2580/Everything In Its Right Place

Everything In Its Right Place
Date of Scene:	01 June 2025
Location:	Cafe BAKE Neko
Synopsis:	Amy meets Mamoru for breakfast at the cat cafe and he offers her an apartment for after graduation. Then New Moon steps over because Mamoru made Amy cry and half-panicked.
Cast of Characters:	Mamoru Chiba, Amanda Faust, Usagi Tsukino
Tinyplot:	BMC: Wicked Ride
Tinyplot2:	Black Moon Clan

---

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
After the bizarre and ill-advised nightmare extravaganza last night, New Moon and Wicked Mask interacting like a couple, and Amy being told she'd be texted before the two of them vanished ridiculously--

She wasn't texted until late, and it was just...

    Mamoru TXT: sry can talk tmr? cat cafe ill get u brkfst 8am

So now it's 8am, and Mamoru's there on one side of the cafe (and oh, New Moon is also there on the other side of the cafe). He's wearing his cat yukata and glasses and sandals, his pink-tipped black hair is fluffy, and he looks tired but otherwise fine. He's got his breakfast in front of him, and he's got Anko being aggressively affectionate at him, sprawled upside down across his lap and shedding on his yukata. He seems indulgent as he sips his coffee.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    8AM?! By the time she sees the text, it's already late... So much for sleeping in on the weekend.

    Well, he's providing breakfast, and she showered last night -- again -- to make sure the goop was gone -- again -- so she can just get up brush teeth dress thank goodness public transport doesn't need her to drive and risk nodding off at the wheel. Thank goodness for youth.

    She enters the cat cafe in a red T-shirt and a dark, soft skirt, and sneakers. Her hair is only slightly mussed. She starts to smile as she sees Mamoru and then frowns slightly as she sees New Moon hanging out.

    Lowering her voice once she's at the table, she asks, "What, uh, what's up? Why is she here?" as she takes a seat.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Big smile when Amy comes in! And Mamoru sets his coffee down and scrubs lightly at Anko's belly with that coffee-warm hand. "She's Usako's proxy right now. It's complicated. She could be over here, she knows what we're going to talk about," he shrugs. "And *I* don't mind her hearing anything I have to say, but she's full of Dark Energy and easily excitable. Also, Wicked Lady's not awake yet."

He seems unconcerned-- again, he seems almost zen about the situation.

"You can go order something for breakfast if you like, or we can talk first then eat? This is actually about landlords that don't count as landlords." NOW he's teasing. His eyes are sparkling, crinkled at the corners.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy's eyes widen a bit at the news New Moon is actually... helping Usagi? And trustworthy? She looks at that smudged moon. He's not Dark...

    'Wicked Lady's not awake yet' conjures the mental image of Wicked Lady sleeping in a chibiusa-size child bed and she smiles, just a little, at that thought.

    She starts to shrug about the food, and then he says what it's about and she sighs, "Okay yeah I'm gonna need coffee or tea for this conversation..." and goes to order some, and... some sort of breakfast food. Carbs and preferably some meat or protein.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
When Amy goes to order, New Moon waves a little, thoroughly distracted by a pair of cats in her lap. Theyr'e small little Creatures, a tortie and a calico eagerly trying to eat her fingers while she pets them, and she looks surprisingly calm about it - though also very sleepy. She's got an extra large mug of hot chocolate covered in marshmallows and whipped cream and chocolate sauce, and she's largely ignoring the world otherwise. There is a feeling of immense exhaustion that seems to radiate from her.

By the time Amy is served her food, she's finished off the mug and obstinately crooked her fingers at the server, indicating she wants another one. The server has an expression that suggests 'well, what could I expect'.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Mamoru's actually grinning lopsidedly by the time Amy comes back, and in that span of time he's wound up with Anko sprawled across his chest and over his shoulder, purring enough to rumble the prince's chest too.

