Chapter 7
First Movement
Mortal Sonata
The bus ride home was a cold and awkward affair. An unspoken division already begun between two Realms. Serenity and her remaining three guardian's sat along one side of the bus, while Mamoru and his guards took up the other. The part of the bus they found seating in had a line of benches that faced one another. None of the Guards or Guardian's knew what to do or even if they should speak up about the coming storm between their king and queen. Ami sat on the edge of the little group, in her white ski jacket and jeans. Her face turned in contemplation towards the window on their side. Avoiding the silent tension, tapping a finger repeatedly upon the faded plastic bench, creating an annoying beat in everyones ears. Mako sat beside her in a dark brown heavy bomber with fake fur trim around the hood and navy track pants. Dividing her attention between glowering at Mamoru and passing Serenity concerned glances. Serenity was wedged between her and Mina. She kept her eyes averted to her bulky winter boots, unable to meet Mamoru's gaze. Her fingers playing nervously with the pearled wool along the corner hem of her black pea coat. Mamoru for his part had long since turned to face the window on his side, healing his bruises as a means to distract himself. His arm draped over the back of the bench, his dark leather bomber enshrouding his powerful chest. Unzipped and falling open to reveal his white dress shirt, now slightly damp around the collar and underarms from sudden stress sweat. The rough material of his jean's creating a scratching sound as his left leg kept hopping, exasperating the anxiousness around him. A brooding dark air clouding his features as he silently watched the night time traffic passing by.
Mina sat stiffly dressed in a short jean jacket, with a tight yellow hoody beneath. With a equally tight jean skirt and yellow leggings. She draped a protective arm over her little cousin's shoulder, sensing her unease and anxiety through their Senshi link. Mina could see the strain upon Mamoru's face as he dealt with the backlash of this tension between his beloved. Serenity was forcing back her tears, refusing to allow them to fall. Blinking and softly clearing her throat to stay in control.
Mamoru's frustration, his hurt feelings and sense of betrayal slamming into her mind like a mallet. She had sought to speak to him privately through their bond as they boarded the bus but he had shut her out. Blocking his thoughts from her, dealing with the pain it caused. Uncaring about the agony it put her through at being shunned so forcefully.
In truth Mamoru was so worked up, he couldn't put voice to all the turbulent feelings tumbling like rocks in a blender in his mind. He did not want to say anything cruel due to his anger, nor stupid or brash because of his hurt pride. So he remained silent, for now. Silence was his best defence.
Kunsite sat beside him, dressed rather smartly for going to a police station to bail out his king. In a full slate grey suit and black tie. His heavy black cotton trench coat draped over his knees. He had been job hunting all day and had managed to find himself a good job out in Shibuya. His exciting news to remain unsaid as his King's stress sealed his tongue. His king was hurting, confused and frustrated and he would need his guidance. At least he hoped Endymion would seek his counsel, he wasn't one to force his opinions. He was only an Elysian knight he had a duty to protect him, but his lowly station tied his hands. It would be unseemly for him to butt into his King's affairs with out approval. But this situation could easily destroy his kings relationship. He understood the devastation of lost love he did not want Endymion to go through that same pain.
Nephrite was on Mamoru other side, chewing on his lower lip or sucking on it. Creating a sharp moist noise that was irritating Mamoru. The man had his rusty red hair laying wild and unkept around his shoulder's. Dressed in a simple red plaid flannel button up shirt and worn baggy jeans, his hands stuffed into his side pockets. A bright red wool scarf wrapped around his neck as an after thought for the cold weather outside. Leaning back against the seat, staring up at the curved roof and side trim, plastered with advertisements. Scrutinizing each one as if they truly interested him.
Jed was a silent shadow at the end of the bus, sitting alone on the back bench subtly downing his whiskey in it's silver flask in record time. Huddling in his dark brown jacket, staring with narrowed eyes towards Mamoru. His mind whirling at the intense rage he witnessed inside his king tonight. He would have killed that man if the police hadn't gotten involved. The idea that Endymion could so easily take an innocent life chilled him to the core. His time worn memories of the noble, hotheaded, sharp tongued boy from Elysian now cast into a dark perspective. He wasn't the boy he knew? The time apart had changed him or perhaps this darkness of character was merely hidden deep inside of his King just now coming to into the light.
Mina guided her anguished cousin ahead of the group, down the dark sidewalk before the old stone privacy fence. Ami was at a loss, walking behind Serenity lost in thought. Mako was stubbornly giving Mamoru the stink eye over her shoulder, not knowing what was going on just that he was the cause. Mamoru face completely healed by the time they arrived home. Once again the blemishes were wiped clean leaving his chiseled features as flawless as ever. Though the handsome qualities were hidden in a mask of contained fury. As he was clenching and unclenching his jaw, enduring Makoto's silent threats not meeting her eyes. Glaring down at his black leather steel toed boots, his shoulder's straining, muscles twitching with a need to lash out and attack something. Kunsite walked behind him, a grim shadow paying close attention to every emotion displayed upon everyones faces. Surveying the aftermath of Seiya's rash gambit like an undertaker. Nephrite lagged behind with Jed speaking in hushed tones, wanting the full story as to what happened.
