Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Sailor Moon.
Rei sat within the wooden chair. Tears flowing ceaselessly from her eyes as she attempted to wipe them completely from her eyes. Once again, the raven haired girl found herself in front of the principle office for disciplinary reasons. For once though, she was not the one at fault for what the teacher said.
It was that blond foreigner's fault; she had spilled the red paint on herself and started to cry. The teacher didn't even give her a chance to explain herself and she was escorted to the main office. The principle had called her father upon sight of her, not even given a chance to explain what had happened.
Her father would appear in a matter of moments, angry and embarrassed. He would apologize for her unruly behavior and blame it on her ailing mother's condition. He would take her home where her punishment would be as it always is. He would force her into the hall closet and leave her there for hours until a maid came for her routine cleaning after dinner and smile at the fact she got herself 'accidentally' locked in the closet again.
"Hino Rei, your father will be here in a few moments," a voice called from behind the door. "He wants you to go collect your things."
She stood, deciding to go to the bathroom before the class. Her depression growing with each step as she remembered the dark closet, the small space, she began to feel sick.
She opened the bathroom door to find the blond haired foreigner who started all the trouble at the sink furiously scrubbing her shirt with her hands. Rei stared as the girl in the bathroom, washing her shirt with hand soap and warm water in a futile attempt to remove the red paint upon it.
Her anger began to rise as she looked and thought more about the girl. The girl was a cute foreigner, blond hair with blue eyes; she probably was half German with a rich business father and a beautiful Japanese mother, a mother who wasn't sick in the hospital and a father whose career was second to his family. She would live a happy life full of carefree whims and such.
Why should she be given such a good life while she lived in constant fear of a closet? Why is her mother sick while others aren't?
She walked up to the blond foreigner and pushed her away from the sink, anger she had never felt raging within her. The blond foreigner landed upon the bathroom floor with a hard thud, her hands immediately grabbing her wet shirt and covering herself with fear in her eyes.
Rei's eyes widened as she saw a bruise upon the blond foreigner's arm. She hadn't touched the girl's arm; her eyes scanned the girl's body to find several more upon the girl. Her anger dissolving as she held out her hand in concern for the girl.
"Get away from me!" she screamed angrily.
"I'm sorry," she apologized retracting her hand.
"You can't get the paint out that way," Rei said softly. "You have to take it to the washer's in the back of the school."
"It's all your fault!" the girl said and began to cry. "If you didn't bump into me, I wouldn't have spilled the paint on my shirt."
"You should've moved out of the way," Rei stated arrogantly crossing her arms. "Why are you still on the floor?" The girl stood up quickly, the wet shirt dripping as she put it on and went toward the door. "You can't walk around with a wet shirt, you'll catch a cold. Man you're stupid, c'mon, I'll take you to the washers."
She grabbed the girl's arm and forcibly led her to the back of the school. A short time later, the blond foreigner sat in the laundry room with an oversized shirt they had found in a basket. Her stained shirt whirled around in the washer as Rei stared at the blond foreigner in front of her.
"Stop looking at me," she said guardedly her cheeks becoming flushed.
"Why were you crying?" Rei asked.
"Mommy doesn't like it when I come home dirty, she spends a lot of money on clothes for me, if I come home dirty, she makes me take a bath and scrubs me really hard, and it hurts. If I come home with dirty clothes, I get a spanking and sent to my room for the night without dinner," the girl said sadly and smiled. "But its ok now, I keep a bunch of bread and desserts in the hidden compartment of my room."
"What about your father? What does he do?" Rei asked and the girl's face became saddened.
"I don't know who my father is, mommy says my father was a businessman and its my fault her husband left her so I have to make up for it by being a very obedient child and getting a good, rich husband when I get older," she said sadly.
A silence settled in the room between the two girls. Rei briefly remembered her father telling her the same thing 'Be obedient so you can get a good husband'. Is being obedient really the way to get a good husband? If she had to put up with such abuse to get one, were they really worth it?
"I don't want a good husband," Rei said absently to herself.
"I don't want one either," the blond stated shaking her head and smiled. "Besides, I think Rei is cute."
