2869/Diverging Interests

Diverging Interests
Date of Scene:	11 December 2025
Location:	Mamoru's Apartment
Synopsis:	Usagi and Mamoru almost have an argument about his wanting to join Candidus Cordis.
Cast of Characters:	Mamoru Chiba, Usagi Tsukino

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Mamoru Chiba has posed:
It's well into the nighttime, but not the middle of the night, that there's the distinctive sound of Mamoru rattling down the stairs from the roof, then coming in over on that side of the apartment. "Usa? Kazuo? Who's home?" calls his voice, breathless, excited, and then he clatters through the kitchen and grabs a ginger beer on the way, and hey!

"There you are!" he crows, and sliiiides over with his hands out to share his joy and maybe hug the prettiest princess in all the land. His nose and cheeks are a little bit red and his glasses are still foggy, which is why they're hung over the collar of his shirt. "Bringing them all around went really well!"

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
It's well into the nighttime, and Usagi Tsukino is doing her homework. Not entirely of her own volition, but mostly - Luna has been making sure that she doesn't get distracted with too many breaks and chasing Anko off whenever she decides to plop down on one of Usagi's textbooks. Japanese, science, and social studies are all finished, so she's working on her English homework when Mamoru arrives, the pitter-patter of footsteps rattling down the stairs making Luna halt in the middle of pressing Anko down into the floor.

"Oh?"

"Mamochan!" Usagi calls, and she's genuinely excited to see him, of course she is, and she scoots over so that when he slides over to hug her, she can hug him back, quick and eager, his excitement rubbing off on her. It takes a moment for the words to process, and when they do, she sits back, not so much putting space between them as making space so she can look at his face. "That's right. You were... taking people over to the museum tonight?"

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
There's a warm fuzziness of face pressed to sunny hair for a moment out of time, and he's so happy and she's right here and he has this big joy, and then Mamoru laughs as she sits back. His dark blue eyes are bright, and he does let go, but it's so he can pull over a chair and drop himself into it. "We got a lot of information, and there's plenty more to come. All those questions we've had for Hanasaki-sensei, we can ask Siddig-sensei without worrying about her losing the memories. She doesn't have all the answers, of course, I mean, she's an academic and a teacher... but there's so much history! But I do love history. But anyway the exciting part--!!"

Usagi can see him suppressing the urge to literally bounce in his seat; he leans forward and grins, briefly ducking his head, then looking up again. "The organization that's responsible for the school, for hiring Kyouka-sensei" (there's a combination) "and, in a different branch of it, this exhibit, and for giving us the Crystal Heart... I can join it. I told her I wanted to join it and she said there was no reason I couldn't--"

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
There's a warm fuzziness of face pressed up against her sun bright hair, and in that hug Usagi is happy and warm and unbothered by her homework, but that is then and this is now, those precious few seconds later.

This is Mamoru, genuinely delighted and excited, and in the first half, Usagi is there with him - well, mostly there with him. There's the infectious nature of his excitement, and she gets it (she thinks she gets it): there are answers that they've been wanting to have for years, and it sounds like this curator has them. It sounded like that earlier, when he first told her about his plans to go, and she would have gone with him then, tonight, only there's all this homework that she has to stay on top of -

She wishes she'd gone, now. She doesn't like the way he talks about Siddig-san, is aware that it's small and petty and jealous and can't help it, especially when Mamoru is so impressed. She's not impressed - she's suspicious.

And not just because this Siddig-san sounds like a very beautiful, brainy woman that has all kinds of answers that Mamoru wants.

She starts to ask, 'I wonder why she didn't come sooner, then', it's on the tip of her tongue, and Mamoru is so excited that she can tell he wants to bounce. It's enough that she starts to lose some misgivings just because he's happy, and then -

It's like having cold water dumped on her head.

"You can... join it? You - you want to join it?" There's an awareness, in the back of her mind, that she's not matching his energy, that she should match his energy, but she can't, she's slow and sluggish and repeating herself. "That's what she said?"

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Mamoru freezes, but he doesn't look upset, just concerned. "You-- don't want me to." His hands flinch toward her for a moment, but she looks like the eyewall of a hurricane is on the approach and she's not sure if she's about to get hit by it or if she is it, she looks like she might shred him at the touch somehow.

He's distantly aware that life is a collection of trauma responses interrupted by moments of joy. He's wondering what upset the balance.

"I don't have to," he says reasonably, calmer, worried. "Can you tell me what's wrong? Any of us could join it if we wanted. Those Pretty Cures who were transporting pieces of Crystal Heart, when we met them to take them to the school, they're members."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
He's frozen - she's aware that it's her fault. She regrets that it's her fault, even as she sits in it, that feeling of surprise like ice melt dripping down her neck. The excitement in his voice has become hesitation, and a part of her can't stand that it's her fault. A small part of her knows he would hate it if she lied. A bigger part wants to lie anyway.

"I don't want you to," she agrees instead, swallowing on the words, a part of her wishing for water even though she knows that wouldn't really fix it. "But you want to."

Any of them could join, and there are people she could imagine joining, easily, she could see Amy wanting that, bets she asked right off, she was in the group, wasn't she? Maybe Rashmi asked, though she's always had an eye on her future, on what she wants, but -

'Can you tell me what's wrong?'

