When All Your Friends Are Superheroes

Written by Chikako/Sailor Myrkr

Chapter 1: Corellian Girls

Peetie, you might remember, was a young man from Earth. He had always been a Star Wars fan, and was fond of Sailor Moon, too. In fact, when he first found out that Yoshiko, his best friend, was Sailor Chibi Tatooine, he was rather jealous and thought himself much better suited for the job. He knew the movies by heart, he'd read the novels, and, well, Yoshiko didn't even know what an X-wing was!

"You wanna try my fuku on?" she suggested one Wednesday evening when Peetie first confessed his jealousy.

"Ew, no!" Peetie said, tossing a cushion from the pink sofa at her. Yoshiko thought (although she was wrong) that she was most likely the only Senshi with a pink sofa in her room. She found it at Divana's Used Furniture on Coruscant only a few days after arriving form Earth, but that's pretty much irrelevant as far as this story goes. Peetie spent hours on this pink sofa because he really didn't know what else to do. He hadn't been there long enough to make many friends, and the streets of Coruscant scared him a little - though he'd never admit that, of course. And so he hung out in Yoshiko's room (it was way cooler than his) and listened to the Corellian punk-rock CDs she'd picked up somewhere (probably Corellia).

"So maybe you don't get to save the Galaxy by saying silly things like 'Pink Sand Attack!' " Yoshiko said while painting her nails light blue to match the streaks in her hair. "Don't complain. At least you got to come and you're not stuck on Earth without me... even if it was an accident."

"Yoshiko!" a female voice shouted and the door swung open. It was Megami Hisui. "Get your henshin stick and let's move!" The redhead disappeared, and through the doorway Peetie could see the rest of the Senshi hurrying about the corridor, getting ready to go fight the Sailor Sith or some other villain. Half a second later, it was still again, and he was alone in Yoshiko's room. The Corellian punk was still playing and Peetie flopped back onto the pink sofa.

"Fine, go save the galaxy," he muttered. "I'll just stay here and not eat Taco Bell."

The green-haired boy looked back up at the doorway and reached for the volume. A girl with short brown hair and pink pajamas smiled at him slightly. "Chikako," he said.

"Why don't you go to a Jedi Healer, or a medical droid? Don't you got bacta tanks or something here?"

She shrugged. "Soup?" Then her face lit up. "Peetie, will you go bake be sub soup?"

"Um... I can make microwave popcorn..." Chikako sneezed. Peetie laughed. "I'll go see what I can do. Go back to bed."

Peetie made his way to the nearest cafeteria, where he was informed that there was no soup. "How can there not be any soup?" he mumbled as he wandered out into the street. Surely there had to be a café or a grocery store somewhere not too far.

He walked about three blocks before he found a place that looked promising. When he went inside, he was surprised to see a Wookiee behind the counter. In fact, he laughed, in spite of knowing that Wookiees weren't a species that appreciated being laughed at. The Wookiee growled. "Uh oh," Peetie mumbled. He didn't have to speak Wookiee to know that the hairy one was saying something along the lines of "what do you think you're laughing it, kid?" The Earth-boy turned around and started running but tripped over his own jeans. "Uh oh!" he repeated, as he felt a large furry hand close around each arm. As he was lifted into the air, he expected his life to pass before his eyes. Instead, all he could hear was C3P-O's voice saying over and over again, "Let the Wookiee win." And then he fainted.

Chikako ventured out of her room again. "Where'd he go?" she wondered, and walked down to the Senshi's kitchen. There she heated up some soup, ate it, and went back to bed.

When Peetie woke up, the Wookiee was still swinging him through the air. "Okay, put the kid down, Khwacca!" somebody finally said. The Wookiee growled. "He's just a kid," the voice answered. A second later, Peetie was set on his feet with a reluctant huff from Khwacca. He stumbled toward a bar stool, the café still spinning. The man who'd stopped the Wookiee from killing him laughed. "Great," he complained. "Now the kid's gonna get sick all over everything."

And while Peetie wasn't about to argue with that, he did his best to sit up straight and look healthy. Khwacca and his human friend both laughed at his efforts, and in the end handed him something like a ginger ale.

Half an hour later, Peetie had told his life story to the two in the café, with proper omissions regarding Sailor Senshi and the like. Riono, the human, shook his head sympathetically. "Well maybe you'd like to go to school here on Coruscant," he suggested. "You could meet more kids your age that way."

"Ugh! No way!" Peetie said immediately. Riono laughed, and Khwacca huffed a little.

"That's how I felt about it," Riono said. "Back in the day." He stared at a juice cooler with a faraway look in his eyes. Peetie thought he'd probably practiced it in front of a mirror before. He smiled at his ginger ale. Riono reminded him of an old hippie. Just like his Uncle Bobby from Chicago.

