While reading the author sign up, there you ask if you are willing to make more than one Fic. How does that work? You tell us? We just make both summaries? We make one and then you ask to make another sometime later...?
That question is specifically for the scenario where we have more Artists participating than Authors (the Artists are asked the same question for a reverse situation where there are too many Authors).
As soon as Sign-Up closes and the Mods do our tally, if we have too many Artists, we ask Authors who checked ‘yes’ to the question whether they would be willing to work on a second Fic (and submit that second Fic Summary at the same time as their other Fic Summary) to balance out the numbers. (If there are too many Authors we ask Artists if they’ll do Art for 2 Fics - ‘tis standard Bang practice, so it’s a tried and true method if that helps…)
HOWEVER, if an Author has been inspired by 2 great ideas that they just want to write anyway, we’re not going to stop them from doing it simply because our numbers don’t quite add up - as mentioned above, we have a plan to cope with such a situation, and the last thing we want to do is to stifle creative freedom and limit any Sailor Moon Fic & Art bounty! But a difference in numbers might unfortunately need to be taken into consideration if there’s just too big a gap between the number of Artists taking part and the number of Fics being written (it’s not fair on Artists or Authors), which is why we ask you to let us know and discuss it with us beforehand if you want to submit more than one Fic Summary.
Thankfully so far there’s only a very slight number difference between Artist and Author so we’ve really got no worries (and that gap would have to be quite big indeed for there to be any issue).
Oh ho? What’s this? ART, FROM ME? Yes!! The legends are true! I did this for @ssrevminibang--fic this goes with to follow in an update. :) This was REALLY FUN and I’m glad I got to participate!! @ v @ ♥
This was my piece for @ssrevminibang! The concept is a subversion of the fairy tale trope of true love’s kiss and @sohmamomiji did such a wonderful job fleshing it out into a full and complete story featuring these two! You can read it here!
She really wasn’t ready. She wasn’t ready to face a man who was looking for acceptance. She wasn’t ready to face a man who wanted to repent to her. She wasn’t ready to face a man who had his emotions written all over his face. Most of all, she wasn’t ready to face a man who looked at her with more adoration than she had ever experienced in this lifetime.
And When the Dust Falls Away by @serpentinred
For @ssrevminibang 2017
FINALLY I CAN SHARE THIS MASSIVE THING IDK WHY I DECIDED TO MAKE IT SO BIG BUT OKAY. You can find the seamless full size image on my DA account, it is quite large. This was my first bang and it was fun, pls feel free to point me towards any other bang like events in fandom, does or doesn’t have to be shippy, I don’t care I just like doing stuff in fandom. \o/
As noted above, the accompanying fic was written by Serp and I encourage you to check it out! It’s 5 chapters and so deserving of love. Please find the fic details below:
Title: And When the Dust Falls Away
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: None listed
Characters: Makoto Kino and Nephrite primarily, with all the Inners and Shitennou playing a part.
Summary: Past lives will always affect one's present lifetime, both in negative and positive ways. She didn't truly understand this concept until a can of worms got unintentionally opened. When the dust covering memories from thousands of years ago, she finds out that perhaps there are some things that should be left unexplored, especially stories without conclusions.
I wrote this monstrosity for the @ssrevminibang, inspired by Primal Heart's absolutely awesomely fierce drawing of Makoto and Nephrite arm-wrestling.
For reference, Neph is 25, Mako is 21; Kal, Nik, Sander, and Jay are the guys' civilian names, and since this fic is set in 1999 I have decided to overdo it on a 90s fic staple, and write the songfic to end all songfics. According to the original timeline, Usagi'd turn 22 in 2000, and ascend to the throne (SOMEHOW), so this is also on the eve of that happening in the coming year. (I legit never thought I'd be writing a period piece for the year after I got out of high school.)
I also created a complementary playlist; scenes are timed by where they are in it: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8eYC6f9IVhcB-bMJafkIvbgTv9yG7sLd
Warnings: Drug and alcohol use, swearing, cigarette smoking.
Characters: Pretty much everyone.
Relationships: Mako/Neph focus, but pretty much everything else is also there.
Word count: 9461
Fic Summary: It's New Year's Eve, 1999, in New York City. It's been about six years since the Shitennou came back from their quiet bedsit sitting next to Mamoru's bed and began learning how to be human again. Now, along with their Prince, they have a penthouse apartment in midtown, and every year, they throw a legendary NYE bash. This is the big one, and it's seen through the eyes of Makoto and Nephrite (quite possibly the only strictly monogamous couple in their entire group of rowdy friends.)
