“Oh hohohoho! I'll get you, my pretty! And your little ship, too!” Usagi shrieked. She had one of her pigtails tied about her face like a mustache, the other about her neck like a scarf. And a pirate hat.
Mamoru wasn't entirely sure where the hat came from, but the other girls seemed to be enjoying themselves. An impromptu game of pirates and princesses sprang up while they all waited for Makoto to be done with her grilling masterpiece. He had already been banished from “helping” with the cooking after he set a few too many bell peppers on fire in an unpleasing manner.
He watched Hotaru clutched her tiny hands to her mouth and widened her eyes. “Oh, oh! What ever shall I do?” she play acted. “Will no one save me?”
“I will not save you! But--!” Haruka shouted from the trees before leaping into view with a flourish of her cape (her suit jacket tied about her shoulders). “--I will show you how to save yourself!”
“My prince!”
“Take this rose and stab the Pirate King through the hole where his heart should be! For I believe in you, princess!” And then Haruka struck a dramatic and romantic pose.
“If you think she is mocking you,” Michiru informed him as she settled herself on the steps next to him, “she is. But she means it in the most respectful and adoring manner, Prince.”
Mamoru watched Minako scuttle from the side of the little play area with a large stick and present the “sword” to Princess Hotaru as if a cupid on high. Hotaru proceeded to chase Usagi about in circles while Haruka pretended to swoon from the excitement.
“Of course,” Mamoru agreed dryly.
“Are you trying to study?” Michiru picked up the opened book on skeletal structure Mamoru had abandoned.
“No, not really.” He turned his head to watch the girls play chase using Ami (buried in her book) as the center point. Minako was throwing gathered flower petals as her “goddess blessing”. “I'm a little distracted.”
Michiru was staring at her hand. “I remember some things from my art classes. We study more muscular structure than bone, but.” She traced her fingers with one hand. “Fingers are the phalanges. The knuckles are the meta...metacarpals?”
Mamoru took her wrist and set her hand, upturned, on his knee. He traced down from the tips of Michiru's fingers to mid-wrist with his fingertip. “Distal phalanges, middle phalanges, promixal phalanges. Your metacarpals. First, second, third, fourth, fifth,” and he lightly touched each knuckle with a tap of his index finger starting from thumb, ending on her pinky. “And here,” he circled her wrist with two fingers. “Scaphoid, Lunate Triquetrium, Pisiform, Trapezium, Trapezoid, Capitate, and Hamate.”
Michiru smiled slightly. “Is it difficult to train yourself to remember all these tiny bones?”
Mamoru shrugged. “Scared lovers try positions that they can't handle.” Then, he blushed beat red. “I mean! It's a mnemonic!” Michiru covered her mouth as she laughed.
“Mamo-chaaaaaaan!” Usagi wailed. “Save me!” She did a running leap and landed square on his chest. Mamoru tumbled backwards and was quickly crushed on the weight of the stampede of the rest of the girls.
“Oh my, what a lovely picture,” Michiru observed as Usagi and Minako's skirts flipped over their heads. “I really must talk with you more often, Prince.”
***
“Usako, you need to stay home.”
Usagi coughed again into the line; it was a deeply congested chest sound that made him worry.
“But I want to go--” She coughed again, this time dropping the phone.
Mamoru waited patiently for her to pick again. “No, no. You need to stay at home tonight. It's no problem. I can go by myself. There will be other dinners--”
Usagi let out another attempt at a wail, but what came out what a ragged, long string of coughs. “No, please. Take someone. Please. I know you get bored at these, Mamo-chan. One of the other girls?”
He stood staring at his cell phone directory a long time after he hung up with his girlfriend. Take someone else? She had insisted. And she was right: these dinners the university threw for the scholarship students always bored him. He wasn't very good at breaking the ice with the alumni more his age. Usagi helped with her innocent babbling. But who to call?
