Some amount of weeks passed before anything else happened. Usagi nearly fainted when Rei gave her the autographed CD, and had almost thrown the CD case at the miko upon realizing that she must have met and had a conversation with the superstar Aino Minako ("AND YOU DIDN'T EVEN TELL ME!"). They all knew that she had met Minako, but they did not know the extent to which they had spoken.

Night after night, Rei lay in her bed, staring at the ceiling, trying to ignore the poster on her wall but not having it in her to take it down. She ran over their time together over and over. "She dreamt about me. She kissed me. Does she think about me?" she would wonder. "Does she remember me? Did she really dream about me? Does she still? Was that even real?"

But most of all, her question was: "Will I ever see her again?"

And then, one slow, partly cloudy afternoon, she did. Rei was sweeping the path, moving gracefully with a practiced ease in her stuffy miko's robes. The breeze brought the scent of a visitor, and looking up, she had seen the unmistakable form of Aino Minako climbing the stairs. When she noticed that Rei had seen her, she raised a hand and waved, smiling brightly. "Hi!" she called, quickening her gait to reach her new friend sooner. She jogged up to Rei, and very, very briefly captured her in a hug. But she pulled away before Rei could even blush. "How are you?" asked the singer, looking the other girl up and down, taking note of the robes.

"I should be asking you the same thing. How are you feeling? How did that concert go?"

But the singer waved away both of her questions as if they were nothing. "Child's play," she articulated. "In any case, I'm here to volunteer! Let's fit me for some of those sexy robes." She laughed and grabbed Rei's hand, leading her to the building. "C'mon, you get your own apprentice and it's Aino Minako!"

"What more can a miko ask for?" joked Rei, allowing herself to be led inside. "Okay, I'll fit you, but the robes won't be ready for a week or two."

"Shipping?"

"No, I make them." She stepped over to a full-length mirror in the hall. "Come here." She made Minako stand in front of the mirror, and then went to a drawer in the hall to retrieve paper, a pencil, and a tape measure. Thus began some of the most difficult three minutes in her life.

First she knelt down and measured the length of Minako's legs, one by one, carefully recording the measurements. She kept her eyes down, not trusting herself to look up at Minako or see if she was looking at her. It occurred to her this is probably just routine for Minako--attractive men, or even attractive women probably fit her all the time. This probably wasn't even an issue for her.

Slowly, she moved up a bit and measured her waist, which was amazing and skinny and made Rei blush. It took a lot of willpower not to lay her head against that flat, firm stomach concealed just behind the t-shirt. But she wrote down the measurement and stood, and with shaking hands, moved to wrap her arms around the singer to measure her bust.

But Minako reached out a hand, taking Rei's hand in hers, and then with the other she brushed the bangs away from the miko's eyes. When Rei shyly met her gaze, she could see a smile lingering in those beautiful eyes. The singer leaned forward and placed a soft, slow kiss on Rei's lips. The tape measure dropped to the ground. When she pulled away, Rei was close to tears. "Minako, why are you doing this?" pleaded Rei in a quiet voice.

"Because I like you, Rei." With that, she kissed her again, and this time it was fully returned.

They had almost made it to the bed when Rei finally gave in and lifted off the singer's shirt. As they passed by the poster of Aino Minako on the wall, Rei reached up and tore it down. Minako made a little noise in approval, although that could have been because of where Rei was now putting her hands.

An hour and a half later, the two girls lay exhausted in Rei's bed, the singer spooned up against the miko's side. Suddenly, Rei smiled and chuckled. "What?" drawled Minako.

"I barely know you," she pointed out, still chuckling, "and here we are."

Sitting up on her elbow and putting her head in her hand, Minako said, "I thought you read about me a lot, hmm? You should be an expert in me." She reached out and laced her fingers in Rei's hair. "What do you want to know? Ask me anything."

Pondering this for a second, Rei finally asked, "Okay, what about your parents? Why don't I hear about them at all?"

Minako shrugged. "Well, let's see. I was born in Tokyo, right in this area, but my dad had us move to England when I was seven for a business thing. That's where I started singing and dancing. Ballet, jazz, tap, you name it, I danced it. I also spent a lot of time with random people in karaoke clubs. It was easy to get in--I was a cute, young Japanese girl with a voice even cuter than my face. So when I was singing there one day, a talent executive heard me and immediately wanted me to go back to Japan and sign with him." She snorted slightly. "Of course my dad hated that, but my mom was supportive. So I fought him, and with my mom's help, I got emancipated. Now I live on my own, except for my cat, Artemis." She crinkled her nose cutely. "When I say it like that, it sounds almost irrational, like it was easy for me. But it wasn't. I gave up everything for my career."

"Do you regret it?"

"Never. Not once." She looked down at the girl beneath her, grinning again. "Especially not when I meet people like you."

"Oh, please. I saw that one coming a mile away."

But she kissed her warmly all the same.

When they broke apart, Rei joked, "So, do the tabloids know you're a lesbian?"

"Nope. Do your friends know?"

"Nope."

There was a heavy pause. Minako went back to twiddling Rei's hair, and Rei found herself lightly tickling Minako's arm. "What do you want out of me, Rei?" asked Minako finally. She seemed torn about something. "Is this what you wanted? Now that we've slept together are you going to stop wanting to see me? Did you mean it, what you said to me in the hospital? Do you really want to get to know me? Or should I just go?"

Rei smiled up at her, brushing her hair back behind her ear, then pulling her into a hug. "Don't leave, Minako. I want to see you every day." She lowered her voice, letting her words wash out in a comforting whisper. "I like you, too, Minako."

The singer sighed deeply into Rei's soft shoulder. "Thank goodness."


Author's Notes:

This was a comparatively difficult chapter for me to write. I'm not entirely satisfied with the results, so maybe one day I'll get off my lazy ass and re-write it. But for now... Enjoy the fluff!

The Kaptain of Sarcasm