AN: Sorry for the lack of updates, finding it hard to get from where we are in the story to the ending that I've got planned out.

Thanks to everyone for their reviews, it really is nice to read what people are saying and I am taking some ideas and opinions into account when writing these chapters.

He was concerned that she was vulnerable in such a state and so as soon as he got somewhere where he could change back into his normal clothes he ran back to the alley to 'accidentally' come upon her.

She looked worse than when he left her; maybe she had been hiding it from him. Now she was lying on the floor breathing in deep.

"Odango?" He moved closer and she looked up at him.

On his face could only be described as a look of horror. What is with all the men in my life turning up within minutes of each other?

"Mamoru-san, I was attacked by one of those monsters that are appearing all over the city. I was lucky though; Tuxedo-Kamen turned up and saved me."

He knelt down next to her. "Are you hurt?" He gently took her chin to get a better look at her.

"It took some of my energy. I feel weak." She was honest with him; it wasn't like she could think up anything different with him staring at her like that.

Did she like Mamoru that way? Yes he was good looking, yes he wasn't a jerk so much anymore, yes they were friends now, but he was still Mamoru.

Okay, so she was attracted to him, and she liked hanging round with him, but did she want more than just friendship?

"You should go home." He knew he liked her, he knew he'd liked her for a while, but she had still been a child until recently. When she turned 16 it was as if she had matured all at once and the girl that he had had a soft spot for had transformed into this stunning blonde who he couldn't keep away from.

"Will you help me get up?" He nodded and put one arm around her waist and one of her arms around his shoulder and stood up. She was pretty much leaning her whole body weight against him.

"Now I understand why people are always going to the hospital after being attacked by these monster things." She felt safe around him, like she did around Tuxedo-Kamen when she was Sailor Moon. Sometimes she still wished she didn't lead a double life or she could tell him this.

They started walking towards her house; they weren't far away as she hadn't actually got that far before the monster appeared. Once they got to hers he stopped and she looked at him.

"My parents are out today at a funeral and my brother is at school, so you don't need to be worried." She grinned.

"A funeral?"

"Yeah, one of my aunts friends who they were close to passed away last week. They left this morning to travel up to my aunts. They're staying over night and are coming back tomorrow evening sometime. The funeral's not actually until tomorrow but they wanted to spend some time with Aunt Iiuro." She trailed off realising she was babbling.

"Alright Odango, let's get you into bed then."

"You'd like that alright!" She was joking but quickly realised he probably had been imagining her in bed.

"Baka!" She slapped his arm when he didn't refute her claims.

"You were the one who just invited me in knowing your parents weren't back until tomorrow. Anyway, I'm a hot blooded male, what did you expect?"

Usagi didn't know what she was expecting but she knew he was teasing her so she contented herself with saying nothing but heaving a great sigh.

He helped her to her door and she fished her keys out of her bag. Once they were inside she explained where her bedroom was and before she could suggest how they were going to get up the stairs he picked her up and carried her upstairs.

He didn't put her down when they got up, he just asked which door was hers and then deposited her on her bed.

"Erm thanks?" She grinned.

"Not a problem Odango. So this is your room then?" He asked looking around.

"Yes, this is my room." She wondered if he thought it was childish. Pink wallpaper with bunnies on and a bedspread with her new Sailor V covers on it weren't particularly grown-up.

"I like it", he said, "It's very you." And he meant it; it felt like a very happy room. It was almost the complete opposite of his room, of his entire flat really, it was so colourful and yes a little childish but that was her personality to an extent.

He looked down at her and she had closed her eyes already.

"I'm not sleeping; I'm just resting my eyes." She murmured, knowing he was looking at her.

He grinned and suddenly had an irresistible urge to kiss her. He didn't know where it came from or why now. Maybe it was because he felt so comfortable around her, maybe it was because they were in her room, or maybe it was just because she looked simply gorgeous lying there, but he had to kiss her. Right here. Right now.

He bent down and pressed his lips to hers before he would have time to talk himself out of it.

As soon as they connected he felt a massive surge of energy pass through him to her and a vision of a woman suddenly appeared in front of him.

It was a woman shrouded in shadow who was unmistakeably beckoning him to her. He knew she needed his help, what for he didn't know, but he felt a very strong connection to her.

He jumped up away from the bed and saw Usagi staring at him.

"Sorry Usagi, I've got to go." He ran down the stairs and left before she could say anything.

He went over and over the vision as he made his way home as fast as he could. He was trying to make sense of it. This was a princess, he was sure of it. But the princess of where and how did he know? It sounded like some weird fairytale.

