Chapter Text
Days like this are precious.
The sun is bright, the weather is cool, and Rei Hino isn’t at her grandfather’s shrine.
Don’t get her wrong, she loves that shrine, loves being a part of it, and if you try to insinuate otherwise, she’ll chastise you.
But between her layabout grandfather and that useless disciple, Rei ends up doing most of the actual work, and there’s only so long the pride it gives her can offset the exhaustion.
Which is how she ends up here: Akihabara, a few bags dangling from one elbow as evidence of the clothing stores she’s already been to in her cross-district shopping spree. Rei is a fan of the wardrobe she already has, but with Minako around, it’s always prudent to keep an eye open, otherwise her position as fashion forward star of the Sailor Guardians might be sniped out from under her.
Today’s ensemble while out and about isn’t anything too special, just a dark red beret and sunglasses, paired with a burgundy coat and low heels, practical and stylish in this chilly weather.
It also makes for a good disguise, as she catches sight of her next stop: not a boutique selling designer brands, but an out of the way shop, filled with as many bookshelves as the floorplan will allow, all of them crammed with manga.
Well, manga... and doujinshi.
Rei takes a look around, confirming no sign of strange cats with forehead markings or blonde girls with twin bun ponytails or bluenettes with their nose in a book, before slipping into the store.
She’s been here before, a few times, and knows her way through the labyrinth of ink and wood pulp, past the repetitive shonen and the yen a dozen gag series, and while a few of the new shoujo titles catch her eye, she gathers her willpower to resist, and presses forward.
It’s well worth it as she finds her corner, the sacred space where the most beautiful of love stories are kept.
And standing there, blocking the way, is a very familiar girl, one with broad shoulders and long brown hair.
“Makoto?!” Rei hisses, and sure enough, when the girl turns, pulling her attention away from the tankobon she’d had open, there’s no denying the veracity of her claim.
Wearing that orange sweater she’s so strangely fond of, Makoto raises an eyebrow even as her cheeks flush and she fumbles to put the book she’d been perusing back onto the shelf. “R-Rei?”
It’s a stand-off.
Here they are.
In the yuri section.
A beautiful oasis, free from the corrupting touch of men, where Rei can find stories that truly speak to her.
(Sure, most of them are written for straight boys so they can perv on lesbians, but Rei’s going through puberty too and she’ll take what boobs she can get, even if the writing is so often garbage.)
A choice stands before both of these fighters for good, these warriors righteous: they can pretend they didn’t see each other, lie about why they’re here, or just be honest with themselves.
Rei’s still quibbling over her choice when Makoto reaches out and snatches her hands, holding them in her grasp like they’re precious. (Rei suddenly catches a fever, heat flooding her like a broken dam.) “Rei, I’m so glad you’re here, I need your help.”
“Y-yeah?” Rei asks, not entirely sure where this is going, a bead of sweat building vigor on her temple before it can fall.
Makoto nods her head, so hard the baseball cap almost falls off her head, and then she starts to squirm. There’s something fun about getting to see it, up close and personal: the powerhouse of the Sailor Guardians, one of the strongest people Rei knew, now lost for words and weak in her need for Rei.
(For Rei’s help. Not Rei herself. Th-that’d be ridiculous.)
“I... I’ve got this friend, who...” Makoto steps aside, and she swings wide one arm, gesturing towards the shelf that Rei made this leg of her journey to visit. “...she’s... starting to question some stuff, y’know? And, I came here, hoping to maybe learn something... to help her! Of course!!” Makoto’s face is beat red, and despite Rei blushing just as hard only seconds before, she suddenly feels smug when shown such clear shame.
Especially when this ‘friend’ Makoto’s talking about clearly doesn’t exist. “Right, of course. Just doing research, for ‘a friend’.” To be fair, it’s not the worst excuse for looking at lesbian manga Rei’s ever heard... but it is pretty bad.
