AN: Here's the next installment to my little story, and it only took me 3 months this time. I'm on a roll! (not really but you take the victories where you can find them)
A huge, HUGE thanks to my forever beta FloraOne for her continued enthusiasm for this birthday fic of hers that's been on going for 9 months now. My goal is to have it finished by her next birthday, and then we can start again xD
Please enjoy, and know that I LOVE your reviews and they keep me going 33333333
oOo
It was four whole minutes past seven. Maybe if she stared at the phone just a tiny bit harder it would ring.
Usagi glared, focusing all her brain power into willing her phone's screen to light up with his name.
It didn't, and she sighed.
He was usually so punctual, but it was now five after, and still no Mamoru.
She let out another sigh, and resisted the urge to let her head slam against the tiny kitchen table.
"If you sigh one more time, I'll give you something to sigh about," Minako quipped, placing a steaming mug of hot chocolate, topped with piles of whipped cream in front of Usagi.
Usagi smiled at her weakly. "Sorry."
Minako smiled back warmly, reaching out to pat Usagi's hand as she sat down across from her.
"I've never seen you like this. What is it about this guy, hmm?"
It was the question she'd been asking herself for a couple of weeks now. It should have been so easy to walk away from him and not look back. But the thought of never seeing or talking to Mamoru again made her heart clench painfully and her breath run short.
"I...I don't know. There's just...something about him."
"Well, his abs certainly don't hurt."
"Mina!" Usagi cried in mock indignation, before she giggled and nodded. "But no, they really, really don't."
"Why the long face, then? You're clearly head over heels to be sitting here glaring at your phone like that."
Usagi absolutely was head over heels. She couldn't deny it. She'd liked guys before, had been in love a hundred times probably, but Mamoru was another matter entirely.
She thought about him constantly. Wondering what he was doing at that moment, if he was sleeping well, going out with friends. She thought about the way his hair had brushed into his eyes, and how the right side of his mouth quirked up when he seemed to find her particularly amusing.
And then there were the near overwhelming thoughts of how his rich laugh resonated through her, and the way his face had looked when he was on that delicious plateau of ecstasy…
"You're thinking about sex with him again, aren't you?" Minako asked with a sly grin, and her eyebrow quirked suggestively.
Apparently, she'd been quiet for just a titch too long.
"Ugghhh, Mina!" she cried, finally allowing her head to fall to the table into her folded arms. "I'm absolutely hopeless."
Minako laughed gleefully. "You have no idea how long I've waited for this to happen to you."
Usagi lifted her head in confusion. "What? Fall in love with a stranger who's way out of my league and who I'm not sure even likes me all that much?"
It was Minako's turn to look confused. "You're kidding, right?"
"About what part?"
"That you don't even know if he likes you? Seriously, Usagi, you can't be that dense," Minako replied, lifting her cup to her lips for a long sip of tea.
"I don't!" Usagi said, sitting up and folding her arms defensively in front of her. "He's never said anything of the sort."
Minako rolled her eyes and began ticking things off on her fingers. "He accepted your invitation to come up to your apartment after only knowing you for a few hours. He slept with you. Made you breakfast in his underwear. Invited you out for the day despite being so obviously mortified by my showing up. Slept with you again. Calls you consistently every other day. Texts you as constantly as one might expect a socially stunted person to, and you already have sickeningly adorable nicknames for each other."
She paused to look at Usagi. "I'm running out of fingers here, do I need to keep going?"
Usagi remained quiet while she took in her friend's words. It was a rather long list of damning evidence, but she still wasn't convinced. Mamoru was obviously just a really nice guy, and even if he did like her, that didn't mean he wanted this to go anywhere, and as much as she wanted to be like Minako sometimes, Usagi just wasn't someone who could be in a casual relationship.
She needed love and commitment and dates and romance and post sex cuddles and…
The shrill ring of her phone sent her jumping from her chair, and her heart beat even more wildly when she read Mamoru's name on her screen.
Grabbing her phone, she ran from the kitchen, calling an apology and a thanks to Minako before slamming her bedroom door shut, and hitting the answer button on the screen.
"Mamo-chan," she breathed into the phone, cringing immediately at how wistful and lonely and wanting she sounded.
"Hi, Odango Atama." His warm voice never failed to send a pleasant tingling to her extremities.
"Must you always call me that?" she asked, but there was no malice in her tone while her lips curled up in a bright smile.
"Yes," came his matter of fact reply. "I'm so sorry I'm late, I had a last minute emergency and then the trains were running late."
"Is everything ok?" she rushed out worriedly. "What kind of emergency was it?"
"I'm fine," he assured, and the smile returned to her face. "It was just a patient that had a bad reaction to some medication. An easy fix."
"Oh," she replied lamely. "Well, that's good at least."
