Enjoy!

(Standard disclaimer: I do not own any of the Sailor Moon characters of which I am writing about. This story is an original that I wrote for fun and without compensation. All characters belong to Naoko Takeuchi.)

Two More Weeks

Chapter 5

Trials of Friendship

*Motoki*

When he arrived at the arcade, Usagi was already sitting at a booth waiting for him. It was a new experience seeing her on time for something, but he hoped that it was a good sign and not an omen. He felt antsy enough about this lunch date.

When she saw him, she waved him over and he sat across from her. She already had ordered him a drink and was currently sipping her own.

"Hey! I got you some soda. I hope that's okay." He nodded.

"Of course, thanks." He forced himself to take a drink even though he didn't want any because he didn't know what else to say. He had no idea how this conversation was going to start.

"I missed you so much! The arcade is not the same without you." He silently took another sip. "Well, as you may have realized," Usagi started, "I made a new friend this summer." She waited for him to concur and he nodded weakly. Why was she beating around the bush? He wanted to get this conversation over with already.

"What do you need to tell me?" he said irritably. Reika had already nagged to him about coming to meet her so he couldn't say that he was in the best mood to have this discussion. "Does she have a message for me or something?" He leaned back in his seat, looking through his phone impatiently.

"No, she doesn't have a message for you." He could tell that had annoyed her. "I told you yesterday that she has no idea that I even spoke to you. Still, you should think of this as just as important as your other priorities." She was glaring at him and he put his phone away. "I'm nobody to tell other people how to live their lives and honestly Motoki, we're friends, but I barely know you. What you do with whomever you want is none of my business, but we both know what you did was wrong."

"You're right, it isn't any of your business. I appreciate your concern, advice, whatever it is, but I'm not talking to Cass. Period. Why should I? What do I even have to say to her? Nothing Usagi, that's what."

"You know damn right that you owe Cass an apology!"

"An apology for what exactly?" He was already more pissed than he'd anticipated, but he didn't care. What the hell did she know about him and Cass anyway? "Apologize because I have a girlfriend and it's not her? Give me a fucking break. I have known Cass for five years already and we have been in the same situation all this time. I don't owe her anything!"

Both of their arms were crossed, his in anger, hers in frustration. And both were in a staring standoff waiting for the other to look away. He hated to have to break it to her, but he had way more pride than she assumed because there was no way that he was going to talk to Cass. No way.

"I know you love Cass, just-"

"You know nothing. Get that right. You know nothing about me, you probably think you know Cass, but really, you don't know anything about us." She tried to interrupt, but he just spoke over her. "You are a CHILD. Don't talk to me about how I need to deal with women—especially when you know nothing about relationships yourself."

"How can-!"

"Just shut up, Usagi. I'm done with this conversation." Her jaw tightened, lips twitching with whatever she wanted to say.

He was fed up with her and he had to make it clear that there were personal boundaries that he absolutely refused to talk to her about. Like she said, she was nobody to judge other's lives and yet she was doing just that. He knew it to be a fact that none of this was on behalf of Cass—Cass would never, ever, bitch about this to him. And he was confident in that statement because unlike Usagi, he actually knew Cass. He knew her attitude and jealous ex-sexfriend just wasn't her.

"Say what you want about my credentials to give advice," she spat. "But I promise you that I know Cass better than you think. Even when she isn't obvious, I can read her. I, unlike you, CAN tell when she's upset, angry or heartbroken. And I'm telling you this—by not telling her when you got back is proof enough that you feel guilty!"

"That's ridicu-!"

"Now it's your turn to listen to me!" she shouted. "You're USING her! Just tell her you're sorry! It's so easy! Tell her that you're sorry that she read more into this than was actually there. Tell her that you have no intention whatsoever to be with her, that you don't want to be her boyfriend. Tell her that you won't ever bother her again and that you won't come back to her when you're bored. Tell her that you two can't be friends anymore, because guess what? That kind of relationship never works!"

He could tell that she was disgusted with him, that whether he liked it or not Cass had managed to change Usagi's perception of him in the short few months since he'd last seen her. The Usagi he knew would never be so rude or pushy. She wouldn't meddle in his personal life and she sure as hell wouldn't be giving him advice on who he could sleep with or not. The girl in front of him was someone else completely.

Her eyes reflected the same except they were actually staring at him in genuine anger (something that's never happened before). Her bangs were longer and styled to the side now, different from her usual full forehead curtain. She was even wearing make-up, chandelier earrings that glittered and a low cut blouse under an opened sweater.

This Usagi in front of him was probably a more mature version than the girl from June and probably more sexually aware. Hell for all he knew she probably had a boyfriend, but none of that mattered to him. It still gave her no right to butt into his life. She might feel like she was on his level, but she wasn't, she wasn't even close.

"I'm going to pretend like this conversation never happened," he told her after taking a few deep breaths. "I won't mention this again and hopefully we could put this past us. Even though quite honestly, as soon as I leave this booth I can almost promise you that we won't be seeing each other anymore." She was shocked at his statement and clearly hurt, but he didn't back down from it. This very moment was going to be the last of their friendship if she didn't shut the fuck up and move on from this subject.

"That's not what I want," she said after a few seconds of silence. "I don't want us to stop being friends." Her eyes searched his as if disbelieving that he would do such a thing as threaten their relationship, but she still smartly took heed to his warning. "I won't bring this up again. I'm sorry."

