A Place To Call Home
Part Three
By Bonnie-chan
Email: hunniebunny@aol.com
Web page: www.sailormoonrose.mirrorz.html
Today is September 26, 2001

DISCLAIMER: I just wanted to inform you that by selling my life away, I have indeed bought the rights to Sailor Moon, so it finally belongs to ME!!! ::jumps up and down belatedly before feeling a tap on the shoulder and slowly turning around:: Errrr......Hi, Naoko! I knew you were there the whole time, yup yup!! Okay, okay, so Sailor Moon STILL doesn't belong to me.....a fact which has me crying...However, this story DOES belong to me…and so do all of the characters that I made up! (Trust me, you'll know who they are!!!)

More thank yous to everyone I've ever thanked! I'd also like to thank each and every person who has emailed me!! You put a smile on my face and make my whole day just a little bit brighter, you know? I'd also like to thank all the talented writers who will soon be appearing in my archives! You all rock, and it is an absolute HONOR to post your stories!

Questions, comments? Email me here: hunniebunny@aol.com…and whether you liked it or hated it, could you pretty please send me feedback? I'm majoring in writing, and any type of feedback helps! Constructive criticism, a note telling me it was good, or even bad..whatever! I'd really appreciate it!
Oh, and if you want to be the first to know when I'm going to post the next part of my story, subscribe to my list here: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Sailor_Moon_Rose_Updates
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Now, on with the story!
A Place To Call Home
Part Three


