Confused Heart
   by Marj

Notes:
	hime - princess
	minna - everybody
	ohayo - good morning
	okaa-san - mother

Please e-mail your comments and constructive criticisms at 
.  Thanks!

Disclaimers: The characters of Bishoujo Senshi Sailormoon were created 
by Naoko Takeuchi-san, its copyright owned by Toei Animation, Kodansha, 
Nakayoshi, Sterling Animation Inc., and many other companies scattered 
throughout the world.  Meaning, I cannot claim the characters as my 
own, and am mearly borrowing them.  The characters Andy Spencer and
Ayukawa Himeru are mine though.  So please don't sue, as I don't earn 
anything from this other than the satisfaction of making a story.



Chapter Eleven:  Surprises

Usagi rose sleepily from her bed and looked at the clock on top of her 
bed's headboard.  "8:36," she mumbled.

She slowly dragged her legs to the side of her bed, stretched her 
muscles, and yawned loudly.  "Ohayo, Luna," she said to the sleeping 
black cat near her pillow.

Luna opened one eye, grunted softly in reply, and went back to sleep.

Usagi stood up and started to head out of her room and into the dining 
room for breakfast.

It was yet another Saturday morning, just one week after Usagi's 
disastrous date.  This time, she was scheduled to go to Rei's shrine in 
few hours, meet Makoto's dream guy, and walk to Crown's for lunch.  
Makoto had been so giddy about the event that she never said anything 
the past week except to remind her friends of the upcoming date.  She 
had even gone so far as going to Minako's house - who had been absent 
for days - just to pick her up.

For a week, too, had Andy ignored Usagi, and she avoided him no matter 
how much she wanted to tell him she was sorry.  If they would ever 
accidentally find themselves facing each other, Andy would smile sadly, 
then Usagi would turn away.  She just didn't know where her courage had 
gone after attempting to apologize the previous Sunday.

Also, if Usagi had checked her calendar, she would have discovered that 
only two weeks remained before Mamoru came home.

Without any of these in mind, though - except that she was armed with 
the knowledge that there was no school since Luna didn't freak out when 
she greeted the sleeping cat - Usagi entered the dining room.  Her only 
goal was to fill her currently very empty stomach.  In her pink 
pajamas, she took her place between her father and mother at the dining 
table.  Ikuko was pouring coffee in Kenji's cup, while Kenji was 
reading the Saturday newspaper.

"Where's Shingo?" Usagi asked, noting that her brother was missing 
while helping herself to the food on the table.

"He went out a while ago with some of his friends," Ikuko answered.

Kenji shook his head.  "That boy had been going out a lot lately," he 
complained before sipping his coffee.

His wife smiled, amused by her husband's overprotective nature with 
their children.  "Your children *are* growing, you know.  They can't 
stay little kids forever."  She winked at Usagi.  Usagi smiled back.

Kenji huffed before looking at his daughter.  "Going someplace today?" 
he asked.

"Just with Ami-chan and the others.  Mako-chan's going to introduce us 
to a friend of hers this afternoon," Usagi answered.

Kenji nodded slowly.   he thought.  
After drinking the rest of his coffee, he placed the empty cup on the 
table and folded the Saturday paper.  "I have to get going or I'm going 
to be late."  He stood up from his chair and kissed his wife goodbye.

"Have a good day, dear!" Ikuko said.

Usagi couldn't say anything because her mouth was full of rice, so she 
just nodded her goodbye.

Minutes later, her father's car pulled out of the Tsukino's open 
garage.  By that time, Usagi - being the fast eater that she was - was 
already shoving the last rice on her place into her mouth.  "Mmm!  That 
was good, okaa-san!"

"That's nice, dear," Ikuko said, reaching out for the newspaper on the 
table.

Usagi was already half-way out of the dining room when her mother 
remembered something.  "Oh, Usagi-chan, a boy called earlier this 
morning and wanted to know if you were home."

She looked back.  "Who was it?"

Her mother shrugged.  "I don't know.  Your brother answered the phone - 
he didn't tell me."

"Oh.  Thanks anyway," Usagi said.   

She was starting to run back up to her room when the doorbell rang.  
"I'll get it!!" she shouted, running for the door.  

"It's probably just Rei making sure I'm not late again," Usagi mumbled 
to herself as she opened the door.  

Who she saw made her stare at the visitor with shock and surprise.  
There was a moment of silence before her mother heard her exclaim.

"Mamo-chan!!!"

*****

Chiba Mamoru had arrived home from America the previous night.  Ever 
since he and his girlfriend had fought, he couldn't sleep or 
concentrate on his studies.  He just kept thinking about the fact that 
Usagi had cut him off the line, and on how upset she must have been.

 Mamoru 
thought as he walked in the clean and cold morning air.

