We do not own "Sailor Moon" nor any of the characters.
"SAILOR MOON ETERNAL"
The 6th Season of the Sailor Moon Saga
"Sailor Moon Special: Sun Sand and Sea! The Three Lights Rock the Beach"
Chapter 21
"A Shore Night to Remember"
"Hey, guys!" Sayer demands everyone's attention as they walk two by two to the Ferrari down the shoreline. Michelle and Robin were clingingly hand in hand, Susan held close in adoration to Terry's chest, as Alex and Sayer walk side by side at a companionable distance (which was a lot for them in the current relationship status).
"Let's stick around a little while more. I hear the casino over there's fantastic!" His finger points to a brightly lit establishment at the other end of the boardwalk.
"And where did you hear that?" Alex turns to look Sayer in the eye accusingly.
"Uhhh, from some people around who were…uhhh…" His stumbling guilt gave him away immediately.
"So you were chatting up those casino girls at the hot dog stand." Alex always jumped to that conclusion with Sayer and young females he came across. And she was usually right.
"I wasn't chatting them up, Ally. I was trying to get some useful tips."
"'Useful tips,' huh? I can imagine some…" Alex shakes her head at his choice of words, a pursed lip look on her face as she glances down at her own titanium plated bikini. But Sayer nods back so innocently, not getting her drift this time at all, that she couldn't help herself from smiling.
"So what do you guys say?" Sayer looks to the others for more encouraging backup.
"Sayer, you know I'm not one for gambling, and the Princess would not look fondly upon it..." Terry warns of their beloved 'sister,' Queen Fireball's desire to keep their hearts' pure and unblemished by unseemly vices such as betting.
"Yeah, but—" Sayer starts to try to convince his studious brother of all the fun he'd be missing.
"It's just a waste of time, invented for people who are born los—" Always armed with acerbic commentary, Robin follows Terry's lead on the matter, which he also knew their Princess would look down upon, with Sayer's hopes sinking at his party pooper brothers.
"—I'm game." Michelle cuts into Robin's sentence, as Sayer's eyes light up at his new-found "betting buddy."
"I knew I could count on you, 'Chelle." He grabs hold of her arm, pulling the buxom debutante to him from Robin's displeased grasp. "Can't you just see it? The glitz! The glamour! The excitement!" Sayer's animated sales pitch throws hand gestures illustrating the exhilaration and flashy lights associated with the betting scene.
"—the scantily dressed women." Alex can't help herself from teasing this wandering shooting star's—ahem—good intentions.
"Al-ly..." Sayer's mouth goes pouty, hurt from her constant ribbing.
"All right. All right." She finally smiles, thinking this could be a decent diversion after all they had been through today. "Let's go, then." The take-charge woman claims hold of Michelle's other arm, practically yanking her much vied over friend away from the silver shrimp she had been mooning over all the stroll along the dusky shore.
Alex leads the three of them to march towards the casino district of the boardwalk, leaving Robin with Terry and Susan.
Sigh
"I suppose I'd better keep an eye on them. You know how Sayer is when it comes to mone—"Confiding to Terry, Robin starts his endless, not entirely unfounded, complaints about his younger brother's bad spending habits, when Sayer comes trotting back.
"Hey, Ter! Spent every yen I had in my wallet. Could you spot me?" He sticks out his hand. With a smiled little sigh of his own, responsible Terry pulls out his own very full wallet, quite accustomed to having this scene with Sayer, who was 'easy-come-easy-go when it came to money.'
"Here." He hands Sayer several thousand yen bills. Then seeing the grabby hands look on his little brother, Terry adds a few twenties and fifties into Sayer's hand as well, his previously fat wallet now looking rather anemic.
"Thanks. Aren't you two coming?" Now solvent in the money department, Sayer asks, just about to turn and leave.
"I thought it would be nice if we'd walk along the beach for awhile. It's a beautiful night." Quiet thus far up to this point, Susan looks into Terry's eyes hopefully.
"You heard the lady." The dashing young man didn't require much prodding to heed to her every whim, not looking forward to the casino experience anyway.
"Yeah, we-ll, have fun on this 'beautiful night,' you two." Sayer knew all too well what could happen to a couple alone on the beach, as he vividly recalled the exciting encounter earlier this afternoon with Alex that could have been even closer had he not chickened…
"Come on, Rob!" Shaking off the second guessing, Sayer shouts, slapping Robin on the back and dashing away to where Michelle and Alex were impatiently waiting for the two of them.
"Oh, brother. This is going to be loads of fun." Robin sulkily complains, trotting off after Sayer, the very idea of the vice of gambling against his thought sensitive principles.
Watching the foursome move away in the distance, Terry and Susan chuckle at their friends' little idiosyncrasies.
"My lady?" Terry then offers his extended arm out to her like a proper gentleman.
"My lord." Susan answers affectionately in symmetry, taking the proffered arm and leaning her head to his broad chest as they walk out towards the beach, the waning sun beginning its full descent into the dazzling ocean before them.
Not the actual "Casino Royale," this particular boardwalk casino did its best to be above board and as classy as possible. With its plush carpeted flooring and decorative marble statues and paintings, and gold plated everything—from door handles to table trim, to gold toilets in the rest rooms—this establishment did give off a certain high-brow atmosphere, the kind Michelle found herself quite at home in.
"What shall we do first?" Michelle looks around at all the excitement on the participants of each table's faces.
"Maybe…" Sayer's eyes start to follow the long legged passing casino check girl who was just opening the poker table with a welcoming glance to him, when he feels a kick in the shins.
"This one right here is real easy for green beginners." Alex takes over, pulling a chair out in front of Sayer and sitting him down as his painful legs collapse beneath him. "Have a seat." She smirks down at him, shoving his chair into the Blackjack 21 table. Looking around with a grimace on his handsome features, Sayer knew why Alex chose this particular table—because it was only one of two in the whole place with a male dealer.
"No fair." Sayer whispers as he massages his throbbing legs under the table.
"Remember what I told you: 'All's fair in—'" She starts her quote, leaning over his chair into his ear.
"'—Love and war.'" Sayer finishes with a quick peck of a kiss pressed on Alex's open lips. "Thanks, I needed that." He winks, then turns back to the table, now ready to do battle with a deck of cards he'd never dallied with before much.
"So did I." Comes her low and sultry response as Sayer feels Alex put her hands firmly on his shoulders with a massaging touch, her idle fingers playing with the beaded choker at his neck as she stands behind him.
"If you two could kindly keep your minds on the game at hand, instead of fondling each other for five minutes?" Michelle turns all haughty indignant suddenly as the seats around fill up with an upper crust set of participants, in suits and even tuxedos, leaving the four of them feeling a little bit out of place, still in their swimwear. By now they all had outer shirts and/or wraps covering their upper torsos, but all those long, shapely youthful, bare legs could be a distraction to the game for some.