As soon as he got home he made himself a strong cup of coffee. This had to have been one of the strangest mornings of his life. First that monster attack on Usagi, and then he had kissed her, something he was definitely not prone to doing, and then the vision.

He really wished he had someone to talk to about this. Anyone would think he was mad though. Motoki was the only real friend he had to talk to, well except Usagi but he didn't even know if he could face her now. He needed someone who wouldn't judge him, someone who would actually take him seriously.

Then it came to him – Sailor Moon! Why didn't he think of her first? Okay so she might be busy right now, she obviously had to have a life, but he decided he would see if they could meet tonight. It wouldn't be a bad idea to do some training anyway.

Usagi was confused. One minute she had been lying on her bed with her eyes closed to try and get some rest, the next minute Mamoru was kissing her and then the next she was sitting up looking at an empty doorway.

She didn't feel tired anymore, as soon as he had kissed her she felt a surge of energy pass through him into her and it restored her back to her normal self. Maybe this was a Sailor Moon thing, maybe her alter ego had just taken the energy from him and this was why he had looked at her strangely and then ran off. Well it would make sense; she would probably try and get away if someone she had been kissing had been trying to steal her energy. Trust her Senshi powers to try and mess up her love life.

She hadn't expected the kiss though. Not that it wasn't nice, she smiled to herself.

Looking at her watch she realised if she hurried she probably wouldn't be that late to school, but she just couldn't be bothered. What would Ami-chan say?

Shaking her head as if to rid herself of thoughts of her former friends (she really didn't want to face thinking about the letter from Rei) she got her phone out and texted Mina:

'Hey, I know we're meeting tonight but I've had an awful morning and wondered if you were free for lunch instead? x'

She got a reply almost instantly:

'Just waiting for something like this to brighten my day up, I'm free all afternoon, meet in say half an hour at the fountain in the park?'

'Yep, see you there!' Usagi texted back.

Half an hour later and she was on her way, she'd grabbed a quick shower before she left because her hair was all messed up from this morning. She wasn't too worried about being late; she had a feeling Mina wasn't going to be on time either. She got there about ten minutes late and saw Mina sauntering up at the same time as well. Usagi was really happy to see her, she'd missed having someone to talk to, and she'd missed having her friends. She still wasn't used to being alone all the time and despite telling herself that they were the ones who had pushed her away; she was the one suffering on her own.

"Mina!" She shouted over to her.

"Usagi-chan" Mina said with a smile, "I was so glad you said let's meet now. I thought this was going to be the most boring afternoon in existence!"

Usagi chuckled at Minas over-exaggeration. "I've got so much to talk to you about."

They sat down next to the fountain and Usagi relayed everything that had happened this morning.

"And then he kissed you?!" Mina stood up and threw her hands in the air. "He kissed you!"

Usagi yanked Mina back down: "Yeah, then he ran away."

"He ran away?" Mina looked blank.

"Yes, but I don't know why." This wasn't strictly a lie; she wasn't a hundred percent sure why he had ran.

"But still, he kissed you, and he's so cute! Usagi-chan you need to go find him and tell him how you feel!"

"Minako-chan I can't do that." Usagi had gone bright red. "Anyway, I need you to read this letter I got this morning." She gave Mina Rei's letter in the hope of distracting her from the Mamoru situation.

Mina read the letter and looked up at Usagi. "Usagi-chan how does this make you feel?"

"I feel confused and upset. Have I made a huge mistake? Do you think I should go talk to her?"

"I don't know. It sounds like she's still holding out hope that you can get over your differences and become friends again. She obviously cares really strongly about you."

They talked for a while about what she should do, but Usagi couldn't come to any concrete conclusions. It all still felt too raw.

Mina kept trying to persuade her to go and see Mamoru, but that was the last thing Usagi wanted to do at the moment. They decided to postpone going to dinner that night because Mina had things to do that should have happened this morning but didn't for one reason or another and said they would txt each other when they were next free.

Usagi walked slowly back home wondering what she was going to do for the rest of the day. She had the house to herself because her parents were off at the funeral and Shingo wouldn't finish school for another couple of hours and then would no doubt be staying over at a friend of his. Usually at times like this she would have the girls over for a sleepover but Mina was too busy to organise things like that.

She decided that she would do the extra work that Ms Haruna had set her for being late the other day.

Bang on quarter past 3 Shingo barged through the front door and yelled for her.

"Usagiiii where are you?"

"Upstairs!"

He came to her room and stood in the doorway. "Baka Usagi, you're lucky I covered for you today and said you were ill."

"Thanks Shingo, I guess they gave you work for me?"

"Yep." He threw over a file.

"Oh, she's given me my Macbeth essay back." Usagi was pleasantly surprised, she'd received top marks. Wow, studying is paying off, she thought.

