Lawkeeper Chapter 6
*sighs* Archiving old fics suck. Forget formatting and italics and so forth, the idea here is to get them up.
Lawkeeper Chapter 6
Idly Darien stirred the dregs of his coffee with the plastic spoon and absently blew a lock of his black hair out of his eyes.
“Hey, Dare, are you all right?” Andy’s voice broke into the brooding man’s preoccupation.
Darien looked up at his blonde friend and blinked. It was a couple of moments before he realised that he had been asked a question. He forced himself to gather his scattered wits and respond. “Fine, I’m fine Andy.” Andrew frowned sceptically and Darien sighed. “Honestly, I’m perfectly okay,” he insisted.”
“Whatever you say,” Andrew surrendered and cleared the counter of Darien’s cup and spoon.
“Hey Andy...” Darien started several moments later.
His friend looked up, from where he was now polishing the counter, to Darien attentatively. Darien grimaced and quickly glanced around the fruit parlour. Because it was a weekday, it was deserted until three when school let out. Since his sister Lizzie was still in high school, Andrew had been conned into working by his father when the regular staff had fallen ill. No one was in there and so no one would hear what Darien was about to ask his friend.
“You know Bunny pretty well don’t you?”
Andrew nodded. “Yeah, why?”
Darien winced and asked, “Could you tell me a bit about her?”
“Sure,” Andy answered and paused. “You haven’t got a thing for her, have you?” he questioned anxiously, “Because the two of you will not work, trust me-”
“Whoa!” Darien held up his hands to slow his friend down. “Me and the Meatball Head? You’re kidding, I hope! If not, then I’d say you are obsessed with pairing me up with someone.”
Andrew breathed a sigh of relief. “Good. Not that you wouldn’t make a good couple, mind you. It’s just that you aren’t right for each other-”
“Andy...”
“Yeah?”
“Will you please shut up about my love life and tell me more about the Meatball Head?”
“Oh sure.” He paused to think for a moment. “Like what?”
Darien looked at his friend and let his confusion show. “Tell me about what she’s really like. Sometimes she’s such a baby and other times she’s... she’s so strong. I don’t get it.”
“Ahhh,” Andrew breathed in understanding. “The way she’s been goofing about has been confusing you. Well Bro, believe me when I say that you mustn’t judge her by appearances. You were right when you said that she was strong. She looks frail but she’s the strongest person I know. She can do things that would be impossible for anyone else.
“She feels her responsibilities very keenly and her loyalty is absolute. She has a heart that can encompass galaxies and although she can be a soft touch, she’s also an avid believer in justice. What else do you want me to tell you? She has one brother and is very close to her parents even though she has never met her father face to face. While she’s here, she’s been staying with a foster family whom she’s come to love as much as her own. She’s brilliant, even if she doesn’t act it, and you’ll probably find that she knows as much as we do about science. She loves to dance and is the most graceful person I’ve ever known and that includes Rita. She has a keen sense of mischief yet is never malicious. She makes friends easily but she’s the loneliest person I know. That’s why I’m trying to set you up. I don’t want you to know how that feels. The only other thing that I can tell you is that she’s the only person I’ve ever met that’s as stubborn as you are.”
“You make her sound like the perfect woman,” Darien said, trying to inject some levity into the suddenly serious conversation. “I wonder why she hasn’t stolen you off Rita.”
Andrew snorted. “Did I mention that she was stubborn? Seriously, I’ll never be able to think of her as anything other than a sister. Even if I could, Rita is my soul-mate and that means she is the perfect woman... for me anyway.” Suddenly the blonde’s eyes went strangely sad. “If things were different then I would set the two of you up but you’re just not right for each other.”
Darien raised an eyebrow. “Oh? Should I ask why not?”
For a moment Darien thought that his normally honest friend would hedge and that only made his answer all the stranger. In a voice so laden with regret that it was almost unrecognisable, Andrew replied, “She cannot stay and you cannot go. If you were to love her then you would be condemned to lose her without ever having her.”
There was an uncomfortable silence and Darien forced a chuckle to break it. “That’d be the day. Me pining for the Meatball Head... not in this lifetime. No need to go all weird on me Andy.”
Andrew smiled apologetically and the pair wordlessly agreed to drop the topic. “So what have you got lined up for this afternoon Dare?” the blonde asked, “I hope you’re not planning on wasting this beautiful day inside...”
Darien rolled his eyes. “Look who’s talking Mister Sure-I’ll-Do-It-Dad.”
“Hey some people have gotta work y’know,” Andrew protested cheerfully, “Not all of us have got it made like others here.”
Darien looked at him innocently. “I wonder who you’re thinking about.”
“Yeah, I wonder,” Andrew said wryly and Darien smiled smugly.
The bell over the parlour’s door jingled and four girls walked in loudly.
“And so Greg is totally gone on Amy-”
“Lita!”