While there were several others in the casino wearing their bathing attire as well, most were sticking to merely the slot machines and avoiding the high society tables. Though she was the only woman at this table participating, Michelle was not embarrassed at all. She could wear what she wanted, when she wanted. She believed herself in the elitest of elite high society category who set the trend—not bow to it.
The first round starts and Sayer soon finds himself to be a poor gambler, the other more experienced players could read into his cards too easily. Indeed 'green,' as Alex predicted, Sayer was the kind to wear his emotions on his sleeve too much to ever have a real 'poker face,' no matter how much he believed he did.
Smooth and unaffected as she wore a continual, lovely smile, Michelle, on the other hand, proved to be quite the expert card sharp, winning round after round, beating even the most frequent of players.
His own funds were soon depleted, so Sayer and Alex soon had joined in their moral support with Robin behind Michelle. The small wager of 20,000 yen she had first placed had blossomed into over 350,000 yen after the first few rounds. By the tenth round of Black Jack, Michelle's booty was at nearly 3,600,000 yen and by the fifteenth, well over 7,500,000 yen.
"Michelle. Michelle, please stop." Robin had begged her since it hit the 2,500,000 mark to come to her senses. Though always well off since royal childhood on his homeworld star Healer, Kinmoku, Janus and even as the chart-topping, cash-raking-in Three Lights on Earth, Robin had a good sense for money and did not like to see it discarded so offhandedly.
"Why, Robin dear?" Michelle speaks like a pro, flipping her cards out as if having done this all her life, calling the other player's bluffs in, while still conversing with the man behind her.
"Because it's too much if you lose!" Robin whispers in her ear frantically when she would not acknowledge his psychic messages at all. To this, Michelle laughs aloud, a slightly warped, crazed tone to her voice.
"It's never too much! And I won't lose." Her intuitive eyes steel a lock on the unfortunate fellow across from her, as Michelle mercilessly blows the bank on him as well.
8,000,000 Yen.
9,000,000 Yen.
10,000,000 Yen.
High roller Michelle keeps playing, her winning streak unmatched. "Michelle! It's time to stop!" Robin mentally repeats the warning, but she did not seem to listen.
"Miss Moreau, the bank at this table will offer you a wager, since all the other players have seemed to have vanished from the game." The dealer says, after Michelle's uncanny skill had emptied the table out with her "ruthless" winnings. "We will triple the ten million yen you have at the moment, to over thirty million yen for one card game if you win. But if you lose, you forfeit all you have won. Would you like to accept this challenge?" He poses the question after some messenger had whispered to him when the casino's higher up felt the need to step in this high stakes game.
But something in his eye did not quite agree with Robin, even though the supposedly better empath Michelle did not seem to notice it in her gambling zest.
"Amara?" Michelle must have had some doubts, though, she turning to her beloved cousin for advice.
"Don't look at me. It's your game, Michelle. Your risk." Alex didn't want to interfere, the leader in her feeling a lesson was coming from it, one that Michelle apparently needed.
Knowing Robin's thoughts already on the subject, Michelle decides independently to live dangerously, so she nods to the dealer. He passes her two cards. A queen and a four.
Dealer stands. What should Michelle do?
"Sayer...?" She whispers hesitantly to her only betting compatriot, her hand about to draw another card, just needing a little more of a push.
"Go for it!" He agrees enthusiastically, a gleam was shining in his dangerous blue eyes and Michelle reaches out for the make or break card…
The softly swaying palm trees on the beach's shore bend with the windy gusts passing between them. Dusk was falling over the deserted shoreline, as two solitary figures walk hand in hand down its sandy stretches.
As the last rays of the sun glimmer through a statuesque lady's long flowing hair, iridescent sparkles tickle upon her glistening skin beneath an intricate spider's web mesh shawl. This intergalactic traveler named Terry Starr takes in the dazzling scene this Earth had to offer before him, and a beautiful angelic goddess named Susan de Venici was at the center of it all.
Gazing upon her soft radiant glow in the incandescent dusk falling, Terry notices her trembling, for her darkest purple bikini—covered by the scantiest of a black mesh inner chemise the fashion designer herself envisioned, artistically coating Susan's shoulders and ribcage—was her only protection from the day's scorching rays and the coming night's cooling breeze.
Terry gentlemanly removes his own shirt, wrapping it around Susan's ladylike shoulders.
"You must be cold, my lady." His voice was tender as Terry drapes it over her oh-so-gently.
"Thank you." Susan smiles at the kind gesture as she timidly looks over at him. They walk a ways again, with Susan hanging on his arm, clinging to his well-defined bicep muscles against her cheek.
"Would you like me to take off your sandals? They must be full of sand." After strolling several yards down the beachline, Terry pauses, his caring mind always concerned for her comfort.
"If you'd like." Susan shyly lets Terry lead her to a seat on a dune in the sand. He kneels to her feet, unstrapping her sandals, not tickling them as earlier but caressing them gently this time.
"Susan, this may not be as much as you deserve, but…" Taking a seat next to her, he then reaches out to her with an item the young man had removed from his shirt pocket. Glinting in the rising moonlight, Susan could make out the form of a gorgeous, delicately entwined silver plated bracelet in the shape of tiny interlaced keys, made of aquamarine hued with magenta and purple flashes, crystalline Paua seashells from this very shoreline in his hand.
"Terry…" She whispers as he holds it out for her to see, Susan's surprised eyes filled with adoration for him and his truly thoughtful gift.
"I thought you would like a souvenir from our first time at the beach together. When I saw it, it reminded me of you somehow, though nothing on this world or any other could ever come close to your beauty. But you do own the keys to my heart, Susan." Terry looks at his lady, his eyes turning quite serious as, while clasping the key linked bracelet on Susan's thin wrist, he takes the rest of her arm in his, no longer able to hold back the raw emotion.
"My lady." His low tenor was even more so as the gentle touch on her arm tightens, Terry's charming fingers snaking their capable way through—and finding their way around to conquer—the hoop clasps in her black mesh inner bathing suit body cover, and without tearing the delicate fabric...
Not unless he must.
"My lord." Susan's yearning breath catches in her throat, the desiring look in his intense purple eyes was all she needed to know that her distant, forbidden dream was about to come true at last…
The gleaming abalone paua bracelet slips around her wrist as the pair slip into each other's arms fully on the rolling beach. The warm ocean waves wash at their feet, the gentle, romantic breeze whistling over Terry and Susan on the cool sands, with kisses and sweet caresses holding no bounds to passion…
"Wow, Ter. I thought I had fast hands…without even a rip…" Sayer breathes a whisper in an impressed sounding voice, as, crouching behind another tall sand dune on the same beach a distance away, he watches his mature brother and sexy Susan's interaction with great interest. Suddenly feeling his cheeks go red, he glances out of the corner of his eye at the golden haired woman crouching next to him, trying to gather her reaction to the intimate scene before them.
Though her dark green eyes were also watching intently, Alex remains silent, her emotions impossible to read on the subject. So much so that Sayer desperately wanted to know even more now her true feelings about the line he himself did not dare cross earlier on the beach.
