Chapter Text
It had been an hour since their incident and Rei had met more eligible bachelors than she cared to remember; esteemed colleagues and their sons, doctors, lawyers, businessmen… they were all a blur of the same shade of grey and expensive cologne.
She smiled politely at all of them, Minako at her side doing the same. She barely heard what was said around her, all she could think about was Goten. It was all fake; every last smile, every last kiss… so why did it feel like she had just broken up with him?
They weren’t real. They were a fake couple, a lie so her parents would get off her back. But then… why did it feel like he had walked off hurt and mad at her? She would expect him to be relieved to be done with this stupid charade and this joke of a fake relationship with her, but that look on his face when he left was something she couldn’t quite place.
Finally, she couldn’t take it anymore, she excused herself from the company of some lawyer or doctor or whatever he said he was and walked out into the brisk night air. She pulled her phone from her clutch, heart thundering when she saw there was a text notification from him.
She pulled it up, it was sent twenty minutes ago: ‘I thought I was doing the right thing but apparently I’m wrong. I should’ve been honest with you, Rei. I’m sorry but this stupid thing has to end now. You never even liked me to begin with and it’s killing me to keep it up because for fucks sake I’ve liked you since the moment I met you. I thought this would be a great way to show you that I’m not the stupid manwhore you think I am.. I wanted this with you to be real, but I just can’t do this anymore. Sorry you’ll have to deal with your parents, but maybe they’ll find a guy that deserves you more than I do.’
Rei must have read the message at least a dozen times as tears of disbelief pricked at her eyes. How was all of that possible? Goten liked her? Goten, the gorgeous and practically perfect guy, liked her?
“Rei?” Usagi’s voice was cautious and quiet. “You okay, Sis? I uh… I saw Goten leave earlier and… well, just wanted to check on you.”
“I need to talk to him,” she said, looking at her sister with a hint of desperation in her eyes. “Can you drive me back home, please?”
“Oh honey, but it’s the middle of the party,” she was saying when Minako joined them outside on the deck.
“What’s going on here?” Minako asked.
Rei looked over at her. “Can you drive me home?”
“Of course I can,” she let out a sigh of relief. “If I have to listen to one more doctor brag about how wonderful and talented he is, I swear I’ll stab someone. Come on, let’s get out of here.”
##########
On the drive back home, Rei couldn’t help herself and she told Minako everything they had been up to, how everything was fake and how wonderful Goten played his part. How he was always willing to help her and how apparently Goten had harbored feelings for her that she was ignorant of.
“So you didn’t know he actually likes you?” Minako asked.
Rei shook her head, reading the text to her sister.
“Well, you guys had me fooled,” Mina admitted. “I mean, the way he stood up to dad and all that.. I thought you two were serious.”
“Really?”
“Of course! Just think about it, Rei. Any guy would run to the hills when dad gives them that ‘unworthy for my girl’ routine. But your guy stood his ground, he defended you and himself. He even played poker with your brother in law,” she laughed, “no guy that’s not head over heels for you would sit through that after the terrible dinner with our dear father.”
“I’m so stupid! How did I not see that?” Rei groaned, annoyed with herself. She needed to find a way to fix this. “Sis, you think you could make a detour?”
Minako shot her a proud smile. “Where does your loverboy live?”
##########
Rei banged on Goten’s door, hoping he would answer. The door finally opened and she sighed to see a sleepy looking Motoki. “Hey Rei, what’s going on?”
“Is Goten here?” she asked, and he shook his head.
“No, he stormed in here acting all weird. He just changed his clothes and left,” he shrugged. “I asked what was wrong and man, the look he shot me could’ve killed a man,” he ran a hand through his hair. “You might want to try calling him, I don’t know where he went.”
Rei nodded with a soft groan. “Thanks, Toki.”
“You wanna come in…?” he opened the door farther.
“No, I better get going,” she forced a smile. “Sorry for waking you,” she hugged him quickly.
“’Sokay,” he said with a sleepy nod and she smiled.
“Go back to bed, I’ll see you later.”
“Yeah,” he mumbled, shutting the door.
Rei turned around the second the lock clicked. She pulled out her phone and dialed Goten, cursing under her breath as it went straight to voicemail.
“This is Goten, leave a message.” She sighed listening to his voice and hung up, not sure what to say. She moved back to Mina’s waiting car and got in, a sad sigh escaping her lips.
“You okay?” Minako asked tentatively.
“No,” she said, looking to her with a sad smile. “Please just take me home.”
###################
Rei sighed as she walked into her empty apartment, realizing for the first time how empty it felt there. She looked to her couch, a fluttering feeling in her stomach remembering that time they cuddled and slept there; feeling like shit for not choosing to leave with him.
Now that the moment had passes, and she had more time to think it over, she wanted to kick herself. Hard. What was the worse that could’ve happen? Would her father kick her out and make her suffer?
She had been under the assumption that Goten was just pretending, faking everything for the sake of their lie. If her father had kicked her out she knew deep down that Goten would have let her stay with him if no one else would, heck he would probably even help her get on her feet again if she needed him to. Even if it was all fake, she knew he would’ve done all that for her. He did it for Motoki, her best friend, when he had barely known Toki for a few months. That had been so long ago…. And Motoki still had the room rent free.
