Story: Twilight
Author: Hikari
Email: Machi_no_Tenshi@excite.com
Genre: Alt.Reality
Rated: PG



                           TWILIGHT 
                     A Monogatari by Hikari.

Chapter 1:

  "...And now I pronounce you, man and wife!  You may now kiss the 
bride."

  "WHAT?!!"  Broke in Usagi.  "KISS?!!" 

  "Have you gone bonkers Motoki-kun?" Asked a disgusted Mamoru to 
his best friend.

  Motoki just stared at them, he had been to enough weddings to know 
that what he said was right. "But that's what's s'posed to happen." 
Usagi and Mamoru just glared at him in disbelief.  They had decided 
to play 'wedding' but if they had to KISS...they could call the game 
off. "Listen, my don't we just end this game and play something else, 
'k?" Both Usagi and Mamoru nodded in agreement. 'I just don't under-
stand them!' He was sure Usagi really did want to be kissed by Mamoru,
but he knew that she would never in a million years admit to it. And 
Mamoru from his side, would never let the other guys know that he 
really did have a crush on her. 'I guess I can understand why,' Motoki
thought. 'The guys would shun him if they new, after all...girls DO 
have cuddies!!'

  "How 'bout... umm, HIDE & GO SEEK!!" Mamoru suggested.

  "Ok, I'll start counting." Motoki turned around and leaned against
a tree. "ONE...TWO...THREE..."

  "Wait." Usagi interrupted, "don't I get a vote?"

  Mamoru grabbed a hold of Usagi's arm. "Shut up and start running!" 
They ran into an alleyway near a daycare center on the Juuban district 
of Tokyo. Placing his index finger on her delicate, moist lips he spoke.
"Shh! Don't say anything or he'll hear us."

  She looked at him and their eyes locked together. He was so handsome
with his inky black hair, and his deep blue eyes. 'So deep,' she thought.
'That I could drown in them forever.' Usagi saw him starring at her 
with new eyes.  She had never seen him look at her that way...it kinda
scared her.

  'She's perfect, and no matter what your friends say you just have to
do this.' With that last coherent thought still in his mind, Mamoru 
brought down his lips to the point of barely touching hers. And then, 
unexpectedly to him, Usagi was kissing him and hard!!  Soon, he felt 
her arms begin to wrap themselves around his neck. And without control, 
HIS arms sought out the newly formed curves of her young body.  Little 
sparks of electricity passed down Usagi's delicate spine making her 
shiver with their force, and apparently they were doing the same to 
Mamoru, for his hands trembled as they held onto the thin material 
that was Usagi's dress.  If this was the way a kiss was supposed to 
feel like, then neither of them were ever going to forget such an 
incredible experience.

  "I found y-" Motoki's sentence was cut mid-speech as he found his 
two best friends in what you could call a 'MAYOR lip-lock'!! Mamoru 
was holding Usagi within his arms and you could barely tell that she 
was leaning against the alley wall, for the two looked like one. 'I 
think I'd better leave.' Just as he turned to go, Motoki took one 
last look. 'And they didn't want to kiss before. YEAH, RIGH!'

		*/^.^\*  end of flashback-dream */^.^\*

  "BANZAI!!!" Yelled Kaoru as he launched himself on top of Mamoru's 
sleeping form, inside his warm and cozy bed.

  "UgH!" Was all the reply Mamoru could give as he was knocked out 
of his dream, and onto the cold hard wood floor of the bedroom.

  "Yo man, wake up! It's almost noon!"
  Mamoru stirred, "um...Ugh! That was not the type of wake up call I 
was expecting after the dream I just had." He said as he rubbed his eyes.

  Kaoru became curious and on his face a sly grin began to take shape.
"And what were you dreaming about? Or should I rephrase that to 'whom'?"

  Mamoru's face began to turn a light shape of pink, but soon regained
 it's natural color. "Nobody you'd know!"

  "How would YOU know?" Kaoru argued, still fighting for a clue about 
the dream.

  Mamoru thought about it for a moment. What Kaoru had just said was 
true...but still he wasn't going to tell him about Usagi, she was part 
of his past and even though he thought about her constantly he hadn't 
known anything new about her for 10yrs and it wasn't any of Kaoru's 
business anyway. "Your right Kaoru, I wouldn't know.  Hey, what's for 
breakfast?"

