The Contract: Chapter Four
Mixed Emotions at Midnight
Serenity
Wren stared at her window, regretting, for the millionth time, her decision that they return to bed, so when they confronted their problem in the morning, they'd be doing it with a clear mind. She had thought at the time that she was so tired she'd fall asleep instantly, but had within the first fifteen minutes of restless tossing and turning realized her mistake. In the half darkness, every minute seemed to last an hour, and she had long since given up looking at her clock to see how long until morning, the time inevitably depressed her. With nothing to do, not even watch the time pass, she lay on her side, facing the wall–wondering incessantly about the man on her couch. Who was he? What had his parents been like? What were his attitudes toward marriage? What were his attitudes toward politics? Would they get along? The questions swirled endlessly in her mind, and she was so fatigued she couldn't resist their whirlwind, allowed it to pull her up into a dizzy sky. It distracted her from her weariness, and from the nightmare that had become her life.
After what felt like an eternity of listening to her mind produce queries it could not answer, she gave up. Silently, she slipped her robe on again, and left her bedroom in pursuit of a glass of water. As she padded across the living room, making sure to move behind the couch so that she wouldn't disturb her guest, she paused.
Temptation drew her to peer over the edge, temptation to get a good look at him—she hadn't been able to see him properly when they'd been standing in the doorway, and she wanted to know what he really looked like. Besides, she thought as she crept towards the makeshift bed, it's not like it'll hurt anything just to look.
When she reached it, she dropped to her hands and knees, and slowly rose until she could just make out his face.
"What do you think you're doing?"
Wren leaped back from the couch as if it had bitten her, squeaking in surprise. Her breath came in fast, terrified pants; she put a hand to her heart. She couldn't remember ever being so scared in her life.
The form of a man rose up from the couch, in the half light he was so thrown in shadows that she could barely make out his face. His voice, though, was very amused and she figured he must be smiling. "Well. If you wanted to get a good look at me, that wasn't exactly the best way to go about it."
Her breath had returned enough that she could reply in consternation, "Who says I was trying to look at you?"
"What else could you possibly be doing?"
"Um...checking to make sure everything was okay? I couldn't sleep." She added the last bit somewhat defensively.
"Well, whether or not everything was okay then, I'm up now. Truth is," she could hear another smile in his voice, "I couldn't sleep either. Wanna give up on the whole idea, and just talk or something?"
She practically leaped around the couch, landing on it heavily and taking a sitting position next to him. "That would be wonderful."
He chuckled, and she enjoyed the sound, it was rich and deep and good natured. It was lower than his voice, sounding from deep in his throat; it reminded her of her father's laugh. She smiled.
"What should we talk about?" She didn't want to have to be the conversation starter, she hardly knew him, after all.
"How about you?"
She laughed, embarrassed and pleased at the same time. She was embarrassed at saying yes, but she didn't want to say no either–she had a load to get off her chest. Hesitantly, she said, "Okay. I really have no idea what to say, though."
"Why couldn't you sleep?" Through the gloom, she saw his intense gaze, and felt her face flush.
"Well, I guess it's all been so much, lately. First all my friends leave me, off to marry men they don't even know, and they left me all alone, and I've never been alone before. I hate it so much," she felt tears come to her eyes, but now that she finally had someone to talk to, it was impossible to stem the emotions and thoughts that had been pent up in her, "I think I'll go insane. Plus, I'm so worried, these days."
"About what?" He sounded concerned, but not too much so, and Wren was glad, because if she had heard pity in his voice, she would have broken down.
"About everything. What if it doesn't work out with their marriages? What if they're stuck with real monsters? Mako's the only one that's really strong, of all of them, they could be abused, and have no way to stop it, because you know if we annul these marriages, terrible things will happen. And I worry about how they'll take it–I just know Rei will be disagreeable and ruin any chance of happiness she has, and Mina will be confrontational and too pushy, and even though Mako and Ami will try to make the best of it, I just know how it'll fall out–Ami will be too quiet and prudish and she'll never get to know her husband, and Mako will withdraw into herself, and never let her husband get to know her. And then there's me," she felt the tears start to run down her cheeks, and her breath hitched. "I'm scaring myself. I'm never hungry, and I've lost a lot of weight, and my hair falls out all the time, and I'd throw up a lot, only I don't eat, so there's nothing to throw up, and I'm always feeling dizzy or having a head ache and I don't know what's going on with my body–do you have any idea how scary that is?" She was sobbing now, clutching the blanket to her like a lifeline, but at the same time filled with relief that she had finally told someone–now that they were out in the open, her worries would stop plaguing her, she was sure--now that she wasn't alone.
