WALK THE PLANK

Previous:

After witnessing a severe case of denial from her friend, a very energetic cupid has decided to take her friend's love life into her own hands. With the help of her merry troupe of Senshi, they have disastorous (albeit hilarious) results.

After it seems as though all is lost. The most mature one of them all decides to take the reigns and somehow, somehow salvage the situation

Michiru knocked on Rei's bedroom door. A loud but muffled "GO AWAY" warning was heard. Michiru ignored it, "It's Michiru" she answered. The woman waited for a minute or two before she heard the relieving 'click' of a lock unlocking. The door parted, she saw the irate face of Rei Hino,

"What do you want?" the younger girl asked gruffly.

"To talk" Michiru answered. Both of them stared at each other. Then Rei stood aside and Michiru entered her room, Rei swiftly closed and locked the door behind them. Michiru knew that despite Rei's temperament, she still trusted her enough to let her in her in. If it had been anyone else they would've been kicked away like a bag of broken bones. Well, maybe not Ami, but Ami did not have the age or experience to help Rei out and save the situation.

Which was what Michiru planned to do.

"What do you want to talk about?" Rei asked, her guard still up. Michiru calmly sat down on Rei's bed. She noticed that Rei was very tense, "Do you want to tell me how I'm a lesbian?" the girl angrily spat. Michiru didn't say anything, "Or how I shouldn't be angry-" Rei seethed,

"You should be angry. And I don't want to talk about how you probably aren't a Lesbian." Michiru said.

"And-" Rei stopped, "what?"

"I'd be actually more worried if you WEREN'T angry" Michiru said, she saw Rei looking a bit perplexed, " ignore those other girls, it is perfectly natural to be enraged with them. If I were you, I'd be extremely peeved as well." She noticed Rei giving her suspicious gazes. Michiru took in a breath,

"To tell you the truth this reminds me back some good years ago when I was still in high school and just met Haruka." Rei was about to say something but Michiru put up her hand, "let me finish, fiery one" Rei clamped her mouth shut. Even though she was pissed, she respected Michiru, "despite everything that Haruka likes to say," she began. Rei listened closely, "It was not love at first sight"

Rei blinked, and said "What?" She, like any other friend of Haruka had heard of the racer boast on how she and Michiru fell in love at first sight, had she listened to all that rambling for nothing?

"Perhaps unconsciously it was, but for the most part- no way" Michiru mentally smirked, NOW she had Rei's attention. "You see, even though we're not like you and Usagi, arguing over every single little inane thing- ever since the day we met Haruka and I always had this unspeakable understanding of one another. It was if when I saw her I knew exactly how she was, and she knew exactly how I was when she saw me as well" Michiru glanced at her finely manicured nails before continuing, "Yet we barely talked to one another" Rei blinked and remembered a certain blonde woman saying "Michiru could barely keep her EYES off me when we first met, let alone her hands" Haruka boasted. Little liar. "To tell you the truth I didn't care much for her, I thought she was an arrogant, butch girl that was too handsome for her own good." A small smirk broke out on Rei's face. "but my friends could clearly see that there was something going on underneath the surface between the two of us. Oh the teasing I would get! It was never ending. It frayed my nerves." Michiru flipped her hair out of nostalgic annoyance.

"I kept insisting that I wasn't a lesbian."

"We don't think you're a lesbian," Momoko grinned.

Hana grabbed Michiru's arm and sang,"We just think you have the hots for Haruka." Michiru pulled her arm out of Hana's arms, annoyed. Why wouldn't her friends leave her alone about this? Aoi leaned in close to her,

"We're not judging you Michiru. We still love you" she said reassuredly.

"Just not the same way you love Haruka!" the three girls laughed around Michiru, rubbing her back as if to say that it was O.K. and everything was going to be just grand. But 16 year old Michiru hated this. She hated that her friends even thought that she was even capable of deviant feelings like that.

