A/N: Hey everyone. I'm in the process of editing this story. Don't worry I'm still updating with new chapters I'm just trying to make it flow a little smoother. I've added a few new scenes and extended most of the existing ones so keep an eye out for changes. Thanks again to everyone who takes the time to review. You guys are awesome.
Be warned this is a Rei/Usagi fic, so expect some girl/girl throughout...if you don't like it leave now.
Anyway enough of my rambling...on with the story!
Disclaimer: I don't own Sailor Moon so please don't sue me.
Chapter 1
Rei sat quietly on the steps of the Hikawa Jinja, feeding and whispering to her favourite crows and guardians Phobos and Deimos.
"I don't know what to do you guys." She muttered as she threw a few more seeds down to the waiting birds. "I know I shouldn't feel this way but every time she's around I just feel so, so..." Rei sighed deeply as she struggled to find the appropriate words. "I don't know, happy I guess, and then reality kicks in and completely ruins my day by reminding me that she's engaged to him. I swear, it takes all of my control not to fry him whenever I see them together."
Phobos cawed softly, seemingly offering sympathy to his mistress as her head slumped down onto her knees, with a frustrated growl. "I have to control myself, I can't hurt her because I can't control myself."
"Rei-chan?" Rei's head shot up to find a pair of familiar cerulean eyes hovering next to her. "Are you OK Rei-chan?"
Getting no response other than a frozen, confused stare, the blue eyed girl continued. "You were totally spaced out. I've been calling you since I started climbing the stairs, which given the amount you guys have, is a long time. I guess you couldn't hear me since you were busy maintaining some kind of grumbled conversation with your Birdie friends."
Minako shrugged dismissively and gave her friend an overly cheerful smile. She didn't want Rei to know just how much of the conversation she had heard. Rei was trying to fight the rising panic that was building within her. Just how long had Minako been standing next to her?
"Hey Minako-chan, er, what brings you here so early?"
Minako giggled lightly at Rei's nervous question. It was so out of character for her friend. Rei was hardly ever nervous, and she never forgot about Senshi meetings, especially when she had arranged one herself.
"You called me here remember? Senshi meeting? You said you'd had a vision and that it required urgent attention. You know your lucky that I showed up first given the state you're in. If the others saw you like this you'd be ripped to shreds all day. Imagine if I was Haruka?" Minako smiled mischievously as she leaned in next to Rei's ear and whispered "or Usagi-chan?"
Rei instantly felt blood rush to her cheeks as Minako's blatant disregard for her personal space, and the realisation that the blonde had heard at least some of her earlier ramblings. Minako's grin grew as she watched her usually quick witted friend desperately search for some kind of response, her mouth randomly opening and closing. Barely containing her laughter, the blonde decided to show her best friend a small amount of mercy as she hauled her to her feet.
"Relax Rei-chan, you look like you're going to burst a blood vessel or something. You can stop panicking. I've known about your feelings for the princess for a long time before today. Although hearing your little rant was amusing."
Rei begged her mind to come to her rescue, she really needed some kind of reply. It seemed her mind had truly shut down when all the only response she could find was "What? How? Eh?"
"I'm the Goddess of Love, don't forget that Pyro."
Unable to hide her amusement any longer, Minako threw an exaggerated wink and playful smirk over her shoulder as she started towards the shrine, leaving her best friend to follow.
About 20 minutes later, the Senshi were all seated randomly around Rei's bedroom waiting for Usagi to arrive. Finally recovered from her earlier encounter with the Senshi of Love, Rei had regained her usual thought patterns and as such her mood had been on a downwards spiral since. The others thought she looked as though she would strangle their ordangoed princess when she arrived, assuming she would arrive, that is. Just as Rei's temper was reaching critical, the blonde hime rushed through the door red faced and breathing heavily.
"Sorry I'm late you guys, I totally forgot we had a meeting and saying goodbye to Mamo-chan took a little longer than usual. I swear I don't know what to do with him these days."
