You're a burden, Sailor Moon!
Those words, and many others slung at her by Miss White earlier had been swirling around in her mind since well before Mamoru dropped her off..
She hasn't been able to sleep, not that she tried for very long, and not just because the words hurt.
Part of her thinks they're true. (Okay, a big part of her does.)
And, while Mamoru had actually waited to see if she followed and then walked her home helped some, he hadn't--
Usagi sighs and plods the last steps to Ami's door where she knocks, snapped tiara in her hand.
That's why she's actually here. She needs to tell her friend about this, and also Mamoru's latest power...thing.
(It should be noted that the knock is far from her usual one.)
The Mizuno household operates on a very tight, ordered, absolute schedule. Which is to say, figuring out when Ami's mother is home, and when she isn't, is best done with a ouji board rather than by looking at a calendar, unless you happen to have access to the Hospital's work log. Truly, though, Ami herself does tend to keep a fairly rigid schedule: bedtime is no later than ten, except on nights where Mercury is needed! Tonight was no exception, so the knock does not immediately earn a response.
Just about the time Usagi might be thinking of knocking again, or of leaving because obviously Ami's asleep, the door opens just a crack. Inside, the apartment is dark. "Nnnhg?" Ami's very tired voice. "Usagi-chan?" she asks, and then the door opens a little more fully. Standing in the doorway is Ami, her hair a little mussed from sleep, draped in a thin calf-length gown the colour of the morning sky, with white lace ruffles around the neck and hem. She doesn't even have slippers on!
"What's wrong?" Ami asks, because Usagi coming this late at night should have prompted a text unless her friend was very, very concerned about something. "Come in."
As she waited, her shoulders slump because obviously she should have called or texted before coming over.
That, and it's 3am.
(And of course it's then that she realizes she really, really wants a hug.)
Her hand is raised to knock again when Ami does answer, and she looks so adorable that even in her gloomy state Usagi can't help but smile.
It doesn't quite reach her eyes, and disappears when asked what's wrong.
Everything.
But that's a little melodramatic.
She slides in and toes off her shoes, from habit.
"Um." What should she say?
Realizing she doesn't quite know what to say, she holds out the broken bits of tiara. "This broke...earlier. Like...an hour ago."
She bites her lip. "Do you...want me to come back when you're not asleep?"
Ami Mizuno's carefully crafted schedule doesn't generally allow her to wake up on command, but there are a few things that will bring her instantly to attention. The first is a phonecall from her father. The second, however, is a sudden need for Sailor Mercury's attention. Broken Moon Tiaras definitely fall into this latter category!
"Usagi-chan!" Ami exclaims concernedly. She closes the door with her foot and then leans down to give a quick visual inspection of the tiara. "Mercury Goggles," she says, reaching up to touch one of triple-earings in her right ear. It probably looks ridiculous, activating the mercury goggles while she's in her nightgown, but Mercury isn't exactly going for appearances, here. She takes a few moments to study the tiara, then frowns and reaches up to deactivate them again.
It's then that she wraps Usagi in a tight, close hug. "Do you want me to make some coffee? Tea?" she asks as she hugs her friend. "And then you can tell me about whatever happened."
She shuffles a bit in place while Ami studies the tiara. Usagi doesn't know what she'll find aside from the fact that it's broken, but maybe something's there.
(Usually, she'd squee and giggle over how Ami looks right now! SO CUTE! She'll squee and giggle over the memory when she's done sulking!)
And then she gets the hug.
And of course, it causes tears to spring to her eyes and her lip to quiver and--
She gives one, deep breath to cut it off as she pulls back. "Um...coffee? Maybe?"
Ami doesn't let Usagi pull back right away. Hugs are important, especially when your friend is hurting. If there's nothing else she's learned from Usagi, it is this. "I will make some," Ami promises Usagi quietly as she continues to hug.
