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.: This continues directly from the last chapter. Your reviews have all been greatly appreciated! As I'm still figuring out where this story is going, any feedback is welcome. :)

Something in the Rain

Chapter Four: Desperate

With Princess Kakyuu and her protectors joining in their celebration of the end of conflict with Galaxia, the civilian forms of the Inner, Outer and Starlight Senshi mingled and celebrated together, as old grudges or rivalries were left in the past after the ordeal of going through a war strengthened their bonds and the end of conflict put them all in such a good mood.

A few hours later, as Minako excused herself to use the bathroom for a moment, leaving the group at the table still in full celebration mode, a pair of bright green eyes interestedly followed her progress as she walked to the back of the cafe.

"I need to talk to you."

Minako nearly jumped out of her skin as she came out of the bathroom and looked behind her to find Yaten Kou leaning against the wall beside the door, his arms crossed, a soft frown between his eyebrows and his eyes closed. She tried to calm her rapidly beating heart and forced a smile into her voice.

"Yaten-kun," she said brightly, surprise evident in her voice though she managed to hide her nervousness. "I didn't see you there."

He opened his eyes and stared intently at her with those gem-like green eyes. For some reason the look he gave her put her on a high state of alert, as every fiber of her being warned her she needed to get out of there. "What's wrong? Why are you so serious? This is a celebration!" She smiled widely at him, infusing her voice and body language with warmth and energy, as she was wont to do, attempting to steer this unexpected interaction to a place where she could just get them back to the group and she could hopefully avoid him for the rest of the day.

"A celebration, right," he murmured, uncrossing his arms and taking a step closer to her.

"We should get back there, I think I can convince Setsuna to order us all a round of champagne, she's done this sort of thing for us before," the blonde said with laughter in her voice, instinctively taking a step back from him as he approached her.

His frown became more pronounced at this and he hesitated for a moment, then he just sighed to himself. "I don't have time for this," he murmured, as he suddenly wrapped his hand around her wrist and unceremoniously pulled her out of the small hallway leading into the cafe's bathrooms, all but dragging her out towards the exit.

"Yaten-kun!" She exclaimed at him as she stumbled a little and was forced to follow him out, her eyes growing wide at his sudden change in attitude.

As they walked out of Crown Parlour, standing on the landing before the stairs leading down to the street level, a little ways away before the automatic sliding glass doors, Yaten released her wrist and turned around to face her. "I really need to talk to you," he said, as his frown remained in place between his eyebrows.

"What's wrong?" She frowned at him as well now, absentmindedly rubbing her thumb softly over the wrist he'd grabbed.

"I need to know why," he said without preamble, his peridot green eyes staring intently into her blue ones. "I know you said─"

"Stop," she said, her voice coming out louder and more forceful than she had anticipated. Yaten hadn't expected it either, so much so that he abruptly stopped talking. She looked furtively around them for a moment, then she took a step closer to him, as she hissed nervously, "I don't want to talk about this."

Minako turned around, intending to get back inside Crown Parlour and back to her friends and their celebration, but Yaten's arm quickly shot out again and he grabbed her wrist once more, effectively keeping her in place. "Wait," he said, his tone coming out almost pleadingly. "I really need to talk to you about this."

She kept her back to him, shaking her head softly to herself. "And it's always been about what you need, right?" She threw back at him over her shoulder without looking at him.

"I know I'm being selfish right now," he admitted, his voice softening somewhat. "But I'll leave tomorrow and I may never see you again, so it's the proverbial now or never."

"How about never?" She looked sharply back at him, her blue eyes flashing dangerously as she met his eyes once more.

He was shaking his head now, the silver locks of his fringe falling softly into his eyes. "Stop being so dramatic," he said, his voice returning to his usual harsher tones. "You're going to have to deal with this as well, sooner or later."

"God, you're so─" she turned angrily back to face him, but stopped herself before she could go any further. She took a breath in and said, more calmly now. "You really have no idea what you're talking about, so how about we just leave it at that before you say something both of us will regret?"

