'The Rush'
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Rei had always been taught that the reason behind studying world history was to be sure that humans, as a whole, were not doomed to repeat the same horrible mistakes as their predecessors. In this case, however... 'The Kofun period (mid 3rd century – mid 6th century), is defined by the construction of many keyhole-shaped tumuli. At the beginning of the Asuka period...' The miko stifled a yawn.
"Wow. I had no idea she was that flexible."
Rei's ears perked up. Flexible? She glanced over the edge of her history book and eyed the giggling pair of blondes on the far side of the room, currently huddled together over what appeared to be a magazine.
"Maybe we should ask her?"
"Usagi! I never knew you were such a pervert!" Minako replied in a mock stage whisper.
I don't wanna know. I so don't wanna know. Just ignore them...
"Who are you calling a pervert? You're the one that bought it."
"And who held a gun to your head and made you look at it with me?"
"H...hey! Shut up!"
"Do you mind?" Rei cut in sharply. "Some of us actually have to study here."
"See? Minako whispered to her cohort. "Totally the seme."
The miko felt her jaw muscle twitch. "Excuse me?" Any thought of studying history was out the window now. The dark haired girl slammed her book shut and fixed her friends with a steely glare. "Do tell me, what are you looking at?"
Usagi squeaked as her face flushed a vibrant shade of red.
"Ignore her. It's nothing. Just some random manga." Minako tried weakly, waving a hand dismissively.
Busted.
"I highly doubt that." Rei growled, rising to her feet.
"No no no! Don't get up!" the soldier of love and beauty pleaded.
"Like that makes it look any less suspicious. Show me the book, and no one gets hurt."
"...that's really not a good idea." Usagi whimpered.
"A little late for that, Odango." Rei was moving in closer now, and the girls were frozen like deer in headlights. "I'll give you to the count of three."
Another terrified squeak from the princess.
"One."
Minako fidgeted restlessly.
"Two."
Usagi threw a desperate look at the leader of the soldiers, and they both nodded simultaneously, yet another half baked plan feebly hatched.
A scary look crossed over the fire soldier's features. "Three!"
The princess squealed and thrust the book into Minako's hands, and the self proclaimed goddess of love was off like a shot, making a mad dash for the door, but Rei was just as fast, already hot on her heels. The blonde let out a cry of surprise as she threw the door open and skidded out into the hallway, almost losing her balance on the hardwood floor. Her arms flailed comically as she fought with the harsh mistress that was gravity and succeeded, tearing through the shrine once more.
As she rounded another corner, she mentally celebrated her victory at having left the miko behind in the dust. Victory however, was short lived. Out of seemingly nowhere, Rei appeared in front of her and tackled the girl to the floor.
"Wh...what??"
"Dork." Rei huffed. "All I had to do was run through the courtyard."
Minako tried to scramble away on hands and knees, but the fire soldier was quicker, diving forward at the last second and snatching the book from her hand.
"Ha! That'll teach you!" Rei grumbled. "It's so much easier to just listen to me."
The blonde laughed nervously and scooted away from the miko.
One ebony eyebrow arched upwards. "Well. Let's see what all the drama was about."
"Um, Rei, before you look..."
"Shut it." She unrolled the crumpled booklet in her hands and studied the now mangled cover. "...a doujinshi?"
"Rei.."
"....a Sailor Mars doujinshi?"
Minako laughed nervously as the miko began to flip through the pages. "It's really not that big a..."
"What the hell??" Mars and Venus. Mars and Venus cuddling. Mars and Venus kissing. Rei could feel all the blood gathering in her cheeks as she flipped another page. Mars and Venus...oh wow. She was pretty flexible.
"I thought it was funny..." the blonde tried lamely.
"There is nothing funny about this!" the miko barked.
"Well there is if you weren't wound so tight."
"I'm not wound up!!"
"The look on your face says otherwise." Minako sang out.
Rei flushed even hotter and grit her teeth in frustration. "You have ten seconds. I think that's a pretty fair head start."
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As the miko tossed and turned on her futon that night, the blonde's words kept echoing in her mind. Was she really that uptight? It was just a stupid doujinshi after all. But it was one of her and Minako, and why Minako would even purchase something like that was just disturbing enough by itself. She wasn't uptight. Minako was just crazy. Rei growled and rolled over once more. Why did it bother her so much?
