Hey, hey, hey! Huge shout outs to the reviewers! Thank you so much for the support! To mention a few: Athena, smfan4ever72, babyofthe80s, DrummerAnimeNerrd, My-Crazy-Awesome-Sox, freakblueangel, silverm00nangel, Polevault Princess, mi-makoto-chan, mandii-xo, LostGirl22, Katalina Dosay, nightandday, Lunakid, LenaJones, Andreea, Larisa Chelaru, Gloria Santos. And none for Gretchen Wieners! ;P

I'm so glad that you're all enjoying the story. To answer some of your comments, I honestly haven't figured out what to do with Ichigo yet. He could either take the news like a wounded puppy, or he could lash out in school, to her classmates, to thepress. I don't know. We'll find out together. And I completely agree that Mamoru needs to step up his game and work harder for Usagi, but will he? Cross your fingers!

I'm working diligently on the next few chapters because I think it's what you're all waiting for. However, getting the characters set up into certain scenes takes me a little longer than usual, so don't hate me if I take a while. Chapter 12 will be up soon, but classes have started again for me so I'm not sure how regularly I'll be able to update.

Hope you all have a wonderful Friday!

(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 11

Dinner From Hell

*Motoki*

He couldn't believe that of all the days, today he was late. Dinner at his parents' was about to start and he was still at least 10 minutes away. He was driving as fast as he could and hoped that they'd wait for him before eating. There was a lot at stake for him tonight and he didn't want to start off on a bad foot.

His family tried to come back at least twice a year to discuss new business ventures with Mamoru and the last time they'd seen each other was for Lizzie's graduation back in May. A lot had changed in CINC since then and they had a lot to catch up on. Hopefully, his mother and Mamoru were still in her office discussing business and hadn't started serving yet. He prayed that no one asked for Cass.

His family knew Cass, but had always thought that she was involved with Mamoru due to a picture they'd seen years ago of them leaving a club together. They all decided it was best to let his parents believe what they wanted since at the time it had been easier to lie to them than to explain the reality of their relationship. The consequence was that his parents both fell in love with Cass the minute they demanded to meet her, his mother especially. Whenever they came to visit she would always ask Mamoru for her—even though he'd always tell her that they'd broken up ages ago. While they never acted any differently then they did normally, his parents just assumed that Mamoru and Cass were the on-again, off-again type couple since pictures of them would always resurface in the media and they would insist she come to dinner anyway, where she became a beloved family guest.

Since Mamoru rarely ever had a real girlfriend, Cass came along with him whenever she could. Every year, his father would try to understand Mamoru. 'A woman like her you flaunt,' he'd say, in attempt to convince Mamoru to stop keeping their relationship a secret and come out officially as a couple. It never bothered him that his parents thought they were together since it was always the funniest joke to them. Especially since his parents never got the obvious hints they'd drop about how they only posed for pictures in order to fool them.

He loved it when Cass came to his family dinners. She'd always make everything much more fun and everybody, including Lizzie—who didn't like anyone—would be fighting to hold a conversation with her. They would play charades after dinner (whoever was on Cass's team always won) and he knew that Cass loved coming over just as much because she'd never had the chance to do that with her own family.

Thankfully, he knew that Cass wouldn't be here today because Mamoru wasn't that much of an asshole to bring her along (like she would come anyway), and so he was taking this opportunity to introduce Reika to his family. He wasn't trying to make his relationship with Reika bigger than it was, but he just figured that he could appease his family at least one. His mother was always complaining how he never introduced them to his girlfriends and getting her to shut up was something he'd wanted to do for a long time. Maybe that wasn't a good enough reason to bring Reika, but what could he say. Even after so many years of living on their own the influence that their parents had on him and Mamoru was pathetic.

He finally pulled in to his parents' estate and drove up the driveway to the front of the house. The butler was waiting for them at the entrance and quickly took their coats as he ushered them inside. He announces that everyone was already seated at the dinner table but that no one had been served yet.

When he and Reika reached the dinning hall he noticed that Lizzie was also there, which was a nice surprise since he hadn't seen her in months. She also had a date with her, which he wasn't too happy about and took note to question the guy later. Right now he had a more pressing issue on his mind—because even more surprising than his sister's date was Mamoru's. Cass.

