Disclaimer: see previous chapter.

"Hey, Rei, are you free tonight? I have an extra ticket to an exhibition that Sets is making me got to. It would be more fun if you go."

"Why don't you take your boyfriend?"

"Because I have to see him everyday for at least twelve hours and I never see you any more. Besides, I think you'll like it. Please go?"

"I'll think about it."

"Rei, don't be like that! I really want to see you. Be ready by five. I'm coming to pick you up."

"I never agreed to go."

"When did I ever need you to agree? See you at five. I have to go, now. Later."

"Bye."

Rei sighed and went to go get dressed. There was no winning an argument with the blond.

"You look gorgeous, Rei."

"Thanks. Where are we going?"

Minako shrugged. "I wasn't paying attention when Sets was talking about it."

Rei frowned. "You told me I would like it."

"I lie on occasion. I actually have no idea if either of us will like it. If not, we can just sneak off and go do something that's actually interesting."

Rei frowned. "You always were irresponsible."

Minako grinned. "Old habits die hard, love."

Minako leaned towards Rei, and whispered, "Ready to ditch this place?"

"I'm actually enjoying this."

"You've got to be kidding."

"Will you be quiet? I'm trying to listen."

Minako frowned at her best friend. Rei was laughing internally. She was paying no more attention to the man drawling on the stage than the blond was, but she nodded her head at appropriate intervals and hid her smile behind her feigned interest. Minako had drug her here, and Minako was going to stay here with her.

"Rei, I have to say one more time, that you're a douchebag. And an ass hole."

The miko just laughed. "I just like teasing you. Don't act like you don't tease me as well."

"But my teasing is actually funny!"

"I am never amused by your antics."

"Because you're a prick who thinks things like forcing me to sit throught a lecture worse than school is amusing."

Rei smiled. "It was. I can only imagine how you looked in school."

Minako stuck her tongue out at her friend.

"You always told me not to do that unless I was going to use it."

The idol grinned and pushed the miko against the door to the shrine. "Then let me use it."

Rei blushed and coughed. "I don't think that's a good idea, Minako."

The blond smiled and leaned back to a more companionable distance. "Don't want to be reminded of what used to be?"

The miko shook her head.

"Too bad."

Rei had no time to think before she found her friend's tongue in her mouth. Her back was again pressed up against the door and Minako's hands kept her wrists by her side, rendering her helpless to stop the kiss.

Minako broke the kiss and leaned her forehead against Rei's. "I thought I should remind you why you shouldn't move on."

Rei blushed. "I wouldn't-"

"You did."

"I didn't want to. Usagi made me-"

"Usagi never had that much power over you. She couldn't force you into a relationship any more than I could make you admit you loved me."

"She did it, Minako. And no one said I was in a relationship-"

"Except you and your girlfriend. Who else has to say it?"

Rei wished she could walk away and ignore this situation. She wished that she didn't have to look at the pain in those blue eyes and know she was the cause. She wished that Minako wasn't with him. "I was drunk. I don't even remember saying it."

"The drunk heart tells the truth, Reiko. You meant what you said that night."

The miko closed her eyes. "I did. I won't deny that. But I was also irrational. I'm not dating Yuuko. I was doing her a favor by being her date that night to make up for being rude to her."

"Reiko, don't close your eyes. Look at me. Deal with this." Minako watched as Rei opened her eyes. "It doesn't matter why you get with a person. Love can show up when you least expect it."

"You would do good to remember that as well, Minako."

"Rei, you should bring Yuuko with us."

"I don't think that's a good idea, Minako."

"Look, it's not fair if you have to see me hanging off of Kei's arm all day and you're all by yourself. Besides, Yuuko is my friend, too. You should bring her."

Rei sighed. "I don't-"

"I do not take no for an answer. Ask Yuuko, or I'll ask for you. I gotta go. Later!"

The miko sighed again. Why were Minako's conversations so similar to Usagi's?

The two couples sat across from each other in the ferris wheel cabin awkwardly. Rei's hands were folded in her lap and her eyes were glued out the window. Yuuko's eyes were travelling between Rei and Minako, the latter of which was staring at Rei with concern laced heavily on her features. Kei was holding Minako's hand, stroking it lightly with his thumb, and watching her as intently as she watched Rei.

