1932/Just As Much Usagi

Just As Much Usagi
Date of Scene:	14 September 2016
Location:	Uminari City - Shopping Strip
Synopsis:	Makoto meets a homesick Chibiusa. Luna-P has an Opinion on how this meeting should work out.
Cast of Characters:	Makoto Kino, Chibiusa Tsukino

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Makoto Kino has posed:
It's a grey, rainy Tuesday afternoon, just around the time that a lot of people are leaving work. The shopping strip is busy with traffic - people on their way home, or out shopping, students coming to and from the arcade in these last few hours of after-school free time before evening falls. The sidewalks are dotted with colorful umbrellas bobbing in the grey air as people hurry along.

One of them is Makoto's big green umbrella, decorated with roses. She's just been to the grocery, her canvas shopping bag slung over her shoulder, and as she stands at the corner waiting for the crosswalk light to change her mind is on other things - homework, training, Friday's plans and what she'll need to bring with her. Her eyes rest on the street and the cars that shush along the wet pavement, only half paying attention to them.

Chibiusa Tsukino has posed:
Chibiusa has had a tough week. A tough longer-than-one-week, actually -- she's lost track of how many days it's been since she fell out of the sky, but it feels a lot longer than seven. And, despite being *totally* capable of caring for herself, and *totally* okay being on her own, things haven't been going as great as she'd hoped.

For one, she's made no head way in finding Sailor Moon, or the Silver Crystal. That nice Mamoru guy had offered to help her find one or the other when she'd run into him at the store, but she's not the type to leap at the chance for help, not for something like this. This is her mission, after all. Her responsibility. If she can't even find Sailor Moon on her own, is there any chance at all that she can save Crystal Tokyo?

(Aside from that, she may be a bit scared of getting thrown again if she involves Mamoru. He seemed nice enough, when she wasn't pointing a gun at his head, but that was one scary day, and her little mind doesn't forget easily. Not that she'd ever admit this, of course.)

Tough thing number two: living without a home has proven much more difficult than she first thought. Luna-P can do a lot -- transform into a sleeping bag, a bit of cash, some bath supplies and a swimsuit for when she scrubs up in the park fountain -- but it can't make her comfortable, and it can't replace the soothing (if sometimes frustrating and overbearing) presence of her parents. She tries not to think about that too much, but from her sullen mood and late night sniffles, it's impossible to deny.

Chibiusa's homesick.

And also way, way overstuffed on junk food.

Turns out parents are useful for more than just hugs and bedtime stories.

Maybe it's the homesickness, maybe it's the lack of sleep, maybe it's the massive sugar coma she's pushing her way through as she crosses the street back to her playground home, but as the car comes screeching along the rain-soaked road, Chibiusa doesn't react at all.

Makoto Kino has posed:
One moment, it's a rainy afternoon like any other, and Makoto is standing idly on the corner absently looking over the street, thinking of other things as the small figure begins to cross.

The next moment the car is bearing down, and all thought falls away.

Her body moves as though on its own; the green umbrella is left to fall askew on the sidewalk next to Mako's dropped bag as she bolts into the intersection. There's a blare of a car horn, a squeal of skidding tires--

--and Makoto gets there just soon enough to snatch Chibiusa off her feet, the momentum of her headlong charge carrying both of them out of the car's path and out of traffic entirely, to the sidewalk on the other side of the road.

The breath goes out of her in a rush as Makoto straightens, the girl still half slung over her shoulder. "Whew. That was scary. Are you okay?"

Chibiusa Tsukino has posed:
The car horn gets Chibiusa's attention a fraction of a second before impact. Horn blaring, headlights flashing, she is too young and too tired to instinctively run. Instead, she freezes, grasping the handle of her umbrella for dear life, as though bracing against this might save her life --

And then, out of nowhere, the world turns upside down. It has an annoying habit of doing that lately, and she wishes it would stop. Dizziness isn't good when you have three meals' worth of sweets and only sweets in your belly.

But, hey -- she's alive. Somehow? The car's barrelling off down the street, its driver yelling something about watching where you're going, and someone's shoulder is digging into her stomach. Again, not so good when she is quite literally stuffed with junk food.

She presses her eyes shut tight, until the world stops spinning so much. Despite herself, a few tears sting there as well -- she's not *sad*, she really shouldn't be crying. But now that she's no longer in immediate danger, the fear comes in cold waves, sending her tiny body into shivers.

If this person hadn't helped her...

"Can you put me down?" Chibiusa says, perhaps not sounding as grateful as she should to the girl that very definitely saved her life, not answering her question either. "Please?"

