Author's Note: Inspired (and also Beta'd) by the wonderful FloraOne and her Tumblr wish for an AU fic where "Mamoru remembers and she doesn't and he's jealous AF about Seijuro."

The opening bit of dialogue here happened to pop into my head, and the rest is history.

Hope you enjoy!

CHAPTER 1 – For Whom is the Red Rose? Tuxedo Mask is Back!

"Really?" Mamoru tried, and failed, to keep the disgust out of his voice as he watched the retreating form of the redheaded boy who he'd just overheard Usagi call 'Seijuro-kun' disappear down the street. "That guy?"

She sniffed, straightening her back in righteous indignation. "Seijuro-kun is nice to me, Baka," she informed him primly. Mamoru's stomach sank as she self-consciously turned her head away from him and cupped Seijuro's bouquet of roses to her chest protectively.

I'm nice to you, he wanted to say, except he knew he wasn't, not really. He tried to be, now, but a couple weeks of attempts couldn't erase months of bad learned behavior, nor the social ineptitude that came with eleven years of loneliness.

"I bet he's nice to everyone," he drawled instead. "I bet he treats you just like everybody else and you've built up this idea in your head that it means he likes you. You should really want more from a guy than just 'nice.'"

He hadn't understood at the time, and he had ruined everything, and he would never forgive himself for all the terrible things he'd said to her – the things he now kept saying to her – in those two months. Those wasted two months between the afternoon when Usagi had hit him in the head with her test paper (again) outside OSA-P and the night two weeks ago when that mysterious asteroid had landed and somehow jarred loose long-forgotten memories of past lives and superheroes and a twice-over doomed love.

Mamoru hadn't yet been able to decide if the fact that she didn't remember was a mercy or a torment.

She whirled her head to glare at him, her blonde pigtails swishing behind her dramatically. "He does not treat me just like everybody else," she said, holding her flowers up in an angry testament. "And I know it's a foreign concept to you, Mamoru-baka, but most girls are looking for someone nice. That's probably why no girl in her right mind would come near you with a ten-foot pole."

In his more rational moments – during those nights when he lay awake staring at the ceiling not rehearsing in his head what he might say to her when he ran into her tomorrow to make her fall in love with him, too – he would remind himself that loving him had gotten her killed. Twice, now. And really, his dying wish had been for her to find herself a 'cool boyfriend' who wouldn't immaturely tug her pigtails, inadvertently dim her light, and selfishly get her killed, over and over again – so he would resolve, in the quiet of midnight, to let her go.

And then the very next day he would see that smug flute-playing Casanova-wannabe third-year student flirting with her on the street, Usagi blushing prettily and shyly flirting back, and both his carefully hardened resolve and deliberately rehearsed lines went straight out the window. Again and again, he found himself back here: with Usagi's feelings hurt by his stupid, impulsive mouth and no idea how to make it right.

I couldn't give a damn what most girls are looking for.

But he didn't have a chance to rebut her accusation; whatever cutting retort he was about to blurt out and then deeply regret later was (mercifully) interrupted by a cheery "Yoo-hoo, Mamoru-kun!"

Though the interruption had been welcome, he wasn't able to fully suppress his look of dawning horror as Ginga Natsumi appeared across the intersection, waving frantically to him with a big, beaming smile on her face. Really, her again? And did she have to keep showing up when he ran into Usagi?

Before either he or Usagi had a chance to react, Natsumi had jogged across the street and cuddled her way into the crook of Mamoru's arm.

"Oh, Tsukino-san, you're here, too," Natsumi said, her gaze flicking suspiciously between the pair of teenagers as Mamoru surreptitiously attempted to dislodge her from his forearm; Natsumi, in turn, tightened her grip.

"Actually, I was just leaving," Usagi said. "Have… fun, I guess." It was her turn to look suspicious – but that was probably just wishful thinking on Mamoru's part – and then she turned to continue on her way, leaving him alone with just the attentions of his unwanted admirer.

It's not like that! he wanted to call after the odangoed blonde, but she was gone before he had a chance. She probably wouldn't have cared, anyway.

Mamoru exhaled, again attempting to disentangle his arm from Natsumi, who giggled and continued to cling. "Oh, Mamoru-kun, isn't it a lovely evening? I was just planning to go to Karaoke, would you like to come with me?"

A sudden and familiar pang of awareness jolted through his mind and he managed to bristle even more under Natsumi's touch. "N-no, not right now," he said, narrowly avoiding stumbling as his free hand shot up to cup his temple. "I have to go." He swallowed hard, shaking the girl off and ignoring her protests.

Twice now since regaining his memories, he'd felt the prolonged prickle in his subconscious signaling the presence of a Cardian before it attacked, but this – he hadn't felt this overwhelming sense of dread since… his last lifetime.

Usagi was in danger.

No more than two minutes could have passed before he arrived at the park, pulled by that persistent, knowing thread of peril, but it felt like hours. With each step, his mind tortured him with images of a beaten and bleeding Usagi, unable to protect herself, at the mercy of a Cardian.

The scene that greeted him as he landed on a tree branch was not the gory one from his worst nightmares. Instead, he found two girls standing before a giant pink lion as an eerie green wheel spun in the air over them.

Kino Makoto was bruised, a scratch running down her cheek, but she stood in a fighting stance, hands ready to strike. A visibly trembling Usagi stood barely behind her, clutching a bunch of flowers to her chest – but both girls were still standing. As he surveyed the scene, he released a shaky breath that he hadn't realized he was holding. Then, he conjured a rose, intent on halting the beast that advanced on the teens.

Before he had a chance to throw his weapon, though, the monster lunged forward. She rose to her hind legs, yelling "Falion!" and swiped her great claws. Usagi squealed and skittered back, windmilling her arms.

