--Motherhood--
Chapter 2: Vacation
By: Tisha


	Entering his house, all Mamoru saw was a huge mess in the kitchen. Flour was spilled 
everywhere and other items were scattered across the counter. He frowned, looking around for his 
wife and daughter. A sudden piercing scream from above his head told him where his daughter was, 
and a deeper voice and pounding footsteps alerted him to his wife's whereabouts.

	Mamoru sighed, putting down his equipment and climbing the stairs. Little white footprints led 
a trail to his bedroom, and he followed them. His eyes widened at the sight he found. Chibi-Usa was 
covered with flour and some sticky substances and was burying herself under the covers of her 
parents' bed. Usagi, also covered in baking ingredients, was trying to corner her.

	"Uh...need some help?"

	Usagi looked at him and sighed in relief. "Mamo-chan, thank GOD you're home!"


	Mamoru chuckled and came toward his wife. He kissed her quickly and made a face at the 
flour that was now on his lips. "What on earth have you two been up to?"

	Usagi rolled her eyes and pointed an accusing finger at her daughter, who was completely 
submerged in the covers except for one eye that was peeking out. "It's all her fault!"

	Mamoru smiled at the way she sounded like she had when she was fourteen and had first met 
Chibi-Usa. Mamoru had no trouble getting Chibi-Usa from the bed and he carried her to the master 
bathroom to clean her up. Usagi followed him while telling her story.

	"My mother came up with the brilliant idea to bake a cake with her! She said I had loved it at 
Chibi-Usa's age." She was moving her hands to explain it as Mamoru used a washcloth to clean his 
daughter. "Well I probably should have figured that that only went well because my mom could cook. 
Two bad cooks only makes things worse and soon enough Chibi-Usa was throwing flour everywhere!"

	Mamoru smiled at the way she could at least admit that she wasn't the best cook. He looked at 
his daughter sternly as he handed the washcloth to his wife. "Usagi, were you giving your mother a 
hard time?"

	The pink haired girl only looked at her mother and then back at Mamoru and shook her head. 
"No, mommy was giving ME a hard time." She pointed her thumb at her chest for emphasis.

	Usagi frowned as she was wiping her face off. "Chibi-Usa, that is not true. We just won't be 
able to do anything fun together if you act up when I try to."

	Chibi-Usa looked down at her feet, feeling a little ashamed. She almost enjoyed making her 
mom have to chase her, but she didn't like it when she made her look sad.

	"Chibi-Usa, why don't you play alone in your room for a while? You can decide whether you'd 
rather do that all day or have your mom do fun stuff with you."

	She left the room, doing as her father asked although she wasn't too happy about it. Mamoru 
sighed and turned to Usagi. He could see some built up tears in her eyes. "Usako, what's wrong?"

	Usagi wiped at her eyes and shrugged. "I just hate having to punish her. She's been so much 
trouble lately. Today when we were at the park she ran off." She looked at her husband's loving eyes 
and barely managed to keep her tears inside. "I was so scared."

	Mamoru hugged her and led her into the sitting room off of their bedroom. He wiped away a 
bit of flour that she'd missed on her chin. "We might need to be even stricter to get her to obey."

	Usagi looked at him sadly but nodded her agreement, knowing that it was true.

	Mamoru sighed and then smiled. "Well how about getting two weeks alone?"

	Usagi's eyes widened. "Two whole weeks? What about your job?"

	"I've got a week paid vacation and I managed to get another week off." He paused to pull a 
brochure from his pocket. He was careful to hide it from her view as he continued. "Where would you 
love to spend the time?"

	Usagi shrugged. "I really don't care as long as I'm with you."

	Mamoru smiled at her and handed her the brochure.

	Usagi's eyes widened as she looked at the location it focused on. "California?! That's in 
America!" Mamoru only nodded, and Usagi looked through the pages at the beautiful pictures. It 
looked so different from Tokyo with way less buildings and a lot more trees and fields. "That would be 
so fun!"

	Mamoru smiled, happy that she liked the idea. "We'd be leaving Saturday. Can your mom 
watch Chibi-Usa?"

	Usagi nodded, still taking in the pictures. "She said today that she'd love to. I just hope she can 
handle her."

	Mamoru smirked. "She handled you, didn't she?"

	Usagi slapped him playfully in response and smiled. "Where in California are we going?"

	"Well the first week we'll be near Hollywood. Then we're going to fly to San Francisco for the 
next week."

	Usagi bit her lip in excitement. "This is going to be the best trip ever!"


•••••••••••••••••••


	A soft bouncing of the mattress woke Ami up and she looked down at the end of the bed to 
see Kado curling up by her feet. She slowly sat up in her bed, trying not to wake Urawa.

	"Kado, honey, what's wrong?"

	The young blue-haired boy looked up at her, surprised. He crawled up to sit near her and she 
put her arms around him. "I had a scawy dream."

	"Really? What was it about?"

	Kado put his head on his mother's lap and looked up at her. "Mon-ser."

	Ami smiled at him. "You know what? I think the next time you have a scary dream you should 
imagine Sailor Moon saving you."

	Kado giggled a little. "An Merky?" Ami understood his toddler speech that he meant Mercury. 
She smiled. A TV show had recently started all about the sailor senshi. It was amazing how close they 
had come to the truth with many of its happenings. Kado as well as all the senshi's kids enjoyed the 
show. Kado immediately liked Mercury the best, saying that she 'looked like mama.'

