A/N: Thank you all for following/reviewing! I keep getting messages/reviews that are asking when the "good stuff" is going to happen, and let me assure you- all that will happen in good time; just be patient! (: I also changed the name of this fanfic to "It Started With A Photo" because...well, you'll find out later(;
I also realized I made two mistakes while writing the previous chapter: I wrote the color of Saori's hair as brown (when it's actually black), and I wrote one (maybe two) of Usagi's lines grammatically incorrectly (does that make sense?)….GOMEN! ^^''
Well, I don't think I have anything else to add, other than enjoy this new chapter! Sorry it's so late! School has been KILLING ME with finals, projects, homework, tests, quizzes…..yeah. -.- But at least it's over now! :D WOO, SUMMER!
ENJOY CHAPTER 4!(:
Disclaimer! I don't own Sailor Moon or Itazura Na Kiss/It Started With A Kiss!
Chapter 4
"Oh, no, Auntie. I'm fine, thank you!" Usagi smiled as she politely waved the lime green bowl that Saori, who looked upset that the blonde wouldn't have her soup, held her in hand. Usagi noticed this and immediately added, "I just have to finish dinner quickly so I can start studying, since exam time is coming up!" She shook her head as she spoke, her ponytails dancing back and forth. Saori grinned at her and nodded, putting the soup bowl back on the table and stood up with Usagi.
"Don't worry, Usagi!" She said, and patted the girl next to her on the back. "You'll do great! In fact, I'll bring up some snacks for you while you're studying! I'll even make some daifukumochi for you! Kenji said you liked those, anyways!" She exclaimed, and rushed into the kitchen as Usagi giggled and felt her mouth water for the longing of her favorite rice cake.
"Make some for me, too." Mamoru stood up, too, patting his mouth with his napkin. "I'll be in her room with her."
All of a sudden, there was an awkward silence and there was a clanging noise from the kitchen as if a kitchen utensil had been dropped out of the shocked holder's hands. Everyone, even Shingo, had their mouths in a large "O" shape, their eyes wide with surprise. After a few moments, without any warning, Saori burst out of the kitchen, her sapphire eyes gleaming happily. "Oh my gosh! Mamoru is going to be with Usagi! I knew you two would get together; you're so cute together! I must go get my camera!" She exclaimed, and turned around to run straight to her bedroom when Mamoru added loud enough for her to hear, "I'm going to help her study, Ma. I have no intention of doing anything else."
Saori's expression drooped. "Darn." She muttered, and walked back into the kitchen to make their snacks. Shingo stood up, though, looking very upset at Mamoru. "Onii-chan, you need to tutor me, though!" He complained, and Mamoru shook his head. "No, I don't. You always get first in class without my help, anyways. Come on, Usagi." He said as he started walking towards the stairs, and Usagi followed obediently and silently.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~What is it that lead her in the wrong direction?... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"So, in this case, to find the area of this regular hexagon, you need to find the apothem by using one of the six triangles that are formed since the formula is ½ aP in which case "a" is the apothem and "P" is the perimeter. So since the problem says that the perimeter is 36 cm, that means each of the side lengths of the hexagon is 6 cm. So if we take this triangle right here and split in half, we can either find the tangent of this angle or use the 30-60-90 triangle rule…"
Usagi stared at Mamoru's hand, which was writing the work in her textbook really quickly and in-tempo with his words. She tried to take in what he was saying, but his sitting next to her, teaching all this was so unbelievable. He was so close to her that she had to resist the temptation of laying her head on his shoulder and whispering, "I love you" to him. In fact, the closest thing to that she could do was—
"Do you understand it now?" Mamoru asked, his voice breaking her out of her staring and Usagi nodded slowly, staring at the work Mamoru had written with wide eyes, wondering how on Earth she would understand it.
"Then do this question." He said, and pointed with the eraser end of his pencil at a picture of a purple regular octagon, where, above it, it said in big black letters: "Find the area" and "P=40 in." He dropped the pencil in front of her and Usagi stared at the question. Then, she slowly picked up the pencil and drew a picture of a triangle and wrote by one of the sides "5 in". She looked up back at Mamoru's work and tried to make out what it was saying, but all the words were a bunch of blurs. Was that a 7 or a 9?