Peetie walked down to Khwacca's café the next day too. This time Riono told him of his adventures offworld, back in the day, when he was a little older than Peetie. Peetie described tacos, and tried to show Khwacca how to make one. Khwacca laughed and told Riono that there were too many vegetables, but ate it anyway. They spent the day like that, hanging out in the café. The next day too.

On the fourth day Peetie went to the café, a woman came in. That happened all the time, so he didn't think anything of it till he saw the expression on Riono's face. Khwacca growled.

"Well I'll be," the woman said in a variety of Basic that resembled the American Southern accent. She was heavily made-up, with a fluffy, light yellow ponytail on top of her head. "If it isn't Riono Morigo."

Karandra looked at the Wookiee. "Well, surprise, surprise," she sang. Khwacca growled, but not threateningly. She slowly turned her gaze back to Peetie. "You know, you should meet my daughter!" she said, her voice suddenly bright.

Riono set down his glass. "Karandra, don't bother the kid. Look, how much do you want?"

The woman was still looking at Peetie. "Oh, Riono, when did you get so businesslike? I haven't seen you in months and you don't even want to visit a few minutes? We should catch up! And let's introduce these kids; Sureya's right outside," she said and almost skipped out of the café.

"If you wanted to visit, why did you move to Corellia?" Riono called after her. Karandra didn't answer, and a moment later, returned with her daughter.

"Peetie," Peetie answered. Sureya's lips turned up in a slight smile, but she didn't look at him. She was about sixteen, with a mess of long, soft black hair in both tiny ringlets and deep waves. Her skin was bronze-colored, darkened further by the sun on beautiful Corellian beaches, giving it a warmth that was out of place on this city-planet. Her eyes, half closed at the moment, were hazel-brown; and she had a smile that made a person feel like they'd been singled out for some honor, if she chose to grace them with it. And she wasn't gracing Peetie with it now.

Sureya slid onto a bar stool one away from Peetie and had Khwacca bring her a cold drink. Peetie turned towards her. "Do you always come across as such a snob?" he asked.

She didn't seem surprised or insulted, but she did actually raise her eyes enough to look at him while she answered, still in a cool, effortless voice. "Not one for tact, are you?"

Sureya turned back to her drink. "Why do you hang out with Riono and Khwacca?" she asked as if they'd been discussing it.

Sno Cones. That's what her voice made Peetie think of. He used to buy those at his dad's baseball games, back on Earth. He rather liked them.

"I was only curious. You don't seem like someone who would only hang out with old people."

"I don't only hang out with old people! I have friends my own age. But she's on a trip right now. I mean, they're on a trip right now. Except one, who's sick."

Sureya drank her drink. Peetie drank his. When Sureya finished, she stood up. "Come on," she said to him. "Mom, we're going to the park."

"Then don't." She left the café without turning to see if he was coming or not. But he was.

When they got to the park – which Peetie had never known existed – Sureya led them straight to a group of teenagers standing on a playing field. She didn't seem to know them, but within seconds her and Peetie had been assigned to Caldander's team. Caldander was a tall, bubbly guy who learned their names immediately, and the captain on the other team was a short, somewhat vicious blonde girl named Bez who laughed a lot but could definitely play sports such as this. Peetie had never played the game before, of course, but he caught on quick (it was more or less like Ultimate Frisbee).

Sureya, as girly as she had seemed, turned out to be better than most of the boys playing; but for some reason, that wasn't too surprising. The game was competitive, but not very serious. Their team won, and Caldander (that seemed to be his last name) swept Peetie up into a bear hug and then dropped him at Sureya's feet. She laughed (shocking him) and then asked him to come to a place called Schritsz's Diner with her, Caldander, Bez, and a bunch of other kids.

"I don't suppose they serve pizza there," he said. Sureya smiled as she pulled him to his feet, but ignored the question since she didn't know what pizza was.

"Teach me some Corellian," Peetie said. He and Sureya were sitting on a bench outside Schritsz's Diner, which had closed several hours ago.

"Good," she said. He said it again. Sureya smiled. "I have to go home now. I'm going to the park tomorrow, if my mom doesn't mind."

"Okay," Peetie said. "Vie yendawa su hasie tai. I'll probably go too. Vie yendawa su hasie tai."

"Do you know how to get home? I get on at this transport station and go one stop."

"Vie yendawa su hasie tai. Yep," Peetie answered, looking up to his left at the towers of the Jedi Temple. "I'll get there."

"Good night." Peetie's walk home took five minutes. He chanted his new Corellian phrase the whole way, and fell asleep with it still running through his mind.

