Title: Ribbons Of Red

Genre/s: Romance/Tragedy

Pairing/s: Rei/Jadeite

Summary: a love so forbidden they gave their lives to keep it . . .

Disclaimer: i do not own the characters, Sailor Moon, or the poem i based this off (wonder if you guys recognise it? and props to my boyfriend for the title, i couldn't come up with a suitable one that wouldn't give the poem away so i really appreciate it *hugs him and he grins* and my apologies to Rei from our proboard site; i seem to be picking on you a lot lately, but i thought this pairing suited the idea better than the others for some reason. I LUV YOU! please don't kill me lol)

Ares stood at the door to his daughter's room with an ear to the wood and listening intently. When his other daughter tapped him on the shoulder he waved a hand to send her away. When she tapped again he heaved an angry sigh and looked at her. "What?" he whispered, angry at being disturbed.

Minako looked at him weirdly. "Why are you listening at Rei's door?"

"Never you mind." Ares snapped. "Don't you have work to do in the inn?"

Minako shrugged. "Mother asked me to come fetch you."

Ares growled, gave the door one last glare and walked down the hall towards the inn, his boots making heavy thumps on the wooden floor. Minako shook her head, partly amused and partly worried, and knocked on the door with a quick series of taps. At the sound of her sister calling in welcome she went in.

"Rei, father is getting more and more angry. You have to be more careful. He's out to get him this time, i think." Minako said, settling on the bed.

Rei sat on the wide windowsill, plaiting a dark red love-knot through her long black hair. Her violet eyes watching Minako with both love and concern. Her sister knew exactly who Rei was waiting for, and while she approved whole-heartedly - Minako was of the opinion that the suitors their father chose were boring and unworthy of her sister's love - she was terrified that she would lose her sister. They were close and she had always feared this.

Loving a highwayman had its risks.

Standing and moving quickly from the casement Rei went to her sister with open arms and embraced her. "I know, i am worried as well. He will be here soon." As she spoke they heard it; the tlot-tlot of hooves on the road. Rei rushed back to the casement and stared out at the crest of the hill in the distance, Minako behind her. The road had become a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moors. And along the ribbon he came riding.

Minako put her hand on Rei's shoulder as reassurance and left the darkened room, Rei watched after her briefly before turning back to watch the man riding towards her.

Over the cobbles he clattered and clashed in the dark inn-yard. His rapier hilt a twinkle in the moonlight. The black horse side-stepped for a few moments before he urged it slowly, quietly and carefully onwards again. He tapped a shuttered window with the butt of his whip but it was locked. The highwayman whistled a tune and Rei leant out the window to look at him. Beautiful Rei, with her dark eyes and red lips and long black hair.

He smiled up at her from under blond locks and spoke in barely more than a whisper. "One kiss, my sweetheart, i'm after a prize tonight. But i'll be back with the yellow gold before the morning light." He looked around warily, a cautious gesture that made her smile. When he looked up again he was serious and grave. "But if they harry me, then look for me by moonlight." she nodded but he pressed on with his words. "Look for me by moonlight, my sweet. I shall come to thee by moonlight." Then he added, in a resigned and bitter tone, "Though hell shall bar my way."

She gave him a warm smile, her face illuminated by soft moonlight. He returned her smile and stood upright in the stirrups. He couldn't reach her hand, and so she loosened her hair and let it fall through the window. His face burnt red as the black cascade fell over his breast, but he kissed its waves in the moonlight before tugging at the reigns and galloping to the west. She watched him go with a sad light in her eyes. Theirs was a forbidden love; her father knew and tried to catch her lover every time in order to hand him over to the Redcoats. With a sigh she turned away from the ethereal scene outside her window and went to bed.

But he didn't come at dawn, and he wasn't back by noon either. The two sisters looked at each other anxiously as they worked; he'd never been so late before.

Just before sunset a Redcoat troop came marching, marching along the ribbon of road towards the inn. They came marching straight up to the old inn door. The sisters' father was anxious of their presence, all folk were wary of them, but they said no words to him. Instead they ate and drank ale and laughed, making lewd comments to the landlord's daughters. Rei was tense, jerking away when they tried to touch her hand or catch her red skirts.

