AN: Here's another chapter. The characters are pretty different here from the other story I'm writing – Mamoru is much more confrontational since they already know each other – so I'm trying not to make him too extreme one way or another. I hope this feels like how they would actually act!
Chapter 2:
"Odango Atama?"
While Mamoru's exclamation had sounded loud to his own ears, it had come out as little more than a whisper and Usagi left her table without a glance in his direction.
As he watched Usagi walk away, Mamoru leaned back in his chair, his newspaper now completely forgotten. Well, this is an interesting development, he thought. Letting his eyes wander a little low he couldn't help but admit to himself that the Odango had grown up quite nicely. Speaking of a development.
He snorted and shook his head. What was he thinking? He didn't usually act like a caveman, let alone think like one, even to himself. And here he was ogling some woman's backside and making rather disgusting comments to himself.
Not only that, but this was Usagi. As soon as his mind had wrapped around who she was, all his old memories had come flooding back. This was the girl who couldn't walk two steps without face-planting, who consistently arrived late to school and got detention constantly, who entered the Crown arcade either bubbling over with excitement about something absolutely trivial or crying over her latest bad test grade. How could this girl and the beautiful, elegant, intelligent woman he had just seen be one and the same?
Whelp, he thought to himself, rising from his chair, there's only one way to find out.
After charming the hotel manager into telling him that Usagi had gone up to one of the meeting rooms on the twenty-third floor, and having to tactfully take her business card in exchange, Mamoru decided to head up there himself.
Camping out in one of the armchairs of the small "library" across from the meeting room, Mamoru did his best to pass the time by flipping through the odd assortment of books the hotel had provided.
He was partway into a Nancy Drew novel – Mamoru would never understand how women could run in heels, let alone chase criminals – when the door across from him opened to reveal Usagi, in all her radiance, leading a middle aged man out of the room.
" – and I'll have one of my associates send you over those documents this afternoon." She said, smiling brightly as the man shook her hand.
"Ms. Tsukino, it has been a pleasure."
Well that clinched it. He highly doubted there were any other Tsukino Usagis wandering around Tokyo with that hair.
As they began walking toward the elevator, he set down the book and picked up his briefcase, trailing after them at a careful distance. He couldn't help but smirk happily when the man pushed the up button while Usagi pushed the down. Perfect.
He waited until Usagi had entered the elevator before he rushed forward to catch the door.
She looked up in surprise as he pushed the doors open again and made his way inside. "Oh, I'm so sorry, I didn't realize – "
Mamoru watched with an odd sense of satisfaction as she saw his face fully and stopped talking in confusion. He could almost track the dawning look of recognition and shock on her face, her mouth falling open into a comical 'o'.
"Why hello there, Odango." He drawled, in a way he hadn't remembered doing in years, "Fancy meeting you here."
There could be no doubt she brought out the worst in him, she always had. Motoki had constantly berated him for how he treated the girl, but he couldn't seem to stop. He would agree to stop teasing her, but only moments later she would trip through the sliding glass doors of the Crown and his tongue would unleash another insult before he could stop himself.
It was quite odd really. Before Usagi, had had barely interacted with other people at all, besides the conversations made necessary in school and daily life in general. And he had always considered himself to be a polite person. Maybe a little cynical and distant, but he had never gone out of his way to hurt another human being.
Not that he had hurt Usagi, of course. Not really. She had always given it as good as she got, and as much as he had hated to admit it, when he left for America a small part of him had missed running into her on a daily basis. Though maybe his body didn't miss the actually running into each other part. She had given him a fair number of bruises with her daily run to school that almost always left them both sprawled on the hard cement. Still, she had always made life interesting.
He had wondered, sometimes, what had become of his little Odango, but he never would have imagined, well, this. Beautiful, graceful, and apparently capable of conducting a business meeting. Quite impressive really.
So why was he leaning against the side of the elevator with his arms crossed and a cocky smirk on his lips as he watched, with growing amusement, her face alternately turning pale and a very familiar beet red?
Call it a nasty habit to break, but he just couldn't help himself.
"What? Cat got your tongue? Or are you just happy to see me?"
At that statement, he finally got a reaction and couldn't help his lips from breaking into a full-on grin as she let out an indignant squawk.
