OKAY! Sorry this chapter is so late! No excuses, except that summer is busy for both me and my amazing beta. By the way, thank you SO MUCH for your help throughout this entire story. :-P
This story was fun, probably the most fun I had writing a fic in a loooong time. I've gotten so many nice messages from people who don't even usually LIKE AUs, saying they liked this one, and that was so amazing to hear. :-P I did my best, guys.
Usagi sighed and shut her eyes, leaning back against the sofa with a happy smile. It had been such a good Christmas.
The room was dim. Her friends were all dozing except for Ami and Mamoru who were having a rather tipsy conversation regarding... particle physics? Something like that. Mamoru still had the santa hat he arrived in perched crookedly on his head. The apartment was a mess, plates and napkins everywhere, empty champagne bottles, tinsel and the blinking lights of the karaoke machine, but Usagi decided to worry about that tomorrow.
Everyone had fun; Mamoru brought KFC and Makoto had baked a Christmas cake, they watched TV specials and sang songs and toasted well into the night. It'd been such a good time...
"Hey, are you asleep?" She recognized Mamoru's whisper and stirred, opening her eyes a little.
"I guess not," she murmured back. He lifted her slightly, and adjusted them so she was curled up against him, his arm around her.
"Merry Christmas," she said.
"It hasn't been Christmas for a good three hours," he said, with a smile. "But thanks."
"Ugh, just say 'Merry Christmas' back, you jerk," she kissed his cheek.
"I love you, too," he said. And she fell asleep like that, a sleepy smile on her lips.
It was the first time in her life Usagi thought the elevator at work came too quickly, moved too fast up the floors.
"Ready?" Mamoru said from beside her, as the doors opened.
"As I'll ever be," she said. She'd found the love of her life, but everything comes at a price. All things considered, she guessed this wasn't a horrible way to pay.
Without looking around her, she followed Mamoru right into Inoue's office. It was early, and they mostly passed empty cubicles. Usagi knew there would be rumors and glances once the day officially started. Thank goodness she was hardly in the office anymore, thanks to off-sites. Of course, that could all be ending now anyway.
Inoue was already in his office, just setting up for the day. He greeted them and Usagi closed the door behind them.
"Have a seat," he said, gesturing to the chairs in front of his desk. They did.
"Sir," Mamoru started, "I wanted to come to you first, before any rumors disrupted productivity. I wanted to fully disclose that Tsukino and I are currently in a romantic relationship."
"I see," he said, pressing his fingers together and regarding them with a blank expression.
"And we have been for a few months now," Mamoru took a breath at Inoue's slightly raised eyebrows. It felt uncomfortable to present what he and Usagi had in such straightforward terms, but he supposed he wasn't the first person to ever fall in love. Maybe everyone who used those simple words felt the same depth of feeling beneath them. Mamoru shook his head a little, forced himself to focus.
"We want to be candid with you," Usagi continued. "But we won't stop seeing each other."
Inoue shook his head a little. "I wish you'd disclosed sooner," he said, frowning. "Especially with your seniority, Chiba."
Mamoru nodded. "I understand, sir. I agree it was a mistake not to." Usagi glanced at him and squeezed her own hands together, in lieu of holding his. They'd already discussed what they were going to say - but honestly, it was none of Inoue's business that they hadn't officially admitted their feelings to each other until very late in the relationship, that until the Christmas party neither was sure they had anything worth disclosing. But there was no need to explain that. That was between the two of them only.
"I can assume, of course," Inoue said, seriously, "that nothing ... inappropriate ever happened during work hours or on company property."
"No, sir, of course not," Mamoru said quickly, meeting Inoue's gaze with complete sincerity.
Usagi glanced at him, a little taken aback at his lying ability. Oh, well, now I know not to play poker with him, I guess.
"As you know, or I hope you know, there is no company rule against fraternization," their boss continued, "However, it is frowned upon in certain situations - specifically one like this."
"You'll notice I've been very careful not to throw my support behind Tsukino's promotion to sales, I kept that firmly in your and Fujiwara's hands," Mamoru said.
"And the decision will remain there," Inoue said. "But not everyone is aware of that, Chiba. Tsukino, you need to be prepared for how this will effect your career."
Usagi lowered her eyes, blinking quickly to dispel her tears. She was going to be professional, she was going to be strong, there was no way she would cry here. But she hated the thought that everyone would say she'd gotten the promotion because of her relationship with Mamoru.
