"We're going to go get something to eat. Bye, Mamo-chan!"
Mamoru didn't actually have a chance to respond to that as he heard the drove of chatting, giggling voices suddenly silenced by the door slamming behind them. He remained stiff, dreading the idea that one of them had forgotten their lipstick or their hairbrush or some other female accoutrement they could not possibly survive without. When fifteen seconds passed, he finally let his shoulders sag, the air racing out of his lungs. Before he knew it, his knees had given way, and he collapsed on the couch.
He didn't know what made him think it was a good idea for him to pack up his things to move into the new apartment on the one day out of the week that none of his male acquaintances could come over to help. No, Mamoru had thought the girls would be sufficient at the art of sorting, packing, carrying… They were more than capable. How many times had they saved the universe from certain destruction now? Surely nothing could possibly go wrong when it came to the simple art of moving him out.
Mamoru couldn’t believe he had been so stupid.
“Locked in a tiny apartment with five women going through my things…” he muttered to himself, covering his eyes with his hands. “What was I thinking? God, what was I thinking?”
Thankfully, they had deemed it necessary to go get food. He briefly considered being annoyed that he hadn’t been invited, but they had probably found some highly amusing token of his childhood he hadn’t thought to hide along with those magazines he didn’t want Usagi to see. He was lucky by way of the fact that his childhood had been spent in an orphanage that wasn’t particularly big on sentimentality, but there could have been something that escaped his memory.
He didn’t know what he had to look forward to when they got back, but he knew he could handle it. He had at least an hour and a half to recoup, unwind, and relax without a female presence.
Mamoru let his hand fall from his face, his fingertips trailing the carpet. He turned his head and saw a very familiar gold, sequined bag lying on one of the chairs on the opposite side of the room. It was Minako’s. He knew it because Artemis was constantly complaining about its hypnotic quality. Mamoru hadn’t quite understood what he meant until that moment when he looked at it through half-lidded eyes, the gold sparkles dancing across the wall and in front of his hazy vision.
“Shiny….” Mamoru observed drowsily. Then he realized the implications of the purse still being there, and he sprung himself to his feet. Minako was the last person he wanted wandering around his apartment unsupervised. She had radar for anything remotely sexual, and if she found that very special box Usagi wasn’t allowed to see… well, he would either be killed or cut off for a very long time. He wasn’t a huge fan of either prospect.
“Minako,” he called out, looking around to find a trace of the blonde. “Are you still here?”
He eventually found her in his bedroom, staring at something on his desk. Mamoru felt positive that he had told all of them to stay out of his desk for one very important reason, but he should have known better than to even mention it. He should have kept his mouth shut and kept an eye on Minako, because if anyone was going to ignore him and go looking for hidden porn, it would be her. Unfortunately, she had found something worse. Much worse.
“Minako,” he said evenly, gripping the doorframe with his left hand. He feels his knuckles press up against the thin, translucent skin of his hand. His fingers ached against the wood crowning.
She turned, her blue eyes strangely cold. He had seen that look before, but he’d never been on the receiving end before. And she’d never been in civilian guise before. She had only given that look clad in orange fuku and a golden tiara on her brow, always just before she attacked. It unsettled him in more ways than one.
“How long?” she asked him hoarsely.
Mamoru looked back to the little mahogany box sitting open on his desk. From where he was standing, he could see the four stones lined up next to each other in a solemn, silent row. It made him uneasy, just looking at those stones laid bare to the cruel air without their spirits standing before him. In that moment, the four stones looked like cemetery markers, and he supposed they were in their own way. After all, it wasn’t as if they had plots. Or bodies for that matter. They didn’t have the luxury of corpses.
“Min--" he started, his tone scolding and placating at once, as if speaking to an angry child.
“How long?” she repeated, her voice steeled for any answer he was going to give her.
Mamoru walked forward, intent on shutting the box, but Minako stopped. She moved in front of him, and even though he still towered over her, she had suddenly become a very intimidating presence. Something about her stance and the set of her mouth brought him to a halt, even made him step back to where he had been. He wondered if perhaps it was because he had seen her kill, seen her wield terrifying amounts of power. But deep inside, he knew that even if he had never met her before, he would balk at pushing past her.
He felt helpless, wanting nothing more than to move those stones away from her. Of course, it was probably silly of him to want to protect them. If they thought she posed any threat to them, they would materialize. For the time being at least, they remained dormant.
“How long have I had a rock collection?” Mamoru asked lamely. “I really fail to see--"
“Just because I’m blonde doesn’t mean you get to insult my intelligence, Mamoru,” Minako snapped. “You’re a better man than that. I know what… who they are, and I want to know how long you’ve had them.”
Mamoru briefly considered trying to carry on with the lie but decided against it. Minako’s tense posture and twitching did not bode well. He’d be willing to bet that she was having a hard time not lashing out at him physically, a reaction he would not have associated with her before that moment. He didn’t want to make things worse. So he took a step back and sighed. “Four years now.”
