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004 Video; UN: Cuddlebunny

[Usually, Usagi would just make this a text, but this was for Rei.

She took a deep breath as she looks at the camera, her eyes red and swollen, her nose red as well. She offers a wet smile before it falls away completely.

She takes another deep breath.]

For those of you who knew her, Rei Hino went- went home.

[Her breath hitches on that last part but she gets it out without a single sob or tears. Rei would be proud. She's done her crying, though, in truth, she's likely to do more later. Usagi knows she'll see Rei again, their lives intertwined, but it doesn't make her loss hurt any less.

Usagi debates for a moment if she should say anything else, pressing her lips together, and then lets out a breath.]

I know she meant a lot to many of you and those of you who Rei loved, she loved you fiercely, I can say that with certainty. [Rei never loved by halves.

Usagi is silent for a moment and then nods. She leaves it at that, at a loss on what else to say.]

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[It's times like this that Maul is thankful to give back a little when sometimes he feels he just takes and takes without ever being able to do anything for Usagi. But right now she's not Serenity or Sailor Moon, just Usagi Tsukino, a girl who is dealing with a devastating loss that's made her vulnerable. Much as she tells Maul that he needs to open up with more people, in her own way, he knows Usagi needs to do the same eventually.

But now is not the time or place for that thinking. One of his best friends needs and he's determined to be there for her no matter what. He gives her a small, gentle smile.]

I think I'll be able to handle it even if you soak right through my jacket and shirt both.

Kay.

[She merely whimpers, sort of just BARELY holding it together right now. She's doing it for the video, to inform people of Rei being gone. But make no mistake she's teetering on the whole matter, ready to fall apart, well now, and just forcing herself not to because she's gotten so very good at holding it in long enough to get whatever needs to be done, well, done.]

Maybe... maybe h-hurry.

I'll be there soon.

[Hearing Usagi make that heartbreaking sound just gives Maul all the stronger motivation to get there fast. He uses Bloodfin because there's nothing that will get him to her home faster than his hoverbike. Once he's there, he goes right in and finds Usagi, wrapping his arms around her, and murmuring softly to one of his best friends.]

It's alright. You don't have to be strong for anyone right now.

[When Maul shows up, Usagi clings onto him and when his arms wrap around her and he says that.

Her breathing begins to quicken and she starts shaking and her grip tightens into his clothes and she screams.

She lets out all the anger and sadness and frustration and loss she's been holding in to be strong for the message. She doesn't LET people see her break down like this because she has to be strong for so many people. She has to be so endlessly strong. The girls have seen her break down like this, more than once, but people outside of the senshi and Mamoru? Usagi tries to stay put together, to be a light in the darkness even in times of hardship. She has to be.

But not right now.

Right now, she's lost one of her very best friends and she's so angry and sad and misses her, misses all of her loved ones who she hasn't seen in so long.

And Maul can take it.

The house seems to reverberate a bit from the force of her screams. It's just as well she is not Sailor Moon or she could well bring down the house around them.]

[So many times, Usagi has been strong for Maul when he needed it, and now he knows he can finally return the favor. She needs him right now and he's going to stay right here no matter what she needs. Though her screams make a chill run up the half of his spine which is organic, Maul doesn't flinch or let go of her, instead holding her all the tighter.

It's so easy to forget sometimes that Usagi in some ways is still so very young. She's a teenage girl and right now she's lost someone very important to her. Maul holds her the way he wish someone would have held him when he was her age, with love, compassion, and understanding.

He's still in darkness, it's true, but darkness wasn't always a scary, harsh thing. It could be warm and enveloping, wrapping around someone and allowing them to feel comfortable. All sorts of good things as well as bad could happen in the darkness. Stars, and as Usagi was always fond of telling him, and the moon existed in the dark for a reason. The Dark Side wasn't always evil, despite what many thought, and he lets it flow through him right now, giving him the center and focus he needed. He has all the time in the world for Usagi, ready to stay there as long as she needs him.]

[Eventually, the screaming subsides, she's gasping for breath, still holding onto Maul, needing his arms to stay upright. Tears are still falling but her feelings are not so visceral, not as raw. The worst of the storm has passed. All that is left is a gentle rain.

Her hands are trembling as she flattens them against his back and she closes her eyes.]

I... I miss her. [She whispers.] What if... what if they all leave? What if you leave? [She whimpers.] What if everyone leaves? I'm not... I'm not strong enough to be all alone.

