Light of Hope

Chapter 7

It was Diana who saved him. Sort of.

Before his past self - who was walking towards them with his nose deeply sunken in a book - could look up, Diana had managed to jump into Mamoru's face, desperately trying to cover his identity.

The loud shriek which had escaped his lips because of her more than strange and unexpected move, made the past Mamoru look up from his book.

Mamoru continued his walk blindly, trying to pretend it was the most normal thing in the world to have a cat in your face.

To add even more expression to his crazy looks, he started whistling the next best song that came into his mind.

Unfortunately, it was none other than Moonlight Densetsu in a pretty quick version, but when Diana realized Mamoru's mistake, she began to meow loudly.

With this more than weird picture that they must have given everyone walking on the streets of Azabu-Juban, they somehow managed to get past Mamoru.

A few moments later, Past-Mamoru had gone around a corner and Mamoru was able to take off his "mask".

"This is so ridiculous and the absolute opposite of being inconspicuous!"

He complained while trying to fumble some cat hair out of his mouth with his hand.

"How long do we have to do this hide-and-seek? When does this damn light of hope appear?!"

He didn't address anyone, but gave Diana a very annoyed look, who just shrugged and explained

"I hope soon. We have at least a rough time frame so it could be worse. Let's go back home."

She jumped off Mamoru's arm and without adding anything to her current problem, both of them made their way to the house of Mamoru's future in-laws.

A seductive scent of home made fluffy pancakes was flying through the air when he opened the front door.

"Ahhh, welcome back, Endy! I hope you haven't eaten yet. I just made dinner. Do you like some pancakes?"

Ikuko's head popped out off the kitchen and cheerfully she swung a spatula in her hands.

"That's very kind of you, Ikuko. I'm nearly starving to be perfectly honest." He admitted by smiling brightly at her.

It was something he willingly had get used to it during his stay in the past. Ikuko was always very kind to Mamoru and made the most delicious meals he could think of.

Probably because of the fact that he did everything what she expected as a mother like waking up early enough to arrive on time to school/university/work, passing exams with good grades/getting promoted, and don't miss home made cooked dinner because of working too long/getting detention/being involved with too many study projects.

Unfortunately 'fighting the Dark Kingdom successfully' wasn't included in her list to be treated always nicely by her, otherwise Usagi would have scored in this point tremendously.

The rest of the list didn't belong to her strengths at all...but Mamoru was certain to change this from now on.

Before he had agreed to help Usagi with her homework, Mamoru had also tried to support her to wake up early during the week. With a little help of Artemis T.

The fat chicken alarm clock had been replaced with the magical ball. For Usagi it was not visible at all since the outer appearance had remained the same for her.

However, her new alarm had a new function which annoyed Usagi that much unconsciously that she nearly freaked out every morning from Monday to Friday.