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Fic Title: Love Lasts Forever - Four Reunions
Artwork Title: Love Lasts Forever
Author: Charlie Chaplin 2
Artist: @astraearose93
Fic and Artwork Rating: PG
Warnings: Very Mild Angst? This is like the happiest, fluffiest stuff I’ve written in a while for the SM fandom. Also two or three uses of the ‘f’ word.
Relationships: Inner Senshi x Shitennou; Haruka x Michiru; very brief mention of past Kunzite x Zoisite.
Word count: 14,561
Fic Summary: Usagi has a plan to reunite the Senshi and the Shitennou, and it works... kind of? Ok, so things aren't as rosy as initially envisioned, but all's well that ends well, amiright?!
Minako/Kunzite | 6205 words | AU | Read here on AO3
Thank you @charliechaplin2blr for the beta
“Koichi-chan...” she said in the most sickening voice ever and he knew she was after something. He sighed tiredly., knowing that, despite his attempts to resist, she’d get whatever it was she wanted. “Oh no,” he said, resisting anyway.
She grinned and leaned across the table to get closer to him. When their faces were mere inches apart, she batted her eyelashes.
“Koi-chan,” she said in that same sweet voice, “dearest of my heart, you know how much I love you, don’t you?”
Rei let out disgusted moan.
“Why do we have to witness this horrid display?”
But the other two seemed oblivious to their friend’s reaction.
“Unfortunately, yes. I am painfully aware.”
“So if you’d be so kind as to…” she fluttered her eyelashes a few more times in lieu of actually finishing her sentence.
Once more, he sighed, and then hung his head resigned.
“Just give it to me.”
“Yay!” she cheered lightly as she retreated into her seat and slid the ridiculously massive bowl of half-eaten ice cream over to him.
“Why do you always put so much when you know you’ll never be able to eat the entire thing?” he complained, stirring the contents of the dessert he was being forced to finish, “and why, of all things, is it mint chocolate chip? This is disgusting! I feel like I might as well be eating chocolate while brushing my teeth.”
“If you hate it so much, then why do you always eat her leftovers?” asked Makoto, never one to hold back.
“He hates to see food going to waste.” Enlightened Minako.
Koichi begrudgingly shoved a spoonful of half-melted green goop into his mouth. “And she takes advantage of that, using me like-” he pulled the spoon from his mouth as he looked for the right word. “What do you call a person who’s basically forced into eating the leftovers of someone with no common sense?”
“A boyfriend!” laughed Usagi.
Minako was nodding sagely (she tended to unquestioningly agree with everything her fellow blonde said). “Yes, boyfr-” (except this). The nodding stopped abruptly. “Hey, wait!”
“Oh please,” Makoto said with unusual acerbic bite, “exactly how long do you two intend to keep this up?”
“There you go again, Mako, coming to conclusions far too quickly. It isn’t like that at all. Koichi and I are just friends, aren’t we, Ko-chan?”
Koichi looked up from shovelling in another mouthful of the hated ice cream. “I’m already eating this for you, you don’t have to keep calling me cheesy nicknames.”
“Own, but they fit you soooo well,” she said as she leaned over the table again and pinched his cheek.
“Get off me,” he pushed her arm away, in no mood for her teasing.
“And… they completely ignored me,” sighed Makoto.
“It happens when a couple is too self-focused,” Ami stated, matter-of-factly.
“Not a couple!” protested Minako while also trying to poke Koichi’s leg with her foot.
“Honestly,” Rei said with a roll of her eyes, “they’re more insufferable than MamoUsa.”
Usagi chose to ignore the main point of her friend’s remark. “About that, what would their couple name be?” she wondered aloud. “Minko? Konako?”
“There would be no couple name, because we are definitely not a couple,” countered a breathless Minako (turns out, Koichi was pretty good at dodging her pokes).
Rei eyed the ridiculous display of flirtation between her two friends with disgust. “At least Mamoru-san acts like a separate person from Usagi.”
“It’s true,” Makoto agreed. “He even takes us out sometimes. Remember when he took Ami to that exposition about that medicine thingy?”
“It was fun,” Ami said, looking over to Usagi. “You should come with us next time,” she suggested, always eager to try and get her friends more interested in academic pursuits.
“Eh,” Usagi said, unenthused by the idea. “You guys go and enjoy stuff like that together, really it’s fine. I’m happy to stay home on those days.”