"I can't," he said, some sense of desperation coming out in his voice then. "You really think I want to do this right now? Believe me, I would like nothing more than to leave you be and never see you again, but I know I can't just leave without talking to you about this. It will eat me alive if I do, and I think it will eat at you, too."

"I'm not that fragile," she spat back at him, her eyes still furiously blazing. "I've been through this before and I turned out just fine."

"Yeah, somehow I really don't believe that," he raised a sardonic eyebrow at her words.

"What is that supposed to mean?" She blushed an angry red at this.

"You may act and put on a front that everything is alright," Yaten retorted, his face coming closer to hers as he stared intently into her eyes. "You're always putting on a show, laughing and trying so hard to convince everyone, including yourself, that everything is just fine. But deep inside what you feel is a different story."

Minako gasped at what he said, her eyes growing wide and her angry blush draining away suddenly, as her face then became pale white. "How─?" Her lips tried to form out the question, but the words died out halfway through.

"Your friends Rei and Michiru aren't the only ones with special sensory abilities," Yaten said with something of a bittersweet smile.

Minako wrenched her arm free of his hand then, as she suddenly felt keenly aware of the fact that he was still in contact with her wrist, feeling her skin growing hot. He raised an eyebrow at this, but kept his arms to himself, crossing them over his chest once more. "A psychic?" She simply asked, her lips trembling a little.

"An empath," he explained just as simply.

Minako shook her head to herself, absentmindedly turning to her left as her legs carried her down the steps leading from the entrance to Crown Parlour back to the street below. Yaten frowned at this and followed, remaining a couple of steps behind her. "Where are you going?" He asked, catching up to her in a few long strides as she just kept walking, turning now to cross the street.

"It's not exactly the brightest idea to just stand in the middle of the streets of Tokyo talking about special abilities or battles against evil forces in broad daylight," she said, as they crossed the street and kept on walking. Soon the entrance for one of the nearby parks came into view and she turned sharply in.

"Honestly, I don't get why you're so upset about this," Minako said, as they turned down a winding path and came upon a more secluded area of the park. "You've already asked me why before. I told you so."

"Right," Yaten said, frowning and repeating her words back to her. "'Sailor Moon and the Starlights are important to us.'"

"That's right," she said, nodding stiffly at him, as she turned around to face him. "It was an impulse decision. Your lives were in danger, we needed to do something about it. We did what we could."

"Yeah," he once more crossed his arms over his chest. "That's what I'm having trouble with. Why would you do something like this, why sacrifice yourself for us."

"Look, if you're having trouble with this you should be talking to Mako-chan, not me," Minako retorted, also crossing her arms. "She's the one who stood in front of you, you know."

"Bullshit," he called out at once, narrowing his eyes at her.

"Excuse me?" She raised an affronted eyebrow at this.

"Cut the crap, Aino," Yaten said, uncrossing his arms and gesturing with his hands at her. "I was watching your every move. I could almost see how you calculated everything. Mercury had already been moving towards Maker, but she only made it in time because you pushed her. Then you pulled Jupiter in front of me as you stood before Fighter. Yet not once did you think about Eternal Sailor Moon, you didn't even glance her way."

"Oh my God," she exclaimed exasperatedly, her hands also gesturing wildly in front of her as she grew frustrated with the argument. "I didn't have to glance at her, I knew Mars would be there for her. We have an unspoken agreement for this. She will be the one to jump in front of her, always!"

"Okay," he nodded at her explanation. "So then why did I feel so much conflict within you then? As if you felt the need to be at two places at same time?"

"This is unbelievable," she murmured, pinching the bridge of her nose in frustration, before returning to gesturing with her hands once more. "You're seriously arguing with me over this? I was freaking throwing my life on the line there! I didn't have time to think through what I was feeling, not even what I was doing. I just did it because this is what I do. Don't flatter yourself, as it's not the first time I've done this. It comes with the job, so it doesn't mean anything!"

Minako paused then, realizing she had started to shout at him and noticing how heavily she was breathing, as her shoulders nearly shook as she took deep breaths in. Yaten took a step forward, invading her personal space once more as those goddamn green eyes stared intently at her.

"Really? It doesn't mean anything?" He repeated, almost glaring at her with his fixed stare. "Then why are you so upset right now?"

