Revenge is a....
Started from: Ice Cream Kisses
Continued from: An Explanation if You Please
Minako stood in front of the bathroom mirror pouting. Her lips were plumped and her eyes looked apologetic. No, that’s not right. She straightened herself out and dramatically shook her shoulders and arms, rolling her head in a circle. Taking a deep breath she looked into the mirror and pouted, this time with sympathetic eyes. She didn’t want to appear to be too guilty after all.
The sound of knocking at the front door caught her attention and she sighed. She was hoping that Kunzite would stop by tonight to join her for dinner with Mamoru and Usagi, but he called a short while ago to say that he had a work emergency and would have to go into his office. Of course he had to be polite and insist that he didn’t want to bother her by coming over too late. The next time he came over she would have to bring up the issue of moving in together again as this was really putting a damper in her plans. (Not that they didn’t already practically live together!) She glanced over in the mirror one last time and smiled. Perfect.
“Coming!” she yelled, running over to open the door.
Mamoru stood smiling on the other side. “Are you ready to go?” he asked her.
Minako glanced out into the hallway. “Where’s Usagi? Isn’t she going to join us for dinner?”
“No,” he answered, his face appearing concerned. “She said that her mother wasn’t feeling well, so she went over to bring her some soup.”
Minako looked at him skeptically. “She cooked?”
“No,” Mamoru chuckled. “She’s stopping by her mom’s favorite restaurant to buy her some.”
“Oh,” Minako answered thoughtfully.
“Where’s Kunzite?”
“He had a work thing,” she responded, waving her hand airily. “I guess it’s just us. Let’s go then!”
The couple walked through the streets of the downtown area trying to agree on where they would have dinner. They had a pleasant banter going back and forth between them, but Minako couldn’t help but to notice that he stayed away from the topic of the misplaced kiss. Kunzite told her that he was stopping by Mamoru’s on his way to work and she knew that without a doubt all of the guys would be at Mamoru and Usagi’s apartment for that show. So why was he telling her about his vacation plans instead of that? She would just have to wait until he had a drink or two to extract that information. Minako knew that she should be ashamed of herself at this point, but why stop now?
“Usagi?” Mamoru said in shock, suddenly stopping midstride. Minako came to a stop several steps ahead of him and walked back to look in the window of the coffee shop. Usagi was sitting at a table with a tall cardboard cup in her hands, another matching cup across from her on the small table.
“Maybe her mom was feeling better,” Minako offered weakly.
“I suppose…”
“I’m sure it’s - Kunzite!” she shrieked as he came into view and stood at the table across from Usagi. “He’s supposed to be at work! How could he lie to me like this?!”
Mamoru looked over at her with his eyes wide unsure if she was being dramatic are genuinely upset.
“I get it,” Minako smiled slyly. “He and Usagi are going try and play a little prank of their own.”
“Or maybe they just ran into each other and stopped for a cup of coffee?” Mamoru offered, but he could tell that she was only half paying attention. “Their drinks are in to go cups after all.” He barely finished his sentence when Mina grabbed his hand and dragged him into the coffee shop behind her.
“I know what you’re doing,” she huffed, coming to stand besides the tall table. Kunzite slowly lowered his cup from his lips, those wonderfully kissable lips… No, she scolded herself. This is no time to get distracted.
Mamoru grimaced as Mina started to squeeze tighter against his hand and wiggled it loose before she could inflict any actual injuries on him. Usagi eyes drifted over to Mamoru and she smiled behind her cup of hot chocolate much to his chagrin.
“You know that I stopped for some coffee before going into work?” Kunzite responded slowly.
“No, no, no!” she exclaimed. “That’s not what I meant. I meant that I know you’re trying to plan something here.”
“Mina, listen to me,” Kunzite attempted to say.
“I can’t believe that with my own beautiful blue eyes I’m seeing this. You want us to be even than we’ll be even!” Minako grabbed a hold of a dark haired waiter passing by, causing the server to drop all the items being precariously balanced on the small black tray, and pressed her lips firmly to theirs.
“But that’s -,” Usagi attempted to squeak out an answer but gasped as she realized this was not just a quick peck on the lips.
“Mina,” Kunzite groaned, his head falling into his hands.
Mamoru was too speechless to even attempt to say anything.
Minako pulled back and pushed the waiter out to arm’s length. She started to look back to Kunzite but then froze. Slowly, as realization started to seep in, she looked back to the waiter and became aware of the fact that the boy with short hair turned out to be a girl with short hair. Her eyes grew wide as the face of the girl in front of her began to flush from the attention they were getting from the other patrons. Without another word she turned on her heel and left the coffee shop at a run.
