The sun was already low in the afternoon sky over Dreamland, casting the already pastel park in the warm hues of pinks and purples. Soon the evening lights would come on, and everything would twinkle like fairydust.

It was already so late in the day, and Usagi had barely gotten to enjoy the park. First, Rei was a spoilsport every time she tried to ride a ride or play with the adorable animal-tronics—she was pretty sure that’s what Princess Dream, or rather, that youma wearing the face of the beloved mascot—had called them. Then, Ami had vanished! And not only that, she was trapped inside the Sweets Castle having her energy drained with a bunch of the park’s guests! She’d had to fight again, no matter how much it had scared the daylights out of her, and Rei wouldn’t stop bossing her around the whole time.

For an absolutely gorgeous and elegant Shrine Maiden, Rei sure had a temper. And when all that was over? When they’d worked together by some miracle to earn Luna’s praise, and slew the unjust monster hurting innocent park goers just trying to enjoy themselves—the rest of their trip was ruined by the loss of her ice cream and the looks every time she tried to sneak off towards a ride!

At least the view was beautiful—dreamlike even—the fairydust sparkle catching her eye and letting her imagine a day at Dreamland where she actually got to enjoy herself like a girl her age should.

Moments like that had been increasingly rare the last few weeks, where she could just relax and enjoy herself like a normal teenager. Ever since Luna had shown up, her whole world had changed.

She was a soldier of justice, love and a guardian of the people of Earth! A representative of The Moon—searching for the lost princess so they could protect her like they’ve been protecting everyone else!

Usagi couldn’t help but feel a little mixed up about it. On one hand, it made her feel important. She was a chosen guardian, wasn’t she? She was a hero, like Sailor V in her favorite games and manga, and when she could overcome her fear she always came out on top! On the other—well—there sure was the constant fear!

Her routine of sleeping, eating, hanging out with friends, parfaits, and the arcade was thrown off and sent spiraling down into fight after fight after fight. It was like they couldn’t do ANYTHING without some weird monster crawling out of the woodwork to harvest energy anymore! She was constantly scared, she got teased and ridiculed as a crybaby and ‘unreliable’, and …and she hadn’t been able to relax even once since then!!

One day she was your average girl, and the next her darling, wonderful, incredibly pushy talking cat of a friend shoved her headlong into a world of danger, trying to find her allies in a war she never asked for.

“Off in space, bun head?” a voice asked from behind her. “If those pigtails of yours spun they could probably achieve lift off.”

Usagi felt her face suddenly flush hot—hot enough that she was sure she was a vivid red and sputtering like a teakettle. She whipped around, feeling her hair swirl back to lightly brush against her arms as she stood with them firmly braced against her hips to better emphasize her huge frown.

“W-well unlike some people, maybe I have some stuff on my mind, huh?!”

It was that guy she kept running into. She’d almost forgotten she’d already seen him here at the park.

“Whether to get the chocolate or the pistachio?” He grinned lopsidedly at her from under his shades, and leaned along the railing that Usagi had been gazing out over, looking across the park’s lake.

Unlike back on the kiddy carts—where she was once again trying to have a little fun despite Rei’s whining!!!!—he actually looked really cool right now. That almost made it worse as she puffed out her cheek in a pout.

Every time she saw him, it was always with a smart remark—some crack about her hair, or her being a ditz or any number of things. Rei had said he kind of looked like Tuxedo Mask—but no matter if they were both handsome, it couldn’t be true.

Tuxedo Mask was a gentleman, this guy was anything but! She leaned on the railing again, still pouting as mightily as she could.

“Nope, I’m afraid you don’t know the secrets of a maiden’s heart!”

“The secrets of a maiden’s heart, huh? You know what, I’ll give it to you. I have no clue what that secret could be, either.” A little smile tugged at the edge of his lips, and he briefly leaned closer to her, before he pushed off the rail and shook his head. “Well, see you around, bun head. I’ll leave you to your maidenly thoughts.”

She’d felt the heat of his body close for only that split second—and then he was already up and getting ready to leave?

She turned around a lot faster than she’d intended to to point at him. “Wait! Hold on! I got somethin’ I wanna ask you!”

He paused, already a few steps away before she’d gotten the question out, and glanced over his shoulder. “Yeah?”

“You never told me why you were hanging out here, you know—on the train?”

Why did she care? She even asked herself that as she shifted from foot to foot. He wasn’t one of the enemy (he couldn’t be. Sure, he often showed up places they were investigating—but she didn’t have the FEELING that he was evil. Whatever weird feeling was in the pit of her nervous stomach, it wasn’t some sinking feeling that he was one of the mysterious ‘enemy’ Luna was sending them after.)

He couldn’t be Tuxedo Mask—the man who sent a different sort of feeling tingling from the pit of her stomach to the tips of her fingers and toes—so why did it matter that she kept running into him? But she still wanted to know.

“And don’t tell me it was just to have a good time on the kiddy train and carousel!”

“Hey, you were the one who accused me of hanging around kids, weren’t you?” He rolled his eyes, but that same lopsided smile came back. “Why don’t we just call it the mystery of a gentleman’s heart and leave it at that? Later.”

And with that, his back was toward her, and he was waving lazily into the deepening evening.

The mystery of a gentleman’s heart. She huffed a soft breath. Whatever mystery lay in the heart of a gentleman like that, maybe she’d never know!

She almost snapped that—but maybe the twinkling of the slowly dimming fairyland around them softened her reply a little bit. In light like this, caught in Dreamland’s stars, maybe even a jerk of a ‘gentleman’ like him seemed a little less irritating than usual. Maybe.

“Later,” she managed to reply, too late for him to hear.

