At The End Of The Night
By Baine
Webpage: www . sailormoonrose . mirrorz . com
Email: ladybaine AT yahoo DOT com
Completed: October 20, 2001 (7:50 pm, EST)

Hey everyone! Well, this is just a little idea I got after watching the 200th [and final episode of Sailor Moon for the billionth time today. It takes place at the very end (…that beautiful scene with Mamo-Chan and Usagi! ..More notes on this at bottom, so as to not spoil the story)

--NOTE--I have the actual pictures from this scene up on my website! They're right above the story! For a direct link to my site, go to
www DOT angelfire DOT com SLASH anime3 SLASH rose SLASH attheendofthenight DOT html (Obviously, replace the capital letters with the appropriate punctuation. )
It's worth a look; they're so nice!

What can I say, I got inspired! Finally! My writer's block is over! So I just wrote and wrote…..
I know, I know, no new part of "A Place To Call Home" this week……sorry! I'll probably post it next week. I have had up to part six completed since my very first post, but I am spreading out the release of each chapter because I have had writer's block, and can write anymore! So, hopefully I can again, ne? I've written five pages since I've been at college…the other forty pages were written in July…way back when!
So, this story is a mindless piece of fluff….just because I got inspired…though I know SOMEONE who I made VERY happy with this piece of fluff!
((This is only my third published piece ever, and my second one-shot! Since August! Yay!))
Okay, enough about me, and on with the story!

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The full moon shone gently upon the Earth, illuminating a young couple standing side by side at a stone wall, staring peacefully down into the rippling blue lake.

The girl tilted her head upwards, causing two golden streamers of hair to lazily brush across the ground. "Mamo-Chan?"

The ebony-haired young man smiled softly and glanced down at the girl with loving eyes. "Yes?"

"Do you love me?"

"Yes."

"Really?" She moved forward and grabbed hold of his left arm, snuggling into it and staring up at him with shining eyes.

"Yes."

"How much?"

He looked down at her with a puzzled expression. "Where did all this come from?"

She snuggled in closer to him, smelling his warm, musky scent, and stared pleadingly into his cerulean eyes. "Please…how much?"

He smiled down at her gently and replied thoughtfully, "Let's see…it feels wonderful to be with you." He pulled back from her but didn't let go, simply holding her from afar and staring at her, causing a rosy pink flush to form on her cheeks. He slowly bent down and kissed her, expressing through touch the words that no language could say.

She sighed and leaned further into his embrace, holding on to him as though he were her lifeline, her world—which, in fact, he was. She melted in his arms as he continued to kiss her sweetly, before pulling back to observe her once again.

"You're so beautiful, Usako. I love you so much, more than words can ever say."

"I love you too, Mamo-Chan." She smiled up at him happily, shivering in delight as he absently kneaded her shoulders. "I really missed you."

"I missed you too, Usako. Even though I was no longer here, I was still alive. I was in this black, bottomless void of nothing, and all I could think about was you: How you were, what you were doing…the fact that you probably had no clue what happened to me. I kept trying to find my way back to you, and now here I am, finally home where I belong."

"For the longest time, I didn't know what happened to you, Mamo-Chan. You seemed to have disappeared off the face of the planet. You didn't write to me or call, even though I wrote you daily! It made me so sad…and then I found out you had been killed, and I didn't even know….I didn't feel it. You'd think I would feel your death, but I didn't. And once I knew, my entire world collapsed, mainly because you are my world, and a world without you in it is empty and meaningless, and it's not something I want to ever experience again!"

Mamoru dropped his hands from his girlfriend's shoulders, brushing light against her arms as he moved his hands down to clasp her own, still tight against his waist. He gently unclenched her hands and brought them up to his face, kissing them lightly. "I feel the exact same way, Usa. A life without you is no life at all." He smiled softly as he traced her ring finger, outlining the ring he had given her before he left. "You're still wearing the ring I gave you."

"I only ever take it off when I'm near water, and only then so it won't become tarnished. It's never far from me, for it is something you gave me, and I cherish it deeply."

"I'm glad." He smiled down at her. "You'll never have to be alone again, Usako. I'm home now, and I'm here to stay."

"But what about Harvard? Aren't you going to go back, and finish up your schooling? To study abroad at such a prestigious school has always been your dream!"

"No, Usako, that's where you're wrong. My dream is to be with you, to stay by your side forever."

"Mamo-Chan, no. You can't give up this opportunity just to stay with me. I won't let you!"

"Maybe I don't mind giving it up."

Usagi shook her head in frustration. "If you never met me, you would be in America right now, living out your dream. I wouldn't be in your life to muddle up your priorities!"

"No, Usako, don't ever say that! I wouldn't change meeting you for anything in the world. If I had never met you, my life would still be as empty and meaningless as it's always been. With you in my life, that empty void is gone, replaced with love, and warmth, and all kinds of emotions that I never felt before. The opportunity to study abroad is no longer my dream; it was only a desire for something better that made me want it so badly. And then, one day, I got the chance of a lifetime to fulfill this ancient dream of mine. So I took the chance, for I knew I would come back to you."

"And you still will, if-" A finger placed against her lip swiftly stopped her rambling.
"I could, but Usa, I was only gone from you for awhile, and it hurt so much. If I had actually gone to America, it would hurt that much worse. It made me realize just how silly I was to try and obtain a dream that I no longer even had! I need you in my life, Usa, and I won't leave you again, not ever."

"But, Mamo-Chan-"

"No, Usako, no buts. I am a grown man, and fully in charge of my own life. I am free to make my own decisions, and this is what I have decided. You may have wrapped me around your little finger so tightly that I give in to your every wish and desire, but this is one wish that I will not grant you."