She looked around the room, giving all of her friends an apologetic smile, which soon became amused as Michiru promptly silenced Haruka who was midway through suggesting what she exactly she could do with Mamoru.
The blonde then cautiously turned towards her fiery friend. Seeing the expression on Rei's face, Usagi couldn't help cringing internally. 'Oh no, Rei-chan looks like she's gonna torch me' Usagi thought nervously as she waited for the lecture that was bound to emerge from the miko.
Rei took a deep breath and fixed her eyes on the window across the room as she tried to control her anger. Feeling slightly calmer, Rei decided to just ignore the blonde that was fidgeting before her and start the meeting.
"Well since we're all here, we can start..." Rei's tone was sharp and left no room for comment especially when she glared at her princess. "Finally."
"The reason I called all of you here is because I keep having this recurring vision. I believe the Senshi will be called into action again pretty soon and I want all of us to be prepared. I can't tell you exactly what we're up against, my vision wasn't clear enough for that. All I can tell you is that whatever this threat is, it's powerful and we need to be careful."
Once Rei had finished speaking, silence descended on the room as everyone tried to digest the new information.
'Oh man, just as I thought life could be normal until Crystal Tokyo. Why is it so hard for youma to just leave us alone for awhile?!' Usagi thought angrily.
Haruka and Makoto shared a glance and a smirk. 'Time to kick some youma butts.'
Michiru and Ami were both silently creating theories as to the origin of the possible new threat and to how dangerous it could truly be.
Setsuna stood quietly in the corner of the room staring out the window. "I wondered when this day would come" She sighed quietly.
Minako sat trying looking serious while trying to secretly read one of Rei's manga that had been conveniently left on the little table next to the blonde. 'Nothing we can do until they show themselves, no point in stressing over it. I wonder if I can turn the page without the others noticing?'
Rei sat content with just watching her princess, oblivious to the other others. 'She looks adorable when she's serious. I just hope I did the right thing by involving her in this so early. While I know my vision is right I still don't know when it'll happen, I hope she's OK, she looks worried. I swear that if anything or anyone tries to hurt her I'll fry them where they stand.'
Rei was a little shocked at the intensity of her own thoughts. She had recently begun to realise the extent of her feelings towards her friend and future queen, and truth be told, the Senshi of Mars was terrified.
Usagi caught Rei's intense gaze and turned towards her friend. "Rei-chan?"
The curious tone of the blonde's voice attracted the attention of the other senshi. Rei desperately tried to the fight the rising blush as she suddenly found herself at the centre of very unwanted attention. Rei's eyes searched the room frantically, desperate for somewhere to rest, away from prying blue eyes.
"H..Hai Usagi-chan?" Rei silently cursed herself for fumbling. Noticing her friends sudden nervousness Usagi couldn't help teasing the young priestess.
"Is there any particular reason you're staring at me? Do I have something on my face?"
The others didn't think Rei could blush anymore than she currently was but they were soon proved horribly wrong a few seconds later when Usagi slowly crawled towards the miko and leaned up to whisper something in the ravens ear.
"If you want a closer look all you have to do is ask Rei-chan."
The blonde pulled back slowly, clearly incredibly pleased with her ability to tease her fiery friend. That was until she noticed the look of horror on Rei's face, and every pair of eyes in the room watching them. Usagi promptly joined Rei in turning a lovely shade of red as everyone except Minako and Setsuna started to laugh hysterically at their interaction.
Minako cast a concerned glance in Rei's direction, knowing that her second in command would be handling this badly. The blonde had realised a while ago that Usagi was a difficult topic for her best friend to handle, and given their conversation earlier Minako knew the miko was being overloaded by her emotions. Rei was close to her breaking point, Minako could feel it. Her theory proved correct as Rei muttered something unintelligible and hastily left the room.