Her listener didn't respond to her question, but when she looked over at him, she could see him looking at her with that same focused gaze. When their eyes met, he murmured, "Come here."
Without thought, she crawled into his arms, and cried herself sick onto his shoulder. All the while, he stroked her back and murmured softly in her ear, "I know what it's like to be afraid, don't worry, I'll find away to fix it," over and over until she had wrung herself dry.
Choking on the last of her sobs, she managed to stutter, "And n-now you think I'm w-weak."
He took both her shoulders in his hands, then, and turned her so that she faced him. "Serenity, look at me. You have shown me no sign of weakness this entire time. Unless you're behavior drastically changes, then there's no way I'd ever consider you weak. Do you hear me?"
She nodded, hiccuping slightly. Falling into his chest again so that she could hug him, she spoke into his chest, "Thank you so much, you've been a wonderful listener, I feel so much better, thank you." She squeezed him tight, trying to explain without words how much it meant to her that she had been able to tell someone everything that had been bothering her, how much it had helped her.
He rubbed her back. "It's okay." She pulled away, and looked him in the eyes again, and saw that his eyes were serious. "Now, let's think of some solutions for these problems, hey? I can't do much for your friends, but I am fresh out of med school, so I can help you with the other problem. What you described sounded like acute stress to me, and the most ideal treatment would be to remove the cause of stress, but since that's impossible, I guess we'll have to settle with reducing the pressure on you. Now" he waggled a finger in her face, "as your doctor, I have an order for you. You must promise me you'll eat exactly what I say to, because your self induced starvation," at the frightened look she sent him he nodded, "yes, that's what it was, starvation, has decimated your stores of essential vitamins, minerals and nutrients, which causes the hair loss, headaches, dizziness etcetera. If I have to spoon feed you I will, but you are going to eat, do you hear me?"
"Yes." She stood up, shaking the blanket off her and smiling, trying to reduce the seriousness of the mood. "On that note, how's about some breakfast? I'll eat if you cook."
He stood up as well, and she thought she heard him grumble, "Now what kind of deal is that?", but she wasn't sure.
Beaming now, the heaviness of the night lifted from her, she turned to the window, looking forward the sun, and was disappointed to see an overcast sky.
The night was over, but she could not see the dawn.
Minako
Mina woke more relaxed than she'd ever been in her life. This was, of course, until she remembered that she had been passed out in a strange man's house for the past–she checked her watch–six hours and that it was midnight. She was in the process of putting her shoes back on so she could get the hell out of there when she heard two voices from the room just outside, one very masculine and the other definitely female. What was worse, the woman was giggling and the man was speaking in low tones, between long bouts of noises that Mina took to signify kissing. She understood nothing but a sentence of the man's that made her heart freeze, "Let's go to the spare bedroom, it's closer."
Panicked, she glanced hurriedly about, all the while her mind furiously calculating all possibilities. Was it safe to assume that this wasn't the spare bedroom? No, she shook her head, that was inviting disaster. She heard footsteps outside the door, and came to a hasty conclusion of the easiest way to buy herself some time.
She lay back, pulled the blanket over her, and faked sleep.
The door opened. Mina could tell because of the cool rush of air into the room, it disturbed some of the hairs on her head. Then a thump and a moan, she didn't even want to think about what was going on, and some of those disturbing noises you heard in trashy romantic films just when the couple gets together. She heard fabric rustle and fall to the floor, and then the man said, "Let's get to the bed."
Mina glared inwardly at the possessor of that voice, he was developing a habit of saying things that made her life entirely more difficult.
There were more footsteps and noises that told her they didn't consider maneuvering about the room important enough to stop making out, she hoped desperately they didn't sit on her, and then came a shriek.
It appeared she'd been discovered.
Deciding the volume of that noise was enough to disturb and person that was really asleep, she moaned and shifted around, grumbling "Mom, give me five more minutes."
She was not given five more minutes. She was given a voice that was far to similar to the shriek yelling practically in her ear "Kunzite, I demand to know who this is!"
Blinking and sitting up in what she hoped was a good impersonation of a sleeper who had really been disturbed, she looked around blankly until she saw the man, then smiled. He had said all those inconvenient things. He deserved punishment. Smiling at the cleverness of her conniving little mind, she purred, "Kunzite, darling, your home?"
