Rei was never one to show her emotions readily. However it was hard to sit and listen to Luna's harsh but indirect lecturing. Minako was not present, the only thing giving Rei any relief. The three others surrounded her though, disappointment, frustration, and gloom on their faces. She put her forehead in a hand and allowed the tears to spring forth. Luna paused, but was not moved to let up on her tirade. "I knew this wasn't a good idea in the first place, but I suppose you'd be following Haruka and Michiru's example... Oh don't look at me like that, Usagi, I'm not going to drag them into this. They don't let their personal life interfere with their duties, do you know why? Because their first priority is to protect the princess, not to satisfy raging hormones-" "Luna!" Usagi warned her, not liking the attitude the cat took at all. "That's not fair. You're supposed to make sure we do our duties, not to judge our lives. I told you to come so you can encourage us as a team, not to wail on Rei. And besides, this hasn't gotten in the way of them protecting me-" "That's the point Usagi!" Luna's shrill voice made them all cringe. "It hasn't yet, but it definitely will, especially now. We're about to lose Sailor Venus because of this farce! How do you expect for a team to battle evil if they're battling each other?" Rei cried even harder. Despite trying to tell herself the opposite, it definitely felt like it was all her fault. In her worst nightmares, she never expected things to turn out this bad. Makoto looked away from Rei, concentrating for a second on the girl's sobs. "Mina-chan's not going anywhere." "And how do you know?" Luna challenged her. "She's just not." Makoto answered firmly. "We all say things in the heat of the moment. When she cools off, she'll realize what's more important. And it's definitely not this." "Perhaps it will be hard. No, it will be very difficult. But the team must stay together, and to do this we need them to be comfortable around each other again." Ami offered, all listening intently. "They'll have to figure things out themselves." She looked sympathetically at Rei. "But the least we can do is have the regular meetings again." Usagi nodded in agreement. "Ami-chan's right. She needs time, but everything will turn out right." She was staring off into space, but it seemed as if she was addressing Rei. "I guess we'll go now. Rei-chan, will you walk us out?" Rei wiped her eyes on her sleeves, trying not to feel like all her dignity had been stripped away by these people who were being unnecessarily civil to her. With her head downed she rose and obliged Usagi. Luna made a peeved sound at having her authoritarian status cut down, but followed the rest of them out. Makoto's head swiveled, looking from right to left as she walked through the shrine towards the exit, not so discreetly looking for something. "She's not here." Rei answered the question that she knew was on her mind. Makoto moved to reply, but thought better of it. She narrowed her eyes a bit, giving Rei a final look before turning her back and leaving the shrine. Rei slammed the door after her. Minako sank into Makoto's couch; she really did not want to be there at the moment. A very frightening speech from Luna about duty, honor, sacrifice, and the like, didn't make her feel any better, only guilty, for potentially jeopardizing the princess because of her own selfish reasons. She felt na‹ve and stupid, having thought she was past getting sucked into these kinds of experiences. She thought she was wiser when she left England, but now she saw that she was quite the same, a damned fool. It was apparent that she'd have to see her again, and she didn't know what she'd do. Every time she thought about it, she ached. She wasn't as angry anymore, but still felt the pain; she just wished it hadn't happened. But it had, and she couldn't forgive her, although the unity of the senshi depended on it. Makoto sat down next to her, almost cautiously, and gave her a soft smile. She tried her best to smile back, but was unsuccessful. "Thanks." "For what?" "For doing this." Makoto answered. "I know you don't want to, and none of us can blame you. But... Y'know, we're involved in something... There are other things that are more, um, how do I put this..." "I get it, Mako-chan." Minako stopped her, slightly irked by the girl's insinuation. "I know I was being selfish, I admit it. No matter what I'm Sailor Venus, I made that promise a long time ago. But... Kami, how was I supposed to know she'd-" The emotions she had stuffed down were coming back up again and she tried to suppress it with a hand over her mouth. Makoto put an