"Well I hope you're happy," Usagi said to Luna with a shaky voice as she entered her bedroom and closed the door behind them. Pressing her back against the door, her lip began to quiver uncontrollably and her eyes glistened with tears that would begin to fall at any moment.
Luna was anything but happy as she watched the girl try to keep her emotions in check. The cat had no idea what an important night this had been for her; only when dinner had started and Kenji began grilling Usagi's poor boyfriend did she realize this was the first time he'd been to their house. Luna didn't know a lot about such human customs, but she could sympathize with how nerve-wracking it must have been for the couple- and that was without having the added stress of a quick transformation into a Sailor Soldier beforehand with little explanation for anything.
A soft whimper filled the room and Usagi began sliding down the door after Luna's extended silence. The cat felt even worse and jumped from the bed as Usagi hugged her legs to her chest and buried her face in her knees, finally giving into the sobs that'd been brewing just below the surface.
"Usagi," Luna said gently, though she wasn't sure if the girl could hear her above her wailing. The violent shake of her shoulders as she cried looked like she might break herself apart if she rattled much more. "Usagi, I'm so sorry. I didn't know. I shouldn't have forced you to transform before your boyfriend came over. Mamoru, is it?" She paused, hoping for Usagi to answer her, but she only continued to cry. With a sigh, Luna considered what else she could say and hopefully calm the blonde. "He's cute, your boyfriend. Very handsome."
At that, the sobs slowly subsided. A sniffle. "I know. He's the best." Sniffle.
One side of Luna's mouth quirked up into a half-smile. "Everything will be okay. Just tell him a- friend-," no one needed to know that friend was a cat, "told you some news before he came over and you were nervous about it. I'm sure he'll understand. He seems nice."
Usagi nodded, sitting up a bit to wipe the tears from her eyes. Another sniffle. "Luna, please… I need you to tell me more about what this all is so I can explain it to him."
Luna froze, unsure how to respond to that. "I wouldn't advise you tell him anything about Sailor Moon, Usagi. Not now." Not ever, but they would cross that bridge later.
"But why?"
The confused, mystified look in Usagi's puffy eyes gave her pause. "...Because you can't trust anyone with knowing that identity. Anyone could be the enemy, Usagi." She saw Usagi open her mouth to protest, but quickly continued, "I'm sure Mamoru is not the enemy, but telling loved ones you know are safe isn't a good idea, either. They might not be a threat, but if the Dark Kingdom finds out who Sailor Moon is close to, they may torture the information out of those people. The less Mamoru, your parents, everyone knows, the better."
Usagi gave a small nod and Luna was relieved that her reasoning seemed to click with her. "Just… what type of people are in this... Dark Kingdom?" she asked with trepidation.
Luna realized that she was doing nothing to ease this innocent girl into her new destiny. She needed to make this sound more fun, less dangerous… ease this girl into the role as her powers awakened.
"Bad people, but nothing you can't handle. Why don't you transform and I'll show you what you can do?"
"So I just take the tiara off and throw it?" Sailor Moon asked with more than a hint of skepticism.
Luna was baffled that she would still find the idea of a tiara becoming a discus strange after everything else the cat had already unloaded on her. Still, she had to admit that Sailor Moon's first training session was going better than she'd hoped. "That's correct," she advised, "and as you throw it, yell 'Moon Tiara Action!'"
Sailor Moon took the tiara between her fingers and lifted it away from her forehead. "Picture it becoming a disc," Luna advised, and couldn't suppress her smile as she watched the golden accessory begin to spin, slowly at first, then gradually pick up speed and hover over her open hand. "That's it!" Luna encouraged. "Now!"
"Moon Tiara… ACTION!" Sailor Moon cried, then flung the sparkling white disc like a frisbee toward the far wall of the old warehouse they were in. It illuminated everything in its path as it sailed through the air, then returned to her as if it were a boomerang. The spinning slowed until they saw the form of the tiara again, then stopped, and fell back into the blonde girl's hand. "Whoa…" she gasped, then slipped it back onto her forehead. A wide smile grew across her lips and she squealed with delight. "That was so cool!"
Luna was glad Sailor Moon was finding some fun in learning her abilities, but needed to keep her sharp. Just as she opened her mouth to give a gentle lecture, however, the blonde jumped up and down and clapped her hands excitedly, asking "What next, Luna?"
The next hour or so was devoted to the accuracy of her tiara attack, hand-to-hand combat techniques and evasive maneuvers- Sailor Moon didn't seem to find as much fun in those- and talk about the Dark Kingdom and danger to the princess.
'Maybe this girl isn't as hopeless as I first thought...' Luna thought to herself as Sailor Moon tried her tiara attack once again. It was a bit of a harsh first opinion, but Usagi's naive, carefree and clumsy nature had made her nervous. Sure, Sailor Moon was still very rough around the edges, but there was the potential for a real Solider inside that unpracticed soul just waiting to be nurtured.
As if the universe heard the cat's thoughts, Sailor Moon's first test presented itself.
"Luna?!" Sailor Moon asked with alarm as the red jewels adorning the buns in her hair began to flash and emit a low pulsing sound. The cat went rigid, eyes going wide.
