The life The blog The Sam
Summary: When Minako saves Usagi instead of Chibiusa, history threatens to repeat itself in Crystal Tokyo. Tensions run high as the senshi grieve and threaten to destroy the kingdom they want to save.
Written for the June 2015 Tumblr HaruMichi Circle Same Prompt Fic Party, “Senshi Civil War.” 10500 words.
Read on AO3 or use the following tumblr links:
I’m supposed to be writing for school, but this came out of nowhere instead.
A young Haruka tries wearing the girls’ uniform to school. It doesn’t go well.
~1000 words, vaguely sad backstory fic/drabble.
Haruka is twelve, and girls are pretty.
More than pretty, really;her mother grudgingly gave her the birds and the bees talk two months ago—yet another joy of puberty—and Haruka knows, sheknows that she doesn’t feel the things her mother described, or not the way she
described them, at least.
She looks in the mirror
now. Everyone had always said it would happen. With a haircut like that, you’ll be lucky if your daughter doesn’t end
up a d–… Why don’t you wear the girl’s uniform, Haruka, people are going to
think… They were wrong, it was just what she felt comfortable in, but now… now
they aren’t wrong.
She rummages through her
mother’s drawers to find a headband. With it and the school uniform, she can’t
see any difference between herself and the rest of the girls at school, even
with her hair so short. She looks like them. She looks normal.
Haruka wears it to
school, to see if it makes a difference.
“Haruka!” her friend Yuko
calls when she gets to class. “You look so nice today!”
It is all she can do to not
to run back out the door.
Yuko and Kaori fawn over
her headband, and her skirt, and why doesn’t she wear this every day? She can’t
explain the lump that has formed in the pit of her stomach to them. She’s used
to everyone’s eyes being on her—she’s the prince of the first years, after all—but
now it feels wrong. And Kaori is still pretty, even with the transformative
powers of the skirt.
She finds herself
wondering if the skirt harms or improves her chances.
If it improves them,
she’s not sure it’s worth it.
That was the opposite of
the point, anyway.
Kaori asks if she’s going
to grow her hair out now. Haruka’s no
is harsher than she intended, but also it isn’t. These are her friends, not her parents, didn’t they
choose her as she really is? Didn’t they choose the Haruka Tennoh who wore
pants and loved racing the way they loved idols?
Kaori pouts. “But you’d
look like an actual girl with long hair.”
She leaves. Class hasn’t
even started, but she’s done. She can’t do a full day of this. Outside, she
hides under the bleachers to watch the gym classes run. It’s calming, not as
calming as running herself would be, but it’s the best she can do in this skirt
and these shoes. Her legs start to scream from crouching, but she can’t bring
herself to move. She’d get caught if she moved now, and the last thing she
needed was to be stuck in detention today. In the break between classes, she
lets herself sit down in the dirt. It’s good no one can see her; she can’t figure
out how to sit without exposing her boxers.
Her finger draws
nonsensical patterns in the dirt and she wonders what she really wanted today.
Her reaction to Kaori proved she didn’t really want to change, didn’t it? An
alternate scene pops into her mind. Yuko and Kaori see her and are horrified. “But
Haruka,” Kaori says, “we like you the way you are. I like you the way you are.”
Haruka draws stick
figures in the dirt to represent this. Then she draws herself and Kaori in a
car, riding towards the sunset. The car looks more like a box on lopsided
wheels. Never mind that there’s a twelve year old behind the wheel. She wipes
the foolish fantasy away with her foot.
Haruka sneaks away at
midday and walks home. Her stomach sinks when she sees her mother is there,
waiting. Of course the school let her know she was skipping. Of course she
would leave work for this. Haruka isn’t sure if she dreads punishment or her
mother’s reaction to the girl’s uniform more.
The yelling comes first.
She is a delinquent, she is ruining her mother’s life. She’s heard it all
before. But before the “No phone, no running, no television for a week,” before
the normal threats of being kicked out or sent away, her mother stops. “At
least you’re finally dressing normal.”
“This’ll never happen
again.”
“You have a
choice anymore. If I’m going to get called out of work because you’ve skipped
class or failed a test every few days, you’re going to at least look like the daughter I wanted.”
Haruka doesn’t bother to
fight the exaggeration. She had the sneaking suspicion that she’d find most of
her clothes gone from her closet when she looked. But she’d been resourceful
before, she could be resourceful again. Make a deal with a boy at school to
pretend to be slower than him in exchange for a spare uniform, steal a pair of
safety scissors to cut her hair in the school bathroom, she’d make it work.
