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OOOPS!
Chapter Three
-An Awkward Moment-

-Tsukino Usagi-

-(X)-

I was walking...somewhere. There was fog; lots of fog, and I couldn't see where I was going. There was a flash of light to my left, and I spun around to see what must have been one of the ugliest youma in current existence; electric blue in color, with six pairs of eyes, a head covered in scales, and feet that were put on backwards. The no-clothing bit didn't help. It rushed at me, and I lunged aside to avoid it, or rather tried. My feet refused to budge, as if they were permanently stuck to the ground. I reached for my transformation brooch, only to find it missing. My knees buckled; this was everything I had ever been afraid of—being cornered by a youma and not being able to defend myself against it.

Fear, quick, panicked gasps, head spinning…so I think I can be forgiven for not noticing that I was flying…all right, I wasn't flying per se, but someone was carrying me. Tuxedo Kamen, of course. Trust him to save the day, even in my dreams. No corny speeches today, though. Surprise, surprise.

We came to a stop on a deserted rooftop and he put me down, then deliberately wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me closer. He's going to kiss me, I realized a nanosecond before his lips touched mine. I pulled away—not that it was a bad thing being kissed by him, but really, Tuxedo Kamen had never before showed the slightest interest in me, so excuse me if I was a bit suspicious. In reply to my ever-so-kind gesture, he pulled off his mask and everything went black.

-(X)-

I opened my eyes just in time to see Mamoru pull away. Pull away as if he just kissed me. Wonderful.

"Mamoru, what are you doing?"

"Er…there was a crumb on your cheek."

I raised my eyebrows. "One that you happened to be brushing off with your mouth?"

He shifted uncomfortably. "Something like that, yes."

"Right…"

An awkward silence followed, in which neither of us seemed to be able to stay in the same position for more than five seconds. Both of us knew what had happened but neither of us was willing to say it. Finally, after five minutes of restless shifting, I couldn't take it anymore.

"Why?" I asked him softly.

He shrugged in reply. "Seemed like a good idea at the time."

He glanced over at me to see how I was taking it to find my jaw set and my eyes flashing angrily--the two signs that said I wasn't what you'd call happy at the moment.

"Hey, Chiba," I called, "this is where you run, or at least duck, because I'm about to inflict some serious damage."

Much to my disappointment, he didn't do either. "Marry me?"

"What?" My reaction was something akin to when he complimented me earlier in the afternoon.

Mamoru laughed. "Just trying to shut you up."

Then I really did throw a punch…and I missed…or rather, he caught my fist and wouldn't let it anywhere near his face, which was what I had been aiming for in the first place, but since my fist didn't come into contact with the intended target, I missed, whether I swung and didn't connect or I swung and he blocked. But I digress.

"Seriously though, since you're refusing my marriage proposal, you have to make it up to me. How about dinner and a movie, when we get out of here?"

I froze—he actually did look serious—not like when he'd "proposed". This was something that one just doesn't count on happening. It's like when someone asks you: what is the craziest thing you can imagine happening to you today, and you reply: running into a talking cat that tells you you're supposed to save the world and the guy that's done nothing but tease you mercilessly ever since you met him asking you out. But then again, the former had gone and happened, so it was quite possible the latter could do the same.

(X)(X)(X)
-Chiba Mamoru-

I watched her contemplate my proposition, a closed, unreadable expression on her face.

"No," she finally told me, jerking back her arm with strength that I hadn't expected. That, in addition to the shock I felt at her refusal, caused me to let go.

All right then, time for Plan B…

(X)(X)(X)
-Furuhata Motoki
9:15pm; Cabin in the Mountains-

I yawned as indiscreetly as I could and slumped back against the pillows. It had been Unazuki's turn to choose the movie, and she had, as always, chosen a chick flick. A bad one, at that. Now, I'm sure you don't understand how there can be good and bad chick flicks, but there is a slight difference. See, a good chick flick is one where despite all the soppy romance, there is some semblance of a plot and maybe, if you're really lucky, some humor. A bad chick flick is something akin to the monstrosity I had been forced to watch that night.

My father had fallen asleep ten minutes into the movie. It was now an hour later, and I was trying, as inconspicuously as I could, mind you, to follow in his footsteps. Unfortunately, all I could do was yawn incessantly while Unazuki, along with my mother sat watching with rapt attention.

