Goddess of Fire
-A note on timelines- In the first part of this story
(chronologically...second in order of when they were written) Ami and
Makoto discover romantic feelings for each other. They decide that for
the time being, however, that they will keep the relationship a
secret.
Next follow the events chronicled in "A wedding story: My Haruka and
Michiru fanfic" ...but nothing really happens there.
Then we move on to the third portion of the story. Ami and Makoto have
been having a happy little secret affair, but things keep interrupting
them. So, in order to keep the intimate part of their relationship in
good working order (read between the lines people...the naughty part)
they make a ...special tape. Things are working out well, but then
through a series of amazing coincidences (he he...I love being the
author) everyone manages to see the tape, and the secret is out.
Everyone that is...except Minako and Rei, who decide to "borrow" the
tape and see what all the fuss is about.
That led into "Goddess of Light". Basically, Minako and Rei are
spending all their free time with each other...they kind of have to,
as Haruka and Michiru are still adjusting to the married life, and the
Makoto/Ami relationship is still in the growth phase. Nobody really
thinks anything of it, until Rei's grandfather and Minako’s mother
both try to set their charges up with 'nice young men'. Neither is
really interested.
Again...should be no problem...except that all of their friends seem
to be gay...
This kind of tickles the back of Minako's mother's brain and, after
talking to Rei's grandfather, she gets it in her head that maybe
Minako and Rei are "special friends". That was directly before this
fic.
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Katori slowly sipped her tea. Though she appeared calm, inside she was
rather... troubled. No, perhaps troubled wasn’t the right word.
Maybe... confused?
Her train of thought was broken as the cause of her emotional turmoil
entered the room.
"Hi mom!" Minako said cheerfully. Katori didn’t respond for a moment.
"So..." she finally said, in a carefully neutral tone of voice. "Where
are you going?"
Minako just shrugged. "Oh, nowhere really. I'm just gonna go hang out
with Rei."
"Oh, Rei... I see... well, have fun. And remember... I love you."
Puzzled, Minako just nodded slowly and left.
Grandpa Hino wasn’t doing much better. He and his granddaughter were
having lunch together... normally a pleasant way to spend the
afternoon, but today was a bit different.
"Rei?"
"Yes Grandpa?"
He frowned in concentration for a moment.
"You know that I love you, right? And that even if you made some...
uh... choices about your life that some people found controversial,
I’ll still love you."
Before Rei could answer, the doorbell rang.
"Oh! That must be Minako!" Rei said, wiping her moth on her napkin and
standing up.
'Of course it is...' Hino thought to himself.
As soon as she got to the door, Rei grabbed Minako and pulled her into
her room. Ignoring Minako’s protests, she quickly dragged her into the
privacy of her bedroom.
"What are you doing, Rei? What’s wrong with you, anyway?"
Rei apologized as best as she could.
"Sorry… it’s just that grandpa’s been acting so… weird lately."
Frowning a bit, Minako nodded.
"My mom’s been like that too… its kind of freaking me out."
Shrugging, Minako started pulling open her coat, until the zipper
caught.
"Stupid, cheap…" she muttered angrily. Rei stood to help her.
"Here… let me…" she said, as Minako’s face was turning crimson from
frustration.
Mr. Hino whistled lightly as he walked down the hall toward his
granddaughters room, carrying a tray with tea and some small, sweet
cakes that he knew the girls liked. Then, as he slowly eased open
Rei’s door, he got the shock of his life.
Minako was standing in the middle of the room, her head leaning back
and her face flushed in pleasure as Rei slowly worked her coat open.
‘Oh my god…’ he thought, blushing furiously as he backed out of the
doorway as quietly as he could.
‘I… I suspected, but…’ sighing deeply, he walked over to the phone and
dialed Katori’s number.
When Minako walked in the door later that evening, she found her
mother waiting for her.
"So…" the older woman began, "Did you and Rei… have a good time?"
Minako shrugged.
"I suppose."
"Minako… is there anything you want to tell me? Anything at all? You
know, no matter how you choose to live your life, I’ll always love
you…"
‘Rei was right…’ she thought, ‘they are getting weird…’
"Trust me mom… if there was something I thought you ought to know, I’d
tell you."
‘Oh well…’ Katori thought as her daughter walked away, ‘I guess she
just needs more time.’
