Reunion
By Bashfulglowfly
Chapter 2
Mamoru placed his books inside his desk and arranged his notebook and pens just so on the top of his desk. He deliberately chose a desk far away from the windows. Not that he was given to staring out them and daydreaming but he didn't want the possible temptation.
He thought back to what the girls had asked him the day before. It still bothered him that he couldn't remember anything between the Starlight Tower attack and then waking up in his bed. Something just had to have happened. He couldn't have been in limbo for the period of time that the girls said that he'd been gone.
"Is this seat taken?"
The voice startled him out of his musings. "Hmm? No. No, it isn't." Then he focused on the person asking. He felt his blood drain out of his head and into his shoes. It couldn't be. It's not possible!
The young man had delicate features with long strawberry blond hair and Mamoru just knew that his eye color would be bottle green. The young man didn't look up as he put his books away.
Out of the corner of his eye, Mamoru saw another classmate start to swagger their way. Wada was a bullying jackass who was only at the school because his father paid a lot of money to keep him there. Wada approached the new student. "Aren't you in the wrong school?"
The blond didn't even look up. "No."
Wada kept up his smirk. "I think you are." The new student ignored him. "Shouldn't you be at the school down the street?" Wada lost his smirk as the new student continued to ignore him. "You know, the girls' school."
The new student finally looked up and Mamoru saw a flash of bottle green eyes. I was right! It is Zoicite!
"I'm straight." Said Zoicite. Mamoru almost burst out laughing. He remembered how Zoicite and Kunzite acted around each other when they weren't attacking the Senshi and himself.
Wada frowned "What's that supposed to mean?"
"I'm straight." Said the new student again. "So if you think that I'm going to flash you my dick to prove to you that I'm not a girl, you're going to be sadly disappointed."
Other students laughed as Wada grew red. "Who the f…"
Mamoru stood up, he didn't know why he was doing this but he had to. While he wasn't as big as Wada, Wada had learned very painfully years ago that Mamoru's slenderness was deceptive. "Back off. If you keep this up, you're only going to make yourself look like a fool."
"Only 'look'?" came a quiet murmur.
Wada growled and began to swing his fist. But before it could gain any momentum, it was caught. Mamoru caught a glimpse of the new student's thumb pressing into tendons of Wada's wrist. Wada yelped in pain. The new student let go and stood up. Wada towered over him but something about the new student was intimidating. Wada backed up a step. The new student smiled and looked around the classroom. "Anyone else have anything to say?"
Heads shook negatively.
The new student sat back down and turned to Mamoru. "Thank you. I'm Tsukino Soichiro."
He still couldn't believe that Zoicite had the nerve to show up at his school but to be polite, and because he didn't want to start anything in class, Mamoru inclined his head. "You're welcome. Nice to meet you. I'm Chiba Mamoru."
"Nice to meet you."
At that point, the teacher came in and Mamoru couldn't ask any more questions; at least not the ones he wanted to, starting with "What the hell are you up to?"
He could barely pay attention to what the various teachers were saying. His mind was racing trying to figure out what Zoicite had up his sleeve. It couldn't possibly be a coincidence that one of his enemies had enrolled in his school.
The lunch bell rang, startling him out of his thoughts. He put his books away, watching Tsukino out of the corner of his eye. He stood up to leave for the cafeteria when he felt a hand on his sleeve. He looked into Tsukino's eyes.
"We need to talk." Said the other boy. "Some place private."
"Fine." Said Mamoru curtly. "Follow me." He led the way out of the classroom, down the corridor and up a set of stairs that led to the roof.
Neither of them noticed the two men standing in the corridor as they walked by. One with short blond hair and the other with long brown waves.
Mamoru shoved open the door to the roof and walked out into the sunlight. He turned and watched as Tsukino shut the door. Tsukino faced him with arms folded across his chest.
"Okay, thanks for intervening with the Neanderthal earlier but since then you've acted weird. You have done nothing but watch me the entire time. Flat out…I am NOT gay."
Mamoru blinked. "I didn't say you were."
"True. But you've been watching my every move." The bottle green eyes were unblinking. "And I want to know why."
Something burst inside Mamoru. "What the hell are you up to, Zoicite?" He felt a fierce flash of satisfaction at the surprise in the other's eyes that was quickly masked. "I'm not going to allow you to hurt any of us ever again."
"Who's this Zoicite you're talking about?" Tsukino's face and eyes were expressionless but Mamoru wasn't fooled.
"Don't try to weasel your way out of this." Mamoru reached and one of his roses came to his hand.
Tsukino raised an eyebrow. "Pretty." He observed.
Mamoru growled and threw the rose. Tsukino dodged to the right. Mamoru produced more. "I will not allow you to bring harm to the Senshi, Tokyo or even to the Earth."
"I haven't threatened anyone." Said Tsukino. Mamoru could see that his body was tense and ready.
"You don't have to. Your very presence here is a threat." Mamoru transformed into Tuxedo Mask and threw the roses in his hand at his enemy.
Tsukino spun rapidly but Tuxedo Mask had already thrown another group of roses.
"Fine!" Tsukino hissed. "Have it your way!" And he transformed but not into the gray uniform that Tuxedo Mask remembered but one that was midnight blue with lighter blue trim with black leather trousers and black boots. Zoicite flung out a hand "Sakura Ice Blades!" and blocked Tuxedo Mask's attack.
And the battle was on.
