Confused Heart
   by Marj

Notes:
	gomen - I'm sorry
	konnichiwa - good afternoon/hello
	moshi-moshi - hello/hey
	okaa-san - mother
	onee-san - big sister
	otou-san - father
	oyasumi - good night

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 character Andy Spencer is mine, 
though.  So please don't sue, as I don't earn anything from this other 
than the satisfaction of making a story.



Chapter Six:  When Calls Aren't Worth It

"Tsukino residence, Shingo speaking," Shingo said, answering the phone.  
"Call for whom?  . . .  Oh . . .   Okay, I'll get her."  He started to 
walk up the stairs of the two-story house to call Usagi.

His older sister had just entered the house earlier, looking worn out 
and exhausted, her clothes strangely filled with bits and pieces of 
feathers.  "Don't disturb me until dinner is ready," she had said.

 he thought as he knocked on her room.  
"Hey, Onee-san!!"

He heard some groaning sounds inside.  "What do you want?" said a 
muffled voice.

"Telephone!"

"No interruptions, remember?"

Shingo huffed.    
"Suit yourself.  Just don't say I didn't tell you that you've got a 
long distance call!"

Before Shingo could take another breath, his sister was already out of 
her room and was zooming down the hall.  "Why didn't you say so in the 
first place?!" she asked angrily.

"You didn't ask!!" Shingo called out.

Usagi ran as fast as she could to the phone in the living room.   she thought happily.  She grabbed the 
cordless phone and turned to the direction of the kitchen.  "Okaa-san!  
I'll be taking the cordless!" she said, running back up and passing by 
a bewildered Shingo.

"Girls . . ." he muttered as he entered his room.

Usagi hopped on her bed, causing Luna to jump up into the air and land 
on the soft covers again.  "Moshi-moshi?" she said into the receiver.

"Moshi-moshi . . . Usako?" a male voice said over the phone.

Usagi's eyes lit up.  "Mamo-chan!!" she exclaimed in a tone of extreme 
joy. 

Mamoru laughed deeply.  "You sound so happy!"

"Of course I am!!  You called!  Now at least I know you got to America 
safely!"

Luna had raised her eyebrows when she heard Usagi's pet name for her 
boyfriend.  Standing up, she jumped quickly out of the window to give 
her friend some privacy.   she thought.

Mamoru cleared his throat.  "Yes, well, anyway, I called to see if 
*you're* all right, too.  How are things there?"

Usagi laid back on her bed and grinned at the ceiling, remembering her 
pillow fight with the girls just that afternoon.  "Everything is just 
great here, Mamo-chan!  Everyone's having so much fun!"

"See?  I told you, you can survive without me."

"But not for long!"

"True, true."

Usagi and Mamoru laughed for awhile.  Then she sighed as a heavy weight 
pulled her down towards depression.  "I miss you, Mamo-chan."

She could almost see Mamoru smiling gently at her from the receiver.  
"Don't you think that's the reason why I called you?" he said softly.

"How many weeks has it been?" she sighed.

"Almost a month.  Only a few weeks left, Usako.  Then . . . I'm home.  
With you."

Usagi found herself giggling.  "How many times, Mamo-chan?  How many 
times have we been separated and yet we still return to each other?"

"Hmm . . . let's see, there's our past life in the Silver Millennium, 
when Beryl brainwashed me and I ended up your enemy, when we died 
again, when I forgot who I really was, when . . ."

"Okay, okay!  Forget I asked!" Usagi laughed.

Mamoru pretended to whine.  "But I think there's only two or three 
left!"

"Never mind about those!"

"If you say so."

"Ne, Mamo-chan, how's America?" Usagi asked, the fingers of her free 
hand absentmindedly playing with the antenna of the cordless phone.

"Real nice.  Lots of cute girls, but of course nobody's cuter than you 
are!"

"Very very true!!"

Mamoru chuckled.  "How about you?  I'll bet there's a guy somewhere 
there in your dreams!"

"And that guy is you!"

"So I assume that there aren't any guys stalking you out there?"

Usagi blinked.  She remembered the problem she had that had been pushed 
back from her mind momentarily.    She paused 
for awhile.

"Usagi?"

She bit her lip.    "There . . . *is* one guy . 
. ."

"Oh."  Mamoru sounded startled.

Usagi let out a small laugh to improve the suddenly unfavorable mood.  
"I told him I already had a boyfriend, but he won't stop!  He started 
courting me officially yesterday morning."

"'Officially?'"

"He thinks he has a chance!  Could you believe that?"

"Hmm."

"Mamo-chan . . ." Usagi's nervousness regarding the subject returned.  
"What should I do?"

" . . . I don't know."

Usagi pouted.  "You could at least sound a bit helpful."

"It's your life, Usagi.  Do whatever you want."

"Are you jealous?" Usagi teased.

" . . . "

"Well, are you?"

"Go out with him for all I care.  Just make sure you remain *only* 
friends, 'kay?"

Usagi's eyes widened.  "Mamo-chan, are you accusing me of wanting a 
different boyfriend while the one I love is away?!"

"Did I say that?"

"You sounded like it!"

"I wasn't, Usagi!  Don't get me wrong.  I just want you to explore and 
have fun.  I don't want you all tied up just because I'm away!"

"But it doesn't matter to you if I date someone else??!!" Usagi asked 
incredulously.

"Well, are you?"

"Mamo-chan!"

