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Thank you guys for all your encouragement. You have NO IDEA how happy your reviews make me, NO IDEA!
It's amazing to read what scenes you liked, and how some of you all liked different scenes and aspects even, or that some of you have been binging through this in one go and what made you do that… happy happy happy feels 3
I'm so very very grateful for each one of you that takes the time to write a review to let me know! Rest assured that you make this story rush out of me way faster than it normally would be able to xD.
So, remember when I mentioned that Antigone2's story Wish You Would was one of the two influences on this story? This being the party chapter you can obviously see its influence here the most I think, and I'm openly trying to pay it tribute and play with that a bit here xD.
Also, on a side note: This is of course flecked in a way that this is written from the perspective of a European and how we partied when I was a teenager. This reflects the drinking of course, as well, as I come from a country where the legal drinking age is 16 – which is the girl's age in my story. So at least in my head no one's breaking the law here xD – and even though I know in Japan the legal drinking age is 20, from what I experienced there it is not at all enforced and very normal for teenagers to drink at parties.
Also, we all remember Setsuna bringing alcohol to a 15 year old's birthday party in cannon, yes? So they do that xD.
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So his girlfriend had this ridiculous crush on supermarkets, and well… what could he say, he liked them, too.
The big ones, though. Those that just had everything, not the small conbinis. Those were nice at times, yes, but they just didn't compare.
Thus it should have been a match made in heaven, Usagi and him and the supermarket, except for the fact that it had been over an hour now – and it had been fun for the first 45 minutes, he'd been pretty much thinking it had been their best date yet (and yes, he knew that was ridiculous, but eh), cause really, they were both entirely too obsessed with supermarkets, yet now it had slowly begun to become torture.
Cause they were late, and Mamoru hated to be late. Especially if it were her parents they were standing up; Ikuko, who they were standing up, who was cooking dinner early only for them and who needed some of this stuff they were supposed to buy.
And Usagi was seemingly the most indecisive person in the world. They were now standing in front of the freezers, and she was slowly driving him insane.
Mamoru slumped groaning over their overflowing shopping cart. "Your mother told me to keep you from buying ice cream."
"Mama said to keep me from buying all the ice cream. There's a difference." She said, and stuck her head into the first available freezer, the cold air billowing out of it in milky fog.
He raised an eyebrow, but really he had no chance, so after a long debate over the assets of each and every flavor, four pints of ice cream wandered into their shopping cart. (He'd given up talking her out of anything about twenty-five minutes ago and instead just hm'ed and yes'ed his way through the store in hopes to get her to hurry up. It wasn't helping.)
He groaned loudly, rubbing his hands across his face in exasperation. "Usako, I swear, If we'd met in a supermarket we'd never have gotten together." But she just rolled her eyes at him and worldlessly held up two different cans of demi-glace sauce for him to help her decide – at least it was something that actually was on Ikuko's list this time which she couldn't decide over.
And just when he thought they'd made the finish line the finish line itself tripped him up.
The last isle that led to the check out desks was the snack isle and Mamoru was beginning to think he might cry.
He tapped his foot impatiently, trying desperately to keep his face blank and not let his annoyance show too much. He was so frustrated over her inability to decide between salted or extra salted chips ("You're not gonna eat them today, anyway, Usa. We're going to a party. They have chips there."), that he secretly decided to only ever go to conbinis with her anymore when they were in a hurry.
And then, when they finally stood in line at the checkout, and she'd realized they'd forgotten the onions, he'd dashed away to get them like a mad man, lest she go herself and get lost in the snack isle again, yet when he came back, there was this Seijuro boy standing behind her, chatting her up.
He stilled for a bit when he spotted him, all his previous annoyance forgotten and replaced with an entirely new set, but then he realized something: This time, when he would slip in and draw her to his side, it wouldn't be an act. She was his girlfriend now, he was allowed to do this now. He reveled a bit in that thought, and much too deeply perhaps, but he couldn't seem to care right now.
" – could go together, if you wanted? I could pick you up later, since we're both going to the same party?"
