Kukai has a standing invitation to what is increasingly coming to be known as the 'frat house'; it's been Usagi's second home for arguably longer than it should have been, but everything worked out, so said arguments are moot. Today, the sun is shining, school's out for the weekend, the air is warm and sweet, and there are altogether too damn many pink alien flowers all over Tokyo. Some people are allergic to pollen. Some people are really really allergic to really specific pollen.
One person is horribly allergic, and it's not just to the pollen.
There've been rumors circulating in Infinity, and from there to the other schools, that Chiba's sick again-- a relapse, they're saying, so it can't have been mono last school year, right? It doesn't relapse like this, does it? He's said that whatever it is isn't contagious, and other sources seem to agree, but rumors have said things like his buddies had to carry him out of school, or that he collapsed in class, or that he had to withdraw from his clubs. Some rumors say he's being poisoned, other rumors say he's got some kind of terminal illness, still more rumors insist it must be an STD.
Rumors are pretty easily blown out of proportion and/or made up on the spot. Still and all, Tuxedo Kamen has not been active since the giant alien beanstalk appeared in Mitakihara, and Kunzite has, almost as if the white-haired (very short-haired) older teenager were filling in for him.
Rumor is always best combatted with reality.
The balcony door's open, letting in a crossbreeze, and one or two of the guys are somewhere in the giant four-apartment penthouse; there are sounds of construction activity here and there, and the sound of someone watching his Big Brother DVDs in a room several over from the Grand Central that everyone generally treats like a front door (primarily because it habitually is).
Mamoru's half-asleep on the couch with his head in Usagi's lap, Luna is purring on the couch between Mamoru and the edge, and the sun is shining warm on the three of them. His schoolbooks aren't anywhere. There's an untouched pot of tea on the coffee table next to a pile of controllers, along with a couple of cups; whoever set it out very kindly moved the plate of cookies closer to where Usagi can reach without dislodging the prince.
It wasn't exactly the first thing that had been on his mind when he'd heard about it, but visiting Mamoru and the Shittenou was the most polite thing he could do this morning. Tonight he's going to try to get his brothers to let him go out running, but that may or may not happen. But this is at least a peaceful visit in the afternoon.
So after entering through the front door and riding the elevator up, he finds himself knocking on the front door of the 'frat house' instead of flying in unannounced through the balcony. Daichi is riding on his shoulder, looking at everything around them, and just ooohing and aaahing. Still, though, this is just the first visit of several Kukai's got planned. This is just the best way to contact a larger pool of the people he wants to thank, and get him out of the house at the same time.
Usagi's been content just stroking and petting Mamoru's hair. It's so soft and cuddly, just like him! And of course she wishes he were better. And of course if she heard about the STD rumor she'd loudly deny it as a possibility. (After all, she's fine!)
She's chattering on, as per usual, but it's in quiet tones. How, despite the threat in the letter she wrote him, she actually passed her test. How that new boy in school seems to have everyone with hearts in their eyes, but of course, her Mamo-chan is far better.
There's a knock on the door and she looks up. She contemplates getting up to answer it for all of point-two-four seconds before thinking that, no, having a Mamoru in her lap is far better than getting up.
Luna pauses her purring and after realizing that her charge wasn't getting up, she sighs and rolls her eyes before hopping off the couch. She pads over to the front door and leaps for the handle.
One failed attempt. Two. Three.
Frustrated, she makes an irritated sound in the back of her throat. "Come on in, whoever you are! I don't have opposable thumbs!"
Usagi is not going to get up. Mamoru is really not going to get up. Kazuo hasn't even considered the other possibility; he's kept himself busy scouring the kitchen in advance of Makoto perhaps turning up for an afternoon cooking session, and the kitchen is devoid of cat fur.
Which means that he doesn't get to the door in time to catch Luna, alas. Only in time to bypass any questions about locks by opening the door himself. "Sorry," he says down to the feline, deadpan. "I was late." Apparently he thinks Luna's come-on-in counts as Kukai's invitation.
If the knocking didn't jar Mamoru from his half-sleep, the sudden lack of purring cat certainly did. He's not entirely sure if the door is locked, either, and he's out of it enough to not be keeping track of where his guys are right now, so he actually starts to move to get up--
--and Kazuo's intervention on Luna's behalf is just in time to prevent Mamoru from getting any further than a really unhappy freeze-in-place full-body wince. He stays that way for a full second, trying to decide whether or not he's going to try to be polite in his grim drive to be social and normal and pretend everything is really okay, and then visibly decides 'screw it' and sinks back down, eyes shut and crease between them.
