Sailor Moon Snippets Two

"Mamoru-san!"

"Whoops! Sorry, Ami!!" Mamoru bent to gather up the books he’d knocked out of her arms.

"Where on earth are you going in such a hurry?"

"Off to the studio. I’ve got a deadline for the next storyline, and I’d forgotten all about it." He looked curiously at her, "Would you like to come? I think you’d like the studio." He grinned, "I can get you back to see the mixing station."

"Oh!" Ami was at once intensely curious. She loved to learn. It didn’t really matter what, she just liked to know new things. "Can I?"

"Sure! Come on!" Mamoru grabbed her wrist and started off again, at only slightly less of a hurried pace than before.

"Ami-chan! They’re closing the studio for the night!"

"Usagi-chan!" Ami glanced around at her friend. Then she blinked, "Night?" and looked at her watch, "Oh no. I’ve missed my cram school." But her voice was not nearly so upset as the words would indicate.

"But did you have fun?" Mamoru stood behind Usagi and grinned at Ami.

"Oh, yes!" Ami grinned back at him, "It’s so exciting! There’s so much work that needs to be done, everything put together just so, finding just the right clip that the director wants in -- can you imagine making the whole musical score for a piece, only to have it change on you as somebody changes their mind? It’s fascinating." And then she broke up into laughter at the expression on Usagi’s face, who was nodding as if she understood, but her eyes weren’t understanding anything, but they sparkled with delight at the joy Ami was having... Ami was happy that Usagi was happy that Ami was happy... She enveloped her friend in a hug, and they both laughed until the tears started running down their faces, and they collapsed in giggles.

Mamoru stood over them both and smiled.

They left the studio in a happy group. Ami blinked at the darkness outside, "It really is night!" Usagi laughed at her.

"So, Mamo-chan, how did it go?"

"It went great! I got the roughs done for each segment, and the editor likes the ideas. I’ve got a few more spots I need to work out, but I can get started on the final anytime now..."

Ami suppressed a giggle, as she watched Usagi hanging on Mamoru’s arm. Again, she didn’t understand hardly a word Mamoru was saying, but her face showed her joy and delight reflecting Mamoru’s enthusiasm... It doesn’t even matter that Usagi doesn’t understand -- her joy is such that it sustains us all.

Usagi grimaced, "I suppose I better get home now." They were at the street where she would turn off. I trust you, Usagi. She remembered her dad’s words and sighed. Her dad didn’t even know yet that she had a boyfriend! Though she thought her mom might suspect.

"It’s so late out, I’m going to walk Ami home." Mamoru’s arm was still around Usagi’s shoulders.

Usagi glanced questioningly at Mamoru, then at Ami.

"She lives--" Mamoru started to explain, but Ami cut him off.

"I’ll watch him for you, Usagi-chan." She spoke softly, remembering the conversation she and the others had had with Mamoru the other week. She watched for Usagi’s reaction, and it confirmed what Mamoru had stated, as Usagi’s eyes first got big with surprise, then she shut them quickly to hide the pain.

"Usako."

Ami turned away to avoid watching their farewell kiss. Then she and Mamoru continued on towards her apartment in silence. With Mamoru, it was just his usual comfortable, companionable silence. Ami was thinking.

"Mamoru-san?"

"Yes, Ami?"

Ami swallowed. She was sure Mamoru wouldn’t like her asking, but she had to. "When you were talking to us last week..." He nodded, but didn’t comment. Ami bit her lip and continued in a rush, "You said we weren’t a threat."

Mamoru blinked in surprise, "Of course not!"

"But you looked at Chibi..."

Mamoru said nothing.

"You were frowning."

"I shouldn’t have been."

"Is she a threat?"

"Of course not!"

"Mamoru-chan!" Ami blushed as she used the familiar form of his name in her despair.

Mamoru sighed. "She’s not to you."

"But to you?"

Mamoru kept walking, and Ami had to hurry to catch up. Several minutes went by and Ami thought he wasn’t going to answer. ‘Silence gives consent.’ Or is it ‘assent?’ Chibi is a threat to him! But how? And what can we do about it?

Beside her, Mamoru sighed again, and spoke in a low voice, "It has to do with my power."

He’s going to tell me?! Then Ami blinked, his power? She tried to be as quiet and still as possible, waiting and hoping that he’d keep talking. Instead, he laughed.

"Ami, you are such a mouse!"

Huh?

"But you don’t have to be so timid, you know." Underneath the grin, Mamoru was serious.

Ami thought about it for a moment, then spoke quietly, but with precision, "I’m learning."

Mamoru nodded, approving. They walked for several more feet before he spoke again. "It’s a bit hard to explain. But if anyone should know, it should be you. You’ve always been the strategist of the group, and it might help, in the future."

And despite his words, they had gone three more blocks and were barely a kilometer from her apartment before he continued.

