Usagi lead Hotaru into a small room, "Please, close the door and have a seat…", she said calmly as Hotaru followed her instruction.
"Neo-Queen Serenity", the queen interrupted.
"Please, just call me Usagi… we are friends Hotaru", the woman nodded.
"Usagi, Steven and I… we are in love… you have to understand. I know it is unusual for me in my position to be involved with him, but I care very deeply for him. He is not aware of my duties as a sailor senshi."
Usagi's eyes were saddened and she swallowed hard before turning away from Hotaru to speak, "I can't allow you to be married to that man. He is not like us Hotaru. Marriage to a mortal is… dangerous. He could easily be a target; it could put your life, as well as the life of the outer senshi in risk. With the Tenoh's being so vulnerable at the moment, I can not allow it… I'm sorry."
"He doesn't have to know about my duties! He will never know about the identities of the senshi…" Hotaru pleaded.
"… I'm sorry Hotaru. This conversation is over." Hotaru nodded, stood from her seat and left the room.
Haruka sat on the edge of Alexis' bed and looked at her daughter, "Did you have a good time with Chibi-Usa tonight?" The small girl nodded.
"Why was Hotaru so sad tonight?"
Haruka closed her eyes for a moment, "Your sister just found out that she can't live happily ever after with her prince."
"Why not, Papa?"
"He's not blessed by the stars….he can't see what we see."
"Oh…" the girl was obviously confused but didn't feel like asking what her papa meant, "that's sad. I'll make her a card tomorrow to make her feel better."
"I think she will love that", Haruka smiled at her daughter, "so are you ready for tomorrow?"
"Yeah, I made a surprise going away present for her" she grinned in excitement.
"Oh yeah, what is it?"
Alexis looked at her papa as though Haruka was the dumbest person in the world, "Papa, only Chibi-Usa can know what it is… if I told you what it is, it won't be a secret no more".
"You're right." She leaned over and gave her daughter a kiss on the forehead, "Now, go to bed, early morning tomorrow, Big day ahead" Alexis nodded and closed her eyes.
After Alexis was asleep, Haruka walked into the bedroom she shared with her wife. Michiru was sitting on the bed in a pair of sweat pants and a large t-shirt filing her nails. "Did Marina fall to sleep without a story tonight, I was shocked she didn't pass out in the car" she laughed.
"Yeah" she scoffed catching Haruka off guard.
"Love, is something wrong? Did I do something to upset you?" Haruka walked over to her wife and sat next to her on the bed.
"You know what you did.."
"Honestly, if I knew what I did to piss you off, I wouldn't be asking what I did…" Haruka replied, slightly annoyed.
"You were so inconsiderate of Hotaru's feelings when she told us. You knew that Usagi wasn't going to let her marry him, but you could have let her know that her parents supported her."
"Really… Really? What the hell did you want me to say Michi? Huh? Did you want me to tell her that it was okay that she wanted to put the Queen, the King, the senshi, our family in danger because she got butterflies?" Haruka rolled her eyes. Michiru stood up from the bed and got in Harukas face, her index finger pointed right at the racer in an acusing manner.
"You, DO NOT shout in my house and wake up my girls!" she said in an angry whisper.
"What? YOUR house? Your girls? What the hell has gotten into you Michiru"
"You just don't get it do you?"
Haruka threw her hands up in the air, "Well, obviously I don't. Frankly, I am not in the mood to figure it out right now.
"Then I think you should sleep in the guest room until you are in the mood to think about it." She threw a pillow at the racer, knocking the woman on her ass.
"Fine! Fine! Fine!" Haruka grabbed the pillow and stormed out of the room.
Breakfast was quiet. The two girls were silent as the tension between their parents was clear. "Here you two go, eggs, honeydew and yogurt" she placed the food in front her daughters and then sat down with her own plate.
Haruka looked at her placemat, no breakfast. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, "Thanks for remembering I didn't want any breakfast." She shot Michiru a sharp look covered with a fake smile.
Michiru returned the fake expression, "Anytime, babe." Haruka gave both of her daughters a kiss on the cheek. "I'm going to be in the garage for a bit, we have an hour before we need to be to the palace for Chibi-Usa's send off. Be to the car in 45 minutes, okay?" her girl's nodded and she sarcastically blew a kiss to her wife. "Don't be late, honey bunny".
The girls stayed quite as their papa stormed off.
"Okay girls, get dressed."
Alexis and Marina sat in the car; again, their parents were silent. "Thank goodness for Radio Disney…" Alexis giggled. "I'm so excited to give Chibi-Usa my present. I made is all by myself. Did you make her anything?"
"Yeah, I drew a picture of all of us for her." She smiled. "What do you think America is like?"
"Papa grew up in the States, so it can't be too bad."
"Do you think they have Sailor Senshi over there?" Marina pretended to fight some bad guys. "If so, do you think they know our sensh?"
"I don't know. We will have to ask Chibi-Usa when she comes home." They watched out the window as the palace got closer and closer until the car stoped and they were able to get out of the car. The girls jumped out and raced up the steps of the palace. The large door opened.
"It's about time you guys got here!" Chibi Usa smiled as she greeted her friends. "We are still waiting for some of the little kinks to be worked out, come on in!" The two girls nodded and followed the pink haired girl into the palace.