His heart sped up when she looked up at him as he walked to take his seat, but her eyes quickly jumped to stare at Reika. He gulped. WHY? Why was this happening to him? He glared at Mamoru, pissed beyond measure. Why would he do something so spiteful? They just made up and had talked about this yesterday, so why would he think it was fine to bring Cass over tonight.

As Mamoru looked back at him, he knew this couldn't have happened purposely. Mamoru appeared just as frazzled being there and he realized that Mamoru had probably forgotten about tonight's dinner until last minute, just as it happened to him, too. It wasn't until his mother called him an hour ago that he'd scrambled to get ready in time. But Mamoru could have at least called him. A freaking phone call would have saved him all this bullshit—but then he remembered: his phone was dead. He forgot to charge it last night. Goodness, his life was ridiculous.

He pulled out a seat for Reika and sat down next to his mother since Lizzie was sitting next to their dad. He greeted his parents and introduced them to Reika and everyone politely said hello. She smiled at all of them and he could tell that she was overwhelmed by how many people where there. He had promised her a much smaller gathering.

"You have a beautiful home, Furuhata-san," Reika complimented and he relaxed. Reika knew how to be charming when she wanted and hopefully if they both ate fast enough, he'd be able to excuse them before dessert so they could high tail out of there. Talk about what an awkward dinner this was going to be.

"Thank you, dear. My husband designed this home for us way long ago," his mother said, staring at his dad from across the table. "Isn't that so?" His father looked up from his conversation/questioning of Lizzie's date, (Seiya, he'd overheard) and gruffly nodded before continuing his interrogation.

"Oh no," Reika whispered after their food arrived. "More duckies." He nodded, not particularly in the joking mood. He wished that he hadn't been seated across from Cass. It was so hard trying to avoid looking at her.

He attempted to pick up a conversation with Mamoru, who was seated directly across from him on the other side of his mother, but he was busy engaging himself in a hysterical conversation between Lizzie, Seiya, Cass and his dad. His mother—never one to enjoy being left out of a conversation—cleared her throat and got everyone's attention immediately.

"Cass," she said warmly. "Please tell me more about your spa. I hear that it's going so well," she prompted taking a sip of her drink and waiting patiently for Cass to elaborate. Everyone focused on her as she put her fork down and smiled widely.

"It is," she started and he couldn't stop himself from staring at her as she spoke. This was after all, the first time that he's seen her in a long time.

She wore an off-the-shoulder maroon blouse with her hair in a ponytail. He couldn't stop his eyes from admiring her creamy collarbone, remembering how she loved getting bitten there. He forced himself to look away. He had to stop being so inappropriate. Especially since his girlfriend was sitting right next to him, not to mention holding his hand under the table.

While Cass continued talking, he focused on observing everyone at the table around him. Seiya was currently staring at Cass, enthralled by her story and not so much her looks (which was quite impressive). Not even his father was that honorable. Lizzie, for whatever reason, had the nastiest grimace as she stared at him and he had to wonder why. He narrowed his eyes at her, raising his shoulders in question. What was her problem?

"Motoki!" Reika hissed lowly, pinching his arm under the table. He winced turning his attention back to her. "Pay attention!" He looked around the table and indeed someone must have asked him something that he hadn't heard.

"I said," his mother repeated, "that you told me that you wanted to remodel the Parlor Shop. You should have Cass do it. I saw what she did to Mamoru's offices and the spa brochures look wonderful."

He didn't know how to answer that because he would have to address Cass directly and she hadn't said a thing to him this entire time. Even now she wasn't looking at him instead choosing to check her cuticles. He couldn't explain why, but he wished that she would look at him even just for a split second. That's all he wanted. Maybe if they could have some eye contact then perhaps he could convey just how truly sorry he was—about everything. He couldn't stand her hating him.

"I don't think so," he said, hoping that it would get him a witty retort from her. Unfortunately it didn't work, but it got everyone else around him to stare.

