“And it was slippery! You don’t even know how many
times I almost fell!” He slipped one hand around her waist.
“You were worth it, though.”
“Ah,” she said when he kissed her head. “You were
expendable.”
Shock waves hit his body with tidal-wave force.
He sputtered for a few seconds, too excited to give birth
to the words that sat on the tip of his tongue. Finally:
“You’re right!”
Everyone gave him a curious look. “Well, Jadeite,
everyone is special in their own way,” Nephrite started,
inadvertently quoting Mr. Rogers.
“No you don’t understand!” Jadeite shouted. He
looked directly at Tuxedo Mask and hand his hands over
his face. Blue deepened; blond turned to black. “I was
Endymion’s body double, don’t you guys remember? It was
the whole reason I was brought to the castle, because I
could change my appearance! I would stand in for Endymion
in public so that if there were an assassination attempt,
they would kill me and not him! That’s why I could never
let my hair grow like you guys; I couldn’t change hair
length!” He laughed with Endymion’s face on. “I was
extremely expendable.”
“Get off it; we were all expendable,” Kunzite said.
“You just more so than us.”
“Thanks buddy. I’ll remember that the next time
you call me from jail.”
Nephrite was running around like a maniac. “We’re
standing right on the east gate, aren’t we? This is where
we used to enter, you guys! Don’t you remember?”
“Yeah!” Zoicite shouted. “Except for-Kunzite you
dumbass! You used to come in through the north gate! The
most heavily guarded one!”
He bristled. “That’s the only one I knew! You
four never told me about any others!”
Tuxedo Mask spoke before Jadeite had a chance to
open his mouth. “Well if you weren’t such a tight-ass
and would sneak out with us once in a while, then you’d
know about the other ones.” Nephrite and Zoicite snorted
with laughter. “What? It’s the truth!” he protested when
Kunzite threw him an “I don’t care if you’re my boss, I
might still beat you to a bloody pulp” look.
Mercury sent a stream of water over a five-foot high
block of marble, washing away eons of dust. “Look,” she
said, pointing to two stumps resting on top. They were
sandaled feet, carved out of marble and so lifelike that
they could make out creases in the toes. They were broken
unevenly above the ankle; obviously at one point, they had
been part of a complete statue. “Mars, this was you. Do
you remember?”
The fire Senshi’s eyes swam in the past. “Yes,
yes I do. This was my part of the castle, and the statue
of me was planted right outside of the entrance. It’s
the first thing you saw as you approached the east gate.”
“We each had one,” Jupiter continued. “Mine was
at the west gate, Mercury’s was at the south, and Venus’s
was at the north. I was…” She stopped for a minute and
thought. “The statue of me was holding thunder bolts.
I remember it now.”
Venus blushed. “Mine was nude.”
“Yeah I remember that,” Zoicite sniggered. She
elbowed him.
“So what? Mine was too.” Mars dusted off her hands.
“We all had statues and paintings and shit.” She suddenly
grinned. “And when they got to Earth, you dorks would
worship them. Gods, if I knew then what I know now…”
Venus nudged crumbled marble with her foot. “This
used to be your fountain, Mars. Your Prayer fountain.”
After the initial celebration, they fell silent for a
while as they explored more of what used to be a glorious
kingdom. “Oh God,” Zoicite said solemnly at one point.
“This is like the Apocalypse. No, I’m sorry, it WAS an
Apocalypse. No one could survive this.”
“We didn’t,” Venus said simply. Mars looked at her,
concerned. Venus returned the glance.
“I’m serious, we didn’t. Everyone died out here,
including the Princess.”
Sailor Moon put a hand on her friend’s shoulder.
“Oh, Venus, are you still beating yourself up because
of that? You couldn’t do anything to stop it.”
“She’s right, Venus,” Artemis said. “Metallia was
too powerful for us. There was nothing we could have
done to stop her.”
“How do we know that?” she snapped, irritated.
“I barely remember what happened that night, so what am
I going to do different this time? I failed to protect
Serenity once, and I don’t even know where I went wrong!”