He blanched. Mina resisted the urge to cackle. Then that screechy voice again. "Kunzite DARLING? Since when were you Kunzite DARLING? You don't even like it when I call you darling!" Mina found herself particularly unwilling to look at it's owner, so she focused on the great lump of a man standing in front of her. He was tall, and hugely built, with broad shoulders and large hands, but he still managed to be thin. She glanced over his clothes, apparently the clothing that had been lost had not belonged to him, and found him well dressed. His hair was an odd shade of blonde, almost like Wren's, and it shone silver in the poor light. It was long, to, but decidedly sexy. She smiled and forgot to suppress it.
That action she instantly regretted, as it made that woman yell again. "What are you smiling at? Checking him out, seeing if he'll be a good lay? No," Mina felt the stranger's anger shift over to Kunzite, and was glad she didn't have to deal with it anymore, "she'd already know that, wouldn't she? As she's probably been you're WHORE for the past three MONTHS!"
Mina found herself becoming more and more annoyed with the speaker. Glaring, she turned to face her, and was pleased to see a woman with no natural beauty, but a whole lot of make-up and a full chest. "Excuse me, whoever you are, but it would be kind of hard for me to be his whore as I'm already his wife."
The woman backed up, stuttering. "H-h-his w-w-w-wife?"
Mina nodded. "Yes. His wife. Now, believe me, my husband and I are going to have a serious discussion about this whole thing as soon as you're gone, but we can't do that until you leave, so" her voice dropped, unlike the woman, she preferred a more subtle intimidation tactic, "get out of my apartment."
Her ears were spared any more of that terrible, high pitched voice. The woman turned on her heel and left, picking up her shirt on her way out. After listening intently for the slam of the front door, she turned to face the man, who was staring at her awkwardly.
Noticing her gaze, his hands shifted, as if he wanted to tug at his collar, but had more self control. "Well, I suppose you must be Minako."
"Pleased to meet you." She tried to sound chipper, but it was extraordinarily difficult when she found her husband of several hours already entrenched in an affair. Somehow, being always hailed as one of the most beautiful women anyone had ever met, she hadn't thought that would be a problem she'd deal with in her marriage.
He seemed to decide ignoring the problem was a good way to deal with it. "I see you've found your bedroom."
She raised her eyebrows. "I see yours is already occupied."
"About that–"
She rolled her eyes now, and gestured to the door. "Leave, I need more sleep." When he didn't move, she idly started removing her shoes. When she looked up and he was still there, she decided her message needed to be enforced. "Look, I've found you having an affair hours into our marriage, so there's nothing you can say to me that will feasibly get you out of my doghouse. And I have absolutely nothing to say to you."
That brought him round. He left, and she collapsed, exhausted from what had just transpired and the strain she foresaw in her future.
It was way too much to think about, so she gave up thinking all together.
Rei
When they got up to the room, Jaedite opened the door, and Rei walked in, her nerves still humming pleasantly from his caresses at dinner and the alcohol, enough that so when he started kissing her, she didn't mind, and when he pressed her up against the wall it felt good enough for her to respond to him eagerly. He was a proficient kisser, she thought blearily, arching into him, as he continued his violent attack on her mouth. His hand tightened about her waist at her response, drawing her into him, and he made a noise low in his throat. She laughed against his mouth, and he abruptly withdrew it, using it instead to suck and nibble on her neck. She enjoyed that feeling immensely, and closed her eyes to let it seep into her. The pleasurable, giddy feeling remained until he maneuvered her to the couch; then, suddenly, everything focused in her mind, every image became sharp, and her perception was acute.
Though the man she was with would only ever remember that night as a hot, sweaty affair on the couch, and later the bed, of the honeymoon suit, it would exist in Rei's mind with perfect clarity until the day she died. The sensations would remain with her into old age; the feeling of one of his hands slipping the zipper of her dress down, and both his hands against her shoulders as he slid the thing off her, the cool texture of the couch beneath her as he placed her onto it, the way her hands felt around his buttons, undoing them one by one, and taking his shirt off. She would know always the smoothness of his skin under her fingers as she ran her hands over his back, and the shock of his body against hers when they returned to passionate kissing. She could retrace perfectly the path of one of her hands that twisted itself in his hair, and the silky feeling that made her dizzy. She knew always precisely how long it had taken before kissing was no longer enough, and she undid the zipper of his pants. She could recall exactly the lightness in her body when he swung her up into his arms, how she maneuvered that they could kiss even as he carried her to the bed. She would recollect, when she was old and her skin wrinkled, how the mattress was soft and giving beneath her as he lay her down on it, in sharp contrast to the hard heat of his muscles as he straddled her, and the desire running hot along her veins as she felt his legs across her hips. She would remember knowing that soon, all this would be over, and in an attempt to prolong her current ecstasy, she rolled him over, and placed warm little kisses along his chest. And then, in a quick movement, she was on the bottom again, and he was in her, pushing her closer and closer to infinity.
