Hey guys. So, another week, another chapter. Or rather, five days of staring at a blank screen, and two days writing like a maniac.
Disclaimer: I still don't own Sailor Moon. STOP RUBBING IT IN!
Floodgates: Chapter Six
The last hour had been a blur.
At the time Minako's call came through, Mamoru and Usagi's place had been closest, so they, along with Setsuna for back-up, had accompanied Rei in finding Minako. Haruka and Michiru had walked Hotaru and Chibi-Usa home, but were ready and waiting if the situation got out of hand.
Rei doubted it. First of all, the fact that Minako had called her at all meant that whoever had attacked her had probably left already. Secondly, if the threat did remain, the miko knew that it was most definitely human. Although, after the bomb launched at Sailor V in England, it did beg the uncomfortable question of how bullet-proof reincarnated pre-mediaeval warrior princesses actually were.
Night had fallen upon them sharply during the drive. Mamoru's headlights shone over a road sign, only for it to disappear back into the darkness as he turned into the street. Rei held her breath – this was the road connected to the alleyway Minako had mentioned. Sure enough, they caught sight of a small figure, knees to her chest as she sat back against a wall. Her head flicked up as the vehicle approached, tear tracks illuminated by the beams.
Mars felt sick. It was Minako; her Minako... but somehow not the one she knew. She looked so broken, so vulnerable - nothing like her equal, her leader, the girl who had scolded her for immaturity only hours before.
Rei and Usagi flung open their doors before the car had even stopped, leaping out onto the pavement with transformation pens at the ready – two in Rei's case, as she clutched Minako's so hard it was a wonder it didn't draw blood.
Usagi had already rushed to Minako, uttering coos and whispers of comfort to the shell of her 'twin'. Sensing Setsuna dart past to check out the alleyway, Rei felt suddenly useless in either respect. She just stood there dumbly, limp as she stared down at her secret lover. Minako looked up at her. The miko could do nothing but gaze deep into those eyes, try to project all the emotions she couldn't show into a single gesture.
She didn't know if it had worked, but Minako's eyes hadn't left her from that point onwards; even when their oblivious princess sat between them in the car, there were dared glances and unbearable tension.
After a while, however, it became apparent that all the feelings that she was trying to flood into Minako were hitting a dam and diverting directly back into her chest. By the time they got to the hospital, Rei just wanted to scream or throw up or let blood or drill a freaking hole in her head, just to relieve the pressure. Just to stop herself from exploding.
It took a lot for Mamoru to coax Usagi away from her dear friend's bedside. It took more for Setsuna to put Rei there instead. The miko's voice-box and diaphragm were starting to seize up; her brain was frozen like D-point. Unlike with her performances at school, before hundreds of critical adolescent eyes, it seemed that the more time she had to prepare for this moment, the less ready she felt. Because there were no lines. There was just her, improvising with words from the heart - and that was a place Rei had pointedly chosen not to visit for a long time.
Suddenly, though, she was in the room, the curtain drawn around her. They were alone. She brought her eyes to meet Minako's, and the blonde smiled awkwardly at her. Neither of them knew where to begin. Rei subconsciously turned the Venus transformation pen over in her hand out of consuming nerves, before it caught briefly on her little finger and she remembered it. She scolded herself – she must have been carrying it out in the open ever since they got here.
Yet from her stupid mistake came an opportunity, and she walked on giving knees towards Minako, raising a hand in offering. The other woman initially took it to be peace; maybe even love. Her reaction to the gold stick, therefore, was mixed. On one level, she was infinitely relieved to have it back – she visibly strengthened upon seeing the device; the colour returned to her cheeks and she grew to a healthy adult from the frail little girl she had been before. But on another, there still seemed an edge of disappointment – like a huge part of her had been restored, but somehow not the right part.
Rei knew. She had been able to see the box lid to that jigsaw puzzle ever since this morning. And she knew she had the pieces to complete it.
