1637/Messy Teenagers

Messy Teenagers
Date of Scene:	02 June 2024
Location:	Mitakihara General Hospital
Synopsis:	After Sunset of Sora and the healing wave of energy at the hospital, Princess Serenity and Prince Endymion visit Molly Skyline for some healing, mistakes, and communication.
Cast of Characters:	Mamoru Chiba, Usagi Tsukino, 25
Tinyplot:	Sunset of Sora

---

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
It's not long after Rashmi leaves that there's a knock on Molly's door, and a very tall fluffy-haired boy in... armor?! With a cape??? Not full plate armor by any means, but certainly pauldrons and greaves and faulds, over an old-style military-esque jacket and trousers and tall boots -- he comes in and ducks his head. "Skyline-san?"

There's a glow behind him, and he steps out of the way for the girl with him, but he's also saying, "Sorry about the henshin, if I drop it the tired will catch up with me-- I'm Endymion, this is Serenity, I wanted to check and see if the flood of energy a bit ago did enough or if you still needed more healing?"

A beat. "Uh, we're friends of Rashmi's."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
The girl who comes in behind Endymion is indeed glowing, a pale light cast by her skin, her star-spun white hair and deep blue eyes soft with concern. Her dress seems to have enough chiffon to strangle an elephant, but she walks over with every indication of ease and comfort, not even tripping on the train of it.

"Molly-chan! How are you? We ran into each other the other day - it's Usagi-chan!"

And suddenly, the veil will make it clear - Princess Serenity is delicate and ethereal, she walks as though she might float away instead, but her features are undeniably Usagi's.

Molly Skyline (25) has posed:
Molly is laying in bed, though she's propped up on the pillows and at least doesn't look like she's going to pass into a Snow-White style eternal slumber anymore. The TV is on a music channel -- looks a lot like K-Pop -- and she's amusing herself by flipping through a RIFTS book (specifically the one about South America). Secretly, she is gazing longingly at the stats for the Glitter Boy 7 power armor, because... well because. She has a new (if rather cheap) looking set of glasses perched on her nose which are totally the wrong shape.

Her prefered, round glasses are broken, one lens cracked and one smashed, and are sitting on the bedside table beside her, alongside a glass of water with a straw.

At the sound of people entering, she looks up, and the momentary concern of seeing a man in armor march into her room is eased when he starts explaining, and banished entirely when he says the magic words, 'friends of Rashmi's'.

"Oh! Hi!" she greets back, and flashes a grin. "I'm Molly, and, uhm, you knew that already." She pauses, glancing down at herself, clad in hospital pajamas and swaddled under the covers. "Well... I'm still burnt," she admits. "Sunbreaker did... kind of a number on me. I'm feeling *loads* better, but they still want to keep me in here for a couple more weeks. ...At least I'm getting my homework done."

Molly pauses, taking a moment to just... fully appreciate Usagi's appearance. And the fact that that's Usagi. "I do not look anywhere near as cool as either of you when I Henshin," she adds, without a trace of jealousy; it's pure admiration.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Endymion just laughs, also relaxing. "I should have known you two knew each other -- you know everyone," he tells the glowing moon princess, grinning, before he looks back to Molly. "This is definitely not our usual henshins. I'm Mamoru Chiba, eleventh grade at Radiant Heart... I'm Usagi-chan's boyfriend, and I'm usually Tuxedo Mask -- still fancy, but considerably less so."

He comes up next to Usagi and lifts his right hand, which is currently a mess: scars and some contraction. "Sunbreaker did a number on me, too. I've been here for a couple of weeks... but I'm a healer. As soon as my power came back, I went to help, and then Usako and I came back here to help everyone else. You interested in getting out earlier?"

He offers his left hand, which is unmarked, and starts to glow a soft gold. "Since it's still burned, I'll probably be able to get it sorted out well enough that they'll let you go tomorrow at the latest."

Unlike Usagi's inhumanly ethereal glowing loveliness, Mamoru-- at least as Endymion-- has a gravity to him, grounded, a presence more solid than most people. He glances at Molly's glasses on the table and winces, though. "She only bent my glasses, I'm sorry you had to get replacements."

