Guardian Fussing

Guardian Fussing
Date of Scene:	22 December 2016
Location:	Earth Court Frat House
Synopsis:	Luna and Kunzite consult quietly about the month's anniversaries, the undeserved guilt and not-fully-processed trauma that certain of their charges have regarding them, and some other anomalous behavior that needs to be dealt with. Due tribute is also delivered. Luna finds things to threaten Kunzite with anyway, but that's just normal, and besides, "things" here are mostly "Usagi"...
Cast of Characters:	Usagi Tsukino, Kunzite

---

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Luna enters the tall apartment complex, darting between the feet of shoppers patronizing the lower level shops. She knows just where to go, has been here more than once and not always with Usagi.

She reaches the elevator and meows politely up at the doorman. It's the regular guy, the one Usagi has wrapped around her pinky.

"Oh, Luna! Very good to see you this morning, Ma'am." The doorman stood and called for the elevator. As they waited, he spoke as though she were any other human that frequented the building, and she responded in kind with meows and purrs. Once she even rubbed lightly against his trouser leg, careful to use the side that isn't as heavily shedding.

The elevator came and a couple came out. The doorman stood aside and let them out, and when it was empty, he ushered Luna inside. "Next stop, Penthouse."

Prim and proper, Luna sat in the middle of the elevator, tail curled up against her side, and she gave a thanking meow and a kitty smile up to the Doorman. He tipped his hat, and up she went!

Of course, there is still an issue with being a cat lacking opposable thumbs.

A couple times, just to make sure, she jumps up and tries to catch the door just right to open it. Then she started meowing. Finally she huffed and called out. "For a household fond of felines, there is a sad lack of cat doors around here!"

Kunzite has posed:
It takes, after that call, an entire -- oh -- five seconds or so before the door opens and the pale figure beyond it is crouching down in that fashion.  Close enough to the door to make leaping up to a knee and thence to a shoulder a matter about as difficult and energy-intensive as blinking. Far enough from it that slinking past haughtily, disdaining any such closeness, is convenient with or without a pointed flick of the tail against the aforementioned knee.

"That's true," Kazuo says, solemn.  "A matter we should take up with the master of the household.  I'd say there were potential security concerns, but he's taken to leaving the balcony door unlocked at all hours anyhow, and besides, I suspect a talk with you would be enough to resolve them.  What may we offer you in penance and apology?"

Never mind that Luna actually runs the communicators that he's wearing.  That most of the people usually there are wearing.  That she could have summoned someone to let her in at any time.  That is entirely beside the point.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
At any other time, Luna may have just trotted by, nose in the air and tail flick against that knee. But Usagi's in a Mood, so Luna is in a Mood, so she hops from knee to shoulder. Instead of flicking at joints, the tail curls around his neck.

"A bit of milk may do. Tuna, but only if you have some. That may do it."

Of course, she isn't really mad or anything. The sad lack of cat amenities is a city wide epidemic, but despite the lack of cat doors, the penthouse floor is very cat friendly. This doesn't mean scratching posts in every room, but there's rarely a lack of comfortable and willing laps to curl up on.

"The door handles that are levers could be an alternate solution. Less sawdust involved at the least." She has enough practice with the fine art of shoulder perching that her balance offers for minimal claws. Well, after he stands. As he does, there may be one or two areas of his shoulder that gets dug into.

And of course she runs the communicators. But, well, wouldn't that be abusing her power? (Or so is the excuse she likes to give.)

"So." She looks around, nonchalant, the very picture of kitty feigning disinterest. "How have...things been around here?" This week.

Kunzite has posed:
Kazuo straightens up slowly and with care, and with a hand held up to cradle Luna's forequarters against his neck and give her as much security as possible.  This is less to avoid clawings than to avoid accidentally dropping her, but there are side benefits.  "I think we might be able to locate something," he says, before pacing toward the kitchen. Carefully and steadily.  Thou shalt not jostle Usagi's cat.

