SunTzu and Minako had finished the promotional, or rather propaganda, photo shoot in front of the Headquarters of the Armed Forces of the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances, a huge, brutalistic cut, duraconcrete block in the Senatorial District. Mostly it had been Minako posing in front of the building, the raised flags of the various branches of the Galactic Alliance's Military in the background. Sometimes it had been with AICA in the background, and there also had been the occasional shot with SunTzu on it, like one where Minako was sitting on AICA's wing in her grey uniform saluting into the camera and SunTzu sitting in the cockpit, both showing their best pearly-white fake smiles.
SunTzu had been everything but willing to do these pictures but he knew about propaganda and that they needed more manpower, so although he wasn't thrilled to do so, he had participated in the shooting.
He had his reasons and apart from being a tool to make more individuals enlist, he wasn't sure how Setsuna could take these pics, hoping she wouldn't get jealous.
In the afternoon they were back on Earth and just as SunTzu thought Minako asked him to take her back to the studio.
After a quiet flight home, which both had used for another nap, the sleep deprivation really had kicked in, now that they finally had time to take a breather, AICA and SunTzu dropped Minako on the roof of the building the studio was inside in. Minako had almost smothered SunTzu with a hug from behind as goodbye before she left the cockpit. As AICA descended again, SunTzu's trademark two finger salute and Minako's trademark blown kiss met as final goodbye and SunTzu was off back to base to bring AICA home and then off home himself.
He wasn't at home for half an hour before Michiru called, she wanted to rearrange her atelier and Haruka could have needed someone to help her to do so. She told him that the chance that Setsuna would show up was given as well. SunTzu didn't have to hesitate after hearing that, and a smiling Michiru thanked him and told him that they'd see each other tomorrow.
As soon as Michiru put down the phone her facial expression twitched. She hadn't completely lied when she said there was a chance that Setsuna might show up, that chance was always given, given their relationship, but these weekend La Médecin was working over at the Soichi Tomoe Hospital, treating people with that new Bacta therapy she and the Jedi had developed. And Setsuna was a workaholic after all. And also, Michiru knew that Setsuna would use her work as escape from facing her feelings and SunTzu even more now. Anyways, her atelier needed its rearrangement urgently to bring in some fresh air into her artistic flow and it was too much for Haruka to handle alone.
So SunTzu's Saturday consisted of assembling and de-assembling furniture and carrying heavy sculptures and other goods of art around with Haruka while Michiru instructed them. Good thing Hotaru was on Coruscant given the amount of swearing done from Haruka and SunTzu, aimed mostly at each other.
But Michiru didn't mind, although neither her soul mate nor her brother from another mother were much of craftsmen, not to mention that their consumption of fuel to stay in Haruka's world, beer in their cases, would have been so plain uneconomical that if they had been machines they'd never would have been made series, even she, as an artist and not engineer saw that. But after a few hours her kingdom of art was exactly how she wanted it to be and the graceful artist was delighted.
Apart from having her creative space the way wanted it to be, seeing these two adorable dorks trying their best to please their teal-haired mermaid and craft the room to her specific instructions, made her happy that these specific models these two were, were here in her apartment. Uneconomical fuel consumption and occasional case of all thumbs hem and haw.
And then the bad conscience hit her. For his diligent help SunTzu should have gotten his chance to spend some time around Setsuna. Or better not, alone the name of the place her Outer Senshi Sister was at that moment gave Michiru enough remembrance why there were reasons Setsuna tried to retain from letting feelings grow in herself. Putain, it was really not easy between these two.
Michiru sighed internally, maybe she could thank SunTzu at least with a hearty meal, cooked with love.
Having had the final battle with his sleep deficit SunTzu slept out on Sunday. Until afternoon his day was rather relaxed, he did some chores, wrote with Hotaru, who together with Rei had shopped a few shops on Coruscant empty. Mentioning that Yuichiro had invited both with handing Rei his platin credit chip, sent a sting of jealousy through SunTzu and he made a mental to invite Hotaru to a shopping tour as soon as possible. And use the chance to casually ask her mother to come along as well.
Nevertheless SunTzu's peaceful and quiet Sunday was interrupted by a message from command, the Taskforce would leave for another mission in two days again. It wasn't a surprise, they knew the stay on Earth would be short lived, but that also meant a busy Monday. To at least end his Sunday on a great note, SunTzu decided to hit up his favorite sushi spot. The food on the Eternal and the Far Side was great, but it didn't hit like your favorite restaurant.
