Thanks once more to my lovely, lovely beta, for sticking by me when I need her always!

This romcom dash is something I'm not completely used to writing, so it's a bit of an adventure, and I really hope you guys enjoy this conclusion, too! (And Queen Risa most of all!) Enjoy!

Part II

If he'd had no idea why he'd shown up to Unazuki's party, then this, right here, was pure lunacy. And he was kind of terrified to dive deep to investigate, too – because whatever reasoning came up, it all would have to be firmly atrocious. Because really, if he analysed this situation even with two eyes firmly shut and his hands pressed over his ears, he would still have to acknowledge the fact that he was right now waiting for a date he had no interest in for the simple reason that he wanted a chance with that date's friend…

So, he preferred having no clue why the hell he was here.

Instead, he stood in his grey button up and his hands in his pockets in front of the main auditorium of Tokyo University's Yayoi Campus that would house a symposium that was in neither of their fields, and he kept glancing at a text he'd received from an unknown caller that his stuttering heart was plenty sure was Odango Atama's number and how'd she even gotten his?!

Mizuno Ami's contact details, followed by a date and a place. And then: Ami-chan is the gorgeous woman all in blue, you can't miss her! Have fun with your nerdery!

He kept staring at the numbers. He'd had them memorized by now. And so, he almost missed when a woman with a midnight-colored bob cut in an elegant, ice blue peacoat and black leather gloves approached him with a small smile.

"Excuse me, are you Chiba Mamoru?" she asked in a pleasant, soft voice.

He pocketed his phone, stretched out his hand, smoothed an easy smile across his face, and why, why couldn't he have acted normally like this at that party, why?

"Mizuno-san," he greeted with a nod and a soft shake of her gloved hand. "I believe we're scheduled for some 'nerdery'."

At that the girl laughed, threw him an amused look. "Usagi-chan means well with these things, I assure you," she said with a smile, and for a second his heart stuttered, because it brought it all back.

This was Odango Atama's friend. Whom he was on a date with. How had he so spectacularly fucked up like that?

"And please," she added on with a soft tilt of her head, "call me Ami."

He swallowed the yowling of his heart, smoothed it all over, and nodded with a smile. "Mamoru," he offered, and then fell easily and comfortably in step as they approached the frankly impressive glass and wooden structure that was the Yayoi Auditorium.

The symposium was quite interesting as symposiums went that weren't in his field of study. The chairman talking about the progress and challenges of meeting the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals was enigmatic and the speakers seemed quite dedicated and really, finding out his companion for the day was quite passionate about scientific solutions to save the melting ice caps among other things made conversation really, really easy for once.

She was a delightful, remarkable woman. One he hoped to keep in his life in one form or other. One that was surprisingly easy to talk to. One he did share many an interest with. One he was absolutely not interested in.

Who was he kidding, that was a conclusion he'd known before he'd ever laid eyes on her.

But she was nice, and so his mood fell more and more, because the despicable utilitarian motivations buried deep in his mind that maybe, if he saw Ami from time to time, he might run into Usagi from time to time, too, was simply horrendously unfair to her and inhumane from him and simply wouldn't do.

And so, he sat with his legs crossed on his plastic chair viewing the podium, mindful to keep his distance even when she leaned up to quietly comment on the speakers' points.

It was during lunch break that his brittle façade started to crack.

They sat at a small white table with dry, square shaped catering cake on plain white china in a plain white conference room turned lunch room, fluorescent lights turned on above their heads because the sky today was grey and overcast, the room filled with a low murmur and the sound of cutlery hitting porcelain. Even if he'd had any ulterior motives here today, it was probably the most unromantic of all places ever. As he didn't, the surrounding atmosphere was almost reassuring.

"So, tell me, Mamoru-san," Ami asked with a pleasant smile and her elbows off the table as she let her spoon glide noiselessly through her square slice of streusel cake. "What's your raison d'être?"