"So do you want an apartment after graduation? Or sooner but I don't recommend it, since I don't have a magical crystal that keeps dark energy from functioning properly, like the school does."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    She's come back with her tea while they cook the rest, and she reaches out to pet Anko with a smile, and then she freezes for a moment.

    ".............Are... you serious?" she asks, entirely not in the right headspace for this and stalling while her thoughts organize, slowly setting the tea down, and then a moment later sitting down as she remembers she should.

    Trying to keep her face neutral, she quietly adds, "I told you. Or maybe I didn't. But I can't promise I can make rent, not even just for upkeep. The world... I have no value, outside of Radiant Heart. If they won't give me a job, or something happens to them..."

    She's not sure what to say, so she wraps her hands around the warm tea and takes a sip. Milk was added so it'd be cool enough to drink.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
The black-haired boy in a yukata smiles affectionately, then shakes his head. "Don't worry about it. You have plenty of value, too, I just don't currently have the mental fortitude to try and convince you of that. I'm serious. I know what it's like to not have a place. And I'd rather you didn't make a deal with Hawkmoth if you get a place and have it taken away--"

Mamoru waves his hand around as if clearing the air, dismissing the potential fear. "I want to set the place up so there's a rotating position of magical superintendent intern or something, so if I Fade it still keeps functioning, and there's a continuity of magic... but there are plenty of other people who will have a difficult time after graduation."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    She looks up at him, then back at her tea. "I know. Just not to people with money."

    She really hasn't a plan, so the bit about getting a place and then making a deal with Hawk Moth after losing it doesn't really hit. He discusses the Fade. "...I guess if I Fade, I've left the girl who replaces me in a rather terrible spot. But..."

    She controls her voice to try and not choke up, "It's hard enough, knowing... this could all be temporary, and I don't get..." She shakes her head. "To spend some of the time I have worrying about that amnesiac girl when I don't get..." Her fingernails scratch at the table slightly as she frowns. "It's too much."

    "If I somehow retain my memory... But don't have magic..."

    She looks up at him. "You realize what you're offering, right? I can't promise I can make any money. I'll try, but I tried before and it wasn't good enough." She glances at New Moon then back to him. "This isn't how they try to recruit me or something, is it?" She doesn't really mean that. But she's trying not to feel something, or maybe she doesn't know how to anymore, and she's deflecting. If she thought about the words more she'd realize how absolutely rude that accusation, even in jest, is.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Amy-chan," Mamoru says gently, leaning forward a little to reach past his breakfast to briefly put his hand over hers. "You'll have to live in the same building as Kazuo's awesome mom and Inai-sensei. You'll have to live in the same building as my feral clowder of magical bishounen."

What he's saying out loud is covering over what he feels and what he feels here is kinship. What he feels is offering care and a place to someone he's not only fond of but feels a kinship with-- he knows excruciatingly well what it's like to not have a place. He didn't even have any origins, was an orphan in a society that explicitly places a lot of value on family ties...

"It's not payback when you're a friend, and a friend as good as you are. And I mean... you don't have to pay rent, already, and honestly I know it's not a career, but you could get a job at a conbini or something for money to do stuff. But a place here? That I can do."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    When he touches her hand there's the tail end of vague mental images of... getting a free apartment in return for helping the BMC, or something? It wasn't a serious thought -- fading into the general background of low self-worth, and frustration at having wondered so many times if she could have value but not seeing a way, she wasn't good enough -- but there was always a tiny hope that she'd have value to someone, somewhere -- and of course, now she does, realistically, suspect that a cute appearance opens doors that were once closed but she fears that would only confirm she was worthless without it...

    As he speaks, her mind forms pictures to go with the words. She hasn't met Kazuo's mom so there's a vague mental picture of an older woman with the same hair color in a side pony tail, in an apartment; Inai-sensei, smiling -- The feral clowder of magical bishounen, who because he said that are pictured as angry chibis engaged in rough horseplay.

