I wanna give a special thanks to : NEO DIJI thank you! And a big thanks to the other wonderful ppl ! heheheehe) And just for you Neo Diji I've already thought about what's gonna happen to Akio hysterical laughter

Chapter Nine: Naru and Umino

Usagi was sitting in her room watching some girls from her school walking past her home. She sighed, she never thought she would want to actually go to school. She had been in her room since the whole incident happened, she had been trying to find sanctuary there; but now she was growing tired and lonely. However, every time she stepped out of her room, she felt like Akio would show up from the corner somewhere and attack her again.

"Why did this have to happen?" She whispered moving to her bed.

"Usagi-chan? Are you okay?" Luna asked sitting up on her bed. Usagi nodded with a soft smile but winced at the pain in her cheeks. The bruises were only getting worse. Luna moved to sit beside.

"It'll be okay soon." She smiled. Usagi smiled back looking out her window.

"You have your birthday to look forward to." Luna said hoping to the window sill with a bright smile. With everything that went on, she had forgotten that her 15th birthday was coming up on Friday. She did feel better thinking about it.

"What do you want for your birthday Usagi-chan?" Luna asked trying to get her mind involved with other things. Usually it was quite easy to distract Usagi, all you had to mention was food or hot boys and her mind automatically shifted gears. But since the incident happen, Luna was finding it very hard to get Usagi to think about anything else.

Usagi thought about it, there was nothing that she could think of that she wanted. Usagi laid down on her bed, thinking about how wonderful her 14th birthday was. The girls had taken her out to a fantastic café and ordered her the biggest strawberry cake followed by a day at the amusement park. Her parents had rented all her favorite movies and made her favorite dishes for dinner, and all her friends were invited to enjoy with her. Motoki had given her a free shake and cute bunny slippers, she was very happy with them. Of course, Mamoru had made so much fun of her that day, calling her Odango atama mercilessly. She cringed and smirked thinking back to all the fights they had. They were always running into each other, no matter where she was; he seemed to be there too.

Like the time she was on the bus with Luna to school, and Mamoru was sitting next to her and almost got caught talking to the cat. He asked her if that cat just talked and Usagi jumped out of her skin and watched her bones rattle madly. She was so shocked seeing him on the bus with her that she had almost suffocated Luna. It was than that she found out that he went to the Juban College two blocks away from her high school.

We were so close to getting caught that day'. Usagi thought. Luna watched Usagi start to giggle as she continued her day dream. Luna smiled feeling a bit better about Usagi's emotional state.

"Luna, I can still fight though, I mean as Sailormoon." Usagi sat up, smiling down at her. Luna was surprised.

"Usagi-chan. You're very brave." She smiled happily with little tears sitting on the edge. Usagi smiled too, feeling a lot better.

"After all how else will I see Tuxedo Kamen-sama" She giggled devilishly. Luna's eyes twirled in circles as she her smile twitched.

'…for Tuexedo Kamen-sama….' Luna thought.

"I think I'm going to be okay Luna." Usagi looked back out the window wondering what was going on at school today. She got up and walked out of her room, with Luna following close by.

"Are you sure you're okay Usagi-chan?" Luna asked, since Usagi had never left the room other than to use the washroom. Usagi smiled looking down the hall way.

"I have to get out of my room sometime." And she walked to the kitchen where she found her mom making a cake to cheer her up. She hugged Usagi and poured her some juice.

"Usagi, I called Mamoru, I invited him to dinner tonight." Usagi almost spewed out the juice, her eyes bulged out into two large circles with her mouth flopped open.

"Ah mom, how did you get his number?" Usagi asked looking down to Luna who was equally surprised.

"Oh that was easy, your father bumped into him this morning and he asked him than. He's a very nice gentleman. So polite." Ikuko added. Usagi blushed looking down to her juice.

'But than I would have to face him.' Usagi thought. She was nervous again, her tummy was tied up in a knot, and she didn't understand why she was reacting this way. Ikuko smiled back at her pouring the cake mix into a pan.

