Act 7: Kunzite

A/N: Man, formatting is hard on this site. Sorry.

Last Night, V and Luna Worried

Luna's fuzzy shoulders spiked up to either side of her sagging head as she leaned on the console, facing the darkened image of Sailor V. "But they're not ready-"

"Luna," said the shadowy V, moon sigil on her brow shimmering alone in her near-silhouette, "the enemy is already here. There is no longer any time for preparation - and things will get extremely complicated now that Zoisite is with Tuxedo Kamen. Whether or not they know he's alive, they'll find out- and will want revenge either way. Kunzite will not forgive either his death or his capture- or his freeing, depending on perspective. Find out what he knows. If you aren't able to, I'm going to have to show my hand, and that will begin the endgame."

"Vee-" suggested Luna hesitantly, "-no one will survive the endgame if we don't have the Ginzuishou. Perhaps you could change your plan..."

Sailor V's shoulders slumped a little on the screen. "I already have."

Last Night, Beryl Hated Life

Her hair, the flowing red cloud that could so quickly turn sinuously alive, hid the unsteadiness and the shaking with anger and uncertainty that her gait might otherwise have betrayed as she left Metalia's presence.

/Zoisite's obvious death at the hands of the accursed Senshi will serve as a rallying point for my remaining Generals,/ she thought to herself as she ascended the staircase, long sharp fingers curling into a fist so tight it drew what passed for her blood. /And serves also as proof that the thrice-damned Moon Kingdom has possession of the Maboroshi no Ginzuishou. After all, what other power could possibly have been so strong? Could possibly have hoped to face me down, and worried Zoisite so fiercely that he should leap in front of that idiot child's attack, throwing his usefulness away? What other force could have frightened me so much that I should flee it, even given all of that power by the monster? And a monster she is, promising me my Prince and this planet twice over- and a fool am I, believing she would want aught but the destruction of all I desire./

She sighed and stopped, then straightened and kept climbing. /They'll bring it to me and kill those brats in revenge, and then I shall defeat Metalia myself - they are loyal enough to me that the smallest of them protected me; the others shall die doing the same against the monster, buying me enough time - and I shall keep the Earth in my own two hands. When it belongs to me, he shall show his beautiful face at last. As a show of good will, I may even bring back his men./

Her pace steadied, set with resolve and pride.

Last Night, Kunzite's Shitty Day Continued

He'd waited, and still Beryl was off doing mysterious things that involved going down the staircase that descended, as far as he was concerned, into a secret level of hell - so Kunzite took the opportunity to vanish Earthside for a while and do some investigation.

/At least,/ he thought grimly as he hovered over the streets and buildings, arms crossed and cape billowing behind him, /it's night. Too many lights in this damned city, and none of them Zoisite's- but at least there's only the moon to hate./ He lingered for a moment before flickering out of sight, the darkness swallowing him in a twisted and hateful convulsion.

Reality flinched again, dropping Kunzite into the air above the rooftop where Zoisite had fought the Senshi earlier, and his slate-grey eyes narrowed, face settled into a stony lack of expression. One arm extended above the small radio tower where he'd last seen Zoisite hanging by an arm before Beryl had cut off the surveillance and left, they'd all thought, to retrieve the boy. His awareness of energy flows and the tastes of different kinds of it painted a timeline of events - the relative ages of the remaining traces of both Zoisite's attacks and those of the senshi allowed him to reconstruct the rest of the battle, the parts he hadn't seen.

Zoisite had still been alive, had still carried enough energy to defend himself and leave if he'd managed to rally. And given the fact that he'd actually attacked them again, and stopped them from attacking him more before even moving from the tower - he had certainly had enough remaining power to defeat them.

And then Beryl had arrived in a cloud of more energy than he'd ever seen her exert, the faltering senshi remaining stationary, and had brought her power to bear; shortly thereafter there was Sailor Moon's abominable light entering the scene, powering up - but with no more power than she normally carried, no evidence of the entrance of a further boost to her escalation - and Kunzite realized with a shock that she hadn't been aiming for Zoisite, but for Beryl herself.