Lines which Terry obviously had no problem crisscrossing once again over Susan.
Was it respect for a fellow Soldier and woman hundreds—maybe thousands—of years her elder? Or something more? Alex says nothing, as Sayer reaches his hand out to touch her bare thigh, just tempting millimeters away. And maybe find out what she really wanted, thrust into this second chance close together scenario again in this romantic beach atmosphere.
However…
"What are you two doing there gawking? We've had too much of this sand already. It's time to get moving." Dusting the coarse sand particles from his silky smooth hair, Robin's scratchy whisper cuts in from behind them, and Sayer retracts his hand immediately.
"Yes, please. I just want to go home." With a sullen expression on her pouty face, Michelle's whispered voice sounded defeated and whiny as she sits on a nearby flat rock Robin had escorted her to, as he dusts the sand from her wavy curls now, adjusting her filmy peach shawl elegantly around her shoulders as well, to perhaps console her.
"But, guys, we don't want to butt in—" Even Sayer feels a bit awkward about interrupting such a tender moment for his brother, knowing how he would feel in such a situation.
"Oh! I don't care! Why did I listen to you?!" Michelle's brooding voice rises to a feverish pitch. "This is ALL your fault, Sayer Starr!"
Obviously the card game from before did not go well. Michelle had taken one card too many (at Sayer's prompting) and lost it all. Every cent in her usually money filled purse was gone. Michelle was unaccustomed to being penniless and did not like the feeling one bit. The poor, rich girl felt more like sobbing at the indignity of it all.
"Hey 'Chelle, it was only a game." Sayer defends himself, money a meaningless trifle to him, always being so well looked after for as long as the orphan adopted into the royal house could remember.
It wasn't the money for Michelle either (her monthly alotted family income was more than ample for such extravagance) it was the sheer embarrassment of losing it in front of all those people. And being practically being kicked out of the casino—thanks to Sayer's crass crudeness once again with the rubbed-wrong-way club manager afterwards which bruised her sensitive ego.
"I don't care. I'll never gamble again; we're going home." She stands from her hidden viewpoint, heading full steam towards the kissing Terry and Susan, not seeming to care about anything but leaving the place where she had lost such face.
Agreeing with her, Robin huffs past Sayer, wrinkling his nose at him, glad Michelle had finally seen the light. Though it was oh-so-hard for him to hold back the 'I-told-you-so,' but so far he had held his tongue because he didn't want to hurt Michelle's feelings Robin held more precious than anything in the world.
Exchanging a blinking glance, Sayer and Alex take off after them, making an unintended beeline towards the unsuspecting couple flat on the beach's cooling sand.
"Susan…you are divine…" Terry whispers as he softly breathes her name, adding to the beautiful melody echoing through Susan's soul with his every celestial touch as this shooting star of Maker's lips travel down the milky way of this daughter of Pluto's neck towards her magically no longer obscured by that black mesh, unhidden full moons...
"My darling Terry…" His name escapes her moistened lips breathlessly when they finally break their long kiss after many pleasurable minutes spent in one another's arms.
"Yoo hoo! Susan! Terry! It's time to go home, now!" Michelle scampers right up to the pair lying in the sand, heartlessly interrupting the scene playing before her.
For a moment, Susan thought Terry didn't hear Michelle's voice, for his tense body over hers did not move one iota.
Sadly, he opens his eyes, the tender moment ruined. Susan could see the disappointment written on his comely features, and knew Terry must be seeing the mirror expression in her eyes as well. As he painstakingly moves away and lifts her up with him, Susan suddenly feels the cool winds brush against her totally exposed skin.
"Whoa! Woo-Whoo!" Sayer wolf whistles following his first shock when he and Robin rush up behind Michelle, just in time to be able to see, even in the dimmed light, Susan's very full, very bare—
But the lights suddenly go out for Robin as Michelle frantically throws her hands up to cover his eyes which had been adjusting to the shifting light, before the young man could even register the scene.
Alex's quick movements were not quite fast enough though, as she yanked Sayer's shirt up over his greedy eyes, though she knew it was just pointless teasing, since he had already well glimpsed Susan's—ahem—details.
"Nice show, Susie." Sayer was first with a saucy quip, as he flips his shirt back over his head, eyes devouring the gorgeous beauty at his brother's conquest.
"Oh!" Covering her feminine treasures, Susan blushes violently, realizing her tiny, purple bikini top must've somehow come undone. Along with the black mesh chemise that had somehow been removed without her even knowing when or how so adeptly, as Terry wordlessly puts her sandals back on, embarrassed that Sayer and Robin might have seen his indiscretions. He was always trying to be the model, upright brother for them to look up to.
"I hope you two can keep enough of your clothes on for a decent ride back in my Ferrari's front seat—if we're to avoid any…illicit citations." One brow raised at them (the other giving a drooling Sayer the evil eye), Alex remarks coarsely biting as Terry steadies Susan while slipping the astoundingly undamaged black mesh midriff on, then securing her bikini clasp as she leans against his welcoming chest.
"Yes, let's just go." Michelle deems the coast clear (looking Susan up and down to make sure she was securely in the all put together) before removing her protective hand clapped over Robin's actually uninterested eyes.
As the group starts their climb up the beach's hills towards where the Ferrari was parked, Alex grabs Sayer's swiveling neck by the dark blue bead choker roughly. "The car is up here." She hisses at her naughty wolf as the inquisitive fool keeps sliding down the sandy dunes, his eyes trained on Susan and Terry, who was lifting the woman in strong arms, carrying her up the steep incline.
"Did I embarrass you, my love?" Terry did not intend for his lady to be on display in such a fashion, believing he had damaged her modest reputation with his willpower frailty and undisciplined weakness.
"Not at all, my darling. I—I'm fine." Susan tries to forget any fleeting shame, and buries her head on his shoulder, too happy to care about anything else but the eternal song he was fulfilling for her now.
Carrying her seemingly weightless form in his physically powerful arms, the dreamily adoring look on her sweet, innocent face makes Terry suddenly feel ashamed of himself for what he had almost just done—again.
No, my lady, I can be stronger. For you, I MUST be stronger. I will do right by you, my angel of purity...
Terry gazes down at the moonlight sparkling off Susan's contented face—her lovely face—and his chest fills proudly. Now he was even more determined to see his goal for the future fulfilled.
I will marry you, Susan de Venici. This nineteen year old's resolve, inspired by his indomitable determination, had his thoughts filled with this same eternal song of love for this woman.
The little group finally reaches the car after the long and exhausting (but oh-so-exhilarating for all three pairs) day. With Tara having opted to travel by bus home with Rini, there was a little more space in the rear, so no one had to ride the 'danger' seat on the gear box this time. Sliding into the rear directly behind the driver's side of the Ferrari, Sayer's arm slowly snakes its way around Alex's shoulders from behind as he considers the day that has passed between them.
