MINAKO

Minako was having a great day. She'd had her first meeting with all of the coaches, staff, and new teammates in the training facility and she was already itching to play.

Sitting in the second floor conference room, looking out over the courts through the glass wall, she'd felt a rush of anticipation.

This was her next goal, her next mountain to climb. She knew that as a first year, she'd have to fight tooth and nail for any amount of playing time.

Glancing at the other women slowly filtering into the room, she'd resolved to prove to them all that she was their next breakout star.

The meeting itself had gone well, though Minako was too busy observing the individuals in the room to care about her new coach's warnings about appropriate behavior off the court and failing classes.

Minako recognized a few of the players from last year's roster and her visits to the school, particularly their setter and captain, a junior named Natsuna Sakurada, who had apparently been the first of the vets to vouch for her. Natsuna had even tried to recruit Minako to her club team when they were both still in high school.

The main reason Minako had chosen Millennium University, however, was their coach.

Haruka Tenoh had been something of a local (and national legend). She'd set the all-time record for blocks and service aces for an outside hitter at the university, led the team to back to back championship appearances, and she'd been called up to the national team a few times before back to back ACL tears had forced her into early retirement.

As soon as Haruka had graduated, she'd turned around and asked the university for the newly vacated head coach position, allegedly telling the director of athletics that she still owed the university a championship win.

While she owed Natsuna for putting her on the university's radar, Haruka was the one who truly bought into Minako's value on the court.

At 5'9" (175 cm), Minako was on the shorter end for opposite hitters. She was fast and had a stellar vertical that put her on par with anyone else in the air, but her true strength was reading people. Even in her peripheral, Minako had a sixth sense for knowing where her teammates and opponents were at all times, as well as predicting their behaviors in a split second.

Her sense went beyond just knowing where to hit the ball to give her the best chance of scoring if the ball came to her, she was able to collect information and patterns that allowed her to constantly adapt to the other team's rhythm and break it.

The blonde was an all around threat on the court, able to exploit any and every weakness on offense, and ridiculously difficult to beat on defense. She would throw herself at the ball like a rabid dog and in the same beat she'd be back on her feet for the attack. In the same way she could identify the smallest gap in a triple block, she could read where the enemy hitters wanted to go, and exactly how her teammates would react to the ball.

Minako was the perfect player for Haruka's style of coaching that relied on tight defense and a flexible offense built around perfect team communication.

Haruka didn't care if she towered over everyone else on the court, she cared that Minako could make plays that uplifted her teammates and herself.

After the meeting, she'd stuck around to introduce herself personally to the assistant coaches and chat with Natsuna. The veteran had promised to give her a quick tour of the training facility even though the team had an official tour scheduled for tomorrow morning before their physical evaluations.

The second floor was largely coaches' offices and conference rooms where teams could gather to review film and draw up gameplans, as well as a few cubicle areas sectioned off for the dedicated student athletes who couldn't bear the seven minute walk to the library.

The first floor had three courts with both basketball and volleyball lines. Next to the courts and sectioned off by yet another giant glass wall was a massive gym area, equipped with state of the art workout equipment and available to all athletes.

Natsuna had laughed at the way Minako nearly drooled over the gym. "Pretty sweet, ain't she?" she said, clapping a hand between Minako's shoulders.

The blonde could only nod and stare in wide-eyed amazement.

The changing rooms, showers, rehab, and wellness facilities were in the basement. Natsuna had introduced her to a few of the physical trainers who would be doing the team evaluations the next day before she had to excuse herself to go to a meeting with the coaches.

Minako had returned to the first floor and was ogling the gym when one of the assistant trainers, Minako thought her name was Usagi, tapped her on the shoulder. "You're welcome to use the gym as long as you don't do anything crazy."

Her hair was pulled up into two loose buns that gave her a girlish vibe despite them being the roughly same age. The loose strands danced around her shoulders as she grabbed Minako's wrist and guided her into the gym.

"Even before our official evaluations?" As tempted and impulsive as Minako was, she wasn't about to start off on the wrong foot with her coaches or the staff.

Usagi giggled. "The evaluations are so the trainers can come up with individual programs for you and get some baseline knowledge of your health."

She had walked over to the larger open area of the gym, bouncing lightly on her feet. "Besides, if I monitor your workout, I can get a better idea of what you're capable of before everyone else."

