All The Woe In The World

The Crown is doing good business, which is not a surprise for the break between semesters. In among the crowds, though, is a familiar exploding ponytail. Zoisite, dressed anonymously for the vacationing teenagers in artistically ragged jeans and a T-shirt green enough to make his eyes nearly glow, is chatting with Motoki -- working an ongoing conversation in a sentence or two at a time around the other boy being busy with customers. Whatever they're talking about, it seems to be keeping both of them amused.

Usagi stretches as she enters the Crown. It's been...an eventful couple days. First Makoto and Ami, which is an ulcer-inducing mess, and then the Reidate, which leads to butterflies!

Her stomach is very confused.

And right now, she's in dire need of something cold and sweet. Food for the soul, if you will!

And that's where the Crown comes in!

She trudges with perhaps a touch of exaggeration toward the counter, but perks right up at the familiar ponytail.

"Yay!" Zoisite soon has an Usagi hugging on his arm.

Of course, if she thought about it, the situation is funny.

After all, a few months ago they'd been trying to kill each other.

But she's not even thinking about that, because yay random sightings!

Crystal zombies! Parisian catfights! Attempts to steal keys to the Silver Crystal! Most of which wound up with Zoisite limping away (okay, teleporting), mourning what happened to his face. There's been a lot less of the mourning-his-face part lately. He's in favor of this.

The sudden attachment to his arm prompts a reflexive indignant sound, starting to draw himself up and away -- then his glance down shows who is attached to his arm, and the next noise is a delighted one, accompanied by a squeeze of her far shoulder. "You," he informs her, "look ice-cream-deprived. It's a terrible look on you."

Usagi still feels guilty for his face! But she's also in favor of fewer catfights and zombies and key thefts!

There's a couple seconds of Zoisite Flurry, which she surprisingly isn't ruffled by. After all, aside from her 'yay!' she didn't voice her presence!

When she looks up at him, her eyes are large and woeful and full of woe!

He gets it!

She sighs dramatically and leans against him. "I so very am."

Then, more quietly and far less with the dramatic flair, her voice goes quiet. "I'm learning I don't handle friends fighting very well."

This is the problem with eyes that are large and woeful and full of woe. When Usagi is around Zoisite? They can be contagious. Thus there are two sets available to be turned on Motoki, who is ... quite suddenly busy preparing for Usagi's order. Both because it's Usagi and therefore likely to be mighty, and because he desperately needs something to keep him from bursting out laughing at the pair of them.

"You handle friends fighting just fine," he murmurs back to Usagi. "Right up till your friends stop handling it very well, and then everything is awful forever." He heaves a sigh, but it's kept to her level of quiet. "Can we just lock them in a room? A small one? WIth no computers? And push food through a slot in the door?"

Motoki to the rescue! And of course, Usagi keeps her large eyes on him, throwing in a lip wibble for good measure.

"I didn't even know they were until a few days ago." She sighs again. And then she's fighting back a small smile. "I like that idea. And if nothing else, they'd have to work together to plot their revenge." She freezes a little. "Um, we'd take away their henshin wands, too."

Even in Not Likely Scenarios, Usagi fears the wrath of ice and lightning aimed at her. (Not that they would, or at least not with the intentions of maiming.)

There is a very short list of the worst things Zoisite could possibly say to that last sentence of Usagi's.

"Um."

That didn't head the list, but it might have been in the top three.

That's an amazingly bright smile he turns on Motoki, and he squeezes Usagi around the shoulders before trying to get his hands back long enough to deal with paying for ice cream (of course he's paying for Usagi's, it's Mamoru's money, what else is it for?), whether actual or in smoothie form -- Motoki can interpret Usa Eyes well enough by now to know, and heaven help them all right now the answer might be 'both' -- and then helping wrangle it to a booth. Definitely to a booth. Hello, table.

Hello, wide green eyes angled up at Usagi (if he's sitting down, and he bends his head enough, he can make it 'up' at Usagi) and blinking through the stray fiery strands of his bangs.

"-- so she didn't tell you about that problem?"

Usagi tilts her head a bit at Zoisite and his own 'um,' and she's very adept in the skills of 'letting someone go long enough for them to pay,' because let's face it she clings to Mamoru like an octopus these days when they go out. She's got time to make up for!

Sometimes, when Zoisite looks at her like that, he reminds her of Luna.

