Disclaimer: Sailor Moon, its characters and universe were created by Naoko Takeuchi. I'm merely a fan of the series, writing stories as an attempt to maintain sanity in a life occupied with working. I expect no profit from this. Except for the sanity, of course.

A.N.: Thank you for those who left such kind reviews! I had no idea when I started writing this that I'd be basically digging myself into a hole, as now I can't get this story and this unexpected couple out of my head! Drats!

Something in the Rain

Chapter Two: Delicate

"Wow!"

"I second that."

Seiya was on his back and Minako on her stomach as the two of them lay completely naked, side by side on the former's bed, both of them catching their breaths. As they turned to each other, their eyes met and a sudden wave of laughter took over them, both high from the sudden release of endorphins and other neurotransmitters that made them feel so good.

Minako wished she could capture this moment and wrap it around her like a blanket. It somehow felt so cozy and comfortable, as if this were something they'd done a million times before. Their bodies hummed in synch with the same energy and it was amazing how at ease with each other they felt, considering how tense things had been when they had first started talking.

Seiya turned on his side to face her, supporting his head with his left hand, his arm bent at an angle on his elbow over the mattress. His other arm reached out to her, running his fingers delicately over her back and sending delicious shivers down her spine. "Can I ask you something?" He asked with something of a smile still etched on his lips.

"Sure," she replied with an easy smile as well.

"Have you ever… done this before?" His eyes averted hers as he finished his sentence, and she thought he looked adorably boyish, a light blush visible on his cheeks.

Minako scrunched up her nose delicately for a moment before replying. "Yes and no," she said and quickly elaborated at the confused look he gave her. "Technically this was my first time, in this lifetime. But I do have my memories of when I lived in the Silver Millennium in my previous life, and I did have other lovers back then. So in a way it's not as if I was completely inexperienced, I think."

"I'll say. That's actually why I was curious," he replied with quite a naughty grin now. "I thought you seemed to know what you were doing."

"Well I am the goddess of love," she said with a wink. "Got to keep up the good name."

He laughed softly at that for a moment. "But you know the more I learn about it, the crazier your life gets," Seiya said with amazement in his voice. "So let me get this straight. Not only you've visited your future, but you're also completely aware of what happened to you in your past life?"

"That about sums it, yes," she nodded, looking up playfully for a moment and back at him with a smile still. "How about you?"

"No memories of past lives and I honestly have no idea where my future is going," he said, laughter in his voice now.

"I know that," she laughed back at him, reaching over and hitting him lightly on the arm. "I mean, was this your first time? Can I claim to have taken the virginity of the amazing Seiya Kou?" She finished by raising her eyebrows playfully at him, both hands cupping her chin as she supported herself on her elbows.

He blushed even further now and avoided her eyes once more. "Ah, erm. Actually, no," he said, sounding a little bit uncomfortable suddenly as his right hand scratched at the back of his head.

She laughed at this. "Don't worry," Minako assured him. "I'm not upset about it. It's not like we owe each other anything. And anyway, I would have some difficulty believing you hadn't had previous girlfriends, especially after tonight."

"Really?" He turned his eyes back to hers with curiosity. "Why?"

"Nothing about you says inexperienced, either," she said with a lazy smile, laying her head down on her folded arms.

Seiya marvelled at her ability to make him blush even after what they'd just done and the fact that they were both naked, laying on his bed. "Well, thanks, I guess." He said with an uncharacteristic embarrassed smile.

They remained in silence for a few moments, just looking and regarding each other. His smile slowly left his face as he started talking again. "Are you feeling okay?" Seiya peered attentively at her, trying to see if she was hiding something from him behind one of her masks again. "I'm sorry I made you cry before."

"Oh," her smile also slipped away at his words. She turned to him mirroring his pose, supporting her head on her right hand. "No, I'm fine. It was nothing."

"The hell it was," he said forcefully, and she raised her eyebrows in surprise at his reaction. His blue eyes stared into hers intensely. "Look, I wasn't laughing at you or what you said. It was just some really badly timed tension release mechanism. I didn't even realise what I'd done and then I saw the tears in your eyes."

"Is that why you kissed me?" Minako whispered the question at him, almost afraid of what she was asking and what would be his response.

"No," he said at once. "I kissed you because I wanted to kiss you."

Minako decided to just accept his words and not question his motivation. She had offered to comfort him for one night with no strings attached, after all. It wouldn't do if she started wondering if there was anything behind any of what they were doing tonight. This was just about two friends seeking momentary comfort in each other's arms.

As if Seiya could sense she wasn't convinced by his response, he reached out to her, his hand cupping the side of her face and then running through her hair as he brought his face closer to hers. Their eyes remained locked for a moment longer before his lips met hers once more delicately.

