"You really want to eat at this restaurant that badly?" Yuuta asked as Fuyuko led him down the street.

"Very much so," she said. "I would go alone, but I think showing up at a high end establishment by myself will make me look like I was stood up. You don't mind eating with me, right?" Fuyuko smiled at him, and he pulled at his dress shirt collar uncomfortably. She had insisted on him putting on some better clothes to go out, and he ended up wearing a brand new white shirt with dark gold trim, along with a dark pair of slacks and shoes instead of his usual sneakers.

"Whatever you say..." he muttered. "Just as long as I don't have to pay for it." They entered the restaurant, and Fuyuko had them led to a more private area that she had reserved online earlier. 

"See, this isn't that bad," she said, sitting across the table from him. He looked around the room, decorated to mimic an old fashioned Japanese sitting room. He failed to notice the tiny camera set up in a corner however.

---

"I can't believe I actually set up that camera for Minako..." Ami said, sitting in another part of the restaurant as she fiddled with her Mercury Computer. Makoto watched her work curiously, having also somehow been roped into their current mess by Minako. And now they were stuck waiting for the Love Goddess herself to join them at the table, after setting up Amina.

"Well, you said she had some kind of love lett-" Ami shivered at the almost completed sentence, the thought of a love letter nearly setting her off again.

"Mako, please! Can we just...not mention that word?" 

"Oops, sorry..."

"Minako, why do I have to wear this dress, why can't I wear a pair of dress pants and a nice blouse?" she asked, wanting to fidget in the dress. She normally never wore them, but Minako had insisted that they go out tonight to try this new restaurant and dress up for it. The younger blonde was still trying to cheer Amina up after the near disaster with Kazaki and had dragged her out shopping to buy a new dress for the evening.

Amina had to admit that Minako had good tastes as the dress did look good on her. It was a royal purple halter dress that fell to just below her knees. There was a rhinestone buckle that sat just above where the dress flared out into an empire waist, which hugged and accentuated her generous curves. Minako had done Amina's hair in a simple elegant twist that accentuated her neck, which was adorned by a delicate silver chain holding a small tear drop shaped amethyst pendant that ended at the top of the sweetheart neckline of the dress.

"It'll be fine, you worry too much! Besides, dressing up once in a while is fun," Minako grinned as they entered the restaurant. Show time! Amina followed the blonde as they entered the restaurant and went to a private dinning room.

"Yuuta, Fuyuko? What are you guys doing here?" Amina asked confused. She couldn't help but notice that Yuuta was dressed up. He looked good, wearing a white dress shirt with that gold trim. She always had appreciated a well dressed man and right now, Yuuta definitely fit the bill. She blushed at her thoughts. Now was not the time to be admiring him. Or perhaps it was. How often was she going to see him like this anyway? May as well commit it to memory.

Her Dress:

Yuuta looked up from his menu when the door to their private room slid open, revealing Minako and Amina. It took him a moment to process what she was wearing, but when he did, he stared for a few seconds, long enough for someone to notice.

"Oh, hello!" Fuyuko said, waving at them. "I didn't expect to see you here." She nudged Yuuta under the table, and he snapped out of his trance. He blushed and nodded to Amina before looking down again. Fuyuko's cellphone buzzed, and she took it out to check who was calling. "It's Kumoka...Oh no, I just remembered that I had promised to take her to see a movie today, sorry Yuuta." She stood up and walked away from the table.

"Wait, what?" Yuuta said, about to stand up too.

"Don't leave for my sake, why don't you stay and eat while I go back to the hotel? I'm sure Amina and Minako-san will sit with you."

Amina almost didn't notice when Fuyuko got up and left, she was too enthralled with how good Yuuta looked in dress clothes. She frowned; it wasn't like Fuyuko to double book herself like that. She was one of the most organized people Amina knew. Amina felt herself being all but dragged to the table by Minako and nearly fell when the other blonde pushed her to the table.



"Yes Yuuta, you absolutely must stay!" Minako gushed, grinning to herself. Everything was going to plan so far! Fuyuko had managed to get Yuuta here and even got him to dress up. The Goddess of Love had to admit that he cleaned up well and if her close friend wasn't so in love with him and he with her, she would have tried her luck with him herself.

