Here we are again! I've had this plot bunny for a while now and I finally finished my finals for the semester so it's like a celebratory post! I hope this winter post will be able to cool the lot of you off.

Theme: Frustrated

Pairing: Rei/Jadeite

Words: 1,935. Eh, another long one.

Rei glared at her supposed group of friends. They were giggling and falling over each as they clumsily trudged through the snow. Rei was hanging further behind the quartet, mumbling awful things at their backs, but the other four were simply too excited to pay much attention to Rei the Grouch.

Currently, the five of the Sailor Scouts were making their way to the local neighborhood park over by Rei's shrine after receiving a text demanding their presence. Normally, this wouldn't bug Rei one bit- she had an affinity for adventure and the essence of being surrounded by nature, however, it was currently 2am and it had only just stopped snowing. If there were two things that Rei couldn't stand, it was being cold and midnight adventures. Sure she was supposed to be a college student and therefore not going to sleeping until 3 or 4 in the morning, but most college students didn't have an entire shrine to take care of every morning before classes. Keeping things neat and orderly took time and effort and lots of early mornings which meant an early bedtime for one Ms. Rei.

Rei grumbled again. The other girls had talked her into a late-night girls night at the shrine since finals were now over, but it would be the last time they talked her into something like this. She'd been up for over 18 hours now and her body was sore and tired and, worst of all, cold.

And to top off what was setting up to be the worst night ever, they were going to meet the boys. Sure her other friends had gone through their own things with the Shitennou and while Usagi and Mamoru were the only ones technically dating, the other girls were far too chummy with the Shitennou for Rei's own comfort. It's not as though she was avoiding Jadeite. They had talked a few times and Rei had forgiven him, for the most part, but Rei just felt uncomfortable hanging out with him. It just felt too casual, unnatural, like something was off.

The raven haired girl buried her nose further into her bright red scarf and mentally shook those thoughts away. The less she thought of them, the better.

"Oi! Rei! What are you doing?"

Purple eyes turned from staring down the snow track in front of her to her friends who were now some distance away. She blinked, when had they gotten all the way over there? And when had they reached the park?

Usagi then had the nerve to yell at her, "C'mon! I don't want to keep Mamoru waiting!"

Rei swore she could feel a vein burst in her forehead at Usagi's comment. As if she gave a flying hippo about what dearest Mamoru would think if they were a couple minutes late after he ordered them to the park. Nevertheless, the raven haired girl trotted over to her friends, glaring at Usagi the whole way. She uncovered her mouth from her scarf, "Let's just get this over with, okay?"

Minako tsked at her, "Well, well, well, we got ourselves a grumpy gills over here, don't we girls?" The other girls agreed with her in their own various ways while Rei glared them all down. Ami giggled at her before poking her gently in her ribs. Well, the spot that was supposed to be her ribs, but Rei didn't feel anything in her large, fluffy, purple coat. Ami smiled at her with a twinkle in her eye nonetheless, "It'll be alright Rei, just some harmless fun, it's not like we are going on a giant group date."

Makoto nodded in agreement before pausing for a beat then looking up into midair. She got that distant look in her eye that always meant she was thinking awful, fluffy, romance-y thoughts like she was ought to do, "Though that would be tons of fun."

The senshi of love was on Makoto before she would even take another breath, "Wouldn't it be though!" The two started rattling on about different places they could go and Rei rolled her eyes. She better stop this before it got any worse, "I thought you guys weren't dating them anyways."

Minako smiled softly and began to reply when she was interrupted by Jadeite shouting and running towards them. The four other boys followed at a pace that normal human beings would appreciate, but Jadeite was always the exception wasn't he? Rei rolled her eyes at his antics and subtly shifted her position so she was in the back of the group.

It only took Jadeite a couple of leaps with his long legs to reach where the five of them stood, "Girls!" the dirty blond man smiled at them all with a giant grin, "How lovely to see you all on this most wonderful morning." He gave them all a flourishing bow that made the other girls giggle, Rei just huffed. By then the other boys had caught up and Rei let them make small talk as she scuffed at the fresh snow beneath her feet. She rubbed her mittens together in hope of making more heat to warm her chilled fingers, however it wasn't doing much good. She frowned at her covered hands, she hated this weather. She was shocked out of her thoughts by large hands on her mittens. Rei followed the hands up to see their owner. Jadeite looked down at her with a small smile, rubbing his hands softly over hers. "You've always hated the cold."

Rei fought down a blush and glared at him before looking around for support. She saw the rest of their group walk up the stairs to the park. Amethyst eyes narrowed at their backs, traitors.