Mamoru stormed up the incline of the hill, his riding boots crunching the frozen pebbles like grinding bones beneath his feet. Serenity cringed and shied into Mina's side as his enraged aura fled past them. It was like a physical blow, she was avoiding. Seeking protection from him with Mina. Her heart was beating fast in her chest, a roar in her ears that was making her light headed. Moving as if in a fog, so overwhelmed by their raging link and her stress and worry. She had never seen him so angry and it was all directed towards her like a knife repeatedly stabbing into her. Her whole body ached with a burning ice feeling, her skin felt raw as if the slightest touch would send shards of intense pain through out her being.
He entered the house loudly, barely containing his anger now. The front divider slamming behind him as he lost control of himself for a moment. Kicking his boots off, to rebound off the wooden flooring by the doorway the impacts resounding down the hill. Retreating to the back hall and down to his bedroom like a overwhelmed child in need of a time out to gather his composure.
Several minutes later Kunsite entered the house along with Neph and Jed.
"What the hell happened?" Zoi emerged from the kitchen, still dressed in his fuzzy sky blue sleep pants and white t-shirt. His long dusty blonde hair tied back with an elastic band, face creased with worry. He had silently watched Endymion thunder down the hall in a fury. He knew his king had gotten into a fight and was in jail but that was the extent of his knowledge.
Kunsite sent Zoi a cold dispassionate look, heading down the hall to stand guard before Endymion's divider. Leaning against the doorframe with his arms crossed over his chest.
Neph and Jed settled themselves down under the heavy blankets of the kotatsu. Jed had hung up his jacket, rubbing the chill off his bare arms since he was only dressed in a thin dark long sleeve mock neck shirt. Neph was folding his scarf absently on the table top his face a stone mask. Zoi huffed and sat down at the table across from them, staring at his comrades intently until Jed groaned and went back into the sordid story he had just finished for Neph.
Mako had forced a trembling Serenity to sit on the stiff white pillow of the wicker bench out on the veranda. Holding her close and rubbing her shoulder's soothingly. While Ami leaned against the back railing, staring out over the frozen tundra of their front yard. Mina was licking her lips, casting rueful looks down the side of the house towards the thick screens of the back bedroom Mamoru was now holed up in.
"I need to face him...explain everything." Serenity sighed, attempting to rise to her feet. Having steeled her courage she was ready to confront him. As Mako restrained her gently, pushing her back down when her butt attempted leave the cushion.
"Let him simmer down a bit. Explain to us what's happened." Mako offered, having no back story as to what had made Mamoru so furious.
Serenity moaned, then plunged into the last few months explaining everything to them from Seiya's forcefully moving in, to her job for Wisman and the new Senshi, to the mission she was on now to stop the Heart snatcher's. Mina paled, then exploded.
"Serenity! Are you insane! You are not even trained as a Senshi yet. Your taking on a Dark Moon Royal family all on your own!" She was livid, her breath coming out in ragged pants.
"Uranus and Neptune have my back, every time I go into that mansion. Uranus has also been training me." Serenity retaliated, irritated that Mina thought so little of her common sense.
"You didn't even tell us when we got back." Mina groaned.
"Things were busy...and I guess I just never thought about it. Cleaning over there and investigating has just become routine for me. I guess. " She offered, a flimsy excuse she knew.
"Rei knows better!" Mina snarled, turning from her to cast a bitter survey of the dark lawn. As if searching for the absent girl. She wasn't one of Serenity Guardian's anymore but still she should still have some sense of responsibility of taking care of her little sister at least.
"She should have gone in there with you, had your back...what the hell has she been doing for the last few months." Mina growled under her breath so very disappointed in her.
"She tried but she couldn't get in. Unlike you she has faith in me, that I can take care of myself now." Serenity shot back, bitter and irritated at her smothering cousin.
While Mako just stared at her with awe. Ami was impassive hiding her true emotions, a calculating look in her eyes.
"The whole White Moon army was decimated taking on the Dark Moon's Castle. And the Royal family has been hiding out in the Mortal Realms all this time. The White Moon is totally defenceless now." Ami intoned.
Serenity never knew the extent of the war, just that the Dark Realms had not be saved and been swallowed by Tartarus just like Elysian.
"Which is why we need to get home." Mina commented, sending Serenity a dark meaningful look.
