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AN: Sorry, this is the same chapter you've already read, I just realized that I skipped chapter 5 in the updates, so I've fixed that error. So if you want to read something new, go back to that one?

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Chapter 6:

Just... Just Don't

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The extremes to which one could measure his idiotic stupidity was so great they ran out of words to describe it or numbers to count. It had been in front of him this entire time and he just realized it. If he had just believed in their love Usagi would have persevered, had he shown her just how deep the wells of his love were, unfathomable because they were bottomless, then she would have had the strength without ever once hurting her or changing her in anyway, she would have been stronger than ever.

There was just 1 vital fact that he had missed somewhere along the way in his dream-plagued state and lack of sleep, coming up with instant decisions that he thought he had worked through in that same space of time. Serenity and Usagi were completely different people, sure they shared the same face but they couldn't be more different. The only other similarity was the love they shared.

It was how they used it though that they were most different. Serenity never wavered in her assurance that he loved her, Usagi had never been sure of it. Serenity had been devastated at Endymion's death and had not been able to conceive of a way to live on so had taken her own life.

Usagi while similarly distressed over his death had walked away from his cooling body long enough to deliver the death blow to Metallica. Then she had fallen apart but never once had she reached for the sword. She had looked for another solution. Their love had been tested then, they just hadn't worked through it, especially with all that followed and Usagi's love for him had always been strong and unwavering. While his was just as strong, he'd just expressed it through alternative personalities and had never once said it out loud.

God he was incredibly stupid.

Motoki kept a sympathetic look on his face while Mamoru worked it all out on his own. Once Mamoru settled down and sat on the couch back there and buried his head in his hands, Motoki laughed. It wasn't just a relieved laugh or an awkward laugh, but deep belly fulls and he didn't seem in a hurry to stop and when Mamoru looked up in annoyance at the fact that the world was falling apart, quite literally by his own hands, he saw Motoki wipe away tears of merriment.

"Why on Earth are you laughing?"

"Because it seems so easy to me. You're the one who shit on everything, it's up to you to clean it up, is it not? But like Minako said, you've been going about it all wrong. You don't have your history to rely on, not like before, not even when neither of knew about it. You don't have the same things you can make fun of her for, or practically anything now. You have to approach her as the new person she is and approach her like any man interested in a woman does when he doesn't know her and she doesn't know him. Granted though, you have to walk through piles of massive shit, your shit to get to her and she's well aware of the stench. Good luck with that one buddy."

"There's also the matter of her fan boys."

"Eh, she doesn't care about them and they let themselves get walked over, they're not really interested. They'd love it if she let them into her pants but nothing else."

Mamoru growled at the image but Motoki was right and he was just the messenger. "Here I thought you'd be sympathetic and encouraging, instead you treat me the same way the girls have."

"I have been encouraging in turns, just like they have in their own ways but sometimes you need things said straight up. Usagi needed the sugar-coated version of things, you need the hard truths, you'll only respond to them that way." Motoki shrugged. "If she had broken up with you, I might have been a more comforting shoulder."

Mamoru rolled his eyes. "For her maybe." But he didn't resent it, it's what Usagi needed and deserved.

"Crash on the couch for the night. We'll start sorting this mess out tomorrow and come up with a plan of attack. You forget that I have the best position in the house to observe the new Usagi."

–

Surprisingly it was working out better than Mamoru had given his friend credit for. While he didn't make a move in several days after his two about-face turns, he did apologize to the girls for his behavior and explained a bit more about what he feared. Motoki gathered intel that the girls couldn't be privy to and Mamoru kept his distance to let Usagi cool off and forget about him for awhile. That way he could go up to her anew and fresh and do it the right way.

The right way though was as slow as molasses and he didn't think they had time for this.

It was getting him somewhere though. He didn't hang out with her at the arcade but he did join the girls for their days out and Motoki joined too, along with Naru and Umino. It was just her trusted circle of friends and him. She started to loosen up and relax around him, stopped giving him the death-eye.

He was pretty sure that was a new thing, some kind of combination between death-glare and stink-eye and Usagi combined them well.

He had to admit to himself now more than ever that this Usagi was so very different than the one he had known before. She was cynical and sarcastic and sometimes snarky. She never had any comeuppance about ordering people about but it wasn't even a bark, she just told them what to do and expected it to be done without any argument or worry that someone wouldn't comply.

