So, here you go guys, last chapter of this crazy ride! I realised yesterday that this fic turned out longer than 11 Hours… and I wrote it in what, 10 days? That's so crazy. So anyway, thank the MamoUsaWeek Event for this, hosted by Sailor Moon Turtle. This would have been a one-shot otherwise! Other people to thank for this are, as I said in the beginning, graciidancer, who was so sweet to transcibe literally everything I needed from the Viz dub for me for this silly idea. My plan was to make Mamoru regret all the shit he said to her in Classic lol? And last, thank my beta Uglygreenjacket for this! Her life is crazy busy right now and the last thing she needed was me sending nightly chapters to her to comment on and proof-read, and yet she did both diligently for me anyway, because she's the best!

Oh and a note on locations in this fic because I've been asked this on my tumblr: Yes, all locations I specifically name and describe (Oslo Café, Exit 4, Kimi-chan statue, Café La Boheme, all the mentions train stations, etc.) are all actually real-life locations in Tokyo, most of them in Azabu-Juban which served as the backdrop for Sailor Moon's "Juuban" in all its canons!

Anyway, more thanks at the bottom to all of you! Please let me know what you thought of this ride!

Celebrate Usagi's birthday with me! (ngl, I'm hoping for some Dream Arc announcements during her birthday celebrations in Japan. Here's to hoping!)

Idiots

A First Season AU Written for MamoUsa Week 2019

Day 8: Usagi's Birthday

The conbini at the JR station was a tiny hole in the wall, more like a kiosk, and the cashier was already ringing up his can of Boss coffee. It was, however, completely lined in snacks and newspapers of all sorts.

Mamoru scowled at the tabloid section with a vengeance. In particular, at the image of himself and Sailor Moon on them. All of them. Then he scowled even harder when he picked one of them up, the one with the biggest close-up of the previous night, even though he'd vowed so hard to ignore them, and handed it over to the cashier to ring up, as well.

Walking out of the JR station and letting himself be strung along by the crowd, he leafed through it roughly, tearing at the paper a little too hard. He found the title story easily enough.

He glared at it as if the paper was solely to blame for the photos themselves.

"Everything ok?" a voice beside him asked.

He glanced sideways. A woman in business attire with softly clicking heels, looking at him concerned. He went back to glaring at the paper, didn't really answer despite the grumbled "fine," he bit out a little too angrily.

He turned the page with a growl and a loud flip of the paper, and shuffled on along.

"Are you sure…?" the woman said again.

He didn't even look this time, just bit out a slightly more hissed rendition of the same, 'fine'.

The moment he exited the station, the light changed, bright and dazzling, keeping him from comfortably reading the offending words, and he ripped his sunglasses from where he'd stuck them into the crew neck of his T-shirt and put them back on.

There. Better.

He'd rounded two corners and passed one traffic light, scowling at the paper all the while yet still reading despite all this, when he jumped out of his skin.

"If these papers upset you so, why would you even read them?"

His eyes flew in an accusing manner to the culprit. He realised with a start that it was the same woman – or so he'd thought, he really hadn't looked at her enough to be completely sure. His eyes flicked to her feet. Yes, blush-colored heels. Same woman. Had she followed him?

He took a closer, more calculating look at her. She was fidgeting a little, shrinking a little under his probably not very friendly stare through black-tinted sunglasses, but seemed to wait for his answer.

She seemed a little familiar. As if he'd seen her somewhere before. But he couldn't, for the life of him, place her.

"I usually don't," he said finally, all frown.

"What's special about this one, then?" she asked, cocking her head.

And then it clicked. The way she moved her head, the bright and open way her eyes shined up at him, standing just that millimeter too close to be a stranger even if still a modest amount of distance away. Yes, he had seen her before. A few weeks ago as a waitress in that café in Shibuya Usagi had dragged him in to eat her weight in Cremia ice-cream. Usagi had liked her dress, kept going on and on about how much she thought her hair looked pretty.

However, this woman was not that waitress.

His posture immediately relaxed, and he found himself leaning down towards her just as a smile pulled at his lips almost in reflex.

He closed the paper and tucked it haphazardly underneath his armpit.

He shrugged, one side of his lips lifting higher than the other as he peered down at her. "Pictures of a pretty girl?" he threw out.

He smirked at the mix of blush and irritation that bloomed on her freckled face.

"You mean the hentai section in the back?" she countered.

Mamoru threw his head back and allowed a sharp, surprised laugh. "Yeah those," he said, chuckling, eyes settling back on her, "absolutely those."

He leaned in a little more, shifted in a way that brought him a little closer to her. It was on. Two could play at this game.

He fired his shot.

