Fair warning, this fic contains a character from my other fic, Sailor Moon: the Paths of Destiny. If you wish to know more about him, go read it. Basically, he is Michiru's twin brother and he also has powers similar to the Senshi. Other than that, he is just like most other people.

Now, the traditional disclaimer applies. I don't own Sailor Moon, but I do own my character, because he is me. I don't own any of the cereals I mention, either, so don't sue. I'm worse than poor, I'm broke and in debt.

I would like to give a huge thank you to Priestess Mars. She, of course, fulfilled her duties as my Muse and helped me fix little errors in the fic, making it probably one of my best works, yet.

Breakfast with the Outers

Wrapping her robe about her, Michiru stepped out of the bathroom, all clean and showered. She was momentarily startled when a blonde-haired blur sped past her and slammed the door. Apparently, Haruka had been waiting. 'Perhaps,' Michiru thought, 'I shouldn't take so long, next time.' The thought had crossed her mind before, but it was always overwhelmed by the wonderful feel of the water cascading over her body as she stood in the shower. This time, the thought fled her mind as a more urgent need came to her attention as she entered the kitchen. She was hungry. Very hungry.

Gliding over to the fridge, she peered inside to get an idea of what she could make. Being the day before grocery day, there wasn't much. She took out two of the last four eggs and proceeded to make herself an omelet. As she put a few pieces of bread in the toaster, Hotaru came skipping in to the kitchen, carrying the comics section of the newspaper. Her dark purple pajamas barely looked slept in and her dark eyes were wide open, showing no trace of sleep.

"Good morning, Michiru-mama!" Michiru had no idea how the girl could be so pleasant this early in the morning, but at least she wasn't like Jeff, who was almost always as grumpy as a bear with a toothache when he woke. Hotaru went over to the cupboard to get her favorite cereal. On the way to the table, she got four bowls, four spoons, and the milk. She set them down in the middle of the table and sat down with her cereal and began reading the comics.

About this time, something that could easily be mistaken for a bear wandered into the kitchen. Dressed in a t-shirt and a pair of grey sweatpants, Jeff came stumbling into view. He almost tripped getting over to the cupboard to get his cereal, but when he sat down to eat, he visibly brightened when he found that a bowl, a spoon, and the milk were already out for him. He glanced over at Hotaru, who grinned broadly while trying to chew at the same time.

"Thank you, Sugar," said Jeff and he reached over to ruffle Hotaru's hair. Hotaru mumbled 'You're welcome' around a mouthful of Cap'n Crunch and went back to reading the comics. Michiru had always wondered where that nickname had come from. It had popped up, all of a sudden, a few weeks ago. He said that it was a sweet nickname for a sweet little girl. Hotaru was sweet, Michiru couldn't argue with that.

Michiru heard the water turn off in the bathroom. She couldn't figure out how anyone could take such a short shower, but when Haruka came into the kitchen, wearing her black bathrobe, she was as clean and fresh as when Michiru had finished with her shower.

"Good morning, Michi," Haruka wound her arms around her lover's waist and kissed her. Michiru luxuriated in Haruka's arms, but the toaster alerted the occupants of the kitchen, telling them that the toast was done. Reluctantly, she left Haruka's arms and pulled her toast out of the toaster and on a plate.

The sound of the shower was heard again, and Michiru was relieved that she wouldn't have to wake up Setsuna again. For the past week, she hadn't been getting enough sleep and she'd been sleeping through her alarm. Scraping the omelet from the pan, she went to join her family at the table. Jeff was reading the comics over Hotaru's shoulder and Haruka was pouring her cereal into one of the bowls Hotaru had got for everyone. Sitting down next to her love, Michiru began to eat her eggs. She was having a hard time keeping a straight face, though, because Haruka's foot was slowly caressing her leg under the table. It tickled! Using the excuse of being thirsty to get away from Haruka's probing foot, she got up to pour herself a glass of orange juice.

