Chapter ?
Seduction
or
“What happens when an irresistible force meets an immovable object?”
by Sparkle
So, anyway, I went to see her. I arranged it very carefully, Minako, agent double-o-eight and a half, that’s me.
I made sure it was a day when Haruka and Michiru would be out all day. I mean, not that that wouldn’t be interesting, too, but…wait, um, that’s not what I…I need to stop writing in pen!
So, anyway, when I heard from Usagi that she and Haruka and Michiru were going to take Hotaru and Chibi-Usa to an amusement park one particular Saturday, I decided that this was the perfect chance! I mean, gotta strike when the hot opportunity knocks on the batter, right?
I knocked and waited, feeling a little nervous. Somehow she managed to startle me when she silently opened the door. I stood there for a second, completely forgetting the lines I had prepared, before swallowing hard and saying, “Hi! I, uh, I just thought I’d stop by because I was around, and, uh, I have something for you and…oh no! I forgot it!” I slapped my forehead, realizing that I’d left behind the pastries that Makoto had helped me make the night before. “Well, if it’s a bad time, I can come back later, but I just thought-”
“No, it’s not a bad time at all, Minako. Won’t you come in?” she said calmly. I thought I saw a smile tugging at her lips for a second, but by the time I was inside I realized I must have been mistaken, since she looked as serious as she always did. “Would you like some tea?” she asked.
“Um…sure! Tea would be great!” I replied. I noticed that two cups were laid out on the table and groaned internally. She had known I was coming!
I settled in across from her and smiled brightly at her as she poured the tea. She glanced up and smiled back. To me, she always seemed transformed when she smiled. Like she was a little more alive, or something…
Anyway, so we drank tea and I relaxed a little. Eventually, I decided I had better tell her the reason I had (ostensibly) stopped by.
“I wanted…I just wanted to thank you,” I said.
One delicate eyebrow curved upward elegantly. “Thank me?”
“For…for what you said. About me being a leader, I mean.” I took a sip of my tea and a deep breath. “I know I’m not there yet, but I’m beginning to understand what all the work, all the training alone was for. It was hard, being the first.”
“You have a great potential, Minako. I am amazed, sometimes, that all of you have done so well, considering that you have had so little training. It is very different from the way it used to be…” She looked across the room, her eyes distant for a moment. Then she turned back to me, and opened her mouth as if to say something else – but instead her eyes grew wide and she stared past me – through me for several seconds.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, alarmed. “Are you alright?” She blinked at me for a moment, and took a breath, and then another. I noticed that her breathing seemed a little ragged.
“Sorry about that, Minako. I, um…sometimes I have visions of the future that are very intense.”
“You saw a vision of the future just now? What did you see?”
“I can’t tell you.” I glared at her. She held up her hands defensively. “I’m sorry, I really can’t!” She picked up the teapot and began to pour herself another cup. A small clinking sound made me look up, and I stared, fascinated. Her hand was trembling as she poured the tea.
She met my eyes and put down the pot. “Usually I can just brush them off, but the more immediate the future, the more intense the vision…” She picked up the teapot. “This is getting cold, I’m going to take it into the kitchen to warm, alright? I’ll be right back. Er…let me refill your cup, as well.” She picked up my cup before I could protest. Funny…she almost seemed to hurry out of the room. I even thought for a second that her color was heightened, but it must have been a trick of the light.
I sat, listening to the sound of tea being poured into delicate china cups, and waited for her to return.
Suddenly, I heard a crash and a curse from the kitchen. After freezing a moment in shock (more at the word that I had just heard coming from her lips than at the crash) I jumped up and ran to the kitchen.
A small lake of hot brown tea was spreading beneath the shattered remains of one of the delicate china tea cups. She was standing on the other side of it, bending over the mess in dismay, and muttering, “…*am* distracted today, I should have seen that coming and used the other cups…” She looked up at me, and her cheeks seemed a little flushed, but that was probably just because she straighted up so quickly and the blood had rushed to her face.
“Are you alright?” I asked.
She gave me a wry grin. “*I’m* alright, but the teacup’s not, unfortunately,” she sighed.