She walked into a room of the palace the two had never been before. The room was dark and ominous, empty with only a door like object with a purple glow to it. "Hello small lady, Alexis, Marina..." a voice from the darkness called.
"Who was that?" Alexis looked around, determind to figure out where the voice came from.
"It's Sailor Pluto..." Chibi-Usa pointed to a shadow of a figure standing next the the time gate. "She is going to be helping me get to... the States..." she smiled. "She is a dear dear friend of mine."
"So, you're not going to be taking a boat or a plane or anything?" Marina looked at the gate, wanting to get closer but too afraid to move.
"Nah, Sailor Pluto will take care of me... no way of travel is safer." The girls giggled as the door opened and several others began filling the room. "It's the other scounts... and your parents." The girls watched as Sailor Venus, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter and Saturn, Haruka and Michiru walked in to form a circle.
"Where is Uranus and Neptune?" Alexis looked around. Chibi-Usa looked down akwardly as she tried to think of an explanation.
"They are... meeting me in the States to make sure I get there okay."
"Chibiusa-chan" Sailor Mars stood next to the yound princes and got down on her knee to be eye level. "I brought this for you..." she wraped a necklace with a small , charm around the princess' neck, "This charm will protect you from evil on your long journey". Chibi-Usa looked at the charm and squeezed Sailor Mars tightly.
"Thank you Sailor Mars!" She looked again at the charm, "It is beautiful as well!" she hugged Mars as tightly as she could.
The other senshi followed Mar's lead, Jupiter gave her a bag of goodies to eat, Venus gave her a bottle of perfume, Mercury gave her a book she had loved to read during her childhood, and Saturn gave her a teddy bear she had made for the small princess.
Haruka stepped up, "Now, just don't go beating my high score..." the racer gave her a gameboy with a racing game based on the F1 Driver.
"ha ha, thanks Haruka" She squezed the racer and looked up at Michiru.
"Here you go Small Lady, it's an ipod shuffle with all of my favorite composers... You know... Bach... Chopin... Mozart... Justin Timberlake...Lady Gaga (SIDE: Damn, Lady Gaga is like ear crack. You know it it bad for you, but eff it feels good...)" the two laughed as Michiru bent down to hug her Princess, "We are going to miss having you over every day, we sure love your company"
"I'll miss you too! I'm going to miss all of you so much!"
"Girls, aren't you going to give your gifts?" Haruka looked at her two girls. "Marina, why don't you go first?" she little turquised hair girl nodded and ran over to her friend.
"OH! I absolutely Love it!" Chibi-Usa looked at the drawing, "Its you and me and Alexis, and my momma and papa, Haruka and Michiru..." she looked at Marina, "This is perfect. I will look at it everytime I get home sick!" She squeezed her friend.
"Please be careful on your trip." The princess nodded her head and Marina once again took her place in the circle next to her papa.
"Chibi-usa," Alexis slowly walked up to her friend. "I'm so sad that you are leaving me, but... I know that is important to your future." She smiled as she held out her gift to her friend, " I have faith that our friendship will become stronger and that you won't forget about me.. but just in case you do..." she giggled as her frined opened the small package and pulled out a bracelt with "Best" written in the beading, the small princes gleamed from ear to ear. Alexis held up her own wrist showing her bracelet with "Friends" written in the beading, "When you look down and see it, you will have to remember me as I have the other half." Alexis wiped a tear from her eye, the small princess did the same as they held each other tightly.
"Small Lady, it is time." Pluto walked towards the young girls. "Let's go", chibi-usa agreed and followed Pluto, waving to her friends.
"Okay Pumpkin, we have to be out of the room for this part"
"Why?"
"Because, it's something that only the Sailor Senshi can see, okay?"
"What does that gate do?"
"Dont' worry about it"
"...Yes papa..." the small blonde looked over her shoulder as her papa pushed her and her sister out of the room. Before the door closed, she saw a bright flash of purple-ish light, "WHAT WAS THAT! DID THAT COME FROM THE GATE?"
Haruka pushed her daughter a little harder, "It wasn't anything." Alexis oculd not stop looking at the the door, not believing a word her papa had just said.
After Chibi Usa was gone, all of the grown ups were standing around talking. Her papa over there talking to Sailor Pluto, her moma across the room talking to Sailor Saturn. Alexis sat on a bench with her sister, out of the grown-ups way. "Marina, do you ever think that our parents keep a lot of secrets from us?" Marina stared blankly at her sister and shook her head. "Think about it... why are our parents here? How are they such good friends with all the Sailor Senshi? Huh?" Marina shrugged, "Do you see any other normal people here, people who are not super heroes?" Marina looked around, and again shook her head. "Exactly. What makes us so special and Mama and Papa so special?" Alexis pointed to the door, "Sailor Pluto was standing next to that gate, right?" her little sister nodded, "Pluto is the senshi of time, right" her sister stared blankly.
"I don't think that they sent Chibi-usa to the States, I think they are trying to get rid of her by sending her through time...I'm going to check out that gate..." the small blonde looked around mischieviously, "I'm going to save Chibi-Usa... Will you help me?"
Marina paused for a minute, "um... Yeah!"