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With a hammering heart and a fearful gasp Usagi jerked awake. One hand flew to her racing pulse and she blinked several times, looking at her alarm on the nightstand beside her.

5:45, the blinking red number told her.

She closed her eyes and willed her wildly beating heart to calm down.

Her dreams were so much more vivid in the days after she'd seen a Cardian. It had been like this the first time she'd seen one as well.

Just like the little flutter of warmth and lightness, of power, that she could feel in her gut so much more intensely after every encounter. As if something inside her was trying to break forth, more forcibly than she'd ever experienced it to before in her life.

And it wasn't like she hadn't witnessed that light expelling from her body before…

She shook her head, trying to clear it.

She balled her hands into fists and closed her eyes, willing the images of her dream back into her mind's eye before they were completely gone from her memory.

The marble, the satiny feel of the softest of white cloth, blue orb in the sky over fields of ashen grey, pale water gleaming like ice from tall pillars, a dance, soft lips on hers, silence, weightlessness… a sword plunged deep into her abdomen, blood pooling around her, staining silver strands of hair a deep red. A voice, female, calling to her; a warrior, blonde, beautiful, crying. Sailor Senshi, her mind whispered to her. And then this other part of her dream, the fog, the cold, so different from the first one although it felt the same. Endymion in front of her. A silhouette, yet she knew it was him, as if somehow in this dream she knew who he was.

Always these dreams…

She looked up to the sky through her slightly opened window. The sight of the moon helped her calm down, as it always did.

These dreams were the oldest memories she had of her life. She had always had them.

She lay back down and tucked the comforter tightly over her shoulders, shivering a bit in the moonlight.

Her thought went back to Endymion, and then flew to the image of Mamoru this morning. The way he'd walked up these stone stairs in the park… for a moment in her mind the stone had been marble, his fancy dressy dark shirt replaced with fancy dressy dark armor in her head.

And then, unbidden, her thought flew to Tuxedo Mask. The bloody gash in his side…

She shivered a bit, this time not from the cold. She hoped so much he was alright… There had to be a way for her to learn ….

Her eyes still closed, she scrunched her face up as tight as she could, holding her breath, trying to concentrate, trying to reach inside herself and take a hold of the light she knew was in her.

Nothing. As Always.

She sighed. It happened when she was attacked, it never happened when she willed it to.

Yet, she knew, deep in her heart, that it was her responsibility to act.

And there Tuxedo Mask, fighting the fight Usagi felt was hers to fight, as insane as it might sound even to her.

The first time she'd seen him was really fuzzy in her mind. At Naru's place. One moment he was there when she woke up, the next he wasn't. She'd thought she'd dreamt him. But then, a few days later, she saw him on the news again. Learned that he was this criminal turned vigilante. That he'd been the guy that had attempted to rob that embassy gala last year, which her father had taken her to, things like that. Now he fought Cardians.

She'd gotten kind of obsessed with him over the months, stalking him media-wise. To the point her father was actually beaming at her with pride that she finally came after him and developed an interest in journalism. Not that she hadn't had phases like that before, when Sailor V started appearing in London, a warrior so much like those from her dreams…. But that was in London, Tuxedo Mask was right here

Also, he was quite hot. Almost like Mamoru…

Well, almost.

She looked at the clock again. 6:35. Might as well get up…

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Only a few neighborhoods away, a small pale girl with a blue bop of hair in a green and bourdeaux-coloured school uniform signed some papers at the small police station in Juuban.

"I don't know if I've ever seen a student as invested as you, Miss Mizuno. Coming over before school to sign these forms…." The small, bold officer laughed at her.

Ami blushed a little and gave a small smile. "I only just got admitted into the study group… and they won't allow me to research the Cardian samples if I don't have the official clearing from the police department…"

He gave a big belly laugh again. "Well, don't you worry. We'll be emailing these back to your academy in about, eh…" He glanced down at his wristband. "3 hours, give or take? Then you're good to go, you clever little scientist. How old were you again?" He looked her up and down.

"Sixteen." She blushed further.

He laughed again, incredulously, shaking his head. "Sixteen and already working with the big shots. When I was sixteen I still had my Lego collection. Well, what do ya know, eh?" He chuckled and cuffed her in the side.

