Happy Tuesday guys! Here's another one I already posted on Tumblr a while back. Imagine this one to the sound of rain against a window ;)

A Kiss As A Lie

The click of the shutting door was soft, overshadowed by the gentle pitter-patter of the heavy summer rain that beat against his windows and blanketed his apartment in the hazy almost-darkness.

Usagi's ruffled socks thudded even softer against his hardwood floors as she padded before him into his apartment. Her even, too deep breathing, her slightly twitching fingers as she didn't know what to do with her hands, and stopped before the picture window to his balcony… none of it helped the lump in his throat.

There was an open suitcase right by his bed that both of them ignored.

He didn't switch on the lights. It was the middle of the day, even when the heavy rainclouds seemed to want them to pretend it was late evening, and the shadows in his apartment were long and deep, the neon lights of the street reflecting colorfully through his window and off her skin.

He stopped beside her, shoulders slumped. The rain was running down in thick, slow tracks against his window pane.

Only when Usagi's breath came out as a shudder, a pitiful squeak in the back of her throat, did he reach out and take her hand blindly.

It was trembling. He clutched it tight and tighter until it had no room to tremble anymore.

But her shoulders were still shaking, and she brought her other hand to her face, turned away from him so he wouldn't see, and wiped at her face.

Just two weeks ago Chibi-Usa had left them to return to the future. Just three weeks ago Usagi had saved him from Nehelenia's thrall. The wounds on her feet weren't even healed yet.

He was so fucking selfish to do this.

Just three weeks ago, what had broken the spell over him had been Usagi's words. Her compassion. Her soft voice telling the enemy she forgave her, she felt for her, saying that she wouldn't ever have been able to live the lonely life Nehelenia had. She'd spread her arms and allowed Nehelenia to take her revenge, offered her friends to make her life less lonely, because loneliness had been the worst fate Usagi could imagine.

There was nothing worse to Usagi than loneliness. There had been nothing worse for Serenity before her.

And here he was leaving her.

The rain beat relentlessly against his window, dancing its soft play of light and shadow against Usagi's skin, her hair, her silent tears.

Usagi squeezed his hand back in reassurance.

Her voice was almost brittle, way too husky and wet, when she finally spoke.

"It's just one year," she whispered towards the window, not looking up.

He squeezed her hand back.

"Serenity went without being able to see you for pretty much all of her life. I'll be able to do it for a year, too. It'll be easier than I think."

He swallowed. She still didn't look.

"Besides, it's high school. We'll all be so busy with clubs, I won't even have time to miss you."

He nodded. His heart clenched in his chest when she finally turned to face him. Her cheeks were rubbed free of her tears, but he could still see the lingering shine around it, the puffy redness around her eyes.

Why was he doing this again?

Her hand slipped from his and curled into his shirt. Pulling. Her hands were trembling, unheld as they were now. Unsteady.

"We'll be fine," she whispered against his mouth as she pulled him down all the way.

Her lips tasted as salty as her tears, and he sobbed into them, even when he grasped at her hands with both of his to keep them from shaking.

It didn't help, his were shaking even harder.

"We'll be fine," she whispered into his mouth again, shaking and breathy against his tongue in her mouth as she pulled him by his shirt and his hair, down onto the hardwood floor, and held on.

The rain drowned out the sounds of their desperate, gasping, crying attempts to get so close to each other that the trembling might stop.

Obvious Setting Tag: Between the Stars arcs.

Also obligatory reminder that Usagi didn't end up in a club in the end but all the girls did, then hung out most her afternoons all alone and writing letters (in like, LIBRARIES! Usagi! Voluntarily!) until Seiya came and cheered her up while the others were so busy.