Hi, people. I know, it's been a whole… um… long time since my last update, but I've been a good girl and done all my revision and exams, so now I'm all freed up! All I need is a good kick up the backside to finish this, so if you give me a little feedback it might help me get my inspiration get back on track.

Glad people have enjoyed the last few instalments. So, this is Chapter Seven – and the flashback includes a very special GUEST APPEARANCE! Because, let's face it, children, Rei may not be the kind of girl to own a pick-up, but we all know who would… In fact, I tell you who it is in the first paragraph. It's probably on the stretch of page you're reading right now. There's really no point in entertaining any suspense at all, to be honest.

So, let's begin…

Bishoujo Fall Hardest: The Gig

Chapter Seven: Self Esteem

Rei approached the vehicle slowly at first, before slipping into a brisk walk, eventually arriving at and peering through the window of the familiar vehicle. On the backseat of the double-cabin, she watched a young woman stir in her sleep, curled up under a thin blanket.

"Mako-chan?"

---

"Sit down. I'll get you some cocoa or something."

Makoto smiled gratefully as Rei swept past her, and called over her shoulder. "Thanks for letting me stay here, Rei. It really means a lot."

"Not at all," came the echoed reply from the kitchen. "I'm not going to leave one of my best friends sleeping outside like a tramp. Besides, it'd be bad for business."

Mako grinned broadly and waited for the miko to hand her the steaming mug, before the other girl took a seat opposite her. She clasped her hands in silence, watching intently as her guest took a sip. Finally, the taller girl settled on a sheepish expression.

"I guess the next thing to cover is why I was out there in the first place, huh."

Rei smiled consolingly. "You don't have to talk about it if you don't want."

"Yeah right, and wait for you to bring out the thumbscrews?" It just so happened that something flew by the window. An eery shadow darkened Rei's eye sockets menacingly for a moment, and suddenly Makoto wished to God she hadn't said that.

"Seriously, though, I'm okay to explain." She placed the mug carefully on a placemat before beginning.

"You know how I lived on my own because my parents' money was left to me?"

Rei nodded.

"Turns out I haven't got enough to keep the apartment anymore."

The miko's eyes widened. "Kami, Mako-chan! Are you serious? How long have you known?"

The brown-haired waitress pulled her long arms up in a broad arc, intertwining them around the back of her head. "Only a couple of weeks – not long enough for me to do anything to keep my place."

Rei's voice became urgent. "Oh, Mako, you should have told us, we might have been able to help!"

"No! It was the wedding - I didn't want to worry anyone. Besides…"

She picked up the cup again and drank another mouthful of cocoa. "I figured that, you know, it might be a chance to move on."
"Move on? From what?"

Makoto set down the mug again and looked up, a glint in her jade eyes.

"Ami."

---

Minako groaned. "I hate this part."

Rei sat beside her in the makeshift waiting room, the ringing phones, humming computers and irritating elevator music amalgamated in the stuffy office atmosphere.

"You'll be fine – I don't question that they're ball-breakers, but you're…" Rei mouthed Sailor Venus animatedly. "You've got superballs."
Minako blinked. "Um, Rei? Sweetie, watch…"
She jiggled and her boobs moved in tandem. Rei felt a nosebleed coming on.
"I don't have balls."
Rei glared. "ME-TA-PHOR!!!"

At that moment, a door opened, and the blonde and brunette turned to the man who emerged.
"Aino-san? The board is ready for you now."

Minako nodded slowly, and the two women stood and followed him through. They remained at the end of the long mahogany table, closest to the door, while he returned to his place on the far corner. Opposite him, a plastic-looking woman whose turkey-neck gave away her true age sat like she had a stick up her ass. She looked strikingly familiar to Rei, but she couldn't think where from. At the end of the table sat the ring-leader, Mr. Yamada, head of Minako's music company. He was tall with greying hair in a short, almost military style – not what you expected in the media industry.

"Miss Aino." The voice was stony. Rei winced internally. Minako may have to grow balls for this.

Minako, meanwhile, inclined her head slightly. "Mr. Yamada."

"We've been studying your application. You've been with the company for… six years now?"

Minako nodded.

"So, you're sixth annual review… few celebrities have remained with us for this long. Many lose popularity and simply… fade, if you will."

Rei frowned. 'Celebrity'; not 'star'. She risked a glance at her friend, who was staring directly into his eyes, back straight, expression struggling for neutrality. Why did that look so familiar, too?

"That's why it's ever more necessary to check up on your progress."

He stretched and sat back in his chair. "Let us not inconvenience you longer than necessary, Aino-san. We have decided not to renew your contract with us."

Rei's stomach plummeted.

"Wait! What? WHY?" Minako demanded, stricken.

Poker-ass spoke up next, reading from her notes. "Aino, you're performances have been disasters! Failed lighting, no-show dancers… four incidents of abominable acoustics? It can't continue, Miss Aino! We go through it every year, and it has to stop!"

"No!" cried Minako, getting more and more distraught. "You don't understand! It's my manager!"

Three pairs of eyes turned to Rei then. Wow, that was terrifying. She tried to remember herself and immediately shifted the blame.

"I can vouch for that! The run of her previous manager, Yamamoto Goro, seems to coincide with most of these problems. Surely we could talk this through- Minako?"

