^^' I know I've got tiny stories spread out around this section in one place or another but I don't feel like making individual boards for one-shots anymore so...... yeah. My one shots will go in here from now on. ^^

Comments allowed: Yes, on any

Links to previous Kyra one-shots/shorts:
Kyra's Writing Contest Entry collection (a lot of my favorite pieces are in here XD)
Transformation - Michiru transforming into Sailor Neptune for the first time
Memories of the Past - SilMil, End of SilMil
Spending a Birthday Alone - Tokyo, Makoto
A Change of Season - Tokyo, post S season, Haruka
Obsession - Pre-Stars, Galaxia
Creation of a Magical Girls Team - Iridescent Tears, original
Villains - Pre-Stars, Aluminum Seiren
Inverted Roles - AU, Moonlight! Inner Senshi / Star Lights story swap
Remember When - Crystal Tokyo, UsagixMamoru
What if...? - AU, EndymionxBeryl
Double Moon Birthday - Tokyo, Usagi and Chibiusa
Song-fic Contest - Tokyo, Minako
Birthday Present - pre-Tokyo, Mamoru
Valentine's Day - Crystal Tokyo, Ceres
Christmas Traditions - SilMil, Endymion and Shitennou
Double Moon Birthday - Crystal Tokyo, Queen Lady Serenity
Neptune and Springtime - SilMil, Neptune
Fairy Tale - Post Crystal Tokyo, Future Serenity heir
Other Reincarnations of Endymion and Serenity - "The Sea" 
Holidays - Nutcracker Suite crackfic?
Letting Go - Post Crystal Tokyo, Future Serenity heir
Creature of the Night - Silver Millennium Selene and Endymion Myth AU
Reincarnation - Modern Day, Artemis (living through all the reincarnations)
Mars, 2062 - Modern Day/Future AU, "Usagi"
Ningyo - Mythical Creature AU, "Haruka" and "Michiru" Writing Guild, *winner
Gold - SilMil, "Zoisite" Writing Guild 
No Regrets ...(Mostly) - Modern Day AU, Usagi Writing Guild

Entropy - Stars Arc, Usagi
Mr. and Mrs. Smith - SilMil AU, Endymion and Serenity
Rebirth of the Stars - Pre-Stars Arc, Kinmoku Senshi (Starlights)
Learning Lunarian - SilMil, Endymion and Serenity (kinda fluffy)
Goodbye - Post-Stars Arc, Usagi, (OWOWOW YES GOOD PAIN :>)
Fairy Tale Ending - Crystal Tokyo, Queen Serenity and Small Lady
A Different Darkness - Pre-Crystal Tokyo, Mamoru (a little scary ooooh)
Go the Distance - Classic Arc, Mamoru (Songfic)

^^ I love comments and reactions and critiques and stuff; please feel free to post a comment/critique/reaction/etc. on this thread at any point for any of the above stories (or right in their little board ^^) or any additional story added here. 


Thanks for reading! 

It hadn’t seemed any different.

Venus summoned and threw her Love-Me Chain outward, whipping it from left to right as she ran to the left in front of the others, covering them as best she could as Jupiter struggled to stand. Somewhere behind her, Mercury worked on Mars diligently, her fingers flying at her computer as a near-hysteric Sailor Moon begged for Mars to wake up. The enemy jumped backwards out of reach and so she dropped the chain, flipped to use up her momentum, and landed with her Crescent Beam already firing in the being’s direction. Her golden light lit up the darkness and found a mark, hitting the enemy squarely in the shoulder. As it recoiled she stood and created a Shower, calling light beams to fall all around it to distract and blind it, if not completely obliterate it. As she kept up the show, she glanced back to see if they were ready to move – they had to leave, to regroup, to have Amy go over the data and try facing it again when they were more prepared – but while Jupiter had made it to her feet, Mars was still down. Mercury was… Mercury had dropped her computer and was trying to support Moon, holding her back; Usagi was completely hysterical, her hands clutching at Mars as Mercury tried to pull her away. Venus steeled herself and thought up a new plan. Mars was gone. They still needed to get away.

“Jupiter!” she directed, nodding her head towards Moon and Mercury, “Get ‘em out of here!”

Makoto nodded, releasing her hold on her bleeding arm as she lurched towards the pair of them; Mercury working even harder now at pulling Usagi off – it was time to go. As she was redirecting her focus at the enemy, Venus caught Sailor Chibi-Moon’s eyes, wide with fear and indecision, and sharpened her gaze. Wake up, little senshi! She thought, her eyes sending an unspoken command as she turned back to the enemy, sensing her energy was nearing depletion. She cut off the shower and ran towards it at full speed, hoping to find a pile of dust but preparing to face whatever had survived. As she ran she summoned her chain to her hands yet again, gripping it tightly between her fists, ready to whip it forward at a moment’s notice; movement caught her attention and she jumped, flipping out of the way of an attack, and rolled back onto her feet, sending her chain flying at the darkness ahead of her.

