Welcome to Gaia! ::

The music room of the old community center was a source of happy and heated memories for the dark senshi of Tumbleweeds. It was where she'd met her Fiyero, stumbling upon him while he played a passage from a story that now held a lot of personal significance to the both or them. They'd left little gifts for each other, used it as a meeting place and safe haven. Free from prying eyes and judgement.

The mirror in the basement was still intact, and Navi slipped through it with practiced ease before edging around the ever growing collection of outdated holiday decorations and forgotten props and customs. The miscellaneous collection of objects had never held her attention.

She mounted the stairs, heels clicking loudly along the tiled floor as she made her way down the hall towards the music room, but tonight she didn't linger there, instead she grabbed one of the old violins that had been donated. It wasn't her instrument of choice, but as of late she had been taking to learning the other members of the strings family. Her instructor thought it would help her grow. She tuned it as she walked, plucking lazily at the strings as she continued to climb stairs until she got to the top floor, then used a window and the fire escape to reach the roof.

By the time she'd stepped up onto the edge the strings had been tightened appropriately and she'd begun to play. It was not a classical piece meant for the instrument she was currently playing, but then she always had been good at improvising to fit whatever she'd had a mind to play.

So she pulled the bow long the strings, humming along in steadier cords. The song was one of her favorites, belonging to an up and coming band that had seemed to come out of nowhere and was taking the radio by storm. She played, singing along in her own head, and moved along the roof top, dancing to her own music.

There had been no prearranged plans to meet tonight, and really, her own rooftop would have been fine for practicing, but Navi preferred the community center. For one, it was much more private. Her and Quinn's apartment had become distinctly crowded of late.

For another thing, there was a better then average chance that a certain Senshi of Danger would turn up.

She felt him coming from a ways off, and it left a pleased little smile curling along pink lips as she continued to play. Tracking his movements as he approached the community center and then made his way up to join her on the roof. Hazel eyes already there to meet him.

As much as the cello was her first love, she had to admit the mobility of the violin certainly held it's own appeal. It meant she was free to move closer, hips swaying in time to the song as she continued to play, though the humming was momentarily paused as his question made her chuckle.

She turned on her heal, falling back until she was leaning against his chest, looking up at him with an impish grin. "Never," she assured him, drawing the bow across the strings. "Just branching out a little." The song was almost over, and she pushed up from him again, concentrating on her playing as she hummed the last few cords, ginger curls swirling along her cheeks and shoulders with every rhythmic movement.

As it ended she let the instrument drop from her chin and took the three quick steps that would being her back to him. Violin bow raising to tuck beneath his chin. "Welcome to the new age," she purred up at him, words sing-song as she forced his head up with the tip of the bow before letting it fall away. She transferred it to her other hand, then reached up to tuck fingers at the back of his neck so she could pull him down to her.

The night was looking up.

Lost in the feel of his lips, half gloved fingers didn't even tighten as he moved to steal the violin from her. It had ginger brows twitching upward, soft, pale lips twitching up in an amused smile when he slipped away and began strumming along the strings. "The piano isn't fancy?"

If he was going to try to annoy her, then she'd just have to return the favor. Her heels clicked along the roof top as she moved up behind him, one delicate hand raising to rest on his back as the other brought the bow up, pressing the wood against his cheek. "So how long did it take you to commit Exile Vilify to memory, hmm?" About as long as it'd taken her to read through the copy of Wicked he'd left for her..

The bow moved away from his cheek as she stepped around him, falling to the ground beside her as she let it drop. She caught the orange and black striped length of his tie instead, twisting it around her hand as if she were reeling him in.

She didn't really care how he played the violin, she wasn't paying it any mind.

Now that he was here she was finding it difficult to remember what had brought her there in the first place if not simply to wait for him to join her. Thinking had always been a bit of a challenge when he was around, but they'd decided sometime ago to stop letting their heads and logic get in the way of something they both wanted.

Slender fingers tightened, and she gave his tie a tug, pulling him down for an encore of the kiss that was still even now tingling along her lips.

Grus stepped lightly from the fire escape, humming to herself a merry tune. Her spirits were high, and instead of focusing on her surroundings, her mind was tangled in a web of excitement, and nerves. The recent fireworks show and the unexpected meeting with Micah had really hit it home that she might just have a chance to tell Nate how she felt. Or even that he felt the same way. The very thought made her heart jump and skip in a pleasing manner, and her grinned broadened as her hummed song reached its chorus. The streets were quiet for the hour she had been out and about, so her guard certainly wasn’t up. She leaned against a heating system on top of the roof and pushed off of it, spinning a circle or two before coming to a stop with her arms out from her sides and her skirt flapping against her legs, releasing a few red feathers. It wasn’t hot like the daytime could be, the light breeze kept her cool. A perfect day to patrol.

She leapt from her rooftop to another, feeling the tingling sensation that signaled another senshi. It was powerful enough for her to recognize an Eternal signature, and her chest seemed to contract a little. Perhaps Chaonis was out patrolling as well? She happily ventured toward the signal, thinking of what she was going to say.

