2905/A Problem Unresolved

A Problem Unresolved
Date of Scene:	10 January 2026
Location:	Mamoru's Apartment
Synopsis:	Usagi is finally ready to talk to Mamoru about their almost-fight, but the truth is something neither of them can fix.
Cast of Characters:	Usagi Tsukino, Mamoru Chiba

---

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Usagi and Mamoru haven't been avoiding each other, since their almost-but-not-quite-a-fight. That's important to establish. They've gone on a few dates (some interrupted), they've fought alongside one another, they spent Christmas and New Year's together. They have not been avoiding each other.

But they haven't talked about it either. Not really. Not in specifics. Usagi hasn't been ready to do so, and Mamoru has respected that.

Today though, they're in the apartment alone, a rarity indeed, and while they've been engaging in a bit of parallel play - Usagi on her Switch, Mamoru on his - they haven't been talking overly much, and Usagi thinks that now, probably, is a good time.

"...are you going to be okay if we talk about it? The... not fight?"

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Nnnnnnnyes," teases Mamoru, starting slooowly and still looking at his screen, then rolling his head and ending it on a yes to look at her, and he goes from the smirk to something sheepish. "Yeah. I mean. It depends on what the actual problem was I guess? I already forget what Kazuo said he figured it was."

He's turned the switch off instead of pausing his game, and he leans up and over to set it down on the closest unlikely-to-be-kicked surface, likely a coffee table. And then he gathers himself back up onto the couch, sitting on his legs and facing Usagi, and he puts his hands on his knees...

...and he says much more seriously, "You know it would help to do this in contact. Do you want to avoid that for right now?"

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
The only reason Usagi doesn't throw a pillow at him for that tease is the memory of him getting anxious, surrendering, the second she looked upset before. She doesn't want to start this off on the wrong foot, though she absolutely does puff up her cheeks in a huff as she pauses her Switch.

"Since I talked to Ami-chan about you, I guess I shouldn't be surprised you talked to Kazuo-kun about me," she hums a little, thinking, and she shifts around to face him, her legs crossed, her arms in her lap.

"I know," she says, and does not give him her hand. "I want to say it first, and then... then we can be in contact. I want to get it out, before you can feel what I'm feeling while I'm putting the words together."

She wants him to be all in his head, not hers, when she tells him. She wants him to side with her. She doesn't think he will. Ami-chan hadn't, even if she understood where Usagi was coming from, and Mamoru... Mamoru wouldn't be Mamoru if he didn't want this.

"I was surprised, and, upset, last time, because... even when I've thought about our future, I didn't think of... looking to stay involved, like that, on purpose. With magic, I mean. And realizing we probably want different things was really... surprising? I mean! I know we're different people, but I didn't think about... I didn't think about that. And then it was right there, in my face, and you were really excited, and you really want it."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Mamoru nods, and doesn't look distressed when Usagi says 'contact after'; he slouches comfortably with his forearms on his knees, loose-- easy, a little expectant... and the patient that he wasn't, that other day. And he listens.

He's clearly thinking about it. "What... did you expect? Unless-- unless it was just, the fade--?" But Mamoru shakes his head. "But wait, are we talking about that yet? Or are we still talking about... the reason you stopped wanting to talk about it?"

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
The lack of distress makes Usagi relax a little more, leaning back against the couch. She's not comfortable, but she's not uncomfortable either, just in that awkward space of expressing something that one doesn't like having to say, but knowing it has to come out. She doesn't like saying these things, but she has to get them out, so she is.

"I expected -" he says wait and she stops, teeth not quite clacking together with the swiftness of which she stops - and then her brows furrow, and she winces, and sits up a little straight.

"I was talking about it, but - I stopped wanting to talk about it because - and I don't mean to blame you! I am not blaming you okay? But you looked scared. You looked like - and you sounded like - you were, defusing a bomb, or something, not just talking to me. Like you were... talking to Riventon, or someone who might go off on you."

