This is the only place she could think to bring him.
The lights had all been dark at Dr. Shelby's apartment, and she didn't want to just leave him there. Home wasn't an option, her father would likely find and kill him until he was dead for real.
And to be honest, she is shaking so much by this point she is surprised she hasn't dropped him.
When she lands on the balcony, Sailor Moon gently slumps Tuxedo Kamen in the corner before checking the door. It's open, and she nearly cries in relief. (Not that she really hasn't stopped crying, he's still so...not alive looking.)
She steps into the living room. It's dark, but she calls out anyway. Just in case. "Mamoru-kun?"
There's no answer, and this is even more distressing. She had hoped he would be here. She's not sure she can keep Tuxedo Kamen from Not Dying by herself.
"Alright. Okay. So. He won't mind, right? I hope? And if I have to leave, I could leave a note."
Sailor Moon picks him up again, and he proves to be heavier than he had been moments before. Or her arms are just weaker right now.
But she struggles, and drags, and half-carries him through the apartment.
She tries hard to ignore the fact that she's in Mamoru-kun's bedroom as she...plops him on the mattress.
She really wants to be gentle, but she's just so exhausted, okay?
She slumps next to him, legs pulled up to her chest. After a moment, she hides her face in her knees.
Mamoru's apartment is safe, and warm, so it's okay if she cries a little before he wakes up, right?
By now she's at least determined he's breathing, at some point along the way. When she'd initially picked him up, it's entirely possible he wasn't-- but the longer he was in her arms, the more perceptible it was. His face is still ashen, his skin still cold--
--but finally, he starts shivering.
He'd always shown up fine a few days after being severely injured, but those times-- those times it was physical injuries, those times it was damage to his body, or it was energy draining. This time was different. This was negative energy he was hit with: the powers of darkness, misery and hate and corruption, like battery acid to the spirit.
This is something he's not equipped to handle properly.
The thing is, she'd stayed with him -- in contact the whole journey, and now right next to him in the dark apartment, in the too-large bed in the spacious, empty-feeling room.
He's not awake, yet. But in that place that hurt her in her heart when he was struck, there's a stirring, a whisper of questing golden ache, lost and cold.
She slowly becomes aware that he is shivering beside her, and it's for this reason Sailor Moon forces her tears to stop.
She gently tugs and pulls the blankets while lifting him the best she can until she is able to get most of them covering him.
Hospitals have always frightened her. Mostly because the gloved hands are so sterile and...not real when they're on her. She wonders if he feels the same.
She would take off his mask to soothe his face, but, well, that would require stealing secrets from a man in no condition to give permission to do so. And unless drastic things have to happen soon, the mask stays on.
Instead, she peels off her gloves and sets them on the night stand. His hands are cold, even through his own gloves. She takes them off and sets them on top of her own. She shivers when she wraps her hands around his, and it's really awkward sitting but holding them close makes her believe she's doing something.
She shifts, finds a more comfortable position, before closing her eyes.
She's been aware, even if only on the periphery, of that gnawing ache in her chest since the attack. There's a change to it now, though, and while she doesn't sleep she has the sort of dream that comes just before sleeping.
~*~*~
She is little and young, perhaps three, and there is a kitten caught out in the rain. Of course, she is afraid of thunder, but the kitten is hurt and crying out for someone. His mother? No, this kitten has no mother.
This makes her sad, and lets her forget about the scary thunder long enough to dash through the downpour. Her chubby little legs move as fast as they can, and tiny little twintails slap against her forehead, but soon the kitten is safe.
"Don't worry, I'll make sure you get better."
Then, because this is a dream, she is in her room, in her pyjamas, fourteen again with a full grown cat in her arms. He is still soaking wet, asleep, hurt, but this is okay. She holds him close, trying to pour all her warmth into him. Why else would she have her cosiest pyjamas on? Why else would he be between the flannel of her top and the cotton of her bra? This is the warmest place she has, close to her heart.
~*~*~
Sailor Moon snorts herself awake. Had she been sleeping? If so, why does she feel so tired?
