Standard disclaimer: The characters aren't mine. This should come as no surprise. I am simply a teller of stories that occasionally claw their way desperately out of my head.
Notes: For Minako's birthday, I did a few 'fic things. This one came from the request "Mamoru and Minako are in a situation where they have to work together. Alone." Oh, you two did run away with this one.
(22 October 2013)
The Truce
"Minako?" Mamoru blinked and checked again. Yes, this was definitely Minako, definitely coming toward him, definitely looking angry. Well that was fantastic. As if the day wasn't bad enough already. He debated transforming and trying to jump away. Sometimes, randomly, he seemed almost able to fly. Maybe this would be one of those times if he wished very hard. His knees were already starting to bend to try it when she reached him.
"Mamoru," she said with a curt nod as she walked past, circled around behind, and began to shove him in the direction she'd come from.
The first few steps were freebies, but then Mamoru began to dig in and push back against her, on principle if nothing else. "What are you doing?"
He didn't see her roll her eyes, but he FELT it. It was like it was part of his sixth sense: know when Usako was in danger, know the most dramatic moment to appear in a fight, and know when Minako was rolling her eyes at him.
The latter happened almost as much as the first two.
"I'm pushing you," Minako said in the most 'god what kind of a moron are you no wait don't tell me I already know' voice in existence, while continuing to push him.
Mamoru increased his resistance. Minako increased her force. Mamoru smoothly sidestepped. Minako went flying past him.
As she landed face first on the sidewalk, he winced and felt a pang of regret.
"Mamoru, you JERK!"
Regret could be such a short-lived emotion. Still, he was a gentleman (now, anyway) and offered her a hand up. She took it, and he swore she was squeezing his hand with as much strength as she could muster and deliberately trying to make herself weigh twice as much as normal. He almost made a joke about that, but had a rare flash of insight (or self-preservation), and decided to keep it to himself.
Minako was leveling her best glare at him while she brushed herself off, and he crossed his arms and glared back. "What do you want, Minako? I have things to do today."
For a second he was sure she was going to make a crack about that, but it must've been a moment where they were on the same wavelength, because she also decided to hold her tongue.
"I need your help," Minako said, grinding the words out like she was chewing nails that were both painful and tasted like crap.
He was getting ready to enjoy that – to enjoy it another three or four times at least – when she followed up with the exact thing to get his attention.
"Usagi's in trouble."
The list of things about which Mamoru would never trust Minako was near endless, and consisted of everything from movie reviews to whether the sun had come up that morning. This, however, she would never lie about.
He uncrossed his arms and drained his voice of any antagonism. "What is it?"
It was clearly still bothering Minako to be in a situation where she had to come to him, but she followed his lead and tried to remain neutral. "You know about that thing between her and Rei?"
Oh did he.
Though not specifically. He couldn't get Usagi to stop yelling about Rei long enough to find out details. As near as he'd been able to piece together, Rei had said something to Usagi that … Or had Usagi taken one of Rei's … Okay, he'd pieced nothing together really, save that Usagi had spent the last two days on a near-constant Rei-rant, and yes, that was absolutely trouble.
"DAYS," Minako said, throwing her hands in the air and beginning to pace in her frustration. "They're NEVER days! Even the worst ones have been like an hour at best." She whirled and paced in the other direction. "I can't get them to talk to each other, I can't even get them to be in the same ROOM as each other!" Whirl. Mamoru's head tracked her like a very slow, very angry tennis match. "Usagi and Rei are best friends, and they're MY best friends, and what am I supposed to do when best friends can't talk and be best friends?!" Whirl. "Mako and Ami are out of town doing some stupid smart person cooking thing or whatever I don't even know right now, and I can't fix this on my own!"
Minako came to a halt directly in front of Mamoru. Although she wasn't mad at him – technically, anyway – she was MAD, and Mamoru had to suppress the urge to back away.
"So you. Have. To. Help. Me."
Usako needed him. Rei needed him. The Sailor Senshi needed him. FRIENDSHIP needed him.
Minako needed him too, but you couldn't have everything.
"What's the plan?"
... ... ...
"Yay, a lovely afternoon with my lovely lovely Mamo-chan!" Usagi said in a sing-song voice as she dangled from his arm.
"Yeah! Exactly!" Mamoru knew his voice as shaky, but trusted Usagi would be too wrapped up in her little happy bubble to notice. Lying to Usagi had the unfortunate side-effect of reminding him of nightmare visions and the inability to punch his future lilac suit-wearing asshole self. He tried to avoid it whenever possible.
They'd just had a nice big lunch (well he'd had some soup, Usagi had a nice big lunch, plus a nice big dessert, with a nice big bill), but she had a long afternoon ahead and would need her strength. He knew how grumpy she got when she was hungry, and she was going to be grumpy enough without help.
He fumbled for the keys to his apartment while Usagi bounced happily on the balls of her feet, thumbs hooked in the straps of the bunny backpack she was wearing today. He'd very carefully monitored his speech since meeting up with her, having struck from it any and all words that might remind Usagi of Rei. This was alarmingly difficult, as it seemed most any word could remind Usagi of Rei, which he had learned to his misery earlier that week. But it seemed he might have finally gotten the hang of it, as today had been blissfully free of any explosions or ranting.
So far.
Finally he got the door open, and just in time, if his watch was correct. He ushered Usagi inside, where she promptly mistook his eagerness and stood in the foyer with puckered, expectant lips.
