The rain's on its way, and Usagi wasn't already at the arcade but the girls were, so Mamoru figured 'detention' -- it's generally a reasonable assumption -- and after all the stuff Rei and Makoto said, he's determined to find out who his competition is.
Problem: how the hell do you surreptitiously ask something like that? Especially when you don't want to admit out loud that you like the person you're asking?
He's still trying to figure this out when the rain starts patterning the sidewalk, and he's in the process of opening up his umbrella just outside the gates of Seishou. He is also just out of sight, since he's standing on the opposite side of the wide brick pillar.
This may be a miscalculation.
It may be entirely on purpose.
Usagi sighed. She also lamented. Then she drooped, leaned, slumped, and groaned, all before reaching the gate of her school.
Would someone explain why she was required to take grammar for a language she didn't even know yet?
How was she supposed to know what a dangling particle was?!
Oh well. The emphatically large red '13' on her paper mocked her. On top of the low score, it was highly demonstrative of just how unlucky her week was going to be. Maybe even her entire life!
Speaking of, droplets of rain smacked her on the nose.
Sigh.
But wait! Maybe, just maybe! She held her test paper out as she walked, hoping the water would blur her score into Red Smudge Oblivion.
All she had to do now was avoid--
CRASH!!
Really? She should be used to randomly running into him around corners. And she really, really should have guessed what the thirteen on her paper foretold!
And the umbrella, in motion but not opened all the way yet, means that Mamoru's not actually looking when the train hits him. He's gotten better at this, though! Much better! Instead of Usagi bouncing off a brick wall onto the sidewalk and Mamoru keeping the umbrella in hand, he drops the umbrella and catches Usagi.
(He's so warm and solid-- his arms are around her keeping the world out, and keeping the summery warmth in--)
That is, of course, when the heavens open up overhead, and those fat droplets turn into a torrential downpour in the span of a couple of seconds. The rain is COLD. It's October, after all.
Mamoru yelps and lets go, bending to scramble hurriedly for the umbrella.
Warm, warm, safe, safe as houses, comfort, wait, what?
The sudden loud crash of thunder is so very much not welcome in this brief mental escape, no sir! Usagi cries, and her fears are doubled about twenty times over when Mamoru lets go and she suddenly finds herself adrift in a sea of thunder!
She shrieks this time, not realizing just how much she's suddenly trying to reconnect with that brief moment of safe as houses.
She may or may not have bodily grappled him, his sudden absence in reaching for the umbrella escalating her fear. It was his own fault!
But at least now she was wrapped around him again, this time on her own terms!
"ODANGO!" gasps Mamoru, half bent-over as Usagi crashes into him, ire thick in his voice--
--because now they both topple to the pavement, the umbrella's still on the ground, and the rain is POURING. In a bare second they're both drenched and cold and Usagi's still clinging to him and and and--
--and wait a second, this isn't actually bad at all, just inconvenient and liable to require dry-cleaning. Doable.
Wait wait wait. She shrieked at the thunder. And she's clinging really hard.
Mamoru shifts to sit up and drags her sort of most of the way into his lap, then scootches them both back up against the brick wall, then reaches graspingly for the umbrella and grimly (finally) (grimly) opens the umbrella over them despite the thunder and lightning. After all, there are many many taller things in the area.
Finally he looks down at her soaking wet blond head, and his eyes light on the paper she dropped, ink running madly now--
--but grade still visible.
"Thirteen?!" he asks in disbelief.
Usagi huddles under the safe cocoon of Umbrella and Not As Jerky As She Pretended.
Then he finds her test score, and his exclamation at her dismal failure almost (almost!!) has her ignoring the next peel of thunder. At this point, she clutches at him not because he is Mamoru (though totally because he is Mamoru) but because he is the closest thing that isn't thunder (and also because he is Mamoru).
"It's not my fault!" It totally is, she'd napped or daydreamed during the last week of English classes. "Dangley Particles, Mamoru-baka! Who needs to know that? It's not a Japanese thing! It's an English thing!" She scowls at him and crosses her arms. She is almost tempted to stick her tongue out at him.
And that's where Mamoru gets huffy. "Oh I'm back to baka, now? Just because you can't fit a dangling participle in your odango atama because of all the manga you stuff it with doesn't make your lack of studying my problem!"
And yet for each thunderous crash, he holds her a little tighter, reassuringly; he tilts the umbrella so that the cold rivulets of rain drip down the back of his neck instead of hers; he draws his legs up so he's even more of a cocoon.