"I can't...Wisman is planning something with those Heart snatchers. He's breeding them to create some kind of unbeatable army." Serenity advised, sitting on her hands since the ice in the air outside was staring to freeze them.
"HeartSnatchers...those are the demon's who guarded Ruin back at his temple?" Ami mused.
"He was hiding out in the Dark Moon's castle. They were protecting him." Mako added.
"Which means this Wisman's is in bed with the Keeper." Mina sighed, brushing some stray strands of honey blonde hair behind her now red and frozen ear. The tip of her nose as well was becoming a bit rosy, her fair complexion unable to hide the cold as well as her dark haired companions.
"Do you think this is part of a grander plan?" Mako observed, as she pulled Serenity into her side, feeling how cold she was becoming. The small woman handled the cold the worst of them all, coming down from a high level of stress. She was now shivering against Mako, her whole body quaking with a bone weary chill. With an arm draped tightly around her slender shoulders, Mako offered her more of her own body heat. Serenity sighed, cuddling into her tallest Guardian accepting her warmth gratefully. It was a fragile comfort though, that was unable to penetrate any deeper then her skin. Her inner pain at hurting Mamoru was sadly beyond Mako's ability to soothe.
"Ruin has a plan, he has been implementing it step by step for eon's." Ami stated, her words cool and full of foreboding.
"It's all in the Elder Scrolls." Rei's voice broke through the tense moment.
They all looked up to find the raven haired woman standing before the veranda. Dressed in tight black leather pants and a ruby red bomber jacket with fake snow white fur along the hood. She held a young scruffy looking young man by the back of the neck in a vice like grip. He was dressed in a pair of ripped jeans and a white t-shirt with a soft green plaid flannel shirt unbuttoned over top. With a silver stud earring in one ear and a pair of dog tags around his neck and several simple silver rings adorning his fingers. His mild mannered personality now over hauled to look like some bad ass street punk.
Yurichiro stood cowed before them. A flush of shame adorning his cheeks as he kept his soft brown eyes averted to the frost laying like a crisp white blanket upon the veranda's wood floor. His dark brunette hair was dusting low over his dull brown eyes obscuring his mournful face even more.
"Finally found my wayward Guard, living it up in some online cafe out in Moto Azabu. Seems he's found himself a little girlfriend he has shacked up with." Rei announced, cuffing him upside the head. Yurichiro took the abuse silently, acting chastised and sorry. When inside he was smug, his Mistress has fallen for Beryl's little alibi very easily. Able to weave himself back into their midst as a spy with very little suspicion. Beryl already knew Rei very well thanks to all the information Yurichiro had offered her over the last month. She knew the woman's strengths and weaknesses, very well. She was strong willed, almost stubborn but highly reserved. Hot headed and easy to enrage. With a very high opinion of herself and a very low opinion of all men. Knowing she had very little regard for men, assuming the worst from them at all times. She had placed Yurichiro in that same unsavoury reputation as being nothing but a hormone driven dog. It was perfection. Rei found him in a compromised position in the back booth of the cafe, taking advantage of some nameless high school student. With her shirt half off and his hand up her skirt. Rei had pulled him off and dragged him out back and verbally beaten him down for it. Completely appalled he would take advantage of a young woman in public like that, with no regard for her comfort or respect for her maiden reputation. She might have been completely embarrassed to be publicly mauled like that. He risked her being ridiculed or stamped as a slut by her peers.
He had attempted to defend himself that she was his girlfriend and that it was alright. When in reality Beryl had cast a spell on the girl only a few minutes prior to lower her inhibitions, so Yurichiro with his limited seduction skills could feel her up in full view of Rei. Then after her verbal lashing, Rei felt he knew his place again she had dragged his sorry carcass back to the house.
"You don't need me anyway...this place is way to crowded too..." He mumbled bitterly receiving another smack in the back of the head.
"Your not even a man! You shouldn't even be living with a woman yet." Rei tossed back acidicly. Sounding like some irate older sister.
Yurichiro kept his peace, the back of his head was starting to really hurt, she had been striking him repeatedly in that same spot the whole way here. Her strength and accuracy to hit the exact same angle and target the base of his skull was uncanny. But not implausible since she was the Guardian of Mars. The elemental gods didn't choose their Champions lightly, she had always had potential to be a great warrior and Aries had seen that.
"I am not going into that right now." Mina grinded her fingertips into her temples. "I am quite disappointed in you Rei!" She shot back at the Soul Hunter.
"What?" Rei huffed back, allowing Yurichiro to slump away into the house like a beaten dog.
"You disappeared...again!" Mina exclaimed. "Leaving us all in the dark as to what was going on around here."
Rei's face fell into a dark scowl, her hands going to her hips staring up her one time leader with distain.
"Queen Serenity was hunting down the Dark Moon Family and they were here the whole time!" Mina continued.
