Tonight's the night.
*Are you sure this is right?*
It's the only way and you know that.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Tenshi looked at the silvery-blue roses in the fridge. For the hundredth time today she considered what to do with them. She still didn't know how Neko-chan would feel about flowers. She smiled at the memory of Puroko coming over to tell her that in her opinion Neko-chan would love flowers, as long as they didn't clash with red. She wondered which of her parents had put her up to that! Probably Michiru-mama. On the other hand, Haruka-papa had gotten in trouble many times for forgetting to bring flowers. "Okaa-san," she reminded herself. She wasn't going to be teased like that again.
"Ara, are we as formal as all that, now?" Michiru came around the corner. Tenshi rolled her eyes. Somehow she had managed to get teased about it anyway.
Michiru started to adjust her bow tie. "Haruka could never figure these out either," she confided in her daughter.
"Hey!" Haruka joined them in the kitchen. "I did fine."
"They were always crooked. I had to straighten them before we went out, remember?"
"You mean that wasn't just an excuse to get close?"
"Haruka!" Michiru laughed.
Tenshi cleared her throat to get their attention back on her. "Flowers or not?"
"Yes." "No." They looked at each other.
"You brought me flowers before we were officially dating."
"Yeah, but not on the first date. And you had already been 'driving in my car with me' for months." They smiled at each other.
"Here," Michiru picked up one of the roses and broke off most of the stem. "Use this one as a boutonni�re, if Neko-chan's as confused as you are, she won't have gotten you one." She took a few more of the smaller ones and did the same. "Haruka, would you get a pin and some string from the drawer in my desk?"
"Hey, good idea!" Haruka went off to find them.
"Now you can give her them as a corsage. If you want you can tell her you just figured she wouldn't have gotten one herself, but I think it'll be fine. Blue's a good choice, by the way."
"It doesn't clash with red, does it?" inquired Puroko from the other room.
"Kiddo, do you even know what that means?"
"Iie, but Neko-san wouldn't want it to clash. I'm sure of it."
"Why?"
"'Cuz!"
"But why?"
"'Cuz!"
Tenshi sighed. She knew this wasn't going to go anywhere. She'd been in "Why? 'Cuz!" discussions with her sister before.
"It won't clash," Haruka informed her as she came back. Then a second later she looked at Michiru. "Right?"
"It's perfect."
~*~*~*~*~*~
Neko and Mi-chan had spent all evening getting ready for the dance, but they were done now and with time to spare. Kimako and Chibi (who were going, just not with dates) were still getting ready, but they were going to be dropped off by Ami later. Ami and Ryo were helping them get ready, since it was Chibi's first dance (how kawaii!) and the girls always needed help (but Neko and Mi-chan helped each other).
"So when's Jian-kun picking you up?"
"A quarter after 6. And he's not driving, baka. He's not old enough, not that that ever stopped us�. Anyway we're taking a limo. What about your mystery date?" Mi-chan wouldn't stop teasing her about her unwillingness to talk about her date.
"Nani?! So late?!" Neko suddenly realized that she hadn't considered what would happen when Mi-chan actually met Tenshi.
"Relax, you're allowed to come late to the dance. And it's quarter 'til now. Your date can't be too much before him." She paused, probably trying to sense Neko's emotions and then said (in a moment of temporary insight), "I'm going to meet him. What does it matter if it's before or during the dance?"
Neko had to give her that. In the long run it didn't matter. She had been having so much fun teasing Mi-chan about her belief that Neko was attracted to all these guys, that she hadn't really thought about what Mi-chan's reaction would be when she found out that her twin was actually attracted to girls. Actually, she was kinda surprised that Mi-chan had never picked up on it. She certainly knew when Mi-chan fell for a new guy, or even if she just saw a(nother) cute one. Then again, it was Mi-chan!
"I'm being picked up at 6." Which was quickly approaching.
"Girls, could you come up and help a second?" Ami called from upstairs. They ran up to help.
Ami had 5 bobby pins in her mouth and said through clenched teeth, "I don't have quite enough hands for this hair style. Could one of you hold this bunch of hair?" Neko took it, and Mi-chan ran over to hold the bobby pins. "Arigatou," Ami said, as she started to twist around another lock of Kimako's hair.
"Now, Mom. You're not going to come out and embarrass us when our dates get here."
"Actually, I've already taken pictures of you in your beautiful dresses, and I've met both your dates, so I could potentially just stay up here helping Kimako get ready. That is unless you want me to come down and embarrass you," she said with a gleam in her eye.
Neko realized that her dad must have told her mom that she was going out with Tenshi. Naturally, the old Senshi would have met the Tenoh-Kaiou children before, just as they had met them on occasion.
"Iie, that's ok, thanks."
"Well, we all know Jian-kun's safe, but when did you meet her date?" Mi-chan complained. Neko giggled.
Just then the doorbell rang. Before Mi-chan could protest, Neko had thrown the lock of hair into her hands,
