A Hero of War

Aino Minako walked back to her hotel room after her final concert of her tour. Tomorrow she would be on a plane back to Tokyo to see her old friends again. How long had it been? Five, six months since the last time she saw her friends and Rei, She missed Rei the most, and what hurt her was that she never got to tell Rei how she felt about her before she left, but now she was ready. She looked at her nightstand where she kept two pictures, a group picture of everyone including the outers, and a picture of her and Rei. Minako lifted the picture and smiled.

"I can't wait to get back." Minako stated to no one in particular as she stared at the picture. It was one of her and Rei sitting next to each other in Minako's apartment. Rei had been reading a manga, so her thin black reading glasses were on and the manga was still in her right hand. Minako's own right arm was threaded through Rei's left, and her left was the one holding the camera to take the picture.

***

When Minako stepped out of her car, an "arrest me orange" color as Rei called it Honda, she walked up the steps of the shrine to see the others waiting for her with a large "Welcome Home" banner across the porch of the shrine.

"Minako-chan, WELCOME HOME!" Usagi was the first to hug Minako, followed by Mako who ruffled my hair as soon as she can in reaching distance.

"Nice to see you again." Mako said and smiled coyly as Minako pouted at the fact that Mako had just messed up her hair. Ami and Mamoru followed with Luna and Artemis at their heels. After everyone got their hug Minako pulled back and looked around.

"Where's Rei-chan, isn't she here?" Minako asked as she got grave looks from the other scouts.

"Didn't you get our letter?" Ami asked. "Rei was drafted."

"Drafted for what?!"

"The army, you have heard of the terrorist attack on Kyoto right?" Mako asked.

"Yes, I heard about it, it was supposed to be one Tokyo right?" Minako asked as the others nodded.

"Rei did enlist in the military as soon as she turned 18 remember, you said you'd never have the guts to do that. Well, the army recruited a ton of young soldiers, Rei included." Ami explained as Minako's face paled before ripping out her cell.

"If my manager had anything to do with me not knowing about this, I'll kill him." Minako heard the familiar male voice on the other line.

"Yes, Aino-chan,"

"Don't 'Aino-chan' me you bastard! Did you get a letter from my friends that you failed to give me?" Minako was angry and the others were shocked to see her be so quick to take it out on someone else.

"Oh, the one about Hino-san being recruited? I meant to talk to you about that,"

"YOU SON OF A BITCH! How dare you interfere with my mail! More importantly not tell me something that important."

"If you knew," Her manager paused, "You wouldn't have performed."

"DAMN STRAIGHT and now you lost a client, your fired, rot in hell." Minako hung up and looked at the others.

"Minako, you just gave up your next tour, in fact, you can no longer tour until you get a new manager." Usagi stated as she looked at her close-to-be twin.

"I came here because I wanted to tell Rei how I feel, I don't leave until I do." Minako stated as Mako smiled.

"She's been at war for four months; they should be bringing her home soon. She's too young to die out there and they know it." Ami insisted.

Three months since that day and Rei still hasn't returned. Minako had stayed at the shrine where Rei's grandfather welcomed her with open arms. He, too, missed his granddaughter and wanted her home safely.

"I already buried a child and I never want to do it again." Rei's Grandfather had told Minako one night. That's when Minako learned about Rei's mom and how she died. Minako would looked through the picture albums and see picture of Rei's mom, whom Rei had inherited all her looks from, except her hair, which was straight like her father's, but the same black as her mother's.

Today, Rei's grandfather had gotten a letter from the military. Everyone rushed over to see what was going on, and now they sat at the table, watching as Rei's grandfather passes it off to Minako.

"My eyes are failing me, how about you give us the news?" He suggested as Minako picked up the envelope and took out the official looking white sheet of paper.

"Dear Hino-san, we are pleased to inform you that your granddaughter, Hino Rei, is expected to be sent home. We must inform you this is because of injury that affects your granddaughter's ability to fight in the army any longer. The date of the drop off is listed below with more information. We were very much honored to have your granddaughter fight with us for the better of our country." Minako paused and looked up, "And than it just goes on about how well she fought."

"Out on injury, what kind of injury do you think she got?" Mako asked.

"It can be a variety of things, from paralysis to damage done to the inner organs, to being shot." Ami explained before noticing Minako had gone while. "We'll just have to wait and see."

A week later, Rei and two hundred other expected fallen soldiers were being flown home. The landing sight was packed with people who were both happy and sad about their loved ones coming home. Happy because they were home, but sad because they were hurt. The two army jets landed a hundred feet away from the crowd and started unloading the equally excited soldiers. Minako pushed ahead of everyone else to find Rei and bring her back to where the others were waiting. Many people were hugging and crying with joy at seeing their loved ones again. Minako bumped into someone as she tried to cut through the crowd.

"I'm sorry," A gentleman's voice said. "Are you looking for someone?"

"Yes," Minako said looking up at the man. He must have been in his thirties, his hair was black and his eyes were bright green. He had his arm in a sling and had scars all over his face. "I'm looking for Hino Rei."

"Rei-chan," The soldier said with recognizing, "She was helping Ken-kun with his things, poor little guy's in a wheelchair."

"Oh," Minako said, "Did you know where she is?"

"Don't quote me, but I think she's over that way," The man pointed with his good arm to the left half of the group.

"Thank you," Minako continued cutting through the crowed looking for Rei.

"Minako-chan," Minako turned to see Rei standing behind her. She looked different, Minako noticed. Her hair was still long like it was when they last met, but her skin was slightly tanned, like Minako's, and wearing her traditional army clothing like the other soldiers. But Minako couldn't help but notice that she had lost weight, not in a bad way, but in a way that made her look leaner, even showed off some more muscle than she had the last time they saw each other. Minako also noticed the scar over Rei's left eye, as well as the scars down her arms.

