Brilliance

By Sarah-chan

She's beautiful... in an odd sort of way. Quiet, serene... tragic. I often wonder what makes her so magnetic, what draws me to her. Is it that sadness in her eyes, that sadness that freezes my soul? She speaks of dreams and romance, and yet... and yet it is as if she has only learned it from the myriad textbooks and novels she has catalogued in her mind. She can only view it from a distance, stare at it longingly. But she is like me in this one fact: She will never open her mouth to call it to her.

I have learned a few things from watching her, that solitude she harbors. Humans were never meant to be alone. It breaks them, they lose control. And I already see her breaking, as she stares out the window, into the sunshine, that faint smile on her lips as she dreams of the romance she speaks so highly of. She is only alone when she dreams. Does she not realize that?

"Uh-oh..." came the whisper, breaking Taiki from his thoughts. His ears slowly pricked as he heard Seiya's harsh whisper to Yaten. Taiki closed his eyes, and prepared to ignore the jabs and proddings that would soon follow. "There he goes again."

"Just like always." Yaten rolled his eyes. "Watching _her_."

"Eh, eh? What'd I tell you?"

"I still don't understand what he sees in that girl. She's so... plain."

"Hello? Are you really that stupid?" Seiya chuckled. "Brains will ALWAYS fall in love with each other."

"But that would just create tension and competition."

"That _is_ true, my dear Watson."

"Watson? Nani?" Yaten scoffed. "I'm by far the smartest. I get to be Sherlock."

"Are you kidding me? Sherlock was suave and charming! Watson was short and fat."

"I am NOT fat!"

"Oi, oi!"

"Aaaaaaaaaami-chan! What are you doing staring out the window like a lovesick schoolgirl?!" The three boys instantly cowered at the shrill voice of Minako as the blond sailed past them, honing in on the poor girl. It was a shockingly pleasant surprise that she hadn't seemed to notice them.

"Come on! You're missing out on our conversation. We were talking about going to see the new Sailor V movie tomorrow! But only because we can laugh at Himeko Rose, of course. She is SO not me... um... meeeeeeeant to be Sailor V. Her hair's too red!"

"Oh! I'm sorry, Minako-chan. I was just... thinking."

"Eh? Eh? Thinking?! What are you doing, thinking during lunch! I ban you from using your brain when we're supposed to gossip!"

Ami giggled, and took the hand of Minako and they both bounded over to Usagi and Makoto, Ami less bouncy than her friend. Taiki snorted, and swiveled his body away to leave his back facing the enigmatic girl, leaving no trace that he had been watching her. Seiya bit into his sandwich, and raised an eyebrow.

"Please!" Yaten said. "Don't let us disturb you. Enjoy yourself."

"Right! We shouldn't get in the way of your adoration for Mizuno-kun!"

"Baka!" growled Taiki, and tugged hard on Seiya's ponytail as the four girls over heard the conversation and started giggling hysterically. "You've set them off!"

"Oh no! The triggering mechanism, Watson! What are we to do!"

"_I'M_ SHERLOCK!!!!!"

There was silence in the room as everybody stared at Yaten. Flushing slightly, he shot a glare at the students and hissed, "What are you looking at? It's the new movie we're doing."

There was a collective gasp and chatter at the prospect of Three Lights’ new film, and Yaten sat back down, blowing the bangs from out of his eyes.

"What did you just do?" Seiya hissed, nearly panicking. "We aren't doing a Sherlock Holmes movie!"

"We can just get some cheesy producer's son to write one up--"

"Baka, we don't have time to cover up for you tantrums."

Yaten pouted. "They aren't tantrums... they're... they're..."

"They're...?"

"Oh, hell. We'll just say it went through the cracks."

"Good boy."

Yaten ignored the remark, but tugged hard on the raven-haired boy's ponytail, and went back to munching on his own sandwich. Taiki, on the other hand, dropped his own lunch and yanked on Seiya's ponytail, wrenching the boy to him.

