This was written because I'm hella bored right now, and I need something to take the edge off. The chapters will probably be real short, so prepare for some major spacing out.
Disclaimer: I don't own Sailor Moon, nor its characters.
Rei Hino woke up with a tremendous headache.
Groaning softly, she gazed blearily up at the shrine's ceiling from her sleeping mat. She rolled over after finding nothing up there to distract her from the stabbing pains shooting through her head.
As she did, there a rustling and then a clanking sound. Rei froze, instantly alert. "What the hell was that?" she asked aloud to the ravens perched outside her window. They pecked at the glass but offered no reply.
"It was only me."
Rei relaxed for a moment. "Oh, okay then." She stiffened, suddenly remembering that there was only supposed to be one person in the room. Herself. Of course, it could be her grandfather, but she sensed that to think it would be a grave mistake.
"Wait a minute, who's me?" Terror caught her heart in a sharp, icy grip as the voice from nowhere let out a sleepy, utterly feminine giggle.
"Guess."
Slowly, oh so slowly, the miko turned her head to the side. Her violet eyes fell upon a familiar cheery face, and she fought the urge to scream. Rei quickly looked at up at the ceiling.
Her pupils dilated wildly as Rei took deep, controlled breaths, willing her heart to return to a normal pace. This was bad. This was very very bad. Usagi Tsuskino was in her bed.
Rei dared not to chance a look back at the dozy blonde, fully expecting to discover that she was naked. Wasn't that what usually happened in these kind of situations?
Hot pain flared up in her temples as Rei tried to remember just how she had fallen into this situation in the first place.
Okay, last night. It had to have happened last night. La la la, study group, Senshi meetings, dum dum dum...nothing's happening. Usagi's reading manga, Minako's blathering on about some guy or girl or whatever she met at a party the other night, Ami's looking horrified, Makoto's laughing her ass off...wait, hold on. What's that Minako holding?
Bloody hell, is that Grandpa's wine? That was supposed to have been thrown out last winter! Has Minako been going through our garbage? No, Grandpa probably just snuck it back into his room. Damn him, he's too old to have alcohol in any sort of quanity, especially not a whole bottle like that. Okay, anyway, Minako's talking...yadda yadda yadda...Ami and Usagi are staring at her, Makoto's STILL laughing...what was I doing? Oh, yeah, I was asking Minako if she's out of her gourd.
She grins and drinks from the bottle and passes it around, ignoring me, as usual. Usagi, that idiot, takes a swig deep enough to knock a horse flat. Ami refuses and passes it to Mako. Sensible girl. Always liked her. Wait, Makoto's giving her one of those looks and passes it back. It looks like Ami's going to--No! Stop! Don't do it!...aw dammit. Ami takes a sip and is instantly pished. Whatever happened to responsibility and standing up against peer pressure and all that jazz? Also, her tolerance is for crap! Sigh. So, Makoto takes some and passes it to me.
Did I refuse? Did I accept it? I think I did, it explains this killer hangover. How much did I drink? I don't remember. My head hurts. This sucks.
Rei groaned and rolled over to bury her head in the pillow. She felt Usagi give her shoulder a timid tap. The young Hino let out a muffled 'hnh' sound and winced as her head throbbed like a sharp rebuke. It felt like something had crawled into her brain and died there. Gah. It probably wouldn't have been so bad if the concern in Usagi's voice wasn't so sincere.
"Rei, are you okay?"
"Hnnh."
"How much alcohol did you drink last night?"
"Hnnh!"
"I don't remember either, but it must have been quite a lot. Otherwise your head wouldn't be hurting so much right now."
"Hnnh."
"Maybe you should lay off next time."
"Hnnnnnnnh...!" came the self-pitying reply. Usagi patted Rei's back, unknowingly adding to her embarrassment and discomfort.
"There there. I had a pretty bad headache when I woke up too. It's called a hangover, right? You seem to be taking it better than I did. I'm surprised you didn't wake up and yell at me to stop whining and being such a crybaby. I wonder what the others are doing right now."
The blonde prattled on, naive to the connotations her sentences invoked in Rei. The miko was profusely thankful that the pillow prevented Usagi from seeing the dark red flush that had spread across her face. After a while, the burning ache in her skull subsided somewhat and Rei forced herself into a sitting position.
She looked at the girl beside her, noting the absence of nudity among the both of them, and sighed. Well, Usagi and herself had wound up sharing the same bed for a night, but at least nothing had happened if the evidence was to be believed.
Her head still hurt and her stomach grumbled noisily. There was nothing for it. They had gotten into this situation, and now a cold shower and some breakfast would put them on the road to getting out of it. Rei shuffled off the sleeping mat and felt a depressively chilly floor underneath her priestess garb.
She must have fallen asleep in it. No matter. She would soon be out of it and in the shower, Usagi would be going home as soon as possible, and Rei Hino could put the whole mortifying business behind her. But strangely, the miko's left hand did not want to be part of the plan its master had laid out. It lay under the covers, refusing to move with the rest of Rei's body.
Rei growled and tugged the limb after her. Usagi nearly toppled over, then fell on her back instead. Her friend felt something cold and hard press briefly against her wrist for a seocnd, and then she was yanked backward and wound up staring at the ceiling again. Muttering dark curses to herself, Rei sat up for the third time that morning and raised her hand up to glare at it.
"What in the hell...?"
Her irritated voice trailed off into nothingless she stared first at her elevated wrist, the shiny manacle clamped around it, then at the length of chain that bound it to one on Usagi's. They were handcuffed together. As Rei continued to stare in dumbfounded silence, her partner in confinement opened her mouth and let a rare curse slip out.
"Um, shit."