Henshins that reduce the need for corrective eyewear, what'll they think of next.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"These are a little special," Serenity says sheepishly - her smile is bright, and there's something other about her now, where her goofy smile manages to look elegant and almost stately. "Mamochan - if you want, it will make you feel like you're at home. Warm and safe and golden, and then - you'll be a lot better. But if you don't want to, you don't have to."

She walks closer, her own hand settling against Endymion, offering support, the soft silver light of her energy continuing to bolster him.

"I'm sure Rashmi-chan told you, but everything's okay with like, the world and stuff now."

Molly Skyline (25) has posed:
"I'm really bummed about my glasses," Molly laments, pulling her new ones off her face. "These ones are just... they work but they're not *right*. They aren't the right shape, they don't feel right, they don't look right... My Moms say they're just temporary until we can get a replacement set, but I'm still... I just..." She sighs, putting the glasses back on the bridge of her nose, "I know I'm getting upset over something really minor."

She looks back up, and gazes back and forth between the two people with the really incredible henshins. "Well, even if neither of you do this all the time, you're doing it *right now*, and that's good enough for me." She holds up one hand, looking at Mamoru's extended palm and Usagi giving him support.

"Get out of here early? Yes, *please*. I'll figure out how I'm going to explain it to my Moms later." She grins broadly, as she reaches up to clasp hands.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
And Mamoru's messed-up hand holds Usagi's, this time, and when Molly makes contact, the golden warmth that Usagi described is entwined with a cooling silver, the two powers working in tandem today--

"Getting upset at little things is normal," the prince murmurs a little absently, his dark blue eyes distant as he gets to work. The pain is the first thing to go, washed away in a sensation of safety and comfort, in the feeling of peace that comes with the sun shining bright and warm on a spring meadow, or rain tapping against the glass panes of a window, or the clear still surface of a pool of water seeping up from a spring in the forest primeval.

Tissue rebuilds, nerves regrow, flesh knits; the connections of the body are set to rights in cool silver and warm gold, and there's a sense of the connectedness of humanity, how every person on this earth is part of its long history, welcomed and belonging, even if they started far away.

None of the actual work of the healing is obtrusive.

"You'll probably be able to just tell them you don't know, and they'll end up forgetting the details. Not that you were hurt, but that you were hurt so badly that the original projection was weeks or even months, depending on how bad it was, initially."

Finally, Endymion's power withdraws, leaving well-being in its wake, and he carefully lets go of Molly's hand. "You shouldn't have scars," he says, smiling. "And it's good to meet you, by the way."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"I mean, it's not really minor though," Serenity says matter-of-factly. "You have to wear your glasses every day, right? And so they're part of your look, your style, and you said they don't even feel right, and since they're for your eyes, that sounds really annoying. I think it's worth getting upset about, but, between you, me, and Mamochan, I cry over just about anything."

She says it with absolutely no shame, either, just a faint smile that invites good-natured humor.

"We hit a lot of the hospital today too," she says with satisfaction, "So the hospital might just say that they must have overestimated the damage."

But it will be okay, is the important thing. It's going to brush away, be something she doesn't have to worry over, dwell over, consider for ages.
Hersnd when the gold and silver power eases, Serenity looks Molly over carefully, even though she knows Endymion's work and doesn't doubt it. She just wantws to see that she's okay, that they've put one more thing to rights.

Molly Skyline (25) has posed:
A deep sigh of relief is breathed, and Molly visibly lets out a pent up tension that she hadn't really recognized until now, as the healing takes effect and the benefits are explained.

"That... that means a *lot* to me," she replies, in response to basically everything Mamoru and Usagi said. "I was... I thought I was gonna look like a burn victim for the rest of my life," she admits, blushing deeply. "Kinda thought that bikinis on the beach were over, y'know? And... And yeah, my glasses *are* part of my look, and I want that to be right! I like round glasses, not... not these," she says, gesturing towards what's sitting on the bridge of her nose.

"It's good to meet you, too," she adds, nodding up towards Mamoru. "And like, not just because you shortened my hospital stay by the best part of a month and saved my beach look. But..." she pauses, sucking in a deep breath, and looking back and forth between the two. "I dunno what kind of consequences Sunbreaker is facing, but... I don't want her to be punished on my behalf. Please." She clasps her hands over her stomach, and adopts a very serious, very serene look.

