She's Back... - Chapter Eight
Lady Nakosha
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This is the last chapter needing to be edited and improved! From here on, it's brand-new spanking chapters! The improvement stage has been fun and must come to an end, but all that means is as one chapter closes, another one opens with new beginnings and even more fun than the last!
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ALL STANDARD DISCLAIMERS APPLY
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"Operation RTW (Ruin The Wedding) has a green light!" Mina squealed excitedly. "It took some persuading, but I am happy to report that the group is back in action once again!"
"And Haruka agreed to this?" Ami asked, skeptically. She was more than skeptical; she was becoming increasingly concerned, especially since Haruka had now agreed to participate. They were acting half their ages, with their silly codenames and ridiculous plans; Ami was still baffled about how Mina was chosen as their leader. She loved Mina, but honestly, did she have to go so overboard with everything?
Mina's grin widened, if possible. "You bet your ass she did!"
"And... how does Michiru feel about this?" Ami questioned, matter-of-fact. Somehow she didn't think that Michiru would have accepted this as easily as Mina wanted them to believe. She hoped that Michiru hadn't lost her cool head and dived into the entire situation headfirst.
"If you must know, Miss Party-Pooper, Michiru doesn't know about it yet." Mina blushed. "Haruka wouldn't tell me why, but I have a feeling that Michiru wouldn't be so agreeable to our plan. In fact, I think that Haruka is afraid that Michiru might sabotage it because her conscience is that strong!"
"If only we had the same problem." Makoto muttered under her breath. Ami nodded imperceptibly, yeah, if only.
Mina glared at the both of them. "I think that if we had that sort of problem, then absolutely nothing would get done around here. We all know that we need me to keep things lively, to keep us on our toes, and to keep is from letting opportunities—such as this one—from passing us by!"
"Mina, you aren't thinking everything through, though!" Ami sighed irritably. "First of all, 'ruin the wedding' is really quite lame and unoriginal for a name and for another, ruining Rei's wedding is going to be a complete disaster if everything doesn't follow through as we planned!"
Mina looked downright insulted and aghast. "Ami!" She shrieked. "I swear that you're jinxing us and you don't even care! Jeez, can you be anymore pess—pessi—"
Sigh. "—Pessimistic—"
"Yes, could you be anymore pessimistic about everything?"
"I—"
Mina took a deep breath. "Okay, everything will follow through and even if it doesn't"—she smiled evilly—"then we can improvise! And besides improv on the spot can only make things more interesting and turn a strategy from boring and planned out to upbeat and completely spontaneous!"
Ami must have been looking at the cup as half-empty, as she failed to understand how Mina was looking at such a tenacious situation from the bright side. "Please—we all know that spontaneous is never fun when it comes to ruining someone's wedding! Honestly, Mina, you are just too immature for your—"
To avoid World War III, Makoto jumped in and gave each of her fired-up friends compromising smiles. "Now guys, we're on the same team, lets not get so angry about something so stupid, okay?"
"Whatever." Mina muttered as she crossed her arms over her chest. "But we'll know whose fault it's going to be when the plan all goes down the drain and to hell!"
"Mina, how did Haruka react to the news about Usagi coming back?"
Mina sniffed and turned her chin upwards defiantly. "Why should I tell you?"
"Mina..." Makoto began, her eyes flashing in warning. Suddenly warring with Mina didn't seem like such a bad idea. In fact, Ami seemed to be on the right track...
"Well, she wasn't shocked or had any emotions alike ours."
"How did she react?" Makoto rolled her eyes. "Because I'm pretty sure that we've hit every emotion that there is to feel. Our reactions were off the charts and then some; first there was crying, smiling, anger, a bit psycho attitudes on Makoto's part, and well, I speak for everyone when I say a majority was confusion and frustration towards a certain blond who keeps insisting on her way."
"I don't think Usagi has been asking a lot from us lately."
This time it was Ami who prevented another war. "Tell us in detail, Mina. This is important for our plan." Ami cringed at how primitive their conversation had sunk. She wasn't use to not sneaking quantum physics into the conversation and no one noticing.
But for some reason, Ami had the feeling that Mina and Makoto would notice and they wouldn't be very interested in continuing another conversation with her again, if she did try to talk with them about other matters that didn't revolve around boys, food, and shopping.
Before Minako could begin explaining, Makoto interrupted her with another question. "Hold up for a second. Did you tell Haruka about Usagi being back? Or how did she know about Usagi's return?"
Mina rolled her eyes. "Rei came over and told her about the wedding."
Ami filled in the gap when the truth flashed before her. "And she either let it slip accidentally or purposefully—"
"—So to insure that they would come." Makoto finished for her. Ami could see that Makoto's boiling point was quickly being reached. She couldn't say any less for herself; how dare Rei use her knowledge of Usagi's return to her own benefit!
It was so something that Rei would do, given her past decisions and actions, why hadn't they seen it before, instead of figuring that Rei had maybe changed some since Usagi had come back?
Mina wanted to say more, but Ami cut her off. "Alright, so Haruka already knows about Usagi coming back and she agrees to this ridiculous plan that you've concocted and got us to also participate in. I don't even need to guess on the fact that Haruka is in on the plan to get back at Rei."
"But what about Hotaru and Michiru?" Makoto reminded them. "When will they be let in on our little dirty secret?"
"Since Michiru is Haruka's lover, I'm guessing she won't be able to hold out for much longer. But then again, since she isn't telling Michiru and Hotaru—probably for Usagi's sake—it's hard to tell how long she'll keep it for. Probably until the wedding since she won't be able to hide those two from Usagi the entire time."
"You think that Rei told her not to tell the rest of them?"
"It's likely, but you never know." Ami told her thoughtfully. "Maybe Rei thought that by telling Haruka to keep the secret of Usagi's return from Hotaru and Michiru, she was somehow making up for the fact of telling Haruka in the first place."
Mina nodded in agreement. "Well, this only makes going through with our plan a definite, girls."
"So, what's next on the list, Mina? What are we doing now?" Ami asked, suddenly motivated to jump into the action. "Details? We haven't really discussed thoroughly what we're actually doing, only that—"
Mina's face crumpled. "I hadn't thought that far ahead!"
Confusion crossed over Ami's features. "Excuse me?"
"I thought that figuring out our outfits and getting everyone to agree to the plan would be our first priority and that, you know, everything would come naturally from then on." She flushed sheepishly. "Frankly, I hadn't thought that anyone would actually agree to it, much less us going through with it."
Ami gaped at her. What had happened to Mina being the optimistic one who looked at a situation with positively and viewed everything as a glass half- full? If she hadn't thought that their plan would work or that anyone would actually have the brains to want to participate in it, then why had she tried her hardest to get them all to believe in Mina and agree to participate?
Ami decided that for once she would be the one who looked at the fiasco through a different perspective. "Okay, this is just a minor set back, then. We'll just work twice as hard to work out the kinks and getting everything prepared, all right?"
"What? You—"
Makoto sighed and fell back into the cough behind her. "Of course. I must have been living beneath a rock my entire life to think that the plan itself would actually be a bit more important than the outfits. But that just shows you how much I know."
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Rei giggled as her old friend, Ward, led her over to the nearest vacant table. "I haven't had this much fun in a long time, you know." Rei slurred drunkenly as she smiled the best seductive smile she could manage in her state. "Especially since the girls and I found you here. Funny how fate works, don't you think?"
Ward swallowed with difficulty. Some kind of fate; the familiar tug of his crush on Rei pulled at the edges of his heart, it seemed that old crushes died hard, no matter how much time you gave them. "Rei, where are your friends anyway?"
Rei waved her hand around vaguely. "Over there talking to guys, probably. But of course I felt left out because I can't flirt with other guys since I am engaged to Mamoru."
"You're engaged to Mamoru! Right! Good for you for resi—" Ward stopped mid- croak, trying to preserve the last shards of his morality that he could. "You're getting married soon, so maybe it isn't such a good idea that you're here; especially with me completely trashed. I—I better get you home... he's probably really worried about you and—"
It was then that Ward realized that Rei was no longer laughing and giggling, instead she was crying. Lifting her violet depths to meet Ward's, Rei tried her best to focus on him, but she found herself begging the Earth beneath her to stop spinning so much. "I—I—" Rei blubbered, trying desperately to make sense. "He—I—cleaners came to clean and—and—his—I love you was—"
Ward, more worried and confused than in desperate desire, cuddled Rei into his arms and began smoothing down her hair. "Hey, hey, what's wrong? Slow down, honey, you came here to have fun, right? Why are you crying?"