“Not. A. Couple.” Minako punctuated each word with an attempted poke to Koichi’s leg, once more, no one payed her attention, Koichi pushed his chair back as far as possible from the table in order to get away from her. Minako threw herself back on her seat and sighed dramatically in defeat.
“Meanwhile,” continued Makoto, “I called Minako the other day, inviting her to a concert, and she turns me down because she had to have dinner with Koichi’s grandmother.”
Koichi all but threw the empty ice cream bowl onto the table. “When did you have dinner with my grandmother?” he asked, scandalized.
“Uh, last week?” she said, and then smiled, “she made baklava for dessert and it was to die for.”
Koichi’s outrage would not be assuaged. “But she didn’t even invite me!”
It was Minako’s turn to roll her eyes. “She’s still hurt because you forgot her birthday.”
“You could have said that the gift you brought was from the both of us.”
“But it wasn’t. You forgot.”
At that he got up from his chair and rounded the table. Minako watched him with a confused frown until she found him standing so close to her they were practically touching. “What ar- Ack!” she yelped as he poked her, hard, in the ribs and then retreated back to his chair on the opposite side.
Usagi shook her head. “You guys can’t keep your hands off of each other. You ignore all your other friends when you’re together in the same room and you literally buy gifts for each others’ relatives. Sounds to me like you’re a couple.”
“Come on, people,” Minako said, getting a little tired of this accusation. “We’ve known each other since we were in diapers, I call his grandmother ‘granny’, what’s the big deal over this?”
Rei snorted. “Ok, fine. Live in denial if that’s what you guys really want.”
“For the last time, guys, it’s not denial,” she looked over at Koichi. “Back me up here, please? We’re just friends, right?”
“Of course,” But he didn’t face her when he said that, and everyone seemed to notice his detached instance, except for Minako.
“Satisfied?” she asked.
The other four girls just exchanged brief looks with each other, dropping the subject.
Her heart beat fast in her chest, but she carried a smile on her face.
Even in that moment of despair, she couldn’t let her emotions surface. She couldn’t allow her Senshi to lose their trust in her, or them lose their trust in themselves. Even if she was a ruin inside, she had to show complete integrity, it was her responsibility to be the structure on which her sisters would lean during what would be, without doubt, the hardest night of their lives.
And yet, if she was truthful with herself, she would have to admit that she was afraid, very afraid. Although she had listened since childhood to stories about the legendary Silver Crystal, and even if she trusted the Queen and the powers that she and her sisters bore, it was difficult not to ask herself if all of that would be enough after the entirety of planet Earth had been consumed by darkness. The orb that had once shone like a blue sapphire could not now even be compared to a black pearl, since no light reflected from its surface.
It had happened so fast, in less than a moment they had gone from having complete control over what happened on their primitive ward planet, to receiving the refugee Prince Endymion, sent by the leader of his guard, Lord Kunzite, in a last, desperate act to save the remnants of a planet being engulfed by chaos. Of course, there were many express requests, even from the Lord Commander himself to the Prince to be returned, but Endymion refused them all. People changed after meeting Metalia, he said.
But despite the sinister evidence in front of her, she couldn’t stop herself from hoping. Part of the reason was because she had nothing else to hang onto, but because she trusted Kunzite. She had trusted him when she saw how he’d acted around her Princess, with zeal and care, but never with lust; she had trusted him because of how he’d led his men, with honour and comradeship; and the complete adoration he’d had towards his Prince. She had trusted him, and not only that, she’d given her heart to that mortal. She couldn’t help but hope that Endymion was wrong, that her Kunzite was incorruptible, and that soon, he would come to join her in battle, not as her adversary, but as her salvation.
But when he came, he led the troops who exterminated all she loved.
She still tried to make him see reason, and found that even in the midst of the war’s chaos, her Senshi pride spilled on the ground like the blood of her sisters-in-arms, and she begged him, please, Kunzite, open your eyes!
But he stood indifferent to her pleadings and completely and prepared to destroy her.
So, when she heard the last scream of despair from her Princess, she knew then, finally, that there was nothing else to lose and, gathering the parts that remained, she slayed him with her own blade.
When Minako woke up screaming and crying, she could still smell the blood of the battleground.
He could hear laughing and chatting coming from the kitchen, so he pushed himself out of bed – his current preferred location for brooding over the happenings of the previous day – and plucked a book from the writing desk. He settled himself quickly back into bed and did his best to make it look like he was reading. It didn’t take long for to him to hear the creak of the door opening, but he didn’t lift his eyes to look at her.
