Yay I got chapter 2 done! Time to introduce a new main character! I cant wait till the next chapter, I have some fun things planned out :D
Haruka felt her head forcefully connect with the ground, and lay there like a slug, the world spinning around her, not daring attempting to stand up. What just happened?
She opened her eyes to see a bleary female figure leaning over her, she presumed that was Luna. "What was that Luna?" she whine-ily groaned. The figure sat back a bit before standing up.
"We apparated." She replied in her high, dreamy voice.
"Ugh, what do you mean apparated?" Haruka slurred, her head was reeling and she felt uneasy. She was starting to gain bearing of her surrounding however. The place was dimly lit, the ground beneath her was rough and uneven, and she thought herself to be laying on a small rock or pinecone perhaps.
"We teleported." Luna said cheerfully, Haruka imagined she was wearing her dopey smile again. Maybe she was wrong about her being an insane criminal. Maybe she was just drugged.
But wait! People can't teleport. I'm sure of that. The only people that can teleport are the sailor senshi, unless, perhaps, they were some sort of alien. That's happened before. Is it possible that Luna is an enemy? She doesn't seem the type, though it could just be a clever plan on her part; the whole 'innocent' act. Haruka decided it would be a good idea to keep a closer eye on her. She wouldn't let herself be tricked by such futile tricks by enemies.
She felt a bit more stable, so Haruka attempted to stand up with the assistance of Luna, and leaned against a tree afterwards. It appeared they were in a thick forest, and it was slightly chilly outside. Sounds of birds could be heard chirping eerie tunes, but not one could be spotted by either of the two girls.
"Luna, where are we? And how exactly did we teleport?" Haruka asked looking down to the shorter girl. She was expecting the girl to give a vague or nonsensical answer, but she was starting to find those slightly amusing as frustrating as they could be.
"I'm sorry, but I'm not quite sure where we were. An image just popped into my head and I took us there, but I can't remember where that is."
Haruka let out a sigh. How on earth was she going to explain this to Setsuna and Hotaru when she got back home? Setsuna and Hotaru…WAIT! What about them? Are they safe? Luna and I just abandoned them, they might be in danger.
"And as for how we teleported, that would be by magic." She said dreamily staring in the general direction of nowhere. That jarred Haruka from her thoughts; the only sources of magic on this planet as far as she knew, were in enemies and the senshi. "Technically, us witches aren't supposed to tell this to muggles, but I owe it to you."
"Luna…" She trailed off when Luna drew a brown stick out from the collar of her shirt and her attention was drawn to it. How the heck did Haruka miss Luna having a stick shoved down the inside of her shirt?
"See, this is my wand." She said smiling.
"Uh-huh" Haruka said considering what course of action to take. This was pretty much proof she was an enemy right? So did she attack now? She almost didn't want to believe Luna would have harmful intentions, but duty came first.
Before though she could do anything, she felt a sharp pain in her neck, and collapsed as the world blurred and swirled around her. From the ground Haruka heard a squeak from Luna, and felt her collapse nearby. She felt her mind and body trying to drift into unconsciousness; if she were transformed into the guardian of Uranus, she would be able to fight the feeling off, but at the moment she didn't have enough of a grip on herself to grab the henshin wand nestled in her pocket. The last thing she knew before blacking out was that someone or something was lifting and moving her body somewhere.
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The atmosphere around her was warm, and provided comfort to the body of Haruka. She furrowed her eyebrows and groaned as she started coming to. A pain was felt in her shoulders, and she moved them around in place trying to lessen the discomfort she felt, but found herself unable to move her wrists. Snapping her groggy eyes open, she was greeted with the sight of a place resembling a café. It had brown and green walls, and a couple of modern tables, as well as some couches and orange and brown plush chairs gathered around a fireplace. There was a bar like island in the large room as well, with several teapots placed over burners.
Haruka noted that her wrists were tied together behind her back, and her ankles were bound as well. Whoever kidnapped and bound her there had propped her up against a wall as well. She looked around for Luna, but the girl was nowhere to be found, and she worried about her a bit, forgetting for a moment that she was a candidate for the title of 'new enemy'.
At the moment the most important thing though was getting herself free first. She couldn't reach the henshin stick in her pocket, though she writhed around grasping for it. All that resulted in was toppling over with a loud 'clunk' and a low grunt.
