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It was a normal day, like any another.

To Eve Summers, this was what she dubbed as her 'relaxing day', or 'relaxing hour', if you will. This was the time when she ignored every bit of stress around her and went strolling about by herself, finding a nice comfortable spot for her to forget all her problems. Not...like she had many, really.

A happy sigh escaped her lips as she entered one of her frequent haunts; a lovely cafe with an equally lovely atmosphere, and ordered a hot chocolate, settling down in a seat at the corner, near the window. Eve was terribly fond of watching people pass by (though sometimes she would grimace at their choice of clothing) and wondering what they were up to at this time of the day. Were they making their way back home after a day at work? Or were they simply window shopping, or strolling about, breathing in the fresh air? Were they students like her too, taking a break from hectic school life?

Come to think about it...

Where was her roommate? She would have gladly dragged Rea out if she had been around, but the latter had seemed to...well...disappear. She hoped nothing untoward had happened; so many attacks on citizens had been made these days that almost everyday, the newspaper headlines featured the infamous Sailor Nea.

It could have been problematic. Fortunately for Rea, Sailor Nerissa had been there all morning.

Charys Murphy was stiffly flopped in an armchair and had been drinking coffees for a couple of hours, which made her have the wicked urge to pee, but she was still hurting so intensely after her own battle with a Negaverse lieutenant that the very act of pee-dom was a trial and a damned half. She was decorated with cuts and scrapes like a scrapbook of wounds, pale and with an egghead on her temple. She had been watching Rea for a while, the only girl who'd come into the Shufflepuck Cafe (which tended towards dead at this time of day) at all: and then, limbs in a little bit of agony, she took her huge caramel macchiato and slid over into the other side of the booth that Rea occupied.

Bandages, hey, good idea. She should have asked Sidra to --

-- it was stupid, thinking like that.

"Hey," she said, not batting an eyelid. "We haven't met before, unless we have."

And she winked. (This just revealed that her eyelids were grazed.)

This was getting a little ridiculous. She didn't even know what she was looking for -- although she had met several senshi by now, she had never actually seen one in civilian clothes, which, after a while, had started to bug her a little. You would think that all the people who saw them as scouts would be able to point them out, especially that rogue sailor. And yet... they couldn't. The only explanation was that there had to be something less-than-normal about their transformation, then, and if that were the case, how did she know she'd be able to pick Sailor Nerissa out of even a small crowd of people? The crystal girl let out a small, frustrated sigh, starting to turn her attention back to her drink. It was during that motion that, in the corner of her eye, Rea noticed a bit of bright blonde hair sticking out from the monotony of the cafe. Was that...?

Rea didn't get the chance to finish her own question, a blue-haired girl approaching in what looked like a stiff, tired manner. And for good reason. She, too, looked a little worse for wear -- even worse than Rea herself. She even thought she heard a groan as her new conversationalist slid into the booth, a large cup of something in her hand. "If we haven't, it's a shame," She replied, slightly more at ease than she had been as a senshi. Still, she said this with a little hesitation, her eyes searching the other girl's expression, unsure. She could swear she recognized this girl. And she was suppose to meet a certain flirt here anyway...

"...Nerissa?"

It was too much of a coincidence, although part of her almost hoped it wasn't her. The cuts and bruises looked painful, and she was covered in them, as if she had fallen repeatedly down a flight of stairs. But if it was Sailor Nerissa, Rea was sure that the cause was much more dangerous. Still, despite the battle wounds, the brown-eyed girl was just as pretty as she remembered. And just as much of a flirt, too, from the way she winked.

They knew each other. That was the only conclusion Eve could come to for now and she sat there, watching them, fingers curled around the warm cup, trying to place the other girl in her mind. Was she a schoolmate? No, she would have noticed that unnatural shade of blue hair (which in her opinion, was really really pretty) around on campus. Or perhaps she had neglected that bit of information.

Then, something kicked into her head. Rea was on a date. Reanna Marshall was on a date with this girl. Eve wasn't one of those people who were a stickler about the whole 'males are the soul mates of females' and besides, this awakened her desire for matchmaking. Which was really terribly fun, but it was something she didn't have much opportunity to do. Until now!

