Vacation Continues
The bungalow was nearly deserted once again. Venus, Jupiter, Mars, and Mercury had gone back to Tokyo, leaving the princess, king, and queen back on their vacation. Usako hadn't fallen asleep as of yet, and simply lay awake, thinking about what had happened so far on this trip.
Normal vacation, she thought to herself. Right! Face it; there was no such thing as a normal vacation when you are who they are.
She looked up at her husband's face and smiled. He reminded her of a small boy in many respects, but still, he had the authoritative persona, even in his sleep.
She started slightly as she heard some clanking in the kitchen. Someone was in the bungalow, and the last she checked, her daughter was asleep. Quietly, she got up, donned her robe, and grabbed her brooch – should she need it.
Usako snuck to her door and opened it. She saw her daughter's bedroom door open and listened a bit longer. Slowly, she made her way through the living room to the adjoining dining room, making sure to keep a secure hold on her brooch.
Then, she breathed easily.
"Usagi?" she whispered slightly, not wanting to startle the teenager too much.
However, try as she might, it didn't work. Usagi jumped, her socked feet slipping on the smooth floor of the kitchen, resulting in her falling – in a rather Tsukino-signature fashion – onto her backside.
"Mom," she exclaimed silently. "I didn't hear you…"
"What are you doing?" Usako had a hard time holding in her mirth as she helped her daughter stand.
Avoiding her mother's gaze, Usagi answered, "I was – uh – a bit hungry, so I came out here to see if there was something to eat." Usagi rubbed her derrière a bit. Man, that floor is hard!
"Why don't you sit at the table, and I'll fix you something?" Usako gently urged her child towards the dining room table.
Usagi looked at her mother warily. "Mom, you can't cook."
"Cook, no. Reheat, yes." Usako laughed as she pulled some of dinner's left-overs out of the refrigerator. "I am quite familiar with the reheating devices used in America. They were designed in Japan. You should know that."
Usagi smiled as she nodded. Two minutes, and the reheated stir-fry was in front of the pink-haired princess.
Usako sat down in front of her daughter while she ate, watching as she devoured the chicken, rice, and vegetables.
"Usa?" the elder moon monarch said softly. "Everything all right?"
Usagi looked up at her mother, and then looked away.
This caused Usako some concern. "Sweetheart, what is it? You can tell me…"
The princess looked into her mother's worried gaze. "Did you and Papa ever…"
Oh, God! What did we do? "Ever what, honey?" When Usagi didn't answer, Usako got up and moved to sit beside her daughter. Gently, she grabbed her daughter's hands and turned her so they were facing each other. "Usa, talk to me. Did Papa and I ever what?"
"Hate me…"
Despite the low whisper of her daughter's answer, the queen heard it clearly. "Hate you?" When have we ever said that?! Then, Serenity gave a knowing nod. "You mean before you passed out?"
Tears rolled down the princess's cheek as she nodded.
"No, Usagi, your father and I never hated you."
"I sensed it," Usagi answered her mother haltingly. She was trying desperately to keep her tears at bay.
"Sweetheart," Usako soothed, "your father and I were worried. We were hurt and angry and scared! You'd taken off to God-knows-where with what we thought was a maniac stalking you. And on top of that, we couldn't sense you. What if…" She had to stop a moment to get her emotions in check. "What if something had happened? Your dad and I wouldn't have been able to do anything to help you. That scares us, Usa. But never did we hate you. I don't know what you were sensing, but it certainly wasn't our hatred…"
"It was hatred, Mom," the princess continued to defend herself, "and no one else was around…" She turned as her mother sat up.
"Usa, think about this for a moment. If we had hated you, would we have fought to save your life from Wiseman's essence? Would we ever have attempted to revive you ourselves? No. Darling, if we hated you, we would've let you fall where you fainted, and left you there." Usako lifted her daughter's chin so she could look into her daughter's crimson eyes. "Be there no doubt in your heart, Chibiusa. Your father and I love you. We always have, and we always will. No matter how much you may one day hate us, our love for you will never change. Understand?"
Usagi gave a watery smile as she nodded. "But I still sense it…"
"From where, honey? Concentrate on the direction…"
Usagi looked defeated. "I've tried…"
"Then let me help you. Maybe I can sense where it's coming from." Usako held out her hands, waiting for her daughter to take them. It took a moment, but she did finally take the hands offered, allowing her mother to draw on her energy.
Usagi felt a rush through her body – a massive surge as her mother stretched her senses through their individual crystals.
Moments later, the queen sat straight, opened her eyes, and looked into her daughter's frightened ones. "Usa," she started, "it's coming from you."
"From me?" Usagi sat stunned.
"Yes, dear, from you. You're not feeling hatred, Usa. You're feeling guilt…"
"Guilt? But…"
"It is guilt…"
"Mama, I know what guilt feels like, and this certainly isn't it. It burns in my heart. It's so painful that…"
"…you can't think or see straight? Am I close?"
Usagi pouted slightly. "Would you stop that?"
"Honey, you're feeling guilty about what happened, and your mind is thinking you don't deserve the compassion you are sensing, and therefore is fabricating the hatred you think you're sensing." Usagi threw her mother a confused look that made the queen smile. "In other words, it's all in your head." Usako squeezed her daughter's hands slightly. "Your father and I have forgiven you. You need to forgive yourself. Then, this will go away. Understand?"
Usagi nodded.
"Good. Now, finish up and get to bed."
Usagi took the last few bites and stood to head back to bed. Before they went to their respective rooms, she wrapped her mother in a tight embrace, silently hoping they would never disconnect.