"Sorry," he mumbles half into Usa's leg.
Kukai arches an eyebrow. For somebody that Kazuo had said was staying in what amounted to protective custody, the idea of leaving the door unlocked was a bit of a shocker. Just anybody could knock, walk in, and be harassing Mamoru in moments - if they knew where he was. Not that he'd tell anybody but still.
"Ah, ok, thank you miss." He speaks through the door, then reaches over, opening it and looking inside. There's a cat and a Kazuo. "...Kazuo, you do a fantastic girl's voice. Really amazing. Also, hi." He closes the door behind him. "Seriously, with that deadpan a look I'd never have caught on that you were a voice actor. Is Mamoru in? I wanted to say thank you to you and him for checking in on me in the hospital. Well, you directly, him indirectly. Maybe get Makoto's number or leave a note for her saying thank you, too."
Usagi nearly growls when Mamoru tries to get up, and is so irritated that she's slow to stop him! When he's back against her thigh, she's half tempted to thwack him. She doesn't, though. "Baka," she hisses. "The only thing you hafta be sorry for is almost being stupid!"
Her words are tempered by the resuming gentle fingers in his hair and the soft kiss she places on his brow.
Luna arcs a brow up at Kunzite. "Yes. Because you're the only one in this apartment."
The door is opened, and the young boy blames her voice on Kunzite. Luna gasps. "I beg your pardon!" She leaps onto the entry way table and then to Kazuo's shoulder. "Decent actor though he may be, there is no way he could accomplish my particular resonance! How rude! I lick my butt at you, Sir!"
Usagi practically squeals when she sees who it is. "Dance partner!!" It's...loud, but she doesn't realize. She holds a finger up to her mouth. "Shhhh, you'll interupt his doze!"
"Everyone else," Kazuo says down to Luna, "is unconscious, furniture, or using power tools. All of which disqualify them from answering the door." Usagi is presumably furniture. Anyone watching Big Brother presumably counts as unconscious. The power tools ... well, that runs under his general 'don't tempt fate' guideline.
Talking cat is permitted to inhabit his shoulder, in a fashion that suggests Kunzite is resigned to his fate in that regard. He wears white shirts. They /will/ get shed on. "Kukai, this is Luna. Luna, Kukai. I refuse to involve myself in any disputes. Mamoru is technically in, but I hope you're not counting on coherence." Cat is ferried in the general direction of the living room, and thus the couch. Presumably he's figuring Kukai will follow.
Mamoru makes a sound kind of like 'mrr' at Usagi's hissing at him, then outright grimaces as the yelling happens. "Noisy..." he mumbles. Luna and Usagi. And then Usa says to be quiet or...
"I'm awake," he says flatly, not opening his eyes. "Hi, Kukai. You can have my tea I think it's still hot I'm glad you're feeling better sorry I didn't make it in there were complicating factors but I heard Daisuke gave you a jumpstart I thanked him I think but I'm not really sure--"
It's kind of monotone, it's kind of fast, and it's definitely 'get words out quickly because head hurts that much' flavored. Mamoru opens one eye; he's got a look that a lot of people might mistake for 'moody' or 'brooding' or even 'scowling', but it's none of the above. Evidence: he tries to smile through it. It comes out really tight. "Don't mind me."
There is a confused noise from Kukai as he listens to Luna. "You're a talking cat." He rolls his eyes. "Of course they have a talking cat, why wouldn't they - look, I'm sorry. Would spending a good bit of time holding you in my arms and petting your ears make up for my mistake, miss? You can still lick your butt at me if you want. I do like cats." He grins at her, that infectious, turn-on-the-charm Jack's Grin, even while there is an idle thought of 'why would an animal with words and verbs and presumably magic still lick her own butt?' but it's not verbalized.
Kukai nods at Kunzite, then goes into the living room for a moment, grinning and waving at Usagi, presuming his arms aren't full of cat at the moment. If they are, she gets a grin and a nod. Mamoru, on the other hand, gets a good looking at. "It's ok Mamoru, it's fine. I'm all right, and I sort of got the idea. You can sleep if you need to. You look like you've been out having a nightly got-drunk-and-fistfought without the fun of getting plastered first." He stops for a moment. "Yknow, I can come back later if this is a bad time."
