It's Sunday afternoon. It's even pleasant out. It is /almost/ a normal Sunday afternoon, except that every so often Naru keeps noticing something a little off. Being Naru, it's probably not going to bother her very much; but every now and then, she sees one of the same small set of strangers, and it's just interesting that she keeps running into the same people. Like now: a pretty blonde woman in a pale suit, businesslike and purposeful, crisp and neat, the green scarf around her neck folded intricately and caught with a gold ring. She's not watching Naru, she's in fact studying a display in a window across the street. (The reflections include Naru, but Naru is not entirely likely to put that together on the fly). But Naru's seen her three times in passing now, and never before.
All of which is less unusual than the sudden distant flash of light out of the corner of her eye. Naru notices. The woman notices; her head turns toward it. But no-one else seems to see it.
There's not really time to do much in reaction, though the woman's turned suddenly and is moving, crossing the street in a defiance of traffic that one normally only sees out of stunt performers in a movie. But there's a sound coming from the direction of the harbor, of the bay, deep and loud and growing louder, like an oncoming train.
It's too late for everyone, realize, when it's actually possible to tell it's an oncoming wall of water, flooding up the streets, swallowing smaller buildings, swallowing people.
The woman's body slams into Naru's the instant before the water does. The double impact is dizzying, stealing everything including thought --
She's still trying to find up, let alone air, when the water freezes impossibly solid around her. And there is more than the cold, more than the lack of air, more than the impact. There is something tearing at her heart and at her spirit. Dragging consciousness out of her body, in a way that's not merciful at all. Devouring everything that's her, a little at a time, consuming it into the cold, into the dark --
And then there is fire.
It doesn't burn her. It's bright and hot and it staves off whatever's trying to eat her, it forces the ice to melt, it clears a way upward. It takes agonizing seconds; the impact of the water bruised her body and forced air from her lungs, and there's nothing to breathe. But they make the air, both of them, finding the surface, breaking it. Fire wreathes around them, still trying to hold back whatever else is trying to rip at her, whatever hunger --
The street is entirely alien. Ice covers it ten or fifteen feet deep, pale and glittering in the firelight. The firelight does not show as much as it should. Because a darkness blacker than night has swallowed the day; no sunlight shows, and the air is freezing-cold, too. And that darkness is pressing down into the fire, driving it steadily back toward them.
The chest pressed against Naru's back is not a woman's anymore.
For someone in the middle of a series of impossible disasters, and whose presence is near impossible itself, Zoisite's bright voice is remarkably calm. "Do you trust me?" he asks. "I can get you out of here. But only if you trust me."
It is quite possibly and entirely likely really, that the blonde woman isn't what catches Naru's eye, but the lovely green scarf and the ring that holds it. A nice style, done well, and it clearly means to catch her eye as she keeps seeing it. Odd, but only barely. Naru keeps trying to not be rude and stare, but sneak peeks at the nicely put together outfit and the colouring choices. Only a touch awkward when someone is trying not to be especially noticed.
Distant flashes make Naru's head turn with curiosity. The sound doesn't entirely register, its even a moment before Naru realizes that it's WATER, no matter how many emergency preparation film strips there's been in school and drills and finger waggling. The sound isn't familiar and she's caught flat footed as it all starts to move oh so very quickly and oh so very slowly at the same time.
Up. Air. Freedom. Light. Warmth. Self. Soul. Consiousness. There isn't even time or room to panic, per se, as it goes from slam of person to slam of water to slam of something entirely wrong, with edges of disconcerting familiarity and all the more wrongness. Naru struggles. Against ice and person and giving up of herself and instinctively against the fire for a brief moment.
The first breath is a heaving gasping thing, raw with desperation for oxygen, coughing up some swallowed water and batting down instict that fire so close is bad. Her eyes are wide, but she doesn't scream, and after a few more breaths, the panic subsides to let her look around at the ice and darkness and fire. The voice right behind her ear makes her startle, as if she'd almost forgotten someone was there, and remembering that someone, she wasn't expecting HIM. She turns her head, to look over her shoulder, as if to confirm with her eyes what her ears are telling her and she blinks at him for only a moment.
"Yes." It's a bit hoarse but plain, and without any hesitation.
Turning her head shows her bedtraggled blond hair caught back in a tail -- the same style as the woman's, she realizes now, the woman's was only a little neater about it -- but richer with the hints of warmer color. The same green eyes as the woman's. Almost the same face shape, but younger -- a prettily androgynous boy rather than an adult woman.
He's missing the scarf, though. And not in quite the same uniform she saw him in before. Jacket a paler gray, trimmed with blue. A cape clasped to its shoulders that has to be dragging at him hellishly if it's soaked with the water --
No laughter in his eyes or expression. But it's not really a time for that.
He tells her, "Hold on to me," and frees one of his arms; gets an elbow over the ice at the edge of the meltwater, and pulls himself up and onto it. It takes him partly outside of the fire's protection; it has to, for the ice to be solid. That cape freezes over instantly, and Zoisite winces, too, but he keeps his eyes fixed on Naru and on pulling her up with him. Inside that rapidly-fading fire. "Just hold on."
The flower petals are familiar. The rest of it is ... better than last time, if slower. They're not transiting through a hungry place that hates them and wants to kill them; they're leaving one, moving through something steady as bedrock, still held safe by the spiraling curls of glowers.
And then they're elsewhere, and there is sunlight, and warmth, and there is no water.
It has the same not-quite-real feeling as the shrine that Naru was taken to before, but it's not the same place. The gardens are European-style, balanced differently, full of flowers thick enough to make the illusion of little patches of untouched wild. Many of them are roses; there are roses everywhere. The palace that rises at the heart of the gardens is also European-style, more or less, but it's impossible architecture out of the mingled dreams of Walt Disney and Ludwig II. A fairytale castle.
It is about as far from where they were a few seconds ago as can be imagined.
They are, however, both still soaked and shivering. That part hasn't changed.
Zoisite coughs twice on his first breath of the warmer air, turning his head aside from Naru to do it, and looks back at her without having quite yet let go. There might not be enough feeling in his fingers to let go. "Are you hurt?"
The similarities will no doubt catch Naru's thoughts later, when she's got a few brain cycles to muse on them, rather than thinking about the current dire situation that they're in and that she cannot cope with without him. The suggestion to hold onto him is met with a hint of hesitation, but the prospect of drowning or burning, or freezing to death makes the decision to do exactly as easy as the one to trust him. Options are sparse at the moment, after all.
Naru winces as he does, looking a touch more worried and generally trying not to drown both of them.
Naru shivers as they step into warmth, through that flutter of petals and the abrupt addition of warmth and sunshine, reminding both of them just exactly how wet and cold they /really/ are. Even if neither of them have anything approaching body heat, Naru isn't in a rush to let go, the potential of being warmer together is too strong. "Does that ever get less odd?" She asks, still hoarse and then turns her head to cough a couple times herself. The question about being hurt brings a moment as she has to think about that. "I think so? I'm too cold to tell. My ankle feels a little sore, I think I landed on it oddly." Scrapes are bruises are inevitable, they'll sting and ache later.
"Let's try to keep you off of it, then." There's a wrought-iron bench half concealed by a bank of leaves not far away; Zoisite guides Naru to it without having to look to find it. The frozen cape is unclasped and discarded on the way. "I'll look at it later. If it's anything serious, we can find someone to do something about that."