It had been meant to sound like a joke, but his forced tone made it more malicious than he'd intended. Why those had been the words he'd chosen to utter, he couldn't say, but it was safe to admit that it was the stupidest sentence to ever come out of his mouth. Everyone around the table gave him the evil eye and even Reika looked ashamed to be sitting next to him. Mamoru was tight-lipped, but didn't look at him as the rest of the table turned on him. His mother gave him a withering glare.

"Was that supposed to be funny? That wasn't funny," she deadpanned. He looked up into the heavens. Please, someone help him here. Why was everything against him today?

"I was just kidding," he said weakly. Cass gave a short forced laugh to ease the tension, but it was too late. He'd already been called out as the villain.

"It's fine," Cass said with a bitter smile as she tried to calm his mother down. "He's always had a twisted sense of humor."

And that was his cue for him to die.

Cass hated him, that much was clear, but it was how much it hurt him in return that was astounding to him. The throbbing in his chest was unrelenting. If a girl had left him for four months because she couldn't handle being in a relationship suddenly returned with a boyfriend in tow… he would have thought it was a sick joke, too.

"Cassie…" he pleaded, his throat tightening when she continued to avoid looking at him. Why wouldn't she look at him? "I'm sorry."She had to know just how horrible he felt, for everything that he'd done to her. She didn't deserve any of it. "I didn't mean for it to be like this… I didn't mean to hurt you-"

"Fuck off," Mamoru sighed, ending his apology. "Just stop."

"I'm trying to talk to her," he snapped, completely losing it. "Mind your own fucking business!"

"Boys!" his father yelled.

He forced his mouth closed and bit his cheek before he said anything more. He quickly opted out of jumping over the table and punching Mamoru simply because he knew he'd probably scare Reika away (though she might enjoy it more than she should), but he'd never wanted something more badly. He took a deep breath and leaned back in his chair trying to let his frustration simmer away before he did anything stupid.

"How did you two meet?" His father addressed him calmly, trying to save the night from going sour.

"There was an environmentally responsible convention, orsomething," he answered, already forgetting the place he and Mamoru attended back in Hong Kong. "Reika was one of the speakers."

"Really? That's interesting!" his father exclaimed and he refrained from rolling his eyes at his fake enthusiasm. "Are you originally from Hong Kong, Reika-san?"

"No, I'm from Tokyo, but I've been studying abroad for a few years."

"What are you studying?" his father continued even though he didn't care, but he was glad for it either way. The more his father talked, the less chances there were of there being any awkward silences. He wasn't sure that this night could get any tenser, but he wasn't ready to find out.

"Archaeology," she said. "I've always loved history, especially Egyptian." Reika and his father shared polite smiles. She may not be as hip to the social scene as the rest of them were, but he was proud that she represented the least superficial person in the entire table.

His parents were in France supposedly 'experimenting with cuisine', but he really knew that they were only over there to sip wine and cross things off their bucket-lists. Lizzie was 'studying' to be a fashionista and Cass wasn't any more different since she was a certified socialite that the tabloids followed around to every one of her fake events. Mamoru was a corporate shark and Motoki was doing much of the same thing: a whole bunch of NOTHING for anyone else. At least Reika was studying to do something that left behind valuable education for the rest of the world.

"Reika graduated summa cum laude," he couldn't help bragging. His mother perked up.

"So did Cass," Mamoru added with a frown. His surprise left him awkwardly stuttering. He did not know that.

"As did I," his mother added tartly, "since we're announcing achievements. That's very nice, Reika." She looked at Cass and then at Lizzie. "There's a table full of great women here," she mocked the guys. "Lizzie, we have high expectations for you." Lizzie made a face like she wanted to vomit. "The two of you?" she continued on with Lizzie and Seiya.

"We met at school," Lizzie responded solely looking at Seiya. They were grinning like idiots.

"I'm the creative director for the Theatre of Performing Arts in Paris. I've lived there since I was 10 when we moved there from Osaka," Seiya said. His mother squealed and finished off the rest of the conversation in French. When she asked Lizzie something even to his untrained ears Lizzie's response sounded nasty. "I've been trying to improve her French," Seiya helped and Lizzie started giggling immaturely while everyone else looked on amused (everyone except their father).