Now that they were here, Minako was planning on staying with the two love birds to help ease the conversation. She had a feeling if left to their own devices in this situation, things would get awkward and fast. Then once things were going well, she'd make an excuse and leave the two alone. When Amina picked up the menu, Minako grabbed Yuuta's attention and mouthed "Tell her tonight," to him, nodding her head in Amina's direction.

It took a while, but Minako was finally able to get the conversation flowing. She made an excuse to go to the bathroom and quickly left the room. Finding a waiter, she asked him to deliver a message to her friends in about 10 minutes then headed to the room where Mako and Ami were waiting for her. Grinning she flounced over and sat in the seat opposite of the pair.

"So, how's the video feed?"

Yuuta blushed, but didn't say anything in response to Minako's silent words. Could he really tell Amina tonight? What if she didn't like him like that? He swallowed hard and tried to act natural. After Minako left, he said,

"So you were dragged here too, huh? I think we were set up..." Yuuta smiled. "This isn't the worse place to get ditched though. What do you want to eat?" he asked. 

---

Ami didn't look up at Minako when she sat down, focused on her task. "It's coming along," she said. "I just need to adjust the lens and...got it!" Ami pushed a button, and the futuristic device projected a small image of Yuuta and Amina's room for them to see. Pushing aside the moral implications of what she'd just done, she was pretty proud of herself for rigging the camera up. 

"So now that we have video, are we just going to watch them for a few hours?" Makoto asked, sitting back and crossing her arms. "You promised we weren't going to interfere too much, remember?" Mako wasn't entirely sure why she was getting so defensive over Yuuta, considering she had only met him a day ago.

"No, I've been ditched at worse. I've heard the food here is really good though," she said, flipping through the menu idly. Like the food was rumored to be really, really good. It was a Japanese/Western fusion restaurant and also incredibly hard to get into. Amina had no idea how Fuyuko and Minako had gotten a reservation so quickly.

"We could always get a few dishes and share?" Amina offered, knowing that most Asian cultures tended to do a family style way of eating where they all shared a few dishes, compared to western way of doing thing where one person had one dish and they didn't share. She really wanted to tell him how good he looked in a suit but she wasn't sure if she could do it without messing the entire thing up. As she was about to say something, a waiter came in and told them he had a message for them.

"Your friend Minako-san sends her deepest regrets. She said she has received a phone call from Usagi and has had to leave. She said to continue the meal without her and to have fun," the waiter said in a monotone voice.

"I hope everything's alright," Amina said worriedly.




"I told Yuuta to tell her tonight, so hopefully if all goes well, I won't have to do anything!" Minako said smiling. "Have we ordered any food yet, I'm starving and tonight's on Fuyuko!"

"I'm sure it's not too big of a deal..." Yuuta said, trying to comfort her. If there was a big emergency, someone would tell them right?  "How about we start off with a sushi platter?" he suggested, looking at the menu. it was more to avert his eyes from Amina so he could concentrate. She looked beautiful in her dress, but he wasn't sure how to say it without sounding weird about it. He really wanted to compliment her though.


"Uh..." Yuuta gulped and put his menu down. "That dress... You look really good in it," he forced out despite his awkwardness. That was reasonable, right?

---

"You think he's really going to do it?" Makoto asked. 

"Minako, we're not taking advantage of Fuyuko-san's kindness, I'll pay for us," Ami said. "I ordered an appetizer a few minutes ago." 

"It was some Western food called cheese sticks, they looked pretty good," Mako said, looking at the video again. "I think they're talking about something different now, Yuuta-kun's really flustered."

"Thank you," Amina replied, smiling at his compliment. She could feel her cheeks heat up with a blush. She never could take a compliment without blushing, which tended to embarrass her even further. The blonde was glad that Yuuta liked the dress. Minako had made her buy it and she hadn't been sure about it. "You look really good dressed like that yourself."

"R-really?" Yuuta asked, scratching the back of his head. "I'm not really used to this kind of clothing..." he admitted with a blush. He felt so strange walking around with it on, but if Amina liked it, maybe Fuyuko was onto something. Soon a waiter came to take their order, and brought them their sushi. It looked really good, but Yuuta stopped himself from taking a piece and pushed the platter closer to Amina first.

