Usagi

"You did what?"

Mamoru's eyes were as wide as his mouth as he stared at me in shock.

"Usako, that could get me arrested!"

"Relaaaax," I cooed, giving the hand in mine a gentle squeeze. "Maeda is way too afraid of you now to do anything about it."

The late afternoon sun sprawled golden beams along the sidewalk, its warm colors dancing lazily in the fallen leaves. An early autumn breeze pricked at the bare skin of my legs and I snuggled closer into his side, nuzzling my nose against his sweater. Feeling me shift, he pulled his hand from mine to place it around my shoulders and hold me to him, rubbing circles against the thin material on my arm, warming me up in more ways than one.

"I hope you're right about that," he muttered, but his voice was playful.

For the last week or so, every one of my days had been filled with Mamoru. Even after we had returned to our own bodies. The very next morning after our battle with Kunzite, he had been waiting outside my front door to walk me to school, hand in hand, just as we were a moment ago. Our appearance at the school yard resulted in a number of turned heads, a few scowls, and several pairs of ogling eyes. Everyone stared after us again as we left the school the same way we arrived and, as the days passed, the reactions faded and our affections grew.

Mamoru helped me study; a futile effort, but sweet one nonetheless. He bought me after school snacks and only judged me a little bit for consuming so much sugar on a daily basis. He caught me when I tripped over nothing and saved me from slamming my face into the concrete on more than one occasion and managed to do so without making any insidious comments. And today, he had finally taken me on our first real date.

The movie had ended much too soon--even though I didn't really watch much of it--and so we were now on our way for a treat to prolong the end of our date as much as possible. When we entered the arcade, nobody was surprised to see us together anymore, the girls and other kids from school barely lifting their eyes, but Motoki always held a special twinkle in his eye for the two of us that never failed to evoke a hot flush across Mamoru's cheeks. He still wasn't over my inadvertent flirting with his friend that first day I had woken up in his body.

"Hey, Usa," called the sandy blonde. "Hey, Mamo." That mischievous twinkle was shining as I knew it would be and as the color flooded Mamoru's cheeks, I had to bite my lip to keep from picking up where we left off in the movie theater. Embarrassed Mamo-chan always made me squirm in the best way.

He cleared his throat. "Hello, Motoki. Two hot apple ciders, please." His greeting was overly polite.

"With whipped cream and caramel sauce!"

He looked down at me with a newly familiar gentleness in his sapphire eyes.

"With whipped cream and caramel sauce," he echoed before placing a tender kiss on my bangs.

"Careful there, or I'm going to get jealous," Motoki teased.

The flush returned to Mamo's cheeks with new fervor as he slammed one fist on the laminate countertop.

"It was an accident!" he bellowed. "One damn day I wasn't feeling well and I have to live with this forever." He sighed, sagging into a stool at the bar.

Motoki laughed and sauntered off to the kitchen to fetch our drinks.

Slipping my arms underneath his, I hugged Mamoru from behind, feeling the tense muscles of his back release beneath my touch.

"I'm sorry, Mamo-chan. But you are really cute when you're embarrassed."

"Is that so?" His voice was dangerous and he tilted his chin over his shoulder to try to get a look at me. Something about his tone told me he had some devious idea rolling around in that beautiful head of his.

He spun around on the stool with inhuman speed--damn him--and trapped me, his arms around mine and his legs pinned to my hips, ankles hooked around my calves, hands clasped provocatively low on the small of my back. The intimate closeness drove a heat to my own cheeks as his eyes smoldered into my very soul, stoking the flame that I struggled to suppress every minute of the day when he was with me. His face inched closer to mine and his voice was barely audible when he spoke again, his breath tickling my lips.

"Who's embarrassed now?"

If he hadn't been holding me so tightly, I would have melted into a puddle of bubbling teenage hormones on the floor of the arcade. Instead, I merely shivered, my lips parting, begging for his to touch mine. He snickered darkly before placing the briefest of kisses on the tip of my nose and pulling me to sit on the stool beside him.

"Not funny," I hissed, crossing my arms and jutting my chin in the opposite direction.

"I thought it was pretty funny."

Minako appeared behind us, a wide grin stretched beneath raised, knowing eyebrows. I rolled my eyes.

"Hey, Mina." Motoki greeted her cheerfully and set our drinks before us on the counter. "Can I get you something hot?"

"No thanks." She tossed her long, blonde hair over her shoulder. "It's hot enough in here already."

An exasperated groan rumbled from the man beside me and he dropped his forehead to the counter with a plop.

"Will the madness never end?"