Another source of energy had arrived along with her, but hadn't acted - a source he'd detected traces of at other battles, never acting directly, only lending its strength to Moon, and between Moon's power and that other source, it would have been enough to flatten a weakened Zoisite, perhaps even to put a dent in Beryl's own power. That source pulled, again, at something in the back of his awareness, but Kunzite swiftly and firmly dismissed it as secondary, something to watch for but not to worry about. It still lingered, but wasn't part of the immediate investigation. The important thing was-

The important thing was that Zoisite had moved of his own accord, directly into the path of Sailor Moon's purifying attack, interrupting it before it could get to Beryl. He'd meant to sacrifice himself for her, possibly thinking he'd survive with her help, possibly thinking she might save him-

-and he was still alive when Beryl left.

And he was still alive when the Senshi regrouped. There wasn't any darkness remaining in him, but he was still alive, almost painfully bright even in his weakened state.

He was still alive, and that supporting source of energy that so often helped Sailor Moon had moved to him- wait, was there a resemblance between Zoisite's purified energy and that secondary source? Kunzite's mind whirled; was there a fifth of them he'd forgotten? A fifth member of their brotherhood who hadn't joined them? A traitor to their ranks? But no - they were the Shitennou, the Elite Four, the Four Generals of the Dark Kingdom...

Kunzite shook his head violently, his bone-white hair flowing in front of his face before settling again. The important thing was that there was evidence Zoisite was still alive, abandoned by their Queen to the enemy after intercepting an attack meant for her. Loyalty like that should be honored, reciprocated.

He began to trace the signal of Zoisite's energy, leaving the rooftop to follow it instead of that of the Senshi-

-and there was a sharp command at the back of his mind. Beryl, summoning him to her vast and empty throne room.

Kunzite carefully schooled his features and twisted reality one more time, teleporting back to the Dark Kingdom, determined not to reveal his growing fury.

Lowered to one knee in front of the throne, face hidden by his hair and his two remaining men to either side of him, Kunzite listened to Queen Beryl and revealed nothing.

"I arrived," she was saying, "too late to help Zoisite. I watched as his body disintegrated, and as the accursed Sailor Senshi brought the power of the Maboroshi no Ginzuishou against me. They are powerful beyond measure, but they are still mere girls, and can be tricked into giving it up."

Beryl stood up, purple skirts swirling around her shapely legs, expression grave and fierce all at once. Her voice was a driving force, ringing out in the vastness of the throne room. "Their weakness is a boy, a boy who aids them, who seems to direct the actions of Sailor Moon- kill that boy, and they will be too distraught to resist when you move to take the Ginzuishou from them."

/A boy,/ thought Kunzite, /a boy whose energy resembles Zoisite's- and the Queen who lied to them wanted him dead. Who is he? Never acting directly, but taking Zoisite away after the fight, separating him from the senshi that he regularly helped.../

Her voice lowered, then, and sounded almost kind. Almost encouraging. "They will then be too weak to defeat you. Kill them - take their energy - and bring it and the Ginzuishou to me. This is how you will avenge the slight to your brother and bring enough power to our Great Leader to fully awaken the darkness that will envelop the Earth."

/And either she does not know Zoisite lives, did not wait to find out - or she expects to be able to kill him before we find him,/ Kunzite's mind reminded him, and he had to make himself stop clenching his teeth.

Her voice lowered still further, almost coy now. "And once we have the Ginzuishou, its power can revive Zoisite. Go, now, and claim victory for the Dark Kingdom."

The three Generals stood then, motions stiff and reserved, and bowed as one. "Yes, my Queen."

Kunzite had to drown the screaming in his head - drown it in ice - as they left her presence.

