Sometimes, I needed to confide my loneliness in another. For a long time, that person had been Mars Rei. Reiko had been my best friend for years; we often lay awake on her bed, laughing and talking until all hours of the night.

I'm not sure when I began to develop more...romantic...feelings for her, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't shake the thoughts, the dream, the desire.

Then, I crept to her room one night to confide that loneliness in her once more, and she wasn't there. I couldn't figure out where she'd gone, except maybe holding some sort of political discussion with one of Earth's shittenou. This went on for a while; sometimes she'd be there, sometimes not. She only seemed to vanish when the shittenou were on the Moon, but it was never every trip. At least, not every night of every trip they made, as sometimes I'd pop in and find her after a long day of meetings.

I wondered what in the hell they could be discussing without me, but I couldn't bring it up without calling attention to my own needs. I always feared damaging the close friendship we shared, and I had never seen her express any interest in anyone. I didn't know if she was into men, or women, or truly celibate, but I still held my fears. We'd never really spoken of the strange arrangement that we had. I simply showed up and climbed into her bed, and she held me while I cried out my loneliness. Some nights, long after she'd fallen asleep, I'd kiss her cheek. She'd always sigh, smile and tighten her embrace. Once, I even dared to kiss her lips and mumble an "I love you." She kissed me back and returned the statement, but she was still sound asleep. I wondered who she was dreaming of.

I resolved to tell her of my feelings the next time I saw her. Meetings had run into the early hours of the morning, and I really needed to talk after the bombshell announcement of an engagement that Princess Serenity and Prince Endymion dropped on us.

The queen had called me in for a private discussion concerning Serenity and Endymion, and I headed to see Rei immediately afterward. As I rounded the corner on the approach to her room, I caught a glimpse of black hair rounding the corner on the opposite end of the hallway. I hadn't heard the light click of her heels as she walked, so Kunzite must've been leaving. He was the only other person I could think of that had hair that long and dark. However, when I knocked on the door, no answer was forth coming. Reiko had disappeared again.

I took off in the direction of the black hair, hoping to catch up. Something inside me, though, wanted to see where she vanished off to. I tailed her though the twists and turns of the palace until I found myself in the visiting delegates' wing, and I stopped short when she came to an abrupt stop and stole a glance around. Thank god I'd had the sense to hide behind the corner.

As I peered around the corner, she seemed to be collecting herself. Her hand rested on the knob to Zoicite's room, and I wondered what business they could possibly have to conduct that didn't reflect the meetings Kunzite and I would be having tomorrow. I couldn't figure out why this meeting couldn't wait until tomorrow, and it surprised me when I finally realized she was not dressed as Sailor Mars, but in the plain clothes of Mars Rei.

She entered without knocking.

I crept toward the door, curiosity intensifying. No light came from beneath the door or the keyhole, and I couldn't see anything when I finally pressed my face toward that keyhole.

They were speaking, quietly. He said her name, but not the name the Terrans usually used. He didn't refer to her as Sailor Mars or even Mars Rei, but simply as Rei. The familiarity made me uneasy. The curtains shifted just enough to allow me to make out dark shapes in the even darker, but I wish it hadn't. What I saw shocked me into detransforming from Sailor Venus to Venus Minako.

He kissed her.

She wrapped her arms around him and deepened the kiss.

My love was unrequited.

I couldn't grasp it; I backed away from the keyhole unsteadily and used the corridor wall to support myself as I came to terms with the kiss. This was why my Reiko disappeared when the Terrans visited. I had never thought, even for a moment, she'd be sleeping with one of the generals. The muffled sounds coming from the other side of the door only served to let me know that I wasn't imagining this. I heard an article of clothing hit the door, as if ripped off in haste. I heard the soft creak of the bed as it supported weight, presumably of both of them. But aside from his voice speaking her name, I heard no words.

Maybe she didn't love him.

I settled back at the keyhole, fully aware that I was violating her trust. She straddled his waist and leaned to kiss him again; the gesture was more intimate than I could bear to watch. I withdrew from the keyhole and sat, my head spinning.

Reiko, my Reiko, and a man. An Earthling. A shittenou. Zoicite.

I'd hoped for mere kissing, but they were already undressed and on the bed, and my mind could not explain this to my heart. I wondered how long this had been going on. I knew it had been years since the first time I'd gone to meet her, and she had not been there. From the brief glimpse of their encounter that I caught, their ease with each other's bodies was clearly something of experience.

My forehead hit my knees as I cowered closer down to the ground fighting off tears. I don't know how long I sat like that, but eventually I heard shifting in the room, and then those soft voices again.

"I love you, Rei. I wish we could get married."

I didn't hear her reply. I stood and ran down the hallway as fast as I could.

Reiko, my Reiko, and Zoicite.