"Itaaaaiii," sobbed Seiya. "It can only take so much abuse before falling out!"

"That's it!" cried Taiki. "That's perfect!"

"What? Becoming bald?"

"No... an investigation movie! The New Sherlock Holmes!"

"Eh?"

"It's the perfect way of getting our message across, ne? A young woman is kidnapped, and the three best detectives in Tokyo come together to find her, because she's the ambassador's daughter and if they don't find her then--"

"That's brilliant!"

"Hey now... it was my idea!"

"So... given up on Three Lights, Minako-chan?" asked Makoto as the four girls walked down the street, towards the Crown Cafe.

"Are you kidding me?" Minako flipped her hair behind her and pouted seductively. "I'm just playing hard to get. By the end of this week, they'll be begging at my door to notice them again."

"Suuuure."

"Just you wait. Aino Minako always gets her way!"

"But what about that time you tried to get Ami-chan to do your homework for you, and she wouldn't let you?" asked Usagi. "You ended up getting an F the next day, AND you ate all my sushi!"

Minako rolled her eyes. "That doesn't count. I was sick that day. Buuuuut, speaking of Ami-chan!" Minako elbowed the girl walking beside her, bringing her out of her own little world. "What did I tell you about thinking!"

"Gomen nasai!"

"Really," she huffed, but let it go. Makoto and Usagi on the other hand, looked at each other and then honed in on the vulnerable genius.

"So, Ami-chan."

"Yes, Mako-chan?"

"We've been noticing something odd about you, lately."

"Oh... really?"

"Mm-hm!" Usagi nodded her head in agreement. "You've been..."

"I've been...?"

"Out of it," offered Makoto.

"Yes! Out of it."

"Out of what?"

"Reality, girl! You're head is in the clouds, you've been bumping into things, and your cute little forehead can't handle smacking into doors all day like Usagi-chan's can."

"Hey! You're just as mean as Rei-chan!" whined Usagi.

Ami flushed, and looked around her carefully, making sure there weren't any stray poles in her vicinity. The other girls giggled, making Ami turn even more beet red, but finally they reached the door to the cafe, and walked in.

"REI-CHAN!" cried Usagi and bounded over the young priestess sitting at their booth.

"Not so loud!" hissed Rei. "Do you have to make so much commotion?"

"Gomen, gomen."

"Good. Now keep your mouth shut, and this day will be actually pleasant."

"Can I ask you a favor before, though?"

Rei sighed. "What is it?"

"I used up my allowance yesterday buying those really good new gumdrops. And I'm starving! Please, Rei-chan? Pleeeeaaaaseeee? They're only french fries."

Rei groaned, but nodded her head.

"YAY!"

"Shush!"

And all the while, Ami never noticed them as she stared out the window, up into the clouds, wondering and dreaming the incredibly private secrets no one could pry from her. Not even Usagi.

"What's up, Ami-chan?" asked Rei.

"I'm alone," she said, still staring out the window. "I'm all alone, even in a crowd of people. And I don't know how to change that. I'm tired of trying to fit in with the popular crowd, and proving myself to the teachers and scientists and doctors I meet. I realize now... that if one takes away my intelligence... all that's left is emptiness... loneliness. Nothing. And I try so hard... so _hard_ to figure out what's wrong, but all I can come up with is emptiness. Empty dreams, empty desires... nothing that will help in the end. Because if suddenly all of them disappear, I am nothing again. No longer one full person. And I'm scared... scared of my dependence and of how weak I am."

There was a very long silence as the four girls stared at her, shocked, speechless.

"...I had meant what was up... in the sky... where you were staring, Ami-chan."

The blue haired girl turned to the other girls then, and smiled sweetly, innocently.

"What did you say, Rei-chan? I'm sorry... I wasn't listening."

The girls looked at each other, suddenly very cold. She hadn't even realized the voice that asked the question hadn't been in her head... and that she had answered out loud.