"Everything is a mess, Ward." Rei sobbed incoherently. "Mamoru isn't worried... he only l—loves Usagi." Rei hiccupped uncontrollably.
Ward remembered hearing that name from somewhere, but he decided what where he had heard that name from before was irrelevant. "Mamoru loves Usagi? No, Rei, he loves you. Rei, how could he not love you?"
"You don't get it! You don't understand!" She kept repeating over and over. "I don't know. He loves Usagi!" Pushing herself out of Ward's tight embrace, she stood up and held her hand out, steadying herself. "C'mon, lets go upstairs."
"Upstairs?" Ward squeaked, fully aware of what people did upstairs. "Rei... no, no, this is a bad, bad idea—the upstairs is for people who, well, you know. Do stuff! The kind of stuff that you won't be doing tonight, unless it's with Mamoru, your fiancée." Ward felt that he was very close to giving up on resisting Rei and he was seconds from letting the words, "Yes, upstairs! To the bedroom! Just us!" slip off his tongue, but he thanked whatever self-resistance he had left for stopping him.
Rei didn't hear him shouting behind her, though. She continued stumbling past people and pushing her way through the crowd, trying the best in her state to get upstairs and accomplish whatever mission her drunken mind had thought up.
But when Rei started to slow down and finally collapsed into Ward's arms, Ward let out a gruff sound of surprise as the six drinks of martini on the rocks had finally taken their toll on her.
Making his way upstairs with an unconscious Rei in his arms, Ward quietly pushed the door to one of the upstairs bedrooms open and prayed that no one else was in there. He wasn't in any state near being able to drive them home and he trusted no one else with either of their lives, much less Rei's.
He supposed he could call Mamoru, but how awkward and suspicious would that be? They obviously needn't anymore mistrust or tension between them. His parents? What was he—fourteen years old? He couldn't really call any of his friends as they all were probably smashed themselves, unable to answer the phone without puking on it, and from what he had seen, all Rei's friends seemed to be here themselves.
So staying here was their only solution—or so he'd like to believe—left. Lying Rei on the bed, Ward let himself drink in her body's physical perfection. Her short dress made no effort to hide her long, bronzed legs. Ward bit the inside of his cheek; he was battling within himself, the good against the bad. And Ward, at the moment, wasn't sure which side he wanted to or would win.
Compromising with himself, he decided it would do no harm to just give her a small peck on the lips. She'll never know and so will no one else, Ward reassured himself as he propped his hands on either side of her and leaned slowly towards her face, his lips closing the gap between their mouths.
When his lips touched against hers, his resolve for a small kiss broke and snapped in half when Rei, with a passion that Ward never knew a drunken woman possessed, hungrily responded to his heated kiss and Ward let the length of his body press against her smaller one.
He inwardly smiled smugly at how perfectly their bodies fit together. Ward hesitated, Rei was his friend—she wasn't in her right mind... she was drunk and so was he, he shouldn't be heading in the direction they were going...
But when Rei arched against him in need and desire, his manhood forced him to push all thoughts of caution, consequences, and morality to the back of his mind and even Ward surprised himself at the speed he unbuttoned Rei's skimpy blouse with. But even as he viewed her shapely breasts and began kissing her, he still felt no guilt from advancing his relationship with a woman who was supposed to be "just a friend" and who was getting married in less than a few months.
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Mamoru tossed the phone on the bed and rubbed his eyes. He had tried calling Rei three times in an hour and still she hadn't answered her cell- phone. Her grandfather, who was one of the last people on the planet to not have a phone, was out of the question and he was sure that Usagi's friends wouldn't have any idea or care in the least where she was. But nevertheless, it was beginning to irritate Mamoru to no end. Was she acting so childish over the "I love you" that she was screening his calls?
Mamoru decided it was useless, trying to comprehend the thousands of reasons why Rei wasn't answering her phone. He wasn't going to even start to give himself another load of anxiety over his fiancée's actions. She was a big girl anyway, she did what she wanted and she didn't have to check in with Mamoru when she did something.
Mamoru unconsciously flinched. He still was wondering, even at this point, whether his decision to reunite with Rei was really the best plan of action. But after thinking about it for a moment, Mamoru realized that it was his only plan of action, but Mamoru still couldn't help but to dwell on the "what if" questions when he let his mind wander from whatever he was doing.
He still thought about how things would have turned out between him and Usagi if he hadn't gotten together with Rei that fateful night that essentially left both him and Usagi emotionally in shambles.
But Mamoru stopped his thoughts midway, already he was driving himself insane with questions that would never be answered. After replacing the phone in its cradle, Mamoru headed over to his desk that held some complicated problems that Mamoru had yet to solve.
Mamoru mentally cheered at this; with equations like these, there was only one answer, no gray areas to confuse you, and that was what Mamoru needed right now. A solid answer without gray spots to confuse and have him doubt himself endlessly.
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Makoto and Ami had been up for most of the night devising the "plan" while Mina had promptly fallen asleep moments after they had started, which had been four hours ago. "And she was the one who thought up the mess and dragged us into it!" Makoto muttered, throwing the sleeping form of Minako another dirty look.
Ami softly laughed as she looked over several papers. "Shh, Makoto. Calm yourself. We were both well aware of the consequences of letting Mina persuade us to participate to begin with, so don't think about it too much."
"I wish I knew what the consequences of being her friend would be when I met her!" Makoto said gruffly as she crossed her arms over her chest and pointedly refused to look at the papers spread out before her.
"Makoto just let it go. I know that you aren't that angry anyhow, you're just annoyed, irritated, and slightly crazed from lack of sleep."
Makoto looked at Ami with disbelief. "How can you let it go so easily?" Makoto continued to ask, even though she had already picked the nearest pen and pulled other pieces of papers closer to her.
Ami looked up from what she was writing and gave Makoto a smile that bordered between sugary sweet and dangerously insane. "Oh, Makoto, haven't you learned by now? I don't get mad, I simply get even."
With a look of understanding, Makoto also began also smiling evilly. Ah, so that's how geniuses work... "Looks like Mamoru and Rei aren't the only ones in for a surprise, my good friend, Ami."
The next day, Mina sat up slowly, yawning loudly as she stretched her arms above her. Glancing over her right shoulder, Mina soon did a double take. "What the—what are you doing here?" Mina screeched as she jumped up from the couch.
Melvin gave her a toothy smile. "I've been waiting for you to wake up, Mina. I've been careful to not wake you, though."
Mina thought it sounded more like a threat. She cringed, had he been watching her sleep? How... odd. "Why are you here, Melvin?" Mina asked, after finally getting over the initial shock. "How did you get in? Did you break into here or something? Why would you even want to be here? We never—and I mean never—"
Melvin almost went into a fit of laughing and snorting. "Why, heaven's no! What do you think of me, Mina? (Mina opted not to tell him) Of course, your good friends, Ami and Makoto invited me here and let me in. On the way out, they said the strangest thing, they said, 'This will teach her.' I wonder whom they were trying to teach. Hopefully it was calculus because I take great joy in teaching others that as its my favorite—"
"You—Melvin... what did they say to you on the phone when they called?"
"They asked me to come down and keep you company while they went out to work on what they were planning since you seemed so content sleeping. They didn't want to trouble you enough for you to even help them, which seems nice."
It suddenly clicked in Mina's mind. They were trying to get revenge on her for falling asleep—and they were, unfortunately for her, succeeding at it too! "Do you know where they went or when they'll be back?"
"Um, no. But they said they'd be back as soon as they possibly could." Mina almost laughed; she highly doubted that.
Mina fell back against the couch. She wished she could ditch Melvin, but she knew her conscience wouldn't allow it. Melvin may have been insanely weird, but he Mina wasn't so cold-hearted that she'd leave him when he thought that they were actually going to hang out together.
Mina's eyes narrowed as another realization came to her. And that was what Ami and Makoto were hoping for too; they wanted her conscience to overrule her personal wants so that she would endure an entire day—at this rate—with Melvin to teach her a "lesson."
Well, Mina had learned it, so could Makoto and Ami come home already? Melvin turned towards Mina with a hopeful look. "This is going to be a lot of fun. Want to make up problems and then solve them together?"
