MINAKO
Minako was having a great day. And this time, her day had barely started.
Sure, plenty of things could go terribly wrong in the next 12 to 14 hours she would be awake.
But things could also go terribly right.
Minako couldn't help the excited shiver that fluttered up her back.
If there was one thing about Minako Aino that could be taken as absolute truth, it was that Minako knew she was hot.
For the love of the gods she had long long legs that were "toned as fuck," as she had put it, from years of volleyball conditioning. Her hair basically floated around her like a halo and every single person who'd ever looked deeply into her eyes had fallen madly in love with her.
She'd even go so far to say that while she didn't have BIG tits, they were still very good tits. A respectable size that didn't inconvenience her during volleyball, but still left her something to work with when she wanted to show off.
Minako knew she was hot. This was an absolute truth.
But did Rei Hino know that Minako was hot? That therein was truly the problem.
From what Minako could tell so far, the short answer was yes, yes Rei Hino knew that Minako was hot.
It was possible Rei thought that Minako was an idiot, but even if she did, Minako hadn't missed the way the other woman's jaw flexed and her eyes darkened when she looked at her. A hot idiot, perhaps.
Minako knew that it was probably almost certainly a bad idea to shamelessly flirt with her roommate she'd just met less than 24 hours ago. She hadn't decided yet if that one was an absolute truth.
She also didn't even know if Rei was into women. Though, in all fairness, one did not need to be into women to be into Minako Aino (an absolute truth).
Outside of these absolute truths and general vibe that Rei was at least a little bit attracted to her, Minako knew that Rei hadn't pulled away when she'd linked their arms together.
Minako knew that Rei smelled like lavender and honey.
She knew that when she'd pulled Rei even closer, she had been afraid Rei could see her heart leaping in her throat.
She knew that Rei had damn near made a beeline for the register to escape her. That one had hurt a bit.
And Minako knew that Rei had been more interested in some stupid challenge (that Minako would, in fact, be winning) than thanking her for breakfast. That hadn't necessarily hurt, but it was rather impolite.
If she was keeping score (she was), Minako would say that her actions definitely had Rei bothered, but her goal had been hot and bothered, not just bothered.
That brought her to where she was now: gliding out onto Main Street carrying two bagels and debating if it'd be easier to convince Rei to eat breakfast with her uptown or on one of the provided couches in their otherwise furniture-less apartment.
On one hand, their apartment provided valuable air conditioning and privacy. On the other hand, Rei had bought them at least an hour of time to dick around uptown and Minako could easily turn this into a date if she really tried.
Minako smirked to herself. She was up to the challenge.
"Do you want to eat at one of the tables in the square?" Minako pointed a bagel toward a central area across the street and about a block away from Papa Main's.
From where they were standing, Minako could make out some park benches and picnic tables set up near a couple fountains and a field of grass that led up to a small stage.
Rei grunted something that Minako took to mean yes and Minako handed her the bagel labeled with an 'R.'
"You're welcome, by the way," Minako said in a teasing tone. Being hot and standoffish did not excuse one from being kind and courteous to their equally hot and beautiful roommate.
Rei actually blushed at that. Cute.
"Thank you, Minako." Even through the sunglasses Rei had slipped on, Minako could feel the way her eyes pierced through her.
Something about the way the other woman said her name had Minako in a feral state.
They made their way down the street and Minako tried to take note of the different shops, bars, and food spots they passed.
One of the more famous bars for students to go to was right across from Papa Main's. The bar, though realistically it was more of a club, was very unoriginally named Main Street.
Metal gates were set up outside the bar to help filter the lines of college students Minako could imagine queued up at all hours of the evening each week.
Above the doors was an old marquee sign. Where normally the sign would spell out new movies and popcorn deals, this one read, 'BEAT THE CLOCK TOMORROW' and 'UNDER 21 COVER FEE $8 CASH ONLY.'
If she inhaled too hard, she could almost catch a whiff of desperate frat boy mingling with hot beer. Hmmm. She didn't actually need to breathe that hard to smell it. All of uptown had the faint, underlying smell of youthful bad decisions.
