Warning:
Please note that the story rating has increased to MATURE, and this is for a reason! If this bothers you, please skip over it—for reference, the (very explicit!) scene begins with 'Seiya Kou didn't break promises', and the next scene begins with 'She didn't know it was possible to feel so…'.

Author's Notes:

This chapter has taken some time! Thank you for your patience. Last chapter I omitted my 'it's been ages note' and apparently you guys like to hear…so I actually own my own business and this is extremely time consuming and mentally draining…and given how close we are to the end of this story (sorry!), I need to make sure to bring everything together just right and be in the right headspace! So, often writing this fanfic gets put on the backburned due to mental fatigue…but only because I want it to be good! Otherwise, COVID has sucked, just like it has for everyone else, and not seeing family/friends really has taken a toll on my mental health. Hopefully that gives some insight on where I've been! I've said this before and I'll say it again: I think about this story all the time, and I never plan on abandoning it. So nothing to worry about there! I intend to finish off the final chapters for this story in some time off I have coming over the holiday season, which I am PUMPED about! Thank you again for your continued support of this story!

Happy Holidays!

I am also dedicating this chapter to my beautiful friend, Grace…I feel so lucky that this story has brought us together, that we have grown so close. You are such a light in my life and I love you!

As always, make sure to check out the important notes from the Prologue if you haven't already. Enjoy!

Music recs –

A New Day Has Come (original/slow version, not radio edit, but both are great!) by Celine Dion

I See Fire by Ed Sheeran

Courage by Pink


Chapter Twenty-Eight

Ikuko Tsukino was a woman of many things. She prided herself on her empathetic, kind heart; her steadfast relationships; her discipline and her direct manner. She was a woman who thrived in her home—a baker, a homemaker—and a woman who earned a living after years of education. She was a woman who knew what she wanted—no matter what.

She was a woman of many things—giving up was not one of them.

The off-white walls of the specialist's office were small, cramped; the examination chair beneath her cold as it stuck to her bare legs. The ties of her gown dug into her back and it clung to her throat, choking her. She caved her knees together tight, in an attempt at privacy.

There was limited dignity in this journey—only clinical vulnerability.

She ground her teeth as the doctor examined her, the sound of his voice slow and thick as she diverted her gaze out the window to raindrops and a concrete wall. She clenched her fists around the edge of the table as she was probed and prodded—a procedure far more painful to the mind than to the body. A procedure that reminded her that she was a failure, and she was hollow, all over again.

"I think," she heard him say, amongst the fogginess of it all, "you may need to consider that your body is not meant to have a baby."

She left bruised and broken, but smiled when Kenji took her hand on the drive home. Laughed when he made a joke. Talked when he made conversation.

Because she was a woman of many things, and giving up was not one of them.

That night, she woke in the very same panic she had experienced days before, and after that, she couldn't sleep. She padded in bare feet to the living room, she sat down in her chair, in the quiet and in the dark, alone. She watched the city lights through the drapes and the scarce stars dotting the night sky. She felt her hands shake as they sat in her lap, as she fought the mental war that hounded her to give up, even when she wanted this so badly.

She fell asleep that way—cold hands and feet and an empty belly. She dreamt of rising from her chair, crossing the room and drawing her drapes to find a world beyond their own. A crystalline precipice; a marble archway; an endless, sparkling universe all around her. She dreamt that she walked out to the very edge, icy beneath her toes, and gazed into to the swirling hole below.

"A mother like you is destined to have a powerful child—it is what you were born into this universe to do. I can do this for you…I can make you a deal."

The voice spoke softly to her, and she could sense the being alongside her—the tickle of her long hair; the shimmer of her body. She could sense her divinity, her ethereal nature, and knew she was no longer in a dream.

"I can make you a deal—all you have to do is take me with you."

She was not afraid—far from it—and as she turned to the mystical energy, the woman appeared before her. Her silvery blonde hair was wound into round buns atop her head, her crystal skin and grand wings glistened the colour spectrum. Her bright eyes swam like the pool below them, wild and lonely.

Ikuko cupped her cool cheeks—she was only a girl. The mother of their universe, without a mother of her own.

She leant her forehead to the beautiful being's, against her eight-pointed star, and said yes.


"Fighter," she heard, Odango's voice, but so much more.

She was buzzing, humming on the edge of life. All of the excruciating pain, the torment, had left her, and she could feel it: the end, right there before her. It was different than last time—there was no thread of life force holding her. She was floating away into dark, comforting emptiness.

"You made me a promise…"

All that is, all that was, and all that ever will be.

Warmth tickled against her lips—Usagi—and suddenly her blinded world exploded to a bright light, and she caught a glimpse of a whirling, whispering pool suspended amongst the brilliance of space.

Odango's voice echoed in her mind. The cauldron.

Her body became electrified, life firing through every nerve like a shockwave, lurching her back home. She felt the cells within her nearly curl as she changed, her aoi form transforming her entire body. She gasped for air as the bloody hole in her chest knitted itself back together, and when her eyes finally opened, she was greeted by the most beautiful being she had ever seen.

"Odango," she breathed, "Cosmos…"

Evolution.

Never had she seen something so breathtaking.

