Like the Rose

Like the Rose

By: Insanity's Namesake

Email: sailor.serenity@verizon.net

Rated: G

Season: R

''= thoughts

""= speech

<>= the song

**= used for emphasis

(AN: )= author's notes

IN: I don't know why I'm posting this worthless fic; I must be insane.

Audience: oh, of course not.

IN: And just what is THAT supposed to mean?

Audience: your name says it all.

IN: Oh..right...ooops, hehe..

Disclaimer: I am insane, I own everything!

Author's note: This is my first songfic, so please bear with me here! The song is 'Like the Rose' by B*WITCHED. I know, the song sucks, but the lyrics are perfect for this. I am setting this songfic in the R series, during the breakup. I don't think it will be very long. I have plans for future songfics if this is a success- or mabey even if it isn't! Songs like 'What Can I Do' and 'Hopelessly Addicted' could make good first season romances, hmm... Anyways, read the story, and enjoy!

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Like the Rose

By Sailor Seashell

Song by B*witched

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"Usagi, I just don't have the same feelings for you anymore. I'm sorry. Stop bothering me." Mamoru's cold voice cut through her heart like a knife.

"Mamo-chan..." she whispered.

"Leave me alone!" he practically yelled at her. She fell down on the sidewalk, sobbing. He looked at her for a moment, almost with longing, before turning and walking away in the opposite direction.

Sailor Moon shrieked as the black energy beam was shot directly at her. Frozen in place with shock, unable to move, she stood her ground, almost waiting for Tuxedo Kamen to save her. It wasn't until the beam was inches from her face that she realized that she would have to save herself. She just barely managed to step out of the way in time, and even then, her hair was singed dangerously. Turning angrily to the youma, she snarled and pulled her Moon Scepter out of her dimensional pocket.

"That's it, buddy, you're moondust! MOON PRINCESS HALATION!"

After the youma was, well, dusted, Sailor Moon looked around at her friends. Spotting Tuxedo Kamen behind a tree, as he was about to leave, she realized that he had been there the whole time. Anger boiled inside her and she started to run after him.

"You were here the whole time, why didn't you do anything? I was almost killed!" she screamed at him, tears forming in her eyes and threatening to spill over.

Tuxedo Kamen looked at her coldly. "I will not always be here to save you, Sailor Moon. You need to learn that." he told her with no emotion what-so-ever in his voice. She sobbed silently as he left without so much as a 'goodbye'.

Usagi lay in her bed, sobbing over her broken heart. Slowly, she reached over and picked up the lone picture that lay on her bedside table. A photograph of her and Mamoru taken one week before he broke up with her.

"Why, Mamo-chan?" she asked the picture. "What did I do wrong? And why won't you tell me?"

Sobbing, she curled up on her bed and cried herself to sleep.

Usagi stared at the picture in her hand.

'I should probably stop loving you. Find someone else. That's probably why you broke up with me. You found someone else. Someone better. A girl who looks perfect, acts perfect, is perfect. That's what you deserve. Not some little klutzy crybaby who trips over her own feet and fails every test she takes. You deserve only the best. Which isn't me.'

'Everything about you is so perfect, so wonderful. You are my world, you are my light. You are my reason for living. Now when I think of you, it hurts. It hurts so much. The fire of my passion for you won't be doused. The light will never die. You can put so much water on it, but the embers will still burn.'

'No matter what you say, no matter what you do, I will love you. The world may end, the stars may die, the universe may stop, but I will always love you. You can love someone else, you can marry them and be happy with them and I will be happy for you. But I will never find someone else. No one else will ever be able to give me the joy and happiness that you can. Now I know why people say that you can love only once. Because it's true.'

'What happened to the vows we made so long ago? What happened to the eternal love you promised me? Can't you feel it? Destiny? Does it mean anything to you? Fate meant us to be together. Why change that? We have to follow the path of destiny to reach our goals. We share one soul, one heart, one mind, and one destiny. One destination. We are soul mates. Always have been, always will be.'

'What is making you so stubborn? Why did you change so suddenly? You said you didn't want your life to be dictated by what happened to us in the past. It seems like you are letting something, someone, dictate your life for you now. A life without me. Don't follow your mind, Mamo-chan. Follow your heart. Your heart will lead you to me.'

'I know, deep inside, that someway, somehow, you still love me. I can feel your love, your pain, as though it were my own. You can keep on denying it, but I know it's true. You still love me, deep in your heart. What I can't understand is why you are lying to me; to yourself. What has caused you to seal your heart and control it with your mind? What made you forget your love for me? Or am I wrong? Do you really... not love me? Did you ever... really love me?'

'All good things must end. That's what they say. I guess I never really thought that would happen to our love. I guess I didn't want to. Even now, I can't believe it's over. Like the rose. Roses never last. They will all wilt and die, eventually. Our love was like the rose. Beautiful while it was alive, but it couldn't last. Like the rose. The red rose of our love.'

'Red was your color. White was the color of our love. You used to give me a dozen red roses and one white rose. The symbol of your- of our- undying love. Or so you said. *My* love for you may be undying, but is yours for me? You say not, but you lied to me before; how can I believe you now? I truly don't know what to believe, or whom to turn to.'