When Sailor Moon wakes up, the hand she's holding to her chest is curled around her own, and glazed blue eyes are watching her from behind a barely-there ghost outline of a mask. He's warm and breathing normally, his color is right, and he's just as obviously exhausted as she is -- but he's there.
The warmth she's always felt from him is back, golden and full and still and calm, and he's watching her like he's dreaming while waking. The faintest smile tugs at one corner of his mouth, and his voice is a breath on the quiet darkness of the empty apartment.
"Sailor Moon. Did you bring cake?"
Sailor Moon is in his apartment. That's only happened once before.
His eyes travel to where her hand holds his, and he notices their gloves are off, and that brings its own sense of wonder. "How did you find me?"
Oh, he is awake and she is happy! So, so, so very happy! With a giggle, she hugs his hands tight against her.
Then his words filter in, and she is very confused. Cake? She's never brought cake to him. Mamoru-kun, sure, and they're in his apartment, but...
Ug, it sort of hurts to think about. But she kind of wants to. But doesn't.
But he's also confused, so maybe that's it?
"You um...got hurt, remember?" And now her cheeks flush, but from shame instead of embarrassment. "I sort of...ran away. T-to keep you safe."
"Not really, I just-- remember being lost... I tried to find you, and I knew where you were at first, even though it was dark, but something got in the way..." His voice is gradually gaining steam, he's waking up a little more, doesn't feel so much like he's wrapped in cotton wool, even if he's so very tired. And then he wakes up enough to remember, and he wakes up enough to be aware of what he's wearing, and he stills. "Oh."
Oh. He's in henshin. She brought him, in henshin, to his own apartment? Does she know? --did he give it away just then? Or did she-- did Sailor Moon literally trust Chiba Mamoru with Tuxedo Mask, enough to use his apartment as emergency hole-up space when he wasn't home.
This is all really confusing to Mamoru.
But then Sailor Moon's shame is echoing back to him, and he holds her hands more tightly, pulls her toward him. "We were outmatched. We were desperately outmatched. And we'd already gotten Sayaka-chan away, she was with Luna, she was safe. She's the only civilian who was in the immediate area, and he wasn't specifically picking a fight-- I think it's okay. He's really, really, really dangerous, and he has nothing staying his hand, he has no heart. I'll check on the others who were there when I can move without falling over... you're not in much better shape, what did he do to you?"
He seems to be very confused. Why would he be confused to say things like that but not confused enough to not know where he is? Or does he not?
"Do you think he'll mind? Mamoru-kun? I technically broke in here. Dr. Shelby's apartment was dark, so... This was the safest place I could think of." Sailor moon doesn't know why she's asking him. He's not Mamoru. But somehow, if he says the high schooler wouldn't mind she would feel better. (Usagi remembers thunderstorms.) "I like him, he's warm."
And she's also avoiding his commentary that more or less absolves her actions. Sailor Moon doesn't feel very...absolve-worthy. Not right now, anyway.
So instead, she shrugs, and she's closer to him now. Another tug will find him being used as a pillow if he's not careful.
"I was hit, but not hard. And then I felt...something...I don't know, I wasn't hit but it felt like I was. And then I brought you here. I kind of dozed after making sure you were warm, and I feel more tired than I was before. Maybe I'm just coming off the adrenaline rush?"
It's not just that, though. She is sore, not just in her muscles, and it feels like there's a thin layer of Dark Energy Grime coating soul and skin like glue residue, but he's awake so she doesn't really care.
The blankets help a great deal. Keeping him warm, warming him up, that's the best thing to do even in a regular situation like this. He's still shivering; his hands are like ice when she takes them into her own and holds them over her heart. Even just that-- 'to make her believe she's doing something'-- combined with the blankets, the shivering isn't so violent anymore.
In the place where that gnawing ache exists, where the searching strand of gold called called to her from the darkness, begins to settle...
...and she dreams.
