Disclaimer - I do not own the characters of Sailor Moon. They are owned by the wonderful Naoko Takeuchi

~It's Always Been You~

Minako stumbled in through the open door of Rei's shrine bedroom, which caused the dark-haired miko to leap to her feet immediately from her bed, and rush over to the golden-haired warrior's side.

Minako was clutching her side tightly, and Rei could see blood begin to seep from what must obviously be a bad wound.

"Come on, lay down on my bed now," Rei said in a voice tight with worry, as she gently helped ease the softly-whimpering senshi down onto her clean white sheets. Rei then quickly dashed into her bathroom, and came back out with the med kit she always kept stashed there. The life of a sailor senshi meant that one always had to be ready for emergencies like this.

Rei hurriedly knelt by Minako's side, and carefully lifted her golden-haired friend's shirt from her body. The wound that Rei saw caused the raven-haired girl to suck in a quick breath, and then curse lightly under her breath. Deep claw marks had marred the perfect smooth skin of Minako's side, and the blood was still oozing down Minako's side and staining Rei's sheets.

"I'm...I'm sorry about your sheets...Rei," Minako said haltingly, as she turned her head to give Rei a pain-filled grimace of a smile. "I zigged when I shoulda zagged, and got clipped in the side by this monster I figured I could take on my own."

Rei didn't say anything in reply as she went about first cleaning the wound, and then bandaging it up. When she was done she wiped Minako's side clean of all the blood with an alcohol-soaked cloth, and then sat quietly staring down at her best friend.

"That was possibly the stupidest decision you could have made," Rei finally said in a voice tight with some emotion Minako couldn't readily identify.

Minako shifted uncomfortably as she turned her head to avoid Rei's unwavering gaze, and hissed softly in pain as her movement caused the wounds in her side to stretch. Rei laid a hand on Minako's shoulder to make the golden-haired girl stay still, and then she let out a deep weary sigh.

"Promise me Minako, that you will never do something that boneheaded and stupid again. I couldn't take it if something...happened to you," Rei continued in a soft voice, swallowing around the lump that had formed around her throat when she'd first seen Minako's injury.

Minako turned wide, bright blue eyes towards Rei and nodded her head in ready agreement.

Rei nodded her head in satisfaction before she slowly rose to her feet. She then leaned forward and helped Minako to sit up on the bed.

"Sorry about your sheets again, Rei," Minako said with a small, shy smile as she glanced down at the blood-soaked sheets. "I'll make sure to get you a new set of sheets when I get home. My parents are...still out of town...so it'll be no problem to grab a new set and bring it back to you," Minako said in a quiet voice, as she began idly picking at a clean section of Rei's sheet.

Rei let a soft sigh before she reached forward, slipped her long fingers under Minako's chin, and gently tilted the blond's head upward. Minako's sky-blue eyes widened and her lips fell open slightly, as Rei leaned down and looked deeply into her eyes. The two of them stayed that way for seconds that seemed like hours to Minako, until with a nod to herself Rei let go of her chin, and leaned back to gaze down at the blond with her arms crossed over her chest.

Minako slipped out her tongue to lick suddenly dry lips, as she took in a deep breath and slowly released it to try to calm her racing heart.

For a heartbeat or two there, Minako had honestly thought Rei was going to kiss her, and the thought of her miko friend actually doing that sent a pleasant tingle through her body, and completely overshadowed the pain in her side for a few precious moments.

"You're going to stay here with me," Rei said with sudden decisiveness, as she continued to gaze down at the blond sitting on her bed. When Minako looked back up at her with an adorably confused expression on her face Rei continued.

"Your parents aren't home, and I could see just how much that injury in your side took out of you when I checked your eyes just now. Senshi healing will take care of your wound by morning, but in the meantime you need somewhere safe and comfortable to rest. You hang out here enough anyways that it's practically your second home so I...I don't mind if you...stay here with me tonight," Rei finished as a light blush stained her cheeks, while she did her best to look anywhere but at the blond before her.

A beautiful, breathtaking smile spread across Minako's face, and Rei coughed lightly as her face reddened further at the sight of that smile.

Kami, but she's beautiful even when she's been man-handled...or rather monster-handled...and that beast is damn lucky that I wasn't there at the time it hurt her, or I would have made it hurt a thousand times worse before I fried it, Rei thought angrily to herself, as she set about gently easing Minako from the bed so that the bedsheets could be changed. She made Minako sit in the only chair in the room; a nice sturdy wooden chair the monks had given to her many years before.

Minako sat down gingerly in the chair, and watched quietly as Rei went about quickly changing the sheets. Her side continued to ache but she knew that that was just her senshi healing kicking in, and she would continue to feel the discomfort of her wounds healing for the rest of the night.

Minako let out a soft, tired sigh and leaned her head back against the chair, and allowed her eyelids to close slowly. Her head now hurt as well, and her tummy was tying itself in knots with hunger. Healing used up a lot of the body's reserves, plus she'd expended a lot of energy to try to take down that monster that had attacked her.

A light shake on her shoulder made her snap her eyes open with a small start, as she hadn't realized that she'd fallen asleep. Rei was smiling down softly at her, and telling her that a bath had been drawn for her, and that she should take a quick soak before she ate something and went to bed.

Minako could only nod drowsily which caused Rei to frown slightly, and her dark-haired friend raised her hand to place it gently against her aching forehead.

"Damn, that beast's claws must have caused an infection because you're burning up, Minako," Rei said in a voice filled with worry, and Minako could only stare forward numbly as Rei gently helped her to her feet. She almost stumbled and fell as she tried to stand on suddenly wobbly legs, but Rei stood steadily by her side helping to hold her up.

The next couple of hours passed by in small, jagged fragments for Minako. She vaguely remembered being lowered into a bath's warm water, and gentle caring hands softly wiping her skin clean. She then remembered being dressed in soft, fuzzy pajamas and vaguely remembered that they were her pajamas that she had left here at Rei's place, the last time she had 'invited' herself over for an impromptu sleepover.

The next thing she remembered after that was Rei laying her back down gently onto the bed, and helping her to sit propped up against the headboard so that she could drink some hot soup that Rei had made. Minako remembered getting about half of the bowl of soup down, before she'd shivered lightly and dropped down further into the bed to wrap her suddenly cold body tightly into the sheets.

Her next memory was of now, as she woke up with a sudden start to find herself still on the bed, the light of the moon shining through Rei's one bedroom window, and the sheets still wrapped tightly around her body...except...the sheet wasn't the only thing now wrapped snugly and tightly around her.

Minako held her breath as she moved her body slightly, and felt an arm tighten protectively around her waist, and a soft mutter about going back to sleep whispered lightly into her ear from behind. Minako didn't think that Rei herself was actually awake as she was absolutely, positively sure her best friend would not have remained wrapped so snugly around her if she had been fully awake.

Minako let out a soft sigh of pleasure and decided to do exactly as Rei suggested, and closed her eyes to drift back into this blissful comfort of sleep wrapped up warmly in Rei's arms. And as she allowed her eyes to close and a peacefully content smile to cross her face, unseen to her a similar smile graced Rei's lips.

To be continued~?

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