If Makoto’s caught wind of her doubt, she doesn’t show it. Instead, displaying such naked vulnerability with her wide eyes, soft eyes and clenched and calloused fists, Makoto fully faces Rei once more, lower lip lowered in a devastating pout. “I’m glad you understand. It’s... I’m trying not to be weird about it, but this is all new to me, and... well...” Makoto sighs, and with the motion, she deflates, shoulders slumping, back bowing. “My friend, she... she thought she’d already found and lost her one, y’know? Her soulmate. She’s tried for love again, here and there, but it’s never worked, not really.”
Rei nods along as Makoto clearly describes herself. “Right, got it.”
“But then, there’s this girl... I don’t know, I won’t pretend I get it, but according to my friend, it’s getting harder and harder to think about that guy she lost, when this girl just... do you get what I mean?” Makoto’s pleading, she’s desperate.
And with that, Rei stops feeling smug. Her heart melts under the naked flame of her inner compassion, and suddenly it’s getting hard not to cry. “No, I... I mean, I don’t relate entirely, but... that sounds rough, and I know how hard finding yourself can be.”
With her words, Makoto somehow manages to get more tense and more relaxed at the same time. “You get it? You mean... I kinda assumed, what with the Takarazuka, and the all-girls school, and...” Makoto wildly flails a hand behind her. “But... you’re really...?” She can’t even say the word, drowning as she flails for the right thing to say.
Rei throws her a life preserver. “Yeah, I’m really a lesbian. Just... don’t tell the others?” She wants to believe they’d be fine with it, but Rei’s been wrong about that before.
It’s why she’s had to flirt with men, even briefly date some of them, just to keep some semblance of a cover.
“I promise I won’t! I... okay, since you’re here, and you’re...” Makoto coughs, and the word vaguely sounds like ‘thespian’. “...can you maybe give me some advice? J-just for my friend, y’know? So she can see if this is really a crush, or if it’s something else?”
“Of course, Mako.” Honestly, the idea that Makoto is asking for her help, reaching out with this plea, even through the ridiculous ‘my friend’ excuse... it’s touching. If her friend truly is like her, it would be so freeing, an outlet for talking about this entire avenue of emotion that so far has remained limited for Rei. (For all their reputation, Rei’s found all-girls schools big on displays of crushing on other girls but light on actual fucking lesbians.) “So, this possible crush, what does ‘your friend’ feel about her?”
Makoto, bless her heart, tries to sell the lie by making a big show out of scratching her head, looking away, giving every sign that she’s dredging her brain for whatever fragments of conversation have sunk to the bottom of her brain. “It’s like... she said, she’s always finding excuses to spend time together, she gets jealous over other people spending time with her, she has dreams about her... but like, not of them kissing, or anything, at least not that she told me.”
Rei chews on that a bit before sharing her thoughts. “That definitely sounds like crush material, but I guess it could just be a really possessive friendship.” More than anything, she’s trying to piece together who the target of Makoto’s potential feelings are. Another Sailor Scout? Some girl from her school?
“Hmm... well, maybe it would help if I could hear how you figured it out?” Makoto asks.
Oh, oh dear. “How I figured out... what?” Rei replies, trying to play dumb.
It doesn’t work, Makoto rolls her eyes and grumbles, “How you figured out you like girls.”
After a little look-around to survey their surroundings, Rei makes an executive decision. “This is too public. C’mon, treat me to lunch, and then I’ll tell you the story.”
To her credit, Makoto doesn’t balk at her price. She leads Rei out of the bookshop, down the street, and before Rei knows it they’re sitting in a booth, well away from any other customers, as Rei enjoys a bitter macha-chocolate flavored desert and pulls together her thoughts.
