Sidestory:
Crossing Paths
by Walker and Chris
Two feet pounded one after the other upon the cobbled streets of the grand city just as they did every morning. The ground was wet as a result of a small rainstorm the night before, which provided a little relief from the hot and humid days Stavros had been suffering through during the previous week. It was amazing how a city as large as Rome could go from noisy and hectic to being relatively barren in the course of a night. This was the youth's favorite type of morning: relaxing, cool, and quiet.
Stavros Salvi began to slow pace as he reached the end of his morning jog. He enjoyed pushing himself when it came to exercise. He had blown out his knee on several occasions, but was too proud to get the surgery that might fix his limp and too stubborn to change his daily routine. Breaking an arm from stride, Stavros lifted a hand to wipe sweat from his brow. Then running the hand back through his dark brown hair, Stavros vaguely wondered why he strove to punish himself in this way repeatedly.
Pushing those thoughts out of his mind, he turned in a small neighborhood piazza that's architecture was riddled with a combination of graffiti and sculpture. Squinting slightly, the young man noticed that he wasn't as alone as he expected. Two girls stood near a medium sized fountain and were having a seemingly vivacious discussion.
"You can't actually wear that tomorrow!" said the girl with pink hair. "That, that, that handkerchief that you call a skirt? You said that you bought that as a joke!"
"Well, I did sort of but then I figured that I might as well wear it at least once, right?" answered the red head. "I mean, that cost a lot of money."
"How? There wasn't enough fabric there to cover a baby, let alone a young girl. You know what boys are all after, Allegro."
Both of the girls seemed to quiet down for a moment and listen to something, and then Allegro turned around and saw the man running towards them. "And speaking of boys..."
"He must be older than `Dagio!" said Andante.
"Can't blame me for looking," giggled the other.
"Mother Mary..." sighed Andante.
Stavros only relented in pace a little as he began to pass the two girls to assure enough clearance. He nodded as he went by, words slurring slightly as his concentration was hardly on two preteens who were up for a morning stroll. "Buona mattina."
"Buon giorno," Allegro said.
"Buon giorno," said the other, who then turned back to her sister and was about to say something when another voice spoke up.
"Stop right there!" said a light-tenor from what seemed to be the fountain. "Don't let him leave." Upon closer inspection there was a little grey hedgehog sitting on the fountain's rim. He was staring intensely at the man who was passing by.
"Juvie?" asked Allegro.
"Discordia," grunted the tiny animal.
The runner paused with a visible shudder upon the use of his senshi name. The only problem was that surprise caught him off-guard, mind stopping before body. In the next couple of seconds Stavros found himself on the ground after tripping over his own feet. Turning his head toward the fountain after, he cursed under breath with eyes narrowed in annoyance, "Madre del dios. Does every person in Rome have to own a talking animal?"
"Oh!" squealed Allegro. "Does this mean that he's on our team? We've never met anyone else who was on our team before, this is so perfect. And he's cute, too!"
"And he's cute, too," said Juvenal. "Yes, that's the important part. He's cute. Cute and apparently a little clumsy. At least it seems as if he's been awakened."
"Stop it, the both of you," said Andante. She went over to help Stavros up off of the ground. "Really, I'm so very sorry about this, I'm sure they didn't mean to startle you. Juvenal means well, really, and so does Allegro."
"Grazie," replied Stavros politely as the girl helped him back up. The poor sap couldn't bring himself to be rude to the two ladies. He winced getting back on his feet, quickly moving all weight to his good knee. The young man pointedly ignored the animal for now. "So you girls are Romanus as well?"
"Yes, I'm Polyhymnia, and my sister is Erato. Did you hurt yourself?" asked Andante, worry crossing her face.
"She forgot to tell you our real names," smiled Allegro. "I'm Allegro, and this is Andante. It's nice to meet you."
"I'm sure I'll live." Stavros nodded and gently patted the brace that covered his right knee. "You just caught me off-guard. I'm Stavros Salvi, or Discordia if you prefer the costume names. You both are muses?"
"Yes, we are," said Andante. "I'm the muse of holiness, and..."
"And I'm the muse of rhythm. And, it's no surprise that Andante is holiness. She's full of the stuff."
"Oh, stop it," she giggled.
"So, what do you do?" asked Allegro.
"I'm spite. Not the grandest power, but I did not get a choice," Stavros replied dryly while making sure to catalogue 'holiness and rhythm' in the back of his head. What did they do together, liturgical dance? He crossed his arms and brought his mind back to the two girls. "You two don't patrol, do you?"
"Not really, no," said Allegro.
"You actually expect me to let two young girls go out late at night in Rome looking for a fight?" said Juvenal, jumping down off of the low lip of the fountain and waddling over to Stavros. "I don't need them getting hurt."
"Awww, Juvie, you're so sweet," cooed Allegro.
"No, I'm not sweet, I'm a satirist."
"He's so cute," answered Allegro.
"Gah! Women!"
"He's always like this," Andante reassured.
"I feel sorry for the both of you. You got stuck with a philosopher. Roman satire was never my favorite subject in secondary school." Stavros smiled, warming up a tad. "I agree with the animal though. You're too young to fight in this conflict that's being waged."
"Well, maybe if we had a big, strong man to protect us we'd be fine," said Allegro, turning on whatever charm she had lying around. "Don't you think?"