And then when it was ended, and he was sleeping beside her, she would create what would be her most poignant memory of that consummation. She lay awake for hours, aware of his breathing and his fingers running across her even in sleep, and she would know that she had given herself to a man that had removed her from what she loved most, and a terrible guilt rose up in her, and she cried the first tears she would spill over him; they ran hot down her face, until she collapsed into her dreams.
End
A/N. Well. Another one done. One thing you can't say about me is I'm not bored, or at a complete loss as to what to do with my time. That's exactly how I manage to make so many posts. Um...funny thing about this chapter, the timeline is sorta backwards. Rei's little tryst with Jadeite occurred first, then Mina's thing-a-mi-gig with Kunzite and his lover, then Wren and Mamo-chan's little get together. As to those things, I thought I wrote the R/J thing with very little prologue, but anything I put in front of that first sentence seemed all wrong, even though I felt my readers need a bit more of the dinner flirtation that was alluded to. Suffice it to say they both got drunk and he groped her. I like the ending of it, angsty, which, I feel, is how R/J always end up, they're too volatile to be different. As to Mina and Kunz, I surprise myself at putting him in an affair, but I sorta like it. It's definitely not changing. Also, I don't like the perception of Mina as a dumb, fluffy blonde, which rarely occurs in these gens/senshi things, but I resent when it pops elsewhere. So I tried to give her depth, and their relationship a different dimension. As for the S/M, I couldn't resist some fluff. I like the way it ended up, though that's about as much fluff as I can stand in one chapter.
Yeah. So. Revised it. Woop woop.
DF
Mixed Emotions at Midnight
Serenity
Wren stared at her window, regretting, for the millionth time, her decision that they return to bed, so when they confronted their problem in the morning, they'd be doing it with a clear mind. She had thought at the time that she was so tired she'd fall asleep instantly, but had within the first fifteen minutes of restless tossing and turning realized her mistake. In the half darkness, every minute seemed to last an hour, and she had long since given up looking at her clock to see how long until morning, the time inevitably depressed her. With nothing to do, not even watch the time pass, she lay on her side, facing the wall–wondering incessantly about the man on her couch. Who was he? What had his parents been like? What were his attitudes toward marriage? What were his attitudes toward politics? Would they get along? The questions swirled endlessly in her mind, and she was so fatigued she couldn't resist their whirlwind, allowed it to pull her up into a dizzy sky. It distracted her from her weariness, and from the nightmare that had become her life.
After what felt like an eternity of listening to her mind produce queries it could not answer, she gave up. Silently, she slipped her robe on again, and left her bedroom in pursuit of a glass of water. As she padded across the living room, making sure to move behind the couch so that she wouldn't disturb her guest, she paused.
Temptation drew her to peer over the edge, temptation to get a good look at him—she hadn't been able to see him properly when they'd been standing in the doorway, and she wanted to know what he really looked like. Besides, she thought as she crept towards the makeshift bed, it's not like it'll hurt anything just to look.
When she reached it, she dropped to her hands and knees, and slowly rose until she could just make out his face.
"What do you think you're doing?"
Wren leaped back from the couch as if it had bitten her, squeaking in surprise. Her breath came in fast, terrified pants; she put a hand to her heart. She couldn't remember ever being so scared in her life.
The form of a man rose up from the couch, in the half light he was so thrown in shadows that she could barely make out his face. His voice, though, was very amused and she figured he must be smiling. "Well. If you wanted to get a good look at me, that wasn't exactly the best way to go about it."
Her breath had returned enough that she could reply in consternation, "Who says I was trying to look at you?"
"What else could you possibly be doing?"
"Um...checking to make sure everything was okay? I couldn't sleep." She added the last bit somewhat defensively.
