/stubbornly/I like making Usagi-chan smart. At least in areas that I think she would be. This fic, and the theme on Usako Mamory is the result of that.

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Soul Mates

A One-shot

By Natsudori Lina

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"The man was originally the child of the sun, the woman of the earth, and the man-woman of the moon, which is made up of sun and earth, and they were all round and moved round and round," Mamoru muttered to himself, cradling his head in his hands as he pored over his textbook. "Terrible was their might and strength, and the thoughts of their hearts were great, and they made an attack upon the gods." He ran an agitated hand through blue-black hair and took a sip of his coffee, praying that it would mentally fortify him. He glanced at the book with hopeful eyes, and nearly growled with frustration as it laid there innocently, silently mocking him. Mamoru shook his head. No. It was a book. A book filled with words. Stupid, stupid words. "Right, okay. So then, the gods said—they said--" He gave up and slammed the text shut, letting his head fall rhythmically against its cover. "They should have said that this is a load of--"

"Mamoru-baka!" Usagi squeaked indignantly, cutting off his muttered oath. He had been so preoccupied with his textbook trouble that he had failed to notice a pair of cornflower blue eyes peering at him curiously. When he had began to bang his head despondently against the innocently blue cover, she had been quite unable to resist and had vacated her spot at the counter to see what could possibly ruffle the feathers of the stoic Chiba Mamoru.

He winced. "Odango. Gomen nasai, I--" He broke off to glare at her. "Why am I apologizing to you?"

Usagi looked up from her perusal of his book with a twinkle in her eye and an uncharacteristic smirk on her face. "Oh, I don't know. Maybe because I might be able to help you?"

Mamoru's skeptical gaze said it all.

"No, really, Baka-san!" she insisted. "It's mythology, ne? I'm good with mythology!"

"Odango, I doubt you've ever passed a test in your life. I'm not about to let you tutor me." He spoke as he gathered the book and a few sheets of paper into his arms and strode toward the automatic doors. "Ja."

"I bet I know more about it than you," Usagi challenged.

Mamoru's back stiffened. Do not let her rile you, he chanted. Do not allow yourself to be distracted. Do not compete with Usagi.

"Whassa matter, Mamoru?" she taunted. "Afraid that I might know more than you about something? Afraid that I might just be smarter than you in this? "

Self-Control bid Mamoru a fond adieu as he whirled to face her, hands clenched, as Competitive Drive took over. "Fine," he ground out through gritted teeth as he stalked over to the table and she happily took her seat, golden pigtails flying in front of her in her haste.

He eyed her contemplatively, deciding to take it easy on her at first. "Who drove the chariot that brought the sun to light the sky each day?"

He sipped his coffee, expecting it to take her a moment. Thus, he nearly choked on his drink when she responded with a prompt "Apollo." She patted him helpfully as she silently admonished him. You'll have to do better than that, Mamoru-baka. Her look spoke volumes of her disappointment. "What were Mercury's winged sandals called?" Usagi shot at him.

His jaw dropped and she squirmed uncomfortably. "Hermes, if you prefer. Y'know, messenger god?"

Mamoru continued to stare at her, aghast. She sighed. "Talaria," she said finally.

He physically shook himself from his stupor. Obviously, he'd have to ask some tougher questions. "What was the river in the Underworld called?"

"The river Styx. What was the name of the ferryman?"

He fumbled his thoughts. "Chrono—no, wait, Charon!" he said triumphantly. "Where did the gods live?"

"Mount Olympus. Are you sure you don't want to stop—no? Okay, who was the god of sea?"

"Mercury," he said confidently. "Who--" He stopped short as she giggled. "What?" he asked in confusion.

"Wrong," she sang out. "Baka-san, I just told you that Mercury was the messenger god. No, the answer's Neptune. Or Poseidon. Either, or."

Mamoru blinked. Then why… He shook himself from this contemplation to focus on matters at hand. She was beating him! He had only answered one correctly, and she hadn't missed a single one. And, if he wasn't mistaken, Usagi was deliberately baiting him a bit with trick questions and obscure information.

He threw out his last hope. "Name three goddesses of the moon." Usagi stared at him in shock for a moment, before throwing back her head and letting out a long, pealing bell of laughter. He allowed hope to rise cautiously and finally spoke confidently. "So, you don't--"

He was cut off by one righteous finger wagging in his face, as Usagi's laughter died and she let a triumphant gleam dance happily in her eyes. "Hecate." She held up a second finger. "Artemis." Her lips twitched at some unknown joke and she held up her third finger. "And Selene." Her shoulder quaked with laughter as she innocently inquired, "Would you like their Roman names as well?"

Mamoru looked at her and conceded defeat. "Fine, fine. You're better than me at this one thing." She moved to protest before he cut her off with blue eyes narrowed in her direction. "Are you going to help me or not?" he said quietly.

She flushed, visibly taken aback, and nodded. "H-hai." She sat next to him and slid the book in front of her. "What page?"

"274."

Usagi flipped it open and rifled through until she found the appropriate page. Mamoru watched as her brow furrowed in thought and her eyes scanned the page. Her mouth formed a neat little 'o' as her eyes flew to his. "But—but this is easy!"

"It doesn't make sense," he said stubbornly, crossing his arms. "None of that could have ever happened. The ancient Greeks and Romans obviously had some drugs that are outlawed today because I don't see how--"

"Mamoru no baka," she huffed out impatiently. "Look, I know you have this thing for facts, but forget that for a second. Think about possibility."

Mamoru looked at her blankly and she sighed impatiently. "Forget your logic," she encouraged again. "Think of this as a story, and stop trying to prove it wrong. If you deflate you ego a little bit, you should be able to make some room for your brain to figure it out."

He tugged her pigtail, a little miffed at the dig. "Get on with it, Odango."

"Okay, look, what he's saying here is that humans used to be these ugly-looking things with four arms and four legs, and a whooooole lot of power. So one day, they got a little too big for their britches and attacked the gods." She turned the page. "As you could probably guess, they didn't much like that, so Zeus decided to split them up. That's where the whole 'soul mates' thing comes from. We're each half of a soul, half of a person, really, which is why we have two arms and two legs now too." She put a finger to her lips, thinking to herself. "That might be where 'opposites attract' comes from too, actually. The opposites combine to form the complete soul. What do you think?" Eyes lit with this realization, she turned to discover a disturbingly intent Mamoru gazing down at her. She blushed and turned back to the book, flipping the page to stare curiously at an artist's rendering of what an original human may have looked like.

Mamoru, for his part, turned to look at her petite form with its golden locks, mentally comparing it to his own large body and dark hair. His lips curved with an amused grin. So… I should consider the possibilities, huh, Odango? He sat back calmly and watched her twitter away, entire being animated with the ideas she clearly found fascinating. Well… alright then.

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Notes: The passage Mamoru is having trouble with is Plato's "Symposium" (I condensed it a LOT in Usagi's explanation) and the quotes are from Aristophanes' speech in that. All trivia on mythology is actually mythology, and in case anyone's wondering the Roman names for Hecate, Artemis, and Selene are Trivia, Diana, and Luna, respectively. (At least according to a webpage… if it's wrong… I blame that ;)