2373/Girl.

Girl.
Date of Scene:	01 March 2025
Location:	The Shed
Synopsis:	After Catch That Mina, Usagi and Minako have a long over-due talk.
Cast of Characters:	Minako Aino, Usagi Tsukino
Tinyplot:	The Demise of Bow-chan

---

Minako Aino has posed:
Minako Aino lifts her free hand, the one Usagi didn't have hold of, to swipe at her eyes before they betray her further. She can't help the little sniffle though. The others start to leave which maybe does help her pride a little bit. Amy's own thoughtful concern is taken in with a simple nod of silent thanks.

Of course now comes the hard part: TALKING about what's been going on in that head of hers. In a quiet, meek voice, she mumbles, "I've just been... Since Paris... Really kind of lonely and I missed so much and I know it's probably all in my head so I just wanted to reassure myself and not worry anyone." Boy had that failed big time.

Before everyone is too out of earshot she calls out, "Thank you, everyone. I'm sorry!"

----------

The sunlight of the outside is left behind. Mina trudges back into the Shed where the Heartstealer Rifle was still lain out resting on one of the tabletops. Likely exactly where she had rested it so that she could aim properly to shoot ... Herself.

She can already feel the color heating her cheeks at the sight of it along with the realization that yeah, insecurities aside, that was *REALLY STUPID* of her to do. She walks over to the rifle to reach out and flip it to face the wall.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Everyone else wandered off, which Usagi can only admit is... probably for the best. They don't need Zoisite making bitchy statements, Tamaki trying to make helpful ones, Mamochan melting into the floor, Makochan making eye contact over Minako's head like 'what do', or Amy trying to relate.

No, like it or not, this is a problem squarely in the Usagi Tsukino Toolbox of Situations, so when Minako is read to stand, Usagi walks with her back to the Shed, shaking her head at Artemis - he can follow, but he should probably not speak.

"...So."

As she shuts the door behind them and leans against it.

"I know why you said you did it. But Minako-chan, could you uh, could you walk me through like, exactly... what happened?"

Minako Aino has posed:
Minako Aino halts her touch as it withdraws from the rifle just hovering over it a moment at the sound of the door shutting solidly behind Usagi. Behind her. The question asked causes a ripple of a shudder to race down her spine.

Somehow Usagi already had mom voice down when she *really* needed to use it.

Minako turns back to Usagi to try smiling but it falters. No fake smiles right now. She just didn't have the energy at the moment. Instead she sinks down to sit in one of the desk chairs sideways leaning her weight into the back of the seat with her arms hugging lightly around herself.

"Usagi-chan," she begins quietly, gaze flitting down to the floor then back to her friend. Her Princess. A deep breath is drawn and let out.

"... When Zoisite was shot, I caught his heart crystal and put it back. It was..." She lifts a hand to swirl through the air trying to gather the right words. "Not perfect. Broken-ish. Damaged? Damaged," she finally decides as her head nods along with the thought. "The Shittenou did a lot of awful things in their past lives, and in this one, so I wasn't really surprised that it was damaged, but then I got to thinking."

Lips purse together in a tight line as her blue eyes raise to regard Usagi again. "I've done a lot this life, too. Not the level they did of course, and not from *trying* to be evil-" Or actually being evil, which of course she wasn't, "But when I was Sailor V I er... I killed a lot of the people sent after me."

"Most of them just crumbled to dust or faded away, but when that happened to that Black Clan girl we fought, everyone was horrified at it happening? I didn't realize it was something to be horrified about, I guess, because I used to see it all the time. So I... I wondered, was my Heart broken, too?"

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
No fake smiles. That's a good thing. Usagi would deny having a mom voice (she's too young for that and never mind the time-traveling gremlin she calls a future daughter!), but she would have absolutely used one if Minako kept lying about how she was feeling after this.

But as the explanation unfolds and Minako keeps talking, her hand goes to her face, and stays there, and she breathes in, and out, and in, and out, and in -

"Minako-chan," quiet. "Are you sure those were people, and not youma?"

This is the first thing, to address that, not because she'll shame her friend, but because it helps her understand how messed up about she and Mamoru might be.

The second, is when her hand comes off her face to slap against her thigh, as she exclaims -

"This is why we talk to our friends, Minako-chan!!! Because when you talk to your friends, you don't shoot yourself over a misunderstanding!"

She throws her hands in the air and stalks over to the two - count them, two! - guns that are in the Shed.

"One of these takes out your whole Heart Crystal, and you die if it doesn't get put back in within a few minutes! And the other one takes most of it, but you don't lose your everything, and you grow it back."

