Title: 'Boogiemen, Dragons, and Tricksters'

Author: Ayrki

Email: ayrki@yahoo.com

Beta: Just me, myself, and I

Series: Sailormoon

Genre: Romance

Rating: PG-13 (or M for Australia and anywhere else that uses a different scale) just because it has Shoujo-ai in it, and to be safe.

Chapter or Part: Epilogue

Disclaimer: Nope, still not mine. It is much more fun this way, though. No responsibility or constancy.

Summary: Okay, so it's supposed to be a short ten or so page Christmas fic. This is being written in response to a challenge proposed by Matthias (AKA MysticMew) on the Stars In Love yahoo group. All that the challenge called for was a story of about ten pages that had Minaru content either mainly or minorly. It just has to be in there. So, it's a fluffy little shoujo ai involving Minako and Hotaru.

Timeline: It's confusing, abstract, and downright impossible to figure out. With that said, this story takes place in the Inner senshi and Hotaru's last year of high school. After the defeat of Galaxia, Hotaru aged enough so that she is about a year, year and a half younger than the Inner soldiers. This takes place very close to Christmas, as it is a Christmas fic. But you already figured that one out, huh? ^_^

Author's notes: They are at the bottom this time.

22nd of October

It's amazing and hard to believe that it has truly been almost a year. So much has happened since Christmas last year. Namely my Graduation! We also all started University and oddly enough, I find I like it. Maybe it's the fact that I don't have to get up at ungodly hours of the morning and trudge to school.

Guess what I am studying. Go on! Well, I'm actually taking a few different courses. One of them is my music class; I am not giving up my dream of making it big! Then again, who says I should have to, right? I am also talking acting classes part time and next spring is my acting debut! Yup, I've made it to a degree. The school is putting on a play in the spring and I took the lead!

On the other hand.well, I have fingers, silly. Ha-ha. If Hotaru were here, I'd be smacked for that, or she would at least roll her eyes and sigh. (She is so much like Haruka at times that it is down right scary!) Anyway, I am also taking psychology courses too. Yes, I listened to the little firefly and have found that she had hit on something when she suggested it. I can't say that it is not hard work. It is, but I don't mind it at all, if anything, I enjoy learning so much. I suppose it comes from the fact that what I am studying will let me help people one day.

Therefore, along with my dreams of being an idol or a singer, I have the dream of psychology and helping people. Then of course, there is the dream of Crystal Tokyo, but at least that's still a few years away. That is the wonderful thing about dreams, they change in an instant or stay with you forever. You can achieve them in a great triumph, or you can wake up one day and realise that you achieved your dream without even knowing it was there.

That's the wonderful thing about being human. We dare to dream and hope and won't let the negative get us down. You can't take someone's hopes and dreams away from them, only they can give them up. That is why we fight so hard to protect Earth and our home, and that is why we have never failed.

Hotaru and I are still together. Ha! As if there was any doubt as to if we would be! Seriously, though, I have found in Hotaru everything I didn't know I was looking for. On the surface, we seem as different as night and day.well, dawn and twilight as Usagi-chan once said. But, doesn't the moon need the sun to shine? Does not the light need the darkness to exist? Either way, I don't care. I love Hotaru with all my heart and I don't think anything will ever change that. Even in the next life, I know I will seek out my little firefly.

As each day passes, we learn more about each other and ourselves. Sometimes, I can't wait to go sleep because I know the morning and the next day will hold so many discoveries for us. Not that the nights don't have a little exploration or discoveries made. (I'd really get thumped for that one!) When I discovered the feelings that I harboured for the little raven, I spent time with her and experienced her discoveries of our world again. Now, I do the same again; we take new delight and enjoyment in the things we do and explore. Even something as simple as a walk in the park is an amazing experience each and every time. Since finding and recognizing my feelings, I have learned much of myself. I have also come to terms with parts of my past that before I simply blocked from my mind. I suppose that is just part of being in love; you learn about each other and teach the other things about them that they didn't know.

I love her more than ever; each day, I swear I fall more in love with her. Yeah, I know, really sappy. But isn't that what love is? Being so stuck on some one that it seems like every time you see them, you fall for them all over again?

The others accepted the change in our relationship without even blinking; I think it helped to see how happy we were with each other. Although, at one moment, Mako-chan did accuse me of being a 'cradle robber.' Not that I denied it! (

It's been amazing and wonderful, this journey of ours. Hotaru has helped me with demons that I had forgotten that I had, as I did with her. If there had ever been any doubt in my mind if we were really meant to be, then it was erased when she healed wounds I had buried so deeply.

Maybe we don't know what will happen tomorrow. Maybe we don't know what the world has in store for us. Maybe the world is going to throw some seemingly impossible trials at us. Maybe we don't know what the future holds for us. What I do know, is that I am as prepared as I can ever be as long as I have my friends to surround me, and Hotaru to love. After that, everything is seems so trivial.