"They killed one of /us/," Nephrite exploded as soon as they were out of earshot of the echoing throne room, flinging his hands out to his sides and rounding on Kunzite. "One of us- the legendary Shitennou! How DARE they? And how can you- how can you be so calm!"

Jadeite was strangely silent, looking at neither of them as he walked along the corridor; Nephrite's ire wasn't something he wanted directed at him, and still he thought of Mars, the girl who'd looked so familiar and so beautiful- and who'd very nearly killed /him/. And he knew Nephrite had reacted strangely to mentions of Jupiter...

"We'll work with Zoisite's backup plan to draw them out once more. To have everyone in the city searching for Sailor Moon, harming themselves to do so," Kunzite said flatly, his voice completely devoid of emotion, obviously ignoring everything Nephrite said-

-and Nephrite grabbed Kunzite's partially unbuttoned jacket and swung him around out of his pace, opening his mouth to start yelling in his face-

-and then he saw the ice in Kunzite's eyes and froze, and Kunzite calmly removed Nephrite's hands from his jacket. "We cannot afford to fight amongst ourselves. We've been granted a boon in being assigned to work together on the same task. Do not waste that."

His words dropped to the floor and rang like a handful of coins in the oppressively dead silence, and Nephrite's face was whiter than its usual unhealthy pallor in the greenish light of the fortress. After a second, he grimaced and turned away. "Sure. Our task. Draw them out," he said harshly to the wall, "kill Tuxedo Kamen, take the Ginzuishou, and kill the Sailor Senshi. Easy. Right. That kid is like quicksilver. The only way to get him to come out of the shadows is to threaten Sailor Moon, and if she's got the fucking rock, how in the hell are we supposed to do that?"

Finally, Jadeite spoke up, his voice quiet and his attention on Kunzite instead of Nephrite. He didn't /quite/ sound like he was looking for validation, but it was a near thing. "Split her attention. All the civilians looking for her will do that partway. The rest of it- we engage the other senshi, separate them."

"Very good," Kunzite said, his voice a cold and crystalline thing in the dark, as he began walking again. "And let her purify the civilians to rid her of some of her own energy first. But that's once this is in motion." His pace momentarily slowed, and he glanced back once more. "Jadeite, set up a cheap Netflix mirror and stock it with everything, and fill everything with a compulsion to find Sailor Moon- free membership for the first three months or something, something appealing none of them will want to miss out on. Flood the tumble and the facebook and the twittering with advertisements."

Jadeite somehow managed to keep a straight face.

Kunzite continued, "I'll look in on you in a few hours and let you know what I've found. Nephrite-"

The brown-haired General looked back at Kunzite sharply.

"You're with me."

Still Before Morning, Nephrite's Shitty Midnight

Once they were out on the town, so to speak, and floating above the site of the battle earlier that night, Kunzite abruptly broke the silence and sliced through Nephrite's burgeoning brooding-fest with three words.

"He's not dead."

The words were spoken with such matter-of-fact finality that Nephrite believed them immediately, and stared at Kunzite in shock. After a second, he asked uncertainly, "... she lied to us?" And then more forcefully, almost-but-not-quite challenging, "Where is he, then?"

"That's what we're here to find out. We have to hurry, because the energy trail is even fainter than it was before Beryl called us back-"

It didn't escape Nephrite's notice that Kunzite had neither called her Queen nor attached her usual honorific.

"-but I examined the site," Kunzite continued as his attention shifted to the energy of the city around them and picked up that which he'd identified as Zoisite's, in combination with that of the mysterious helper to the Senshi. "She left him there. Left him to our enemies. And they didn't kill him. They took him away."

He started moving, and Nephrite floated after him, his mind whirling with a thousand unasked questions, ignoring the feeling of the metaphorical ground collapsing underneath him. He was going to ask if they'd captured him, then, but Kunzite was still talking.

"Specifically, taken away by the boy Beryl told us to kill. And that boy's energy is remarkably similar, if far greater in power, than Zoisite's energy felt after Sailor Moon hit him with her Healing Escalation attack. He'd moved to block the attack, because Moon had aimed it at Beryl- and she /left him there/."

