Quick note: Story belongs to me, but characters not of my creation (e.g. Rei Hino and co.) as well as any trademarks and copyrighted materials are properties of their rightful owners. This chapter managed to explode to almost the length of the previous 3 chapters combined, so I've split it up. Enjoy!

Fantasies

by K. Wyse

Part Four A: Thirst



Utilising the dim light of her bedside lamp, Rei read her bank statement and all colour drained out of her face, making her feel faint. If she were a cursing kind of girl, she would howl impossible profanities that would make a sailor blush. The figures printed on the white A4 paper looked quite anorexic and were giving Rei hot flashes. Her hand trembled as she delicately laid the document to one side. A heavy sigh shook her delicate shoulders as she leaned forward to pick up the fat, black daily organiser that rested by her feet on the bed.

She leaned back into her mountain of soft duck down pillows and wondered how she had ever lived without. Life in America certainly was different to what she had been accustomed to, living in her grandfather's Shinto shrine in Japan. As she settled the heavy organiser on her lap, she grinned at the memory of sleeping on futons and the flickering candle shadows on the rice-papered walls. Idly, her fluttering fingers flipped through the creamy textured pages to the appointments she had made for the next day.

9:00 – Job interview w/ K. Letterman @ Letterman Accountants (384 Ababa Street)
-- v. v. far -- get up @ 5:45, leave by 7:00 -- hopefully avoid crappy traffic.

11:00 – Job interview w/ P. J. Masters @ National Bank (21 Bellevue Road)
-- guy sounded like arsehole over phone -- remember: keep mouth shut & SMILE!

13:00 – Lunch w/ Motoki @ usual café
-- order usual focaccia? Or try something new?

15:30 – Job interview w/ Q. Nguyen @ Chan Chan's Authentic Chinese Food Restaurant (1173 Casablanca Boulevard)
-- hope become waitress. But will take any job -- v. desperate for money.

Rei wondered if she had forgotten anything for the next day as she looked up, deep in thought with a pen tucked in one hand and her right index finger tapping repetitively against her naturally pink lips. Her eyes periodically drifted to her organiser entries, written gracefully in a confusing mix of Japanese and English, to bring her tired mind to attention. Everything appeared to be in order, she even had her interview outfit planned. Rei's violet-brown eyes pierced through the shadows beyond her bed and appraised the professional ensemble on the coat hanger she had carefully hung on the back of her bedroom door.

Rei sighed with fatigue. Her mind was far from functioning productively and she needed sleep. Besides, if everything seemed in order, then everything was in order. Before she closed the leather-bound organiser, she quickly scribbled under her lunch date with Motoki: maybe only order cappuccino, with her face scrunched up in a wincing grimace as she tried to wipe out the bank statement numbers that were burnt into her brain. Oh, she was sure to have nightmares. Probably about homeless people who were actually escaped circus freaks and clown college dropouts, trying to make her one of their own. Or there was that really scary one where all the ice cream factories in the entire world disappeared in a flash -- stolen by creepy little alien girls from Saturn. Rei shuddered at the memory. It had felt so real ... even the withdrawal symptoms.

Rei got out of bed, and with one hand clutching the vital book with all her appointments, she padded to the kitchen where her handbag and briefcase sat. She reverently placed the book inside her handbag and double checked the contents of her briefcase before exhaling with satisfied relief. On her way back to bed, she made a detour to her phone and checked for any messages in case she had missed the ring of the phone. She especially hoped that Mamoru had called.

She knew that Mamoru had only called her the day before about being at Disneyland, but she missed him already. She wondered if he had found Usagi yet. She tried to calculate the odds of him bumping into Usagi at Disneyland and gave up on the mathematics when the numbers got bigger than two digits. Noting that she had no messages and that the time on the digital phone read twelve midnight, Rei yawned as she sauntered back into her bedroom.

~*~*~

Rei?

