Usagi was about to knock on Mamoru’s door when the door opened, and there stood before her Mamoru with a worried look on his face. Of course he was worried about her. She looked up at him her eyes as big as the moon. Her eyes still held the raw terror she was feeling from the events that had happened a moment ago.

Usagi took a step forward and collided into Mamoru, burying her face into his chest and wrapping her arms around to him, clinging to him, grasping her hand onto his shoulder. The sobs erupted from her eyes and her lips as she allowed the emotions to pour out.  Her body shaking violently from the fear she was still feeling and the shivers her body felt from being drenched in cold rain water.


All Usagi could do was cry, she couldn’t even bring herself to speak yet.

As Usagi jumped into Mamoru's arms he let the second umbrella fall to the floor with a loud thump, and for a few seconds he did not know how to react... The girl cried rivers into his chest, and Mamoru instinctively held her tightly, stroking the back of her wet head. But what Usagi couldn't see was his lower jaw, successively trying to form out the word "what" but never quite sure the moment or the question was right.

Someone must've been responsible for this. Normal happy girls don't just show up soaking wet on people's doorsteps, with their clothes torn and blood on their legs and skirts, crying like there's no tomorrow. Usagi was shaking like a leaf and her body felt stone-cold to his touch. Amid her hysterical sobs, the med student side of Mamoru kicked in - the word "hypothermia" reared its ugly head and suddenly he was not so keen on waiting for her to calm down anymore.

"Usako..." he said. He repeated her name a few times but got no reaction. 

Finally he took her by the shoulders and pushed her a few centimeters away from his chest - enough as to initiate eye contact.

"Usagi! What happened? Who did this to you?"

When that endeavor proved unsuccessful, he said warmly:

"Let's get you warmed up, okay? You can tell me all about it when the risk of shock is gone..."

Usagi couldn’t stop the cries from erupting from her body. Somewhere in her mind she thought she heard Mamoru talking to her, trying to get her attention, but her mind was still traumatized from when she was attacked. She felt him push her slightly in front of her, and grew fearful for a moment, was he really going to send her away, if he did that she wouldn’t be able to live with herself.

But luckily, he just wanted to let her know he wanted her to come inside so she could get warm. Usagi simply nodded at Mamoru, still unable to speak as she walked into his apartment, grasping onto him to take her shoes off, which proved much harder than she thought, she fidgeted with her shoes which were stuck to her soaked socks, but she eventually got the things off of her feet.


Usagi looked at Mamoru and listened as he spoke, but most of it wasn’t registering, she assumed he was wondering what had happened, but her thoughts were going a mile a minute and her body was slowly coming off of its adrenaline high, when Usagi felt a sharp pain in her leg which caused her to stumble forward, nearly falling over from the pain. She clasped her leg and that’s when she saw it, the blood that is, she hadn’t remembered any of her attackers using their knives, there had only been one she thought who had a knife, but it all happened so fast, and so slow at the same time. As she clutched her leg she let out a cry as the pain radiated all the way down to her foot and up into her torso.

So many different emotions and instincts ran through Mamoru's head and heart in those few brief moments when Usagi showed up disheveled on his doorstep. First thing was worry, which immediately turned into confusion when he saw her. Then came anger. He wanted to know who had done this, and to shove a bunch of roses down his or her throat. And then kick him/her into the ocean. Tied to a rock. But then his analytical side had kicked in and he was fearing hypothermia... He thought he'd treat that before anything else - that is, until Usagi screamed out in pain, apparently just now realizing she'd been cut. Mamoru oughtn't be surprised at things like this - when your body is cold enough, the pain from cuts and scratches doesn't register anymore. However, when you start to warm up, the pain comes at you tenfold. This must've been the moment when Usagi's body was starting to warm up. Good for his hypothermia fears - not so good for Usagi suddenly feeling the pain of the cut.

"Okay, okay, listen," Mamoru said, sitting down on his knees next to her.

He wanted to inspect her, and also be able to make eye contact with her because Usagi was so crouched down.

"It's just a small cut and I promise we'll work on that as soon as possible."

He inspected the cut as he said this.

