Miracle Romance - A Sailor Moon Fanfiction

Chapter 5

Mamoru woke up the next morning feeling like he got hit by a bus. Had last night's dinner at the Tsukino residence taken *that* much of a toll on him?

He groaned as he sat up and cradled his head in his hands. He'd been more wiped from the day before than he thought. Memories of the evening flooded his mind, threatening to discourage him from getting out of bed and going back to sleep instead.

Sleep. "I had some crazy dreams last night..." he murmured to himself, suddenly remembering pieces here and there of some adventure he'd gone on. A black suit. No, wait... a tuxedo? An adrenaline rush as he ran somewhere entirely on instinct. Saving a pretty girl...

Mamoru shook his head. Was he that upset about Usagi that he was already thinking of sweeping other women off their feet?

With a heavy sigh Mamoru swung his legs over the side of the bed and stood, stretched toward the ceiling as he craned his neck all the way back, then rolled his head to loosen his neck. He still felt tired and his muscles were strangely sore, but he attributed all of that to the rough evening he'd had. In fact, he was surprised he'd gotten to sleep at all... though he couldn't quite remember falling asleep in the first place.

He pondered this as he stood in the shower, staring blankly at the tiles ahead of him as hot water cascaded down his shoulders. He considered punching those tiles in frustration, but caught himself. Luckily his logical thought was still intact and he realized that would only result in broken fingers and more pain. Instead, those tiles became something like a projector screen as he relived the angry goodbye with Usagi from the night before. She'd been jittery since he'd arrived at the house, but figured she was as nervous as he was to meet Ikuko and Kenji.

But as he'd grown more comfortable in the house, her anxiety hadn't let up. In fact, as the night drew on, her nervousness only seemed to have gotten worse. Echoes of her saying "Huh?" and "What?" as he snapped her out of her own thoughts or she stalled for answers infuriated him. Had he done something wrong?!

For the thousandth time he replayed every scene with her parents in his mind. How he responded to this question, or told that story, or when Kenji looked at him how he'd smiled back or nodded... even down to talking to Shingo about the comic books he liked to read and what he may have said wrong there. But no matter how hard he racked his brain, he couldn't think of anything he'd done that would have upset Usagi or her family.

"Because there wasn't anything for her to get upset about..." he told himself. The night had been damn-near perfect.

So what was it, then? That new broach she'd had... had she met someone else? A classmate, maybe. Possessiveness overtook him then, and as he leaned his forehead against the wall he found himself growling. He didn't want to lose her. He would fight for her, of course, but in the end if she chose to be with that other person over him, what could he do? His heart ached at the thought.

"Usako... what is it you're not telling me?"

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Usagi considered calling Mamoru early that morning, but she didn't know what to say.

Much to her mother's surprise the girl was up and making breakfast for herself at seven o'clock on a Saturday morning. She hadn't slept well the night before, even after all of the energy she'd expelled and the excitement from the night before.

Unfortunately for Usagi, it wasn't entirely the incident with Mamoru that kept her up, nor was it the frightening monster she'd fought as Sailor Moon...

No. Each time Tuxedo Mask flashed on the backs of her closed eyelids they'd flown open, fueled by a surge of adrenaline through her heart that felt like sweet agony.