Usagi was troubled by this reaction, she had never seen her friend react in such a way. Normally the raven would quip something back or unleash her legendary temper but Rei had done none of that, she had almost ran away. 'Rei never runs away from anything, something must be seriously wrong.'
"Um, you guys?" Their laughter having died down all of the senshi turned their attention back to their princess. "Have any of you noticed anything strange about Rei recently? Is something bothering her?"
Concerned azure met understanding cerulean as Minako spoke. "Usagi-chan, Rei's dealing with a lot right now, it's something she doesn't understand and she's probably terrified, although she'll never admit it. Maybe Rei will be willing to open up to you? I mean you guys are really close right? Maybe we should just all go easy on her for a little while."
Makoto casually approached the Senshi of Love and placed her hand firmly against the blonde's forehead. Moving back slightly the brunette stared into Minako's eyes for a few minutes before shrugging. "Well, she doesn't have a temperature and I'm pretty sure it's still Minako. Ami-chan maybe you should scan her with your visor, just to be certain."
Needless to say Minako was incredibly confused.
"Er Mako-chan, what was that all about? Why would Ami need to run scans on me and why did you just check my temperature?"
Makoto smiled "Simple, none of us have ever heard you sound so serious or make so much sense outside of a battle scenario and even then we wonder. I was simply checking you weren't ill or possessed or something."
The others giggled as Minako sweat-dropped before turning her focus back to Usagi, who looked increasingly troubled. Minako lightly placed her hand on the other blondes shoulder, drawing her princess's attention once more. "Why don't you go check on Rei-chan? We can see ourselves out."
Usagi gave a small nod and a grateful smile before heading down the hall in search of her friend.
Meanwhile the senshi were slowly beginning to leave. Minako crouched down at the small table, gradually filling her bag with various issues of Rei's manga.
"Minako..."
Hearing her name being called Minako instinctively spun around in the direction of the sound, only to find herself eye to eye with Setsuna's breasts. Trying to cover her rising blush the blonde shuffled backwards, tripping over her bag, landing in an unceremonious heap on the floor. Even the usually stoic Guardian of Time couldn't hide her amusement. As gracefully as possible Setsuna tried to ignore the blonde's current misfortune.
"That was a really impressive speech you gave today, it reminded me of the reasons Queen Serenity made you commander of the Senshi." Offering the blonde a final smile she leaned down and quietly added "I'm proud of you" before heading out of the shrine leaving a very stunned Senshi of Love behind.
Usagi strode purposefully towards the fire room, the most likely location of the missing priestess. Turning the final corner before her destination, Usagi caught the stifled sounds of someone crying coming from a room to her left. The realisation of what the room was only served to mount the blonds worries. 'Why is Rei hiding in Grandpa's room?
Rei's grandfather had passed away a few years ago and Rei was left devastated by the loss. Having successfully completed her training before she turned 18 Rei was able to run the Jinja with a little help from Yuuchirou. For the last year Rei had been running the shrine alone. Yuuchirou left after his failed proposal in which Rei made it perfectly clear she did not return his feelings.
Usagi slid the door open quietly, expecting a tongue lashing from Rei for invading her space, but it never came. The blonde felt her heart break when she saw her best friend curled up on her Grandpa's futon, hugging her knees to her chest sobbing. Rei was usually so strong, so in control of her emotions, it scared Usagi to see her friend so vulnerable.
"Rei-chan" Usagi began quietly as she knelt down in front of her best friend. She reached her hand out to try to wipe away Rei's tears. She felt her heart break further as Rei seemed to flinch away from her touch, however Usagi wasn't going to give up. She slowly and carefully reached out and cupped Rei's cheek delicately, as if afraid the light touch would cause Rei to shatter.
"Rei, sweetie, its me Usa, please sweetie talk to me, let me help you. Let me in Rei please." Usagi begged.
"Us...Usagi?" Rei choked out.
The blonde immediately wrapped her arms around the distraught girl, gently whispering words of comfort into her hair as she held had no idea what had distressed Rei so much but she was determined to find out.
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