"That's very nice of you Seijuro, but I'm—"
So, when he went up to them, he extended his arm right between the two of them – a bit boldly perhaps – only to put the onions on the conveyor belt behind them, of course, and Seijuro jumped a bit away from her, startled.
" –fine." She finished, as Mamoru positioned himself smack right up beside her, his entire side touching hers, smiling entirely too sweetly and friendly when he greeted Seijuro cheerfully.
He rolled a bit with it, unashamedly, smirking, and she rolled her eyes at him for it when he started twirling the small little lock of hair on the back of her neck that always came loose from her buns.
They paid, and packed, and said their see you laters and Mamoru grinned like a Cheshire cat the entire time while Seijuro's look had darkened – which fired Mamoru's grin on even more and Usagi sighed when they were out of sight and on their way to her house. "Uh-huh. Marking your territory or what?"
He had the decency to at least blush at that. "Sorry." He mumbled, looking at her sideways, sheepishly. "But –" He started, then his grin returned. "No, not sorry. I loved that. I'm sorry."
She rolled her eyes and huffed. "Well at least you weren't mean to him, I guess."
He raised an eyebrow at her, shifting the big and bulky bag on his shoulder a bit "I wasn't? Usako, if I'd been him, I'd be pissed."
She frowned. "But you were so friendly."
"Yeah. Exactly."
She wrinkled her nose and clutched the big plastic bag of toilet paper a bit closer to her chest in thought and he chuckled at her and leaned over awkwardly around their bags of groceries to press a quick kiss to her temple.
They arrived home almost an hour later than they had said they would and Mamoru apologized red-faced and profusely, but Ikuko only smiled at him, said she was well aware of her daughter's shopping habits and truthfully hadn't expected them any sooner than this, then grabbed some ingredients off them while he packed everything away around Ikuko and Usagi went to put the large bowls of punch Ikuko had prepared for them into two cooler boxes in the hallway.
"Still. I'm so sorry. It just took so much longer than I thought…" Mamoru mumbled and Ikuko nodded knowingly.
"Did you let her go through the snack isle?" Shingo asked, stealing a biscuit out of one of the packages.
Mamoru looked at him with a wild expression, akin to something like 'You have no idea what I just went through.'
Shingo laughed and patted his shoulder in understanding. "Take the cleaning products isle next time, she's faster that way."
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Because they hadn't rushed dinner after that and because Usagi still needed to change out of her school uniform and into her party outfit (one that made his body react in ways he didn't exactly want it to in a crowded place), the party was already almost in full swing by the time they arrived.
To her defense, her outfit wasn't racy at all actually – pretty damn casual for a party in fact, at least compared to the clothes she usually wore anyway. She wore a black mini mini skirt with an oversized black shirt that sported a gleaming sequined Batman-logo that sparkled in all the colors of the rainbow on the front of her chest, and the shirt was so big on her that it slipped off one shoulder, yet the material was so soft and thin that it accentuated every curve. That, this small show of skin of her shoulder, combined with those deeply dark grey colored over-thigh socks she wore which obviously also showed a sliver of skin of her thighs between them and her tiny skirt, pretty much did him in, and he hadn't even seen her dance in it, yet.
So much so, in fact, that when she bent over to take off her shoes he had to look away on purpose.
Music was blaring from speakers that were placed all around the house it seemed, people were laughing, some were dancing already, and they were greeted with loud shouts of "USAGI-CHAN!" from all sides when they entered the first room.
Mamoru carried both cooler boxes in and they both went straight for the makeshift buffet table that had been put up on the window-front of the open kitchen. It was already packed, and from the look of that lavish cake he guessed Makoto was already here. Usagi made a bit of room on one side, re-arranging some of the things other guests had brought, and Mamoru opened the boxes and held them up for her one after the other so she could lift the two big glass punch bowls out of them and arrange them how she wanted them, then attached a note that she'd prepared beforehand.