When Sailor Moon wakes, the slender masked boy in the bed has stopped shivering, and his hands, clasped to her chest, are still cooler than their usual warmth but they at least almost match her own body temperature. He's still unconscious, still pale and greyish, but he's no longer ashen, and his breathing has evened out. The ache in her chest has subsided, and while the sense of a bittersweetly familiar presence in her heart still isn't full and golden and radiating warmth and comfort, it's at least peaceful, at least in the light instead of a numbing, painful darkness.
Of course, safety is ever an illusion. This is a lesson that Kyouko learned the hard way years ago, and it continues to be as true in her world view now as it did when she was living on her own in that burnt-out church. You can erase someone's memories, but you can never really change who they are.
'Sailor Moon is our enemy'- these were the words Queen Beryl spoke into Apatite's mind. Though she had been outnumbered on the bridge, forced to retreat in the face of the overwhelming odds arrayed against her, she had still wanted to fight. She had been observing Sailor Moon, and Tuxedo Mask as well (since the two happened to be together so often!) and when she saw Mask get injured, and Moon straining herself to rescue him, it seemed like the perfect time to strike, to prove to Queen Beryl that she was a worthy servant- to keep her own interests protected.
And so she had followed Sailot Moon back to Mamoru's apartment from that battle with Takashi, which she had been keeping an eye on without directly interfering. And she had waited out of sight, long enough for them to relax, to think they were out of danger. And then, feeling for some reason a strange sense od deja vu, she had leapt to the balcony of that apartment.
The door to the balcony whispers open as she enters, red hair trailing behind, white coat fluttering around her knees. No spear- or at least, it isn't manifested in her hands, though she can call it forth in a moment.
She enters the room silent but for the soft footfalls of her heeled boots, fully intending to simply strike Sailor Moon dead before either notices she's there. But.. seeing Tuxedo Mask laid out, apparently unconscious, with Sailor Moon clasping his hands, Apatite hesitates. Something about this seems.. wrong. And it's there they might notice her, standing in the doorway stock still, red eyes focused on the scene.. but precious seconds ticking by without her doing anything.
Sailor Moon checks over Tuxedo Kamen after the cobwebs clear from her mind. He's better, somewhat, and while he is not awake her shoulders slump in relief.
The air in the room shifts and she jerks her head up.
Slowly, carefully, she shifts to the the of the bed, arms spread out as she anchors herself.
Why is she here? Why hasn't an attack been made?
"What do you want?"
Her voice is soft and low. She really really hopes this doesn't disrupt Tuxedo Kamen's much needed nap.
Apatite had been standing in the doorway to the room, staring at Tuxedo Mask, a pensive look on her face- a face Mamoru would recognize easily, of course, though somehow with a more mature look to it, as if the person standing there had been aged several years in the matter of only a week or so. But when Sailor Moon spoke, those blood-red eyes shifted to the other girl.. and the frown already scoring Apatite's face grows slightly deeper.
"Can't you figure it out? Honestly, I don't know what he sees in you." She says, her voice not overly loud, but also not particularly soft- almost at a conversational level. She steps further into the room, white coat swaying with her steps, circling out to one side as if trying to get behind Moon and out of her direct line of sight, although she continues to speak as she does so.
"I've been told that you're our enemy, Sailor Moon. An' it's my job to make our enemies.. disappear." She laughs, a soft chuckle, her frown transitioning to a lopsided little grin, single fang peeking out at the corner of her mouth. "All I want is to do my job. I-" She falters slightly, grin faltering. "I like doing my job."
"I don't know, either. It's not something we'd bring up over milkshakes." Sailor Moon watches her move, and when her head turns far enough she shifts position, a weird crab walk on the bed to keep her between the man on the bed and the woman in front of her.
Out of context it probably looks hilarious.
She thickly swallows. "I'm not that easy to disappear."
That is said with about 110% bravado and -10% conviction.
She contemplates making a move, but this is Tuxedo Kamen's friend and she has a promise to keep.
Instead, she raises her chin. "I think working as a florist would be better. I hear flower arranging can be very therapeutic."
Had she heard that somewhere? She has no idea. It just sounded good at the time.
