Sailor Moon Married Life Chapter 7: Life and Romance for the Senshi

        From the diary of Serena Chiba
        December 15, 1998

        Dear Diary,

        My baby is growing fine and healthy.  Imbrium, in her
        alternate role as Sailor Selene, is splitting command of
        the Scouts with Reenie, and everybody is more or less
        happy with this arrangement.  Rei is over here almost
        all the time, and she's beginning to drive me nuts with
        all the attention.

        To be honest, my being forced out of the action is
        driving me almost as crazy as Rei is.  After all, being
        Sailor Moon was my role in life, and I was proud of it!
        But I must now, for the next few months, resign myself
        to the role of the Queen.  To tell the absolute truth,
        I'm dreading the next few months more than anything I've
        dreaded in my whole life.

        Serena Chiba


        Serena signed her name in flowing Kanji, then felt a light hand
on her shoulder.  She looked behind her to see a face almost as familiar
as her own.  Mina's pale-blue eyes smiled at her.

        "Come on Serena, or we'll be late to Kevin's!"  The two blondes
picked up their backpacks and headed out.

        Serena turned her key.  With all the things that she wasn't
supposed to do - being Sailor Moon chief among them - the ability to
drive was the greatest relief she had from her stress.  Her
newly-declared vocal performance major was demanding, as she had to make
up for the quarters she'd spent in her old psychology major.

        Mina folded herself neatly in the passenger's seat on the left
side of the car.  Serena backed out of the garage and they were on their
way.

        Five minutes later, they were at Kevin's apartment complex.
They rode up the elevator together, and walked to the door.  Mina rang
the doorbell, and a tenor voice called out, "Who is it?"

        "It's your girlfriend.  Now come on out here and let me in."

        "I'll give you this, Mina-chan - you always go straight for what
you want," said Kevin as he unlocked the door and let her in, "Hi,
Serena-chan.  Doing a good turn for a friend?"

        "Yep - and I've gotta get Darien, so I'll be going."

        "Say hi to Darien for me."  Mina's arm was around Kevin's waist.

        "Okay.  Bye!"

        Mina turned to her boyfriend, "Now, Kevin, what do you want to
do tonight?"

        "Well, I was thinking along the lines of a romantic dinner for
two, a movie, and maybe just a little bit of cuddling."

        "I think I could accommodate that," said Mina, a familiar gleam
in her eye.

        Kevin sweatdropped as he thought of a graceful way to avoid
Mina's cooking.  She hadn't improved much in the kitchen since she had
been fourteen and finding a graceful out was far preferable to having to
pretend to enjoy her concoctions.  Then he remembered two free-dinner
passes he had for one of the best restaurants in Tokyo.  He went and
scooped the passes out of a basket on the counter.

        "Why don't we go here?" he asked Mina.  She looked at the passes
and said, "Sure, why not.  I haven't had dinner at Lita's in a long
time."

        "I've heard she's trying out some new menu items."

        "Really?  She didn't mention any of this to us."

        He held up the newspaper.  "Five of five stars."

        Mina's eyebrows went up.  Lita hadn't mentioned this to her when
they'd talked that morning.  Of course, chances were she hadn't read the
paper yet.  "Let's go."


        At the company where Darien worked, Serena pulled up in her car
and he jumped in.

        "How was the carpool this morning, Muffin?"

        "About five minutes late, Serena.  I was lucky to get here
before the staff meeting."

        "Whoops. . ."

        "Well, Al has a staff meeting tomorrow, and I'm driving.  I'd
like to see how he'd like being almost-late, but I'm not that cruel.
Besides, Toshiro the Perpetually Delayed will probably take care of that
for me."  He laughed, "So, how are the two of you doing today?" he
asked, referring to Serena and the baby.

        "According to Dr. Irons, she's coming along perfectly well.
That little Nega problem we had a couple of months ago hasn't appeared
to affect the baby's development adversely at all, though Dr. Irons, of
course, didn't know about it.  I simply told her that I had been drained
in an attack and was wondering about possible side-effects."