apologetic hand on her shoulder. "Sorry, I didn't mean to-" "It's okay." Minako reassured her, calming herself quickly. Not knowing what else to do or say, Makoto left her and went to the kitchen. "Jeese..." "What happened?" Makoto jumped realizing Ami was in there. "Nothing really. I'm just wondering how exactly this is going to be pulled off." "What do you mean?" Ami questioned, taking a step closer. "I mean, what are we expecting out of this? Mina-chan's not going to instantly forgive her. They're probably not even going to talk to each other." "It will benefit the team more than say, them avoiding each other for months until one of them is ready." Makoto shook her head, still not convinced. "Yeah, well... I can't even believe she did something like that in the first place. How could she?" Ami focused on a spot on the floor. "People make bad decisions. Decisions on impulses. Sometimes the consequences are dire, and sometimes there are none." Makoto's eyebrow rose at her. "Are we still talking about Rei?" "Yes." Ami lied. Makoto smiled at her. "It wasn't a bad decision." "No, it was a hallucination." "Aha! So you were thinking about that." Ami cringed and tried to escape Makoto's playful smile and mischievous eyes. She tried to go past her, but was caught by the hand and quickly pulled to the bigger girl. Ami gasped, she was so close she could feel Makoto's heart beating as fast as hers. "What are you doing?" "Being impulsive." She leaned down, her lips an iota away from Ami's. They barely touched before Ami freed herself. "What's wrong?" "We can't do this!" "Don't you want to?" "Yes!" Ami admitted it finally, bringing a trembling hand to her face. "But we can't. It's not right." Makoto narrowed her eyes slightly, looking her over carefully. "Because we're girls? That's just-" "No, no it's not that." "Then what?!" Ami looked at her feet before bringing her sapphire eyes up to meet Makoto's. "You're with... him." She said it as if it pained her to do so. Makoto still looked confused, and then realization washed over her. "Oh. You don't have to worry about him, he'll never find out." Now Ami looked at her strangely. "I don't care if he finds out. It would just be wrong, if you two were still together and we... you know." Makoto leaned against her counter and took a lengthy look at Ami, thoughts abound in her head. Ami felt self-conscious, with the other girl looking at her like that. "I guess you're right." Ami waited for more an answer but Makoto didn't supply anything else. "And so?" She prompted. A hint of mischief still lingered in her green eyes, and an easy grin spread across her face. She tilted her head to look at Ami and chuckled. "Too bad for Freddy." Ami's knees buckled. It was as if death itself had entered the room. That was the way Rei perceived it when a hush fell over the four others and they stared at her in silence. She meekly brought a hand up in a greeting gesture. Ignoring the others her eyes turned immediately to Minako, who chose to only look at the floor, certain that if she saw even her feet all self-control would be lost. Tension steeped out of all of them, the uneasiness was palpable. Rei unabashedly made no attempt to even feign studying, staring into space and occasionally at Minako. Minako put a textbook in front of her face, feeling Rei's eyes on her like she always could. A feeling of longing rose up in her but she violently suppressed it, reminding herself once again of the transgression. Hours passed in the same way. No one said anything of real importance nor tried to start a conversation. Rei remained in her pensive state and Minako continued to ignore her. Finally, having enough of sitting and feeling she was being toyed with, Minako shot up from her seat. "Bathroom." She explained to the overly concerned faces. After a moment's contemplation, something poked Rei out of her seat as well. Providing no explanation to the other three, she briskly took off towards the bathroom. "Hey!" Makoto jumped up, trying to catch Rei before she got there. "Rei, no-" The door was curtly slammed in her face, and the doorknob had been quickly locked. With desperation in her eyes Rei ignored Makoto's pounds on the door. Minako blinked, and then glared at her. Rei spoke before she had a chance to explode. "I just want to talk." "I don't want to talk to you." Minako said through clenched teeth, trying for the sake of Crystal Tokyo to be patient. "Minako, please, just hear me out." Rei was desperate for at least this, sounding and feeling like a prisoner begging for mercy. Minako was bewildered, trying to believe that Rei was doing something so obnoxious and barefaced. "What