A/N: Hmm, wonder if Rei and Minako are back on good terms? ^^ Backing up time doesn't solve everything, that's for sure! ^^ (PS: New character! ^^)

DISCLAIMER: Naoko Takeuchi and Monster's Inc. are fine additions to apply to this fanfiction. ^^ 'Cuz that's what's in this. ^^ (Thanks for all the awesome reviews, you guys're making me HAPPY!)

Time After Time

(Try And Try Again, We'll Get There)

Minako burst into the room, laughing giddily.

Turning around and around in the small closet, Minako squealed and stumbled out of the door, laughing dizzily as the room spun. Ah, Rei had put up a couple of posters here and there, but they were nice and Rei-ish, and where was she?

Minako could look later.

So. . . When the room stopped spinning, mostly, Minako advanced on the prone lump on the bed, her lips splitting into a relieved giggle. Jumping like a cat on mouse, Minako pounced.

"Rei-cha-a-a-an! I've missed you so much, baby, oh, yes, I love you-"

"MINAKO!"

". . ."

Whoa.

What. . .?

Her name had turned into a celestial whisper, a revered goddess, and Minako drew a ragged breath. What. . .? She flipped back the top cover.

Rei's eye blinked.

The dark orb was rimmed over red and the pupil was. . . dilated.

Oh, gods. . .

"Rei. . . chan. . .?"

And the figure underneath her emerged upwards in a whirlwind of blazing fire.

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Rei ignored the jilted yips of huccuping laughter.

The sound was muffled underneath the covers, and her hair was plastered in sweat to her ears. Some dumb tourists had probably wobbled up the steps, drunk and carrying on.

What-ev.

She'd wish them broken bones when they started to go down. Oh, well. Rei refocused her attention on herself underneath the sheets. Gritting out moans and soft yelps, Rei conjured up the image of her most treasured memory:

Minako. . . chan.

Mina-chan.

Whimpering softly, Rei heard a distant thudding, but she didn't care anymore.

Warm.

It was so warm under the covers, self-applied pleasure making it a hot coccoon of fire-y heaven. Three years from thirteen, three years after the party, Rei had been forbid to ever see Minako again by the police senshi, so she'd held on to those memories.

Sweet and so dear.

And sexy.

In her teen-turned mind, Mina-chan had turned from loving parent-figure to hotch-mama curvy in the span of a finger-carressed night.

"Oh. . . Ye-es. . Eh?"

Rei screeched when something heavy glomped onto her from the outside world, forcing the tips of her fingers deeper into her throbbing slit of her essence. Hot and wet, Rei cried out, her mind supplying Minako's seductive grin, that teasing tongue flicking out to lick her cheek, freeing her from the smuggled 'ice-cweam' Rei had brought to her room one night.

She was so-o-o-o there. . .!

And the blanket was snapped back.

Rei stared up, in disbelief as pleasure wracked her body, as she spasmed under a person she once loved, she'd always love, she still did. . .

"Minako!"

And she orgasmed under the blonde's surprised blue eyes.

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The door burst open.

"Re-e-e-e-iko!" A squealed yelp, and in zoomed a blur of bunny streak. The lightning bolt of a hyper girl tackled Minako right off of Rei, and Minako felt an odd sense of deja vu as she landed under the onslaught of a snuggled kiss to her neck.

Squirming, she grappled with the figure, and was caught puzzled when she saw a familiar set of blue eyes and blonde hair. She couldn't place it, but. . .

"HEY! YOU'RE not Rei-ko, BUT!"

Minako stared up at a blonde who'd put her hair up into childish odango-buns. Her bust size indicated she was anything BUT a child, as was her nickname for Rei.

Odango-buns lowered her head and grinned, almost predatorially. There was nothing she could do, and in front of Rei-chan. . .!

"Get offa her, meatball-head!"

Rei's voice snapped down, and the assaulting buns-head was jerked off, back up onto the bed. The blonde had a hold of her shirt, though, and Minako was pulled up with her, landing clumsily between a pair of rather wet thighs.

She jerked her head up and saw her little Rei-chan, her precious girl, and blinked.

Blushing fiercely, Rei was scowling down at her and the other girl, her chest heaving and her teeth grit. Holy hot mama. Clad only in a sports bra of striking red, Rei was a sight any woman, straight or not, would drool over.

The little girl she'd know was almost gone, but not completely like last time. Rei could still be hers, if she accepted her, here and now.

"But, Re-ei-ko! You promised you would wait. .!"

The abrupt whine shattered the awkward silence, and Minako glanced over at the blonde, impressed despite her obvious hold on Rei. She was a hyper bundle, even while sitting still, her hands twitching and eyes hungrily devouring the eye candy in front of her.

