This is a present for Floraone, who requested a Mamoru-pining fic! She does the best ones, but hey, two cakes, right?

This is in the Royal Pain universe (the 'where the heck is Endymion anyway?' universe), so I added it as a chapter BUT it's a prequel. It takes places BEFORE Royal Pain but in the same universe. This is an AU I want to come back to again and again. And I hope other writers pick it up too!

I hope you love it.

As Mamoru climbed the steps of the Hikawa Shrine, the sun was already turning the city sky a smazy orange as it began to set behind the towering Tokyo buildings. A breeze picked up and he followed the impressions it left upon him - fried food and car exhaust and a tinge of cigarette smoke - and then the familiar, floral scent of Rei's shrine. A welcome knot of nature in the concrete world.

The emotions swirling out from the girls were mostly peaceful - the unspecific mental noise that let Mamoru know there hadn't been any new attacks, no new leads on Endymion - nothing to create the tense, tight feeling that he'd come to dread.

"Look who's the late one today!" The familiar voice washed over him as soon as he stepped through the door, and he couldn't help mentally reaching out - just a little - and curling her emotions to him. Satisfaction, nervousness, energy, hope, hurt - Usagi felt everything so strongly and openly it was hard to make sense of anything but it was so achingly and completely her that he didn't stop himself from breathing it in like an intoxicating perfume. No one else could experience her quite like this. Not even Endymion, came a treacherous thought, one that he tried to swallow down.

"How's the view from that glass house?" he quipped, looking up at Usagi's disgruntled expression as he bent to remove his shoes.

She narrowed her sky-blue eyes and twisted her strawberry lips into a mock pout. "Baka…" she muttered, shifting her gaze and flexing her fingers into her skirt.

Rei had already started in on Usagi. "At least he had a good reason!" she said. "Unlike someone I could mention who just waltzes in at whatever time she wants because 'I fell asleep on the train again'."

"Oh, sorry, were you out saving kittens or something?" Usagi asked him, and Mamoru raised an eyebrow.

"Study group," he said, anticipating her disgusted look at the mention of anything related to higher learning. She did not disappoint, sticking out her perfect pink tongue in a gagging reflex. Mamoru forced his gaze to the window. "Turns out medical school is, like, hard work or whatever," he said, the mocking tone in his voice coming out warmer than he'd meant.

"Better you than me." Seated, her hair fell to the floor, butter-gold tresses striking against the dark wood of the floor.

Before that fateful night at Osaka's Jewelry store, Mamoru could count the times he left study group early on one hand. Now, it felt like he was always rushing out - to fight monsters, sure, but also just as often to catch the right bus to a certain Shinto shrine. It was his duty, his birthright, to aid Sailor Moon and the senshi in any way he could while they defended the city against the last of Beryl's minions set loose after her death and revive the Earth Prince she'd hidden away. The senshi meetings were a way to strategize and stay informed, to lend whatever help he could with the mysterious almost-psychic powers he could tap into.

But deep down he knew it wasn't duty alone that tied him invariably to the senshi. The pull that had him climbing the stairs to the shrine every two weeks, that propelled him into battle from the depths of sleep, was inevitably and unendingly tied to that one person whom he had no right to covet.

The meeting business was conducted quickly, nothing new to report; Mamoru hated the sense of relief that came with the news that they were no closer to finding Endymion. He should want to free his prince, after all.

"Before you all leave," Luna said, giving Usagi - who was already gathering her things- a pointed look, "since we are all here, Minako and I thought it might be a good idea to run through some training today."

Usagi gave Minako a look of the deepest, most utter betrayal. Mamoru quickly turned a laugh into a cough.

"Okay. So. Um." Minako bounced to her feet, totally unfazed by her princess' glare. "Today we are going to do a self-defense maneuver that can be used to free your arms to transform if you were attacked before you were able to."

She waved Makoto over, and had the taller girl wrap Minako in a hug-hold from behind. "What you wanna do," Makoto said, keeping her hands loose around Minako, "is grab my arm here, and then use my own bodyweight against me by pulling me over…" She slowly went through the move herself a couple times. "Got it?"

"Okay," Luna said, "Rei and Minako practice with Mamoru. Ami and Usagi, practice with Makoto."

Dutifully, Mamoru stood behind Minako and locked her in a stronghold. For a while, he was occupied by working with the blonde on various movements and actions - she was strong and quick but the nuances of the movement took some getting used to for her, she kept wanting to just push him and kick him out of the way (he carefully dodged a few errant elbows and knees).

"That'll work in a pinch, Mina," Makoto piped up from across the room, her arms latched tightly around Usagi's shoulders, seemingly not noticing the little blonde struggling helplessly against her grip, "but you want to get the movement we practiced just right, because you don't know if the enemy will have armor or super strength or who knows what else."

Usagi gave up the ghost and let herself drop into Makoto's hold as the brunette continued to give pointers. Blue eyes shifted to Mamoru, and he dropped his gaze.

Then Mamoru found himself completely distracted by making sure Rei Hino didn't ACTUALLY hurt him, because she was good. Twisted out of his grasp with speed and agility, hitting his wrist at exactly the right place to make his fingers go limp, even falling to the ground and kicking him down via his ankles.

He couldn't help but laugh at the half-proud, half-shocked and apologetic look on the priestess' face as he looked up at her from the tatami mat floor. "Damn, Rei," he said, impressed as hell and it showed in his voice.

