Someone cleared his throat behind her, and she just barely resisted the urge to jump or shriek or even just yelp. She may have started slightly, but that could almost be understood under the circumstances.
It both did and did not surprise her who was in the doorway to her room though. She knew that it had to be one of her boys. That much was obvious. Trunks-kun would have said her name or touched her to get her attention, however, so that had quickly ruled him out. She would have thought Duo-kun, if only because he seemed to be the more outgoing of the pair, but it was Heero-kun instead. He didn't look entirely comfortable being there, so she smiled and asked, "Can I do something for you, Heero-kun?"
And for being as taciturn as he had shown himself to be so far, apparently he was quite adept at putting her on her ease. She certainly hadn't thought anything of adding the honorific to his name. It had been alarmingly easy to do.
He frowned slightly. Well, slightly more than normal, she should perhaps say. "I think this is yours." Somehow his words sounded more... deliberate, which didn't make a lot of sense, even in her own mind. But that wasn't as important as the fact that he was holding out her handkerchief back to her.
"It is, thank you." She glanced down as she accepted it, sticking it into one of her pants pockets, even as she stuck her brooch down into the opposite one. "Is your hand better? It looked like it was scraped pretty bad earlier."
"It's fine." And yeah, that frown was definitely growing. "You speak Japanese?"
She couldn't help it. She actually blinked, twice, hard. "I thought we've been talking in Japanese the whole time."
He shook his head. "I've been hearing it in English. I've been talking in English until just now."
Now that was something she hadn't even considered, and it was something brand new to worry about: that they were all speaking different languages. If they started this assault on the Reapers, all they would have to do would be withdraw whatever spell the creatures had on them all to help them understand one another; everything would turn into utter bedlam.
"But we're talking in Japanese now?" she had to ask.
He nodded. "It's been a while since I've used it, but the '-kun' was a tip-off."
And that was a good point. His first day here, she and Trunks-kun had quibbled over which honorific he was going to use for her. Maybe that meant they were both actually speaking Japanese? It was a small hope at this point.
"Duo doesn't understand it, though. I think he's been hearing and saying everything English also," he continued, though admittedly he looked a little surprised that he was still speaking, as if he hadn't really planned to say anything.
She decided it was best not to say anything on that subject and instead offered a playful grimace and commented, "I've been told that my English is atrocious at best. I don't know where Trunks-kun stands on the matter. Let's hope we can all just keep hearing the same thing, no matter what language we're all speaking."
"How is that even possible?" he muttered under his breath, though just enough that she could hear it.
Meant to hear it or not, she decided to go ahead and answer. "The Reapers, they've been taking powers from most of us when they bring us here. From everything I've heard, you and Duo-kun might be the first ones who have been brought here without some kind of talent or power or kind of magic that they need. They're probably using someone's magic to make it so we can all understand each other." And she was going to politely ignore the snort he made at the word 'magic'... because apparently some of Trunks-kun's politeness was rubbing off on her. "That's my best guess anyway."
"There is no such thing as magic." Well, that was adamant. Admittedly, he didn't sound nearly as certain as it seemed he wanted to, but he was making a definite statement.
"I wish I could get to my powers, Heero-kun," she admitted. "I could show you a thing or two about magic." She added a smile and a wink to the end of the sentence, because by no means was it a threat. Just a promise that once she was Sailor Moon again, everyone around her was going to see magic in a big time way.
And honestly, she couldn't wait.
02 October 2012
You know, I would have thought I'd be completely done with this story by the beginning of October. I'm still working on Chapter 48, though, and it's unreasonably slow going somehow. (Plus, there's work, editing, and other stuff. I haven't given up on finishing the story. And I still stand by my promise that once it's done, I'll post a chapter a day, instead of every other.
See you in the next chapter!
Apollymi