1225/Cat Hugs

Cat Hugs
Date of Scene:	15 March 2016
Location:	House of Empty Rooms
Synopsis:	Luna finds Mamoru. Luna pounce Mamoru. Luna and Mamoru talk.
Cast of Characters:	Usagi Tsukino, Mamoru Chiba

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Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Eventually Usagi is relocated from the couch to a bed. She spends the time curled in a ball in sniffles.

When Luna manages to make it to that apartment floor and wiggle her way in through a window, she's met with tight hugs, sniffles, and wet fur. And a basic run down of what happened, at least According to Usagi. Frantic scolding, obnoxiously loud purrs, and sandpaper tongues to the cheek ensue.

And it's because of this, really, that finds Luna slinking toward the abandoned house that held the portal to magical kingdoms that shouldn't quite exist. She hasn't spent much time there, even though she really should have been.

The thing is, Luna isn't much older than Serenity was. She's not much older than Usagi is now. She's incredibly young for a Mauan, no where near the maturity one of her species would be full grown.

So when her charge would wake up for months, screaming and crying the name of a boy Luna'd been so adamant against her charge seeing, guilt has a way of worming its way in and settling in the pit of her stomach, thick and sour.

This is why, when Luna finally finds the boy she's here to collect, her ears are drooped low and her tail is pressed tight against her body, shoulders high as her head is low.

And it's not the prince she's edging so contritely toward, it's the boy whose homework she sat on in fits of pique.

And its that boy who loves her charge with all he is that she launches herself at, sniffling herself. "Mamo-kun!"

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
And it's that boy who's wearing a featureless brown hoodie that's too big for him, shoulders hunched and hands jammed in its pockets, feet dragging, that's on his way out of the abandoned house's kitchen. He manages to get to the door to the living room before they spot each other, and he's instantly taking stock of her surprising posture--

--and even though his face twists in alarm when she launches at him, he reflexively catches her. "Luna?!" he yelps, and then he's a hundred percent concern. "Is she okay? What's wrong? Ami-chan said she was going to handle things-- did something else happen??"

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Luna sniffles some more and squirms her head against his neck, fur and whiskers undoubtedly tickling against his skin.

At his voice and the stress, new and old alike, she feels coursing through his veins she reflexively begins to purr. It's a quiet thing that vibrates through her body and rumbles through the hoody to his skin.

"A piece of the sword broke off in her. She says Ami-chan had to take away her crystal and later her wand." She curls tight against his neck, trying to stop crying because dammit, she's a cat! "She kept trying to purify herself, Mamo-kun!"

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Thunking back against the wall of the living room, Mamoru ducks his head to meet Luna halfway in the face-mashing, unashamedly cuddling her and knuckling against her shoulderblades and behind her ear with soothing regularity. "Of course she did," he murmurs, "she purges darkness, it's what she does."

He's quiet a moment, then slides down the wall to sit with her in the darkness, existing briefly in a state of hugcat before he has to think again. Kittytears are the saddest of all, and he'll never, never tell.

Finally, quietly, "I can think of a number of ways to handle it, but I'll have to talk them all over with Ami and probably Dr. Shelby, first. Is Ami still trying to deal with it herself--? If it's lodged in her back it'll probably require surgery..."

He's not necessarily expecting Luna to answer anything, or agree, or anything like that-- it's just low-toned, calm thinking out loud, organizing thoughts and contingencies and requirements. "It'll also help if Kunzite is there-- I don't want Zoisite having to deal with dark energy again so soon-- so that there's some actual experience as oversight that doesn't want to have anything to do with the stuff anymore."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Soon the purrs are more for herself as she relaxes under those knuckles. One thing for certain is Mamoru knows how to pet kitties.

When he starts speaking again, she's a lot calmer than she was, though her ears are still drooped. "She says she sort of knows what it was like for you and the others."

She's able to pull back now to look him in the eye when she talks. "Dr. Shelby is keeping her for observation right now. They're not sure how to go about it yet, because the doctor doesn't do that delicate of a surgery."

She nods as he finishes, kneeding the hoody in thought. "I don't think it would be fair to ask Zoisite to do anything like that. Unless our choices run out completely, I don't think he should risk it."

Luna just sighs. "She's not in any pain at the moment. Dr. Shelby gave her some medication. But my fur's still wet where she cried. She feels really bad about being mean to you." Here Luna slinks a bit, looking up at him with large kitty eyes. "I am, too. I was very mean to you for a long time. I..." She looks down, ears almost flat against her skull. "I'm so sorry."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Not Zoisite at all. When he took a hit for Usako, he died rather than saving himself by letting it corrupt him again," Mamoru says, shaking his head and focusing on Luna as she draws back from him. "But it's okay. Kunzite will be able to tell what it's doing without having to touch it."

He gives her a half-smile, affectionate and a little sad. "You weren't mean, really. And it's okay if you were. You were scared I would hurt her-- and even if the reasons were wrong, you ended up being right. I never wanted to, ever-- but even with all the Senshi helping me, my dedication to getting my Shitennou back ended up hurting her very badly, if indirectly. Anything bad happening to me hurts her. So if you can forgive me creeping into her heart for the second lifetime in a row, I think I can forgive you trying to protect her-- and her trying to protect me."