"It will be fine." Minako whispered to her on their way to the kitchen for more ale and meat. Rei nodded, tight-lipped and pale. Minako had the most horrible feeling that what she had just uttered was an outright lie. Rei felt it too.

After the soldiers were finished Minako saw one of the ostlers walk up to them and whisper something. They nodded and beckoned Rei over to them. She hesitated but walked over slowly, not trusting them. Both she and her sister uttered a scream as they grabbed Rei and began to drag her towards the house part of the inn. Their screams caused stirring in the customers, but none stood to help but for one man who was roughly knocked down again. Their mother and father ran in from the kitchen and began shouting, but the Redcoats ignored them too. They dragged Rei upstairs towards her room. Minako followed, trying to get her sister back, ignoring their words and shoves she ran swiftly up the stairs behind them. When she reached the landing a soldier roughly grabbed her wrist and dragged her to a seperate room, locking her in. Minako beat on the door with her fists and sobbed and screamed but it had no affect; she was ignored. Finally she sat by the window and stared out unseeing.

The Redcoats dragged Rei into her room, kicking and screaming, and tied her up to attention, making many lewd comments and sniggering as they did so, at the foot of the narrow bed with a musket to her breast.

"One scream, just one uttered word, and we shall kill you and your sister and your mother and father as well as the man." a Redcoat whispered in her ear in warning. Rei nodded mutely, fearing for her life, and the lives of her family and her lover. The Redcoat chuckled. "Now, keep good watch." he told her, kissing her. She licked her lips to rid herself of the taste of him and of the ale he had drunk. She could see the road through the window, and her breaths came in ragged and short as she struggled with her hands behind her back. The ropes were tight and she struggled to loose her hands. She struggled until her hands were covered in sweat or blood, she did not know which and she was beyond caring. Straining in the darkness, her eyes never leaving the sight beyond the window, the hours crawled past like years. Finally one finger touched the trigger. 'The trigger, at least, is mine.' she thought bitterly, realising the only thing she could do to warn her love, 'And i need not struggle for the rest.'

Rei slowly let out a breath, fearing that they had heard her struggles, but they had not. Two sat at her casement window with muskets beside them, more scattered around the room, two more in the hall by her door, another by Minako's room, more guarding the stairs. She could hear the blood pounding in her ears as she waited.

Tlot-tlot. Tlot-tlot.

Her breath quickened. Did they hear it? The noise was so clear they had to have heard!

Tlot-Tlot. Tlot-tlot.

'They do not move! Are they deaf! But no . . . they move.' She watched silently, torn, as she watched them prime their muskets, moonlight glinting dully off the metal. Not a one looked to her. None bothered to check her bindings to enure she hadn't gotten free. It didn't cross their minds.

Looking back to the window she drew breath sharply, for riding over the hill, his face illuminated by the moonlight, he came. She stood up straight and still. Nearer and nearer he rode, and her eyes grew wide for a moment, love and sorrow flashing through them in a brief instant.

'Jadeite, my love, forgive me.'

She drew one last deep breath as her finger moved . . .

The shot shattered the stillness and the moonlight.

His horse reared suddenly at the sound, turning away as if sensing her tragedy and her warning. Quickly Jaedite turned to the west once more and spurred the horse away. The Redcoats swore and fired anyway, trying in vain to hit him.

Minako heard the hooves and stood sharply to look from her window. She could not shout a warning for a Redcoat had entered at the sound of hooves. She watched him riding nearer and drew in a ragged breath, awaiting the sound of the muskets. A single shot rang out clear and her head jerked to the wall on the side where her sister's room lay. The Redcoat also looked in the direction nervously. Several more shots followed, but these were few and not accompanied by the sound of a man's cry of pain. Suddenly it dawned upon her what had happened and a great cry ripped from her throat. Her father burst through her door, followed closely by her mother. When they saw she was unharmed her mother cried for joy but her father rushed out again towards her sister's room. Minako tore herself from her mother's embrace and followed, but her father stopped her before she reached Rei's door.