She's trying to pick her words carefully but not entirely succeeding - she hadn't talked to Ami too much about that part of things, and clearly a part of her regrets that.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
There's quiet for a second, Mamoru chewing on that with a little furrow in his brow, trying to remember where his head was at the time. "You looked like -- you looked horrified and I wondered what I broke. And I just-- yeah, I do really want to join CC, but not-- like--"

Now he takes off his glasses and rubs at one eye, looking a little frustrated, but sort of laughingly so. "I mean, I'm not *married* to it. I don't want it enough to fight your unhappiness for it. I'm sure there'll be something, eventually, that I will be willing to see your true unhappiness over, but... this ain't it. You looked devastated, so I panicked because I don't want my choices to make you look like that. I wasn't defusing a bomb. I wasn't afraid you were going to hurt me or anything."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"I was horrified," Usagi says, honest, "And I mean, I still am, a little, I still am, I don't... but the way you backed down just, so immediately, it made me feel... unreasonable. Stupid, kind of, and that's not you, that's just me, but..."

And here is where she kind of sighs, a little, and trusts that they've been honest enough, and offers her hand.

And she lets him see how she felt during their conversation. Her tangled up thoughts and feelings, his own obvious rush to make her feel better, her new eclipsing worry, that he was just trying to give her what she wanted even if it was at some detriment...

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Quiet again, thinking, and when Usagi gives him her hand he takes it between his, hands warm and dry, and the open semi-muted contact he defaults to with her settles into place while she shows him. He murmurs, "I'm glad you could talk to Ami-chan about me."

It's from a minute ago, for sure, but it fits into the many moving parts of this conversation, and he watches her feelings, and... they do match up with his perception of Usagi at that time, which he shares: her repeating his words, asking-not-asking that he wanted it, his imagining that the world had gone like a fisheye lens for her, like all the sound she must be hearing was underwater, and his gut-level 'oh NO *I* did that to her face' reaction, mixed in with a little bit of oh no is this going to be yelling I don't want to yell about this--

And it breaks off, Mamoru letting go of it where Usagi can see, lets go before getting wrapped up in it and tense again.

And he looks tired, and wry, and apologetic, and he starts absently giving Usagi a hand massage while he has the opportunity right there. "I'm sorry I made you feel unreasonable. I'll try not to panic when you look horrified over something that comes out of my mouth. But honestly, all right-- we're on a good ground now to talk about the real problem! What did you expect? Sorry for interrupting."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
She looks at it from his view and can understand why he was so frantic, so upset - what from her angle looked like handling something about to blow was from his angle handling something about to break. A delicacy born of worry rather than fear.

It's much, much easier to accept and even appreciate. She squeezes his hand, feeling his remember fear of yelling, and the psychic contact breaks, but not the physical contact, and she says...

"I wasn't going to yell. I promise. I was upset, but not that kind of upset."

She can't remember if she's ever yelled at Mamoru. She might have, during that thing with Minako's bow, but she can't remember. Even so, she knows she isn't the thing that gave him that fear.

"It's okay, it was a pretty important interruption, I think? And... well, I didn't - I guess, I hoped, not, expected, that... when we were adults - proper adults, not just graduated from high school adults, that if things went well, we'd be... out of the magic. That we wouldn't be involved, anymore. And if it went bad, we'd... probably be trying to do better than Chibiusa's Mama and Papa could when they were that age."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"It's okay, you yell if you need to," Mamoru says warmly, and his feelings open to her again, muted, not overwhelming, arrayed for her to peruse instead of flooding everywhere. He's not afraid of her. He... was healthily afraid of New Moon, but he is not afraid of Usagi, and he doesn't seem afraid of his internal model of what Usagi yelling at him might be like. "I don't like yelling, but if I've got my earplugs in I won't even flinch, ohoho. I just didn't want to be yelling over that."

He tugs on Usagi's hand a little bit, then lets go and jams himself into the corner of the couch and blossoms into a hugflower, arms wide, hopeful expression on his pretty face. "I believe you that you weren't going to yell, though."

There is listening either way, and again, Mamoru goes quiet, thinking. "I don't think the problems are going to stop," he finally says. "And even if we grow out of being able to fight all the time, like the Queen and King, there will always be people to oppose the darkness, and there will always be a need for people to support the ones who can fight. That's the part I was hoping for. I mean-- I'll probably have terrible on-call hours no matter what I do, though."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
There's a sense of muted guilt shared about New Moon, but even that isn't very strong - New Moon had been frightening in a way similar to Endymion-as-puppeted-by-Beryl had been frightening and neither of them had been themselves, then. Her guilt is because it happened, not because she blames herself still.