Usagi held her tightly against her, skin glinting crystal, a pearliness beneath the hardness of her flesh. The wings that surrounded them protectively were sharp and glassy, and her aura shone white. She was no longer human—like Seiya, she had become something more. Crystal embodied her—it had become her, and her eyes were wild and calm and a rainbow of colours, looking down at Seiya with emotion so strong she couldn't process it; couldn't fully comprehend it. The sky above them danced with a swishing aurora, and she watched Usagi's eyes look up to follow the curves of dark energy as it escaped into the atmosphere. "Hey," Seiya said to her, touching her fingertips to her cheek, her lip. "It's alright, Odango."

Slowly, softly, her new transformation faded—crystal dissolving to fair skin, eyes returning to cerulean. Usagi winced in pain as the sharp wings shrunk and rescinded into her back; no longer a mere addition to her fuku—instead, a part of her.

It killed Seiya to see her in pain—and in spite of becoming her true self, it was pain that her own failure had caused. She shifted upright and out of Usagi's embrace, kneeling face to face with her, hands fluttering and shaking in the space between them as her emotions swamped her. "Usagi, I…"

Her words lodged and cracked in her throat and the sob nearly choked her. I'm sorry, she had tried to say, I failed you.

Usagi wound her arms around her, holding tight as she cried. "Never," Usagi whispered to her, as though she had read her thoughts. "This was how it had to be."

Seiya drew away from her, a breath away. Usagi smiled tightly at her, face warm and gentle, and the sense of failure dissipated. Perhaps she had not failed her—perhaps, instead, she had drawn her to evolution.

Usagi's eyes flickered to the apricot sky, and there was utter stillness all around them. She looked around to their fellow warriors, who were standing at a wary distance. Rini dropped down into the crater surrounding them on unsteady feet, face pale and eyes dark. "Usagi…?"

Usagi nodded jerkily, and Rini dove for her in a hug that nearly knocked Usagi flat. The young girl clung to her, hands fisted against her chest as she sobbed. She shook as she pulled away, and then promptly flung her arms around Seiya's neck, eliciting a crackle of energy between them. "Y-you—I thought you w-were—"

"It's okay, Chibi Odango," she soothed, and as Rini leant heavily against her, an odd sense of wholeness swelled in her chest. "I told you I'd be okay…"

Usagi rose to her feet, head tipped back to the sky as she inhaled deeply, as though the air were crisp and clear as it was on Earth. The soldiers around her watched on, and Seiya knew they saw what she did—a woman glowing, lit by a new dawn. A power unfathomable to them all.

Quietly, Hotaru stepped forward, bowing her head low. She looked back up to Usagi. "Tell us who you are, Cosmos."

Usagi didn't move—she simply closed her eyes, face upturned and golden.

Who are you, Cosmos?

"I have…so many memories," she replied, a whisper to the sky. Her gaze passed over Seiya and settled on her friends—but they were distant, processing. "Of who I am, who I was…of who I'm destined to be…"

She let out an airy laugh. "All those years, I thought who I was had been defined by a Moon princess…that I was just a reincarnation, destined to live her life, all over again…" She smiled. "But we were just two girls, two women, tied together by the force that embodied us."

Seiya stood, breaking away from Rini and moving closer to Usagi as she spoke. She wasn't sure why, but the young woman's magnetism, and her own instinctual need to protect her, took control.

Usagi continued, voice soft. "I remember as a little girl going to a forest…I remember it like a painting; the greens of the trees and the sparkling water and the rainbow birds. I could hear everythingfeel everything—and I could see the bright auras of the people around me. The specks of matter catching the sunlight. I remember looking up at the sky and it was white, and I could see the stars and the planets and everything in between." She beamed, eyes glistening with tears. "And as I stood there, I remember feeling my feet connect with the earth and my body feel like it could just float away…I remember feeling pulled, in both directions, like my soul didn't know where it belonged."

She locked eyes with Seiya, her expression caught in the valley between sadness and relief. "And that's because I didn't. I was never human at all."

Seiya's mind drifted back to when they were seated on her balcony together, cross-legged under the night sky, and she could hear Odango saying, I wished to just be a normal girl, with a normal life. Seiya's heart clenched. "Usagi…"

She shook her head. "No, it's alright," she assured. "It's alright…"

You're no reincarnated princess, no future queen—you're exactly who you want to be, now—in this life.

"I sat up there, by the Cosmic Cauldron, and I created…I watched the beings I brought to life enviously. I wanted my own life, so badly, and so I took it: I became the Moon princess until her tragic end, and then a regular girl with more magic and duty than she could ever have imagined. I became because I couldn't stand it…I couldn't be that lonely creator anymore."

She paused, and no one said a word—Seiya was sure their breaths were caught, like her own was. "This," Usagi stressed, hands floating in front of her, emphasising her. "This is who I am—Usagi Tsukino…Cosmos." She exhaled, like a release. "I am…"

Seiya approached her, reaching out to thread her fingertips through hers. "You're more," she told her.

Usagi smiled, her eyes shimmering with tears but dark with uncertainty. Her friends approached her and Seiya let go of her hand to move away, giving them space to embrace her and huddle together in the aftermath of the battle. She breathed shakily, skimming a hand over her blood-stained belly as her transformation faded away. She felt whole again, but Chaos' torturous power still roamed her body like liquid fire, and she wondered if the trauma would ever leave.

She had never imagined that the greatest pain you could feel was being unable to feel anything at all.

