1205/DJJDite in the House

DJJDite in the House
Date of Scene:	29 February 2024
Location:	Tamaki's Place
Synopsis:	Jadeite has finally invited his prince over. Mamoru has come armed with Usagi, Kazuo, and more takeout than their arms can easily carry. Over the course of their conversation, new matters are revealed, others are put to rest, and it becomes very clear Tamaki Suikawa is finally coming back to school.
Cast of Characters:	Jadeite, Mamoru Chiba, Usagi Tsukino, Kazuo Saitou

---

Jadeite has posed:
It's been two months.

Two months since he found himself in the ruins of his dorms, questioning everything. His head clear, his memory empty, his dorm soaked through and moldy.

It wasn't salvagable. None of it was. His things, his room, his life.

So he ran. Ran to his family with lies about needing more money, an accident, his tutelage is going fine. (It was easy to pull it off. As long as he didn't get into trouble publicly and remained a spare heir, he could od as he pleased. It wasn't as if they cared.)

Ran from the dorms to an apartment, leaving the clean up to the staff. (How could he face Endymion again? How could he face any of them again? He hadn't even recognized - )

Ran and buried himself in work, shaping ice and crushing it, slamming paint against canvas and running it through with his summoned rapier, wrote and built and tore apart and screamed-

But now it was time for finals. He'd have to go back eventually. He may as well - bite the bullet.

    DJJDite: My prince. Can we talk?
    DJJDite: In person, I mean. You can bring people if you need to.
    DJJDite: To feel safe.
    DJJDite: My new address is -

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
The answer was absolutely immediate.

    Mamoru: i love it when you call me your prince ^_^
    Mamoru: ofc we can talk wtf do you mean feel safe
    Mamoru: i can kick your ass :P
    Mamoru: anyway im on my way but usa and kazuo are coming too bc they are here and i cant carry all this takeaway myself
    Mamoru: brt

That was like ten minutes ago. (He always texts like that. It's quite possibly a Problem.) Now, there is a walrus knock-- NO there is a prince knocking on Tamaki's door, somewhat gently, with his elbow. "Jadeite we're here! There's mild AND spicy! And the mild is truly mild for your milquetoast tastebuds--"

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"Eh?"

That was what Usagi had said when Mamoru told her that they were meeting with Jadeite. A surprised little noise, as she realized - huh. It really had been ages since she'd seen him.

"Now that you mention it, he wasn't at Rei-chan's party!"

Now, they're waiting outside an apartment building, Usagi doing her part in holding takeout, inhaling the delicious scent of foooooood. She's going to have to be nice and polite and not steamroll him to eat all of the food.

"Do you think he'll hold a grudge against Luna for biting him that one time?" She asks. Luna is conspiciously not with her, having been ditched into Ami's room before Usagi left. Sure, she could follow them, but it was unlikely.

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
Kazuo is also doing his part in holding takeout. This is an important job. Otherwise, how could enough takeout possibly be fetched with for multiple teenaged boys and an Usagi?

It is entirely unsurprising that he says nothing, because while he might join in teasing about spice levels, he also wasn't at Rei's party, and he doesn't want Usagi deciding he needs someone to enforce his having a social life. Dealing with these people has risks he has never encountered before.

Jadeite has posed:
There's footsteps from behind the door of the apartment. The sound of the door unlocking. It creaks open.

Jadeite looks like he hasn't combed his hair in a week. He's wearing pajama bottoms and a too large T shirt with a cartoon Mothra on it.

"Come in, my prince," he says, bobbing his ihead. "It's - messier than I'd like it, but I've cleared enough space for us to talk."

And indeed, the path to a small table with four fold out chairs is ready - but the rest of the apartment is covered in torn paper, discarded clothing and chopped up fabrics. It's only that the trash has been taken out that keeps it from being a full NEET disaster.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"... okay I thought you were teasing a little bit," Mamoru says, flushing a little, but smiling. "You don't *have* to call me-- I mean-- you can just say Mamoru. Or Endy. You know." He steps in without stepping on anything bur floor, because there is a path to redemption in here, and that redemption is a small table with room for all of them.