"Why don't you have first pick?" he offered. That was romantic, right? Or at least polite...

----
"I told her he'd notice the dress!" Minako said, eating a cheese stick as she watched the video feed intently. "It's only a matter of time before he confesses..."

"You're really that certain?" Ami asked. 

"Well, he did just share food with her, that's definitely a big step for a guy to take..." Makoto said. "Maybe he is building up for a confession."

"I recognize most of the fish here," she said. Salmon was her favourite. "What's this one?" She asked, indicating the dark red and white fish on the right side of the bowl. She had a good idea that the white stuff in the middle should be tuna if she was right. She grabbed a piece of salmon sashimi as she waited for Yuuta's reply. She moaned softly. God, this was so good! The salmon here tasted so much better than it did back home.

---

On the other side of the restaurant, a youma, disguised as a human entered. He could sense senshi here. He would destroy them. He sensed them in two separate groups. He headed towards the smaller group. They would be easier to get ride of first then he would go for the group of three.

THE SUSHI!:

"I don't know..." Yuuta said, picking up one of the unidentified sushi pieces with his chopsticks. He inspected it closer, he decided to taste it and see if he could recognize it that way. He shoved the piece into his mouth and chewed. "I think it's tuna." He said around the food, before realizing what he had done. He swallowed hard and blushed again, only for it to deepen when she moaned in pleasure. "It's really that good?" he asked.

---

"Well, at least he's trying..." Makoto said, smiling. He wasn't very good with manners, but Yuuta was making the effort. The Mercury Computer suddenly started to beep, and the screen switched to a radar system. 

"Hm? What's this?" Ami typed for a few seconds and the radar zoomed in on a particular part of Tokyo, the restaurant they were in. A red dot flashed on it. "It's picking up a signal of a youma very close by..." Ami frowned in thought and continued to rapidly type. "But I thought all of the youma were destroyed with the Dark Kingdom?" 

"Can you get the exact loaction?" Makoto asked. "Where is it in here?" 

"It says that it just...walked past us? Its moving towards the back of the building." Minako looked around the room carefully, before her eyes fell on the strange man walking towards the private room.

"I think I found it," Minako said, getting up from her seat. She sounded deadly serious. "Mako, help  me get this thing out before it hurts anyone. Ami, stay here and watch Amina and Yuuta. I don't want them to have to bother with it. Makoto got up and followed her as well, the transformation tool in her hand already. They both went to the nearest bathroom to get out of sight.

Amina nodded to Yuuta's question. "The salmon here in Japan tastes different. Better different actually. The flavours are a lot more complex and deeper. I wonder if it has to do with the fish being a lot more fresh here? Japan's an island nation that has plenty of fresh fish and Tokyo has the Tsukiji fish market too. By the time we got the fish at home, it had to be frozen to remain safe for transport. I think freezing removes some of the flavours."

Taking another piece of salmon, she poped it in her mouth, trying not to moan again as the rich flavours assaulted her taste buds. She didn't want to embarrass herself or make Yuuta uncomfortable after all, or think she was weird.


___________________________________________________________________________________


Sensing two the of the senshi coming closer that had been on the other side of the restaurant, the Youma decided to change tactics. Having lost the element of surprise in the restaurant, it quickly headed back outside and up onto a nearby roof, transforming into its true self. It lay in wait for the senshi, planning on ambushing them from above.

Yuuta thought about it for a moment, and realized that Amina was probably right. Most of the fish his family used was from a local market, and they were never packaged for more than a couple of days. 

"You're probably right," he said. "I would have never thought of that. You're so smart, no wonder you're a teacher." She took another bite, but didn't say anything this time. Did she not like it anymore? 

"Did you get a bad piece?" Yuuta asked.

---

Sailor Venus and Sailor jupiter came running out of the bathroom, leaving a small crowd of confused people in their wake.

"Where'd it go?" Venus asked, looking around. 