Makoto Kino has posed:
"--ah!" Yeah, it'd probably be good to stop treating the poor kid like a sack of potatoes. Careful not to subject her to any more jostling than she's already been through, Makoto sinks down onto one knee so that she can let Chibiusa down gently onto her feet.

And, finally, gets a good look at her for the first time.

Small pink girl. Hair in twin tails and buns like rabbit ears. Surprise and recognition flash into Makoto's green eyes for a moment, before she cracks a lopsided, apologetic smile.

"Sorry about the rough trip," she says. "It doesn't seem like you're hurt, but you look a little green. Do you need to sit down somewhere? Out of the rain?"

Chibiusa Tsukino has posed:
"Green?" Chibiusa repeats as she's lowered to the ground, with as much outrage as she can muster in her squeaky little voice. "I am not --"

And then her feet touch the ground, and she's careening to one side, knees still too shaky to support her like they should. Tiny arms reach around Mako's legs, tiny hands ball up in the beige fabric, her tiny head bops against her waist as she wobbles, quite beyond her control.

It's a few seconds before she speaks up again, quiet and a bit more measured than last time.

"...ok, I'll sit down for a few minutes," she says, looking up and down the street as slowly as she can. "Do you know if there's a bench near here?"

The last thing she wants to do is puke in the middle of the street -- even if no one here knows she's a princess, how embarrassing would that be?

Makoto Kino has posed:
Without hesitation, Mako's arms support Chibiusa - never fully withdrew, really, and the girl will find her sturdy and solid to lean on. "Easy, there," she soothes, and then looks up for a quick glance around. "Let's see..."

Her dropped umbrella catches her eye for a moment, and Mako winces. Hopefully the groceries will be salvageable. Ah, well. "There's one in front of that bookstore, under the awning," she says as she looks down at Chibiusa again. "We'll need to get back across the street, though. You can lean on me if you need to, okay?"

Chibiusa Tsukino has posed:
Chibiusa swallows and nods, letting go of her hold on Mako's waist, though her head and upper body stay propped against her legs. Whoever this girl is, she's steady, unlike the spinning ground around her, and surprisingly enough, she's being nice to her. Huh. She'd thought all grown-ups were supposed to yell at you after stuff like that -- something about breaking the rules and not being careful. This is a nice change.

She'll stick with this one for a little bit. If only because she's too dizzy to find her way back home, for now.

She walks forward, quickly, so that she doesn't have to stay on her feet much longer. Luna-P, still in umbrella form, sits near the girl's own dropped umbrella in a puddle; it sort of sucks that she has to leave it behind, but she must sit down now. Like, *now* now. And Luna-P's a smart little catball. Even if she's gone for a few minutes, it'll probably hop out of sight when no one's looking, beeping and complaining about getting all wet.

Chibiusa giggles at the image -- then realizes that probably looks completely crazy to this girl, who hasn't said anything to her since heading back to cross the street. Great.

"Um," she says, casting about for anything to say that might excuse her little gigglefit. "You're really tall." Not the most brilliant observation, but she *is.* She has to take, like, three whole steps for every one of hers. It's like walking with Papa, except that Papa's a man, and he's even taller. It's sort of inconvenient, being this small, having to run to catch up with everybody. "How old are you?"

Makoto Kino has posed:
There's a certain tolerance in the smile that Makoto turns downward to Chibiusa, the look of someone who's heard this way too many times but it willing to be patient about it. Considering the shake-up that Chibiusa has just had and the generally distracted state she's in, it may be too small a thing to notice. And in any case it's gone soon.

"I'm fifteen," she says. Once they're safely across to the other corner, she stops, bending to pick up the dropped umbrella and offer it over. "My name's Makoto Kino."

Chibiusa Tsukino has posed:
Unfortunately, though she has been around for much longer, Chibiusa's brain is stuck in the mode of a precocious five-year-old -- and five-year-olds aren't known for being especially attuned to social cues. The undercurrent of gentle resignation in Mako's smile goes completely over her head, but it's possible that what she says next will put an unfamiliar spin on this unpleasantly familiar conversation.

"Woooow," she says, blinking up at the tall girl before giving a great sigh. "I wish I was tall like that. I don't like being little. I can never reach anything. I can't even see over counters, and everyone can walk faster than me and wear better clothes." She twists her lips to one side, then adds, more quietly, "I hate my body."

The grey cloud passes in a moment, though, as Makoto offers her the Luna-P umbrella and they prepare to cross the street again. She takes *extra care* to look both ways this time, like her parents always said she should.

