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“Mamo-chan, you should adopt one!” Usagi insisted, holding a tiny black and white kitten out to him.
The adoption event was going fantastically, there were only a few cats and kittens left - even the ones Usagi had tried to pawn off on Rei, Makoto and Ami had been claimed. One to a little family with a cute little girl, one to a gruff looking old man whose eyes lit up when he held the kitten in his hands, and one to a pair of newlyweds who recognized Rei from the shrine. Usagi’s friend Umino had adopted a cat, too. (He named it Naru, which Usagi seemed to find incredibly romantic, although Mamoru privately thought it would lead to future confusion.)
Although he’d miss visiting the stray cats, Mamoru was glad they were all going to new homes, where they’d be taken care of. And he was really proud of Usagi for organizing the event - with flyers and everything. He’d been so worried about her when she hadn’t been able to transform - he’d never seen her so despondent and anxious. The new transformation and brand new love-powered, Daimon-destroying weapon had cheered her up considerably. As had finding homes for what seemed like half the stray cats in Juuban. God, he was glad to see her smile again.
Mamoru took the cat from Usagi’s hands. It was very cute.
“It’s a tuxedo cat,” she said, “so it’s perfect!” A pause. “Or… purr-fect.” She laughed at her own joke, even as Luna grumbled at the pun and leapt down from her perch on Usagi’s shoulder.
“My apartment doesn’t allow pets,” he said, for the fourth or fifth time that day, putting the kitten (reluctantly) back in the cardboard box, where it pushed its fuzzy forehead against his hand for one heartwrenching moment.
“Still,” Usagi said. She was momentarily distracted by a little boy and his mom, who were interested in the very kitten Mamoru had been holding. After they left with it, Usagi shook her head at her boyfriend.
“You snooze, you lose, Mamo-chan,” she said, skipping over to the corner of the abandoned building where he’d been standing out of the way. “Now that kitten will never be yours.”
“That’s good, though,” he said, patiently. “The kitten gets a new home, and I don’t get evicted.”
Usagi gasped, as though struck by the most terrible thought in the universe. “Mamo-chan! What happens when we get married?!”
She was so loud, and sounded so horrified, that a few people over by the kittens glanced over curiously and Mamoru tried not to cringe.
“What … what exactly do you mean?” he asked, gently taking her arm and leading her a few feet further from prying eyes. Usually when she talked about their future marriage she was dreamily squealing, not looking at him in abject horror. What exactly was she --
“Your apartment doesn’t allow pets ,” she fretted. “What about Luna ?!”
Oh.
“Usako, we aren’t getting married tomorrow,” he said. (She pouted at the reminder). ”There’ll be plenty of time to find a new place. One that allows pets.”
Usagi considered this very seriously. “Well,” she said. “Okay. If you are sure.”
She was just so freaking cute . “I’m sure.”
“I guess it’s only until we move into a giant crystal palace anyway,” she said. Again, much too loudly for Mamoru’s comfort.
“Exactly,” he said, soothingly. Then, because he never learned, he added, “You do have to get into, and then graduate from, high school before that anyway.”
Usagi gave him a menacing glance over her shoulder. She probably meant it to be threatening and not utterly precious, Mamoru reminded himself. “Oh, right, now that I can transform again, and am no longer in the midst of a total breakdown, are you gonna go back to being all ‘Oh Usako, we shouldn’t hang out until your grades are up’ on me?”
Her low-pitched, mocking voice she used when throwing his words back at him was just so goddamn adorable, he might actually die right there. “Hmm,” he said, casually dropping his hand beside hers, so their pinkies barely brushed together. “I hadn’t thought about it.”
She pursed her lips and glanced up at him from the corner of her eye. Her pinkie finger linked around his.
“Cuz you aren’t very good at it,” she said. At his quirked brow, she clarified. “At avoiding me.” He slid his fingers through hers, pressing their palms together.
“I suppose I’m not,” he agreed, and she was so close he could smell her shampoo. Her hip bumped against this leg as she turned.
“So just give it up , Mamo-chan,” she said, and two perfect pink circles had appeared on her cheeks and her eyes were so bright and her soft little lips were right there - all he had to do to taste them was bend down slightly --
“AHEM!” An offended voice startled him and made Usagi jump at least three feet back from him, guiltily.
“Honestly, I can’t leave you alone for five minutes,” Luna lectured to Usagi, who blushed fiercely. “For goodness sake, Usagi, if you are going to be running this adoption event you need to be out front and not lingering in the corner with Mamoru.”
“Fine, fine, fine,” Usagi said, sending Mamoru an apologetic shrug as she headed back toward the people and the few kittens that were left (and quickly being taken home with people).
“Maybe I won’t get a new place that allows pets,” Mamoru muttered, and Luna sent him a sharp look.
“What did you say?”
He may not have the wide-eyed-innocence look mastered yet, but he’d learned from the best. “Nothing. I didn’t say anything at all."