Bleed (Just to Know You're Alive)

Interlude

//anything between slashes are thoughts//

----

"Has anyone seen Usagi-chan's nightgown?"

"Usagi-chan, your toothpaste has begun to grow a very interesting form of mold on it. Would you mind if I took this home to analyze?"

"I've lost Haruka-san's car keys! ...oh, no, they're in my pocket."

"Doesn't anyone feel like helping me zip up this suitcase?"

Finally, a voice of calm cut into the sea of insanity. "Usagi, are you feeling well enough to check out today?"

Tsukino Usagi looked at her hands, twisting the ends of her pigtails between her fingers. A few strands got snagged on her engagement ring. "Of course I am, Rei-chan."

The dark-haired preistess sat down on the end of the bed, school shoes clacking on the linoleum floor, eyeing her princess with no small amount of disbelief. "Are you sure?"

Usagi laughed, though it came out choppy and hollow. "I'm positive, Rei-chan! All the doctors said I came out of the surgery fine, I'm healing well; even Ami-chan said so, and you've got to trust her."

//It's not Ami-chan I'm distrusting...//

The golden-haired girl carefully disentangled the strands of her pigtail from the ring, revealing the perfect pink heart, studded with tiny shimmering diamonds. It was so beautiful, wasn't it? It always brought her comfort to look at it, to run her fingers across its smooth surface, because it always reminded her of him. Right now it didn't feel like enough, though. Right now what she wanted to see was his face. What she wanted to feel were his warm hands around her waist.

"Usagi-chan?" Rei said softly, violet eyes watching her friend.

"I'm fine! Everything's fine! Why shouldn't everything be fine?" She gave her ebony-haired friend what she hoped would be a perfectly composed look. In truth, it was something closer to complete and utter despair, and neither she nor the friend who watched her could help but notice the fresh tears gathering at the corners of her eyes, threatening to follow the same dried up path down her cheeks as many others had followed in the previous several hours.

None of them had really slept all that well the night before. Rei suspected that Usagi had not even closed her eyes for a moment, despite the bustling nurses who kept storming in, ordering her to get some sleep. One of the more bossy ones had even kicked the Senshi out for a few hours, insisting that her patient needed rest. Rather than drag themselves home and face the wrath of parents or grandparents, several of them, herself included, had spent the night gathered in a waiting room, alternately worrying about their princess and muttering obscenities about the cause of their worry.

Namely, Mamoru.

It had been simple when Rei had her rage to feed off of. How dare Mamoru do something so sleezy, so cold-hearted! How dare he lie to her! How dare he lie to Usagi! She'd said all of this, and quite a few more things, while pacing back and forth in that cramped little waiting room. Ever now and then she would punch the wall, just to shake some of her anger out, but it always came back a minute later despite the dents in the cheap hospital plaster. A few times, she was asked by a nurse to calm down, but when Makoto and Haruka had stood up to intervene, the woman beat a hasty retreat to the break room.

But once, during the wee hours of the morning, she'd gone back to Usagi's room to see how her friend was faring. The princess had her back to the door, and even through the tiny piece of plexiglass seperating them, Rei could see her pull the flimsy blankets up to her neck and let out a giant sob. Rei had bumped her head violently on the door then, out of surprise and mild panic, and she had to quickly duck down before Usagi caught sight of her spying.

The rest of the night, the image kept her anger at bay. No matter what Mamoru had or hadn't done, it was hurting Usagi the most. Even with the possibility of an affair looming over their relationship, Usagi was worried about Mamoru. She was worried about his broken tone of voice, his self-depreciating words. She was worried that, while he may have hurt her first, she may have hurt him ten times worse.

Rei twisted a lump of sheet in her hands. She knew the other Senshi had done the same during the night; they hadn't spoken about it, but they didn't need to. They kept exchanging looks of confusion and--Rei suspected--guilt. Like maybe they'd been too forceful. Maybe they didn't have the whole story.

Or maybe their Prince really was a dickless jerk and they needed to rip his head from his shoulders and dance on it. (Haruka had really liked that metaphor. Michiru, on the other hand, seemed to go a little green every time it came up.)

She wasn't sure who had suggested the phonecall. It had come at one of their higher points of rage, when they would have been willing to tear the poor man limb from limb with their bare hands at the slightest provocation. It had seemed like such a good idea at the time. Just call the boy up, give him a piece of their mind, and, once they've said enough to make him realize how much of an ignorant jackass he's been, hang up and let him think about it until he's ready to apologize.

