Chapter 50 - Back to School
[Scene: Hen Tie High. Zoi takes his seat in homeroom.]
Zoi: Hi there, Umino.
Umino: Welcome back. How's your ankle.
Zoi: [grinning from ear to ear] Pretty good.
Umino: You're looking happy. I take it Kunzite called you to reschedule your trip to Seattle?
[Zoi turns bright red but doesn't stop smiling]
Umino: Someone has a secret.
Zoi: [holds out his hand to Umino] Look what Kunzite gave me.
Rei: [rises from her seat and grabs Zoi's hand away from Umino] Holy crap! Would you look at this beautiful thing! Usagi! Get up here! You have to see this!
[Usagi comes bounding up from the back of the room and Rei thrusts Zoi's hand at her.]
Usagi: Did Kunzite give that to you?
[Zoi nods while still blushing and smiling]
Rei: Minako is going to die when she sees this. I mean it. She's going to have kittens all over the floor. An entire mulling litter of them.
Ms. Haruna: Usagi, get back in your seat. I'm trying to take role.
Usagi: But Ms. Haruna, Kunzite O'Sama gave Zoi a gold ring!
[Zoi considers that a bit of a non sequitur, but now the entire class is gathered around Zoi's chair, including Ms. Haruna.]
Naru: It's from Japan, isn't it?
Zoi: How did you know?
Naru: My mother owns a jewelry store. They have a technique for folding the gold like dough and it gives it that special texture.
Ms. Haruna: I don't get it. You've been here less than a month, and you've got a guy buying you fine jewelry, while I've been here thirty-two years and I can't even get a man to take me to dinner.
Mamoru: [sour] Kunzite probably got this by mugging some little old Asian lady in a train station
Zoi: No he didn't! I was there when he bought it for me.
Usagi: He took you shopping for jewelry? Ooh-la-la. It must be true love.
Mamoru: [scowls] I don't know what everyone's getting so excited about. It's just a meaningless trinket.
Usagi: [To Mamoru] When are you going to buy me a ring?
Mamoru: [breaks into a sweat] Errrr.
[eventually class lets out and the students follow Zoi into the hall. When they see Kunzite waiting for Zoi outside, they crowd around and all start talking at once, so that not one voice can be made out and it all becomes in indistinct buzz. Zoi's afraid this will upset or anger Kunzite but instead Kunzite kisses Zoi on the cheek and clasps hand with him and walks him to his next class while the crowd hangs back and screams like they are at a concert.]
Zoi: Sorry about that. I showed off my ring to Umino and they all went crazy. I'm not sure what has gotten them so excited.
Kunzite: I don't think anybody was expecting Hen Tie's most reclusive bachelor to fall this hard for someone. I know I wasn't.
Zoi: Are we having lunch together today?
Kunzite: No, I thought now that we're newlyweds. I might try sitting with someone else for a change. Of course we're having lunch together.
[Zoi giggles and goes to class]
[Over the next few hours, Zoi watches the clock, waiting for lunch. At last it rolls around and he rushes to the cafeteria where Kunzite is waiting with a wicker basket.]
Zoi: [sits] What are we having?
Kunzite: [pulls out some fancy covered dishes] Since it is a special occasion, I thought we might have filet mignon and lobster thermidor, with a pear-blueberry tarte for dessert, but if you don't like any of that that I could always conjure something else.
Zoi: [lifts the lid off the dish and sees he's not joking] You're going to spoil me, you know that?
Kunzite: I like spoiling you. You're fun to spoil.
Zoi: What's on the agenda for today?
Kunzite: We have to go to biology class, but after that we'll have a few hours all to ourselves. I was thinking of taking you somewhere truly extraordinary for our honeymoon.
Zoi: Someplace truly extraordinary? [Zoi can't possibly see how he can top their previous dates, especially given the more limited time frame] Where are we going?
Kunzite: It'll be a surprise. I haven't told you enough to prepare you for the surprise, so it will be some place that will absolutely blow your mind if you're smart enough to figure out what you're looking at. And I'm fairly sure you're smart enough. In fact [pulls out a plain white box the size of half a shoebox and tied with a red ribbon from the basket] I've got a gift for you if you figure it out.
Zoi: And if I don't figure it out?
Kunzite: …Then you still get the gift, but the presentation won't be as dramatic…It's too bad we still have that damned biology class I promised your father I'd bring you to. Otherwise we could go there now instead of spending our honeymoon in a school cafeteria. [mutters under his breath] What a damned waste of time.
Zoi: I've never considered sitting with you to be a waste of time. Especially since we have our own lab table together.
Kunzite: [smiles and lowers his voice] This is a good point. In fact we may want to go to our table before class starts to make up for lost time.
Zoi: But we don't know what the labs we missed were.
Kunzite: Oh, I can think of a few experiments of our own we can try.
Zoi: [catches Kunzite's drift and turns bright red] Oh, no. I don't think I'm ready for that sort of thing just yet.