The Last Odango
Chapter 6
Author: nat-chan
Rated: G
Genre: First Season Romance
Disclaimer: Standard
Author's Notes: short & sweet and lonnnnng overdue, here is the finale.
"It's you! It's you! I don't belieeeeeeve it!"
– Peggy Jones from the episode "An Artful Attack"
This of course brings us back to the present where Mamoru and Usagi stood regarding one another in absolute surprise in the Crown Arcade.
For that kiss had been so exactly like the one in the park earlier that they had both recognized the other immediately and were now too stunned to believe it.
"'No way." Usagi uttered.
Motoki was looking between them rapidly and leaned over to Mina, "Did I miss something here?"
Mamoru was holding his mouth as though burnt. He looked very slowly from Usagi to the other girls, his eyes widened further and then he sprinted out the door without a word.
Usagi looked quite offended. Oh no was he going to just run off as Mamoru the same way he had as Tuxedo Mask! He had some explaining to do!
Usagi bolted out the door after him and the girls followed suit leaving a stunned Motoki in their wake.
"I'm so confused," he said, watching after them.
"Don't you run away from me Mamoru Chiba!" Usagi shrieked, easily catching him up in the park.
"No way!" he was panting, "Not you girls! You're all crazy!"
Her eyes narrowed and she looked ready to make him a new face hole when, at this inopportune moment a youma came thrashing through the bushes. In true blazes of irony it was an enormous—you guessed it—Odango.
"That is just RUDE!" Usagi muttered, grabbing hold of her broach. She looked over at Mamoru, his hand inside his jacket. They hesitated, still unbelieving. Then she called out her words of power and tried to ignore his astonished face. It was all for nought as she saw, through the blurs of light in her transformation, his sudden dark shift to Tuxedo Mask!
In the next instant there was no time to think, only fight. Not that there weren't some timely pockets in which to exchange barbs. As he swung her out of the way of danger when she tripped she heard him mutter, "This explains a few things…"
She waited until she had deflected a blow from the youma by leaping in front of him to fire back, "I thought you were handsome behind that mask!" in a tone of obvious disappointment.
It was only after the youma was dusted though, that the real argument began. Their costumes faded away and their eyes were angry to cover up that they were afraid.
"I don't believe it!" Usagi expostulated, pointing wildly at him, "It can't be you! It can't! I don't believe it!"
Mamoru crossed his arms and looked insulted, "Why not?"
"Because Tuxedo Mask is brave and kind and handsome and---everything you're not! You're too evil to be Tuxedo Mask!"
Finally his mouth cracked into a smile and he shook his head. He knew based on his past behavior he ought to be terribly disappointed. But it was quite the opposite.
"It's like….it's like math and videogames--together!!" Usagi was still valiantly defending the impossibility of it all.
"You know," Mamoru said, "Videogames are technically created using math."
This information did not slow down Usagi.
"Well, that explains it then! It's like…" she blanched, "It's like that story where the guy drinks the potion…"
"Jekyl and Hyde?" he supplied helpfully.
"Yeah! Yeah! It's like that! You're like baka and mask!!!"
Mamoru burst out laughing and Usagi looked as though steam might come out her ears.
"That would make you something like….Odango and Moon!"
"You are NOT allowed to call me that ANYMORE!" she shouted, "I kept my end of the deal! I kissed you!"
Her voice died off then as the realization that they had in fact kissed twice in the past day and a half sunk in.
There was a moment of awkward silence and Mamoru turned a little red. He forced his feet to step towards her and said quietly, "I don't want to stop calling you Odango."
Usagi read something in his face then that gave her bubbly teenage heart pause.
"But I hate it…" she said weakly.
"But I love it…" he said, then suddenly smiled, "I will give you anything, any one thing I have the power to give you, if you'll let me keep it."
Usagi seemed to consider this for a moment. Her blue eyes regarded him anew. This was not how she had foreseen the outcome of her ambitious stress-busting list, but she kind of liked it.
"I want two things…" she said impishly and Mamoru raised his eyebrows. He had a pretty good idea what they were.
Meanstwhile, back at the arcade, Motoki was watching the girls—who had reappeared moments later to regroup and were now watching Ami as she tapped into her tiny computer. Suddenly Ami gasped and froze, her wide eyes looking up at them.
"What, what?" Rei asked, "What does the computer say now?"
Ami looked a little dazed, "You are not going to BELIEVE who the computer says they are now!!!!"
Back in the park, surrounded by not one but dozens upon dozens of roses Mamoru was fulfilling the second part of his bargain and happily kissing Usagi senseless. It was only as he pulled away that a long-ago deja-vu took hold of him, just as it took hold of Usagi herself. Deep down in his bones an image formed of Usagi, long ago, by a different name…only one thing remained the same in his vision. When he pulled away he gingerly touched her odangos.
"Princess…" he murmured, "Princess….Odango!"
He had not yet remembered that particular part of the deja-vu and so was instead quite impressed with himself for coming up with it. Usagi, whose deja-vu had been more thorough decided to let him savour his small victory---afterall, she had recalled some very interesting pranks in detail.