    How could that be a bad thing? She won't be alone (and there are clear but distant memories of days spent mostly alone. From a kid that didn't get along with classmates and hurried to get on the computer as much as possible, to an adult with few friends and no life, to working at Radiant Heart and going to an empty apartment every night.)

    And then she feels the feelings, and feels bad for the implicit likening of 'struggled in capitalism' to 'being an orphan in Japan' -- although perhaps the worst parts of both are because of society...

    And she does feel kinship back -- she hadn't seen them as having 'not having a place' in common before, but he gets stuff, they've talked and shared before and there's stuff like both of them enjoying trying a new body in KKF and it not being weird--

    And he's offering, unambiguously, to give her a place to live and see that she will be OK.

    And she imagines somehow being OK every day. Being taken in by someone, or finding some benefactor or organization supporting former mahou, or... darker arrangements.

    And then she'd be able to... well, she doesn't know what comes after. Because it is so distant and impossible and unspecific.

    (Rashmi latching onto the housewife thing was a bit of a miscommunication -- Amy's point had been that when she thought she'd end up with Hannah, she could begin to imagine the possibilities that enabled -- not that she specifically longed for that.)

    She's longed for being shown this specific kindness and not having to feel worthless, every day for some time -- since before the 'what if I somehow got turned into a girl' daydream stopped being one, although it didn't become the focus of her thoughts until after.

    She can feel her face heating up and tears coming and she doesn't know if she's about to happy cry over something she can't fully process, or sad cry over having spent so much time feeling that way, or both at once.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
There's handholding happening, a psychic connection that shares and offers something, and New Moon had been content to sit with the creatures, to let them adore her, but when tears start up, something emotional and sincere happening right in front of her hot chocolate, she hops out of her place, jarring the cats who go stalking off, pretending they hadn't been perfectly content to chew on her fingers with offended dignity.

She stalks right over to where Amy and Mamoru are talking, and pulls back his chair oh so casually, her henshin'd strength making it more than feasible for her to just... move him as she pleases. She plops herself down in his lap, reaches out and lifts his hand from Amy's - not touching Amy, but certainly touching Mamoru, who will get a sense of her amusement and her vague possessiveness and of course, her underlying sickness. That hand is brought to sit on her hip, instead of Amy's hand.

"Oh Mamoru," she says, oh so sympathetic, "Still terrible with girls who don't belong to our Lady, huh?"

And she looks at Amy, with her blue, blue eyes, her long pink braid draped over Mamoru's shoulder while she perches in his lap, and she says, "It's just an apartment, you don't have to cry about it. It's not like he'd leave you out in the cold or something, he's stupid rich and loves his friends."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Mamoru, already starting to sit up as New Moon comes over, already starting to look alarmed and turning his head to find New Moon because girl cry what do, is nonetheless startled when she pulls his chair away from the table and dislodges Anko, who thinks about complaining and then thinks better of it and just stalks off like the regular cats.

By the time New Moon lands in his lap he's not surprised anymore; he gives Amy a rueful look, then looks at New Moon while she's moving his hand onto her hip, and leaving her braid draped over his shoulder--

(there's a thrill underneath her touch every time she does this, always, there always is, even when it's a little embarrassing it's also always... nice)

But she's so, so sick. That's there all the time too, sobering him when he gets too excited about girl hot: his poor bunny girl. His poor Usako.

All of this and Mamoru leans his head against New Moon a little, and he says to Amy, "She's being mean about a universal truth, sigh." Then he turns his head up to look at New Moon's face. "What about me, am I allowed to happy cry over things? I cried when I saw Wicked Lady was safe, the first time..."

He looks back to Amy and looks apologetic, even while his arm pulls New Moon closer. "I get it. I get it. It's okay, Amy-chan."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Girl cry what do? There's a bit of a mental laugh of sympathy at having felt that, but she can't see how to cross that gap before Mamoru's hands, and also Mamoru and his chair, are yanked away from her.

