Uninvited Explorer 1/2 (Mika, Hotaru, Open)

[Neo Queen Serenity]

Usagi had taken over two separate proposals over to Honomi's office to see what she would think about it. Her aides were the front lines when it came to liaisons with other agencies, governmental or no, and they often had perspectives on things that the bureaucrats wouldn't.

In this case it was a potential new grant for NGOs, Usagi was flipping through it when the door opened. She looked up surprise to see Hotaru step in, follow by a younger girl who she wasn't familiar with.

"Hotaru-chan!" Usagi beamed, happy to see the younger senshi. She glanced at Honomi as she scolded the other girl, suddenly understand.

"Don't be silly Honomi-san, it's no inconvenience," Usagi smiled. "I'm delighted to meet your daughter. You know how I feel feel about my staff's families." Their families were her families, or so she was fond of saying. "Is it International Take Your Daughter to Work Day? I always forget when that is... I hope other people brought their kids in."

She withheld a laugh at the poor girl's bow and stuttered apology. "You don't have to bow, you know, and it's no problem." She straightened from where she was bending over the desk. "Hotaru-chan, you said you were looking for someone? And don't I get a hello hug?" she grinned.

[Tomoe Hotaru]

“New mistakes?” Hotaru repeated in astonishment, eyeing Mika with slight caution. There was a streak of mischief in the other girl, and she couldn’t help but wonder how much trouble she got into. . . or how much they were going to get into together. A smile tugged her lips at the thought.

“I certainly don’t want to fathom how they think,” she sighed, shaking her head. “I have a hard enough time figuring out my own thoughts without trying to comprehend theirs. But I suppose you do have a point. . . they’ve been forced out of childhood so quickly, it’s no wonder they can’t think of what it was like back then.”

“Indeed,” she murmured. “It’s hard for her, adjusting to the change. I don’t think she’s really confided in anyone about how much she’s really struggling. Everyone looks to her, everyone will blame her for what goes wrong. I’m guilty of doing that to her myself.” It hurt to admit it, but she hadn’t made things any easier for Usagi, and she wished there was some way she could take back some of the words she had said. Hotaru smiled gently, amused. “Usagi wouldn’t have been angry if she had come across you instead of me- at least you weren’t spying or trying to snoop.”

Mika’s words struck a chord, and she couldn’t help murmuring, “You sound so much like another friend of mine- she was always chastising me for being gloomy and worrying too much.” She gave a small laugh, tucking a stray lock of hair back behind her ear. “I’m beginning to think it’s more true all the time.”

She was startled when Mika propelled her forward into the room without waiting for permission; she was rarely so bold as to walk in without some kind of invitation- part of the reason she had gotten into trouble just a few days ago… She blinked at the sight of the woman she assumed must be Mika’s mother given their greeting. She fought to stifle a giggle at the exchange, lightly squeezing Mika’s hand back to reassure her. Usagi was, as predicted, nothing but warmth and kindness, and she hoped Mika wouldn’t be too nervous for long.

“I think we just found who we were looking for,” she responded, amethyst eyes sparkling as she glanced between mother and daughter. Her smile widening, she let go of her friend’s hand to cross the room and hug Usagi, her cheek resting against the other woman’s shoulder. “Of course, you do,” she answered softly, a note of warmth entering her tone. “I hadn’t thought to see you today- I’m glad though.”

[Saitou Mikayo]

“Of course,” Mika replied brightly before hesitating a little at the look of caution on her new friend’s face. “I don’t mean big terrible mistakes, only little ones like falling for the wrong guys or ...” She grinned mischievously again and added, “going to explore palaces when you’ve been told to stay put.”

She nodded in understanding, though she didn’t really know how the senshi had grown up. Still she did know that they had fought hard to protect the world against things that she couldn’t eve begin to understand and she figured that could make it hard to be a normal child.

