They were indeed on a good way concerning their mission; Mamoru had a nice place where he could stay, he had the possibility to study and everyone around him accepted him to be a part of this world. Everyone, except Usagi.

It had been a couple of weeks now since he moved in the Tsukino house, but every time he wanted to see her and talk to her, she was not there at all.

During the week, Usagi overslept regularly, got detention and spent her leisure time either at the Game Crown Center or somewhere else such as in the weird shops the Dark Kingdom had established in order to get the people's energy.

On the weekends, Usagi slept till noon and then either met up with Naru or with any other of her friends. She was hardly at home. In the nights, she fought youmas and sometimes, she was busy with making her homework.

It looked as if they would have a parallel life. One reason was that Mamoru had to avoid situations where Usagi bumped into his past self - which happened on a very regular basis - the other reason was that Mamoru was fairly busy with his own study.

Furthermore, Usagi didn't seem to be aware that he lived with them now. Apparently no one had told her at all, not even Luna as Diana had found out.

"I gain more and more the feeling that we should go ahead in time and restart our search for the Light of Hope at a later stage."

Diana spoke while she was looking critically at the information shown on her super mini computer.

"It's been a while we have been here and there is no hint of Galaxia's Star Seed at all.

"Diana, Shingo just had accepted Luna and Amy will join Usagi in her mission pretty soon. I think we should wait for this event to take place, perhaps the Star Seed will be drawn to this event. Therefore, we should stay patient. Besides, I am quite busy with my study and don't want to miss too much things."

Mamoru gave the little feline an honest smile

"Frankly speaking, I like this way of living and we have time, don't we?"

The cat knew too good what Mamoru wanted to tell her and gave him a sincere smirk in return.

"Right, I think we are done with our research for today and I don't want to learn any more. It's getting late and I'll go and take a bath now."

By saying this, Mamoru got up from his bed and made his way downstairs. Ikuko had told them that this evening they would be out since there was a school festival of Shingo's school, so he looked forward to spending the evening on his own with a quite relaxing bubbly bath.

Still sunken in his thoughts, Mamoru got off his clothes and put on a towel around his waist.

It should have made him suspicious when he opened the bathroom door and hot steam came towards him. Unable to see anything through the fog, he took off his towel and went blindly to the bathtub.

‚Strange, did Someone forgot to let out the water from the bathtub?'

By thinking this, he swung himself into the hot water and froze in utter horror instantly when his legs collided with naked skin.

"Iiiiieeeeeeehhhhhhhhhhkkkkkk!!!!!!!!!!!!"

A high shriek was followed by his action and while Mamoru was busy paddling the hot steam aside in order to see properly, the vision to the owner of the naked skin became clear.

"Whhhaaaaat? Baka??!!!!!!!!!!"

Usagi didn't seem to be that happy to see her future husband sharing a bath with her. At least not at this point of her timeline.

The blonde didn't thought her next action completely through when she jumped up in utter annoyance, so Mamoru had a full view at a completely naked 14 year old girl. Apart from her hair which was covered with a pink towel.

A millisecond later, Usagi realized her huge mistake and while her face turned into the deepest shade of red (also because she was utterly angry), she jumped back into the hot bathtub and shouted by covering her breasts.

"What are you doing here, jerk?!"

"You...you aren't supposed to be here tonight." He managed to reply, desperately trying to ignore the fact that he was more than dangerously close to the naked bunny.

"You shouldn't be here either!!!!" She screamed back. "How dare you, insulting me on the streets and stalk me at the same time? Are you a crazy pervert or what?!!!!"

He couldn't reply anything to her as voices were coming up from downstairs.

"Usagi? Is it you, love?" Ikuko called by climbing up the stairs.

Mamoru had to make a decision. Actually it was than fair to Usagi since he had seen her naked already and he remembered the white cat face ball lying on his bed. Sooner or later he could erase her memory concerning the encounters with him at that time anyway.

'This is really the stupidest idea I've ever had by traveling to the past.'

"Usagi, I'm doing this for us."

He declared with a firm voice and got up from the bathtub. Of course, Usagi saw every single detail of his body. Of course, she didn't look away at all. Of course, she had to make a comment.

"Holy...WOW!!!" Usagi took a deep breath and seemed to be more than impressed of the exclusive view.

Quickly, Mamoru grabbed his towel and got in front of the bathroom door when Ikuko reached the corridor. With a bewildered look at Mamoru's half naked appearance, she said

"Errr, what is going on here?!"

In the meantime, Usagi had managed to get out of the bathtub and dressed in a pink bathrobe, she stepped next to Mamoru. Now Ikuko was shocked.

