Guiding Stars
by Cryptographic DeLurk
.
.
They had walked through half of Azabu Juuban getting here. Minako had gotten off from a half day at work, and Rei had met her there and stood in the bathroom as Minako stuffed her McDonald's uniform into her bag and pulled on stockings, dress, coat. She slathered on too much make-up too hastily, and tied her hair lopsided into her bow.
"Ready!" she had announced brightly.
Rei had raised an eyebrow critically. But she hadn't been able to bring herself to complain. If Minako was even half as eager as she was to be out of here, then she understood.
From there, they had walked through brightly lit streets and shopping plazas to the park. The air was crisp and chilly, and Rei breathed condensation out onto the fur lining of her jacket. It had not snowed yet, and so there was no ice to slip on as her heels clacked against the speckled stone walkways. Minako chattered about how annoying the customers were at work and about how cute the decorations in shop windows were. Now she was guessing the age of the koi in the park's pond.
As Minako relayed the story of Hanako, the world's longest lived koi fish, Rei crossed her arms over her chest, tucked her hands into her sides, and rolled her bottom lip in her teeth. She was being a grump, she knew, and so when Minako called her out on it, it was a surprise only because Minako hadn't done so sooner.
"You're not still angry at me, are you?" Minako harrumphed. "About trying to tell the others we were going man-hunting instead of on a date?"
"That was weeks ago," Rei said.
Minako's cheeks puffed. "And you're still acting like this."
Rei thought about that moment and the argument that followed and the last of her lingering doubts. "I wish you would stop saying things that imply I like men," she admitted.
Minako's lip curled with skepticism. "But you do like men."
"That's not the point!" Rei huffed. "Ugh. Forget it."
They had discussed it before, and if Minako hadn't figured it out by now, it seemed she was unlikely to ever do so.
Rei shoved her hands in the pockets of her jacket and scowled at the ground. She watched Minako's feet. The way her red flats shuffled, hesitating, before – tap, tap, tap – up she walked to Rei and linked their arms together.
Minako walked her further through the park up towards the square where the big Christmas tree was set up, where all the couples were walking and mooning. Rei flipped her thumb back and forth over the edge of the envelope in her pocket.
"Ooh, we need to get some of that~" Minako announced. She let go of Rei's arm and disappeared off in her own direction.
Rei stayed behind and watched the sky, dots of stars you could barely see with so much light pollution on the ground. The star at the top of the Christmas tree shown brighter.
In Catholic school, she had learned about the Star of Bethlehem, and how it set the three Magi out on a journey twelve days long to find their newborn king of heaven on earth. Rei was not sure she believed the story – certainly she didn't feel well inclined towards the exclusivity and monotheism of Catholicism. But it would not have been the first time humans looked to the cosmos for guidance.
Rei tried to mimic that. But she could not find Mars or Venus in the sky tonight. Phobos and Deimos were nesting at the shrine – no bad omens. The lights shined brightly through the park and up the street. The envelope was thick in her pocket.
"Hey, sweetheart, spending Christmas alone?"
Rei turned towards the interruption. The man had a charming grin and a well-tailored jacket, and the only thing wrong about him was the girl at his elbow who squawked in protest and pummelled his forearm with her fist.
"I'm not," Rei answered. "But even if I was, I'd rather spend Christmas alone than with you."
"Now, that's not very nice- Ow!" the man said, as Minako pulled up behind him and rammed the toe of her shoe into his ankle.
"Pickup artists can go die," she hissed. "Leave my friend alone."
"Don't touch him!" the woman on the man's arm hissed at Minako, as the man himself grumbled something about violent girls.
But Minako paid attention to neither. She turned her nose up and shuffled the paper bag she was carrying in the crook of one elbow, before taking Rei by the arm and walking them both away.
She waited until they were a good distance further in the crowd before sulking. "See, I wasn't even wrong about the man-hunting," she said. "I take you anywhere and the men come to you."
"I hardly see how that's my fault," Rei grumbled.
"I–" Minako sighed. She pulled taiyaki from her bag and took a bite directly from the fish pastry's mouth.
She chewed contemplatively, before lifting the fish head up to Rei's face.
"Miss Rei, pwease don't be mad at Miss Minako. She just wants to have a nice Christmas with you. Pwease."
Minako squeezed the pastry, so red bean paste oozed dangerously from the pastry's mouth, trying to spit onto Rei's cheek.
"Stop it, Minako," Rei said.
"I'm not Miss Minako," Minako said, squeezing harder at the pastry. "I'm Miss Sea Bream. I'm a magic fish that can grant three wishes, if you'd just stop being so upset with everyone."
"I'm not upset," Rei said. She spent a moment choking back a laugh. "What other flavours did you get?" she said, eyeing Minako's bag.
"Cheese and sweet potato," Minako answered, and then reapplied her fish voice when Rei bent down to take a bite from the taiyaki in her hand. "Wait! Aagh! Miss Rei! You bit off my face! You monster! You'd bite off the face of a magic fish?! A curse on you!"
Rei shrugged as she chewed. She liked the red bean ones better than cheese and sweet potato.
"Not very dignified of you," Minako said smugly, as she took another bite of the taiyaki herself. "Eating right out of my hand like that… Does this mean you're not mad at me anymore?"
Rei sighed, as they walked the rest of the way up to the tree. "I was never mad at you," she said.
"Really?" Minako said skeptically.
Rei leaned against Minako's shoulder and turned her head down into it.
Really, she should have been mad. Minako was careless and rude and foolish. She made light of things and didn't plan. The bow in her hair was crooked and her make-up was messy and she smelled like grease since she'd come here right after work.
And despite all of it, Rei couldn't think of anywhere she'd rather be tonight. Except maybe one place, because she had an envelope of money in her pocket. And they'd walked through half of Azabu Juuban getting here, and it was only a little further up to the row of love hotels along the western road.
She inhaled against Minako's neck, and really she just wanted more. More. So badly and so eagerly. And if she was upset with anyone about that, it was herself.
Rei didn't know how to say any of that, though, so she said, "You smell like grease."
Minako laughed. She pulled away and walked a couple more steps up to the Christmas tree. She reached for the branches and, completely shamelessly, tore off a section of pine needles.
Before Rei could do more than gape, she'd crushed the pine needles in her hands and wiped them over her neck.
"There," she said. "Now I smell like pine."
"I can't believe you," Rei huffed. She couldn't believe herself. There was a teeming crowd of private school girls and nuns and politicians in Rei's head that would not have hesitated to cry vandal and judge Rei merely for standing so close to this girl. And maybe Rei didn't care about a single one of them. "You do not smell like pine."
"No?" Minako asked. "What do I smell like?"
Rei leaned back against Minako's shoulder. "You smell like my girlfriend," she said. Which, right now, was something like sweat and grease and taiyaki and love and, admittedly, pine.
..