"You're making me go through all of it," she said through gritted teeth as she held her ground and held his gaze unwaveringly. "I didn't want to think about it right now; preferably never, to be honest. This is supposed to be a day of joyful celebration, we're all here and alive again, but you insist on hashing it out, the whys and the hows and the whats! I don't want to have to think about it, how I've died yet again to save someone else!"

"I'm sorry," he said, frowning softly at her then, momentarily rendering her speechless. She'd never heard Yaten Kou apologizing to anyone before and it was so unexpected that it took the wind out of her a little. "Look, you're right," he continued, averting his eyes for a moment. "I'm being a selfish bastard by pushing all of this. In the end I just wanted to understand what made you do what you did. And thank you for it." As he finished talking, his eyes turned back to hers.

They stood in silence for a few moments, a gentle breeze blowing at them, making their long hairs swish out around them. Minako now felt incredibly awkward at this softer and rather vulnerable side that Yaten was showing her and she didn't quite know how to handle it. "Uh, you're welcome, then. I guess." She said at last, shifting her weight from one foot to another.

Yaten nodded at her in appreciation. As he kept staring into her eyes, his soft frown returned to his eyebrows. "You really think that?" He asked, his voice barely a whisper, but he stood so close to her now that she could hear him very clearly.

"What?" She said, and for some reason those words made her heart start beating even faster than before. She wanted to take a step back, but found his eyes kept her in place as if he were actually holding her there.

"That we're important?" He asked, yet again some sense of vulnerability seeping into his voice. "That I'm important to you?"

Minako knew she could've diverted this question, talking again about the duties of a Sailor Senshi, how she'd done this before and it was no big deal and how sparing him for the battle ahead had been strategically more important. But as she looked into his eyes, almost drowning in his sea of green, she whispered back to him. "You're the empath. Can't you tell?"

Yaten widened his eyes a little at her words, but after a moment he put his hands on her shoulders and just stared into her with so much concentration that it almost made her tremble. Minako could almost feel as he metaphorically delved into her, looking deep into her crevices and nooks, peeling away her layers of mental barriers, armours and masks that she used to protected herself. She felt essentially bare before those eyes, as if she stood naked in front of him and he could see her for her actual, true self. No tricks, no diversions. Just pure and raw feelings.

She barely reacted then when his hands suddenly came up, framing her face delicately as he leaned forward, closing the gap between them as their eyes automatically fluttered closed. She felt her breath hitching up in her throat when his lips touched hers, so soft and just brushing lightly against her own. As she kissed him back, feeling the pressure of his lips under hers, her arms encircled him at the waist and her hands grabbed at his shirt of their own volition.

He instinctively reacted to her touches, tipping her head back as the first kiss was succeeded by another and another and another. She bit lightly at his lower lip and gasped when he deepened the kiss. One of his hand got tangled up in her hair and another encircled her back as he pulled her closer to him, their kisses becoming hot, frantic and desperate all of a sudden, lips pulling and tasting each other is if there was no tomorrow.

"No," she suddenly gasped out, pulling her lips away from his, her hands pushing out at his chest as she took a few steps backwards. Minako breathed heavily and glared at him then, as angry tears formed in her eyes. "I don't need this, I don't want this right now! Not when when you're in love with someone else, not when you're about to leave, not when you're just doing this because you think I sacrificed myself to save you!"

"That's not what I'm─" Yaten started to protest, taking a step towards her and reaching a hand out to her, his eyes going wide at her reaction.

"Really? Isn't it?" Minako interrupted him, raising a hand up to keep him away from her. "For months I've tried everything to catch your eye, to impress you, to make you look at me as someone who─!" She interrupted herself, shaking her head despondently. "This, right now? This is just you reacting to my dying and learning I have feelings for you. This isn't real. This isn't helping me. It's too painful and it's not what I want."

"Minako…" He said, his voice broken and a soft frown forming once more, as his eyes also glistened over with sadness.

If she had stopped to think about it, Minako would've realized it was the first time Yaten called her by her name.

"Please, just… Just leave me alone," she concluded, shaking her head as she walked past him towards the exit of the park, a few silent tears escaping her eyes and running down her face.