In fact, perversely, Mamoru was attracted to this Usagi just as much as he'd been attracted to her complete opposite. Just as much as Endymion had been attracted to Serenity, even the faint attraction he had for Serenity as Mamoru even if her cloying bothered him in the dreams. A cloying he realized he'd manifested whereas the real Serenity had never done anything like that nor would she. She would have begged for him to find her not the crystal or would have demanded to know his location so she could find him.

He worried about the man touching her at night and so would camp out in the trees but he never saw him there again but Kamen had fallen asleep on occasion but usually that's while the moon filtered into her room. Except the testy attitude on occasion, she never seemed worse for wear so the man wasn't hurting her in any real and actionable way.

It was all in her head.

A rare moment, and it really was rare, he found himself alone with Usagi and they were standing on a bridge looking over the sights in front of them and he found that his pinky was rubbing ever so lightly against her hand and she didn't pull away right away. She stiffened slightly and her fingers quivered but she didn't move.

He had forgotten about that momentary attraction dilating her pupils when he'd taken away her feelings. How he could forget such a thing, he didn't know, but it was buried under all the other stressors in association with her. It came back with a blunt force attack to his solar plexus and he realized he did still have an in besides making her used to his presence. He had a very powerful in, indeed. He just wouldn't overstep quite yet, Motoki had a game plan set up and he would have to follow his friend's advice. Though his friend was quite daft sometimes when it came to this sort of thing, Motoki had been panting after Makoto for over a year and yet still hadn't done anything about it though she returned his interest. He was still seeing that horrible Reika. No, he was wrong to call her that, she wasn't horrible, she just wasn't the right girl for him. Yet he was dragging his feet with her too. Mamoru wouldn't be surprised if Motoki ended up alone with neither of the brunettes.

Another thought assaulted him as they touched. He could take away her memories of this other man, he didn't know what he was looking for quite yet but he could hold her down and pull them all away once he dug through her brain. That would definitely slow him down. Or it might cause a roar of anger to come flooding out and would pour all the memories back in with little regard to how it would affect her.

It was Mamoru who pulled away as he realized how easily he would have catapulted on that idea and probably would have done more irreparable damage to her himself. No, he couldn't be allowed to touch her, not without a specific goal in mind or else he would do all of the above at one time. She looked a little hurt at his action and then stood straighter as if reminding herself that he didn't matter.

"Usagi-"

"I've told you before Chiba-san, my given name is my own and only those I want to call me that shall." She gave him a direct look and then turned and walked away before he could explain himself.

Mamoru sighed and hoped he didn't blow it, yet again. "Dummy." Minako said as she walked by and slapped him up the head. "Always let her pull away first."

So maybe their alone time hadn't been quite so fortuitous or sporadic.

–

Life didn't change much over the next week. The only thing that really did was that Mamoru was falling in love with this Usagi more and more every minute of every day. She was so different from what he knew of her before and yet it was still Usagi, and he still loved all previous versions of her too.

Minako was asked to give Mamoru some guidance when it seemed Motoki was losing Mamoru's patience and interest. As self-proclaimed goddess of love, Minako was a wise option to go to and so far she hadn't really given any advice on how to woo Usagi.

So Mamoru decided to give it a try. He followed the muscular blond into her parents' home, for what exactly he didn't know but he had a feeling there were going to be pictures. She froze just passed the threshold and pushed him into a room and down onto a chair. She held a finger up to her lips for him to be quiet and he obeyed, he was feeling it now too. She had felt the disruption in the air but now he was feeling Usagi's presence too.

Neither had expected the smaller blond to be here and she couldn't know that he was, even if it was all perfectly innocent, because it wasn't, not really. It was a very thought-out plan to seduce her and she couldn't know her friends were involved. She'd never trust them again.

Minako went through the sliding door between his room and the one Usagi was in and she left it cracked so he could see. Usagi was sitting in the dark in a chair at the dining table and she was spinning a small blade around in her fingers. He winced at the idea of her getting cut by it at all and when he calmed down, he noticed her face, she looked pensive.

"Usa-chan, hey." Minako greeted nervously, her eyes on the knife. "Can I get you a pen or something?"

Usagi stilled and looked at Minako like she'd grown an extra head. "Why would I need a pen?"

"It's easier to spin."

Usagi looked ominous sitting there with the light from the hallway spilling through and lighting up part of her face and her holding a knife, no matter how small, and tossing it about almost carelessly screamed dangerous. "If it makes you feel better." She shrugged and set the knife down and Minako replaced it with a pen. "Do you really think I can't hurt anyone with a pen?" While it was supposed to be a joke, the pain in her voice took away all humor.