"These pictures are not half as captivating as you, of course," he said with the kind of half-smile he'd been recently told was 'panty-combusting' and he had not at all subsequently trained in the mirror in all its nuance, absolutely not.

Her eyes widened and narrowed pretty much at the same time.

"What brings you here, then?" he continued.

He had to press his lips together to keep the smirk from taking over his entire face at the way she bristled.

"Just going shopping." She'd crossed her arms tightly. If she could, she would have hissed, he was sure.

He tilted his head, leant down, threw her the most disarming smile in his arsenal. "Did you want company for that?"

She bristled, straightened her shoulders and looked at him in such deep, utter appalment he couldn't keep away the laugh even as her fist hit against his bicep and she turned absolutely red in the face.

"You— you—"

He rolled his eyes, still all the smirk, and let her off the hook.

"Are you following me around to figure out what your present is, Usako?"

She deflated much in the way he thought he might previously have, her entire posture dropping and flitting towards him almost unconsciously in equal parts relief and consternation.

"Ugh, how did you know?" she pouted.

It was always very confusing to see her expressive reactions on other people's faces.

He shrugged. "I always know."

(He didn't. Not always. She didn't always give herself away as obviously as she had today. He prided himself on the fact that he knew often enough. But it certainly wasn't always. He'd adapted a false positive approach, though, and he guessed she didn't have to know how often he called random strangers that came on to him Usako.)

She really did misuse that pen. He would need to have another word with Luna.

Her moue was both adorable and irritating. Right expression. Wrong face.

"But how? I barely do this!" she whined.

He snorted. Obviously, yes, she really never usually did this to him on purpose, now, not like today. More often than not, he simply ran into her when she was out on a stake-out after what they suspected was Zoisite's next victim and he just stumbled upon her in her different disguises. And in the beginning, she'd really enjoyed the game of 'how long until my boyfriend notices'. And, going into this relationship, it had taken him a while… It would have helped if he'd known she had the power to do that. Stupid bloody pen.

Instead, he gave her a stern look. "I told you you'd get your present at the party. It's a surprise."

She shrunk a little, pouting.

"And what, did you think I was out to buy it? On the day of your birthday?"

Pouting got a little harder. "Maybe," she mumbled.

He chuckled. Quirked one lip back up. "Hm. Whatever am I going to do with you?"

With that, her eyes shot back up, returned to that challenging look. "Oh, anything you want," she delivered way too smoothly.

He rolled his eyes.

Usagi was about to lean up, moving into his personal space quickly, but he took an immediate step back, holding up his arms and shaking his head slowly.

She blinked, taken aback.

"Change back first, I'm not kissing other women," he said.

"What if I just wanted a hug?" she batted wrong-colored eyelashes up at him.

He shook his head.

"Mamo-chaaaan."

"Nuh-uh," he said, taking another step back from her. "We've talked about this, Usako. Only you. Besides, half your friends still think I cheat on you with Asanuma."

It was her turn to roll her eyes. "You didn't have to come on to me like that when I was Asanuma…"

He threw her a withering look. "Go change back," he said.

She hrmphed, but looked both ways before stalking away.

He turned, strolling down his previous direction in a way more leisurely pace than usual, allowing her to catch up.

He heard her approach, bounding and hopping after him, only about a minute or two later.

He turned and opened his arms wide, tabloid stretched far away from him and all.

She came flying into his arms, hopping up the way she sometimes did, and he wrapped his arms around her tightly. He recoiled a bit with her in his arms, like he sometimes did when he didn't brace enough for impact, and buried his face in the crook of her neck, inhaling deep.

"Hi," he whispered against her warm, soft, Usako-smelling skin.

She giggled, tightening the hold of her arms across his shoulders, and he felt her wriggling feet against his shins, all the way off the ground.

"Hi," she murmured back, rubbing her cheek against his hair.

There. Better.

He held her a little longer like that, smiling against her skin to her happy sighs, smiling harder at her protesting noises when he lowered her back to her feet a little while later.

She slipped her hand into his when he resumed walking.

"So, what are you doing here then, if not buying my present?" she asked as they passed a corner, maneuvering around a woman with a road-blocking, if adorable, toddler.

"Getting the alcohol for your party," he answered.

Her look turned fully disappointed. "Oh."

He threw her a smile, deciding not to ask her how much time had gone into following him today so absolutely unsuccessfully, and instead, nudged the tabloid against her arm. "Here," he said.

Her hand whipped out from his and she grasped the paper with utter glee. Her reaction to these things was drastically different from his.

She flipped the pages with unabandoned excitement, and he pulled at her elbow to nudge her out of the way of a passing pedestrian who she'd been about to run into.

"This had you so angry?!" She raised both eyebrows, not looking up. "But these are so cute!"

