Chapter 6
Time will tell
A single day could help me break this spell

With only six weeks left in the school year before summer vacation, Usagi was immersed in so much paranormal activity that the dreams and their meaning were pushed back into her sub consciousness. Her ghostly encounter and quest to find the tree from the fog were pushed aside in the day to day reality of being Sailor Moon.

Luna had found her almost one week to the day following her day dream about the tree and the entwined initials. She'd spent her free time before that scouring any park she could find looking at trees - or at Crown. Naru-chan was starting to think she was a little strange but Usagi couldn't explain it. She just knew the dream had also been a reality. There was no way she could have seen something so vivid and not have it be real.

Now, with the responsibilities of a super heroine balanced on her shoulders - and the dreamy Tuxedo Kamen to invade her dream at night - there was little time to herself. Still, she couldn't shake the idea that the tree and the carving had been real - were real. The names of E and S still eluded her and once Ami and Rei had been uncovered as senshi, had explained to the psychic girl about the dream.

Usagi had been unable to describe it properly, only the impressions and Rei had shaken her head in exasperation, telling her it was only a dream. A vision, a real vision was something that you could remember because it held some kind of message. An argument had ensured and had ended with Usagi storming out.

Which is how she found herself back on the sidewalk, in the same place where the dream had occurred - flat on her backside as she glared at the man she'd run into. "You again!"

Chiba Mamoru, the bane of her existence, was staring down at her with an annoyed expression on his face. "I could say the same thing for you, Odango Atama. You should watch where you're going."

Usagi slapped her hands on the pavement. "I was, you baka! You're the one with your nose in that book not watching where he's going!"

"I tried to move out of the way. What's your excuse?"

"None of your business." Pushing herself to her feet, Usagi slapped at the dust on her skirt and glared at him. "If you saw me coming - hey!"

Mamoru scooped a piece of paper she'd dropped from the ground, and Usagi scrambled to snatch it away, but he was too tall, holding it out of her reach. "Another failed test, Odango?"

"Give it back!"

He didn't, keeping it out of her reach and he shook it once to open it - and went very still as he saw what was written on it, his eyes widening almost imperceptibly.

Usagi grabbed his arm, tugging it down with surprising force and snatched the paper from him before stuffing it into her school bag and snapping it closed.

"A love letter, Odango?"

Glaring at him, she couldn't help the blush that stained her cheeks. "What would you know about those? Watch where you're going, baka, or I won't be the only girl you run into today."

"Heaven forbid."

A sound of frustration gurgled through her lips as she spun on her heel and stormed away.

Mamoru watched her leave, his mind still on the paper she'd taken back and the drawing it had held - a heart with the entwined initials E and S. The same image he'd seen in his dreams, along with the indistinct image of the Princess running alabaster fingers over the engraving.

But it was a dream he'd shared with no one, written down nowhere and carried close to his chest.

How had she known?

--

Mamoru discovered the identity of Sailor Moon the following day, not at all as surprised as he should have been to discover her to also be Odango Atama.

After their encounter on the bus one morning where he'd had his first suspicions, it wasn't the shock it might have been - to be proven right wasn't something he was un-used to. Of course it also presented problems. He wasn't blind, much as he wished he was sometimes, and Odango Atama drew him in ways he couldn't ever recall being drawn before. Even before he'd discovered her alter ego, something about her called to him.

Perhaps it was the way his skin tingled every time it brushed hers, or the fact that he already knew her from their brush on the bus. It hadn't taken him long to put two and two together to discover that she was the same blonde who'd drawn his attention in the park weeks back - and the same one he'd unwittingly rescued from a face plant.

Even then he'd been compelled to help her.

He rubbed her the wrong way, but she was easy to tease and enjoyable to rile, and he found himself looking forward to their infrequent encounters - especially the way her eyes lit as she rose to his taunts and snapped right back at him. She wasn't afraid of him. Maybe that was why he enjoyed her so much. Very few people he knew weren't put off by his attitude, or so he'd learned. Mostly they avoided him, few tried to know him and no one would argue with him.

Except for Odango Atama.

Tonight the tables had turned and he'd been at the masquerade with her unintentionally – both there for likely the same reason. Her hairstyle had made her unmistakable, and he was honest enough to admit to distraction; she'd looked breathtakingly lovely. Like a Princess - his Princess; the one who kept calling to him in his dreams. Drawn to her, he'd been unable to resist the allure - or asking her to dance. Almost as if compelled, as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

Dancing with her had been something else.

For someone as clumsy as she could be, she moved with grace and confidence, following his lead as naturally as if they'd danced that way before - and not just once but many times. It certainly felt as if they had and he'd been reluctant to release her when Luna's call had come.