She'd shaken him from his thoughts, and he threw her a blank look, but she didn't comment, simply kindly rephrased her question.

"Why are you a becoming a neurologist, and a researching one at that?" she asked. "What are you trying to solve?"

He frowned, stabbed his own slice of baumkuchen. His voice turned uncomfortable, but he answered. "Um. Retrograde Amnesia, I guess."

"That's very specific," Ami answered, voice neutral and collected.

"It is," he nodded without holding eye contact.

Ami placed her spoon next to her slice of cake delicately. "But you spent years studying dystonia instead?"

He shrugged. "It was the project my professor dedicated his life to; nothing I chose myself. I was a research assistant and just slipped into it by chance," he said, and Ami nodded with a little 'Ah,' before he continued listlessly. "But really, my focus was less the disorder itself and more the form of treatment. I wouldn't say I studied dystonia for years, I studied DBS for years."

She picked her spoon up against, carved it through the cake once more. "So, any applications for Deep Brain Stimulation on retrograde amnesia?"

He crooked a smile. "I hope so?" But then he frowned. "I'm not sure, honestly. It works for dystonia." Another shrug. This wasn't the kind of topic he liked to dive too deeply into, after all. At least not the why.

And so, he did what he did best and diverted the conversation away from him. "What about you?" he asked. "What's the suffering you aim to lessen? You're in Pediatrics?"

Her smile was warm, polite, and she slipped her spoon from her mouth before she spoke. "I'm not as specific as you, to be absolutely honest," she said with a shrug of her own. "I just feel this deep, almost irrational calling to rid the world of a bit of injustice, and I feel sick children aren't exactly fair."

"That's very noble."

She cocked her head at him, but that warm smile remained the same. "So is wanting to solve retrograde amnesia."

He snorted, almost, but not really – more of a huff, and turned back to his baumkuchen. "Nah, believe me, nothing altruistic about that."

The cake was so dry, he'd have liked to break pieces off it and dunk it in his coffee, but he didn't dare to. So instead, he pushed his spoon around his plain coffee cup over and over slowly, the creamer long ago having created that little twist pattern before it mixed with the coffee and became muddy.

He hadn't even noticed the level look Ami had regarded him with, until he looked up and had to blink.

She held it a few seconds longer, completely and unnervingly neutral, hands primly folded atop her crossed legs, before she spoke.

"Listen, Mamoru-san,"

He suddenly felt the need to sit up straighter, and so he did.

"How do I put this delicately?" Ami's face crumbled into concern, the fluorescent light reflecting off the gem-shaped blue brooch pinned to the collar buttons of Ami's white blouse. "Don't get me wrong, you're very pleasant to converse with, but I'll be frank, I don't see this developing ….anywhere in the sense Usagi seems to… suggest it might."

Ami looked absolutely apologetic, yet in a whooosh-kind of sensation, out went all the air from his lungs in purest relief, even if, judging by what followed, Ami seemed to misread his reaction.

"I'm sorry if that's insensitive, but I thought I'd… Sometimes I feel it's kinder to confront such things in the beginnings, rather than stringing someone…" By this point Ami was blushing. "Not that I think that you... This is all coming out wrong, please know the last thing I aim to do is offend you, you seem like an accomplished, pleasant man and I…"

He chuckled, he couldn't help it, all relief flooded his vocal chords, and he sent her what he hoped was a reassuring smile. "Don't worry, I'm rather… " he wet his lips "…rather relieved to hear you say this. Not that I don't think you're a very pleasant person yourself, I just don't…"

And with that, Ami's shoulders fell too, and her lips quirked up all the same.

Mamoru cleared his throat. Took his chance. "Um, if you don't mind me asking, what… what did she say about me, when she…" And lost his nerve, shoulders slumping back down.

Ami's head tilted a little. "Usagi-chan?" she asked.