With that thought resurfacing in her mind, she allowed herself to forget why Minako was here; that she would be here again if they didn't stay apart. She climbed into the unfamiliar single bed, still half-kneeling on the unsteadying springs of the mattress, and put her arms around her.
Minako relaxed into the heat, clutching at Rei's clothes as she huddled to the comforting flame of her presence. She felt so safe. And in realising that, she finally burst into tears.
"Can you BELIEVE them?"
Hotaru sat on the bed, following her girlfriend's angry pacing with her eyes. Haruka and Michiru were downstairs, presumably waiting by the phone.
"They treat us like we're kids! God, I'm older than most of them were when they started fighting! Not to mention I have six years extra experience under my belt." She pouted and folded her arms. "They treat me like a kid. It's like having 'Chibi' in my name makes them forget I'm fourteen."
Appearing to have exhausted herself, she flopped into a wicker chair by the window. Hotaru hid a parental smile. Unfortunately, the more Chibi-Usa resisted the others' babying behaviour, the more immature she seemed. Even Saturn herself had learned to treat her many rants as temper tantrums.
Presently, the younger girl covered her face with her hands, muffling her words. "I shouldn't even be 'Chibi-Moon', anymore." She sat up in sudden realisation. "In fact, I shouldn't still be Chibi-Usa! I am Tsukino Usagi - Sailor Moon! What, does there have to be a coming-of-age ceremony before she becomes Neo-Queen Serenity?! She's already twenty! What the hell are they waiting for?!"
"Speaking of which," cut in Hotaru. She hadn't the patience to listen to an argument that had been played to death. If Chibi-Usa was spoiling for a fight with somebody, it might as well be constructive.
"As much as I appreciate you getting her off our case with that deal…" Hotaru paused. She could practically hear Ami chastising her irrationality, and tried her best to dress up her argument as being logical. "…Don't you think that putting that kind of stress on our relationship is going to jinx us?"
Immediately Chibi-Usa's eyes shone, scared and watery. To many, she would have looked like a cute baby deer in headlights. To Hotaru, she was more like Kermit caught with a smoking gun. Her eyes narrowed. There was warning in her tone:
"Chibi-Usa?"
The fuchsia-haired princess took a deep breath to begin, only to stall. She fidgeted with the frayed seams of the blanket over the back of her seat until she regained the nerve, but even then she refused to meet Hotaru's gaze.
"I didn't make the bet for us to win."
Hotaru stared. Chibi-Usa risked glancing at her, but looked away as if she was gazing into the sun. "Maybe I should give you a minute to absorb that," she whispered, half wondering, half matter-of–fact.
"Oh, believe me, Chibi-Usa, there aren't enough minutes in the world!" Hotaru yelled.
The younger girl raised her hands in defence. "Wait! I knew you'd react like this (she didn't – she had never heard Hotaru shout like that in her life) but hear me out okay?"
She explained Usagi's crush on Rei, careful to remind the curious, and irritatingly quite excited, Senshi that bumps in her mother's relationship with Mamoru would threaten her own existence.
"… Usagi is best friends with Rei; I was best friends with you before we got together. It's almost like I'm living her life for her, the way she always wanted to! So, if I show her that a relationship with a close girlfriend wouldn't work in my case, it might encourage her to stay with Mamo-chan."
"Uh… that's great and everything, but did you forget the other side to that little bargain of yours? If we do as you say and fake a break-up, you agreed we'd stop seeing each other completely!"
Chibi-Usa blew a mocking raspberry. "Please! We continue our relationship, and don't let her find out about it. Everything was fine when you were just my dirty little secret." Upon seeing Hotaru's expression, Chibi-Usa hurried away from that area of discussion. "By the time we come out to her again, hopefully she'll have fallen madly back in love with Mamo-chan, or Rei will be in a relationship with someone else and she'll let go."
Hotaru frowned, now with scepticism. "You sure no-one else is just gonna take Rei's place?"
"Doubt it. Tsukino women don't just fall for anyone, you know."
