A/N: All I have to say is wow! The feedback that you all have given me on my last chapter was absolutely tremendous and I want to give you all a HUGE thank you! It really means a lot to me when you guys leave reviews, I really love reading what you guys have to say. If I'm honest with you all, this chapter was a bit harder for me to bust out as I had a 5,000 word goal but only ended up with a little over 3,600 words as I felt that the place I ended it was the perfect place to end. Again, I wanted to thank you all for reading, reviewing, favouriting and following this story! I really appreciate it a lot and can't wait to hear what you all have to say about this chapter. Anyways, I'll stop rambling and let you all read this. I'm planning on having the next chapter out by this weekend, don't want to make you all wait too long. Anyways like I said earlier, thank you all again and I hope you enjoy!
Chapter 2
Of Panic and Confusion
It was pretty clear to Motoki that something was clearly wrong with Mamoru. For one, the man was skipping class and two, his hair was more mused than usual.
"Motoki, I think I'm going crazy," the dark-haired man finally said, after having sitting at the arcade counter dead silent for the past 30 minutes. Motoki just quirked an eyebrow at his friend, awaiting the medical student's explanation.
"I mean for one, I think I have amnesia. Because I for sure do not remember ever getting married." Mamoru continued, holding his left hand up and pointing at a silver wedding band that sat on his fourth finger.
"Can you tell me what we did for my birthday last night, just to make sure I'm not going crazy?"
At this, Motoki knew for sure that there was something wrong with his friend. There were about 10 questions buzzing through the blonde-haired man's head but he decided it would be best if he let his ebony-haired friend continue his frazzled rant.
"I got home from lab and you and Reika were waiting for me in my flat, right?" Mamoru asked Motoki, his deep blue eyes swimming with confusion.
Motoki slowly nodded his head. Though, now that he thought about it, something was off.
"And then we had cake, did all the birthday blah blah blah, played Mario Kart and then you guys left." Mamoru confirmed.
"Yeah, that's how I remember it…" Motoki began, trailing off. "But wasn't Usagi there?" Motoki asked, just as confused as Mamoru was.
If the blonde remembered correctly it really was just himself, Reika and Mamoru. But the harder the arcade owner thought about last night, the more prevalent nagging thing in the back of his mind told him that Usagi was there. Whoever Usagi was, that is.
"What do you mean Usagi was there? I don't even know who Usagi is!" Mamoru roared in confusion, throwing his arms up in the air.
Motoki himself wasn't quite sure who Usagi was but there was a nagging feeling in the back of his head telling him that whoever this Usagi character was, she was there for Mamoru's impromptu birthday celebration.
"Motoki," Mamoru said desperately, leaning over the counter and gripping the collar of Motoki's light blue dress shirt. "I need you to call Reika and ask her what happened last night. We need to figure this out." The medical student pleaded and all Motoki could do was nod his head, his blonde hair flopping as he ran towards the back to grab his cell phone.
Reika picked up after two rings, "Hey 'Toki, is everything okay?" His fiance greeted, slightly concerned as Motoki never called her at work.
"I need you to come to the arcade, we're having a crisis." And with that, Motoki immediately ended the call and the two men awaited for the reddish-brunette woman to arrive.
It didn't take long for Reika to arrive. In fact, she was there within five minutes having conveniently been in the area meeting one of her friends for coffee. So as the woman came bursting through the arcade doors thinking there was some sort of emergency, they couldn't help but be relieved that there was somebody sane within their vicinity.
"Oh Reiki, thank Kami you're here," Motoki said breathlessly before pulling his fiance in for a hug.
"What in the world is going on where you needed me to come in so badly?" The woman asked after pulling out of the hug, her hands on her hips.
"Well you see, Mamoru and I are possibly going crazy," Motoki began to explain sheepishly, rubbing his hand on the back of his neck. Reika quirked her eyebrow and gave the two men a pointed look each, waiting for one of the to continue explaining the situation.
"Can you tell us what we did last night?" Mamoru asked, a desperate look in his usually stoic eyes.
"You two were both there, we all know what we did for Mamoru's birthday last night," Reika replied.
"Yeah, but we need to know what you know, our stories need to match up." Motoki replied, a slightly confused look on his face.
"Oh uh well, I guess," Reika began, not sure what the two men were up to. "Motoki and I went to your flat to surprise you after class, we used the spare you gave Motoki. Then you came home, we ate cake and played Mario Kart." The woman confirmed. Though after confirming what they had done, she felt as if something was missing.
