Period 2 Drabbles!
Word of warning: "Tragedy" is not for the faint of heart.
Period 2: Literature
> Books
Words: 471
Author: Lillie Bell
Usagi was feeling really really good that day. So good in fact that a double chocolate strawberry banana milkshake wasn’t even needed. She was so passed that. No way. She was so high on life she didn’t need an ounce of sugar to make it better.
She skipped into the Arcade anyway, though, because it was still a nice atmosphere and Motoki really was cute. Even if he had a girlfriend. But that was okay, too, because Usagi had set her sights on someone a little less… achievable.
And looking across the Arcade at the barest top of black hair peeking above a mound of books, she would definitely call him unachievable today. Yes, Chiba Mamoru was in full study mode. And Usagi, being Usagi, was way too happy to let him think life was all about studying. He’d shown her other milestones that were worth achieving and she wasn’t about to let him forget.
She ordered a milkshake-just chocolate-and plopped down next to him. Well, not really. She had to move another stack of book she’d been using to ward off any visitors first. He barely watched her move his things, but the minute she plopped down, made a tiny space for her milkshake, and got comfortable he turned on her.
“I’m trying to study, Odango.”
Oh, he was grumpy. Her heart fluttered. She loved to bug him when he was grumpy and she was way too happy for this moment to have repercussions.
“Listen, Mamoru,” she started before giving a long draught of her milkshake. That’s okay, she told herself, let him chew on a little frustration because now he’s got to wait for her to finish her thought. Just when he was about to turn red, she dropped the straw from her lips and licked up the milkshake remnants. She didn’t miss how he followed her movements.
“I’m not going to let you sit over here and be Mr. Antisocial. I’ve had a good day and since the girls aren’t here, you’re going to celebrate it with me.”
“Motoki’s here.” He pointed purposefully to the counter that the blond was scrubbing.
Usagi bent over, taking another sip, letting her cold tongue drift against the top, the corner, and the lower lip, before slowing drawing back into her mouth. She made a pouty face though inside she was reeling from his hungry gaze.
She reached for the cherry, but he stopped her.
“I have three tests tomorrow. Calculus, Physics, and Chemistry.”
She made an “Oh” face, but clearly she wasn’t all that concerned. Her knee brushed his and she could feel the heat coming off of him. Her eyebrows rose suggestively.
“I have a test you can help me study for tomorrow night,” he said huskily, his mouth very near to her ear.
“And what’s that?”
“Anatomy.”
> Romance
Words: 248
Author: Lillie Bell
They said it was a “Miracle Romance.” They said it was a love that transcends time. They said they were soulmates.
What they didn’t say is that it would be all it was cracked up to be.
At least, that’s how Usagi felt when Mamoru called three hours ago and told her how sorry he was but he was swamped with appointments and had to cancel their anniversary dinner. At a five star restaurant. That had been planned for three months because that’s how long the waiting list was.
She even had a dress and shoes. She’d decided how she would do her hair three weeks ago (it was no small task, mind you). She had already kindly asked the cats to stay somewhere else tonight.
She’d even bought some lingerie that made her blush. And she’d bought it by herself. Not even Mina would have picked that contraption out.
But, noooo. He had appointments. What were people doing getting sick and needing surgeries and amputations and what have you on HER anniversary?
The last three hours she’d spent returning everything to the stores. No new glitzy gold shoes, no floor length, tightly sewn bodice. Sure, maybe it was a tad bit spiteful. Mamoru was always good at making it up to her later. It’s the one reason she’d kept the lingerie when everything-make-up, to hair supplies, to clothing-had been returned. She would make him pay dearly for this one.
And three days later, she did.
> Classic
Words: 276
Author: Lillie Bell
Usagi whistled loudly, catching the attention of everyone in the Arcade. Her gaze was trained to the door where outside on the street was an vintage Triumph was revving its engine.
Rei covered her ears and complained about the noise. Ami was running a mental diagnostic on the decibel level and, though she would never admit it, comparing it to the recorded values she had for Usagi’s screams. The girl didn’t belong on the decibel level, she was certain. Makoto wasn’t impressed by any of it, really, because this guy who just walked in totally looked like her ex-boyfriend. And her ex-boyfriend never drove a car like that.
“Why must he do that?” Rei complained. “Typical guy has to be all macho.”
Usagi puffed up her chest, as if she could inhale the sound through her nose. She closed her eyes, imagining herself in the passenger seat.
“What a jerk,” Rei stuck her nose up.
“Actually, he’s probably got a set of SU’s in there,” Mamoru piped in from his corner of the counter. Rei immediately latched onto him and started praising him for his immense car knowledge. For his part, Mamoru looked a twinge scared.
