Happy Valentine's Day!

(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 13

Drunk on Love

*Motoki*

He couldn't sleep and nothing he did helped. Not warm tea, not even Reika giving him a back rub—especially not that. He couldn't stop thinking about Cass and if he was making a huge mistake by staying with Reika. Hearing Cass so upset on the phone earlier, everything she'd yelled at Mamoru… it was all meant for him. And it made him feel like crap.

It was late and he was tired, but he had no illusions of getting any sleep. He wished he had something to pull him out of it, anything to make him stop thinking about what he should do. So he locked himself up in his study in the hopes of escaping the sickening feeling of being trapped even for a little bit. He had yet to find something that worked. And now Reika had found him.

"Stop!" Reika yanked the glass away from his hand, spilling the drink all over him. "What's wrong with you?"

He glared at her and it was in that moment when he finally understood why men hit women. It was his apartment, his study, his life. And she needed to get out. He stood up to refill his cup.

"Ever since we got home you've been in the nastiest mood." Reika came around to stand in front of him, crossing her arms as he gulped another round. "Did you parents say something bad about me? They don't like me, do they?" He remained silent. "Of course I can't compete with Mamoru's Barbie. I shouldn't be surprised."

He leaned against his bookcase and closed his eyes knowing that no amount of tuning out would be able to save him from her rant. Good thing that the conversation was nowhere near the real issue. Reika was jealous of another man; he couldn't imagine her knowing about Cass.

"You know, I expected your parents to be smarter, but I should have known that whoever raised the Spawn of Satan couldn't possibly be considered decent parents." He sighed. What was her issue with Mamoru? "I'm just so surprised you came out of them. You're so much better." She reached out for his arm. "No offense." His nostrils flared. You couldn't just call someone's parents stupid and say 'no offense'.

"Why do you hate Mamoru so much?" He didn't understand and he needed to know. "What has he ever done to you?"

"He's the corruptor!" she cried. "Isn't that obvious?" He stared at her.

"Did he try to make a pass at you? Tell me. I need to know. Because none if this makes any sense to me."

"No!" She was shaking her head. "I just don't like him!" she stuttered. "He has so much influence over you and I hate it! Look! We spend just two hours near him and you're already the shittiest person on the planet!"

"How?" he yelled. Now she was getting on his nerves. "How does he influence me when I'm HERE!" He waved his arms around. "Despite the millions of texts he's sent me to go out with him tonight."

"See?!" She pointed to him like a crazy person as if he'd just condemned himself. "He temps you into doing things you don't need to be doing!"

"I didn't do anything." This woman was insane. "I just can't understand how you could hate someone that's done nothing to you."

"How don't you see it? I insult you parents, Motoki! Your parents! And yet you're arguing with me to defend him!"

"I don't need to defend my parents because you're right," he said, "they don't fucking like you." Her lip started quivering. "Now what? What do you have to say?"

"You're an asshole." Her voice was low, menacing. "I honestly don't understand how I've put up with your immaturity."

"Get out of my house."

He immediately regretted his words. He really hadn't meant to say it. Reika stared at him for a long while before stepping up and shoving her face close.

"What did you say to me?" He stepped back and rubbed his temple. He needed to calm down. Right now he was angry with her, but that didn't mean he wanted to hurt her.

"Please, just leave me alone, Reika. I can't deal with you right now."

"Right," she clipped. "You need to get back to obsessing over Mamoru's date." He tensed, but refused to look up at her. Holy. Crap. "Do you think I'm stupid, Motoki?" she asked. "Like I can't pick up on things? When you're staring at her the entire fucking night!" she roared.

"What are you talking about?"

"Don't give me that bullshit!" Her face was red. "There's something between you and her! Why else would she be yelling about you over the phone?" That guess was a spot on, but he figured if you were paranoid about everything you had to be right at some point. "Look at me!" she demanded. "Look at me and tell me another reason why she would be so angry with you!"

"You're jealous, Reika! You're a crazy, jealous bitch!" Now it was his turn to go on the defense.

"So what was she, your ex-girlfriend?" she continued talking over him with her suspicions. "I was going to drop it, assume that I was imagining things, but I can tell by that goddamned look on your face that I'm right!" He'd never seen her this angry. "Was she your ex-girlfriend, Motoki?" she repeated. "Or was she just one of you and Mamoru's little 'buddies'?" His jaw clenched.