"It was just us three, right" Mamoru and Motoki asked in unison.
"Well, now that I think of it, wasn't… Usagi there?" Reika was sure that it was just the three of them, but something at the back of her mind, like Motoki's told her that somebody named Usagi was also there.
In fact, she wasn't sure they used Motoki's spare key to enter Mamoru's flat, it may have been Usagi that had let them in. The two versions of Mamoru's birthday celebration were fuzzy in Reika's head.
"Yeah, but who is Usagi? And how come you two remember her being there and I don't?" Mamoru asked his two friends, who were just as confused as he was.
"I'm not really sure who Usagi is," Reika began, trying to figure just what was happening between the three of them. "But when I think about our little get together last night, part of my mind tells me it was just us three." Reika paused, looking between the two men. "And then there's another part, somewhere in the back of my mind that tells me Usagi was there." She finished before pausing to look at her fiance for some sort of confirmation.
"That sounds about right." Motoki replied in confirmation, nodding his head enthusiastically.
"As great as that is you two, it really isn't much help." Mamoru sighed in frustration before letting his head drop on to the counter, leaving a hard clank in its wake.
"Well," Motoki began before shooting Reika a look. It was obvious the two were having some sort of silent conversation. It was something the pair did often and if Mamoru was completely honest, it sort of freaked him out.
"You could go right to the source," the blonde continued before shrugging his shoulders.
"Motoki that is brilliant!" Mamoru exclaimed before slapping some money down on the counter to pay for his coffee and dashing out of the door.
When Mamoru arrived back to his flat, he arrived to a sight he wasn't quite expecting. The flat seemed to be completely empty.
"I'm home," Mamoru shouted out to nobody in particular.
It wasn't until the man was in the living room that he heard a sound coming from his bathroom.
"M-M-Mamoru? Is that y-you?" A voice hiccuped from the other side of the bathroom door.
"Uh, yeah," the dark-haired man replied before knocking softly on the bathroom door. "Can I come in? I think we need to talk." He asked softly, trying not to spook the young woman.
"Y-yeah, you can come in." She replied between soft sobs.
Mamoru slowly opened the bathroom door, revealing the small blonde woman. Though the sight of her was not quite something he was expecting as she was sitting in his tub, completely naked, her knees pulled up to her chest.
"Y-you're naked," Mamoru sputtered, quickly backing out of the bathroom and away from who he assumed was his now wife.
At his reaction Usagi let a small bubble giggle out, tears still streaming down her face.
"Well of course I'm naked, Mamo, I'm in the bath." She exclaimed, her sapphire eyes shining.
"Er, well, yeah, I'll let you get back to that. Th-then we can have our conversation," Mamoru gasped out nervously before making a mad dash towards his bedroom.
It took Usagi 15 minutes in total to get out of the bath and change before the two were sitting on his sectional comfortably.
"So Mamoru, what was it that you wanted to talk to me about? Did I do something wrong?" The small blonde woman asked softly.
"No, of course not. I just wanted to ask you a few things that may seem odd."
"Oh, okay. I just thought that since you didn't say much this morning and ran out of the house without saying goodbye that maybe I hadn't done something right." The blonde said, looking as if she were on the brink of tears.
"My 24th birthday was yesterday, can you tell me what we did when I came home after class?" Mamoru asked, shooting the woman sitting next to him an unsure look.
"Oh!" The woman exclaimed excitedly. "Well, I invited Motoki and Reika over and they got cake from our favourite bakery, the one that Mako owns now, the one that we met at when I was in high school," She began, her blue eyes twinkling with something Mamoru could not quite place.
"And then once you came home, you were so happy to see all of us, even though celebrating your birthday was the last thing you wanted to do. Which I understand, you were in class all day, then you had lab," she paused before giving Mamoru a small smile.
"Then we did cake, which was chocolate, your favourite. And then we played Mario Kart until like 2 AM. After Reika and Motoki left," She paused and shot Mamoru another strange look that made her eyes twinkle while giggling. "We….you know….before going to bed."
"We didn't have anything to drink, it really is strange that you don't remember, Mamo." She continued before placing a small hand on his forehead. "Are you sure you aren't sick?" She asked, concern written all over her beautiful face.
"I-I-I'm fine Usagi," Mamoru sputtered at her previous suggestion and then her suddenly close proximity.
"I'm just concerned, Mamo," Usagi began, scooting closer to Mamoru. "It's your last year of medical school before your internship starts and you're skipping class." She continued, her eyebrows furrowed in concern.