She smiled. "Um, thank you for your time, officer Takano. I very much appreciate it." She bowed deeply, but he came forward and shook her hand instead with both of his.

"Just find us a way to deal with these things, yes?" He winked at her.

She flushed. "We…. We try our best." She bowed again and ducked out of the small station, heading straight towards the next Metro station, Azabu-Juuban, and, swiping her Suica card, got on the Toei Oedo Line. It being Tokyo, the train car was packed of course. Rush hour started early in a city that always worked and worked. Her school was very close though, so after two stops she got out again, and walked the now-familiar steps up towards her exit.

She'd been attending this school for only a few months yet, as any sixteen year old did having switched from Junior High to High school, but she already felt right at home between all these studious people, even if detached. She didn't make friends easily, she knew that, but here, at least, nobody made fun of her.

She'd spent her last year of Junior High as an exchange student in Germany. There, part of a project called 'Young International Minds', she had been allowed to attend university classes next to her school classes at the prestigious Charité Berlin – the oldest university for medicine in the world. She'd learned a lot, once she'd mastered the language (in record time, mind you), and coming back, it had been her entrance ticket into the best school Tokyo had to offer. Even better than Azabu, which had been her goal beforehand – Infinity.

She stepped into the wide and open entrance hall of her school and took the elevator. 1-F: Laboratories.

Stepping out she breathed in the smell of formaldehyde and nitrogen in the air. Aomori-senpai was preparing the samples, she saw.

"Ah, there you are, Miss Mizuno. Early and eager as always, I see. I trust you already went to sign the paperwork?" A voice asked from behind her and she turned around.

Ami blushed again, she wouldn't get used so soon to be allowed to work with such accomplished scientists. She bowed. "Uh, y-yes, Dr. Tomoe. I did. Thank you so much for this opportunity."

He was kind of handsome, she thought, in a certain way. The peculiar machinery in his glasses for his right eye looking almost crystalline, which fit perfectly to the silver-white of his hair. And, one thing was certain – she never met anyone as invested in his own research than this particular man.

"I'm looking forward to see your accomplishments with us, Miss Mizuno. Let me show you your new lab." He smiled at her. It looked a bit cold, she thought, not touching his eyes, yet she could still feel he was genuinely excited, and so was she.

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Usagi was on the verge of blowing her top.

She feverishly tried to think back to their meeting at the supermarket, of something she'd done wrong. She couldn't think of anything. If anything, she thought she'd been borderline rude to him. Then she'd chickened out and smiled and thank-you'd at the end. Maybe that had been her mistake?

Because Seijuro, or so it seemed, was upping his game.

In her music class today, they had been assigned to compose small jingles in groups. She'd been teamed up with her classmate Fuyumi, who was as clueless in music as she was, so they were having a hard time with that assignment. Meanwhile Seijuro had done his assignment alone. And it wasn't a jingle. When their music teacher had asked for volunteers to show their work Seijuro has come forward, taken out his flute, and announced the title. 'Beautiful Usagi-chan, please be mine' he'd named the effin' thing and then played something close to a symphony for all she knew. Everyone had stared at her, and she'd shrunk in her seat, embarrassed as all hell.

In English then, he'd written her a poem. Which, of course, why wouldn't he, he also read out loud to the whole class. She'd only understood half of it, obviously, yet what she'd understood had turned her ears bright red. 'Your soft-swelled bosom, hair spun from gold, angel oh angel,'…. Yeah, like that. Half the class had started laughing, the other half had proceeded to patting her back sympathetically whenever she came across them in the hall afterwards.

In P.E. – once per week they had it co-ed – he had, of course, picked her for his team first, although everyone knew how rubbish she was at soft ball, and then praised her every missed catch as if she'd won the Nobel Prize.

By the end of the school day she was near tears in anger. And that although she'd so looked forward to this day of school for once: It was Naru's first day back.

Naru, for her part, had been as bewildered about Seijuro's behavior as she was. She'd kept turning around to Umino, asking if she really hadn't missed something important that she should know here?

And due all to all this ruckus with Seijuro during the whole day, she hadn't even been able to really spend as much time with Naru as she had wanted to, as both of them had continuously been crowded by every classmate they'd ever talked to – asking Usagi if she and Seijuro were dating now or what was happening here, and crowding Naru how she was doing, and if she really didn't hear anything while she was in her coma, and how it was to be drained by a Cardian.