Wrought iron that's been exposed to sunlight for a while is blissfully warm, really.
He works his way back to her first question after they're settled, and his laugh might be brittle-edged, but it's still bright. "I don't know if it ever gets less odd. I don't think it's odd; I think it's fun. But Endymion hates it." He says that last name as if there's nothing out of the ordinary about it, as if he expects that she'll know exactly who he means.
"Is this your place? It feels like you." Naru comments as she moves over to the bench with him. The ankle isn't overly delighted, that's clear when she puts weight on it, but she can limp on it at least, without too much distress.
"Oh. So nice and /warm/." Naru sighs as she sinks onto the bench in delight, oh so slowly starting to just shiver a little rather than the whole body shivers of icy water, as sunshine and warmth ease past the icy chill.
"Which one is Endymion?" Naru asks with a quirk of her head, trying to work out who is who in that haze of messy chaos from the last bout of weirdness. "It isn't bad odd. It makes my stomach tickle, like the top of a roller coaster." She takes a moment to just be warm. "You were right there." She comments, without any preamble or question.
Zoisite is warming too, steadily, as if that fire in the ice and the darkness were something somehow internal to him. As additions go, it doesn't hurt. "You knew I was a gardener," he answers her, and the laughter's there in his tone again. Brightness and brittleness both. Not at a hundred percent, but he's trying his best. "Yes, it's mine. My real place, not ... what you saw last time." A little gesture of his far hand and a rueful glance toward her; between them, they might convey a little sense of apology, though he certainly doesn't make any out loud. "There's some food -- real food, I mean -- and I can make coffee. In a couple of minutes." Needing to get warm in order to make things to get warmer: an uncomfortable version of bootstrapping.
Which one is Endymion? Zoisite sorts through names hastily. "Mamoru Chiba-san?" he ventures. "I'm sorry, I'm not used to that name; I keep forgetting. He'll be pleased to know he's not the only one whose stomach it affects. Though," there's something impish in his eye for a moment, "I'm very glad it's not as bad for you as it is for him."
He was right there. The imp flits away to lurk in the background again. Zoisite glances up at her and nods, once. "We knew the Dark Kingdom was going to be doing something," he says. "We knew it was going to be big. We just didn't know when. So when we knew it was close -- most of us went to try to deal with Kunzite." That name again. The pale man in grays, from the school. "But a couple of us went to keep an eye on important people, just in case."
"The other place was interesting." Naru still isn't sure what she thinks of it, but interesting as well as anything else. A little shake of her head at the mention of food. "I'm not really hungry, but something hot to drink would be nice. eventually. You got frozen too." She looks at him then as she shifts on the bench, drawing her sore ankle up to rest on her other knee to be able to see how it looks. "Are /you/ okay? You.. made the fire?" She's not sure on that and then adds after another moment. "And you were a woman?"
"Oh! Mamoru! I think everyone but me has two or three names. Its confusing. Everything about that was confusing." Naru decides as she gently rubs her ankle, looking down at it to see exactly what she did to it. "It's awful for him? That's too bad." She hrms softly and then nods as Zoisite starts to explain. "That was big. And bad." She agrees and then pauses a moment at the name and nods. "Kunzite gave me the creeps. He was so... sterile. Grey. Matte. Flat." She plays with words, trying to find one that fits. She looks over to him then. "Thank you for keeping me alive. Is.. is Tokyo just /gone/?"
Interesting is one word for it. Zoisite is of the opinion that that topic can be veered right back away from. "Coffee," he says firmly. "-- in a minute or two. When our fingers are willing to speak with us again. The caffeine will help a little, too -- you'll need to be careful, it'll make you feel better than you are, but a stimulant will help with the energy drain." So would sugar. Does he still have sugar? If he does, will it still be there by the time they're mobile, or will a post-fight Usagi have tracked it down with her chocolate-seeking senses and devoured it? Things to investigate later, all in all.
"I'm fine," he assures her, and he's mostly not lying. Physically he's fine, anyhow. He tips her head to investigate her ankle, though keeping hands off for the moment. "And yes, I made the fire. And I was a woman, yes. You know the way that fire is always changing shapes? I can do that, a little. Only people. I can't change my --" His voice falters for a moment, for no apparent reason; he backtracks and says more firmly, 'I can't change my nature. But there's not that much difference between being a man and being a woman, not compared to being a man and being, I don't know, a tree. And it's useful, sometimes; if someone's looking for me, they won't be looking for a girl." A beat, and Zoisite is giving Naru a look of bright-eyed, mock-woeful pleading. "Also, you get so much more of the fun parts of fashion, these days. When did they make the rule that boys aren't allowed to have fun? I want that rule repealed. We started out with high heels, we should be able to get them back if we want to."
Mamoru! Right! Off the tangent. "Endymion is a name he used to have, a very long time ago. The same time that my name's from. He just has a name from now, too, and I -- don't right now." The shrug is unworried; he's still studying her ankle, how her fingers move, whether and where the contact makes her wince. "The same time that Kunzite's name is from, too. That ... what you saw wasn't really Kunzite. Not really. It was what the Dark Kingdom did to him. I mean. Even when he's himself he doesn't really believe that color is a thing that should exist, and I think he was probably born frowning, but he's not that bad. I hope you'll get to meet him when he's him again. No, I don't, he'll probably just terrify you again anyhow." That seems to be intended as a joke. He's smiling when she looks over to him, anyway --
And then his smile vanishes at her question.
"You're welcome," he says, automatically polite. "But ... I don't know. I hope not. It'll depend on how the others do. They were planning to fight him, so they're prepared. But they were planning to fight him somewhere ... safer for other people. It all depends how long it takes. To stop him. And to get people safe, afterward."
He bites at his lower lip and glances away. "I think they're still fighting. I mean -- at least, I think I'd know if they lost."
"Is that what that feeling was? The darkness that ate at your insides and felt.. every sort of wrong? That was more terrifying than the ice, or the water." Naru replies, settling in to gently rubbing a spot on her ankle. It's hard to even see if its swollen, so it can't be too bad off. It certainly got iced quickly!
"That must be really handy sometimes. To be able to look like other people. Do you always vaguely look like you? Because you did, vaguely. Or was that on purpose?" Naru asks, curious about it, rather than weirded out and then she can't help but laugh softly. "Girls /do/ get better fashion. It's no fun at all to draw stuff for boys. Trousers and shirts aren't half as fun as all the combinations for girls. I liked your scarf." She adds, with almost a shy little smile.
"You all knew each other before. And now. Sort of now. Except Kunzite isn't himself. Mamoru.. Endymion.. it's a good name too. Do you know which he prefers?" She thinks about that a moment, slotting puzzle pieces into her throughts. "Was he not himself? Were you?" She looks over to him again, curious and she does smile. "Only if Kunzite's fashion choices don't change when he becomes himself again. That would be terrifying."
Fashion was a great distraction from the more seriously questions and Naru's smile fades slowly as they get to the more important things. "I.. okay. I hope they're alright. All of them. Do you need to go help them? I know I'm not helpful, but you can do things."
"That's what that was," Zoisite confirms. "That's what the Dark Kingdom does. They steal the life energy from people, take it from them against their will and use it for themselves." What those three plant-girls were arguing about. Perhaps that's a topic best moved past, come to think of it. Zoisite does.
