Prologue

I was tired. I was tired of it all.

The fighting, the late nights. The crying.

For once in my 16 years of life I just wanted it all to stop… if only for a minute.

…Just to catch my breath…

But this is life; this is the 20th closing in on the 21st century. This is the age of technology, the continuous industrialization of Earth, as we know it. We live in the "post-modern" times of our society where everything is changing for the good - or the bad, depending on how you look at it. The uprooting of small towns to make way for giant cities filled with skyscrapers reaching the Moon.

If only…

In a world where there were no limits I, Tsukino Usagi, had reached mine.

My friends new I wasn't entirely happy, but I always put on a smile for them. It was who I was. I was no normal girl. I was the cheerful klutz who befriended the most random people, the "sweetheart" who didn't have a care in the world. I was the young girl slowly falling to pieces because all she wanted to be was normal.

Normal. I don't even remember what that's like.

There were times when I'd sit on my own and pretend. I'd be your average girl next door who'd fall in love with the boy next door, and as I sat at the counter of Crown Arcade it would almost seemed plausible. I would catch my breath… I'd take large gulps of air mixed with the sweetness of my chocolate milkshake and for once my hidden tears would dry.

… And then he'd walk in the door.

He wasn't the boy next door; he wasn't even the boy across the street. He was… he was… he was the man I had fallen for against my will. Almost as if cupid had shot me with an arrow, pointed a gun at my throat, and forced my eyes to cascade over the raven-haired man's form. And what a form it was.

But he was just another fight. No matter what I did or how deep my breath was, he took it away with a glance.

My death, and my salvation.

Chiba Mamoru.


"Odango?" My breath caught in my throat and I had to struggle to keep from choking on the latest sip of my milkshake. I set the glass down, managing to pry the nearly swallowed twisty-straw from my throat and turned to glare at him.

"For the last time Baka, do not call me that." If I kept myself angry enough with him he wouldn't see the longing I knew that appeared in my eyes when I gazed at him. My left hand curled into a fist and I let a growl escape my throat.

"Well what else am I supposed to call you? Usagi doesn't suit you, you're a little too tall to be call 'short-stop', you're not quite chubby enough for 'chub', you're not smart enough for 'nerd', and you don't wear glasses, so 'four-eyes' is out of the question."

I waited as he paused, my breath deepening in annoyance with every name he spoke. How he had managed to insult me with every name he said that "didn't suit me", I had no clue; it was a rare and infuriating talent of his.

"I suppose I could call you 'spaghetti brains'."

I felt my eyes widen, my face most likely red with rage. I snapped. "You don't deserve to call me anything but Tsukino-sama. You don't deserve to look at me! You've been nothing but terrible to me since our unfortunate meeting, and you still somehow assume that I will put up with your constant insults and ridicule!"

The silence of the Arcade around me only slightly registered in my brain as I felt the hot tears form at the corner of my eyes. "You are a monster!"

I stood, knocking over my half drunk milkshake, and exited without another glance towards my friend Motoki or the onlookers of my explosion.

Let Cupid shoot me in the head; there was no way I would love that "man".


This is my first multi-chapter Sailor Moon fanfiction so I'm a little nervous about it. I've got it completely planned out though. It doesn't fall into any of the enemies that the Sailor Scouts have in the Manga or the Television series but they are still Sailor Scouts and family and things are similar. Knowledge of their life during the Silver Millenium is unknown, and evidently Usagi and Mamoru are not together (yet).
I hope you enjoyed this prologue. Thoughts on this and some confirmations that a continuation would be liked would be nice; if only to give me even more incentive to write this.
Ciao!
Beka

P.S. If you're interested, check out my drabbles under "Life's Little Moments"