Peetie woke up late the next morning in a much noisier Jedi Temple. "The Senshi are back!" he announced to himself as he rolled out of bed. He took off for the room with the pink couch. "Yoshiko!" and then, "Vie yendawa su hasie tai, vie yendawa su hasie tai..." He raced up a staircase and around a corner, where he crashed into... "Suta-chan! What's up? Did you beat the baddies?"

"Great!" Peetie said and went on his way. "Vie yendawa su hasie tai, vie yenda -"

She gave him a "well, duh!" look and pointed to herself. "Sailor Corellia, remember?"

Peetie continued on his way to Yoshiko's room at a slower pace. " 'I enjoy your company,' " he thought. "She enjoys my company? Sureya?" Finally he grinned. "Hoth!"

Chapter 2: A Bad Day in the Park

"Yeah, Yuki-chan. I'm fine." She had felt instantly comfortable with the Senshi, and so they'd never seen her in her more reserved mood. Peetie had – she'd often been like that at school – so he wasn't too concerned.

"The park's around the next corner," he said to the two girls. "You'll like this, Yuki-chan. It's just like Ultimate Frisbee."

"I hate it," Yoshiko whined. "I was hoping I'd never have to play Ultimate again after we left Earth."

"Stop whining, Yo. Yuki-chan will like it. The kids who play are really cool, too."

Yoshiko frowned. They had reached the park. "All these people," she mumbled. "They're all staring at me."

"Don't be paranoid," Peetie said. "Hey, Caldander!" He ran up to a tall guy with a wide smile. "These are my friends, Yuki-chan and Yoshiko." Yukiko grinned and shook his hand, and Yoshiko, standing behind her, said hello. Just then, a beautiful girl wearing light blue shorts and a tank top came up. "Oh," Peetie grinned. "This is Sureya."

Sureya half smiled at the girls. "Nice to meet you," she said. Yukiko returned the greeting. Yoshiko frowned.

"Hey!" a spunky girl shouted from across the field. "Are we gonna play or what?"

"Are you kidding? Jabba the Hutt would be better at this." They laughed. "Where's Peetie?"

"I see," she said shortly. "Talking to the lovely Sureya of course." She flipped her light pink hair over her shoulder.

"Yoshiko," Yukiko began, sensing the younger girl's jealousy (a tree-frog could've sensed her jealousy).

"I don't like her," she said bluntly. "She's a snob." Yukiko sighed. Yoshiko wasn't bad at giving that impression herself. Nobody said anything for a minute.

"What are they doing?" Yukiko eventually wondered aloud as Peetie, Sureya, and the rest of their new friends gathered around Caldander. "I don't know what it is," she heard him say to the others. "I found it in the grass. It's pretty, isn't it?"

Yoshiko cast an uninterested glance at the group and went back to fixing one of her heart-shaped odango. "Something's not right," the blue-haired Senshi mumbled. And just then, someone screamed, and the group of teenagers was engulfed in a black cloud.

"What the -!" Yoshiko cried, dropping her hair. Most of their friends were laying in the grass, unconscious, while a few made attempts to run away from the cloud of black smoke. "Peetie!" She and Yukiko stood frozen, not believing what they saw. A second ago, everything had been fine!

The black smoke began to clear, and a figure began to appear within it. "Uh oh," Yukiko said, and pulled Yoshiko behind the goal. "Hoth Force Power, Make UP!" she cried and transformed into a pretty sailor soldier. Yoshiko pulled out her henshin stick and did likewise. When the girls returned to the scene, they were not surprised to see Sailor Sith Eimin standing where the explosion had been.

"She's stealing energy!" Sailor Chibi Tatooine said. Those who hadn't been knocked out by the original blast were quickly falling, and the shimmering ball in Eimin's hand was growing.

"Peetie!" Chibi Tatooine squealed. "Why... you... Pink Sand Attack!" she screamed. It was the first time she'd ever said the phrase with any enthusiasm, and so the attack was more powerful than it had ever been. Her sandstorm usually just added a little color to the battle – this time it got Eimin's attention.

"Senshi?" the Sith said, rather unfazed, albeit a little surprised. "Didn't we just teach you a lesson over in the Hapes Cluster?"

"Not lesson enough!" Sailor Hoth said. During the sand attack, she'd run down the field and was now almost opposite Sailor Chibi Tatooine. "Hoth Blizzard Blast!"

Eimin dodged the bulk of the ice storm, but she'd seen Sailor Hoth in action before and was not interested in facing her alone. "I pick my battles," she snarled and disappeared, along with the energy she had stolen.

"Are they all dead?!" Sailor Chibi Tatooine cried, running over to the spot where the energy ball had been. "What do we do?"

Sailor Hoth reached out with the Force. "Nobody's dead," she said. "But they need rest to replenish their energy. And they're scared." The Senshi of Ice and Innocence used her Snowflake Kiss power to calm their friends and tried some Jedi healing techniques.