Shapeshifting is a better topic! "It is handy. I could get a lot done as the Professor that people would give me trouble with if I looked like me." Zoisite gestures at himself with a sly little smile. Slight, pretty, above all young. "I played at being her for a long time, for a job, so it was easier to look a lot like me. But -"
He straightens, and tosses his head, careful not to let the wet locks whip into Naru's face. And he changes. It takes less than a second. He's smaller still, and smaller yet; his hair is longer and brighter; and then Sailor Moon blinks guilelessly up at Naru, and says, "I don't have to, really."
A pause, and she makes a face and squirms. "-- ugh, how does she deal with this? Am I sitting on my hair, or did it get caught in a branch? I can't even tell."
The details of the outfit are off, even if from a distance it'd seem right, and the body language is a curious mix of Usagi's and Zoisite's own. Naru could tell in an instant. Mamoru, certainly. The Senshi, probably. Everyone else might have some trouble.
"I'm glad you liked the scarf, though. Thank you. And - I hope they're all right, too. But right now, my job is to make sure you're all right." If it has occurred to Zoisite that not looking like Sailor Moon might help with that, he's not doing anything about it. Blue (!) eyes blink over at Naru again. "That's important, too. Has anyone told you the story? About Endymion and Serenity - Mamoru and, and Usagi - and why they have so many names? Would it help you make sense of things?"
The names have polite honorifics attached, and Zoisite says Usagi's name as tentatively as if he'd literally never spoken it before.
The professor guise has Naru considering Zoisite for a few moments, as if searching her face for familiar points or spots that really do seem like Zoi and then Sailor Moon flickers into being and Naru blinks and then laughs, shaking her head. "You don't move like her at all. And you just know where the end of your hair is, usually. It's like knowing where the end of your fingers are, except without the nerve endings, or the prehensile useful.. but still." She reaches over to move one of Zoi-Moon's pig tails away from being sat on. "The worst is someone else sitting on your hair. I didn't miss that when I cut my hair."
She still has the very end of Zoi-Moon's pig tail in her fingers to play with as she looks down at it as she smoothes the strands of hair. "Who's Serenity? I'm safe here though, so if you need to go, it's okay. I mean.." She pauses and glances up and there's a half smile. "I'm not trying to kick you out of your own garden. I'm glad you're here, cause I'd worry more here alone, but if they need help and you can help, then I'm okay worrying by myself."
Naru considers the question about getting more of the story and then nods. "I'm curious, but it seemed like things I wasn't supposed to ask about, so I've been trying not to be too nosy. I don't know how everyone fits together, or what's going on. Or what the Dark Kingdom is." She pauses there, looking back down at the blonde hair in her fingers.
"I think her hair might be prehensile," Zou-Moon confides as Naru rescues her from her own tails. "How else can she get through parks without being tangled up in branches? That's her real magic."
One of the things that is right, mind, is the feel and the smell of the strands of hair in Naru's hand. Right down to the shampoo and conditioner. But that's more a sign of Usagi's fussing than anything else.
At the if-you-need-to-go, Zoi-Moon lifts a fingertip, as if to shush Naru's protests remotely. "You are my job, right now," he tells her. "Not them. Endymion and I talked about it. If they really need me, if it's desperate, he can call on me and I'll go. But he hasn't called." And he hasn't died. Zoi-Moon doesn't mention that part. "So my job is to watch over you. Just in case. I know where Kunzite is - but I don't know where Melanite is. And her magic is sneakier than mine. I don't want to risk it."
He draws a breath. "I do want to risk coffee. Would you mind if I brought some out, so we have it while I'm telling you the story?"
"Perhaps that's something her Sailor Moon side taught her Usagi side, as she didn't always get through things without getting tangled." Naru flickers a bright smile at the remembrance. "Although I suppose that was a fence, not a branch, but the principle was the same, and then there was the goat..." She trails off and then shakes her head. "Er.. right. Yes. That hasn't happened in a while at least!"
Naru quirks her head at Zoi-Moon, thoughtful. "What are Melanite's powers? I didn't think she had any, but things get sort of fuzzy when I try and think too much about her." There's a pause and a soft mm of thoughtfulness before she continues. "I suppose it's good then, that they haven't called you yet. Are you disappointed? To be stuck on the sidelines?" She asks, her voice a touch quiet, still thoughtful. "Do you ever forget what you look like, when you look like someone else?"
"It is your garden, you may do as you wish. I don't mind at all if you wish to have coffee." Naru smiles far more easily at that than at potential disappointments in having to play babysitter rather than being part of the action.
The goat?
Zoi-Moon's hand darts to her mouth to muffle a squeak, and the round blue eyes over it are for a moment perfectly Usagi. Usagi in the moment of staring before STORY STORY GIVE ME TELL TELL TELL takes over.
The difference is that Zoi-Moon manages, somehow, not to ask. Today, anyway. The desperate urge to giggle is not quite kept off her face even when she lets her hand drop a few inches away.
"I don't know exactly what Melanite can do," he admits. "I know she can drain energy - I haven't seen her do it, but I've heard reports. I know she's Beryl's apprentice. That's how she was able to get into your head; Beryl doesn't need much to be able to affect a mind, so I doubt Melanite does either. Obviously she can teleport and shield. Probably attack somehow, I was a little busy to watch. Probably fly. Possibly something to do with shadows, or invisibility. She's a garnet, but she's a black garnet, so most of the usual associations are no good; but she probably still has a knack for seeding things ... making seeds, storing spells or enchanting crystals, or for doing small things that will grow with time into big ones. And she's a calcium-iron garnet, so she might grow more powerful as she grows colder." Or she might have power over bones, for all Zoisite knows. That goes on the list of 'things not to tell Naru.' The list he did have is long enough.
That he can rattle obscure gem associations off at the drop of a hat is just taken for granted. Can't everyone?
"I don't forget what I look like. I'm me." Zoi-Moon ostentatiously tips her nose in the air. "I'm too pretty to forget! And part of being me is -" Chin back down. "I can be in the fight with everyone else, and I can hold my own. But a lot of the time I'm more useful elsewhere. Not everything happens with punching," she confides, half laughing. "Sometimes it happens with looking, or listening, or television. Sometimes it even," and she stands up carefully, turning her head to make sure her hair's free before she moves, "happens with coffee. I'll be right back."
It's several minutes of warm sunshine and birdsong, flowers out of season chosen for scent as well as color, before Zoisite comes back. There are worse fates. He comes back as himself, too, in ill-fitting but carefully-tended (and, importantly, dry) clothes that Naru might recognize; they belong to Usagi's father. There's clean and dry clothes folded over his arm, too, a pair of jeans and a green T-shirt. He puts the tray down (coffee for two, plus cookies) on a table that helpfully manifested itself by the bench when Naru wasn't looking, and offers her the clothes. "These might be more comfortable. They should fit mostly all right." And there are plenty of private little nooks shielded from sight.
There is only a flash of a smile from Naru at the wide eyed restraint about asking after the fence and the goat and the tangled pig tail. Zoi isn't the only one who has an impish smile now and then.
