Moon: Tsukino Usagi
Venus: Aino Minako
Mars: Hino Rei
Jupiter: Kino Makoto
Mercury: Mizuno Ami
Endymion: Chiba Mamoru
Kunzite: Seishou Kouseinou
Jadeite: Tabiki Kasen
Nephrite: Kousei Kyosei
Zoicite: Kouseki Yosouya
Chapter 5-Found and Lost
Panting slightly with exertion of climbing to the top of the large hill, more like a small mountain, Kyosei puffed, "Remind me why I agreed to do this in the first place?"
Turning to grin at him, Makoto replied nonchalantly, "Because no one else wanted to, and you were too much of a gentlemen and a sweetheart to let me go alone."
As she turned around again, the brown-haired boy blushed darkly and muttered, "Right." He had managed to ask her out just two weeks ago, and he still wasn't used to the way he reacted around her. She was purely magical yet sublimely, beautifully human at the same time. And she had accepted–something that had shocked him to the depths of his soul. They had planned their little excursion to coincide with the sunset, and they would spend the night under the stars, in sleeping bags. Which was why his backpack was so heavy. Kyosei had brought all the stargazing equipment that would fit into his pack, and now, he was regretting it. But anything was worth spending time with her, even if he felt that he wouldn't make it down the mountain. Putting on an extra spurt of energy as they reached the top, Kyosei managed to get up ahead of her and give her a hand up. Promptly, his knees buckled, making him collapse as soon as she was safely up.
Sighing, she looked down at the crumpled heap and said affectionately, "Kyo-kun, you know I love you, but sometimes you're an idiot. I can get up here perfectly well alone–I've done it before."
Smiling, he replied, "I know that, but I wanted to do it anyway. Mako-chan...I would call you Mako-ko, but you know, with the last part of your name, I don't even need to add it! It's ingenious. Like Minako, too. Kousei-kun can just call her by her full first name, and it'll sound exactly the same."
Hiding her grin, Makoto ordered, "Stand up, you romantic fool. Come and watch the sunset before it fades!"
"Your beauty won't." He groaned, then pulled himself to his feet. Looking down as she plopped herself down on her unrolled sleeping back and patted the space next to her, he mumbled, "Tell me again why I didn't just crawl over here?"
"Your clothes would have gotten dirty."
"So? I packed–oh no....I didn't!"
Smirking slightly, she said soothingly, "It's okay, Kyo-kun. No one will be there to laugh at–I mean, see you–except me and Kasen-kun."
"That's worse. And when did we agree that he'd be picking us up?"
"We didn't," she answered sweetly, batting her long, chocolate-brown lashes at him, "I called and asked him myself." Before anything else could be said, their breaths were caught and captured by the magnificent sight before them...it was as if an airy, golden kingdom appeared in the sky. Exotic purples, bright gold, burning red, blazing orange, and soft pink danced slowly across the sky, as if in some graceful ballet in the air. Puffy white clouds were accompaniment, and some blue background of the stage still remained. Sighing quietly, Makoto leaned against him and said quietly, "You know what? The sky...the pretty shade of blue...and the purple from the sunset...they remind me of Kasen-kun and Rei-chan's eyes."
Startled, he asked, "You're not going to get involved, are you?"
"Why not? They just need a little push, and–"
"Please don't, Mako-chan. Kasen-kun needs some space dealing with his own letdowns and Usagi-chan's problems. This isn't like any other guy crush. Plus, Rei-chan just turned him down."
Cupping her chin in her hands, she exhaled deeply. "I feel bad for them. Especially Rei-chan."
In surprise, Kyosei turned perplexed navy eyes on her, although his soul cried out at leaving the magnificent beauty of the sky before him. "Why? I feel bad for Kasen-kun."
"Well, yeah, but I don't know. She's always been so sad. Tons of guys have fallen at her feet, but she's never liked any of them. She's waiting for someone who doesn't love her back and who doesn't deserve her." They sat in silence until the brilliant colors faded, and the sparkling pinpricks of silvery light that were the stars came out. "I thought you said you were going to tell me all the constellations," she said playfully, casting a sideways glance at him, "you certainly brought enough stuff."
Smiling at her, the brown-haired one nodded. "I will. Be patient. Look...over there...can you make out the shape of a box? Then look for the handle..."
"I _can_ find the Big and Little Dipper, you know."
"Just checking..." After a while, Kyosei managed to look away from the heavens, and his heart nearly stopped beating. Two great loves of his life were side by side, Makoto and the stars, and the sight they made was breathtaking. Drawing her towards him gently, he kissed her and murmured, "Aishiteru, Mako-chan. I'm glad we took this trip."
"I told you that you'd like it," she smiled. "Aishiteru, Kyo-kun. For now, forever, and for always."