He did his best to nod. "You did good, Yo." She smiled a thanks and stood there for a minute. Finally, Peetie spoke up again. "Is Sureya okay?"

Chapter 3: A Little Help From My Friends

Annika shuffled to her room. Stupid business meeting... "There should be rules against letting Solai talk so long," she mumbled. And then Zyta had treated them to a homemade lunch. She'd had Nom's help, but sometimes even that wasn't enough – and Annika had had to do the dishes. "It was SO Audra's turn!" she said for probably the fifteenth time since she'd been forced into the chore.

The unhappy Princess turned a corner. Her room was close now, and she was way overdue for a nap. She picked up the pace a little when she realized how close her bed was. Finally, she swung open her bedroom door and flopped onto her mattress, not even pulling back the pink blankets.

Annika might have been startled if she hadn't been so annoyed at having her napping process interrupted. "What?" she grumbled and turned over to face the intruder lounging on her pink sofa. "Ah," she said when she saw who it was. "The Muggle."

"Yes, I do have a pink sofa," she sighed. "But it's no better than Yoshiko's, I promise. In fact, hers is much more comfortable than mine. I know – I've snuck into her room to sit on it before!" Peetie said nothing. He didn't get the hint, or he ignored it. Maybe I shouldn't have told him that! Annika thought. "So... you're here because... she won't let you sit on her pink sofa?"

Annika cast a short, wistful glance at her pillow and pulled herself into a sitting-up position. He really thought she had time to deal with this? "I don't know what to do. Maybe Xarae has some ideas."

"You're afraid of the lead singer of N*aboo?" Annika giggled. Peetie looked mildly sorry to have confided in her. "Sorry," she said, biting her lip to keep from smiling. They were silent for another minute, and Annika found herself gazing again at her pillow. How to get this over with?

"I don't know!" she answered, frustrated. She really wanted him to leave... but poor Peetie looked so pathetic. Annika's face softened. "I'll talk to her for you, okay?" she finally promised. "After my nap!"

After leaving Annika's room, Peetie wandered around the halls for a while, and through the main Room-Behind-the-Waterfall, and through the Senshi's garden. Ever since the day that Sith had attacked them in the park, Yoshiko had been giving him the silent treatment. He'd seen Sureya a few times and had spent one afternoon with Khwacca and Riono, but having Yoshiko mad at him was killing him. Sure, they argued all the time, but she'd never really been angry at him – except for the time he spilled Kool-Aid on her homecoming dress – but even that had only lasted half an hour.

What had got her so mad? The only thing he could come up with was Sureya – and that made him mad. "Apparently," Peetie said sarcastically, "I'm not allowed to have friends."

Peetie stopped by the rosebush. It figured someone would overhear him talking to himself. "I guess not," he answered the voice slowly. "Not according to Yoshiko, anyway."

An older girl with long brown hair stepped around the rosebush. Xarae. Peetie froze. He considered running, but then realized his legs wouldn't move. So he started stuttering instead. "Uh – uh... I was... uh... just walking and talking and... uh..."

Xarae did not have to tap into her wells of Force sensitivity to realize that Peetie was terrified of her. This puzzled her on the one hand and amused her on the other hand. And it might have hurt her a little if she hadn't known that Peetie was also afraid of the lead singer of N*aboo. "Would you relax?" she said. "I'm not going to hurt you."

"Peetie, sit down." He complied. Xarae folded her legs and knelt next to him, pulling tiny weeds from the bed of the rosebush as she talked. "If somebody were to ask Yoshiko why she was mad at you, she wouldn't know," she began softly.

Peetie listened. He expected Xarae to keep going, but she didn't. "So..." he prompted. "Do you know?" The mysterious girl smiled – almost. "You do know," Peetie said. "But you're not going to tell me, are you?"

Xarae's almost-smile grew a little. No, she wasn't going to tell him, although he would never understand why. She kept pulling weeds. Peetie opened his mouth as if to speak several times, but finally just stood up and walked slowly away. Xarae, bent towards the ground, watched him between loose strands of long, brown hair. Her half-smile remained. She turned her eyes back to the bit of dirt her right hand was clutching. She pulled it from the ground and tossed aside the small weed that had reached its roots around it. She went to pull the next weed but noticed a dark red ladybug had stopped to rest on it. She pushed the ladybug onto her finger and dropped him into a white rose before continuing with her work.

Annika walked into Yoshiko's room without knocking. She pushed a stuffed Ewok off the couch and lay down.

"Make yourself at home," Yoshiko mumbled from behind a copy of Bantha Beat Chikako had lent her, though she suspected it actually belonged to Ippin.