She does, however, let go eventually. Reaching up, she very gently wipes Usagi's tears with her thumb, then smiles at her reassuringly. "Why don't you go borrow one of my nightgowns and get comfortable, and there will be coffee afterwards, and we can sit in the livingroom and have a sulk together while you tell me what happened. Okay?"
Usagi smiles and nods, eyes trained on the lace around Ami's neck. "Okay."
Usagi was glad Ami-chan didn't let her go from the hug. She feels better already! Minutely, but still!
She slips her feet into slippers (again, habit) and shuffles backward a little with another small smile before padding her way to Ami's room.
She rifles through the pyjama drawer and her mood lifts a little more when she finds a pink set.
She's quick to change, wincing a bit as newly sore muscles pull a bit.
Then she goes into the bathroom to splash some cold water on her face.
Once she's done and she crosses the living room, she lets out a refreshed sigh. "Thanks, Ami-chan. This is comfy!" She leans against the counter a bit, helping the coffee preparation by not helping.
By the time Usagi is done, Ami has already pulled one mug out of the Keurig and is in the process of putting a second one in. The first mug is slid over to Usagi with a smile. "You look cute in that," notes the bluenette, before she turns back to turn the machine on again.
It doesn't take long for the machine to produce the perfect cup. A little sugar, no cream, and then Ami grabs a bag of chocolates to bring with them into the livingroom. "So what happened?" she asks as she sets her mug down on the low table, then sits down cross-legged on the ground. The chocolates are offered to Usagi first.
Usagi takes a tentative sip of her drink. Her eyebrows raise and she is pleasantly surprised to find not coffee, but cocoa in her mug! "Mmm!"
She follows Ami-chan to the living, following her friend's actions.
She takes a piece of chocolate but doesn't eat it right away. "Okay, so. You know Miss White? She texted Mamoru that she wanted to see us, and it was at first because of...something weird happening to Takashi. When we got Kyouko back?"
She sighs.
"Then it was about how he's always leaping in front of people, usually me, and she trapped him in a vortex thingy and we fought and--" A shrug. "Of course, I lost. Or would have if he didn't--Oh! He did a new thing! Like, this blast of light from his hand."
Another sip of cocoa, and a nibble on the chocolate. And a sigh.
"The tiara broke because she punched my hand hard."
The sheer volume of information Usagi casually manages to bring out in a summary of the past five hours might be staggering to someone less analytically minded. For Ami, it all gets filed away as points of interest. She arches a single blue eyebrow as Usagi explains, slowly sipping her coffee without interruption.
When Usagi finishes her explanation, Ami sets her coffee down, then leans forward to visually inspect Usagi's hand. "It looks like he healed it," she notes quietly, thoughtfully. "There's no bruising, no cuts from where the tiara should have injured you. Mamoru's work?" Ami asks, looking up at Usagi for confirmation. When she receives it, Ami nods and starts in on the cross-examination. "I do know Miss White. I didn't know that we got Kyouko back; I assume that means she's no longer fighting against us." Oh how she wants to ask the burning question in the back of her mind. But they'll get to that; Usagi first. "So the two of you defeated her, and got away safely. What else happened? You aren't normally this upset over a fight with a villain, Usagi-chan."
She taps her cocoa mug with sheepish fingers. "...yeah, I...she's better. Well, I Escalated her. Healinged her?" She shrugs. "Sorry I'm bad at telling you stuff, Ami-chan."
She holds out the hand in question, stretching out her fingers. "Yeah, he healed it. Even before he healed up Miss White. I've got some sore muscles still, but he probably used up a lot of heals on her, so I didn't say anything about it."
She sighs as she watches her hand as she flexed her fingers. "She just...she called me a burden and said I should quit if I don't get strong enough. And, well, yeah, but." A frustrated sigh this time. "And the worst part is she had Mamoru all...wind vortexed and made him watch. She says he's her friend! What kind of friend does that?!"
