I'll Cover You cpt 6

The phone's ringing, and I don't care to pick it up. I'll let the machine get it.

"Moshi moshi?"

Or Usagi can pick it up. It's probably for her; who the hell would call me?

Andrew.

I scramble out of bed, taking most of the sheets with me and falling on the floor. "Usagi, who is it?"

"I don't know. I think they're American, because their Japanese sounds funny."

I make my way to the phone. "Hello?"

"Darien? Thank God."

"Hi, Andrew. How are you?"

"Fine. Why are you living with another woman?"

"It's not what you think."

He laughs. "Of course it isn't. She's your 'tutor'?"

"Shut up. Why'd you call?"

"I found out something on Raye, and you'll never guess what."

"Lemme try. She's in Japan?"

"How do you do that?"

"Magic," I laugh.

"So what's with the new woman?"

"That's Usagi. She's taking care of me and nursing me back to health."

"Did you get sick?"

"No, just temporarily blind."

"Yeah, right."

"No, Andrew, I'm blind."

He pauses. "Shit. How did that happen?"

A talking cat dropped a pot on my head so I wouldn't take a picture of a superhero in a sailor suit. Incidentally, I can see when I dress in a tuxedo and talk to an apparition of myself as a soldier. "I got hit in the head with something heavy."

"Didn't I warn you about those Japanese baseball games? You got beaned, didn't you?"

"That's it."

"Well, guess my call was useless, then. Corinne's been asking about you. She's said she wants to visit Tokyo just to say 'hi.'"

Great.

"Please, Andrew, keep her there. The last thing I need is another crazy woman in my life right now."

"Aye, aye Cap'n. Talk to you later."

"Later, Andrew."

I hang up the phone.

"Was I right?" Usagi's behind me, and has been listening to the conversation. "Was he an American friend?"

"Yeah, that's my best friend Andrew. You, you naughty girl, should have just told him you can speak English, and then he wouldn't have been so scared."

She laughs. "To think that he is scared of little old me. That is just silly. So, what did he want to talk about?"

"My ex-woman that ran away on me."

"Ex-woman? How can someone be an...oh...did she have an operation?"

I laugh out loud. She has an uncanny ability to do that to me. "No, she's still a woman, she's just my ex-woman. We used to date."

"Oh! You told me about her at the park!"

"Yeah. She visited me that day I was in the hospital. She told me she didn't love me anymore and to forget about her."

"Sounds like good advice. I'm sure there's someone out there who is your soul mate."

I laugh. "Actually, she told me to search for a woman from my dreams." Maybe I should tell Usagi about this. She would understand, right? She has weird secrets, too. "Remember when I told you about Serenity?"

I can't see her reaction, but I just know that she stiffened again, as if she puts up a shield when I mention her.

"Yes? What about her?"

"Raye told me to search for her."

"Raye? How do you know Raye?"

"That's my ex-girlfriend."

Something clatters to the floor. She must have been making breakfast. "Raye just moved to Japan?"

"Yeah, I guess. Why?"

She doesn't answer, but instead mutters to herself. "Oh, Kami-sama, iie..."

"Usagi?"

She picks up whatever she dropped. "It's nothing. Don't worry. I was thinking of someone else. But, tell me more about Raye. And Serenity."

"Ok..." There's a puzzle piece here I'm missing. Usagi definitely knows Raye, and she knows something about my dream. What is it I'm not seeing? (Yeah, yeah, everything. Ha ha.) "Raye visited me in the hospital and told me to seek out Serenity, because she's the one that loves me. I have no idea what that means, and I'm not sure how I seek out someone in my dreams. I can't exactly put out a personal ad. 'Single white male searching for figment of his imagination. Blond, blue-eyed princesses only need apply.'"

"Is that what she looks like?"

"Yeah. In fact, in most of my dreams, she looks like yo- well, she resembles you."

The tension in the air gets even thicker. "She...she looks like me?"

"Well, she never had a face until I met you, so it might just be association, you know." I wonder if it's worse that I tell Usagi that she looks like my princess, or that she doesn't, but she's worked herself into my dreams anyway.

She giggles. "Should I be flattered you're dreaming about me, Darien?"

"Oh, shush. Well, you have to admit, your life is pretty strange and dream-like."

"What do you mean, strange?"

Yeah, Darien, what do you mean, strange? Why don't you tell her that you know she's Sailor Moon and you're hoping to expose her for a news story. Well, once you get your sight back, of course. "Well, you know, a stranger appears in your life, and he ends up blind and you're taking care of him. That doesn't happen every day."

"I guess not." Silence. "Breakfast is ready! Sit down!"

"Let me guess. Rice and fermented beans?"

"How did you know?"

"It's the only thing you know how to make."

"Is not! I can also make toast!"

