Aaaand happy Friday, everyone! This is kiss is set in the beginning Episode 58 – one of the last ones of the first R arc – and it's another one that some of you guys remember from tumblr. I hope you enjoy it all the same!
A Kiss As An Apology
Usagi stared dumbly after Natsumi and Seijuro and the way they rushed off, effectively leaving her alone with Mamoru.
They really were extremely weird sometimes, these two…
But now that they were gone that meant…
With a start, her eyes whipped up to him and she felt her cheeks warm.
He was looking after the siblings as surprised as she'd been, just before she realised they left them in a place that could kinda be viewed as a date.
Maybe, just maybe…
Mamoru blinked down the road, standing in front of the bistro table she sat at, now alone. Then his eyes settled on her and into a smile.
"Well then," he said with that warm expression and a nod, "it was nice to see you, I'll–"
She interrupted him. "Do you wanna sit?"
He threw her a look she couldn't read.
She felt her cheeks flush even hotter and fought the urge to hide behind her stuffed crepe.
"I've just been ditched. You could keep me company while I finish." That sounded reasonable, right? That sounded better than crazy stalker Natsumi, right? Her reborn prince didn't think she was a crazy stalker too, right?
"Or you could get your own…" she trailed off and her voice had grown dejected.
Who was she kidding? He wasn't gonna stay. He didn't see her that way. He never would. Usagi wasn't someone Mamoru was interrested in, he'd made that very clear.
"I'm not much of a crepe person," he said with a shrug, looking down at her.
Her shoulders fell. "Right," she mumbled, eyes downcast. "Well, have a good day, then, Mamoru-sa–"
Her voice caught when he settled down into Seijuro's vacated chair with an inclined head and his nose in wrinkles in his smile, and her breath caught again. It was the cutest smile she'd ever seen on him - and she remembered a whole other lifetime of his cute smiles.
"I do have a few minutes to keep you company," he trailed off. It sounded… off. That smile stayed, tho.
She flushed. She must have been bright red at this point.
She took a big bite out of her crepe, because food had always been her saviour, and this crepe was filled with strawberries and cream and chunks of cheesecake.
She swallowed, eyeing him carefully. He was watching her eat with a somewhat amused expression. She narrowed her eyes.
"So, you and Natsumi…"
He cocked his head to the side, nodded behind her.
"I ran into her at Book-Off," he said, meaning the secondhand book shop she knew to be located almost straight behind her. Ah.
"So it wasn't a date," she said in a voice that was way too relieved.
His brows furrowed even when his lip quirked up on one side. His answer came in an amused, short, half-laugh. "No," he said, eyes crinkling.
"Well, good," she said in a huff. And then got miffed because he wasn't returning the question, and obviously it hadn't been a date but SHE was the one sitting at a bistro with two milkshakes on the table and one of them abandoned, and he could at least have the decency to get jealous too, right?!
He didn't. He just smiled that confusing smile at her.
She frowned at him. Then she lifted her crepe, half eaten but still brimming with lush strawberries and shiny, milky, luscious cream. "Did you wanna try?" she offered.
He couldn't know, he couldn't know that this was a show of her deepest love and affection, the grand price of all proof of her undying love, because she Did Not Share Food, and so she took it as a personal affront when he laughed and shook his head 'No'.
"I wouldn't dream of getting between you and your food, Odango Atama," he purred at her with that crinkle he'd always addressed her with when he teased her, no matter the lifetime or stolen year.
She huffed at him, all the 'suit yourself' in her look. "It's my second, you can try," she said with a glare, and stuck it closer into his field of vision.
He threw her that amused, slightly freaked out, partly charmed look that held way too much 'oh you silly, adorable girl' in it for her taste, but after another shake of her crepe, he reluctantly leaned forward and took a bite.
He scrunched up his nose again, and a tiny fleck of cream stuck to his cheek as he chewed and swallowed, then shrugged.
"It's good," he said, completely underwhelmingly.
Usagi rolled her eyes, he didn't know what was good if it yelled at him in the street. She was living proof of that.
Her eyes stuck like glue to the bit of cream on his cheek.
She knew a life where she would have leaned over to kiss it away.
She bit angrily into her crepe.
"You don't know what's good," she said her thoughts aloud, puncturing it with a huff.
He shrugged. "I told you I'm not a crepe person," he said.
She finished off her crepe in one big bite and crumpled up the pink paper as she chewed.
"But thanks for sharing your food with a jerk, Odango." He winked.
But it took her completely aback, she recoiled with a stare.
No… He… He didn't remember, did he?
And if he did, did he only remember THAT? It was the only good thing about this do-over! Her second chance at not being a total brat to him, so maybe one day he'd look at her and actually like her.
"You're not a jerk," she whispered, eyes wide.
His look changed, turning confused, but a small smile kept lingering.
"It was one of the first things you said to me," he said. "At that crater?"
She blinked. Oh. Right.
Turns out she was already a total brat to him before she realised she got a do-over. Brilliant.
She sighed, shoulders falling, lips falling, posture falling, and dropped against the back of her chair to address him in a silent pout.
His eyes didn't stray, lingered on her, even when they grew more confused by the second.
With a sigh, and because she really had nothing more to lose than what she'd already lost, she got up, gathered her purse, and stopped next to him.
It was her turn to look down at him.
With a sad smile, she reached out, and brushed the bit of cream from his cheek with a careful touch. He jumped in his seat, eyes turning wide.
She replaced her thumb with her lips, leaning down and brushing his skin just above his lip in a soft kiss.
"You're not a jerk," she repeated in a whisper by his ear. "Not at all. I'm sorry for saying that."
When she straightened up, he was looking at her as if she'd paralyzed him.
She shot him another unsure smile, tucked a stray bit of hair behind her ears. "Thanks for keeping me company," she said with a smile, then turned to go.
When she looked back at him across the street, he was still sitting there and staring after her.
Obvious Setting Tag: R, Makaiju Arc
Because you know, I wouldhave loved for them to have a few more moments like this one during one of my favorite arcs! Anyway, sending you into the weekend with this!