And another song begins to rise in this talented singer/songwriter at the touch of her skin as they begin the last ride of the evening, the breeze from Alex's driver's side cracked open window blowing over the enticing chant coming from the sweet-voiced Starlight.
"Girls I've met in my life are made of sugar
You should be awake when
Two hearts sing just as one when stars come out
For us to play — Ohh-ohh"
And amazingly she does not protest as he softly begins crooning a new romantic love song the musical light of a star had been hearing in his mind, in his heart, since this afternoon.
"When the last ride is offered
An unsettling wind cries out:
Boys are innocent!
Girls are curious!
Two of us felt satisfied visiting the seashore together
Boys are innocent!
Girls are curious!"
Sayer Starr's wiry hands, massaging Alex's neck and back, did not once delve down further on his captive driver's audience, tempting as it may have been. And she noted his restraint with respect.
"Even if empty arms (empty arms)
Came to nothing (nothing)
Heart still burns with captivated (captivated)
Passion for you (passion for you)
Watching the day speed by together
Having fun, noon gave us fine weather
What does it take to be a girl's dreamed of hero? (hero)"
Sayer's fingers and softest voice intended for her ears only, instead reach out with a tender, yet suggestive naivete in his questions, which Alex silently appreciated. Particularly after her lapse of self-control this last afternoon on the beach made her feel anything but innocent—or simply curious, whichever role reversal she pleased.
"Hey? Let's build on this relationship
Hey? Let's give our lives new meaning
Don't be so gentle
No, don't give up on me!
Girls I've met in my life are made of spice
You should be afraid when
Two hearts sing just as one when stars come out
For us to play — Ohh-ohh"
Yet in the starry eyes she glimpsed directly behind in her rear view mirror, Alex could almost believe anything was possible. Almost.
"This rustling in our hearts
Puts a lot of pressure to keep up with each other
Boys are innocent
Girls are curious
Hey? Let's not always be so angry—that time is over!
No more avoiding this us…"
"If you're going to break out in song every time you get in my car, I don't know if I should bring you anywhere." Meeting his blue eyes in the rear view mirror, Alex murmurs the low complaint. But secretly inside she was lilted by his sweet, contrarian serenade which begged for more airtime in the rollercoaster ride of their rocky relationship which may not have hit a road bump at all today.
"Our car." Comes the irascible 18-year-old's simple retort, his eyes brightening at last when he glimpsed the hope in hers back at his well-received song.
'Our car.' Alex silently mouths back in conceded response, Sayer's eyes tracing her lips clearly in the mirror with a smile that his song succeeded in expressing his emotions to her.
Susan, feeling her own music reflected in Sayer's silky rhythm, melts deliriously in Terry's arms as he holds her closely on his lap, nuzzling his fine nose in her hair where the pair sat in the passenger's seat.
In the back 'bench seat' center, Michelle buries her dejected head to Robin's, and he reassuringly squeezes her hand tightly, petting her upset away with many caressing strokes across her still flawless hairdo, as well as across her perfect soul.
"You were so beautiful today, Michelle. So stylish in that gorgeous suit, so perfect a body form, so magnificent in that song you performed for me. I'm sorry if I didn't appreciate it at first. But…no one ever dedicated their heart's song to me before…You make me come out of myself to find who I really am, Michelle Moreau. And I can never thank you enough for welcoming me into your special world, under the sea."
Michelle finally releases a pent-up sigh, cooing like a kitten against Robin's welcoming soothing psyche and comforting, warm muscular chest. Both of which she needed at this moment very much after their exciting, adventurous—at moments as thrilling as it was distressing—definitely eye-opening day at the beach.
As the red car streaks away towards home on this dark night, the three couples could still hear the ocean's waves crashing over the shores, and smell the unforgettable scent of the sea breeze as they all reflect on the glorious day they had shared together.
About half way home, Sayer lifts his head from its resting place against the back of the driver's seat, admiring the back of Alex's sleek neck, the fine shape of her ear, her determined chin, among other notable features as she drove in the moonlight. And especially the way it made her hair glow pure gold and tasty, though his amorous digits never did cross the titanium barrier reef between Alex's open, now midriff tied, shirt front.
But just then, Sayer feels his stomach growl loudly. And so did everyone else in the compact sports car's cabin.
"Hey, are you guys hungry? I'm starving." His giddy voice breaks the romantic mood that had settled over the quiet car ride home.
"Starving? You ate like a pig all day." Alex scoffs the ridicule, as blunt as ever to her serenading Romeo.
"Yeah. But I'm a growing boy. I need nutrition after our physically challenging day. Oh! There's a McDonald's. Let's stop." His finger points to the big "M" shining just over the ridge of the road.
"Very nutritious." Alex smirks sarcastically. "Oh, all right. Anything to stop that noise your stomach is making back there." She glances down at her dashboard and the dangerously low fuel gauge. "I need gas anyway." Alex pulls the Ferrari into the exit, maneuvering into the nearest gas station.
"Can't we go to a more respectable restaurant? McDonald's is so…so…so..." Michelle couldn't even find the words to describe her distaste for the fast food "restaurant."
"—low class." Robin finishes her sentence, the high-end food critic feeling the exact same way.
"Fine. Choose one, then." Alex makes the decision for them as she gets out of the car at the gas station she just had pulled into. Sayer jumps out of the hot red car behind her, trotting into the attached convenience mart, as Alex begins pumping gas into her thirsty Ferrari.
Terry was about to gentlemanly offer to do the task for her, but Alex looked quite capable and Susan was lying so peacefully in his arms that he couldn't bring himself to disturb her.
Glancing around, none of the varied surrounding establishments quite met her standards of dinner quality. Michelle was about to suggest going to, at least, the steakhouse down the street when Alex finishes filling the tank.
The driver turns, as she always did, to Michelle for the money to pay the rather large bill for a full tank of the gas guzzling Ferrari's fuel.
"Michelle?" Alex casually sticks her hand out, waiting for the usual cash flow.
"I don't have any money, Amara." Michelle felt like a pauper, her normally chockfull, designer purse which was worth several thousands of dollars itself, was virtually devoid of any monetary currency after her foray into the sinful world of gambling.
"No credit card?" Alex cocks her head questioningly, the situation becoming grave. Michelle shakes hers in answer, biting her lip apologetically as she squeezes Robin's hand tight.
"You know I never carry money." Alex states in frustration. Then she grabs Sayer just on his way back from the convenience shop and juts her hands into his chest pockets, then pants pockets, front and back, just as he returned with a soda bottle and a bag of M&Ms.
"Hey, Ally. Right here in front of everyone?" Sayer could feel her fingers roughly scavenging through all his pants pockets and against his chest beneath that thin shirt.
"Nothing here." Alex ignores his comments, somehow knowing his pockets would be empty, before shoving the thin young man aside like an old, used rag.
"Ally, I'm wounded." He smirks, his hand on his heart. "I didn't even have enough for these." He holds up the soda and candy and takes a swig from the bottle. "But the girl at the counter let me have them anyway—on account of my good looks, I'm sure." He winks wickedly, with a friendly wave at the girl watching them from the glass doors.