As expected Monday became a busy day, but at least Hotaru was back and seemed to be happy to see him. And she seemed more than eager to get back in the fight, just like her superior and her two flying foster mothers. Busy as the day was, time just kept on flying away and for the night SunTzu decided to stay on base. At least he seemed to have gotten more responsible as he slept alone and sober in a bunk bed on the Air Base and not completely trashed on the floor of the barracks, he thought to himself before falling asleep.
Three days after Minako and SunTzu had came back from Coruscant, the Taskforce had found itself embarking again.
As soon as the ships were in Hyperspace to the CTE, a small briefing was scheduled.
Once again they would go where people were needed and so the Taskforce was back under control of the Ninth and would head to Eriadu first before it would begin to patrol a part of the Lipsec Run, a small trade route from the South's secret capital Eriadu to it's name giving planet Lipsec. It wasn't the most contested area but the all still needed to be on their toes while patrolling from Eriadu to Isde Naha, the opening to the backwater part of the Greater Javin Region.
After a small stop in the Coruscant-System to pick up the Fighting Senator and the her accompanying Grand Knight, the Taskforce jumped into Hyperspace again for the four hour trip to Corellia and then down to Eriadu, where they would arrive approximately in two days.
The starfighter pilots had mixed feelings about the highly probable quiet and uneventful mission, Hotaru was looking forward for some extra time in AICA , Michiru wouldn't have mind a quiet mission, while Haruka was already cursing the boring patrol missions they had coming up. SunTzu understood his best friend very well but he actually was content about the mission. Quiet missions meant downtime, and not only for them but also for the med bay. Maybe he could find some time to be around Setsuna. If she wanted to have hum around, of course. Would she want to spent time with him?
A day later SunTzu was on his way to the medbay. Officially to see how Minako was doing after the long weekend and see if they needed someone to donate blood or needed any other help.
A few corridors away he stumbled into Admiral Artemis, the white-haired shapeshifter seemed to be on the way to the medbay as well.
"Good Afternoon, Admiral."
"Oh, hello SunTzu. On the way to the medbay?"
"Affirmative, Sir. Wanted to see if they need any help."
"Exemplary. I'm on the way to the ward as well."
"Oh, I hope nothing is wrong."
"No, I just wanted to see how Cadet Aino is doing."
"I see. Then we have the same way. By the way, do you have any wishes for tonight's episode of the Nightshift?"
While the two men further approached the medbay they were talking about the ship's radio show which would air tonight and would be hosted by the German pilot once again.
They just had arrived at the door to the medbay when said blast door opened and a furious Neo Queen Serenity stormed out, followed by a for once sheepishly looking Minako.
"YOU! Oh, the audacity to even show up here! What have you done to my Senshi?"
She pointed at SunTzu and headed towards him with fast steps and an angry look on her face.
Artemis turned to SunTzu, who had frozen, looking completely dumbfounded, not having any idea what he had done now again.
"Captain?"
"Usagi… please." Minako tried to calm down her Ruler.
"Oh Gods, I knew it. She took you along because it was a lover's getaway. You're pregnant Minako, aren't you?" A visible nervous and shocked Artemis asked his protege, his face becoming a shade similar to his hair.
"What?!" Both blonde women yelled out at once.
"Wha… no. NO! I'm not pregnant. I can assure you that!"
"No, Artemis! The First Knight made the Senshi of Time retreat to the Space-Time Door."
"I did what?!" SunTzu yelped, he hadn't seen Setsuna since ever they had boarded, as he had been so busy, and this morning none of the Senshi had appeared for training, so he had trained with Master Cilghal instead.
"Usagi, dearest queen! If you would let me explain." Minako chimed in, putting a hand on the other blonde's elbow.
"Fine. But you'll stay right there, Mister! Artemis make sure he doesn't vanish." The Queen said and pointed at SunTzu again before she turned around to talk with Minako in private.
SunTzu shot Artemis a glance, the color had come back to the Fleet Officer's face and the shock had made room for skepticism.
After a moment Serenity turned around again.
