[:::eighth:::]

"Come on Usagi get out of bed. God do you honestly think I came all of the way here to see you sleep?" The voice was persistent as it rocked Usagi back and forth on her bed.

"What? It's Saturday. Why do I have to get up." Usagi mumbled as she rolled over. She opened her eyes and a pair of penetrating red ones met them. "Chibi-Usa?!" She thought she was dreaming.

"Yeah it's me, now get up. I can't stay here that long, I have to visit Mamoru too you know." Chibi-Usa grumbled as she continued to poke her 'mother'.

Usagi sat up straight in her bed. "What you're alive?" She jumped out of bed and took the child into her arms squeezing her very tightly.

"Arghhh, stop it you're hurting me!" She screamed but Usagi didn't let her go.

"I'm so happy that you're all right!" This was an understatement. "How long are you here for?" She released her hold on the girl as she waited for an answer.

"Just for the day." The phone ringing interrupted them. "Well aren't you going to answer it?" Chibi-Usa's hands were on her hips as she tapped her foot impatiently.

"I see you haven't changed a bit." Usagi made her way to the phone. "Hello?"

"Hi Usagi. I heard that Chibi-Usa was back for a while. Do you mind if I come over to see her." Hotaru was on the other end bursting with excitement.

"No, not at all, come on over." Before Usagi could even say goodbye Hotaru had hung up the phone. "Hotaru is on her way over to see you." She turned to the pink haired girl.

"Alright!" She threw her hands in the air and ran out of the room. Usagi's head was spinning. She didn't quite understand how Chibi-Usa was alright, but then again she was here so she didn't really care.

Setsuna, Haruka and Michiru showed up at the house about an hour later with a rambunctious Hotaru. "Do you guys want to go to the park to play?" Haruka asked as both smaller girls were hanging off of her like a jungle gym.

"Yeah!" They shouted in unison. The group made their way to the park and the playground. Usagi had been dying to talk to Setsuna and was thinking of a way to pull her aside.

"Usagi can I talk to you?" Setsuna asked her as if she was reading her mind.

"Sure."

"Can you two watch after the kids while I discuss something with Usagi?" Setsuna motioned to Michiru and Haruka. They nodded as they walked away.

"I bet you're surprised to see Chibi-Usa huh?" Setsuna smiled at her.

"Yes, very. I haven't told anyone else about my concerns." Usagi said as she watched Chibi-Usa and Hotaru run around.

"I asked her to come back and see you and Mamoru for a couple of days, I knew you wouldn't believe that she was ok unless you saw it with your own eyes." Setsuna explained.

"So you're saying that Mamoru and I get back together in the future?" Usagi asked.

"Is that what you want?"

"If it means that that is how Chibi-Usa will be born then yes." She turned to face the older woman.

"Well, you guys don't get back together." Setsuna saw a bit of relief in Usagi's eyes as she quickly tried to mask it. "Chibi-Usa is still your daughter though, and Mamoru's too."

"I don't get it. How does that one work out?" Usagi sat puzzled and then saw Seiya and Taiki walking towards them. She waved when she noticed that they had spotted them. Taiki went off to talk to Michiru and Haruka while Seiya joined Setsuna and Usagi.

"Well I guess we can continue this conversation later." Setsuna suggested as she saw Seiya approaching.

"No, it's alright. I tell him everything anyway. He knows about everything so far." Usagi motioned for him to sit down.

"If you guys were having a private conversation I can leave." He suggested. Usagi stopped him from getting back up.

"Alright. Where was I?" Setsuna asked.

"You were telling me that Chibi-Usa was still mine and Mamoru's daughter." Usagi told her. Seiya began to get a little uncomfortable with the subject matter and wished that he had left.

"Right, she is not your biological daughter. You and Mamoru never get married, you are not together as a couple in the future. You each marry some one else. The Earth however accepts the both of you as it's rulers. Therefore there must be an heir to the throne. You and Mamoru each have your own children with your spouses, but adopt Chibi-Usa to be raised by the both of you as an heir. Is this making sense to you?" Setsuna wanted to make sure that Usagi was on the same page.