"What was the knife for, Usagi?" Minako thought Usagi was going to hurt herself with it too, but in a different way than Mamoru. Mamoru thought she might just nick herself. He was wondering what the senshi were keeping from him now.

"It was to help me concentrate. I have a problem and I can't quite work it out on my own. I've been trying but it hasn't worked." Throughout her words, her voice was fraying and finally she looked up and the light caught her face and highlighted the tears running unchecked down her cheeks.

Mamoru started but held himself back from going in there and gathering her into his arms. She wouldn't appreciate his comfort and he wasn't supposed to be there.

Minako was already there, pulling the girl into her arms, putting the pen aside and sitting across the chair, across Usag's lap and holding her before asking the all important question. "What happened?"

Usagi didn't say anything for a moment and then she pushed her guardian off of her. "Minako-" There was a warning note in her voice. "Shesh, I forgot that you guys like to touch me so much."

The pain that etched across Minako's face when she turned was not something Mamoru envied, he knew far too well how that felt. "Sorry, Hime." Minako bowed her head seeking forgiveness.

Usagi waved it off as if she really didn't care. This side to her, had Mamoru clenching his jaw, this was her hurting and pushing others away, something no version of her before would have done. It probably wasn't even her doing it. He'd seen how she had sagged into Minako's embrace for all of a second before she realized that shouldn't be happening. "Demando's back."

"Oh?" Minako had a hand behind her back in Mamoru's direction waving him down before he even realized he'd gotten to his feet, his hands clenched. She sounded completely neutral.

"Yes." Usagi smiled. "It was good to see him, he's been gone for far too long."

"Remind me, where did he go?" Minako asked sitting on the table now, completely unprofessional. "And why did he go?"

"He had to oversee the rebuilding of his planet after what the Earth Prince did to it." Usagi frowned. "I've told you that a hundred times."

"Right, right, sorry, I just forgot for a moment." Minako held up a finger behind her back and surprisingly it wasn't the middle one. It was telling him to wait. "So it's good that he's back?"

"Of course it is, he's my husband."

Minako's choking was louder than his and Usagi looked at her friend oddly. "Husband? Since when? You're only 16."

"In our past lives. Are you feeling all right Minako? I know we've been on the Earth for a long time now and it has influenced us greatly but you forgetting all of this is kind of scary."

"You have no idea how scary this situation is." Minako said loudly enough for Maomru to hear her and he didn't need her reminders or censor, he understood it far better than her. "So what happened when he came back?"

Usagi let her gloss right over forgetting, it was as if her memories were fragmented too. "Well he was just there, right in front of me and I went in for a hug because I've missed him so- and... well, I think my feelings have waned for him. There wasn't any of that excitement or thrill that I used to have when I was in his arms. It's weird because I remember it so vividly, how much I loved just being near him, and it wasn't like it was something that was just going to disappear. Not that. He went to kiss me and I couldn't do it. I turned my face and he kissed my cheek. He was annoyed but he didn't criticize me, only sighed and said it had been a long time, we needed to get to know each other again."

Minako wasn't breathing, neither was he. Demando was flesh and blood now and he'd already approached Usagi and didn't get the reaction he'd wanted. What was next?

"So that's what we're going to do. It's odd though because when I think about him and pull up the memories, I still get that buzz. When I saw him in person, it wasn't there. What could it mean, Minako?"

"You're going to see him again?" Minako asked tightly, using what little remained of her breath. Usagi nodded. "When?"

"Friday evening." She shrugged. "Part of me is really looking forward to it and part of me doesn't care at all. I'm so confused, I can't work it out."

"It's almost like he's another person in your memories with a face slapped over it." Minako suggested, but... it didn't make sense, because Mamoru had removed the feelings, even the thrill and excitement. Had Demando recreated those feelings, just those? Usagi hadn't mentioned anything about love, was he unable to insert feelings of love into her? "Do you love him?" Minako finally asked what both wanted to know.

"I think so." Usagi shrugged as if it didn't matter. "Though how it's possible, I don't know." A hand fluttered to her waist and then quickly away again.

"My memory is being a little hazy about the moon." Minako breathed softly and it was hard to hear her. "When did you meet?"