–

When Usagi finally met up with the others a little while later. Not all that much later! Just enough time to ride the ferris wheel to the top and see the city twinkling beyond—and to stop to grab some cotton candy that she nibbled on the carousel now that Rei wasn’t around to spoil it. It really wasn’t long at all, maybe a half hour? Hour tops! But when she finally met up with them, Rei had her hands on her hips.

“And here I was saying we should just leave without telling you.”

Usagi felt a familiar burning anger well up within her, and she was halfway through snapping out “You were gonna leave me here?!?!?” when Ami interrupted.

“I told her that you probably just got distracted again, Usagi,” her friend—her first guardian friend, even—held her hands up with a placating smile. “I asked her to please wait a little longer.”

“Distracted is right,” Luna murmured, her tail swishing in feline irritation. “it’s been an hour and a half, Usagi! You can’t just wander off like that, the threat is gone but this still was a mission, you know!”

Rei tossed that pretty dark hair of hers, and shrugged. “All I was saying was that if you want to stay in the park all night, who cares? But some of us actually have to get back and do work. It’s not like we have to walk home together.”

Rei, the newest Sailor Guardian. Usagi had only known her for about a week now when they’d gone to investigate this super spooky ‘ghost bus’ rumor outside of the Hikawa Shrine. Usagi’s first impression of her was that she was one of the most beautiful girls she’d ever seen—one of those ‘your heart skips a beat when you see them’ beauties that sent her reeling and speechless for like—30 seconds.

Ami was pretty too of course, but Rei had a kind of classy beauty that you only saw in magazines and photoshoots, at least until shortly afterwards. During that whole terrifying mess, Rei awoke to the power of Sailor Mars and her whole fire thingy really worked with her actual personality. She was hot-tempered, rude, and constantly trying to take command of every situation even though she was the newest.

Ami seemed fine with it—though maybe she just liked the way Rei took initiative?—but someone had to try and stand up for their right to have a little fun. Maybe that was why Rei really seemed to have it out for Usagi in specific.

Usagi crossed her arms. “I don’t see what the harm in us spending a little time together after we won, Rei. But if you wanna go back to the shrine all by yourself without us, you’re gonna miss out but fine!”

Ami brushed her hair over her ear with a sheepish smile. “I have to agree with, well, the first thing Usagi said. I have to study, sure—but I was hoping we could at least travel back together.”

Rei threw up her hands. “I was just saying if ‘bun head’ wants to spend all night at the park, I wouldn’t stop her. So yeah, Usagi, we’re leaving. If you’d care to go with us, please, be our guest.”

“Stop calling me that! That guy already calls me it!” Usagi threw her hands up “I think my hair’s CUTE!”

Luna slapped her paw against her face with a low groan.

“Girls—I think we need to work a little bit on the team synergy…please?” Luna sometimes sounded so much older than them, mostly in the things she said rather than her soft little voice, but Usagi was pretty sure she was closer to their age, in—well, not in cat years, but human years.

Which meant she could use a little loosening up too, right? Too much stress couldn’t be good for her. So for Luna’s sake she dropped her arguments and flashed her best smile.

“I’m ready to go—I mean, I doubt I could convince you guys to hit the coaster with me, right?”

Ami chewed her lip thoughtfully. “not tonight, Usagi. But maybe soon?”

“Yeah, maybe on a day where we didn’t have to blast some demons back to hell, or wherever, hmm?” Rei fluffed her hair again. “I’ll give you one thing, Usagi, you’ve got a shocking amount of energy reserves.”

“Well yeah? Obviously?” Usagi was surprised by the almost-compliment—enough that she actually caught herself smiling. “Heheh, I’m a beautiful young woman bursting with energy! So what if we had to beat up a creepy doll! I’ve still got energy to have fun!”

Luna got that grumpy little look on her face before she sighed and her posture relaxed. “It wasn’t just a ‘creepy doll’—it was a minion of our enemy. But…you did well today, all of you.”

Ami glanced at Rei with a half smile. “I thought we did pretty well together. My mist blinding her, you and Usagi’s combination attack…we make a good team, don’t we? So let’s get some well deserved rest.”

She paused before she added a teasing. “If Usagi still has too much energy she can run around the block a few times.”

Usagi jolted, looking at Ami with wide and betrayed eyes. “Like I’m an energetic dog???”

Rei put her hands on her hips again, but this time she was smiling. “You do kind of remind me of one. Come on then, let’s get going before you get distracted again.”

Once more, Usagi was flushed and pouting—she always thought she had more in common with a cute bunny than a dog! Still, she trotted along to follow them as they headed for the exit.

“I’m not getting distracted—I’m ready to head home. Dreamland’s fun butcha can’t stay in a dream forever, right?”

Ami laughed into her hand. “No, you can’t—something our encounter with the Dream Princess kind of drove home.”

“I’ll say!” Rei huffed. “Though I’m a little surprised it occurred to Usagi!”

“Well maybe that should be a lesson, Rei! Only a real jerk judges based on test scores and stuff!” Usagi huffed as she bent to scoop Luna into her arms.

It had occurred to her, though—caught in that strange dream where everything seemed so lovely, there’d been a temptation to just give in and let her energy slip away.

In her dream she was surrounded by beautiful flowers, riding rides—with Tuxedo Mask as she laughed and smiled with Rei, completely without her usual barbs and mean comments. For just a scant, single moment, she was a normal girl.

But that was just a dream. And she didn’t really want to give up being Sailor Moon, not when part of it felt so right and exciting. Not when she was saving people she cared about, and the people of Tokyo. No matter how nice it was to feel herself relaxing in that dream world—it was still just a dream. One she had to wake up from and fight back against.

She wasn’t dumb enough that she didn’t realize that.