That night Shingo didn't go to his friends, he stayed in with Usagi and they watched some films together and ate noodles that she cooked for the both of them. It was possible, she mused to herself, that Shingo realised she was lonely and was staying with her to be nice. Either way she appreciated his company.

He headed up to bed at around eleven and she was going to go to bed after she'd finished washing their dinner plates up when she felt Tuxedo-Kamens transformation. She could tell he wanted to meet her. She sighed, he really did pick his moments, after the stress of this morning she was looking forward to going to bed.

She left the plates in the sink and slipped quietly out the front door, once she was far enough away from the house she transformed and went to meet Tuxedo-Kamen at the same place they trained last time.

He was already waiting for her when she got there. As per usual she felt a bit self-conscious when she saw him. How is it possible to like two guys so much at the same time?!

He smiled at her as she approached and said: "Thanks for coming to meet me; I wasn't sure if you would be able to sense that I wanted to see you."

"Yes, it seemed to work better than I thought it would. Why did you want to meet anyway?" She replied.

"Well", he hesitated, "I, erm, wanted to ask your opinion on something. It sounds really stupid but I thought you would be less likely to laugh at me and might be able to offer some advice."

Usagi was a little taken aback, Tuxedo-Kamen asking for her advice? This showed how much their relationship had changed.

"Of course, what is it?" She replied.

He could tell she hadn't been expecting him to ask for her advice. Maybe she didn't think he thought much of her opinions, but truth be told he thought a lot of what she had to say.

"This morning I had a vision. It was so strong it was so intense. It was only for a short moment, but it was the figure of a woman. She was in darkness, so I couldn't see her face or any defining features but she was calling me to her. She needed my help and I felt this really strong urge to go to her, and then it was over. I can't stop thinking about it; I really feel a strong connection to this woman." He looked at Sailor Moon helplessly.

"Have you ever had it before?"

"No, never."

"And since?"

"Nope."

"Could this woman be a projection of someone in your current life that needs your help?"

"I don't really have any female friends."

Usagi found this a bit odd but didn't want to make him feel uncomfortable. "Well maybe you need to wait and see if it happens again, or if you're able to recognise a link to someone in your life, past or present."

"You're probably right, but I just feel like she needs me now. Like I'm letting her down by not finding her and saving her."

"Do you think she's in trouble?"

"Yes. Why else would I have this vision of her calling me to her?"

"I don't know, this kind of thing was always Sailor Mars' strong point. She's so good at interpreting dreams and visions. She would always say you don't just have a vision for no reason. Whether it makes sense or not at the time, the meaning will always become clear in due time."

Tuxedo-Kamen nodded his head, he knew she was right but hearing that his only option was to wait and see if it meant something wasn't what he wanted to do. He didn't want to be frustrated at her though so didn't argue back. Instead he changed the subject. "Is there anything you want to work on tonight?"

Sailor Moon sensed that he obviously didn't want to talk about this any further so just went with it. "I liked that we covered everything last time. I definitely need to work on one to one combat, but I think maybe we need to work at being a team? I mean, I know we already are a team, but how can we compliment each other? Plus", and she really didn't want to bring this up, "after what happened last time at training, with all that energy and stuff", she was trying to be as vague as possible about their intense moment, "we are obviously stronger when we work together."

At this point she was beetroot red and he was having trouble looking at her.

"Okay, well let's start with the one to one and then see what we can come up with." He really didn't want to start off with them working side by side after what happened last time when she had hugged him.

They worked on her fighting skills and then he tested her balance again. After some awkward procrastination they talked about some team work and he helped her throw her tiara more powerfully again, but they didn't experience anything like they had the last time for which Tuxedo Kamen was grateful.

They said their goodbyes and Usagi went home feeling tired but happy and wondering if she was still going to the Botanical Gardens with Mamoru the next day.

Mamoru went home and dwelled on the vision he had had that morning. He had hoped talking to Sailor Moon about it would have helped, but she seemed as clueless about it as he was. He also wasn't sure if he should meet Usagi the following morning and go out with her for the day. It wasn't that he didn't want to see her; it was just that his feelings were all over the place.

Since when did I even have this many feelings? He asked himself that night as he stared into his mirror in the bathroom. I like Odango a lot, I have very strong emotions towards Sailor Moon and now there's this princess woman who I feel I need to help.

He sighed and went into the bedroom. He was getting a headache and knew he had a sleepless night ahead of him.

He should never have said he would work with Sailor Moon.

He should never have started to make friends with Usagi.

He should never have had that stupid vision.

He slept in fits and bursts that night and all his dreams were dominated by the woman in darkness.