"But now I need you to come and change out of those clothes, eat something sugary and stay under the blanket for at least a few minutes, okay?" 

Mamoru continued the reasoning in his head: you're as cold as ice, I can hear your teeth clanging from all the shivering, and you're as pale as a ghost. Your glycaemic index must be disastruous...

He slowly pushed Usagi from behind, holding the back of her shoulders in his hands. Mamoru led her to his bedroom and once they were in the room he opened his closet and started inspecting his clothes. He was taller than Usagi, but not as wide in the hips, which meant that most of his trousers would not work on her. However, he managed to find a pair of clean sweatpants he used for training and hoped these would work on Usagi. He also took out a T-shirt and a large shirt made out of thick fabric. To that small pile of clothes he added a new pair of boxers he had with the tag still on, and a new pair of socks, guessing that Usagi's lingerie must also be soaking wet and that her legs must've been freezing... Mamoru put the clothes on the side of his bed, and asked the girl:

"Do you think you can change without me? I'll help if you want..."

Then he added:

"Put on the underwear, socks and shirts first. I'll come back with something for you to eat and we'll see what we can do about that cut before you put on the pants."

Mamoru went to the kitchen and cut a slice of the cherry pie he'd made. This should raise her glycaemic index and give her a bit more energy. He also poured some lukewarm ice tea in a glass and ran back to the bedroom with the plate and the liquid.

Usagi still looked miserable, but at least she was on her way to becoming dry. Mamoru put the food and drink on the night stand next to her, took the blanket from the bed and threw it over her, with his hands separating the wet hair from the dry clothes... He then ran to the bathroom and took his improvised first aid kid. He had bandages large and small, bandage rolls, disinfectant antibiotic propolis spray, clean rags and non-scented soap. He washed his hands and poured some lukewarm water into a bowl.

Mamoru sat down on the floor, on his knees, to have a better look at the wound. He pulled at Usagi a little, trying to get her into a position where he would be able to treat the entire cut. Since it was on her thigh, he needed it to be exposed, not partially covered by his bed linens. He cut a strip of bandage and pressed on the wound, to absorb the lion's share of the blood and via pressure, to make the bleeding stop. At this point he was already concentrating his healing powers on it. He then took the clean rag and sunk it into the water, then added a little bit of soap, and cleaned the wound of any extra blood.

"This is going to sting," Mamoru said to Usagi, as he was picking up the propolis spray.

He oriented the small container towards the cut and sprayed a generous few flicks on it, making sure that the liquid had gotten everywhere. This was necessary for the antibiotic effects. Who knew where that blade had been and what it had on it - an infection was not something they needed right now.

After this was taken care of, Mamoru closed his eyes and put his hands above the cut, concentrating his healing power on it. This was just a cut - something he knew he could heal completely in a couple of minutes. If it had been worse, he might've taken her to the hospital for stitches, but with a bit of disinfectant and a few minutes of concentration, her leg was now like new. The only sign that something had been wrong on there was the yellow propolis stain and the smell of propolis in the air. The smell was sweet, pleasant even. But sadly, Mamoru now associated it with wounds and pain. Very weird combination, indeed. 

He smiled up at Usagi and said to her:

"Okay. You can finish getting dressed now. And eat your pie while I look for your blow-drier."

Mamoru got up once again and started scouting the house for Usagi's blow-drier. She had one at his house, but he had no idea where he'd last seen it. After minutes of looking inside the closet, inside the bathroom, and pretty much everywhere, he finally found it forgotten in the kitchen. Gods only knew what she had done with it there, but this was absolutely not a good time to make fun of it in front of Usagi.

"Aaaaand there you go."

Mamoru handed her the blow-drier and finally sat on the armchair in the corner of his bedroom, waiting for Usagi to finish eating and drying off, and to (hopefully) start telling him about what happened.

In what seemed like less than a second, Mamoru was by Usagi’s side reassuring her everything would be okay. He said he was going to get her out of her wet clothes and into some drier and warmer clothes. He had reassured her that he would address her cut soon. All Usagi could utter through her lips was a simple, “uh-huh.” She wanted to say more, but her brain just was not drawing up the words she wanted to say.

