Prompt 14:
Someone spiked the eggnog.
“You’ve been avoiding me.”
Rei turned to face him finally, though there was no surprise on her face. She looked quite stern for a moment before her violet eyes were masked with apathy. Her voice was distant, but an almost-empty cup of eggnog was in her hand. This gave him hope. “I usually don’t make a habit of conversing with strangers.”
“Fair enough,” Jun responded quickly with a sigh. He shut the sliding door to the apartment, sealing the party in on itself and trapping them alone on the small, Tokyo balcony. Slowly, he stepped up beside her at the balustrade. “Though from what I’ve been hearing, we’re not quite strangers.”
“I don’t care what you’ve heard.”
Jun smiled bitterly, biting his lip hard to prevent the harsh words of his first instinct. “I thought it’d be hard, but you’re just making it damn near impossible.”
“Making what impossible?” Rei looked over fiercely, her tone sharp.
“Getting along with you.”
“And why exactly do we have to get along?”
“Come on, Rei. You know exactly why we have to get along.” He turned towards the glass door to find Usagi falling into Mamoru’s arms as the two spun in a tight circle. Both had glasses of eggnog clutched in their hands. “For them.”
Rei’s eyes followed his, but her tone did not dull any. “I think we get along just fine.”
“You really think that all of this unspoken tension between us is just fine?”
“You don’t?”
Jun turned to face her, his temper lost and patience forgotten. “What is your problem with me? Look, I don’t remember any of it, so tell me what I’ve done to you! What did I do to deserve the cold shoulder?”
Rei didn’t answer. She stood in front of him unmoved, her face without expression, for a long moment. A gentle breeze played through her hair. The moonlight lit up her porcelain skin. Tears suddenly glinted in her violet eyes, and Jun was robbed of his annoyance.
“Was it that bad?”
She nodded painfully.
“Please, tell me.”
Rei drew in a breath, and she seemed to rise up with power. Her shoulders pushed back, her chin rose, and her eyes looked upon him as if from a distance. Jun remembered, somehow, that this was how she fought back her tears. Her voice, when she spoke, smoldered. It was not raging like a fire, but he heard the emotion that was forcibly tempered behind every syllable.
“We had peace. My Princess had love. My kingdom was gone, but I protected a greater one with an unyielding hope for the future. I had a purpose. Then you came along, and you ruined everything. You took our peace, our love, our hope. You destroyed all of it because your souls were weak enough to be ensnared by a demon over two lifetimes. You’ve robbed me of so much because of your own weakness.”
“I’m sorry.”
“No, you’re not. You don’t get to be sorry for things you don’t remember, Jun. You don’t get to come back and start fresh because suddenly he wants you to."
Jun had to turn away from her, an overwhelming guilt falling hard on his shoulders.
“And you don’t get to break my heart and get away with it. Ever.” Rei floated past him to the door. Just before she opened it, she turned slightly over her shoulder. “And next time you spike the eggnog, make it stronger. I’d have to be much more intoxicated to ever make peace with you. But for my Princess’ sake, we had a very nice chat.”
