hi hi! here is an update :) very cute, hope you enjoy! please review.. .still no idea of a plot :0

-ang

There he was. In the pink summer sunlight, glowing like he was on fire, bare armed and hair blowing across his face. And then, sharp, he turned to look at her.

"I think I like you." Usagi blurted out and clapped her hand to her mouth. Could she be more of an idiot?!

xoxoxoxo

Mamoru could only stare at her. What was he supposed to say? After a confession like that?! He just wanted to— he wanted to—

But his brain and his body didn't seem to be working coherently. All he could get out was a strangled, "But—What?"

Initial embarrassment over, Usagi pulled her hands down from her face and frowned thoughtfully.

"Well at the very least I'm really— attracted to you."

If Mamoru's mouth could have opened wider it would have. As it was, he stood there, trying to come up with words. Any words.

"Yes?"

"Yes? Yes what?"

"N…o?"

"You're making this way weirder than it has to be."

An insult. That was something he could hold on to.

"I'm making this— you're the one with the awkward confessions!"

"Awkward— I'm telling you how I feel." The blonde was looking at him very seriously and it was making his heart pound. There was this infuriating girl in a black dress and pink pumps, hair shimmering gold, looking straight into his heart. He stepped back, unconsciously, and put his hands up as if to ward way her gaze.

"Usagi-san we don't even talk!"

"SO? Who's fault is that?!"

"I mean— yours!" Mamoru snapped. He could feel his entire face was cherry red and he blamed her entirely for this humiliation. "You're like the school weirdo!"

Mamoru watched Usagi recoil almost physically from what he said and he instantly regretted his words. She looked angry for a second and then her face relaxed into indifference. Mamoru scrambled to try and remedy what he'd said but she spoke before he could.

"Yeah, so? I'm not asking you to date me."

Mamoru stared at her helplessly. "Okay…so what are you…asking…"

"Nothing. I was just letting you know." The blonde shrugged her shoulders and walked towards the edge, looking out into the setting sun. Mamoru stared at her and ruffled his hair absentmindedly.

"Well. You're nice but…I don't really…like you back." He said, trying to sound gentle in his rejection. Trying to ignore the fact that his pulse was pounding in his ears, that his hands were sweating, that he thought he could smell strawberries in her direction. He would thank God when the sun went down and he could see less of her. For now she was haloed with a thin golden outline, every out of place hair framed her face as if she'd put them there on purpose.

"Mamoru it's okay." Usagi said, turning back to him and grinning. "I wasn't expecting anything from you. It's just… it's a relief. Trying to pretend you're not incredibly attractive is just going to make me crazy."

"Oh. Well. Thanks…?" Mamoru cleared his throat and wiped his palms on his jeans, nervously. "Um, you're…also pretty?"

"Spare me! I wasn't fishing for compliments." She was looking at him again, and Mamoru felt for the unnerved by the way her eyes lingered on him. "GOD I wasn't gonna do this but I NEED a cigarette." The blonde pulled out a cigarette from— somewhere, and like the gentleman that he was, he found himself lighting it for her. He always carried a spare lighter, one engraved with roses that his mother had given to him and then warned him not to use ever under any circumstances. It was more of an object of comfort than anything else.

He watched her inhale, and then exhale. Night was creeping in, the rose gold hues of the sky becoming more muted and grey. The small cigarette cherry still seemed to light her face. Usagi turned to look at him and he blinked, looking away quickly.

"Actually I am curious. I know you think I'm a weirdo but…am I really not attractive to you?"

Mamoru could feel her blue eyes on him, and he shrugged, fidgeting with the lighter. "You know you're pretty." He said finally. "You just generally hide it under all the Hot Topic stuff."

"Pff. Thanks."

The light continued to creep away the sky was left a kind of mottled grey and everything around them was a deep monochrome. He could barely make out her face, now. It made it easier to talk, to say what was on his mind.

"What's the whole need to be unique, anyway? You already get incredible grades. You could have so many friends, if you just stopped dressing funny…" he trailed off. She also acted funny but most people overlooked personality if you were pretty and smart enough.

"Who needs friends." Usagi growled, stubbing out what was left of her cigarette. "Especially ones that can't see past what you look like."

"Everyone needs friends, Usagi." Mamoru tried to make out her expression in the murky dark, and he thought he saw her frown.

"Well, what about you, then? You've got so many friends you've practically got no friends at all." Her voice was challenging and he thought he could hear a sort of tremble in it.

"That doesn't even make any sense." He heard himself reply.

"Who knows you, Mamoru? I mean who really knows you, at our school?" Her voice cut through the dark and he frowned at the question. He could feel her step closer to him and he only very narrowly stopped himself from stepping away.

"What does that have to do with anything—"

"It has everything to do with it. In the end you're just like me, you just use a lot of people to make yourself feel better about feeling alone." She had taken another step towards him.

He felt like he was losing a game of chess he didn't even know the rules to, and finally the day's confusion, the stress, the boredom, the anxiety all came to a head. His body tensed and he towered over her then, grabbing her shoulders and holding her in place.