"Really?" Apatite smirks now.. halting as she sees Sailor Moon shifting to keep her in view. She's now got her back to a wall, a few feet away from here Moon crouches defensively over the still-unconscious Tuxedo Kamen. "I dun know a whole lot about proper etiquette and crap, but it seems ta me like a dude oughtta tell a girl why he likes her."
She takes a step forward, one eyebrow arching as her smirk grows a little bit, enough to once again show her sharp little fang protruding from the corner of her mouth. "Maybe he doesn't really like you after all. Maybe I'd be doing him a favor." She almost sounds like she's trying to convince herself- like some part of her wants to find a way to both obey her orders and still live in a reality where this guy, who she doesn't even remember, will not hate her.
She pauses at the comment about being a florist, blinking. "I don't like flowers. They always seem to die, no matter what I do. I don't do well with.. fragile things."
Despite the sharp sting of the words, Sailor Moon shrugs. She shifts forward, leaning into the mattress. "Maybe he doesn't. Probably less than he likes you. He's been trying to find you, you know."
Normally this is where she spiels about 'you're somewhere in that I know it!' and 'it's not to late to rejoin the light side of the force!' but that requires concentration, and the last time she took her focus from Tuxedo Kamen, he got spiritually skewered by dark energy.
"Well, if you need someone to fight, I'll be your opponent. Just leave him alone."
Apatite pauses again. Her brows draw together, and a look of consternation crosses her face. "He's.. been looking for me?" This really seems to throw her for a loop. "Why? I don't even... know him." This last part is almost like a question. She does know him. Doesn't she? But no, she can't. She's never seen him before. But then again.. she has, hasn't she? Her mind starts to descend into a logical feedback loop, and it shows on her face.
But Moon's latter statement snaps her out of it. Her eyes refocus on the girl, and her mouth snaps into a scowl. "That was the plan. I'm not supposed to kill him. I'm supposed to kill you." She holds her arm out to the side, and in a flash of red light her white-and-red spear materializes in her hand, the butt snapping to the floor with a sharp retort. "That, at least, I'm not confused about." Although still she hesitates, giving Moon plenty of time to react.
She is hopeful, for a moment. Is this her time to speak more? To wax poetic about a situation she still doesn't know much about?
And then, sadly, it's gone, and suddenly there is that electrical crackle that comes when the body knows it's in for a fight. Her limbs shake when she puts more weight on them, but she pays no notice.
Using her tiara would probably not be the best way for Kyouko-san to regain her memories Not Dead.
So instead, she pushes off the mattress and lunges forward, fist swinging.
A straight-up melee assault against Apatite is probably not the smartest way to go. Even before she was infused with Dark Energy, Kyouko was one of the top brawlers in the city- maybe not so hot at long-range, but an equal match for anyone at close-quarters. That hasn't changed; if anything, her fighting skills may have been bolstered by the extra magic she's been given.
She moves like a snake, stepping smoothly to the side as Moon lunges at her, swinging her spear in a twist behind her back to switch it to her other side while easily avoiding the punch aimed at her. She doesn't even strike back yet, frowning slightly as if she's still trying to convince herself as she lightly steps back a few more steps, opening some space.
She brings her spear back around in front of herself then, spinning it again to level it in a fighting stance, her eyes locked on the other girl. "I can't fault your courage, at least.."
Is that a noise from the boy on the bed? From Tuxedo Kamen, unconscious and now unguarded as Sailor Moon goes on the offensive?
Is it a noise, or a name?
In the stillness between motions, in the silence between words, three syllables.
The rush of blood and adrenaline in Sailor Moon's ears may drown it out, but Apatite, unworried but uncomfortable and puzzled, will probably hear them.
u
sa
ko
The blow lands and is like punching a wall -- probably because that's what she connects with.
"Owie!" She shakes her wrist, because, as she said, owie.
She faces Kyouko again, hopping a little to once again be between the two other bodies.
Sailor Moon can't stop the short bark of laughter as much as she can the words out of her mouth. "Not really."
Courage is something she gets from others. If it wee just her in the room, she would have run already.
"I just...have someone to protect."
She's learned that if someone says they're not going to attack someone, they usually do anyway.