Yuuko grew tired of the silence first. "So, how about we get some cotton candy when we get out of here?"

Rei turned to look at the model, expression blank. Minako's eyes lit up at the prospect of sugar, and Kei smiled, glad that the tension was relieved.

"That was so much fun. We have to do it again."

Yuuko smiled at the shorter woman. "I'm not against it. I did enjoy it."

Rei still wasn't looking directly at anyone. "I don't think that would be the best idea."

Minako frowned. "Stop being a spoilsport! Everyone was having fun but you, Rei."

The miko didn't say a word as she walked silently into the shrine, closing her bedroom door loudly enough for the three stars to hear from where they were standing outside.

Yuuko frowned. "I'm sorry, guys. It was really fun. Don't worry about her."

Kei looked down at his girlfriend. "You had as hard a time as she did today, didn't you?"

Minako let her smile fall for the first time all day. "Worse."

"Rei? It's been a while."

Minako hadn't asked Rei to do anything since their last encounter at the amusement park a little over two weeks ago. She was surprised, to say the least, to see the miko sitting with Yuuko in Makoto's place of work.

"Indeed it has, Minako."

"How have you been? You've been ignoring all of my calls." Minako frowned as she made her statement, displeasure evident on her face.

"I've been alright. I just didn't have anything I wanted to say to you."

"That doesn't mean I didn't have anything to say to you, Rei. I told you before, I'm not letting you disappear on me again."

The idol turned to the other woman at the table. "How have you been, Yuuko?"

"I've been pretty good. Busy, but no more than you, I'm sure."

Minako nodded. "I would ask to join you, but I don't think that would be the best idea. I'd love to catch up with you both later, but I have to go now. Bye Yuuko. Reiko."

The blond ran off, and two pairs of eyes watched as she linked her arm with Kei's and walked off to another part of the mall.

Rei frowned, putting her spoon down in her soup a little more forcefully than necessary. Yuuko grabbed her hand. "Relax. It'll all work out in the end."

"Rei, come on. You don't have to act like that."

"Minako, you're obviously into him. Stop lying to yourself."

"The last time you said that to me I broke the skin on your face."

Rei winced, remembering the pain in her cheeks. "I know, but I'm serious. You like him. I'm not mad. Just admit it already."

"There's nothing to admit. I still love you."

"It's possible to love more than one person, Minako."

"Do you love her?" The idol indicated to Yuuko with her eyes. The model was talking to Kei about something irrelevant, giving the two friends a chance to speak alone.

"What makes you say that?"

"You think I love him. Do you love her?"

"That's absurd."

"Is it, really? You spend all of your time with her, and you have sex on a regular basis- don't try to deny it. You have too many hickies. Rei, you at least like her a little bit."

The miko blushed. Minako was too good at reading her. Maybe she should stop letting people mark her. "I don't."

"So you've become interested in casual sex, now? This is the point where I call you a hypocrite."

"It's not that."

"It's fine, Rei. I feel for Yuuko, too. She's a really sweet girl. She looks like Yaten, though. Don't you think?"

Rei looked at the woman. "You're right. I never thought about it before."

Minako smiled. "I never really saw the connection between Kei and Kaitou before you mentioned it. And I would have never guessed how much he looks like a colorless Mamoru had you not said it."

Rei smiled. That joke never got old to her. "But you do love him."

The idol felt herself frown. "We have this conversation everytime we talk, Rei. I don't love him."

"Minako, don't take me for a fool. I know you too well. For you to spend 6 million yen on someone, you have to at least love them a little."

"How did you know-"

"Haruka told me. She was bragging about the car she got and the discount she got on it and I saw him driving it."

The blond sighed. "Fine. I love him a little bit. No more than you love Yuuko, though."

Rei turned to look at their other halves again. She could only wonder how much love they had.

"I didn't expect to see you here."

"I didn't expect you either, Kei."

"That's an obvious lie. This is my girlfriend's birthday party."

"And it's my best friend's birthday party."

Kei frowned. "You didn't seem too keen on remembering your relationship the last few times I saw you."

"You know nothing of how I deal with Mi-chan. I've known her since before you were interested in girls, little boy."

Kei frowned, glaring down at the older woman. "That may be true, but you gave her up. She's mine now, Rei. And I don't plan on giving her up like you did. And by the way, thank you for being so stupid."