With this her eyes flicked up, and she flipped the page around to hold under his nose.

"Yes, I've seen them." He scowled. "I bought it."

She shook both the paper and her head at him in utter confusion, as if she simply couldn't understand what was the matter.

"But Mamo-chan, these are cute. Look!" She pinned the paper against her chest and poked at it.

They were kind of cute. Even if that was absolutely beside the point. The pictures showed Tuxedo Mask and Sailor Moon in a more innocent embrace. It had been cold last night, the battle had been long but not particularly exerting, and afterwards Sailor Moon had shivered. He'd simply hugged her from behind and wrapped her a little in his cape to keep her warm, and forgotten his surroundings over it completely.

Underneath, as always, what followed were all kinds of wildest speculations about them.

The problem wasn't the picture itself. The problem was how close-by these pictures had been taken, and they hadn't even noticed. This didn't look particularly like telescope zoom at all.

"I'd still prefer they wouldn't make a deal out of catching these moments," he mumbled with an edge.

She shrugged, beamed at the picture, held it up and studied it as if it were a piece of art.

He sighed.

There were tons of photos of them out there. Many way, way worse than this.

Ever since he found out the woman he loved was the woman he fought evil with, they'd become a near unbeatable, synched up fighting machine, and he, ironically, the one of them who'd become a little more clumsy in the process.

To be fair, though, she'd had years of experience keeping a clear head fighting alongside her crush, numbing and non-repressed physical attraction and all. For him this was, at least in this particularly weird way in which it wasn't new, all new.

Sometimes, watching her as Sailor Moon these days, he was so smitten to the bone to the point it rendered him almost useless, and he had yet to find a way to fix that. Unfortunately, it was something the tabloids had picked up on. For weeks they'd documented every forlorn, lovesick look ever grazing his face, every flushed ear and conspicuous change to the front of his attire, speculating wildly on the changed nature of Tuxedo Mask and Sailor Moon's relationship, until, weeks later, even when he'd been so careful, they'd snuck a blurry photo they'd deemed a kiss (even though it hadn't been one! For all the kisses they'd actually exchanged while it was too risky, because he'd been too weak to refrain and protest and she saw no reason why he should be protesting at all, THAT blurry thing they'd captured had actually just been him leaning in to brush the debris from her cheek!)

And as much as he downright loathed the media attention, the 8-page-analyses of an innocent kiss, it was really hard not to do anything at all worth reporting for them. It was really hard not to let it all affect him, and harder to hide it, when he suddenly had everything he'd ever wanted. This magical girl, no hiding from her whatsoever necessary, and a place where he belonged with her.

She pulled him from his thoughts with a tug on his arm.

"So, what am I gettinnnggg, Mamo-chaaan?"

Her eyes were bright, her smile was enormous, and he rolled his eyes with an absolutely annoyed smile.

"You'll have to wait until tonight to find out!" he repeated for about the 50th time.

Her birthday gift was sitting for a painting with Yumemi Yumeno. The first time Usagi had been to Mamoru's apartment, she stared so long and hard at the painting that had been inspired by them and he had, subsequently, bought, lovesick and pathetic, a year later, he'd started to feel a little sick.

Too much? Too creepy? He'd almost died under her prolonged silence as she studied it up there on his wall.

But what could he say? What had been captured in that painting, however much he'd been in petulant denial afterwards for months, had been the moment he'd fallen in love with her. Of course, he'd had to buy it.

Plus, there was still the fact that Yumemi Yumeno's paintings had been said to bring about love. The urban legend had been that whoever owned one of her paintings would be granted their wishes in love. He'd grumbled to himself all throughout the bloody transaction, all throughout hanging it, every time he'd returned home without Tsukino Usagi.

But it had kind of worked, hadn't it?

It turned out, when she'd finally reacted, that day in his apartment, she hadn't been creeped out. Instead she'd started sniffling, eyes fixed on the couple in the painting that resembled them, and confessed in a bout of tears that she barely remembered that day and that she so, so wished she did.

He'd just chuckled. Said it really had been any other day. They'd bickered, she'd been cute; just this time, he'd taken one look too long at her and fallen down a pit he'd never really recovered from, however much he'd tried.

Still, she'd made him sit and recall every last minute-detail from that day in his perspective. It still irked her though that meanwhile he had a perfect recollection of the night Usagi claimed she fell in love with Tuxedo Mask. Better than her, even. Down to the color of her shoes she wore that night. It had helped, of course, that the night that Tuxedo Mask found Usagi hurt and bruised in that alley, Mamoru had long been absolutely gone for her. Of course, he'd remember that night in perfect clarity. He'd kissed her bloody hand! Mamoru had never been allowed to do that!