"I'm surprised she didn't charge you more then." Alex swipes at his now pouty face. "All right. Good looks aren't going to get us free fuel for my baby. So who's got the money?" Swallowing her pride to be beholden to any man other than Sayer—considering their joint ownership of this vehicle— Alex sticks her hand out towards the other occupants of the car, her fingers wriggling impatiently.
"Susan, pardon me." Terry gently lifts Susan's dreamily smiling head from covering his chest pocket and whips out his wallet.
"All right, Ter!" Sayer could always count on his "older" brother to come to the rescue, and grabs the wallet from his hands.
"There's not much left, though." Terry already gave most of what he had today to Sayer earlier, only keeping four thousand yen in reserve, just in case they needed it, which they did.
"It's enough to cover the gas. But I think the steakhouse is out, Michelle." Slapping Terry's wallet back into Sayer's hands, Alex takes the cash and goes to pay the large bill for her nearly emptied gas bottomless pit of a racing automobile.
"Hey, Ter, this picture is new." Sayer wiles away his time, leaning against the shining new Ferrari, waiting for Alex to return, by thumbing through Terry's wallet. He finds, among the business cards and important phone numbers, a singular lone photograph.
"Sayer." Terry reaches out for his property, a slight blush of embarrassment on his cheeks. Sayer smiles knowingly, obligingly handing it back without saying another word.
"So where to, gang? I've got about 1500 yen left." Alex pushes him in the backseat, then gets back behind the wheel of her new, now happy, red hot car.
Sayer didn't exactly feel 'happy,' still hungry and feeling not so lucky sitting next to a pouty Michelle and sulky Robin.
"1500 yen!" Michelle and Robin say in unison, sinking in their seats, totally embarrassed to have only 1500 yen to their good names.
"Looks like McDonald's is on again." Beside the fact he loved hamburgers, Sayer loved to tease Michelle and Robin even more, he not having a single issue with the fast food joint hamburgers came from.
Almost laughing at her high-class cousin, Michelle, and Sayer, her low-class boyfr—(scratch that—fond acquaintance—ahem)—Alex pulls out of the gas station, heading towards the big blazing yellow arches across the highway.
"McDonald's?" Michelle moans her distaste, sinking into her seat even further as they pull into the low brow parking lot she had never darkened the doors of once since she was born. As Susan adjusts the position of her head on his chest, Terry replaces his wallet in his shirt pocket, but not without taking a quick sneak peek at the newly inserted photo Sayer had noticed a minute ago. Susan's eyes drift back to him, as she also catches a glimpse of the picture when he hurriedly closed the wallet and put it back in his pocket.
"It's me..." Susan whispers, surprised that the snapshot he was gazing at so fondly was one of her—a rare, impromptu one Tara had taken recently when the child was given a new camera by Alex-papa and Michelle-mama for her birthday.
"What was that, my love?" Terry did not notice she had glimpsed it, believing his purported 'fast hands' had inconspicuously slipped in the photo Tara had generously given at his request.
Susan simply smiles, shaking her head as Terry wraps her up in his arms, placing them around her shoulders as they walk together towards the brightly lit building.
Well past 10 PM, the usually bustling McDonald's was nearly emptied out, to both Michelle and Robin's exasperated delight, save for a small number of fellow travelers in much need of hot coffee and a quick bite to eat.
"How can I show my face here?" Michelle hangs her head low, avoiding the gazes of the few people sitting around, even the employees near the front of the fast food establishment.
"Let's get a seat in the back." Robin concurs as he and Michelle make a bee-line for the farthest corner booth, trying to be not conspicuous (a pretty impossible thing in the eye-catching swimsuits they were all still donning, even if they were wearing outer shirts and Michelle and Susan fetching shawls).
"Well, what do you guys all want?" Big Mouth Sayer blows whatever cover they had trying to sneak away when he calls to the shame-faced pair loudly across the fast food establishment. Without even looking back, or deeming it worthy enough to give him an answer, our two snoots, beyond mortified, quickly take the farthest table and sink into their bench seats.
"Michelle will have the fish sandwich." Alex replies for them, always knowing what her dear ocean-loving friend would want. The unaffected, tall blonde was laughing at the comical situation, as Sayer's wide eyes scan the billboard menu behind them.
"You don't have to get me anything at all, Sayer. I'm not very hungry." Terry says to his brother, always the considerate one, knowing their shortness of funds. "What would you like, Susan?" Terry asks the quiet woman hanging on his arm.
"Oh, I don't want anything, eith—" Susan starts to say, not much hungry herself (well, not for food, anyway) as she looks up to Terry.
"The chicken sandwich for Susan." Terry simply takes charge, concerned of how little she had eaten all day thus far.
"Gotcha." Sayer gives a thumbs up, as Terry leads a clinging Susan to the far booth where Michelle and Robin were hiding out. "Ally?" He asks, as Alex hands him the rest of the money she had leftover from the gas station.
"Just a salad for me." She turns to join the rest of the gang in the corner booth.
"A salad! We go to a hamburger joint and you order a salad!?" Sayer was in disbelief, being extremely fond of burgers—and red meat of all kind himself. He considered salad the kind of food for canaries and rabbits and that sort of thing—not a tall, strong, gorgeously stunning and sexy…
Sigh But Sayer's eyes were almost as hungry for Alex as he was for the grilling scent of burgers, nearly crashing into a decorative glass wall in the process of walking backwards to the front cashier.
"Russian dressing." Mildly aware she had that effect on him, Alex casually tosses over her shoulder, not caring one bit about what he thought about it.
"All right." Sayer shrugs as he goes up to the counter, then turns away from the waiting cashier. "My Russkie babe wants a salad with Russian dressing." He tells the clerk as he aims a finger back at Alex with a wink.
Ooh, the dagger look he gets from across the room could cut pickles.
"I am not your, or any man's 'babe.'" Her voice was edged with steel as she calls back angrily at him, always uptight about the names men used to put themselves higher above women.
Even this oddly confused amalgamation of one.
"She loves me." Sayer shrugs back to the wide-eyed girl behind the counter with a crooked, debonair smile. Then he goes about ordering their meal.
The food was, as stated, fast, and Sayer soon joined the gang quietly seated at the table with a full tray.
"I really didn't have enough money for all of this, but I turned on the old 'Starr' charm again." Sayer winks back at the blushing, nearly swooning cashier across the dining room.
"Salad." Sayer announces the word with dull distaste, slapping the enclosed plastic dish in front of Alex as he squeezes into the booth next to her. Alex shoves him back, almost knocking him off the edge. She may or may not have any aversion to being too tactile with him anymore, but Alex definitely did not want to be any closer to Robin on her other side in the booth, thank you very much.
"McChicken for Susie," Sayer then places the wrapped sandwich in front of Susan. "They said it was made of ALL breast meat. So it should suit you fine." Sayer smiles wickedly at her, remembering the scene on the beach vividly in his mind.