Usagi winces and curls over Mamoru. "I'm sorry." It's a murmur, and there's more smooches. And they're gentle, honest!
Luna, for her part, tilts her nose up at Kukai. "I suppose you may pet me." She leaps from Kazuo's shoulder to Kukai's. And of course, butt licks from a sentient cat is about the lowest of the low insults from them. Duh.
Usagi hopes he doesn't leave! She's heard he'd come by before, but always when she wasn't there, the fink! "I heard you've come by, but I've never seen you!" Narrow eyes. "You're not avoiding me, are you, Dance Partner?" Suspicious Eyes!
Luna's transfer makes thing easier, at least. Kunzite circles the couch, hanging back for a moment while Usagi-Mamoru smooches take place. He glances back at Kukai and says, straightforward and blunt, "This is a better time than most, right now."
Well, that's reassuring.
When Usagi straightens up to eye Kukai, Kunzite settles down on one knee, far enough over that if she decides to get up it won't involve kicking him in the head. He rests a hand on the edge of the couch, an inch or so away from Mamoru's. Bends his head a little. Closes his eyes, his habitual lack of expression settling into something more overtly calm, steady, focused.
The smile gets slightly less tight when Usagi kisses him again, her hair only draping over Mamoru a little bit, and Mamoru lets out a small sigh. "Sorry I'm cranky," he counters, his expression going teasingly wry. Luna's imperiousness at Kukai, especially in light of the conciliatory tone in the Jack's voice and the laying-out of exactly how to please a cat, turns the wry-face into a smirk. Another breath let out as Kazuo circles around the couch, and the prince doesn't argue 'this is a better time than most'--
It's while Usagi's accusing Kukai of avoiding her that Kazuo takes to one knee next to him, bowing his fuzzy head, and abruptly Mamoru's struck by the cognitive dissonance of their surroundings.
As Endymion moves his hand the inch necessary to take Kunzite's, and his other bunches in Usagi's skirt on the couch, beneath his chin, the image is overlaid very briefly for Usa and Kazuo both: a bright room, carved stone and carved wood and painted plaster, filled with sunlight and the sound of birdsong from the open window, where the greenery is lush and vivid, and the sky above is more blue than any in this modern day and age. It's a time when Endymion wouldn't think twice about Kunzite kneeling, and it's a time when Endymion wouldn't so freely have laid his head in Serenity's lap, nor been so friendly with Luna--
--and a time when his world was both bigger and smaller. A world without the many, many friends he's made in this lifetime.
Mamoru's hand tightens a little on Kazuo's, and some of what's being done to this world is drowned out, and some of Kunzite's ability to function in the face of things that hurt a whole lot is shared.
His blue eyes glance up at Kukai again, and this time his wry look is clear and focused. "I'm honestly fine when I'm in the pocket dimensions under that abandoned house-- you know, the place where you helped beat the evil out of me? But I'm a stubborn ass and I don't want to sit around hiding in a safe little cocoon. I want to hang on to normal as long as I can. Well. For creative values of 'normal'. But you know what I mean."
Kukai sits down on the couch, planting Luna in his lap and scritching behind her ears with one hand, waving at Usagi. "No, I haven't been. I've just been busy lately. I don't even know where you live, actually, or I'd have come said hello or something." He grins at her weakly. Daichi comes down off his shoulder to help with the kitty-pettings.
He looks over at Kazuo as he closes his eyes, then looks back at Usagi and Mamoru. Of course, he misses the psychic imagery entirely, not having been alive during that time, or even in that world more than likely. He does catch Mamoru's hands tightening on both Usagi's skirt and Kazuo's hand, though, even though when his eyes open they look a lot stronger, more awake and focused.
"Didn't we leave that place in four different kinds of rubble? I wouldn't wanna stay there either. But you really look like you need an industrial sized allergy pill. Kazuo mentioned what's been going on, so I sort of get it. But why isn't it affecting anybody else?" He stops. "Or has it been, and I've been sufficiently on my ass enough to not know about it?"
