Scouting Out Life Chapter 1

by Haruka

The key jiggled in the lock and a beautiful young woman with calf-length green hair pushed the door open. "All right, girls, we're in!"
"Yippee! Dibs on the best room!"
"No way! Me first!"
The green-haired girl landed face-down on the carpet as two younger girls tried to shove their way inside simultaneously. As a result, they got stuck in the doorway together.
"Ow! Cut down on the doughnuts, Chubmeister!"
"Look who's talking, Thunder Thighs!"
"We may never get in," lamented a voice from behind the wedged pair.
"Setsuna, do something!" called another girl.
Climbing to her feet, the green-haired young woman strode determinedly over to the struggling arguers in the doorway. Placing a firm hand on each girl's arm, she gave a mighty pull. An audible pop sounded her success and she wound up back on the carpet, this time with two bickering girls on top of her. Five others promptly ran over them in a mad dash for the stairs.
"Hold it right there!"
The group skidded to a halt at the commanding tone. A pair of cats with crescent moons on their foreheads regarded them sternly.
"You're going to have to share rooms, anyway, so there's no point in maiming each other for them now!" said the white male cat.
A girl with thigh-length blonde hair sporting a big red bow gave a sigh. "You're right, Artemis."
"Yeah," agreed another with short tousled gold hair. She glanced back toward the doorway. "Besides, I think Setsuna could use some help."
The bunch quickly reversed direction and pulled the still-arguing girls off the older one underneath them. Setsuna stood up and brushed herself off.
"Serena, Raye, please give it a rest. I really don't want to spend all day hitting the floor."
The two grudgingly clamped their lips shut, but their eyes shot daggers at one another. Setsuna shook her head. From the way they acted, no one would know that Raye and Serena would fight to the death for each other. Literally.
The same was true for all of them. In years past, long before their present existence, each of the beautiful girls were princesses of their own respective planets. They were also warriors--sailor scouts--sworn to protect Serena, the Moon Princess, and to preserve peace. When the moon was destroyed by evil forces of the Negaverse, Serena's mother, Queen Serenity, used the last of her strength to send them to be reborn in the future, along with guardian mooncats, Luna and Artemis. When this occurred, they found their work as sailor scouts wasn't over, and they were forced to do battle on Earth. Now, finally, the Negaverse had been thwarted, and the scouts were ready to resume normal life.
Or as normal as life would allow with Serena and Raye under the same roof.
"How are we going to divide up the rooms?" asked Amy, the ever- practical. With short blue hair and a 300 I.Q., Amy planned to be a doctor one day and spent much of her time studying. Both she and her alter-ego Sailor Mercury were often turned to for answers.
"I don't care as long as I don't have to room with Serena!" Raye folded her arms. "She already routes through my comic books and messes up my stuff, I don't want her having full-time access!"
Setsuna hoped that Raye would be able to share a room with anyone comfortably. Not that the girl with thigh-length purple-black hair was antisocial, but she had a tendency to be quick-tempered, and she valued her privacy for meditation. Her sixth sense and ability to read fire had been invaluable, as had her fire-controlling abilities as Sailor Mars.
"I'll room with you, Raye," offered the blonde girl with the bow. No one was surprised; easy-going Mina wasn't likely to fight with Raye or anyone else without good reason. However, she fought valiantly as Sailor Venus, and as Sailor V before joining the other scouts. They had admired her work from afar before learning they were one with her. Artemis guided her as Sailor V, and remained her guardian still.
"Okay, then Amy and I will room together," spoke up the tallest of the younger sailor scouts. Even when she wasn't being Sailor Jupiter, Lita was physically strong enough to do damage to any opponent. She was tough, but loyal.
"Well, what do you know," Mina said mischievously. "It looks like Haruka and Michiru will be sharing a room."
"Or more," Raye murmured under her breath.
Setsuna watched the tousled-haired, boyishly-dressed girl grin at her companion, a femininely-outfitted young lady with shoulder-length sea green hair. Haruka and Michiru had been a couple for a long time. They, along with Setsuna, had their own mission, apart from the other scouts, before finally joining them, so she felt she knew them very well. Haruka was a tomboy, refusing to wear skirts unless absolutely necessary, such as in her guise as Sailor Uranus. She loved to race, whether it be on foot, by motorcycle, or by car. Michiru seemed a polar opposite by contrast. The epitome of grace and elegance, both personally and as Sailor Neptune, she was a musical genius, her specialty being the violin. Despite their differences, no one could deny their devotion to one another. One only need glance at the symbolic wedding bands they wore as proof of their love.
Setsuna was Sailor Pluto, and her power, as well as Uranus' and Neptune's was stronger than the others as individuals, but no one could beat the remaining scouts as a team. Setsuna was in her first year of college, where she planned to become a designer. The other girls were all in grade nine, except Haruka and Michiru, who were in their first year of high school.
"No fair!" wailed the girl who'd been fighting with Raye. "There's no one left for me to room with!"
"How about me, Serena?" Setsuna laughed. "I promise you can read all the comic books you like and I don't care if you go through my stuff as long as you put it back afterwards."
Serena threw her arms around Setsuna. "Thank you, thank you, thank you! I was starting to think no one wanted me!"
"Don't be silly, Meatball Head," Raye remarked with a cheeky grin. "You're our Moon Princess, remember? In spite of everything you're special to all of us and you know it."
"Well, would it kill you to show me once in a while?" Serena retorted.
"Probably," Raye answered.
The two of them started up their argument again, much to the dismay of their friends. The black female cat, Luna, shook her head as she watched Serena, for whom she was guardian.
The annoying name of Meatball Head had been bestowed upon Serena because of her unusual hairstyle. Parted in the middle and knotted at the sides, it left two long tails of yellow hair a shade darker than Mina's. Although she was the same age as her friends, Serena often seemed younger than the others. She cried at the drop of a hat, and often appeared to take nothing seriously. But she _was_ the Moon Princess, and Sailor Moon, leader of the sailor scouts. There wasn't one of them who didn't believe in her and love her despite her quirks, including Raye.
"Okay, we all know our room assignments, so let's move in," Setsuna declared.
The stampede for the stairs resumed, only this time the herd had paired off into roommates and Setsuna was charging right along with them. Luna and Artemis were left at the foot of the stairs, both privately wondering how these living arrangements would work out.