'Super Amazing Cherry Lemonade-Sake-Vanilla-Strawberry-Pulp Amazingness a'la Tsukino. It is art, do not mess with it – FACE USAGI'S WRATH IF YOU DO! (Plus it already contains a bottle of Sake, each, what more do you want?)'
"So, besides the people we invited ourselves, who's gonna be here that I know today?" He said, watching her finish taping her sign to the glass bowls with colorful washi tape that had bunnies on it which she brought with her extra for the occasion.
"Oh lots of people. There's Natsumi over there." She glanced up for a second and nodded her head into the distance. He didn't follow her gaze and instead furrowed his brow.
"Who's Natsumi?"
"Seriously?" She rolled her eyes, turned him by the arm and pointed.
Oh! Her.
Usagi shook her head in exasperation. "Why is it that you keep forgetting her?"
He threw her a look and huffed. "I don't forget her, I just forget her name. I don't just forget people."
"Really." She cocked her eyebrow and turned him in a different direction. "Who are those two."
He furrowed his brows. He'd never seen these two girls in his life.
"Fuyumi and Megumi. They interviewed you with me. For that school assignment?" She waved at them, as they'd seen her.
Oh! Right.
She shook her head in amusement, snorting. It was kind of endearing how he only had eyes for her. Then she spied someone else coming into the room.
"MAKO-CHAN!"
She came towards them, Motoki with his sister Unazuki and Asanuma in her tow. "There you two are!" Motoki said while Makoto snorted, looking Mamoru and Usagi up and down.
"Matching clothes, really?" She said, smirking, and Mamoru frowned again, looking down at himself and then at Usagi. She in her black Batman shirt and skirt and grey over-knees, and him, true enough, in a black button down and grey jeans. Huh. He hadn't noticed that.
Judging by Usagi's blush, she had, though, and he suddenly understood why it had been so important to her to find exactly these socks today, rummaging all over her closet, and couldn't just wear any others. He chuckled.
They talked for a bit, Makoto had obviously been here a while already and she and Asanuma seemingly had made fast friends (And obviously Asanuma was insanely impressed to hear that she trains Mamoru? To which Makoto had been beaming for a while), while Unazuki kept talking about a cute boy who was dancing a little ways away from them on a weird makeshift bouncy platform created by mattresses that were stacked on top of one another (The boy turned out to be Yukihiro, one of the guys from Mamoru's study group whom he did end up asking after all) and Makoto and Usagi got excited over way-too-embarrassing ideas how Unazuki could go to approach him and flirt, ignoring Mamoru completely who suggested he could just introduce them.
Usagi, Makoto and Unazuki were talking in not too hushed tones, and kept glancing over to a bouncing Yukihiro (What was that, a kind of game?), who'd long noticed and kept sending Mamoru confused and questioning glances, and Mamoru could only shrug back at him helplessly.
There was a peculiar moment, when Rei arrived under cheers and hugs from Usagi which Rei awkwardly returned, when Rei and Makoto locked eyes. Mamoru had felt something between them that even he couldn't quite describe. It was different from what they felt when looking at Usagi, and well, he wasn't surprised about Rei's intense feelings – they were a bit heightened after all, which he mostly attributed to her psychic abilities – but he'd never felt Makoto feel anything in a way like that besides Usagi. It felt like belonging and it made them both feel agitated, irritated at first, and then very warm.
Usagi acquainted the two of them, excited to have them meet, those two that they spent most of their time with these days, and Rei asked her genuinely interested questions about Mako's training sessions with them, asking if she could come and watch some time, maybe even join? And Makoto beamed and agreed.
Usagi made sure to put Rei and Makoto together from then on, as Rei seemed kind of uncharacteristically shy and timid at this party, and Makoto was very willing to help out the one girl that looked as if she felt like Makoto herself would have felt only weeks ago. And it turned out not to be a hard task at all for Usagi to make Rei feel at ease in the midst of her friends, because it had taken Usagi half a sentence to figure out that Unazuki actually went to Rei's school, and only one sentence more to have them in mutual groaning sessions about their worst teacher there, before she latched them back into what Usagi deemed the most pressing matter at hand – how Unazuki would be able to chat up this boy over there ("Yukihiro. His name is Hase Yukihiro and I could introduce them right now." Mamoru tried to butt in again, but Usagi waved his comment away. Apparently it was more 'fun' when one did it 'creatively'…).