And then she knew. Minako knew that her sister was dead, and that the shot she had heard was the shot that had killed her. Her father began to shout at the Redcaots, who milled about, unnerved that the girl had done it and unsure of what to do next. Minako caught a last glimpse of Rei before their father draped a sheet over her head; the older girl's head hung over her breast, her black hair a curtain that hid her and something dark stained the cloth of her cothes. Minako caught her mother as she fell against her and they both collapsed in tears. Rei had warned her love and saved him, but the price had been her death.

Jadeite was passing through a market early that morning when he heard a group of men gossiping.

"Damn shame, she was the most beautiful lass for quite a ways." said one.

"Aye," said another, "They say she did it to save her love from death, but paid for it with her own."

"Excuse me sirs."

The men looked at Jadeite, a young man with bright blue-green eyes and a mop of sandy blonde hair that fell into his eyes, dressed in brown doe-skin breeches and white shirt with a coat of claret, bunched lace lay at his throat and a French cocked hat lay on his blonde hair. His boots were polished and up to his thigh and a jewelled rapier hung at his side. It was not uncommon; many young gentlemen wore them. It was the fashion.

"Yes young man?" asked one at length.

"I couldn't help but overhear your conversation. I am passing through here and wondered if you could tell me the story of which you speak."

One man spat on the floor in front of himself before speaking. "You know of the Moonlit Moor Inn, yes?"

"Aye sir, i know of it." Jadeite's heart began to beat fast. He had a horrible feeling in his chest.

"Last night some redcoats stopped by there. The story is that the landlord's daughter was in love with someone her father did not approve of. A highwayman, they say. Someone told them and they took her to her room, bond her up and waited for him to appear. They nearly had the rat too," he spat again, then crossed himself. "She warned him away. The poor lass worked her way through her bonds until she had the trigger of a musket in her reach and shot herself through the breast to drive him away."

Jadeite paled as the man recounted the story. No! It couldn't be? Rei, his Rei! That shot was . . .

"Young man, are you ok?" asked one of the others, putting a hand to his shoulder.

Jadeite flashed a smile, but it was straigned and his eyes held a bitter light. "Yes, i am fine. Thank you for telling me this. Now i should be going." He didn't await their response, simply turned and walked back to the stable where he had left his horse. The dawn light was just turning golden as he re-saddled and mounted his stallion. A tear slipped down his cheek and for a few minutes he paused, memories of her slipping through his mind. Her smile and her dark eyes, her long black hair, her scent and the feel of her in his arms. All served only to drive him towards his last purpose.

'Rei, my beloved, my sweet beautiful angel, i shall be with you again soon.' he thought sadly. Without her life had no meaning, she was his joy, the spark that lit up his entire being. Without her, he had nothing.

He spurred the stallion into action once more, turning and heading back along the road towards the inn he had left only hours before. It was noon before he neared the inn, his velvet coat the colour of blood red wine in the golden light. As he rode he unsheathed the rapier at his side with a metallic rasp, a sound like the vengeful spirits of lost love and brandished it high above his head. His eyes were ablaze with anger and sorrow, his body lifted slightly from the saddle as the horse galloped back the way it had come. As he went over the crest of the hill he saw the Redcaot troop marching out of the inn courtyard and he shrieked a curse to the skies above him, a curse on the Redcoats that caused the death of his love and the pain in his heart.

They heard his cries and primed their muskets, taking fire on the highwayman coming towards them so recklessly. Down they shot him, down like a dog on the highway. He lay in a pool of his own blood, and with his last breath he looked to the sky and saw only her.

And still, on a dark winter's night, the story is told by a warm fire by those who know and saw, of the love of the highwayman and the landlord's red-lipped and beautiful daughter. They say that when the wind is in the trees, the moon tossed upon its cloudy seas, when the road becomes a ribbon in the moonlight, that the highwayman comes riding over the purple moors and up to the old inn door.

He clatters and clangs of the cobbles of the old inn yard and whistles a tune to the window, and who should be awaiting him there? Rei, the landlord's beautiful dark-eyed daughter, sitting at her casement window, plaiting a dark red love-knot into her long black hair.