"Show off," she heard, as Yaten slipped to stand alongside her, bumping shoulders with her affectionately. She gave her a smile. "You were so sure you could save the day…"

Seiya rolled her eyes. "Fuck off, Yaten…"

"What she means to say is thank you for what you risked," Taiki said as she joined them. She looked over her shoulder to Usagi knowingly. "Especially when you had just found it."

Kakyuu appeared at their side, and Seiya met her eye. "You knew," she said.

Kakyuu simply smiled, brushing her fingers over Seiya's cheek. "You were never destined to defeat him," she said.

She could suddenly hear her aunt's hushed words, hissing to Kakyuu as Seiya listened through her cracked doorway many years prior. We believe that in the end she is the only one in our star system who will be able to defeat him.

Kakyuu had known, even then.

The fiery-haired princess leant toward her to place a soft kiss to her lips, and then lingered at her ear. "You were destined to bring forth the one who can."


She was there on the dusty flats of Kinmoku, watching, hidden by the garnet shimmer of her power. She would always be watching, if she chose to.

"Setsuna," her companion said, their husky tone uneasy, "what will you tell them?"

She smiled. "You know the answer to that," she hummed. "I will tell them nothing."


Back home, when the ocean air hit her cheeks, Usagi felt the prickle of salt; the freshness of the breeze; a calmness that soothed her.

There, on Kinmoku with the crumbly red sand beneath her feet and as the thick air brushed against her body, she felt the heat of the waves beating on her skin; an alluring pull to the water's edge. A sense of courage that ignited her.

She felt Seiya—she felt their worlds collide.

She breathed in deeply, gazing out to the planet that astounded her: the flames that leapt and spat from Proxima, flares of the wildest orange she had ever seen. It felt so close—nearly close enough to touch, and somehow, she knew she wouldn't get burned.

"Usagi!"

She dragged her eye from the wispy amber clouds and the cherry sky to look back at her friends, who were calling her toward them. A gentle drum beat and a foreign song echoed all around them, and she watched on, captivated, as the entirety of Kinmoku's population gathered in celebration on their dusky beach. They danced, they laughed, and they kissed the cheeks of the Sol senshi and their own warriors in teary gratitude. Hundreds—not the thousands Seiya had told her once had lived on their planet—came to thank them, and suddenly, every beautiful face she saw felt like someone deeply precious to her.

Like someone she had created.

Her heart ached.

"Usagi, come on!"

Rini raced toward her, pigtails fluttering around her. She grasped her hand, smiling—smiling, after everything she had endured. "Everyone wants to see you, Usa, come on!"

She drew her toward the crowds, weaving between the Kinmokian people who danced barefoot and held their hands to the sky, beaming at them as they snuck by. Thank you, she could hear them saying, in a tongue she somehow knew; that somehow sounded like their own. Thank you for saving our world.

The ache in her chest felt heavy.

Rini led her toward the rocky edge of the foreshore, shielded by a sheer cliff face above them, where the Sol senshi, the Starlights, and a scattering of their closest friends and warriors settled. The mesmerising drumbeat, and the deep, full whistle of instrument Usagi had never heard before, came from nearby, and she watched on as the musicians moved sensually as they played; uninhibited and unashamed by their bodies and their emotions, just like the other striking beings she had met so far on Kinmoku.

It was a culture she desperately wanted to take home with her—it was a freedom she wanted all beings to express.

"Come dance with us, Usagi!" Rini said, tugging her along, but Usagi held back. Rini darted off to join Hotaru and the Inner warriors as they twirled and laughed with glasses of liquid in their hands, vivid and shimmering. They glanced her way, their expressions uncertain, and when they waved her over, Usagi declined. There was a tension amongst their celebration that left her uneasy, as they had yet to speak about what had unfolded—what she had become—and she could feel the questions that itched at them.

They itched at her, too.

Nearby, against the stone, Haruka and Michiru stood alone together, exchanging a look that Usagi knew meant they were having a wordless conversation all of their own.

The ache thrummed throughout her entire body, as she pushed herself to remember.

"Star Fighter! Hey, Star Fighter!"

She spotted the swish of a black ponytail as a group of young children chased after the Starlight, huddling around her excitedly as she pretended to puff, hands on her hips. "You guys wore me out!"

Usagi laughed as they started to protest. Seiya cocked a brow in Yaten's direction. "Maybe it's Star Healer's turn…"

Yaten snorted from where she sat lazily on the water's edge, legs out long in front of her. "Not a chance in hell."

"Come on Fighter, just one more—please—"

"How about this," she started, crouching down to their level and inviting them close, "you give me the frisbee, and I'll make it magic for you, okay?"

One of the children held out the disc, and as Seiya touched a fingertip to its edge, the toy shuddered and hovered mid-air and lit up in a web of cobalt blue. Seiya smiled at the nervous little ones, whose eyes were like saucers. "Take it," she encouraged. "It won't hurt you."

The young child took hold of it bravely, gasping. "Woah," they said. "That is so cool!"

The group tore off once again, bickering and chattering amongst themselves. Seiya shook her head and rose to her feet. "Use it wisely," she chuckled. She gave Usagi a look as she joined her. "And why aren't you dancing, Odango…?"

She couldn't help her eye flittering across to her friends. "I didn't feel like dancing, Seiya," she told her softly.

