AN: I've come to discover, almost loosing my docs on the site, that it has been 55+ days since I've last updated any story on FF and I've come to fix that. Though to be honest, this isn't an update, but rather a new story, but you are in luck, it will only be 3 parts, guarantee. I don't have time or patience for more. Sadly though, in about a week's time, I shall not be updating again for at least a month. So hopefully I can get all three parts to this story out before that, so at least you'll have a completed story to enjoy! :)

Drying Tears

8 November 2011

Summary: Usagi's pulled out of her house to go face demons.

AN: So I stole this, but not really, just one single line of a story I read recently dug itself into my head and it was such a common, cliché story too, but I couldn't help it, it made me want to write my own, but different! So blame it on that person for a new story... haha... But it was about time, It's already November 8th and I haven't started a new story yet this month.

Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor Moon's original canons or the characters. I do however own part of this story as it comes from my imagination and even that isn't completely owned because its based on previously mentioned canons, so, I own hardly anything and that's not enough to bother with a fight to keep.

Usagi was alone, absolutely and utterly alone this night. Even Luna had gone off somewhere, leaving Usagi in the dark, cold house. She'd never had to deal with things on her own. She had gotten home just as the sun was setting and looked to see what was in the fridge to microwave. She'd found some food and threw it in, and wondered about why she felt so cold.

She found a note taped to the outside of the fridge door to her. "Shingo's at a friends, we'll be gone all night, we have a conference on the other side of the city. We turned down the heat during the day since no one was in." They thought rightly to leave her a note because this only reminded her that she had indeed heard from them that they'd be out, but it had completely slipped her mind.

So Usagi went to where she usually saw her father go to adjust the heat. She had never been curious in how to change it herself, but knew it couldn't be that difficult. By the time her food had finished frying in the microwave, Usagi had found herself in frustrated tears.

It was in Fahrenheit! She had no idea what was warm and what was cold and all the directions were in English! So she left it at the forty-five she managed to change it to, but didn't know if that was any warmer or colder than it had been when she came in.

The food she had heated was a grizzly state of affairs. It was high in what Ami would claim was 'bad carbs' when she decided to use normal people terms, and Usagi barely understood that 'carbs' meant energy and came from things like pasta, bread and rice. It was also high in fat, but that was only to mask the entire bland taste that the meal would have been otherwise.

Usagi was picky about her food, though the others didn't realize it. She only ate what she thought tasted good and what she thought would give her the best help in such a short time. This would help her study for a little while before she'd eventually go off to bed and sleep restlessly there.

Usagi finished her meal and was heading upstairs when she heard the crack of thunder and an echoing zap from something in her house. All the lights went out as she was halfway up the stairs. She tripped over the next step and crashed down heavily on the wood ledge. She groaned painfully and managed to hobble herself back up to a standing position and used the railing to help her finish going up the remainder.

She found her bedroom after much fumbling and door running into-ing, Shingo had left his door open and it swung into the hallway. It was surprisingly dark in the house, even for a thunderstorm and being in the city. There was no lightning, but that happened sometimes. The rain was coming down heavy, and she reached for her lights. She was jolted a little as a bit of electricity remaining fought back, but then there was nothing. She flipped the switch up and down several times, but nothing.

She groaned and let her head rest against the wall. What to do in this situation? Call someone? Who? Would they even know what to do, or where to find it in her house? Calling someone was out, unless it was her parents, but they'd only be disappointed in her. Go look for what it was called, fuse-box, on her own? Or just crawl into bed and sleep? The last option was the best for now, perhaps in the morning she'd wake up extra early because of this and get her studying done then.

She highly doubted it, it took her too long to wake up and that was when she had to. She fell face forward into the bed and listened to the rain, now void of thunder hit the ground heavily. She must have fallen asleep, because the next thing she knew, she was hearing a sound and it wasn't rain.

It repeated itself, loudly. Usagi looked around wearily, the lights must still be out, she reckoned, but didn't have the energy to go bother with it.