"I wonder whether it might be possible to create cat doors that only respond to you and Artemis," he replies gravely to Luna.  "Still, a change in door handles would probably be a more cost-effective solution, yes."  Investigation in the kitchen.  Milk is poured; there's a little sorting in the refrigerator, extrication of a few things that are sent through the microwave for a few seconds to bring them up to a more comfortable temperature.  Tuna is drawn out from the cupboard, then, and shortly thereafter Luna has a dinner available:  canned fish, yes, but high-quality, and warmed shredded chicken as an alternative texture and taste; a couple of slices of hard-boiled egg as a third alternative and palate cleanser between, and a bit of feline-acceptable vegetables more for the added color of the garnish than as anything she's actually expected to consume.

It gives him a little while to consider his answer, after all.

"Interesting," he says finally, "given everything.  Mamoru shifted his schoolwork ahead to clear this week and last, and that's helped.  We've had a few minor issues, but generally resolved; I'm somewhat concerned for Jadeite's state of mind, but not in any critical fashion, and not a deteriorating problem."  He considers saying something else; postpones it, but not for long.  "How is Usagi doing?"

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Luna wiggles a little as the feast grows in front of her. Odds are good she won't eat it all, but it will probably keep until the next time she visits. Maybe.

"It's possible, if we rig the door with sensors that recognize Artemis' and my biosignatures. Of course, at that point, you're probably better off installing it into the door itself, and have a little paw pad at the bottom. Hmm." She thinks about this, wondering what sort of toys the command center held that could make this possible. And then she pauses, and if she were able, she would be blushing. "I mean, yes, of course. The door handles are still the...easiest route."

She is, after all, a cat who likes to make things. With communicators doled out, all that creative energy has gone in some really weird directions.

Imagine her disappointment when she discovered Roombas actually existed already. (Or, as she was gonna name it, 'Flying Saucer Vacuum Thingy.' It was a work in progress...)

She slides off his shoulder to lap lightly at the milk, tiny waves rippling across the surface. When she looks up, she licks her kitty lips clean. "I suspect it will take more than a week to ease past pains. Is Jadeite's related to the same issue or is it something else?"

She sighs and nibbles a bit of tuna, then some of the egg, and the chicken. "I think she's hiding behind the break up with Rei. Mamoru-kun taking her out for the day helped, but I still catch her staring into space."

She looks up at Kazuo again. "Before he came over, I found her where it happened. She was quiet, but her mind wasn't."

Kunzite has posed:
"And yet," Kazuo muses, "the door handles might have disadvantages of their own.  Then again, if one of you were visiting while injured, we'd likely hear about it while you were still downstairs."  .. is he actually concerned, or is he giving Luna excuses?  The world may never know.

The question about Jadeite -- well.  She's looked up.  She can see him nod his head in confirmation, and then leave it bent for a few moments.  "Jadeite," he says finally, "did not approve even at the time.  Having been used to assist damaged him.  In ways that helped him break loose, to it was to the good; but it was still damage, and it will take time.  Not as deep as Usagi's, though.  No."

He takes his turn to listen, then, over the breakup with Rei; over the staring into space; over her having found Usagi where it happened.  His nod is a quicker thing this time, and it comes with a frown.  "Naru," he says, "is also showing signs of concealing some stress.  Has Usagi been confiding in her?  Or are the two problems unrelated?"

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"Hmm, very true. I apparently have your doorman trained. That or he humors me. That or he's slightly insane. Either way, he is a very pleasant fellow and speaks as though I understand." She ponders some more. "Well, it's something to think over, if nothing else."

She sighs and nibbles at the chicken and tuna some more. "Usagi doesn't blame him in the least." Nothing about whether or not Usagi blames Kunzite. Usagi probably isn't even sure if she does or not. Some things are best not thought about if one wants to get up in the morning. "I realize that probably doesn't help him at all."

Luna's eyes grow concerned. "Well, I know they talked a little when Usagi brought over the communicator. There was some talking, but I don't think Naru knows the extent of things. Do you think she could feel this to be the case and feels bad for being left out?"

