Chapter 1: The Endless Search For A...Present?!?
Mamoru walked up to Usagi. "Hey, Usako" he greeted her. But instead of the excited hug and the "Oh Mamo-chan!" he expected, he found her crying. "What's wrong, Usako?" he asked, concerned.
"It's you that's wrong!" Usagi yelled, her voice becoming more strained with each stinging word.
"What did I do?!?" Mamoru asked, flustered.
"I can't believe you forgot the anniversary of our first date!" She brought her hand up "I hate you!" and brought it down on his right cheek with terrible fury induced force. He blinked in a daze, seeing only Usagi's tears and feeling only the slap rock him physically and mentally.
Mamoru woke up with a start, still sweating. He brought his hand up to his cheek and breathed a sigh of a relief when it didn't hurt. It was only a dream. Thank God. It was only a dream. He sighed. Mamoru would have liked to place the blame for these recurring dreams on their new enemies but he suspected they were only warnings from his subconscious not to forget about the all important anniversary. Great. He thought as he swung out of bed and went to check the calendar once more. Either it's spooky dreams about a princess or it's Nightly Reminders From My Subconscious. Why can't I ever get a good night's sleep!?! He traced his finger around the red circle two days in the future. Mamoru wasn't stupid. After the fiasco with Usagi's birthday, he had made sure, both out of a wish not to hurt his love and out of a keen sense of self-preservation, to mark all other important dates on his calendar. And Important Dates definitely include the anniversary of our first date. Mamoru smiled as he remembered.
They were having a picnic at their favorite park. The sky was clear blue, the sun was shining, and Usako was smiling. Mamoru hadn't been this happy in all his life. After they finished eating, feeling perfectly content, despite the fact his stomach still ached from Usagi's so-called "cooking", he had leaned in to kiss her...and had been surprised by several high-pitched shrieks above them. He had looked up just in time to see Ami, Minako, Rei, and Makoto fell out of a tree and land on top of them. Turning bright red, he had scrambled away from Usagi, pushing some of the girls off him in the process. Usagi looked madder that he had ever seen her as she yelled angrily "Minna! How could you!?! " while chasing after the rapidly retreating girls.
Mamoru groaned. On second thought, the nascent plan he had of recreating their first date didn't seem like a good idea after all. He ran his fingers through his jet black hair. Now he was back to the question that had dominated his thoughts all this week. He stood in the apartment and asked the heavens once more:
"What the hell do I get her?!?"
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Motoki had been polishing the counters at the arcade when Mamoru had came in. "Hey Mamoru-kun" he said, waving at him. Mamoru didn't seem to notice the greeting, though, and went straight to his table. Motoki frowned. Was he best friend in another one of his black funks again? Well, it didn't matter. He, Motoki, the Super Fantastic Expert on Absolutely Everything, Especially Girls, would fix this. So Motoki grabbed a pot of coffee, and a cup, and slid in across from Mamoru at the table. Filling up the cup with coffee, he asked Mamoru teasingly "So what's up? You seem preoccupied. Girl trouble?"
Mamoru absentmindedly took the cup and sipped the coffee. "Oh, hi, Motoki-kun. Well, kind of."
Motoki nearly fell out of the booth. "You have girl trouble?!? But I had thought you had the perfect relationship with Usagi-chan!" he sputtered.
"Oh, shut up" Mamoru said in disgust. "It's not like that. I just can't figure out to give her for the anniversary of our first date. And unless I can do that, I won't have any relationship with Usako at all!"
Motoki snapped his fingers. "Well in that case you've come to the right place, Mamoru-kun. I am the Expert on the girls!"
Mamoru raised his eyebrow "And that would explain why you don't have a girlfriend?"
Motoki flushed. "A temporary difficulty. Nothing to worry about. Anyway, what I was about to say, before some ungrateful fool interrupted me is that you should go to the mall and find her something pretty to wear and then give it to her in some romantic place."
Mamoru opened his mouth to shoot down Motoki's latest harebrained idea, but closed it when he realized, for once, Motoki actually made sense. "Actually, that's a good idea. Arigato, Motoki-kun" he said as he stood.
"No problem. Say, do you want any help shopping? I saw this cool-looking sweater that was orange, red, and pink striped." Motoki offered.
Mamoru stifled a groan. While Motoki's ideas seemed saner these days, his fashion sense obviously hadn't caught up. "Ummm, no thanks. I think this is something I should do by myself"
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Minako smiled as she listened in the safety of the Sailor V game booth. It's so exciting to watch romance unfold the Senshi of Love thought. Wondering if she had enough time to follow Mamoru to the mall, she glanced at her watch. "AGGH! I was supposed to be at the temple five minutes ago!!!!" she wailed. She nearly bumped into Mamoru rushing out of the arcade. "I'm gonna be soooooooooo late!"
