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*_* MARMALADE MERCURY *_*EP 3b: CLOSE ENCOUNTERS! WHAT WILL PEOPLE THINK? |
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<commercial break; Minako, Urawa and Sewaya skating, they trip over Ami's computer>
"Ami, if you don't smile I may just have to tickle you."
"What??" Ami gasped, turning to look at Greg. He shook his head at her.
"Amusement parks are supposed to be fun… we've been here fifteen minutes and you keep glancing around like you're afraid someone's going to jump out at you at yell 'boo!'," he pointed out. "Try to relax a little. If it makes you more comfortable we could split up…"
"N-no, no… that's okay," Ami said.
No point in possibly hurting his feelings over her admittedly silly paranoia. Of course, it didn't exactly help that the last amusement park she'd been to had been with Urawa last year, when they'd been on the Ferris wheel. Or that the time Ami hadn't spent in her room studying on Saturday had been spent worrying about what might happen today.
"It's just there's some things on my mind," Ami admitted.
"Forget them. Take it easy. Look, here one of those UFO catcher games, I'll win something for you… what do you want?" Greg offered.
Ami blinked looking from Greg to the game and back. "Er… I, I don't know…," she said.
Greg waited expectantly. Was he serious this time?
"Er, how about that blue one," she said, indicating a rather cute little kitten.
Greg nodded. "Right, let's see if I can figure this out then," he said, starting to manipulate the machine.
Ami turned to scan the crowd again, absently. What if Urawa had come to the park too…? She shook her head. Her thoughts shouldn't be of Urawa when she was with Greg. Just like they shouldn't be of Greg when she was with Urawa. It made no sense.
She looked back briefly at Greg as he worked the crane into position. Was it her imagination or was Greg being overly nice to her today?
She paused, looking down. Of course, he was never really mean… and he had been gracious enough not to bring up that incident on Umino's show yesterday. But then, he never did seem to bring things up himself, did he… it was so hard to figure him out. Maybe that was part of his charm…
"Here you go," Greg said. Ami turned and looked up as he held out a doll. Ami stared.
"A Sailor Mercury plushie?!" blurted Ami. He HAD to be putting her on. And surely he didn't know she was…
"Sailor Mercury? That who it is?" Greg remarked. He frowned slightly. "Is it wrong? You did say the blue one, and if she isn't as blue as your lustrous hair, I'll eat my math homework…"
Ami closed her eyes for a minute and shook her head. "No, it's fine, thank you…" she replied, allowing herself a small smile.
Not his fault, she should have been more specific… anyway, it was a nice doll. She took it from him and gazed down upon it. A little chill ran down her spine. It was almost like her first gift from Greg…
"Ami!" came a voice off to her right.
She looked up, startled, then relaxed a bit seeing who it was. She hurriedly tucked the plushie into her bookbag, out of sight.
"Usagi… Mamoru… didn't expect to see you here," she greeted them.
"Well that goes double for us," Usagi commented. "Not to mention you and… Greg," Usagi said, winking and stressing his name slightly.
"Now, now, Usako," Mamoru chastised her playfully. "It's a fairly large park and they may not have come together, after all."
"Well, it's nice to see you two together now then," Usagi continued, undaunted. "Anyway, we just came over to the games area because Mamo-chan said he'd win me something."
"Er, I said I'd TRY…" Mamoru corrected.
"Oh, you can do it, I have faith," Usagi countered, holding onto his arm and smiling up at him. "But we noticed you and just thought we'd say 'hi'," she added turning back to Ami. "Nice to see you getting out."
Ami smiled. "Nice to see the both of you, too. As long as you're not going to be jumping to conclusions again," she emphasized.
Usagi rolled her eyes. "Perish that thought," she replied. "Anyway, I won't keep you… just don't do anything I wouldn't do," she finished.
Mamoru raised his eyebrows and looked down at Usagi, eliciting a giggle from Ami.
"Don't mind us. Have fun," Mamoru put in.
Greg watched somewhat bemused as Mamoru and Usagi continued onwards. "Usagi's boyfriend I take it," he commented. "He almost looks old enough to be her teacher."
"No, he's still in University," Ami said, shaking her head.
She smiled slightly. Oddly, seeing Usagi had put her a little more at ease. It still might be best not to stand out in plain view though. Even with the crowd here… She turned.
"Want to go into the Hall of Mirrors over there?" she motioned.
Greg turned. "Sure… I'll see you in there in a second, just need to retie my shoelace…" he said, bending down. Ami nodded and proceeded over to the attraction.
Walking inside, it was like walking into a crystal or something, her image reflecting off every surface, sometimes at crazy angles. She moved through uncertainly. Odd how they could create tricks of the light and illusions of passages.
She turned. Where was Greg? Had he been held up? Ami almost hit her nose against one of her reflections as she looked about her. This was quite confusing! Might be interesting to analyze it sometime with her computer… she felt her way along.
What had happened to Greg? Surely he couldn't be that far back… Ami found herself at a dead end and retraced her steps. Had Greg just let her go in here to see if she could get through? Was this another of his strange jokes? Or… maybe something had happened to him? Or even… was he trying to… get rid of her?
Silly as her thoughts seemed, Ami suddenly felt more urgency as she tried to get through the maze.