"Mamoru-baka, what in the heck are you doing here?"
"What?" he clutched his chest in mock pain, "No, how have you been?"
"As if." Usagi gave a very unladylike snort and leaned against the other side of the elevator in disgust. "You still haven't answered my question. What are you doing here?!"
Mamoru grinned again – actually, he found it quite hard to stop grinning in her presence. "I do believe I am riding down to the first floor."
Usagi rolled her eyes. "I see you're just as incorrigible as always, Baka. I meant in Tokyo."
"And I see your vocabulary has improved. Been practicing your flashcards, Odango?"
Usagi stood upright and huffed, looking about ready to stomp her foot; a gesture Mamoru remembered very well. "My name is Usagi! For god's sakes, I haven't worn my hair like that in years!"
Mamoru chuckled and, before he quite realized what he was doing, found himself moving forward until his toes touched hers and his face hovered just over her own, his breath tickling her eyelashes. She smelled like lavender. "Yes, but you'll always be my little Odango," he murmured, reaching one hand up to finger a small wisp of hair that had fallen across her face.
For one brief moment their eyes were locked – hers wide open in shock, so impossibly blue he almost felt like he was falling – and then the elevator dinged to signal their arrival on the first floor, and Usagi stumbled away from him, looking like a deer stuck in the headlights.
Mamoru himself was a bit surprised by his own actions, but tried to hide the hammering of his heart with a sardonic smile. He realized almost immediately that this was a mistake as he quickly saw the fear drain from her eyes only to be replaced by anger.
"I don't know why you're here, Baka," she exclaimed, shoving her foot in front of the elevator door to keep it open and jabbing her finger into her chest for emphasis, "but you just stay away from me. Okay?"
She pivoted quickly, then, and began walking briskly toward the entrance of the hotel, Mamoru following much more slowly behind, lost in his thoughts.
What was that all about? I'm mean she's attractive, yes, he thought, but she's still Usagi for god's sakes. They had fallen so easily back into their old routine that it was almost a little frightening. It was like no time had passed at all and he was eighteen again. Well, except for maybe that last part. He had never tried to hit on her before.
Not that that's what he had done, of course. He had simply...what had he done? Or more importantly, what had he been trying to do? They had never hesitated to take up each other's personal space before – half the time she had tripped she had ended up sprawled on top of him, and when they had argued, they had often ended up face to face. Still, this had felt a little...different.
He hadn't felt so out of control since, well since he left Japan. Since he left Usagi.
He was seriously considering calling her back to apologize – it was the adult thing to do, and dammit if he wouldn't prove to himself that he was past all this childishness – when he watched as Usagi tripped on the edge of a rug, fell into a bellhop, and would have taken them both down if she hadn't managed to grab onto one of the luggage trollies at the last minute.
It was too much for Mamoru and the very small amount of self-control he had around Usagi, if he had any. So he began loudly guffawing as she struggled to a standing position, straightened her skirt, and did her best to look dignified.
"Geez, Odango, you should start wearing a hazard sign around your neck!" he howled, between laughs, but these quickly subsided when he saw her face. Were those...tears?
"Shut up, Mamoru." She whispered, her hands clenched into fists at her sides. "Why can't you – after all this time – just leave me alone!"
He then watched in shock as she all but fled from the building. He flinched away a bit from the glares he was receiving from some of the other patrons and hotel staff, but they had to get in line if they wanted to make him feel guilty. Because right now he was feeling like a serious ass.
"Jesus, Usagi, I didn't mean it like that!" He muttered to himself, only to realize that he had. He had meant to insult her because that's just what they did. That's all he had ever been able to do around her. It was like all thought just left his brain and he could only act like a very stupid, very hormonal teenager. And suddenly, he realized he wanted more than that. Sure, teasing her had been fun, but they were adults now. The least he could do was apologize and see if she wanted to be friends.
Yes, he thought to himself, that could work.
Then, like a lightbulb, he remembered something Usagi had said to that elderly couple at breakfast. Something about a reunion.
Mamoru left the hotel whistling. It was time to go see Motoki.
AN: How did their meeting stand up to your expectations? Please review :)
