Somehow she had almost expected everything after this to be all self-conscious and weird and all. That was how it always was in the movies, after all. (And in books and on television.)
Clearly that was silly, though. If anything, the only place awkwardness might come in was in her worrying about it being there. Once she pushed that thought aside, they were right back at the having fun stage of the game.
She had had a few boyfriends over the years, though none as serious as Mamo-chan. They had been passing fancies, nothing else. Mamo-chan had been the only one she had had a spare house key for, if that was any method of indication. Still, she couldn't recall having quite so much fun having sex with anyone before.
They had laughed at times because, yeah, first times could be awkward. (To hear Haruka-san talk, sex in general could be awkward: she had once overheard the older Senshi recounting a time when she and Michiru-san had been so into things that eventually Haruka-san had accidentally rolled off the bed and sprained her wrist.) She had taken the time to taste each and every one of his scars, learning very quickly that they were apparently very sensitive and maybe even erogenous. She could definitely appreciate that.
Wow. A little fast was definitely the right way to go here. Too bad, Minako-chan: even if you were here, there's no way I would be sharing because, seriously, wow. There is no way I'm letting him go. I don't care what I have to do to keep him. Trunks-kun is mine.
"Usagi-san?" Trunks-kun's voice cut through her rather possessive thoughts. "We should probably be getting dressed. Just in case?"
She was afraid to think of what 'just in case' could involve. There were just too many possibilities for options in this crazy place. So it was a good suggestion. Actually, it was a really good suggestion. "Yeah, we probably should be." And she completely could not help it if she sounded less than enthused about the idea. It seemed like such a crime to cover up that body.
She gave a long moment's thought to saying that out loud. If she did, though, there was every chance that they might not end up getting dressed any time soon. She didn't mind that idea too much, but there was Trunks-kun's 'just in case' to consider.
She couldn't quite resisting giving a parting stroke over one on his back. There was a matching one on his chest, both of them almost perfectly cylindrical and each on opposite sides of his heart. She had asked about them as well during her exploration. The short answer had been Cell, and she had found herself biting back a growl. The more she had heard about the Jinzouningen and Cell, the more she wanted to hunt these creatures down herself.
Okay, she had always been overprotective of her friends, more willing to risk her own life than to see them get hurt, but this might have been a step or two beyond, even for her. She had never wished quiet so much ill, pain, and death on the deceased as she had the people who had hurt Trunks-kun over the years.
As she could have predicted, even this light touch over one of his scars had Trunks-kun whirling back to face her, a hand cupping the back of her head as he drew her back in to another breathtaking kiss. She might have instigated and perhaps even led their first few kisses, but Trunks-kun was a very quick study. Once he had it down... Wow.
She reveled in the intensity of this kiss. It held every bit of passion she was coming to expect from the young man next to her... No, from her man.
After a minute that was entirely too short for her tastes, Trunks-kun pulled back, though only far enough to rest their foreheads together. "We really need to be getting dressed, Usagi-san." He didn't repeat the 'just in case' bit, but she could almost hear it dangling after his words.
"If you insist," she teased.
Her jeans were on the far side of the small room, back closer to the doorway. Thankfully, the rest of her clothes weren't too far away from the borrowed jeans, and she slipped them all on quickly. She didn't even bother to pretend she wasn't watching Trunks-kun get dressed as well. While she had very much enjoyed getting the clothes off of him, seeing them go back on was also entertaining.
By the time she had her shoes on, her last article of clothing, Trunks-kun was likewise dressed, minus his denim vest, and looking around, she certainly didn't see any sign of it in the room. She slipped over to the small window that faced the tiny courtyard this building afforded--and could have smacked herself. Apparently, in her rush to get the offending article off Trunks-kun's body, she managed to literally throw it out the window.
She glanced back over her shoulder at Trunks-kun, grinned, and offered a completely unapologetic "Whoops".
He laughed, genuinely amused. "Come on. You threw it out the window; let's go get it."
Side by side, they walked down the stairs and through the maze of a lobby. Once they got outside, it was a matter of circling around a couple other buildings to get the first available way into the back part of the buildings. Somehow that side had sustained more damage and destruction than the street-facing façades. It didn't make a lot of sense, but it didn't have to: that was just the way it was.
What they didn't do was hold hands. Once they hit the street, all playfulness has subsided, and they had both grown serious. The Carrions might not be interested in either of them, not yet anyway, but there was no sense chancing fate: it was better for the both of them to stay on their toes.