"How was I suppose to know that, it wasn't like you told me anything about the war." Rei shot back.
Mina rolled her eyes, "We have been back for about a week, you disappeared the next day. You barely hang around long enough to say hi, let alone have a simple conversation. That's on your shoulder's."
Rei glared silently up at her, her dark lavender eyes turning a deep black with the amount of fury contained in her stare.
"Well now it's to late, everything's a mess now. I might have been able to cushion this terrible situation if I had known about it. " Mina grumbled.
"What?" Rei sighed, finally mounting the veranda to stand toe to toe with Mina.
"Serenity's got some boy toy on the side and Mamoru is pissed." Mina stated with impatience.
"I do not!" Serenity jumped to her feet indignantly, glaring up at her cousin in contempt. "I am not some slut like you!" She lashed out then slapped her hands over her mouth in shame. Those words had been so hurtful, her anger so misdirected she was instantly humbled.
"Gomen..." She muttered, sitting back down her anger deflating. Mako enveloped her right away as tears began to fall down her face.
"How easily eggs and oaths are broken..." Mina shot back at Rei, pushing the dark haired woman aside to stomp off down the frozen yard. So very frustrated with herself and the Fire warrior for not being able to protect Serenity from this heartache.
"Seiya..." Rei turned to confront Serenity seriously.
"He and Mamoru got into a fight tonight. He told him everything about moving in and taking care of me. Now Mamoru thinks I cheated on him." Serenity muttered, hiccuping as loud sobs finally broke through her barrier's. Turning into Mako's embrace, burying her face into her chest as great sobs rocked through her small body.
"I'm not so sure you didn't." Rei commented to herself. From what she had seen they had been close, to close for her liking.
"Either way, unless our royal lover's can mend things. This place will be strained and somewhat hostile. Not a comfortable environment for anyone." Ami advised.
"Then I'll apologize...I'll make things right." Serenity pulled away from Mako.
"Are you in the wrong?" Ami arched an eyebrow. Forcing the young woman to truly think about her level of fault in this tense situation.
Serenity blinked uncertainly then slowly sat back down, her thoughts falling inward wondering how she was going to handle this. She didn't feel like she had cheated on him, or betrayed him in anyway. Then why did she feel so horrible, so guilty...
"You shouldn't apologize just to placate him. Mamoru isn't so obtuse, he would see right through you." Rei observed, glancing over to the shadowed screens of his bedroom. Catching sight of his silhouette behind the heavy rice paper. Wondering if the man was listening in on their conversations out here.
"I am sorry for hurting him, even if it wasn't intentional." Serenity sniffed, meekly wiping away some tears her cries under control again.
"Everything is intentional to some degree." Ami sighed, "He left you all alone, you were hurt, mad perhaps embittered that he cast you aside to go on some Hero's errand."
"I am not that shallow...I was just really, really worried about him. About all of you." Serenity confessed, yet Ami's words had her thinking. Deep down perhaps she felt those things, but her growing close to Seiya wasn't to hurt Mamoru. Seiya had come to her rescue, asked nothing from her but her companionship. He had been there for her when she needed a friend the most. His friendship was true and unconditional...there was no hidden agendas?
"Could you give him up?" Mako asked, slipping her hand into her's and giving it a comforting squeeze.
Serenity shot her startled gaze around to Makoto. All of her friends were older, Makoto was the closest to a true adult out of all of them. She had loved and lost and loved again. While Mina being the oldest had yet to fall in love. She was a user, seeing men only a means for pleasure and nothing more. Rei hated all men and never had anything seriously romantic in her life. Her fling on Mars with the Rebel leader was intense but it wasn't love. From the heated, passionate stories she had heard. Rei had merely had a very exciting affair but there was no love involved. Ami was too preoccupied with her studies to pursue romance, she wasn't really interested in it either.
"I...I really don't know?" Serenity breathed, her chest feeling heavy. A weight of misery had settled there and was slowly crushing all the air from her lungs.
Mako smiled weakly, patting her hand soothingly. "I think it's time you face him. You two have a-lot to work out."
Serenity sat frozen for a brief moment, listening the the rapid beat of her heart. Understanding that she had to move, that it was time to start to mend things with him. Yet her body would not move, her mind was lost in a thick haze of dread. Swallowing and taking several deep breaths she found her courage once more and stood up. Like a bleak spirit she walked away, entering the house silently. Hanging up her coat, leaving her in a soft white v-neck cardigan that hugged her curves and just barely covered her stomach. The hem brushing the waistline of her hipster jeans.
Walking down the hall, every step feeling like a lead weight growing heavier upon her heart. Enduring the confused, somewhat accusing stares of Endymion's guards as she past the kitchen. Feeling humiliated by their stares, renewing the feelings of shameful betrayal that Mamoru had cast upon her earlier.