The conversation turns to Melanite and Naru's smile fades as she listens. First with slow nodding, she's fairly familiar with the notion of energy drain all of a sudden, and getting into people's heads, and the mention of teleportation is met with a nod. Then the gem references start and Naru's brow furrows as she fails to make those connections. At all. Not even a little. "Black? Red, yellow and orange.. I've seen all of those colours of garnets. Mother claims she once worked a green garnet, but it was before I was born. I've never seen /black/ garnet. How does that relate to a person though? Seeding things? Like seed crystals to grow more crystals? Or seeds like.." She gestures vaguely, around the garden. She leans over, to make sure Zoi-Moon's hair isn't caught, brushing it free from the back of the bench as she muses on gemstones.
She curls up a bit on the bench, mindful of her ankle, while Zoizite's gone, watching the flowers without really seeing them, enough to startle when he returns with coffee and in dry clothes. "Oh! Oh.. thank you." She reaches for the clothes he's offered. "I'm starting to dry, but not very quickly. I.." She glances around and then gets up off the bench to go and find a nook. She's ended up barefoot, water and shoes didn't play nicely together, and her steps are careful not to twist her ankle wrong again. She's hidden from sight, enough at least, and has the teen girl ability to change clothes without showing any skin. It's a superpower.
"Not much happens with television. I can agree with the looking and listening though." Naru decides on the subject of fighting or not fighting. "Sometimes people forgetting you're there means you hear interesting things." Her voice is a bit muffled, likely by a t-shirt getting pulled over her head. She pads back out, jeans rolled up at the ankles, but they fit fairly well. The t-shirt's a bit big too, but a mother would say 'you'll grow into it!'
"Black," Zoi-Moon confirms. "From the iron. And it could mean all kinds of things -- it would depend on how she thinks. I haven't met her enough to know. It might not mean anything at all."
His return is not accompanied by any attempts to get a line of sight. Hopefully that's just an extension of his politeness. Possibly it's either a disinterest in girls or a disinterest in being assaulted by an offended Usagi. Either way, he pours coffee from a thermos while she's busy. The jeans aren't even all /that/ long - they're Zoisite's, technically, but they're Zoisite's from when he was rather closer to Naru in size. "Television's useful sometimes, if you know how to use it," he says absently. "But paying attention's much more useful, yes." Especially when people forget.
Coffee is offered over. Cookies are merely left in reach. Those, too, are undoubtedly Usagi-provided; Nephrite is the only one who rates Makoto's. "So," Zoisite says. "I promised you a story." He takes a sip of his own coffee. "Once upon a time - all the best stories start with 'once upon a time,' eventually - there lived a prince and a princess.
"The prince was named Endymion, and he was born the heir to a kingdom that covered most of the Earth. We'll call it the Golden Kingdom, because in the places I know best, there are so many stories of a lost Golden Age. He was black-haired and bright-eyed and laughing, and half his court was a little bit in love with him, and the other half was mostly more than a little. His magics were healing and connection and the knowledge of his people and his world. There's a saying in some places that the king is the land. And for him, it was true.
"The princess was named Serenity, only daughter of a queen named Serenity, and she was born the heir to a kingdom called Silver Millennium that brought life to the cold, pale beauty of the Moon. Her people were educated and advanced, powerful and refined; they lived a thousand years to the Earth's few decades. They saw themselves as guiding the barbarians below in making a better world, and warned Princess Serenity that she should be careful in her fascination with that strange and savage place. No good would come of too close an association, and disaster would fall on anyone of the Moon who cleaved too close to a child of the Earth.
"Of course she didn't listen. Of course she stole away to see and feel the Earth for herself. Of course she met the Prince. And of course they fell in love."
"Black garnet sounds interesting. I'll ask my mother." Naru replies thoughtfully as she resettles on the bench, carefully arranging her sitting cross-legged to not squish a sore ankle and accepting the coffee politely. And a cookie. She holds each, one in each hand. "I'd usually rather draw than watch tv. Or read. I can't read while there's people talking at me on tv."
Naru nods at the mention of the story, taking a cautious sip of the coffee. She peeks into the cup and then gives a little hrm and settles to listen.
The cookie is nibble, the coffee is sipped at tentatively and Naru listens. Naru is very good at listening without interrupting. She smiles a touch at the 'and of course' part. Because of course, any story with 'once upon a time' and princes and princesses is going to have falling in love.
"You said that Endymion.. are you from that golden kingdom too?" Naru asks, thoughtfully.
Her immediate answer is a wink of one cat-green eye over Zoisite's cup. He swallows, resettling himself neatly, and says, "Well. Being royalty, the Prince and the Princess did have their guards. Four of each, as it happens; four girls for the Princess, four boys for the Prince.
"Prince Endymion had his Shitennou -- bodyguards, advisors, sometimes generals when he had a call for them, sometimes other things. Jadeite, who worked in ice, in clay, in diplomacy, in crowds, anywhere that he could touch something made out of chaos and mold it into order with his hands and his voice. Nephrite, his seer, who anchored himself half in the earth below him and half in the stars above. Zoisite, the youngest and the most beautiful --" he hushes his voice for that last, pressing his free hand over his heart and fluttering lashes at Naru -- "who dealt in flowers and fire, and finding trouble before it could make itself known. Kunzite, oldest of all of them, with powers of shadows and shelter, and a mind for strategy and the sword; court rumor said he never slept and never smiled, but Prince Endymion knew better.
"Princess Serenity had her Senshi -- princesses in their own right, from the other inhabited worlds that gave their greatest respect to the Silver Millennium. Mars, all passion and wrath, purifying fire, fire that held every secret there was if only you knew how to read them. Jupiter, the storm's daughter and the blossoms that grow in its wake, who --" His voice falters for a moment. Coffee is apparently the solution. "Who understood the simple choices that others forget how to see. Mercury, who had at her fingertips everything that anyone in the solar system knew; her true power wasn't her magic, but her mind. Venus, who led them, whose beauty in itself was a weapon sharper than any blade, and whose weapons were sharper still.
"They loved their princess beyond words and beyond reason, just as Endymion's four loved their prince. All of them were sworn to protect their prince or their princess with their lives; not one of them regretted their oaths. The closeness between Endymion and Serenity troubled them, in one way or another. The Princess's guard fretted that she kept escaping their watch. The Prince's guard worried what consequences their closeness might bring, perhaps if the curse were real, or perhaps from those who resented the Moon's greater power and the aloofness with which it stood apart. But neither concern swayed the two young lovers. They insisted on seeing one another; and perhaps it was that insistence, that trust in their own ability to overcome obstacles, that helped some among their guardians to begin to grow a little closer to one another as well."
More coffee. Zoisite's attention had drifted off to the middle distance; he focuses on Naru once more, talking directly to her again. "So we have a cast of heroes; but what's a story without a villain? Most of Endymion's court loved him, in one sense or another, less or more or most of all. Among the prince's courtiers, then, was a lovely young woman named Beryl, a sorceress, an advisor on the arcane. She watched the prince and longed for him for a long time, dreaming of being in his arms. When he took the Moon's princess in his arms instead, Beryl sought out some suitable revenge, some way she might yet achieve her goal. She found one."