An occassional while, her nose would twitch.

Minako wracked her brain, trying to remember, the girl looked so familiar-

"Usa, I- hmph. Usagi, this is Minako Aino, my. . . childhood friend from way back. She's come for a visit. Minako-chan, Usagi Tsukino."

The blonde bounced happily at Rei's introduction, and her obvious refusal to apologize. Minako hid a smile. Over the unlived years, Rei hadn't changed from being a stubborn brat. Usagi reached out and palmed her hands, grinning.

"An' I'm Rei's soon-to-be lover! Why were you on top of her when I came in?"

Minako froze, at the statement and the question. She considered herself a pretty good judge of characters and relationships, being 'Goddess of Love' and all, and while Usagi-chan seemed to match good with Rei-chan, Minako had a feeling Usagi was just testing the waters of her own sexual preference.

"I. . . I was watching her sleep, it's been so long since I last saw her. . ."

Minako directed her gaze to a now-indifferent Rei's, screaming with her eyes she was sorry, she'd never leave again, ever. But. . .

"You've come a long way, Minako-chan. We'll talk in the morning. Look, just go home, okay? I don't think I can handle this right now. You too, Usa."

The voice was a heartless murmur, the girl an indifferent soul from what she'd once known so long ago. Nodding her heartbreak, Minako sat silent while the other blonde sprang to her feet and planted a quick kiss of Rei's lips, bouncing out of the room.

Getting to her own feet rather slowly, Minako trudged back to the closet door, glancing back over and waving half-heartedly. What a way to start off after. . . how many years?

"Rei. . chan. .? How old are you?"

A barked snort, then, "Sixteen. SWEET sixteen, Mina-CHAN."

Rei used the remnants of old memories to crash into her and burn with the mocking of her treasured nickname for her, but Minako turned and grinned.

"I'll make up for the three years, Rei-chan. Don't worry. I still love you."

And she walked through the door.

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Rei sat, frozen on her wet bed.

The sweat from before had cooled, leaving her to stick in the pre-come summer heat of the night. Minako's words haunted her, and she wanted to cry.

I still love you.

Like damn she did.

Rei fought the urge to curl into a ball, knowing all the battered remnants from their past would haunt her into sleep. Years of honing her skills, peering into the Sacred Fire as a child, had revealed to her memories stored forgotten from her life.

Yes, she'd come to accept the fact Mina-chan wasn't coming back, couldn't give her the love she'd promised, forever-more.

Mina-chan.

She took a deep shuddering breath and let her unlived memories haunt her.

Mina.

The loving blonde had taken her as a lover in their past lives.

The miko knew any normal sixteen-year-old girl would undoubtedly snap if she knew her most loved friend was the one to spread her legs at night. Was the one to whisper endearments most longed in her blushing ear. Was the one who made her burn with desire, cry out when she touched her.

Mina.

Mina. . .

"Mina. . ."

The darkness seemed to mock her soft cry, the need to see her childhood friend once more becoming unbearable. Gritting her teeth, Rei tried to push down the heartbreak she'd learned to live with over the past three years.

It had hurt so bad, when she'd first come back- now, it was nothing but a dull ache. An ache that had come to life and threatened her sanity.

"Mina. . ."

She tested the sweet name on her lips. It was as innocent as the day they'd first met.

She wondered dimly if her screams still had any power.

Ugh. She couldn't take it any more. Jerking her legs to a standing position, Rei padded silently over to her closet door. There, she stood. Rei knew the pain of seeing the back walls to her closet very well.

She'd opened that door well enough over the last past three years.

Steeling herself for the denial sure to come, Rei opened the door.

And gasped.

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"Rei-chan. . . I. . . know you don't want to forgive me, and you've got every right, but. . .
H-E-E-LP!"

Blue eyes stared up beseechingly at the miko, and Rei struggled not to panic.

Tentacles.

They were EVERYWHERE, on EVERYTHING, crawling up the sides of her closet and out of the new hole in the ground. Minako was in that hole, hanging on for dear life as the thick probing strands wrapped around her.

Rei was speechless, frozen.

Beautiful.

That was the only thing she could think of right now. Beautiful. Her childhood friend was about to be smushed to death by some on-crack tentacle suckers, and she had to go and admire the work the tentacles had done to her clothes.

How sadistically ironic.

"Rei. . . chan. . . If you're gonna help me, please do it in the next three seconds, I'm kinda tired. . ."

THAT snapped her out of it. Squatting, Rei wound her hands around the trembling blonde and flinched when she felt the fat tentacle slide across her wrists. Growling in frustration, Rei hefted Minako up, grunting when the dead weight sagged against her.

"What the *pant*- HECK have you been chewing on lately?"

