Chapter 31

At 1:00 Sunday afternoon, Rei was stepping out of the shrine, just as Jadeite reached the stop of the stairs. She immediately smiled at him. He was wearing a navy blue polo shirt, and khaki cargo shorts. His messy short blond hair, pulled it all together. He looked so handsome.

He walked right up to her, and kissed her check. He had yet to do more than kiss her check, hold her hand some, and put an arm around her waist. Part of her wondered why, but the other part knew he was afraid to push. She just might have to take matters into her own hands, later.

"Hello gorgeous. This dress looks perfect on you." Jadeite said smiling at her.

"Thank you." Rei responded blushing slightly. She was wearing a red spaghetti strap sundress that had large violet hibiscus flowers on it.

"You're most welcome." Jadeite kissed her check again, "Are you ready to go?"

"Yes."

They walked hand in hand down the shrine stairs together. As soon as they reached the sidewalk, Jadeite pulled her close, and wrapped his arm around her waist. They walked quietly to the theater together. She loved talking with him, but this was nice too.

They were waiting in line to purchase snacks for the movie when Rei excused herself to use the restroom. She was only gone 5 minutes when she returned to see something she wasn't happy about. A model thin, large chested, gorgeous blond was talking to Jadeite. It reassured her some that he only had his "I'm being polite" smile on, but the woman was obviously flirting. Rei watched for a few moments to see what would happen. When the woman went to touch him, Rei decided to step in. She walked right up to Jadeite, snuggled up under his arm, wrapped her arm around his waist, and laid her head against his chest. He instantly wrapped his arm around her, and pulled her close.

"Sorry it took so long. There was a bit of a line." Rei said, and smiled up at him.

"It's ok. Anna, this is my girlfriend Rei. Rei this is my coworker Anna." Jadeite said, introducing them. Rei beamed at being called girlfriend.

"Girlfriend? I didn't know you had a girlfriend." Anna said narrowing her eyes at Rei.

"You never asked. Rei and I have been together a long time." Jadeite replied and kissed Rei's head.

"Hello. It's nice to meet you." Rei said sweetly.

"I don't understand why you wouldn't tell me you had a girlfriend." Anna whined.

"Well considering we've only been coworkers for about 2 weeks and I've only worked with you 3 times, I don't know why you would need to know." Jadeite replied.

"But I thought…" Anna started, but stopped when Jadeite put up his hand.

"I can tell you that whatever you thought was incorrect. Now if you'll excuse us. We have a date to get back to you. Good day." Jadeite turned Rei, and they walked away.

"Well that was interesting." Rei giggled.

"Am I going to be paying for that in training later?" Jadeite asked with a chuckle.

"I don't know. Maybe." Rei giggled again, and pinched his side.

"Hmmm. By the way. I like having you in my arms."

"So girlfriend huh?"

"I….I….yes damn it. I want you to be my girlfriend. How do you not know this?" Jadeite asked with a chuckle.

"Well you never asked me? And who says I want to be your girlfriend any way?"

"I say damn!" Jadeite lightly tickled her side then slapped her ass.

"HEY! Oh alright. I guess I'll be your girlfriend." Rei laughed.

"You guess? YOU GUESS! Woman, you're gonna pay for that!"

"Oh yeah. How?"

"I'm gonna leave you breathless, and begging for more." Jadeite whispered in her ear.

A shiver ran down Rei's spine, and she looked up at Jadeite. He wore a sly grin, and she smiled back.

"If I let you." Rei teased.

Joking and flirting with Jadeite felt so good, and so right. During the movie they snuggled together near the back of the theater. Jadeite didn't kiss her once, but he didn't stop touching her either. It felt wonderful, and like home.

After the movie they went right to the clearing where she and Jadeite trained daily. After some warm up, Rei got serious. She threw 3 attacks at him, all at once. He dodged or countered all, but one which barely missed him. In a blink he was gone. Next thing she knew she was yanked back against a hard body, strong arm banded around her stomach, and an ice dagger at her throat.