"You're lucky. I didn't know that it's completely voluntary from Pluto's side to spent some time at that door." She began to walk away. "But I'll have my eyes on you." She walked past SunTzu, stopping at besides him and made a two finger gesture from her eyes to SunTzu, whose eyes followed her departure, eyebrows furrowed.
After a moment she stopped again, turned around and repeated the motion with an austere look on her face.
As soon as the Neo Queen was out of earshot, Artemis, now glaring at SunTzu, began to speak.
"Captain? Would you mind to enlighten me what in the card board box is going on with you and Sailor Pluto?"
Before the still dumbfounded pilot could answer the First of the Senshi, having stopped behind the two officers, chimed in.
"To not let you die dumb my dear Artemis, Sailor Pluto and SunTzu had a grave talk with each other about something. To ponder about the subject of the conversation in a more sedately environment, Sailor Pluto has retreated to the Space-Time-Door. But don't worry, she is on standby if we need her."
"And what was the topic of that conversation?"
"That is none of your concern my dear Catmiral."
The white-clothed, white-haired Mau shot another skeptical glance at SunTzu.
"Fine. Apparently you are doing well, which means the goal of my visit to see how you are doing is accomplished. I'll be at my study then." Artemis snorted out at Minako and turned around on his heel, tramping away.
"You're the best for checking on me! Love you Cat Dad!" Minako yelled after him after a few seconds, making him stop, glance at her and blush before he continued his way, smiling.
"Phew… so much drama." Minako let out after Artemis was gone and then grimaced at SunTzu.
"Sorry. Usagi didn't wanted to listen to me before. Setsuna and Love is a delicate matter."
"Not your fault. So, I made her flee the ship? Great."
"Aww, SunTzu. It's not like that. She's just… introspective. Yeah, introspective. It's hard for her to grasp. She needs to be completely alone for a bit she told me."
"Sounds exactly like she wanted to get away. I see." SunTzu nodded, trying to keep a neutral expression on his face. "Listen, I'm gonna check on AICA. If you need any help here let me know."
SunTzu was gone before the compassionate looking Minako could say a thing more.
The doctor-to-be let out a big sigh.
"So much drama…"
SunTzu retreated into AICA's cockpit, under the guise of a thorough system check up he sat inside the closed cockpit and tried to shield himself from the rest of the known universe, he even had turned AICA's AI off, too high was the risk that she would sense that something was off with him. He needed to be alone as well, to think about how majorly he really had fucked up.
That Setsuna needed to be alone was one thing, but that she had disappeared to the most secluded place possible was something completely different. Had she lied? Maybe she didn't have feelings for him and just wanted to be polite to not hurt him. Or trigger any negative response she probably expected from him. Why had he told her about his feelings? And spoil the day of Hotaru's promotion? He was an Idiot. I-D-I-O-T.
Insecurity crept into him, up to a point where questioned himself if it was the right thing to stay.
No, Setsuna had told him she wanted him to stay. She had told him to never leave again, right? Or could that have been a lie as well?
SunTzu felt desperate.
Suddenly a light knock on the cockpit startled him and made him get back into the here and now.
From the inside he could see that Karlena was standing in front of the A-Wing.
SunTzu brushed his hand through his face and then opened the canopy.
"Everything okay? You've been in there for quite some time. And you look like something unpleasant happened." The Devaronian asked him.
"Oh, no. Just slept a bit unwell. That's why I took longer here, I'm having a bit of problems concentrating today."
"Then I suggest you get a nap in now, today's Wednesday, so I guess you won't get enough sleep tonight as well. And we need you to be well-rested and ready out there." Karlena told him in her motherly way and SunTzu nodded slowly, before he answered.
"You're right. I should get some more rest in as long as I still can."
A minute later he was on the way back to his room. Maybe a nap wasn't the worst idea, although he probably had to use Jedi Relaxation methods to fall asleep.
SunTzu awoke again after someone knocked on his door, he didn't know if he had napped for four minutes or four days and so it took a moment until he made it to his cabin's door.
He opened it to find nothing. He leaned out and looked left and right but there was nobody.
And then his gaze fell to the floor in front of his door and he noticed there was a small folded piece of paper lying in front of it.
He grabbed it and unfolded the simple piece of paper and immediately recognized the handwriting, a mixture between the smearing of a doctor or scientist and the noble handwriting only a noble lady was capable to have. Setsuna had wrote a letter to him.
