Watching Makoto train for the Tenshin Amaguriken, Chang was lost in thought. {It's been a few weeks since the plague incident and no sign of Emeraude.} His lips quirked in a grin. {I wonder if I scared her off? Nah, we couldn't get that lucky,} he sighed mentally. {I think the peace has been almost as welcome as the surprise Chibi-Usa gave us when she found a friend her own age at school. Cute, but shy, with brown hair that's almost an Akane hairdo except for the bun in the back: *not* the type of person that would get along well back in Jokuzetsu, the village of Chinese Amazons near my home. Still, I can see Rei, Mako-ch - uh, *Makoto,*} he corrected himself, {and Mina-chan getting along pretty well there.}

He was pulled out of his thoughts by Makoto cursing as she slumped to her knees, exhausted. She'd chosen to forego the 'standard' training method for the Amaguriken, stating that she got enough burns in the kitchen without getting them training as well, and was using a set of 100 marbles which she would gather in both hands, toss into the air, and attempt to snatch one-by-one as they fell. The task had only gotten harder for the poor Jovian Senshi when Chang had insisted she use a jabbing motion to grab each marble instead of her preferred sweeps.

Stepping towards his spent student, Chang called out to her. "OK, enough with that for now. Five minutes' break, then you can try sparring with me again."

Makoto was less than thrilled. "Oh joy, another 'hit the ghost' session with Sensei, this one while I'm exhausted no less! Don't I get any more break than that!? My arms feel like they're about to fall off!" she complained.

Chang sighed. "This is actually part of your training, Makoto," he explained. "You have to train under adverse conditions now and then, or you'll be at a loss when you actually *need* to fight like that!" Seeing she was unconvinced, Chang tried another tack. "Look at it this way: if a Droid attacked right now, would you even get the five minutes' break?" Makoto drew in a breath to yell - and then let it back out slowly. "No..." she admitted. "See? I'm being remiss in my duties as a Sensei! By rights, I should be going after you right now! So sit back, loosen up those arms, and enjoy the five minutes," Chang finished.

"How'd you know my arms were cramped up?" Makoto asked as she settled back into a seated position. "Easy - I remember *my* training for the Amaguriken," Chang replied, "and before you ask, no, Otousan (Father) didn't give me five minutes' rest." Makoto grinned at him. "At least now I know you weren't *always* a superfast, unhittable martial arts monster."

"Hey!"

* * * * *

Unfortunately for Chang, disaster was heading his way in the form of Minako - and for once, it wasn't because she was clumsy. She had stopped in at the Hikawa Shrine to see her boyfriend, and discovered that he was gone - and Rei was there. She had then tried to phone Makoto in her apartment, but no one was there either. Not being an idiot, Minako had put two and two together. She was now storming towards the vacant lot, fuming. {They had *better* not be there, at least not together!} she seethed. {I told them flat out that time I caught them on the ground that I wanted a *chaperone* if they ever did this again!! Ooohh, that insensitive jerk Chang! How dare he go behind my back like this!}

* * * * *

Ten minutes later, Chang and Makoto were busy sparring - or at least, Makoto was panting heavily and throwing a few punches at about half speed, and Chang wasn't even bothering to go airborne to dodge. "You really are wiped out, aren't you?" Chang asked as Makoto staggered to a halt.

"You... aren't... kidding... sensei..." Makoto gasped as she wobbled on her feet. She tried hard to hold her balance, but she was losing the battle and tilted forwards. Alarmed, Chang caught her in his arms as she fell.

"Hey! You didn't say it was this bad!! Are you OK?" he asked his exhausted student, holding her up. She let her head slump forward, laying it on his chest. {I wish I could do this more often,} she thought to herself, just standing there and engraving the feeling of being held in Chang's arms into her memory. {After all,} she justified her actions, {he's Mina-chan's boyfriend, so this is all I can have from him.. I just wish there was someone for me.}

Aloud, she murmured, "I'm fine, Chang-sensei," into his chest. He flushed bright red as he realized what their position must look like to any passersby, and moved to set Makoto down on a tree-trunk they'd been using for a bench. He'd gotten about halfway there when the wrath of God (or at least the goddess of love and beauty) fell upon his head.