That was the plan, anyway. But it was faulty from the start.

First off, none of them knew his number, which meant that Usagi had to make the call. That, Rei mused, was their greatest mistake. The poor girl had been shocked at their words. Shocked, and heartbroken. They had no right to make her listen to those words, to make her hear those horrible insults being hurled at her lover when she was already in so much pain. And, for that matter, she was not altogether sure that they had the right to say them at all.

To see the broken expression on her friend's face would have been enough. Enough to silence all of them, to tone down their fury. But no, then they had to hear the voice of the strange man on the phone.

The man bothered her. He bothered her because he knew too much to be just a normal friend. He bothered her because his words had confused her. But more than anything, he bothered her because he had shown her--them--what they were doing. For better or for worse, Mamoru had still been--was still--their friend, and even if he had done all the things they were accusing him of, it was still wrong of them to treat him so poorly.

Rei was, fortunately or otherwise, saved from further introspection when Makoto let out a cry of triumph, sitting down on the closed suitcase and wiping her hands on her skirt.

"They said it couldn't be done! But I, Kino Makoto, have shut Usagi-chan's suitcase!" The brunette put her hands on her hips, grinning. "C'mon, guys, applaud me."

Minako opted for throwing a wad of socks at her head instead. "Yeah, but you forgot these."

"Curse you, blonde demon," Makoto snarled, snatching the dirty socks out of her hair. She shook her fist menacingly at her friend. "I'll get you yet!"

Minako swooned melodramatically, fanning herself with what appeared to be Usagi's medical bill. "Oh, isn't there someone to save me from the raging Amazon princess Makoto?"

Apparently there wasn't, because no one else in the room was paying attention to their mildly amusing, if not questionably sane, antics.

"Usagi, tell me what's wrong." With the hand that wasn't clutching the starched sheets, Rei cupped Usagi's face and pulled it close. "Please?"

Usagi stared up at her, crystal blue eyes filled with so much pain that all Rei really wanted to do was throw her arms around her friend and hold her tight. "I... I miss him."

The activity in the room came to an abrupt halt, Makoto and Minako's laughter dying on their lips. The early morning bustle of preparing Usagi for her trip home from the hospital had been a welcome distraction from the long, dreary hours of the night before. But barely a glance at the blonde was a sobering reminder of what their princess was going through.

Makoto was balling her hand into a fist, absentmindedly cracking her knuckles and muttering curses beneath her breath. "Damn womanizer," she mumbled, a tad too loud, "someone oughtta go after him with a crowbar. No, an axe."

"Shh, Makochan!" Minako cast a worried glance in Usagi's direction, hoping the girl had not heard. "Can't you see how much this is hurting her?"

"That's exactly why he deserves to meet my fist, Minako-chan," the brunette hissed. "How dare he treat her like that. While she's in the hospital, no less!"

"Mako-chan, can't we just let that go, for five minutes at the very least?" Ami appeared behind Minako, a toiletry bag in her hands. "I know Mamoru-san is acting...strange, but can't you see how upset Usagi-chan is?"

"Of course I can see it." Makoto slapped her hand on her leg in an attempt to keep from punching the suitcase. It had wheels on it, after all, and the last thing she wanted was to end up on the floor. "That's what's killing me, Ami-chan! I know now there's more to it than 'Mamoru is a cheating asshole and we should tear him limb from limb.' But dammit, that's not making me feel any better!"

There was awkward silence for a few minutes, as everyone figured out what to say next.

"I know you miss him, Usagi. And I wish there was something I could do." Rei put her arm around Usagi's trembling shoulders, hoping she could offer some comfort. She pulled her friend close, wincing slightly as she got a blond odango in her eye. "We're here for you. I'm here for you."

"I know, Rei-chan," Usagi said, choked up on all the emotion threatening to spilt out. "And that means so much. But...but I think he's hurt and I can't help him, and I want to so badly--"

"Wait, you think he's hurt?" Rei pulled back a little out of surprise, causing Usagi to flinch. The priestess would apologize for that later. "Why do you think that?"

"I..." Usagi looked down at her abdomen, bangs covering her tear-filled eyes. "It's like I'm feeling his wounds. My stomach hurts, and I've got a headache, like I hit it on something really hard..."