Actually, there may not even be a promotion, now that it was squarely in Saori's hands. She knew Mamoru had patched things up with the icy brunette, and encouraged Usagi to do so as well, but facing Saori wasn't something Usagi really wanted to do. Actually, none of this was anything she wanted to do, if she was honest.
She left Inoue's office feeling miserable, even as Mamoru squeezed her shoulder slightly as the door closed behind them. "Hang in there, Usako," he said.
Usagi kept to her cube all morning, working diligently on some manuals she'd let slide (now that most of her job was sales). She'd managed to avoid everyone but Erika, who came into her cube almost as soon as the other girl arrived.
"Hi," Erika said.
"Hi," Usagi answered, not looking up from her computer.
"How are you doing?"
"I'm good," she said, giving Erika a smile. "We worked it out. Disclosed to Inoue. Now it's all up to... well, whatever these things are left up to, I guess."
"Fate?"
"Maybe."
"Fate's a bitch."
Usagi laughed a little.
"Well, you know me and my finger on the pulse of the rumor mill," Erika said. "Let me know if you ever want to know what they are saying about you."
"Uh, yeah," Usagi said, firmly, "Pretty sure I don't."
"Fair enough," Erika agreed. Then she smiled. "I'll set them straight whenever you want, Tsukino," she said, as she left.
At lunchtime, Usagi had planned to eat holed up in her cube, but Erika was having none of that.
"You gonna hide the rest of the time you work here?" She pulled her up by the arm. "Let's go."
The break room was crowded and Usagi told herself she was just imagining how the conversations seemed to quiet as she walked in, and then start up again, slightly more quietly with glances and whispers aplenty. Naoko waved them over to her table where she sat with Yuichi.
"So, let's talk Christmas," Erika said, "What did everyone do? Hot date, Naoko?"
"For your information, YES, I had a Christmas date."
"Ooh! Wh-"
"He turned out to be a jerk," she made a face and everyone made sympathetic noises.
Usagi ended up explaining about her friends' Christmas party tradition, and what a good time she had. "Although, the next morning I sort of wanted to move again rather than clean up the mess," she laughed.
"So, tell me Chiba was there, too," Erika said, addressing the elephant in the room head on. "And that you didn't go through all that just to spend Christmas without him."
Usagi flushed a little, looked down at her lunch. "Yeah, he was there."
"So he's, like, your boyfriend," Naoko clarified. And Usagi nodded.
"Kudos to you," Erika said, "landing the hottest new recruit within weeks."
"I can't believe it, out of anyone I'd suspect of carrying on a secret office affair Usagi would be pretty low on the list," Yuichi said earning himself a glare from Usagi.
"What's that supposed to mean?!" she said and he backed off, apologizing with his hands up.
"So, wait," Naoko leaned forward giggling, "even when my cousin came...?"
Reluctantly Usagi nodded and Naoko shook her head, still laughing. "Well, I guess that explains why you never called him. Sorry about that, by the way."
Suddenly, there was another round of murmurs and Usagi twisted in her seat to see Mamoru and one of his fellow engineers had entered the room.
"You can all relax, I'm just going to get coffee and go back to my office," he said, "so you can all get back to talking about me without risk of me overhearing." He raised his eyebrows at the tables of people who sheepishly but eagerly turned back to their conversations, voices slightly lowered and not without glances between Usagi and Mamoru.
"So," Erika said, very loudly, "the mechanic goes, 'it looks like you blew a seal', and the penguin says, 'oh no, it's just ice cream.' Get it?!" And she laughed at her own joke, Usagi couldn't help joining in a little, feeling like tension in the room had - if not been broken - at least shifted a little.
Mamoru gave Erika a strange look that danced between gratefulness and annoyance. "Have a good day, Mr. Chiba," Erika said, smoothly.
"Same to you, Ms. Yamamoto," he said.
Usagi shrugged slightly at him. When he returned her smile, some more curious glances were exchanged between the onlookers. "Tsukino," Mamoru raised his coffee mug slightly in farewell.
Usagi nodded back at him. "Chiba."
"Woo!" Naoko said under her breath and the rest of the table's occupants laughed a little. Usagi glanced around the room at her other coworkers, and wondered if she was imaging their looks being more interested and less judgmental.
In any case, she was glad she spent most of her time out of the office now.
It was almost the end of the day when Usagi finally got the courage to walk into Saori's cube. The brunette didn't look up from her computer until Usagi cleared her throat slightly.