There it was again. A loud creaking noise, as if someone was walking above her and trying to be silent, but hitting all the wrong boards at the wrong spots. Usagi turned around so she was looking up at her ceiling. What was up there? What could be making that noise. She looked, wishing she could see through the material without being seen back. Should she go look? What if it was an intruder? Would she just be making herself a victim? But they'd come upon her eventually, and she was Sailor Moon for crying out loud! Shouldn't she be the one that was the responsible one, the one that could actually take down an intruder? Though she really did wish her papa was here, right now, to take care of all these problems for her, like he always did.

It had been awhile since she thought of him as papa, being moved to dad category over the last few years. Shingo actually called him father at times. Kenji-papa and Ikuko-mama were always the ones to make things better. But she was getting too old for that, but she still didn't feel ready to stand on her own two feet.

Usagi rolled out of bed, knowing that there wasn't any thing else she could do. She didn't want to sit and be an easy target and she wanted the upper hand. Usagi's hand scrounged for the lamp under her bed that Ikuko-mama had put there for her a few years back and in a plastic bag connected was a few batteries, since they shouldn't remain in the actual flashlight.

The correct combination of batteries took a few tries as it was difficult to figure out at first, and finally a beam of light sliced through the air, nearly blinding Usagi as it was directed towards her face. She grabbed her broach off her school uniform and hedged out of the room. It was easier this time around, she had light to guide her, and she knew where most of the doors were, and how they were left, having closed Shingo's herself.

She was on the steps leading to the attic when another sound cracked the silence into a million pieces and almost made her deaf with the intensity. This time she knew exactly what it was, and wished it to be quiet, as it no doubt gave away her position. Usagi raced back to her room, threw the door shut and locked it. With a quick glance around to ensure that all the other doors were open and that she was alone, she opened the communicator.

Jupiter was huffing and between lungful of breaths and avoiding the youma, she managed to shout at the communicator her location. Usagi shut it quickly and held still for a moment to see if she could hear the noise again. There was nothing. That either meant that she was making it all up, or the person in her house had heard all of that and knew they weren't alone as well. It would be horrible if they'd heard the conversation as well.

Usagi only prayed they didn't and wouldn't go looking for the person in the house. She slid open the window and shouted that she'd called the police, then dropped onto the tree and climbed down before running off.

Hopefully that would deter the intruder, if there was any and then when she was a sufficient distance away and hidden from view from any casual wanderer, she called upon her powers. Suddenly with a flash of bright light and anyone with the eyes fast enough or alert enough to follow the transformation, would have seen more, had a new girl standing in Usagi's place.

This girl looked similar to Usagi. Her hair was still in the traditional buns she had worn since she was a child, but there were red disks in them instead. There was a light weight mask over her features, not heavy and barely noticeable, but enough to shift her features unless someone was really looking. For those really looking, there was more shifting of features beneath the mask. Her face shape stayed the same, but while her eye color didn't change, it seemed to always be changing, sometimes a green color, sometimes purple and sometimes just different shades of blue or brown or something in between. Her hair too was difficult to pin down to one color. It was in the 'blond' category. The rest of her just looked enough like anyone else in Japan that didn't stand out, that it really didn't need to do the same type of masking of looks.

Anyone that saw Sailor Moon, or any of the senshi for that matter would tell you about a completely different girl than the person next to them. That's why nobody knew who the senshi or Kamen were, or were able to accurately describe their looks in the paper, leaving the picture to do it for them. Luckily, the picture wasn't able to completely capture their real looks either, and the person viewing it, would have the same problem as when they were viewing it in person.

Only the senshi had never had a problem seeing each other for who they really were. It wasn't just the colors of their uniforms, but they could see their fellow senshi just the way they were in both personas. They figured because they knew the true identity, that it didn't matter, and for the most part, that was quite accurate.

Sailor Moon arrived at the scene in record time, especially considering her fright and frustration at all things she'd encountered today. On the plus side, the rain was gone, even though it still laid at her feet in testimony that she hadn't made it up, things still glistened and there was a wet feel to the cooling night.

