A/N: Written for the Sailor Moon Flash Bingo Challenge, #126 – a place to belong.
Hotaru's Searching for a Friend
Hotaru just wanted a friend: someone she could be happy with, comfortable, without them turning away from her in angry tears the next time she saw them.
It wasn't her fault; she didn't understand why these things seemed to happen around her, but they did, and because of all that she was alone. She didn't even know what they were: just that things happened, and because of that her friends weren't her friends any longer, her classmates would stay away from her like she was a freak of nature, a bomb that was going to go off at any time and engulf them all.
She didn't want to be that sort of person, whether it was true or not. She didn't remember being that sort of person, and all she wanted was to have a friend: someone she could keep beside her for more than the fleeting moments before something happened and they ran. She just wanted a friendship that would last forever: that would be soothing like the clinging taste of honey instead of the quick sour burst of lemon. She just wanted to not be alone.