Wednesday
Chibiusa was meeting Mamoru at the arcade. Usagi reluctantly said she'd walk her there after school. Diamond was picking her up there anyway. "Are you coming over to Rei's after school?" Makoto asked her.
"I said I'd bring Chibiusa to the arcade."
"Great. We'll all meet there."
"Uh!" Makoto was gone before Usagi could say anything, like she wasn't staying. She picked up Chibiusa and they started walking. Usagi walked quickly, hoping to get away before the girls saw her.
"Can't you slow down?"
Usagi sighed and walked more slowly. Of course, the girls had beaten Usagi there. Chibiusa ran off to Mamoru and Usagi sat down. The girls started blabbing about some concert next month. Usagi saw Diamond's car. Crud! "I need to use the bathroom." Usagi went, past the bathroom and climbed out a window. She was half way out when Motoki saw her.
"What are you doing?"
"I uh!"
"Never mind. What should I tell the girls?"
"I went home sick?" Usagi thanked him with her eyes and bolted.
Diamond saw her coming around the corner. "There you are. Shall we?"
She walked on his other side, using him as a shield as she got in the car.
"Are you okay?"
"I'm great!"
He took her to a new ice cream shop on the other side of the city.
"The owners just moved here from Italy and they have been making ice cream for over a decade."
They had traditional flavors as well as some new ones, like salted caramel and White Russian ice cream (Baileys and Kahlua flavored).
"Can I get two scoops of the white Russian?" Diamond ordered.
"Can I get a sundae with the moose tracks?" It looked decadent.
Usagi's bowl had everything she wanted, whipped cream, hot fudge, caramel, and real cherries as opposed to the nasty jarred ones.
"This ice cream is so good," she said, whipped cream all over her lips.
Diamond laughed as he wiped it off with his thumb. "Only the best for you Odango."
"I feel like such a fatty," she admitted as hers was half gone.
"Don't be silly. Eat as much as you want."
He was so different from Mamoru who always seemed to have a comment about what she was eating or how much.
"You don't think I eat too much?"
"Who am I to say how much you should eat? For what it's worth, you look fabulous."
Before she could respond, he kissed her, his frozen lips almost sticking to hers from the ice cream. She felt both hot and cold at the same time and the chocolate mixed with the coffee flavors on his tongue making her head spin. He pulled back. "You're ice cream's melting."
"Can't let that happen." She continued eating.
While they were at the ice cream shop, the girls were at the arcade confused.
"She ran home sick?" Ami asked.
"Maybe we should check on her," Makoto offered.
"I think she's fine. It's probably a stomach bug," Motoki was sure that she wasn't sick and hadn't gone home.
"She does eat a lot," Rei added.
"You're right behind her," Minako quipped.
"I am NOT!" Everyone turned to look at her. "I mean I am not."
Eventually, Chibiusa came over. "Where's Odango?"
"She went home sick," Ami told her.
"She didn't even tell me."
"I think it was sudden," Makoto added.
"Mamoru, will you take me home!"
"Where's Odango?"
"Home sick!"
"Oh, well okay." He thought she had looked fine, not that he spoke to her.
Usagi knew she had to get home before Chibiusa did or her cover was blown. "Sorry to have to call it an early day," she said to Diamond.
"No, you need to study. My offer still stands if you ever want to study together."
"Maybe this weekend. Not the most exciting thing, but I have a science test coming up."
"Science is my specialty. How about we hit the books Friday and then take a movie break?"
"I like the way you think."
He gave her a kiss, not seeing her parents and pinned her to the door. "Good bye Odango."
Usagi slipped into the house. Shingo saw her. "Is he your new boyfriend?"
"Yes, and I need you not to tell Chibiusa or anyone else."
"Why does it matter?"
"I don't want any trouble with Mamoru."
"Whatever."
Friday Morning
Usagi was taking Chibiusa to school when she heard a voice in the distance. "Usagi, Chibiusa!" It was Mamoru.
"Mamo-chan!" Chibiusa gave him a hug.
"Do you want to come over for dinner and a movie tonight?"
"Yes! It beats eating whatever slop Usagi would make."
"Usagi would make you nothing," she hissed. Like she would cook for the brat.