"I have a lot of names," she says to Makoto's introduction. "I don't know which one I like best. Sorry."

Makoto Kino has posed:
It's certainly not something Mako was expecting to hear. She's surprised into silence for a short while. It's not until they're safely out of the street and at the storefront she'd pointed out earlier, with its sheltering awning, that she actually replies, and when she does her voice is quiet.

"It's tough, huh? Feeling like you're stuck in a body that doesn't fit you." She offers Chibiusa a sympahetic smile, before looking down to fuss with her now-damp shopping back. "Sounds pretty complicated. What should I call you, then?"

Chibiusa Tsukino has posed:
Stuck. The word makes her wince without thinking. She gets what Makoto's saying, and it sort of works in the way she meant it -- but she has no idea just how stuck she really is. Nine hundred years alive, eight hundred ninety-five of them spent as a kid, and a *little* kid at that. Even if she can't remember most of that time now, the frustration's built up in her like a plugged geyser, ready to burst at any moment.

Maybe that's why she gets angry so quickly.

But oh well. She's not angry right now. This girl saved her from getting hit by a car and walked with her to this bench to settle her stomach. No use thinking so much about stuff that will only make her sad. And no use trying to explain her age situation to someone who really, definitely won't understand.

Names are easier than that, at least, even if they're complicated for her.

"Hmmm," Chibiusa says, swinging her feet off the bench as she mulls the question over in her head. The whole 'Princess Lady Serenity' thing is out -- no one here could know she's a princess, they'd think she's crazy, and that would mess everything up. 'Small Lady' dosen't make much sense without the 'Lady' part in the first place either. That only leaves two options: her real name, and that weird (but sorta nice) nickname that Mamoru gave her when she landed on him in the park. She hrmms extra hard as she considers this, and leans her head back to look at the raindrops falling to the sidewalk.

"...call me Usagi," she finally decides. 'Chibiusa' wouldn't make sense unless she knew another Usagi, and what were the chances of that? Her eyes catch on the groceries sticking out of her damp bag now: chicken breasts peeking over the canvas edge, green leaves from carrots and celery dripping with raindrops, a small bag of rice -- how long has it been since she's had *rice*?

Her stomach growls as she stares at it, suddenly a lot less upset and a lot more empty.

Makoto Kino has posed:
Mamoru's email did say the girl called herself Usagi, so it's not the surprise it would've been. Still, Makoto's brows lift a little. "Usagi-chan, huh? I have a really good friend who's named Usagi. Now that I've met you, maybe I could have two friends by that name." She smiles, friendly, open, the slightest bit wry. "I guess that might get confusing. I'm sure we could work it out, though."

She's starting to think maybe she should've stopped talking about two sentences sooner. Fortunately, the hungry gurgle of an empty stomach keeps her from digging herself in any more.

"Uh oh," Mako says mildly, brows lifting as she looks at Chibiusa. "This might be a little rude to say out of the blue, but... I was just on my way home to make some dinner. If you're hungry, and you don't have anywhere you need to hurry off to, you'd be welcome to come and eat with me."

Chibiusa Tsukino has posed:
Chibiusa hears Mako as she's talking about Usagi, but it's in one ear and out the other -- her stomach's taking up a little too much processing power for her to muster up her usual irritation at the other Usagi everyone around here knows. At the mention of dinner, her ears perk, and her head shoots up from the canvas grocery bag, red eyes twinkling.

"Yes!" she all but yips, reining herself in only a bit when she realizes how childish that must have looked. Better repeat herself. She doesn't want to look like a desperate kid or anything. "I mean...yeah, that would be nice. Are you going to cook all of that yourself?" Her eyes drift to the bundle of ingredients again, marvelling at how raw bits and pieces like that could turn into a tasty meal. Obviously, cooking isn't *magic*, but it's impressive to her young mind all the same.

Even if she had all that food to herself, she'd probably make slop out of it. And burn someone's house down.

It's only after this that the matter of the other Usagi returns to her, and her face tightens up in an annoyed expression. Of course that girl's stealing her name. She stole her hair, too, and it seems like everyone in this weird non-crystal Tokyo knew her first. Why does everything about this trip have to revolve around her, huh?

Chibiusa sighs again.

"So you know that blonde girl too," she says, deflated. "Her boyfriend gave me a nickname so that he wouldn't get confused -- but it's kinda silly. I guess." She huffs, her nose scrunching up even further. "It's so not fair. I'm just as much Usagi as she is, but I have to be the 'chibi' Usa."