The prince does look a little concerned, but far less than might be expected by Usagi -- probably not less than expected by Kazuo, who came by with cleaning supplies and gatorade last time. "Anyway it's fine," he says, glancing around, "it's just clutter, right? Do you want a hand with it or do you want to talk about something else?"

This last is asked as Mamoru puts his sack of takeaway (and a liter-ish of mango lassi) on the table. He's truly-- he's truly surprised, honestly, that Jadeite wants to Talk with multiple people present.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"Aw, but it's cute that he's calling you prince, Mamochan," Usagi says cheerfully, walking in without a care in the world. Perhaps if she didn't live with Naru, her room would look like this! Well, if she didn't live with Naru or Luna. "None of my girls call me Princess."

She says that, but if they started calling her princess, she would flail around and demand they stop right away, so.

"We brought lots of food from Korma, so eat up! You like mango, right? Everyone likes mango, right?"

Everyone liked mango! The only time mango was bad was when it actually wasn't mango, but was instead the despicable carrot, a problem Usagi had run into once, upon impulsively grabbing an orange drink and discovering it was neither orange nor mango but instead carrot flavored.

Truly evil.

She puts down her takeout load, and looks around, resisting the urge to start poking around papers. Not to help clean up, of course, but to see what's on them!

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
Kazuo sets the last of the takeout (how is there this much takeout did they just bring the entire restaurant) down and absently starts unloading containers and utensils. His attention does not appear to be on what he's doing (granted, this is someone whose secret nonmagical superpower is the ability to watch a distressing number of things in peripheral vision simultaneously); he's studying the torn paper and fabric, then giving a little nod. Without a judgmental glance at Jadeite. Something, somewhere, appears to have passed muster. It's probably not Jadeite's hair.

"Nice shirt, by the way." It's sort of like a hello.

Jadeite has posed:
For those gazing upon the paper scraps - they're drawings, though not all of them are intact. Some of them are of potential crafts - rabbit-like dolls, flower pendants, toy boats. Others are half formed sketches - crystalline buildings, gardens of strange flowers, people with beautiful faces.

If Kazuo or Usagi look close enough, they may find their own faces among the sketches - or rather, the faces of Princess Serenity and Kunzite.

Jadeite, for his part, pulls out a chair and attempts to help Kazuo and Mamoru unstack the take out.FF"I remember- some of the past," Jadeite says hesitantly, not meeting Mamoru's eyes. "Enough of it. I thought - "

And then Mamoru and Kazuo hit him with the one-two casual conversation combo. He hesitates further before responding: "I couldn't find a Biollante shirt, so Mothra will do. And..I... WE should talk about what's in the pictures. We'll figure out the rest of it later."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Mamoru bumps into Usagi on purpose for the 'aw but it's cute' comment, still a little pink. And he unpacks his own bag, taking out the big thing of rice and the extra rice and also more rice, and then a couple of plastic containers of things in sauce with writing on top, and a tinfoil-covered hot flat thing, and paper plates.

Glancing up at Jadeite as he opens the rice, his eyebrows go up as he surveys the Mothra shirt-- and then he grins at the Biollante part. Then his expression softens into a rueful smile and he unceremoniously starts dishing out food.

"I definitely want to see the pictures. I remember more of that life than I do of this one by volume, so I can at least answer some questions, or fill in gaps from my perspective, if you want me to," he says, then points things out. "The ones with M above the dish name are no heat. Everything else is by stars. I'm not a masochist so the hottest thing is two stars."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"Sometimes I try the three stars, and I even finish most of the dish without crying myself into dehydration," Usagi says cheerfully, but then - to a crybaby like her, crying is nothing to be ashamed of. The point is to enjoy food, right?

"But Mamochan didn't want to burn you up right after you finally invited us over, so we got lots of no spice."

That might have been a little too blunt, but her eyes are kind and her smile is genuine - she's not trying to stomp on any sore spots.

The smile does dim a little though, as Jadeite explains further, and she hands out plates before scooping up a handful of papers, exploring the images.

