Welcome to Gaia! ::

The tiny brunette was something of an enigma, showing up when she was least expected or wanted, seemingly out of the blue. In truth, Little Star had taken up residence in a quaint little alley, beside a kindly old woman who jittered a bit too much, and an old man who looked at her blearily and asked her if she had any liquor.

She was a little bit dirty, her fuku a bit grimy, her wings not exactly white anymore. Still, she approached the other Senshi with a smile on her face, and clambered up on the bench beside her, sitting too close for conventional manners.

"Hnnh!" She murmered at Virgo, and patted her on the leg.

Little Star just stared at Virgo cocking her head at "parents"; a few people had asked her this question, but Little Star had no idea what they were talking about. Little Star really only knew that she was looking for something, and unfortunately for both of them, Virgo wasn't it.

But it was cold and Virgo was crying and Little Star was entirely too curious. Standing up on the bench, Little Star gingerly grasped Virgo's face and turned her towards her, squishing Virgo's cheeks a little humourously.

Little Star's eyebrows were set and she was pouting a bit, and you could feel the gears working in her head before she opened her mouth.

"Good one," She repeated in a lisping, soft voice. She smiled winningly up at Virgo.

It was cold outside, Spring only barely sprung, and Little Star nodded as she shivered, rubbing up against Virgo as if she could take on some of her body heat with a tight enough hug. She was a baby, but she smelled of the street, and of despair and crushed hope, but she smiled through all of it as if she didn't care-- or was just too young, or too innocent, to realize.

Little Star had no idea what Virgo was talking about concerning apples and eyes, and she just looked at her blankly, before yawning widely, and leaning even closer to Virgo, close to tipping over in to her lap.

The last thing she had eaten was the strange flat cake the girl with the big hair had given her the dark before, and she was hungry, but hadn't figured out how to ask for food unless said food was out and she could gape at people like a tiny bird.

"Good one," Little Star confirmed, her stomach grumbling, flopping in to Virgo's lap.

Thankfully for Virgo, her trip back to Crystal was uneventful, her passenger lulled to sleep by Virgo's quick pace. It was right before curfew, and most girls were already in their rooms, only their desk light's glimmering under their doors. Elke Arma was the one who entered the gates of Crystal Academy, her tiny passenger resting on her hip.

There were footsteps coming from the opposite direction, one pair brisk, the other soft and a bit harried. Turning the corner were Hero and Aurelia, both murmuring good night to Elke, Hero reaching to squeeze Elke's shoulder. They passed Elke, still talking between themselves, Aurelia's black book nowhere to be seen.

That was, until Hero stopped dead in her tracks, and turned (about-face!), a look of abject consternation on her face.

"Miss Arma, is that a child on your person?"

Aurelia was less quick on the uptake, walking several paces before noticing that Hero was not walking with her.

"Miss Arma, should we continue this conversation elsewhere? Preferably in your rooms?"

The sound of girls laughing echoed down the hall.

She let herself be sequestered, thinking that she had never seen Hero make that face before. Similar faces, maybe. Not quite that one, though, and she wished she had her camera to record this momentous occasion. She had, in fact, picked up her Nikon the second they'd stepped inside her room. Though she had a good angle and good light, she hadn't raised it to capture the dumbfounded look. It kind of seemed like that would be one of the Worst Ideas Ever, at least right now.

Now she was bracketing the little senshi, trying without avail to rub some of the grime from the brown curls. No effect, unfortunately--could senshi take baths? Would that help?

The Zodiac soldier startled at her name, and smiled sheepishly at Hero. "In the street," she said, "by herself--she was hungry, so I--no, no one saw me, I don't think, the secretary wasn't there."

She was looking at Hero, a little guilty. "She just came up to me. I didn't... steal her or anything."

"Kind? Yes," said their Captain. "Practical? This is a fully transformed senshi, Elke. God only knows who could be sensing her right now."

Actually, there didn't seem to be a lot of energy coming off the little girl in the first place. It was subtle. A hint of warmth. A fully transformed senshi, but not blaring at full bore. Seeing her expression Hero amended: "There's nothing to do for it now. Miss Thorne."

'Miss Thorne' was still busy making airplanes into the little girl's mouth. She was yumming up the pasta with enthusiasm now, gaping like a baby bird expectantly for the next bite as the plastic spork got reloaded. She'd put up manfully with the face-wiping. It was always a little amazing, exactly how much Aurelia could multitask. "Yes?"

"If you could, please go and politely request Mi -- Miss Jacobs' phone. She'll still be awake." One of Aurelia's eyebrows had lifted. "Politely. No, wait: please ask if she could ask Luna to stop by Chronos' room, that's better."

It was a little arrogant in the first place to assume that Miriam would have done all this and not ask questions, and illogical to assume that Aurelia wouldn't have done what Aurelia always did: explain, tersely. Soldier Virgo had taken on the onerous duty of feeding the small senshi (and their Captain wished that the Princess would come back to her room) when, unsurprisingly, the door reopened and Miriam Jacobs accompanied Aurelia through it.

Hero had been pacing. Elke was on her knees scooping up chicken pieces, cooing baby babble. And on the bed was a little henshined girl with wings who did not look the least bit put out at any of it, though in another life she had looked into the face of Captain Kunzite and gargled blood in her face.

(If there was red on her mouth now, it was pasta sauce.)

"I should've guessed," said the first Zodiac, who hadn't even noticed that her roomie wasn't paying any attention to her. "Thank you for coming, Jacobs -- Jacobs?"

As far as 'evenings that started out with bawling your eyes out on a street bench' went, this one was pretty good. Elke had decided taking a picture of the little senshi was a bad idea--her family wouldn't recognize her, for one, and for another Aurelia might have died of shame if anyone ever had proof of her cooing over anything. She glowed at the compliments, and then looked to the little girl. "I dunno, she repeated some of what I said..."

She looked down at her knees, and then said, "She can't be older than four, she can't even talk," like it excused putting her Princess in danger. It didn't, especially not right now, but there were three Zodiacs there. She doubted anything bad could happen, but was still grateful for the distraction of feeding the small senshi. It was something of a new experience--she didn't have any little siblings at all. Feeding children was not on her resume (it was now).

At Miriam's entrance, she looked up and tilted her head a bit in confusion. Well, seeing a little girl done up like a senshi had to be something of a shock, but--

"Sailor Nova," she repeated, trying to remember where she'd heard that name before. Then she asked, "Are you okay?" It looked kind of like Miriam was going to pass out, or something.