Interlude: The Boots
Back at the Hino Shrine, not one of the three girls was even pretending to study. It wasn't particularly because of Ami's disciplinary absence, Minako thought, but it was caused by Ami's absence. And Makoto's, for that matter.
"This's been almost twenty minutes, you know?" Minako voiced her concern and bewilderment. Usagi and Rei nodded like bobble-head dolls, in unison. No one particularly wanted to say anything.
A moment more passed with drawn out silence, though it was getting thin. Usagi popped up. "I have to go! I have a date!" She shouted her escape, and darted out the door without as much as a backward glance.
"Lucky." Minako grumbled. "I wish I had a date…"
"You and me both, sister." Rei said, tapping her fingers across the wooden table. The nails, painted a faint shade of red, made a clickety-clickety-clickety sound that matched the rain beat for beat.
"What, Rei-chan the perfect? Lonely?" Minako was almost amazed. Sure, Rei did have a knack for putting up a front of total perfection. If she hadn't been the representative of fire, she could have been called an Ice Queen. Although Ami should have reserved that position, Minako thought, the blue haired girl had never once been near that description.
Rei giggled in spite of herself. "Since when am I perfect?" She asked, pointedly not looking towards the boots in the corner. The boots that belonged to Mako-chan. What, exactly, the shrine maiden wondered, would make Makoto suddenly bolt up and race out the door, forgetting her shoes?
"Ah!" Minako sighed melodramatically, sinking into a fake faint on the cushions. "We are but two lonely maidens! We cannot be perfect! 'The course of true love is never quite as good as you think you can be!'" She hollered the quotation with gusto, like an actress expecting some great award.
"Err... Minako-chan? I think that's 'The course of true love never did run smooth'".
"Oh. Right then."
The silence returned. Both girls tried to busy themselves with their work, but neither had any success. Then the door creaked open.
A very wet and very sheepish looking Makoto stood in the doorway. She was holding an umbrella, and her feet were indeed covered with mud. "I, uh, came to get my shoes. And return your umbrella, Rei… I just grabbed it, sorry." She snatched the shoes as though she was afraid she might be attacked on the spot, and darted back out the door, flinging the still open umbrella out on the porch as she escaped into the rainy night.
The two girls stared after her, and then moved their gazes to look unbelieving at each other.
"Is she going crazy?" Rei asked. "Or am I? That DID just happen, right…?" Minako nodded, disbelieving too.
"She's hiding something, obviously…" the blonde muttered. "Aha! I know it! As the Goddess of Love, I can always tell when these things happen! Mako-chan is in love!" The shout was accompanied by a smack of triumph on the table.
"In love? With who?"
There was another moment of silence in what was becoming a largely silent evening.
"How am I supposed to know?"
The sound of Rei's head hitting the table in irritation punctuated the silence.
A/N: To apologize, this chapter isn't really Ami/Makoto… or really, it doesn't have any Shoujo Ai, or does it? O_O Ok anyhow, there will be more random fluffly romance in the next chapter – Ami and Makoto go on a date. Sort of.
