I'm really tired." Setsuna said and packed her stuff, putting a Yen bill on the table. Haruka friendly slid the bill back and shook her head at Setsuna. With a sigh the other woman put the bill back in her wallet.
"I'll accompany you to the subway." Haruka stated and got up, getting their jackets from the coat rack and helping Setsuna in her coat.
"SunTzu, entertain Michiru in the meantime, will ya Mate?"
"Aye aye Chief."
"Don't worry, SunTzu at least will give me some attention, without asking. Not like a certain blonde." Michiru really was drunk by now.
Haruka and Setsuna left and Michiru sat down next to SunTzu. The waiter came with another round of drinks for the two.
"Shouldn't you take it easy by now?" SunTzu asked her.
"No. I don't. I'm annoyed with you two tonight. Always this fighting! You two are so similar to each other." She complained, taking another swig.
"You two don't even take notice of me. Although I made myself so pretty tonight!" She took off her jacket and showed what was underneath.
She was wearing skintight black jeans and a purple corsage and a tight black Stola with a collar over her shoulder. Her hair was curled up beautifully too. She maybe was right, the outfit deserved more attention but after all she was his best friend's girlfriend and his wingman.
"Don't you think I'm beautiful tonight?" She said and took another sip. He downed most of his beer in one sip.
Where was Haruka? And did she even bother.
"Ahem, you know you're a very attractive woman Michiru. Haruka is a very lucky girl."
She started smiling and played with a stand of her hair.
"You know, SunTzu, you're a very attractive man too."
"Thank you." He smiled shyly.
She put her hand on his and started caressing it while she took her glass with the other and took another sip of her highball.
"You know, it's been ages, since I had something with a man." She put the glass down and started to run her finger up his chest. She leaned In coming ever closer to his face with hers.
"Excuse me a second. I need to go to the restroom." He stood up and stormed out of the room. He pulled out his phone after he went into the restroom.
"Haruka, where the hell are you?"
"Problem on the Rail line. Setsuna just left. What's the matter?"
"Michiru is quite drunk. And she gets a bit too close if you know what I mean!"
"Oh. Yeah, sorry. She can get a bit touchy when she's drunk. And also she likes to scram in that state. So please get back there and take care that she stays put."
Haruka hung up.
Great. Haruka made that sound way easier than it was. He sighed.
He entered the room again and was happy to see that she was at least still there. Wait, did she had ordered another round.
She saw him and motioned him over with her finger
"About time you come back. I missed you already", she purred. "Now get back here."
"Oh, I'm good over here."
"No buts!" She half crawling, half walking came over to him.
"Sit down!" She pulled him down and moved up next to him. "Here have a drink." She filled his glass with beer while she snuggled onto him.
Fuck. This was not fair.
She handed him the glass, basically sitting down on his lap now.
"Here drink." She shoved the glass into his face and made him chug a big sip down. Some of the liquid was spilled and dripped down his chin.
"You mind?" She purred into his ear and licked the drip away.
"Delicious. And your beard tickles." She smiled seductive.
That made his body react in a natural, but right now, unfitting way.
"I see you finally noticed me." She let her hand briefly glide over the growing bulge in his pants. Her other hand caressed his face.
How much could a man take? Haruka you better get here in the next ten seconds.
He shook his head to come clear, stood up and took a step back.
She took hold on his shirt and pulled herself up too. Because her intoxication she lost her balance and fell into SunTzu who got stopped in his fall by the wall.
She basically was in his arms now, her face looking up to his. Her hand was at his cheek again. Her eyes locked on his.
"Mon petite boche." She whispered in french. "You think Haruka would mind a little kiss between us? Especially if it's not on the mouth?"
Of course she would. She'd boil me alive. And I can't even blame her.
In that moment the door slid open next to Michiru and Haruka stepped in.
"Oh Haruka, good that you're back. Me and the new coworker were just about to "deepen" our relationship." She smiled a wry drunken smile and pulled Haruka next to her while her other hand was still on SunTzu's shirt.
"What about a Threesome? You both could eat me out." She whispered as she pulled both pilots next to her.
Haruka looked at SunTzu, who had a shocked expression and bursted out into laughter.
She grabbed Michiru from behind and pulled her closer, smelling her hair.
"We have to go home now Baby, you're drunk." Haruka flustered into Michiru's ear.
Michiru let her hand glide down SunTzu's shirt and pants again one last time and then pouted an sad "Ohhh."
"Can we take him with us? Please, I'll promise I'll take good care of both of you. Juste en peu de Ménage a trois." She asked or rather, teased her girlfriend.
SunTzu still had the shocked expression in his face. And his pants were about to explode too.
Haruka smiled again, seeing his impression.
"He has to be fit tomorrow as we have to be too."
Seemingly disappointed the teal haired girl turned around and fell into Haruka's arms.
"I'm sleepy, bring me to bad."
Haruka looked up to SunTzu's face again and shrugged.
They paid and left the place, taking a taxi home. Michiru wanted to sit in the middle, which she explained could do in bed too, but Haruka somehow could park her at the window. Two minutes after the taxi left, she was sleeping.
"I'm sorry. I should have warned you." Haruka said.
"You should have. Not that I'm remotely her type or gender." SunTzu replied.
"Oh, actually. I'm the lesbian. She's 50-50. Or rather 80-20, but yeah, she's bi."
Internally a certain Bavarian starfighter pilot mad a lot of signs of the cross and thanked the lord for being so chastely.
