Right, what do we call these? Drabbles? Yes, that sounds infinitely better than admitting to being too lazy to string my thoughts together into a proper story. Drabbles it is.
First off, they jump around a bit. Come now, lovely confusion. Secondly, this is quite AU so don't expect the other Senshi to show up . . . or for there to be any Senshi at all.
Off with you now. Shoo, go read.
Krampus
Unstoppable Force, Immovable Object
Chapter One:
Energy Applied – Energy Wasted
Rei drummed her fingers on the table in front of her, subtly wishing death on her grandfather and anyone who came near. Alright, not Grandpa. Rei loved him too much, for all that he was a misguided lecher. But damn him for making her sit at this damn booth in the damn mall waiting for simpletons to wander up and ask for their fortunes. Every time a new customer waltzed over, Rei resolved to predict their sudden, painful death in as much detail as she could conjure. Each time, her conscience got the better of her and she ended up telling them the truth about what she saw.
Will my grandchild get better? It's just a bad flu. He'll be fine in a few days.
Will my girlfriend say yes if I propose this weekend? Yes, go for it. She's been waiting for weeks.
There's a dress over there on sale, should I buy it? Of course not. It'll make your ass look like a park bench. Pardon? It would be wise to continue searching. The best things in life are often revealed through effort and perseverance.
"¥500 per question," Rei recited to her next client.
A ¥1,000 bill was handed over, slipped into the box beneath the table, and the girl took the seat across the table.
"What type of fortune telling would you like?" Rei gestured to the cards, crystals and candles set out on the table.
The girl shrugged. "Whichever you're best at."
Rei nodded and set out the candles. She lit three of the four scented candles and handed the matchbox to the blonde. "Ask your first question."
The girl took a thoughtful pose for a moment and then decided, "Am I going to pass the quiz we have this Monday?"
Irritated at such a useless question, Rei paused and looked closer at the girl before her. "You're in my class." The girl nodded. "You're the one that sits next to me and stares."
Minako didn't seem embarrassed at all, just grinned. "What can I say? You're nice to look at." All she received was a flat, annoyed look.
"Light the last candle."
Minako did so, put down the matches, and watched as Rei glanced at the flame and closed her eyes for a moment. It was only a few seconds before she looked back at Minako and said, "Nope. I'm seeing about a forty percent on the next quiz. Have you studied at all?"
"Forty!? What? Aw, crap – I, well, not yet, but, eheh . . ." Minako gave a guilty little grin and scratched the back her head.
"That's pathetic," Rei told her. She blew out the fourth candle and offered Minako the matchbox again. "You get to ask another question."
The blonde fiddled with the little bow of matches. "I do have another question . . ." She took out a match. "Should I break up with my boyfriend?"
"Isn't that a matter of opinion?" Rei hardly found this question any more worthy than the last.
"Just tell me if it's time to move on," Minako specified.
Rei sighed and gestured for Minako to light the candle once again. The blonde struck the match, set it to the wick, and watched as Rei became absorbed in the small, dancing flame. With a final frown of concentration, the fortune-teller looked up. "You could stay with him and be reasonably happy, but if you look elsewhere, chances are there's someone better for you."
Minako sighed, "That's kind of an iffy answer."
With a scoff, Rei's arms folded. "Well if you're already considering leaving him, things can't be that great."
"So . . ."
"It's time to move on."
"Thank you."
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Sorry, her friend mouthed with a shrug when Minako looked around and saw all the nearby chairs taken. She was still panting a little from sprinting to class – first day of school and she was already late. Everyone was already settled and some of them watching her surreptitiously. The only open seat was at the very back, second from the corner.
With a little smile and a return shrug, Minako slipped through the rows to the end and slid into her chair. She didn't know any of the people sitting around her. She wasn't particularly interested in them either, until she glanced at the girl to her left. Sunlight from the windows behind her entered softly, shaded the angles of her face and made her dark hair shine. Her profile was probably the closest to perfect that Minako had ever seen.
The dark haired girl did not look over once during the hour and a half where the teacher introduced himself, drew up a seating plan and started reviewing their previous year.
It didn't really matter. It hardly mattered at all. In fact it was convenient that she was isolated in this uncommunicative little corner. Someone to talk to would only distract her. Better that Minako pay attention in this class, as math had a habit of pile driving her average into not-so-stellar regions. She had resolved that this year, academically, would be different from the last, and the one before.
The dark haired girl who did not look at her had amazingly stiff posture, Minako noticed. Her back could not have been straighter if her spine had been swapped for a steel pipe. Her arms were rigid too, braced on the desk and set into unyielding shoulders. Only her hands, supple and elegant, took part in any sort of movement. She wrote her notes in cursive.