She bit her lip and then drew a line between the triangle, cutting it in half. She then slowly turned to Mamoru, who was looking over her work. "Go on." He said, and Usagi smiled a bit nervously, chuckling weakly. "Heh….uh…I didn't understand from there…"
"But didn't you just say you understood it?" Mamoru demanded, and Usagi smiled nervously. "Well, I sorta lied..." She admitted, and Mamoru's eyes widened. "What are you learning in class? PAY MORE ATTENTION! Or else I won't let you sleep tonight!" He yelled at her, and Usagi immediately straightened. "Yes, sir!" She responded as he grabbed the pencil out of her hand and started to explain the formula to her.
And about 45 minutes later later, Usagi circled her final answer. "Area equals about 122 square inches?" She asked, and he nodded, his arms folded against his chest. "Correct."
"YES!" Usagi exclaimed happily, got up, and started to jump up and down, her ponytails fluttering along with her. She looked down at Mamoru, who was looking at her, a black eyebrow raised. "Uh..."
FLASH! A bright white flash engulfed the whole room for half a second, and Usagi and Mamoru looked at the door, where Saori was standing, beaming, a bright pink camera in her hand. "Auntie?"
"Oh, my, don't mind me!" Saori backed away, trying to hide the camera behind her back. "I didn't mean to disturb you two!"
"What are you doing?" Mamoru asked, not taking his angry eyes off the camera in his mother's hand.
Saori looked down and giggled. "Oh, nothing, just keeping a memory!" She replied, and then looked at the two, her hands clasping each other dreamily. "You two look like such a cute couple! It would be wonderful if you guys got married!" She giggled again. "Oh, and your sweet buns will be made really soon!" And with that, she fluttered out of the room.
Usagi had turned bright red, and Mamoru, who seemed at the point of bursting at the moment, even had a tiny tinge of red in his cheeks. "Let's continue. You're doing well so far." He said quietly after a few moments of silence, and Usagi smiled at his tiny praise, nodding really happily.
Mamoru turned to her and rolled his eyes. "Oi, odango, we still have nine more problems left, so don't get too excited."
Usagi glared at him. "My name isn't odango! My name is Usagi! U-SA-GI. Like a bunny."
"Yet you don't like carrots. Odango atama." Mamoru muttered, and Usagi looked down at her textbook when something caught her eye. I'll impress him with my knowledge of this! She thought, and pointed at the sentence in the English section. "Mamoru, they're talking about coffee in this sentence, right?" She asked.
Mamoru looked at the English sentence at which she was pointing at. " 'Blake was a famous poet' ? Where on Earth are they talking about coffee?"
Usagi looked at the sentence again. But it seemed right to her...how could he not see it? "See, it says 'bu-rake', as in the English word 'break', right? Break equals coffee break, ne*?"
"No, it says 'Blake'. BLAKE. He's a famous poet." Mamoru replied.
"What's a poet? Is it something tasty? Is it a popular new snack?"
Mamoru's forehead met with the middle of his palm. This week's nights were going to be very long...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~She doesn't know how to or what to do...~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Are you okay, Usagi? You've looked really tired lately!" Seiya asked as he watched the girl he loved yawn and rub her tired blue eyes.
Usagi nodded as the school bell rung and her classmates started to rush out of her classroom quickly. "Yeah...I've just been staying up to study for the upcoming exams and all." She responded, and started to put away her books as her four friends stared at her in shock. "You're really taking this seriously, Usagi-chan!" Mako said, and Usagi smiled half-sleepily half-determined. "Of course! I'm going to prove that Class F students can get on the Top 100 list too, so Haruna-sensei won't get fired!"
Ami smiled. "I'm proud of you, Usagi-chan. Good luck!" She cheered on her friend, and Usagi nodded. "Thanks, Ami-chan!"
Seiya stared at her. "You've been acting really strange ever since you moved..." He put his palm on his forehead dramatically. "Usagi, you're just lying to us, ne? The truth is, the owners of your new house are making you work like a slave! Don't worry, though, Usagi! As soon as I can support you, I will marry you and take you away from your hellhole of a home! I swear, I'll- Usagi?" He looked around and noticed that he was talking to himself as Mako, Minako and Ami were watching him, not impressed. "Where's Usagi?"
"She said she went to the library to study some more." Minako said, and Seiya gasped. "She truly is acting weird...my poor Usagi!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~I say, how is this possible?~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"I got it!" Usagi smiled at her two-page long translation of one of the scenes from Macbeth. She couldn't wait to hear Mamoru's praise on her translation! He would truly be pleased with this! "Mamoru-" She turned around and saw the boy she loved half-laying on her desk, his head resting on his arms and his eyes closed. "Are you asleep?" She asked quietly, poking his shoulder gently, but he didn't move.