Saturn raised her eyebrows teasingly. "Good to hear. But don't think for a second I'm gonna let that 'dirty little secret' thing slide."
Chibi-Usa shrieked as she pounced, trying to escape Hotaru's tickling fingers. By the time Michiru came up half an hour later to ask if they wanted supper, she found them asleep on top of the duvet. Her 'daughter' lay with an arm around her girlfriend, a stupid smile still plastered on her face.
It took a long time for Minako to calm down. Yet, despite the fact that the hysterical tears and hiccoughs had subsided over an hour ago, Rei still hadn't yet attempted to ask her what had happened in the alleyway. She had reasoned that this was because she didn't want to set the other girl off crying again, but if she answered honestly, it was because she wanted to stay like this with Minako for all the time they had left together – to just be.
At some point, she had sunk down into the bed beside her lover, and presently they lay in almost exactly the same position they had been in that morning. If Rei couldn't smell the sting of disinfectant in her nose, and her eyes could adjust to the starch white of the room, which reflected like snow in low winter sunlight, she would have believed that the day had started all over again – that she had been given a second chance.
Comforted by the scent of Minako's hair, she went over what she had to do. Given the circumstances, it suddenly seemed a better idea to just tell Minako about her father's threats – especially after tonight, since now her leader couldn't dismiss her warnings as paranoia.
Above all, it seemed to have hit Rei that the reason she had held back the information was because she had been too busy thinking about how this situation would affect her. So overwhelmed with the fear of loving and losing again, she hadn't truly considered how it would affect Minako. Minako deserved to know why this had happened to her. When the 'why me?' question posed by so many victims could actually be answered, it was a rare opportunity for closure – a chance to finally do right by her.
Before that, though, Rei needed to know what had happened. So saying a silent goodbye to heaven, she stroked Minako's back to wake her up; from daze or slumber, she hadn't bothered to check. "Mina?"
Venus grinned and moved back into the touch, eyes still closed. "Oh, so you're allowed to use pet names for me – just not the other way around." She tutted jokingly. "Double standards, Rei-chan."
"What happened?"
Minako froze. Her azure orbs opened, took in her surroundings, and she remembered again. After dozing, however, with Rei holding her and her own fingers still closed around the transformation pen, it seemed further way. She managed a watery smile that the brunette heard but didn't see as she stared hard at the ceiling.
"It's silly. It was so fast, barely anything happened. He just ran into me. He put his hand around my neck, and I went to transform, but I couldn't. He hissed something at me, but I was so scared I didn't catch it."
"Did he touch you?" Rei's grip tightened with these words, and Minako revelled guiltily in her concern.
"No. After he spoke to me, he went. I guess it was just a mugging."
Rei scoffed tearfully from outrage and endearment; partly at Minako calling it 'just' a mugging. Partly for Minako calling it a mugging at all.
The blonde noticed her do it. "What?" she asked naïvely.
"Mina, you still have your purse."
Venus was stunned. "What?"
She rolled over to check the single compartment of the bedside table. Sure enough, her handbag was there and, as she began to dig through it, so was everything of value inside it. Feeling the frantic movement of her lover, Rei turned to watch her do it until she saw something else. Through the tiny gap in the curtain, a hospital trolley was being rushed past them, carrying someone with a familiar blue bob of hair.
"Minako?"
"What?" she asked distractedly, still hunting through her possessions.
"Was Ami with you?"
Minako blinked and looked up. "Of course not. Why?"
Rei leapt from the bed, jerking her foot free of the bed sheets and tearing open the curtain.
"Because that… that was…" Rei stared in the direction the trolley had gone.
"I've gotta call Makoto!" she announced, grabbing her cell phone. "You'll be okay while I'm gone right?"
"Yeah, of course," replied the other girl, bewildered – even more so when Rei stopped to kiss her briefly on the forehead. Minako blushed, watching the miko dart off towards the exit.
'Nother cliffy, hehe. I'm a very bad person. Don't feel comfortable with how I wrote this, but I don't have the patience to do it again. R&R anyway. Sayonara!