“Don’t worry, I’ll help you clean it up!” I said, reaching down to pick up a large shard.
“No, wait!-” she cried – but she was too late.
“Oh!” I stared at the cut on my finger. “Oops!” I said, and put my finger in my mouth.
It was at this moment that things got a little peculiar. When she didn’t say anything, I looked up at her, only to see her staring at me. Specifically, staring at my mouth. At first I thought she was experiencing another vision, but no, she was definitely looking *at* me. I was so startled that I just stared back at her for a second, and then I slowly pulled my finger out of my mouth. Her eyes widened a little.
“Um, hello?” I said.
She blinked. I thought I saw a hint of a blush on her face, but it was hard to tell. She sounded a little breathless as she said, “You…you should put a band-aid on that, you know.”
“Oh, it’s just a little cut. It’s nothing.” I assured her.
She nodded. “Still, it’s better to be safe than sorry, right? You wouldn’t want it to get infected or something…”
She stopped, seeing I was grinning at her. “Will it get infected? Can’t you tell me?” I asked.
Without a word she took my hand lightly in her own and stared down at my finger. For a moment her eyes became unfocused, and then she closed them and frowned with concentration.
My whole arm began to tingle.
Suddenly her eyes flew open and she dropped my hand as if it had burned her. She stared right at me, a shocked look on her face.
“What’s the matter?” I cried. “Is it going to get infected after all?”
She stared at me blindly. This time I could tell that she was definitely blushing. “Infected?” she asked blankly. “Oh! That! Um…no, no it won’t get infected…as long as we put a band-aid on it right away!” And with that, she fled the room.
I waited for her to return, puzzling over her unusual behavior. This wasn’t quite how I had anticipated this day going.
* * *
She took long enough that I started to get a little worried about her. Normally she isn’t the kind of person you could ever worry about…she comes across as the most self-sufficient of all of us. But today she’d been acting so distracted…
I looked down at the tiny cut on my finger, wondering what she had seen that had startled her so much. Maybe, I thought, maybe it *was* going to get infected…and it was going to get into my blood…and they were going to have to cut my arm off! Maybe it would be too late, and I was going to die! And all because of a silly little cut! And she would be wracked with guilt, knowing that the teacup she had broken had started it all…
I ran down the hallway and into the bathroom, where she was standing very still and staring at the contents of the medicine cabinet. “Don’t worry!” I cried, tears in my eyes, “I don’t blame you! It’s not your fault they have to cut my arm off!”
She looked at me and blinked. “What?”
I sniffled. “It’s not your fault! I should have been more careful about picking up the pieces!”
She just stared at me for a moment. “Minako? What are you talking about?”
“Well…you seemed so upset…I thought that maybe it will get infected after all…” I trailed off, watching the most unusual expressions flit across her normally stoic face. First she frowned, then her eyes widened, and then a look of comprehension flooded over her features. And then…she did the oddest thing. She began to laugh! It started as a little giggle, but pretty soon she sat right down on the bathroom floor and laughed until she cried. I was upset at first…I mean, there I was, with my arm ready to be cut off, and she was *laughing* at me! But her laughter was infectious…and before I knew it I was sitting down there with her, roaring with laughter. When things calmed down a little, I asked her, “What’s so funny?” but that just set her off again! You know how it is…
Anyway, *finally* we had laughed ourselves out, and I figured that whatever she had seen couldn’t have been so bad after all. Still, I had no idea what she was so hysterical about.
So she wiped her eyes and said (hicupping a little) “I told you it would be alright,” and with that, she held up a little band-aid.
I blinked at her, and then started to chuckle again…
* * *
You know, that whole incident really did break the icing on the cake…
Eventually we got the band-aid on my finger and stood up. I managed to meet her eyes in the mirror without getting hysterical again, and when I did that, I noticed something else.
“Hey, have you ever thought of doing something different with your hair?” I asked.
She just stared at me and raised an eyebrow. “Well…I *have* had a lot of time to experiment with it.” I slapped my forehead. “I just think that this style suits me the best. And it’s easy to care for,” she said calmly.