"Shortly before the Earth attacked us. It was a whirlwind romance and it was love at first sight. We married the day the attack happened." Usagi sneered. "It's a good thing that the Earth is now royal-less, or else I might have killed the remaining heir myself."

"Tell me what you remember about Beryl." Minako had a moment of panic that was greater than anything they'd seen from her so far and Mamoru cocked his head to the side, wondering why that was important.

"The same thing you probably do. I fought her and you managed to kill her with your sword from behind."

"Why were you almost killed?" Minako asked, hoping to unlock a piece of her friend's memory here and now, a very important piece. Mamoru tried to remember how it was left, of course he couldn't alter her memories, he just left gaping holes in them that she had to fill herself.

"Some- someone was hurt. Someone was down." Usagi said slowly and then hissed out a painful breath. "I don't know, one of the senshi?"

"And how did you feel about it?"

"I didn't have any feelings about it." Enlightenment came upon her. "Was it the Earth Prince? Was he held by Beryl just like his generals and I went to finish him off?" There was almost a glee in her voice. "Though I remember hearing about him on the Moon early on, I don't ever remember meeting him or have the faintest idea what he looked like, just knew that he existed. Though his generals I have a lot of memories about, I remember being on the Earth and talking to them before they were evil."

Mamoru almost groaned as he put his head into his hands. He really hadn't done a thorough enough job taking her memories. Not that it would have helped anything if he had taken those memories, this was probably a blessing in disguise but he prided himself on doing nothing in half measures and he was just told that he had. Yet he perversely hadn't taken away the knowledge that an Earth prince had existed. He hadn't completely wiped himself from her memory. This whole time he was torturing himself, thinking he had removed himself from the course of history if she couldn't remember him.

"Yes." Minako replied simply and he frowned, she hadn't said that he was good. "But you didn't go to kill him. You went to save him."

"Then why don't I remember him?" Usagi frowned right along with him. "Did I save him?"

"Yes." Minako said simply again. "He's no longer evil though he is a fool and a complete idiot. Sometimes I wonder if Beryl didn't damage his brain irreversibly somewhere along the way."

"What happened to him?"

"He's around, like a bad wart that just won't go away." Minako sneered but then pulled herself up short. "He's not actually that bad, he's just lacking a heart, a brain and courage."

"He sounds like all of the Wizard of Oz characters rolled into one." Usagi snickered. "Sounds kind of familiar actually – hey – no, Mamoru?"

Mamoru ground the heels of his hands into his eyes and asked the deities above why?

"I think it's because he didn't have a life to begin with, he's just sponging off of others, pretending he's a human." Minako didn't give verbal confirmation that Usagi was right but her words all but did it for her.

"I'm going to kill him." Usagi shot to her feet. "Where does he live?"

"Why would you kill him?" Minako asked curiously, not telling her friend not to do it.

"Because he helped bring down the Moon and our homes, he demolished Demando's home planet with a flick of his wrist. I'm going to make sure he doesn't for a second get a chance to do so again."

"If he did that, it was while he was under Beryl's control." These were all lies but Mamoru held his breath because it might just be his in. "You saved him, he's completely human now and makes human mistakes. Are you really going to kill him now in cold blood?"

Usagi settled back into her chair. "When put like that, no. Demando won't like it. He thinks the prince is dead."

"That prince is." They were all surprised that Demando had even mentioned the Earth Prince, but then again, if she remembered him, the question would eventually be asked, especially because they were living on his planet. "A new one, a hopefully better one, once he receives all that he's missing, is alive."

"Why don't I remember him existing since the fight with Beryl? He's been around, I know he has, he's best friends with Motoki."

"He's been lying low, Motoki has been his only friend for awhile now and after watching him with the blond man, we've decided we should let him have more friends, we've been friendly towards him recently. You don't remember him because the fight with Beryl knocked around some of your memories." Minako was being so kind to him, he was starting to get suspicious. Just because she'd given into the notion of them being together again, she still didn't like him.

"So since he passed the test with Motoki, you've decided to let him near your princess?" It was a good question.

"Yes, no." Minako sighed. "We decided to keep him where we could see him. You've never been completely alone with him. We've always been watching, seeing what he'd do. He hasn't tried anything."

"It doesn't make sense Minako." Usagi rubbed her forehead. "It's very bad tactics. It just lets me trust him a tiny bit and if he were to attack eventually I would never have known it to be him and my guard would have been done."