Nephrite's rage bloomed like the billowing of fire and smoke in a sudden massive explosion, but before he could shout or act or do something incredibly stupid, Kunzite's voice cut through his emotions with cold and deadly ice. "She'll pay. I'm not sure how yet. I don't know if she deliberately lied or if she actually thought he was already dead. If she thought he was dead, then she was very sloppy in not making sure. She fled while he was still bearing the attack meant to harm /her/. She was afraid, which seems preposterous, especially given her level of power - it must be why she thinks the Ginzuishou is in play. But there was no such power in Moon's attack - there was no blinding outpouring that something as powerful as that damned crystal should have produced. There was only her power mingled with the mystery boy's."

"Tuxedo Kamen," Nephrite filled in.

"Yes, but that's an idiot name the media assigned him when he was breaking into jewelry stores looking for the damned thing. It's not who he is. I suspect he's one of us, but moves in the shadows and /against them/, rather than helping us to create the darkness..."

Nephrite's mind reeled, and something caught at the edges of his memory, something gold and warm and bright, something he felt he should be protecting - and then the darkness closed in on him again and made him forget, leaving him empty and cold and angry. "A traitor, then."

Kunzite didn't answer. They'd stopped in front of a penthouse balcony, and Kunzite alighted soundlessly on its surface, then reached to touch the glass of the balcony doors with his fingertips. "Maybe," he finally said, but it sounded rote, it sounded tired. "He's in here."

Landing behind Kunzite, Nephrite stepped up to the glass as well, then went to try the door on the off chance it was unlocked. He was surprised when it opened easily, sliding silently open. His eyebrows went up and he glanced toward Kunzite, who had an expression of mingled annoyance and faint amusement. "Incautious. Deplorably incautious," he said in a low whisper that avoided sibilant consonants.

Nephrite just shrugged at him cheerfully, as if to say 'Kamen's stupidity is our gain', then stepped through the door. It was incredibly dark inside, and he couldn't see, but Kunzite didn't have that problem. The white-haired General caught at his sleeve to keep him from moving further in, waiting for Nephrite's eyes to adjust as he himself studied the small figure in the enormous bed.

Eventually, Nephrite could make out muted, shadowy details in the room, and in the silence, he could hear Zoisite's slow, even breathing. A healthy sleep. Finally, he could see that the youngest General had literally been tucked in, and Kunzite finally let go his arm so he could approach the bed.

Crouching down, he tried to make out details, but his eyes could only adjust so far. His brother's face seemed peaceful, at least. He started to reach out, and then Kunzite was pulling him back again; he resisted for a half second, then lifted his hands - don't pull, I'll topple - and Kunzite let go and Nephrite got up on his own, then looked at the older General, who was gesturing toward the door.

Nephrite's lips thinned, but he followed Kunzite back out anyway, and started in surprise when Kunzite closed the door behind them as silently as it had opened. He gestured again, for them to get some distance from the balcony, and Nephrite's face got even more confused and annoyed, but again he followed.

"He's safe there," Kunzite said before Nephrite could speak, and that, too, annoyed the brown-haired teenager.

"But he's-"

"/He's safe there,/" Kunzite repeated, his voice going low and implacable, and Nephrite shut his mouth and scowled. The older General continued, tone back to its matter-of-fact logical analysis, "The door was unlocked. I don't think it was an oversight on the boy's part. Zoisite is not trapped there. He's uninjured and his energy levels seem to be back up - not to their usual level, but with a quality that appears to be far more efficient. I don't know what Beryl's game is, but I know we're being lied to on multiple fronts. We'll leave him here and keep a safe distance so that she can't find him - if she knows he's not dead, she may come find him to do it herself and keep the motivation of revenge that she thinks she's given us. If she doesn't know, then this boy we're supposed to kill can keep him safer than we can. He's more powerful than he knows."

