The next day was a weekend, and Usagi was just coming downstairs for breakfast when she heard her mother's cheerful we-have-company lilt mixed with a recently familiar baritone voice echoing from the doorway.
"Usagi!" her mother admonished, "You didn't tell us Mamoru was in town!"
"I- uh," she gaped a little and Mamoru gave her an apologetic smile. All Usagi could do was thank every god in heaven that she was dressed and ready for the day and not wandering downstairs in her pajamas with her hair sticking up every which way.
Ikuko had ushered Mamoru in by the arm, still smiling. "Can you stay for breakfast? Papa is out with Shingo already. I'm afraid Usagi is a bit of a late sleeper, as usual."
"Actually, I was hoping I could borrow Usagi for the day? Unless you had plans for her here." He turned to Usagi, "And if it's okay with you, Usako, of course."
"No, no, go ahead!" Ikuko said, "I was hoping for the house to myself today anyway."
"Sorry to surprise you like that," Mamoru said, once they were walking down the street together. "The girls had suggested taking you to some familiar places today, to see if it sparked anything."
"No problem," Usagi said. Then she smiled, "So I guess my family likes you?"
"Your mother does," he laughed. "Your father is... on the fence still I think."
"Hmm," she said, "that's strange. I wonder why." She looked perplexed and Mamoru gave her a side long glance and amused smile.
"So," he said, changing the subject, "since I robbed you of your mom's homemade breakfast, should our first stop be food-related?"
"Yes please!" she giggled.
They ate brunch together at a cafe ("we used to come where with Chibi-Usa a lot, and eat outside"). They walked by Crown arcade and Fruits Parlor, but avoided going inside ("I don't think I could handle lying to Motoki right now," Usagi had said and Mamoru had nodded sympathetically). Mamoru took her on a boat ride in the lake, which Usagi found delightful, but no memories returned to her. After that, they just walked around town, ducking into their favorite shops (the old lady at the stationery store seemed to recognize them, in fact).
Usagi found herself enjoying the day, despite the unsettling feeling of being shown and told things she should have already known.
And she hated having to regretfully tell Mamoru, "No," every time he asked if anything was coming back to her. "Sorry," she'd said, the first few times, only to have him react to her apology with a cringe. Eventually he just stopped asking, so she didn't have to answer.
Later that afternoon, they walked through the park together. It was quiet and peaceful, and Usagi tried to let herself just relax.
She noticed they were keeping in step with each other, without even trying. Maybe her muscles were linked to a different part of her brain, as if her body already knew to match his pace without even trying. Or maybe he was matching hers. Their hands brushed together sometimes.
"You're really tall, aren't you?" she said, suddenly. All day long she had to look up at him, unless they were seated.
"Have you considered that you are just really short?" Mamoru said, putting a hand on her head for a just a second. Usagi tried not to think about the warmth that flooded through her at the gesture.
Instead she stopped and stood on her tip-toes, still only coming up to his chin. "Uh, I'll have you know I reached five feet at my last doctor's appointment," she informed him, stumbling only slightly. He deftly caught her around the waist and pulled her toward him for a second, and in that moment it was like her breath disappeared from her lungs. Then he released her, and it was a beat or two before he responded with a half-smile.
"Congrats," he said, "I remember being five feet. I think I was eleven."
"Ha ha," Usagi said, punching his arm a little. "So, now where to now?"
He have a laid back shrug. "I dunno," he said. "I can't think of any other specific place."
"This was fun, though," she offered, looking up and giving him an encouraging smile, which he returned easily.
"Do you want to rent a movie?" Usagi asked. Even as she spoke, she knew it was a stupid idea. How would that help her remember? "You said it was something we used to do..."
But he agreed, and she realized she was really happy not to have to part ways with him just yet.
"This is a nice place," Usagi said, walking around his apartment, slowly. She was observing, touching each kick-knack, looking carefully at each framed photograph, running her hands across the spines of the books on the bookshelf. Mamoru leaned against the wall and watched her with a soft expression in his face.
"It's in good shape for you not living here," she said. A little dusty but otherwise...
"Yeah, I just left it mostly as-is," he said. "I knew I'd be visiting a lot."
After what happened with Galaxia, Mamoru decided to try again at study abroad on the condition that he returned every chance he got. Holidays and breaks weren't used for extra study or travel, like he'd planned the first time, but for returning to Tokyo to spend even a few days with Usagi. Money and time be damned. Death has a way of changing your priorities.
"You might come here sometimes, when I'm gone," he continued. "I told you that you could, anyway." He smiled at the surprise on her face.
"I-," Usagi looked around. "I guess I'm here a lot, huh?" For some reason, the thought hadn't even occurred to her. She'd been looking around like a guest or a stranger, but of course, if they were dating, she'd probably been here at least sometimes.
"You've had a key for a couple years now," Mamoru said. Actually, most of his bathroom and at least two drawers of his dresser had been taken over by Usagi by now - various toiletries and a bunch of manga somehow materialized, hair ties and pins and a jacket or two, had all found their homes nestled among his things. Both Usagi and Chibi-Usa (he couldn't bring himself to throw it out) had toothbrushes there, too.
"Oh." Usagi came to the coffee table in the middle of the room and paused. It was strewn with books and papers, and a laptop computer, off to the side. Usagi suddenly felt so stupid and selfish. Mamoru wasn't even supposed to be here. He was supposed to be in school. Usagi knew from Ami that every day he missed was a determent, and that his grades at university were very important to him.
"I think I should go," she found herself saying, before she even realized it.
