Title: Sister Moon, Brother Earth [2/?] Author: Corbeau Noir Genre: AU, Action/Adventure, Drama Rating: PG-13 Email: noir_corbeau@hotmail.com Site: www.geocities.com/corbeaun Disclaimer: Bishoujou Senshi Sailor Moon was created by Naoko Takeuchi. =========================================================== "Hanami" - In Japan this is the custom of observing cherry blossoms in the spring, which today usually includes a nationwide outdoor picnic every April. Once only a pursuit of the educated upper-class, sakura-viewing is now an extremely popular festival for everyone in the country. =========================================================== Sister Moon, Brother Earth by Corbeau Noir Part 2 ~~~~~~ "Where is the --" "Lower shelf, beside the rice." Mamoru watched from his perch by the kitchen counter as Usagi disappeared beneath the cabinet, then popped back up again moments later slightly disheveled but with the jar secured in her grasp. She laid it carefully beside the sink, before turning to him again. "Now where --" "Third door, behind the towel rack." Usagi pursed her lips, rummaged through a few boxes before triumphantly emerging with a red, slightly chipped bento box. She laid that too beside the sink, and then proudly stood back to survey the assortment of condiments and containers now lined neatly on the tiled counter. Mamoru watched the scene dubiously. "Are you sure you don't want any help?" She waved a hand at him in exasperation. "Yes, yes, I'm sure. Now just stay put." Usagi set a pot of water simmering on the stove, humming softly to herself all the while. Suddenly, she frowned and turned to shake the frying pan at him threateningly, "You're coming next week, right? To my school's hanami?" "Wouldn't miss it for the world." He cocked a grin at her. "You better not," Usagi warned with only a half- teasing smile, and turned to dump a plate of finely minced beef into the pot. "Oh, and Onniichan?" she added casually, "Bring Motoki along too." "As long as you remember he has a girlfriend," Mamoru murmured, surreptitiously eyeing the pot bubbling on the stove in front of Usagi. Usagi paused in the midst of stirring to stick her tongue out at him. "The path of true love has no boundaries," she said, affecting a haughty air. He tore his eyes away from the now ominously rumbling pot. "Usa, a girlfriend is *not* a boundary." Usagi grinned at him, a twinkle in her eye. "Fine, a challenge then." Mamoru only sighed in fond exasperation, watching affectionately as his sister bustled about in their tiny kitchen preparing for their evening meal. When Usagi finally took the pot of nondescript brown mush off the stove and brought it past him, he eyed it warily. The unmistakable odor of burnt curry wafted to his nose and Mamoru reached instinctively toward it. "Usa, maybe I should --" She slapped his hand away hard. "No. Whatever it is, just no. This is my food. You will not touch it, add to it, or in any way or form have *anything* to do with it before it comes in contact with your mouth, oh say, an hour from now." She glowered hard at him for emphasis, "Understood, Oniichan?" His lips twitched in what looked suspiciously like a smile, but when Usagi watched closely a moment later after putting the pot in the sink to cool, the face Mamoru turned to her was the epitome of solemnity. He bowed low. "I live to serve, Usa-hime." The shout of indignant laughter rang out in the late evening air, followed closely by the familiar sound of a young man's chuckles. * * * * * "Now class, you're all preparing for the hanami, right? We don’t want anything last minute now, do we? It must be perfect!" Old Mrs. Yano beamed, looking at the entire class. "And as every good Japanese cook knows, the packaging is just as, if not more important than what's inside." Abruptly, Mrs. Yano frowned, only then noticing the empty seat beside Naru. "Is Kino Makoto absent today?" she asked. The girl in front of Naru, Yumiko, raised her hand timidly. "Ah, sensei, she was here during homeroom." Mrs. Yano pursed her lips in displeasure and brusquely made a mark in her folder. "Delinquents," she muttered under her breath. "It gets worse every year." She laid the folder back on her desk, and flicked on the slide show. A picture of a rice ball with a sprig of parsley appeared on the blank wall of the Home Ec room. "Ah, as I was saying, the aesthetic is extremely important when cooking." She clicked again and the picture on the wall changed to that of a bowl of miso with blocks of tofu stacked symmetrically within. "Not only does the food have to taste good in the mouth, it must also appear lovely to the eye. Presentation," Mrs. Yano jabbed her finger emphatically in the air, "is the key!" "Now," she looked around the quiet room, "who would like to collect flowers for the class." Usagi's hand shot up in the air. "Ah, the new student, Chiba." She gestured to the plastic pail hanging on a peg beside the door. "Go take that and come back in twenty minutes. Oh, and I truly appreciate you willingness to sacrifice your time at decorating for the class." Naru coughed and Usagi smiled sweetly. * * * * * There were some truly beautiful blossoms on the cherry trees behind the fence, around the old shed. Surreptitiously checking to make sure no one around, she