Minna,

First off, I have to thank everyone who was kind enough to

email me with compliments for TWOH9. ^_^ And of course, I have

to thank Kawaii and Shana for beta-reading this strange little piece.

I hope you enjoy!

Remember:

EMAIL EMAIL EMAIL EMAIL EMAIL EMAIL EMAIL EMAIL EMAIL

me at mallorys-girl@cinci.rr.com.

Was that a subtle enough hint? ^_~;

~Meredith

Legal Disclaimer:

Fiction: Sailor Moon belongs to me.

Fact: Sailor Moon *does* belong to Naoko Takeuchi.

Fiction: Mamoru is more handsome than Demando.

Fact: Demando is OBVIOUSLY... ACK! (Meredith ducks as Lelu

chases her from the email ^_~)

Personal Disclaimer:

How sane can I be if my nickname is 'The Evil Mad Scientist'? ^_~

------------------------------------------------------------

The Catch 1/1

By Meredith Bronwen Mallory

mallorys-giirl@cinci.rr.com

------------------------------------------------------------

He heard screaming, off in the distance. Not one of shrill

fear, or one of rage, but one of pure and hopeless despair;

one that had given up on life. And yet under all those

layers of sadness, grief and loneliness, Mamoru could sense

something else. The voice screaming was beautiful, as if

belonging to a siren straight out of Greek Mythology. So

beautiful... he thought dimly, halfway hypnotized, lost and

feeling the despair as his own.

"Hey, Mamoru-kun!"

"Nani!?" With a jolt, reality rushed in on the hapless man,

and for a moment he stared at his fellow crew member as

though he didn't even recognize her. Makoto laughed and

tossed her long brown hair, knowing full well that the wind

would blow it in her face again a moment later.

"You were down there in the fathoms," she said with a sly

grin, "I thought you were about to jump in there. Hearing

mermaids?" The laughter in her jade green eyes gave away the

joke.

"Iie," Mamoru replied softly, staring into the sapphire

depths of the ocean once more, "I heard someone screaming. A

girl."

"I didn't hear anything." the young woman replied with

concern.

"Never mind," he turned away, "Must have been my

imagination." With that he walked down towards the lower

deck, where a trio of fishermen were struggling to haul in

another net-full of catch. Makoto stared after him for a

while, watching without really seeing as Mamoru went to help

his friends, easily hoisting the heavy load onto the wooden

deck. The look in his eyes... she'd never seen anyone look

so genuinely distressed. It was almost as if..

Off in the distance, a siren blared, and one of the crew

members turned up the radio as a shrill tone sounded over

the speaker.

"WARNING. WARNING. There is a dangerous storm 200 miles

northwest of Tokyo Bay, moving at a speed of 25 miles per

hour. Those on the water within the area are asked to head

for land *immediately*. I repeat..."

"You heard the man!" Captain Tenhou barked, her voice more

terrifying than any weather report, "Let's pack it in boys,

shows over!" In an instant, Makoto was moving, making her

way towards the rear so she could help bring up the anchor

But as she stared into the deep blue of the ocean's waves,

waiting for the metallic weight of their anchor to be

revealed, she swore she too could hear a woman screaming.

---------

Storms on land didn't bother Chiba Mamoru much. He'd been

at sea in such horrible conditions that simple thunder and

lightening had long since ceased to have an effect on him.

He simply took his precautions and dealt with the situation

calmly.

Which was why the girl standing sobbing wet in his doorway

puzzled him so.

The knock had come but a minute after midnight, almost

drowned out with the sound of neighborhood shutters banging

and the elements as they roared in the heavens. He'd been

just about ready to go to bed, but there had been something

so tentative in that little noise at his door that he simply

had see what it was.

She stood in his doorway for all of three seconds, staring

at him as though he was an angel from heaven (which was

funny, since part of his bewildered mind was thinking the

same thing about her), before she thrust her small form into

his arms.

"Mamo-chan!" she cried, and sobbed into his shirt. It only

made the situation more surreal... he'd never met this girl

before in his life. And yet, his arms automatically

surrounded her, lifted her up a little so she could rest her

weight on him.