There was a long pause where neither of them spoke.
"Soooo," he drawled eventually. "Did you hear back from that client you were hoping to get hired by?"
Usagi breathed a sigh of relief at the question, and proceeded to tell him that yes, she had gotten hired, and Artemis did the funniest thing yesterday, and she'd had so much fun at karaoke the other night.
Before she knew it, she'd been talking for ten minutes straight.
"God, Mamo-chan, why didn't you stop me!" she chastised when she realized what she'd done. "I've just been going on and on about myself."
She heard him chuckle through the line, and she blushed.
"Usako, I like hearing about your life," he said, and she could tell it was completely genuine.
"Well, I've talked enough! Tell me about your day!" she said, sitting up and crossing her legs so she wasn't too comfortable and could give him the attention he deserved.
"I was actually going to see if you were busy this weekend?" he said, and she could hear the hesitance in his voice now.
"This weekend? Why?"
"I have another conference in town, and I was hoping...maybe you might have time for dinner or something?"
"Oh," was all she could manage to get out, her heart pounding with a mixture of excitement and fear and something else altogether she couldn't quite name.
"I completely understand if you don't," he went on, and she was disappointed when he didn't even sound phased by the thought she might not have time for him.
Emotions raged in her. He wanted to see her, so that was good, right? But it wasn't like he was making a special trip or anything, just happened to be in town. Not so great admittedly, but it was better than nothing, and her need to see him overwhelmed everything else.
"I'll only be there for a day, and it's last minute, and it's not like I have a demand on your time at all, I just thought-"
"Dinner sounds great," she said quietly.
oOo
Usagi waited impatiently outside Ebisu station, eyes scanning the crowd for the tall, slender, incredibly hot man she was looking for.
She checked her watch. 6:30 pm on the dot, and still no sign of Mamoru.
She'd even managed to get there early! After Minako had pushed her out the door, apparently tired of Usagi changing outfits ten times and fussing over the same piece of her hair for half an hour.
Mamoru had said he'd made reservations for them for 7 at a little Italian place he'd loved for years, and her emotions were rapidly moving between excitement and abject terror at the prospect of seeing him again.
He made her feel so, so much, which wasn't altogether strange for her, but the intensity of the feelings that threatened to burst from her even at just the sound of his voice, from five hundred plus kilometers away no less, made her wonder if she was going a little crazy.
But there was nothing in the world that could make her want to give this up. Not matter how insignificant she was to Mamoru.
He wasn't insignificant to her. Would never be.
"Mamo-chan!" she cried when she finally caught sight of him, startling a few people closest to her with the sheer volume of her shout. She stood on the tips of her toes, and waved her hand enthusiastically.
Her heart skipped a beat when he saw her, a bright smile on his face, as he leisurely walked towards her through the crowds.
She took off running towards him, her impatience to be close to him taking over, and when she reached him, Usagi launched herself into his arms.
To his credit, Mamoru caught her expertly, his body taking most of the impact, not even appearing off balance in the slightest.
His arms tightened around her, and her feet dangled a few inches from the ground while she nuzzled into the crook of his neck, breathing in the deep scent of roses and pine that lingered on his skin.
Mamoru placed her down gently with an almost goofy smile on his face. "If I didn't know any better, I'd think you were happy to see me, Usako."
Usagi flushed a deep shade of red, and quickly changed the subject. "We'd better hurry if we're going to make it to dinner on time!" she said, grabbing his hand while pulling him away from the station and down the busy sidewalk.
His deep laugh followed her, and she pulled him all the way to the restaurant, only pausing every few hundred meters to chastise him about hurrying up, the deep red flush still on her face from before.
He even appeared to be slightly out of breath when they finally arrived at their destination. "How are you not even the least bit winded?" he asked, his voice raspy.
Usagi just shrugged. "I'm used to being late, remember?" she said, wagging her finger at him playfully. "You don't get legs like these by just walking." She inwardly applauded herself for that remark, and her ego wasn't hurt in the slightest when he looked down at her legs, eyes growing dark and an appreciative sound came from the back of his throat.
She yanked on his arm again, their hands still clasped from before. "Come on, Mamo-chan, I'm starving!"
He came willingly, and when Usagi stepped inside the restaurant, she gasped in delight.
It was an intimate little place named Il Boccalone, with room for maybe fifty people, dim lighting and cute two-seater tables with yellow tablecloths and an open kitchen. It was the sort of place you'd take a date, and her smile fell a bit when her thoughts turned to all the other women he must have brought here to come to love it as much as he claimed to.
"Usako? Is something wrong?" Mamoru's concerned voice reached her ears, when he turned away from speaking with the host. "If you don't like Italian, we can go somewhere else, I just thought-"
"No!" she said too loudly, causing a waiter and the host to look at her strangely. She flushed, but turned to him with what she hoped was an appeasing smile. "It's perfect."