It was amazing to him to see Usagi work her magic, putting everyone around her at their ease in this group of their peers that usually made at least most of them feel cautious and rattled – he could relate so very well – and instead made them feel comfortable.
Also Usagi seemed to be the one person who knew everyone at this party – friends of friends of friends included. They all greeted her by name upon arrival, she remarked on personal things about their lives, things like that. It was absolutely baffling to him, watching her in her element; connecting, soothing, making friends. She continuously kept picking people out of the crowd, pulling them with her by the sleeves, introducing them to Rei and Makoto mostly, worked out things they had in common with two sentences maximum and had them talking. And she did it so effortlessly, as if it were the most natural thing to do, while giving everyone the feeling to be absolutely included.
He felt insanely proud of her.
Some kids, back on that weird mattress stack, howled in laughter and shoved each other off it, singing along to a strange song that kept repeating the name "Barbara Streisand" over and over that had him dumbfounded in itself.
And nobody but him seemed to find that weird, apparently.
He watched it for few more moments, watching them shove and laugh and fall off that thing. "What the hell are they doing there?"
"It's a party game." Unazuki said but Mamoru's look stayed confused and Motoki laughed at him. "You know, Mamoru, games? Function is to be silly and lose your inhibition? You might have heard of those."
He rolled it eyes at Motoki, pursing his lips in annoyance. "But what is this?"
Usagi giggled and Aya, Usagi's latest sleeve-pulling come-make-friends-now victim (apparently she'd recently taken a baking class with some confiseur that Makoto admired), supplied the answer. "The point is to be the last one standing on the mattress while everyone else has fallen off. Usagi-chan is standing champion of this game."
He looked bewildered at his girlfriend. "You?"
"Yes." She gave threw him a mock-offended look, one that said 'You doubting my crazy skills now?'
"How? You fall off of everything."
She rolled eyes at him. "Point is to make others trip. You being the number one victim of my klutz attacks should realize I'm very good at making people topple over." She said with a mischievous look that was as flirty as they came and Motoki and Rei both rolled their eyes, then Motoki changed the subject ('Aaanway…') and they continued in their conversation without the two of them.
Right. Mamoru chuckled at her, half-smiling back with a twinkle.
Usagi snuggled up to his side and looked up at him with big and playful eyes. "Wanna try?"
He cringed… the idea of bouncing on a mattress with lots of tipsy strangers didn't really appeal to him that much… "Nah…You can, though."
Her face fell. "Hm. No…" She pouted.
He nudged her with his shoulder. "C'mon, you want to."
"I don't want to leave you to fend on your own just yet." She said, lacing her fingers through his and he smiled at her warmly.
And it really wasn't until much later that he did watch her join in on the game, finally.
Usagi hopped happily up to her classmates and onto the mattress and it was actually really amusing to him to watch Usagi dance. They were playing a loud and bubblegum, happy-go-lucky J-pop number and she was right in her element, baltering around the place, arms, legs and hair flinging wildly, face radiating joy, with no apparent sense for rhythm whatsoever and he had to chuckle for how adorable it looked.
And sure enough, one by one, she managed to trip anybody who dared to come too near to her and off the thing.
Yet Mamoru began to frown deeply when he saw Seijuro jump onto the mattress and across from her, starting to dance with her. He nudged Unazuki's shoulder, who was standing next to him, deep in conversation with Yukihiro and a girl he didn't know. "Hey – Is he just allowed to join in on the game later?"
Unazuki laughed at him with a look that cleary said 'oh you smitten jealous little boy' although he was older than her and she was currently being also very much smitten with Yukihiro. "Yup. You're just not allowed to go back on it during a round once you fall off but you're always allowed to join. Winner is the person who is first to stand on it on their own."
