/peers out from behind her rock, waving a white flag/

Been a while, eh?

/Dodges rotten tomato thrown her way/

Eep!

Well, I could give a whole slew of excuses, but they'd be lies. Truth is, I just lost interest and was blocked on this for a while. Honestly, it's still shorter than I'd like and it could do with a little more work, but… /shrugs/ c'est la vie.

Thanks go to all the people at the usakomamoru livejournal community for being amazing, and as always Arashi-imoutochan (Arashinobara Jikkankakyoku) aka Nimbirosa for being the amazing beta/practically co-writer/person that she is. Be sure to check out her fics! They are undoubtedly worth your time. In fact, I doubt you'll be able to tear yourself from the computer while reading them.

See profile for disclaimer

On with the fic!

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Haru no Kousekiinai Arimasu

Chapter 6

By Natsudori Lina

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"Mamoru?" Usagi's gaze shifted slowly from the strained expression on her friend's face to her senshi's defiant eyes. Grunting, the blonde sat up and pushed feebly at the covers restraining her before her clumsy attempts were halted by Mamoru's hand on her shoulder. She resisted at first, but he was far stronger than she, and Usagi found herself lying down again, her eyes staring disgruntledly at Mamoru's exasperated glare.

"Don't get up just yet, Odango," he snapped peevishly. Cool fingers checked her pulse and Usagi's heart leapt into her throat as the tall boy knelt suddenly, and brought her face to his.

"Mamoru-san!" She squeaked in alarm. "What -?"

"Quiet," he ordered, pressing his cheek to her forehead. "I'm trying to take your temperature - it's a lot easier like this... no, stop squirming!" He sighed, leaning back and taking in her affronted expression. "It wasn't like I was going to kiss you or anything."

She colored, eyes narrowing to slits. "I didn't think for a second that you were, baka."

Mamoru opened his mouth to respond accordingly, but seemed to think better of it. "Don't stress yourself, Odango," he said instead. He peered concernedly into her eyes; she didn't appear to have a concussion, but he could be wrong. That glazed sheen in her eyes couldn't be healthy - they were too bright, and almost metallic in hue. He laid the back of his hand on her head again.

Suddenly remembering Usagi's friends, Mamoru looked sharply at them. "What mess did she walk into, to get this way?" he inquired waspishly. His hand took hers, played absently with slender fingers, smoothed over the carefully glossed nails, traced the lines on her palm by power of touch alone. Unable to reason why he had been so panicked, and not wanting to examine the thought further, Mamoru put the thought aside and merely squeezed her hand once more before relaxing, allowing his hand to remain relaxed on hers to smooth the lingering fear; foolish girl, running away like that. Foolish. Idiotic. Too-strange, too-mysterious, too-enigmatic Lumphead.

He looked challengingly up at Usagi's friends and felt gratified that the blonde did not try and pull her hand away. Mamoru allowed the small victory.

She wants me here, see?

Usagi couldn't have moved if she wanted to. What mess had she gotten into, indeed. Her life may have been a sort of organized chaos before, but it was nothing to the growing panic she felt inside of her. She tried to quell the initial desperation and looked to her senshi for guidance.

Well, her gaze begged, what do we say? What do we tell him?

Makoto chuckled nervously. Usagi's startled deer look wasn't lending them any credibility. She waved a hand airily. "Oh, you know Usagi. Always tripping, falling, stumbling this way and that. She just hit her head and passed out. She'll be fine."

Usagi nodded eagerly as Ami picked up the thread. "Yes, a severe contusion can often lead to brief periods of unconsciousness. In one case study—" She choked on her words helplessly as nimble fingers made their way to the back of Usagi's hair, combing through the silken strands for evidence to confirm their story.

His hand dropped from her head to fist at his side. "She doesn't have a bump. Not a cut, not a scratch, not one goddamn bruise exists on that girl's head."

