Early Morning Revelations

It was a few minutes passed 10 pm. Ami was running toward the park. She had heard over her communicator that Makoto was in trouble. She ran as fast as she could to the Juuban Park. Looking around frantically, she saw a female, wearing a green sailor senshi fuku, barely jump out of the way and dodge an on-coming attack.

The thunder senshi quickly got back to her feet and began charging the youma head on. The tall girl tackled it to the ground and called forth her element to attempt and fry it. Before she had a chance to even call out a battle phrase, she was kicked off and thrown onto the sidewalk. Picking herself off of the ground, she dodged another attack.

Ami quickly transformed and began analyzing the youma. Typing furiously on her keyboard, she quickly found the youma's weak point then yelled to Sailor Jupiter.

"Jupiter! The center of it's back! You have to strike the center of it's back!" She yelled to her badly injured teammate. Before she could even blink, Sailor Mercury was hit with a power punch to her ribs that sent her through about four trees. Mercury opened her eyes to see everything moving around unsteadily and saw everything going dark.

The last thing Mercury remembered hearing before blacking out, was a frantic scream that could only have belonged to Makoto. Just as she closed her eyes, she heard the girl scream, "AMI-CHAN!" Then she blacked out.

~A couple hours later~

Ami's eyes fluttered open seeing an unfamiliar room. She tried to sit up only to be forced down because of her ribs. She felt along her torso and made an estimate that she had about six broken ribs and maybe three fractured. She winced then looked around the room only to see a picture frame sitting on the nightstand beside the bed that she laid in. It was a picture of a married couple and what looked to be a five year old girl sitting together on a couch. Looking closer, she instantly noticed the familiar brown hair in a small, high ponytail and striking emerald green eyes. "Makoto..." She imagined this was the last picture that she had taken with her parents. She gently picked up the picture frame then took a close look at the girl's parents. She found that Makoto truly favored her mother the most, but seemed to inherit her father's facial features. Makoto's mother was a tall, elegant-looking woman. She had long, brown hair tied in a low ponytail that hung over her shoulder and beautiful cerulean, blue eyes. From the looks of it, Makoto's mother was just as tall as her husband. Makoto's father was a strong built man. He had jet black hair and strong, emerald, green eyes. Finally, her eyes fell to the small child sitting in between the two adults. Ami nearly cried, remembering when Makoto had told them that her parents had died when she was very young.

Before Ami could think over it any further, Makoto walked in with some tea and food. Seeing what Ami held, Makoto set the platter on the nightstand and sat beside her bed. "It was a long time ago, but sometimes I feel like they are still here watching over me as I live my every day life. It was hard losing them, and it still is now, but I have learned to deal with it. I have a family now. You, Rei, Minako, Usagi, Mamoru, the outers, and even your mother and everyone else's family. You guys gave me a family again, and I couldn't ask for anything more."

Ami sat up, with Makoto's help, and leaned against the headboard. Ami looked down at her hands then was surprised when she saw bandages up her arms and on her torso from what she could see. "Mako-chan...did you...did you bandage these? All by yourself?"

Makoto looked at the surprised blunette then nodded, "Yeah...I had a bit of trouble tying off the ends, but otherwise it wasn't all that hard."

The blunette looked back at Makoto and noticed that her whole body was shaking. Ignoring the sharp pain in her abdomen, Ami leaned forward and placed her hand on the tall girl's shoulder, "Mako-chan...are you alright?"

Makoto winced, "Yeah...I got scratched up pretty good on my back, but I wasn't able to do anything by myself. I'm fine...really I am."

Ami then saw part of a very large bruise on the girl's back when she had bent down slowly to grab something off of the floor. Without warning, Ami pulled Makoto's shirt up. Her eyes widened and she placed a hand over her mouth and tears started to form seeing the shape of Makoto's back.

Makoto had a very dark, purple bruise on her back, reaching from the base of her neck almost to her waistline, three gashes right across the bruise that still bled down her back slightly, and third degree burns all on her sides and over her shoulders. The burns had started blistering, causing an immense amount of pain. That is when Ami realized that when her hand had touched Makoto's shoulder just minutes ago, the pain was so excruciating that it caused Makoto to wince. The ever strong and tough Makoto was usually expressionless when it came to showing her own pain because she didn't want anyone to know. But for her to wince out of just touching her shoulder, Ami realized that she was in very serious and excruciating pain. She then stood up, not caring about her ribs and carefully started unbuttoning her shirt, almost fearing what she would see on the girl's chest and stomach. When she took off Makoto's shirt, she breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that the only injury on her stomach was just a minor bruise. She looked up at Makoto to see the tall girl looking back at her. She saw the pain in her normally bright green eyes and just wished that she could fix it. She limped over to her bathroom then filled a small bowl with cold water. She then walked back inside and sat at Makoto's desk. She also pulled out the stool she always kept by her desk then placed it in front of her.