Haruka heard a voice in another room and started to get nervous as footsteps of shoes on the wood flooring were heard. She couldn't right herself, and stared from the floor at the intruder as they made their way into the room. It was what appeared to be a male who was about the same height as her. They had brown hair that was styled up in a coif and skin that was comparably pale with Luna's. The man was also wearing an apron that matched the theme colors of the café-like place she was at.
"I see you're awake." He said in a high-pitched feminine voice that matched his appearance all too well. As he got closer, Haruka couldn't help but grimace. "Your friend woke up not long ago. She's out gathering wood now." He said as he sat cross-legged on the floor besides Haruka, but not setting her upright.
"Mind telling me why you kidnapped me?!" she nearly shouted.
"Eh…" He was squinting in what looked possibly like embarrassment, Haruka couldn't get past the rage she controlling, deciding that since she was immobilized, it wouldn't help to risk making the situation any worse. "I promise I'll explain once Luna gets back, I swear." He said with sincerity in his voice.
Haruka didn't have time to immediately reply because Luna entered the room through a door on a different wall. She was carrying a couple of logs, and set them beside the cold fireplace.
"Why hello there friend, I see you've woken up." She said with a smile. Haruka wished she hadn't called her 'friend', because that could make things difficult later, especially if Haruka decided to treat her the way an enemy should be treated.
"Ok boy, explain now." Haruka said. The man untied her then, and scurried away quickly in case she decided to lash out at him. Haruka had pride in the fact that people feared her.
Luna grabbed her hand, to reassure the male as well as keeping Haruka from reacting towards him. It was apparent she maintained no hard feelings about him kidnapping either of the two girls. The two others led Haruka to the couches by the fireplace, Luna and Haruka sitting on a loveseat type of couch, and Chris sitting across from them in a single plush chair.
"Now", he began "I'll start by saying that my name is Kurt." He was expecting Haruka to reply with her name, but when she didn't and just met him with a stone cold glare, he continued. "And this is my tea lounge. Welcome." He said trying to pull a warm and friendly smile through the fear that Haruka projected in him.
Haruka gave a disturbing mock laugh. "Well, mister cordial, as you seem so inclined to know, my name is Haruka." It was only after she said that, she realized she had never even introduced herself to Luna. Well that explains her calling me 'ma'am' and 'miss' so much.
"Nice to meet you Haruka!" Luna smiled up at her. Haruka just grunted quietly as she glanced sideways at her.
"Now please don't take offense to this, but the reason I brought you here was because I thought you were male…and I later found that wasn't exactly the case." He said and Haruka buried her face in her hands. "I had to take Luna too, I couldn't leave her, and I had to put her out to get to you."
"Why the hell did you want a male?" Haruka said from through her hands.
"Oh…uh…well, you know, it gets so lonely living alone in the forest. If there's no one to share tea with, then what's the point of having a tea lounge in the first place?" He said, and looked very sad. It made Luna sad to see him in this state; he looked as if he could break into tears at any moment.
"Tea lounge? This place sounds more like a rape dungeon." Haruka snapped back looking up.
"Wait," Luna said in her inquisitive voice. "If it's so lonely, then why do you live out in the forest like this?"
Kurt looked down for a moment while remembering a memory he had wished to cast aside. "Well I recently graduated from high school, and it was my dream to be on Broadway. Sadly though, I didn't get into the college I wanted to enroll at. So…I just pursued my second life choice- to live a life of solitude in the forest. To live a life filled with warm, refreshing, herbal liquid." He proudly displayed a china tea cup filled with some kind of brew; the somber expression that once filled his face was now gone and replaced with one of pride.
I swear this man goes through more mood swings than Michiru ever did, any time of the month. Haruka thought recalling her touring girlfriend whom she missed dearly. She was due to return in just two more weeks. I wonder if she knows I'm missing.
"Right…" she began. "Well, I'm an incredibly famous, incredibly rich, racer. And I have an incredibly famous, incredibly rich, girlfriend back home." She put sarcastic emphasis in her words to get her warning to him through. "And I should be going home, I'm certain my daughter and roommate are worried sick, if they aren't dead."
