Chapter Twelve

It had almost been a month since Michiru had brought Hikaru over to Hotaru's house. Hikaru would call over at least once a day, but when asked if she wanted to come home she'd always say no afraid that her dad would hurt her. Kaimu was having a wee bit of a problem with wetting the bed, so far Michiru had only caught him. When she'd confront him about it, he'd make up some story saying his teddy bear did it.

Michiru came to the conclusion that he was wetting his bed out of fear. He had started right after Aito had come back. Michiru was downstairs cooking breakfast when she heard a huge thud from upstairs and then her son screaming, "No."

She ran upstairs, leaving the breakfast unattended and barged into Kaimu's bedroom. Aito held a belt in his hand and was breathing heavily, Kaimu was hiding under his bed whimpering.

"Come out now, Kaimu!"

"Aito, this isn't necessary." Michiru explained as calmly as she could. Aito turned around so quickly, that Michiru didn't know what had hit her. His whipped his belt across her face leaving a huge red mark. He pinned her back to the wall.

"Michiru, you asked me to come back home! I didn't want to come back. Considering you're an unfit mother I decided to come back, but that doesn't mean I'm going to make things easy for you and the children."

Michiru was losing oxygen, as Aito had his hands tightly around her neck. Aito finally released, leaving Michiru slightly dizzy. Aito snatched Kaimu out from underneath the bed, kicking and screaming and took the belt to him.

"You do not wet the bed!" He yelled and then let his son curl up into a ball.

Michiru's eyes widened in rage, "Don't hit my son like that again!"

"Or what?" Aito laughed evilly. "Did you really think I wouldn't catch on, Michi darling. I was eventually going to find out about Kaimu wetting the bed it was only a matter of time."

He walked past her and out the door, "Breakfast is burning and I'm on my way to pick up our daughter. You better call Hotaru and warn her to give me Hikaru."

Michiru bit the bottom of her lip, trying hard not to cry. "Come on, Kaimu." Michiru whispered. She knelt down beside her son and cradled him in her arms. She toted him downstairs and turned off all the burners in the house. She then checked over the welts on his arms. Kaimu couldn't speak, he looked up at his mother with a tear streaked face, scared to death.

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In the meantime, Hotaru was just fixing Hikaru and Ginny some breakfast. Matthew was feeding Kaemon his bottle, in the living room. Hotaru was pleased to see that Hikaru was finally getting back to her hyper little self, she had noticed for the past few months that she had started to withdraw and become more sensitive to what was going on around her.

The door bell rung and Hotaru quickly rushed to get it, considering Matthew had the baby. She was horror stricken when she found that it was Aito. He pushed his way inside Hotaru's house, shoving her out of the way.

"Where's my daughter?"

Hikaru heard her father's voice and quickly ran out of the kitchen, toward the backdoor. Ginny remained sitting at the table, playing with her cereal.

"You can't have her," Hotaru said.

Matthew set Kaemon down in his bassinet and then went to help his wife, "You better leave from my house right now. You are trespassing."

"You have my daughter." Aito said bitterly. "It wouldn't be hard to tell the police you kidnapped her."

"Michiru wouldn't let that happen," Hotaru said.

"Michiru isn't here, now is she? And she'll do what I say," Aito said. "Now give me my daughter. Hikaru!"

Hotaru went to grab him to keep him from going any further in to the house, but he turned around and punched Hotaru in the stomach. Matthew was quickly by Hotaru's side making sure she was okay, Aito, smirking, walked away.

"I wish I could transform, but our powers have been dormant for some time," Hotaru gripped getting up.

In the kitchen they heard their daughter scream. Matthew flew into the kitchen, but Aito had already left. Ginny was in a fit of tears. Matthew took his daughter and held her close to him.

"Shh… it's going to be okay, I promise." Matthew soothed the four-year-old. "Where'd he go?"

Ginny sniffled, "He went outside."

Matthew dropped Ginny off in Hotaru's arms and went out into their open backyard. Aito was scanning the perimeters for Hikaru. "She's not here."

"Where is she?" Aito asked outraged.

"Knowing her, she's probably miles away right now, Aito." Matthew replied.

Aito shook his head irritated, "Well, I'm not going to go looking for the little brat. If she wants to run away from home then she'll have to learn the consequences. I hope she finds something to eat."

Aito walked around the house, back to the driveway where his car was sitting. He looked down the streets, but didn't see any sign of Hikaru. Cursing bitterly, he got back in his car and drove toward home.

Matthew, relieved, wrapped his arms around his daughter and wife, secretly thanking God that they were alright. "I should probably go and find Hikaru before Aito calls the police."

Before Matthew could get out the door the phone rung. Hotaru quickly answered it. It was Minako.

"Hey, Hikaru says she was staying with you guys and begged me not to call her house," Minako explained.

"You didn't, did you?" Hotaru asked fear rising up in her.

"No, I didn't…" Minako replied slightly confused. "What's going on?"

"Do us a favor and keep Hikaru over at your house for a few days. I don't think Aito will come looking for her there." Hotaru commanded, not really giving Minako an explanation.