The miko felt entitled to a snarl. Yet when she felt the whiplash of a shiver from Minako, she gentled her voice. Slightly.

"Did you know why I went looking for you, back then?"

Rei forced Minako to meet her gaze by tugging gently on the blonde locks. Blue eyes went wide in panic.

"I'm sorry, Rei-cha-"

"I was bleeding."

She cut her off, watched as those baby blues widened even more.

"What?"

Rei could feel the urgent, unsaid question behind that cut syllable. Shrugging, she pulled again at the woman, trying in vain to get her out of the slimy monster's grasp.

"Yep, I was just starting my period that night. CHRISTMAS, for God's sake! I'd wanted to tell you I'd become a woman."

Her voice seemed to break, with the weight, with the strain of the past three years, who knew? Rei went on, keeping her gaze locked on Minako's, backing away from the portal and dragging her friend with her.

"I learned some stuff about myself, too."

The burning in those blue orbs were intense, hanging on to her, onto her every word.

"What, Rei-chan?"

Oh, how she loved that voice, whispering her name as if trying to learn a secret. There had been vampires among the senshi, some full, some only half-turned. Three years ago, the Rei of Thirteen had been banned from the world of the senshi.

She'd injured many, not only with her voice, but. . .

"I learned this."

And Rei drew her hand in front of her and smiled, grimly, as that hand flared to life right in front of Minako's eyes, the fingertips and palm roaring with flames.

Fire.

"My soul. . . can emit fire."

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Minako paled.

Her Rei-chan. . . had been bleeding that night, all those unlived years ago?

But, practically every Senshi there were full-fledged vampires. . .!

Ignoring the slimy limb encased about her ankles, Minako stared up into the dark-haired girl's beautiful eyes. They were hot, almost burning in their calmness. . .

"I learned this."

Minako felt the heat in those dark eyes grow even hotter, and the hands suddenly near her hips and shoulders burst into flame. Minako was glad the monster screamed for them both.

Rei. . .

Rei was. . . ?

A fire wielder?

Her brain was suddenly on overdrive.

If this was true, why did Senshi Inc. ban her from there? Didn't they need backup power, if they wanted a good chance and whack at Queen Beryl's head? Suddenly, those dark eyes transformed- transformed into a flickering pool of flame, like a reflection in a mirror.

Rei.

Rei-chan.

She was so alone, she was curled up into a ball, she was hanging on to her unresponsive closet door's doorknob, crying her heart out as she wrenched the knob off and stared in fear at the hand that had magma on it, melted metal.

"Rei-chan. . .!"

Minako let out a sobbed gasp as the dark past broke, freeing her into the unresolved present. Clutching the girl desperate to her, Minako sobbed the tears she knew Rei-chan too self-rigid to cry herself.

The monster behind her was blasted to pieces with a quick flick of her wrist and Venus Love Me Chain, and Minako lunged into Rei's arms, knocking them both out of the pressurized power coming in an erratic current from Rei's dark closet.

They landed in a messy tangle a couple feet away, Minako making sure her little girl was on top and not injured. She really had grown, Minako mused, cupping her hands about full hips and trim stomach molded to her own.

Seeing Rei's dark flush, Minako grinned and drew herself up, flipping them over and reversing their positions. Suddenly, a though occured to her.

"R-Rei-chan. . . " Minako started nervously, her hands suddenly a swirling tangle near Rei's collarbone and t-shirt. Why hadn't she remembered this sooner?

"I. . . Usagi-chan. . You see. . She used to be my-"

The door to Rei's room burst open, and the so-talked-about blonde bounced in, a superior grin on her face. Seeing both of them on the floor, Usagi slinked over and grabbed Minako's shoulder, jerking the stammering girl to her feet and embracing her in a hug.

"Hey, sis! Long time no see!"

And Minako closed her eyes tight as she could as Usagi completed their reunion with a french kiss to her lips.

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It was Rei's turn to stare.

She didn't have time to mull over the fact her childhood friend was. . . sister?. . . with her soon-to-be-planned-by-one-side LOVER, the one who was in a. . . relationship?. . . with her here-one-damned-day-gone-the-next-three-YEARS CRUSH!

So she did what she thought was best.

She tackled the two blondes onto her bed and demanded an explanation. The thought all three of them were in rather risque positions when they landed never occured to her until two pairs of lidded blue eyes twinkled suggestively under her.

Rei only had one thought before the two went ahead.

'Sisters can communicate with unspoken words? I thought only twins did that. .?'

Of course, with the conclusion both came to, she was in no condition to complain.

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A/N: ^^ Oooh, what's gonna come next. *grin* Yes, Minako and Usagi are. . . sisters. Kinda. I'll go into more explanation later. ^^