"You shouldn't ignore your English studies. There are a lot of really fun things on the Internet that are only in English," he says, less huffily. More enticingly, actually. "There's this really good Sailor V fan site and only half of it's in Japanese. If you take your studies seriously I'll even show you how to post to it..."
"Yes! You're back to baka! Because you're being mean, which is a very baka thing to do, Baka!"
Ignore that that made little sense.
Perhaps the best things about arguing with him at this point is that, while she's clinging to him, she's certainly not a crying mess! Small miracles.
Then he's talking, and while most of her relaxes, her shoulders are still tense and her fingers have a major death grip on his grey school jacket, his words have turned from Annoying to Soothing. And enticing.
She knew what he was doing, but it wasn't fair. She sniffled.
"But I can't." Her words are soft. Another crash of thunder has her trembling and gripping. "She doesn't teach it right. It's right for others, but not me. Because I'm stupid."
"You're not stupid!" Mamoru says fiercely, holding Usagi tightly again, shifting them once more. "People who tell you you're stupid don't know what they're talking about. Bad grades don't mean you're stupid. A teacher who doesn't find the right way to teach you things isn't doing a very good job! Lots of people learn very differently."
He's had to go a little louder than normal conversational volume, now, because the rain's hitting the pavement so hard. It would make sense for them to go inside, back into Seishou's foyer, but that would entail manuevering Usagi to the point that they can actually move, and that's currently more trouble than it's worth.
Besides, he's holding her.
They're soaked to the bone, but he's holding her, and she keeps gripping him like a lifeline.
"Let me tutor you," he says firmly. "I'll find the right way. I kept telling Mako-chan to tell you to come to study group, but I guess she either forgot or thought we'd just fight the whole time. But I know a lot of ways to teach! And you'll know what they're saying about Sailor V in the English parts of the internet before she does..."
This is such blatant bribery.
Really? He actually believes she's not stupid? Of course, even if he doesn't mean it, that he said it spoke volumes. Or at the very least it boosts her self esteem.
But still.
"But it's the way everyone is taught, forever, and it's always been so...boring." Or not boring, but hard to focus on.
During a brief moment of non-Thunder, she sniffles and fiddles with his collar. "She may have...and I may have thought you were teasing."
Is it the promise of Sailor V or the promise of him that's making her consider this? "If I get distracted, do you either yell, or lure me back?"
Another thought. "If I genuinely don't get it, even if it's explained on the page before, do you yell at me or tell me other wa--"
Another crash of thunder, louder this time, and maybe she's trying to hide inside him at this point.
Mamoru's collar is being fiddled with, and it's very distracting. But Usagi's asking good questions, and they're questions that annoy him on a fundamentally protective level because of what they imply--
--and it's so horribly new to him, realizing that even in the space of academia, there's stuff he's spent most of his life not bothering to notice about the experiences of other people. Like getting yelled at for not understanding things.
"Getting yelled at is not conducive to learning," he says, sounding somewhat affronted. "I wouldn't yell, I'd keep trying to find ways to make it interest--"
Abruptly her arms are wrapped around him so tightly, and her face is buried in his chest, and as nice as it is to have her basically attached to him like this, and as productive as their conversation is turning, he can literally feel her terror.
The umbrella handle gets tucked under his arm and both of his arms hold her close, and he lays the side of his face on the top of her head, waiting until the alarmingly loud and long roll of thunder has passed-- and then he starts moving.
Awkwardly, one arm's pulled away again so he can close the umbrella, and the rain pours down on their heads, and Mamoru shifts his grip on Usagi and unceremoniously scoops her up in his arms as he gets to his feet. One knee, two knees, mud everywhere, one foot, the other foot, no hands. Yes: he gets up while carrying her.
And being held like that is also so, so familiar--
"Try not to choke me, I'm getting us inside," he murmurs wryly against her head, glasses impossible to see through.
And then, back up the path to Seishou Public's foyer they go...
She's a clinging octopus of Terrified Limbs. That's about all she is until the safety of Seishou Public's roof is over her head.
Even then, it takes a moment for her to be able to peel herself off of him. When she is finally able to move, at least enough to unwrap herself from her self made Mamoru Scarf, she slinks to the floor.
This distance leaves her...cold. So, even though she shouldn't, her hands still grip tightly at the cuff of his school uniform jacket.
It was nicer before, when she was floating along. But it wasn't, because the gods had been howling their anger at man and moon.
"Um." They had been talking before. "You'd yell. Or at least argue. But you'd make it interesting."
