Author's Note: I've been getting a bit carried away with chapter length so I opted to break up this third chapter into three subsections, which, when all is said and done, will take us past Usagi and Mamoru's wedding. Finally!

Also, my super cool awesome little sister 'kaycee' made a wallpaper of Mina and Rei just for my story. Check out the link on my profile. Keiko and Ayaka are just dreamy, aren't they? -sigh-

Disclaimer: Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon belongs to "Princess" Naoko Takeuchi, Toei Animation Co., Ltd., Kodansha Animation, etc. etc.

You're beautiful
In ways you'll never know
And in ways you'll never show
The likes of me
And I can't seem to get you out
Of my desperate longing mind
I'm spending dangerous amounts of time
In pursuit of you
-Gregor Samsa

It was amazing how calm and at peace she felt, especially after the doozie of a night she had. But what exactly had been so bad about it? She couldn't remember. Lying in a giant king sized bed, Minako snuggled deeper underneath the cozy white down comforter. The sun shone brightly through the windows. Too brightly. She couldn't see past the bed, but she was too comfortable to care.

To her left, she heard a silky, sensual purr. Tilting her head toward the sound, she nearly lost consciousness at the sight that greeted her.

Rei.

Wearing nothing but a smile.

"Good morning, sunshine," Rei murmured sensuously.

"Uh…Rei…wha…?" Minako had a hard time forming a coherent thought, especially now that the miko had inched closer and began nuzzling the side of her neck. She felt even more light-headed when she realized that her left arm was pressed up against Rei's…

"That's not fair," said another voice. "You can't go playing favorites."

Minako felt a soft hand touch her chin and gently guide her face to the right. Her breath caught in her throat as she took in a vision of… Sailor Mars … au naturel.

"Naughty girl."

The guardian of fire leaned forward and placed a light kiss on the corner of her mouth.

"This… has to be a dream," Minako managed to say when she regained some semblance of composure. She immediately lost again when she felt the Rei to her left nip her earlobe.

"If that's what you want to call it," Mars replied seductively, one of her hands trailing lightly down Minako's chest.

It's either a dream… or I've died.

Again.

Died and gone to a heaven of threesomes.

Minako shook her wasn't right. How would she have died? What the hell happened yesterday? She had picked Rei up at the hospital and driven her to the shrine where they actually had a decent evening together without ripping each other to shreds. And then… and then…

"The youma!" The idol exclaimed, regrettably grabbing Mars' wrist before her hand could travel any further south. "What happened to the youma?"

"Youma?" Rei had just finished dragging her tongue from the base of Minako's neck up toward her jaw. "The only monster here was you, baby. You were a fiend last night."

Mars growled in agreement.

"No, th-there was a y-youma," Minako insisted as they continued their deliciously distracting ministrations. "And a, a woman…"

"Trying to make us jealous?"

"What? No…"

Despite her painful desire to give into the pleasure, Minako closed her eyes to concentrate. Scenes from the pervious night flashed in her mind's eye – Sailor V, the late-night patrol, the three masked assailants, the youma. That's right. She passed out after the battle. And what of Michiru Kaioh… and Artemis? Were they all right?

"You have to wake up!"

The singer opened her eyes at the sound of the annoyed voice. She was both relieved and disappointed to find herself alone underneath the sheets. At the foot of the bed, though, stood an irate – but fully clothed – version of Rei dressed in her usual shrine attire.

"What the hell are you doing lying there?"

"I…"

"You either get out of that bed, or I'll kick your ass out!

Now this was the Rei she knew and loved.

"Get up, Mina! NOW!"

-Minako shot upright in the bed and instantly regretted it. Pain coursed throughout her body like an electric shock.

I think I preferred the ménage-a-trois. With a groan, she settled back into the pillows and waited for the hurt to subside. Well, at least I know I'm awake now…not to mention alive.

Taking in her surroundings, she found herself lying in a foreign bed in a foreign room. It was definitely not the shrine and no priestesses, naked or otherwise, could be seen.

Where… am…I?

