"No way, I'm not touching the subject. If I say anything else, they'll either end up apart or married. So I'm keeping my mouth shut."
"Well, that'd be a first," Michiru teased her.
"Come on!"
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
As she hung out with Tenshi, Mi-chan, and Jian-wa, Neko fingered her bare neckline nervously. She was so used to having the necklace there that her neck seemed naked without it.
Yesterday, Jasper had explained that the necklace had been cursed by Amethyst. Because he didn't know whether the nightmares would come without her, since they had for the six months Amethyst hadn't been on the planet, Neko had decided to take off the necklace. He also had taken off his necklace and had urged Tenshi to take off the one that hung around her neck. Those two had been destroyed, but Neko's now hung at the neck of her stuffed cat Luna. Still, she felt its absence at her throat.
"You okay?" Mi-chan asked her.
Neko nodded. It was dumb, she knew. She still had the necklace. It was just that she was still nervous about her friendship with Hoshi, and this seemed like she had lost another piece of it. She had vowed she would always wear it, but now she had to break another promise.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Tenshi saw the preoccupied look on Neko's face and decided she couldn't wait any longer.
"Koneko, can I speak to you alone?" Tenshi took Neko by the hand and led her away from the lively party. They walked out onto the balcony of the adjacent room. Here on the moon, it wasn't snowing, like in Crystal Tokyo, but it was still pretty chilly. As Neko began to shiver in her short sleeved dress, Tenshi took off her jacket and threw it around her shoulders.
"The view is wonderful," Neko breathed. From where they were, they could see a multitude of stars and the great blue-green marble that was the Earth.
"It's not bad from here either," said Tenshi, her eyes trained on Neko's face alone.
Neko blushed. "Stop it. You know I hate it when you do that!"
"Hate it?" Tenshi echoed.
"Yeah�," Neko looked sheepish. "You know, the way I hate Mi-chan and coffee ice cream."
"I thought I sensed a smidgen of contempt for them coming from you. I'll have to write them down in my list of Koneko's dislikes." She grabbed an imaginary pen and notepad from the air and began to take notes.
"Cut it out," Neko giggled as she grabbed Tenshi's arm. "Come on, be serious. What did you want to say to me?"
Tenshi stopped laughing. *Speaking of things Koneko might hate�.*
"It's just, I did something awful, and I want to tell you� but I'm afraid you'll hate me if I do."
"Not possible," Neko promised with a worried smile. "Wha- What is it?"
"I- Ano, when you-" *Don't make excuses* she chastised herself, *Just tell her!* Tenshi leaned on the balcony railing and avoided Neko's eyes by looking at the Earth. "I kissed Amethyst. When we were broken up. I- I let her seduce me, and I willingly kissed her, and I let her turn me to her side. I was just� I wanted the pain to stop. But that doesn't excuse it. I'm sorry."
"Oh." It was Neko's turn to look away. "Amethyst mentioned something like that, but I didn't want to believe her," she admitted, her voice shaking.
*She hates me. We're gonna break up again!* Tenshi didn't think she could go through that again, but she couldn't have kept this from Neko either. She wouldn't have wanted to.
Still she couldn't bear to look at her, and she couldn't stand the silence that she was now receiving. How could Neko ever forgive her?
She almost jumped when she felt Neko touch her hand. As Neko's fingers made her way through Tenshi's, Tenshi turned and looked incredulously into her tear-filled eyes.
"Tenshi, can you ever forgive me?" she asked to Tenshi's confusion.
"Forgive you? But it was me-"
"If I hadn't hurt you so completely�. Tenshi, I hate what I did to you. I lied to you, and I broke your heart. You must have been in so much pain and confusion to let Amethyst do those things. To let her even touch you. And that's my fault. I'm not just saying that to take the blame off you," she explained as Tenshi prepared to object. "I'm saying it because it's true."
"No, Koneko-"
"And I need to know that you can forgive me for putting you in that much pain."
"I- Ano, I-'" Tenshi quickly assessed the situation and figured they'd get nowhere if they started arguing over whose fault the whole thing was. So she compromised. "I'll forgive you, but with a few conditions. Do you forgive me too?"
Neko nodded eagerly.
"Good." That was the most important thing. But then again� "And you promise never to break my heart like that again?"
"Never again," she promised sincerely.