Kunsite moved aside as she approached, not meeting her eyes as he passed her down the hall. Serenity avoided his gaze as well, to caught up in her worries over the coming strained conversation.
Standing before the door to their bedroom, her mind spiralling down many starts to this confrontation. All ending quite wistfully in a reconciliation of passion and forgiveness. She felt the waves of his anger mixing with her anxiety. It twisted up inside her like oil and water, clashing but never finding harmony.
With a heavy sigh she resigned herself to face him. Honestly she knew from the very moment Seiya moved in that things would come to this. That she would have to atone for what she allowed to happen. She had been weak, lonely and desperate and had allowed Seiya to fill in for Mamoru during his absence. With that tortured understanding in mind she opened the divider, slipping quietly into the room.
The lamps were off, giving the bedroom a gloomy foreboding quality that had her glued to the doorway. Then a shard of moonlight spilled into the far corner of the room. As Mamoru pulled the outer screen aside and was attempting to push her cot out of the house. He was dressed only in his jeans,
resembling some mythical titan. The tight muscles of his back and shoulder's rippling as he fought with the heavy wooden cot. Shoving and swearing under his breath as he tossed the piece of bulky furniture out of the house. The soft pale light of the moon and deep shadows from inside the room, that angled over his face and bare chest creating a very powerful and frightening image.
"Mamo...Mamoru?" She questioned softly, though inside she was screaming at his assault upon her things. She had worked hard to pay for that bed, as she had for all the new things within the house.
With a satisfied sigh he dusted off his hands and slowly closed the divider, sealing the room back into total darkness.
Usagi bit down on a corner of her lower lip, swallowing and fighting back the urge to whine. She was scared of him, in that moment in the black void of the bedroom. With the rage boiling under the surface between them. She was down right frightened. She had never seen this side of him, his temper was always held in check, restrained by his near obsessive control over his emotions. He had alluded to being prone to great anger, even on the Celestial Moon, the angel, Micah had seen a burning temper inside of him.
She had witnessed his fighting rage before when protecting her, his complete lack of emotion towards killing when he left Diamonde to burn to death in his car. Never had that cold burning rage been directed towards her.
"I never want to see anything that belongs to him in this house." Mamoru stated, his voice stern and controlled.
Usagi was silent, blinking back scared tears.
"There is nothing left in this house that was his..." She responded back meekly.
"Really, then why is his sister's bed now decorating the front lawn?" He stated in a low threatening tone.
(That bed was never his...it was his sister's. Then it became mine, when I bought it with my own money) Usagi cast into his mind, unable to hold her true thoughts back. Needing to defend herself, her actions and decisions were not meant to hurt him. She managed to become stronger more self sufficient in his absence and under Seiya's encouragement. The act of tossing out one of her belongings was cruel and it hurt her pride. But knowing he was simmering and would soon explode. She didn't want the humiliation of him yelling at her spreading through out the house as well. Perhaps alerting the neighbours to this fight. So she chose to change the battlefield and communicate wordlessly.
(It was CHAIRITY!) He bellowed through their link. (He is throwing my lack of wealth in my face! Trying to buy you off with things I could never afford! It was a form of disrespect towards me.) His words at first booming in her mind turned into a low snarl of pure hatred.
Usagi blinked rapidly, her ears ringing from the inside by the volume of his thoughts. Never seeing it that way, the clarity of the subtle insult Seiya had done to him hitting her like slap across the face.
She had to admit it was slightly easier facing him, when she could not see the pain and anger that was twisting his features. But the turbulent emotions so thick in the room was making her dizzy, giving her a throbbing headache. She never truly saw the bed that way, at least not after she had paid for it herself. Seiya had come to her rescue, had paid the rent she could not afford. Then things became shared, she was never dependant on him for anything. Not like she was with Mamoru, only with him did she want to feel protected, cared for and loved. But tonight all she felt was resentment, bitterness and acidic rage. It was eating him up inside and she couldn't find the words to soothe him.
This anger was coming from more then one source...it was a long seeded emotion that had been festering inside of him since he was a young boy. This situation was allowing it to spill forth, find an outlet for release.
(Perhaps in the beginning.) She admitted, aiming to explain how their relationship had changed to one of mutual support. But he cut off her words.
(Did you kiss him again. Usako) He shot back, his tone clipped. Her endearment sounding harsh like a swear word.
Usagi was silent for a moment, wondering how to answer. They gone over that kiss before, the memory had been hazy at best. Her story to him a mudded half truth. He had forgiven her but only because she had taken no responsibility in that kiss. But in time it had become more clear and again she had kept it to herself. He was so volatile right now, like a storm churning. Any small thing could set him off. She wondered if he ever did lose his control if she could withstand the true extent of his fury.