Presently Minako was hastily standing to leave. Rei caught sight of tear tracks as she ran out the door.

She jumped up to go after her.

"I'm sorry," Yamada boomed insincerely. Rei turned to meet his gaze again icily. "But our decision is final."

The miko's eyes darted back to the woman, and suddenly it hit her. She clicked her fingers for emphasis.

"Beryl!" The board just stared at her, and she sweat-dropped.

"Never mind."

---

"Minako!"

The third set of fire doors in the building began to close on her. Rei ran at them with a shoulder-butt. She caught a glimpse of Minako as she disappeared behind the next set, and broke into a sprint. Finally, a burst of natural light and open air, and Rei gained on her as her beaten friend staggered to a stop.

"Minako…" she grabbed the woman's shoulder from behind, but the blonde shook her off. "No! Get away from me! I'm a failure. My whole career has been a waste of time!"

Rei stared, stunned at her outburst. She was hoping for a speech more fitting for Usagi's "twin" - 'they're so mean!' or 'it's not fair!' perhaps.

She felt sadness flood her defences upon summing up such a change in her best friend; reclusive for days after a bad concert, and now taking the words of those bigots so seriously. This wasn't the Venus she knew. Her voice cracked. "Don't say that."

"WHY NOT?" Minako yelled through her sobs. "It's true, isn't it?!"

"Because…" Rei's voice sounded thicker. The idol turned to find tears falling freely down the face of the one person she thought was invincible. "Because if it's true… then letting you go was even more of a mistake than I thought it was." Her eyes lowered to the floor, frustrating Minako as she obscured the amethyst eyes she needed so desperately to search through. "If suffering all this time was just for you to suffer, too… I don't know if I could stand it."

A silence stretched over the scene, until Minako, almost in a trance, moved closer.

The brunette ignored the gesture, until Minako's hand tilted her best friend's face up to meet hers. Rei reluctantly looked into those deep blue eyes, the hurt from earlier replaced with a long-dormant adolescent fear of rejection – the thought that the way she had heard what the miko had said might just be a silly misunderstanding devised only to slam the boot into her battered pride one final time. Touching Rei like this, she was so high at that moment – Minako knew that if her feelings were wrong this time, she'd be shot out of the sky, and she would never wake up.

The taller woman couldn't stand seeing that all-too-familiar look of uncertainty. It was meant for losers like her, not the Princess of Venus. And so she did all it would take to eradicate it.

She leaned towards Minako, wrapping her strong arms around her waist, easing full pink lips against hers. The other girl cupped Rei's face, leaning into it completely as the brunette stole the strawberry lip gloss from her warm mouth.

It was strange – no tongues, no force, no lustful desperation. It was like being fourteen all over again. The exchange was so sweet, so pure, that the two of them felt their lost innocence rushing back to them, and when they finally parted, Minako realised how badly she wanted to keep it.

She rested her forehead against Rei's. "Take me home."

Rei immediately understood. Home. Her real home.

Hikawa Jinja.

---

"I'm sorry, Mako."
"It's alright; it's why I want a fresh start – to make her just another part of my past."

Rei pointed a finger, a suspicious expression on her face. "You better not be including our destinies in that."
"Don't worry, I'm not – of course, that makes it all a lot harder…"

"Hmm…" Rei's expression was all too knowing as she drifted into other thoughts.

Mako smiled. "Mina."

"Huh?" Rei refocused her gaze warily. "What, is there a sign on my head or something? Usagi-chan said exactly the same thing earlier."

"No. I just recognise the expression on your face from the mirror. We're both suckers for clever girls…"

Rei raised an eyebrow at this description of Mina. Mako frowned. "Don't be mean!"

The Fire Senshi grinned at this, then sank back slightly in her chair with a different glow in her cheeks. "Actually, Mako, I think I'm on the road to recovery."

Or rather, the runway…

Makoto blinked. "Oh yeah? How come? I demand you impart your wisdom, wise Priestess."

Rei rolled her eyes exaggeratedly and folded her arms in mock annoyance.

"First of all, you don't make demands of the holy; you beg and lick their shoes clean. Second, no. You must discover this knowledge on your own, in your own time."

Makoto's face fell. "Rei, that's like us and Sudoku – you? Ten minutes. Me? Three hours of staring, then I burn it with a Zippo."

Rei sighed. "Ami always wondered why her puzzle books had so many pages missing…"

Makoto smiled, then began to fidget again. "Um, Rei, would it be okay if I stayed with you for a while?"

"No."

Mako stared in surprise. Rei was calm, her expression casual as she sipped her tea.

There was a long pause. Mako hit Rei in the head with a cushion, but still the expression remained the same.

Finally the miko's head bowed slightly. "Okay."

Mako's eyes narrowed. "Hell is filled with people like you."

---

So, people, some action this time! I do apologise if it wasn't that great, it is two in the morning where I am, after all. I just had a block for Floodgates and remembered that, hey, I have something else to be getting on with! In fact, Floodgates is better. Read that, too! Lol.

Oh, also, if you thought some dialogue seemed to be missing with Rei and Makoto between the first and second flashback sequences, you'd be right, haha. It would ruin the surprise for the run-along other half of this story, The Vacation (working title). If you wanna know what was said, read that. When I write it. IF I write it.

Later!