Let It Be Night
There are no customers at Makoto's flower shop when Rei visits, but Makoto is busy nonetheless. Motoki is working an extra shift at the Crown, and there's a very large order of floral arrangements to be finished for an upcoming funeral.
Makoto has just entered into a partnership with a funeral services company called Little Angels, as one of the providers of floral arrangements. While Makoto prefers to provide arrangements for weddings rather than funerals, it keeps her flower shop running, so she doesn't complain.
"I'm so glad that you're back, Rei," Makoto says from somewhere behind the vases on the counter before her. "I was sort of afraid that you wouldn't."
Rei is a little surprised at that. After all, she thought that it was inevitable that she would return to Tokyo, all things considered. She has always considered it home, and the one thing that she is sure of in her future is there - the Hikawa Shrine. "Ami-chan and I couldn't stay away, I guess," Rei says in her usual dry voice.
"So now that you're back, what're you planning to do?" Makoto asks, pencil between her teeth as her head pops up behind the counter again.
Rei pauses, reflecting. While her high school had an attached university, she never had any intention of going there. Her grandfather, as head priest of the Hikawa Shrine, has often reminded Rei that she could inherit his position, as the closest descendant remotely interested in it. And she really could, if she wants it.
Of course, Rei does want it. Not to mention that it would be easier for her to ascend to that position. She has the warm approval of the priests she studied under in Kyoto, and she is already well known in Shinto circles - she has been ever since she became a miko, thanks to her psychic abilities. If only her schoolmates had felt the same way about it as the clergy did.
It was Rei's lifelong dream to become a priestess, growing up under her grandfather's care, and it is exactly the opposite of what she knows her father wants. While her father never verbalized exactly what he wanted Rei to do, she is sure that 'social butterfly' is at the top of his list. And she would be damned if she ever became one of those.
"Rei?"
"Oh." Rei clears her throat. "I'm returning to Hikawa. Grandfather keeps talking about wanting to retire, so..."
Makoto prunes a few stems. "Are you thinking about taking over the shrine for him when the time comes?"
"I am." Rei nods. No sense in hiding it.
Her friend looks up at her and smiles. "Usagi was happy to hear that, right?"
Rei shrugs. "I tried telling her. She seems to assume that I've returned for good, anyway. I don't think she was paying attention to the details, she was so wrapped up in that television show of hers..." In fact, Usagi had insisted on Rei watching at least ten minutes of Minako's dramedy when she came home the other night. Mamoru put Little Usagi to bed while Usagi grabbed Rei's arm in a death grip and happily forced her to face the screen. "...dumbest show ever," Rei mutters.
"You mean 'Tsubame-chan no First Love'?" Makoto gasps. "But Minako's in it!"
"That's probably why."
Makoto looks slightly put out, but then she suddenly smirks. "Yeah, Rei. I totally agree. Minako doesn't get enough camera time."
Rei splutters, and then harrumphs, pointedly looking away from Makoto. That certainly wasn't what Rei meant; being married to Motoki apparently killed a couple thousand of Makoto's brain cells.