Undressing Secrets

Hell, I don't know, 2000 perhaps? Maybe earlier? I should have started dates long before that. Computer version: Again, can't find first chapter typed up, or anything else I might have bothered with.

Computer version X-infinitate?

6 March 2010

SUM: With the ability to transform lost, Usagi must figure out another way to face the powers trying to destroy the planet, and keep her senshi from killing the man she loves.


AN: I have always meant to get this up and running and share it all with you, but it's been a project close to my heart for over ten years, not to say however that I've actually bothered to write during that time, I just started it then, and it was my favorite.

Which leads me onto my next epiphany: I love all of my stories, I really do, well... maybe not all of them, but it makes it hard for me to finish anything, because I want to work on everything all at once, and none at all at the same time. The hardest part is that when I'm done with a story, I literally forget it, I forget I wrote it and when I go back and look at my old work, I vaguely remember it, where if I leave it open ended and not completed, it's sitting in the back corner of my brain, demanding to get out and get finished because I haven't figured out the ending yet, and so I can't forget the story. However, there have been occasions where I have forgotten the story and the story line, but that's because I didn't really love it.

Then there are stories I absolutely love, but I forget where I was going with it, because I had figured something out, just hadn't written it down or left myself clues. So, it remained unfinished and left behind. Ties that Bind was that way, and then I came up with a slightly new path for it, and it's been completed, at least on one of my disks, somewhere in cyber space, as long as it hasn't been accidentally deleted in this last fall when I was trying to squeeze all disk space I had with everything else on my computer, in case it crashed again... lol, anyways, so if any of the previous has occurred with this story, and I assure you, it either has, or will, and I will eventually get back to it, key examples: Ties that Bind, Lapse in Time and, if you'd believe it: Blond Adventures... hehe... Speaking of TTB: I have to tweak it a bit, find it again to do so, and then it will be up and finished for all of you. BA: I haven't written much more than what is posted, but I will work on that, it's one of my favorite shorts, well, at least as far as I go for shorts... and it is a 2 parter. LIT: I have so much more I want to explore with it, I just haven't found time or prerogative to work on it, but seeing as how it had been 10 years since I started it, editted it, and reposted all in the same time frame, I'm doing pretty good, right? :}

AN2: This story had never meant to be a sequel or have a prequel, it was supposed to be a stand alone, and then circumstances got the better of me, and things got tied together since I liked both stories and I saw a perfect fit leading into this one, where before it had gaps in it that the audience wouldn't have understood without some type of background, at least, not with showing them it, in any case. I was intending to follow the Moon universe (anime-dub) fairly closely with just a what-if, and so I had written a lot of it, but it was my splintered anime viewing, as I had only the dic tapes, and not all episodes ever aired, I don't even have them, they were rented at the time, and so this may or may not follow it exactly or at all in some cases and for that I apologize. It may also not even be exactly comprehensive with Upon a Flash, as details may be tweaked or different, ie Venus & possibly Jupiter, I forget at this moment... the way I had written Upon a Flash, it made more sense to do it the way I had, the way this story goes, it doesn't make as much sense to involve them yet.

I feel as if it is important to warn you, so I don't get a lot of criticism on this particular piece, that said however, Mamoru and Usagi had gotten close behind the senshi's backs, Mamoru does know about Moon/Usa and Moon can't transform any longer after a particular incident with Mamo... Jadeite is dead. Those I can say without a doubt are carry-overs from the UF, which I had added to finish it and tie into this one.

I have added the first chapter, it was never intended to start this way, and in my head it had sounded a lot better and flowed so much more between stories, but again, I had forgotten to write it down when it had been created and so I tried to draw from memory how I meant to go about doing this. I hope it is ok, I think it is a better lead in (maybe) and is partially important. (I say this, because I have yet to actually write it, as I am writing these ridiculously long ANS... :) ) So, without further ado, I will start typing up this story! Oh, and of this moment, I have not even completed it, in paper form, which luckily for you, means I might get around to finishing it on the computer and finish posting once that happens, otherwise, I might not have bothered. :P


