Hi all. This is Marigold. I'm posting this for Cynthia because she already had it written, and she's not allowed on the computer at the moment. She's really depressed right now, and feels humiliated about what she had to post. She hopes you likethis, and all forget about what you read here before.

On My Own?

.--------------Chapter 4--------------------.

"Oh. My. Gosh." gasped Usagi as she slammed the front door behind her and leaned back against it.

-scratch scratch-

"Usagi-chan. Usagi-chan!" shouted Luna, muffled by the door.

"What? Oh!" Usagi opened the door again and looked down at Luna, embarrassed. "Sorry about that Luna-chan. I forgot about you."

"Yes, that does seem to be so." Luna stood up and moved into the house, leading her charge toward the bathroom.

"I can't believe I was nearly caught." She moved to open the cupboard and removed the first-aid kit

"But Usagi-chan, it was a senshi. You should not have run."

"But-"

"No Usagi," Luna said in a stern voice. "You cannot let your fear of rejection stop you from making contact with them." The girl grimaced and Luna sighed. "You need them and they need you. It is only together that we may find the Princess."

At this, Usagi became still and quiet.

Usagi was not entirely sure what her dreams meant, or if they were more than dreams at all. It could just be wishful thinking on her part; being a princess, falling in love with a prince. It is every girl's dream. On the other hand, if they are memories…

"Usagi-chan, what are you doing?" Usagi looked down to see she had torn open the bandage wrapper and was now in the process of tearing the bandage too. She blushed. Cleansing her scratches, she applied ointment and covered it with a fresh bandage.

She was, however, having some trouble at examining a dull pain at her back. Luna took pity on her charge. "Usagi-chan, let me help you with that."

"Thanks Luna," she replied, lifting up the back of her shirt.

"No," assured Luna, "It's just a bruise."

"Usagi-chan! Is that you!" came a voice from the kitchen.

Both Usagi and Luna froze at it. It was Taisetsu.

'Did he hear me speak?'

"Usagi!"

"Yes, it's me," she answered, walking reluctantly from the bathroom into the hall.

"Where are the groceries?"

"Uh," she began tentatively, fidgeting her toes, "I have not been to the grocery store yet."

"Why not?" he demanded.

"Something came up?" More fidgeting, and some eye darting as well.

Taisetsu made an insulting face. "Well, I hope you don't expect to eat. I just made food for Hana and me and Kiseki and there's nothing left for you." He turned, walking back into the kitchen. Usagi followed dejectedly. Luna just stood there and watched. "It's your own problem if you starve, but you should probably get food soon. Shingo, Shouga and Mari-chan still need to eat when they get home."

This stirred Usagi to life like jolt of electricity. 'The babies! I didn't see them this morning. Shingo is a little pest, but I really miss Shouga-chan and Mari-chan!'

"You have to pick up the twins."

"I do?"

"Yes." Usagi waited for further details, but none were forthcoming.

"From where?"

"From school."

Usagi frowned, "Why are they at school?"

"Some school trip, I think."

"You don't know?" Usagi was worried that they were being so poorly looked after in her absence.

"Ask Kiseki, he'll know about it."

Usagi held back the small growl she so wanted to let out. It was pointless. Taisetsu always liked to give short muttered answers whenever she questioned him. It was only when he mocked her that he gave any effort. This was the closest thing to a conversation they had had in weeks. Most of the time she tried to avoid him when she came home on weekends to clean the house and pay the bills.

Sighing, Usagi turned her attention to questioning Kiseki on everything she needed to know.

.---------------------------------------------------------------.

"So you think this new 'senshi' might really be some ploy by the Dark Kingdom?" asked Chiba Mamoru, as he sat before a low table in the private quarters of Hikawa Jinja. "For what purpose?"

Upon Mamoru's interruption, the group had realised how public their discussion was, only then noticing the citizens of Tokyo coming out to check out the site of so much noise. The senshi had wisely decided to relocate to a more private setting.

Mamoru's apartment was out of the question. He was an intensely private man, opening up his friendship to few and his home to even fewer. His home was his personal haven; a place where he could relax and experience his emotions freely, without fear of revealing himself to anyone.

"Perhaps to infiltrate the senshi?" replied Mizuno Ami. "To learn our weaknesses and destroy us from the inside?" Ami's house was also not an option. She lived there with her mother, and was always very careful to keep her identity as a senshi from her. Should her mother return during their meeting, and if she didn't overhear anything damning, Ami could always tell her she was just 'hanging out' with her friends. Mamoru, however, would be hard to explain. Her mother might wonder why a man in University was associating with a group of High school girls.