...maybe she was just a little uptight.
But she knew Minako could get just as uptight as she was. It was just a matter of proving it. And all at once, and evil plan of her own began to form in her mind. This called for an act of revenge.
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"You know Minako, that was pretty crazy of you." Usagi mumbled faintly. "I mean, I know you want to drop hints, but that was kind of pushing it."
"All is fair in love and war." Minako replied breezily. "And besides, the direct approach is rather entertaining."
"...I don't think Rei found it very entertaining."
"Yeah, but you should have seen her blush! It was so cute!"
Usagi laughed. "You've got it bad."
"She should just cooperate. It will be so much easier for all those involved."
The princess suddenly froze in her tracks, dropping her school bag to the ground as all the color rapidly drained from her face.
"Eh?" Minako paused. "Usagi? What's wrong?"
Usagi could only point to the entrance doors of the school, slack jawed. Her guardian spun on her heels and faced the front of the building as well, cerulean blue eyes widening in shock and horror.
"What the hell???"
"Aie! Minako! Keep your voice down!" Usagi pleaded.
There, on the main entrance doors, was a blown up photo of the self proclaimed goddess of love. Someone, and Minako was pretty damn sure she knew who, had scrawled graffiti all over it in black permanent marker. A she stared at the portrait of herself, now sporting glasses, a moustache, a goatee and devil horns, she became dimly aware of the fact that people were staring at her now.
"Wow." one of her classmates breathed. "Minako, did you break up with someone recently?"
Minako twitched. Down on the lower right hand corner of the five foot high 'artwork' was an unmistakable symbol. "No, but I'm going to break someone in half."
Usagi moved up the steps and stood next to her friend. "Hey...isn't that?"
"Yeah. It's the symbol of Mars."
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And so the war was on.
Rei had begun to think she had gotten away with it. The incident wasn't mentioned, though Minako seemed especially icy towards her. And just when she had prepared herself to apologize and mend the broken bridges, the unthinkable happened.
She had gotten this horrible feeling in the pit of her stomach that her day was going to reach all new levels of bad when she had discovered her cell phone was missing. As much as she had hated to admit it, that damn thing had become her lifeline, not to mention that it was one of the sole means of communication between herself and the rest of the team, so to discover that it had mysteriously vanished left her feeling rather uneasy.
A glance at the bedside clock pulled her away from tearing her room apart for the umpteenth millionth time. Her grandfather had requested her assistance in doing a reading today for a very important client, the woman being a close business associate of her father's. She scowled. Looking would just have to wait. She was out of time.
The miko took her place before the fire, and gave a slight nod to the client to indicate that she should kneel as well. She took a deep breath and willed herself to remain calm and focused. This had come as a special request, and she hated to let her grandfather down.
Just as she had brought herself into a deep state of meditation, a jarring voice broke her out of her collected calm.
'Oh my God, Becky, look at her butt!'
Violet eyes snapped open as a fear she had never known seized her heart. No. No. It was impossible! She would never...
'I like big butts and I cannot lie! You other brothers can't deny!'
The miko leapt to her feet and threw a wild glance back to her client, who could only stare at her in complete shock and horror.
'That when a girl walks in with an itty bitty waist and a round thing in your face'
A ring tone. It sounded suspiciously like a ring tone.
'You get sprung!'
She proceeded to tear the room apart, on a course hell bent to find the accursed phone. It sounded so damned close too! Rei's gaze dropped down to the mat at her feet and the rather suspicious looking lump at the corner.
'Wanna pull up front cause you notice that butt was stuffed'
The mat was hurled across the room as she snatched the phone up, and sure enough, the caller ID confirmed what she had already known.
Minako.
How the hell did she mange to swipe her phone, change the tone, plant it here, and call at just the right time? She flipped the phone open and immediately let loose on the caller. "I don't know where you are, but when I find you, I'm going to kill you!!"
There was only a wild bout of giggling on the other end, and the miko snapped the phone shut and tossed it to the floor. Her jaw muscles clenched, and as she began to visualize all the ways she could possibly get even, a timid cough behind her snapped her back to the present.
Her client. Oh crap.
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"I almost feel bad." the woman sighed as the miko ran back to her room, obviously mortified.