"The rooftop of the next building over!" Ami said, looking intently at the computer map. "I think it caught on." The two Sailor Senshi ran outside to check, and spotted the monster. It was a humanoid youma this time, with glowing eyes, a twisted smile, and writhing snakes for hair. The youma cackled when it spotted them, and the glow in its eyes intensified before it fired twin laser beams. Jupiter and Venus threw themselves out of the way, and the beam exploded the ground where they stood.

"Crescent Beam!"

"Supreme Thunder!" The youma backed away as both the burst of light and the beam of lighting were shot back at it. 

"We need to get on the roof with it, it'll just keep dodging at this rate..." Jupiter said. She found a fire escape and pulled it down. "We can use this." Venus nodded and followed her up the side of the building.

She couldn't help but blush when he called her smart. She wanted to disagree with him, tell him that she really wasn't that smart, but she kept silent.

"Huh, no, the fish is perfectly fine." She was about to say more but stopped when she noticed a waitress brought them more food and put it down on the table. It looked like thinly cut beef and a big bowl of what appeared to be broth.

"What is this?" she asked curiously.

------

"Venus, I think it's dead," Jupiter commented, as she watched her friend repeatedly stomp on the youma's head and yelling about interrupting true love. Honestly, she'd never seen her friend go after a youma with so much passion and energy before. If Jupiter was honest with herself, she kind of felt bad for it, as it never stood a chance against the Senshi of Love and Beauty from the moment it walked into the restaurant.

"Oh, this is shabu shabu," Yuuta said. "You have to dip the beef in the broth and eat it, like this..." He demonstrated the technique for her, picking up a piece of beef with his chopstick and swishing it around in the hot liquid. He held the piece out to Amina. "Here, try it!"

---

"It better be dead!" Sailor Venus huffed and backed off from the Youma. It crumbled into black ashes. "Nothing gets between me and my love plans, not even evil!"

"Whatever you say..." Jupiter scratched the back of her head and sighed. "Let's go back to the restaurant." They jumped down to the street again, and were suddenly swarmed by...fans?

"Wow, it's the Sailor Senshi!"

"Can I get a picture?"

"Sign my manga book, Sailor Venus!" It turned out that the building they were fighting on was a book store, filled with kids on a school trip. About 20 of them were yelling and begging for attention, leaving no room to escape. 

"Okay, okay, hold on!" With a dramatic hair flip that got the kids even more excited, she started signing their merchandise. "Hey Jupiter, I could use some help over here!"

"I'm kind of busy right now!" she called back, struggling to stay upright from the weight of the kids hanging off her limbs to take photos.

Leaning over, she ate the shabu shabu from the chopsticks. Leaning back, she moaned as the flavour of the broth hit her tongue. The beef was so tender too! Her eyes flew open from where they had shut with pleasure when she realized what she had done.

"Oh goddess, Yuuta I'm so sorry," she said, unable to look at him. She had just committed a huge taboo. In Japanese society it was considered extremely rude to eat from someone's else's chopsticks. If someone offered you food you use the back of yours to take it and put it on your plate then eat it. In the west with a friend she was close with, she would have just eaten it from the fork or spoon and they would do the same with her. How could she forget? She's been in Japan for so long now. It wasn't her first time she'd been out at a restaurant with a Japanese friend either.

She swallowed past the lump that was rapidly forming in her throat. What was she going to do?



Ami watched as Amina remained embarrassed, refusing to look at Yuuta. The blue haired woman was aware how close friends in the west shared food and chuckled at Amina's predicament. It looked like her friend was pretty comfortable with Yuuta if she forgot that social rule. She found herself curious see how Yuuta would react. It would be a shame if he got angry and ruined what could be such a great relationship between Amina and Yuuta.

Yuuta was far more surprised than angry. He hadn't really thought that Amina would eat right off his chopsticks like that. Did that mean they had just...indirectly kissed? Yuuta reddened at the idea, but he did like it. 

"I-it's okay, don't worry about it," he said, before picking up another piece to eat himself. "See? No problem. You want another bite?" Yuuta asked. He didn't want her going back into her shell after they had finally gotten relaxed with each other.

