On the Half Chance
The Circlet Quick Write Challenge
Theme: Late
Genre: Romance comedy
“I’m late, I’m late, for a very important date!” the rabbit said, tilting his hat to the pretty girl with glowing gemstones for eyes and the prettiest little faery dress he’d ever seen, “But I don’t mind losing a little time to help this lovely bunny lady.”
Raindrops on roses
“Oh Baka, you never take a chance on something that might pull you away from those blasted text books!” she protested, pushing out her bottom lip to form the Tsukino Usagi special, her pout. But, as the ice-blue eyes of her nemesis were unmoving at her display of what was otherwise her most devastating weapon, she sighed.
“I’m not playing the role of a rabbit!” he declared, folding his arms across his chest in defiance.
“But baka, you look good in a top hat, and besides, its for the children at the orphanage, you know the one-“
“Not going there, Usagi-chan,” he said, his tone menacing as his eyes shifted to a dangerous midnight blue. She gulped hard, forgetting she was drinking her shake, swallowing almost all of it. She was turning blue, choking. Mamoru recovered himself, leaned forward, and patted her back.
She spluttered. Her face pale as it dawned on her that he actually addressed her by name.
‘Is that baka so out of it and determined not to be my bunny rabbit?’ she turned a whiter shade of pale, ‘Hey! I’m his bunny, not the… Oh hell, did I just think that?’ she chided herself, still staring at Mamoru with pleading eyes.
He chuckled. “Besides, Odango, you’re the bunny of Juuban Prefecture, not me. I have better things to do than to entertain any waking fantasy you might harbor concerning me. I will not, I repeat, dress up like a rabbit and that is that!”
“Fine, then I will have to find a way to change your mind, won’t I?” she said, a hint of mischief in her tone.
He shuddered. “Whatever Odango. Now please, I got to study, so can I have a little quiet? I have a biology exam tomorrow, sorry Usa-“ he stopped mid-sentence. Usagi had a tear blossoming at the corner of her eye. He stared at it, as if he’d never encountered the phenomenon before. Spellbound, he reached out, and as it trickled down her cheek, he found himself catching it on the tip of his finger and pressed it to his lips. His eyes glazed. He was not seeing her anymore. He was, but not Usagi, somebody else; a girl, or woman in a dress, a fancy ornate garment with a beautiful bodice that gave her figure a comely visage her usual attire lacked, not to mention a little cleavage that made him smile. This was not Usagi. But a princess. His princess. The one who haunted his dreams.
“Baka, snap out of it!” she said.
His vision cleared. Mamoru still saw the princess, but she was wearing Usagi’s clothes now: her smile, her eyes… He shook himself, “Huh?”
“Baka?” she gasped.
“I got to go, sorry Usagi!”
Without looking back, he popped his glasses into his pocket, grabbed his book and slipped it into his pack, and ran out of the arcade.
“What’s wrong with dreamboat?” Rei quipped, not catching the look of sadness and confusion on her friend’s face.
“He did something weird,” she whispered, staring out the window with the oddest expression on her face.
“That jerk if he’s-“
“No, no, Rei it’s nothing like that. He was nice to me and he did something really sweet, tender even. I don’t understand him. But I liked what he did.”
“Spill… let’s hear it girlfriend!” Minako sat down and Makoto joined her.
“Mamoru, he didn’t want to be the rabbit!” she looked happy despite this proclamation, “But I know how to get him to play,” she said, looking at Minako.
The blonde rolled her eyes and winked conspiratorially. “Usagi, I’m getting scared, very, very scared… What little scheme are you conjuring up now woman!” Minako shuddered, then burst out laughing.
Motoki looked up then, grinning at the giggles rising from the booth. He knew something was up and wasn’t about to warn Mamoru either. He wanted Usagi to get her guy.
Bunny Magic
Ami strolled into the arcade beaming. “I got it!” she declared and Motoki and Reika hugged her.
