Part XVIII

The group watched Minako tackle Yaten to the ground and couldn't help but laugh. Kakyuu was already steps away from them arm in arm with her classmate. A bruised and beaten Taiki made his way back to them barely holding himself up. "Can we PLEASE go home now?" He asked practically begging Ami.

Ami looked around at everyone's faces to see what the general consensus of the group was but when her eyes landed back on Taiki's she knew she really didn't have a choice in the matter. "Alright, we can go." She patted him on the head like a little child and grinned. "Is anyone else coming with us?"

"I can't, I still haven't gotten what I came for." Usagi said looking into her bags.

Everyone else seemed to agree that it was time to get out of this meat market they called a mall and head home. "Yaten are you coming?" Taiki said struggling to look back over his shoulder.

Yaten was still pinned down on the floor by an enthusiastic Minako. "YES!! Please help!"

"No way! I didn't see you running to my aid!" Taiki turned his back on him.

Yaten huffed and for once in his life acted like a civilized human being. "Minako, will you please calm down and get off of me?" He asked in the politest manner he could muster up.

Minako's eyes went wide and did as she was asked. Yaten's eyes also went wide as he realized how well that actually worked out. "Do you want to get going with these guys?" She asked standing up.

Yaten was still at a loss for words at the way Minako had just calmed down and did what he asked when he was nice to her. "Uhh. Sure. but I have to get something before we go." He walked over to the counter where the clerk was still drooling over the thought of Kakyuu and took his tape back. "Now it's no holds barred!! She's got nothing on me!" He smiled to himself as he shoved the tape into his pocket and returned to Minako's side. "Ready?" He asked putting out his arm for her.

Minako nodded and graciously accepted the gesture. The rest of the group just watched in awe but soon followed. "Usagi, give us a call when you get done with your family tomorrow OK?" Makoto called to Usagi who was already heading off in the direction of the last store she needed to go to.

Usagi turned and waved to show that she had heard and understood what Makoto had just told her. She only had one place left to stop and then she could retire from this relentless battle of shopping. "Stupid procrastination!" She cursed herself as she walked down the halls.

As it turned out the store that held her last item for her father was mobbed and it had taken her forever to get in and out with one simple purchase. By now the streetlights were on and the stars were starting to come out. The sidewalks were shoveled leaving piles and banks all along side of them. The snow began to fall lightly and this caused Usagi to stop for a moment to stare at the falling crystals. There was no wind so it seemed like a peaceful serene moment. Standing under the streetlight made the snowflakes appear to sparkle with a life of their own.

Usagi sighed and looked around. All around her were strangers and she had hoped that there was some one that she knew here to share this wonderful experience with her. Everyone was caught up in the hustle and bustle of the moment and didn't take the time to notice the beauty falling all around them. Soon Usagi realized that she wasn't getting home any quicker by just standing around admiring the scenery so she once again set off towards her house.

When she turned however, Usagi saw a familiar face sitting in the bookstore window. "Seiya?" She questioned into the air. He was sitting alone on a couch near a stack of books engrossed in a novel. Figuring now was as good of time as any to rekindle their friendship Usagi shrugged and ventured into the bookstore.

As Usagi goes to push her way into the door a man appeared on the other side and held up a set of keys. "Sorry Miss, but we're not allowing anyone else in the store. We'll be closing shortly and only the customers that are currently in the store may stay." He said before locking the door shortly after.

Usagi's face fell as she turned around and slumped home after taking one last look at Seiya through the window.

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Seiya walked into the apartment and walked straight to his room. Taiki and Yaten were on the couch and watched the whole thing. "How was your date tonight?" Yaten called.

"Fine." Seiya said just before closing his door for the night.

Taiki turned to Yaten with a puzzling look on his face. "Did Mamoru say anything to you guys that night he drove you to the Tomoe house?"

"No, why?" Yaten asked intrigued by Taiki's question. Why would Taiki be asking something like that about Mamoru?

"He didn't say anything about Usagi?"

"No, why? Would you just stop playing this stupid guessing game with me and tell me already?!" Yaten was a man of little patients and he was showing just how bad he could be at this moment.

Before Taiki could ease the little man's tension the phone rang and Yaten felt obligated to pick it up. He was always nosey and wanted to know everything that was going on. Now that he and Minako had joined forces the gossiping world was in for a treat! "Hello?. What?. No way!. She did not!. Stop!. Where is she now?. I don't know, why would I?. WHAT!!!." Yaten hung up the phone slowly. "Minako just blurted out a whole bunch of stuff then hung up the phone."

"Well what did she say, you seemed pretty damn into the conversation." Taiki sat up straighter on the couch.

"First she sat that Kakyuu ended up getting wasted at Makoto's house after the mall, then she passed out and they all drew on hers and Rei's faces with marker. I guess Kakyuu went to the bathroom to wash it off and disappeared. Now they don't know where she is and were wondering if she came back here." Yaten was telling the incredulous story with almost a straight face until Kakyuu burst through the door singing Christmas carols. "And there she is!" Yaten held his hand out in a 'ta-da' fashion.

