)-(Chapter 2 –()- Two hot to handle
"I need some answers before I break up with my boyfriend." Chika stormed into the quiet library and plopped down opposite of Usagi.
"You must be Mamoru's girlfriend." Usagi said on a laugh, trying to hold her humor at bay.
"What's so funny?" Chika commanded an answer.
"Nothing, well, actually its just that you remind me so much of me." Usagi quipped.
"How so?" Chika gave her a measuring look as her eyes traveled over the modestly dressed Usagi before looking at herself, a little less modest.
"Come blaring in like a bull and demanding answers." Usagi explained relaxed, glanced down once at her book before snapping it shut. She swung her legs back down from the armrest of the cushioned chair.
"You don't look like it, in fact, you look very… calm." Chika observed.
"Yes, well, it's a subject I don't care about, unless of course you end up hurting him, then I care, will you hurt him?" Usagi's eyes flashed dangerously at the chance one of her best friends may get hurt.
"I don't know." Chika shrugged carelessly, beware of Usagi's warning of a quick temper.
Usagi smiled at her before leaning across the coffee table and resting her elbows on it, locked her hands together and rested her chin upon the back as she bent her hands back towards her. "Now, what can I do for you?" She asked innocently.
"Well is it true that you and Mamoru always get together and break up, to try somebody new then dump them and get back together again." Chika asked toying with her purple beaded ring on her right hand.
"In a word, yes." Usagi admitted.
"I knew it!" Chika pounced on her knowledge. "You didn't even bat an eye, you should be ashamed of yourself for wreaking all those relationships."
"I wasn't done." Usagi sighed. "This is going to be another long talk I see it already. Ok, you should probably be talking to Mamoru about this, but since you came to me I don't see what choice I have but to explain it to you." Usagi motioned for her to get comfortable before continuing. "Whom has been talking to you about this? Because I'm sure you didn't come to this answer yourself, unless Mamoru's changed and dropped hints about his previous relationships."
"Well, I don't really know." Chika admitted.
"Oh dear." Usagi dropped her hand and folded them on the coffee table; she was still leaning over. "You don't know who's been telling you these things?"
"Well…" Chika scrounged up her face. "Her name was Kameko." She finally managed to get out.
Usagi bit her lip. "I'll have to tell Mamoru that she's spreading rumors again." She shook her head before turning her piercing eyes on Chika. Chika almost cowered at the intensity in her eyes but still seeming so deceptively calm. "What did she tell you exactly?"
Chika recounted everything Kameko had told her that day. Usagi listened calmly to the whole story. "I even asked around and met up with some of his previous girlfriends, including that Rei girl. So I went to confront Mamoru on this, but he wasn't there and I thought to get the full story from you, who better to tell me than the woman responsible of it."
"And what did all those women tell you about my relationship with my best friend?" Usagi raised an eyebrow.
"We-ll, that they parted on good terms, Mamoru generally let them break up with him but they knew he was prepared to do it but rather wanted peace between him and the exes."
"Good." Usagi nodded happily that none of them were unfortunate enough to be the ones she had spoken to. "What do you do for a living Chika?"
"I'm a reporter." Chika answered honestly, if she was going to get an honest answer she'd brave the repulsion she usually got from high society people.
"No wonder I liked you. So everything I tell you is off the record, correct?" Usagi received a nod in the affirmative. "Good, because there is no need to have any of this getting back to the public."
Usagi relaxed back into her seat and pulled her legs under her. "You better get comfortable, this won't be easy to take in all at once." Chika looked jealously at the ease in which Usagi moved, her khaki clad legs could accommodate Usagi's need to constantly be moving. Her blouse was light and airy in a light green to off set her hair and draw attention to her eyes. Chika was dressed in jean shorts and a purple tank-top.
"All right." Chika left her feet firmly on the ground, her feet were encased in tennis shoes while Usagi's were bare after taking them out earlier of her restricting tan heels to give her an added height.
"Let's start with Rei." Usagi began. "She was and forever will be my best friend. I had known her only a few years but I had known Mamoru most of my life." Usagi paused in thought. "Perhaps I should start back earlier, to when Mamoru and I were children." Usagi wrinkled her nose. "The thing is, Mamoru hasn't always had the easy life, his father was in an accident and Mamoru was in the car with him. His father died and Mamoru had amnesia, he couldn't tell anybody his name or his next of kin. I was in the hospital visiting my mother who had just given birth to my little brother and I stumbled upon Mamoru."
Usagi shrugged. "He was lonely and I gave him a rose out of the dozen for my mother. Ever since then we had become friends. His memory came back to him eventually and when his mother found him worried sick, he told her about the accident and of his meeting with me. She made sure that we had the ability to spend time together and wanted us to fall out naturally, not forced as she was grateful for me being their if only a moment to her lost son."
Usagi switched positions slightly and stretched. "So we grew up together, we lived in different cities and had different friends and schools but we'd meet every once in awhile at was then called the Crown arcade. It was there that Mamoru and I became friends with the owner's son. Motoki, my boyfriend, at that time was the preteen who sat around and switched money for change for the games. He was a little bored at the job but was pleased none the less at the responsibility of it." There was an affection smile on Usagi's lips when mentioning Motoki.