In the darkness of her bedroom, the raven-haired woman furrowed her eyebrows in her sleep. Her eyes moved rapidly behind closed eyelids, a sure sign that she was dreaming.

Rei?

It was his blue eyes that first arrested her. In the ever changing currents of her dreaming visions, those eyes and the emotion therein remained constant. Meanwhile, his face repeatedly underwent metamorphosis -- the features melted into each other and would then reform into similar but inherently different shapes. She thought she recognised him but felt that she could not possibly have. The intensity of his eyes burned at her, and the tender expression seemed familiar yet foreign at the same time.

I love you.

Love? Rei felt like laughing bitterly. Who was capable of loving her? Would there ever be anyone who could love her purely? To love her not because she was Senator Hino's daughter. To want her not because she was a challenge. To need her to the point they would go insane without her. Was there anyone who could love her because of her quirks and quick-temper?

I love you, Rei.

A lock of gel slicked dark blond hair fell forward in the corner of her vision. Kaido? No, it could not be. As the strand of hair began to sway in an imaginary breeze, its colour dulled to a soft sable hue. No, it was not Kaido. Could it be-? Mamoru? No, wrong again, as the face became more youthful, the hair more wavy and the colour more golden. Some male version of Minako? Maybe not; the eyes darkened to a turquoise shade of Caribbean blue, framed by long cocoa brown lashes. Who was this mysterious man? Then before Rei could puzzle some more, the face shrunk and mutated into- Chad? She stared at the unblinking set of eight eyes and felt abandoned when the beloved arachnid scuttled away.

Everything faded and focused before dissipating into mist. Heartbeats pulsed through the limbo of sleep and Rei slowly, slowly woke up. Her body ached with fatigue, her bloodshot eyes cried for rest but she could not bring herself to fall back into slumber. The dream receded from her mind and Rei felt so empty. So very alone. The back of her throat hurt as she fought back tears.

No.' She told herself firmly. There was nothing to cry over. No, she did not want to cry. She was just thirsty. That was all. Her throat was just a little bit parched and that was why there was that ache, she rationalised in her head. All she needed was a refreshing tall glass of water. Yes, that was all she needed.

She sat up in a hurry and felt dizzy as all the blood rushed crazily in her head. Unbalanced, she reached for the glass of water that sat dutifully on her bedside table. Still woozy, her movements were uncoordinated and it was no wonder that she knocked the glass on to its side and spilled the water on to her woolly beige carpets. "Damn."

Too tired to care about soggy carpets, Rei got out of bed, determined to get herself a glass of water to drink. She stumbled about her apartment in the dark -- her arms felt too heavy to turn on the lights and her fingers felt too stiff to work anything as complicated as a switch. Through the haze of sleep, she walked about in a dazed state, an empty drinking glass in hand. She made a turn to the right, sure that she was heading in the direction of the kitchen.

Pause.

Through half-lidded eyes, she noticed something odd in her kitchen. Since when did she have a toilet installed? So unhygienic -- a toilet in a kitchen. Confused, she made an effort to open her eyes further for a better look, but stopped trying after two seconds. Another moment passed, then comprehension dawned upon her. She was in her bathroom.

'No, Rei.' She thought to herself, 'one does not drink from the toilet bowl. Perhaps in a past life you were a dog, but in this life you're a human being who ... needs more sleep.'

Shuffling her feet, she turned back around and made her way to her little kitchen-cum-dining room. Opening her refrigerator, she saw that she was out of Evian so she took out a carton of milk instead and poured some into her glass. Before the glass was even half full, the last drops of milk began their descent from the upturned carton.

Rei was less than pleased. 'Great!' She growled sarcastically as she stalked over to her black Teflon kettle and contemplated boiling some water. She was thirsty dammit! But when she glanced at the LED time display on her microwave oven and saw the early morning hour, she decided against the water. She needed more sleep dammit! She had a tough day ahead of her.