Looking up, the senshi was surprised to see that Yuuta wasn’t mad at her. When he asked if she wanted another bite, she nodded slowly. About to grab her chopsticks, she stopped short when he offered her a piece of cooked meat. Wondering if she was reading the look in his eyes right, she leaned forward slowly, keeping her eyes locked on his. She delicately took the piece of offered meat from the chopsticks, chewing it slowly to savour the delicious flavour as she sat back. Amina was beginning to feel as if a blush was permanently stained on her cheeks as he continued to feed her bits of shabu shabu. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t look away from him, she felt so captivated in the moment.

“Your next course,” the waiter said, bringing Amina crashing back to the real world. Oh, the next course they ordered look so delicious!

“Thank you!” she said, beaming up at the waiter.

Yuuta smiled as Amina ate from his chopsticks again, happy that she wasn't scared off. He continued giving her bits of food, fully enjoying himself as he concentrated on her as well. When a different waiter came with a new plate, Yuuta watched as Amina smiled up at him. A flash of jealousy went through him, and he unconsciously squeezed the chopsticks in his hands. When the man left, Amina could hear a loud snap as the chopsticks broke.

Hearing a snapping sound, Amina looked over, seeing the snapped chopstick in his hand. How had he managed that? Unless you purposely tried to snap them in half using two hands, they were pretty hard to break, being made of bamboo.

"Are you ok?" she asked worriedly.

"Hm?" Yuuta looked down at his hand, and was shocked to see his chopsticks broken. When did he do that? He quickly hid his hand under the table, realizing he was bleeding. "I'm fine," he said, embarrassed. What was wrong with him, blanking out like that?

Noticing the blood on Yuutas hand as he tried to hide it, Amina frowned. Fine her behind. Standing up, she made her way around the table, sitting down beside him, close so their knees were touching. Gently she drew his hand out from beneath the table. Bringing it up so she could see, she carefully inspected the hand. It didn't look like there were any small splinters, just one big one that was causing the blood, in the middle of his palm

Grabbing a clean cloth napkin from the table, she placed it on her knees before grabbing another one. Using the second one, she covered her hand with it, protecting herself from getting any splinters, she grasp the wood and gentle tugged removing it. Using the napkin still in her hand, she dabbed at the wound, slowing down the blood and cleaning the area as best as she good. Tossing the used one onto the floor beside her, she grabbed the napkin she had placed on her lap earlier, using it to bandage the wound. Not stopping to think what she was doing, she leaned down to kiss his bandage palm.

"There, all better."

Yuuta had no idea what Amina was doing when she got up to sit next to him, but he didn't protest when she sat down again, and started working on his hand. He winced as she pulled the splinter out, and she started cleaning and covering it up. When she kissed his hand, instead of pulling away form her, he took her hand and moved closer to her, pulling her closer as well. 

"Thank you..." he said quietly, looking her in the eyes. Should he do it now? After hesitating, he moved even closer until his lips met hers. It wasn't a deep kiss, as he wasn't sure how comfortable she was at the moment, and a few seconds later he broke it, blushing heavily, but he didn't look away. "I...I kind of have something to tell you."

Before she could even say you're welcome, Yuuta's lips pressed against hers in a chaste kiss. It was too short for Amina's liking and when he broke away, she found herself unconsciously following him, trying to capture his lips. She could hear him asking her something and she forced her brain to start functioning again. Opening her eyes, when had they even closed, she hadn't even noticed, she looked at him. He was nervous about something and that made the happy giddy feeling she'd been riding morph into a cold knot in her stomach.

"What is it?" she asked, barely able to force the words out past the lump in her throat. Was he going to tell her it was a mistake, that he hadn't meant to?

"I...uh..." Yuuta swallowed hard, gauging her reaction to the kiss before he tried to talk. She didn't look offended or upset, so maybe this was the right thing to do. 

"I think I've been sort of...um...crushing on you since that time in Crystal Tokyo. And when I was back here I realized just how much I missed you, way more than I would a friend. Amina...I think I love you."

_______________________________________________________________

Back at the table, Ami had been watching the camera feed for a few minutes, steadily going redder in the face, but not being able to look away. It was like watching a romance novel play out. 

By the time Minako and Makoto had finally gotten back into the restaurant, Ami seemed to be in a state of shock, blushing hard enough for them to get a little concerned.

