Hello, and welcome back one and all to the next installment of "Notebooks, Not Love Notes!" The audience cue cards have been raised just in time for this show to get started, and this one says "APPLAUSE!"
Of course, you might be thinking, "What prompted this incredibly unexpected timeliness in posting this next chapter? Have the half-year delays been permanently excommunicated?"
The answer is: hopefully! And hopefully because I had such a fun and (relatively) smooth time writing this next chapter, it will be that much more enjoyable for you to read.
So thank you as always to everyone who left their lovely feedback, including threats of police intervention (thanks, colettecarter!), potential bribery (thanks, Alicia!), and suggestions for a yuri Ami-Usagi fic (uhh, thanks everybody who mentioned it?). But it's not yuri, you'll see! This is very much a Usagi-Mamoru fic (but please tell me I didn't actually spoil anything for anyone!).
So enough blabbering. Read ahead! And enjoy!
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Notebooks, Not Love Notes
Ala Verity
Chapter 4
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I stared at the crazy Sailor Senshi standing in the middle of Mamoru's bathroom, which looked like the site of the final battle from Independence Day.
The truth was, I was not prepared to die. Not now. Not here. And especially not at the hands of a sixteen-year old girl who wore granny panties and still called me "Usagi-chan."
Ignoring Mamoru's protests, I took a deep breath and stepped forward, stopping just inside the crumbling doorway. If something was going to be done about this situation, it was now or never.
"I want—"
"What?" Sailor Mercury snapped at once, staring me down with eyes that bored into my mind like drills. "What do you want? Say it now, or your body and your incompetent excuse for a brain will be severed from one another before you can say 'hot fudge sundae.'"
"No heroics," I squeaked. "Got it."
As much as I felt like a cowardly lion, though, I knew I had to try. For Mamoru's sake. So that still left the million-dollar question: What did I want?
A dozen answers instantly sprang into my mind, some unlikely to keep my brain stem attached to my spinal cord if ventured, others simply begging for my head to be chopped off.
A hot fudge sundae!
World peace!
To save the whales!
Tuxedo Kamen!
Senshi uniforms made out of cotton instead of spandex!
Tuxedo Kamen eating a hot fudge sundae!
Free chocolate booths in front of every public institution!
Tuxedo Kamen dressed as a hot fudge sundae and feeding me one at the same time! Yes!
"Odango?" Mamoru's concerned voice cut through all the chanting "I-wants" hoo-haa-haa-ing around inside my head, to whose ranks a dancing hot fudge Tuxedo Kamen had just been admitted. "…Odango, are you all right?"
I shook my head, the image of a chocolate bar dressed in spandex riding a whale still branded vividly in my mind's eye. I had to say something. Come on! Say something!
"I want…"
Anything!
"A hot fudge sundae," I blurted.
…Okay, maybe not anything.
Something thudded softly against my shoulder. I realized that Mamoru's jaw had actually dropped open onto it, wide enough to shove my entire size 7W foot into. "Do you want to die?" Mamoru asked behind me, his voice hoarse.
I assumed that his question was rhetorical and ignored it.
While I tried not to imagine what my head would look like dangling from the sinews of my neck, my eyes darted around the room, frantically searching for a way out of this mess I had inadvertently created. I caught Sailor Mercury's fierce gaze and quickly looked away. I saw the broken sink. Up. The ceiling half blown off. Mamoru standing right behind me. Sailor Mercury, murderous. Cracked marble. Mamoru. Puddle. Mercury. Smashed cologne bottle on the floor. Mamoru…
"No, no, I just want…" I whimpered, stepping hastily away from Sailor Mercury's murderous gaze. Without warning, my foot snagged on a huge block of rubble.
"Watch out!"
"Agh!"
A pair of strong hands caught me roughly from behind, jerking me abruptly to a halt. A few flakes of paint drifted lazily down from the crumbling door frame.
"Good one…" I heard Mamoru mutter behind me as he hefted me to my feet again.
By the time I had regained my balance, Ami's furious eyes were ogling at Mamoru's hand on my waist so intensely that I was surprised nothing caught fire. I had not seen Ami look this angry since the time the school cancelled end-of-year exams because some idiot left a Bunsen burner on and burned down the entire chemistry department. And she had definitely not been a happy camper that time.
"Get away from him, Usagi-chan," she hissed. The same death glare from that fateful day when Araki Hiroshi was found frozen like an icicle to the biology department roof now glinted in her eyes again. "I'm warning you…"
"You're not taking her anywhere," Mamoru growled back before I could answer. To my dismay, he proceeded to push me behind him with one hand, ignoring my furious protests at being treated like a child. "You're not taking anybody anywhere without going through me first."
"Mamoru-baka, don't be stupid, she's Sailor Mercury—"
"I think I can handle this, thanks," he replied in a loud voice, not bothering to turn around.
"And I think that I, of all people, should know what I'm talking about for once," I retorted in an even louder voice. I turned to Sailor Mercury and added, "Right, Ami?"
"Well, technically, I believe that the extent of our relations with one another counterbalanced by the negative force of your inherent stupidity—"
"Hang on a sec—" Mamoru began.
"Don't interrupt, baka," I snapped, rolling up my sleeves. "She just called me stupid and she's about to pay for it—"
"What are you going to do," she jeered, "throw soap suds at me?"
"No better than you, Miss Shabon Spray—"
"Hold on just one second!" Mamoru roared.
"What?"
"Odango," Mamoru said, breathing very heavily. "Did you just call Sailor Mercury by her real name?"
Oh. Had I?
'Right, Ami?'
Oops.
"N-no, I don't—" I stammered, flustered. Know her? Know her? How could I know her? Unless you counted having sleepovers at each other's houses every night for an entire summer and fighting crime together "knowing" a person, then maybe we knew each other a little bit…but don't be ridiculous, Mamoru-baka, of course I don't know her!
"Odango," Mamoru repeated, giving me that stern no-nonsense-now look that my dad uses whenever we talk about topics like boys or prom—which, to be honest, I try to limit to once every few decades or so. "You have some serious explaining to do."
"Uh…"
No, wait! What was that rule about getting yourself out of sticky situations again?
'When in doubt, look about!' Yes, that was it!
Or was it 'When you're stuck, punch him in the face and run'?
Whatever.
Distractions!
My eyes darted around the bathroom, searching for a way out. Past the leaky sink, beyond the pile of rubble on the floor, and…
My eyes landed on Sailor Mercury.
Aha! How could I forget? Abashed, but nevertheless homicidal Sailor Senshi at eleven o' clock!
Here goes nothing… except maybe what little was left of my pride out the window, but who cared about that at a critical moment like this?