A blast of energy erupted to her right, missing her completely, and while she hoped it was an attack of desperation, that she had actually blinded the enemy, her eyes followed the trail regardless, her stomach dropping as she realized its intended target. Mercury and Moon were sprawled on the ground away from where they had been, both yelling a name together, their cries enough to tear a person’s heart apart. Jupiter was down.

A tug on her hand brought her straight back to where she was. Hoping Mercury would take whatever time she could offer to get Moon and Chibi-Moon away, Venus pulled right back, angling her foot up to kick at whatever was on the end of her chain. She hit something solid at chin-level, something that gave with the heel of her boot, but before she could jump back and away, something indescribably cold encircled her ankle. She held back a groan of pain as the skin beneath the trap burned and blistered with the temperature, and with a forceful jerk she left the Earth’s surface, spinning in a circle over the creature’s head, her hair flying behind her. She struggled against the stomach-turning acceleration, forcing her arms to move, for her left hand to touch her right arm, her right hand to aim at the area beneath her. One more shot. One more Crescent Beam. Maybe, if she aimed just right… The light exploded from her fingertip, illuminating a dark face with empty eyes, and then she went flying.

The air turned incredibly cold in the second before she landed, the sky hidden from view in a dense fog; Venus smiled – Mercury. Maybe they had gotten away… but as a rush of energy passed beneath her at the speed of light, she knew the wish was too good to be true. A second struck her, flipping her in mid-air; she hit the ground face-first on a rock, and blacked out.
 

She came-to painfully, her head screaming but her heart forcing her to be alive. Usagi… she gripped weakly at the rock, pulling at it to give her enough leverage to slowly raise her head, her eyes moving across the ground, from the red bow that had come undone from her hair, to the Mercury computer, clutched in Ami’s still hands, to Makoto’s green bauble…

“Get behind me, Chibi-Usa,” Usagi said gently, and Venus’s heart hammered weakly in her chest, her stomach flipping as she pulled harder to sit up. ‘No!’ she wanted to scream, but the breath shuddered in her lungs and her bloody mouth refused to cooperate. ‘No,’ she tried again, but nothing came of it. She couldn’t fight it – it would kill her! They had to escape! ‘Usagi, no!’ she put all she had left into trying to speak, but as she felt the glow of the Silver Crystal strengthen, she knew there was no chance of dissuading her. She changed focus, mustering all the power that had left to command, all the energy that remained to her, to give to Sailor Moon. She had to believe in Sailor Moon, she had to believe that she could win! Pulling from her planet’s core, she sent her Venus Planet Power to aid Usagi in her fight… but the light faded and went out far too quickly. Somewhere in front of her she heard Usagi collapse, and Venus’s heart broke.

Angry, desperate, devastated tears welled up in her eyes as her consciousness began to fade. She felt cheated, she felt betrayed by the future they had been shown, the future that had been taken from them by this unknown enemy, and hated herself for letting them engage it so readily. She wasn’t ready for this life to be over. She wasn’t ready to lose everyone. Not yet.

Ahead of her, an airy, whispery-weak voice shakily yelled, “Pink Sugar Heart Attack!” and Venus’s eyes shot open, her heart in her throat as her last thought was of Chibi-Usa, fighting this demon alone.

Svedka Clementine with Orange Ficrequest


“Tall and tan and young and lovely
the girl from Ipanema goes walking…”
 
Minako dropped her bags to the floor and roughly sat down, one elbow on the bar as she stuck the heel of one foot onto the stool’s support and sighed heavily, waving over the barman and pulling out her ID. She was tired, she was airsick, and she was just starting the layover from hell – there was no way she was going to slog through this eight hour stretch without a drink. She flipped through her wallet, looking for some international money as the bartender approached and stood in front of her. Her ID slid across the bar as she finally found and freed some cash, “Yeah, yeah,” she preempted, closing her wallet and putting it back into her travel-purse, “I just turned 21 a few months ago, and ha ha ha,” she flatly fake-laughed, “my birthday did have some bar hopping and I did take advantage of it.” Why did bartenders always ask the same questions, anyway? “I’d like a –“ she glanced up and her drink order lodged itself in her throat and was promptly thrust aside without a second thought, taking back seat to a new tone, a new pose, and a new perspective, “Whatever you suggest,” she finished flirtingly.
 