There's no room for a tiara, anyway. She'd probably end up blowing up Mamoru's apartment, and then he'd probably not talk to her forever!
She does hear him, only because she's been struggling to keep him in her peripheral.
Without thinking, she responds. "I'm right here, don't worry."
Wait, what?
He is asking for her? Not Sailor Moon her but Usagi her? And when has he started calling her that?
Wait.
When has she, as Usagi, met him for him to even know she exists? Obviously, she hears wrong, because that is the only logical explanation there is. (Besides, that's like, way too intimate a name from someone she's never met!)
This is all thought in the span of a few seconds. The next few are filled with the growing dread that if he wakes up more, he'll surely get himself hurt. He has a bad habit of that.
For the moment she is frozen in place.
In the stillness after Sailor Moon moves to face her again, Apatite does indeed hear that sound from the mostly-unconscious Tuxedo Kamen. A.. name? She frowns a bit, eyes darting towards the tall figure stretched out across the room.
"Seems to me," She says after a moment, her eyes sliding back to Moon, "That you're not even the one he's most worried about." Of course, it isn't Kyouko either, but she wouldn't expect that even if she remembered the extent of their relationship. Mamoru had even once filled her in on the complicated nature of his romantic life (over sake and muffins on a rooftop)- sure would be handy if she could remember it!
Then her little smirk is back. "Are you sure you want to expend all this energy protecting a guy who dreams about somebody else?" She taunts, the head of her spear swaying back and forth lazily, almost as if she's trying to hypnotize Sailor Moon, or throw off her concentration, get her looking the wrong way..
And then suddenly /she/ lunges. Smooth, quick, a sure strike like an uncoiling spring, the deadly, razor-sharp head of her new magical spear aimed right at Sailor Moon, without warning!
Even if the name isn't hers, she knows her answer would be the same. "I don't care if I'm not. He's important to me. That's all that matters here. If he has someone, I just hope she makes him happy."
Her knees are growing weak. It's always been painfully obvious to her that she is designed for burst damage. More than one fight and she quickly starts to lose steam.
Then there's lunging, and a Very, Very pointy blade is heading her way!
She lets out a yelp as she hops to the side, bringing a foot up in the hope of, nothing else, stopping the lunge from reaching the bed.
Apatite seems to have no desire to let that stab reach the bed either. There could be any number of reasons for this, and in fact, there are. Something inside of her still tells her that the man there is her friend. Beryl doesn't want him dead either. She's not here for him.
Usagi, at least, is good at hopping. Perhaps not the most graceful dodge, but it does the trick, the blade whistling through the air where she had been. It actually might have hit the prone Tuxedo Mask, but seeing that, Apatite attempts to halt the blow herself, and Usagi's foot strikes the bottom of the spear-blader at precisely the same time!
The result is that Apatite stumbles, her foot misplaced, twisting to try and regain control of her spear before it hits Tuxedo Mask or she just topples over, which would be equally bad when surrounded by enemies!
The end result is that at least for a moment, she's off-balance and vulnerable!
No one will ever find out what might have happened in that mirrored moment of instability and vulnerability, whether Kyouko would have fallen or Moon would have, on their own, with nothing unexpected or distracting happening to blow their concentration to hell.
Deep in the recesses of the slowly awakening boy's unconscious, his own mind is screaming at him to wake up, to force himself upright, to help: he can feel the desperation and fear and determination in Sailor Moon's heart, that which calls him to battle every time she transforms, every time she's in danger.
What gives the extra push necessary, though, is deeper still: a dark prince who's been biding his time, waiting for the pieces to come together, waiting for life to play out in this time at its own pace, waiting behind a great wall of magic and calling out to his princess only in dreams, where she can hear him but Mamoru cannot.
That spear drives toward Sailor Moon, and the boy's soul screams out, audible only across the red string of fate.
SERENITY!
Moon jumps away and kicks it and it goes wild as Apatite loses her balance, and the boy's heart screams out, audible only in dreams he can't remember.
USAKO!
It's split-second timing.