The princess didn't even have to look up to notice that all four Senshi had crowded around her by this time. It was a very good thing she wasn't claustrophobic. "And he does this thing when he feels bad about something," she continued, rubbing her nose with the back of her hand, "where he puts all the blame on himself, and he just makes himself sick with it. It's like he's doing that tenfold and my whole brain hurts. It's even worse than that time when I tell him I caught him looking at the attendant at the supermarket, when she bent over to pick up the bag of miso she dropped, and I yelled at him for twenty minutes."

"Can you see anything, Usagi-chan?" Ami appeared over Usagi's left shoulder, sitting down crosslegged on the bed. "It doesn't matter if it's something insignificant. Anything at all."

The blonde shook her head confusedly. "I don't know, Ami-chan! I can see vague flashes of things, but they're so jumbled up that I can't even make sense of them. I guess I can try connecting more closely with him, to see if that'll help."

Rei nodded sagely. She knew something of the bond that Usagi and Mamoru shared, though usually he was the one feeling her pain, not the other way around. Linking with people in such a way as to feel what they feel and see what they see was a difficult thing, but considering the lovers already had such a close connection on a subconscious level, she had no doubt that Usagi was capable of doing it on a much higher level. "Please try, Usagi. If something's happened to him, we need to know."

Usagi closed her eyes, reaching out to her Mamochan with all of her being. At first she met with the expected resistance, the frail wall between her consciousness and his that often served as the only barrier preventing them from completely living in each others' shoes. As this last barrier opened to her, it released such a sudden flood of unpleasant sensations that she instinctively recoiled, both physically and mentally. Wave upon wave of pain, guilt, panic, dread, and confusion rolled over her senses, tangled up in one big agonizing mess.

Usagi swam in this knot of emotions for what seemed like hours, the pain being the sharpest feeling of all, followed by the guilt. She was rolling over it, through the swells of agony, like she was a small weightless ship on a giant ocean. Unable to stand it any more, her eyes snapped open, and she found herself sweating and panting. She felt like she was going to faint, but somehow managed to stay upright.

"Usagi-chan!" All four of the friends immediately lunged for the princess, not knowing what they intended to do to help her. The blonde waved them off feebly, trying to steady her breathing. She could handle it, she really could, but not with people hovering over her.

"Guys, if you wouldn't mind, could you stop breathing down my shirt? I can't tell what's going on if you keep doing that." Usagi didn't smile, though she wanted to, when the girls exchanged sheepish looks and scooted an infinitesimal amount away from her.

"What did you see, Usagi-chan?" Makoto asked carefully, controlling the anxious urge to lean right into her friend's face and demand answers.

"I couldn't really see anything, Mako-chan. He's in so much pain, I couldn't even work through it." Usagi took another steadying breath. "He's feeling so many things all at once, and they're so extreme, it's a wonder I could even get to them at all."

She closed her eyes again, approaching the mass of emotions with much more caution the second time. There was nothing around it, save for a sea of black and emptiness; whatever information she would find, it would be at the heart of all that agony. She reached for Rei's hand unconsciously and, squaring her shoulders, dove headlong into Mamoru's pain.

It rolled over her again, throbbing and pulsating like a living being, a creature of torment and suffering. Her breath stuck in her throat, and she felt as though she was drowning in it. Maybe she couldn't do this after all. Maybe she had better turn back. But then the thought of her Mamochan began to materialize in her mind. This wasn't just any agony, after all. It was his. He was hurting and he needed her, and she couldn't abandon him now. Mamoru's pain was her pain.

Usagi took a deep breath and pressed forward. Somehow, after some struggle, she pushed past all those feelings and emotions, past the overwhelming pain and guilt, to the more substantial sense of sight.

It was hardly much better.

Confused and jumbled images darted through her mind one after another. They were strange and random, appearing in anything but chronological order. Sometimes they shifted grotesquely from one image to another. Other times they came in quick flashes, like a slide projector on hyperspeed. It took her a moment to realize that she was not seeing through his eyes, but merely watching his thoughts.

"Can you see anything Usagi-chan?" Minako asked fervently, too impatient to wait.

"I... I see..." She tried desperately to latch onto an image--any image--long enough to figure out what it was. Gradually, like beads of water drawing together, a familiar figure congealed before her. "...me?"