The bartender was hot. He was hot-hot – beyond hot. Gorgeous tanned skin, long shiny pale hair, piercing eyes, well-trimmed brows, and a beautiful expression that read distinctly ‘I’m done with you and I don’t even know you.” Minako smiled coyly, putting her other elbow on the bar and crossing her arms, leaning in – she’d change that expression. His quirked brow fell and she sensed an unacted-upon eyeroll as he reached for a glass. “Were you looking for a fruity drink?” he inquired, his voice low and silky and positively sinful.
 
“Hmm…” she hummed a noncommittal reply, “I’m not sure,” she slid her elbows together, intertwining her fingers and posing her hands lazily beside her face, close enough to rest her chin on occasionally – guys loved that.
 
He let out a little sigh, “A pina colada?” he guessed.
 
She crinkled her nose and shook her head negatively.
 
“Orange Sunrise?”
 
She shrugged a shoulder coyly, her eyes gliding to the expanse of scotches, bourbons and gins behind him.
 
“Strawberry Daiquiri?”
 
Again a nose crinkle, but she returned her gaze to him, butterflies in her stomach waking up, heart pumping a little faster as he put both elbows on the table, leaning closer to her. True, his expression was of slight annoyance, but she had his attention.  She mirrored his pose, her forehead inches from his as he continued to name off drink after drink – Pierced Navel, Pearl Diver, Island Breeze, Flamingo – and she continued to nonverbally turn each suggestion down.
 
“Sex on the Beach?” he offered, his annoyance now clear in his tone.
 
She smiled annoyingly. “I don’t even know your name yet.”
 
He walked away.
 
Which was not supposed to happen! She straightened and raised her hand, “Wait!”
 
“If you’re not serious about ordering then leave my bar,” he replied, raising his own hand without looking her way, the dish towel in his grasp waving once unceremoniously towards the exit.
 
Sighing heavily, Minako dropped her arm, her elbow back on the bar and her chin in her palm. “Svedka Clementine with an orange wedge,” she called out, absentmindedly tapping her photo ID with her free index finger. Hot guy, long wait, and he wouldn’t even help her pass the time with some good old-fashioned flirting. …but that didn’t mean she couldn’t admire the view, right? She watched him reach up for her choice of vodka and she scowled at the muscles hinted at beneath his black button-up shirt. Handsome, in great shape, takes care of himself – he was probably already married anyway. Else in a committed relationship. Or maybe into guys. Either way, the pretty ones are usually far out of reach and she, poor Minako, would have to find some other way to pass the time.
 
Surprisingly, he returned to her to pour her drink. His cold eyes caught hers with a quizzical expression, as though he were reevaluating her. Part of her immediately ordered she straighten up and turn up the flirting to the next level, but really, what was the point? She was tired and this wasn’t going anywhere. “Straight Vodka?” he invited with a question in his tone, pulling out a cutting board from beneath the bar, and that little voice came back in full force. She kept her cool.
 
“It’s flavored, so not exactly,” she replied with force disinterest.
 
He turned, opened a small fridge, and removed an orange, then expertly drew a small knife from a pocket in his waist apron. “Still,” he replied, cutting into the fruit easily, “No juice, no water,” he sliced a neat slit in the rind and stuck it onto the side of her glass before easily sliding it over to her.
 
She caught it, pulled the orange slice off the side and dropped it neatly into the clear liquid with one hand, and swirled it around a bit to spread the cool ice.
 
“So, you’re in college?” he asked, motioning to the logo on her shirt.
 
She hid her smile – he was sticking around and making small talk? Game on! “Yeah,” she replied, a little more cheerfully, “Are you?”
 
He raised a brow, “Long since graduated.”
 
“Bartending school?” she prodded, hoping for more information.
 
He put a hand on his hip, the other leaning on the edge of the bar as he looked away, “Not exactly.”
 
“Oh?” she continued, “Where did you go? What did you major in?”
 
“Archaeology,” he replied.
 
“Like Indiana Jones?!” immediately her imagination had him in a typical Indiana Jones outfit, with the hat and the shirt and the sand and the adventures – how romantic!  … but wait a moment… “Then why are you bartending at an airport instead of digging up lost relics and mummies?”
 
He stood straighter, crossing his arms as he looked at her – his expression had definitely softened a bit – and replied, “Archaeology jobs don’t pay well, and I was hoping to fly home for the holidays.”
 
She nodded, “How’s that coming along?” She noticed he wasn’t wearing a wedding band.
 
“I should have enough by the end of the week,” he replied.
 
“And where’s home?” she continued, coyly, taking a sip of her drink.
 
He raised a brow, “Tokyo, Japan, if you must know.”
 
!! She nearly spat out her mouthful, but swallowed the burning liquid instead, practically slamming the glass back on the counter – “No way!” she declared, sitting up straight and putting a hand dramatically on her heart, “I’m from Tokyo! That’s where I’m heading now!” She smiled, manner completely changing again, “We could meet up sometime~”
 
He rolled his eyes openly. Arms still crossed, he leaned against the back counter. “So, what are you studying?”
 