As Tuxedo Kamen's blue eyes finally fly open behind the mask, his skin still an unhealthy color and his head still stuffed with cotton wool, he gut-reacts: he stumbes out of the bed in a futile effort to shove her out of range of the spear.
What actually comes out of his mouth is a desperate, "SAILOR MOON! KYOUKO NO!"
The spear is in a wild arc. She prepares to move, but a shout she doesn't hear causes her to pause. Then she hears her name, and she is so relieved because he's awake and--
It's almost a metallic, meaty 'thunk.'
Her tummy hurts. Her limbs are cold.
It takes a moment to realize exactly what had happened. In one second, she's clueless. The second, she remembers. The third, she looks up.
"S'okay, Kyouko-san. Not your fault."
Because it isn't. It's the people who made her this way. And for some really important reason, she wants this lady to know she doesn't blame her. An almost single-minded obsession.
She falls to her knees and she can see shimmering ribbons.
The next thought, oddly, is how Mamoru keeps his apartment so neat and tidy, and that she's getting blood on his floor makes her want to cry.
So she does, a little.
Apatite hadn't even been trying- not right that moment, anyway. She had been trying /not/ to stab anyone- specifically, not to stab Tuxedo Mask. But she was off-balance, and Sailor Moon kicked the spear, and then Tuxedo suddenly came awake and tried to shove her, and it all happened in about a half a second. Before she even knew what she had done, she felt the impact of the spear into a body, and turned her head to see that she had stabbed somebody after all.
It's what she had come here to do. She had been sent here specifically to stab Sailor Moon, and she had come here with the intent of doing so, without any trepidation. So why, now, does she suddenly feel so cold? So distraught?
She pulls the spear back, letting Sailor Moon Fall, and stumbles back a step, staring at the blood on the blade.. then shifting her eyes to Tuxedo Mask, who couldn't get there in time. Kyouko? Why did that name sound so familiar. "I.. I'm sorry." She whispers, but loud enough to hear- and she /sounds/ like Kyouko in that moment, like the girl who had been sitting beside Mamoru not long ago on a rooftop, crying about her miserable life. Her voice trembles in the same exact way.
And then she's running, as if fleeing a crime scene, turning to dash back out onto the balcony and throw herself over it, to escape the confusing, alarming, terrifying situation she had caused, that she had gone there to cause. If she was crying, the wind of her descent whisked the tears away before they could stain her cheeks.
If, at the moment of impact, Tuxedo Kamen yells out a word so foul it doesn't even show up in online dictionaries of Japanese, he should be forgiven: absolutely none of this is according to any sort of plan whatsoever, and though improvisation tends to serve him well, in this most desperate of moments, it's failed him completely.
With bitter agony of spirit and the knowledge that he's not good enough, will never be good enough, will never be enough, his free hand tremblingly takes his phone from his pocket and dials an emergency number.
He wasn't in time.
He failed.
Mamoru Chiba doesn't even do well with small failures, unimportant failures. In a world like this, with the company he keeps, with the friends he's made and already lost to violence and madness, he should start getting used to failure...
...but this? He can't even process it, he can't take the time to let it destroy him, not while she's dying in his arms.
He doesn't even notice Apatite flee, so focused is he so suddenly on shoving everything he has left, what little he has left after rushing to heal himself enough to try and intervene, into keeping this small blonde girl alive.
If she's crying, he won't tell, because so is he, a little.
"Usako," he whispers as her eyes flutter shut and his ungloved hand presses to the wound in her belly. "Stay with me. Don't leave me. Don't leave. Everyone needs you, the world needs you. I need you."
The phone is still ringing.
Mamoru, in his school uniform, face ashen once again, doesn't even process the knowledge that Sailor Moon is Usagi Tsukino: it should be a surprise, but part of him knew, knew for so long, and the rest of him is too busy to notice or care. The golden glow of his magic centers on the hand trying to staunch the flow of blood, and he does exactly what Hannah will never let him do for her again: too much. All. Everything.
The phone is still ringing.