Being blind is no fun in today's society, unless you're used to it. I haven't the slightest clue how to read Braille, and I can't read the paper, can't see anything on TV, or can't take photos. Yee-haw. I've spent the last week lying in bed, and when I'm certain Usagi isn't going to walk in on me, I pull the gems out of my drawer. Yeah, I picked up another. An orange one. They serve as my entertainment; I hold them in front of my eyes and wave them around, watching the streaks of colour they leave behind.

Wow, I'm dull.

I've tried writing, but my words slant off of the lines, and I start writing on the table or the counter. I gave up on that, and when I type on my laptop, I can imagine how many words I misspell when I can't see those squiggly red lines.

So I sit. And I nap. And I eat. But mostly, I talk to Usagi. She comes back from classes, goes to work, then comes back and we have dinner together. It's an all right life, if you ignore the whole blindness thing. Usagi's really started to grow on me. Maybe it's the companionship, maybe it's Florence Nightingale syndrome, maybe it's the fact that I feel more attached since I've started protecting her in battles. Whatever it is, I miss her when she's gone. And I wish she didn't spend her nights on the couch.

I'm a sap. I'm a dull, blind sap.

Great.

When I think about her, I'm confused out of my mind. What about Raye? I don't care what she told me, I still love her. Don't I? Or am I still clinging to her because I don't want to believe that I'm in love with a dream?

I pick up the phone and call Andrew.

"Thompson."

"Hey, Andrew."

"Darien! Did you track down Raye yet?"

"No, Andrew, and I'm not going to. Listen, I'm giving up on her."

"You've had me spending my spare time tracking her down so you can give up on her as soon as I find out where she is? Maybe I will tell Corinne where you're staying."

"Andrew, listen. When I first...got blind, she visited me in the hospital. She told me it was over. And I think that if she's over it, I should get over it, too."

"You slept with the chick in your apartment, didn't you?"

"Andrew! Of course not! I...I just feel like I'm clinging to a memory. Besides, I don't think I have time to track her down and re-woo her."

"All right, buddy. Hope your sight comes back, you only have another month to find a story."

"Yeah, yeah. Talk to you later."

Damn you, sight. I'll get fired if I don't have anything.

I close my eyes and fall back on my couch, rubbing my aching temples. Ah yes, the signals that I'm about to have a change of clothes. I open my eyes and find myself in a tuxedo.

"Where is she?"

At college, you dullard. That's where the attack is.

"Then up, up, and away."

That's the spirit.

She's alone against the creature. Her blurs aren't there to help her, only a blind American dressed up for Prom. Lucky her.

I pull out a rose. "Let's go, Shields."

Jumping into the fight, I almost get my head chopped off by a knife-wielding claw. Luckily, I'm stubborn enough to stay in one piece. I pop my cane in its direction and stab it right in the eye.

I suppose I'm getting pretty good at this.

"Sailor Moon, now!"

"Hai!" she replies. And to think that a few weeks ago, I thought this girl was just a blurry angel.

The human that was once monster drops to the ground, exhausted. He leaves behind a yellow crystal. We reach for it at the same time. Our hands touch, and we lock eyes, neither one letting go of the gem.

"Dare...?" she whispers, trying to identify the eyes behind the mask. "Onamae wa nan desu ka?" Perhaps I'm blurry to her? Should I tell?

No, not yet. It's too early to tell her.

But I have to say something.

"Watashi wa..." who the hell am I? I'm a guy in a tuxedo and a mask. "Watashi wa Tuxedo...Mask...desu?"

"Takishido Masku?"

"Yeah. I mean, hai."

She tugs gently on the gem. "Onegai, Takishido Masku. Onegai shimasu."

Her eyes plead with me. I feel like I'm in an old Bugs Bunny cartoon, and I've suddenly turned into a lollypop with the word "Sucker" written on it. I let go.

"Arigato, Takishido Masku. Watakushi wa Sera Muun."

"Shirimasu," I reply. Dammit. Now she's going to want to know how I know. I'm an idiot.

She looks at me surprised, and lets out a "Doo?" before I run away. "Machimashoo!" she yells.

I can't wait for her to catch up, but I feel a lump in my stomach running away. I can hear her footsteps behind me, slowly gaining on me. What happens if she catches up? That can't happen. She'll find out who I am, and then the questions will start. If I tell her about my night life, she should tell me hers. But that voice nags me that it isn't the right time to share identities.

I round a corner and hear her even closer behind. I panic until I hear, Over here, quickly. I follow the voice, identifying it as Endymion's. It takes me down an alleyway, and I hop up the fire escape until I'm on the roof. I hide there until I see Sailor Moon sail by.

She stops when she sees I'm nowhere around. Her shoulders slump, and she slinks into the alleyway, grabbing the brooch in the centre of her bow. The sailor suit melts away, revealing Usagi. She puts the crystal in her skirt pocket, then heads nonchalantly back to school, as if she had been out on an afternoon jog. I've got to admire someone who can do that.