"You're very good," she says slowly, looking at the first image of her own face - as Princess Serenity - that she's ever seen, not to mention images of Endymion and Kunzite, of old gardens with strange flowers, of structures that no longer exist but once did. "I mean, I think so, anyway. Have you been making these all this time?"

Have you been remembering all of this, all this time?

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
"Spice can always be added," Kazuo says as he yields unstacking to Jadeite. "It's harder to subtract. Also if we'd brought higher than two-star, there would have been the problem of having to defend Mamoru against his own food." Once upon a time, Kunzite would've said that in an utter deadpan, the barest hint of humor just perceptible around his eyes. (Usagi's gaze passes over one of those, as she's looking.) Kazuo is more relaxed; there's a conspiratorial little smile, one that invites Jadeite (and Mamoru, and Usagi) to be part of the conspiracy, rather than walled out.

He does not ask questions about the pictures, or comment about what he remembers. Mamoru and Usagi are the ones with first rights on those. After all. He might have managed to stay out of Beryl's sight so far this time.

Last time was rather the opposite.

Jadeite has posed:
Despite the way that Jadeite's been wallowing in misery the last two months - the three of them manage to make him crack a smile. It's small, but it's there. He looks between the three of them before hesitantly reaching for the mango lassi.

"I think I'll stick to the zero star food for now. Better safe than sorry."
FOr the delicious mango treats...

"I've mostly been drawing," he tells Usagi. "I've remembered so much from that time; this life feels like a distant memory, even though I'm still living it. It's - I keep on feeling the old way of speaking come back."FFHe shoots a rueful look to Mamoru - he's not going to be able to drop My Prince anytime soon.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Good because I still have trouble calling you anything but Jadeite," says Mamoru nigh-instantly, and then he makes gimme-gimme hands at Usagi for some of the papers and sits down. (If she doesn't give him any he'll just pick up any old ones off the rest of the mess, but it's funnier to gimme-gimme hands.)

He does this before involving himself with sauce.

"I'm not going to ask why," he says after a moment of looking, "you couldn't talk about it before now. About remembering, maybe, or at all. Because I don't want to put you on the spot like that." He looks up. "But I can guess, and I'm really glad you can talk now, and I want you to know that I meant every single text I sent saying how much I missed you, even if I made them sound jokey sometimes, and even if you were right there sometimes. I don't like when you drift away." A beat. "I was this close to not respecting your privacy and just finding you and coming over."

Then he takes, and lets out, a big breath. He also reaches over to poke the side of Kazuo's head without looking. Poke.

"I definitely remember this," he says, holding up an image of Endymion at roughly 10 looking like a drowned rat, standing in front of a lake with his hands on his hips and a scowly face. "And I definitely remember it being Zoisite's fault. Can we make an album of these? This is amazing."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
The gimme gimme hands are instantly fed, as Usagi trades papers for plates, and dishes herself a large helping of rice, then tops it immediately with a mix of one star and two star curries.

Food! The scent of hot, warm food, spiced with ingredients she knows very well were raised by hand with love, in a greenhouse built for a family.

The confessions shared - that Jadeite has remembered more of the past in exchange for the current feeling distant, quiet her down, aside from the quiet, obligatory, "Itadakimasu!" before she takes her first bite of curry.

In some ways, she can relate. She's Usagi Tsukino, but also, she's Princess Serenity. Sometimes, when she transforms, the memories of the one shift to the back.

"It's true; Mamochan was really worried, you know? Don't go disappearing again."

Scolding delivered, she chomps on food, only to choke when she sees the picture of drowned-rat-dymion.

"Pffffthahaha, Mamochan, you look so pouty-faced!"

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
The poke is accepted, and Kazuo waits till after Usagi is done to raid the rest of the two-star. "We all process things in our own ways," he says to Jadeite, after Scowly Prince is held up and Usagi starts laughing. "Drawing is a good one. Within limits. Texting Mamoru tonight was a good way of establishing the limits. We all need to be careful about that; if we don't interact with people now, we get ..." He frees a hand to gesture a little, vaguely. "... squirrelly."

Yes, that word did just come out of his mouth.

Jadeite has posed:
"You can keep calling me Jadeite. I was being careful about not telling Beryl my real name, but I've been using Jason as a psuedonym long enough I don't know if I'd respond to Tamaki."