"Vanilla, please." Minako asked the young woman behind the counter of
the snack bar she and Rei were visiting.
"So…" Rei asked, "Your mom’s acting as weird as the old man?"
Minako nodded before taking a huge bite of her ice cream cone.
"Yeah… hey… is something the matter?"
Rei nodded, looking over Minako’s shoulder.
"There’s a guy over there checking you out!"
"Really? Where?"
"No!" Rei said sharply, "Don’t look!"
Pretending nonchalance, Minako slowly took another bite of her ice
cream.
Across the street at a small café, a completely different sort of
discussion was taking place.
"So then I opened the door," Mr. Hino was telling his lunch companion,
"And there was Rei, starting to pull Minako’s cloths off!"
Katori frowned.
"What did you do?"
"What could I do!? I just closed the door and backed away… and then I
called you."
Sighing deeply, Minako’s mother asked, in the most neutral tone of
voice she could,
"Well… what do you want to do about it? To be perfectly honest with
you, if Minako wants to pursue a relationship with another girl, it
really doesn’t bother me very much. But Rei is your granddaughter, so
what’s your opinion of the matter?"
"I’m… surprised, definitely surprised. But I don’t know if it really
bothers me, now that I've gotten used to the idea. I just wish Rei
would come out and say something, instead of sneaking around behind my
back."
"Do you think we should confront them? Lay it all on the table, tell
them what we know, and finally get something out of them?"
Mr. Hino shook his head.
"That might not be such a good idea… a relationship this young is
still fragile. If we tried to force anything, we might hurt something
that wouldn’t ever mend. For now, we should just let it lie. Just keep
reinforcing how to Minako how much you love her, and support her
decisions, and I’m sure everything will work out soon enough."
"All right… It sounds like good advice to me. Say… would you mind
splitting a cab?"
Still trying her best not to look back over her shoulder, Minako was
startled when Rei suddenly spoke to her.
"Hey, isn't that… Oh, Minako…"
Trying not to laugh at her friend, who was currently sporting a spot
of ice cream on her cheek, Rei temporarily forgot what she’d been
trying to tell the other girl. That she had just seen her grandfather
and Minako’s mother walking out of a café across the street… together.
Rei looked around for a napkin. Spying one, she wadded it up and
whipped the ice cream off her friend’s cheek.
"There you go… all better."
Across the street, Mr. Hino and Katori stared in amazement as they saw
Rei gently wipe a spot of ice cream from Minako’s face. It wasn’t the
fact that she was touching her friend… it was just how much care Rei
showed even in this simplest form of physical affection.
"Hey! Isn’t that my mom? And your Grandfather?"
Rei nodded.
"Yeah…. I guess they had lunch together or something."
"You want to go outside and say hi?"
Shrugging, Rei stood follow the departing Minako. Before she could
take more than a half a dozen steps though, a hesitant hand tapped her
on the shoulder. It was the young man who had been looking a Minako
earlier.
"Umm… do you suppose, I mean, if its ok… would you… " He stammered for
a moment before finally holding up a single rose, no doubt taken from
one of vases in the café they were in.
"So, you two having lunch or something?"
Katori nodded in response to her daughter’s question.
"That’s nice… Rei and I were just having some ice cream. Its good that
you’re getting out more often… but don’t you think that grandpa Hino
is a bit to old for you?"
Before Katori could stutter out a response, her attention was caught
by Rei, walking out of the small ice cream parlor she and Minako had
been eating in.
‘They sure do seem to have fun together…’ Katori thought wistfully, ‘
I remember my first lov… Hey!’
She was shocked out of her train of thought as Rei silently handed
Minako a rose. The blond girl blushed, but accepted it and tucked it
behind her right ear. They were being so… open!
Rei and Minako didn’t notice as their guardians exchanged knowing
looks.
The entire way home, Rei’s grandfather kept giving her odd looks, as
if he wanted to ask her something, but was… almost afraid to. Finally,
later that night, she got her answer.
Rei was heading toward the kitchen phone, planning on calling Ami
about a homework question, when the sound of her grandfather’s voice
halted her. He was speaking in a low tone, but it easily carried to
her in the large, silent house.
"Mmhh… mmh… well, that’s a good point Katori… "
‘Huh…’ Rei though, her curiosity tickled, ‘Why’s grandpa talking to
Minako’s mom?"