I continued to look at her reflection in the mirror thoughtfully. “I know…I know that you must have tried every possible style for it, but…” I gulped, “Maybe you could let me try doing something with it sometime? I’m pretty good with long hair.”
This, if I do say so myself, is an understatement. I’m great with long hair. I have some experience, you see.
Anyway, so, she looked thoughtful for a minute, and then, I swear, she turned bright red (and with skin as dark as hers, that’s not an easy thing to do!) But she just shrugged, and grinned, and said, “Sure. Why not?”
So that’s how we ended up in her room, her in front of an antique dressing table with a big mirror, and me brandishing a hairbrush with a mother-of-pearl handle and cackling evily…on the inside anyway. I was cool as a kumquat on the outside.
We tried a lot of styles. Some of them were gorgeous, and some of them were hilarious. Like when we put her hair up in odango…Oh, wait, forget I wrote that! I wasn’t supposed to say anything about that…um, so, uh, anyway…
Well, finally, we got her hair up in a style that looked just beautiful on her. It was swept up off her neck and piled atop her head in an extremely classy way, and held in place with a gorgeous comb (also made with mother-of-pearl).
I turned her around and asked her what she thought. She smiled at her reflection and caught my eye in the mirror. After a moment she said softly, “I love it. It’s beautiful.” Her eyes held mine in the mirror.
For some reason, I felt my heart speeding up.
Still holding my eyes, she added in a voice just a trifle husky, “Thank you, Minako…” she trailed off, her voice hardly more than a whisper.
My breathing quickened a trifle.
“Um…” I tore my eyes away, looking down. I was sure I was blushing. Glancing down was a mistake, though, because I found myself looking at her neck, at the long expanse of impossibly smooth skin that was exposed now that her hair was away from it. Unthinkingly, I let my eyes roam over it, exploring it. There wasn’t a single blemish or flaw. I wondered if she had ever had a zit in her life.
When I realized I had been staring, I looked up again, ready to apologize – but I stopped. She wasn’t watching me watching her, in fact, her eyes were closed.
And her head was tilted ever-so-slightly to the left, leaving the right side of her neck open, vulnerable, tempting…
Well, I’m only human.
I looked at her neck again, fascinated. My head leaned in towards it, as if magnetically drawn. A second…an eternity…passed when my breath barely brushed her skin. Still she sat, her eyes closed, and gave no sign that she felt me.
I couldn’t resist. My lips touched her skin on that exact spot where her neck met her shoulder. Another second passed.
A sigh escaped her lips. A long, soft sigh, as though she’d been holding her breath for her entire life, waiting for this moment. I trailed my lips up her neck, and touched her earlobe, breathing into it very, very softly.
I noticed goosebumps appearing on her arms.
I became bolder. I slipped my arms around her waist and up underneath that little jacket she always wears. The red blouse beneath it was silky, and I reveled in the feel of it under my fingers. My hands slipped upwards, over her breasts, her nipples hardening at my barest touch. She moaned, just a tiny moan, but it made me look up…
…and I saw our relfections in the mirror.
It was…incredibly erotic. I slid my fingers downward again, watching her face, her expressions as I did so.
“Minako…” she sighed.
“Mmmm?” I said. My mouth was busy teasing kisses down the other side of her neck.
“Ah…wa-…ah…wait…” I could hear the unwillingness in her voice. She didn’t *really* want me to stop. She gasped as my hands finally found their way up underneath that lovely, silky blouse.
“Why?” I whispered, directly into her ear. She sucked in her breath.
“Beca–ah…becah…sssse…” I flicked my fingers over the hard knots of her nipples, feeling her skin through the lace of her bra. She writhed at my touch. “Mmmmmm…Minako…I–I–” I pinched them, gathering lace and nipple together, and she stopped trying to talk.
“You what?” I said softly, and nibbled on her ear again.
She pulled away from me, up and out of the chair. She turned to face me. Her face was flushed, her blouse, no longer tucked in, stuck to her skin. Her hair was still up, but a few strands had come loose, and hung softly around her face.