can you say to me? What, Rei, what can you possibly tell me?" Her shrill voice carried all the way to the other side of the door, causing Makoto, Ami, and Usagi to back away. "I'm sorry, Minako! I didn't want this to happen!" "Then why did it happen?" Rei was lost for words, she didn't know why it happened, she never knew. Minako shook her head. "You're despicable." She said the only thing she could say. "I still love you, Minako." "Kami, that doesn't mean anything anymore! It never meant anything to you!" Rei staggered back, guilt compressing her more than ever. "It always meant something!" "Really? Even when you were fucking that-" "Minako, stop! It was a mistake!" Before she allowed herself to start crying again, Minako glared Rei down with contempt in her eyes and resolved to simply get away from her. She tried to leave the bathroom, but Rei blocked the door. Taking her by the shoulders, Rei forced her burning eyes into Minako's. "It was a mistake. I'm in love with you, Minako. And I know you still love me." "So what..." Her body wilted under Rei's touch. She allowed herself one last look into Rei's eyes before finally escaping the bathroom. Makoto, Ami, and Usagi jumped away from the door as Minako stormed out, abruptly grabbing her bag and leaving Makoto's apartment. Rei followed suit a moment later, a troubled and pensive expression on her face. Giving a brief look to the other three staring her down, she too left. Usagi peered into Makoto's bathroom, trying to believe the situation that had just passed. "We probably shouldn't have let that happen." Ami and Makoto nodded in sullen agreement. What was left of the study meeting was ended after that. Usagi came to the conclusion that maybe Minako and Rei weren't quite as ready as they expected them to be. "So I guess we'll go now, Mako-chan. Ready, Ami-chan?" Makoto's eyes pleaded with her to stay and looking at her at the moment Ami's mind couldn't find an excuse not to. "Um, well... Perhaps, I'll stay and help Mako-chan with, something..." Not picking up on the electricity sparking between Ami and their host, Usagi plopped down on the couch. "Okay, I guess we should actually study." Makoto's eyes widened, she had expected the girl to have bounded off to leave them to play teacher and student by themselves. "Umm, really? Because, I have absolutely no food left-" Before Usagi could start tearing, Ami jumped in. "It's okay Mako-chan. I guess we'll go home then." Looking slightly dejected, Ami lead Usagi out of the apartment, before casting yearning eyes at Makoto. Those eyes pierced right through her and she collapsed onto her bed, suddenly drained of energy. The feeling Ami left her with was not an entirely good one. She sprang out of bed and attended to her plants, put a batch of cookies in the oven, did sit-ups, anything to get her mind off the blue-haired nymphet. Finally she decided that the best remedy would be a nice freezing shower. She was half-dressed and en route to the bathroom when he burst into the apartment, lively and thrilled. "Freddy!" She exclaimed, so caught up in thoughts of Ami that for the while Freddy had ceased to exist. "Makoto!" He cheerily shouted back at her. With a wide grin on his charmingly unremarkable face he excitedly gathered her up into his arms while she could only guess what made him so energetic. She squirmed quite uncomfortably as he planted kisses on her neck and shoulders. "Freddy?" She gently pushed him away, feeling the flush on her face. "What's up with you? You're really, unusually... happy." "You should be happy too babe." He only smiled at her adorably curious expression. "I'll explain later." He leaned in for a kiss, which she found herself almost accepting, but deftly turned her head to avoid it. Startled that he landed upon cheek instead of lips, Makoto answered his enquiring eyes with a sentence that she herself always dreaded hearing. "We need to talk." Freddy retracted from her quickly, cringing. "Oh boy, I know what that means. What did I do this time?" Makoto scratched her head, not knowing how to go about in the actual act of dumping a boyfriend. She prepared in her head a few clich‚d lines that would suffice to at least get him angry enough to leave on his own. "Freddy-" "Wait a minute babe, let me give you this before you start yelling." Reaching into his back pocket he produced a thin stack of crisp bills. "Rent." He explained, grinning at her obvious bewilderment. "Next month's is there too. Okay, you can start yelling now." Completely thrown by the sudden imbursement, Makoto held the paper loosely in her hand and narrowed skeptical eyes at him. "How'd you get so much money