As a rich heir, he couldn't let just anybody know who his family was! Even if she was an evil space witch from beyond the stars.

He serves himself up a heaping mound of rice, then a heaping scoop of mild curry before he continues. "A couple days after I was purified, I realized I remembered - not everything, but a lot more. And I realized I was an asshole. I'd been an asshole then, and I was an asshole now. I was supposed to be your knight, and I didn't even recognize you when you were right in front of me! I just pushed you away like I did last time." A shuddering breath. "I'm'... really glad you still want to talk to me after all that. I couldn't work up the nerve to talk to you until now."

"You can make an album if you want. There's more - I've been nonstop drawing for the past two months. I can't promise you can find anything in there. Like he says... we get squirrelly being alone too long," and he grins wanly at Kazuo.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Grinning at Usagi, Mamoru holds up the next picture he lights upon -- it's Zoisite with sticks and leaves in his hair. "Gonna need a picture of this picture. Gonna make it my home screen for a little while."

Then he hands the stack of drawings to Kazuo and shovels a little two-star food onto one side of his rice and no-star food onto the other, with clear plans of alternating and a neat dividing line of one-star korma down the middle. He nods to what Kazuo says, glad he didn't have food in his mouth when Kazuo said 'squirrelly'--

--and then eats while Jadeite's talking. Nom nom nom.

Finally, he says, "I didn't know your real name either." He pushes food onto his fork again, then puts his fork down and goes for the garlic naan. "It was a good idea not to tell Hematite though, especially back then."

The prince of punk band shirts rips a piece of naan in half and looks at it, then looks back up at Tamaki, blue eyes earnest and bright behind mostly-clean glasses. "We were absolutely all assholes this time. Including Kazuo, just for different reasons, and he's still an asshole, while I'm kind and innocent and not a troll at all in any way. Of course I want to talk to you. I want to talk to you all the time!"

Then he shakes the bread at Jadeite. "But you listen to me. It was to everyone's benefit that you couldn't put a name to me this time. Hematite was protective coloration, and you had a monster demon in the back of your head trying to figure me out."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Squirrely, he says! Squirrely, huh? Clearly, Kazuo-kun needs to be invited to even more parties. More hang outs. More opportunities to spend time together. More social engagements! Chiyo-chan had been a little anxious about having that crush on him... spending time together would surely fix it! She could see that Kazuo-kun was just as much of a dork as anyone else.

Even if he wasn't very much a dork at all.

Usagi nods decisively.

"Don't worry, Tama-kun, Mamochan is totally right! All of you were total assholes, especially my Hemachan! But I disagree with Mamochan actually, 'cause Kazuo-kun's not an asshole because he's got charm and charisma." This is clearly consoling, and will help the situation. She devours half her plate of curry in the span of like, five breaths, somehow managing to chew and swallow also.

"And it's true that not remembering helped; if Beryl knew Mamochan was Prince Endymion, she would have never let him out of her sight. In not remembering, you all helped save him!"

Pause.

"So no hard feelings about that time Luna bit your ankle?"

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
"Mamoru, would you check Tsukino-san's temperature sometime tonight?" Kazuo suggests, keeping a safe distance away from his own food while he's holding the stack of drawings. "She might be coming down with something." Delusional! Clearly! ... he does not look surprised at Usagi managing to osmose half her plate, either. Just does a quick glance to make sure that there's more naan in her reach.

He does blink slowly at the prospect of Luna biting Jadeite's ankle. And bend his head thoughtfully to consider the drawings. And start absently sorting them, because lifting his gaze from them is not going to happen those are folding chairs he will undoubtedly knock at least two over if he starts laughing that hard.

Jadeite has posed:
"I think - I think some part of me knew. And another part didn't know. And they both kept on crashing against each other. Remembering back then feels like being in a storm," Jadeite confesses. "But - if that's what it took to keep you safe, then I'm glad I forgot."

And he is. Or he knows he should be. Even if it feels like his chest is being squeezed. He always wanted to know Mamoru. Even back then, when he hadn't known, he'd tried not to leave his side. "I want to talkt o you all the time too. Especially now that I know. I've got so much time to make up for."