"The selfish kind," Ami replies quietly as she takes a sip of her coffee. "But honestly, if she doesn't think you're strong, then she doesn't really know you." Ami smiles at Usagi, then asks, "Is that what you're worried about? What has you so upset? Some girl who doesn't even know you doesn't think you're very strong?
"Let me tell you a thing or two about your strength," Ami replies to Usagi. She sets her mug down, then reaches up to brush little stray locks of hair aside of Usagi's forehead. "First off, bad guys and selfish people don't really understand strength. They think it can only be achieved individually; you can only rely on yourself, they say, but that's because they're too busy worried that their 'friends' will stab them in the back. They don't understand just how strong the bonds of friendship are. They don't understand how trusting someone completely can also lead to you being stronger as an individual. After all, an individual would have died against Queen Beryl's attack, taken to the face. But I trusted that you, Rei, Mamoru, and Minako were on my team. I knew that if I got in trouble, you would help me. And so I got a lot of very useful information I would have been too scared to get on my own if I didn't have that trust. I am stronger, because of that trust."
Ami pauses a moment to reflect on her own words, then continues, "Miss White would never understand that kind of strength. But more than that, Usagi-chan, she couldn't possibly hope to understand just how strong you are as an individual. No, you aren't the best fighter I know, and you can't take hits like one, either. But those are only two measures of strength. What you are is the best encourager I know. The best motivator." She pauses, then smiles and says, "The best friend. Sailor Mercury would be worthless without your love and encouragement. She'd be so lost and unsure of what to do. She'd never manage anything on her own. But your strength--your love, your belief in me--is so strong ... Usagi-chan, I sometimes feel like I can do anything, because of you. Ignore Miss White. She has no idea what power is." Ami reaches up and touches the screen on the little blue tablet sitting on the table. The television springs to life, and Ami swipes her finger twice across the screen. Some kind of weird energy wavelength chart is displayed on the television, titled 'Power Output of Moon Healing Escalation'. "That," Ami says, pointing to the chart, "is the strongest energy reading I have ever catalogued. And that is the power of your love. Miss White is ignorant."
By the end, after she sees the chart and can't make heads or tails of it, but takes Ami's word for it anyway.
Even without the chart she would still be all sniffles and tears and hugging Ami. "Of course you can do anything." Sniffle sniff sniff. "You're Ami-chan."
More sniffles. "Hannah-chan offered to teach kick boxing a bit ago. I'm thinking about taking her up on that offer. Or at least learn not to over extend, whatever that is."
She keeps quiet on the other thing that's bothering her. Mamoru hadn't...exactly disagreed with White. Granted, he didn't even really agree with her, either. Even on the way to her house, he had said nothing about it.
And she does want to tell Ami, but she also doesn't want to hear that it's even remotely possible he does.
So instead, she hugs Ami-chan more tightly. "Thank you. You're tooooooo good to me."
Snuggle.
Ami wraps her arms around Usagi immediately, as if the hug were an expected thing. Gently, she strokes the blonde's hair and returns the hug. "Before I met you, I couldn't have done any of this," Ami notes gently, reasserting her point. "It's all you, Usagi-chan."
Gently, Ami squeezes her friend, then says, "If you want to take kick boxing, then you should. But don't let it get in the way of your current studies. Whatever the case, do not fret, my Usagi-chan. I just wish I could have been there to laugh in Miss White's face for being so ignorant. I bet that girl doesn't even get As on her tests. Sounds like she makes a lot of dumb assumptions and isn't nearly as smart as she thinks she is."
Usagi pets Ami's hair in return. "Pffff. You would have found a way on your own. But I'm glad you let me help!"
Though the 'As on tests' quip could be seen as an insulting jab to Usagi, she knows this isn't the case. (After all, Ami-chan doesn't praise bad grades unless they're a major improvement!)
So, instead of huffing and puffing, Usagi is in a peel of giggles.
"I like how you 'talk smack.'"