"Can I pick her up after school?" Mamoru asked his ex-girlfriend.
"Sure, and you can take her to school now, so I won't be late." Usagi ran off, leaving the two behind.
"Should have seen that one coming," Mamoru said as he took the little girl with him.
"Can't he just call like a normal person," Usagi muttered as she ran to school, not that she wanted him calling her, but she didn't like being accosted on her way to school to talk about his lack of a social life. Seriously, he has nothing better to do than entertain Chibiusa?
At lunch, Rei asked what the girls were up to. Only Usagi had plans. "I can't do anything tonight. I have a tutor coming over."
"Haha! A tutor on a Friday night, get real Odango!"
"Seriously. I want to do well on that science test on Tuesday."
"A boy or a girl," Minako asked wondering if it was Diamond.
"A boy I don't know. My mom found him," Usagi lied.
"If he's cute, maybe I should get tutored too!" Makoto suggested.
"What happened to Keisuke?"
"I dumped him on Monday. He was too clingy."
"Sounds like a match in heaven," Rei muttered.
"Shut up!"
After school, Usagi cleaned her room, not wanting Diamond to think she was messy. "Laundry, put my manga away, make my bed and vacuum. How did I get so many cookie crumbs in here?"
Luna came home to see a spotless room. "Whose room am I in right now?"
"Oh Luna! I have a tutor coming."
"Really? Good for you."
The doorbell rang. Before Usagi could get it, Shingo answered the door.
"So you're the boyfriend?" he looked the man up and down. He was tall, fit, silver hair.
"I am," happy to hear that Usagi referred to him as her boyfriend. "You must be her brother, Shingo." He shook the boys hand.
"Yep! Are you the reason she's been acting so odd?"
"In what way?"
'Well first of all, she's been doing her homework. Second, she …."
"Shingo, I see you met Diamond. How about you go get pizza with your friends?"
"But I'm broke."
"Here's money," she handed it to him. "Bye Shingo!"
He got the hint and made off.
"Afraid he'd reveal your secrets," Diamond teased before he kissed her. Usagi moaned into his mouth, arching her back as his hands held her waist. Her body pressed against his, her soft curves facing his firm muscle.
"I have no secrets. I'm perfect."
Luna came downstairs as this did not sound like a tutor. She saw the loving glances. He must be Diamond.
"You have a cat!"
"I do, her name is Luna."
"Does she like being pet?" Some cats don't.
"Sure?" Usagi didn't actually know. She never saw Luna as a pet. Diamond scooped up the cat, his hands scratching her right behind her ears. She purred loudly for him.
"Isn't she a sweetie?" She rolled over in his arms. "So where did you want to work?"
"How about my room?"
"Perfect." He set down Luna and she ran upstairs, curious as to how serious things were with the couple.
Usagi showed him the syllabus. "I have to know everything we've done for the past month."
"Isn't it cumulative?" he asked her.
"What?"
"Doesn't this build upon what you did previously?"
"I guess."
"So we should start with what you don't understand."
"We need to start at the BEGINNING?"
"It won't be so bad Odango. If you work hard before the movie starts, I'll give you this," he pulled out a new manga. He didn't know which one it was, but the storeowner said it was popular amongst teenage girls.
"Get out!" she reached for it, but he put it back in his bag.
"Not so fast Odango. Study!"
"Ugh!"
He took out textbook. It was a general science class covering some biology, physics, chemistry and earth science. She was on the earth science portion, but in order to understand it, she needed to understand the other three sciences. "Let's start with biology!"
They only had four hours until they were supposed to leave for the movie and he knew he couldn't explain everything in such short time. He decided to see what she did get today, try and get through the rest of it tomorrow and focus Sunday on what she had done in school for the last month.
"Do you have your earlier tests?"
She was embarrassed to show them to him. "Don't laugh."
"I won't." She got them. Many of them were failed tests and were crumpled up. He smoothened them out and tried to discern a pattern.
He actually didn't laugh. She was surprised. He laughed at everything.