With this, Eve Summers, Rea's roommate, immediately started to worry. Rea wasn't really one of the best conversationalists, and she highly doubted that she had been the one who had initiated this date. What if she blew this? Eve had no intention of seeing Rea upset over a date gone bad, and she made her decision. Standing up, cup in hand, she made her way outside to the two. "Rea!" She piped up cheerfully, plopping herself into a free seat. Blue eyes met Rea's own green ones, and then darted over to the blue-haired girl and back to Rea, an unspoken question lying in her curious expression.

Charys reached out across the table with one grazed hand to cheerfully shake Eve's; she had apparently not been perturbed in the least with the appearance of the girl, though she crinkled her eyebrows in Rea's direction a little as though in amusement. Then she just leant back and took another swig of her industrial-sized macchiato, taking in Eve as well -- the gaze was appreciative, but pretty fleeing, and it swung back to Rea as though to say well, hey, nice, but not my target!

Which was embarrassing, but Charys all over, apparently. A smile had tugged the corners of her mouth when Rea had pushed aside her hair, as though she and Rea shared a secret (which really, they did) but the arrival of Eve had left off all, you know, wound fondling.

"Roomie!" she said, as though delighted at the concept, as though it put a puzzle piece into place. Which it probably did: roomie screamed "I board at Crystal Academy." "Hi, what's up, how's it hanging." Charys daped Eve's knuckles. "I was just telling Rea here she was looking hot as a room with broken A/C, don't you think? Not to be a douchebag."

Rea said nothing in response to her roommate's statement, quirking her eyebrow at the look, as if she had read the real meaning behind her words. She wasn't the least bit mad at the sudden appearance (it was impossible to be mad at someone so sweet) and besides, she knew Eve -- she wouldn't cause any trouble. Glancing first at Charys, then at Eve, Rea's jaw dropped a little, suddenly taking back her previous thought.

What the hell.

Just what the hell.

This wasn't fair, this tag-teaming they had going on. Rea was more than relieved that the blue-haired girl liked her roommate (although at this point, she wasn't sure Sailor Flirts-a-lot could not get along with anyone, especially not a pretty girl. Which Eve certainly was) yet the relief was short lived. Charys comment was bad enough -- Rea was now flushing a light shade of pink, immensely flattered although mildly embarrassed by the compliment -- but then Eve piped up, and suddenly she was feeling self conscious about her outfit, causing her to blush further, shooting her blue-eyed roomie a friendly, yet scolding, look.

"I'll keep that in mind," She replied to Eve with a slight smile, taking a sip of her own coffee to try to cover up her blush, getting herself under control and turning her attention back to Charys, trying not to grin, "You're certainly a flirt, that's for sure."

At that nickname 'unicorn', Eve's gaze turned curious and somewhat sharp, wondering how Rea could be connected to unicorns of all things, even though she knew that the latter possessed a horse. But horses and unicorns were different. One had a horn and was magical. Horses did not have horns and were not magical. Animals were not magical. They did not heal people, they did not talk, they did not exist.

Or so Eve thought.

"It's adorable!" She agreed. "You should do it more often. We'll be perfectly happy to help." Really, she thought Rea needed to loosen up sometimes. And it was lucky that the two present; Charys and Eve, were ideal for this mission of 'Getting Reanna Marshall to blush until she resembles a rose'.

"Holy s**t," said Charys meditatively. "Seriously. Do not ask me to set up blind dates. I think it is actually written in the bylaws: do not ask a Murphy to set anyone up on a blind date."

There was -- there was, ... Charlie. Setting anyone up with Charlie was kind of -- Charys liked Charlie. Charlemagne Boyle was great. He was a pal. He was just the type of guy to look at you accusingly and ask you if you were carrying any "Pogs" and whether you were playing with your "Tamagotchi". It was like any pop culture Charlie Boyle had absorbed had reached its peak back in the middle of the 1990s, so that he still thought Sniglets were a big deal. And he could never get a boyband name right. Last she heard he was referencing "Boyzone II Men."

No go.

Charys swigged down her coffee. "So, yeah," she was saying. "Eve, you look like you are a nice girl, seriously. That is why I will be a hero here and spare you the blind dateathon. Talk about the social equivalent of getting leprosy."

She was about to elaborate when there was a scream from the street. People's heads turned. The squeal of tires was heard.

Rea and Charys knew what it was before it needed to make itself seen, and when it did make itself seen, was a multi-mouthed love baby of an octopus and a Dustbuster who already had a screaming businessman wrapped in one of its multitude of tentacles.

"You can't even have a coffee any more, Jesus H. Christ," said Charys.

People were screaming now.