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Usagi panted as she ran up to Hikawa Shrine. I can't believe I forgot about meeting! Luna's gonna kill me! She heard pounding footsteps behind her. She grinned as the footsteps caught up to her. There was only one person it could be...
"Hey, Usagi-chan!" yelled Minako "Late too?"
"Yep!" she yelled back as she and alongside Minako "But where's Artemis?"
"He met with Luna earlier. They must have gone to the shrine together." Minako replied as they pounded up the steps to the temple together.
Sure enough, Luna and Artemis, along with the other girls, were already there by the time they burst open the door to the shrine.
"Do you think you two be on time for once?" Luna scowled at the miscreants.
Artemis glared at Minako. "Because of you, I'm stuck with monitoring duties in the control room for another week!"
Minako arched an eyebrow. "Teach you to wager with Luna, huh?"
Artemis hissed. "That's NOT the point!"
Usagi giggled. Rei turned to glare at her. "You're late as well. Don't you know punctuality is a virtue?"
Usagi stuck her tongue at Rei. "So's patience!" she retorted.
"Girls, clam down." Ami said softly.
Seeing that nobody had paid attention to Ami, Makoto decided to take the more direct approach. She pushed Rei and Usagi apart with her hands. "Stop fighting, you two!" That done, she turned and gave Artemis and Minako her patented Makoto LookTM. "And that includes you guys as well. We have important things to talk about here!"
"Yes, like whether my Mamo-chan will remember the anniversary of our first date." Usagi said worriedly as she flopped down beside the table and gobbled up two of the cookies Makoto had brought.
Minako sat down beside her. "Oh, I wouldn't worry about it, Usagi-chan." she said with a gleam in her eye. "As the Senshi of Love, I have it on good authority that Mamoru-kun will not only remember it, but get you something pretty to wear and give it to you in a romantic place!"
"Really?" Usagi asked breathlessly.
Minako nodded.
"Wow, Minako-chan, that's awesome! You're the best!"
Rei ate a cookie herself "Well, now that that's settled, what I want to know is what did you get him? I bet it's really stupid!"
Before Usagi could start another fight, Makoto broke in. "Well, I think that you should get him another jacket. I mean that green one just looks plain awful."
Ami nodded in agreement. "It definitely makes him look like less of a hunk."
"AMI-CHAN!" all six voices shouted in shock.
She turned bright red. "Um..um.. I really don't know that much about it!"
Minako shot her a knowing look before turning to Usagi once more "So what did you get him?"
Usagi placed her finger at the side of her mouth. "That is...
Everyone leaned forward.
She grinned evilly "...a secret!"
The girls all groaned. But before they could pepper her with questions once more, Luna cut in. "Just in case you've forgot, this is a Senshi meeting, not Gossip Central! Just because it's been relatively peaceful around here for the past couple of weeks doesn't mean we should relax! It's important..."
Usagi tuned out Luna's lecture and drifted off in a daydream. Mamo-chan was giving her a beautiful present as she gave him hers. Their hands touched and they kissed...she frowned. "Mamo-chan, have you grown a mustache?"
"Usagi-chan! I'm not Mamoru!" Luna's shrill voice woke her up.
"Yikes!" she shrieked, spitting out fur. "Gomen, Luna!"
"NOW will you pay attention to the meeting?!?"
"Sure thing, Luna!" she reassured the cat. But it did no good. Within a few minutes she was daydreaming again...
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Mamoru frowned. Things were not going well. Firstly, he had almost collided with a blonde blur that sounded suspiciously like Minako as he walked out of the arcade. Then, he had been nearly run over by a truck as he rushed to the mall. Now, the vendor at the Romantic Gifts stand in the mall seemed determined to show him every single one of the definitely not romantic gifts they had in stock. He winced as the vendor pointed out yet another "gift".
"Now this is the Talking Love BassTM. It makes small "love" talk, if you know what I mean." The vendor winked at him and pushed a button on the mount of the bass. "I'm the Sushi of Love, Sailor B!" it exclaimed. Mamoru groaned. Will I ever find a present for her?!?
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
So what d'ya think? Give me a review or email me.
What will happen next? You'll have to wait until Chapter 2 to find out!
I wanna thank Amai-chan for inspiring me and encouraging me to write this fic! Thank you also to her and Bejiin, who edited it! Domo arigato!
And thanks to you for reading!
Ja,
Ekaterinn