(I understand now how Lunarian's lie...how they get around this bond that allows every thought, every emotion to be shared.) He laughed bitterly. (Silence.) he finished bitterly.
Usagi's mouth fell open in stunned surprise, not realizing he had seen her lack of forthrightness over Seiya as lying. She was just being a coward, selfish even, not wanting to rock the boat perhaps. Wanting to enjoy the good times and not ruin them with unwanted confessions.
"I'm sor...sorry..." She broke down, the apology tumbling out between gasping sobs. Pressing her hands into her face as her cries grew louder, more full of panic and heart felt pain. As Mamoru refused to comfort her, not moving an inch closer to her. He stood on the other side of the room, merely watching her cry herself hoarse. A look of disbelief crossing his face before twisting into revulsion.
"I can't believe you actually kissed him, again." He brushed his hands through his hair, holding it back tight against his head. "I thought we had meant something... I thought." He couldn't finish his sentence to completely flabbergasted that she had actually done it.
(You mean everything to me!) She wailed in his mind. (It was only the once...)
(But you admit it was on purpose now.) He growled back once again dealing her dishonesty.
"I was scared...and couldn't let the lord of Shadow's have my virginity. So I tried to seduce Seiya...I was drunk and so very frightened. Then you called my name and it cleared my head enough to run away..to run into your arms." She confessed, through broken sobs.
Mamoru began to laugh, loud and with out pretence. An honest laugh that he indulged in rarely. He found the whole thing so amusing, that she would whore herself just to save the realms. It was totally her, selfless and completely innocent towards anything beyond the moments themselves.
Usagi was confused and bewildered not expecting that kind of oddly sarcastic reaction. She had fallen to her knees in the dark, hugging herself and rocking softly to ease some of the tension coursing through their link. Her whole body felt like it was on fire, over taxed from to many intense feelings she just wanted to curl up and avoid any further conversations with him. This was all just to much to handle.
"Wow...and I thought you had kissed him while I was away. But you gave him that courtesy long before hand. " Mamoru was beyond rage at this point. "Perhaps, now you'll let him fuck you too? Now that I know how willing you are to give that bastard rights to your body." His words were cruel, a calculated strike to hurt her.
"Never.." She hissed back. "It was a desperate act, a impetuous mistake. You have to believe me, Mamoru I never meant to hurt you. " She attempted to defend.
(Don't wail and spout excuses to try and soothe me! Action's always speak louder then shallow words. If I meant so much to you, if your love for me was so absolute. Then fucking him to save the realms would have never entered your mind.) He growled back. (When it comes to you...I would choose you over the Realms. As long as you were safe and
sound and in my arms, the realms could be swallowed by the Abyss and I would not care!) He confessed, his heart feeling completely shredded.
Listening with out remorse as she took one shuttering breath after another unable to respond.
"While I was off fighting true demons' in your mother's war, killing thousands of Ruin's soldiers. Bathing myself in the blood of countless battles, watching as your mother's army was brutally cut down. Having to wade through the bodies of the fallen, attempting to save your mother. To save a whole realm of living creatures. Who did not deserve to be turned to stone. To have their soul's sucked out of them. To power the Tartarus Crystals that were consuming the whole place. I witnessed so many horrible things, endured the very abyss itself. " He took a deep breath, cleansing his voice and calming his emotions. The loss of his heaven, of his beautiful, perfect future with her and their daughter a silent torture on his soul. " You were here, happy and content in another man's arms." He thrust his guilt at her like sharp dagger's, each piece of his tirade stabbing into her heart again and again.
She gasped, taking a shuttering breath as silent tears flowed down her cheeks.
"I didn't leave because I wanted to hurt you...I left because I felt I needed to try and save that world. I had no chance to save my own Realm...Hell I was the one who dammed it!" He roared. "I failed...like I always do!" He spun on his heel and punched out at the outer divider. His fist ripping a hole through the flimsy screen easily. The ice and frozen wind from outside whistled into the room, stunning the hot skin of his chest offering little comfort. To a man breaking inside, his confidence in himself gone. He had so many doubts eating him up inside, and now to find out the one true thing in his life. Has found solace in the arms of another. It was the final blow and something had snapped inside of him.
"Mamo-chan..." She rushed to his side, slamming into his back, wrapping her arms around his waist and holding tight. It was a sudden action with out thought, she just needed to comfort him. He was shattering inside and she felt if she held him then perhaps she could keep all the pieces together.
Holding him, she could feel the thunder of his heartbeat against her fingertips. The rapid intake of breath as his chest rose and fell sharply upon her palms. The strain of the muscles along his back against her cheek, the heat of his skin like the searing of hot sand on a summers day.
(Please...stop...) She pleaded through their bond.