Makoto looked at Ami, "A-Ami...really...I'm fine...it doesn't hurt that bad."

"Liar."

The brunette gasped slightly then bowed her head, "I...I just don't want you to see me like this. It...it makes me feel weak...I am weak. I should have protected you."

Ami scooted her chair over to the tall girl then placed her hands on her face, "Makoto...from the looks of it you did protect me. You saved me before the youma could hurt me seriously. I should have seen it coming and moved out of the way."

"No! You could've been killed! I wasn't fast enough and he hurt you...you were so reckless...I was so...so worried about you. I-I was afraid that something b-bad happened to you..." Makoto trailed off at the end. She looked down and closed her eyes, ready to cry, until she felt a hand on her cheek. She looked up and saw Ami looking at her with a gentle smile on her face. She looked at her confused and tilted her head slightly.

Seeing her confusion, Ami's smile grew, "Now you see why you scare me all the time. You are always wanting to protect us so bad that you don't protect yourself. I worry about you so much during battle because I don't want you to get hurt. Everytime I see you hurt, I get so scared that it may be serious that all other thoughts disappear from my head."

Makoto then began to understand all the times where Ami would bandage her, stitch up her wounds, and give her stern talks of being more careful. She then realized, what Ami had always been telling her after a battle, she was saying right back to the blunette. She then realized how odd it was that the tables had turned on them. Just as she was about to comment, she gasped in pain at the blister that just busted open.

Ami took Makoto by the hands then carefully led her to the stool and turned the girl's back to her. Placing her hands in the cold water, Ami closed her eyes and began concentrating. Slowly the water began to circle around her hands and weave through her fingertips. Lifting her hands out of the water, she began moving her hands around and shaped the water into a ball shape. She looked at the tall girl, "This may sting a bit. I will do my best not to hurt you, I have just never tried this technique on anyone other than myself." Seeing Makoto nod, Ami directed the ball of water toward the girl's scarred back and began gliding her hands around the area of Makoto's back, sides and shoulders. Her movements caused the water to move across the girl's back gently and soothe any pain that she would be in. Ami looked at Makoto and saw the girl breathe a sigh of relief and relax considerably. Seeing this spurred Ami on. She guided her hands to the girl's mid-back then focused on healing her. Her hands began to glow a soft blue as the water began healing.

Makoto felt the pain fading away rapidly as her back was being healed. She closed her eyes and relaxed at the feeling of the cool water as it made its way across her skin, tracing over the scars and slipping inside the scars healing them. She let out a soft moan without realizing it and leaned her head forward so the water would flow more easily around her neck and shoulders.

Ami finished up then slowly drew the water back and slipped it back into the bowl. She noticed the blood that had flowed into the water from the wounds then looked back to Makoto and her eyes widened seeing the girl's back completely healed. She then smiled and glowly ran her cool hands down the tall girl's back, mesmorized by the muscles hidden under the soft layer of tanned skin. Slowly, she stood up, also noticing that her ribs were not in pain and she felt no evidence of them having been broken when she felt along her own sides. She walked in front of Makoto then knealed down and looked up at the girl's strong face.

Makoto had felt Ami stop then run her hands over her back. When she felt the hands move off and away from her back, she opened her eyes slowly, seeing Ami knealing right in front of her. Looking at her.

At that moment, everything stood still as the two girls gazed into each others eyes. Bright cobalt blue met stunning emerald green. The two just sat there in wonder at how the one across from them just seemed so...perfect.

Neither one knew who was moving, but the two had automatically started to lean closer to the other. Eyes closed and lips pursed about an inch away from the other. Moving closer, lips brush about to make contact then...

DIIIIIIIINNNNNGGGGG DOOOOOOOONNNNNGGGGG!

The two jumped apart, faces blushing bright red. Ami then looked out her window to see the other girls standing outside. She then walked calmly to the door and opened it. However, when she did, she immediately had the three girls all grinning mischievously at her. Her face turned redder and she let them in. Minako walked in then turned and faced the blushing girl, "Ami-chan you look like you were just caught doing something bad. Were you sneaking glances at Mako-chan while she was getting undressed?" The girl was only teasing but the more she teased the redder the blunette's face became.

Makoto decided then to walk out, shirtless, wearing nothing but her bra and form-fitting jeans. All the attention that was at Ami, was then directed at Makoto as they all admired her tanned and toned abdomen. Not one to get all flustered over staring, Makoto walked over to the other girls and grinned widely, "What are you guys doing here? I thought we weren't going to have a meeting until tomorrow afternoon."