"It's the enemy, Sailor Moon. Ready to put all that practice to good use?"
Tears immediately began to well up in her eyes. It was all fun and games when there was no real danger, but they didn't even know what they were up against yet and Sailor Moon was already on the verge of a breakdown.
Luna's jaw suddenly ached from clenching it so hard. "Everything will be fine. This is what you were born to do, Sailor Moon. You're ready, I could see that. Now follow me!"
Luna quickly found that Sailor Moon was anything but ready.
"AHHHHH!" the blonde-haired girl cried, acting as if their previous training session never happened and she'd never practiced a dodge in her life. Instead, she was falling over herself, sprinting from this corner to that as a youma- a small, rather feeble-looking one- rolled after her.
"MOON TIARA ACTION!" Luna yelled as the girl tripped past her, nearly falling to her knees but catching herself just before she went tumbling.
"I can't do this!" she responded, and even from across the room Luna saw fat tears begin to spill from the most upset and overwhelmed face she'd ever seen.
Cat and monster alike nearly died from the shock of the ear-piercing wail that came from Sailor Moon then, stopping the creature in its tracks and desperately trying to cover its ears with its small hands while the girl carried on. "I can't do this," she whined before releasing another deafening cry.
There was no shouting over it. No insisting, once again, that Sailor Moon use her tiara attack, or even to retreat. Luna and the enemy creature were so paralyzed from the sound of that cry that Luna thought she might stay frozen like that forever.
From the corner of her eye, however, Luna watched as a small red object sailed through the air and landed on the ground beside Sailor Moon. She was on the floor and pressed against the wall now, and whatever the object was finally broke through the girl's cries. The thing- a rose?- sticking up from the ground seemed to startle the girl into silence, and both Luna and the youma could feel their muscles begin to loosen.
As soon as she had control of her neck, Luna searched along with Sailor Moon for the source of the object as the youma continued to recover. When the source revealed itself from the shadows, Luna heard Sailor Moon draw in a quick gasp.
"You'll never defeat this monster if you just keep it paralyzed!" the source advised; a tall man in a tuxedo and a top hat with his face hidden behind a bright white mask. There was something about his voice, deep and melodic, that made even Luna swoon.
The cat was quick to snap out of her mesmerized gaze, however. "He's right, Sailor Moon!" she urged, "Please, use your tiara!"
Luna could have kissed the tuxedo-donned stranger as her instructions finally got through to the soldier. Just as they'd practiced, Sailor Moon removed her tiara from her forehead again, transformed it into a discus, and sent it spiraling toward the charging youma.
"Moon Tiara Action!" she cried desperately, and the spinning light buried itself inside the chest of the creature. Though it screamed, it was nowhere near as painful as Sailor Moon's distressed bellowing.
Luna breathed a sigh of relief as the youma seemed to disintegrate before their eyes, leaving nothing but echoes from its screaming before it disappeared. Finally, there was silence.
The tiara didn't make it back to Sailor Moon's hand before the spiraling slowed and it transformed back into the golden, jewel-adorned accessory, hitting the ground with a loud clang and bouncing across the cement before landing a few feet from the trembling Sailor Soldier. Sailor Moon's ragged breathing and the soft steps of the tuxedoed man as he approached the tiara were all that could be heard.
"Don't touch it!" Luna tried to warn as she jumped to get between the man and the magic weapon, but he picked it up before she could reach him.
The man seemed to be alarmed at the cat speaking, but didn't address it. "It's okay," he said gently, dusting the piece off on his black jacket before kneeling before Sailor Moon and extending it out to her.
Sailor Moon recoiled, pressing herself even harder up against the wall as the man drew closer. "Wh-wh-who... are you…?" she stammered, and Luna could tell it was all she could do not to cry again.
"My name is Tuxedo Mask," the man offered, lifting the hand with the tiara again to urge her to take it. She did, and Luna noticed the two lingered near each other's hands for a beat longer than necessary.
Luna cleared her throat. "Sailor Moon, let's get you back home."
"Yes, Sailor Moon," Tuxedo Mask agreed kindly, extending his now-free hand out to her. "Are you alright?"
A tentative, yet curious hand accepted Tuxedo Mask's as Sailor Moon nodded. "I'm… fine. I'm fine. Thank you for helping me." Her eyes never left his through his white mask as he pulled them both to their feet.
"Of course. I couldn't leave a crying girl in distress," he said with a smile, and the fur on Luna's back stood on end.
"Sailor Moon, we really have to go," the cat insisted, jumping up on her shoulder so Sailor Moon would jump and take her hand out of the masked stranger's. The man seemed to take the hint and took a few steps back to create distance.
"You did well fighting that monster today, Sailor Moon," he said. "I hope to see and fight beside you again soon."
With a whoosh of his cape, Tuxedo Mask spun on his heels and leapt into the air, aiming for an open window more than a story up from where they stood. Sailor Moon gasped as he landed on the sill, then leapt once again out into the night.
Luna watched in silence as Sailor Moon held a clenched fist over her heart, eyes fixed on the sill where the masked man had just stood.
"Easy now, Sailor Moon," she warned, unable to suppress the irrational rage she felt as Sailor Moon gazed up at the window like a lovesick puppy. "You have Mamoru, remember?"