Title: A Kiss In The Dark
Author: Princess Destiny
Email: In Profile
URL: destinysgateway DOT com
Couple: Usagi And Mamoru
Rating: M 15+
Summary: 'One Hour Challenge' #657: Response Fanfic. Eleven years ago, Mamoru's father married Usagi's mother. It's now almost Usagi's sixteenth birthday and she has to juggle her secret life as Sailor Moon, on top of school and a job at Motoki's shop. Her life is turned even more upside down when she begins to suspect the masked hero she is falling in love with is actually her awful step-brother!
Couple: Usagi And Mamoru
Chapters: 6/?
Status: Unfinished
Year Completed: N/A

Comments: Hi everyone! Here is Chapter Six. As you may have noticed, my Usagi is not an idiot or a crybaby and that's how it's going to be. I was able to add in some of the elements I was hoping to in this Chapter and I know some of you will be a little confused over what's happening. In another Chapter or so, all will be made clear, so be patient. :)

This is my Weekly Challenge Response for the 'One Hour Challenges' Mailing List! I've tried to write a Fanfic before where Usagi and Mamoru were step-siblings, but it wasn't well received. But umm, this idea grabbed a hold of me and wouldn't let go, so despite the bad feedback I might get, I'm writing this plot! So there! My idea was to have the two in a world where everything is exactly the same as it is in the Anime, but that their parents married when they were kids. They were brought up together and still have that acute dislike between them, but it's from long familiarity. Oh, and before anyone asks, it's perfectly okay to have a relationship with a step-brother, since they are not technically related. I don't want to hear any negative comments on this, okay? LOL.

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Hugs,
Princess Destiny

A KISS IN THE DARK

By Princess Destiny

Chapter Six

But irrefutable evidence was staring her right in the face. What were the odds that Tuxedo Kamen had decided to dye his hair just that shade of brown on the exact same day that her step-brother had?

Exactly none.

As gloved hands slapped over her mouth and she chocked back a cry of shock and rejection. Mamoru was Tuxedo Kamen? Her Tuxedo Kamen? No...no, it couldn't be.

"Sailor Moon, are you alright?" Now that she had seen what his sister had done to his hair, he somewhat sheepishly slapped the hat back on. Damn, of all the embarrassing things to have happened! Tuxedo Kamen looked at her searchingly as her hand went to her mouth, her expressive blue eyes staring at him with something akin to horror. Was the hair that bad? He felt uneasy all of a sudden.

Calm down, that's all she needed to do. The Senshi of the Moon turned her back to the hero abruptly and took in deep breaths of air. She was trying not to hyperventilate, but truly, this was a huge shock.

"What's going on over there?!" Sailor Mars cried out in exasperation. She looked at Jupiter. "Keep attacking!"

"I think the weakness is in it's elbow, but the Mercury Computer is being very slow." The Senshi in blue reported, casting her leader a confused look.

"Okay, okay, I can do this!" Sailor Moon hissed to herself, getting her emotions under control. So her step-brother might be Tuxedo Kamen...but really, what else did she have to go on other than his hair? Nothing else reminded her of Mamoru-at least...wait, they both had blue eyes and were built like greek gods. "Crap! I so hate that jerk." She growled, closing her eyes briefly to fight down her ire.

She had to face this with her brain functioning, which it was not, unfortunately, doing right then. "Smile, be polite, figure this the hell out later. Dust the youma now!" The golden-haired Senshi gave herself a brief pep-talk and spun back to face a very bewildered Tuxedo Kamen, a fake smile plastered to her lips.

"Tuxedo Kamen? What did you do to your hair?" Sailor Moon asked, striving for politeness. Her left eye twitched and then she managed to get herself under control.

The hero gaped at her incredulously. After that performance, that was all she was going to say?! "Yeah, I umm...decided to go in for a new look." He floundered in his words, trying to come up with a good excuse. She had every right to wonder what had happened to the guy she admired.

"Mmm," The blonde almost growled out, eyes burning holes into him.

Tuxedo Kamen found himself in the very unexpected position of actually being mildly afraid of Sailor Moon. If looks could kill, he would be a pile of ash right now. What he couldn't figure out, was what the hell he had done!

Damn it, it was driving her insane. Now that little worm had gotten into her, she had to know if he was her step-brother! "Sure, Usagi-just go up to him and say 'Hey, I think you're my step-brother, Mamoru. Because your hair colour has changed!'. Yeah, that would go down well." Sailor Moon said under her breath sarcastically. Until she saw his face without the mask, she had exactly nothing on the jerk. And besides, she felt rather ill thinking about it!