No matter what he said she didn't look ready to believe a single word out of his mouth. Giving up the thought that they could somehow be rational, he decided that talking would get them nowhere. Besides, he had no idea how to lie around this. He couldn't admit she was partially right; she would never let it go. He had to cool her down, keep her away from the truth.

"You don't know anything," he said through his teeth. "And there's no point in explaining it to you when you're so upset." She looked about ready to kill him. "Go to sleep and we'll talk in the morning. It's late."

"Screw you!" She stalked away from him, slamming the glass door so hard he was afraid of it shattering. He took a deep breath, glad that he was finally alone like he wanted. That was all he needed right now. Space—A whole galaxy full of it between him and that raging demon on the other side of the door.

*Usagi*

In a flash, Mamoru's empty dance club filled up with all types of people. Cass had showed up too and by some miracle made up with Mamoru. She knew it had to do with the huge bouquet of varying purple tulips that she could smell from across the room. It made her want to gag.

She could never understand them, him. Why did he buy her flowers? It was two in the morning. Where did he get those flowers from, what store was still open at this time? She didn't get it. Would he do anything to make Cass happy? And yet he had completely toyed with her for his own sick amusement.

Mamoru never quite knew how to be deserving of her attention, much less her feelings. He had been ignoring her ever since everyone arrived and she was pissed with the way he had dumped her. If he thought that it was ok to cut her off the way he did he needed to guess again. She understood that he was still upset about the way she'd left his office, but what he did was far more humiliating and why she kept drinking. And as she saw him with more and more women throughout the night, her reason to forgive him grew smaller. She couldn't stand to see his face shoved in between other women's breasts, especially when she'd been that woman not even an hour ago.

The best thing to have happened so far was Rei arriving. She'd talked a little to Cass's friends, but had been otherwise alone. She'd already finished off a full pitcher of mojito and as soon as she saw Rei she became ecstatic. She didn't need to think about Mamoru, she was going to be fine. Everything was going to be fine. Rei pulled her up to dance and she finally was able to let loose. Mamoru who?

Neither she nor Rei knew many of the people around them and the few that they did know were complete douchebags so they made sure to stay close to one another. Cass was busy catching up with some old flame and while she couldn't see Mamoru, she was sure that he was somewhere entertaining an acquaintance or two.

As they danced, Jed approached but Rei was too busy enjoying the music to realize. He watched them dance together and when Rei finally noticed she looked like she wanted to slap him into the next day. Thankfully she chose to ignore him instead.

"Hey," Jed said, coming up close behind Rei. A billow of smoke cascaded down into the front of Rei's dress following his eyes. Rei stopped moving beside her. "A drink?" Jed offered his glass to Rei, two of his fingers still holding onto his lit cigarette.

"Disgusting." Rei pushed his hand away. "Get away from me," she snarled, turning to her. "I just can't be around him." Rei rushed past and she had no idea where she went, but was well aware of her melodramatic tendencies. Jed hadn't even touched her. She let Rei's desertion slip right off her mind and continued to dance in place. She could have fun all by herself. She looked at Jed who was still next to her.

"She always leaves."

"She doesn't like you, Jed," she blurted. "Take the hint."

"She does. She just doesn't know it yet."

"All she does is talk bad about you." She felt as though she would be doing her friend a disservice if she didn't explain things to Jed the way they were. Rei didn't have to worry, she had her back. "She hates you."

"Hates me?" She nodded vigorously, partly as an answer but mostly because one of her favorite songs came on.

"I mean, don't get me wrong, you're a sexy guy." Jed listened on and she urged him to dance with her, but he wouldn't sway one bit. "Just the other day we were talking about you and." She stopped talking, choosing instead to sing along. Jed leaned in closer.

"And what? What were you two talking about?"

"I said," she yelled over the music, "that you're too cocky. She hates that." She took the drink from his hand and sipped a little. It was strong. "Here's a secret," she grabbed onto his shoulder. "Act desperate! Hahaha. She'll never see it coming."

"Really."

"She likes to be in control," she explained. "You can be her hurt puppy and she can take care of you like that time we found a stray with a broken leg. You'll be just like that. You'll be her, get this, pet project, hahaha, and she can't resist!"

"You give great advice, Usagi-chan." His grin was so wide that she had no idea whether he was serious or if he was making fun of her. She shrugged modestly.

"I tell people that all the time," she shook her head, "yet they never listen to me."