FIVE DAYS LATER

"WAAAAAAIIIII!!! IT'S FINISHED!!!!" screamed Seiya in joy, jumping up and down, and running around the living room, shaking off all the excess energy that had been building up inside of him the last few days.

Taiki finished the last few sentences on his laptop, saved, and then closed the computer. Seiya flung open the doors of the balcony and ran to the railing, wahooing to the night lit sky, Tokyo Tower standing right in front of him.

"Get back in here!" snapped Yaten. "You know we have photographers camped out there!"

"I DON'T CARE! HEY! HEY, YOU DOWN THERE! REPORTER MAN GUY! WE FINISHED IT! _TOKYO SHERLOCKS_ IS FINISHED!!!!!"

"He's seems happy," said Taiki, and grinned sleepily, cracking his knuckles and stretching his back. Yaten on the other hand, flopped down onto the couch, his slippered feet landing onto Taiki's lap.

"Rub my feet." Taiki obliged. "Aaah. It's hard to only be able to think when you're walking around. I've had more exercise this past week than in the past year."

"Pacing the floor _is_ difficult."

"You can say that again."

"Pacing the floor _is_ difficult."

Yaten scowled. "You're always too laid back after we've finished a project... you can get just as annoying as Seiya-- oooooooh, yeah. Right there. More. More..."

"Ummm, maybe I should stop."

"No! No! Don't stop!"

"Okaaaaay, I'm closing the door now," Seiya said, and walked back in warily. "What _are_ you two doing, anyway?"

"Give Yaten a break," said Taiki. "We've just skipped the entire school week, nearly. There's going to be a phenomenal back log of homework--"

"Don't remind me!" wailed Seiya and hopped over the couch, landing on Yaten's stomach.

"Mfff!! GET OFF OF ME!"

"Fine, fine!" Seiya slid onto the floor, and was surprised when Yaten soothingly rubbed his hair. Seiya drooled. "That feels good."

"I want ice cream."

Yaten and Seiya looked up at the thoughtful Taiki, and then looked to each other.

"Pardon?"

"Ice cream. I want some. Mocha."

"Uh-oh. Taiki's had an overload. He can't say sentences over four words long."

"This could be a problem when it comes to shooting the movie."

"I'm going out. You guys want anything?"

"Oooh! Pistachio flavor!"

"Make mine vanilla!"

"Rightio!" Taiki stood up, grinned and flounced out of the room, and out the door, but came back after a moment and picked up the laptop.

"Decided against it?"

"I want pistachio, though..."

"I don't trust leaving you two alone with this," Taiki said and then walked back out the door. The two boys shrugged, and Seiya replaced Taiki in Yaten's foot massage.

Taiki walked out of the small grocery store, laptop hooked under his arm, and swinging the three pints of Haagen-Dazs in the other, whistling. The cool breeze tousled his hair, and he smiled into the black wind. At times like these, he loved Earth. When it was quiet, cool, and private.

He had to admit, he was proud of himself right now. Their script was a masterpiece. A movie that would make the critics sing praises. It used all three of their specific talents without becoming cheesy, and it was dark and deep... not like the fluffy Sailor V movies that had been plaguing the city for years. And it was real. So very, very real.

Taiki looked up a second too late before crashing into a darting figure who rushed out of the small bookstore that was two buildings away from the grocery. The person fell to the ground, while Taiki stood standing, but his ice cream and laptop plummeted onto the concrete sidewalk. He was too stunned to even scream.

"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry!" the figure cried, and began to pick up the fallen items. The person's delicate hand picked up the laptop before Taiki could snatch it away, and the boy's eyes widened in horror at the thought of the computer not only being broken, but stolen as well. Tokyo was one of the safest cities in the world, but that still didn't keep Taiki's mind from panicking. "I can fix this--"

"Please don't bother--"

"I'm so sorry, please! I can fix it!"

"Please don't try!"