Mamoru looked baffled, and a little hurt. "Why?"
"I mean so you can get some work done," Usagi explained, with a smile. "I've been hogging up all your time."
"No-," before he could protest more, she stepped forward and wrapped her arms around his waist, and he returned the hug. Usagi wished his embrace was familiar, she knew it was supposed to be. But it was still really nice.
"Mamoru," she looked up at him, and then closed her mouth against the words bubbling up inside her. I don't want to lose this, no matter what. Instead she just shook her head slightly, smiling again. "Even though it didn't work to return my memories... thanks for today."
"Anytime."
The next morning, Usagi headed to Rei's as planned and saw three familiar and unexpected faces waiting for her inside the shrine.
"Haruka! Michiru! Hotaru! It's been a while!" Usagi greeted them cheerfully before engulfing Hotaru in a tight hug. From behind her someone cleared their throat. "Setsuna!" Usagi greeted her with a hug as well.
"It's always a treat to see you, princess," she said, smiling that Setsuna smile of hers.
"The girls here have been updating us on the situation," Haruka said.
Usagi tilted her head and asked, "They called you for help?"
"They called me, actually," Setsuna said, with a slightly chiding smile at her family, "but some folks insisted on tagging along."
"We wanted to help our friend," Michiru said, sweetly.
"I believe your exact words were 'this should be interesting'," Haruka pointed out, "but okay." Michiru gave her a look.
The girls filled the outer senshi in on the issues, and what they've tried so far. Usagi gave a brief - and slightly abridged - summary of the day before, adding that nothing helped to spark her memory.
Haruka rested her chin on her hand. "So, you don't know if you need this 'special key' or if it was a metaphor or what."
"You and your screwed up subconscious not giving us clear answers," Minako said, glaring at Usagi, who shrugged guiltily.
Ami turned to Setsuna. "We wondered if maybe it was the time key?"
The senshi of time raised an eyebrow. "I do not think that is the solution you seek," Setsuna said, "It doesn't make sense in the time stream. Plus, you're not getting it anyway."
"Anything in the fire?" Hotaru asked Rei, who shook her head.
"I wonder," Michiru said, then stopped, putting her hands together gracefully and resting her chin on them.
"What?" Makoto asked.
"Tell us what you think, Michiru," Usagi added. "Please?" At this point, she was ready to try anything.
Michiru continued, softly, her eyes focused off in the distance. "I wonder, if maybe Usagi isn't... clinging to her amnesia? On purpose?"
The response was shouted in various degrees of surprise and (in Usagi's case) offense.
"You think I'd do this on purpose?!" Usagi cried.
"No, no," Michiru continued, "I just meant, maybe subconsciously, you don't want to remember."
"Why?" she asked, still looking at her friend with a confused, and hurt, expression.
"Because," Michiru looked at Usagi with no small amount of sympathy, "because once you remember, Mamoru will return to America."
Usagi blinked, sinking down onto her knees.
"He came back for you, because of this predicament you are in..."
"And since he's been back, he's barely left your side," Rei said, thoughtfully nodding. "He's being really wonderful to you - not that Mamoru wasn't always good to you - but lately, it's as if he's trying to win you over all over again."
"And, with your history, you never really got that before," Minako said.
"Maybe part of you - a part you can't control - wants to keep that for a while longer?" Michiru finished.
Haruka seemed taken aback. "You really think she's capable of that?"
"I think anyone might be," Michiru said, "considering the circumstances. I'm sure she missed him terribly. I can only imagine if I found myself in a similar situation."
"You wouldn't," Haruka said, gruffly. Michiru shook her head and gave Haruka a knowing smile that somehow made the other seven people in attendance feel like third wheels.
"Um, I dunno, guys," Makoto looked doubtful, "you didn't see her the day after we met Mamoru in the park. Or when I showed her the pictures. Usagi isn't enjoying this at all."
Usagi sent her brunette friend a grateful look.
"I'm not saying she caused it," Michiru said. "Just that somehow maybe her own subconscious is blocking our attempts to fix it. Especially if that means she gets to be with the person she loves."
Minako shook her head, obviously agreeing with Makoto that it didn't seem very plausible.
Usagi bit her lip and lowered her head.
She thought of the sorrow she'd seen Mamoru try to hide every time he watched her face for a spark of recognition that never came. About Ami staying up nights to research, Rei sweating in front of the fire, Makoto keeping her mementos safe and Minako running interference and that damn wall in her mind where everything was locked away.
"I'm not doing this," Usagi said, looking at her friends desperately. "I promise, I am not." Am I?
"It was just a possibility," Michiru said, with a shrug.
Usagi stood up abruptly, grabbed her purse. "I have to go."
"If I caused any offense-" Michiru started but Usagi silenced her with a genuine smile.
"You didn't," she assured her senshi. "But I just realized there is something I have to do."
She turned at the doorway, "Take the day off, okay girls? For me?"
It took her a short while to find Mamoru's apartment again, she took a wrong turn or two before using yesterday's landmarks to find her way to the lobby. A girl about Mamoru's age was there, checking her mailbox. She gave Usagi a friendly smile and wave, like she recognized her, and Usagi waved back, uncomfortably. It seemed the memory block spread to even the formerly familiar faces of the apartment complex.
When Mamoru opened to door, he seemed surprised and happy to see her but his smile faded when he saw the look on her face.
"Everything okay, Usako?"
She just shook her head, curled her hand around her purse strap again. Taking a deep breath, she lifted her head and met his eyes dead-on. "Mamoru, you have to go back to America."