"Is something wrong, Sailor Moon?" Tuxedo Kamen asked her in concern, peering down at her face. She looked positively shocked over something and he felt very uneasy. Was it really just the hair? "I can change it back." He offered tentatively, feeling like he had entered the twilight zone. Weren't they in the middle of a battle here?

"I'll let you know," She retorted cryptically, looking hard at him. Sailor Moon's eyes trailed over his changed hair, down over his strong jaw, to his body, which she happened to know was very muscled and fit. There was no way he scooped her out of the way of death so many times without him being incredibly fit. And the blonde was on intimate terms with how broad his shoulders were, and how much bodily strength held her so protectively against his chest.

"Yep, it's the elbow!" Mercury's voice called out.

"Alright then," Sailor Moon suddenly whipped the Crescent Moon Wand from her sub-space pocket and aimed it at the youma. She was pissed. Oh yes, she really was. Mamoru...Tuxedo Kamen?! No bloody way in hell was her step-brother her crush! "Moon Healing, Escalation!" She yelled, aiming at the youma. As the power flew out of her, she felt a slight disassociation, as if all control had been taken over by someone else.

The unfortunately woman-beast could only gape as the blaze of power came slamming into her, but she did manage to fire her disc of light in every direction before turning to dust.

It was also unfortunate that Sailor Moon had been in such a state as to aggravate the over-enthusiastic Moon Wand. The power kept going and growing after annihilating the youma, blowing a path a meter deep across the road, through some cars and right into a building.

"Holy shit!" The Senshi and Tuxedo Kamen exclaimed in awe.

"What have I done?" Sailor Moon whispered, eyes wide with shock.

Two hours later, three ambulances, a report to the local police and a very short meeting with reporters, the weary Senshi and Tuxedo Kamen fled the scene.

At least the building she had demolished had been vacate and ready for sale. If someone had been killed, Sailor Moon's soul would have gone along with it.

Sailor Moon was in a state of shock still, and was being supported by Jupiter as they raced over the buildings. It had gone out of control. It hadn't been her, she was sure of it. Someone else had taken over just as the power went through her. The sense of familiarity would not go away. "Oh god," She covered her face with her hands as they set down in Juuban park to regroup.

Tuxedo Kamen had stayed with them, despite the fact that he usually would have shown them his famous disappearing routine. He was very worried about Sailor Moon, and also the flamboyant power display of a little earlier. The Senshi did have an amazing power in the Crescent Moon Wand, however, she had never shown that sort of strength before. Her tiara was quite milder still. The man could not shake the feeling that something had gone terribly wrong at the point where Sailor Moon had dusted the youma. Something familiar had stirred his senses and he felt his soul rising towards hers.

"It's okay, Sailor Moon," Sailor Mars soothed, taking the shivering girl into her arms. "There were only a few injuries, no major ones and no one died."

"They could have died!" The Senshi of the Moon cried, burying her face into her friend's shoulder. "What happened?" She asked despairingly, turning her head to look at them all, as if they had the answer.

"I can't explain the sudden spike in your powers, Sailor Moon," Mercury shook her head, still typing away at her computer.

There had been an enourmous surge when her leader fired from the Moon Wand. But it had been almost as if another source had added their powers suddenly to Sailor Moon's own.

It didn't really explain how a wand used to turn youma back into humans had suddenly become a destructive weapon.

"Sailor Moon, it's alright," Tuxedo Kamen said awkwardly, not sure how to comfort her. To his surprise, she pulled away from Sailor Mars and hurtled herself into his arms. For some reason, that felt right. As his arms wrapped about her protectively, his glove found a stickiness. "What-?" He exclaimed, moving back to show her the glove with one hand, while the other stayed soothingly at her waist.

Sailor Moon stared at the bright red on the pristine white glove and she paled as pain registered finally. "Oh, I think I got hit." She said in astonishment, looking down at her arm. The glove was all torn up above her elbow, and the white material was red with her blood.

Mercury hurried over and checked the injury, pale herself. She finally sighed in relief. "The cut is fairly deep, but you should heal enough to close it before you de-transform."

"Is it really not bad?" Mars peered at the wound, her brows drawn together. There was an awful lot of blood, but it wasn't a bad cut, as Mercury had pointed out.

Tuxedo Kamen's lips pursed. He took the handkerchief from his breast pocket and pressed it lightly against Sailor Moon's injury. She winced as he wrapped it about her elbow securely, but otherwise did not cry or make a fuss. In that moment, he was so proud of her he could have grinned like an idiot. "Get her home, girls." He told them, voice cool. It was time to take his leave before his parents noticed that he was not in bed where he should have been.