"Eh..."
At Mina's hesitation, Melvin quickly threw out more ideas. "Or we could take a look at a few problems I'm in the middle of designing. They involve a bit of trigonometry, which I thought would make it a bit too easy, so I included a lot of calculus type material and managed to even throw a bit of Game Theory in there, which amazed even me. The length of the problem so far is astounding... so are you up for a little bit of Game Theory and calculus in the morning?"
Mina sighed and bowed her head. Calculus? Game Theory? Whatever happened to monopoly or Candy land?
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Usagi groggily opened her eyes and realized that she was in bed. She also realized after a minute that she was half naked, with only the thin white sheet covering her and her form was pressed against someone else's.
Turning her head around, Usagi found herself centimeters from sleeping Motoki's face. Usagi smiled as his arm tightened around her and he also opened his eyes, which were cloudy with sleep. Usagi glanced at him curiously. "Is... was it my imagination or didn't you go home last night?"
"Yeah, but remember I told you that I'd come back today with more presents?" He smiled. "I came back with presents—they're in the kitchen and when I saw you here sleeping so peacefully, I couldn't help myself but to lay down with you."
"Ah." Usagi smiled. "I like waking up in your arms."
"Me too. It's quite the enjoyable experience." Motoki teased playfully.
Motoki opened his mouth to respond, when Usagi's stomach grumbled softly. "Ugh, I think that its time for breakfast, what do you—" she stopped mid- sentence when Motoki wriggled free his arm from beneath Usagi and turned the clock towards them.
"Oh no, it's seven-forty, Usagi!" Motoki moaned. "I have to be at work in twenty minutes. I have enough time to take a shower and probably get there in time since your hotel isn't that far away from the arcade." He frowned sheepishly. "Sorry I have to get a rain check for breakfast."
Usagi sighed, but she immediately brightened. "I can think of a few ways you can make it up to me." She told him cheerfully, though even Motoki could see the sly in her glittering blue eyes.
All Motoki could do was groan with desire and aggravation. "Don't Usagi or else I'm going to abandon any ideas of getting up from this bed to go to work. If you keep up with that look you're giving me, we'll be in here all day."
Usagi laughed. "I just said I know a few ways you can make up breakfast to me, that's all. You have a dirty mind, Motoki."
With another quick kiss on her lips, Motoki threw a towel around him and hurried into the bathroom, but only after winking at Usagi, signaling that he would, indeed, be making up breakfast later that night.
After the water turned on, Usagi dragged herself out of bed and immediately decided that she was hungry, but definitely not hungry enough to cook for herself. Curling up on the couch, Usagi clicked the television on and began flicking through the channels, not really paying attention to what the screen showed. Her mind was a thousand miles away, in the land of where love was uncomplicated, a place that she had been visiting frequently.
Even though she felt something she was sure was love or at least something bordering close to it towards Motoki, for some reason whenever she let her mind drift, it always strayed to thoughts of Mamoru that she desperately wished would disappear. She didn't love Mamoru anymore! It was Motoki who was in her life and who would continue to be in her life!
Before she could mentally proclaim this any longer, Motoki flung the door of the bathroom open and took the nearest comb and ran it through his tangled, blond hair. "Usa, have you seen my shoes and my keys, I can't—"
After taking a minute to regain her composure, Usagi pointed to the bureau and smiled slightly. Then she leaned over and pulled out from beneath the couch his shoes. "Viola! It is magic, how I find these things."
Motoki smiled graciously and took the shoes from her, but only after pressing his lips against her forehead. He gazed into her eyes, convinced that he if he just stared at her for the rest of eternity; he wouldn't notice anything else. "I love you, Usagi."
Usagi saw how soft his pale blue eyes had become when he uttered those words to her. After smiling to herself, Usagi said softly, "I love you too."
She watched as Motoki reluctantly pulled away and began unlacing his shoes. "I have to take a shower, I'll see you later, sweetie. I'll probably drop by the arcade or something."
Before he could come up with a response, Usagi swept into the bathroom and closed the door gently behind her. When Motoki yelled his good-bye, Usagi found herself pretending to not hear him and she turned the shower on to full blast, listening as the water drowned out his voice and the door banging closed.
Usagi wrapped her fingers around the marble sink and stared into the mirror, memorizing the reflection that looked back at her. She noticed how the familiar glow of excitement and bubbly enthusiasm for life in her eyes had slowly sunken behind the haunted gaze of years of betrayal, hurt, confusion, and pain.
Usagi inwardly scolded herself when she saw that a single tear had made it past her airtight barriers and was making its lone path down her cheek that had become flushed with emotion. But instead of wiping it away, Usagi watched as more tears followed behind it, until both sides of her cheeks were wet with tears and for once, Usagi did nothing to stop them.
She could only watch as her true feelings began to unravel and reveal themselves in their true form, even if Usagi was nowhere near to being able to accepting them.
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It seemed that not only were Motoki and Usagi the only ones who found themselves together. Only Rei and Ward seemed to be caught under slightly different circumstances. "Oh, shit." Were the first words uttered by Rei when indigo peeked out from between her half opened eyes as her gaze traveled up the arm snaked around her waist up to the face that, unfortunately, didn't belong to Mamoru, but to her long-time friend, Ward.
"Ward... wake up!" Rei hissed, her mind working over-drive as she tried to comprehend what was going on and what had exactly had happened last night. Let this be a nightmare... Rei thought gloomily. Oh, on second thought, let this headache also be apart of the nightmare, she silently added as she felt her head hurtle itself at a brick wall.
Thinking seemed to only welcome more pain. She remembered Mamoru running out of the temple, obviously distraught... something about cleaners coming and he needed to let them in. She had called up some of the few friends she had left, met them at a club she hadn't been to before and to drain away all her problems, she had gotten herself completely trashed. But before her third shot of tequila, she had met Ward—who, might she add, wasn't scrawny and not the same kid she knew through high school who had wore wire-frames and abused his privileges as a teacher's pet—and reunited with him before dancing endlessly with him to song after song. After that, things started to blur together and the only thing that made any actual sense was Ward's worried face when she started to bawl.
But maybe that was only apart of her imagination? "Rei? What's wrong?" Ward sighed from behind her. "Are you okay?"
Rei turned sharply at the voice, fully ready to demand an explanation for why they were sharing a bed—although at that point, it seemed incredibly obvious to her—and to tell her exactly what had happened that had led up to them coming to the broken and dirty bedroom they were in—was it his bedroom? If so, he was a real pig—and how it came to be that they did... whatever they did.
Rei shuddered at the onslaught of scenarios of what they could have done while Rei had been drunk, vulnerable, and completely easy. She prayed that Ward hadn't changed so much emotionally and mentally and that she still knew him as well as she had during high school. It was highly unlikely, but she hoped that he was still that same shy and stuttering idiot who was the smartest, yet most clueless person she knew who could never in a million years take a girl while she was drunk. He was kind of like... Usagi.
When she turned to face him, he blew out a stream of hot, morning-breath air and gritted his teeth together, still asleep. "Goddamn." Rei muttered as she moved away from him. She had to get out of the compromising position that they were currently in before anything else happened.
The state they were in... it was ironically like the state that she had been in with Mamoru. Only he was single—from her knowledge—and she was the one with a fiancée, reading herself to get married the next month!
Mamoru! The name shot a fiery arrow to her heart, paralyzing her with fear for a moment. She started to breath easier when she realized that he had run out on her, therefore giving him no knowledge of where she was because she hadn't contacted him once since he had left the day before.
Just as she slid out of the bed, stark naked, dry blood crusted around the insides of her legs, her clothes thrown at random parts of the small, windowless room—giving a very good perception of what had happened between them the night before—the door that led to who knew where suddenly slammed open, a dark figure stood ominously in the threshold, his jacket flapped behind him from the sudden burst of air that blew from the door opening.
Screaming, Rei grabbed the sheet to her breasts, disbelieving that this was happening to her, that Mamoru had found them out and that she would be left behind once more, this time not by her friends, but by her fiancée—
"Jesus, woman, shut friggin' up!" The man reprimanded, "There are other couples in the other rooms sleeping, fucking, and doing whatever else kinky displays of affection towards each other that they please." Rei heard the sick sense of humor in his voice.