[Maul presses a gentle kiss to the top of Usagi's head. Who takes care of the caretaker? Apparently, someone who knows it's alright for her to fall apart in his arms.]

They may leave you physically but they are always right here-- [He taps the side of her head.] --and right here. [He taps her heart.] It is not always enough to soothe the ache but it is better than never knowing them at all.

I'm terrified... [She whispers.] That one day I'm going to wake up, and everyone will be gone.

[She closes her eyes and hides her face in his chest.] It's a nightmare that wakes me up at night. I'll call out to all of you and none of you turn, none of you even recognize me and I'm left all alone.

Or worse, I don't recognize all of you, that that's taken from me.

[Maul's not good with words and so he holds onto Usagi, just letting her tell him everything she needs to while he tries to figure out how to say what he means in return.]

Remember what you told me before we left Deerington? That even if we were separated, we'd find each other again. And you were right.

[His voice takes on a fierce intensity and it's an unusual tone for him. He usually only gets this worked up when talking about his brother but Usagi is someone else he's come to deeply care about as well. She's his family.]

You're a good person. And good things happen to good people even if it doesn't always seem that way at first. Even if everyone deserts you and you are left all alone, it won't be forever. They'll make their way back to you if they have to claw through a sheer rock wall to get there. I know I will.

[She looked up at him and sniffled, surprised he remembered that considering it had felt like... ages ago. She let out a long breath and even smiled when he said he'd claw through sheer rock walls to make his way back to her. She smiled a bit bigger as she thought about Makoto and Minako and all of the girls who would do much of the same.

She let out another long breath.]

Thank you.

[When she smiled, it was like the sun coming out after a thunderstorm had filled the sky with clouds. Maul was glad he had been able to put that expression on her face. Most of his life, all he'd ever been good for was causing pain. Being able to be kind to someone was a new and unusual experience.]

You are one of the most important people here to me, Usagi. I will always try to be there for you the way you have been for me.

[She KNEW what it meant to love someone and lose them. She knew because it was a favorite tactic of her enemies. But it didn't change how much she loved, how deeply she loved. More than that, she was the being who loved all. What the Jedi preached, she practiced. So her hurting again and again from her love was going to happen. But she continued to love anyway. She couldn't imagine NOT loving.

But she knew how utterly different that was to Maul. Standing back to back, he loved, if he could even say the word, a small handful. And she? She loved all. They both existed in darkness but in very different ways.

Usagi closed her eyes, exhausted emotionally and physically. She was grateful for the warmth and support he provided, for the love he showed her.]

I love you too. [She whispered. Which is why it would hurt to lose him, it was why she was SCARED to lose him, but she still loved him anyway.]

[It was strange for Maul to realize he needed Usagi as much as he'd ever needed anyone. He'd always tried to be so tough and a lone wolf but it hadn't worked. Maul's heart was never going to be completely closed and now he had quite the number of people he cared about. The two of them had grown so close together in the almost two years they'd spent, though it often felt much longer to Maul.

If he had to learn how to care about people in order to go further down the path of redemption, then Usagi had been instrumental in helping him to grow. There was not many Maul could love unconditionally, broken and battered as his heart was (and in truth he was afraid to do so), but Usagi was right up there on the top of the list along with his brother and Reaper.

He just continued to hold Usagi, slowly stroking her long hair, trying to give back a little of what she had given him all these months.]

I think I shall sleep over here tonight. [Just in case Usagi was unable to sleep or woke up in the middle of the night.] And tomorrow we shall do something that you greatly enjoy.

[Whether Maul enjoyed it at all was irrelevant. If Usagi wanted to spend the day eating sweets and doing face masks, then he'd stick by her. Right now, she deserved something nice.]

[She nodded, staying in his hold, her eyes closed as he stroked her hair, grateful for the comfort.

She likely would fall asleep on him, as the night went on, too scared to sleep alone lest the nightmares of everyone disappearing on her started to creep in. It remained one of her greatest fears, to be all alone. She knew exactly how it felt because Galaxia had made sure to make her suffer that feeling.

And even though she had endured, had survived, it did NOT mean she wanted to experience it again, to live through it once more. It didn't matter that she knew she could handle it, it did not change that she was scared of it.

She wiped her eyes, they were sore from all of her crying. And she knew Rei wouldn't want her to be upset, she also knew Rei would absolutely expect this of her.]

Thank you, Maul. I really needed this.

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