It's cold. They're cold. They're soaking wet with cold autumn rain and even though they're not getting rained on anymore, they're dripping and chilled and they could catch colds and it'd be terrible. Plus Usagi's on the floor.
So, patiently and with oceans of amused affection, Mamoru bends to gently haul her back to her feet and then walk with his arm around her over to the low plastic bench to one side of the foyer. He's talking as he does, so maybe she won't notice he's guiding her to sit down next to him and he's not letting go.
"I won't yell. If you put your face on your book and complain at me, I might get annoyed, but I won't yell. If there's something to argue about I might argue, but I won't yell."
All of a sudden they're sitting and he's pulling her in close to his side, warm and calm and peaceful, and the thunder rails with the wind and rain outside, but it's an impotent fury against this little bubble of stillness.
"I'll keep trying different ways to explain things. I'll ask you questions about things I think might help, even if you think they're silly or unrelated," he says, earnest and resolved.
He really actually cares. He's more animated-- his voice is always engaged when he's talking to Usagi, but it's focused and it's full of belief. "There's ALWAYS a way. And I know you can do it, Usagi-chan. You're so quick when you're paying attention, and you memorize all kinds of things, tiny details-- if your teacher tested you on Fruits Basket you'd ace it, tell me you wouldn't."
She let him guide her. He made nice faces when he was talking about something he liked to do. Or something he could like to do. If she let him tutor her, even if he yelled, at least he'd be yelling making those Faces. She could handle that.
He's the Moon Princess's love.
Okay, that sombers her up a little (not that she is a bustling ball of joy at the moment) but it's okay because he'd keeping the thunder away and doesn't seem to mind that she's still choking the cuff of his jacket.
Her cheeks warm up to about a billion degrees. She could bake cookies on them now. He'd been paying attention when she squealed and ranted over that manga? Her voice is very much not timid when she speaks. "I still say the reason the cat was shunned wasn't because he missed the banquet, but because he wanted to end things! Would you want to live forever with just parties? No! The common story is sad and makes no sense, so of course it's because of something else!"
She blushes then, again. More, even! "Of course I'd pass. It's interesting and characters and...stuff. But it's not school."
SHE'S SO GODDAMN CUTE WHEN SHE BLUSHES UGH. Mamoru's grinning. "And see? You're theorizing about it, you're coming up with explanations for things, you've put a lot of thought and careful analysis into this -- a lot of the things we're taught in school can be like that, too. It doesn't all have to be boring. If it's boring they're just doing it wrong."
There's a little bit of the smug genius shining through, there, but it's smugness because of adults being wrong. He looks down at this excited, animated Usagi, and his smile's so full of things his classmates used to think would break his stoic face...
Yeah well if you do feel something about her then that's a big problem, Rei had said.
...if you fall for her, but she loves someone else... and there's the Princess to think about, too, Makoto had said.
He looks away, his smile getting a little distant.
I can't find her. I would do anything for her-- except choose her over Usako. ... and you know what else? If Usagi-chan loves someone that isn't me, that's-- that would be okay, as long as they didn't hurt her. Because she's so important.
"Anyway," he says, finally, "I'd be more than happy to tutor you. I think I can make even the subjects you hate fun. But if there's someone who might be jealous, maybe it's better if we stick to you coming to study groups, or to the classes I teach on Thursday afternoons."
Her grip on his cuff loosens a bit. Oh really? Fun? "Even math?" She gives him a Smug Smile of Smug. "I accept this challenge, Mamoru-kun. And if you can't make math interesting, you owe me..."
There had to be something neutral. Other People may suggest things not to be suggested to someone technically claimed. "Twenty-four milkshakes."
Yes. That will do!
But wait, what was this? Her nose scrunches in confusion. Who does she have that would be jealous over this? Ami doesn't need a tutor, and she's the only one that would come to mind. The others don't need study sessions! "I think Ami does okay in cram school, but I don't see her getting jealous. If she needed a tutor, I'm sure she'd ask."
"Twenty-four milkshakes all on the same day?" Mamoru looks a little horrified. To the point where he actually forgets the fact that he's both angsting and trying to be tricky, and the entire 'who lays claim to Usagi's affections!' question is utterly derailed.
Derailed to the extent that it's now his turn to half turn and look at Usagi in abject confusion for a half second, and then he starts blushing ferociously. "Wait, you and Ami-chan are...? I-- okay..."
"I suppose it could be twenty-four over the course of a week." Wait, was that still weird? "I-I mean a month!" Right. That sounded better.