Kakyuu made her way over to the couch and passed out ready to sleep for the night. "What was that?" Taiki asked looking down at her.

"Anyway. as I was saying the last part that Minako blurted out before she so rudely hung up the phone was that Mamoru and Usagi broke up!" Yaten said getting up off of the couch that Kakyuu was drooling on.

"I know! That's what I was asking you about before she called!" Taiki said closing his book. He spotted Yaten walking towards Seiya's room and stopped him. "What are you doing?" He asked looking back over the couch.

"I'm going to tell Seiya, he'll love this one!" Yaten was smirking.

"What are you talking about? Seiya won't care, he has a girlfriend now remember? This news won't mean anything to him." Taiki turns back around and tries to make Kakyuu a little more comfortable on the couch.

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It was now Christmas Eve and everyone was running around doing their last minute shopping. Everyone that was including Usagi. She had thought she was all done but little did she know that her mother would send her out on last minute earns instead of letting her sit around the house sipping hot chocolate like she had grown accustomed to. At least she only had to go to the market.

Usagi walked down the crowded streets not really paying attention when the same bookstore that she had seen Seiya in the night before caught her eye. Just to humor herself maybe she walked towards it to catch a glimpse in through the big glass window. To her surprise she saw exactly who she was looking for.

"I can't go in there! What excuse would I have for going in a bookstore?" She was speaking out loud to herself in the middle of the sidewalk when she realized just how crazy she looked. "Dummy, it's Christmas, say you're buying a gift for Ami or something!" With that in mind Usagi charged into the bookstore not to be deterred by a pushy salesman this time.

Usagi made her way through the store over to the couch she had seen Seiya reading on ALONE. She paused a moment before she casually sat down next to him. 'What do I have to be afraid of?' She thought to herself. 'You have to be afraid of the rejection that you're about to get, again.' "Good book?" She asked when she realized that he hadn't noticed her.

Seiya looked up from his book with a surprised smile on his face. "Odango?. What are you doing here?"

'See it's a good thing you came up with a plan of why you were here!' "Oh nothing, I had to pick up a last minute gift for Ami. I was actually on my way to go and get it when I saw you sitting here and decided to stop and see you. Do you want me to leave? Oh that's right you're probably here with your girlfriend. I'll go." Usagi started getting up to leave. 'Man! I can't believe I didn't even think of the fact that he'd be here with his girlfriend!'

Seiya caught Usagi by the wrist as she was getting up letting her know that he didn't want her to leave. "Odango." He begins and by now Usagi is completely engulfed in the moment. "Can you keep a secret?"

"Of course I can!" Usagi smiled back at him.

"Well this is kind of weird and I don't want you to think I'm a weirdo or something but. I don't really have a girlfriend." He said nonchalantly.

"WHAT!!" The entire bookstore turned around and looked at the wild girl that was Usagi.

"Calm down. I just told everyone that so that they'd get off my back and stop setting me up on dates. I never had a girlfriend."

"What about that girl Taiki, Yaten and I saw you with coming out of your apartment?" Usagi recalled the incident near the elevator and cringed a bit.

"Oh that, well that girl lived in the building and she's blind. Her seeing eye dog was at the vet and I had offered to take care of her for the day. I put my arm around her so that she wouldn't run into anything. She's actually pretty funny when you get to know her." Seiya laughed when he remembered some of the things that girl had come up with.

"What are you doing here then?" Usagi looked around herself.

"I've been coming here on my 'dates'." He signals little quotation marks in the air with his fingers. "I figured reading a book is a good way to kill time and it looked like I'd have plenty of it on my hands." The two shared a good laugh together as Seiya's whole plot was coming together.

"I get it now. You really had all of us fooled!. Say, Seiya?" Usagi smiled at him as she immediately felt their old friendship again and was much more comfortable around him now that she knew he didn't have a girlfriend. "What are you doing in a little while?"

"You're looking at it. I told Taiki, Yaten and Kakyuu that I was going to an all day holiday film festival with my 'girlfriend'. Why what did you have in mind?"

"Well instead of going to an all day film fest with you 'girlfriend' how about you come to my house and we can get some movies?" Usagi was proud of herself that she had come up with that so quickly.

"Sure!" Seiya closed his book and stood up. "That sounds great." Usagi stood up with him and they proceeded to the door. "Uhh. Odango, you forgot Ami's present."

"I didn't really have to get her a present I just needed an excuse to talk to you." Usagi quickly covered her mouth as she had not planned on revealing that to him. Seiya laughed and they continued to walk.

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Usagi's parents were gone by the time she had gotten home, she had taken a little longer than she had planned and figured that her family must have already left for her Aunt's house. "Make yourself at home, I'm sure you remember where everything is." Usagi called into the living room from the kitchen.