She tilts her head back at him, momentarily confused. "I, well, I know she's been sad. What problem?"

She sips on her smoothie and her toes wiggle.

Zoisite sighs, and the sigh lets him sag, and he lets his arms splay out along the table's edge a little as if he were in fact actually melting. From woe. Clearly. He blinks back up at Usagi again. "She's sad," he says. "She's sad, and she's really sad, and she blames herself, and she's mad at herself, and she's going around in circles and she can't find a way out of them. And she's got herself so upset over everything..."

He pulls himself up again, sitting straight and serious, and tucks a stray curl behind an ear. And pretends that the sagging down didn't give him a good view of whether anyone might have placed any hidden cameras to observe the booths from the ceiling. "... I don't know whether she can't use her wand or whether she just isn't," he says quietly, "but -- she isn't. And I think maybe she can't."

A melty, woeful cat. If this were any other time about a lighter topic, Usagi would giggle. As it is, she manages a small smile.

As he speaks, though, she grows more and more agitated. And confused.

Very confused.

"But that's...I mean, that's something I'd need to know, isn't it?"

She's torn between being Very Annoyed at Ami and wanting to hug her again. Maybe she'll settle for a throttling embrace.

She leans forward, fingers curling around her frosted glass, brows furrowed. "I need to...I need to do something. I need to find a way to help. For Ami, but also...what if something happens?"

Her eyes, annoyed and agitated though they are, also mirror the woe!

"Do you know a way? Or have a suggestion of how to...jerk her out of the funk?"

Well, after all, Zoisite was very good at getting Usagi so aggravated and annoyed she forgot to feel the evisceration of her heartache for a few seconds at a time.

"If she were thinking straight, she'd know you needed to know it. But she isn't thinking straight, is she? She's too upset, and she's too sad, and she's so used to being able to solve all her academic problems that she thinks not being able to solve this one is ... oh, I don't know. A clear condemnation of her essential value as a person. As far as I can tell, anyway." Zoisite taps fingernails lightly against the side of his own glass. "When I talked to her, she wasn't thinking straight about anything. She was convinced that your whole team was going to fall apart, that Makoto was never ever going to come back, just because of her."

He pauses, tilting his head a little to give Usagi a sly, sidewise smile. I think the only thing that's going to fall apart is a couple of pillows, because when the rest of you catch up with her, you're going to need to beat her over the head with something, aren't you?"

A breath, and he's a little more serious again. "Anyway. She's still her. She's got a workaround, doesn't she? That thing that makes Frost Knight. That's probably the excuse she's using for not telling you; she's still perfectly capable of helping, even while she's upset. And I, um."

Eyes dart sideways the other direction, looking away from Usagi and out into the Crown. "Well. I got her to get mad at me instead a little bit, maybe that's a start? But I think the only thing anybody can really do about it is not leave her alone too much. Probably not Makoto, either. Some time alone won't hurt anything, it'll give them time to think, but ... it's not too far from thinking to dwelling, is it? And the more she thinks about it, the more she makes everything worse in her head."

Usagi slumps a little over her drink. "Yeah..."

She rubs her temples and makes a noise of frustration. She gets how Ami is feeling. Goodness knows she spent long enough in that funk herself. But she wonders, hopes, there's a way she could us that experience to help.

Despite herself, she grins at Zoisite. "Pillows. Lots and lots of pillows. And maybe even marshmellows to pelt at her."

Wait. Frost Knight...?

First, though, she gives Zoisite a sheepish grin and rubs the back of her neck. "Well, I know first hand how that helps. Heh..."

She sighs and shakes her head. "I don't want to leave either of them alone. But how do I keep them both company if they won't be in the same room? Ami's determined to not breathe too loudly at Mako-chan, and Mako-chan's stuck in that limbo of 'I want to forgive but I don't.'"

Zoisite considers this, taking a carefully measured sip of his it-is-still-not-a-milkshake. And considers this a moment longer.

"We could send Makoto the pillows," he suggests.

Usagi mirrors, her not-a-milkshake easing her troubled spirit somewhat.

It nearly comes out her nose!

"Is it sad that I think that's an awesome plan?" She giggles, though!

"It has its advantages," Zoisite admits, with a moment's pretense at modesty. "But it depends on how Makoto's feeling. If she thought we were mocking her, we might never hear the end of it." Even he has to admit she has good reason to feel hurt.

