Something is Very Wrong with Ami! And Usagi's a bloodhound when it comes to feelings.
So, in true MoonBunny fashion she's practically hauling the poor girl into the Crown and ushers her to a booth.
"Sit, sit!" Then she's off to order, and when she's done she plops down across from Ami and leans forward. "So...what's wrong?"
Ami hasn't been herself pretty much all day, and while Makoto knows why, she's also not about to reveal Ami's secrets without her permission. Of course, 'Ami not herself', in this case, means the girl has mostly reverted to her almost robotic non-emotional ways: focusing on studying, hardly conversing at all, and certainly not going out of her way to enjoy herself.
If it were anyone else, Ami might have turned down the request to go to the crown. But it's Usagi, and even at her worst, Ami cannot refuse Usagi. So instead she followed along numbly, reading a book the whole way there.
Ami sits as instructed and continues reading, right up until Usagi leans forward and invades her space to ask the question.
Tucking her thumb into the book, Ami lets it close, then looks up at Usagi. She frowns a little, debates telling her nothing's wrong, then realizes it's basically an effort in futility to try and dodge Usagi's concerns.
So she doesn't.
"I got back my test results," Ami explains very quietly.
Usagi perks up! "Oh! Really?! For where? What?"
But wait. This is supposed to be a good thing, right?
"But...that's a good thing, right? What did they say? How'd you do?"
Motoki brings over their drinks, an ice cream smoothie for Usagi loaded with nearly every topping, and a Coke for Ami. He ruffles Usagi's bangs and greets Ami with a cheerful wave before heading back to the counter to prepare their food.
After her little purr at the ruffle, she leans forward again. She takes a sip before she nearly snorts it out her nose as a horrible thought occurs to her! "Wait! You don't mean like...from the doctor, do you? Are you okay? You're not dying, are you?!"
Usagi slams her hands on the table and stands up, eyes brimming with tears. "I will be with you until the end! I will nurse you back to health!"
Ami shrugs just a little at Usagi's question of whether it's a good thing. Non-commital, however, gives Usagi plenty of time to make up scenarios in her head. When Usagi stands and declares her intention to stay by Ami's side, the bluenette's mouth falls agape. She stares at Usagi as if the blonde has grown a second head, utterly uncertain what to say.
It's only a few seconds before Ami recovers from her confusion and shock. She covers her mouth politely as she giggles, just a little. It's so hard to stay melancholy around Usagi; her infectuous personality draws a smile even when Ami's determined to be sad.
"That's very sweet of you," Ami replies, heart a little lightened for her friend's antics, "but it's not a doctor's tests."
With a little sigh, Ami banishes the lighter mood back into its closet. She reaches down into her leather satchel, and pulls forth a trio of opened letters.
One, two, and three get placed before Usagi.
"If you need help reading the one that's in English, we can use it to work on your vocabulary. The other two are self explanatory, I should think."
Usagi slumps down in RELIEF when Ami says there's no doctor tests! "Oh thank goodness!"
Then she sticks her tongue out because Ami giggled at her!
She accepts the envelopes but gives her friend the stink eye. "Ami-chan. I have no tests coming up. I actually have no homework tonight." She leans forward, letters still in hand as she pleads. "Don't make me study when I don't have to pleeeeeease!"
Still, she opens the letters. The first one English, ew, that gets set aside.
The second she reads over. "Oh! Kawasaki University is so smart!" She reads on before folding the letter back up, preening and wiggling at her friend's behalf.
"Of course they want you."
The third she opens as she clears her throat. Her pleased expression turns confused, then annoyed, then she's bristling with Righteous Ingignation!
Once again she's standing, glowering at the piece of paper! "How dare they!" And she's...yelling at a piece of paper. "Ami-chan is the smartest girl in the world! You...you plebians! Uncultured swine!"
Ami reaches for the letters, one at a time, and folds them back up. They're replaced, one after the next, in their envelopes--all except the one Usagi's still clutching in her indignation. "Yes, well," she says, "apparently I'm not quite the samrtest girl in the world. It's a little disheartening, but probably for the best. I was silly to think I could skip ahead by three whole years like that."
Usagi rolls her eyes and lets her scoff be heard. "HAH!"
She sits down with a humph and crosses her arms for a moment. Then she straightens up. "You are the smartest girl in the world. They're just too stupid to see it! The other one likes you!"
Then she sort of wiggles in place. "Does the one in English like you, too?"
"The 'other one'," Ami explains to Usagi gently, "is the least respected medical university in Japan. They're looking to boost their popularity by taking an edgy move like bringing a high schooler into town, rather than to support me."
She sighs and folds up the last note, then shrugs, "The german one also wants me to come study there, yes. I didn't apply to them, nor to the one at Kawasaki, so I'm a little confused by both of them."
"Oh, are they not good?" She looks at the Kawasaki letter. "Think they'd take me?"
She blinks and her eyes widen. "Germany...wants you?" She tries very hard not to sound like her heart is breaking!
She clears her throat. "Pffff, of course they do. Are you going?"
She tilts her head in confusion. "Schools don't have a mailing list when you apply to one?"
Ami eyes the letter from Germany uncertainly. She shrugs just a little, then admits, "I don't know. I feel like the German university is a trap of some kind; it's like one of Zoisite's schemes when he was Beryl's pawn, still. But it's a good opportunity, probably."
She frowns a little, then says, "You don't want to go to Kawasaki. You should find a good school for psychology and communications. But you should also fi nish high schoool, first." What a hypocrite.