Jadeite takes a piece of naan to sop up more curry with, then nudges the plate closer to Kazuo and Usagi. And.

wait.

"Who's Luna?"

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"I don't have enough charm and charisma to erase being an asshole??" Mamoru exclaims, hand over his heart, shooketh. He pops his leather jacket's collar. "Do I now?"

Then he stares at Kazuo. "Are you trying to get bitten, calling her Tsukino-san in front of her?"

And then... and then he slowly puts his bread down and regards Tamaki, expression unreadable for a moment. "She's Usagi's friend -- a talking black cat with a little gold moon on her forehead. She bit your leg really hard and you had a house-sized beef with her thereafter. I mean-- you're not kidding about forgetting stuff, huh."

Mamoru suddenly isn't really hungry.

"There was... a lot of damage. With your purification. You kept rebuilding yourself with dark energy, so I had to-- I had to heal a lot of you very fast while Serenity got rid of the poison, and-- maybe I wasn't fast enough. Maybe there was no way to be fast enough."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"What? No! That's not what I meant! I just meant that unlike Nephrite and Zoisite, Kazuo-kun has real charm and charisma! You don't count Mamochan, you're special." Special. Yes. That is a word. And Kazuo does in fact get a clean piece of naan chucked at his head for calling her Tsukino-san, a pout clear on Usagi's face as she flails a little.

"I just mean that Hemachan was a real jerk to like, everyone who wasn't me sometimes, but Nephrite was a jerk to everyone not Naru-chan and Zoisite - well, I guess I only met him like three times when he was evil and now he's just kind of weird sometimes but he tried to set everything on fire a lot, so I think he gets to be called an asshole too, but Kazuo-kun gets up at the awful morning hours to run with Naru-chan and is all cool and aloof and charming, and you're my handsome sweet Mamochan so! There!"

Thank goodness there's a distraction, in the form of Jadeite saying the most baffling thing in the world. Who's Luna? He's had a grudge against Luna for months, all because she bit him that one time.

Usagi's face shows her confusion, and also a bit of curry - she grabs a napkin and dabs sauce away from the corners of her mouth as she puzzles over the contradiction, dragging naan through sauce.

So that's what he meant, about remembering.

"Maybe not," Usagi says, and she shifts in her seat to bump Mamoru's shoulder. "Maybe it's just - you healed him too good? Your healing feels like coming home, remember? Maybe you called all those good, home memories, of our first lives, and the newer stuff is a little buried instead."

She doesn't know, of course. But she can't imagine that Mamoru failed.

"Don't be in a rush to remember that beef with Luna, okay? She really is sweet! And - you've got more important stuff to remember."

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
This time it's Usagi that gets the look from Kazuo - before the piece of naan is chucked. (He catches it, but only after it bounces off his head.) "Zoisite is charming," he protests, but very mildly, and there is absolutely no protest about Zoisite being an asshole. That one is just ... transcendentally true.

-- annnnd then there is the more serious. In the form of the void where a feline should be.

Quietly, he puts down the sorted stack of papers (it's a start), and pays attention to eating. He wasn't there for either the biting, or for Jadeite's purification. He doesn't know.

Jadeite has posed:
Tamaki stares at the three of them. He hadn't expected the mood to turn solemn over THIS, not when there was so much else to be solemn about. The past, the things he had done - why a cat?

The why becomes rapidly obvious.

"Oh," Tamaki says. "It's not your fault, Endymion. If you weren't fast enough, then no one could be fast enough. But I think this is more - if you cut a tumor out, you can't help but take some of the healthy flesh around it to make sure you get it all. My soul had rotted through; you cleaned out the worst of it. I remember that I was miserable, but not much more than that. I don't think it's that bad to lose memories like that."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Endymion. Mamoru doesn't catch it, for a second, because that name's as much his, and as immediate, as 'Mamoru' is-- but nobody calls him that, not really.