Luna looked up for the first time since she met Haruka, wearing an expression of panic. "But Haruka!" she said without the dreamy tone, but maintaining the light voice. "You can't go! I can't take you! They will use magic to get information about me from you; and worse, they might hurt you!"
Haruka could tell that the girl was on the verge of tears, and she was most obviously distraught. And sure, Haruka did feel bad about the thought of Luna getting caught and treated with the severity of the charges against her. If the explosion back at the mansion was any indication, those men weren't human and could present trouble. She sighed out loud having reached her answer for now, and what seemed to be her only option. "Alright, I'll stay. For now at least."
Luna cheered and hugged her, and Kurt was smiling from his seat at the couch. As much as Haruka terrified him, he could tell she had a good heart inside of her. He did understand how horrible she must feel about her family's safety but not being able to do anything about it, to protect her own, and the safety of someone who was not much more than a stranger.
Haruka thought of the information she hadn't been told since they arrived in the blasted forest. "Say, where are we anyway?"
Kurt answered to her while he took a sip from his tea cup. "Not far from Cleveland, Ohio. That's in America, in case you didn't know, judging by your accents, neither of you are from this country."
Luna didn't recognize the name, so that didn't do anything to help explain how they got there. Maybe she read about the place or saw a picture.
They made small talk after Kurt lit a fire. Luna rekindled her wizard talk with Kurt and Haruka shut her eyes to listen to her tales of magic creatures and her friends at 'Hogwarts' the girl told. They were like the fairy tales she was told as a child, and later told Hotaru when the girl was younger; and they relaxed her mind from stressing a bit. Haruka found it truly amusing that Kurt believed her stories fully, the selling piece was her 'wand'.
As the night wore thin, Haruka decided she ought to shower as she hadn't had the opportunity in the morning. Kurt was kind enough to lend her some clothes, of which were thankfully her size, and even a similar style to her own fashion wear.
The tea lounge had just one spare room and at the moment they were debating who should sleep in each room.
"I don't trust you with her!" Haruka was yelling at Kurt. She did not trust men whatsoever, and he did kidnap them after all. No matter how nice he appeared; this just proved her point. Kurt was offended by this, as he was most obviously gay, then her distrust in him would be for his character not sexuality, and in his opinion thought he had a friendly and trustworthy outward personality.
"I could say the same for you." He offered back, angering her as she did him. Did everyone see her as just a predatory, butch, lesbian? It sure seemed so.
"Kurt, don't take what she says to heart. She just doesn't like popular men." Luna said to reassure him. "And if neither of you trust me with each other, then you two can share a bed."
Haruka stepped back and held her hands up in defense. "I'm sorry, but I do NOT sleep with men. I'll just take the couch." She went and got a pillow and a blanket from the stack Kurt had pulled out, and brought it to the couch.
"Oh but you can't!" Luna said. "It's bad for back support." Haruka groaned; there was no way for her to win with these people.
"You choose then!"
"Ok…hmm well, Haruka is really cuddly," at that the girl mentioned blushed slightly, a rare thing for her. "I don't know if Kurt is or not, but he did kidnap me." She was holding a finger to her chin thinking over the two options. It was such a simple thing to pick in Haruka's eyes, but this was taking a ridiculously long time.
Haruka wasn't sure why she was so set on the personal safety of Luna, especially since in the back of her mind she knew she might later have to kill her, if she were an enemy.
Kurt gave in, he was too tired to continue the conversation, and he didn't really care as much as Haruka where the girl ended up. "Okay, how about until you know that I'm trustworthy, you can sleep with Haruka?"
Luna nodded as they reached a conclusion, and the three bid each other a good night. Haruka tucked Luna in before climbing in beside her. She lay on her side facing away from Luna, but felt the girl wrap her arms around her stomach and nuzzle into her back. Its apparent Luna doesn't know about a thing called 'personal space'. But she didn't mind really. It wasn't long after Luna's soft snoring noises could be heard that she succumbed to sleep herself and could let her mind be at ease from all thoughts of the situation at hand, and her life so far away…
Thus concludes chapter 2, introduced was Kurt from glee, if you didnt know where h came from. Anyway, Please review! I love them reviews! I noticed this gets a lot of views but not comments. It takes just a few seconds and can be anonymous if you want. Anyway, they are encouraging.
Until next chapter, toodaloo~
