A/N: Yay, chapter 4! Sorry for the wait, everyone, but I am determined to finish this story at least. And Luna is making an appearance!

Summary: The most popular boy in school has placed a bet with his best friend that he can get the new girl into bed before the class trip, but she ends up being more feisty, and having more depth, than he anticipated.

Gamble
Chapter Four
By Melissa Moore

"You have got to be kidding," Usagi muttered under her breath as the teacher spoke.

"I have the utmost confidence that the two of you will do a great job and plan a great trip for us. This is also an opportunity for the two of you to find some common ground and stop your bickering," she all but warned, fixing each of them with a sharp, no-nonsense glare.

Mamoru was simultaneously horrified and excited. Being forced to spend time with Usagi? Win. Having to deal with her barbed wire tongue? Lose.

"The two of you will have to meet up with the other students on the planning committee once a week in order to get the particulars finalized before the trip. I expect the two of you to get along and be productive. And also to no longer interrupt my lectures."

"Yes, sensei," they muttered quietly. Without another word, Usagi turned to leave the room and Mamoru could tell by the stiff set of her shoulders that she was anything but pleased.

He faced the teacher again and said quickly, "We won't let you down, sensei." He bent at the waist slightly and promptly took off after the small blonde. "Tsukino-san!" he called out, following behind her at a quick pace in order to catch up to her. "Hold up! Is working with me that abhorrent to you?"

She froze in her tracks, slowly pivoting to face him. "You're right, I have cause to celebrate. I get to deal with your shameless, unoriginal flirting even more than I did previously. Shall we go get champagne?"

"Look, I only do that to get a rise out of you," he stated, smirking and shoving his hands into his pockets. "You're interesting when you're angry," he added in a quieter voice, looking at her with an unreadable expression.

She had no idea why, but she felt her cheeks warm under his soft, intense gaze. Yeah, he was the most irritating person she had ever met but she would be lying if she said she was immune to his good looks.

"Come over to my house on Sunday."

Her eyes flew open and her mouth dropped. "What?! Are you trying to proposition me for someth-"

He raised a palm toward her and shook his head. "No. If you want to come over, you can. I figured it would be nice to meet up this weekend and discuss some options for the class trip so we have something to present to the rest of the committee when we meet with them next week. If you don't, that's fine, we'll just have to stay after school sometime next week before the meeting."

She raised an eyebrow suspiciously, gathering her bookbag to her chest. "Will your parents be home on Sunday?"

Something flashed across his face but it was gone so quickly she doubted she had even seen it at all. What was it? Sadness? Anger? Frustration? She couldn't quite put a finger on it. "No. But if it makes you that uncomfortable we can meet in a public place. Motoki works at an arcade on the weekends, so we can stop by there. We might even get free milkshakes." He smiled at her then, and whatever had been bothering him before was completely gone and he seemed to be back to his old self.

Usagi didn't want to think about why that relieved her so much. She drew her lower lip between her teeth and stared down at his feet. "I... I guess."

"You guess?"

"I guess we can go over to your house," she sighed, looking up at him. "But if you try anything – and I mean anything-"

Mamoru held up his hands in a gesture of surrender. "Okay, okay. I won't try anything. I quite like my 'dangly bits'."

The rest of the week passed with some sense of normalcy and come Sunday, Usagi was standing in front of Mamoru's front door, trying to find the courage to knock. She looked at the watch placed on the inside of her wrist, noting that she was a couple minutes early. Good, she thought. That gives me time to prepare myself.

Without any warning, the front door swung open. "Are you just going to stand out here all day?"

Her cheeks heated as she looked him up and down. If she thought he was handsome in his school uniform, he was even more handsome now. He wore a short-sleeved button-down green shirt and a pair of faded blue jeans. His hair was still slightly damp from a shower and tousled artfully. She swallowed. "Sorry," she muttered, walking past him and taking her shoes off.

While her back was turned, Mamoru couldn't help but admire the view. She had braided her hair and managed to roll it into a very large bun at the nape of her neck. She wore a white skirt that flowed around her knees and a dark pink blazer over a light pink t-shirt. She stood to face him, one hand on her hip and as she spoke, he could tell she had put on some make-up. Her eyelashes looked darker and longer than they had before, and her lips glistened, inviting him in.

"Hello?" she said, one eyebrow quirking.

He shook himself and tried to focus on what she was saying. "I'm sorry, what?"

"Where are we doing this?"

A million perverted thoughts rushed into his head but he pushed them away and said, "The living room is right in here." As he turned to lead the way, he asked over his shoulder, "Would you like anything to drink?"

She walked over to the small coffee table by the couch and settled herself down, taking her bag off of her shoulder. "Water would be nice, thank you."

As he nodded and began to walk toward the kitchen, Usagi took the time to look around his apartment. It was very clean, even cleaner than her own house. The carpets were pristine white and soft under her feet. There was not a speck of dust to be seen. It seemed too clean, like someone didn't even live there. She noticed that there were no pictures on the walls, only a silver-plated clock that ticked out the seconds. Over on a table by the entrance to the kitchen there was a cordless phone and directly beside it was the only picture that could be seen. There was a glare from the sun on the glass, so Usagi couldn't make out what it was. Her curiosity getting the better of her, she stood and walked over.

