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Time Dance II
Title: Time Dance
Authors: Dark Puck and LexKixAss
Fandom: Sailor Moon (with hints of The Dresden Files)
Rating: PG-13 to be safe
Genre: Mahou Shoujo/Romance
Summary: As he lives out the life of a normal human, Saffir, now Orimoto Satoshi, encounters Aino Minako, Sailor Venus. If he isn't careful, she'll figure out who he is and kill him -- and yet he is drawn to her, and her to him... (Backstory for Time Warp)
After a good fifteen minutes of trying to understand what, exactly, the geometry text was endeavoring to get her to do while also struggling to mesh the book with what ever-patient Ami-chan was trying to explain, Minako pleaded for a break. "My brain hurts," she whined before putting her forehead to the pages. At least the paper was cool to the skin?
Ami sighed and was silent for a moment, most likely thinking. After a few seconds, she asked, "Here, let's try it another way. Say that you're this point right here," she lifted Minako's head off the book and tapped the point she meant, "and these three other points are youma." She tapped each of them in turn. "How would you use your whip to get all three of them at once?"
Minako tucked some loose strands behind her ear as she reexamined the points with a shift in her focus. They weren't arranged evenly (one was considerably farther back) but if they were all on level ground and barring extraneous factors like terrain (assume a warehouse), and if she scaled down the distance and considered her own range with her whip... The answer clicked and she rattled it off with seemingly little effort, then paused at Ami-chan's nod of approval. "Oh," she said sheepishly. "Thanks."
Ami smiled at her. "All it takes is a shift in perspective sometimes." A light flush crossed her cheeks and passed just as quickly as it appeared. "Now, this problem..."
Minako struggled not to groan. She succeeded, thankfully, and flicked a finger against her own forehead with a mental command to focus. Even if it meant thinking it of in terms of her and youma, if she could. She really had been in the Senshi business for much too long.
A long shadow fell over the two of them. "Mathematics, Minako-san? I didn't know the apocalypse was scheduled for today."
Ami blinked and looked up at the tall brunet who had joined them. "A friend of yours, Minako-chan?"
Minako looked up as well, and gave Satoshi a pained smile. "No, the apocalypse is scheduled for tomorrow, when my homework's due. Unless we count next week's test. And yes, he's a friend," she added for Ami's benefit. "Satoshi-kun, this is Mizuno Ami. Ami-chan, this is Orimoto Satoshi."
She hadn't felt his emotions ripple like that in quite some time, but his face again showed no hint of what lay under the surface. "A pleasure, Mizuno-san," he said, bowing.
"Nice to meet you, Orimoto-san," Ami replied, just as polite. She had gone slightly pale, which meant this close, she sensed the darkness as well -- in recent weeks, the sense of power emenating from Satoshi had fallen drastically, so that she and Artemis had to be close to pick it up.
Minako gave a little wave that Ami would hopefully interpret as It's all right in regards to Satoshi. And she wished she was as good at concealing her emotions as he was. "What are you up to?" she asked him.
He gave one of his little careless shrugs. "Not much. I was taking a walk and saw you, so I figured you'd appreciate it if I came by to say 'hi'." He settled down in one of the chairs at their table. "Oooh, spatial geometry."
"Yes, another bane of my existence. Happily, Ami-chan here is good at explaining things." So saying, Minako gave Ami a one-armed hug.
"M-Minako-chan!" Ami flushed. "All it takes is the proper context..."
Satoshi laughed. "Some people handle numbers better than others. Minako-san has plenty of talent outside numbers."
Now Minako blushed a little at the compliment. "Too bad they can't help me more here," she smiled. She was glad that he came by. Not that she didn't appreciate Ami and all her wonderful help, but it was just nice to see him. Oh, stop kidding yourself, her mental voice chided. You've a crush on him and you know it. Her crushes were beyond count, and almost always amounted to nothing. But she wasn't being fickle, damn it.
"I think you'd be surprised," he said, looking amused as he interlocked his fingers and rested his chin on them. His blue eyes drifted down to her work, and his smile widened. "And it looks like you're almost done, here?"
Ami looked from Satoshi to Minako and blushed even harder.
"I've got a few more problems left," Minako was saying as she pushed the book towards Satoshi so he could see better what she was working on. And also kicked Ami's foot under the table.
He leaned over to see them, and his eyebrows flicked upward briefly before he pushed the book back. "Should be fun. If you like, when you're finished, I'll take both of you for tea. My treat."
Ami flushed again. "I'm afraid I can't, Orimoto-san," she said apologetically. "I've already made plans for the afternoon."
"That stinks. I'm free, soon as we're done," Minako said.
"I can wait," Satoshi said with a grin.
Ami coughed, trying to regain her composure, and patiently walked Minako through the last few problems.
Unfortunately, with Satoshi around, continuing on the problems meant she couldn't use the youma examples out loud. She was able to sometimes convert the problem in her head, and it showed in the speed in which she was able to solve the problem. When she and Ami did finish, she happily slammed the book shut.
"...What?" she asked after they both flinched.
"N-nothing," Satoshi said, regaining his composure. Deep, emotional pain lashed out from him briefly, but his face, as usual, betrayed no sign of it.
Ami, however, scolded her friend lightly about abusing her books.
Minako puzzled inside over Satoshi's emotional pain while outwardly protesting that they were her books and anyway, she would be selling them back at the end of the semester.
"Yes, and the better condition that they're in, the more you'll get back for them," Ami pointed out. "And that's if they take them back at all; colleges will change textbooks very inconveniently."
"Fine, fine," Minako conceded with only a small amount of grumbling. "I'll be nicer to them."
Ami smiled at her. "That's all I ask," she replied, then checked her watch. "And I need to get going. I'll see you later, Minako-chan."
"Take care, Ami-chan~!" Minako grinned back, then started putting her books and stuff back in her bag.
"It was nice to meet you, Orimoto-san," Ami said, bowing to Satoshi.
He returned it. "And you, Mizuno-san."
Ami gave Minako a quick hug, then walked away.
"Doesn't it feel weird sometimes, realizing you're in college?" Minako wondered aloud. "There are days when I feel I should be back in high school. Then something will remind me that life's so much better when you're an adult. And so: tea?"
"Tea is the cure-all," Satoshi said with a laugh, offering her his arm. "And I don't really feel the same. I got out of high school as fast as I possibly could."
She slung her bag onto her shoulder, then took the proffered arm. "I don't blame you." Her high school years had been turbulent enough. Junior and senior years had been relatively calm, except for preparing for the college entrance exams. "And tea is definitely the cure-all."
Current Location: my bed
Current Music: Heavyweights
Tags: fanfic, sailor moon, time dance
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