Chapter Text
“Please, Usagi? Please, please, pleeeeeease.”
Usagi hated to admit it but the incessant begging was starting to wear her down—but no! She couldn’t! If she just stuck to her guns for a wee bit longer then Makoto would finally give up, right? She rolled her eyes as her friend took one of her hands in both of hers and gave a small squeeze, green eyes big and shinning with hope and she was starting to look rather pathetic. Guh! Who was she kidding? Usagi knew that she would give into the brunette’s pleas long before she ceased pleading.
With a heavy sigh, Usagi looked down at the forgotten chocolate shake Makoto and bought for her. Bribing material, nothing but a ploy to get her all buttered up before she dropped the weekends not so great plan on her.
“Motoki is always working. How am I supposed to get the guy interested when the only time we spend together is when he’s taking my order for food and drink? This is my chance, Usagi. A weekend away with fresh air, roasting marshmallows and all that other camping stuff, but most importantly I can get quality time with Motoki. I need this!”
“So you get to spend the weekend trying to woo ole lover boy and I get to spend it putting up with that pig-headed nerd.” Usagi pointed out, intent on clarifying how this weekend could quite possibly be a misery for her. Of course he would be going. Why wouldn’t he be? He was Motoki’s closest friend, after all. She didn’t know what she hated about this the most—being around that jerk for two full days or all the bugs that would be taking every opportunity to turn her into an all you can eat buffet.
“And that is why we recruit a buffer for you and Mamoru. Ami would be prefect, she could be your Switzerland. Everybody wins.” Makoto grinned, a stretch of teeth and cheeks rising high. Usagi raised an eyebrow at that; Ami hated camping, more so than she did.
With a clearing of her throat and a sheepish look, Makoto looked away from the blonde. “Ami has already said yes, by the way. She said she needs a break from all the studying and that going camping would be the perfect opportunity to cleanse her mind or some such rubbish.”
“I just don’t get it. Why, if there is already four of you going, do I need to go?” This was something that Usagi just couldn’t wrap her mind around.
“Well—” Makoto took a pause as an even more sheepish look passed across her face as her cheeks blossomed in a blush “—It’s just that your dad has all that great camping gear and without it the weekend would be a no go.”
So annoying! Usagi sighed again then mumbled something inarticulate and possibly rude before the inevitable happened—she caved, completely and utterly caved. “Okay, fine! But just so you know, this weekend is totally going to blow for me and you owe me big time.”
Makoto cheered, delighted, and reached across the table to throw her arms around Usagi’s slim neck. “Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Seriously, I will make you dessert for a week, your absolute favourites!”
With a grumble, Usagi returned the hug with an affectionate pat to Makoto’s back. “Oh, and one more thing,” the blonde decided to add. “In no way am I sorting out the gear, you can come around tonight and do that yourself.”
As promised, Usagi sat in a bean bag, wrapped in a blanket and munched on a bag of corn chips as Makoto had rummaged through her garage and prepared for what would most likely be the worst weekend of Usagi’s life. Dramatic, she knew, but it didn’t stop the frown that came to grace her features every time she thought of that arrogant ass, Mamoru, and how many hours she would be in his presence for.
In hindsight, her time would have been better spent on actually helping Makoto instead of watching her stress for hours on end about what they should be taking. At least then the brunette would have left her house at a decent hour instead of keeping Usagi up until half one in the morning. The real kicker? Just as Makoto was slipping out the front door she decided that that moment would be the perfect opportunity to inform Usagi that they would be picking her up at 6am, and then promptly shut the door behind her and ran down the path. 6am! Who even gets up that early on the weekend?!
So now here she was, blurry eyed, half asleep and slumped against camping gear as she waited for her ride. Her breath puffed out in clouds before her, the cold ground had turned her butt numb and just why exactly had she agreed to this? It already sucked. Oh, and she was hungry—there was a definite need to stop for snacks as soon as possible, and she totally called shotgun on sitting in the front. Usagi had never been the best traveller and she couldn’t wait to make Mamoru sit in the crowded back seat while she got to luxuriate in all her space.
She started to smile at the thought of getting under his skin, the corners of her mouth twitching upwards slyly only for them drop back down when she heard the purr of a car engine getting louder the closer it got to her house. Ugh! She knew that car, it was probably the only car that was familiar to her other than her parents and just… damn it if it wasn’t Mamoru’s car that came to a stop in front of her drive rather than Motoki’s.
Makoto bounded out from the back door like an excited puppy, skipping up the drive while giving Usagi an exaggerated wink before hefting the small blonde up from the ground by one arm. “Ouch, watch it,” Usagi complained. It was just far too early for this much exuberance to sit well with her.
“I swindled it so we’d take Mamoru’s car,” Makoto whispered enthusiastically. “And since you’re 100% guaranteed to ralph when sitting in the back, Motoki offered the front seat to you which means I get to sit with him in the back.”
“Yay for you,” Usagi whispered back far less eagerly than her friend had. Fantastic, now she had to sit closer to that jerk face than she’d planned. Said jerk face was now making his way up the drive along with a smiling, waving Motoki and… wait, where was Ami? Ami was Switzerland, Ami was imperative to her sanity!
“Where is Ami?” It came out as a hiss from between Usagi’s clenched teeth, causing Makoto to take a step away and rub at the back of her neck nervously.
“Well, so it turns out she has an assignment to hand in first thing Monday morning and she kind of decided not to come.”