The girls exchanged confused glances. "What do you mean, Usagi-chan?" Ami asked patiently.

The blonde opened her mouth to speak, but even as she did so the image changed. No longer was it a perfect picture of herself as Eternal Sailor Moon, clad in wings and ribbons and wearing a cheerful smile, but rather it was something... different.

This Eternal Sailor Moon looked like something that had come to life from a funhouse mirror. Her smile was pouty, sensual, altogether sinister and nothing like her own. Her wings were tattered, smudged with dirt, not pure enough to be angel wings at all. Her bodice was black and dull, like low quality leather, with random patches of white on it that looked like she'd had an argument with a bottle of bleach.

In the center of the bow on her chest was just a simple round broach, not the one Usagi knew so well as her own - and then she knew why. There was no Ginzuishou in it. She didn't know how she knew, exactly, that the Ginzuishou wasn't in it. But the back of her neck itched and she felt slightly nauseated, like something was wrong, and that was it. The Ginzuishou was the one thing that always made Sailor Moon's coming feel like a miracle could happen, but this version of herself was a gaping void that seemed to suck all the light and purity out of the air around her.

"It's Eternal Sailor Moon, but it's not me," Usagi said shakily. "There's so many things different about her; she just feels wrong. Like she fell out of another dimension. She's making my skin crawl and I'm not even there."

The four girls looked at each other, partly incredulous and partly nervous. What was happening to their prince, all the way across the Pacific?

The room was silent for awhile, save for Usagi's occasional whimperings. Suddenly, she let out a cry of pain, clutching at her abdomen. She could see, in her mind's eye, the Eternal Tier going straight through Mamoru's body as though it were a recently sharpened knife. Worse than seeing it, she could feel it, and even though she wasn't wounded, she thought she could feel blood soaking her uniform and fire in her belly where the wand had been.

"Usagi!" Four voices shouted, the girls rushing forward to help her.

"I'll get the nurse," Ami said, her voice laced with panic.

"No, Ami-chan!" The blonde gasped, clutching her stomach and digging her fingernails into the fabric of her shirt, "I... it's okay, it's not me."

Rei squeezed her other hand tightly, ignoring the fact that Usagi was crushing her fingers. "What's happening, Usagi? What's wrong with him?"

"She's hurting him! She's hurting my Mamochan!"

"How is she hurting him?"

"She... she stabbed him with..." Tears began to run down Usagi's cheeks.

"With what, Usagi-chan?" Makoto asked, her original urge to pry information out of her friend long dead.

"My Tier..." Usagi collapsed onto Rei, sobbing quietly and clinging to her friend for all she was worth.

Rei inhaled sharply, trying to keep her own tears in. "Oh, Usagi...You know this isn't your fault, right? Don't start blaming yourself."

Usagi just sobbed, holding desperately to her friend. She didn't have the time nor the need to start blaming herself now. All she knew was that her Mamochan was hurt, that he was feeling guilty for something that wasn't his fault, and there was no way to help him. The other three girls rallied around her, putting their hands on her shoulders, reassuring her that they were still there.

"Hey, koneko-chan, we're he--" Haruka's sentenced stopped abruptly when she came to the door. She came to a halt when she grasped the scene before her, almost dropping the jacket draped on her arm. She "oof"ed when someone collided with her suddenly unmoving frame.

"You know, you're allowed to go all the way in, darling," someone said sourly from the vicinity of her back.

A pair of delicate hands slid around the blonde woman's waist and veered her to the side, allowing Michiru to slip past her through the doorway. "Honestly, dear, it is far too early in the morning to be playing ga--" Her own sentence faltered as she followed her lover's gaze.

"Usagi-chan?"

The blonde didn't look up. She was too busy sobbing on Rei's shoulder.

"Ami-chan, what happened?" Haruka asked, not succeeding in squashing her panic. Was sshe sick again? Had someone in her family gotten hurt? Had something happened to Mamoru? Not that she herself would have been particularly heartbroken about that last scenario, but her Princess was still stuck on not hating him, and it was driving her absolutely batty.

"It's Mamoru-san, isn't it?" Michiru asked quietly, looking at the weeping girl out of the corner of her eye. She was frowning distinctly, in a way that said 'I think I know what's going on and I don't like it.' Haruka sighed - how did her lover always figure things out before everyone else? Stupid Piscean intuition.