"Unbelievable."

"I know!"

He put his arm around her neck in a friendly hug. She wrapped her arms around his torso because it seemed like the natural thing to do and they stood there for what seemed like hours. He rested his chin on the top of her head.

"You're a nice girl. You have good energy," Jed said, pulling away so that his bicep stopped covering her face. He was staring down at her with a smile. "Just make sure you don't take anyone else's drink," he said before letting her go. She nodded.

"Okay."

Nothing that had just occurred made much sense to her, but she continued dancing without a care in the world. People kept trying to talk to her, but she was in the zone and every time a guy started introducing himself she replied with 'yeah!'. There wasn't enough time to listen to what other people had to say. Besides, she had to focus on trying to stop looking down as it was getting harder to lift her head back up. Edges all around her were softening and every song became her favorite song. Occasionally an arm caught her literally spinning out of control, but she wouldn't quit. She kept on going and going until the world was too slow and she was nothing more than a blur in motion.

* l * l *

Only after slipping on her ass and seeing her phone fly out her hand to slide all across the dance floor did she decide on a much-needed timeout. She walked over to the lounge and took a seat close to where she remembered leaving her drink. When she couldn't find it, she thanked herself for having kept the cup she'd taken from Jed and filled it up with clear fizzy liquid from the nearest bottle. She drank it in one go and burped twice.

There was so much smoke she could barely see. Part of it was artificial from the club haze, but it mixed in with the smelly fumes coming off everyone's recreational puffing. Someone took a seat next to her and she only noticed because she felt the movement next to her face since she was sprawled out on the couch. She looked up and realized that it was Mamoru. He wasn't looking at her and probably hadn't even noticed he had sat down next to her. With a brown thing in his mouth, he pulled out a lighter and cupping the tip, lit it up. He inhaled deeply.

She wondered momentarily what it was until it slowly sunk in. She snatched the thing from his mouth without a moment's hesitation and tossed it into the nearest drink she could see. It sizzled momentarily and she managed to sit up to stare at him. His hands were still up around his mouth as he tried to catch up to speed with what just happened. He looked at her.

"Do you need to go home?"

He turned away from her and expelled the reeking smoke from his mouth in the opposite direction and she wondered who in the world could find that sexy. Who would enjoy being around someone who smelled like that? Someone who did what he was doing? She did. She did. He stank of bad things she didn't want to think about, yet she still found him so utterly attractive while doing it. Sexy. Mamoru was so sexy. Blowing out the smoke like a pro, he was the coolest guy in the entire world.

Mamoru didn't wait for her answer, stood up and walked away. Good riddance to him anyway. She was still mad at him. She slumped on the couch again her face almost landing on someone's lap. Where was Rei? Standing up to go to the bathroom, she made her way across the room before someone grabbed her arm and rushed her towards a nearby exit.

"Come with me, Miss."

She did as she was told and thankfully he helped her down the stairs, draping her coat over her shoulders as he opened a door to the outside world. Everything was so much brighter that she had to look away from the streetlamps because they made her dizzy. There were various black cars standing in front of them, one of them with the door open waiting for her.

"Where are we going?" she asked Mamoru's friend (or at least she assumed he was), finally turning to look at her escort.

He was an older husky man in a suit and tie and cool belt with a gun! She'd never seen one so close before and reached out for his holster, but before she could she was being squeezed under Mamoru's arm as he led her into a car. She hesitated before climbing in the backseat because she didn't want him letting her go, but he did and someone pushed her in and climbed in behind her. She crawled over to the other side of the bench to make room for her companion.

"I'm so fucking tired," Cass whined, putting a hand on her lap. "How do you feel? You should have told me you wanted to leave already." She nodded because she didn't know what she was talking about and stared out the car door window. The sky was such a dreamy shade of purple. She wanted to lay down in it and close her eyes. "We're here. Come, get out."

She opened her eyes as soon as the cold air from outside hit her face. The puffs of her breath woke her up and alerted her to her surroundings. They had arrived at Cass's… but she wasn't tired at all. In fact, the cold air rejuvenated her and she wanted to keep dancing. She looked around. Where had Rei gone?

"She went home a long time ago, Usa," Cass answered her and she hadn't realized that she was speaking out loud.

Cass linked their arms together and they walked carefully into her lobby. She took off her shoes as soon as she stepped inside and it wasn't until then that she realized they hurt like hell. Full heel support after hours of dancing was what she imaged walking on clouds must have felt like.