Seiya tilted her head, frowning at her and stepping in closer. Subtly, quietly, she untangled Usagi's tightly wrung hands and took them in her own. The instant they touched, power coursed between them, and Usagi noticed the deep sapphire of Seiya's eyes splinter with electric blue. She shot her an impish smile. "Are you telling me that up there," she started with a glance to the universe above them, in a playful murmur only she could hear, "you didn't love to dance?"

Something about her words, designed to be light-hearted and remind her to be proud of who she had learned she was, made her throat tight. Memories of swirling the pool of rainbow lights, with only the sound of her own tinkering voice to dance to as she plucked from the place of birth and death beneath her, flickered in her mind—how could a memory hold so many emotions…utter joy, paralysing loneliness, and a million things in between?

Lambda.

The word whispered through her, but what it meant, she had no idea.

"I did—I do," Usagi breathed with a smile. Seiya's ease in her presence—the way she embraced exactly who and what she was—calmed her like nothing else. "I love to dance."

Seiya bent her lips to her ear. "Then dance with me."

She spun Usagi underneath her arm and drew her closer to the music, humming with the sound. Seiya's voice vibrated through her, and as her palms found her hips Usagi relented to the power the beautiful aoi being had over her—the sheer electricity that leapt between them, and the reality that suddenly, they could just be.

Together.

Usagi roped her arms around her neck as she moved with her, bodies flush and breaths close. She let everything else that was flooding her wild mind slip away; she let everything else go.

"Odango," Seiya whispered, in relief, in bliss.

The beat slowed and the sounds of her friends and the people around them giggling and chanting quietened, and she felt Seiya pull her closer, swaying with her. As they slowly spun, Rini gave her a smile, her ruby eyes shining.

Oh, Rini.

Seiya's touch settled at the small of her back, and Usagi leant heavily into her, head on her shoulder. She cast her eye out over the shoreline, to the celebrations they had brought about: children playing, people singing and dancing, food gathered and made by the Kinmokian people to share with them, strangers. Aliens. She watched the ruddy starlight cast a silhouette over the gathering as the subtle change to dusk fell, and the roar of a bonfire was lit up on the coarse beach. "They think we're heroes," Usagi said softly.

"You are," Seiya replied.

No, Usagi thought, the ache and the sense of failure rolling within her, I'm not.

"Today, after…everything," Seiya spoke by her ear, "you wouldn't even let me consider that I'd failed." She pulled back from her to meet her eye. "Whether you want to call yourself a hero or not, you are."

They had won the fight against evil so many times, but somehow, it had never felt like it did in that moment. It had never felt like she'd missed something; like she had made a mistake.

"Might I interrupt?"

Princess Kakyuu's gentle voice broke the tension that had mounted between them, and Seiya nodded. "I'll go get you a drink," she told Usagi, and left the two of them alone.

"Walk with me," the princess said, looping an arm through hers and moving her toward the water.

They wandered the water's edge. "You didn't have to do this, Princess," Usagi told her.

"Of course we did," she replied. She smiled. "Besides, our people will take any opportunity for a celebration."

Usagi swished her feet through the hot sea water as they went, looking out to the horizon—consumed by the glow of Seiya's star; cracked with bolts of lightning and mottled with purple cloud. "I wish we could have helped save your people before," she said.

Kakyuu shook her head. "There is a cycle to these things—a cycle to life," she said. "Sometimes we must lose in order to truly win."

Suddenly there was a whisper at her ear; a tickle in her throat. Lambda.

I became because I couldn't stand it—I couldn't be that lonely creator anymore.

I ran.

Usagi came to a stop. She could see it: sitting on the icy ledge, feet dangling, watching as the wispy tendrils of light she pulled from the cauldron fluttered away; off into the universe to live. Freed by her hand, and yet she was bound. Whole, but lonely and envious, all amongst her ecstasy.

"Usagi?" Kakyuu said, turning to her. Her eyes were gentle as she took Usagi's cheeks in her hands. "There is so much you are still piecing together, Guardian," she said. "You have just learned of who you truly are—be patient. Be compassionate."

"I know who I am…I just don't know why," Usagi told her. She nodded toward her friends. "And I know they're questioning everything." She met the princess' eye—blood red. "Everything we've been told, everything we've been shown…"

Kakyuu was quiet a moment, before she softly replied: "Sometimes what we're shownisn't what we're supposed to see."

There was something about her words that struck Usagi—something unsettling. Something truthful.

"Hey." Seiya appeared at their side, offering Usagi a cup of coral, sparkling liquid and grinning at her. "You've had this before, up there," she inclined her head to the stony palace and its ruins alongside—where they had prepared themselves before the fight; bathed in naoru, together. "It's just for the warriors, to help us heal."

Usagi took it from her gratefully, tipping the glass to her lips to take a sip. The sensation was warm and tingly through her system, and she felt her tension drop, her worries lessen, just a fraction—but not nearly as they had before. Before her transformation had occurred; before Cosmos.

Would everything be compared to before—when she was simply human?

"Most cannot comprehend what you are, Usagi," Kakyuu said. "There are legends; stories; myths in every land, of a god, a goddess; an all-powerful, all-seeing being…but you are different to what has been told." She touched her fingertips to her cheek before she turned from them. "You are as you said…creator."

She watched the princess walk back down the rocky beach, her full skirt hiked up so she could wander through the water.