Minako Aino has posed:
Minako Aino hangs her head down just a bit with shoulders doing a little upward ripple. It might be a shrug. "Some were, I'm sure, but I know for sure one wasn't." A pause, and a sigh. "He was ... apparently one of my subjects on Venus, and reincarnated here, too." One that weighed on her mind no small amount because of how her emotions had been jerked around a lot during that time, only for her to realize a bit of clarity at the end. "So I'm not sure about all of the others. Some definitely were. I mean, they could turn into dogs. Like a dog version of Artemis." Was there aliens like that? Who knows!

The slap to thigh and yelling causes her to jerk upright with her head snapping up to stare wide-eyed at Usagi. Grimacing at it she opens her mouth to protest of the misunderstanding, pause, and then... then listen.

"Oh. *OH.*"

A nervous little laugh comes from her. Awkward, she rubs the back of her neck. "That would explain it then! Hah hah! Ha... Uugh." Once again her head bobs down.

"I'm so sorry Usagi!"

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
So there's a dead boy from Venus somewhere on Earth, at Minako-chan's hand, and okay, that explains some more of why she's been - not relaxed about all this but you know, substantially less freaked out about the idea of killing, pretty much the whole time.

All the way back Hinoiri-chan and the Outer Senshi, the whole time.

"...I wish you'd told me," she says quietly. "About this boy, and how you were feeling, and all of it, instead of just - burying it. You don't need to apologize to me, you know? You need to apologize to yourself. You shot yourself! Instead of talking to us. You just - you did something so scary and reckless and, did you even know there was a less fatal kind, or were you just going to risk it?"

There's real anguish in her voice, frustration and fear mixed.

Minako Aino has posed:
Minako Aino lowers her head down into her hands. She's not crying at least, just sort of wallowing for a bit while gathering her thoughts. Embarassment, shame, guilt. There was a lot to process right now, especially as Usagi points out that she could have just leaned on her friends. She could have. She should have.

"Danburite," she finally says quietly. "Mamoru-kun thought I ... He thought I knew he was in charge of him as Hematite, but I didn't, and then when we finally talked and it camem out. He was feeling guilty about it too." That was a whole other mess. A huge one, really, but right now she was just starting to babble a little. Slowly.

"Err... More like I didn't realize there was a fatal one," she explains awkward as ever. "I used the one that I picked up after we rescued Zoisite. That one."

"I honestly just thought I'd pop it out, Artemis could pop it back in, and that'd be it." Her hands hover in front of her gazing at them. "Then I had it and I just... I couldn't look away? It was. It was me. It was mine. And I remember thinking 'I have to keep it away from everyone' and then the door opened and--" Well that part Usagi knew already.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"Danburite," Usagi repeats, and wishes she had a face to put to the name and the sadness in Minako. "He was... your enemy, as Sailor V, from the Dark Kingdom?"

He's from Venus. But he had an -ite name? Was that Beryl's doing, or his, or - she isn't sure. A part of her knows those questions are just a distraction from the rest of this.

"Well at least you weren't - weren't willing to risk killing yourself, with this," and her voice breaks a little, betraying even more of that anguish and fear. "You ran off, probably all messed up from the adrenaline, and no I have no idea how you did that, I've never seen anyone do that -"

She pushes her hand up her face, bangs combed up.

"Minako-chan, I was really scared."

Minako Aino has posed:
Minako Aino draws a rather DEEP breath at the question of Danburite. She'd brought him up though, and it had weighed on her rather heavily. Lately, with finding out about Hematite being in charge of him, it had really been easy to be reminded.

"He... wasn't... My enemy the *entire* time."

Minako chews on her lower lip hard. When Usagi says she was scared she finally leaves the seat to walk over to her friend offering a tight hug.

"I won't do something stupid like that again I promise. I'm sorry, Usagi-chan."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
He wasn't her enemy the whole time -

"Oh, Minako-chan," the sigh is a miserable thing, and she hugs Minako tightly, squeezing her hard, close.

"I'm sorry I didn't - I didn't know you were so lonely, and I didn't know you were so worried, and I'm worried, okay? I - believe you. There's been so much going on, I kind of need to, you know? With the Black Moon Clan and Mistress 9 and Chibiusa-chan and Zoisite, I really need you on this. So... let me in, okay? Let me - help."

Minako Aino has posed:
Lonely. She had admitted to that, hadn't she? The hug squeezes a bit tighter at that word as it does hit home. Something she hadn't really wanted to admit to herself.

"There's so many more important things going on, and I'm supposed to be protecting YOU. I didn't want to put more on you and..." Mina draws in a shaky breath. Yeah. Head in the game.