“Koichi?”
He didn’t answer, instead he turned a page and tried really hard to actually read it.
“The second law explains how the velocity of an object changes when it is subjected to an external force. The law defines a force to be equal to change in momentum (mass times velocity) per change in time. Newton also developed the calculus of mathematics, and the "changes" expressed in the second law are most accurately defined in differential forms. (Calculus can also be used to determine the velocity and location variations experienced by an object subjected to an external force.) For an object with a constant mass m, the second law states that the force F is the product of an object's mass and its acceleration a:
F = m * a
For an external applied force, the change in velocity depends on the mass of the object. A force will cause a change in velocity; and likewise, a change in velocity will generate a force. The equation works both ways.”
“Hey Koichi, what are you doing?” she sat next to him on the bed.
Oh physics. He likes physics. Maybe he even would be able to focus in what it was written enough to keep his plan of ignoring the only person he was never able to ignore with his introspective demeanour: Aino Minako.
“Koiiiiiiichi! Don’t you dare ignore me!” She tried pulling the book out of his grasp but he held it firmly.
She changed tactics then, and instead of pulling up she pulled back. He resisted by pulling the book towards him. He should have known better, really… especially considering what he’d just been trying to read. With Koichi being the stronger of the two, he pulled the book free from Minako’s grip, and was rewarded with it bashing him square in the nose. .
“Minako!” He closed the book and started massaging his injured face.
But she was too busy laughing to her heart’s content to be affected by his ire. “You literally had it coming! That’s what you get for ignoring me. Who studies in the middle of the summer anyway?” she stole the book from his hands, “and physics of all things? Why are you such a nerd?”
“What do you want?”
She blinked, surprised at the gruffness in his voice. “Wow, moody, too! What’s wrong?”
“None of your business.”
“Oh, he really does have his socks in a twist.”
“It’s ‘knickers in a twist’, Minako.”
“Whatever makes you comfortable, mate. But tell me, Koichi-chan, sweetie, cutie patootie, what makes you so pupset?”
He made a disgusted face.
“I think I just threw up a bit inside my mouth.”
She laughed again, unfazed at his displeasure.
“Oh, please, I know you secretly love all the nicknames I give you, don’t you, honey pot?
He just rolled his eyes this time.
“What have you come here for, Minako?”
“Do I have to have a reason to see you?”
“Nothing, then? You can go back from where you came, I want to study.”
“Study? Don’t be silly! You spend almost the whole year doing that! You can stop being a nerd for the summer, at least!”
“And what do you recommend I do instead, huh? Whatever it is you want? Should I be giving all my undivided attention to a girl who isn’t even my girlfriend?”
“Is that so terrible? We’re besties… aren’t we?”
“Yeah, I guess that’s what we are.” He went back to his book, his brow frowned.
“Koichi?”
“Hmm.”
“Koichi, have I done something?” She took a silver lock of his and twisted in her fingers. “If I’ve hurt you somehow, you know it wasn’t on purpose, right?”
“But wasn’t it really, Minako?” He finally looked up at her.
She paled and let go of his hair.
“What have I done?”
“Yesterday,” he sat up. “Why does the idea of being with me upset you so much you have to deny it so many times?”
She ripped her gaze away from his, unable to cope with its intensity. “But… we’re not a couple,” she said softly.
“Why aren’t we?”
“Because… you know why.”
“No I don’t.” He took in a deep breath and tilted her chin lightly, forcing her to meet his eyes again. “Minako, I like you.”
“What?” She stood up from the bed, shaking.
Seeing her back away so quickly he frowned and snapped the book in his hands shut. “I- I wasn’t-” he hesitated, struggling to find the right words. “I wasn’t really planning to tell you like this, but now it’s done, I suppose. I mean, I wasn’t trying to hide it, it’s quite obvious, actually. Everyone knows I like you, so it shouldn’t really be a surprise to you.”
“You never told me.”
“Does it really need saying?”
She took another step back and searched for something to hold herself, but found nothing. The dream she’d been trying to forget rose up, burning hot in her recent memories.
“I… I think I’m going home now.”
“Wow! You really hated that much to know that?”
“It isn’t like that, Koichi!” she snapped, but her heart was beating fast. The last thing she ever wanted was to hurt him, and it made her angry that he could even consider - let alone actually believe - that she would ever do anything to deliberately hurt him. “I just… I just didn’t expect to hear this now, ok?”
