Chapter 29

Kevin yawned and downed a cup of coffee. Motoki observed him for less than five seconds before refilling the cup and remarking, "Bin-kun, you look terrible."

Groggily, "Tell me about it."

"Seriously. You've to go get some rest, my friend."

Kevin sighed. "I have two more exams left and everything is going to hell. I have twenty more pages to write in my research paper and about a week to do it."

"You're leaving in a week?" Motoki almost looked distressed.

"Yeah. Exchange student, remember?" Kevin took another sip of black coffee before laying his head down on the counter.

The blond man laughed aloud. "Keep on forgetting that. You look a lot like you're from around here and I can barely notice your accent these days."

"Becoming a local already? I'm honored."

"Will you be coming back someday?"

"Oh definitely!" Kevin smiled. "With all the friends I've made here and all the things I've seen, I'll be back as soon as I can. Hopefully for a little bit longer than this time."

"We'd love to have you back."

Minako was late that morning, sleeping through her alarm and the entreaties of her mother. She had almost decided to skip breakfast. But an athlete's instincts burned true and she grudgingly decided to stop by the arcade for a quick munch.

She wasn't really in the mood to interact with anyone. Her interlude with the Retainer had opened a Pandora's box of repressed emotion. She drew in her breath and pushed the door open.

Minako had avoided the topic for so long, and it was unseemly that a person who had known her for only a couple of days could have driven to the heart of the topic so quickly. Perhaps it was that he was a stranger, that he had no qualms about upsetting her as fully and as well as he possibly could. She marveled at the ease with which he had dodged her questions and turned them around on her. He was a sly one.

She almost wished that he could have been more of an enemy and less of a big brother. It was too easy to talk to him, much like Kevin had been when they had first met. She knew that she had revealed far too much of herself that night.

Minako rubbed her eyes and moved to sit at the counter. "Orange juice and congee."

Motoki rubbed a glass dry with his towel before nodding. "It'll be ready for you in a moment. You look terrible too, Minako-chan. What's up?"

She waved her hand aimlessly. "No big deal. Just been staying up too late."

He shook his head in disapproval. "You should know better than that!"

"I know. I know." Minako rubbed her eyes. "Just get me my food and I'll go sleep in class."

The blond man sighed in exasperation. "All my friends are children. Am I going to have to monitor your bed times?" Motoki whacked a sleeping man further down on the counter on the head. "Wake up!"

A very disoriented Kevin jackknifed into an upright position and nearly knocked over the stacks of books next to him. "What? Where? I'm awake!"

Motoki sighed and retrieved a boiling pot of coffee from the stove behind him. "I made it extra strong this time, but you really should go get some sleep."

Kevin shook his head and plucked a book off of the top of the stack. "No time. Have to study."

Minako sank a little lower in her seat, hoping that he wouldn't notice her sitting there. Strangely, she felt vaguely unfaithful to the American, as though she had betrayed his trust in some way. She brought her problems to a stranger rather than air them out with someone who was willing to listen to her...who had listened to her nattering idiocies in the past and cherished her for them.

She smiled wistfully. Those were simpler days. She missed them terribly.

Minako stole a glance at Kevin, who seemed to be sleeping on the counter again. His hair was tousled ,and the bags under his eyes betrayed his lack of sleep.

She sighed and shifted over a couple of seats. The kid really needed to be mothered now and then. With a tender smile, she ran her fingers through his mussed hair, trying to bring some semblance of neatness to it. He had never been particularly focused on his looks and now he looked worse than ever. Minako brushed a couple of stray crumbs off of his pants, the remnants of a half eaten biscotti next to him.

As Motoki came back into the room with her breakfast, he gave her a questioning look and a cautious smile. She quickly shifted back a couple of seats and pretended as though nothing had happened.

The blond man gazed at her, a mischievous smile playing over his face. Minako stuck her tongue out at him. He chuckled then yelled in Kevin's ear. "Get up!"