The senshi were duking it out with the latest youma, and this one was definitely a threat. It was just about to fatally hit Mars and no one else was aware of the attack. Moon wanted to whip her tiara off and slice the youma in half with it, but it was too fast, even unaware of her standing there, and it took too long to charge.

"Hey ugly, over here!" Moon called out, with the only weapon she had at the moment, a corny speech to distract it from its intended target. "Don't you know better than to interrupt a peaceful night of soothing rain?"

"Aw come on Moon, we've already done the corny speeches." Moon ignored Mars as the intention succeeded and Mars never knew the danger she was in.

The attention however now aimed at Moon and that attack started flying at Moon instead. Moon gulped and tried to get out of the way, but her feet couldn't find purchase in the puddle she'd just found herself in. When she was hit from the side and they skidded a little ways, she knew that someone had saved her, because she wasn't dead. She knew she wasn't dead, because she knew that hurt like hell, and if she hurt, she couldn't be dead.

She was pleased to see her personal savior. "Do you have any idea how stupid that was?" Though the words themselves could have been seen as a criticism, he seemed more amused than anything else and she knew that he had seen what she had done and what she had done for Mars.

"If the two of you are quite done with your lovers reunion, I'd like for a little help here." Jupiter quipped, gaining their attention again and Moon shrugged at Kamen before flying in with her tiara brandished finally.

She had to finish it off with her wand, as Mercury told her to stop when the tiara had already left her fingers and it had taken a great deal of energy to not only split the tiara in time to avoid the youma, but also to pull them back against the draw youma had on the tiara, they were like magnets to each other. Usually that was a good thing, and she was happy to have learned that when she first started, but now... it was like someone had used it to help her in the rudimentary defenses but when it wasn't just about saving her own hide, she had to go against that safety measure. It was also incredibly difficult, like telling a car to go sideways, not turn, but go sideways. It was possible, under the right conditions, or the very wrong ones. There were also other side effects for not allowing the tiara to slice what it deemed as a danger, and she was going to suffer through it tonight, like she had in the past when a youma was able to catch it, or Jadeite. She shuddered at the reminder of what Jadeite had done to her tiara and what that had done to her.

She didn't think it was supposed to quite work like that, that the tiara was supposed to have its intention of destroying the enemy and protecting Moon, but what happened if it was stopped, just a backlash at using something a way it wasn't supposed to be and then failing in that. She figured it might have just been her own energy backlashing against her.

She could already feel its effects affecting her. She pulled the tiara to her, and cradled the pieces in her hands, mending them back together before returning it to her forehead, needing to do that while Mercury explained what needed to be done instead. The others were probably thinking that she should have just left the tiara while charging her wand instead of wasting their energy keeping it still so she could do both. They probably thought that she was wasting energy, bothering with the tiara. She never did explain it all to them.

Now though, her wand was out, charged and aimed for the weak spot of her enemy. She hated this, playing on someone's weaknesses to destroy them, even if it was a youma. It was ending a life too. Though these youma made her feel a little better, because it was returning a life back to someone, and not just wiping something completely out of existence. Some of the previous youma had never even had acknowledgment from the media, unaware of the presence as the senshi dealt with it quickly and swiftly before it could get out to others. In those occasions, it was like the youma never existed at all. The youma were so routine most of the time, that the senshi forgot about them too. Except Moon never forgot a single youma they faced, or rather, she faced.

As this one was proving, often times, she was the only one who got face to face with the youma, had to, to end its existence. She was the only one that saw the light dim in the creature's eyes, before exploding into dust, often settling in her hair or lungs for the next few days, or this one, before it faded away, to be replaced by another body, this one completely human. Then with baited breath to make sure the human lived after its latest situation. She always feared one of these days the human wouldn't be strong enough.

Also she was the only one who had seen every youma, even Luna couldn't claim that. Each one was burned into her retina, and each night, she would dream about the youma, twisting and turning in her bed, wishing she could have done something more. They weren't as bad as her dreams about the generals. The generals that they defeated were horrible, and she was terrified of them in each their own way, but she was still guilt-leaded that she couldn't save them from the fates they'd found themselves in. They were human after all, or had been one at some point.