They went up the elevator and she jumped up and down until they reached Cass's floor and entered the apartment. In a rush, she shrugged her coat off and tossed her shoes aside. She couldn't hold her bladder anymore. Going into the nearest bathroom, she didn't bother shutting the door behind her to relieve herself.

She sat on the toilet and peed for hours. She had no idea how she had managed to hold it in all this time. Even though she had drank a lot her mouth was beyond parched. After she was done, she looked at herself in the mirror. Her lips were so chapped and gross. Glad that she had prepared before going out, she started brushing her teeth while inspecting her face for pimples. She was rubbing away smudged make-up when a movement caught her attention.

She turned to the doorway and saw Mamoru staring back at her. When did… how did he get here? She blinked a few times to clear her confusion until his ridiculous grin instinctually told her he was up to no good. It only took a moment, for her to wonder how long he'd been standing there and what he'd seen, for her to decide on a weapon. Everything moved in slow motion as she threw her foamy toothbrush at him.

"Were you watching me pee?!"

Mamoru split in a flash. She quickly turned on the faucet, rinsed her mouth once and rushed out the door after stepping over her toothbrush that somehow never made it anywhere near the doorframe. She ran down the hall and almost bumped into Cass.

"Where's Mamoru? Where is he?" she asked and then immediately paused to seriously think about it. "Is he here? Oh my god, I think I'm seeing things," she muttered. She must have imagined Mamoru being there because how could he have gotten to them so fast? HOW?

"I told you that he was coming over in the car behind us," Cass said impatiently, turning her back to her. "Just help me get out of this!" Cass was desperately trying to wiggle out her dress and she helped her pull the zipper down the rest of the way.

"Seeing things?" Mamoru jumped from the wall behind them. "What kind of things are you seeing, Odango?" So she hadn't imagined him! Thank goodness. She knew she wasn't delusional.

"Why are you here?!" she screeched. He was wearing no suit jacket, no shoes, and the stupidest grin. Taunting her. "Go away! You're the worst!" She turned to Cass. "This pervert watched me in the bathroom!" She lunged at Mamoru to get a hit in. He dodged easily.

"Close the door next time you want privacy." She managed to smack his chest and the next thing she knew he had her wrapped in a bear hug to keep her arms at her side.

"Get off!" she cried. "I hate you!"

"Calm down, Odango."

"No!"

"Go to sleep." He pushed her down so she landed on a chair behind her.

"I'm warning you now," Cass hollered from down the hall. "I will kick you both out it you don't shut the fuck up. Especially you, Usagi."

"Nooo!" She tried pushing him away, but Mamoru was only laughing at her failed attempts. "He's harassing me!"

"Stop yelling."

She crossed her arms giving up, feeling completely exhausted. By the time she opened her eyes again, Mamoru was gone and she was in her guest bedroom. She had no idea how much time passed, but was relieved at the astounding amount of clarity she had regained just from closing her eyes for a bit. As she had rolled over to change clothes a knock came on the door.

"Usa?" Cass stepped in. "You fell asleep already? You're still dressed."

She yawned as the lull of dreamland called to her. Her head fell back on the pillow. She didn't have the energy to get up. When Cass informed her that Mamoru was in the living room watching TV she shot up like Frankenstein. Changing into her pajamas, she washed her face from make-up and took the slippers Cass gave her.

"Why is he here?" she asked on their way to the kitchen to grab a glass of water (and to try to sneak a peek at Mamoru was up to). "Why didn't he go home?" She yawned again. She was tired and he should be tired, too.

"I don't know."

When they detoured to reach Mamoru, he was in fact watching commercials for sexy 'massages', but he may as well have been watching porn with the amount of breasts onscreen. Mamoru was totally a creep. She grabbed the remote from him but he immediately wrestled it back from her.

"This is the best thing on. Calm. Down."

"You calm down," she growled. How could he tell her to calm down when she hadn't even done anything! He gave her a mocking look and she was close to snapping back when she realized that it didn't really matter. Arguing took up too much energy and she was only barely conscious enough to know she was suffering from sleep depravation.

Mamoru stood, ignoring her curious look at his lumbering height in proximity. He unbuttoned his shirt and folded it carefully and placed it on the coffee table. Then he undid his belt and slid it off. She continued to stare in fascination as he took off his undershirt too, her mouth watering. She was getting turned on. Forcing herself to remember Cass was sitting right next to her, she glanced away.