Not pulling completely away from the hug, she looks at Ami. "And please. Apparently, if you pass a test, you're expected to keep improving. Or at least not get anymore thirties." She preens a bit. "Papa raised my allowance, too. So long as I keep my grades up, so you know, more incentive!"
Ami leans back from Usagi, holding her friend's shoulders with both hands. "He did?" she asks, a little surprised by this news. "Usagi-chan, that's great! I'm so proud of you, you've been doing so well ever since Mamoru and I started tutoring you." Nevermind that this basically is the opposite of what she was just saying about Miss White.
"Really," Ami says, "I think you just needed someone to explain things in your way. Everyone learns differently, and the school system does such a bad job catering to individual learning styles. Don't worry, Usagi, by this time next year he will have upped your allowance a bunch of times for those good grades you'll be getting."
She preens a bit at the idea of MOAR MONEY, but she knows there's a ceiling to how much she'd get. Which is fine!
"Apparently if you teach me with candy, I'm the smartest Usagi everrrrr!"
This time her sigh is content. Then she hums. "Is there things you wanna know? What haven't I told you?"
Ami giggles a little, and hugs Usagi again, then sighs and nods. "Yes, actually. You mentioned a lot of things that I really am interested in knowing more about." She picks up her coffee and takes a sip, collecting her thoughts.
"First off, you mentioned a 'Takashi'. Is this Takashi Agera? The boy from Infinity University? I play chess with him, sometimes. What happened to him that brought all this on?"
Usagi hums in thought, remembering back.
"Yep! That's the one."
She shrugs a bit. "I know Kyouko tossed him pretty hard against the wall. And Mamoru pulled him up and healed him a bit, but I guess Takashi got sassy and Mamoru was like 'UG FINE!' and said a swear word and I giggled and he took him to the hospital instead.
"Mamoru used magic on him?" Ami asks confusedly. She reaches up and rubs her cheek, then squints a little. "Does that mean Takashi knows the truth? Is .." she trails off, then shakes her head. "Usagi, this is important. Did Takashi do or say anything to indicate he knew about magic or the moon kingdom? Or did Mamoru just try to play off the healing so that Takashi didn't realise he was doing it?"
Usagi purses her lips in thought. She tries to remember the encounter beyond healing Kyouko. "Hmmm. I don't think he knows about the Moon Kingdom. He was unconscious. And I think he only woke up long enough to call Mamo-chan an idiot before passing back out again."
She snaps her fingers. "Oh! He did do magic. I think. Well, he henshined? Called himself...I forget." She shrugs.
Ami nearly drops her cup of coffee at the word 'henshin' as applied to Takashi. There are a whole host of things Ami would have expected in regards to Takashi, but 'having magical pwoers' was not one of them.
"That's okay," Amy says gently, thoughtfully, eyes squinting a little. Then she smiles at Usagi. "You've been up way too late, and we have class in the morning." She sets her cup aside, and then puts the Mercury Computer back on standby. Standing, she offers a hand down to Usagi. "Come on, let's go get some sleep."
Usagi gives a jaw cracking grin as she takes Ami's hand and stands. Suddenly, having been reminded of it, she is exhausted. But she's stubborn.
"Not sleepy..."
This is a total lie, Ami likely knows it, and she is asleep almost as soon as her head hits the pillow.
Okay, not that quickly. She snuggles down with Ami, burrowing in pillow and blanket to get just right, stretches, and sighs.
She feels much better than she had when she'd first arrived, enough so that even the nagging Mamoru thoughts don't keep sleep away for too long.
Poor Ami, though. School's in the morning, and while Usagi will get there on time with Ami's help, she's gonna have to be poked and prodded and maybe even dragged a little.
"Liar," Ami says as she pushes Usagi into her bed, then climbs in with her. Cuddling up under the covers, Ami closes her eyes and lets herself settle in for sleep. She knows full well there will be much pushing and prodding needed in the morning. That's okay, Usagi's worth it. "Good night, Usagi-chan," she says, as she drifts away.