Usagi did at least feel safe with Mamoru, and she knew he would protect her and be her rock as she recovers through this situation.

She felt him gently push on her shoulders to guide her towards his bedroom.

She stood as Mamoru searched for something for her to wear. Soon enough Mamoru was back at her side with some clean and dry clothes. He set them down and asked her to change into the clothes, saying he would help if she needed it.

Usagi nodded, she just needed the support for a moment to get out of the sopping wet clothes. She placed a hand on his shoulder to steady herself as she slipped off her skirt and pulled off her socks, which were pretty much ruined from the water they absorbed. She then looked at Mamoru and made a twirling motion with her finger for him to turn around.

Mamoru listened and disappeared into the kitchen for a moment. Usagi sat down and finished removing the rest of her clothes, she still felt cold down to her bery bones, but she used the towel to dry off her body before slipping into the clothes Mamoru provided. Just putting on boxers and t-shirt made her feel a bit better.
A moment later Mamoru returned with many things in his hands. H had first aid supplies, a plate with pie and a glass of tea. He sat down on his knees with the first aid supplies next to him. He gave Usagi a warning that what he was using to treat it would sting a bit. Usagi nodded bracing herself for the pain. When the spray hit her wound, she sucked in a breath as she slouched over a bit pressing her forehead on top of Mamoru’s head and grabbing onto his shoulders.

After he cleaned the wound he pressed his hands over her wound, Usagi knew he was focusing on his healing powers and slowly after a few moments, Usagi felt no more pain in her leg. Mamoru wrapped a bandage around her leg to help prevent infection. He then grabbed the first aid supplies and told her he would return, he also said he was going to look for her blow dryer.

Usagi slipped into the sweatpants and wrapped the blanket around her as she grabbed the plate of pie. She took a couple bites, but the food just didn’t settle well with her. The girl who could normally chow down a whole pie felt sick to her stomach after just two bites. It wasn’t that the pie tasted bad, it tasted good, but her stomach was still in quite a turmoil. Usagi set the plate down and pushed it away from her as she reached for the tea. The tea actually tasted good and felt going down Usagi’s throat.

Soon enough Mamoru returned with her blow drier. Usagi took it in her hand and slowly walked over to the bathroom counter, her legs still very wobbly. Usagi stared blankly in the mirror as she blew her hair dry. Her mind was off in a distant world trying to block out the memories of the night’s events. After what seemed like forever, Usagi’s hair was dry.


The blonde walked over to Mamoru and sat in his lap. She grabbed his arms and wrapped them around her. She wrapped her own arms around him and rested her head against his shoulder. She spoke, her voice ever distant from the present. Her body only shook once in awhile, the effects of the adrenaline and shock of being so cold almost gone, “Mamo-chan, why are there such cruel people in the world?” As she spoke she felt the tears welling in her eyes again.

Mamoru let Usagi get on top of him in his armchair, using his chest and shoulder as a pillow. He slowly stroked her now-dry hair and said nothing. Mamoru was lost in his own thoughts - who had done this? He remembered his colleagues - mostly female colleagues - mention having been mugged or having heard about muggings in the neighborhood, but just like the rest of his school mates, he hadn't paid much attention. It's easy to ignore this sort of thing when it's not happening to you. It keeps you happier. But now it had happened to them and perhaps on some ironic universal level, it was the price paid for willing ignorance.

Mamoru kissed Usagi's forehead protectively, absent-mindedly, while still stroking her hair.

"Mamo-chan, why are there such cruel people in the world?" she asked him.

"It'll be okay, Usako. You're safe now," Mamoru finally said, somehow in response to her question.

He then made movements to suggest to Usagi that he wanted to get up and the girl moved a little to let him pass from under her.

"Sorry, I need to check something."

Mamoru paused as he took his notebook laptop out of its briefcase and opened it. He typed in his password and waited for the browser to open.

"I should be getting an email from one of my professors tonight.... in which case I need to confirm something as soon as possible. Aaaand here it is."

He clicked on the new email in his school inbox, read over the text in a hurry and typed in "I confirm that I would like to take part in your optional 2 PM course this upcoming Wednesday".

