~Friday the Thirteenth~
Chapter 8: "All Fun and Games Until Somebody Dies"
Mamoru released Usagi as they entered the living room, leaving the girl to sort out her strange feeling of loss proceeding the severance. She paused, frowning at the knowing looks the Inners bestowed on her before intoning loudly,
"Well, Koto-chan's oblivious to the world... *finally*... Erm, why are you four grouped around the table like that?"
Minako grinned wickedly, stepping sideways to reveal an empty bottle lying innocently in the middle of their cluster.
Too bad the intentions of the ones surrounding it were anything but.
"IS THAT FOR WHAT I THINK IT IS!?" Usagi hollered, starting when Mamoru threw a hand over her mouth.
"Shut. Up. Odango." He pinned his partner with an expression of warning, silently reminding the teen of their slumbering charge. The blonde acquiesced, but refused to cease levelling a glare of utmost animosity at Minako. Surprised, Usagi noticed she wasn't the only one bordering on fury when Mamoru turned to accost the leering flaxen as well.
"I can't believe you're going to make us play *spin-the-bottle*," he drawled, eying the thing with disdain. "Rather juvenile, isn't it?"
"Oh come on, it's just a game," Minako countered cheerily, not daunted by his malevolent tone in the slightest. "Lighten up and have some fun!" Mamoru realized then how uncannily similar the two bubbly blondes were, recalling a similar sentiment issuing from Odango's mouth only hours earlier. He wondered if they were twins in a past life or some other such nonsense...
"I won't be joining," Mamoru said stubbornly, crossing his arms over his chest. He plopped down onto the sofa and glowered. Usagi almost followed suit, but then considered that the act would mean she *agreed* with Mamoru... couldn't have that, could she? As the fourteen-year-old teetered on the precipice of indecision, Makoto grabbed her arm.
"Well Usagi-chan is, whether she likes it or not!" the brunette chuckled. "You're not slipping out of an experience like this on my watch!"
"But..."
"Ooh, don't be a stick in the mud! Don't be a... a... a Mamoru-san!"
Mamoru increased his death stare at the carpet, eyebrows arching and shoulders twitching.
"I- you know what? Fine. I'm playing," Usagi announced in surrender, smirking the college student's way. "*I'm* no stick in the mud." She squeezed herself in between Ami and Minako, straightening her back and raptly steadying herself as if for a youma battle, not spin-the-bottle.
"If Odango Atama can force herself... I guess... I could too," Mamoru responded, very slowly. His arms relaxed their offensive position warily, and the man slunk his way over to the table as if every inch pained him. The Senshi gaped, and Usagi blinked. What was this, 'Break-Down-Mamoru's-Barriers Day'? It seemed every notion she'd ever fostered over who this eighteen-year-old really was and what he was willing to partake in was being stripped cleanly away.
"Does the jerk have to? I preferred him much better sulking on the coach," Usagi moaned, fighting back images of the bottle twisting his direction. Ooh, if she had to lip-lock with that... that *creep*...
"Afraid you'll lose your first kiss to me, Odango?" the ebony-head teased, laughing at the horror flashing across her countenance. Usagi turned crimson.
"Of course not, you baka! And I've already given it to someone very special, *for your information*," the girl ground out, cursing the flush staining her cheeks. She ignored the raised eyebrows and snickering of her so-called friends.
"Yeah, and she hasn't shut up about it since," Rei lamented, violet eyes shining in mirth. Usagi chose to let the comment slide, instead growling,
"What about *you*, Mamo-baka? Worried your pathetic, lonesome, single existence is going to be compromised?"
"Is that your fancy way of asking me if I've ever kissed someone before, Odango?"
"I don't really care if you've-"
"Yes, I have," Mamoru gloated, cutting his companion off. "And although it's none of your business, I'll just share that it was more magical and more romantic and more *special* than yours probably ever was."
"Hmph! I doubt it!"
"Wanna bet?"
"I'M NOT GOING TO SIT DOWN AND TELL YOU MY LIFE STORY, CREEP! Ugh, guys, does he *have* to play?" Usagi repeated in an insufferable whine, visage pleading and desperate.