Unable to successfully fall asleep, I could only follow the movements on the screen with half-lidded eyes, my brain not even bothering to process what I was seeing. That's why I think I can be forgiven for not immediately understanding why a feeling of déjà vu settled over me when one of the characters locked his best friend and the girl he was clearly destined to end up with in a closet.

Then it hit me.

"Shit!" I bolted upright.

"Motoki, what's wrong?" Mom asked, worried.

I felt my face was grow pale with slowly increasing horror.

"I locked Usagi and Mamoru in a storage closet," I mumbled, rummaging through my dad's jacket for the car keys.

Unazuki snorted. "Serves them right. Maybe they'll finally learn how to get along."

"Not bloody likely," I muttered, heading towards the door.

"Wait, where are you going?" Mom asked.

"I have to get them out, while there's still something of them left to get out."

"But it's too late to drive," she protested weakly.

"I'll be fine," I yelled over my shoulder as I rushed out to the car, but as I got onto the highway, the only thing I could think of was that I would sure as hell not be fine.

Those two would skin me alive.

(X)(X)(X)
-Chiba Mamoru
10:30pm; Closet-

…now if only I knew what Plan B was. How the hell was I supposed to make Usagi fall for me if she didn't trust me? And since when had she become so suspicious of everyone? Maybe Motoki was right and she really had changed. I frowned to myself, wondering how to deal with this new development. To my right, Usagi shifted uncomfortably, the expression on her face mirroring my own.

"Mamoru," she said at last, "I'm going to go to sleep, and when I wake up, I want the aliens that have taken over your brain to be gone."

"There are no aliens," I told her.

"Yeah right," she scoffed, trying to make herself comfortable on the cold, hard floor.

I opened my mouth to protest and then thought better of it. No point in getting into another argument, especially one that she was most likely to win.

What had happened to Odango Atama to make her change so much?

I watched her out of the corner of my eyes as she yawned, continuously shifting into different positions on the floor. She didn't look any different…well, maybe just a little. She was taller, that was for sure. Not a lot taller, but a couple of inches. I remembered that when we first met, she barely came up to my shoulder, but now, she reached my chin, when she wasn't slouching. And she did slouch, I realized. It was almost as if she was trying to make herself look smaller…but why would she do that? Was she really so uncomfortable with her growth spurt? Or was she hiding from something?

I shook my head. So she was taller…okay…and her hair was longer, and she was a little curvier, but other than that, she hadn't really changed appearance-wise.

(Beep)(Beep)(Beep)(Beep)(Beep)(Beep)

Startled, I jumped. What the hell was making that irritable noise? I looked around and saw Usagi's jacket on the floor. There was something flashing inside one of the pockets. Maybe Usagi had a beeper with her, or even better, a cell phone. Only one way to find out, I decided. I reached into her pocket and found a...pink calculator? Yet, instead of numbers, the contraption had four signs. It took me a couple of seconds to realize that these were the symbols of Mars, Mercury, Venus, and Jupiter. I took a look at the screen and realized that it too was bigger than a normal calculator's should be.

After examining it for another few minutes, I realized exactly what it was. I had often passed stores and seen devices similar to this in them. They were almost exact replicas of the Sailor Senshi's communicators (although they worked over smaller distances) and were sold in packs of five, to be distributed among your friends, I supposed.

There was also a button that had a picture of a megaphone on it. I pressed it, hoping it would turn the stupid thing off. In retrospect, I suppose that was not the brightest of ideas.

As soon as I did, however, the screen flashed, and a hazy figure appeared.

"Finally! It's about time you answered!" exclaimed a voice that sounded oddly familiar. "I've been trying to contact you for the past ten minutes. Listen, we're in trou—oi shit!" With that, the screen went black.

I swore. Signals had a tendency not to reach storage closets, so this person must have been somewhere nearby. Now we'd be stuck in here for Kami knows how long. I tried pressing the buttons, hoping to get the person who had called earlier, but without any luck. Rolling my eyes, I threw the device at the jacket. Trust Odango to be carrying a walkie talkie and not mention it. On the other hand, fat lot of good it did us, anyway.