She looked pretty today Reika thought: the stylish white top, matching jacket, leather bag slung over her shoulder, the light blue skirt; its ruffled hem adding a touch of elegance as did her white leather sandals. Reika adored the sapphire earrings and necklace. Ami looked great. She had gone to the museum to be interviewed for a position as a tour guide.
“Aragato, Motoki-san and Reika-chan. I feel like I could do anything today!”
“On the house for you today, Ami-chan!” Motoki said, leading her to the table where the rest of her friends sat talking about their day.
“Oh Ami!” Usagi squealed.
“Yup, I got it, and I start next week. Oh guys, thanks for your support!”
“Any time, Ami-chan!” Minako said as the others chimed in with their own congratulations.
She sat demurely in the booth and leaned on her elbows, propping her chin on her palms and grinned with wicked anticipation of another of Usagi’s harebrained schemes. “Oh Usagi, I love it when you cook up a wild plan. Whose the victim this time, Tuxedo Kamen?” she said in jest.
“I wish, but I have somebody better in mind,” she giggled.
“Oh pray tell!” Ami listened and pulled the thick sketchpad towards her and turned beet red. “That’s rather daring, Usagi? I’ve not seen a bunny outfit quite like that before!”
“I know,” she whispered, then continued, “Sailor Moon Bunny will soon capture our male rabbit and lure him into submission!”
“Oh Usagi, you are too wicked. But I like the plan. Mamoru won’t know what hit him when you where that to the play, but how will you get him into his costume?”
“Ami! He can dress himself,” she cackled, making Ami blush and then she too burst into fits of laughter with the others. After shakes, fries, and burgers were done, the girls huddled in a circle and continued their pre-play conspiracy.
Catcher Catch-Can
Mamoru fumbled for the alarm. He was worried he’d slept in and would be late for his tutorial on physics that afternoon. He sighed, smiled and sat up, “I woke early, and I didn’t have the dream last night, I don’t get it. Who is she? But it can’t be Odango, Aaaah!” He smiled, somehow the thought of Usagi being the princess wasn’t so objectionable after all. “Chiba Mamoru, you’ve probably lost it my friend, who’d think I’d be smitten with Odango?”
Surrendering to this new wonderful madness bursting from his heart, he wondered if he could talk her into dressing up as a princess for the university ball and see if she were as pretty as his princess was, or if she were more beautiful than Sailor Moon. He smiled again and as he went into the kitchen, he was whistling as he made his coffee.
Later, waving his razor like a maestro, Mamoru offered his shaving mirror a boyish grin. “Usagi, you might be an Odango, but you’re a girl I can’t get out of my head!” he surprised himself with the declaration. Somehow, it made it sound more real by saying it out loud.
As he got into his car, he continued to whistle. “Oh man… why am I so happy?” The irony of that question he found amusing. Usually he asked himself why it was he was so down all the time, and now everything had been turned on its head.
‘Usagi, the princess, was it even possible?’
He parked in the usual spot and noticed Kako and called out, “Kako-san, wait up; got a moment?”
“Sure Chiba-san,” she said, heaving the box of fliers higher on her chest and pausing nearby a wooden seat, her long black hair dancing in the light breeze as she smiled in greeting.
“Here, let me help you. I’m going to the radio station, that’s where you’re heading?” he smiled.
“Y-yes, as a matter of fact, but you don’t mind doing this?” she said, batting her lashes, and caught herself, turning a slight shade of pink. Mamoru hadn’t noticed and she thanked the Kamis, “I know about the play, and what you’re doing, I mean sponsoring the children’s education, that is a wonderful gift and you’ve made a lot of young people very happy and helped secure them a future. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome, and really, I should thank you for without your efforts to raise public awareness and my friends from Crown Arcade, the play wouldn’t be possible.”
“Then I’ll see you there tomorrow night.”
“Sure, I am really looking forward to it Kako-san. Ah, here we are!”