"I think I see your problem," he said quietly. "Science is about the process, how you get from one state to another. When you take your tests, you scramble to try and figure out what your teacher wants you to write, and you forget the steps along the way. It's the steps that matter. The final answer is less important than showing how you arrived there. Think of it like one of your mangas. The main character may get married. She might dump her boyfriend in the end and run off to live alone, but it's not the end result that matters to you. It's the story that was told along the way. That was the good part. The ending is like a finisher."
"I never thought about it like that."
"Your test is on earth science, but we have to go through the other sciences before we can get to it because you need to understand them to appreciate the story. If we skipped to Earth science it would be like reading a story but not being told about the world in which the characters existed."
He had her start reading the lessons in the textbook. While she worked on that, he wrote practice problems based on the tests she had already taken. His goal was to have her understand a few problems of each of the earlier units she had done and then several problems on the most recent unit.
She periodically interrupted him to ask questions. He was more than happy to answer. He loved to teach. He thought it was the ultimate test of his own understanding, and it was fun to see people get excited about science. It was cool if someone bothered to explain it to you.
Luna was impressed. Usagi was not just doing her current homework, but she was going back to understand the lessons she had failed before. The cat couldn't help but compare Diamond to Mamoru. Diamond had a patient tone and he explained things in a way Usagi could understand. Mamoru tended to be more closed off. "You haven't studied that yet. You wouldn't understand." Where Diamond was nurturing, Mamoru was paternalistic.
Luna didn't know what this meant for the future, but she thought Diamond seemed to be a better fit than Mamoru, although first impressions can be deceiving. Luna would not put Mamoru out of the running just yet. He and Usagi had many good times together and he was Tuxedo Kamen. He would protect her when she needed him, albeit not recently.
After a few hours, both Diamond and Usagi were hungry. "Did you want to get a pizza?"
"Maybe. Do you have any food in the fridge?"
Usagi shrugged. They went down to look. "Will your parents mind if we cook any of this?"
"I don't think they would care." They hadn't mentioned any special meals.
Diamond took out the ground meat, an onion, garlic, tomatoes and some herbs. "How about spaghetti and meatballs?"
"Uh, I can't really cook," she admitted.
"I'll show you."
He took out a cutting board put some water on the stove to boil. He peeled the onion and smashed the garlic with his knife. "Most good meals start with garlic and onion," he said.
He cut the onion in half. "You want to split it through the hairy side, so the onion doesn't fall apart on you while you chop it." He chopped the onion quickly, making perfect knife cuts. He put some oil on the stove and added the garlic and onions turning the heat on low. Once the water boiled, he put in the tomatoes.
"What are you boiling the tomatoes for?"
"To make the sauce."
"You don't just buy it?" She looked in the fridge for tomato sauce. The jar was almost empty.
"It's not too hard to make." Once the tomatoes were soft, he put them in ice water. "Once the tomatoes are cool enough to touch, can you peel them and chop them for me?"
"How do I peel them?"
"The skin will come right off."
She went to touch one, still too hot. She tried again later and the skin did come right off. She went to chop them and he put his hand over hers. "Watch your fingers." He moved her hand around the tomato, so her fingers would be out of the way. "People cut themselves by either holding food badly or chopping too fast, or both."
She cut the tomatoes. They were squishy. "Now what?"
"Add it to the garlic and onions."
He saw some red wine in the fridge and added it to the sauce along with salt and pepper. "Now we just put this on a simmer and it will reduce down."
He then started on the meatballs. He got a bowl and put the ground beef in adding salt and pepper, an egg, breadcrumbs, and a little oil. "You need the breadcrumbs to hold it together and the fat to make sure it's not dry." They formed perfect meatballs and then put them on a baking tray. He put them in the oven.
He took out one more pot for the pasta, adding salt to the water before bringing it to a boil. "Salted water so the pasta isn't bland."
He had a purpose for everything he did in the kitchen. Usagi wondered how his food would compare to Mako-chan's. It looked like it would be good, despite her involvement. She added the pasta when the water was boiling, adding the whole box.
"Hungry Odango?"
"Always!"
About eight minutes later, they strained the pasta, stirring in the now done sauce and then adding the meatballs. He found Parmesan cheese in the fridge and they added it on top along with just a bit more salt and pepper.
They sat down to eat in the dining room. "This is great." Usagi said. "I can't believe I didn't ruin it."