Minako glanced at the teacher every now and then, but inevitably returned her attention to this girl. There was nothing amazingly different about her, but she was captivating. Her uniform was clean and ironed. Her shoes were dark and shiny; her hair was darker and shinier. It was longer than her own, Minako realized. When she was ten, it had been her greatest accomplishment – owning the longest hair in the class. She had cried and sulked when her mother had trimmed her split ends off.
Minako imagined touching that hair for a moment, and then figured that it would not go over so well. The girl's profile was very serious. Her dark eyes focused ahead unrelentingly right until the end of class.
The bell rang and the dark haired, stiff postured girl who did not look at her slid her belongings into her bag and left. Minako put away her books as well and reached to put away her pencil, only to realize she had never taken it out.
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Chatting to Rei was like jogging up an escalator going down – maximum energy applied, minimum distance covered. While she didn't rebuff Minako's attempts at friendship, there was zero encouragement.
- Are you doing anything this weekend?
- Hopefully not.
She seemed to have no interest in starting conversations and very little in keeping one going. Back straight, scribbling away at math problems, she hardly even glanced at Minako when she spoke.
- I don't get number 23. Do we have to factorise it or work with it like it is?
- Maybe you should study your notes.
She also seemed to have no qualms about being rude, though she didn't seem to go out of her way to be blunt either. There was very little Minako could do to get reactions from the composed girl other than mild irritation, though Rei would occasionally grow exasperated if Minako asked enough pointless questions.
- Who would you rather be stranded on an island with, James Dean or Johnny Depp?
- . . .
-Young Catherine Hepburn or young Audrey Hepburn?
- . . . I have no idea who you're talking about.
- Just say James Dean. You can't go wrong with the hot, brooding type right, Rei?
- . . .
- Right?
- . . . sigh.
Slowly, Minako began to wheedle details of her life out of Rei. She was a miko at a shrine and didn't watch TV, only rarely reading the newspaper to keep up with the times. She scored well on tests, usually only a couple marks off from 100 and wrote her notes in shorthand. She also turned out to be rather self-conscious.
- Stop staring at me.
- . . . Do I have to?
- Yes, do your work!
- But watching you work is much more enjoyable.
- I'm sure.
- No, really. You make the cutest face when there's a question you can't solve.
- I . . . what? Never mind. Leave me alone.
- Awww, you're blushing.
The irritable student, though she preferred to settle into her own little zone, always helped the blonde when she was having real difficulties. She would touch Minako's hand, take her pencil and lean in to explain a concept. Then she would have to go over it again because the volleyball player was distracted.
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"Don't pout at me."
"…"
"Stop it."
"But, Rei . . ."
"No. I said no."
"But what if I fail? What if I fail this test and then fail this course and I end up never going anywhere in life, living penniless and alone, working street corners and selling my babies for –"
"Shh. I'm trying to work. Maybe if you did the same you wouldn't have time for ridiculous fantasies."
"Please, Rei? I'll be good, I promise! I'll focus, and listen and be serious the whole time."
" . . . The whole time?"
"Eheh. Well, half of the time, at least."
"Fine."
"Really?"
"No."
" . . . But –"
"Yes, really! Just walk with me after school and we can study for the afternoon."
"Thank you, Rei!"
"Yeah, yeah."
"You're so kind."
"Unh-hunh"
"And smart, and funny."
"Okay."
"And sooo pretty."
"You can stop now."
"You sure?"
" . . ."
"Because there's more."
"That's fine. Save it for later."
"Okay! . . . Oh, don't roll your eyes at me."
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"You're incredibly hard to get on your own, you know." Rei's tone was slightly surly like she was feeling impatient. Minako wondered how long Rei had waited for her to part with her friends.
She grinned in a way that her mother always called impish. Minako preferred the term 'coy'. "Am I? And why would you want to get me on my own?" She held the door as they exited the school.
She wasn't really trying for an embarrassed reaction and wasn't too disappointed when Rei only snorted, "Because I don't want to go near your bimbo-headed posse. I've heard idiocy is contagious in large, blonde groups."
Rei didn't even flinch at the smack Minako dealt to her arm. "You're just jealous!" The volleyball player gave her a snooty look. "And besides, you could never pull off blonde hair."
"I guess I'm safe then." Rei grinned but still shook her head. "I think I'll keep my distance anyway."
"You don't really like big groups, do you?" Minako observed.
"Nope. Don't do them." They waited at a crosswalk for the lights to change.
"What about me?"
What about you? You tell me. "You're not a big group." They crossed the street.
"So you'd do me?"
Rei gave her a sharp look that turned into one of exasperation when Minako started laughing. The blonde was always slipping quips like that into otherwise acceptable conversations. Rei had found that a glare did not seem to go very far in stopping the annoying girl's giggles. "Lose some weight and we'll talk," she muttered.
It shut Minako up as planned. This time, Rei did flinch when Minako screeched and socked her in the arm. Repeatedly.