Rei frowned and opened her mouth, but Kei wasn't done speaking.

"She's the best partner I've ever had, and her head is amazing."

The miko forced herself not to hit the boy. She stormed away from the smirking teen and went to find her best friend.

"I need to talk to you."

Minako seperated herself from the other idols she was talking to and followed her friend onto the balcony. "What's wrong, Rei? You look angry."

Hurt purple eyes turned to look at Minako. "You had sex with him?"

Minako crossed her arms. "You didn't seem to have a problem fucking Yuuko."

Rei turned around, refusing to let the other woman see her cry. Her voice showed no sign of her weakness. "I was drunk when I did it. I don't remember ever having sex with her. And it only happened once."

It was true. The two had only had sex the very first night they met. Rei thwarted any other attempts the woman made to get into her pants, but wasn't as able to keep Yuuko's lips away from her neck.

The idol's arms fell to her sides. She had lost count of the times she and Kei had had sex. And she was sober each time. "Rei-"

"Why did you lie to me? Why did you tell me you didn't love him?"

Rei's voice was breaking. Her resolve was tearing with each tear that ran down her face.

"I didn't-" Minako didn't feel like talking. Rei was right; she had lied. Some where along the way she had fallen for the boy's charming smile, perveted teenage innocence, and love for all things Sailor V.

"You can't even tell me I'm wrong anymore, can you?" The miko turned around and Minako's heart broke. Her friend looked like her world was destroyed. "Can you even say you still love me?"

Minako looked down at her blue stilletos. "I told you never to question my love for you, Reiko."

"Then you shouldn't make it questionable." Her voice was barely a whisper now. It hurt her throat to speak and her tongue tasted the salt from the tears that ran into her mouth. "Mi-koi, have you ever doubted me?"

The idol was still looking at her shoes, but they were becoming blurry due to the tears in her vision. "Never."

Rei smiled bitterly. "Good. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I ever put you through this, Mi-koi."

"Reiko-" Minako looked up at the other woman. She commanded herself not to weep bitterly at the sight.

"I'll let you enjoy your party, Mi-koi."

Minako didn't let the other woman walk past her. She grabbed her and pulled her best friend close, as though holding her could salvage their relationship. "I'm so sorry. I'm so, so sorry."

Rei closed her eyes. The action did nothing to stop her tears. "Don't be, Minako. We can't help who we fall in love with. The heart wants what it wants."

"I still want you."

"That's quite selfish of you. You have him and yet you still want to keep me around. Stop telling me you love me so I can give up the hope that it'll become true."

"Reiko-"

"Stop calling me that. We have no more place for nicknames, Minako-san."

The blond grimaced and pulled her friend closer. "Don't do this, Reiko. I'm begging you."

"Minako-san, you have a party to attend. You shouldn't leave your guests without your presence. It's your celebration after all. And happy birthday, by the way.

"Here's your gift. I was going to give it to you after the party, but I doubt I'll be staying that long."

Minako looked at her friend's hands for the first time, and saw the hand-made scrapbook they held. The blond pulled her arms from around the miko reluctantly, and slowly took the proffered gift. The cover was simple, but the bindings on it were strong. It reminded the idol of the woman standing before her. Long-lasting, strong, faithful, dependable, sturdy, indestructable, and full of surprises. She held the book to her chest in place of the miko, and tried to stop her tears. She was unsuccessful.

"Rei, don't leave me."

"It would hurt me too much to stay, Minako-san."

"Please. At least stay for the party. For me."

Rei's teary eyes looked at the woman who had caused her so much grief over the past seven years, doubling over the course of the last nine months. "For you, Mi-koi, I would take on the world."

Minako's face was carefully painted into a mask of joy. Only Kei, Rei, Setsuna and Minako knew the lie she was acting out.

Usagi giggled, feeling the effect of the drinks she had in her system. "Dance with me, Rei."

The miko waved off the smaller woman and continued to stare at nothing. She refused to look at the pleading eyes of her used to be best friend or the accusing eyes of the woman's lover.

"I owe you an apology."

Rei showed no signs of hearing the other woman address her. Sighing, Setsuna sat beside the unusually stoic miko. "I know it hurts, but it's not like you to be this quiet."

