Games of Seduction

By:The Young Lady of Legends

Authors' Notes:I do apologize for the excruciatingly short pieces but sometimes they happen. I write without a specific intent, just chapter to chapter (so inevitably no. i have no idea what the ending is to this yet)and I write as the ideas flow. When they stop flowing or something whacks me in the side of the head and says "HEY! YOU! STOP!" I stop. Who am I afterall to argue with my subconcious? Secondly, this piece of the story is a turning point and a lot different. I apologize if you don't like it as well as the rest but this was eventually where the story was going. I hope you enjoy it though!

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ChapterFour:Bed of CloverBlossoms

"I do not!" This was one of the most absurd conversations I had ever had. I think I know better than anyone else what I happen to be thinking. It is my brain after all.

Rei rolled her eyes. "Yeah right." she mumbled.

Minako wasn't nearly as quiet. She protested loudly. "Whatever Usagi-chan! You do too and you know it as well as the rest of us! You seem to keep forgetting that I am in fact, Sailor Venus. The senshi of...love." she grinned widely as she exaggerated the last word.

Makoto began in a sing-song voice. "Usa loves Chiba. Usa loves Chiba-"

I cut her off. I couldn't take this anymore. "I do not! And you guys are seriously starting to make me really mad!"

Ami surprised me by commenting, "You may be slightly more convincing of that if you weren't smiling."

"Wha- I am not smiling!" I protested. That was ridiculous as well. And since when did Ami-chan care who I loved. Which I don't!

Minako whipped a mirror out of her purse faster than the speed of light and shoved it in my face. "See?" she smiled again.

Okay...so I was smiling. What did that prove? Nothing, I tell you! Absolutely, 100% of nothing! "Chiba is not why I am smiling."

Rei asked, "Oh then are you smiling because you're lying? Minako-chan smiles when she lies but I never knew you did."

"No!" I don't smile when I lie. I'm a good fibber, thank you very much!

Makoto looked at me when condescending eyes. "Oh? Then just why are you smiling Usagi-chan?"

"Uh...I...you see...oh geez! I don't know! Maybe because I'm perpetually happy?" I tried. Actually, I really didn't know why I was smiling.

Ami said nothing but shook her head silently. It spoke volumes is all I can say.

"Ever hear of that river in Egypt?" Minako-chan asked me.

"Huh? What river?" what did a river have to do with anything?

"De Nile!" she made sure it sounded exactly like the word denial. Ha ha...funny one Minako-chan.

"I am not in denial." I assured her. Then the rest of the group. "Really. I'm not."

"You're denying everything we're saying." Rei made a point.

"That is because it isn't true." I answered matter-of-factly.

Everyone looked at each other and simultaneously added, "Denial."

"Exactly how fair is this fight anyways? It's four against one!" I whined.

"That's because you're the only one who has a problem admitting you have a thing for Mamoru-kun." Ami-chan was beginning to turn traitor, I believed. That was one of the biggest things that worried me.

She was always right.

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I decided cold hard proof that I didn't have feelings for Chiba would shut them up. Temporarily at least, but that was all I could hope for. This would be why we came bursting through the doors of the arcade for the second time that day. Mamoru hadn't been there earlier (thank Kami-sama for large miracles), so we assumed naturally that he would be now.

I was going to sit in a confined space (the aforementioned arcade) with the man who must be possessed by some heinous demon and completely ignore him. That should be plentiful proof that I cared not a single bit for him.

We walked in tense, or at least I did, the rest of the girls were smiling ear to ear in anticipation. I looked like a gunman sent to singlehandedly shoot down an entire enemy army. My chin raised proud, I marched with a purpose. Until I saw.

Some brunette with long bouffant hair was seated next to Mamoru. Or should I say seated on Mamoru. Well, she may as well have been with the way she was hanging all over him, practically drooling. I stopped.

That is the only way I know to put it. I didn't simply stop walking, but I stopped the whole she-bang. I didn't blink, I didn't breathe, no part of me moved...I don't even think my heart remembered to beat. My mouth fell open and my eyes widened in attempt to keep the tears that formed without asking me first if they could come, from falling.

Without thinking I turned around to run out and there were my friends staring at me, waiting for a reaction. "I-I have to go! I have...uh...homework!" It was the only thing I could think of. I sped through the door, grateful no one was on the other side of it or they would have become close friends with the pavement beneath them.

My mind was a blank and I was at a loss for words. True, I had no claim over him whatsoever, but...that didn't make it hurt any less. The only thing I was concentrated on was getting the hell away from there. I had no clue where I was going, where I was going to end up stopping. I'd just put as much distance between him and me as I could before I ran out of breath.

It finally caught up with me in a secluded area of the park. I fell face forward, arms outstretched in a thick patch of grass and clover. I took a deep breath to try and slow my tears and the sweet scent of clover blossom washed over me. Bunnies ate clover blossoms...

It comforted me to picture a family of white rabbits in that very spot nibbling contentedly on the faintly purple flowers. I smiled in spite of the tears.

I was Usagi, a little blonde rabbit lost in a field of clover, and I'd be damned if Chiba Mamoru even thought he was going to get me down.