He gets a Usagibump in the shoulder and sways with it automatically, an exaggerated little thing absently done, and he listens. "Maybe," he says, semi-hopefully. "Maybe it's just the Dark Kingdom you forgot. Maybe it's just that. And if that's the case, you're right, it's not bad to lose memories like that, just a little awkward. But you can always just say you have memory issues..."

He hesitantly picks up his bread again, but he uses it to stir sauce on his plate instead of eating. "I used to say that all the time. I was forgetting things on purpose so the thing couldn't get them if it figured out how. It's fine. You're right. But is that all? Or-- did you forget your family, too?"

His voice, his expression, are so careful. He doesn't want to wobble over this. He will not! wobble! over this. Spoilers: there's at least a worried edge he can't entirely erase.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Usagi frowns, cheeks puffing, eyes concerned - but Jadeite - no, Tamaki - had been hurt, a lot, when he was purified. He had nearly died.

"Well... if you're not too... broken up about it..."

She doesn't want to bump up against Mamoru again, even if his wobbly voice is making her Experience Concern.

"How do you feel? I mean... maybe we can try again? Without you falling apart, I mean."

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
There's the touch of a hand against the back of Mamoru's other shoulder, instead. Maybe a whole second and a half of it. Kazuo's still keeping his mouth shut. This is probably a good thing, since there's formerly-Usagi's-naan in it.

Jadeite has posed:
"It's mostly the Dark Kingdom, and when I was at school during that time - I think it's the memories of the times I was most filled with dark energy," Tamaki says.

"Don't worry about my family," he says, taking a long sip of mango lassi. "I wasn't lucky enough to forget about them. I spent some of the time in here getting back in contact - well, not 'back'. It looks like I was sending them a letter full of bull about my grades and schoolwork and my side hustles that made some extra cash, and they're pleased with how I'm doing. They're even increasing my allowance, since I'm doing so well here. I haven't gotten expelled for misbehavior or spent all my money partying, so I'm beating plenty of my cousins behavior wise." Yeah, he's doing pretty good! Nothing to worry about.

"I even got a postcard from Vegas. Mom was having a good time schmoozing for the family business. They're all fine doing...whatever they do without me." There's barely a trace of regret in his voice.

But then he falters, looking at how worried Mamoru is, at how the others support him. "If you want to try it again - I'm willing. I trust you with my head."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"That's what they're like? At least they're not too bad -- no wonder you get along with Naru," Mamoru says musingly, relaxing a little, relieved a lot. Those were the important things.

Then there's the Suggestion, and he looks at Usagi, then Jadeite, in alarm.

"No I-- I don't remember the shapes," says Mamoru hesitantly. "I don't want you getting hurt when you're fine. And I can't fix anything now, anyway, you're already fixed. Maybe-- maybe magic that's not my magic can do something. But I can't even get my own memories back, the ones that Beryl messed with or the ones before I was six--"

He takes that support, he needs that support, he has multiple people willing to give him support whenever he needs it. But this? He has to say no, and he manages to let out a little disbelieving laugh. "I appreciate the vote of confidence but I don't trust me with your brain. Even if I could remember the shapes of your memory, the pathways--"

A beat, and Mamoru belatedly doubletakes. "Wait, your mom is in Vegas?"

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"I'm just saying, we could always just flood him with magic - well, okay, that could go wrong, but when I saved you it worked out, right?"

Maybe a bad example, considering the trauma, blood, tears, and revelation, but -

"You're probably right though. Brain surgery's like, really hard, and you're still in high school." Someday her Mamochan would be able to do brain surgery, she was confident in that! But today...

"Isn't Vegas for gambling? It's where they have all those movies with the explosions and the American Yakuza, right?"

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
"I'm not sure that flooding him with magic again would make more of a difference," Kazuo says gently to Usagi, proving that he does in fact still have functioning vocal cords. "Putting ice cream back in the freezer helps keep it cold, but it doesn't give you more ice cream."

He glances sidewise to Tamaki, and says, "Sorry about your cousins." It's the way there's the tiniest hint of a sigh in that that suggests he might have cousins that would be doing exactly the same thing if they had the finances.

