A/N: Please read and review.

I do not own Sailor Moon. I am only a fan and nothing more.

Chapter 12: Past Paved for the Future.

It was Tuesday afternoon as lunch was being served. The house had finally been completed and they wouldn't need to return here if they didn't want too. Sitting around with their soda and sandwiches on the newly finished porch they all goofed around with some light jokes, idiot banter, and over all good will. It was comical how they all got along with each other. Makoto and Zoisite sat on the banister with their feet hanging off. Ami found herself just leaning next to her lover and Rei found herself on the ground as Minako sat on an upturned bucket. What were they doing? Enjoying the afternoon looking like a bunch of blue collar workers with not a penny for their names. With overalls covered in paint splatter, and boots that had started to become worn out they surely didn't look like the city folks that they were. With Ami wearing a backwards cap to keep her hair out of her face and the girls with longer hair wearing ponytails they looked far more casual than they ever would have otherwise.

In truth they all loved it. Minako had a natural beauty that could shine no matter what she was dressed in, but like this she was a real woman. Not that kind of girl who just looked pretty in dresses type of pretty. It was the self assured beauty of a woman who looked stunning, knew she was beautiful, and yet didn't have a need to flaunt it. Minako wasn't wearing makeup and with a band aid on her thumb from when she had thwacked it with a hammer you could tell she had been working hard. Her cheeks were a rosy color from her excursion and Rei couldn't help but be captured by such a sight. This wasn't the Aino Minako from school. This wasn't the girl who used to be notorious for finding a nightly date. This was the girl who was a real woman. Happy with herself, and for the moment content to be with her friends and those who she called family. This was the woman Rei saw now that she didn't see back in civilization where appearances mattered far more.

As the blond flipped another chunk of bread into her mouth she wasn't nearly as prim and proper. "Makoto!" She said in a rush. "Think fast!" with that she whipped a chunk of the bread her way. Makoto tried to catch it, but she failed and fell backwards into the bushes. "Crap! Are you ok?" She jumped down to make sure her friend was just shaken up and not hurt. Makoto's long legs were the only part of her you could see from the porch.

"Yeah I'm fine." She laughed as Ami jumped over the railing just to be sure. "Ami." Makoto grabbed the smaller woman's hands knowing where it was going to be headed. "I'm fine really." With that she scooped the smaller woman in her arms and went back up the steps placing her down on the porch so that the poor girl wasn't going to have to stand in thorns or ground cover. "See? If I was hurt I wouldn't have done that. I wouldn't have been able too."

"Yeah and besides she's fallen from worse heights than that." Zoisite laughed as he was punched on the arm by his sister. "Like the garage roof."
"That's enough outta you." She warned him, emerald eyes meeting playful forest green. "That's the last thing I want to remember."
"When did that happen?" Ami was confused; she never heard this accident before. "I never knew she fell off of a roof."
"You wouldn't have." Zoisite explained a little more serenely. "There are only three people who know exactly what happened. Makoto, Mamoru, and me."
"Wait a minute, back up. Mamoru was involved?" That caught Rei's undivided attention. "What did he do?" There she went on the offensive like normal.
"See! You chucklehead! This is why you should keep your mouth shut about those days." Makoto reprimanded her brother. "Shut up, I'll tell them."
"Tell us what?" Rei was getting jumpy out of agitation and over protectiveness as Minako tried to keep her calm. "What stunt did he pull!"

"Relax." Makoto sighed. "Zoisite is referring to our childhood." She paused and sighed. "When our parents passed on we were placed in an orphanage and, as you know, Mamoru grew up more or less in the same basic boat as us. Only difference was that he was there alone and known for getting into fights. He and I got into an argument on the roof since we were both trying to hide from the staff. That was the day that Zoisite and I were being separated into different foster homes. I fell, but I wasn't hurt that badly, and it wasn't really only Mamoru to blame. The difference being all three of us had different outcomes. I kept being returned, Mamoru ended up at a boy's shelter, and Zoisite ended up on a plantation where he spent most of his life earning his keep and saving his allowance. When he turned eighteen he came and got me. Mamoru shaped up, thanks to Usagi, and I would have been happy not to have said all of that had it not been for my lame brain brother spilling the beans." She said hitting him in the arm again. "I won't speak any more about that now since we've all changed since then."

"Well that explained a lot." Rei deadpanned in awe. "Well if you won't talk, it seems like your brother will. Come one Zoiboy tell us about how you grew up. What was it like?"

"Well, a lot of things happened as a kid, but I've got a better story for you." He said as he opened a new can of soda. "I'll tell you about where I ended up as a teenager. Pull up a seat Makoto, you may actually like this." He sighed contently as he remembered the very large establishment. "There used to be a place not far from where we are sitting right now. In fact it's about another thirty or so miles down that main dirt road we take to drive here. Back in those days it was owned by a very large family. Huge in fact. They took me in and offered me work. There were fields to plow, animal to tend, and visitors to constantly entertain. What was this place? Well, it was actually an 'at needs' ranch style summer camp. All of the visitors there were kids who were unable to go to normal camps for whatever reason you can imagine. The activities were built around such needs. Kids with wheelchairs for one example. Anyway, the people who worked there, were a pretty good crowed, but some of them weren't actually a fan of children. Don't ask me why. I haven't a clue."