"… yeah… Fuma was a perfect match for her… but if Rei’s a lesbian,
well, its not like she chose that path… mmhh… its just how she is…’
Rei was shocked, but the best was yet to come.
"But Minako’s a wonderful girl… mmhh… say, do you suppose, if she and
Rei are going to have a relationship, that she’d be interested in
learning more about the shrine? Oh, really?"
Speechless, Rei couldn’t even muster the energy to finish walking into
the kitchen.
"… but hey, if it doesn’t work out with Minako, Fuma will still be
around… Oh, that sounds great… say, in an hour? All right, see you
then."
Hearing the phone hang up, Rei was shocked back into motion. She
quickly retreated to her room.
A moment later, her grandfather knocked at her door.
"Rei? Hurry up and get dressed, will you? We’re going over to Katori
and Minako’s house for dinner."
‘Oh hell…’ Rei thought, ‘How am I supposed to tell Minako about this?’
The whole drive over to her friend’s house, Rei’s mind was boiling.
Her grandfather… Katori… her and Minako… lesbians?!
As soon as she walked in the door, Rei sought Minako’s room. Ignoring
the looks her grandfather and Katori exchanged, she walked into the
other girl’s room without even stopping to knock, and locked the door
behind her.
"Rei, what…?" Minako asked, somewhat confused.
"We need to talk… now."
Rei laid the whole story out for her… how her grandfather and Minako’s
mother believed the two to be romantically involved. When she was
done, Minako remained silent for a moment.
"Well…" she began slowly, "I suppose the only thing we can do, is go
out there and tell them the truth. After all, they’re already
expecting it, so it won’t be to big of a shock when we come out."
Nodding, Rei was in full agreement… until she realized what Minako had
just said.
"Yeah… wait! Come out!? What the hell do you mean, ‘come out’?"
Minako smiled brightly.
"It’s simple. If your grandpa thinks you’re gay, he won’t try and set
you up with Fuma. And if my mom thinks I’m gay, she’ll leave me alone.
This way, neither of us has that parental pressure anymore. All we
have to do is keep the masquerade up for a couple of months, then we
can ‘break up’."
"That… makes sense. Which is kind of scary, coming from you."
Dinner was rather tense. Her grandfather kept dropping subtle (for
him) comments about how much time she and Minako had been spending
together and the like, obviously fishing for ‘the truth’." Finally,
Rei couldn’t take it anymore. Standing up, she nodded to Minako, who
followed her lead.
"Grandfather… Mrs. Aino… Minako and I have something we need to tell
you. You see… for the last couple of weeks, we’ve…"
Katori gestured for her to stop.
"It’s all right dear, we know. We’ve known for a while now."
Minako pretended confusion.
"Oh? How?"
"Well…" Mr. Hino began, "It all started when I accidentally walked in
on Rei seducing you…"
"Well, that went better than I thought it would…" Rei said as Minako
walked her toward the car where her grandfather waited.
"Mhm…" Minako said, somewhat distracted.
Rei noticed, and asked her what was wrong.
"My mom, and your grandpa… they look like they’re waiting for somethi…
Oh, yeah."
"What?"
"They’re probably waiting for us to… you know."
Shaking her head, the answer still alluded Rei.
Deeply sighing, Minako bent forward and lightly kissed Rei on the
cheek.
"Good night Rei. Call me later."
"Oh…" Rei said, somewhat shaken. "That." As Minako walked away, Rei
stood staring for a moment longer as the soft warmth of her kiss
slowly faded away.
As Minako had requested, Rei called her ‘girlfriend’ later that night.
The two talked for the better part of an hour, discussing exactly how
they’d go about this charade. Finally, as Rei was about to hand up, a
question occurred to her.
"By the way Minako… how DID you come up with this idea?"
"It’s pretty simple really… I read it in a romance manga."
"Of course."
Sighing deeply, Rei couldn’t help but ask one last question.
"So… how did it end?"
There was no response for a moment as Minako thought back.
"Hmm… Oh, yeah! The two play their little game for a month or so, and
then as they’re organizing a big, messy public breakup they realize
that they really do have feelings for each other. It was a really
sweet, romantic ending."
"… uh huh. Um… good night Minako."
"Good night Rei."
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