Chapter 1


Alone in a cool bed, with a sheet and blankets piled high on top of the man sleeping in it, it still felt obnoxiously cold. He wrapped himself up in the blankets and buried deep, because he was a guy, and he did not snuggle into the blankets, hoping his own body heat would penetrate through the cold that seemed forever wrapped around him. Never in his life, had he felt so frozen, not even on the long lonely nights he'd had as a child, without any warm memories to cling to of his own. Not until he began making his own. First it was an odd child, weak, and didn't want to be noticed by the adults and upset that he had to leave, that the city did not contain the necessity he needed to sustain his body, then with a strange young girl who gave him a rose. The memories were barren, but there after that, until he met another young boy, who became a very dear friend, who still was today. He was followed shortly after by another young girl, it wasn't for another few years that they'd met, but then again, they had known each other almost all of their lives.

He was sleeping, but he felt uncomfortable, like something was wrong, and he felt like something was completely off. That feeling shifted however to feeling completely at ease and that nothing in the world was wrong. He heard, even in his sleep the whisp of the metal of the door slide against the frame, separating the room from his balcony. He didn't rouse though, because he knew who it was, without even opening his eyes. There was a warm breeze that accompanied the intruder and he already felt warmer.

Mamoru shifted as the presence came closer, to allow more space in the bed, he heard a soft sigh as a warm hand brushed his bangs back. "Usako." He whispered, and the body slid into the bed with him, he wrapped his arms around her waist and spoke into her ear, not yet waking up past a slight rousing, and easy to slip back into it, especially with her there. "While I'm glad you're here, why have you come?"

"I had a bad dream." She admitted, slipping her arms around his waist and burying her head into his chest.

Mamoru sighed and held her even closer. "I'm sorry." He ran a hand down her back and she held on tighter. If anything, they had gotten worse over the last few weeks, since they had found out each other's identities. They were coming less frequent, if it was easy to claim that they were coming in any type of monitored frequency in the first place. "How'd you manage to get here?"

He felt Usagi's shoulders shift, as if she was going to just brush it off, but it was her rules, that kept them from going public, and if she was going to come over, she needed some type of plan so as to not get caught. "Luna's out hunting, she won't be back until tomorrow."

"Oh." Mamoru took a deep breath, her smell settling into his bones and he'd slowly drifted back into deep slumber, he'd have to make sure to wake her before dawn rose and send her back to her house. He'd follow her, but she wouldn't know about it, until he could see her enter her house, and then slip back to his own.

Usagi waited until Mamoru had fallen back asleep and looked back up into his face to watch him sleep. She felt better just being in his arms, she didn't want to go back to sleep, one thing hadn't changed since they started coming stronger, was if she had already slept during the day, the nightmares would return when she slept again. She didn't tell him that they were stronger, she hadn't slept in his arms for a very long time, or so it seemed. Since her parents had gotten home, her senshi didn't take any excuses that she needed to be there for Shingo, and made her stay the night over at each of their places. Not that she minded so much, seeing them, it just felt so odd not to be sleeping with him every night.

She didn't know why she was the only one to be suffering these dreams, even the other senshi had remarked on it that she sometimes called out in her sleep and that the dreams seemed so horrible. Perhaps they were there to warn her. But eventually, she couldn't keep her lids open and with a smile still on her face, from the peaceful expression Mamoru had on, Usagi too slipped into dream land.


Mamoru prodded Usagi awake before the day began for most of Tokyo. She moaned in objection. "This is too familiar." She batted away his hands and he leaned down to kiss her awake.

"Come on, Sleepy head, you have to get up and go home. You can sleep more there."

"No." She turned and snuggled deeper into the bed. She hadn't had any night terrors and didn't want to break the first good night's sleep for several days. She hadn't seen Mamoru for almost as long and the youma had not been attacking, not since Jadeite's death. It was an odd period of peace and she wondered if they were done, if he was really dead. "Luna's gone all day, done research." She stretched and looked up at him with a smile. "Parents are gone, and it's a Saturday."

Mamoru looked around before sinking into the bed with her, leaning over her. "Is that so?" His eyes gleamed wickedly. "So I have you to myself all day?"

"Well..." She drawled. "At least until eight, the girls want me to come watch a move with them."

"So... all day." He repeated leaning his head down and captured her lips before pulling away. "Come on, I'll make you breakfast."

