At first glance Haru and Takeshi would have been very similar. Both of them had bright, wide smiles, and they were social and extroverted by nature. 'People' people, in a way.

But Hotaru had known Takeshi and his surprising selectiveness for a while now, and it didn't take her long to notice that Haru and Takeshi were different. Takeshi was choosy. He held everyone except those he 'approved' of outside an invisible line.

Haru was not. What one saw was what one got with her, open and eager and embracing. It might have been overwhelming to be on the receiving end of that kind of enthusiasm, and Hotaru had to admit, she was also a little overwhelmed.

Haru's way of overwhelming someone, though, was the good way. The kind that gave and gave and gave, like an endless ocean.

Hotaru, who was always weak to outgoing people that treated her with genuine affection for whatever reason, didn't push her away. More accurate would be to say that she put up the resistance of a paper bag against a tsunami.

Not to say that Takeshi wasn't a good friend. He was. It was just that Haru was a little like how Chibi-Usa had been when they first met, with the same kind of open acceptance. Not asking for anything, not judging her for differences . . .

Haru wasn't Chibi-Usa, wasn't the same as the pink-haired girl that had been her saviour, but still. Hotaru quite liked her.

"She sounds interesting," Rei noted. The Soldier of Fire was here to check up on Hotaru, and to restock her paper charms. Hotaru was fairly weak to possession, something Rei and Ami theorized being due to a combined effort of Mistress 9's possession, and Sailor Saturn not having had much exposure to various types of magic. Unlike the others, she had more experience fighting in this life than the previous, and even then, she had fought less than her fellow guardians, and hadn't had the chance to build up an 'immunity'.

Add in her current condition, and it meant the sailor soldiers were worried she might be possessed by a ghost without anyone around to help her.

Kawahira had been offended to hear that, and had actually grumbled about it.

"I might not be a sailor guardian, but I'm more than enough to keep a few wayward spirits away, thank you very much," he had muttered before taking her out to eat ramen. Three bowls had to be consumed before he was appeased. They were scolded by Granny later, for ruining their appetites, but Hotaru learned that Kawahira was also skilled in not just illusions, but also exorcisms and fooling the senses.

None of the sailor soldiers were taking any chances, however, and so Hotaru received, in her usual care packages, papers written by Rei herself, the very ones she used to exorcise evil spirits. By now it was habit to carry at least one of them on her person.

"She is," Hotaru said. Speaking of Rei's charms, Haru had found one and promptly gone on to weave a wild tale of the two of them becoming priestesses to fight evil. Haru didn't know much about being a priestess, that had been clear, but despite the factual inconsistencies Hotaru had enjoyed herself. "Come to think of it, I think she's a little like Minako-san."

Rei had a talent for asking hard questions, and her talent shone in that moment, unfortunately for Hotaru. "How does she get along with your first friend?"

Hotaru winced. "They haven't met yet?"

Rei smiled, a little touch of impishness to her usual composed smile. "Would you like a good luck charm for that?"

Because that was reassuring to hear, coming from a woman with psychic powers.

"Please don't jinx me," Hotaru begged, and Rei chuckled.

"Get it over with sooner rather than later," the young priestess suggested to her after declaring her to be in good spiritual health.

Hotaru knew she was right, and sighed.

Takeshi was surprised when Hotaru asked if he wanted to meet another friend of hers.

His exact words were: "You have friends other than me?"

Which was a little rude, and she told him exactly that. She had Chibi-Usa, first and unforgettable friend, she had Takeshi and now she had Haru. As Setsuna might say, quality, not quantity, was what was important.

"Haha, sorry, didn't mean it that way." Takeshi shrugged and grinned. "And sure."

Haru also took it well, overall.

"A boyfriend?" Haru gasped. "Dangerous!"

"Takeshi's not a boyfriend," Hotaru said patiently. "He's a friend. And a boy." Also, that seemed to be her newly adopted verbal tic. English practice was good, and so was being bilingual. Good on Haru, taking the initiative.

"I see!" Haru smacked a fist against her palm. "This is a fight to determine who gets to be Hotaru-chan's best friend!"

"Not at all." That was the last thing she wanted. Takeshi was tall for his age, and healthy, but Haru was also a very determined person when she set her mind on something. Whatever the outcome of a fight happened to be between the two of them, Hotaru did not want it. "No fighting. Please?"