Nephrite thought this through, then nodded firmly, even if his stomach felt like lead and his heart felt like ice. There was a flicker in the back of his mind, and he suddenly laughed, an enormous tension releasing all at once. "You're good at this. I knew that, I think, and I forgot somehow - we've been getting our orders from Beryl for so long-"

The lack of honorific, the lack of Beryl's title, felt strange in his mouth and something in his shoulders tensed again, but he defied it with a flash of temper. She didn't deserve his respect. She'd betrayed Zoisite, and lied to them. Instead his decision snapped into place with a rollercoaster drop's suddenness, and he finished fiercely, "No matter whose side we're actually on, something finally feels right. I'm glad you're back."

Kunzite looked amused, arms crossed as he floated midair, cape billowing and curling lightly around him in the breeze. "Good. We're keeping our distance, but - ward yourself and stand watch, make sure that nothing of Beryl's finds this place." He paused and frowned, looking up at the sky. "And see if you can't get a read on the boy. Make sure you're doing the interpreting, not Beryl's energy."

Unceremoniously, reality flinched once more as Kunzite vanished from sight in an inversion of light.

For the first time, the sight of Kunzite's teleport unnerved him, and Nephrite had to force himself to move to ward the outside of the apartment and then set up shop on the opposite rooftop.

It was going to be a long time until morning.

NEXT DAY (again and finally)

Usagi's Freaky Morning

"You're not running a fever anymore, Usagi, you need to go to school," Ikuko said, running her fingers through her daughter's bangs as she sat on the edge of the girl's bunny-and-moon bed. She pulled her hand away and surveyed Usagi's face, the paleness and the dark circles under her eyes, and couldn't help but wonder if she should let her stay home after all.

"Mrrr," Usagi mumbled, turning her face into her pillow. "Can I go in late?" she asked pathetically.

Ikuko sighed. Better she knew where she was, after all. "All right. I'll make you breakfast in a couple of hours," she said, getting up and smoothing down her skirt.

Once Ikuko had left the room, Luna pawed at her charge's face lightly, and Usagi buried herself deeper in the blankets, complaining incoherently. Luna's little cat face pulled into a worried frown, and she settled herself down on top of Usagi's blankets and started purring; she knew it comforted the girl- the girl who'd done so well yesterday, and this exhaustion was how she paid for it.

Luna also couldn't help but keep worrying about Tuxedo Kamen - about Chiba Mamoru. Rei had sent him home with Zoisite, and that might have been a terrible mistake. To send an enemy home with a potential enemy? One who had put everyone in so much danger with his stupid stunt on the television? And he'd said something about being able to restore Moon's energy- Luna wasn't sure what to think of that at all.

She sighed and took a nap until Usagi was asleep again, deep in a dreamless state, and then she picked herself up to go check on Chiba and his charge before heading to Juuban Middle to confer with the girls.

An hour after Luna left, Usagi woke up on her own, the discomfort from a broken watch face pressing sharply into her hand keeping her from sleeping. It felt like a thorn, and she was confused; she'd been dreaming of roses and half expected one to be there in her hand as she opened her eyes.

But it was Tuxedo Kamen's watch. She didn't quite remember how she'd gotten it, or whether it had been broken then, but she knew it was his. She'd seen it hanging from its fob and chain enough times, glittering in the moonlight-

She studied its face. It was a watch; it told time. It didn't tell time now; it had stopped, probably when the face broke. But there was a dial behind the face which showed the sky, stopped to show the stars and moon at the time the clockwork had stopped ticking. It was beautiful. It was also heavy - she wondered if it was real gold.

Briefly, she held it to her chest, and she felt a little better. She'd heard him there last night after he'd come to get her; somehow he always knew how to find her. And he'd given her energy then - she could almost feel his warmth restoring her through the watch.

She sighed, then, and got up. She was still tired, but she knew the girls would be looking for her at school, and that was a reason to go, if nothing else.