So, he'd decided to track Yumemi down and ask for a commission. One they would sit for tomorrow, and she'd find out tonight when Yumemi herself would show up at her party, and Usagi could get to pay special attention to, so that this time, she'd get to remember it forever like she so often whined that she didn't.

Usagi, beside him, pouted the kind of pitiful pout that usually made him relent and give in to anything. Not this time though, he really wanted to see the surprise on her face tonight.

He'd stopped just shy of the sliding doors to the Liquor Off he'd been steering towards all this time.

"I've got to hurry up," he said. "You've got to go too."

Usagi slumped against him with a dramatic sigh and threw her arms around his middle, hugging tight, propping her chin up again his chest. "Do I get a birthday kiss at least?"

His arms flew up and he stroked his hands up and down her shoulders and arms.

"You already got tons of birthday kisses today, Usako," he said, leaning down anyway.

She scrunched up her nose, moving up to her tiptoes. "That was this morning. This is now," she pouted up against his lips and then sighed happily when he peppered slow, chaste, sweet kisses against hers.

Puckered lips formed words against his, broken up by little kisses.

"You won't be too late?" she asked, ending with a kiss, and one more, and one more.

"I'll be there right after class," he broke up for another kiss, "and bring the champagne."

"Mmm," she sighed, and settled back on her feet. "Good," she said.

His head followed her down, catching her lips in more chaste, softest of soft kisses. Barest brushes, puckered and sweet, and felt her smile against his lips, clutching his T-shirt and tugging a little at it.

"Don't leave me there alone," she mumbled, her lips interrupted by his puckered ones.

He snorted, lifted his head ever so slightly away and threw her a look. "You will definitely not be alone, Usako." Then he leaned down and pressed another kiss to her mouth.

"I really don't have this fan club you keep speaking about," she said.

He lifted his head again, ever so slightly, just so that he could look her in the eyes and smile at her. Then he brushed his nose against hers.

"Usako, your fan club is right here."

And then she blushed so prettily, and the next kiss was just that sweeter for it.

He was about to let her go (really, he was), when, right behind them, the screaming started.

He sighed hard.

Usagi just shrugged and pulled him away from the side of the shop and into the nearest alley, where he stood guard first and she second, before Tuxedo Mask and Sailor Moon appeared to save the day yet again, with back-up only minutes behind.

These days, it really wasn't such a daunting task.

They'd do this. They'd find this stupid crystal and find this stupid princess and they'd do it all together. There really was nothing they couldn't face together.

Fin

So, this is pretty much the fluffiest shit I ever wrote I think, lol. Or at least a close second. (I think I Pledge Myself To You was even fluffier, ngl, but you know, usually I tend to deal in angst these days lol. It's nice to see this much happy can come out of me too tho, lolol)

(And also, some of you specifically asked for a Mamoru POV chapter – I hope this one fills your need haha!)

Anyway! Giant bout of thanks coming your way, everyone you read and reviewed and supported me through this crazy week! I know it's "just" been a week, but reviewing when a chapter is coming on schedule anyway kinda means the world? Because that means you're reviewing for my benefit, to support me, and not because you're scared the end won't come if you don't? So, I appreciate it so, so much more that you reviewed for me - fanfiction to me is as much about the community and the exchange for me as anything, and hearing from you is pretty much half the deal of this for me, sharing these characters with you that we all love. Now, of after this has been finished and completed! So, THANK YOU!

As is customary by now for all my longer multi-chapters, here's all the reviewers I am allowed to thank as of now, both on FF and Ao3, in more or less the order that I found you when I went back and re-read all of them:

Hobbs87, Mianngu, Tina Century, Kasienda, moonwrite, hopeflutters, KiernaRo, Pia Bartolini, starlight12, sparksofarevolution, The Rogue Girl, jaondm, Zanahana, frenchfan78, Daire123, James Birdsong, Tropical Remix, Buffy fan, Ruk, BetaBlue1, Lady Aya, DarkeneHrt101, Sakura, Ayeilin, sileyerin45, soireeposh, Xfangirl123X, tryntee13, angeljme, Syulai, chocolatito, Madame Sadako, angfdz, Antigone2, Moonlight Usagi-Chan, Anyeline, tinymiko, Cptkitten, Mirax(SaturnnFoxx), Belkacaramelka, em iloveyou d, Deebunny, IamCharlotte88, questions, Rei0ki, Celestrial Cat, Moon Bunny, magical girl la, A Reader, ff9moonie, DistanStorm, LadyRiver9, haruka-usagi-forever, Ashley, phillynz, And i Oop, ambrebastet, tavae themisal1, Guest (2x)

Thank you guys for the support! It means the world! Please stick around, I will be back with a new fic, soon!