He nodded once and got up off the seat. He didn't want to stay there anymore, he couldn't deal. She looked like she was about to protest his leaving, but something stopped her from doing so which was smart because he'd never been more angry with her.

"I'll see you later, Usagi-chan," he said, forcing himself to be nice even though he just wanted to punch a wall. She nodded meekly and he walked away, dying to get as far as possible before he lost it in front of her.

As soon as he left the arcade, the fresh air did him good. That conversation with Usagi had been a waste of time. To some point she was right, part of him knew that he needed to give Cass an explanation, but on the other hand it's not like he'd actually promised Cass something more. He didn't owe her anything and thus wasn't morally obligated to have to face her.

This happened between them all the time, they'd hook up for a little while and then not see each other for months—the same back and forth games they had going on for years. He and Cass were like phases, or seasons rather, and they both had to accept that their summer fling was definitely over; it was time to move on.

Cass was a special person to him, that he could never doubt, but leaving with Mamoru had been one of the best decisions he'd ever made. It was true that at first the trip was his own personal hell, but he'd been able to overcome that with Reika's help. She had been his lifeline, the balance he needed during an emotionally chaotic time.

By no means had he thought that their relationship would get as serious as it was now, but it slowly progressed into something he'd never had before. He truly believed that he loved Reika and even though he'd felt the same way about Cass before, he knew that with Reika it was different. With Cass it was all about sex all of the time, but with Reika he liked to believe that it went way deeper than that.

But it's not like he could make Usagi understand all of this. She wasn't anybody noteworthy to him anyhow, so he shouldn't have to concern himself with explaining his life to her. But her intrusive manner still bothered him. Friends! Ha! As if they could still be friends after today. She was really stupid. He hated to admit it, but after so many years, he just realized that Mamoru had been right about her all along.

*Motoki*

Climbing into his car, he revved his engine and took out his phone. Placing it on his dashboard mount, he dialed Mamoru on speaker as he pulled out the parking lot. Feelings of frustration about Usagi still lingered and with no idea what to do about it, he figured that if anybody would be able to help it would be Mamoru. He also felt like he should give him the heads up about this friendship between Cass and Usagi. If anyone had anything to lose from that union (aside from himself of course), it would definitely be Mamoru.

"Yo," Mamoru said as soon as he picked up.

"Did you get to talk to Usagi yesterday?" There was a pause on the other end of the phone, but he understood that this question was fairly random.

"Not at all," Mamoru replied slowly. "Why?"

"She's just so weird," he said with a sigh. "Yesterday she came looking for me so that she could talk to me about, get this, Cass." Mamoru remained silent and he continued. "So yeah, apparently, Usagi and Cass met up during the summer—goodness knows how—and are best fucking friends now."

"What?"

"Tell me about," he muttered. "So when I see her, she gets all sappy on me like: Oh Motoki I missed you so much. And I tell her whatever, you know, she's been a good friend to me. I tell her that I've been busy and that I'm sorry for not keeping contact. Next thing I know, she's about to start crying and thinks that the reason I haven't called her is because you two hooked up."

"Oh god," Mamoru groaned over the phone, undoubtedly face palming himself at the moment.

"Well yeah, that's a real thing. So deal with that—cause apparently she's insecureabout whatever happened between you two, but that's not the point. The point of her oh-so-lovely visit was to get me to apologize to Cass. You hear that, apologize! She came all the way from her house or whatever, waited for me to get out of our meeting, just to tell me that I need to apologize to Cass about Reika. I never heard of something so ridiculous."

"I hope you realize that Cass doesn't give a fuck about you right now." He took in a deep breath, nodding to himself. "Whatever Usagi is saying, she made up in her own little twisted mind because Cass would never-"

"Yes, I know that!" he exasperated.

"Then why do you care? It's not like this is a direct message from Cass; who cares what Usagi thinks? She's a gossipy little bitch, why are you seriously letting this bother you?"

"Because she's getting involved in my business and it's pissing me the fuck off!" He was this close to hanging up on Mamoru. How could not get that this made him angry? "I told her that we should meet up today so I could tell her in private to-"

"Are you about to meet her now?"

"No. I just left. We literally talked for five minutes and I had to leave. She apologized, but that's not good enough."

Mamoru stayed silent on the other line and he patiently waited for whatever he was going to say. Right now he desperately needed some insight. Although Usagi was absolutely being a stupid bitch, part of him understood that she was doing this out of a sense of honor to her friend. He would never want to admit this to anyone, but she was right about one thing. He felt horribly guilty about what he did to Cass.

"What do you think?" he prompted Mamoru after the silence had gone on for too long.

"Honestly, what do you want me to say?" Answering him with a question was a sure fire way of dodging, but he built up some courage to ask him straight out.

"Is she right?"

"Who?"

"Usagi." Mamoru took a deep breath into the receiver. He knew Mamoru's answer regardless; it didn't matter what he said. But… it did matter to him what he said.

"It's your life," Mamoru finally answered. "It doesn't matter who's right."

"How diplomatic of you," he muttered. How could Mamoru not have noticed that he wanted some genuine advice? "Whatever. Talk to you later."

"Sure."

Hanging up, he grabbed the phone and threw it on his passenger-side seat pissed. Talking to Mamoru had been useless—it actually had made him angrier. Angry because he hadn't been helpful at all, but mostly angry because they had let their friendship get to this point—and neither one cared enough to do something about it.

:'(

I know so many of you are ready to rage quit: 'where's the goddamn Usa/Mamo action?!' you ask. Answer: next chapter, up tomorrow. Relax!