"You never told me that!" Makoto sat astounded. "What else don't I know about your past? What have you been hiding?"
"Not much. Rei wanted to know something so I told her. I wasn't there all that long since I had to come get your butt out of the orphanage." He explained.
"Still that's pretty interesting." Rei thought about that, honestly it was a good idea. "How long did you do that for before moving into the city?"
"About two weeks. I'll tell you one thing, it was my time there that made me decide to go get Makoto." He looked to her. "You have a little girl to thank."
"Who was she?" Makoto was growing highly interested now. "What was she like? Was she the one who told you to get me?"
"If you'll hush up a minute." He paused to take a drink "I'll tell you."

He became serous remembering the pained look in that girl's eyes that would sometimes show for only a brief moment before she would smile, forcing all the bad away. "She reminded me of you Makoto. She was such a little girl, with such a hard life, but she still smiled anyway. She was gentle like you were when you were little, and only the age of four. I was amazed by her when I first saw her. She was there for being in the camp buddy program. It was one for children with grief or having issues coping with whatever it was that troubled them. It gave them a vacation of sorts away from their problems. What was astounding to me though was her life story. She has lost her parents and had been in foster care before a new family adopted her fully, she was so shy and I was paired with her do to the relation in pasts. Even through all of the bad that happened, she still smiled happily; she was stronger than anyone I had ever seen, including myself. She told me that you needed me. She asked me why I was working there instead of being your camp buddy, and so help me, I found myself wondering that same thing."

Everyone sat quietly after hearing that. The look in Zoisite's eyes were nothing but strength as he remembered that child. "That question was only out of innocence. 'Why wasn't I your camp buddy?' Well I'll say this, after two weeks when her bus pulled up to take her kids group home I swear the look in her eyes could have been you, if you had been her age at the time. Anyway she said to me that I didn't have to be her camp buddy anymore and that my new buddy should be the girl with emerald eyes and long brown hair that I missed so much. That's when I came to get you, and the rest as they say, is history."

"I never knew that." Makoto was speechless as to what to say. "So that's what made you come get me?"
He nodded. "You see girls; it was the strength of a child that made me withstand the odds." He stood up tossing he now empty can in the bin to recycle.
"Well that's one story I'll never forget." Rei said softly. "Talk about a wake up call." She too stood up and looked around. "Shall we head back now?"

The group piled into the three cars and made the journey home. Ami and Makoto were sitting in the quiet when Ami finally spoke up. It was driving time, some of the most serous conversations happened while driving. "I want to look into it." Ami spoke cryptically and quickly. Her hands fidgeted as Makoto just gave her a confused look, not sure what that sentence had even meant. "Babies I mean." She started up again. "I want to look into our options, possible risks, everything. I want to know before we decide anything big."

"Ami?" Makoto looked at Ami again and then turned to the road. "Honey, are you ok?"
"Yes. I am. I was just thinking a lot about what we talked about." Ami explained. "I think we should look into it, gather information so we know all we can."
"Alright." Makoto kept her voice even but in all honesty she was shocked. "What exactly are you wanting to find out. Talk to me here, I'm kinda lost."
"I don't know. Everything means everything. I don't want to be unprepared and I know it wouldn't be for a while, but I want to know." Ami was lost too.
"Ok." Makoto calmed down inwardly. "Let me understand this fully. Right now we are just looking into it carefully, right?" She had other panic now though.
"Yes, that's correct." Ami was just as jumpy for one key reason. "I want to take this further than what we have right now. I really do. I'm ready too."

Makoto gulped at that. "Ok." She took in a shaky breath. "We'll look into that too then." Makoto reached over and took hold of Ami's hand giving it a kiss.
"Tell you what, when we get home we'll sit and talk." Her eyes remained on the dirt road ahead. Ami wanting to step up to the next level wasn't unexpected, but it did give Makoto the jitters. "I mean really sit and talk about this." Why? Easy, they didn't own a home, neither had very much money and the fact Ami was willing to talk about children meant one key thing. She felt ready to have sex. Both of them had waited and stuck it out. Sure they had engaged in some levels of intimacy, but never did it ever go past a particular point. Ami wanted love, she had always wanted to be *in love* with the person fully and completely before she broached the topic of sex, let alone to engage in it. The shorter girl nodded and somehow Makoto and Ami both felt as if they had started crossing over into completely new territory that neither of them knew to fully navigate.

TBC-

Short chapter because it was slightly an intense chapter. I'll update soon, like always. Please leave a review.