    She frowns at Moon, "I don't think--" She has to take a breath and try to get her voice back under control, "I don't think this has to do with gender." And she remembers, and the words are immediately out of her mouth, that "You're from the future, you don't understand." And that does, perhaps, dispose her to think that New Moon in particular can be forgiven for not getting it, as much as it annoys Amy right now -- none in her world have felt such want for almost a thousand years.

    And sure she's a little weird acting this way with her friend's dad, but maybe it's not so weird in the future. Amy didn't know what a polycule was two years ago, who knows what things are like in the future?

    The connection is broken, but the shape of remembered dark daydreams suggests she'd understand -- something like being taken in by someone who is to her like New Moon is to Mamoru is something Amy thought she might accept.

    Anyway, he says it's okay, and she nods, and wipes her eyes. "I--" Oh, her throat is starting to tighten up again, "I... dunno if I fully get it. It's been so long... it's hard to wrap my brain around it, you know?" And it's maybe easier to not hope, to believe something will go wrong before the promise can be kept, and Amy tries not to focus on that--

    She takes a breath. "Thank you. Thank you."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"It has everything to do with gender," New Moon says, not sympathetic but implacably sure, "Mamoru is used to turning to the Moon when he needs help with a crying girl. You're out of his wheelhouse."

Her voice is sweet, poisoned honey, but she's not trying to be kind - she's just got that sort of bubbly-sugar-spice-not-so-nice voice, even when she's being like this, even when she's draped herself over Mamoru, indulging in the warm fire of girl-hot-love-appreciation-want-love-worry -

"You don't need to cry because it's obvious. You shouldn't cry because it panics him. I don't like it when he's panicked."

And she twists and lifts her hands to Mamoru's face and even sitting in his lap she's not taller than him, so she pulls him down to kiss her, sweet and chaste and possessive, her hands gripping without bruising. When she parts their lips she smiles.

"You can do just about anything you want, as long as it doesn't upset Wicked Lady," she promises him, "Cry happy or sad, Mamoru, and I'll make the world right for you."

Her touch promises that it's true.

Only then does she return her attention to Amy, nodding at her thanks, accepting it as if it were for her instead, possessive and having and holding.

"You keep staying stuck in the past and you'll die there. Life changes. Things happen. You start over."

'Mamoru Chiba has posed:
It's clearly on the tip of his tongue to say 'I'm right here through everything the two girls say, but-- he doesn't, and he gets a kiss for it, and what a thing it is, too. The warmth of all of those things Mamoru feels for Usagi is backed up with the warmth of his banked power, his filtered Awareness, and his attention all on her--

Something she's never really starved for, ever since she met him, his attention.

His heart beats fast in his chest, his pulse fluttering, as she takes his face and kisses him; he's overwhelmed by her, and by the darkness making her sick, and they both desperately cling to the good parts--

He's smiling, finally, and then he says to Amy, "You're very welcome."

He glances to his coffee, which isn't fancy but it is his, and he says, "We should probably hit the road, though. Wicked Lady will want breakfast soon." He looks back to Amy and smiles lopsidedly. "I know we're scary and confusing right now, but everything'll be okay."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    That what she was crying over had nothing to do with whether she's a boy or a girl or anything else, seems a bit less important when New Moon's sickly-sweet voice affirms that she is 'so obviously and clearly girl that it permeates this interaction to such a degree as to get an automatic reaction from Mamoru based on that, and she can't bring herself to say it shouldn't.

    And then she freezes, and feels a chill, at the implied threat. But she also can't control herself well enough to stop the feelings, so she resigns herself to any consequences. Although it's quieter sniffles now.

    Move on from the past or you'll die there. "...I don't know how." She answers, honestly, words almost a sob. "If I Fade, don't worry, she will."

    Mamoru says she's welcome, and she smiles, a mix of genuine smile and awkward-I-don't-know-what-to-do-around-your-daughter's-friend smile.

    He says everything will be okay. New Moon just kissed him, and he's a telepath, so she's in on anything he's planning and cool with it. She really can be trusted, it seems.