His kisses now were different from the previous ones. While that first kiss had quickly evolved to a frenzied and hungry pace, building up fast as both of them grew desperate for some sort of release, now he kissed her slowly and gently, running his fingers lightly over her arm and feeling goosebumps raise down his trail. She responded in kind, angling her body towards his and also running a hand through his hair.

Yet it wasn't long before their sweet, tender kisses became deeper and more heated. His hand ran over the curve of her hip and gripped her waist, bringing her body closer to his. She responded to his movements, hooking one of her legs in his and hitching it up so that he was half lying on top of her once more.

Then suddenly Minako broke the kiss, but she kept close to him, pressing her forehead against his as she gasped for breath for a moment. "Hum, didn't you say something about going to rehearsal tonight?"

"Cancelled," he breathed in response, his lips tracing a path down her jaw. "Got the message just before I got in the shower," he murmured against her neck before giving it a series of open mouthed kisses that made her shiver in pleasure from head to toe.

"Really?" She breathed back her reply, feeling quite unintelligible, her hands running paths over his body as if they had a mind of their own, her fingernails just gently scratching down his back.

"Um-humm," Seiya murmured against her ear before he found his way back to her lips, eager to taste her once more as his hands got tangled in her hair. "They wanted us to rest before tomorrow's big show," he murmured against her lips, not quite breaking the kiss.

"Then maybe you should rest," she murmured back against his lips.

"I'm not tired," he replied, kissing her deeply for a moment as one of his hands ran down the side of her body, just brushing against her breast, making her gasp into the kiss. "What about you?"

"Me neither," she said truthfully as sleep was the farthest thing from her mind at the moment.

"Stay here tonight?"

Minako didn't think either of them would get much rest if she did, but she was past thinking rationally by now. She murmured her assent and then moaned into his kiss as he lifted one of her legs up to wrap it around his waist, his fingers finding their way to the wetness between her legs.

Yes, they would definitely not get much rest tonight. Not that either were complaining about it.

A few hours later, Seiya was lying on his back once more, one hand under his head and the other playing idly with Minako's hair, his arm wrapped around her back. She had one leg draped over his and her arm thrown over his waist, and he could feel her breath coming in and out as she dozed, her head laid gently on his chest. He'd woken up from a brief slumber to find them comfortably in this position after exerting themselves with their earlier activities. Even if it didn't last long it was the best sleep he'd had in days, maybe weeks.

As he looked up at the ceiling of his dark bedroom, a sliver of streetlight breaking in through the curtains acting as the only source of light, Seiya thought back on how they had ended up like this. If someone had told him when he first arrived there that he'd end up in bed with one of the Earthen Senshi he'd not have believed it. Especially with Aino Minako.

Not to say that there was anything wrong with her or that he didn't find her attractive, that much was undisputable. He'd always thought she was pretty, but in the early days of their acquaintanceship her intensity and crazy fan act (which he could now recognize as an act) had him a bit frightened, to be honest. Yet out of all the girls in that group that they'd come to interact with quite often, Minako was probably the most like himself (they both liked being in the spotlight, to play sports and were always making jokes) and he'd generally enjoyed her company. But his own focus had always been drawn by another blonde girl.

It's quite inevitable, I think it's just the way she is. Everybody loves Usagi─even enemies have fallen for her, Minako had said. And there truly was something transcendental about her. Seiya knew his fellow Starlight Senshi also felt this, as even normally stoic Taiki and easily irritable Yaten had felt enchanted by the blonde girl with the odangos, at one point or another. He couldn't understand this or his own attraction to her when she'd been merely Tsukino Usagi, a regular High School girl. He'd just thought she was something special, so sweet and innocent, a breath of fresh air, removed from all the crazy fans and people who claimed to love him even though they didn't know him. As he found out she was Eternal Sailor Moon and moreover the legendary Princess of the Silver Moon it started to make a lot more sense. Like his own Princess Kakyuu, the power of her light was irresistible.

As Sailor Senshi, they were all hardwired to love their Princesses, after all. No wonder a few of them every now and then actually fell in love with them.

So now here was Seiya Kou: In love with an unattainable princess from another planet and having spent the night having amazing sex with the girl who had come over to break his heart on behalf of said princess.

What in the world was he doing?

Still, even if this was the craziest development in his life so far, Seiya found he couldn't regret anything about it, he thought with a smile as he looked down at the sleeping Minako. Loving someone who couldn't love you back wasn't fun, of course. He was suffering for it. But now thanks to the girl in his arms he was starting to heal from it as well, as he was able to sort through his feelings and everything that had happened lately.

The amazing sex also helped a lot, of course.

