Sailor Moon Snippets Four

Ami’s knock at Mamoru’s door was answered by a small whirlwind, "Ami-chan!" She knelt down and hugged the pink terror, "Hi Chibi-usa!"

"Hi, Ami. Come on in." Mamoru stood in his doorway and grinned at them, then moved around the corner of the hallway.

Ami walked in and paused to smell the roses in the vase. This time, they were a light violet, fully open, with a rich sweet scent. "Mamoru-san, you always have the greatest flowers!"

"Thanks!" His voice floated from around the corner, "Would you like tea or hot chocolate?"

"Tea, please." Ami had long ago stopped protesting that Mamoru didn’t have to wait on her when she came over.

"Ami-chan! Come see my pictures!" Chibi tugged her into the living room and Ami allowed it. On the table in the room was Mamoru’s laptop and on the other side was a whole set of watercolors and thick white drawing paper. Well, that’s one way to keep her quiet. Ami instantly scolded herself for the not-so-nice thought, and put her physics book down next to Mamoru’s laptop before looking at Chibi’s drawings. As she’d suspected, half of them were of a white winged horse with a spiral horn on its forehead. And you don’t know anything about Pegasus, oh no. "Very nice, Chibi."

Mamoru came into the room and handed her the tea. He grinned when he saw the physics book on the table. "Ami, you don’t even get to that subject for another two years in school."

Ami shrugged, embarrassed. "I know. But the problem I was working on last night in calculus seemed to me like there was a solution I was missing because I don’t know enough about the laws of relativity, and when I went to look them up, I found that I needed to know some dynamics, and then..."

Mamoru laughed, "I’m not even going to mention that calculus isn’t studied until the second year in High School... He sat down on the floor and pulled the textbook to him. "Okay, what was the original question?"

Chibi quietly went back to her drawings. Ami grinned at her in sympathy, then settled down by Mamoru and started to explain the problem.

"That’s not even calculus, that’s Civil Engineering!"

"Well, I was curious..."

An hour later, they were all on different subjects. Mamoru was back to his laptop, working on his research paper, Ami had borrowed his Genetics textbook, and Chibi was trying out the origami that Ami had showed her how to make.

Abruptly, Mamoru stood up, staring at the wall. "Usagi..."

Both Chibi and Ami looked up in surprise. Ami looked to the door, Chibi spoke, "But she was going to--"

Mamoru made a shushing gesture with his hand, then shook his head. "Sailor Moon." He pulled a rose out of thin air, and the air around him became cloudy and indistinct. When it cleared, he was Tuxedo Mask. Ami jumped up, "Is she in trouble?" She pulled out her change wand.

"Not at the moment." Tuxedo Mask sounded amused, and he sat down on the corner of the table, gently tapping the rose against his knee.

Ami stared at him, surprised. "But... Aren’t you going to go to her?"

"I am there."

Huh?

At that point, Chibi recovered from her surprise and squealed with joy, "Tuxedo Mask!" and ran to hug him. To both her and Ami’s amazement, Chibi’s hands went straight through the figure of Tuxedo Mask and she fell against the table before she backed away, eyes wide. "Daddy?" she whispered.

The mask on Tuxedo Kamen’s face cleared to the point where they could see his intense blue eyes. "Please don’t do that, Chibi -- it distracts me." The mask faded to solid again, and he kept tapping the rose. "Oh, good move, Sailor Moon!"

It was rather obvious, but Ami asked it anyhow, "You’re... watching her?"

"Umm..." Tuxedo Mask’s attention was unmistakably elsewhere -- probably where the rest of him was.

Ami rolled her eyes. She spoke clearly and distinctly, "Should I get the other Senshi and go there?"

"You’d never make it in time. She’s a long ways from here. The others?" The rose stopped tapping, "Hold on a minute." After that time had gone by and then some more, he answered her, "I think Mako is close enough. Venus has her own problems. Actually, Rei is fairly close to where Venus is... And she’s heading over there now. Mako’s already wandering in Usagi’s direction, but you might want to give her a call and tell her to shake a leg."

Chibi raised her head, "Does Sailor Moon need Pegasus?"

Tuxedo Mask shook his head, "No -- this is just garden-variety evil. Not the ones searching dreams. Some renegade after energy... Sailor Moon, now would be a good time for a tiara throw..." He balanced the rose on one finger.

Ami called Mako.

"But where is she?"

"Uhh... Hold on -- Tuxedo Mask?"

"Humm?"

"Where is Sailor Moon?"

"She’s..." The mask cleared, then faded to solid again, "Actually, I don’t know. They’re fighting in a furniture warehouse, but I don’t want to leave the building to see what district it’s in. Just tell Mako-chan to change to Sailor Jupiter and follow her instincts."

Ami relayed that.

"Follow my instincts? I’m good at that!" Mako gave Ami a wink over the communicator and signed off.

"Huh," Tuxedo Mask was looking at Ami, "That actually changed a few time eddies." His mask went solid again, "Interesting."

Ami silently crumpled the nearest origami figure, gritting her teeth. I never before thought of Tuxedo Mask as irritating. I’m changing my mind.

Tuxedo Mask stood up, the rose more firmly held. "Ami-chan, I’ll be back in about an hour or so. It’ll take me awhile to walk back that far. There’s more tea on the stove, and some pudding in the ‘fridge."

"Is she in trouble?" And why are you talking to me if so?

He answered with an unequivocal, "No," then added, "But some other energies are being attracted by the fight and I want to divert them before they become a problem." His body faded away, leaving behind the scent of roses.

Ami and Chibi looked at each other. Chibi shrugged, "Dad has a tendency to do that when Mom’s away. You get used to it."

"Oh."

"Do you think it’s okay if we eat the pudding now?"

"I think so." Ami shook her head and went with Chibi to the kitchen.