~*~
The day flew by and Mamoru was still walking on air. He couldn’t help thinking about Usagi, her sweet face, the way her voice tugged at his heart. Why hadn’t he ever noticed how lovely it was. He considered their relationship over the last few months, so much had happened: Beryl and her minions, youma and civilian life.
‘Eep! How do any of us manage it?’
And he, Tuxedo Kamen, that was a real revelation. Then, he thought of Sailor Moon. She was strong, sweet. He admired her courage by leading them all against the Dark Kingdom. But yesterday at the Arcade, it was as if a door had been flung wide open and the light shone upon his befuddled mind. Usagi and his mysterious princess were one in the same. But how? Was the princess a part of his dreams, a mere fancy, fleeting embers of a reality in another lifetime, or an idealization of the one woman he was falling in love with, Tsukino Usagi.
‘No, Odango, impossible! What am I thinking? She’s… gorgeous, cute, lovable, and sexy and-‘ Mamoru thrust his foot down on the brake realizing he’d reached his destination outside the Orphanage.
Mamoru knew Usagi would be helping with the preparations for the show due to start in a couple of hours. The doors were locked out front but he knew the backstage entrance was unlocked and so shrugging, he gunned the engine and slipped into the car park as twilit garnished the old building where so many memories lay waiting for recollection. He felt a heady sense of nostalgia sweep over him as he remembered the ball games, marbles, studying in the sun. The fights, the lone wolf he was, but he had some friends and those he had cherished. He often wondered what had happened to them as he shoved his hands into his pockets and looked back at the accommodation block.
‘Well, I hope she’s there.’
As he entered the narrow passage that opened out onto a foyer, he heard Umino and Naru arguing.
“But Umino, didn’t I tell you not to go ice-skating?”
“But I didn’t know I was going to sprain my ankle, Damnit, do you think I enjoy limping on a crutch?” he sounded a little out of character, but Mamoru figured anyone would after an injury like that. He’d treated a lot of minor injuries that weren’t exactly a walk in the park, more a limp. He smiled at the analogy.
“Oh Umino, I’m just disappointed that they won’t have a rabbit for tonight’s performance. The girls are frantic, and ringing around for a last minute stand-in. But I don’t like their chances.”
Mamoru felt ashamed of himself as he backtracked, and slinked away. But as he rounded the corner, the sight that met his eyes both stunned and delighted him. Upon the roof of his car were a pile of plushy white and pink bunnies, each with a silver silk ribbon and a bell tied about their necks.
But what had his temperature rising and deepening the color of his cheeks was the Goddess, a Bunny Goddess no less, propped seductively upon the bonnet of his car. Usagi was dressed in the most cute, and sexy outfit he’d ever seen her in. She sat with one knee drawn to her chest, hands folded over one another, she smiled as she regarded him with passive curiosity. Mamoru had no time to catch his breath.
'Usagi is freaking hot!'
He was spellbound, and couldn't think of what to say as his eyes took in the bubblegum pink fishnet stockings, adorning the most beautiful legs he'd ever laid eyes on in his life. The white sandals, the cut of the short hem accentuating the length of her graceful limbs and her strapless top like a fuku, only more daring. Her Odangos were covered in long fluffy bunny ears likely made by the girls for her at the last moment and her feminine allure struck him as he stood there looking her over, his mouth agape.
“Oh baka! You’re still not willing to,” she unfurled herself like a slinking cat and slid off the chrome-red bonnet of the car and moved towards him. “Be my rabbit, ne?” she purred.
No, her fuku was even more enticing, than Sailor Moon’s, and he extended his hand, grasping at the air, his vision blurring as the princess superimposed herself over Usagi’s sensational countenance. He gulped as she moved closer, licking her lips as Minako had suggested, swinging her hips in an exaggerated fashion. She paused, pouted and batted her lashes and whispered something.
