Minako and Usagi Adventures: Loving A Man Series: Minako's Mystery: Morning Rises

5 August 2004

Summary: When Minako wakes up one morning, it is to find that she is not alone in a bed she's never seen. Her greatest mistake was bolting that fateful dawn.

Chapter 3

Minako's eyes closed sleepily but her mind drifted back to that night as she fell asleep and her dreams told her every minute detail was revealed to her. She remembered everything with such clarity that it woke her up in the morning breathless and panting at the intensity that she was blessedly allowed to forget for a day. She blamed the intense passionate rendezvous of that night's return on her meeting with the man it was based on yesterday morning.

Minako had trouble getting dressed as she finally calmed her pulses enough to raise herself out of bed. She tugged on the skirt that would only be worn to the trailer and back home, possibly if she were going out that night she may have it on longer. As she tried to pull her fleece tee-shirt on she got caught up in the holes, one arm was fine but the other was protruding out of the neck next to her head and she huffed in frustration.

She never had so much trouble with getting dressed as she was doing today. The tears she held back threatened to spill over as she couldn't get her arm untangled but she had to sit down and breath in deeply and forced herself to relax again. At the same time she tried to force the images that kept popping up in her memory and making her relive all the sweetness and passion of that night. She couldn't get rid of the memories altogether but she did manage to push them to a corner so she could deal with the problem at hand.

She eventually slipped her arm out of the hole and through the correct sleeve this time and pulled it over her torso. She smoothed the soft fabric over her slim figure, and readjusted her matching skirt. It was times like these that she was elated that she was single, if she had to suffer through that embarrassment with somebody present she would have died and never have gotten on the right tract again.

Minako walked out of her own personal paradise into the rest of the nicely decorated and surprisingly organized apartment. With two very sloppy people they had managed to keep the place looking fairly nice, even by the neat freak's standards. Their dorm rooms had never looked so well attended and as Minako closed her door, she figured the reason was because now the messes were clustered into two areas of the place. Usagi's room and her room, they were both disaster areas, though Usagi's room was looking better every year.

The door to Usagi's room was firmly shut and it was closed to several things, one of which was the ability to know if Usagi was actually in there or not. As Minako glanced to the clock on the wall it read ten o'clock and Minako figured Usagi was probably already up and out of the house by now. They never usually slept in past ten unless they had an extremely late night before.

Minako lazily poured herself a cup of the cooling coffee that was made automatically every day unless it was unplugged and sipped the mixture. Minako grimaced at the intensity of the beans made; it was time to refill them. Walking to the refrigerator she pulled it open and stuck the top half of her almost into the thing looking for the skim milk. Finding it in the way back she pulled it out and poured the coffee cup to the brink with it.

She stirred it carefully so it wouldn't overflow and gush to the sides, scorching her hand in the process. She succeeded in avoiding any unpleasantness and as she sipped the still nasty tasting coffee she allowed her mind to roam as a way to pass time while she was still alone.

She could feel his hand brushing the soft contents of her small stomach, the hand gripping her waist and sliding lower over her hip.

The coffee burned her mouth as she jerked with sudden awareness over the remembered pleasure. She had to get a hold of herself. She shook herself out of her thoughts and instead concentrated on the last half of her preparations to getting ready.

She took no time to put on any make up, it would just be redone by the makeup artist as soon as she arrived on campus and had no wish to put herself through that torture more than necessary. She shoved her freshly pedicure feet into a pair of semi new white sandals, grabbed her white purse, threw her keys into them along with her billfold and locked the door behind her all in an act of unreleased pent up energy.

As she was striding to the elevator she was hit by the need to take a deep breath and return to a state of normalness. It would do no good to be angry, especially at herself, in time all her anger would be unleashed on the man who deserved it.

Soon she was behind the wheel of her nice little car and tore off down the road, her tires spinning as she took off from a stop and took corners a little too sharply. It no longer mattered to her if she got pulled over for her increased speed and the fact that she was becoming a little dangerous if not altogether wild and unsightly.

The drive today cut off a little more that ten minutes her normal schedule but she didn't seem aware of it, she wasn't aware of most things unless they were directly in her face. She stumbled into her personal RV and dressed in the outfit her assistant had laid out for her. She threw over a terry robe and headed into the makeup room, she hadn't turned into the stickler of having the make up room separated yet, she liked talking to her co-stars.