“ACTUALLY,” started Usagi with hands on her hips. The light turned green and the car revved itself out of the intersection. “They’re twin cams and he’s got to keep his RPMs up in order to get it going because while they supply a lot more power, they require a lot too.
“If he didn’t rev it up, he’d probably stall out.”
Everyone stared at her.
“How do you know that?”
“Simple,” she turned to Mamoru with a simper. “It’s a classic.”
> Poem
Words: 154
Author: Lillie Bell
I am the terror that flaps in the night…
“Can you believe this guy?”
I am the one for which you have nightmares…
“Oh, that hasn’t been done.”
I am … Darkwing Duck!!
“A duck? Really? A duck? You want me to believe a duck runs around and fights crime? What’s he do, find out what people bring bread to the park but don’t dish out any to his fellow brothren? Does he brandish Shakespeare against ye knaves?
“Come ON, this guy has got to work on his intro lines.”
“Not everybody can jump into the fray at the most opportune moment-letting the rest of us get beat into a pulp just so you can save the day, I might add-say some pretty haiku and save the girl you know.”
Usagi paused and leaned forward, her head disappearing in the dark movie theater.
“And for the record, you’re poems were much worse.”
> Tragedy
Words: 600-ish
Author: Lillie Bell
Usagi had always known the tragedies of her life. She was a reincarnated princess who had committed suicide because of her lover’s death. She was a teenager who innocence was broken the moment she met a black cat with a crescent scar. She was an unwilling warrior when she was Sailor Moon. Her friends and lover fought with her and became fodder for her enemies. All this she knew.
But she also knew there was hope for a future where a pink-haired child would grace her life and she would spend eternity with the man she loved. More tragedies would befall them-wrapped in crystal and corrupted by another man’s lust. But those hurdles, too, she knew she would triumph over. Because she had seen the future.
Because she had seen the future and assumed everything would come to be as was told to her. She had ignored Pluto’s warning not to become complacent because of what they had seen. She had been warned and still she was nothing but content to let the future catch up with her.
Well, Pluto wasn’t around anymore to say “I told you so.” None of them were. They fell during the battle with the Black Moon and Wiseman after he had unexpectedly allied with Chaos. The same Chaos she had been content to spread throughout the galaxy and assume it was too dispersed to cause trouble. But she never stopped to wonder. She just assumed everything was alright.
But nothing was alright. She could see them, the dark armies on the horizon, and she didn’t care. She had the power to wipe them out, to destroy them. But she wasn’t going to. She had buried the ginzuishou beneath her, and there it would stay.
Her tears barely cooled her face as the hot air brushed passed. They were advancing on her in massive numbers. Thousands of soldiers to kill one where months ago ten had stood. Now, only two. One dead, and one soon to be.
She held the bleeding body to her chest, her greatest tragedy. She had thought when Mamoru died she would never be whole again. She had felt his soul ripped from her grasp. It hadn’t felt like the other times, where a small connection had stayed. It had felt like when Galaxia had thrown him into the Cauldron-when he and his soul had completely stopped existing. She had thought she would die that day.
But that was months ago and she still lived. Not for long. She had been holding out with hope for the future. With hope for making everything right again. It would be okay this time, as it had every other time.
She had been so very wrong.
Her dress stuck to her, the blood and fluids from her body soaking into the white linen. The men were close now; she could hear the beating hooves of their horses and the clank of their armor. She could feel them training their arrows on her, their lances poised, swords unsheathed. The mages turned their dark power upon her.
If she died, Chaos would rule and the universe would be destroyed.
She clutched the cold body in her arms, pressing the lifeless infant to her breasts. The milk oozed, but no mouth would suckle those engorged nipples. No laughter would bring her hope. No child would remind her of the husband whose last gift she had nurtured inside her for nine months. She bent over the child and protected its dead body as the weapons rained down upon her.
> Conflict
Words: 218
Author: Lillie Bell
“Usako…” He wouldn’t relent.
“Mamo-chan…” She whined, knowing she’d get her way or kick him out.
“Usako!” He groaned.
“Mamo-chan!” Her toes curled as she looked up at him.
“What we have here is a conflict of interest.” He leaned over the railing. The cold metal pressed against him and cooled him down into a more rational mindset. But only slightly.
“Mamo-chan!” She was starting to slip into oblivion.
“You see, on the one hand.” And to demonstrate, that hand slid down her knee to her thigh, across her sensitive points, and up to her opposite hip. He leaned between her bent legs. “I have you in a very alluring position.”