"Well, whether or not everything was okay then, I'm up now. Truth is," she could hear another smile in his voice, "I couldn't sleep either. Wanna give up on the whole idea, and just talk or something?"
She practically leaped around the couch, landing on it heavily and taking a sitting position next to him. "That would be wonderful."
He chuckled, and she enjoyed the sound, it was rich and deep and good natured. It was lower than his voice, sounding from deep in his throat; it reminded her of her father's laugh. She smiled.
"What should we talk about?" She didn't want to have to be the conversation starter, she hardly knew him, after all.
"How about you?"
She laughed, embarrassed and pleased at the same time. She was embarrassed at saying yes, but she didn't want to say no either–she had a load to get off her chest. Hesitantly, she said, "Okay. I really have no idea what to say, though."
"Why couldn't you sleep?" Through the gloom, she saw his intense gaze, and felt her face flush.
"Well, I guess it's all been so much, lately. First all my friends leave me, off to marry men they don't even know, and they left me all alone, and I've never been alone before. I hate it so much," she felt tears come to her eyes, but now that she finally had someone to talk to, it was impossible to stem the emotions and thoughts that had been pent up in her, "I think I'll go insane. Plus, I'm so worried, these days."
"About what?" He sounded concerned, but not too much so, and Wren was glad, because if she had heard pity in his voice, she would have broken down.
"About everything. What if it doesn't work out with their marriages? What if they're stuck with real monsters? Mako's the only one that's really strong, of all of them, they could be abused, and have no way to stop it, because you know if we annul these marriages, terrible things will happen. And I worry about how they'll take it–I just know Rei will be disagreeable and ruin any chance of happiness she has, and Mina will be confrontational and too pushy, and even though Mako and Ami will try to make the best of it, I just know how it'll fall out–Ami will be too quiet and prudish and she'll never get to know her husband, and Mako will withdraw into herself, and never let her husband get to know her. And then there's me," she felt the tears start to run down her cheeks, and her breath hitched. "I'm scaring myself. I'm never hungry, and I've lost a lot of weight, and my hair falls out all the time, and I'd throw up a lot, only I don't eat, so there's nothing to throw up, and I'm always feeling dizzy or having a head ache and I don't know what's going on with my body–do you have any idea how scary that is?" She was sobbing now, clutching the blanket to her like a lifeline, but at the same time filled with relief that she had finally told someone–now that they were out in the open, her worries would stop plaguing her, she was sure--now that she wasn't alone.
Her listener didn't respond to her question, but when she looked over at him, she could see him looking at her with that same focused gaze. When their eyes met, he murmured, "Come here."
Without thought, she crawled into his arms, and cried herself sick onto his shoulder. All the while, he stroked her back and murmured softly in her ear, "I know what it's like to be afraid, don't worry, I'll find away to fix it," over and over until she had wrung herself dry.
Choking on the last of her sobs, she managed to stutter, "And n-now you think I'm w-weak."
He took both her shoulders in his hands, then, and turned her so that she faced him. "Serenity, look at me. You have shown me no sign of weakness this entire time. Unless you're behavior drastically changes, then there's no way I'd ever consider you weak. Do you hear me?"
She nodded, hiccuping slightly. Falling into his chest again so that she could hug him, she spoke into his chest, "Thank you so much, you've been a wonderful listener, I feel so much better, thank you." She squeezed him tight, trying to explain without words how much it meant to her that she had been able to tell someone everything that had been bothering her, how much it had helped her.
He rubbed her back. "It's okay." She pulled away, and looked him in the eyes again, and saw that his eyes were serious. "Now, let's think of some solutions for these problems, hey? I can't do much for your friends, but I am fresh out of med school, so I can help you with the other problem. What you described sounded like acute stress to me, and the most ideal treatment would be to remove the cause of stress, but since that's impossible, I guess we'll have to settle with reducing the pressure on you. Now" he waggled a finger in her face, "as your doctor, I have an order for you. You must promise me you'll eat exactly what I say to, because your self induced starvation," at the frightened look she sent him he nodded, "yes, that's what it was, starvation, has decimated your stores of essential vitamins, minerals and nutrients, which causes the hair loss, headaches, dizziness etcetera. If I have to spoon feed you I will, but you are going to eat, do you hear me?"
"Yes." She stood up, shaking the blanket off her and smiling, trying to reduce the seriousness of the mood. "On that note, how's about some breakfast? I'll eat if you cook."