Minako nodded, looking down at her skirt and very intently pressing out the wrinkles with her hands. Makoto made a noise of assent, and started fiddling with one of the zipper pulls on Usagi's suitcase.

"We think someone's masquerading as Sailor Moon and using Mamoru-san's guilt to hurt him," Ami explained, having somehow acquired her computer within the last fifteen seconds. She was looking at Michiru as she said it, but her fingers were flying at the speed of light on the computer's miniature keyboard, proving Rei's theory once and for all. Ami could really operate that in her sleep.

Haruka could have said some very choice words just then. Such as, if Mamoru was any kind of man, he would not have anything to be guilty about in the first place. And, for that matter, why should his being hurt concern them at all, other than the fact that someone beat her to it? She refrained from making any of these comments out loud, if only because her Princess was in close proximity. And because Michiru had already threatened to get violent if she caused Usagi any more pain. //Not that that would be such a bad thing,// she added deviously.

"How did you find that out?" Michiru asked. She always seemed to know the right questions to ask, Haruka mused.

"Well, Usagi-chan started having these visions or something, and--" Minako's explanation was abruptly cut off by Usagi's gasp.

"What is it, Usagi?" Rei asked softly. "Do you see something else?"

She nodded dimly, odango bobbing beneath Rei's chin. "The... the other woman is gone, but someone else is there. No, a bunch of people are there."

"Are they hurting him?"

Usagi shook her head. "I think they're trying to help him, but, but they look like..."

"Like what?"

"Like people from the Dark Kingdom."

The silence in the room was heavy and oppresive, for the whole ten seconds that it lasted. Almost immediately, everyone was shooting off questions.

"The Dark Kingdom? Are you sure?"

"Who, Beryl or Kunzite and his friends?"

"Are you positive they aren't hurting him?"

"Can you see what they're doing?"

"Did you really mean to say the Dark Kingdom?"

"Whoa, girls, take a breath," Haruka finally cut in, dizzied by all the frantic questions and the fact that she really had no idea what was going on. "Didn't we seal the Dark Kingdom away after they crushed the Silver Millenium?"

Apparently this was the wrong question, because an equally frenzied cloud of answeres was directed at her.

"No, see, they came back, and..."

"But we sealed them away, see."

"We had to fight them, but that was years ago."

"There were four of them, but then there was Beryl and youma and..."

"We killed them. They should be dead."

This last comment came from Minako, who stood leaning against the wall, the red bow in her hair lightly brushing against it. She she brushed a soft strand of blonde hair out of her face, staring down at the floor. "They can't be alive," she said softly.

Ami put her hand on Minako's arm, her face grim and seriously set. She said nothing, but her look spoke volumes. Fear, worry, confusion were all pulsing just behind her eyes. Minako was right; they couldn't be alive. Not after all that hardship. Not after defeating Chaos, the end all and be all of evil, could their first and perhaps most devastating enemy be walking the earth again.

"I think," Rei spoke up, voice thick with emotion, "that we owe Mamoru-san a phonecall." Her eyes dropped, coal black bangs hiding them from everybody. But not from Usagi.

//Rei-chan...//

"They're not hurting him." Usagi's voice was firm, a platform of solidarity that her inner court was needing just then. It was, Haruka thought bemusedly, her Princess Voice. "I don't know what they -are- doing, exactly, but if they meant to hurt him, they wouldn't..."

She paused. How much did she want to share? She could see her Mamochan on the ground, bleeding, life dripping away second by second, with Kunzite, or whoever he was, holding him. Holding him and crying and begging him to save himself. There was something eerily right, that Kunzite would be protecting him, but Usagi couldn't put her finger on what it was.

"Wouldn't what, Usagi-chan?" Michiru was a sea of calm. Always. It was the moments when she started to lose her control that you knew everything was going somewhere in a handbasket but fast.

Usagi stared at Michiru for a moment, suddenly reassured by that calm look in her deep aquamarine eyes. Maybe the others wouldn't be able to understand what she was seeing, but as long as Michiru and Rei were nearby, maybe it would be okay after all. "They wouldn't be so desperate to save him," she concluded. Her voice was soft but decisive, a firm challenge against anyone who dared question whether she was seeing properly.

Tangible silence returned to the room, as everyone attempted to absorb this new information.