She continued, "despite my initial misgivings, Haruka and I began to spend more time together. First we would do homework in study hall together, then occasionally she'd walk me the curb where my driver would be waiting for me after school…" Rei rolled her eyes, only Michiru would have a driver wait for her after school

"Or she'd wait outside the conservatory where I had my violin practice and would take me to tea. It was hard enough to even acknowledge that I was now having a good time with her but in addition - I never, never wanted to admit this, but… My heart began to flutter every time I saw her. I was happier, I felt more free."

"But these feelings, to be blunt, scared the living shit out of me. How could a woman be making me feel like I could conquer the world? How could this arrogant girl, who looked like a man, be making me feel so…so happy? I was approached by a very nice boy who wanted to date me. So I said yes. I wanted to get away from Haruka. You see, I grew up in a very, very traditional household. No one ever deviated from traditional, respectable lives – let alone be…gay."

"So, because of Haruka – you realized you where gay?" Rei asked. Michiru smirked and answered,

"Heh. No. I always knew, I just really, really denied it. Haruka however was the only one that made my…physical desire very apparent."

"..." Rei made a face. Michiru coughed, and got back to her story.

"So, with that boy I dated, even though he was so nice and…appropriate. I wasn't satisfied. My friends pointed this out to me,"

"You don't like him." Momoko stressed. Her other friend, Aoi, looked at her, concerned.

"It's not fair to you or to him." Aoi said, "what are you doing?"

"This started my string of dating many, appropriate boys. I felt restless and trapped with every single one of them. But I kept trying, I kept pushing. The only ones that tried to say anything were my friends. They even made charts and graphs correlating my happiness pre-dating to dating. Comparing my mood with Haruka to my mood with any one of these boys." Michiru then rubbed her temple, as if just remembering the stress made her stressed all over again.

"I was so desperate for me to follow the path I was supposed to, that I asked my parents for an arranged marriage. I did not ever want to admit that I was in love with a woman. I couldn't. I pushed so damn hard for it too."

"At the beginning Haruka did try to confront me on my sudden coldness and flippance towards her; my spontaneous want of a arranged marriage. I of course said it was nothing and that I was busy. Then when she kept persisting – I said some…mean things to her. Haruka took the high road and I didn't see much of her." Michiru breifly twisted her hands together, then rested them again peacefully on her lap.

Michiru's mouth turned into a sad smile, "Yet it was my close friends that hounded me. Tried every which way they could to show me that I was making a terrible decision. Despite all the ways I had dodged them before when I had my dating spree. They knew me, they saw what I tried to blind myself to. I was cold to them and got very agitated – especially when they tried to bring up Haruka. Eventually, they all stopped talking to me. But only after their monolith effort had been fruitless. They cared about me that much."

Michiru broke eye contact with Rei and looked at the floor, "One day I realized that all my friends were gone, the one I adored most was gone and that my chest was a hollow cave. I had never felt so isolated and alone then that time period. I was absolutely miserable and I only had myself to blame."

Rei asked slowly, "…what happened?"

Michiru laughed at herself, humorlessly, "well, at that point I had dug myself a hole so deep that I had not only to admit to myself the truth of the situation, but I had tot ell my parents. Tell them that despite me insisting and pushing them so hard for a perfect marriage, that I was actually lying and their efforts were all in vain. I embarrassed them, for then they had to tell all the potential suitors, the suitor's parents and their friends that it was all called off because I no longer wanted one."

Rei listened closly. This time, no snarky comments. Michiru continued,

"Point is, denial – self denial is harmful. It's toxic to your soul Rei. It'll destroy your spirit and alienate yourself from those you love. It doesn't matter if you choose to tell anyone else about your real feelings or not. As long as you acknowledge them yourself, as long as you know and let yourself feel the truth then you'll be ok." Michiru flipped her hair again. Rei wondered if the other woman ever counted how many times in a day she flipped her hair.

Michiru spoke, "Rei, you're right, you have no obligation to admit to us whether or not you love Usagi –"

"Or if I'm gay?"