When he couldn't take how upset he thought he had made Usagi anymore, 
he talked to the dean of the college where he was studying, and asked 
if he could return to Japan.  Since he was already terribly behind in 
his studies - no thanks to Galaxia - this entitled him to more work as 
soon as he got back.  That didn't matter to him, though.  He wanted to 
be with his girlfriend so much that he couldn't wait until the end of 
his last two weeks.  Three days before he even received his clearance 
from the dean, he bought an airline ticket going straight to Japan.  
Now, there he was.

 he scolded himself as he went through the gate 
leading to the Tsukino's garage.  

Thankful that Usagi's father was gone, he positioned his hand on the 
doorbell.  He had called earlier to see if Usagi was in, and now, for 
his sanity, he was going to barge in there and make amends - whether 
Usagi was awake or not.

He rang the bell twice and stood there nervously.  While he was 
berating himself for not bringing chocolates or even whipping up a few 
roses, the door opened, and into his view came the pink pajama-clad 
Usagi.

Mamoru smiled warmly, happy to see his loved one face to face again.  
"Hi," he said.

He watched as Usagi's eyes took in a shocked expression, her mouth 
opening and closing several times without making a sound.  Her face 
then contorted into a mixture of someone who was very happy and of 
someone who was crying very hard.  "Mamo-chan . . . " she whispered 
softly at first, then louder.  "Mamo-chan!!"  She hugged him tightly 
and cried on his shirt.

Mamoru laid his chin on her blond head, held her close with one hand 
and stroked her hair with the other.  "Why are you crying?" he asked, 
chuckling softly.

"I'm just . . . ~sniff~ . . . so happy . . . ~sniff~ . . . to . . . 
~sniff~ . . . to see you!" Usagi said, looking up to see the face that 
she had not seen for so many days that she hadn't even dared to count 
them.

Her boyfriend gently wiped the tears in her eyes with his thumbs while 
holding her face lovingly with both hands.  "I'm very, *very* happy to 
see you, too," he said.

Usagi and Mamoru smiled at each other.  Usagi's mother came out of the 
dining room to see what was going on, but the moment she saw them 
standing there, she giggled softly and went back to the morning paper.

Hand in hand, the young couple walked slowly towards the Tsukino's 
living room.  Sitting down on the long sofa with their hands still 
entwined, Usagi laid her head on Mamoru's shoulder.  "Why didn't you 
tell me you were coming back home?  Don't you still have a few more 
weeks of studying?" she asked.

"I do, but I couldn't stand being away from you any longer, so I came 
home.  Besides, I wanted this to be a surprise.  Are you surprised?"

"Oh, yes!  *Very* surprised!!  I love it!!!" Usagi replied.

Mamoru nodded.  "I'm glad."

Usagi sat straighter and turned to face Mamoru squarely.  "Mamo-chan, 
I'm really sorry I blew up at you the other night," she said sincerely.

He gave her a sad look.  "I'm the one who's sorry.  You're right - I 
acted like I didn't care."

"But I shouldn't have misunderstood you in the first place!"

"I shouldn't have made it seem like I was accusing you of going out 
with somebody else."

"I shouldn't have let him court me!" Usagi insisted.

"Okay!  Okay!" Mamoru held out his free hand.  "We were both at fault, 
and we both said we're sorry.  Can we move to the forgiving part, 
please?"

Usagi smiled while her heart soared.  She leaned and kissed him softly 
on his right cheek.

"Was that supposed to be my answer?" Mamoru asked while looking at her 
lovingly.

"Only if you kissed me back," Usagi said, winking.

"Hmm.  In that case . . ." Mamoru held her close and kissed her on her 
lips.  When they parted, he took on a worried expression.  "Oh dear, 
that was supposed to be on the cheek!   Does that mean I'm not 
forgiven?"

Usagi laughed, pushing him away gently.  "Oh you!  Of course you're 
forgiven!  But what about me?"

Her boyfriend poked her nose.  "You're forgiven, too."

That was all Usagi needed to know to make her forget everything that 
had made her sad for the past few weeks.  She sighed happily and her 
head resumed its place on his shoulder.  "That's awfully nice to know."

For the rest of the morning, Usagi told Mamoru everything that had 
transpired during his absence with great enthusiasm.  The only thing 
that she had excluded from her story was her date with Andy.  Mamoru 
didn't suspect that she was hiding anything, though, since he smiled 
and nodded as she went on with her story.

Just when she was catching her breath - and when Mamoru was telling her 
to breathe - Usagi's  eyes fell on the clock.  Her eyes widened with 
terror.  "Oh, no!!  I was supposed to be at Rei's an hour ago!!!" she 
howled.

She stood up abruptly and was about to tell Mamoru that she had to go 
to her room when he nodded.  "I know.  Go on ahead and get dressed.  
I'll wait for you," he said.