I decided to go back to my earlier ponderings:

As for personality-wise…well Usagi still went to the Arcade on a regular basis, and she was still a klutz and a bit of a flake…but was she really? I found myself wondering about this. When she had jerked her hand out of my grasp earlier, she had displayed strength I hadn't expected her to have. And when she had refused my 'dinner and a movie' offer, I had looked into her eyes and seen something that surprised me. It wasn't the suspicion, because in case you were wondering, yes that was there too…but it was the look of someone who had seen too much for her years, who knew much more than she should have. What had happened to the Usagi that didn't have a care in the world? The girl who used to live for shopping and milkshakes?

Stifling a yawn, I resolved to find out. With that thought, I followed Usagi's example and drifted off to sleep.

(X)(X)(X)
-Tsukino Usagi-

-(X)-

I was in a field full of bunnies wearing Sailor fukus. I burst out laughing as I saw the four bunnies that represented my fellow Senshi. Ami's bunny had a big head, and Minako's was really skinny. It was Rei's and Makoto's however, that amused me the most. Makoto's bunny was fat with lots of muscle. Not like Makoto at all...except for the muscle part. Rei's bunny was fat too, but it also had two really big, floppy ears and a big mouth.

I looked around and frowned. Not only were bunnies wearing Ami's, Rei's, Makoto's, and Minako's fukus there, but so were others. I saw two in really dark fukus, so dark they looked almost black. One was a dark green, while the other was a dark violet. There was also a bunny in a navy blue uniform and one in an aqua one. I turned around and saw two bunnies smaller than the others. One was the bigger of the two, and both were wearing pink uniforms. I wondered which Senshi, if any, these bunnies represented. Suddenly, the oldest bunny in pink walked up to me. She had scarlet eyes and pink pigtails that looked way too much like mine. I was about to compliment her on stealing my hairdo when she opened her mouth and said very clearly,

"Usagi-baka," Eeek! Freaky! She sounded like me too. "Usagi-baka! Wake up! Wake up, NOW!" the bunny half-shouted at me. I really had no choice but to obey.

-(X)-

"Finally! It's about time you answered!" exclaimed Makoto. "I've been trying to contact you for the past ten minutes. Listen, we're in trou—oi shit!" I swore softly. How the hell did Mamoru get a hold of my communicator? Stupid prat must have heard it ring and gone through my jacket pockets. Apparently the concept of personal property meant nothing to him. What the hell was I supposed to do now? Careful not to open my eyes too much, I risked a peek at him. He was staring at the ceiling, his eyes closing occasionally as if he was drifting off to sleep. I mentally willed him to hurry it up. He stifled a yawn and inhaled deeply, his eyes closing fully. I opened my eyes but decided not to risk moving just yet.

A loud noise resonated through the small closet, startling me and making me gasp. I looked around, trying to figure out what had caused it and hoping that Mamoru was a really heavy sleeper, otherwise, the Senshi would have to handle this one on their own. The noise sounded again, and I glanced at Mamoru to see if he was still asleep. It took me about two seconds to realize that the sound was coming from him—yes, that's right, ladies and gentlemen: Chiba Mamoru was snoring. Loudly. I giggled quietly. At least now I had a juicy bit of blackmail for those moments that only occurred about once in the average person's lifetime but seemed to pile up in mine like snow in December.

Still grinning, I picked up my jacket and stuffed the communicator back in my pocket. Then, I removed my brooch from another, hidden pocket in the jacket and held it up.

"Moon crystal power, make up!" I whispered. Two minutes, a lot of ribbons, and a bunch of pretty-colored lights later, I was Sailor Moon, champion of justice, defender of the innocent…and is anyone but me aware of how corny that sounds? I rolled my eyes.

Mamoru stirred in his sleep. Shit. I hoped he wasn't the sort to wake up when the place he was sleeping in was unusually illuminated.

"Moon tiara action!" Another whisper and a bunch of complicated moves, and the door was reduced to splinters. I lost no time in getting the hell out of there, because let's face it: after five hours in that tiny-ass closet, I was feeling just a tad claustrophobic, and really, wouldn't you be, too? Oh, and my friends were in trouble…so yeah…

Another toss of my tiara got rid of the front door, and I was free! The first thing I heard when I got outside was screaming. The first thing I saw was people running towards me, away from, you guessed it, the park. So I did the only logical thing…well, logical to me, anyway. I jumped twenty feet into the air, landed on a rooftop and began making my way towards the area of danger. A year ago, I would have been elbowing past the mob of people coming towards me, but I wasn't fourteen anymore, and although I was still deathly afraid of heights, saving innocents came before trying not to die of fright.