It's strange to see a man in a tuxedo hopping around buildings mid-afternoon, but if I lose my disguise, I lose my sight. What a deal.

I dropped back into our (when did it stop being mine?) apartment, and snap a rose out of my cape. Pulling a petal off of it, I feel the veil slip back over my eyes. I'm tempted to tell Usagi all, just so I can keep seeing.

But Endymion keeps telling me that I can't. I feel like my life has been planned out for me already. Great.

Find Serenity. Go save Sailor Moon. Take the gems. Don't tell her who you are. You can't see just yet. You don't love Raye. You love Serenity.

What if I don't love Serenity? What if I find this woman who's my destiny, and she's a toothless, rude hag who I wouldn't spend five minutes with if she had the greatest news story in the universe? What then? But destiny awaits. I feel like I'm up to my friggin' neck in destiny right now. I lie down on the couch, listening to the TV.

Usagi comes home a few hours later, moaning about a professor. I sit up and stretch, waiting for her to take her usual post-school seat next to me.

"How was school?"

"My back is killing me, and my legs hurt."

"What happened to your back?" She drops her things next to the couch, then lies down on it, her feet on my lap.

"Oh, nothing. Backache from sitting in a desk all day." I pop her shoes off, and I feel her stretch out her body. "Darien, do you know the way to a woman's heart?"

"No, what?"

"Foot rub."

"Hell, I never knew it was that easy." I give her left foot a little tickle.

"No! Come on, I can't take that!"

"I'm sorry. Sorry. Really." I feel around her toes before massaging the balls of her feet. She rolls onto her stomach. "So, tell me, other than bad professors and horrible chairs, what else happened? I'm living vicariously through you, you know?"

"I had lunch with Makoto between classes. That's it."

"Thrilling. Someone should write an action-packed comic book about you."

She laughs. "Yeah, right. 'I fight for love, justice, and foot rubs! In the name of the moon, I'll punish you!' How was that?"

I smile and move my hands up to rub her calves. "Perfect," I reply.

She moans softly. "I should just let you give me a full-body massage."

I try to mask my surprise with a cough. When did sweet little Usagi get so forward? "Why...why do you say that?"

"Well, what you're doing now feels good..." She flips onto her back again. "You couldn't see anything of mine anyway."

"Thanks for reminding me. I had almost forgotten for a second there." She gets up off of the couch and goes into the kitchen. I follow. "Besides, that's the sort of thing you should reserve for a special guy."

She sighs. "I did meet a guy today..."

I stiffen, and wonder why I have such a reaction. I only protect her in battle; in real life, she's up for any guy, right? "What guy? What was he like?"

"Very mysterious..." she sighs again. "He was wearing a tuxedo, and flew into my world before running out again."

I suppress an arrogant laugh.

She's talking about me.

"Well, uh, was he handsome?"

She pauses as she fills a pot with water. "I didn't get a good look at his face, but I bet he is."

I'm enjoying this. "As handsome as me?"

She laughs. "No one's as handsome as my roommate, Darien, but I suppose this guy will do. And at least he speaks Japanese."

Or maybe he's been listening to his Learn Japanese in Ten Minutes a Day! tapes when he has nothing better to do.

"Jumping in and out of your life...doesn't sound very responsible to me, Usagi. You should stick with someone who's reliable, kind, handsome, blind..." Where are these words coming from? Am I hitting on her?

"Well, I guess a girlfriend of yours wouldn't have to worry about you looking at other girls, would she?"

"Hey, the doctors said this is only temporary. My woman would have to worry about other girls looking at me, anyway."

"Well, aren't you arrogant? I hardly think that you're OW!" Her statement is cut short by a shriek of pain. I grab her hand and hold it to my lips, blowing on it softly. She sniffs softly. "How did you know I burned myself?"

I asked myself the same question. "I...I'm not sure." I evade it by blowing on her burnt finger some more. "Feeling better?"

"A little."

"Here, let me try this." I feel for the sink and turn the cold water on. I put her hand under the flow, then took a deep breath.

When I was a child, I had a bizarre ability to heal wounds. I never tried anything major, but I always fixed my cuts and bruises without bandages or antiseptic. On the playground in third grade, someone had seen me healing a scrape on my knee, and called me a freak. It had permanently jarred me, and I never tried anything similar again. But now I feel that power resurging.

Under the guise of cold water, I hold both my hands around Usagi's and concentrate, calling back that latent power. I doubt it will work.

"Darien?"

"Yes?"

"My hand feels perfectly fine now. The water made it better."

I smile. "Okay."

There is silence until she says, "Thank you."

"You're welcome."

More silence, until it's broken by me. "Sorry, I'll let go of your hand now."

"Thank you. I do need to fix dinner."