And there it was again, that hoarse hue to his voice, when he croaked an ineloquent, "Yeah…"

"When she set us up?"

That little kick to his chest… "I… I suppose."

Ami's face had tilted even more; regarded him with the most curious expression. "She had only good things to say about you, I promise."

"I…" He swallowed. "And what would that…" And then he exhaled slowly. "Nevermind."

The next smile she sent him was small, searching. "To be fair, as far as I understand, her assessment of you was made when she was more than a bit abbreviated, so I wouldn't trust it to the exact words, perhaps."

The stab that went through him was tight, and terrified, and it took everything in him not to fall to this table and beg the woman to please tell him what Usagi said… Alas, instead, he ran a hand through his hair in masked frustration, and started a sentence he never finished. "Right, but did she…"

Ami gave him unnecessary time to finish his thought. Only when it looked absolutely like he never would, did she speak – her face in kindest curiosity. "Why are you here today, Mamoru-san?"

The question took him aback, laced him with shame.

Either I'm here so I can use you to meet your friend, because I'm a despicable human being, or I'm here because my brain shuts off when a pretty blonde girl tells me to do things.

He guessed neither of these were acceptable answers.

"Uh… I've been interested to go to this symposium anyway and I…"

He broke off. He didn't want to lie. Ami just threw him a patient smile and delicately put her spoon sideways onto her now empty plate and sat back once again with her hands folded in her lap.

Back to diversion, then. But from the look in Ami's eyes when he posed the question, his diversion wasn't all too diverted.

"How… how did you meet Usagi then?"

She held his gaze, warm but calculating, and for a while he thought she wouldn't speak - until she did.

"Usagi-chan was in my parallel class in middle school, later we advanced to the same high school class," Ami's smile was fond, sweet, and she lifted her shoulder and let it drop. For a second, Mamoru wondered if he'd ever seen Ami on the bus with Usagi – one of the many, many throngs of friends that had surrounded her and he'd never paid attention to.

"She kind of adopted me, to be completely honest," Ami was saying. "I was quite shunned in school for my intellect, people attributed some aspects to my character that strictly weren't true, but I was too shy to confront. She found me and took me under her wing, introduced me and integrated me into the group that is now my dearest friends."

Mamoru nodded, a little breathless. Started as Ami's smile slipped into the slightest of frowns.

"For the duration of our friendship people have said quite a few mean things about it; questioning me why I would 'waste' my time with someone 'like her' because her academic achievements weren't as splendid as mine were, thinking I had made the inferior deal with her, when really, she was the best thing that ever happened to me. A person who fully believed in me, supported me, and then would rip my books right out of my hands and yell at me until I started having human connection and have hobbies and feel loved and accepted as I was."

"That…" Mamoru breathed "…that seems like her."

Again that tilted head. "I thought you only met her at that party? How would you know?"

His eyes widened. "I uh…"

Diversion. Diversion. "What are those hobbies, then?" he asked.

She let it happen. The patient smile smoothed back over her face. "Writing song lyrics. Swimming. Spending time with my friends goofing off."

"That all sounds very nice."

She nodded.

"Why are you here today, Mamoru-san?" she asked again.

He couldn't help but groan.

And then Ami huffed, and her elbows, for the first time in their conversation, met the table. "Please know there is quite a lot more to Usagi than meets the eye," she implored.

He fell back against the back of his chair, blinking in surprise at the intensity of Ami's frown.

"I spend my days with quite a few accomplished people from all sorts of fields. Usagi-chan may seem brash and loud and unconventional when you first meet her, enough to dismiss her perhaps – and she certainly IS unconventional, that much is true. But she is the best person I know. I wouldn't… I would urge you not to dismiss her just because her academic achievements aren't as splendid as mine."