Rei's grandfather chuckled. "You shouldn't. Her friends assure me this is for her own good. And you have to admit, it was rather amusing."
"So you planted it?"
The old man nodded. "I had to steal it first so her friend could switch everything."
"...evil."
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Days went by without retaliation, and now Minako was sitting on pins and needles. There was no way Rei was going to let this one slide, not by a long shot. She was probably biding her time, waiting for the perfect opportunity to exact her revenge. The blonde shook her head. That would have to wait for now. Her volleyball team had finally made the big playoffs, and she had a game to win, homicidal miko or no.
As her team battled it out for the top spot, they found themselves tied dangerously close. It was 2-2, and the next set would determine the winner. Their rivals had the ball, and the blonde felt that she had never been more focused than she was at that moment.
A wild catcall from an all too familiar voice caught her attention, and she chanced a glance towards the bleachers. The entire front row had now been filled by girls from the T*A academy, judging from the school uniforms. And there, smack dab in the center, was the object of her affections and current arch nemesis.
Uh oh...
As if on a magical cue, all the girls began to cheer and call to the now very flustered blonde, screaming out love confessions, while others made lewd comments and dirty suggestions. In the center of it all, Rei stood up slowly, drawing Minako's full attention.
The ball was served. One of her teammates dove forward, knocking the ball back across the net, but the blonde remained transfixed. The miko winked and flipped ebony locks over her shoulder before blowing the solider of love and beauty a kiss.
"Minako!!!"
The soldier's head snapped back towards the game, just in time to see the ball spiked downwards and drilled into her face.
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"Uggggh."
"Don't feel so bad."
"How can I not feel bad?" Minako whined, pressing the towel back up to her bloody nose. "I just made an ass out of myself."
"Could have been worse."
"How?"
"We could have lost, and we almost did, thanks to that little show."
"It's scary what an army of hot catholic school girls can do to a person." the blonde mumbled. And even scarier that the hottest one of them all has that much power.
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The counterattack was to be expected, but Rei honestly didn't expect Minako to steal a page out of her book. On her lunch break, she couldn't help but notice the throngs of students that were giggling and speaking in hushed tones as she walked by. Something was definitely up, and she was almost positive she didn't want to know. A large crowd gathering in the courtyard outside however drew her attention, and she found herself wandering out into the masses against her better judgment. As the miko pushed her way through the throngs of snickering onlookers, she was confronted with blown up images of herself all over the courtyard. Although they weren't defaced, each one had it's own unique caption.
The one directly in front of her, for example, tacked to a tree, was a picture of Rei in her robes sweeping the courtyard. But the caption?
"Mikos! Lesbians love them!'
Funny. She could feel her eye twitching.
The one to her left was a snapshot Minako had taken when she and Usagi had gotten into a play fight. She had pinned the blonde, and the whole thing was innocent enough, but the bold type near the bottom screamed out 'Sex Fiend!'
She could feel the blonde draining from her face. There had to be at least thirty in all, and she had to hand it to the girl. She was smart. It must have been a lot of trouble to get all these up during school hours without getting caught. Her sense began to prickle when the laughter around her died away, and she could feel an ominous presence behind her.
She let out a defeated sigh and turned around, not the least bit surprised to see one of the head nuns glaring down at her with eyes that would have killed a lesser being.
"Sex fiend?"
"It's not what it..." Rei started, but upon seeing the cold unwavering gaze of her instructor, she dropped her hands to her sides. "You know what? Forget it. Just punish me."
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"I don't know about this..." Usagi squeaked, eyeing the miko doubtfully.
"She deserves it." Rei growled. "And besides, she started it."
The princess laughed. "You know, it's gotta be like the apocalypse or something when I stop to marvel at the immaturity."
"Just switch the school bags. That's all I'm asking. You don't even have to look inside it. In fact, it's probably better if you don't."
Usagi sighed. "Why don't you guys just stop already? Someone is going to get hurt." A vivid image of Minako cursing as the volleyball rearranged her face danced through her mind. "Worse."