"Thanks," Annika said cheerfully. "So what's up?" Yoshiko shot her a glance over the magazine and didn't answer. Annika grinned at her, and then noticed her hair. "Hey!" she said. "What happened to your odango?"

The Princess took a deep breath. This was more serious than she thought. "You... didn't do your odango?" Yoshiko didn't answer, but the untouched, slightly frizzy masses of pink and blue waves spoke for themselves. Annika then noticed the pink pajamas. It was true, Yoshiko has a tendency to not dress up, but she always got dressed, even if that meant a Metallica t-shirt from Earth year 1987 and someone else's old blue jeans.

Annika got off the couch. She walked over to Yoshiko's dresser and looked at the pictures she had framed. There was a photo of the eight odango-heads among the Senshi, each posing in keeping with their personalities; there were a few frames featuring various Chibis, either smiling innocently at some birthday or impromptu field trip, or grinning mischievously while doing something they shouldn't have been doing, but not minding that it was being caught on film. And there were several pictures of her and Peetie. Annika picked up a fuzzy pink frame with the two of them just standing there grinning. "I don't think I've ever seen this picture," she said.

Annika glanced at her out of the corner of her eye. "Where was this taken? ...Yoshiko?"

"Oh," Annika giggled sheepishly. It was all she could do to keep from transforming and zapping the brat with her Peace and Love Shock attack.

The door swung open again at the impact of a small astromech droid. RE-4b plowed over the pink carpet and began circling the room. Yoshiko lifted her feet off the floor without looking, like she used to do when her mother vacuumed. Annika yelped when the droid bumped into her legs and then kept trying to go forward. "What – get – OW!" she stuttered, and then finally got out a full word: "CHIKAKO!" She stepped away, but the droid still pursued. "CHI-KA-KOOUUU!" She finally jumped onto the couch just as a curious Chikako bounced into the room with a smile.

Annika, speechless in her frustration, flailed a gesture in the direction of the droid.

Chikako laughed. "Ari, what are you doing?? You short-circuiting little – Oh!" Chikako bounced out of the room as suddenly as she had bounced in – the droid was now coming after her. "My own droid is turning on me!" she cried as she ran down the hallway. "Priire! Get your blaster! Wait a minute – I have my own blaster..."

Her voice faded as she ran to her room – presumably to find her blaster – and Annika was left standing on the couch. "I – I probably need a BAND-AID!" she finally sputtered and climbed off the furniture. She limped out of Yoshiko's room and took off running, not even looking twice when she passed Numako slumped on the floor in a fit of giggles - with a wrench in her hand.

After everyone had left, Yoshiko stood up. She walked over to her dresser and picked up the picture Annika had been holding. She shook her head. Tatooine?

"I tried." Chouko insisted, eating the last of the aforementioned candy. "You wouldn't let me let you."

Ippin, who was reading with Schylar nearby, looked up. "Peetie, you gave Chouko candy?"

"It's four o'clock!" Kyoko announced as she walked into the room. "Whose turn is it to make dinner?"

Ippin and Chouko both denied it, although Kyoko soon discovered that they were both lying. "It's four o'clock?" Peetie said. "I have to meet Sureya."

When Minae ran into a teary-eyed Annika in search of band-aids, she got the whole story. The Princess didn't spare any details: Minae heard all about Annika promising Peetie she'd talk to Yoshiko; him being afraid of both Xarae and Chris from N*aboo; Yoshiko's pajamas, her pictures, her rudeness; and finally, the psycho droid.

Minae happened to have some band-aids. They had glow-in-the-dark dinosaurs on them, which didn't especially thrill Annika, but she made do. After thanking Minae profusely and warning her that Chikako was wandering around with a blaster, Annika went to her room. Minae thought for a moment and then decided to pick up where Annika left off.

The pretty brunette knocked lightly on Yoshiko's door, but it wasn't closed all the way and slid open. "Hello?"

Yoshiko set down the picture frame she was still holding and turned around. "Hi Minae," she said.

She changed her clothes and pulled her hair up in its usual style, and she and Minae headed out of the Jedi Temple.

Minae looked offended for a second and then laughed. "What do you mean?" she giggled. "I – I like to walk! Just not very fast."

Yoshiko smiled. They walked without talking for a few minutes, looking around at the buildings and the skyways and the traffic overhead. It was one of those dark days where it feels like night at four in the afternoon. It didn't seem like rain; it just seemed that the clouds would always be there, and it made Minae feel like she didn't have her eyes open all the way. From inside, looking at the weather made Yoshiko feel depressed, but she was already sad. It had made Minae feel tired. But once they were out in the air and the wind and the freshness that even sometimes works its way between the buildings on Coruscant, both girls started to feel more alive. They stopped thinking about blankets and sleep, and even got a little hungry.

