Part III

The next morning, Diana stretches and cringes at the twinges in her mistreated body.

She yawns and looks around and smiles in greeting to Kunzite. His gaze is drawn to Diana from Zoi by the moment. He nods back in greeting.

"Is HLM still asleep?" Diana mouths the question.

He shrugs and goes back to watching his lover sleep.

Diana sees Jae still sleeping, so she gets up and wanders into the kitchen after showering, a towel over her shoulders.

"Hello, Diana," Nephrite says softly, still looking out the window.

She jumps about half a mile. "Uh...hi...uhm...should I know you?"

He smiles sadly. "No. My name is Nephrite."

"Uh...nice to meet you," she pauses. "Are you a friend of HLM's?"

"You could say that."

"Ok...do you know if she's up yet...?"

Neph hands her a note HLM left behind.

It reads:
        "Folks,
                Make yourselves at home. Went job hunting.
                Will be back with groceries.
                                        -HLM"

"I see...gods...poor woman," Diana mutters half to herself.

Neph nods, watching HLM go from club to club, applying for security jobs.

"Are the others awake yet?" he asks.

"Um, last I knew, Kunzite was the only other one awake. Zoisite and Jadeite were still asleep," Diana answers, looking up at the sound of a door opening.

She turns to Neph to excuse herself to leave, but finds he's not there anymore. She shrugs and goes into the living room to find Kunzite and Zoisite help HLM with the bags of groceries Jae is still asleep.

Diana helps HLM and the others out.

"Morning all...I'm going to go back out, ok? You guys just rest...it was a...long day yesterday," HLM says in a soft voice before disappearing out the door.

Zoi sighs softly, helping her lover and Diana put food away. "I wish we could help her more."

Kunz nods, "Hai, but we really hardly know her."

Both Zoi and Diana nod, sighing softly.

Diana stretches and cringes again.

"Are you ok, Diana?" Zoi asks with concern.

"Yeah...I just pulled something in my back yesterday," she answers with a small smile.

Before anyone can say anything, she goes into the living room to check on Jae.

Zoi and Kunz look at each other before following her.

Jae stretches and groans, waking up and finding the blankets tangled around his legs. He sits up long enough to untangle his legs and take off his tangled robe. He flops back onto his back. He now wears only a pair of boxers.

He feels eyes on him and looks over at Diana, whose gaze was drawn to him by his movement and smiles a little at her.

The wave of attraction hits her like a tsunami when she sees him lying there in nothing but boxers.

Gods what a body!

She sees his smile and turns bright red, saying in a whisper, "Morning, Jae."

He looks at her, puzzled, managing to look even cuter. "You ok? You seem a little flushed."

"Oh! Uhm, I'm fine," she rubs at her wet hair with the towel to try to hide the blush, "just got out of the shower is all."

"Oh..." he stretches, not noticing the affect he's having on poor Diana.

"Um! I'll just go make some breakfast," she says, voice squeaking, just before practically running into the kitchen.

Kunz and Zoi burst out laughing at Diana's reaction, finding it hilarious.

Jae gives the two of them an odd look, totally clueless. "What?"

They only laugh harder.

"You've both lost it, haven't you?" he asks, flopping back down into the pillows, intent on falling back asleep.

Kunz and Zoi stop laughing and rush into the kitchen upon hearing Diana's surprised yelp of pain.

Diana looks up from running her hand under cold water.

"Uh...hi..."

"Are you all right?" Kunz asks.

"Yeah, just burned my hand is all," she tells them, holding her red and blistering hand up.

"Itai," Zoi comments in sympathy, "let me see your hand."

"Uhm...ok." Diana goes over to them, holding her hand out to Zoi.

Zoi puts her hand just over Diana's, not touching her burned skin. Zoi starts glowing with a soft greenish blue aura, the light concentrated around her hand, healing Diana's burn.

Diana shivers violently, the healing feeling disturbingly like the one that Dark Master used to try to seduce her into joining him.

"Th...thank you...Zoi," she manages to half whimper. "I'm uh...gonna go check on Jae."

She knows she has to get her mind off of what she just went through.

Once she's gone, Kunz turns to Zoi, looking at her with a raised brow.

"Something's wrong," Zoi whispers, sliding her arms around her lover's middle.

"I know," Kunz answers, "and with time, we will find out what it is."

"Hai, it's obviously so bad she can't talk about it."

"Zoisite?"

Zoi and Kunz go into the living room, following Diana's voice.

They find her sitting by a semi-conscious Jae, her hand on his forehead.

Diana looks up, her lovely green eyes frightened.

"It's Jae," she whispers, "he's so...cold..."

Part II
Part IV
Beginnings and Endings Index