His parents then turned their attention to Cass and Mamoru. Cass, who had been smiling at Lizzie and Seiya's antics, flushed. She turned to a bored looking Mamoru and waited for him to answer the unasked question. Mamoru grabbed Cass's hand over the table and brushed his thumb over her knuckles.

"We're getting married."

"Oh, Mamoru! Koan!" his mother gushed at the news and even his father had a huge grin on his face. He couldnot believe how his parents had not detected the obvious sarcasm in Mamoru's voice. Even Mamoru looked like a deer caught in headlights as his mother went on. "We're so happy for the both of you!"

Cass looked at Mamoru and covered her mouth in laughter, finding it all hilarious. That joke on his parents would never get old, but he didn't find it very funny at the moment. Mamoru shrugged and wordlessly mouthed 'I tried' (to cheer her up, he assumed), smiling along with her. His mother took their silent language as something else completely.

"OHMYGOODNESS! He's asking her to marry him at the table!" his mother yelled, clapping maniacally.

"How do they not know he's lying?" Reika muttered, refusing to even look Mamoru's way. "As if he's ever been with the same girl for more than five minutes. Pathetic." He ignored her.

Mamoru covered his face with his hand and Cass tried to laugh it off, but failed horribly. Finally, after his mother had suggested all of the possible locations for where she thought that their wedding should take place in Paris, Cass was finally able to breathe, but her face was still red. She held her hand up to stop his mother from talking.

"He was not serious, Miaka-san," Cass clarified. His mother's smile left immediately. She looked around the table confused waiting for someone to explain it to her.

"What do you mean?" she asked, jabbing her thumbnail into Mamoru's hand resting on the table beside her. Mamoru winced in pain and cradled his injured limb, hiding his smile from her. "Are you lying to me, Mamoru?" He looked hesitant to nod and he was glad that he was no longer the hated one at the table.

"He was joking," Cass said slowly. "We're just friends." She looked at Mamoru, grinning. "Barely even that." His mother huffed, clearly ruffled up from the false happy ending, but didn't say anything more and just glared at his father from across the table as if she couldn't believe her children were doing this to her.

"I'm GAY!" Seiya blurted and everyone turned to look at him.

Suddenly, as if she were a brewing volcano, Lizzie erupted into vicious laughter that apparently she'd been holding in all night. Seiya followed along and even Cass too. Everyone else just looked at each other awkwardly waiting for a plausible explanation from any one of them.

"We're roommates!" Lizzie said in between laughter and looking at Seiya. "Idiot!" she muttered, before bursting into fits of giggles once again. "It's just that kaa-san said that everyone else had a date," she pouted, "and I didn't want to be the only person without one." His father beamed at the news.

"When you first walked in here, I wanted to scream!" Seiya was ecstatic as he turned to Cass. "Because I just saw you on the new December issue of Vanity Fair and I had to force myself to shut up because DUH: straight guys don't know anything about that!" Seiya had said that way too fast and now he understood the look of admiration in his eyes as he had watched Cass earlier. He was gay, of course. "When I saw you layer those titanium and periwinkle pashminas, I went out the very next day and bought them! You're such a trendsetter!"

What the… Seiya was… something else. Not that he had any idea about what he was talking about, but he was almost sure that he was going to be Cass's new shopping buddy.

"And what about you?" his mother asked him and he froze in confusion and anxiety. "Are you lying, too?" she asked, referring to him and Reika. At her question everyone stopped what they were doing anticipating his answer. He slowly roasted on the spot, feeling guilty admitting to anything but Reika was waiting for him, his mother was waiting. Cass was waiting.

"No," he said. "I'm serious." Intertwining his fingers together with Reika's, he looked down at his plate. Out of these three women that were staring at him, there was only one that he wished he hadn't just lied to. And that truth was the worst of all.

*Motoki*

After dinner he was summoned by his mother to meet her in the kitchen. While he didn't want to leave Reika alone, she'd gone to the bathroom and he knew he had a few minutes until she came back. When he made it to the kitchen not only was his mother not there, but Cass was alone against the counter near the pantry. She looked up from her phone and their eyes met. He stood by the entrance not knowing a single word to say to her.

