Disclaimer: Sailor Moon and all the wonderfulness that comes with it does not belong to me.

A/N: This is an Au setting that takes place in the Neo-Crystal Kingdom. Characterizations are a meshing of the manga, anime, and live-action series, so please no flaming in regards to that. Nor to the offbeat pairings that may develop. This is merely my take on what could happen in a post-Chaos world.

The Next Day

It was the soft clinking of bowls that awoke Nephrite the next morning, and the semi-familiar swish of water. At first he thought he was dreaming it, but when it sounded again, another clink-clink in water, Nephrite began to pry his eyes open.

The first thing he saw was sunlight spilling across the carpeted floor. The curtain was only partially open; otherwise the sunlight would have spread across the bed as well. Nephrite rarely opened the curtains, a result of rarely being home during the daytime. Why open them when he slept during the day and worked at night? He couldn't sleep when there was light on his face, so it was simply easier to keep the damn things closed all the time.

Turning onto his side, Nephrite reached a hand toward the nightstand beside his bed, turning the alarm clock he kept (but rarely used) toward him. It was after 10:00 a.m. – far earlier than he normally liked to get up after a long night.

Nephrite pushed himself into a sitting position and tried to gather his thoughts. Last night… The thought went unfinished as he glanced in the direction of the kitchen. From his vantage point he could see a lithe figure with her back turned toward him, standing just in front of the sink. Dark hair, bare legs… a long t-shirt that he was pretty sure belonged to him.

Rei.

Last night flooded back to him with a sharp jolt. The bar; the bottles of alcohol she had consumed before he had gotten there; taking her home; the kiss; the…

He couldn't help the small smile that flitted across his face as he remembered all that had occurred after she had kissed him. But then the smile vanished, his eyes returning to Rei as he realized what had happened last night. It wasn't merely a matter of what had happened, but how it had happened. She had been drunk and hurting, and Nephrite had been tired and…

And nothing, he thought to himself. I let myself take advantage of her because she made the first move.

And now she was standing there doing his dishes. Nephrite didn't know what to make of that, though part of him wondered why she hadn't just left after she had woken up. She was still here, wearing his shirt, and he didn't know what he was supposed to do next.

Get up, he told himself. Get up, get up, get up.

Running a hand through his hair, Nephrite swung his legs off the bed to push himself into a standing position. He grabbed a pair of jeans off the floor, pulling them on before reaching down to pull a shirt off the floor as well. He didn't care if they were clean or dirty; half the clothing in his small studio apartment were scattered across the floor regardless of the state they were in. He was just that bad at general upkeep.

Nephrite ran a hand through his hair again as he glanced toward the kitchenette. If Rei had heard him getting up, she wasn't letting on to that fact. She was still standing at the sink, busying herself with what had once been a pile of dishes. She must have been at it for a while seeing as how most of them were sitting in the drainer now.

He didn't know where to start. Say good morning? Cough to get her attention? Apologize for what had happened? Ask her how she was feeling now? Nephrite had never been one for small talk in the first place, but to make small talk with a woman he knew so little about? He knew more about Lita and Amy than he did Rei; she had always been something of an enigma, known more for her short temper and cool demeanor than anything else. He had always steered clear of her thanks to Jadeite; he only ever pushed her buttons and sent her into a furious rage, almost as much as Serena did.

And not being the religious sort, Nephrite had never really stepped foot at her temple before. That just wasn't his scene… just like the bar hadn't been hers until her grandfather had passed away.

A sigh escaped his lips, and before Nephrite could think any further, he found himself taking the few steps it took to stand beside Rei at the sink. He reached for a towel lying on the countertop, and picked a plate out of the drainer to begin drying it manually.

Rei didn't even bat an eye as she continued to work on a pot in the water. "That's probably dirty."

Nephrite shrugged. "Probably."

She nodded and kept on scrubbing, silence falling between them. It wasn't an awkward silence like Nephrite would have expected. If anything, the silence seemed normal. Comfortable was too familiar a word, but it felt that, too. He continued drying dish after dish, laying them aside on the counter as Rei added the pot to the drainer and reached for a pan. He briefly thought about telling her to leave it alone, but the words wouldn't form. He kept on drying instead.

As he worked on the last fork from the drainer, Nephrite glanced at Rei out of the corner of his eye. She didn't look angry or particularly sad. Just… tired. She didn't even look hung over, which would have been preferable; Nephrite could handle a hangover. But he wasn't sure what this was. It wasn't like he had a whole lot of experience with one night stands beyond himself slipping away before the other person woke up – and that worked pretty well since he normally never brought people home with him.