"Why don't you go watch some tv, the cake will be ready in 20mins." Her mother smiled. Usagi remembered tv, with all the commotion she had forgotten about television. Her mind did that sometimes, temporarily it would shove things out of her ear; call it spring cleaning it if you will.

In the family room, Usagi started to laugh watching one of her favorite shows. Her face hurt a bit. The phone rang and Ikuko hurried to answer it.

"Usagi, it's Naru-chan!" Ikuko handed Usagi the phone. Usagi took a nice deep breath in and said one loud 'hello' almost piercing Naru's ears.

"Usagi, are you okay? You weren't at school today?" Naru asked, knowing very well that Usagi's cheerful hello was not real, she hardly ever missed school. Usagi stumbled with her words as she looked over at Luna for help.

"Naru-chan…I was attacked over the weekend….."

"WHAT! Usagi, are you okay, what happened?" Naru blurted out, a surge of panic filling her.

"I'm okay. You want to come over?" Usagi asked.

"Sure, can Umino come over too?" Naru asked feeling awkward that she wanted him to be there. After all Usagi and Umino have known each other for many years, even before Naru and her became friends. Usagi didn't hesitate, she knew that all her friends were probably worried for her.

"Sure." Usagi smiled slightly wincing at the pain in her cheeks. Luna didn't know if telling Naru and Umino was such a good idea, but they were her closest friends.

……………………………

In what seemed to be only minutes since her phone conversation with Naru, Umino and her were in Usagi's room listening to her made up tale about getting attacked by a robber.

"It's a good thing that guy who hate so much rescued you." Naru added with her hand covering her mouth. She believed Usagi's story and felt bad that she was alone at the time.

"If Naru-chan and I weren't on our date we could've walked you home." Umino blurted out frankly. Naru's body stiffened, her eyes turned into little balls and her mouth twitched, suddenly she hit Umino over the head with her purse, launching him into the air and finally smashing face first into the floor.

"What! You guys were on a date?" Usagi screamed astonished. She purred demanding information. Naru sighed, she was trying to keep it a secret until after the 3rd date atleast. She glanced over to Umino's twitching body.

"Oh Naru-chan…you're love is very strong!" He twitched before, in amazing speed, recovered to sit abruptly, freaking out Usagi, Naru and Luna. Naru hit him again with her purse as he smashed back into the floor.

"Will you stop doing that! You're freaking us out!" She screamed. Usagi started to laugh. Than she went into question mode and demanded she know how this happened. Naru explained that after that day at the amusement park, when Umino was Tuxedo Umino-Kamen; he tried to save her.

"I guess after that it felt right." Naru was blushing. Usagi was so happy that she had set the two up, of course that was the day that she lost one of the rainbow crystal's to that sleaze monkey Ziosite. There was a small pause when suddenly Umino jumped back into place holding a few deep fried shrimp in his hands.

"Ahh, I will protect you Naru-chan and Usagi-chan! Deep friend shrimp!" He screamed freaking out Naru, Usagi, and forcing Luna to jump to the ceiling.

"I told you to stop jumping out like that at strange times!" Naru shouted belting him down with her purse. Usagi started to laugh happily watching Naru beat up Umino. She could see how much they liked each other.

'I wonder what Tuxedo Kamen-sama is doing?' She thought as she looked on to Umino's withered body as he floated in the background.

"He's so crazy sometimes." Naru smiled fixing her skirt.

"Naru-chan you are too cruel my love." Umino sang weakly floating up to the ceiling freaking out Luna so much that her fur spiked up.

"Hey Usagi, are you going to come to school tomorrow? We are going to be paired up with students from the Juban College for science." Naru asked taking out the form she got from her science teacher. Usagi was confused, she knew that the grade up would be pairing up with the college students but didn't know her grade was doing it too.

"Yeah, we're going to be doing our final science projects with them. It's going to be so hard." Naru whined as Usagi read the form. She knew that Mamoru went to that College.

'This is so strange.' Usagi thought. Luna fell to the floor tangled with Umino's twisted body. She was in a horrible state trying remove Umino's heavy body off of hers.