A few hours later, Ami was watching Usagi out of the corner of her eye as she pulled information up on her tablet. Her golden-haired best friend was practically a zombie, listlessly eating her lunch as she leaned on Makoto's shoulder, and Ami worried. Had they made the right call in keeping Kamen away from her, making him deal with Zoisite?

She shook her head and adjusted her glasses, then pulled up facetime and called Rei, just as Luna came trotting up with a worried look on her kitty face. The cat jerked her head to one side, and Makoto followed her glance to see Umino headed their way with a creepily enthusiastic expression. Mako's eyes widened, and she bustled the sleepy Usagi up.

"Ami-chan, we've got to move if we're going to get anything done-" the tall girl started, right as the call connected and Rei said something on Ami's tablet with her mouth full. Ami glanced up from the screen to see Umino coming, and hurriedly got up herself, and they both shepherded Usagi away from the short nerdlinger as fast as her zombie feet would move. She was willing to go along as long as she could keep eating Makoto's octopus-shaped sausages, at least.

The three girls and the cat and the phone-Rei darted around a corner and hurried back into the school building - at lunch, Umino would never look for them there!

"What was that, Rei?" Ami asked. Her lunch, of course, was already gone. She knew if she didn't eat it before Usagi saw it, she wouldn't get to eat it, Mako-lunches aside.

"Chiba didn't text," Rei repeated, this time much more clearly. "He's probably not dead or mind-controlled or any-"

Ami winced. "Could you n-"

"Chiba?" Usagi asked, suddenly awake, shoving her face into view of the tablet's camera. "What does Mamoru have to do with anything?"

Rei's mouth opened and closed, and Ami sighed, and Makoto looked at Ami askance, and Luna cleared her throat disapprovingly. "You'll have to henshin and check on him after school," she said primly. "I just came from his place, and there was heavy magic around it."

Before the alarmed looks and Usagi's confusion and rapidly building panic could explode into anything, Luna reassured them hurriedly, "Not dark energy. It was strange magic, though - your computer may be able to make sense of it, Ami-chan."

"What does Mamoru have to do with magic?" insisted Usagi, her voice rising in pitch and urgency.

"He's Tuxedo Kamen," Rei said impatiently, and Makoto slapped her forehead. "I ''thought'' I saw him, that night you all- that night that Furu-chan was- the night when Nephrite-"

Usagi stood frozen, and her hand fisted in her pocket, closing around Mamoru's pocketwatch. Mamoru's. His eyes had been so familiar - no wonder - where was he now? Shouldn't he be at school? Why was- "Why were you at his house? Why is there magic around his house?" she asked, pushing the rest of lunch at Makoto in order to crouch and scoop Luna up, then hold her with her legs dangling, right in front of her face. Well, close enough to give her the hairy eyeball but not close enough for Luna to scratch her nose again.

"Rei sent him home with Zoisite after you purified him," Ami said quietly. "Theory being that if Zoisite was purified, he wouldn't be evil anymore."

"I couldn't sense any dark energy around him at all," Rei put in. "It was perfectly safe."

"We're going to look at his apartment after school and figure out why there's so much magic around it," Luna told Usagi patiently, then took a halfhearted swipe at her nose, missing entirely. "Please put me down, this is uncomfortable."

Usagi put Luna down on Ami's shoulder and scowled at Rei on the screen. "If it was safe, why'd you say he /probably/ wasn't dead or whatever?" Her heart was beating too fast, and the pocketwatch was cutting into her hand again. She forced herself to relax it.

Rei waved a hand dismissively. "Because he's annoying. I know you have the hots for him but that whole stupid thing was his fault, and-"

/"He apologized,"/ Usagi said more harshly than she'd ever said anything to her girls before. "He came and got me. He came and got me and gave me the energy to fight, I was collapsing like everyone else and he came and found me and woke me up and gave me energy and the strength to go help you. And he said it was an accident. He didn't mean to cause any of that trouble! He's just- he's just so desperate to find the Ginzuishou- but he's not desperate enough to let it get in the way of keeping me safe! He's NOT an enemy!"