"Chang no YARO!! (Chang, you BASTARD!!)" Minako screamed from the entrance to the vacant lot. Chang flinched, but made sure to set Makoto down carefully before turning to Minako.

"Easy, Mina-chan. Mako-chan overworked herself, and I was carrying her to our bench," he soothed.

Minako refused to be soothed. "I said you had to have a *chaperone* for this!! You said you'd gotten Rei to join you, but she's at the shrine right now!! You LIED to me the whole time!!"

Unfortunately, this comment offended Chang's sense of honor, and the two began to argue in earnest.

Makoto watched as the two quarreled. It seemed to her that Mina was harping on the issue of trust and lies, while Chang was trying to make the point that it *was* only training, and they'd let her make her own assumptions about who was with them, since she'd been unreasonable about believing that it *was* only training. {Bad move, Sensei,} Makoto thought as the argument escalated, {implying Mina-chan's at fault only gets her madder once she's angry.} The sometime Sailor Jupiter looked on as the two escalated from an argument to a full-out shouting match.

Suddenly, Minako shouted, "That's enough! I never want to *SEE* you again!" and stormed off.

Chang, to Makoto's surprise, looked outright stricken. "Hey, sensei, you OK?" she called out, and Chang jumped as if he'd forgotten she was there.

"Oh! Uh... yes, Makoto... I'm okay. Uh.. I'll see you tomorrow, OK? I... have to go," he stated in a flat voice, and ran out of the lot.

{Now what was that all about?} Makoto wondered.

* * * * *

Makoto actually saw Chang the next day before her training
- He showed up at Juuban High as school was letting out, head bowed and looking distraught. {He looks worse than I did after Freddy dumped me,} she thought. She started to approach him, but ducked back as Minako came around the corner. {Last thing Chang-sensei needs right now is for Mina-chan to see the two of us together,} Makoto thought.

She watched as the two met. She was too far away to hear anything, but Chang was as apologetic as Makoto had ever seen him. However, Minako wasn't having any of it, and stormed off again. Makoto came out of hiding as Chang just stood there in the slowly dispersing crowd, his back to her.

"Chang-sensei? What's the matter?" she asked, and Chang jumped again, hurriedly wiping at his eyes before he turned around. "Ah? Oh, nothing, Mako-chan," he said, seeming a bit distracted. "I just have to patch things up with Mina-chan."

"Damare! (Shut up!) You didn't even know I was there, that means you're pretty out of it. What's going on?!" Makoto asked.

"I - I -" Chang stammered, then calmed down a bit. "I don't want to talk about that right now, Mako-ch..." He cut himself off midword.

"What!?" Makoto asked, puzzled about the pause.

"I- I mean *Makoto!*" Chang finished before taking to the rooftops. {Now what was all *that* about?} Makoto wondered, staring after him.

* * * * *

The next day, Makoto was witness to another, similar episode. She'd just come out of her favorite bookstore (ironically, at the same mall where Chang fought Rubeus) when she caught sight of the couple in the hallway.

Not that the pair were acting much like a couple at the moment. Chang was apologizing just like before, but Mina was steadfastly refusing to look at him, turning her head away every time Chang tried to meet her eyes, the very picture of a young woman in a huff. The two walked closer to the bookstore, and Makoto ducked back into the doorway to listen.

"Please, Minako, I'm just trying to apologize! I never meant anything romantic by meeting with Makoto, it was only training! Why can't you believe me?" Chang asked plaintively. Minako huffed, and kept walking. Chang ducked around to her other side, and Minako looked away again.

Unfortunately, this sent her eyes directly toward Makoto in the bookshop's doorway, and she exploded. "And here she is *again!* Were you planning to go on another date with her if I didn't act like a nice little girlfriend and accept your little apology?!" Minako ranted, and Chang looked at her as if she'd driven a knife into him.

"No! Mina-chan, no! Please, you don't understand - when you said you never wanted to see me again, you didn't *mean* it, did you?!" begged the young martial artist. "I certainly did! Why don't you just go have fun with your 'Mako-chan!" Minako replied before storming off again. Chang let out a choked sob before sagging against the railing, and Makoto hurried over to see if he was all right. "Chang-sensei! Daijobu desu ka? (are you OK?)"