Rei spoke up, "Well, since we hadn't made it to the scene in time to see what happened, we figured we would come see you two and make sure you were both okay." Rei turned to Ami, "What happened anyway?"

Also curious as to what happened, Ami pulled out her small hand-held computer and began typing until she came across the feed from just hours ago. They all knew about the camera that came out of the girl's computer and taped the battles and they usually never want to see the recordings. Glancing at Makoto, Ami noticed that the girl was tense and that her hands were clenched into fists. Sitting her computer down on the coffee table, she enabled the projector. The projector took a few seconds to turn on then started playing.

January 19th

Ami ran in to see where Jupiter was. She frantically looked around looking for the taller girl. When she spotted her, she quickly transformed and enabled her visor. She started typing away to find a weakness. "Jupiter! The center of it's back! You have to strike the center of it's back!" Mercury was then thrown through four trees and landed on the ground, unconscious.

"AMI-CHAN!" (The camera moves focus on to Sailor Jupiter). The tall girl ran toward Mercury only to be thrown back through a brick building. A few moments later, Jupiter came out of the building. Her arm was wrapped across her lower abdomen and she was leaning against the wall. She then ran toward the beast, ball of lightning formed in her hand, and blasted it back a few feet while she fought to reach Mercury. The youma unsheathed it's claws and started swinging it's arm toward Mercury to finish her off. Jupiter dove on top of the girl and took the brunt of the blow and screaming when the claws tore across the skin of her back. Jupiter continued to use her body as a shield and began focusing all of her energy into one single blast. The youma took a breath in then blew fire out of it's mouth, toward the two girls.

Jupiter's eyes had widened and she had pulled the girl into a sitting position, holding her tightly, still shielding her from harm as she screamed from the pain. When the fire had subsided, Jupiter aimed her hand toward the youma and glared at it, "JUPITER SUPREME THUNDER...CRASH!"

The monster was hit point-blank with the powerful blow. It let out a shriek as the lightning hit it's chest. (A bright light blinded the camera momentarily). The light dimmed and showed Jupiter knealing on the ground trying to catch her breath. She had then picked up Mercury, not seeming to care about her own injuries and ran to her apartment.

End of recording...

The girls all looked shocked. None of them said a word. Ami looked toward Makoto to see the tall girl looking at her hands, picking at her fingernales wordlessly. Ami then turned to the girls, "Um...h-how about we continue this at the meeting tomorrow and give ourselves time to digest all this information. Give us both some time to heal and recooperate and we can all talk about it then." The girls had all agreed then walked out. Ami closed the door then turned toward Makoto only to see she wasn't standing in the living room anymore. The blunette walked a few steps and looked into the girl's bedroom to see her sitting on her bed staring at the palms of her hands with an expressionless look on her face. Taking a deep calming breath, she walked into Makoto's room then closed the door, turning the lock, not giving her a way to escape this confrontation. She walked toward her then knealed down in front of her. She could see that Makoto wasn't looking at her and had no intention of doing so. Ami looked down at Makoto's hands then back up to the girl. She then took the brunette's hands into her own, tracing the back of her hands with her thumbs.

That made something snap in the tall girl as her breathing started getting irregular. Taking a close look at her face, Ami could see that Makoto had tears forming in her eyes. She then raised Makoto's hands and kissed both on the top. She then looked at Makoto, noticing that the tall girl was now looking at her, hurt and confused. Ami just looked back at her and started smiling, her lips quivering in the process, "Makoto...thank you."

Makoto then fell to her knees in front of Ami, wrapped her arms around the girl's shoulders and cried for all she was worth. She hadn't known what to expect after the blunette had watched the clip, but she sure didn't expect her to say thank you. She broke down in front of her, holding her tightly, afraid to let go.

Ami wrapped her arms around the tall brunette and let her cry as much as she needed to. Ami then started crying herself and held on to Makoto even tighter. The blunette gently rocked them back and forth, doing her best to comfort her friend

After about 20 minutes, Makoto finally calmed down. Her cries were reduced to just the occasional whimper and then a hiccup. She hadn't remembered the last time that she had cried that hard. She finally whiped the last remaining tears from her eyes and took a deep breath to calm herself down. She coughed then started to breathe more evenly. She looked at Ami and saw that she also had tears in her eyes. Makoto then gently cupped the girl's cheeks and brushed her tears away with her thumbs.