All three of the other girls were silent, taken aback. Luna shifted uncomfortably on Ami's shoulders, then hopped down. "We'll check on him after school," she finally said. "I'll meet you on the roof. Rei-chan, please come meet us at Chiba's apartment."

The bell rang, and Usagi panicked again and grabbed her lunch back from Makoto and started stuffing it in her face as she dragged her feet back to class - and Ami and Rei exchanged a look of relief, even as Makoto watched Usagi start away from them, a crooked smile on her face.

She'd be all right.

Zoi & Mamo's Good Morning

Trailing the half-a-tuxedo-clad boy into the kitchen, Zoisite couldn't help his stomach growling at the delightful scent breakfast made, filling his nose- nay, filling his entire existence- with deliciousness that he had to acquire in the next few seconds or he would surely die. Or at least his stomach would growl again and that would be showing weakness in front of this stranger who obviously knew /something/ about him and about magic and about...

Fried onions. Definitely knew something about fried onions. Zoisite could not remember the last time he'd actually eaten. He couldn't remember ever having eaten, ever. That unnerved him more than anything else, so he cleared his throat as he daintily sat at the kitchen table and focused on something that currently unnerved him less.

"Where- did you get clothes? Clothes in my size?" he asked with less demanding and confidence than he'd hoped for, so he layered a scowl on top of it to make sure Chiba knew he wasn't off-balance, nevermind that that was too late.

"You were wearing them," Chiba said, scooping some still-hot fried potatoes and onions with- with /garlic/ dear god- onto a couple of heated plates he took from the oven. He turned the burner back on under the skillet, then turned to put a plain canvas apron on over his fancy clothes before cracking a couple of eggs onto the sizzling slab of butter. "When I healed you, you changed. Your uniform went away and that's what you were wearing before you changed, I guess."

He wasn't facing Zoisite, so there was no way for the strawberry blond to tell what kind of expression went with the strange tone in Chiba's voice.

Zoisite studied the back of the tall teenager's black-haired head, and elements of the previous night fell haphazardly into place.

After a second, probably after schooling his features into pleasant neutrality, Chiba glanced over his shoulder. "How do you want your eggs?" At Zoisite's blank look, he elaborated patiently, "Over? Over easy, medium, hard? Scrambled? Yolks broken? Omelette? The last'll take longer, and it kind of sucks if you get the eggs after everything else..."

"Over medium," Zoisite answered automatically, and absolutely did not think about how he knew the answer to that question even if he couldn't remember ever having eaten. Instead he asked while Chiba was still looking at him, "You help the Sailor Senshi, right? Tuxedo Kamen. You made that stupid sparkly selfie video that let me take advantage of your lot's interest in the Ginzuishou."

Chiba flushed, his face twisting into rue and self-castigation, and he quickly turned around to crack another couple of eggs onto the skillet. "Yes," he said, short and abrupt, as he went to put toast in the toaster. Zoisite noticed with mingled satisfaction and guilt that the boy's shoulders had tensed, hunched a little, even as he went back to the skillet and started poking at the eggs with a spatula.

...guilt? Well. He supposed that Chiba was taking care of him and he shouldn't be such a jerk to the guy. Even if he was an enemy. Who healed him. And was making him breakfast. And put him in fuzzy pajamas and his own damn bed, and probably slept on the couch still in his tuxedo. The guilt bloomed, and the strawberry blond Dark Kingdom General silently picked himself up from the chair and soundlessly flitted across the kitchen to wrap his arms around the taller boy from behind, briefly burying his face in Chiba's back.