But she thinks of Yuko
and Kaori. Does everyone want her this way?
She retreats to her room
and lies on her bed. The only exception she can think of is her aunt, her aunt
who lives in Tokyo and said on her last visit that really, these small town
people are so behind, there are plenty of girls in the city like Haruka. It has
been years since then, probably because Haruka’s mother took that as an insult,
but it stuck with Haruka.
Is it just this place?
Is there somewhere that
would feel right?
Yes, says a voice inside her, quiet but as strong as the sea.
Haruka packs right then
and there. There isn’t much to take— a pair of pajamas, the one pair of pants
left in her closet, the souvenir toy car from the first race her father took
her to. She makes herself include a photo of her and Yuko and Kaori, because
maybe someday, they’ll feel right again. The contents of her piggy bank are
dismal, but it should be enough for a bus ticket and some food. Hopefully her
aunt in Tokyo will want a roommate for a little while. Hopefully, the city will
be different.
Haruka is twelve, and she
is running.
So Seiya and Naru, crack ship that it is, stuck in my head last night. This resulted.
Summary:
Following Naru’s break up with Umino, Usagi decides to set her up with a certain friend from another planet. After a rocky start, can these two get along?
Note/warning: this story follows the anime canon, and also establishes Seiya as a trans boy.
Oneshot, 1730 words
You can read on AO3, or below the cut.
“It wasn’t… it wasn’t a bad break up; it wasn’t a fight or anything. It was just, you know, time.”
Usagi nodded solemnly, but of course she didn’t really know. She had something too time-defying to know. Naru was still waiting for the details, but she knew enough to see that Mamoru was a permanent fixture.
She picked the berries out of her ice cream and ate them one by one. “It’s strange more than anything. It’s been a long time since I was single.”
“Well, then we’ll find you someone new!” Usagi licked the last of her ice cream off her spoon. Naru pushed her dish towards her, and she wasted no time gulping it down. “I know! I’ve got a friend coming to visit, and they also went through heartbreak recently.”
“Usagi, I’m not heartbroken, I told you—“
“Yeah, yeah.” Usagi stood up from the booth and raised her spoon in the air like a beacon. “I will absolutely make you feel better! Operation Naru’s New Love begins now!”
Naru laughed in spite of herself. However much high school and being Sailor Moon had changed her, Usagi was still Usagi.
“Or maybe… it begins after I finish this ice cream.”
****
She wasn’t sure what to expect. The thing about Usagi was that she could be friends with anyone. Would this person be someone she met at school? An ally? Or… a reformed enemy? Naru’s heart skipped a beat and she hugged her arms around herself. Usagi would know not to do that, right? It wouldn’t matter how different this person was, it would still be too much, even years later.
She took a breath and smoothed out her blouse. She could trust Usagi. She absolutely trusted Usagi.
“Naru-chan!”
Usagi bounded up to her, arms swinging almost as wildly as her pigtails. “You look nice! Are you excited?”
“I guess I am.” Chances were nothing would happen, and she’d done her best to keep that in mind. She didn’t even want someone new yet, not really. But here she was. Her anticipation wasn’t something she could deny. “But where…”
Usagi looked around wildly. “They’re not… They were with me a minute ago!” She took a deep breath. “Seiya!” Another. “Seeeeeiyaaaaa!”
“Calm down, dumpling.”
They rounded the corner with an all-too-composed grace. Sunglasses obscured half their face, and they casually flipped their bangs off them as they approached. Naru couldn’t tell if they were a boy or a girl, but she definitely knew they were annoying.
“You disappeared. I thought—“
“No scary monster grabbed me, don’t worry.” They patted her head.
“No, you were just trying to make sure you looked cool,” Naru mumbled.
Seiya blinked down at her. Beneath their sunglasses, their eyelashes were noticeably long. “You’re Naru then?”
“Yes.”
“Ahhh! I didn’t introduce you! Seiya, this is Naru, my very best friend. Naru, this is Seiya, my… my other good friend.”
Seiya laughed. “Way to make me feel good, dumpling.”
“Oh! Seiya was in the Three Lights! You know the Three Lights, right Naru?”
“I guess. They weren’t very popular at my school,” she said, entirely to see Seiya’s face drop. They’d been extremely popular—she’d bought their albums and had managed to get into one of their concerts—and now that she thought about it Seiya did look familiar. Not exactly like the band member, though. Something about their face and build was different.
“You’re just saying that.”
