The Midori-ya cafe is a nice place for a date. Especially a particularly casual date, which is what Rei had in mind when dra-- er-- inviting Usagi to come with her here. She's dressed in a black button-up blouse with a white skirt, and her black hair is tied up in a long ponytail for once. Before her is a plate with some donuts and danishes and other pastries.
There is certainly enough to share, as Rei bought a few extra in case Usagi wanted to 'sample' Rei's.
Look, they were friends before they were girlfriends. Rei knows how Usagi is sometimes. She accepts it even if she teases her for it from time to time!
Rei nibbles on a danish, sitting proper with her legs crossed and looking absolutely perfect.
Usagi, for her part, is dressed pretty much as she's always been during summer outside of school: Scandelous tops, short skirts and teeny shorts, and sneakers or sandals.
(But since this is a SortaDate, she's gone with a classy scandelous shirt and a classy short skirt! And strappy sandals!)
Her hair is, of course, the same as always.
Usagi is, of course, happy to meet up with Rei. (Drag? Please. There's food, there's Rei.)
There's a cheerful wave, a hug, and a smooch that leaves enough time for Rei to decide if she wants the lips or cheeks, her choice, and then she's sitting down at the small table. As close as she can get!
"Thank you so much for inviting me out! It's been crazy!" Usagi does realize, of course, that she hasn't really told Rei about what's been going on. Her gut reaction, and she hopes Rei isn't hurt by it, was to wail to Naru-chan, because Naru-chan.
And she's trying her best to be Happy! and Yay! because the last time she saw Rei with just the two of them, she'd been mopey then, too!
The best indication that things aren't Okay in Usagiville?
She nibbles a pastry. As an after thought.
Delicately.
Rei goes for the lips. Cheek kisses are fun too, but Usagi's sweet lips are just too tempting for little mikos to resist. Close is fine, too! Rei leans slightly against her, nibbling cutely on a danish while her purple eyes peek at Usagi's face.
Huuuh?
Rei blinks. Maybe a normal person wouldn't pick up on it, but Rei is and has been more emotionally sensitive than most, and she knows Usagi's cues pretty well. She frowns, but only for an instant, and then smiles softly at her cute girlfriend.
It's sweet of Usagi to not want to worry her too much, Rei decides, but she's still Usagi's guardian and there is a bit of a protective instinct at play here.
"Of course, Usagi-chan. I always like spending time with you." An admission she might not have made if they were still just friends, but she's not about to let her date feel unwanted.
"Crazy huh? So what's been happening?" she asks, delicately, trying to be gentle with Usagi's... potentially compromised feelings.
There is, of course, a blush and a small smile at Rei's admission. And of course from the full-on lip smoochy. (She'd hoped but didn't wanna force it! PDAs can be tricky!)
And she's trying to be discreet, and thought maybe she was succeeding, but...
She sighs. "Daddy knows. I mean, he knows. He follows Mamo-chan, and Mamo-chan asked me, and it's just..."
Cue a droopy Usagi. "He feels awkward and so do I so I dunno if he's mad at me or what."
But no! Must! Be! Cheerful! "But you! How'd that test go?"
Mamoru, and others like him, have good reasons for feeling awkward about PDAs. Rei might have felt similarly at one point, but she certainly seems comfortable with them now. As long as she isn't making others uncomfortable.
Rei's not calling Usagi out on her feelings directly. At least not yet. Still, she is prying and trying to be subtle about it. If Usagi didn't want to talk about it, she could choose not to answer, but as long as Rei gets the sense that Usagi does want to talk about it...
Her eyes widen at the news. "He knows?" That's a vague statement, but... Rei can make a few guesses as to what she means. "You mean... he knows about you and Mamo-kun? Or he knows about... you know, the fighting evil thing?"
'He' could also refer to two different people here, but Rei decides to cover both cases.