Kunzite has posed:
Humoring her versus insanity could always be both.  Kazuo opts not to pursue that, focusing in on the topics more at hand.  "No," he says.  "If she felt bad about that, she'd have mentioned it in some fashion, or at least circled mentioning it.  A separate thing, then, not the same problem."

And he weighs the two for a moment, before he says, "You said that Usagi doesn't blame Jadeite."  If she blamed Kunzite too much, she'd have ... probably not cried on him while Beryl was still active.  But.  "Does she blame herself?"

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Luna nods. "True. That's something, at least." She sighs. "I wonder if she'd want to talk to me? Do I come across as impartial?" She blinks at Kazuo. "In most situations at least?"

Then she sighs and sits, tail curling around her as she bats at a piece of vegetable. "Of course she does. Usagi's full of 'what if's.' What if she'd noticed he was missing sooner? What if she realized it wasn't him at the time? What if she ignored his wishes and just went in, guns blazing?" She looks off to one side. "She wonders how different things would be, for him, at least, if she'd gotten him out before things got, well, worse."

Kunzite has posed:
"You do come across as impartial," Kunzite agrees to Luna.  "That's likely why she wouldn't want to talk to you.  If she's hiding things ... but that's a secondary matter."

He draws back to the first concern alongside her.  Usagi and her what-ifs.  At least he doesn't need to crouch; Luna's food is up on the counter (or the table, if she'd preferred that), the same way a human's might be.  More reasonable match of conversational height.  Kazuo steps back across the kitchen and leans against the Western-sized refrigerator, instead.  (Scandalous decadence and gluttonous excess, except for the sheer number of people in the place.)

He's quiet for a long time, then, before he says:  "There's a chance they might have gotten Jadeite out.  Maybe one in three.  We'd have made a priority of trying to kill him, but let's assume we failed.  More losses at Walpurgisnacht.  Even odds that Jupiter or Venus would've been one of them; maybe both.  If they made it through the fight at D-point, she might've been able to call them back; but getting to Beryl would've been harder still, and it took both Jupiter and Nephrite to buy them time at an important juncture.  Without that -- she might not have reached Beryl at all."

He shakes his head at last.  "So.  Worst case scenario, Metallia would have eaten the world.  Best case, the other Senshi would have been in still worse shape; Mamoru would have had Jadeite to lean on, but the other three of us would have been either permanently gone, or the way I was for a while.  Spirits tied to stones, intangible, effectively powerless.  He didn't deal with that well when it was just me, and he knew it was temporary then; this time it would be permanent, Mercury wouldn't have the information she used in the real world.  Still.  There'd have been less direct trauma, so he'd probably have been able to hide it from Usagi.  But it would've taken him years to reach the point he's at now.  And it wouldn't have gone well -- when Fiore came."

A quiet exhalation marks the transition, and also marks a familiar mild, resigned exasperation.  "But she's a teenager.  So of course her imaginings never think that through."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Luna sighs. She supposes that coming across as too impartial could have its drawbacks.

She eats as he comes up with possible scenarios to Usagi's what-ifs. A couple times she looks up at him while nibbling on tuna or an egg, and is lapping up milk during the best case scenario.

Finally, licking her lips, she looks up at Kunzite. "It's also possible that in her darkest moments she's considered all of that and briefly considered it as acceptable loss. That doesn't help the guilt during the vast majority of her time. Probably even hinders it, because she loves her girls and she loves all of you."

She sighs. "And she probably would have tried to go after Fiore a lot sooner without you around to remind her why that wouldn't be a good idea."

Done, she licks her lips and has a very satisfied and full kitty tummy.

"Another concern of mine." She turns to look up at Kunzite, neck not craning nearly as far back as usual thanks to the added elevation. Piercing kitty eyes. "It wasn't exactly the best of time for you, either, especially the memory of it. How are you doing?"