Mamoru's eyes widened in sudden, uncomfortable realisation and frank horror. "Wait… you think I've dismissed her? I'm… I wouldn't… Really, Ami-san, I really, really wouldn't…I…"

Had he fucked up that hard? Had that been what Usagi told Ami? Did she think that—

But his mask must have slipped, because Ami looked at him entirely different now, blinking in open surprise, and he snapped his mouth shut, and tried feverishly to swallow it all back down.

The silence that stretched between them was awfully heavy, pronounced even more by the suddenly so loud clinking of plain china in fluorescent light and polite, subdued rounds of monitored laughter in a room full of academics.

And so her next words were really the last ones he'd expected.

"Are you free this Friday evening?" she asked.

Wait. Another date?!— What—

But Ami talked right over his panicked, stricken expression.

"I'm seeing a play that one of my friends performs in. It's Sleeping Beauty but with an underlying social critique about the beauty standards put upon women in a capitalist patriarchy."

"Um—"

"I'm going with a few friends of mine…"

… Oh. …Oh.

"Maybe you would like the chance to tag along…?" Ami asked with that sweet smile and patiently tilted head.

Usagi growled at the insistent buzzing of her bell some more and pushed the intercom with a hiss as she hopped to get her gold glitter tights all the way up.

"I said I'll be right down!" she hissed against the little white machine once more, pressing the button.

"That was 5 minutes ago you absolute moron! We're waiting here! We're going to be so late!" came Rei's irritated voice through the tinny little speakers.

"I'll be right down! Geeze!" she barked back and let the button go, then slipped her little strappy black dress over her head, careful not to disturb all that gold glitter make-up she'd taken so long to get on her face and let it flutter to just above her knees.

Looking herself over in the mirror one last time, she looked like she fell into a golden glitter pot, or maybe hugged a burlesque dancer too hard. She did look a little like a stripper. A very expensive, very attractive, very monochrome, very glittery stripper. All that gold glitter in almost the color of her hair made her pop. She looked awesome.

She grabbed her giant poofy fake fur coat and hopped on one leg to get into her strappy heels when her phone buzzed in her pocket and Rei's stuck-out tongue on her contact photo flashed at her.

"Usagi!" came the howl the second she pressed speaker.

"Almost done!" Usagi cried back, and then cried out. "Ouch!" when she fell against her door in her quest to get her shoes on.

A groan on Rei's end of the line, Ami's voice from a distance "Are you ok?"

"Yeah, yeah!" and grabbed her keys and threw them into her tiny gold pouch of a bag with her Suica card and a bit of cash.

"Wait," Usagi cried into her phone in wide-eyed, sudden horror. "Was I responsible for the booze?!"

Mako-chan's voice in the background now, calling out a hollered "Got it," while Rei groaned loudly into the phone.

"I swear to god Usagi if you don't get your ass down here right this second, we're leaving without y—"

"I said I'm on my way! Geeze, Rei, chill!" Usagi sighed as she left her apartment, then held her phone against the door clicking shut. "Hear that? Door. Closing. On my way."

Mako-chan's voice; "Wait, do you have the confetti poppers?"

Usagi flinched hard, tried to unlock her door again as silently as possible, but obviously the key in her lock was loud enough to be registered over her phone, since the sound was met with a collective groan.

She clicked the phone off before anyone could yell at her anymore, ran back in, shoes and all, pulled the rectangle tubes from the paperbag beneath her bed and left the rest of the contents spewed across the floor and ran back out, blowing Luna and her judgmental eyes a kiss and finally left her apartment.

Rei (in a stunning red dress) was giving her the biggest stink eye when Usagi finally emerged from the little side door directly next to Crown that led up to the apartments, confetti poppers triumphantly held up and into the air, and Rei turned around to leave with a flick of her gorgeous black hair.

Usagi rolled her eyes, accepting Mako-chan's warm hug in greeting, but it was right there, when Mako-chan and her warm, perfect, safety-net shoulder let go of her, that Usagi's heart stopped.

Next to Ami, in a slim fitted black dinner jacket with satin lapels and his hands stuffed deep into the pockets of his skinny dark jeans, stood Chiba Mamoru.