“Mina!” Kunzite attempted to call after her to no avail. He turned his attention to the waitress who was still frozen in place. “I’m really sorry about this,” he said putting his hand on the girls’ shoulder. She seemed to flush a little more from his close contact.
“Just go,” Mamoru said. “I’ll take care of this.”
Kunzite shook his head, obviously torn between trying to apologize to the poor girl who had became a hapless victim in all of this, or chasing after Minako. He glanced down at his watch and murmured incoherently about being late before following after the runaway blonde.
He ran down the street trying to slip through the masses of people occupying the sidewalks. After a couple of blocks he finally caught sight of the familiar head of blonde hair a few yards away. He brusquely pushed past the remaining people between them with mumbled apologizes and wrapped his arm around Minako, pulling her against him. Muffled sobs could be heard coming from his chest and he pulled back to look at her tearful eyes. “I wish you would stop and listen sometimes,” he said softly, wiping at her tear streaks with his thumbs.
“It wouldn’t be a grand exit if I did,” she sniffled, attempting to bring a little humor to the situation.
He noticed the odd looks, and sometimes even angry looks, he was getting from people passing by who either assumed that he just confessed to some horrible truth or that he was attacking her. His arm dropped from around her and sought out her hand, leading her through the crowds of people so that they could find some place more private to talk. Up ahead of them in the promenade stood a white gazebo where a happy couple holding hands exited from the side as they approached, leaving them alone in the enclosed space. Kunzite sat down on the bench, pulling her to sit down next to him. “You have the worst timing,” he said to her.
“You were supposed to be at work.”
“I was on my way to work,” he answered calmly. “I just stopped to get a cup of coffee when I ran into Usagi and bought her a cup of cocoa.”
“I didn’t care about that part,” she sniffled.
“I know. You thought I was going to pull some practical joke on you.”
“Completely undeserved.” She nodded her head resolutely.
“Yes, completely,” he said dryly. “You wouldn’t have deserved it after you staged that ice cream kiss fiasco.” She looked up at him with wide eyes. “To be honest, I was going to talk to you about it later, but after that little display at the coffee shop I’d say we’re pretty square.”
“I didn’t think that you’d kiss her like that….” She pouted.
“You asked me to kiss you like that,” he responded.
“I did?”
“You don’t remember? Before I left we made that bet that I still don’t understand how I lost…”
She tilted her head to the side as she tried to remember back to two weeks earlier. Vaguely it came back to her that she bet that Usagi would burn down her kitchen trying to make dinner for them. Kunzite, always trying to be the nice guy, felt bad for Usagi and said that Mina was just being mean. It looked as though Usagi would have had a safe successful attempt at cooking when she and Mina had a food fight with the baby carrots and incidentally caused the oven mitt to fall on top of the burner. Needless to say they had put out the small fire before it got too out of control. Kunzite tried to insist that it was actually Mina who set the kitchen on fire but she managed to convince him of otherwise.
He watched her in amusement as realization seemed to take over. A sly smile crept over her features, followed by shock, then an all out pout. “But that was supposed to be my kiss!” she exclaimed. “That doesn’t count.”
“Oh yes it does,” he rebutted. “Do you want to tell me why you orchestrated this whole thing?”
“I suppose you’ll find out eventually anyway….” Those words instantly struck fear into his heart. “This wasn’t how it was supposed to happen. I thought that you would just give her a little kiss and then you’d feel guilty about it later.”
Obviously she wanted his guilt to outweigh hers’, he started thinking to himself. Which could only mean one thing - he groaned internally at the thought. “You didn’t get in trouble with the police did you?” He held his breath waiting for her confession.
“Kunzite,” she protested. “You would automatically assume that I did something so terrible?” Her eyes went wide at the thought.
“Yes or no, Mina,” he prompted her, ignoring her efforts to distract him.
She frowned and crossed her arms in front of her chest, remaining silent for another moment. “Be more specific.”
“Mina!” he exclaimed, to which she shrugged her shoulders in response. “Were you arrested?”
“No,” she said somewhat indignantly.
“I had to ask,” he responded casually. “Speeding ticket?”
“None of them stuck,” she answered airily.