"Usako. I need you, I need your cheerful self. You're always a ray of sunshine, you're everything. You're so important. You found me. You always find me, you make me be better, be a better person, be the best person I can be. You can't leave. You have to stay. Don't go."
Somewhere in there the phone stopped ringing, and it registers, finally, in Mamoru's cotton-wool skull. "Rei," he says, voice breaking, "come quick. My apartment. Usagi-- Usa-- please--"
Mamoru was initially given Rei's number mostly for emergencies, and while that requirement may have laxed a bit since then, the tone she hears is without a doubt an 'emergency' tone.
Usagi being the center of such an emergency only makes Rei hurry even faster.
There's no point in hiding her secret identity, not from either Usagi or Mamoru, at this point. So she henshins along the way, thinking that there's no situation that Rei could handle that Mars couldn't.
She arrives via balcony, unwilling to go through the various gates and elevators that would stand between her and whatever the emergency is. When she arrives, and sees Usagi bleeding on the floor, she gasps. "No... How?"
It doesn't take her very long to rush to Usagi's side, placing a hand on her shoulder. "Hold on, Usagi-chan!"
She turns to Mamoru and says, "How did this happen?!"
There's that name again.
She should be cold.
Well, she is cold, but just her body. Everything else is warm.
She opens her eyes, just a crack, and she expects to see the masked man she'd brought here.
But it isn't. It's Mamoru. And he's talking. And though his voice is sad and panicked, it's still warm.
And this makes her so very, very happy.
"Oh." It's a breath, but a happy one, and her lips twitch into a smile that, if she weren't bleeding and suffering what would otherwise be a fatal gut wound (thank you healing crystal, even if you are a bit weak right now) it would be wide and bright. But it's faint, though if she could be bright she would be. "I get to see you."
Is this one last time? Who knows. But she is so very, very glad that if it is, he's here now.
Then Rei is here. And things are blurry and there's blood on the floor and Rei is going to yell at her for being clumsy and--
Her face crumbles because suddenly, she is very, very confused.
Bleeding on the floor, on Mamoru, on her school uniform-- the free flow of blood may be stopping, may already have stopped, but there's so much of it--
The glow surrounding Mamoru's hand, still covering the center of the large bright red stain on Usagi's white fuku shirt, is immediately and obviously visible to Sailor Mars. The state of the boy himself, when she looks at him, is worse than she's ever seen him: he looks like death warmed over with a healthy side-serving of abject terror that he's trying to bull through to be useful.
"Dark Kingdom," he chokes out--
--and then he can feel her awareness focusing, and he's looking down at Usagi when she opens her eyes, and Mamoru doesn't even care if Rei can see the tears streaming down his face. "Usako..." he breathes, relief stealing his voice. The whisper's a juddering thing, ragged. "You're going to be fine. Right? Everything is all right. I'm so glad."
He lets out a long, slow breath, catching a few times on the way, and with a final push of energy, he finishes knitting her insides together again and the glow gutters out like a dying candle. His voice is very faint, and he can't tear his gaze away from Usagi's pale face, but he says, "Rei-chan-- there's bandages in the, the bath. Under the sink... please... I can't get it all, I have nothing left... she needs-- hospital."
"Dark Kingdom," repeats Sailor Mars. So this was an attack. The glowing hands gets her attention, and while she knows he was involved in the magical world somehow, this is the first hint she's gotten as to his magical powers. Some kind of healing?
"Don't move, Usagi. You'll be okay, I promise."
Yes, Rei wants to yell at Usagi, but that kind of thing can wait until Usagi isn't bleeding all over the place.
On Mamoru's instruction, Mars stands up and heads into the bathroom, carefully walking around the pair and heading for the sink. She returns with the bandages, unraveling them and starting to look over Usagi.
"We might have to take her to Iris, since the attack was magical in nature. Unless you've got a good excuse we can use. I don't think we should move her too roughly, in the state she's in."
Was Usagi transformed when this happened? Mars can't tell, though it's not like Mamoru doesn't know everyone else's secret identities at this point.
"Dodge better next time, Usagi-chan."