He was standing up, but the next thing he knew, he was on the ground, and a light weight was on top of him. He looked up into her face, surrounded by a mane of blond hair, and there was a mischievous look upon her face. Mamoru's own face turned amused, waiting for her to make her move. She leaned further down, and for the first time, he got a real look at what she was wearing and groaned mentally. She was wearing silky shorts and a ribbed tanktop that hugged her curves and when she leaned forward like that, he caught a glimpse of the top portion of her chest. He had to fist his hands at his sides to keep from putting them on her hips and helping her relieve some of his tension that she created. "I have something better in mind for a little while." She covered his lips with hers and his hands misbehaved and slipped under the bottom hem of her top and rested them there on the taunt warm skin.

It took them a while to part from their make-out session. "Usako." He groaned, she was not only tempting in her seemingly innocent looking clothing, but it was fall weather outside, and she was not dressed for even the warmest of days, or for public, for that matter. She'd been planning on not leaving his apartment until the sun set again. "You can't do this-"

"I'll go back to my place and change and meet you somewhere." She said, pulling back a little and sitting on his stomach, her hands still by his head. "I just wanted to wake up properly, didn't you?"

Mamoru chuckled and tumbled her sideways so he was leaning over her. "I think a repeat would wake me up better." His lips bypassed hers and found her neck instead. She moaned when he found a particularly tender spot near her ear.

He completely stilled, if he wasn't careful, things would get far too out of control and they'd go too far, for both of them. "Sorry Usako, let's get something to eat?" He pulled her up and she sat at the table while he made some pancakes.

It was probably better he pulled away, her heart rate had spiked with his administrations and she wasn't an idiot, she was well aware that he was reacting to their intimate position as much as she was. In a way she was glad he pulled away, it kept her from having to do it herself, but she vaguely wondered if it would be such an issue if they didn't control their hormones. She was sixteen after all, and he wasn't much older, at nineteen. The devious thought had barely entered her mind as she saw him, half dressed in light sweat pants. It showed off his tanned skin nicely.

Usagi swirled her spoon in the hot chocolate he put in front of her, his own coffee cooling across the table from her. She was lost in thought, and Mamoru noticed. "How bad was the dream last night? Did they repeat when you came over?"

"No, and it wasn't that bad." She pushed her hair over her shoulder, so it wouldn't fall into her food when he set it in front of her and then took his place across. He started in onto his food, waiting for her to tell him what was on her mind, she'd get there, eventually. "Tomorrow I promised to go to Shingo's thing, he's trying to impress Mika with a doll he made. He blackmailed me into agreeing you'd come with."

Mamoru paused. "The doll fair?" He asked with a wince and she nodded, waiting for the reasn behind his reaction. "Rei asked me to go last week, I turned her down. If I show up and she's there anyways-"

"Rei asked you?" Usagi frowned. "I haven't heard anything about it from any of the girls. It's not exactly optimal for a date, even Rei would know that."

"Calm down." Mamoru's hand came forward and rested on hers as she tried to take a bite to eat. "I told her no, I just haven't figured out a way to tell her that I'm off the market, permanently."

Usagi smiled, but her thoughts were still on the fact that she'd been left out on something, she'd ask the others today after the movie what their plan was for Sunday. She wasn't sure if Mamoru knew yet, or figured out who the other senshi were yet, or if he even cared to bother with that knowledge. It kind of annoyed Usagi that Rei would think to bring Mamoru to something potentially dangerous, and not knowing he could handle it himself. Rei didn't like dolls, Usagi had only asked because Shingo had wanted her to go, but now she was a little leary herself of going, especially with the latest development in her powers. If there had been no attacks recently, maybe they were preparing for a larger attack. She didn't share her nerves with Mamoru, he would just be concerned and feel like he had to attend.

"Hey, I'll go with you, I just worry about running into Rei." Mamoru squeezed the hand he still held. "I want to go with you and meet your brother. I was just looking out for you and warning you."

"Thank you, Mamo-chan." She leaned across the table and gave him a chaste kiss. After breakfast she disguised herself as another person and made her way across the city, back to her room and slipped in unnoticed, changed and then took the city streets back to see Mamoru and hang out with him, during the rest of the day, until she had to split off and go see her friends, ones that were keeping something from her.