Usagi managed to react with all the countenance of one of those cats in the videos with the cucumbers.

She blinked. But there he still was, looking at her very strangely, and oh god, there was glitter all over her and she looked like a stripper clutching confetti poppers like a lifeline why, and all that pretty hair falling in his face and goddammit she'd hoped it had been the alcohol that had made him so pretty in her head how was he even PRETTIER?

He didn't say hi. Neither did she. Just gaped.

"You… really do live really very close," he said eventually.

"Yeah, one apartment over from Unazuki," she replied automatically, robotically.

He nodded. "No wonder you disappeared so fast, then."

"GUYS!" Rei called, halfway down the street already, thrusting her arms up in agitated annoyance, and at least it seemed to jumpstart Ami.

Oh god, Ami.

Oh goddamn?! Somehow in all of this Usagi hadn't realised that if she set Mamoru up with Ami, then Usagi would be seeing a lot of him. That it meant she'd be seeing Mamoru as… as what, Ami's boyfriend? Was she attracted to Ami's boyfriend?!

Oh god.

Ami's hand slipped around her elbow in a tender grip, and dragged her along effectively, and Usagi managed – just barely – to move her wide eyes away from Mamoru and on her pretty friend, instead.

"I invited Mamoru to come with us tonight," she said in an easy tone. "I assumed you wouldn't mind?"

"N-No."

By the time they'd transferred in Shibuya and gotten on the JR to Shimokitazawa she'd almost gotten her heart in control, almost managed to stop staring (he looked just… he was with a group of stunning women all dolled up, how did he manage to look better?!), and almost had her cool.

On the Yamanote line she'd done her best to make way so he could remain close to Ami.

They looked good together. Ami in her elegantly chic ice blue peacoat and that gorgeous swing skirt peeking out from beneath, that silver floral hair comb so elegantly woven into her pretty hair, this unfairly beautiful stunner so tall and lean next to her, the way he murmured something down to her and she murmured something reassuring back to him, patting his arm.

They looked really, really good together. She'd made the right choice. However much it kind of closed up her throat and made her chest sting.

And yet, when the Inokashira line they transferred into had gotten absolutely crowded, Ami had somehow just… slipped away. And so, when he'd stood in front of her on the crowded train car, facing her and clutching one of the handrails above, her heart hammered loudly, and all that careful cool was gone. It didn't help that she could see him studiously trying not to look down at her, his eyes firmly fixed to her face. And so, it was almost a little absurd when he cleared his throat and said, "You… look lovely."

She snorted right up at him. Had to crane her neck with the way they were pushed so close to one another in the late evening rush hour. "You mean I'm dripping glitter," she commented.

His teeth flashed and he smirked and how was the guy allowed to be so sexy, goddammit?! "You very much are," he said, and had his eyes been blue the last time she'd seen him, too?!

"Is it in your hair too?" he asked, and he looked up to the crown of her head and her subtly glittering hair buns. And he licked his lips, why was he licking his lips?!

His eyes were back on hers not a second after that, and her throat was suddenly so very, very dry.

Ami's boyfriend. Ami's boyfriend.

"Yup," she croaked out. "It's a dry shampoo with gold glitter."

The way he looked down at her was… really very unfair.

"It's… got quite the effect," he said slowly, never leaving her eyes.

Nope, all her cool was gone.

She nearly ran from the stupid train when they finally arrived in Shimokitazawa, tried to get somewhat lost in the crowds of young people spilling out from the station in search for a good time in this hippest of all neighborhoods, linked arms with Mako-chan all the way to the theater and kept small talking about anything with her even when he walked a modest distance right beside her.

He kept glancing at her hair.

Apparently, the hair glitter had been a bit much…

Rei was making pointed conversation with him. He asked a lot of things about the shrine, and it all seemed so… weird.