"Yes, Tsukino, how may I help you?"
"I... uh," Usagi bit her lip and looked down sheepishly. "I wanted to apologize for the comment I made at the Christmas party."
"Comment?" at this Saori turned to face her, brows slightly knitting.
"About... your shoes," Usagi flushed and finally met her eyes. "I wasn't exactly my best self that night." There's the understatement of the year, Usagi thought. And it's only January.
"I've already said this to Mamoru," Saori said, "but I need to apologize to you for my actions as well."
Usagi blinked, her eyes widening a little. Saori's face remained unreadable, but when she met Usagi's eyes there was a kind of sadness the blonde didn't expect to see.
"To be fair, I wasn't exactly operating with accurate information," Saori raised a brow for a second and Usagi nodded.
"I know," she said, slipping her gaze away from Saori's again. "Sorry." Usagi thought about how jealous she'd been, how angry, all her insecurities coiled inside her every time Saori gave Mamoru that secretive smile. Why had she never really given thought to the fact that Saori was the one poised to get her heart broken, once the truth came out? All her jealousy seemed so stupid now.
"It's obvious now," Saori swallowed a little, slid her eyes to the side, "the way he looks at you. I don't know why I didn't see. I never had a chance."
Usagi opened her mouth but closed it again when Saori shook herself a little and turned back to Usagi with her usual businesslike expression. "Anything else, Tsukino?"
"Yeah, um. Inoue said that the sales promotion is mostly up to you now, actually. Due to... Ma-uh, Chiba and my relationship being fully disclosed." Usagi would rather be getting a root canal that standing here, awkward talking about Mamoru with Saori. But the air needed to be cleared.
"And?" Saori said, "What are you asking me? If this will change anything?"
Usagi nodded.
"So you are seriously standing here asking me if I'm going to sabotage your career because of a petty personal issue I've already put behind me?" She sounded so offended that Usagi took a step backwards.
"No?"
Saori smiled tightly. "Good answer. And, I don't think you'll have any problems transitioning full to sales by the end of the month."
Usagi gasped but kept her elation under control. "Thank you so much, Fujiwara, you won't regret it, I promise-"
"People will talk, Tsukino," Saori said, seriously. "They will say you only got the promotion because of Mamoru. Especially since there is a strong assumption he has Inoue's ear more than I do. I don't think I need to tell you why that is."
Usagi nodded, sighed. "I know."
"And they will say I only promoted you up to sales to avoid working with you in the future," Saori added, "that my decision was ruled by emotion and not reason. The fact is, they would say things like that anyway, about us. It's how the world is." Her eyes held something like empathy, when Usagi reached out to shake her hand.
"Thank you, Fujiwara."
"It was nice working with you, Tsukino," she said.
"So it's all worked out," Rei said, squeezing next to Usagi on the sofa later that week.
"Yup, toldya it would," Minako said to Usagi, grabbing a handful of popcorn.
"Uh, I'm pretty sure I told her it would?" Makoto said, putting the DVD into the player. "You just made lots of sex jokes."
Minako shrugged, "Same diff."
"How do you like working sales?" Ami asked and Usagi smiled enthusiastically.
"I love it," she said. "Plus, I'm hardly ever in the office and they moved my cube and everything. So I don't need to, uh, deal with too much fall out."
"You lucked out, girlie," Minako said, shaking her head. "For real, I thought you two were setting up to crash and burn."
"Where is Mamoru anyway?" Makoto asked, "He hasn't been by much this week. And you've been... well, home at night all week. Not that we are complaining but..."
"Hey, I pay rent," Usagi said. "More than I can say for this one, who is always here." She poked Rei in the arm and the other girl glared at her.
"But seriously, is something up?" Minako asked.
Usagi shrugged. "He's been really busy lately."
"Work?" Rei shifted to better look at Usagi.
"No, actually, work is pretty tame this early in the year. I don't know what it is, to be honest."
"Eh, don't worry about it, I'm like 95% sure he's not cheating on you," Minako joked, pressing the 'play' button on the remote.
"As always, thanks," Usagi said, with a laugh.
Usagi followed Mamoru into his apartment, making a big show of looking around in interest while she slipped off her shoes. "Oh, so this is what this place looks like. I'd forgotten." She grinned up at him, cheekily.
