[:::twelfth::::]

All eyes were on the two in the middle of the room. Neither of them moved and no one said anything. Kakyuu stood in her doorway, she held the picture of Seiya and Usagi in her hand. The pressure in the room was too much. Seiya slowly turned around to look back at Usagi. He had tears in his eyes. Yaten and Taiki could only imagine what kind of torture he had been putting himself through if he was crying. He never cried. "I love you." Usagi said again as she stepped up closer to him.

The room waited with agonizing anticipation to see what he would do. She had finally said it, those three little words that she had been trying to get out for so long. He didn't say anything, was she too late? What make up she still had on began to smudge even more as the tears streamed down her face. Through her tears she could see his lips parting to say something, she didn't want to hear him reject her so she pulled him close to her and kissed his lips.

The kiss silenced him and surprised him at the same time. Kakyuu felt a sigh of relief escape her lips and a weight was lifted off of her heart. With their friends standing around them they broke away from their kiss. Usagi looked up into his eyes to try to see his reaction. She saw a smile cross his lips. "I love you too, Odango." He said just before he kissed her again.

Like in some cheesy movie everyone around them cheered and clapped as he lifted her up and spun her around. (I know you could cut the cheese with a knife!) Anyway.

The party resumed but Seiya and Usagi didn't join it. Instead the couple went outside to sit a ways down the street from the apartment building. Usagi was still wearing her gown, she didn't care any more. They sat down on the grass; Usagi's material flowed all around her and covered a large portion of the lawn. Seiya sat beside her in a relaxed position leaning against his two elbows. "I'm sorry for the way I acted earlier, it wasn't right." He looked over at her.

Usagi still being naïve didn't know what was wrong with him. "Yeah, why were you so pissed off at me anyway?" She was playing with the fabric of her dress.

"It didn't bother me when I found out that you were going with Mamoru. I thought that since he was bringing you to me that it was ok. But then when I heard people talking about seeing you and him parked in the park and that you were hugging or something, I started to wonder." He looked over at Usagi to make sure she was following him.

"So you got jealous because I was hugging another guy?" She was cute in her innocence. She began to pick at the grass beneath her.

Seiya smiled at her. "No, that wasn't it." He looked back up at the stars. "I noticed how you tried to pull me aside a lot tonight. Then I figured that you wanted to tell me about you and Mamoru getting back together or that you still loved him. I was sitting on the balcony talking with Kakyuu when Mamoru dropped you off. I didn't know why you just sat down on the sidewalk and I figured that you didn't want to come up and now you were going to try to avoid me. I couldn't take it again. I thought that this time was different, I thought that I had a chance, so I believed. My whole world was crashing down around me, nothing seemed right and I thought my dream was forever gone, now just a taunting memory. I wasn't going to let you see how much you'd hurt me again." He paused and Usagi said nothing. "But I'm glad I was wrong." He turned his head to smile at her.

"Oh Seiya." Usagi threw herself at him and wrapped him in a warm embrace. "I'm so sorry, I didn't know that it looked like that." She sobbed into his white shirt.

"Shhh, Odango, it's alright. Everything turned out great." He tried to comfort her by holding her close to him and stroking her hair.

"The whole reason that I as trying to pull you aside tonight was to tell you what you made me say in front of everyone!" Usagi picked her head up and smiled at him. She didn't care that she had done it in front of everyone, she had finally gotten it out.

The party was still going on back at his apartment and they decided that they should join it so that no one worried about them. Now that Kakyuu didn't have Seiya moping around her she was finally free to have fun. Her and Minako were dancing outragiously around the room. Some of the guests had changed back into normal clothes. Usagi decided that this was a good idea and headed towards Kakyuu's room with Kakyuu, Rei, and Makoto. Minako liked being dressed up too much and refused to take her dress of. Now she was dancing with Yaten who insisted that he was a way better dancer than she was.

When the girls opened the door they were surprised to find a couple making out in her room. "TAIKI!" Kakyuu yelled. "You have your own room for that stuff!" Her hands were on her hips and smoke came out of her ears. The girls all laughed at them and this drew the attention of Seiya, Yaten and Minako. Everyone shared in a good laugh as the embarrassed couple made there way out the door.

"I thought you two of all people would have been smarter than that!" Yaten called after them. Laughter erupted again. As they turned even redder.

When the guests began to leave they decided that it was time for some sleep. They pulled out pillows and blankets and made beds on the living room floor. They were all going to sleep in the living room together so that no one got the wrong idea. Everyone was set up in the living except for Yaten. He said that he was too delicate to sleep on the hard floor so he was going to sleep in his bed. "Yeah, go trim your nose hairs!" Kakyuu called after him.