Minako’s eyes widened in disbelief. “You mean… You’ve had them since-- Beryl died?” Her gaze briefly flickered back to the box where the four stones lay.
Mamoru caught the slight hesitation and wondered if she had almost said ‘since I killed Beryl.’
He ran a hand through his hair and said, “Before that. I… found them when I was still possessed and put them in my pocket. They’re what kept me from dying back then.”
Minako stared at him, her glossy lips hanging open slightly. Several long moments passed before her position changed. Then she laughed, turning her back on him to look at the box again. She rested her hands on the edge of the furniture, her arms caging in the four Shitennou. Her head bent in a way that made his neck ache in sympathy, her gold hair spilling over her shoulders. They shook a bit, and he suddenly wasn’t sure if she was laughing or crying or why she would be crying if she was.
“When were you planning on telling us?”
Mamoru opened his mouth and closed it again. It was best if he didn’t simply answer this question flippantly. Not only did she deserve a better explanation then what he had nearly said, but she would demand a better one if he didn’t take her seriously.
“Never,” he answered finally. “I knew what you’d do if you found out.”
She snorted. “Do you see me doing anything to them?”
Mamoru hesitated before answering. “I’m not exactly comfortable with you being that close to them.”
Minako laughed, and this time, he knew she was laughing at him. “Please. If they thought I was at all dangerous, they would be out already, weapons brandished and surrounding you.” She repeated what he had already known, and a part of him was glad that she knew that and another didn’t know how she had known that.
“All the same, would you mind moving?” he asked, knowing that he probably shouldn’t be making requests of her at this time.
Indeed, she tensed at his words. Still, after a moment, she obliged and walked away from the desk. She did not turn around to face him, just moved over to the window. Her hair guarded her face from his eyes.
After a moment, she lifted her hand to touch the glass, her fingertips lightly brushing against the clear material as if touching something else entirely. She took a deep breath and said, “They’re important to you then?”
Mamoru’s temper flared. “Of course they’re important to me. Aren’t you important to Usako?”
Minako tensed again. He could tell by the way her hand suddenly stopped moving and then curled into a fist. “It shouldn’t be the same.”
“What are you talking about?” Mamoru asked, nearly yelling at her. “They’re my guard. They’re supposed to protect me.”
Minako scoffed in disgust. “Yes, and they’ve done such a good job of that up to this point. They’ve betrayed you twice, tried to kill you on several occasions, and haven’t done much to protect you since you’ve found them. I’ve saved you more times than they have.”
“You don’t know anything!” Mamoru shouted, wanting to grab her and shake her, but holding his ground. Laying hands on her would not end well for either of them, and he was certain that it would turn out far worse for him. “They’re good now! They--"
“And you believe that because they told you?” she snapped, still refusing to look at him. “That’s awfully naïve of you.”
“It’s rather cynical of you not to give them a chance,” Mamoru countered, his forehead creasing painfully. “I always thought you were more optimistic about--"
“Not when it comes to them!” Minako countered, her hand hitting the glass loudly. “Never when it comes to them.”
Mamoru laughed mirthlessly, utterly disbelieving at the madness that was erupting around him. “Unbelievable… Minako, this has nothing to do with you. Why do you even care? If they were going to hurt me, they would have done it by now.”
“Why do I even…” she repeated softly. After a moment of silence, she made a sound, her shoulders lurching a bit, her back curving in. Now Mamoru was certain she was crying. “God, you really don’t have a clue, do you?”
Mamoru sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “You know, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard one of you girls say that, and frankly, it does nothing to improve the situation. Why don’t you just tell me what’s so horrible about me not mentioning this to you?”
“Are you really that stupid?” Minako asked bluntly. “How many times has Usagi been here alone with them? Just because you think they’re good doesn’t mean they are.”
Mamoru looked over at the box when he saw a few tiny flicker-flares. He wasn’t sure how, but she seemed to sense this even though her back was turned. He couldn’t see her, but he could sense her rolling her eyes. “Oh, have I insulted their honor now?”
“Why are you so bitter about this?” Mamoru snapped. “You killed two of them. Wasn’t that enough to work out your aggressions on them?” He couldn’t help but be slightly resentful of her for that. Of course, all the Senshi shared equal blame in Kunzite’s demise, and Mars and Jupiter had taken care of Jadeite and Nephrite respectively. Still, he’d always seemed to resent Venus just a bit more. Perhaps it had something to do with her brief masquerade as Serenity. He would probably never be certain.