Makoto Kino has posed:
Now Mako is surprised, even though Mamoru explained enough about what happened that she probably could've guessed there might be some ruffled feelings - and, really, that's why she hasn't mentioned knowing the two before now. That and just not wanting to creep the poor kid out. Still, it's a bit hard to concieve of someone not hitting it off with Usagi, somehow. "...well," Mako manages after a moment, "you don't have to be, if you don't like that nickname. But if you don't, you should tell him that the next time you see him, so he knows not to keep calling you that."

A beat, and then Mako is straightening up where she sits, smiling brightly. "Anyway," she adds, "yes, I am totally going to cook all of this. So as you can see, there'll be plenty to share. A nice warm meal would be good for both of us, after getting rained on, don't you think?"

Chibiusa Tsukino has posed:
Despite herself, Chibiusa softens a little at Makoto's concern. Yeah, after a life of not living up to a certain other person, everyone looking at her as the 'second' Usagi is a bit annoying...but (for the most part) everyone's tried to treat her kindly. Throwing their nickname back in their face is probably rude, even if it rubs against the sore spots in her self-esteem a bit.

Besides, she only needs the name until she's got the Silver Crystal and gone back home.

"I guess it's not that bad," she says, looking down at her feet. "I just don't want everyone to think I'm some dumb kid. 'Cause I'm not. I'm very smart, you know." At least, according to Sailor Mercury, she is, though she always felt dumb compared to the senshi, stuck on second grade schoolwork for centuries, unable to move past it. Still, that's what they all called her. Smart. Mature too, sometimes, though not as often when she was complaining loudly about dinner and bedtime.

Remembering them here kind of hurts her heart, and it shows: her irritated face droops to dull sadness, and she goes quiet for a bit until Makoto speaks again.

"Warm dinner would be nice," she says, albeit with a bit less enthusiasm. "Do you know what you're going to make yet? Just so you know: I don't like carrots. Or onions. So try not to use those, okay?"

Makoto Kino has posed:
Seeing the sadness that dims Chibiusa's expression, Makoto feels her heart ache just a little bit. Poor kid.

"Sure," she says, smile gentling. "I can work with that. I was thinking I'd just do a stir-fry, something that won't take too long. No carrots, no onions."

A glance down the street, before her eyes return to Chibiusa. "I live not too far from here. Should we go now? The sooner I get started, the sooner we can eat."

Chibiusa Tsukino has posed:
Mmmm, stir fry. After so many bags of chips and packaged pastries, homemade stir fry sounds absolutely incredible. And Makoto's nice enough to not force any carrots in there! Seriously -- she never understood the obsession with *that* vegetable when there were so many others she was just fine with eating. Papa said it built character, Mama said she didn't like carrots either, but so many nights there they were, chopped up on her plate.

Yes, very funny, the bunny doesn't like carrots. She's been alive nine centuries -- if she had one yen for every time she heard that joke, she could build her own Crystal Palace.

"Yeah, let's go right now!" Chibiusa leaps off the bench, all signs of wooziness forgotten. "Thank you for letting me share -- hey!"

The umbrella in her hands jerks every which way, against her efforts to keep it still, until it bursts upward and poofs from adorable pink umbrella to normal old Luna-P, beeping and whirring with displeasure.

"Luna-P, what are you doing? I'm gonna get all wet," she whines, catching the ball in both hands and speaking right to it, not considering the sight it must make for Mako. It lets out a series of beeps, its eyes flashing red and blue, its antenna flicking every which way. To anyone else, it must look like utter nonsense -- but before long, Chibiusa rolls her eyes and tucks her toy under her arm, not yet leaving the awning keeping them dry.

"Can I walk under your umbrella with you?" she says. "Luna-P doesn't want to be one anymore."

Makoto Kino has posed:
Mako was also tactful enough not to mention that the other Usagi also hates carrots. Somehow. The thought doesn't stay in her mind for very long, because an umbrella poofing into a cat-faced ball with blinky-light eyes and a bobbing antenna would distract nearly anyone. It's definitely distracted Makoto. "Oh? - of course."

She'd just stood and unfolded her own umbrella in preparation for stepping back out into the rain, and now she glances up at it, and then back down at Chibiusa as she tips the big green umbrella slightly toward her, offering her the shelter of the space under it. "My umbrella's big, it'll cover us both."

She feels like she should ask about "Luna-P," but Mako's honestly not even quite sure what question to ask. She can't help looking curiously at the ball where Chibiusa has tucked it under her arm, though.