She was three years old when she and her closest friend met a boy in the hospital. He was six when he became an orphan before being adopted into a loving family. They were best friends their whole lives. Until lives needed saving, and feelings began to change. Slight AU with alterations to the canon storylines.

Disclaimer: I don't own Sailor Moon but I love it to death.

Please Don't Cry

By PazaakGirl

Prologue Part 1 – The way it all began.

Twelve years ago, in a hospital in the city of Tokyo, Japan

"Why are you crying?"

The six-year-old boy shifted his bowed head upward to see a little girl with blonde hair and the largest pair of blue eyes he had ever seen stare up at her in concern.

She was small, and if he stood from the bed he currently sat on, he was sure that she wouldn't even reach up to his stomach. Her blonde hair was pulled up into two buns on her head, and he mused that they looked frighteningly similar to a pair of odangos. In her hand was a small bunch of roses and baby's breath wrapped in silver foil with a red ribbon tied around the base. She leaned next to the bed, her head resting on the not-so-soft-but-still-comfortable mattress. After a short moment of curious observation he realized he was no longer shedding tears.

"W-who are you?" he questioned timidly.

Immediately she stood upright and curtsied, saying the line her friend had told her to say when introducing herself. "My name is Tsukino Usagi. I am three years old." He raised an eyebrow in surprise at how well she could speak for someone who was three years old. She cocked her head to the side inquisitively as a small smile crossed her face. "What's your name?"

Taken aback by the adorable little girl before him he hesitantly spoke the name that was his. The name that the doctors said he went by. "… Mamoru, Chiba Mamoru. I am six years old."

She pouted. "No fair! You're old!" He laughed softly at the complaint, and squeezed her bun. "Nice to meet you, Odango Atama." She giggled at the nickname and he grinned, surprised at how easily she made him smile. Then they noticed someone was standing behind her and she frowned slightly as someone bopped her softly on the head. Turning around she saw a boy towering over her with sandy blonde hair and a cheeky grin on his face. She jumped up in delight and squealed. "MOTOKI-KUN!"

Mamoru looked up at the newcomer and found his gaze returned. The boy extended a hand to him and smiled. "I'm Furuhata Motoki. I'm six, same as you." Mamoru found he was returning the smile and took his hand in a shake.

Kenji sat in the chair in the hallway, watching with amusement as her daughter spoke with the boy in room 305. He had noticed him sitting on the bed alone, a sad look on his features, and found his heart crying for the boy. He had known exactly what would cheer him up.

"Papa, when do we get to see mama?"

"Not yet, Usagi-chan, your brother hasn't arrived yet." The man chuckled as she pouted in the cutest way only Usagi could achieve. Looking up from his novel he looked into the open doorway to see a boy all by himself, not appearing to be in the happiest mood. Understandable, seeing the hospital wasn't the brightest of places, but he seemed even more downcast than a child who was admitted in the hospital ward should. Smiling, he looked down at his daughter and whispered to her ear.

"Why don't you talk to that boy in there? He looks like he needs a friend."

Her daughter had seen the boy and immediately complied, and Kenji had watched as she spoke to him, then as Furuhata Motoki peered in, wondering where his little friend went. When the young boy saw her he had gone to join the conversation.

The presence of the boy was soon to be followed with the arrival of his parents, Sonomi and Yamazaki Furuhata, whom Kenji greeted with a smile.

"What's the news?" Yamazaki questioned to his old friend.

"Any moment now," Kenji replied. "How about Unazuki? Is her fever going down?"

Sonomi nodded. "It seems our daughter caught the twenty-four hour bug. Poor thing, at such a young age, she couldn't stop crying, she was so sick." Unazuki was a year younger than Usagi. "Kenji-san, where are Motoki-chan and Usagi-chan?"

He pointed to the room before them and they peered in to see two blondes and a raven-haired boy laughing, though the latter not as much as the former.

Yamazaki watched in sorrow. "The happiness just doesn't reach his eyes… I wonder what happened."

"This is Chiba Mamoru's room, isn't it?" The three spun their heads around to see a male doctor with square-rimmed glasses and a clipboard approach them. "He was in a car accident not too long ago. His father died instantly, and his mother was able to hang on until the ambulance reached the hospital. It's a miracle he's alive."

"The poor boy!" Sonomi gasped. "For him to go through that, the memory must be haunting…"

"I would agree with you there, but what makes it more disheartening is that Mamoru has lost his memory." He smiled sadly at the three pairs of shocked eyes. "He has no memory of who he is, or his parents, or his life up until the crash. He's told me the only thing he remembers was the night drive they were having and the car losing control. After that, he's taken to not saying much at all." Looking into the room, he commented gratefully, "it's good to see him talking to other people after all that. He usually stayed away from most of the children in the ward."

They watched the events in room 305 continue, until a nurse came running down the hallway to notify Kenji that his wife was giving birth. But by then, the Furuhatas had already reached a mutual decision of where to go from here as they observed the three interact.

Usagi shrieked as the two boys continued to mercilessly tickle her. Mamoru had needed some persuading, but after gazing on the small girl's grinning face and hearing her jovial laughter echo through his ears, he realized if he didn't help his new friend it would disappear and a part of his heart would die with the laughter should the tickling cease.

Eventually the two boys settled down and Usagi wiped the tears of laughter from her face. She gazed at the boy she had seen crying a few minutes before to see a boy with a soft smile on his face, but one that did not reach his sad, sapphire eyes. "What's wrong, Mamoru-kun?"

He looked at the little angel and felt the curve of his lips straighten out as he voice his reason for quiet despair. "You two will be leaving soon, and I'll be alone again."

Motoki patted his back comfortingly. "My parents and her parents will let us visit you again, Mamoru-kun."

Usagi nodded enthusiastically. "Yep! And we'll get to play again! Papa said that we have to come here again later for an exa-examimi-exammmmimashom!"

"An examination, Usagi-chan," Motoki supplied helpfully as the little girl nodded, giggling nervously at her attempt to say a really long word to impress her friends.

"That's right! And then we'll visit you and we'll have fun!"

Mamoru stared in disbelief at the two that he was fast becoming friends with, finding that he didn't want them to even leave the hospital. Feeling the tears coming again, even after swearing to himself that he didn't want to cry in front of his new friends, he managed to choke out a small "thank you".

Motoki frowned. "What's wrong, Mamoru-kun?"

Slowly Mamoru told them what the doctors said about the accident, how he lost his parents, his memory, and how alone he was now that his parents left him.

Usagi sat up on the bed and hugged him fiercely. "You're not alone, Mamoru-kun. Your papa and mama are with you right now, we just can't see them. That's what my mama said: when people die, they visit their loved ones but stay invisibaba…ble." She frowned with the word Motoki-kun taught her. "And they talk to you even when you can't hear them, and hug you and kiss you even when you can't feel them."

Knowing that what she was saying wasn't really making logical sense, but still lifted the dead weight in his heart, Mamoru returned the embrace as he began to cry. Motoki put an arm around the boy his age and smiled proudly at his Usagi-imouto-chan, for both the fact that she had said such nice words to Mamoru, and the vocabulary she was developing, which was mighty impressive for a three-year-old.

She pulled away softly and continued. "Besides, today my mama is giving birth. I'm going to be a big sister! And today we met you, so today is a happy day! Please don't cry, Mamoru-kun." She pulled a thornless rose out from the bouquet and offered it to him, and he took it with gratitude as she kissed him on the cheek.

The three parted later on with promises that they would see each other again soon, not knowing what the Furuhatas had been discussing with the Tsukinos and the doctor supervising Mamoru that day.