"Oh, Mamoru! I'm so scared!" I wailed, shifting from deep-doo-doo mode into damsel-in-distress overdrive. And I practically threw myself into his open arms.
Try thinking about the identities of Sailor Senshi when you have this to deal with, Mamoru!
"Nice try, Odango. How do you know Sailor Mercury?"
Oh, shoot. Um…so much for that plan.
I stuck out my lip and made sure it trembled just so before raising my biggest doe eyes very slowly up to meet his. Little did he know, I had every advantage from this angle; my eyes looked ten times bigger, and I looked that much smaller.
That much frailer.
That much more…in need.
And if there was one thing I knew about Chiba Mamoru, it was that he is an amazing sucker for women 'in need.'
"Shit," I heard him mutter under his breath, staring down at me like I was one of those cute mutant birds from the movie Enchanted. I swear I heard his heart stop for a moment under my hands, which were now clinging tightly to his shirt. Unbeknownst to him (or maybe he knew it, and just could not do a damn thing about it), I was using the precise position of these hands to send a very clear message:
Look at me, I'm so helpless…so please, help me already!
And he was ready to be convinced, I could tell. He was melting. Like putty in my hands.
"Mamoru…" I whimpered, burying my head in his chest again so that he could not notice the lack of genuine tears welling up in my eyes. "I'm sorry I can't be stronger…but…" A little hiccup for effect, "I'm…I'm scared…"
I was, in fact, experiencing a particularly strong emotion at the moment, but none that Mamoru might have suspected, unless he suspected me of enjoying myself quite thoroughly (which I doubted).
Regardless of what I was actually going through, however, Mamoru was still a man, and I was still a girl. And girls needed comforting. At least, I am assuming this is the line of reasoning Mamoru followed, because he came to the exact same conclusion that I hoped he would come to.
"Okay…it's okay…" he murmured at last, reaching out tentatively with his hand and using it to stroke my hair in what he obviously considered a proper "soothing" fashion. "That's all right… Everything's going to be fine…"
I gloated. What else could I do? He was too busy comforting me to actually see me and I had managed to achieve my goal, which was to make him forget all about this identity business. Plus, his hand felt unusually good when he was busy running it up and down my back like that. And despite the fact that I felt a teensy-weensy, little tiny bit bad for taking advantage of the situation like this—hey, I was in love.
And all's fair in love and war, right?
"Eeeeeeeeee—!"
Sigh. No, I guess that would be too much to ask for.
We looked up from our intimate embrace, startled (although to be honest, I was feeling more disgruntled than anything else), to see Mercury rising from the clouds of dust in a very melodramatic fashion. Silhouette, battle theme music, even her element gushing out in large volumes behind her from the showerhead, which had sprung a big leak. That girl always did know how to make an entrance.
"Get…away from him," she snarled in a low voice. Angry jets of water flew from her fingertips with every step she took forward, her eyes flashing. "I said, stop touching him!"
I rolled my eyes at her, ignoring the something warm which brushed against my hand as I planted it impatiently on my hip. "Oh, please! As if I would even want…"
I paused. Something warm?
I looked down.
A strong arm around my waist.
"—as if I would even want…"
Hand in my hair.
"…want to…"
Now stroking my back.
"…to touch…"
And I was pressed up against…against…the lower part of his…
Ho boy.
"GAH!" I screeched, blushing and jumping out of Mamoru's arms faster than if I had found myself cuddling that Kunzite guy with the greasy hair. Modesty, Usagi! Modesty! "What do you think you're doing, Mamoru-baka?"
Or blame. Blame works too.
"What am I doing?" demanded Mamoru, who forgot everything else faster than that Dory tang fish from Finding Nemo with ADHD or whatever it was she had. "What do you think you're doing? You're the one who initiated this…this contact!" he finished, his face turning slightly pink.
Initiated? Ha! I practically threw myself at him! Although that probably was not the best point to bring up at this point.
Instead I poked him in the chest, hard. "Me? Initiate contact with you, baka? In your dreams! Who's the one taking advantage of a poor girl in need?"
"Advantage!" Mamoru took a step forward and I retreated quickly, stumbling into the door frame. My eyes widened and I felt fear for the first time as he advanced menacingly on me. Trapped. "Is that what you think I'm doing, you idiot? You think I'm trying to take advantage of you?"
"I…I know it is!"
"Oh yeah, is that right?" he growled. "So what do you think it would be if I did this?"
He slammed both hands hard against the door frame on either side of my head.
Small chips of wood began falling around us like sharpened snowflakes.
"Y-you're crazy!" I squeaked, squirming under him, but he kept his arms tightly on either side of me so that I could not escape. "Wh-what do you think you're…?"
"Usagi-chan, get away from—"
"SHUT UP!" we both roared at the same time. Sailor Mercury fell silent.
Mamoru turned to face me again. He was breathing very heavily. "Now you…you…" I saw his jaw tightly clenched. "You just stay very still. Understand?"
I swallowed hard, nodding. I could not keep my eyes off of his face, which was mere centimeters from mine. He paused, and his gaze unexpectedly softened.
"Baka Odango…" he whispered, leaning in.
"SH-SHABON SPRAY!"
A freezing blast of ice rushed past us, knocking us the wind out of me and both off of our feet. Mamoru's reflexes were faster than mine; his hand shot out in midair and grabbed me, twisting us both so that he was underneath me as we slammed into the hardwood floor.
"SHABON SPRAY!" I heard Mercury shriek again.
Another storm of hail and ice whipped past us. This time I felt all of my limbs go instantly stiff, as if my entire body had turned into a giant piece of cardboard. It occurred to me too late that Sailor Mercury, unable to stand another minute of our demented argument, had finally snapped and frozen us both. Poor Mercury. Really, she has so much pressure!
And speaking of pressure…
"Geez, you're heavy, Odango," a voice groaned from underneath me.
"Oh, shut up," I snapped irritably, blushing. I could still feel Mamoru's arms wrapped tightly around me, frozen in the exact same position they had been in when we crash-landed in the hallway. What was worse, the attack had found us squashed together tighter than a pickle-and-ham sandwich, with the result being that if I even so much as tried to turn my head the other way, I would probably find myself staring right up Mamoru's left nostril.
I heard Mamoru exhale noisily—through said left nostril, no doubt. "I can't believe this is happening."
"You're telling me," I complained, keeping my eyes fixed on the far end of the hall. "I didn't ask for this either, you know!"
I felt Mamoru shift slightly underneath me before he went completely still. Then he muttered under his breath, more to himself than to me, I think, "With all the things you've been doing to me lately, I don't know what you're asking for any more."
