Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Best Friends ❯ Chapter 7

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Chapter Seven - Wednesday evening
--------------------

"Hello, may I speak to Aino Minako please?" Kenjo asked, though
he was relatively certain it was her on the line.

"Speaking," Minako replied, "Is that you, Kenjo-kun?" Her breath
and heart quickened, but Minako would never let such things show
in her voice.

"Hai. Am I disturbing you, Minako-san?" Kenjo considered that
it was a good thing they weren't using some sort of video phone,
because he'd hate for her to see the stupid grin he had on his
face at the sound of her voice.

"No, I just finished dinner. Our meeting over at the temple went
a little long."

"How did it go," Kenjo asked anxiously. "Did your friends think
we were nuts?"

Minako shifted to the front edge of her chair. "You won't
believe what Rei-chan told us!" she reported enthusiastically.
"It seems that she and Ami had a long chat the other day, right
around the same time you were talking to Makoto at the sports
center. She had already become all but convinced that _Ami_ has
a crush on _Makoto_!"

"You're kidding! That's great!" Kenjo chalked off one obstacle
with delight. "What did Usagi-san have to say?"

'He really does love Mako-chan,' Minako realized. She could hear
it in his voice, full of pure joy at her news. Rather than
something that made her jealous, she found it to be a very
endearing trait.

"Well, Usagi claimed that she'd had her own suspicions all along.
We talked it about it for quite awhile, when we weren't
sidetracked, and now we're all convinced." Minako sighed. At
the same time it was both hard to believe and the most natural
thing in the world that her dear friends Ami and Makoto should be
in love.

"You guys got sidetracked?" Kenjo couldn't resist asking. Of
course, he knew, or suspected (or was that hoped?) that his date
with Minako might have been on their discussion agenda, but he
couldn't come right out and ask.

He might as well have been translucent, given how easily Minako
saw through him. "Oh, we didn't just discuss Ami and Makoto,
Kenjo-kun," she said smugly.

Kenjo really wished that Makoto could have been there, since he
knew without a doubt that she'd have given him a full report. He
reminded himself sharply that her not being there was sort of the
entire point. "Anything you'd care to share?" he asked, not
really expecting to get anything out her.

"Well, I had to tell my friends how our date went, didn't I?"
Minako continued. "Of course, Usagi had her own opinions, since
she'd been spying on us!"

Kenjo laughed warmly. "I think it's nice that you guys care about
each other so much. Anyway, I hope the reviews were positive."

"Maybe, but I would never tell," Minako teased.

"So, did they have any ideas on what we might do to help the two
of them?" Kenjo asked eagerly, getting back to the topic at hand.

"Well, Usagi is going to talk to Haruka-san and Michiru-san. We
figured they might have some insight," Minako reported. "Rei
seemed to think that we might have some trouble from Ami's old
'boyfriend' Urawa Ryu. She was going to check up on him."

"Urawa? Mako-chan mentioned him at one point. She seemed a
little jealous of him," Kenjo recalled.

"He wishes!" Minako snorted. "He keeps bugging the poor thing, no
matter how many times she tries to tell him she only wants to be
friends. Rei can be pretty determined, so she'll get to the
bottom of things with him."

Kenjo frowned. He knew guys that didn't like to take "No" for an
answer and had little use for any of them. Some were just
deluded or stupid, others were actually dangerous. He had little
doubt that Sailor Mercury could take care of herself, but he
worried nonetheless. With a smile, he realized that now that he
suspected Mizuno Ami returned his Mako-chan's love, he felt
almost as protective and worried about her as he did about Makoto
herself. "And what was your assignment, Minako-san?" he
inquired.

"I was supposed to call you and fill you in. We figured you'd be
dying of curiosity. You beat me to it, it seems," she added,
very content with the fact that he'd called her first.

"Not dying," Kenjo chuckled, "but close."

"So, is that the only reason you called me, to find out what
happened?" Minako asked in a flirty tone, fairly confident in the
answer.

