Usagi is the Best

    Rei doesn't often go to Usagi's house, despite having known her for nearly a year. After spending so much time at Mamoru's place, or Makoto's place, or Rei's place, getting to see Usagi's house is something of a rare treat.

    Rei is here in a red blouse and white shorts. A flowery red headband rests in her raven black hair. It's not her Verone uniform, and it's not her miko clothes either, but then again she's neither at school nor at the shrine.

    She's sitting on the edge of Usagi's bed, arms crossed and a sparkle in her eyes as she smiles and teases. "For some reason I expected your room to be a bit messier, Usa-chan. Did you clean up just for me?"

    She did have an actual reason for coming here that was somewhat senshi-business related, but Usagi's so much fun she just can't help but tease a little.

Usagi herself is in a black skirt and a pink top. She's trying to close the door after her mother delivered some snacks, and of course, a nosy mother is nosy.

"It's a pleasure seeing you again, Rei-chan, I hope you come around more often!" Ikuko's words are, of course, rushed, as Usagi finally gets the door closed.

"Uuuuuuuuug." It's an exaggerated sound, of course, and with as much truth to it as her being an A+ student. She sets the tray of goodies down on the small table and removes the cold cans from under her arms.

She starts a bit! And then she blushes! And quickly she covers by sticking out her tongue at Rei. "Why would I clean just for you, Rei-chan. I don't even clean for Mako-chan!"

Of course, there's always the chance that Makoto would offer to help...

Still! Her tongue is out!

"Bleeeeeeee!"

    "Thanks for having me over, Tsukino-san! It's good to see you!" As Usagi's mom is rushed out the door, Rei leans over to see her just a little bit longer and wave cheerfully. After Usagi's drawn out 'ugh', the miko sits back up straight, legs and arms still crossed, still smiling.

    She covers her mouth and giggles at the stuck out tongue, as if she finds it endearing, which to be fair she probably does.

    Rei uncrosses her legs and leans forward to take a snack off of the plate and nom on it a bit, looking up at Usagi. Between bites, she says, "You have a nice family, Usa-chan."

    Rei could, conceivably, keep teasing Usagi forever, and probably will, but she gets a bit more serious while eating her cookie and considering what to say.

    "I don't know if you caught wind of what I posted on HeartNET, about Maeko and Misa. Misa came to my shrine looking for protection. She has a powerful curse on her, one that purification apparently doesn't easily break, but... I don't know. She seemed so scared. I wanted to talk to the other senshi, to see if we could find a way to help her."

Usagi makes a show of considering this as she plops on the floor, leaning against the bed next to Rei's legs. "I do. Even that brat of a brother is...niceish. Sometimes."

She points an accusing finger at Rei! "Don't tell him I told you that, I'll deny it forever!"

Usagi listens as she works on nibbling cookies and opening her soda. "Is it like the one Naru had on her?"

Her eyebrows furrow even more together. There's very little that she knows of in the way of dark energy and curses that her purification can't help. If it can't in this case, it's a bit scary, indeed.

She looks up at Rei, trying and probably failing to hide that touch of...concern. "Did you want me to try to purify her? It did work on Naru."

    Rei can't help but snerk. Of course the little brother would be the brat. In the face of Usagi's accusing finger, Rei holds up her hands defensively. "I won't say anything! Senshi's honor!"

    She looks sincere enough, but then Usagi is sitting next to her legs, and Rei can't help but take the opening. The raven-haired girl lifts a food to tickle Usagi's sides with her toes.

    "I think so. I'm not sure. I didn't get a good look on Naru-chan's curse, but I bet they were alike." At Usagi's question, Rei nods, still tickling unless Usagi has fled or pushed her away or something. "I... would like you to, yeah. I don't know if it will be enough, but your magic is really strong so it might help."

    She finishes off her cookie, reaches for a soda, opens it with a *tsst* and takes a sip. "I'm actually at a loss. It's actually changed her body, you know. Misa's, I mean. She used to be a normal human, but now she has... doll joints."

Usagi narrows her eyes a little as she points two fingers at them then at Rei. 'I got my eyes on you.' "Good."