        "I have to wonder: in the future, do we ever wish that we hadn't
sent Reenie back in time all these times, that we would have gotten a
better chance to know her, *in her own time* while she was young?"


        Mina and Kevin reached Mina's apartment at about 4:20.  She led
him in and shut the door.  "Kevin," she said, "We've been going out
together for about three months now, and there's something I really need
you to know about me," She pulled out her Eternal Wand, "I'm Sailor
Venus."

        "You're kidding me, right?"

        She held out her hand, and the sign of Venus encased in
heart-shaped laurels appeared above it.  "Venus Eternal Make Up!"  The
sign of Venus suddenly became part of the globe atop the Venus Eternal
Wand, and her transformation began.  Then it ended, and Eternal Sailor
Venus stood where Mina Corinne Aino had stood ten seconds before.  "I
also *was* Sailor V, and millennia ago I was the Princess of Venus." She
concentrated further and her Princess gown, a long orange satin dress
with golden highlights and sleeves of not lamé, but real, priceless
cloth-of-gold, came into existence, replacing her Sailor Venus uniform.
He backed up from Princess Minako, slightly afraid.

        "Now I know why Serena hates to do this," she groused as she
became Mina again and drew Kevin into a warm hug, "Kevin, it doesn't
matter what form I'm in or what powers I have, I'm still Mina and I
still love you."

        "You love me. . .," he mused.

        "Three simple words, ne?"

        "You love me," he repeated, more strongly.

        "Yep."

        "I love you, Mina.  I don't care if you're Mina Aino or Sailor V
or Sailor Venus or Princess Whatever, I still love you."  He hugged her
tightly.

        After a while, she pulled slightly away from him.  "I never told
you how I met Serena.  We first met on my last night as Sailor V.  I got
to the place where I was sensing Dark Energy coming from just in time to
see the Sailor Senshi - only Moon, Mars, Jupiter, and Mercury at the
time - entrapped in a dome of it.  I called my 'Crescent Beam' attack
and it shot across Malachite's hands, wounding him and breaking both his
concentration and the spell, much to everybody else's relief.  I gave my
introductory speech, but then when I should have said I was Sailor V, I
said, 'V is for Victory - I'm Sailor Venus!' and I was just as surprised
as everybody else.  I tossed my Sailor V glasses aside, and all of a
sudden, instead of my old red-white-and-blue fuku, I was wearing this
new white-and-orange number.  Sailor Moon aimed her tiara at Malachite
and Zoisite, but they disappeared before she could use it.

        "Then, Sailor Moon said, 'Wow!  You're really Sailor V!' and I
just said, 'Ta-daa!  In the flesh!'  It wasn't until about half an hour
later that I found out that Sailors Moon, Mars, Jupiter, and Mercury
were actually Serena, Rei, Lita, and Amy."

        "This would explain a lot, like why sometimes you'd skip out on
dates at the last second.  I always wondered why that was."

        "The Negaverse, much to our collective dismay, doesn't keep a
timetable.  If you ask me, which they never have, they should have to
give twenty-four hours notice before attacking, with forms signed in
triplicate." Kevin snickered.

        She looked in an imaginary date-book, "Let's see: 3:00, youma
attack at Tokyo Tower.  3:05: Have coffee with Outers." Kevin's snicker
turned into a laugh.

        "So why don't we head on over to Lita's Kitchen and you can tell
me all about your friends."

        Over appetizers, Mina began her tale with the Moon Kingdom.
"Ten thousand years ago, we lived there - Serena, Amy, Rei, Lita, and I
- and things were more or less peaceful.  Sure, there was your
occasional insurrection, but that stuff does happen.  Anyway, Serena was
the Princess of the Moon, Princess Serenity, named after her mother,
after whom she took significantly in looks.  It was said that to look at
the daughter was to see the mother's youth repeated.  The first time I
met Serenity wasn't by my choice, but I didn't learn that I had met the
Moon Princess until two days later. . ."

The Silver Millennium

        "But Mother. . ."  A seven-year-old Princess Minako, the Crown
Princess of Venus, was being loaded onto a solsailor, the Altross.  She
was wearing the simple orange dress of Venusian noble girls.