"I forgive her."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Mamoru -- Endymion, still -- looks wry. "After the fight, she faced the consequences of friendship speeches and some scoldings, and that's about it."

He straightens up and shakes his head. "I forgave her, eventually, for kidnapping Naru-chan and torturing her, and for burning the hell out of Usako and other people-- like Rashmi-san, before she lost control of the dark energy she was playing with. I forgave her for flooding Himeko-chan with dark energy. This, though, we warned her and warned her and warned her, and she kept going back... and then this, and I'm going to have nightmares about her for a really long time, as bad as the ones I have about the woman who killed me the last time around. I'm not forgiving her until I see proof of her improvement. I don't hate her, but I'm angry with her, and I will be for a while."

He doesn't have any vitriol, just a patient explanation of how he feels and why. "It's better to let deep anger run its course than try and stifle it, and I plan to just avoid her until I've stopped being so angry. That certainly won't take as long as her earning forgiveness from me. It takes too much energy to stay mad forever."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
There's a bright smile on Serenity's face, when Molly relaxes into the healing, as she admits her fear - a reasonable one, because burns, as Usagi has learned during these long two weeks, are terrible wounds, a type of damage the body simply doesn't bounce back from well. "Well, you're back to bikinis on the beach, and just in time for summer. Your round glasses look like they were really cute - I hope you can get some more, soon."

She really does, even.

Some of the brightness dims, at Molly's simple request, a more somber mood striking, and she nods along to Mamoru's words.

"Mostly, she got a bunch of hugs, and was asked to do better. She hurt herself, in that fight, with her own fire, and she probably took damage from the attacks being thrown around, but she probably should have thought of that before she tried to blow up the sun..."

Her voice trails off, not vitriolic, but exasperated - clearly not at Molly, but at the subject of the conversation.

"I've forgiven her for a lot," she confirms, "And every time, I've hoped she would start doing better. That she would stick to her rules, that she would help people. But she left Mamochan for dead, and plenty of other people, went on a rampage because she didn't listen and even now... I don't know if she's sorry for what she's done, or if she's sorry there were consequences. I'm with Mamochan; I'm going to need to see her grow before I forgive her. But we're not punishing her. That's not our job. We stopped her - that was our job."

Molly Skyline (25) has posed:
All of it makes sense, of course. But that doesn't mean that Molly isn't visibly crestfallen.

"I... I know, and I understand all that," she murmurs. "And you're *right* about all of it, of course. Both of you. And maybe I'm stupid for forgiving her so easily, after she burned me and drained me and left me to..." she trails off, and licks her lips, "I mean, I'm glad Rashmi found me right away." She shrugs her shoulders lightly. "And I'm not saying I'm not hurt, or mad, or that I haven't had nightmares and that laying here in bed while other people go to fight her hasn't sucked. Because I am mad, and hurt, and I was scared and I had nightmares, and it *did* suck, especially knowing that Rashmi was out there fighting while I'm here."

The purplenette pokes at her glasses, sub-consciously fiddling with the thing that's currently irritating her the most. "But, like, there was this line in a show... ever watch Buffy the Campire slayer? Forgiveness is an act of compassion. We don't forgive people because they deserve it but because they need it. And I just... I think she needs it. Even if she doesn't realize it."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Mamoru's hand tightens a little in Usagi's hand, and she can feel what he's feeling, but all of what he's feeling doesn't show on his face right now. He shakes his head at Molly and smiles lopsidedly, tilting his head a little. "You have to do what's right for you, and what's right for you is forgiving her. It's not stupid, it's just your choice. It clearly makes you feel better, maybe because of how you were brought up or who you admire or how you function. Different people deal with hurt in different ways, and that's truly okay as long as those ways don't hurt anyone else."

His right hand in Usagi's still doesn't clasp right. His left arm still doesn't lift all the way, and it still hurts to make it try. Until not very long ago at all, he wasn't connected to the Earth or the people he loves, he couldn't sense anything around him, he couldn't-- he couldn't. There's a lot of banked emotion in his voice as he continues.