--------------------------
And they flirted and whatever and Minako wasn’t alone for the eight hour layover; even when his shift ended he hung around. They got bagels at one of the many coffee shops and their conversation turned to random things. They both enjoyed themselves. Minako learned his name… and slipped him her number before getting in line for boarding.

They’d meet again in Tokyo.

She had lost all feeling in her arms.
 
The realization came to her sluggishly, curiously, as though entering her stubbornly empty mind through the same thick haze that roiled around her charge. She examined this thought, her blank face creasing ever-so-slightly at the inconvenience, for now that she had realized it, she could not ignore it. She flexed one hand experimentally; it responded, but still there was no feeling. She released her hold on the Garnet Rod, stretching her hand outwards, dropping it awkwardly to her side. The pain came quickly, her nerves waking, racing up her arm to alert her mind to the lack of blood flow in that arm. She bore the sting easily, moving her other arm about while keeping a tight hold on her Rod, twisting and turning it to shake her blood through her veins, to “wake” her appendages as quickly as possible, that she may return her full attention to her duty.
 
“What are you doing?” a young voice asked with some amusement.
 
Pluto stopped twirling her staff, quickly planting the key end on the ground beside her as she regained her composure, pushing the blush from her cheeks and calling up her fiercest face. None should be here – but as she found the young girl standing across from her, saw the wide mischievous smile on her face, Pluto’s scowl softened.
 
“It looked like you were practicing a baton routine,” the girl giggled, “Your baton is really big, though! Do you like your big baton?”
 
Pluto’s mouth tugged at the corner, and she quietly whispered her reply through a relaxed countenance. “I do.”
 
“I wish I had a cute baton like yours!” the little girl continued, “My name is Serenity. What’s yours?”
 
Pluto’s staff fell to a neutral position, balancing in her hand as she took in the sight of the young girl with her silver pigtails and silk dress. She knelt down to be on the child’s level, her heart beating slowly as she regarded the round childlike face, the curve of her little cheek, the color of her eyes, their focus somewhere above Pluto’s head. She watched with fascination the girl’s brows tighten and then jump as she continued.
 
“Sailor Pluto? So you’re a guardian? What do you guard?”
 
She watched as the girl took her hands behind her back, rocking slowly as she listened, peering sideways at the door behind Pluto curiously. Pluto balanced her staff in her lap, freeing her hands to wrap around her knees. She smiled softly, noting the small creases in the dress, the tiny freckles across the girl’s nose. Her heartbeat slowed painfully.
 
“The door of time?” the girl repeated, half in awe, half critically.
 
She was right on the line then, between belief and disbelief, her face tilted to the side, deciding whether she would trust Pluto and everything she said. She moved her hands in front of her, clasping them politely as she listened, her head moving slightly to help her eyes see the doors behind Pluto. And then it was there: the hesitant smile, the look of trust, her eyes lighting up as she stepped forward eagerly, little hands by her side as she bravely moved towards Pluto and the door.
 
Pluto’s knees hit the floor, the rod clattering dully as the sound was swallowed by the churning fog surrounding them, but the jostling pain was ignored, pushed aside as her hands  reached out for the little girl, offering a hug. Tears sprung to her eyes as the image finally started to fade, meters out of reach, the little girl still focused at some point above her. “Please,” she found herself whispering, her voice cracking as her lips struggled between smiling and pursing, but still the image faded. Her heart faltered, pain of a different sort flowing through her.
 
Serenity faded completely, the visual manifestation of her memory disappearing as quickly as it had appeared. Pluto’s arms fell, her face still focused on where the girl had been for several long moments after she had gone, willing her back. She did not know why the door did this, or even if it were the door. Was it an attempt to lessen her loneliness? An attempt to remind her of those brief times of happiness amidst and eternity of nothing? Was it trying to be helpful?
 
The image was not returning. Pluto lowered her gaze slightly, her arms moved to hug herself as her heart wept for the girl and her future. For Serenity, beautiful, powerful, and wise, and the fate she did not deserve. And if she were being honest, she would admit some heartbreak was out of self-pity. She was alone, and despite all the lives she knew of, all the stories she could know, she was lonely. Irritation pushed these thoughts away. What kind of self-respecting Guardian was she? To tear up over the loss of an illusion – it wasn’t even flesh and blood. She was stronger than this. She was Sailor Pluto, Solitary Guardian of the Space-Time Door. Her heart still ached, feeling heavy as her arms unfurled, one grasping the Garnet Rod as the other furiously wiped away the tear from each cheek.
 

She stood, regained her composure with a few deep breaths, and resumed her station.