"No, not really," Kenjo started, gathering himself together, "I
was wondering, well, if you don't have any plans, maybe you'd
like to get together Friday night?"

Minako smiled, feeling the same rush of victory she normally got
only after defeating a tough enemy. "Sure, I think my schedule
is clear. What did you have in mind?" She felt a little
embarrassed when she considered what _she_ had in mind, the
fulfillment of a promise she'd made to herself after their date.

"Mako-chan tells me that you enjoy karaoke, so I thought maybe
dinner, then we could hit a club I know," he suggested.

"Ooooo, I love karaoke," she squealed. "Sounds perfect. What
time?"

"I think I can find my way back to your place," Kenjo answered.
"How about I pick you up at six?"

"That works for me, Kenjo-kun," Minako agreed. "Well, I'd better
get going. I need to get some school work done."

"Ok, I guess I should do some readings, too," Kenjo sighed. "See
you on Friday, Minako-san!"

"Good night," she said, hanging up the phone. Just then, Artemis
wandered into the room with her.

"Mina-chan, why are you hugging your pillow like that, and why
are you so happy?" her cat asked.

Minako scooped the white ball of fur up in her arms and swung him
happily through the air. "I've got a date for Friday night!"

"Whoa! Put me down! You always have a date on Friday night!"
Artemis exclaimed.

"Not second dates!" Minako pointed out, setting Artemis down at
the foot of her bed. Still beaming, she headed out to the other
room to try to get some work done.

'Second date?!" Artemis thought, trying and failing to recall the
last time Minako had gone on more than one date with the same
boy. 'Sounds serious. Well, good for her,' he decided before
drifting off to sleep.

------------------

Urawa Ryu found a niche between two streetlights, about a block
and a half from his quarry. It is possible that, if he could
have seen himself, he might have paused, reconsidered, realized
that he wasn't acting rationally any more, but he avoided such
introspection. Over the years, normal admiration and interest
had grown into friendship, but then slowly mutated into intense
desire, a yearning forged in the fires of frustration only to
emerge as obsession. He knew as surely as he knew his own name
that Mizuno Ami was his, by right. He knew that he could make
her understand this. So far, he'd tried to reason with her, to
convince her, to make her see. As he watched her enter Kino
Makoto's apartment building, a bouquet of pink roses in her arms,
he realized that he needed to take more drastic measures.

With a determined scowl, Ryu turned and headed back the way he
came. So wrapped up in his thoughts was he, that he didn't even
notice the beautiful, raven-haired young woman sitting alone at
the bus stop as he walked past.

--------------------

Rei sat in the cafe, sipping a cup of cocoa, waiting. It had
been almost an hour since her quarry had entered Tokyo General.
'Maybe he's committing himself to the Psych Ward,' she hoped
against hope. 'What is he doing in a hospital at this time of
night?'

---------------------

Ami rang the doorbell, nervously shifting the bundle from one
hand to the other. Normally, she would have rung once and then
let herself in with the spare key, but for some reason, that
didn't seem appropriate tonight.

When she'd left her last class, she hadn't planned on bringing
flowers, but when she saw the pink roses at that little stand,
she couldn't resist. Ami yawned, still tired from her lack of
sleep. After last night's dinner, and the realizations that had
accompanied it, she had had a hard time getting to sleep. In her
classes, she'd found herself dozing off more than once. Worse
still, when she wasn't fading into sleep, she found herself
doodling little hearts in the margins of her notebooks.

For her part, Makoto had found herself planning tonight's dinner
throughout her entire day. Normally, she'd whip something up
from whatever was lying around when it was just she and Ami.
After all, she generally thought, that's just...normal. Sometime
between that farewell kiss on the cheek and her return from
classes, however, Makoto had come to realize that dinners with
Ami were anything other than routine. Indeed, they were some of
the most special occasions of her life. Tonight, she planned to
let Ami know just how special she was to her. She had just lit
the last candle when the doorbell had rung the first time. The
second ring had been spent checking her hair in the mirror that
hung in her foyer. Makoto was somehow not surprised that Ami
hadn't let herself in. It was such a common thing for the two of
them to be on the same wavelength, that it hadn't even occurred
to Makoto that Ami might not realize how special tonight was
going to be.

