Mina watched the figure standing among the cherry blossoms in contemplative silence. She leaned against the doorway that led to the outdoor balcony, mostly hidden by the dim moonlight and the shadow of the doorframe. Her golden hair fell wavy and loose across her cheek, protecting it from the cold of the stone brinks. Playing at the pocket of her tight jeans with unaccustomed nervousness, she debated whether or not to make her presence known. The shimmering lights, the music, and the general sounds of the party would keep their conversation intimate. Inhaling deeply and smoothing her shirt, she stepped forward.

            “Rei-chan.” She said softly as a greeting, taking her place beside the other woman.

            “Mina.” The dark haired woman replied unemotionally, her gaze remaining steadily forward.

Hiding the hurt she felt at the cold reception with practiced ease, she started over just as softly. “Why aren’t you inside?”

Still staring straight ahead, the Senshi answered evasively. “Why aren’t you?”

Smiling at the expected answer, the blonde was ready with a reply. “You know why Rei, I can’t be inside partying with the best of them when my very best friend is out here all alone.”

The miko quickly responded. “Don’t Mina.”

“Don’t what?” The other woman asked caught by surprise.

“Waste your time out here,” She answered, turning to her friend as the first traces of her emotional turmoil were betrayed by the wild look in her dark eyes.   Taking a breath, she smiled wryly. “Besides I’m sure there are tons of college boys missing you desperately at this very moment.”

Responding to the forced light atmosphere of their conversation, Mina furthered the joke. “But then I would be faced with the torture of choosing between them. I’d honestly be better off not to choose at all.” She shrugged. “So I guess I’m stayin’.”

Rolling her eyes at the arrogance she often wondered the truth of, Rei leaned back against a nearby Cherry tree. “Then I guess you are stuck out here.”

Leaning a hand on the truck of another tree and gazing down the stone pathway they were on, Mina pressed. “You still haven’t told me why you are out here.”

“You know why.” Rei answered with a bit of her legendary temper coloring the words.

Sighing deeply the young soldier thought to herself I knew, Rei, I knew, but I hoped that this time I was wrong.  They stood silently together the wind making the only noise as it whipped over the shrine and threw their hair. Making a decision, Mina decided it was time for long overdue words.

“Why do you do this to yourself?” She stepped in front of her friend, willingly risking the evocation of that famous temper. She waited for the denial, the fury filled retaliation, anything but the resigned reply she received.

“I don’t see how I have any choice.” Mina stood stupefied.  Had her friend finally given up? Had she let this break her?

“Have no choice??” She asked. “How can you even think that?”

“Mina don’t.” Rei tried to hush her friend. “I’m tired of hoping, hoping gets you nowhere. It only hurts Mina. It only feeds false dreams. Things are the way they are, destiny is the only reality. I’ve spent my life hoping and I’ve nothing to show for it. I love her more than anyone in the universe. I think I loved her since before I knew her. I clung to that love and hoped that she would feel it too. For a little while I even believed she did. But things are the way they are, and they can’t be changed. Not for some stupid girl’s desires. She didn’t love me and she never had, she loved him.  The second person I was able to let in completely, to allow myself to love. It was never meant to be.  Hoping for it is as useless as hoping that I’ll find another. I will always love them and they will never love me.”

Mina stood frozen in stunned, disbelieving silence as her friend watched the princess and prince joking together inside, her is his lap wishing him happy birthday yet again and looking blissfully engaged in their blossoming love affair. “Some people are meant to be happy, to find love.”  She gazed into the darkness. “Some are not.”   A single tear, reflecting the soft moonlight slid down her cheek.

“No.” Was the only word she found herself able to articulate.  “Rei” She whispered the name with a newfound conviction, taking the surprised woman’s hands in her own. “Rei no.”

Closing her eyes, the shamed and dejected woman still insisted. “It’s true.”

“If you can’t believe me as a friend, believe me as the goddess of love.” She said the last part with the smirk and slight blush that always accompanied the recitation of her title. “That isn’t the way love works. Love is more powerful than anything, then destiny, if Usagi has taught us anything it is that Rei. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, kami knows I’ve had my share of disappointments, but you can’t give up. Love only dies when you stop believing in it and hope is what feeds it.” She gently wiped the arrant tear away. “You just need to open your eyes Rei, love is all around you.”

Pulling her hands away, swamped by emotion, the distressed girl lost what little composure she had managed to maintain. The tears now poured from her eyes and her voice rose high above the hushed tones of earlier. “Then you show me Mina, you show me an option, you show me one place were there is love for me, because I can’t see it!”

“Rei, I…” The pure grief and depth of emotion pouring from her usually collected friend startled her.

Falling against the tree and dissolving into sobs, she spat the words through a trembling jaw. “I told you Mina, there isn’t anything for me. My eyes are open. There isn’t anything to see.”

Gathering all the courage she could muster, Mina came once more to her friend’s side. Taking a deep breath she said the words that she knew could change their friendship and lives forever, the words she had meant to say when she came out into the cherry trees. “Or maybe it’s right in front of you, to close to see.”

Laughing bitterly without understanding, too lost to catch the implication, Rei stared out into the night. “I don’t think so.”

Stepping closer, the blonde lowered her voice. “Why?”

The sobs threatened to erupt in her throat again, but she pushed them back. “I’m unlovable.”

Her countenance filled with sympathy and concern.  “That’s not true…”

“Mina stop trying to make me feel better.” The reply was accusatory and somewhat aggressive in tone.

“I can’t let you believe those thing about yourself.” She stood her ground, her own anger rising.

“EVEN IF THEY’RE TRUE???” She shouted back.

Frustrated and scared Mina found herself yelling back as her own tears trailed down her cheeks. “THEY AREN’T!!!”

Sarcasm and despair where interwoven in her tear-laden and angry reply. “IF THEY AREN’T THEN SHOW ME MINA!!! YOU SAY THERE IS LOVE ALL AROUND ME? THEN OPEN MY…” Rei was silenced by the action of soft and demanding lips against hers. The kiss was desperate and filled with so much emotion that the raven-haired priestess found herself both humbled and paralyzed by its intensity.  As soon as it began, it ended leaving her with the taste of a faint fruity lip-gloss and the saltiness of tears.

By the time she was able to pull herself together, she was standing alone in the darkness. Awed and entirely confused, she whispered a single word in the form a question into the night.

“Mina?”