Wait. What?
She tilts her head. "Well, sometimes Ami-chan tutors me--"
Oh, he is blushing. Oh. Oh!!!
"N-n-n-no! Not Ami-chan and me! I-I-I mean, she's very pretty! And if Circumstances---but no! Ami-chan and I are not an are!"
Where did that come from?!
"Where did that come from?!"
They are both still, it should be noted, dripping a puddle of rainwater on the floor of the public school's entrance room. But they're also both beginning to dry out a bit, and their hair's starting to get a little fluffy. On Mamoru it looks a combination of faintly ridiculous, cute, and dashingly disheveled.
And he's very, very flustered.
"Oh! Oh, I just meant-- no! I mean. I meant if you have a boyfriend or girlfriend who'd be jealous because of, uh. Because you'd be spending time with me."
MORE flustered. "Time studying! With me."
He busily starts wringing out the hem of his uniform jacket rather than actually looking at Usagi's face.
Oh! That makes sense. He is so flustered now, she just wants to pet his hair. And that would make it even more fluffy. Like a cuddly fluffy thing! Wait, why isn't she petting him to make him even more fluffy?
Oh yeah.
Sigh.
She hums in thought. "Nope, none of those. Papa probably has plots to hide the bodies." She is half joking but half not.
She sighs. "But no. Anyone my stupid heart thonks for is usually taken, not interested, or It's Complicated." Sigh again. But at least there is a glimmer! "But not dead!" That is always a bonus!
"Your heart's not stupid either," Mamoru mumbles half into his damp shirt front. His jacket's still damp and now it's super wrinkled, too.
And then thank GOD, she gives him a perfect opening. Blue, blue eyes slide slyly over to Usagi: she knows that look. That's the troll look.
"So once your dad kills them, you're just not that into them anymore? That's a pretty healthy outlook, I guess. No zombie dates, where if you hold their hand you're accidentally still holding it after they go home..."
Oh! So he was going to play it that way, huh?! Her cheeks puff out as she scowls. It's not a real scowl, but he doesn't need to know that!
"No, Papa buries them with cement! He's not new to an impending zombie apocalypse!"
Don't think about it, don't think about it...!
Too late!
She huddles almost inside herself! "I'm a faster runner than you are, they'll take you first!"
Was she faster?! Oh no... what if she wasn't?!
What if she really was?!
Oops. Mamoru tries really hard not to laugh at Usagi, and... fails. But he mitigates it somewhat by reaching to muss her hair, and then-- oops, she's curling in on herself again, and for a second he's flashing back to Octopusagi out in the rain, and he re-closes the distance that'd grown between them on the bench and flings an arm carelessly around her shoulders, laughing. "You'd really leave me behind? So cold, Usagi-chan!"
His words are at odds, of course, with both the warmth in his arm and the warmth in his voice. "If I were faster, I'd carry you. But hey, I haven't heard thunder in a while-- think we should go to the arcade, or do you want a ride home so you can get dry instead?"
Horrible images of slow moving zombies inching their way toward her slowly fades under his arm.
"Well." Her feet are on the floor again and her shoulder blades will not be replacing a Stradivarius any time soon. "If you're really really slower than me, maybe I could find a shopping cart to haul you around in."
Arcade or home, arcade or home?
She wrings her hands around a long strand of damp hair. A slight breeze, probably from a vent, makes up her mind and she sighs.
"Home." No milkshake today. This makes her sad. "I need to get into dry clothes."
The sadness is regrettable. "Well, you can also tell your parents that you took the initiative after getting your test back to convince someone to tutor you," Mamoru tries to cheer Usagi up.
He still doesn't really get the 'cheering up' thing entirely, but he does his best.
"Come on, I'm not parked too far away," he adds cheerily, briefly and lightly putting his hand on her back, and then making an ostentatious show of holding the door open for her.
Rei would kill him, he's sure.
One thing that might actually cheer Usagi up is the car itself, of course...
She thinks about that prospect as she exits the building. There is a brief moment of flailing hands as the door is held open for her. Held open! And her lower back is very toasty! Why must he do such things? He's a jerk for them! And a jerk for the warm fuzzies she tries to deny because forbiddennnnnnnnnnnnnnn.
But then she perks up. The rain didn't really wash away her score. But! "Yes! And different ways of teaching!"
She giggles and hugs his arm, because now she doesn't have to dread Mama's Eyes of Disappointed Gloom!
Well, okay, maybe a little, and only for a moment!