"That I've—that I've—what have I…I don't know what you're…that's not…!" I sputtered. What I was doing to him? This was his fault!
"Well, at least there's one thing we don't have to worry about," he continued in the same moody voice.
"Yeah?" I replied hotly. "And what's that?"
"Body heat."
"Bod—WHAT?" I screeched, forgetting everything and whirling on Mamoru. I realized too late that I should have exercised some caution.
BAM! My forehead collided with his nose, causing a spectacular display of fireworks to bloom in my vision. Oh, what pretty lights!
"Ow, my head…"
"My nose…" Mamoru rasped in a hoarse voice of disbelief, squeezing his eyes tightly shut in pain. "I can't believe it! You broke my nose, Odango!"
"Well, you broke my leg!" I shot back, not missing a single beat.
"You really are an idiot, aren't you?"
"Idiot! I'll show you an idiot, you…!"
Mamoru made a face. "You couldn't show a first-grader how to add if you wanted to, no-brain Odango."
"Oooh, you… Hard-headed baka!"
"Who has a hard head? You just broke my nose!"
"Will you both just shut up?" Mercury growled, marching over to us.
"NO!"
"SHABON SPRAY!"
'Baka,' I mouthed at Mamoru as the ice froze over our heads and we were both dragged into the living room by a very annoyed Senshi.
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All I have to say about it is, it was very cold indeed.
I felt like one of those Icelandic cavemen that people dug up after being buried under centuries of snowstorms. Assuming there was even this much ice in Iceland. Or maybe it was Greenland that was icy. It was hard to remember underneath all this frost.
Brain freeze, that's what it was.
My brilliant humor quickly melted (pardon the pun) to soberness when I saw our four self-proclaimed captors saunter back into the living room from the kitchen, where they had been finishing off the rest of Mamoru's amazing cookies. I had long since given up pining for one; the drool kept freezing mid-drip, dangling from my lower lip like a slobber icicle. Plus, Mamoru kept sniggering derisively at me each time it happened, which was annoying.
"So what should we do with them?" somebody asked. I looked up, listening carefully through the thick barrier of ice that separated Mamoru and me from the Senshi.
"We should kill the girl first." Sailor Venus, who was usually the last to catch on to anything, looked extremely proud at being the first to voice the idea. I felt hurt, partly because I had always considered Minako my closest friend of all the Senshi, but mostly because I was of the personal opinion that her idea was a stupid one.
There was a general murmur of assent in which I did not participate.
"I agree," Mercury piped up, not one to be outdone. "She's a prodigally nonsensical harebrained nuisance."
Leave it to Ami-chan to make it sound like I possessed some deadly contagious disease that would justify killing me.
"Did you know that she still owes me money for that giant chocolate bunny I bought for her at the mall last Easter?"
Disgruntled mutters swept through the circle of Senshi surrounding us, and I, trapped pitifully inside my prison of ice, cringed. Talk about holding a grudge! I didn't think Mako-chan would still remember that one.
"Come to think of it," Sailor Mars mused, casting a disdainful glance at me, "she never paid me back for that super-size sundae from the Crown, either."
I tried to look innocent. Bunnies! Where were the bunnies when you needed them?
"Or that video recorder she tripped over and broke in the cam store."
Oops.
"Or the Sailor Moon fan club kit from Otaku World."
Ah…yeah, that…
"And the life-size gingerbread house she just had to have at the Santa booth during Christmas…"
Hey, that one was a gift!
"…Didn't that cute elf guy who worked there steal it for her?"
Thank you, Venus!
"Oh yeah, well, still…"
"Stealing is a cardinal sin," Mercury pointed out. "The punishment is death by hanging."
I cursed silently.
I was so intent on their conversation (and believe me, you would be too if you had to listen to your four best friends—well, ex-best friends—discuss how best to murder you), it was a long time before I realized that Mamoru had been jabbing me in the back with his finger for the past two minutes.
'What?' I snapped, wrenching my eyes away from the four girls, who were now squabbling over my belongings. I was immediately met with Mamoru's scorching glare.
I was surprised the ice around us did not simply melt away under the intensity of it.
'Took you long enough, Odango,' he mouthed, rolling his eyes at me.
'What do you want?' I snarled silently, not eager to miss any more of the conversation than I already had. And did I just hear Sailor Mars call dibs on my entire manga collection?
Mamoru mouthed something that I could not read.
'What?'
He mouthed it again. I frowned and moved my head a centimeter to each side to indicate that I did not understand. His brows knitted together, and he mouthed the same phrase, his lips moving more slowly this time.
I have a bland.
What in the world was that supposed to mean?
'A 'bland?'" I mouthed back at him.
He shook his head and tried again.
'A…'pan'?'
He squeezed his eyes shut, made little shaking motions with his head, and mouthed it again.
'A…a what?'
'A PLAN!" he mouthed angrily at me.
'Oh. Well, why didn't you just say so?'
He clenched his jaw tightly. 'Just follow my lee.'
'What?'
'Follow my lead!'
'Oh. Okay. Grouch.'
We heard more voices, followed by the muffled clicking of heels on plush carpet. Mamoru and I rolled our eyeballs upwards at the same time to see the four Senshi towering over us, all wearing the same stupid smug look on their faces and…
The nerve! They were wearing my jewelry!
"Well, well, well," Mars smirked, flaunting my favorite gem-studded heart bracelet as she swept her long hair over her shoulder. That girl always did know how to push my buttons. "Look what the ice monster dragged in!"
I glared balefully at her.
"And you, Mamoru-san," she purred, unaffected by all of the silent curses I was now throwing her way (including a wart-inducing hex and an incurable case of ugly). She fluttered her eyelashes at Mamoru. "Don't worry, we'll let you out of the terrible beasty's clutches soon, baby."
At the word 'baby,' I made a face, which promptly froze due to the cold, but it was at least safer than throwing up, because then that might freeze and I would be stuck with a giant vomit-popsicle sticking out of my mouth. And somehow I figured that if I did that, Mamoru might actually wet himself laughing, and I did not want to be stuck in an oversized ice cube with puddles of frozen puke and urine for God knew how long.
All of these brilliant speculations on my part, however, went completely unnoticed by everyone but myself, so I settled instead for stealing a quick glance at Mamoru, who would doubtless be revolted by Mars' mushy nickname.
What I did not expect to see was him gazing up at her, looking as unfazed as if she was merely asking him for a pleasant chat over coffee, which I highly doubted was in any part of her "plans" with him. I raised my frosty eyebrows a centimeter or so, impressed.
He had more balls than I gave him credit for after all. Well, at least Mars would be pleased.