"Ha ha," he said, dryly. He hooked his arm around her waist and pulled her toward him, kissing her nose. Usagi rose to her tiptoes and caught his mouth, winding her arms around his neck. It didn't seem to bother him as he thudded back slightly against the wall, tightening his grip on her and opening his lips to deepen the kiss. He was just working his free hand to loosen his tie when the sound of the phone ringing echoed through the apartment.
Usagi jumped slightly at the sound, and Mamoru made a face. "Of course," he muttered. Then he met her eyes apologetically, "I have to take this."
"Yeah, sure," she said, with a shrug. Mamoru took the phone and disappeared into the bedroom, shutting the door behind him.
"Weird," Usagi muttered, sitting on the sofa and pulling out the remote. She watched some random variety show on mute, biting a nail and thinking. It wasn't very long before Mamoru exited the bedroom, holding the phone in his hand with a strange expression on his face.
"Well?" she asked, shifting around so she was sitting backward on the couch, her arms resting on the back. "What was that about?"
"I-," he paused, smiling a little, "I just got a job."
"You have a job," Usagi said, confused.
"A new job," he clarified, putting the phone back on it's cradle. "At the lab of one of our clients actually." Seeing the look on her face, he shook his head quickly. "It's not because of you. I've been talking with them for a while, but it's been very informal. The job I have now isn't exactly what I thought it'd be... too much paperwork, not enough actual creating or research. But then I got that promotion, and Inoue seemed to really depend on me so I decided to stick it out. But with the new position, it's even more business-related stuff and even less science." He sighed, ran a hand through his hair. "So after the new year, this company called me back, this time seriously. I've been going there for interviews after work, and getting the company physical and all that. That's why I've been so busy. They want to hire me as soon as possible."
"Jeeze," Usagi said, under her breath. "So does anyone else know you were applying for this?"
"I didn't even tell you," he said, "so you can be sure no one else is aware."
She rested her head on her arms. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"I guess I just wanted to wait until it was a sure thing?" He paused, crossing his arms and leaning against the living room door frame. "But, I won't take it if you don't want me to."
"Why wouldn't I want you to?" she sat up straighter, looking concerned. "Is it far away?"
"No, I wouldn't have to move or anything," he sighed. "But if I leave, people might think it's because of you."
Usagi rolled her eyes. "Wasn't it you who said 'it's not any of their business'?"
"But-"
"Let them talk," Usagi said. "Saori said they'd talk anyway and she's right. If anyone gives me a serious issue, I'll go somewhere else. But I'm so valuable to sales now, I don't think anyone would dare touch me." She tossed her hair a little. The look on his face puzzled her a little. "What?" she said. He strode over to her and leaned down, took her face in his hands and pressed his lips to hers.
"I love you," he said, pulling away for just a second before kissing her again, and again. She giggled as he lifted her up in his arms, pulling right over the top of the sofa and over his shoulder.
"Don't drop me!" she cried, giggling all the way to the bedroom.
Epilogue - the following year
The ballroom was, once again, decorated exquisitely.
"I see they spared no expense this year either," Mamoru said as he and Usagi entered the room.
Right away, a few of Usagi's coworkers from sales waved at her from the dance floor. Her former coworkers were already in a knot by the refreshments, Erika waved cheerfully.
"We'll have to go say hi," Usagi said, nodding back at her friend.
"Later, though," Mamoru said, taking her hand. "Let's dance. We didn't get to last year."
The song was a catchy Christmas-themed love song, and it was easy to dance with Mamoru's arm around her waist. "I'm glad I'm here with you this year," she murmured, shutting her eyes and leaning her head against his chest. He tightened his grip on her, just slightly, brushed his lips against her head.
"Me, too," he said. They stayed like that a while, swaying to music.
Usagi caught Erika's eye from across the room, and the other woman pointed at Usagi and at her own ring finger, with a grin.
She laughed despite herself. "Erika noticed the ring," she murmured, and her fiance chuckled a little in response.
"Did you really expect differently?" he spun her a little, making her laugh. "She has a nose for gossip."
Usagi sighed and shook her head with a soft smile. "We'll be subject to an interrogation later," she warned, the sparkle still in her eyes.
Mamoru leaned down and put his forehead to hers. "I'm prepared," he whispered. Then he shifted his mouth to her ear, "And if you ever want to escape, Usako, this year I actually did book us a room."
She pulled back and looked at him with raised eyebrows and impressed expression. "I love you," she said. And grinned down at her in response.
"I love you, too."