"That doesn't make any sense," Makoto mumbled, fingers restlessly playing with the zippers on Usagi's suitcase.

Ami nodded gravely. "Especially not for that one, Kunzite. Remember what he did to Mamoru-san? How he..." She trailed off abruptly, casting a glance up at Usagi. It would be better not to discuss the many ways that her Princess' lover had been killed in the past.

The blonde was not listening anyway. She was focused far too intently on said lover, on the sight of the people frantically trying to stop the bleeding, on the confused jumble of emotions churning away in his mind. She saw the way Kunzite's hand clutched her Mamochan's, and how tightly her Mamochan held him back. So tightly that both their knuckles showed white beneath the thin wash of blood that seemed to be splattered all over everything. Instinctively, she reached for Rei's hand, squeezing it just as tight.

"None of this makes sense," Rei said, hoarse. She clung to her princess' hand as though it were a lifeline, which it may well have been. "Not Mamoru-san's behavior, not the appearence of those...those demons, years after we destroyed them. Not any of it."

"That's just the way our lives work," Michiru said, wrapping one arm around her lover's waist. "We are always encountering new obstacles, things that don't make sense. It's just the way of things. But we'll solve it, as we always do."

"No, there was one time we didn't." Usagi tried to block out the blood, the pain that was washing around in her mind, but she just couldn't. There was no way she could cut their link, not now.

Not even if she had wanted to.

As much as Usagi wanted to recoil in horror at what she saw and felt, what she wanted even more was to put her arms around her beloved Prince and hold him tight until he was no longer hurting. She tried to reach him, tried to make him hear her voice telling him how much she loved him and missed him and never wanted him to go away. But try as she might, Usagi could not break through the tangled net of guilt, pain, and self-loathing that had ensnared his very being. He was deaf to her cries.

The girls watched their Princess, all of them looking quite lost as to what to do. They wanted so much to comfort her, but what do you say in a situation like this? Haruka certainly could not think of anything.

"Is he alright, Usagi-chan?" Makoto leaned forward on her perch on top of the suitcase, watching the blonde with concerned green eyes.

Usagi dimly shook her head.

She was beginning to panic. Her Mamochan was struggling to remain conscious, struggling to cling to the life that was steadily leaking out of him. She could see the panic flooding Kunzite's strangely green eyes, and could hear the way that his voice, even through the foreign English words, was edged in desperation. //Oh, Mamochan, why aren't you listening to them? Can't you see that they're as desperate as I am? Why are you blaming yourself so much? That's not fair, Mamochan. You always take all the blame.//

For a few more agonizing moments, it seemed as though Mamoru had given up hope completely and was really going to slip away. But out of the corner of her empathic vision, she could see three other men linking hands with her Prince - their Prince - and though she couldn't understand what they were saying, their purpose was clear. They were lending him strength, enough that he could heal himself. Slowly, as though from a clogged faucet, a little glow lit up Mamoru's features. More and more light reflected against the sticky, bloodied grass as organs, tissue, skin all mended itself. He was whole once again, but he had lost a lot of blood, and with the threat of death warded off for the immediate future, Mamoru blacked out, effectively cutting off Usagi's view of the situation.

Usagi couldn't help it. She screamed. "Mamochan!"

"Princess!" "Usagi-chan, what's wrong?" "Did that Dark Kingdom bastard do something to him?"

"He's...I can't see him," the blonde explained frantically, face scrunched in panic and confusion. "I can't see him! I can still feel him, but..."

"Maybe he's just blacked out," Michiru interjected calmly. "If he lost a lot of blood, his body would try to shut down what it could to gather strength. I'm sure that's just what it is, Usagi-chan."

"She's right, Usagi-chan," Ami nodded, tapping thoughtfully at her miniature computer. "If you can still feel him, he must be alright."

The blonde whimpered slightly, her hands wringing the edge of the sheet into a tight rope. Six pairs of eyes watched her sympathetically, at a loss as to how to help her.

Suddenly, Usagi flung the covers aside. "I'm going to see him!" she announced decisively.

Makoto leapt up, effectively knocking over the suitcase. "What? Usagi--"

"Mamochan needs me! I need to go see him!" She swung her legs over the edge of the bed, bare feet landing on the cold tile floor.

Rei grabbed her arm, her grip both firm and gentle. "What are you talking about, Usagi-chan? You can't just go off and buy a plane ticket."