Minako heaved a big breath and threw herself into the chair opposite Usagi, giving up. "All right fine, it's all lies. I'm only good at acting when I have a script to follow. Artemis gave me that script when I pretended to be you and anything off script was easy because I had the memories of you as the princess and it was vitally important that you remained safe. This whole load of cow manure is too deep for me to get a solid footing. I thought I had it there for a moment and then I slipped and mucked the whole thing up. Then again, it's not my muck to begin with."

Usagi stared at her head guard with something akin to horror. "What lies?"

"Mamoru is Endymion but he was your husband on the Moon, not Demando. It was a whirlwind romance that led to marriage in a very short amount of time, but almost a year before the attack on the Moon. Your mother had found out and insisted that we had a real wedding instead of the one the Earth had provided for you. Very different customs and vows, but it made it legal in both kingdoms. Beryl attacked then, not sure why, it had already been made public that the two of you were already married. Maybe she had something against a second wedding, I haven't the foggiest and I've never been able to ask her." Minako's face clouded over as she realized that wasn't quite true, she had a moment on the Moon when she could have but had been too grief-stricken to contemplate asking.

"Why don't I remember this, if this is the truth?" Usagi pushed herself to her feet. "Or is this more lies?" She started to pace. "What happened? Did he abuse me? How does Demando play into all of this?" She whirled onto Minako. "Maybe Mamoru is manipulating you."

"No, Usagi, he's not." Minako ambled to her feet too. "Mamoru was a dog's ass and wiped your memories clean of him, took your feelings for him too."

"Why?" She sounded shocked and appalled and very confused about what would drive someone to do that.

"He said he had his reasons and he tried to explain them but I never understood. All of my memories are intact, there's not a single moment missing other than the usual fade that happens. The other girls too. He can only take, not create. It's a curse that I've seen in him from the very beginning, it's all he knows how to do."

He wanted to argue, but there was no arguing, it was true enough. "Then I should let Demando kill him."

"No." Minako's words were sharp. "Mamoru might be a lot of things but he is not evil. He doesn't deserve death. A lifetime of pain, sure, but not death. It will throw this entire planet out of balance and what's worse, is that Demando is worse." Minako blinked at her words and tried to run through them again, sure that something was wrong with her statement but found nothing glaringly horrible. "Demando is not from our past and I'm not sure he's even from our present, he's come to change the course of history."

"Maybe it'll be better this way." Usagi tilted her head. "I loved him once, I can learn to love him again."

"That's just it, Usagi-chan, you never have. He's been sneaking into your room at night and force-feeding you memories and feelings. Doesn't it snag, just a little when you put those memories into context? Do they make any sense then?"

Usagi thought about it and hung her head. "So those are my choices huh? A man who takes everything about himself away from me and regrets it so tries to slid back in somehow or a man who tries to take another's spot forcefully?" Usagi's face lifted again and this time it was anger in her eyes. "You're the worst friend ever Minako! You're a horrible guard and protector, you've let all of this happen! You've fostered it and fed it and I don't know if I can take your words about him either. There's no proof! I can't find him in my memories and Demando just fits like a square too large for the circular hole in my brain, even eating part of the other memories to try to make himself fit better.."

"Usa-chan." Minako held out a hand.

Usagi pulled away. "No! You're not allowed to call me that either. In private it's Hime-sama and in public it's Tsukino-san. We're no longer friends, you're very lucky I don't take away your senshi powers and position too but that's just cutting off my nose and until I have all of my facilities back I am in no condition to make those kinds of decisions. Consider yourself very lucky." Then she stormed out and Minako sagged to the floor and cried.

Mamoru heard the private words she spoke. "I do, lucky, oh I do."

He waited a bit, not wanting to oversee such emotion and not wanting to run into Usagi right now either, she might not feel so magnanimous towards him. He didn't for one second think that Minako would appreciate him even attempting to comfort her. Minako might still stab him on her own volition, even if she argued the opposite not too long ago.

"Mamoru!" She stood up suddenly just as his hand closed over the front door's knob. "You can't go after her!"

"I wasn't going to. She's too volatile right now." Mamoru would have to tell Motoki about the change in their plans though.

"I'm sorry I let it all out that way." Minako wiped at her face, the tears were gone. "I should have called for an intervention or something. I reacted badly to the news that Demando was solid. While you can't go after her, you have to watch her tonight. He's going to be mad that his plans are backfiring and he'll probably try something new."

