Welcome to Gaia! ::

The window that Themis opened was quickly utilized. Taranis ripped the web free, even as bits of it stuck to his hands, and then fell from the tree on to the ground below. He was back on his feet in seconds, hands swirling at his side as he shouted, "Taranis Sand Blast!" The orb was in his fingertips and then launched, twirling right for the body of the spider.

The youma lunged forward at the last instant, dodging the impact on its body and taking it instead on two of its eight legs. Both popped free like icicles snapped from the side of the house. If the youma wasn't mad before, it certainly was now.

The attack brought all of its rage directed at Taranis, and he turned to run. "I'll loop it back to you!" he shouted, going for a wide arc in the park. The youma chased behind, wobbling awkwardly on its six remaining legs. The Senshi of Sand let it tire itself out and then began heading right back for Themis. Hopefully, his senshi pupil had a plan of attack.

Taranis had never been a senshi who needed the vindication of a final blow. He just wanted to survive his battles, not come out as some macho-looking superfighter. If anything, he was just pleased to see how easily Themis assessed the situation and made the right moves to dispose of the youma before it had a chance to attack again.

The eternal senshi finally stopped running once Themis had taken over. His shaggy hair fell across his eyes, and he shoved it back. No matter how many times he did, it still fell back. The boy needed a hair cut. He was in a perpetual state of needing a hair cut.

Crossing back to Themis, Taranis laughed. "You didn't need me at all, Super," he said, hooking a finger at the place where the youma had been. It wasn't like Taranis expected he would. It was more of just something that a former-mentor might say to his impressive once-pupil.

As if on cue, the senshiphone in his pocket buzzed. They weren't supposed to use it for social calls, but when he was in henshin, it was the only way Magellan could reach him. Taranis flipped it open. "Hey," he said, voice softening. It was quite obviously girlfriend voice. The senshi looked awkward for a moment and then tried to keep his voice low. Themis might have heard it in snippets: "Soon... youma dusted... Taco Bell... you bet I want that... I can't wait to... I love you, too." Taranis snapped his phone shut and cleared his throat.

"That was, uh... my girlfriend. If you don't mind, I might cut out early to see her." Dani and Parker had begun having sex. It was often more important to him than his duties as a senshi. He was still a teenage boy, okay. Taranis scratched at the back of his head, tried to play it off. "Girlfriends, you know?"

Taranis liked Themis even more suddenly. Here was a cool, laid-back guy who understood the girlfriend dynamic. Was this... did Taranis feel... friendship? He wasn't friends with many other senshi (or many people in general), but in that moment, the Senshi of Sand felt like inviting Themis to go play video games later or something. Too bad they weren't civilian-friends.

"Yeah, I know what you mean," he said, laughing.

Taranis felt strange sometimes dating another senshi. They liked to patrol together, but now as an eternal, Taranis wasn't sure what other senshi would think to see him grab-assing with Magellan while they were trying to save the world and whatnot. It seemed like Themis wasn't judging him, which put Taranis at ease.

Dusting off his hands, Taranis started heading in the opposite direction. "I'll see you later, Themis. Same time next week?" And then he was off, running back to his apartment to meet Magellan and hopefully to bask in the glory of his new found sex life.

Taranis had gotten an early start and, as an eternal senshi, was naturally a bit faster than Themis anyway. The promise of wasting the night away with Dani was so much that he barely paid attention to the constant buzz of a super senshi aura nearby, not dulling. He was used to it after patrols. Usually he could sense the other sailor for a while before they dulled away.

It was for this reason that Taranis did not notice Themis just a few blocks behind him.

Stopping in his favorite dehenshin location, the Senshi of Sand slid down an alleyway and transformed. He was in such a rush that he failed to take the precaution of ducking inside a doorway and instead revealed himself to be Parker Damhnait in a fairly exposed place. Brushing off the leg of his jeans, Parker looked up -- and found himself staring right at Sailor Themis.

"Uh, um," he stammered, flinching as if he had just been caught naked after a shower. "I was... I'm..." There was no question. Themis had seen him. Themis knew. How could he not? And more importantly, how could an eternal senshi be so goddamn careless? "Well, this is awkward," Parker said, tension in his voice. He scratched at the back of his neck and waited for the other teen to say something.

What did you say at a time like this?

The two stood there, eyes locked for what felt like forever, before Themis finally broke the silence. When he dehenshin'd as well, Parker had to laugh. "You?" he said, raising one eyebrow. "We did laundry next to each other on Saturday. You let me come in through your window that one night when Tate locked me out on the fire escape when it was snowing." There were hundreds of tiny moments like this, glimpses and peeks, but Parker had never actually hung out with this kid beyond the barest sense.

The name though... he knew it... somewhere... Hadn't Tate mentioned it before? She was so much better with the neighbors than he was. "What was it -- Xander? Is that it? I'm Parker. I live with the short-haired girl, Tate, a few floors up." He shook his head, still amazed at this turn of events. "And here I am telling you how low the odds of people we know being powered, and you and I live in the same goddamn building." The scarier part of all of this didn't escape Parker.

What if it had been a Nega coming around that corner?