Wilted with relief that he wasn't Mamoru and her secret was still safe, Rei closed her mouth, noticing with annoyance that Ward still hadn't awoken. Reading her mind, he smiled toothily. "Must have given him a nice night, eh?" Tightening her grip on the sheet, she glared at him through narrow slits.
She knew she must have not been at Ward's place... unless he owned a goddamned whorehouse. Is that where he had taken her? To a filthy, low- class complex where he could get some and then hopefully turn her into some sort of paid fuck-bunny?
Though, the man who still stood in the doorway, leering pervishly at her, made the thought not seem so farfetched and only heightened the repulse and disgust factors. But he seemed familiar, she had seen him before somewhere; she couldn't quite place his face—
"Girlie, y'all can't be staying here for free, so you better tell me how you're paying—cash or credit—or else you and your boyfriend are gonna have to find other means of payment." He cocked his eyebrows roguishly and hooked his fingers through the belt loops on his baggy blue jeans. "And for you... I can think of a few ways that we could work out your payment options without having to involve any money."
Grimacing, Rei shot him a look of utter contempt. "Yeah, no thanks."
He shrugged, miffed by her cool brush-off. "It's a good offer, and by all means it's still on the table, but don't even try to leave without giving me my fifty. I'll find you both and drag your sorry asses back here so fast that you won't know what hit you."
Rei turned away from him when he shut the door and stared into her hands. Is this what she had become? A two-timing slut who gets drunk, does people without even knowing them, wakes up in unknown surroundings, and then contemplates leaving without even talking to them?
Was she a magnet to endless come-ons from jerks and disgusting creatures like the man who had just brightened their day with his little visit? She had been so repulsed by him that she hadn't even thought of asking him who he was or where they were.
If Ward did own something resembling the playboy mansion, maybe he wasn't so far off if he asked her to become apart of the "family" that he had assembled. Maybe he had seen something in her that she hadn't seen before, but was only realizing now.
Of course, Ward was still sound asleep, he was completely dead to the world, and obviously he had had some to drink as well. Slipping on her slinky, semi-gauzy number that she had borrowed from one of friends—who, she had no idea up to that point—she sat on the bed once more, her eyes glazing over as she watched Ward in his slumber.
Was she even fit, according to the relationship standards, enough to get married to Mamoru or any other man? With her current temperament with men, she'd last a few months or so free of anyone else besides Mamoru until her true nature would begin to call for her.
"I can change." Rei told herself aloud. "I will change for Mamoru." She swore, telling herself that this was the last time that she'd ever do anything unfaithful or degrading to herself, her relationship with Mamoru, and finally, to Mamoru himself. She would prove to everyone that she was meant to marry and while at that she'd do a damn good job of it too!
Well, if Ward did happen to like her after this and wanted to get together with her—behind Mamoru's back or in any other way—she'd have to spell it out to him that she loved Mamoru, he was her one and only, they were getting married, her and Ward sleeping together was a giant, colossal mistake (okay, so maybe she wouldn't emphasize the mistake bit that much—pride purposes, of course), she and Ward could never be, and she was giving up her ways of being a slut, putting it bluntly.
And, she would also make it clear that she had no interest in him or any one else, besides Mamoru, as anything more than friends and that she would never succumb so low as to become a fuckbunny, no matter what he saw in her.
She touched Ward's face before pulling back. Too bad, Rei contemplated, that she was making this pact with herself. Ward was undoubtedly hot and could possibly even give Mamoru a run for his money in the looks department.
Just as Rei stood up, releasing the bed from the load that had been weighing her side down, gently rocking Ward, he made a sound and began stretching, his face scrunched up in shaking his asleep limbs awake. "Rei?" He croaked, glimpsing her smooth down her outfit. "What—what's—"
Rei had completely readied herself for any response. "I refuse to be your goddamn fuckbunny, no matter what you offer me!" She shrieked; her mind had blanked as she went for the automatic offensive play.
Ward stared at her, baffled. "What—I don't understand—"
"You know what I'm talking about!" Rei snapped, adding in the effect of rolling her eyes. After regaining herself from the outburst that even she admitted had been uncalled for, she decided to go for the cooler, but disbelieving approach instead. She'd be distraught, hurt, and if he gave away to her vulnerability, he'd be saving them more trouble in the long run. But if not, then before she grew too sniveling and pathetic, she'd coldly enlighten him and demand for any answers that he would give to her without so much of a whimper.
"But—"
"Just tell me why you brought me up here and where we are." Rei looked away, hoping that he had caught her purposeful look of hurt. "How could you betray me like this, Ward? How could you take advantage of me in the state I had been in? I thought you were better than that, I thought you were my friend!"
Ward breathed heavily through his nose. "I am your friend, I was trying to help you, and I didn't—"
"Oh, you were trying to help by sleeping with me, despite the fact that you knew I was engaged?" Rei interjected, curling her lip in mistrust and distress. "How will Mamoru react to this? He'll never trust me again—he'll kill us both!"
After a minute of silence, Rei decided to try again. "Just tell me what happened; all I want is the truth and something to fill the gaps in with."
Ward, still hung over, nodded and ventured into the long winding tale of what had happened, stopping at points to squint at the wall as his head swam with agony and to recall facts. When he ended, Rei sat on the bed, motionless.
Her first thought struck her as almost funny. So they weren't in a whorehouse and he didn't want her to be his fuckbunny? "Oh." She shook herself of her stupor. "You didn't really elaborate on how we got into bed together, though. You just mumbled off and said it something that just happened. Sleeping with people doesn't just happen like that, Ward!"
"I know. You were sleeping—sort of—and I leaned over to... tuck you in and my lips brushed yours and you just responded so strongly that I just... gave into your feminine charm and irresistible force."
She highly doubted that his lips 'accidentally brushed hers' but she let her skeptics go. "Okay," Rei decided that that this was as good as any time to let him onto her newfound realizations. "Well, I hope you know that this whole thing between us is going to go nowhere."
At his partially masked crestfallen look, she continued on. "You know it can't and frankly, I don't want it to go any further than it already has." She held her hand out so that he could fully view her diamond ring. "I'm getting married to Mamoru, Ward. What did you expect? Did you think that just because we slept together we're going to suddenly hook up and run away?"
Ward was silent, angry with himself because apart of him all along had been hoping that very wish. "I don't know, I really don't."
"Don't you know what kind of hell this is going to cause for Mamoru and I? Now on top of everything else, I've got to deal with infidelity. We've got enough problems as it is, this is going to only cause the rift between us to widen."
"Then maybe there is hope for—"
"No," Rei rubbed her temples. So long went her game plan; she was going from what she had on the spot. She hadn't exactly expected for Ward to argue her on this. "I'm not going to be with you ever, don't you understand that? Not because I can't—but because I have no want to be."
Her eyes softened at the look on his face. "You are a very desirable man, Ward, you're just not the man for me. Don't worry, you'll find someone who can fully appreciate you for who you are and who can love you with as much love as you love them."
He nodded slowly, letting her words sink in. "All right. But are you sure that you love Mamoru and that you don't want—?"
"I'm sure." She said firmly. "I love Mamoru and he loves me. Despite what problems we may have, we'll make it."
"But what about this Usagi woman? She seems to threaten—"
Usagi's name caused Rei to collapse onto the bed in weary. "Usagi is in the past as well as our present. She will always be here, but not in the same sense you are implying. There is nothing between them and I will prove it the moment Mamoru and I kiss on our wedding day to seal our vows to each other."
Ward put his hand over hers. "Rei I hope you are right about your beliefs because if you aren't... you are only going to end up hurt in the end." He smiled at her sadly. "And I'm not going to wait around for you, Rei, as much as my heart wants to because I deserve better. I deserve love."
Rei opted against hugging him and stood up. "It's been... fun, if you can call cheating on your fiancée that, but I'm afraid I've got to go. I don' t think that we can ever see each other again because of what's happened between us. I don't know if I could handle it, truthfully."
"Yeah... so this is good-bye." Ward looked at her sadly. "I'm sorry for the mess that I created by us sleeping together. I shouldn't have been so selfish and tried harder to find another way to get you home. I just wasn't thinking and my freaking testosterones just had to act up—"
"It's not entirely your fault." Rei leaned over the bed towards him. "Although, I do have one last present for you."
Ward's breath caught as her lips came perilously close to his. He started to pucker; maybe one last kiss would change everything and they—
"You can pay the bill of fifty dollars."