Mamoru then signed out of his account and let the notebook open on his bed. He took Usagi's wet and dirty clothes off the floor and carrying them out of the bedroom he said to her:

"I'll put these out on the balcony to dry. Feel free to use my notebook if you'd like."

He had an improvised clothes line on his balcony and usually found it a lot more practical than using the building's facilities. For a moment he wondered how Usagi was going to leave here when the time came, but since it was Friday and neither of them had school nor work in the morning, Mamoru decided it was best to face that problem later.

Usagi may have been physically with Mamoru, but she was farther mentally. She did though feel comfort in his strokes on her back. Usagi felt her breaths returning to more calm breaths as she rested against his chest. 

When Mamoru motioned for Usagi to let him up for a minute, she panicked a bit, she didn’t want him to leave her, but when he said he needed to just check his email she let out a sigh of relief. When he was done he told Usagi she could use his notebook if she needed to. She watched as he grabbed her wet clothes to go and hang up. 

Usagi slowly got up and walked over towards Mamoru. She spoke with her head down and her voice low, “Mamo-chan, is it alright if we just toss those clothes, because if I…if I keep them, it will be a reminder of tonight and I, I don’t want to remember tonight,” she said as she wrapped her arms around his waist and pressed her cheek against his back. Her clothes were ruined either way and the sooner they were disposed of the better.

Usagi pulled away from Mamoru for a moment and walked with him back into the apartment. She sat on the floor and pulled her knees to her chest and rested her cheek against her knees as she spoke, “Mamo-chan, do you, do you think it would be okay for me to stay here for tonight, I just don’t want to be alone right now, I also don’t want those guys to find me again,” she said as the tears welled in her eyes once again. She was also not ready to talk about the nights events, but knew sooner or later she would have to tell Mamoru what happened to her.

Usagi shot up quickly remembering she hadn’t gone back home to feed Nala, her cat. “Oh no, what am I going to do, I didn’t get to go home this afternoon, I haven’t fed Nala since this morning and I think her water needs to be changed.  We have to go, we have to make sure she’s okay,” Usagi said in a panic, almost a state of delirium as she rose and walked towards the door. Unfortunately her balance had never been the best and she stumbled and fell, colliding into Mamoru’s shoulder in the process.

It was just like Usagi to worry more about her pet than have anyone ever worry about her.

Mamoru was relieved when Usagi mentioned throwing the clothes out. Drying them was a first step but in all honesty, they were barely salvageable at this point. The skirt was torn and bloody. The blouse also had a stitch that went awry and now looked odd. They were dirty. And this was without mentioning the socks, which were a complete disaster. And now that these clothes spend some time on the floor, still wet, they smelt awful. Like fabric on the verge of growing fungus. Okay, maybe that's an exaggeration, but the smell on them was clearly not Usagi's perfume.

"Absolutely!" he stopped trying to hang them and instead just curled the whole thing into a ball and threw it in the trash. Perhaps he seemed in too much of a hurry to do that, but really now... he absolutely understood Usagi's point. If he'd've seen her wearing those things again they would've served as an unpleasant reminder to him, as well.

When she sat on the floor and asked him if she could stay the night, Mamoru was confused. Somehow he assumed that was a given.

"Of course you can! Stay the entire weekend, I'd be pleased to have you here!"

But then she remembered her cat... And went a tad overboard with worrying about said cat. Mamoru sighed, raised his hands in a "calm down" motion, and just said:

"Relax, Usako. She'll be fine. She's a cat, they can last for..."

He shut up when he saw his girlfriend's horrified expression. Mamoru loved animals. He considered them just as worthy of respect and care as human beings - probably because he viewed humans as just another animal. This came along with his binds to the Earth and Nature. And Nala was an adorable little critter... he loved just hearing her meow. It was a touch of normality to see a cat that just went "meow", "purrr" and "snorr" and had no idea how to speak "human". But even so, this was not the time to be worrying about the cat. Some of his - more irresponsible, it's true - friends left their cats alone in the house for weeks when they went on holidays, and the cats survived just fine. One night wouldn't kill her...

