Freudian Slip
Something had drawn the miko to their meeting place an hour early.
Situated in the building’s public sound booth; a room on the first floor that boasted large, glass windows so that her fans and the media could see and hear her from the street outside, Minako was still in the midst of her radio interview.
Anxious eyes scanned the crowd.
It was nothing out of the ordinary. A calculated sweep of those gathered told Rei there were about a hundred in attendance, to include the media. For the most part, the fans were well behaved, if overly excited; some touting large signs, others wearing tour t-shirts, and many carrying those damnable plush unicorn mascots, Nako-Nako.
So why was she so on edge?
‘Something… something’s wrong here.’ She couldn’t smell it, she couldn’t see it, but she could sense it. And while she didn’t feel an overwhelming sense of danger, Rei knew her presence would be needed.
The miko threaded her way through the fans, always keeping her dark eyes trained on the singer. She smacked her lips when a large, smelly otaku of a man stepped in front of her, clutching a handful of glossy photos of the idol. He made her hackles rise in and of himself, but he wasn’t the reason for her uneasiness, and so she reluctantly moved on.
Rei slowed a moment, and allowing the crowd to absorb her, she joined them, just one more gawking fan as she admired Minako’s exuberant hand gestures and wide smile. She’d have lied if she’d claimed to have heard what the singer was talking about, for she was a little too preoccupied with the black leather mini skirt and tight white top she wore.
But she must have stared too long, for, as if feeling her stare out of all the others, when Minako turned to her fans, she looked right in Rei’s direction.
Rei tore her eyes from the singer’s body, ducked behind a rather tall woman, and moved on. She’d come early based on the niggling sense of wrongness that had tickled her senses, and with a small smirk, she reasoned she could oogle Minako later. Until then, she’d make damn sure that whatever had triggered her extra sensory radar wasn’t something that would involve her girlfriend.
‘Best friend!’ She corrected herself hurriedly, even as her suspicious gaze caught sight of a small group of fans heading around the back of the building.
With a disapproving growl, Rei pushed her Freudian slip to the back of her mind and gave chase.
OOO
The door to the sound booth shut behind the singer with a click, and with a sigh, she leaned back against it tiredly. The exhausted expression on her face slipped into the slightest of smiles as she checked her watch, and one hopeful thought was enough to lift her spirits, ‘Rei will be here soon.’
She pushed her petite frame away from the door and headed down the corridor towards her private office when several overly animated voices put her senses on alarm,
“Minako-chan!”
It was a terrible thing when her own name could make her inwardly cringe, but the sudden intrusion of perhaps two dozen unauthorized fans was not only unexpected, but was also frankly unwanted at the moment. They charged in her direction and the group of people became a solid mass of arms, markers, magazines and signature boards being thrust towards her expectantly.
A girlish squeak rose above the rest, and though it sounded like just another fan’s, Minako felt some amount of relief that her manager, who had exited the sound booth into the midst of the screaming teens, was trying to help her. Standing awkwardly before them as a chipping dam that could halt the flow of her fans only for so long, Saitou Sugao held his ground.
Though her privacy had been infringed on, Minako still felt guilty about giving her fans the slip. Nevertheless, with a wink and a plastic smile, she flashed them the victory sign, twirled elegantly, and headed back towards her office, trying her best to keep the sense of urgency out of her step as she hurriedly twisted and turned down several corridors.
But when that white wooden door boasting her name written largely on a golden plaque loomed in her vision at the end of the hallway, the singer’s spirits fell. ‘Some hiding place that’ll be.’ She realized belatedly.
And that was when a strong pair of arms wrapped around her waist and the gravity of its owner’s motion pulled her back into the darkness of the underside of a mostly enclosed stairwell.
Between the adrenaline she’d felt at being stalked by the intruders, and the sudden capture of her body, the singer panicked. But as if her captor had anticipated the tensing of her body, a warm hand clasped itself over her lips and the arm around her waist pulled her frame closer to the soft body behind her, even as their two forms sunk to the floor at the back of the stairwell.