“Might I add I love the Pussycat panties, Usako. I didn’t know you were such a tease.”
She growled at him again, but was answered by his other hand making a equally maddening sweep of her exposed skin and underwear.
“On the other hand, the gentleman in me is always willing to help a damsel in distress. But first, tell me, please, Usako,” and she did not miss the laughter in his voice, “how you ended up suspended upside-down from the railing on the roof of my neighbor’s apartment? And, while we’re on the subject, just how short is that skirt when it’s the right side up?”
> Essay
Words: 361
Author: Lillie Bell
“Mamoru.” Usagi plopped down in his booth without even asking if he was using the space. He wasn’t, but, when Usagi’s involved, sometimes it’s just better if he was.
She flapped a notepad full of papers down on the counter and started opening them. She sighed dramatically the whole time.
“Look,” she turned to him. “I have to write an essay on some really boring dude. And I figured who else would know stuff about boring people but Mamoru.”
“Hey.”
“Shut it.”
Usagi had come on a mission.
“You’re going to help me with this essay.”
“Odango, if you think I’m going to write this essay, let alone help you in any way to do your homework-which you’ll learn much better if you do it yourself-then you’ve gone completely bananas.”
She turned on the waterworks. “But if I don’t get an A on this essay I’ll flunk out and never be good at anything and never get to go to high school with the girls.”
“Kill the theatrics. I’m not helping.” To prove his point, he pulled out a pair of heavy-duty noise-cancelling headphones. “See?” he said rather loudly. “I’m completely immune to your attempts to make me write your essay.”
She leaned in towards him, he leaned away.
“Oh yeah?” she mouthed, then lifted one of the headphones. Mamoru cringed for incoming eardrum eruption.
“What if I tell your fanclub your favorite hideout in the library?”
His eyes tripled in size. She laid the earpiece back into place and moved to collect her things and step away. He ripped of the headset-much to his chagrin-and grabbed her wrist.
“Who told you?” he growled. Her eyes traced to Motoki’s back so innocently facing them while he helped customers.
“I’ll kill him.”
Just as he was about to jump over the counter and beat his friend with who knows what-an ice cream spoon?-Usagi stopped him.
“Killing him won’t stop the leak of information,” she sang softly.
He paused, turning his murderous gaze towards her. She faced him without fear. Her fingers drummed against the notepad.
“About that essay…” Mamoru began, gently climbing off of the counter.
Period 2: Literature
> Books
Words: 471
Author: Lillie Bell
Usagi was feeling really really good that day. So good in fact that a double chocolate strawberry banana milkshake wasn’t even needed. She was so passed that. No way. She was so high on life she didn’t need an ounce of sugar to make it better.
She skipped into the Arcade anyway, though, because it was still a nice atmosphere and Motoki really was cute. Even if he had a girlfriend. But that was okay, too, because Usagi had set her sights on someone a little less… achievable.
And looking across the Arcade at the barest top of black hair peeking above a mound of books, she would definitely call him unachievable today. Yes, Chiba Mamoru was in full study mode. And Usagi, being Usagi, was way too happy to let him think life was all about studying. He’d shown her other milestones that were worth achieving and she wasn’t about to let him forget.
She ordered a milkshake-just chocolate-and plopped down next to him. Well, not really. She had to move another stack of book she’d been using to ward off any visitors first. He barely watched her move his things, but the minute she plopped down, made a tiny space for her milkshake, and got comfortable he turned on her.
“I’m trying to study, Odango.”
Oh, he was grumpy. Her heart fluttered. She loved to bug him when he was grumpy and she was way too happy for this moment to have repercussions.
“Listen, Mamoru,” she started before giving a long draught of her milkshake. That’s okay, she told herself, let him chew on a little frustration because now he’s got to wait for her to finish her thought. Just when he was about to turn red, she dropped the straw from her lips and licked up the milkshake remnants. She didn’t miss how he followed her movements.
“I’m not going to let you sit over here and be Mr. Antisocial. I’ve had a good day and since the girls aren’t here, you’re going to celebrate it with me.”
“Motoki’s here.” He pointed purposefully to the counter that the blond was scrubbing.
Usagi bent over, taking another sip, letting her cold tongue drift against the top, the corner, and the lower lip, before slowing drawing back into her mouth. She made a pouty face though inside she was reeling from his hungry gaze.
She reached for the cherry, but he stopped her.
“I have three tests tomorrow. Calculus, Physics, and Chemistry.”
She made an “Oh” face, but clearly she wasn’t all that concerned. Her knee brushed his and she could feel the heat coming off of him. Her eyebrows rose suggestively.