"My power... Isn’t like yours."

Ami rolled her eyes, no kidding!

"You -- the Sailor Senshi -- get your main powers from the elemental forces of your sponsors."

"Sponsors?" Ami clapped a hand over her mouth. She hadn’t meant to interrupt.

Mamoru grinned, and Ami noticed that he was holding a sprig of Canterbury Bells in his hand. "The planets. The planets that are the sponsors of the Sailor Senshi."

Sponsors... Ami was going to have to think about that. It seemed to stir something within her, that she wanted to remember. But later.

"My powers are a little more diverse and not as well defined."

"The rose."

Mamoru waved one hand, and Ami noticed that the Canterbury Bells were gone. "That’s not a power."

"Huh???"

Mamoru frowned, "That’s... A concentration of energy. Anybody can do that. I was learning how when I was five years old. The rose just helps me to focus, and it later was a useful trademark."

Anyone... Ami shook her head. The abrupt switches Mamoru tended to make between himself and Endymion tended to leave her confused. Anyone of the Silver Millennium. They all had such power? How did we, just ourselves, ever defeat the Negaverse? But she also remembered what Mamoru had said in passing, ‘it was the only way the darkness could have been tricked’. They underestimated us. A fatal flaw. And one that Ami knew well, for it was something they all tended to do to her. But Mamoru was still talking.

"No, my main power has more to do with the way I see things. When Tuxedo Mask manifests," and this time he really was holding a rose, though it was a pink one, "he sees what’s happening in more than one dimension, and he watches the time eddies."

"The time eddies?" More than one dimension?

"Umm... The possible futures." Mamoru tossed the rose from one hand to the other, then back again. "I watch to see the greatest danger point. And distraction is often the greatest weapon, though not actually an attack."

That’s true!

"But that’s not the question." Mamoru sighed again. "Because I rely so much on seeing the future, Chibi... distracts me."

"Distracts..."

"Chibi’s a paradox. A time paradox. She is the child of our future, but that future is not an irrevocable future. It is as dependent on what we do, as are all the others. Any action of ours not in that future timeline and she could cease to exist." He saw Ami’s horrified expression and backpedaled, "Oh, it’s not so sensitive as that. Mainly, we just need to live until then! She’s from such a far-away future." He grimaced, and was suddenly holding a Zinnia. "But because her future is that we live -- just by her being around, that thread of the future tends to stand out more brightly. I have a hard time seeing beyond it, to the true threats that might cut off our threads."

"Oh." Ami breathed out, suddenly seeing the very real problem that posed. Tuxedo Mask always came in to their battles at the last instance. Saving them before disaster could strike. Or when they most needed assurance. And he was right -- his timing had been off several times before, his powers not as focused as they usually were... "You didn’t have that problem when we were fighting against the Black Moon clan."

"They were from the future as well. Their paradox tended to cancel out Chibi’s paradox. Besides. That time, Chibi was sent to us by Sailor Pluto, who managed to mute the threads so I couldn’t see them as brightly."

"She’s not this time?" Ami was startled. This was the first she’d heard of that!

"Setsuna is with us now." Mamoru frowned, "I can only guess, but I don’t think Sailor Pluto is at the Time Gate right now. I keep meaning to ask her who is. But no -- King Endymion was the one who sent Chibi back."

"Ahh..." Ami decided not to touch that one. Just how powerful is he? Is Mamoru that powerful -- I mean Tuxedo Mask? But it was not a question to ask. And they were at the door to her apartment building.

"Mamoru-sama..."

Mamoru grinned at the honorific, but waited for her question.

"Are you going to be okay?"

"Should be." Mamoru shrugged, "Just as long as I concentrate on what I’m doing. As I said, I shouldn’t have frowned earlier. It’s not Chibi."

Yes it is. Ami frowned. She’d noticed before that Mamoru tended to treat Chibi with more indulgence than he did even Usagi. Does King Endymion leak over to him from the future to the past? She would watch more carefully in the future.

"Thank you for walking me home, Mamoru!" And she slipped between the doors, leaving him outside. As he turned to make his way to his apartment, she watched him through the one-way glass. I will watch him for you, Usagi-chan. I will try and keep him safe, for you.

Appendix

Bell Flower (White)

Gratitude

Bittersweet

Truth

Butterfly Orchid

Gaiety

Caladium

Great Joy and Delight

Canterbury Bell

Acknowledgment

Clover

Good Luck

- White

Thinking of You

Crocus

Youthful Gladness

Fern

Fascination

Garlic

Courage, Strength

Juniper

Protection

Sweet Basil

Good Wishes

Wheat

Friendliness

Yarrow

Healing

Zinnia

Thoughts of Absent Friends

- Magenta

Lasting Affection

- Mixed

Memories

- Scarlet

Constancy

- White

Goodness

- Yellow

Daily Remembrance