AN: Rei and Ami try to work out what's right for them. Prompt 98 - "puzzle".
I've never been what you might call "normal". I grew up, after all, in a Shinto temple, with my grandfather; I took on the role of priestess as soon as I was officially old enough. I wondered, to begin with, if that was the reason for my affinity with fire and divination – tending the sacred fire in the temple for so many years. Then I found out that it goes much further back than that – a thousand years or more ago, in a time known as the Silver Millennium, I was Sailor Mars, one of the Moon Princess's guardians. That kingdom was destroyed, the guardians and the princess killed, but something sent their souls far into the future, to be reborn one day, to reclaim their powers.
My name is Rei Hino, and I live in twentieth century Tokyo. I'm a Shinto priestess and a Catholic schoolgirl, but I'm also Sailor Mars, avatar of the god and planet of the same name. I'm one of five sailor senshi to have been reborn in this time, and our role is to defend the Earth against anything trying to destroy it.
But that's enough of the history lesson. After all, what I'm sure you want to know about is the much-speculated upon relationship between the five of us. Don't pretend otherwise, I know it's been all over the newspapers and I've heard people talk. I do have ears, after all. Well, I just want to set the record straight. Usagi Tsukino, Sailor Moon, is destined to love Darien Chiba, since he too was with us in the Silver Millennium, as Prince Endymion of Earth. Minako Aino is Sailor Venus, and is totally in love with the idea of love. Makoto Kino, Sailor Jupiter, compares every boy she meets to her ex-boyfriend, though she won't actually tell us anything about him. Then again, it's early days. We haven't known each other very long, in this life, anyway. Our history may go back a thousand years, but we've only just met. We're all becoming close friends – it's inevitable, when you consider who we are and what we do. We have to get along, or we can't work properly as a team.
I know, I know. I haven't mentioned the fifth sailor senshi. She's Ami Mizuno, Sailor Mercury, the brains behind the team. That makes it sound as though she doesn't actually fight with us, which she does, but her real talent lies in planning and tactics. And yes, we're a little closer than the other girls.
It started one evening at the temple; the five of us had a meeting, did some homework, ate a load of Makoto's amazing cookies, and then Usagi and Minako had to go home to their families. Makoto lives alone, but she walked back with them because the two dizzy blondes are completely incapable of keeping out of trouble. Someone has to keep an eye on them.
"You leaving me too, Ami?"
"My mother is working nights at the moment – she'll have left the house by now, so there's no rush." A sadness crept into her voice as she spoke, another night alone clearly didn't appeal to Ami.
"You can stay here, if you want. There's plenty of room." Ulterior motives? Me? Of course not.
"Thanks, Rei, I appreciate it."
It was the weekend, no school in the morning, so we stayed up late watching bad movies and eating popcorn. We ended up flicking pieces of the popcorn at each other, which then escalated into cushions, and finally a full-on pillow fight. Feathers flew everywhere as one of the pillows split – I think it was one that I was swinging in Ami's direction. Finally, we collapsed in a heap, giggling wildly.
"It's messier than one of our fights." Ami surveyed the devastation that was my bedroom. Nothing was where it had been, and everything was covered in a white layer of feathers.
"Yeah, but don't tell me you didn't enjoy that." I was enjoying the fact that we were tangled up together on the floor, my head resting on her shoulder.
"True, I can't deny that." She turned slightly so that she could see my face. "Thank you, Rei, it was exactly what I needed."
Sapphire met amethyst as she looked into my eyes, smiling at me. I couldn't help it, I swear. I reached up with one hand, running it through her short blue hair, urging her closer. The kiss was nothing more than a touching of my lips to hers, I didn't know how she'd respond, if I'd taken it one step too far and was on the verge of tearing the senshi apart from the inside. I can normally read emotions, but Ami was a closed book to me, always had been.
"Rei..." a soft whisper, then Ami returned the kiss, equally tentatively.
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.
Growing up, Ami was as much of an outcast as I was. Her mother, an eminent doctor in one of the city's leading hospitals, was never around, and I don't think she even knows who her father is. Highly intelligent, Ami always has her head either in a book or in front of a computer screen, even now. She's always wanted to be a doctor, and already studies in preparation for medical school, even though she's nowhere near old enough yet.
Apart from Sailor Moon, she was the first of us to discover her powers, and has probably had the most difficulty adapting to being one of the senshi – she's so practical and scientific, she can't work out how it's all possible. But I love that about her, if I'm honest.
In a way, we're all freaks of nature. It shouldn't be possible to do what we do – Ami's biology lessons have taught me that, if nothing else. But we are who we are, and we do what we do to defend the Earth. After all, not far in the future is Crystal Tokyo, and if we can't turn it into the safe haven it's supposed to be, who can?