Then Mamoru sighs, and keeps giving Luna absent pettings and scritches as he continues. "I'm figuring on someone else purifying it for her, and I can ride it out with her so it doesn't hurt as bad. It'll be cake after getting that crap out of Zoisite, he was partly made of the stuff. That'll just leave a mundane shard in her, and I can-- I can..."

The words falter, and so does the petting, and the boy's face looks-- really not good. Kind of sick. Distant. Not at all lodged in the present, or the future. The arm holding Luna's stiff, and his other hand's balled up in a fist against his knee.

It's a losing battle. He knows it is. But he can't stop fighting. He won't stop fighting. He delves deeper into his power, into the intracies of muscle and tissue and ligament, bone and artery and vein, nerve and capillary, becoming less and less aware of the cold and the ice and the bodies and emptiness around them, all crumbling, all breaking up into nothingness. And he can feel Takashi's life slipping away.

"...I can assist Dr. Shelby," he says faintly after a moment. "Between the two of us we can manage one little shard extraction."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Luna nods, face and voice full of understanding and acceptance. "Okay. No Zoisite at all. You need your guards -- your friends -- to be safe."

She ducks her head at his acceptance of her apology and the giving of his own. "You make her happy, Mamo-kun. You always have." She wonders if he realizes how much.

Then he's planning and running scenarios through his head and through his voice, and she waits and listens. Her purrs continue, grow louder, when he tenses and isn't even in Asia anymore.

And when he's back, he's still not completely here.

Luna sighs and bonks her head against his, resting there for a moment before pulling back. She starts to clean her paw, studying the fur that has already been cleaned today. She can't look him in the eye right now, because she's about to betray her princess' trust.

"She started a journal after she thought she killed you. At first I couldn't figure out why, especially when she kept writing in it later. She started it the same way each time, too. 'Dear Mamo-chan.' I figured it out after awhile. Not just from the journal itself, but from everything else." She looks up at him then. "She tried to be fine for everyone, she didn't want them to worry. And she kept everything tightly wound in her chest, kept things from those closest to her. She avoided so we wouldn't worry. And then -- well. Things became too much. But fortunately, she went to Mako-chan. After, she wasn't better, but she started healing. Slowly. You know what Mako-chan said? And it's probably the best piece of advice anyone can give, really." She places her paws on his chest and leans in close until her nose almost brushes against his. "'It's okay to cry.'"

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
It seems, at least, that the black-haired teenager's at least got some concept these days of how happy he tends to make Usagi. If she's so willing to protect him-- and at D-Point, when for a little while before the end they only had each other-- and how upset, how sad, how badly she'd been hurting when he was a captive and resource of the Dark Kingdom...

And the happiness he feels coming from her every time she sees him, that's incontrovertible evidence.

He may not have any idea why, but he knows he makes her happy.

Then Luna bonks his head and he finally focuses on her, amusement growing out of his expression as he comes back from wherever he was. Except then she sighs and starts talking again, and the hidden laughter fades, and he looks away from her, too. His arms still cradle her, but he's watching her paw, as well. Something to look at that isn't her furry, earnest face. And he listens.

When her paws lean on his chest, he looks back at her and somehow manages to avoid crossing his eyes when she almost touches his nose. Catspace. He sighs and closes his eyes for a second. "Usa. She used to wear her heart on her sleeve. She'll get that way again. These past months have been really hard, but now all her girls are there for her, and I'm here, too. Even if she gets mad at me, if she calls me, if she even just wants me there, I'll always come as soon as I can."

Mamoru's smile is faint and lopsided, finally. "I do cry," he admits, rubbing his nose against Luna's. "I think I've cried more in the past year than in the entire rest of my life. It's going to take a lot more than crying or hugs to fix me, but I'm in a holding pattern, putting off dealing with it until it's okay for me to be non-functional for a while. Unless some other damn crisis happens, that's probably going to be after Kunzite's back, Usa's healed, and finals are over."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Luna nuzzles her nose against his back, of course. It's what one does with humans they like.

Then she stares at him as he talks, her eyes squint a bit, reading him in the way only a cat can.

Satisfied, she pulls back a bit and gives a nod. "Good. So long as you have a plan. And I'll purr on you when the time comes. But for now."

She leaps off his lap and tugs playfully at the cuff of his jeans before bounding back. "Come on, then. Let's go. You have a bunny to cuddle. Chop, chop, get to it!"

Luna flashes him a devious, fangy grin as her tail fwips back and forth. "But none of your shenanigans for awhile. She needs her rest."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"She also needs to stop being under the influence of dark energy," says Mamoru with a laugh as he gets up, though there's an incredibly serious undercurrent to it. "It makes you think things..."

He shakes his head to clear it, chuffing out a laugh that sounds almost like a cough, then stuffs his hands in the hoodie's pockets and trails after Luna. "Maybe I should pick up some chocolate on the way..."