"A-are you alright?" he managed to ask. She shifted a

little so she could look up at him, and it was then that his

mind managed to soak in what his subconscious had barely

managed to comprehend. This girl was beautiful; long golden

locks tarnished by the rain; pale, nearly translucent skin

and eyes so blue he swore she had the entire sea wrapped up

in them.

She was, as Captain Tenhou would have put it, a real

looker.

"I'm fine now," she responded, her voice silvery with

loneliness. It sounded oddly familiar.

"You must be cold," he remarked stupidly, already having

noted that she was soaked through to the bone. Had anyone

else stumbled into his home like this, Mamoru would have

been much less courteous, but there was something about this

girl... "Do you want to take a shower real quick, while I

find you something dry to wear?"

"W-water!? Shower!?" she was out of his arms in an instant,

a animal like panic having come into her eyes. She calmed

quickly though, and smiled sweetly. "No thank you, but I

would like something dry, if you don't mind."

"Not at all. There are some towels in the bathroom. It's

down the hall."

"Arigato," said the watery woman, as she fairly glided from

the room.

'Am I dreaming?' Mamoru wondered as he fetched one of his

old flannel shirts for the young woman's use. He wasn't even

sure the past ten minutes had happened... it was all so

surreal. Like something he'd already half-lived. He laid the

garment but the bathroom door before returning to his living

room, where he gazed into the roaring fire and contemplated

the stupidity of sheltering strange young women in the

middle of the night.

"It's so nice to be dry," the girl commented as she hugged

the shirt to herself. Her hair clung to her sides, he noted,

streaming from twin buns. It looked as though she'd planned

something like pigtails, but it hadn't turned out that way,

what with the clumps of hair dangling at odd position. Some

part of his mind remarked that she looked adorable. "Thank

you so much, Mamoru," she said softly, as she sat down in

front of the fire, holding out her hands to accept it's

warmth.

"How do you know my name?" he choked, almost in accusation.

She looked up at him sharply, eyes filled with regret.

"Oh, I've screwed it up already, haven't I?" she moaned.

"Screwed what up?"

"This," she gestured to encompass the whole room, before

her hands fell to her sides. Exasperated, Mamoru took a seat

beside her and decided to start with more simple things.

"What's *your* name?" Again, a flash of pain, but she

answered presently.

"Usagi. Tsukino Usagi."

"Alright, so how do you know me?"

"You-" she began, then took a deep breath, "You haven't met

me... yet. We were supposed to, but there was... was..." And

then, quite suddenly, she took his face between her damp

little hands and fused his lips to her own.

For some odd, inexplicable reason, Mamoru lost control.

Before he knew it she was laying in the cradle of his arms,

staring up at him as he stole her breath with heated kisses.

At that point, he didn't much care for where she came from,

or how she knew him, if she didn't want to tell him. Somehow

he trusted her implicitly, Mamoru realized, or he never

would have let her into the house at all. There was a

loneliness in her deep blue eyes that called to him. The

ancient corner of his heart that had been searching forever

for that intangible *something*, only to have discovered it

was too late. But he hadn't felt like that before, he

thought dazedly, Usagi's lips, tasting of vanilla mixed

lightly with salt water, making him heady as nothing else

ever had. Something had happened that had stolen his hope.

When...?

That afternoon, as he gazed into the sea, with the woman's

screams echoing in his ears. His hope had died then.

"Don't think about that," Usagi whispered urgently as she

sealed their lips again, "Please, please don't think about

that."

"Kami-sama, Usagi... Usagi..." he chanted, fully taken in

as he tangled his fingers in her still damp locks. Some part

of his traitorous brain noted that it should have been dry

by then.