He stood up as well, and she thought she heard him grumble, "Now what kind of deal is that?", but she wasn't sure.
Beaming now, the heaviness of the night lifted from her, she turned to the window, looking forward the sun, and was disappointed to see an overcast sky.
The night was over, but she could not see the dawn.
Minako
Mina woke more relaxed than she'd ever been in her life. This was, of course, until she remembered that she had been passed out in a strange man's house for the past–she checked her watch–six hours and that it was midnight. She was in the process of putting her shoes back on so she could get the hell out of there when she heard two voices from the room just outside, one very masculine and the other definitely female. What was worse, the woman was giggling and the man was speaking in low tones, between long bouts of noises that Mina took to signify kissing. She understood nothing but a sentence of the man's that made her heart freeze, "Let's go to the spare bedroom, it's closer."
Panicked, she glanced hurriedly about, all the while her mind furiously calculating all possibilities. Was it safe to assume that this wasn't the spare bedroom? No, she shook her head, that was inviting disaster. She heard footsteps outside the door, and came to a hasty conclusion of the easiest way to buy herself some time.
She lay back, pulled the blanket over her, and faked sleep.
The door opened. Mina could tell because of the cool rush of air into the room, it disturbed some of the hairs on her head. Then a thump and a moan, she didn't even want to think about what was going on, and some of those disturbing noises you heard in trashy romantic films just when the couple gets together. She heard fabric rustle and fall to the floor, and then the man said, "Let's get to the bed."
Mina glared inwardly at the possessor of that voice, he was developing a habit of saying things that made her life entirely more difficult.
There were more footsteps and noises that told her they didn't consider maneuvering about the room important enough to stop making out, she hoped desperately they didn't sit on her, and then came a shriek.
It appeared she'd been discovered.
Deciding the volume of that noise was enough to disturb and person that was really asleep, she moaned and shifted around, grumbling "Mom, give me five more minutes."
She was not given five more minutes. She was given a voice that was far to similar to the shriek yelling practically in her ear "Kunzite, I demand to know who this is!"
Blinking and sitting up in what she hoped was a good impersonation of a sleeper who had really been disturbed, she looked around blankly until she saw the man, then smiled. He had said all those inconvenient things. He deserved punishment. Smiling at the cleverness of her conniving little mind, she purred, "Kunzite, darling, your home?"
He blanched. Mina resisted the urge to cackle. Then that screechy voice again. "Kunzite DARLING? Since when were you Kunzite DARLING? You don't even like it when I call you darling!" Mina found herself particularly unwilling to look at it's owner, so she focused on the great lump of a man standing in front of her. He was tall, and hugely built, with broad shoulders and large hands, but he still managed to be thin. She glanced over his clothes, apparently the clothing that had been lost had not belonged to him, and found him well dressed. His hair was an odd shade of blonde, almost like Wren's, and it shone silver in the poor light. It was long, to, but decidedly sexy. She smiled and forgot to suppress it.
That action she instantly regretted, as it made that woman yell again. "What are you smiling at? Checking him out, seeing if he'll be a good lay? No," Mina felt the stranger's anger shift over to Kunzite, and was glad she didn't have to deal with it anymore, "she'd already know that, wouldn't she? As she's probably been you're WHORE for the past three MONTHS!"
Mina found herself becoming more and more annoyed with the speaker. Glaring, she turned to face her, and was pleased to see a woman with no natural beauty, but a whole lot of make-up and a full chest. "Excuse me, whoever you are, but it would be kind of hard for me to be his whore as I'm already his wife."
The woman backed up, stuttering. "H-h-his w-w-w-wife?"
Mina nodded. "Yes. His wife. Now, believe me, my husband and I are going to have a serious discussion about this whole thing as soon as you're gone, but we can't do that until you leave, so" her voice dropped, unlike the woman, she preferred a more subtle intimidation tactic, "get out of my apartment."
Her ears were spared any more of that terrible, high pitched voice. The woman turned on her heel and left, picking up her shirt on her way out. After listening intently for the slam of the front door, she turned to face the man, who was staring at her awkwardly.
Noticing her gaze, his hands shifted, as if he wanted to tug at his collar, but had more self control. "Well, I suppose you must be Minako."
"Pleased to meet you." She tried to sound chipper, but it was extraordinarily difficult when she found her husband of several hours already entrenched in an affair. Somehow, being always hailed as one of the most beautiful women anyone had ever met, she hadn't thought that would be a problem she'd deal with in her marriage.