Please don't ask me why there were people at the park this late on a Friday night. I have no idea—maybe there was some sort of special gathering. I had long stopped keeping up with those, instead giving the job up to Mina simply because she'd offered to take it. Several times, I'd wondered whether or not I'd done the right thing, and now I knew I hadn't. Knowing where all the big gatherings were let Mina know where the Dark Kingdom was going to strike next. While I had no doubt that Mina was a more-than-capable Senshi, she sometimes forgot to let the rest of us know when we might be needed and to me, as the leader, that information was crucial.

You may be wondering why I didn't feel at all guilty about wrecking the Arcade, and the answer to that is quite simple. Sailor Senshi have money left over from the time of the Silver Millenium. A lot of money; and I intended to leave Motoki a note blaming the damage on us and saying that Sailor Moon would pay for it.

Louder screams told me I was getting close, and I put on an extra burst of speed, completely ignoring the breathtaking view of the city at night from the high rooftops. This wasn't the first time I'd seen it, and if I was lucky, it wouldn't be the last either.

By this time, I was nearly on top of the battle, and what I saw made me forget the butterflies that always appeared in my stomach when I looked down from a very high place. It wasn't one youma that my Senshi were fighting—it wasn't even two. There were three of the damned things, and outcome of the fight was favoring them over us. Shit.

Taking a deep breath, I jumped down into the fray.

(X)(X)(X)
-Chiba Mamoru
10:40pm; Closet-

-(X)-

"The ginzuishou, Endymion, please, you have to find it, for me—for us. Find it, and you will free me."

"I don't even know where to start."

She was there again, in my dreams, the beautiful princess with the long, blonde hair, whose face was forever in the shadows, and whose voice was always full of sorrow. I couldn't remember the last time I had slept without dreaming of her.

"Yes, you do. Look inside yourself, and you will remember what you think you've forgotten."

"I can't remember," I told her, my voice becoming increasingly frustrated.

"Yes, you can!" she insisted. "Look deep, and you will find what you are searching for. Remember the battle—remember where the crystal went."

I opened my mouth to reply.

"Don't tell me you can't, Endymion—Mamoru. I know you better than anyone, and I know that you are fooling yourself."

"Then why don't you know where the crystal is? Does the Dark Kingdom have it?"

"I do know where the crystal is, but there are rules that prevent me from telling you. You must find out for yourself."

"Can't you help me at all?"

A sad smile graced her features and for a minute, I thought she was going to disappear altogether, as she so often did, but this time, it seemed she wasn't finished quite yet.

"I can only tell you that you are looking in the wrong place. You will not find the ginzuishou within the Dark Kingdom, but rather within the person who you least expect to have so great a treasure."

"The crystal's inside someone?" I asked, confused. "How is that even possible?"

But she just smiled that sad smile and didn't say anything else that was even remotely helpful. "It is time for you to wake up, Earth Prince. Your services are needed."

With that, everything went black.

-(X)-

Slowly, I became aware of a cold breeze around me. At first, I thought I had left the window open, then I opened my eyes, and saw where I was.

What the hell? was the first thought that came to mind. I was looking at a bumpy ceiling covered in cracks and painted a very pleasant shade of beige (can you hear the sarcasm?). A single light bulb hung from it, casting eerie shadows onto the walls, which were painted with the same care and color as the ceiling. How the hell did I get in here? The only possible explanation I could think of was that I'd been knocked unconscious and then kidnapped…ok, so I was a little out of it, but really, wouldn't you be if you woke up in a closet?

When it all came back to me, about a minute later, I felt a little silly. Talk about your overactive imagination. Groaning softly, I sat up and tried to find the source of the breeze. Needless to say, when I did, I cursed all that was Tsukino Usagi. The door had been reduced to a small pile of wood, and my fellow closet prisoner was nowhere to be found. Of course expecting her to wake me if she found a way out was probably asking too much considering how she felt about me, so I don't even know why I bothered. I'd probably lose the fifty five hundred yen too, 'cuz you know—I'm lucky that way.