She was surprised to see what looked like a young Mamoru, maybe about 4 or 5 in the middle of two adults, holding their hands. The man had dark hair and wore wire-rimmed glasses and towered over his son and his wife. The woman was petite with short dark hair and startling blue eyes that seemed to shimmer, even in the picture.

"My parents."

Usagi jumped and turned guiltily, fixing her gaze on Mamoru, whose own expression was unreadable. "Are they at work?"

Mamoru's jaw clenched for a split second before he smiled slightly. "They died in a car accident when I was 6."

Immediately Usagi felt awkward. She stared down at her feet, shuffling them slightly. "I'm sorry."

He walked over to the coffee table, setting down the tray of ice water he held. "It's fine. You had no way of knowing."

"So you live alone then?" she asked quietly as she walked over and sat back down.

His expression was unreadable, and Usagi wished she had kept her mouth shut. "Yes. Now, can we get to work?" He sat on the opposite side of the coffee table and as they went over ideas for the class trip, she noticed he was not himself. Well, not the Mamoru she was used to. He seemed quiet, reserved, withdrawn.

As it came time for her to leave, she tried to brush it off and gathered her things. "I think we came up with some good ideas to present to the committee this upcoming week."

"Yeah," was his simple response.

Getting frustrated, Usagi zipped her purse and stood. "Well, thanks for inviting me over. And for not pulling anything. I'll see myself out."

She was already by the door slipping her shoes back on when Mamoru came up behind her. When she turned to look at him, he smiled down at her with a semblance of himself. "I'll walk you home."

Usagi stared at him. Was he being serious? Never in a million years would she have imagined that he would do something so gentleman-like. "You don't need to do that."

"I want to," he stated simply, slipping his shoes on as well. He grabbed a set of keys off of the shoe closet in the entryway, pocketing them as he opened the front door. "After you, miss," he said in a stuffy tone, bowing slightly.

Smiling slightly, she exited the building with him close behind. They traveled most of the way in silence until they came across an arcade on the side of the street. "Wait," he said, grabbing her arm and almost instantaneously letting go. Her skin was like silk underneath his fingertips and he cursed himself for how susceptible he was to her. "I like this place. Motoki works here. Come with me."

She followed him inside and he thought for sure she would be adverse to the idea, but as he watched her look around, he noticed her facial expression change. She looked excited, like a child.

"I'm just going to go say hi to Motoki real quick. I'll be right back," he said, leaving her there among the flashing lights and video game noises.

Usagi didn't mind. She was sorely tempted to play some of them. Little did Mamoru know, Usagi loved the arcade. When she had allowance, she was usually found at one. She had never been to this one before though. Surreptitiously, she watched Mamoru walk over to the counter and make himself comfortable, greeting his friend with a handshake. As they began talking, Usagi heard a distinctive "SAI-LOR V!" coming from her left. Almost as if her body had a will of its own, she meandered over to the game and sat down, fishing for her change.

"So how is it going?" Motoki asked, raising his eyebrows in Usagi's general direction while he dried a milkshake glass.

Mamoru smirked. "She's practically like putty in my hands, Motoki. It's only a matter of time before she's begging me to take her out on a date."

"Hmm..." Motoki said thoughtfully, his eyes trained on an area near the front door in amusement. "You might want to be careful. She seems pretty aggressive."

Mamoru's eyebrow furrowed. "What?" And as he turned, his jaw dropped in thinly veiled horror. Apparently Usagi had been drawn to one of the games, and apparently it was one she wasn't very good at because she was currently nerd-raging and kicking the game, red in the face and spewing out a verbal smorgasbord of colorful curse words. "Good God."

Motoki held back a snicker. "She is magnificent. I envy you."

Without another word to his friend, Mamoru stood and slowly, carefully made his way over to the petite blonde who was rummaging in her purse and cursing under her breath about how she was going to 'beat the crap' out of the game. "Um... Tsukino-san?"

"What?!" she snapped, her eyes crackling with undisguised fury.

For a moment, Mamoru was struck dumb. She was gorgeous when she was angry. Her eyes which were normally a clear crystal blue color had turned a dark stormy blue. Her cheeks were pink with her rage, and her eyes seemed bigger than normal as she stared at him expectantly. Thinking quick on his feet, he spotted a crane game to his right and pointed at it. "I'll win you whatever you want out of that."

She blinked in confusion. "What? I don't want anything out of there. All I want is to beat this motherf-" As her eyes slid over to where he was pointing, she squealed and ran over to it. "Oh my God, this plush is so cute!"

Walking up to her side, he glanced down at the one she was cooing over. It was a simple black cat with large eyes and a sideways moon stitched into her forehead. It was, in his opinion, not the best one in there, but it was the one that had captured her attention. "That's the one you want?"

Usagi glared at him. "What's wrong with that?"

Mamoru held up his hands in surrender. "Nothing. If that's the one you want, I'll get it."

After many failed attempts and a few choice curse words from Mamoru, he handed it to her, mentally exhausted. "There."

Usagi beamed. "Thank you."

It was almost worth the effort to get it for her. Almost. Her unbridled joy at being given such a simple gift was unnerving, as was his internal reaction to it. Suddenly feeling uncomfortable in his own skin, he said rather brusquely, "Come on, let's get you home."

Following him out of the arcade holding her plush, she stared at his broad shoulders as he walked briskly down the sidewalk. Smiling to herself, she let the thought cross her mind that maybe he wasn't so bad after all.