Not knowing if this was good or bad sign his brows furrowed while he took a look at it and then disappeared in his room again.
He immediately sat down on the bed and began to read it.
Hello SunTzu,
I heard you got into trouble because my decision to retreat myself for a few hours. Take my apology for this.
I wanted to also let you know, that why I do need time to process everything in solitude, it doesn't change the things that I told you, all my words were the truth. Please don't take my fear of feelings as mean to leave again, this is something I don't want you to do.
Setsuna
Seeing right through me and what I'm thinking about as always…
SunTzu set the letter down, at least she made it clear that she wanted him to stay. And as always her words, even though written down this time, calmed him down.
Setsuna, I don't have any idea how you always do it, but my mood is better once again…
And then SunTzu not only remembered that he had a radio show to prepare, he also remembered something else, something important for his current state of mind. Something Marvin had told him at the beginning of the War, it was about entertaining your comrades. No matter how one felt, good, bad, sad or joyful, if you do something to push the moral and spirits of your fellow warriors, do it as best as you can. These individuals were all away far from home, and all of them had their package to carry as well, which meant it was your job to let them forget about the dangers and sorrows of war for a few hours. The thankfulness you'd get back in return would wash away all your bad thoughts as well. SunTzu remembered his old mentor's wry grin as Marvin told him that the tricky part was just to get prepared to do so.
How right you were old friend…
A few hours later, SunTzu was in the room that Artemis had dedicated for the radio show, entertaining the troops onboard of the ships of Taskforce Sol with music and witty moderation. Ever since they had started to do the show again, the numbers of individuals calling in to request songs and greet their unit, their friends or their comrades in whole had grown. A few weeks after SunTzu's return people sometimes couldn't get through because the lines were so full. At least in the first few hours, in the last hours of the night cycle, it was usually more relaxed and quiet as only the guys on duty and the smaller night crew were listening in.
SunTzu had started on his own, Artemis only had checked on him before the show, being seemingly annoyed, but since he didn't let it out on SunTzu the later had the impression Artemis had talked with Minako again to clear things up.
It was getting late and most of the crew members and soldiers onboard were on their way to bed.
After a call from one of the guys from the third Battalion, requesting the song for his fellow comrades on the ship, of course just to tease them, "In the Navy" was playing right now and SunTzu was enjoying a cup of coffee, while the song was playing.
Suddenly the door to the room opened and Yuichiro trudged inside. The Warrior Monk looked tired and dejected.
Brows furrowed, SunTzu took off his headset while Yuichiro sat down at the chair opposite of SunTzu.
"Mind if I hide here?"
"Hide? From what?"
Yuichiro shrugged as if it was clear. "Rei."
"Why would you hide from Rei?"
"PMS. She can be a bit IMPULSIVE when it hits her. Like even more than usual."
"Oh, you tell me. One day she threw a ice cream pint after me because I accidentally brought regular chocolate and not dark chocolate."
"Uhhh, big mistake. Consider yourself lucky you're still roaming this Galaxy."
"I do. But let's be fair, she usually gets all cuddly after angrily spitting fire for a day or two."
"True. It's just hard sometimes to survive to that point."
SunTzu nodded sympathetically, he knew. And he could see that Yuichiro was happy to have someone to talk to, who understood, that even if you're a girlfriend was a Magic Woman, Reincarnation of Interplanetary Royalty and the Senator of Sol, she still was a human being with all too human behavior.
"Give me a sec, I have to take the next caller and announce the next song. The lines are going crazy right now. I bet it's the crewmen trying to get their revenge on the troopers."
SunTzu took a caller, he was right and the crew took on a revenge on the ground dwellers.
SunTzu let the song play with a smile.
"Good thing I'm a snub pilot."
"And apparently one of the best ever."
SunTzu eyes widened, had Yuichiro just praised him?
"That's at least what you get to know when talking with Hotaru. Kid looks definitely up to you, like really man. She was talking a lot about you."
SunTzu had trouble to not begin to show a broad, proud smile. Hell he would have given Yuichiro the most shiteating grins ever if he wouldn't had thought that it's probably not the most easy thing to stay the weekend with a teenager who keeps talking with the highest of praises about your girlfriend's ex.
