Full Moon
Chapter 2

By Michiru

Kanna tried not to let things get to her, but it was hard.
All that day things had been strange. She smelled the cookies when the smell hadn't reached the second floor, let alone where the rooms were. She smelled that Kouran and Orihime were really sweet on each other. The wounds were healed already.
The wounds were the scary part.
She didn't have healing power like Iris did. Her power was strong, but not in Iris's league.
And the weirdest thing was the moon. Looking out her window, she could see it was almost full. It made her feel funny. Very anxious, like something should happen. Like she wanted something to happen and it was taking too long. She felt like that often, if just because of her own impatience, but this... it was crazy. Because of a silly old, bloated moon?
It made no sense.

Hearing a commotion downstairs, she put on her slippers and headed out of her room. It sounded like....
Pounding down the stair, and through the halls, sounding to her sensitive ears like 5 herds of elephants, she ran as fast as she could.
"CHIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" She yelled, running into the foyer of the theatre, picking Ichirou up like a rag doll, and dancing around.
"H-h-h-h-hee-ll-oo-o-o-o K-k-kann-a-a-a!" Ichirou said shakily.
"I thought you were in Paris! You called me from Paris!!" Kanna cried happily.
"Kanna, put the man down! He's turning purple!" Maria commanded.
"Ohhhhh," she pouted. "Sorry," she added, putting Ichirou down.
"I was calling from the dockyard, Kanna," Ichirou gave her a smile.
"He wouldn't have called at all, but I was busy, he was bored, and he remembered your birthday. He's rather a sweet man," a voice purred from the entranceway.
The silhouette slipped out from the shadows, revealing a beautiful, tall (short by Kanna's view...), woman in a green trench coat.
"Lobelia," Kanna's eyes narrowed slightly, remembering her from her own trip to Paris not long ago.
"Hallo, Kanna," Lobelia smiled silkily.
"She followed me home," Ichirou shrugged, smiling. "She's supposed to be in jail."
"I got let off early for good behavior," Lobelia laughed softly.
"You were supposed to be there for two years. Two days is not the same," Ichirou told her.
"Ha ha! The detective liked me! He had such a crush on Safir."
Kanna watched with narrowed eyes. That woman. She didn't like her much when her, Maria and Kouran went to Paris.
Now, however...

Kanna took Lobelia up to the attic. "This is pretty much it," she told the blonde. There really aren't any other places for you to sleep, unless you want to sack out on someone's floor."
"How about Ichirou's?"
"Uh uh," Kanna shook her head, feeling mildly perturbed at the suggestion. "He wouldn't let you. He's a good guy."
"He likes me. He can't be all that good," Lobelia laughed.
"He probably doesn't like you. He likes Maria. He's just really a nice guy," Kanna looked at her from the corner of her eye.
It had been true when Ichirou left the Tokyo Hanagumi for Paris. He and Maria had even gone to Russia together. Kanna had been a touch jealous- all of them had -- but she was really happy for Maria, and had been sure that she heard wedding bells, but things didn't work out that way. Ichirou had been sent to Paris.
But now he was back, and with the Carlini witch. She had to keep her away from Ichirou so Maria could get him back. Yeah, that was it...
"So, Maria's the other woman, hmm?" Lobelia smiled. "Good competition. Obviously he likes blondes."
"Ha ha," Kanna said dryly. "No offence, but you're no competition."
"You say something like that, and expect me not to take offence?" Lobelia's eyes narrowed as she turned to look at Kanna.
Kanna was hit by the look in the woman's eyes. A fiery look of fierce spirit and determination. She smiled. "The moon will be full tomorrow night," she smiled at Lobelia.

Lobelia was taken aback. This red-headed Amazon brought her to a cruddy, drafty attic room that was worse than her cell in France, offends her, then starts acting weird?
"What does the moon have to do with all this?!" she exclaimed, looking at Kanna as if she were crazy.
"Oh, it's just..." Kanna looked out with a dreamy look.
"Just what?"
"Full. It'll be full tomorrow." She snapped her attention back to Lobelia. "This is a fine room for you to use. "Lots of light."
"Do you expect Maria to come up and kill me or something? And being up here will keep everyone from hearing the screams?"
"Ha ha!" Kanna laughed. "No, there's just no other place for you to sleep. We weren't exactly expecting any others. Heck, we weren't expecting the Chief."
"Hn," Lobelia pursed her lips and looked around. At least it was private. But the look Kanna was giving her was rather creepy. She was the one who liked to be creepy. She didn't like the tables being tuned on her. "Is something wrong with you?" she asked Kanna.
"Whaddaya mean?" Kanna looked innocent.
"You're acting weird, even for you. You're looking at me like I'm some kind of delicacy and you'd like nothing more than to eat me."
"That's crazy," Kanna laughed, running her fingers through her hair. "I've just been having a bad couple of days."
"What about your birthday? Wasn't it a nice day?"
"Oh, yeah," Kanna said with a note of bitterness. "Best day of my life."
Lobelia leaned against a support beam, crossing her arms. "You don't sound happy."
"You wouldn't be happy if someone raped you, either, would you?"
Lobelia was momentarily shocked. This... creature.... raped? She was so strong and muscle-bound... "Didn't like it?" Lobelia asked nastily.
She saw Kanna turn to her, and in the darkness could almost swear her eyes turned silver. "Would you?" Kanna asked in a deep, soft voice. "Would you like it if someone jumped you? And if, even though you were big and very strong, he was so much stronger than you that you could barely move?" As she spoke, Kanna moved towards her... if fact, Kanna glided would be a better thought... she glided with the grace of an animal towards her, and the eyes were very definitely silver.
Lobelia scrambled back, around the support beam, suddenly very frightened.
"I wonder if he could smell my fear? If he knew that I was frightened, and if he knew I was angry?" Kanna continued her glide towards Lobelia.
"I- I don't know," Lobelia whispered.
"I can smell your fear," Kanna's expressionless face, silver chips of ice for eyes, it was strange. "I know you're frightened of me. It's... exciting, your fear. It makes me want to... to something. Stop the fear?"
"You're trying to scare me!" Lobelia's back hit the wall. This was too crazy. Lobelia Carlini didn't KNOW fear. Lobelia Carlini's teeth chattered.
Kanna's hand flew out faster than Lobelia could see it, and pinned her to the wall. Lips crushed Lobelia�s, then she felt herself knocked off her feet, onto the floor.
Dazed, she got an arm under her, and supporting herself, rubbed her head. "That hurt," she whispered, fear being replaced by anger.
"Good," a voice murmured from the shadows.
Lobelia looked around wildly. She couldn�t see Kanna anywhere. She-
A rush of wind hit her, and the world went black.

to be continued