Since they were all in the room no one saw a problem with the guys sleeping next to the girls. When the lights went out Seiya decided that his little 'bed' wasn't close enough to Usagi's and inched it over. All of the sudden the lights came back on. Kakyuu, who was standing at the light switch pointed at Seiya. "I know what you're doing!" She said in a sort of maternal tone. This gave her an idea.

When the lights were back off Kakyuu whispered to Minako and they switched places. (Kakyuu was still next to Misaki.) The night went on. They had talked for a little while until virtually everyone was asleep. Yaten got up out of bed and snuck into the living room where everyone was sleeping. It was very dark he could barely make out where he was going. Good thing he remembered where Minako was laying though.

He saw her form on the ground and laid down next to it. He put his arm around her and started to cuddle up next to her. "Minako." he whispered into her ear. He didn't realize that it was Kakyuu. Kakyuu answered him with a mmmm. "I missed you." He said to her.

"Really you did? Then why are you over there with Kakyuu?" Minako sat up and startled him. When she had sat up she switched on the lamp that was near her. She could see the bright blush on Yaten's face as he held Kakyuu in his arms. He immediately retracted his arms and jumped away. Kakyuu and Minako both got a good laugh at him, the laughter soon ended when he ran and jumped on Minako for making fun of him.

The next morning everyone awoke to the smell of breakfast. The apartment wasn't as trashed as they thought it would be. Makoto and Rei were the first ones awake and made there way into the kitchen to see who was cooking. It was Seiya and Usagi. "What you let her cook?!" Rei asked in disbelief.

"Hey, I can cook you guys just never gave me the chance, and besides, Seiya is doing all of the cooking, not me. I just mixed the batter for the pancakes and cut some fruit." She held her hands out in front of her to show them that she didn't cut herself.

"Well I'm impressed, does this mean that you're going to start cooking for me now?" Makoto asked her jokingly.

"Hey just because I can cook doesn't let you off the hook for making me food!!!" Usagi warned Makoto by waving a threatening spatuala at her. The four had a good laugh and pretty soon everyone else woke up. They were all sitting around the dining area eating their meals.

"So, did you all hear the good news?" Kakyuu asked as she shoveled her breakfast into her mouth just as fast as Usagi was. Everyone looked confused. "I guess you haven't then." Shoving some more pancakes into her mouth she continued. "We're going to live here forever now." She smiled.

Ami didn't really have a reaction, Kakyuu guessed that Taiki had already told her, Makoto and Rei said that it was great and Minako jumped on Yaten. (Who had already finished eating.)

"Now you have to get used to me doing this to you everyday again!" Minako said while hanging off of him. Yaten just rolled his eyes back in his head.

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The school year went by quickly, and graduation was soon upon them. "The position of validvictorian this year was tied between two extraordinary students." The principal's voice boomed over the speakers. "Miss Ami Mizuno and Mr Taiki Kou both have that honor this year." He walked away from the microphone as Taiki and Ami both made their way up to the podeum. They were dressed in their graduation robes as were the rest of their peers.

"Thank you for coming today everyone." Taiki said first as he stepped up to the microphone. Ami and Taiki had written a joint speech to present to everyone.

As the end of the speech drew near Ami was the one to finish it up. "I don't think that any of us could have made it without the support of our friends and families. We are soon going to branch off into this world and fufill our dreams that we have worked so hard to make possible. I just want to remind everyone to remember the people who made you who you are today and who have gotten you this far. Let's always remember our friends no matter how much geography we put between ourselves and always be there for one another."

Seiya was sitting next to Yaten as they were seated in alphabetical order, he turned around and gave Usagi a wink to let her know that he was thinking of her. I'm not going to tell you that she was graduating with honors and that she brought her grades up significantly, because that would be a lie. But I will tell you that she was the happiest that she had ever been.

Kakyuu was sitting next to Misaki (they were still together ^_^) as his last name was Laski. They held hands and made Yaten sick to his stomach. Ami's comment was directed towards her senshi friends inparticular. They had all made plans to go out in the world and make their dreams come true. Minako was on her way to become an idol, Yaten surprisingly decided that he had enough of being in front of the camera and decided to step behind it and be Minako's on the road photographer. Makoto had her own bakery which her boyfriend helped her to run. Ami and Taiki were going to study medicine in Germany while Rei and Yuuchiro took up the reigns at the shrine. Kakyuu was going into politics. She missed being a ruler and being able to boss people around so she figured this would be the best career path for her. Misaki had won a baseball scholarship at a nearby university.

Usagi was still unsure about what she wanted to do. Her dream was to become a wife to her beloved, but it was too soon for that. She decided that she was going to try out design school. She knew she didn't have the discipline to be a model but hey, she certainly could dress one! Seiya's grades were just about as bad as Usagi's so therefore he was very lucky that he had won a football scholarship to a national university and would be studying architecture as his major. He wanted to build things. Funny though how he only accepted the football scholarship to the university that he knew Usagi was studying at!