The soldier of fire stopped dead in her tracks. Why couldn't they just stop? The situation was rapidly escalating with each prank, but the disturbing thing about the whole mess was that she was actually beginning to enjoy the challenge. There was just something about Minako that caused her temper to flare and drive her to the near brink of insanity, but even deeper than that was the truth of the matter. Just being around the blonde made her feel so damn alive. It was always like a rush of adrenaline through her veins, and the past few weeks had only fueled her on. She was at the point know where she knew that if she got Minako alone, she would just shove her up against the closest wall and ravish her senseless.
She wasn't dumb. She had caught the mountains of hints the petite blonde had hurled at her months ago, but it had taken her some time to unravel her feelings and view the situation objectively. She knew what she wanted, and this 'war' of theirs had presented her with the perfect opportunity to push Minako back.
A wicked grin crossed over her features. "Just switch the bag."
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Minako was finding it hard to concentrate. She had spent so much time and energy on wicked schemes and plots that she was honestly exhausted, and class didn't start for another ten minuets. Perfect. She could squeeze in a cat nap.
As her classmates poured in and took their seats, she rested her head on her desk and had just started to doze off when the door burst open, startling her out of her reverie. Her head snapped up as she stared at the figure standing in the doorway numbly.
"Haruka?? What are you doing here??"
"I owed someone a favor. I'm repaying the debt." the blonde replied breezily, scanning the classroom. "Wow Minako, you didn't tell me your class had this many cute girls."
The soldier was instantly suspicious, and the attention of the entire class was now focused on their conversation.
Blue eyes narrowed. "What do you want?"
From behind her back, the racer produced a bouquet of roses.
Immediately the room seemed to heat up, and Minako could feel the blood creeping into her cheeks.
Haruka casually strolled over to the blonde's desk and handed her the flowers. "She told me to tell you that these are for last night."
The class burst into laughter and catcalls, and Minako wished she could just crawl under her desk and die.
"See you later kitten?"
"Get out of here!!"
After the lanky guardian had departed, Minako inspected the bouquet in her arms. Tucked down into the paper, a bent corner of a card poked up, and after making sure she didn't have an audience, she fished it out nervously.
'Truce? Meet me at the shrine after school.'
Minako smiled. Truce.
But the fuzzy mood was broken. The teacher entered the room and as she began to give instructions for the day's lessons, Minako reached down into her bag to retrieve a pencil. Instead of finding the usual array of school supplies, her fingers brushed up against something soft and...lacy?
Confused, she pulled the item out of her bag and inspected it for a grand total of one point five seconds before squealing and dropping it as though she had been burned. Immediately she was the center of attention yet again, and when the teacher saw the frilly pink G-string laying in the middle of her desk like a dead fish, Minako couldn't help but burst into peals of laughter.
She hauled her bag up into her lap and dumped it's contents out across her workspace. Underwear. Her entire school bag had been stuffed with underwear, in all different shapes, sizes, and colors.
Some truce.
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"Ah. I wasn't sure you'd show." Rei said with a smirk, opening her bedroom door for the blonde and gesturing for her to enter.
Cerulean blue eyes narrowed suspiciously. "You first."
"Oh come on! You act like I booby-trapped it or something!"
They both glared at each other for a moment before bursting into laughter.
"Wow." the miko breathed. "I guess we did kinda get out of hand, huh?"
"Maybe a little." Minako replied with a smile.
"No tricks. I promise." the raven haired girl tried again, gesturing through the door with a nod of her head.
The blonde took her word for it, stepping into the room. No buckets of water, no smoke bombs. Everything appeared to be on the up and up. The door clicked audibly behind her, and she turned to say something to Rei, only to find her words cut off by impossibly soft lips crushing against hers. Her heart somersaulted as she wound her arms around the fire soldier's waist, drawing her closer even as the miko guided them back onto the soft futon.
"Oh my god. This had better not be a prank." the blonde murmured weakly.
"Hardly. I got your point you know."
"About time."
Rei drew back for just a moment, giving Minako a warm smile. "Thank you."
"For?"
"Giving me such a rush. You were right. I was wound up, and I needed this."
The blonde blushed prettily. "You're welcome."
"But you know, something's been bothering me..."
"What's that?"
"Well, It's about that doujinshi...."
Minako cocked her head to one side. "What about it?"
The fire soldier grinned wickedly. "I recall you questioning my flexibility..."
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Notes!!
I was having a rotten week. Half a bag of chocolate later, I got this.
Song : Dashboard Confessionals - The Rush