And oh God, did I really just think that?
"How you doing in there, Usagi-chan?" the dragon queen cooed, tapping one flaming red over-manicured nail against the ice. "Defrosting, are we?"
While she continued tapping on the ice like one of those fat kids at the zoo that the snake wants to sink its fangs into and gobble up (at least that was how I felt at the moment), I wondered if it was true that men were more likely to get aroused when it was cold. Then I wondered where I had even heard that stupid rumor from, and mouthed something totally inappropriate at Mars so that I would stop thinking about it.
"Oh?" The raven-haired Senshi quirked an eyebrow at me, uncharacteristically unaffected by my rudeness. "Well, let's see how you like it when I heat things up in there, shall we?"
What about heat? Did heat make men more likely to—
"FIRE SOUL!"
At first, I could only feel the area around my head growing warmer, as if someone had focused a heat lamp on it and forgotten to turn it off. Then suddenly, without warning, there was a flash of heat and the sensation of the flesh being melted from my scalp burst through my entire head, ending all thought and shooting like thousands of tiny needles through my neck and spine. And then it hit me.
My head was on fire.
Sailor Mars was trying to kill me.
My neck jerked in uncontrollable little spasms, fighting to escape the burning ashes that bit and tore at my skin like a swarm of crude parasites. I could feel the ice around my head melting fast, the little droplets of water evaporating as quickly as they came.
"Stop!" someone shouted. "Stop it!"
My whole body writhed and twisted in agony under me, but I could not move. I screamed. No sound came out of my mouth. My head felt like somebody had stuffed it in an oven and shut the door behind me…
"What the hell are you doing? Stop!"
My eyes rolled up into the back of my head. I couldn't see… I couldn't feel… my flesh was melting…
"God dammit, you're going to kill her!"
The burning suddenly stopped.
No pain. No more screaming. Just…gone.
I heard somebody say something to me, and the next thing I knew was that relief was washing over me and I could feel the cool air rushing in again. My seized-up muscles relaxed and I slumped over, gulping down the air.
My eyes remained closed as I let the ice suck away the recent memories of pain from my mind. I could hear voices. Angry voices. Shouting. My head hurt.
"Who the hell do you think you are?" I heard somebody yell.
More voices arguing. I recognized that voice. Where had I heard it before?
"—could have killed her—"
…That one…
"—you could have killed Usagi—"
…Mamoru?"
"—Usagi—"
But Mamoru never called me by my name. He probably didn't even know my real name…
"And what does it matter to you if we kill her?" I heard somebody—Mars—reply in a scathing voice.
The man's tone was sharp. "What does it matter? Of course it matters to me if you kill her!"
"But…you hate her!" Sailor Mercury blurted.
Yes, that was right. The thoughts came swimmingly to my hazy mind. He hated me. What did it matter to him if I died?
There was a long pause in which I thought I heard somebody exhale sharply.
"I don't…hate her," the Mamoru would-be voice finally said.
"But you always say—"
"I know what I say to her, all right?" the same man interrupted, sounding fierce. He paused again, and when he spoke, his voice was much softer—pleading, almost. "I know what I say, but I need you to listen to what I'm saying right now. I don't hate Usagi. I…I care about her. Whatever you have to sort out is between you girls and me, so you can just…forget about trying to hurt her anymore. Please."
For the first time since Mars' attack, my mind started to register the words I was hearing. It wasn't somebody else's voice; no, it was definitely Mamoru's voice. I could visualize the scene in my head: Mamoru still stuck in the block of ice, defending me with determination; Mars looking disbelieving, Mercury and Venus puzzled, Sailor Jupiter flippant, or maybe she was as confused as I was, too.
And then it hit me: these impossible words that I had been hearing were coming from Mamoru's lips. He was saying them. He was speaking them.
As if he cared.
As if I mattered.
As if he was…actually…
"Bullshit," I muttered.
"What?"
I struggled to open my eyes. "Bullshit," I said again, fixing my gaze steadily on Mamoru, who stared at me with an uncomprehending expression on his face. I noticed offhandedly that his right cheek looked rawer and redder than usual, as if someone had dragged something very rough across it.
"What's bullshit?" Jupiter inquired, looking curiously around at the others. Confused, after all. "Does anyone know what she's talking about?"
"Usagi!" Mamoru breathed, ignoring Jupiter and searching my face with a mixture of concern and apparent relief in his eyes. "Are you okay? How is your head feeling? Your cheek—"
"Oh, like hell you care about my cheek!" I exclaimed in frustration, realizing for the first time that the fire attack had melted the ice around our heads and that I could therefore get as angry as I wanted without having to worry about inhaling a mouthful of ice chunks. The red mark. He had been burned, too. "You couldn't care less what happens to me!"
"What are you talking about? Of course I care—"
"Don't pretend you give a damn about me, baka!" I screamed at him.
For a moment, Mamoru seemed too stunned to speak. Even I was surprised at how quickly the resentful words had welled up inside of me and tore their way out like hungry beasts, as if they possessed minds of their own. "I don't know what—you obviously don't—no idea—" he sputtered at last, looking flabbergasted.
"Go tell it to somebody who cares," I spat, turning away angrily, only to realize that my neck was still half-frozen in the ice and thereby stuck. The situation reeked of ill foreboding, I knew it did. But for the first time, I did not care. I did not care because I knew deep down inside that he did not care.
Looking back at it now, it seemed painfully obvious what Mamoru had been after all this time. It had only taken a small miscalculation on his part—the slightest hesitation—to finally reveal the truth for what it was.
'I…I care about her.'
I gritted my teeth. Of course, he had only been out to save his own neck. How could I have been so stupid to think that he possessed a single caring bone in his entire body? Now that the veil had been removed from my eyes, I could see that all the events of the past three days had just been excuses, excuses for—for what, I did not know. To find a way out. To escape. And even then, even when his chances for freedom were on the line, he could not bring himself to speak that one simple lie without hesitating.
I kept my eyes averted, determined not to look at anyone in the room. Now that the truth was out there for everybody to see, he could do as he liked. No more pretenses. No more pretending to care. For all I cared, he could just stay there frozen in the ice gaping at me forever, or get that strange look on his face like he was doing at this very moment and turn rather suddenly to face Mars while batting his eyelashes.
I blinked. Had I just seen what I thought I saw?
I closed my eyes, counted slowly to three, and opened them again. It was still there.
This impossible vision.
Mamoru was… He was…
…Did I dare say it? Yes, mother of avenging angels, I did!
He was flirting!
