() Chapter 3() Three words too late
Mamoru walked into the Crown again but a few days later. He waited for Motoki to come out and speak with him, but the man wasn't showing his face. Mamoru was wondering if Motoki was mad at him for his comments earlier but he scratched off that possibility, Motoki was a man to take things like that in his stride.
A frilly waitress came out to take his order but he turned her down. "I'm actually here to see Motoki, did he have to go to the dig site today instead?"
The waitress blushed. "No, he's here, but… he's in the back room."
She attempted to warn him as he jumped over the counter and knocked on the door before walking in to catch sight of Motoki and Usagi making out on the couch. "Usa." Motoki said silkily. "Come upstairs with me…"
"Excuse me." Mamoru interrupted the incriminating scene.
Motoki's head snapped up and he removed his hand from underneath Usagi's shirt and off of her butt. "Hey Mamoru." He greeted before giving Usagi one last kiss. "Don't you have to get to work?" Motoki asked her.
Usagi with a high blush on her cheeks like she had just been caught doing something she shouldn't have hurried to get up. By the time she straightened out her tight black jean capris and her yellow tee shirt she was indefinitely more put together on the inside as well. "You're right Toki-chan I do." She offered him a huge smile before attempting to brush past Mamoru who still occupied the doorway but as she did their arms touched and Usagi shivered. "Excuse me." She told him and he got out of her way.
Once she was out the door Mamoru turned back on Motoki. "When you said that you had taken more liberties with Usagi than I did, I didn't believe you."
"What? Jealous Mamoru?" Motoki got straightened out himself as his arousal slowly disappeared.
"Not really, I'm not the one she said no to marrying." Mamoru said lightly as if it was common knowledge.
"Usagi talks too much." Motoki had a grin though. "But I take pleasure in shutting her up."
Mamoru's jaw tightened but then he relaxed remembering his promise to his best female friend and reminding himself that Motoki was his best male friend as well. "It's a good thing she talks to me at least, I learn her deepest darkest fears."
Motoki walked out of the room and Mamoru went back to the right side of the table. "Oh, and what's that?" Motoki wondered.
Mamoru switched subjects. "Do you have a new blender working?"
"Yeah, but don't tell me that you want a smoothie." Motoki's good humor came back. "So what is it that you came here for?"
"I wanted to know if you love my best friend."
"No." Motoki answered truthfully. "In fact I hate your best friend with all my being, I hate her so much that it hurts sometimes."
Mamoru jumped to his feet, grabbed Motoki's collar and hauled him over the counter part ways so his feet were barely touching the ground. "You SOB." Mamoru hissed. "You are just using her, she was right when she said your offer didn't come from your heart. You wanted to take her to bed even though you can't stand the sight of her. You are the worst kind of man ever to exist I don't even know how I could ever have become friends with the likes of you."
Motoki narrowed his eyes at the fiery expression gracing Mamoru's face calmly. For one second he was just talking and the next he was hanging off the ground. "I said I hated your best friend, I didn't say that I hated Usagi."
"You better explain that real fast or I will kill you for the hurt you'll set upon Usagi." Mamoru snarled but dropping Motoki none-the-less.
Motoki fixed his top again looking at Mamoru with a less than happy expression. "I love Usa, she's perfect, smart, beautiful, has a great sense of humor, she's somebody I want to spend the rest of my life with. She's the one I love with all my heart and never want to let go. Your best friend Tuskino Usagi I hate, she's a totally different person, she's dependent on you to pull her out of her most recent break up, she will return to your arms no matter what happens. She's disgusting; she's the one that's in love with you. She's nothing that I want, so yes, I hate Tuskino Usagi, but I love my Usa, I love how she is with me, and I love how she is around you when she's my girlfriend, she acts like you don't exist, which is perfect from the terrible way she acts like with you." Motoki explained.
"You want her to change?" Mamoru picked up.
"I don't want her to change, she already has, she's changed to somebody who loves me, not you." Motoki grumbled.
"Will you treat Usa-chan correctly?" Mamoru asked.
"I will treat her like a queen and adore her my entire life." Motoki answered.
"Did you realize that she's loved you since she was thirteen, pining after your ring?" Mamoru wondered.
"Did she really? What kind of fool I've been." Motoki said satirically. "I must have been blinded by something until recently."
"Shut up." Mamoru pushed him. His cell phone began to ring and he answered it. "Hello? Oh, hey Chika, yeah I got your message. No. Really, she did? I guess I'll have to talk to her about that. Oh, that's too bad, but I guess I understand your reasoning. No, all right, have a good life. Bye." Motoki was waiting an explanation. "Chika just broke up with me, and she said Usagi was having a hand in her decision." Mamoru shrugged.
"Your getting used to this, aren't you?" Motoki asked dryly.
"Eh, it happens, Usagi just likes to ruin my relationships unconsciously." Mamoru stood up. "Well I better be running, got to go find a new girlfriend and all."
Mamoru's real plan was finding Usagi and yelling at her for ruining a relationship that was going fairly well. Or at least that's what his brain was telling him. He headed for her apartment and caught her as she was coming out. "Oh, hey Mamoru." She greeted. "Do you want to come in?" She had changed to work related clothing and Mamoru took her up on her offer.
"I got a call from Chika." He growled shutting the door behind him.
"I was wondering why you were visiting." Usagi smiled. "Before you start yelling at me, let me tell you that I told her to come talk to you but she wouldn't listen."