Naru shrugged. “Maybe they were more popular than I realized. I always pay more attention to girl musicians than boy bands.”
A cocky grin spread across Seiya’s face. “We’re not a boy band anymore.”
“Yeah, you broke up.”
The grin disappeared. “We didn’t break up!”
“Well, you aren’t making music anymore.”
“Not here.”
“Stop, stop.” Usagi took Naru’s hands. “Seiya is very annoying when you first meet him—“
“Hey!”
“But please give him a chance! He’s really nice!” She turned to Seiya. “And Naru is one of the best people in the world, I promise!” She clapped her hands in front of her face. “Please go to dinner together!”
Seiya sighed. “I can’t say no to you, dumpling.”
“I’ll go, Usagi, but you’re going to hear about this later.”
“I hope so!”
“Not good things.”
Usagi pouted. “You don’t know that yet.”
“Fine, fine.” Naru looked to Seiya. “Let’s go to the Crown. No sense wasting much money.”
“I’m a pop star. I don’t worry about money.”
“Former pop star.”
Seiya glowered.
****
“So then. How do you know dumpling?” Seiya draped themself over their full side of the booth, one arm slung over the back, head tilted to the other side. It was the most measured casual slouch Naru had ever seen.
“We were in the same school until high school.” She sipped her tea. “And you?”
“Same high school. Among other things.”
“You mean you’re one of her allies.”
“So you do know. Dumpling didn’t say.”
“Of course I know. You can’t be best friends and not notice that the girl fighting monsters all the time is her.”
“That makes things easier then,” Seiya said, but their body tensed. “I’m from a different planet. That’s why the Three Lights aren’t making music here anymore.”
“God, shut up about the Three Lights.” Naru put her face in her hands. “Only Usagi would set me up with an alien.”
“Hey, you’re just as much an alien to me as I am to you,” they growled.
Naru peaked up. They looked genuinely upset this time, even though the sunglasses they’d refused to take off. “I suppose that’s true.” She looked at them for a long moment. “Is that why look you look different now?”
Seiya laughed. “You are a fan. I knew it.”
“If you weren’t so arrogant I would have admitted it,” she mumbled.
“I can see why you and dumpling are friends.” Seiya slid into a more natural position and rested their head on their hands. “But yeah. Things work differently on my planet. We were only ever a boy band here.”
“Then what are you?”
Seiya smiled. “Well, I think I’m still probably a boy by this planet’s roles, but Taiki and Yaten not so much.”
“What is your planet like?”
He shrugged. “It’s not so different from here. Just warmer, and magic stuff is less on the down low, and there’s more genders.”
“More?”
“You think in the whole universe there’s only two?”
“I hadn’t thought about it.”
Seiya laughed. “I hadn’t either, until we came here. It’s a strange difference.” He stared at her for a long moment. Alongside the intensity there was a vulnerability Naru didn’t expect. “Does it bother you?”
“Does what bother me?”
“Me being a boy without the same body as before?”
“Why would that bother me?”
Seiya smiled. “Because sometimes your planet is strange that way.” He paused, and then took his sunglasses and set them on the table. “You know, I haven’t even talked about this with dumpling.”
“She won’t care.”
“I didn’t think so. But that’s still not the same as talking about it.”
Naru stirred her tea. “I think I can understand that.” She let her eyes meet his for a moment. “You know, she’d never actually told me she’s Sailor Moon.”
Seiya held her gaze for a long beat. “I’m sorry.”
She shrugged. “There are worse things.”
“There are.”
There was an understanding she’d hadn’t expected. Maybe she should have, if he was a soldier, but Usagi had never shown it. She almost asked who he’d lost, but stopped herself. The specifics didn’t much matter right now. She put one hand down on the table between them. He did the same, close enough for her feel the warmth of his skin but not overlapping hers. She wondered if he wanted her to move her hand to touch his. She wondered if that was what she wanted.
“Which one of you had the hamburger?”
They both jumped. Seiya withdrew his hand and nodded up at the waiter. “That’s me.”
The waiter set their plates down. “Enjoy your meal.”
They ate in silence for a long while. It wasn’t quite uncomfortable, although there was an unmistakable tension when they met each other’s eyes. Naru started asking questions just to fill it. Did his planet have high school? Not exactly. He did his best to explain how things worked. Then he asked about earth since despite living there for months he still didn’t understand. Naru started explaining how different countries did it differently, then realized she had to back up and explain that there were multiple countries. That raised the question of how they spoke the same language when not even everyone on her planet did, and that led into speculation that turned towards the ridiculous. They laughed too much to continue eating.
