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"See you soon!"

Alba allowed her phone lid to snap to a close and slip back into subspace. Much like Simon, the Costa Rican's nights were consumed with essays and tedious note-taking. Very rarely did she go out to patrol on a school night, and when she did, it was always with the company of another senshi. She had taken time out in her day schedule to train on her own when her body could handle it and her work-load was low, but for the most part, her days and nights have been the most uneventful in what seemed like at least a few weeks. She remembered the last time she saw Atlas and the rest of the team in that tiny wooden cabin, and more importantly, what brought them there to begin with.

The idea alone was mind boggling. It was hard for Alba to wrap her head around the mere thought of space travel without the aide of a rocket, or to be able to cruise past their own gravitational pull around the sun. If scientists haven't done it before, how could they? Magic can only go so far .....right?

A worrisome expression settled across her face as she stood up from her desk and pushed the chair in. Her hand reached for a sweater that had been dangling from her bed, and after making sure that she had her keys and a regular cell-phone, she walked out of the suite and locked the door behind her. She wasn't sure where either of her roommates were, though she had appreciated the quiet morning their absence had provided.

Alba walked past Simon's dorm and turned a corner that revealed a community room, complete with a few couches, a table, a tv nestled in the top-right corner of the ceiling for students to use to their leisure if they didn't already have one in their rooms. She spotted Simon seated on one of the sofas, idly playing with his hands as he waited for her arrival. It was a welcoming sight to see that he hasn't changed too terribly much since she first met him.

"Hey!" She greeted as she leaned forward to give him a hug before sitting down beside him. "Thanks for taking time to meet with me. How are you doing? I'm sorry I don't call more often. School's been busy, and so have been...other stuff, as you know."

Alba really was lucky that she had such a polite and caring friend in Simon, as she was completely oblivious to any personal boundaries she might have been crossing with her overtly friendly hug. It was never her intention to make her friends feel uncomfortable, and she'd more than likely become embarrassed and reclusive for a few days should she find out that, despite all of her best intentions, she was.

"Yeah," She agreed sheepishly. "There really isn't a good excuse. Life's just been flying so quickly, and it's more difficult to get around with two roommates to look out for." By the end of the semester in the Crystal Academy, she'd even gotten used to not worrying about her roommate catching on at all, considering she was the one and only Sailor Bellatrix. It might even be safe to say that she'd become lazy in those last months of school when it came to masking her identity within their dorm. Once she moved to Sovereign Heights, she had to start completely over and find a safe route to get in and out through her window without making any noise.

"Well," She began, unsure where to begin. "You know how Carter spoke to us about the star? He's beginning to talk more about it, as though he's been there a few times and it's really beginning to worry me. He normally drops his ...um...flights of fancy, for lack of a better term, after a while. This has been growing."

"You think maybe he's stressed out and retreating to a fantasy world? Should we do something for him?"

Two things had been made very clear to Simon: One, that Alba genuinely cared about Carter and was worried for his well-being. Two, that she was still in denial of space travel, and had obviously made no further attempt to connect with her power signature.

His silence didn't faze her, or at least, it hadn't yet. She assumed that at its worst, Simon hadn't heard anymore tales of Merope and was only just then privy to that information and needed a few moments to think on it and react accordingly. Alba was happy to wait for him to come to his own conclusion, though when he finally spoke, it caught her off guard.

"What are you talking about?"

Alba was perplexed, and expressively so: her knitted brows looked as though they could almost touch were they just a few centimeters longer. Simon was usually one of the more grounded people she knew in Destiny City, and whether that was because he maintained a "play it safe" philosophy and hardly got into trouble when he was the only person in the equation or not, it didn't really matter. At the end of the day, if she needed to sit down and express her concern over an unrealistic obsession, he should be the one to realize along side her how impossible such a feat sounded and how unhealthy it is for someone to obsessive over it. She shook her head in disbelief.

"It makes no sense. How can we go into space without a ship? How can we breathe without oxygen? There's magic, and then there's traveling light years in a span of a few seconds." Still, she could feel his somber eyes pierce through her denial.

"It makes no sense." She repeated again, pleading.

"What...?"

Alba was at a loss. It had taken her a long time to really accept her status as a senshi, and what kind of responsibility that had implied. It's not that she didn't enjoy drifting out of reality every now and then; she had a creative soul, and with that came the mind of a dreamer. She had aspirations, she's had the occasional and self-indulgent day-dream when she found it impossible to concentrate in class. When she slept, it rarely felt like a blink of an eye.