Elsewhere in the back lot area, she could hear gravel moving and tumbling. This was what it had been like that first time, when she met that Carrion who tried to grab her. Suddenly she was really glad that Trunks-kun was with her. More than that, she was glad that he was as aware of what could be going on around them as she was and was moving quickly, shrugging into the vest faster than her eyes could follow.
Stepping out of the courtyard area and into the back lot once more, she could see that there were no Carrions in sight. That didn't mean a lot, though, she supposed. They were so fast, after all.
Above their heads, she heard a loud pop of displaced air, followed by another, three, and four. Automatically, her head whipped up; seconds after that, her eyes went wide as saucers.
Somehow, when Tenchi-san had been talking about Reapers, she had never quite developed any sort of mental image in her mind of what they might look like. Floating creatures dressed in long dark robes and actually carrying scythes? Those had never figured into her thoughts in the least. It had seemed too cliché.
Clearly, the Reapers ran on the idea of the more cliché, the better, because all four of the ones she could see looked exactly the same: the same dark hooded robe, almost identical scythes, floating the same distance above the ground as they flew over the building she and Trunks-kun had been staying in.
The two of them exchanged a worried look before setting off as quickly as they could to get around the building and not make any unnecessary noise.
Personally, she was torn between wanting to see what it was these Reaper things were up to and getting the two of them to something like safety in their little suite of rooms in their building. But if they were being careful to make sure even Tenchi-san didn't see where they were staying, then there was no way they were going to walk into their building with the Reapers right here. They might be bringing them food in the early morning and taking the trash at the end of the day, but that didn't mean she wanted to extend a graven invitation for them to come up at any time.
Watching from the relative safety afforded by the rubble surrounding the side of the building, they could watch as two of the Reapers circled closer to the ground very near the time machine. Seconds later, those two Reapers each dropped something. From this distance, it was difficult to see what they had deposited, but a thick rope of something that looked very much like a braid had trailed behind one of the bundles, so she had a suspicion.
So maybe this was how new people came to be here? The Reapers brought them in and dropped them off, like... like... Like it was no bigger a deal than taking the kids to school.
Burdens deposited, all four of the Reapers flew straight up before vanishing again in another set of puffs of displaced air. This time, the sounds were a lot quieter, as if the Reapers' unconscious passengers had caused all the noise before, such that it had been.
Still, of all the places the Reapers could have dropped the new arrivals, it had been right here, right on their front doorstep, so to say. It seemed almost like a statement, maybe a statement of intent.
So if she and Trunks-kun and the lanky guy with the weird sunglasses had all been brought in to counter the Thunder Emperor, who were these guys and why had they been brought here?
"I suppose we're meant to bring them in," Trunks-kun commented under his breath.
"Maybe," she returned. It was pretty clearly obvious by both of their voices that neither of them was happy with this turn of events, though not for the reasons they could have been angry. They could have been angry because they were only a few hours into a new relationship and now there would be two new people in the same place as them, even if it might only be for a bit.
Instead, she knew she was angry because this was very much like being given an order from their captors and being expected to follow it without question.
"Stay as close to the door as you can and still see them, okay, Usagi-san?"
Trunks-kun waited until she nodded and moved to the appropriate position. Where she stood then, she would only have a few meters to run before she was inside the building. It was a small relief, yes, but it was still a good thing. Once she was standing in the best spot she could find, she gave him another nod, and he immediately crossed the path area to the two unconscious bodies lying in a heap in the middle of what had probably once been a street.
Without a bit of hesitation, he hefted the first one into his arms and quickly moved him over into the lobby area before going back and bringing the second back with just as much celerity.
She gave each of them a glance over as she followed Trunks-kun with the second one inside. The first one didn't seem too tall, somewhere between her height and Trunks-kun. His short dark hair stuck out at wild angles, and even unconscious, there were severe lines on his face. The other was in possession of all that hair she had seen earlier, a long braid that extended the entire length of his back; his face seemed more relaxed than his companion's did. They wore matching uniforms, and she had a sneaking suspicion she knew what that meant.
Whoever they were, they had both come here from the same world.
15 September 2012
How is it that it's Saturday and the day of the only vacation I'm going to have this year... and yet I'm up extra early to post on FanFictionNet? I must love you guys.
Now, before I'm beach-bound for the day, here is the chapter. Hope you enjoy!
Apollymi