She was a beautiful sight.
When she caught her breath, she said, “Minako, I don’t know what you’re…expecting, but I haven’t done this in a long time. A really long time. A really, really, really long time.”
I think it was the last “really” that got me. Of course I asked the only logical question.
“How long?”
She shrugged, and then shivered. Clearly even that small movement incited sensations in her sensative breasts. “I kinda…swore off awhile back. After a time, one loses track of the centuries…” she trailed off, looking uncomfortable.
I just stared at her, unable to imagine it, unable to fathom it. I’d never really thought about how long she’d been around, what she’s gone through…or if I did, it was only in terms of experience…think of all the things she’s *done*! Living all that time, getting to try everything…
Now, as I stared into her eyes, for the first time the full weight of her burden hit me. Living, yes, but living while others died, while the world changed around her. Experiencing, yes, experiencing and experiencing again until all has been experienced, until it seems like there is nothing new left to experience…only variations on a theme, recycled experiences…
Unable to die, unable to forget, holding on, waiting for the one to come and living for that…only for that, and for no other reason. I reeled as for a moment the full weight of her centuries fell upon me. And then I looked into her eyes again and I saw something else. Reborn desire, and, as at the bottom of Pandora’s box…
I saw hope.
“Well,” I said, moving forward and still holding her eyes with mine, “Let’s not let that really, really, really long time get any longer, then, shall we?”
And I saw something else light up her eyes.
* * *
I knew that I would have a lot to live up to. But I didn’t care. I had an advantage over those phantoms of the past. I mean, I *am* the Goddess of Love, after all…
Besides, I’m the kind of person that lives in the present. I don’t dwell on the past or worry about the future, for both will take care of themselves, one way or the other. I always try to live in the now, eking every possible drop of flavor from life. I think, because of this, I was just what she needed. And somehow, I had known that. Perhaps in some way, she had, too.
Well, enough of this talk. I know, you wanna hear about what happened next, right? Hmph, I’m tempted not to tell you…
Except I can’t help it. Alright, so here’s what happened next…
* * *
As I said, I moved towards her as I spoke. I think, in that moment, that I managed to do the impossible. I think I actually surprised Sailor Pluto. Even as I finished speaking I reached up and pulled her lips down to meet mine.
Her eyes widened for a moment, and then she gave herself entirely to the kiss. As soon as our lips touched, and my skin began to tingle. It started at the point of contact and spread throughout my body. The area between my legs began to throb with a steady and not unfamiliar rhythm. I brushed my fingers along the back of her still-exposed neck, and she shivered. Keeping my lips on hers, I trailed my fingers down her chest. She moaned softly. I could feel the sound against my lips, and I nearly lost control myself at that point. Instead, I took advantage of the slight parting of her lips to touch my tongue, very lightly, against hers.
It was electric.
I have no idea how long we kissed, but I finally pulled away and suggested mildly that she divest herself of that ridiculous jacket. From the speed with which she removed it, I would say that she was more than happy to comply!
Somehow, we were on the bed. I slipped a hand up a pantyhose clad leg, enjoying the feel of skin and fabric against my hand. She did the same to me, except that I wasn’t wearing panyhose, a fact which seemed to delight her. I pushed her shoulders into the pillow and kissed her hard, holding her in place using the sheer leverage of my body. She responded by pulling me directly on top of her, holding me in place against her body. This time *I* groaned, feeling heat shoot through my body as she pressed up against me. She grinned at me then, an almost feral grin, but I just grinned back and began nipping at her neck.