"She was talking so good about you, that it even made me wanting to like you." Yuichiro continued with laughter in which SunTzu fell in after an amused "Fuck you".
SunTzu announced the next song and still was talking when the door opened and Ryo and Kenji showed up unannounced in the door.
SunTzu motioned them that he was live and the two men silently entered the room.
"Let me guess, your wives are giving you a hard time?" The pilot asked the scientist and the engineer, which made both of them look at each other for a moment in astonishment before they turned back to face SunTzu.
"No, not at all." Kenji began.
"It's just that Ami and Mako are both staying the night together because they're both not feeling so well and want to be there for the other and we were kinda bored." Ryo continued.
"Yeah, so we thought we visit you." Kenji finished their explanations.
SunTzu shot a glance at Yuichiro, who was lolling in his chair and gave SunTzu another nonchalant shrug.
SunTzu looked at the two men and then shrugged as well.
"Hold on, just let me do the next song and I'm gonna fetch some chairs for you."
A few minutes later come back to the room, Mamoru was in there as well.
"Let me guess, Usagi."
"Both of them. But it came to my attention that you already experienced the Queen's temperament today yourself."
"I got a taste of it, indeed."
And then Mamoru looked at the chairs in SunTzu's hands. "Got one more?"
SunTzu looked at the chairs.
"Sure, I'll get one. But first let me do the moderation of the next song."
The small room was no full with the five men and in between the moderations of SunTzu the men were chatting all about the world and it's wife.
That was until the four visitors topic came onto their wives, respectively girlfriend.
It was Kenji that said it was strange for him to sleep without his wife tonight, as it would be the first night to do so while on board. Immediately Ryo chimed in, that he felt the same. Yuichiro came next, reminding SunTzu about what they had talked about earlier, the point where Rei got all cuddly and how cute it was. His eyes were glistening when he told about that with a joyful smile. While SunTzu listened Mamoru told that he couldn't wait to get back to his girls. SunTzu was listening close, the men's narrations were wholesome and he couldn't help but to think about if he one day would experience somthing like that with Setsuna.
The end of the song that had been playing pulled him out of his thoughts. He announced the next song and just had turned back to the other men when Yuichiro got up.
"I'll be right back." He announced and disappeared out of the room.
"What is he doing?" Mamoru asked and SunTzu made a motion that he didn't know.
"Maybe a smoke break."
While SunTzu began to bring the show to an end in the next ten minutes, Yuichiro reappeared again. The monk had an acoustic guitar with him.
"Ey SunTzu, let's go live. Gentlemen, I got the perfect song to celebrate our girls. Don't worry SunTzu we let you join in as well, single or not."
SunTzu and his King exchanged skeptical glances with each other again but then SunTzu announced Yuichiro and he began to play the first tunes into the microphone, while the other four men hit him with glances clearly stating WTF.
But when Yuichiro came to the chorus Mamoru finally fell and joined in. By the time the chorus came the second time all five of them were singing along to the sound of the acoustic guitar.
I don't care who you are,
where you're from,
what you did…
Some of the Senshi were still awake and heard the song and while Ami and Mako were touched, Rei was asking herself why she only dated idiots, drowning the inner urge to cuddle her boyfriend to death in anger for playing such a corny love statement on the radio. Usagi loved it while her daughter found it to be kinda cringe, real boomer-stuff she said.
With their live song SunTzu ended the Nightshift and the five men had a good chuckle before they parted to either see their women, get some sleep in or in case of SunTzu have a last tea to come down after the show, over at the mess hall near the bridge.
The place was almost empty except for two kitchen staff members and a handful of crewmen grabbing a late night snack.
He sat down on a small table in the corner as usual with a cup of steaming hot chamomile tea.
He took a deep breather, looking forward to the relaxing warmth of the hot drink when suddenly someone stopped at his table.
He looked up from blowing into his hot cup and his gaze fell onto a pair of maroon colored sweat pants. His eyes traveled upwards, along the exceptionally long legs, over to the equally-colored hoodie completing the suit and he flinched when he locked eyes with a pair of equally surprised ruby-colored eyes.
Immediately he was up from his chairs, making a motion for her to sit down.
"Sets…uhm… I'll go so you can have your peace and solitude here."
SunTzu hectically grabbed for his cup.
