Aftermath
Friday
10:59pm
She didn’t answer, nor did she outwardly react to his words, however her heart constricted at his imploring tone and those words… the profession of his feelings. Deep in the recesses of her heart she had dearly hoped that one day he would say those treasured few words to her, yet now… it was all a lie. A LIE! Her mind was in a whirl, her whole life was turned upside down because of him, she hadn’t felt like this since her husband, Hiro, had announced that the city life was stifling his artistic expressions, and that he was moving into the country, or Europe – and it would be without his family.
Men, she thought in disgust; that was the reason why she had refrained from seeing men after that incident, the incident that suddenly made her a disgrace by being a divorced woman with a young child. Men, they made her too vulnerable, and then they’d drop her down from the highest point. The lessons of life, those bitter words came into her mind as she strode across the lobby in long steps, damn, it was raining. She could see from the corner of her eye that the porter, whom she had seen many times, had already signalled that he would bring her an umbrella. Mewagi stood by the door and waited. Lies, all lies, even the weather report that said it would be a warm dry evening had been lying. Those words… that he had never lied to her about his feelings… yet it was enough, he had lied about his identity. Deus Mercury’s words rang in her mind, indeed, she had never divulged him in her other identity either… but it was different, he knew who she was from the very beginning, he shouldn’t have lied about his own identity.
“Excuse me ma’am, I’m afraid that this is the only umbrella we have, it’s a bit old and rickety, but it should keep you a bit more dry.” The porter offered her a black umbrella embarrassedly, it would have fallen apart with one strong blow of the wind.
“Arigato, but iie, I should have one upstairs.” There was something that she had to say to him before she left.
“Usagi!” Ikuku Tsukino whispered urgently, “your father has been worried, you could have at least called to say that you would be late.”
“I didn’t think that we would be late, its only ten minutes… oka-san isn’t angry at us, is he? Or he’ll lock me up for the rest of my life!”
“He wasn’t feeling well, so I sent him off to bed about half an hour ago, but you know you shouldn’t say things like this about your father.”
“I’m sorry ota-san, you won’t tell, will you?”
“No, of course not, I don’t want him upset over something like that. Usagi, I’ve been a young girl too, and not so long ago, I know it’s hard to keep to curfews…”
Usagi looked at her mother and burst into tears, “if you know it’s so hard, then why do you two make them and make me follow them?”
“Because every respectable unmarried girl should be home by eleven, and every respectable boyfriend should make sure that their girlfriends are home by then. Even if we weren’t imposing this curfew, that boy, Chiba, he should still be bringing you home around midnight, latest. I know you are in university now, and it seems harsh that we still have this rule, but it for your own good. We aren’t really the ones imposing it, the society is. You don’t want people talking behind your back about what you do in his house until that time, you don’t want people wondering if, should the two of you marry, you were marrying for a reason other than love. Do you understand what I am saying Usagi? That’s why we are doing this, and that’s why you have to take this rule more seriously, when we say ‘back by eleven’, we mean ‘back by eleven at the latest’ and if you are responsible enough, you will come back before eleven.”
It was the first time that Usagi had had such a conversation with her mother, finally she understood the reasoning behind a seeming inflexibly stringent and ancient rule. She had always thought that it was over-protection, but now she realised that it was more, it wasn’t because they didn’t trust her, or Mamo-chan, but because the society didn’t trust young men and young women together, at night, in general, full stop. She smiled at her mother, “hai oka-san, next time I will try my best to be back before eleven, not at eleven.”
She was surprised at his ragged features and slightly red countenance when he opened the door; he looked as though a mower had physically flattened him. She could see that he was in pain, but was struggling to contain it with a mask of formality, “Mewagi, its raining outside, did you want an umbrella?”
She shook her head gently as she studied the in-house sandals that he wore, “iie, I could have stopped the rain if I wanted to. I wanted to apologise for being rash, for saying those horribly hurtful, rude words, and… and I want to hear you say that you love me, still, if its not too late for it now.”
In
a flash she was in his arms, her chin resting on his shoulder and her cheek
against his damp one, she felt his cheeks move slightly as he opened his mouth
and tried to speak, finally, he succeed, “it would never have been too late, I
have waited so long to be with you that I would have waited for the rest of my
life for you. Mewagi, if only I
remembered who I was in the first place, I wouldn’t have… oh Mewagi,
aisheteru (I love you), what happened just then, it was…” he didn’t finish
as he broke into sobs and buried his face into the nape of the neck of the woman
he loved since for so many millennia.
They laughed as they each recounted stories about their lives, the ridiculousness of her life and the strangeness of his. She told him about the confusion with both Kunki and Tsuzuki in her life, how she had managed to resolve part of it, and not other parts. In the end, she was happy that she could talk to someone other than her mother because she needed a male perspective to give her advice. And Urawa was only too glad to sit with her and help her, despite the steady pang at his heart as he listened to each and every word. His duty was to listen and advice in her personal life, whilst Deus Mercury looked after her warrior side. It seemed unfair that both of them would fall for their charge.
After having calmed down, Mewagi and Kendo sat on the couch together, hand in hand, her head leaning against his chest with her eyes closed. She could feel his chest moving as he breathed, his strong steady heartbeat vibrating just below her ear, and the zephyr of his breathing ruffling her short hair. “Kendo?” she whispered.
“Hmm?”
“I was angry not because you lied, because in reality you hadn’t; it was because I had lied, I never told you who I really was. The shock of thinking that you had lied transferred to me, the anger towards you magnified a thousand times on me. You see, I was angry at myself but I couldn’t admit it, so I got angry at you, all because of the fact that I lied, and I blamed it on you.”
“Mewagi, I lied by entering your life as though I was a completely normal person, I always knew that I wasn’t. I chose to come to Earth without my memories, just to see if I could find you, it was like a treasure hunt to me. When I found you, I should have awakened those memories, I should have told you. You didn’t have to tell me, I had to tell you. Because I knew it was safe for me to tell you, but you didn’t know that it was safe for you…”
“I should have trusted you.”
“Trust is a bit word, and it’s hard when you’ve seen your own daughter and everyone in the Moon Kingdom die because they trusted too much. I don’t expect you to trust me like that Mewagi, to trust solely with the heart would be foolish.”
“And now?”
“Now you know my intentions, my past, it’s for you to decide.”
“As deus, I have always trusted you completely, you were the only one I trusted, other than the rest of the senshi of my generation and my immediate family. And now that I know you, both presently as Kendo and in the past, I don’t see why my trust in you should change. Maybe I am a fool, but that’s what they say love does to even the clearest of heads.”
“It doesn’t have to Mewagi, and you’ll never have to doubt that decision, believe me.”
She smiled as she squeezed his hand, “I believe you and I trust you.”