Oh, that was just great! “I have the exact same assignment,” now she was whining, “and I blew it off to come.” That wasn’t true, she hadn’t planned on doing it at all and she was fully prepared to beg for an extension first thing Monday morning. But okay, she could do this. She could be civil. It was just for a day and a bit, surely she could make it through that length of time without a Mamoru buffer.
“And that attitude is exactly why Ami is going to have a fulfilling career once she finishes up with school and you most likely won’t.”
And it opens his mouth. Really, right off the bat it’s an insult? Screw being civil! With more strength than she was generally willing to exert at such an early hour, Usagi picked up one of the tents and threw it at Mamoru’s chest as hard as she feasibly could. “Start loading the car, pack mule.” It landed perfectly in his cradled arms, of course. Stupid Mamoru and his stupid lightning reflexes. It was enough to cause her to pout, and she did, the entire time they packed all the equipment into the boot of the car and then some.
It wasn’t until they’d been on the road for at least half an hour before Usagi let out an irritated breath and turned her head in the direction of the man seated beside her. Her empty stomach would make it so she had to ask him for something, and if she didn’t get that something soon it would start producing the most horrendous growling noises known to man.
“Mamoru…?” Tactfully, she decided on the use of his actual name rather than one of the many “pet” ones she had bestowed upon him over the years. He gave her a glance in acknowledgment before turning his eyes back to the road. “I need food, Mamoru. We have to stop somewhere.”
“Makoto said you get car sick.”
“Only if I don’t sit in the front.”
“So you’re definitely not going to blow chunks all over the dash if you eat?”
“Gross, and no.”
With a small smirk, Mamoru reached over her legs and opened the glove box, retrieving a brown bakery bag before dumping it in her lap. “Fine, but if you do you will be forever known from this day forth as chucky… and you will be detailing my car.”
He snapped the glove box shut and returned his hand to the steering wheel as Usagi rolled her eyes. Momentary annoyance over she peeked into the bag to see what it held and yum! A freshly baked bagel, already cut, along with a small pack of cream cheese and a plastic knife to spread it on with. So prepared—god he was such a geek. Begrudgingly she admitted that his meticulous tendencies, which were usually super irritating, for once weren’t so bad. Just a tiny bit not so bad.
Usagi took it all back, his meticulous tendencies were the most annoying thing in the world! An hour! It had been an hour since they had found a suitable clearing to camp in and had started erecting their tents which they were still pissing around with because according to Mamoru, “there is no way those things will still be standing if the wind gets up during the night.” Killer of fun on all occasions, seriously.
Makoto had become antsy within the first twenty minutes, desperate to be off and away somewhere alone with Motoki and by her own good graces, Usagi and assured them that she could handle the tents if they wanted to head out on the walking trail that she had absolutely no interest in joining them on. Surprisingly, and inconveniently, Mamoru and opted to stay behind and help and now he was driving her crazy.
This was now the third time she had hammered this particular peg—the very last damn peg!—into the ground and finally, Mamoru gave her a nod of approval. “See, was that so hard?” he asked with one of his superior smirks that always made Usagi grind her teeth together. Such. A. Jerk. She flipped him her middle finger from where she crouched before turning to face him with one of her scathing stares, all ready to lash out and give him what he deserved but stopped short, her mouth agape as she watched him quite blatantly follow the curve of her backside with his eyes. What the hell? That was so wrong on so many levels.
“Mamoru?!” It was a screech, shrill and deafening and Mamoru cringed as he met her eyes. “What? Jesus, how do your vocal cords cope with that shit?”
Twirling her body around as she stood and threateningly tapping the mallet she still held into the palm of her hand, Usagi rolled her eyes and glared at him. “They cope just fine, thank you. Anyway, you were checking out my butt,” she accused.
His eyebrows shot up questioningly, his face scrunched in thought. What, he really had to think about it? Such a pig, he didn’t even know when he was or wasn’t being a complete pervert. “Don’t do it again!”
Mamoru laughed, something deep and hearty that rose up from depths of his chest. “Like I’d want to intentionally check you out. So really, don’t be so concerned. It will not be happening again.”
A-huh! So he admitted it! He was perving. Mamoru the stiff was a big ole pervert and hey… wait a minute, what does he mean by intentionally? What, so she wasn’t attractive enough for him to look at her on purpose? What an absolute ass!
“You’re such a jerk with all that intentionally crap.” Usagi stuck her tongue out at him, her immaturity winning the day again. She really needed to come up with some better ways to insult him. No way could she keep pulling the same lame stuff on him that she did when she was fourteen.
“So let me get this straight, you were offended with the initial incident of me… perusing your form, and now you’re offended because it wasn’t intentional? Make up your mind with which way you want to go about this.”
Oh, that was it. He always did this; twisted her words around to suit his purpose and to make her look like she made absolutely no sense at all. Well she was over it and ready to give him a piece of her mind!
“Come on guys, you’re going to scare the wildlife.” Motoki, with a lopsided grin plastered on his face, made his way into the clearing with Makoto trailing behind him. “Can’t we all play nice, just this once?”
Usagi glanced at Makoto who had remained silent but was pleading her petite blonde friend with those annoyingly big eyes. Bleh, fine. This weekend is for her, after all. “Sure thing, Motoki! Sweet as pie, I promise.” Well, she was going to try.
“I don’t know what pie she’s referring to, but it isn’t anything that’s sweet. More tart.” Grumbled words from that jerks mouth that were just loud enough for her to hear had Usagi’s hands balled into fists and her teeth grinding together. Crap, she wasn’t sure if this was going to be a promise she could keep.