She collapsed on her couch, wanting to call Goten again and tell him she was sorry; to beg him to come over and admit that she wanted all this to be real too. She wanted to, but she didn’t.
Her mind playing tricks on her and torturing her with assumptions of where he could be at that time; out at a bar getting shit-faced beyond caring about anything, probably even going home with any random girl to look his way… He had left the house and Motoki had no idea where he went and his phone was off. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what was going on.
Rei sighed, gripping the blanket on the back of the couch and pulling it on top of her, feeling how her heart was breaking even more.
###############
The next day his phone was still off. He still wasn’t home, and his car wasn’t at the gym; Rei was about to panic, thinking of a million terrible things that might have happened to him.
Her resolve almost breaking, she decided to go into the gym to ask anyone if they knew about Goten’s whereabouts. The first person she saw happened to be a green-haired beauty, her bright pink workout clothes hugging the right places on her body. “Hi, how can I help you?” she asked and Rei glanced at her nametag: Brianne.
“Hi, I’m looking for Goten. Is he here?”
Brianne shook her head. “He texted me almost at two this morning, he told me I needed to open,” she shrugged her shoulders. “I have no idea where he could be,” she tilted her head to the side, eyes searching Rei’s face. “You’re his girlfriend, right?”
“What?” Rei asked, a blush crawling up her cheeks.
“Yeah,” Brianne smiled. “Long dark hair, pretty face, violet eyes… he wouldn’t shut up about you a few days back,” she ran a hand through her hair when she saw the uncomfortable look on Rei’s face. “Oh, sorry, I just assumed,” she paused. “Anyway, I’d say you can try calling him but his phone must be dead now.”
“Yeah… thanks,” Rei mumbled as she managed to fake a small smile before going back to her car.
There was only one person left to call; one person she really didn’t want to because of how close he was to Usagi and how he was probably going to spill the beans. But she was getting desperate and finally broke down and called the one person that, for some reason, always knew what was going on with Goten: Artemis.
His phone rang twice and when he picked up, she felt her heart leap into her throat. “Hello?” he answered with his usual happy voice.
“Art, hey is Rei,” she said and took a deep breath, bracing herself to ask the next question.
“Hey you!” he purred, a tone he never used on her, or any female really. It was his flirty, you’re-a-hot-guy-I-wanna-fuck tone. She heard the sound of a chair scraping on hardwood and he mumbled something to someone. After a moment, she heard a door shut and Artemis sighed. “So, why are you calling me, sweetie?” he asked.
Rei’s brow knitted together in confusion. “Uh, why’d you answer like that?”
Artemis scoffed. “Maybe because my friend that has been fake dating you, and mind you, getting his heart brutally stomped on, is sitting at my table drinking all my good shit and reeking of self-loathing? I don’t know, is that a good enough reason for you, babygirl?” he asked with a cynical voice.
Rei groaned. “I need to talk to him.”
Artemis huffed again. “Yeah and I’d love it if he was gay, but we don’t always get what we want. Now, alright, I don’t know what happened, he hasn’t said much but I do know one thing. He’s obviously hurt and he keeps muttering something about fucking up with you and whatnot. So,” he sighed loudly, “sorry but you’re not talking to him right now. He needs to sleep, I’m sure he’s been up all night.”
“Art, please, I real–“
“Rei,” he cut her off. “Listen, I get it. Something happened and he feels like a jerk, trust me, I’ve known him for a while now. I’ve seen him get his heart snapped in half and I’ve seen him recover, okay? What he needs right now is to not talk to you. Give him time and space to sort his head and sober up a bit and then you can talk to him.”
“You’re right,” she sighed dejectedly.
“It’ll be okay, just give him some time. Oh hey, are you going to Mamoru’s party next weekend?”
“Uh,” Rei shook her head, massaging her temple when she remembered she agreed to over a month ago. “Shit, with everything going on I kinda forgot about it, but yeah, I might go.”
“Great, then you can talk to him then. Mamo has enlisted us to help him so we’ll both be there. A week from now, he’ll be out of this… whatever it is, and he’d be ready to talk to you, okay?”
“Art, I don’t know if I can make it a week,” she whined.
“I don’t care, you’re gonna have to wait,” he laughed. “Alright, I gotta go. But I’ll text you if something changes, okay?”
“Yeah, thanks Artemis.”
“Don’t mention it. Seriously,” he paused. “Don’t mention it. He’ll be so pissed with me if he knew I was talking to you, and I can so not deal with more of that right now. I gotta call your sister about one of her appointments so, byebye love!” he hung up, leaving Rei with a dread she hardly knew how to handle sinking into her gut.
One week?
Why couldn’t she just talk to him now?
She hated waiting, hated it with a passion. It had been bad enough when she was fake dating him to wait on a text or a call, not wanting to seem too clingy. But now that she knew, now that they were done… waiting had become a challenge she couldn’t overcome.
An entire week Goten free?
Was there anything more horrible than that? She certainly couldn’t think of anything.