so fast?" He shrugged his shoulders smugly, his chest filling with self-pride. "I found a," he paused to let the suspense build, "a job." "Are you serious?" She looked him over, still very dubious. "What kind of job? Hey, are you selling drugs, making drugs, working for a crime boss, male prostitution?" "No! Kami, no!" Freddy frowned at her overwhelming distrust. "It's legit, I'm not a drug-dealer or a prostitute. What's so bad about prostitution anyway, brings home the bacon-" "Freddy!" He laughed, taking her hand and leading her to the sofa. "After you kicked my ass the other day because of the party, I realized that I'm not taking this living together stuff as seriously as I should be. So I decided that I'm gonna do whatever it takes to make it easier to live with me. Because, I really have no where else to go." She returned his warm smile and allowed him to kiss her gently before he laid his head down in her lap and dozed off. She too closed her eyes, sighing and shaking her head, trying to feel good about herself, yet guilt already swept over her. An unconscious hand ran through his hair and she wondered what exactly she did wrong to deserve this mess. The Crown seemed like more of a dismal place than it usually seemed to Minako, bright, jolly, full of happy people and even more happy couples. Aloofly she sipped the soda Usagi had bought for her, a gloomy frown matching her gloomy outlook. Catching Usagi's concerned face she straightened up and tried her hardest to look like she was enjoying herself. "Thanks again for the soda, Usagi-chan." "It's no problem Mina-chan. And I'm sorry again for yesterday. I should've known it was a bad idea." Minako reached across the table to touch her hand, giving her some reassurance. "It wasn't your fault, so stop blaming yourself. You had good intentions. Unfortunately," her gaze turned icy, "certain others did not." "Do you mean Rei?" Minako slapped her forehead at the poor girl's density. "Yes. And for the record, I was trying to avoid bringing her up." Usagi shrugged apologetically. "Sorry. If you don't mind, Mina-chan, don't you think you should at least try-" "No." "You don't even know what I was going to say!" "I knew what you were thinking. And the answer is no. When would you start listening to Mamoru-kun if he ever did something like that to you? Hmm?" Minako slapped her knee, feeling like she had just checkmated Usagi, but the girl's silence was a contemplative one. "I think I'd cry. A lot. But then I'd talk to him. I'd be sure that there was something wrong that made him do it, and we'd work it out. And then I would forgive him." Minako read her as she spoke, honest conviction and deep-rooted love in her words. "I wish I were you sometimes." "And I wish I were you sometimes." "I bet not now." "I think you're still in love with-" "Can we stop talking about it?" She cleared her throat and shifted in her seat, avoiding Usagi's sympathetic eyes. They sat in silence for a while, letting Minako cool down. Usagi attempted to start conversation again but noticed a change in the girl's demeanor that was entirely different than a few minutes before. She was sitting straight up, lips pursed and eyes narrowed. A small scowl emerged over her features. Usagi worriedly followed her scorching gaze to a table behind her, clapping her hands over her mouth as she saw her. In all her magnificently revolting splendor was Tora Akako. Yuuichiro was with her, dutifully pulling out a chair for the girl to sit, and then taking off to order something at the counter. Seeing that she was now alone Minako silently rose from her seat. "Mina-chan, where are you going?" Usagi scrambled out of her chair and stood in front of her, arms spread. "Mina-chan, you are not going over there. Mina-ch- Minako!" She tried to step around Usagi but the girl loyally tried to keep her under control. "You're better than that, Mina-chan. There's no need for any more problems." Minako finally saw reason and let Usagi lead her out. Before they could get far they heard a musically rude laugh from behind them. "It's the little hottie! Oh if only Rei was here, we could have such a good time, although, I've already had good times with Rei." Minako and Usagi turned around slowly to find her standing before them. Minako stepped in front of Usagi and calmly clenched her fists, shooting daggers in to the other's doe brown eyes that twinkled at the prospect of how fun she could make this moment. "What can you possibly want from me that you haven't already taken?" This greeting seemed to please Akako, showing that smirk that managed to be appealing and enraging at the same time. "If I wanted