Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Watch me Shine ❯ Chapter 2

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Hello all! Well I finally, FINALLY did a massive overhaul on one of my webpages and I added a ton of new mp3's and just started adding galleries so check them out eh? Anyway, la vie en Japon: well let me see…the price of produce here is unreal and expensive. Out of necessity and the fact that I can't afford meat, I have become vegetarian. I am loving their noodles here though, I think because so many people eat them they are really good. You wouldn't think noodles would taste all that good, but they are, especially when you live off them and plain white rice. Anyone know how long until you get scurvy? Anyway, here is the much requested chapter 2 to 'Watch me Shine' I hope you are enjoying it as I am loving writing this one. I feel closer to this one that in my other stories, with the exception of 'Lead me not into Temptation' 'Try to resist' and 'What else can I do'. I guess these are really personal stories for me. So enough rambling and on with the story! Standard disclaimers, read and review but be kind! No flames! Lots of ideas!! Angry at Fanfic.net!!!




Usagi debated. She pondered. She decided to keep silent. She would not tell Mamoru about being adopted or thrown out of her home. She would endure the hardship with a grace and maturity no one would have ever given her credit for. She unconsciously reached for her broach, her hand closing on air. She winced as she sighed sadly. She couldn't believe how much she missed that one little piece of jewellery. She knew full well that she had been given no choice, if she had not handed it
over to Rei, she would have taken it by force as she had tried to do in the past, thinking Usagi had not noticed. Rei would use her ginzuishou, polluting it if you thought of it that way, trying to harness its' powers for her own and she would pay the price for turning on her Princess. It was out of Usagi's hands now, for the ginzuishou knew it's owner and it knew that the Senshi of Fire was not it's mistress. Usagi gave a small smile of satisfaction - if nothing else Rei would learn a lesson about taking things that didn't belong to her.


The wheels of cosmic justice turned determinedly and Rei was due for judgement and punishment. Not even Usagi's most ferverent and impassioned pleas would stop what Rei had set in motion, if she had so desired to intervene. Chibi Usa remained convinced that she could wield the ginzuishou, she too would pay the price for her betrayal, if not in this time then soon in the future. Usagi didn't know why it hurt so much - her daughter had hated her from the first moment she laid eyes on her and her hatred had grown worse with age. She had openly derided Usagi for how she handled Galaxia, calling her a pure baka for not realizing Mamoru was killed sooner, then demanding to know why Usagi had had a love affair with Seiya. No amount of denial on her part could change Chibi Usa's mind on that point and Usagi knew that Mamoru privately agreed with her.


She recognized this strangeness for what it was - Usagi didn't believe in coincidences - that there was a different power at work. She knew she was adopted - if she searched deep enough in her heart she had known the truth for years and was
filled with a burning urge to know who her real mother was. Shingo would blurt the truth to Chibi Usa who would tell the senshi who would tell Mamoru - so in the end Usagi wouldn't have to say a word. She would let her silence speak for her. Smiling at the receptionist who greeted her, she drew in a breath. This was it, her first steps into adulthood. "I'm Tsukino Usagi and I have an appointment to view an apartment."


"Of course Tsukino-sama." The receptionist smiled politely. "Please sit down. The landlord will be with you shortly."


"Arigatou." Usagi stood and nervously paced the floor, hoping she had done enough research on apartment hunting - another secret she had harboured along with the Universities. She saw a small man walking towards her and steeled herself. This was her path, her future…if she had the courage to walk it. Usagi took a step forward.





Luna scowled at Rei who nursed burned hands. "There must be SOME way for
you to use that crystal!" she protested, her anger at the fire senshi bursting out of her.


Rei shook her head angrily. "It resists every charm I've put on it and when I try to use it - my frigging hands get burned to a cinder!" she yelled at the cat. "I thought this stupid jewel was supposed to serve the leader of the senshi, and that's me!"


"Knock it off Rei." The cat snarled, still angry at how easily Usagi had escaped her constant surveillance and moved out with alacrity.


"Don't talk to me that way." Rei retorted. "You were the one who wanted to get rid of her, remember?"


"Like I had to try hard to persuade you! You are nothing but a traitor to your Princess!" Luna shouted.