"Mina, are you all right?"
The blonde girl turned away from the closet where she'd been hanging up clothes. She looked into Raye's concerned purple eyes and blinked. "Of course I am. Why wouldn't I be?"
"Well, you've had to leave your parents, and they won't even remember you." Raye shrugged. "I just thought you might be missing them."
Mina smiled in understanding. "You miss your grandfather and the temple, don't you?"
"Yeah," Raye admitted. "I know Grandpa will be all right, but it's been just us for so long--"
"I know what you mean." Mina sat beside her on Raye's bed. "It might have been easier if our memories of them were erased as well, but not very practical."
"We've had enough of wiped memories," Raye said firmly. "They always have to come back, anyway, so why bother losing them at all? It's different for our families, though. They don't have sailor scout responsibilities."
"It's safer for them, too," Mina added. "No one will ever be able to use them against us." She gave Raye a hug. "We're each other's family now."
"I guess that makes Serena the black sheep!" Raye laughed. Mina hurled a pillow at her and missed, but succeeded in clobbering Artemis as he padded into the room.
"Oh, Artemis, I'm so sorry!" Mina knelt beside the white cat, who could still see mice dancing a circle around his head.
"Good thing you had better aim with your crescent beams and love chains," he said dizzily. "Or we'd all be Negaverse minions by now."

