YuruYuri happened. RWBY happened. If I could split myself into three I'd be uploading so much fanfiction at the moment. Unfortunately I can't, so here's a thing I wrote.

CHAPTER THREE

Rei was the last to arrive. She pulled a book from her bag, dragged out a chair, plonked herself into it and started to read without offering so much as a hello. Two sets of eyes bored into her from across the table. She huffed.

"What?"

Makoto and Usagi said nothing but raised their eyebrows a fraction higher, urging her to spill the beans. Why did Ami have to work the one day Rei needed a wingman? She rolled her eyes. "It was okay. Let it go."

"Okay?" Makoto said and turned to a beaming Usagi. "This is serious."

"I told you," Usagi said with a smug nod, "she's going to marry him."

"I am not."

"She's not marrying him," Minako said. She was leaning against the wall near the underside of the stairs. Suddenly self-conscious, Rei sat straighter.

"I thought you were in the studio today," Rei said.

Minako shrugged nonchalantly. "I took the day off. No big deal." At the worry in Rei's expression—time off work was something the girls connected to her former illness—Minako smiled reassuringly. "Really. How was Crab Apple-san, anyway?"

"Nice," Rei said, though talking about him around Minako made her chest feel constricted. "He seems like a good man."

"Are you seeing him again?" Usagi gushed.

Rei glowered at her but from her lack of answer Minako stood from her leaning place, searching her eyes carefully.

"Are you?" she asked. She almost sounded concerned.

"He's a good man," Rei said again. "I liked spending time with him. In a way, I hope he arranges something else."

"Don't wait for him to do it," Makoto blurted. "Make the first move."

"No, no, Mako-chan. She should wait for him to do it," Usagi said. "Guys like it that way."

"Motoki doesn't—"

"But he's ten years older than you," Minako said, ignoring them, her gaze still fixed on Rei.

Rei shrugged. Again she felt hot and uncomfortable. For the life of her she couldn't figure out the reason but it almost hurt to look Minako in the eye. "Boys our age are ridiculous. Perhaps an age gap isn't the worst thing."

Minako looked ready to say something but Usagi and Makoto cut her off.

"What was he like?"

"What did you wear?"

"What did you talk about?"

From there Rei deflected most questions and tolerated more than her usual fill of banter. When she finally reached her limit, she successfully intimidated them into steering the conversation elsewhere. Minako was quiet after that – the odd atmosphere from before had settled again – yet when Rei muttered her goodbyes and made it to the street, she heard footsteps following behind her.

"Hey," Minako said. Rei folded her arms across her chest, decidedly defensive.

"If it's about Kaidou-san—"

"It's not," Minako said. "There's another reason I came by today: I wanted to ask a favour of you."

"So long as it's a favour of me, not Mars Reiko," Rei said with a meaningful look. Minako smiled, clasping her hands behind her back.

"No 'Mars Reiko'," she promised teasingly. "It's just that I might be going out of town soon. I was wondering if you would apartment-sit for me."

"You've never asked before."

A question was implied but Minako dodged it. "This may sound weird, but I don't like it being empty. When I come back it feels unlived in; then I don't feel I can live in it. Does that make sense?"

"As much sense as you ever make," Rei said, smiling in relief. Perhaps she had imagined Minako's odd behaviour. In fact, for Minako to trust her like this, perhaps they were closer than Rei had imagined.

"It's got all the gadgets," Minako joked. "Maybe you can pretend you live in the twenty-first century."

"It sounds indulgent and absurd," Rei said, "but I accept. I'm curious to see how the great Venus lives."

"She's staying here?" Artemis blurted in surprise.

"What's that face for?" Minako remarked haughtily. "I thought you'd approve. We're getting along. You wanted that from the start, right?"

"But coming to stay is…"

"What?" Minako asked, apparently ready for an objection. Artemis sighed. This was most definitely a scheme of some kind, one of his mistress's many dangerous whims, but arguing was pointless. Maybe all would become clear in the fallout. He stood and stretched.

"Nothing. I'm glad you're closer. It would be good for you to have a friend over, Minako; it's been a long time, after all."

With that he left through the window and Minako was alone. Truthfully even Minako didn't know why she had asked Rei over. When it transpired that the date had gone well she had felt compelled to do something, like something bad would happen if she didn't, so she had chased Rei and blurted her proposition without even knowing what it was until she heard it aloud.

She didn't even have any real commitments to justify an apartment-sitter; what was she supposed to do now, make something up then claim it was cancelled? Where would Rei even sleep? Minako had no spare room because she entertained no guests. The sofa? Her designer furniture was for show, not comfort. It would have to be the bed but something about that idea made Minako's blood rush.

It was a ridiculous plan. She enjoyed teasing Rei. Part of her wanted to see just how much trouble she could create for herself, to test precisely how far Rei would go for her sake and how angry she would get when she found out it was a lie. When fans took pictures, when Usagi threw herself at her, when the paparazzi knocked… Minako had so much attention, so much that it became unwanted, but from Rei she would settle for anything—a glower, a challenge, a full-blown fight—just to know Rei was focused solely on her; and what a gaze, steady and appraising and intense! Being seen by Rei Hino was all that seemed to matter these days. Sometimes Minako wondered if it went further back than even their first meeting, whether her eternal thirst for the spotlight had only ever been about Rei seeing her. Yet, even now, when Minako dominated the airwaves and was known across continents, Rei Hino still did not see her because Rei Hino did not watch TV. That was the irony of it, aching and twisting as it was.

Yes, the appeal to tease Rei was strong, but Minako resolved to temper the practical joker inside her. Their friendship was unstable, white-hot and fragile all at once. Minako feared she would puncture it, that it would bang one day and be gone. Inconveniencing Rei to that extent would be taking it too far. She should just call Rei and cancel this whole thing before she ended up in deep water. Reaching her decision, Minako picked up her phone and dialled her number.

It was engaged. Rei didn't talk a whole lot in person, let alone on the phone. People rarely ever called her. By now even Usagi knew it was better to text instead.

Kaidou had said he would call. Rei wanted him to call. Had he called her? Had she called him? Was she speaking to him at this very moment? Minako pictured them talking, Rei smiling a rare, gentle smile into the receiver as a man's voice made plans and suggestions, promised the world with nothing but a tone.

The thought hollowed her, poured oil in her chest and set it ablaze. Her pride sizzled and spat. Minako couldn't place why, not quite, not yet, but for a split-second… for a split-second she felt she had been robbed.