"And you're not?" Rei curled her lip in derision at the cat. "If the other senshi find out that I can't control this stupid thing, then they will go and beg Usagi to come back. As it is they are resisting the charm I set on them making them vote against her. It was easy when they were angry at her, but they are no longer angry at her, they want her back and their wills are breaking free of my control, especially Haruka."


"Did you truly think you could control them for long?" Chibi Usa's voice cut into the conversation. "True in the days following Haruka's accident they were more than willing to overthrow her as leader, but now they are having second thoughts on what they have done. They are starting to remember her power with or without the ginzuishou, and they are close to breaking the rule you set down about not acknowledging her at all."


"You think you can control this thing?" Rei threw it at the pink haired child. "Then you use it. It kills Usagi every time she uses it, perhaps it can put you out of my misery."


"You are in this just as deep as I am Rei." Chibi Usa warned with the arrogance of a preteen. "If I return to the future my mother is going to peel my hide off in strips…the honoured Usagi does after all have quite a temper on her."


"Why are you doing this?" Luna demanded.


"Because if I can get Mamoru to fall in love with me, then he will be mine in this time, when he's NOT my father yet, and he will be my lover. I keep returning to the future and back here to speed up my aging process. The next time I do it, I will return of an age with Hotaru - fourteen." She winked at them. "It's old enough. He will see that it is me he desires, not Usagi. Besides, if you heard how he talks to her, what he thinks of her, you'd laugh Rei. You could get him back yet."


Rei's eyes gleamed as treachery haunted her thoughts, so dark she could hardly believe they were hers, as Chibi Usa reached for the ginzuishou to show her how it was done.




"I think this is stupid." Minako declared. "I don't give a leaping lizards' socks damn about what Rei says, this isn't right."


" 'Leaping lizards socks?' Haruka arched an eyebrow at her. "I would love to know where you came up with that one."


"Don't you all agree that this isn't right?" Ami added. "How could we all have turned on her that way and voted her out?"


"I agree it's strange, but what's done is done, and perhaps it will teach her a lesson about being a better warrior and more careful in battle." Michiru said, glancing up from her book. "Either way, it's more peaceful without her."


Minako sighed and exchanged a glance with Ami. This just didn't feel right, but they were overruled. Falling silent, she turned back to her textbooks, missing her best friend and having this niggling feeling in the back of her skull that this was wrong.





Mamoru's jaw hung open as Usagi finished her explanation. "They threw you out?"


Usagi nodded grimly. "Damn it all to hell yes! But I don't care about that Mamoru…I'm adopted. Everything I've ever believed in was a lie and in the end I have no family, I have nothing." Except an apartment, a place of her own, but she wouldn't tell him that yet. She had decided on the spur of the moment to tell Mamoru, to give him one last chance to redeem himself in her eyes.


Mamoru pulled her close to him. "Usako, you have me, you know that." He paused. "I can help you find a nice little place for you to live that you can decorate as you see fit with your pink bunnies and the like."


Usagi pulled out of his arms and looked at him; he hadn't been able to keep the condescension out of his voice. She decided to lay everything on the table - if they were going to have a future, he was either for her or against her. "I found an apartment this afternoon. I've already moved in." 'Thank the goddess for subspace pockets.' she thought for the dozenth time that day. She cleared her throat. "I've also applied for some academic scholarships to get into University." She said quietly, changing the subject.


Mamoru blinked in surprise. "Nani?" he chuckled at the thought. "Usagi, you'll never get an academic scholarship."


She could sense it coming, could feel it coming. "Why not?"


"You're not smart enough Usagi." He said bluntly. "Unless they offer a course in hair, makeup or comic books, you'll never get the grades to get any scholarship unless it's to Clown College. Come on Usagi, you can find better things to do with your time." He shook his head. "The idea is ridiculous and this conversation absurd. Should I translate that for you now?" he smiled at her.


Usagi backed away from him, blinking in shock and hurt, having expected it, but it hurt all the same hearing him finally speak the truth he kept hidden just beneath the surface. "I'm never going to be good enough for you, am I Mamoru?"


Mamoru froze as her words sunk in. "What do you mean?"


"Am I high or have you not been patronizing the hell out of me these past few months Mamoru? Are you blind and stupid or have you not noticed how I've changed? Are you ignorant or haven't you looked at my grades?" Usagi demanded, planting her
hands on her hips. "Come on you brainless wind up penguin crossed with a demented platypus! What do you have to say to that you lowdown, miserable, spineless, condescending shit! Some loving fiancée and boyfriend you are!"