As she does, she looks at Makoto: sitting there, crossed elbows on the table. Usagi makes her innocence look childish, but it always appears more mature on Makoto, like she’s strong enough that she’s open to being tricked or used or led around. Kind, but not weak; caring, but not polite. A part of Rei, starved for touch and desperate for a girlfriend, kind of wishes Makoto had held her hand on the way here, or held out the door for her, or could currently be pushing her down and kissing her so hard that Rei can’t think anymore.
Shoving that inner voice down, hard, Rei starts to spin her tale. “I don’t really remember when it first became obvious.” She looks out the window, and without putting much thought into it, starts to track a young girl walking down the street, hand in hand with her mother. “You brought up Takarazuka, and sure, most of my first celebrity crushes are from Revue performers, but... I’ve always looked up to women. Admired them. I’m sure that’d be the case whether or not my mom had gotten me into theater.”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t realize bringing up the play would remind you of her...” Makoto whispers, and a hand reaches out, brushing against the fingers gripping Rei’s spoon.
She freezes at the offered comfort, before taking another bite. “Don’t be. Always preferable to thinking about my dad.” Her next few mouthfuls of soft desert enter her mouth angrily, but the food tastes just as good either way. Once she swallows, Rei feels good to continue. “I guess... I remember, a few years before we all met, I had this friend.”
“Just a friend?” Makoto asks, and Rei’s surprised to hear no teasing to it. Just an honest curiosity.
“Just a friend.” Rei tells herself that maybe, in another life, they could’ve been more. But no, she can’t imagine a scenario where that wish comes true. “I wasn’t going to an all-girls school yet, but I still latched onto her, like a lamprey to a trout. She was strong: picking fights with boys, never afraid to speak her mind, always trying to help out the girls everyone else forgot about.” Rei could still remember that dark blue hair, those friendly eyes, those calloused hands.
Rei sighs, and pushes her plate away, even though she’s only eaten half of the roll. “One day, I told my dad I wanted to marry her someday.” She wishes the memory could be anything but sour, but wishes don’t mean anything, not without the power to see them through.
That day had been such a prime example of that fact.
“Your dad... didn’t take it well, I’m guessing,” Makoto hedges.
Rei nods, the gesture sharp and abrasive. “New school. New minders. Lessons on proper etiquette where they drilled into my head the expectations of my family and society and... I learned how to keep my feelings quiet.” Other lessons, crueler lessons, taught her to do the same around her peers.
But Makoto doesn’t need to know about that.
“I really want to kick your dad’s ass,” Makoto practically growls, snapping Rei out of her thoughts. She looks across the table to Makoto’s gritted teeth, her clenched fist, the vein practically popping out through her skin at the temple as she thinks about what happened to Rei. “It’s not fair that he can ruin your chances at happiness, uproot your whole life, just because he... ugh!!” Then, with a harsh exaltation, all that fury fades into naked concern. “You deserve better than that, Rei.”
“Y-yeah?” Rei asks, her voice stuttering because...
Because...
Because even as Sailor Mars, wielder of magical flame in her battles against evil, Rei has never felt this sort of heat before. It licks everywhere it touches, and spreads like a hungry inferno, from her core to her face, her hands, her... oh no...
Unaware of what she’s doing to Rei, Makoto reaches out and grabs both of her hands solidly within her strong grip. “Someday, you’re going to find someone incredible, Rei. Who stands by your side, who fights for you, who makes you feel like...” Makoto laughs a little, before finishing, “...like a princess.”
And Rei, heart pounding so loud in her ears it’s almost deafening, looking into Makoto’s eyes and seeing her sincerity, can’t help but remember why they’re here.
So Makoto, dear and foolish Makoto, could get help for ‘her friend’ in understanding a crush on a girl.
A plan begins to form in Rei’s mind, and as it does, a sly and victorious smile spreads across her face. “Thanks, Makoto... I think you’re right.” She squeezes Makoto’s hands, and starts to plan her avenues of attack. “Someday, maybe even someday soon, I am going to find a girl like that.”
She already has.
Now all she has to do is make Makoto realize that Rei likes her back.