AN: Well, hello there, dear readers! I'm in a giving mood this weekend, so here's the second chapter of this fun little story. It is still rated M, I promise you'll know why we it gets here ;) but this is a slow burning thing, and it's going to take a little time, so just bear with me!
A even bigger thanks than normal to FloraOne, who not only gave me the prompt for this story, but also brainstormed plot with me, and held my hand through writing a scene with so many characters whose personalities all have to come through. This story is what it is because of her 3
The next chapter will be out sometime next week, but in the meantime, I hope you enjoy, and I love your feedback and comments!
Mamoru stood, staring at himself in the bathroom mirror. It was 5:55pm. Usagi would be here any second. The girl he was head over heels in love with would be in his apartment, any second. He was not emotionally prepared for this.
Turning the sink on, he splashed cold water on his face, shaking his head to try and clear the thoughts racing around his mind. 5:57pm. Oh, God…
Upon leaving the bathroom, Mamoru paced the living room attempting to find any dust particle that had escaped his weekly scrubbing. Of course, there were none. He kept his apartment immaculately clean, immaculately decorated and immaculately devoid of any warmth.
He sat down on the couch with a loud sigh, running his hands through his hair, as he often did when he was nervous. It was 6:00 o'clock. She should be there by now. Mamoru began to worry.
What if something had happened to her? Had she been attacked? Should he go look for her?
But then his brain settled on the more likely scenario. Usagi just wasn't coming. And why would she?
From her reaction to her father's pleas the week before, Mamoru knew she didn't want to be tutored by him, probably didn't even want to be around him. His heart sank with the thought of it.
He hadn't said yes for the money. There were few things in the world Mamoru cared about less than money. He had, obviously, agreed to tutor her because it was a chance to be around her. To be able have a reason to sit in her presence and soak in everything that she was. But the horrified look on her face had almost made him regret his decision. Almost.
Spending time with Usagi could never be a bad thing, he'd decided, even if she did loathe him, didn't see him as anything other than an annoying upperclassmen. He would take it….even if she hated every second of it. And if she never loved him back, which he was convinced she never would, he would love her enough for the both of them. Plus, if her grades improved as a consequence, it wasn't exactly like he was taking advantage of the situation, right?
But as the minutes ticked away past six, he became more and more convinced she wasn't coming.
At 6:18, Mamoru had all but given up. As he rose to go to his bedroom to read for the rest of the night, he heard a faint knock on the door. It was so soft, it was almost as if the person on the other side had hoped it wouldn't be heard.
Must be Usagi.
Mamoru walked toward the door, taking a deep breath to steady himself. Slowly opening the door, he found a very tense looking Usagi on the other side.
"How nice of you to grace me with your presence, Odango," he deadpanned.
"Shut up, Mamoru-baka. I got lost on the way here," she replied, a deep frown on her face as she pushed past him to come inside.
"Why am I not surprised?" A smirk made it's way onto his face.
"You're an ass, you know that?" Usagi stood, glaring at him with her hands on her hips.
"At your service, mi'lady," Mamoru bowed to her deeply, the teasing evident in his voice.
"Ooooo, you are so annoying! I knew this was going to be a disaster." The frown had disappeared from Usagi's face, and had been replaced by a look of...affection? No, that couldn't possibly be it. It was time to steer this in another direction, before he convinced himself it was possible she might feel the same way he did.
"Odango, go get your homework out, while I get us something to drink. Would you like a soda?" he asked, grinning as her eyes immediately lit up, and her head nodded enthusiastically. "Alright, I'll be right back. Uh...make yourself at home."
As soon as he was out of Usagi's line of sight, he closed his eyes and breathed in deeply. She was there. She had come. He had never known it was possible to be so relieved and terrified at the same time. But then again, Usagi messed with his emotions more than anyone ever had. This new feeling shouldn't exactly come as a surprise.
When Mamoru returned to his living room, drinks in hand, he found Usagi looking around at the paintings on his walls. She seemed to be completely entranced by the colorful art, and his heart leapt when he saw her eyes widen with glee at the grand piano he had sitting near the windows. It had been his mother's, one of the only things of her that remained.