Finally I got the damn blouse off her and pulled down the lacey bra. Her skin was so incredible…like mocha-colored silk. Her nipples were darker, flushed and erect at the sudden exposure. She arched back uncontrollably as my mouth found one target and my hand another. I ran my tongue lightly over the little knot of flesh, teasing her, marveling that touching such a small bit of skin could elicit such sounds from a grown woman. I stopped marveling…or thinking at all, really, when her hands reached down and found targets of their own. But just before I lost myself to sensation entirely, I remember thinking, I *knew* this was a good idea…
Pantyhose are all very well, but I wanted more of her. I wanted to touch every inch of her, feel each centimeter of her skin with hands, my lips, my tongue. I drew them off gradually, breathing against her inner thighs as I went, which made her groan and open her legs to me as far as her skirt would let her. I trailed my hands down her legs as I freed them from the confining fabric, leaving goosebumps in my wake. When her legs were free I decided that I hadn’t spent enough time on her arms, so I captured one and began stroking it, from shoulder to fingertip. I kissed her palms and ran my thumbs over them lightly. She groaned. Her body twisted of its own accord, arching upwards and silently begging for release.
I took my sweet time helping her get the skirt off, and when she finally lay there, completely naked, I sat back on my heels and just stared at her for a moment.
“Well?” she said softly, looking at me through half-lidded eyes. “Do you like what you see?” Slowly, I nodded, unable to speak.
When I did get my voice back, though, the first thing I said was, “Let me show you how much I like it…”
After that there was no more talking for a long time, just the sounds of our breathing, and sudden gasps and cries.
* * *
Several hours later, we were awoken by the sound of a key tunring in the front door’s lock.
“Oh no!” I whispered. “They’re home!” I heard steps back and forth, and then a cry. “Setsuna! Setsuna, are you alright?” Hurrying steps from the kitchen to the door to her room. I pulled the covers over my head and hid. A quick knock on the door, and then it opened before she even had time to respond. I heard Michiru’s voice again, muffled through the blankets. “Setsuna, there’s a broken teacup in the kitchen and cold tea on the floor…did something happen?”
Setsuna’s voice responded, “Oh! The teacup! I forgot!”
Michiru’s voice was still concerned: “This is very unlike you, Setsuna…are you alright?”
“Yes…yes, I’m fine, don’t worry,” Setsuna positively giggled, and I rolled my eyes. Oh no, that won’t make them suspicious at all…
Another voice came from the direction of the doorway, “Oho, what do we have here? What did you do to your hair, Setsuna?” I could feel her tensing beside me.
“Oh, um…I, uh…”
I could hear the voice coming closer. “It’s spread out over your pillow here…but why do I see gold streaks in it?”
“Haruka, wait!”
The cover was pulled off of me part way, and I blinked in the sudden light, looking straight into the grinning face of one Tenoh Haruka. “Good afternoon, Minako. Nice day, isn’t it?” Her grin grew wider as Setsuna sputtered and I blushed, sitting up and pulling the cover back up enough so that I was decent. She sighed. “I’m so hurt! You guys got together and didn’t invite us?”
I hadn’t thought it was possible to blush anymore. But I looked her in the eye and said calmly, “Well, *I* wouldn’t mind…”
Haruka chuckled and looked across at Setsuna, who was still struggling to regain her composure. She clearly threw her back off balance when she said softly, “I’m glad.”
Setsuna looked down. “Haruka. I–” She stopped and looked up, her eyes growing wide and distant.
“Setsuna!” I said, alarmed. “Is it another vision?”
She blinked a few times and then focused on me, and then Haruka, and then Michiru, (still standing in the doorway with her hands on her hips) and then back to me. Then she did the oddest thing!
“Oh no!” she groaned, and pulled the covers right over her head.
* * *
I don’t know why I’m writing to you about this…well I do, in a way. I always liked you and thought you were cute, as I’m sure you knew. But of course, you were taken, right from the start, and I was always jealous. Now that you know about us all, I can have my revenge. I hope you *really* liked my story. Maybe you can even show it to your girlfriend!
* * *
Motoki groaned as he came to the end of her letter. Three more hours before he got off work! And now he was all…That little minx!
The bell on the door jangled and he looked up quickly. A lovely red-head stepped into the arcade. “Hi, love,” she said, smiling sweetly at him. “I thought I’d come surprise you at work!” She gave him a quick peck on thecheek and noticed the letter he held in his hand. “What’s this?”
“Uh…..”
The End…so far
Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon © Takeuchi Naoko, Bandai Visual, Kodansha, etc.
Original situations and characters, J. Marcus