Mamoru's frown deepened, especially because someone he would like to strangle chose this exact moment to change the music from happy J-pop to a song that was immensely more sexy than the one before and he had to gulp a bit noticing that this she could work with, that keeping within the rhythm was suddenly no problem for her anymore and how her hips suddenly seemed to sway back and forth so much slower, and how her belly suddenly did this roll that she usually only does when…
And he really did not like the fact that the ones bumping into her right now were that Seijuro guy and another boy he didn't know. Especially because right now the song they were dancing to and he mildly recognized as some Euro-pop song having been popular a few years back sported way too sexy lyrics, urging 'sexy boys' to 'not be so shy, play with me' which she wholeheartedly sang along to, swinging her glorious hair from side to side, her fists pumping the air and hips moving way to sensually.
And it didn't help either, that he could clearly feel how much she was affecting those two boys as well.
Maybe it was that he did have a bit too much to drink after all, he couldn't really explain this possessive streak that he felt in himself right now otherwise– yet really, there was nothing he could do, he had to join in.
Not even realizing he'd walked there, in one fluid motion he had jumped up onto the mattress with such force that Seijuro slipped and fell.
He smirked, not looking at the other boy and instead touched his body to hers instantly and rather possessively. She 'wohooo'ed, wrapped her arms around his waist, all the while looking deeply into his eyes with a small triumphant smirk around her lips and continued her way too sexy dance which affected him way too much.
She noticed of course, his slightly embarrassed swirl of desire, and danced even sexier, if that was possible. He dimly noticed her friends whooping loudly towards them next to the mattress, and some other people having joined in.
From time to time she let go of him slightly to topple into people around her, who fell off the mattress laughing, until only both of them were left standing.
And- before other people dare to join again, she kissed him deeply – which distracted him momentarily so much that he didn't notice her sashaying him right off the stack of mattresses.
He tumbled off it, lips disconnecting from her last, and she raised her arms triumphantly to the encouraging cheers of her peers.
"Winner and still champion" she yelled into the room, fist in the air, and they hollered back at her. She's the last one standing on the bouncy makeshift platform, before she officially announced Round Two, and slipped down from the mattress and into his arms while the teenagers piled happily back onto it.
"I didn't know you danced like that." She purred at him while continuing to dance with him, now on solid ground and without a sliver of space between them.
"I don't. It was self-defense." He chuckled right into her ear and said in a husky voice, yet a bit indignantly "I didn't know you danced like that, though. Do you even realize what your hips are doing when you dance? How some of these boys look at you?"
Her eyes twinkled at him, and she looked at him with wide, amused eyes. "Are you jealous?"
He grumbled at her and leaned back towards her, nuzzling her ear and temple. "I might be."
She giggled and laced her fingers behind his neck, pinning them together even more effectively and he liked the feeling of that. His head felt a little light, and her proximity was as intoxicating as it always was. This, combined with the alcohol in his system was what he blamed for the fact that he just didn't find it in him to care how they were behaving in her friend's living room.
Besides, he was pretty sure that this howling drunk boy jumping up and down on top of Naru's couch was her own boyfriend who wasn't behaving very maturely, so well, who cared?
So he and Usagi danced as closely as two people could dance. The only way to have more body contact would be if she jumped up onto his hips and attached herself to him, which she'd contemplated quite a bit already.
And she really didn't even need their bond right now to know what he was feeling, as she was moving smack up against him and could feel his body reacting, giving him away. "So… when can we go home?" He breathed into her ear.
She giggled. "I wanna stay a bit more. I never get to dance with you like that. Also, it's your first party, you should at least stay until someone pukes."
He sighed ruefully. "Ah, right"
She giggled at him, and really, the whole thing between them, as always, was a bit like a drug, but she really did want to stay a bit more. "We'll go when the first people start TMIing, I promise."
She could feel his confused frown at the side of her temple and giggled again. "Once people start to say or do things you'd really rather not have heard or seen?"
He half-smiled, lifting his head far enough from her crown and temple to look her in the eyes, raising an eyebrow. "Hm. I'm pretty sure we're doing that right now."