And then there are toes squiggling against her side! She jerks with a squawking yelp, but doesn't yet scoot away! There are giggles, of course.

"Naru-chan didn't care about anything," she says between giggles. And finally, she has to scoot away!

She takes the eternity needed to catch her breath to mull over what Rei said.

But then...

"Like...a living doll?" She pulls a pillow off the bed to hide behind. "Like in those movies I won't watch?"

Shiver, shiver, shudder! But no!

She rests her chin on the pillow. "Is she staying at the joints, or is it a gradual change thing?"

    Rei watches Usagi's gesture with a bemused smirk. It almost seems like a role reversal. The tickling does about what she intended and Rei is giggling at Usagi's reaction. When Usagi scoots away, Rei allows her to catch her breath. Plus... you know, she'd have to get up in order to chase her and that wouldn't look as cool.

    "That's right. Just like that." Rei raises her hand and flips it around as she talks. "I don't think it's that gradual. I saw her months ago and she had the same problem, but it's pretty thorough. I don't think she's really human. I saw her wounded, and it looked like..."

    Rei remembers Usagi just now referring to horror films as 'those movies I won't watch' and decides to skip the explicit details.

    "... well, it looked like she was part human, part doll. It was... about as strange as you'd think that'd look."

    Rei frowns, looking down at her soda can, or really more like looking vaguely in its direction. "She can heal, too. She uses dark energy to heal herself, and I don't think she can get it without Maeko's help. So yeah that whole night was pretty weird for me."

More confusion! "So this isn't a sudden thing."

This does, of course, cause concern. From the safety of her new spot, she leans her cheek against the mattress as she looks at Rei. "So...she wants to leave Maeko?"

She feels like she's not understanding the whole picture. This is, of course, more to do with herself than with Rei! The past couple of months she's been...

Distracted would be an understatement, right?

"I mean, I wanna help! I will if I can! And not just because that means it would lead to one less person we gotta fight. But if she uses dark energy to heal, cleansing may do more harm than good. If I'm gonna try it, I need someone who can tell better than me."

And yes, there are large, not very discrete eyeballs at Rei!

    Rei frowns at the question, looking down at the floor. "'Wants to...' ... It's complicated. I think she does want to, or at least she'd be happier if she was free, but she's also afraid of Maeko, and of what she might do. I actually don't think I fully understand the relationship between those two. I think Misa and Maeko are two separate people? At least until Maeko is possessing her? Somehow? Either way, it's a pretty scary relationship."

    She takes a sip of her soda, and then scoots forward off of the bed and sits on the floor.

    "I think, if she had the choice, she would leave. She doesn't seem to think that she actually has that choice."

    Rei has to consider the implications of purifying her when she needs dark energy to heal. "I actually don't know what it will do, but I know that Reiko said she tried purification magic on her before. It had an effect, but she didn't really specify what it was."

    Rei glances towards Usagi, blinking at those eyes. Then with a confident smile she gestures to herself and says, "Well of course I'll be happy to help. I'm your Sailor Guardian, right?" A bit more seriously, "Besides, I'm the one asking, so I'll be there in case you need me."

Usagi sighs. When Rei slides to the floor, Usagi scoots back and leans her head on her shoulder. "If she wants me to try to cleanse her, I will. But when it hurts her, you can't tease me too much if I cry, okay?"

She hums in thought again. "I wonder what did happen when Reiko tried."

And then she's beaming! "And you're also my Rei-chan! Yay!" Usagi snuggles against Rei with a happy hum, feeling good knowing the other girl would be there just in case!

    After Usagi leans her head on Rei's shoulder, the fire senshi's arm goes around behind the princess's back and adjusts herself for comfort. Rei giggles. "Sure, I won't tease you then." No comment about potentially teasing her at other times. "Of course, I don't think Maeko would be a willing target. We'd probably have to catch Misa alone."

    Rei would shrug, but she's got a bunny on her shoulder, so instead she says, "I have to wonder. If it was something easy to explain, it seems like she would have just said it."

    Rei is snuggled against, and she smiles before setting down her soda on the table in order to hug Usagi with both arms. "Yup! I'm here to back you up when you need it and tease you relentlessly at all other times!"