Usagi turned towards her, pigtails flying. "I'll teleport there! If we could teleport to the Moon, I can teleport to America, right?"

"Usagi-chan, you just came out of surgery," Ami explained carefully. "You're in no condition to teleport to the nearest convenience store, let alone halfway across the world."

"But..."

"She's right on that account, koneko-chan. Even with all of us supporting you, I'd be afraid of what a trip like that could do to you." Haruka bit her lip, partly out of worry and partly out of frustration. She'd sooner die than see her Princess sacrifice herself for her two-timing boyfriend.

"But he needs help!" the blonde insisted desperately.

"Usagi-chan," Minako said softly, her normally cheerful eyes the very picture of serious. "Whatever is happening to Mamoru-san right now, there must be a reason for it. He's a lot stronger than we give him credit for. I'm sure he must be alright. I think we all need to start having a little faith in Mamoru-san."

Unfortunately for Haruka, her lips got ahead of her brain and she would immediately regret what came out of her mouth. "His capabilities, or lack therof, aside, I for one certainly don't feel the need to have faith in cheaters."

The room was so silent, everyone could hear each other's breaths hitch. Michiru elbowed her lover sharply in the ribs; so sharply, in fact, that Haruka hissed in pain and pulled away. There she went, running her mouth. Of all the things Usagi needed to hear right now, it was not her mistrustful bellyaching. Beyond her, Makoto and Ami were glaring at her sharply. She winced; even gentle Ami was looking a bit homocidal.

"Princess, what I meant to say was--"

The hand came flying so fast that Haruka hardly had time to blink. The sound of the slap seemed to echo in the already hollow silence. Her head whipped sharply to the side of its own accord, and only the reflexive grab of her partner prevented her from stumbling backwards.

Stunned, Haruka lifted a hand to her throbbing cheek. She could not figure out which stung worse--the pain that had exploded in the side of her face, or the fact that it was her own princess who had hit her.

"Don't you ever say that again!" Usagi stood, trembling with emotion, barefoot and in naught but her hospital gown. Her crystal blue eyes glared daggers up at Haruka, shimmering with furious, frightened tears.

"Princess..."

"Don't you -ever- say that again!" the blonde shouted, shaking her fists at the woman who, for all intents and purposes, towered over her. Her face was knitted into a scowl, looking straight up at Haruka with renewed vigor. "I don't care what you may think of Mamochan, or his behavior! He is still your Prince, Haruka-san, and I am still your Princess! He could very well be dying, and all you can think to talk about is how he may or may not have cheated on me!"

"Princess, please forgive me." Haruka's voice was hoarse, barely above a whisper. She looked off to her side, hoping Michiru would take her hand, but no hand was offered. It seemed not even her lover was offering any sympathy - not that she expected any. "It wasn't my place to say that."

"You're damn right it wasn't." A collective gasp was heard around the room as she uttered the curse, but Usagi ignored them. She reached up to touch Haruka's red, swollen cheek, but her friend pulled away, still ashamed to look her in the face. "But you said it anyway. Hasn't Michiru taught you anything about keeping your mouth shut when you want to say things like that?"

//Apparently I'm not a very good student,// Haruka thought sullenly, her cheeks burning both from the slap and from the embarrassment. She could feel five pairs of eyes boring into her, and she suspected that more than a few of them were filled with as much vehemence as the hand that had scruck her. Worse was the sinking feeling in her stomach, the one that told her very clearly that she had deserved that. If something had happened to her Michiru and someone had had the gall to insult her lover even as she may have been dying, Haruka was certain that the offender would have suffered much more than the sting of one little slap.

Yeah, she knew she deserved that. But it did not make things any better.

"I'm sorry, Princess."

Usagi stared down at her hands, which were wringing tightly around one another, her fingernails digging into her skin. Though her bangs fell softly over her face, overshadowing her eyes, tears could still be seen glistening on her cheeks. "It... it doesn't matter anyway, does it? He'll be okay, won't he? He's so strong. He's always been so strong."

//I wouldn't call him the strong one in this relationship.// Haruka watched her Princess out of the corner of her eye, not daring to face her directly. //But he has the love of one of the most beautiful creatures in the universe. You gotta give him credit there.//

"He'll be okay, Usagi." Rei was glaring daggers at Haruka from the corner of her eye, but the rest of her face was calm, cool as a cucumber. "As...upsetting as I find the appearence of Kunzite, and his inexplicable behavoir, I can't help but feel that Mamoru-san is in good hands."

