Take Me Anywhere
----
Filled to the brim with amusement as she plucked a small, but perfectly hand-made rice ball from the container settled closely between them, Minako couldn't help but tease.
"I wasn't expecting such an adorable meal, Rei," she baited, an overly-amused expression smeared across her features. "I'm surprised I've never caught onto all your dark secrets by now."
Sipping scornfully at her small box of juice, the miko sitting beside her gave an indignant snort in response. "That's absurd. I've been studying practically non-stop for this entire week." She denied quite fervently, "When would I ever find the time to slave away in the kitchen?"
Gazing absently at the skyline above the Hikawa shrine, Minako fought to keep the threatening onslaught of giggles at bay. "I can just imagine the scene," she exclaimed with a smirk, "Hino Rei preparing such a cute, delicious lunch into the late hours of twilight with that particular scowl on her face. If only to celebrate her upcoming graduation with her charming best friend, of course."
"Never once have I considered you so delusional," Rei countered, barely managing not to choke on her juice. "Obviously, I was mistaken."
"If you say so," Minako smiled, waving around a small, adorable cookie in the shape of a tiny star.
Sighing with a great degree of familiar long-suffering, the miko leaned back and gave a grateful smile to the warm, beautiful afternoon weather. The small garden nestled behind the shrine was a perfect choice for a picnic location, it's grounds hidden enough for a great breadth of privacy.
"In spite of your favorite past-time in embarrassing me, Minako, I'm glad you were able to visit," Rei admitted slowly, looking down at the faded green of her tennis shoes. "I know your schedule's been so confining lately."
Minako's smile at the admission was gentle as she openly studied the other girl, Rei absently picking at the blades of grass beside her.
"Well, I did have a slight ulterior motive."
----
Mizuno Ami sighed as her tiny rental car pulled around the parking lot for the third consecutive time.
"It doesn't look like we're going to have any luck," Makoto grumbled from the passenger seat. With a deep sigh, she crossed her arms in frustration.
"Maybe we should've taken the bus," Ami agreed, noting the impatient wiggling of Usagi behind her.
"Perhaps if you drive back to the entrance, I can run inside and bring Rei-chan back to the car?" Leaning over in her seat, Minako put a comforting hand on Ami's arm. "I'm sure she'd be a little embarassed if we all rush her at once, don't you think?"
Makoto nodded in agreement, looking over to the driver as well. "Sounds like a good plan to me."
Nodding firmly in acknowledgement, Ami pulled the tiny car back around to the entrance. Squeezing carefully out of the cramped vehicle, Minako adjusted her trusty disguise of sunglasses and fashionable cap and headed briskly into the building.
----
Perched anxiously on the edge of the narrow hospital bed, Hino Rei cautiously picked at the edges of her face bandage. Gingerly prying the fabric away from her eye, she could almost imagine the nurse's dissaproving stare as she tossed aside the unwanted roll of cloth into the bedside waste bin.
Looking down at the harsh white tiles under her feet, the unlucky young woman stifled back a grimace. Despite her studies and ardorous work during Rei's recent time spent in Kyoto, it seemed she still hadn't grown much. She had managed to misjudge the threat of returning evil forces, and had successfully accomplished not only sending herself into the hospital, but also proving her uselessness to the others in their struggle. The guilt pricked sharply at her pride, and the miko wasn't quite sure just how she would look at the others with a straight face ever again.
Sliding off her seat on the bed, Rei wandered over to the small table beside the windows. Digging inside a small bag of her belongings, she found her miko garments in tatters. The robes were shredded almost brutally and were hardly fit for dressing into.
Pulling the robe up toward her face, she gazed remorsefully through a rather large hole ripped through the right shoulder of the defeated fabric. Gazing out to the other side of the room, Rei frowned in confusion as an intruder strode rather casually through the door. Tossing the robe back on the table, she rubbed at her eyes in disbelief.
Recognizing the proud upward tilt of her head, the overly serious stance, and the conspicuously expensive designer heels, Rei's mind outright refused the most obvious answer to her approaching question.