She still received no response. "I didn't trust you at first. I didn't think you cared about Minako's career. You distracted her, you annoyed her, and you caused her to be late and to miss work. I knew she loved you, and I gave her the option to give up her career to be with you. She chose you.

"You proved me wrong when you let Minako date Kei. You showed that you cared not just about her career, but about her dream. I respected you for that. I knew how hard that was for you.

"Because of the respect I held, I tried not to be angry when you disappeared from Minako's life. I tried to understand how much it hurt you to see the one you love in the arms of someone else.

"However, I could not help but be angry with you for not standing by her side and showing her why she needed to be with you and not him. I was rooting for your relationship, and you were letting it crumble.

"I told her to give you space. To let you come back to her. Instead, you ran to Yuuko rather than taking the place you belonged.

"The night of the fight, I was disappointed. More so than ever. I had hoped that you two would try to be adults and work out the issues you had. Instead, you both got hurt physically to go along with the emotional turmoil you put each other through.

"I saw her leave with him, and I couldn't stop it. It was your place to be there for her; to help her see reason, but you weren't even able to see what you were doing to yourself. I'm just glad someone helped you come to your senses. You should really thank Yuuko. She was there for you in the way you should have been there for Minako.

"The thing is, even though I was upset with you for hurting my friend, I never questioned whether you loved her. I wondered where you were. I wondered why you left. I wondered why you didn't fight for her and with her rather than against her, but I never wondered if you loved her. I always knew that you did.

"Rei, I know that this has been hard for you. I can't promise it will get easier before it gets harder, but I can tell you this. Minako loves you more than she loves that boy she's with, and she's doing the best she can to make you happy and proud."

Setsuna's eyes travelled to the birthday woman. "She's strong. I don't know if I could do what she's doing. Only you and I know her smile isn't real. No one else here can tell.

"Rei," her eyes turned back to the woman she was addressing, "I love Minako like a sister. Don't make her burden any heavier. Let her have her best friend back."

"Did you know?"

"What?"

"Did she tell you? Or did she hide that behind her mask as well?"

Setsuna frowned. "What are you-"

"They had sex. Multiple times. Did you know? Did she tell you about how he felt when she was with him? About what he did to her?

"She would always tell me when she had sex. Even though I told her not to tell me. She would always give me the details of her sex life. But this, she hid this from me. She lied to me when I asked her about it. And she lied about being in love with him.

"I'm not upset that she fucked him. I expected that; she could never say no to sex. I'm just hurt that she felt the need to hide it. Why hide it if it doesn't mean anything? They're dating and she knows I've had sex with Yuuko, so why did she tell me she didn't sleep with him?"

Setsuna blinked a few times, both at the revelation and at Rei's choice of words. The miko never swore. "I can't answer that, Rei."

"I know. I don't need you to. I know her, Setsuna. I know how she thinks and how she acts. She doesn't hide things from me unless she knows that they'll hurt me. And she never lied to me before he came around."

Rei looked at the couple and locked eyes with Minako. Rei saw the worry the was there and tried to smile. It was faint, but it gave the blond hope, and Rei thought for a second that the idol's smile seemed just a bit more genuine.

Setsuna frowned again. She was still unsure who to feel worse for. Rei, who could show her pain, or Minako who had to mask hers. At least Minako had a guise of happiness. Rei looked utterly miserable.

As soon as the formal party was over, Minako ran to Rei's side and begged her to stay for the after party. Only close friends would be coming, and Minako wasn't sure she'd survive without Rei there.

From the moment they entered the idol's house, Minako never left Rei's side. Because of this, Rei was always sandwiched between Minako and Yuuko, and Minako was between Rei and Kei.

Rei sat silently in the middle of things, not really knowing what was going on around her. Minako glared at anyone who questioned the miko's state and held her hand under the table for the entirety of the night. It was the one thing Rei took notice of. Well, that, and Yuuko's hand on her thigh under the table. The woman was slightly intoxicated, and Rei was constantly removing the model's hand from under her skirt.

Setsuna watched the four, pitying all of them. The others were too lost in their increasing inebriation to fully take notice of what was going on with the two couples or were scared of upsetting Minako and thusly kept silent on the matter.

It wasn't long before Minako had taken Rei from the party, escaping their loved ones. "I was getting tired of Setsuna's pity."

Rei simply looked away from the idol; she hadn't made eye contact with anyone since the formal party.