He continues petting and scratching Luna's ears. "Anyway. I just wanted to come by and say thank you for visiting, in sorts." He nods to Kazuo. "My brothers made a couple of meals off Makoto's baked goods. I got a muffin." He grins wryly.
Luna tilts her head up into the scritchings, and her eyes are not unfocused from euphoria, thank you very much.
Usagi hums. "No, it's okay. My house is only just almost undestroyed from Woppletinger. And I'm sorry I didn't come see you when you were riddled with booboos. I was kind of...tired. A lot."
Usagi's hand smoothes down Mamoru's shoulder at the image that filters through her mind. Such a tranquil image...
However, there's a pressing matter at hand.
Leaning over and very careful not to dislodge a Mamo-chan from her lap, she hugs at Kunzite's head and rubs her cheek along his short hair. All happy hums, she nearly purrs out: "Fuzzyyyyy!"
That done, and sitting back as though she didn't just do that, she lightly prods Mamoru. "You know, you could always vacation on the moon. I know she likes you lots and would be more than happy to hug you better."
She gasps at Kukai. "You got a muffin? Luckyyyyy!"
Cognitive dissonance for Mamoru. Kunzite, on the other hand, probably still has more memories of that sky than he does of this one -- though he's lacking far more than he should be of both.
For the moment, he's taken himself largely out of the conversation, in favor of helping Mamoru participate in it. That doesn't mean he's unaware of it, and indeed his reactions are almost more visible than usual. His mouth tugs upward at the corner when Kukai mentions the muffin, and Usagi's moment of treating his head like a hapless plush toy is met with a deeply long-suffering expression.
Presumably, he's telling himself firmly that it'll grow out soon enough. Only Mamoru knows for sure.
"Ehh, those places look like how the guys want them to look. Jadeite's far too invested in symmetry to leave his place a rubble heap," Mamoru says, unconcerned. "It's also not the only one. It's just there's no internet there, you know? And way too many stairs. I usually don't care, but I can't really handle them right now."
The next part of Kukai's question kind of puts Mamoru on the spot, and he chews his bottom lip for a second. "I don't want to *rule* the world," he says carefully, reiterating a point from a prior conversation, "but that doesn't mean a get out of responsibility free card. Those pink alien flowers are a literal invasion and they're attacking the Earth's structure. They're taking its energy in such a way that if it's not stopped, there won't be anything left but a husk that'll collapse under its own weight. I'm kind of a mine canary."
There's a rueful little laugh, and the upperclassman shifts a little in place -- doesn't dislodge himself from either Usagi or Kunzite, to be sure, but it looks like it's also the first time he's moved at all that it hasn't caused a cascade of ouch. Corners of his eyes crinkling, he adds, "Not what you wanted to hear on a thank you visit, sorry. But hey, if you can spread the word to Virtue that the ante's been upped on those flowers, I'd be much obliged. We've been a little disorganized about passing information around. The giant beanstalk in Mitakihara's part of iiiiit..."
He trails off extremely uncertainly and eyes his girlfriend warily as she fuzzles Kunzite's head, then... also tries really hard to pretend that didn't just happen. He gets his revenge, though. On Kunzite's behalf. Yes. Mamoru looks up at Usagi and tells her, deadpan, "We could. It is beautiful, and I've heard the food's great, but... I dunno, the place just has no atmosphere."
One hand guides Luna to stretch out on her side, still petting her ears, as the other moves to scritch in underneath her front legs, just idly petting the cat. Purring sounds awesome. Daichi is giggling and working over her back too. "She's so soft!"
Kukai ohs and then winces. "Man. That stupid storm is still hurting people. ...And I guess you and Mamoru are sharing his sick. I guess."
Kukai looks over to Mamoru, then rubs his chin. "Have you had anybody... you know, scan you for internal plant bits? You sound like you've got something in you." He nods. "I get the idea, though. You don't wanna rule it, but you are connected to the world. When it hurts, you hurt."
He chuckles and then nods. "I'll make the call. We should really get you connected more directly to them at some point. I'm sure Tadase would be willing." And then Usagi puts her hand on Kazuo's hair and Kukai gets a wince on his face. "Oh... yeah. I wanted to say... Nagihiko said he was really sorry about everything that happened with you and Temari the other day. She's been kinda on edge and it embarrased the living hell out of them both. So.. sorry."