Sprawled on one of two beds in their room, one hand propping up her head, Haruka watched Michiru with interest. The other girl folded underclothes into a drawer, then hung up a long dress in the closet. Haruka enjoyed every motion, from the sway of Michiru's skirt around her calves to the delicate scent of her perfume as she moved past. Not to mention the gentle rippling of her wavy sea-green hair as she turned her head to give her a reproving look.
"We would finish much more quickly if we both did the work," Michiru pointed out. "What are you doing, anyway?"
"Admiring the scenery," Haruka replied with a rakish grin.
Michiru smiled, pink tinging her cheeks. "Do you flatter me in order to please me or to get out of helping?"
"I flatter you to be honest." Haruka got to her feet. "But of course I'll help."
Michiru handed her a stack of sweaters, smiling as their eyes met over them.
"Can you believe we'll finally have time to ourselves?" Haruka asked. "No mission, no talisman to gather, no Negaverse to fight?"
"It's a dream come true," Michiru agreed. "I can concentrate on my violin and my painting--" Her gaze dropped, then met Haruka's once more. "And you."
Haruka put the sweaters down and touched Michiru's cheek softly. "It's been so hard, going into battle alongside you. I've always known you were as capable as I, but I still feared for your safety."
"Do you think it was any different for me?" Michiru asked, placing her hand over the one Haruka had on her cheek. "But that's behind us now. We can be normal teenagers at last."
"Well, maybe a little better than normal." Haruka grinned. "After all, how many other girls our age get to live with their beloved?"
They drew together slowly, but the sound of a throat clearing stopped them. They looked toward the doorway where Lita watched with a knowing expression, arms folded.
"Do you guys have any spare hangers?" she asked.
Michiru glanced at Haruka, then went to the closet and brought out a few hangers. "Here you are, Lita."
"Thanks." The tall girl took them and winked at Michiru. "Just pretend I was never here."
"That would be easier if you weren't," Haruka remarked, smiling to take the sting out of the words.
Lita nodded in silence and made a show of tiptoeing away. Haruka turned to Michiru and grinned. "Now where were we?"
Michiru deposited the sweaters back into Haruka's arms. "Unpacking," she said, her eyes twinkling.

Lita walked into her room and picked up the clothes she'd laid aside when she ran out of hangers. She glanced over at Amy, who was arranging books on a shelf. "Hey, Ames, don't you want to unpack your clothes before they get wrinkled?"
"I'll get to them after I finish with this box," Amy replied, pausing to leaf through a textbook. "You know, now that we won't be busy with sailor business, I should have time to do more extra-credit assignments."
"You already did more of those than the rest of us put together even _with_ sailor business to worry about," Lita remarked with a smile. Although she and the others often teased Amy, they all admired her self- discipline and dedication.
"What do you plan to do with your extra time, Lita?" Amy asked as she put the textbook on the shelf.
"Start a relationship," Lita said promptly. "I'm tired of being a free agent. I don't know if I'm ready to get as serious as Haruka and Michi, but I definitely don't intend to be dateless."
"I'm sure you'll have plenty of offers when we start our new school," Amy said.
Lita shrugged. "Mina will get noticed right away, she's so pretty and friendly and athletic. And you know how it is with Raye, she'll have her own private court of admirers doing her bidding in no time." She grimaced down at her long legs. "Why would anyone look at an amazon like me with those two around?"
"Now if I said no one would look at a bookworm like me, you'd be on my case in a second," Amy stated. "I know you've always thought you had to be a good cook to get someone--"
"But I like to cook," Lita insisted.
"I know, but you don't have to depend on it to find love. Being a so-called 'amazon' is not unattractive, you know. There's absolutely nothing wrong with being tall, and you're as pretty as anyone else in this house."
"Maybe it's because I'm too tough then," Lita speculated. "Other girls don't get into fights all the time."
"Well, I don't think you should be afraid to stand up for yourself," Amy remarked. "But if you can get your point across without violence, it might help."
"New school, new chance," Lita said. "That's what I'll do then. And if there's any justice in the world, I'll have a date by the end of the week." She glanced at Amy. "What about you? Don't you intend to socialize at all?"
The blue-haired girl looked at her in surprise. "I'm living with all my best friends, I think I'll be socializing quite a bit." She shrugged. "But as for romance, that will have to wait. My studies are more important."
"Maybe," Lita conceded thoughtfully, "but it's hard to slow-dance with a Physics book."