“Shhh Ames, I want to hear this-”
“He virtually drools whenever she’s in the same room-”
“LITA!”
“You two stop picking on Amy-”
“Thanks Raye-”
“Awwww.”
“Fine, let’s talk about you and Chad-”
“Let’s not-”
“Oh come on Raye, we have plenty of time.”
“Speaking of time, where’s Bunny? Why didn’t she come with you guys?”
Raye’s voice was irritated as the girls seated themselves in a booth near Darien. Andrew made his way over to collect their order.
“She’s going to be late Raye,” Lita replied, “She’s got detention.”
“What!? Why?” It was Andrew who exclaimed, not Raye.
Amy shrugged. “She fell asleep in class.”
Darien wondered why Bunny had even bothered to enrol in school in Tokyo. With luck she wouldn’t be there long enough for it to matter.
“It didn’t help that she yawned in the teacher’s face before she drifted off,” Lita added, “And it’s not like she tried to hide it or anything. I mean she’s pretty loud when she has a bad dream.”
Mina pouted. “It’s not fair, I want to go to your school. You guys have all the fun.”
Raye scowled. “I wouldn’t call a snoring blonde fun.”
Andrew's lips quirked and only Darien caught his muttered, “I can think of a couple of situations where a snoring blonde would be an indication of fun.”
Darien raised an eyebrow and Andrew winked at him, implying all manner of situations which teenage girls should not be a party to. Darien snickered and, when the blonde man had returned to the counter to fetch the girl’s orders, he whispered, “Are you sure that you’re not a letch? Because you really are doing a great impression of one.”
“Bite your tongue,” Andy retorted cheekily, “I’m cut that you would even consider such a ridiculous notion in that thick head of yours.” Darien snorted and Andrew grinned widely, “Why would I want a blonde when I have Rita? Who, by the way, doesn’t snore.”
“Yeah, yeah, actions speak louder than words Bro,” Darien gibed, “And I don’t see you leering at Rita like you do with anything else even remotely female.”
Andrew sniffed in a superior fashion and retorted pompously, “I’ll have you know that only the most outstanding ladies are graced by a leer from me...”
“And Rita?”
Andrew’s lips twitched. “I would if I thought she wouldn’t knock me six ways to Sunday for doing so.”
“Rita’s got to be a witch. What else could make you act like a gentleman with her?” Darien grinned outright and Andrew smiled at the old joke. Darien sighed and stretched before he stood. “I’ll see you later okay Andy? This place is going to be full of kids in a bit and I’m not in the mood for that today. His friend nodded absently, too involved in filling the girls’ orders to pay much attention, and Darien left the fruit parlour.
He strolled down the street musing over the things he’d learned in the last week. His thoughts drifted from Bunny, and the problem she presented to him, to her talk of energy fields and patterns. As he walked, he found he could almost see what she was talking about, or rather feel. It was almost as if he was in the middle of a stream with the current pressing against him and he wondered how he could have missed it before. The sensation was very faint and he almost walked into a pole because he focused entirely on the feeling rather than the real world. Obviously Bunny was a lot more sensitive to the currents. Either that or she’d had a lot more practice... probably both.
That led him to another line of thought: how did she become so good at magic without him or the scouts finding out about it? When they’d fought Beryl, he and Mina had scoured the northern hemisphere for others like themselves who were capable of magic and not once had they found a trace of someone like Bunny. She never told them where she’d come from but it couldn’t have been too far away if she grew up with Andrew. They were very familiar with one another so it couldn’t have been too long ago that they’d separated. But Darien had known Andrew for five years now and his friend had never left Tokyo in that time. Maybe they’d become pen pals, his blonde friend had been in a totally new country, maybe he needed something to help keep him from getting homesick. Then why hadn’t Andrew ever told him about her? Afraid he’d fall in love? Not likely, but the other man was anxious about it apparently. Darien couldn’t really understand. She was nice enough, he guessed, but he wasn’t interested in a relationship.
Of course he’d noticed that Bunny was very attractive and that loveliness was only emphasised by his own, irrational, protective instincts concerning her. Still, he didn’t believe that Andrew had any reason to think that Darien was at all interested in her in anyway. Especially since Andrew didn’t know that his friends were super heroes... or did he? Darien had never told him about his alter ego but Bunny might have told him about hers. Andrew hadn’t said anything about it so she probably hadn’t but the blonde man was unusually understanding of Darien’s sudden absences. Normally Darien was grateful for such tolerance but suddenly it occurred to him to be suspicious of it.
He pondered his friend’s peculiarities for several minutes before he dismissed them. Andrew was his oldest and truest friend. Even if he did know his secret, Darien knew he could trust him. In fact, he might even think about telling the other man willingly, having a man to talk to about being Tuxedo Mask might make things easier on him.
