2247/I have a DAUGHTER

I have a DAUGHTER
Date of Scene:	18 January 2025
Location:	Dorms #3
Synopsis:	Mamoru has some news for Koji but buries the lede.
Cast of Characters:	Mamoru Chiba, Koji Silvia

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Mamoru Chiba has posed:
There's a knock on Koji's door, first and foremost. Mamoru has checked Koji's schedule over the course of the week, surreptitiously, to find a time that Koji wouldn't be able to hurry away. So it is he's not announcing himself, just knocking the same way the RA does.

When Koji opens the door, of fucking course it's Mamoru, and he's carrying two boxes and one of them is quite cold. He's dressed in an unMask aLIVE hoodie, skinny jeans, dress shoes, a leather jacket, and glasses that are only just stopping being fogged up.

Koji Silvia has posed:
Classes may not be happening right now, but it doesn't mean there's not work to do, and tonight Koji had decided to clean. So all the 'borrowed' cooking stuff from the now-empty closet opposite his is out and he's been working stains from bowls and things. Most of it is sitting on a towel on the floor to dry, and the room is completely spotless. Strangely... the opposite side has not seen anyone using it. The bed is perfectly made, and everything is just so right you could take a photo of it for the campus advertisements.

When he opens the door, he's in the middle of saying, "I have the window open and the heater o-" And he's cut off by seeing it's not the RA complaining about smelling cleaning supplies again. He looks up, looks down, and then he just moves out of the way to say, "Hi. C'mon in."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Thanks," says Mamoru, and he steps in and slips out of his shoes before either closing the door with his elbow or just letting Koji close it. "I brought some things," he says then, holding the boxes out. The first, warmer and smaller and thinner box, proves to be full of an assortment of wagashi.

The cold box is labeled with what kind of beef it is and how much of it there is, but not how much it cost.

"I still don't think I understand," he says a little helplessly, "but I thought maybe if we acted if I was evil again you'd feel better? I don't want to bully you and take you for granted. But if it would help you to tell me what the hell has been eating you, then I'll do it."

Koji Silvia has posed:
After blowing out a breath, Koji takes both of the boxes and puts the warm one on his desk, and then the cooler one and puts it inside a small tub where it can stay cool under the bed as he slips it away for now.

From there, he motions for you to sit on what was your bed and settles himself down across from you, "Mamoru... you literally did nothing wrong. It's me."

He takes off his glasses and puts them to one side, and ends up pushing some of that long hair of his back, and looks at you, "I was mad when you left... because I felt like you... left me behind. And then I felt guilty over it. Then I saw you guys together on that streaming night before the huge witch-thing showed up... and it finally cracked through my idiot skull that you needed this. You were looking comfortable. Smiling. Relaxed. More than here every let you be. Because here you were worried... about you and I think about me."

When he finally looks back up, he gives a little smile, but adds, "And by the time I should've said something... I was too embarrassed. I admit... there's a little bit of jealousy too. So yeah...."

    "Stuff."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Aww," Mamoru says at 'it's me', surrendering the boxes. He takes a seat on the bed after picking his way through the in-cleaning-process equipment, then watches Koji as he listens.

The full weight of the attention of the Prince of Earth is, in fact, heavier than that of Darien Shields-- and all the way through 'stuff', that attention is solely on Koji.

It's by no means expressionless-- it's warm, it's compassionate, it's things Darien was almost capable of but could only fake most of the time. Until he met Usagi, and started warming up for real...

"So it really was like a breakup, huh," Mamoru sort-of asks, lifting a hand to rub the back of his head for a moment. "Koji-kun, you..."

He laughs, but nothing's funny. "I'm so sorry. Most of the time you knew me, my empathy was suppressed or corrupted. It's-- I was worried about Beryl the whole time I was purified until she was dead."

The prince -- because even that's different, he nearly always holds himself like one now, instead of only when he was being particularly commanding. "Can we please just be normal?"

He's hopeful as hell, visibly and obviously, but he's also hiding something.

Badly.

Koji Silvia has posed:
The word 'break-up' causes him to quirk one eyebrow, and Koji just seems to look a bit... chagrinned.

    "I... I guess it was. I..."

    The pause is kinda palpable but he lets it out, "I'm not really good about friends. I keep everyone at arm's reach."

Falling back on his bed then, he just stares up at the ceiling for a moment, "Okay... let's... let's try..."

Another breath, him sitting back up, and he curls his legs in to sit cross-legged on the bed, so he can look at you, and pushes his stray hair from his expression, "I don't think we ever had normal... but we can try making it up, until we get it right?"

And then he goes and does it, "So why'd you really come by."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Mamoru nods!

And then he looks explosively happy. "I have a daughter!!!"

Koji Silvia has posed:
There's about five seconds of Koji just staring. His head it slightly tilted, like an animal that is staring at something that it finds interesting but ultimately doesn't understand.