Someone touched the back of her head, and she swiveled
around to face Kunzite. “I failed to protect Endymion,
Venus. You’re not alone in this.”
She rolled her eyes. “What are you talking about?
You couldn’t do anything about it, you were dead.”
<< You were dead. >> Her words echoed in the stifling
silence, hitting everyone in turn and opening the floodgates
that held back an ocean of memories. Venus clapped one
hand over her mouth after she realized what she had let
slip, a seemingly casual explanation that carried with
it a mountain of information. Jaws dropped as realization
drilled through layers of dormant memories.
“Oh my GOD!” Zoicite was the first to speak. “We
WERE dead! We were dead before any of this Apocalypse shit
went down! We didn’t even live to see it!”
“You’re right,” Tuxedo Mask said. “Without you four,
we didn’t even have a fighting chance.”
“We never had a fighting chance,” Kunzite said quietly,
one hand tracing the invisible scar on his neck that existed
only in his mind.
“If it wasn’t for me, we would have,” Zoicite said
miserably, sitting down suddenly and hard on an uneven section
of marble. Before anyone could persuade him otherwise, he
burst out. “And don’t even tell me it wasn’t my fault, OK?
I know it was. None of you had the knowledge or the magic of
that caliber! It was my friggin’ idea from the get-go, and it
just ended up biting me in the ass, hard. It’s my fault we
died and those mutants exist. In fact, it’s probably my own
stupid fault the whole moon kingdom to fell in the first
place.”
“Don’t say that!” Sailor Moon shrieked. “It’s not your
fault, none of it is! I was the one who gave you the idea,
remember?” Tears streamed down her face, and she hurriedly
brushed them away. “I found that book in the Ami’s library,
and I thought it was a good idea, so I left it on Earth when
I came to visit Endymion! I left it where I knew you’d find
it, Zoicite!” She was sobbing now. “Oh, God, I’m so sorry!
I never thought what would happen! I just wanted you all to
be together for Carnival! I’m so stupid; I’m so sorry everyone!
I never meant for any of this to happen! I’m so sorry, Mother!
It’s all my fault the Moon Kingdom fell!”
Tuxedo Mask was comforting her in a second, but was joined
this time by eight people and two cats who offered their
consolations.
“Don’t say that, Sailor Moon!” Venus said gruffly. “It’s
not your fault and you know it!”
“Listen, we would have found out a way even if you
didn’t drop the hint! Zoicite had tons of books; we would
have found it sooner or later!” Jadeite blubbered.
“We never tried to stop him! We’re guilty by association!”
Kunzite provided the most reasonable explanation. “If
it wasn’t us, then it would have been someone else. Metallia
was an equal opportunity destroyer.”
“You think?” Sailor Moon sniffed, wiping her nose on
Tuxedo’s cape.
“I know. Beryl told us so before she executed us.”
She threw her arms around him and sobbed in his chest
for a while. “Hey, stop crying. I’ll buy you ice cream
when we get home.”
That perked her up. “You will?”
Tuxedo Mask leaned in and whispered, “You don’t know what
you’re getting yourself into.” Sailor Moon merely bounced
away with images of brownie sundaes in her head.
They traveled on; passing what was left of Mercury’s
statue positioned at the south gate, and began penetrating
into the center of the ruined castle. “What’s that?” Sailor
Jupiter asked, pointing to an object in the distance.
Venus squinted.
“I don’t know. Let’s find out.”
“That” turned out to be the very shiny handle of a
sword, buried up to the hilt in a slab of stone, ala “The
Sword in the Stone.” Tuxedo Mask grabbed the handle and
gave a tug.
“Yeah, that’s stuck,” he said. “Wonder how the hell
it got in there.”
“The Queen put it in there,” Luna explained. “It
belongs to you, Senshi. For you to protect your Princess.”
“Wonder what it’s made from,” Zoicite said, rubbing
his finger down the exposed part of the blade. “It doesn’t
look like an ordinary alloy. Sailor Mercury?”
She consulted her computer. “It’s nothing of the
Earth’s, and it seems to be infused with a considerable
amount of magic. It doesn’t say how to get it out, though.”
She reached over and gave a small tug. “Nope. Not happening.”