"Rei-chan," At the sound of her name, Rei embraced Minako in a tight hug. This surprised Minako, but she didn't protest to having the opportunity to be in the miko's arms. Minako rested her chin on Rei's shoulder to come to another conclusion; Rei was now two inches taller than her. "Glad to be home, Reiko?"

"You have no idea." Rei replied as Minako felt Rei's weight shift against her, indicating that the miko was tired.

"Hey, hey, you have to give everyone hugs first, than after we get to the shrine you can rest." Minako teased tracing random shapes on the miko's arm. The miko grumbled an Ok before Minako led her to the others.

After a day of being hugged and jumped on, Rei was glad to be home with her grandfather again. She also learned that Minako was staying with them. Rei walked up to her room to unpack the few things she took with her. It was nice to be back in her own room after eight months of travel and war. Rei sat on the bed and took of the first camo shirt, leaving her in her black T-shirt the hugged her body and her camo pants. Rei turned to notice the brown bear sitting on her bed, raising an eyebrow knowing well it wasn't hers.

"Sorry," Minako said as she picked up the bear. "I didn't mean to leave him in here, but when cleaning out my stuff I guess I forgot about him."

"You've been staying in my room?" Rei asked.

"Yeah, it was familiar and-" Minako trailed off, it was true she stayed here because it reminded her of Rei. "I missed you."

"I missed you too." Rei replied, playing with the dog tag that hung around her neck. Minako sat next to Rei as they sat in silence for a few moments.

"Is it really like that? I mean is being in war like what you see in movies?" Minako asked as Rei turned to her.

"What do you mean?" Rei asked.

"Like those battle scenes in war movies like Saving Private Ryan and Wind Talkers."

"I didn't know you watched war movies." Rei commented as Minako shrugged.

"I had free time, so I watched the old war movies you kept in the closet." Minako explained as Rei leaned back, laying on the bed and giving Minako a better view of her body, causing Minako to blush and look away.

"Yeah, it's really like that. More so in Wind Talkers," Rei stated, "I'll never get those images out of my head."

"I'm sorry," Minako lay next to Rei on the bed.

"I knew what I was getting myself into." Rei explained, "I wanted to fight."

"Why were you sent home?" Minako had been wondering that for a while. Rei had all her limbs and wasn't paralyzed, so why was she sent home?

"My eye," Rei's hand went to the scar on her left eye. "The damage done to my eye affected my sight."

"So, you couldn't see me is I came up behind you on your left?" Minako asked.

"Right, I also can't see well out of that eye now, so I have to rely on my other senses, which could be fatal in war, so they sent me home." Rei looked up at Minako. "Now I know how Hatori feels."

Minako sighed, Rei relating her eye to a character in Fruits Basket was a tactic she used to get Minako to stop worrying so much about her.

"Funny, I also thought you were more like Hatsuharu." Minako commented.

"Really, Usagi said Kyo,"

"Well, yeah, Kyo when you were younger maybe. But now you have two personalities like Hatsuharu. You can be nice and sweet, but when you get angry, you really get angry." Minako stated as they laughed together. "Besides," Minako looked over at Rei, "I like Hatsuharu better."

Minako scooted closed to Rei until she could rest her head on Rei's shoulder.

"Mi-chan,"

"I wanted to tell you something for a long time." Minako whispered. "I really like you Reiko."

"Funny," Rei chuckled and Minako sat up looking down at the miko in horror. "I don't like you….I think I love you."

"Don't do that!" Minako punched the miko in the arm. "I tell you I really like you and you scare me like that?!" Minako punched Rei in the arm again.

"Ow, normally when someone tells someone else they love them, they don't normally punch them in the arm." Rei stated.

"I know, it's more like," Minako trailed off leaning down to kiss the miko. Rei responded by wrapping her arms around Minako's waist, pulling her down on top of her. Minako felt Rei's tongue begging for entrance and immediately opened her mouth, allowing the miko to take control. Rei sat up, causing Minako to sit on her lap while Minako's hands ran through the miko's hair. They pulled away when the need for air became too great and looked at each other.

"That," Minako finished as Rei kissed her forehead. Minako smiled and tucked her head under Rei's chin, resting one of her hands on her collar bone and the other on the back of her neck.

"I missed you too much." Rei murmured Minako ran her hand that was on the miko's collar bone down her arm, letting it rest on Rei's elbow.

"I'll make you pay for that tonight." Minako stated smirking as Rei's face reddened.

"W-what do you mean by that?" Rei asked as she felt the hand that had been on her elbow raise and rest on her chest. Rei's face darkened a few shades as Minako moved closer so her nose was touching her own.

"It means Reiko," Minako kissed the corner of Rei's mouth, "I'm gonna lock you in this room and we'll go at it until your making noises only dogs can hear."

"And you decided this when?" Rei asked as Minako smiled.

"When I rented the movie." Minako said as Rei gave her a confused look.

"Wait, what do you mean..?"

"I rented Marley and Me! I hear the ending makes you cry." Minako gave a goofy grin.

"Is that what you meant my 'making noises only dogs could hear'?"

"Well, you never sob, you whimper." Minako stated mater-of-factly. "Why what did you think I meant?"

"Um," Rei turned red, "well,"

"Of course," Minako smirked as she started tracing random shapes on Rei's chest, "If you want to, we can have some fun after the movie. You know what they say; a little sweat never hurt anybody."

LOL the ending was a little iffy, but I think the rest went well.

PLEASE R&R

Sorry I didn't have this one edited, my e-mail wasn't working right and I REALLY wanted to post this.