"Flowers?" Tenshi and Michiru asked in unison.
Both Neko-chan and Haruka sweatdropped. They had both neglected to tell their respective significant others what was going on after they had figured it out. Neko-chan explained what had happened with the guy in the park.
"So the flowers were the same kind as this morning?"
"Hai."
"This morning?" Michiru asked. Tenshi realized that her okaa-san really had been out of the loop.
So then Neko-chan had to explain about Jian-kun giving her the flowers. She kept glancing nervously at Haruka, and Tenshi quickly found out why.
"Jian-wa Chang? Are we sure that we can really trust that boy?" Haruka asked.
"Demo Haruka-papa, Neo-Queen Serenity-sama and Ryo-sama checked him out and said that he was fine."
"Yes, but Odango Atama believes in everyone." But Tenshi could tell that while she was a little worried about him, she didn't really think Jian-kun was behind the attacks.
Tenshi noticed that Puroko was staring at all of them with intent interest. She thought it might be best if they changed the subject, since they couldn't do anything until Ami-sama called anyway. "So Kiddo, what did you do today?"
"I had a great day! First I got up and Papa made me pancakes and they were really good! And then I went to school. And we got to learn some Kanji today and it was fun! I was like, 'Wow, I can write like Papa and Mama!' I can write my name now, but it was really hard. And during recess, we played dodgeball and I was the last one in the circle 'cuz I'm really good at dodgeball! And then�"
Puroko rambled on as Tenshi smiled at Neko-chan, who smiled shyly back. She took the opportunity to take Neko-chan's left hand under the table. Tenshi couldn't wait until dinner was over so she and Neko-chan could talk alone. This wasn't exactly the date she had planned, although it was better than nothing. But still, she had planned to see a movie with Neko-chan and then maybe have dinner somewhere and talk. Alone.
And this was far from being alone. Haruka cleared her throat and both Tenshi and Neko-chan jumped, dropping their hands. Tenshi realized that Puroko had finished her story and everyone was looking at them. They both blushed.
"Mah, you two seem to have become pretty close pretty quickly." Michiru's eyes twinkled.
Tenshi heard Neko-chan mumble something almost inaudibly about "hitomebore." Tenshi blushed harder. She hadn't known that Neko-chan had liked her right from the beginning. She kinda had been under the impression that she had talked Neko-chan into that first date.
Luckily, they were saved by Neko-chan's communicator watch beeping.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"Moshi moshi."
Neko's okaa-san appeared on her communicator watch. "Hi, dear. How are you doing?"
Inwardly, Neko groaned. If she had a yen for every time someone had asked her that in the last 3 days, she'd be a rich girl by now. "I'm fine Mom. What's going on?"
"Well, it seems there's some connection between the Negaverse and these flowers called the 'I'm Sorry' Flower." Ami had no trouble pronouncing the English name of the flowers. "I need you and Tenshi-chan to go investigate them. I'm sorry to ruin your 'date' but I can't send out Michiru in her condition and I'm not sending Chibi out alone."
"I understand." She caught Tenshi-kun's eye. "We'll get right on it. Thanks." She closed her communicator. "Tenshi-kun, we need to go investigate flower shops. Tenoh-sama, Kaiou-sama, is it alright if we are excused."
They nodded, but as Neko got up to go, Tenshi-kun looked at her parents in surprise. "Aren't you guys going to help us?"
Haruka-sama and Michiru-sama shared a glance. "Iie. This is your mission, Tenshi, not ours," Haruka-sama explained and Michiru-sama nodded.
Tenshi-kun looked to Neko, but she just shrugged. She had never expected help from Sailor Uranus and Neptune because she hadn't ever fought alongside her own parents either. On the other hand, the Mizuno kids had never tried asking for help.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Tenshi and Neko-chan had visited 4 flower shops with no luck.
Tenshi was getting restless. She knew that they had to fight eventually, but she still didn't know how to transform and she didn't know how to help Neko-chan if she didn't. She hoped that she didn't get them both killed, but she didn't know what to do instead.
"Neko-chan," she started, but lost her nerve when Neko-chan looked at her with those piercing violet eyes. How could she admit that she couldn't do something that should have been natural to her?
"Nani?"
"Never mind." *Baka!* she scolded herself. *Just ask her. She knows you're new to all of this. She won't think you're dumb.*
She started again. "Ne, Koneko-chan?"
"Hai."
"I, uh, I wanted to know- Oh look, another flower shop." Once again she reproached herself for losing the chance, but they were indeed in front of a florist. And just in time too, the shop was scheduled to close in five minutes.
They walked in and found a sales associate behind the counter. Tenshi approached her.
"Can I help you, miss?"
Tenshi took note that the woman knew she was a girl in spite of the bulky sweatshirt she was wearing (which sometimes confused people) and answered, "Hai, my friend and I were looking for some flowers to give to our boyfriends. You see, we were busy at work the other day and we missed a double date we were supposed to have and we thought it'd be nice to get them flowers as an apology."
The woman looked slightly taken aback. "Oh, we don't get many girls getting flowers for their boyfriends, but