"Heh, I guess you're right Usagi." Mamrou said quickly before standing up and slowly backing away towards his bedroom. "I'm not feeling very well, I think that I'm going to get a bit of rest."
"Oh, okay. You go get some rest, I need to stop by the grocery store anyways. Once primary school starts back up next week it's going to be very busy so I guess I better stock the fridge up now," The blonde said before gathering her purse and swiping a shopping list off the fridge.
"You go get some rest, okay?" The woman said to a very statuelike Mamoru. "I'll be back in a little over an hour, love you!" She quickly added before lifting herself up on her tiptoes and planting a chaste kiss on Mamoru's lips.
It didn't take long for Mamoru to dash out of the doors once he was sure his apparent wife was gone. Things had been getting stranger and Mamoru was sure that Usagi had a some sort of suspicion about the way he was acting.
The thing was that Mamoru wasn't really acting any sort of way at all. Well, anyway that wasn't unusual pending the circumstances he was in. In his own opinion he thought that he was handling the situation pretty well.
Though it seemed that Mamoru's luck on sneaking out of his own flat was cut short as he collided into Usagi on his way to Crown Arcade, bags flying out of her hands, the blonde landed straight on Mamoru.
"Oh! I am so sorry sir! You'll have to forgive me, I am huge clutz," Usagi sputtered, not even looking up to see just who exactly she collided with before dropping into a low bow.
Mamoru couldn't help the chuckle that escaped from his lips before he pushed himself off the ground and offered a hand to a frazzled Usagi. "S'alright Usagi, it's just me."
"It's Usako," the blonde muttered under her breath.
"What was that, Usagi?" The dark-haired man asked the woman in front of him, completely confused.
"Ha heh, nothing Mamo" Usagi said before beginning to pick up the content of the grocery bags off the sidewalk.
It wasn't until the two were finished that the blonde realized something was up.
"Wait," Usagi said all of a sudden, narrowing her sapphire eyes at Mamoru. "I thought you were sick and were going to lay down. What are you doing out here on the street, in front of," she paused for a second to actually take a look at their surroundings. "In front of Crown Arcade?" She finished suspiciously, shooting Mamoru a look that he swore could kill him.
"Heh, about that Usagi. I uhh… actually had to talk to Motoki about something," Mamoru quickly told his apparent wife nervously, deciding that it would be an absolutely terrible decision to lie to the woman in front of him.
"Hmm, I guess Mamo. But don't be out too long, I don't want you to catch a fever. Also, dinner will be ready within the next hour and a half!" The woman supplied before placing yet another kiss on his lips before bounding back to his flat with her bags of groceries.
"You know Mamoru, the more that I think about Usagi, the more that I remember her." The blonde man finally said, shooting his friend a sympathetic look. "Somehow she's begun appearing in nearly every memory you, Reika and I have together. It's strange but the same thing is also happening to Reika. It's almost as if our memories are being altered to show that she's been here the whole time. Reika thinks that it won't be before long that we forget all of our original memories and only remember the ones that she is in."
Mamoru was frustrated. He wasn't sure what was going on or how exactly this happened but he was sure there was no way to get out of it. It was seeming more and more like he would be stuck in this life.
Then there was Usagi, she was clearly catching on to the fact that there was something up with Mamoru. And he wasn't sure how he was going to explain the situation to her without upsetting her. Upsetting his newly found wife was not something Mamoru particularly wanted to do seeing as he unintentionally upset her earlier in the morning, causing her to lock herself in his bathroom and cry.
It was clear that she held memories that Mamoru did not yet hold and would probably never share with her due to the bizarreness of the situation. It was becoming apparent that he couldn't hide the situation with her so he decided it would be best to discuss it with her tomorrow morning before class.
"I mean I guess I should share what's going on with her, maybe she could provide some insight," Mamoru told Motoki in an unsure manner.
"Yeah, maybe you're right Mamoru. And if you need any help you could always call Reika and myself over," the blonde man suggested as he slid Mamoru a fresh cup of coffee.
"I think that might help Motoki, I'm just afraid of upsetting he because she has all of these memories of us and well, I don't have anything to go off of."
"You'll figure it out Mamoru, you always do." And with those words of encouragement from his best friend, Mamoru drained the rest of his coffee and made his way home.
When Mamoru entered his eleventh story flat he was instantly greeted by the smell of cooking and something slightly burning.
"Uh, Usagi? Is everything okay in there?" Mamoru called out as he slipped his shoes off and his house slippers on.