"What are you both doing?!!!!"

It was Kenji who had come up as well and shouted behind his wife.

"It's not what it looks like!"

Mamoru, still dressed in nothing but a towel, held up his hands defensively and hurried to explain "it was some sort of a funny coincidence. I wanted to take a bath and didn't know that Usagi was at home. I thought she had accompanied you to the school festival."

He could see the instand relief in his future parents faces once he had given a reasonable answer to this quite weird scene but his future wife didn't seem to buy his explanation at all.

"Can you tell me why you are here anyway? Why on Earth do you know where I live? I don't even know your name, BAKA!"

By crossing her arms, Usagi pouted and gave a more than irritated glance to the raven haired man standing next to her.

That was the Moment, when Mamoru realized that he had a big problem; Usagi was of the opinion that he was the same person she had several accidental encounters with on the streets of Azabu-Juban.

This was actually correct, apart from the fact that Mamoru existed twice in this time now and the time travel version was supposed to be called Endy and not Mamoru...which was a name Usagi hadn't heard of at the time he was standing next to her, partly covered with a towel.

The white cat face ball was still on his bed and therefore not a suitable option to solve this current problem. It was Ikuko who helped Mamoru. At least for now.

"Usagi, how dare you call your relative a baka?"

When Usagi stared at her mother in complete disbelief, her father made her even more confused when he added

"Seriously, Endy didn't do anything to you. Why are you so upset? He's our guest and will stay as long as he wants."

Now Usagi was dumbfounded. Slowly she turned her gaze back to Mamoru and spoke in a stammering voice

"That ... that's ... you do ... you live with us? !!!!"

"Usagi, don't be silly. He's been living with us for a while and has his room in the attic. What world do you actually live in?"

With an annoyed expression on her face, Ikuko taunted her daughter who was nothing but close to freak out by hearing her mothers words.

Kenji only sighed and when he turned around to go back downstairs, he mumbled mainly to himself.

"Really, those teenagers nowadays truly seem to live in their own world. Let's go downstairs Ikuko, I'm starving. Why couldn't we stay longer at the festival and eat there?"

While Kenji was starting a conversation with his wife about what they want to have for dinner, they left behind a shocked Usagi and a startled Mamoru, still standing in front of the bathroom.

"So your name is Endy, Baka?!" Usagi only said while she was still gazing after her parents.

'Great, how can I convince her that I am not the Mamoru from this time but only do look his sort of twin brother?'

Mamoru desperately thought when an idea came into his mind.

"Yes, my name is Endy and it's quite a while since we have seen each other -'that wasn't even a lie at all' - we are far related to each other, one of Kenji's cousins is my father. I come from Osaka and will study medicine at Keio university for a couple of semesters. Kenji and Ikuko kindly invited me to stay at their house."

When Mamoru had ended his introduction, Usagi was still not moving and asked back, her gaze still fixed to the stairways.

"If you know me why have you given to me this horrible nickname and always behave like an arrogant snob to me all the times I bump into you?"

"Excuse me but there seems to be a misunderstanding. This is the first time I bumped into you -'that wasn't a lie either', perhaps you're mistaking me with someone else...I've seen a bloke in the game crown center the other day who looks as if he could be my twin brother. - okay, that was a litte lie now.'

This explanation seemed to be working when Usagi's face lightened up. She lifted her eyes to the still half naked man in front of her and finally put on a curious face.

"So you aren't a baka at all?"

Mamoru grinned back at her mischievously.

"I don't think so." By stretching out his hand to her, he continued "Even if it was kind of a...err...an unexpected meeting in the bathroom, I think we should go back to the start...I'm Endy, nice to meet you...and I want to make this clear. I didn't look at all (BIGGEST LIE EVER).

Usagi took an astonished look at his hand and by flushing deeply, she took the invitation and shook it by saying

"I'm Usagi...nice to meet you, too, Endy...and I honestly couldn't turn my eyes away...I mean...well...err...sorry!"

"I think I can live with that."

Mamoru winked at the beautiful angel standing in front of him which he loved so much that it was more than painful not being able to hug or kiss her. It was a torture for him, having her by his side but being not allowed to touch or feel his little Usako.

'It ist still the stupidest idea to come to the past.' He stated in his mind but managed to gave her a sincere smile when he said.

"I'm really grateful that I can spend some time with you together. It already feels like home and really means a lot to me...actually you don't have any idea how much."

Usagi's bright smile to him let his heart melt once again. In this moment Mamoru knew that he never would be able to manipulate Usagi's mind with the white cat face ball. He had found a way to exist twice for her in this particular time and he wanted nothing else but to make the best out of it.