21. Binoculars

Usagi silently shifted her weight from one foot to the other, trying to keep them from falling asleep. She had been standing precariously in the corner on her stacked schoolbooks (I mean, what else could they possibly be good for?) for the last hour and was no closer to finding the thing for which she was examining the Crown so intently. She lifted her feet so that she was standing on tip-toe again and peeked over the edge of the farthest corner booth.

Nope…nope….nuh-uh……..no, those weren't his either…

Usagi sighed. Maybe this idea really was as stupid as Rei had claimed it was.

Usagi tried quietly to re-do the math again in her head. So Rei-chan had said there were approximately eight thousand people in Tokyo….or was it eight million? But only half of those would be men, so that narrowed it down a bit. And there were like 15 guys in the arcade, so the chances of finding that one pair of eyes were good, right??

Usagi shook her head and turned back to her task at hand, leaning forward for a better look. However difficult it might be, it was her best plan at the moment. Tuxedo Kamen's mask certainly did its job well.

As if thinking about him stirred some kind of good karma, at that moment, Usagi's gaze came to rest of two ocean blue eyes, and her heart skipped a beat.

…And then she toppled over with a crash.

Busted. Operation Tuxedo-Kamen-Identity-Initiative officially over.

And the worst part?

She didn't even get the chance to look at the guy's face.

"Odango!" Mamoru's voice rang out and Usagi heard footsteps.

"Diajoubu?"

"H-Hai," Usagi sat up and grimaced.

"What the heck were you doing?" Mamoru half-laughed.

"That is none of your business."

"Unfortunately for me, Odango Atama, if you're doing something uncoordinated, it tends to become my business."

"Humph!"

"But seriously, what's with the binoculars, hmm?" Usagi crossed her arms nonchalantly.

"I'm looking for someone."

"Looking for someone," he drawled, "Don't you already have two eyes for that? Well, maybe not. If you had two eyes, you might actually look where you were going."

Usagi's hands clenched into fists at her sides.

"Arrrghhh! Why can't you just leave me ALONE?!?!"

"Because evidently even when I do leave you alone, you still manage fall over on the floor."

Usagi folded her arms over her chest.

"Just go away please,"

"Not until you tell me what you're up to."

Usagi glared. Mamoru quirked an eyebrow. Thirty seconds passed in silence, before—

"Urghhh!—I'm trying to find a particular set of eyes."

"And the reason for that would be…"

"I don't know what the rest of his face looks like."

"And you don't know what his face looks like because…"

"Because I've only ever seen him in a mask."

"And, gliding over the fact that that seems a bit abnormal, why do you need to know what he looks like?"

"To thank him,"

"To thank him?"

"For saving me."

"Uh-huh."

"Hai." Usagi smiled her bright grin and Mamoru looked at her with a dubious expression halfway between wondering if her imagination had finally gone too far, and deciding that she really was telling the truth.

"Mamoru-baka?"

"Nani?"

"Can you please move now? I can't see across the room."

"Oh. Right." Mamoru turned away as Usagi scrambled into her former position, pulling the binoculars back up to her face. Mamoru took a few steps, before looking at her one more time as he exited the Crown.

"Well, Odango," he said to himself, scratching his head, "I hope he's as ecstatic to meet you are you are to meet him."