Before that, it had seemed surreal and she'd felt it too – he'd known by her expression, and her comments had only confirmed it. It had started innocently enough – asking her to dance and sweeping her out onto the floor, but she'd filled his arms so wonderfully, he'd been unable to resist pulling her closer or squeezing her hand in a gesture he didn't completely understand. It was intimate, one of shared companionship – one of complete and total understanding that had seemed fitting at the time but made little enough sense to him now.

Discovering her name had come with a boon and one he wasn't willing to give up. Fingering the handkerchief she'd dropped, he pulled it from his pocket and ran his thumb over the embroidery along one edge, already having memorized it.

Grade 8 Class 1 Tsukino Usagi.

Moon rabbit.

His lips twitched. How very fitting. Fate had a twisted sense of humor.

Tilting his head back, he leaned it against the wall as he watched the moon waning in the midnight sky, one leg dangling down over the rail towards the ground many meters below. His mask, hat and cape had been discarded on his couch, but the tuxedo was comfortable and familiar. In a way, he was far more comfortable in it than he was in anything else.

Tonight it helped to keep him connected to the memory of Tsukino Usagi as she'd been in his arms. Not just dancing, though it had felt wonderful to have the opportunity to hold her, but later.

He'd never been as scared as when he'd thought she was going over the edge of that balcony and he hadn't known if he'd reach her in time. The feeling was one foreign to him - he wasn't used to caring about other people or having their lives mean more to him than his own.

But hers did.

It didn't matter what form she took, he couldn't stand the thought of her in danger - the thought of her dying. The intensity of his relief when he had managed to catch her wrist had nearly staggered him.

His Odango Atama was something else though. He'd seen her panic before, but when they'd gone over the edge of that balcony and Luna had shouted at her about the pen, she'd acted without hesitation - likely saving both of their lives in the process when he hadn't let her go. For some reason he'd been willing to die for her - an emotion he hadn't yet been able to identify having lodged itself in his chest.

Where dancing with her had been a dream, kissing her had been a different level of heaven entirely- a feeling he couldn't place - but likely resembled that of coming home having filled him. It was a shame she'd been sleeping, but if she hadn't been, he doubted his courage would have extended that far. Still, for a chance to taste her again – to have her respond consciously – was a temptation he was going to have to resist.

For now.

Luna's interruption was probably a good thing.

That, of course, didn't stop him from wishing the blasted cat to the opposite end of the galaxy. For a moment, just one moment, it had seemed possible for him to be able to remember... everything. All he'd had to do was keep kissing the little moon rabbit and the veils would be peeled away. He reached down to retrieve his glass of water, taking a sip as he continued to stare at the moon.

Sailor Moon.

Tsukino Usagi.

Odango Atama.

It didn't matter what name he gave her, she drew him unerringly in each. Driving him with the need to protect her - but not coddle her. Support her - but not carry her; stand beside her and not in her way. She was stronger than any woman he'd ever met and he knew for a fact she couldn't be more than fourteen. Underneath that young exterior was a core of steel he would never have suspected to look at her.

Since his first glimpse of her as a carefree teenager in the park over a month ago and that fateful encounter on the bus, she'd changed. Matured in subtle ways; grown in others - and not one of them physical. Discounting the continued rounding of her girlish figure and the tempering of her muscles as she learned to use them properly, it was all in her eyes.

Eyes as wide and clear as the summer sky on a day the sun shone without obstruction. Somehow, despite all she'd seen her core remained intact and while she grew and learned, she still found the ability to embrace the world for its experiences - its pleasures.

There was no question she was still an innocent, but she was an innocent who had seen more of life than most people his age - then most people her parent's ages. She was an innocent with responsibilities that rivaled his own. A ghost of a smile crossed his lips - Tsukino Usagi was one the only girl he'd ever known about whom he could say that. She was only one of the senshi, but she alone held powers so vast he only had to stand near her to be sure of it.

Perhaps that was how she'd seen the same vision he had – the carving with the initials. Or maybe she'd only dreamed it, but he doubted it. There was a connection between them that ensured he was there in times of danger; he always knew when she needed him, just as he'd known tonight.

He took another sip before replacing the glass on the table below the rail. Based on the kiss he'd stolen - despite her unconscious reaction; she had kissed him back - she held some kind of power over his memories. Kissing her again held more appeal than it should have for a man who never dated and had little interest in women beyond the elusive one in his dreams.

Perhaps that was the point - perhaps she was the connection between the Princess in his dreams and reality. He didn't know how or why, but his intuition told him she was important; more important than just the leader of the Senshi.

Closing his eyes, he pictured her as she had appeared in the moonlight, her hair falling across her brow, that long golden hair of hers glittering as it lay against the white satin pillow.

Tsukino Usagi. His lips twitched.

Usako.