        "But nothing, my daughter.  You are to go and live at the Palace
of the Moon Queen, for you bear the powers of the Senshi of Venus.  Be
strong, Minako - your planet is counting on you, as is the Moon
Princess."

        Minako turned to trudge into the ship, and ran into another
seven-year-old, this one wearing a pair of shipboard trousers and a
slightly stained white shirt.  Her hair was about the same length as
Minako's middle-back length hair, and a couple shades more golden.
Something in her big blue eyes inspired trust in the little Princess of
Venus.

        "Hi," said Minako, "I'm Mina."  She used the shortened form of
her name so that the girl wouldn't be frightened by her royalty.

        "I'm Serena," responded the other girl, "Wanna go play around?"

        "Not 'til we take off - My mommy told me to stay in a safe place
until after take-off."  An idea occurred to her, "Where's your mommy?"

        "My mommy's on the Moon.  She'll be waiting for me when we
land."  Earth's Moon was the only moon on the ship's itinerary, but even
if it weren't, it was so influential in Solarian politics that when one
referred to the Moon, one was almost always referring to Earth's.

        "I hope I meet the Moon Princess.  I hear she's really cool."

        "Really?  What do you hear about her?" asked Serena.

        "Well, I hear she's really fun, and that she knows how to get
into trouble and not get caught, and," she leaned conspiratorially
closer to Serena, "that she gives her guards fits!"

        "Speaking of, here come the guards, so let's split."  Serena and
Minako moved behind a crate.

        "Princess Serenity!?"

        "Princess Serenity??"

        "Princess Serenity?" whispered Minako.

        "Who knows," shrugged Serena, "Let's go and put a stinkpot in
the Captain's cabin."  Minako grinned at the wicked mischief and the two
girls set off to accomplish their dangerous mission.

        Two days later,

        The Captain's cabin had stopped smelling of rotten eggs three
hours ago.  The girls had spent most of both days eluding guards and
playing tricks on the crew.  Finally, they got off at the Moon.  A tall
noblewoman with silver-blonde hair stood at the foot of the gangway as
the Captain forcibly escorted the girls from the ship.  "Here, Your
Highness, I hope you know what to do with them."  He turned around and
nearly ran back.  The woman he had addressed as 'Your Highness' giggled
at his retreating back, then turned to Serena and said, "Welcome home,
Daughter."

        "I missed you, Mommy!  This is my friend. . ."

        ". . .Princess Minako, of the Kingdom of Venus," finished the
lady who Minako now recognized as Queen Serenity.  Which meant Serena,
her daughter, had to be Princess Serenity!

        "You're Princess Serenity and you never told me!?"

        "Well, I was afraid that you'd be scared of me if I did!"

        "And I was afraid that you'd be scared of *me* if I told you who
I was!"

        "You can never do anything right can you, Odango-head," came a
seven-year-old voice.

        Serenity came up to the black-haired girl and hugged her, which
the other girl returned.  "I missed you too, fire-face."  She turned to
Minako, "This is Princess Rei of Mars.  Princesses Makoto, Ami and my
sister, Imbrium, are probably at the Palace."

        "They agreed to help set up for your welcome-home party,
Serenity.  We planned it after you ran off on the Altross."

        An hour later, Princess Minako was introduced to Princess Makoto
of Jupiter, who could cook like a dream, Princess Ami of Mercury, who
was smart as a whip, to use one of her daddy's favorite phrases, and
Princess Imbrium, Serenity's twin sister, who was just as fun to be
around as Serenity herself.  Within an hour, the Princesses had gotten
to a point where they could comfortably call one another by their names,
the "Princess" half forgotten completely.

        Queen Serenity looked at a tiny portrait of her late husband,
the father of her two daughters, dear Kalen of the Kingdom of Mars, he
of the laughing green eyes and blue-black hair.  "Oh, Kalen, our
children grow up so quickly.  You would be proud of them, my love."

The present

        Minako wound up just as the waiter arrived to take their order.
"Hi, Mina," he said.

        "Hi, Peter.  I'll have my usual."