“It’s ok. Look,” he stood up and walked towards her, picking up her hands. Minako had to stop herself from hugging him. No matter if the right thing now was keeping her distance, she knew, now that there was so many doubts, he still was her best friend, her biggest source of comfort, and there was nothing she wanted more than to be in his arms. “Maybe I got everything wrong. If you don’t feel the same way about me then you can ignore what I just told you, but I don’t think I can keep going the same way we are now.”
“Just let me think about this for a while, ok? I some need time to process all of it.”
He nodded, resigned. She gave him a weak smile, before freeing herself and going away.
“So, it’s really true? You and Koichi-san broke up?”
Having been completely blindsided by the question, Minako’s thumb slipped. The next thing she knew, the words “Game Over” were flashing obnoxiously across the screen. Damn it! It was her last chip, too.
“We didn’t break up, Usagi-chan. To do that, we would’ve had to have been dating in the first place.” Usagi rolled her eyes. “And who told you that, anyway?”
“Mamo-chan,” Usagi’s character died too and Minako felt a pang of satisfaction. “He said Koichi-san is really down. Why’d you do that, Minako-chan? You guys were so cute together!”
“We were never together!” she protested, stepping away from the game machine and shamelessly squatting to look under the game machine for any spare chips which might have been lost, dropped or forgotten about.
“Ok fine, if you’re going to keep denying it, then I have no choice but to change tactics. What happened? When you were ‘not-dating’” she said, using her fingers for quotation marks, “you guys seemed really happy! Why’s the, uh… ‘not-love’ over?”
Minako sighed, still kneeling on the floor, “Actually, he confessed.”
“Really?! How romantic!”
“It didn’t seem romantic at the time.”
Usagi was thoroughly confused. Since when was a love confession not romantic? “Why not?”
Giving up on her plan and not very satisfied in having to keep carrying that conversation with Usagi in those conditions – or in any conditions if she was being sincere with herself – Minako stood up and patted the dust from her knees.
“He didn’t seem very satisfied with that.”
“I don’t get it.”
Both girls started walking towards Motoki’s balcony.
“I don’t know how to explain it. Maybe he was nervous, or maybe I-” Minako hesitated, unable to understand it herself, “I don’t know.”
Usagi touched her hand in sympathy. “That must have been it. Maybe he was nervous about your answer? What did you say?”
“That I had to think about it.”
“Oh… and haven’t you seen each other since then?” she asked, carefully.
“No, we haven’t.”
“So what do you think?”
“I don’t know, Usa…” she really didn’t want to have this conversation in public, or anywhere.
“But don’t you like him?”
“That’s not the problem, it’s just…” she sighed, “it’s hard.”
“I’m sorry Mina-chan, but I don’t know how hard can it be. You’ve basically been together for years.” Minako opened her mouth to protest, but Usagi wouldn’t let her interrupt. “You can deny it all you want, but everybody can see how much you like- no, how much you love each other. It isn’t like Mamo-chan and I were when we couldn’t be around each other without fighting.”
Minako smirked. “You know, I miss the times he used to make those completely ridiculous excuses to be around you, and you would put on such an act to show him just how much you disliked him.”
Usagi smiled at the memories.
“It was fun, wasn’t it? But don’t change the subject!”
“Damn,” Minako whispered with a grimace, “I almost had you there.”
“Yeah, well, you didn’t. So explain to me please why this is so hard, because I still don’t get it.”
Minako sighed, relenting. “First of all, he’s my best friend. What if we beak up? Our entire friendship could go down the drain and I don’t know what I’d do if I didn’t have Koichi in my life at all.”
“Nah, that won’t happen.”
Minako scoffed. “How can you be so sure? Rei-chan’s the Nostradamus of the gang, not you.”
“My heart knows it to be true.”
“Wow… Your heart! I’m positively overflowing with confidence now.”
“Oh stop, sarcasm doesn’t suit you at all.”
Minako raised an eyebrow. “You know what sarcasm is?”
“Please,” Usagi rolled her eyes. “I date Mamo-chan.”
“Good point.”
“And stop trying to change subjects again!” She jabbed her finger into her friend’s shoulder. “I’m on to you, lady. If you don’t trust the infallible predictions of my heart, then at least trust in logic.”
“Logic?”
“Logic,” Usagi stated with certainty. “Logic, and logic says that you and Koichi-san could never be apart, whether or not you’re friends, lovers or exes – although that last one isn’t exactly a realistic option, either, because once you two start dating for real, you won’t break up. You guys are end-game.”