The reality of who she was, of the memories that were gradually clunking back into place, felt overwhelming. She could see herself, glittering at the precipice, beneath the archway, waiting for a lovely Moon queen to slip into her dreams—where she could meet her and make her an offer. She could see her own mother walking the ice before her; the wave of her lilac hair and the sadness in her dark eyes. She remembered her mother's warm hands taking her hard cheeks, tipping her head to meet her third eye. Saying yes.

What had she done?

"I knew," Seiya said finally, breaking her from her thoughts. She could feel her eyes on her, and Seiya was smirking playfully.

She tilted her head at the Starlight. "Huh?"

The smirk spread into a striking grin. "I knew the moment I saw you, the moment I saw that brilliant starlight in you, that there was something more, something incredible about you."

Usagi bit back a smile and rolled her eyes. "I thought that was just a pick-up line…"

"Oh, come on, Odango," Seiya scoffed, and at Usagi's chuckle, she sobered. "There is no way I could have resisted your light—the light I love."

The light I love.

Usagi felt the ache dissipate, her heart suddenly in her throat, her words lodged with it. Seiya held her gaze, strong and steady. "But that light and that power don't dictate who you are. You do." She ghosted her fingers against Usagi's. "This time, Usagi, you do."

This time.

Time.

Something, someone, uttered by her ear once again, the voice caught in the hot breeze and tugging at her soul.

Time is your greatest ally, and your most powerful enemy.

She had pushed away so much already, for her duty and her destiny, and as she stood there on the Kinmokian beach under the eternal sunlight with Seiya's fingers laced with her own, ignoring the foretelling words whispering to her, she knew it was their time. Together.

Because she wasn't certain what the future held.

She met her eye. "You made me a promise, Seiya Kou," she said. "Now show me you're going to keep it."


Seiya Kou didn't break promises.

She snuck Usagi through the crowds, curling up high into the palace and across the bridge that took them to the armoury. She didn't let go of her hand for one moment, and she felt the soft thud of nerves and excitement hum between them.

There was no mistaking what was buzzing between them.

They entered the cavern and twisted up the stairwell, the echo of the lapping water and their footsteps loud in the space. She helped Usagi climb to the opening that was tucked away from sight, where they had spent time only hours prior, and drew her through the crack in the cliff face that led out onto the flat, rocky plane that overlooked the sea, where the coral pool waited for them. She watched lightning dart to kiss the horizon, the violet clouds staining their ruby sky and growing nearer. Soon, they would engulf her star, leaving it breathtakingly fluorescent; hot pink and peach and gold.

It was quiet—nothing but the sound of their breaths between them as they stood side-by-side. It felt different to the last time they had crept up there—slower; calmer; more certain.

Last time, neither of them had been sure she would return alive.

She looked to Usagi. "This is all I ever wanted," she told her, raw. "To be here—or anywhere—with you."

Usagi moved in close to her, haloed by the sun. She said nothing; simply cupped her cheeks and drew her down to her in a kiss that stole her breath. She instantly relented; how could she not, when the most beautiful creature, the woman she adored, called to her?

Usagi broke away, and the taste of her lingered on Seiya's tongue and set her heart racing. She met her eye—cerulean irises dark. She knew that look, and yearning coiled tighter in her abdomen. "Odango…"

"You're the one who showed me what desire should feel like," she replied, voice low. "You're the one who taught me that I have nothing to be ashamed of." She felt Usagi's fingers find the hem of her shirt, ducking beneath the fabric to trace her skin low on her hip, along the band of her shorts. "You're the one I want to share that with."

Usagi's hand travelled higher, fingers fanning across her belly. The air felt taut between them; Seiya's blood thick in her veins. Every tense moment they had shared, every single time she had wanted to pull her in, to touch her and please her, flooded her mind, and she knew Usagi felt it, too.

There was no way she could resist her, if it was what she wanted.

Seiya smiled, dropping her lips to Usagi's, kissing her deep and slow. She pulled away to tip Usagi's head back, fingers splayed at her neck, and lightly trailed her lips against the column of her throat. A roll of thunder broke the breathy silence between them, far out to sea, and Seiya felt hot, round droplets of rain start to fall—a few at first, dotting her cheeks, and then more rapidly, dampening her skin. She smiled as she brushed the skin beneath Usagi's ear, eliciting the sweetest gasp. "I want that, too," she replied at the junction of her neck and her jaw. She grinned. "But you already knew that…"

She watched as the rain caught in Usagi's eyelashes, dripped from her nose, and as she breathed heavily, nervously. She shifted the fingers that were tucked beneath Seiya's shirt, hovering over her ribs, to trace the very edge of her exposed breast. It was electric, and Seiya's breath caught audibly in her throat.

At that, Usagi dragged her down to her once more.

Suddenly the teasing, tentative pace they had set dissipated and urgency ignited between them. Their energy collided, cobalt and crystal, and Seiya could feelit erupt beneath her skin with unimaginable power.

Cosmic power.

Seiya leant into her kiss hard and ran her hands over her waist; her hips, her ass. In one swift motion, she lifted her up onto her hips, legs hooked around her middle and hands woven into her hair. She carried her toward the water, moving down the eroded edge of the rock and into the pool. She took them deeper and deeper into the water, feeling naoru's magic seep up her limbs; into her throat; along her tongue to Usagi's; behind her eyes. Her heart thundered as she held Usagi against her—wrapped around her, floating with her, amongst the sweet olive blossoms and pouring rain.