I let her hand slip from mine, and immediately feel a sense of loss. "No, no you don't need to fix dinner."

"Should we starve?"

"No, let's go out. My treat. You just need to drive." Is this friendly, or am I asking her out on a date? Dammit, I don't even know anymore. Aren't I supposed to be looking for my princess? I'm two-timing her already. A little voice inside says not to get attached: I'll be leaving in a month.

Another voice also reminds me I'll be leaving in a month, and that's the very reason I should get as attached as possible right now.

"All right," she replies. "Let me take this off of the stove, and we'll go out." She moves into her couch area and grabs a coat. "Where do you want to go?"

I smile. "You pick. Hell, take me on a tour of Japan's finest restaurants."

She laughs. "Last time we did that, you got hit on the head."

"No, that was nightclubs. This time, we'll be classier."

"Okay, I will lead the way to the best food you've ever had, except for Makoto's."

"As long as it's not as spicy..." I mutter as she leads me out the door.

Usagi takes me to a sushi place and lives up to her promise. This stuff even beats some of my favourite restaurants back home. As our stomachs fill, we eat less and talk more.

"I'm sorry about this whole situation, Darien. I still think it's my fault," she tells me.

I place my hand on hers. "Usagi, don't worry about it. It'll pass before I have to go home, and then I'll find my story."

A waiter asks us if we would like anything else, and I ask for some sake. I feel Usagi's fingers stiffen in my hand.

"Darien...when did you start speaking Japanese?" she asks in her native language.

I stop and think for a moment, realising that's how I just replied. I wonder why it made her so jumpy, then put two and two together: when I speak Japanese, I sound like Tuxedo Mask, who spoke it to her. "Um...I've just been picking it up from TV," I reply in English. I can't have her making associations I don't need.

"Well, if you're so smart, I'll just talk like this now," she says in Japanese.

"And since you're so smart, I'll talk like this," I rebut in English.

We continued our conversation that way, each speaking our own language. We must have made for a strange sight, but not as strange as what interrupted us.

"Zoisite!" Usagi mutters. People are running away, screaming, from a man with copper hair. She grabs me by the hand and leads me to a back corner of the restaurant. "Stay here, I'm going to call the police!" she whispers, leaving me to transform, I assume. As soon as she's gone, I feel my sight return.

"I hope no one was around to see me become a silly-looking superhero," I grumble. I hear the roar of another monster and peek around the corner. Wow, two in a day. Even Japanese villains are more efficient than Americans.

Sailor Moon is already transformed, giving a speech to Zoisite about love, justice, and food or something. While she's talking to him, the monster is sneaking behind her, preparing for attack. It appears to be another bizarre creature, a mockery of an animal-human hybrid.

"Sailor Moon, look out!" I cry in Japanese, trying to stay in character. She turns and evades the creature just in time, but Zoisite is preparing to hit her with an attack. I lunge forward, punching him in the stomach. Before he can retaliate, I throw a rose at his face, slicing the skin. Sailor Moon and I are back-to-back, each facing an opponent.

We spin around and trade. I fend off the monster, and she calls out an attack name, using light reflected off her tiara to burn a hole through the man. He promptly turns to dust.

"Think you could do the same over here?" I ask, giving the monster a good hit. It falls back, wounded, and we spin around again as she pulls her moon stick out of seemingly nowhere. She draws her circle, changing the creature back to its human self, and the crystal clatters to the floor. However, she doesn't notice it, because I see her run to the back of the restaurant, where she believes me to be.

Shit. I'm supposed to be back there. I grab the crystal, then transform as she calls my name. Pocketing the gem, I play dumb and call out, "Usagi? I got pushed out with the crowd! Where are you?"

She doesn't notice a thing as she grabs my hand. I feel a warmth when we touch, and I'm not sure if I like it or if it disturbs me.

"Thank goodness. I was so worried."

I smile. And here I thought it was my job to protect her. "We should go home." I put my arm around her shoulders.

"Yes. Yes we should."

When we return home, we sit on the couch and turn on the TV, neither of us wanting to discuss what happened for fear of saying too much. Usagi groans painfully every time she shifts next to me.

"What's the matter?"

"I think I got hurt...while everyone was running around."

"Here, let me rub your shoulders."

I place my hands over her shoulder blades and back, concentrating my energy again. She moans softly, and then I feel cotton drop away to skin.

Holy shit, she took off her blouse.

Half of me is glad I don't have sight, the other half would give up the other four senses forever just to have it for this moment.

"Um, Usagi..."

"It's okay, I just pulled it off my shoulders," she yawns. "Please don't stop, you're doing a great job."

"Okay," I reply. I continue concentrating my energy until I know she's fallen asleep. I keep rubbing for a few more minutes, and then when I'm tired, I'll go to bed...

I never get to bed. Instead, I'm treated to another dreamless sleep, next to Usagi.