The shades were drawn, but she could see some light poking from the sides of the curtains. She breathed out a sigh of relief when she took note of her long blonde hair and realized she was still in her Sailor V disguise. Thank God for small miracles.

She scanned the room quickly. An easel stood in one corner of the room, with several canvasses stacked neatly against the wall. On the dresser, she spotted her red mask, the kodachi and the utility belt. Her eyes zeroed in on the hook shot that was thankfully still attached to the belt.

At least she could escape. It was too bad she was too sore to move at the moment. But that was okay. She just had to remain calm and regain her strength.

This certainly was no time to –

Panic.

This was exactly the time for it.

His heart pounding into overdrive, Artemis paced anxiously outside the fire meditation room at the Hikawa Shrine. The weight of what he had allowed to happen sunk like a brick in the pit of his stomach. He had let his delusional non-transforming partner go out late at night, fight a youma, and…and now? Now, she was lying injured in some stranger's condo – a stranger who could very well be dangerous herself.

The cat recalled the events of the night's battle. After the harpy beast had given him a smack down, he had felt an unexpected surge of power from the woman Minako tried to rescue. The way it had washed over him – like warm waves from the sea – had felt familiar somehow, yet even now he couldn't put his paw on it. Even more surprising had been the subsequent flare of energy from Minako. No…. not Minako. Venus. It was unmistakable and it completely eradicated the youma. Before he could reach the singer, though, Michiru Kaioh had beaten him to the punch, carrying the unconscious idol back to her condominium.

How the power of Venus exactly manifested and where exactly that youma had come from, he had no idea. Right now, he had more pressing matters to attend to, like explaining to Rei why Minako was not at the shrine without arousing the priestess' suspicions. After that, he would focus on getting "Sailor V" out of that woman's condo before the Teletia-S ran out of power and her disguise vanished. He could sense no dark power from Michiru Kaioh, but that didn't make him any less wary of her.

He glanced out a nearby window. The sun was quickly rising and Rei would finish her fire meditation soon. He would have to lie to her about Minako's absence – the busy schedule of a pop star was always a handy excuse.

Of course, he could always tell Rei the truth. He didn't know what would be worse – her reaction about the appearance of a new enemy or how Artemis and Minako happened to "stumble" upon that little bit of news. No, that wasn't true. He knew exactly which reaction would be worse.

Roasted.

Kitty.

Fritters.

The thought made his tummy twist in anxiety. Oh yes. Lying was definitely the way to go.

If Ami had known about Artemis' inner turmoil, she would have been able to empathize – but for a completely different reason.

As the young doctor approached Rei's shrine, she spotted Makoto off in the distance, exiting what she was sure to be Motoki's car. Before shutting the door, the tall girl leaned back into the car and gave her boyfriend a kiss goodbye. And sure enough, even after all these years, knots of jealousy formed instantly in Ami's stomach.

When she first acknowledged her feelings for Makoto, she had brushed it off as a silly school girl crush. It certainly hadn't been the first time she had become mildly infatuated with her friends. She had been quite smitten with Usagi after they met, but she eventually realized her emotions stemmed from happiness in having her first best friend rather than romance. She had even been briefly captivated by grumpy ol' Rei during their period of parental rebellion, admiring her aloof air and no-nonsense attitude – but it was just her heart's reaction to finding a kindred soul. As for Minako… really, who in the world hadn't been head-over-heels in love with the super idol at one point or another?

So too had she expected her feelings for Makoto to pass. And yet they continued to linger, even despite her happiness for Motoki and Makoto. Moving to America to study medicine hadn't helped either. To her dismay, she found that in her case "absence makes the heart grow fonder" completely trumped "out of sight, out of mind."

Most of her friends were oblivious to her feelings, of course. Usagi was too obsessed with Mamoru to notice, and Minako and Rei were always caught up in their own frustratingly drawn-out version of foreplay, as Makoto had once put it, to see past themselves. And as much as Makoto had prided herself on uncovering the love connection between the priestess and the idol, she was ironically ignorant of Ami's love for her. The girl-genius didn't fault her friend for it, though. Ami was a pretty good actress, after all.

There was only one person she couldn't fool, however. The last time she had seen her was a year ago when they…. Ami fought off a blush at the memory.