"Oh, Mars-chan!" Mamoru sang, batting his lashes again and smiling at her in a way that reminded me of the time I told him I was going out of the country for two weeks, and he had actually done a little jig then. Now, however, he tittered—actually tittered—and shouted with bravado that ultimately would have been coupled with an ostentatious display of throwing out his arms had they not been frozen solid in the ice, "Mars-chan, my love!"
My jaw dropped so fast that there was a resounding clunk as it collided with the ice. What the hell did he think he was doing?
Everyone in the room turned to look at me.
"Talk about jealous," Sailor Mars smirked, rolling her eyes.
One of the girls scoffed in a crony-appropriate way that would have gotten them kicked out of the team pronto if I was still the leader. "Seriously!"
There were giggles.
In spite of all this, however, there was only one thing about this entire episode that left me feeling completely disconcerted: long after the others had already looked away, Mamoru continued to stare at me, as if he was trying to bore a message into my mind. However, I could not read his face while the image of him smiling so sweetly still pulsed inside my head and I turned away, unnerved.
"Oh, don't mind her, Mamoru-chan," Mars gushed, pawing at Mamoru's silky hair. "She's just jealous."
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Mamoru turn to face her again, the flawless smile had fixed once more onto his handsome features.
"Why, I hadn't even thought of it," he replied easily, laughing.
"Hey, Mars!" Mercury grumbled behind us. "How long do you plan on standing there and hogging him? In case you forgot, I was the one who found them, remember?"
"Save it, Mercury," Mars snapped back. "You can wait your turn. I'm the leader here!"
No, I'm the leader! I almost wanted to shout. Get away from him! He's mine!
Which, of course, wasn't the most logical claim on authority that I could have made given my position of leader—something more like "Don't kill me" would probably have been better-suited given the circumstances—but I was not thinking straight. I was angry.
I cast a glance at Mars, whose dirty claws were still on Mamoru's face. No, scratch that. I was furious!
"But I want—"
"You can wait your—"
"Shut up!" I exploded. "All of you…SHUT UP!"
The entire room fell silent again.
"Good," I panted, breathing heavily. "Now everybody…just…listen."
Mamoru inclined his head ever so slightly towards mine. It was the same unreadable expression again.
"Now…now look here," I said, tearing my gaze away from his profile and looking around the room. All of the Senshi's eyes were on me. "I don't know what gave you the crazy idea that you could just burst in here and do this—"
"Well, actually, it's 'who,' and that would be Mercury-chan—" Venus began.
"Shut up and listen to the leader!" Mercury roared.
Venus shut up.
"Please continue."
"Thank you, Am—I mean, Sailor Mercury."
At the edge of my vision, I saw Mamoru's eyebrows shoot up. I ignored him and plowed on with as much dignity as I could muster.
"Now, I don't care whose fault this is. Blaming each other isn't going to help. In fact, the only finger that is going to be pointed tonight is at this very nice young man frozen next to me for being a jack-assed little backstabber."
It was a sign of my enduring authority that none of the girls objected to my abusive language. I turned, cocked my head innocently to one side, and gave Mamoru my most winning smile.
If it was his plan to start a war against me, then he was going to have to learn to deal with a lot bigger enemies than adoring Senshi.
"Oh, is that right?" Mamoru retorted at once, turning to me with the blazing defensiveness I was much more familiar with. All traces of that unreadable stolid mask had vanished completely. "Remind me again, dearest Odango, whose idiocy got us into this mess?"
The familiar banter made my sweet smile widen even more. Perfect. No messy feelings, just arguments like usual. Now this I could deal with.
"We-ell," I began, dragging out the syllables with a contemplative air, "I suppose it might be logical to assume that since you're the one who everybody's so madly in love with… Or wait, hold on—is there some way you're going to manage to pin that on me, too? Because I don't recall ever wishing for something quite so…how should I put it? …Imbecilic."
I could see a nerve pulsing angrily in Mamoru's jaw and struggled not to laugh.
"Then explain to me, Usagi," he finally said in a slow, even tone, "why you're the only girl in Tokyo who's not in love with me."
I snorted. His head was denser than brick! "Why I'm not—geez, your ego really is bigger than I thought, Mamoru-baka, you really…"
I looked up and my voice faltered. I had just caught sight of the look on Mamoru's face.
"…really are…"
And he looked furious.
"I—I don't know why…" I stammered as his dark, brooding eyes bored into mine. What did he want me to say? That, yes, it had worked after all and that I had actually fallen in love with him in spite of everything? Somehow I doubted that.
I tried again. "Look, I didn't ask for—"
I could not finish my sentence. Something in Mamoru's face had suddenly changed.
His expression hardened.
"That's what I thought," he spat as I fumbled for words that would not come. "You didn't ask for this."
I stared at him, disbelief flooding my entire body. What was he trying to say?
Mamoru turned on Mars, who looked suddenly nervous. "Let me out."
"W-What?" she squeaked.
"I said, let me out. I can't stand another moment with this…" I saw his jaw clench tightly. "…hopeless cause."
"But I—I can't…"
"Just do it!" Mamoru roared, the ice trembling around us.
Sailor Mars took a step forward, glancing uncertainly at me. Then her expression changed, and I could see determination forming on her face, too. "On one condition."
Mamoru closed his eyes and slowly opened them again. "Fine," he said, his teeth still clenched. "Whatever."
"Kiss me."
"What?"
Everybody turned to look at me again, and this time I could feel my face burning under Mamoru's scalding gaze.
His eyes narrowed. "You have an objection, Usagi?"
I stared at him, searching his eyes frantically for some sign of a bluff. A lie. He was lying. He had to be.
There was only cold emptiness there.
He was serious. Somehow, some time along the way that I could no longer remember, I had already lost him.
"N-no…" I whispered, shaking my head but unable to take my eyes off him.
"Good." His tone was business-like as he tore his gaze from mine and turned to face Mars again. "It's settled then. One kiss, and then you release me."
At his words, I could feel my insides freeze over, although my body had long since grown accustomed to the biting cold. My breathing started coming in short, labored bursts. I should have hated him for using her the way he had used me, but that memory seemed distant and insignificant now. All I could see was what was happening in front of me.
It was all happening too clearly, too quickly.
Do something! a voice inside my head screamed.
My entire body seemed to freeze.
Sailor Mars took another step forward, resolute. "And you won't run away," she said.
"I won't."
She took a deep breath. "And then maybe…" she breathed, cradling his face gently in her hands and lifting it to hers, "Maybe you'll learn to love me."
Mamoru said nothing.
In that split second before it happened, I thought I saw a pair of piercing blue eyes flash in my direction. It all passed so quickly that I hardly had time to realize that I must have imagined it when she leaned over him and her dark hair tumbled over his shoulder and Mamoru's eyes closed and Mars did the one thing that would send my entire world reeling into utter and complete chaos.
