Hi all! This chapter is a bit of a cheat: it's an older piece that was meant to be a chapter of another fanfiction, but that series never got off the ground. I'm sick of it sitting around on my hard drive, completed and gathering dust, so I figured I would repurpose it by putting it here. It's set more in the anime universe. Feedback is always welcome.

Instigator

A person who brings about or initiates something.

If one were to ask Rei, she would unequivocally say it was Minako. If one were to get a response at all. Rei most likely would have responded with a swift, "Go to hell," or a flabbergasted, "How dare you?" or perhaps a narrow-eyed accusation of, "Where do you get off?"

If you were one of three specific people, however – a big-hearted cry-baby, a sweet genius or a cook with a lopsided grin – you might have extracted the name Aino Minako from the miko's lips.

Minako had started it, she would answer easily. She had made the suggestion, after all, a wild glint in playful blue eyes.

They had been sitting in the shrine one cool April afternoon. It was the day after Rei's seventeenth birthday. Cry-babies, geniuses and cooks were no longer present; they had gone home that morning after last night's festivities had spilled into a sleepover.

Now it was just the two of them, Rei staring into space whilst Minako finished reading the manga she had bought Rei as a present. Rei hadn't had an opportunity to read it herself yet. She watched the expression on Minako's face as her eyes darted right to left, the excitement growing in them with every passing panel.

The light was streaming in through the window, straight into Rei's eyes. She closed them, basking in the heat and enjoying the companionable silence. For a time, only the intermittent turning of a page drifted between them. Rei dozed happily like that, somewhere fuzzy between sleep and consciousness, until Minako let loose an excited gasp.

"No spoilers," Rei warned, not opening her eyes.

Minako giggled at that. Rei heard the blonde shift and the soft tap as something was placed on her bedside table. She was finished. A cliff-hanger, then.

Rei heaved a sigh, knowing that if Minako was done it would be down to her to keep her occupied again. She felt no grudge at the prospect.

"Rei."

"Yes."

"If you could have one thing for your eighteenth birthday, what would it be?" Another shuffle. Minako was sitting beside her now. Their upper arms brushed. "Not something you can buy. Like, a feeling. Or an experience."

Rei opened her eyes and tilted her head out of the glare. She regarded the floor thoughtfully.

"I don't know," she said honestly. "It's not like our lives need to be any more exciting. And at eighteen I wouldn't be ready for kids or marriage or some huge career advance." She considered the question a few moments more. Then she blushed lightly, reaching an awkward conclusion. "Actually, I think I'd just want my first kiss."

"Huh?!" Rei looked up to find Minako staring at her incredulously. "You mean you've never been kissed?"

Rei frowned at her, partly out of embarrassment she would have to reconfirm the fact and partly in annoyance at Minako's overblown reaction. "I don't know why you're acting so surprised. You know I haven't."

"No, I never heard you say you had. There's a difference," Minako said, wagging a finger at her. She pinched her thumb and forefinger and rested her chin on them in an exaggerated gesture of thoughtfulness. "It just seems so wrong that the senshi of love shouldn't be able to do something about this. Hmm."

Then Rei saw it: that glint, like the sun hitting the ocean. It was beautiful from a distance, for sure, but venture any closer and you'd drive right off the pier. Rei contemplated the aptness of this comparison with the usual twinge of dread as Minako fixed her with a determined expression.

"Rei-chan, Venus has failed you. So I guess it's only right I correct this terrible injustice myself."

Rei blanched. Her mouth went dry. "What?"

Minako leaned closer to her, smirking mischievously. She winked. "And why wait till you're eighteen?"

She made a grab for the fabric of Rei's shirt. Rei evaded her, kicking away from Minako with both feet. She only managed a metre and a half before her back hit the wall.

"Mina," she chided nervously, heart thundering, "I think my first kiss should be with someone I love. Who is male. And not you."

Minako's smile only grew wider and at once the butterflies in Rei's stomach multiplied. Minako crawled towards Rei and knelt over her, a wily expression on her face.

"Come on, Rei. Think of it as practice. Training!" she said, bopping her fist in emphasis. There was an almost noble edge to her tone. "I wouldn't go into a volleyball tournament without hitting a few warm-up spikes first, right?"

Rei's scrunched her nose, ready to argue but unable to think of a valid counterpoint. "Right," she eventually conceded.

"Right," Minako echoed again. "So, until your true love comes along, think of me as your coach."

Rei found that concept pretty laughable but quickly stopped seeing the funny side as Minako climbed on top of her. Her scent hit Rei like a fist, some perfume and hair product combination. She smelt pineapples and oranges. And strawberries.

Definitely strawberries.

In that moment, Rei became intensely aware of Minako, more aware than she had ever been before: the heat of her breath; the small trail of freckles on her nose that only emerged during the warmer months. The softness of her hair as blonde bangs brushed Rei's cheek. The warmth of her body, hovering above her, and the weight of one hand as it landed on her shoulder. Those eyes, bright and dangerous – and suddenly, paramount to all of it, full pink lips edging ever-closer.

"And you know," the blonde whispered, closing the distance between them, "good things come to those with plates."

Mood killed. Rei tore her attention from Minako's mouth and levelled her with a glare. "In no universe is that right or relev-"

And then Minako kissed her. Mid-challenge like that, like starting to run before the pistol sounded. It was playful and confident and insistently feminine, and her lips were soft and desperately inviting. It threw open Rei's mind in a way she didn't think humanly possible; planted some seed in her, a strange little idea that would itch until raked with nails.

It was so well-executed, certainly as far as Rei could tell, that she couldn't help but wonder how many advice columns Minako had scoured to attain such skills. She wondered idly whether she studied them harder than she did her schoolwork, whether she was just naturally good at kissing, or whether she had just had more than her fair share of personal experience.

Looking back now, regardless of where this boon had come from, kissing Minako made Rei think of relaxing with a women's magazine in the summer: all that fun and frivolousness and silly speculation, taken for granted to be nonsense and yet expertly composed into a little-appreciated art form. Smooth printed pages hot in the sun.

She was news, Rei would eventually come to realise. Every day, all the time. And she was always – always – good.

But back then, Rei didn't consider that. Back then, it was just a kiss with her best friend, something she was a little disappointed came to an end with a wicked smile, a lilting laugh and a simple, "Happy birthday."