Usako, taken by surprise, also wrapped her daughter into her arms and simply held her. There was something more wrong; she was sure of it.
"I'm sorry, Mom," Usagi whispered into her mother's shoulder.
Usako smiled and held her daughter away from her slightly. "It's over now, honey. Let's put it behind us and move forward, okay?"
Usagi nodded and headed for her room. "Mom?" Usako turned back to her daughter. "Would you sit with me? Just until I fall asleep?"
Her mother smiled. "Sure. Just give me a moment."
Usagi turned and went into her room.
When Usako turned to go back to hers, she saw her husband standing in the doorway, his hair disheveled and half-asleep.
"Everything okay?" he asked as his wife went into his arms.
"Yeah," she sighed into his hard chest. "I'm going to sit with her for a while…just until she falls asleep."
Mamoru nodded and went back into the room he shared with his wife while Usako journeyed to her daughter's.
***
Her eyes opened as the odor from the kitchen slowly permeated the small bungalow room. She stretched slightly, fully expecting her husband to be in the kitchen cooking. However, she was surprised to see her husband's slumbering form also being roused from sleep by the scent.
"Mamo-chan," Usako whispered slightly confused. "If you're here…"
Mamoru stood and quickly got dressed. "I don't know, Usako. Maybe Usagi?"
"Since when can she cook?"
"Since Makoto's been teaching her…"
"What?!"
"Dear, she's been getting lessons for the past few weeks." Mamoru pulled his wife off of the bed. "Let's just go join her, okay?"
The queen dressed herself in a pair of white shorts with a black "Three-Lights" tank-top, and followed her husband out into the living room.
"Need any help?" he called into the kitchen as both he and his wife sat at the table.
"Nope," came Usagi's voice as she flipped a few pancakes. "I think I got it."
Both parents smiled at each other as they sat at the table, waiting for their princess to finish what she was working on.
"So," Mamoru started, unsure of how to start conversation, "what should we do today?"
"I thought we'd just stay around here," Usako answered cheerfully as her daughter put a plate of pancakes down in front of her. "Maybe catch some sun on the beach?"
Usagi sat across from her parents. "Didn't you say you wanted to talk today?"
"There's plenty of time for that," Mamoru answered her.
"You're not eating?" Usako asked when she realized there was no plate in front of her daughter.
Usagi smiled slightly. "I'm not hungry."
"Why not?" her father asked her while putting down his fork.
"I don't know. I'm just not."
Usako fixed her daughter with a half-glare. "You're not still blaming yourself, are you?"
"Mom, honestly, I'm probably going to for a good long while…"
"But honey, why? It's not going to do anything to help you."
"I know. I just have to work through it on my own. That's all." Usagi smiled at her parents. "And cooking breakfast seemed like a good place to start the healing process."
***
Breakfast now over, the family changed into bathing suits and shorts and headed towards the shoreline. After the sunblock was on, Usako sat on the beach, basking in the sun's rays and watching her daughter and husband swim.
After a few minutes in the water, Mamoru left the ocean to sit next to his wife. "Be mindful of where you are, Usa!" he yelled across the expanse to his daughter. "Don't get too far out."
Usagi waved back at him and continued her game of wave-jumping.
As Mamoru sat next to his wife, she leaned into his wet arms. "That's one hell of a tide," he commented as Usako laid her head on his shoulder. "If we weren't on vacation, I'd use this as a good endurance training opporutnity."
"You would think of things like that on vacation," Usako joked as she playfully elbowed his ribs.
He tickled his wife. "This from the one who had to solve a farmer's problem." At her confused look, he stated, "Usa told me."
Usako smiled as she nodded and turned her attention back out to sea, fully expecting to see her daughter's pink head bobbing somewhere in her sight. However, there was no pink head.
Maybe she just dove beneath the waves, she thought to herself, trying to quell the rising panic in her abdomen. Give her a moment to surface.
One moment…two moments…three moments…
"Mamo-chan?" Was her voice shaking? "Mamo-chan, where's Usa?"
"Hmm?" Mamoru turned his attention to where he'd last seen his daughter. "Oh, she's probably chasing after some cute boy. You know how she's been lately…"
Usako smiled at the idea. "Mmm, yes, Darling. However, we're the only people on this part of the beach."
"USAGI!" he called as he cupped his hands over his mouth. "USAGI!"
"I'm over here!" came a soft call from their left. Both parents turned their heads and gave a slight sigh of relief as they saw their pink-haired pistol jogging towards them. When she reached them, she sat in the sand beside her mother.
"Where were you?" Usako asked her.
"The tide took me!"
Mamoru sat on the other side of his wife and fixed his teenager with a mock glare. "The tide took you?"
"Yeah!" They don't believe me. "I was swimming in to where I thought you were, but since you weren't there, I had to find you, and then I heard you calling me, and I came running…"
"Usa," Usako interrupted her. "Honey, take a breath! We believe you. Dad's just messing with your head."
Usagi took a deep breath. "So, here I am."
The matriarch smiled. "So, are you getting hungry?"
The princess flung herself onto her back in the sand in front of her mother and sighed dramatically. "I'm starving! It's probably why I couldn't handle the tide!"
Usako looked at her husband, who laughed as he said, "Well, we all know where she gets that from!"
"Where she gets what: Her dramatics or her apetite?"
Mamoru only smiled at his wife. It is a wise man who doesn't answer that question…
***
Sorry it took so long to update! Things got a bit crazy around here.
One week down…one week to go! Thanks for sticking with me!!