She scrunches her nose. "Yeah. I can imagine how Maeko wouldn't want that." She thinks for a moment about Takashi. She doubts very much he'd ever willingly give up all that dark energy and stuff, even if he was shown all the proof in the world that it was better for him.

Then she sighs! "Yeah, sometimes it feels weird trying to explain things that shouldn't make sense but totally do in your head."

Usagi gasps! Then hmphs! But still doesn't move away."Well, just you wait! One day I'm gonna find something to tease you about lots!"

    "Whatever it is, I bet we'll know when we see it," says Rei. Not that it's very reassuring. Still, it seems like if it was too terrible there would have been dire warnings or something. "It'll probably be something weird and when we try to describe it it'll just be like 'yeah some stuff happened.'"

    She giggles and hugs Usagi tight. "Something to tease me about? I wonder just what that would be?" Rei has a hard time imagining Usagi teasing her about anything, but she might be surprised one day. "If you do that I'll tease you back, and even worse!"

Usagi tries hard to come up with weird scenarios. But when one is a magical girl, even the weird scenarios seem normal.

Still...

"We could be telling people that when we tried to cleanse her, muffins shot out her nose. That's weird even for us."

She gives a decisive nod against Rei's shoulder, but it's really hard to differentiate between that and the snuggling she falls into a second after into that hug.

Another scoff! "Oh yeah? Well...I'll find something to tease you about so hard that your head will be spinning! Hah!"

    Being a magical girl does kinda change your definition of what's 'weird' or not.

    Rei blinks. "Muffins shot ou-- what?" She actually has to pause and process that, before speaking up again. "Yes. Yes that would definitely be weird for us."

    Usagi might not have to resort to teasing if she can off balance Rei by being silly enough.

    Rei cuddles against Usagi, even as the bunny princess scoffs. With a wide grin she asks, "Oh yeah? My head will spin? You mean like in those movies you don't watch?"

    Rei actually tries to imagine her head spinning like a top, hair sticking out like a helicopter blade until the whole Rei just up and flew away.

She snorts. "See? Weird for us is frikkin weird."

Her blood freezes like ice in her veins! Oh noes! "No no no not like that HAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Rei may or may not have said bunny trying to burrow until she's hidden completely!

...However, if she had the mental image Rei is going for, she may very well keel over in endless giggles!

    Rei laughs. "Yeah, that'd be really weird. Knowing the kind of stuff we deal with we might actually run across something that can do that."

    Usagi is a burrowing bunny and Rei is just hugging her tighter and tighter as Usagi tries to hide, giggling all the way. "Oh silly bunny my head isn't really going to spin around. Unless it means I get to be a helicopter. All bets are off, then."

    Rei reaches for the tips of one of Usagi's twintails and tries to tickle her face with it. Only now Rei has an arm around Usagi and escape is more difficult! ... though Rei does stop after a bit.

    "Silly bunny~. Silly silly bunny~."

"If we do, I hope they're edible! And not full of boogers!" She scrunches her nose. So gross! "Booger muffins sound so ickyyyyy."

Usagi manages to relax! At least enough to where she's no longer trying to burrow into the safety of Rei's blouse! "...a helicopter? I suppose that's not as scary."

And then she's giggling! Noooo, not the tickles again! She tries to squirm and hide again, but at least this time she's giggling!

"Rei-chan's sillier! Hah!"

    "Booger muffins," repeats Rei.

    With a wry smile, Rei says, "I'm not sure if those are even worse than dark energy chocolates or not. Probably worse. Especially if the muffins are also made of dark energy."

    A beat, and then, "Usagi-chan don't eat things from people's noses."

    The tickling Rei grins as Usagi giggles. "No Usagi-chan is! Usagi-chan is the silliest ever!"

    After the tickle, she rubs her thumb against the grabbed twintail. "You really have nice hair, Usagi-chan." Then she drops the hair and snuggles against Usagi, running her hand through her own hair to check it for softness.

Usagi's face scrunches up tight as she tries not to giggle!

"Ewwwwwww, dark energy booger muffins! So gross!"