"Oh, stop it, women never change," grumbled the tiny hedgehog. "They were just as manipulative two thousand years ago as they are today. Trust me, I know."
"Juvie, that's not very nice," said Andante.
"Anyway, at least you've found a teammate. If you're good enough I might let you patrol with him."
"I'm starting to feel like some sort party favor. Anyway, I have only met a couple other Romanus, and one Kemet. Patrolling is not as exciting as one might think," Stavros stated with a slight shrug.
"Kemet?" asked Andante.
"Oh, dear gods, don't tell me we're still running around with them? Oh, look, it's the Egyptians! They have sand and pyramids! Their gods have the heads of animals! I know, let's further dilute the Roman way of life further by incorporating some of their ideas in with our own! Kemets," ranted Juvenal. "Wonderful."
"Juvie, are you okay?" asked Allegro, picking him up off of the ground and holding him close to her face.
"Oh, just lamenting what Rome used to stand for. Nobody else seems to care."
"I think someone needs a bath," murmured Andante.
"No, by Jupiter, no! I do not need another bath." The two girls merely giggled at this. "I had one last week, that's more than sufficient."
Narrowing his eyes a bit at the ground, Stavros frowned. Wonderful. All the team needed was a complainer. He shifted on his feet, eager to see if his leg was feeling any better. Turning his gaze back at the girls, he somehow managed to gather enough patience to suffer through their little argument.
Allegro turned her attention back to Stavros and said, "Well, enough about that don't worry about him. So, umm... What's your outfit like?"
Stavros winced at the thought, "Terrible. Restricting and almost all leather. Lots of skin. Like a Roman soldier without his armor. I pray your costume isn't as bad."
Allegro giggled a bit. "Sounds like fun. I have a dress and one of those rhythmic gymnastic ribbons and tap shoes."
"And I wear a violet and silver toga, crown, bracelets, and a few other things."
"I'd like to see your..."
"Allegro Genesia da Capo, no," said her sister.
"She would too, she's just afraid she'd like it!" she quipped.
"Dear Lord..." sighed Andante.
"Fun lot, aren't they?" said the hedgehog.
Stavros shot Juvenal a look that could only be read as 'I see what you have to put up with.' Instinctively moving a hand over his back pocket, he could feel that he still had his transformation item on him. He'd never admit how paranoid he was that he might get attacked on the street. That's what the belt buckle was for anyway. Protection.
"I think it is a little early for a masquerade party, no? What are the both of you doing out this early anyway? Catching the morning vigil somewhere?" Stavros leaned back on his heels doubting he could sway the topic away from his costume by the look he saw in Allegro's eyes. Silly girl.
"We're taking a morning walk," answered Andante. "I was going to morning services and I don't like walking by myself, so I brought my sister along, and we thought that Juvenal might like to come along, so we brought him as well."
"Now about that outfit of yours," began Allegro again.
"No," Andante interjected. "You'll have plenty of time to see his outfit later, I'm sure. Anyway, who knows, someone might suddenly round a corner and see him transforming or something."
"Fine, but only as long as he promises to take us out on patrol some evening." Allegro went over to him and held onto his arm, looked up into his eyes and said, "Please?" Juvenal mumbled something to himself as she did so.
Like he'd ever admit it, but something about these girls tugged at his heart strings. Stavros rolled his eyes while straightening his posture in attempts to pry Allegro off. "I will only take you patrolling if your guardian allows you two to go."
"Why not?" he said bluntly. "At least this way they'll have a man to look after them."
"Alright," the Croatian mumbled in defeat. "I'll take the both of you patrolling. Do you have a bedtime or something I should know about?"
"Well, as long as we're back in by midnight or so, mama and papa won't care," said Allegro.
"As long as we tell them where we're going."
"We'll make something up," her sister said flippantly.
"I still think that patrolling isn't all it is cracked up to be," replied Stavros, resting a hand on his hip. He searched his pocket with the other and produced a small scrap of paper to write on. "Do either of you have a pen?"
Andante fished a pencil out of her pocket, and handed it to him, and then proceeded to give him their phone number and address. "It's been a pleasure to meet a teammate, finally," she said.
"Yeah, it is," added Allegro.
"And you'll have to give us the phone numbers of the other people on our team, sometime. That way we can meet them, too."
"Okay. I'll give you a ring later after classes so we can decide what night would be best. For ease's sake, tell your parents that I am your tutor or something." Stavros, nodding, completed the exchange. It was getting late. "I can give you Nell and Nunzio's numbers then."
"Thank you," said Andante, smiling and taking the pencil back. "We'll look forward to your call."
"Goodbye!" said Allegro as Stavros waved and continued running down the street, away from the two girls and the hedgehog. "Wasn't that fun?"
"Fun?" snorted Juvenal. "Yes, fun."
"It was enlightening, and good to find another team-mate. This whole senshi business confuses me. Maybe they'll be able to explain it better." Andante glanced at a slim watch around her wrist and gasped. "Oh! If I don't hurry, I won't make it to morning services on time. Come on, Allegro!"
"I think you could stand to be late just once, don't you think?" her sister asked as she scooped up their guardian and followed her sister quickly down the street. "Maybe we could go shopping, instead?" she asked futilely as they disappeared around a bend in the road, leaving just the fountain splashing water merrily in it's basin where once three senshi stood.