Usagi made a brave attempt to salvage the situation. "I just heal really quick, that's all! And... and it's a bump inside my head, you know, like a dent, but not really? Conva- no, convex... that's wrong. Concave, that's it, concave bruises!" She laughed shrilly, causing Mamoru to wince and withdraw slightly.

"You are a horrible liar, Odango," he told her, but his lips twitched suspiciously. He should be angry, but he couldn't... oh, he couldn't. "Dents in the head? 'Concave bruises'? Bumps inside the head? I suppose that confirms my 'lumphead' theory after all."

Minako bristled. She'd been silent since Usagi's waking, but the conversation had obviously caused her to reach the end of her tether. "Don't talk to her like that!" she snapped.

Mamoru's eyes narrowed slightly, a muscle working furiously in his jaw. "Should I treat her like a child, then? She's not as clueless about the situation as I am, and I'm not going to pretend to believe that you five are keeping something from me." His lip curled. "Besides, it's not as if 'lumphead' is anything new... she all but admitted herself, just now."

Makoto drew herself to her full height, green eyes flashing. "Mamoru-san, you can't possibly think that you can come in uninvited, insult Usagi-chan and then expect us to tell you -"

"You've all but admitted that there is something wrong." Mamoru crossed his arms, but could not hide the flicker of worry in his face. "I might not deserve answers, but I would certainly like some."

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They had been bickering at great length over exactly what to reveal and what not to. Mamoru was still in Rei's room, presumably tending to Usagi. Every five minutes or so, one of the girls would go out and check on them... just to be sure.

"Thoughts?" Makoto whispered as they huddled together.

"No," said Rei flatly. "We tell him nothing. Until a few days ago, the only times he deigned to speak to Usagi were to degrade her. Just because he's suddenly started to take notice…. No. He doesn't deserve an explanation."

"Doesn't he?" Ami asked quietly, looking down at her hands. The group turned to look at the little bluenette, as she continued speaking, hesitance in her voice. She lifted her eyes to meet each of theirs in turn. "You've said it yourself, Rei, he's started to take notice. I have to disagree with you on one point, however. I wouldn't exactly call it 'sudden.'

"Whether you'd like to admit it or not, Mamoru has been there for Usagi lately when she needed someone."

"She has us for that!" Rei protested.

"It can't always be us, Rei," Minako put in defeatedly. "Usagi needs someone more than just us. She needs someone who has her interests at heart. She always has." This was said with a pointed look in Rei's direction.

Makoto bristled at that. "Are you saying that we don't?"

"No. I'm just saying that as senshi, we tend to look at the bigger picture. It's not so much what Usagi needs as it is what the world needs."

"Minako," Rei said ominously, you know what could happen. We've already seen it."

"But there's part of the problem. It's what could happen. Not necessarily what will happen. Neither of us is perfect. We could still have made a mistake. Is it really fair for us to prevent them from being apart?"

"If it's meant to happen, it will," Rei said firmly. "Nothing we do will change that."

"So what's the point?" Ami interrupted gently. "If you're trying to prevent something that's meant to happen, you're barely a blip on the cosmic radar."

"So we just… give up?"

"I don't really think we can classify it as giving up," Minako said thoughtfully. "More standing aside, really. We can step in if there's more of an immediate problem, but right now—"

"Speaking of immediate problems, what exactly are we telling Mamoru?" Makoto, sensing that something of a consensus had been reached, prodded them back on course.

Ami brought a thoughtful finger to rest at her chin. "Well, you know… Mamoru is fairly logical. Do you suppose that if we explain that something is going on, and that we'll tell him when we can be sure of the consequences of our actions… do you think he'll just… let it go?"

"It depends which Mamoru we're dealing with today," Rei grumbled. "If he's… just Mamoru then I think it's fairly safe to say he'll accept that. But if he's… I think we've all noticed that lately when it comes to Usagi, he's been a tad—"

"—Unbalanced," Minako put in helpfully.

"—Irrational."

"—Stupid."

"—Overprotective," Rei decided.

There was a short beat of silence before Makoto sighed and made a sweeping motion in the direction of the door. "We might as well get this over with."