"Mamo-kun loves you." A part of her finds it strange that she'd defend one who would classically be a rival, but... it doesn't feel wrong, and he's not a rival. He's a friend, and all of Rei's initial misgivings about him have been resolved. "... and so does your father. Even if they're awkward and upset, that's not going to change."
The test? Oh. "It went alright. You know, no big deal." Rei waves her hands dismissively. She's way too cool to admit that she was sweating it at the time.
Usagi sort of snorts and rolls her eyes. "Yes? He knows about all of it! Abouy Mamo-chan, about...me." Headdesk. Or headtable as the case may be.
She looks up and, propping her elbows on the table, brushes her twintails back. "But he hasn't killed Mamo-chan, so maybe he accepts the whole 'dating since the dawn of time' thing."
The look she gives Rei is one of worry. Because while her father doesn't know about them, she also doesn't want to lie. But she also doesn't want her father to ridicule this aspect of her love life. And overall, she's just very confused about it.
Still, she sighs. "I know he does. And I love him, too. And I don't doubt that he won't disown me for the whole thing, but...I know he'll be...worried?"
Suspicious eyeballs! And then perhaps a bit of a teasing gleam. "Ohhhhhh? So that wasn't the textbook I saw?"
Usagi's head is on the table, and Rei glances at her for a moment, simultaneously endeared and annoyed. She reaches over to pat Usagi on the back of her head, give her neck a little scritch, and then withdraws her hand.
"Well, that's a good sign." Oh geeze. If Daddy is having trouble with Mamoru, how much trouble would he have with Rei on top of that? Granted, Usagi and Rei haven't been dating for as long. Rei makes a bit of a wincing frown as she thinks about that.
"Yeah, I bet. I mean. We're guardians for a reason. What we do is pretty dangerous, though it's also pretty important."
She sets her danish down, and then rips off a bite-sized bit of it to chew on. "I mean, as grim as it sounds, he wouldn't be here to worry about you if you hadn't embraced this part of your life."
Textbook? Did Rei have a textbook? "I... don't remember anything like that?" She sticks her tongue out. "Usa-chan are you mixing things up again?"
Usagi almost purrs, which would be detrimental to her woeful state!
She sighs, though. Is it bad she's being all woe about this? After all, she's sure her father won't hate her. That's better than some people. It's just...blah.
"I think it's very important." She nods at that, because she believes it!
Then she sits up and looks around, trying to act all innocent! "Well...text books are...! You know!"
Rei certainly wouldn't mind doing something about Usagi's woeful state! It wouldn't bother her if Usagi learned to come to her for comfort, either.
Still, it is rather clear to Rei that Usagi is bothered by this. She sneaks an arm around Usagi's waist, holding her close and putting her head on Usagi's shoulder. Feeling one of Usagi's twintails against her cheek is a nice bonus.
"It's just something that he'll have to get used to. Would it assure him if he knew you had a lot of people backing you up? I'm not just talking about us senshi, but also Mamoru-kun and his boys, and all the people who came with us to D-point. We do face some dark things, but we don't face them alone."
Rei's smile turns a little bit wry. "I know what textbooks are. I just don't remember reading any since school let out. I thought you were talking about practice exams or something."
Usagi would be more than happy to come to Rei for comfort! And she has! And that's...not necessarily the problem? But sometimes she's afraid Rei (and Mamoru) will get annoyed because it seems to her that's all she goes to them for! (Which isn't true, but this is Worried Usagi Brain we're talking about!)
Still, she's happy to snuggle against Rei, because yay snuggles. "I think so! But I also kinda slipped that I kinda died. I think..." She sighs. "There was supposed to be a thing, just him and me the other day. But then Mamo-chan, and then Naru-chan, and then, bah." More snuggles because yay snuggles! "I'm so wussing out right now."
Usagi snorts a bit. "Okaaaay, so I guessed on the text books. You'd been stressed a bit earlier is all!"
Probably not obvious to Casual Joe, but this is Usagi!