"I don't know what he's griping about." Rei had crossed from the back booth to join our forming group at the counter and was muttering into Mina's ear, failing miserably at her attempted discretion. "I only got to touch his hair once. Usagi wouldn't even let me anywhere near his--"

"Rei!"

"What!"

Mamoru's accusing eyes darted back and forth between the three of us, not sure which was most deserving of his wrath.

"What happened to respecting my body?" He demanded, settling on me.

Motoki, who was still present, piped up. "Okay, now I'm really jealous of whatever Usagi is doing to you."

I had never seen such a bright shade of pink on Mamoru's face. He thrust his fist into his pocket, threw down a wad of crumpled cash, and dragged me off the stool by my wrist, almost knocking me to the floor in his haste. I struggled against his grip, but he was too strong.

"Wait," I pleaded, "what about our drinks?"

He released me, turned on his heel, grabbed the drinks, and fled the arcade without another word. Apparently, I was meant to follow.

"Looks like you two need to blow off some steam," called Mako from the back booth, drawing the attention of a group of kids clustered around an arcade game and earning a pointed look from an embarrassed Ami.

"Need another cram session?" Motoki winked.

I stuck out my tongue at my supposed friends and marched dutifully after my steaming boyfriend.

Mamoru

The only thing more frustrating than Usagi's friends was the way her tongue was gliding along my lower lip right now and the sound of her breath as it hitched when I met her tongue with my own. And the only thing more frustrating than that was the fact that I had to relinquish her for the night instead of taking her home to share my bed with me, as we had done once before while we were swapped. When she was the big spoon and I not so secretly adored having her wrapped around me. She knew what that did to me, which was undoubtedly why she pulled that little stunt in the arcade, and was exactly why I was kissing her like I was a starving man and she was the only thing on Earth that could feed me.

"Mamo-chan," she breathed against my neck as she took an oxygen break, her special nickname for me sending a delightful shiver down my spine. "We have to stop. My parents…"

"Believe me, Ikuko is a full supporter of our physical relationship," I murmured into her ear.

She gasped. "What do you mean?"

"Your mother is the greatest woman on this planet. Second only to you, of course."

She stiffened in my arms but continued to nuzzle her cold nose into my neck.

"That's kind of really weird, Mamo-chan."

Note to self: don't compliment a woman's mother while you're kissing her.

I sighed and rested my forehead against hers and cupping her face in my hands, deciding to change the subject.

"Do you know how grateful I am that you're back in this body?" I let my fingertips trail lightly down her neck, across her collarbones, feeling the goosebumps raise against my skin. "I mean, even if we had never switched back, I would still kiss you. Obviously. Because I already did that. But I much prefer you this way."

Her skin grew warm under my touch and I drew her chin up to kiss her once more. This intimacy that we shared was exhilarating and fantastic and weird. And I loved that she knew me better than anyone else on the planet ever could. That I could ramble nonsensically with giddiness and talk about her mother at the most inappropriate moments and she would still shudder beneath me, still cling to my sweater like she was going to fall off the face of the Earth without me, still return each of my kisses with matched enthusiasm.

Ever since we returned to our proper bodies, the disconcerting, dark dreams had ceased, although the enemy continued to wage war against us. In fact, Kunzite reappeared just days later as he had promised, but the strength of our attacks had grown. Each of the Senshi seemed to have gained some sort of power up, Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Kamen included, and the battles were no longer so perilous. The Dark Kingdom was gaining ground, that was certain, but standing together with Usagi, I knew we would be able to overcome anything that came our way.

"Usako," I finally began after a few more minutes of pressing her against the front door of her house.

"Yes?"

"Do you think you could sleep over again sometime? Now that you're...well, now that things are right?" I couldn't get the image of her scintillating hair strewn across my dark sheets out of my mind.

She turned bright crimson beneath my gaze and the reflection of the streetlights danced in her wide eyes.

"Oh, Mamo-chan. I really want to. I do. But my dad--"

"Usagi! It's past curfew!"

As if on cue, the thunderous roar of Tsukino Kenji had the door shaking behind his daughter and we sprang apart, practically leaping to opposite sides of the porch lest he should find us inappropriately tangled up in one another.

Thankfully, the door remained closed, giving Usagi a minute to consider my proposal. Eventually, her brilliant eyes met mine and she whispered to me before she let herself into the house, "Maybe Tuxedo Kamen could pick me up in about an hour?" Those same eyes silently signaled to the second story balcony.

A grin too big for my face pulled at my lips as my heart began to drum against my ribs. I gave her a nod and she blew me a kiss, dainty fingers wiggling adorably as she crept inside and closed the door behind her.

Damn, it was good to be back in this body.