(Don't touch me.) He growled back in disgust, as if her affection was something dirty. (Not...not right now.) He pried her arms off him, his thoughts defeated. Ignoring the mewling strangled cry she made as he forced her to detach. (You let him in..A person you knew I despised. Into our house, into your heart.) Were his last words, cold and venomous. She felt her heart crack then shatter at his words. It sounded so final, making her wonder if their was anyway to repair the damage to their love.
(I will not share what is rightfully mine.) He whispered to himself, as he then proceeded silently out of their room leaving her heart broken and sobbing breathlessly on the floor.
Mako and Ami rushed down the hall as Mamoru veered out of their way into the kitchen. Mako paid him no glance, but Ami seared him with a look that froze him in his place. Her blue eyes had hardened, piercing him like the very ice she commanded. They held a vengeance and retribution for what he had done. It wouldn't come tonight, but in that look he knew to expect it soon. She had warned him months ago that if he hurt Serenity that pain would be his reward and she had meant it.
Mamoru paid her a curt nod acknowledging her threat. She darted off then with out a word to tend to her Sovereign.
He walked past his guards with out a word, heading into the living room to throw on his leather coat. Kunsite rose wordlessly, Neph offered him his scarf. The silver haired knight took it with a nod, then headed off after his king.
He plunged out into the cold wrapping the red woollen banner around his neck, catching sight of Endymion fading into the darkness at the bottom of the hill. He rushed off from the house to catch up, his dress shoes doing little to provide traction against the slippery frost covered ground.
Mars sat silently upon the roof, her cloak wrapped snug around her leather armour. Dark lavender eyes glaring down at Mamoru as he retreated away into the night. A spiritual fork at been created tonight...she just didn't know if this change in prophecy would lead them on the proper course for salvation or ruin? With two very powerful destinies intertwined so tightly, the strain upon the threads could easily be frayed and pulled apart. Mars couldn't help the shiver that crept up her spine, casting her eyes up at the full moon in the winter night sky. It shimmered like crystal behind the haze of frozen ice particles in the air. Ethereal but cold, their kingdom above was destroyed with no army and no ruler to take the reins. She wondered which planet would push for more power and take the abandoned kingdom for themselves. Serenity had no interest in returning home to claim her rightful throne. She wished to save this realm and leave her own to rot. She understood her little sister's bitterness towards the throne, but she had to admit her reluctance to rule was somewhat immature and irresponsible. Her loyalties should be with her own people, but she had always held a idealism to defend the weak and protect the helpless.
Even as a child, Mars had witnessed her many times protecting the street urchins who stole from the merchants in the Lunar market, during one of her many escapes. She never left the palace as the princess, always in disguise, never wanting to be treated with reverence or fear. She had wanted to be a part of the world beyond the palace walls. Dressed in plain dull coloured cloth dresses, as a commoner, her face hidden behind a wide pale grey hood. Being one of her Senshi in training, she could have hunted her down in her full White Moon squires uniform. But understanding her sister's intentions towards blending in, she had dressed as a commoner as well. Mars had tracked her down many times, getting beaten by older merchants defending their wares. As she would get in their way and allow the little thieves to escape. Many times she had been the one to pull her from the dirt and mud after receiving a backhand from an enraged Vendor. Serenity would merely shrug off her concern and disapproval at her defender of justice behaviour. She never looked beyond the moment, at the cost towards the kingdoms economy. Of allowing the thieves to get away. That the success only made them more bold next time. But this time the stakes were much higher then just a simple piece of fruit, this time she could be giving up her whole kingdom. Mars held her knees tight to her chest, resting a cheek against her cold leather armour listening to her sister's heart breaking in the still of the night.
Mamoru was a ghost, walking with his head cast down through the late night streets of Sendai Hill. The orange glow of passing street lamps bathing his defeated form briefly as he walked lost and alone in the night. Hands stuffed into the pockets of his heavy leather coat, his mind swallowed whole in the brooding oblivion of his failures. As a man, as a king, as a would be saviour. He was cursed...or at least he was a curse, a bane upon himself and anyone who chose to be around him. With more of his memories now intact, he could contemplate each one with a divine judgement, that always left him lacking. A forgotten son, who had murdered his father in cold blood. Had lured an innocence White Moon Princess to a sacrificial alter in the Mountain's of Elysian, for his true father...Ruin. Had destroyed his own kingdom and failed to save another. It seemed that every time he strove for a better future it was snatched away from him. Everything good and pure he touched, withered and slowly died. He truly was a Thorne, a strangling vine that slowly killed. His blood was tainted with the essence of Ruin, he understood the darkness that lurked inside of him. Twisting his emotions, his actions, making his every intention towards doing good a bitter farce. He was never meant to exist in the light, he was creature born of the Abyss and he had finally accept that.
"Endymion...you are a bastard!" Venus's voice rang like a scythe through the frozen air.