They couldn't meet at TakeSushi, because that was Takeshi's place, and if things turned bad she didn't want it to be at the Yamamoto family's business. The library couldn't work because it would be rude to be loud there. Going to someone's house was also out of the question, especially since the two didn't even know each other.

Hotaru met them at the park.

"Haru, this is Yamamoto Takeshi," she introduced. "Takeshi, Miura Haru."

It was almost anti-climatic – and therefore such a relief – how easily they got along.

Takeshi peered at Haru, and Haru, though nervousness was clear on her face, stared right back, head tilted up because Takeshi was tall for his age but by no means demonstrating any signs of deference. One staring contest after being introduced, and something had passed between them as Hotaru metaphorically wrung her hands together and hoped for the best.

She might have been overreacting, but she still remembered being a bit of a jealous brat over Chibi-Usa making new friends. And while Hotaru was nowhere near the charming person Chibi-Usa was, sometimes people just didn't mix, for whatever reasons they had.

Luckily for her, she made friends with good people who didn't go around picking fights or jealously guarding their friend.

"Nice to meet you, Haru," Takeshi said, easy grin spreading over his face, and never had the sight of his usual smile brought Hotaru such relief as it did then. "You can call me Takeshi. A friend of Hotaru's is a friend of mine."

"Hahi?" Haru started at his sudden change in atmosphere, before she matched the expression with her own. "Alright, Takeshi-kun!"

They got along like a house on fire, which was a relief for her.

What surprised Hotaru – and yet didn't, in some ways – was how they easily became friends, but never left her out. She was better than she had been, but at the heart of things Hotaru was a fairly quiet soul, and she was nowhere near as active as Takeshi or Haru, in terms of personality and physical activity. Takeshi had just started baseball, too, finding something to be truly passionate about, and Haru loved gymnastics, and the two of them had the most difficulty staying still, but still they decided they liked her enough to stay friends with her.

That she wasn't easily replaced meant she was significant to them, somehow, and Hotaru appreciated their presence in her life more than she could ever tell them.

"What is it like?"

Kawahira rarely asked her questions where he seemed to actually want an answer from her. Perhaps due to his age and experience, he had a way of noticing things about her before she did. His questions were usually to make conversation.

Hotaru wasn't sure what he was referring to, here. This was a question where he genuinely was curious, in his slightly detached, lethargic way.

He clarified. "Having had the power to see and transcend, and not being able to access it all of a sudden."

Hotaru considered it, bemused by both the question and him. Years later, he was only now asking this about her?

But then again, she and he looked almost identical to when they had first met, two souls unchanging outside, unaffected by the stream of time. In the grand scale of things, she guessed that it wasn't all that long ago, not to him.

"Weird," she said, a rather ineloquent answer. It wasn't a falsehood, but it also felt too simple to be the full answer, so she clarified. "Different."

"I could have guessed that myself," Kawahira said dryly.

True. She needed to try to give him a better answer. Hotaru tapped her fingers against her knee, thinking.

"It felt like a change in viewpoint," she said at last.

From standing above, far above – like, say, on a tower, or in a high-floored building – to standing on the ground level. There was less she could see from the ground than she could high up.

But she could also see things up close.

Sailor Saturn was meant, in her previous life, to be active for a very short amount of time. Her precognition came from that – so she could assess the situation quickly, and do what she needed to do. Seeing the main stream of things, the 'flow', so to say, was easy. Destiny and fate were, after all, the course of events leading to a destination, and it was her duty to ensure that the necessary rebirth would be given only when the time was right.

It gave her the ability to see far from above, but not up close. Not the individual details, the small threads and knots and shades that made up the entire tapestry.

The whole picture.

Both had their pros and cons. Hotaru would not deny that it was nice to be 'grounded', to be able to focus on the details.

But when it came down to making a final decision, it didn't matter what her preferences were. Hotaru's choice would always have to be to see the whole picture.

"Do you miss the power?"

Kawahira was in a questioning mood, but he had never discouraged her own questions, even if he had not answered some, nor had he forbidden her from sharing information with the others, especially Mamoru. Hotaru saw no reason to not answer his question now.

"I do."

It was a part of her. But if it had just been that, she might have been okay.

It was because like this, bound and restrained, she could not be with the others, could not help them protect the solar system, their princess, that she missed it the most. What allowed her to be with what she valued most out of reach –

Frustration was understating things. Even if she had friends, even if it was a life of peace and contentment, there was a part of her that would always return to her duty.