quickly squeezed herself through a gap in the wooden fence. The shed was rusted over, and paint flaked off from the sides. Usagi grimaced as she stepped carefully over the rusted nails on the grass, stooping down ever once and a while to pick a perfectly shaped petal off the ground. "What are you doing here?" Startled, Usagi jumped to her feet, turning just in time to see a tall forbidding girl emerge from behind one of the surrounding trees. She vaguely remembered seeing the girl in her class before. "Oh, I didn't mean to disturb you." Usagi held up the half-full pail sheepishly. "I was just filling this for an assignment." The other girl stared hard at her for a long moment. Usagi fidgeted awkwardly. Then abruptly, as if not finding what she was looking for, the tall girl shouldered her way past the smaller Usagi; Usagi's nose wrinkled a little as she caught the distinctive smell of tobacco from the other girl. Later, after Home Ec was over and everyone walked back to the classroom, Usagi saw the strange girl from before already seated in a desk in the corner. She nudged Naru and asked, "Who is she?" Naru glanced curiously in the direction Usagi was pointing. "Oh, that's Makoto." "Makoto?" Naru nodded gravely. "Yeah, Makoto's one of those independent types. She lives by herself in an apartment downtown. I think her only joy in the world is cooking. Or at least," Naru cocked her head thoughtfully, "she only smiles while there's uncooked food lying around." A short pig-tailed girl, Kuri, appeared suddenly by Usagi's desk, "Don't go near her, Usagi," Kuri warned, "She's mellowed out the past few years, but when she was in junior high, she was an ogre! Always picking fights..." "But she really has mellowed these years," Yumiko protested, leaning over her chair to Usagi's desk. "Almost like a different person. I wonder what happened," she added bemusedly. The next day, between classes, Usagi noticed the gap in the fence. She remembered the tall brunette from yesterday, and on a sudden impulse, she squeezed through the wooden boards to the other side. But to her disappointment, the other girl was not there. "Hey, you're not supposed to be here," a rough voice came from behind. Usagi stumbled back in surprise, only to collide against someone's chest. A hand caught her by the waist, and spun her around. She broke out from the grip, and stared apprehensively at the two scruffy teenage boys, one big, the other skinny, now standing in front of her. She slowly inched back toward the gap in the fence. "Gomen, I didn't realize I was intruding." A glint of recognition suddenly appeared in the bigger boy's eyes. One hand slammed against the shed beside her, blocking her retreat. "He-e-e-y..." he drawled, "Aren't you that new girl? The one everyone's talking about." She tried to dodge out from beneath his arm. "I don't --" The skinny boy grinned, walking up to where the other boy had trapped her. "C'mon, let's see that pretty face of yours." He grabbed her roughly by the chin. Usagi yanked her face out of his grasp, and glared furiously at both of them, "Don't touch me." But before she could shout again, the bigger boy grabbed her from behind, pinning her arms to her sides. Panic suddenly thrashed through her body. "What are you doing?!" she cried, twisting desperately in the boy's grip. "Let me go!" Grinning, the skinny boy stuck his face right in front of hers. "Hey, hey, just looking." She glowered at him, eyes bright with fury and panic, and he laughed. "But, whew," he stared at the mesh of scars on her left cheek, raising a finger to trace the lines, "looks like someone already roughed you up real bad before." Usagi finally twisted an arm from the other boy's clutch, and hit the skinny boy's hand away from her face. "I said get your hands off me!" The skinny boy grinned, rubbing at the hand she'd slapped. "So-o-o-o...You like it rough, huh?" he said gleefully, reaching for her once again. This time she didn't bother saying anything, and instead drove her free elbow behind her hard into the other boy's stomach. The bigger boy yelped, and tossed her to the ground. "Itachi!" he spat at her, holding a hand to his side, and took an angry step toward her. Usagi grew cold at the look on his face, and she frantically tried to get up from the ground. "What are you guys doing?" Both boys stiffened, whipped around to face the speaker, then relaxed immediately upon recognizing the newcomer. Usagi froze on the ground when she saw who it was. The bigger boy affected an air of boredom and drawled, "Oh, it's only you." "Heard you finally decided to act like a real woman, Makoto." The skinny boy leered at the brown-haired girl, "What, you want a boyfriend?" "Never knew you were interested, Ichiro-kun." Then her voice flattened. "You two are on my turf, and you both know how much I love trespassers." The skinny boy laughed. "Back off, *Makoto-chan*," he smirked, purposefully using the insulting diminutive. "You've gotten soft, and I ain't never gonna take orders from a girl." He nodded at the bigger boy, and the bigger boy nodded back and took a menacing step toward the tall brunette. It happened so fast, Usagi barely saw it; the big boy was suddenly on the ground clutching his face, blood running between his fingers. The skinny boy