He seemed to decide ignoring the problem was a good way to deal with it. "I see you've found your bedroom."
She raised her eyebrows. "I see yours is already occupied."
"About that–"
She rolled her eyes now, and gestured to the door. "Leave, I need more sleep." When he didn't move, she idly started removing her shoes. When she looked up and he was still there, she decided her message needed to be enforced. "Look, I've found you having an affair hours into our marriage, so there's nothing you can say to me that will feasibly get you out of my doghouse. And I have absolutely nothing to say to you."
That brought him round. He left, and she collapsed, exhausted from what had just transpired and the strain she foresaw in her future.
It was way too much to think about, so she gave up thinking all together.
Rei
When they got up to the room, Jaedite opened the door, and Rei walked in, her nerves still humming pleasantly from his caresses at dinner and the alcohol, enough that so when he started kissing her, she didn't mind, and when he pressed her up against the wall it felt good enough for her to respond to him eagerly. He was a proficient kisser, she thought blearily, arching into him, as he continued his violent attack on her mouth. His hand tightened about her waist at her response, drawing her into him, and he made a noise low in his throat. She laughed against his mouth, and he abruptly withdrew it, using it instead to suck and nibble on her neck. She enjoyed that feeling immensely, and closed her eyes to let it seep into her. The pleasurable, giddy feeling remained until he maneuvered her to the couch; then, suddenly, everything focused in her mind, every image became sharp, and her perception was acute.
Though the man she was with would only ever remember that night as a hot, sweaty affair on the couch, and later the bed, of the honeymoon suit, it would exist in Rei's mind with perfect clarity until the day she died. The sensations would remain with her into old age; the feeling of one of his hands slipping the zipper of her dress down, and both his hands against her shoulders as he slid the thing off her, the cool texture of the couch beneath her as he placed her onto it, the way her hands felt around his buttons, undoing them one by one, and taking his shirt off. She would know always the smoothness of his skin under her fingers as she ran her hands over his back, and the shock of his body against hers when they returned to passionate kissing. She could retrace perfectly the path of one of her hands that twisted itself in his hair, and the silky feeling that made her dizzy. She knew always precisely how long it had taken before kissing was no longer enough, and she undid the zipper of his pants. She could recall exactly the lightness in her body when he swung her up into his arms, how she maneuvered that they could kiss even as he carried her to the bed. She would recollect, when she was old and her skin wrinkled, how the mattress was soft and giving beneath her as he lay her down on it, in sharp contrast to the hard heat of his muscles as he straddled her, and the desire running hot along her veins as she felt his legs across her hips. She would remember knowing that soon, all this would be over, and in an attempt to prolong her current ecstasy, she rolled him over, and placed warm little kisses along his chest. And then, in a quick movement, she was on the bottom again, and he was in her, pushing her closer and closer to infinity.
And then when it was ended, and he was sleeping beside her, she would create what would be her most poignant memory of that consummation. She lay awake for hours, aware of his breathing and his fingers running across her even in sleep, and she would know that she had given herself to a man that had removed her from what she loved most, and a terrible guilt rose up in her, and she cried the first tears she would spill over him; they ran hot down her face, until she collapsed into her dreams.
End
A/N. Well. Another one done. One thing you can't say about me is I'm not bored, or at a complete loss as to what to do with my time. That's exactly how I manage to make so many posts. Um...funny thing about this chapter, the timeline is sorta backwards. Rei's little tryst with Jadeite occurred first, then Mina's thing-a-mi-gig with Kunzite and his lover, then Wren and Mamo-chan's little get together. As to those things, I thought I wrote the R/J thing with very little prologue, but anything I put in front of that first sentence seemed all wrong, even though I felt my readers need a bit more of the dinner flirtation that was alluded to. Suffice it to say they both got drunk and he groped her. I like the ending of it, angsty, which, I feel, is how R/J always end up, they're too volatile to be different. As to Mina and Kunz, I surprise myself at putting him in an affair, but I sorta like it. It's definitely not changing. Also, I don't like the perception of Mina as a dumb, fluffy blonde, which rarely occurs in these gens/senshi things, but I resent when it pops elsewhere. So I tried to give her depth, and their relationship a different dimension. As for the S/M, I couldn't resist some fluff. I like the way it ended up, though that's about as much fluff as I can stand in one chapter.
Yeah. So. Revised it. Woop woop.
DF