not-particularly-forbidden-secret Rei headcanons
While, Rei did not and does not really get the whole obsession girls have with first kisses, she actually might be the first in the group to have one. Kotone, one of Rei’s kinda-friends by virtue of being into unexplained phenomenon and thus not put off by Rei’s spooky reputation, used to prattle on about it and they mutually decided to try it. Kotone was awkward about it afterwards and Rei couldn’t see the big deal, so they dropped it. (Ami is the only one of the girls who knows the full story. Rei merely trolled Minako with the implication of it to stop her from bragging once.)
Rei does not really like the whole ~onee-sama~ flavor of school age relationships, despite it being a role she readily falls into and being seen as that by a non-zero number of classmates. It’s most apparent with very young children and Usagi (to which Michiru, unused to see that kind of open tenderness, temporarily though they were/had been a thing at some point) Conversely, Rei doesn’t like large age gapes in relationships either because of power dynamic issues, although her admitted preference would be capable, self-sufficient older women (she would actually find Ami’s mother pretty close to ideal if not for her workaholic nature causing Ami problems)
Rei has a poor sense of smell and a preference for heavily seasoned and savory foods (to the point she’s eaten chili peppers out of a jar just to show Minako she could). Rei’s prenatural affinity to fire luckily cancels out the obvious danger that could cause when around flammable objects and oils. She’s also slightly anemic (her mother moreso) and is kind of a carnivore whenever possible, like at restaurants and such.
“Rei” and “Mars” are similar in personality but differ in execution. Mars is more traditionally ‘passionate’ and precise in her aggressive approach (Minako has grudgingly admitted to herself it’s really attractive) Rei mostly keeps that under wraps though because of her fear of being a manipulative person. It works out for the most part, as Rei has been dealing with that side of herself since she began her training and didn’t even know it was ‘Mars’.
Rei comes off as the most judgemental when everyone else is down for a specific idea, but also a darkhorse supporter for a lot stuff when everyone else would disagree.
Rei has (very informally) trained both Michiru and Mams in handling their abilities, the former to avoid mutually-understood “bad dreams” pre-senshi and the later as a show of good faith of them wishing to be helpful to the senshi which Rei Did-Not-Implicitly-Demand-At-All-What-Are-You-Even-Talking-About.
While Rei knows Ami has a kind emotional side, she also knows appealing to Ami’s intellect is the easy way to get her direct opinion on a subject.
