Well, the reviews have spoken; it's time for another chapter! Thank you so much for reviewing minna, I never imagined I would actually have readers. You guys seriously made my day. Therefore, as compensation for your reviews, here is the next chapter. Enjoy!

Against All Odds

Usagi woke up to Luna's soft purrs. Then she turned over and went back to sleep. She then felt someone tugging at her blankets, so she pulled them back over her head and went back to sleep. Luna wasn't having any of this, she wanted out of the room, so she went for the kill. A yelp could be heard through the wing, followed by a loud thump and a wail.

"What did you have to go and bite my toe for Luna? I was awake, you dumb cat! Man, remind me to start leaving your food in the room every night." Usagi picked herself up off the floor and went about her morning routine, but not before feeding the starving feline, who also doubled as a trusty alarm.

"Alright Luna, now that we're both wide awake," she glared at the innocent looking Luna, "I get to go meet the ogre while you stay here and do whatever it is kitties do when left to their own devices. But I swear, I find you bullying Isamu again and its the doghouse for you, missy."

During the night, Usagi had decided that the best course of action would be to speak to her mother. Surely the one sane adult in this household would have some semblance of the wrong they were doing Usagi by forcing her to marry some stranger, right? Well, the least she could do was try.

She found her mother in the back gardens, clipping some fresh roses for the mantelpiece. Ikuko loved her garden almost as much as she loved her daughter, it was her peace of mind when chaos seemed to want to engulf her. Usagi had inherited her green thumb, but she never felt at ease with someone constantly watching her while she enjoyed the flowers. Ikuko on the other hand seemed to have the ability to tune out the outside world when she was with her flowers. Usagi hoped she would some day find something that could distract her in such a way, for if this marriage really did go through, she would need all the escape she could possibly get.

Ikuko was in deep thought at the moment. She had heard what Usagi said to her father the previous day, and even though she completely disagreed with Kenji's approach, she also believed that he had chosen the perfect match for her daughter. For you see, it hadn't really been Kenji who had chosen Usagi's future husband. Sure, he believed it had all been his idea, but Ikuko had chosen Mamoru ever since that fateful day at day care, when she saw her precious child being protected by that charming little boy. For she had felt at that moment that he would be able to protect her little girl from the horrors of the world, he would cherish her child's innocence in marriage just as he had that day so many years ago. After that day, she made sure to maintain contact with Mamoru's mother, and to her delight, Mamoru came from a family that Kenji would have no objection to affiliating with. On the contrary, Mamoru's family fortune rivaled their own. It had then been up to the two women to plot the marriage between their children, but in such a way that their controlling husbands would think it their own idea, otherwise they would refuse, being the dominant male and all.

However, some months later Ikuko learned of the death of the boy's parents. She immediately attempted to get in touch with the boy, but she had been too late: Mamoru was sent off to Kyoto to live with his grandfather. It wasn't until a few years later that she learned of Mamoru's return. She began dropping little hints to her husband, in a way that only a wife can, so that the idea of Chiba Mamoru would be planted into her husband's brain. She also had him investigated, and knew from what she learned that he had indeed become Usagi's perfect match. Ikuko, though guided by her desire to see her daughter and husband happy and in harmony, still understood that Usagi would never forgive her for the way that she manipulated her life, even if it had been for her own well-being. That is why she vowed never to let her daughter know that this whole arrangement had been her idea from the begging, she would let Usagi think that it was her father's doing.

Kenji planned on forcing Usagi to marry regardless. He was not above selling his own daughter for the advancement of his business. Although it was more out of fear for Usagi's future than out of greed, Ikuko could not allow him to be blinded by money when he chose his daughter's future. The suitor Kenji had initially intended for Usagi, the CEO of Diamond Inc., was a big tycoon, but he was also greedy and ruthless, not the kind of man Usagi deserved. That is when Ikuko decided to bring Mamoru into play. And that is what led her to her current predicament: whether to tell her daughter the truth and have her despise Ikuko for being so manipulative, or let her go on believing it was her father's idea and see for herself what a wonderful man Mamoru truly was. Ikuko chose the later.

"Mother, we need to talk..." Usagi waited for some type of acknowledgement from her mother, but upon receiving none she knelt down next to Ikuko and began to help her with the arrangement. "Mother, about this man I'm supposed to meet..."

"You mean your fiancé?" Ikuko replied with a stern tone. But upon meeting her daughter's concerned eyes, she softened a bit. "Darling, why don't you just give your father a chance? Who knows, his choice might just surprise you..."

"Mother, to that man the idea of a good husband is an old decrepit man with a fortune and a foot half in the grave! Besides, it's not like I have a say in this, you tell me to give him a chance, as if I could go ahead and change my mind. Face it mother, this is nothing more than a business deal to him." Usagi stood up exasperated. She should have known that speaking with her mother would be pointless; she was always so submissive to her father's orders.

Knowing full well that her daughter made a good point, Ikuko kept silent for a bit, until she saw Usagi turn and start to walk away. "Usagi, you know your father only wants what's best for you, for the both of us, right darling?"

"Yes mother, I know that under all that no-nonsense attitude lies a very noble heart. But he is very misguided. I love him mom, I do, but he needs to see the hurt he's caused us by protecting us the way he does. He has given us everything but what we need the most." With that Usagi turned and walked away without letting her mother reply. They'd had this conversation many times before, and it always ended in her anger and Ikuko's tears.

On the other side of town, Mamoru sat behind his desk finishing some last-minute paperwork before a meeting. In reality he wasn't really focusing on what he was doing. He had other things clouding his thoughts.

A few weeks earlier his grandfather had made Mamoru promise him that he would find someone to share his life with. Mamoru had been a very lonely child growing up, and his parent's death only made him shut out the world even more. The only person who had ever touched his heart was that little girl, the one who to this day possessed the very last thing his mother ever gave him: a stuffed bear. He could never get that angelic voice out of his thoughts. He longed to see the sweet child again, not because of the bear, but because he knew that if there was ever a person that he could share his life with, it had to be her, because at the tender age of nine, he had fallen for that sweet angel.

But none of that mattered now. His dreams of ever finding that girl again had shattered on the day his grandfather had passed away. For he had made Mamoru keep his promise. In fear of the path his grandson was living, one very much like his own, he had made Mamoru promise that he would settle down within the year, and for some reason, he was dead set on it being someone named Tsukino.

Mamoru was a man who kept his word, especially to the man who had been everything to him after his parents. That is why when Tsukino Kenji had proposed a merger with the two companies, Mamoru had seized the opportunity to request a meeting with Mr. Tsukino himself and propose the terms for the merger. He was shocked when it was Kenji himself who made the same proposition that Mamoru had been prepared to make himself: a marriage to seal the deal.

Now Mamoru found himself feeling as though he had betrayed his angel, but there was no going back now. That little girl was nothing but a far away dream now. His reality was Tsukino Usagi, a girl he would never allow himself to love, for she could never live up to his daycare angel.