Minako pulled a face, which made her opinion on the subject pretty obvious. “I don’t think you’re using logic correctly.”
“Yes I am.”
“I don’t think you are. And it doesn’t matter, anyway. We’re not a couple and now I don’t even know if we’re still friends.”
“What do you mean?”
“When he confessed he also said that he doesn’t think we can go back to the way things were before.”
“But it would be unfair to ask as much, wouldn’t it?”
“It would…” Minako sighed, her guilt weighing heavy on her. “I know I’m being selfish, ok? But I don’t want to lose what I’ve got.”
Usagi patted her friend’s arm and did her best to see things from a more positive point of view. “And how about gain new things?”
Minako shook her head. “I don’t know…”
“Look, I know you probably won’t admit it, even to yourself, but you do like him, don’t you?”
“If I won’t admit it, then what kind of answer are you expecting?”
“Minako-chaaaan…”
“Alright already, jeez! I surrender! I like him, ok? I like him! I’ve liked him for so long, probably even longer than he’s liked me. But I always thought he saw me as nothing more than an annoying little sister, and that was better than nothing.”
When she noticed Usagi wasn’t saying anything, she looked up and found her friend staring at her owlishly. “Woah!” she said. “I didn’t expect that.”
They stood in silence for a while.
“So… he likes you, you like him… What’s stopping us from going out on double dates and making everyone peanut butter and jelly?”
Minako had to smile at that. “You’re going to think this is stupid, but that isn’t the only thing that’s stopping me… I’ve- I’ve been having these really weird dreams.”
“Dreams?”Usagi repeated. “I did notice the panda disguise.”
“Wow, thanks!”
“I’m not trying to be mean! I was worried, but I thought you were just awake at night, pining over your silver haired prince.”
“Usa, I know I can be cheesy, but you take it to a whole other level.”
She giggled adorably in response.
“But tell me, so, what are those dreams like?”
“It’s hard to say…They’re kinda hard to describe, and I feel a little awkward even talking about this.”
“Well, we’re on vacation and Mamo-chan is intent on fulfilling his role as the quintessential nerd by going to summer cram school, so I really don’t have anything else to do but to stay here all day, waiting for you start talking.”
“Don’t you also have Mako, Ami or Rei to annoy?”
“If you think Mamo-chan’s level of nerdity is high, imagine what Ami’s is. I’ve already read all Rei’s manga and she told me she wasn’t buying any new ones until next week and poor Mako is doing part times, so yeah, I just have you to annoy.”
“Oh goodie, hanging out with me purely because I’m all you’ve got left, huh?”
“Minako-chan… You are changing subjects again! Come on, tell me about these mysterious dreams!”
And so she told Usagi everything. And as she was relating the events of her dream, she could see the run of emotions on Usagi’s face, like an artist’s canvas, first curiosity, then confusion, even enchantment when she explained about the Silver Millennium, and then horror when she reached Metalia and the war. When Minako told her the sad part Usagi had played in the dreams and what Minako had been forced to do at the end, her friend, who she saw as a better version of herself, was in tears.
“I’m sorry Minako-chan, I know it’s only a dream, but it’s so sad!”
After having revealed so much, Minako found herself at a loss for words. She felt weird. In telling Usagi it seemed that the details had become clearer, and for a moment she had forgotten of who she was, as if only the Senshi of her dreams were real. The pain had been so vivid, it was hard to shake.
Usagi grabbed her arm, pulling her out of her own thoughts. “Listen, “it was only a dream, do you hear me? Just a silly dream. You shouldn’t let something so stupid get in the way of you and Koichi-san.”
“I know, but Usa… Every single time I think about the two of us, I remember that dream. Over and over, I can’t help it. It felt so… real.”
“But you can’t be happy being apart of him like that, can you?”
Her shoulders sagged. “It’s true… I’m not.”
“So!”
“Ugh, Usa…”
“Think about it at least, will you? I want you to be happy!”
“I know.” She leaned her head on her friend’s shoulder. “Thank you.”
Usagi smiled and kissed Minako lightly on her temple. “Anytime.”
It had been a week since she’d seen Koichi, and it had been without doubt the worst week of her entire sixteen years of life. Not even breaking her leg at twelve years old and having to be immobilized during the whole summer on her bed had made Minako feel so miserable. At least then Koichi had visited her every day, ensuring she wasn’t consumed by boredom. And he’d always bring a board game with him, or a movie for them to watch together. He’d even made her a scratcher with and old clothes hanger.
