This is my first attempt at writing a Sailor Moon fan-fiction.  I 
am hampered in this endeavour by the fact that while I am certainly 
trying to see every episode of the second season of Sailor Moon, I have 
seen only a handful of the first season, which is when this short story 
takes place.  I have, however, read the translated scripts.  
Unfortunately, I have no idea what DIC left in any given episode.  Thus, 
I may actually be making references to scenes that the majority of my 
readers have never seen ...
     (Note:  At least one of my readers has indicated that she wasn't 
familiar with one of the scenes I mentioned -- just for reference 
purposes, the scene where Raye slaps Serena and calls her a wimp *should* 
have been in the episode preceding "Bad Hair Day.")
     Still, this is a story that I think should be told.  It was 
inspired by reading the script for episode 36 ("Bad Hair Day" in the NA 
version -- doesn't really compare to "Usagi in Confusion", does it?)  It 
takes place somewhere in between that episode and episode 41 ("Tuxedo 
Unmasked")
     I'm going to try to use the North American names of the 
characters in this story, even though I instinctively think of "Serena" 
as "Usagi".  Since, to the best of my knowledge, no last name for 
Makoto/Lita has been given, I feel free to use her Japanese last name.
     Enough exposition.

--------------------------------------------------- -----------------------
		None of your business
			by
		   Chris Davies
	    cdavies@gpu3.srv.ualberta.ca
 
     Raye felt, rather than heard, the padding of stocking feet behind 
her as she knelt before the sacred fire.  *Heavy footsteps, but graceful, 
too.*  It could be Chad, the young would-be rock star who had taken to   
life in the shrine better than anyone had expected.  *No.  It's Lita.*

     Lita knelt a respectful distance behind Raye.  The irony of this 
deference was considerable on several levels.  Raye's unclear memories of 
their previous lives as the Silver Millenium Sailor Scouts indicated 
quite clearly that Lita ... she had just been Senshi Jupiter then ... had 
been the leader of the defenders of Princess Serenity.  But because of 
Raye's  status as a priestess in THIS life, she was defered to.  *More 
proof ...  as though Serena isn't proof enough ... that we truly are 
different than we were back then.*

     "Are you actually praying, or could I have a word?"  Lita's husky 
voice interrupted Raye's musings.

     Raye turned around smoothly.  "Yes?"

     Lita was frowning.  It wasn't her "I'm peeved to the max" frown.  
It was more like a "I'm not sure quite how to say this ..." frown.  "I 
think ... that you have some explaining to do."

     Lita got up, and started to pace the width of the hall of the 
sacred fire.  She stopped momentarily.

     "I am not Amy."

     Raye was somewhat bewhildered.  "I never realized," she said, 
trying to relax the tension in the room.  It didn't work.

     "What I am trying to say," Lita continued, taking great apparent 
care in her choice of words, "is that I do not often think with my head, 
like Amy does.  I think, more than I should, with my fists.  But also, 
more than I should, with my heart."

     Lita turned away from Raye, and continued speaking.  "I know that 
you all think that I'm silly to chase after every guy who looks or even 
sounds like my ex-boyfriend ... but I do have my reasons.  He ... meant a 
lot to me.  He was the only guy I ... well, you know."

     Hoo boy.

     "No," Raye replied after a moment to recover from the surprise 
that Lita had just sprung on her.  "I didn't know."

     Lita continued to look away from Raye.  "That's not much of a 
shock, y'know.  I think with my fists, Amy thinks with her head, you 
think with your soul ... I don't know what Mina thinks with ... I don't 
know if Serena thinks ..."

     "This is true."

     Lita turned her gaze back to Raye.  "This isn't about Serena.  
Well, it is, sort of.  But not yet.  This ... I came here to talk about 
you."

     "Is this ... Truth or Dare, Lita?" Raye asked, baffled.

     "No.  That little ... revelation was more to explain where I'm 
coming from."

     Lita pursed her lips, again giving the impression of trying to 
find the best way to put this.  "I know that you and ... Darien had a 
dating thing going for a while.  But recently, I've been watching you, 
and it's seemed to me ... that something more was going on."

     Raye instantly knew what Lita was talking about.  That time in 
the Negaverse when Serena had decided to quit being the Princess, and she 
had accused Serena of being a wimp whom Darien had been a fool to risk 
his life for.  And later, when Darien had returned ... but as a pawn of 
the Negaverse, Endymion ... she had wept and pleaded as much if not more 
than Serena had.

     "Raye ... we're not close.  We're friends, but we're not good 
buddies.  If it weren't for the fact that we knew eachother in a previous 
life, I doubt that I'd ever even have met you.  But we have to be 
comrades; I watch your back, you watch mine, and we both watch the other 
Sailor Scouts'.  Now, I think that it's important ... not just to me, but 
to all of us ... that we know."

     Raye gazed unblinkingly at Lita.  "Know what?" she asked, calmer 
than she felt.

     Lita held the gaze.  "Did you have sex with Darien?"

     Raye let out the breath she'd been holding.

     She had, on some level, expected one of her fellow Scouts to come 
asking the question for some time now.  She had hoped that it would be 
Amy, who would be nervous about asking it.  Better that than Mina, whom 
she hardly really knew yet.  Or worse, Serena.  She envisioned the temper 
tantrum that the Princess (and oh, it galled her to accord the little 
so-and-so that title) would throw.

     She had not expected the asker to be Lita.  She had 
underestimated the tall, nonfeminine Scout.

     "Lita," she began quietly, "whatever there was between me and 
Darien was over the moment I saw the two of them looking at eachother 
just after he took that shard for her."

     "That's not what I asked," Lita interrupted.

     "I won't get in their way if ... WHEN we get Darien back from the 
Negaverse.  That's what you were concerned about, wasn't it?"

     Lita closed her eyes, and sighed.  "That's one of the things."  
Eyes opened, she continued, "But I'm also worried about what happens if 
one of us is in danger from Endymion, and you freeze, because you don't 
want to hurt YOUR *sempai*."

     That hurt Raye more than she would ever let show.  She wanted to 
let the firey rage that burned through her loose at Lita.  But she knew 
that it would do no good.  Lita would simply stand in the center of the 
rage, not blinking, not backing down.

     "If that happens ... I'll do what I have to do.  The old 
relationship doesn't matter to me.  What matters is protecting Earth from 
the Negaverse."

     "All right.  So your answer is, it doesn't matter?"

     Raye nodded once.  Lita turned to go.

     "Lita!"  Raye suddenly called out.

     Lita turned back to gaze at Raye.

     "What you said about you and your old boyfriend ... was it true?"

     Lita nodded.  "We did it when I ..."

     "I don't need to know," Raye interrupted.  "But you gave me the 
truth, and so I owe you the truth.  The real answer to the question of 
whether or not I had sex with Darien ..."

     "Yes?"

     "Is "None of your business." "

  
Chris Davies.

The characters depicted and described in this piece of short fiction 
are trademarks and copyrights of various corporate entities.  No 
challenge is made to the proprietary rights of these corporate entities 
through usage of these trademarks and copyrights.

Comments, criticisms, invitations to dinner?