"Seiya," Usagi breathed, as Seiya brushed her fingertips along the edge of her breast through layers of soaked clothing. It was the most alluring thing she had ever heard; and the knowledge that it was her touch earning Usagi's gasps was intoxicating.

She just had to know she was sure.

She caught her eye. "Are you sure," she whispered, "are you sure this is what you want?"

It was a question that meant so much—more than just consent. Regardless of all her confidence, all her certainty, it was a question that asked: are you sure I am what you want, no matter my form?

Usagi said nothing—instead, she reached down into the water between them to grasp the edge of Seiya's t-shirt, peeling it up her torso and over her head. Seiya swallowed as Usagi's eye trailed over her naked chest; as she bit her lip. A growl rolled at the back of her throat as Usagi's hand cupped her breast and she ran the pad of her thumb over the peak. "Does that answer your question, Fighter?" She said quietly, lips quirked in a cheeky smile.

Usagi's words were a turn-on all of their own, and she leant into her, catching her lips against hers urgently. She threaded her hands into her hair to take out the pins that held her odango buns in place and it fell long into the water. Seiya traced a hand along the tendrils that clung to her neck, down the curve of her waist to her hips, grasping the seam of her dress and stripping it off her. Beneath was a sheer bra, sodden through, and she mimicked Usagi's touch, grazing her fingertips over her rosy nipples visible through the fabric. Usagi sucked in a sharp breath and Seiya grinned, pulling away to drop her mouth to the slope of her chest. She trailed her tongue along the beads of water on her skin, goosebumps forming under her touch, and with a deft move of her fingertips at Usagi's back, she unhooked her bra and slid it off her shoulders to let it float away with the flowers.

Usagi shook as Seiya took her breast gently against her palm; as she caught the peak of her nipple between her lips and grazed her teeth over her—tortuous, as she pleased her the way she had always dreamt of.

You deserve that, she could hear herself telling Usagi, just inches from her as they sat alone in her bedroom back on Earth. She would tell her again and again—it would never be enough. "You deserve the world," she murmured.

Usagi scooped Seiya's face up from where she lingered at her chest, kissing her lips and her neck over and over. Seiya skimmed her hands along her thighs, settling her touch at the lacey edge her underwear. She hooked her thumbs beneath the fabric and traced each over the flesh inside her hip bone. Usagi stilled and locked eyes with her. "Please, Seiya," she whispered.

She would be lying if she said she hadn't fantasised about hearing those words from Odango's lips for years.

She moved them to the pool's sloped edge, settling Usagi back against the warm rock. She cast her eye over the guardian: propped up on her forearms, hair sprawled around her with the peachy water lapping her thighs. Her stomach and chest rose and fell a little quick; and her gaze was a rainbow, intently focused on Seiya. As the star light changed with the rain, her fair skin lit up vivid pink, illuminating the crystal flecked across her body.

She was…indescribable.

Seiya climbed over her, one knee between her thighs and an arm bracketing her. She bent her neck to meet her lips, light and soft at first and then deep as the intensity between them swelled. She wanted to see her, feel her, tasteher, in every way, and as she pulled back just a fraction, she told her so.

Usagi nodded up at her, her hands busy over Seiya's breasts; her abdomen; the band of her shorts. Her touch was near irresistible, but that moment was about Odango—that was what she had always wanted it to be about.

Seiya trailed her fingers down her sternum, between the valley of her breasts, along the line of her belly to the tiny bow that was centred on the edge of her underwear.

"Seiya," Usagi murmured suddenly, her cheeks flushing, "I've never…"

She shot her a smile, dropping her lips to whisper in her ear. "Don't worry," she said, "I'll lead."

Usagi giggled and rolled her eyes, and Seiya smirked, continuing her touch lower from the hem of her underwear to the round of her pubic bone, settling her fingertips against the warmth she could feel through the wet fabric. The sound of Usagi's moan was like magic—and all she wanted was to hear her make those sounds over and over again.

Seiya touched her so lightly, circling once and then twice more, and then pulled her hand away. She drew herself in close to Usagi, flush with her, pressing the thigh that was settled between Usagi's legs against her heat; creating friction that made her gasp. The rain continued to patter all around them, between them as they kissed, slick on their skin. The moment Usagi's mouth started exploring her skin, she hissed her name—nothing had ever felt like Usagi's touch.

Usagi's eyes darted up to hers in response, her pink lips breaking their seal with the tip of her breast. Seiya could barely breathe. "You are so sexy," she hummed.

She knew what it meant to Usagi to be described that way, when she had never been allowed to feel like a sexual creature. The corner of her lips quirked in a smile. "Is that so…?"

Seiya didn't give her time to tease her—she snatched her hands to pin them by her head. She smirked as Usagi pouted, and ground her thigh against her a little harder in retort. "You know it is…"

She held her wrists in one hand while the other travelled to her mouth, tracing droplets of water over her lips, down her chin and along her neck. "But I know it goes both ways," she told her casually. "I know I make your heart race, Odango…"

Usagi glared playfully at her, but she was unconvincing.