        "Would you like sauteed mushrooms or onions on your hamburger?"

        "Both.  Kevin?"

        "I guess I'll go with the teriyaki chicken."

        "To drink?"

        "I'll have beer," said Mina.

        "I'm the designated driver," put in Kevin, "so just give me a
cola."


        At the Chiba's house, Serena was concentrating hard on a math
problem.  She scratched in an answer, then erased it, rechecked her
calculations and wrote the right one.  As soon as she did so, she felt
familiar fingers creep up her back.  She sighed with pleasure and
allowed Darien to toy with the wispy hair that escaped her hairstyle at
the base of her neck.  "Love you too, Muffin."

        "So goes the word on the street.  Serena, dearest, do you have
any *idea* the number of people who have made a point of letting me know
they're jealous of me?"

        "Nope.  Thanks for asking, though." She kissed him thoroughly.
"Feel like a shower, Darien?  I could use a study break."


        At the restaurant, Lita felt slightly faint, then saw her
kitchen staff drop.  "Kuso!  Not at my restaurant, you don't!! Jupiter
Eternal Make Up!!"

        In the dining room, Kevin fell on the table as Mina told him of
her death.  At first she thought he had gone into shock, but then she
felt it: an energy drain.  "Venus Eternal Make Up!!" she cried and
sprinted into the kitchen.  She saw Eternal Sailor Jupiter looking
around for the cause of the drain.

        "I think we both got drained fairly seriously before we powered
up - We might need the others to help out on this one."  Venus agreed
with Jupiter.  "Rei, Amy, Imbrium, Reenie, come in."

        The screen split in four as the receivers came on almost
simultaneously.  "What's up, Venus?"

        "We've been attacked at Lita's restaurant, but there's no
immediately visible youma, and we're both feeling pretty drained right
now."

        "Say no more," said Imbrium, "I'm on my way."

        Reenie added, "I'll call the Outers."

        "I was already on my way over there to grab dinner before a
meeting," said Rei.

        "Greg and I are in Roppongi, but I'll be there as soon as I
can," added Amy.

        Sailor Venus signed off and looked over at Sailor Jupiter and
the only person left standing in the restaurant.  He glowed and became a
youma with six black, blade-tipped tentacles in place of its arms.
"Venus Eternal Heartbreak!" cried Venus.  She felt the energy start to
coalesce, but before she could complete the attack, she was drained and
fell over, completely spent.

        Sailor Jupiter summoned the Thunder Javelin and used it to parry
the youma's tentacle attacks as she got closer.  A quick tentacle flip
knocked the weapon from Jupiter's hand, and she only barely managed to
banish it before it hit a customer.

        "Mars Flame Sniper!!" came a welcome voice.  The arrow shot
through the safety-glass window and hit the youma.  Tiny glass cubes
fell on the display in the front window.

        "Selene Crystal Shards. . . Immobilize!" came a second later.
Several crystal daggers embedded themselves in the youma's body at its
chakra points, paralyzing it with their magical energy.

        Thirty seconds and one "Moon Crystal Healing Activation" later,
the youma was a human once more.

        Her energy returned to her, Sailor Venus stood up, became Mina
again, and gently woke Kevin.

        When Mina and Kevin finally returned to Mina's apartment, they
heard a distinctly male voice calling, "Mina?  Thank God you're home!"

        "Who's that?" asked Kevin, suspiciously.

        "Artemis.  He's been with me since way back when I was Sailor
V," explained Mina.  She looked around the corner.  The white cat was
completely entangled in one of the balls of yarn Mina had once purchased
for a project and never used up.  She took one look at him and burst out
laughing.

        "Artemis?" asked Kevin.  He was fighting back a serious
gut-buster himself.  After all, an intelligent, talking ball of bright
blue yarn and white fur wasn't exactly a sight one would see everyday.

        "That's my name - don't wear it out."  Artemis was feeling
humiliated.  He could slash this yarn right off of himself, if only he
could move his paws far enough to cut it with his claws.  Fortunately,
Mina picked him up and started to unwind him from the tangle.  As soon
as Mina had his paws freed, he asked, "You ever going to use this
stuff?"  At her shake of the head, he promptly began cutting yarn and
within seconds was free.  "You have *no* idea what a relief it is to be
free of that stuff.  I couldn't exactly see the clock from where I was,
but I'd guess I was tangled up for about half an hour."