"So, I marry some one else other than Mamoru, and I have other children, and Chibi-Usa is alright?" Usagi is stunned. Seiya is sitting there bug- eyed too.

"Right. You are not held down by destiny in that respect. I knew you would both be confused that is why Chibi-Usa came back to show you that she was alright." Setsuna was happy that she understood.

"Wait. She's here now?" Seiya asked.

"Do you want to meet her? You might not like her, I didn't at first. She's a brat, but she grows on you." Usagi smiled at this last part.

"Sure I'd love to meet her." Seiya was very interested in seeing this child. The three began to walk over to where Taiki, Haruka and Michiru were sitting.

"That's her with the pink hair. Hey, Chibi-Usa! Come over here, I want to introduce you to some people." Usagi called after her 'daughter'.

Chibi-Usa comes running up with Hotaru close behind. She bows in front of Taiki and Seiya. "Nice to meet you." She says coming up from her curtsy. "Hi Seiya. Hi Taiki. The future Mercury says hello." She laughed at this.

'If she knows us then that means that we are in the Earth's and the Earth senshi's future.' Seiya thought to himself.

"We should go and find the others, if you're only here for the day, they are all going to be excited to see you." Usagi winked at Chibi-Usa, her mood a million times better now.

Usagi contacted all of the other senshi on her communicator. Minako was with Kakyuu and brought her, while Makoto had been with Yaten and brought him. They all met at Rei's temple. Yaten made a funny face as Chibi-Usa entered the room. "There's two of you now? Oh, god I knew it, this has to be the apocalypse!" He commented as he put his hand to his forehead.

Chibi-Usa looked over at Seiya. "Too bad for you guys that he doesn't change at all in the future!" She looked back at Yaten and shot him dagger looks. Seiya just laughed. He was thinking that he liked this kid already.

"Small Lady and I will be leaving in a bit to go and see Mamoru before she goes back to the future." Setsuna explained.

The girls and the Starlights were all sitting around talking and reminiscing about the last time Chibi-Usa was here. They were asking her all sorts of questions about the future. Minako nudged her in the side. "Hey, next time you come you have to bring me some winning lotto numbers, OK?" Makoto smacked her upside the head and that ended that conversation.

"Do Ami and Taiki get married in the future? What about Rei and Yuuchiro?" Minako asked while shoving more cookies than Usagi in her mouth. Both Ami and Rei seemed to blush furiously about this while Taiki and Yuuchiro stayed cool.

"I can't tell you that you know that!" She told them while getting up to leave. "I'll be back soon." She took Hotaru's hand and they walked out. Usagi got up to follow them. Once they were outside, the outers joined them. They were also leaving to see how the prince was doing. "I'll miss you." Chibi-Usa told Usagi. "Don't worry about the future. You seem very happy, whatever you do now can't screw it up. Well maybe not anything you do. I mean don't go on a drinking binge or try to blow up buildings or stuff like that." Everyone laughed as they pictured Usagi detonating large buildings with a huge smile on her face.

Usagi gave her a hug. "I'm going to miss you too. I'm glad you're alright. Tell Mamoru I said hi and to call me when he gets lonely." She pulled back to smile at the small girl. "You should come back more often." She wiped a single tear away.

"Stupid Usagi, you're going to make me cry too." She gave her 'mom' one last hug and took off with Pluto. Everyone watched the scene from the doorway. Usagi made her way back inside with everyone else.

"Why didn't you go with them to see Mamoru?" Ami asked. She had noticed that Usagi hadn't been talking about him lately and thought that maybe it was just because she missed him so much and didn't want people to know how upset she was.

"I have something to tell you guys." Everyone sat down sensing the seriousness in Usagi's voice. "Mamoru and I broke up."

"WHAT!!!" Everyone except Kakyuu and Seiya yelled.

