7 Years Waiting For You
Disclaimer: I am not the great Naoko Takeuchi, I merely admire her work from afar with my little stories. Neither am I any of the talented artists who brought the anime to life.
Summary: The senshi have been fighting together since they discovered their mutual Sailor Senshi abilities when they were only 15 years old. Mamoru has been in college in America since he was 18 and therefore completely missed the whole Sailor Senshi thing. This story begins when they are 22 and 26 respectively and guess who has finally come home to Tokyo.
Rating: Teen
An Epilogue of Sorts
"She's late!" ranted Minako pulling her husband from where he had been sitting most contentedly prior to having his chair dislodged out from under him. Of course this little scene was prompting whispers to spread throughout the company of guests assembled at the shrine. Therefore in order to prevent mass pandemonium Kunzite quickly followed his wife bearing a confident look that everything would be okay.
"What do you mean?" he hissed as soon as they were outside and away from prying eyes. Indeed, a very stupid sounding question for a man who prided himself as being one of the few logical people in their close circle of friends. But he knew that the questions that sounded stupidest to him were usually the ones that got the best answers out of his wife.
"I mean that she isn't here yet! Her wedding starts in five minutes and she isn't here yet!" scoffed Minako who was beginning to enter complete panic mode. "And I haven't seen her since the bachelorette party last night so I have no idea where to find her."
Kunzite just smiled at that comment. Rei had called him the night before and informed him to come and collect his wife before she ruined her career with a drunken rendition of "I Like Big Butts."
"Have you tried phoning her?" he asked calmly while his wife looked at him in distress.
"Of course I have!" retorted Minako, glaring at her husband. Sometimes he treated her as if she was still that airheaded young girl he first met. In many ways she was, but everyone had to agree that Minako had become a very capable woman over the last few years. A woman who greatly resembled the warrior leader she had been on the Moon Kingdom. However most people attributed her maturation to the adorable young man who she was calling the babysitter about every few minutes, and not her time as a senshi.
"On the communicator?" asked Kunzite.
"Oh," replied Mina, sheepishly looking through her purse for her communicator. After a few seconds of digging through the contents she found it and proceeded to page her friends.
"Neither Usagi or Makoto are picking up. Where could they be?" she whined after a few minutes.
"You want to tell us something Minako?" interrupted a man's voice and Minako whipped around to see Motoki and Mamoru standing behind her.
"What are you...?" she queried, surprised to see that the two men had come outside. They were supposed to be in the back room of the shrine doing some kind of weird soul cleansing ritual that Rei had talked each of her senshi into performing before their weddings.
"I have a communicator too," explained Mamoru showing Minako the small device that Luna had finally deemed him worthy to receive. It still was not as nice as the girls and it didn't have a video monitor but it had allowed him to hear Minako's desperate pleas. Minako merely smiled sheepishly at the two boys.
"I will go find them then," volunteered Mamoru before Minako could make any excuses for the girls. Besides, Mamoru was restless to get this wedding over with. As he started to make his way to look for the girls, Motoki pulled him aside.
"Maybe it's not meant to be," Motoki said simply.
"Motoki, what are you talking about, Makoto loves you," reassured Mamoru confidently. After the senior who dumped Makoto had become the boyfriend that cheated on her, Motoki had been the one who spent hours cheering her up. In fact he had been the first one who had been able to make her smile afterward. He had also been the one who escorted her to first Ami's and then Rei's weddings when she hadn't wanted to go alone. In short he had been her rock.
"I know, but I feel like we're rushing into this. Maybe we shouldn't go looking for them. Maybe I should just let her be," countered Motoki. He didn't want to think that Makoto was just marrying him so she did not have to be alone anymore. He expected the cool, calm and collected Mamoru to understand what he was saying. After all Mamoru certainly was taking his own time woo-ing Usagi. In fact he had been surprised when Mamoru had been so encouraging when he first revealed that he was thinking of asking Makoto to marry him.
