Hi all! Thanks so much for reading! Please comment if you like it! It's slow, but it's happening.
PS: This fanfic is rated M for possible FUTURE mature scenes. Not yet!
"Ahhhh….! Why late to work again…!?!" cried a surprisingly awake, but awfully disoriented and out-of-breath Usagi as she quickly bolted through the winding streets of Juuban District, Tokyo. Usually, she would take a leisurely stroll through these beautiful streets, the edges lined with adolescent cherry blossom trees, the pink silk droplets covering the sidewalks and making it seem like a magical and peaceful paradise. She would take a deep breath and look up to see the blue skies with puffy clouds like lambs or puppies… and she would smile, hoping, someday someday someday, to walk these streets with a handsome boyfriend with a quirky smile and strong hands (he would have to protect her, of course, her days of saving the world via Senshi power were long over after her final battle years ago). Handsome-Boyfriend-sama would stop her under a particularly breathtaking blossoming tree, the sunlight shining through and dappling her glorious mane of hair, and he would murmur to her cheek, her soft lips gently parting in invitation….
A glistening sliver of saliva slipped past Usagi's coral-pink lips as she grinned open-mouthed, eyes-closed, into the sky. Heee…….oh dream boyfriend, don't touch me there…we're in public…..kyaa….ohhh….
Just as a sweet, darling, and innocent boy of ten years old came by on his darling bicycle…..and RAN. OVER. HER FOOT.
GEH, she froze like a statue in sudden and intense pain.
"You're already late to work, Usagi-baka! You can afford your own apartment, so try buying an alarm clock, cheap-o!!" hooted her younger brother, Shingo, with a loud cling-clang of his bicycle bell.
"KYAAAAAAA---NnnnNNN!!!!!" screamed Usagi, hurtling profanities and a few stray twigs towards that sweet boy who retaliated with a not-so-sweet middle-finger behind him as he disappeared from sight. Usagi fumed, her earlier-blushing cheeks now a fuming red, not unlike her crushed toes as she gingerly dancing a few inches above the sidewalk.
"Itaaaaiiii yoooo…." She hissed out between her teeth. She leaned over to examine her now-dusty shoe as her hair, two thick, gleaming ponytails tied into efficient buns at the top of her hair, trailed on the grass at her feet.
Wait--- grass? She blinked around from her position, now seeing (albeit a little sideways) a lush, green park as her hand slowly came to pause in dusting off her shoes. I was dreaming of a boyfriend…and I must have ended up in the park, she thought, groaning. She stood up straight, smoothing her hands over her slightly-wrinkled white button-down shirt, fingers plucking at the short puff-sleeves at her shoulders. The gesture reminded her of her morning dream, and she unconsciously looked down at her bust, still the same petite size, like the rest of her. She huffed her chest up ala Miss Brazil, only to give out a big exhale and hunch over with a groan. She sighed and looked down at her black skirt and black waitress' apron, both dusty now from Shingo's hasty retreat.
She continued patting her garments down with a huff, her slim wrists moving over her petite form. No matter how much Usagi ate (and she did eat, a lot, and it was a wonder she would even keep her apartment if you thought of how much she spent on groceries), nobody could call her fat or chubby. Mesmerizingly to most men, Usagi was unaware of her small form, perfectly built with soft feminine curves and soft ivory skin, an unmatched combination of girlish, long colt-like legs and subtle sensuality. Her cheeks, often flushing easily with her emotions, would turn her face into a beacon for any man. The becoming pink hue would cause her corn-flower blue eyes to literally glisten with warmth, gentleness, and sometimes (though Usagi was completely naïve to this, no matter how much her friendly Senshi would try to convince her otherwise) a frank and painfully innocent sensuality that, if any decent and non-eunuch man was within range, would cause them to instantly want to…. Well, you can imagine. But never in her 23 years on this earth could Usagi imagine people having such impure thoughts because, try as anybody might, she was genuinely, instinctively, and naturally…. Usagi. Pure of heart, often (but not always), and loyal to a fault to the cause that All People Are Good Within Their Hearts.
"Now I'm really, really late….great," she murmured.Thankfully Usagi's Boss (he has a real name, but she forgets so often that, for her, his real name has become 'Boss') knows she brings lots of (ahem) male customers into the tiny little corner Teas & Cakes Café and is lenient with her….er…scheduling mishaps. Letting out a great sigh, Usagi lifted a wrist to move one heavy curtain of hair back over her shoulder when she caught a tiny lightning-flash of color at the corner of her eye. Her delicate golden eyebrows furrowed together in confusion. All parks were just full of…. green-ness, right? But what she had seen, or THOUGHT, she'd seen had been as radiant as a prism or a crystal held up to sunlight. She took a step forward deeper into the park, away from the center fountain and away from the jogging trail and benches. Nani….she thought, as she saw the glimmer….and there! A flickr! That same color! She recognized it from years past, from her now-dormant ginzuishou…. Such a mesmerizing scope of colors…. Her feet unconsciously drew her deeper still until she was surrounded by cool air and copses of thick summer trees, all dancing lazily in the cool breeze. The familiar whoosh of the branches swaying calmer her, but those colors…. Usagi treaded on deeper still, now the trees standing closer together as if protecting or sharing some secret. Her shoes ruined from the moist soil, the back of her neck damp with exertion, she finally came to a dead stop, and took a deep breath.
Any normal person would have seen nothing out of the ordinary. Just a small copse of trees huddled in a circle and in the center- probably nothing. Any ordinary person would have remarked on their own stupidity and walked off, back to work, and thought nothing of their particular – and imagined – sight of a prism in a public park. As if! But Usagi was no ordinary girl, as many people know, and where many people would have seen…. well, nothing... Usagi saw Something. Well, something quite UNextraodinary. A single rose. A single, UNremarkable UNspecial red rose. Just lying in the middle of the copse of thick, lazy trees. In the far corner of a public park. It was not a dozen roses, not some unwanted gift, but just a single rose lying on the moist soil, as if accidentally dropped by some hand. But there it was.
And Usagi, with her innocent heart (who always pays close attention to Missing Dog signs and cried during King Kong because the giant ape died), let out a gentle "Oh….no…. you poor thing…" and rushed forward to kneel at the rose's….well, petals. As gently as if the rose itself was a newborn, she cradled it with both hands, dusting off the specks of soil on its petals, and held it in her palms. "I'll take you home, give you some water, and you'll be perfect." She paused for a moment, nodding to herself at the decided course of action and turned around, back to the center of the park, back to the road toward the Tea and Cake Café. She smiled down to the red rose in her hands, beginning a conversation, "Well, first I'll take you to work with me and put you in some water AND THEN you can go in the window because I'm sure you'll love sunshine, it comes in so nicely from the windows, "she rattled on, with a slight dance in her walk, unaware (as usual) of the men stopping in their tracks to eye the charming picture she made. "And I love working there because of that sunshine! It feels so nice to help the customers and feel the sun…"
And so, Usagi continued the story of her entire Job Hunt. From her first job at a grocer's to the Tea and Cake Café, until she strolled in through the front door, the bell chiming and announcing her arrival to Boss behind the counter, who already had a wet rag ready and an arm flung back, screaming: "I CALLED YOU AN HOUR AGO, BAKA-YAROU!!!!!" and flung said wet rag hard-as-a-baseball into Usagi's face as she screamed "Booosssuuu!!!" falling onto the tile floor.
Customers gaped, tea and cakes halfway to their mouths. And the rose, still delicately clutched in Usagi's quivering hand, gave an unperceivable and annoyed grunt.