"Sayer!" Terry reprimands Sayer's primitiveness, in utter shock of his brother's crude words, knowing quite well to what he was inferring, but Sayer just shrugs him off.
"Fishy, fishy for you 'Chelle." He slides it across the table, as Michelle fingers the sandwich disdainfully.
"Here, Rob!" Sayer leans across the table, putting a colorful cardboard house shaped box in front of a frowning faced Robin. "I got you a Happy Meal." He smiles sadistically, delighting in Robin's dejected face. "Look! Look! Not only a burger, fries and drink, but also—" Sayer reaches across the table to plunge his hand in the colorful box, leaning his hand on Alex's leg, "Free toy!" He pulls out the little green claw toy alien from 'Toy Story' for all to see.
"Looks like you, Rob." He teases, causing Robin to hang his head in his hands and sigh a loud 'Argh!' in frustration.
"Ouch!" The dark haired bad boy exclaims as Alex, tired of being his leaning post, sticks her plastic fork in his other hand.
"Gotcha a burger anyway, Ter. Just a small one." Sayer rubs his hand and gives Alex an angry look, flopping a regular hamburger in front of his brother. "And a strawberry shake for you and Susie both. I figured you wouldn't mind sharing." He pops one straw into the plastic lid. Susan, next to Terry, blushes at the wolfish way Sayer kept looking at her figure approvingly.
It must be because he saw…oh dear! What must they all think of me? Her mind suddenly feels the embarrassment, ashamed of the events earlier in the night. Susan sips her shake meekly, nibbling her sandwich, then looks over to Terry, when a horrible thought comes to her proper mind. What if he thinks I'm a—a—? That I'd do this with any man. Please don't think that! It's only you, my darling! Only you I'd ever—EVER—love...
"Excuse us girls, won't you?" Michelle says airily, as she, Alex and Susan leave the table. As Alex gets up, she grabs Sayer's hamburger and stuffs it in his mouth, as if to say: 'foot in mouth.'
"So, Ter," Sayer quickly polishes it off, chewing his Big Mac that Alex had stuffed in his mouth, and turns to his brother as soon as the girls are out of sight.
"So." Terry repeats innocently enough at Sayer's implicating gaze.
"So-o-o," Sayer tries to prod Terry on. "Susie's quite a looker, huh?"
"I don't know if I'd call a lady such a crude term—but yes, she is indeed a 'looker.'" Terry smiles wistfully in the direction she had just departed.
"And uh, when you first, uh, went…together..." Sayer chuckles nervously, not knowing how to approach the burning subject on his mind to his "older, more experienced" brother.
"Well…" Sayer pauses, glancing around and biting his lip guiltily.
"How did you know she loved you…?" As badly as this eighteen-year-old wanted to know his golden nineteen-year-old beauty would love him—in every sense of the word—he didn't want to do anything to hurt their tentatively budding relationship, knowing Alex's opinion of men, and of him in particular.
"Well…I…" Terry finds himself a bit nervous on the delicate subject, to be discussing in public anyway, knowing there could be no substantial answer to this question other than the feelings he felt at the time (the feelings he still was feeling at this second..). "I just knew. From the moment our eyes met—I knew I had belonged to her since before the stars were born..." Terry waxes poetic, with a far-off, dreamy expression, obviously thinking of only her from the look in his eyes and sappy smile on his face. Sayer and Robin look at each other with widened eyes, then shrug, not knowing what to make of their usually 'got-it-together' brother acting so lovesick.
Finally coming from his reverie, Terry gives Sayer an apologetic smile, with a little bit of guilt mixed in. He was sorry he couldn't explain it better to his "younger" brother, but there were some things he'd have to discover on his own.
"Oh." Sayer's face drops for a second believing his genius brother could unveil that curtain, the shrouded mystery known as 'woman.'
"Why do you want to know so badly, anyway, Sayer?" Robin, who has kept silent, eating his "disgusting" Happy Meal (which didn't make him very "Happy" at all, but he was hungry) smirks evilly, listening in to their conversation.
"I—I—" Sayer stumbles, turning beet red, for some reason, at Robin's insinuation. "I think there are things every man should know. Don't you, Rob?" He throws back with a wicked smirk of his own, French Michelle in mind.
"What do you mean, Sayer? I know what to—" It was Robin's turn to blush, a sensitive soul with an easily bruised ego, hearing Sayer's derogatory intimation in his abilities in that area.
"Well, so do I!" Sayer cuts in meaningfully, his own male ego on the verge. Terry was watching in astonishment at his bickering brothers even arguing about such a hush-hush topic.
"Yeah, well, I'm sure you'll have a harder time finding out than I will." Robin's nasty streak shows, attacking Sayer's unlikely prospects in Robin's mind, with a hard-line woman like Alex Sokova, while he knew full well that his Michelle on the other hand, was another story entirely.
"Harder time about what?" Alex comes up to the table, Susan and Michelle right behind her.
"Oh, uh, well, uh…harder time…" Robin stumbles under Alex and Michelle's penetrating gazes.
"—finishing his burger before we have to go." Sayer weakly inserts. Both Michelle and Alex knew that that was certainly not what they had been discussing, judging from the red spots branded on both of their cheeks.
"Oh, yes? Is that so, dearest?" Michelle smirks, raising her eyebrows, having a pretty good idea of what these boys were talking about from the thinly disguised veil over Robin's mind.
"Speaking of which…are you gonna finish that McChick, Susie?" Sayer had been eyeing the only slightly-nibbled sandwich for some time as it sat on the table.
"Sayer!" Terry was shocked and exasperated at his rudeness to beg off someone else's food.
"No, I don't want anymore. It's fine, you may have it if you'd like." Generous of heart Susan gives Sayer the large remainder of her sandwich, smiling at his friendly boyishness.
"Thanks!" He devours it in three big bites, as Alex takes the last sip of their shared Coke and goes to toss it and the empty wrappers on the tray into the garbage.
"Not that!" Sayer grabs something off the tilted tray before she dumps it in the McDonald's garbage bin as he rushes out the doors ahead of her.
"Here, Rob, you almost forgot your little buddy!" Getting in the car, Sayer passes the little green, bug-eyed alien toy to Robin, giving it a cute squeak as he does.
"Gee, thanks. Just what I always wanted." Robin frowns, after the thoroughly unpleasant meal, throwing the poor unwanted toy out the back window of the car as they speed away.
Leaving the solitary, little green alien to bounce on his own, lost and alone at midnight on the deserted highway in the darkness, until it finally lands, blinking its many eyes up at the faraway stars at its ill-met fate…
Sayer fills the drive home with seemingly endless babble about this and that. Of the other five members of the car, only Terry tries to pay any attention, but finds it hard the way that Susan, seated on his lap, was gazing up at him expectantly.
Michelle and Robin discuss things wordlessly in their minds, ignoring Sayer completely, lost in their own world to swim in together.
Even Alex finds herself not hearing his words, as much as just enjoying listening to the sound of his voice.