"Forgiveness isn't an obligation, and if it actively harms the parties who have already been actively harmed, it shouldn't be stressed as necessary. I need to be able to trust that she won't do this again," the prince says gently. "Compassion is admirable, but you need to put your own oxygen mask on before you help someone else with theirs. My oxygen mask isn't on yet, even if yours is."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Mamoru will sense it - how uncomfortable Usagi is how crestfallen Molly is, how much emotion, deferred, delayed, and unacknowledged, swirls in ehr chest. Still, her voice is gentle and friendly, when she speaks. "You're not stupid, Molly-chan, but you're also... I don't know your history, with Sunbreaker, so I won't say that, actually, but -"

And she breathes in, and she breathes out.

"She might need forgiveness. But I need to know my people are safe. I need to know my people will heal. She has people who will take care of her - so I'm fine with letting them take care of her. There's compassion, and then there's naivety, and beyond that, there's foolishness. Compassion was purifying her, destroying the demon she created with her own recklessness. Naivety would be bringing her back into my life, into my friend's lives, without seeing first if she plans to do more of the same."

And there's that tone in her voice, the more stately, refined speech of a princess raised for diplomacy, for leadership, more than the off-the-cuff reactions of an ordinary girl. Usagi leans on Serenity like a security blanket, because, as Mamoru can feel through their joined hands -

There is a seething tide of anger for Hinoiri, still deep within her spirit. It will be poured out, it will be satisfied, but not now, not for nothing.

"Sometimes, when you're on not strike three, but strike four, strike five, strike six... forgiveness becomes something you have to earn."

And then she manages a smile, inclining her head towards Molly.

"I'm glad for you, that you can feel good about offering her your forgiveness now. That wouldn't feel good for either of us, though."

Molly Skyline (25) has posed:
Molly turns a deep, mortified red.

"I.. I *never* meant to suggest... that you should feel... That either of you should need to..."

The purplenette now looks utterly aghast. She works through her thoughts rather deliberately, keeping her hands clasped over her abdomen while she's working on it.

"I'm sorry," she states at last. "That was very wrong of me to say, regardless of wether I meant it or not. I should have said that it was the right thing for *me* to do, not to make it a blanket statement. I hope I haven't caused you any harm, and I am deeply sorry if I have."

Her ill-fitting spectacles keep slipping, so she adjusts them, and it's a good cover for a moment for how deeply red she has turned. Of course, no amount of hiding her blush will make it stop burning her cheeks.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Oh, sweetheart, it's all right, you're all right," Endymion says, crouching next to the bed so he doesn't tower so badly -- it's a testament to how absurdly tall he is that it puts him at a little higher than face-to-face with someone in a hospital bed.

"You didn't know. And also, I got defensive when you said you forgave her because other people, not you, have been pressuring us to forgive things before we're ready. Instead I could have just said 'good for you.'"

Mamoru sighs a little, putting one knee down with a little clank. "And me getting defensive probably made Usako feel like she had to help defend me -- which made you feel like you needed to justify yourself to us, which made us double down in establishing our positions, and there it went. Miscommunication happens more easily when we're all still hurting," he says, tone still gentle, but ruefully matter-of-fact.

His fingers lace through Usagi's as best they can, minding her reactions and trying to keep a read on her feelings so he doesn't lie when he says 'we' or 'us'. He's also tired -- despite the Silver Crystal flooding his magical battery, despite his own power being back, it doesn't do much for physical exhaustion. He's tired.

He takes a breath; he lets it out. "I'm usually better at this, it's just been two weeks of Too Much Awful, you know? I'm sorry you're feeling badly now, after getting good beach news and everything -- I'm sorry that what we said made you feel like this. You haven't done anything bad, I promise, and you haven't done us any harm. We're all of us only messy teenagers that just went through hell."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"It's okay," Serenity says, sweeping the tide of emotion away with a word, "Like Endychan said, it's just a little bit of a touchy subject. You didn't hurt us! And don't have to be embarrassed, and I know I was pretty direct, so, I really am sorry if I hurt your feelings. I really am glad for you."

And it's clear on her face and in her voice, that she really, genuinely is. It's not a brush off or an attempt to cover up for some feeling, it's just that she's genuinely glad for Molly, even as she herself is comfortable with the knowledge that she is not ready to forgive Hinoiri Kirara her latest transgression.

"I know that you - and everyone else who brings it up - means well."

And boy are there are a number of people to fold into that everyone, her wry smile suggests.

Molly Skyline (25) has posed:
Molly breathes a visible sigh of relief, and the tension flows out of her body and brain.