She giggled yet again, the tinkling sound making his throat constrict a little. And then she smirked at him, and proceeded to jump up into his arms and latch herself onto his hips. He caught her, startled, yet reflexively, supporting her weight by lacing his hands around the small of her back. "Nope, now we're doing that", and kissed his nose.
On the fringes of the part of Osaka-san's living room that had turned into a dance floor Rei joined Naru, Makoto and a very sourly looking Natsumi who were all standing to the side watching Mamoru and Usagi dance like a mix of newlywed humping rabbits and drunk teenagers.
"Right." Rei snorted. "Anyone else who can't take the sight of so much dopamine in action all the time?"
Makoto laughed. "Yeah, instant cavities. I mean the way they look at each other…" She shook her head in amusement. It wasn't that she wasn't used to it, it just continued to baffle her, how intensely these two just seemed to feel for each other. It made her heart warm.
"It's disgusting." Natsumi pretty much growled and both Rei and Makoto turned to look at her startled, frowning.
"And it's wrong." Natsumi continued. "I've almost had him back then and she just slipped in like that. It didn't make any sense. She's bewitched him. Whenever she was around or even near suddenly all his attention was on her. It's wrong. She bewitches them all, even Seijuro. She has them all fooled."
Rei and Mako looked at each other in concern and alarm, but then Natsumi's eyes widened and she held her hand in front of her mouth, blushed and then laughed uncomfortably. "Don't mind me, I think I've had a bit too much to drink. I'll go look where my brother has gone hiding." And she hurried away.
Makoto frowned, and noticed Rei do the same, looking after the eerily strange girl. And Makoto didn't remember seeing her with a glass all evening – though granted, he hadn't been paying much attention to her.
"Well, I think they're very sweet together." Naru piped up, a bit confused about Natsumi herself and Makoto almost jumped out of her skin – she'd nearly forgotten Naru was standing there from the tension she'd suddenly felt – this odd need to stand up for Usagi, defend her, protect her, even from words alone. It confused her and she shook her head, smiling at Naru.
"Oh, they are, totally…" Rei seemed to shake out of something as well, and gave Makoto a meaningful look. It felt strange as well, as if they shared their odd feeling of protection towards Usagi, like a bond between the two of them, a purpose. She shook her head again, even harder, trying to shake whatever it was that made her feel these strange things. Maybe she had had too much to drink?
Instead Makoto tried to focus on Naru, trying to clear her emotions, and smiled. "Also you don't count, Naru-chan. You have a boyfriend… By the way, is he doing alright?" She trailed off and pointed towards Umino, who'd traded one surface for another and was now dancing on Osaka-san's couch table by himself, doing something that looked like it was supposed to be twerking when it grew up.
Naru cringed in her giggle. "Ah well…"
Usagi was raising her eyes in amusement at her boyfriend. She'd hopped off of him a few moments ago – it had affected both of them too much, so they were back to dancing closely and he swayed her around. Also, he'd been trying to defend his little act of drunken jealously rather poorly.
"Well, that's kinda cute, but I can fend for myself, I'm Batman after all." She said smugly, pointing at her shirt.
"I thought you were Superman." He deadpanned. "You'll have to decide on one secret identity you know, you can't covet all of them."
She rolled her eyes at him while he brought his lips to her ear and whispered in a husky tone and just underneath his breath so no one else could possibly overhear, especially in all that noise."Though, I do find you sexiest as Sailor Moon."
She flushed and looked at him surprised. "Are you drunk?"
This time he rolled his eyes, shaking his head no, and she frowned. "But you always get so terrified!"
"Yes, I do…" He trailed off and leaned back towards her to whisper directly in her ear."But afterwards, having seen you act so confident and strong…" He blushed, she couldn't see it of course, but she felt it, as well as what it was he wasn't saying out loud, and she blushed as well, excited.
She cleared her throat audibly and he chuckled. "We should get back to the others" She said and his eyes widened a little.