Usagi laid her head down on the desk and stared at him, half-closing her eyes. "Have I really tired you that much?" She whispered, watching him continue sleeping. "That's right...he's been tutoring me every night for six nights now..." She wondered. "Maybe my request was a bit too overboard..."
She looked back at her translation, and the other problems they hadn't finished. Yawning, she looked over at the sleeping Mamoru again, and smiled. "Now that I think about it, he looks just like a normal handsome guy, now. And he's just Mamoru. The same Mamoru I fell in love with three years ago..."
Without thinking, she reached out and brushed a lock of his dark hair away from his face to his ear and closed her eyes, drifting off to dreamland.
A few moments later, a knock came on the door. "Dear children, your- oh my!" Saori's mouth pulled at the corners as if there were a hanger in her mouth and she jammed her hand in her apron pocket. "Oh, where is it...?" She muttered, and then found her camera. She held it up at the couple and pressed the circular red button on the top right corner of her favorite item.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~She's willing to give up her dignity and admirations...~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Usagi stared at the small, pink envelope in her hands that Auntie Saori had given her before she and Mamoru had left to walk to school. She could still hear her words ringing through her mind, "It's a good luck charm! For today! Don't open it until after the results have come out!"
She had been excited, prepared and scared for today, exam day, for a week now, and had thought that Mamoru was like God for helping her so much, but hadn't noticed until this morning that his eyes had small bags forming and even his voice sounded tired. She had started to wonder if his late-night tutoring could effect his test results today, and had felt her heart starting to sink into her stomach. How could she do such a thing? What if he was so sleep-deprived that he didn't even make it on the Top 100 list? What if that effected his college life and he would have to end up living with his parents FOREVER?
Usagi shook away these thoughts. He would do great, just like he always did. Right? She heard the warning bell ring and looked up to ask if he was truly okay when she saw that Mamoru was about to walk into the 4-A classroom. "I want to thank him and ask if he's okay, but he's told me never to talk to him at school..."
Quickly, she ran across the entrance to the 4-A room, her sleeve barely brushing against his back. She paused for a brief second as she crossed him and whispered, "Thank you" loud enough for only him to hear.
"Good luck." He whispered back, and Usagi's eyes widened. She wanted to thank him again for the luck, but the bell rung again and Usagi dashed over to the 4-F classroom. "Good luck, Mamoru! I'm sorry if I caused any major trouble!" She thought, as she rushed over to her seat and as she received her test paper. She sighed and looked down on it and then had to cover her mouth from screaming.
The first question! It was the exact same question that Mamoru had given her six nights ago about the apothem and the area of regular polygons! And the second question...that was about how Lady Macbeth had wanted to kill King Duncan, right? "This is all so familiar! Thank you, Mamoru!" Usagi quietly thanked, and skimmed through her test, finishing it in an hour and a half later. And when Mako, Minako and Seiya sadly asked her how she did, she beamed. "I think it went really well!" She smiled as she told them, and Minako shook her head. "Well, I wonder if you really got on the Top 100 list. That would seem to really impress Chiba, ne?" She winked, elbowing her friend in the arm, and Usagi gasped. Mamoru! Her previous worries of his doing badly on the exam returned and she rushed out of the room, almost knocking into Ami, who had arrived to tell her that the Top 100 list had been posted already. She ran out, her ponytails fluttering in the wind behind her, and to the front of the list and saw "#1 - Chiba Mamoru - (A) - 800 points" painted in black ink. She smiled and rested her hand on her heart. "Thank God!" She whispered, her heart not racing as fast as it had been a few moments ago. "He truly is a genius," She thought. "Even after six nights with me without any sleep, he still got full marks and 1st place!"
Meanwhile, Mamoru walked with Motoki, who was wondering why his genius friend was walking to the wrong end, to the end of the Top 100 list and saw in black letters "#100 - Tsukino Usagi - (F) - 597 points". He then turned to Motoki, who, along with three-fourths of the people there, was amazed that a Class F student had made it onto the Top 100 list, and said, "Let's go, Motoki."
"B-But, you didn't even look if y-your name-" Motoki immediately shushed as he saw his best friend bump into Usagi, who turned bright red and blinked up at him. "Um, congratulations on making 1st and getting full marks again." She said, half-smiling, and Mamoru nodded. "Congratulations to you, too, odango."
Usagi was going to get mad at him for calling her odango again, but had completely forgotten about that. "C-Congrat-w-what?" She stammered and Mamoru pointed at the list. "You didn't see it yet?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.