He takes a breath and looks at Mamoru. "That joke is just going to sort of float there, isn't it?"
"...it's okay, I can shoulder the gravity of my faux pas," answers the sick prince altogether too breezily. Any second now, he's going to get clarity privileges revoked, if this is how he's going to use them.
If Kunzite is making any threats to Mamoru about those so-called jokes, they are neither audible nor visible. Well, unless Mamoru's amusement is partially due to them. He hasn't yet pulled his hand away, certainly.
Gray eyes open for a moment and glance in Kukai's direction, but neither reach him nor focus, and they close a moment after. "Told Nagihiko it was fine already. Not his fault. Nor Temari's. Mamoru's already connected. Need a second point. Nagihiko or Hinamori should be taking that message to the young king." Someday he will actually use Tadase's name. That day is not today.
He relaxes a little, and his facing settles back to that same place, head turned toward Mamoru and bent a little downward. "Count me out for a little while," he adds -- evidently still to Kukai, as if he expected Usagi imply to understand that as a given. And drops back to that focused silence.
Luna almost melts. The little chara adding his own petting is very nice. "Thank you. I groom it often. Oh yes, that's the spot."
Usagi jerks away from Kunzite and blinks down at Mamoru. "Did you just..."
She groans and burries her face gently against his chest. "That was horrible Mamo-chan."
Yes, she loved it.
Then she groans again. "Stop encouraging him, Kukai-kun."
She leans back up as Kunzite loses himself in focus. She blinks a couple time. "Nagihiko? Who's that?"
She's probably heard the name before, or that of his 'sister' Nadeshiko, but for some reason she can't place his face.
"I'm pretty good at self-inventory, but it's not a bad idea to get a second opinion," Mamoru finally grants Kukai, and while Usagi's face is buried in his chest, the hand he'd had bunched in her skirt comes up to run over her head, through one of her pigtails. "You gave me the perfect opening for a joke I've been waiting a lifetime to say," he says half under his breath.
His other hand moves a little in Kazuo's, moves to lace fingers through it. Then he says to Kukai, "Having been a villain that Tadase faced personally and with great gusto is putting a bit of a damper on potential future relations. Normally I'd say Jadeite might be a good second point because he's the most diplomatic of, well, any of us, but he's also the most scatterbrained and half of this is information pushing. So. Just gotta hope Tadase is feeling forgiving."
There's a brief pause, and Mamoru squints. "What did you mean by sharing sick?"
Kukai nods to Kunzite, sort of understanding that he must be sharing his strength with Usagi and Mamoru, then looks to them, not so much scritching Luna anymore as just petting her ears, Daichi sitting back and resting as well.
He grins at Usagi and shrugs. "A good pun is not a heavy burden to bear. It's actually pretty weightless. But ok, I'll try to stop." Kukai hmms, then pulls out his phone, showing off a couple of pictures he's taken of Nadeshiko and Nagihiko. "There they are. Twins." Kukai doesn't elaborate more than that, but that's the best way to lie - put it out, don't play with it much, and work around it.
"My brothers actually took pictures for me of everyone who came to see me while I was out." He flips through the list, naming names for each of them - a scowling Utau and a black haired Norie besides her, a trio of Kazuo, Makoto, and Daisuke, the pink-haired Runealy, another pretty, harsh looking, black haired girl Kukai calls Sora, even Miss White and Haruna. "I almost had kittens when I saw those two come in, but they were ok."
He grins at Mamoru. "It's a shame to have to hold onto a joke that long, too. And I figured as much about Kazuo - look. We forgive. We understand. We try not to hold grudges. I can't speak for Tadase, but I don't think he's that much of a dick, unless you try to flirt with Amu again." He eyes Mamoru, a playful grin on his face.
He motions to the linked hands of the three. "Before you actually took Usagi and Kazuo's hands you looked like you were half out cold. Now they're focusing more, and you're a little less spinny-headed looking. I figure it's some magic the Celestials share that allows them to disperse suffering or something. At least that was what it looked like at first glance." He shrugs. "I..." He grins. "I'm a little superstitious, so I think about how magic works from time to time. I don't get a lot of it, but I get a few things here and there."
Kazuo stays quiet, as he said. Not a word about twins. Not a glance for the pictures. Maybe a slightly more pronounced exhale for that last set of Kukai's puns.
