Unlike the others, Mamoru had known early on that Serenity had a wicked sense of humor. The scab on his leg from where she had smacked him repeatedly with her walking stick was only now starting to heal back over.
So it came as no surprise to him, that when the next day they tried to take her with them to lunch, instead she decided to pour a bucket of muddy water on Rei's head.
"I'LL KILL YOU!" Rei screamed, chasing after the younger girl. Serenity ran from her, laughing so hard she could barely run. It didn't take long for Rei to catch up and tackle her into the mud as well. They proceeded to wrestle with one another, laughing like hyenas, and the thought that this could be a paid sporting event crossed Mamoru's mind more than once as he watched them.
Ami had an amused smile on, but Mamoru was getting annoyed after five minutes of watching them. This girl was nothing but trouble.
"Alright enough you two," he walked over, separating them and pointing to the hotel. "Go get cleaned up again, then we'll get something to eat."
Serenity blinked up at him, blue eyes focused as she tried to pick out words she recognized. "Clean," she repeated. He nodded his head, pointing back at their hotel. She smiled like she'd won the lottery and ran off.
"Wait!" Ami called after her, replacing Rei as the chasing party to girl. "You don't have a room key," she mumbled to herself.
Rei was as angry as a wet cat. She wiped her sticky hands on her ruined jeans, glaring at Serenity as she ran. "This is war," she said.
Mamoru laughed. "Don't be overdramatic. I know you're miss priss," Rei turned her glare to him, "but you were laughing just as hard as she was."
Rei huffed and tried to cross her arms and gave up when she realized she was just spreading more mud onto her clothes. "I'll get even," she muttered.
He bent down and picked up the bucket, filling it up in the nearby river. "What are you doing," Rei asked, apprehensive.
"There is only one shower in the room," her eyes widened in shock as he dumped another bucket of cold muddy water onto her head.
"MAMORU!" She screamed, lunging at him. He sidestepped her, letting her skid in the mud as she tried to right herself again. Her eyes narrowed, slinging a hunk of mud at his head. He laughed, wiping it off his cheek when she nailed her target.
"Feel better?" He asked. She bit back a smile.
"You look like some tribal warrior with some war paint on," she broke out laughing.
He pulled his clean hand through his hair, shaking his head. "A cultural reference, I should have known." He smiled at her. "Come on, lets head back too. That girl hates showers, she won't be long."
"She really does. Acts just like a little kid who doesn't want to their bath. You should have seen Ami and I the first night, trying to force her into the shower. She was like a wild animal."
"Always is," Rei let out a small laugh. "I can't believe you two are going to try to dump her on me," he shook his head.
"She might want to come back to Japan with me," Rei said.
"Won't work," he said. "She's got no passport, she'd never get through customs or security."
Rei reached out to play with her hair, a nervous habit, but she stopped when she realized she was still caked in grime. "I could always come to America," she said.
Mamoru stopped walking, turning to regard her like she'd admitted she had three boobs. "Are you serious? You'd drop everyting, leave your whole life behind in Japan, just to help this girl? A total stranger?"
She shrugged. "Not permanently, no. But I could delay going back home for a while, and go to America instead to help her adjust or find her family." She turned, looking him over like he was a wanted criminal. "I don't think I'd trust you alone with her for more than a day."
Mamoru gaped. "I wouldn't touch her!"
Rei waved him off. "You say that now, but you're male."
"Well excuse me!" He said, throwing his hands up in the air. "What do you want me to do, chop off my bits? Would that make you feel better?"
"A little." Rei gave him a devilish smile.
"You're sick," he said, shaking his head. "Sick in the head."
"Hey, you suggested it." She smiled sweetly, waiting for him to open the door to the hotel for her since she was still sticky.
"Take off your shoes," he commanded.
"Oh. Yeah." She slid out of her shoes, making sure she didn't track mud into the lobby. It wasn't a particularly fancy hotel, but it was nice enough that it would still be rude of her not to remove her muddy shoes.
Ami was in the lobby, an eerie glow reflecting off her laptop and glasses. As they approached, she looked up and smiled a greeting. "I just finished uploading and submittnig a catalogue of our findings to the server back homeside."
"Good, how long before we'll get a response?" Mamoru was excited about the findings, but also anxious that he might not get the funding he needed to actually excavate the ruins.
"Around 24 hours," she closed her laptop lid, giving the mud puppy Rei a silly smile. Rei tried not to burn red with humiliation. "Serenity should be done with the shower any minute."
"Good!" Rei huffed, stalking up the stairs.
"How did you manage to get her to take a shower on her own?" Mamoru continued before she could respond, "No wait! Don't tell me. You dangled a carrot on a string in front of her and lured her in?"
Ami rolled her eyes, "She's not that bad."
"I beg to differ."
"She's actually quite charming," Ami said, folding her reading glasses and putting them back into their case. "She reminds me of myself when I was younger."
"In preschool?" He ventured. Ami looked at him, face expressionless.
"You really hate her, don't you?"
Mamoru let out a tired sigh. "I don't hate her. I just hate how immature she is. If I had to guess, she probably got herself into that tree because of her own stupidity."
Ami shook her head. "The more I talk to her...I don't know how to say it." She paused.
"That's a first," Mamoru said under his breath.
Ami smiled at him, shaking her head. "No it isn't. But, like I was saying...she describes her home with words that would lead me to believe its local, she's familiar with the forest and plant life too." She licked her lips, "But, and this is a big but..." Mamoru waited patiently while Ami gathered her words, in his head wondering what new bomb she could drop. "She she describes it as if it isn't near this forest. The geography I could get out of her-" she stopped when she saw a smiling Serenity approaching them, hair dripping onto the floor.
"We'll just get her to point to it on a map over lunch," Mamoru said. Ami nodded.
"Hungry?" Ami asked her. A loud rumble from Serenity's stomach answered for her. The girl blushed to the roots of her hair.
"That's a yes," Mamoru said, glancing at the stairs. "Should we wait for Rei?"
"I'll leave her a note," Ami said, pulling out a notebook and scribbling a message onto it. She stood and went up to the room, leaving Mamoru alone in the lobby with Serenity.
"So...how about that weather." He leaned back against the couch, awkward near the girl with the sudden lack of company.
Serenity looked at him with a puzzled stare.
"Right. Weather. Hmm." He pointed to the ceiling, and then made little rain motions with his fingers. Serenity smiled, nodding her head and saying something back to him in her own language.
"You're too stupid to know what I'm saying," he said, watching her. "but I hope you live near here. Please. For my sanity. Live near here." He focused his cobalt eyes on hers, begging and praying internally that she would understand he wanted nothing to do with her.
She bit her lip, trying to understand the many unfamiliar words he had said. He looked so determined, but at the same time so desperate. The sound of footsteps interrupted them as Ami came back down the stairs.
"Ready!" She said, scooping her laptop up and tucking it under her arm where she had tucked Rei's map.
"Okay, let's go eat." Mamoru turned to head out, not looking back to see if Ami or Serenity would follow. It would suit him just fine to eat alone.
Solitude was his preference, and if he had his way about things, he'd dodge this bullet of a girl and continue to enjoy his solitude.
AN: Yup, so valentines event is full swing on my site now which means no more chapter updates for a while.