How annoying it used to be. How maddening at times. But now…Alex gazes at his lively bantering and smiles. I like hearing it.
Catching the smile, Sayer returns it with a dazzling one all his own, to which Alex quickly turns her dark green eyes back to the dark rural road.
Don't encourage him, fool. Not unless you want to end up like poor Susan….
Once again Alex chides herself, then looks over to Susan who was looking adoringly into Terry's eyes, lying dazed in his arms. Just look at her. No, I don't want that. I don't ever want to be so…helpless and vulnerable. But there is something I want. Just don't know what it is yet.
Alex's gaze glosses over Sayer again quickly. Something. She turns the corner, pulling into Michelle's mansion driveway on the outskirts of town.
"All right. There's your car." Alex covers up her uncertainties as the tough soldier practically orders the three men to leave almost immediately after they unloaded from the packed Ferrari.
"Oh, please, wait! Come in the house and stay…" Michelle squeezes Robin's bare sinewy arm, then cowers under Alex's gaze. "For a while." She adds the addendum innocently enough.
"Yeah, I guess I could go for a good cup of coffee. Rob's stinks." Sayer jibes at his brother's coffee-making skills. "And I don't think Terry's quite ready to take us directly home yet." He smirks, lowering his voice so Alex couldn't hear, as Susan leans towards Terry in a very amorous fashion.
"All right. Coffee. Then straight home." Alex relents to that 'good night' beverage only as she unlocks the door and leads them into the spacious living room.
Fastidious Susan usually did the mundane household chores like coffee-making. So, Alex and Michelle look to her, but the long, dark green haired woman seemed somehow unable, or more likely, unwilling to detach herself from her young man.
"Oh! Coffee? Yes, certainly." Susan smiles at their stares. "Come, Terry." She tugs him along with her to the kitchen, making Michelle and Alex exchange knowing looks.
Once alone in the kitchen, Susan seemed to forget all about the coffee making, rather interested in making something else heat up entirely.
"Susan…" Terry tries to control her willing kisses, holding Susan back, while he was attempting to make the coffee. But the coffee grounds spill to the floor as she continued to maul him.
Somehow, he managed to get the coffee machine finally turned on, as Terry desperately tried to control himself from doing so as well. Be strong, man. Don't let yourself be weak this time. He thinks to himself, determined to be more upright and moral to deserve to be Susan's perfect gentleman.
Terry drags her dangling body, arms about his neck, to the cupboard and grabs some coffee mugs from the cabinet, as Susan—believing this was what was wanted and expected of her in her inexperience with men—continues to kiss him passionately.
In the struggle, Terry nearly drops several of the porcelain mugs to the floor, but his quick reflexes catch them in mid air, quickly placing the cups safely on the counter.
"Susan, darling, it's—it's not right. Not yet. I don't—" Terry tries to explain, as gently as he could.
"But, are we not sworn to each other for eternity, my lord? Is this not what I am…supposed to do, as your perfect mate? I belong to you!" Susan was not trying to be a vixen, nor impious, but only dutifully fulfill her proper role as the woman of the heroic man who had set her free.
A blissful duty the ages old guardian of Time was only too happy to give her all to embrace properly, not wishing to waste a single moment now of realized true love with her beloved one.
For Susan de Venici's longsuffering soul of the Sailor of Pluto had come to love Terry Starr's brilliant soul of the Star Maker so very much, she didn't know how else to express it, before time—which she had spent eons as captive of—ran out.
"Hey! Where's that coffee, you two?! It doesn't take millennia to brew!" Alex's cutting, stern voice comes from the living room, and brings Terry slowly back to reality as he tears himself away from Susan's tempting form.
"Susan, please trust me in this. I want everything to be right for you, my lady. I'd be unworthy of you if I did anything else. Please, don't ask me for more than this, not yet. Please, be patient, my own." Terry pulls her back to him, kissing her full and passionate on the lips, but his control was gained, his willpower sustaining him, leaving with a kiss passionate, but still gentlemanly.
This is how it must be. It will have to be enough. Until I can have the means to support you as I should. Until I can marry you, my lady. Until then…
His kiss finishes softly, sweetly, with Susan hanging dazed in his arms. "Let's bring this coffee out now, all right?" Terry smiles into her eyes, her lovely magenta eyes, which slowly open.
"Yes, my lord." Susan nods breathlessly to both his requests, willing to do anything Terry asked. Anything he wanted after such a kiss, as she, trembling, begins to pick up two of the steaming cups of coffee.
"Allow me, my beloved." Terry kisses her forehead sweetly, taking the two cups she held shakily in her hands, and replaces them with the safer sugar bowl and milk. He'd rather make two trips than see her beautiful hands scalded. Coffee—the only thing they had made in the kitchen, ahem—in tow, Terry holds his head high as he proudly strides into the living room, with Susan trailing close behind him.
"It took you long enough." Robin complains, taking one cup of coffee from Terry, after Michelle and Alex both refuse.
"I guess it was too hot to handle in there, eh, Ter?" Sayer teases with his eyes as well as his words as he spoons sugar in his cup, his eyes dancing from Susan to Terry wickedly. Susan positions herself on the taller brother's lap, as the six of them sit around the coffee table still in their swimwear, a lot of bare flesh showing.
His own mind was not on the steaming coffee in his hands, so Sayer takes a sip without thinking. "Ow! It's hot! I burnt my tongue. Maybe titanium can cool it?" Sayer sticks his tongue out a bit, popping it gingerly with his finger that almost dared to touch Alex's partially obscured metallic hardware.
"Stupid. You're not that indestructible. Nor innocent. I'm glad to say." Knowing herself to be far from innocent—perhaps even frightening in her passion—she wondered how long this farce would last this moody wolf before his skittishness wore off. Alex was glad to laugh again at the silly 'boy' seated next to her on the couch, though keeping his temptation at a reasonably comfortable distance.
But Alex wasn't laughing when she notices, in the corner of her jealous eye, where a tired looking Robin was sitting on the settee with Michelle. He was slowly and carefully, one by one delicately untangling and smoothing from the filigree gold chain straps that had snagged not only Michelle's peach chiffon scarf, but also the voluminous curls dangling above the ample cleavage her aqua swimsuit displayed and which the silver idol was leaning into.
For Michelle, Robin had stifled his yawns after a long and tiring day, even if his body was yearning for his one and only, favorite hobby—catnapping. Although, he might have found another hobby to his liking now—scuba diving in the deep ocean, along with several other pastimes of this beach excursion which were very rewarding—the more this sleepy kitty thought of it.
'I want to hold your hand, boy.'
Vividly his mind flashes with his beautiful Michelle strutting up and down the karaoke stage, singing just for him to hold her hand.
In his vulnerable state of drowsiness, Robin's idle thoughts also wander back to the wondrous world of nature where seahorses scampered about the seafloor with a little more than horseplay on their minds.
