"Come on," Usagi grinned across the table at Setsuna, "Mina-P said something totally incriminating before, she knows who she had a thing for back then, and I think I should too. It's not fair if everyone knows who I was with and I don't get to know about anyone else. I mean, you can't say that none of them ever had dates."

Setsuna raised an eyebrow, "You really cannot survive without gossip, can you?"

"Well," Usagi tried to look innocent, "no." But underneath her playful expression she was still watching Setsuna's eyes. Of course she wanted to know, but she also thought that if Setsuna could trust her with some of the less important things she might be more likely to tell her the painful ones.

"I really don't think I ought to tell you."

"Aww, I'm pretty sure it's a girl, so no surprise there." She tried to look ingratiating.

"No, no. It's up to them if they want to tell you."

"Them?" Usagi started to smile slowly, "You mean it is one of us. Hah! So narrowed down!"

Setsuna looked nervous, but Usagi just grinned.

"So if you won't tell me about relationships, tell me more about food."

Rei woke up gasping for breath and holding tightly to her stomach. She felt her face slick and clammy with sweat and then her eyes unfocused. Pounding, blood, desperation, Minako, in front of her, just another few steps, she raised her hand and saw that it was slick with her own blood. Rei's stomach curled in on itself and she staggered to her feet. She started moving towards the bathroom, but with the movement her eyes widened and she cringed suddenly bolting, hand over her mouth, and then falling on the step down into the bathroom, crashing onto her knees and vomiting without control. She stared at her hands, clutching at the toilet seat. White fog seemed to be coming in and covering them, moving in slender curling tendrils. A sound like the buzzing of cicadas filled her ears. Why was everything so blurry?

"Please- safe-"

-

"Rei! Rei! Oh, please wake up-"

The floor was cold, but why was her grandpa yelling so much. Why was he here? Oh god, why was he here? It would kill him to see her like this.

"I- I'm okay, really, please, I'm okay."

He was staring at her. He looked so scared. She knew he had never really understood her, and the rift had just enlarged ever since she started lying to him about her superhero duties, but he loved her anyways, he may have been the only one.

"I think I have the flu or something," Rei tried to smile. "I was just so tired that I think I took a little nap here." I didn't pass out, she thought firmly at him, I can't let him know I passed out.

He helped her into bed and busily began cleaning up. Rei felt guilty, but lay back in bed and stared up at the ceiling. Why had it happened? Why had the dream chased her into reality? She felt it underneath, a seething heat dragging at her, fighting for control, but she couldn't let it in. She knew what happened, and there was no way she could let it take control.

"I like the way you like her."

Minako was a bit confused at that, and Venus laughed.

"You're just so, so sweet. I mean, I can see the tangly bits, but you're so innocent when you remember things like how she smiles and how she yells at you, you remind me of what I used to be like, before-" Venus grew silent and Minako slid the memories that she could see through her mind, then she found it.

"Oh, before you tried to kill her."

"It sort of put a crimp in things, it felt like, like I never knew anything about love, I never knew that it wasn't strong enough to save me and that it had the ability to completely destroy her… I didn't want a lieutenant or a bodyguard or- I just wanted to understand her, it's not something I ever got."

Minako let out a low gentle laugh. "Don't think I don't know what that's like."

"It's just, when she died for me, when she lay there, clenching my hand so tightly that I knew how much it hurt and looking at me- for the first time her eyes were clear and she was smiling, god even when I slept with her I had never seen her smile, and then here I realized that this was what she meant, that she hadn't ever been just a loyal subordinate, but that this was her goal, her fulfillment, and there was nothing in any world that she held higher than this- higher than me."

There were tears trickling down Minako's face and the coffee shop employee was watching suspiciously.

"I never had that clarity. I never understood how she could be so sure that protecting me was more important that the mission, but I could have survived us failing the mission, it would have been so easy to save us, to get us off of Earth before Beryl's armies came, and I would have done it without any shame. Yes the mission was important, but there's no point in dying when you've already failed without any hope of recovery. But there was no choice left after I lost her, lost before I even understood what I had, before we ever had a moment where I wasn't doubting and second-guessing and pushing her away. It was a good day for suicide."

Minako could feel the pain welling up and choked out her own sob.

"Why am I here? Why am I alive? I just wanted it all to be over when I finally found out that I had screwed everything up, lost everything I wanted for sake of a mission that was destined to fail. You said that you're the only one with the dreams, god I don't want to be here, not if I'm alone."

Mamoru sat on the chair in front of Usagi's vanity table in their bedroom. He had taken the four green stones from his pocket and set them in a row on the table. He looked down at them, his fingers slowly caressing the rough surface of one.

"I'm getting married," he said quietly.

He heard a chuckle, but not through his ears. The room was still silent, the laughter rang out inside his head. Mamoru looked up and in the mirror he could see them, Zoicite leaning against his back, stroking his hair, Jadite at his knee, watching him with a small smile through the mirror. Kunzite stood behind him, looking arrogant as always, not paying him any mind, and Nephrite, off to the side, his inescapable inferiority complex still in good form.

"I really can't believe you." It was Kunzite's drawl that echoed between his ears this time. "Allying yourself to the oppressor, again."

"Kunzite!" Jadite's voice was still young. "Really."

Zoicite cut in with his low laugh. "As if that little bunny could oppress anyone."

"Just don't forget," Nephrite's words were sharp, "you are the heir of Earth. She's the one marrying up this time."

Mamoru laughed a little. "Thank you."

"Don't forget-" Jadite clung to his leg. "We all love you more than she ever will."

Kunzite snorted. But Mamoru still smiled.