Ami would be perfect (at least, he could talk to her), but he already knew she was attending a benefit with her mother that night.
Rei...no.
Makoto? They didn't talk as much when it was just the two of them. Had he ever had a one-on-one conversation with her? Would she feel comfortable stuck with him for an entire evening?
He passed over Michiru's cell phone number as he thought.
*
“I had no idea you knew such a famous young woman, Chiba-san. Where have you been hiding her?” His professors gushed over Michiru. Mamoru turned a little red and went off to fetch himself a stiff drink. He didn't actually like to be the center of the attention. With Michiru, though -- well, he was definitely being noticed.
“Are you trying to hide, Prince?” Michiru slipped up beside him and circled her arms around his bicep. “That is not going to help these doctors remember you when you applying for a job.”
“Yes, but--”
Michiru dragged him (managing to make it look like a glide) across the floor toward a group of hospital administrators. One of his professors instantly noticed him (he noticed Michiru's chest, than Michiru, and vaguely glanced in Mamoru's direction) and introduced them.
“Chiba-san. Do tell us how you managed to be so lucky as to have the famous Kaioh-san with you tonight.”
“Ah,” Mamoru stuttered in the face of a hospital director.
“He stole me away from my first love,” Michiru told them all pleasantly. “He is a horrible cad, my Mamoru-kun.”
The doctors all laughed at her forthright manner. “How did he do that?” they asked.
She leaned her head on his shoulder and looked up at him adoringly. “He introduced himself while I was painting one day and showed me all the proper names for the bones in the hand and wrist. I somehow agreed to dinner and now...” She waved one elegant hand.
Mamoru found himself patted on the back until Michiru led him away into a dance.
“That--that--” Mamoru stuttered.
“They will certainly remember you now.” Michiru smiled sweetly. “Men. I am so grateful you are nothing like them, Prince. I could never serve someone so piggish and inconsiderate.”
Mamoru finally realized he was being led in this dance. He wondered if this often happened with Hakura. “...I am, too?”
She let out a huff of air that might have been a laugh and even went so far as to kiss his cheek. “I see why Usagi-chan loves you so.”
“Erg.”
“Look at Chiba-san! You can't even keep your hands to yourself in public!” The slightly drunken students cheered from the sidelines. Mamoru thought hard about melting into the floor.
“Ignore them, Prince.” Michiru put one of his hands firmly on the lower part of her waist and steered him into waltz. “You tell me about anatomy, and I'll tell you about about music. It will make the night go by much easier. I know I'm not Hakura...” and she looked down demurely. “I can't discuss at length the reasons for a combustion engine failure, but I hope I can offer you some pleasant company tonight.”
Mamoru could not help himself. He laughed out loud. “Combustion engine failure?”
Michiru laughed a little herself. A tiny laugh, but a real one this time. “I really don't understand cars at all. She tries so hard to teach me and. No. No, no.”
“Then tell me about music, Michiru-san. What is your favorite piece to play?” Mamoru asked. May be tonight would be a pleasant night.
***
“How did it go?” Usagi's nose was still very pink and her skin was flushed, but Mamoru could not convince her to stay at home any longer.
He smiled down at her blonde head. “It went well. Konachi-san passed along his information to me and even spoke about how impressed he was to one of my professors. They said I should be sure to apply there for my internship. Michiru-san was a wonderful help.”
“Eee! Mamo-chan!” Usagi threw her arms around him. And promptly went into a coughing fit.
Mamoru settled Usagi on his knee and rubbed her back until she settled down. “I was thinking...” he started as he continued to rub.
“Mm?” Usagi looked up at him with entirely trusting eyes.
“...I was thinking...maybe... What if I took Michiru-san to another dinner some time?”
“...oh.” Usagi went bright pink. He didn't think it was from the cold. “Oh. Well. If you think it will help you, Mamo-chan, then...” She trailed off and shrugged. “Then you should.”