He wasn't walking anywhere near Ami, even if she did contribute to the conversation. And once in a while, she'd ask something that would drag Usagi into it, or Mako-chan. Whenever that happened, Usagi made a pointed effort to steer the topic back away instead, and herself and Mako-chan a few steps ahead on the pretty and narrow lanes along murals and closed shops and opening izakayas.

It was in the theater, already loud and noisy before the show, and as they filed into the already quite crowded row for reserved seats, that she was starting to grow irritated with him.

He was supposed to be here with Ami. Why didn't he make an effort to sit with Ami?!

Instead, he sat down next to her.

She'd gotten up, leaned over Rei-chan who protested loudly, and asked Ami if she wanted to switch seats. She'd declined with a slow nod and a look in her eye that she supposed was meant to tell her something but… really didn't. But when she sat back down, Mamoru wasn't looking at her anymore. In fact, he looked as if she'd kicked his puppy or something, when all she'd done was try and allow him to sit with his date—

And when she leaned back, she discovered that really, these red plushy seats were really narrow, and her armrest was his armrest, and that dinner jacket was really hella soft.

She was going to burn in hell.

Usagi leaned over with a hiss. "Mako-chan!"

The prettiest brunette head of hair in the whole room popped out of line and threw her a quizzical look.

"Champagne!"

"Already?" Makoto mouthed back, but opened up her big bag underneath her seat and lifted out two pink cans of prosecco that she handed over.

Booze, lots, lots and lots of booze.

She threw Mako-chan a look. She only needed one.

But Mako-chan nodded towards Mamoru with a nod of her chin that again, was apparently supposed to tell her something, as if she hadn't gotten some sort of memo that everyone was in on and she had no clue.

But… she supposed she could share, yes. Even if her heart was already hammering wildly with just the prospect of touching his hand when she handed the can over.

"Want one?" she whispered, leaning over without making eye contact. Instead, she stared straight ahead at the unmoving curtain on stage.

And of course his voice was smooth velvet and a smirk, and his fingers were warm and long and elegant and modestly polite when he carefully took the can from her. "Smuggling champagne into a theater?"

"It's not that sort of theater, you'll see," she said with a shrug, and allowed herself a smile over her shoulder up at him.

Mistake. Because he was smiling down at her, and it was fucking dangerous to look at.

"I gathered as much from the get-up of the audience," he hushed meaningfully down at her, eyes so fucking blue, half-smile playing so enticingly around his lips.

"Also, I mean, Shimokitazawa…" he added with a shrug.

She snorted at him. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"Well, it does have a certain… reputation," he said carefully, still that little smile on his mouth just wouldn't go, kind of like on Unazuki's couch and...and ...ugh.

Ami's.

She scrunched up her face. It must have looked a bit stupid with all that glitter on her cheekbones and eyelids. "Sounds to me like you could use a bit more fun places in your life," she snarked.

But his smirk only turned wider. "I hope so," he said.

His face was smiling in that intense way, and his fringe fell across his face when he leaned forward to clink his can to hers.

"Kanpai," he whispered with a small smile around his lips, his eyes glued to hers.

She ripped her eyes away.

And she kept them away, mostly. All throughout the play, she didn't acutely register whenever he crossed and uncrossed his legs, or whenever his dangling leg would minisculely touch against hers and then move as if burned. She didn't register how his hand on their shared armrest alternated between tapping it restlessly and rubbing his palm against it throughout the show.

But she very much did amusedly register his wide-eyed reaction to the show, here and there. At Fauna, Flora and Merriweather played by three stunning Drag Queens, at Maleficent so magnificently played by Minako (she got that evil laugh down pat) and in such stunning, over-the-top costumes.

But by the time the play was in intermission, and Ami and the girls had all decided to just leave for flimsy reasons even when she looked at them strangely and they looked back at her even stranger, she was getting downright angry with him.

He hadn't even offered to go with Ami!

