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December 24th … Christmas Eve
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One day till Christmas, I thought walking happily down the street. My arms both hauled bags filled with presents for my friends. We had decided to celebrate on Christmas Eve because we would be spending tomorrow with our families. All of us, except Mako-chan because she had lost her parents. I invited her to come to my house, but she told me she'd be visiting her friend Shinozaki.
First stop on my agenda was the Crown. I didn't think I was ready to talk to Mamoru, but I did want to see if he was doing okay. In one quick motion I flattened myself spy like against the wall, then slowly looking into the large glass windows.
Total darkness. Oh no. The arcade was closed. (How sad… all of those lovely games are silence.)
I sighed a heavy sigh. I'm sorry Mamoru. I'll just have to make it up to you later.
I turned and began to walk the opposite direction to Rei's temple. I took the long way there that just happened to pass by the park. Since I'd woken up this morning I couldn't get that dream out of my head. It seemed so real. Perhaps it was.
I checked my watch. Quarter till one. Hm… I was really early for the party. It starts at three, so there's no harm in walking around and getting some fresh air. I had been indoors for two days. Well, technically two days. Possibly moonlight strolls with masked men don't count. Besides, even if I were a little late, Rei won't yell at me too much. I'm being a good leader and investigating. Plus it's Christmas Eve.
With my mind made up, I took a stroll through the park, hoping to find the spot. I wandered for a while before shutting me eyes trying to recreate the mood. It was totally dark last night, and the only sound was… water!
I only had to hear to the pounding waves up ahead to know was close. I hurried my step and found the place I'd visited last night. If this place was real, so was my midnight interlude. The area was just as beautiful as it sounded. The blue ocean water upon the rocks took my breath away.
I found a bench that was facing the water and sat down for a moment. Closing my eyes I vaguely wondered how Tuxedo Kamen would make his entrance. I smiled at this as I listened to the waves that had lulled me to sleep the night before.
……
When I opened my eyes I glanced around to see if Tuxedo Kamen had shown up. There was no sign of my hunky tuxedo-clad hero. He said one o'clock right and it's only… oh no, it's one-thirty. I must have fallen asleep.
Did he even make it? Would he come back?
I didn't have to wonder long. My eyes immediately found something that showed me he had already been there and left.
A gorgeous yellow rose lying on the bench next to me. I now knew for sure last night hadn't been a dream.
I stared somewhat contented at the rose. It was just as beautiful as the other ten.
Why yellow? I wondered. The rest were crimson red except for the one white rose. Could more of them be from Tuxedo Kamen?
"So how many is that?" a voice said pulling me from my thoughts.
I looked up to see Mamoru looking down at me with a small smile.
I was so happy to see him. I wanted to hug him and apologize for the other night, but I was frozen. I just couldn't find the words to tell him how sorry I was.
"E... eleven," I finally stuttered out and turned away from him.
"You're just one short of a bouquet. Ah, and it's yellow. Do you know the meaning behind this particular color of rose?"
He's torturing me. Oh God… he's going to kill me with kindness. This is revenge for what I did isn't it? I mean, of all people, he should be furious with me.
"No, I didn't know there was a meaning behind it."
"Well, they use to be seen as a rose of friendship, but now they are seen more as an apology."
Ooooh… that makes sense. If he left that, maybe he was saying he was sorry for missing me. Thank you, Mr. Botanist.
"Do you mind if I join you, Usagi?"
"I don't care what you do."
Whoops. Why did I say that? I really shouldn't make things worse here. I'm supposed to be making his Christmas better.
"Oh, okay. I'll just..." He began to turn and walk off.
You're going to lose him, stupid. Don't let him walk away. I was on my feet. Don't let him…
"DON'T WALK AWAY!" He stopped. Oh… I said that out loud. I caught up to him and put my small hands around his wrist. "Mamoru, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that before. Please don't go."
"I've got to be going anyway. Besides, I don't want to bother you."
"But you won't. Please don't leave. I know that's what I deserve after leaving you on my doorstep that night, and for avoiding you the past few days, and for being mean just now. It's because..."
Say it now or never.
"Because I... I fell in love with you," I finally got out. A weight was lifted from my chest and I began to sob. "But I never thought someone in college could ever want to go out with a kid like me, so I pushed myself away from you so I wouldn't get hurt."
I couldn't say anything else. The tears were really coming now and I had just made a fool of myself.
I thought he would leave. He'd go off and have a good laugh with Motoki about the stupid girl.
But he didn't. Instead he pulled my arms around his shoulders.
"I have something to tell you, Usako."
He wants me to stay away from him and never speak to him again and what… Usako?
"I fell in love with you, too. I was going to try and tell you when we went out. Then that night, you barely said a word to me and I didn't think you would ever see me as anything other than a friend."
"Really?" I asked hopefully.
"Yes, really."
We gazed into each other's eyes. We came closer and closer together until the space between us was gone and our lips met. This was something I'd always dreamed of. His lips were on mine filling my body with warmth and happiness.
My first kiss.
After what seemed like hours, we broke the kiss. After that, HAH! I'm not going to kiss and tell. Let's just say we shared many kisses after that. Somewhere in there he asked me out, and I said yes. Another time I asked him to spend Christmas with my family and he said yes.
When I finally realized I had been going somewhere, it was already three-thirty. Oops. Mamo-chan (heh heh… he blushed when I called him that) walked me to Rei's party and left a chaste kiss on my cheek. He promised to come by later to walk me home, and then took off down the street. I had no idea what he was doing until I saw my three friends running down the temple steps (and those are not easy to run down… believe me, I know). They surrounded me and made me promise to tell them everything.
That night when I finally got home I put rose number eleven in the vase with the others. As I did I noticed something about it that I hadn't seen before. While the rose itself was yellow, the tips of the petals were red. I wondered why I didn't notice that before.