The sound of the shower had stopped again. Setsuna came into the kicthen in her dark violet bathrobe, her long, dark green hair shimmering. She went to get her cereal and Michiru wondered how they didn't get all these different breakfast cereals mixed up. Why not just get one big box, or something. Or just have eggs and toast, like she did?

Jeff and Hotaru started giggling at one of the comics and milk dribbled down Hotaru's chin. Michiru reached over to the counter to get a napkin for her, but by the time she had turned back around, Hotaru had already used her sleeve. Sighing, Michiru put the napkin down on the table. As she raised a forkful of eggs to her mouth, she gave a start and almost dropped them. There was Ruka's foot again. She looked over to her with a 'stop-that-right-now' look in her eyes that was unfortunately ruined by the smile on her face. Haruka gave her best ' I'm-so-innocent ' look, but that, too, was ruined by a wicked little smile.

Michiru pulled her gaze from her lover's when she heard a positively disgusting sound. Hotaru had lifted her bowl to her mouth and was slurping the milk out of it. Michiru put her fork down on the table with a bit more force than was necessary, resulting in a metallic sound that grabbed everyone's attention.

"Hotaru-chan, stop that. It's rude and improper." Michiru hated being the bad guy, especially when it resulted in that hurt look that painted Hotaru's face, but she didn't really have a choice. She had to play the role of 'mother'. Haruka got to be 'dad' and got to make things all better with an ice cream cone and a video game. Setsuna was more like an aunt than anything, and even though she helped with raising Hotaru properly, she just wasn't around enough to help much. Jeff was like a big brother. He was quick with a joke and always ready to conspire with her and Haruka against his sister. They also picked the absolute most unfortunate times to fulfill these roles.

Jeff looked at Hotaru, then at Haruka, and then at his sister with a confused look. His grey eyes looked more foggy than like storm clouds, now. He obviously had no idea what was wrong. He shrugged his shoulders and picked up his bowl. 'No,' thought Michiru, 'He isn't...' Intermixed with her thoughts was an overall amusement, though, which annoyed her. She was trying to raise her daughter properly, that's all!

Jeff drained his bowl, making more noise than Hotaru ever could, and set his bowl back down with a satisfied noise. Michiru thought it was over, but Jeff turned his gaze to Haruka, who imitated him. Hotaru's expression brightened with every slurp.

Finally, when Haruka was done, all four of them looked at Setsuna, who had a 'Uh-uh. No, not me' look on her face. Haruka's stare grew a little harder, and she made a few motions with her head in Hotaru's direction. Finally, Setsuna gave in. Raising her bowl to her lips, she mutter something under her breath. It sounded like 'What the hell?', though Michiru couldn't be sure.

As the bowl came down, it revealed that Setsuna had gained a rather comical facial feature. Seeing four amused looks, Jeff and Michiru's being almost identical, Setsuna reached up to her face to find that milk decorated her upper lip. When she wiped it off and glared at the four of them, they couldn't help but burst into laughter. Even Michiru had to admit that it was funny.

As they all rose to put their dishes in the sink, Michiru thought about how wonderful her slightly unorthodox family was and how lucky she was to have them. Today's breakfast had put her in a good mood. As she went to get dressed, she heard the water in the shower turn on for the fourth time today. This time, it had to be either Hotaru or Jeff. She got her answer when she found Hotaru sneaking into the bathroom. Before Michiru could stop her, she heard the toilet flush and a loud yelp from the shower. Hotaru bolted from the bathroom, shrieking with joy at her little prank. 'Hey,' thought Michiru, 'You can't do that to my brother. Only I can do that to my brother.' And with that, she took off down the hall to catch Hotaru and get her ready for the day.

Well, that's the end. I hope you liked it. If you want to know a little bit more about my character, please, go read my other fic. I promise that you'll enjoy it. Until then.

-Prince Neptune.