But of course, that was just his opinion, and Usagi's puppydog eyes made him take it back almost immediately. A moment of silence, another deep sigh, and in a defeated tone he said:

"Fine... I'll drive over to your place and bring the cat here. And the food."

Usagi didn't look too pleased at his absence either, so he added:

"I'm not letting you spend the night alone at your house, and I have nowhere to sleep at your place... So either the cat's coming here or she's not getting fed tonight."

A few minutes later Mamoru was picking up the keys to his old, red car, and getting ready to leave. He barely ever used his car - it was a run-down old thing, but it was good to have it in case of emergencies. Emergencies like the cat being hungry, of course.

"Okay, I'm out! Lock the door behind me and don't worry, I'll be back in 20! Tops!"

He gave Usagi one last kiss to reassure her, and then he left, hearing the locks close behind him as he was walking down the stairs.

Usagi nodded at Mamoru and gave him a small smile to show her appreciation that he was going to get Nala. She hoped he wasn’t irritated at her, but she just didn’t want anything to happen to her cat. Usagi listened to Mamoru and locked the door behind him as soon as he left.

Usagi walked back over to the sofa. She wished she had her phone so she could call her friends and her parents so they knew she was okay.  Oh no, Usagi thought remembering her parents were probably expecting her. She usually took the last train out to go home for the weekend, but then she stayed at work late and now she had no phone because it was stolen from her hands. Usagi hoped Mamoru would return quickly, she needed to call her parents soon, but then she wasn’t sure she could talk to her mom or dad without becoming a blubbering mess, her dad would probably blame her for staying at work so late and her mom would just worry more. For now she was safe and that is what mattered most.

Usagi walked around Mamoru’s living room, admiring his artwork and the pictures he had of them on his desk. She smiled as she realized she couldn’t have been luckier to get such a great guy. This had nothing to do with destiny anymore, it was still a part of it, but Usagi was so irrevocably in love with Mamoru that she could not imagine her life without him.

Usagi walked back to the couch and sat down. She decided she would check her email since she hadn’t checked it since she left for work. Usagi was hopeful she would get a response from the aunt she emailed. Usagi’s face lit up when she saw a reply. She opened the email and saw that the aunt had been excited to find out she had a nephew and she was filling out necessary paperwork so she could come to Japan to meet her nephew and stay with him for awhile before taking him back to the states with her.
Usagi felt a sense of relief, the internship was paying off. She was working hard and her heart still broke for these kids, but as she helped them more and more each day she grew more and more confident in her ability to help the kids.

A moment later she heard the door knob turn. Usagi tensed up a bit, but when Mamoru walked through the door she knew it was okay. He also had Nala with him and placed her on the floor.
Usagi wasn’t her usual chipper self right now, that would take some time, but she motioned for Mamoru to come sit with her so she could tell him about the email and how all her hard work paid off.


After she shared her news she wrapped her arms around Mamoru in a big hug and the two went to sleep, Usagi falling asleep in Mamoru’s arms.

TWO WEEKS LATER

Two weeks had passed since the night Usagi showed up on Mamoru's doorstep bloody and wet. It'd been a heavy night for both of them and neither could get much sleep in the upcoming weeks. A few visits to the police station drowned their already busy schedules, and after that weekend the two did a lot of their talking over the phone or online... And sadly a lot of those talks happened at night, with Mamoru needing to comfort Usagi in her restless sleep. Overall though, she seemed to be doing better and was slowly turning back to her regular, cheery self. She still couldn't tell Mamoru much about the mugging - he got a few minor details, mostly during the police investigation, but nothing very clear. And since the topic made Usagi emotional and seemed to throw her right back into those events, he decided it was best to mention it as little as possible.

However, it was not all bad. The little boy at the internship, Usagi's case that had hit a bit too close to Mamoru's own childhood... He'd found a home with an aunt from America. Apparently Usagi had sent the email right before the mugging, and that night, when Mamoru came home carrying Nala, her cat, she had already received the response. A period of paperwork followed, the aunt came to Japan to sign all the documents, prove her identity and finally attain guardianship over the child. But they both seemed happy and the situation could not have cleared itself better. One less kid in an orphanage - and it was all thanks to Usagi's stubbornness!