'I honestly don't know why I think this, but I can't help but feel that Chibi-Usa has replaced me somehow. I know she's only a little kid, but even so... Oh, Mamo-chan, what happened? Only a week after Chibi-Usa arrives, and you break up with me. For no apparent reason. Is there a connection? Or is it just coincidence? I hope it's the later, but somehow I don't believe it is...'

Usagi cried as her heart broke once more.

Usagi walked dejectedly toward her school as the tardy bell rang. She knew she was late; she always was; but today she didn't even bother trying to make it on time. No point.

Nothing to live for. No reason to go on. Nobody to try to make happy or proud. No point in fighting for her grades when she had no Mamoru to share her success with. When they had dated, she had tried to immprove her grades for him, and he had tried to tutor her. As a result, her average became a C, and almost a B; until *then*. The Breakup. Doomsday, as Usagi liked to call it. Arrmageadon. (AN: Please excuse my spelling!)

Try again. She should continue her life as of before Mamoru. A new begining. Forget him, just continue, it's just a breakup, she'll live. It's not the end of the world. Turn over a new leaf; turn a new page.

But the story is always the same: Mamoru. Every page has his name written on it; every new begining involves him. He is her world. Without him, it really is the end of her world. There is no new life. Usagi sighed dejectedly and continued her walk home.

(AN: I'm not really showing scene changes here; where it was TO school before, it's FROM school now. Next scene is this evening at home.)

Usagi groaned as her nightmare worsened. She tossed and turned in her bed as she watched her greatest fear take place.

*the dream*

The church bells rang merrily as Usagi walked down the isle on her father's arm. Mamoru was waiting at the alter, watching her with awe and love. When she reached him, she put her arm through his and repeated the vows the priest told her. The ceremony completed, the rings exchanged, all that remained was the kiss. As their lips neared, Usagi sighed with satisfaction. Suddenly, the earth split in an earthquake and ripped them apart. A disembodied voice warned Mamoru to stay away from his Usako. If he didn't, she would come to harm. "Keep away" the voice warned.

*end dream*

Usagi sat bolt upright in bed, shaking. 'Just a dream' she told herself. 'Just a dream'. Standing on wobbly legs, she tottered over to the dresser where the picture of Mamoru and she lay. Picking it up, she stared at it critically.

"It was just a dream, wasn't it Mamoru? Just a dream." she convinced herself. Then the glass on the picture broke.

"Mamo-chan, open up! I have to talk to you! Please! Open the door!" Usagi cried as she pounded on Mamoru's appartment door twenty minutes later.

"Please, Mamo-chan, let me talk to you! This is really important!"

Slowly, the door opened partly. "I have nothing to talk to you about, Usagi-chan. Go home. Do you know what time it is?" Mamoru told her flatly.

"I don't care what time it is! Mamo-chan, listen, have you had a strange dream lately?"

Mamoru opened the door a little bit wider. "Strange dream?"

"That does sound like the same dream," Mamoru admited a while later.

"So now that that's cleared up, can we be together again?" Usagi asked hopefully.

"Usagi, I can't. It would put you in danger, and I refuse to be responsible for that. I'm sorry." he started to close the door on her.

"Mamo-chan! Please, it doesn't matter what happens to me, as long as we're together through it all!" Usagi cried desperatly.

"I'm sorry" repeated Mamoru, and he closed the door.

"NO!" cried Usagi, pounding on the door. "Mamo-chan! You can't mean that! I don't care what happens to me, as long as we're together! Mamo-chan!"

Usagi slid to the floor, sobbing. On the other side of the door, unbeknowest to Usagi, Mamoru shed silent tears.

*Next day at the Arcade*

Usagi walked into the Arcade, her usual jaunty step missing. Spotting a dark figure huddled in a corner, she clenched her fists and marched over.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" she yelled at him.

Mamoru was shocked. Whatever reaction he had expected, it wasn't this.

"Who do you think you are, calling off our relationship because of a stupid dream where a disembodied voice told you to! I thought I meant more to you than that!" she continued.

"Usagi, you don't understand. I had this dream every night for weeks." Mamoru tried to explain.

"If you had a recuring dream that told you to jump off Tokyo Tower, would you do it? If you had a recuring dream that told you to kiss the next random girl you met on the street, would you do it?" Usagi argued.

"Well, I-" he began, but Usagi wasn't finished.

"How dare you break up with me because of a dream! I thought you were smarter than that! You were the one who always told me to follow my heart; that my heart knew better than anyone what it was doing. Follow your heart, Mamo-chan, not your mind. See where your heart leads you. It knows where it's going." she had calmed down somewhat, and her voice was quieter.

"Think about it Mamoru. Take your time. I'll be waiting. You'll know where to find me."

Usagi turned and stalked out of the Arcade; never once looked back.

Usagi sat by the lake, gazeing at the moon. Sighing, she glanced at her watch, and then sighed again. 'Ten o'clock. I guess he isn't coming after all.' She glanced back at the moon. 'It didn't work, Mother. It didn't work.'

'If he were coming he would be here by now. I guess his heart led him somewhere else. I guess he never loved me.' At that idea, Usagi burst into tears she thought she had run out of.

Crying hard now, when she had thought her eyes were dry and had no more tears left, Usagi ran. She didn't look where she was running, she didn't care. She just ran. But stray feet will all be attracted to one place: Home. Thus was Usagi found herself in front of her house, and she fled to her room to avoid questioning of her tear-stained face.

There on her bed lay a red rose and a note containing one simple line:

'To my Usako'

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