This way… no, wait there was a passage… no, she was sure she'd been here before… no… no… Ami resisted the urge to cry out. This was silly, this was all so silly… but where was she… and where had Greg gone… and where was the passage… and there were too many of her in here and what should she do and she had to get out, find the exit where was the exit it was another mirror and she was trapped and what was going on and the EXIT, THERE it was at last.
Ami hurried out of the building, breathing a sigh of relief… that caught in her throat at who she saw before her. Greg. With Minako. Holding hands. This just wasn't happening, was it?
Ami stood silent for a moment, wondering if she shouldn't just slip off and leave the two of them together. But then Minako caught sight of her.
"Ami!" Minako called out. "Hi! My goodness it's amazing the number of people I know that I'm running into today. First Usagi, then Greg, now you!"
Ami approached cautiously, her heart in her throat. "You… you know Greg then?" she asked, surprised at how calm her voice sounded.
Minako nodded. "Sure, we go way back… how do you…? Oh, wait, transfer student named Greg at your school, of course… I didn't even think," she realized, putting two and two together. "You didn't say it was Greg ANDERSON. I mean, I know him from before I moved into the area… hm, possibly even before I met Artemis! Greg, you'll have to give me your current phone number… where are you staying?" she asked, turning back to him.
"Er…" Greg paused, glancing back at Ami.
Ami shrugged. It looked like yesterday's fears had not been unfounded after all.
"Er, it'd be easier if you gave me your number… I promise to call," Greg told Minako.
Minako paused, then wrote her number down. "All right, but you'd better call!" she said, slipping the paper into Greg's pocket. "Or I'll have to send people after you!"
Minako grinned. "Anyway, I have to be getting home… talk to you later! Oh, bye Ami," she added as she moved off.
Ami stared at Greg for a minute. "You didn't tell her," she observed.
Greg shrugged. "She seemed to know you. I didn't feel like explaining things right now, but didn't want to give her the wrong idea," he answered.
'Give her the wrong idea?' Ami thought. 'What idea is that?' "So you two were close?" Ami said uncertainly.
Greg shrugged again. "Well, yeah, kinda. We went out for a while, did the usual stuff."
The bottom dropped out of Ami's stomach. "Oh. Usual stuff. Right."
"Holidays I mean, that sort of thing," Greg clarified airily. "We never went too far. You were the first girl I ever actually kissed - and I didn't expect you to be awake."
Ami felt her body turning to jelly. How could he just toss that out so calmly??
"Then you admit… you actually… you… WHY?" she demanded, forcing out the question that had been plaguing her all week.
Greg quirked an eyebrow at her. "Why do you think, Ami-chan? Obviously because I LIKE you," he declared with a shrug.
Ami searched for her voice. Was he SERIOUS? He didn't sound that serious, he just sounded like he did all the time. But did he really…?
Greg winked at her and tilted his head slightly.
He wasn't being serious. This had to be one of his STUPID games… the other options were… were ones she didn't want to think about. It was all too much.
"You… you shouldn't talk about love so flippantly!" Ami heard herself say, and with that she turned and hurried away, just wanting to return home, to get away from Greg, away from Minako, away from the park and the world that seemed to be crashing down around her.
She remained in her room most of that night, studying, dismissing the day from her mind as best as she could.
*****
"You were out with Greg."
It was a statement, not a question, but Ami felt it deserved some sort of response anyway. "S-sort of," she admitted. "We were together at the amusement park yesterday. It… it didn't really mean anything though," she emphasized.
Actually, Ami had a feeling that it had meant something, but even now, twenty four hours later, she preferred not to consider it.
Urawa nodded to her and popped a candy into his mouth. "You like him."
Again, not really a question. But it hung in the air of the deserted school corridor, the other students having left the immediate area following the conclusion of their Monday classes.
"I-I don't know," Ami murmured, her eyes shifting down to her feet.
A couple of other students had also seen her and Greg together on Sunday. Of course, given Umino's Friday broadcast, word had gotten around. To Ami's relief it hadn't been as bad as she had feared; most people seeming to disbelieve the claim due to her history, a lack of proof, or whatever.
It didn't matter, really. Though it had been enough for Urawa to request a talk with her at the end of the day.
"I see," came the response. There was a pause. "I'm prepared to win you back any way possible," Urawa abruptly continued.
Ami remained silent, eyes on the floor, not sure what to say this time. There was a longer pause.
"Star candy?" Urawa offered, breaking the silence.
Ami looked up; Urawa was offering his bag of candy to her. "Er, all right…," Ami agreed, hesitantly taking one. She smiled slightly, trying to lighten the mood. "Some say these types of candies indicate a bond of friendship."
Urawa smiled back. "Yeah, I've heard that. I've actually heard a few different tales to do with these." He paused and looked at a candy in his hand. "I think it's also been said that they… taste like kisses. Weird, huh?"
Ami giggled and looked down at her own candy. "I wonder how they can claim that," she mused. "It's an odd comparison."
"One that might be fun to explore sometime…" Urawa commented.
"I suppose so," Ami nodded. There was another pause and Ami shifted her gaze back to Urawa.
She almost jumped back when she found Urawa standing directly in front of her, looking into her face.
"No time like the present?" he whispered.
This time it was a question. But there was no answer. The two of them stared at each other for another minute… then before Ami could protest, Urawa leaned in and kissed her.
<closing theme>
