Chiba Mamoru stared in shock at the grinning blonde before him. "No!" he muttered in surprised aghast. "But... how could I... how could you...?" He was stomped on going further, the horror of the moment could not escape him.
The blonde just grinned even wider, her pearly white teeth eerily glowing, white and sparkling in contrast to her moonlit skin. Overhead the rounded moon hung undaunted against the smoggy, Tokyo skies, its silvery light reflecting the sleek curves of his sports car. He tried again to find his voice but could not help but choke a little. "Y-you tricked me!"
"Mamo-chan!" Tsukino Usagi stepped forward, gasping in outrage. "How could you say that to Haruka-san?"
Ten'ou Haruka winked behind her princess, her grin could not get wider as she pointed to the hopeful odango-blonde before her, mockingly. "Hey," the tall-blonde shrugged innocently when Usagi turned back to look at her for support. "A deal's a deal. You lost the race, so you got to pay up."
"I... Usako... that is... is there no one else who will volunteer to teach Minako to drive? Another trusted person, a place, a... well... another driving school?" Mamoru asked, not proud of the slight raise in the pitch of his voice but unable to help himself.
Usagi looked sheepish and Kaioh Michiru, standing on the other side of Haruka's race car cringed at this question, which did not escape Mamoru at all. "Well..." Usagi started to play with her index fingers and avoiding all eye-contact, cementing Mamoru's feelings of doom. "The instructors at the driving school said... well... that they banned her from all the city's schools... and she so desperately needs it, Mamo-chan! She promise she'll be really careful!"
"But, Haruka... Haruka-san just proved to be a better driver than me--!" Mamoru tried again, desperate to save himself, his car, and his dignity - though failing miserably in all three at the look Usagi was shooting him. How could she look so disappointed, as if this was not a life-threatening situation? Mamoru thought to himself incredulously. She was his soul-mate after all, doesn't she realize how dangerous Minako was with a wheel in front of her? Doesn't she sense the danger he would be in if--?
"You lost buster, don't try to pin it on me now!" Haruka teased, breaking through Mamoru's thoughts, but there was tenseness to her shoulders that everyone but Usagi noticed. "The bet was, whoever lost teaches Mina-chan to drive and you lost... So, it’s your responsibilities."
"Mamo-chan!" Usagi clasped her hands together pleadingly. "Only you can save Minako-chan from never getting a driver's license now!"
"Only you, Tuxedo Kamen-sama," Haruka mouthed wickedly, though her partner shot him a more sympathetic stare over the hood of Haruka's car - which will not be scratched, or dented, or smashed into bits due to a certain other blonde's notorious driving skills.
Mamoru cursed the day he was arrogant enough to take Haruka on this particular bet. He cursed Haruka for letting him think he could win by intentionally losing to him a few days ago. (Probably already knew about this and was just setting him up for the fall.) He especially cursed the day he thought he could take on three blondes and not break a sweat... Well, at the time, he hadn't been thinking clearly since he just surprisingly beat a test driver Ten'ou Haruka around the tracks - damnit, he knew he should have been more suspicious!
In the end, all Mamoru could really do was to look mournfully at his sports car and hoped to the kami that he had enough money in his bank to get a rental (after all, Usako's birthday was coming up)...
---
Poor Mamoru... KUKUKUKU!! I had a lot of fun with this one!
Inspired by the events of We Never Knew You, Aino Minako by Victor Naqvi