	"Yeah, Mercury too." She smiled at him. "Do you think you can sleep now?"

	He nodded. "Senshi save me!"

	"That's right. How about I let you sleep in here with us for tonight, just in case?"

	Kado's face lit up as he crawled beneath the covers without having to be asked again. Ami 
smiled as she settled herself back into bed beside her son and husband.


•••••••••••••••••••


	Usagi looked back over all the items in the closet and tried to think if she would need any of 
them. She sighed and leafed through some shirts.

	"Usako, if you pack one more thing, you'll bring down the plane."

	Usagi spun around and put her hands on her hips. "Don't say that! You know the plane scares 
me!"

	He smiled and came closer to her. "Because of my trip, right?" When she didn't answer he 
knew he had answer enough. "Usako, that was only because Galaxia attacked the plane. It won't 
happen again."

	Usagi sighed and came out of the closet. "I know. It's just that I've never left Chibi-Usa 
before...well purposely at least."

	Mamoru cringed at the though. He knew she was speaking of the time she had been 
kidnapped and away from himself and Chibi-Usa for nearly a month. He helped her close up the last of 
the suitcases and grabbed two of them to take downstairs, leaving Usagi to carry the two carry-ons. 
She picked them up and followed Mamoru down the stairs.

	Chibi-Usa was in the family room playing with a toy and she looked up when she heard them 
coming. "Mama, I don't want you to go!"

	Usagi set down her two bags and kneeled in front of her daughter. "Chibi-Usa, I'm going to 
miss you too. The whole time we're gone. And we'll call you."

	"But I'm scared."

	"You shouldn't be scared. You'll be with your grandma the whole time. Your dad and me will 
bring you back a gift, okay?"

	Chibi-Usa perked up a bit with that announcement and she slowly nodded her head. Usagi 
gave her a kiss and stood again, picking up the two bags as the three of them headed for the car. The 
drive to Usagi's old home took a little over ten minutes and Ikuko met them at the door. She picked up 
her granddaughter.

	"Hi Chibi-Usa. We're going to have lots of fun, aren't we?" Chibi-Usa nodded her head, causing 
her pink ponytail to bounce.

	Usagi and Mamoru came inside but only stayed in the hall. "We're already running late and we 
don't want to miss the plane."

	Ikuko put Chibi-Usa down and hugged her daughter. "All right. Have fun you two."

	Usagi smiled. "We will. We'll be calling every couple days." She gave her daughter one last kiss 
and waved good-bye to her parents. 


•••••••••••••••••••


	"Kids are exhausting, aren't they?"

	Minako laughed. "Yeah, I think I know that better than anyone."

	"That's true. I can't imagine if I had raised Naomi alone."

	"Naomi? She's the sweetest little thing. Takara definitely went through terrible two's."

	Makoto refilled Minako's coffee cup and sat down across from her. The two of them were 
getting together to talk and let their kids play. Makoto sighed. "It's amazing how fast the time goes. It 
seems like I was just having Naomi and now she's four!" She shook her head. "Jifu wants to have 
another one but I don't think I'm up for that."

	"Really? I wouldn't mind having a son." Aiko wandered into the kitchen and climbed onto 
Minako's lap. "Aiko, why aren't you playing with Naomi?"

	She looked up at her mom and shrugged. "Don't wanna." She buried her face into Minako's 
shirt. Minako stroked her curly blond hair and looked at Makoto.

	"Do your kids get along well?"

	Makoto thought for a second. "Not as well as yours do. I think it's the difference from boys 
and girls though. Naomi loves Kioshi and she tries to help him out with everything but he hates it. He 
wants to do everything on his own."

	"Aiko totally adores Takara-"

	"Do not."

	Minako laughed at the input from her daughter. "She wants to do everything that she does. I 
think it's always like that with older sisters though."

	Aiko pulled her head back to look at her mother with the crystal green eyes of hers. "Mama, 
Kara only wants to play with Nomi."

	Minako smiled at her. "Well Naomi is more her own age. Why don't you play with Kioshi?"

	Aiko scrunched her nose. "But he's a boy." After displaying her disgust at such a thought she 
jumped down and left anyway.

	Minako looked at Makoto and both started laughing. Minako sighed. "I don't know what I 
would have done without Shiro. No Shiro means no Aiko either."

	Makoto nodded. "We were all so glad you found him. I know you hated it when we worried 
about you but we couldn't help it."

	"I think I understand it though. But it was a good little family, just her and me." She thought 
back to that time five years ago and shook her head. "But it's definitely easier now. Even though I do 
have an extra kid."

	Makoto sighed. "We all were really lucky weren't we?"

	Minako nodded. They really had been lucky to end up with wonderful lives and families. She 
took a sip of her coffee and looked at her watch. "I should be going. Shiro's taking us to that fair 
tonight and the girls need baths." She stood up and brought her cup to the sink, rinsing it out.

	Makoto stood up too. "All right, have fun."

	"Thanks. Bye, Mako." She went into the front hall and called upstairs for her kids. Aiko came 
slowly down the stairs and Takara soon followed her. Once she had gathered them up and got them 
settled into the car she headed home.


To be continued...