She looks up at Rei, eyes large, maybe a bit concerned. "I don't only come to you when I'm woeful, do I?"
Usagi may worry but Rei's still going to give her hugs and kisses.
Rei winces as Usagi mentions that her dad knows about her dying now. "Oh geeze. I mean, frankly, a lot of us did, but still." A thing. Like a talk? And then other people started showing up. "Huuuh. So you didn't really get to have your private conversation then."
Rei snuggles against Usagi, because of course she does. Then she mentions being stressed and Rei suddenly blinks.
Was there something she was stressed about?
Well, Rei isn't one to hide her annoyance, and she does remember saying something to Mamoru about that. On the other hand Rei gets annoyed like every other day and she's aware of that.
"Well... I don't know. I mean I don't know if I can point to one specific thing that's bothering me. I'm with you, and I'm happy about that. I feel like we're both still finding our feet in this relationship but I mean... that's normal. I'm... I don't know."
"I do kinda feel like something's bothering me, and I don't really... know what it is. I feel like... I dunno, like I've been lied to about what love is." She tilts her head, and glances at Usagi. "Does that make sense? Like... there's all these societal expectations of love and stuff they try to shove on you but then you get into it and it's nothing like what they said at all." She looks down at her danish and fingers it for a bit. "... but even that isn't really it... I don't know."
She says all of that, and lets it hang in the air. Then Usagi asks her another question and Rei blinks. "Well, I mean, if you're feeling woeful then you just are. I don't think you only come around for that, just you know... you have some problems lately."
Usagi shakes her head. "And he asked Luna if it was That Day. I don't know what that even means!" And her arms are suddenly tight, tight, tight around Rei, because she remembers D-Point. It takes only a moment, but it's also an eternity, but she can breathe now yay!
And she listens to Rei's concerns and frustrations, chewing her lip as she thinks.
"Is it like...I mean, I thought, for the longest time, I could only love one person. And I would have been happy with that. Because Mamo-chan, you know? And this--" She waves her hand briefly between them. "I don't think it was allowed. Then, you know? So I think she would have..." She shrugs. She knows, but she's not sure where the words are. "I can give you both all of me. And I think everything else has tried to tell me I can't."
And then she's woeing more and snuggling against Rei. "So many problems. And I'd ask you to talk to him, but there's no way I could hide things, and his poor head will go poof. POOF!"
Her head shoots up and her expression is both serious and worried. "I want to tell him." After all, she's not ashamed in the slightest. She has a boyfriend and a girlfriend! She's lucky! "It's just...baby steps?"
Oh dear. Fretting is imminent.
Rei is held tight, and she holds Usagi tight in return, because as hurt as Usagi was about her and the other senshi, Rei felt the same way about Usagi. Yet they're both here, and everything's okay now.
"Yeah, like that's part of it. I kinda feel like people would tell me that I should somehow claim you as if you were territory and then fight off other people... but like... that's awful? And destructive? And if people are giving me awful, destructive advice, it's kinda hard not to see it as malicious in some way?"
She fidgets with her food a little more, before ripping off a piece of a donut and offering it to Usagi. "... I also feel like... I dunno. Like people told me that love was supposed to follow all of these complicated and vaguely defined rules and is ordained by fate..." She glances towards Usagi. "... well maybe in some cases it is." Then she looks down to her pastries and considers. "... but really, looking at it, it's more like... a set of needs that people have and... healthy social interactions and... I mean it's a little hard to put into words but really it all seems so simple when I'm dealing with it."
She runs a hand through her ponytail, shaking a few knots out of the length of it. "It's not just romantic love, either. People seem to want to pretend that platonic love doesn't exist and... it totally does? Yet they want to act like 'friend' is some kind of an insult."
Rei glances towards Usagi, tilting her head. Then she realizes what Usagi means and says, "I think if you don't want your father to die of heart attacks, you should probably not tell him too much at once. Like... I know you aren't hiding it. All of our friends know."