She loved music, he knew, especially the piano. Mamoru had heard her talking to Ami about it once when they were all sitting at the fruit parlor. Usagi had always wanted to play, but had never learned, so instead, she just enjoyed listening to the instrument. She also loved to watch pianists work. "It's like I'm under a spell when I watch someone play," she had said to Ami with awe in her eyes. It was one of the many pieces of information he had stored away about her. Just another thing that made him love her all the more.
Mamoru cleared his throat lightly to make her aware of his presence. She turned toward him, a deep blush coming across her cheeks as if she were a child who'd been caught with their hand in a cookie jar.
In an effort to cover up her embarrassment, Usagi spoke, "You know, Mamoru-baka, this really is a nice place you've got here. These paintings are beautiful." She said it with such sincerity that his breath caught.
"Thanks, Odango. It's nice to know you can appreciate things in life other than sleeping, eating and shopping," he winked at her, setting the drinks down on the coffee table.
"I'm going to do you a favor and ignore that comment." But she stuck her tongue out at him for good measure.
Usagi looked at the piano and then back at him, "Do you play?"
"A bit," he said with a shrug of his shoulders. It wasn't technically a lie. Just because he could play a bit better than most people in the world, had been playing since he was three and was the son of a world-renowned pianist didn't make what he'd said a falsehood.
But he was instantly upset at himself for not allowing her to see into his life. He loved her! Shouldn't he try to let her in?
The realization that she didn't feel the same hit him harder than it ever had before, and kept him from opening himself up to her, content to stay in the shadows as he always had. It was safer there.
An awkward silence hung in the air between them. Usagi cocked her head to the side, and studied him, a quizzical expression on her face. "Say, Mamoru-baka, where are your parents? Are they out or something?"
Mamoru had known this question would come up eventually, he just hadn't expected "eventually" to be ten minutes after her arrival.
His parents had died when he was ten. Mamoru's father, a painter, and his mother, a concert pianist, had been driving back from an exhibition when his father missed a turn, causing the car to fall into a deep ravine.
For all intents and purposes, he had been alone ever since. There had been no immediate family left to take him in, so he ended up in the foster system, until he turned sixteen, when everything that had once belonged to his parent's became his, and with enough money to live on for the rest of his life, if he chose, Mamoru had gone out on his own, the call of freedom too difficult to ignore.
His brain was scrambling to find an answer to give her. Telling the truth was off the table. Usagi would only feel sorry for him, and he didn't want that. Couldn't stand to have her look at him with pity in her eyes. No, he would just have to give her the best excuse he could muster.
"Well...uh...th-they don't live here," he offered, his face never wavering from the steely expression he wore, even as he stumbled over his words.
"Oh…," came her quiet response, a confused look on her face. But she didn't question him further. She just stood, rooted to the same spot he'd found her in when he'd entered the room.
Mamoru suddenly remembered why Usagi had come to his apartment in the first place. Tutoring. Right. He put a strained smile on his face, asking, "So, would you like to work on anatomy and physiology?"
A similar, strained smile made its way onto Usagi's features, "Sure."
For the next hour, Mamoru patiently went over her lessons from the day with her. He had never believed her to be stupid. It was so obvious that she wasn't, with the way she took in the world around her. But it was easy to see that school subjects didn't hold much interest for her. She would rather be outside in the world living these lessons, instead of reading about the possibility of them in a textbook.
While Usagi still seemed tense, she was picking things up rather quickly, and Mamoru delighted in her joy every time she got an answer correct. But being in such close proximity to her was intoxicating. She smelled of vanilla and lavender, and every time he would breathe, she would overwhelm his senses.
Mamoru had to bite his cheek so he didn't sigh with pleasure as her hair would come into contact with his arm every few minutes. It felt like the finest silk he'd ever touched, and it tumbled in waves of gold around her. If this was all he would ever have of her, he didn't want to forget even the smallest detail.
All too soon, their time together was over, and Usagi was gathering her things to leave. "Well, thanks, I guess, Mamoru-baka," she told him awkwardly.