...which is shortly followed by one hand sweeping back, swiping up his pillow, and throwing it at Mamoru's HEAD!

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
PHUMPH! it hits a now-cackling Mamoru right in the face, and he falls over back and sideways, laughing helplessly, crying laughing-- "It's true It's true!!" he's gasping--

Koji Silvia has posed:
If this was on cel, Koji would have the graw-face with the cup-eyes, the frizzy hair, and the jagged fangs, "WHAT THE HELL, CHIBA! YOU DID... THERE'S NO WAY... HOW..."

He has no other pillow to throw, and everything else is too valuable, and so he pushes off, goes over, and grabs at Mamoru's front to try and pull him up to go face to face, "EXPLAIN YOURSELF!"

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
The too-cool-for-school Chiba is, in fact, in the process of taking his now-smudged glasses off and hooting, and sniffling, because legitimately crying laughing here as he's being dragged up--

"You're not the boss of me!!" he painful-laughs delightedly. "You said we'd try to be normal!!"

Koji Silvia has posed:
With a frustrated noise that strangles out of the back of his throat, Koji lets go, goes back to his bed, and sits down on it with both his arms and his legs crossed in a very aggravated. It's only broken so he can reach over, snag his glasses, and puts them back on firmly before he gets that stubborn set on his face, "And you IMMEDIATELY lead this off by telling me you're a Dad."

Scrubbing at his face for a moment, he takes a deep breath and then closes his eyes, "Mamoru, would you please elaborate before I. Strangle. You."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
He's mostly managed to calm it down -- at least, until 'before i. strangle. you.' And then Mamoru is wheezing again, wiping at his eyes with the backs of his wrists. "Sh-- Go-- gomen," he positively weeps, giggling.

Finally he takes a deep breath and runs his hands down his face, composing himself forcedly. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out his phone. "We named her Usagi, so we're calling her Chibiusa since, well, it fits-- here, let me show you some pictures!"

Koji Silvia has posed:
"If I see a cat on that screen... I just want you to know... they will never find the body, Mamoru Chiba."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
There are pictures. There are pictures of a little girl with Anko on her, pink-haired, with her hair in pointy bunny odango and poofy twintails, on campus, shopping with Usagi, building snowmen with Usagi... she looks like their kid.

"I'm not lying!" he protests.

Koji Silvia has posed:
His face goes from comically angry... one might even say miffed... to intensely focused as he swipes the phone away from Mamoru, and enhances the image to peer at the little girl curiously, and then moves it around a bit until he can see Usagi's and the girl's faces at the same time. Looking back up at his friend, there's a deliberately suspicious expression on his face and he swipes to another pic, and does the same thing.

There's about a minute of this, and then he tosses your phone back to you, "That's not physically possible."

The gleam of the light in the room covers his eyes, "That girl has to be at least 5-6 years old, and I know to the day when you met Usagi here and now. You're both too young to adopt... and Usagi hasn't said a thing to me. This isn't photoshopped... so the girl's real... but you're not making sense. Are you trying to tell me without telling me you're being mind-controlled again?"

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Mamoru's just grinning; he takes the phone back and looks at the picture on it and visibly m e l t s where he sits, then hugs the phone. Finally he puts the phone away and coughs lightly. "No," he says a little indignantly. "She's from an alternate future. She's also in trouble, so she mostly has to stay on campus. She stays in Usagi and Naru's room."

Koji Silvia has posed:
Koji's reply look is pretty much 'yeah right' as he moves to stand up, and goes nose to nose with Mamoru once more, hands on his hips, "I think I need to meet your special little daughter... because this is too convenient. And I don't care how plausible it MIGHT be in what we do... it still stinks." He leans back again, "Look, if it scans, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt, but seriously... she just shows up... just when things are going well for you and Usagi... no. That smells."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
This 'nose to nose' stuff really doesn't sit well with Mamoru, and he straightens up tall and makes a face, pushing Koji back lightly before he can (or as he) lean back on his own, but only lightly. "How long you wanna be 'Silvia-san' instead of Koji-oji?"

Mamoru mouths that again, and grins again. Oh he's useless.

Koji Silvia has posed:
He still looks dubious over all of this, and he's still a bit frazzled from the whole announcement.

Adjusting his glasses again, Koji crosses his arms and paces back and forth in the small run of carpet between both beds, and then looks back at Mamoru once more, "I... Mamoru, this is a lot. Okay... so even accepting she's your daughter from an alternate timeline future, which is a complete... just..." And he puts his hands to his head, expands them out, and makes the 'boom' noise, "Fact is... I wouldn't put it past Obsidian to make a little girl into a weapon. They've already got like... three or four of them... and one that could make you think she's your daughter isn't outside of their box of stupid ideas."