Kunzite has posed:
"Possible," Kazuo agrees.  "But I'd suspect that she considered parts of it an acceptable loss, and didn't think the rest through.  If certain things were even -- if Mamoru would be in the same condition he is now, at the end of it -- I'd agree with her."

What he leaves unstated:  that if she'd come to the conclusion that it would hurt him that much in the end ... she might come to terms with it.  Or might not, true enough.

He considers Luna's postprandial stretching, and adds, "I could try to talk to her about it.  But that might not be a good idea, either."  Leaving that one to Luna's judgment...

... judgment which is abruptly turned on him.  There are relatively few times when he's taken aback.  Luna has been responsible for several of them, now.

He's still for a moment; then his head's allowed to lean back against the refrigerator.  "I don't have time to have crises," he answers her deadpan.  "Besides, Endymion and I settled most of that before the summer started.  I won't say I didn't have any trouble, but nothing worth mentioning, and what there was of it was dealt with in one conversation and a chance to hit someone who deserved it."

(One does not lie to the mooncat who has access to a tracker and to high-powered computers, and could conceivably have already matched up two of those trackers appearing in Paris on a particular date, and a minor article about a man's rudeness to a couple of Japanese tourists ending in an unexpected, fairly one-sided, and very brief brawl.)

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Luna shrugs. "It wouldn't have been acceptable loss. Usagi knows this. Knew this. But again, knowing what she does and did doesn't make her feel any less guilty. And I'm fairly certain she doesn't tell Mamoru any of this because reassurances or blame could both equally make her feel worse."

She shrugs, which is perhaps a very odd look for a feline. "I think if you wait at least a few more days, speaking to her about it wouldn't hurt. But whether you do or not is up to you."

Finished with her food, she jumps back over to his shoulder. Yes, she knows of a few ways to get that reaction from him, and each time she does she gets an odd sense of glee.

"Well. The jerk deserved it." She doesn't say whether she spied on their date. Any monitoring she did was purely to make sure both were in good help. And usually it was just vitals observation.

She sighs. "Well, regardless. You should probably make time for crises. If you bottle it up, at the very least..." She waves a paw in the air and grabs hold of one of Usagi's long-standing claims. "Ulcers..."

Kunzite has posed:
It's hard to shrug with loadbearing shoulders, it's true.  "After Christmas, I think," Kazuo says.  "She needs the holiday.  Without disasters, this time.  But before the new year.  Not something to carry over the boundary."

The jump prompts him to lift both hands to catch her if need be -- he's leaning against the refrigerator, the risk of a crescented head rebounding off a solid surface is all too real.  As usual, Luna's more deft than he's worried about, and he shifts and resettles to give her a more comfortable place.  And then actually laughs, if very quietly, at her suggestion that he make time for crises.  "Luna," he says.  "A few weeks ago, I took a couple of days to deal with a medical issue.  I notified people where I was going and why.  At least four of them were still unsettled enough by it to be a risk to them, and not all of those four were resident here."  He lifts a hand carefully, to run fingers lightly through the fur behind her ear -- a wordless offer.  "So it's a good thing I don't tend toward significant instability.  We can't afford it."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Luna gives a little snort. "Preferably fried chicken won't be anywhere on the list of celebrating the holiday. But yes, before New Years would be best, I think."

The cat does have a lot of practice jumping onto more precarious surfaces. Usagis are usually constantly in motion, after all. She sighs and leans into the ear scritch. "True. But there will come a point where you need a day or so. I'm sure, if you need an excuse, Kenji could help you come up with something. Maybe he could hire you to research something that takes you all of an hour, and the rest of the time you could just...not think somewhere. Or something. He's quite fond of you, you know."

Kunzite has posed:
The sound Kazuo makes, completely nonverbal, is equally completely in agreement with Luna on the topic of fried chicken.  Amused, yes.  But definitely in agreement.