"Oh, no one thinks you're a lesbian, we just think you love Usagi. There is a difference. "

"…"

Michiru stressed, "Rei, I got barely, barely lucky. My parents could've went through with the arranged marriage if I had chosen to lie to myself and them for any longer. I could've lost those closest to me… I was in such denial because I was so scared. The thing is, most people live their lives like this. Scared of what they want because it's not normal, because it's not easy, because it'll be hard to accept the truth."

Michiru grabbed Rei's hand, "I do not want you to end up like the majority of people, unhappy, unsatisfied and having absolutely no idea why. You're going to live for potentially a thousand years…that's a long time to be in self-induced misery."

Rei opened her mouth to say something, but Michiru ran her over by continuing, "only when you admit the truth of your heart can you move on Rei." Michiru stated softly, "you're going to go through Hell, but you'll get through it. Denial is the easiest form of self-protection but it won't work." Rei looked away, her brow furrowed, "You do not have to tell Usagi anything if you don't wish to. The funny misconception is that people always tell you to confess to that person. In the end, it doesn't matter really if you do or don't – all that matters is that you know how they make you feel and you accept it."

Michiru observed Rei's silence…. She's mulling things over.

Rei had turned very still, her eyes strained and blank. Her lips pursed into a thin, tight line. Her hands now balled fists upon her thighs. Michiru placed a hand upon Rei's stagnant shoulder and gave a squeeze I'm sorry She stood up, ever so quietly, and turned away towards the exit. Michiru looked back to see the fire miko, still wordless, unmoving, and emotionless.

"Michiru." Rei said, her tone moot, "what happened with your friends?"

Michiru bowed at in front of her friends, "I'm so sorry." Michiru hated how her normally cool and poised self was now blustering over with tears, "I'm so sorry. Forgive me." The three girls in front of her were all stunned, "I…I have a crooked heart. I…"

Aoi, Momoko and Hana all grabbed her, "you're not crooked!"

"Never Michiru, you're beautiful and so is your heart!"

"We forgive you."

"They accepted me, just the same as before." Michiru answered. A slight creak resonated as Michiru closed the door. She walked down the hallway, her footsteps tried to break the curtain of silence- but her leave was surrounded by quiet.

Aoi, Hana and Momoko, even though we all graduated and went our separate ways, thank you for being ahead of your time and supporting the coward that I was. Michiru thought.

However the tranquility was smashed to pieces as soon as she came back into the living room when she was pounced upon- "HOW DID IT GO?"

"You're alive? No wounds? No ripped out organs?"

"What did you say?"

"You guys were sure in there a while!"

"Don't get jealous Haruka"

"What happened?" everyone harped. Michiru gently, but firmly began to push all of the curious albeit noisy school girls off her(including one jealous Haruka).

"So I asked Rei to let me in"

"uh huh" everyone nodded.

" And she opened the door"

"uh huh" everyone nodded again.

"I walked into her room"

"yeah" everyone nodded.

"Then she closed the door" the group stared at her, their curiosity shining. "Then she locked the door"

"Oh she locked the door huh? Why is that Michiru?" Haruka added irritably.

"Probably to keep out annoying, jealous buggers like you" Haruka felt the invisible blow to her head by Michiru's bluntness and frowned.

"Ignore her!" Minako interjected, "Go on! Go on!" all the other girls nodded their heads furiously as Haruka began to feel seriously dejected.

"So, then we talked"

"Yes? Yes?" The younger girls where dying to know what had gone on.

"Then we finished talking" The young girls blinked…

"Wait, What?"

"Then she let me out of the room"

Minako jumped up angrily, "Hey! HEY!"

"And here I am now" Michiru obviously paid her no heed. Minako waved her hands around spastically,

"Is that ALL you're telling us?"

"That doesn't even COUNT!" Makoto complained. Haruka jumped in besides her,

"She's right! That doesn't count!" As the group of girls griped and complained about how Michiru was being so unfair by hiding all that went on in Rei's room Michiru couldn't help but think- my god Reis right, these girls ARE too noisy… Michiru held up her hands as to silence the bawking girls.