Ami looked up at Makoto smiled. She then wrapped her arms around the tall girl's neck and hugged her tightly. Smiling, she knew now, without a doubt in her mind, that Makoto would always be there for her. She then leaned back slightly and looked at Makoto. When the tall girl looked back at her and smiled, she knew that now was as good a time as any. She had kept her feelings for the girl locked inside and was tired of hiding how she felt. Moving her hands from Makoto's shoulders to cup her face, Ami leaned in close, their lips mere centimeters apart. She had stopped, still having second thoughts about it. However, all those thoughts escaped her mind when she felt Makoto take the initiative and locked lips with her. Ami's eyes fluttered closed as she leaned into the kiss. Her hands wandered from the girl's face up to her ponytail, releasing it and burying her hands in the silky, auburn locks.

Makoto leaned back, breaking their kiss to look Ami in the eye. When she saw the love and affection in her eyes, Makoto then picked her up and laid her on the bed, climbing on top of her. She leaned down and kissed her once more, showing just how much the blunette meant to her.

~The Next Morning~

Ami woke up to the sun rays shining in through the curtains onto her face. She slowly opened her eyes and stretched in the empty bed. She looked around for a second then remembered the events from last night. She smiled and held the sheet to her bare chest. Looking around, Ami realized that Makoto was nowhere in sight. Just when she was about to get scared, she heard the gentle humming coming from further into the house. Calming down, Ami smiled realizing that the humming could only belong to Makoto. Pulling on her robe that she frequently left, she tied it around her waist and made her way through the apartment toward the kitchen. She leaned against the doorway, watching as the tall girl hummed while she cooked breakfast.

Makoto practically twirled around when she walked over to the fridge, being happy as she was. She took the eggs out and carried them over to the stove where she had a pan ready. The tall girl began feeling like she was being watched. She nearly jumped out of her skin when she felt arms wrap themselves around her waist from behind, pulling her close. Makoto then relaxed and smiled, "Hey there sleepy head. Did you finally decide to join the land of the living?"

Ami giggled, "I didn't want to because I was in heaven. Then when I woke up, I realized that the angel who was with me was gone. But, just as I was about to worry, I heard your heavenly voice flowing through the apartment and it filled me with joy once more."

Makoto looked over her shoulder, looking very unimpressed by the exaggeration, "In other words, you were asleep and when you woke up, I wasn't in bed. You almost freaked out until you heard me humming and then you were fine. You hang around with Minako and Usagi way too much."

Leaning against the counter in front of the girl, Ami tilted her head and looked up at her, "Why do you say that?"

Smirking, the tall brunette cocked an eyebrow at her, "Because you are exaggerating your point a little too much."

Ami smiled, "I was not exaggerating."

"Yes you were."

"What would make you think I was exaggerating?" the blunette asked.

"Well, first of all, I am not an angel. I'm not anywhere near innocent as many might think. And second, I can't sing worth a crap and I know that my humming was off key when it came out. So what, my dear, would not be an exaggeration?"

Ami giggled then wrapped her arms around Makoto's neck and pulled her down to her eye level, "You are my angel and I think your singing is lovely, even if it is off key." She smiled when she saw the blush spread across the brunette's cheeks. She then stood on her tiptoes slightly then kissed the girl fully. Her heart soared when she felt her kiss back. The two stood there kissing for a good couple of minutes before they pulled back and looked each other in the eye. Ami smiled, "I love you, Makoto. I've been in love with you from the moment I saw you. All these years, I got to see you blossom into the beautiful rose you are. And I could never have imagined that I would be lucky enough to have found love with you."

Makoto then smiled back, "Well then, it looks like you're stuck with me, because I love you too Ami. Your shyness was too cute and I wanted to tell you for so long, I just didn't know how. Thank you, Ami." The two hugged for quite a while, before Makoto interrupted the silence, "And as you very well know, every rose has it's thorns. And I seem to always be a recurring thorn in your side."

Ami rolled her eyes playfully, "You have no idea. Do you know how hard it is to put up with you? I can't tell you how difficult you can be."

Makoto cocked her eyebrow at the girl again, not very impressed, "Yep...you definitely hang out with Minako and Usagi too much." The two burst out laughing before cooking breakfast...well more like Makoto cooking and Ami standing back and watching. Same thing.

The two eventually told everyone they knew about their relationship and found that everyone was surprisingly supportive. The two went on with their lives and overcame all obstacles together.

Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor Moon. The only thing I own in this fic is the story and situations. Also, I toyed with the idea of having Ami water bending. I added it in here, but my twist to it was that she wasn't just born with the ability, she actually only figured out how to use it for healing purposes and she does not use it for any other reason than to heal. I don't own the unique thought of bending the elements either. Just mixing a few things together. I believe that's it. Hope you enjoy the story!