~Twenty Kisses~
Rated T
Chapter Title: "Insanity"
Setting: Season 1
Genre: AU
Chiba Mamoru was not easily surprised.
He could stand apathetic in the face of danger, months of skirting death having dulled his sense of self-preservation. After all, daily skirmishes with youma and Dark Kingdom generals alike had given him much practice in that area of expertise.
He could also weather just about any flight of immaturity flung into his path, be it womanly theatrics or an abundance of teenage angst. After all, four out of five times a week he survived his fair share of encounters with the most effervescent, exasperating, naïve, carefree girl on the planet.
'But really,' Mamoru bemoaned as he lost his coffee to the tabletop and Motoki's face in one careening spray, 'this just takes the cake.'
"YOU HAVE A *WHAT*!?" the ebony-haired college student shouted, forgetting all propriety as he slammed down his mug, contents sloshing dangerously, and stormed over to a booth full of blushing girls. He wasn't quite sure why this discomfited him so; it was inconsequential, and hardly his business in the first place. Perhaps it was because his usual quiet study session had been interrupted by Mizuno Ami, of all people, letting slip very loudly the juicy piece of gossip regarding one Tsukino Usagi. Or maybe it was the shock that coursed through his system, along with an unhealthy dose of jealousy as he watched Ami get forcibly yanked down to the hissing whispers of her friends.
Because really… it wasn't every day one discovered that their secret crush had a hickey. A hickey that symbolized she was being nuzzled and kissed by another man. A man that was most certainly *not* him.
And so, it was with the intent to interrogate frothing within Mamoru's chest that the eighteen-year-old stalked over to the cowering, incarnadine-cheeked Senshi, eyes burning into the wary cerulean of his Odango Atama… the one he fell for after just one bonk to the scalp from a failed test, gratefully receiving the refuse like his beautiful angel's personal garbage can.
Yes, he was probably insane.
Unfortunately, infatuation tended to include that side-effect, and poor Tsukino Usagi was about to experience it firsthand.
"M-Mamoru-san," the blonde acknowledged, sliding further into her comrade Makoto at the strangely primal expression on her nemesis' countenance. "Funny seeing you here…"
"Is it true?" Mamoru demanded, fists clenching and unclenching as he resisted the urge to seek out Usagi's neck for assurance.
"I haven't the faintest idea what you're talking about," Usagi giggled nervously, turning to glare at Ami when Mamoru frowned. "Not that you care anyway…"
"I care about young girls giving their body away, yes," he growled, internally bashing himself over the head. 'Odango? Giving away her body? Great, way to make a simple hickey sound like prostitution, Chiba. Very smooth.'
Apparently, Usagi latched onto this line of thinking and retorted with a vengeance. "Go away, Chiba! I… I have many interested males who… who flock in my wake! And it's my business what I do in my free time, so… so just leave me alone!"
Hino Rei seemed to lose it at this speech, burying her head in her arms and snickering voraciously. Mamoru raised a brow at this display, then turned back to Usagi, appraising her. She sniffed and jerked her face the other way with uppity indignance, finally revealing- albeit inadvertently- the pink blemish on her creamy skin to Mamoru. He swallowed hard at the circular dark tinge, a little voice lamenting that *he'd* wanted to inflict that form of love on the teen… not some immature and horny schoolboy, steadfastly proclaiming his lust with a pressure-induced mark.
"I'm only worried about your safety, Odango," Mamoru intoned at last, tone gentle yet husky with invisible grief. Usagi started and Makoto twitched a grin, leaning back to watch the odd conversation between the two sworn enemies unfurl. Ami just averted her eyes and stared into her lap, still flushing crimson.
"M-me?"
"Do you fully understand what you're getting yourself into, accepting hickies?"
"I… of course I do," Usagi mumbled, twiddling her fingers anxiously. Rei's howling laughter escalated as Usagi coughed delicately and pushed out of the booth past Mamoru, careful not to brush against him. The college student, for his part, tried futilely to ignore the horrible, disfiguring, ugly, boorish, uncharacteristic blotch of color marring the neck of the girl he'd dubbed his own. It hurt too much to look at, knowing her chances of ending up with him had just decreased drastically because of the hickey's presence. Mamoru gazed mournfully at the blonde's retreating back as she hurriedly scooted over to Motoki with cash and then out the door.
"I can't believe you actually believed that crap," Rei gasped upon Usagi's departure, wiping tears of mirth from her cheeks as she resurfaced. Mamoru pivoted sharply to accost her, eyes bulging.
"You… you mean…?"
"I guess she was too embarrassed to tell you, but it's not even a hickey," the priestess fairly gloated, though there was a foreign gleam in her eyes that hinted of newfound opportunity.
"Rei-chan, I don't think you should-" Ami began concernedly, only to be mollified by Makoto's quelling hand waving at her to shut up and let Rei take the reins.