Well, it wouldn't be Rei if she wasn't getting on Usagi's case for one reason or another.
He is sad. Very, very sad. This makes her sad, too.
Bur he seems happier that she had her eyes open? So she tries to keep them open. It's kind of hard, she wants to sleep.
Rei is gone, even if for just a moment, and she keeps looking at him.
"Don't cry, it'll be okay."
Then Rei is back, and fingers, fingers, fingers. They should tickle.
She smiles at Rei. "So mean."
But Rei loves her. And it's a gut instinct that takes away stings her words would otherwise cause.
"I love my Rei."
don't cry
Mamoru smiles at Usagi but he can't stop, he can't stop, he's just so relieved and so done, and he doesn't blame Kyouko, he can't blame Kyouko, and-- she sounded like herself, for a second, didn't she? She said she was sorry-- even that reassurance, that his friend is close to the surface, it only adds to the lack of composure, to the raw emotion and total lack of caring that the rawness is showing.
it'll be okay
He can't stop smiling or crying, the streams silent down his face, and he sways a little as Rei gets back and starts to work on Usagi. "She had a spear..." he tells the Senshi of Fire, absently, faintly. "I saw her run. There was someone here, I could feel it. Shelby-san is a good idea... can you take her? I don't think I can stand. I'm sorry."
'I love my Rei.'
Okay, Usagi is clearly out of it. Well, moreso than usual. As worried as Rei is, lecturing Usagi at this juncture would just be unfair. She should at least wait until Usagi's well enough to fight back.
"I love you too, Usagi-chan. Come on, let's go."
She scoops her arms underneath Usagi and gently starts to lift her up. One arm behind her back and the other supporting her knees. The princess carry, because of course.
"'She'? Wait a minute, don't tell me it was just some random youma with a spear," says Rei. The Shitennou are all boys, so 'she' implies a youma... or Queen Beryl. If that's the case, Usagi is going to need a lot more training!
Rei will probably have to hear about Apatite at some point.
"Well if I see someone with a spear I'll be on my guard."
Mars gives the two of them one more moment to speak to eachother, but she does feel an urgent need to leave. The sooner Usagi gets to safety, the better her chances will be. She glances over at the balcony... jumping with Usagi in this state would probably be a bad idea. She'll have to leave through the front door.
Wait. He's staying? Not going with?
Part of her jerks up with fear. It's completely irrational, but she's safe here.
"No?"
And if she leaves, who will make sure he's not sad?
Her grip is as tight as it can be on his shirt when she's pulled away.
She wants to struggles more, to protest, but suddenly she's even more groggy. And perhaps a little wound-drunk. After all, she's floating.
She grips Rei's bow, leaning her head against her friend's shoulder. "'bout him? Sad face sick." And sick means needing doctors, right?
When Rei picks Usagi up from his arms -- and once Rei's detached her hand from Mamoru's shirt by dint of not actually stopping standing up -- Mamoru seems to deflate, slouching back against the bed right where he's sitting on the floor. He is very very not going anywhere. "I'm fine, odango atama," he says with a laugh that's exasperated, affectionate, and full of a riot of other emotions, none of which he knows how to cope with. "I'm not sad. I'll come see you. I just need to sleep."
There's a pause as he leans his head back against the mattress and watches Rei carrying Usagi through slitted eyes. As she gets to the door of the bedroom, he says quietly, voice clearer now that he's calmed down away from the panic and isn't physically holding Usa up anymore, "Go one floor down and get out, then three doors to the right is a service elevator that goes to the parking garage. And-- thank you. And I'm sorry."
"Now now, Usagi-chan, you can play with the sempai later," chides Rei, a bit of a playful tone.
"Don't you go dying on me either, Mamoru-san," says Sailor Mars. "I can only carry one of you at a time, but you better be alive when I check up on you later." Is she going to check up on him? She should. Someone should, if just to make sure he'll be alright.
That's probably the last thing she says before she heads out the door, making note of Mamoru's instructions. Her plan is to carefully carry Usagi to Shelby's apartment. Hopefully they can avoid unwanted attention along the way.