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There were only two people who would haul their dumbasses through this blizzard to knock on Rei’s door. She debated which was more likely as she rose from her seat at the fire to answer. She doubted Ikuko would let Usagi leave the house in this weather, but Usagi was likely to be worried. Rei wouldn’t put it past her to try to sneak out to check on everyone-- though stealth was never Usagi’s strong suit.
She resigned herself to the other possibility as she opened the door, just in time to take a snowball to the face.
“And you call yourself a soldier! Where is your vigilance? I could have been a youma!”
“I’ve never seen a youma wear quite so many layers.” Minako had, at least, dressed for the weather before making the trek across town. Hardly an inch of skin was showing-- a welcome change, in Rei’s mind. “What are you doing here?”
Mina shrugged. “I was bored.” She pushed her way in and began unwinding her scarf. “Everything’s shut down.”
“Yeah, they want people to stay in doors.”
“Great, so you can’t kick me out!”
Rei sighed. She could not, in good conscious, send her back into the storm. “Just try and stay out of the way. Some of us still have things to do.”
“You won’t even know I’m here.”
Were that it were true. Rei had barely returned to the fire to resume her reading when she felt something distinctly foot-shaped against her back. “Mina!”
“What?” Mina, sprawled on the floor, looked up from the manga she’d filched from Rei’s stash. “I’m being quiet!”
“You’re putting your feet on me.”
“The floor is cold!”
“So don’t lie on it.”
“But you’re here.”
Rei huffed. “Fine. I’ll sit with you and do homework instead. That work for you?”
“Whatever you want, I’m not even here.”
Rei could not dignify that with an answer. She set them up at the kotatsu, situating herself across from Mina. She cracked open her history book and--
“This is cosy, why didn’t we do this in the first place?”
Rei tried to ignore her. She could have a productive day still if she tried hard enough. If she just focused, she could finish her assignments and chores.
She glanced up. Mina had begun to slide around the table, inching ever closer to Rei. “What are you working on?” She leaned over to see.
Rei schooched away. “Homework.”
“Yeah. What homework?”
“Does it matter? Go back to reading your stupid manga.”
“It’s your stupid manga, and I’ve read this one already, Rei, you’re behind.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry.” Rei gripped her pen tighter. “I’ll try and plan better for your next unannounced visit.”
“Yeah, really. You don’t even have snacks out.”
“Mina…”
She rose. “You’re right, you’re right. I should get out snacks. You want anything?”
“No.” Rei would take whatever opportunity she had for time apart, however little she got. Mina, at least, was sure to take her time picking through the food Rei had, and indeed, it was a good ten minutes before she returned to the low table with chips and chocolates.
It was a mixed blessing. If Minako was eating, she wasn’t talking. But every crunch of a chip raised Rei’s hackles a little more.
In 1560 -- CRUNCH-- Nobunaga’s army --CRUNCH-- defeated a force several times its size in the Battle of --CRUNCH!
“Do you have to do that here?”
“Do what?” Mina said through two chips balanced between her lips to make a duck bill. She bit into them both, sending crumbs everywhere.
“Eat.”
“You don’t want me to eat at the table? But Rei, I’m a lady of manners, and--”
“You know what I mean! Did you come here today just to annoy me? Couldn’t you have bothered someone else?”
Mina frowned. “I came here to be with you.”
“Well you should have asked if I wanted you with me!”
“Fine.” Mina rose again for the table and headed for the door. She slipped on her shoes and her coat, but didn’t bother with the rest of what she’d come bundled in.
Rei braced against the guilt as Mina slipped back outside. It wasn’t her fault if Mina was stupid enough to go out in a blizzard. It wasn’t her problem if Mina couldn’t just leave her alone.
Besides, if it got too bad, she could just transform, their Senshi forms had survived the cold well enough at D-Point and--
Shit. Rei put her face in her hands. Sometimes, maybe, she was a dumbass, too. She grabbed her own coat and raced into the cold.
It was a day much like that one had been-- the wind cut her breath short, the snow blew in all directions. A fear that had nothing to do with the present moment settled into Rei’s gut. The hair of her neck stood at attention, waiting for an attack that wasn’t going to come. She followed the freshest foot prints and found Mina huddled behind another shrine building, shivering from more than the cold.
“I’m sorry,” Rei said. “I wasn’t thinking.”
“I don’t want your pity.”
“You’re too annoying to pity.” Rei crossed her arms. “But you shouldn’t be alone.”
“What, you think I’ll do something stupid?”
“No, for once, I think you won’t.”
Mina glanced over, hiding her face in her hair. “I didn’t want to make a big deal of it. But I feel like I’m back there. I feel like we’re all about to die again.”
“We’re safe, Mina.” Rei hesitated a moment, then took her hand. “We’re all safe, and we’ll be safer when you come back inside with me.”
“I can try and let you be this time.”
Rei almost took her up on it, but then shook her head. “Why don’t we do something together? I can take one day off.”
Mina squinted at her. “Rei Hino can take a day off? Did you already catch a cold out here?”
“Oh shut up.” She led her back inside, where they piled blankets on the couch and picked a movie to watch.
“You could have told me what you were feeling,” Rei said as the previews started.
“I didn’t want to.” Mina raised one eyebrow pointedly. “And you have no room to talk, Miss Visions of the world’s end.”
“Yeah, whatever.” Rei looked over at her. “Maybe next time I’ll try and pay better attention. Maybe.”
“Going soft on me, firecracker.”
“Shut it.” Rei shoved at her shoulder. They sat quietly for a few moments, and then Rei had a thought. “Do you want to sit over here?”
“Are you asking if I want to swap sides?”
Rei exhaled, already half regretting bringing it up. “No, I’m asking if you want to be closer, but if you’re going to be difficult about it--”
But Mina was already there, wedged into the crook of Rei’s side beneath her arm. “Thanks,” she said, voice soft and small.
She felt small against Rei, smaller than all her strategies and ostentatious displays, her bluster and her blows. Sometimes it was easy to forget she was a girl as well as a soldier and a wannabe idol, someone with all the interiority and fears that Rei had.
She wondered as the movie played if any of the others had seen her smallness, or if it was something special for Mina to show her how soft she really was. She thought it likely-- and perhaps hoped-- it was the later. Slowly she found herself stroking Mina’s hair. Their breathing began to sync as her fingers tangled in and out of the silky strands.
“You’re not so bad, like this.”
Mina laughed. “Don’t get used to it, hot stuff, I’m having an off day.” She sighed. “It feels nice, though.”
“Well, I guess if you’re ever having an off day, you can come here.” Rei winced. “And you’ll make me regret saying that, I’m sure.”
“You know it.” But she cuddled closer, and while all the world was frozen around them, it didn’t seem like such a bad prospect.