This was nothing new. Mina was well known by many of the traffic officers in the area. He imagined that she promised most of them dates to get out of her tickets and every day he wondered when there would a knock on her door with someone on the other side waiting to make good on her offer. “You crashed my car?” Again he wanted to add. He had dropped it off at the shop to be fixed before he left for his business trip and had been forced to trade cars with her because of it so that she could pick it up for him, despite the fact that she was the cause of the whole problem.
She paused and he held his breath for the ensuing silence. “No.”
Good. He exhaled slowly.
She frowned at him. “And I didn’t crash your car last time either.”
“Of course not. We already agreed that the mysterious dent two inches deep and six inches long that prevented the driver side door from opening didn’t qualify.” She nodded her head firmly in response.
Mina rose from the bench and faced him. “In part I was just having a little bit of fun,” she said softly. “It’s nice to know that you’re not so infallible all of the time.” She chewed on her lower lip, her eyes casting themselves towards the ground before coming back up to meet his gaze.
Kunzite stood up from the bench and wrapped his arm around Mina, pausing to place a light kiss on her forehead before slowly leading her out of the gazebo. “I’m fallible plenty of the time. For instance I was supposed to be at my office 20 minutes ago.”
“That doesn’t count. You would have been 5 minutes early if not for me.”
“That’s true,” he sighed, chuckling as she stuck her tongue out at him in response. She huffed at him and he playfully squeezed her against him. “You know,” he suddenly said, “I will expect the truth from you before we go to bed tonight.”
“Or what?” she asked.
“Or I won’t stay over anymore.” She opened her mouth to respond but he quickly cut her off. “And you’re not staying at my apartment either.”
That seemed to silence her for a moment. “You’re telling me that you’re going on strike?” she finally asked in disbelief. He looked down to her and nodded his head. “Seriously? Really?”
“No kisses, no nothing,” he said in disinterest.
“You don’t mean it,” she challenged him.
“Try me.”
“Handholding?” she asked, looking at their clasped hands.
He paused to think about her question. “Sometimes.”
“Kunzite,” she whined. He ignored her plea as they continued walking. “Fine!” she said exasperatedly. “Mymomthinksweregettingmarried,” she rushed out in one breath.
“Whose mom did what?” he asked, not understanding anything past that.
Minako sighed. “My mom stopped by while you were away on your business trip and saw your bag on the kitchen table with your stuff in it and she started yelling that we were living in sin. I told her that we weren’t really living together, but she was so upset that she starts to say ‘That man has defiled my daughter!’” Minako started impersonating her mother’s voice while desperately grasping her hands against her chest. “’How could he do this to my daughter? Who will want to marry her now? My daughter will grow up to be an old maid and she is still so young! The shame he has brought on our family - the shame he will have brought on his own family! Surely his mother could not have raised such a terrible son! Oh my Mina! When everyone finds out -.’”
“Mina,” Kunzite interrupted her.
“Sorry,” she smiled sheepishly, clearing her throat and using her own voice again. “So one thing led to another and now my mom thinks that we’re getting married and she’s already told all my family and I’d be surprised if she hasn’t called your mom by now to start planning the wedding.”
“Oh,” he exhaled, taking a moment to think over what she just confessed to him. “So what was the whole point of the misplaced kiss again?”
“To remind you that we all make mistakes and that certain misunderstandings are unavoidable.”
Something’s were a little more avoidable than others he thought, but he chose to keep that to himself. “And you couldn’t just tell me?”
She paused. “No.” She looked up at him to see him frowning at her response. “Yes?”
He sighed. “So does this mean you are proposing to me?”
“Maybe. Are you accepting?”
“That all depends on if you’re really asking I suppose,” he answered thoughtfully, although she could tell that he was having fun at her expense by now.
“Why aren’t you asking me?” she asked defensively.
“You brought this up first.”
“Fine.” Silence ensued before she dropped to one knee in the middle of the sidewalk. “Kunzite, will you marry me?” She held her hands up in front of her as if she were holding a ring box.
He couldn’t stop the smile from creeping over his lips as he knelt down in front of her. “You know,” he smiled, “this would be a bit more realistic if you actually had a ring.” He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a small black box, placing it delicately in her outstretched hands so that the opening faced her. “Although if I’m going to accept you’ll have to promise to stop kissing strangers in coffee shops.”
She blushed at his words as her hand closed around the box - she didn’t need to open it to know what it contained. “I’ll do my best.”
“Close enough.” His hand closed around hers as he slowly helped her to her feet. “It took you long enough to ask,” he said teasingly before pulling her against him and kissing her, dipping her back slightly. This time he didn’t pay attention to the stares or mutterings that he knew they were receiving.