Author's Note: Er...hi. So I'm pretty sure that the Sailor Moon fandom that still remembers me hates me... *hides* I'm so sorry for never... updating anything. To be honest, after my computer crashed and the Sailor Moon fandom started to dwindle and university started to become really unbearable, I lost any motivation or inspiration I ever had to write anything. I can't promise I'll get it back, but I never did abandon the SM fandom. With the manga re-releases, some awesome new fics I've never encountered before (I've been browsing the archives like a madwoman and discovering some unappreciated amazing fics written over the past five years), my personal mission to rewatch the entire anime and maybe finally give PGSM a chance, Sailor Moon's still been a huge part of my life. And I never did stop writing. This story will contain various (unconnected) drabbles written either for the Usako_Mamoru anniversary challenges on LiveJournal, or for the amazing landcomm LJ community, SailorMoonLand (Team Outers, represent!). And maybe after my real-life stuff is finally in order, I can try my hand at writing something more than just drabbles again. Until then, I hope you enjoy these (and they aren't too terrible - it's been so long that my writing is a bit rusty! ^^;), even though some of them are just... plain weird (they were CHALLENGES! SHHHH!).

1. they were constantly dancing around each other.
[Valentine's Day, dance.]
Words: 745

She felt his eyes follow hers from across the room and immediately fought the urge to look his way. His mouth opened slightly, as if there was something he had been itching to say, but as he had done several times that week, he closed it, turning around to reach for another cup of coffee. A minute later, his fingers started drumming against the counter, a constant tap-tap-tapping, and once again, in spite of the millions of other sounds reverberating throughout the room, Usagi could hear nothing else.

She wasn't sure when their interactions had changed, but somehow, her paths had stopped intersecting his and their sporadic collisions had suddenly ceased. He was no longer running into her at random intervals throughout the day, and their casual, constant, heated bickering no longer occurred. He didn't make it his priority to seek her out, insult her hair or poke fun at her latest failure, and for some reason, the absence stung. Familiar scowls, jolting exchanges, fingers slightly brushing against each other as two forces grappled for the upper hand... And then nothing. She sighed, absentmindedly fingering his initials onto the surface of the table as her heart started beating heavily against her chest. What was happening?

She watched him through the corner of her eye, noticing how he kept biting his lip. A nervous twitch later, he started to brush his hand through his hair, once again blatantly attempting to communicate something—anything, but still nothing. She crossed her legs and he stretched his arm toward her. She leaned into her milkshake and his legs jerked in her direction. She blinked; his eye twitched. He sighed; she clenched her eyes shut. It was a strange battle, these motions of fidgets and fumbles and palpable glances—a dance that had sprung about so impulsively that neither of them knew just how to approach it. Should they flirt with it, challenge it, see where these new quakes and quirks would take them? Or should they continue the way they had begun, inching so very closely one second and then fleeing miles apart?

Absentmindedly, her own fingers started tapping, the sound chiming perfectly with its parallel on the opposite side of the room. "Do something!" her mind commanded, but she ignored it, worrying what would happen if the cycle just ended. They didn't talk to each other, the random encounters had stopped, and these strange oscillations were her only means of consistency. Beside her, Luna rolled her eyes, echoing her own earlier thoughts. "For God's sake, just talk to him!" But the blonde refused adamantly. The drumming on the other end intensified, and sending him another cursory glance, she noticed that his fingers were now swirling the coffee mug haphazardly. Unknowingly, her own glass began to vibrate, rotating rapidly on the surface of the table. Twisting and turning and tapping and twirling and—

Crash.

"Mamoru! What the hell did you do?" Motoki shouted.

"I just—"

But before he could continue the sentence, a similar sound echoed from several feet away and the blonde beside him shrieked once more.

"Motoki, I'm so sorry I—" Usagi started, but again, he interrupted.

"No, no, no!" he growled. "I've had enough of this!"

"Enough of what?" they both asked, but he pointedly ignored them. Instead, he stormed out from behind the counter, grabbed one of Usagi's hands and shoved it into Mamoru's. Mamoru arched a brow as if questioning if his friend had finally lost his sanity, but Motoki glared back and started pushing the two of them out the door. "I am sick of the twitching and squirming, and I swear if I have to hear that irritating, never-ending noise again, I'll go nuts! And really, the way you two mimic each other, you'd think you were soul mates!"

Usagi blinked. Mamoru considered retorting, but again, his friend silenced him. "Just stay away from here until you're done flittering around each other, okay?" Annoyed, he closed the door, and the two of them were left standing outside the arcade, hand in hand, gawkily waiting for the other to make a move.

"So... what do we do now?" she wondered out loud, unwittingly thumping a foot against the ground.

He cleared his throat, rubbing the back of his neck with his free hand before interlocking her fingers with his own. "Want to dance?" he blurted, face flushed. She laughed and hesitantly shuffled herself into his arms, noting that this time—gradually—they moved perfectly in-step.

Notes: Thought I'd start with a relatively...sane one. XD More to follow soon! Thanks for reading! Take care, everyone! :)