squeaked. Makoto lowered her fist and calmly smoothed out the skirt of her sailor fuku. "Get out." The two boys scrambled up, nearly tripping over their own feet in their haste, and quickly disappeared into the bushes behind the shed. Usagi lay wordless on the ground beneath the cherry tree. The tall emerald-eyed girl only glanced at her once without saying anything, and then walked away. * * * * * Naru stared at Usagi. "Why do you want to know where she sits for lunch?" she asked. Kuri rolled her eyes in exasperation, "Usagi, didn't you hear me when I said she's a troublemaker?" Usagi frowned a little, unconsciously gripped the edges of her bento box, "She can't be as frightening as you say." "Oh, of course not," Kuri smiled. "She's worse." Suddenly, Naru started, "Hey, Usagi, where're you going?" The golden-haired girl waved back reassuringly from where she'd walked a few feet away. "Don't worry, Naru, you guys go on without me." She ducked under a low branch, and then called back, "I'll just have lunch over here today." An alarmed look on her face, Naru cried out, "You're not...?!" But as Usagi's tiny figure disappeared into the undergrowth, it became apparent. Kuri groaned faintly in horror, "...oh, kami help us, she *is*..." * * * * * It wasn't too hard to find the other girl. Even seated among the tall uncut grass, her hair gleamed like burnished copper under the sunlight that streamed through the leafy branches of the trees overhead. The girl looked up in surprise as Usagi seated herself calmly on the grass beside her. "It's a beautiful day, don't you think?" Usagi asked her amiably. Makoto only stared at her, and shook her head in bemusement. "What are you doing?" she finally growled. Usagi blinked innocently at her. "I'm having lunch," she replied simply, and as if to illustrate just that, she slid a pair of chopsticks from her red bento box. Makoto glared at her. "As I'm sure your little friends told you, I'm not a very nice person." Usagi only smiled cheerfully. "'Nice' is overrated, don't you think?" she asked all too casually. Makoto snorted disbelievingly at that. "And besides, I believe they also said you breathed fire and could take down forty grown men with both hands behind your back and a leg behind your ear." Surprised, Makoto let out a short bark of laughter before she could stop herself. "Fine," she said, irritated at having a reaction drawn from her, "Eat here if you want; I'm outta here." She stood up to leave. Usagi lurched from her seat, grabbing her by the arm. "No, please, I--" The tall brunette looked down at her, and Usagi flushed, hastily letting go of her arm. But her voice was composed and steady when she spoke. "I wanted to thank you," she said quietly, "for what happened back there." At that, a strange expression passed over the Makoto's previously stoic face, and she murmured, "Don't thank me; I didn't do it for you." Her lips quirked into a small mocking smile. "It had nothing to do with you." Usagi blinked, startled at seeing a familiar lost look in the other girl's eyes, a look that she'd seen more than once in her brother's eyes and her own in the mirror. "You have my gratitude," she finally said earnestly, "no matter who you did it for." And then Usagi bowed briskly. "I'm sorry to have intruded. Please continue your lunch." Makoto watched her go without comment, not stirring until the other girl's golden head had disappeared completely into the foliage. And then she sat back down on the grass and sighed quietly to herself. * * * * * Walking up the stairs with an armful of books, Mamoru nearly tripped over the tiny black body in the front of his apartment building. "Hey kitty, where did you come from?" he said, using one hand to unlock his apartment door. The cat ambled toward the open door. Mamoru quickly blocked the doorway with his body, "Oh no, sorry, you can't go in, no animals allowed." The cat imperiously ignored him and slinked in between his legs and into the building. "Hey!" Mamoru called out in protest, and quickly hurried after it. He dropped his books on the kitchen counter and turned to find the cat making itself home on the matted green cushions of the old couch. The feline only blinked at him when he tried to shoo it away. Finally, he sighed and sank down on the couch beside the cat. "What will I do with you? We can't keep you." His fingers ruffled through the short black fur. "I guess we'll just have to see after Usa gets back from her hanami preparations." The cat arched against his hand and purred. [End "Sister Moon, Brother Earth" - Part 2] =========================================================== Author's Notes: Woah...Part 2 did *not* go the way I thought it would. It was as if Makoto just grabbed the keyboard and took off. Her character is coming out stronger than expected; that's not really a bad thing, though, just unexpected. I wonder what will happen when I get to Rei... Part 3 is already partly written (two pages anyway) and Mamoru will finally be getting some spotlight. Until then, ja! Feedback will be loved, snuggled, and returned with lots and lots of gratitude. -------------------------- noir_corbeau@hotmail.com www.geocities.com/corbeaun -------------------------- =========================================================== 10.5.02