        "You play with yarn?" asked Kevin.

        "What do you think - I'm a cat.  I don't think I've had a good
round with the yarn since, oh, since Mina's parents lived over in
England.  Your mom used to be a genius with knitting needles, Mina."

        "I know that, Artemis, and she still is - remember that sweater
I got for Christmas last year?"

        "Your mom made that?  I'm duly impressed.  She reminds me quite
a bit in some ways of the late, lamented Queen of Venus.  Now, Mina, you
mind if I go outside for a while?  I've got to stretch my poor, abused
muscles before they tighten up on me."

        "Go right ahead," said Mina, opening the balcony door.  Artemis
jumped up on the rail, then to the roof, and headed down the fire
escape.  With luck, he could still meet Luna before she got mad and left
their arranged rendezvous.


        Luna was crouched and waiting, her haunches tensed.  *Damn,* she
thought, *Almost had that one.*  She felt a light tap on her shoulder
and leapt, spinning and puffing herself up.  *Nice work, O great
hunter,* she thought wryly.  *You managed to scare Artemis half out of
his wits.*  "Artemis, what kept you?"

        If Artemis hadn't had fur, he would have done a full-body blush.
"Yarn," he admitted sheepishly.  "Mina left out one of her old
yarnballs, and I haven't had a good tumble with one since England.  I
got wound up in it just before Mina put out that all-call."

        Luna put in, "Serena was climbing the walls from the time Reenie
ran out the door until the time she got back.  And as soon as she did,
Serena just hugged her like she thought she was never going to see her
again."
        "Letting other people do things for her has kind of dropped out
of Serena's makeup, hasn't it?"

        "Oh, absolutely.  She's being driven slowly insane by not being
able to be Sailor Moon, and she's slowly driving me insane with her
worries.  What makes this a problem is that they're all valid ones, so I
can't just brush them off."


        Reenie sat in her bedroom, quietly doing her homework, and
chuckling to herself.  "I can't believe these English textbooks."
English, being the official language of the Terran Empire, came as
easily to Reenie as Japanese, and she was getting an easy 'A' in her
English class because of it.  What really bothered her, though, was the
way English was taught in twentieth century Japanese schools. All
memorization, no application. In the twenty-second century, all Imperial
schools taught languages the way twentieth century American schools did:
by working from a memorization basis in first year into a classroom
environment where the language was spoken almost exclusively by third
year. She remembered helping Mina tutor Serena in English when the older
girls had been in high school. It hadn't been long before the two had
Serena speaking English not only fluently, but with only a slight trace
of an accent. However, a slightly amusing side-effect had come about.
Reenie spoke English with a Middle American accent.  Mina spoke it with
a Cornwall accent.  Serena's English, as a result, was taking on a
combination of the two places plus Japan.  However, thanks to Mina's and
Reenie's tutoring, Serena never made the common Japanese mistake of
transposing the "L" and "R" sounds.

        "Darien," said Serena, "where's Reenie?"

        "I'm right in here, Onee-chan," called Reenie.  Out in public
with Serena so often, Reenie had fallen into a habit of calling Serena
'onee-chan,' even when they were with people who knew their real
relationship, and Serena likewise had fallen into calling Reenie
'imouto.'

        Serena hugged her future-daughter.  "How's your homework coming,
Imouto?"

        "Okay.  I could throw this stupid English book away and still
ace the class."

        "I know, Reenie, but then you'd have to pay for it."  Serena
fingered her locket gingerly.  "Reenie, I'm worried.  I hate sitting on
the sidelines.  I'm no good at it."

        The little girl hugged her mother and said, "But you've got to
do it, Kaa-chan, for my real onee-chan's sake.  Even if it's neither
what you like to do nor what you're good at."  She moved around so
Serena could see her math.

        "Yich, math.  Always hated it, always will."

