2548/Making Amends

Making Amends
Date of Scene:	07 March 2017
Location:	Uminari City - Game Center Crown
Synopsis:	Ami and Minako have a lot to work out.
Cast of Characters:	Ami Mizuno, Minako Aino

---

Ami Mizuno has posed:
Forewarned is forearmed, and Makoto was kind enough to text Ami that Minako is back in town. Given how Ami felt about Minako last time the topic came up, this has prompted a bit of soul searching.

But given everything that's happened in her life recently, as well as her recent conversations with Rei, this soul searching didn't take too long.

Just as Ami hits send on an text to Minako, her phone alerts her that she's received one in turn.

From Minako.

Ami quirks her lips amusedly as she reads basically the same words she just sent. "How does she do that?" she asks curiously, as she sends back a location they can both readily agree on: Secure, private, and easy to get to.

So she appears, via the translocation spell she's perfected over the past year, in the heart of the Senshi's domain, not as Sailor Mercury, but as Ami Mizuno. Dressed not for battle, but for serious conversations, in an egg-shell sweater dress and blue tights. Ami sighs and drops down into the chair, letting it spin with her legs out for a moment while she waits.

Mentally, she's prepared for a fight. But if she's lucky, maybe they've both grown up a little in the past year.

Minako Aino has posed:
    20,000 points. Check. Stage 2. Check. First Miniboss beat. Check. Secret Hidden Power Up touched, checked! Konami Code! Check! None of these actually get Minako into the 'Command Center'. She just wanted to make sure her score remains undisputed before she just sort shoves Artemis's pawprint against the screen and via magical transport she appears.
    Atemis gets dropped down. "You know." he says. "You could had used your own." he says.
    "Yes, but your paw is so cuter there." she insists.
    She looks around and walks over to the central area with the big central control panel. And the pillars.
    She is dressed in a white shirt, a bright pink jacket and a deniem skirt. She sighs a bit and takes a deep breath. Why can't she just beat up people and they understand because beating people up is super easier than talking about your feelings.
    Oh right, because these are her friends. Duh.
    "Hi! Ami-chan." she says sheepishly. "I saw Makoto-chan earlier!" she says. "She said you're uh. Not having such a good time?"
    "So! I'm making sure I talk to you before I talk to the others." she says.
    "Is that okay?"
    Artemis has jumped up onto one of the consoles and yawns a bit as he looks down at the screen for no particular reason. He's expecting Minako to either make things right or be water hosed outta here.

Ami Mizuno has posed:
'Undisputed' is likely a temporary term, given the bitter ongoing feud that is AM vs KS in the arcade. Still, Minako cheats, which means she likely has the high score. For now.

Inside, Ami looks up at the sound of voices drifting down the staircase. "Artemis!" she calls, greeting the cat first, because fuzzy things always get priorities. Ami hadn't realized how much she's missed the cat until now. Woops. She's supposed to be missing Minako.

With a sheepish look, Ami glances up at the blonde, then offers a hesitant smile. "Welcome home," she suggests quietly. "Do you plan to stay this time? Or is there some other super important mission that only you can do without us?"

That probably came out a little more harshly than she'd intended.

Minako Aino has posed:
    Artemis waves with a cat smile. "Don't listen to whatever she's saying she wouldn't buy me swedish fish earlier."
    She huffs and turns to Artemis and footstamps. "You can't eat gummy stuff anyways!" She turns back to Ami Mizuno as she brings up things.
    "Missions." she says. "No. No more missions. I'm done." she says as she deflates. "I didn't leave to go on any mission or missions. I went to go think." she says.
    Ugh talking about her actual feelings is hard. It's so much easier to be a silent cold ass. "I mean for a long time. It was just. Me. You know?" she says. "-and so that's what I got used to. And I had to do a lot of hard things." she says. "-and you just wanna like curl into a ball like a cat and not share anything." she says. "Because you don't want to hurt your friends or have them hurt you. Because you're afraid of worrying them." she says. She makes exagerated hand motions once in a while to this small speech. She however, seems to be taking it entirely seriously.

Ami Mizuno has posed:
Ami frowns just a little at Minako's answer, but she doesn't argue it. Instead, she just sighs and shakes her head. "Sure, I get it," Ami replies. "All alone, and then suddenly you had to put up with being one of five. You go from being the most special girl in the world, to being just another Senshi.