This is who they were now. Normal people, with the same vulnerabilities as everyone else. Back when they fought monsters together it seemed like a faraway dream. But now... it was something they'd have to live with. They were still surrounded by monsters - only these monsters were all human: muggers, criminals, parents who would abuse their children. Usagi had been attacked, and the same had happened to several of Mamoru's female colleagues. These guys only attacked young women, which made Mamoru all the more angrier when he heard of them. But he also saw people hurt by other people in his courses at Uni: stab wounds, gunshot wounds, concussions... And perhaps the biggest monsters of them all were the parents of those kids Usagi was helping out.

This was exactly why the two of them needed to carry on with their lives and find happiness where they could. Mamoru still had the little magenta box, but a proper moment to present it to Usagi had not shown itself in the past two weeks. Tonight however, they were both taking a breather, so Mamoru invited her to the Swiss cafe she'd liked so much on the last day of summer. It was evening and the weather was just right: a little breezy but not quite cold yet. The sky was clear and starry, and the city was alive with lights shining everywhere beneath them. There were a lot more people in the cafe tonight - Mamoru'd had to make reservations to get a table! But overall the atmosphere was calm and warm and pleasant. The two had their desert drinks in front of them - Mamoru, the obligatory latte and Usagi, her creamy frappe - and when a break came up in their conversation, Mamoru took the little box out of his chest pocket and put it on the table. 

He did not open it yet. Instead, he let one of his hands sustain his head, relaxed, and he kept his other arm calm on the table, with the box sitting between them. At home he thought of all the possible ways he could do this and every single manner made him nervous. But now that he was here, he knew he didn't need to be fancy and theatrical. He needed to be... himself. Because that's when they were at their best: when they were both being themselves.

"We've been through a lot together... and if the future is still set in stone the way we've seen it years ago, then we have a lot more to face ahead of us. But whether that future comes to pass or we just end up living a normal 21st century human life, I know there's no one other than you that I'd like to wake up next to every morning."

Laughing, he continued:

"Crazy shampoo bottles and hair-dryers in the kitchen - all of it!"

Mamoru cleared his voice and paused as he got off the chair and down on one knee. He took the little magenta box off the table and opening it, he asked the obvious:

"Usagi Tsukino, will you do me the honor of being my wife?"

Usagi had slowly worked her way back to her normal routine. She was back at her own place now and her belongings had been replaced, though the raw memories of that night still rang vividly in her mind. She had many sleepless nights and when she did sleep, she woke up screaming, or in tears. Those were the nights she had called Mamoru to help calm her nerves and eventually fall asleep on the phone to the sound of his voice.

Usagi had been working hard in her classes, she had been going to a psychology study group as well as an English study group where she made quite a bit of friends who helped her in her studies. In Usagi’s internship she was working hard to help get kids out of broken homes and find a sense of safety again. She had made some major breakthroughs with one of her little girls who had been so quiet, but Usagi had shared with the little girl that someone she knew (it was really Usagi sharing her story and how she was scared) with the little girl and how it helps to talk about the problem.  The little girl had been able to talk more openly with Usagi about what had happened in her home and past abuses. Usagi made sure to make note of it in the child’s file and notify the authorities. For the meantime, the little girl would stay at her Uncle’s house.

But tonight would be a night just for Usagi and Mamoru. They were going to that café on the roof of the hotel. Usagi wondered what the special occasion was, she wasn’t complaining at all, she loved to go on dates with Mamoru, but tonight seemed different. Usagi ordered her usual frappe and for dinner she ordered a pasta dish for dinner. Usagi was talking about one of her classes, and when she finished Mamoru spoke.

She listened closely as he spoke and her heart began to beat more rapidly, was this going where she thought it was going, was this really happening.

Usagi’s thoughts were confirmed when Mamoru came before her on one knee and asked her to be his wife.


With tears filled in Usagi’s eyes as Mamoru slipped the ring onto her finger, Usagi nodded, as a huge smile formed on her face as she uttered one word, “YES” before she kissed him to show how much she loved him, especially after sticking with her for all these years. He was her strength, he was her everything and now they would be together, forever, whatever forever was for them.