The silence had stretched between them for a bit in the dimly lit, noisy room, his hands doing some restless things against the armrest, when she turned back to him, and found him staring down at her.

Quite in the way he'd looked at her that night on Unazuki's couch.

She'd turned her head and glared.

He was on a date with Ami, what the hell?!

He opened his mouth to say something, but ended up closing it.

For the rest of the play, she didn't look back up, and his hand tapped against the armrest even harder. She was pretty sure he didn't even notice that he was doing it.

When the curtain fell and everyone stood and cheered, and she struggled with the confetti poppers and he reached out to help –

Her stomach nearly tumbled into her shoes because damn his hands were soft and fucking gentle and—

The poppers exploded in a rain of gold confetti down towards the stage and the noise startled her out of her thoughts.

This guy was not for her. He wasn't. Stop that beating, you stupid heart.

He really looked distractingly, unfairly good in that dinner jacket. Those black satin lapels were almost as shiny as his hair.

She ripped her eyes away and kept them away once more. And when they walked backstage to congratulate the crew, and Shiro who had played a spectacular Flora hugged her tight and lifted her off her feet until she giggled, Mamoru was still standing there, looking at her curiously, almost sadly, his hands in his pockets – but nowhere even near Ami.

And then Minako - Minako who recognized him of course but wasn't even surprised to see him - Minako making finger guns at him, calling him 'Harvard,' and whispering something in his ear that promptly made him blush and avert his eyes from Usagi's unwittingly curious stare and… what the hell was even going on here?!

But it all got stranger, when, after the show, and when they'd usually all go for drinks with the crew together, the girls decided to try a new place out instead, only for Minako to so obviously and blatantly fake a headache, and both Rei and Mako-chan volunteered to get her home, and then Ami remembered she had an exam to study for and could they do a rain-check only after Usagi had already ordered her drink…?!

It was when Ami left with a small hug first for Mamoru, whispering something in his ear that made his eyes flash to Usagi's even when Ami was speaking to him, that it all boiled over.

Usagi was halfway up and out the door in rage when Ami turned to hug her goodbye, too.

"Have you checked your phone, Usagi-chan?" Ami whispered in her ear.

Usagi furrowed her brow, utterly confused, but settled back onto her stool in confusion.

But Ami was already waving goodbye, and she was left alone in a bar in Shimokitazawa, an hour before last train, with glitter in her hair and a man that was way too pretty and who kept… looking at the wrong woman all night.

Ok. Finish her drink, and take the next JR home.

But Mamoru clenched his hands around his glass, and didn't talk, and while the little hip bar was lively and darkly lit and pretty cool, it wasn't made to… not talk.

But he'd been frankly quite a neglecting douche to Ami all night and she didn't feel like reassuring him that that was in any way ok, and so she glared.

It was the most uncomfortable 10 minutes she'd ever spent with someone she really wanted to lick a line from his throat to his navel, until they'd drank up in silence and he'd paid the bill under her protest, and helped her awkwardly into her coat.

But when they walked back to the JR through the now dark and quiet and somewhat abandoned neon-lit streets in silence, it was even worse.

And so it was left to her, and she relented with a deep sigh.

"So, how did you like the play?"

Her voice seemed so loud – the silence it had shattered had been so thick it had almost startled him, or so it seemed.

His eyes flashed to hers.

But he did speak.

"To be absolutely honest, I didn't really… my mind was occupied a lot. I didn't pay that much attention."

She looked at him in surprise. "There were three Drag Queens suspended from a fake moon, how could you not have paid attention?"

"I was…um..." He broke up, pushed a hand through that gorgeous hair before those pretty eyes flashed again.

"Okay," he said, and it seemed to take a lot of inner pep-talk. "Honestly? I was nervous. I'm still nervous. Awfully, awkwardly nervous."

She furrowed her brow. "You're…nervous? What for?"

