"I wonder where she is... " Michiru said, as her and Haruka drove down the road looking for Hotaru. Michiru was really worried about her. When Hotaru left the house, after Haruka had told her off, she looked like death itself... well, she was death, but she looked so... lonely. When Michele had seen her eyes, it sent chills and sadness to the bottom of her heart.
"I don't know... she couldn't have gotten far." Haruka said, looking down the rainy street. Michele looked at Haruka and sighed. Haruka looked mad, but to Michiru, who truly knew Haruka, she knew she was worried. Haruka was the kind of person to hide all emotions from the world, and she always looked cold, emotionless. "She never liked running, so she's probably close by..." but Haruka knew that Hotaru was stronger that she looked... well, not physically, but if she put her mind to something, she could be in Canada by now.
"Well," Michiru continued, "we should think like her, where would she go in the state she's in?"
Haruka looked pensive for a minute before she spoke up. "If she was lonely, she'd always go look for Chibi-Usa and do things with her..."
"Exactly! And where could you usually find her with Chibi-Usa?" Michiru asked/
"They sometimes went to the..." Haruka realized where Hotaru was, and sped off in the car towards the park.
*****
Hotaru sat on the fountain edge and looked around the park. It was raining, and everyone was probably at home with friends and hot cocoa... perfect. Hotaru sighed. No one would care if she left. And no -one else would come out in the chilling rain to find her. She shivered in the cold rain as it pounded lightly on her skin. She loved this park. Even in the rain, it was still her favourite place to be. It reminded her of Chibi-Usa, and thinking about her brought tears to her eyes, but she didn't care. 'What friend would I be if I didn't care?' she thought. She knew that the pain was necessary, it reminded her, of all the good times that they had, and how much she missed her. They always came to this park to play… 'Oh gosh… Michiru will know to look for me here…' Hotaru thought, and with that she got up, took one last look at the park, and started to get up. 'Well… just a little while longer,' she thought, as she sat back down to enjoy the rain that splashed on her face
*****
At the Tsukina residence, the phone rang. Usagi and Minako both made a mad dash for the phone. Usagi was having a study/sleep over party there, and all the Inner senshi were there. Makoto made it first to the phone and picked up the phone, and narrowly missing a violent crash as Usagi and Minako hit the wall.
"Hello? Yeah, how are… What??? Um… OK, we'll go looking for her… OK, we'll meet you at the park… OK, by!"
"WELL???" asked everyone simultaneously. Makoto grabbed her coat and took off towards the door.
"Come on guys, Hotaru's missing, and we're to go to the park to look for her!" Makoto ran out the door, followed by everyone grabbing their coats and dragging Usagi, who was complaining about not finishing her rice ball.
They all got to the park, except Usagi, who was a slow runner and was about a block away. They all split up to look for her, not giving a second thought to the fact that Usagi was still completely oblivious to what they were doing and complaining about the rain.