Although Stella Nova was fairly isolated from the nearest city or suburb, it was known for being quite the party school. Main Street was just one of many bars uptown that turned into nightclubs past the hour of 7:00 PM.
Minako found she rather liked the idea of being packed like a sardine on the dance floor, sweaty and pressed up against a certain roommate.
She knew she had a good ass (subjective) and knew just how to move her hips to make anyone drool over her (absolute truth).
If she could just get Rei to the bars…
Speaking of Rei, Minako realized she'd gotten sidetracked from her more immediate goals.
In her distraction, Rei had managed to get ahead of her.
Minako had always considered herself a fast walker. It certainly helped that she had long legs, but Minako gave more credit to the fact she'd always been a competitive child. Years of rushing to be first in line or first out the door at the bell had honed her into a fast walking machine.
If Minako was a machine, Rei was a fucking monster. Minako was ashamed to admit that she had to jog a little to catch up to the other woman.
She caught up to Rei just as they reached a cute looking boutique.
Something shiny in the window display caught Minako's attention and, instinctively, she darted her free hand out and yanked Rei to a stop.
"What the–" Rei growled, her hand clasping around Minako's wrist.
"Sorry, I saw something cool," Minako said, though she wasn't all that sorry. Her free hand continued to tug at the back of Rei's sweatshirt.
Rei's hand tightened around her wrist and her eyes flashed. "Minako, let go."
Minako's knees nearly buckled. No one had any business being that hot when they were angry.
As a child, many of her report cards had described her as 'overly chatty' and 'often challenges authority figures,' which was a really polite way of saying she'd been an absolute menace.
In her defense, teachers who were dreadfully boring deserved to be talked over, and she'd only called Dr. Nehelenia a bitch because she used to mock her students publically for being slow to figure out math problems.
A more appropriate report card would have been, 'has a strong sense of justice' or 'stands up to those who abuse their authority.'
Never mind the fact that she was seven and probably shouldn't have known the word 'bitch' to begin with.
All of this was to say that Minako had a checkered history with those who barked orders and expected to be obeyed without question.
She was competitive, she saw authority as something to be challenged and taken for herself.
But here she was, staring into furious amethyst eyes and thinking she was about to fold on the spot.
Minako couldn't help the smirk that slid across her face. Rather than let go, she narrowed the gap between them for the second time that day.
Leaning into Rei's ear, she whispered, "Don't take that tone with me unless you plan to make good on it."
Rei stiffened and dropped Minako's wrist like she was suddenly on fire.
Minako laughed and made her way to continue down the block, the boutique store forgotten.
Those flutters from before were back and her cheeks were flushed. Luckily, Rei was still behind her, frozen in place.
Deep breaths, Minako. Don't get impatient.
Rei still hadn't caught up to her by the time she reached the corner of the block and the pedestrian signal started to count down from ten.
Minako rubbed a hand over her neck, willing her pulse to settle.
Nine.
She was suddenly very aware of the sun beaming down on her. She'd thrown on an oversized t-shirt and denim shorts for their excursion uptown, but now it felt like too much.
Eight.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Rei finally start to make her way toward the crosswalk.
Seven.
It felt as if the temperature increased tenfold with each step Rei took toward her.
Six.
Was she actually fucking sweating?
When the countdown reached five, Rei was beside her, and she was two steps onto the road by four.
Minako blinked in surprise and hustled off the curb.
The pedestrian signal was already clearly set to stop and cross traffic had the green light by the time the two of them made it to the other side.
While Minako gestured an apologetic thank you to the nearest car, Rei was unbothered.
Although they'd just met the previous day, Minako could already recognize the stiffness in her shoulders. Despite that, Rei had a smooth elegance to her that Minako imagined was well suited to royalty.
She held her head high, as if to look down upon those who crossed her path, and there was a coldness to her aura that felt somehow untouchable. Lonely, even.
Minako felt the urge to once again reach out her arm, not to stop her, but to walk alongside her.