She kissed him.
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I tasted metallic in my mouth. The entire room spun dangerously around me. Shock and panic seized me and before I even knew what was happening, I was screaming.
"STOP IT! JUST STOP IT!"
The entire room froze.
I was breathing so hard the ice around me actually shook. I felt horrified at what was happening and relieved that I had acted in time to end it and furious and betrayed and every other nameless emotion that rushed through my veins like water crashing through a floodgate. Sailor Mars wrenched herself away from Mamoru to stare at me, but I did not care. I was no longer aware of her presence. The only two people left in the room were me and Mamoru.
Mamoru, whose hair I could see now was slightly tousled in the back from where Sailor Mars' fingers had wound themselves when she pushed herself against him. Mamoru, whose stormy blue eyes seemed to widen in surprise as they fixed themselves on me. Mamoru, who looked slightly puzzled at first, then angry, and then whose expression hardened as he gazed deliberately past me at the wall opposite, his face stony.
Mamoru, the man I loved.
Mamoru, who was kneeling right in front of me and leaving my worthless life to chance.
My jaw clenched tightly, and I tasted the metallic taste of blood in my mouth again from where I had bitten down too hard to keep from screaming.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Mars lift her arms as she prepared to attack and Mamoru, still crouched motionlessly next to me.
It was now or never.
"MOON PRISM POWER!" I shouted.
At once, I felt a familiar warmth growing inside of me, rooting itself like an invisible seed in my chest. The glow spread steadily through my entire being, filling me with the inexplicable feeling of being at one with everything around me. Then in one stunning moment of clarity, the light burst forth and suddenly it was as if I could see the entire room in my mind without seeing, Mamoru's wide eyes as they turned on me, disbelieving, the entire room filled with rushing white light, the shocked faces of the Senshi looking on, the ice imprisoning me caving in from within. And I knew that even though I could not be complete without Mamoru, I was no longer alone; I was at one with my true form again.
But then, without warning, the glowing warmth shuddered to a grinding halt, as if somebody had flicked the blinds closed against the sunlight and plunged the room into complete darkness. The biting sting of the ice jerked me back to reality with an almost painful awareness, and I realized with a slow, sinking feeling that something dreadful had happened.
I had not transformed.
I could not believe it.
"Moon Prism Power!" I shouted again, bracing myself.
Nothing. Not even a vague feeling of my normal powers.
What was happening? My eyes darted frantically around the room—at the Senshi, who were looking as stunned as I felt; at my clothes, which remained tauntingly unchanged; at Mamoru, whose expression I could no longer read.
"Moon Prism Power!"
It was no use. Why couldn't I transform?
"MOON PR—"
"Stop it, Usagi!"
The harsh voice cut in so sharply that I could think of nothing else but to obey it. I threw myself against the ice, letting the dry heaves that caught me in their grasp to shake my entire body. All of the thoughts and impossibilities of the past hour swirled around in my head like an impenetrable shroud of fog.
Something was wrong. I could not transform.
Had Sailor Mars hexed me? No, that was not possible; she had no influence over the elements of the moon, even if she was the strongest of the group. Luna? If anybody had the power to keep me from transforming, it would be her.
I closed my eyes, which suddenly felt like something very heavy weights pressing against my skull. Nothing made sense anymore. Nobody but direct descendants of the Silver Millennium lineage could control the powers of the Silver Imperial Crystal, even I knew that much. Even Luna did not possess that kind of power. Or had Luna been lying to me all along?
I felt suddenly sick to my stomach. Everybody had known. They had probably known for a very long time now.
"Stop it," the same harsh voice repeated from what seemed like a very far distance. I struggled to open my eyes. When I did, I found myself looking, not at the Senshi as I had expected, but into a pair of striking blue eyes. Mamoru was breathing very hard and staring directly at me.
Get a grip on yourself, his eyes seemed to say as they burned silently into mine.
I wrenched my gaze away from his, fighting the temptation to spin around and demand to know what his eyes could not clearly convey.
This Mamoru would not tell me to get a grip on myself. He would tell me to shut up and get over it.
"What's the matter?" Mars sneered when she caught sight of my face, which I assumed had either turned deathly pale or else undergone some hideous transformation, I neither knew nor cared. "Widdle Sailor Moon can't transform? Not so powerful anymore, are we, Usagi-chan?"
I did not respond.
"Get Mamoru out," Mars ordered the girls, spinning around gleefully. "I'll take care of the rabbit."
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Mercury cast a nervous glance at me, hesitating. The moment our gazes met, however, she quickly lowered her head and shuffled forward with the other two girls to free Mamoru from his icy shackles.
I noticed that the ice surrounding him was almost all gone now. Another minute and he would be completely free.
"So how does it feel, Usagi?" Sailor Mars hissed, stepping in front of me and blocking everything but her own sneering face from my vision. "How does it feel to be a second-rate lowlife who nobody wants?"
I made a civil reply by smashing my forehead as hard as I could against hers.
She screamed. There were canaries and dancing lights and mini Mamoru's doing little jigs around my head, but I could feel a vague sense of smug satisfaction setting in on me nevertheless. I always wanted to do that, and she definitely deserved it this time.
There was another resounding crack. It took me a minute to realize that Sailor Mars' skull had not split down the middle like a fissured pool ball, although I probably would not have felt too remorseful even if it had; it was the sound of ice cracking.
The crack was followed by a sharp shattering noise.
And then suddenly, I looked up and Mamoru was standing in front of me, and I barely had time to catch a glimpse of his set jaw before he swung his leg back so swiftly that the speed seemed inhuman and kicked. The ice around me shattered and I tumbled with a surprised grunt onto the carpet.
"Get out of here!" he yelled, spinning around to face the Senshi. They were just beginning to stir from where he had apparently knocked them to the floor. "I'll hold them off, just run!"
I felt dazed as I slowly pushed myself off the ground. What had happened? The entire room seemed to spin around my aching head. And why was Mamoru standing there looking so impatient?
"Don't just sit there," he shouted at me. "Run, you idiot!"
Over his shoulder, I could see the Senshi slowly clambering to their feet like a horde of drowned undead from a bad zombie game. I scrambled quickly to my feet. "Who exactly are you calling an idiot?" I demanded.
"You, you id—This isn't the time to argue!" he cut himself off impatiently. "Just get the hell out of here before you get yourself killed!"
Oh, now he cared!
"Well, you'd like that, wouldn't you?" I shouted. "Me being dead?"
"Why would I want you dead?" he shot back in a voice that suggested he was being ordered to elope with a Frankenstein's bride.
