Epilogue: Minako and Kunzite
"Kunzi-chaaan..."
Kunzite winced and turned around quickly, and then breathed a sigh of relief when he saw no one was around to hear the nickname. He would lose what little respect left that the other Shitennou had for him, leader or no leader. Shuddering inwardly at the thought of Jadeite falsely batting his eyelashes at him while cooing the dratted name, he forced a smile on his face. "Yes, Mina?"
"What did you say to Mako that got her so angry?"
Kunzite muttered something under his breath, and Minako only caught a few words, but those few sounded like, "Kitchen... That Idiot Nephrite... Amazon... Crazy... Battery... Arm wrestling."
"Arm wrestling?"
"Nothing," Kunzite said quickly. If there was one person he didn't want his masculinity mocked over the Shitennou, it was Minako. Irrationally, he felt a twinge of resentment toward Minako. Why didn't she have a problem with her senshi? For that matter, why did the Shitennou automatically obey her instead of him, who was supposed to be the leader next to Endymion?
"So what's going on?"
Kunzite gave her an incredulous look. "Nothing."
Minako giggled. "Still talkative, I see." Her teasing was rewarded by the dull pink that rose on Kunzite's cheeks. "You still blush!" she crowed. "I can't believe that you, Kunzite, King of the Middle East, and fearsome leader of the Shitennou, still blushes!"
Ugh! If possible, said King of the Middle East and fearsome leader of the Shitennou turned even redder. "So what did you have against Zoicite anyway?" He asked quickly.
"Oh, him." Minako gave a loud sniff to show what she thought of the blond Shitennou. "Well, he was being mean. It's not like I did anything bad to him or anything..." Kunzite directed an arched eyebrow at her. "Well, not anything deliberate. Well, it was just... Well, he was being annoying! Almost as though he was possessive of you or something, which is ridiculous, of course, but..."
Kunzite's color, which had slowly began turning back to normal, turned purple at what she said. "Yes, that is ridiculous!" He managed to squeak out. Goodness alone knew how much he wanted to scrape off the memories of the weirdness his Dark Kingdom days with Zoicite were. Not going there! Not going there!
Minako looked at him concernedly. "Is there something wrong? You've been acting weird." Minako asked, peering at him, and saw a strange facial expression: his eyes scrunched up, while his lips muttered soundlessly.
"I'm fine, really, just plain old normal me," Kunzite squeaked again, his voice extremely high-pitched, definitely not normal. His skin color now turned pale, almost as light as his hair color.
"If you say so," Minako said doubtfully. Whatever Kunzite was hiding, she was determined to squeeze it out of him… Maybe he was sick! If he is, well... Minako brightened at the thought of nursing him back to health. The girls did say she was getting better at it. Why, she only managed to burn one out of the four tongues with her porridge, and she managed to not strangle them with their blankets when they got sick again!
xxx
Usagi and Mamoru peered from the second-floor window at the four couples that left their homes. "See, Mamo-chan? I told you it would work out," Usagi sighed, her voice dreamy.
Mamoru stared incredulously at his wife. From what he saw, Jadeite was having his head clobbered by Rei, Ami was still trying to wrench off Zoicite's arm, Minako was squealing in Kunzite's ear, and Makoto... He shook his head. Poor Nephrite. "I don't know..."
"Oh, but they're perfect for each other!" Usagi insisted, clutching at Mamoru's arm. "They might disagree now, but they'll eventually see the bright side of it. I knew stealing those stones would be a good idea!"
"Hmn. About that... Usako, care to explain to me again why you did that?"
"Oh, um..."
"And while we're on the subject, why did you manage to mix up the stones?"
"Er. Heh..."
"And why is our floor covered in ice and some of our furniture burning?"
"Well?"
"I love you, Mamo-chan!"
Mamoru sighed, and shook his head in defeat. "I love you too, Usako."