This time the hesitation's no longer than a deeper breath. "Beryl made a compact with a demon, granting her dark power in exchange for her service. The demon had its own power, and between the two of them they began to corrupt the people of the Earth. All of the peoples of the Earth. There was already discontent in some quarters about the Moon Kingdom's power; they fanned the flames, and spread them slowly, till the whispers about the evil that the Silver Millennium clearly intended were everywhere." His head's still turned toward Naru, but his eyes slide away, studying some part of the garden out of the corner furthest rom her. "No-one seemed to be immune. In time ... not even the prince's guardians."
Naru is quiet, watching Zoisite as she listens. She nibbles her cookie slowly, paying it more attention than her coffee as she listens, without interrupting as he tells a story.
Or recounts a history, depending on one's perspective. There's little sounds here and there, the sort of encouraging sounds that draw more conversation out without disrupting the flow. The little 'mmm' and 'un hunh' sort. At the mention of 'youngest and most beautiful', Naru can't help but smile, giving a little giggle at his fluttering lashes and 'modesty'.
She listens. She reaches for the thermos to refill his cup as he might need and take that opportunity to snag another cookie while she does. Her head nods slowly at the description of the various guardians, male and female, a little mmm at the forbidden love with a quiet little smile.
She sobers a touch at the description of Beryl, and there's a quiet little furrow of her brow, as if this section of the story both bears more thinking, and is less easily just 'hmm mmmm'd through.
"Is Earth still corrupted?" She asks quietly into that pause, watching him as she takes another sip from her cup. "The prince's guardians were, but were the princess'?"
Not much to start repairing the damage, but enough. Sunlight, flowers, color, warmth. Sugar to fuel her system, caffeine to push her body into noticing the sugar is there, a little more heat at the core to help both along. She'll need real food eventually, or help from Mamoru, or she'll crash again; but trying to push that before she's ready will just make things worse. Plenty to worry about when the time comes.
"That's a question with a complicated answer," Zoisite admits. "It's half of what the story's about. It could be no, or yes, or only a little bit, depending on which way you look at it. But your second question ... oh, no. The princess's guardians weren't. They didn't spend enough time on Earth for the demon to affect them in its more insidious ways, and they had no loyalties to it for Beryl to play on.
"That's how she was able to reach the prince's guardians. Through their loyalty. She whispered and talked and tricked, and laid traps and snares, and created disasters and horrible things, until enough of the Shitennou believed there was a real and immediate threat to convince the others. They /couldn't/ convince Endymion; his ties to the earth saw the truth, not Beryl's lies, and the demon's power wasn't enough to twist his heart with doubts and fears. So instead Beryl convinced his guardians that their prince was the one deceived. And when they'd been lied to well enough, for long enough ..."
Zoisite tips his head down, using his coffee cup in its traditional role as a prop to stare into. "They were her generals, not his, when she led Earth's armies against the Silver Millennium.
"What the Senshi must have thought and felt, I can't describe. If they'd had warning, they'd have been able to bring all the Moon's power to bear before the attack was ready. But the Earth was far larger than the Moon, and the demon's control over its people was nearly absolute. The attackers didn't have enough of their own minds left to care what they did, or whether they died. Their deaths fed the demon the same as the Moon's people's did.
"The Senshi tried to protect their princess. They took on the strongest among the attackers. The prince's lost guardians died. The Senshi died stopping them, or at least most of them did. And it wasn't enough. Because Beryl, with all her power and the demon's behind her, found the princess and moved to kill her.
"But Prince Endymion found them too. And with none of their guardians close enough -- he protected Princess Serenity with /his/ life. Only... she couldn't live without him."
Zoisite lifts his head to look at Naru again, and there's something about the sad little smile that tells Naru that the story is just a little out of order from the history: that at least some of the guardians, on one side or the other, lived to see it.
"So the tale ends with the villains ascendant, with Beryl triumphant and the demon owning two worlds, yes? Ah, but wait. There's a named character who's played no part yet. Queen Serenity, ruler of the Silver Millennium and all its arcane might, would not let her daughter and her kingdom fall to a demon's malice and a witch's lies.
"She took up the legendary Silver Crystal, for which her kingdom was named. The stone that made miracles. And for the sake of her daughter and her kingdom, and of the poor damned planet they'd tried so hard to foster, she made a miracle, and changed the world.
"Now there was only one inhabited world in the solar system. Still in wreckage from the demon's madness; it would take a long, long time to rebuild. And a longer time for it to be ready for her daughter and her daughter's beloved to be born into it again. An easily-distracted little girl with a heart that could hold the world, and an orphan boy who never quite knew what he was looking for. Usagi Tsukino and Mamoru Chiba."
Naru seems to be focused more on the sugar than the caffeine, and focussed all the more upon Zoisite and his retelling of the tale. She shifts on the bench, rearranging how she's sitting, forgetting for a brief moment that one ankle isn't yet thrilled with everything until it reminds her with a start, the wince a brief thing across her face before she straightens out her legs again.
"Hmmm." Is Naru's only reply about the insidious ways of lies and doubts and loyalties twisted with sharply chosen words. She's a teen girl. She understands. High school girls are their own brand of hell when they want to be, entirely aside from any planetary or other worldly powers.
She looks sad as the tale goes the way of Greek tragedies, her eyes a touch wide at everyone giving their lives for everyone else. She brightens a touch at the mention of the nigh on forgotten Queen, and her miracles.
"Usagi has always loved quickly, and easily and without hesitation. Love and trust and friendship." Naru nods with a soft smile that speaks of pride for her beloved friend. "I can see calling her heart enough for the world." She brushes the crumbs off her fingers on the leg of her borrowed jeans. "And the guardians, on both sides. They have been reborn as well." It isn't a question, she sits with one who makes it not much of a question. "Was Beryl reborn too?"
She's fourteen. She's Usagi's size. She doesn't need much caffeine to get things started. Besides, if the taste of the coffee is putting her off more than the heat is pulling her to it, she's doing better already -- except for the ankle. Well. By the time Zoisite has to worry about what Naru drinks again, he'll probably be able to make that Mamoru's problem. Evading minor responsibilities: another box checked off in the N column on the 'did Moon's purification attack actually reprogram his brain? (yes/no)' list.
"It's enough to forgive us," Zoisite agrees to Naru, dropping back to a first person pronoun just for a moment. "If she could do that, that quickly, the rest of the world is easy."
He leans to set his cup down on the little table for a moment, tucking a curl back behind his ear with one hand, letting the other settle in his lap. "The guardians were reborn on both sides. Though it was different, for the Senshi. Before, they were older than their princess, better able to take care of her. Now, they're the same age. It wasn't just the guardians, either. I've seen other people I think I used to know back then. Maybe it was everyone. How could anyone tell, after all? They're all born new; the same people, the same heart, but different places, different families, different lives. They're not born with their memories.
"Except, maybe, Beryl.
"She was reborn too. Either she remembered from the start, or the memories woke in her early, or maybe the demon was able to find the smallest crack in the prison Queen Serenity had locked it away from the world in and used it to whisper to her. How she came to remember, I don't know. But she made her way out to where the Earth still touched the demon's prison, far in the north, where humans never go. She made her bargain again. And she named herself Queen, and began to collect monsters for her Dark Kingdom.
"The Senshi were reborn younger, the same age as their princess. The Shitennou were not -- all but the youngest of them were older than their prince, this time the same as the last. Death and rebirth had freed them from Beryl's control, from the demon's corruption; they'd been reborn to serve their prince, not her. But they didn't have their memories. And even if they had, they'd have remembered Prince Endymion, not Mamoru Chiba. They didn't know what they were for. Only that they were supposed to be for something."
