(A/N: Thank you for the continued reviews and for reading! Here's the last chapter! I hope you enjoyed! Please Review! ~The Rising Phoenix~)
Chapter 6-
"Mina, why does your phone keep going off?"
"Oh, those? Confirmation emails." Usagi supplied.
"For what?" They glanced at Mina.
"It's not my fault Usagi helped max out my credit cards."
"Mina.I-I just can't. I have no words for you..." Makoto groaned, again walking out of the room for a few moments to calm her rapidly quickening temper and attempt to regain some patience.
"Ugh...Mina, what else did we do? And how did we end up with so much glitter? I'm finding that I've got glitter in places that...Nevermind.. Hey, can we return any of the stuff we bought online last night?"
Haruka simply looked on quietly, just letting them talk, and dig their own holes...They had practically forgotten she was there in the first place.
"Working on it…" she replied, cringing st the numbers on her phone.
"Mina?"
"What, Usagi?" She replied tiredly, not even looking up.
Makoto had walked back into the room, having centered herself again.
"Ugh...What kind of drink did I end the night with?"
"I don't remember...but I think it was a L.I. Iced tea."
"Dear God Mina. She's lucky she isn't in the ER for alcohol poisoning! Do you know how strong that drink is?! And with her body type?" Mako asked.
"I do...between then and now after whatever else I had…" Usagi groaned, a sad note to her voice.
"Why is this such a big deal? Two recent weekends in a row of being hungover, big deal! We were safe. We didn't drive. We're not that irresponsible!"
"Thank God!"
"No," Giggled Usagi. "We hitchhiked. Like twice."
"Usagi! Shut up!"
"You did what?! Do you have any idea the danger you two put yourselves in?" Haruka roared.
"It was just around campus!" Mina said.
"Please stop yelling...my head…" Usagi grumbled with a slight maon to her voice, except she was momentarily ignored.
"You don't even know our campus Mina! Do you have any idea how dangerous that was? If shit went wrong….No, now I'm pissed at both of you!" A furious Makoto stormed to her room, slamming the door.
"Great. Thanks Mina."
"Me?! How was this my fault. If you kept your mouth shut—"
"You're both responsible...And so am I. I should have kept better tabs on you and how much you both consumed."
"Tabs." Usagi giggled.
"Usa...Shh…" Sets replied softly.
"I fed her, kept her hydrated."
"Not the point Mina. You two were foolish enough to hitchhike, period. Mako's right. That was beyond irresponsible and dangerous in and of itself, for both of your own well-beings." Setsuna replied.
"I remember trying to talk you out of it...But you were infatuated with the hit guy."
"What?!" Haruka asked, glaring at Mina, all kinds of worried implications splashed across her face.
"Not, not 'hit guy.' *Giggles* Sorry, hot guy. And he was pretty cute considering, but he would've been all yours anyway, Mina."
Before Mina could reply, Setsuna cut in. "And, Usagi, why don't you go into the other room. You could use some more sleep, I think. I need to talk more with Mina here…"
A rapidly fading Usagi yawned. "'Kay. Night…" Usaig barley made it onto the bed of the spare room before zonking out, as Haruka watched her from the kitchen.
"I don't get why Mako's so pissed. It was just a little fun."
"Because she's scared, and she wasn't around to help you if you were to need it last night. Neither was I for that matter. Not just for Usagi, but for you too…" Haruka replied.
"We were fine."
"You know how she gets, for all of us, especially when there is any kind of danger near...You really scared all of us, Mina."
"But—"
"What if Mina? What if things weren't okay? Or those hitchhikers turned out to be something a lot worse than a bunch of frat guys trying to score more booze? Come on Mina, use your head…You're a lot smarter than this."
Mina remained silent.
"Do, do you think I have s problem?" She asked sincerely.
"Honestly? No. But when you do party, it's way too hard, and way more than it actually needs to be. I'd suggest taking a long break from it, or if you do want a little bit, only have sone when you're around all of us, okay?"
A contemplative silence fell upon the trio.
Makoto came back out and grabbed Mina's face firmly in her hands.
"I worry about you okay? I worry about all of you. Every. Day. It's 1,000 times worse when Usagi's involved, but I wouldn't dare want to see any of you hurt! Do you understand me?"
Mako saw the dawning and sobering realizations of her words in Mina's eyes.
"Yes...Yes, I get it now."
"No more partying or taking Usagi with you. Okay? Please?"
Mina glanced st Haruka and Setsuna. "Okay. No more."
Makoto kissed her forehead.
"Usagi said something about you missing us?"
"Yeah…We never see you anymore...You're busy in the kitchens; Usaig's so damn non-existent because of her writing...I'm not partying so much because I want to get drunk. I just want Usagi back to how she was. She's so serious now…It's like she's changed too much..."
"So this was because you want her back, and figured that getting her drunk was the only way to bring out her lighter side?" Setsuna asked.
"A little...Not this drunk, but at least to get her to relax a little bit."
"You do know there are other ways to do that, right Mina?" Makoto commented softly.
"But she eats your food all the time now...It's lost its effect."
Makoto laughed. "Oh trust me, no it hasn't. Everyday it's like she's trying something new for the first time."
"I'm really sorry Makoto, about everything. I guess these first two years at a different school...And you're both three hours away...I'm mean, sure I've got Rei and she's a big help. I love her dearly. I guess I just miss things the way they used to be when it was all of us - all 9 of us."
