A/N: Man, I suck at crossposting... Anyway! I wrote this for Femslash February and for the "reincarnation" square on my Fem Trope Bingo card. I knew almost immediately what I wanted to do, but it took me most of the month to get this into shape. It's not exactly the shape I envisioned, but I still like it. Enjoy!
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Rei wakes up gasping, feeling like she's breathing fire. Most of her dream is gone from her mind, stolen from her by consciousness. What she does remember is a pair of hands holding her own, fingers twined but grip fleeting; a body so close and yet held so far out of reach; a starlit smile not reflected in blue eyes; a farewell, a wish, not quite a promise.
Maybe in another lifetime.
The words rattle between her ears, ringing off the inside of her skull. She can't remember, can never remember, which one of them said it, if either of them did. In her very bones she knows that what she's dreamed is a memory, but she can't say whether it is a memory of a dream. She sighs into her palms and presses her first and middle fingers to her temples as though she can pin the sentence in place.
Beside her, she hears a whine, then covers shift and the mattress squeaks as the young woman beside her is roused awake in turn. Minako's hand is gentle over Rei's, but it kindles a fire deep inside her nonetheless, stoking embers into a roaring flame in the time it takes Rei to move her hands from her face to look up at her. Fingers catch and hold and squeeze; sleep still clings to Minako around the edges, but her expression is alert with concern.
"Was it a nightmare?" she asks, her thumb stroking over Rei's.
"Not a nightmare," Rei says, only knowing for sure herself once the words roll off her tongue. She turns on her side and wraps her other hand over top of Minako's, which twitches in her grip and then squeezes again around the fingers between her own. Offering a smile, Rei says, "I was just somewhere else when I would rather be here."
"Hmph, of course," Minako says on a huff, flopping back down and snuggling close, worming her other arm under Rei to pull her into an embrace. She closes her eyes and murmurs, already sounding half asleep again, "I'm here, after all."
Rei breathes a laugh warm against Minako's face and hums agreement into a brief kiss as her hand travels from Minako's hand up her arm and around her shoulders. Startled, Minako's eyes flutter back open and Rei can see a grin twinkling in them.
"You admit it, hm?" Minako says, just short of giggling, almost too loud in the night. Her knee hooks up over Rei's hip, pulling them even closer and tangling their legs. "Just because you're half asleep still, don't think I'll let you take it back."
"I won't take it back," Rei assures her, and she knows her own eyes are twinkling back at Minako before she lets them slip shut to chase after the sleep still hanging on in the shadows.
Remembering would be nice, she thinks, and maybe she will remember yet. Just now, though, it hardly seems that important.