Disclaimer: I do not own Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon or any of the characters you might recognize from the anime and/or manga.

"Akari-chan! Hurry up! We're running out of day light!"

I let out a laugh, "Minako-chan, I think you meant to say that we're burning day light." She messed up a lot of expressions, I noticed. It was adorable, though.

"Whatever. C'mon, let's go here next!" She said as she started to drag me to the next store.

Shopping with Minako was always so tiring. She wanted to go to practically every store and shop until she literally dropped. We had been here shopping for two hours already, and she still bouncing around, ready to go to more stores.

"But we already have plenty of jeans, Minako-chan," I whined. This store smelled terrible. The cologne that they used was overused and it was burning my nose. I felt as if I was being bathed in this stuff. It was like Mercury's attack had turned from mist to cologne. It was becoming so bad that my eyes started to water. If we brought gas masks to the battle, maybe we could knock our enemy out with this smelly, toxic substance. I could bring that up at the next meeting. This store's cologne was about to make a lot money.

"One can never have too many jeans, Ri-chan."

"If your drawer is already full with jeans that you have to push down to make the drawer close, then yes, you have too many jeans, Ko-chan." Every time she used my nickname, I gave her one back. She hated it and I chuckled when she looked at me with annoyance.

"Then we'll have to go to the furniture store and buy me a new dresser with more room." She cockily flipped her hair over her shoulder.

"No way! How in the world would we bring it back to your place?"

"They have delivery!"

"That might cost you a lot."

"And your point is? I'll have enough."

I sighed knowing I had lost this battle, but we were not going to a boring furniture store. She had already bought a bunch of clothes and now she wants furniture? I suppose it makes sense. She'll need an extra dresser for the clothes she had already bought.

"Are you not buying anything?"

"I already bought enough clothes today," I said while laughing as she tried to balance her purse, other shopping bags, and the clothes that she was wanting to purchase or try on.

"Minako-chan, why do you keep asking me to go shopping with you when I'm not all that fun?"

She gawked at me in mock-horror. "Not fun? You are a blast to shop with! We always bicker like sisters and you barely complain when I drag you along when you know how long we'll be here." Minako picked up a shirt that barely covered anything. She looked at it in disgust. "Why would they put this on their shelves? It's fall! They should be selling sweaters!"

"What about Usagi?"

"What about her?" Did she really forget what we were talking about in that short amount of time?

"Why didn't you bring her along?"

"We came here a week ago, and I wanted to hang out with you."

"And the clothes here are different from a week ago?"

She playfully glared at me and went on shifting through the shirt section. "I saw some things I wanted last week, but I only have so much arm space for shopping bags."

"Oh, Minako-chan, you never cease to amaze me."

"Wanna get something to eat? From all of this shopping, I'm getting really hungry!"

"Sure, I'll buy. Where do you want to go?"

"You don't have to do that!"

"You bought me lunch last time so it's my turn." I stuck out my tongue at her in victory.

"Fine. You know I can't turn up free food!"

"Down, Minako-chan, turn down."

"Whatever."

After she bought her clothes and added one more bag to her collection, we walked back to her car and drove to a restaurant nearby. At least she wasn't the kind of person who knew the other person was paying and ordered the most expensive meal or chose the most expensive restaurant.

As we ate, we chatted about almost everything. When I say 'almost', the thing that we didn't converse about was our senshi lives. That's training and meets are for, not casual conversations. While I enjoy the comfortable silence that Hotaru and I share while we eat, there was never a dull moment with Minako which was enjoyable as well, even though sometimes I had to remind her to wait to speak until she was done stuffing her mouth. I was surprised that there was so much to talk about and that we never ran out of topics. Minako was such the chatterbox and always knew what to say to make me laugh and distract my mind away from stressful situations.

"So how's working with Rei? It would kill me if I had to wake up that early every day!"

"I was surprised when you called me at noon. I definitely didn't think that you were able to wake up that early."

"Hey! Artemis woke me up. I would have slept in even longer."

"My point exactly. But working with Rei is fine. All I do is sweep and clean so if I don't get enough sleep, I'm okay."

"I couldn't even eat if I wake up early."

"You're eating right now."

"Hush." She took another bite of her food. "Do you think you'll get a place of your own?"

"Why would I want to do that?"

I appreciated her optimism, but why would I want to rent an apartment when I'll most likely be dead by the time my lease is up? My cup is usually half full; I'm just trying to be realistic.

"It's exciting to have your own place!"

She knew what I was thinking.

"But Minako-chan, I can't be alone, you know that."

"After the battle is over, I'll help you find an affordable, cozy little place!"

She didn't even skip a beat. She always knew what to say to keep the atmosphere from becoming awkward and tense. Minako had such a kind heart and I was so grateful for her and the other senshi. They kept things interesting and never were there any dull moments. I realized just how unhappy I was on the Sun. I thought I couldn't be happier when I graduated be the Princess' guardian or when I fell in love.

I was wrong. This was what it was like to be happy.

"Sounds like a plan, but it has to have heat. I can't stand this chilly air."

"Sure thing!"

I felt bad for playing along and acting like this was going to happen, but I didn't want to crush her spirits and good mood. Today was such a good day and I wasn't about to ruin in. The foreboding future with a new enemy was already doing that for us. I didn't want to make it worse so I'll pretend that I'm not scared and try my hardest to keep myself from depressing everyone else. I won't let myself lose control. I will stay strong.

Hey guys! Thanks for reading! So, I've already done chapters for Uranus, Venus and Saturn. Who will y'all like to see next? I would love some ideas. Don't forget to review!