--- --- --- --- --- ---
Lady Nakosha
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This is the last chapter needing to be edited and improved! From here on, it's brand-new spanking chapters! The improvement stage has been fun and must come to an end, but all that means is as one chapter closes, another one opens with new beginnings and even more fun than the last!
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ALL STANDARD DISCLAIMERS APPLY
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"Operation RTW (Ruin The Wedding) has a green light!" Mina squealed excitedly. "It took some persuading, but I am happy to report that the group is back in action once again!"
"And Haruka agreed to this?" Ami asked, skeptically. She was more than skeptical; she was becoming increasingly concerned, especially since Haruka had now agreed to participate. They were acting half their ages, with their silly codenames and ridiculous plans; Ami was still baffled about how Mina was chosen as their leader. She loved Mina, but honestly, did she have to go so overboard with everything?
Mina's grin widened, if possible. "You bet your ass she did!"
"And... how does Michiru feel about this?" Ami questioned, matter-of-fact. Somehow she didn't think that Michiru would have accepted this as easily as Mina wanted them to believe. She hoped that Michiru hadn't lost her cool head and dived into the entire situation headfirst.
"If you must know, Miss Party-Pooper, Michiru doesn't know about it yet." Mina blushed. "Haruka wouldn't tell me why, but I have a feeling that Michiru wouldn't be so agreeable to our plan. In fact, I think that Haruka is afraid that Michiru might sabotage it because her conscience is that strong!"
"If only we had the same problem." Makoto muttered under her breath. Ami nodded imperceptibly, yeah, if only.
Mina glared at the both of them. "I think that if we had that sort of problem, then absolutely nothing would get done around here. We all know that we need me to keep things lively, to keep us on our toes, and to keep is from letting opportunities—such as this one—from passing us by!"
"Mina, you aren't thinking everything through, though!" Ami sighed irritably. "First of all, 'ruin the wedding' is really quite lame and unoriginal for a name and for another, ruining Rei's wedding is going to be a complete disaster if everything doesn't follow through as we planned!"
Mina looked downright insulted and aghast. "Ami!" She shrieked. "I swear that you're jinxing us and you don't even care! Jeez, can you be anymore pess—pessi—"
Sigh. "—Pessimistic—"
"Yes, could you be anymore pessimistic about everything?"
"I—"
Mina took a deep breath. "Okay, everything will follow through and even if it doesn't"—she smiled evilly—"then we can improvise! And besides improv on the spot can only make things more interesting and turn a strategy from boring and planned out to upbeat and completely spontaneous!"
Ami must have been looking at the cup as half-empty, as she failed to understand how Mina was looking at such a tenacious situation from the bright side. "Please—we all know that spontaneous is never fun when it comes to ruining someone's wedding! Honestly, Mina, you are just too immature for your—"
To avoid World War III, Makoto jumped in and gave each of her fired-up friends compromising smiles. "Now guys, we're on the same team, lets not get so angry about something so stupid, okay?"
"Whatever." Mina muttered as she crossed her arms over her chest. "But we'll know whose fault it's going to be when the plan all goes down the drain and to hell!"
"Mina, how did Haruka react to the news about Usagi coming back?"
Mina sniffed and turned her chin upwards defiantly. "Why should I tell you?"
"Mina..." Makoto began, her eyes flashing in warning. Suddenly warring with Mina didn't seem like such a bad idea. In fact, Ami seemed to be on the right track...
"Well, she wasn't shocked or had any emotions alike ours."
"How did she react?" Makoto rolled her eyes. "Because I'm pretty sure that we've hit every emotion that there is to feel. Our reactions were off the charts and then some; first there was crying, smiling, anger, a bit psycho attitudes on Makoto's part, and well, I speak for everyone when I say a majority was confusion and frustration towards a certain blond who keeps insisting on her way."
"I don't think Usagi has been asking a lot from us lately."
This time it was Ami who prevented another war. "Tell us in detail, Mina. This is important for our plan." Ami cringed at how primitive their conversation had sunk. She wasn't use to not sneaking quantum physics into the conversation and no one noticing.
But for some reason, Ami had the feeling that Mina and Makoto would notice and they wouldn't be very interested in continuing another conversation with her again, if she did try to talk with them about other matters that didn't revolve around boys, food, and shopping.
Before Minako could begin explaining, Makoto interrupted her with another question. "Hold up for a second. Did you tell Haruka about Usagi being back? Or how did she know about Usagi's return?"
Mina rolled her eyes. "Rei came over and told her about the wedding."
Ami filled in the gap when the truth flashed before her. "And she either let it slip accidentally or purposefully—"
"—So to insure that they would come." Makoto finished for her. Ami could see that Makoto's boiling point was quickly being reached. She couldn't say any less for herself; how dare Rei use her knowledge of Usagi's return to her own benefit!
It was so something that Rei would do, given her past decisions and actions, why hadn't they seen it before, instead of figuring that Rei had maybe changed some since Usagi had come back?
Mina wanted to say more, but Ami cut her off. "Alright, so Haruka already knows about Usagi coming back and she agrees to this ridiculous plan that you've concocted and got us to also participate in. I don't even need to guess on the fact that Haruka is in on the plan to get back at Rei."
"But what about Hotaru and Michiru?" Makoto reminded them. "When will they be let in on our little dirty secret?"
"Since Michiru is Haruka's lover, I'm guessing she won't be able to hold out for much longer. But then again, since she isn't telling Michiru and Hotaru—probably for Usagi's sake—it's hard to tell how long she'll keep it for. Probably until the wedding since she won't be able to hide those two from Usagi the entire time."
"You think that Rei told her not to tell the rest of them?"
"It's likely, but you never know." Ami told her thoughtfully. "Maybe Rei thought that by telling Haruka to keep the secret of Usagi's return from Hotaru and Michiru, she was somehow making up for the fact of telling Haruka in the first place."
Mina nodded in agreement. "Well, this only makes going through with our plan a definite, girls."
"So, what's next on the list, Mina? What are we doing now?" Ami asked, suddenly motivated to jump into the action. "Details? We haven't really discussed thoroughly what we're actually doing, only that—"
Mina's face crumpled. "I hadn't thought that far ahead!"
Confusion crossed over Ami's features. "Excuse me?"
"I thought that figuring out our outfits and getting everyone to agree to the plan would be our first priority and that, you know, everything would come naturally from then on." She flushed sheepishly. "Frankly, I hadn't thought that anyone would actually agree to it, much less us going through with it."
Ami gaped at her. What had happened to Mina being the optimistic one who looked at a situation with positively and viewed everything as a glass half- full? If she hadn't thought that their plan would work or that anyone would actually have the brains to want to participate in it, then why had she tried her hardest to get them all to believe in Mina and agree to participate?
Ami decided that for once she would be the one who looked at the fiasco through a different perspective. "Okay, this is just a minor set back, then. We'll just work twice as hard to work out the kinks and getting everything prepared, all right?"
"What? You—"
Makoto sighed and fell back into the cough behind her. "Of course. I must have been living beneath a rock my entire life to think that the plan itself would actually be a bit more important than the outfits. But that just shows you how much I know."
--- --- --- --- --- ---
Rei giggled as her old friend, Ward, led her over to the nearest vacant table. "I haven't had this much fun in a long time, you know." Rei slurred drunkenly as she smiled the best seductive smile she could manage in her state. "Especially since the girls and I found you here. Funny how fate works, don't you think?"
Ward swallowed with difficulty. Some kind of fate; the familiar tug of his crush on Rei pulled at the edges of his heart, it seemed that old crushes died hard, no matter how much time you gave them. "Rei, where are your friends anyway?"
Rei waved her hand around vaguely. "Over there talking to guys, probably. But of course I felt left out because I can't flirt with other guys since I am engaged to Mamoru."
"You're engaged to Mamoru! Right! Good for you for resi—" Ward stopped mid- croak, trying to preserve the last shards of his morality that he could. "You're getting married soon, so maybe it isn't such a good idea that you're here; especially with me completely trashed. I—I better get you home... he's probably really worried about you and—"
It was then that Ward realized that Rei was no longer laughing and giggling, instead she was crying. Lifting her violet depths to meet Ward's, Rei tried her best to focus on him, but she found herself begging the Earth beneath her to stop spinning so much. "I—I—" Rei blubbered, trying desperately to make sense. "He—I—cleaners came to clean and—and—his—I love you was—"
Ward, more worried and confused than in desperate desire, cuddled Rei into his arms and began smoothing down her hair. "Hey, hey, what's wrong? Slow down, honey, you came here to have fun, right? Why are you crying?"
