11. Candlelight
Alicia Blade
1159 words
She walked into the dojo on bare feet, her satin night robe wrapped loosely around her body. The summer air kept the room warm even after midnight and a gentle humming of crickets behind the temple made the night feel exotic and lively.
Rei tapped a candle at the entrance with her fingers, instantly igniting a small, and picked it up. Walking around the room, she lit the tall taper candles that always stood against the walls waiting to cast a warm, flickering glow over the wood floors. As each wick sparked to life, Rei felt more and more comfortable in the large, near-empty room. Ever since she was a child, fire had made her feel welcome and protected—of course, the reason for this became blatantly obvious when, four months ago, she'd become the Sailor Senshi of Mars and Guardian of Fire itself.
When all the candles were lit, she took her flame and sat down beneath the charred embers of the Sacred Fire. She looked into the smoldered coals for a long while, focusing her breathing into a calm mantra, before leaning forward and dropping the candle into the pit. A moment later, a wave of fire grew out of the coals, peacefully at first, then stronger, encouraged by Rei's gentle coaxing. It only took a few minutes for the flame to become a healthy, roaring fire, sending sparks dancing in the night air and filling Rei's senses with the familiar scent and taste of charred wood and stone. She inhaled it lovingly, before closing her eyes and concentrating on the dilemma that had brought her into the dojo in the middle of the night—an odd feeling she hadn't been able to shake for over a week.
It had started when she, Usagi, and Makoto had been out shopping downtown. The day was wearing on and they were each laden with shopping bags and boxes and significantly lighter wallets, when they spotted Mamoru walking toward them on the sidewalk. Usagi immediately bristled—preparing herself for a verbal assault even before Mamoru had noticed them—and Makoto's fingers started twitching, ready to jump in and pull Usagi back the second it looked like the girl was about to make the argument more physical. For her part, Rei felt a tinge of excitement to see the man approaching, though not, perhaps, the giddy excitement of meeting her crush that one would expect. If anything, she'd just taken to enjoying the little squabbles between Mamoru and Usagi. She couldn't put her finger on it, but there was something about seeing the two together that gave Rei a sense of peace—even if was being constantly interrupted by Usagi's wails and Mamoru's sarcastic laughter.
Mamoru did see the trio and it was impossible not to notice a slight quirking of his lips and a glinting of his eyes. He veered off his course to walk straight toward them—or, more specifically, toward Usagi. Wasting no time in jumping to the unspoken challenge, Usagi straightened her back and waited for the man to begin his harassment. "Don't tell me you got a hold of your dad's credit card, Odango Atama," Mamoru began, eyeing the packages that dangled from her arms, and ignoring those carried by Rei and Makoto. "You're surely going to drive your family into debt. I guess it's a good thing no one expects to have to pay your way through college."
"For your information, I am very good at saving my allowance, and this was all from my own pocket, thank you. Besides what's it to you how I spend my money?"
He shrugged. "It's not. I'm just wondering if I should go warn the chocolate manufacturers that they're about to hit drought, what with you on the loose with money to spend."
She rolled her eyes and the banter continued. It was a full five minutes before Rei noticed Makoto tapping her foot and checking her watch. Nodding in agreement, the priestess grabbed Usagi's wrist and started pulling her around Mamoru, ignoring the girl's protests.
"Sorry, Mamoru, but we have to get going. See you later!"
"Bye Mamoru-san," added Makoto.
"Hope to you fall into a ditch, baka!"
Mamoru's laughing could be heard even from half a block away, and Makoto and Rei found themselves walking ahead of Usagi who decided to walk back and sulk moodily rather than join in the continued gossip session.
It wasn't until a few hours later that the event had surfaced in Rei's mind as something slightly out of the ordinary. Something different about Mamoru's insults, something strange about Usagi's insults, something unusual in Usagi's following behavior, but the change was so miniscule that Rei couldn't even pinpoint what was giving her the strange feelings. She'd tried to brush it off completely, besides, what did she care how Mamoru and Usagi's fights went? But when the odd feeling continued to plague her over a week later, and continued to grow every time she saw the two together, she decided to explore the emotion in hopes of discovering just what it was that her psychic senses were picking up on.
That's why she had decided to ask the Sacred Fire about it.
Now, sitting in front of the burning flame, she focused her energy on that one meeting. The fire responded by replaying the scene in crystal clarity, from Mamoru's first approach, through the five-minute-long argument, to Mamoru's laughter as Usagi was dragged unceremoniously away, and still, Rei could see nothing extraordinary, nothing that would lead her to think anything was different about this one confrontation.
She frowned, her brow furrowing even as sweat beaded on her forehead. Certainly she was missing something...?
But then, she gasped, her eyes still glued to the figures depicted in the flames. Blinking, she sat forward, watching, squinting to be sure what she'd seen was real.
As the girls had walked away, Makoto and Rei already forgetting the argument, Usagi lingering behind, the blonde paused, only for a moment, and slowly—almost ashamedly—glance over her shoulder. At the same time, Mamoru, still chuckling and walking in the opposite direction, turned back as well. There was a smile on his face, but it dimmed with surprise to see Usagi looking at him. Gasping, the girl turned away and jogged to catch up with her friends, a blush beginning on her cheeks. Mamoru watched, seemingly frozen in place, until the girls rounded a corner, before looking down and the tiniest grin finding its way back to his lips as he proceeded on his way as well.
Rei sat back on her heels, letting the fire burn down to a slow, steady flame, wondering if what she'd seen in that moment could have been real, if the emotion connecting the gazes of her two friends wasn't just a trick of the fire. Knowing that the energy coursing between the two wasn't very much unlike the energy of love.