"Hey, well you see everything is alright. Chibi-Usa is fine, you all just saw her!" Usagi came to her own defense pointing at the door that Chibi-Usa has just exited through.

"So you guys get back together in the future then?" Rei was confused along with everyone else. Usagi explained what Setsuna had just told her. This brought everyone up to speed.

The group began to dispurse now that the excitement was over. "Minako can I walk you home?" Yaten asked wanting to catch her before she made plans with Kakyuu.

"Sure." She smiled back at him.

"Oh no you don't." Makoto walked up. "Yaten you promised to walk me home." She pretended to whine.

"Oh yeah, I'm sorry Makoto. Well I guess I'll see you later." He told Minako after winking at Makoto. He and Makoto left on their way home.

"Something funny is going on." Seiya said to Usagi.

"I know what you mean." She nodded in agreement. "I'll ask Makoto about it."

The dusk came and they knew the night sky wasn't far away. "You know the prom is coming up right?" Makoto questioned Yaten.

"I know." He said not really enthused about it.

"Well, I'm not going to be able to go with you to make Minako jealous. I already have a date." Makoto explained to him. "You should stop this game and ask her to go with you. I'm sure she doesn't want to go to her senior prom with another girl, no matter how much she likes her." They soon reached Makoto's apartment.

"I know. I'm going to talk to Kakyuu about it. Obviously she's been spending a lot of time around Minako, maybe she'll have some advise." Yaten said as he put his sunglasses up on his head. It was dark now and he wouldn't be needing them now.

"Good. Have a goodnight." Makoto walked in her building and shut the door. Yaten sighed and turned to walk home.

Usagi, Seiya and Kakyuu were very curious to know what was going on with Yaten and Makoto. The three of them were sitting at the Light's apartment. Kakyuu and Seiya were urging Usagi to call Makoto to get the juicy story. "Come on Odango, don't you want to help Minako out?" Seiya looked at her with a pleading face.

Usagi laughed at him. "You look pathetic." She commented as she continued to laugh.

"No I don't, it's a needy look, not pathetic." While they argued about it Kakyuu became impatient and shoved the phone into Usagi's hand.

"You'd better hurry before Yaten gets home." She warned as Usagi dialed the numbers.

The phone rang and rang. "Hello? Makoto?" Usagi said when Kakyuu and Seiya closed in on her trying to hear Makoto on the other end. She almost forgot what she was going to say or even what she was doing when she noticed how close Seiya's face was to her. Their cheeks were almost touching as he eagerly put his ear to phone. Usagi blushed but didn't move away. She didn't think he realized how close they actually were.

"Hey Usagi. What's up?" Makoto's voice came from the other end.

"Are you alone?" Usagi asked.

"Yeah, Yaten just walked me home and then headed back to his apartment."

"What's going on with you and Yaten?" Usagi asked bluntly, she didn't want to draw the situation out anymore than it had to be. "I mean are you two together?"

"No." Makoto paused. "It's a secret. Do you promise not to tell Minako or Kakyuu?"

"I promise." Usagi replied, she wouldn't be telling Kakyuu, Makoto would be.

"Well, Yaten really likes Minako and he's been getting really upset lately about the amount of time that she is spending with Kakyuu. He wanted to make her jealous by making her think that the two of us are together." Makoto explained.

"OHHHH!" Usagi exclaimed. Now that Seiya and Kakyuu heard what they wanted to know they broke away from Usagi. "I get it now. Well it worked. She was fuming."

"I've got to go, I have a lot of stuff to do before I go to bed." Makoto answered.

"What? It's Saturday night. What stuff could you possibly have to do?" Usagi asked perplexed.

"Nothing important."

Usagi heard Makoto's doorbell ring. "Oh, I get it now. That's that guy that's taking you to the prom huh?"

"Yeah. I didn't know how serious it was so I didn't tell anyone." Makoto paused. "It's not a secret, but you probably shouldn't tell Minako about it."

"I won't. Have fun." Usagi hung up the phone with a smile.