"Everything is a mess, Ward." Rei sobbed incoherently. "Mamoru isn't worried... he only l—loves Usagi." Rei hiccupped uncontrollably.
Ward remembered hearing that name from somewhere, but he decided what where he had heard that name from before was irrelevant. "Mamoru loves Usagi? No, Rei, he loves you. Rei, how could he not love you?"
"You don't get it! You don't understand!" She kept repeating over and over. "I don't know. He loves Usagi!" Pushing herself out of Ward's tight embrace, she stood up and held her hand out, steadying herself. "C'mon, lets go upstairs."
"Upstairs?" Ward squeaked, fully aware of what people did upstairs. "Rei... no, no, this is a bad, bad idea—the upstairs is for people who, well, you know. Do stuff! The kind of stuff that you won't be doing tonight, unless it's with Mamoru, your fiancée." Ward felt that he was very close to giving up on resisting Rei and he was seconds from letting the words, "Yes, upstairs! To the bedroom! Just us!" slip off his tongue, but he thanked whatever self-resistance he had left for stopping him.
Rei didn't hear him shouting behind her, though. She continued stumbling past people and pushing her way through the crowd, trying the best in her state to get upstairs and accomplish whatever mission her drunken mind had thought up.
But when Rei started to slow down and finally collapsed into Ward's arms, Ward let out a gruff sound of surprise as the six drinks of martini on the rocks had finally taken their toll on her.
Making his way upstairs with an unconscious Rei in his arms, Ward quietly pushed the door to one of the upstairs bedrooms open and prayed that no one else was in there. He wasn't in any state near being able to drive them home and he trusted no one else with either of their lives, much less Rei's.
He supposed he could call Mamoru, but how awkward and suspicious would that be? They obviously needn't anymore mistrust or tension between them. His parents? What was he—fourteen years old? He couldn't really call any of his friends as they all were probably smashed themselves, unable to answer the phone without puking on it, and from what he had seen, all Rei's friends seemed to be here themselves.
So staying here was their only solution—or so he'd like to believe—left. Lying Rei on the bed, Ward let himself drink in her body's physical perfection. Her short dress made no effort to hide her long, bronzed legs. Ward bit the inside of his cheek; he was battling within himself, the good against the bad. And Ward, at the moment, wasn't sure which side he wanted to or would win.
Compromising with himself, he decided it would do no harm to just give her a small peck on the lips. She'll never know and so will no one else, Ward reassured himself as he propped his hands on either side of her and leaned slowly towards her face, his lips closing the gap between their mouths.
When his lips touched against hers, his resolve for a small kiss broke and snapped in half when Rei, with a passion that Ward never knew a drunken woman possessed, hungrily responded to his heated kiss and Ward let the length of his body press against her smaller one.
He inwardly smiled smugly at how perfectly their bodies fit together. Ward hesitated, Rei was his friend—she wasn't in her right mind... she was drunk and so was he, he shouldn't be heading in the direction they were going...
But when Rei arched against him in need and desire, his manhood forced him to push all thoughts of caution, consequences, and morality to the back of his mind and even Ward surprised himself at the speed he unbuttoned Rei's skimpy blouse with. But even as he viewed her shapely breasts and began kissing her, he still felt no guilt from advancing his relationship with a woman who was supposed to be "just a friend" and who was getting married in less than a few months.
--- --- --- --- --- ---
Mamoru tossed the phone on the bed and rubbed his eyes. He had tried calling Rei three times in an hour and still she hadn't answered her cell- phone. Her grandfather, who was one of the last people on the planet to not have a phone, was out of the question and he was sure that Usagi's friends wouldn't have any idea or care in the least where she was. But nevertheless, it was beginning to irritate Mamoru to no end. Was she acting so childish over the "I love you" that she was screening his calls?
Mamoru decided it was useless, trying to comprehend the thousands of reasons why Rei wasn't answering her phone. He wasn't going to even start to give himself another load of anxiety over his fiancée's actions. She was a big girl anyway, she did what she wanted and she didn't have to check in with Mamoru when she did something.
Mamoru unconsciously flinched. He still was wondering, even at this point, whether his decision to reunite with Rei was really the best plan of action. But after thinking about it for a moment, Mamoru realized that it was his only plan of action, but Mamoru still couldn't help but to dwell on the "what if" questions when he let his mind wander from whatever he was doing.
He still thought about how things would have turned out between him and Usagi if he hadn't gotten together with Rei that fateful night that essentially left both him and Usagi emotionally in shambles.
But Mamoru stopped his thoughts midway, already he was driving himself insane with questions that would never be answered. After replacing the phone in its cradle, Mamoru headed over to his desk that held some complicated problems that Mamoru had yet to solve.
Mamoru mentally cheered at this; with equations like these, there was only one answer, no gray areas to confuse you, and that was what Mamoru needed right now. A solid answer without gray spots to confuse and have him doubt himself endlessly.
--- --- --- --- --- ---
Makoto and Ami had been up for most of the night devising the "plan" while Mina had promptly fallen asleep moments after they had started, which had been four hours ago. "And she was the one who thought up the mess and dragged us into it!" Makoto muttered, throwing the sleeping form of Minako another dirty look.
Ami softly laughed as she looked over several papers. "Shh, Makoto. Calm yourself. We were both well aware of the consequences of letting Mina persuade us to participate to begin with, so don't think about it too much."
"I wish I knew what the consequences of being her friend would be when I met her!" Makoto said gruffly as she crossed her arms over her chest and pointedly refused to look at the papers spread out before her.
"Makoto just let it go. I know that you aren't that angry anyhow, you're just annoyed, irritated, and slightly crazed from lack of sleep."
Makoto looked at Ami with disbelief. "How can you let it go so easily?" Makoto continued to ask, even though she had already picked the nearest pen and pulled other pieces of papers closer to her.
Ami looked up from what she was writing and gave Makoto a smile that bordered between sugary sweet and dangerously insane. "Oh, Makoto, haven't you learned by now? I don't get mad, I simply get even."
With a look of understanding, Makoto also began also smiling evilly. Ah, so that's how geniuses work... "Looks like Mamoru and Rei aren't the only ones in for a surprise, my good friend, Ami."
The next day, Mina sat up slowly, yawning loudly as she stretched her arms above her. Glancing over her right shoulder, Mina soon did a double take. "What the—what are you doing here?" Mina screeched as she jumped up from the couch.
Melvin gave her a toothy smile. "I've been waiting for you to wake up, Mina. I've been careful to not wake you, though."
Mina thought it sounded more like a threat. She cringed, had he been watching her sleep? How... odd. "Why are you here, Melvin?" Mina asked, after finally getting over the initial shock. "How did you get in? Did you break into here or something? Why would you even want to be here? We never—and I mean never—"
Melvin almost went into a fit of laughing and snorting. "Why, heaven's no! What do you think of me, Mina? (Mina opted not to tell him) Of course, your good friends, Ami and Makoto invited me here and let me in. On the way out, they said the strangest thing, they said, 'This will teach her.' I wonder whom they were trying to teach. Hopefully it was calculus because I take great joy in teaching others that as its my favorite—"
"You—Melvin... what did they say to you on the phone when they called?"
"They asked me to come down and keep you company while they went out to work on what they were planning since you seemed so content sleeping. They didn't want to trouble you enough for you to even help them, which seems nice."
It suddenly clicked in Mina's mind. They were trying to get revenge on her for falling asleep—and they were, unfortunately for her, succeeding at it too! "Do you know where they went or when they'll be back?"
"Um, no. But they said they'd be back as soon as they possibly could." Mina almost laughed; she highly doubted that.
Mina fell back against the couch. She wished she could ditch Melvin, but she knew her conscience wouldn't allow it. Melvin may have been insanely weird, but he Mina wasn't so cold-hearted that she'd leave him when he thought that they were actually going to hang out together.
Mina's eyes narrowed as another realization came to her. And that was what Ami and Makoto were hoping for too; they wanted her conscience to overrule her personal wants so that she would endure an entire day—at this rate—with Melvin to teach her a "lesson."
Well, Mina had learned it, so could Makoto and Ami come home already? Melvin turned towards Mina with a hopeful look. "This is going to be a lot of fun. Want to make up problems and then solve them together?"