“Shhh.” The calm, quiet voice in her ear was the only thing that broke through her frazzled senses, and immediately, Minako’s body relaxed into the backwards embrace of her best friend.
And not a moment too soon, for it was at that moment that the gaggle of fans came stampeding down the corridor. Shouting recklessly, bouncing off the walls and each other, clutching glossy prints and stuffed mascots, they neared the stairwell where the two women hid.
Minako found herself holding her breath, though she wasn’t entirely sure whether it was because of her pursuers’ nearness or the protective embrace she found herself in; Rei’s arm wrapped tightly around her waist, one hand still loosely held over her mouth, the miko’s long, dark hair tickling the singer’s face, and the warm breath puffing lightly in her ear. Minako shut her caramel eyes, tipped her head into Rei’s, and although she lacked the miko’s psychic abilities, she allowed herself to believe that the emotions she sensed from her best friend were as strong as those she emanated herself.
And as quickly as the uninvited fans had crashed into their lives, they were ushered out of it; even as they passed by their hiding place, a trio of large security guards intercepted the intruders at a junction in the corridor, rounded them up, and escorted them out.
In the sudden quiet after the storm, neither woman moved. The miko was unwilling to let the singer go. Sitting on the floor in between Rei’s legs, Minako sighed as the miko’s hand finally left her lips. In the dimly lit space beneath the stairwell, she could feel the miko’s tension mounting.
“I sensed…” Rei’s quiet voice hesitated and Minako could feel her shake her head. The empathic woman obviously didn’t want to delve into how she had known she’d be needed, and frankly, the singer couldn’t care less. All that mattered was that Rei was there.
“I saw them sneak in, so I-” Rei tried again, but Minako was quick to hush her.
Turning her torso and her head backwards, just enough to catch Rei’s chocolate eyes in the dim light, Minako whispered, “Thanks for saving me.”
Their eyes searched one another for the briefest of moments, and given Rei’s torn expression, Minako found herself wondering what the unpredictable miko would do.
Not trusting herself to say the right words, to say anything at all, afraid to take the initiative, but finding that she couldn’t stop herself anyway, Rei tightened her grip around Minako’s waist, and shutting her eyes, she shyly found the singer’s lips.
And that was all Minako needed. Rei’s eagerness and initiative was fuel on the ever burning fire she felt for her best friend, and their kiss that started innocently enough didn’t remain innocent for long. It was her hungry tongue that lapped at the corner of the miko’s mouth, her small teeth that nibbled at Rei’s lower lip, and before long, the raven haired woman had become as bold and passionate as she was.
Rei’s breath was hot in Minako’s ear as her lips wandered; dancing along the singer’s jaw line, only to trail slow, lingering kisses along the soft skin of Minako’s neck. When the singer’s breath caught in her throat and she tipped her head back, granting Rei unrestricted access to her sensitive skin, her action only spurred the other woman on.
Rei found Minako’s response to her touch only served to ignite her passion more. Every caught breath, every soft moan, every inch of skin Minako granted her access to, only left her wanting more. With her eyes shut, her other senses were intensified, and when Minako’s fingers reached backwards towards her shoulders, trailing lightly along the collar of her shirt before clawing her nails gently against the nape of her neck, Rei caught herself sucking the skin along Minako’s collarbone a little harder than she’d intended.
But the slight mark she’d left didn’t seem to bother the singer at all, in fact, it seemed to have quite the opposite effect. With a content smirk, Minako’s fingers stopped kneading Rei’s neck and she slowly trailed her nails behind the other woman’s ear. She traced along the miko’s jaw line as her thumb caressed the corner of her mouth before she roughly claimed Rei’s lips once again.
At the complete mercy of Minako’s lips, Rei remembered that she had hands, and though she was distracted as her best friend’s tongue slipped past her defenses, she loosened her grip around Minako’s waist. Allowing her hands to wander, Rei learned the contours of the other woman’s flat stomach, and when she’d decided that she could no longer tolerate the slightly scratchy material of the thin sweater that separated her skin from Minako’s, her fingers slipped underneath that scant piece of material and-
“Cold!” Minako half gasped, half giggled into Rei’s mouth.