“W-what, Odango- I mean, Usagi? Um, you’re so-“
“Beautiful? Well Mr. Chiba, I need a leading man and these little bunnies need a guardian,” she pirouetted, and held out a fluffy white plushy bunny and he took it, “Do you think, you’re up to the challenge my main rabbit?” Her words so seductive he wasn’t aware he was stroking the plushy’s soft ears. He wanted to touch Usagi, hold her, stroke her bunny ears and before he could stop himself, he stepped forward.
Usagi almost died of fright when he did and checked herself, bit her lip and let him reach out for her. Mamoru, almost in a trance-like state ran his hands over her makeshift bunny ears that Rei and Ami had made for her. She looked him up and down. With a wicked grin, she grabbed his tie and led him towards the entrance to the theatre. She winked over her shoulder at a giggling Minako hiding in the lavender bushes nearby, remembering to wiggle her butt as Minako had taught her and Usagi led him inside.
Before he knew it, Mamoru was wearing the tuxedo and top hat. The fact the large rabbit ears he sported shot up like ears of corn through the rim of his hat didn’t faze him in the slightest. Usagi had got her bunny rabbit. He was in a trance. Rei, Minako and Makoto were giggling and Ami stood in the wings peeking out at the sight and she too giggled.
“Ami-chan, she has him in her power!” she said in a low theatrical tone, and all four girls giggled.
“Thanks Umino, Rei murmured as he unwound the bandage around his foot. Naru was a good sport about the gag once she’d been brought up to speed on their little scheme to bring Mamoru and Usagi together.
“Well, now all we need Alice,” Minako said to Rei in her Alice in Wonderland dress, “is for those two to be delightfully late, and I think just about now, magic will happen.”
~*~
“Usagi,” he breathed, feeling the blood rushing through his head like the Tokyo bullet train on steroids was hanging on every word Usagi said. She had won; she had him but good.
“Hmm?” she said, snuggling up to him.
“I never realized how beautiful you are, I have been so out of it, Usagi. I am sorry I had been so mean to you all this time. I was a jerk with a capital ‘J’ but I got wise!”
Usagi was gob smacked, she didn’t know what to say. “Mamo-chan!” she said, resting her head against his chest, all too aware of the scent of him, his cologne. She let him wrap his arms around her waist, feeling the warmth of him, tight and secure in his embrace.
“Oh…”
“I mean. I have been having visions of a mysterious princess and she wants something from me. Remember in Crown the other day when I spaced out on you?”
“Yeah…”
“You know, it was then I realized who she was.”
“Have you found her?” Usagi said, feeling an urgent need to kiss him as she gazed into his eyes.
‘I’ve been having a similar dream about a prince, and this prince looks a lot like my beloved baka. Oh, I’m losing it, Chiba Mamoru my prince. But who were we? Am I the Moon Princess? Naah! We must have been like Luna and Artemis, their personal advisors or something… it couldn’t be true, could it?’
But all thoughts of princes and princesses went out the window at Mamoru’s next words, “Yes, my Usako I have. I don’t know much yet about the dream’s message, something she, I mean you needed. Something called Ginzuishou.”
“I feel I should know what that means, you know. But for now, I have something else in mind.”
“Me too!”
As they kissed, the music started and the cast filed out on stage and then Alice began her song. By the time Rei had finished, the kiss that had the two love bunnies’ tongues dancing in delight had ended.
Mamoru held her close and then stepped back. “I love you, my Usako.”
“I second the motion, my dear Mamo-chan,” she breathed, coming back to herself a look of rapture on her face, eyes shimmering with tears of joy.
As the children swarmed around the pretty lady who reminded Mamoru a lot of Sailor Moon in white and pink with bunny ears, he had another epiphany. As the curtain went up, Mamoru, now as the famous rabbit, in a tuxedo with rabbit ears began his scurrying about on the stage, a basket of plushy bunnies in his hand.
“I’m late, I’m late, for a very important date!” the rabbit said, tilting his hat to the pretty girl with glowing gemstones for eyes and the prettiest little faery dress he’d ever seen, “But I don’t mind losing a little time to help this lovely lady.”