"Oh, good! You're both here." His mother came up from behind and pushed him fully into the kitchen. "There were a few things I wanted to talk to you two about. I just spoke with Lizzie, and Mamoru and I had a long discussion earlier."

Cass broke their eye contact and was staring at his mother disinterestedly. In fact, she was slowly moving away as his mother brought him closer.

"It's about the arcade. I know you were joking earlier Motoki, but I was not. The arcade needs attention and Cass is just the person to help." He looked at Cass. She was staring into the distance behind him and he wondered if his mother had even asked if Cass wanted to do it. It didn't seem like a task she'd be up to. "Mamoru's told me the issues and I know that you've pretty much abandoned it, but Mamoru's invested too much money for you to let it go down the drain." She pointed at him. "Renovate and revive." She turned to Cass. "My sweet, beautiful little flower, please do us the favor. I'm sure you and Mamoru can figure out a payment arrangement. And if you can start as soon as possible, that would be lovely." She squeezed both their shoulders.

"I'll see what I can do." Cass started on her way.

"Before you go, dear." Cass turned back around. "Please fix whatever problem you have with my son. I don't like this hostility." He touched his temple. She made it sound like Cass was the problem. Why could his mother never stay out of his business?

"I'll see what I can do," Cass repeated and this time her smile was strained. His mother frowned.

"You two have been friends for far too long for this tension to continue. I like you very much Cass and I would hate to see your relationship with Motoki ruined. You two were always so close. I'm sure you can work it out."

Cass finally looked at him and she had her lips pursed ready to talk, ready to blast him, to tell his mother how incorrect her assumptions were, ready to tell him that she probably never wanted to talk to him again and that she sincerely wished he'd go to hell. But at least it was something. He placed his hands in his pockets and tried to drown out the sound of his thumping chest. He wanted to hear every syllable Cass uttered even if it was all against him.

"I..."

"Motoki! There you are!" Reika's hand landed on his shoulder, spinning him to her. "Please don't leave me alone again." He quickly turned back to hear Cass hopefully finish what she had to say, but by then she was long gone, gone as if she'd never really been there at all.

*Mamoru*

Nostalgically roaming the house after dinner, he found Cass in his old bedroom on the second floor. She sat with her arms hugging her legs in his windowsill, her tiny frame lost in a sea of crotchet pillows. The sight was depressing. To say he regretted bringing her along would be an understatement. If only he hadn't gotten carried away by Miaka-san and arrived solo as he should have, he could have avoided this whole fiasco.

She noticed him and scooted over so he could sit next to her. He did so and before he knew it, she was buried into his chest. He rubbed her back gently, hoping she'd relax and feel better. Their relationship did not usually consist of them consoling one another and it was a little odd for him to be in such a position, but he did want to be there for her, he did want to make her feel better.

She clung to him as he smoothed over her hair. When Cass finally looked up at him, there were tears her eyes. It freaked him out. It wasn't what he was used to. She wasn't supposed to be like this; she was like them. She was like one of the guys (albeit a very sexy one) that was immune to guy troubles and was always the top player. She wasn't supposed to be crying over Motoki.

"I really thought that things had been going *sniffle* great. I really believed that Motoki and I *sniffle* *sniffle* were going to spend the summer together… But *sniffle* he just left me…" Cass sobbed miserably.

He looked down at Cass's depressed face and couldn't help but feel like it was all his fault. On multiple levels. Firstly, taking Miaka-san's harassment to heart, he went against his better judgment and brought her along. But before that, and worst of all, he'd been the one to convince Motoki to leave her in the first place. He had selfishly ruined her chances at something that he'd known she'd wanted for a long time just because he hadn't wanted to go on his stupid trip alone.

"Am I not pretty *sniffle* enough? Smart enough?"

Cass was neither a crybaby nor insecure, but if Motoki made her feel all those things then she was definitely messed up. His heart ached watching her like this and he was willing to do anything to stop her from crying, but he felt powerless. He knew that Motoki still cared for her but had no idea how could he prove it to her.

"I love him," she whispered, her hysteria subsiding momentarily. "Have you ever loved someone?" she asked him, tears still streaming down her face. "Probably not," she answered for him, "but even you have to imagine how I must feel seeing him with someone else. I'm dying inside."

