wrote some more chunks of Perdition today. So you get some pieces of Paved! Huzzah. I should really finish the Laufey sequence of Waiting, but… nah. Writing things in chronological sequence is boring.

Wow. Until I typed this up I didn’t realize how many tense changes was in this piece. Fantastic.

prompt: FOOD
series: Wrapped Up In You
timeline:  Paved With Good Intentions
characters:  Usagi, Brady
words: 931
summary: (An overdue discussion. And dessert)

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“You can have one or the other, but not both.” Brady’s voice is teasing as he sets the pair of paper plates on the table between them with a flourish. Her head is still down, and there is a faint trembling to her shoulders that he takes as laughter as she leans forwards to claim the strawberry shortcake. His answering grin is appreciative and amused, and he starts in on the piece of blueberry pie he’d grabbed for himself. That was always the way, of course: Brady would bring a slice of cake and whatever dessert had caught his fancy that day, and Usagi would always pick the cake. Her sweet tooth was delightfully predictable that way.

He’s taken a full three bites of his pie before he realizes that she isn’t even pretending to eat her cake. “Rabbit?”

She’s still got her head down, her hair falling in a curtain to hide her face as she curls herself around her plate. Her fingers flex randomly on the fork, like she’s not sure what she really wants to do with it. When she finally looks up at him, her eyes are puffy and her face is splotchy and red with tears. For a tense moment, Brady’s brain short circuits and all he wants is for one of her cheerleader friends to show up and deal with this instead of him. 

But no, that would be too much to ask for, and he’s left by himself to try to navigate his friend’s emotions and put all her pieces back together. “What happened?”

“Mamoru…” is all she manages to get out before she starts sniffling again, fingers pressing into the corners of her eyes like that will stop the tears from coming.

Brady’s jaw tenses and his expression darkens into a scowl. “What did he do now?”

Usagi shakes her head, looking back down at her hands. She twists her fork almost to the verge of breaking. “He didn’t do anything, Tyson.”

“So this is… what, because he walked past you or something?” Brady may have known the girl for more than a decade, but he doesn’t think that he will ever reall understand the strange paths her mind took.

“No… No. We just… talked.”

“About what?” he really wants to end the question with ‘how he’s a cheating scumbag?’, but he has long since learned that holding his tongue when it came to Mamoru Chiba tended to result in far less tears and running make-up. 

Of course, now would be the time that Usagi has picked up telepathy, as her answer is: “He didn’t cheat on me.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Brady drops his fork onto his pie and makes a T for ‘timeout’ with his hands. “You saw him.”

“It was a misunderstanding,” she sniffles, and he wants to ask how having his tongue in another girl’s mouth is a misunderstanding, but she’s continuing before he can be indignant on her behalf. “She kissed him just that once. I… I didn’t stay long enough to see him push her away.” 

Mamoru may not have actually said that he’d done so, but she still believes whole heartedly in him and their love. Brady, on the other hand, isn’t convinced. In fact, if the expression on his face was anything to go by, he was the exact opposite of convinced. “Please tell me that you didn’t take him back.”

“No.” At this, Brady feels the first definable spark of relief. “He hurt me too much this time for me to just brush it all away again, Tyson.”

Brady frowns, but once again bites his tongue. There’s an argument to be had here, but it’s one they’ve had in their mid-teens, and there isn’t really a reason to bring it all up again now that it seems she’s actually following his advice. Five years may have been a long time, but it was better late than never, he figures.

“So you’ve gone an officially dumped him, then?”

“It’s more…” she pauses for a moment, expression twisting before she slips into Japanese. She’s still far better at articulating herself in her native tongue than in English. “We’re… on pause, I guess. I need to find myself before we pick up.”

“How long will that take?” his response is in English. He’s perfectly capable of responding in Japanese, he just doesn’t want to. The way he sees it, Japanese is Usagi’s language, and she doesn’t want to be Usagi. 

“I don’t know…” she bites her lip. “Tyson, what if he finds someone else?”

“What if you do?”

“What?”

Brady leans across the table. “Now I’m not saying you go out and find yourself a new guy. What I’m saying is that if you find yourself falling in love while finding yourself, don’t cling to Mamoru’s memory, okay?”

“But…”

“Look, nothing is set in stone, okay? Least of all who you’re allowed to be with, Miss Rabbit.”

A strange look crosses her face then, a twisted sort of realization followed by pained determination. Brady smiles as she switches her grip on her fork and digs into the cake. He watches her take a couple bites before he goes to pick up his fork and sees his watch. 

“Crap. I’m going to be late. You alright by yourself? I can skip if—”

“I’ll be fine, go to class. I just… need to think, okay?”

“If you’re sure…”

“I am.” He searches her face for any lingering doubt, but all he finds is a sad little smile. It doesn’t reassure him very much, but despite what he said, he can’t really skip this class. He hefts his bag back onto his shoulder and turns to leave.

“Tyson?”

“Yeah, Rabbit?”

“Can I have the rest of your pie?”