"Who's the hopeless romantic now?"
"Both of us, of course."
~ * ~ * ~
"Matte, Usagi-chan!"
Stopping in her tracks, the meatball-headed girl sighed deeply. Why did the one person she hated and loved the most in life have to make things this hard for her? Turning around slowly, she greeted, "Konnichiwa, Mamoru-kun. Dajibou?"
Panting from his running, the ebony-haired one nodded. "Dajibou. I just realized something very important to me. You know the hime-sama that I've been looking for?"
Looking away, she nodded slowly. "Hai," she replied curtly, pretending to be uninterested.
Disregarding her warning tone, Mamoru explained excitedly, "A revelation came to me last night, in my dreams...you're my hime-sama, Usa-ko!"
Turning away again, her voice was brief and cutting. "I don't think you should say such things to me, Mamoru-san. Please excuse me. I'm afraid I'll have to go home now before okaa-san misses me. Sayonara."
Bewilderedly, he shouted, "Matte! Why are you angry, Usagi-chan?"
"Mamoru no baka...you've ignored me and the way I felt for you for two years. Just because you think that this dream princess of yours is me, you'll finally tell me you love me? I don't think so." Firmly, she said quietly, "Sayonara, Mamoru-kun. Good luck finding your _true_ hime-sama."
~ * ~ * ~
The tears trailed down her flawless cheeks, and Usagi leaned against the wall, sobbing and gasping for breath at the same time. She didn't care who saw her now, because she was sure that she had left Mamoru behind a while ago. It was time, she reminded herself, that she let an idiot like him go. She was over him. Over him forever! And yet...how he had addressed her that day struck a strange chord in her... ‘Usa-ko...no one's ever called me that before,' she thought. Shaking herself, she scolded sternly, ‘Usagi, get a hold of yourself. He just thinks that you're his hime-sama...and that thought is laughable. If he thought it were any other girl, he would just be calling them -ko, too. He's a useless dreamer and a cold-hearted bastard. By loving him, I'll never get anywhere in life. He doesn't–he doesn't deserve me? That's what Kasen-kun told me, but what if I don't deserve him? What if Mamoru-kun really deserves a hime-sama like in his dreams? I'm not that hime-sama, and I never will be.' As her thoughts ended in finality, she took a deep breath and straightened her shoulders proudly, despite the heaviness of her chest and heart. Suddenly, she was startled by a gentle hand on her shoulder. Barely stifling a shriek, she spun around and met warm green eyes. "Souya-kun...you...frightened me."
"Gomen nasai, Usagi-chan. I didn't mean to. Dajibou?"
"Yes...no, not really," she sighed.
Putting an arm delicately around her shoulders, he steered her into the Crown Arcade. She hadn't noticed before that it was so close by. "Care to talk about it? Come on, I'll treat you to a chocolate milkshake."
Astounded by how familiar he was acting, usually shy and quiet, Usagi stammered, "But...you don't have to do that for me."
"But I'd like to. Please, I insist."
"O-okay. If you'll let me do the same thing for you one day."
"The honor's all mine. So, you were talking to Mamoru-kun before, weren't you?" At his casual statement, her crystal blue eyes widened, and he smiled enigmatically. "Gomen nasai. It seems I've shocked you the second time today. I was walking a few yards behind you, but I didn't hear your conversation. What did he say?"
Looking away from his eyes that demanded the truth and nothing but the truth, Usagi shrugged gracefully. "He just wanted to talk." Changing the topic abruptly, she asked with false cheer, "What would you think if I changed my hairstyle? I need something new, not these old meatballs." She felt even more uncomfortable under his astute gaze, fidgeting nervously with her hands under the table.
"You're not fooling me, Usagi-chan. Don't change your hair–it suits you perfectly. Odango atama."
If it had been any other person besides this blond-haired, quiet boy, she would have taken offense at her nickname. "Fine. He told me–he told me that I was the hime-sama in his dreams, and he called me ‘Usa-ko.' He was so blind that it was almost more than I could bear. If it weren't the truth, it would almost be funny."
Yosouya bit his lip silently and looked down at his own hands. Looking back up, he asked, "So you've given up on him? Told him he was the idiot we all think he is?"
"Hai. Did I make the right choice, Souya-kun? Please help me. I don't know...and I keep remembering the way his eyes seemed to be so sincere, and how he called me Usa-ko."
"If you were true to your heart, you made the right choice. If not, follow your heart, Usagi-chan. He may be blind for the moment, but even the right angels can make blind men see. Good luck, Usagi-chan. Don't forget that we're always here for you." She watched his lithe form disappearing from the glass of the windows of the Crown Arcade, after paying for both their drinks, then exhaled deeply and got up herself. But the path she chose was different from his. Always different.