Slowly, Seiya tilted Usagi's head back, exposing her neck. "I can feel your pulse…here," she murmured against her throat, and then moved down to her right breast, nipping at her skin, "here," she released her hold on her wrists and slid down further, pausing at the hollow between her ribs, "here…"

Settling between her thighs, she gripped behind her knees and then bit at the silky skin of her inner thigh. "Here…" She glanced up to meet Usagi's eye, and finally dropped her mouth to the cotton of her underwear, kissing as softly as she could muster. "And here…"

Usagi let out a strangled moan of her name in reply.

Seiya grinned and looped her fingers around her underwear to tug them down her legs and off. The tangle of their arousal was heady in the humid air, and she held Usagi's gaze as she ran a finger over her—wet, hot, perfect. She dipped her head to the velvety skin covering her clit, kissing softly, and Usagi inhaled sharply, arching her back.

Oh, Usagi…

She darted her tongue out to taste her, moving over her rhythmically—light, and then firm, as she teased her. Usagi whimpered and knotted her hand into Seiya's hair, pulling her closer. She was determined to take her time; to learn exactly what would push her over the edge. She circled and flicked against her, sucking lightly and gripping Usagi's hips as she writhed. She increased her pace, her pressure, and as she heard Usagi's breath start to quicken, she slipped a finger inside her.

"Seiya…"

She curled her finger up toward her pubic bone, rolling against a sensitive spot that made Usagi growl, and as she continued to move her mouth over her, she pressed against that spot a little rougher; a little faster. Usagi's free hand joined the other in her hair, and she was moaning and flushed and close, she could tell. She moved quicker, sucked just a little harder on her clit, and willed the tiniest spark of her energy through the tip of her finger.

"Come for me, Odango," she murmured against her skin.

That was all it took.

Usagi threw her head back, hips bucking up toward her, and let out the most spellbinding cry she had ever heard. "Oh my God, Seiya…"

Seiya held her there as she came, slowing her movements but not relenting for a moment as Usagi shook, drawing out the orgasm that shattered through her. Her chest heaved and her body glowed silvery as she came down from her high, and as she pushed upright to lock eyes with Seiya, she noticed the shine of the cosmic symbol on her forehead.

Usagi reached for her, tugging her up roughly to kiss her, eyes wild. Seiya continued to stroke her fingers against her—she had no intention of stopping, but Usagi had other ideas as she flipped her onto her back. She straddled her lap, dropping her mouth to her breasts—more confident; tongue exploring her skin, hands roaming. Seiya sighed and brushed Usagi's wet hair aside as it fell into her eyes. "That night when I came up to your room, when I woke you from that nightmare and you pinned me underneath you, this is what I was thinking about," she told her. "I dreamt about your weight on my hips, your lips on my skin, my mouth against you as you came…"

Usagi looked up at her, breaking away to tell her: "I dreamt about that, too…" She crept her hands beneath the band of Seiya's shorts and underwear and shimmied them down her hips, tossing them aside. She ran the flat of her hand down her abdomen, over her lean stomach to the taper of her hipbones. "I dreamt about this all the time…"

Just like Seiya had done to her, Usagi tormented her—she tentatively pecked her stomach low down; the inside of her thigh; the dip of her hip. She settled between her legs and licked her lower lip as she eyed her.

Seiya could feel herself coming undone just watching her.

Usagi reached out her thumb to touch her clit, circling so gently just as she had done to her. Seiya sucked in a breath. "Odango…"

"Tell me what feels good," Usagi whispered, touching her curiously. Her thumb swiped back and forth over her and Seiya chewed at her lip, stifling a moan.

It wasn't entirely Usagi's touch that would make her come—it was the sheer fact that it was Usagi between her thighs that would get her there.

She growled as Usagi's fingers moved lower, sliding against her and inside her gently. Eyes locked on Seiya's, Usagi replaced her thumb with her mouth, kissing her softly and mimicking Seiya's movements.

"Fuck, Usagi..." Seiya groaned. She tipped her head back, her mind stuttering at every tentative touch Usagi gave—every lick; every stroke. This was something she had only imagined in her sweetest, wickedest dreams—Odango, exploring this beautiful side of herself with her.

"There," she breathed, as Usagi drew her close—fingers pressed against that spot deep inside her; lips and tongue moving quickly.

But she wanted this with her.

"Come here," she managed, pushing upright to drag Usagi up to her. She kissed her lips, her neck, her chest, and gently gripped Usagi's thigh to draw it over her own, setting her astride her open thighs. Seiya growled as Usagi sank down against her centre, rubbing against her softly, and marvelled the blush that dotted Usagi's chest and cheeks; the untamed, dark look she gave her as she moved.

She never wanted this to end.

She could feel she was already teetering on the edge as she rocked against her, the pleasure of them connected. skin-to-skin, incredible. Usagi's breath was quick and laboured and shaky like she was, and Seiya nipped at her chest and neck as they moved together.

"Seiya…"

The coil deep in her belly was wrung tight and she needed this—she needed her. This was more than sex—so much more.

She gripped the back of her neck and pulled Usagi down to her, kissing her and driving her core up to hers rough as she let go—as her vision skewed and the goddess writhing against her shot the tiniest jolt of icy crystal through her lips and cried her name in a voice that sounded ethereal.

So much more.

When she came with her, it felt like a detonation—cellular and stunning, like pure power.

Like she was home, in the middle of a boundless universe—feeling everything, all at once.