But her voice had served as a beacon.
“Minako-chan?”
Just then, the dim light that reached the underside of the staircase was blocked, but the familiar voice that had heralded a petite, yet manly figure, indistinguishable in the low light, was obvious enough.
“Shacho!” Minako squeaked.
Too much shuffling and rearranging was heard as the two women broke away from each other and tried to stand, and while Minako had leapt forward and pulled her sweater a little higher on her collarbone, Rei hadn’t been so lucky.
A hollow ‘bong’ shook the metal frame of the stairs above them and was followed by a swallowed curse as Rei knelt back down, cradling her forehead.
“Rei!” Minako’s squeak was redirected back to her best friend as she knelt down next to her to try to get a better look.
“What are you two doing under here?” Saitou bowed his head to fit his diminutive frame under the stairs, but couldn’t make out much in the dim light other than his client wearing a guilty expression, and her best friend, who was glaring daggers at him. And though the latter wasn’t too far from normal for the moody miko, he was put on edge anyway.
Trying to gauge how much, if anything, her manager had seen, Minako stumbled, “well… the fans… stampeding… we tried to get away…”
“We were hiding from the fans that broke in.” Rei barked, the aggravation in her voice not going unnoticed. The unexpected interruption of Minako’s manager had been more alarming than hitting her head had been and she waved Minako away, even as she kept one hand firmly on the small of the singer’s back and guided them out from underneath the stairwell.
In the awkward space that hung between the three individuals, Rei finally snorted, “don’t we have work to do?”
“Work?” Minako asked. Finally, she remembered that the reason for their meeting hadn’t been to make out under the stairs. “Work! Yes,” an electric grin lit Minako’s face and with her hands on Rei’s shoulders, she turned her friend around and marched behind her, “we’ll be looking at some of the charity program documentation together this afternoon, so please, no disruptions.”
Rei and Minako marched past the suspicious man, the former with her persistent scowl and lack of eye contact while the latter called over her shoulder with an authoritative nod, “later, shacho!”
OOO
There’d been a moment after the two women had entered Minako’s office, after the door had shut behind them, after they’d both let out long held sighs that devolved into a fit of giggles, that they’d stood there in absolute silence, lost in each other’s gaze. And in that moment, standing a hair’s breadth away from each other, they had to make that tough decision that all new couples face over and over during the infancy of a developing relationship; do we make out or do we get to work and act serious?
Luckily, or unluckily, which ever it was would never really be discussed, a strong work ethic was something that both Hino Rei and Aino Minako shared.
Finally, with no small amount of effort, the two women set themselves up on either side of the singer’s desk and had gotten to work.
OOO
Several boxes of half eaten take out Chinese food lay at the corners of the desk. Papers, folders, and binders were sprawled in scattered, precarious piles that covered most of the room’s flat surfaces. A white pen poked from underneath Rei’s raven hair where it was perched behind her ear, and the end of another was lightly pressed between her lips.
Always studious and quick to learn, and considering her own background in and love for public works, Rei had learned the ins and outs of Minako’s charity rather quickly. She had offered ideas simple in their origin but grand in their impact. The miko’s thoughts had bounced off the singer’s, and together, they had come up with new strategies for fund raising, public involvement, patient care, and several other exciting projects that could get off the ground given the staff to work on it.
Rei had been quick to point out that the fledgling charity didn’t even have a name, and although Minako had been donating considerable amounts of money to the research of brain cancer, and the welfare of patients affected by the disease, the miko knew her cause would be furthered if she went public with a full scale foundation.
“Now all we need is for someone to run this thing.” Minako sighed. The charity division had always been a side project, managed by herself in her spare time, and otherwise handled only by her accountants who directed the funds.
“Shouldn’t be too hard to find some corporate snob with a background in public works. It wouldn’t be a hard job, it just needs to be done by someone who cares.” Rei said casually.