Maybe I want to give my mermaid more than my hand in appreciation…
"I'm glad you liked it that much." Michelle intrudes on his personal thoughts once again, but somehow Robin never minded her presence anymore in his lonely heart as his gorgeous mint eyes smile back his approval and admiration.
"I wonder if I can have an encore performance later, when we're alone." Robin surprises himself with the level of romantic advances this singular female inspired in his once solitary soul as he fingers through her soft aquamarine locks, breathing in her alluring scent of the sea.
"I'm sure I can arrange that tonight, my dearest." Michelle's blue eyes light up in unadulterated excitement at this first sign that her hard-to-get Robin Starr may be interested in expanding their deep telepathic relationship into a more physical one...
"Well. It's getting late. And I'm sure you have more important things to do than lounge around here. Maybe it's time you three, dog-tired boys—ahem—" Giving Robin dagger glares for how intimate his musical digits were strumming the violin strings of Michelle's heart, the pair obviously entranced with one another in that enviable world her Sailor partner often lost herself in, Alex slides in a warning glance at Terry as well, for good measure "—headed home." She finishes with a punishing slap on the chest at a once again hot and shirtless Sayer beside her, feeling the Three Lights' departure was probably for the best for all concerned tonight.
"I'll do that for you, Michelle." The possessive, golden woman abruptly rises to her feet, pushing her way between Robin and Michelle to finish untangling her best friend's unruly curls, practically batting the slim man away.
"Fine, let's go. I'm exhausted, anyway." Alex's inhospitable diktat rubbed Robin the wrong way, he had enough of her deriding for today as he turns his face from her to leave.
Taking one more sip of coffee, he (careful of Michelle's fine porcelain china) slams his cup down and stands, wondering how Terry was going to extricate himself (or maybe he wasn't going to) from Susan's grasp. Hmph, better you to deal with the golden dragon woman than me!
Sayer downs the rest of his coffee and gets up to leave, too. "Guess we know where the door is…That was damn good java, Susie. But all that caffeine…" The way he says the word makes Alex's skin crawl, "I might be up all night, if anyone is interested to know…" He says with an 'innocent' smile when he passes by where Alex was brushing Michelle's hair flat mercilessly.
"There's an owl I hear out there that can keep you company." Standing angrily, Alex takes him by the shoulder and shoves him through the hallway and out the front door, a squealing Sayer thrown out into the night's darkness.
"Good night, Michelle. I never knew the beach and the ocean could be so beautiful. But only because of you, I had an incredible time on this unforgettable day you gave me." Defying Alex, Robin leans over the settee to take Michelle up in his embrace to kiss her with every bit as much enthusiasm as he did on stage at the sing-off.
"I'll be waiting for that encore performance we discussed…in our dreams…for now." That open proposition left the swooning female with way more than the warm, fuzzy feeling of their chaste psychic intimacy inside, certain now that he wanted a physical relationship with her just as much as she did with him. And for a rapturous Michelle, that was enough to tide her over until another day.
Robin starts to leave, though their hands linger, their fingers laced together warmly as he firmly squeezes Michelle's hand while they walk together through the door of her mansion.
Oh, Robin. Someday, you'll be holding my hand all night…Sigh…
"My lady." Terry gently moves Susan to the sofa as he kneels at her feet. He gathers her hands in his. "I cannot tell you what today meant to me. Thank you for making it so wonderful in every way possible." He kisses Susan's hands tenderly on both sides.
Terry slowly, but manfully pulls away, following Michelle and Robin out the front door, leaving a slightly distraught Susan behind waving farewell.
"…where…have you been?" Outside near the sedan, Alex seemed to ask just to have something to say, swallowing hard several times, making Michelle suspicious of her more than slightly out of breath friend. Alex was conspicuously standing closer to a just as breathless Sayer than she had ought to have been, especially after unceremoniously 'kicking' he and his brethren out.
"I could ask the same thing of you, perhaps, Amara?" Michelle teases with an insinuating smile. But the smile quickly wipes off her face at Alex's threatening glower.
"Good night, ladies." Terry nods to them, walking past to the green sedan, seemingly trying to escape this tempting night himself before he changed his mind.
"Good night." Michelle and Alex say in unison as Robin nods, gazing in her eyes before leaving Michelle's hand with a final squeeze.
"Great day, Ally." Sayer smiles his sweet smile. "See you tomorrow?" He asks hopefully.
"Maybe I'll stop by before I head out to the racetrack tomorrow." Alex smiles back.
"A race? Can I come and watch?" His eyes light up excitedly. "I love car racing."
"Oh, do you?" Alex smirks wondering how much of that was truth and how much was put on.
"I love every kind of race, running, track and field, cross country skiing—it's all about speed and having the wind at your back, right?" The avid sportsman and sports admirer in Sayer nods emphatically.
Oh, well, either way. At least he's a cute liar. "All right. IF you don't cramp my style." Alex pokes a finger in his chest.
"Who, me?" Sayer grabs her hand off his chest and squeezes it hard in his tight fist. "See you tomorrow!" He scampers off to the running car awaiting him, waving goodbye.
As they depart, Alex merely crosses her arms, with Michelle gesturing embracing hands to a certain coiffed head in the rear seat as the car was about to drive off. That's when they feel a whoosh of air rush past them and see Susan's lissome form running out of the house towards Terry's driver's side window.
"Terry, darling! Your wallet!" Susan holds out the leather wallet that was in his shirt pocket which she was still wearing with pride.
"Oh, thank you, my love." Their hands touch through the window, and Terry leans out and kisses her sweetly, glad for the chance for one more fond farewell.
Susan, stands still as she watches them drive off, wrapping her handsome Terry's shirt tightly around herself.
Driving away, the responsible young man puts the wallet in the shirt pocket he was currently wearing. Just then, a slip of lavender paper with Susan's sweet perfumed scent peeking out catches his eye.
"Good night, my darling.
My lips will whisper my love for you through all eternity"
Terry smiles, his own lips silently wording "I love you" out the window for the breeze to carry back to his beloved lady.
Hello, minna-san!
HarukaKou here! :)
I hope you all enjoyed the fun, exciting and romantic 3-part Beach chapter of our beloved Outers x Starlights novel!
This was one of my sister Setsuna's very favorite, memorable episodes we both still held fond memories and dialogue of for 25 years! The little green alien McDonald's toy was the brand new 'Toy Story' at the time in our unforgettable 90s childhood growing up Sailor Moonies!
Please, I would very much enjoy hearing your comments and reviews on this Sun, Sand and Sea Sailor Moon Special!
God bless you always!
Love,
Haruka
p.s. The song Sayer was singing in the Ferrari for Alex was one of the legendary Shiho Niiyama's rare songs (Seiya's Japanese seiyuu) called "Saishuu Densha ni Nosenaide", which I translated to fit in with the music. It's sweet and rhythmic, and at moments sultry and well sung in Star Fighter's beautiful, smooth and sexy voice! Check it out to hear his newest composition of love and hope with tough guy Sailor Uranus! Thanks for your reviews!