Mamoru didn't know Usagi very well yet but he had a strange feeling that told him that things around her weren't usually quiet and the fact that it was so quiet slightly concerned him.
"Usagi?" He called out again before entering the kitchen which was a disaster zone and hurricane Usagi was in the middle of it.
"Oh! Welcome home Mamo! I didn't even hear you come in, I must of been too immersed in cooking." The blonde said, obviously surprised.
"Would you like some help?" The dark-haired man offered. There was something inside of him that also told him that she didn't cook much and he was the one that did. He wasn't sure how he knew this, along with the fact that he knew that Usagi herself and things around her weren't quiet but instead bursting with life, but somehow he did.
"Help would be great," Usagi replied sounding relieved before placing a small kiss on his cheek. "I was trying to make curry but I think I ended up burning the brown sauce." The small blonde said sheepishly.
"I guess I can try and save the sauce," Mamoru said, shooting her a reassuring smile before washing his hands. And with that hurricane Usagi and the chaos she had brought to the kitchen began to die down.
The two cooked together in a comfortable silence and moved around one another as if they had done it over a hundred, maybe thousand times before. The fact that it felt so natural sort of scared Mamoru, but in a good way.
It wasn't long before the two finished cooking a simple vegetable curry with brown sauce and they were both settled at the table eating.
"So, what do you want to do tonight?" Usagi asked Mamoru between bites.
"Well, I did miss class today so I should probably email my professors and classmates for notes before we do anything. How about you let me do that quickly and then we'll figure it out." Mamoru said, hoping that the reassurance of the two doing something later in the evening would make her feel better.
"Oh, of course Mamo! And while you're doing that I could brainstorm. As much as I like staying in and watching tv or reading together, I think we should do something different tonight." Usagi replied as she shoveled the rest of her curry into her mouth.
The way that Usagi ate had Mamoru completely awestruck. It was clear that although she was very small and petite, the blonde really knew how to eat. Seeing as she had nearly two and a half servings of the curry the two made together.
"Dinner was good, thanks for the help Mamo," Usagi said before collecting both of their empty plates, placing a quick kiss on his cheek, and head back into the kitchen. "You wash and I dry, yeah? It's your turn so don't even grumble about it!" The blonde called from the kitchen between giggles.
And Mamoru did want to grumble about it but instead, he collected the rest of the dirty dishes off of the table and met his wife in the kitchen. Mamoru felt as if this was some sort of routine the two had gotten into and did every night. It was becoming apparent that in Usagi's mind the two did a lot of things together, almost as if they didn't like to be apart.
As Mamoru entered the kitchen, Usagi was slipping her wedding ring off and setting it on a small ring holder- another item that had appeared overnight along with a large list of others. Mamoru decided that it would be safe to do the same and mirrored his new wife's action.
They were nearly done with the dishes when Usagi reached a small hand down into Mamoru's side of the sink before flicking the warm water and a handful of bubbles at him with a giggle.
"Oh you little," Mamoru growled at her playfully before reaching his own hand into the water and flicking bubbles back at her before she took of out of the kitchen with a squeal.
Mamoru instantly hightailed after her with another handful of the soapy bubbles. He quickly caught up with her and swiftly tackled her onto the ground as gently as he could, flicking his handful of bubbles in her face once they landed on the ground together in a heap.
There was something about the sound of Usagi's voice that had Mamoru in a trance and before he knew it, his hands were at her sides and his fingers were probing her ribs.
"Ahhh, stop it Mamo, that tickles!" The blonde squealed from underneath, trying to squirm out of his grasp.
The whole situation felt oddly familiar, almost as if Mamoru was experiencing some Deja vu. It was almost if something had taken control of his body when he uttered the following words, "You know what you got to do to make it stop, Usako." The dark-haired man said deviously before shutting his eyes and puckering his lips, his fingers still prodding Usagi's sides.
Usagi let out another squeal of laughter before he felt her soft lips meet his own. Sure, Mamoru had kissed a few girls in the past. Hell, Usagi had kissed him a handful of times in the past day but there was something about this particular kiss that was different. It was sweet and Mamoru could tell instantly and Usagi was pouring her love out for him in it.
The kiss made Mamoru's head spin and he could hear his heartbeat in his ears and feel it beating erratically in his chest. He had read or maybe even heard somewhere that the first kiss with the one was more special than one's actual first kiss, it was like the first kiss of all kisses that you shared with this person and when you experienced this particular kiss one knew immediately.
For Chiba Mamoru, this was that kiss.