The truth of the matter was even though she woke up crying every morning, each day it was becoming harder for her to avoid the house on Roses’ Street. She missed her best friend, she wanted to tell him why her nights were so hard, she wanted comfort and she wanted it from him. But she didn’t know how to approach him. It was as if the last words they’d exchanged - his confession and her reaction - had had built a wall between them. It wasn’t fair, she knew, approaching him without an answer and, despite what she’d said to Usagi, she still didn’t know if she had one. Even though she loved him, even though she wanted to be with him now and forever, what would stop the memories of that awful dream from getting to her every time he held her hand or tried to kiss her?
When she’d had that dream for the first time, it’d been horrible, but… it hadn’t been real, had it? She’d dismissed it quickly enough, thinking everything would be just fine. She’d always had a fertile imagination, and the dream was just the fruit of it, but now she wasn’t so sure. With every night and every new rendition of it, things would become clearer, and she was starting to lose her grasp on what was real and what was not. Had they been simple nightmares, maybe they would’ve been easier to ignore - after all, a Koichi who was capable of hurting her couldn’t be more different from the Koichi she knew so well. And the man of her dreams seemed older, although so was she - a Goddess, centuries old, in fact – but he wasn’t just her adversary, he had been kind like Koichi, proving that no matter how it ended: the man in her dreams couldn’t be anyone else. But that didn’t matter. None of it mattered, because they were just dreams… just dreams. So why did they still haunt her?
Perhaps it was his pain. Night after night, she’d kill him – a fatal wound, the sword sliding through skin and sinew, past bone until it would pierce his heart. In the ten years she’d known Koichi, she’d never thought she could ever harm him, and yet she dreamed it vividly, and worst of all, on the night he’d confessed, she’d broken his heart. But how could she ever explain it? How could she ever tell him the truth? She couldn’t forget the expression he on his face when she reacted – not very well, she recognized – to his love confession. Her heart break with only the thought of the reaction he would have if he tried to approach her and if, by reflex, she repealed him. How could she ever? She couldn’t just say that out of the blue all they had built together was destroyed by a silly nightmare. Still, at the same time, those scenes were real in her memory, as real as the moments they spent together while she was awake.
As she lay in bed, mulling these terrible thoughts over and over, in an attempt to try and stay awake, to avoid the inevitable onslaught the dreams would bring, she heard the unmistakable sound of pebbles hitting her window’s glass.
Her heart began to race. It was him, she knew it was him, but she couldn’t move. She had avoided him for the whole week – the longest she’d ever gone without seeing him, and her body was itching to run to him in that instant, she had missed him so much, but she was afraid. How would she react to him? What excuses could she make to explain her abandonment of him? The pebbles kept tapping at her window pane, but Minako lay immobile, like a plank of wood, under her covers. As much as she wasn’t brave enough to go to him, her heart turned to ice with the possibility of him going away.
“Minako! Open the window!”
Her eyes popped open and she felt her heart in her throat. What did that idiot think he was doing?! Forgetting all about her dreams, his confession and her own feelings, she jumped out of bed, stumbling over the cat – why did Artemis always have to sleep in the middle of the damn rug? – and ran to the window.
She couldn’t help smiling at the sight of him hanging from a tree.
“You’re totally bananas, do you know that? You’re going to wake everybody!”
“Help me!”
“You’ll fall!”
“If you don’t help me I will! Whose idea was it to prune the tree?”
“My mother’s. She said it was filling the house with leaves.”
How could she know, after all, that the plum tree next to Minako’s window on the second floor had, for years, been Koichi’s own private “stairs” that fort years lead Koich into to her daughter’s room?
“Tell you mother,” said him with difficulty, grabbing one of her arms for support and stretching himself to reach the windowsill “what an awful idea that was.”
She pulled him in with some effort. They both fell back on the rug, only missing Artemis by mere millimetres. The cat meowed, offended, and jumped out of the window into the night.
“You know I’m not exactly on speaking terms with my mother.”
Still lying on the rug, he pushed a lock of hair from her eyes.
“Your mother I can understand, but why aren’t you talking to me?”
“Koichi…”
“Tsukino-san told me about your dreams.”
“What? That nosy thing!”
“I was really surprised, not by the content - because, if I’m honest, I didn’t get half of it -but because I never thought that something as silly as nightmares could push you away from me.”
“I’m sorry…”
“So am I,” he sighed and rolled over onto his back, facing the ceiling “or is it that there’s no dream at all. You just don’t want to talk with me because of what I said last time?”