“So it’s made of stone?” Jadeite repeated, elbowing
a snickering Nephrite. “Hmm, Kunzite, you’re the rock
expert, why don’t you tell us what it’s made of?”
“Shut up.” Sailor Moon was puzzled.
“Why would Kunzite know?” Meanwhile, the subject
was turning various shades of crimson.
“I needed science credits!” He burst out a second
before Nephrite did.
“Because he took Geosci one last semester!”
Venus looked at her boyfriend in a whole new
light. “You took Rocks for Jocks?” she asked incredulously.
He made a face at the three hysterical generals,
four if you counted Tuxedo snorting behind his cape.
“I needed science credits,” he feebly offered again.
“But--?“
“All right!”
Mars grabbed the handle and tugged on it. “Holy-ok
I’m not King Arthur. Next!”
“What’s that written on the handle?” Zoicite said,
leaning over. “It’s not English, that’s for sure. In fact,
it doesn’t look like any modern language.”
Artemis jumped on the stone and stuck his face down,
as did Jadeite and Nephrite. “I think I can make out a
‘C,’” Nephrite reported.
“OK, it’s says, ‘C,’ three wavy lines, uh, isosceles
triangle, swirly thing…”
Venus bent down next to Artemis. “It says how to
use the full power of the crystal.”
“You can read ‘C three wavy lines isosceles triangle
swirly thing’?” Jadeite said.
“It’s the ancient moon language,” Luna explained.
“Venus, why don’t you give it a try?”
She wrapped one hand around the handle of the sword
and pulled. Electricity shot down her arm as the sword
eased its way out of the stone base inch by inch, all the
way to the point. As soon as the tip of the sword left
its stone house, it flashed white, blinding white light
that shocked their optic nerves but at the same time, didn’t
even hurt…

* * * * * * * * * * * *

They were delivered to the spot on Graduate Ave.
where they had previously stood, everything the same as
they left it save for the absence of Negaverse Generals.
The victims of the youma attack still lay unconscious on
the street, but almost every storefront was trashed.
“Looks like they had a little fun before they left,”
Artemis said, staring into the shattered glass window of
Lola’s. “I wonder why they’d bother to ruin everything.
They’re only after the crystal.”
“Are they?” Venus asked, staring at the sword in her
hands. A phrase was seeping into her unconscious. << Wink.
Wink Chain Sword. >>
Mars’s face was radish-red with rage. “Why would they
do all this? I mean, Hello? We’re not here anymore to beat
on? Why trash the entire neighborhood?”
“I don’t know, maybe they wanted to grab some food
and Gap shirts before they went back to the Negaverse.” Jadeite
pulled off his gloves and detransformed into a yawning Jay.
“I’ve got to get to bed, I’ve got a game tomorrow.”
“Think you’ll play? Zoicite said, removing his gloves.
“I’ll try. I just have to get some rest.”
“I don’t think that’s happening,” Darien said as they
rounded the corner. People were streaming into 22 Boris St.
like ants to a picnic. Pounding music blared out of the
open windows, and two guys carried a keg up the fire escape.
“No way!” Zach bitched. “Dammit! It’s Musto and those
assholes in 5C. No one better be in our place.”
“You can stay with me tonight,” Amy offered. Serena
giggled as she watched her friend’s ears turn red.
“Yeah, why don’t you just stay at my place?” Raye said
to Jay. “Just give me a few minutes. After tonight, I’m
really going to need a beer.”

* * * * * * * * * * *

“Oh my God!” Lita shrieked. “Where did she get that?”
“In L.A.,” Raye replied calmly, killing the rest of
her cup. “I told her I get to borrow it next time.”
“It” was Mina’s extremely revealing crocheted halter-top,
paired with dark jeans so low that the straps of her thong
poked out. She worked the whole thing pretty well as she danced
with T, a wide receiver, and Kevin would have been very opposed
to the whole thing if he wasn’t busy pounding a pitcher with
two defensive linemen in the kitchen. “Go! Go! Go!” the room
chanted.