On the third ring, the door opened. "Oh, they're beautiful! Let
me get a vase," Makoto delightedly exclaimed, taking the bouquet
that Ami had proffered to her upon entering. She blushed, and
smiled deeply, as she fussed in a cabinet near the kitchen for a
suitable container. While she'd never doubted that Ami would be
thinking along the same lines she was, it was still nice to get
confirmation of the fact. Makoto's heart raced as she pulled
down a crystal vase that had been her parents' and arranged the
roses therein.

Ami gazed around the apartment. Makoto had dimmed the lights and
lit what seemed like a hundred candles. As usual, the smell of
food wafted from the kitchen and Ami was overcome with a strong
sense of "home." Taking it all in, Ami's gaze finally came to
rest on Makoto herself. No sweats or t-shirt tonight. Instead,
Makoto wore a soft, green sweater with a matching long skirt.
Her hair was done up in her typical ponytail, but was held in
place with a delicate gold hair clip. As she watched her friend
delicately position the roses, Ami felt a rush of warmth, and not
to her face as usual. She allowed herself to do something
consciously that usually she did without even knowing it; she
examined this beautiful young woman before her carefully,
thoroughly. Makoto's eyes, focused so intently on her task,
shone with an inner light, crackling with energy. Ami noted the
slightly paler tone to her skin along the nape of her neck, where
her hair was pulled back. Letting her gaze trail down the line
of Makoto's neck and past her broad shoulders, she remembered
something said in jest long ago. 'You indeed should have been
Snow White in that play, Mako-chan,' she admitted, noting the way
Mako's sweater clung to her. Her eyes lingered in that area for
some time, and that comfortable warmth inside her flared up
considerably. Almost with regret, her eyes dropped down, over
the full curves of her friend's hips and to her legs. 'They just
go on forever,' Ami realized with a sigh. She had just
suppressed a brief, irrational wish that her friend might drop
something on the floor behind her when Makoto finished with the
flowers and met her gaze. Immediately, Ami dropped her eyes to
the floor and cursed her complexion, feeling the heat on her
cheeks now, not just in those other areas.

'She's blushing,' Makoto thought as she looked up. 'She is so
adorable when she does that.' "You ok, Ami-chan?" she asked with
a smile, "you look a bit flushed. Is it too cold in here?"

Ami's eyes widened in horror as she swiftly checked her blouse.
Realizing what she was doing, and why, she blushed even more,
finding it hard to catch her breath. She was a trained warrior,
however, and recovered quickly. "No, everything is fine, Mako-
chan. Everything is perfect. Is anyone else coming tonight?
You've gone to so much trouble."

Makoto could feel sweat forming on her brow. Had Ami just done
what it looked like she'd done, when Makoto had asked if she was
cold? Mako swallowed quickly, trying, without much success, not
to stare at those soft, gentle curves in her friend's white
blouse. "No, it's just you and I tonight," she replied to Ami's
question, regaining her focus. She stepped closer and added, "I
hope that's Ok. I just thought that, well..."

Ami's smile made Mako's heart leap in her chest. "I think it's a
wonderful idea, Mako-chan. Is there anything I can do to help?"
She also moved forward, stopping only a foot or so away from her
closest friend. For a moment, they paused there in the living
room, well within arm's reach of each other. Ami sighed as she
gazed deeply into Makoto's eyes, feeling as if she was surrounded
in a warm blanket. Makoto held her breath, her fingers
trembling, aching to be lost in soft, blue hair. Each of them
slowly leaned forward...

"BUZZZZZZZZZZZ"

The sound of the oven timer going off startled both them out of
their reverie. Makoto gulped in air and dropped her hands to her
sides. Ami shivered and took a deep breath, a wry smile on her
face. "I'd better get that, or else we'll be having blackened
tuna, and I didn't plan on cajun tonight," Makoto joked.