"You have such pretty clothes, Setsuna," Serena said wistfully as she fingered one of the older girl's blouses. Setsuna stepped back from the closet and smiled in Serena's direction.
"I make most of my own clothes. Now that we're all here together, I'll probably be making some for all of you, too."
"Really?" Serena exclaimed happily. "That would be wicked cool!"
"I think so, too," Setsuna remarked. "It'll be fun to design for someone other than myself, and you all have such varied tastes that it'll be great practice for my classes."
"I'm going to tell the others!" Serena leaped off the bed and ran out of the room, leaving Luna curled up on the pillow.
"I'm surprised she didn't run into the doorway," the cat said.
"Luna, she's not that clumsy, is she?"
"You haven't lived with her before," Luna said dryly. "I love her dearly, but yes, she's clumsy. You'll see for yourself now that we're all here together." She paused and regarded Setsuna thoughtfully. "Are you prepared for these new arrangements, Setsuna?"
The green-haired girl looked up in surprise. "Why, yes, of course. It's going to be good for all of us."
"It's a big responsibility you've taken on."
Setsuna chuckled. "Rooming with Serena?"
"Becoming guardian to seven girls."
The skirt she's picked up slipped from Setsuna's fingers. "Excuse me?!"
"You are the scouts' legal guardian now," Luna repeated calmly.
Setsuna was anything but calm. She ran a hand through her long hair nervously, her magenta eyes wide and anxious. "Luna, I don't know where you're getting this from. You and Artemis are the guardians, remember? I'm just a scout, like the rest of them."
"You're a scout, yes, but not quite like the others," Luna said gently. "You're the eldest, and _someone's_ name had to be listed as the girls' guardian for school. Moon cats aren't legally qualified."
Setsuna leaned against the bureau, looking dazed. Luna jumped from the bed to the top of the bureau and put a paw on her arm.
"Don't fret about it, dear. The girls are used to listening to Artemis and myself, and I'm sure they'll continue to do so. You're their guardian in name only, so they could be enrolled in school. It shouldn't be a problem."
"I hope you're right," Setsuna said softly. "Because I wouldn't know what in Heaven's name to do if it _became_ a problem."

Artemis came running downstairs at full speed, skidding to a stop beside Luna, who stood in the dining room doorway. "I heard a lot of noise! I thought something was wrong!" he cried.
Luna nodded toward the dining room. "No emergency, Artemis. Just eight girls enjoying a quiet meal together."
Artemis stared into the room at the group of sailor scouts talking and laughing at top volume. "I thought we were under attack."
"Well, from the way they're attacking that food, you may not be far wrong," Luna remarked. "Let's go remind them to feed the kitties while they're at it."

"Lita, this is wonderful, I don't know how you do it," Setsuna said. "Putting together a meal like this after a long day of unpacking."
"It was fun," Lita said. "It's nice to cook for other people for a change."
Raye glanced toward Serena, who was working on her third helping. "You may have to make extra so there's enough to go around."
"There's plenty." Lita grinned. "I've shared lunches with Serena before."
"Ha, ha," Serena managed to say through a full mouth.
Artemis jumped into Mina's lap and neatly swallowed the forkful of food that she'd been aiming toward her mouth.
"I think he's hungry," she said sheepishly.
"Luna, too," Amy pointed out.
"Oh gosh, I almost forgot!" Lita jumped up. "I made something special for you two." She brought out two dishes from the fridge. "I found a cookbook full of recipes for pets. This tuna and sardine casserole sounded good--for cats, that is."
"Tuna?" Serena looked up with interest.
"It's for us, Serena." Luna headed over to the plate Lita set down. "But if you feel deprived, I'll share my next field mouse with you."
Michiru put her fork down. "There goes _my_ appetite."
"Aw, that's too bad." Haruka reached over and pilfered Michi's roll, kissing her cheek at the same time.
"This is excellent, Lita," Artemis said, licking his whiskers. "Thank you for thinking of us."
"Hey, you guys do enough for us." Lita shrugged.
"I can't wait until school tomorrow," Amy said happily. "New classes, new challenges ...."
"I'm going to join the volleyball team," Mina said. "I've been too long without it."
"I'll whip the drama club into shape," Raye predicted.
"I'd like to be on the swim team," Michiru said thoughtfully, "but there's also my violin and my art. I have to make sure there's time for everything."
"Including me?" Haruka smiled. Michiru squeezed her hand.
"Especially you," she answered. "But you'll be busy yourself with track and your racing."
"What about you, Serena?" Setsuna inquired. "Are you going to join any teams?"
"Yeah, how about the stumbling team?" Raye laughed.
"Hmmph," Serena replied. "I don't happen to want my afternoons tied up with practices for _any_ team."
"You mean you're going to study?" Amy asked in surprise.
"Study potential dates at the arcade, maybe." Lita grinned.
"That doesn't sound so bad to me," Mina remarked. "The arcade is a great place to meet people, and it's fun, too."
"I'll be checking it out," Haruka said, then added hastily at Michiru's glance, "for the games, not the dating possibilities."
"I just plan on enjoying our new freedom," Serena stated. "There was a lot of pressure involved with being Sailor Moon, and I just want to relax and veg out. No commitments for me, no sirree Bob."
"So much for studying," Luna murmured.
"No commitments, Serena?" Raye asked, raising an eyebrow. "Does that mean you aren't interested in finding a date?"
"I didn't say that," Serena protested. "But dating is fun."
"That doesn't mean it's pressure-free," Lita remarked.
"Maybe not," Serena conceded. "But it sure beats fighting the Negaverse."