"Yeh, we're going to be paired up tomorrow. Those college kids always think they're so smart. I hope I get someone nice." Naru whined again. Usagi wondered what the odds were to get Mamoru as her partner and if somehow this was fate.

……………………………..

Mamoru didn't see Usagi again today, and he was upset about it. He wanted to see her, maybe to act coldly to her so that things could feel normal again; or if it was because he missed her. He looked down to the form he held in his hand as he took a seat on the couch. He took a large sip of his milk and sighed.

"Knowing my odds, I will get her…" He had known from the beginning of the science semester that the final project would be done in cooperation with the Juban junior and highschool. It was the College's way of 'making things fun'. This 'fun way of doing science' had always been done with only the seniors but for some crazy reason, this year it would include one class down.

"What am I going to do?" He asked his glass of milk, hoping that somehow the answer would come to him. If only he could see Usagi before somehow, things could go back to normal and he wouldn't feel this way. His neck and shoulders felt heavy and strained, he desperately needed proper sleep. He was having a hard time focusing in class or anything else for that matter. Usagi had taken over his mind, everything he thought of was about her.

"Ah and I have to see her at dinner too…" He was beginning to feel very uncomfortable. When her father saw him today and insisted he come for dinner he couldn't say no. And he couldn't start being rude to her in her own home.

"Well we'll just have to see what happens Odango." He smiled. He missed calling her that, he missed her reaction; they way her nose would scrunch up, her little fists waving at him. He giggled slightly picturing her. He remembered back to the first time he met her.

"If she hadn't hit me with her paper…I would have never met her." He smiled again. He missed those days, where he could count on her being there on his way to school or back from school. Whenever he was stressed, somehow she would make all of it go away, even if she didn't know it.

"Odango atama." He whispered.

……………………………..

Usagi wanted to go to school the next day but she worried that she would really be his partner, than what would she do. The door bell rang twice, bringing her back to reality. Luna looked back to Usagi waiting for her to go downstairs.

"Nee-chan, Mamoru's here, you should come downstairs." Shingo said opening the door very gently. He had robotically started to treat her nicer since she was attacked. He felt bad for her, and wished that he was older and could have protected her. Usagi turned around putting on a smiley face, acting brave, but she was scared.

"Okay." Shingo smiled back and left her.

"Usagi-chan?" Luna asked wondering if she was even truly there, or if her mind had taken her somewhere else, a place where she can be happy.

"I can't go down there Luna." Usagi didn't understand why she didn't want to face Mamoru, she was always thinking about him so what was holding her back now. Luna was perplexed, she didn't know what to say, or how to change Usagi's mind. A couple of knocks from the door alarmed her and in walked her mother.

"Usagi? Are you okay?" Her mother asked softly, wondering why Usagi hadn't come downstairs to greet Mamoru. Usagi sat on her bed looking away from her mother.

"I'm not feeling well mom. I just want to rest." Usagi lied to her, but her mother couldn't tell this time. Usagi was in emotional state and didn't want to make her feel pressured or crowded. Ikuko smiled sitting down beside Usagi, brushing her hair away from her eyes.

"Usagi, it's okay. You just rest and I'll bring you dinner up here okay?" Ikuko smiled once more and left the room. Luna didn't know how to comfort Usagi as she sat there blankly looking down to her feet. It was like she wasn't even there.

"Why didn't you want to go greet Mamoru?" Luna asked sitting up beside her. Usagi smiled still not moving her eyes away from her feet.

"I don't know, I feel like it'll be strange." Usagi couldn't put it into better words, not because she got 30 percent in English and 32 percent in Japanese; but because her feelings didn't make sense. Luna rubbed up against her forearm, trying to comfort her.

"It's okay Luna, I think I'll just nap for a bit." Usagi giggled before pulling up the covers and burying herself in the bed. Mamoru's shirt was still on her pillow, without it; she would start to feel unsafe.

"Oh Usagi-chan I hope you feel better." Luna curled up at the end of the bed, falling asleep under the moon light.