"Anytime," he replied with a smile, and he meant it. "See you at school tomorrow? If you can manage to not get lost on your way there?"
She turned back to him, already a few steps down the hallway, and gave him the most adorable eye roll he'd ever seen. With an exasperated sigh, she replied, "You just had to end it with that, didn't you, Mamoru-baka?" And with a flurry of skirts and hair, she was gone.
When Usagi was out of sight, he closed the door, and sighed for what seemed like the hundredth time that night.
Yep. It was time for another cold shower.
oOo
"So," Usagi began, "can I just say how awful it is being tutored by Mamoru-baka twice a week?" She sat, stirring the remains of her strawberry milkshake that was long past its prime.
Rei raised an eyebrow at her, "Seriously, Usagi? This again?" Rei had a tendency to tell things like they were. Never holding back in order to spare another's feelings. Usagi considered the raven-haired beauty to be one of her dearest friends, and she valued Rei's opinion above almost anyone else's, but her bluntness took some getting used to…
Usagi looked at her, surprise at the annoyed tone of her friend, "What?! You act like I talk about this all the time or something."
An unattractive snort from Rei was Usagi's response, followed by, "You do talk about it all the time, genius."
Minako, traitor that she was, was nodding her head furiously in agreement. "As much as I hate to agree with the pyro, she does have a point."
Minako was nearly a carbon copy of Usagi in her looks, long blonde hair, shining blue eyes and bright smile. But there were subtle personality differences between the two that made them as different as they could be.
Both girls were bright and bubbly, but Usagi's came up naturally, the emotions genuine. Minako on the other hand, while genuinely a happy go lucky person, always seemed like she had the need to impress someone. Anyone, really. But Usagi could see down the core of who Minako was, a feisty, heart of gold girl who always had her back. Except for right now, apparently.
"Really, Mina? I would have thought you of all people would have backed me up on this!" Usagi cried, frustration evident in her voice. This was not going at all like she had hoped.
"Sorry, Usagi-chan, but you're not fooling anyone, girl. You are in serious like with a certain tutor of yours."
Usagi couldn't believe the turn this conversation had taken. She had gone from expressing her distaste for the baka, and now they were telling her it was obvious she liked the boy? Oh, no they didn't.
"What in the world are you all talking about?" Usagi seethed, as she angrily began stabbing her straw into the milkshake glass.
Makoto, bless her sweet soul, seemed to be the only one who was even attempting to take pity on Usagi. She placed a comforting hand on the blonde's shoulder. "Easy, there, Usagi-chan."
Makoto gave off the appearance of being tough as nails, and she was. But there was so much more underneath that tough girl exterior that Usagi felt so privileged to be able to see. Mako-chan, as Usagi had taken to calling her, was an amazing cook, and had aspirations of being a master chef one day. She also loved to raise and care for all sorts of plants, and Usagi always enjoyed hearing her talk about them, even if she had absolutely no idea what Makoto was talking about.
"You don't have to admit to anything you don't want to." Makoto offered in what Usagi guess was an attempt to make things better. It didn't.
"Wait. What?! No, I don't like Mamoru-baka!."
Mina gave her a knowing, sympathetic look, "Suuuureeee you don't. We 'get' it," she said using those obnoxious air finger quotes with the word "get", ending with an overly obvious wink.
A growl was just about to leave Usagi's throat, when Rei cut in, bringing the conversation back into focus. She raised an eyebrow at Usagi, not able to resist stoking the fire she was certain sparked just underneath the surface,"Usagi, you're so obvious it hurts."
Usagi looked at her wide eyed, her mouth partially open from the shock of Rei's bluntness. "Wh-what do you mean?"
"Mamoru. It's so painfully obvious you like him, baka," Rei rolled her eyes in annoyance. "It has been for a long time. At least since he started tutoring you six weeks ago. Maybe even before that. I think the only one whose dense enough not to realize it is you."
She felt like she had been backed into a corner, and the only way out was continued denial. "You all are ridiculous. What on earth would make you think something like that?"
Rei couldn't help the smirk that came to her lips. "You really want me to answer that?"