"Trust me," Ami says quietly, "I get it. What I don't get is everything else. Anything else," she explains. "With Kunzite, you left us out to dry. Before that you were so busy telling us what to do and what not to do none of us were happy, including you. But you also weren't explaining why, which is most of the problem."

"Then," Ami says softly, "On the moon, you lied to all of us about what you were thinking and what you were feeling."

Here, Ami takes a deep breath, then says, "And we need you, Minako. Actively, desperately need you. I can't be you. I can't do your job. Neither can Rei, or Usagi, or Makoto. We're a team, and I know that's hard for you because this hasn't been a team for you for so long. But try to think back to how things worked before, in the time before time. Try to remember how well we worked together.

"I'd like to forget all of the things that happened between us," Ami says. "I want to forget they happened at all. I just want to be a team again. And I don't want you to apologize for any of it, because it's so much water under the bridge, at this point. I just want to know that you're committed to being a part of the team. That Usagi-chan can rely on you. That I am not going to have to do your job."

Minako Aino has posed:
    Minako Aino takes a long deep breath as she listens, she closes her eyes a moment and just listens. She shakes her head after a bit. "It isn't. Quite like that." she says.
    "Did you know I killed Kunzite?..." she asks. "I mean. Not. Here. You guys did that." she says raising a finger. "I mean. Back. /then/." she says quietly.

"...when I was Sailor V there was a Dark Agency. There was this man in a mask, Phantom Ace." she says. "Who said he loved me. I kinda loved him back. But he also turned out to be leader of the Dark Agency- a man called 'Danburite' and then. I had to kill /him/." she says as she places her hands up to her face.
    "I don't like talking about this." she says. "It sucks." she says as an understatement. "I didn't wanna give any of you guys that thought as an answer to anything."
    "I just couldn't..."
    "I couldn't do it again!" she almost yells.
    "I just tried too hard to stop you all from making mistakes I did and I guess I wasn't good at that either." she says.
    "It's why I came here. I mean. Back. Here. For good. Because I'm just kind of done. It's that or keep running because I'm afraid things like that will keep happening and there's nothing I can do to make it better for anyone."
    "I know you need me. But not like I thought you guys needed me." she says. "I mean. Back then." she says with a undignified mutter.
    Artemis stays where he is. Not adding anything to this conversation. Though if any of it was false, he'd probably had said something by now, right?

Ami Mizuno has posed:
Ami sighs, faintly, then nods her head. "I can't say I'm just going to forgive and forget. I want to. But you hurt us," she notes. "A lot. Emotionally, mostly, but that's a very real pain. But I understand why," she explains. "I know you killed him. You killed Zoisite, too.

"What I didn't know, or think about, is how that made you feel," Ami says softly. She considers Minako in silence a few moments, then explains, "I don't trust that you're not going to cut and run again. But ... I want to be wrong. I want to be able to trust you. So I'm going to pretend I've forgiven. Pretend I've forgotten. Until pretending becomes reality, and trust is earned."

Another pause, then Ami sighs and looks down at her feet. "And I won't tell the others what you just told me. That's your story to tell or keep. I'm sorry that all of this happened." She looks back up, then offers, "I hope we can be friends, again."

Minako Aino has posed:
    Minako has managed to not utterly explode into tears. She'll consider this a success. It looks like she might though. Later. Not in front of Ami. Amu doesn't need to see that. As far as Minako can see- she's just barely putting up with her anyways. Artemis knows different, but he keeps his mouth shut anyways.
    "I.. I understand Ami-chan." she says just a little softly. She does. She still wishes this was as easy as just punching one another. That's so much easier.
    "I am back. Just. Makoto-chan told me you were feeling bad so I tried to make you my first visit! That really should had been Usagi-chan. But she hasn't replied to my text."
    "But hard to reply to a text when you're snogging a prince!" she insists.
    -and right back to proper Minako!
    "Of course. I want to be friends again." she says softly. "It's why I came back and am telling you all this hard stuff I don't want to tell you. But, if I don't it'll just be back to me keeping things from you guys."
    "And friends don't do keep things like that from one another. Right?" she asks softly, perhaps a little hopefully.