The movie she was making was one of a true story, and Minako had to question exactly whose story it was as she sank to the floor in character as the film ran. She empathetically copied the script she had been given. There were few changes made to it, which almost followed Usagi's manuscript exactly.

Minako was in awe all over again by the depth of Usagi's characters, even to the point where there was little an actor could do to mess it up. As it was they were following the logical events as they happened except they had to skip a part yesterday because the weather wouldn't permit them with the opportunity to film that portion of it.

Looking out into the gray skies looming over her, threatening to spill its soft droplets of water onto the outdoor set. Minako sighed in disbelief, this scene should have been done a week ago but it's been put off because the weather wasn't cooperating. With her luck she'd be pulled in on Saturday, her day off, to film just those two small scenes.

"Look's like it's going to rain." Her opposite commented joining her by the window.

"It is." She agreed sadly. "What are you going to do?" She turned to look at him, and realized for the first time just how attractive he was.

"I was actually wondering if you would like to join me in drink, I know how much you like coffee, so how about a drink during happy hour?" He asked as smooth as he could without a line written for him and Minako found it charming on the cute side.

"Sure." She agreed with a large smile. "Let me change first and then I'll join you outside."

"You don't mind if we take two cars do you? I have to be home in a few hours it's my little sister's birthday."

"Ohh cute." Minako laughed lightly. "How old is she?"

"Fourteen, fifteen today." He answered, his name was Jonash and he was tall and lanky and when he said that it made him seem younger than he looked.

"And how old are you?" Minako questioned.

"I'm twenty-two." He smiled quirkily.

"Ok." Minako hid her smile and pulled him out of the building. "Let's go." He followed her out and they stopped as they were between their two trailers. "I'll see you in a few minutes."

They went to a bar to just have a few drinks and then they went their separate ways. Minako was done with work for the week and decided to just go home.

Minako sank into her favorite chair and swung her feet up onto the footrest. She grabbed the TV remote and flipped it on. The station she was looking for was the only one she had wanted and was relieved she didn't have to go flipping for them. She figured she was the last one using the TV. It didn't surprise her, nobody in the apartment really watched the tube but they had it because they were entertaining all the time.

She bobbed her head as a good song came across the speakers. Her head beat along with the tune. She was relaxing completely for the first time since seeing her mystery guy again. Minako's thoughts wondered to when he accused her of being a fortune hunter, obviously not knowing who she was, the creep. She was getting worked up again and settled back down into her chair. She would forget about him. He didn't exist; everything would be all, right…

Breathe Minako, breathe. That's it, deep breaths; the jerk isn't worth your time. Calm thoughts, like what are you going to do this weekend… Absolutely nothing, the creep…

No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't get the jerk out of her thoughts. She sighed and leaned back in her chair shrieking as it jerked back and she was afraid she was going to fall backwards. But it stopped and she landed back in the nice comfy confines, it had only opened up into the reclining position. She waited for her nerves to settle and breathed deeply. She was ok; nothing further was going to happen.

Usagi busted in through the door in a flurry of action. She was almost out of it again when she notice Minako. She hulled to a stop and looked over at her. "Hi!" She said with perk in her voice. "I was actually going to look for you but something came up and I had to go for a bit."

"Why were you looking for me?" Minako asked cautiously, anything when Usagi was in this mood couldn't be good.

"I thought it'd be nice if you came along with me to Kunzite's house this weekend. It'll do us both a world of good." She paused in thought, looking Minako over. "You know, if you hadn't been in love with this tall blond mysterious man of yours I would have thought that you and Kunzite would hit it off well."

"Well luckily I am in love otherwise I'd have to sue you for taking my job without asking." Minako looked tempted, maybe she did need to get out of dodge for a while, maybe then she wouldn't run into him again and get told to get lost.

Usagi shared her joke with a small smile while nodding. "Will you think about it? I have to run to get these facts over to the firm. We'll leave Thursday after work."

"I don't need to think about it, I'll go." Minako told her and braced herself as her friend launched herself into her arms.

"You won't regret it. Kunzite's the sweetest person you'll ever meet though he denies it, says it'll ruin his reputation if I spread it around. I've told him about you too. So I know he's dying to meet you."

"Usagi!" Minako held up her hands. "I thought you had to run. You can explain this all to me in the car when we're driving to him."

Usagi eeped and was out the door faster than she came in. She was good for a good laugh, Minako decided as she settled into her chair and the negative thoughts about the jerk subsided. Maybe meeting this Kunzite would help her forget about her Mr. Mysterious, the creep.