"You don't want to join as like... an after school job," she says, instead of answering. "You asked because you want to... to join, like... Siddig-sensei did. As a job."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"I want to be a social worker. I want to be a counselor for kids like us, with trauma like ours, that oh boy it is hard to talk around in therapy," Mamoru says, cautiously. He can't help it. He doesn't know what set Usagi off, and he wants to fix it but he doesn't know what's wrong yet, so he's cautious, he's careful. "And joining the organization would give me resources and connections that I could really use, for both finding the kids that need that help, and for the building. But again, I don't have to join. I can get the school on the board of trustees for the building without joining."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
He's cautious. He's careful. He's handling her, and he's already offering not to join, just because she made it obvious she doesn't like. Luna has gone quiet, she and Anko both, under the table and sprawled like they aren't even here, obviously eavesdropping in a way she can't even be mad about.

She's not mad about it.

How can she be mad about it, when he's obviously -
R
What's she supposed to say? Don't do plan to be a social worker for kids like you? That she doesn't have trauma, when they both know that's not true? Don't make your future revolve around magic?

She doesn't say any of that. She doesn't even know why she's still upset, when he's already backing down at the very thought that she doesn't like a plan of his, except, she doesn't like that, at all.

He's watching her, so closely, so carefully. Not judging, but modulating, planning, changing around her, and that's what he wants for his future, but in an instant, he's already offering ways to cut it back, and she...

"It does sound like it would give you a lot of opportunities." Neutral. Pulling back. She reaches for her English homework, a draft of an essay in her messy handwriting, prompt responses on a reading they did, all in English. "Maybe they'd tell you how they found so many of us before we even really knew what was going on."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"That's absolutely one of the questions I have," Mamoru says earnestly, talking with his hands, letting his hands move again. He's not quite-- chasing her--

"Another is why they didn't find me sooner. I'd love to have bypassed Obsidian... who found me somehow instead. They've been doing a shitty job, Usako," aw man she's pulling back and being neutral and she's still displeased, and he should let it lie, but he's afraid. He doesn't have any idea how any of this sounds. "But they do have the resources to do better!"

He keeps going, doggedly, trying to explain, looking for real agreement, and she isn't engaging. "They just-- they're operating on the structure that worked when there were twelve mahou in all of Tokyo. They don't know what's needed anymore. We can tell them! I want to fix it." So earnest.

Trying not to sound pleading.

"Sorry, I'm just-- I'm in the dark. I want to understand, because I hate being in the dark." Mamoru shakes his head and turns his unopened ginger beer around and around on the table. "Maybe you can tell me later. What's really wrong, you know?"

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
He's not chasing her. She wouldn't mind if he did - well, no, maybe she would, a little, on this, when her thoughts and feelings aren't settled except that she doesn't want him talking to her like she's one of them, and he will, and she'll get frustrated when she doesn't need to be frustrated by anything but homework, and he'd been so excited and there's guilt there now, too, in the pit of her stomach, guilt because he was excited and she ruined it and now he's trying to convince her, like she's Riventon or Zoisite and -

Anything she would say would add fuel to a one-sided fight, because he's trying to fix it and he already said he'd walk away from an idea that made him excited just to make her happy without even knowing why she doesn't like it.

(It's not like they've never disagreed before. They have. They have. But not since Riventon, and not since New Moon, and that makes her stomach a little twisty, a little sick.

"You don't have to apologize," she says, and that's true, even if it's a little bit of effort to be true, "Mamochan, I'm - I have to think about it, I don't even know what's wrong, and I don't - I'm not going to turn on you just because I don't like something you're doing, okay?"

There's a note of pleading that she didn't even mean to express. Does he know that? Does he get that? How can she even figure out what's wrong if he'll drop it that fast? It just makes her feel overbearing. Like a bully.

"I'm in the dark too."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"My goal is compromise, I just wanted you to know, if there's something really wrong, then I won't. But-- but I'm trying to compromise when you don't know what it is you don't like, ha," says Mamoru, sinking back in his chair, sinking down. "Maybe I don't have to apologize, but, my bad, whoops."

Now he's flustered and trying not to be. But she says he's not going to turn on him, and he looks even more flustered, about to protest, so obviously about to protest, already doing it with his whole body.

'I'm in the dark too.'

"There's plenty of time before graduation, and after that, there's plenty of college to do to become a social worker, maybe-- maybe get a psych degree, maybe a doctorate, who knows? You know how much I love the academia part of school."

He's quiet for a moment. "I don't think you're going to turn on me if you don't like something I'm doing. I just-- oh." Oh.

Mamoru chuffs out a laugh and looks wry. "It's easier not to do that if we're touching and I know how you're feeling. But you don't know how you're feeling. So-- let's talk about this when you've figured it out a bit, then? I can let you cook. There's time. I just get really uncomfortable when people are upset with me and I don't know what I did yet, but, I don't think you're upset with me, as such."

He smiles a little lopsidedly, then stands up and takes his ginger beer. "Don't feel bad. Just think about it but like after you're done with your homework. And also for as long as you want. I'm going to take a shower and get ready for bed, and just shelve it emotionally for whenever you're ready."