Ami giggled and nodded, "Go ahead, Mako-chan, I'll put on some
music, if that's all right." Makoto assured her that that would
be fine and headed off the kitchen. Ami smiled wistfully. There
was no doubt in her mind at all now and the thought of what the
rest of this evening was sure to bring made her as happy as
anything she could remember. The accursed oven timer could steal
one moment from them, but nothing could stop fate. Ami was
certain of that.

Moving over to Makoto's stereo, she glanced through her CD
collection, looking for something that would set the right mood,
something romantic, but not too distracting. She was amused to
find a Bonnie Raitt CD currently in the disc player. She thought
she could guess which song Makoto might have been listening to
earlier. 'Oh, we'll give them something to talk about, all
right,' Ami thought wickedly. She carefully replaced that disc
in its case and pulled out a different one, something Minako had
introduced them all to, an English band called Dire Straits.
Placing the disc of the same name in the player, she started it,
adjusting the volume so that it would not override conversation,
but would linger at an almost subconscious level.

Before she turned back to the table, Ami caught a flash of green
reflected in the glass door to the cabinet. Shifting a little
bit, to get a better reflection, Ami soon could make out Makoto,
holding a dish, standing in the doorway of the kitchen. The tall
young woman had stopped and was apparently staring at her. With
a very pleased smile, Ami realized that the tables had turned so
to speak, but, unlike Makoto earlier, she knew she was being
watched. Very deliberately, Ami reached up to a disc on a high
shelf, stretching onto her toes. She could feel the muscles in
her calves and thighs go taut as she held that pose for just a
second or two longer than necessary. While she might not be as
qualified to play Snow White as Makoto, Ami knew that her legs
were one of her best features. 'This is just too much fun,' she
realized. She'd never known how enjoyable being a tease could
be. Suddenly, Minako made a lot more sense to Ami.

Makoto's legs were trembling. 'Oh my,' she thought as she
watched Ami reach up to grab a disc. All she could see was white
hose stretching up and disappearing under a short blue skirt.
She could imagine all too vividly how it would feel to lay her
hand on one of Ami's delicate ankles and run it all the way up
to... 'I'd better put this down,' she decided, remembering the
plate in her hands, 'because if she drops that disc, it's all
over.' At that exact moment, as if her thought had molded
reality to its liking, Ami's hand slipped and the disc she had
been reaching for fell to the ground. Makoto could have sworn
that Ami darted a flirty glance her way as she bent over at the
waist to retrieve it, her skirt riding higher up the back of her
thighs. 'No way,' Makoto thought, 'not my Ami-chan!' Proud of
the fact that dinner had survived this crisis, Makoto gulped and
quickly set the plate down on the table.

Ami suppressed a laugh as she watched Makoto rush over to drop
the plate on the table. Somehow, she felt just as she had when
she'd learned her Shine Aqua Illusion attack. With this weapon
in her arsenal, there was no way this particular target could
ever resist her. Feeling as happy and content with herself as
she ever had, Ami moved over to the table and sat down. "It looks
lovely, Mako-chan."

"Thanks," Makoto mumbled. "Just a couple more things and we'll be
ready to go." As she moved back into the kitchen, she began to
reconsider things. Maybe Ami wasn't so innocent and pure after
all. Makoto did know her friend very well, very well indeed, and
that expression on her face had _not_ been one of innocence and
purity. 'Well, two can play at this game.' Before grabbing the
last dish, she reached up and unbuttoned two buttons on her
sweater.

"Here, let me put this on your plate," Makoto said, returning
from the kitchen with a bowl of rice. Ami thanked her and leaned
back in her seat to allow Makoto access to her plate. Her self-
satisfied serenity took quite a shock, however, when Makoto
leaned forward to ladle out the rice. The way she was bent over
the table, Ami could see right down her sweater! 'I shouldn't be
surprised that that's green, too,' Ami considered, though the
majority of her attention was certainly not focused on Makoto's
undergarments. After an eternity, Makoto straightened up and
moved to her own place. 'Did she just wink at me?' Ami tried to
determine where her imagination ended and reality began. 'Hmmm,
it would seem that being teased is almost as much fun as doing
the teasing!'