She had to hand it to Naru – she took the nosy questions in stride. If anything, Naru seemed a bit proud of having been so fast in her recovery, and liked to talk about it, and the Cardians in general. This was all very new to her after all – having slept through the whole media frenzy since day one and all.

Umino had taken Naru home then after their last class – he hadn't left her side all day and probably wouldn't for the foreseeable future -, leaving Usagi to run from school on her own as quickly as she could as to avoid being followed by her unwanted suitor.

And she was so angry.

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He felt her enter the arcade, of course, even though he didn't look up from his biochemistry tome. He himself was sitting at the counter, his trusty cup of black coffee next to him that Motoki had provided him with immediately and unasked for upon arrival and then continuously kept refilling, just as he always did. His hand, previously busy jotting down notes, now stilled.

She came in like a hurricane, fuming, shouting for her 'Motoki-onii-san' on the top of her lungs upon entering, barely through the sliding doors, to explain to her, please, why boys behaved the way they did.

He took his cup to his mouth for the sole reason to smirk into it and not at her. This, her complaining about boys, he could enjoy. All those times she talked fondly of any one of them on the other hand…

She let herself fall heavily into one of the stools near his – leaving one lone stool unoccupied between them – , extended her ridiculously slender and smooth arms over the counter and grabbed an innocent and rather unexpecting Motoki by the collar and shook him, exasperatedly, demanding an answer. Motoki's hands flew up helplessly, as if to say, 'Spare me, I'm innocent!' and tried to soothe her antics with sweet nothings. Mamoru's hand tightened with a pang of jealously for just a second, the gesture seemed so intimate.

The thought distracted him, momentarily, because he wished so very much she could treat him with the same amount of trust and familiarity, but then again, 'onii-san' wasn't exactly what he would want her to call him either…

"Ehh…. Something happened, Usagi-chan? Do you want to talk about it?" Motoki stammered, and gently shook her hands off his collar, only to proceed arming himself with ice cream instead as a peace offer, lest she attack him again. The sight was rather endearing.

"Aww, Odango. Did the boys say you have cooties again?" Mamoru couldn't help it. He just couldn't. And of course she couldn't disappoint, being as furious as she already was, and thus she turned to him in her obvious man-hating wrath, not at all unsurprised to notice him next to her, or at least she wasn't letting on.

She growled, Motoki groaned. "Not this again, you two, please? There're kids here?" Motoki pleaded at them, being pretty much ignored, at the same time that Usagi exploded in his face.

"I'M NOT A PRESCHOOLER YOU JERKFACE CAN'T YOU TAKE ME SERIOUSLY FOR *ONCE* YOU CONCEITED LITTE-" She trembled, her face flushed, she practically jumped in his face, and he didn't have a shred of decency left in him that prevented him from enjoying the whole thing wholeheartedly. He smirked.

"KIDS! THERE'RE KIDS!" Motoki interrupted her again.

She stopped in her tirade and started to deflate. He couldn't have that of course, so he riled her up again. "Why Odango, as this is such mature behavior you're displaying again today, of course I shall treat you like the adult you are from now on." He snickered down at her, eyes blazing with humor.

She puffed up again, all the while Motoki was still trying to go between them ("No, Mamoru, please, don't—") and he grinned at her, looking forward to round two, when her shoulder unexpectedly slumped, her whole demeanor changed, and she sat down again.

Huh, he hadn't seen that coming.

Suddenly nervous, he didn't say anything to her anymore, and looked at her sideways, then unsurely down at his book again. She had propped her face up on the table. Motoki, obviously bewildered at her reaction as well, exchanged a worried glance with him over her head. Trying to shake her from the suddenly sad expression, Motoki placed her usual in front of her: a big foamy milkshake; Oreo, as it was Wednesday. It almost touched her nose, as her chin was still resting on her hands.

She didn't react with the excited squeals she usually greeted sweet beverages with – food usually always distracted her from any worry– and after a short while of silence she mumbled, "Is that why he won't take no for an answer? Does he not take me seriously either?"