Chang sniffled for a moment before getting his breath under control. "Hai, daijobu, (Yes, I'm OK,) Mako-chan... Oh DAMN!" he cursed, suddenly angry at himself.

"Chang? What? What's the matter?"

"My stupid tongue getting away from my head, that's what - and the fact that I've only got one more apology to win Mina-chan over or I could lose her for good," he replied. "That's silly, Chang," Makoto tried to reassure her sensei. "Mina-chan gets angry, yes, but she's not going to leave you for this!"

"She's already started, Mako..*to,*" Chang replied. "I told you all that I grew up near a village of Chinese Amazons, right?" Makoto nodded, and Chang went on. "They have a custom, that if a female Warrior tells a suitor that she never wants to see him again, the man must break off the relationship. If he wants to try to return to her, he has three chances to apologize - if the Warrior won't accept them, the relationship is finished. So I've used up two of my tries, and now I've only got one left."

"But Minako's not a Warrior!" Makoto protested, and Chang looked at her as if she were silly. "Makoto, I know 'Senshi' is a title from the Moon Kingdom," he murmured quietly, "but it means 'Warrior' in Japanese, and you have to admit all of you are female Warriors." "Well, yeah," Makoto conceded, "but she didn't mean it like that! She only wanted to show how mad she was, not break off the relationship!"

Chang sighed. "In my mind, I know you're right, Mako-chan, but my heart was raised by those rules, and I kinda have to follow them." "Well then, you have to tell her about this! We've gotta let her know what she's doing! We-" "You think I haven't *tried?!*" Chang interrupted. "She won't listen! I sent her a note - her classmates say she read it and tore it up! I told her in front of the school yesterday, and she thinks I'm lying to get her back! Why can't she *trust* me!?" he mourned.

Straightening up, he turned toward the mall exit. "Thanks for trying, Makoto, but - but this is my problem," he called over his shoulder as he walked away. {I know what he was going to say - that I'm part of the problem,} Makoto thought, holding back sobs. {I should never have stayed in his arms like that. I should have insisted we train at the Hikawa Shrine so Grampa Hino and Yuuichiro would be watching! I only thought of myself, and now Chang's suffering for it.} Holding back tears, she headed for the mall exit herself.

* * * * *

The next day, Makoto went through her classes in a sort of daze. It felt like she was carrying a heavy weight, and yet as if she were waiting - as if she knew something was going to happen.

When school let out, she went to a small park and sat down on a bench she liked. It was sized for two, and far enough behind some bushes and small trees that it couldn't be seen or heard from the main path.

It was therefore, from Makoto's point of view, an excellent place to cry. She sat there, silently weeping over what she had done to Chang and Minako - she wasn't sure how long it was. She only woke from her remorse when she heard a noise from deeper in the brush.

{Hmm?} she thought as she raised her head. {I wasn't sobbing, but I'm sure I just *heard* a sob.} She looked into the brush and saw a swatch of grey amid all the greens and browns of the park. {Is somebody in there?}

Carefully, she crept around the large patch of brush, seeing more of the flashes of grey as she went, and around the far side from her bench, she found a small path leading into the brush. {Hmm.. If I'm careful, I should just be able to get down that path without making noise,} she noticed, and worked her quiet way into the patch.

As she ducked past a twig, she looked up and saw the mysterious brush sobber. It was Chang, looking so forlorn that Makoto's heart ached. {The last time I saw a face that miserable was when I went into my scrapbook and found that photo of myself Ken took the day after my parents died,} she thought. "Chang?" she whispered.

He jerked, sat up from his foetal position on the ground, looked around, and saw her.

And went right back to crying. Makoto's heartache throbbed again. {I *can't* leave him like this,} she thought, and went over to him, kneeling by his side and holding his shoulders gently. "Chang...

Chang? It's Makoto. Doshte no? (What's the matter?)" she asked- {as if there's any doubt with him like this,} she said to herself, {but I should make sure.} When he didn't respond, she did. "Chang... It's Minako, isn't it?" she asked quietly.