"It's almost dinnertime!" Minae said, mostly just because somebody had to say it. But she let her gaze fall on the pastries for just a second and gave in.

Yoshiko laughed as they paid the vendor. "It's okay," she assured her. "Chouko's cooking tonight. I, for one, don't want to be hungry!"

"That's not very nice, Yoshiko," Minae said with her mouth full of a sweet pastry.

"Did you think he was cute?" Yoshiko whispered instead of responding. Minae turned around and looked at the vendor.

"Maybe." She pointed to another boy on the street. "What about him?" she said a little too loud.

Minae grabbed the hand Yoshiko was pointing with. "He heard you!" she squeaked.

They walked further along, eating their pastries and stopping to look through the windows at a pet shop. Minae really wanted to talk to her about Peetie, but she wasn't sure how to – and she didn't want to ruin Yoshiko's good mood, either. She had to try something.

Yoshiko turned from the kittens she was baby-talking to through the window. They started walking again. "Um, well... okay, I guess. I don't know. Peetie and I are kind of fighting."

More silence. "Um, you guys are just friends, right?" Minae asked as innocently as she could.

"Yeah!" Yoshiko said loudly, almost before Minae had finished talking. "I mean, yes. We're just friends." She looked down to hide the fact that she was blushing.

"You don't like him as more than a friend?" Minae felt like she was risking the conversation here, but Yoshiko was starting to seem ready to open up. She hoped.

"No, of course not," Yoshiko said automatically. "I mean... no. I just like him as a friend." She looked Minae in the eye. "Right?"

"Um," Minae started, not expecting to be consulted. "Yeah," she ventured. "Right!"

Peetie gulped the last of his coffee down and looked around the warm, dimly lit coffee shop. "I pity whoever I'll be around when this caffeine kicks in," he said.

"Me too," Sureya said, stirring her own coffee. "You're probably bad enogh after a Tic-Tac."

Peetie looked up as he stuffed sugar packets in his pocket. "They have Tic-Tacs here?"

Peetie smiled at her understandable assumption. "They don't have Taco Bell," he said, making it sound like a challenge.

Sureya shook her curls slightly. "No," she said thoughtfully. "I don't think we have those on Corellia, either."

She pushed her coffee away and selected a mint from a small black candy dish. "Where is that?"

"Well," Peetie said. "I gotta get home. Chouko's cooking tonight. She makes the best... um... Hm. Maybe that's somebody else." He thought about it. "Yeah, it is somebody else. But Ippin makes a pretty good cake, so I should still probably get going."

"Okay," Sureya laughed. They stood up and started pushing their chairs in. "Oh," Sureya said suddenly, leaning on the back of her chair. "I have to tell you something."

"All right," Peetie said in his Earth dialect, dropping the L's and most of the R. He often peppered his Basic with English words, but not quite enough to be obnoxious about it. Close, though.

"Because that's where I live!" She sighed. "We only came here so my mom could see Riono, and for a little vacation. And now she's ready to go back."

The pair left the coffee shop and started down the street, arms still linked. The weather made it feel later than it was. They had just started talking about the Republic's political situation when a dark-haired girl caught Peetie's attention.

"Minae!" he called. The girl looked up. She looked surprised at first, and then nervous.

"Hi, P- um, hi," she said. She glanced to her right and bit her lip. Peetie followed her gaze, although he wasn't sure she wanted him to.

Yoshiko, meanwhile, was still staring innocently into a store window. "That's kind of a cute dress, eh Minae?" she mumbled. Minae didn't answer, causing Yoshiko to think maybe she should check and make sure she was still there.

When Yoshiko turned around, she saw her friend standing in the same place she had been, looking worried, and watching the ground intently. It didn't take long for her to notice Peetie standing a little beyond her.

The two, best friends for so many years, just stared into one another's blue eyes for a moment. "Peetie," Yoshiko finally spat out.

Peetie immediately dropped Sureya's arm, which made him feel guilty, and he wasn't sure why he did it. There was no reason he shouldn't be linking arms with Sureya. She looked at him, mildly confused, but he wouldn't look at her.

Yoshiko would, and did. Her face darkened when she began to comprehend Sureya's presence, and the fact that the two had been practically holding hands (from her perspective) up until that moment.

Sureya turned her gaze to the angry girl before her, and then looked back at Peetie. "Why can't it be what she thinks?" she said.

Peetie jumped. He had been guiltily aware of Sureya's presence, but had forgotten all about Sureya herself.

"She's not your girlfriend, is she?" Sureya demanded, fire burning in her normally unreadable light brown eyes.

Peetie realized with amazement that there were tears in Sureya's eyes. He wanted to say "I'm not ashamed of you!" But he just stared.