Usagi remained defiant, looking Rei square in the eye and saying, "Yes, yes I do."
The look on Rei's face was unsettling. It was almost as if her features were saying challenge accepted, and as she began, Usagi winced.
"Well, let's start with the fact that you complain about him all the time. Without fail, anytime we're together, you gripe about how much you hate spending time with him, how much of a jerk he is, why did your dad have to pick him to help you?"
"I don't see what that proves," Usagi answered indignantly.
"It proves a lot, Odango," Rei teased purposefully, and she was rewarded with a look of anger from Usagi.
"Don't call me that," Usagi seethed through clenched teeth.
At this point, Minako decided she'd been left out of the conversation far too long, so she chimed in, "Why? Because only Mamoru can call you Odango?"
Usagi turned furious eyes towards Minako. "Minnnakkkoo…." she growled out, while Minako simply continued to sip away at her drink.
Rei decided it was time for her to continue to help Usagi see the error of her denials. Grinning at the exchange between Usagi and Minako, she snickered with approval, and then continued, "I've heard you talk about other people who upset you or frustrate you. You never get so worked up about them, nor do you repeatedly bring them up. It's almost like you want us to validate your 'hate' towards him, because you're too scared to admit to yourself that you like him."
A stricken expression crossed Usagi's face, which she quickly replace with a scowl, remembering her audience. She licked her lips, in an effort to buy herself more time to form her next thought. She spoke with an iciness in her voice that startled the other girls at the table, "And what other interesting insights do you have into my feelings, Rei?"
"Odango, you can deny it all you want, but you come alive when you fight with the guy. Even Minako noticed it, and that's saying something."
Mina enthusiastically nodded her agreement, until she realized she had been insulted, opening her mouth to protest, but the conversation didn't stop, as they ignored her and continued.
Usagi looked at Rei with alarm etched into her features, "What?"
"Open your eyes, baka. Stop trying to squelch your feelings, because you're afraid. Own them. And for the love of all that's good, PLEASE stop complaining about him. It's so predictable, it's sad."
Angry didn't even begin to describe the emotions coursing through Usagi at that moment. How dare they sit there, telling her what she felt? Of course, if she stopped to think about it...
"Ok, so, maybe I don't hate him. But only because he's somewhat decent looking. Even I can admit that. And I guess he can be sweet. Sometimes. When he's not being a complete ass, which is practically never. But I DON'T like him!"
Usagi felt a sense of relief as Mako-chan came to her rescue once again. "Ok, Rei, I think that's enough. You shouldn't go getting her hopes up like that."
Rei, glowered at her. "What exactly am I getting her hopes up about?"
It was Mina's turn to chime in, with a deep sigh, "Oh, right. That Mamoru still likes you, obviously."
A deep frown crossed Rei's face. "What? You guys are crazy. No, he doesn't."
"Uh, yeah he does. He told you you were a "special girl" when you broke up with him, and you still meet with him once a week. If that doesn't scream that he still likes you, I don't know what does," Mina continued with Makoto nodding in agreement.
Usagi felt deflated. Even she had to admit that it did appear Mamoru still had feelings for Rei. Not to mention the fact that Rei was the only person she had ever seen the baka be consistently nice to. Well, besides Ami, but they seemed to be fairly good friends.
"They're right, Rei," Usagi said quietly. All three girls sitting at the table with her noticed the dejected tone in her voice.
Rei's eyebrows raised as she slowly shook her head in denial. "You all are nuts. Mamoru and I are just friends. He's like my brother, and I'm like a sister to him. He doesn't feel anything more for me than that. I think I would know," she finished with annoyance.
Usagi didn't understand the feelings that were coursing through her, didn't have the energy to sort through them after everything that had come to light in the conversation they were currently having. She stared blankly at the table, until a voice pushed through her thoughts.
"Hey, Usagi. Why don't you tell us what was so annoying to you at your last meeting?" Rei asked lightly, her voice suddenly warm and friendly.
Usagi knew Rei was only asking to make her feel better, but she wasn't about to turn down the opportunity to vent some of her frustration. She smiled, and took a deep breath. "Well…,"