Zoisite gives up pretending that he can get through this without fidgeting. That curl, on the far side from Naru, is wrapped around his finger and unwound again, over and over; combed through and tugged at and used to draw his head into a tilt. Small little fretting gestures. Mostly not in the way.
"Beryl found them, again. Tricked them, again. Took them for her own, again; chained their minds, poured darkness into their souls, took away their memories of both their lives, made them never remember anything but the Dark Kingdom. Woke their powers, and used the demon's magic to corrupt those too. Whatever she needed to do to make sure that they would remain her servants, she did.
"In a mockery of the tasks Endymion had given them -- she set each of them a part of the world to turn to her use, and to search for the Silver Crystal and its power. And she sent them out to command her monsters, to make her more monsters, to seed the world quietly with things that would drain its people of their life energy and feed it back to Beryl and her demon.
"There were people who fought them. There always are. But the Dark Kingdom grew quietly under the ice, and the prince's lost guardians made their slow search of whole continents for the missing magic that had changed the world, and the prince and the four Senshi grew up alone, never aware that they had an enemy, much less that the enemy had a head start. And the princess --"
Zoisite glances aside at Naru, and this time the smile is startlingly honest.
"-- well. The princess didn't grow up alone, exactly. Did she?"
"You remember something, if you can tell me the whole story. Or you have a really really vivid imagination." Naru points out to him quietly and watches the fidgeting start. "Maybe not from the start, but there's something. There has to be, watching Mamoru and Usagi together."
She reaches a hand out to touch his arm gently, as if she feels she should be giving him comfort as he talks about being tricked, again. Corrupted, again. Sent out on errands for darkness.
She settles back at his honest smile and her own smile is quiet. "Well. No. But yes. She wasn't alone, but no one truly is. She had, and has, friends and parents and people who love her and care about her. Usagi her. Mamoru was an orphan, you say? But surely he had friends, and guardians and those who smiled to see him. That's not truly alone." She is quiet a moment and then adds. "If she had others around her who were .. reborn, I guess.. I don't know. She might have been alone that way. I.. well.. I wouldn't have known." There's a quietness to her tone, acceptance.
"I have a vivid imagination and I remember something, now," Zoisite assures her. She touches his arm, and he blinks -- at her, first, and then at her hand on his arm. It takes disentangling his fingers from those perennially stray locks, but a moment later there's a brief, tentative contact in turn, a gentle pressure before he draws his hand away.
"He didn't have guardians. I know that much; it's in the records." No speculation about friends, or about smiles. "But Usagi -- yes. Princess Serenity grew up with no-one else her age in her entire world. Usagi never had to. She had family, who taught her about contact and comfort, living with annoyances, competition and limitation and acceptance. Who let her try to find out who she was, instead of who she was expected to be. And particularly she had a best friend, who taught her all kinds of things. Serenity never once had someone to talk with not complicated by politics, authority, age, who could tell whom what to do, who had to be careful about what secrets. Usagi had someone who could teach her about companionship. About friends who are only and uncomplicatedly friends. About seeing things for what they are, the way an artist does; about listening, though Usagi's only sometimes good at that; about taking the world as it happens, and not dismissing what she's seeing just because it's not supposed to be possible."
He's not looking at Naru when he says that. It's something she can evade all she likes, for right now.
"Serenity grew up sheltered, fragile. She never had much chance to learn about setbacks or failures or pain; and when they came to her, she broke. Usagi learned about them from the time she was born, and learned from her family and her friends how not to let them bother her for too long. In her heart, the ordinary girl was stronger than the princess.
"The Senshi found her, one by one; they didn't need their old memories to do that. Usagi had learned how to make friends, and she did, mostly. So they were working together by the time Beryl's generals came here.
"Nephrite came first, following the secrets the stars told him. He moved through the city and vanished, no-one knew why; Jadeite and Kunzite followed in his wake, hunting for whatever had taken their brother. The Senshi held them back, for a while. But not well enough to keep them from finding Mamoru Chiba.
"The prince's lost guardians didn't know him, didn't remember him. He didn't remember them any more than he remembered the princess. But Mamoru and Usagi had found each other all the same, had fallen in love a second time; and he recognized his friends with his heart, the same way that he'd recognized her. He tried to fight for them, tried to free them from Beryl; he asked Usagi and the Senshi for their help.
"Beryl -- Beryl asked her generals for him.
"They both got what they'd wanted. Beryl's servants kidnapped Mamoru right from Usagi's side, stole him away for their Queen to try to make her own the same way that she'd done to them. He was still stronger than her magics; to keep him, she had to take a piece of the demon and set it inside him, a monster in his mind.
"But seeing that done to him broke the chains Beryl had put on his guardians' minds. One by one, as the weeks and the months passed, they fought their way free. Jadeite, who'd always brought order out of chaos, fled to the Senshi; he helped them fight the monster that Beryl had made of his prince, until Usagi could win Mamoru back to her side. Nephrite came next. He'd vanished months ago; but even when Beryl had Mamoru prisoner, there was still enough of the prince in him that he'd gone looking. Found his friend, and brought him back to the world. And after that, brought him back to the light as well. They fought off the darkness in their minds, and Usagi used the moon's own light to cleanse the darkness Beryl had put in their souls, and they were free."
He pauses in the rhythm of the story, the upward turn toward hope, and flashes Naru a brighter smile. "Zoisite, who'd always been too good at finding trouble, took a little longer. But that proved to be a good thing. Kunzite, the oldest and the strongest of them, had almost freed himself when Jadeite did; but Beryl had done certain things to him that kept him from leaving the Dark Kingdom, that dragged him back down into her control every time he fought his way loose. And one of those times, when his mind was his own for a little while, he was able to tell the Senshi that Beryl's apprentice had taken human prisoners, who would be in terrible danger if they moved against the Dark Kingdom. That was bad enough; but he named one of them, and the name nearly broke Usagi's heart. All the time she'd struggled to keep this fight from touching the people she'd grown up beside, and loved all her life. She was fighting for their sake. And now the Dark Kingdom had her best friend."
Zoisite's hands have, perhaps inevitably, crept upward again; the far one toying with his hair, the nearer gesturing a little between them. Little gestures, half-elegant for all the nervous habit. "So they sent in the one who'd thrown in his lot with them, but could still pass for one of Beryl's people. And he crept his way around the Dark Kingdom until he could find sign of her. There were dark enchantments on her that he didn't understand; he didn't dare take her home directly. He played a trick of his own, instead, finding the sorceress who'd taken her and letting her think the two of them were hatching a plot to advance both their standings with their Queen. He lured them out, prisoners and all, to where Usagi and her friends could win them back -- and win him back, too, before Beryl could come in person to steal him a third time.
"And that brings us almost to where we are. Beryl and the demon that gives her power still hold one of the Prince's guardians, the oldest, the strongest. They know, now, where the Silver Crystal they were looking for is. That Usagi has it. They have nothing to gain by waiting any more, nothing to lose by acting; so they've sent Kunzite against the city. Most of the others are fighting him. To guard Usagi's heart, Mamoru sent Jadeite to watch over her family till the city's safe again, and me to watch over you.