His hands clenched around his cup again and his head flew up to look at her. Did something happen to her? Did someone… I swear if that blonde little prick that was with her at that supermarket the other day did something to her, I'll—

Motoki crouched a bit lower so he could look her in the eyes. "Usagi-chan, is everything ok? Do you need help?" He said at the same time that Mamoru ground out a dangerously low "Who—"

Usagi straightened in her stool and her right hand flew to the side of her face. She looked sheepish. "Oh, no no no, Motoki-onii-san, it's not that bad, really. I'm overreacting." She babbled, fast.

Neither of the boys looked convinced, which she seemed to have noticed. She gave Mamoru a curious look and continued talking – mostly to Motoki. "There's just this boy from school. He treats me a little like Umino used to? Following me around all the time? Just that he does it all the time. Wherever I go there he is. And he keeps trying to flirt with me, and brings me stuff, and … well, things like that? It's not really that bad. It's just a bit much right now, and tomorrow it'll be ok again I'm sure, just… It's unnerving?" She smiled sheepishly.

Then she exhaled and continued. " And I wanted to be nice in the beginning so I was polite and well... I don't want to hurt his feelings, I guess, but now he never leaves me alone, no matter what I do, and…" She scratched her head and scrunched one eye shut, cocking her head sideways. "… what should I do?" She asked, a tiny bit of a wail in her voice.

Mamoru's shoulders sagged. He suddenly felt a deep shame. Wasn't this exactly what he did as well? Following her around? An image of the other night, when he stood in front of her window, wondering how she looked when she slept flew guiltily to his mind. I'm an asshole. I'm a stalker. He thought dejectedly.

If she hadn't specified she knew this boy from school, he wouldn't have been surprised if she'd been talking about him. But what more could he do? He already stopped deliberately letting her run into him in the mornings to the point of actively trying to avoid her, as much as this weird magnetism still seemed to put them together frequently however much he tried. She just was everywhere – that surely wasn't his fault, was it? And this was where his only friend worked, it wasn't his fault she frequented the same spots as he did, was it? You could stop insulting her just so she would pay you attention and maybe touch you accidentally… his mild supplied him, and he cringed at it.

Motoki looked at Usagi pointedly. "Well you have actually told him no, right?"

"I tell him no all the time!" She exclaimed. "'Seijuro I don't need your help with this, Seijuro I'd rather do this assignment with Umino, Seijuro, no you don't need to play your flute for me…'" She recited.

Motoki gave her a look. "So you haven't actually told him you don't like him."

Usagi blinked at him. "Well, that would hurt his feelings. I don't want to hurt his feelings." She said, talking to him slowly as if she was confused why he wouldn't understand this. Mamoru chuckled at that. That was so typical of her…

"Usagi-chan you have to!" Motoki almost yelped. "He's a boy, he won't understand otherwise!"

"…but… but…" Usagi began shaking her head wildly, exasperatedly. "That's so stupid! Why should I be forced to treat people in a way I wouldn't want to treat them or be treated myself just because obviously he's entitled to me unless I get out the sledgehammer?" Her voice rose.

Motoki swallowed, blinking. "Um… if you put it like that…"

"It's so unfair! It's not like… like.." She huffed, rushed and excited. "Well, girls react differently when they like you." She looked at Mamoru for a second and then blushed. "He should know that. He's not four. I shouldn't be forced to teach him."

Motoki thought for a moment. "Well, how do you reckon you would react when you do like someone." He asked her.

Both Motoki and Mamoru looked at her expectantly and she flushed and stammered.

Mamoru cringed. "She probably wouldn't insult a guy she likes all the time. Or manhandle him" He'd meant as a joke, but it came out kind of… sad?

"NO!" Usagi turned crimson and yelled "No… Well. …" and then fell silent for a moment, looking at Mamoru sideways but talking to Motoki. "… I would be nervous in their presence and thus react weirdly. And I wouldn't politely say no to everything they suggested we do."

They fell silent for a while, until Usagi broke it. "Also… I don't like the way Seijuro sits."

Motoki shook his head at her. "You don't like the way he sits?"

"Yeah... He sits with his knees really wide apart, like this—" She said, demonstrating it for a second, brushing her knee briefly into Mamoru and then closing her legs again. "He takes up all the space, like he owns it. Even if there're people who need space next to him, like on the bus. It's impolite. And he doesn't even realize he does it. I don't like it."

Mamoru quickly glanced down at his legs. They weren't far apart at all, but he still snapped them shut completely, and then shook his head, irritated with himself.