"That makes sense," she says, and her voice is quiet, just for the two of them, not carrying through the expanse of the apartment. "I wasn't mad, though. Upset, but not... mad."

It's important to say, even if she knows he knows, now.

"I don't know if the fight will end either. It's been going since before we were born, and it's still going in Chibiusa's time, and it's... it's selfish, and I know it, but I'm selfish a lot, and I just, I don't want it to be our fight, forever. I don't... I don't want to be magic, forever. I don't want to be Sailor Moon, forever, and I - Ami-chan reminded me that you wouldn't be you if you didn't want to protect people."

But she has doubts, about that, and she swallows, lacing their fingers together.

"Mamochan, I got scared when you said you wanted to join them, because I can't imagine a you who doesn't throw yourself into things, especially for other people."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Folding himself around Usagi and settling them comfortably into the corner of the couch, and yes, Usagi laces their fingers together-- Mamoru feels her swallow, his head against the top of her head, and he lets her see his reactions as he's listening-- and how he's doing this, how he's managing himself for this. His attention is split between the very mindful, with his face next to Usagi's hair, with her warmth and solidity keeping him grounded...

...and the very clinical back of his head working through the buffer of what Usagi actually said and weighing each piece of it before reacting. It's very deliberate, and he's doing it because this is a very important topic, and she can see him coming to the slow realization...

"Usako," he murmurs against her head, "I want to support you in whatever you try. I want to build a future with all of us in it, and I don't want to fight forever either. But... it's just like you're going to university to prepare for a future you hope won't happen. It's not-- are you afraid of the organization, or are you afraid of which way I jump in a pinch? I've stopped reflexively using myself as a meat shield."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Mamoru folds around Usagi and she melts into him, her head tucked under his, her nose turned to the hollow of his throat, feeling his adam's apple bob as he breathes and speaks. His fingers are laced between hers, long and narrow, and one of them isn't scarred, anymore, the way it should have been, healed by magic, destroyed by magic, and altogether still his. She brushes her thumb against a place where she knows some of the worst of the burns were.

He asks her, honest and thoughtful, and she wants to answer the question the way he phrases it, but she'd been honest with Ami, and she has to be honest with him too, even more honest, because it's not, all, about him.

"I'm going to go to college and study and get better at politics because I'm afraid of being bad at it. I'm afraid of being bad at it, and having to do it anyway, because there's no one else who's an option for it, like Chibiusa's mama had to. I don't... I don't want that, Mamochan. It's not like the organization, because you want that, and I'm - even if I don't like it, I'm happy for you that you want something for the future."

And she is.

"I don't like the organization because you like it, because I'm not... I mean, I'm a little afraid of you being Kyouka-sensei," that's true, actually, "But... mostly, I'm afraid of... I'm afraid that I might not going to be any different. That I might not be able to turn away either, and I'll be fighting a youma before our wedding, that I'll be fighting a youma on my way to an ultrasound, that I'll be fighting a youma, when it should be our own little baby's birthday-"

Her voice breaks on every emphasized word, not a sob, but a hitched breath, and she's not hiding her feelings, so if Mamoru reaches for them, they're there: her own fear and sorrow at the thought of that future, her desire to be done with it, for things to end, her frustrated sadness when dates become fights again and again, the inability to ever be normal.

The way it isn't just Mamoru who jumps to protect their friends, but Usagi too, and the way it comes naturally, and has from the very first day, when a broach was offered to her as Naru's cries rang in her ears.

"I'm afraid that it's never going to be over."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
There are no buts, no attempts at an explanation, no trying to reason things out or anything-- there's a heavy-hearted slow agreement. He doesn't tell her he doesn't hate it as much as she does, she knows that, he doesn't have to bring that up. He doesn't have to bring anything up. Mamoru, right now, just has to do the best damned job he can at being Usagi's, and--

She can feel it. He does still want it. But he also wasn't lying: he doesn't mind putting it aside for her. It's just that (that slow realization from before) it's an underlying problem, one they can't solve. Mamoru will be in magic whether or not he's in the organization, because he has the power to help, because he is magic and he wears it like it's his mantle, she's right, so right.

