Crystal Tokyo Shorts: The Love Triangle of Venus

Chapter Seven – Paper Scraps

Characters – V, M &K

by Vchanny

General disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters in this story.

"Mako-CHAN! Help me! I can't make it PRETTY."

Makoto jolted around at the outburst, nearly shearing the rose bud she was regarding from it's stem. When in the greenhouse, she tended to get engrossed in what she was doing, the rest of the world faded into the still background. Minako's sudden, boisterous appearance caught her off guard. "What the heck, Minako!? You nearly gave me a heart attack. What was it? What's wrong?"

The blonde senshi unloaded the items she'd hauled in into a heap on an empty table nearby. "This!" she exclaimed in exasperation.

Mako got up to inspect the mess that had just been tossed onto the table. There was ribbon, paper, sequins, glitter. Gods... glitter. Did Minako not know how obnoxious glitter was to clean up? Herpes of the craft world is what it is. "But, what is it?" She looked it over again, head cocked to the side.

Minako let out a heavy sigh. "It's supposed to be a birthday card." She paused momentarily, before crossing her arms. "But, I'm not good at this sort of thing! And I totally screwed it up!" Arms in the air, she paced away, irritated at her failure.

Mako poked the pile, trying to examine what the "card" looked like. "Uh... for who?" Ack! Glitter. She quickly brushed her hands together to try to get it off her fingers. It was probably too late. She'd be finding specks of it for weeks, she was sure.

"Oh." She stopped pacing. "Kunzite."

Makoto let out a healthy chuckle, which led to her blonde counterpart giving her a playful shove. Which, then led to more laughter. When the laughter subsided, she apologized and poked the pile again. "I, just, don't understand what is going on with this card. Or why you decided to go the homemade route. Wouldn't it have been easier to just go buy one?"

"Of course it would! But for Christmas, he got a hand made card from one of the girls in the palace, and he left it on the shelf in his office much longer than he left MINE-"she paused, and slowed. "I mean, the other store bought cards. And, I figured, that I would make him a special card for his birthday, since he seems to appreciate them more."

Mako smiled, and laughed a little internally. Minako had been denying that she and Kunzite were anything more than just friends, co-workers even, for months—even though Mako knew better. Well, really, every one knew better. The side glances they shared while in the same room, slinking off together whenever the situation allowed, unnecessary "meetings" after the day was over. They weren't fooling anyone.

Everyone else had paired up with their former lovers, and been pretty open about it, but for some reason, Minako was dismissing any rumor before it even made it's rounds through the palace. Mako knew her friend was battling the idea of forgiving at first, and probably had the hardest time with it, other than Rei. But, she wondered if the presence of her other suitor, Ace, was the issue now. Or maybe her friend just wanted these matters to stay private? Either way, no amount of trying to hide it, would keep Mako from seeing the truth. Minako was a lot of things, but the ability to obscure her feelings was not one of her strong suits. "Well," she started finally, "Let's see what we can do to salvage... this."

"So, you'll help?!"

"Of course! First things first, though." She pointed toward the door. "Bring me the trash can. We've got to start from scratch."

-

There was a knock at his door. Kunzite, looked up from his paperwork, to see Venus already poking her head through, even though he hadn't invited her in. Anyone else, anyone but her, would have gotten a short speech about the politeness of knocking, and possibly been told to start again. But, her, really, she could do no wrong in his mind.

Her visit was really nothing of importance. Just some of the typical day-to-day sort of thing. But he caught her doing it again. His birthday had been a month ago almost, but at regular intervals since, she'd been stopping at his office, and discretely, or so she thought at least, been looking at the shelves in his office. One by one, he'd been tossing birthday cards. Today, hers was the only one left on the shelf. He observed a small grin cross her face the moment she noticed. It lasted only a moment, but he saw it. And he grinned a little, too.

AN: I know, I know. How freaking mean to post something so short after not posting in MONTHS? Sorry! You know, it's funny, because I have two, count them two, chapters on my computer that are done/nearly done. I swear I thought I had posted the first, but realized here recently, that I hadn't. . It's okay, though, because it needs tweeking anyway. I think I may melt them into one super chapter.

This chapter came to me a day or two ago, while I was trying to do some birthday craft for my son. (Oh my gawd, he turns ONE tomorrow. ONE! Where did the time go? *sniffle*) I threw my hands in the air, and was like "What the fuck ever. It's just not going to be PRETTY. I don't care anymore!" and slapped it together. He's not really going to care anyway, right? XD Or remember. It's not like, when he's looking through pictures in the future, he's going to be like, "Mom, those decorations you made my first birthday were a little sloppy, eh?"

So, hopefully, now that he's older, and sleeping (thank the gods!), perhaps I can get back to updating a little more often. Crystal has my gears turning, and now that I don't operate on a few hours of sleep at a time, my brain seems to be functioning on a near-normal level.