Bishoujo Fall Hardest: The Gig Chapter 6: Things I Never Said, a sailor moon fanfic

Howdi doodie. Felt you got a little short-changed last time, so here's another chapter, designed purely for Minako's embarrassment.

Minako: "Hey!"

Rei: "PLEASE, you love it."

Minako: "So? THEY don't need to know that…"

Rei: "You probably figured this out anyway, but for the record, she's the bitch in this relationship."

Minako: "Hey! I'm no-one's bitch!"

Rei: "No, I'm sorry, you're right."

Minako: (Looks pleased with herself.)

Rei: "You don't get subservient until I bring out the whi-"

Minako: "OKAY, let's continue the story!"

Rei: "Also, Takako does not own Sailor Moon… but I own Minako."

Minako: "Oh, that's it!"

--Scuffling is heard--

I don't own "A Little Pain" by JPop artist, Olivia, either (and from the not rhyming, you can safely assume the lyrics are translated from Japanese).

--Turns back to them-- Guys, please don't do that on my couch…

Bishoujo Fall Hardest: The Gig

Chapter Six: Things I Never Said

Rei awoke on concrete. She stared at nothing in particular, but despite being so outwardly detached, something… something had switched back on inside her mind, and her heart began to pump desperately as she relived it…

---

The wedding had ended, and Rei walked into the foyer in her bridesmaid's dress to answer the phone. There were chips around the cord from before. She had been home for a while now, evident by the black sky, but taking off the garment would be to dismiss the day's events – moreover, it would force her to return to her melancholy reality. Now she was alone.

"Hello?"

"Rei?"

The static made the voice tinny, but the miko still knew who it was.

"Meatball Head? What's going on, I thought you'd be on the plane by now?"

"The flight got delayed."

"Oh."

A pause. "Listen…" She sounded nervous. "There's a lot of paparazzi around, and a lot of it…"

A deep breath.

"Sweetie, a lot of it suggests that Mina's catching a flight here, too."

Rei was silent. Usa tried to compensate with empty cheer. "Quite a coincidence, huh?"

Still no response.

"I just thought you might want to know."

There was a scuffling sound in the background, and a deep voice signalled Mamoru's presence close by.

"Oh, uh, I gotta go. It looks like we're boarding." The blonde hesitated on the other end of the receiver.

"Bye, Rei-chan."

Rei stood with the phone poised next to her ear. Even after the click, she listened absentmindedly to the monotone as she tried to withstand her torrent of emotion. She knew what Usagi had meant –

Whatever you need to do, you should do it now.

Tears slid down her cheeks, and suddenly the phone was once again off its hook on the floor, and the miko herself in a taxi.

"Osaka airport, please."

---

"Cheapest flight you got."

The baggage attendant raised an eyebrow.

Rei clarified by gesturing to her sides. "No baggage."

After the slow pass through security, she broke free from single-file and jogged until she hit a crowd. Frustration overloaded her first, before she tuned in to what they were saying. Jackpot.

She wouldn't even have to ask. The excited whispering of teenaged girls told her everything.

"Did you see Aino Minako? She's going to New York! Wow, she's even prettier in person!"

Rei even managed a small smile as she struggled through the crowd in a blur.

Yes, I know.

The crowd dispersed a little. She noticed the flight detail boards; ran a clear stretch towards them.

I remember.

She skidded to a halt and skimmed over them, eyes flicking desperately through the flight numbers. With no luck, she felt her heart sink and went to an attendant.

"Excuse me, what happened to the New York flight?"

The woman, tall and angular, smiled sweetly at Rei. "The OSAKA-11 just finished boarding, so it should take off any minute now.

"What? No, I-"

Rei remembered little of the journey down to here. A quick architectural calculation, a few staff-only entry signs and then…

"I need to get on that flight!"

"Well, I'm sorry ma'am, but I'm afraid you're too late."

"But..."

The frustrating conversation with such brick wall authority had fuelled the hothead to spite it, and so now she sprinted, sides aching, to the end of the runway where a plane was turning in – Mina's plane. The words came out in panting breaths as she struggled for air.

"Wait! No! Mina! Mina, you can't!"

The scream of the engine overpowered her, terrified her as it came rumbling towards her. And suddenly, Hino Rei thought that that was it.

"Mina…"

Closer, ever closer. She tried to say three words. Three small, redeeming last words to her best friend.

"I…"

---

"I…" Rei lifted her head off the ground and began to acknowledge her existence.

"I'm alive."

She pushed herself up on her hands, crawled to her feet. Slowly, she began the long walk home. It felt right. It was cleansing. Liberating.

Four hours later, she arrived at the foot of the shrine steps. A smile tugged at the corners of her mouth, until finally she found herself grinning – actually grinning; the first time in too long. She stared up at the steep climb and released an exhilarated shriek to the echoing landscape, followed by laughter; so much laughter.

She was free.

It was only when she turned back around that she noticed a familiar green pick-up parked on the curb...

---

"Oh my God, did it hurt?"

"If this ends with 'when you fell from heaven' I will literally send the cool police to arrest you."

"You shouldn't - they're still looking for you. No, I meant when you're limb fell off. Only that's the sole explanation I can find for you to hit a decibel like that."

"Cute. Very cute."

Rei's eyebrows raised coolly. "So?"

Clearly this prompt was some kind of open-sesame word, because suddenly the verbal floodgates opened.