Each hitched breath comes with the mental images, and his breath is steady and his skin is warm, and his arms are around Usagi. He can't argue with any of the points that she makes. Everything she's afraid of is a horribly real and valid worry, and Mamoru doesn't disagree with any of that.

Instead, he holds her closer and is unhappy alongside her, despite the hitch of his very SOUL she could FEEL when she mentioned the ultrasound and the resultant reddening of his face and wild sudden desire to run away with joy at the very thought, ah, but no, no, what if there were a youma attack--

--and he knows, wretchedly, that she's right. "We're not alone," he says, and in his head is Amy Faust saying no platitudes, and Mamoru helplessly doesn't know if Usagi wants them or not, whether she wants reassurance, or just-- "I'm sorry," he murmurs against her hair, voice low and arms squeezing for a moment, "I'm so sorry, love. I'm afraid you're right. I'm so sorry."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
The words are not easy to share, the fears are not comfortable to admit, but it is nice to have Mamoru listening and steady, offering his presence to soothe her instead of his surrender. He's here and solid and real and that won't change.

And she can feel it, how much he wants to join and also how much he wouldn't if she truly didn't like it, but of course, the problem was never really with the organization. The problem - which isn't a problem but just Mamoru's very nature - is that he wants to help and he has the power to help so he will. He can fight, so he does, he can heal so he does, he has power so he wields it, and even without this organization, he'd find a way.

She loves him, she really does. She always will.

Love has never meant that two people will always want the same things.

She can feel his joy, and then his worry, and one hand strokes his reddening cheek, even as she doesn't redden herself, and when he says they aren't alone -

"We're not, but, no one else can heal like you. And no one else can do what I've done, either."

She's not puffing up their egos - Hotaru can heal, but not like him. She's not practiced at it, isn't disciplined at it, and even though she wants to help, she's not like this. And as for her... so many of their friends and allies can purify, but there's only one other person she knows who's brought back the dead.

Usagi might not have repeated the miracle that was Paris, that was her reveal as the princess, but she saw her future self do it, saw her resurrect the dead where they lay in Crystal Tokyo, and she knows that power is still in her.

They're not alone, but that doesn't get them out of this. It doesn't mean that they won't be asked back in if they leave the fight. It doesn't mean that Mamoru wants to get out of the fight.

So when she cries - and she does, tucked against him, tears starting to roll down her cheeks - it's with no platitudes in her ears, just apologies.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
In the background, Mamoru's still chewing on whether or not he wants out of the fight. Does he want the fighting to stop? Absolutely. If he knew someone else were taking care of it? He... okay, yeah, he did have FOMO when the Shitennou fought a miniboss without him. And he does jump into fights with his whole chest. But if he couldn't fight anymore, would he miss it?

If he saw someone in danger, he would miss it.

He keeps turning it over and over, but he keeps not being able to come up with anything to refute Usagi's worry. He got used to fighting as a kid, and fighting dirty and with what little magic he had, just to keep other kids off of his and Takashi's backs. He was so angry, so depressed, and fighting in ways no one could get him in trouble for-- he'll always fight, or he'll always want to, if someone has to.

IN THE FOREGROUND, Mamoru is on Usagi's emotional nosedive right along with her, for the ride. Head bent, glasses off, fluffy hair brushing against odango; his words fade into nothing, but Usagi can tell it's her feelings he's focused on, feeling them with her, the heaviness of her sorrow and the cold fingers of her grief around her heart.

It's not apologies, it's condolences. It's shared pain, even if-- he doesn't mind it, for himself, in and of itself? He minds what it does to her, he minds it very much, but his very first instinct is to try to protect her from it.

Which is part of the problem, and he knows it. He knows she doesn't want him to force himself to act against his nature-- he knows she wants him to agree with her, she wants him to stop having the urge to help--

She wants to be able to stop having the urge to help.

...she really did want the Fade, and he grieves with her silently.