"Who?" Was all she could afford to stammer out.
Minako stopped beside the door completely, the other woman's gaze halting her firmly in place. She hadn't considered how difficult this was going to be. Up until that very moment, perhaps she was still so caught up in the fight with Mio, the idol hadn't let it hit her just how long it had really been. And with every day that had gone by since then, how had Minako forgotten how much she had been putting this off?
Taking off her glasses and placing them into the handbag under her arm, Minako took a deep breath and bravely made her way toward the hospital bed. She caught sight of the bandages then, a few on Rei's face, one on her arm, another peaking out under her collar. A surge of concern burst free from her cool exterior and the idol pursed her lips in exhasperation.
"What did you expect to accomplish, just rushing head-long into danger by yourself?" She blurted tactlessly, the well-rehearsed cheer and politeness of the idol shattering ungracefully into a thousand pieces upon the floor.
Rei, fumbling out of her surprised stupor, gave Minako a familiar scowl.
"Almost six months have passed, but I can still see you're the same as ever," she said, stepping back for the much needed distance. Her fists clenched at her sides almost instinctively and the miko turned her gaze toward the windows. "I don't need your words of dissaproval."
Practically choking on the tension between them, Minako swallowed hard and turned her attention to the tattered robes dangling limply from the table.
"You weren't going to try and walk out of here, alone, wearing those, were you?"
Rei merely crossed her arms and glared at a pair of birds making their hasty escape toward the horizon. She knew their may have been a chance at seeing Minako during Usagi's upcoming wedding, and that much she had been anticipating, but this was far too much.
Opening her handbag, Minako plucked out a pair of clothing tucked tightly inside.
"Hopefully you'll find this suitable enough," she said to Rei, holding out the offering firmly, "at least until I take you back to the hotel with me."
Her gaze returned to the idol. "You're insane, Minako," Rei fumed.
Refusing to back down, the unspoken challenge between them filling the idol with a fiery resolve, Minako approached further. "Take this as a temporary truce, until we have the right time to sort through-" She hesitated, the idol's words cut off violently and left to die on the thick air between them.
"Sort out what?" Rei demanded, trying to cling to her last bit of dignity.
Faltering, Minako turned away as her carefully formed script of reason dissipated into nothingness. Her outstretched hand pulled back, and her grip on the clothing wavered.
As the small offering threatened to slip onto the floor, Rei took a quick step to catch them in her hands. Slipping the folded clothing under her arm carefully, the miko gave a rather defeated look toward Minako's retreating hand. It was ironic to her, that in spite all the time and distance between them, some things between the two seemed to always stay the same.
"I'm glad everyone's alright," Rei croaked out weakly, trying to fill the silence. "I've been worried."
Minako nodded, glancing warily over to the bundle of clothes under Rei's arm. "Everything is back to the way it should be."
Catching the idol's gaze, the two silently agreed on a truce, if only temporarily.
----
"You are enjoying this far too much."
"I don't know what you're talking about," Minako denied swiftly, readjusting her cap as the two exited through the large hospital doors.
Picking at the sleeve of her borrowed shirt, the title "Aino Minako Super Special!" emblazoned across the fabric with an array of brightly colored stars and hearts, assaulting the miko's eyes in all their vivid splendor. Glancing up, she practically tripped backwards as Usagi's ecstatic face smeared against the tiny windows of the car in front of her. Rei grimaced and stopped her advance, noticing the other two women squeezed into the vehicle as well.
Turning back as she realized that Rei had stopped following her, Minako stifled back a frown. Rei seemed to shrink almost inexplicably before her, as Minako fought back the urge to drag her along by the arm; watching the willful and proud woman before her falter so visibly was nothing less than unnerving.
"It won't be so bad, you know," Minako offered carefully, weathering the stoic expression Rei was struggling to keep. "They're your friends, Rei-chan. That's why we came to pick you up, together."
Rei's gaze turned to her then, the weight of her unspoken question pining the idol into place.