For a nationally-ranked scholar at the top of his class, he certainly was not very bright.
"Gee, I don't know—It couldn't have anything to do with the fact that only ten seconds ago, you were ready to jet out of this place and leave me here to die, would it?"
"Why would I leave you here to die?"
"Because you—ugh!" I threw up my hands. "Never mind. You're right, this is pointless. I'm out of here."
I spun around on my heel, expecting to find a clear pathway to the door. Instead, I found myself face to face with—what the hell, how did Jupiter get over here so fast?
"You're not going anywhere," she growled, taking one giant step towards me so that we were actually chest-to-face now.
"Righto, Jupiter," I chuckled weakly, taking a hasty step away from her generously-endowed bosom. "Not going anywhere. Gotcha." In the midst of my shameless groveling, I tripped over Mamoru's foot. He caught me and pushed me quickly behind him away from scary lightning-girl, whose fingers were actually shooting out sparks of crackling electricity.
I was not complaining at this point. Alive was good. Alive was very good.
Mamoru stepped in front of me. "Let her go, Jupiter. She didn't do anything."
Ahh. Well, technically speaking, I was the reason why all four disgruntled Senshi were even here, but Mamoru did not need to know that…
"This is between you girls and me."
I squirmed guiltily behind him.
Sailor Jupiter's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "You promised you wouldn't run away."
I looked up at Mamoru and saw that his entire body had stiffened. "I promised I wouldn't run away," he growled at last, crouching defensively in front of me, "But I never promised that I wouldn't put up a fight."
A familiar feeling swept over me as he pulled me further behind him, shielding me.
I felt protected. Safe.
I heard a scuffling noise behind me and whirled around, hands up in front of me. Mars, Mercury, and Venus were slowly advancing on us from behind.
My heart sank. We were trapped.
"Give up now and we might go easy on you, Usagi," Venus jeered, closing the circle around us.
"Yes, Usagi-chan," Mercury agreed. "You can't transform, so Venus' suggestion would actually be a wise one to follow."
"Hey!"
"What? What did I say?"
"What do you mean by 'actually?' My suggestions are always wise!"
"First I've ever heard it," I muttered under my breath as the Senshi continued to bicker like schoolchildren.
"Usagi."
I turned around to see Mamoru looking at me over his shoulder. "Huh?"
"You don't need to transform to use those powers of yours, do you?"
I bit my lip, hesitating as I gazed up into his steady eyes. Mamoru might have already found out that I was Sailor Moon, but even so, I did not know how much I should divulge to him. Would it put him in danger if he knew? But what harm could it do to tell him what he was already fully aware of?
"I don't think so," I finally said, shaking my head.
His gaze softened. "Good," he replied quietly, turning around again. "Just follow my lead."
I nodded and realized he could not see me. "Okay," I said. My heart was pounding.
Even so, I wondered how Mamoru expected the two of us to fight off four transformed, fully experienced Senshi. Even as the longest-awakened soldier besides Sailor V, I was definitely the weakest link in the group. What chance did we stand against them now?
"Usagi."
"Yeah. Um, what?"
Mamoru paused. "I know you're not exactly…happy with me right now," he finally said. "And you might not understand why I'm doing what I'm doing. But you have to trust me."
He did not have to tell me to trust him. I watched in silence as Venus bopped Mercury over the head with her love chain. I already could not keep myself from trusting him. He sounded so certain.
"Okay."
"And Usagi?"
"Hm?"
Mamoru inclined his head a fraction of a centimeter towards mine and whispered in a low voice, "When I tell you to run, I need you to run. Understand?"
"Y-yes—"
"Now!"
Mamoru pushed away from me so quickly that I stumbled backwards. In a flash, he charged past me and straight into the circle where the Senshi were still arguing with one another.
With one powerful kick, he knocked Venus into the wall behind her, causing the love chain to soar halfway across the room and land in a potted plant. He moved so swiftly that I suspected him of being a much more experienced fighter than he had ever let on. Before Mercury could react, he spun around and gripped her by the arm, preparing to send her after her fallen teammate.
But I had no time to stand idly and watch, because I suddenly sensed a burst of moving air behind me. I whirled around just in time to dodge Jupiter's fist, which whizzed dangerously past my right ear. Grabbing her arm, I twisted around just as it fully extended and used her momentum to throw her. She toppled headlong into the couch, unharmed but quite plainly out of commission.
I was feeling rather proud of myself when I turned around and saw Mars lifting a vase of roses over her head, aiming it straight at my head. Before I could even shriek, however, Mamoru came flying out of nowhere and tackled her by the legs, sending her crashing towards the floor.
"Thanks," I sighed, feeling relieved. The feeling, however, not mutual.
"My vase!" Mamoru roared, diving to the ground nose-first with remarkable speed.
The vase soared high into the air, spinning happily as it peaked in its high arc and came plummeting back down to the floor again. Mamoru's chin skidded against the floor just as the vase landed neatly in his outstretched fingertips.
He was breathing rather heavily and looking like a man who had just seen his life flash before his eyes.
I stopped fighting for my life for a minute and glanced down at him.
"Uh, Mamoru…? You okay there?"
"This…was…from ancient China," he panted, rolling onto his back and hugging the vase tightly to his chest. "It cost me…a fortune…"
"Oh, okay. So it'd be good if we just—EEK!"
A giant fireball was rushing right for the spot between my eyes. I jumped out of the way with a tiny "eep!" and hit the floor, tumbling and flailing every which way.
My leg, as it turned out, flailed straight into Mamoru's precious vase.
It performed a sort of halfhearted leap out of Mamoru's arms and hit the floor, shattering into a thousand tiny little fragments of ancient Chinese history.
"Oops," I squeaked.
Mamoru was still lying on his back, looking much like a turtle might have if I had recently killed it.
"Well, at least you can say you have lots of expensive Chinese pieces now," I chuckled weakly when he did not move. "Right, M…Mamoru?"
Maybe not. He looked like I had just stabbed him in the chest with a letter opener. Repeatedly. And maybe with a machete instead of a letter opener.
He finally opened his mouth.
"Usagi…"
I winced. "Yes…?"
Mamoru turned his eyes very slowly on mine.
"Run."
The plaintiveness of his voice caught me so off guard that for a moment, I simply froze. And then he rolled over, grabbed one of the roses still lying on the floor, and leapt up to his feet.
"RUN, USAGI!"
I ran.
I ducked and pelted for the door, fumbling with the lock. Behind me, Mamoru was doing something to keep the remaining Senshi occupied; I could hear them scrambling around the room for cover. Finally, there was a soft click and the door swung open.