Jadeite has posed:
"It's fine," Tamaki reassures Mamoru. "You did the best you could. The important memories are still here. I remember you and the others, and I remember the Golden Kingdom. You can tell me whatever's missing." He knows Mamoru will do his best to help him understand.

And then he flushes. "I guess I never told you all," Tamaki says sheepishly. He can feel an echo of the embarassment of the him in his meomries, but - now is the time for truth. He forges on. "My father is Japanese and my mother is American. Their marriage helped stablize both of their families' corperations, which are now involved in the production and manufacture of corn syrup. Since the American government is heavily involved in both corn farming and the production of corn syrup, my mother spends a lot of time talking to American politicians to ensure that they pass laws favorable to corn syrup, while my father helps send Japanese machines to America for the manufacture... Vegas is popular for gambling, but I'm pretty sure the mafia don't own it anymore," he tells Usagi.

And he sighs, nodding to Kazuo. "You can take the cousins out of Indiana, but you can't take the Indiana out of the cousins."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"I am definitely still in high school," Mamoru says fervently, finally jamming a mouthful of sauce and bread in his mouth. And then promptly inhaling part of it very briefly and then cough-laughing, when Usagi says 'American Yazuka'.

He catches Kazuo's tone and expression at Tamaki, and clearly resolves then and there to ask Kazuo more questions than about his grandmother. Oh. Oh boy. Eventually the others will hear about Kazuo's grandmother. This gives Mamoru life.

He takes Tamaki's reassurance somewhat uncertainly, because it's a little dubious, but he takes the vote of confidence with slightly better grace. "I will," he promises. "Whatever I know, anyway."

And then... The Reveal.

Mamoru eats food a little more sedately now, if only because now he knows not to trust Tamaki's serious to actually hold nothing but seriousness-- he has warning! He won't choke again! But he's smirking around his korma. And then he looks regretful. "Sorry about your family business. We should start a business, maybe get Neph to run it. I asked for his advice embezzling when Usagi suggested it to me."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"...you're American?" Shooketh. That's Usagi - absolutely shooketh. This is a revelation that rocks her to her core. "Is that why your hair is blond?!"

Treachery! Treachery afoot! They're supposed to be united in just Having Blond Hair!

That said however, and with all seriousness... it genuinely sounds awful, that his family didn't even notice that something was wrong. He'd been taken into Obsidian and had a demon living in his head and they hadn't even noticed? Sure, her parents had forced her to live in the dorms and improve, but at least they paid attention -

"Corn, gambling, American... there's so much I didn't know about you, Tamaki-kun," horrendous. "We've got to fix that. Right away! You're coming back to school and you're going to stop avoiding Mamochan, right? We'll make new memories; better ones."

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
There's something not-quite-a-nod to Usagi's making better memories. They'll work things out. As for families? "Mine don't even have Indiana for an excuse," Kazuo says about the cousins, and it's his turn to be rueful. Because his being rueful about that substitutes in well enough where anything even remotely resembling 'sorry about the corn syrup, that sucks' might have gone, without actually acknowledging the corn syrup.

Possibly ever.

It may eventually require some fascinating gymnastics to avoid, depending on whether Tamaki's family show up, or how determined Zoisite and/or Nephrite get about running jokes involving Tamaki's relatives having made their fortune entirely off Usagi's eating habits.

... and then Mamoru is talking about embezzling advice, and Kazuo just sprawls against the back of the folding chair, letting his head and hair fall back over the edge, and stares at the ceiling. Clearly their prince is evidence that there is no benevolent deity in the universe.

Jadeite has posed:
"I think being involved in corn syrup is unethical enough without bringing white collar fraud into it," Jadeite says, mostly joking. Mostly. "If he's embezzling, I'm at least helping run the books."

He's not an animal! He loves Nephrite deeply as a friend, but cash money is cash money!

And to Usagi - "Yes, that's why I'm blonde. That's how genetics works," teasing. "I... remember telling everyone I was European? I think? That makes sense. The only place less glamorous than Indiana is Ohio. Or Florida."

its cringe ok? moving on!

"I'll be back to school soon. With.. With all of you," and he looks to all three of them, smilingl shyly. "You won't pry me off Endymion with a claw hammer."