Usagi's eyebrows furrow in both concern and confusion. "Who...?"
Are there toes she needs to kick?
She sighs and droops her shoulders. "Platonic love...it's...I mean..."
She thinks about her father, and Rei's words, but right now, her mind is trying to think of her own words. And sometimes, even she has trouble with those.
"I um...I want to try...Mamo-chan says I should..."
A small little bunny sized growl.
Her forehead leans against Rei's and her eyes close because she's concentrating. Her fingers lace through Rei's, and they're warm and nice and soft and no darnit concentrating.
The brilliant golden thread is there. Nurtured and clung to. It's so bright it's almost difficult to see the other threads, but if she concentrates.
There's a sparking green thread. Icy blue. A heartbreakingly dull orange. Others, too, but those aren't quite hers.
And of course, fiery red, battling the other colors through sheer determination and stubborness. She smiles a little as she latches onto it in her mind--
And there's a sea. Everything that is Usagi is there. The unending love she feels for literally everyone, so much so that if she thinks about it too hard she'll cry for days. The fears she has, feelings of inadequacy. And jealousy she feels toward Kunzite and the intensity of her shame at her own stupid hypocrisy.
The disconnect she still feels toward Serenity.
What she feels for Rei is there, too. New yet ancient. And the way she feels and the intensity of it hasn't changed, not exactly, it just easily switched tracks. (Also too are the emotions she still feels during her flashback nightmares, hugging a smoldering and charred corpse close to her, throat raw with screaming, because she can't exactly filter things out like this. She's either on or off, at least at first.)
Who...? Rei wonders. "I mean... it's so ubiquitous that it's hard to point to a specific person?" She flips her hand around. "Like I dunno. I feel like I could point to different songs or whatever that display that mindset if I thought hard about it. Nobody really says it that way if they're trying to push that mindset, but if you look at what they say..."
Rei isn't sure what she feels at first, aside from the nice closeness of Usagi's forehead against hers. Sure, she's in tune with her emotions, but she's never had anything like a pull from Usagi before. Not... consciously like this. She feels something... touching her in some way, and then it's Usagi. And then it's all of Usagi's feelings.
Wow.
Rei has never held back her feelings, or her opinion, so there's not much really protecting her from exposure either. There's a certain amount of confusion on her part. Maybe there's a bit of fear that not being jealous over Usagi means she might not love her as much, but then there's the assurance that such thoughts are ridiculous, because of course Rei would die for her.
There is a certain amount of insecurity and loneliness inside of Rei. She's sure of her opinion and judgement, but she's not really sure of being accepted. Being around Usagi and other friends does a lot to alleviate those concerns, but they are still there, nagging at her and picking at loose threads, always trying to unravel her.
There's also a small amount of bitterness over her father, coupled to sadness regarding her mother, both feelings buried and ignored. He's not a part of her life anymore, and she's passed on, but this does have something to do with her love concerns.
Behind it all, of course, is passion. Burning, warm, consuming and fearsome. Rei stands on both sides of the flame, lovingly warm and vengefully scorching.
That's all on the first pass. She starts to react to Usagi's feelings, and there's so much. The overwhelming love is... well, it's not surprising, but it's so sweet in ways that Rei wasn't aware of. The jealousy over Kunzite is a surprise, but maybe it shouldn't be, and Rei can't help but sympathise both over that and the feeling of hypocrisy. If anything, it solidifies her resolve in dating Usagi, because something like that shouldn't be one sided.
Rei's feelings for Usagi haven't changed much in intensity either, and Rei doubts that her flame could burn hotter than it does. No small amount of that passion is for Usagi, one way or another. She certainly feels like she has love for Usagi, no matter what, but there are different ways she can express it.
Usagi shrugs one shoulder. "I think they just...aren't ready. To understand. But I don't think they have to understand to accept, you know?"
And of course, by the end of the Vulcan Mind Meld, those are not tears on Usagi's cheeks! Nope, someone came by midmeld and threw a glass of water in her face. Yep.