When the 'Koji-oji' finally catches up with him though, he immediately reaches for... the space in reality his pillow would have been. Not there. Still on the other bed. So he just throws 'nothing' at Mamoru once more, "I'm sorry... it's just in my nature. I don't trust this. And maybe... that's my problem."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"I'll grant," Mamoru says warmly and somehow apologetically, "that you don't have the ability to tell when someone is connected to your soul. Or when someone is lying or telling the truth. Or what they've been most scared of in their immediate past--"

He waggles his fingers at Koji, starting to get up in slow motion, "--by touch." Finger-wiggling!! Going To Get You!

And then Mamoru plunks himself back down on the mattress of his former bed, and he glances up at the sprinkler head in the ceiling, and he's still staring at it for a second after he starts speaking, until he looks back down to Koji, more subdued.

"She's absolutely my daughter," he shrugs, then, with a smile. "In a way I know Obsidian cannot, as of this time, actually fake.* But ask Usako and Chibiusa-chan if you can scan her or whatever, it's not my call."

* He does not know that, but he certainly believes it.

Koji Silvia has posed:
    "Well... then I guess this is normal."

He doesn't look entirely happy still about this weirdness and the turn of events, and ends up just staring down at his shoes for a long moment, and then says softly, "Hey... uhhh... thanks."

Looking back up, he adds, "For being my friend. My first real friend here. Even if we... well... didn't always have the best time of it. I can still see the line of demarcation from the flood, even if everyone says the carpet is fine. Or remembering those nights before Hanzo broke that I would... clean up after you..."

Looking almost ready to cry, he sniffs once, and pulls it back, "I should get you a housewarming present... I never did. It was rude of me. Sorry."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"You don't have to," says Mamoru, sitting on his hands so he doesn't offer a hug immediately after reminding Koji he's a touch psychic. He does laugh again, but this time it's quiet, affectionate. "You should, however, come over and try out the ballpit and help me set up a sick gaming cart or whatever below the big TV! Something I can watch Stellaris on and Usako can play terrifically violent graphic games on..."

And then his voice is even gentler. "You," he says, "should move into a different room. Maybe a single, or maybe get a new roommate."

Koji Silvia has posed:
The remark about moving out does cause Koji to protest, "But I don't want a new room or a new roomie. I like this one... next door is Chrono and Agreste-san, and down the hall is grumpy Agera-san. It's the perfect spot for the showers and bathroom, and I don't get lost when I come back from a night on patrol."

    Translation: Someone is change-averse.

He then shrugs, "Rigging your place up so either of you can hook up and play on a TV's easy. I can even put it up wireless... Rashmi dragged me out to help put up cameras in a hotel. Dunno why people think it's hard... I mean... I'm not SUPPOSED to... but Hanzo got me all the info to do it." Dragging himself back on topic, he goes on, "We can all go shopping so I can get an idea of what you both want... and then spend your money to set it up. Just... three of us?"

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"It's a room that echoes with our trauma," Mamoru says with a shrug. "I'm having a little trouble being in here, but I can handle it for a little while longer. I just don't think it's good for you, especially if you can still see the flood line on the floor.

Then there's the proposal. 'And not Kazuo' is unspoken but understood. Mamoru's expression goes briefly wry, but doesn't stop being his whole attention, doesn't stop being a smile. "Sure, just three of us. Not wireless, though, unless it's just wireless console controllers. Right now there's only a restricted guest wifi for people with data limits."

Koji Silvia has posed:
All he can really say to that first part is, "Maybe." And he looks down at the carpet, one foot kicking out as if to pass through the line and back before he looks back up at Mamoru again.

For him, Kazuo wasn't a consideration, but he's not entirely into the venn diagram of how life is for his friend at this point. He instead, says, "Well just... we haven't really DONE anything together, especially not since you two went out of town." Sidestepping THAT whole mess, "We can go shopping, maybe a bite to eat, like you said... normal..."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Mamoru pauses, looking at Koji a little sidelong. "That's not normal for me," he says bluntly. "Normal for me has always been magic, whatever kind. Normal for us was always either you cooking in, or me ordering in. Because I literally never knew when I'd be expected in her office in ten seconds. Normal and comfortable for me is talking magic as well as mundane stuff. It's doing magic as well as shopping for groceries. And now it's also protecting our daughter."

Koji Silvia has posed:
There's so much to say to that, and the turmoil and the knowledge of what may happen in a few years is weighing hard on him, despite his putting on his best face, adjusting his glasses and his hair, and even looking outside.

When he finally looks back, he doesn't have that social smile on. If anything it's more of an honest face on how... worn down he is, "I think I envy you then."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Yeah well..." says Mamoru after a long moment and a sigh. "There's a reason we're getting married on the moon in a year and a half. She'll be seventeen, I'll still be eighteen, and no matter what we end up remembering it as, we'll have had it." He cracks his knuckles absently, then jams his hands in his coat pockets, in fists. "And let me know if you want an apartment."