Fixing Our Ship

Fixing Our Ship
Date of Scene:	23 March 2026
Location:	Mamoru's Apartment
Synopsis:	After "Turtle Power? Usagi's Doom!", Usagi wanted to go home. Where, after Mamoru and Kazuo have gently given her time to put herself back together, Kazuo makes an apology and offers a plan. (No, it is not a plan for fixing the Silver Crystal.)
Cast of Characters:	Mamoru Chiba, Usagi Tsukino, Kazuo Saitou

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Kazuo Saitou has posed:
It's not the first time Kazuo's gotten up, since they got back. Couches are linear, even the best couch. And Kazuo's switched position a few times to make sure both Mamoru and Usagi get turns in the center - sometimes Usagi being hugged from both sides, being able to lean on whichever she feels like, being able to feel small but also safe, while Kazuo keeps fingertips in contact with Mamoru so he isn't left out. Sometimes Mamoru between the two of them, Kazuo's cheek tucked against Mamoru's temple or hair, a hand stretched behind him to touch Usagi's shoulder or rest gently against her hair. Every time a different one of them needs to be central, Kazuo gets up and moves to switch sides. If one of them needs something at hand, he gets up and fetches it.

This time, though, he gets up and nudges the nearby table back, settling cross-legged on the floor, resting Usagi's feet in his lap, leaning his head against Mamoru's knee to look up at her.

"Are you steady enough to talk for a little?" he asks Usagi, and the tilt of his head and tone of his voice tell them both that 'no' and 'I don't want to' are perfectly acceptable answers, but he adds it out loud anyhow. "No expectations, and no urgency. It can wait if you'd rather."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
It's taken time, and the cuddling has been - genuinely, truly, necessarily, comforting, both being cuddled between the both of them, and sandwiching Mamoru when it was his turn.

%r%rUsagi had pulled herself together before they left, but that had dissolved the second they were on Mamoru's couch, and she's been quiet ever since, not crying but not far from it at first, drained and tired as though she'd gone six rounds with a youma, even though she hadn't done anything, at all.

%r%rNow though, she's calmer, a pillow on her lap that she's been squishing, and Kazuo's got her feet in his lap (surprisingly warm) and he's low enough now that for once she's taller than him.

%r%r"I can talk," she says, and her voice is a little hoarse, from all the tears she had not cried but which had come up and retreated nonetheless. "I'll just keep thinking, if I don't."

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
Kazuo's hand comes up and covers hers on the pillow. Likewise warm. "I want to apologize," he says quietly. "I saw what I thought was the problem, and I didn't understand. I didn't realize that there was a bigger problem lying underneath it. I didn't realize that you were trying to keep your girls from being - afraid isn't the right word, but I don't have a better one. I didn't think through that Princess Serenity wasn't a Sailor Senshi, so while some of your girls are good at support, they don't think to look for your needing it - it was never part of their jobs. I didn't think through - so many things. And it meant I didn't think to try to help before now, and I'm sorry."

He takes a breath, then another, but his eyes and his hand are still steady. "May I try to help? Not to an end. Just to help your heart heal, so you can have joy in the world around you again, be wholly yourself again. In fullness instead of in fear."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Mamoru's been able to be quiet and keep his thoughts to himself, remaining open and solid but mostly just comfortably loving, not even waiting for anything. And he doesn't get in the way now, either, he just kisses the side of Usagi's head and tries to control the bloom of warmth in his chest when Kazuo makes that offer to Usagi.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Usagi's hand twitches; her fingers loosen from the pillow, twisting to hold Kazuo's. She's always liked to touch, to reach and hold, and he's steady, just as warm with her hand as his lap is for her feet.

"I wasn't trying to make it obvious," she murmurs, not refusing the apology, recognizing it as an expression of care, of worry. Usagi's lips quirk into something like a smile, unconvincing, and smooth again. "Worried, mostly? I'm - Suna's the oldest Senshi, technically, and then Minako-chan woke up first, but when it comes down to it... I'm the one they look to. I'm the one who found Rei-chan, and Ami-chan, and Makochan with Luna. I'm the reason they got pulled into this, and why Artemis found Minako-chan, and..."

She trails off, quiet for a while.

"I'm never going to turn down your help, Kazuo-kun. Maybe someone else's but... not yours." It means too much to receive the offer of it, to dismiss. Usagi swallows, and her feet shift, an aborted gesture to pull her knees up, curl smaller. "I never liked it, though. I don't... I don't know why it stopped working now, if it really is because I didn't want it."

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
"They would have gotten pulled into it anyhow," Kazuo says gently. "It's who they are. You give them a center - someone to look to, yes. Someone whose existence makes even the worst moments worthwhile."