Surrounded by beauty of love, eh? Maybe, just maybe.

(from the journal of Aino Minako)

~~~~~

The beautiful young woman with long blond hair and stunning blue eyes closed the leather bound journal and placed the cap on her pen. Sighing contently, she glanced out over the park and the lake. The trees were changing colours, creating a breath-taking sight with a beautiful mixture of colours on the crisp autumn day. She sat at the picnic table watching a young family in the park play for a few minutes, her slender fingers idly tracing the symbol and script on the cover of the journal. It was moments like these that made all of her trials worth it; all the sacrifices and pain suddenly not mattering anymore.

She stretched her arms over her head and rolled her shoulders before leaning forward to rest her arms on the table, preparing to watch the happenings of the world a little longer. Sometimes it was just nice to sit back and watch the world go by; you just had to remember to get out there and join it before it left you behind.

It wasn't much later when she felt the familiar presence; yet, she gave no indication of her awareness. Not even when they slid onto the bench next to her and watched the various people in the park. After a moment, however, she uncrossed her arms and slipped the left one around the younger girls shoulders, drawing her tight against her. In response, the smaller one sighed contently and rested her head against the blond beauty's shoulder.

"So, can I come home now," Aino Minako finally asked, laughter colouring her voice.

"You could always come home. It just would have made things a little more interesting," her companion replied.

Minako laughed lightly, "Hotaru, it would have been almost impossible to prepare a surprise birthday party with me in the apartment. And don't even try and deny what you guys were doing. You lie terribly when it comes to me." Tomoe Hotaru couldn't help but smile, knowing the other was correct.

"How did you know? Did Usagi-chan or Mako-chan slip up?" Hotaru asked.

Minako shook her head. "Nah, actually Usagi-chan is has been really good about those kinds of things lately. It is really rather simple." Hotaru pulled away enough to see Minako's face, who smiled down at the raven- haired girl. "Think about it: what day is it, firefly? And why else would I be chased out of the apartment and told to 'go amuse myself?'" Minako raised an eyebrow to further her inquiry.

Hotaru laughed. "You weren't told to 'go amuse yourself.' I gave you that pass to that spa and told you to go and relax."

"Which is code for 'go away while we plan and prepare party,'" Minako said dryly.

Hotaru leaned up and kissed Minako's cheek softly, "Come on, you. Let's go home." She slid out off of the bench and stood, holding out her hand for the older girl. Minako smiled and stood, taking the offered hand. Fingers intertwined, much like their souls, the two young women turned and walked out of the park, the others that they had shared the park with never knowing that those to seemingly delicate and gentle women were really two of the world's greatest protectors. But then again, appearances are always deceiving. What may seem like a curse may truly be a blessing in disguise.

~~~~~

And today, the lesson doesn't deal with computers; instead, you should remember not to knock the speakers over and onto your foot. It hurts like the dickens.

*Sigh* Well, here it is. The epilogue of Boogiemen, Dragons, and Tricksters. You know, part of me is sad that it is over, but another part of me knows that it isn't the end. Only the beginning.

I might go back every now and then and add another part to this, as a sort of 'looking in' on Minako and Hotaru through different events. I apologise for not being able to put in the Christmas party, but when I began to write this, this is what came out. Oh well, I just guess that means I already have material for next year. ( So much for a ten page story, eh?

Thank you to those that reviewed on fanfiction.net, shoujoai.com, and the SIL group, you guys brightened my day and helped me to keep writing. Your constant comments and encouragement is what an author lives off.or at least crave. Thank you so much. The biggest thank you's though have to go out to my little brother, Depression, and Matthias. Thanks Kero for listening to it all. I know you probably were tried of hearing it every time I changed a word or two or added a comma, but it helped heaps. Thank you, Depression. You constant comments on the shoujoai board kept me updating it there, thanks so much. The other, biggest thank you has to go out to Matthias; without you introducing me to this pair, I doubt I would have broken into the actual posting part of writing for a much longer time. You've not only given me a wonderful concept to write on, but you have made the characters come alive to me through your inspirational works.

And, thanks Ezri. An author really couldn't ask for a better muse.

You know, I had begun to doubt that I would ever reach this point of being able to say that a story was really done and finished. All of them kept expanding! By the way, the sword that appears in this story was never meant to be. Its explanation is partly in a rant type in the middle of chapter two, but I don't think I fully explained where my original idea for it came from. One of the first BSSM fanfics that I read was Tim Nolan's Awakening, Obligations, and End of the Beginning. I honestly think that all SM authors should read this trilogy at least once as I can say that it has influenced my writing for the better. But besides that, it is fantastically written and a truly fascinating story. Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed this thing as much as I did at three chapters + one epilogue and just under 45 pages.