His eyes slid towards her, hidden depths behind the dead-eyed stare. Haruka, when she had met the man, had been worried, though it wasn't until she came to Namimori to visit that she shared her reason for suspicion with Hotaru.

"He looks like your father," she had muttered, eyes diverting to the left as was her habit when she was embarrassed.

To be perfectly honest, Hotaru had not even thought there was a resemblance between Tomoe Souichi and the form of Kawahira Riku until Haruka pointed it out. Partly because she hadn't thought about her biological father with all that was going on, and partly because they were so different in their mannerisms.

Tomoe Souichi had always dressed in fine clothes, intent on presenting an immaculate form to the world, and even then his true madness could not always be held back. He wore his polite mask, and he was cold.

Acheron, Kawahira Riku, dressed sloppily without concern for how he might appear to other people. He slumped and hunched, whined and bemoaned, and he drifted in and out, no schedule to his coming and going.

He was still hard to read, and Hotaru knew that perhaps she would never fully know him, but she knew one thing, even without the reassurance Helios had given them all.

Kawahira did not wish harm on them.

He kept one step's distance and Hotaru knew Granny had noticed it, she must have, but chose not to comment on it, at least not while Hotaru was around. It was the kind of distance that was purposeful, deliberate.

If she had to compare, it was more the type of distance she had observed with Setsuna, sometimes, when the Guardian of Pluto took a quiet moment to observe her family with a fond look in her knowing eyes, basking in the peace and loving in the way she knew best, by watching from afar – as far as she could bear to step away. As if sometimes she couldn't quite believe she deserved what she saw and needed a little objective space to catch her breath.

And that was familiar to Hotaru, in a good way.

So Hotaru had no problems meeting his eyes and answering his questions. There was no fear in her, no meek subservience that came the way it had when Tomoe Souichi had been alive and her guardian.

"But it's okay," Hotaru reassured him, reading mild concern in his eyes. He never said as much, but Hotaru knew, perhaps better than anyone, how to listen to the silence. "I can wait. I know they're waiting for me, too."

A choice, Granny had said, made all the difference. She didn't know how long it would take, but she knew that they would always be waiting for her.

Hotaru didn't feel trapped, knowing of that certainty in the future.

"Hmm." Kawahira mulled over her words before he sighed. "I suppose that's all I can ask for."

He reached out to ruffle her hair, as usual, before he stood up from his seat. He didn't bother straightening out his clothes, rumpled from sitting on them without care.

"See you at dinner, Hotaru-kun," he said. It was the first time he had called her by her first name, and Hotaru blinked before she smiled.

"Don't ruin your appetite by eating ramen again, Uncle," she replied.

"Oh gods, Granny's corrupted you while I've been away." Kawahira faked a shudder, but Hotaru caught sight of the grin on his lips as he left.

When Haru was younger, she had once been filled with the fear that anything she didn't see would disappear and cease to exist.

That had led her to run around the house, frantically trying to keep an eye on all the rooms. Her mother, after the third time she circled the house loudly scrambling around, had stopped her to ask what was wrong, and tried to reassure her that the world wouldn't disappear just because she wasn't looking at it.

Haru knew that now, but that was exactly how she had felt when she first met Hotaru. Like she would disappear, slip away from the rest of the world if no one was looking.

That was why Haru first began paying attention to her, because the older girl had looked ready to disappear like the mist. Haru decided she liked Hotaru when she didn't make fun of Haru for anything. She listened, and she accepted Haru.

Hotaru was, Haru sometimes thought, the older sister she had always wanted but never had. Partly because Haru was an only child and if she had another sibling, they would have to be younger, regardless of gender, and partly because Haru had never met anyone who was like Hotaru.

She was just good at everything. She knew the answers to every question Haru or Takeshi had, she could play the violin and make the most beautiful music, and she was the prettiest person Haru had ever seen, prettier than even people on television.

If there was ever a person who was like a princess from the fairy tale books Haru had liked to read, it was Hotaru.

The more Haru thought about it, the better it fit. Hotaru couldn't go to school because she had poor health, so she was watched over by Granny, like a princess with a fairy godmother, and she seemed to be waiting for someone special to come to her.

Haru shared this theory with Takeshi.

"Huh?" he said.

Haru huffed.