The host led them to their table, and Usagi had to keep from shivering when she felt Mamoru's hand on the small of her back as he walked behind her. How she was going to make it through this dinner without demanding sex right then and there, she'd never know.
She took a few deep, calming breaths while Mamoru ordered them some fancy sounding wine, and her nose filled with the most delicious smells.
"This place is really nice, Mamo-chan," she said between bitefulls of bread, and he smiled at her, eyes twinkling in the most enticing way in the dim light.
He looked around with an almost nostalgic look on his face. "It's been a favorite of mine for a long time."
"Did you bring a lot of dates here or something?" she said, trying to sound like it didn't bother her in the slightest, while her insides flipped and her stomach churned at the thought.
He nearly choked on the sip of wine he was taking, sputtering out, "N-no, not exactly."
Relief she knew she had no right to feel swept through her. "Really? I find that hard to believe," she said, examining the piece of bread she'd pulled off.
Daring a glance up at him, she noticed his tell-tale smirk had returned.
"Do you think I spend all my free time dating dozens of women, Odango?"
Usagi could feel her face and ears burning. "Well, if you didn't bring dates here, why do you love it so much?"
Mamoru smiled her in a way that clearly stated he found her adorable, in that kid sister kind of way that made her want to run and hide underneath her bunny comforter with her favorite stuffed animal until she died.
But her heart nearly stopped when he reached across the table, and threaded her fingers through his.
"Motoki's aunt actually owns this place. She gave me a job in college, and let me have a table to study here pretty much whenever I wanted, and fed me," he said quietly. "She...kind of adopted me, I guess you could say."
Adopted him? Usagi's brow crinkled, trying to understand. "Did you need to be adopted?"
He swirled his wine around in the glass nonchalantly. "In a manner of speaking, I suppose."
"But why?" she asked, curiosity getting the better of her.
Mamoru smiled at her, but Usagi could clearly see the warning behind it. "A story for another time, perhaps."
She would have pulled her hand back from his grasp, but he held her hand steadfastly, and she was now more unsure than ever.
They were thankfully interrupted then by the waiter, a sweet looking girl who's eyes went wide every time Mamoru even so much as glanced at her, and Usagi was torn between complete jealousy and total understanding. She had looked at him much the same way the first time she'd seen him, after all.
And once the girl had reluctantly left to put their order in with the kitchen, Usagi did her best to return them to normal conversation.
"So, what was your conference about this time?" she asked, taking a much too big sip of her wine.
She was surprised by the almost frightened look on his face.
"Uh...well, it was about, the uh...most recent discoveries in treatments for bladder cancer," his voice trailed off and he cleared his throat.
"Bladder cancer?" Usagi asked, again much too loudly, when for the third time in less than an hour people's heads turned towards her and annoyed looks were sent her way. "What does that have to do with the brain?"
Mamoru's mouth opened and shut quickly again, and he licked his lips. He appeared to be stalling for time, though she had no idea why.
"Everything has to do with the brain," he finally responded, with a nod of his head as if he'd just explained the universe to her.
Usagi briefly weighed whether or not she wanted to press further, before quickly deciding she didn't care enough about the bladder, cancer or the brain to keep going.
"Whatever you say, Dr. Chiba," she said emphasizing his name in a way that made him roll his eyes, and she kept going with a shrug and a, "you're the expert."
The waitress came back with their plates not long after that, and Usagi threw a thinly veiled glare in her direction when she lingered a bit too long to make sure everything was 'alright.'
"I know the cancer thing doesn't make a ton of sense, but we have to do a bunch of continuing education," he continued on with the conversation looking to his left nervously.
"Was it at least interesting?" Usagi asked, leaning forward to breathe in the heavenly smell of her food.
He smiled, and winked at her. "Honestly, I couldn't wait to get out of there."
Usagi felt warmth shoot straight through her limbs, and she busied herself with twirling a huge mouthful of pasta onto her fork.
Oh, he was a flirt, but she was eating it up.
"That wouldn't have anything to do with me would it?" she asked brazenly, biting her lip in what she hoped was a seductive way.
"Mmm, Odango Atama, what on earth would make you think that?" he replied, delicately cutting his meat with utensils placed perfectly in his long fingers.
She sighed wistfully, trying to ignore the ever growing ache she had to be touched by him, taking another giant bite of food. "Just wishful thinking I suppose."
His dark bangs were falling into his eyes in the most enticing way, and Usagi had to bite back the urge to reach across the table and feel the silky strands against her skin.
"Well, I most definitely wasn't thinking about you the entire time," he said, that wonderfully sexy and obviously annoying smirk was back.
"No?" Usagi asked, trying to look sophisticated as she sipped her wine. "That's a real shame."