    But she doesn't look especially reassured. She grabs a napkin and blows her nose, and stands from the table. She looks at the two of them, wanting to say something but not sure what.

    She tasted dark energy once. She understands taking it, she thinks. She understands searching the darkness for bits of light, because it has something you need to find... but such ruminations are providing no insight. She has no idea what kind of person New Moon was, or what she took Dark Energy to achieve, or why Chibiusa fell.

    Her stories aren't helpful. Dark energy didn't give her something addicting or that she couldn't bear to live without, it was just surviving until the next moment and by an hour later she was thinking way too much about inadvisable uses of magic and coming up with ways to justify keeping it. Who knows what it's really like to go through that for weeks? Years? Maybe the experience can't provide any insight at all. Amy furrows her brow as her mind wonders. "I..."

    She looks to Mamoru with an awkward smile. "...hope you get through it. Usagi, too."

    She looks at New Moon, not quite pleadingly. "You'll tell her that, won't you? Since she's one of Wicked Lady's treasures too."

    And after waiting a moment for a response, she goes to collect her now-ready order and finish her breakfast.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
They're not that scary, New Moon would say, but it's really very convenient for everyone to think that, so she'll let it go. Besides, she really would be very scary if anyone thought about bothering her little girl.

I don't know how, in an almost-sob -

and Mamoru will feel her faint concern, her faint annoyance, her it's obvious isn't it, I can see it, why can't you, her calculus of if this is worth intervening in, her knowledge that this will not help Wicked Lady in anyway, her knowledge that Mamoru would want her to help, had turned to her for help instinctively, her awareness that she does care, even if her priorities are shifted and Amy will not and never be her priority now -

And she hops from Mamoru's lap and takes his hand, fixing Amy with a Look, one that's surprisingly maternal for such a young face.

"You could start with remembering that just because things turned out badly once doesn't mean they're doomed to do it again. The way one life turned out doesn't dictate how the world works - Ami-chan would say you just have a few more data points than usual. This is your New Game Plus. How things were isn't how they are. You keep thinking oh everything's bad and doomed and going to end bad and woe is me no one cares about me because I'm useless and whatever, but that's your old save file. You've got to look again, because otherwise everyone's going to get real tired of your sad sack thing and start tuning you out."

This is advice, but how much of it is good, how much of it is helpful, and how much of it is tart and annoying can only be decided by Amy. New Moon turns with Mamoru in her arm, and in the next instant, they're both gone.

...she might have left Amy with the bill, if Mamoru didn't set things up to pay in advance.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Soon after, Amy is eating her breakfast and petting Anko, making conversation like "If I ever got turned into a cat, would you help me like you helped Veronica? ...I do like both tuna and salmon, so I wouldn't have to take your salmon."

    Anko can have a little bit of whatever meat came with breakfast. Just a bite!

    But she finds herself going over the interaction that just happened -- sure, easy for New Moon to say move on, but harder to do it -- and she briefly freezes.

    How did New Moon know she was on New Game Plus? How does she know 'Ami-chan'?

    Maybe Amy came up in conversation with Mamoru, but... no, New Moon doesn't seem the type to be that interested in other people. Besides Wicked Lady, and Mamoru, and Usagi, anyway.

    ...She could've gotten it through the link just now, though. She didn't seem shocked, but... Amy's situation is less weird in the future. Surrounded by multi-centenarians it didn't seem so odd to have a couple extra decades.

    Maybe she gets on with Future Mizuno-san the way Amy gets on with Setsuna-chan?

    Eventually, her brain stops spinning in circles, and she imagines.

    Herself, this body, a few years older and more mature, carrying boxes into one of those apartments. Chatting with whoever among Mamoru and Usagi and the Shitennou and Inai-sensei and Kazuo's mom comes by to see how she's settling in.

    Future Amy setting up her desk and computer, and, free of that pressure, free of feeling worthless, she's free to do...

    Something.

    Amy doesn't know what the next dream is, yet.

    But maybe it's a start.