"Was that punishment for Anna?" Jadeite chuckled in her ear.

"No." Rei squeaked.

"I think I win this round."

"Uh. Not quite as there is a fireball VERY close to YOUR favorite body part." Rei snorted.

"It could be yours too you know." Jadeite chuckled.

The ice dagger dissipated, but he didn't let her go. She dropped her fireball, reached up, grasped his arm lightly, and rest her head back against his shoulder. She just wanted to enjoy the fell of him against her.

He kissed the side of her head, and put his chin on her shoulder. Rei heard Jadeite take a deep breath and sigh.

"Jad, are you ok?" Rei asked softly.

"Yes and no." he answered quietly.

"Why yes and no?"

"Yes because I have you in my arms, and I can finally call you my girlfriend, to you. No, because I am feeling guilty for a few, well a lot of things."

"Want to talk about it?"

"Yeah. Kinda. Can we skip training today?"

"Sure. Lets sit down."

Jadeite lead her over to a tree at the edge of the clearing, sat down, spread his legs, pulled her down between his spread legs. Once she was sitting between his legs, he pulled her back against his chest, and wrapped his arms around her legs.

"You can detransform if you want. I'll keep my eyes closed." Jadeite said. Rei looked over her shoulder to see he had his head tilted back against the tree, with eyes closed. She detransformed.

"All done. You can open your eyes now." Rei stated.

"How do you get used to the light show from that? It's so bright." Jadeite asked with a chuckle.

"Four years of doing it."

"By the way, while I couldn't see you, I could feel your skin under my hands. It's so soft." He whispered in her ear, squeezing her tight for a moment, then relaxing his arms again.

"Pervert."

"Yeah. But you wouldn't have me any other way." Jadeite chuckled quietly.

"Probably not. So what's going on?"

"Remember when we talked about my anger at Kunzite for sending us all separately, not saving us, and telling Beryl and Metalia to use us against you girls?"

"Yeah."

"I haven't let that go of that anger. Kunz told all of us last night that the reason he didn't fight back when he was captured, despite being almost drained to death, is because he didn't want to hurt us. He also thought if he could get inside, he could find a way to save us. He didn't get a chance because Neph dropped him in a possession chamber right after he teleported off the battle field. Apparently, not only was he magically exhausted, he was also physically exhausted. He never went to sleep the night before because he was looking for me.

"Neph also told me he literally fought with the king for two days trying to keep us from being sent to battle separately. The king actually threatened to keep Kunz out of battle altogether, and demote him if he went against orders. Zoi said that Kunz is feeling the full guilt of what happened. He blames himself for everything. But it's not his fault. He was following orders. He was almost dead by the time he was dumped in that chamber. And I….I…I'm not helping because I'm still so angry. I don't want to be angry. I don't want to blame him."

"You just don't know how to stop?" Rei's heart broke for this man. For all of them really.

"Yeah. Zoi brought all of these books home from the library on emotional trauma, and distress. I've read some, but I'm not sure any of them will really help."

"Each person processes things differently, and heals from them differently."

"Yeah. Zoi told Neph and I about how you girls deal with things differently."

"We do. You should see some of the things Usa has drawn. Mako seems to get even stronger when dealing with emotional situations. Ami discovers new topics of interests. I seem to have a clearer mind as I meditate more when dealing with emotional situations. Have you tried meditating yet?"

"No. I thought the mind needed to be clear to meditate."

"It does. It helps because you have to consciously clear your mind to meditate. The act of meditating keeps the mind clear for a time. When you come out of meditation, you have a better ability to assess what is or has happened because you can pull one thing at a time instead of being bombarded constantly with everything at once."

"I guess I never thought of that."

"Training can do the same thing. It can release the emotions in a physical manner, but you have to focus on what you're doing so you can repeat a strong attack or so you can correct a weak one. You need clear mind for both of those."

"That's very true. I never thought of it that way."