"It's only fair, Usagi-chan," Ami pointed out sensibly, and Usagi sighed upon discovering she couldn't dissuade this fact. Rotten principles of decency... Instead, she settled down into a brooding hunch and shunned all contact with Mamoru. Let the guy make a fool out of himself; what did she care if the rabies-infested jerk puckered up with her Senshi?
"Er, should we draw straws to see who goes first?" Ami next suggested.
"No need, no need," Minako waved airily. "I'll take the honors..."
"Lord save us all," Rei muttered under her breath, watching as her efficacious friend violently (or was it disguised eagerness?) spun the lump of plastic. It raced in circles for an indeterminate amount of time, gaining momentum on the glass coffee table's surface. Makoto swallowed visibly as she observed, uncomfortably, the bottle end its run to face... her.
"Well... crap."
"I'M NOT KISSING MAKO-CHAN!" Minako yelped in feral denial. "I take it back, I take it back!"
"Uh-uh," Rei giggled, shaking her head and gesturing toward the fiercely blushing Thunder Senshi. "You insisted, and now karma's come to bite you in the ass!"
"I hate karma," the blonde whined, fiddling with her fingers nervously. "... I thought the bottle would stop at the chair or something..."
"Or Mamoru-san?" Rei added, now full-out laughing at the stunned expression Mamoru wore.
"Well you have to admit, he is better than any of you lot, isn't he!" Minako argued, spots of red brightening her features. Embarrassed, Mamoru mumbled,
"Still here, you know."
"Why don't you stop stalling and get the kiss over with, huh?" Makoto opined, squeezing her eyes shut and waiting. Minako whined again, torn by the pressure, but finally she marched over and threw an awkward peck onto Makoto's lips. The two jumped back after the tortured exchange, gagging and rubbing at their mouths.
"EW, sorry, Mako-chan! That was horrible..."
"The feeling's mutual," Makoto concurred. "Damn, I don't like this game anymore."
"So... are we drawing straws now?" Ami inquired, the edges of her mouth jerking upward as she futilely tried to stifle a snigger. No one was shocked when the answer returned with an overwhelming vote of approval.
oOo
The game wound slowly to a close, everyone being of the same mind to conclude it as quickly as possible. It wasn't that they weren't enjoying the others' discomfort- no indeed; it was plenty hilarious- but when one suddenly found themselves with the prospect of having to smooch their female comrade, the tables turned unpleasantly. Ami herself was an unhealthy shade of fuchsia, having been a victim of both Makoto and Usagi's spins. She herself got landed with a strange point-me toward the couch's left leg, which grew awkward very fast. By the time her ordeal finished, the poor blunette looked ready to flee the house and run screaming home.
Rei gulped as she reached for the now not-so-innocent bottle, and Usagi could have sworn the girl was crossing her fingers for a brief instant.
"Now don't go cheating, Rei-chan," Usagi warned darkly, and Mamoru raised a poleaxed brow. Luckily for the scatterbrained Odango, he missed the cautioning glares of the Inners. Rei just settled for fury.
"How the hell would she cheat, Odango Atama?"
"I'd like to know how as well," Rei sneered, violet orbs flashing as she were just *daring* the Moon Senshi to let slip her powers. Usagi swallowed nervously.
"Er... not that... she could... I just... Don't spin it slowly," the blonde mumbled lamely, and Rei pursed her lips as she nodded. Usagi watched intently as the priestess sent the bottle whirling, not sure why she was so keen on a fair spin, but the flaxen breathed a sigh of relief when no visible signs of tampering occurred. And then it caught in her throat.
The bottle ceased revolving directly in front of Mamoru, cap aching to touch his hand as it paused centimeters from the resting appendage.
Minako broke into a raucous fit of giggles. "Rei-chan has to kiss *Mamoru-san*! Oh jeez..."
Usagi couldn't seem to shut her gaping mouth as she stared at the bottle's verdict. For some reason, Mamoru seemed to notice this right away.