His fingers tighten on hers, but gently - a reassuring pressure, rather than a demanding one. "You give them heart. Now it's our turn to find out how to do that for you."

She doesn't-quite curl smaller, and Kazuo puts his other hand up - considers, and then draws it back down to lean and hug her calves gently for a moment.

"I don't know why it stopped working now, either. I have guesses, but that's all they are." He breathes out, then shakes his head. "It's an important question. But I don't think it's the most important question."

He straightens, one hand in Usagi's, the other settling lightly flat on the floor, and he looks up at her.

"If you have some free time in your schedule Sunday, would you like to go on a picnic? It's the best weekend for cherry blossoms this year."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"Maybe," is the quiet mumble, and Usagi squeezes his hand, the way she'd be squeezing the pillow. The other words she might have said remain stuck in her throat, in the pit of her stomach, unable to be shaped.

It's surprisingly hard to stay out of her own head. The words she hadn't said, the feelings she hadn't shared, it's like they're sticking now, tightening everything up. A breath in, a breath out, a tremulous smile at the thought of being given heart.

"You do, you know? All of you, all the time, and," she drifts the other hand, the one that had been on her pillow, and takes Mamoru's, squeezing softly, shifting her head so it rests more readily against his. "I don't want anyone to feel bad."

This, too, is why she's hesitated to say things. Why she and Mamoru have been at a disconnect, because she doesn't want him to feel had, because she knows he doesn't want her to feel bad, and what had been purely open lines of communication have been stifled.

So what's the most important question? She asks it with her eyes, her face, instead of her voice, and Kazuo answers readily, and she - blinks.

"A... picnic?" Blink again, and then a little tremulous laughter, equal parts unexpected and relaxed, unclenching enough to rest more readily against them again. "I would like that. I - forgot. Which is dumb, there's cherry blossom trees on campus even, but I -" forgot. "Forgot. I'd like that. It would be nice."

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
"If there are things you need to say," Kazuo says gently as she takes Mamoru's hand, "but you think they'd make people feel bad, then that's something we should talk about later, too. But that's later."

Because there are cherry blossoms.

"I thought about just asking you," Kazuo says seriously, "but that would leave Mamoru out, and there's Izou and flowers, and then there's Makoto and Masato. So six of us, and a picnic. And if Izou gets riled up at anything I'll take him off, and the four of you can laugh at us."

He squeezes her hand again lightly, and settles back to lean once more against Mamoru's knee. "Maybe next week we could go to that animation museum if you haven't been there lately; they have an exhibition right now based on the studio of an artist I think you like. Or if you've seen it already, maybe some shopping. Maybe with Ami; she doesn't get out enough, either, and between terms seems perfect for her."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Mamoru's knee where Kazuo is leaning is warm, his side is warm, his arm is warm where he's slightly rearranged to envelop the curled-tighter Usagi better.

His heart is warm, suffused with a happiness that's physical, such a relief from the mire they've been in. His boyfriend's hidden specialty is blossoming as surely as the cherry trees are, and he's making an event of it. Kazuo is smart. Kazuo will fix our ship.

Just long enough to do this, Mamoru un-leans his head from Usagi's and reaches over to lightly brush Kazuo's hair back behind his ear, and he shares those feelings with them both, the love and burgeoning excitement of a group date picnic-- just a glimpse of it, not a flood.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Later. Because the bad things can wait, and the sweet things can't. What a reversal of the way things have been. Usagi's smile grows the more names that are recited, and finally, she asks, "If you bring two parts of a polycule, does that make it a triple date or a quadruple one?"

A silly question, a silly thought, but she let it bubble up anyway.

"You'll steal Masato-kun's spot as event planner, if you keep that up," she teases, and warms herself with Mamoru'a warmth, which is soft with affection, relieved.

"I haven't been, but it sounds nice," a museum, an exhibit, nothing to do with natural history, nothing to flash back to. "Actually trying your best for an exam is like, hard? It sucks, actually."

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
A triple date or a quadruple one? Kazuo's grin shows, sudden, and he answers, "That depends on whether or not you and Izou decide you want to make fun of me and Mamoru."

Silliness is not only Usagi's province, after all.

"I could never steal Masato-kun's spot," Kazuo adds easily, and loops an arm lightly behind Mamoru's calf in answer to the warmth he shares. "He can do this kind of thing for anyone. I'm terrible at it till someone I care about needs it. That's why he's Comfort, and I'm Affection."

Kazuo reclaims his hand, but only so that he can pat Usagi's stocking foot lightly. "Trying your best is always hard. That's what makes it your best instead of your normal. But I agree. Exams suck."

It is probably not finals that made the Silver Crystal go dull. But one never, ever knows.