It was only later, with Usagi curled up in his lap, that

Mamoru realized what she did to him. She *filled* him. Sweet

heavens, he felt as though he might burst. And all he'd done

was kiss her, and listen to her as she murmured softly in

his ear, telling him softly of her life in China. How she

had been (some part of his mind frowned at the use of past

tense) the daughter of the Japanese Ambassador. Her father

had never been satisfied with anything she did, no matter

how hard she tried. So finally, she ran away, spent what

little money she'd had for a ride on a low-class boat bound

for Japan. He'd taken her face in his hands then, kissed

her salty tears as she begged him to return her gift with

details of his own life. She was something else, really. How

could it have been possible that he hadn't KNOWN her three

hours ago, hadn't been aware of her golden existence until

the clock struck midnight?

"So warm..." Usagi murmured sleepily. Mamoru frowned, and

moved her closer in his embrace, a little puzzled when her

hands came to grasp his wrist, fingers caressing the

pulse-point. Not that it wasn't soothing. In fact, he could

feel himself slipping away, into the darkness of sleep...

---------

Mamoru had a rather strange dream that night. Feeling oddly

detached, he rose from the comfort of his favorite arm chair

and walked towards the door. The empty stretch of beach

surrounding his humble clap board house was drenched in

gray, the waves rushing up to the shore in an almost lazy

manner. With a carelessness contrary to his nature, Mamoru

left his door open as he wandered out onto the sand. The

wind tousling his ebony locks like a much-beloved aunt; the

yellow-white grains of sand ground gently against his feet,

creeping in between his toes. He walked onward without

knowing where he was going. Mamoru was within and without

himself, one moment vividly engaged in the sequence of the

dream, and the next standing like a spectator on the

sidelines. For a single instant, he felt ill at ease; the

beach was silent. Not a gull stirred, the air did not ring

with the laughter of children or clang of fisherman's

equipment. Then the detachment rushed in again, and he

allowed the dream to take him by the hand and guide him.

"Mamo-chan!" It was Usagi's voice, and he turned to find

it's owner, answering the call with a word of his own.

Something impossibly precious...

"Usako!"

"Mamo-chan..." she sounded like she was crying, and he

began to run.

"Where are you, Usako!?"

"Here." The word was spoken like a soft command, and

suddenly he saw her standing amongst the waves. She smiled

at him softly, beckoning to him with a barely concealed

desperation. She spread her slim, pale arms wide in

invitation, eyes so blue they but the sea to shame.

"Mamo-chan, we're one soul. It's all so unfair. Won't you

join me?" she sounded unsure, as if she were fighting a

battle within herself, "It's a little cold, but you're warm,

warm..."

A thin cold snake slithered along Mamoru's spin, but he

kept his eyes rooted on Usagi's face; her blue eyes and her

smile. Her words unnerved him slightly, but her voice was

gentle as it lulled him into a state of easy acceptance.

Almost in a trace, he took a step into the water.

He woke up.

---------

The sun was streaming through the dusty curtains to batter

Mamoru's eyes when he awoke. In the distance, he could hear

church bells tolling, and he stretched leisurely, knowing

that it was only five o'clock, an hour before his fishing

boat was to set out for the day. All of these things were

normal, comforting, and yet...

Where was Usagi?!

She'd fallen asleep in his lap, Mamoru remembered, which

explained why it felt so cold and empty now. Fear of her

absence was only heightened by memories of the strange

dream, and Mamoru stood quickly, calling out her name. The

house seemed oddly deserted, as if it protested even the

presence of it's owner, but he forged on, checking the

kitchen, the bathroom, the bedroom.

He padded down the hallway, feeling the air grow more

chilly the further along he went, and when his bare feet

touched the wet puddle in the carpet he nearly jumped sky

high. Startled, he looked down. There were puddles all along

the worn carpeting, or rather, they were wet footprints,

leading out his door and disappearing down the beach. The

door stood open at the end of the corridor, a final

testament that, whatever her reasons were, Usagi had

vanished. Nearly broken, Mamoru wandered back into the

house, searching for a clue that might lead him to his

watery angel. But no, her clothes had taken leave with their

owner, and his flannel shirt folded neatly on the end of his

bed. Gone was the warmth of Usagi's embrace, and the

late-night fire that had roared both between the two of them

and in the fire place. Instead, the house felt cold, the air

laying heavy and damp. Ill at ease, Mamoru sat heavily on

his bed, head cradled in his hands. Something was wrong, he

could feel it screaming in his veins. Usagi was gone...

everything was so stark and there was something he still

wasn't able to see. Something out of place.