"Well, okay then." Motoki said. "So we need a way for you to deal with the situation without having to be rude to him, yes?"

Mamoru grumbled. "You don't seem to have a problem being rude to me…"

"Your ego would explode if I wouldn't regularly put you in your place, Mamoru-baka, that's different." Usagi blushed. "It's basically civil service. I'm keeping you down to earth so people will still talk to you."

"Ah, I see." Mamoru laughed. "So you're impaling me with sharp objects and sharp elbows all the time for the good of the world. How did I not notice that?"

"Also, it's because you're rude to me." She glared.

"I'm not rude to you. I just state the obvious. Not my fault you can't take the facts as they are, Odango."

"Arghhhh" Usagi grabbed at her head and Mamoru chuckled at her.

"Usagi-chan? Do you need help?" came a voice behind her, and Usagi, eyes growing wide, nearly toppled off her barstool.

'AHH!' She screeched. "Seijuro! Um, no… no I don't."

"Are you sure, it looks like he's being disrespectful to you… I could take you home if you want." He glared at Mamoru fiercely as he said this.

She looked at Mamoru pleadingly, willing him to just apologize so Seijuro would go away, and he looked back at her peculiarly.

Stepping up next to her and looking deep into her eyes to measure her reaction, he put his hand around her waist, and smiled down at her "Are you okay, Usako?"

The smile he gave her was so warm, so tender, when he said that awfully sweet name to her. He'd never smiled at her this way before and it made her heart flutter. "Did I upset you too much? I didn't mean anything by it, I promise."

She froze for a moment, and then, realizing what it was he was doing, brought a shaky arm up to the small of his back, mustered a smile and nodded carefully, her heart on full speed. "Um, yes, of course."

It wasn't so much was he'd said – all but for this sweet sweet name, he'd spoken the words to her many times before – it was much more how he'd said it. The tenderness in his smile, the way his whole body was bent towards hers, the gentle hand at her waist, careful as not to be inappropriate, yet somehow still possessive in the way his thumb stroked her side tenderly. It threw her. She wished he'd mean it.

She turned to Seijuro. "Yes.. Yes, I'm ok, you don't need to worry Seijuro. It's good of you to look out for your classmates. See you tomorrow at school?" She threw at him, her tone a bit harder yet polite.

Seijuro glared at the hand Mamoru still had around her waist. But nodded curtly, excused himself and then disappeared out the sliding doors.

Usagi exhaled softly and stayed silent for a moment. Mamoru had moved away from her, quiet as well, and resumed his position at the counter, cradling his coffee cup as if it protected him.

Her heart fell a little. She had no idea why she felt the way she did about this small exchange- it was all she wanted, really. Yet it reminded her of two things: Mamoru wasn't really hers, and she really much rather wanted to be the person doing the saving instead of being the one saved.

She lowered herself into the seat next to him and glanced at him sideways. Motoki had, she only just noticed, disappeared to god knows where.

"Usako." She said, pronouncing the word slowly, as if testing how it sounded on her tongue. He twitched a bit. "I like that name."

He missed a beat. He hadn't realized he'd called her that to her face. It was the name he didn't even dare utter in his mind, let alone out loud, even though he knew how right it felt to him. He blinked. "Uh.." But he trailed off again, not knowing what to answer her exactly.

He took in her silent demeanor then, unsure. Had he been too forward? "Was that…ok? For you?" He asked her very softly.

She jerked her head towards him, as if startled. "Oh, I'm grateful. That was really sweet of you…" she trailed off, scratching her head a little and then sighed.

"Just… I just wished the only time he let go quickly wouldn't be only because there's another boy involved? … I'd much rather be the hero than the damsel is all, I guess." She said, feeling awkward.

He smiled at her warmly then, almost as warm as he did before, and her heart fluttered once more.

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AN: In the anime during R there was this episode where Ami had the choice to go to Germany for her studies, but she didn't because she chose the Senshi instead. Seeing as I moved the story up a few years the offer would have already happened and thus I utilized it shamelessly to explain why she didn't change to Usagi's school and thus got into a school that much rather fit her intellect.

(That always bothered me in the anime. Genius of all geniuses but there's whole schools full of supposed geniuses and none of them want her?)

Anyway, I'm curious to know what you're thinking of the whole thing so far!

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