Mika nodded once again and murmured, “I never really thought about it before, but I guess people do praise her when things are good but then they accuse her of not doing her job when things go wrong. That’s not really fair, but I suppose it’d be hard not to even if it isn’t right. She’s the queen and well we all have the idea that she’s going to take care of everything for us. Make everything right and perfect for us all even if that’s not really possible. Queen or not, she can’t do everything.” She shook her head before saying, “but what if I had accidently wandered into an area that was far more important, surly she would have been a little upset or at least her guards would have been.”

She smiled brightly and said, “Of course it’s true, worrying too much is bad for your health. You had a smart friend.”

Honomi relaxed when she saw that Usagi really wasn’t that upset. She did after all know how Usagi felt about her staff’s families, she had only been worried she might have been upset at the interruption but that proved a senseless worry. She returned the smile and said, “Not exactly Your Majesty. It’s just that Mika’s been begging to come visit so often and since school was out for the holiday I brought her in. She was suppose to be sitting here in the office behaving herself, but apparently she decided to go exploring on her own.” Honomi glanced at her daughter once more in annoyance but then smiled again to reassure the girl that all was ok.

Mika’s nervousness vanished faded away with both Hotaru’s and her mother’s reassuring gestures, not to mention Usagi didn’t really seem that upset. She straightened up and beamed at Usagi with a grin full of delight at being able to actually meet the queen she admired. After all, she hadn’t expected to be able to even see her today much less actually meet her.

She watched Hotaru cross the room to hug the queen and grinned before saying, “It’s an honor to meet you Your Majesty. I’ve really enjoyed visiting your home ...” Mika glanced over at Hotaru, her grin brightening as she added, “and meeting one of your senshi.”

[Neo Queen Serenity]

Usagi squeezed Hotaru back with a smile. "I'm glad to see you too, Hotaru-chan." She looked up at Honomi's response.

"You know how bad I am with my dates. I do hope you will bring her back for the real Take Your Daughter to Work day, though." Her polite smile turned into a slight grin at the mention of Mika wondering off. "Yes, I couldn't sit still at all when I was younger. I would have done the same thing. No harm, no foul." She outstretched her other hand to the girl in greeting, either to shake it or to pull her into a hello hug as well. Usagi had no trouble embracing people she had just met.

"Call me Usagi," she said breezily when Mika greeted her. "And, I'm glad you got a chance to come and visit. It's not just my home, but the government's as well, so I guess in a way it's your home, too. And you're welcome to come back any time you like." She grinned. It seemed that Hotaru had made a new friend.

[Tomoe Hotaru]

Slightly relieved that she hadn’t meant anything too bad, Hotaru relaxed, amusement curving her lips into a grin to mirror Mika’s. “Ah, falling for the wrong guys- my Papa won’t like that one very much.” She giggled slightly, imagining what Haruka would say about that. “Those mistakes I think I could handle.”

Glancing at the other girl, she realized how little the outside world really did know about the senshi. Only that they were warriors with awesome powers, and that was it. Minako had been right- they needed to work on educating people about the senshi and their histories. How else were they to understand?

“Indeed,” Hotaru agreed soberly. “It’s easy to blame her without thinking about the fact that she’s only human and can only do so much. I think Usagi even does it to herself and always thinks there is something more that she can do or something she can make better. . . It’s just the way she is.” She shook her head slightly at Mika, “Usagi wouldn’t jump to the assumption that you were up to no good, though I can’t speak for her guards. She’s not the type- she tends to think the best of people unless shown otherwise.”

She smiled, though it didn’t quite reach her eyes that were suddenly sad. “I did. She was very smart about things like that.”

Hotaru couldn’t help but smile, relieved that Usagi didn't seem to bear her any ill will. The grin widened as the Queen addressed Mika, wanting to shout an ‘I told you so!’ at the other girl. Usagi would welcome anyone into her home with open arms as long as they didn’t intend to do anyone harm.