He had only brought Rei home with the intention of calling one of her friends to pick her up in the morning. But the way things had progressed last night, Nephrite wasn't sure if he could face any of her friends. How was he supposed to explain Rei in his apartment, half dressed, and working through his dirty dishes?

"Are you going to keep staring at me, or are you going to say something finally?" Her words jolted Nephrite out of the trance he hadn't realized he had fallen into.

"Sorry," he said.

"For staring, or for last night?"

He almost smiled. She knew how to get right to the point, didn't she? "Both, I guess."

Rei nodded again. Another couple of minutes of silence passed before she spoke. "It's not your fault," she said softly. "I should be the one saying sorry for it. I don't even know why I did it."

"You drank a lot yesterday. I knew better," replied Nephrite.

Rei didn't say anything again, finishing the pan and handing it to Nephrite to place in the drainer as well. She reached a hand into the sink and pulled out the plug, and the pair of them watched the water begin to drain. Finally, "I could have left when I woke up this morning."

This time it was Nephrite that was silent, his eyes focused on the pan in the drainer, watching tiny droplets of water slide down the handle. "Why didn't you?"

"I don't know." Rei turned toward Nephrite, her eyebrows furrowed together, and her eyes refusing to meet his. "I don't know why I've been doing a lot of things lately. Maybe that's how I process grief? Amy would say so, anyway. She's worried about me."

"All of your friends are worried about you," stated Nephrite softly as he turned to face her as well. He knew because he had heard it from Andrew, and even Darien, both of whom heard it from Lita and Serena. None of them seemed to know what to do for her – not even Lita who had lost her own parents and worked her way through her own grief. The trouble was Rei. She was normally such a private person, never sharing her emotions or letting down her guard, so to speak. But the moment her grandfather had passed away she had seemed to crumble. Nephrite had heard she had sobbed through the funeral; he hadn't attended, having never been close to her, and a stranger to her grandfather. He probably never would have thought twice about her had she not shown up at the bar he worked at one night. But she had.

"I know. But I just… I need time. I know they mean well, but sometimes I feel like they're there too much. I just… I don't want them to hover over me. I'm not made of glass."

"And they'd probably never let you leave their sight if they knew you were drinking your woes away," said Nephrite.

"Probably."

He nodded again. That was something he could understand – the drinking, and the privacy. Rei was used to handling things on her own, and ever all those years fighting Chaos alongside her friends hadn't changed that aspect of her. She needed space to grieve alone. Unfortunately, he could also understand why her friends were worried about her. Grieving alone could lead to dark places… although Nephrite didn't think she'd really do anything stupid other than get drunk.

And sleep with me, he thought sullenly.

He gave a soft sigh, his eyes going to the stack of clean dishes on his counter. "You didn't have to do that," he said after another moment.

Rei glanced toward the dishes as well. "I think better when I'm busy."

"So you did my dishes?"

"It was either that or your laundry," she replied.

This time Nephrite did smile, his gaze falling back on Rei as she eyed the towel he had been using to dry the dishes she had washed. "Fair enough."

She looked up at him, scrutinizing him carefully. Nephrite met her gaze, his smile falling away. She looked serious again, and he wondered if she was going to ask him to never speak of what had happened again, or if she was going to break down in tears. He wasn't sure which option he would prefer, or if there would even be an alternative he could handle.

He certainly didn't expect her to step forward, her arms going around his waist as she pressed her face into his chest. It was almost instinctive how his own arms wrapped themselves around her body, a hand sliding up to cradle the back of her head.

Nephrite didn't say anything – didn't think anything – as he held Rei in his arms. It wasn't something he could really process. He wanted to tell himself that she needed this. He wanted to say he understood it. On some level he thought he did, anyway. She may not want her friends to hover, but she wasn't against some form of comfort. He just wasn't sure how and why it had ended up being him. Was it because he hadn't pushed her in those first couple of nights at the bar? He had never told her things would be all right; he had only told her she couldn't have done anything differently. He wasn't sure what her friends were telling her, or how they were trying to be there for her. He could imagine Lita baking something, and Serena and Mina trying to hug Rei… and Amy placing a comforting hand on hers. But he couldn't see Rei accepting any of that.

And yet, here she was, her arms wrapped tightly around his waist, her head burrowed in his chest, silent as the grave. Nephrite didn't say a word, waiting for Rei to make the first move. He wasn't sure he wanted to scare her, if she could even be scared.