"Motoki that's loser talk!" burst out Mamoru as he dragged his friend out the shrine to find the two girls. He was the best man and he was going to make sure this wedding happened. He needed it to happen.
"He would want you to happy," reassured Usagi, smiling sweetly at her friend as she brushed away the tears that were streaming down Makoto's face. It was one of the few times Usagi had ever seen Makoto look so vulnerable and she pulled her into a protective hug.
"I know that, and I am, I love Motoki so much. It's just, I woke up this morning and I thought of him."
"You're allowed to think of him. It doesn't take away from your love for Motoki," soothed Usagi.
"But I never even got to say goodbye to him, or hello, or that I remember you," Makoto said softly through her tears.
"Do you remember Ameatus?" asked Usagi suddenly hoping this would give Makoto the reassurance she needed.
"No, should I?" asked Makoto and Usagi was glad to see Makoto's tears were held at bay for the moment.
"Well, I barely remember him either but he was a friend of mine on the Moon Kingdom. His father was a general in the army and we would have lessons together. And I remember that you had the biggest crush on him in the whole wide world and that we used to fight over him," said Usagi with a little laugh. "He went out for training one day. This was before the days of the more serious feuds between the Earth and the Moon. There was just some freak accident that no one could foresee, and Ameatus never came home again." Usagi paused and looked at Makoto's face. She had definitely earned the other girls interest, and she paused dramatically before continuing sombrely. "We both said we'd never love anyone else again. And when I fell for Endymion you reminded me that you must have loved Ameatus more."
"What did you say about that?" asked Makoto.
"That you were dead wrong. That it was Ameatus who taught me what love was and what kind of guy I wanted in my life. That he was the one who showed me how great it could be. And I wasn't going to waste all that he taught me," Usagi paused and smiled at her friend. The two girls' eyes met and unspoken sentences were read, the kind which only pause between really old friends who understand each others' hearts.
"You're right," said Makoto as she wiped her eyes and looked down at her wedding dress. "And I think it's time for a wedding," she added, a smile brightening up her whole face and eclipsing the tears. It was time to let go of the past.
"I'm glad to hear that," came a voice and the two women turned around to see Mamoru. He had sent Motoki back to the shrine once he had spotted the girls sitting in the park. He didn't want to risk Motoki seeing them bawling their eyes out. It would be enough to ruin any man's confidence. Especially after he had convinced Mamoru that Usagi's tardiness was probably the primary reason the two girls were late. Both Mamoru and Usagi helped the resolved Makoto into the passenger seat of his car, careful not to get any dirt on her dress. After the door was closed they smiled at each other conspiratorially.
"Did Ameatus really exist?" whispered Mamoru.
Usagi blushed scarlet. "No," she admitted guiltily.
"That's okay; I told Motoki that only a nega-verse goon would dare back out on marrying a girl on her wedding day."
The couple shared a laugh and entwined their hands together before reluctantly releasing each other so they could get into the car. Usagi sat in the back seat by herself and slowly fingered the silver chain on her neck, causing the locket it held to move across her skin. Her smile grew as she thought about the ring she had placed inside it carefully a few years earlier. If she had known then that Makoto and Kal weren't heading straight to the alter she probably would have never told Mamoru that her friends happiness always came first and that she could not marry him until Makoto was wed. After all, once upon a time she had experienced the pain of losing what Makoto had lost. Except back then she had been selfish, letting her own happiness drive her decisions and the conclusions had been anything but a fairy tale. But this time she got it right.
And so everyone lived happily ever after.
Author's Note:
My heartfelt thanks to every single one of my reviewers as well as those who added this story to their favourites, communities and/or alert lists. Your comments and support both warm my heart and help improve my writing. And if you're a new reader who just discovered this fiction and have made it this far please leave a review to let me know what you thought.
Shameless self promotion: If you liked this fiction think about checking out my new story Destiny Calls. It shares some common themes with 7 Years while still having its own unique story line.