"I have a present for you, Mamoru."
"What for?"
"For being a wonderful grandson. You have no idea what wonders you have done for me." He handed him a square box wrapped in forest green wrapping paper and topped off with a matching bow.
"It's heavy!" Mamoru slowly opened the gift, lifted the lid of the box, and laughed when he saw what was inside.
"Wow, thank you Grandfather! I was just talking the other day about how I needed a new coat." He fingered the green fabric and smiled. "I'll definitely remember you when I wear this, Grandfather, it's green---your favorite color!"
Yoki chuckled. "You have grown to like the color since you moved in here, haven't you? It grows on you, until eventually you value it more than any other color and can't remember a time when you didn't like it." He smiled merrily. "I even had a special nametag made to replace the one that came with it! I had it inscribed so that you would remember me forever."
"I could never forget you, Grandfather!"
"Well, that's good to know!" Yoki smiled, then bent over and began to cough.
"Are you alright, Grandfather?"
"Yes, Mamoru, I'm fine." Yoki smiled weakly at his grandson. "It's nothing to worry about, just the usual pain." He covered his mouth with his hand and coughed again, this time with more intensity than before.
"Grandfather!?" Mamoru looked on worriedly until the coughs died down. "Are you alright?"
"Mm-hmm." He grabbed a tissue from the carton on the coffee table and began to roll it in his hand. "Will you get me a glass of water, please?"
"Of course!" Mamoru started to move out of the doorway, but stopped as he caught sight of a crimson-red liquid begin to pour down his grandfather's face.
"Oh my god, Grandfather!" He grabbed the phone lying innocently on the coffee table and shakily dialed 911. He hurriedly described the situation, his words tumbling out one on top of the other, than sat and held his grandfather's hand until the ambulance arrived.
~~~

"Hey, Mamoru! How have you been? I haven't seen you around lately...how's your grandfather doing?"
Mamoru glanced up at his best friend as he entered the arcade and grimaced. "He had his first hemorrhage last night. An ambulance had to come and take him to the hospital so that he could get a blood transfusion. Dr. Kismet says that this is going to start happening more frequently now that it's happened once, and that we should hire a live-in nurse to take care of him since he won't stay in the hospital, but you know my grandfather-stubborn as a rock that won't budge an inch." He shook his head in frustration. "He did agree to rent a hospital bed, though, so that will make his life a little easier."
"Wow, Mamoru, that's awful."
"I know."
"You should do something nice for him, like take him out to do something he will remember forever, you know?"
"Like what?"
"I don't know. What are his favorite things to do?"
"Hmmm…he loves baseball, Audrey Hepburn movies, singing old show tunes...especially in the rain…" he smiled softly as a memory of his grandfather twirling a green umbrella and waltzing through the rain singing off-key show tunes at the top of his lungs while happily splashing through puddles like a little kid pushed its way to the front of his mind. "He always talks about how much he loved his job as curator at the Juuban Musuem, and how much he misses it. He loves to read the newspaper on the toilet, he watches the news and yells at the anchormen like they can actually hear him…" He shook his head and chuckled. "He just…loves life. Everything about it." A melancholy smile crossed his face before he brought his fist crashing down onto the marble counter. "It's just not fair! He's still got so much to live for, he's not that old yet! He's being robbed of the one thing he loves more than anything else in this world-his life! It's just not fair!"
Motoki put his arm reassuringly on Mamoru's shoulders. "Hey, calm down, Mamoru, it's all going to work out, you'll see. He'll be fine. A few months from now the two of you will be looking back on this incident and laughing about the fact that the normally impenetrable Chiba Mamoru had a nervous breakdown in the middle of the arcade."
Mamoru looked up into his friend's concerned face and reluctantly felt the corners of his mouth curl into a tentative smile. "I sure hope you're right, Motoki…I sure hope you're right."
"Aren't I always right?"
Mamoru laughed nervously. "Well…"
"Don't answer that. Hey, Mamoru?"
"Yeah?"
Motoki grinned lopsidedly and reached into the pocket of his apron, then pulled out a creamy white envelope, which he handed to the raven-haired man sitting across from him.
Mamoru looked down at the envelope, which now rested in the palm of his hand, before glancing curiously up at his friend. "Motoki…what's this?"
"Open it."
Mamoru gave him another curious look before slowly breaking the seal on the envelope and pulling out two ivory colored tickets. He held them up closer to his face and read aloud,

You are cordially invited to the private unveiling of
Yumeno Yumemi's Gallery Extravaganza
This invitation gives the bearer access to the exhibit before
it is opened to the public
Friday, June 23rd, 2001
at 8 o' clock pm
in the Da Vinci wing of the Juuban Musuem

He looked up from the ticket and into Motoki's smiling face. "Nani…?"
"My dad won them in a raffle at work and gave them to me because he already had plans for the evening. He figured I could take Reika or something, but I would much rather have you go with your grandfather, Mamoru." He shrugged casually. "Besides, the two of you will have much more fun looking at the exhibit then I ever would!"
Mamoru smiled at the thoughtfulness of his friend before slowly slipping the tickets back into the envelope and tucking it into the pocket of his new jacket.
"Hey, you finally got a new jacket!"
"Yes, my grandfather gave it to me…right before he began hemorrhaging."
Motoki winced. "Sorry…"
"It's not your fault, it's just the way things are." He zipped up his jacket and stood up, heading outside. "See you later, Motoki."
He heard his friend reply, but didn't bother to turn around as he let the arcade door slam shut behind him. A moment later he felt a warm body crash into him and sighed internally, knowing without looking that it was the same girl he had begun crashing into on a daily basis. "You really should start looking where you're going, Odango. One of these days you're going to plow into somebody who's not half as nice as I am, and then you'll really be in trouble!"
Usagi's eyes widened and the apology sitting on the tip of her tongue quickly became an insult. "Anyone would be nicer than you, Baka!"
"Don't be too sure about that."
"You're the one who seems overly confident around here, Chiba!"
"You're the one who's too naïve for her own good!"
"Huh?"
Mamoru laughed condescendingly as he stared down at the fuming girl who stood mere inches away from him. "Maybe if you actually paid attention in school instead of daydreaming about nonsensical little oddities, you'd actually understand what people were saying to you…but then you'd be able to hold proper conversations like a civilized person, and you'd lose your ape-like heritage and be shunned from the family, and we can't have that, now can we?"
Usagi's eyes narrowed into two tiny slits. "Excuse me?"
"I don't think it's possible to break that down any more than I just did, Odango. Of course, your ignorance just goes to prove my point."
"Did you just call me an ape?"
"Not precisely, but-"
Mamoru's words were cut off as a swift pain swept across his face, disappearing as fast as it had appeared. He looked at the blond before him in shock. "Don't you ever do that again."
"Or else what? You'll hit me back? Oh, I'm so scared!"
Mamoru stared at her in disgust. "I would never hit anybody, Odango…even you. It is never right to harm another human being, no matter what the reason." With that, he wiped his face clear of any emotions whatsoever and angrily brushed past the shell-shocked girl, quickly heading home.
~~~
Mamoru muttered to himself in frustration as he slowly unlocked the apartment door and walked inside. "I'm home, Grandfather!" His forehead wrinkled in concern when there was no answer. "Grandfather? Where are you?" He headed through the kitchen towards the living room.
Once there, he gasped in surprise. The coffee table had tipped over and now lay on top of his grandfather, who lay stiffly on the ground. "Grandfather!?" He rushed towards where the elderly man lay and reached for his wrist to take his pulse. He breathed in relief as he felt the pulse of his heart, though it was slower than usual.
He slowly removed his hand and reached for the phone, which lay haphazardly on the floor, beeping incessantly. He hung it up to re-activate it, then quickly called 911 for the second time that week.
~~~
That's all for now! You can email me at hunniebunny@aol.com. You can also visit my web page at www.sailormoonrose.mirrorz.com

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( Y ) ()_() *Bonnie-Chan*
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