"I don't really know her side of it. She's doing things, she's talking to people, she's certainly talking to Nephrite, so I didn't worry about that." Lashes are lowered for a moment, and his voice slips to something almost teasing. "I can melt ice if I have to. I can't melt lightning."

Usagi giggles a little before she bites it back. "I think if Mako-chan thought I was mocking her, I'd probably cry on her until she felt better."

Makoto does have a good reason. But Usagi also understands Ami's decision. It's what makes this so hard.

"She talked to me the other day. That's actually how I found out Ami-chan was seeing Taka-bak--er, Agera-san again."

Another snort! "Just need a lightning rod, I think. That'd take care of most of the zap."

Usagi takes another sip of her shake. "Ami-chan asked me if she should just kill Agera. Wonders if that would make Mako-chan happy. I don't...think that would. And I don't think Ami would be okay with it."

Taka-baka. Zoisite doesn't say anything to that, but his eyes light. That one is not about to be forgotten. "We actually have a lightning rod, too," he muses. "Maybe I could hide behind him..."

Ahem. No, actual conversation, not wistful thoughts about seeing teammates of his zapped just a little. Especially given the words that just came out of Usagi's mouth. Usagi's.

"Killing people usually doesn't make her happy, does it? Except in special cases." Everything would be so much easier if that were an acceptable solution. One more sigh, just for good measure, and he admits, "I don't think Endy would be all that okay with it, either. Not unless he did something to really deserve it. But that's a good question, though. What would make her happy?"

Good. Usagi thinks everyone should know and remember 'Taka-baka.'

But she giggles. "I actually think he'd be a lightning deterrent. Most of the time. Sometimes."

And then Usagi's eyes widen and she holds up her hands. "I didn't say I want her to! Or that I want to! I just told her that if it comes down to it..." She shrugs and suddenly finds her milkshake interesting. "If I was prepared to do that to someone I actually love."

Then her head thunks on the table because she's talking too much. "I don't know. Couldn't someone just...wake me up when there's another apocalypse or something? Those I know how to deal with..."

"He's an everything deterrent," Zoisite mutters. The two of them may or may not be talking about the same person. Either way, Zoisite wrinkling his nose is not likely to diminish Usagi's giggles.

The next topic, though, is not one to prompt giggles. "Would you people just stop arguing over whose privilege it is to assassinate which target?" he demands of the air over Usagi's head, though keeping his voice more than low enough for even enhanced hearing to have trouble making it out over the general noise of teenaged chatter. "You'd all be terrible at it. You'd be guilty forever and it would get in your way. And it's not like you'd be able to set things up well enough to be able to determine who'd actually get the shot in advance anyway. The only thing it does is establish which of you wants to keep which from being hurt, and the answer is 'all' and 'all' anyway." He gives an annoyed little hmph and a toss of his head.

This is something he should probably do less of in the summers, because the humidity is not kind to making his hair manageable; he wriggles around to pull the tail of it back down with his hands, making faces all the while.

Yep, that does nothing to stop her giggles.

And it's because of the giggles that she doesn't give him the Sailor Moon Death Glare. It's more of a 'yeah, yeah' expression with a roll of her eyes and a wave of her hand.

She could, of course, go into the hows and whys. The logic she has. After all, isn't it better to have eternal guilt than to hate someone else?

However, she sees a hair issue and she latches on. She tsks a bit. "Have you found anything for that, yet? I can totally take you where Mama gets my stuff."

"Nothing works," Zoisite laments. "Not in the summer. After the rains start and the heat goes up there's nothing for it but to tie it back and endure. It's not like yours. Yours isn't trying to strangle itself to death and fluff out like it's trying to turn your head into cotton candy at the same time." Green eyes blink back at her a moment later. "-- but could you? Maybe it'd work. If it doesn't work, maybe they have something there I haven't tried yet --"

Usagi perks up. This she knows! This she can deal with!

"Of course I can! And there's people all around with hair that's lots more curly and wavey, and they're usually not hair-strangled!"

She does, however, give one of her twintails a Look out of the corner of her eye. "Also, it tries to strangle me sometimes, not itself."

Her hands flap and wave. "Anyway. There's also people there who would know, or at least have ideas!"

Usagi wiggles in her seat. Oh, this is gonna be exciting!