#18. Death
DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything except the story.
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Written in response to the "Usagi and Mamoru 100 Themes" challenge. Thank you to those people who have took the time to leave me a review.
I actually had this idea in my head for quite some time already. However, I just could not get into the emotions of this plot to write it. Then listening to A1's 'Heaven By My Side' got me into the mood- but I never knew that my story would end this way. Enjoy.
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"Chiba-kun?"
Mamoru looked up to see one of his classmates smiling down at him. It was Takaaki Ayano, a pretty girl with long raven locks and grey eyes. Mamoru already knew of her interest in him, not that Ayano had bothered to keep it a secret. She was always openly flirting with him, despite the fact that he had diplomatically avoided her and turned her down, time and time again.
"Yes, Takaaki-san?" Mamoru pointedly used a more formal suffix.
"My friends and I-" the girl said, pointing at her group of female friends huddling together not too far away from them, completely ignoring the blatant aura of 'go away' Mamoru was displaying. "-would like to know if you would be interested in attending a goukon we are organising for tomorrow."
"I'm sorry, I already have plans for tomorrow," Mamoru said, smiling gently at the girl. "Maybe another time."
Mamoru collected his things and patting her on the head, as if he was an older brother, he whisked past her. Ayano stood there, stunned, and her hand went to her head to where he had patted her.
"Did he just pat me on my head?!" she raged to her friends. "What does he have on that is more important than a goukon that I'm attending?!"
---
Mamoru walked into the Crown Arcade on Saturday afternoon to see Usagi at her usual spot at the counter, chatting happily with Motoki. He made his way through the usual Saturday crowd to the empty seat next to the blonde.
"Oi, Odango Atama!" Mamoru greeted as he sat down next to her.
"Mamoru-baka!" Usagi greeted back cheerfully.
"Hi Motoki," Mamoru said, greeting his stunned friend. "So how bad did you fail your Math test yesterday?"
Usagi whipped out her test paper from some secret location, proudly displaying the grade scrawled in bold red across the right side of the paper with a wide grin.
"An eighty-seven?" Mamoru said, giving a low whistle. "Not bad for a pea brain."
Usagi gave a small snort. "At least it's a lot better than having an elephant's brain like yours."
"Miss Airhead, elephants are known as one of the more intelligent animals on this planet, for your information."
Usagi rolled her eyes. "Excuse me, Mr. I-Know-It-All. By the way, aren't you supposed to be sitting over there?"
She turned her head towards a group of people comprising of college-aged students, sitting somewhere near the back. The girls of the group were glaring daggers in Usagi's general direction. Mamoru looked around and recognised the girls, one of them being Ayano. Ayano was waving at him eagerly, gesturing that he should get up and immediately move over to the empty seat by her. Mamoru merely nodded at her in acknowledgement before he turned his back towards them.
Usagi raised an eyebrow. "Friends of yours, Mr. Lonesome?"
"Classmates, Ms. Social Butterfly."
"You're not going to go sit with them?"
"Nope," Mamoru said, grinning at her. "I already have a date for today."
Usagi gasped and pressed a hand at her chest. "Oh really? I never thought you were one to remember your dates, Mamoru d'ahou."
"You wound me, cotton candy brain. I never renegade on a promise," Mamoru said, giving Usagi a wry smile.
"Speaking of promises," Usagi said, turning to face the still-stunned Motoki. She smiled cheerfully, saying, "Motoki-niichan, one large strawberry special sundae please, and one combo A meal set. I think I'll also have two slices of the tiramisu cake and one large-sized vanilla sundae. Oh, and Mamoru-baka is paying for them today."
"Do you really have to try to burn a hole through my wallet, you bottomless pit?" Mamoru grumbled good-naturedly. "Just 'cause I said I'd buy you a meal if you got an A for your Math test doesn't mean you're supposed to clean my bank account out. Besides, I'm the one who helped you to get that A."
"At least I didn't ask you to treat me to a full French course meal, okay, you stingy old man," Usagi said, sticking her tongue out at him. "You're the one who wanted to start that bet."
"Wait!" Motoki suddenly yelped out.
Both Mamoru and Usagi turned to look at him, in synchronised time. It freaked Motoki out even more.
"Who are you both and what have you done to my friends?" Motoki said wildly. "You guys just came in here, and-and hurled insults at each other without Usagi storming off! And did I hear correctly when you said Mamoru is going to treat you to a meal after tutoring you for your Math test?!"
"Uh-huh," Usagi said, happily nodding. "Mamoru-buta here said he bet I couldn't get an A in my test. He lost, so he's treating me."
"She's telling the truth, Motoki," Mamoru said, chuckling at his best friend's expression.
Still unable to process what was going on, Motoki proceeded to prepare Usagi's orders without another word, although his mind was still in a whirl and his body was moving by itself automatically. He felt dazed as his ears picked up on Mamoru and Usagi's continuous good-natured, full-of-insults banter. He set the orders in front of Usagi robotically, still staring at her as if she had grown an extra head.
"Thanks, Motoki-niichan," Usagi said, cheerfully. "Itadakimasu!"
Mamoru shook his head at Usagi, watching her dig into the huge amount of food. He was still amazed that a tiny girl like her could polish off enough food to feed three Sumo wrestlers. Motoki watched with wide eyes as his best friend smiled fondly at the girl next to him. How had he missed this development? When did it even start in the first place?
"My usual black, Motoki," Mamoru ordered, still smiling at the blonde next to him.
Well, that didn't change. Motoki frowned as he placed the steaming mug of coffee in front of Mamoru. The few girls that had entered after Mamoru was currently making their way over to them, and their faces were not looking too pleasant right then.
"Chiba-kun," Ayano greeted silkily, completely ignoring Usagi's presence. She stood so that she was partially blocking Mamoru's view of Usagi.