        "Oh, not always, Mom.  You'll get over it someday.  I mean, see
this nice little shortcut here?  You taught it to me when I was in
fourth grade."  Serena looked at the shortcut Reenie pointed out to her.
It was the same shortcut that Amy had taught *her* in her freshman
summer when she was working her butt off to get her math skills up to
the same level everybody else's were at.

        "Yeah, by what, the twenty-fifth century or so?"

        "Uhm, yeah."  Reenie's tone of voice told that she was hiding
something, but Serena filed it away.  *Face it, girl, some things about
the future you were just *not* meant to know.*


        Mina and Kevin lay on the couch for a long while, watching a
movie while Kevin talked casually with his girlfriend and her cat.
*Man, this is going to take a while to get used to.*


        In another part of town, much later (about two in the morning),
Ken Asagiri was woken up with a kick.

        "Morning already?" he mumbled.  Actually, it sounded more like
"Mrrng arrdy?"

        He turned and rubbed bleary eyes to see Lita twisting uneasily.
He shook her and she burst awake, looked around, and grabbed Ken as
tight as she could to her.  "Thank you, Ken," she whispered.  He rubbed
her shoulders and back.  It had been years since she'd last complained
to him about the nightmare (when it had first appeared, she'd gotten it
every night), and it hadn't hit her since they'd been married, but he
figured she was about due.  He knew she got it every once in a while,
usually when she was feeling particularly down about something.  The
plane had gone down in mid-flight from San Francisco, where her parents
had been visiting some relatives, back to Tokyo.  Nobody had lived, and
it had forced Lita, at the tender age of thirteen, to learn to care for
herself.  Ken had never figured out exactly how Lita had managed to fake
out everybody from Child Protective Services on down the line and remain
independent, but he suspected that her early physical maturity had
something to do with it - at fourteen, she'd been able to pass as a
woman of eighteen.  While he thought and rubbed, Lita had started to
make small, contented noises as her mind pulled out of its razor-honed
focus and fuzzed back toward unconsciousness.

        His musing was interrupted by a heavy and satisfied sigh as Lita
sagged down in his arms and surrendered to a peaceful sleep.  He quickly
followed her into slumber.  On their nightstand lay the Jupiter Eternal
Wand, as it always did, casting a protective aura around them.

        At seven AM, Lita woke up slowly.  She sighed and snuggled
deeper into her husband's embrace, Ken who had always been there for
her.  In this life, at least.  Fortunately, today was one of her days
off, the day that her new second-shift manager was to start.  Thank God,
she thought, maybe now I'll be able to get out more.  My entire life is
revolving around that restaurant.  I haven't gone out with the girls in
ages, I've barely even seen Serena, and she's going to have her baby in
just a couple of months.  She picked up her communicator and pushed the
Moon logo call button on it.

        "Hey, Lita, what's up?"

        "Oh, not much.  I've got the day off from my restaurant - you
think you and the others can spare an afternoon?"

        "Oh, I think that Rei, Amy, and Mina will agree that we can skip
Sailor Scout English for a day and still keep on aggravating Professor
Sardin into early hair loss."

        "What was that?"

        "We've got a professor who, for some odd reason, *DOESN'T* like
the Sailor Senshi.  'Sailor Scout English' was something that some joker
in class called it 'cause the four of us 'look' like four of the Inners.
We tried to get rid of it, but it stuck."

        "I'll meet you in the park at noon, bring everybody."

        "I'll bring food, too.  You don't need to cook on your day off
of work, Lita."

        "I'm looking forward to it."

        At ten, Lita called Alex.

        "Moshi-moshi, Ten'ou residence."  Alex's voice was crisp and
alert.

        "Alex?  This is Lita."  She grinned wickedly and added, "I see
you didn't have Michelle over last night."

        "What?"  Alex's voice slipped up a couple of registers into
mezzo-soprano range.

        "If you had, either you'd still be asleep, or you wouldn't have
answered the phone."

        "Leave the comedy to those who are good at it.  Besides, you're
wrong about that, we just didn't do it last night.  Even we take a night
or two off once in a while."