Her words made him even more miserable and it seemed like he had no choice but to tell her about what had happened before they left in June. Maybe if he disclosed that Motoki had really wanted to stay with her then she'd feel a little bit better.

"Cass, babe, it's okay." He kissed her forehead. "I know Motoki loves you too, he's just confused right now," he said, trying to put everything as lightly as he could, but she shook her head cynically.

"He doesn't care," she whispered. "If he did, he would know how I feel right now. He wouldn't let me go through this if he really loved me." She started sobbing again and he sighed. She was completely right; he could only cover Motoki for so much. But he had to try anyway.

"I had to beg Motoki to come on the trip with me," he admitted. "He didn't want to leave because he said that you two were going great." She looked up at him. "He hadn't wanted mess up what you had going on."

"Then why did he still leave?" she asked, staring at him intensely and waiting for the next words to come out of his mouth that would explain her misery. He hesitated. He didn't want her to hate him, but he just couldn't leave her in the dark. He had to tell her that Motoki left because of him, not her.

"Because I told him…" he started and she looked at him expectantly. "I told him that you'd always be here when he got back." She went slack in his arms.

"What?"

"It's my fault," he said pitifully. "He didn't want to go, but I convinced him. I told him to come with me because you'd still be here waiting for him no matter what. He really wanted to stay, but I made him leave… you." She stared at him unbelievingly. "I'm sorry," he apologized, but he knew that it probably wouldn't mean much to her now.

They stayed in silence for a few moments before she violently detached herself. Her face was even redder than before, but the tears had stopped. She was that angry. A stinging rose in the back of his throat.

"I'm supposed to wait around for him?" she bit angrily. "While you take him on your little adventures because you can't go anywhere without him holding your fucking hand the entire time?" The amount of loathing that he saw in her eyes scared him senseless and he swiftly moved out of arms reach. He had the feeling that her hand was just itching to come down on him. "I can't believe that you would go that far to keep him away from me." She looked like she had a million more things to say, but couldn't speak anymore and stormed away, furiously slamming the door on her way out.

Thankfully, the Furuhata's were ending the night earlier than usual and he knew it was due to the fact that the rest of the family felt the hostility going on in the house. They all said their farewells, but no one dared asking him where Cass had gone. He was sure that she was probably waiting in his car to avoid everyone since just one look at her was obvious enough to know that she'd been crying.

When he got outside, his car wasn't out front and he knew that Cass must have left already. He normally wouldn't have had an issue with that, if it hadn't been that he'd asked her to hold on to his keys in her purse. Now he had no ride and no way to get inside his apartment. He cursed his bad luck.

Off to his left, Lizzie and her friend were climbing into a black sedan, cackling like it was nobody's business. He didn't have a ride but he cringed at the thought of being stuck with those two gossiping teenage girls for the 45-minute drive. He would have to pass; he'd rather wait for Motoki—despite at how annoyed he was with him for acting so rude toward Cass.

As much as he'd rather take a cab, the last time he'd called one out from here it took half an hour to arrive and there was no way he was going to stick around for that long. He and Motoki hadn't spoken yet after their outburst during dinner, but he walked up to him and Reika while they were exiting the house. He was in no mood to spare details about Cass dumping him, so he just asked him for a ride to her house. If tonight was any other night, he wouldn't have stressed it and stayed in a hotel, but he had meetings tomorrow and he needed things from his apartment. Hopefully he could get his keys back from her tonight.

"Where did your friend go?" Reika asked him after they had all climbed into Motoki's SUV. He really didn't feel like talking, but knew that Motoki would be pissed if he ignored her. Even though he could care less about Motoki's feelings at the moment, he felt like he had sufficiently embarrassed him at dinner.

"I don't know."

Reika didn't pursue the conversation and silence filled the car. Motoki turned on the radio for light background noise. He pulled his phone out and called Cass, letting it ring on speakerphone in the hopes Motoki would get an earful of what their argument had been all about. He needed a wake up call.

"Why are you calling me?" Cass asked after she picked up on the third ring.

"You have my house keys." There was a short pause.