Then she scoffs! "Puh-lease. Boogies are gross no matter who they come from. No eating them for me, no siree!"

More squeals! "Rei-chan! Rei-chan's the silliest! I'm not silly AIEEE!"

Pant pant pant!

Usagi plays with the ends of Rei's hair. "You do, too!" A thought. "You can try some of my shampoo and conditioner if you want. I have tiny bottles. Mama gets it special!"

    Rei leans against Usagi and touches her hair, looking down and smiling as Usagi plays with her hair. "We're soldiers of love and justice and fabulous hair."

    She pauses and considers Usagi's offer. "Hm. Well, sure if it's alright. I can lend you some of mine, too."

    Still leaning against Usagi with one arm around her and one hand playing with Usagi's twintails, Rei whispers, "No you're the silliest." Does she think she can win if Usagi doesn't hear her?! Rei isn't quite whispering low enough to not be heard, though.

    She closes her eyes. "Thanks for agreeing to help, Usa-chan. I'm not sure I could actually get anywhere in this without you."

"The most fabulous." She thinks even Makoto has amazing hair, who very much would not agree with that thought.

"Ohhhh yes! And I'll show you how much I use and all that stuff. And I don't wash it every day, otherwise it would whither up and become straw!"

The mental image of her with straw for hair is both amusing and horrifying.

"You are times infinity, no beating the infinity clause." This, too, is whispered. And spoken with a bit of triumph...

And then she giggles even as she blushes, squeezing Rei for a moment. "Of course I agreed. My Rei-chan is very smart, you know." She leans up a little just so she could look at the fire reader. "You think this is something worth trying. Why wouldn't I help you?"

    Makoto does have nice hair! Rei will appreciate it even if Mako-chan doesn't.

    Rei shakes her head. "Yeah, no straw hair. At least your hair would actually look like straw. Mine would just be black and stringy and ugh. I hate it when it gets hard and it's like you can give yourself cuts with it. Like paper cuts, or... would those be... hair cuts?" No, no a hair cut is something else. "... but yeah, okay. Sure, if you want."

    Rei sticks out her tongue as Usagi whispers back. Geeze! Rei isn't that silly. Well maybe just a little.

    "You sure are blushy today, Usagi-chan." She observes, and then she softly smiles at her princess. "It means a lot to me that you'd say that. Thank you."

Sadly Makoto thinks her hair is frizzy! Usagi often plots the kinds of shampoos she'd get her friend because of this!

Usagi hums and pets Rei's hair. "Hair cut is a punny way of putting it." Har har! "And of course! This stuff is amaaaaaaazinnnnnnng."

Usagi sticks her tongue right back out!

Then she's all shrugs. "Well, yeah, maybe a little! Shoosh!" She pokes Rei's sides! "I only say it because it's true~."

    Rei plays with Usagi's hair, rubbing her thumb against a tail and running her fingers down its length, listens to the praise Usagi puts on her shampoo and conditioner. "Well it's done an amazing job on your hair~."

    Rei flashes a toothy smile at the retaliatory tongue sticking out. She reaches up to scritch Usagi's chin. "You know, I wouldn't tease you so much if you weren't so cute about it."

    Rei's side is poked, and she blushes a little herself. Then she says, "Yeah, well, I am pretty smart, and dependable, and cool." There she goes again. She actually manages to keep a straight face this time. "... but it's still nice to be recognized. Especially by a princess."

Usagi beams! "Mama chose it. And it smells pretty, too!"

She very much doesn't purr at the chin scritch! She does giggle a bit, though! "I'm not cute, I'm scary! Roar!"

Then she's giggling again, and maybe blushing more. "And humble~!"

    Rei giggles as Usagi claims to be scary, not cute! "Well I bet youma think you're scary, but I still think you're cute!"

    'And humble~'

    Rei manages to deliver in a perfectly innocent voice. "Oh totally! I'm the most humble of the senshi. I never brag about how clearly amazing I am~!"

    Then Usagi is blushing and so is Rei, and Rei just closes her eyes and shakes her head, nuzzling against Usagi at the same time. "You're the best, Usa-chan. Like oh my god."