“Oh, don’t you dare blame me for that!” Minako yelled, finally turning to face him. He blanched at the look on her face. He couldn’t remember when he’d ever seen her look so pained… tortured… even betrayed. She had indeed been crying, evidenced by her bloodshot eyes and the tear tracks he could see glittering on her cheeks. Her eyebrows were furrowed, her jaw clenched and shaking as she tried to keep from crying any more in front of him. She wasn’t doing the best job of it. “I was protecting Serenity! If I hadn’t done anything, Usagi would have died, you’d probably be Beryl’s love slave, and the Shitennou certainly wouldn’t give a damn about it. You don’t get to yell at me for doing my job. Which is more than what they did.”
“You don’t know what you’re--" he began, seething.
“No, you don’t know what you’re talking about!” Minako raged, interrupting him. “You don’t have any idea what you’ve done! No idea at all!”
Mamoru sighed, thoroughly exasperated. Why could she not say what she meant when he wanted her to? “Then tell me! What is so horrible about what I’ve done?” She opened her mouth to speak, and he somehow knew what route she was going to go. He held up his hands and said, “And you don’t get to use Usako as an excuse. We both know that you’re taking this personally, and I want to know why.”
Minako stared at him for a moment, now confronted with the possibility of having to say something she’d obviously been avoiding ever since he’d walked in. Her eyes shut tightly, turning away from him. Her hand gripped the windowsill as she ground out, “That is none of your business, Mamoru.”
He felt very much like ripping his hair out. “No. You don’t get to be this angry with me and not tell me why.”
She looked up, blue eyes flashing dangerously. “And you don’t get to demand things of me. I don’t answer to you.”
Mamoru didn’t know where he got the courage to walk forward, closing the distance between Minako and him. He would later thing that it wasn’t courage – it was actually just temporary insanity, but the result was still the same. “You’re not taking that way out of this, Minako. I deserve to know what’s going on.”
“Just like I deserved to know about this?” she countered acidly. “You didn’t see fit to tell me about Kun—the Shitennou. So you don’t get to hear my reasons.”
Minako started to push past him, but he wasn’t going to let her go that easily. He grabbed her arm, trying not to hold on too tight, but it was hard not to given how surprisingly strong she was. She looked up at him, not the slightest bit afraid. “What do you think you’re—"
“Tell me,” he reiterated.
“It’s personal,” she hissed, as if that was actually an answer. “Now let go of me.”
Mamoru shook his head, staring directly at her even as her eyes darted around wildly, looking for an escape. “Not until you tell me.”
Minako struggled a bit, holding back for fear of hurting him. Mamoru knew full well that if she chose to, she could do him some serious damage. At the moment, he was counting on her restraint, which was clearly wearing thin. She looked up, eyes blazing and jaw tight. “Mamoru, if you don’t let go of me, so help me, I will--"
“They’re my guard, Minako,” Mamoru interrupted. “And I need to know what is going on.”
Minako gave it one last good yank before making her decision. She nodded darkly and said, “Fine. But don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
Mamoru would never be certain of what Minako’s intentions were. He would remember how her muscles all seemed to simultaneously twitch and how any reservations about hurting him vanished from her face within a few seconds. But mostly he remembered how fully and abruptly she stopped all of that when Kunzite’s voice rang out.
“That’s enough.”
She whipped around so violently that she managed to pry herself loose from Mamoru’s grasp. Mamoru caught sight of her face as she spun and actually felt some physical pain. He could do it no justice in description, but in order to make it understandable in his mind, it seemed to be some three-way mix of terror, fury, and… something he couldn’t identify that was entirely unlike the other two.
He turned to face Kunzite, not quite a ghost but not nearly alive either. There Mamoru saw the same expression Minako had reflected back on his face but with such subtlety that it was almost imperceptible.
“That’s enough, Venus,” Kunzite intoned, his voice rumbling deeply within his chest. Kunzite carried himself with his usual practiced, rational calm, but there was something in him that seemed almost wild in that moment. “You’ve made your point.”
Mamoru could tell by how her lips pressed together that Minako was desperate to say something. As much as she had vented, she still hadn’t expressed her degree of rage at the Shitennou for whatever it is they had done to her. He could tell that she desperately wanted to redirect all her fury at Kunzite, finding him much more deserving of it than Mamoru.
But there was also something in Minako’s posture that seemed reminiscent of a chastised adolescent – ashamed, bested, and absolutely hating the feeling. She held Kunzite’s gaze for a few moments, seeming to become more enraged with each passing second. Eventually, she dropped it altogether, unable to look at the leader of the Shitennou. She started shaking like a leaf, looking as if she wanted to cry, collapse, or die. But she would not allow herself to. Not at that moment. Not with them watching.
Or maybe just not with Kunzite watching.
And suddenly, Mamoru felt that he understood everything. He looked up at Kunzite in alarm, noting that the Shitennou seemed pained to see the golden girl in her state. He could collect himself enough only enough to say three words.
“Oh, my God.”