"Motoki and I became closer and closer than friends, but we never made it official, and at that time I was dating a boy, I forget his name at the moment. He surprised me though by taking up with a girl named Reika, and they were a steady couple throughout high school. When I had turned 13 I had a huge crush on Motoki, he was a year my senior, but it was there still. Mamoru was the same age as he was, and when I was 15 he started dating Rei. I was in between admirers at the time and I was lost on what to do, all three of my best friends were tied up with a significant other and I was feeling left out."
Usagi smiled broadly at Chika. "I'm only telling you this so you have all the facts before you go ahead with a notion to break up with the man. At that time I learned that my feelings towards my friend had changed into something deeper and one day I acted on it unthinkingly. We were playing spin the bottle at a party and when I spun it, it landed on Mamoru and when I went to kiss him; I went for a deep kiss. Rei luckily wasn't there at the time, but when we parted Mamoru told me we needed to talk."
Usagi looked intently at Chika as she explained fully. "I didn't mean to take Mamoru away from Rei, but Rei confessed to me later that she was planning to break up with him anyways, Mamoru was constantly distracted by me whenever they were together and that's all they would talk about." Usagi pulled out of the bag by her chair a water bottle and drank from it.
"That was the only time I had a need to feel guilty about my actions with Mamoru. The only other time I stole him away from a girl was Beryl, but that one he enlisted my help because she was clingy and wouldn't take the break up as truth. We staged a make out scene and Beryl finally took the hint that Mamoru had plainly stated that they were breaking up."
Usagi sighed. "You're probably wondering about all the other times we dated as well. The thing is, after Rei, we just seemed to coincide with break ups, and had nothing better to do so we offered companionship to one another. That's all we ever were to each other, companions to idle away the time." Usagi explained.
"Interesting story, but it doesn't explain Kameko's hatred towards the two of you." Chika looked suspiciously at Usagi.
Usagi rolled her eyes. "I am never anything but honest, so hear me out. Rei was talking to her longest lasting boyfriend about the strangeness of my relationship with Mamoru. Mamoru and I are just friends mind you and Kameko over heard her. She was feeling betrayed the Mamoru never told her about us, but he told her coldly that it wasn't important to their relationship."
"Will you try to break Mamoru and I up?" Chika wanted to know.
"I will not try, no, I like you because you remind me of me, and those are the ones that I know are strong enough women to hold his attention."
"But not too strong for him to handle?" Chika wondered.
"Mamoru likes a challenge." Usagi tried to hide a smile. "I can't promise you however that he won't break up with you, he's fickle like that."
"If I ask you to stay away from him, will you?" Chika sounded like a reporter.
"No." Usagi rolled her shoulders. "He's my best friend and I won't give him up for just anybody."
"If I ask him to give you up, will his answer be the same as yours?"
"Most likely." Usagi consented. "But I can't tell you for sure. Mamoru's his own person and anything I say he'll probably go against it because I think I'm so sure of him."
"How do you understand Mamoru so well?" Chika asked.
"Because, as I've said, I've known him forever, and it's a normal mental psychosis to always return to the person you've depended on the most for the longest time because they were there for you when nobody else was. I haven't encouraged it at all but I just happen to be there at the right time also alone."
"You speak so scientifically and separated from it, how do you do that?" Chika wondered.
"I used to be a psychologist." Usagi divulged. "But I quit a couple of years ago."
"Washed out? Not prepared for the mental difficulties it ensured?" Chika sounded smug at what she thought there was.
Usagi's laugh tinkled over Chika and she knew she guessed wrong. "Not washed out, or anything. I left my career willingly; I decided I wasn't really doing anything then listening to the same superficial problems and a few ones that mattered and sorted them out easily and then I decided on a job change within the same field."
"Tuskino Usagi, have I heard that name before?" Chika mused before her eyes brightened with knowledge. "You were that well known psychologist that pretty much disappeared after announcing her retirement from sitting on couches with patient at such a young age almost right after your career took off. You had several major break throughs in the field and everybody wanted to be just like you."
"What field do you write about as a journalist?" Usagi asked sharply.
"Not psychology." Chika defended. "I was reading my friend's article on you when I learned about your strange retirement so I asked into it, but I forgot about it completely since then."
"I don't want anything in the paper about me, that's why I changed jobs as well." Usagi warned.
"Fine." Chika settled.
Usagi looked lazily at Chika. "Anything else you'd like to know?"
"How many people have you told this story to?" Chika wanted to know.
With her half closed Usagi responded. "Three other of his girlfriends."
"And none of them stayed with Mamoru after you told them?"
Usagi looked at the ceiling following the squares with her eyes. "I suppose none of them trusted him enough to. But maybe that's because I agreed that if Mamoru ends their relationship with them he'll be back at my door wanting in and I'd most likely let him." Usagi's eyes landed back on Chika. "So, what are you going to do?"
"I still need to think about it. Thank you for explaining this too me." Chika stood up and held out her hand.
Usagi shook it. "Yeah, sure."