Seiya chuckled softly at his thoughts and felt Minako stirring in his arms. Her eyelashes fluttered, brushing lightly against his chest and she angled her head up to look at him, her eyes squinting to make him out in the darkness. "Hey," she whispered at him, the ghost of a smile on her lips.

"Hey," he whispered back, his hand still playing idly with her hair. "Sorry for waking you."

"It's okay," she said. "What time is it?"

"Very late or very early, depending on your point of view," he said with a smile. "You can go back to sleep for a while."

"What about you? Why aren't you sleeping?" She said, scooting up so she'd be level with his face, laying back against the pillow but she still accepted his arm around her shoulders.

"I was, I woke up a few minutes ago," he explained. "I was just thinking."

"More troubling thoughts?" She asked, frowning concernedly at him.

"No, I actually think my thoughts have cleared up for the first time in quite a while," he smiled back at her. "Thank you."

"What are you thanking me for?" She blushed slightly under his gaze.

"For helping me with that," Seiya explained. "I think I'd be having a lot more trouble now if you hadn't come over and talked about it all with me."

"That's very weird, thanking me for coming over to break your heart," she said with a raised eyebrow. "Unless you're thanking me for all the sex. In that case, that's the first I heard of sex clearing anyone's thoughts."

Seiya choked out a laugh at that, his shoulders shaking gently as he tried to keep quiet in the dead of night. Her lips also twitched into a smile at seeing his reaction.

"You're outrageous, you know that?" He said, muffling his laughter behind his hand.

"I try," Minako grinned back at him, her eyes sparkling.

His laughter subsided after a moment, then he cupped her face with his hands and kissed her lips. He'd meant for it to be a light kiss, just a soft caress before they both could get back to sleep. But then her hands were wrapping around his neck and she kissed him back passionately, surprising him with her intensity. He was also surprised at how easily she could awaken his desire for her.

"Wow," he breathed out, as she bit down lightly on his lower lip.

"Might as well take advantage of the fact that we're both up," she grinned at him. "Pun intended." She wiggled her eyebrows provocatively at him as one of her hands wandered down his chest towards his waist and even lower.

He sucked his breath in sharply through his gritted teeth as she found her target. As his hands got tangled up in her golden hair and he kissed her back ardently, Seiya found himself agreeing with her. After all, they had agreed this would be for one night only, so they might as well enjoy it for all they could.

Later that day, Minako and Rei were the first ones to arrive at Crown Parlour for their meeting. This was arranged on purpose, as they wanted to update each other on what had happened the night before the other girls joined them. Or at least that was how Minako had put it.

"So? How did it go with Usagi?" Minako asked as soon as they were seated at their regular booth and their drinks had arrived.

"I reasoned with her," Rei sighed, gripping her coffee cup with both hands for a moment, grateful for the warmth it provided her in this cold, rainy day. "She knows what she has to do and it will be okay now, I think. But other than that, there's something else going on. I'll tell you when the other girls get here, I'm waiting a confirmation from Ami-chan. How about you? What happened with Seiya after we left?"

"I also reasoned with him," the blonde said, taking a sip of her juice. Unlike Rei, she didn't feel cold. In fact she felt quite hot and she suspected it had something to do with her past night's endervous. "I told him all about Usagi and Mamoru, and he understands his love is one-sided and impossible." She paused for a moment, her mouth wrapped around the straw of her drink. "Then I slept with him."

"Oh haha, very funny," Rei rolled her eyes at her, thinking this was one of Minako's weird attempts at humor to lighten up the situation.

"Wasn't joking," the blonde retorted with a raised eyebrow, though she refused to look at her friend and kept staring straight ahead.

Rei just sat for a few moments, unable to move and unsure of what to do. A part of her still insisted that this was Minako playing a prank on her or something along those lines. When Minako finally found her eyes and blushed slightly, Rei realized she was actually telling the truth.

"What?" Rei recovered the use of her vocal chords, her eyes going wide and round. "Are you serious?"

"Dead serious," Minako answered, and the pink stain on her cheeks became more pronounced.

"How did this happen?" Rei continued in the same disbelieving tone.

"Honestly, I was not planning this. It just happened," Minako said, shaking her head a little.

"It just happened?" Rei repeated, her voice going up a couple of octaves as she was still in shock over what she'd heard. "How does something like that just happen? For Heaven's sake, you were in the school building!"

"We didn't do it at the school, we went back to his apartment," Minako said defensively, raising an eyebrow at her friend. "What, do you think I have no common sense?"

"At the moment, I don't," Rei retorted heatedly, crossing her arms over her chest. "Minako, what were you thinking?"

"I wasn't," Minako admitted, some sense of despair coming through in her voice now. "I wanted to talk to him but he was completely soaked from the rain and I didn't want him to get sick, so we went back to his apartment so he could take a shower and get changed."