        "Touche.  Anyway, I didn't call you to make fun of your sex
life.  I called to invite the two of you on a picnic this noon, only I'd
like you to show up a little early."

        "Any reason why?"

        "Yeah.  I've got a bunch of frustration that's been building up
for the last couple of weeks, what with all the overtime I've been
putting in on budgeting and paperwork so everything looks proper come
tax-time, and from all indications you've been suffering similarly, am I
right?"

        "Yep."

        "So anyway, I figure we could meet a little early, spar for a
few rounds, and then join up with the others."

        "Sounds good.  You want to bring the bandages, or should I?"

        "Oh, I don't think we're really going to need them, after all
we're not going to be practicing with our Sailor powers, just
hand-to-hand."

        At 11:30, Lita and Alex met at the park.  They bowed to one
another and dropped into their ready stances, Alex in a nearly
full-height stance and Lita in her customary back-stance.  The former's
stance was a well-balanced platform from which to launch nearly any
attack, the latter's was optimized for front-leg kicking attacks and
quick throws.  Lita circled before beginning by shifting her weight to
her front leg and executing a perfect spinning sweep.  Alex tumbled to
the ground, rolled away and came after her opponent.  Aiming a
body-blow, Alex felt her attack partially brushed aside by Lita, before
it hit soft flesh.  One-one.

        Lita grunted.  Alex's attack had hit her breast, and it hurt
like hell.  But damned if she was going to let that show.

        Alex noted that Lita was unconsciously favoring her right side,
the side that she had hit.  That was all she had time for, as Lita
unleashed a powerful series of attacks which Alex only barely managed to
block.

        While the two were sparring, Serena came up the hill, and
watched with admiration as the two masterful fighters held nothing back.
Each blow was a knockout or kill attempt, and each was blocked.
Finally, Lita grappled with her opponent and brought her to the ground.
Alex slapped the ground and the bout ended.  Each fighter bowed to the
other, then to Serena.

        Mina walked behind Serena, carrying a huge picnic basket, Amy
was lugging a cooler, and Rei had a blanket under one arm and in the
other hand she carried another cooler.  With them were Michelle
(carrying an insulated bag), Sonya, Heather, and Ken.  The two
combatants eagerly joined their respective lovers as Rei spread the
blanket and everyone quickly claimed a space on it, with the food
claiming the center.

        You guys really outdid yourselves, thought Lita as she saw the
food: cold chicken from Raye, hot homemade pizza from Serena, and
Dagwood sandwiches and hamburgers from Mina, for which she immediately
hauled out a bag of charcoal from her subspace pocket for and began to
build a fire in the charcoal grill.

        "Relax, Lita," said Kevin, "This is one of the few foods that
even our Mina can't possibly screw up."  He immediately regretted it.

        Mina gave him a rather mild glare.  Serena pantomimed an
explosion.  Everybody else winced as Mina said, in a mild poisonous
tone, "Kevin, can we chat for a minute?"

        Kevin looked as though he were in immediate danger as he
followed her off.  Serena started the grill and warmed it up.  Kevin and
Mina came back a few minutes later, Mina looking vindicated and Kevin
looking subdued.

        Serena patted Kevin on the cheek in a commiserating fashion.
"Didn't anybody ever warn you about our girl's temper, Kevin?"

        "Nope.  Lady's positively draconian when she's pissed."

        "And don't you forget it, love," added Mina.

        "Still, some of us would like to eat some of the things you
cook, if only we could stand to have them pass our lips," piped up Rei.
Mina glared at her and she glared right back.  "Oh, please Mina.  I've
known you since we were fourteen.  I know a fair chunk of all there is
to know about you, including the fact that though you like to play
tough, you wouldn't harm a fly that wasn't from the Negaverse."

        Mina stopped glaring at Rei and began staring in astonished
shock at her.  This continued for about five seconds before she burst
into hysterics.  "Oh my, am I that transparent!?"

        "Yep."

        "Ahh, jeez, there goes my fragile self-image as the tough girl.
Well, it was too good to last, ne?"

--- Next: Chapter 8: New Arrival