“I think,” Naru said with a smile as she pushed her plate away, “that I like you more than originally planned.”
“Dumpling will be glad to hear that.”
“And you?”
He leaned back with a grin. “I expected it.”
She balled up her napkin and threw it at him. “I take it back.”
He laughed. “Nope, it’s out there, you can’t pretend to hate me now.” He put money on the table for the bill. “Ready to go?”
Outside, Naru set them on track towards her house.
“I will say,” Seiya said, “that this was a better idea than it seemed at first.”
“Usagi will be glad to hear that.”
He smiled down at her. “Yeah, I’ll tell her how into me you are.”
“That’s a stretch.”
“Well, maybe I’ll wait to say that until after our next date.”
“Don’t you live on a different planet?”
“I can teleport, so that doesn’t much matter.”
“Oh.” She glanced him over, her cheeks slightly warm. “Then I guess we can try this again. You are kind of cute.”
“Kind of cute?” He crossed his arms. “I’m offended.” He looked down at her. “But I guess I’ll come back anyway. You are kind of pretty.”
“Such charm.” Naru turned to him as they came to her house. “It was nice meeting you.”
“That’s a little formal, don’t you think?”
She smiled. “That’s appropriate for a first date.”
“Earth people are weird.”
“Goodnight, Seiya.” She paused at her door and turned back. “Next Saturday, six o’clock.”
“Got it.” He grinned. “Sleep tight, earthling.”
“Shut up,” she said, but she smiled back.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
So I know I mentioned a while ago that the idea of Venus in place of Moon in the first arc has been eating at my brain.
I started writing.
I hope you enjoy.
Pretty Guardian Sailor Venus – Chapter 1 – sittingoverheredreaming [Archive of Our Own]
I went to my parents’ grave. I didn’t know if I’d get a second chance to do so.
Makoto has something she wants her parents to know.
Word Count: 559
This scene has been at the back of my mind for ages, and I finally got it out. I hope you enjoy.
“Hi mom. Hi Dad.” She puts the picture she keeps in her wallet in the grass between her gravestones. The creases are too deep to unfold completely anymore, but that’s okay. The two crinkly white lines converge on her nine-year-old face so that if she doesn’t look closely, it’s like it’s just the two of them. It’s more like she’s really talking to them if she can’t see herself. “I’m sorry I haven’t visited for awhile. I’ve been busy.” Her fingers pull her skirt along her thighs. “I… I’m actually a soldier of justice. A magical girl like in the stories you used to read me.” She takes a deep breath. She aches to know their reaction. None of the others have told their parents, but surely, surely hers would have been understanding enough to know. “You always told me to be strong, Daddy, and I am. I’m strong enough to fight monsters and pull lightning down from the skies. But I worry that’s not eno…”
She shakes her head. “That’s not what I wanted to talk to you about. I want to make sure you know about my friends.” Another picture comes out, a photo strip with an English phrase written across the top. Minako said it meant “hot babes,” but Ami said it meant “friends forever.” Their five faces crowd into each panel. “That one’s Rei. When you’d first meet her, Mama, you’d purse your lips and say, ‘Well, she’s an interesting girl.’ She comes off as a little brash at first, but once you get to know her, you see she’s really got a big heart. You might know her mom. She’s somewhere up there with you.
“And Daddy, Minako would make you laugh. Everything she does is like a performance, even fighting. She’ll be famous someday. She sort of already is. Before any of us found each other, she fought alone…” She shakes her head again. “You’d both love Ami. She’s a genius who gets top scores on all the exams, but she’s the most sweet and modest person you can imagine. She says she’s going to make sure we all get into high school. If you knew us all, you’d know how hard a goal that is.”
She points to the final girl in the pictures, the one who only managed to get her full face into the frame in the last shot. “And that’s Usagi. She’s… she’s the one who found me first. We’re a perfect pair, really, she eats anything I cook and says it’s the best I’ve ever made. A little like you guys used to. We’re supposed to take care of her, but I think maybe she actually takes care of us. But that’s why…” Her fists ball around her skirt. “That’s why we’re going without her. They have Ami, and…”
She shakes her head again and smiles through her watery eyes. “I wish you could meet them so badly, but I don’t want any of them to meet you anytime soon. So I’m going to fight. And we’re going to win.” She carefully folds the pictures back into her wallet. “I just wanted you to know.” One drop of water hits the grass as she stands up. “And I love you.”
SittingOverHereDreaming 