"You shouldn't have said a word." He bit out, she took a step back in surprise, he never really got mad at her.
"Did I break up a relationship you really wanted to keep?" Usagi asked cautiously.
"So you admit that you wanted to break it up?" He stalked over to her.
"No…" Usagi denied. "I didn't want to do it."
"You little liar." He gripped her arms and shook her. "You don't want to see me happy, you have wanted to make me suffer for what ever reason and that's why you've done this to me since we were in our teens."
Usagi pulled her arms away. "I don't lie, I never lie, how dare you accuse me of that!" She was angry now too. "You know, I don't mean to ruin your relationships, I tell them the complete truth." She glared.
"Really?" He pulled her to him again. "You probably-" He cut himself off. "This is stupid, I'm sorry, I'm not really mad at you although I should be, and you're right, you don't lie, not to me at least."
"What's that suppose to mean?" Usagi raised an eyebrow.
"Because you-" He stopped again. "Nevermind. What'd you say this time to Chika?" He asked interested.
"She's a journalist."
"I know, but she wanted to keep it hush hush." Mamoru shrugged.
"I hate journalists, intent on explaining things away, no wonder I felt a kindred spirit in her."
Mamoru barked a laugh. "My little explainer." He mused looking down into her face. And Mamoru attempted to close the distance. Usagi sidestepped him.
"I'm in love with Motoki." She bit out.
"Yeah right." He placed his hand on her shoulder and slipped the shirt off her shoulder and started to place hot kisses along her collar bone from behind.
Usagi attempted to shrug him off but he held her still. "I don't cheat on my boyfriends, and I don't break up with them for you, you may do that, but I've never and I'm not going to start now." She said crisply.
"Come to bed with me Usagi, Motoki wont ever need to find out." Mamoru lowered his voice seductively.
"No, I already told you I'm in love with Motoki." Usagi placed her elbow in his stomach.
"Give the old Mamomu a break. If you loved him like you keep spouting love should be like, then you would have already accepted his proposal."
"Mamomu? It should be more like Moron." Except she pronounced it 'Maron'. "And love doesn't factor into the situation, if I was dating just anybody, I still wouldn't cheat on them. Breaks the code of honesty I've tried so hard to maintain."
"Even when you're insulting me it sounds sexy." He growled by her ear.
"Quit it Mamoru, I don't even know why your trying this, even now." She glared at him.
"Isn't it obvious?" He asked in mock shock. "Well its because soon you'll be a married old lady and I wont have my partner in crime anymore, or as Kameko calls us, the pair from hell."
"Speaking of Kameko, I think you better have another talk with her." Usagi stepped away from him.
"What she do this time?" All pretense of playing with her vanished from his eyes at the prospect of dealing with the other woman.
"She's spreading stories around again." Usagi stated lightly.
"Spreading stories, but not rumors?" Mamoru questioned.
"Yep, about us, to all your girlfriends, this is the 4th one I've sent home with questions raging through their heads."
"Did she go so far as to say that I wouldn't sleep with her because I was sleeping with you on the side?" Mamoru asked.
"No. She learned from last time." Usagi explained.
"I'll have to talk to her again. But well it could be true." Mamoru grinned. "We certainly have the history to confirm it."
"Except you're still a virgin." Usagi stated like she was caught the canary.
"Why would you think that?" Mamoru rounded on her. "Just because I haven't slept with you doesn't mean anything, I just didn't want to complicate things with you even more."
"Because I read it in your journal." Usagi laughed. "I was in your room one day and I moved it but I dropped it and it opened on that page and it said that and I quote as of last month 'I have never slept with anybody so far, I'm saving it for the woman I love.'" She moved a step closer to him but he backed up ashamed. "It was cute, truly and I thought you didn't have any principles."
"What's it to you?" Mamoru bit out. "You're a virgin too." The image of her with Motoki flashed through his head and he hesitated mentally of his sureness. But that warred with the thought that at least it was that page, not another private thought leaked to the surface.
"How can you be so sure? You don't know me all that well." Usagi walked seductively up to him, turning the tables.
"I know you well enough to know that the first man you give yourself to it will be your husband." He grabbed her arms and his gaze bore down into hers. "And you nearly went that far with Motoki today. So you either should marry him or get out of that relationship now."
"You're right." Usagi buckled under the pressure. "I love Motoki enough to want to go that far, but I'm unsure about his feelings."
"I asked him that today, and he told me that he loves you. Trust him and give it some real thought." Mamoru warned her. "This decision will be almost final."
"I have to go to work Mamoru." Usagi opened her door and he left after leaning down and kissing her cheek. "Bye." She ordered him out and locked the door as she left a few moments later, pulling her shirt back to her shoulder.
That evening Usagi was having dinner with Motoki and she looked at him for the first time really seeing him. And her decision was made at that moment. "Toki-chan." She cooed. "Will you ask me again?"
He looked at her surprised. "Really?" She nodded in reply. "Usa, from the bottom of my heart, I'm asking you will you be my wife, and I'll give you my heart to hold in your hands to do anything you wish to do with it, will you marry me?"
"I'll marry you." Usagi agreed. "I love you."
"I love you too." Motoki pulled Usagi across the table and captured her lips. "We have so much to plan." Motoki said happily and Usagi joined in on the happiness right away, they talked the night through about when they wanted the wedding, where, and how big it was going to be. Along with other details that they had to discuss.