Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor Moon.

Chapter 10: Normal Again

"Oh, come on," Usagi begged, giving Makoto her best puppy-dog pout. "Just for a little while?" The five of them were on their way to the Crown to celebrate after the night's victory. Ice cream seemed to be the perfect thing to sooth the battle-weary warriors.

"You promised it was a one time thing," the brunette groaned, veering to the right so Ami was between them as they continued down the street. "Besides, I'm injured."

Rei chuckled, drawing both girl's attention. She held up her hands defensively and moved so she was walking slightly behind Minako. Usagi glared playfully at her and turned her attention back to Makoto, who huffed loudly.

"She's not going to let up until you do it, Makoto," Minako laughed, slipping a protective arm around Rei's waist as she spoke.

"I'm injured," Makoto repeated in a whine, pointing to her shoulder.

"Still?" Usagi asked incredulously. "Rei's better, how come you're not?"

"I can't believe she still has the energy for this after the night we've had," Makoto grumbled, shooting a look over her shoulder at Rei and Minako. Rei shrugged and grinned. The battle had been rough, but not nearly as bad as last time. In fact, their combined power had made relatively short work of the creature.

Minako giggled softly as they watched Usagi continue to wheedle the taller girl. "That reminds me, how are you feeling after all that?" she whispered.

Rei smirked, pausing to give her a long thorough kiss. "Does that answer your question," she murmured when she pulled away. Minako looked a little dazed and didn't respond.

"Um, you know the rest of us are right here," Usagi teased, poking Rei's shoulder playfully. The other three had paused to wait for them apparently.

Rei wrapped her arms around Minako's waist, pulling her closer. "Weren't you trying to get a piggy-back ride?"

"Oh yeah!" Usagi skipped back to where Makoto had buried her face in her palm.

A squeal of tires made them all look up. Haruka's Porsche skidded to a stop at the corner in front of them and the blonde hopped out of the car. "Here you guys are!" she cried, bounding toward them.

"You drove here from the park? Lazy," Rei chided, eyeing the racer.

Haruka shot her a grin but otherwise ignored her. "Setsuna and Mamoru took a taxi, can you believe it?"

Rei looked up ahead to the glowing Crown sign, but saw no sign of the other two. "It would have been faster to just walk," Rei reminded her. "The park isn't that far from here."

Haruka shrugged merrily, falling into step beside the rest of them. "Driving here is more fun."

"I'll bet," Rei murmured, giving a windblown Michiru a sideways look as she joined them.

Hotaru was beaming happily and caught Haruka's hand as they walked. "It's way more fun," she reassured them.

They arrived in front of the Crown just as Setsuna stepped out of the taxi. She shot them a knowing smile as she and Mamoru caught up to them. "We only ran one red light," Hotaru announced with a grin.

Mamoru chuckled. "And you wonder why we took a taxi."

They were all in high spirits as they entered the Crown. The place was packed with people, but thankfully a large table by the window was just opening up. Rei and Michiru went up to order for the group while the others got settled.

"So I take it you're all feeling better?" she asked once they were away from the table.

"For the most part," Rei replied quietly, rubbing her side lightly. The wound had healed enough to move around but she hadn't taken the tape off yet. "We're lucky we heal so fast."

"True," Michiru agreed, "but that's not really what I meant."

Rei glanced over her shoulder at the table and smiled, watching Minako pull a ruffled Artemis out of her bag. "Yeah," she admitted, "We're definitely feeling better."

They placed everyone's orders and waited while Motoki got everything together. "Hi Rei! Did you see the news about that monster in the park?" he asked as he filled a milkshake.

"Some of it," she replied in a slightly bored tone. "I was pretty busy most of the evening."

"The Sailor Senshi sure are something," he continued, getting starry-eyed and adding three extra scoops to the sundae he was absently making. "They're all so beautiful, I'd love to meet them."

Michiru cleared her throat pointedly and he stared sheepishly at the huge dessert. "Oops," he murmured. Then he shrugged and proceeded to cover the mound of ice cream in chocolate syrup. "This one's Usagi's right?" he said cheerily. "She won't mind."

Michiru couldn't help but laugh at that. "No, I'm sure she won't."

"Mamoru's the one who has to deal with her later, not me," Rei added with a chuckle. They carried the two heaping trays back to the table and began passing out everyone's orders.

"Oh thank you Rei!" Usagi squealed when her eyes fell on her giant dessert. "Thank you thank you!" Ami stood and deftly took the tray away from Rei moments before Usagi latched onto her.

"It wasn't my idea," Rei grumbled as she struggled out of her friend's grip.

"Grouchy," Minako teased, reaching across the table to retrieve her strawberry shake. Rei rolled her eyes and sat beside her, snatching her root beer float from the tray. Usagi plopped down on her other side and immediately began devouring her food.

Minako raised an eyebrow at her and Rei's serious expression melted into a grin. Rolling her eyes, she turned her attention back to her float and took an appreciative sip. Finally, she thought as she glanced around the table at her friends. Finally, we just get to be normal.

-The End-

Once again, thank you to everyone for reading! An extra special thanks to the following people, whose feedback helped a great deal when I was originally writing this story:

Knightskye, Jedicaro, Da Pyro's Love, Gemna, ChronoCrescentFlames, Chakeroo, Mystra32, Floire, Umbra8191, Sailor Ice, PeaPrince, Rananda 87, Decertos, Honulicious, Neo Draco, Onzy, Jocknerd23, Rae-kun, jijibebe, AmazingROug3, oxomoonieoxo, Lookin for the truth, JustAnotherShipper, LunarMiko07, Bin82501, ShoujoGirl, Angel Prototype, James Birdsong

It is still such an amazing feeling to have people reading and enjoying my stories! I hope you will all stick with me in the future for the next Senshi adventure!