"The stupid acoustics are abnormal! And I can't sing and try different amp settings at the same time, because – oh yeah! – I'm not SUPERHUMAN!"

Minako suddenly realised the look that Rei was giving her.

"Okay, so maybe I'm a little superhuman," she hissed out of earshot of the crew, "but I'm not THAT good."

She pouted at Rei, who resisted the urge to either melt or laugh, and continued. "So I keep recording myself and playing it back and it's taking forever! I can't practice for the full stadium if I can't get this stuff right!"

Her manager smiled a rare smile. "Okay then, how about I go up and sing for you so you can work through the technical stuff?"

The blue eyes brightened so much that Rei's watered from the visual impact.

"Really? You'd do that?"

"Of course! It's my rep too, you know."

She breezed past the blonde, calling back, "Any particular song of yours you want me to sing?"

"No. Just sing your favourite," Minako responded as she positioned herself at the back of the hall with the sound switchboard.

How she would regret it.

Rei sifted through the CD's and came to a backing track as Minako watched attentively from the back of the hall. It started to play, and Rei walked to the centre of the stage and waited for her cue. The minute the intro began, however, the idol's face fell and began to turn an unbecoming shade of crimson, as she remembered the origins of that song…

---

Minako lay down on her bed in a hotel suite – her first time alone in a place like this.

She flopped down onto the bed – a king-sized four-poster with a white duvet she lived in fear of spilling something on – and sighed to herself. Only a few hours ago she had been saying goodbye to all of her friends – and one in particular was difficult to leave behind.

She felt tears begin to come, brought on by a tugging sensation in her heart - the taught wire tying her to her home – but right here, right now, was her future. And, she resolved, if there was anyone she had to let go of to find some solace in this new life, it was that girl. She would be the figurehead of a past marred by lost youth, responsibility overload and teen angst.

In one quick movement she picked up a pad of paper and a biro and tapped restlessly at the top line. Finally, she wrote, "A Little Pain". Underscore. Idiosyncratic but grammatically incorrect full stop. Miss a line, and begin…

---

"Travel to the moon, you're asleep, the answer to my dreams / No one is here, as the light of the stars winds around…"

Rei's voice resounded through the large room, angelic when coupled with the echo of the walls. Mina herself stood dumbfounded, thankfully sheer distance and the shadow of the rear balcony obscuring her from the other girl.

"I've forgotten how to smile, in order to be strong / If the two of us are together, I can certainly take that back again…"

Before she knew what she was doing, Minako found herself singing along to her own words in a pitch to harmonise with the brunette as she absentmindedly began to tweak the amp settings. Naturally, though, Rei couldn't hear her voice over the speakers. Thank God.

Damned feelings!

"Notice me / I'm here waiting for you / Even if the future is different from the present / I'm here waiting for you / Continuing to scream out / Certainly the string connected to my heart is being pulled / In order to open my eyes back then / No need to cry…"

"Travel in silence, even though I reach out my hand and touch you / You're far away, inside of my memories…"

Rei, meanwhile, directed her full attention at the faraway Minako, urged the lyrics to her. She had never figured out why the girl had written them, but they certainly applied to the miko herself, and all of those bottled up feelings. Not only about the girl she loved, but sung by her too – of course it was her favourite song.

"I can hear your voice, when I close my eyes / I love even the small pain that it causes me…"

The bittersweet tone went unnoticed by Minako, but it gnawed at Rei's nerves considerably as she tried to stay calm under the pressure. She had always wanted to sing this back to Minako, and though her true intentions probably hadn't even crossed the innocent Aino's mind, it felt good to get the desire out into the open. Absolutely terrifying, but good.

She began strongly on the second chorus, pouring her heart into the words.

"Look at me / I'm here waiting for you / Even if I get lost alone, blown on by the wind / I'm here waiting for you / Looking up to the sky / My hands are always spread apart, protecting my heart / Until you, from back then, turn around to look at me / No need to cry…

"(Feel something, feel nothing) / (Listen closely, listen closely) / Wide open ears /Disarm the dream tickler / In the constant moment / (You will find me where it's quiet) / (Listen closely, listen closely) / Let the blood flow / Through all the spaces / Of the universe…

Minako had shifted her weight uncomfortably from leg to leg for that agonisingly slow few minutes, but she clapped on cue with genuine enthusiasm as Rei wrapped up the song. This was partly for the woman's spectacular voice and performance, but also for finally releasing Minako from her obvious (at least to the blonde herself) mortification.

Rei jumped down from the stage as the backing track faded out and walked over to the idol on legs shaky from her secret confession. She stood before her, exhilarated:

"How was that? Did you get all the settings?"

"Yeah," Minako lied, the amps untouched and unrefined thanks to such distraction. "Thanks for your help."

"Okay then," Rei grinned a dopey grin (a WHAT!?!) and headed back upstairs. "Better get back to work. See you later Mina-chan…"

---

Minako sat up cross-legged and scanned over her completed handiwork.

"Goodbye, Rei."

---

Well, guys, that's the end of another chapter. Oh, and could you do me a favour? I've got a little document on here called "As We Know It", and I wondered if any of you guys could read through and review it for me – I'd really appreciate it if you could. It's a Film Studies thing – written in script format, but you can ignore the camera angles and stuff of course and just focus o the dialogue.

Many thanks. And oh yeah, review this too:) Love you to pieces, really!

Minako: (Giggles)

Rei: "But I love you more, Mina-chan…"

Guys, what did I just say about my couch?