They walked along the beach, holding hands as if they were girlfriend and boyfriend. If Jasper let himself indulge a little, he could almost believe this was a date. It certainly was an ideal setting - he could easily see how romantic it could be. And he loved the ocean. But that wasn't why they were here.
They had left the park so that Mi-chan couldn't come up and take Neko away from him. Neko still hadn't gotten what she had asked him for, so they had left, looking for a nice place to talk instead. The beach was pretty deserted, since it was a weekday and most beachgoers were in school or at work. So they had stopped here.
And to Jasper's great joy, Neko had taken his hand as soon as she had gotten out of the car he had rented for the remainder of his time here on Earth. She still clutched onto the rose he had given her� another piece of the fantasy that this was a date.
But he knew it was just a fantasy. It was driven home to him with every question she asked, every explanation he gave regarding what he knew of the new Sailor Senshi and their past battles.
"�and you guys ended up defeating one of the Generals who was one of Sailor Moon's original enemies."
"Was I helpful?"
"Oh, most definitely!" Jasper really didn't have all that many details about their battles, but he was sure she had to have done great damage to Jadeite.
"And was that our biggest battle?"
"Um, I don't know. Maybe." He both liked and hated to think that perhaps Team Eclipse had been a greater challenge for them, but he had never seen the generals in action, so he couldn't judge them. And he had heard about Tanzanite and Jian-wa� he supposed that was pretty hard to deal with as well, since Jian-wa was Neko's friend and Mi-chan's boyfriend.
"Is that where Mi-chan and I got our scars?" She pointed to the scar that lay diagonally across her hand.
He shook his head. "I don't know where you got that scar. But the one on Mi-chan's wrist - that is what you're talking about right?" She nodded. "She got that in a fight against� against one of General Tanzanite's minions."
He decided she didn't need to hear about Jian-wa before she met him. Especially, if Mi-chan was right that Neko had taken her time in forgiving him. But if he thought he was getting off the hook with that obvious faltering in his explanation, he was out of luck. She correctly suspected that she knew (or would know) that person. "Who was her minion?" she asked timidly.
He looked away. It wasn't fair to Jian-wa, but he had told her that he would answer her questions. Now he was sorry he had worked so hard to get all that information on Jian-wa. He had tried to use it to get Jian-wa on the side of Team Eclipse, but Jian-wa hadn't joined them, which just made this situation even more ridiculous, and irritating at the same time.
"You have to understand that he's not against you guys anymore, and he's helped save you lots of times, and he would never ever dream of hurting you now, and even Mi-chan's forgiven him�." He paused, hoping he'd given her an adequate disclaimer, before continuing. "Jian-wa Chang."
She stopped and looked at him in complete disbelief. "Jian-kun?"
Jasper stared at the ground, praying she'd understand. "He thought it was right at the time. But you and Mi-chan convinced him he was wrong�. He realized that he'd been lied to and that you were good, so he rejected Tanzanite. He- He rejected Team Eclipse too. We tried to recruit him," he admitted.
He dared to glance up at her, still worried that she would be angry at Jian-wa, or perhaps even him.
Neko's eyes softened. "He's like you then. He thought he was right before, but he likes us now. I think I'll like him then," she predicted. "If he's similar to you. And if he loves Mi-chan, he can't be all that bad."
He gazed at her in surprise� though he didn't know why. He really shouldn't have expected any less from his princess. "You're remarkable, you know that?"
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Ba-dum. Ba-dum. Ba-dum.
Neko didn't know what to say to him. His compliment stirred in her heart. Her eyes met his, and she observed how they shined at her. They were quite pretty, Neko realized, and she wondered how often anyone other than Amethyst got to see the soft cheer that sparkled in the blue beauties at the moment. Most of the time she had seen Jasper, he had seemed so forlorn and lonely. But at this moment, he almost seemed happy. And she wanted that to continue� she wanted Jasper to be happy forever.
Suddenly the past didn't matter so much. The future was important too.
"Jasper-kun, could we spend the whole day like this?"
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
The subject had changed, but Neko's questions had remained constant. It was just that now she seemed very interested in him, rather than herself. Still, Jasper was all too happy to tell her about himself. At least the part of himself that wasn't connected to his shame over his battles with her. Yet she spared him that dishonor, asking him more about his family and his interests, even about his time on Eryx.
They had played in the sand for awhile, an ordinary activity that they had both enjoyed to no end. But as Neko grew tired, he built her a sand throne (well, really a throne back that she could sit against), which she had persuaded him to sit in since he had worked so hard on it. The throne collapsed almost as soon as he leaned against it, so instead, Jasper found a decent-sized rock down the beach and figured that that would do, hoping to keep Neko from being distressed about the demolished throne.
As he lowered himself to sit against it, he pulled her down with him, hoping she'd take a seat next to him so they could talk and watch the sea together. To his great delight, she leaned against him, her head on his chest just like last night in the forest.
"Tell me about your sister," she requested, and he spent almost an hour telling her about Amber. How cute she had been back on his home planet, how she had never quite grown up, how he would've done anything for her too. Amber was the reason he had joined the Army Eclipse anyway. He would've been fine staying on his planet, even watching it die, but Amethyst provided him a way to save himself and Amber, and though he was tempted by Amethyst and her offer for himself, the deciding factor had been Amber's life. Their parents were dead, and their planet was dying, he didn't want Amber to grow up facing all that. She was only four at the time. But that wasn't what he talked about with Neko. He didn't mention that her brother had been the one to kill Amber either. Instead he told her all the little things that had made him adore his sister.
After a while, he wondered if he was boring her. He brought his storytelling to a close and looked down at her to make sure she hadn't fallen asleep.
"What's your family name, Jasper-kun?" she asked curiously, obviously still paying attention to him. "Senken-sama didn't use it for you, and I've never heard it."
"My planet didn't use family names. I've been using Eclipse," he admitted quietly.
"Like Amethyst-san?" she asked. He nodded. "Does it make you sad? You sound so sad when you talk about her. Is that what you want your name to be?"
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