Title: Shipwrecked
Author: Lisa
Chapter: 5
Rating: G
Author's Notes:
Here is Chapter 5! Sorry for the lack of regular updates…work really does get in the way, but I'm trying my best to update more frequently than every several months (or year…)! Hope you enjoy, and please leave me a quick review at the end. Thanks so much to everyone who has reviewed so far! :)
Disclaimer: Sailor Moon and the others don't belong to me, but this story does.
She was calling to him, again and again, that voice that haunted him ever since his ears had been first graced with its melodic sound. "Mamoru…please…" He shifted instinctively toward that pleasant ringing, drinking in the soft tones, her warmth, her scent… "Mamoru…"
Mamoru's eyes opened slowly to the darkness, and immediately the pain shot through him an as all-too-real reminder of his current situation. He gritted his teeth in response and attempted to move his arm before realizing that it was currently being utilized as a pillow by a certain blond angel. Apparently sometime during the night, Usagi had curled herself into Mamoru once again, and her small frame was now nestled completely against his own. He smiled despite himself, watching as the girl slept next to him. Even with her hair tousled and her lips turned downward somewhere between a pout and a frown, Mamoru swore on his life that he had never seen anyone so beautiful. He felt the urge then, as before, that ridiculous desire to lay claim to Usagi's unsuspecting lips.
Luckily his ungentlemanly thoughts came to an abrupt end as Usagi stirred from her sleep. Blue met blue, and for the next seconds that felt like an eternity, Usagi and Mamoru found themselves locked in a wordless exchange. They shared with each other their mutual relief that the berries were in fact not poisonous, that they had lived to fight another day, and that they had each other to continue the struggle. Usagi reached for Mamoru's forehead with her uninjured hand and was pleased to find that his fever had broken during the night. The heat beneath her fingers from yesterday had now been replaced with just a slight dampness from the last remnants of his fever.
"Looks like we're not dead after all," she quipped finally as she sat up, her words cutting through the thick silence and echoing slightly in the confines of their makeshift home.
"It would appear that way," Mamoru teased back as he stretched his tense muscles, careful not to distress his wounded side too much. He pretended not to miss the warmth that left him as soon as Usagi scrambled unceremoniously out of his arms, pretended not to notice (or at least chose not to comment) that they had been tightly pressed together just minutes prior.
"Well now that that's settled, how about some more berries for breakfast?" She stood up quickly, ignoring the dizziness that rushed through her from the abrupt motion. Dusting off any traces of the cave floor from her tattered clothes, she fixed her gaze on her unwilling patient once more.
"Usagi…" The familiar feeling of uselessness swept through him like a sudden chill. "I…"
She understood immediately. "I'll be fine," she assured him with more confidence than she felt, "remember lesson number two?"
"You're tougher than you look," he repeated automatically, the corners of his lips lifted slightly with a grim smile.
"Don't you go anywhere!"
Usagi slipped through the small opening and vanished before Mamoru could get another word in. He sighed, surveying his surroundings with clouded eyes. Is this how they would continue, with her fending for the both of them and himself laying around like dead weight? If only he could…
Mamoru lifted himself up slowly into a sitting position and felt the familiar rush of pain streak through him with fiery vengeance. Using the wall of the cave as support, he tried standing up, ignoring his screaming muscles as they burned from the unwelcome movement. He had to…for her…
Yet his legs refused to cooperate and soon gave away beneath him, leaving him face to face with the dirt floor within a second's notice. "It's not fair!" he shouted, his voice bouncing off the cave walls. "Why…?" He realized how ridiculous he sounded but had long passed the point of caring. Just the thought of his Usagi out there… He froze at the sudden turn of his thoughts. 'My Usagi…' he mused, before laughing bitterly. She could no sooner he "his" Usagi than he could bring back his father and all those passengers who had…
He shook his head to clear himself of his maddening thoughts, before his gaze inadvertently fell to the slightly smoking pile of burnt wood from last night's fire. His thoughts scattered, then collected themselves with startlingly clarity. 'Smoke…of course!' For the first time since that fateful event, Mamoru felt a glimmer of something akin to hope grip him, leaving him breathless and clinging to that thin thread of salvation. Now, all he had to do was wait for his angel's return…
After an hour's time (which of course seemed much longer to an anxious Mamoru), Usagi returned with fresh supplies and a triumphant, if somewhat weary, smile. She presented her stash to Mamoru and was disappointed when he only eyed them with distracted acknowledgement.
"Don't tell me you're sick of berries already," she joked half-heartedly, trying her best to push away the pulsing pain in her bad hand. As hard as she tried, she could not avoid jolting her injured hand as she carried back the items. To distract herself, she peered out at the gray sky from the small opening in the cave, taking in the dark clouds that loomed heavily above her. She had always loved sunlight and feeling the warmth of the rays on her face…but the darkness seemed much more appropriate nowadays.
She popped a couple berries in her mouth and chewed slowly before turning her eyes back at her silent companion. "Mamoru?"
"Usagi, I have a plan," was all he said in response. The hopefulness in his tone perked Usagi up immediately, and she forgot about the pain in her hand for a few blissful seconds.
"What kind of plan?"
Instead of answering directly, he pointed to the bark she had gathered. "How much more of that can you get?"