"Hotaru-chan's a princess," she explained, getting a little upset that he couldn't see the obvious. "See how she's pretty and good at everything?"

"She's not very good at baseball," Takeshi replied immediately. Haru resisted the urge to slap her forehead with her palm.

Instead, because she was a mature person who was trying to teach him something, she patiently spelled it out for him. "Princesses don't play baseball."

"They should." He shrugged. "It's fun."

Well, sure, but when did a princess, wearing a crown and a pretty dress, ever play baseball? Those weren't clothes you wore to swing bats or slide into bases. She had seen how many clothes Takeshi went through, and if a princess did that with her clothes that would be terrible.

Also, the balls Takeshi threw were really scary.

"My point is," Haru said. "She's a princess. So we should be her knights and protect her."

Takeshi considered the idea seriously. He didn't have anything against princesses or knights, but there was one thing that was a requirement. "Can I be a baseball-playing knight?"

At this point Haru had accepted that Takeshi came with baseball, like how the summer came with heat and the sun came as a bright ball of light. "Sure."

And that was how he got on board with the idea as well.

Grabbing the camera that her father had given her, one that made pictures immediately, Haru and Takeshi made their way to the usual place. Hotaru was confused when Haru declared she was a princess and they her knights, but accepted it soon, and without arguing as much as Takeshi had.

"And a princess needs a lot of things," Haru said. "A prince on a white horse. A tiara. Pretty dresses. A castle."

Hotaru bit back a smile like she sometimes did and gave her own addition. "A kingdom."

"I don't think we have princes around," Takeshi said, with the manner of someone pointing out the obvious. "Or white horses. And you forgot the knights."

"We're her knights," Haru answered, trying not to huff in exasperation at his lack of imagination. "And to get a prince, a princess needs – a portrait!"

"Huh?" said both Takeshi and Hotaru.

"A beautiful princess has portraits made," Haru explained. Hotaru always read the hard books and Takeshi didn't like reading, which meant that Haru was the expert on fairy tales among them. "And then has them sent to other kingdoms so that all the princes can see how beautiful she is."

"We don't know any princes," Takeshi said. Haru made a frustrated gesture at him, but he laughed it off.

"We'll be prepared if we run into any!" Haru insisted, showing them the camera.

Hotaru giggled.

"I don't know about marrying princes," she said. "But okay. Let's take some pictures."

"Sounds fun," agreed Takeshi, finally getting with it.

"Say cheese!" Haru ordered, and they took turns taking pictures. Some of them ended up very blurry, and the ones Hotaru took were the best ones, but they split them into threes to keep.

It was only at home, when Haru was putting the pictures into her album that her smile slipped away. Sometimes, Hotaru was a little too much like a princess from a fairy tale, like the ones that fell into a deep sleep. Her eyes grew far and mysterious, almost as secretive as she was.

Hotaru was her best friend, and sometimes Haru worried that one day she would disappear like a fairy and never be seen again.

Haru tried to not worry about it. Hotaru wouldn't just leave, at least not without telling them, she knew that now. Haru just didn't want her to leave, at all. She wanted Hotaru to be there as they grew up, so they could have double weddings in big white matching dresses and the prettiest bouquet of flowers. Hotaru's husband would be like a prince, and Haru wanted a prince of her own, too, someone kind and gentle and brave. They'd live next to each other and raise their kids together to be best friends as well. She'd be the best costume designer in Japan, and her husband and Hotaru and maybe Hotaru's husband could be her models. Maybe their kids could even get married so she and Hotaru would actually be sisters.

And then maybe, that way, Hotaru would stop feeling like she would disappear at any moment.

AN: Just for that last alone Huinari considered Belphegor/Haru. He's a prince, so technically Haru can't complain (readers: this sadist).

This chapter makes reference to Chibi-Usa's picture diary, where Hotaru was once possessed by a ghost. Usagi's response to that was 'Another ghost?!' So I took that and ran with it. If you think about it, Hotaru's been possessed by Mistress 9 (and her own soul/Sailor Saturn couldn't come out until Sailor Moon released the power of the LSC and the Moon Chalice), by a ghost (which I thought was a little weird) and also been controlled with the other senshi by Galaxia. Ergo, sensitivity to possession and Rei making sure she has the ofuda to keep her safe, especially now.

(Kawahira dislikes this because he's more than competent in that area, thank you very much)

Sweet Dreams~