Minae would have been on the edge of her seat had she been sitting. A choking sound from Yoshiko pulled her eyes from Peetie and Sureya. She was watching them too, with angry tears shimmering in her eyes, gasping for air and making every effort not to cry. "No," she croaked.

Minae felt like her heart was breaking, but gasped with horror suddenly when a tiny sun caught her eye. Yoshiko was squeezing her Henshin stick in her right hand. "No!" Minae gasped. "Yoshiko!"

Yoshiko glanced in her direction but didn't even bother making out Minae's shape through her tears. "Tatooine Power Make UP!" she cried hoarsely.

Peetie looked up. "Shhhhhssith-spit!" he cursed. Maybe Sailor Chibi Tatooine's powers weren't all that much, up against a Sith. But even then, they had a tendency to surprise when she was passionate. And she was more passionate now than she'd ever been.

He didn't know how he felt. He didn't know what to do, or why he was doing what he did do. But he did know that at that moment, Yoshiko was not being the Sailor Jedi she was destined to be. And he knew that she was looking right at Sureya, who was not a threat to peace and hope in the Galaxy, and was not prepared to face even Pink Sand Attack.

Peetie did the only thing he could think of, hopefully to save both girls. He grabbed Sureya and ran.

Minae made her decision at the same instant Peetie did – she couldn't stand there, helpless and terrified, for another second. Yoshiko's transformation was a flurry of pink ribbon. When it ended, with a flash of sunlight, Minae took off. She tackled Sailor Chibi Tatooine just as the she realized that Sureya – and Peetie – were gone.

She wasn't hard to push down, and they landed, with scrapes and bruises, behind a cement street bench. Minae, sensing that Chibi Tatooine had used most of her strength to transform and spent the rest of it trying not to sob, pulled the girl into an embrace. "Yoshiko, what are you doing?" she whispered.

She shook her head. "I don't know," she mouthed, but the words wouldn't come out. The intense anger from a few minutes ago was gone from her eyes, and tears raced down her cheeks. Minae gave up trying to wipe them and let her cry.

Chapter 4: Annika Takes It Upon Herself

Peetie and Yoshiko sat on opposite sides of Annika's couch, staring at pictures on opposite sides of the room. Peetie kept changing position, exchanging one throw pillow for another, crossing his right foot over his left, and vice versa, and always glancing back at a framed picture of Obi-Wan Kenobi as if it were going to move. Yoshiko didn't move, didn't speak, and didn't take her eyes off the small poster of N*aboo, even when Annika came in with several other people. Peetie immediately sat up straight and watched Annika attentively as she crossed her room.

As reluctant as she had been to talk to Yoshiko, Annika sure was eager to resolve things between her and Peetie now. She had even brought in Minae, Yukiko, Chouko, and (Peetie shivered) Xarae to help mediate. She was now seating the four of them. Peetie looked back at the picture of Obi-Wan and vaguely regretted getting her involved.

Yoshiko stared intently at the N*aboo poster. Earlier, she had been putting all her concentration into trying to teleport herself into another room, but it hadn't worked. So now she was concentrating on not looking away from N*aboo. It was too bad Annika didn't have a Bespin Boys poster – Yoshiko liked them better. She didn't want to look at Peetie. She had given up on being mad at him – it had taken too much out of her. She hadn't expected to be able to simply "give it up" like that, but after almost making a very serious mistake by attacking an innocent civilian, there was very little of anything she actually wanted to hold on to. She felt guilty, and embarrassed, and completely drained of the energy it took to be angry.

Despite that, though, she still wasn't interested in being mediated and tried to pretend Annika and the others were not there.

"Yes," Peetie answered, turning from the Obi-Wan photo to Annika's pink slippers.

Peetie coughed and looked back at the Obi-Wan photo for guidance. "Well... she's my first friend who's not a superhero. And she's fun to talk to. I don't know." He looked again at Annika's slippers, and then moved on to Chouko's striped socks. "I don't have a lot of close friends, and I hardly ever click with people right away, you know? Um... You know?"

"Yoshiko... is right there," Peetie said, nodding slightly towards her end of the couch. Chouko's smile turned into a slight giggle.

"Fine," Peetie grumbled. "Yoshiko is my very best friend," he said bitterly. "We've known each other since elementary school. I've never kissed her."

Yoshiko unconsciously looked away from N*aboo to give Peetie a "Why do you say such strange things?" look.

"Yes... but I'd forgive her if she'd talk to me. And I wish she wouldn't get mad when I make new friends. Even if they're pretty."

"So," Minae said, "all she'd have to do was start speaking to you, and you'd forgive her? She wouldn't have to feel bad about... anything? Even if somebody almost got hurt?"

"Yes," Peetie said, uncertain if that meant he was agreeing or disagreeing. "Yes," he said more confidently a second later.