"Takaaki-san," Mamoru greeted back, his face suddenly turning to stone. "What can I do for you?"
"We just wanted to see if you would like to join us at the table over there," Ayano said, smiling at him.
"You will have to excuse me, Takaaki-san. I believe I did mention I have a date today," Mamoru said coolly.
Ayano turned slightly to glance at Usagi who was calmly sipping her milkshake. She smiled snidely and said, "And this would be your sister, I presume?"
"Really, Takaaki-san," Mamoru said, a hint of laughter in his voice. "I think you must have a visit to the optometrist. In what way does she look like me? No, she's not my sister."
"A distant relative, perhaps?"
"Very distant, Takaaki-san. So distant that it would seem she was from the Moon while I'm stuck on Earth," Mamoru said, the laughter behind his voice was hardly concealed now. "Actually, she's my fiancée."
"What!"
Usagi could not hold back her laughter anymore. She burst out laughing.
"You- you're engaged to this- this fifteen-year-old child?!" Ayano managed to splutter out.
"Sixteen actually," Usagi said, standing up. Smiling, she held out her left hand in an attempt to shake hands with the stunned Ayano. "Nice to meet you, I'm Tsukino Usagi, soon to be Chiba Usagi."
Motoki's eyes widened as he saw the glint of Usagi's engagement ring. How had he managed to miss that?!
Ayano merely stared at Usagi's hand blankly. "What?" she said, completely unable to comprehend the circumstance.
Usagi smiled gently at the older girl, her eyes reflecting a thousand years' worth of wisdom. She suddenly looked a lot more matured, a lot more ethereal. She said softly, "It would mean a lot to me if you would wish us a good future together. You're the first we told after all."
"I- I," Ayano stuttered. She felt like the core of her had been pierced by Usagi's gaze. She finally sighed and smiled, defeated. "Congratulations. May you have all the happiness that you should have."
"Thank you," Usagi said, smiling with the smile of a woman who knew things beyond her age.
Ayano walked away with her friends in tow, after giving Mamoru a sad smile and a quiet congratulations.
---
"Ayano! How could you give up so easily! That was so obviously a lie!"
Ayano turned to her friend and shook her head. "No, that was no lie. I never had a chance in the first place. The two of them- did you see that? They do not belong here with us."
"Ayano, are you so shocked about the news that you're spouting nonsense now?" Her friend looked worriedly at her.
"No, I just realised there are some things that are meant to be, things that we will never understand. Her eyes made me realise it," Ayano said, smiling at her friend. "She has the eyes of a girl who has wisdom beyond her age."
"Huh?!"
"Please excuse me," Ayano said, smiling at the group gathered at the table. "I must take my leave now."
"Ayano!"
Ayano did not look back as she walked out of the shop.
---
"Since when have you two been in love with each other?!" Motoki asked, bewildered. This had to be the weirdest day in his life.
Again, Mamoru and Usagi were synchronised when they turned to look at him.
"Who said we were in love?" Usagi questioned.
"But-," Motoki showed a confused face. "You're engaged! Shouldn't you be in love?!"
"We are not in love," Mamoru said, firmly.
"Then?!"
"We just have an unbreakable, unexplainable bond," Usagi said, shrugging carelessly, as if that answered the question.
"A bond that exists 'till death do us part," Mamoru said, grinning.
Motoki felt like his brain was about to explode.
---
Twenty years later:
It had been a large funeral. The people in the church were the ones who had their lives lightened up by this one girl, and now they felt that a bleak hole had appeared within them. Many thought that it was so unfair that her life had been snuffed out so early.
"I'm sorry for your loss, Mamoru," Motoki told his best friend quietly.
Mamoru smiled tiredly at his friend. "Thank you."
Usagi had died saving the world, but no one here except the few who were involved knew. The Silver Moon Crystal had not been able to save her this time. Although most of the people here thought that Usagi had died at the young age of thirty-six, her true anatomical age was twenty-one. She had stopped aging as soon as she reached her twenty-first birthday. The very same ignorant people now were staring at her husband, a virile forty-year-old who did not look a day older then when he did at twenty-five, their gazes full of pity and concern.
"'Till death do we part?" Mamoru murmured. "It won't be that easy to lose me, Odango Atama. I'll come find you as soon as my time is up."
---
"I'm so bored!" Usagi wailed.
Her death had not been painful, Usagi remembered. When she had come to conciousness, she found herself in this place where she is now- a place that was also known as the limbo area, where souls lived before they were reincarnated into their next life. There was nothing to do here except to wander around, to mingle with the other thousands of souls here. It was rare, almost unheard of; that the spirits would meet the spirits of the people they knew in their past lives when they were still living in any of the worlds. This was the place where new planets and new star seeds were born, recreated or recycled from those that had died and returned here.
"Mamoru-baka," Usagi whispered. "I miss you, you idiot. It's boring here without you."
---
And when Mamoru had lived his full life-span, he died with a peaceful smile on his face. Those who knew him well knew he was off to find the one girl he loved with his entire being.
---
"Oi, Odango Atama."
Usagi turned around, unable to stop the tears prickling her eyelids from flowing. "Took you long enough, Mamoru-baka."
Mamoru snorted. "Not like you bothered to search for me."
"Not like I knew when you were arriving," Usagi said, mimicking his tone. "'Sides, I thought it was 'till death do us part."
"Yeah, right," Mamoru said. "As if I would just let you lose me that easily. I didn't say I won't come find you after Death parted us, did I?"
Usagi did not say anything. She stood there with tears streaming down her cheeks, her hands wrangled together.
"Come here."
And Usagi ran into Mamoru's arms, returning to where she belonged.
---
- END -