#11. Past

DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything except the story.

AUTHOR'S NOTES: Written in response to the "Usagi and Mamoru 100 Themes" challenge. Please excuse me from my long absence. I humbly apologize to my loyal readers. Thank you to those people who have took the time to leave me a review. I love you guys!

---

"So, how did it go this time?" Motoki asked as he placed a cup of steaming black coffee in front of his best friend.

Mamoru reached out for the cup of coffee and took a sip before he deigned to shake his head a little, while maintaining a faceless expression.

"She walked right past you again, huh?" Motoki said, giving a little chuckle.

"I don't think she even realises I exist," Mamoru said, showing a small grimace. "I stood there, right in her way and she just sidestepped around me without even looking at me."

"Maybe you should make yourself more noticeable then," Motoki advised as he took a pink-and-white chequered piece of cloth to wipe the counter for the lack of something to do.

"What am I supposed to do? Wear a neon pink tutu?" Mamoru asked sarcastically as he eyed his friend's actions warily. Motoki was obsessed with keeping that counter of his clean and polished.

"That's a pretty good idea. Your dear young miss is actually quite oblivious to things that do not stand out," Motoki said, half-unaware.

"Motoki, look at me," Mamoru commanded and paused until his friend looked up at him with wide eyes. "Do you really want to see me walking down the streets of Jyuuban, wearing nothing but a skin-tight, neon pink ballerina tutu, frills and all that shit included?"

Motoki blinked while the thought took a few seconds to register. Immediately, his face turned pale and he said in horror, "No!"

Mamoru gave an inward sigh of relief. "Good. Now help me come up with a better idea."

---

Despite spending hours in the Crown Arcade the previous day, watching Motoki's customers' coming and going, neither Motoki nor Mamoru could come up with a good enough idea, nor a sane enough one.

Mamoru groaned as he stood in the middle of the sidewalk once again, being an obstruction to most people's path. They had finally decided on being eye-catching and he was now dressed in a full-set tuxedo suit, with a pair of sunglasses to shield him from full embarrassment.

Mamoru noticed that there were a lot of girls glancing his way, and when he turned to look at them, they blushed and giggled, chattering excitedly away. Some even swooned when he smiled at them.

"Oh my gosh! He looked my way!"

"Is he a movie star?"

"Damn, he's hot."

Mamoru grinned at the compliments. Hopefully, someone else would be thinking along the same lines as those girls. Now he didn't feel so awkward wearing the suit. He scanned around and finally caught sight of his target. He moved to go right up behind her.

---

Usagi ooh-ed and aah-ed over the various displays of jewellery that Naru's mother had in her shop window.

"Usagi, since you're Naru's friend, you get a discount for whatever you want, okay?" Naru's mother said, winking.

Usagi grinned cheerfully at her best friend's mother. "Thanks, Osaka-san."

"Well, then, take a look around and let me know whatever takes your fancy, okay?" Naru's mother said before entertaining other young customers.

Usagi dropped the smile and muttered, "Well, I would like one but it's way out of allowance budget and daddy will never buy it for me with the thirty I scored on this quiz."

Usagi retrieved a piece of paper from her bag and stared at the score underlined above it. Grimacing, she scrunched the paper into a ball and tossed it away. "Stupid quiz. I'm going home."

---

Mamoru was stunned when his crush of his seventeen years of life suddenly wadded up a paper ball and tossed it right into his face. With quick reflexes, he managed to catch the paper ball before it dropped onto the ground and was trampled by the people on the sidewalk.

"Oi, Miss Litterbug," Mamoru called out. He wanted to kick himself when he realised what just passed through his lips- it was like a reflexive action to be immediately insulting to whoever who tries to destroy nature.

"What?" Usagi asked, turning on her heels.

Mamoru curiously opened up the wadded ball. "A thirty?!"

"Nobody asked you to look at that!" Usagi said, her cheeks flaming up as she snatched back her quiz paper.

"I wouldn't have if you didn't toss it into my face, Odango Atama," Mamoru said in a teasing tone.

"Well, it wouldn't have hit you in the face if you weren't standing right behind me! I was aiming for the trashcan over there, pervert!" Usagi yelled. This was true, since she hardly ever misses trashcans as she had a lot of practice with her low-score quizzes.