It wasn't until he went to put on his boots that Mamoru

realized he had awoken with sand between his toes.

--------

The sea was a sapphire gem set into the metallic gray of an

over cast sky and, though the threat of storms was still

very real, Captain Tenhou's little fishing boat set sail all

the same. It was okay, really, gray suited Mamoru today. His

thoughts had taken a gloomy turn, especially after he'd

dressed for the day and ran out on the beach, searching a

mile in either direction for any trace of Usagi. He'd

followed her footprints northward for a bit, but they

disappeared into the water.

They did not come out again.

"Hey, you okay in there?" it was Makoto again, coming to

join him. He stood leaning against the railing, staring into

the sea in much the same fashion as the previous day. Though

he didn't bother to look up, Mamoru knew what he'd see

should he choose to. Makoto's tall visage would stand a

scant few inches shorter than he, her chestnut locks forever

protesting the confines of her pony tail. Her green eyes

were kind, he knew, but he did not want his best friend's

compassion. Rather, he wanted Usagi; no matter how troubled

her eyes were, or how much she jumped when he touched her

without warning. It was almost laughable, he knew, but even

though he'd only met her twelve hours ago, Chiba Mamoru was

in love with Tsukino Usagi.

And that was when it hit him, the one thing that bothered

him most about what he tentatively called their

'relationship'. It wasn't the fact Usagi was hiding

something, or the fact that she seemed to be privy to some

strange knowledge. But rather, it was the *speed* at which

things were progressing. The moment she'd thrown herself

into his arms, time had sped up. It's steady trickle onward

had become a rushing river, and Mamoru felt almost drowned

by it. People who had been aquatinted a mere twelve hours

shouldn't *know* each other like he did Usagi, shouldn't

feel so at ease, so blindly in love. And yet, he was. With an almost

unbearable clarity, he realized that they didn't have *time*

for 'getting aquatinted'. They didn't have time for him to

gaze at her in longing while she wasn't looking, then keep

up the pretense of friendship when she was. They didn't have

time for her to shift back and forth, praying for the

courage to tell him how she felt and they didn't have time

for long walks in the park. Their time together was scarce,

and they *did* know one another deep down. Time had done

them a favor, not a disservice, by allowing that to come to

the fore. That was why her kisses seemed so rushed, why his

own hands had trembled while they stroked through her hair.

The clock was ticking...

But counting down to *what*?

"Makoto?" he asked, unaware that he still hadn't answered

her previous question.

"Hai?"

"Do you... do you think you can trust the person you love,

even if you haven't known them that long?" The tall Amazon

laughed then, causing Mamoru to jerk his head in her

direction and gaze at his friend with hard cobalt blue eyes.

"You should always trust the one you love, even if

something tells you that you shouldn't," she replied, with

wisdom far beyond her years, "They may prove themselves

unworthy of your trust, but you should at least give them a

chance. We humans have little choice in who we love, and

sometimes... sometimes it's hard. But you should trust them

until they show you otherwise."

"Ariagto, Makoto-chan," he replied softly, gazing back down

into the infinite depths of the sea. She frowned then, but

he didn't see it.

"Are you sure you're okay?"

"Hai," Mamoru lied, the wind cold, bitter and crying in his

ears, "I'm just fine."

Sometime later, he sat beside Captain Tenhou as they

charted a course home, half of his mind still weighing

Makoto's words against his own suspicions. With resolve, he

thrust himself into the delicate work of co-ordinates and

charts, which was probably why he register the following

with only his subconscious mind.

"We have the latest news on yesterday's storm," said the

soulless radio beside him. Neither Mamoru or Haruka paid it

much attention, absorbed in their work, "The Himmel, a

Chinese commercial ship headed for Japan, sank due to the

storm's enormous waves. There were no survivors, and nearly

all the bodies have been found. Among the notable missing

are Tsuk-..." At that instant, the wire contraption sparked

with fire, the sound dying with a low moan.