"Anyways I don't think there's a mailing list like that," Ami explains, "so it's a bit odd."
Usagi really hopes her sigh of relief isn't too noticeable.
And then she feels really guilty. You know. 'I just kissed your boyfriend' guilty. (Not that she'd kiss Takashi. Yuck.)
"I mean, well, if it isn't. And you wanna. Go I mean. I'll be really sad but it'd probably be real good for your school stuff. Or something. But I hope its a trick. Because I'm selfish. But if it weren't."
Usagi blinks in surprise and then blushes. "Really? You think I should go for that?" But! It sounds so...grown up! She scoffs and waves her hand. "Of course I'd finish high school first. I'm not as smart as you."
She scratches the back of her neck and flounders a bit. "Well...I don't know. I only know about college things because of TV and listening to you and Mamo-chan."
"I really do think you're amazing with people," Ami says to Usagi honestly, as she spins the untouched coke gently onthe table. "Counseling, therapy, writing ... if you put your mind to it, Usagi-chan, you can do just about anything in those fields."
She shifts a little, uncomfortably, and pulls out the rejection letter again. Unfolding it, Ami sets it on the table to read it over another time, then sighs. "Like I told Makoto, I think I was dumb to try and get in this early. I don't know why I was even trying; I guess I just got it in my head that I was smart enough to skip the usual process. But even if I'm top of our class, I'm still just an ordinary girl."
Usagi blushes happily at that. A goal! "I do like people!"
Ideas! Options! Her mind races forward!
Usagi rolls her eyes. "You're only a dummy for thinking you're dumb, you dummy." She huffs, because how rude of the university! "I think you'd have gotten in no problem if attendance hadn't affected your grade. And how does it do that, anyway? You haven't missed that much school!"
"Well, it didn't affect my grade in middle school," Ami explains to Usagi gently. "It's just that I spent almost four months in Peru, and those were the most important studying months. I missed almost half the school year, Usagi-chan, between that, and being trapped in the maze."
Usagi's eyes widen a little. "Half?" Then she looks confused and tilts her head. "I thought they said you could go, though. Why would they say that and then use it against you like that? It doesn't make sense. Unless they're mean. Are they mean?"
Ami makes an unhappy face and looks away from Usagi, back towards the letter. "They didn't say I could go," she expresses. "What they said was that I could take the tests, and if I did well enough they would allow me to take a half load. And the high school said they would allow me to miss classes to do so, if I still did all the homework and tests, and maintained a perfect grade average."
Usagi blinks for a moment. "What? No. I meant in Peru. You did a bunch of your work there, right? That's gotta be a lot more tough than taking college as well. There's like...ebola in the jungle or something."
"I did my schoolwork," Ami agrees with a faint nod of her head, "And I tried to study. But we spent a lot of time delving into the mysteries of dark energy, there. There wasn't really enough time to study. And even when I was trying to study, Takashi was frequently ... trying to ..." she trails off, then clears her throat. "You know. Cuddle."
"Ohhhhhhh." She's still confused. And angry, because Tokyo University is full of dummies.
But oh well.
Her eyes widen. With other girls, she'd probably squeal. But Ami doesn't seem to like much in the way of cuddles unless it was with one of the girls. But Ami was comfy with them! "Did he try to make you cuddle? Do I gotta kick his butt?"
Ami shrugs just a little and tosses her head side to side non-committally. "I got used to it, after a while," she explains. "Kindof. We had a big fight about kissing, at one point, but I think I got through to him. It's hard, because his family life is so awful, and he doesn't have anyone to cuddle with. It's one of the things he desperately wants in life. And I can sympathize, but ... I'm also just not very comfortable with touching people that aren't one of us."
She sighs again. "I hope so."
She taps her chin in thought. Hmmmm. "Do you think he needs a giant teddy bear? You know, so he can cuddle? It's not the same, but it is a lot better than cuddling nothing."
She fidgets a bit. "It's something to work on. But it's also not something that would happen right away. You're more cuddly now than you were like a year ago."
"More than a year ago?" Ami considers, thinking back. "I dunno if that's true. A year ago I was happy to cuddle with you and Mako-chan any time. But certainly more cuddly than I was two years ago, before I knew you both. Or rather, I actually have outlets for my desire to cuddle which I didn't back then."
She finally takes a sip of her coke, thinks a moment, then asks, "Do you think he'd like a giant teddy bear? I know when he was dating Kaname-san, she gave him a teddybear that looked like him. Wouldn't a giant teddy bear just be ... I dunno, frivolous?"
Usagi rolls her eyes and waves her hand. "Potato tomato. You were always cuddly with Mako-chan and me. I meant with him! Or something!"
Then she gasps and leans back. Her expression looks almost as though Ami had suggested food is stupid. "How are teddy bears frivolous?! And if it was a small teddy bear, it apparently didn't do that job!"
Ami shrugs a little, then says, "I suppose it can't hurt. But I don't want to get him one that just looks like him. That'd be ... weird. Maybe I can make it a polar bear, and get it to look like me, or something. Do you think that's too corny?"
There food arrives and Usagi is quick to steal a fry. "Ohhhh! Not weird at all! I wanna make one that's dressed in a tuxedo for me and a bunny for Mamo-chan! And people do that all the time! There are tons of places you can do it at, too!"
Food is here, OMNOM!
And of course, Usagi is always happy to talk plushies.