"Pervert? How did I suddenly become a pervert, Miss No Aim?"

"I bet you were trying to look down my uniform! And I do so have good aim!"

"Miss Bad Aim, you have nothing there for me to bother to even look down!"

Immediately Usagi crossed her arms defensively across her chest. "So I'm not fully grown yet! I will be! Ugh, enough of this, I'm going home!"

With that Usagi ran off, leaving behind a Mamoru who wanted to kick himself where the sun does not shine.

---

Motoki could not stop the tears from leaking out of the corner of his eyes as he continued to laugh at his friend's misery. "You waited and planned for weeks for this chance to talk to her and you completely screwed it up by telling the girl she is not well-endowed? Mamoru Chiba, you have lost your touch."

Mamoru had his forehead on the cool marble of the counter. "Do not remind me of that, Motoki. I feel completely like shit now."

"Well, I have to say, you did make a very big impression on her, just not a very good one," Motoki said as he chuckled.

---

Mamoru wanted to see more of his Odango Atama, so he tracked down the route she used to go to school every morning and the time of when she passes through that route. Luckily for him, the path she used was the one he used on his way to his school, just in the opposite direction. And luckier for him, that he did not have to go to school until nine as she seemed to like cutting it close to her eight o'clock school bell.

'I'm like some kind of stalker,' Mamoru thought as he stood right around the corner, in the middle of her path, awaiting her arrival.

Right on time, a hurtling mass of long blonde hair and school uniform came crashing into him. He instinctively used his body to shield her from the impact, wincing as he felt the pavement scrape his once-immaculate uniform.

"Ouch! Odango Atama, why don't you watch where you're going?"

Usagi looked up and her eyes darkened. "What about you, you blind pervert?! What are you doing standing in my way?!"

"The sidewalk does not belong to you, Miss Thirty."

"I bet you stood there just to make sure I'm late," Usagi grumbled. Catching sight of her watch, she shrieked, "I'm late!" Without another word, she scrambled off Mamoru and ran off.

Mamoru picked himself up from the ground and brushed himself off while smiling. "Well, she smells of strawberries today."

---

And everyday after that, Usagi found herself colliding with Mamoru in the same corner. She really should have known better and remember to pause at the corner to make sure the baka buta was not standing around it. Or she could have just used another route- there were quite a few of them, after all.

But really, maybe she did enjoy colliding into him everyday, just a little. He carried a very nice scent after all, of roses and some unknown cologne. Maybe that's why she did not bother to just walk past that corner and continued running around it instead.

---

Ten years later:

"Happy Anniversary, Usagi," Mamoru said, kissing his wife on the cheek.

"Happy Anniversary, Mamo-chan," Usagi returned, smiling happily. "How was your day today?"

"The same," Mamoru said, shrugging as he removed his tie. He related a few tales from the hospital to his wife before he asked her of her day.

"I was talking to Reika on the phone this morning," Usagi said, with a glint in her eye.

"Oh?"

"Yes, we were just reminiscing on the past."

"That must have been fun."

"It was. It seems that there was someone who intentionally stood in my way because I used to walk past him all the time," Usagi said sweetly.

Mamoru paled. 'That Motoki! I suddenly remember that the hospital needed a test subject and one Furuhata Motoki will be very happy to accept that job.'

"Really, that was very sweet of him but I had to stand with a bucket on my head outside of class for quite a few times," Usagi continued, still with sweet venom in her voice.

"I- I see," Mamoru said with a strangled voice.

"So, in return for that sweetness of him, we're eating home-cooked food tonight."

"But what about the reservations, Usagi?" Mamoru asked, nervously.

"You don't want to?" Usagi asked, with wide-eyes.

"No, no, it's completely fine with me. I'll just get started now shall I?" Mamoru said as he rolled up his sleeves.

"It's okay, darling. I know how hard you've worked all day. I've already cooked dinner. So why don't you just go and take a bath while I set the table, okay?"

If it seemed possible, Mamoru was sheet-white. 'Now what do you take for diarrhea and nausea again?'

Usagi walked out of the room before she started giggling. She had learned how to accept the fact that her cooking was hazardous. Her husband just didn't know that. After all, who would dwell in the past?

---

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