To his left, Makoto was helping Ami, who seemed to be getting the hang of it, albeit slowly. Next to them, Usagi's face was red and eyes bright with unshed tears. At his look, she narrowed her eyes and turned away, radiating clear frustration and anger. He figured she must be annoyed Rei had gotten the move so easily while she was still struggling with it.

Mamoru did all he could to block out the spiky jabs of Usagi's vexation from his mind, and the rest of the training moved relatively quickly.

Stepping outside the shrine building, Mamoru shook out his t-shirt a little, letting the evening air cool his sweaty skin. Usagi was ahead of him, sitting on the stairs, balling up the fabric of her skirt her in hands. She was still wearing a disgruntled pout, and the words left Mamoru's mouth before he even realized he was saying them.

"Did you want to practice some more with me?"

Usagi didn't like practicing things, she didn't like hard work, and she certainly didn't like physical exercise. But apparently she liked showing up Rei. Wiping the tears from her eyes with a violent swipe of her wrist, she nodded.

In a small clearing near the mottled shade of a large tree, Usagi shrugged off her jean jacket and eyed Mamoru warily. She was wearing a tank dress, as Minako had been firm that no one would be conveniently in workout clothing when attacked, so she made them all practice in their street clothes.

Mamoru stepped behind her, clearing his throat awkwardly. "So, I noticed Makoto was holding you pretty tight and it might be better to practice… with, uh, a looser hold." He put his arms out and around her without even brushing the warmth of her skin. He realized his breath was stirring the fine blonde hairs by her ear, and tried to hold his breath.

"But the enemy won't be easy on me," Usagi said, her voice clearly mimicking Minako from earlier. Her hair smelled like vanilla and strawberries.

Mamoru swallowed. "No, but you can't fight the level 10 boss on level one, right?"

She twisted her mouth a bit, pert little nose just an inch from his collarbone when she twisted her body to face him as best she could. "Did you just attempt a video game metaphor with me?"

The breathy laughter came easily to him, she was just so damn… cute. Her eyes narrowed and hardened with determination before she faced forward again, shifting her weight on her feet inside her pink Converse sneakers.

"Okay," she said, tensing. "Ready."

"So what you want to do is grab my arm here," he said, gesturing to his wrist. Tentatively, small fingers wrapped around his wrist at the pulse point, warm and soft. "Then pull it over-" He moved his own body over and down as Usagi pulled and watched a light of understanding break through the stubborn annoyance in her eyes.

He smiled. "See? Want to try again?"

She gave a quick, firm nod - Sailor Moon shining out through Usagi's eyes in that way Mamoru couldn't get enough of. It took a few times for her to get the movements without twisting the wrong way or forgetting which hand to pull so she'd end up curled around and facing him, nose to shirt, one foot between his two.

"Do it tighter this time," she said, after she'd gotten the move fairly down. Blue eyes were focused, brows taught, cheeks tinged a breathless pink as she spun around so her back faced him, ready for his arms.

There were tiny beads of sweat on the tender skin of her neck, under the heart-point of her hairline. Her dress back dipped in a v-shape, revealing the dip of her shoulder blades as she tensed her arms in readiness. He'd only have to dip his head to taste the salt of her skin. His princess. The princess.

Mamoru shuttered his heart closed and wrapped his arms around Usagi tightly, no mercy this time, as if he was the enemy after all, claiming the princess for his own.

She arched her back, grabbed his wrist with both her hands and pulled as hard as she could, letting out a grunt as she caught her weight on her back foot and Mamoru stumbled back.

"Yey!" She jumped, clapping her hands. "I did it!"

He felt his lips pull into a half-smile, shaking his head slightly at her antics. "Good job, Usako."

"One more time!" she said, turning so fast her pigtails flung against his chest and face.

Usagi pulled his arm so suddenly and strongly that she actually knocked his distracted form onto the ground, with less finesse than Rei, sure, but with no less force when his bottom hit the ground with an undignified "oof."

And in true Usagi fashion, she overshot her momentum and tumbled right down on him, too. His reflexes kicked in and his hands caught her sides, just under her arms, and her palms landed on either side of his head, fingers digging into the dusty ground.

When he played this scene back in his head later - Usagi looking at him in shock, breathless and pink-faced and framed by a waterfall of golden hair around her face - that was when he kissed her. Moved a hand from her side to her face, all soft skin and softer hair, and tugged her down to him, and finally pressed his desperate, pining, unworthy lips to hers.

Her knees scraped against the ground as she adjusted herself over him, lips on his, arms slowly bending until her body was pressed against his, his arms sliding back over her shoulders, thumbs on the skin of her neck, sweet perfume and salty sweat and her soft little moans and the feel of her warm hands on his belly as he rolled them over ...

Looking back, that's the scene he'd play in his mind, and hate himself for it.

In reality, Usagi had looked at him with vulnerable, surprised eyes, her breath coming in quick little spurts, and his hands suddenly burned on the sides of her body and he gently but quickly pushed her up and off, jamming a hand into his hair (instead of hers) and saying he thought she'd definitely improved.

He didn't invite her out for a celebratory ice cream. He didn't offer to walk her home.

He stayed under the tree by the shrine, waiting for Rei to find him and kick him out, (or ask what was wrong, or give him some company,) but she never came to find him, and in the end he walked down the steps of Hikawa Shrine just as the moon rose over the Tokyo skyline.