"After that's done -- when the Dark Kingdom has no more hostages, and when the last of its generals is gone -- they'll take the fight to Beryl, and to the demon. And if they win that ... then the last of that corruption will be gone from the Earth; not every kind of corruption, there are many kinds of dangers, but that one. The old fight will be over. The prince and princess free to be together, and stronger for the sake of being just people, instead of having to be people and nations and worlds all at once. And we'll be able to see what we can do with this time and world, and whether we can make the new story better than the old one."
Naru can't help but murmur a soft apology as Zoi seems disconcerted by her touch which was supposed to be comforting. She leans over to set her coffee cup down, most of it gone by now, but her fondness for coffee, as tenuous as it might be doesn't extend to cold coffee.
There's a soft little chuckle from Naru at the various things that Usagi has learned. "Usagi is generally the one very good at distractions. And mischief. And friends. She can make friends with a rock given half a moment." Naru's own role in Usagi's growing up isn't really noted but she frowns a touch. "Poor Serenity, that doesn't sound like much fun at all. I'm glad she had her Endymion at least." She settles quiet again, listening as the story slowly starts to become more familiar.
"I remember Usagi being terribly sad.. that was probably when Endymion was prisoner. She didn't talk about it, and I didnt want to press, it seemed rude. That was probably about the right time." Naru slowly nods, puzzle pieces falling slowly into place with a bit of mental prodding. She ducks her head, a touch of a blush hitting her cheeks at the mention of her being kidnapped breaking Usagi's heart.
"Thank you, by the by, for being kind to me when you found me there. It was confusing, and puzzling, but you were kind and thoughtful and I appreciated it then, and more so once I could think clearly again." Naru turns her head to look at Zoisite directly as she thanks him.
She gets quiet again, listening to the description of the fight and the hopes on where the fight will go and she asks with a little tip of her head. "Will Kunzite be alright? I mean, is the fight to help him become himself again too?" She clarifies with a little furrow of her brow.
This, oddly enough, is the line on which the aforementioned prince arrives.
He's in civilian clothes looking rumpled and tired; not very regal are his jeans and Docs, his CCCP vintage cosmonaut t-shirt, or his unbuttoned oxford with glasses in the pocket. Despite all this, his shoulders are straight and his bearing is confident.
What's more, he's already smiling when he gets there. When he sees Naru and Zoisite sitting close to each other on the bench, his smile slowly turns into an outright grin, eyes sparkling.
It's totally the Shipper on Deck grin. Or at least, the tall black-haired boy's version -- at least his isn't accompanied by 'huehuehue'.
"Funny you should ask, Osaka-san," he says cheerfully, and tosses a glittering crystal in the air. The way the fading sunlight hits it, it shifts from clear to pink to purple as it spins. He catches it as he closes the distance, and his expression shifts again: now it's a small, understated smile, related to the ones he had around Usagi when Naru saw them last. Incredibly fond, reserved, only a few steps away from solemn.
He crouches in front of them and addresses them both, but his focus is on Zoisite for the very moment the most pertinent part of the information crosses his lips.
"Kunzite is fine," he tells them. "We got him back. He's ours again." Then he clarifies for Zoisite, "At the moment, that's arguably creative values of 'fine', but that was part of the plan." Then the smile's for Naru, a little wry. "I think you'll like him more when you can properly meet him."
You only surprised me," Zoisite assures Naru at that apology. And later, confirming her musings: "Late December, January, most of February. She hasn't had a good year so far."
The thank-you wins her another of those surprised blinks. It doesn't much slow him down. "Being nice is a surprisingly good first resort," he offers back to her. "It works by itself sometimes. And if it doesn't, you still have the rest of your options. I'm glad it did work. You didn't deserve the treatment you'd already gotten, and I didn't want to have to put you through anything more." Granted, his reasons at the time were that Usagi would've been upset with him, and Usagi terrified him. This... seems reasonable to withhold.
And then there's a prince.
Zoisite looks up at Mamoru's approach. And That Grin is clearly recognized. Zoisite gives a roll of his eyes so exaggerated that his entire head moves with it.
(Naru's mother is a jeweler. Naru pays attention. There's no way she won't be able to name that stone.)
When Mamoru crouched, Zoisite leans to glare, not at the boy, but at his hand. The one holding the rock, yes. His eyes narrow, and he manages somehow to hiss a phrase that has no sibilants, while also biting off every word. "I. Hate. Your. Plan." He straightens up, then, and tips his head to look at Mamoru more normally - letting Naru have a chance to speak before he adds, at the end, "Everyone made it?" The smile probably answers that. But it's good to be sure.
"Endymion!" Naru glances up at Mamoru, only a touch startled but smiles as he does before there's a little blink and she gives her head a touch of a shake. "Sorry, I should ask which name you prefer."
She does pay attention, watching the sparkling stone catch the light and settle back in Mamoru's hand and then the unprincely dressed prince is crouching down. She looks between Zoisite and Mamoru, utterly unaware of what the plan is that Zoisite hates so much.
"Usagi's alright too?" Naru asks, her concern a touch more focussed to start than Zoisite's. She gestures to the little table. "Would you like a cookie? I think the coffee is cold by now, even in the thermos."
The boy laughs, shaking his head. "Either is fine; whatever you like better. If I'm wearing a mask with my cape, though, better stick with Tuxedo Kamen. And no thanks, I'm guarding my stomach jealously at the moment." Holding the gem in his fist, he reaches out to put that hand on one of Zoisite's-- and the feeling of Kunzite being there, if not the sight of his translucent form, is undeniable.
"It's okay," he tells his youngest guardian affectionately. "It's actually really okay. He's still alive, he just looks funny. I promise." The look on his face tells more: he'll give more of an explanation if Zoisite wants one. "If she's calling me Endymion, I take it you've been telling stories?"
And then the pretty pink stone goes in his pocket as he sets his fingertips to the ground and looks up at Naru, holding out his now-empty hand. "Are you all right? I know Zoi took good care of you-- nice shirt--" (huehuehue) "--but did you get hurt at all, is there anything I can help with? Usako's in with the others right now, we can send you her way. When you're ready to go home, one of the boys can give you a lift before we all clear out. You'll be safe enough there now."
The difference between Zoisite sitting and talking to Naru, and Zoisite sitting and talking to Naru and Mamoru, is ... marked. He's not a different person, per se; he was animated enough already, there's no more of that. But the nature of his personal space is quite abruptly changed. The boy who was startled when Naru so much as touched is arm is now a boy who, when Mamoru touches his fist to Zoisite's hand, leans down and literally rubs the side of his face against Mamoru's fingers, utterly unselfconscious, like a human-sized cat.
"Nobody told her what was going on, yet," he says as he straightens up. "So I did. And I know, I know what happened. It almost happened to me, too, didn't it? Would've if I hadn't started planning in case of it weeks earlier." He gives a disconcertingly bright-eyed glare at the stone as it disappears into Mamoru's pocket. "But somebody should've been more careful." Somehow. In some nonspecified way. Zoisite wraps his arms around himself and sinks back into the corner of the bench, tucking his chin down, and for four angry seconds he is within the top ten of prettiest angry sulks in the history of the world.
