Awake in Flames
Written for the Sailor Moon Monthly Fanfiction Challenge on LiveJournal
August Challenge - Episodic (Sleeping Beauty Episode)
by Kihin Ranno
1/1

Rei felt her knuckles crack and bruise as they rammed into the door. The wood shook in its frame, the apartment number threatening to shake off its screws. She glared right through the number, right through the wooden door, all the way into the apartment, her fury seeking out the man she'd come to find.

When he didn't immediately appear, she banged on the door once more. "Mamoru!" she shouted, heedless of the neighbors on either side of him. "I know you're in there! You don't have anywhere else to go."

She heard shuffling inside. This time she kicked the door. "I'll stand out here screaming all night," she informed him, wind whistling between her teeth. "Or I could just burn it down."

Then and only then did the door fly open. He looked tired and thinner, but not as tired and thin as Usagi was beginning to look. "I was wondering which of you would show up."

Rei snorted, pushing past him without benefit of an invitation. "You're just lucky it was me."

He laughed and tried to hide it with a cough.

"I think Mako-chan was planning on just punching you and leaving," Rei snapped, kicking her shoes off. "Minako argued with me for ten minutes about it. She was all for it."

Mamoru sighed and stumbled forward, retreating into the darkness of his living room. "I'm just surprised you haven't come here sooner."

"Ami said it was none of our business. That we should be offering Usagi support instead," Rei explained, always two steps behind him. When he sank into his chair, she stayed standing, wanting the advantage of height. "But after tonight, none of us could stand it anymore."

"What difference does tonight make?"

"You kissed her, Mamoru," Rei hissed, spitting. "It makes all the difference in the world."

"I did it to keep her from dying," he returned, his voice straining. "Just because I don't... Just because we're not together anymore doesn't mean I want her to die."

"No, you just want her to suffer and waste away."

The chair creaked as though he were thinking of springing to his feet. "Don't tell me what I want! Especially when you have no idea what--"

"Well, all the evidence is pointing in that direction, Mamoru," Rei interrupted, hair and hands flying as she began to pace the length of the room. "You left her. You broke up with her for no reason any of us can figure out--"

"None of you are in my head."

"Not for lack of trying!" Rei countered, her knee crashing into an end table with only the moon and her rage to guide her path. "Say what you want, Mamoru, but the fact remains that you had no reason. She didn't do anything to drive you away, but you act like she betrayed you. She saved your life; she brought you back from the dead; she gave you your memory; she brought you back from Beryl. But you're the one ending things. You're the one acting like you have any right--"

"Maybe I just don't love her anymore!" Mamoru shouted, his voice trembling with its own force. "Did you ever think of that?"

Rei's hands fell upon the arms of the chair, sharp pains racing from her wrists to her elbows. The room quickly filled with a fierce red glow. Her body was warm, engulfed in her anger and burning like paper tossed in the fire place. She could see him now. See the patches like bruises under his eyes and his hollowed cheeks. She could see the way his skin shined with drying wet and the crimson lines around his pupils. She could see his stooped shoulders and she could see his sorrow.

"I loved you once," Rei said, her voice dangerously steady. "I loved you, and I knew you. You kept me at arm's length, and I kept my eyes closed to a lot of things back then, but I knew. I saw the way you acted around her, saw how you looked at her. I knew you loved her then, and I know that nothing's changed."

For the first time in weeks, he looked truly chastened. "I… I didn't—"

"That's because you're an idiot."

The light receded and so did she. Her words were spent and her duty was done. "I can't force you to go back to her. I wish I could, but I can't. It would be better for both of you." She continued before he could protest. "But I can do this. I can tell you that if you ever, ever get her hopes up like that again…."

Mamoru swallowed. "I won't."

"Good," she said, walking to the door. "Good night, Mamoru."

She opened the door. It creaked and light from the outside filled the foyer. The number looked like it was hanging by a thread.

"I wish Makoto had come," he whispered.

Rei closed her eyes, her throat beginning to close. "I know you do."

She shut the door.