"Too late," she responded. "I threw them over a bridge through the car window."

"I'm going to pass by to pick them up."

"Don't bother," she clipped. "I'm not going to be home."

"Then where ar-"

"Don't fucking worry about it!" Click.

He sunk his head into the back cushion of the seat.

"You can crash with us tonight," Motoki offered. "I'm sure she'll be more reasonable tomorrow." He wanted to laugh; Motoki should know better than anyone that Cass did not forgive easily.

"No," he scowled. He didn't want to stay as a third wheel in his apartment. He'd rather stay in a dirty motel than sleep anywhere near that conniving whore in his front seat.

He texted Cass, but as the minutes passed his hope went with it. He tried calling her again. The phone rung without answer. He sighed. He understood that she wasn't ready to forgive him, but he just wanted his stuff back.

Motoki's phone was charging in between the two front armrests and he reached over to unplug it. Motoki noticed, but didn't say anything and Reika looked at him questioningly, but also stayed silent. He knew that it was wrong to try to get Cass to talk to him this way, but it was his only option right now. He needed to get home.

He dialed her number from memory once he couldn't find it in Motoki's phonebook (interesting enough, it ended up being saved under her last name and was his first speed dial. Tsk, tsk). It barely finished ringing the first time before going to voicemail. He tossed the phone back to the front; it was useless. He should've known Motoki's phone call would be the last one Cass would pick up right now.

He tried calling her on his phone one more time, resting it on his lap on speaker and expecting to hear it ring over and over again until it reached voicemail. Surprisingly, it only rung once. Before he could say anything, she flipped out on him.

"Why the fuck is Motoki calling me? I fucking swear, you're a piece of shit Mamoru, you know that? A piece of shit!" He tried to cut her off, aware that to Reika that probably sounded really weird and random for her to be so mad at Motoki, but it thrilled him at the possibility of the truth coming to light.

"Just give me my keys, bitch!" he yelled because he was already fed up with this whole situation. He didn't even care that he was yelling in front of Motoki and Reika "My keys; that's all I want!"

"FUCK YOU, MAMORU! You still haven't even tried to sincerely apologize to me yet and you think I'm supposed to cooperate with you?" He could hear her voice crack and knew she was about to burst into tears any moment.

"Cass, I'm sorry!" he tried. He hadn't meant to sound so harsh.

"I don't want to hear your phony apologies!"

"Come on, Cass… I need to go home."

"I have an even better idea. Why don't you ask MOTOKI to stay over at HIS place! I'm sure if you ASK him the right way, he'll let you do EVERYTHING you want!" He closed his eyes as Motoki looked back at him confused. "And while you're over there, why don't you get into bed with him, scooch over THAT GIRL and just FUCK HIM IN THE ASS TOO!"

"Are you kidding me?" Motoki muttered, putting the car on cruise control so he could keep looking back at him. Reika's mouth was wide open, also staring at the phone in his hand disbelievingly.

"But don't worry!" Cass continued, oblivious to her audience. "I don't think he'll say NO to you. How could he say no? Because if he can follow you TO CHINA AND BEYOND, I'm sure he'll SPREAD THOSE CHEEKS JUST WIDE ENOUGH FOR YOU TO GET INSIDE!"

"Just calm down!" he yelled, suddenly panicking when he heard a loud truck horn in her background. He really hoped that she wasn't driving this angry. He didn't want her getting into an accident, not to mention, he would die if she crashed his one-of-a-kind car.

"Oh I'm perfectly calm! DON'T YOU HEAR HOW CALM I AM? I was just giving you some advice, you see, but silly me: how could I forget? Mamoru, you're the KING of GREAT ADVICE!"

"Forget the keys," he sighed. "I'll just pick them up from you tomorrow." There was no point in this; it was making everything worse.

"No, it's fine," she said, her voice back to normal, but her relaxed tone worried him even more. "I'll send them over to your lobby tonight." He didn't understand the sudden turn of her mood and waited for her to say something more, but she didn't.

"Cass?" At first he thought she had hung up on him again, but then heard her sigh into the line.

"I don't ever want to talk to either one of you again. This is beyond repair." Then the tone went dead.

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-Cattykitty