She had known numbing torment at Chaos' hand, and in that moment, she knew agonising joy.

"Odango…"

She clung to her as her climax held on, panting heavy in the aftermath, as Odango traced her skin and watched her close.

Aoi one, she could hear, Usagi's voice, calling her back down from wherever she had escaped to.

Seiya could see the cobalt illuminating her form as it reflected in the crystal spliced across Usagi's body. Seiya breathed hard. "You have no idea how much I've thought about that," she murmured.

Usagi grinned—eyes a rainbow; aura alight. "Oh, I think I can imagine..."

Seiya chuckled and swept the hair from Usagi's neck gently. As Proxima's fiery light faded from fuchsia to a dusty pink, and the rain moved out to sea, she felt awestruck—she couldn't find the words that she wanted, when usually they to her so easily. "I love you, Odango," she chose instead.

Usagi's eyes grew glassy. "The day you told me you'd fallen in love with me, before you left to come home to Kinmoku, something changed in me," she replied, voice tight. "I didn't know what it was then…but I know now it was that I'd fallen in love with you, too." She brushed her lips against her own. "I love you, Seiya Kou."

So much more than good enough.


She didn't know it was possible to feel so content; so sated and calm.

Though her heart felt so full, somehow, in that moment as she lay against the being she loved, she felt an ominous sense of emptiness; a fearless dread.

Usagi felt incomplete.

Time is your greatest ally, and your most powerful enemy.

She listened to the steady beat of Seiya's heart as she curled into her breast while she slept, their power humming between them. She felt alive; more powerful than ever before—in spite of every transformation; every ascension and gift she had been given. Seiya made her feel more loved than anyone or anything had ever before—their energy, together, felt invincible.

And yet she couldn't shake that feeling.

She stared up at the garnet sky above them, tiny white stars visible if she looked close enough. She could see the swirl of the cauldron—her cauldron—right above them if she focused.

The start, or the end, of worlds, if she wished.

Her breath caught as a rainbow swirl exploded silently in the sky, as she thought it. At her hand, the universe moved for her.

Her heart raced.

At her hand, the universe died for her.

She had missed something.

She had made a mistake, one that would cost them dearly.

Time is your greatest ally, and your most powerful enemy.

Suddenly, she knew that voice.

Suddenly, she knew.

She pulled away from Seiya as gently as she could, and when she stirred and grasped her wrist, Usagi brushed her lips against hers, channelling a hum of energy that encouraged the beautiful Starlight sleep. A gift she stole from Kakyuu—or truly, a gift she had bestowed her in the first place.

"I have to go," she whispered, as Seiya's glazed eyes fluttered closed. "I'm sorry."

She tugged her damp dress over her body and snuck away, clambering down the rock and descending through the caves of naoru to the pebbly beach below. That was when she saw her—standing at the water's edge, her sheer cloak wisping around her.

"Hello, Usagi," Setsuna said, smiling to her. "Cosmos."

Chronos.

Her throat tightened and her eyes grew hot.

Setsuna was the same, yet so different. She held herself with a confidence and calmness she had not seen before, and her body—like Usagi's; like Seiya's—was unearthly. Her skin was brassy gold, like the key-shaped staff in her grasp, and her eyes entirely garnet with no black pupil. The emerald of her cloak, like a thin veil, hid her and then revealed her with each swish.

"Do you remember?"

Usagi moved to stand alongside her. "Not everything," she responded quietly. "There are…gaps. Things I can't place." She eyed her, as the guardian looked out to the horizon. "But you know everything, don't you?"

Setsuna met her eye and nodded. "And you know I can't tell you."

Usagi squeezed her eyes closed. "I made a mistake, Setsuna," she said. "I let Chaos get away when I should have…" She shook her head angrily, and looked to Setsuna once more. "I have to go back…"

Setsuna turned to take her hand—her skin like fire against her own icy palm. "That is a choice that can only lie with you," she replied. "I can manipulate time, but only you can command this universe." She gave her a soft smile. "The Lambda power is yours, alone."

Lambda.

So many words, so many memories, that she didn't fully comprehend but that brought power to the pit of her belly.

Power that made her feel whole—like Seiya did.

She was sure.

She drew Setsuna's palm to her chest and nodded, resolute like Chronos herself. "I have to go back."


Rini settled her head against the silk pillow, eyes fighting sleep as she watched the zooming, sparkling lightshow above the bed that was gently lit by the pink of Proxima's storm-obscured rays. She felt a whirl of exhaustion pass through her; a flicker of uneasiness shudder through her body.

Something is changing…

She felt the mattress dip as Hotaru joined her, folding her petite frame alongside her beneath the covers and reaching out to lace their hands. She turned to her, pink gaze locking with violet, and instantly, she felt it, and she knew Hotaru did, too.

The wrench in her gut as time warped.

The singeing of the edges of her reality.

The plummet as they rewound, jolting them back through time.

The split-second certainty that this time, it was at her future mother's hand. That this time, she wouldn't remember a thing.


Author's Notes:

I actually love writing erotic scenes…I am not a fan of flowery writing or watering down sexual language…but having said that, there is certain language in a story like this that I felt didn't fit the writing style and so have avoided it.

I am considering writing a separate series of single chapters devoted to 'lost moments' of this story, including some more mature scenes. Please let me know in the comments if you would be interested in this, your feedback is appreciated!