"How could you ruin it?"
"I'm a terrible cook."
"No, you're just inexperienced." The way he said it made her blush. "The more you practice, the easier it gets."
"You must have practiced a lot."
"It's just me and Sapphire, and he won't cook unless he's forced to, so yeah."
The other four senshi met up at Rei's. "I can't believe Usagi's studying and Ami is not," Makoto said.
Ami shrugged. "I've been studying for this test for a few days now. I'm sure Usagi just started today."
"She has been doing so much better now," Rei added.
"Who would have thought Mamoru dumping her would have worked out so well?" Minako commented.
The other girls stared at her. "What?"
"Well, it's true. She's more focused in school. She whines less. She's actually on time and she seems like she's handling it just fine. She's not weeping over him or anything." Minako couldn't add and she has a new hottie anyway.
"But what about Crystal Tokyo?" Rei hissed.
"They can still reconcile," Minako responded. "I just think this time apart has been good for Usagi. She needs to know that she can function without him if she has to."
"I agree, being overly dependent on a man is no good," Makoto added.
"I guess, but I was hoping they'd be miserable apart and figure it out. If she's fine and he's fine, what will bring them together?"'
Mamoru hated being away from Usagi. He did it for her own good, but she just thought he as a jerk or a jerk who can babysit Chibiusa so she doesn't have to. This Diamond guy seemed like a cad, overly flirtatious, driving around in a fancy car, throwing down his credit card all the time. Did he think he could buy Usagi's love?
We'll work it out! We have to!
Chibiusa loved this time with just Mamoru. Just him and me!
After dinner, Diamond and Usagi spent some time kissing before going to the movies.
"Will you be able to come over tomorrow?" she asked. She still had Earth Science to tackle as well as finishing up with physics.
"I can come over, or you can come to my place. I warn you, Sapphire will likely be there watching cartoons all day."
"Haha! He sounds like me."
"But you're much prettier," Diamond responded.
"Bye Luna," Usagi called before she left. At the movies, they had a choice between romance and an action movie.
Of course, Usagi wanted to see the romantic one and Diamond indulged. Mamoru would fuss so much, but Diamond doesn't seem to care what we watch.
"You're sure you don't mind," she said, after he bought the tickets of course.
"I'm at the movies with you, Usagi. I'd watch anything, even if it was in Korean."
"Do you speak Korean?"
"No."
"Baka!"
They got a large popcorn and two sodas. "Can we sit in the back?" Diamond asked, wanting to kiss her without people fussing at them.
"Sure."
They found two seats in the back in the middle and sat down. Usagi watched the movie intently. Diamond tried to watch it, but he kept watching Usagi. He loved seeing her laugh at the awkward moments, tear up at the cheesy romantic ones and when the couple kissed on screen, he wanted to kiss her, to hell with the popcorn. He settled for putting his arm around her, kissing her cheek and nipping at her ear, caressing her face with his fingertips.
Towards the middle of the movie, a pivotal moment happened. The couple was having a major argument right before a steamy hookup. Normally, this is the part that Usagi was waiting for, but she found herself distracted by the man at her side. Their eyes caught each other at just the right moment and he managed to pull her into his seat. She sat on his lap, pressing her lips to his as they kissed with a ferocity that matched the actors. Diamond noted that this was the first time she had kissed him. He would never forget this moment.
He didn't break the kiss until he felt his lungs gasping for air. She reached for her soda and stayed in his lap for the rest of the movie. Diamond loved the closeness, but he started to grow uncomfortable with her on top of him, grow being the operative word.
She noticed his fidgeting. "Am I too heavy?"
"Of course not." You're just too attractive.
After the film, he kept his jacket in front of his waist, so she didn't notice anything.
He drove her home, stopping to kiss her before she went inside. "Goodnight Odango."
"Goodnight Diamond." For the first time, she noticed that he had a blush that rivaled hers. He quickly got in his car and drove off.
She was so sexy, but so innocent. Diamond wanted to simultaneously shield her from all evil and have his way with her in the worst way possible. She's going to be the death of me.
Usagi noticed something of his was jabbing at her leg when they kissed. She could feel it when she was on his lap too. Did he walk around with a pipe or something?