Both young men lunged back and for across the roof using roses and sakura blossoms, cane and sword. Eyes of midnight blue and those of bottle green glared at each other. Neither really had the advantage so Tuxedo Mask decided to use something he'd never tried before "Tuxedo La Smok…"
WHAM!
Tuxedo Mask fuzzily wondered where the hell Zoicite had produced the brick wall. He was unable to resist when he felt himself being picked up by the collar and thrown against a wall. He thought it might be the rooftop building that sheltered the school's air-conditioner. He felt another body close to his and leaned against it.
"What in the name of Selene is wrong with the two of you?" The deep voice was furious.
He knew that voice.
He managed to open his eyes. Oh. He was the brick wall. He thought stupidly.
Kunzite stood before him. In a uniform similar to Zoicite's but with silver trim. He was furious. His gray eyes blazed as he glared at the two young men before him. "I'm not sure if the two of you are temporarily stupid or a pair of mental defectives. Transforming and fighting on the rooftop of your gods-be-damned SCHOOL!"
Zoicite feebly spoke "Kunzite, he star…"
"DO I LOOK LIKE I CARE WHO STARTED IT?"
Tuxedo Mask elbowed Zoicite before he could open up his mouth again and get them both killed.
Kunzite continued. "You are just damned lucky that Jadeite was here and could hide your idiocy from the rest of the students. And you're damned unlucky that Nephrite called me!" He took a deep breath, visibly trying to regain his temper. "Both of you un-transform, get your asses back to class and if I have to come back here again, I will make you both very sorry!" Kunzite didn't even wait to see if he was obeyed. He jerked his head at Jadeite and Nephrite. "Let's go."
Nephrite followed Kunzite but Jadeite, that bastard, hesitated for a moment and flashed the two younger men a snarky grin that clearly said, "At least it wasn't me this time!" Then disappeared.
Mamoru untransformed but let the wall support him for a bit longer. Tsukino obviously had the same idea but when the bell signaling the end of lunch rang, he stood upright with a groan and held out a hand to Mamoru who took it until he was also upright. Tsukino smoothed back his hair back into a tidy ponytail. Almost conversationally he said, "I haven't seen him that pissed off since we got the bright idea to play matador with the herd bulls."
The memory washed over Mamoru:
They had visited Zoicite's kingdom and as part of the celebration of the return of their King and the visit of the High King and his heir, events from different regions had been performed but the one that had caught the imagination of the two eight-year-old boys had been the bullfights. So when they returned to Atlantis three days later, Endymion and Zoicite snuck out and tried to do the same thing with the herd bulls. Who were not happy because it was mating season and they were being kept from the cows and two small beings were flapping things at them and poking them with sharp objects.
They barely escaped with their lives. As it was, two herders were injured, a horse had gotten gored and had to be put down, Nephrite had a broken arm and Jadeite had broken ribs. Kunzite was pale and coldly furious. King Terran personally beat their backsides until they couldn't sit. Kunzite sent them both to bed that night without any supper and they had to endure his special training for two weeks. It was another month after that before either boy could go anywhere, even to the bathroom, without one of the other Shitennou or a senior guardsman escorting them.
Mamoru opened the roof door and gestured Tsukino ahead of him. "Well, at least he can't send us to bed without any supper this time."
Tsukino sent him a rueful glance. "But he's going to make us pay for this later. You do know that?"
"Yeah. You might as well call me Mamoru."
"Call me Soichiro."
After lunch, it turned out that their teacher for that period had an emergency and had to leave, so a free period was declared. Mamoru and Soichiro took the time to get to know each other.
Soichiro learned that Mamoru had been orphaned at a young age. That Mamoru was more than reasonably well off and already owned an apartment as well as a car and a motorcycle. ("You lucky bastard!") Soichiro also learned that Mamoru didn't know why he transformed into Tuxedo Mask, where the whole tuxedo thing really came from and why his memories of the past only came back in patches.
Mamoru learned that Soichiro had spent the last eight years in Los Angeles due to his dad's job and that they were back in Tokyo because of said job. He learned that Soichiro had a younger sister (he was puzzled about Soichiro's smirk) and a younger brother.
"Forgive me but I have to ask: You really aren't gay?"
Soichiro reached over and smacked him upside the head. "What the hell gave you the idea that I was gay? I certainly wasn't gay back in the day so why do you think I'm gay now?"
Mamoru lamely tried to explain how he saw Zoicite behave around Kunzite when they were trying to find the Ginzuishou before he and the Senshi did.
Soichiro moaned, placing his head on the desk, then looked up at Mamoru. "Whatever you do, never ever EVER mention that to Kunzite. I am seriously not kidding. Obviously I wasn't here for all of that but Neph told me that Jade brought it up once, and Kunzite broke his nose and was going to break other things in Jade's body in a rather permanent manner if Neph hadn't gotten him out of the way and out of Kunzite's sight for about a week. So if you value your life, don't bring it up."
"I understand but why did you act that way?"
Soichiro tugged at his hair. "It wasn't us." He caught Mamoru's doubtful look. "Honest. It was not us. We're not sure if they were clones, zombies or some other freaky thing that Beryl did but they were NOT us. I can't explain at the moment but there is someone who'll be able to show you the truth."
After school ended, the two new friends started walking. Mamoru had invited Soichiro to join him for a cup of coffee and Soichiro agreed. As they walked, Soichiro's phone alerted for a text message. Putting the phone away, Soichiro spoke, "That was my sister. She's made some new friends and they are going to some place called Crown Arcade. Do you know where that is?"
Mamoru laughed. "That's exactly where we are headed."