Written On: 9/6/05, 9/10/05, 9/17/05, 9/18/05

Posted On: Sept. 18th, 2005.

Reviews: 62...wow, that's a lot for me.

Reviewers:

Priestess of Nottingham-Shorter chapters than mine? That's possible? Lol. :)

CharmedSerenity 3- :) Thanks for reviewing.

Cassandrare2001-Come on, cliffhangers are fun! Totally kidding, they're nerve-wracking:)

Snow Mouse- Glad you like my fic, and I am trying to make the chapters longer:)

Raining Tear Drops- You changed your name:) Thanks for reviewing!

Little Tinkerbell Girl- You've never micro waved your socks before:) Lol.

Illusion Glades- Thanks for reviewing! And enjoy. :)

Red-rose-:) Sorry for the delay in updating!

Sailorceb- No internet for two weeks. Ick. :) That must have been TORTURE!

Poisonmoon-Spice, hmm...I'll try:)

PrettyPinkSugar-Don't worry. :) The romance will be here soon enough.

Keepoath- You know, what did people do before there was TV and internet? Talk to each other? Shudder. :)

Rose Zen- Thanks for the review! Yes, social life can get in the way of fan fiction. :) Enjoy the latest chapter!

I swear, something always keeps me from writing. This time, it was a grounding. Then some stuff happened, and I was a little depressed, and didn't feel like writing. Ah, the life of a teenager. :)

But I must be in a happy mood now, I put smiley faces in all the responses to you reviewers. :)

The show was over. An infomercial now came on. Mamoru flipped through the channels, but the rest of them only had soap operas or static on them. Boring.

"I'd rather watch the static," Usagi said dryly.

"Wouldn't we all?" Mamoru replied, flipping the TV off. He sighed. It was only noon. He rummaged through the rather large cabinet, hoping to find something else with which to occupy his time.

He found a small stack of board games. "Monopoly, Sorry, Scrabble..." He read the names off the dusty boxes. The last box read "Clue."

Usagi glanced over lazily. "Why do you guys have so many games back here?"

Mamoru shrugged. "I'm not sure. But I'm assuming that these have been back here a long time, since they are absolutely filthy with dust." He looked over the stack one more time. "Want to play 'Clue'?"

Usagi glanced up from the floating dust she had been gazing at. "Sure." She helped Mamoru set up the board, cards, and pieces, their hands brushing a few times. Accidental? Who knows.

"Okay, I'll roll the dice." Mamoru shook up the dice in his hands, then released them. "Okay, I can move 6 spaces. Which means that I land in the Library." Mamoru moved his piece, Colonel Mustard, the grizzled war veteran(1), ahead towards the library. He said a few more unimportant things, and then it was Usagi's turn.

She moved her purple piece, Miss Scarlet, who was the sexy bachelorette, forward several spaces after rolling the dice. And so it went on.

The game ended when finally Mamoru declared that it was Miss Scarlet, in the Billiard room, with the candlestick. He checked the cards, and it was correct.

"So, I solved the mystery," he said, triumphal. "And your character was the one who actually committed the crime."

"Yeah," Usagi said, standing up. "So you better watch out for me." Her legs wobbled, she gasped. Usagi toppled forward, landing directly on Mamoru.

Mamoru fell completely backwards. He laughed right in her face. "I guess I should watch out for you, Meatball Head!"

Usagi blushed. "Ow, my legs fell asleep!" She tried to move away, but, her legs were asleep. She sighed.

Mamoru of course noticed her dilemma. She had just fallen on top of him, of course. He would have to be pretty stupid or pretty out of it not to notice. He decided to try out being a nice guy for once. His strong hands grabbed her waist, and flipped her off of him.

Usagi blushed, surprised at his helpfulness. Nevertheless, she acted like nothing had happened, and began rubbing her legs to get the blood flowing after she sat up.

Mamoru sat upright again, also blushing slightly at how helpful he was. He turned away from Usagi and began cleaning up the completed board game.

"So..." Usagi said a minute later, the tingling feeling finally gone from her legs. "Want to play another game?"

Mamoru shrugged. "If you want to. Or, we could put together a jigsaw puzzle. I think there is a 500 piece one in there. That should kill a couple of hours." He glanced back at Usagi and smile.

Usagi nodded, agreeing, an odd look on her face. What was it she was feeling? Was she actually beginning to...like him, the man who teased her endlessly? She didn't think it was possible, yet here she was, locked in for a weekend with that, and she was actually enjoying herself.

Go figure.

Mamoru dumped the puzzle pieces out, and they quickly separated them into 'edge pieces', and 'middle pieces'. The next few hours were pretty quiet, filled with only the occasional, "I think that piece goes over there," or a frustrated sigh.

"Jigsaw puzzles are too hard," Usagi said, throwing down the pieces in her hand. "You know, right now, if I hadn't been locked in here, of course, I would be off with my friends. But instead, I'm sitting here with you, putting together this insane thing!"

Mamoru casually looked over. "You know, I don't think you really mind being stuck here with me that much. In fact, I think you rather like it."

Usagi stammered. "W-what does that mean?"

Mamoru shrugged. "It's just a hunch of mine." Truthfully, he saw the way she looked at him now. He could tell that Usagi had begun to think of him differently. Just as he had begun to think of her just the slightest bit differently.

Usagi's face darkened. 'How did he know that?' She stood up abruptly. Mamoru looked at her.

"Mamoru, you think you're all that. Just because I'm not ranting on and on that I'd rather not be here doesn't mean I enjoy it. Get over yourself." She turned on her heel and stormed away.

Mamoru rolled his eyes. 'Bingo. So that's why she's been acting strangely and then got so defensive. She does like me after all.'

He had put another piece into the puzzle.

Usagi slumped against the wall. 'Dang it! Why did I have to blow up like that on him? Now he definitely will hate me.' She thought, her eyes welling up with tears. She looked down. She now felt very bad about yelling at him.

'Am I stupid or something?' She asked herself. 'I do like him, a little bit at least, but here I am, saying those mean things to him. Maybe I should just be nicer to him. I suppose I should start by going out there, and...apologizing to him,' she thought uncertainly. She continued to lean against the wall for a few more minutes, till she snapped out of her current dazed mood.

Usagi wiped her eyes on her sleeve, and plastered a big smile on her face. If she was going to apologize, she's better really look like she meant it. Even though, of course she did. But how dare he just assume that she liked him!

"That pompous airbag..."Usagi grumbled to herself. She gave the door a great shove in her anger. CLUNK. The now-open door made contact with Mamoru's head. He clutched at his head in pain as Usagi looked on in horror.

What a way to apologize.

(1) Okay, I'm not entirely sure why I described the "Clue" pieces...guess I'm just weird...

Well, I believe this chapter was a little longer than the last one, or at least better, in my opinion.I will try to get the next chapter out by...Thurs., I guess. Yep, that sounds good.