Hotaru caught the glimmer in the blond’s eyes as she glanced between her and the other teenager. “I thought I might show her around a little. . . since I haven’t really explored the palace myself, even after living here for as long as I have. Any suggestions, Usagi-chan?”

She was nervous- here she had the opportunity to make a new friend and she didn't know what to do. What did other teenage girls like? What were they interested in? She didn't have the faintest clue, and was worried she might make an awful mess of things, even if Mika seemed to already consider them friends.

[Saitou Mikayo]

Mika simply grinned and said, “I doubt my papa would like it very much either.” She giggled a bit before adding, “but then papa probably wouldn’t like the right guys either.”

She nodded briefly when Hotaru said that Usagi probably did it to herself. Mika didn’t know the queen personally so she couldn’t say whether or not that was true. However, she had no reason to think that Hotaru was mistaken. She ought to know Serenity well. Mika grinned brightly when Hotaru said that the queen wouldn’t have jumped to the assumption that she had been up to no good. “That may be true, but I’m still glad that I ran into you first.” Her grin brightened even more as she added, “I can tell we’re going to be the best of friends.”

Mika saw the sadness in her new friend’s eyes, but she decided not to comment. She had also caught the past tense being applied to this friend and figured that whatever had happened Hotaru would only talk about it when she felt comfortable or maybe never at all. She wouldn’t press for information.

Honomi nodded and murmured, “If she wants to come back, of course I’ll bring her.” She glanced slightly at Mika who nodded enthusiastically. Turning back to the queen, Honomi grinned and said, “You know I couldn’t sit still either at that age. She probably gets all that energy from me.” Her eyes gleamed a bit as she added thoughtfully, “Of course her father has a lot of energy as well ...”

Mika wasn’t shy, only nervous and so when Usagi stretched out her hand toward her, she enthusiastically bounded forward to greet her as well. Mika loved meeting new people and she was never shy about accepting hugs when they were offered to her. She caught Hotaru’s grin of ‘I told you so’ and automatically stuck her tongue out at Hotaru before remembering that she was standing there next to the queen. Her cheeks were immediately stained pink with embarrassment as she giggled nervously.

When Usagi gave her permission to call her by her given name, Mika glanced hesitantly toward her mother. At Honomi’s nod, Mika turned back to Usagi with another bright smile and said, “Thank you Usagi-san, I’d really love that.”

As Hotaru asked Usagi for suggestions on where to take her, Mika once again glanced toward her mother for permission. Honomi grinned and nodded, glad to see her daughter enthusiastic about making new friends again. After her grandmother had died, Mika had gone through a period of withdraw. It was nice to see that maybe her grief was receding a little bit. After having gotten permission from her mother, Mika turned back to her new friend waiting excitedly for her to finish the conversation with Usagi.

[Neo Queen Serenity]

Usagi laughed at Honomi's remarks. "Well, I know you have a lot of energy to keep up with me all day," she teased. All of her senior staff had incredible drive and energy. Her eyes sparked as Honomi mentioned Mika's father having lots of energy. "Oh, I'll bet," she remarked with a small smirk, the gleam in the other woman's eyes not escaping her. She knew the two other girls probably wouldn't get it.

She gave Mika a gentle squeeze when the girl ran over to her, beaming. Usagi so much enjoyed other people, and she was very affectionate. It was such a joy to meet a normal girl, and she hoped that Hotaru would bring her friend around often. "Just Usagi is fine," she smiled. "No honorific is needed." In their society, formality was strictly encoded, but Usagi had thumbed her nose at the societal remnants of the feudal caste system from the beginning.

"Hmm," Usagi said as Hotaru asked for suggestions when it came to going around the Palace. "The library is pretty amazing, and it isn't even half-stocked yet. Then of course there's the Rose Quartz diplomatic reception room, the throne room and the ball rooms are all pretty popular, of course. Then there's the atrium in the public ground floor, people love to see that. But if you go down there, you had better grab an agent to go with you. Just ask in the hallways, they're always around though you may not know it."