"Yeah. I'm sorry. Yeah." A pause, and she adds in an attempt to lighten the mood just a bit, "Zoisite and I did kind of make peace. He got me a new bow."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"Not more important if it ends up with you doing things like this," Usagi says quietly, and she just keeps on hugging Minako, not letting her go just yet.

"You're important. You're not just my guardian, you're my friend, and I care, and - I thought you were having fun, staying in Paris so long, investigating and seeing the sights and having all those treats you posted online! I know... I know some people you know, they still... had fun in Paris, even with it being all that."

Deep breath.

"Zoisite's a fucking brat. I'm glad he's not one of my monkeys."

Minako Aino has posed:
"It wasn't all bad. The treats were good and it was really pretty at night with the lights," Minako explains though she just shrugs a little. "My French is pretty bad though. I could do the basics, and work out the rest, but I didn't have anyone to talk with. Plus Artemis was pushing me to finish quickly."

"Cat noses don't like catacombs I guess."

"But then I came back, and I missed your *proposal* and I just realized I missed so much stuff because I wanted to make sure that the Dark Kingdom wouldn't be a threat to any of us anymore and Artemis thought it was smart of me so I guess I maybe was trying too hard." And maybe dealing with some things of her own as well. Either way, she'd taken a step back from their friendship, and hadn't realized how much it affected her until now.

Then she says Zoisite is a brat which earns a little snort from her. "Kazuo-kun made me promise not to flirt with him in front of Zoisite. But like, they're *always* together." Sigh. "Such a brat," she agrees with a solemn nod.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Quickly hadn't exactly happened - Minako had been gone half a year, and Usagi hadn't known what to do or say about that. The fact that Minako wasn't even happy about it - well, that just makes the whole thing feel all the sadder.

"I almost missed my own proposal, Mamochan surprised me on stream," and she's fond of course, fond and in love, and she loves him, and she's sorry Minako-chan missed it but - "Honestly, the only people who saw it in the moment were the ones watching my stream. Good thing you could see the video though, huh?"

It's a gentle effort to include her, to make her feel less lonely.

"I don't think you... tried too hard. But I think you being gone so long... it wasn't good for you."

Slowly, she separates from Minako, until they're standing next to each other instead of hugging, and at her mention of that promise, she furrows her brows. "Flirt for fun, or flirt for you know, flirt?"

Minako Aino has posed:
Minako Aino does actually smile at the mention of the video. That earns a nod, and a laugh as she reaches up to flick fingers lightly through Usagi's bangs to fix them from the earlier ruffling she had given herself. "Yeah, I watched it a few times. It was really sweet!" That had cheered her up getting to see it.

The question about the flirting causes her to glance to the side slightly. "... Maybe both. Kazuo-san and I spoke. He said he wants to get to know me more. I warned him I can be flirty. He just asked I not do it in front of Zoisite in case it upsets him. But," she adds with a long shrug. "He also said he might flirt back and would make sure I knew if he was being serious."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Usagi leans into the gentle touch, letting Minako fix her bangs. She's touchy, always has been, and having her friend close enough to reach out and touch without their being an underlying problem is a good thing.

"It was sweet. It was like, the sweetest thing anyone's ever done for me. Even if I did get headshot by some kid who's never let me live it down."

Totally worth it, really. But oh, she'd definitely gone and got that kid later!

But calming again, she focuses on Minako and nods, slowly.

"Getting to know each other is a good idea. I mean - you know, it's always going to be important, you two have to like, work together, he's definitely going to be Mamochan's best man - but also, you know... with what Chibiusa-chan's told us, it's... super important. To know each other. Whether there's flirting back or not."

Minako Aino has posed:
Minako Aino nods solemnly at that particular suggestion. "I know. It's not just us anymore, it's also his side and... And we'd be better as a team working together." A pause, and she adds, "Plus they have a lot to make up for. We ought to make them work for it!"

She tries smiling again, more relaxed and genuine this time, as she watches Usagi. She seemed calmer too now. That helped. "So are we... okay, then?"

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"It's all of us. For now, and for the future and... maybe for the very, very long future." She's been trying not to think about that part too much. She wants to be a housewife, and she was a princess, and past and future seem determined to collide in a way the present would very much like to avoid. The addition is what startles her into a laugh. "Making them work for it, huh? Is that what you call it?"

Her eyes crinkle when she smiles, genuine and warm.

"We're okay."

Beat. And then Usagi pokes her in the middle of the chest.

"But if you ever scare me like that again, I'll.. I'll... make you study with Ami-chan for a whole month!"