"Rei, look at me. Please?"

The miko ignored the other woman.

"Rei, I understand you're hurt. I didn't mean for it to be this way. Say something to me. Please, Reiko."

"Why?"

Minako hid her surprise at hearing the miko's response. "Why what?"

"Why didn't you tell me the truth? Why did you tell me you weren't sleeping with Kei?"

Minako sighed. She had hoped to avoid this discussion. "I didn't know how to tell you. It was different trying to tell you knowing that you loved me. I didn't want you to feel how I felt whenever I saw one of Yuuko's hickeys on you."

"You never hid anything before. And you never lied to me before. Did you think for a moment that that might hurt worse?"

"I did, but I couldn't bring myself to tell you. I wouldn't have told you about any of the others had I known about how you felt."

Rei brought a hand up and wiped away a stray tear that managed to escape. "You hiding it means that it meant something. If it were just nothing, you would have told me about it and told me not to worry about it because it was nothing. I don't care that you slept with him; he's no more than a notch in your belt. But you didn't have to let him into your heart."

Minako grabbed Rei's face and forced the older woman to look at her. "I didn't want to. I didn't think I had. That doesn't matter, though. Isn't it more important that I opened my heart up to you willingly? That I loved you purposefully? That I accept the love I have for you and give it with no reservation? I don't want to love him. I will never tell him that I love him. And no matter how I feel about him, I would rather be with you. Doesn't that mean more than me accidentally falling for someone who was there for me when you weren't?"

"It should, but it doesn't. Minako, you liked him before we started dating. He was one of the idols you talked about relentlessly. I saw how you looked at him when you first met and the way you would smile at him when you were together. I watched you fall in love with someone else. That's what matters."

"It was because you weren't there!"

"I didn't say that I'm blameless. I should have been there for you but I was selfish and wallowed in my own pain. I'm sorry for that. It still doesn't change what happened. You fell in love with him, and it hurts too much for me to see you two together."

"Rei, don't leave me. Please."

"I'm sorry, Mi-koi. I can't take this. I need to go home and get some sleep."

Minako wasn't sure when she had started crying, but she wasn't sure she could stop. She threw her arms around Rei's waist and buried her face into her friend's shoulder. "Please. Please, Rei. Don't leave me again. I'm sorry for everything. I need you. Don't leave me again Reiko, please."

The miko closed her eyes and ran her fingers through Minako's hair for the last time, memorizing the feel of it. "Good bye, Mi-koi."

Rei extricated herself from Minako's embrace, not turning when she heard the woman collapse to the ground, and not turning when she heard her name called. She silently walked over to Yuuko and pulled her out of the house, not bothering to wipe the tears off of her face, and not offering any words of explanation.

Kei found the crying ball of blond that was Minako and ended the party. Setsuna stayed behind to try and help pull the woman together. The blond cried herself to sleep that night, and the next full week afterwards.

"Hino Rei! Where the hell are you?!" Two black crows came out and attacked the intruding boy. "Get off of me you birds! That shit hurts!"

"Stop screaming and cursing around here. They don't like it and neither do I."

Kei turned and glared at the sweeping miko as the birds flew back to the roof of the shrine. "We need to talk."

"I have nothing at all to say to you, boy. Get off of my property and away from my home."

"I'm not leaving until you listen to what I have to say."

"I guess you'll be here for a while, then."

"Rei-"

"Do not speak to me with such familiarity, Arai-san. You do not know me, nor are we friends."

The boy frowned. "I don't respect you either you coward."

"I do not need your respect."

"What did you do to my girlfriend?"

"I have done nothing to her that you haven't, Arai-san."

Kei crossed his arms over his chest. "Why has she been crying herself to sleep for the past week, then?"

"Have you considered that it is possibly your words and actions that caused her dismay?"

"I haven't done a single thing wrong to her!"

"Arai-san, did you forget that Minako and I were perfectly happy before you showed up? And did you forget that she was hiding her pain because you were determined to have her? And did you forget that I only stepped aside for you because I was trying to help her achieve her dream? I am the one who has done nothing wrong by her. Your mere presence has been the cause of her struggles."

"Well I'm not the one who dumped her and moved on. And I'm not the one who fucked her ex-girlfriend. Nor am I the one who busted her ribs with a pointy shoe either. Not to mention robbing her of her best friend and destroying her with negative comments."