The Cardian's claws missed Usagi by only a few inches, instead shredding the flowers that Usagi had inadvertently thrown between them. As her precious bouquet was destroyed, Usagi's jaw dropped in utter indignation. She stood to her full 4'11" and fisted her hands against her hips in a familiar pose.

"Hey!" she cried. "How dare you destroy the first bouquet a young girl was ever given! Don't you know that such romantic keepsakes are meant to be kept and treasured forever?!"

At her words, something froze in his didn't want Usagi treasuring a gift from some other guy, and a part of him was sadistically satisfied to see those roses destroyed. He also knew she wouldn't have accepted something like that from him anyway, and he was stung by the reminder.

In the meantime, the lion took another swipe at Usagi, and Makoto dove, tackling her to the ground just in time to prevent her head from being taken off. "Usagi-chan, what are you doing?!" Makoto cried, and Usagi blinked, startled.

"I have no idea!" She cried before looking up at the Cardian, now looming over them. "Eeeee, someone save us!"

This was his cue; a red rose split the evening air, embedding itself in the creature's paw.

Falion screamed her name in anguish, and Tuxedo Mask leapt from his perch to the ground, his cape a swishing blur of crimson. "Under the moonlight, the tender heart of a girl must be defended. I, Tuxedo Mask, protector of pure maidens, will not forgive you."

He didn't trust himself to look back at the girls; he had deliberately landed so that he was between them and the enemy. From the way the back of his neck tingled, he suspected that, behind him, Usagi was swooning.

But he could not afford that distraction. He would not allow harm to come to her just to satisfy his burning desire to know whether she still had a crush on his alter-ego. And so, instead, he reached out and pulled Endymion's sword into this plane of existence – tamping down on the nausea he felt whenever he touched the cold steel handle of the sword he'd once nearly used to filet Sailor Moon – and centered his attention on the beast before him.

In response, the lion exhaled a breath of powerful energy, nearly knocking Tuxedo Mask off his feet. He maintained his bearings, but was rattled by the shrieking of the two girls behind him.

Tightening his grip on the sword, he narrowed his eyes at the Cardian before flicking his gaze up to observe the green wheel, slowly rotating above their heads. Haven't seen that before.

A fresh rose had materialized in his free hand before he could blink. He launched it into the spokes of the wheel, gratified when his magical projectile shattered the spinning object. The lion rose up on her haunches, screeching, and falling fragments of the crumbling wheel sent bolts of electricity crackling throughout her body. Tuxedo Mask lunged forward with his sword, lopping her head from her body with a clean stroke. The pieces of the monster's body collapsed to the ground, still screaming, and dissolved into a tarot card which then gradually faded to black.

He turned, flinging his cape over his shoulder, to watch the two girls who were climbing unsteadily back to their feet. Instinctively, he stepped forward, offering a hand. "Usagi…"

Usagi blinked beautiful blue eyes up at him, her mouth falling open in a little 'o.' "Do I… do we know each other?"

He narrowly avoided stepping away from her reaction. He wasn't used to a world where he couldn't address her casually, where she wasn't Sailor Moon.

He wasn't ready for a world where she didn't know him.

"You do not know me. They call me Tuxedo Mask. I'm here to help you." And, because he was a possessive asshole and he couldn't shake the memory of that obsequious jerk smiling at her over the bouquet, he couldn't resist. He leaned forward in a little bow, conjuring a new rose for her – this one white. "To replace the ones you lost," he offered.

A strawberry flush swept over her face and settled across her cheeks as she shyly took the flower from him. Once she had taken the rose – her face even more pleased than when she'd spoken to Seijuro earlier that day, a vicious part of his subconscious noted – and Makoto had cleared her throat to remind the two that yes, she was still there, he realized what he was doing. He awkwardly stepped back and bowed again – this time to both of them – before fleeing. He vaulted first into a nearby tree, and then disappeared into the shadows of the park with a second leap.

Moments later, he closed his eyes and pressed his back into the trunk of the tree he'd settled into. He felt dizzy from the battle. Tuxedo Mask had always been a protector; he wasn't used to fighting alone yet.

As he allowed his hammering heartbeat to return to normal, his continued presence shrouded by leaves, he realized that if he squinted, he could still make out the outlines of Makoto and Usagi below him. What were they doing out alone in a park when a Cardian attacked, anyway? He blew out a puff of air as he trained his ears to their conversation, needing to know why the object of his protection had put herself in so much danger.

"Mako-chan, are you okay?"

"Yeah…" The taller girl's eyes were scanning the tree line before she looked down at Usagi and smiled. "Just glad that weirdo in a suit popped up when he did. Now that monster won't be able to hurt anyone ever again."

"Weirdo!" wailed Usagi. "Were we looking at the same guy?! He was totally dreamy!"

That selfish place inside of him thrummed. She did still like Tuxedo Mask in this new life.

He heard Makoto chuckle. "Okay, okay, he did have that tall, dark, and handsome thing going on… just like the guy who broke my heart…" There was a brief pause, just shy of awkward, in which Makoto's face took on a slight starry-eyed expression, before she pressed on. "But he didn't even look at me. I'm not falling for another guy who is so clearly already into someone else."

Usagi spluttered in response, and Mamoru felt his lips quirk up involuntarily. She was always cutest when she was flustered. It was part of why he enjoyed teasing her so much.

"He knew my name…" mumbled Usagi, contemplating the white rose he had given her before she looked up at Makoto with bright, excited eyes. "If he knew my name… Do you think he's someone I know in real life?! Earlier today this really cute boy, Seijuro-kun, gave me roses on the street… do you think they could be the same guy?!"

At this, his head thunked back against the wood of the tree, nearly knocking his top hat to the ground and giving away his position.

Oh, for the love of…