Minutes ticked by, and still Nephrite waited. Finally, Rei loosened her hold, and Nephrite loosened his. He didn't quite let go as she pulled away from him, her eyes slightly unfocused, and her hands still sitting on his waist. Nephrite moved the hand from behind her head to move a strand of hair away from her face, his hand coming to rest there instead.

He wanted to ask her if she was okay now, and the words were on the tip of his tongue. But they never came. Perhaps she sensed that, because her eyes met his again, and he watched her nod slowly. Nephrite nodded, too, but rather than let Rei go he pulled her into his arms again. She didn't protest. Her hands moved across his back, her fists gripping his shirt instead. Nephrite closed his eyes, allowing the moment to sink in. He wasn't sure how long they might have stayed like that, but the moment came to an end when his cell phone began to ring.

At first he tried to ignore it, but after the first time it went to voicemail, it started again and he felt Rei pull away from his embrace.

"Your phone," she said.

"I hear it," he replied. Nephrite allowed himself to let her go, his hands dropping to his side as he listened to the phone ring. He was trying to decide where the sound was coming from; ultimately pinpointing it to the pants he had been wearing last night. With a resigned sigh he walked over to the jeans and picked them up, pulling the phone out of one of the pockets. "Yeah?" he said upon answering it.

"Finally," came Andrew's voice. "I thought maybe the battery was dead again and I'd have to come pound on your door."

"It'll probably be dead soon. I haven't charged it," stated Nephrite.

"Then I'll make this quick. We have a problem."

"What kind of problem?" Nephrite was only half listening, his full attention back on Rei as she turned back toward the sink, reaching toward the towel. He saw her frown at it before turning toward him; but she wasn't looking at him. She appeared to be looking out at the rest of the apartment. It didn't take a genius to figure out what she was doing. She bent down to pick up a shirt off the floor, and then a pair of socks, brushing past him to pick up other articles of clothing she found strewn about the floor. Great, now she's going to do my laundry, too.

"—It hasn't even been twenty-four hours yet, but once she gets something into her head there's just no stopping her," continued Andrew.

"Wait, what?" Nephrite tuned back in, confusion evident in his voice. That was what he got for not paying attention.

"Rei," Andrew repeated. "Rei is missing. Mina went to the temple this morning and couldn't find her, and now she's raising hell about it. The girls want to set up a search party to find her – and I'm pretty sure Lita has already vowed to spill blood. She certainly sounded bloodthirsty when I talked to her on the phone."

"Blood? All because Rei's not at the temple?" Nephrite's gaze continued to follow the dark haired woman in question as she made her way through his apartment, picking up clothing and dropping them into two piles on the floor. Lights and darks. He knew she could hear him as he spoke, but she wasn't pausing to see what was going on. She was focused on his dirty clothes.

"Mina's the one that's calling for the search party – she said she tried to talk to Rei last night, but Rei told her to leave her alone, and you know how girls are."

"Not really, no."

Nephrite could almost hear Andrew roll his eyes. "Rei probably wanted to be left alone, Mina didn't want to leave her alone, and after Rei made her leave she's been moping about it because she thinks Rei really needed someone last night."

"That's not it!" Mina's voice interjected from the other end of the phone, surprising Nephrite who hadn't realized Andrew wasn't alone.

"Regardless, Mina is worried, and Serena wants everyone to get in on the search."

"Serena – Serenity – the Queen – she wants to have a search party?" asked Nephrite incredulously. "Because they think Rei's missing?"

"We don't think, we know, dumb ass," replied Mina, her voice louder now. Nephrite made a face as he listened to Andrew and Mina argue about the phone, static crackling through the line, as the pair seemed to play a quick game of tug of war. Andrew must have won, because it was his voice that answered back.

"She's not at the temple, Nephrite. We're there right now, and she's nowhere to be found. It's not like her to just leave the temple; it's her home. Something could have happened to her…"

"No. Wait. Stop," said Nephrite. "She's not missing."

"Huh?"

"Rei. She's not missing. She's… she's fine. She's… she's here."

"She's where? There? The bar, or your place?"

"Bar?" demanded Mina on the other end.

Nephrite sighed again. "My place," he said.

"What is she doing – Mina, stop."

"What do you mean she's at your place?" Mina sounded accusatory as she came back onto the line, her voice crisp and clear.

"By the looks of it," replied Nephrite flatly, his eyes going back to Rei as she settled herself on the floor to divide the pile of clothing she had found in his bathroom, "she's going to start laundry." He didn't know why he said that, or why he felt a satisfaction in making Mina so angry. He could hear the blonde cursing on the other end as Andrew pulled the phone away from her, trying to get back on. Nephrite didn't even blink as the line finally went dead.