"No way!" burst forth Kino Makoto, putting her hands on the table and rising to her knees. She could not believe the Dark Kingdom so cleaver. And she wanted to believe that they had finally found their last senshi. "We'd never fall for that! Ami would examine her with her computer and we'd find out right away." Although she lived alone since her parent's deaths, her own apartment was not a meeting place for the same reason as Ami's. It would not look good to her neighbours for a young girl of 17, living alone, to be having boys over. It would likely lose her her welcome, and she was loath to give up such a splendid apartment. There are not many such excellent kitchens to be found in Tokyo apartments, and certainly not any others within her price range.

"She's right," supplied Ami. "My computer can tell if someone is human, or from the Dark Kingdom, or even if they are a senshi." The brunette nodded and settled back on her cushion. "If only I could get a reading on her." Ami frowned, pulling out her computer and typing a few things in.

"The next time we come across this girl, and I am sure that we will," announced Mamoru, placing his mug of hot chocolate down before him, "we must detain her long enough after the battle for Ami to scan her."

"We will just have to keep her from running away again." Hino Rei was glaring at her blonde friend. Aino Minako had the sense to look embarrassed.

"Minako-chan?"

"Hai?" She perked up and turned to look at Mamoru.

"What did this 'senshi' look like?"

"Well, it's hard to remember." At the frustrated look she was getting from each of them, as well as the low "grr" emanating from Rei, she elaborated quickly. "She had a fuku like Mercury, but with different coloured bows."

"What is the final senshi supposed to look like?" asked Makoto.

"I don't have any memories of what the final senshi looks like. All I know is what Artemis has told me. Besides, the memory of what she looked like today is fading even now. It must be part of the glamour involved in being a senshi…"

Mamoru knew.

He could see her vividly in his mind now: long blond hair in streamers, topped by round buns that just called out to him to let loose and run this fingers through. A petite frame with long legs, a tiny waist and breasts just the right size. And eyes the bluest of blue, bright and expressive, filled with emotion. Kami-sama! How he missed her…

"I wonder who she is?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, we know she's a girl, and probably about our age."

"I wonder where she goes to school?" The others gave Ami a weird look. "Well, she may attend Juu-ban koukou with us."

"I wonder where she's been all this time?"

"I'm sure Luna-chan has just found her." All heads turned to see Artemis, the cat guardian and their guide to being a senshi, walk into the room and hop up into the table.

"Luna-chan?"

"You remember. I told you my counterpart was named Luna. She's probably been searching for Sailor Moon for as long as I've been collecting all of you."

"Maybe she was out of the country like I was," suggested Minako. "Artemis found me is England, and we fought youma there before we came back here to Tokyo to find the rest of you."

"Whoever and wherever she is, I am sure she will be glad to join us. It is not easy fighting on your own. And we need her: we cannot find the princess without her."

Mamoru chose to remain silent as the discussion continued, lost in his own thoughts. He knew who the princess was. It was Sailor Moon herself. He only wondered if she, herself, knew it. Has she dreamt of him all these years, the way he dreamed of her? He felt like he knew her, but did she feel the same way? Did she long for him as he did her? Did she even remember him? And if so, would it be an easy reunion? or one fraught with awkwardness?

And how would he feel? Though he knew her and loved her so well in the past, he didn't know who she was today. Hadn't even met her yet. Would it still be the same? Would they just take up where they had left off? Mamoru frowned. That might be hard.

Mamoru knew that he must be careful in beginning a relationship with this girl he loved. But after dreaming of her his whole life, longing for her so long, he wasn't sure he could take it slow.

He had lost her before, lost her at that terrible cataclysmic battle that ended the Silver Millennium. He had waited all of this life for his second chance; a second chance that he had never really been sure was real, more than just the dreams of a little lost boy who needed someone of his own. It was only when he discovered he was Tuxedo Kamen, and destined to protect the Princess, that he allowed himself to believe.

Artemis had confirmed so much to him that, although he kept his memories entirely to himself, he saw a chance at a bright future ahead of him, with his Princess. If only he could approach her delicately, and not frighten her.

If she remembered him as he did her, it would be all the easier to proceed. However, if she did not remember, or did so only partially, then his path would be all the more tricky.

.-----------------------------------------------------------.

A.N.: Hope this didn't seem too rambling. I just wanted to show Mamoru's feelings as they scrolled through his brain...