Mamoru sighed and shook his head. "She'll see me in the tree tonight. Despite the memories and feelings being gone, she still feels me and now she'll put the pieces together on why." And it was the first time he realized that he could play that to his advantage as well.

Though... she hadn't felt him today. Was that because of Demando's actions too?

Minako wiped at her eyes as stubborn tears fell again. "It's a chance you'll have to take because the rest of us pass out when Demando comes near. Only you are immune to his powers. I'm so glad we have a name now."

Mamoru agreed, there was more than just a face for his rage to vent on now. Though the girls didn't even have that before. "Have Luna call me when she falls asleep."

"Of course." Minako gave a smile that reminded him of a shark. "I always thought of Usagi as Rapunzel but now I'm starting to see her as Sleeping Beauty."

"That wasn't her name." Mamoru pointed out, though how he knew about fairy-tales they wouldn't discuss. "It was Briar Rose, if you're going to use their real names, rather than titles." He finished lamely, because really truly, they had been both and none of it actually mattered.

Minako stared at him for a moment and then she laughed. "You really are human, aren't you? You just do a better job hiding your idiotic thoughts usually."

He didn't voice all of them, no, but sometimes he should so someone could stop him before he got going on it. "I better go." Mamoru had a long night ahead of him. He would have slept in Usagi's tree regardless of the command.

"Thank you." Minako said as he left but he wasn't sure why.

–

Luna opened the window once her charge was asleep and sat there on the ledge staring at him, her tail flicked around her body in defense, as if he intended to harm her as well. "You better not milk this to your advantage."

"Isn't that what everyone actually wants?" He countered softly as he looked passed her at said charge.

"Not in that way. Maybe for it to get to an easier footing, something a little less close than what it was before."

Mamoru scowled, he wasn't entirely sure he liked that idea either. The moon was still shining into Usagi's room and a door opened, he slid back into the tree and Luna turned and gave a cat-like whine at the intrusion and settled down into her bed again.

Reni frowned at the open window but didn't see Kamen within it. She sank onto the bed next to Usagi and placed a hand on her cheek. "I wish I could undo it all." She whispered to the older teen. "I don't know what went wrong here but I respect your wishes to stay out of your life, the girls' lives and lay low. I just wish I could have known you better like this, known him. I didn't realize you'd become so cold without him or would warm up so much once he was in your life. But I still see it." She chided the one asleep. "I saw it when I first came so much more, I still see it on occasion. I just don't get it and now these tears." She wiped away the tears that still fell, even in sleep. "What's causing them, I wonder?" She glanced again towards the open window and the moving light of the Moon. "I can't stay long, I can only do what I can when he doesn't realize I'm here. I wish he never followed me back. It's ruining everything."

Mamoru and Luna listened to the one-sided conversation with rapt attention. It was the first time Mamoru had heard the girl speak, and she sounded a lot like her cousin but with a serious tone that he couldn't quite place and it didn't seem like it was only for this moment. Reni laughed and came over to Luna and scratched her ears. "One day you and I will have to sit down for a chat too." She told the cat and then closed and locked the window before she walked out, silently closing the door. Moments later the Moon disappeared completely from Usagi's room and Mamoru was going to rip the damn window from it's casing but Demando was in and out so quickly that Mamoru couldn't even reach the window in time. How had he done that? And he'd taken Usagi with him.

Luna woke up with a furious Kamen at the window and she blinked at him in confusion, opened the window and he was in and through the door Reni had closed not long before. He knew this house well, knew which room they would have put the visiting teen. He stormed into her room and grabbed her shoulders. She wasn't in bed yet and she let out a squeak, ready to scream when all of a sudden she stopped, narrowed her eyes at him and squinted, trying to see beyond his mask and then she started laughing.

Kamen shook her but Reni couldn't stop laughing. He hefted her over his shoulder, went back to Usagi's room, making sure to close the doors as he went, scooped up a spitting Luna and then headed for the shrine, a meeting was now in session.

–

EAN: So... I'm glad things didn't go exactly according to plan with Demando and Reni. There's an E/AN about them somewhere later too that I wrote before I wrote a majority of the story, just the outline. I had gotten stuck for a moment trying to figure out how to work them in once I mentioned them and I had the scene with Usagi and Minako in my head for a bit but it hadn't been all planned out, just the general sense of it and then when I went to write it in context, it worked out for the best. The rest that followed helped bridge a few gaps too that I wasn't sure how to fix. Now the story is perfect, or nearly so, I'm sure there's plenty of typos and whatnot.