Rei stopped sweeping and looked at the boy evenly. "My comments were no more negative than they were truthful. Your comments were the negative ones. Still enjoying her head, boy? I don't appreciate you talking about my best friend that way."

"What do you care? You haven't been her best friend since I met you, and I can't believe that you were there for her before that, either."

"Have you looked at her birthday present? Did you see what I gave her?"

Kei frowned. He didn't know Rei had gotten her anything.

"It hurt to look at those pictures, Arai-san. It hurt knowing that even if she were to date me she would have to leave to fulfill her dream. It hurt knowing that she would be better off with you than she would be with me, and it fucking hurt to let her go. Until you can tell me what it feels like to let go of the woman you loved for over seven years so she can be with some annoying brat who talks too much and is in love with himself so she can do what she's wanted to do since she was in diapers, you will not come to my place of residence and pass judgement on me.

"Go look at that scrapbook and tell me I don't love her. I made that by hand; I brought each of those photos from the store and cut them out of magazines myself. I pieced them together chronologically, from the very first time she stepped on a stage or photo shoot set to the day she turned twenty one.

"I put them in order from route memory. I got paper cuts and I have blisters on my hands that still haven't gone away. I even have the pictures of you and her in there because you were a part of her journey. I watched her dream become a reality, and I was never allowed to be a part of it.

"Now you go look at that book and tell me that I don't love her. Get out of here and don't ever come back, or you will become fuel for the fire in that shrine."

The teen didn't say anything as he turned and walked away. He wasn't sure he could make the same sacrifices for Minako as the woman behind him.

Minako was losing weight from refusing to eat. Anything Setsuna or Kei brought her, she either gave to Artemis or set out for the birds. Her hair had lost it's sheen. It was now dull and lifeless. Her eyes were no longer vibrant and radiant, but looked grim and had large bags under them.

Kei shook his head at the shell of a woman in front of him. She was no longer the embodiment of beauty that he fell in love with. She looked like she had fallen from grace and landed painfully on her ass in the hottest pit of hell.

He had done nothing to make Rei feel anything like his girlfriend looked, despite that being his intention. He had looked at the book - that was more like a tome, than anything - and was convinced by the nearly three hundred pictures, magazine articles, and other paraphernalia that Rei loved Minako. That wasn't even counting the home-made DVD collection of the woman's stage performances and CD collection of the idol's songs - including the ones she had done with him - that was embedded into the back of the book. Kei didn't even know about the even larger collection of Sailor V things the miko had stored away in her closet.

He sighed and looked at the pitiful creature balled up and laying on her side. She looked tiny in the middle of her huge mattress, and Setsuna was trying her best to bring the girl back to life.

"I'll go back to work tomorrow."

Both of the people in the room were surprised that Minako could even still speak, and the statement she made.

"There's no need for me to keep wallowing in here like this. Give me one more night, and I'll be in your office tomorrow morning, Sets."

The older woman frowned. "Are you sure, Minako?"

"I am. We have a tour to get ready for."

Makoto stopped by the shrine to make sure Rei was okay and to bring her something to eat. She saw the woman sleeping when she arrived and smiled. She needed the rest. She left the food in the kitchen and left to go to work.

Well, she was about to. One of the creatures stopped her. "What are you doing out here? Rei will kill you if she sees you."

"She won't be seeing me. I had to put her to sleep. Stop her from training so much, Makoto. She's going to get herself killed."

"Why don't you just send her back when she comes out here?"

"I've tried. She's too stubborn. She'll spar with me until I won't fight her anymore, then she'll meditate until she's ready to pass out, and she'll get back up like nothing's wrong and try to do all of her shrine work as well. I don't think she's slept in the past week, Mako. Please help her."

Makoto frowned. "I have to go to work now, but I'll be back tomorrow to check on her. Try to watch her, but make sure no one sees you."

The creature agreed and bounced back to the woods. There would be no problem for him to hide as a shadow, but he needed the cover of night, or at least something to cast a shadow to cover him.

Rei had a headache. She stood up and went to her medicine cabinet to get some Tylenol. Taking three, she sat down on the floor of her bathroom and waited for her headache to subside. When it only got worse a few minutes later, she doubled her dose and went to lay down again.