"SunTzu." Setsuna said, but he wasn't listening, busy fetching his stuff.
"SunTzu." She repeated a little bit louder and he stopped, and looked at her.
"Please sit down again." She pressed her lips together. "I really wouldn't mind your company."
SunTzu froze while Setsuna sat down in the chair opposite to him.
"You got my letter?"
SunTzu finally moved again and nodded.
"I did. Uh, I... uh hadn't any trouble. I understand that the Neo Queen was a bit…"
"Hormonal? She's not the only one. Or the only one with complaints. That's why I drink this tea."
SunTzu looked at her with a questioning face.
"Ginger." She shrugged. "Cramps. It's not really fair to have all the downsides of a cycle but not being able to have kids." Her gaze fell to the cup of tea in her hand.
"I'm sorry, I didn't…"
"You didn't. I did. This is maybe something to keep in mind, if you really want to have a serious relationship with me."
SunTzu's eyes widened and he stared at her for a moment before he gave her an answer.
"Who says I'm able to make children? Or should, it's not that anyone knows my medical background. I could come from a family with genetically passed illnesses."
Setsuna stared at him for a moment before she nodded, and had there been the smallest hints of a twitch on her lips? Nonetheless changed the topic.
"Insomniac?"
She nodded.
"Wanted to move around a bit to get the cramps away. Hyperspace seems to make it worse. But I didn't want to wake up Hotaru so I decided to take a walk through the ship." And then a grin appeared on her face.
"I heard the song."
SunTzu blushed, it was kind of embarrassing to be addressed about the men's antics.
"It was cute that you sang along as well."
And now his face was glowing red and hot.
"By the way, where are the others?"
"Went to bed. I just wanted to have a tea to come down."
She glimpsed over to his cup.
"Chamomile."
"Chamomile? And here I thought Neos Dionysos would celebrate the end of such a show with copious amounts of liquor and chain smoking."
The charming smile she shot him, one hand around her cup, made him almost choke on the sip of tea he just had taken, making her giggle. Naturally the bright, red color was immediately back on his cheeks.
"I'm sorry, Neos what?" He replied after clearing his throat, taking the time to calm him down, channeling his thoughts.
It took a moment for her to answer as she raised the cup to her face but stopped before she drank and she blew into the hot beverage to cool it down.
"Oh, just a small comparison to something. Nothing of matter. Uhm, are you maybe interested in hearing another story from my past life?"
A warm, happy smile appeared on his face while she drank from her tea.
"Actually, I'd love to hear another one."
Having arrived at Eriadu, the economical center of the Southern Outer Rim, late afternoon the next day, Artemis, Rei, other members of the Diplomatic Service and the Royals met on the planet with delegations from both the Ninth Fleet under General Farlander as well as from various planetary goverments in the region. Master Cilghal also was among the people accompanying the Royals as she wanted to meet her fellow Jedi, General Farlander, who was a Master of the Order as well.
Most of the Senshi accompanied the delegation as well. SunTzu on the other hand had been put on duty for the first patrols around the system after a certain Admiral thought it probably wasn't the worst idea to keep him away from the Senshi for the time being.
But the Guardian of Guardians didn't mind, he had spent some precious time with Setsuna yesterday after the show and although they just had talked, and not even remotely talked about their feelings again, she had noticed that he had been hanging on her lips and in return he had seen that she had enjoyed to tell her story to him avidly listening. And for once they parted like normal people and not with her hurrying away.
She even had smiled at him while saying goodnight. And this smile... damn, this made all the patrols in the next twenty four hours seem like a joyride.
On another part of the Galaxy a certain man just had left his shuttle.
The warm and humid air around him was full of the sounds of the lush, thick jungle around the landing zone which was overshadowed by a dura-concrete tower, a tower fitting for the most impregnable fortress.
One of his most loyal, and most cunning, commanders, a man devoted to Chaos and also an operose researcher, had invited him for a test of his latest invention. A very conniving weapon, that would be very useful in the various irregular theaters the combined forces serving under the Herald of Chaos were fighting in.
The Herald began to smile, while Abeloth was keeping that alliance of convenience between Sith and Jedi busy, having severally of them already maimed, kiled or driven mentally crazy, he himself would spread more disunity in the Galaxy and enlarge his forces. And in the meantime General Phyncx here would take care of Taskforce Sol.