"I have an idea...What if we plan two weekends a month where we all can get together. If weekends dont work, we can make it weekdays."
"That's a great idea Haruka." Setsuna commented.
"Yeah. I like it too...When can we start this?"
"Three weeks - the beginning of next month. Think you can wait that long?"
Mina smiled. "Yeah. Yeah I can."
"It's a plan."
"Mako, I'm really sorry. For everything last night. Especially the situations I put Usagi in."
Makoto raised an eyebrow.
"And myself."
She nodded. "I'm glad we got this all hashed out."
"Me too. And Haruka, I'm really sorry about your car."
"You are very lucky Mina. just saying."
"Haruka." Makoto and Setsuna chorused before giggling.
"Okay...So, where's the other lush?" Mako asked.
"Spare bedroom, asleep."
Makoto glanced at both women.
"Sorry/Not sorry for being so hard on both of you. I just don't want to lose you. You're family."
Mako walked into the spare bedroom, where she found Usagi coming out of the bathroom.
"You okay?"
"I feel terrible."
"Naturally, considering—"
"No, not about what I drank last night...But how it made you feel for the past 12 hours…"
Makoto took Usagi in her arms, and kissed her forehead.
"I do not want to lose you; any of you. I love you all. Got it? You are all very important to me. This shit can get dangerous and escalate very quickly, way faster than anyone can see coming. I get it, it was only twice. But it got that much more dangerous the second time around. Let's not test the third time. And, yes, while Mina missed you; missed us, she took the wrong actions in trying to get things the way they used to be."
"I'm sorry…"
"And knowing you, you wanted to be a supportive friend; originally going with her to the party to keep an eye on her."
"And ended up with two horrible hangovers, amongst pictures that I know I'll regret once I see them...Mina is hurting; feeling like she's losing us/we're all falling apart...You got hurt because of it too…"
Makoto smiled. "I'm sure I'll be fine after a few talks with Sets."
"I wish Mina's selfie stick didn't automatically upload to the internet."
Makoto laughed. "I'll have Haruka change the settings later. Besides, you're going to have to explain some of those pictures to me."
"Being blitzed out of my mind wasn't enough of a reason?"
"Nope." Mako smiled again, with a wink.
Usagi groaned.
"So you started a strip tease on a few tables..."
"You saw those?" Usagi looked mortified and guilty.
"Yep. But knowing you, it stopped as soon as you become uncomfortable."
"Yeah, which wasn't far."
"How did you guys get soaked again?"
"Mina dared me to jump in a pool...twice. Said I wasn't brave. So, I wanted to prove her wrong….Are you mad about the last two weekends?"
"More scared for you guys and only mad at the hijinks. But overall very glad you're okay."
"It could have been a lot worse."
"Yes, it could have."
"I'm sorry Makoto. I know Mina is...or will be too."
"No, she is. She gets it now."
"Good."
A comfortable silence fell upon the pair.
Mako smiled. "I'm so glad you didn't do body shots."
Usagi shook her head. "Nah, way too creepy and gross. Besides, the only one I want kissing me all over; or specific spots is you. You can do body shots off of me anytime." Usaig giggled with a wink.
Makoto laughed, kissing Usagi before she spoke again. "Non-alcoholic. Then we'll talk."
Usagi rested her forehead against Mako's jaw.
"I'll clean your house in a few hours for you…"
"You two actually weren't so bad last night, according to Setsuna. Thankfully, you both made it to the bathroom each time."
"Still, if nothing else I'll be vacuuming up glitter from various spots for the next week."
"I still can't believe Haruka willing gave Mina her car, knowing she was blatantly lying." Makoto commented.
"I still can't believe she illegally parked it and got it towed before we started drinking."
They both giggled.
"How'd Mina convince you to wear your favorite dress again?"
"Can't remember, but it ripped. Think you can fix it?"
"Yeah, sure."
"Hey Mako?"
"Yeah?"
"I feel terrible that I've been so...reclusive lately, almost...I said that we were free in two weekends to hang with Mina. Can we switch that around to next weekend instead? I really think she could use the company."
"Of course. I think she'd like that."
Makoto felt Usagi grimace.
"Back to bed for you."
"Oh, and I'm sorry about last night...After we got home."
"I know you are. Oh, and by the way? You know how you hate karaoke?"
Usagi's face took on another look of dread. "...Yeah…"
"You don't seem to mind it when you're drunk."
"Makoto…Why?..."
"Because this was what happens in the back of Haruka's car..." Makoto smiled, and hit play on her phone.
There, Usagi heard Mina singing "Bad Boys" (the COPS theme song), except it was "Bad Girls, Bad Girls," followed by her own vocals singing "Criminal" by Fiona Apple.
"If you dare post this online Makoto Kino, I-"
Makoto laughed, kissing her deeply.
"I wouldn't dream of it. But, I must say you have a good set of pipes...Maybe you can sing that for me one day." Makoto winked, a coy smile on her face.
"It sure as hell isn't happening tonight."
"And that's why I'm keeping this all to myself."
"I thought that was supposed to be me?"
"That's a given."
"Can I come back to our bed yet?"
"Tomorrow. I just want to make sure all of the remnants from last night is out of you."
"Fair enough."
The end.
(A/N: I hope you enjoyed! Please review! ~TRP~)