"Aito's back?"

"Yes."

Minako gulped, "Okay. I'll see what I can do." She hung up the phone, just as the doorbell sounded through the house. Taylor quickly ran over and answered the door. Causing Minako to nearly lose her wits.

She was greatly relieved to see that it was only Makoto and her two kids. Makoto saw the worried look etched out on Minako's face and asked what was going on. Hikaru ran over toward the door and looked out it to make sure no one else was coming. Relieved she shut the door and locked it.

"Aito was over at Hotaru's house looking for Hikaru and I guess she slipped out the backdoor and came over here." Minako quickly explained.

There was a knock on the door, Makoto quickly answered it just in case it was Aito. Only it was much worse, it was a police officers. He pushed the door open and stepped inside.

"I'm looking for a five-year-old girl, Hikaru Kaiou. I've been told you are a friend of the families." He explained. First look at both the woman standing before him told him they were hiding something. "Alright, just hand over the girl and I won't have to make over any arrests."

Minako shaking, took the little girl that was hiding behind her and the police officer took her, kicking and screaming into his arms. "Is this really necessary?" Minako asked.

"I'm afraid so." The officer said. "Unless you want to go to jail for kidnapping?"

Minako shook her head, looking at the ground sadly. The officer was gone in a matter of seconds.

"She'll hate me forever." Minako said.

"You didn't have a choice." Makoto pointed out.

"It doesn't matter if I had a choice or not. I didn't protect her and that's all she'll remember." Minako shot out.

"Mommy, I don't understand," Lilac spoke up.

Makoto bent down and picked up her daughter, "And you will never have to understand. Now why don't you go run upstairs and play."

"Taylor, take them up to your room."

"Why do you guys always send us out when you're about to talk about something good?" Taylor asked. "Can't I stay and listen?"

Makoto and Minako both shook their heads no. Taylor, pouting, took the two children up to her room. She badly wanted to listen to what they were going to say. She had sometimes heard them talking about things that had happened centuries ago. Something about a Queen. And some girl named Usagi. It all sounded interesting to Taylor. Her most favorite part was about the Yoma's that they'd sometimes laugh about and sometimes shudders would be sent down their backs.

Taylor had gathered this, a Yoma was a bad person, that they sometimes had to fight. She slightly thought they were bluffing about the powers part. No one had powers, that was just silly daydreaming. Wishing you could protect other people and be something greater.

Minako sighed heavily, "I think we made a mistake by trying to live normal lives."

Makoto raised an eyebrow, "What do you mean?"

"We should've went and lived with the Queen. We shouldn't have tried it this way." Minako pouted. "Usagi was my best friend anyway, why did I choose to stay outside the Palace walls?"

"Love." Makoto reminded her. "And you and Hiro wanted to raise your children outside the Palace walls. You wanted them to grow up normally."

"Having a pop-star is no where near normal," Minako said, breaking off into a chuckle.

"True." Makoto nodded, seeing where she was coming from. "But she gets to try something different. And the opportunity is still there. Neo-Queen Serenity would open you back with open arms."

Minako's eyes saddened, "I know she would and as sad as this sounds she'll barely know us. She wasn't invited to any of our weddings. She doesn't know who we married. She doesn't know how much our lives have changed. She doesn't know anything about our children and… if we could all go back, all of us… it would only break her heart to hear some of the things some families have gone through."

Makoto felt chill bumps rise all over her body, "Yeah, she doesn't know about the death of Haruka's husband and the pitiful choices she had made. And Michi and her children are probably going through Hell right now."

"I think it was a mistake for us to try and have normal lives. There's nothing normal about any of it. Only you and Hotaru are living the most normal lives. Of course, with Hotaru being Haruka and Michiru's daughter she's thrown into the middle of their problems."

"And Setsuna. Setsuna helped raise her too." Makoto reminded her. "Nobody knows where she is."

"One could only guess she went back to her post. Unfortunately, it never remains in the same place. So it'd be hard to find her."

"And if she didn't go back to her post…" Makoto asked.

"Well, then I don't know." Minako grumbled. "Kaemon's appearance is still a mystery."

Makoto nodded in agreement, "I guess we'll never really know everything. Our powers are dormant and there is no Yoma's or any evil forces coming."

"I have noticed this strange cat following me though. And it's not Artemis."

Makoto's eyes widened, "I wasn't going to say anything, but I've noticed a cat following me as well. I try my hardest to ignore it. Luckily, none of the kids have seen it."

"Maybe it's just coincidence. I don't want Taylor and my unborn child facing any enemies." Minako sighed. "I don't want them to go through the same thing as we did."

Makoto agreed. Taylor, Lilac, and Isamu were each listening intently.

Authors Note: I ended it a bit different here. Yes, I've brought Aito back into the picture. You'll just have to wait and see how it unfolds. Also, I'm looking for someone who can draw. I can't draw, nor do I have any programs to practice drawing on. So if anyone is interested in drawing my Chibi Scouts please PM me.