"Are you okay? What happened?" Mako asked, sliding into the seat next to her and grabbing her shoulder.

"T-they kissed..." Ami said after a few moments. 

"Wait, what?" Minako almost knocked her two friends down to see the camera. "When?!"

"He also c-confessed."

"I can't believe I missed it! This is some kind of evil plot, isn't it?"

He what? He was in love with her? How was this possible? Was he being serious, or had Minako put him up to this as some sort of joke?

"I love you too," she said, hoping that this wasn't a joke or a dream.

~~~

"Please tell me you recorded this!" Minako asked Ami.

"Guys, come here, it looks like Amina is about to answer him!" Mako said, calling the two other senshi's attention back to the computer.

"R-really?" Yuuta said, not believing it for a second. He thought he was going to get rejected for sure. Why would anyone  like him of all people back? Her words slowly sunk in, and he smiled before pulling her into a tight hug.

"Thank you!" he said to Amina. "I...you don't know what this means to me...I'm not what I'd do if you said you didn't." He had no idea how he would have handled that rejection.

____________________________________________________________

Ami frowned at Minako, having recovered enough to think straight again. "I did, but...I'm deleting it after this. It's not right to record something private like that."

"Yeah yeah, I get it..." Minako strained to see the image over Mako's shoulder. "Oh my gosh, she said it back!" She squealed loud enough for the other two girls to wince. 


"Yes, we saw it too..." Mako said, holding her ear. She looked back at the video and smiled. "Aw, they're really sweet together." Maybe this whole force them on a date plan wasn't as terrible as she had thought.

"I didn't think you'd like me back, honestly," she admitted, having a hard time looking at him while she admitted it. Part of her still felt like this wasn't real, like it was a dream. Even if it is a dream, may as well enjoy sitting with him like this, she mused to herself.

She was drawn out of her thoughts when the door to their private room opened again and a waitress came in with more food. Amina blushed as she realized how close they were sitting due to the kiss. Being this close to him, even if they were officially dating, which to be honest, she wasn't sure what they were at the moment, still wasn't very appropriate for public in Japan. If they were in the west, they probably would have been able to get away with it. She began to shift away, not wanting to break any more social taboos tonight.

"What, why would I not like you back?" Yuuta asked, before lifting her chin up with a finger. "You're really nice to me, and you help people all the time. I couldn't deal with being around a bunch of high school brats all day as a job... And not to mention you're pretty." He seemed to catch himself and he trailed off. "Sorry if I'm talking too fast..." The room door opened again, and he jumped a little before he saw it was just the waitress, looking at them. At first he was embarrassed, but when Amina tried to move away, he stopped her by holding her hand. Yuuta didn't want to hide his feelings, even if it was only a stranger seeing them.

"Oh! Um, sorry if I interrupted anything..." The waitress flushed and walked out again, and Yuuta smiled to himself. 

"Now where were we..?" Yuuta grabbed his chopsticks and picked up a piece of food. "Oh yeah, we should finish dinner." The rest of the night went smoothly, with them sitting together much closer than usual. When the bill for the meal came, Yuuta went for his wallet and realized that someone had slipped him an extra wad of Yen, enough to cover it. He'd have to thank Fuyuko again later. As they walked towards the exit, Yuuta heard a now familiar set of voices.

"Hold on a second," he said to Amina, before leaning over one of the booths to look into it. "What are you guys doing here?" Minako, Ami, and Makoto looked startled before trying to cover up what was happening.

"Ha ha, fancy meeting you two here! Still having fun?" Minako asked, as Mako helped Ami frantically clean up her equipment behind her.

About to answer him why he wouldn't like her back, she was a freak and she didn't understand why he didn't see that, but decided against it when she heard the waitress come in and bring them new food. They spent the rest of the night trading jokes and stories as they ate and Yuuta continued to feed her bites here and there.

When Yuuta stopped as they were leaving to look over a booth and ask the people what they were doing there, Amina was intruiged. It was obviously someone he knew. With curiosity biting at her heels, she moved so she could see who was in the booth.

"Minako, I thought you had to leave in a rush to help Usagi," Amina said, giving the younger blonde her patented "I'm very disappointed in you" teacher look.