How Mamoru's powers work, though, he leaves up to the prince to decide on explaining.
Usagi leans over a bit to look at the pictures. "Ohhhh, so prettyyyy! I bet if they're ever in the same room, it's too much pretty!" She looks up and gives Kukai a sly glance. Because, well, he has pictures of them on his phone. "Which one's your sweeeeeeeeeety?" A hand over her mouth. "Hue hue hue."
She doesn't ask if anyone in the other pictures are his sweety. After all, his brothers took them! She does give a little squee at Hannah's picture and pets the phone.
She hums in thought at Kukai's words about being forgiving. Then she jerks slightly and glares down at Mamoru. "Flirting?" Oh, right. "Oh, that!" She waves her hand. "I totally can't blame her." She pets Mamoru's hair in apology for the glare.
She's an eager listener to what sounds like a story! Her eyes are wide and if she didn't have a MamoLump on her lap she'd scoot closer. "Celestials? Who are they?" Is it myth? Religious? She wants to know!
"Nagihiko's his sweetie," Mamoru says decisively to Usagi, absently looking over the pictures Kukai shows them. He does, in fact, immediately look up at Usagi when Kukai mentions 'flirting with Amu'-- by rolling his head a little instead of giving her sideeye, since there's absolutely no reason to aggravate the migraine Kunzite's letting him focus through, and he raises his eyebrows pointedly. He is in fact already raising them when she looks down to glare at him. And then he grins, bright and quick; she doesn't have to apologize, but he'll take it.
"Yeah, Hannah showed up here after we accidentally blew up one of her warehouses when a couple of my best friends kidnapped Fiore and took him there to yell at him or something. She was pretty mad, but ended up deciding she was staying over and giving me a backrub. I was like-- well fine except no because ow and also Usa gets one first. I'm pretty sure Mako-chan was about ready to blow a gasket, but I've been friends with Hannah forever-- she wouldn't hurt me unless she's possessed or we're sparring. We yell at each other a lot. But you really don't need to worry about her if you're in the hospital. There's a good heart in there even if she's a moron about methods and doesn't always do the research and has a questionable sense of ethics," Mamoru explains, voice slowing down a little bit; he's a little rambly, and probably says more about Hannah than he was initially intending to, especially since he's really unclear on what happened with Kukai and Hannah's tower. Not completely unclear. "Even if she's the one who put you in the hospital you don't have to worry about her once you're there. If you have more trouble with her, I'd be perfectly willing to mediate. Uh once I'm in any shape to."
The last is added very, very sheepishly, and he glances at Kunzite as if expecting his guardian's eyes to be rolling.
But then there's Kukai answering his question and prompting another, and the prince looks thoughtful. He glances at Usagi, for her question, and looks back to Kukai consideringly. "I wouldn't call it superstition. Not when it provably works. My head is clearer when I'm touching either of them. Kunzite is very good at working while in considerable pain, and has a habit of lending me focus and stability anyway. Each of my men has an area of expertise that they can share with me if I need help-- and we all take our power from the same source, ultimately. Me and the guys, I mean. Usa's is stronger and it's beautiful, it's not just a celestial body anymore, you saw her use it..." Ramble ramble. "I'm losing a little of it anyway, though, the screaming's really loud," he adds apologetically. "But I'm an empath. I don't really know how it works, really."
Kukai laughs a bit. "I can neither confirm nor deny any reports of sweeties in any of those pictures, Usagi. Sorry." He coughs, then grins. "May be more than one. But yeah. It was just a thing, apparently." He nods at Mamoru as the two of them communicate silently. "And the whole Celestials thing is the Sailor Scouts and the Shittenou and... basically all your people."
He then listens to the story of Hannah the visitor. "Ah... what." Kukai frowns. "Moron is a very light and polite word for her methods, Mamoru. It was part of her actions that... well. I'll pick that bone with her myself."
He looks off to one side. "It wasn't her fault, but I was pretty mad at her in any case. But I think we're as close to straight as it gets as long as she's working on her own side. Or the Eclipse side. I'll try not to be too mad at her, though. I know she's helped before."
Kukai leans back, thinking for a moment. "Well... Hmm. I hate to overstay my welcome since you're in such straits. If Luna will let my hands go, I'll make my way to the door."