Kevin sat bolt straight up. "I'm up, I'm up!"

Motoki leaned on the table in front of the American, glaring at him. "That's the second time you've fallen asleep here. I'm gonna have to ask you to leave. Go home and GO TO SLEEP!"

Kevin sighed and began shoving his books in his bag. "Okay, okay. Fine."

Without another word, he walked straight past Minako as if he hadn't seen her

Motoki stared at Kevin's retreating form and shook his head. "Some people just don't know how to take care of themselves."

"He's usually not that bad. It's been a rough week for him. He's going home soon."

"I see." Motoki's eyebrows perked up at that mention. "I talked about it with him...at least until he started babbling incoherently and passed out."

Minako smiled. "I can recall a couple of conversations I've had with him along that vein."

"He's quite a guy. Even after all the times he's come in here and drunk my coffee...I still can't quite get a read on him."

His green eyes flicked to Minako's and that playfully malicious smile crossed over his face again. "So how long have you two been going out?"

Minako hopped back a step, quite a feat given that she was still sitting in her stool. For her effort, she nearly fell out of her seat before sputtering, "What gave you a damn fool idea like that?"

Motoki grinned. "Your reaction alone made it worth fishing in that particular pool."

"Ha, very funny." She was not amused.

He laughed and retrieved Kevin's coffee mug. "So tell me, what's going on between you two?"

"What makes you think that anything is going on?"

The irrepressible Furuhata tapped his temples. "After a long time being the object of a couple of teenage girls' middle school crushes, I tend to notice things like this."

Minako reddened. "You knew?"

"About how you and Usagi obsessed over me for most of middle school? It was difficult to miss." He sighed. "I kept quiet about it because I didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings."

The girl looked down on the mirror bright countertop and traced her outline in it. "We figured out that you weren't interested when you got a girlfriend. Sort of a clear cut signal."

"Oh yeah. Forgot about that. Heh."

Minako's eyes flashed towards him. "And don't even try that dumb blond thing on me. I invented that."

Motoki chuckled. "But back to the matter at hand..."

The blonde hugged herself. "It's like I said before. Just friends."

"I hear a very large 'but' coming."

She spoke sharply, more so than she intended. "There's no 'but.' We're just friends."

Motoki looked at her for a long moment then moved out from behind the counter and sat next to her. "Look kid, I don't know who you're trying to fool. But I know something is going on. It could be a relationship or it could be a brewing fight. I don't pretend to know the particulars. But something is happening and I sure as hell hope that you resolve it before he leaves. I'd hate for you two to part on a bad note."

Minako's resolve vanished, and she knocked her head against the countertop a couple of times. "We've been having...problems lately."

"What sort of problems?"

"Well, it started a little while ago when he took me to the St. Simon's Charity Ball. Things got a little weird, and we've been hovering in that limbo between 'we're just good friends' and 'is there something more?' for longer than I care to remember.

"It stinks."

The blond man propped his elbows on the counter. "Seems an easy enough problem to solve. Do you have feelings for him?"

She paused for a long moment. "I like him as a friend, I guess. He's a good guy to talk to when you've got a problem." Minako warmed with happy memories shared with Kevin. "I just don't know if I like him like him. And even then, I don't know if he like likes me as opposed to just liking me"

The man sighed and shoved his hands into his pockets. "Can't help you too much with the first part. Second part seems like a simple enough question to answer. All you've got to do is ask him about it. See what he thinks."

Minako barked out a laugh and shook her head. "No way. That would...I couldn't...it's just not an option."

Motoki shrugged. "Never said it would be easy. But you'll get the answers you're looking for."

She scowled and groused, "Why is it that you had to pick the hardest and least pleasant way to solve my problems?"

The blond man twirled a finger around and began to sing softly. "How does that American song go...I beg your pardon/I never promised you a rose garden/along with the sunshine/there's gotta be a little rain sometimes..."

Minako grimaced again before stomping out of the building.