Before she could act on that urge, Rei pivoted to meet her gaze. Her eyes were guarded, but her mouth still twisted into a half smile.
"Over there, good?" Rei jerked her thumb toward one of the tables nestled under a small line of trees. One of the only tables protected by the shade.
Minako nodded, mind still lost somewhere between flirting, the heat, and a sudden wave of empathy, all of it somehow traced back to Rei.
Minako was no stranger to flirting, it came to her as easily as breathing. But Rei made her dizzy in ways she didn't understand, like she'd thrown all her emotions in a blender and left the lid open.
She was excellent at reading people (absolute truth), but there were moments with Rei that felt less like reading the other woman's emotions and more like diving headfirst into them.
She worried that if she looked too long into Rei's eyes, she'd forget which emotions were her own. The space between where Minako began and Rei ended would become clouded, tangled beyond recognition.
She was two bites into her bagel before she realized she hadn't said a word since the boutique shop window.
Setting her confusion aside, she decided that simply wouldn't do.
Minako Aino was not so easily silenced.
"Curry is one of my favorite foods, you know," she said through a mouthful of food.
Brilliant, Minako, how dignified of you.
Rei arched an eyebrow and made some sort of noise resembling, "Mhm."
"And yours is…?" Minako twirled her finger at Rei. "If we're going to be roommates, we should at least know the bare minimums about each other."
Rei met her suggestion with a glare, but answered, "Hot pot and Thai food."
Minako smiled. She could work with this.
"My favorite color is orange."
"Red."
Minako eyed her up and down, at least as much as she could see with the table in the way. Red definitely suited her.
"Coffee or tea?" At that, Rei scoffed.
"Tea."
Minako chuckled. "Normally I would say coffee, but I've recently discovered lavender tea."
A ghost of a smile flitted across Rei's lips and Minako felt her pulse start quicken again.
Gods save her if that's what the smallest acknowledgement could do to her.
"Favorite TV show as a kid?" Minako had to admit she'd been a 'Blue's Clues' fan. She loved a little mystery.
"I didn't have a TV until I was in high school," Rei said with a shrug.
Minako's mouth dropped open. "Oh so you're actually a boomer. I bet you read newspapers and talk about how 'kids these days are so lazy.'"
Her teasing earned her another glare, but the tension had started to fade from Rei's shoulders.
The back and forth continued for a few more questions, most of them trivial details, but Minako didn't want to push any subjects that might close off any future conversation.
They had both finished their bagels by that point, but neither had made any move to get up.
"So why'd you move in so early? I'm guessing it's also a sport?" Minako figured it would be unfair if she knew too many things about Rei that the other woman didn't offer up.
Knowing herself, she'd probably blab something Rei had never told her and then she'd have to admit to knowing who she was related to and that Ami had googled her, and that just wasn't really a great vibe for her.
Rei nodded. "Soccer, you?"
It was the first time she'd actually reciprocated a question instead of waiting for Minako to carry the conversation.
So she likes to talk about sports. Go figure.
"Volleyball, haven't you seen these legs?" She waved an arm in a grand gesture to her legs despite them being tucked under the table.
The other woman's gaze followed the path of her arm regardless and Minako smirked.
At that, Rei's eyes darted away from her. So fucking cute.
"Have your practices started yet?" Rei asked, sounding genuinely interested.
"Nope, not until tomorrow. Today's just physicals at 11:00, though honestly I'm already dying to get on the court." Minako's feet danced under the table as if in agreement. "When do you guys start practices?"
"Monday. Was supposed to be today, but our head coach got caught up in Florida. Something about a tropical storm delaying a bunch of flights."
Minako nearly fainted. That was possibly the longest sentence she had ever heard Rei speak.
"Did you say you have physicals at 11:00?" Rei's voice was sharp.
"Yeah…" A sudden fear crept into Minako's voice.
"Minako, it's 10:48."
"Fuck."
Indeed, plenty of things could go terribly wrong in the next 12 to 14 hours she would be awake.