He had done something stupid, hadn't he? “If you don't like that idea, I won't. I don't want you to--”
“No, no! If she helps you in your career! I want you to be successful! I don't want you to--to--” She went into a coughing fit again.
“No, I was stupid. I'm sorry.” Mamoru settled her back against his chest again and went back to rubbing her back. “I'm sorry.” Usagi made a miserable sound, and Mamoru felt even worse.
***
He was falling. And he knew this landing was going to be very, very painful. He could hear Usagi scream his name from far away. Uranus and Venus were with her. She would be all right.
Cement hurts when it is landed on from a four story fall. It hurts a great deal. Mamoru thought he would be used to it after all these years, but no. He doubted he would ever be used to it.
There was violent slam and the cement slab under his back bucked and threw him in the air again. He saw another one of those possessed flowers had landed with him. This time, he landed on his side, facing away from the enemy. He had to get up. He struggled to raise himself onto his hands and knees. The huge roar that preceded the furious wind tunnel these creatures expelled was ringing in his ears and he had moments, if that, to escape. But he couldn't--couldn't--
He felt a body thrown against his followed by a bellow of “DEEP SUBMERGE!”.
The world was silent again. He rolled slightly and found Sailor Neptune collapsed across his chest. She had taken the blast for him.
“Are you all right, Prince?” she asked with closed eyes.
“Why did you...”
“You are my Prince,” was the simple answer. “Are you all right?”
“Are you?” he countered.
She let out a laugh. “A doctor already, aren't you.”
He croaked out a laugh himself as he heard the thunder of senshi boots down the pavement.
***
Her cell phone was ringing. Michiru set her tea cup down and wandered out of the sun room at a leisurely pace back into main house. It was too lovely a day to rush about. She picked up her cell from the corner of the coffee table and checked the name. Prince.
“What are you doing?”
Michiru turned around. Setsuna had walked out of the kitchen with a dripping wet bowl still in her hands.
The phone stopped ringing. Michiru glanced at it. She then glanced back at Setsuna.
Setsuna blinked, then shook her head. “I'm sorry. I thought...I have no idea what I thought.” She put a wet hand to her temple.
“Here, let me get you something for your head.” Michiru, very purposefully, set the phone down.
*
Mamoru let the phone ring and ring. The voicemail picked up. He shrugged and hung up. Flipping through his directory again, he called Usagi. “Usako. Care to join me in a study break?” He smiled at her squeak of agreement and gush of hopeful plans.
***
It was a cocktail party. Hakura had invited them. “Talk motorcycles with me between sets. Please?” Mamoru had laughed.
Usagi was a little tipsy but lovely in her backless white dress. Mamoru made sure to keep an arm around her at all times. He was afraid to let her wander off; she was on the receiving end of far too many hungry looks.
He happened to look up from conversation and saw Michiru across the room. She was looking over her bare shoulder at something in the far corner of the room, her long hair half pulled up and away from her face.
As if sensing his notice, her eyes shifted in his direction. She raises one well groomed eyebrow. Mamoru gulped.
“Usako.” He whispered. Usagi turned her sleepy face upward. “I love you.” He whispered again.
Usagi smiled brightly. “I love you, too.” She gave his hand a squeeze.
*
Michiru smiled.
“What are you smiling at?” Hakura appeared again with two drinks and offered one to her.
“The cute bartender. I'm meeting her by the side door once I lose you.” Michiru told her partner with a straight face.
The corner of Hakura's mouth quirked up. “I understand. She is a red head.” She looked over Michiru's shoulder and smiled at the prince and princess. “They are cute together, aren't they?”
Michiru looked again. Usagi was giggling and waving her arms about while Mamoru looked both chagrined and pleased all at once. “...they are.” She glanced sideways at Hakura and took the other woman's hand. “Do you know something?”
“Hm?”
“I am very fond of you.”
Hakura looked very pleased with the world and took a sip of her drink.