It was her turn to chuckle when he adjusted his jeans slightly and made a show of walking right behind her for a little while.
They found Motoki first, on his own in the kitchen, getting more drinks for himself, Makoto and Rei. Mamoru helped him with the drinks, and Usagi got some more for the two of them and while they walked back towards the girls together he remarked on how he thought Rei was so exactly like Mamoru it felt almost unnerving ("Like, everything! Looks, demeanor, scowl, internalizing…") and that had he told him she was his long lost little sister he'd have believed him no questions asked, to which Usagi latched on, agreeing wholeheartedly and Mamoru groaned.
"Apparantly we're siblings now." He told Rei with a slight eye-roll and raised eyebrow, who'd looked at them warily upon hearing her name mentioned so often while they approached them.
Rei mimicked his expression exactly and replied. "Yeah. He's been saying that a while now." And Usagi fell into a fit of giggles about how they kept proving Motoki's point.
"Speaking of siblings." Mamoru said, looking around. "Where's yours?" He asked Motoki, who's look turned sour and Makoto started to giggle, pointing to the back of the room.
There, he could see when squinting, was Unazuki, in a frantic looking lip-lock with Yukihiro. He chuckled.
Usagi cheered and jumped up and down and caught Makoto's hand in a high five.
"Huh. Didn't she have all those romantic fantasies for her first kiss?" Mamoru smirked and Motoki huffed.
"Apparently." He said, sighing.
"Well, cheers to living the moment." Makoto said, holding up her glass, eyeing both Mamoru and Motoki scoldingly, and everyone raised theirs in answer.
Asanuma came up to them then, clinking glasses with them, and he had to smile at the younger boy and the way he obviously had taken a liking to Makoto. Asanuma blushed at his look and looked away and Usagi looked up at Mamoru with bright eyes, having seen the quiet exchange and obviously having decided she liked the way Asanuma looked at and treated Mamoru.
"So how do you know each other?" Usagi had asked Asanuma und he blushed and rattled off a story about Mamoru that was perhaps a bit too appreciative but it made him smile, as it did Usagi, while Makoto laughed at him, nudging his side and teased Asanuma for it. It was quite adorable to look at.
Rei never strayed too far away from Makoto's or Usagi's side as well, and it was a bit surprising to him actually how fast Makoto and Rei had seemed to warm to each other, almost instantaneously, and Mamoru had to think about a comment from Motoki from earlier in the evening. He had to agree; they did make a sight that absolutely fit together, the three of them. Both of them magnets, attaching their little minuses to his girlfriend, and even though he'd rolled his eyes at Motoki for the comment he and his own little minus had to secretly agree.
The evening went on like that, quite pleasantly, and they'd moved around from corner to corner, Usagi danced a bit with Makoto and Rei in between, practically dragging Rei out under protest and then she ended up dancing so much she didn't want to leave the dancefloor again (as long as no one dared to dance her up, but she made that clear towards anyone who attempted to go near her and Mamoru had to chuckle at the sight.)
He was standing with Motoki and Asanuma then, and they talked a bit about how things were going at 'good old Moto' as Motoki said, when Natsumi came up and asked him to dance and he politely but decisively declined and she batted her eyelashes and tried again and Mamoru sighed, ran an agitated hand through his hair and declined again and again until she went off in a huff and a glare.
It was quite a bit later in the evening when the girls had rejoined them – all except Unazuki, still busy with Yukihiro, and Motoki was asking himself and Mamoru if he thought if it were part of older brother responsibilities to slip Unazuki a condom, just in case? And both of them blushed and shook their heads no way and Makoto had rolled her eyes, extended her opened hand towards Motoki, which he had frowned at and then asked "Condom?" in a slightly commanding tone.
Motoki had blushed a deep red and huffed "Well, I don't have one with me", with raised hands and Usagi rolled her eyes, snaked her hand into Mamoru's jeans pocket and pulled one out (under snickers and comments from anyone present), handing it to Makoto to slip to Unazuki – just in case –
which she promptly went for.