"What we talked about remains a secret" she said. More complaints hurled at her but the woman held her ground, "whether you like it or not" Michiru gave a level star at Haruka…which translated to if-you-don't-support-this-then-you-are-so-not-getting-ANY-for-a-year.

Haruka gulped, "Yeah, we should just let it go." Makoto, Minako and Ami then jumped upon Haruka, accusing her of switching sides! You traitor! How could you? I'm never telling anything to YOU again! Finally after all the complaints died down Ami turned to Michiru,

"Is Rei still in denial?" The elder woman shook her head. Ami chewed on this a moment, "Is she going to be ok?" Michiru nodded,

"I'm sure she's going to be just fine-"

CRASH!

Everyone froze and stared down the hall where sounds of serious violence echoed.

"Does that sound like a person whose 'just fine' to you?" Minako whispered. Michiru was rigid. This isn't what was supposed to happen

"I hope to Kami-Sama that you just didn't deepen our graves" Makoto couldn't help but let that phrase slid between her teeth. The hair on the back of Michiru's neck stood on end I think I just dug a hole to hell.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH HHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

A wretched scream ripped throughout the air causing Haruka to jump into Michiru's arms, at the same time Makoto to jump into Ami's arms. Minako saw this and immediately retaliated (without thinking) by also jumping into Ami's arms. But Ami, who could barely hold up all her textbooks let alone two hyper-active, tall, significantly-heavier-than-her, teenage girls –fell back into Michiru who was too busy holding Haruka to jump out of the way so all five girls smacked down onto the hard wooden floor- in a painful heap.

"This CANNOT be healthy for my neck" Haruka mumbled into Makoto's elbow.

"Ah ding muh boze iz bweeding" strained Michiru as her face was plastered against the ground.

"and….remember…." Ami wheezed from beneath Makoto, Minako, and Haruka's legs, "blood….stains"

SLAM! A door slammed shut. Sounds of stomping steps grew louder and louder.

SLAM! Went Rei's backdoor….

Minako leaped out of the heap of tangled girls, pointing towards the door and roared, "AFTER HER!" with surprising speed and no grace at all the sailor Senshi somehow untangled themselves and made running start out the door and out of the temple. After tripping and jumping down the stairs the group stopped at the bottom.

"Dammit, which way did she go?"

"GET OUT OF MY WAY!" a shout (that sounded suspiciously like Rei) rang in the air.

Minako pointed in direction of the sound, "THAT WAY!" and all of them sailed off wildly in hopes of catching the feral Miko. By-standers would stare, absolutely befuddled at the sight of a screaming black haired teenager run by- only for one or two minutes later a group of women madly sprinting in the same direction of the first crazy women.

Some said that it was a mad dash of insanity.

Others said it was the 400 yard sprint to Hell.

The sailor Senshi chased their lone member throughout the streets, around various stores and restaurants, avoiding getting run over and crashing into innocent strangers. However their race took a turn when Rei flew into Juubei park. Now the poor, sane (well that could be debatable, really) Senshi had to dodge little children and their overprotective mothers.

Rei leapt into the playground area and let out a most vicious shriek that would make Severus Snape, Hannibal Lector, James woods and Satan all piss their pants. All tiny toddlers and anyone else for that matter took off rather quickly (and would have nightmares about the woman they saw for decades to come), leaving Juubei park to the Senshi. Thankfully Rei had finally decided to slow down from a frightfully fast run to an angry stomp within the sand of the playground.

Panting, the group tailing her finally caught up to her. "Rei, Rei" Minako began-

"NO!" Rei swung her arm angrily towards the group, "don't you DARE talk to me!" Minako took a step back, as Rei rasped, her hands clenched tightly into fists "just who- WHO do you think you guys are anyways!?"

"Um, The sailor Senshi, saviors and guardians to our solar system and your best friends?" Minako chirped. Makoto elbowed her to shut up.