"Both of those may help you sort out your thoughts and feelings, as well as release them."

"I can see how that could help."

"As far as Kunzite goes, as I said last night, try writing him a letter. Even if you don't give it to him, getting the words out may help you."

"I want him to know I don't blame him or hate him. Really, I miss him. I miss them all, and we all live in the same apartment, but we're all just kind of co-existing."

"I can understand missing them, to an extent."

"How so?"

"After Galaxia was defeated Usa, well she kind of disappeared for about a month. We all saw her at school, but other than that, nothing. The only person she would see was Mamoru, and he said she was withdrawn most of the time. She buried herself in schoolwork, and drawing. I missed my friend. The day I decided to go to her parents house and pull her out of it, she showed up here. She handed me 3 drawings she did, of me, during that time. She called them the 3 faces of Rei I love so much. They were beautiful. I have them framed on my bedroom wall. My favorite is of her and I hugging. She broke down after she gave them to me, and held onto me for almost an hour.

"You see, she went into that battle, at first with us. I died in her arms as she begged me not to leave her. She faced that final battle alone. No matter what anyone says, the Star Lights did not protect her the way we would have. They curled into a corner while she faced Galaxia completely alone. My best friend, my princess, my sister faced that fight completely alone, after watching 6 of the 9 of us die. It was only Saturn, Pluto, and Mamoru she didn't see die. She didn't even know Mamoru had been dead for 7 months until that day. The day she came here, she was finally ready to talk, and she did, for hours. Mamoru and I are still the only ones she really opened up to about what happened, and how she felt. She said she got so depressed that Mamoru was so worried he camped on her couch for a week. If he hadn't, I may have lost my sister that week. That's also how her parents finally found out she was Sailor Moon. Mamoru had to explain to her parents so they would let him stay at their house. Her parents, grandfather and Ami's mom are the only ones that know because Ami's mom is our "personal doctor". Grandfather you can guess on how he knows. So anyway to an extent I do understand."

"So you mediated to work thru all of it?"

"Yes. And trained. A lot."

"Wait. You said 6. What am I missing?"

"Sailors Pluto, Uranus, Neptune, and Saturn. Setsuna, Haruka, Michiru, and Hotaru."

"Oh right. I always forget about them."

"They all live together about 45 minutes away."

"Ah ok."

"You'll see them when Usa and Mamoru get back. Haruka adores Usa, and is VERY protective of her. She makes Mamoru look like a kitten with her protectiveness some times."

"She was like that on the moon with Serenity."

"Not like this. Usa had a problem with a guy when Mamoru was in America. Haruka almost broke the guy in half for flirting with Usa, once."

"Oh wow."

"Yeah. About Kunzite, try the letter, at least to open up the line of communication. Also try meditating. We'll continue training too."

"Thank you."

"Always."

"The books also recommended therapy."

"Therapy isn't possible because of the situation."

"Right. Thank you Rei. You really have helped."

"Any time."

Rei turned her head and looked up at him. He looked down in her eyes. Subconsciously she licked her lips. He slowly lowered his head, and pressed his lips to hers. Rei's eyes fluttered shut. She felt his tongue run along the seam of her lips, and she opened to him. As his tongue slid into her mouth, and explored, she felt tingles race all over her body. She shifted in his arms, wrapping hers around his neck, and pressed against his chest. Jadiete ran his hands up and down her sides then rested on her hips. Slowly he pulled back from the kiss, and searched her eyes.

"I've never stopped loving you. I know it's too soon, but I needed to tell you anyway." Jadeite whispered against her lips. He kissed her lightly twice. "More training then help me meditate?"

"Sure." Rei said.

"Good because if we stay like this much longer I worry I might push too far too fast."

Rei giggled, and got up. After transforming behind a tree they spent an hour training then she worked with him on meditating. Meditating was a little difficult because he kept kissing her, but she loved every second of it. By the time he left, Rei felt like she was walking on cloud 9.