The click-clack of Minako’s typing suddenly paused, and slowly, she looked across her laptop at her best friend, who was completely unaware of her stare. But when the fluorescent lights in the hallway outside of the singer’s office flashed and then dimmed to their lower nighttime setting with a high pitched electric buzz, Rei finally looked up from her paperwork, blinking groggily.
She looked at her watch and frowned, “It’s almost midnight. What is it with you and staying up so late?”
Minako let the moment slip away. Leaning back in her swiveling chair, she pointed to the other woman accusatorily. “Afraid you’ll turn into a pumpkin?”
“Keh. I’m not tired,” Rei was quick to defend herself as her pen jotted a few more notes, “I’m just getting started.”
“Well if that’s the case, I have some more documentation we can look at back at my apartment…” Minako offered brightly, a not so innocent smirk gracing her delicate features.
Rei’s pen stopped in mid stroke. She raised one, lone eyebrow. “A likely story.”
“Hey, you’re the one who jumped me under the stairs earlier.” Minako said with a shrug.
Rei’s brows met in a challenge. “You’re so going home alone.”
OOO
The singer pushed the only mockingly unwilling miko into her apartment and flipped the hall lights on. Shoes tumbled off their feet tiredly, scattered haphazardly in the foyer. Minako’s oversized black purse slid down her arm and was tossed to the hallway floor. She examined her friend as Rei threw her coat over a chair in the living room and began to rub the base of her neck. Granted, one in the morning was a difficult time to be awake, but the stiffness in the miko’s posture seemed to be indicative of more than just exhaustion.
Rei’s first thought was to pull away from the sudden touch. Her second thought was that she hadn’t even sensed Minako’s approach from behind. But then, she stopped thinking completely and surrendered to Minako’s touch as slender fingers kneaded the stiff muscles at the base of her neck. Her head lolled forward, her shoulders relaxed, and she allowed that warmth of the aura that was so distinctly Minako to envelop her – the warmth that had been strong enough to quell the fear of Sailor Mars.
The slightest crease in Rei’s brow marred her lax expression. The Sailor Mars of her vision had been silent in the few days she’d found herself growing closer to Minako, and this had been after she had made some progress in uncovering more of the memory that the warrior of old had guarded. But the little glimpse into her past that she’d been granted hadn’t been enough to quench her curiosity.
Rei’s brow fell flat once more and she filed this thought away. For the time being, she was with Minako, and that was the only place she wanted to be.
“Ah!” Rei’s dark eyes shot open as Minako’s fingers dug into a knot at the base of her neck.
“Geeze, you really are tense.” The singer chided as she worked the knot despite the miko’s fussing.
Rei smirked but then titled her head thoughtfully. “No, it’s just… I guess I’m more tired than I thought I was. The charity division is one thing, I enjoyed working on that.”
“But?” Minako prodded, knowing her friend had more to say but was not one to elaborate on her own.
“I guess I don’t understand how you deal with the atmosphere you work in. I mean, the fans alone put me on edge. I know you must be used to it by now, but still…”
The smile she’d worn all day in Rei’s presence slipped and the singer sighed. For the briefest of moments, her busy fingers slowed their quest to relieve the tension in the miko’s neck. “Well, today was a bit out of the ordinary, but I still can’t say I’m entirely used to it.” And then the smile was back and her fingers went back to work. “But hey, it was a good day, I mean, we really kicked some ass brainstorming ideas for the charity.”
“Un.” Rei’s response was half sigh, half approval. They really had worked well together. It had been a far cry from her days when she’d been stuffed into that deplorable Nako-Nako costume, a frightened girl seeking to protect a dying friend.
The singer sucked in an excited breath, “I know. We should go in on this together! You know, quit our day jobs and just work on the charity together. What do you say, Rei?”
The miko snorted. “I think that’s just stress getting to you after today’s craziness with the fans.”
The singer’s lower lip turned down in a pout and she wished Rei had been facing her to catch it. Even the steadfast miko couldn’t resist Minako’s pout. “Fine then. Let’s not make this about work. Let’s just run away together. Leave everything behind. We could go anywhere.”