And what about you?
Suddenly, Rei had barely a second to react as Usagi had launched herself from the car and into a fierce tackle-hug.
"Rei-chan!" She squealed, the enthusiastic girl attempting to squeeze the remaining life from Rei.
The miko sighed, flailing her arms lamely in defeat.
----
The small, fluffy plush toy in Rei's hands stared up at her eagerly. Of course, she recognized Minako's signature mascot almost as instantly as the gift had sprung from the idol's handbag, the overwhelming onslaught of cuteness practically engulfing her whole.
Minako had simply given her an odd look and plucked it from her things, gazing at the miko with a strange mix of humor and hesitation.
"What's this for?" Rei asked plainly, poking at the toy's bulbous stuffed nose.
"It's a limited edition design," Minako admitted, leaning over to adjust it's small, flamboyant cap, "just for the upcoming tour dates in England."
Rei's attention spun to the other woman, a clearly dumfounded expression spread across her face in spite of herself. Fortunately, Minako was too preoccupied with the folds on her skirt to give notice. Rei looked away quickly and struggled for a calm composure.
"So then," the miko finally managed to stammer out, finally setting aside the adorable plush toy. "When will you leave?"
Minako merely shrugged.
"Some time tomorrow afternoon, I suppose," she muttered blandly, leaning against the tree behind them, "the new choreographer is expecting me by Thursday..."
Rei stared down to the grass beneath her.
Gathering only a sidelong glance and an undecipherable grunt from the other woman, Minako translated Rei's usual vague, guarded manner easily enough. Leaning over, she steeled herself and took the miko's hand in her own.
"Stop with the despondent faces, Rei," Minako admonished teasingly, "it's just a few small venues, you know I'll be back before the month is over. Even though I'm sure you'd like to keep me for yourself-"
Gaining a ripe scowl from Rei, who grabbed a hold on her hand fiercely at the statement, the miko straightened her shoulders in response. "As if I'd want to have such a pesky pop idol chasing me around all day! You're troublesome enough as it is, Minako."
The two glared at each other in humor, barely managing to keep a straight face before breaking into laughter.
An impulse fought it's way easily past Rei's defenses, and she hesitantly leaned across the small patch of grass between them. Gathering her friend into a tentative but heartfelt embrace, something rare but honest and almost never instigated by the miko herself.
Minako managed a wide, smug grin and accepted the hug. The afternoon had certainly turned out wonderfully, she realized.
----
"This was an awful idea."
Ami sighed, gazing hopelessly to the traffic in front of her. The afternoon swell of cars had amassed into a grid-locked leviathan, it's body reaching past the seemingly vast horizon.
"We could've taken the bus," Rei muttered from her incarceration between Usagi and Minako. "Or the train."
"There wasn't a choice," Minako piped up defensively. "We came straight away from the battle, and the only options were Ami's rental or the motorbike."
"Bike?" Rei asked, an eyebrow quirked in curiosity.
"Anyway," Minako continued, completely ignoring the miko's stare, "we were in a hurry. It was the best option available."
"At this rate, I could just walk back to Hikawa..."
Usagi squirmed beside her, making Rei involuntarily shove into the increasingly agitated idol.
"But you only just left the hospital, Rei-chan, what if something happened and you fainted or were mugged by-"
"Don't worry, Usagi-chan," Minako reassured calmly, blatantly ignoring the blistering scrutiny from Rei, "she's already agreed to stay with me until the wedding."
"I've done nothing of the sort!" Rei cried, trying to squirm further away from the idol and failing miserably. The two stared defiantly at each other, each struggling to sit just a little bit taller and gain the higher position of indignance.
"Those two haven't even spoken in practically six months," Makoto whispered to Ami, who looked almost alarmed, "you'd think a little distance would make the heart grow fonder, or something."
Ami glanced up to the rearview mirror as the two quarreled further. "I'm sure it's just a complex situation."
Makoto shrugged, watching the mass of unmoving cars around them. "The wedding is complex," she argued, "those two are just impossible."