"Neko! Look out!" he yelled.
She opened her eyes and dove out of the way of the ball that had just been kicked wildly towards her head. She managed to avoid the ball, but slammed her shoulder into the spectator benches.
"Ow, next time I'll just try ducking," she muttered to herself as she sat up, rubbing her bruised shoulder.
"Neko-chan!" Jian-wa dashed over to her. "Ohmigod, are you alright?" He reached out to help her up, but didn't miss her initial flinch at his touch. "Neko-chan?" he whispered, worried. He had thought that things between him and Neko had been okay for months. Not perfect, but okay. And it wasn't that he ever thought that he deserved it, he just thought that this was so sudden. Why had she suddenly seemed to freak out at the sight of him? First she had avoided his gaze, and now she had shied away from him. *What did I do now?* he wondered.
But Neko recovered quickly. "Hai, I'm just gonna be a little sore in the morning." She smiled at him, assuring him that everything was okay and let him help her to her feet. She looked around at the whole team, which had come to check that she was okay, and said nonchalantly, "Let's play some soccer, ne?"
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
As Carrie led him to her car, Chibi considered himself the luckiest guy in the world. First of all, she was gorgeous. Her straight fire-engine red hair that reached down to her waist was silky and smooth. She had bright green eyes that sparkled brilliantly when she laughed. She was thin, but not anorexic-looking. She also was three years older than him. How he had managed to get her out on a date with him was a mystery, even to him.
"Where to now?" she asked as they got in the car.
"Um, I think we should hit the arcade, the park, the mall, the better restaurants. Hey, do you want anything to eat?" A meal was a great way to start off a date, he'd heard.
"Sure, why don't you direct me to a good restaurant," she suggested as she started up the car.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"I must tell you, Gabriel, when I told Ame that I was going out with a fourteen-year-old, she thought I was crazy. But you are the most mature guy I've met since I got to Crystal Tokyo."
Chibi beamed. He had never been called mature in his life, and coming from this vision, he was especially delighted. "Arigatou. Ano, who's Eim?"
"Ame? She's my twin sister."
"You have a twin sister?! Me too. I mean, I have two twin sisters."
Carrie looked confused. "Wouldn't that make you guys triplets?"
"Huh?" Now it was Chibi's turn to be confused. He went back over what he had said. "Oh! I mean, I have two sisters that are twins, but not with me." He looked at her anxiously, hoping that he had gotten the idea across. She seemed less confused, so he moved on. "Ne, if you're twins, how do I know I'm out with the same girl I ran into this morning?"
She giggled. *What a good idea that would've been!* "We're fraternal twins, Gabriel. Ame looks nothing like me. Well, we kinda look similar, but she has even longer hair and it's dark, dark purple. Sometimes our eyes match, but only because hers are hazel, so they vary from brown to green, and sometimes even gray. They're only green like mine when she's really happy. I sure that when she meets you, they will be bright green." Chibi tried not to blush. "So what are your sisters like?"
"Well, Neko-chan and Mi-chan - they're the twins - they always act like they're so superior to me and Ki-chan. They think that just because they're older and they share this special 'bond,'" his tone indicated what he thought of this bond, "that that makes them better than us. Mi-chan thinks she can beat up on me, but really I just go along with it. You know, letting her tickle me now and then, and stuff. But I'm a lot smarter than them. Especially, Mi-chan. Although, she's a couple grades ahead, I still help her out with her homework sometimes."
"Sounds like you love her a lot."
"Mi-chan? No, we just, we, uh," he struggled to explain their relationship. Scratching his head, he admitted, "She's my big sis, you know. I've just always been closer to her than Neko-chan. Ki-chan and I used to be close too, 'cuz we're about the same age, but she's in this band now, Flaming Pink Chopsticks, and since she came back from Africa, we don't hang out as much anymore." He stared wistfully out the window. "She got to study with Rei-sama. None of the rest of us have had the original Senshi as tutors, unless you count Haruka-sama for Mi-chan in fencing. But Ki-chan really got to learn from Rei-sama and when she came back, I guess she figured she was too good for me."
"Her loss, then," Carrie smiled at him reassuringly. "Ne, what did she learn from Queen Raye?"
He shrugged, nonchalantly. "Priestess stuff. Fire stuff. I don't know." Suddenly realizing he'd spent all this time talking about himself and his family, Chibi quickly changed the subject. "Uh, and what about you? Uh, do you get along with, uh, Eim?" Girls liked it when you asked them about themselves. He was certain of it.
"Ame and I have always been the best of friends. But she spends a lot of time with her boyfriend now. I don't mind so much. As long as she remembers our family and our goals, she can go gallivanting about with Jasper all she wants." Finding her voice was betraying how truly upset this made her, Carrie paused.
"I understand. Mi-chan and Neko-chan have a lot less time to hang with me now that they're 'in love.'" He made fake goo-goo eyes and raised his voice to sound like a girl in a shojo anime.
She laughed. "Sounds like we have lots in common, Gabriel."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Neko stopped briefly at the mailbox after parking her bike in the garage. Her pulse quickened as she saw the corner of familiar stationary - a purple envelope covered in gold stars. She hurriedly threw all mail before it to the back of the stack. But her spirits fell when she saw who it was addressed to.