Luna yawned as she padded down the hallway toward Setsuna and Serena's room. The girls were all in bed already, and she had just got through making a check around the house. Not that these girls weren't more than capable of fending off intruders, but caution never hurt anything.
She heard sounds of slumber behind most of the bedroom doors she passed, which was why she took particular notice when she finally heard something different. Haruka and Michiru's door was almost--but not quite--on the latch, and from the sound of their hushed voices, they were both still awake. Luna wondered if they were having trouble getting used to the new beds, or if they were nervous about starting school in the morning. She decided to say goodnight to them and nudged the door slightly open. The moment she stuck her head inside, Luna saw in the moonlight that Haruka's bed was still made up and empty. A soft giggle drew her attention to Michiru's bed, where she saw that both girls were under the covers, pressed closely together. The blankets shifted a little and slipped off Haruka's bare shoulder.
Luna backed quickly out of the room, her tail twitching briskly. It wasn't as if she hadn't known the two girls were in love, but realizing they were already lovers came as a shock. She wondered if Setsuna knew, since she had known the couple longer than any of them. No, she thought. She couldn't know or she would have done something. Wouldn't she?
"Luna?"
All four paws left the ground as Luna leaped into the air. She landed in front of Artemis, who regarded her in concern.
"Are you all right?" he asked. "I thought I sensed something wrong."
"I suppose it was me," Luna admitted. "I just saw Haruka and Michiru sharing a bed."
Artemis' eyes widened and his whiskers quivered. "I didn't know they were that serious."
"None of us did, except possibly for Setsuna." Luna frowned. "Although I would hope she'd have the sense not to ignore it."
"Well, Luna, what could she do? Chain them to separate beds?" Artemis pointed out sensibly. "They're a very independent pair, and I think they're used to living by their own rules. What's more, Setsuna has been like a sister to them, not an authority figure."
"I know." Luna sighed. "She doesn't want her relationship with the others to change, and it shouldn't have to. I'll talk to them myself in the morning."
"You think they'll listen to you?"
"All I'm going to ask is that they show some discretion. Their door was barely closed, it could have been one of the other girls who came by when I did. I know they're not naive, but I think they'd feel uncomfortable knowing two girls near their own age are moving so quickly, and in the same house at that."
"You may be right," Artemis said. "Besides, Serena and Lita especially are date-crazy enough without getting any ideas along these lines for a while." He licked Luna's nose. "Goodnight, kittycat. I'll see you in the morning."
"Goodnight," Luna said absently. She remained preoccupied as she continued on her way to Serena and Setsuna's room.

End of Chapter 1

Story contents (C) 1997 Tenou Haruka Sailor Moon characters (C) Naoko Takeuchi Comments welcome at: [email protected] This fanfic is for your private reading enjoyment only. Please do not post it on the internet in any form or otherwise distribute it.