Mamoru said nothing in the face of her tirade, ashamed that her comments hit home, upset that he hadn't noticed her, worried that he had generalized her too much, realizing he had long ago crossed her line of no return and was in for it, seeing her hidden temper flaring up for a good chance to flame his ass from here to the next century. "Usako…" he began, not wanting to admit that he saw her as arm candy and hadn't noticed the changes that she had undertaken for herself. He hoped to calm her before she could explode, but one look at the apoplectic look in her eyes and he knew it was fruitless. Steeling himself for the worse to come, he cursed himself for a fool.


Usagi shook her head. "Mamoru, either you choose here and now how you are going to treat me or I walk out that door. I won't hide who I am in the shadows anymore. What you see ain't what you are getting. I am the Messiah for Goddess' sake! I defeated Galaxia and saved the world and yet I am treated like the biggest moron and idiot who ever lived. I will no longer live up to people's superficial expectations!" she drew in a breath. "And I never had an affair with Seiya so you can get that thought out of your head too you hentai, ecchi, perverted untrusting crossbred, inbred relative to a mule's ass!"


Mamoru blinked, his mind trying to process everything Usagi had just yelled at him. He thought rapidly about what she had flung at him in her own form of condescension and he had no defence. In one moment he realized that she had changed into someone who could be his intellectual equal, in all the months he had treated her like a little girl, she had grown, she had learned and she had a glint in her eye that was 'I know more than you think I know'. She had become an enigma in front of his eyes and he hadn't noticed, thinking of other girls instead and wishing she could be like them. His face coloured in shame as he realized how he had treated her these past few weeks, patronizing her and deriding her, comparing her to the other senshi. She had taken herself and changed into someone he didn't know. Eyeing her beauty he understood that it was all he had wanted from her - her looks and she was demanding more. "You're right Usagi." He said simply.


"So I was right?" her voice caught. "I will never be good enough for you? In one day I managed to lose the senshi, my family and you. What is there left for me?" she blinked back the tears that threatened to fall. "I'm regarded as worthless." She shook her head quickly. "Do something more valuable with my time Mamoru? I'll show you how valuable Tsukino Usagi can be!" she whirled on her heel and turned to leave.


Mamoru reached out and caught her arm. "I didn't mean it like that Usako. If anything, you are TOO good for me. You have put up with me when I was a total self righteous bastard…"


"Damn right I have." She interjected. "I think bastard is too light a word you ass wiping, brainless, hopeless, arrogant, facetious, moronic, piece of…"


"You've called me on it. I am proud of you, I think your changes are wonderful and I am ashamed of myself for not seeing any of them sooner." Mamoru continued, cutting off her acidic tirade, more than a little shocked at what she had called him, more than a little surprised and completely delighted. "I am looking forward to watching you show the world the strength in you that no one can see."


Usagi lifted her chin proudly. "I'll make it on my own. I'm going for the knockout and I won't stop until I'm on top. I'm taking over so watch me shine!"


Mamoru pulled her close, chuckling. "This is going to give me more enjoyment than anything else on earth. Let me help you Usako."


Usagi nodded, closing her eyes. She had taken a risk in telling him, but he had met her challenge. He would help her, despite her having to rub his face in the fact that he had not noticed her. "My mind and body are strong."


"Usako, you shine brighter than anyone on earth and I am going to take great pleasure in giving you silent support. In fact, let's make things a bit more interesting for all observers." He suggested.


Usagi pulled back and arched an eyebrow at him. "I'm listening."


Mamoru winked at her as he rapidly began explaining the idea which had taken shape over the last few minutes. Usagi let out a laugh as she agreed wholeheartedly. With or without Mamoru she had decided to take on the world and woe be to anyone who had ever underestimated her.




And so endeth chapter 2! It would have been up MUCH sooner but the writing of it took time because things are really hectic here in Japan. No excuse I know, but here's a good one - fanfic.net was down for 3 weeks! How's that? Anyway, please let me know what you think, NO FLAMES please and of course review, it keeps me sane and in this tropical heat that the Japanese are quite used to, keeps me from melting. Please be kind and suggestions are always welcome! Chapter 3 will be out in a few days…I have some great ideas and of course, some new writing music!!!

Ja ne!