Babbling words of thanks, Usagi was gone in an instant.  Seconds later, 
Mamoru could hear sounds of crashing and a sleeping cat being jerked 
awake as his girlfriend ran around her room.  He chuckled.

 he thought fondly.

Too bad somebody else was also thinking the same thing.

*****

"That Usagi!!!  Same as ever!!" Rei huffed, looking at her wristwatch.  
"When is she ever going to change?!"

The door to her room slid open and Makoto came in.  "I just called 
Crown's.  I asked Unazuki-chan to keep Himeru-san company while we wait 
for Usagi," she announced, sitting down on Rei's bed.

"Do you think he's there already?" Ami asked.

Her tall friend shrugged.  "I described him, and she said she thinks 
he's there.  I hope she saw the right guy!"

"Somebody should tell Usagi to shape up or ship out," Rei complained.

Ami giggled while looking at Makoto.  "I certainly hope your friend is 
very patient," she said.

Makoto smiled.  "I hope so, too."

"'Cause he's probably going to wait a century before a certain person 
shows up," Rei said.  "We agreed to meet an hour earlier than the time 
when we have to meet him, and we still end up late because of her!"

No sooner had she said that than the door to her room opened just 
enough to reveal a *very* happy Usagi.  "Hi, minna!  Sorry I'm late!"

Her raven-haired friend gave her a surprised look.  "You're actually 
alive?  And I thought you had already died an hour ago!"

"Hardy har har," Usagi said, grinning at her.

"I can't believe you still came after being late for an hour!  With a 
grinning face, too!  What happened?  Did your alarm clock fly away and 
you had to chase it to dreamland?"

Luna came in between Usagi's legs and hopped into Ami's outstretched 
arms. "Not really.  She woke up surprisingly early for a Saturday 
morning," she said.

"What made you late then?" Makoto asked.

"This had better be good," Rei grumbled.

Usagi's smile grew even wider.  "Oh, it *is* good!  I even brought 
along the reason why I'm late as evidence, see?  Look!"

A face appeared at the door, giving Rei, Ami and Makoto a sheepish and 
guilty smile.  "Ohayo!" Mamoru said.

The three girls stared at his and Usagi's happy faces for a while 
before reacting.  Makoto whistled.  "No wonder!!" she said.

"Isn't it great, minna?  Mamo-chan's home!!" Usagi chirped happily.

"So *that's* why you're so happy even though you're hopelessly late!" 
Rei said, smiling, forgetting for a moment that she was supposed to be 
angry.

Usagi stuck her tongue out at her.  "So I'm late.  Don't rub it in."

"Welcome back, Mamoru-san!  We thought you wouldn't be back until next 
week!" Ami said, watching as Usagi and he settled themselves on the 
floor.   she thought.

"Well, I felt homesick," Mamoru told Ami.

Luna winked knowingly at the blue-haired girl.  "He also couldn't stand 
being away from Usagi for too long."

He laughed.  "Yeah.  That, too."

Usagi started clapping her hands.  "Oooh, I'm so happy!  My life's 
complete again!" she said giddily.

Mamoru looked at her.  How he had missed her cheerful expression!  How 
he had wanted to see and feel the love and joy that she radiated again!

Makoto caught him looking at Usagi and felt herself staring at him.  
She had always wished for somebody to look at her as lovingly as Mamoru 
did to Usagi.  The last time she remembered a man gazing at her like 
that seemed eons ago, and she wasn't even sure if the man had loved her 
then.  She sighed.

Then, a young man's gentle face invaded her thoughts, and she snapped 
out of her reverie.  "Speaking of happiness, somebody's not going to be 
happy if we leave him waiting for too long," she said, reminding them 
of the true purpose of their meeting.

Ami looked at her watch.  "You're right!  We still have to pick up 
Minako-chan!" she said.

Rei stood up and grabbed Usagi's hand.  "Save the reunion for later.  
We've got plenty of time for partying at Crown's.  Right now, we have 
to go!"

"Okay!  Okay!  Don't rush!  I just sat down!"  Usagi looked sweetly at 
her boyfriend.  "Coming, Mamo-chan?"

"Whatever you say, hime."

Makoto and Ami went on ahead with Luna, followed by Usagi and Mamoru 
walking hand in hand.  Rei was already going down the stairs when a 
voice stopped her.

"Ahh . . . wouldn't it be great if we could walk together, hand in hand 
on the beach during sunset . . . ?" Kumada Yuuichirou sighed dreamily, 
pausing from sweeping the shrine floor to stare at the young couple 
descending the stairs.

Rei shook her head and smiled.  "In your dreams, Yuuichirou.  In your 
dreams."

    Source: geocities.com/tokyo/field/4723/stories