Minako had thought about declining the offer, but Usagi was already starting her dynamic warmup and who was Minako to reject a potential workout buddy?

It was a quick workout, but it was enough for Minako to expend some of the excess energy she'd built up. Plus, she'd made a friend and the two of them exchanged phone numbers after a visit to the athlete dining hall.

Minako hummed as she began the trek back towards Serenity Suites.

She deserved a pat on the back – she'd hardly thought about her hot new roommate the entire time she'd been at meetings. Certainly hadn't thought about Rei, just a little bit sweaty, thrusting pieces of bed frame into her hands and directing her to "hold still" with that sharp, no nonsense tone instead of reading over her practice schedule for the week.

And she definitely hadn't imagined herself bent over the matching desk that Rei had insisted she could build on her own during her cooldown run.

As far as Minako was concerned, Rei was absolutely not living rent-free in her brain. Especially not her toned forearms or her hands that looked rough from some form of work.

Two boys held the door open for her when she reached her building, soccer players by the looks of them. They were too lean to be football players, but their builds had a solidity to them that didn't match the cross country boys she'd seen on her way to the team meeting.

She thanked them with a nod and darted inside.

Taking the steps two at a time, Minako decided she needed a shower before continuing to unpack. She was nearly finished with her closet and she'd found most of her shower necessities. However, if the apartment still hadn't cooled off in the time she'd been gone, she considered that her shower might have to wait until she was truly done for the day.

It wasn't until she was five steps from the door that Minako realized she'd made a fatal error.

She'd left her keycard inside the apartment.

Cursing under her breath, Minako rapped her knuckles on the door. As much as she might have enjoyed an excuse to get Rei's attention, she didn't need her hot new roommate thinking she was a complete idiot.

When the aforementioned roommate didn't appear in the doorway, Minako knocked again, this time with her fist. She realized the odds were low that she'd disturb any neighbors and opted for a flurry of incessant knocks.

Still nothing. Minako's heart fell in her chest.

Rei wasn't home.

Great.

Minako threw her back against the wall dramatically and slid to the floor. She cast a hopeful glance down the hallway as if to conjure Rei into existence, but it was tragically empty.

Pulling her phone out, she figured she might as well update their other roommates on the situation. She shot them a quick text to let them know that she'd already met Rei and that their room arrangement was still in place before switching over to some mindless puzzle game.

A few minutes later, her phone buzzed with a reply from Ami asking if Minako had gotten Rei's phone number to add her to the group.

Minako blinked twice and nearly slammed her head back against the wall. Maybe she was a complete idiot. Though she doubted a call from her would make Rei return any faster.

She decided that for the sake of her dignity, she would pretend like she hadn't seen the message yet and she would not, in fact, be updating Ami and Makoto on her actual current situation.

Some 40 or so minutes later, the electronic lock behind her buzzed and startled Minako to her feet. She jerked her head toward the door and the green light flashing on the lock.

What the fuck?

She turned her head at the sound of approaching footsteps. Rei was near the end of the hall, a frown tugging at her lips.

Minako eyed the door, then Rei, then the door again, registering too late that the green flashes had turned to red.

She caught the sound of an irritated huff from Rei's direction and the door buzzed a second time, the green lights returning.

Aware of what was happening finally, Minako grabbed the handle and pushed her way into the suite, Rei a step behind her.

"How did you do that?" Minako asked incredulously.

Rei rolled her eyes. "We have remote access to all electronic locks on our phones." She waved her phone screen in Minako's direction. "This was covered at orientation."

Minako shrugged. "I'm too hot to remember details like that."

Rei's lips pressed together in a thin line, but Minako noted that she didn't make a move to actually disagree.

"Speaking of details…" Minako swore she was good at conversation most of the time, "I need your phone number so I can add you to the roommate group chat." She offered her own phone to Rei.

The raven narrowed her eyes suspiciously, but took the device.

When she handed the device back, Minako quickly switched to the camera on her phone and slid into Rei's space. Before Rei could put distance between them, Minako had snapped a deeply unflattering picture of her with the 0.5 lens.

"Thank you, Rei Hino." Minako let the name roll off her tongue and chuckled evilly. "I'll be in the shower if you need me."

Gods, she wished she did.

A/N: Some lore about me: my username was inspired by the story, 'Author Alert,' on here by JetWolf. Definitely worth giving it a read.