Seconds later, Mamoru heard the door open, and he felt that perhaps that statement had been premature.
“Honestly, Usagi. Can’t you keep track of your cell phone?”
“I must have forgotten to put it back in my purse after talking to Daddy.”
“I don’t see why you couldn’t have just survived without it for an hour.”
“That would be like going an hour without food, eh, Usagi?”
The voices of the four girls seemed to be enough to remind Minako that she had the power to move. Without a word or lifting her eyes from the floor, Minako turned and walked out of the room, her arms curling around her chest seconds before her shoulders hitched painfully. Mamoru glanced between the two leaders before going after her. It left Kunzite alone in the room, and Mamoru had a feeling that the man wasn’t going to move from his spot. If one knew, then the others might as well.
Minako emerged in the living room to an instantly sympathetic Usagi. The lost cell phone was forgotten in an instant as his fiancée ran to her best friend’s side. “Minako! What’s wrong?"
Mamoru followed after the blondes, interrupting Usagi. He laid a hand on Minako’s elbow, more to stop her than to comfort, though he made sure his touch was gentle. “Minako, I--"
Minako tore her arm away from him so violently that she nearly hit Usagi. “Don’t you dare touch me!” Her voice erupted from her mouth like black oil from a well, wild and uncontrollable. Apparently, her speechlessness didn’t extend so far as when she was out of Kunzite’s sight.
With that, Minako gathered her things and ran for the door, pushing past the other three girls before any of them had a chance to make sense of what was happening. Only Rei didn’t reach out to her, staring in the direction Minako had come from, her eyes narrowed. Mamoru knew that she could sense them, and he also knew better than to try and stop her at this point. He could do little more than cradle his head in his hands, wondering if he should feel guilty or if Minako had just beaten him into it.
“Mako, go after Minako,” Rei instructed coolly. “You’re the only one with any hope of catching up with her. Don’t bring her back here.”
Makoto hesitated for a moment, but she quickly found Rei’s words sound enough. She nodded, giving Mamoru a strange look before she jogged out the door, prematurely calling Minako’s name.
With the brunette gone, Rei wasted no time in glaring at Mamoru. “I sense others,” she said simply, walking forward to his bedroom without another word.
He blinked at first, when he realized that her assessment was likely correct. The other Shitennou had probably emerged when they heard the others come in. Frankly, he’d been surprised that Nephrite hadn’t leapt to his defense the moment that Minako had started in on him. Perhaps Jadeite and Zoisite had held him back for as long as they could and come out with him once he overpowered them.
“Others?” Ami asked curiously, following on Rei’s heels.
Only Usagi remained at his side, latching on to his elbow once everyone else was gone. Her eyes were wide with bewilderment and sympathy. “Mamo-chan, why is Minako so upset? I mean, she seemed weird when we told her were going out, saying she wasn’t hungry and didn’t want to leave…. Did you two have a fight or something?”
Mamoru dragged a weary hand down his face. “Or something.”
“Usagi,” Rei called tightly. “Get in here. And bring Mamoru.”
She was briefly taken aback by Rei’s terseness, but quickly obliged, dragging Mamoru out of force of habit. When they came to the doorway, she stopped, her mouth falling open in a loud gasp, her free hand flying to her mouth.
Standing in front of his desk, were the four Shitennou, looking as proud and able as they had ever been. In spite of all of their physical shortcomings, they still looked powerful enough to face any enemy in the name of their Master and his fallen kingdom. Pensive Zoisite, violent Nephrite, cynical Jadeite, and resilient Kunzite. Just the same as they had always been.
And facing them was shocked Usagi, calculating Ami, taut Rei, and guilty Mamoru. Rei, who had sensed their presence just as soon as she had known something was wrong, stepped in front of the others, elegantly posed and ready for battle if it was necessary. She kept her back to Mamoru, facing the four men whom she had fought against and killed two times over.
“It seems that we’ve been kept out of the loop,” she voiced rigidly. “I strongly suggest that someone rectify that immediately.”
Kunzite looked at Mamoru, expecting him to explain things. Mamoru wanted nothing more than to pass it on to one of his men, but Kunzite didn’t allow him that luxury. He was capable of doing it and so he would do it. He never came to Mamoru’s aid until just before it was necessary.
Mamoru heaved a long sigh. “What do you want to know?” he asked quietly, opening his eyes to face Rei’s accusing, fiery gaze. And when he did that, he couldn’t help but relax a little. It might have been hard to believe, but after the confrontation with Minako, facing Hino Rei was a relief.
He would tell them, and they would never understand what he had done, but he almost felt better letting it out. It had been a strange secret to keep. Sometimes he’d caught himself staring at the closed drawer as Usagi lay next to him in bed, and we wondered if he should saw something. He never had. Now he didn’t have a choice.
He didn’t mind laying the secret to rest – the secret of the dead men that had no graves.