The car turned into the street SunTzu had his apartment in.
"Are you angry? I'm sorry but I could hardly hold her back." SunTzu apologized, keeping his voice low to not wake Michiru up.
"No, it's cool. Like I said, she sometimes has this when she's drunk. Especially when I don't give her enough attention. Usually not with guys tho. I'm sorry if it was too much."
"It's okay, although I'm also just a human." SunTzu paused and smiled wryly. "Between us? You lucky motherfucker. I'm having a cold shower now. Good night."
They did their special fist bump greeting and SunTzu opened the door.
"And i bring her to bed and hope she doesn't vomit all over the place. Love is great, isn't it?" Haruka smiled and gave a small two finger salute.
That cold shower was much needed.
The next day, after a modest training session with Setsuna, who renounced from kicking his ass today and rather went for a combined arms CQC training with his pistol and her rod he got ready for some flight training.
A contrite looking Michiru appeared in the hangar with a grinning Haruka.
The Tealhaired walked up to SunTzu and bowed down to almost a 90 degree.
"I'm so sorry. I was too drunk and and didn't want to harass you!" She apologized. She really looked embarrassed on top of tired.
"Hey, hey. It's all good. Oolong Hai is a hell of a drug. Happens. Were all just people."
She straighted up.
"I don't know what happened to me yesterday." She really was moved.
"It's also mine and Haruka's fault, we shouldn't have fought the whole evening and took care of you." SunTzu comforted her. Michiru put on a constrained smile and nodded to him.
"See Haruka, that's how you treat a girl. Not making jokes about it all the time."
Michiru started arguing or rather yelling annoyed at Haruka and they left, leaving a smiling SunTzu. Haruka was brought back down to earth pretty hard from an angry Michiru.
"Oh, and by the way Haruka! If you don't take care, I'll take my shot at him again! Sober!" She yelled as they walked away, looking back smiling and taking a wink at SunTzu, before going on and chewing Haruka, whose jaw stood open now, out some more. Using him to annoy Haruka for her bit ego made SunTzu smile too. Michiru really knew how to push Haruka's buttons and put him in his grounds. They were really made for each other. And he was glad they were flying together, he could have ended with way worse wingmen.
Soon it was middle of April and Rei's Birthday was approaching fast.
Two nights before, Ami and SunTzu were on their way home. He humed and hawed in the car.
"What's the matter? You're not good?"
"Well", he sighed. "Need your help with something."
"Sure, what is it."
"As you know Rei's Birthday is approaching and she kinda told me i'm invited for the party, so I figured I need a gift. But I really suck at this and don't have any idea what to gift her."
"Typical Male. But it does mean something that Rei wants you around for her birthday. Well, let's see. We know her for years so it's easy to find something for us. Hm, ah yeah. I'll send you the adress of a perfumery down in Juban. Go there and tell them I sent you and that you're looking for a gift for Rei. The owners are friends of ours, Rei goes there all the time, they'll know of something fitting."
"Thanks. What would I be without you."
"Probably living at the base first and foremost." They both had to laugh.
The next day, he had some time before training since Setsuna was working at the hospital and Flight Training was set in the afternoon, he went to the Juban Arcades after a morning workout.
He was wearing his uniform already, as he entered the perfumery.
In the small store, which was pretty packed with customers, were four woman working, one could see that they were taking care of their beauty. Also they seemed to really love what they were doing and offered great service to their customers
Since the two woman in the store were busy as well as the two at the check out he strolled through the store and checked out different perfumes.
He was looking at a shelf of floral and fruit based perfumes when one of the woman, a tall woman with a long blonde braid asked him if he'd need help.
"Ohayou, Dr. Mizuno told me to come here. I'm looking for a gift for a certain friend."
"Oh, you mean Ami. Yes, she mentioned that you come over. A gift for Rei, right? Koan, could you come here please?"
One of the woman, she had long purple hair, came over from the check out.
"What can I do for you?" She asked SunTzu.
"Koan, that's the young Man Ami was talking about." The blonde woman told her sister.
"Oh, yes. The Gift for Rei. Thanks, Berthier. I'll take it from here." The purple haired Woman said.
"So, you must be the new pilot. I heard from you already." Koan said.
"Name's SunTzu." He extended her hand and she shook it. "Depending from whom probably not the best." He smiled.
"Hello, I'm Koan. Well, Rei told me something that you like to live dangerous but safed the Senshi quite some times already. She mentioned something from a robotic cockroach last time."
"Oh, you know about the Senshi?"
"Yeah, We might not always been on best terms but we became friends years ago." She said, the first part sounded mysteriously.
"I see."
"Rei and me are good friends. Ami told me you're looking for a birthday gift for her. You two are not dating or something? I guess she would have told me."
"No, no. She just invited me to hang out on her birthday and I don't want to go there without a gift."
"I see. Give me a second." Koan walked to a nearby shelf and pulled out a beautiful decoded flacon. She took it and came back.
"That's one of her favorite perfumes, if I remember right, it's been a while since she got one. Here, smell it." She sprayed a small amount on her wrists and he smelled it. It smelled floral, like Sakura and also he could smell something like Almond. It was like perfect for Rei.
"This smells wonderful. I'll take it." He said, daydreaming for a second how nice it would be to smell this fragrance on her.
"Great Choice, I'll wrap it in gift paper already."
The fragrance was packed and he paid. He then said his goodbyes to the four sisters and they said, they probably would see each other tomorrow again.