“I have a test you can help me study for tomorrow night,” he said huskily, his mouth very near to her ear.
“And what’s that?”
“Anatomy.”
> Romance
Words: 248
Author: Lillie Bell
They said it was a “Miracle Romance.” They said it was a love that transcends time. They said they were soulmates.
What they didn’t say is that it would be all it was cracked up to be.
At least, that’s how Usagi felt when Mamoru called three hours ago and told her how sorry he was but he was swamped with appointments and had to cancel their anniversary dinner. At a five star restaurant. That had been planned for three months because that’s how long the waiting list was.
She even had a dress and shoes. She’d decided how she would do her hair three weeks ago (it was no small task, mind you). She had already kindly asked the cats to stay somewhere else tonight.
She’d even bought some lingerie that made her blush. And she’d bought it by herself. Not even Mina would have picked that contraption out.
But, noooo. He had appointments. What were people doing getting sick and needing surgeries and amputations and what have you on HER anniversary?
The last three hours she’d spent returning everything to the stores. No new glitzy gold shoes, no floor length, tightly sewn bodice. Sure, maybe it was a tad bit spiteful. Mamoru was always good at making it up to her later. It’s the one reason she’d kept the lingerie when everything-make-up, to hair supplies, to clothing-had been returned. She would make him pay dearly for this one.
And three days later, she did.
> Classic
Words: 276
Author: Lillie Bell
Usagi whistled loudly, catching the attention of everyone in the Arcade. Her gaze was trained to the door where outside on the street was an vintage Triumph was revving its engine.
Rei covered her ears and complained about the noise. Ami was running a mental diagnostic on the decibel level and, though she would never admit it, comparing it to the recorded values she had for Usagi’s screams. The girl didn’t belong on the decibel level, she was certain. Makoto wasn’t impressed by any of it, really, because this guy who just walked in totally looked like her ex-boyfriend. And her ex-boyfriend never drove a car like that.
“Why must he do that?” Rei complained. “Typical guy has to be all macho.”
Usagi puffed up her chest, as if she could inhale the sound through her nose. She closed her eyes, imagining herself in the passenger seat.
“What a jerk,” Rei stuck her nose up.
“Actually, he’s probably got a set of SU’s in there,” Mamoru piped in from his corner of the counter. Rei immediately latched onto him and started praising him for his immense car knowledge. For his part, Mamoru looked a twinge scared.
“ACTUALLY,” started Usagi with hands on her hips. The light turned green and the car revved itself out of the intersection. “They’re twin cams and he’s got to keep his RPMs up in order to get it going because while they supply a lot more power, they require a lot too.
“If he didn’t rev it up, he’d probably stall out.”
Everyone stared at her.
“How do you know that?”
“Simple,” she turned to Mamoru with a simper. “It’s a classic.”
> Poem
Words: 154
Author: Lillie Bell
I am the terror that flaps in the night…
“Can you believe this guy?”
I am the one for which you have nightmares…
“Oh, that hasn’t been done.”
I am … Darkwing Duck!!
“A duck? Really? A duck? You want me to believe a duck runs around and fights crime? What’s he do, find out what people bring bread to the park but don’t dish out any to his fellow brothren? Does he brandish Shakespeare against ye knaves?
“Come ON, this guy has got to work on his intro lines.”
“Not everybody can jump into the fray at the most opportune moment-letting the rest of us get beat into a pulp just so you can save the day, I might add-say some pretty haiku and save the girl you know.”
Usagi paused and leaned forward, her head disappearing in the dark movie theater.
“And for the record, you’re poems were much worse.”
> Tragedy
Words: 600-ish
Author: Lillie Bell
Usagi had always known the tragedies of her life. She was a reincarnated princess who had committed suicide because of her lover’s death. She was a teenager who innocence was broken the moment she met a black cat with a crescent scar. She was an unwilling warrior when she was Sailor Moon. Her friends and lover fought with her and became fodder for her enemies. All this she knew.
But she also knew there was hope for a future where a pink-haired child would grace her life and she would spend eternity with the man she loved. More tragedies would befall them-wrapped in crystal and corrupted by another man’s lust. But those hurdles, too, she knew she would triumph over. Because she had seen the future.
Because she had seen the future and assumed everything would come to be as was told to her. She had ignored Pluto’s warning not to become complacent because of what they had seen. She had been warned and still she was nothing but content to let the future catch up with her.
Well, Pluto wasn’t around anymore to say “I told you so.” None of them were. They fell during the battle with the Black Moon and Wiseman after he had unexpectedly allied with Chaos. The same Chaos she had been content to spread throughout the galaxy and assume it was too dispersed to cause trouble. But she never stopped to wonder. She just assumed everything was alright.