"So… is that TMIing, yet?" Mamoru nodded towards Umino, who was flailing his arms and legs in a weird attempt of a sexy dance on top of Osaka-san's coffee table, shouting along the lyrics to 'Sexy and I know it'.
They all turned to look in Umino's direction simultaneously and Usagi giggled. Fuyumi, who chose that exact moment to walk by next to her snorted and said, "Nah. He's done worse before. But my money's on him as well."
"Oh c'mon." Usagi laughed. "Umino is my dancing queen. He's so cute like that! It's adorable. He's like a little baby PSY. Naru should get him drunk more often." Also, Usagi felt a little to blame for this. She was the one that had made Umino dance the Gangnam Style at Naru's last birthday and he's been ridiculous-dancing his way through all the birthdays in their class ever since.
Mamoru furrowed his brow, not knowing what a 'PSY' was, while Naru made an appreciative sound and nodded at Usagi vehemently. "Thank you, Usagi-chan, I think so, too."
Fuyumi giggled with little snorts splattered in. "You should see him 'shake it off'", she said to Mamoru and then her eyes widened with an excited look in her eyes and she glided off to their classmate who was manning the music requesting a certain song.
They stood like that for a while, some people wandering off, others joining, talking about nothing really, and Mamoru had to admit he was having fun. He'd never in his life felt comfortable in a crowd this size, and from what he got off of Makoto and Rei, neither had they, judging on the wondrous feelings they had mixed in there, and he knew it was completely due to this little ball of sunshine that was currently leaning against him, making everyone shine along with her, being friendly and accepting.
He sighed appreciatively, and brought up his arm up to stroke her side a bit, cradling her a little more towards him in the process. She just continued talking to her friends, as the contact was so completely normal to them, and it made him smile.
He could see Seijuro in the distance, across the room, staring daggers at him and glaring openly, but oh well, the boy simply had to deal in his opinion.
He'd been trying to chat Usagi up a few times after dancing with her, and Mamoru had always stood to the side, not saying anything, letting her fend for herself like she wanted but not straying far, and she'd always kept the conversation light and cheerful, like she treated anybody, open and friendly, and had even started to pick out girls in the crowd who looked at Seijuro with fluttering eyes, pointing out similar tastes in music and things like that, trying to set them up, yet Seijuro continued to have eyes only for Usagi.
They ended up leaving quite early, Seijuro and his sister, both looking to be in serious bad moods and Usagi felt bad for them, yet Rei, quite ominously, said to stay away from them and she was getting bad vibes off them. "No shit." Makoto agreed vehemently, and Rei half-smiled at Makoto, just for a second until her face was blank again.
Their own TMI-cue to go had been loud and clear, then, later (Umino, drunk as he was, shouting over the crowd that he wore his on the left side of his pants.), and Rei and Makoto left with them and they walked down the street, swinging now empty cooler boxes to the corner where they would all part.
"Should we walk you guys home?" Mamoru asked, trying to be cavalier, and both Rei and Makoto looked at him in disbelief – one could turn herself into a fire beacon and the other kicked his ass every other day. He cringed at that, laughing, having forgotten for a second over his manners whom he was talking to, and well, Makoto especially didn't know it was Tuxedo Mask and Sailor Moon who had offered to walk her home but that scrawny guy and his tiny girlfriend.
So Makoto had in fact offered Rei to walk her home, to which she'd agreed solely for the reason that she wanted to spend a bit more time with her, and they'd all bid their goodnights and walked in their respective directions.
He'd walked Usagi to her front door instead of slipping into her room without her beforehand, as the lights were still on and he wanted to make sure Kenji knew he'd held his promise to not let her get back on her own, and he was equally surprised when Ikuko had announced that she'd gotten Kenji to agree that Mamoru should just stay the night instead of walking home on his own at so late an hour, with a wink that made Mamoru realize how much she knew and his heart skipped a beat and he blushed furiously, and Kenji had grumbled but let them trudge upstairs.
L
So, Natsumi and Seijuro are pretty angry now^^
Let me know what you think, please 3 3