"Trust me!"

It was only until their eyes met, that Taiki's heart eased.

"Mizuno-kun!"

"Taiki-san!" She blushed. "Mako-chan was right. I really am too clumsy these days. I shouldn't have rushed out like that." Without even giving it a second's thought, she opened the computer and booted it up, scanning quickly over the hard drive before sighing in relief. "Good, nothing's damaged. Say... what's this, though? Tokyo... Sherlocks?"

The screen opened up to the script, but Ami inhaled sharply, and shut the laptop. She blushed and gingerly handed the computer back to Taiki. "I shouldn't have done that. How rude of me!"

Taiki smiled, and shook his head. "It must be the air these days. I know how you feel."

"You start to do things you never did before... almost like you're a puppet..." Taiki's eyes widened at her words as she stared at her palm, turning her hand over as if looking for the strings. "Being lead around blindly but always hitting dead ends or making a fool out of yourself... Oh! There I am, babbling again. I'm so sorry!"

"It-it's fine. Don't worry about that."

They both stood up, and there was a small silence as Ami blushed and stared at her hands.

And even as Taiki said the words, he couldn't believe he was actually saying them. "Actually... the file you brought up was the script for our new movie..."

"That's why you haven't been in school all this week!"

Taiki nodded and looked around. "I wouldn't normally tell anybody this... but... I trust you. And we need a fourth opinion on it. As a fan, you know. And an intelligent person." Ami blushed. "We'd really appreciate it if you'd take a look at it?"

"T-tonight?"

"Tomorrow's Sunday, Mizuno-kun. No school."

"I-I know that... it's just that I need to study and--"

"I understand. Good night then, Mizuno-kun."

"W-wait."

"Yes?" Taiki stopped, and looked down, smiling as Ami rushed to his side.

"I'm sure Mom will understand if I tell her I'm staying with Usagi-chan. I don't think she would appreciate me going to an apartment full of boys."

"No... I suppose not."

Seiya's elbows rested behind the laptop on the coffee table, head in hands, watching Ami as she read the script. Every now and then her eyes would look up and catch his, and she would flush as he would still stare at her with the same intensity.

"Leave her alone, baka," moaned Yaten, his stomach aching from the entire pint of vanilla ice cream. "You're distracting her."

"She's almost done. Right, Mizuno-kun?"

"Last page," she whispered.

"Hush, Seiya!" Yaten hissed, and suddenly leaned over Ami's shoulder, supporting himself on the sofa arm. Taiki scooted closer, interlacing his fingers and pressing his thumbs to his lips. Ami took off her glasses, resting them on the glass surface, and rubbed her eyes, sighing quietly.

"So...?"

Ami flopped back, resting her shoulders, and sighed.

"..."

"..."

"..."

"It's a masterpiece."

"YES!!!!!!!!!!!! I KNEW IT!!!!!!!"

"The characters are perfect for you three, without making it seem... well... embarrassingly stereotypical."

"Is she speaking Latin?"

"Cheesy, Seiya. Cheesy."

"Gotcha."

"The idea is perfect, very simple, but with room to add plot twists. Slightly cliché--"

"Eh?"

"Cheesy, Seiya."

"Oh."

"--But the ending makes up for it."

"Why isn't she smiling?" asked Seiya. "Or giggling hysterically? You don't like it?"

"..."

"Eh???"

"The critics will love it."

"But do _you_?"

"I..."

"It's all right," Taiki said. "We don't mind."

"Well, there _is_ one problem."

"And that is?"

"The ending."

Taiki raised an eyebrow. "But how can that be? _I_ wrote the ending."

"They all die in the end!"

"The characters _wanted_ to die," Taiki emphasized.

"But that doesn't make any sense at all!" she cried. "They were all _very_ strong individuals. It doesn't seem to me that they would want to end their lives."

"The ambassador's daughter's lover was assassinated in front of her!"

"But your characters were running themselves into the ground trying to rescue her!"