Rei began to giggle; the bubbling sounds of humor did not bring any comfort to the group. Rei clamped down upon the mirth within her throat. She looked at the ground, in front of her shoes, "hah, what would I see in that Odango head anyway?" she asked, " Even if I did like girls, why the hell her?" Rei's fingers clenched and unclenched, " All she ever does is cause me trouble- barging in unwanted, ruining my mangas, somehow destroying my belongings, getting on my nerves," she twisted her toe into the dirt, "and as if those weren't enough, she has to get herself into so much trouble and then drag me down with her. I have to crawl out the grave she dug with her on my back and clinging to my neck!" she waved her arm, "She annoys me!" Rei took a short breath in as if to try and calm herself down, but to no avail,

"Seriously though, what do you want me to confess?" The group blinked, extremely uncertain as how to answer that question,

"That I'm a huge nymphomaniac pervert like the rest of you?" Rei smirked maliciously, "Or that despite everything that pisses me off about her that I, hypothetically somehow love her?" The entire group's nerves were taut on edge. Rei represented war and rage- her wrath unpredictable.

"That hypothetically I find her Odango hairstyle endearing? That hypothetically I wish to undo them and run my fingers through her hair, which somehow I find more brilliant than all the gold in the world?" Through all the terror, Minako began to sense something was going on with Rei… something about her attitude was changing.

" That even though I've been brutally murdered. Twice. I would hypothetically get murdered a hundred times over just to see her smile and laugh?" Her voice was still sardonic and laced with razor. But something was definitely shifting within Rei's mental state. "That even though she makes me want to shake her vigorously, I'd hypothetically run down and face Satan himself just to get her out again?" Rei glared at the various women again.

"Do you honestly think that I'd torture myself like that?" Rei scoffed, "That I'd adore every little quirk she has? Or that I get lost in her magnificent blue eyes and that I happen to find more captivating than iron to a magnet? Or that- that-" Minako cocked her head to the side, was…was Rei's eyes tearing up?

"Or that…" Rei's voice shook, "even though she's such an incredible stupid, gluttonous, crybaby that makes me utterly crazy- that somehow I, hypothetically, have fallen so head over heels in love for her that I have no idea what to do with myself anymore?" Rei was visibly shaking now- whether it be with rage or some other emotion was unclear. Minako took a step forward, and spoke softly

"Rei…"

"Don't you DARE come near me!" Rei roared, "You, you all actually, have broken several codes of ethics, privacy and decency with…with…whatever the fuck you guys have doing to me for the past couple of months." Rei stamped her foot and looked more stressed, "Even if I hypothetically love her with all my heart soul and blood, I can never EVER have her because destiny just HAPPENS to have already decided that she's going to marry and love this handsome, courageous, absolutely PERFECT man." Rei was trembling, "At least when I was in hypothetical denial I didn't have to remember 'oh hey, guess what? You're NEVER going to get the one you truly love, she'll NEVER even THINK about you remotely anywhere the same way you think about her- you're a bona-fide loser'" Minako took a step forward again,

"Rei-"

Thank you very much for rubbing in my face just how much of hypothetical fool I am and how I'm hypothetically always going to BE a miserable wrench for the rest of the millennium- thank. You. Very. Fucking. much-"

"Rei" Michiru tried to say, but just as quickly as Rei's vulnerability had stepped in, it had sprinted away and stepped in was Rei's infamous temper that was feared across the solar systems,

"EVERYONE GO AWAY!" the sheer force of her wraith nearly knocked over the sailor Senshi; this was it, the Mars avatar had lost it.,"That's right, everyone please go fuck themselves." Rei stated heatedly. The senshi all gulped. Well… That was the end of Rei as their friend.

Rei zeroed in on Minako. Both her hands wound tightly into fists, "You…you…have exactly two seconds to start running before I rip out your ovaries out…"

"Rei?" someone interrupted.

A certain all too familiar voice piped up curiously behind Rei, Rei turned around to see a very wide-eyed Tsukino Usagi sitting on one of the swings.