“Kevin’s not going to be walking in a straight line,”
Matt said as he brought a pitcher over to the couch. “That’s
the second pitcher he slammed.” Two girls squeezed past him.
“Wow. It’s like a Delta Zeta invasion in here.”
“Hey! Jackie! Melissa!” Raye shouted over the deafening
bass. “Be right back, guys, I have to talk to my sisters!”
Lita caught Matt staring at Raye and her two sisters
talking in a corner. “Matt?” He didn’t respond. “Hey MATT!”
“Huh?” he grunted, squinting and staring at them with
the same intensity.
It dawned on her. “Are you trying to see through
their CLOTHES?” Lita screamed, wacking him on the side
of the head.
“Huh? NO!” he said a little to quickly. When she
didn’t relent, he muttered, “Well, it wasn’t working anyway,”
and tried his best to dodge the subsequent blows.
“See you guys, later,” Raye waved to Darien and Serena
as she and Amy headed out the door. “Tell Jay to meet me
downstairs at 11:30.”
“Gotcha,” Serena waved. “Bye you guys!”
Kevin had somehow stumbled out of the kitchen and
had retrieved Mina, and was now grinding against her as
they tongue-wrestled. Serena noted that Mina was pretty
drunk, too.
“I wish I had her clothes,” she sighed.

* * * * * * * * * * *

“Sorry to keep you waiting,” Raye yawned and signed
the sheet in front of the stern-faced R.A.
“I wasn’t here long,” Jay replied, staring at Raye’s
behind with such intensity it was a miracle he didn’t burn a
hole through her gray dorm pants. They sat extremely low on
her hips, and covered just enough ass to make him think.
Her white t-shirt was cropped, revealing her flat stomach,
which didn’t help matters. << You have a game tomorrow.
Think baseball. Think of unattractive baseball players. >>
He followed her into the elevator, his eyes glued to
the four or five inches of revealed skin that proved more
erotic than if she was walking around topless. << Focus,
Melman, focus. Randy Johnson. Scott Brosius. Barry Bonds.
The entire Mets bullpen. All of the Pirates. Oh God this
is not working. >>
Raye practically threw herself on her bed. “Oh my
God what a night,” she muttered, curling up with her bear.
“What’s wrong?” she asked after seeing his face.
“Joe Torre!” he squeaked. “I’m trying to think
about baseball.”
“Oh that’s right.” << No sex before a game.
It affects his performance. >> “I’ll try to be very
Major League.”
“Speaking of baseball,” he said hurriedly, and
flipped on the TV. “Ah, ‘Baseball Tonight.’ There’s
nothing erotic about this.” He settled onto Mina’s bed.
“Goddamn, if the O’s drop one more to the friggin’ Twins
I’m never going to shut Kevin up.”
They lay in silence for a while until Raye was
half-insane from hearing baseball stats. Jay glanced over
at her, curled on her bed cuddling her white teddy bear.
His new memories drowned out the Cubs-Reds highlights: Rei
bathed in white moonlight, the smell of her hair, the feel
of her warm skin and she embraced him when he reached the
top of the tower…
And at that moment, while he was drinking in her form
like a dry sponge sucking up a beer spill, she chose to scratch
her stomach, pulling her shirt up another few inches.
“Fuck this,” he said, leaping up from Mina’s bed and
throwing himself on Raye so hard the headboard slammed against
the cinderblock wall.
“Whoa! Jay!” Raye’s resolve was crumbling with every
kiss he planted on her neck. He yanked her shirt up. “But,
you have a game tomorrow! Remember?”
He threw off his own shirt. “I love you Raye. I’ve
loved you then and I love you now. And now that I’ve finally
found you, fuck my game.” He pressed his lips to hers.
She kissed him back, and let his mouth travel down to
her chest. “I love you too. Oh God, I love you.” She pressed
her hands against his back. “Are you sure? They don’t have
another catcher…” She felt his hands on her thighs and she
moaned. “You’re right. Fuck your game.”

* * * * * * * * * * * *“Amy? What’s wrong?”