"Eh..."
At Mina's hesitation, Melvin quickly threw out more ideas. "Or we could take a look at a few problems I'm in the middle of designing. They involve a bit of trigonometry, which I thought would make it a bit too easy, so I included a lot of calculus type material and managed to even throw a bit of Game Theory in there, which amazed even me. The length of the problem so far is astounding... so are you up for a little bit of Game Theory and calculus in the morning?"
Mina sighed and bowed her head. Calculus? Game Theory? Whatever happened to monopoly or Candy land?
--- --- --- --- --- ---
Usagi groggily opened her eyes and realized that she was in bed. She also realized after a minute that she was half naked, with only the thin white sheet covering her and her form was pressed against someone else's.
Turning her head around, Usagi found herself centimeters from sleeping Motoki's face. Usagi smiled as his arm tightened around her and he also opened his eyes, which were cloudy with sleep. Usagi glanced at him curiously. "Is... was it my imagination or didn't you go home last night?"
"Yeah, but remember I told you that I'd come back today with more presents?" He smiled. "I came back with presents—they're in the kitchen and when I saw you here sleeping so peacefully, I couldn't help myself but to lay down with you."
"Ah." Usagi smiled. "I like waking up in your arms."
"Me too. It's quite the enjoyable experience." Motoki teased playfully.
Motoki opened his mouth to respond, when Usagi's stomach grumbled softly. "Ugh, I think that its time for breakfast, what do you—" she stopped mid- sentence when Motoki wriggled free his arm from beneath Usagi and turned the clock towards them.
"Oh no, it's seven-forty, Usagi!" Motoki moaned. "I have to be at work in twenty minutes. I have enough time to take a shower and probably get there in time since your hotel isn't that far away from the arcade." He frowned sheepishly. "Sorry I have to get a rain check for breakfast."
Usagi sighed, but she immediately brightened. "I can think of a few ways you can make it up to me." She told him cheerfully, though even Motoki could see the sly in her glittering blue eyes.
All Motoki could do was groan with desire and aggravation. "Don't Usagi or else I'm going to abandon any ideas of getting up from this bed to go to work. If you keep up with that look you're giving me, we'll be in here all day."
Usagi laughed. "I just said I know a few ways you can make up breakfast to me, that's all. You have a dirty mind, Motoki."
With another quick kiss on her lips, Motoki threw a towel around him and hurried into the bathroom, but only after winking at Usagi, signaling that he would, indeed, be making up breakfast later that night.
After the water turned on, Usagi dragged herself out of bed and immediately decided that she was hungry, but definitely not hungry enough to cook for herself. Curling up on the couch, Usagi clicked the television on and began flicking through the channels, not really paying attention to what the screen showed. Her mind was a thousand miles away, in the land of where love was uncomplicated, a place that she had been visiting frequently.
Even though she felt something she was sure was love or at least something bordering close to it towards Motoki, for some reason whenever she let her mind drift, it always strayed to thoughts of Mamoru that she desperately wished would disappear. She didn't love Mamoru anymore! It was Motoki who was in her life and who would continue to be in her life!
Before she could mentally proclaim this any longer, Motoki flung the door of the bathroom open and took the nearest comb and ran it through his tangled, blond hair. "Usa, have you seen my shoes and my keys, I can't—"
After taking a minute to regain her composure, Usagi pointed to the bureau and smiled slightly. Then she leaned over and pulled out from beneath the couch his shoes. "Viola! It is magic, how I find these things."
Motoki smiled graciously and took the shoes from her, but only after pressing his lips against her forehead. He gazed into her eyes, convinced that he if he just stared at her for the rest of eternity; he wouldn't notice anything else. "I love you, Usagi."
Usagi saw how soft his pale blue eyes had become when he uttered those words to her. After smiling to herself, Usagi said softly, "I love you too."
She watched as Motoki reluctantly pulled away and began unlacing his shoes. "I have to take a shower, I'll see you later, sweetie. I'll probably drop by the arcade or something."
Before he could come up with a response, Usagi swept into the bathroom and closed the door gently behind her. When Motoki yelled his good-bye, Usagi found herself pretending to not hear him and she turned the shower on to full blast, listening as the water drowned out his voice and the door banging closed.
Usagi wrapped her fingers around the marble sink and stared into the mirror, memorizing the reflection that looked back at her. She noticed how the familiar glow of excitement and bubbly enthusiasm for life in her eyes had slowly sunken behind the haunted gaze of years of betrayal, hurt, confusion, and pain.
Usagi inwardly scolded herself when she saw that a single tear had made it past her airtight barriers and was making its lone path down her cheek that had become flushed with emotion. But instead of wiping it away, Usagi watched as more tears followed behind it, until both sides of her cheeks were wet with tears and for once, Usagi did nothing to stop them.
She could only watch as her true feelings began to unravel and reveal themselves in their true form, even if Usagi was nowhere near to being able to accepting them.
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It seemed that not only were Motoki and Usagi the only ones who found themselves together. Only Rei and Ward seemed to be caught under slightly different circumstances. "Oh, shit." Were the first words uttered by Rei when indigo peeked out from between her half opened eyes as her gaze traveled up the arm snaked around her waist up to the face that, unfortunately, didn't belong to Mamoru, but to her long-time friend, Ward.
"Ward... wake up!" Rei hissed, her mind working over-drive as she tried to comprehend what was going on and what had exactly had happened last night. Let this be a nightmare... Rei thought gloomily. Oh, on second thought, let this headache also be apart of the nightmare, she silently added as she felt her head hurtle itself at a brick wall.
Thinking seemed to only welcome more pain. She remembered Mamoru running out of the temple, obviously distraught... something about cleaners coming and he needed to let them in. She had called up some of the few friends she had left, met them at a club she hadn't been to before and to drain away all her problems, she had gotten herself completely trashed. But before her third shot of tequila, she had met Ward—who, might she add, wasn't scrawny and not the same kid she knew through high school who had wore wire-frames and abused his privileges as a teacher's pet—and reunited with him before dancing endlessly with him to song after song. After that, things started to blur together and the only thing that made any actual sense was Ward's worried face when she started to bawl.
But maybe that was only apart of her imagination? "Rei? What's wrong?" Ward sighed from behind her. "Are you okay?"
Rei turned sharply at the voice, fully ready to demand an explanation for why they were sharing a bed—although at that point, it seemed incredibly obvious to her—and to tell her exactly what had happened that had led up to them coming to the broken and dirty bedroom they were in—was it his bedroom? If so, he was a real pig—and how it came to be that they did... whatever they did.
Rei shuddered at the onslaught of scenarios of what they could have done while Rei had been drunk, vulnerable, and completely easy. She prayed that Ward hadn't changed so much emotionally and mentally and that she still knew him as well as she had during high school. It was highly unlikely, but she hoped that he was still that same shy and stuttering idiot who was the smartest, yet most clueless person she knew who could never in a million years take a girl while she was drunk. He was kind of like... Usagi.
When she turned to face him, he blew out a stream of hot, morning-breath air and gritted his teeth together, still asleep. "Goddamn." Rei muttered as she moved away from him. She had to get out of the compromising position that they were currently in before anything else happened.
The state they were in... it was ironically like the state that she had been in with Mamoru. Only he was single—from her knowledge—and she was the one with a fiancée, reading herself to get married the next month!
Mamoru! The name shot a fiery arrow to her heart, paralyzing her with fear for a moment. She started to breath easier when she realized that he had run out on her, therefore giving him no knowledge of where she was because she hadn't contacted him once since he had left the day before.
Just as she slid out of the bed, stark naked, dry blood crusted around the insides of her legs, her clothes thrown at random parts of the small, windowless room—giving a very good perception of what had happened between them the night before—the door that led to who knew where suddenly slammed open, a dark figure stood ominously in the threshold, his jacket flapped behind him from the sudden burst of air that blew from the door opening.
Screaming, Rei grabbed the sheet to her breasts, disbelieving that this was happening to her, that Mamoru had found them out and that she would be left behind once more, this time not by her friends, but by her fiancée—
"Jesus, woman, shut friggin' up!" The man reprimanded, "There are other couples in the other rooms sleeping, fucking, and doing whatever else kinky displays of affection towards each other that they please." Rei heard the sick sense of humor in his voice.