"What are you doing?" Cass asked as Mamoru took his pants off and stood before them in just his underwear and socks. "Are you stripping for us?"

"Neither of you could handle this."

Cass made a sarcastic sound, but she completely agreed with him. She couldn't stop staring at his beautiful, bulging black boxer briefs. She should have gone back to bed when she had the chance…

"It's just hot in here." Mamoru was staring down at her, his crotch at perfect eye-level. "Isn't it hot in here?" he asked.

"It's so hot." Even though she knew she was supposed to be mad at him, she couldn't help it. His dark eyes were too much for her. She hid her face into her lap. She couldn't stop giggling. Mamoru was so hot she couldn't handle it.

"You're going to give her a heart attack," Cass laughed, trying to pull her arms away from her face. "Look how red she is. Stop harassing her."

"I'm not doing anything."

She felt two pairs of hands grabbing at her and she had no choice but to unveil her face or suffocate herself with the cushion. She came up for a deep breath, but couldn't stare Mamoru in the face. His hotness was embarrassing her.

"I'm fine, I'm fine," she insisted hoping they would back away from her. They did. Mamoru was reclining back relaxed, a cup to his lips while Cass mockingly fanned her face. She threw herself into Cass's lap, hiding her face in between her knees. "I'm sorry. I just need to sleep. Let's just go to sleep."

"You can't go to sleep yet," Mamoru said. "It's a slumber party after-party." He grabbed her foot and tickled the heel. "We have to keep it going." After much kicking he finally let go but by then she had thrown every cushion off the couch.

"Usagi, stop moving," Cass mumbled, her head against the armrest. Mamoru had turned off the TV and dimmed lights so they were in near darkness. She pulled her head off her lap to look at Cass only to find her already snoozing. Just as she tried to snuggle deeper Mamoru pulled her in the other direction.

"I can't," she fought. "I have to resist you." He was trying to get her on his lap, but she couldn't handle her face so close to his crotch so she rested her cheek on his shin.

She rubbed a finger on his leg. He had almost no hair there, or anywhere except where it mattered, like his pubes. His pubes were so sexy. So dark and always trimmed to the perfect length. She wanted to lick them.

"When are you going to fall asleep?" she mumbled. She wanted to stay up with him, but she knew she wouldn't be able to for much longer.

"I don't know. Talk to me until you bore me to death."

"Ok." She was so tired that nothing he could say would bother her at this point. "Today I saw a really cool movie." She couldn't remember a lot about it so she spoke slowly hoping it would come to her. "It was about pigeons, I think. Anyway, they were all lost. One of them had a funny accent. It was awesome."

"You're good at this," Mamoru yawned. "What else did you do today?"

"What did I do?" she repeated out loud. What did she do? "I went to school and, oh my, you wouldn't believe this, but I got," she scratched his leg, "are you listening? I got a 75 on my Math quiz. There were 4 questions so that means I got only one wrong. Yeah, I'm a genius."

"See," he nodded "English is easy if you remember the alphabet." She blinked up at him. He wasn't even listening to her.

"No, I said math. It was a math test. Like, numbers."

"Oh. In that case, are you sure you only got one wrong? Because I doubt you can count past fifty."

"Yes I can!" Of course she could to count. "51, 52, 53…" She yawned again and lost her place.

"Stop drooling on my leg." Mamoru shook her off.

"I'm not drooling!" She rested her head on her arms instead. They were way softer than his bony legs anyway.

"Talk." Jolting herself awake, she tried to focus on another part of her day so Mamoru could finally stop bothering her.

"Do you remember when we met?" she asked when the memory unexpectedly popped into her head.

"Yes."

"You called me Odango on that first day. It was so mean, but I still liked you. I thought you were sexy."

"I thought you were dumb."

"But there was one thing that I always wondered about," she admitted. "I could never understand why and it always bothered me."

"What?"

"Why did you open the paper I threw at you?" She'd always wanted to know. "If someone throws something away, I wouldn't care what it was, I would just be mad it hit me. But you opened it." Mamoru didn't say anything for a long time and she wondered if he was still awake.

"But aren't you glad I did?"

"Of course. I don't think you would have talked to me otherwise." She yawned. "Right?" But she fell asleep before she was able to hear his answer.

Please review :)

-CattyKitty