“Huh?” Amy said, swallowing the rest of her Bailey’s
and milk. << God, when did I become such an alcoholic? I’m
always drinking something anymore! >>
“You’re awfully quiet.” Zach pulled his glasses off and
chucked them on her bedside table, where they skidded across
and landed on the floor. Since his first pair of thick, brown
plastic Nickelodeon brand at age four, Zach had always been
extremely careless with his glasses. Two had been crunched under
Matt’s feet his first year when they dormed together, and another
had been lost right before Christmas break. Matt had graciously
replaced the pairs he damaged; very graciously, since the frames
he bought for Zach ran a good two or three hundred dollars a
piece. He had taken to wearing contacts in high school, yet
still, there were mornings (or afternoons) that he would
completely forget to insert them and wouldn’t notice until
he tried to view something at a long distance (read: two feet
from his nose) and couldn’t. The concept of wearing corrective
lenses had never taken off with him, and he suspected that
Zoicite had something to do with it. The inner general, when
poking his head out occasionally, would simply forget that
the body that he had been born into was equipped with
spectacularly poor 20/80 vision.
Amy picked them up and put them back on the nightstand.
“You’re going to step on these.”
“So what? I’ll just tell Matt that he did and he’ll
buy me a new pair.”
She smiled, and Zach caught himself staring at the
way her light freckles would move into the creases of her
smile. “Your nose is cute.”
“What? I mean, thank you.” She put one hand to her
face. “My nose? It’s kinda small.”
“It’s cute,” he repeated. She smiled again, her
pale skin the perfect match to her navy eyes and hair, and
the reason that he found Amy so attractive hit him right
there. Raye was exotic, mysterious, the kind of girl you
would be afraid to approach. Lita, with her bright smile
and brown curls, was so refreshingly girl-next-door she
could be in Noxema ads. Mina was so stunning she temporarily
knocked your breath away. But Amy, she was so beautiful, the
way her eyes would glitter under her dark eyelashes, which,
by the way, were about as long as his arm. Her face was so
flawless it could be made of porcelain. << Freckled porcelain. >>
She had such a sad, sweet smile, the smile of someone whose
life still hurt, from what he didn’t know, but he declared
the mission anyway, the mission to change Amy’s smile from
a bud to a bloom.
“Ami,” he said, touching her face. She shuddered at
the way he said her name, her real name. It was like hearing
a nickname anymore.
“Yes?” Her voice trembled; she knew it but couldn’t
stop it.
He rubbed her cheek. “Something’s wrong; I can tell.
What is it?”
She wanted to tell him, but the stifling cloak of
shyness was thrown over her head, blocking her vision and
stifling her voice. She could picture the scene again in
her mind, down to the last detail, even the way Mina sawed
at her stringy Salisbury steak like she was hacking down a
pine tree with a penknife. Erin and Hollie had joined them
that day, and Erin was trying to convince Lita to join the
basketball team. Erin herself was a guard. Lita was saying
something, whatever it didn’t matter, but she heard Crazy
Kristen’s voice above the clinking of the silverware.
<< “Check out Supermodel and her friends, Gigantor
and The Big V!” >>
Typhoon Lagoon and two other equally Revlon-spackled
friends had erupted into giggles like microphone feedback.
<< “Kristen, you’re so bad!” >>
<< “I don’t care, I just can’t believe she landed Zach
Straub. I don’t know why he even stays with her; you know
she’s not putting out. He should give me a call; I’d fuck
him anytime.” >>
Hollie and Mina wisely held Lita firm to her seat,
but Amy wasn’t that quick or effective in restraining the
powerfully built Erin. Erin jumped to her feet. << “Hey
you fat bitch, shut your friggin’ mouth before I shut it
for you! Straub wouldn’t touch your cellulite-filled,
syphilis-infested, skanky ho ass if Regis Philbin paid
him a million dollars! >>
Then Lita was up, shouting, until the Seventh Floor
Bitches and their cohorts decided to vacate the premises
lest their diet sodas and fettuccini alfredo end up on their
Sears stretch pants. Amy had been grateful for her friends’,
well, rather vehement support, but the hateful words were
still burned into her brain. Gossip was gossip, but sometimes,
it had a grain of truth.