"How am I supposed to know when I'm miles away?"

"I don't believe you!!" Usagi's voice rose.  "You *are* accusing me!"

Mamoru's voice sounded very irritated.  "The problem with you is that 
you always jump to conclusions which aren't true!"

Usagi balled her free hand into a fist.  "Oh, so *now* I have a 
problem!  Well, what's wrong with you is that you don't seem to care 
that your girlfriend's trying hard to avoid other people that are doing 
their best to sway her heart!"

"What are you talking about?!  Of course I care!  I just don't want to 
place pressure on my girl, that's all!  You know, most girls would love 
to be in your place because your boyfriend's not squeezing you too 
tight!  Is there anything wrong with that?!"

"He may not be tight, but he's loose," Usagi said coldly.  "*Too* 
loose."

"Oh, you think so?!"

"Yes, I do!  Kami-sama, most boyfriends who really love their 
girlfriends would be totally outraged by now!"

"Why would I be jealous when you said he had just *started* courting 
you?"

"It *could* lead somewhere, you know!"

"But only if you let it!"

"And you think that I would?!"

Mamoru sighed frustratedly.  "Usagi, I'm not paying for this phone bill 
just to hear you accuse me of all kinds of erroneous conclusions that 
you've made up on your own!"

"And I'm not up to listening to you either, Mamoru!  So there!!"  

Usagi pressed the off button with her thumb and slammed the cordless 
telephone on her dresser.  Then she buried her face in her pillow and 
started crying.

"You were so cold!  How could you not care, Mamo-chan?  Do you really 
think I would betray you?  How could you?!"

*****

When her mother, Ikuko, called Usagi down for dinner, she didn't 
respond right away.  She further worried her parents by barely eating 
the food that her mother had laid in front of her.

"What's wrong, dear?" Ikuko asked.

Usagi shook her head as she stared at her barely eaten food.  
"Nothing."

Shingo gave her a smirk.  "Nothing, huh?  You call fighting with 
somebody over the phone and disturbing the kid in the next bedroom 
'nothing'?"

"Shut up, Shingo!!  What do you know?!!!"  Usagi angrily said, glaring 
menacingly at her brother.

Their father, Kenji, placed a hand on her shoulder.  "That's enough, 
Usagi."

She turned back to staring at her food.  "Gomen, Otou-san."

"Had a bad day, dear?" Ikuko asked.

Usagi smiled weakly.  "Yeah.  Bad day.  May I be excused?"

Ikuko and Kenji looked at each other, then at their daughter.  "Okay . 
. . but come back down when you get hungry, okay?" Kenji said.

She nodded and went straight back to her room.

Kenji threw his wife a worried look.  "Do you think we should talk to 
her?" he asked.

Ikuko thought for a while.  "No, let her be.  Whatever it is that's 
bothering her, she won't be willing to share it with us anytime soon.  
Usagi will tell us when she's ready."

Later on, while Kenji, Ikuko and Shingo were watching television in the 
living room, the doorbell rang.  "I'll get it," Shingo offered, 
standing up.

"Ara!  Minako-san!" Shingo exclaimed when he found Minako standing 
outside the front gate with two cats in tow.

"Konnichiwa!!  I came to return Luna!  She wandered over to my place 
and I didn't think she could make it back home by herself!" Minako 
said, lifting Luna up in the air despite the cat's protests.

The truth was, it was Artemis who deemed it not safe for a *female* cat 
to wander out at night.  "There are tons of alley cats out there!" he 
had said.

"It's not like I haven't gone back home at night before, Artemis," she 
had answered.

But they had ended up arguing so loud that Minako had to carry them out 
of the house so that her parents wouldn't be suspicious of the voices 
that could be heard from her room.  "I'm going to settle your problems 
by taking *both* of you to the Tsukinos!  That way, Artemis wouldn't 
complain that Luna traveled on her own at night, and *then* he wouldn't 
complain that *I* traveled alone at night too because he would be with 
me!  Honestly, Artemis. You're getting too protective lately!" Minako 
had said.

Artemis grumbled something about rising crime rates before they took 
off.

Shingo opened the gate and let Minako in.  "Would you like some tea?" 
he asked, taking Luna from her arms and placing the cat on the ground.

She shook her head.  "Nah, I'd better be heading home.  Just say hi to 
Usagi for me."

Shingo sniffed.  "Sure.  If I could get her out of her present spaced-
out state."

"What?"  Minako, Artemis and Luna looked concerned.  "What happened?"

The boy shrugged.  "Somebody called her, and they ended up fighting.  I 
could hear it all the way from my room!"

Minako bit her lip.  Luna had told her that Mamoru had called Usagi - 
that's why she had visited her and Artemis for a while.    She faked her brightest smile at Shingo.  "Thanks 
anyway!  Oyasumi, Shingo-kun!"

"Oyasumi!"  

Shingo closed the gate while Minako left with Artemis dangling over her 
right shoulder.  He didn't notice that Luna had already rushed inside 
and up to Usagi's room to check on her charge's condition.
 
Luna found that she couldn't enter; the door to Usagi's room locked.  
But she could hear her sobs from outside her room.

The cat shook her head slowly.  "I guess everybody's back to square 
one," she whispered to herself, sighing.  Giving the door one last 
worried look, she walked down to the living room area to join the rest 
of the family.   she thought as Ikuko laid the black cat beside her place on 
the sofa.  

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