"It is?" he responded, leaning his head on his palm, elbow on the table. His eyes were dark with mischief.
She smiled widely, and nodded her head. "Yes, it is, because I was thinking about you."
Mamoru swallowed hard, the smirk only barely hanging on. "What about me?" His voice was breathless, the remainder of his food forgotten.
Usagi pushed her plate to the side, having finished the last of her pasta in about two minutes flat. She leaned forward placing her chin in her hands, her smile now sweet as honey.
"Oh everything, Mamoru," she drawled his name out, loving the way it felt like a caress in her mouth. "That not at all attractive smirk of yours. Your obnoxiously hard and muscled chest. Your boring black hair. Those overly dull blue eyes."
He leaned back in his chair, the right side of his mouth quirked up as he rested one leg on the other knee, suit jacket open, tie loosened, arm draped casually across the chairback. He was the picture of everything good about masculinity and it was beautiful.
His face seemed to scream at her, challenge accepted.
"That is a shame, Usako," he said and her breath caught at the name like it did every other time it left his lips. "Because there's no way I was thinking about your ridiculously long, stringy hair, or how obnoxiously loud you are, or your insane tendency to abuse arcade machines."
Usagi couldn't help but giggle. "That happened once!"
"That I know of," he countered, and she had to concede that point to him. "But you know what I wasn't thinking about the most?"
It was her voice's turn to sound breathy. "W-what?"
His eyes dropped down to her lips, and he reached across the table his thumb brushing some wayward sauce from the corner of her mouth, before gently tracing the lines of her lips. "I never, not once, thought about kissing that pouty, perfect mouth of yours."
Then his fingers were gone, and he was back to sitting across from her, so relaxed as if nothing in the world could bother him.
"Do you want to come back to my place?" Usagi blurted out without thinking, and immediately cringed at how desperate she must have sounded.
Mamoru grinned back. "My hotel is closer."
oOo
Usagi sighed, finally lifting herself from her all too comfy spot on Mamoru's chest. She stood up, and began rifling around for her clothes that were strewn across the hotel room.
"What are you doing?" Mamoru asked, sitting up with what looked like alarm on his face, while Usagi picked up her bra from its place on a lampshade.
She paused in her movements, arms full of clothes, and she shrugged sheepishly. "I just figured it was time for me to go?"
His face fell, and she swore her heart was about to break. "Why? Did I do something wrong? Did you-"
"No! I just thought you might not want me to stay-"
"Usako," he interrupted her, throwing back the sheet that covered his lower half, and she had to lean her head back when he reached her, his height towering over her tiny frame.
She blushed deeply at the sight of him, and he gently took the clothes from her hands, placing them on the desk chair nearby.
She sighed and her eyes fluttered closed when he took her face into his hands, slightly cursing herself for allowing his affect on her to be so blatantly obvious.
But the intensity of his gaze wiped the thought from her head, and she felt like she was drowning.
"I want you to stay," he said, voice soft. "Do...do you want to?"
Usagi nodded vigorously, her heart now fully in charge of her brain, and she squealed when he reached down to pick her up, tumbling them both back onto the bed.
oOo
Usagi was beginning to form a love/hate relationship with train stations.
On the one hand, they brought Mamoru to her. On the other, they took him away again.
They stood outside the turnstiles, and she couldn't bring herself to look him in the eyes while her nervous heart hammered away in her chest.
She felt his fingers lift her chin. "Usako, don't be sad," he said with a small smile. "I'll see you soon, I promise."
She cleared her throat, and took in a deep breath, finally finding the courage to say what she'd been planning in her head since the night before. "Mamo-chan, I was thinking of visiting Makoto soon to see if she needed any help, and I was wondering if-"
His lips on hers were earnest and demanding, despite the awkward way she had to maneuver herself to avoid his bags, Usagi returned his kiss with just as much fervor as he was giving her.
She knew they were causing a scene. Knew full well that this kiss solved nothing. Not the distance, not the insecurity, not the sad ache in her heart that never really seemed to fade unless he was right there with her, but she kissed him back all the same, unable to deny him anything.
And when he finally eased back from her, his forehead pressed against hers, his smile was enough to sustain her until she could see him again. "I would love to see you, Usa."
She forced the smile to stay on her face when the announcement for his train arrival rang through the station.
"I'll see you soon," he said with a quick kiss to her forehead. "Bye, Usako."
"Bye, Mamo-chan," she managed to answer, and she watched him show his ticket and move through to places she wasn't allowed.
Watching his retreating form, she only broke her gaze when her phone dinged in her pocket. She scrambled to pull it out, and a genuine grin broke out on her face when she read his message on her screen.
Don't be sad.
She looked up to see him smiling back at her with a quick wave, before he turned around and disappeared from view.