She huffed and snatched her hands from his grip, ignoring how her hands felt ten times colder. Rei muttered an, "I'm fine," before stomping off towards the rest of the group, leaving Jadeite to watch her back.

Rei, and eventually Jadeite who was running to catch up behind her, rejoined with the rest of their group in the large field the park had to offer. On one side it hosted a play gym with climbing things and a set of swings and the other there was a cluster of trees, separated by a piece of flat, snowy field. They were chatting somewhat amiably among them for a while when all hell broke lose.

No one really remembers who started the snowball fight by throwing the first powdery weapon, but the next thing Usagi knew, she had a faceful of snow. Then it had been declared war. The Shitennou versus the Senshi. The senshi took the advantageous land by the trees, which provided cover while making more snowy projectiles and the trees where good to ducked behind when the boys aimed snowballs at them. While the senshi had great protection against the boys, the shitennou danced just outside their throwing range. After a good solid half hour of laughing, terrible aim, and soggy clothes- they reached an impasse. Rei was standing behind the protection of a tree as she gasped for breath. Somewhere along the way, she had been goaded into participating in the snowball fight and had taken it as all out war, directing the other senshi like they were soliders on a battlefield. The other girls complied with giggles of "Sergent Hino" and "Yes ma'am. " However, for the past ten minutes, the girls had given up on strategy and had been lobbing snowy projectiles at the boys as they tried to cool down, their cheeks flushed red with exertion.

Rei turned so her back was flat to the pine tree, gasping for air. She giggled slightly, somewhere along the line, this snowball fight had become fun for her. She then looked over to try to catch one of the other senshi's attention when she was tackled suddenly from behind. Rei gave an startled gasp and shrieked when she was hoisted over a broad shoulder. She started hitting the large back she was now looking at as she was dragged away from the trees.

She saw the other senshi come out from their hiding places and gape as Rei was carried away.

Minako yelled after her, "Warning! Sergent Hino has been captured! Her status is unknown as a POW or as a allied spy! Warning! Be cautious of enemy attacks!" Usagi fell over in a fit of giggles at Rei's predicament and Minako's PSA, useless as the rest of the boys rushed the trees, flinging snowballs left and right. Rei watched the girls waved their hands in surrender before her world became topsy-turvy again. She stumbled slightly as she was deposited back on her feet, the right way around. Arms secured her as she regained her balance, Rei looked up and was met by a huge Jadeite grin, "Hey, toots."

Rei gaped at his audacity to simply just picked her up and swing her around where ever he pleased, "What do you think you were doing exactly?"

The dirty blonde shrugged, "You seemed like you need rescued?"

She blinked up at him for a few moments before issuing a war cry, "For the girls!" and promptly shoved him right over so he fell on his rump.

"Hey, what was tha-"

Rei picked up a handful of snow and rubbed it all over Jared's hair, scooping some down his coat, before running off. She heard him get up and start running after her with threats on his lips but Rei couldn't help but to giggle. She thought of the surprised look on his face when she had dumped him on his rump made her break out into laughter. She was laughing so hard by this point that she had difficulties running away from Jadeite. The dirty blond Shitennou had no problems in catch up to her and grabbed her around the waist. She could hear his smooth baritone, chuckling at her and she shivered as his warm breath hit her ear. He tightened his hold around her waist as he swung her around before falling into the snow, together.

The raven haired beauty gasped to catch her breath before getting caught up in a round of giggles again. She looked over to the man with his arm still snug around her waist and her breath caught. He had his eyes closed as he laughed at their antics, the powdery snow was a soft white frame around his face that made him almost look angelic. Rei blinked at her thoughts. Jadeite, angelic? Never.

Jadeite stopped laughing long enough to glance over at her with his bright emerald eyes. His large grin melted into a soft smile as he continued to catch his breath. His eyes softened as he raised a hand to brush some stray snow from her forehead. Rei couldn't help but to give him a small smile back and time halted for a moment as she felt a sense of peace between them.

The moment was shattered by a large snowball hitting Jadeite squarely on his nose. Rei laughed as he hopped up and chased after Usagi with Mamoru trailing behind them, wiping tears from his eyes, more shocked she had actually managed to hit Jadeite more then anything else. Rei stood as well, brushing snow from various places on her clothing. She looked around at the precious friends who were settling down after their snowball fight with the exception of Jadeite and Usagi running around. Rei smiled at them before letting her eyes linger on the tall form of Jadeite.

Maybe this weather wasn't all bad after all.

I will say it was a bit odd writing this theme when it was 85+ degrees today. Oh well!

R&R, loves.

lolapearl