Then Mamoru's asking Naru questions, and that shakes him right out of it. "Your ankle?" he suggests to Naru, straightening up and letting his hands drop and looking his best earnest. He doesn't mention the energy drain, or the near-miss with hypothermia. Just the part that's easier to talk about. If Mamoru starts on that, he'll figure the rest out on his own.
In spite of utter brain overload Naru flashes Mamoru a smile as he brings up yet another name and she lifts her hand to holds up two fingers. "Sorry.. two names. That's the max per person." Her tone might be fairly sincere, but the teasing sparkle in her eyes speaks a different language.
Naru looks from Mamoru to the chunk of Kunzite to Zoisite and then back to the sparkly stone that Mamoru is tucking into his pocket and there's just a little flicker of potential understanding. A little widening of her eyes, a thoughtful expression. She doesn't /ask/ per se, just accepts that tidbit of impossibility to add to the slew of impossibilities that she's met in the last short time and deftly ignores Zoi's epic pout. Some things are best left un-encouraged. She settles her hands in her lap, fiddling with the hem of that t-shirt that Mamoru just commented on, quite easily not touching either of them.
"Zoisite's been very kind, and gave me dry things to wear and kept me well distracted with stories." Naru confirms with a little nod and then gives a little shake of her head. "I landed oddly on my ankle, but it'll heal up fine, I just need to remember to be gentle with it for a few days. I think I'm all warmed up now, or near enough. I'm fine, all in all."
Pretty angry sulks! For just a moment, then, the prince's fingertips leave the steadying earth and rest on Zoisite's knee. The gesture goes along with an expression that's both amused and affectionate: he understands. Yes, it nearly did. Well done. Yes, give him hell. It's the briefest of moments, only long enough it takes place in the span of a natural pause.
Then Mamoru -- Endymion -- is on his knees in front of Naru, looking chiding and reaching for her injured ankle. He stops short of touch, glancing up at her. "You saw me heal Usa, do you think I intend to send you home to your mother with a problem I can fix? Give me your ankle." It's technically a command, but it sounds closer to Usagi's father when telling Shingo to give Usagi her DS back - faintly exasperated, but laughing a little behind it. "And if you needed all that done I should check on you anyway."
If she should acquiesce, then the black-haired boy will take her ankle gently, and with deft expertise, pull her sock down and lay fingertips to the skin without even making it twinge. At the moment of contact, there's a visible golden glow coming from it, and a delicious warmth spreads from the point, refreshing and calming to jangled nerves and a system taxed terribly. All the pain is swallowed by that warmth, and the steady good cheer that the prince offers along with it is a solid encouragement Naru hardly needs.
Whether or not she agrees, though, in a moment he sits back on his heels and says very seriously, "Thank you for being such a good friend for Usa."
A second later he realizes how that sounds and gets up, flustered and briefly self-deprecating as he adds, "I mean you had her first. I suppose I should actually thank you more for not going after me with her dad's shotgun, and his lime pit in mind."
Both hands held out, then, as Mamoru offers the two of them each a hand up. "I won't go so far as to poke my head in, but she's suffering from a severe dearth of Naru Osaka hugs, and research suggests the condition is eventually terminal." He adds apologetically, "And I need to steal Zoisite from you so I can hug him a lot."
Zoisite doesn't stop short of touch, this time -- his hand rests lightly on Naru's arm, for a moment, mirroring her gesture from earlier. "You do art," he says. "He does healing." As if they were the same sort of thing, just a natural talent and an exercised skillset that wanders in between habit and stress relief. And, with an intonation that stops just short of adding a 'pretty please,' "Would you really mind so much letting him help?"
The effort not to snicker at Mamoru's flusteredness is visible. And doomed. At least Zoisite mostly hides it behind his other hand, except for a conspiratorial glance Naru's way.
The hand up is taken; Zoisite gets to his feet, and doesn't actually give Mamoru his hand back. The other hand is left free to gesture lightly in the air as he says to Naru, "If you'd like to talk with her -- I can make sure you can find her without trouble, it'll be all right. And I'll see to it your things make it back to you when they're dry, so your family doesn't wonder about your clothes." As if that were more worrisome than her having vanished for a couple of hours in a natural disaster -- well, okay, transportation and cell towers are likely to be down for a bit, the couple of hours is almost reasonable. How her things might make it back to her, he doesn't say. But ... fairytale palace. That table wasn't there when they first sat down.
"You healed Usa?" Naru blinks a moment, clearly having both missed that in the hullaballu that happened while she was still fairly hazy on the who and what and where of everything and there's a touch of a frown as she wonders just how very much else she missed. (Hint: A lot.) "I don't mind, no."
She tenses in anticipation of the touch, unnecessarily as it turns out and as the healing glow spreads she sighs a little, relaxing out of the tension she didn't really realize was still clinging to her insides, letting her eyes close just a moment to savour that supernatural sense of 'everything will be alright', no matter how improbable it seems.
Naru opens her eyes at those words from Mamoru and she smiles, a gentle sort of smile. "It is easy to be a friend to Usa, I couldn't not do it if I tried." She quirks her head at him and then there's a little chuckle. "I think technically, argument could be made that you had her first. For some values of you, and for some values of her. You are good to her, and make her smile. That is reason enough not to push you in a lime pit." She pauses and then waggles her fingers at him. "But I know where it is. Just saying."
She stands, settling weight upon her ankle and giving it a little wriggle. "Thank you. For healing me, and saving my home and sending Zoi to keep me company. There's no stealing involved, he's yours, not mine." Naru smiles brightly and her attention shifts to include Zoisite in her query. "Where's Usagi?" She nods her agreement on her things appearing.. somehow. There's a lot of not asking that goes on, and how her things are likely to turn up is certainly one of those not asking things.
You do art. He does healing.
The way Zoisite puts it is so simple, so easy and accepting -- it's incredibly different from anything he could possibly have imagined, growing up. It's just that he remembers now: being alone and waiting and not knowing anything else, a bit of the time before that when he wasn't alone but waited with purpose, and earlier still, an entire life in which he was never alone. He remembers a life when there were people who understood him like this... and Zoisite was one of them.
He still is.
That's a very small, very real smile he gives the bright-haired boy just for a second before he heals Naru's injuries, and a royal stinkface at the snickering once he's gone and flustered at the girl.
Quiet kid, generally, this prince. Really. Most of the time. Really very very different from Usagi.
He's not at all awkward about Zoisite keeping hold of his hand, and while the youngest of the Shitennou explains and reassures and offers brightly and easily, Mamoru's watching something a little off to one side. For a half second, there's a radiant smile on his face, and an echo of it lingers in his eyes and around the twist to the corners of his mouth as he answers Naru.
"I may have had Serenity before you, but she's Usagi now, and you definitely had her first," he says, and it sounds like teasing, but has a quality to it, somehow, that only very true things have. His voice goes serious. "That's very important. Don't ever forget how much she needs you." A beat, and the brief solemnity turns into laughing eyes. "If you ever need a lime pit for me in the future, I'm probably a fake, so you'd be doing me a big favor. We'll see you when we get back, yeah?"
"There's no need to worry about where," Zoisite says to Naru's question. "If you're willing to go looking, I'll take care of the rest of it." There's one more wink given her way. "Won't you trust me? Besides. She moves around too much. If I just told you where she was, she'd be gone before you got there."
He does not look at the place off to one side that Mamoru is watching. Indeed, he makes a point of not looking.