She about sagged under the weight of her relief as the man opened his eyes and coughed before hoarsely thanking the sailor senshi. The others moved off, leaving the man in peace, and Moon heard a quip from Mars before she took to the rooftops. "Moon always gets the thanks, though she never does anything much, its probably because she's always hovering over the victim, so she's the only one seen and gets all the lime-light."

Moon felt a tear clog itself in her throat, and she was unable to talk, unable to cry and she bolted into the night air. Her movement more graceful in some ways and more jilted in others as she vaulted over rooftops, climbing higher and higher as she went, until finally she couldn't get any higher. She was on a needle of some-sort, but there was a rim around near the top and she stood for a moment, before moving to the edge, looking down, knees bent-

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" A dark voice asked, directly in her ear and a hand clamped down on her arm even before she jerked in surprise and would have lost her footing on the small ledge. It pulled her back and into a firm, warm chest.

Moon looked up with wetness edging her eyes, but willing them not to bubble up any further. She forced them back down, she would not allow tears to fall. "What are you doing?" She asked, her voice a little sharper than she would usually talk to him, but her shock had caused it.

"Making sure you're not about to do a swan-dive off the tallest structure in all of Tokyo, a feat, that, by the way."

Moon felt a laugh bubbling up in her. "I wasn't about to go head first. I was just going to sit down and look outward." While looking inward too.

"Oh." Kamen looked at her for a long time before finally taking a seat at her feet, she joined. "What were you going to do up here, besides watch the city go by?" The ledge they were on was still rotating with the rest of the needle and the city was going by, literally, but at a snail's pace.

"Being alone for awhile."

"Nobody is worried about you back home?"

"What about you?" Moon countered, not answering.

"Nobody."

"I do, usually, but tonight I am all alone, even at home. So I figured I'd use that time to go do something that I've been meaning to for awhile." The ledge they were sitting on was wet, and since it was metal, was cold too, especially under her non-existent skirt. She shivered slightly and wrapped her arms around her. "Why did you follow me?"

"You were acting sporadically. I wanted to make sure everything was all right."

"Would you have followed me home, if that's where I was heading, and just having an off mood?"

"No. If I saw you slowing down, or heading into a residential area, I would have veered off. You just kept climbing, faster and faster, and then came to a sudden halt here."

"I realized there was nowhere else I could go."

"Why are you alone tonight?"

"Everyone's out."

"And you're ok with that?"

"I didn't have much of a choice, but I don't really want to go back yet either." She just remembered the noise she heard before she left and she shuddered a bit at the thought. "I don't like that its so empty and strangely quiet. I wanted to be somewhere I could see the world pass by, and the people in it, reassuring me that I wasn't alone."

"I don't think you could ever be alone." Kamen wisely noted, for even if she was alone physically, there was also someone with her or wanting to be. "As for the quiet, this isn't exactly the best place to be if you want a lot of noise."

"No, but it is the best place to see an unique view." Moon agreed.

"Was there something else you came up here to think about?" Kamen removed his cape and deposited it on Moon's shoulders, and before she could do anything, secured it in front of her as well, enshrouding her in the inky depths, his hands making short work of it, but also resting just where it brushed her skin for a moment longer than he needed to. They both brushed it aside as active imagination.

Moon took a deep breath and inhaled all of the musky scent that was Kamen. It was warm not only from his own body's heat, but because it was so thick. "Is this too heavy at times?" It had to weigh at least four pounds, or whatever it was in Kg.

"That's what you wanted to talk about?" He sounded amused and he leaned back on his gloved hands and looked upward, rather than down at the city.

"This view isn't good enough for you?" She gestured with her foot towards what was below them.

Kamen laughed. "I see it too often, the stars and Moon being so clear and sharp, now that's something I haven't seen too often in recent years. Yet somehow I can't imagine that being the topic of thought either."

Moon nodded and then hunched down into his cape a bit more, really just wanting to lean against him as well, but forbidding herself to do so. "I was also up here to think about what to do next. This wasn't a life I intended for myself, and I'm starting to see the ends unraveling on my rope to sanity."