"Her entire family was killed!"

"But she prayed to be saved!"

"In the end, they thought all hope was lost."

"But throughout it all, they _kept_ that hope. You don't give these characters justice."

Taiki turned viciously cold. "You just can't comprehend the magnitude of their lives. They each became detectives to search for that missing part of themselves. Their past. Their heart. Their innocence. The ambassador's daughter kept up hope as long as she could until her lover was killed in front of her, in front of Tokyo Sherlocks. She no longer cared. And when she was killed, the detectives had nothing left to live for, because SHE was what they were looking for. SHE was the one who harbored that innocence. There was nothing left."

"Because they CHOSE to die."

"YES!" he screamed. "They CHOSE to die!"

"THEY DIDN'T CHOOSE TO DIE. _YOU_ CHOSE TO HAVE THEM GET KILLED."

"Whoa! Look at the time! Well, I'm off! 'Nite, you three!" And Seiya rushed out of the living room in panic. "I'll join you!" called Yaten and raced after him. Taiki and Ami didn't notice.

"WHAT DO YOU CARE?!"

"EVEN IF THEY AREN'T REAL, THEIR LIVES MATTER TO ME!" Taiki stopped short and stared as Ami began shaking. "Why do people _always_ have to give up hope? Why?"

"Because the Universe throws everything evil it can at us."

Ami shook her head. "That's not right... it's just not right."

"Are you admitting it?"

"No!" she said forcefully. "Because it ISN'T right. You're wrong, Taiki."

"Then what would you do in that situation? If you were the ambassador's daughter?"

"I wouldn't have given up hope."

"Even if your lover died?"

"I wouldn't have had a lover!" Taiki stopped his frigid interrogation and stared at her. "Nobody would want me!"

"What..."

"It's the truth, though, isn't it? I can dream of romance... but in my reality, there's no possibility. I'm too isolated! I'm too smart, or too shy, or too cold. I'm not funny, I'm not pretty--"

"Stop it."

"All I have are my dreams! All I have are my friends to keep me going. Without them I would--"

"Not you!" She jumped when Taiki pressed a hand to her cheek. "Not you. Don't you ever say those things again. EVER."

"Taiki..."

"Mizuno-kun. You speak of hope for yourself with emptiness, but for others you are _passionate_ about their success. You fuel them with your desires, but where does that leave you? You reassure them of their beauty. But how much of that reassurance do you leave for yourself?"

Tears spilled from her eyes, dropping onto Taiki's hand.

"I don't agree with your theories on dreams and romance. But don't you _ever_ lie about reality. Don't you know how _beautiful_ you are? Don't you realize how much you make me laugh--"

He was stopped short when her lips smashed against his, nearly sending them sprawling to the ground. Her arms quickly wrapped around his neck, crushing him closer to her, and after a short struggle, Taiki closed his eyes, and gently embraced her.

She ended the kiss just as quickly, flushing, gasping for air, her sweet mocha ice cream breath whispering into his ear... I needed that... desperately, I needed that.

There was a very long awkward silence, and Ami bowed in farewell to the tall boy, and raced out the room, calling. "I-I'll see you in school on Monday!"

Stunned, Taiki barely heard the door closed, and in a daze he sat down on the sofa, in front of the laptop. He erased the ending, and began to write.

He had rushed it, anyway.

Daughter: Kenji... no...

Taiki: I'm so sorry... we couldn't get here in time. But

that bastard's dead now. You don't have to worry.

Daughter: But... oh my God... Kenji...

(She falls into Taiki's arms and begins to cry.)

Seiya: Please don't cry...

Yaten: Don't... it breaks our hearts.

Daughter: But...

Taiki: Hush. Let her cry. We'll be here for you. We'll

fill his place. Just as you have filled the emptiness

in our hearts. Please... just let us. The world

will open up again in time... you'll see. We promise...

(Shot to night skyline. Fade to Black.)

THE END.