Yoshiko sighed. She gave Peetie a sideways glanced. She bit her lip and looked away. "I don't know what to say," she said to Chouko.

"Well," Annika said, clapping her hands. "I anticipated speechlessness." She opened the door. "Chikako!" she called.

"Here I am!" Chikako said. She curtseyed and came into the room, RE- 4b in tow. "Are you ready?" she said. Annika nodded. "Go on, Ari," Chikako said.

Yukiko switched off Annika's lamp, and RE-4b flipped on its holo-projector and shined a bluish screen on the wall. It darkened for an instant, and then the wide smile of eight-year-old Peetie covered the wall.

Yoshiko glared at Chouko, who smiled innocently. That picture had been taped into the inside cover of her diary. Being a Chibi, Yoshiko knew all the Chibi Secrets used to terrorize the other Senshi – but she never dreamed they'd be used against her!

The next slide was a picture of Yoshiko from the same year. She was smiling shyly and even then had her typical heart-shaped odango.

The next thing Ari presented was not a slide, but a holovid from a camping trip to Endor some of the Senshi (and Peetie) had taken several months ago. The pair had hijacked the holocam and entertained themselves for hours, though Ari just showed a short clip, but it left everyone laughing hysterically.

"Shh!" Annika said as the next holo came on. Peetie grinned widely on the screen, and then stepped back to reveal some sort of farm behind him.

The next three minutes consisted of nothing but Peetie chasing turkeys around a field somewhere on Naboo.

"I'm not sure why that was on there," Annika said when it was over and a slideshow of random snapshots of the two of them started.

The presentation lasted twenty minutes. Yukiko flipped the lamp on again, and Chikako led her droid out of the room.

Annika stood up, tripped over a pillow, and stumbled back to upright position. "Do you have anything to say to each other now?" she asked, ignoring giggles from the other "mediators."

Annika tapped Xarae's arm. The dark-haired woman motioned to Chouko, Minae, and Yukiko, and followed Annika out of her room.

"I had nothing to do with the jellybean thing. Or duct taping Kairiku to the couch, or the attempt to sabatoge the N*aboo concert, or –"

"Oh, whatever!" Peetie cried, throwing his hands up. "I'm the one who didn't want to duct tape Kairiku to the couch!"

Yukiko shrugged and listened two the two arguing. Chouko shrugged. "We got them talking; that was the important thing, right?"

Chapter 5: Friends Nevertheless

"Yoshiko," Peetie said suddenly, halfway through his argument about why she was the odder one, "did you know Annika had a pink couch?"

"No, I didn't know that," Yoshiko said, straightening up and looking around at the couch she was sitting on. "Gosh... we should take it!"

Peetie looked at Annika's couch with disgust. "Ugh!" he cried. "I can't believe we're still sitting here! What is wrong with us?"

Yoshiko agreed, and the two left Annika's room and went to Yoshiko's. Peetie threw himself onto her couch and stretched his arms over his head. "This is sooo nice!" he exclaimed. He kissed an armrest. "I've missed you so much!"

Yoshiko watched the display with some revulsion. "Maybe you should put it in your room," she said.

"It wouldn't be the same," he said, and straightened to sitting position. "Sit!"

"Okay," Yoshiko said. "But first," she took a deep breath and looked down, "I'msorryforbeingsuchajerkandgettingjealousandignoringyouandtryingtoattackyourfriend." The entire sentence lasted for half a second.

"Oh. That's okay, Yo." Peetie smiled, and she sat down. "Oh, and I'm sorry too, just in case I did something that I don't remember that you might be mad at me for."

"You're okay," she said. "Just don't do whatever it is you don't remember again."

Yoshiko giggled. She flipped on the radio, and the sweet sounds of the Bespin Boys filled the room. Peetie groaned. "Show you the shape of my square?" he scoffed. "How imbecilic is that? How many possible shapes can a square be?"

"Yoshiko!" somebody yelled and swung open the door. "Grab your henshin stick and book it to the Eye, like, now!"

"Papier-mâché something," Yoshiko said as she started tearing cushions off the couch in search for her henshin stick. "Or hang out with Ultimate Frisbee people."

"Great! Hang out with the Wookiee!" Yoshiko reached into the couch and pulled out the lost item with a gleeful squeak. "See ya!" she yelled over her shoulder and ran out of the room.

Peetie sighed and threw a pillow at the radio. He missed the power button and reached for another pillow to try again. Yoshiko burst back into the room.

"What'd you forget?" Peetie mumbled, spinning the pillow innocently in his hands.

She didn't answer. Instead, she walked up to the couch, leaned over, and kissed his cheek. And then she left again. Peetie dimly tried to fight the smile playing on his lips. He continued spinning the pillow in his hands, letting the Bespin Boys sing away.