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They filed inside, backs to the wall, presenting a united front to Mamoru, who eyed them warily.

Minako stepped forward, opened her mouth to speak… and after a moment's hesitation, promptly closed it again.

"Well?" prodded Mamoru. Usagi attempted to move to a sitting position and Mamoru absently pushed her back down again. She frowned briefly at him before lashing out and catching him on the side of his head with her foot.

"Ow! Watch where you wield those gondolas, Odango," he reprimanded her, rubbing the back of his head while glaring.

She squawked indignantly. "Gondolas! You baka. I'll have you know that my feet are tiny. See?" She extended one foot under his nose for inspection.

"Mmm," he muttered noncommittally, darting glances at her shapely legs from beneath his fringe. He snapped from his perusal of her figure when she began once more to sit up. "Odango. You're still weak from the—Oomph!" --this as she caught him in the stomach with her "tiny feet."

"Watch who you're calling weak, buster." She turned to smile sweetly at Minako. "You were saying?"

"I—" She cast a glance toward Ami for assistance.

"Get on with it," Mamoru huffed impatiently. Without batting an eye, Usagi smacked him in the back of his head. He turned to stare at her in disbelief.

"Ahem," Ami coughed politely to get their attention. "Mamoru, we've decided that while your concern for Usagi is understandable, there's very little information that we can divulge.

"There are certain things that Usagi—that we all—" she indicated the other members of the group "are involved in. The activities are a tad dangerous,--" at this, Makoto snorted and had to be silenced by a sharp elbow to the ribs by Rei "but we've all been trained. We know what we're doing. And, while we'd like to tell you everything, it's for your own safety that we withhold these secrets."

The senshi stared at Mamoru as he processed this information. "Let me get this perfectly clear," he said slowly. "The five of you" he pointed to each of them in turn "five fourteen and fifteen year-old females are involved in something so dangerous, that I, a seventeen year-old male, can't know about it?" He raised one sardonic eyebrow.

A pregnant pause filled the room before Usagi spoke, frowning. "You know, I'm not so sure I like this sexist side to you, Baka-san," she said flatly.

"What? I wasn't - but I was. But that's not the point here! The point is that you five are hiding something that is potentially dangerous, and have as good as told me that no adults have been made aware of the situation.

"How do you know that they can't handle things as well - if not

better than you can?"

"Because we're different!" Rei exploded.

"How?" Mamoru retorted.

"Did you even hear what we just told you?" Minako demanded. "We're trained, you dunce."

"But—"

"I told you he wouldn't understand," Rei said furiously to the rest.

Infuriated, Mamoru rounded on Usagi, who had been conspicuously silent so far. "Usagi-chan?"

I can't, Usagi wanted to say, but when she opened her mouth, the taste of copper flooded in.

Blue eyes, glazed over and listless. The metallic scent of blood hanging in the air, its bitter tang stinging her tongue—She gagged. "Usagi?" –The clatter of steel as it fell to the ground. The muffled sound of his body as he collapsed-- "Usagi, snap out of it!"--Short, gasping breaths. Blood-stained hands. Ohgodsohgodsohgods. Pain.—

"Usagi!"

She came out of it with a gasp as if she'd just resurfaced from the water. Her eyes were wide with terror as she stared into Mamoru's frantic ones.

He moved his hands to the sides of her face to steady her, and to make her keep eye contact, damn it all. "What happened?"

She panted, gulping in lungfuls of air desperately. She choked on the oxygen. Oh gods, she could still taste the blood. With a cry, she tore herself from Mamoru's lax grip and half-ran, half-stumbled out the door amidst cries of denial from the senshi and Mamoru as they moved to stop her. Mamoru dashed to the door that led to the outdoors and caught himself on the doorframe as he looked for her, listened for her. It was still outside, save for the gentle rustle of the leaves in the trees.

Usagi was gone.

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Review!

I'll try not to make it such a long wait for the next chapter, minna

-Natsudori Lina

natsudorilina . livejournal . com