Ear scritches continue, enough care taken to hunt down the proper places for today.  It gives him something to do while he's considering the phrasing of his response.  "I appreciate your concern," Kazuo says after a few seconds.  "But it's unnecessary.  I don't break that way; if I did, Endymion's mother would never have placed her son in my charge."  ... because he'd already have been dead.  That's beside the point.  "Think of it this way:  if there is no emergency on hand, there is no need for such things.  If there is an emergency on hand, there is no time for it.  So.  No need for concern."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"True. His mother made a good judgement call where you were concerned." It took a great deal of concentration not to just melt under the scritches. "But still. Kenji is also a protector, civilian though he may be. And maybe one day just knowing you're not alone in that role will help."

She sighs. "You're a strong man, Kunzite. I envy you. But, even if you've had to grown up fast in both lives, that doesn't mean you can't take moments out to not be the grown up."

Her tail starts to flick back and forth. He should be able to feel that even if he doesn't see her sly and devious grin. "Of course, there are other ways. It could be suggested to Usagi that you could do with a trip to an arcade. And I don't mean the Crown. You know. Games. Tickets. Prizes."

Kunzite has posed:
Whatever Kazuo's opinion of that judgment call, he keeps it to himself.  The look askance he gives her at her suggestion of taking moments out, on the other hand -- Luna's lurked on enough shoulders to be able to recognize that one and the "we are both too polite and reasonable for me to suggest that you've actually gone temporarily mad" that it conveys, even without being able to see his face properly  The last thing she says is the only thing that gets a response out loud, though.

"Threats don't become you, Luna."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Luna snorts at that silent face she knows he's giving her. Then she giggles and rubs against his jaw. Whether it's an apology or not is unknown.

Her purr is smug, if purrs can be so. "Well, if a threat is needed to be made, it doesn't matter how becoming it is or not. So, maybe if I wasn't given a reason to threat."

Kunzite has posed:
"I can't do anything about reasons to threaten that exist entirely in your own imagination," Kazuo replies.  "Just kindly bear in mind that any trouble you decide to cause needs to take into account that both Usagi and I have entrance exams to take shortly."  His fingers ruffle fur on the far side of her jaw gently -- careful not to go against the way it lies -- before he strokes it down again, and adds a few longer strokes along her side.

"Naru," he says then.  "I don't think it's an immediate problem; I think the last few days have distracted her from it, the communicator not least.  But she was swearing over something that, while it warranted it, still seemed out of character for her.  Agitated over something she's not talking about.  She's not getting along with the painting she's doing here, either.  And she's dropped a couple of lines of inquiry before they were complete.  I'm not the only one who's noticed; Lacrima came to me to ask me to look into whether Naru's dreams were being troubled again.  I could do that, but we only have somewhat invasive routes available.  So I'd like to ask, instead, whether you'd be willing to keep a little of an eye on where she's spending time, and see if there's anywhere anomalous.  If you're not, I understand; it's thin evidence that there's something wrong, and that I can't always place where she was when may simply be her own business."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Luna shrugs the best she's able. "This isn't a short term thing. And Usagi has enough distractions from her schoolwork as it is." Her eyes start to unfocus for a moment as she just leaaaaaans into his ruffling fingers.

And while she hears what he says next, she has to shake herself to hear them. Goodness, where'd he get those fingers? The cat gods?

"Of course I will. I adore Naru." She sighs a little. "There's only so much information a dormant communicator can pick up, anyway."

Then she realizes her slip. "Ah, I mean, I see everything!"

Kunzite has posed:
Slip?  What slip?  Clearly there was no slip.  There's only so much information anything in the world can pick up, after all.

"Of course," Kazuo says gravely.  "And it may be nothing.  Or Kyouko may have helped her settle whatever it is.  But it's worth being careful; Naru is more clever than she likes to let on, and doesn't like drawing attention to herself, and feels as if she's a drain on others' time, and those three together mean that she's capable of getting into a great deal of trouble without asking for help or letting anyone notice.  If she ever starts to go that route, I'd rather we catch on early."

Given that that description fit him once, with disastrous results ... yes.  He'd very much rather they catch on early.