It was when she got closer that she realized that his signature masked another, darker signature. She realized that it was like Leto’s, and her boots froze in their place while a new emotion mixed into her heart: fear. There was a Dark Mirror Senshi about, and near to Chaonis at that. While she had no doubt that senshi of Danger could take care of himself, she still continued forward, hoping that he was alright.

The signals were right next to eachother, and Grus hid behind an elevator shaft top, listening intently for the ruckus of battle. But nothing came. No shouts, rumbling or anything at all besides….music. There was light music from something with strings. Her head tilted to one side. Strange.

When she came from behind the elevator shaft, she saw on the next rooftop over that it was indeed Chaonis, and another she could only assume was the Dark Mirror senshi. She held something against his chin from behind, while Chaonis remained motionless. Then she was in front of him, and as she reached for him, his hand caught her wrist, and Grus caught her breath. He wasn’t fighting like he usually did. Something was wrong with this picture.

Her senshi instinct took over, and she braced herself, running and leaping the gap between their buildings. She skidded to a stop, shouting “Chaonis!” while silently preparing to attack the red-head that he had a hold of. “Are you alright!?”

Chaonis was not expecting to see the woman that came up to them now. Grus, the very last senshi he ever wanted to find out about his liaison with the Chaos DMC, had arrived on the scene and he had not been aware enough to stop her. He took an immediate step to the side, away from Navi.

"Grus," he said stiffly, clearing his throat. All of his normal confidence had drained from his face and he looked very tense. He was caught with his hand in the cookie jar, so to speak, and he was not sure how to react. He realized that if he acted guilty, he looked guilty, so he smiled at her.

"Welcome to the party. Didn't expect to see you out here."

He looked at Navi, wondering how she was going to play it. He was leaning towards pretending he had been about to fight her, like they were proper enemies, but that was only because it was the easiest answer in the moment. It meant less trouble right now, though maybe more later.

Chaonis was not good with emotions, or feelings. His own, or others. Unfortunately, the two people that made him feel the most at any given moment were surrounding him.

His instincts told him to get the hell out of there.

When no one attacked her the tension began to seep out of Eternal sailor Navi until she was left with foreboding and dread. It showed on her face as she watched Grus step closer to Chaonis, hazel eyes flicking from one to the other before finally settling on the other woman. She didn't know her name. They had never crossed paths before, and She and Chaonis didn't spend their time exchanging stories about their lives.

She still didn't know what to do, but starting wide eyed and guilty want going to solve any problems. So she took a breath, held it for a handful of seconds, then let it out slowly. Any obvious sign of lingering nerves flowing out with it.

One dainty hand rose from her side to cup her hip, weight shifting to the opposite foot. She looked calm, collected, maybe even as little cocky, and only her Fiyero would know the act was a lie.

"Fear not little dove, He has nothing to fear from me." She smiled, head tilting to one side to send ginger curls sliding across her cheek. "And neither do you."

She would try to brush this off, make it seen like she'd been trying to talk him into joining her own court. Even if she had to choke on the irony.

It was a toss up really, if it was wiser to avoid a fight, or hope one broke out. All she knew for certain was that she wouldn't be the one to start it. At least not physically.

Grus frowned as Navi decided to speak. She didn't care for her attitude in the slightest, and when she said that they didn't have to fear her, she shifted uncomfortably. She was holding herself back for some reason. This was a dark mirror senshi. They attacked her and countless others for their energy.

And yet Chaonis was just standing there. Even more odd, he told Grus that they should just leave. Not fight, leave. Grus turned to look up at the Senshi of Danger's face, searching for something, anything, that would clue her into the situation. None of this was right. Her face held a questioning look.

"You're lying." she stated, turning back to Navi with anger instead of suspicion. Her arms went up into a fighting stance, and she shifted her legs apart, just like she was taught. "I don't know what is going on here, but you've done something to him. And I'm not leaving until your hold on him is gone." What was her sphere? Hypnotism? Calmness? Whatever it was, she had made her friend docile.

She broke the tension between the three by calling out "Feather-Fall Strike!" and aiming the sharp feathers at Navi. Maybe without eye contact, Chaonis would return to normal. The cloud formed and swirled toward the other girl, picking up speed as it went.

This was getting out of hand. First Grus launched her attack, and then Navi very nearly followed suit with her own. He moved to step between them before he really knew what he was doing, lifting up his hands to separate the two of them.

"Stop it, both of you. Okay. This is weird. Usually I'm all for fighting, but let's just call it a night and go our different ways, okay? Grus, come on. It's not worth it. Navi..." he looked at her, and that was his mistake. He had seen her looks before, pleading him not to leave her, but what choice did he have? He was a White Moon senshi, and so was Grus. More than that, they had their own history together that he, as the fine, upstanding senshi he was, had not told Navi about. He certainly had not told Grus about the DMCer.

Was this what guys on two dates at the same time felt like?

Those movies were generally awful.

"I don't want to fight, and I don't want to see either of you fighting. So let's just drop it and ******** off out of here, okay?" He looked at Grus, dark eyes burning intently. "Okay?" He was asking her to trust him when she had no real reason to. He had lied to her so far, and if he could get away with it, he would avoid explaining himself any more than he already had.

Something told him he wouldn't be able to avoid it for long.