"Me, too." Usagi's eyes dropped to her feet, cold on the linoluem tiles. "But I wish...I wish I could be there for him. I knew I never should have let him go back to America. I know it's his dream, but just once, I wanted to be selfish and keep him with me. And protect him. For once, why can't I be strong for him?"

"Usagi-chan, you are strong for him." Makoto smiled warmly, somehow forgetting that she had been cracking her knuckles and muttering curses a mere few hours ago. Usagi's happiness was, after all, far more important than any percieved notions of revenge. "You have always been a light to Mamoru-san. Heck, I don't know him that well, and even I can see that."

Minako slid an arm around the other blonde's shoulders. Right now, with her eyes red from crying and lack of sleep, her face all pale from the surgery, and her slim frame wrapped in little else but the thin, barely concealing hospital gown, the former Princess Serenity looked exceptionally frail. She looked like she needed a really big hug. "Tell you what, Usagi-chan. Soon as we get you home, we'll try calling him, alright? We'll get this whole mess cleared up, and you can make sure that he's alright. How's that sound?"

Usagi's head shot up. "But you guys have school," she said seriously.

Minako snorted in a most unladylike fashion, waving off the statement with a broad sweep of her hand. "A minor detail! You're talking to the goddess of love, my dear, and your love life is in dire need of assistance. Just leave it to V! We'll have everything fixed in no time."

"I think we can take a day's vacation from school," Ami spoke up, looking from Usagi to her own bookbag with a smile. "I'd be shocked if our teachers got terribly upset if we were helping a sick friend."

"No arguments, Usagi-chan, okay?" Makoto leaned against the enormous suitcase, pulling out its retractable plastic handle as she did so. "Minako-chan's right, in her own convoluted sort of way. We'll even pay for the long distance. But you two need to have a serious talk."

Usagi raised an eyebrow. "And you all need to supervise my phonecall...why?"

"For moral support, of course!" Minako proclaimed. "And," she added in a whisper so that only Usagi could hear, "because it's an excuse to skip out on that math quiz."

"Actually, Usagi," Rei interjected, "we'd like to be there because we're worried about him as well. I'm rather wary about these guys he's with. And I'm not sure about anyone else here, but I personally would like to apologize for some things that I said earlier."

Usagi smiled, relieved to suddenly find all her friends on her side. "Thanks, Rei-chan."

"Well, that's settled!" announced Makoto, nearly knocking over the suitcase again. "We're breaking you out of this joint, blondie, and on the way home we're making a pit stop for chocolate bread and fashion magazines."

Usagi couldn't help it. She had to laugh, despite the tears that were still threatening, despite how cold and tired and miserable she really felt. No matter how cold or tired or miserable she got, her friends would cheer her up. Her friends could make it better. Her friends could help her to help her Mamochan.

But even as the parade of schoolgirls left the room, chattering all the way (except for Haruka, who was still suffering in guilty silence), the princess could not ignore the knot in her stomach. This wasn't over. There was something more - something awful - ahead. And it was right around the corner.

"Princess?" Usagi glanced up from her newly arranged blankets. Haruka hovered in the doorway, though the sound of girlish chatter was quickly fading down the hallway. "I want you to know that I'm sorry. I never intended to hurt you... or him. You know that if you ever need me--if he ever needs me--I'll be there in a heartbeat."

For the first time in days, the blonde-haired princess brushed aside a stray pigtail, and flashed Haruka a million dollar smile. "I know. Thanks, Haruka-san."

---

A big warm thank you to everyone who has left us encouraging comments and reviews. Just when we were starting to feel a little discouraged, people started coming out of the woodwork to cheer us on, which was, needless to say, really nice. Whether we have one reader or a hundred, we won't stop writing this fic, but knowing that so many people are enjoying it certainly helps keep us going.

Remember how we said you'd never see the Senshi? Yeah, we lied. Sorry. But hey, you can't argue with Usagi slapping Haruka around, right? Right.

Also, apologies for the slow turnaround. Between Anne having to set up - and consequently wipe and set up again - her new computer, and a new spring schedule, we've been busy out our ears. Don't worry, more mansex--real chapters to come quickly!

~Spirit-hime and AngelAnne