For the next thirty minutes or so, the two young women ate their
meal, talking mostly about the same kinds of things they usually
did: daily events, things learned in classes, speculation about
their friends (mostly Minako), etc. Throughout the meal,
however, a subtle tension began to grow. Each ate slowly at
times, savoring the growing anticipation, then quickly at other
times, impatient to get through it and onto other things. At no
other meal had so many dishes been passed back and forth, fingers
lingering longer and longer during the transfer of plates and
such. The comfortable silences that characterized their time
together remained, but contained many more contented sighs and
intense gazes. Finally, it was time. Makoto rose to clear the
table. Once again, normally, Ami would have helped her, but
today they both knew that that wasn't necessary. Instead, Ami
went to the stereo once again, changing discs to something a
little more modern and upbeat.

Makoto dropped off the dishes in the sink, not even bothering to
soak them, and returned to the living room to find Ami waiting
for her. She'd moved the coffee table to one side, clearing a
space in the center of her floor. Makoto paused, fairly certain
what was coming. As Ami moved slowly across the floor to her,
she knew she was right. Deja vu struck briefly, reminding her of
that night in the school gym, long ago.

"Would you care to dance?" Ami asked with an encouraging smile.

"I would love to," Makoto answered, shyly bowing her head. So
often, because of her height or her mode of dress, people assumed
she was some sort of tomboy. Inside herself, though, Makoto
rarely if ever felt that way. Now, just as she had long ago, Ami
made Makoto feel just like she always wanted to feel, like a
princess in a fairy tale, about to be swept off her feet by her
prince. As Ami's hands took her and led her into the dance,
Makoto sighed contentedly and placed herself literally and
figuratively into Ami's care.

The song she had chosen started out with a brisk tempo, so Ami
led Makoto through an upbeat dance that soon had them both
laughing and swooning through spins and dips. As she'd planned,
though, the song soon slowed down and Ami drew Makoto in close.
As Mako laid her head down on top of Ami's, resting on her
shoulder, Ami knew that this was exactly where she wanted to be,
always. Makoto gently shifted her head back and forth, rubbing
her cheek against Ami's skin. Ami responded in kind and soon
they both lifted their heads back to look into each other's eyes.
Makoto closed hers and shifted her cheek to Ami's other shoulder.
Soon, though, they went through the same dance, cheeks caressing
each other and then, heads drawn back, eyes meeting. Just as
Makoto's eyes closed and Ami was leaning forward...

"BUZZZZZZZZZZZZ"

Ami jumped, dropping her hands from a very confused Makoto.
Grabbing at her side, she pulled her beeper out of a pocket
hidden in her skirt. Makoto looked at her, disoriented and
disappointed, as Ami stared at the number on the beeper. "What
is it, Ami-chan? Is everything all right?" Makoto whispered
hoarsely.

"No, I mean yes, I mean...I have to go, Mako-chan," Ami
exclaimed, almost in tears. So close... but there was no way she
could ignore this particular message.

"Don't!" Makoto pleaded, before remembering herself. "I mean, do
you have to? What is it?"

"It's my mom," Ami replied in a disconsolate tone, even as she
hurried over to the foyer to put on her shoes. "She had me
memorize a series of codes, so she can use the beeper for a
variety of messages. This one means I have to go home
immediately."

Makoto began to ask if she couldn't wait just a little bit, but
realized that that would be unfair. Whatever had been about to
happen, that moment was now lost and if she asked Ami to stay, it
would only make her more unhappy. Given her state of agitation,
ignoring Mom was clearly not an option for Ami.

"I'll call you! I promise!" Ami shouted as she headed out the
door. "I'm sorry, Mako-chan, more than I can say!"

'Me too,' Makoto thought. 'Me too.' As Ami vanished down the
hallway, she leaned over and blew out the nearest candle.