  Kaoru knew that this was an attempt to change the subject and there-
fore, he let it slide. "It's hamburgers. And it's not breakfast...It's 
LUNCH!"

  Mamoru got quickly out of bed, and headed towards the kitchen. "HEY!"
He yelled, "I thought you said we were having burgers for lunch?"

  "Yeah, so?" Kaoru said as he made his way towards Mamoru.

  "SO?! There aren't any hamburgers here!"

  Placing his hand on Mamoru's shoulder, Kaoru looked at him with a 
little bit of annoyance. "I do NOT cook for guys, if you were a pretty 
girl... MAYBE."

  Mamoru gave him a hurt look. "What? I'm not good enough for you?"

  Kaoru laughed a bit. "Come on. Get dressed and we'll go to lunch."

  "I can't, " he answered. "I have to go to that orientation thing. 
It's at 12:30."

  Kaoru looked strangely at Mamoru, then patted him on the back. 
"You've already missed that appointment, besides I can show you the 
university later.  After all, I have been going there for 3 years now."

  "Ok. Let me get ready so we can go out." And with that, Mamoru went 
back into the bedroom and got ready.

  Once out of the apartment, the two men headed for a place no man 
would ever be caught dead in...THE MALL.  Not that it was wrong for 
men to go there, it's just that there was no need to go except when 
dragged there by your girlfriend.  Together, they headed towards a 
bookstore with a café build in.  They sat down, ordered their hamburgers
and decided to look at the books in the mean time.

  Kaoru headed towards the newspaper section, while Mamoru when to the
magazine stand.  Looking around for the newest edition of "Surgeons" 
magazine he saw the most beautiful pair of blue eyes staring right back 
at him.  He picked up the magazine, and on the cover was a gorgeous girl
with long blond hair down to her waist.  She was sitting down on a blue
plush cushion with a white Calvin Klein dress on. Her face full of 
innocence, as sky blue eyes gazed at him with the most beautiful 
expression of mystery.  And to top things off, a pink back round enhanced
the aura of sweetness that she somehow evoked.

  Just then Mamoru felt a strong hand on his shoulders. "Mamoru-san. 
Our order's ready." Kaoru glanced a look at the magazine Mamoru was 
staring at. "Whatcha looking at?"

  "Um... nothing just thing girls magazine. " Mamoru showed Kaoru the 
cover. "She's pretty, isn't she?"

  "Yeah," Kaoru said in a slightly uncomfortable tone. "She's my girl-
friend. Her name is Hanako, she's a model."

  Mamoru stole one last look at the angel on the magazine. "Your lucky...
she seems really nice."

  "Yeah, real lucky." Kaoru said almost under his breath in a somewhat
sarcastic tone. "Anyway, " he said on a more animated note. "I want you
to meet a friend of mine.  She's waiting for us at the table."  They 
directed themselves towards the café's booth. Extending his had towards
the sitting girl, Kaoru said, "Mamoru-kun, I'd like you to meet a VERY
dear friend of mine, her name is Makoto."

  "Pleased to meet you." Mamoru said.

  Shaking her head, Makoto replied, "No, the pleasure is all mine." 
She gave him a warm smile then continued. "It's so nice to finally 
meet the famous cousin that Kao-chan always talks about."

  'Kao-chan'? Mamoru wondered a little about the girl before him. 
She was pretty, no doubt about that! Makoto had honey-brown hair that
reached her shoulders, it was tied back un a simple pony tail, 
accompanied by sparkling emerald green eyes and a very nice smile.  
As for her figure, he couldn't tell a lot because she was sitting down. 
But she seemed thin and was probably the same height as him if not 
shorter.

  Mamoru had been keeping to himself for a while so deep in thought 
that he hadn't heard Kaoru asking him for his opinion. "Mamoru-san!!
Hey, are you with us?"

  Snapping out of his trance. "Uh, yeah. You were saying?"

  Makoto and Kaoru began to laugh. "What were you thinking about, 
Mamoru-san?"

  "He was probably thinking about the girl of his dreams." Commented 
Kaoru as he gave a little nudge to Makoto.