The blonde rushed to where he was pointing and read her name on the list. "#100 - T-Tsukino Usagi, f-five hundred and ninety-s-seven points..." She stuttered, her eyes widening to the size of her odangos and starting to feel a bit light-headed. A few seconds later, she was screaming loudly, jumping up and down, her face ecstatic. "KYAA! I MADE 100TH PLACE!" She exclaimed, her hands waving in the air as tiny tears of joy formed in her cerulean eyes. She turned to Mamoru, who had his hand stuck out. She grabbed it and started shaking his hand very energetically. "Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU, MAMORU!" She half-yelled as people stared. Mamoru yanked his hand back. "Baka, not a handshake. Give me back the thing you promised."
"Oh right!" She reached into her skirt pocket and took out the picture of the cute, young Mamoru wearing a yellow dress with pink flowers on it. "Here you go!"
Mamoru snatched it and hid it in his breast pocket. "I've told you this before! Don't talk to me in school!" He hissed, and Usagi pursed her lips, bobbing her head up and down. "Right...but..." She looked down. Surely there had to be another way to thank him!
She looked romantically at the board and smiled hugely. Even though one was at the top and the other was on the end, at least they were on the same paper. Her previous attempts to move up into the same class as him didn't bother her anymore; they were on the same board!
Usagi closed her eyes and apologized to him under her breath. As he started to walk away, she jumped up and down again, yelling, "THANK YOU MAMORU!"
He stopped in his tracks and turned around, his eyes cold, but Usagi didn't care. She happily waved her arms at him, but then stopped when she realized something else had caught his attention. He was looking at a bulletin post next to the Top 100 list, his eyes wide and expressionless. There was a bigger crowd there than the Top 100 list, for sure, and everyone was staring at him, Usagi, and the board. Uh-oh.
"CLASSMATE TSUKINO-SAN!" His voice suddenly boomed, and Usagi could feel her breathing intensify. This didn't sound good, but her feet slowly carried her to where he was standing. He pointed at the notice board sharply and she slowly turned to see it. Half a second later, Usagi's heart dropped 50 feet and she could see why everyone was staring at her and Mamoru, whispering and glaring.
Up on the board was a picture of her and Mamoru from last night, both of them half-laying on Usagi's desk, sleeping. There was a big pink heart drawn around the two in marker, and a big, white sheet of paper was also posted above the photo, on which, in large purple letters, the words "TSUKINO USAGI (3-F) AND CHIBA MAMORU (3-A) ARE NOW LIVING TOGETHER! PLEASE GIVE THEM YOUR BLESSINGS!" were written. Everyone in the crowd was whispering, "Don't they have any shame, sleeping together?"
Usagi wanted to yell that they were not sleeping together, that they were just resting their heads on the same desk, but it would be no use. She didn't even know where the pictures came from.
"What is this?" She demanded, and Mamoru glared at her. "I'd like to know as well!" He yelled at her, and her mouth dropped. Surely he didn't think she did this! "B-But I didn't d-do-"
"I've told you before, Tsukino-san. Since you dared to write me a love letter, you probably don't care about this. Hell, you probably even love the gossip that's going through the school right now." He turned to her, his dark blue eyes piercing through her. "But it's caused great problems for me. Now, I'm telling you," He bent forward, his face a few inches away from hers. "Don't mess up my life. Again. Ever." He straightened up and walked away, leaving a heartbroken Usagi to fall on her knees and start crying silently.
A/N: Aww poor Usagi):
YAY! This chapter ish finally finished! :D 1/3 of it I wrote during finals time, and the remaining 2/3 I wrote during summer, at 11 PM while munching on hot cheetos, so I'm sorry if the characters seemed a bit out of character...I'll try to do better for the next chapter! ^o^ Hope you enjoyed this chapter! This is actually my least favorite chapter so far...woops. -.-'' The story WILL get better from here, though! I PROMISE! (: AND, LIKE, OMG! MAYBE, LIKE, A LITTLE MORE FLAME WILL START, LIKE, NEXT CHAPTER? Woohoo! :D
*- This is a reference to Sailor Moon Stars Episode 179, where Taiki recites one of Blake's poems, and he tells Usagi that "It's Blake". Usagi says, "Blake...Oh! Like a coffee break?" Hahahaha oh, Usagi (: 3
Review? (: Reviewers get some of Auntie Saori's daifukumochi (sweet buns)! (;