Rei blushed furiously. "You're cute too," she said with embarrassment She looked at the blond foreigner, a smile on her face was cute but to be honest, she preferred the fiery look she had in her eyes earlier.
"Oh," the blond foreigner said and blushed guiltily. "I didn't introduce myself, and mommy told me introduction was the most important thing to do, I'm Tsukino Usagi, age 7."
"Hino Rei, age 7," she said smiling, this girl was a foreigner. "What are you mixed with?"
"Mixed with?" Usagi asked and looked thoughtful. "I'm not a foreigner!" she exclaimed realizing what Rei was implying. "My mommy says my daddy was Japanese and she's Japanese too, she said I got lucky and caught some of the dormant genes on his side of the family."
"Whatever Usagi," Rei said and turned away from her in hopes for that fiery look.
"Don't whatever me Rei," Usagi said heatedly. Rei smiled; there was that fiery look again. "Hey, do you want to come over to my house today? My mommy won't mind since I'm not dirty and she wants me to have cute friends."
"Ok," Rei agreed.
"Really?" Usagi asked happily. "Now I'll have someone to play with, Mommy doesn't really like many other kids."
"Why?" Rei asked curiously.
"She's says that only cute kids should play with other cute kids, I tried to play with the neighborhood kids around my house but mommy wouldnve, world's" /'t let me, she said they were grubby," Usagi answered.
"Grubby?" Rei asked and the door slid open.
Their teacher stood, her face flushed but upon sight of seeing the two girls, she gave a sigh of relief. "I thought I had lost you two," she said and the two girls stood up.
"Teacher, it wasn't Rei's fault," Usagi stated and the teacher looked. "I accidentally spilled the paint on myself and I ran out of the room because I had to clean it."
"But why were you crying?" the teacher asked.
"I was embarrassed," Usagi answered and the teacher nodded.
"Well, your father's here Rei, let's go explain everything," the teacher said and the washer buzzed loudly. "Usagi put your shirt in the dryer, come back to class when it's dry."
"Yes ma'am," Usagi said as the teacher left with Rei.
Rei followed her teacher to the main office. Her father stood, a fake smile plastered upon his face as he forced polite conversation with the principle. Her father was a politician, faking and forcing was what he did best as her mother often put it.
She stood behind the teacher as she explained the situation being a misunderstanding between her and Usagi. Her eyes downcast as her father rubbed his chin saying 'I see'.
"Well, Rei looks like you're finally becoming obedient," her father said and the teacher moved to allow him sight of his daughter.
"Yes sir, I was only trying to help Usagi," she said clasping her hands together. "She asked me to come over to her home today after school, can I go? I've been good this entire week and it would really make me happy to be able to play with Usagi."
She heard the principle and teacher laugh exclaiming 'What an adorable child' and looked up to see her father's surprised look. He knew she didn't have many friends, often she sat in her room reading or in the hospital with her mother looking at photographs of distant family.
He went into thought for a few minutes. If his daughter was becoming social, it could help his campaign immensely. Many reporters questioned his daughter's status in school and when they discovered her to be quite different than expected they would use that old saying 'The apple doesn't fall far from the tree', though if they saw Rei playing with another child, this could be very beneficial to his campaign, though it would have to be the right child.
"Teacher, my shirt's dry," a voice called. Rei turned around to see Usagi holding her shirt up. "The paint's all gone."
"Ok Usagi, change and hurry back to class," the teacher said and the blond child hurried to the bathroom to change.
"That's Usagi?" he asked and Rei nodded. "She's an adorable child. Of course you can go over her house after school."
Rei smiled, she was well aware her father had an ulterior motive but for the moment it didn't matter. She thanked her father profusely before hurrying back to the classroom to tell Usagi.
"The friends she's had recently, have been bad seeds and because of her early experiences with foreigners, she's always been distrustful of them," he explained to the teacher and principle. "I am happy to see her making good progress."
"Usagi isn't a foreigner though," the teacher said with a slight smile. "She'll happily tell you that herself, you shouldn't jump to conclusions Mr. Hino."