Yaten stood in the same spot, feeling somewhat petrified and the hand he'd tried to reach out to her slowly falling down beside him, his hands balling into shaking fists after a moment.

Minako blindly left the park and gained the streets of Tokyo once more, her feet automatically taking her through familiar paths back towards Crown Parlour. A few silent tears still coursed down her face as she felt quite overwhelmed over what had just happened. She tried to get a hold of herself, to lock down her feelings once more as she usually did, but wasn't very successful. As she approached the stairs leading up to the cafe, she stopped by the sidewalk, wiping her tears away.

"Minako?" She heard someone calling down the steps. As she blinked up, tears still clouding her view she saw Seiya coming down to her level. "What's wrong? What happened?" He stood in front of her and frowned concernedly.

"Nothing," she smiled wanly at him, trying her best to disguise her tears with her smile. "I'm fine. It was nothing."

"It doesn't look like nothing," he insisted, peering attentively down at her.

Her lips trembled as her thin smile vanished away and she hid behind her hands as fresh tears started coursing down her face. Seiya put his hands on her shoulders and tried to calm her down, whispering soothing nothings by her ear, yet after a moment he realized his words only seemed to fuel on more of her tears.

As they stood in the sidewalk and she kept on crying, he didn't quite know what to do. For a moment Seiya considered going upstairs and getting Usagi or maybe Rei to help him out, but he didn't want to leave her by herself and he also didn't want to bring her up to the cafe in front of everybody like this. Thinking quickly, he hailed down an oncoming cab and in a few moments they were in the back seat of the car as he told the driver to just drive.

It was a few minutes before Minako calmed down as she seemed to run out of tears to cry. She'd leaned on Seiya's shoulder as her tears kept falling onto his shirt, his arm wrapped around her shoulder and his hand gently caressing her hair. As her sobs subsided they remained in silence for a few moments as the streets of Tokyo zoomed past them out the windows.

"Are you feeling better?" Seiya asked quietly as he peered down at her.

"Yeah," she whispered back at him, feeling a bit emotionally drained. She had not expected anything that happened once Yaten had started talking to her and she had no idea why she'd reacted this way. She was usually so good at controlling her emotions, it was the first time she'd broken down like this.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Seiya asked, as he absentmindedly kept on running his fingers through her hair in a soothing manner.

"I really don't," Minako sighed in response.

"Are you sure? Maybe I can help," Seiya insisted a little.

Minako was sure. She didn't want to talk about it and she didn't want to think about it. Most of all she didn't want to feel the way she felt anymore. Well, if Seiya wanted to help there were things they could do other than talk.

As she lifted her head from his shoulder and looked up into his eyes, finding genuine caring and concern for her in the depth of his blues, she reached up to his face with her hand and brought his lips down to hers. He was surprised for a moment as their lips softly met, but then he kissed her back, the two of them easing into the act as if it were an old habit.

Minako snaked her arms around him, revelling in the feeling of his kisses and touches and how he could rouse in her some sort of primal response that was pure desire. Their chemistry was undeniable and this was exactly what she wanted right now. There were no confused feelings or expectations between the two of them, it was simple as that. He was like a balm on her frayed nerves, and she felt herself getting lost in this feeling as she deepened their kisses and grabbed with some force at the hair on the back of his neck.

"Wow," he breathed out, his lips still pressed up against hers. "What is going on?"

"Take me somewhere, anywhere," she breathed out, her lips and tongue making a path towards his neck as she then whispered against his ear. "I don't want to talk about it, I don't want to think about it. All I want to feel is you."

Feeling quite intoxicated with the feeling of her, as her lips found his once more and demanded his full attention and one of her hands snaked under his shirt, her nails scratching down his back, Seiya briefly disengaged his mouth from hers, directing the taxi driver to Roppongi and one of the luxury hotels in the area. Really, there was no better time to take advantage of the fact that he was a rich and famous pop idol.

References: I know Setsuna buying them champagne may seem weird for some people, but she does something like it in the side-story manga, The Lover of Princess Kaguya─she seems more outgoing and cool like that in the manga, in general.