The high-schooler stiffened in surprise, then relaxed. Zoisite wasn't letting go, but it was a warm embrace, it was- only Sailor Moon had hugged him like that, ever, that he could remember. And only when he was saving her life. His voice was a little unsteady as he said a little awkwardly, "Not... not the reaction I was expecting, but I'm glad that- I'm happy you don't mind. I don't-"

Chiba took a deep breath, and his voice was quieter and even more wavery when he continued, something about it implying his throat was tight. "I don't want to be your enemy." He flipped the eggs over, and there was a renewed sizzle, and some of the fry butter popped and splashed onto Zoisite's hand.

Before Zoisite could even react, Chiba automatically placed his hand over Zoisite's, and the shock of the sudden spattering of heat disappeared into a wash of golden warmth, matching the overwhelming glow in the back of Zoisite's mind that suddenly flashed from resident to active.

Zoisite's breath caught in his throat as he tensed, and he forgot how to breathe as he experienced the feeling of that power trained on him - /so familiar, so warm, so very like *home*/ - and the awareness of Chiba's own emotions in the same heartbeat as the contact.

/It was a moment out of time: the figure he embraced was wary and didn't want to be, and something suffused Chiba Mamoru's entire being that was trained wholly on Zoisite. Something that Zoisite couldn't actively remember having felt before, not entirely. He'd had echoes of the sense before, with Kunzite, with the other Shitennou, but only the *belonging* part, the brothership, the camaraderie, the pride in association, the stunted affection. But this, this was unfiltered love and unmitigated acceptance, hampered only by the caution built of *knowing* Zoisite, knowing with a familiarity that indicated a near lifetime of closeness and friendship and love and mutual protectiveness, that the youngest of the Shitennou had quicksilver moods and could potentially shank him if he said anything that set him off-/

Instead of flinging himself back and away from Mamoru, Zoisite clung to him more tightly, almost desperate, and his hand turned to grab hold of the one healing the burn, to keep the physical contact in place.

"Y-you're going to get burned again- be careful- the eggs, they're- they're almost done, and- and everything is still hot you're going to need to eat it before it congeals and gets gross and-" stammered Mamoru, nonetheless gripping Zoisite's hand as tightly as the smaller boy's gripped his. He let the spatula clatter to the counter next to the stove and swiftly turned off the burner, then backed them away from any more potential grease spatters.

Mamoru's face was hot and his eyes stung, and he panicked a little bit, then stopped when he processed the emotions he was getting from Zoisite - emotions that mirrored his own. And there was dampness in the back of his shirt, and...

"I don't remember anything," said the tiny, devastated voice behind him, half-muffled in Mamoru's shirt. "But I should remember you. I know you. I think- I think you're supposed to be with me. With us. But it's awful there, except for the others. Everything's bright here, and you're bright, and the sun is beautiful, and everything there is dark and, and malevolent, and- I won't hurt you. You don't have to be wary of me. I won't hurt you. Thank you for bringing me here, Mamoru-chan."

The tall teenager choked out a startled laugh at the honorific, at the use of his given name, and if it sounded anything like a sob, he knew Zoisite wouldn't be judging him for it. He couldn't trust himself to speak, so he just put the eggs on both of the hot plates, and pried Zoisite's arms off his midsection - and something in him he couldn't explain made him lift the hand gripping his to his lips, and kiss Zoisite's palm to reassure him that the prying was not a rejection.

Zoisite reluctantly went along with letting him go, but the shining in his heart was bright, too, and even if his eyes were red and puffy as Mamoru turned to put the plates on the table, so were Mamoru's, and they were as bright as his heart.

"Um- eat your breakfast. We can go shopping for clothes. And a bed if you, uh, if you want to stay here," Mamoru told him, again a little awkwardly, but with an almost faltering flavor of determined authority to it. "I mean after we eat. And get dressed. Or changed. I mean."

Zoisite lifted a hand and pressed a fingertip to Mamoru's lips, smiling, and it was the sweetest expression Mamoru'd ever seen directed toward him - aside from the one Usagi - /Sailor Moon/ - had given him. "Okay," Zoisite said, smile never leaving. "And you better get changed. I am not being seen in public with a guy wearing a tuxedo in the morning."