"Usagi's never even had a boyfriend. The ditz tripped while she was vacuuming and landed face-first on the sucker end, causing that mark. If you'd… er… rushed over here a little sooner, you might have heard the real story."
"You know, I bet Usagi-chan's pretty distraught right now. I think you should apologize, Mamoru-san. Jumping to conclusions is a surefire way to kill any relationship. Or, non-relationship, shall we say?" Makoto drawled blithely, smirking at Mamoru from under her brown bangs with a cheekily knowing expression in place. He gaped at the brawny teen with her arms cast languidly behind her head, fully comprehending Makoto's implications.
"Well don't stand there gawking! You'll miss her entirely!" Rei exclaimed, shoving at the motionless Mamoru. He gulped noisily, then nodded at the trio before racing out of Fruit Parlor Crown. Rei flicked Ami in the shoulder, smiling.
"Thanks, bookworm."
"For what?" Ami queried, nonplussed. Her eyes swept from Rei to Makoto, frowning.
Makoto leaned back, closing her eyes and grinning manically. "You'll see. For now, we have to be patient. At least until Usagi-chan comes barreling back in here like mad..."
oOo
He found her vacillating on his usual haunt of a corner, watching traffic pensively as she rubbed at the fake hickey. Leering at a sudden idea, Mamoru snuck up behind the fourteen-year-old with all the stealth he'd acquired battling Dark Kingdom scum for a living. His left hand snaked out and twirled Usagi around by the arm, stifling her scream with his right. She blinked rapidly up at him, taken aback by his forward greeting as Mamoru crooned,
"Shh. That's no way to address your favorite jerk, is it?"
"*Favorite*? You've got to be kidding me," Usagi returned, pulling out of his loose grip with feisty disparagement. She crossed her arms over her chest, glowering up at him. "What's wrong? Thought your kind didn't typically come slithering out of the gutters during the daytime."
"Touche, Odango," Mamoru chuckled, sucking in a breath when burgeoning sunlight hit the top of Usagi's head just right, creating a golden halo effect. With real effort, he continued to the angel incarnate, "Although Hino-san just shared with me a… *startling* development."
Mamoru took a careful step forward, entranced by the fiery glow surrounding Usagi like a heavenly pall of light. He half-expected the blonde to bolt, but for some reason her feet remained rooted to the spot. "She informed me your hickey isn't actually a hickey after all. Funny, that."
"Of course it's a hickey," Usagi murmured, lost in his consuming blue eyes of satin midnight. Mamoru nudged himself even closer, their chests almost touching. Again, he wondered why Usagi didn't run before insanity clouded all else.
"No. *This* is a hickey," Mamoru whispered, bending down with dreamlike ease to suckle at a soft patch of skin on the opposite side of Usagi's neck. The teen gasped, toes curling as she unconsciously pressed intimately into Mamoru, body begging for more. The man's feathery lips tickled her neck as his teeth gently ravaged out a bruise, and Usagi closed her eyes… Drowning. Savoring. Utterly mesmerized. She shivered once before the wonderful sensation was gone, and Mamoru's delicious body heat suddenly disappeared. The odangoed teen peeked open her lids, mouthing incomprehensibly as Mamoru glanced uncomfortably down at her. He raked shaky fingers through his shaggy black locks.
"I… I don't know what came over me. I'm really sorry, Odango, I-"
"Shh. That's no way to address your favorite jerk, is it?" Usagi quipped weakly, still trying to master a cogent expression bereft of disorientation. She shook her head, dazed. "What was that?"
"I… I don't know. You felt it too?" Mamoru questioned. He exhaled loudly. "I… guess hickies are pretty powerful stuff, huh?"
"Yeah," Usagi agreed, still in a fog as she fingered her neck gingerly. Mamoru felt a rush of glee seeing his mouth imprinted on her neck so prominently; a visible claim to her heart. He hastened to stifle the welling of joy, however, instead imparting awkwardly,
"I really am sorry. I only wanted to show you… argh, never mind. See you tomorrow, Odango Atama."
"See you tomorrow," Usagi answered, long after the college student had meandered beyond her line of sight. She finally drew back her exploring hand and wandered back in the direction of Fruit Parlor Crown, where three girls awaited with bets in need of settling.
A strange thought flitted across Usagi's mind just before she crossed the street, realizing that everything between her and the jerk was about to change.
'Tomorrow I'll fake my first kiss as well…'
o~o~o~o~o
A/N: Um, yeah. I really don't know where I was going with that. After Mamoru gives Usagi the hickey I just started rambling, not quite sure where to end it. Sorry, but I'm sleep-deprived AND pissed off. I had an amazing beginning to this that stupid FanFiction.net didn't save, which was unfortunately much better than the one provided. URGH. Don't limit yourself to one unreliable documenting system, kids!
Sooo... Like it? Hate it? I want some feedback! :)
~AngelMoon Girl