The entire Malibu Barbie fan club was standing on the doorstep.
I stood there for a moment, stunned, then slammed the door in the face of a six-foot tall cheerleader.
"What are you doing?" Mamoru shouted, dropping the rose in his hand when he saw me lock the door shut again. I looked around. Come to think of it, where had the rest of the roses disappeared to? And where were the other Senshi? "Get out of here!"
"That exit's occupied," I growled through my teeth, marching back into the room again and kicking Mercury, who had just gotten unsteadily to her feet again, in the shin. She howled in pain and hopped into a bookshelf, which promptly rained down a flood of books. The spine of a particularly heavy volume hit her over the head, instantly knocking her out.
I paused over her supine body, surprised. The brainiest Senshi had just been put out of commission by a book.
I was so immersed in the irony of it all that I did not notice anything else until somebody grabbed me by the wrist. We had already flown by the kitchen doorway before I realized that Mamoru was dragging me to the other door.
"Wh-what are you doing?" I squeaked, squirming under his tight grip.
He continued pulling me along like a parent pulling a child away from the candies section of the grocery store. "We're taking the express route," he said, tugging at me to make me walk faster.
"'Express—'"
I looked up. We were heading for the balcony.
Oh, shit.
"We're not—you can't be—this is the eighth floor!" I screeched, scrambling in the other direction so hard that Mamoru actually had to stop and grab hold of me again.
"It's either that or fifteen million girls outside waiting to gouge our eyes out," he replied through gritted teeth, dragging me forward again. "So stop…being…so…difficult!"
I wasn't going to win against him, but he was going to have to work for every step. I dug my heels deeper into the carpet.
"I'd rather take the girls," I replied quickly. It seemed a heck of a lot safer than taking a flying leap off of his balcony, at any rate.
Mamoru ignored me and shoved both of my hands into his left one so that he could open the balcony door with the other hand, which annoyed me because it meant that he did not even have to try to restrain me. Me! Sailor Moon! "Look, Usagi," he finally said when he had pushed the door open, "I know you're scared—"
"Scared?" I shrieked. "I'm terrified!"
"—but I need you to trust me," he finished, his eyes softening a little bit as he looked at me.
I could feel myself melt a little inside before he even said it. Compassion mingled with resentment welled up inside of me. You couldn't just drop a bombshell on someone out of nowhere like that and expect them to not acquiesce.
Mamoru took advantage of my hesitation and swept me into his arms before I could say another word. I screamed, scrabbling against his shirt for better purchase as he walked calmly out onto the balcony with me in tow.
It was when he planted one foot on the vase of roses sitting on the balcony that I noticed it. Mamoru was grinning.
Actually grinning.
It briefly occurred to me that he might not be in his right mind and was actually a suicidal maniac who was just taking me along for the ride. The fall. The kersplat noise that we would probably both make when we hit the pavement eight stories down. Unless people who fell from such heights did not last long enough to make a kersplat.
Dammit, why hadn't I figured this out earlier when escape was still a viable option?
"Okay, put me down, put me down put me down put me down NOW!" I screeched, raining fists down on Mamoru's chest.
"Hey, hey—calm down, Odango! What are you—"
"I've changed my mind about this!"
"If you don't quit it, you're going to fall!" Mamoru interrupted.
I stopped instantly.
"What's gotten into you?" he demanded when he was sure that I was not going to put up a fight again. "You could have killed us both!"
"No, that was you."
"What do you mean?" Mamoru hoisted me more securely into his arms and placed his foot on the vase again. "I told you that you could trust me, didn't…?"
He stopped. Realization dawned on his features.
"You thought…" Then he paused and began to chuckle. "You thought I was suicidal, didn't you?"
I made a face at him. "It's not funny," I shot back. "You could have been!"
"Yeah," he chuckled, "That would explain why I've been trying so hard to stay alive today, doesn't it?"
Stay alive. The word rang in my head.
Survival. Escape.
Self-preservation. Excuses.
The forgotten thoughts rang in my head again like a painfully loud gong. I felt my entire body stiffen.
Mamoru must have felt me tense in his arms, because he hesitated before speaking again. "Look, Usagi," he said at last, looking down at me, "I'll explain everything when you're safe again. But I need you to trust me."
There were those words again. Trust.
Could I really trust him after everything that had happened?
I slowly raised my eyes to his, searching for an answer. To my surprise, I found something there that I had never seen before. Or maybe I had just never noticed it.
I found myself gazing into a pair of disconcertingly familiar blue eyes. Even in the dim light that filtered outside, I knew that I had seen them somewhere before. Dark bangs, slightly disheveled from the day's events, tumbled over them like clouds setting in over the horizon of an impending storm.
I blinked. The vision had faded, but the nameless feeling still lingered.
"I…I trust you,' I said at last.
I saw Mamoru's face break into a relieved smile. "Good," he replied, leaping lightly off the vase and onto on the railing. As he pushed off, his foot caught and the vase wobbled before toppling over, shattering into a million pieces on the marble.
"Ah…" He winced, glancing over his shoulder at the spilled flowers. "Well, no matter," he remarked at last as he turned to grin cheekily at me. "I don't have the first one anymore, so I guess it doesn't really matter if I break the rest of the collection now, too."
But I did not hear him. I was still staring at the overturned vase of roses. Because I suddenly realized where I had seen those eyes before.
The roses.
The dark hair.
The uncanny swiftness and strength.
That voice.
"Tuxedo Kamen?"
I felt a sharp jerk underneath me as Mamoru suddenly lost his footing and we both pitched forward, tumbling over the edge of the railing.
"USAGI!"
I screamed.
The last thing I saw were his stormy eyes widening with shock before the city lights rushed up to meet me and I plunged through the darkness, his gaze still burning vividly against the cold night air.
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End of Chapter 4
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So now here's the million-dollar question for you: What does your audience card say now? Does it say "BOO"? Does it say "POLICE INTERVENTION"? Or does it say something else, something entirely unexpected, something new and innovative that only you can tell me?
Well, there's the point. Tell me! Review!
I thought it would be appropriate to mention in my ending author's notes (since nobody wants to read a bunch of blathering at the beginning of the chapter) that there may be two more chapters instead of one. So the next one may not be the final one, depending how much junk I can shove into it. But we shall have to wait and see!
Also, I wanted to add that for everyone who is also subscribed to my "100 drabbles," there will be no updates for that until possibility late August, but be on the lookout for new drabbles that I have written and will post soon from this year's Livejournal 35 drabbles challenge!
Okay, that's all for now! I'm off to dodge some thrown cue signs and maybe boot Garfield and Arlene off the fence somewhere. Cheers!