Welcome to Gaia! ::

Mili walked in the door after a long day of school. She set down her bag, and then haphazardly kicked off her shoes which sent them flying down the hallway. They hit the floor with two thuds.

Her father, Georg, and her lived in a large house along with her two boring goldfish, Finny and Fanny. No one seemed to notice the noise she made, this was usual. Her father was always in his study working, and the fish were fish and really didn't notice much of anything. Mili desperately wished she had a dog that would come running out from where it was sleeping, and knock her over with excitement.

But Father wouldn't let her have a dog. Too much work to take care of, and too much fur to shed on the furniture.

She paused and took in the silence of the house. She thought about the way things used to be before Mother died. How lively everything was; how right now she would be coming out of the kitchen to greet Mili with fresh cookies from the oven and a big hug and kiss.

The constant silence of the Ludkhannah house was unnerving sometimes.

Mili shook it off and walked up the tall, grand staircase to her room. She turned the golden-colored doorknob, pushed the door open, shuffled over to her bed, and flopped down on it with a big sigh. She really didn't feel like doing her homework.

The best distraction Mili used when she didn't want to do homework was her computer chess program. It kept her sharp. She needed to practice more so that she could make first board of the team this year. Plus, Father couldn't get upset at her for it because it was a pretty academic pastime.

Time went by, and Mili wasn't aware of it at all until her stomach began to growl. She clenched a her abdomen, and paused the game. Mili got up and went to forage for food. As she was on her way down the stairs, her father was on his way up them.

"Ah Milla," he said in a warm voice, "just who I was coming to see". Mili gave him a hug, "What can I do for you, Father?" she replied with a bit of a bite. She knew it must be something important if he left his study for it.

"What? Can't a dad just come and say hello to his daughter without wanting anything in return?"

Mili knew her tone gave her away; she knew that he knew that she was onto him. "Yes. Yes he can. But if you just wanted to see me you could have done that hours ago when I got home."

A frown came across his face, "Hey now, you know I'm busy. This house, your fancy private school, and the life to which you've become accustomed to don't pay for themselves." He shook his head and then sighed, "Listen, I just wanted to let you know that I've been called out of town on an important business meeting, and that I'll be gone for a couple days. I'm leaving you money so you can buy yourself some meals. I leave tonight."

Mili sat down on the stairs and folded her arms. With a scowl she replied, "Fine. Not like having you here does me any good anyway. I don't need you around."

"Don't be like that Milla. I don't want the last thing we say to each other to be part of a fight... you never know what's going to happen... if it may be your last time speaking to me..." He trailed off. Father turned from Mili and waited before heading down the stairs. He stopped at the foot of them and spoke with his back to her, "I never got the chance to say good bye to your mother; I regret this every day."

Mili sat there until she heard him walk away and the sound of his study door shutting behind him. Then she got up and went back into her room, ignoring the twinge of hunger she had, and went back to her chess game.

Mili walked back to her room with her head hung low. How could she have been so careless to be found out? What kind of sailor senshi was she?

A pathetic one. That was for sure.

She was great at fighting, great at winning, yes. But, she really wasn't good at all the other stuff that came along with it. Things like keeping a secret identity. Okay, it was only one person that found out, but still that was one too many. And it wasn't even some she really knew.

Mili liked Danika, she really did. There was something about that girl that drew Mili to her, and she couldn't put her finger on it. At the same time though, she didn't exactly want Danika knowing her deep, dark, dirty, senshi secret.

When Mili arrived at her room, she paused for a moment at the door before continuing. She turned and rested her back against the door, and then slowly slumped and slid to the ground. For whatever reason, she wanted to stay out in the hallway.

Or maybe she just wanted to avoid her room. In there, she could lose her cool, and have a breakdown because there was no one there to see it. Publicly, Mili had a reputation to uphold. She couldn't risk anyone seeing her as weak or emotional, especially when she couldn't even explain to them why she was so upset.

'Oh no, don't mind me. I'm just upset because my secret identity was found out.'

Ha! That would go over well.

Hopefully, no bad guys ever figure out who she was, or they would come after her friends and family to get to her. Father, Aurora, Danika, they would all be at risk, and that wasn't something she wanted on her conscience. Isn't that why Spiderman kept everything secret for so long?

She banged the back of her head on her door repeatedly. Mili would have to learn to be more careful with her identity in the future. Maybe she could share it with other senshi. Maybe. They could probably be trusted, but it would have to be a "show me your's and I'll show you mine" situation. It was kind of a harsh way to deal with things, but Mili was a harsh person in an even harsher mood. It was being soft that had gotten her in the situation.

Damn. It's not like she didn't want to give her trust away again, and it wasn't like Danika had even told anyone her identity. She was going to be forever wherry now. Forever secret, and forever concerned to keep this mess from happening again.

Mili stood up, ready to face herself, and opened the door to her dorm room. She stared into her mirror, and watched as her tears streamed down her face. She saw her weakness, and vowed to fix it.