Settling for just the half-glass of milk, in one swig she downed the contents of the glass she still carried, but she soon regretted her haste. She had forgotten how sensitive her stomach was to cold milk -- a mild form of lactose intolerance. She was not looking forward to the rest of the night. And sure enough, within seconds, she was doubled up in pain.

It was then that the phone rang.

Rei rolled her eyes. It was true then: God hated her because she was not Catholic or even remotely Christian.

Wincing at the bloated feeling in her midriff, Rei crawled along her apartment floor trying to get to the phone that rang shrilly. It was enough to drive any sane person to a mental asylum. She paused just two metres away from the phone. What was the point? The machine would pick it up anyway and sure enough, the message began to roll.

"You've got to be a world-class retard if you don't know what to do. And for god's sake, leave a message, don't just hang up!" Rei smiled at the odd scratching sound that got recorded before the BEEP' sounded. Chad had tried to say hi' by scratching the glass panes of his container. Rei tiredly giggled with affection; her tarantula could be so cute sometimes. Hairy but cute.

"Yeah, I guess it's kinda late over there. Oh yeah, it's Mamoru."

Rei groaned as soon as she recognised his voice and slithered the rest of the way to the phone in agony. She struggled and yelped with triumph when the cordless receiver tumbled into her hands. As she opened her mouth to say hello, the loudest burp erupted from her chest and all of a sudden she felt better. The bloated feeling in her stomach had disappeared.

"Mamoru!" She chastised in hopes of covering her embarrassment. Though, the relief that the pain was gone, was overwhelming any humiliation she felt at having burped loudly into Mamoru's ears.

"Nice try, Rei. But we both know that was you. Though I gotta say, that's one impressive burp. Anyway, I did call you for a reason ... guess what?!" Rei rolled her eyes. Not again. Really, Mamoru's behaviour was starting to become annoying. He was like some hyperactive five year-old dying to tell his mummy every detail of his first day at school.

"What?" She hoped that her voice was pleasant and curious and did not show a touch of any of the cynicism she was feeling at that moment. She was extremely tired and did not really feel up to listening to Mamoru wax poetic about Usagi, or Disneyland for that matter.

Mamoru on the other hand had no intention of waxing anything, and cut straight to the chase -- aware that he had to catch Rei's attention before she fell asleep on the phone as she had once done when they first met. "I went to Disneyland today. And I saw Usagi."

Rei was instantly alert. She was on her feet in an instant and heading towards the kitchen again. She needed tea. She needed lots of hot, steaming green tea.
"How did she look? Did she look happy to you? Did she look healthy? Do you think she's taking good care of herself? What was she doing?-" Once the questions started, Rei found that she could hardly stop herself. It was important to her, vital even, to know that Usagi was fine.

"Rei! Rei! Relax! She looked good, very good. Tired but good. In fact, she seemed happy and she looks like she's enjoying working there."

"What? She got a job that fast?" Rei could only wonder resentfully why Usagi was the one with all the luck before she realised: "And at Disneyland?"

"Oh yeah, she's a Disney character. Guess which one! Here's a clue, she's not Minnie." Rei shuddered at the thought of Minnie Mouse and wanted to smack Mamoru up the head for even mentioning the M' word. He knew how she felt about that mutant mouse who was anything but mini. In her opinion, there was just something psychologically disturbing about an overgrown rodent in a red dress with white polka dots.

Rei began to fill her kettle with tap water, ready to make some tea, as she thought upon the Disney fairytales. Who would Usagi portray perfectly?
"Is she: Sleeping Beauty?" It made sense; Usagi was blonde, loved to sleep, and used to be quite accident-prone as a teenager -- pricking her finger on a spindle would be no problem.

"Nope. Usagi's character isn't blonde."

Rei plugged the kettle into a nearby socket and flipped the switch on before turning her attention to finding the tea leaves that she had especially imported from Japan's finest teahouse. She thought for a few more moments and decided to run with the cursed sleeping princess theme. "Um." Rei shrugged as she said it, "Snow White?"

