A/N: So here is the next part. I hope it makes sense in the long run. Honestly sometimes it just sneaks up on me and there I go. Anyways I googled Setsuna's last name and it came up with two different forms. So...I picked the one I'm used to. Hope its the correct one. Haha! Anyways enjoy as usual! :)


Act X.

Two days later Rei apologizes to Ami and Makoto.

She says she's happy for them, but that she's dealing with something right now that isn't all that pleasant. It's as revealing as Rei feels she needs to be. They tell her that their there for her, Rei isn't really inspired by that response. Merely nods her head and starts her trek back to the Shrine.

She chooses not to go out with the group on the following Friday.

Something about being around happy couples makes her ill. Rei has never been a bitter person before, she has accepted many things in her life. Her absent father, her dead mother, living in a Shrine, becoming a Senshi, the list goes on. Just seems the last couple weeks she can't seem to handle being around so many happy people. She's not angry at the happy couples, she's glad they've found someone, but she also can't help but feel a little scorned by the idea that all the other Senshi have someone.

Setsuna comes for her, like some sort of nightmarish ghost from the past. Haunting her. Reminding her.

"They sent me to retrieve you."

It comes out of her mouth like it's an offense to her, almost like it's beneath her. In a lot of ways it is though, for both of them. For Rei it's like she's a child in need of supervision and for Setsuna she becomes the old hag who takes care of the rowdy children. It's offensive to both of them.

"Would you like some wine? I have some in the cupboard I've been saving for a special occasion."

Setsuna agrees and they both end up outside watching the stars.

Rei finally opens up about her memories. Setsuna listens. And then they both get drunk off wine and laugh.


Act XI.

Rei is greeted by a hangover and Minako.

Both of whom are not really all that appealing to her at this given moment.

"Did I just see Setsuna Meioh leave the Shrine in the same clothes she wore last night?"

"Possibly." Rei responds evenly, though her head is pounding and she honestly doesn't want to think about the implications.

"And?" Rei says nothing instead sips on her tea. Minako is amused and Rei honestly doesn't want to think about why. "You know, when I seen Setsuna leave it was kind of like she was the other woman and I was the wife coming home a little too early…" Rei took a longer sip of tea. "You two must have been really busy last night. Setsuna never came back and you never showed up…" Rei sighs "Nothing happened Minako. And you better not tell the rest of them that something did. Cause it didn't!"

The Senshi of Love laughed, "Rei the innocent shrine maiden seduced by the mysteriously sexy school nurse! Ah-ha! That would make great friend-fiction!"

Rei choked on her tea.

"Wha-!"

"It's this thing me and Haruka started when we found out Ami and Mako got together. It's great, we started writing stories about our friends, for fun! Dirty stories mainly but-"

"Minako!"

"What?"

Rei honestly doesn't know what to say. She blushes because she can only imagine what Minako and Haruka wrote about Ami and Makoto.

"Aww Usagi had the same face when she read our first story." Rei shakes her head, she's too hung-over for this.

"You need to go!" Minako tries to protest but Rei is pushing her out the door. "Come back when I'm not hung-over and you're not crazy."

"Rei!"

"Which means never Minako!"

Rei goes back to bed. She wakes up sometime later with the Senshi of Love laying on her bed next to her, reading manga. The blonde winks at her.

"We have to stop meeting like this!"

Rei groans into her pillow.


Act XII.

Minako won't leave her alone. It's like this for three days.

Rei feels all her defenses slowly slipping away the more time she spends with Minako. Or more like the blonde is hell bent on them spending as much time as possible together. Like Minako is afraid that if they don't Rei will just disappear into thin air.

Rei won't obviously. But Minako seems persistent. Every time Rei asks why Minako responds "because I can."

Things are complicated but Minako is insistent that they aren't. How could they be? She'd know, they'd all know. But they don't because Rei didn't tell them about her returning memories, about all those dreams she's had of Venus, of Minako. How could she explain that to all of them? Let alone Minako.

It's too complicated.

So they watch movies, lots of movies filled with corny love stories. Minako drags her to every group outing and makes her sit through agonizing hours watching happy couples be happy. Then they spend the evenings having dinner with Rei's grandfather who is happy for the company, regardless. And eventually they go to bed, in Rei's bed. And the Fire Senshi spends many more agonizing hours spent far too close to Minako in a bed that Rei figures is far too small for the both of them.

And this goes on for an entire week.

It goes on until Rei literally snaps over dinner, with her poor grandfather sitting there quietly sipping his tea.

"I dream about you all the time!"

Minako pauses, her grandfather pauses, and Rei sits there red in the face.

"I don't think she's talking to me." She hears her grandfather say. Minako's cheeks burn at his implication. Rei wishes that if the world was going to swallow her whole, now would be a fantastic time to do so.

"…That's why it's complicated." Rei eventually manages to say.

After some time in silence Rei stands, excusing herself from the table. She's had enough embarrassment for the time.

She doesn't know what compels her, but she transforms into Sailor Mars anyways and takes off running into the night. Something about the fire. How she's able to control it, like it's the only thing she really understands in this world. In every world.

"What the hell am I doing?!"

Rei has no idea. There are no take backs.

She sets fire to a tree. Just because she can.