Zach was rubbing her shoulders now. “You don’t have
to tell me if you don’t want to, but, you know, I might
be able to help.” He stopped and thought for a minute.
“Unless it’s girl stuff. I can’t help with that, and
furthermore, I don’t think I want to know.”
She smiled a little, but it was still sad. “Well,
it’s kind, it’s sort of, it…it’s somewhat about you.”
“Me?” << Cool. I like to talk about me. >>
Amy took a deep breath and turned to look into
his eyes. They were so deep, so green; it was like gazing
into an emerald at Tiffany’s. << He’s so beautiful. >> Her
mind cross-referenced him and Zoycite, and the differences
that came through were so obvious it was hard for her to
believe that she had once mistaken him for a Dark Kingdom
general. Zach was powerfully built, his right pitching
arm bigger than his left. His face and jawline was more
angular than his evil counterpart’s; overall he was much
more masculine. She watched as he picked up one of her
trembling hands and kissed it.
“Do you think I’m prude?” she burst out, courage
sweeping the words out of her mouth and then dissipating
to nothing once they were gone.
Zach cocked his head. “No! Of course not! Did I
make you think that?”
“Um, no.” She swallowed nervously. << I can’t
believe I said that! Oh God, if the girls could see
this now! “Ami Mizuno talks about sex!” >> “I-I
just…that is, someone said-“
“Was it Crazy Kristen?”
“Yes. How did-“
“Because she’s a bitch and she’d say something
like that because she’s jealous that no one will touch
her syphilitic ass. Don’t listen to anything she says,
since none of it’s true.”
She giggled. “That’s funny; Erin said the exact
same thing.”
“That’s because she’s right. Amy?” He moved his
face closer. “Is it bothering you?”
The cinderblock wall melted away, replaced with
white marble covered with forget-me-not blue drapes.
Amy spoke the same words to Zach that Mercury had to
Zoicite, and the fringes of time pulled together, melding
together a millennium. Zoicite was Zach, and vice versa,
and she had loved both of them.
“It’s just that, you never try to touch me, like,”
her mind reeled for a suitable example. “Like how
everyone else does.” << Ami, that was about as vague
as you could get it. No wonder one of your elements
is fog. >>
He touched her face again. “I just thought, well,
I thought you wanted to take it slow. I don’t want to
rush you into anything.”
“I-“ she said, then stopped. “I do. I just thought
you didn’t want to.”
He laughed tenderly. “I do. All the time, in fact,
you’d be sick if you knew the true amount.” He pecked her
on the lips. “To quote the great philosopher Oprah, I
think we need to communicate.”
She smiled then, and it was the one he was looking
for: Full, bright, and completely blissful. “That’s what
I was looking for,” he said, and moved into kiss her.
She kissed him back, her mind swooning, the last
traces of nervousness brushed away like old spiderwebs.
This was Zoicite with her, the same man she loved a thousand
years ago; the only man she ever loved. She was completely
at ease.
“I love you,” he whispered, kissing her behind her
ears. Tears spilled over her tears at his declaration.
“Hey, hey, don’t cry,” he said, rubbing the moisture
away with his palm in a totally male, oblivious way.
“What’s wrong, Ames? Why are you crying?”
She sniffed and brushed the tears away, and tried
to smile. An ache had developed in her chest, a strange
balance of pain and elation. Tentatively, she reached out
and touched his hand. It felt the same as it always had.
“I’m not alone anymore,” she whispered, pressing her
open lips against his. They kissed under the dim yellow
glow of her bedside lamp, breathing in synchronization.
When they parted, she whispered, “Can I touch you?”
“Sure. You can touch me anywhere you…ah!” Of all the
places on the human body, Zach had no idea that his sweet,
shy girlfriend would choose to touch him THERE.
She wrapped her arms around his neck and lay down,
pulling him on top of her. “I’m not alone anymore,” she
repeated.
He reached up and unbuttoned the first button of her
shirt. She sucked in her breath at the feel of his hands
and his next words.
“You never will be again.”

* * * * * * * * * * *

WHUFF!