"Jealous, Odango?" he teased, and Usagi snapped her jaw closed.
"No," she ground out, trying to avoid meeting his line of sight as she feigned interest in a loose fabric hanging off her skirt. Usagi listened to Rei shuffle past her, starting when soft fingers inconspicuously brushed her own underneath the table. Nonplussed, the blonde glanced up to see Rei give her a funny look. It was odd, and she could not properly decipher the emotion within before Rei's countenance donned its usual apathetic mask as the raven-head approached Mamoru. If Usagi were to hazard a guess, it had appeared... apologetic?
'But... *why*?' she mused, appraising what seemed to be apprehension in Mamoru's eyes. 'It's not like Rei-chan has anything to be sorry for. Ugh, Mamo-baka isn't my... my *boyfriend* or anything...'
Yet, Usagi could not deny the way her heart began to thump very loudly as Rei's lips grabbed Mamoru's, and she wondered if anyone else could hear it too. A reverent silence descended, full of mysteriously sympathetic gazes from blushing Senshi, and Usagi fidgeted. Seconds crawled by like hours as she waited for this agony (*Agony? No, it did not bother her, not at all!*) to end, but thankfully, Rei pulled back from the connection to smile at Mamoru.
"Sorry," was all she said, shrugging, then the teen scooted back over to her spot. Mamoru scratched his head, confused. 'Sorry?' Why was Rei acting so wrong-footed? He sighed. '...Girls.'
The college student mulled the kiss over in his head, comparing it to his first on the moonlit balcony only months earlier, with the girl that had reminded him so irresistibly of the princess. While it had not been horrible in the slightest, he wondered why his heart hadn't fluttered and stomach done flip-flops as it had that night. Weren't all kisses supposed to be... magical? At least, according to those infamously sappy romantic novels? He supposed it might have been because he didn't know Rei all that well, but the excuse sounded feeble. The pretty blonde guest he had danced with at Princess Diamond's party hadn't been anyone important to him either... so how was it *she* evoked such erotic reactions in him while Rei could not? It made no sense.
"Mamoru-san? Mamoru-san!"
"Huh? W-what?"
"You're the last one! It's your turn," Minako prodded, jolting the man from reverie. He grimaced at the gleam in her cerulean eyes, as if she were inwardly guffawing at his inattention.
"Er... yeah. Okay," he rambled, mindlessly twisting the bottle with an ungainly facade of detachment. The ploy was useless; the four Inners exchanged gleeful, knowing looks as Mamoru forgot about his masquerade in all the excitement, concentrating with an avid eagerness on the bottle's pirouetting path. They wondered if he were mentally wishing for any certain individual with golden odango and deeply azure eyes...
Perhaps he was, for it seemed fate was about to look down kindly on Chiba Mamoru.
Usagi gasped, the girls screeched, and Mamoru's mouth toppled open in shock.
"I AM NOT KISSING THAT TWO-FACED CREEP OF A MAN! I WILL NOT, I WILL NOT, I WILL NOT!" the aforementioned fourteen year old hollered, oblivious to the fact that Kotono slumbered only rooms above them. Mamoru did not seem to have any snarky comebacks; his face was slack with disbelief as his eyes fought to disconnect from their sockets. Minako snickered behind her hand.
"It's all fun and games until somebody dies!" she quipped. Ami rolled her eyes heavenward in equal exasperation and patience.
"Minako-chan, the adage is-"
"No, Ami-chan," Minako grinned, winking as she gestured to the pale, sickly expressions marring both Usagi and Mamoru. "I'm pretty sure the line sums up our situation accurately this time."
And even Ami could not help but concur.
~o~o~o~
A/N: Evil, evil, evil! ^^ Well, actually... it's not as evil as what is about to come, hehe. Oh, but how I love Minako and her foreshadowing maxims! Er, I mean, *what*? You didn't hear that! ;D By the way, I am obviously referring to the episode that has already passed when Usagi and Mamoru speak of their first kisses. Ohh, if only they knew what we did! Tee hee XD
Review!
~AngelMoon Girl