She gives a soft laugh and wipes at her cheek. "So apparently I can." She gives Rei a shy sort of smile, not one usually seen on the bunny. "I haven't done that with anyone but Mamo-chan."
Then, not because she has to, at least definately not in the obligatory sense of the word, she leans in, just a little, and her lips press against Rei's. They're in public, and they're kissing.
"Yeah... I can agree with that," says Rei, nodding her head, and somewhat unintentionally nuzzling against Usagi's cheek. It may be unintentional but it's a happy accident. "Like... I think people have their own needs, and they project their needs onto other people because they assume that everyone has the same need or... something. I don't know. They don't understand that people are different."
Usagi doesn't have tears on her cheeks, so Rei isn't trying to clean off nonexistent tears. Her cute bunny girlfriend just has some food on her cheeks or something. Rei takes the edge of her sleeve to wipe it off.
"I knew he could do that, but I didn't know you could. I... kind of like seeing inside your head like that, Usa-chan." There's a notable touch of affection in Rei's voice.
They're in public, and they're kissing, and Rei doesn't mind at all. For a moment, the other people in the bakery don't even exist to Rei, so focused she is on Usagi and her sweet lips.
Usagi nods. And sometimes she's guilty of that, too. But she usually realizes when she is. That's something at least, right?
The sheepish grin she gets when Rei wipes 'food' from her cheek turns shy as she blushes. "I liked it, too." A lot. "I can't do it like he can. I can just do emotions and vague...stuff." There's something, though, in the back of her mind, the part that isn't afraid of Serenity. He used to speak to you, too. Like that.
She shakes her head a bit, and then is enjoying the kiss.
And it's difficult to say, usually, when all of her focus in on one thing or one person. Usually there are so many threads tugging at her attention. But there's very few, and maybe only one.
What is easy to say, and very telling in of itself, is Usagi isn't even aware there'd food not one foot from her.
Rei might be guilty of it and not know it, though she tries not to be too judgemental about it.
"I see. Still, that's... really cool." And a bit intimate, but... this is Usagi-chan. Rei doesn't mind intimacy with her.
Which is probably why she doesn't break the kiss right away. Hopefully no one texts her to interrupt it. Rei's other arm wraps around Usagi's tummy, both of them holding her close.
Rei's lips move, just a bit, brushing her lips softly against Usagi's for a moment before resting.
Rei isn't thinking about food right now either. It will still be just as good after the kiss. Maybe even better!
It's one thing to be guilty of it. Sometimes a person can't help it, either through upbringing or own personal reasons. It's more often than not the judgemental part that gets a person in trouble.
Usagi grins and nods, agreeing very much!
Usagi does have the presence of mind not to deepen the kiss. After all, there are children about, and children deserve Disney Kisses!
Her fingers do curl against Rei's cheek, though, and there's a soft sigh through her nose.
(Breathing while kissing is a handy skill to have!)
Rei doesn't deepen it either, because that's really a thing to do in private if they do that. Still if this is a Disney kiss, does that make it a kiss of true love?! Is Usagi going to get her voice back?
Wait, she never lost it, never mind.
Rei feels a hand on her cheek, and Rei raises her hand to touch the back of Usagi's fingers. She's also breathing through the nose while kissing, because she doesn't want to pull away from this sweet moment.
Well, she does break the kiss for a moment, in order to whisper, "You are so sweet, Usagi-chan." Then she goes back to kissing.
Really, if this has been Usagi without a voice, she'd be terrifying with one!
Or maybe this is closer to Enchanted, and Rei is Patrick Dempsey but in this case she gets Dempsy and the guy who played Cyclops! And the lady who voiced Elsa is...okay so the analogy falls apart real fast. But the idea is sound!
She gives a soft giggle, but doesn't have time to respond in kind before she's being kissed again!
Not that she minds, of course!
She just hopes she remembers to tease Rei about her being sweet, too.