Lita toppled off the bed when the pillow impacted against
the side of her head and she lost her balance. She landed
on one of Jay’s sandals, the metal buckle digging into her
ass. “OW! My ass! That was such a cheap shot!”
Matt merely laughed and whomped her again with the
pillow. “Yeah, and hitting me in the balls wasn’t?” He
jumped off the bed and landed on top of her, pinning her
to the floor. “HA! Submit! OOF!” Lita had used her
longer than average arms to maneuver a direct hit to
his head.
“Yeah, how’s that feel?” No sooner were the words
out of her mouth than Matt had her pinned again. “Hey!
Let me up!”
“Nope.” They tussled back and forth; Lita’s strength
almost matching Matt’s, and he used the temporary advantage
as an opportunity to kiss her, hard. “Time out!” Thus,
their game of Coed Naked pillow fighting was, how shall
we say? Interrupted for a few moments. Delay of game.
“Oh my God I love you so much,” he panted, wiping
perspiration from his hairline, as they lay in a tangle
of sweaty limbs on the bedroom floor. She wiggled out
from underneath him and pushed her tangled curls out
of her face.
“Why? Because I screw you all the time?” She stood
and climbed onto the bed and pulled the sheet up to her
chin to block the sudden feeling of exposure, physical
and emotional. He promptly slid in next to her.
“No.” He began kissing her neck, something she
found simply irresistible. “I love you because I can
pillow-fight with you naked and not care. I love the
way you can look at me across the room and forget that
anyone else is there. I love how you take care of
everyone.” He squeezed her body to him. “I love the
way that one piece of hair always sticks up when you
pull it back. I love the way you arm-wrestle me.”
“I should have won,” she mumbled. << Jay and
Darien making faces behind his head definitely counts
as outside interference. >>
His low laughter tickled her ear and sent chills
down her spine. “I love the way you look and smell and
walk and shoot a trey, everything. I love YOU, the
complete package.”
She closed her eyes. “ No one’s ever said anything like
that to me.” A stray tear leaked out. “I love you too,”
she said to the wall.
“Excuse me, what? I couldn’t hear you.”
<< You can so, you liar. >> She turned and looked
into his eyes, warm and brown and inviting. “I. Love.
You,” she enunciated, and kissed the satisfied smile on
his face.
They lay there for a while, their faces inches
apart, and listened to the continuing roar of the party
going on outside of their locked door. Something thumped
heavily against a distant wall. All of a sudden, Matt
propped his head up with his arm. “So, what do you love
about me?”
“Excuse me?” She started giggling.
“Come on! I just told you everything I love about
you. What do you love about me? My incredible physique?”
She traced one hand down his six-pack. << You’re
right about that, buddy; you DO have an incredible
physique. >> “Yeah, that too,” she started.
“And?” he said like an overeager child on Christmas
morning.
She traced circles on his tricep. “I don’t know;
I just love you. Your eyes, your hair…”
“Yeah I know; you dig my bod. What else? Mental
things.”
Lita smacked his arm. “You know. Your personality…”
“That’s so generic. Think specific.”
“All right!” << Jeez, this is like being interrogated
by the police! >> “I love the way you can be serious
and lighthearted at the same time. I love the way
you know every single line to all the ‘Rocky’ movies. I
love you because you’re a good friend. I love it when
you sit there with me when I’m bummed out and don’t say
anything because you don’t have to. I love how generous
you are with your money and your feelings.”
“I KNEW the money was going to fit in somewhere!
You’re so typically female.”
She punched him in the gut. “And most of all,” she
said, drawing her face closer to his. “I love the way I
now compare my ex-boyfriend to YOU, and not the other way
around.”
They kissed, softly at first, and then fast and
hard and furious, until they were both ready for another
round. Matt broke away, gasping for air.
“You know what? If I ever run into this venerated
ex-boyfriend, I’m going to thank him.”
She was puzzled. “Thank him?”
He pulled her on top of him. “Yeah, for letting
you go so I could have you.”