"Don't tell me you just decided to join him in the shower," Rei interrupted her, holding a palm up, her other hand going up to massage her temple as she felt the beginnings of a headache.

"Of course, not," Minako replied, sounding a little indignant. She decided to keep to herself the fact that she actually had joined him in the shower this morning before she left his apartment. "I waited, and then after he got changed I told him everything about Usagi and Mamoru, and how he couldn't interfere in their relationship. It was awful, Rei. Have you ever had to break someone's heart?"

Rei's expression softened at her words. She did know that out of the two of them Minako was the one who took responsibility for the hardest job yesterday. While she didn't relish the conversation she'd had with Usagi either, it should have been way easier than shattering someone's romantic intentions and dreams, especially someone who wasn't as close to her. At least Usagi was one of her best friends and they had such liberties with each other.

"No, I can't say that I have," Rei admitted, her voice going back to her normal tone now.

Minako nodded at her. "I have," she said, thinking back to when she had to battle Ace even though they claimed to love each other, or even in her previous life during the war and her confrontation with Kunzite. "I've broken hearts and had my heart broken. But this was the first time breaking a person's heart on behalf of someone else. Honestly, I thought it would have been a little easier, since I wasn't directly involved in the situation. But it wasn't."

Rei wanted to interject with something along the lines if that was the reason why she'd decided to get involved in the situation by sleeping with Seiya, but she held her tongue for the moment. She could see this was difficult enough for Minako so she tried to be as supportive as she could.

"I can imagine," the brunette said. "Talking about this with Usagi wasn't easy either, but I think it would be worse having that conversation with Seiya."

"Yeah," Minako nodded, smiling a little in appreciation back at her. "So we talked about feelings and impossible loves, and I don't know. I just wanted to offer some sort of comfort, I could see how he was having such a hard time with all of this. Then he kissed me and I kissed him back and we just… didn't stop." She knew it was a rather lame explanation, and she didn't say everything that she'd offered him, but that was something she decided to keep just between her and Seiya.

Rei kept looking attentively at her friend, trying to read what was behind her words and what she hadn't said. "Are you telling Usagi and the other girls?"

"Not unless I have to," Minako replied promptly. "It's not that I want to lie to them. I just don't want things to get even more complicated than they already are."

"Haruka would have a fit if she knew what you've done," Rei agreed, murmuring under her breath.

"Exactly," Minako nodded emphatically back at her. She also kept to herself her thoughts that even though Usagi couldn't be with him, Minako wasn't completely sure her princess didn't have feelings for him. Seiya was very charming and handsome, after all, and they had been spending at lot of time together.

"Are you in love with him?" Rei's next question came out before she could stop herself.

Minako opened her mouth to reply but for a moment nothing came out. Was she in love with Seiya? She didn't think so, at least she'd never had strong feelings for him before. The fact that she was attracted to him and that they had great chemistry together didn't necessarily translate into one being in love─she was not that naïve anymore; actually, maybe she'd never been that naïve, at least since she'd recovered her memories from her past life. She was also aware of his feelings for Usagi and she had her own complicated feelings for Yaten. Yet they had spent the past night together, barely sleeping as they couldn't keep their hands off each other. What did that mean? "Honestly, I have no idea," Minako finally sighed in reply, an answer to both Rei's question and her own inner musings.

Rei kept staring intently at her, and any person other than Minako may have squirmed uncomfortably at the way her eyes seemed to read her, but the blonde was used to it by now and she knew there was no use to resist against the psychic. She never knew when she was able to fool her or not. "Be careful, Minako," Rei said, something of a frown forming between her eyebrows.

"It's okay, we agreed it would be just a one night thing," Minako replied, waving her hand dismissively as if it were an inconsequential matter.

"That's not what I meant," Rei retorted.

"Don't worry, I'm not getting pregnant." The blonde said just as easily, taking another sip of her drink.

"That's not what I meant either!" Rei fumed in reply, but inside she was relieved to know her friend wasn't as irresponsible as she was sounding at the moment. "This is a very serious and delicate situation."

"I know," Minako replied. "I appreciate you worrying. I'll be careful, promise." She smiled at her and reached over, and Rei gave her a small smile and squeeze of the hand in return.

Just then, Minako noticed from the corner of her eye that Ami and Makoto were coming up the steps leading into Crown Parlour and about to walk in and join them. "One more thing? If anyone asks, I stayed over at your place last night." Rei rolled her eyes at this as if she'd already expected it but nodded in assent. "Thank you! Also Seiya gave me tickets to take all of us to today's show, so you can't say I never did anything for you," she added, winking at her and Rei just shook her head to herself, as Ami and Makoto came up and greeted them, joining them at their regular booth.