"So close! Here's another clue. She's one of the seven dwarves." Rei nearly dropped her precious canister of tea leaves because she was busy having a heart attack. "WHAT?!?"

"Guess." Rei could clearly visualise the smirk that had accompanied his one word sentence. Mamoru could be such a pain sometimes. Rei smiled, but that was one of the reasons that she loved him -- the fact that she was not completely enamoured by him. Wait, that did not sound quite right. What about Usagi?' Rei's mind interjected. Rei just sighed as she scooped out some leaves into a porcelain teapot. It was all too confusing and this hour of the night was certainly not a good time for such contemplation.

"Sleepy." Came Rei's final reply. Whether that was a description of her current state or she was still running with the theme of sleeping fairytale characters, neither of the conversationalists were sure.

"No. Guess again."

"Happy!" Rei fired back, tired of the guessing game. "Dopey! Doc! I don't know!"

"All right! Don't get your panties in a twist." Mamoru placated. "It's ...," he paused for dramatic effect, unaware that Rei would have tackled him like an aggressive gridiron player had they been talking face-to-face. They both waited with bated breath as an imaginary drumroll filled the line. "Grumpy."

"Should've known." Rei muttered to herself. It was always the last thing that anyone would ever think to guess.

"What was that?"

"Nothing. I just wanted to know how you tracked her down. Or was it completely by coincidence?"

"Well, I went around the adventure parks and rides and stuff but gave up cause of exhaustion at around lunch-time. Just as I was about to sit down, I saw Mickey. It was like a sign from God." Rei resisted the urge to snort. Instead, she focused on preparing her green tea. She carefully poured the boiling hot water into the teapot and waited for the flavour to soak from the leaves into the water. Meanwhile, Mamoru continued to recount his afternoon.

"I took out the picture of Usagi that I always carry in my wallet, and I showed it to Mickey. The actress inside Mickey told me that Usagi was working as Grumpy from four to nine today so I hung around everywhere until four and then for the next five hours I watched as she interacted with everyone. She's so wonderful as Grumpy! She's not grumpy at all!" Rei furrowed her eyebrows, her expression perplexed. Was it just her, or did those last two sentences contradict? Still, she remained silent as Mamoru resumed his story.

"When nine o'clock chimed, I left Disneyland and went to my rented car. I drove it around the parking complex to where the employees were parked and I waited until I saw Usagi get in her car. Then I followed her home and waited until I knew she'd fallen asleep before I returned to my hotel to call you."

"All right, Mamoru. You have officially achieved stalker status."





Last Words:
Praises? Comments? Criticisms? Flames?
Send anything and everything to wyse_k@sammail.com, or simply review.

Tina Telford: I really tried to be more descriptive this chapter without completely changing the style of the story. Tell me how my efforts went. ... -starts to bite nails- ... okay, maybe I didn't try that hard. ~_^

While I would have liked to release Part Four: Disneyland in its entirety, I was not happy with the middle section and am still battling with how to make it better. Nevertheless, I didn't think it fair to make you all wait longer when I had promised mid-July.

I'd always intended for Usagi to be a dwarf (considering how short she is) but I only realised after I had finished this first section of Part Four, that in the anime, Usagi played the Wicked Witch when they did Snow White: The Play. Oh well, ... -shrug- ... this story doesn't really follow either anime or manga, but I'd say I'm more influenced by the manga. That's why I had Rei burp, rather than fart, when she experienced her mild lactose intolerance -- apparently, manga Rei never farts. Though, why Minako wanted to know that, is beyond me.

Now, is this a Rei/Mamoru fic? Since four is my favourite number and this is the fourth chapter, I'm going to tell you guys ... in the next part. Hehe, aren't I evil? Part Four B: Café and Part Four C: Disneyland are coming soon.

C-ya!
Wyse

Storyline (c) K. Wyse, July 2003