He began to debate the pros and cons of coming clean with his friend when a faint fragrance threw his mind off onto a tangent. For a moment he flashed back to the day at the pool and the similarly scented silver liquid he had discovered on his shoulder. He’d had Amy analyse a sample he had managed to save. She had only been able to perform a rudimentary examination in between the events of the past couple of days and the results had been perplexing. It was a biological substance designed to support life yet was composed of a complex crystal matrix that should not have existed in a liquid state. In other words, it seemed to be the blood of something that wasn’t human. All Amy could suggest was that it had come from one of the Darkmoon droids but the sample had decomposed before she could even hope to make sense of it and Darien was left with a sense of dissatisfaction at the explanation.
Moments later his thoughts were interrupted when a slender shape barrelled into him, hard. He rocked back on his heels and grabbed his attacker while he tried to keep them both on their feet. A second later he recovered his balance and looked down to find that his hands were wrapped around the tiny waist of his bewildering nemesis. Memories of his previous train of thought surfaced and even as he opened his mouth to snap, he compared her personal odour to the smell of the strange blood. He didn’t get to speak a word and his thoughts were scattered as he abruptly recognised her anxiety.
“Thank god!” she burst out, her face pale despite the pace she had obviously been maintaining to hit him with such force.
Her worry was plain in her eyes and it almost seemed as he could feel it himself, so his voice was gentler than it would have been otherwise. “What’s the matter Meatball Head?”
She looked at him in disbelief. “You can’t feel it?” she demanded incredulously and then shook her head in disgust that he knew was aimed at herself not him. Her hands rested on his chest and she looked up at him earnestly. “The energy fields have gone haywire. Whatever the Darkmoon family is up to, they are screwing with the natural order of things. Absolutely everything on this planet is danger. The damage is global-”
His hands tightened and pulled her closer. “Are you sure?” He shook his head. “Forget that, of course you are. What can we do?”
“I don’t know!” she grimaced, “I don’t know what’s causing it and even if I did, I’m not sure I’m strong enough to stop it right now. It’s global and how am I supposed to deal with that like I am now?”
He shook her sharply to calm her down. “Shhh Meatball Head, simmer down. We’ll get Amy. She can find what’s causing it.”
“How?” she asked him, “None of you know what I’m talking about.”
“Don’t underestimate us,” he replied, meeting her sapphire eyes. His lips twitched into a small smile. “We may not have your superior senses but don’t dismiss us out of hand.”
She blushed. “I didn’t mean-”
“Yes you did,” he insisted softly. He was half insulted, half amused at her unconscious arrogance.
She scowled and her hands plucked at his shirt. “I can’t help it if you bring out the worst in me.”
“I do?”
She glared at him. “You’re the only person I’ve ever felt the need to deliberately annoy before.”
“I’m so honoured,” he replied dryly.
“You should be,” was her sour response, “I’m not nice around you and I really don’t like it.”
“My apologies, Meatball Head, for being a bad influence on you.”
She frowned up at him and he resisted the urge to laugh at her comical expression. “Are you making fun of me again?”
“Not this time,” he told her seriously, “I owe you an apology. I haven’t made the situation easy on you.”
“No you haven’t,” she agreed.
He rolled his eyes at her. “What I’m saying, Meatball Head, is that I’m as much to blame for our difficulties as you are and I’m sorry for it. You’re a good kid and I should know better than go off half cocked like I did.”
“Yes,” she murmured with deceptive innocence, “Half cocked is not the way.”
He looked at her then blinked and looked again. “Are you related to Andrew by any chance?” Her eyes widened and, although it didn’t show on her face, he knew she was chagrined.
Whatever she might have said in reply was lost in a sudden gust of wind. Her ponytails whipped around them and his newly discovered sensitivity for energy fields, weak though it was, prompted him to look up at the same time she did. It was small, barely a speck in the sky. He wouldn’t have noticed it if it weren’t for the feeling of evil that it projected.
“What...?” he whispered.
“Darkmoon,” Bunny answered harshly.
He looked down at her in disbelief and was surprised at the outright fury in her face. She noticed him staring at her and wiped her face of expression but he could still feel her shaking with suppressed anger. The force of it practically beat at his temples. She blinked in surprise at something and pulled out of his hold before she looked at him apologetically. Almost immediately the clamour in his head stopped.
She wrapped her arms around herself and shifted uneasily. “The sisters and Rubius don’t come from Earth. That’d be why you haven’t heard of them before. That speck up there is their home which they have dared to bring here.”
“You’re saying that they’re putting a second moon up there?” he asked in growing outrage and she nodded. “But that’ll put the whole planet in jeopardy. The gravitational pull of a second moon... the debris... They’re going to destroy the world!”
She nodded unhappily. “Yeah. It won’t be too long until we start seeing physical manifestations of what’s already happening in the energy fields. We’d better find the others. I don’t think we have much time.” She smiled wryly. “Our truce has come none too soon.”
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