"Good morning Ami-chan!" The cheerful greeting startled the young doctor from her introspection.

As she drew nearer to the former guardian of lightning, she forced an all too familiar smile on her face.

"Mako-chan!" she exclaimed as cheerfully as she could muster. "Good morning!"

After exchanging pleasantries, they made their way up the long flight of stairs to the shrine. Knowing that Rei was likely in the midst of her early morning meditation, they invited themselves in and headed to the kitchen to make breakfast.

On the way there, they found Artemis pacing back and forth near the fire room. He was so lost in thought, that when they called out his name, he looked ready to jump out of his own fur.

"Ami, Makoto," greeted the cat. "Fancy seeing you here this morning."

"We thought we'd check in on the love-birds," Makoto said with a wink. "Make sure they didn't kill each other."

"Ha… hahaha… of course."

"Where is Minako-chan?" asked Ami. "Is she awake yet?"

"Ahhh. Right. Mina. Well, you see…," Artemis gulped before continuing in a rush, "Minakoisn''dbekindenoughtotellReiformeI'dreallyappreciateitthanks!"

With that, the white cat bowed, bounded down the hallway and jumped out the first open window.

"Um…what on earth?" The confusion was evident in Makoto's voice.

"I…have no idea."

"That was just… weird."

"Yes, definitely."

Pause.

"We'll have to tell Minako to lay off the catnip."

Oblivious to the conversations just outside the door, Rei continued her silent meditation in front of the ceremonial flame.

The fire reading today had been… strange… to say the least. Strange and unsettling – just like her dreams last night. Nothing was ever crystal clear when she communed with the fire spirits, but the session had been more frustrating than normal. She felt troubled, but could sense no outright danger. Instead, she was chilled by a dark foreboding, like watching rain clouds in the distance and knowing there was no way to escape the impending storm.

Even more troublesome was the apprehension she felt for Minako, which was absurd considering the idol was sleeping soundly in the guest room down the hall. Still, fleeting impressions of the singer continued to pop into her mind's eye – some odder than others – like Sailor V on a white bed sandwiched between two figures.

You're worrying over nothing. Probably just a lingering side-effect from combining Mars' power with Venus'. Yeah. That has to be it.

Rei slowly opened her eyes and let out a long breath. I'm not going to get much more out of this; for now, at least. She bowed once more toward the fire before standing and wiping her furrowed brow. Even scheming about nefarious ways to wake her house guest couldn't help rid her of persisting unease as she headed toward the door.

I could have woken up to Rei this morning. God, what was I thinking?

Wincing from her aches and pains, Minako removed herself from the bed and retrieved her Sailor V gear. Her weary and battered muscles protested her every move, but she pressed onward, fastening the utility belt to her waste and slipping on the kodachi harness.

She supposed it was rather pointless to wear the mask since Michiru had already seen her. Hopefully, the remainder of her Sailor V disguise had been enough to differentiate the would-be heroine from pop idol Minako Aino. The operative word being "hopefully." She would keep her fingers crossed.

She limped slowly toward the window and was pleasantly surprised to find that it was actually a glass door to a balcony. Good. Karma owes me at least this much.

"I should have known you weren't the type to stay the morning after."

Minako whirled around toward the now open bedroom doorway where Michiru Kaioh stood, a tray of food in her hands. She regarded Sailor V with an amused smile as she laid the tray on the dresser and then crossed her arms in mock anger.

"Well… You know I'd love to stay, but I'm actually late for my day job."

Minako expected some form of protest, but received none. For a brief moment, it seemed as if Michiru wanted to ask something of the guardian, but then thought better of it. Instead, she simply raised an eyebrow and nodded her head.

"That's what they all say," she said, still smiling. "Well, don't let me keep you, Sailor V. Even champions of justice have to make a living, right?"

Relieved, Minako bowed her head slightly toward her host in thanks.

"Try to stay out of trouble."

"I will if you will."

With her best devil-may-care grin, Minako winked and flashed a peace sign toward the other woman before dashing outside and leaping off the balcony.

To Be Continued in Chapter 3b…