Ami Mizuno has posed:
Ami smiles a little, then nods. "Friends don't keep things like that from one another," she agrees quietly. "Which ... is why I'm so glad you're back." The stress fades, a little, and Ami leans forward to explain, "Usagi-chan's not just snogging a prince. She was snogging Rei for a while, too. Except they broke up. And Mamoru's snogging Kunzite, who's also snogging Zoisite. It's a mess of a love polygon. Fair warning, it's gotten weird."

She grins a little, then says, "But me, I think I'm done with all the boyfriend business for a while. It's too complicated."

Minako Aino has posed:
    Minako scrunches her nose as she takes in this love polygon and she's trying to plot it in her head. This ends up a mess that mental Minako gets tangled in and rolls down stairs to. Minako looks over to Artemis. "Already mapped it out I'll give you it later." says Artemis boredly. She smiles and looks back to Ami.
    She doesn't seem so much phased by it as trying to remember who's seeing who.
    She head tilts. "Oh? Did Takashi like. Turn an entire block into murder zombies or something finally?" she asks with wide eyes as she leans forward. She figures this is what'd it'd take to end that.

Ami Mizuno has posed:
"nnn," Ami wrinkles her nose, then shakes her head. "No, it's just ..." she trails off, then sighs and shrugs a little, collapsing in on herself. "I have trust issues with boys, in general. Not just him, but it makes me a pretty crappy girlfriend. He wants cuddles, and I just want space. He wants kisses, I want to run and scream. And we have very different priorities. It's ... better this way." She sounds mostly convinced. Sort of. Pretty much.

Minako Aino has posed:
    This problem. Oh it's a love problem. Luckily. She is the complete and total expert on love problems Artemis stop giving me that look!
    "Oh. So. He wants to cuddle you. And you don't want that. He wants to kiss you, but you don't want that either."
    "Well. What do you get. Out of liking a boy like that, Ami-chan?" she asks. "I mean that's what most girls like. Cuddles and kisses. It's so romantic." she says with wide eyes.
    She lets the dreamy look fade. "But I mean. There's nothing wrong with that!" she says raising a finger. "Not wanting those things!"
    "-and I mean it's really easy to just say he's a jerk and discount him." she says.
    "But if those were good reasons to just leave him behind you wouldn't had been with him in the first place! Right?" she asks, leaning in again. Not closer. She leaned out at some point and leaned in again.

Ami Mizuno has posed:
Ami wrinkles her nose a little at the question, then tilts her head. "I dunno," she says quietly. "He made me feel special. Like ... together, we could solve any problem. I don't feel that way, most of the time. Most of the time I feel like I'm just flailing and hoping it works. It almost always does, but that doesn't make me feel confident. He made me feel confident, I guess. Appreciated. Not taken for granted. He's the first boy to make me feel that way."

Minako Aino has posed:
    Minako Aino leans more forward. "The first boy." she says. "I mean. Maybe you'll meet another boy who makes you feel that way. Maybe you'll meet a girl that makes you feel that way." she leans and sort of raises her arms in a shrug.
    "Maybe he'll come around or maybe he won't." she says. This is probably code for 'I am going to find Takashi and talk to him.'
    "In the meantime, did you know there is this totally awesome arcade with a cafe over this place?" she asks with wide eyes. Yeah. She knows Ami knows. "We should go explore it. I bet we'll discover burgers and soda and we'll experiment with them." she insists.
    Artemis rolls his eyes.

Ami Mizuno has posed:
Ami blushes a little at the suggestion she might find a girl. Whether it's because she's a prude, or because she's embarassed at another thought, is unclear.

Thankfully, Minako saves her having to explain with her suggestion, and Ami smiles a little before looking back. "I think I can spare a few hours for video games. There's a few up there that are coop. Wanna see how well we can beat them together?"

Minako Aino has posed:
    "MMmmhmm! We can play the games! And then maybe you can also try to beat my high score on the Sailor V game!" she insists as she motions for Ami to follow along as Artemis waves. "I'm gonna stay back here for a moment." he says. "Someone I gotta try to say hi to or I'll never hear the end of it." he says.
    Probably Luna. Probably.