* * * * * * * * * * *

<< There’s slow honeymoon sex, there’s playful sex,
there’s loving sex…>> Mina gasped as Kevin grabbed her
behind and squeezed, all the while his tongue practically
down her throat. He tasted like beer, and Jack. << And
then, there’s drunk sex. >>
She hadn’t exactly been stone cold sober herself,
that is, until Matt cured her. She had been hanging over
the toilet, Lita holding her hair back, wracked in agonizing
nausea but unable to vomit, saliva dripping from her lips.
Matt had strolled in.
“You need to puke?” he asked. She had weakly nodded.
“Open your mouth.”
Stupidly, she had obeyed, and the next thing she knew,
Matt’s finger was touching that punching-bag thing in the
front of her throat, and she gagged and threw up. “Feel
better?”
“Yes,” she said truthfully. The queasiness was gone,
like magic.
He stood up and smiled. “Crude, yet effective.”
Kevin was completely polluted. Granted, he was close
to a foot taller than her and outweighed her by a deuce, but
the sheer amount of alcohol that he had thrown back was
staggering, even by football player standards. She had
exited the bathroom feeling a whole hell of a lot better,
albeit a little disoriented from the alcoholic haze covering
her mind, when suddenly he had grabbed her and pinned her
against the wall and attacked her with his lips. Somehow,
between kissing and groping and everything that comes in
between, they had made their way down the hall and into the
bedroom, where they presently continued their hallway seduction.
“Kevin?” she whispered, her eyes half-closed. The
smell of alcohol was leaking out of his pores.
“Huh?” He pulled her shirt over her head, his movements
slow and fumbling. She doubted she could carry on a conversation
with him, since he currently seemed unable to articulate more
than two syllables at a time.
“I love you, hon.” He crashed heavily to his knees with
such force Mina was surprised he didn’t break right through
the floor. She sighed as he unbuttoned her jeans.
“Love you too,” he mumbled, even though it sounded like,
“Luh ya too.” << Close enough. >>
“God you’re beautiful,” he continued (slurred). If there
was one thing in the world that Mina loved more than banana
ice cream and volleyball, it was compliments, and her ears
perked up like a rabbit’s.
“Really?”
“Yeah.” He slid his fingers under the straps of her
thong. “You are so fucking gorgeous. You’re like an angel.”
“Go on,” she said, a grin spreading on her face.
He looked up at her face, her eyes blue and sparkling,
her perfect teeth, her blond hair hanging in soft waves around
her face. “Mina, I want to say something really deep and
profound and original so that you feel really great and
I’ll look really awesome, but I can’t think of anything right
now. I just want you really, really bad.” His eyes were
completely glazed over.
She giggled. “Well, it wasn’t exactly poetry, but
thank you.” She kissed the top of his head. “I love you
so much, and I know it’s the alcohol talking. You’re never
this straightforward.” He stood up and lifted her off
the floor. “Standing? OK, I guess, if you want it this
way.”
The first hour was fun…the subsequent hours after
that-ouch.

* * * * * * * * * *
Such a simple, common object saved their hides.
Beryl was a hurricane of rage when they returned
empty-handed, even though she had been witnessing the
entire scene through her globe, and any person with a
hint of brain could tell that her minions couldn’t have
done anything to prevent the Senshi and Generals from
vanishing in an explosion of white light. She was a
hairbreadth away from vaporizing the four of them when
Malachite presented the item they had retrieved from
one of the local businesses.
“Well,” she said simply, waving her hand. The
glass square floated out of Malachite’s hands and soared
over to Beryl, where it hovered in front of her face.
Another wave, and the wood and glass shattered, leaving
the single sheet of glossy paper. She plucked it out
of the air and turned it over. “Are you sure it’s
them?”
“Without a doubt, my Queen.”
Her fangs exposed as she smiled. Beryl cackled
again, black lightening coursing around her body.
“Hello boys. I guess that Mercury forgot this little
detail in her plan to hide your identities.” The
names, printed on the back of the black and white
photograph of four boys, dirty and posing in front
of the camera after a game of football, was a death
sentence written in blue Bic. “Starting lower center,
L to R: Zachary Straub, Jason Melman, Kevin Belles,
Matthew Haberman.”

* * * * * * * *

hello, can you say "prequel"? im starting it soon!