[RL with Simon]

[pinksugargirl]

After talking with Pegasus late into night Chibiusa feel asleep. It wasn't a very deep sleep and she felt restless the whole time. Eventually she woke up again and something didn't feel quite right. She winced a bit as she stretched and yawned. Slowly and groggily she sat up and rubbed her eyes. It wasn't until she actually opened her eyes that things went bad. It was dark. She could barely see what was in front of her. There's no way her attic room would be that dark. Even at night the streetlights and stars leaked their glow into her window.

Frantically she felt around only to have her arm touch something soft...it was skin. Someone else's skin. There was someone lying next to her. Immediately she leaped out of the bed and let out a shrill cry. And as she did she felt a tight pain form in her chest, causing her to scream even more and collapse to her knees.

Comments

[core-digger.livejournal.com]

Simon had been sleeping. Pretty peacefully, too. It was a rarity, since Kamina had died. First, when his guilt had been eating away at him, and then, all the responsibility of being the Leader of the Dai-Gurren-Dan... well, he hadn't exactly gotten any more. So it was groggily that he woke up, when skin touched his... And then the screaming. "Nia?!" He jumped out of bed, his eyes already adjusted to the dark. The voice was young, and it was a girl, but... as he looked at her, he knew. "You're not... Aagh!" He cried, falling to the ground, grabbing his chest in pain. As he fell, he knocked into the newcomer, taking her the rest of the way down to the ground with him.

[pink-sugargirl.livejournal.com]

Chibiusa screamed again out of reflex as Simon landed on her. However as soon as they made contact the chest pain vanished. Frightened out of her mind Chibiusa reached for her pendant but it was anywhere. It had been under her pillow like always...but she didn't think her pillow would be anywhere either.

"What's going on?" she demanded. "Who are you?" she asked. As her eyes began to adjust to the dark she could make out a figure. A boy she though. "What do you want!?"

[core-digger.livejournal.com]

"Me?!" Simon was slowly getting up, to his knees after the pain-- "Agh!" The second he had moved away from her the pain came rushing back. He fell again, panting. "Who the hell are you and what are you doing in my room?! H-how did you even get in here?! My door--" He groaned. "And can you stop screaming in my ear?!" It was too early for this.

[pink-sugargirl.livejournal.com]

She took a few deep breaths to try an calm down. From the sound of it, whoever it was, was just as confused as she was. Though that could have all been an act.

"I don't know what I'm doing here. I just woke up and I was here!"

[core-digger.livejournal.com]

There was one thing he'd learned through the last few moments. Don't. Let. Go. No matter who she was, if Simon let go of her, he was going to end up in pain. After sitting up, hand still on her arm, he turned on the lights on his goggles.

"My name's Simon. Now who are you?"

[pink-sugargirl.livejournal.com]

Simon? Hadn't that been the name of the boy on the community? But then there were plenty of Simon's in the world.

"Chibiusa," she replied.

[core-digger.livejournal.com]

A few seconds passed by. The wheels in his head were rusty from sleep. And then it came to him.

"Wait. Chibi--like from... the community?"

[pink-sugargirl.livejournal.com]

"Wait. You mean it is the Simon from the community!?" she shouted.

"Why'd you take me here? What do you want with me!?"

[core-digger.livejournal.com]

"Take you--? Why would I want you here?! How am I gonna explain this to Yoko? What about Nia?! Why did I wake up with you screaming in my bed?!" It took every speck of his will to not let go of her in his half-coherent anger.

[pink-sugargirl.livejournal.com]

"So you mean the other people here," Chibiusa said. She hadn't thought about that in her panic. And she hadn't thought about everyone back home either. Usagi or Mama Ikuko would come up to wake her and she wouldn't be there. Had they already found her missing?

[core-digger.livejournal.com]

"Yeah. A lot of other people. Yoko, Nia, Kittan, Rossiu, Leeron... not that you would get anyone but Yoko. And no one's gonna be pleased about me having a random kid attached to me." Even if it occurred to him, Simon wouldn't have understood it--he'd never had a family to miss him. No one except Aniki and Boota had payed much attention to his existence. And now, Yoko and Nia.

[pink-sugargirl.livejournal.com]

"I am not a kid," Chibiusa said with a frown. If there was one thing she didn't like, it was being called a kid. "And besides. It's not like I wanted this to happen."

[core-digger.livejournal.com]

He sighed. "All right. ... What do we do now? You've been there longer than I have. Knowing that place, something like this happened before. We can probably get you back and then we'll be done with each other, okay?" He looked at her, unamused. He was hungry.

[pink-sugargirl.livejournal.com]

"We could probably get one of the worldhoppers to bring me home...but what about the pain? Would that stop when I got home?"

She wanted badly to get home, but she didn't know what was going on with her and why she could let go of Simon without feeling like she might die.

[core-digger.livejournal.com]

He thought about it. "I wouldn't want to risk it." All right, one plan shot down... there had to be more.

[pink-sugargirl.livejournal.com]

"Right. So you've got important things to do here and I've got important things to do in my world..."

Chibiusa was quiet for a moment as she tried think of what they could do. She had to get back home to her family and to Pegasus...plus who knew when the Amazon Trio would strike again.

"If this is because of the community, Minako said that things like this wear off eventually. Maybe we could just take turns on different worlds until it does?"

[core-digger.livejournal.com]

"Leave?! But--!" Simon couldn't mask the look of horror. Leaving the Dai-Gurren-dan... There were only a few people he'd trust with that for any length of time.

And then, suddenly he realized how dangerous this was going to be. Fighting with a kid in the cockpit of Lagann. He rarely came out completely unscathed... What was he gonna do?

He groaned. "I guess we have to."

[core-digger.livejournal.com]

"Well, you heard about Nia. And how she's the Helix King's daughter? Apparently, he threw her out... and one of the four generals was gonna kill her, so we had to save her again. And then another one of the, Guame, took over the Dai-Gurren..." he Flat faced for a moment, "...because kittan--nevermind. And he was going to kill all of us, but I managed to get Lagann and get us all out of the prison we were in, and we kicked them all off. We're heading for Teppelin now."

...He never said he was the greatest story teller. It would come with age.

[pink-sugargirl.livejournal.com]

Chibiusa stared at Simon with wide eyes. She had tried her best to follow but with all of the unfamiliar names she got lost.

"So um...what's at Teppelin?" she asked, hoping the question made sense.

[core-digger.livejournal.com]

"Teppelin is the capitol of the surface. If we can defeat the Helix King, we'll be able to live above ground. It was Aniki's dream, so we have to do it." He grinned like the kid he was. He was easily excitable once he woke up.

[pink-sugargirl.livejournal.com]

Chibiusa smiled in return. It was good to see Simon determined. When she'd first talked to him she thought that if she'd actually met him she'd have smacked him.

"Sounds like a good dream," she said. "People shouldn't be forced to live underground."

[core-digger.livejournal.com]

"Yeah. The world shouldn't come with ceilings." A week ago, he wouldn't have cared.

[pink-sugargirl.livejournal.com]

"Why are they keeping you down there anyways?" she asked. She was curious now.

[core-digger.livejournal.com]

He pondered a minute, still eating. Finally he swallowed. "We... don't really know. Viral said it was because the Helix King ordered it."

[pink-sugargirl.livejournal.com]

"Do you know anything about the Helix King?" she wondered. She knew what it was like not to understand what the enemy had in mind. Even now she still had no idea what the Amazon Trio wanted with people's dreams.