Kamen laughed again. "You've got quite a vocabulary on you, and such vivid descriptions too!" Moon didn't say anything, just staring out at the far distant horizon that was lower than she remembered it being. "Please continue, this I would like to hear, and see if I can't help you, hmm, what would you say?"

"Steamroll those ends back together, or maybe fuse them?"

"Seems a little counter-productive, what with one being water vapor and the other hot flames and metal, they'd both destroy that rope, but good terminology none-the-less." Kamen nodded seriously. "Yes, let me help you do just that."

"How do you imagine helping me?" Moon asked, pulling the cloak closer, thinking that no one could help him.

"I'm a good listener, and once you start sharing all of your secrets, I'll be able to offer some great advice."

Moon laughed and bumped shoulders with him. "All right, fine, you win." She still took a moment to gather her thoughts before she spoke again. "Its not as easy to be Sailor Moon as any of the other senshi."

"Its not easy to be any of the senshi." Kamen hedged, trying to keep perspective, though he was aware that she was keeping a cool head tonight on these matters. His words were acknowledged but not dwelled upon.

"That's true, I've never put their troubles into an unremarkable pile. I have always given proper credence to their efforts and struggles. That said though, they're not the leader. Mars would love to take over that role, but she doesn't understand the pressures that have come with it. I would love to give her them, but it isn't hers to have. I was not given the role of leader, I wasn't elected, I was handed it sure, but it was no one's choice. It definitely wasn't mine."

Moon freed a hand from her cocoon, and ran her gloved fingers through her hair, looking down at it instead of at him and his understanding eyes. He didn't say anything to interrupt her this time, but if he had, he would have told her that it couldn't have gone to a better senshi.

"The pressure is insurmountable. I cant explain it to anyone. Luna is the guardian, and adviser, but when it comes to making decisions in the field, and whose responsible if something goes wrong, its on me. I think that's why I'm always the one in trouble, it keeps the attention on me and not the other senshi, allowing them freedom of movement and doing what they need to do."

"Like today?" Kamen asked, freeing her hair from her sudden aggressiveness towards it. They both knew he saw that stunt earlier and she nodded. "You shouldn't do that, the senshi are there to protect you."

"No, I am there to protect them and the people of Earth."

"No." He denied softly but firmly. "You are here to protect the people of Earth, and as their leader they'd be lost without you, broken apart and unable to do much to complete that mission."

"I'm still there to protect them."

"Then I'm here to protect you." Kamen smoothed back her hair. "I always have been."

Moon laughed a little bitterly. "I never asked you to, I appreciate it, but I fear that one of these days, I'll be the cause of you getting hurt when you're protecting me."

"Don't worry about me." Kamen argued. "I will be all right, and even if I weren't, it wouldn't be your fault, it would have been my decision, what I wanted."

"I'd still feel guilty, and more than that, it would hurt me. I don't want it."

Kamen sighed and turned to look back up at the sky. He didn't want to respond to that for a long time, but with her being so honest and sharing her feelings so openly, but without desire for anything in return, he felt he finally could. "I protect you not because you are the savior of the world or leader of the senshi, I was saving you long before that. I probably would have saved you the one time and that would have been it, probably with a firm warning the next time I saw you to stop messing in things you couldn't handle. Wait- I would have said it no matter what I would have believed, because I wanted to stop being called to help. That first time I saw you though, you were terrified, even before the tides turned on you, and you didn't want to be there, you didn't have to be there.

Yet, there you stood, shaking, and firming your resolve to take on the thing that you had no reference for, a thing that was twice your size and controlling a dozen people, something that should have terrified you enough to make you run screaming and you didn't. You swallowed back your fear enough to gain its attention from the little red-head and stood your ground as it neared you.

At that time, I became aware that you were the bravest person I had ever seen. I had the advantage of being out of the way and hidden from view, you were there in full force. I knew at that moment that I respected you more than anyone else could ever dare compare. I knew I would protect you forever, even if the next time you showed up, you ran away screaming, that one time was enough to forever brand yourself in my heart.