Mamoru cast his face up towards the frost encrusted lamp post beside him. Finding Venus standing tall upon the metal hood of the light, glaring down at him like an avenging angel. Dressed in her light yellow and orange leather and silk assassin's armour. Her cloak snapping behind her in the gusts of bitter wind.
"That is very true." He cast her a smirk, the arrogance in the remark palpable.
Venus snarled and leaped with a forward flip to land smoothly before him. Her eyes traveled from his filthy sneaker's, old jeans and worn leather jacket to his eyes and locked there. Staring at him with a burning rage beneath her light blue eyes. Branding him with silent distain and seething hatred for the pain he was causing her cousin. She had been eaves dropping on their painful conversation just beyond the outer screens of their bedroom. Not willing to allow her cousin to go through the burden of confronting Mamoru alone. If she at any time needed backup she wanted to be close, any man in a rage could become violent. Venus understood that very well from her early years with her father.
"How could you just rip out her heart like that and not even try to understand her side of things?" She crossed her arms over her chest, flicking her eyes over Mamoru's shoulder's as she caught sight of his wayward shadow. Kunsite had been hanging back following Mamoru down the empty streets. Acting very much as she did. As Endymion's head guard he would never be to far away incase he was needed, when his king was in the middle of a crisis.
"I don't have to justify myself to you." Mamoru sought to side step around her. Venus was quick, blocking his path, her furious eyes holding him like a vice. As she jabbed an elbow into the soft part of his neck under his chin and grabbed his shoulder, swinging him fiercely into the lamp post. He struck with a resounding clang, his shoulder blades stinging as the frozen metal bit into the leather of his jacket.
She was a small woman barely taller then Usagi, but her sudden speed and strength filled Mamoru with mild alarm. She was a trained killer, this much proved how deadly she could become.
"You make me understand, or I will take her from you and you will never see her again." She seethed through clenched teeth.
Mamoru sized her up, his lips curling into a bitter somewhat jaded grin. Kunsite had closed the distance between the when Venus assaulted him. Now hovering just behind her, the dagger he had concealed in a shin sheath beneath his dress pants in his hand ready to defend his King if it came to that.
"I am not planning on killing him, Kunny." Venus tossed back his embarrassing endearment with a cocky half smile.
Wanting the guard to lighten up. Kunsite was far to serious for his own good.
"Kunny?" Mamoru commented with a smirk.
Making the older man growl in embarrassment.
"Yeah..." Venus smiled with veiled amusement. "Because he has the stamina and endurance to fuck me like a bunny!" She promoted proudly, watching as Mamoru's face turned to both shock and amusement. The stoic Kunsite sputtered, his face flaring in both anger and humiliation backing off a step. Not wanting Venus to divulge anymore humiliating information.
Venus chuckled her emotional tactic to get Kunsite off guard had worked, he was flustered and would be less of a threat if things got violent. Venus was sly in a fight, she knew more ways to attack a person then just with a weapon.
"Your love life has been all sunlight and roses until now. The true measure of a man is in how he handles the hard times. So far your falling short." She advised.
"I wouldn't set the bar to high." He commented dryly.
His self degradation startled Venus, the usually smug somewhat arrogant man she saw him as. Would never belittle himself so bluntly.
She released him and stepped back. He took several deep breaths the anger still writhing inside of him, making his hands shake but he refused to let on how upset he was.
"Look I am doing the best I can. I understand that our talk...was getting out of hand." He refused to call it an argument having promised never to fight with her again after the last one. "I left because I need to get my head on straight, I was losing control and I can't let that happen. I would end up doing or saying something I would really regret. " He admitted, rubbing the back of his neck. His whole body was tight like a cord, so filled with to many raging emotions he barely kept them all in check.
"You have very little understanding of who she is. Or you would have never left her in that tragic state, as you did." Venus offered snidely. "One might think by now you would know better."
Mamoru had taken a step forward intent on leaving her side to continue with his brooding.
"As in right now or all the times before?" He inquired sarcasticly.
She regarded him with a condescending tone as if speaking to a clueless child. Mirroring that very superiority he felt so strongly from Luna. "She is a runner."
Mamoru licked his bottom teeth with irritation, mulling over the simple statement.
"If you can't get yourself figured out quickly, she will run...as far away as she can. She doesn't handle hardships well." Venus leaped onto the high stone barrier wall that rimmed the hill he had been declining. "You could loose her, knowing that you were the weapon that drove her off." She called back with a grim certainty disappearing behind the wall and into the barren tree line. Heading back to the house her warnings given. Being a Venusian she could sense the ribbon's of fate, and theirs was drawn tight. Not yet unravelled but strained. His actions in the next few days would either stay or force her hand. Her duty was to protect her Queen in all things, even in the protection of her heart.
Sorry everyone. This is as far as ShayDoe wrote before her account went missing.