"That was what I was trying to tell you…" Minako managed to bubble out. Rei, still breathing fire glared at the moon princess, who in turn just looked at her with eyes full of surprise, shock, and curiosity. Both of them stared at each other. A breeze blew by, the whoosh was unable to break the silence that had grown miraculously out of the ground.

Everyone held their breath.

…

Rei ran a hand through her hair, a mirthless chuckle rose from her throat, "what the Hell are you doing here?" Usagi stuck her tongue out at her,

"Swinging at a public park," she then looked at her frightened friends, back to Rei, "what's going on with you guys?"

"Absolutely. Nothing." Rei said through gritted teeth. Usagi frowned,

"Well, you just told them to go 'fuck themselves' and threatened to kill Minako." Usagi stood up, "What is going on, Rei?"

"It's none of your business"

"Actually, since you all are my closest friends and my super hero team that protects the galaxy – it is my darn business!"

" The past couple of months have been Hell! These girls have…Done immeasurable damage to me" Rei argued, her frustration growing.

Usagi threw up their hands, "what have they done? I still have no idea what on earth is going on, Rei!"

Rei, out of embarrassment and having had her threads of patience grated to nothing, snapped at Usagi, " well maybe if you haven't been skipping along with your Mr 'I'm so charming and perfect' you would have noticed what was going on with your 'best friends' that you care soooo much about. But no. You didn't – so why don't you go back and hide with your destined prince of –"

"I broke up with Mamoru." Usagi interrupted, her voice low. Rei laughed,

"yeah—just like all the other times,"

Usagi interrupted her again, "Rei. I broke up with Mamoru. For good. Forever. We are not getting back together."

Rei's disbelieving look began to ebb away as she stared into the seriousness of Usagi's face. Rei was at a loss for words, "What, wha-?" she tried to sound out. Usagi nodded.

"That's what I've been up to." She said, still even and serious.

For a second time, there was a brief silence between the two. A little ways behind them, the Senshi were all stunned.

What.

The.

ADFNOADSNFASD?!

Then Rei exploded, "Are you fucking insane!?"

Before anyone could possibly break in and hope for any sort of peace that day - Hell broke loose and the two were screaming at each other.

Parents at the park were grabbing their cellphones, calling for the authorities. Ami sprang into action, running about trying to get people to not call the police. Makoto, ever the maternal one, led the lone, shocked kids as far away from the passionate duo as possible.

Minako held her temples, eyes wide. I did not mean for this to happen. I did not mean for this to happen. Heavens forgive me.

Things just kept escalating,

"Rei, listen to me! Listen to me you stubborn-" Usagi shouted,

Rei however, just ran her over with her own shouting, "No! You screwed up all of our fates! What the Hell is supposed to happen now? Call him right now and—"

It was right then when Usagi SLAPPED Rei.

Haruka even covered her mouth in surprise. Michiru gripped her lover's arm with such grip, her lover would have bruises later. Minako stopped breathing. The parents all gasped and Ami turned pale. Makoto, so surprised, bit her own tongue on accident.

Rei held her cheek, stunned. Usagi breathed deep, getting calm again. "I'm sorry Rei," she said, "I'll never do that again. But right now that was needed – and I'm going to tell you everything that's happened on my end for two months. You will listen. Then you can talk and scream at me if you like…but you must listen to what I'm about to say…"

Rei's pride was wounded, yet simultaneously her curiosity painfully picqued. She nodded her head.

Usagi began her tale…

Yes. After... four years. I'm back.

I'm finishing this. Wait less than a week and you'll get the next chapter. There's just a couple more chapters left you guys.

I have no idea how they Heck any of you have stuck with this. I cringe at re-reading the previous chapters because they are so bad. But, i remembered that I just wanted an outlet to release my crack, ridiculous, hyper energy. Somehow, you all realized this and joined me for the ride. Thank you, thank every single darn one of you.

I'm sorry about the wait. But I'm finishing this baby.

Stick around just a little longer.