  She giggled. "Yeah? And who would that be?"

  Mamoru began to get a little annoyed seeing where the conversation 
was heading.  Towards his personal life... and that was something he 
didn't like sharing. "Enough already!  Why don't we talk about you 
Makoto-san.  How long have you known Kaoru-kun?"

  "Well," she began as she glanced at Kaoru. "I met him three years 
ago, about the time when he first arrived from...was it Yokohama?" 

  "Yeah, it was." Kaoru answered as he smiled warmly at her while she 
told the story.

  "Anyway, it was my first year in college, and I was completely alone." 
She took a sip of her mocha-latte. "I'm originally from Kyoto, so you 
can imagine how strange I felt here. But, Asia University is one of 
the best universities in all of Nihon so I couldn't go back home. I'd 
be disowned in shame!"

  Kaoru interrupted her to speak to Mamoru. "Her parents are very old 
fashioned."

  "Kaoru-san!!"

  Grabbing Mamoru's arm, Kaoru whispered to him. "Ouch, now she's mad!"

  "Kao-chan!" She gave him a cute pout. "Now your cousin will think 
I'm some kind of... Oh I don't know!"

  "Don't worry," Mamoru smiled at her. "I won't."

  "Go on, Mako-chan. Finish your story."

  "I would if YOU'D just let me!" She pinned Kaoru down with her gaze.
"As I was saying, I was freshmen, just like you and I was living in a 
college dorm with my roommate. But one day she asked me if I minded if 
she switched dorms. Well, really it wasn't my decision to make, so I 
told her that if she wanted to, it was fine by me.  Well guess who she 
wanted to switch dorms with?"

  "Let me guess..." Mamoru's lips began to shape into a grin as his 
cousin turned a light shade of red.

  Makoto nodded. "The very same one!!  So we became good friends since 
then.  Actually, it turned out to be very beneficial for me."

  "Why?"

  "Well, Kao-chan was studying Computer Engineering and I was studying 
Business. And wouldn't you figure, almost every time that my thesis 
where due, and may I mention that they had to be researched so I used 
the internet a lot, my computer would crash!!"  She gave a little pause 
as she composed herself. "This is were your cousin came in very handy. 
He was able to fix the computer so that I could get on without crashing."

  "But it still crashed sometimes." Added Kaoru.

  "Yeah. But not as often as it would have, had it not been for you."

  "So all in all Kaoru-kun saved the day for you, didn't he Makoto-san?"

  "Yeah." She blushed a bit as she smiled at Kaoru. "My knight and 
shining armor."

  Mamoru could tell that Makoto had a crush on Kaoru, and he sometimes 
got this vibe from Kaoru about her too.  But 'Nah!! After all,' he 
thought. 'He already has a girlfriend.' He thought once again about 
the blue eyed girl called Hanako.  She reminded him of his Usa-chan. 
Mamoru placed his hand inside his pocked and felt a crinkled paper 
inside. He took it out. 'Usagi Tsukino: 597-2459' He had put the paper 
inside his jacket today with the intention to call her up and ask her 
out so that they could catch up on old times.  "I hope she still lives 
there."

  Kaoru looked at Mamoru. "What did you say?"

  "Huh?" He looked up. "I...need to make a phone call."

  "Yeah, sure. The payphone is right next to the restroom." Kaoru said
as he pointed towards the men's stalls.

  "I'll be right back." Mamoru stood up and  headed towards the phone.
He took out his calling card and inserted it in. Dialed up the number 
and... IT WAS RINGING!! 'Please let her answer it, please let her 
answer it.'

  The phone stopped ringing, as Mamoru held his breath. "Moshi-moshi?"

  He swallowed, "Yeah... Hi, I'm looking for Usagi Tsukino.  Is she
there?"

  Real regret came from the woman's voice. "I'm sorry, the Tsukino's 
moved out of here five years ago." 

  His world came to a halt. 'She no longer lived there!' "Do you know 
what her new phone number or address may be?"

  "No... I don't."

  Now there was definitely no way to know where she was. "Thanks anyway." 
He gently hanged up the receiver and leaned back against the booth, his
beeping calling card forgotten as he felt all hope of ever seeing HER 
again slipped out of his mind.

To be continued...