"He's right, we can talk about this later on," Sailor Mars agreed, taking control. "Mercury, can you get her home? Jupiter and I need to talk about something."

Sailor Mercury gave them a curious look before nodding. She put a hand under her leader's uninjured arm and began to walk them away.

"Thank you, Tuxedo Kamen!" Sailor Moon called over her shoulder, smiling wanly. She felt so drained. And the pain in her arm was bugging her. It could have been so much worse that night, if people have been injured badly or even killed. How was she ever to forgive herself?

"Don't think about it too much, Usagi," Mercury said in a low tone."I don't think you were responsible for tonight's accidents."

"What do you mean?" The blonde Senshi asked, looking sideways at her friend. She couldn't help the small feeling of hope that had blossomed in her heart. If there was really an explanation and it wasn't her faults...

"There was a massive power spike, as if someone else's powers were added to yours." The blue-haired Senshi mused, lost in her thoughts.

So it had been as Sailor Moon suspected...someone had been helping her with the Moon Wand. But who? Somehow it was reassuring.

The two took to the tops of the buildings and they made their way towards Sailor Moon's house in silence.

Sailor Mercury left her under her window, after giving another warm hug to reassure her leader everything was alright.

Sailor Moon waited for a long moment, staring wistfully up at the moon. Then she sighed and leapt up into the huge tree in front of her window. She walked along the upper branches and hoped into the room. The light was still on and as she reversed her transformation, she realised that there was a very pissed off black cat waiting on her bed.

"Oh dear," The blonde gasped out, suddenly remembering something she should have done. "I forgot to tell Luna!"

Ikuko's eyes flashed open as she heard her daughter moving about in her room. It had been hours since Usagi left to go to Rei's aid and the woman had been waiting. Kenji had finally suggested they go to bed, and although he had fallen straight into sleep, his wife lay there filled with uncertainly and concern.

It wasn't that her daughter wasn't a responsible young woman, but Ikuko had been feeling strange for months now whenever Usagi had to suddenly run off somewhere. She even felt this way during the day for a inexplicable reason.

"Thank god you're back, darling. You really make your mama worry sometimes." She yawned as tiredness overcame her protests and she began to relax. Usagi was home safe and it was way past the time they should all be asleep.

Now if only there wasn't a nagging feeling that something had gone wrong..

Chiba Mamoru climbed back in by the window he had exited and then he let himself de-transform. "I can't help but wonder if Sailor Moon is alright," He muttered under his breath.

He ran a distracted hand through his hair and then grimaced as he recalled the colour of his hair. "That brat, I'll wake her up early in the morning to fix this problem." He went on darkly. His step-sister was no doubt sleeping soundly right that moment, and he would have dearly loved to burst in and wake her up. But that would have stirred the whole house-hold. Usagi had quite a set of lungs on her!

The upperclassman, quickly undressed and turned the lights off. He looked out of the window at the moon for many long minutes before closing the blinds and sliding into bed. The cool sheets felt good on his skin and he sighed in pleasure. "Maybe I'll dream of my Princess again tonight." He whispered with a secret smile. He certainly had a soft spot for the elusive woman in his dreams. Almost every night she met him, facing him from atop the balcony of a mighty palace, the moonlight bright in her long golden hair.

It could possibly explain his sudden respect and liking for his annoying step-sister's golden locks. Up until not long ago, the Odango Atama name he had tagged her with had been something to taunt her with, but now appeared to be more like a fond pet-name!

His Moon Princess would take away all his worries as always, although after meeting her things seemed to get very hazy and he had trouble remembering the next day. It was sort of annoying really, to have their conversations go the exact same way each time.

"Bring me the Mystical Silver Crystal!" Mamoru mimicked somewhat sarcastically, crossing his arms. "How about 'I love you Mamoru!' or 'I need you to kiss me right now, Mamoru!'" He mocked, rolling his eyes.

Truly, if he was going to be delusional in sleep-was that even possible?!-then at least he could imagine a more romantic Princess. One that was preferably moaning his name in ecstasy?

"Oh sure, Prince Charming, like she's going to fall into your arms and share one of those cheesy romance-novel kisses?" The man threw up his arms in disgust, then he turned on his side and resolutely closed his eyes. As always, just before sleep claimed him, he wondered what his dream Princess had to do with the Dark Kingdom and perhaps even his alter ego.

To Be Continued...

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It is three in the morning and once again I am not sleeping because of a migraine. Hopefully that will clear up over the next week so I can write up a storm!

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Hugs,
Princess Destiny