“No! It isn’t like that! I mean, what you said really got to me, yes, but I’d never run away from you because of that.”
“So, you admit you were running away from me?”
“I’m really sorry.”
He sighed. “I can’t accept your apologies right now. I really want to say that it doesn’t matter, that I forgive you no matter what, but this was a hard week, Minako, and it wouldn’t be the truth. I need an explanation to forgive you.”
“I know…”
“So?” he said turned his body back to her.
She took a deep breath.
“The nightmare, then…”
And so she told him, more rich in details than when she told Usagi, since now she knew so much more from the life they had in those dreams and also because it was him. No matter how much she loved Usagi, as the woman in her dreams loved her Princess, her first reaction was always to protect her friend, but from him she felt like she couldn’t hide anything. And he heard everything in contemplative silence, the tell for what he was feeling were the lines on his brow that dipped lower and lower as she neared the end of the story.
And when she finished, instead of the distant coldness she’d felt when the told the same story to Usagi, it was Minako herself, who was in tears. Tears he dried with his thumbs lovingly.
“I’m so sorry you have to go through that every night.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before.” She offered him a small smile in thanks.
He reached out and pulled her close.
“It’s alright… Just promise you won’t keep these things to yourself anymore.”
“I won’t.”
“And look, I’m hugging you, and you haven’t felt the need to run away, or have you?”
“I actually feel like I never want to leave this spot ever again.”
They stared at each other for a while in silence after her declaration, until her hugged her again, rocking her slightly.
“What take us to the second subject… I don’t want to be that kind of guy, and I’d never push you into doing anything, but Minako, after all we’ve been through and after what you just said, I’m sorry, but it’s hard for me to believe that you don’t reciprocate my feelings.”
“You’ve never really lacked self-esteem,” she laughed.
With his lips covering his teeth, he bit her shoulder.
She laughed more.
“Ok, ok! I confess. I love you, alright? I don’t know how to live without you,” she caressed his face. “I don’t want to live without you.”
And with those words been said that, under the moonlight, lying on the fluffy rug of Minako’s bedroom, they exchanged their first kiss.
A few moments or many summer nights after, they parted, breathless.
“And what about my nightmares?” she asked quietly.
He traced his along the contours of her face. “Oh, I have the perfect way to push them away.”
Grinning, he stood up suddenly and scooped her into his arms, carrying her like a bride.
“What are you doing, you crazy person?”
He tossed her on the bed, eliciting a squeak of surprise from her, and then laid down next to her. “Making sure you will never have to worry about silly nightmares”
She scooted closer to him and interlaced her fingers with his. “And when you are not here?”
“I’ll always be here.”
“I don’t think my parents will be too happy with that.”
“Your parents love me.”
“I don’t think that’ll continue once they find out you invade their innocent little daughter’s room every night.”
“My intentions for invading your room are much more innocent that you ever were.”
“Blasphemy!” she declared with mock outrage and then pouted, tracing her hand along his side. “But you really intend to be completely innocent?”
He stopped her hand from wandering over his chest. “Minako.”
She rolled away with a dramatic sigh. “What a waste!” she said with a laugh.
~~~Alternative Ending ~~~
Minako woke up. And even their magic being so different, he didn’t fail to answer her silent calling.
“Nightmares?”
Sitting on her bed, her head resting against the window and holding her legs, she turned her head to look at him.
“No,” still looking at the ghostlike figure that glimmered in rose tones under the penumbra of her room, Minako laid her head on her knees, “actually, the contrary of that.”
He didn’t say anything, just waited for her to continue.
“Once I read that there is two types of dreams: the awful ones and the terrible. The awful dreams you can deal with, after all, you always wake up, but about the terrible, the worse that can happen is waking up. Do you dream, Kunzite?”
“Sometimes.”
“Have you ever had a dream from which you didn’t want to wake up?”
He didn’t answer with worlds, but they were not necessary when his eyes made it so obvious. And it was the frustration of being able to witness that gaze, but not the real version, just that diaphanous and in the wrongs colours that she found that she was grateful for that dream. And that maybe, nothing of that had been fruit of her heart’s desire, maybe, in a parallel universe there was really a Minako and a Koichi that never had to kill one another, and that didn’t have their lives chained to a cycle of tragedy, and to the burden of duty.
Minako sighed, then she told him everything.
A/N: This fic was written for the @ssrevminibang and was inspired by a playlist made by @astarinsomebodyelsessky and a fanart made by @galaxylily you can find both artworks on the AO3 link on the top of this post.