When she came back into the living room she set down two cups of steamy liquid and popped the movie in the VCR. Just as she sat down the phone rang. "Hello. Hi Mamo. Nothing just watching a movie. Maybe some other time, Seiya's here and we're hanging out. I know. Thank you. Ja!"

Seiya sat on the couch with a shocked look on his face. He couldn't believe that Usagi had just refused to hang out with Mamoru because he was here and even more is that she told Mamoru that he was there and that's why she wasn't hanging out with him. "Odango, if you want to go out with Mamoru I'll understand." He said politely trying to conceal his shock.

"No, he'll get over it. Besides I'm sure Motoki is just sitting home itching to get out." She said casually watching the movie. She forgot that Seiya didn't know that she and Mamoru had broken up.

These words shocked him even more but also brought a smile to his face. "They want me to bring my 'girlfriend' over for Christmas dinner tomorrow night." He said referring to Kakyuu and the Lights.

"Well we'll really have to surprise them and I'll go instead!" Usagi laughed at herself. "Yeah that will really surprise Yaten!"

Seiya got a good laugh out of it too. "This is what I missed about hanging out with you Odango."

"Yeah you know, now that you mentioned it, why did we stop hanging out? You just all of the sudden started avoiding me." By now neither one of them were paying any attention to the movie.

Seiya fidgeted a little and appeared to be nervous. "Well I couldn't be hanging around you while I was trying to convince the others that I had a girlfriend now could I?"

"Yeah I guess, but after they knew that you had one you still avoided me, how come?" Usagi wasn't about to let the matter drop.

"Be..Because I didn't like to see you everyday with Mamoru." Seiya had a hard time looking at her. "Even though I was supposed to be pretending that I had a girlfriend it hurt me to see you with him because I still loved you."

Usagi was shocked to say the least, she had thought that all of the feelings that Seiya had for her had dissipated. She was at a loss for words and did the only thing that she could. She leaned over and kissed him.

Seiya was shocked by Usagi's sudden actions but kissed her back. This was the moment he had been waiting for he wasn't about to pass it up. When they broke from their kiss Seiya's eyes slowly opened. "What was that for?" He asked still in a daze.

"Well I have a secret too." She winked at him. "When I went to America to visit Mamoru, he and I broke up." Before Usagi could say anything else Seiya was at her lips again.

"This should really make dinner interesting tomorrow!" Seiya smiled when he backed away.

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"Why aren't you cooking?" Taiki asked Kakyuu as he watched her filing her nails at the table.

"Because I'm delicate." She said blowing off the dust from her nails.

"But you were the one that said you were going to do this but now some how I got stuck doing it." Taiki huffed and his oven mitts went flying across the room. Kakyuu giggled at his reaction, she just loved to get him going.

"I'll help you it's alright." Ami said coming up behind him. The dinner guests were to consist of Yaten, Minako, Taiki, Ami, Kakyuu, her now boyfriend, Seiya and his mystery girlfriend.

"Is he back yet?" Minako jumped up and down.

"No, they should be here any time now." Yaten said peeking out the window next to her. They were both excited like small children on Christmas morning. It had been a beautiful Christmas day with snowfall and everything. Seiya had gone to pick up his girlfriend before dinner and they were waiting for them to return.

"Do you even know her name?" Minako looked over at Yaten who was glued to the pane of the window.

"No, come to think of it I never asked either." When he finished his statement Seiya's car pulled up in front of the apartment building. "They're here!!"

Unfortunately for Yaten and Minako it was cold out and Seiya's girlfriend was bundled up to keep warm. Once they were in the house Yaten was the first to offer to take her coat. Ami and Taiki were busy getting the table all set for dinner since they were getting a late start at it. When Yaten so 'generously' took Seiya's girlfriend's coat he was startled when he noticed the 'odangos' on top of her head. 'Man, you'd think Seiya would find a chick with a different hairdo at least!' Yaten thought to himself with a half smirk on his face and he knew Minako was thinking the same thing.

When Usagi turned around to greet everyone with a smile she heard silverware being dropped on the floor. The entire room stood there staring at her with their mouths wide open. "Usagi?" Kakyuu asked from the couch.

"Hello." She smiled and waved like it was no big deal.

"Everyone, I'd like you to meet my girlfriend, Usagi." Seiya said while trying not to laugh.

"WHAT!!" Rang throughout the room.

"What! Usagi is your girlfriend?" Minako asked incredulously.

Seiya and Usagi nodded their heads. Yaten still didn't believe it even though they were right there in front of him. "Yeah right, you guys are just yanking our chains! If you're really his girlfriend then kiss him." Yaten figured that Usagi wouldn't do it if they weren't together and either way this would make Seiya happy.

Much to everyone's surprise Usagi smiled at him and laid one smack dab on Seiya's lips. That was all the convincing they needed.