👫+ four headcanons / slooooowly accepting.
rei, ever observant, is the first one to notice usagi’s ‘change’. usagi spent a year inside of the galaxy cauldron before escaping and returning back to earth. the girl who returned is mostly just usagi in name only. she talks like usagi, she sounds like usagi, and looks like usagi but to rei? it’s not her usagi. she doesn’t call her rei-chan anymore or get in stupid with her or give her big hugs anymore. it’s as if a robot is just acting the part of her best friend as there’s none of the love and passion behind usagi’s words that was once there. she just feels….empty and it’s because she is. usagi is still in there but she isn’t the dominate persona ( no pun intended ) anymore. this increasingly gets worse as the years go by and she further isolates herself from everyone.
when usagi eventually leaves earth, rei refuses to give up on her. the other sailor senshi travel to different star systems and without anywhere else to look, they give up. if usagi doesn’t want to be found, we can’t force her out of hiding, they say but rei isn’t having that. she will find usagi even if she has to turn over every asteroid to do it and she eventually does find her - rei just didn’t expect to find her seven months pregnant. she has questions, so many questions ( like why is her hair suddenly stark white now. why does she keep referring to her baby as ‘special’, and why does the existence of this child fill her with so much dread? ) but none of that that matters since usagi is safe and she’s going to help take care of her and this baby. also dealing with not only a pregnant usagi but a pregnant usagi who may or may think her and her unborn child are gods might highkey be the worst! she wakes rei up at three am to say the most weird and cryptic thing before suddenly going ‘also we’re out of peanut butter and ice cream.’ before leaving.
she calls her rei-chan again. it’s right as her water is breaking and the slow realization that her son is finally coming hits her. a lot of fears, doubts, and her humanity ( a part of herself that she desperately keeps attempting to destroy ) suddenly come pouring in until it builds into this realization that she’s terrified of having a baby, she’s scared of being a mother, and is completely unprepared for this which results in a lot of crying: ‘ r-rei-chan, *sobbing* i don’t think i can do this!!! *more sobbing* ’ but it’s not all bad. rei’s there. she’s holding her hand as she encourages her, tells her when to push, and is the that places her son into her arms for the first time.
during the first few weeks following archisei’s birth, rei tries to convince usagi to return to earth for the sake of the baby. in rei’s eyes, he deserves to know that he has a family: grandparents that would care for him, an uncle who would spoil him, countless aunts that would fuss over him, and most of all, a father that would love him unconditionally. rei feels as if she’s getting through to her until she wakes up and finds that both he and usagi are gone with only a note left behind: don’t look for me again rei.