"Thank you," she replies. "And, there's nothing either of you need to be sorry for you. I guess I've been stressed out in new and powerful ways as well -- I might not've been in the battle, but I felt like I was fighting for my life in here, even after Sunbreaker was defeated, and I didn't know if I was ever gonig to be able to do magic again, and I didn't know if any of my friends might... might not make it back..."

The purplenette has to stop for a moment, and dab her fingertips at the corners of her eyes. Just for a moment.

"I'm really grateful that you both came, to heal me and take the time to talk," she continues. "I mean... talking about it, is like healing for the mind, right? Especially for us messy teenagers who just went through hell."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
When Molly relaxes, Endymion relaxes a little, too. As tired as he is, he unfolds gracefully from the floor and takes a step back to loom at a less looming distance. He still doesn't let go of Usagi's hand, not really, even though he does have to shift his grip a little as he gets up.

"It is," he says, smiling at Molly. "For a loss like the ones we thought we'd have, we need to recover from getting ready to grieve. There's a mountain of emotion to get through, isn't there? So many ways to feel about it."

Grief. It comes through the contact, the handclasp between Serenity and Endymion, sharp and raw, sudden and hot and brief before it's put carefully away. Not now.

He pauses, then glances down at Serenity and looks kind of sheepish. "I have one more person to visit and then I'm going to drop," he says, looking from the Princess to Molly. "I henshined right out of my hospital bed and teleported to the battle site, then brought the two of us back, so I'm trying not to be sleepy."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Relaxing means unclenching. And unclenching, Usagi knows, means the pain can cut deeper - and she feels it lancing through Endymion, sharp and hot and pure in how much it hurts, the way a sword had hurt, sinking into her body, hands shaking as she drove the metal deeper. But the physical pain ended, at a certain point - the body could only take so much.

The mind could take more, because the grief, when it was acknowledged, could drag forever.

And Mamoru can feel the way she cradles that grief, the way she doesn't sympathize but empathize, the way she supports him, soothing and gentle and -

"I was worried it would go worse," she says quietly, to him, and to Molly, and to herself, "I didn't know if she would back down. If she would quit. She doesn't always, and this time - "

This time, Sunbreaker had had something that she could not let go. It wasn't just the theft of energy, it was the way she'd taken from Mamoru, from Inai-sensei, from Molly, had left them trapped, here in these beds, in this building, with their everything taken, and the possibility of rebuilding, yes, but knowing that they'd lost it, and she -

She was not willing to let it be.

And having to - getting to - having the time to process that now...

"We get to be messy, now," she smiles, "And I'm glad we came too. I'm glad because - we still have to deal with it, you know? But we don't have to do it by ourselves, and we have to do it here," in this hospital, which is never going to have her affection or love, after all this time here.

"We're going to be okay," she repeats it again, marveling, smiling, "And you've got your magic back. I know you do, because Mamochan does. She didn't get to keep anything."

Molly Skyline (25) has posed:
"Trauma is hard," Molly agrees, with that simple statement. "So is being a teenager. So is fighting world-ending threats. And I'm honestly not sure which of those last two is more hard, honestly. At least when you're righting a world-ending threat it's fairly obvious what your objectives are, even if how you're going to go about achieving them isn't."

She shrugs her shoulders lightly, and again fiddles with her spectacles, that she just doesn't seem to be capable of getting used to. At all. Hopefully the replacement ones come soon 'cause it's not like she can possibly function without them.

"I dunno what'll happen next time I see Sunbreaker. I'll probably tell her I forgive her -- forgiving someone feels a bit pointless if you don't tell them -- but I dunno if I'll want to talk after that?" She shrugs her shoulders. "I guess I don't have to decide right now. It'll be whatever it ends up beind I suppose. We all bear the consequences of her actions, it's not like she can take away the experiences of what she did to us."

The purplenette kind of... leans back into her pillow, shifting her hands to rest behind her head. "I *am* tired," she admits, "But at least it's just... I'm just tired. Like normally tired, I'm not drained and I'm not trying to heal burns anymore. And I'm *very* grateful, like I said." She quirks her lips upwards at the corners. "If you've got one more person to visit," she adds, "I hope they're okay, but even if they're not right now I *know* your visit will help them immensely."