Over time, my feelings for you grew and now you have my utmost respect. You shall always have it. It you died, I would be worse off than you claim you could ever be. I would be devastated, I would rather stand in the way of being torn apart alive, put back together just to be burned, than allow you to no longer exist in this world. You are what this world needs, what I need."

That was the closest Moon ever came to hearing a declaration of love. Hopefully one day she'd hear it for real. Moon gulped, not sure where she could take the conversation from there, and they sat in silence for awhile longer.

"I must confess something, since we're being completely honest. I care for you, deeply, but I am in love with another."

Moon felt her breath hitch in her throat and she nodded, tears stinging the backs of her eyes but not getting any further than that. She nodded, she had a huge crush on this man, but he wasn't the one she pined for, but it was easier to say him than to admit to another as well. Her daydreams and words all spoke of Kamen, but her heart knew what name she really wanted to say, but couldn't dare dream of putting to voice. "It's all right. I knew that." She didn't, but she figured any man like Kamen had to be taken. "I bet she's a wonderful girl and knows exactly how lucky she is."

"She doesn't." Kamen's voice was a little rough.

"Then she's a fool."

"It's not her fault. I haven't told her." Kamen dropped his hands to his sides and straightened up. "This is not the conversation either of us intended to have. I am here to understand what the matter is. So far, I can accept there is a lot of weight on your shoulders, more than there should be, and would make a lesser person bend. That's not all there is though, is it?"

"No." Moon shook her head. "The rest though just sounds like I'm complaining."

"I don't mind. I'm here to hear it all." He nudged her playfully to continue.

Moon smiled brightly. "At this moment, I'm all out of morose mood. Tomorrow will be a new day, filled with..." She seemed to realize exactly what her day would be filled with. She lost her voice and brightness at the thought.

"What is it?" He seemed genuinely disturbed by her sudden mood change, he had been doing so well, cheering her up.

"Nothing much, just... my days are filled not only with youma attacks but derision from my senshi as well."

"All of them?" Kamen seemed surprised by that knowledge.

"Not out loud, only one of them is actually vocal. Not just about senshi things as well. Then there's a guy in my life, who is the biggest jerk of my life. I know he doesn't understand all that I'm going through, but he just adds to the emotions I'm feeling. He's the worse, at least Mars lets me off a bit if I whine or argue back, but he doesn't. He just keeps adding to the pile of guilt and bad feelings and it's so hard to stand there and accept everything he throws at me and not break down into tears. Most days I barely manage to make it away from him before they come rushing out, in never ending streams. I know he only looks at me as pathetic and worthless. To him I am a bottomless pit of hunger and don't deserve to walk the same streets he does."

"That's sounds like a horrible person, it shouldn't matter whether or not he knows your secret identity, he should still treat you with respect." Kamen's words hung hollow in his own head, he was thinking about his own behavior towards a girl that sounded somewhat similar. He had a low opinion of her in general, but he didn't mean to ever hurt her in quite that way, thinking he did, made his stomach roll. He didn't even think that low of her, he just gave her a hard time to try and get her to improve.

"That's if he has any positive feelings towards me at all, I am pretty sure he hates me." Moon disagreed.

"I suppose giving him a chance is out of the question?" Kamen made light of what they were both feeling. "You never know, he might surprise you sometime."

"That'd be the day. He'd never see me that way."

"If not you, then who? Probably no one, if you're not worthy of his time or kindness."

Moon's lower lip quivered and she nodded. "I'm thankful to your kindess this night. When you see that girl of yours in the future, make sure she knows she's a complete idiot for not loving you back, and give her no opportunity to believe your feelings are any different."

Moon stretched. "I suppose I should go home, I've been exhausted since I started this gig. I could go into the reasons I am, and what this has done to all the plans I have made, but I won't."

"That's the spirit." Kamen rose and helped her into a standing position. "If you ever need to talk again, I'm always available."

Moon smiled softly at that offer, and in her smile held all her thanks. She stood on her tiptoes and he held still, knowing that she wasn't about to do anything rash. She kissed his cheek and then she was gone, but his cloak was back in his hands. She could sure move when she wanted to.

They both wondered what the next day would bring.