"Damn thing!" Haruka cursed in frustration, pounding the

radio with her fist, "It never works. I need to get a new

one."

"Hai," said Mamoru, who hadn't heard a word.

------

Mamoru didn't even bother to ask questions that night, when

Usagi once again thrust her small body against his own,

taller form. Once again, she was soaked straight to the

bone, and once again he offered her a shower (which she

declined) and some dry clothing (which she accepted). If he

had thought that time rushed by the first night, the second

night was a hazy blur of flight. Once more they were in each

other's arms before the fire, touching one another with

wondering hands, some part of them knowing that they each

needed to store up all the memory they could. The questions

were on the tip of his tongue; Where had she been? Why had

she come to him in the first place? What was she hiding?

But one look at Usagi's sad eyes and the memory of Makoto's

earlier words convinced him to keep his mouth shut.

Instead, he offered her his trust and did not question. He

busied his mouth with other things, like Usagi's soft lips,

the curve of her jaw and the pale column of her neck.

Trailing kisses down her neck, Mamoru stopped to place his

lips right over what should have been her sweet pulse. He

fully expected her blood to leap within her veins to meet

his touch, but instead her skin simply lay there, not a

flutter, not a heartbeat.

"Usako! You..." he gasped, alarmed as he raised his head,

and Usagi fixed his worried gaze with a firm one of her own.

There was something in her eyes, but it flashed by so

quietly, Mamoru could not comprehend it. With shaking hands,

he pulled her to him, rocking her gently and unsure of

whether he was trying to give comfort, or take it. He must

have misjudged... that was all. And yet, he dared not try

again. Usagi wrapped her cool limbs around him, smoothed his

hair, so Mamoru let her take the worry from him, and rested

in her arms.

--------

With a heavy sense of deja'vu, even within the confines of

his dream, Mamoru rose from his chair and walked down the

hall. The beach called to him, the sea called to him,

whispering promises only he could hear. The coast was still,

silent as death, with only the gentle lapping of the waves

to punctuate the passing of time.

"Mamo-chan..." Usagi's silver voice traveled like an arrow,

straight to the young, bewildered man on the beach. It

lodged itself right through his still beating heart. Gazing

out at the horizon of blue, Mamoru saw his angel, arms open

once more in both askance and invitation. His limbs felt

weighted as he approached her, some odd survival instinct

having kicked in. He fought against it tooth and nail as he

waded knee-deep through the icy waters towards his beloved's

form.

"Usako, I'm coming!"

"Hai, onegai... Oh, Mamo-chan," she crooned, before her

face contorted with pain and tears began to slip from her

eyes.

"Usa-"

This time, Mamoru woke shivering, his breathing labored as

he fought against the oppressive atmosphere that had invaded

his home. He lay there for a while, gasping for breath and

gazing on the wet foot prints leading to and from his chair.

The ones moving away where small and dainty, obviously

Usagi's. It was the larger, more masculine ones that puzzled

Mamoru. They lead from the threshold into the living room,

and he followed their trail with disbelieving eyes. A long,

low moan of disbelief escaped his lungs as Mamoru gazed down

at the rest of his body.

His jeans were wet with sea water; right up to the knees.

---------

The third night, he could not with hold his questions.

Usagi came to the door, once again soaked, but a little

more calm than previously. They preformed the familiar

routine of drying and changing. It was a dance they knew by

heart, but they preformed it anyway, needing the

familiarity. But once they were seated in front of the fire,

Mamoru knew things had to change. There were too many

secrets lurking in Usagi's sad blue eyes, too many things

that just couldn't be explained. The golden girl seemed to

sense the questioning in his eyes, though she kept her own

focused on the roaring fire. Though she scooted closer to

the warm flames, she still shivered, and Mamoru wrapped his

arms around her.

"Usako," he said softly, but she turned away as much as she

could. Gently, he took her chin between two fingers and

turned her towards him, "Please," he begged, "I can't... I

need to know."