Mamoru's confirmation and Kukai's skirting around the issue only increases Usagi's giddy. She blushes as Mamoru calls her power beautiful, and winces at his sudden decline.
She strokes his hair, resting her hand behind his head. It's the instinctual desire to help that calls the crystal into her palm. She's gonna be sleepy in a bit.
Usagi blinks a couple of times. "I'm a Celestial? I'm confused. But that could be a sudden downspike into sleepy." To prove it, she yawns, her jaw cracking.
Luna turns to give Kukai a Look. But then she relents and gets up. Turning, she gives Daichi a scritchy lick with her tongue before settling against Mamoru again.
"Oh my god put that away," Mamoru says in sudden dismayed alarm, his free hand closing over Usagi's and the Silver Crystal, "save that for later. There's still a fix that doesn't cost you."
He looks to Kukai again, the crease between his brows in effect again, and he hazards a smile. "That's an awfully lofty word for us," he says a little hesitantly, bright flush coloring his cheekbones, stark in his pale face. "But I get what you mean, I think. And-- yeah. Hannah's trying to save the world, too, she just has really dumb ideas about the ends justifying the means. I'm still working on her. Doesn't mean I'm gonna stand in the way whenever she reaps the consequences of her actions, though, don't worry about me taking her side-- you can get as mad at her as you want."
He nods apologetically when Kukai starts making motions to leave, and tugs on Kunzite's hand. "We're gonna go to the palaces in a minute. I promise I'm okay there. If you or anyone else needs me and I'm not answering texts or my Virtue comm, that's where I'll be-- you know where the millions of stairs down are."
Kukai blinks at the sudden appearance of the silvery, glowing crystal in Usagi's hand and Mamoru's sudden insistence that she put it away. Huh. He'd seen her use it once or twice before, and he silently agrees with Mamoru - overkill, for the moment, and a glowing beacon of 'here is powerful magic'.
Kukai laughs. "Well ok. Star People. That's suitably less lofty and more annoyingly goofy. It might even fit better." He hmphs. "I think I'm over being mad at Hannah for a bit, mostly because I want to wait until that streak of fantastic dumb luck of hers runs out."
Daichi ees and wraps both arms around Luna's neck, hugging her tight and petting more, giggling happily. It's kitty love. "Aww..." He looks up at Kukai, then nods, staying with Luna just for a minute longer - he can pet her more and be out the window and with Kukai again when he hits the streets, easy.
Kukai nods and then reaches over, patting Mamoru's shoulder. "I'll try to make sure nobody needs you until we can turn on the world-sized air purifier." He grins and makes for the door...
"Now you have a nickname that fits Nephrite, but nobody else." Kazuo's not entirely complaining, granted. He lifts his head at the tug on his hand. "Usagi, would you mind getting his books--?"
Usagi gives a grumble even as she puts it away. She leans her forehead against his and is not this close to falling asleep. "What's the point of having it, then."
It's just a grumping grouse. She knows why.
Then she's giggling and looks up at Kukai. "Star People. We're..." Snort giggle, teehee. "Guardians of the Galaxy."
Celestials is a pretty word, though.
Luna curls and fwips her tail, the end of it brushing against Daichi for as long as he's there. "I don't think even Lowes has one that big."
Usagi looks at Kunzite and nods, sliding out from under Mamoru. She gathers his books and kindle, piling them into a book bag. Before Kukai can make his escape, she's hugging him tight. "Bye! Have fun! Cuddle Nagihiko next time you see him!"
Yes. Shipper Usagi is on the job!
She jumps a bit in place to wake herself up and downs a cup of cold tea. The flavor causes her to shudder but is very effective in waking her back up.
"See? It was just temporary." She sticks her tongue out at Mamoru! (Even if she is still tired but he doesn't need to know that!)
"Haha. Thanks, man," Mamoru says in response to that which comes with the shoulder-pat; his eyes are crinkled at the corners, though with Usagi's getting up, he's even less with-it than he was. Behind Kukai leaving and Usagi hugging him, the prince is laboriously pulling himself into a position that'll be slightly easier for Kunzite to lift bodily, but he catches that mou Usagi throws like shade, and the look he gives her in return very clearly says 'mind where you leave that'.
It's not a comfortable situation Kukai's leaving behind, but at least it's one that's found a pattern of coping.
And soon, weedwhackers and napalm and air purifiers.