The Earth, The Moon, A Fighting Star - A Sailor Moon Fanfiction

Chapter 04

Let Mamoru pursue his dreams in America, or keep him here so we can be together?

Mamoru... or Seiya?

One week passed and Usagi still couldn't give Mamoru any answers. Not that he was making the decision easy on her— instead of getting the hint and seeing that he wasn't spending enough time with her, Mamoru continued to lock himself in his apartment to study. The enemy hadn't even had the decency to throw her into peril so Tuxedo Mask could show up and they could talk.

As quickly as the Three Lights had come to school, they were out again for a music festival in Osaka. It had been a quiet week, but that hadn't helped Usagi.

Usagi jumped as her communicator beeped. Would she be seeing Tuxedo Mask after all? She dug the device out of her pocket and propped her elbows up on her desk. "Usagi here," she said.

Mamoru's face faded into view in the upper-left corner. Her eyes widened. "Mamo-chan."

"Usa..." They stared into each other's eyes through the little screen for a moment before he cleared his throat. "Usako... I've decided to go to Harvard after all."

Another long silence fell between the pair. Usagi's eyes remained wide, stinging with tears that she was silently trying to keep at bay. "Oh. When do you leave?"

He winced, as if afraid she'd ask that question. "Well, today, actually... right now."

"What?" Usagi felt frustration replace her pain. Yes, she'd messed up. Yes, he had every right to be mad... but he was leaving right now?

She was proud of herself for keeping her anger in check. She stood up from her desk and made her way across her room as she kept her eyes on Mamoru. "Well then I'm coming with you to the airport. I'll meet you at Tokyo Station in twenty minutes."

________________________

Usagi had never been so punctual in her life. Nineteen minutes and ten seconds later, according to her communicator, she was sprinting toward Mamoru beneath the clock at Tokyo Station and thanking her constant rushing for her incredible stamina.

"Hi," she panted as she reached him, bending over with her hands on her knees to catch her breath. She eyed his hard suitcase standing upright beside him and cursed it.

"Hi," Mamoru said. He cracked a half a smile. "I didn't think you'd actually be twenty minutes."

"Yeah, well, I can be somewhere when I really want to be," she replied. "I do wish you'd given me a little more notice, though..."

Mamoru nodded solemnly before taking the handle of his suitcase in one hand and starting forward. "I know. I'm sorry. I just... wasn't sure if I would have gone through with it otherwise."

Usagi followed him, walking in silence toward the platform for the Narita Express. "I've never been on a plane before," she said, too chicken to say what she really wanted to.

"They're nice." He reached back and handed her a ticket. She inserted it into the machine and walked through, then picked the punched paper back up. She examined the hole it left, just above the price.

"You could have had me meet you at Nihombashi station and taken the Asakusa line instead," she offered. "We could have both gotten to the airport for the price of one of these tickets."

"Yeah," he said, standing in front of a yellow line that marked where their car would stop. "But you wouldn't have made it to Nihombashi in time."

So he'd taken her into account from the start. A small bubble of happiness burst inside her heart. "Oh. Thank you."

"Yeah."

More silence fell between them until the train arrived and they walked on. Usagi chose to sit in a large section with four seats facing each other to allow for more legroom for Mamoru, but she expected him to sit beside her— not across from her. The happiness inside her heart died.

"I guess all your studying paid off," she said as the train slowly left the station. "Congratulations. I'm really proud of you."

"Thanks," Mamoru said, but looked at the buildings passing by instead of at her.

Maybe this was a mistake. "Will you miss Japan?"

"Some things."

She wanted to ask if she was one of those things, but was too afraid to learn if she wasn't.

"What happens if Sailor Iron Mouse attacks again?"

"You have plenty of people around to protect you," he said. She recoiled as his gaze snapped from the window to her. "Have you made your decision yet? About who you want protecting you?"

Her heart lurched like a train coming to a full stop. "If I asked you to choose me, or studying, which would you choose?"

"That's not the same— I don't kiss my textbooks."

They both sat up, anger ratcheting. "That's not the point," Usagi said quietly. "Which do you want to spend more time with?"

"The one that will always be there for me."

"Yeah, well, same."

Mamoru ran his tongue over his teeth as he looked away again, studying the mountains on the horizon as they passed them by. "I would want you to pursue your dreams just as much as I am," he said, fighting to keep his voice calm and even. "I would support you in whatever way I could."

"My dream is to spend time with my boyfriend," Usagi said, unable and unwilling to keep the emotion out of her voice like he was. "Just because we can be together forever doesn't mean it should take that long for us to actually be together."

"'Can' be together. I notice you didn't say 'will.'"

The wall she'd been building around her heart to deal with his negligence was crumbling quickly, and anger was seeping through. "You haven't exactly been showing me you're interested lately."

"Usagi," he said, pinching the bridge of his nose, "I could be king of Earth at some point. I need to educate myself as much as possible to fill that role. I'm doing all of this studying for us! But if you can't handle that, maybe I should just do it for me."

She couldn't believe what she was hearing: that he was unwilling to change so they could spend more time together in the here and now. "I understand what you're doing, and I'm proud of you for taking this on. But I doubt you're going to be king tomorrow," she said, voice cracking as hot tears spilled down her cheeks. She knew how this was going to go now. They hadn't even discussed Seiya directly, and this was the end. "You have so much time to study. But what about time to give to me?"

"I have so much time to be with you, too."

Usagi shook her head and waited for the announcement over the speakers to finish telling them they were close to the airport. "I can't wait, Mamo. I'm asking you to choose now: me, or studying?"

The train began to slow and they stared at each other for a long time. "I need to think," he said, imitating her words from the night before.

Sadness and anger flooded her all at once, and she could no longer see him through her tears. She felt the train stop, and the doors behind her opened.

"Goodbye, Usagi," Mamoru said softly, and she collapsed into her lap and wailed as she heard his suitcase roll away.

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