"Very well," she whispered, shoulders slumping in defeat.

She gave in so easily that Mamoru almost told her to forget

about it. He would rather see the light back in her eyes

than know the answers to all the questions in the universe.

But she forged on quickly, determined.

"We.. we were supposed to meet," she said, as if they

didn't know each other, "But there was an accident. I... Oh,

Mamo-chan, I'd waited so long to get away from Papa. He was

always measuring me against, Okaa-san. I was never as good

as she was, even if she was dead. He.. he was trying to

replace *her* with *me*. And when I got on the boat, I felt

so *alive*. Like the whole world was waiting for me, and I

knew that there was someone special waiting for me at the

end of the line... and then... I was... but..." she broke

from his arms with surprising strength, and before he could

stop her, Usagi had the door open. By the time Mamoru

reached the threshold, she was already disappearing down the

night beach, her sobs chasing after her. She sounded like a

wounded kitten, completely alone.

"Usako!" he cried, chasing after her, though he knew she

was already gone, "Come BACK!" Softer now, the words he

hadn't spoken to her at all, and felt guilty for with

holding; "I love you."

------

This time, Mamoru was knee deep in the water when he came

into the dream, Usagi's form standing right in front of him.

Just a little further... She was crying, as she had when

she'd run from him earlier that night, and the waves were

incredibly cold against Mamoru's flesh. He didn't think

about that, though, he was purely consumed with the goal of

reaching her. So consumed, that he didn't realize how far

away he was from the shore, and that he was now swimming out

near the point of no return. Usagi hovered about the water,

looking strange in the tattered gray travel suit, so

different from the way his own flannel shirt had clung to

her form. His fingers grazed her own as he reached for her.

Salty liquid sloshed in his mouth now, and he was struggling

to keep his head above water. Still her hand danced out of

reach. There was something in her eyes... was she doing this

on PURPOSE!?

In the last moment before Mamoru was submerged completely,

Usagi dripped down and supported him, lifting him up into

the life-giving air.

"Gomen ne! I'm sorry, I 'm sorry!" she sobbed into his

shirt, which was already wet with the ocean's tears, "I

can't do it! They told me I had three days.. but, oh

Mamo-chan, I can't! I'm sorry!" her arms tightened around

him as he gazed down at her in disbelief, "Aishiteru. I love

you, I love you..."

Then in a flash so intense it knocked the breath out of

him, he was laying on the beach, the stars above him engaged

in a dizzying dance. He felt, rather than saw, he caress his

cheek as he slipped into unconsciousness

He awoke on that same beach, drenched a shivering, with

little particles of frost growing on his eye lashes and his

hair. For a long time, he simply lay there, knowing it was

not a dream and crying silently. He didn't understand, not

at all, but he knew somehow that she had said goodbye.

----------

The Jord, a small finishing boat licensed to Tenhou Haruka,

left an hour ahead of schedule three days after the terrible

storm that had rocked Tokyo Bay and the surrounding areas.

Hers was a skeleton crew that Friday, with only the Captain,

Kino Makoto, Chiba Mamoru and Myobishi Hitowa on board. The

weather was turning terribly cold, and they didn't expect to

catch much, so they weighted net Makoto and Hitowa were

trying to haul over was nothing short of a surprise. It was

a clear, windless day, and Makoto's shrill scream carried

easily through the small ship. She screamed, and screamed,

and would not stop screaming as Hitowa laid the contents of

the net on the deck.

More than a little concerned, Haruka and Mamoru came

running, only to stop short once the net came into view.

While Haruka's noise was one of pity and a little disgust,

Mamoru's was much more personal. It was a long, low moan of

pure despair. You would have thought the love of his life

had died. He gazed with unbelieving eyes on the thing

entangled in the net.

There lay the body of one Tsukino Usagi; still beautiful

despite the fact it had spent three days in the icy waters

of Tokyo Bay.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Well, I never said it would have a *happy* ending...... ^^;;;;;;

Oh, what the heck.

BWAHAHAHAHAHA!