Mamoru debated against it for a moment, but then decided he may as well. It could be weeks before Usagi forgave this one.
Placing his hands on her shoulders, Mamoru leaned in—
Then jerked away at the pounding on his door.
Mamoru could not have said with complete certainty that Minako didn't do that on purpose, but the plan was now officially underway, and time was of the essence. "Go sit," Mamoru said quickly, leading Usagi into the living room. "I'll see who it is." Fortunately she didn't argue, and after double checking that Usagi was out of sight, Mamoru opened the door.
The moment he did, Rei stumbled over the threshold.
"Minako, what is your problem!" Rei yelled, though her outburst was partially drowned out by the door banging shut behind her. Rei spun around, ready to yell some more.
The drive was sucked out of her by the sight of Minako, sprawled against the door, her arms and legs spread at a dozen different angles to try and keep as much of the door covered as inaccessible as possible.
"Hi Rei," Mamoru said, unable to take his eyes away from Minako.
"Hi Mamoru," Rei replied, unable to do the same.
"Did I hear Minako—" Usagi began as she rounded the corner, then stopped short at the sight of the one person she didn't want to see.
"REI!" Usagi shrieked, thrusting an accusing finger at her nemesis.
Rei, meanwhile, was saving all her anger for one person. "You swore she wouldn't be here!" she bellowed at Minako.
Minako shrugged, a pretty impressive feat given her current position against the door. "I lied."
Rei could only scream inarticulate sounds of rage, which were not altogether different from Usagi's speech.
"REI HINO HOW DARE YOU BE HERE IN MY MAMO-CHAN'S APARTMENT WHEN YOU—"
"LIKE I WANTED TO BE HERE WITH YOU, YOU IDIOT! I'D RATHER WALK BAREFOOT OVER A PILE OF—"
"I HOPE YOU GET A SPLINTER THE SIZE OF YOUR EGO, WHICH IS IMPOSSIBLE BECAUSE NOTHING'S THAT BIG!"
"OH YEAH WELL I HOPE ALL YOUR ICE CREAM TASTES LIKE YOU MADE IT!"
"Now, Mamoru!" Minako yelled at him, and with no further words, they began.
It was beautiful synchronicity. It was poetry in motion. At the moment Mamoru reached Usagi, Minako reached Rei. Just as he dipped low to scoop Usagi over his shoulder, Minako tackled Rei. Mamoru straightened and kept Usagi secure despite all her screaming and thrashing. Meanwhile Rei, thoroughly off-guard, was half-pushed, half-carried through the living room and into Mamoru's bedroom.
But Rei was a Senshi too, and she recovered fast. "Minako, what the hell are you—"
Almost casually Minako swept Rei's leg out from under her, and Rei went down in a heap on the floor. Minako was already on the run. "Go! Go!"
She ducked past Mamoru, who was withstanding all of Usagi's bunny backpack blows with stoic resolve. He set her down gently on the floor next to Rei and stepped back quickly.
"You two need to work out whatever this is," he told them firmly.
Both Usagi and Rei raised their voices in protest, but Minako poked her head around Mamoru. "Don't want to hear it! You're not coming out until you're friends again! Or dead! The end!"
"We're not leaving here until you do," Mamoru assured them. "So the faster you are, the better for everyone." He retreated, then stuck his head back in to add, "Also please don't actually kill each other."
Rei and Usagi's yelling was still audible, though muffled, as he closed the door and latched the newly-installed outside lock.
He and Minako took a deep breath, held it a second, and let it out at the same time.
"Think it will work?" he asked.
"It'll work one way or another," she replied, and winced as a particularly shrill tirade began behind the locked door. "So, what now?"
They both considered it for a long moment.
"I think I have some cards around here," Mamoru offered.
Minako's eyes lit up. "Poker for real money!"
"I don't think that's—"
"Come on, pretty boy, I know you're loaded, let's go."
... ... ...
"YOU ARE THE MOST OBNOXIOUS PERSON I HAVE EVER MET IN MY ENTIRE LIFE!"
"THAT'S ONLY BECAUSE YOU'VE NEVER ACTUALLY MET YOURSELF!"
Rei opened her mouth to retort, then frowned. "Wait, what does that actually mean?"
"I dunno," Usagi sighed, rubbing her forehead. "The yelling is giving me a headache."
"And killing my throat," agreed Rei. "Got anything to drink in there?"
Usagi nodded and settled on the floor with her back against Mamoru's bed and Rei immediately flopped down next to her. She unzipped the backpack and began to empty it of provisions: a few cans of tea, some packets of chips and cookies, and a huge stack of manga. Without hesitation, Usagi snatched one of the bag of chips.
"I thought you were going to eat lunch," Rei said, pulling the tab on one of the cans.
"I did! All this arguing makes me hungry."
Rei rolled her eyes but couldn't keep from smiling. "EATING makes you hungry."
"True," Usagi agreed, munching on a chip before turning to the closed door. "OH YEAH WELL SAME TO YOU!"
"YOU'RE SO IMPOSSIBLE, YOU'RE LIKE A CHILD!" Rei shouted at the door as she grabbed a manga from the stack. "Oh, good choice."
"Thanks, I know you like that series." Usagi popped another chip in her mouth then stole a sip of Rei's tea. "This was a really great idea, Rei-chan. If anything will get Minako and Mamo-chan to be nice to each other, it's this. You're the best."
"I KNOW I AM," Rei yelled at the door, and they settled back to enjoy the afternoon together.