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"Don't I get the tour?" Minako prompted from behind Rei, tagging along with the miko as she strode through the shrine grounds. They were both slightly out of breath from the trek up the massive flight of steps leading to the shrine.
Rei pointed and eloquently described, "Courtyard, shrine, home." They stepped up to the sliding door and took their shoes off.
"Ah, lovely, lovely, I can see you've got a real future in pleasing patrons." Minako jibed.
"Like your future in mathematics?" Rei returned. She led them from the door down a hall.
Touché, the blond silently noted, and grinned. "Well that's where you, my lovely assistant, come in!"
"I am not your –"
"Rei, is that you?" a voice called from another room. "Are you talking to yourself again?"
"I do not talk to myself," she muttered and turned into a room. Minako followed and peered over Rei's shoulder at an old man sitting at a table, sipping tea. "I've brought a . . ." Rei turned her head, eyed the blonde and settled on, "classmate over to study."
"Ahh! I see, and such a pretty girl I see, too!" He squinted and gave a wrinkled grin to Minako.
"Grandpa . . ." Rei sighed.
"You two behave! Off with you. Study, study . . ." His cheery smile never faded as he returned to his cup of tea. "It's nice that you've brought a friend over, Rei."
The miko sighed and led the way to her room. Minako glanced sidelong at her face, expecting to see exasperation, and was instead encountered with a strange, sad smile.
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"I don't want to go out to dinner with him, Grandpa."
"I know you don't."
"I don't even want to see him."
"That's perfectly understandable."
"We're meeting clients, did I tell you that? He's dragged me into this like an amusing little sideshow for his stupid, loaded sponsors to distract themselves with. They'll stare and he'll preen and then we'll get in the car and he'll drop me off and I won't see him for another five months."
"Pretty girls are always welcome . . ."
"I hate him."
"Now, I'm not sure that you do, Rei."
"I am. I hate him."
"Then why are you going?"
"Because . . ."
"You could tell him no."
"I hate him so much."
"But not completely."
". . . N-no . . . but I . . . I sh-should. I . . ."
"Shh, there now, don't cry. He will come to his senses some day and see what a beautiful, talented daughter he has and pay you all the attention you deserve."
". . . And I will be sure to ignore him."
"No you won't. You are far more forgiving than you give yourself credit for."
" . . . I . . . suppose. Do you think he'll like my new dress?"
"Of course he will . . . I paid enough for it."
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Seated properly at the table, diligently completing her current math equation, Rei resisted the urge to grit her teeth. "What are you doing?"
"Just looking around." Rei's room was neat and organized to the point of seeming suspicious. Minako was nearly convinced that she would find something disorderly somewhere if she searched in the right place.
"I was under the impression you wanted to study, seeing as how your entire future is on the line." It was only through conscious, strenuous effort that Rei managed not to growl this small prompt.
Minako seemed to sense her impending doom and skipped back to where her binders and notebooks were sprawled about. She seated herself, took up her pencil, and poured her focus into her work. It was only a matter of seconds before her attention wandered once again. "Do you like living in a shrine?"
Rei punched numbers into her calculator and copied down the answer. "Why?"
"I think it would be cool. Everything is so ancient and you own so much land – it's like your own castle." She grinned and poked Rei's cheek with the eraser end of her pencil. "Right, Princess?"
"No, it's a pain in the ass, actually." Rei grabbed the pencil from Minako. "I sweep the steps everyday in the morning before school and in the evening before sunset. I clean the entire shrine room daily and tend to the courtyard, and on top of all that I have to put up with swarms of tourists."
"So why do you live here if you don't even like it?" Minako snatched for her pencil but it was held beyond her reach.
"I never said I don't like it." She dangled the pencil closer. "It's not my choice anyway."
Minako stopped reaching and turned to Rei. "Why not?"
"Because." Her throat felt very tight and she paused until she was sure her voice wouldn't give her away. "This is where my father left me."
"And your mother?" Minako asked softly.
The tightness in her throat welled upward somewhere behind her eyes and her nose and threatened to push its way out. Rei looked away, got the feeling under control, and gave Minako her pencil back. "Show me which questions you have problems with and I'll help you with them."
The blonde just nodded and flipped through her notebook, glancing at the miko, who would not meet her eyes. They studied quietly for the next half hour and Minako felt she may have actually made enough progress to pass their exam. Rei told her not to get cocky.
Minako gathered her books and put them away. "Thank you, Rei," she said, seriously enough that the dark haired girl knew she meant things other than studying. The girl's blue eyes were also serious for once.
Rei considered thanking her in turn, but couldn't reconcile the notion with her pride. Her lips smirked. "You're welcome. Next time, you're paying."
Then Minako grinned and all was right again. "Oh, I'll find a way to repay you."
.o.0.
Leave a review - let me know if there's anything to fix and feel free to suggest scenes. This is really just me siphoning off excess ideas.