"The bark?" She looked at him curiously, not quite following his train of thought. "There's plenty of that laying around the river, and I'm sure if we need it, we can take more off the trees growing nearby."
"Usagi." Suddenly his hands were clasped around her good hand with surprising desperation, his eyes burning into her with hypnotic intensity. "Can you get as much as you can bring back?" She was drawn to those ocean blue eyes as turbulent as the waves that had left them in their current predicament, those hands that seared the bare skin of her hand, those lips that were closer to her than they had ever been. If she just inched closer, just a little bit more…
"H…hai," she spoke unsteadily, cursing the way he affected her ability to speak. "I can go now."
"Only if you're not too tired…we can wait for a bit until you're more rested if you want," he replied, feeling the familiar wave of guilt course through him.
"I'm fine now," Usagi answered in what she hoped was a convincing tone. "But…can you share this grand plan with me before I risk my life trying to make it happen?" It was meant as a joke, but she immediately regretted it when he looked away. "Mamoru…" She touched his arm, careful not to have too much contact in case she found herself doing something she would regret. "I can go."
"The smoke," he mumbled, and she had to strain to catch his words. "If we build a big enough pile, and the smoke rises high enough, perhaps…"
"Perhaps we might be saved," she finished breathlessly. She was up in an instant, newly energized by a sudden rush of adrenaline at the thought of possibly escaping their island prison.
"Usagi…"
She turned toward him and for the countless time wondered how this man could be so beautiful. "I'll be careful," she said softly, and he smiled weakly in return.
They watched the dancing flames together from the safety of their shelter. It had taken several rounds of instructions from Mamoru and numerous attempts by Usagi coupled with a string of frustrated screams, but she had finally managed to build the fire and sustain the flames on the beach in front of their cave. They watched as the smoke rose and took to the sky in a steam of black, their hearts pounding in anticipation at even the slightest chance of rescue.
"It may not work right away," he said, "but if we can keep it up, maybe someone somewhere will see."
She smiled openly, and Mamoru had to fight the blush that threatened to break his unfazed exterior.
"It'll work," she whispered, perhaps more to herself than her companion. "It has to…"
Usagi leaned against his shoulder and closed her eyes, daring to dream of her life away from this harsh reality. "It has to…"
Mamoru gazed down at the sleeping Usagi in his arms, not daring to move so as not to jolt the exhausted girl awake from her much-deserved slumber. He too was lost in thought of his future away from this forsaken rock...but, as much as he hated to admit it, a certain blond was present in those rosy musings. His eyes soon grew too heavy to keep open, and Mamoru succumbed to the pull of unconsciousness as well, his arm firmly placed around Usagi's petite frame.
They were rudely awoken by a crash of thunder that rumbled so loud it seemed their entire cave would crack down the middle, leaving the pair exposed to the merciless storm that now raged outside. Usagi screamed and instinctively grabbed onto Mamoru, her hands clawing at the remains of his shirt and her face pressed against his chest. Mamoru pushed away a wave of pain from his wounded side at her forceful movements and instead concentrated on soothing the distressed blond.
"Usagi, it's alright, we're alright…"
She was crying uncontrollably now, fat tears rolling down her cheeks with an intensity that rivaled the rain outside. "I hate this," she whimpered, "I hate storms."
A part of her realized how ridiculously childish she sounded, but Usagi hadn't strength enough to care at this point. It was true that she had always hated thunderstorms, even as a young child. As she grew, that fear had never really gone away, and their recent tragedies had, if anything, only exacerbated her fright. She felt his hands run down her back slowly and hiccupped, bringing tear-filled eyes up to meet his comforting gaze. In the darkness, she was denied the pleasure of seeing the startlingly blue of his eyes, but that didn't stop her from bringing her hand up to cup his cheek gently.
"Our smoke signal…" she sniffled, and Mamoru sighed.
"We'll try again tomorrow…and the next…and the next…until it works."
"Promise me you'll be here." Again, her hands were grasping onto him, her body pressed against him as if he would vanish at any second if she let go.
"Usagi…"
"Promise me," she repeated, her words half gargled by the tears that tightened her throat.
"I promise," he whispered finally, his eyes meeting hers again. Even in the darkness, she could feel the intensity of his gaze.
It happened then, though neither was sure who had made the first move. Their lips found each other like attracting sides of a magnet and moved together in perfect unison. She ran her hands through his tousled hair and reveled in the barely audible moan that escaped his lips. His hands soon found themselves lost in her golden tresses, which were even softer than he had imagined. Her lips were like nectar, honey-sweet, and Mamoru was sure he would never taste anything as heavenly again. As the lightning flashed outside, the couple barely noticed as they drank from each other's lips and found within those desperate kisses the motivation to continue fighting.
Usagi and Mamoru broke free after what seemed like an eternity, chests heaving and smiling as if they had no troubles in the world. The blond placed her ear against his chest, listening to his heart pounding and delighting at being the cause of such exertion.
"You know, Mamo-chan," she breathed, "that was my first kiss."
Well…they finally kissed! You knew it's been coming for awhile now, but nothing like a little devastating setback in their survival plan to kick our favorite couple into gear. :) Sorry for the slight shortness of this chapter, but hope it was enjoyable nonetheless. I'll try to update again as soon as I can. Until then, please review, and stay tuned for more!
This chapter was written and posted in August 2015.