Wilted with relief that he wasn't Mamoru and her secret was still safe, Rei closed her mouth, noticing with annoyance that Ward still hadn't awoken. Reading her mind, he smiled toothily. "Must have given him a nice night, eh?" Tightening her grip on the sheet, she glared at him through narrow slits.
She knew she must have not been at Ward's place... unless he owned a goddamned whorehouse. Is that where he had taken her? To a filthy, low- class complex where he could get some and then hopefully turn her into some sort of paid fuck-bunny?
Though, the man who still stood in the doorway, leering pervishly at her, made the thought not seem so farfetched and only heightened the repulse and disgust factors. But he seemed familiar, she had seen him before somewhere; she couldn't quite place his face—
"Girlie, y'all can't be staying here for free, so you better tell me how you're paying—cash or credit—or else you and your boyfriend are gonna have to find other means of payment." He cocked his eyebrows roguishly and hooked his fingers through the belt loops on his baggy blue jeans. "And for you... I can think of a few ways that we could work out your payment options without having to involve any money."
Grimacing, Rei shot him a look of utter contempt. "Yeah, no thanks."
He shrugged, miffed by her cool brush-off. "It's a good offer, and by all means it's still on the table, but don't even try to leave without giving me my fifty. I'll find you both and drag your sorry asses back here so fast that you won't know what hit you."
Rei turned away from him when he shut the door and stared into her hands. Is this what she had become? A two-timing slut who gets drunk, does people without even knowing them, wakes up in unknown surroundings, and then contemplates leaving without even talking to them?
Was she a magnet to endless come-ons from jerks and disgusting creatures like the man who had just brightened their day with his little visit? She had been so repulsed by him that she hadn't even thought of asking him who he was or where they were.
If Ward did own something resembling the playboy mansion, maybe he wasn't so far off if he asked her to become apart of the "family" that he had assembled. Maybe he had seen something in her that she hadn't seen before, but was only realizing now.
Of course, Ward was still sound asleep, he was completely dead to the world, and obviously he had had some to drink as well. Slipping on her slinky, semi-gauzy number that she had borrowed from one of friends—who, she had no idea up to that point—she sat on the bed once more, her eyes glazing over as she watched Ward in his slumber.
Was she even fit, according to the relationship standards, enough to get married to Mamoru or any other man? With her current temperament with men, she'd last a few months or so free of anyone else besides Mamoru until her true nature would begin to call for her.
"I can change." Rei told herself aloud. "I will change for Mamoru." She swore, telling herself that this was the last time that she'd ever do anything unfaithful or degrading to herself, her relationship with Mamoru, and finally, to Mamoru himself. She would prove to everyone that she was meant to marry and while at that she'd do a damn good job of it too!
Well, if Ward did happen to like her after this and wanted to get together with her—behind Mamoru's back or in any other way—she'd have to spell it out to him that she loved Mamoru, he was her one and only, they were getting married, her and Ward sleeping together was a giant, colossal mistake (okay, so maybe she wouldn't emphasize the mistake bit that much—pride purposes, of course), she and Ward could never be, and she was giving up her ways of being a slut, putting it bluntly.
And, she would also make it clear that she had no interest in him or any one else, besides Mamoru, as anything more than friends and that she would never succumb so low as to become a fuckbunny, no matter what he saw in her.
She touched Ward's face before pulling back. Too bad, Rei contemplated, that she was making this pact with herself. Ward was undoubtedly hot and could possibly even give Mamoru a run for his money in the looks department.
Just as Rei stood up, releasing the bed from the load that had been weighing her side down, gently rocking Ward, he made a sound and began stretching, his face scrunched up in shaking his asleep limbs awake. "Rei?" He croaked, glimpsing her smooth down her outfit. "What—what's—"
Rei had completely readied herself for any response. "I refuse to be your goddamn fuckbunny, no matter what you offer me!" She shrieked; her mind had blanked as she went for the automatic offensive play.
Ward stared at her, baffled. "What—I don't understand—"
"You know what I'm talking about!" Rei snapped, adding in the effect of rolling her eyes. After regaining herself from the outburst that even she admitted had been uncalled for, she decided to go for the cooler, but disbelieving approach instead. She'd be distraught, hurt, and if he gave away to her vulnerability, he'd be saving them more trouble in the long run. But if not, then before she grew too sniveling and pathetic, she'd coldly enlighten him and demand for any answers that he would give to her without so much of a whimper.
"But—"
"Just tell me why you brought me up here and where we are." Rei looked away, hoping that he had caught her purposeful look of hurt. "How could you betray me like this, Ward? How could you take advantage of me in the state I had been in? I thought you were better than that, I thought you were my friend!"
Ward breathed heavily through his nose. "I am your friend, I was trying to help you, and I didn't—"
"Oh, you were trying to help by sleeping with me, despite the fact that you knew I was engaged?" Rei interjected, curling her lip in mistrust and distress. "How will Mamoru react to this? He'll never trust me again—he'll kill us both!"
After a minute of silence, Rei decided to try again. "Just tell me what happened; all I want is the truth and something to fill the gaps in with."
Ward, still hung over, nodded and ventured into the long winding tale of what had happened, stopping at points to squint at the wall as his head swam with agony and to recall facts. When he ended, Rei sat on the bed, motionless.
Her first thought struck her as almost funny. So they weren't in a whorehouse and he didn't want her to be his fuckbunny? "Oh." She shook herself of her stupor. "You didn't really elaborate on how we got into bed together, though. You just mumbled off and said it something that just happened. Sleeping with people doesn't just happen like that, Ward!"
"I know. You were sleeping—sort of—and I leaned over to... tuck you in and my lips brushed yours and you just responded so strongly that I just... gave into your feminine charm and irresistible force."
She highly doubted that his lips 'accidentally brushed hers' but she let her skeptics go. "Okay," Rei decided that that this was as good as any time to let him onto her newfound realizations. "Well, I hope you know that this whole thing between us is going to go nowhere."
At his partially masked crestfallen look, she continued on. "You know it can't and frankly, I don't want it to go any further than it already has." She held her hand out so that he could fully view her diamond ring. "I'm getting married to Mamoru, Ward. What did you expect? Did you think that just because we slept together we're going to suddenly hook up and run away?"
Ward was silent, angry with himself because apart of him all along had been hoping that very wish. "I don't know, I really don't."
"Don't you know what kind of hell this is going to cause for Mamoru and I? Now on top of everything else, I've got to deal with infidelity. We've got enough problems as it is, this is going to only cause the rift between us to widen."
"Then maybe there is hope for—"
"No," Rei rubbed her temples. So long went her game plan; she was going from what she had on the spot. She hadn't exactly expected for Ward to argue her on this. "I'm not going to be with you ever, don't you understand that? Not because I can't—but because I have no want to be."
Her eyes softened at the look on his face. "You are a very desirable man, Ward, you're just not the man for me. Don't worry, you'll find someone who can fully appreciate you for who you are and who can love you with as much love as you love them."
He nodded slowly, letting her words sink in. "All right. But are you sure that you love Mamoru and that you don't want—?"
"I'm sure." She said firmly. "I love Mamoru and he loves me. Despite what problems we may have, we'll make it."
"But what about this Usagi woman? She seems to threaten—"
Usagi's name caused Rei to collapse onto the bed in weary. "Usagi is in the past as well as our present. She will always be here, but not in the same sense you are implying. There is nothing between them and I will prove it the moment Mamoru and I kiss on our wedding day to seal our vows to each other."
Ward put his hand over hers. "Rei I hope you are right about your beliefs because if you aren't... you are only going to end up hurt in the end." He smiled at her sadly. "And I'm not going to wait around for you, Rei, as much as my heart wants to because I deserve better. I deserve love."
Rei opted against hugging him and stood up. "It's been... fun, if you can call cheating on your fiancée that, but I'm afraid I've got to go. I don' t think that we can ever see each other again because of what's happened between us. I don't know if I could handle it, truthfully."
"Yeah... so this is good-bye." Ward looked at her sadly. "I'm sorry for the mess that I created by us sleeping together. I shouldn't have been so selfish and tried harder to find another way to get you home. I just wasn't thinking and my freaking testosterones just had to act up—"
"It's not entirely your fault." Rei leaned over the bed towards him. "Although, I do have one last present for you."
Ward's breath caught as her lips came perilously close to his. He started to pucker; maybe one last kiss would change everything and they—
"You can pay the bill of fifty dollars."
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