She stood up again, unable to sleep due to the unnatural spinning of the room and went to get some more Tylenol. She grabbed the bottle that she assumed to hold the medicine, and took two of the pills. She couldn't really see, but the room spun faster and she collapsed to the floor. What she assumed to be Tylenol was actually her late grandfather's unused blood thinners.

The miko forced herself to her feet, and stumbled to the kitchen in search of water. Finding none, she grabbed the closest liquid thing she could find and chugged it with no thought or recognition of the contents. After emptying half of the bottle, she vaguely recognized a burning in her throat, but didn't connect that with the gin she had just deposited into her system.

Rei lost a hold on the bottle and dropped it, glass shards littering the floor and gin making her feet wet and causing her to lose her already precarious balance and fall to the floor, pieces of glass embedding themselves into her arms, stomach, legs and breasts. The miko stood, vaguely remembering something about using a knife to get the pieces of glass out of her skin, and opened the kitchen drawer. She grabbed the first shiny knife she saw and walked to the bathroom where the light was better to try and get the glass out of her skin. The increase in light did nothing to help the blurriness of her vision, and she ended up making sloppy cuts across her arms, thighs and stomach, passing out before she could cut herself any worse or remove a single piece of glass from her skin.

The creature outside of her room watching her panicked and snuck into her bathroom quickly. It covered her with itself to prevent extensive blood loss and hoped that someone would find her in time. There was only so much blood the shadow creature could hold.

Yuuko ran up the stairs to the shrine, intent on asking Rei to go out with her. She had a break and wanted to see the miko alone, with no thoughts of Minako, Kei or anything else upsetting. She was in for a great surprise.

The creature heard someone coming and reluctantly left Rei's side to hide, lest it get caught. Yuuko gasped and dropped the flowers she was holding when she saw Rei laying in a large pool of her own blood. She had followed the bloody trail from the kitchen and ended up in the miko's bathroom. "Oh my God!"

She immediately pulled out her cell phone and called 911.

Once she was assure that an ambulance was on it's way, she called Usagi. "Rei's bleeding. There's a knife in her hand. I think she tried to commit suicide."

Usagi met Yuuko at the hospital, running to the pacing woman and embracing her. "How is she?"

"I don't know. They won't tell me."

"Why not?"

"They say I'm not family. They won't even let me see her. I don't know what's going on with her."

Usagi frowned and collapsed into a seat in the waiting room. She did the only thing she could think to do. She called Minako.

A/N: total disintegration of Rei and Minako's friendship. Poor things. They tried to make it work. I'm gonna try to be nicer to them... maybe. Later. But I already have the way I'm gonna make Kei suffer planned out hehe. There is no help for him. And because I've even been hurting my own feelings with this, I promise I'll let Rei and Minako get back together.

da pyro's love: hahaha thank you so much. I love the incoherence. You're right about Minako's beauty. I don't think Kei's any more able to stop sexing her than she is able to say no to sex. It's like drug dealer and addict with those two. As for Sets, just throw her on the meanies list. Just make sure that Mako, Haruka, Michiru, and Rei are all on there too. They all have moments where they can be pretty heartless, but it's always for a selfless reason. I'll try to keep up the daily updates, but I need to figure out an ending that isn't the cliche "And they kiss and make up and everthing is happily ever after! The end!" That's Mamoru and Usagi's story. Not Minako and Rei's.

Ramanda87: you have no idea how :D you made me. I literally EARNED a comment! Thank you so much! (I feel the computer pain. Mine is pretty fritzy too.) I'm not sure about the happy ending bit because angst is drowning out the kind parts of my soul (kidding! there will be love and happiness), but you're right. Sailor Mars is as crazily devoted to being a senshi (if not moreso, actually, probably moreso) than the others. She would never steal her life from Usagi. Ever. I wouldn't take that characterization away from any of the senshi.

jedi caro: I know right! I didn't want to do it, but it had to happen... ugh.

yuuki yami: she didn't! I had the creature save her, see! And she didn't do it on purpose, it was just a whole lot of accidents in the course of like, ten minutes. Yes. Hate Kei. Hate him because he sucks. Almost everyone else wants to hurt him too.

Fireandlove: I know! My poor baby! I've been so mean to her... And I hope I answered your question fully ^_^ As for Mina, her reaction is in the next chapter.