Too busy with the self-pitying, I didn't realize why I kept moving towards the door until a few minutes had passed.

"Aw, crap," I muttered when I became aware of the fact that Sailor Moon needed my help. Well, actually, she might not have needed my help at all, but she had henshined, and she obviously hadn't done it for nothing. Letting the bond we shared lead me to where she was, I quickly henshined and made my way to the park.

Please don't ask me why the Dark Kingdom constantly attacks that particular park here in Tokyo. I suppose there is the whole good-always-triumphs-over-evil thing, but really, this is ridiculous. The fact is, the Senshi obviously live in Tokyo, Japan, so what villain in their right mind would send his/her minions to the place where the superheroes live? I mean, seriously, now. Japan isn't the only country in the world, and Tokyo isn't the only city in Japan. I would say that our villains are dumber than dirt, but, it's not like the Senshi defeat them very easily, so what the hell does that say about them?

I shook my head to get rid of the incriminating thoughts before I reached the park. The Senshi's powers had been growing lately, and Kami help me if one of the girls developed mind-reading abilities. I had an unpleasant vision of the angry soldiers ganging up on me. Ouch, I thought, wincing.

Shaking my head once again, I distracted myself with trying to figure out what Princess Serenity had meant when she told me to remember the battle…No, I'm not a complete idiot, I knew what she meant, I just wasn't sure which part she wanted me to remember.

Basically, what had happened was that Zoisite challenged me to a fight at the top of the Starlight Tower, in which we would both put up our nijizuishous. The only problem was that Sailor Moon intercepted me just before I reached the Tower, insisting that she go with me because I had been hurt. I told her to go home, but she kept following me until we both got caught up in a strange force field and were carried to the Tower. I remembered seeing Ziosite, and Kunzite taking all the nijizuishous, and the elevator ride up, which had been a trap just like everything else.

The battle, however, was hazy in my mind. The only details that I really remembered were that Zoisite was a formidable opponent and also a treacherous one. He'd definitely sent a very sharp object through my shoulder in hopes of killing me at one point, but everything else is a blur, most likely as a result of the blood loss. I vaguely remembered the other Senshi showing up and fighting, and then a bright light and the princess was there, healing me, then darkness, and after that, waking up with Sailor Moon's cerulean eyes looking down at me, asking if I was all right, and if I remembered what happened.

So according to the princess, the clue to what happened to the ginzuishou was somewhere in that battle, I just had to muddle through the fog and really remember the events. But how did she know that? Was it possible that she had been there? I'd always thought that her healing me had been a mirage of sorts induced by the blood loss. So if she was there, the Senshi must have seen her too, so why didn't Sailor Moon mention her during her recount of the battle? Maybe she knew who the princess was and where the ginzuishou was but didn't trust me with the information because she thought I had selfish motives for wanting it.

That must be it, I decided. One of the Senshi is Princess Serenity.

Before I could continue with that train of thought, a bloodcurdling scream snapped me out of my reverie. I had reached the park just in time to see all five Senshi battling the youma, who seemed to be immune to many of their powers. Two piles of dust lay at the monster's feet, making me wonder if there had been more than one. All of the Senshi had been hurt and were bleeding from various wounds on their bodies. Sailor Mars' arm hung limply at her side, obviously broken. Sailor Jupiter was dragging her leg, wincing every time she landed on it. I deduced she had a sprained or a broken ankle. Sailor Venus, the newest of the group was unconscious on the ground near a Sakura tree, one black and one white cat standing guard over her. By the trail of blood on the trunk, I guessed that she had been thrown at it. Sailor Mercury had a deep gash on her leg, and Sailor Moon's outfit was torn where one of the beast's swords had sliced at her back and abdomen. It also looked like she had torn off a piece herself to clumsily bandage a deep cut on her left arm.

The Senshi were losing. Badly.

TBC

A/N #2: If anybody didn't find Usagi's second dream funny, imagine the Sailor Senshi as bunnies! Re: Change in details: I've seen the series countless times. Any changes were intentional and important to the plot. The fic IS slightly AU, as I said in the beginning. Most first love fics are. If you don't like it, tough cookies.

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/It has been said that the primary function of schools is to impart enough facts to make children stop asking questions. Some, with whom the schools do not succeed, become scientists./ -Knut Schmidt-Nielson