something, sweetheart, I could easily take that too." The way she looked at her confused Minako, making her shift uncomfortably. She frowned. "You really don't have a conscience." She flashed that haughty smile again and Minako felt as if she would lose control and let her fists fly. She remained patient, with Usagi keeping a grip on her shoulder just in case. "Your girlfriend doesn't have much of one either, and I can't be blamed for that, now can I?" "Well, you can go fuck yourself." Akako found this the most amusing thing yet. "Kami, now I know what Rei saw in you." Minako's patience was about to reach its limits. "Listen, you slut-" "Hey, I'm not a slut!" It appeared that even Akako had some self-respect as she welcomed Minako for a brawl, the only thing stopping them being Usagi's forceful mediating, pushing Akako away while keeping Minako at bay with her foot. "You would think that, wouldn't you?" Akako taunted, "You think I stole poor Rei's innocence and seduced her, right? Wrong!" "What are you talking about?" Minako shouted, wanting nothing more than to strangle her but keeping her hands clenched. "She came on to me." Akako watched with proud cruelty as something inside of Minako seemed to snap. Her eyes blankly stared at the brown eyed girl and her hands became limp at her sides. But before she could utter words of arrogant triumph, Minako had slapped her. She was too stunned to even wince. Thinking quickly, for once, Usagi took Akako's moment of shock to grab Minako and run with her out of the Crown. As their running slowed to a walk a few blocks away, they could still hear her screaming and cursing. Looking at each other they couldn't help but laugh. "She deserved a lot more." Usagi nodded in exasperated agreement. Rei was more than slightly relieved when she found her bed empty when she returned home from school. It seemed Akako would always be there at the times when she was least wanted. Taking a look around the house though, she discovered that the girl was absent altogether. "Yuuichiro," He was on all fours scrubbing the floor of the sacred fire room, "Where's Tora-san?" "She left already." Rei scratched her head, wondering where she might go in a city she doesn't know. "To go where?" "Back to Yokohama, her grandfather called her back." Yuuichiro rubbed the back of his head nervously; Rei's eyes were burning holes in his face. She let up finally and sighed, very heavily. "Oh," She said, the disappointment and melancholy in her voice surprising Yuuichiro. "Well, if you want we might be able to still catch her. The train doesn't leave until 5:20. We still have time." Rei looked at him and thought this idea over. She thought she'd be doing cartwheels the day Akako left, but suddenly she felt like something worthwhile was leaving. She wanted to at least say goodbye. A train pulled up at the station and let out an ocean of travelers, making the crowded station even more so and adding to the difficulty of finding Akako. Rei was starting to lose her temper with all of it, pressed to the edge when a young man pushed her while running to "his love". She threw her hands up and sighed irritably. "Forget it Yuuichiro, let's just go home." She started off but stopped when she realized he wasn't following her. He used his height to crane his neck above the crowd. Peering around he finally pointed, "There she is Rei-san," he paused, scratching his head then smiling in amusement, "Looks like someone came to get her already." Rei began to push impatiently through the crowd of travelers, but Yuuichiro's hand on her shoulder stopped her. "Maybe we should give them some privacy." "What are you talking about?" Rei was certain Akako and her grandfather didn't need that much privacy to greet each other. Confused she shoved through some more people, only to stop short as she beheld the scene that Yuuichiro mentioned. Rei was going to scream. At first she couldn't comprehend what she was seeing, but slowly her entire body began to fill with rage. With utter helplessness she watched as Akako engaged in a deep kiss with an unknown man, the intimacy of it leaving no doubts of their relationship. "Hmm," Yuuichiro rubbed his chin thoughtfully, "That must be her fianc‚." Rei's eyes closed as she realized she had been completely deceived. She had given up her love, her entire life, for fleeting moments of pleasure with her, the picture of false innocence. Strings were snapping inside of her and sharp pains shot through her chest. Turning and collapsing into Yuuichiro, she realized how much she had forsaken. And what little chance she had of getting it back.
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