Rei offered a quiet chuckle. “Now that’s just exhaustion talking.”
“It would be nice though.” Minako sighed dramatically.
Rei couldn’t keep herself from at least imagining the possibility, and the slightest of blushes tinted her cheeks.”It would.”
A comfortable silence descended, each woman lost to their own thoughts as Minako found another knot and gently began to work it. When the only response granted to her from the miko was a low sigh and the slow but definite relaxing of the muscles under her fingers, the singer smiled her victory. Nubile thumbs worked the base of Rei’s neck while wandering fingers danced towards her collarbone. Before long, the light brush of Minako’s fingernails and a few well placed light kisses to Rei’s neck had the miko moaning for an entirely different reason, and in an instant, the fire they had started under the stairs earlier that day had been rekindled.
But suddenly, the singer paused, her lips hovering on the edge of the miko’s ear, her words a quiet whisper. “I’m not coming on too strong, am I?”
Rei caught her breath. For a moment, she couldn’t decide whether or not Minako was teasing her for having been so forward under the stairwell, but hearing the sudden uncertainty in her best friend’s voice was unsettling. But it was then that she remembered Minako’s honest words, said in this very room of her apartment, only a few nights prior;
“I’m not suggesting anything other than that you take your time and figure out what you want, Hino Rei.”
A chill ran down the miko’s spine, and she knew Minako, with her chest pressed so tightly to her back could feel it, too. That Minako was being so cautious of her feelings and the state of their budding relationship meant the world to Rei.
But she still didn’t know how to respond. How could she ease Minako’s worries? How could she articulate the wealth of emotions she felt without tripping over her own tongue? How could she say words she knew Minako wanted to hear when she was still afraid of their meaning?
Slowly, Rei turned in Minako’s light embrace, and in those caramel eyes, the miko could see the same overflowing desire she, herself felt. And though she knew she wanted the very same thing that Rei wanted, the other woman placed one, trembling finger over the singer’s lips.
She wanted to save it. At least for a little while. But in the meantime, that didn’t mean she didn’t want to be as close as physically possible to Minako. Right?
“You know what would be the perfect ending to a day like today?” Rei hazarded.
Minako forced her racing heart to slow. “Hmm?”
“Just… falling asleep next to you. I didn’t exactly get to… enjoy it the last time.”
The miko’s words were halting and awkward, and to this, the singer smiled, cherishing the rosy glow on the taller woman’s cheeks. Though she knew that the fire couldn’t and wouldn’t be extinguished completely, she agreed that she couldn’t think of a more perfect way to end the day.
Finally, Minako smiled warmly, and taking Rei’s hand in her own, she led her to her bedroom.
OOO
Author’s Notes:
Ha! Pulled the punch. Sorry. Oh, who am I kidding? No I’m not. I’m trying to keep poor Rei in character, after all. Okay, so, this chapter was a little more fluff, but you’ll see the reason for it. And I’m sure most of you aren’t going to complain about fluff anyway!
OOO
Preview, Chapter 11:
“You should know that best.” The raven haired warrior sneered, “after all, it was you who locked your memories away, leaving yourself to guard it.”
“Me? Why would I do such a thing?"
“To protect your reincarnated self; the memories of your relationship with Venus and its disastrous end were hidden away,” Mars’ tone was righteous, but then her dark eyes narrowed, “that is, until you tampered with the lock.”
The miko was unfazed by her counterpart’s venom. “And I’ve regained them all except for this one. I must know why.”
“Would you really pry open something so tightly locked, Princess of Mars?”
For the first time, Rei faltered. “I… I need this memory to be complete. I have to know how this one memory relates to my current self.”
“But was it not you who claimed that the past was irrelevant?”
---
She’s going to leave me.’ Minako mused as she watched the eerily still form of the miko where she concentrated before the sacred flame. ‘She going to remember what I put her through back then and its relation to the future, and she’s going to leave me.’
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