Continuing Tales

Airmail

A Sailor Moon Story
by LovelyLytton

Part 27 of 42

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Airmail

When she returned from the shrine long after night had fallen, she most certainly didn't expect him to wait in front of her door. Had she listened to the drum of her own heart, she would have known before turning around the corner of the hall. Where another man might have casually lounged against the wall, he stood still in military perfection.

All that stillness went out of the window as soon as they had entered her flat, and just like the night before, they were all touch and no words. And just like before, come morning, he left.

The trainer clad feet made crunchy sounds as they hit the ground time and again. Usagi tried her best not to drop dead and to continue running, but her lungs felt as if she had been held under water by a teasing Rei for too long a time. Panting, she stopped and focused on breathing, the pain in her sides strangely not subsiding, but getting worse instead. The other blonde didn't notice that her companion had fallen behind and ran and ran and ran.

The pink clock on her kitchen wall struck nine, and a knock propelled her to the door in an instant. It has to be him, it has to! And indeed, it was. The third evening in a row that he had come to her, but their movements remained just as needy. Before he pushed into her, she used her hands to hold him at bay. Confusion flitted across his striking features.

"Your name", she panted, "tell me your name."

The girls finished their round, and Usagi wondered if she would ever enjoy this sort of activity. It was gruesome, and the fact that it was still so early in the morning added insult to injury.

Seeing how air was hard to come by, her words came out ragged, and she held on to her sides in order to appease the pain.

"You haven't been to class the last two days, have you?"

Minako bent down to re-tie the laces of her trainers.

It was a bold move, but it had to work. On the front of her door, carefully kept in place by sticky tape, was the spare key to her flat. When she heard it turn in her lock three hours later, she knew that she had not overstepped the invisible boundary that had been drawn between them by the past's misdeeds and the present's fears.

They didn't even make it to the bedroom.

"Tell me again why you're getting up now?", a voice murmered into his pillow. Usagi, resisting the urge to smack her husband, answered with barely concealed desperation.

"Because Minako has this weird thing where she goes running at neck-breaking speed in order to come to terms with Takeshi's return. And running isn't the right way to come to terms with anything, let alone resurrected-"

"Re-incarnated", the sleepy voice interrupted.

"Resurrected lovers. So when she wants to talk, which is hopefully sometime soon, or I won't get to being queen, I will be there."

Pulling the blanket over his head, Mamoru slipped away into blissful sleep again and his wife entered the cool morning to meet her friend in front of the park's gates.

The familiar, firm knock sounded through her flat. She got up from the couch, only to sit down again. This is ridiculous. He has a key. Another knock followed. Fine, then! She shot up and stalked to the door. The not talking part she could cope with. The leaving before morning thing? Fine as well. But not using the bloody key was a rejection of the fragile truce between them, and that was most certainly not okay. Ripping the door open, she stared at him with blazing eyes, but not a single word came to her mind.

"My name is Takeshi."

This night, they linked their fingers while sleeping.

Suddenly, she stumbled and fell to the ground in an ungraceful heap. It was more than a minute before Usagi had reached her, dropping down beside the exhausted girl.

"Are you okay?"

Minako had her eyes closed, her hands balled in tight fists.

"Mi, are you okay?"

It was a mark of their friendship that Usagi spoke at all, because her entire body was on fire and she sincerely hoped that whatever was going on between Minako and Takeshi would be resolved soon. Soon as in now. Now as in ten minutes ago. Ten minutes ago as in before the stitches in her side got so bad that she was convinced they were worse than giving birth to Chibi-Usa would be. And that child had a huge head.

Minako pulled herself together and got up. She wouldn't surrender. She wouldn't break. Not yet. "I'd say we ran enough for today, come on." She offered Usagi her hand and lifted her up, and the two of them slowly walked out of the park, with aching feet and stinging sides.

It was her that left the bed this night. She went into the bathroom and took a long, hard look in the mirror, not quite sure whether she liked what she saw. He had been awake the minute she got up, even though their bodies weren't touching. When she didn't return after what felt like an eternity and was actually eleven minutes, he arose and followed her, his steps the lone sound. He found her in the living-room, sitting on the obscenely large red couch, surrounded by a myriad of pillows. It pained him to see her looking so fragile, and it would have been better had she been clutching a pillow close to her heart. But she was all poise and no comfort. Sitting down next to her, they waited for the morning to come.

"Mamoru, wake up."

A strong arm pulled her back into bed again, hoping to keep her from talking.

"I'm serious. Wake up."

Her insistence tugged at the corners of his consciousness, but he had worked a night shift at the hospital and for some reason, people insisted on crashing their cars the minute he fell asleep in the on-call-room, which meant that no, he wasn't getting up.

"Minako doesn't sleep enough", the voice pressed and snaked out of his embrace, only to make annoying tapping movements on his forehead.

"Neither do I, love. Have mercy."

She waited for him in front of her building.

"Let's go to your place tonight."

They walked next to each other through the cold night. The snow had been replaced by rain, but the icy wind had remained to keep them company on their journey. She remembered how she had fallen in love with him upon hearing his roaring laugh, and suddenly couldn't stand the silence any longer.

She tugged on the sleeve of his expensive coat, demanding attention in a way a child might have.

"I am hungry."

The barest hint of a smile played around the edges of his mouth and he responded very levelly: "I think I will be able to accommodate you."

An hour later, in his gleaming kitchen, she watched him cook.

The Ghostbusters theme rang through the quiet bedroom. Usagi fumbled for her phone with eyes still closed and opened them only reluctantly. It might be five o'clock, but that meant she still had an hour before she had to get up for that thrice-damned running.

Peering her left eye open, she read the text message and fell promptly asleep again, dreaming of running knights, snoring princesses and dragons made out of coffee.

The message that had gotten such an understated response read: "No running today, meet you for coffee after classes."

His place was cold, and she hated every single piece of furniture in it with a passion, but they still sat at the large kitchen table, looking at each other and occasionally, just occasionally, exchanging a word.

Morning had come.

Airmail

A Sailor Moon Story
by LovelyLytton

Part 27 of 42

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