~ * ~ * ~
This time, Ami heard quiet footsteps by the side of the pool, followed by someone diving in to the other end in another line. Trying to keep her body from tensing so she would stay afloat, she failed and sank a little. When she was about to propel herself to the surface rather easily, a pair of warm, strong hands closed around her and hauled her to the surface. Along the way, she gasped at the touch, inhaling chlorinated water. Choking, she coughed violently several times.
Before she was done, she heard a concerned voice that was slightly familiar. "Dajibou?"
Jerking her head up into an extremely comfortable position, she twisted away from him until she could see his eyes. Meeting brilliant emerald green, she suppressed yet another exclamation of surprise. "H-hai, dajibou," Ami managed to stutter. "Arigato."
Smiling gently at her, he said, "It's nice to see you again, Ami-chan."
"I'm sorry...but have we met?"
Concealing his disappointment, which was rather hard, the blond-haired boy nodded cordially. Treading water, he introduced, "Kouseki Yosouya at your service."
Blushing scarlet, Ami felt as if she wanted to sink to the bottom of the pool again. "Oh, I'm so sorry!! It's just that...you look so different." Looking down, she sighed in humiliation. She had imagined, over the years, a much more elegant and well-prepared conversation with him than her confused mutterings.
Touching his short hair rather embarrassedly, he nodded. "It is a change. But you do know me now, right?"
"Of course! Gomen nasai. I don't mean to be rude, but do you mind if I say that I liked it long?"
Brightening slightly, Yosouya replied, "No, of course not. I prefer it longer myself. So, may I still call you Ami-chan?"
"If the same still holds true for you."
"Hai, it does. Well..." Smiling a rather crooked smile, he remarked awkwardly, "It's been a while."
"Hai." Ami knew she should have been more forthcoming, but she was just so nervous...and his closeness to her was doing made things to her senses–and the worst part of it was that she didn't know why.
Reaching backwards to the nape of his neck again, he said, "I didn't mean to startle you. You must have been thinking about something important, though."
Curiously, she asked, "Why do you say that?"
Yosouya smiled again, a wide grin that made her feel as though her heart was leaping and flying free as butterflies in her chest. "I told you once, friend of water, that you reminded me of the element. You're connected to it, and you obviously love it."
"I never got to told you how much I treasured your words...they're still with me, thirteen years later. Are you satisfied with your student, professor? I've finally achieved my dream, motivated by you–I've showed the world my emotion and my soul in a rather unexpected way, but I like it."
Green eyes serious, he made his way back to the shallows, standing on the bottom of the pool. "Almost, protegee, almost. You know, I've kept account of all the swimming contests you've entered since the media covered them. I hope you don't mind. It wasn't anything obsessive, like a stalker. I was just a very interested fan."
"And teacher," she added, smiling shyly. "I don't mind. But why aren't you satisfied yet?"
In a flat tone, the blonde explained, "You've made Junior Women's Champion of Japan...and you know you could be one of the top female swimmers in the entire world. Why are you quitting so suddenly? Why are you giving it up?"
Eyes wide with shock and darkly sad, Ami whispered, "How did you find out? I didn't tell anyone except okaa-san, Kyo-kun...and Rei-chan. Oh."
"Right. Rei-chan, one of my best friends." Shocked to find that she was feeling slightly jealous, the blue-haired girl just nodded wordlessly before he went on, "So why are you quitting, Ami-chan?"
"I...I've always wanted to be a pediatrician. I've applied to only two universities, one of the best in Germany and Juuban University. I know it's a big chance, but...this year and all the upcoming years, I'll have to focus on my other goal in life. Swimming will always be there for me, on the side, in my spare time. You can't do that to something like becoming a doctor. I'm hoping to hear from the German school by the end of this month, in three weeks–the end of December."
"Oh." Getting out of the pool rather abruptly, Yosouya apologized, "Gomen nasai, but I'm afraid I have to go now."
"Please wait. I'm sorry; I never wanted to disappoint you. It's just–my okaa-san is a medical doctor, but she works in an emergency room. She's a good mother, but sometimes she's just not there for me. I want to be a doctor, just like her, but if I go into pediatrics, I'll work with children. I'll see them with their mothers every day and always wish that I'll be home with my children–that is, if I have them. They'll remind me never to forget them in pursuit of my work."
Smiling softly at her, he replied, "You've never disappointed me, Ami-chan. Ja ne."
Closing her eyes, she whispered, "Ja ne." As tears slipped silently down her cheek, of shame, of sorrow, of happiness...she thought to herself, ‘at least you never told me sayonara, Souya-kun. At least you never told me sayonara.'
~ * ~ * ~
Jikai: The Next Meeting
The Present
Infinite Ice