"Saying the wrong thing. Doing the wrong thing. Accidently checking you out again, made so much worse by sitting in a play where the actresses talk a lot about objectifying women and toxic masculinity."

She stopped in the middle of the road, right in view of the lit up JR station right ahead, and blinked up at him. He slowed down and did the same.

"And," he swallowed. "You're making that last part especially very hard for me. You really do look very lovely tonight."

Her eyes widened, her heart started hammering… Wait….

She furrowed her brows again. "But," she stammered. "What about Ami…"

His hand flew into his hair, lips popping open, and he turned his gaze skyward for a second, before exhaling harshly and turning back to her.

"Listen... I don't want to date your friend."

Her eyes must have popped open comically wide.

He'd… he'd been looking at her. All night. He had… did that mean…

"Oh..." Usagi said dumbly, forming the 'o' a bit too tightly with her lips. "Why don't you like her…"

"She's perfectly lovely," he said immediately, eyes fixed on her.

She scrunched up her nose. What… "Well maybe you can…"

But he interrupted her. His voice a little tight, a little loud, as if he physically had to push the words out his vocal chords or they wouldn't come. "It's because I want to date you."

It slammed into her like a hammer into her chest and she froze.

But his eyes widened. "I meant, I'd like to take you on a date! One! If you'd… if you'd like!"

Then his hand back in his hair, and a softly cursed 'shit', and her eyes must still have looked pretty shocked.

There she stood, in a really awesome outfit, with glitter in her hair, and the most gorgeous man she'd ever laid eyes on, and he maybe, perhaps, actually… really was for her…

Her heart had never beat so hard.

And then she curled her hand against his chest, and he froze up, and she could feel his heart was really, really, really beating even harder than hers was.

"You want to date me?" she whispered up, and pulled a little on his button border.

He nodded breathlessly, midnight eyes so wide, fringe falling across his face mingling into hers as he stooped.

"I really, really, really want to date you..." he breathed against her lips, almost reverently.

Oh.

Well then…

With a sharp yank to his shirt, he fell against her lips.

His lips were trembling awfully much, and his hands fluttered up into her hair, against her cheeks, and then the way his lips, chaste and careful and slipping against hers, tasted sweeter than she could have imagined that night on Unazuki's couch... and when she felt his arms around her hips and her feet leave the ground she squealed into his mouth and he huffed a smile against her lips before making her shut up for the longest time, because clearly, he was showing off, clearly, he was giving this his all, clearly he was trying to stage a perfect first kiss and—

Somehow, in the back of her mind, his kiss felt quite weirdly like coming home. Like something she was supposed to know. Like something she never wanted to forget again.

"Take me on a date then, Chiba Mamoru," she whispered against his lips, all challenge.

His answering smile was all open, terrified, heart-pounding quick nods, before slipping back into open terror.

"Right now?!" he breathed, wide-eyed.

She shrugged with a grin, still in his arms. "Why not?"

And it was much, much later – the sun rising and a pretty, pretty man asleep in her glitter-contaminated bed (dressed! Thank you very much!) – that she finally remembered what Ami had said – and with a giant 'Ohhhh' moment, found a message on her phone. Sent at the time she'd been so hurriedly trying to get ready.

Ami-chan, 6:49pm.
I didn't tell you before, so you wouldn't freak out unnecessarily in advance, and just in case he bailed, but: I'm on my way, and I'm bringing a guest tonight, Usagi-chan. One I think you'll like. One that is very, very much into YOU – NOT me.

So, this is the second time I wrote for my lovely QueenRisa, and so I tried to do something different than I did the last time. Drastically different lol, even with the same setup. So, last time you got a gut-wrenching angst filled thing set around a college party, this time you get an utter fluff fest romcom around the same thing.

Reviews are love! I'd love to hear what you liked (or IF you liked it, lol)!

Also, props to anyone who finds the Easter eggs and can tell me exactly in what kind of universe this story is set ;)