She knew what they were, though, in the end: simply dreams and fantasies. Alba could wish with all of her might for the ability of flight. Transforming may take her a few steps closer to that desire, though the ground is never too far off from each leap. Alba was also aware that Simon knew all of these things and harbored that harsh reality more than she ever had in her life.

She couldn't break away from his eyes. "I......" Her voice faltered. She could not accuse him of lying. She couldn't ever accuse him of something so mistrustful.

So she hung her head, letting her hair cover her confusion. "....I don't know what to say."

Simon's hand was a reassuring touch against her shoulder, and Alba couldn't help but lean against it as he spoke. This wouldn't be the first time he'd encourage her to try something that was completely out of her comfort zone, though to be fair, the last time resulted in the newly learned ability to leap to the tallest of buildings. She remembered how terrified she was, teetering over the edge of the roof that belonged to the Destiny City Library.

In the end, though, she had clasped her fingers around his and made the leap and survived to tell the tale. Granted, jumping off of a building and potentially star-trekking around the universe were two very different things, and the latter was just a little difficult for Alba to swallow.

She took a deep breath before looking up. Space was a frightening thought for her, and this fear played a big part as to why any real attempts were never made to call her star. "I suppose....if this does work, I'd rather not do it alone the first time."

It was about as much of an acceptance as Simon was going to get from the stubborn girl. Alba pushed herself off the couch and joined him, closing his room's door behind shut.

While most girls would have given a long side-glance at the towel stuffing, Alba instead noted how clean and tidy Simon kept his dorm. She understood his situation all too well, and would have most likely done the same thing if Gloria didn't listen to her Lucha music so loudly and so often during the day. Alba never had to worry about how much noise was emitted from her room, as intense Mexican Thrash Metal would be playing only a few feet away and muffle any out.

Of all things to be feeling on edge about, though, was his suggestion to powering up. "Are there youma up there?" It was a silly question, but one had to be sure if they were going to be battling against space monsters or not. The more obvious answer would have been the need for two powered bodies to make the transfer easier, but as it was, Alba wasn't thinking very clearly and was beginning to show more signs of a nervous Simon than her usual confident self.

Still, transform she did, with all its twirls and sparkles that came with it; it was a wonder that the Mau weren't secretly apart of the Village People, for all that glamour and stage presence. With every ribbon and accessory in place, Sailor Alcyone smoothed down the pleats to her skirt and sat down next to Atlas.

"I admit, it's a little hard to relax...I haven't really done this before." She mumbled, for the first time feeling a bit embarrassed. "I might have heard something before, but it kind of startled me. I might have thrown the phone across the room. Though....I'll try."

With that said, Alcyone did the one thing that has helped her relax before in the past: she moved her hand until it was touching besides Atlas's, and interlocked a pinky finger for good measure.

As a little girl, Alba had been raised by a very hands on approach between her parents and abuelos. She had grown and formed her own social tendencies through the delicate and subtle hands and arms and embraces of the people she loved, and on the way learned to reciprocate those traditional gestures. It was unheard of to not embrace the close friends that surrounded your life, or to kiss their cheeks and foreheads when greeting or bidding good-bye. It was an intimate community, and one that was hard to let go when she moved away to pursue a higher education within established universities of the United States. It was even more difficult to tone down her love of people, as it came quite clear that what was normal practice in her family and home was a bit of a stigma in this foreign country.

Still, more often than not do her habits re-surface among her established friends of Destiny City, whether it's from becoming more comfortable around them or from feeling a strong emotion of some kind, such as excitement or suppressed maternal instincts. In this case, Alcyone was overwhelmed by how vulnerable and anxious she felt on top of Atlas's bed, waiting for a dramatic event to take place. She didn't know how it was going to happen, how fast it would take or if it would even hurt in the process; her only knowledge was that it was far away, and it was new and strange and there was no excitement for it just yet.

She had to go into it slowly, like testing out a pool with a toe before jumping in.

Atlas's hand made a world of a difference to her nerves, however, and she gently squeezed his fingers in appreciation. Along with the aide of his voice, Alcyone managed to breathe in deeply and exhale out her nervousness, most of her attention focused on her hand-hold and his softly spoken words as white noise. Her heart beat quickened as a different tune, fuzzy at first, grew clearer the longer she concentrated on it. It was a familiar melody, even more familiar than when she briefly heard it a few nights ago and had, as a result, pushed it away.

This time she could almost feel every note like a vibrato on a string, slowly played by the bow of a lone cello. It was deep and honeyed, welcoming and heart-breaking, and it called to her.

Though still afraid, she put up a front in order to move forward. If she didn't go now, she'll likely never will. ".........Yes."