One moment he was curled in a ball on the ground, the next he was hugging her, clutching her to him like a lifeline. He sobbed and babbled and choked on his grief, but Makoto understood enough of what he was saying to know what had made him so sad.

{She said no,} Makoto thought, {even though he tried to tell her what she was doing to him. Mina-chan, I love you like a sister, but why do you have to be such an *idiot* sometimes!?} she fumed.

For what seemed like hours, Chang vented his grief. Makoto just held him, and let him hold her.

Finally, the Chinese martial artist pulled himself upright. "(snif)Thanks, Mako-chan," he sniffled. "I really needed that," he said as he stood up, pulling her with him. "How'd you find me?"

Makoto giggled as she realized how ironic this was. "I went over to the bench there," she pointed through the brush, "to cry because I was feeling so guilty." Tactfully, she avoided mention of *what* she was feeling guilty for. {He doesn't need it rubbed in his face again,} she thought ruefully. With that in mind, she pulled away from him.

"It's my fault," she apologized while turning away, "I should have stopped training. I should have gotten Rei to let us train at the shrine instead of keeping you to myself!" she sobbed as her own repressed tears came back to the surface. "I should never have gotten into either of those 'situations' with you. I-
I know we have to keep working together as Senshi, but I'll understand if you don't want any more to do with me besides that," she blurted as she began to walk out of the brush patch.

Then she felt Chang's hand on her shoulder, not grabbing, just resting there. {Kami-sama (oh, god) he feels so *warm,*} she thought distractedly.

As she slowly turned to face him, Chang began to speak, in a mostly normal voice. "Mako-chan, all those were *our* decisions, not yours. I agreed to start training you, I wanted to keep doing it, I agreed with your decision to train at the vacant lot, I should have hit you with a pressure point when you jumped me instead of letting you grapple, and I could have picked you up outright to carry you to that log instead of holding you against me," he finished.

Makoto was facing him by this time, and she could see him looking down and blushing slightly. "You mean..." she began, and then her throat closed up, and she couldn't finish the question.

Chang's blush got a little deeper. "Yeah," he admitted, "you weren't the only one giving in to temptation. Feeling less guilt-ridden now?" She blushed herself, and he continued.

"You know, each of you embody your guardian planets or elements," he mused, seemingly out of the blue. {His hand's still on my shoulder,} Makoto noticed. {And he doesn't seem to be planning to move it any time soon.}

Chang went on, oblivious to her thoughts. "Rei is fire - though we usually only see the destructive side, there's warmth there too. Ami has the mental speed of the Roman god Mercury, and he was the beginning of the medical arts too - no wonder she wants to be a doctor. Usagi - she's got all the Moon's mystery and hidden depths to her spirit. Minako..." He sighed, and Makoto's heart skipped a beat. "...she's Venus, all right. All the aspects of it, too: good and bad. Passion, yes, but jealousy as well. And it didn't help that she had reason for jealousy." Makoto stared at him.

This turned out to be a mistake, because he looked up at her, and she lost herself in his eyes, and couldn't look away. "Ever since I was a kid, I've loved thunderstorms," Chang said. "The energy, the challenge of the elements, the way the sky looks when lightning flickers through the clouds. And *you* are the thunderstorm, Mako-chan." Her heart skipped another beat, then decided to go double-time to make up for the misses. "The way you put your all into everything you do, with your heart on your sleeve and no regrets.. and how when the storm passes, there's this utter tranquility when everything seems fresh and new. Like you've done for me right now."

Makoto swallowed, trying to speak. It took her three tries, but she did it. "You're t-talking awfully romantically, Sensei," she stammered. "Wh-what about..." "...Minako?" Chang sighed. "I told her what this would mean if she refused. I tried to get her to accept my apology. I followed her around, half-distraught, for an hour and a half today, trying to get her to understand, and she wouldn't. She wouldn't trust me, Mako-chan," he mourned. "I noticed that a while ago. And can love stay, if there's no trust?" He took a deep breath, then let it out.

"I realize that we're both in a very emotional state right now, and we shouldn't do anything we might regret later. But... Mako-chan?" "...Yes?" she managed.

"...Do you want to see... if we can get along better than Minako and I did?"

"...Yeah," she answered, and kissed him.