But nothing was alright. She could see them, the dark armies on the horizon, and she didn’t care. She had the power to wipe them out, to destroy them. But she wasn’t going to. She had buried the ginzuishou beneath her, and there it would stay.
Her tears barely cooled her face as the hot air brushed passed. They were advancing on her in massive numbers. Thousands of soldiers to kill one where months ago ten had stood. Now, only two. One dead, and one soon to be.
She held the bleeding body to her chest, her greatest tragedy. She had thought when Mamoru died she would never be whole again. She had felt his soul ripped from her grasp. It hadn’t felt like the other times, where a small connection had stayed. It had felt like when Galaxia had thrown him into the Cauldron-when he and his soul had completely stopped existing. She had thought she would die that day.
But that was months ago and she still lived. Not for long. She had been holding out with hope for the future. With hope for making everything right again. It would be okay this time, as it had every other time.
She had been so very wrong.
Her dress stuck to her, the blood and fluids from her body soaking into the white linen. The men were close now; she could hear the beating hooves of their horses and the clank of their armor. She could feel them training their arrows on her, their lances poised, swords unsheathed. The mages turned their dark power upon her.
If she died, Chaos would rule and the universe would be destroyed.
She clutched the cold body in her arms, pressing the lifeless infant to her breasts. The milk oozed, but no mouth would suckle those engorged nipples. No laughter would bring her hope. No child would remind her of the husband whose last gift she had nurtured inside her for nine months. She bent over the child and protected its dead body as the weapons rained down upon her.
> Conflict
Words: 218
Author: Lillie Bell
“Usako…” He wouldn’t relent.
“Mamo-chan…” She whined, knowing she’d get her way or kick him out.
“Usako!” He groaned.
“Mamo-chan!” Her toes curled as she looked up at him.
“What we have here is a conflict of interest.” He leaned over the railing. The cold metal pressed against him and cooled him down into a more rational mindset. But only slightly.
“Mamo-chan!” She was starting to slip into oblivion.
“You see, on the one hand.” And to demonstrate, that hand slid down her knee to her thigh, across her sensitive points, and up to her opposite hip. He leaned between her bent legs. “I have you in a very alluring position.”
“Might I add I love the Pussycat panties, Usako. I didn’t know you were such a tease.”
She growled at him again, but was answered by his other hand making a equally maddening sweep of her exposed skin and underwear.
“On the other hand, the gentleman in me is always willing to help a damsel in distress. But first, tell me, please, Usako,” and she did not miss the laughter in his voice, “how you ended up suspended upside-down from the railing on the roof of my neighbor’s apartment? And, while we’re on the subject, just how short is that skirt when it’s the right side up?”
> Essay
Words: 361
Author: Lillie Bell
“Mamoru.” Usagi plopped down in his booth without even asking if he was using the space. He wasn’t, but, when Usagi’s involved, sometimes it’s just better if he was.
She flapped a notepad full of papers down on the counter and started opening them. She sighed dramatically the whole time.
“Look,” she turned to him. “I have to write an essay on some really boring dude. And I figured who else would know stuff about boring people but Mamoru.”
“Hey.”
“Shut it.”
Usagi had come on a mission.
“You’re going to help me with this essay.”
“Odango, if you think I’m going to write this essay, let alone help you in any way to do your homework-which you’ll learn much better if you do it yourself-then you’ve gone completely bananas.”
She turned on the waterworks. “But if I don’t get an A on this essay I’ll flunk out and never be good at anything and never get to go to high school with the girls.”
“Kill the theatrics. I’m not helping.” To prove his point, he pulled out a pair of heavy-duty noise-cancelling headphones. “See?” he said rather loudly. “I’m completely immune to your attempts to make me write your essay.”
She leaned in towards him, he leaned away.
“Oh yeah?” she mouthed, then lifted one of the headphones. Mamoru cringed for incoming eardrum eruption.
“What if I tell your fanclub your favorite hideout in the library?”
His eyes tripled in size. She laid the earpiece back into place and moved to collect her things and step away. He ripped of the headset-much to his chagrin-and grabbed her wrist.
“Who told you?” he growled. Her eyes traced to Motoki’s back so innocently facing them while he helped customers.
“I’ll kill him.”
Just as he was about to jump over the counter and beat his friend with who knows what-an ice cream spoon?-Usagi stopped him.
“Killing him won’t stop the leak of information,” she sang softly.
He paused, turning his murderous gaze towards her. She faced him without fear. Her fingers drummed against the notepad.
“About that essay…” Mamoru began, gently climbing off of the counter.