"What the hell do you know?" He growled. Part of him wanted to shake her senseless, to make her leave him alone. The other part had realized he was squeezing rather soft flesh with his large hands. She was warm. He let her go quickly and stepped away, refusing to look at her. "Christ you're annoying." He snapped and pulled his phone out to distract himself.

In the distance, impossibly far away, a power plant was being dismantled. The finishing touches were being put on a plan that had been years in the making, and with the clipping of a single wire, the city of tokyo was cast in darkness.

On the top of the tower Mamoru blinked when he found himself looking out into nothingness, and above the billions of stars that were usually hidden were suddenly visible.

"Shit. What happened?" He heard Usagi say in the nothingness besides him.

"Some kind of power outage?" His voice had lowered incrementally. It seemed almost sacrilegious to speak loudly, here in the dark, with only the wind and the stars to keep them company.

"Let's go back." Usagi's disembodied voice whispered.

He nodded, and then realized she couldn't see him. "Okay." He whispered back, and reached out a hand to find her. It found her hair first, and he used it as if it were a delicate spiderweb that would lead him to her. He traced his hand to the back to her head, down the back of her neck, to her shoulder and then found her arm. He grasped it and walked slowly towards the door, with only the light of their cell phones to help them get there. Once there he groaned.

"The key card. We can't get back in. The generators wont be running for another hour." He shook the door somewhat uselessly and then shrugged and sat down. "Nothing more to it but to wait."

"The signal's down too. They must have knocked out a few towers…" Usagi murmured, sliding down next to him.

"They?"

"The yakuza."

"How do you know it's the yakuza?"

"There were some rumors on this forum I frequent." He heard her mumble, clearly distracted by her phone.

"You frequent a yakuza forum? Are you crazy? Those people are dangerous."

She ignored him for awhile, until finally her battery ran down. She put her phone away and he heard her sigh, now in the complete darkness.

"You'd never think there were so many stars, huh?"

"Mm." Mamoru was starting to feel a little cold without his jacket and he shivered slightly. He felt her lean into him, then. "Hey—"

"It's COLD, Mamoru. And i'm not giving you your jacket back because I'll die but at least let me help."

Mamoru wished he could make a face at her but finally just shrugged and let her lean on him. It did help with the cold, after all.

Thirty minutes later he was starting to regret his decision. Usagi had fallen asleep and she was VERY warm, and her hand was very much on his chest and her head was very much incredibly on his shoulder and he could feel her breath on his neck. If he could have turned into stone in that moment he would have. Every once in awhile he'd forget and it'd be alright, but then she'd twitch, or move, or her hand seemed to drop centimeters lower. Almost nothing, probably, but it was a sensation that here, in the dark, was hard for him to process.

No, not hard. Impossible. He was struggling to keep calm. His body would twitch on occasion, and he knew his hands were shaking, and all he really wanted to do was push usagi as far away as possible, curl up in a ball and hyperventilate until it was all over. As it was, he had to deal with that rhythmic tickle of breath on his neck. The heaviness on his shoulder. The small hand. The smell of strawberries. It was enough to make any man go mad.

"Mamoru."

Mamoru started and looked down at his companion. He couldn't see her face but from the weight of her body she was still asleep.

"Usagi you're making my leg fall asleep." he mumbled, shifting slightly.

"I love you."

Mamoru froze, convinced he was hearing things. There was something in him that ached when he heard it, ached in a familiar way, a way he couldn't place. He opened his mouth, unsure if he was going to try and wake her up or just say her name. Before he could complete the thought he heard the murmur of voices on the other side of the door and recognized them.

"Usagi wake up. I think someone's here for us." He murmured, keeping an ear to the door and trying to make out what they were saying. He started when he felt the hand on his chest clench with surprising strength. "Usagi?" He moved, to try and see her face in the dimness.

She woke with a gasp and then she was looking up at him with such fierce intensity, such belief, that if he hadn't already been sitting down his knees probably would have collapsed on their own. She blinked, shedding his paralysis.

"Mamoru?" She said, her voice still thick with sleep.

"S—someone's here…for us. I think." He said, trying to keep his voice casual, unsure if she'd been doing the whole thing before to make fun of him.

"Oh."

On the other side of the door he could hear the voices from earlier get louder and he picked one of them out.

"They can't get the generator to work my ASS!"

It was most definitely Minako. He felt a strong thump at the other side of the door and winced. That had to be Mako.

"We're here!" He shouted back. "The key cards aren't working!"

"Why do you even live in a building with this much security. If this was an older building I could have picked the lock!"

Mamoru raised an eyebrow and glanced at Usagi, who shrugged. "Mama has many talents." She whispered at him. He snorted.

"Without power I'm no good, either. Even my emergency batteries are out. Plus it's not enough to power the door." That was Ami's sweet voice.

"We'll get you out of there kids! Don't you worry!" Mako's voice said.

"I think they're panicking more than we are." He heard Usagi say and he laughed. Yes, this was okay. Confusion and people he could deal with. He just needed to put whatever that other thing was out of his mind.