Usagi looked up at him through teary eyes. "I feel like I've caused you to screw up your life, Mamo-Chan. You could be so much more, but you're not even going to try anymore—because of me! I've made you into less of a man then what you could rightfully be."

"No, Usako, I am more of a man after meeting you. You have taught me to love, to enjoy life again. You have taught me how to live, not to be a mere body in this wondrous world. You've heard that saying that 'behind every good man lies a better woman,' right?"

"No."

"Sure you have."

"No I haven't, Mamo-Chan, you made that up. You're turning into Minako on me."

Mamoru shook his head in exasperation, mirth dancing in his eyes. "Without you standing behind me, I wouldn't be who I am today, Usa. I love you, more than life itself, and without you in my life, I would surely shrivel up and die."

"I love you too, Mamo-Chan, but-"

"No buts, Usako. That's just the way it is, and it's the way it will always be." He tenderly wiped the silver tear forming at the corner of her aqua eyes and murmured, "Don't cry, Usa. Be happy."

"I am happy, Mamo-Chan. I'm just crying because you're so sweet…too sweet."

"You wouldn't have said that two years ago."

She smiled faintly in remembrance. "No, I guess I wouldn't have. I would have moaned and complained about you, denying the whispering of my heart and continuing to bump into you and get into arguments. If someone had told me that I would later be this madly in love with you, I would have thought they were psycho!" She fiddled absently with her ring, lost in memories of a time long past.

"Yeah, who would have thought that I would end up with someone as gorgeous and kind and sweet as you? I truly am the luckiest man in the world."

"Oh, Mamo-Chan…" She breathed as she smiled up at him through shiny eyes. "I believe that it is I who am the lucky one. For I have you by my side, through thick and thin. You are my rock, my pillar of strength. There have been many times that it has been you who has managed to get me through my problems. Without you…"

"Without each other, we would be nothing. We wouldn't be who we are today."

"No, we wouldn't. Life would be very different without you in it."

"Yeah, you'd probably be dating that Seiya guy, or still fawning all over Motoki every day after school."

"Oh, you!" She playfully batted him on the arm. "With my luck, I'd probably wind up with a geek like Umino. Instead, I'm with a geek like you."

"A geek and a goddess, however did such a match come to be?"

"You're so corny, Mamo-Chan!" Usagi blushed and ducked her head.

"No, I just state the truth. It's a wonder that you walk among the earth, when you are clearly not of it, but rather a celestial being sent here solely to be with me."

"Well, now that I have fallen to Earth, I don't ever want to leave."

"I wouldn't let you if you tried."

Usagi smiled up at Mamoru and stepped forward, snuggling up against his chest and closing her eyes in bliss. "What did I do to deserve someone like you?"

"The question, my dear, is what did I do to be blessed to have you in my life?" He gently rested his chin upon her head, inhaling her sweet scent, and sighed happily. "I really do love you, Usa."

"I know."

He pulled his head back and stepped back a bit to admire her once more, finding her irresistible under the soft glow of the moon. "Can I ask you a question?"

"Of course you can."

He squeezed her hands lightly and smiled down at her. "I know we still have the rest of our lives ahead of us; after all, you're only sixteen, and I'm only nineteen, but…will you promise yourself to me? Promise to one day be my wife?"

"Of course I will, Mamo-Chan! How could I not?" Her eyes watered anew, sparkling with unshed tears.

To Mamoru, she'd never looked more beautiful than she did at that moment, and he had to catch his breath before he could continue. "I meant to ask you before I left. That's what I wanted your ring to be, a promise ring. I just…I don't know. We got distracted at the airport, and then the words just wouldn't come because the moment had passed, and…I'm not making any sense at all, am I?"

"I understand you perfectly, Mamo-Chan." She grinned happily. "I would be more than happy to one day be your wife!"

"When we're finished school, and I have a job and am ready to support you…that's when I'll ask you to officially be my wife—my life. Then, I'll be able to make sure I'm financially able to support you and give you the life you deserve."

"As long as I'm with you, it won't matter what kind of life I live, Mamo-Chan. I could be penniless and living on the street, but I would still be happy, as long as I had you."

"I'll never let that happen, Usa. You and I, we're going to have a picture-perfect life. We're going to be one of the few couples to truly live happily ever after."

"Our fairytale has only just begun, Mamo-Chan. We're still in the first chapter."

"With many more to come…" He murmured, leaning down towards her.

"…With each one better than the last," She breathed as his lips brushed against her own, allowing silence to reign once more through the peaceful night as the full moon shone down on them in celebration, illuminating their silhouettes against the dark of night.
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From the first line of this story, "Mamo-Chan?" to the line, "Let's see…it feels wonderful to be with you." came from my fansub (I don't know the name of the distributor)…and the actions described are what's happening onscreen at the very end of episode 200. This is just a little ditty that 'could have been.' Hey, I got inspired and wrote! And then I realized that it's almost 8, quickly finished it up, and sent it out to ASMR for deadline! (EST is ahead of Central, anyway, but still!)

Everyone get that? Those lines, this scenario….they don't belong to me, and neither does Sailor Moon….no amount of wishing can make them mine, just like no amount of wishing can give me Mamo-Chan……besides, he's PERFECT for Usagi, why would I want to tear the two of them apart? ((FYI, that's my disclaimer for the story ))

Well, feel free to drop me a note (ladybaine AT yahoo DOT com), or go to my webpage, www . sailormoonrose . mirrorz . com! I have the pages to the archives all ready, and am just uploading stories! The archives should be up by the end of the month! (And if you wanna submit something for the archives, just email me!)

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