Author's Note: Okay, so you had to wait a bit. But I was working on my epic, and well...college sucks at times. TRUST ME. So here we go.

Disclaimer: We only own the plot. We swear!

I

Yaten broke into the quad and ran right into Rei who was getting up to call Usagi. Pain-filled green eyes met shocked violet ones. Rei grabbed the slender girl, who looked like she had just lost her last hope. Rei looked deep into her eyes and then it hit her. Usagi had chosen. She had chosen Haruka.

Then a small blonde whirlwind came running up to the duo. Long blonde hair was windblown and tousled around her face. Her cheeks were flushed and sjhe was gasping.

"Yaten....we......need.....to....talk. About what you saw and what I see in your eyes." Gasped Usagi who was bent over trying to catch her breath.

"Abnd if I don't want to talk?" Yaten said in a wounded whisper.

Usagi stood up and looked into her eyes, her own blue were full of guilt and self-inflicted pain, "Then I will talk and you will listen. Please sit down."

Haruka stopped cold in her tracks. There was HER Usagi in a intimate conversation with Yaten. And Rei standing there like a deer caught in the headlights. She started to move again, but slower this time. Each step taking her closer to the trio she wasn't sure she wanted to.

Ami went and sat next to the still silent Minako. The blonde was sitting rigidly in her chair star9ing at the coffee on the ground as if it were telling her the secrets to life. All it took was the light touch of Ami's fingers on her and the dam broke on her emotions.

"DAMMIT! This was supposed to be my chance. She was supposed to get sick of the games and realize I was there as more than a friend. I was supposed to get the chance to be happy!" she raged in agonized fury. Her blue eyes reflecting the joy she felt that her princess was happy and the searing pain in her heart that she wasn't the one making her happy.

Makoto looked at her with understanding, "You weren't really on either side were you? You really wanted her to see you in the role. We all have Minako. But you know as well as we do, to chose an Inner Senshi over the rest would be our downfall. No matter how much we say it wouldn't."

Two icy blue eyes met Makoto's, "Don't you think I don't know that? It doesn't change how I feel! What I want! I know it all worked out for the best but that doesn't make it hurt ANY less!"

Ami put her arms around Minako and just held her. No soothing words or mindless placations to soothe her wounded soul. Anything they could say would be trite and fall on deaf ears. So she held her and said nothing at all.

Rei looked up to see Haruka approaching them nervously. If Haruka coiuld be nervous that is. She smiled thinly at her and waved her closer. This scene was playing hell with Rei's nerves. The two women she cared for were fighting and she needed back up.

Usagi turned to see who Rei was motioning too and saw her girlfriend of less than a day. Never letting go of Yaten's arm, she too motioned Haruka closer. Once she was within hearing distance, "Ruka, come over here, we all need to have a liottle chat."

With a shrug of her shoulders Haruka came over and kissed Usagi on the corner of her mouth, "so talk pet. I have nothing better to do today."

"Everyone who is not me sit down please. You too Rei." Usagi started to pace in front of them. The three of them sat on a bench under a large tree off on the outskirts of the quad.Yatne and Haruka chose opposite sides and left Rei to sit in between, "I want to explain how I knew it was Haruka."

Rei did a mental happy dance, she was finally free! Then her mental voice kicked in. 'You were always free to feel this wa you dope!' 'But now I don't have to feel guilty!' 'Get over it! You knew the outcome all along!' 'I did not! Oh shut up you!' With a shake of her head Rei quieted the voices in her head.

Usagi sent her a strange look and resumed her pacing, "Yaten, you don't love me. Wait let me rephrase that. You are not IN love with me. When I look in your eyes I see love there. I see passion there, I can see your soul. But I don't see me. I see another. But when I look into Haruka's eyes I can see me. I can see her love, her passion, and I can see her soul. I adore you both so much and for very separate reasons. But I am in love with Haruka. Maybe I always was. Maybe I had to grow up in order to see it."

"Usagi,maybe you are right and maybe you are wrong. But I am in love." Yaten said her eyes trying to convey her emotions to the lunar princess.

"You are in love yaten, but not with me." And she looked meaningfully at Rei. Who stared open moputhed at her princess.

"What are you talking about Usagi?" Rei asked as Haruka started to smile. It was all becoming clearer now...

"You knew before they knew didn't you Usagi? You knew they would fall..." Haruka said with a self-satisified drawl in her voice as she leaned back against the tree trunk.

"I knew the night we all played Twister. You two kissed in the kitchen." Usagi said watching the two of them.

"How did you know?" came Yaten's painfully shy response. Her skin had grown paler if that was possible and her eyes wider.

"Yaten, your lips were swollen and you kept looking at Rei like you wanted to swallow her whole. It wasn't that big of a mystery." Usagi said with a gentle smile on her lips, "All I had to do then was look intoyour eyes, BOTH of your eyes to see your feelings. Because no matter how hard of a shell youtwo build around each other ... love will find it's wasy back into your hearts."

Rei git up and stood in front of Usagi with her hands on her hips, "So you drove me crazy for a week...for nothing."

"No, not mothing. I DID have to think. I had to decide if I wanted to risk my heart again. Because loving Yten would hurt less than giving all of me to Haruka. Nd for awhile I WAS going to chose you. But then I looked intoyour eyes."

Haruka sat up a little straighter and narrowed her eyes at Yaten and Rei. Then she looked at Usagi, and their eyes met. Then connection crashed into them like a wave and crashed down around them. And that was when Haruka understood. Love scared Usagi. Total love, unconditional love, impersonal love she understood. It was what her life force was centered in afterall. But this kind of love? True, mind bending, life altering, needy, greedy, give it all or die trying love scared her. Because while ever optimistic she had battled negative forces for so long that the word 'forever' had taken a different meaning. 'I am in love with you' had become a phrase to fear. Whereas 'I love you' had become her mantra.

Minako sat in class staring out her window at the quad. There was a foursome under a tree and her gut told her who it was. She bit her lower lip and willed the tears welling up in her to dissiapte. After all, she had had her great love. Granted he had turned evil and killed her once and attempted to again in this life. But before....beofer the horror of Beryl and her horrid plans had come into play... it had been heaven. So how could she begrudge her friends this same happiness?

"...Miss Aino? Care to join us back here in reality?" came a warm teasing tone from her Lit teacher.

A blush stole across her cheeks, "Gomen sensai. Gomen nasai."

Ami watched as Minako0 reqad off the answer from her homework and then went back to staring out the window. There had to be something amazingly intriguing going on outside to capture her attention like that. To cause that look of pained separation to come over her features and for her to bite her lower lip like that. What could be like that? Then it hit her....Usagi.

Usagi stopped pacing and looked Rei in the eye, "Want to know what I saw. Love. Pure love and devotion. All mine for the taking. And then I saw conflict, because your heart was pulling you in anotherdirection – one your head said was wrong. Rei, haven't I taught you YET that love is never wrong. Even if it lasts for just a moment? You are my best friend my firebird that lights the way for me when I am lost and warms my sould in moments of doubt. I love you to pieces. I want you to be happy, to see that sparkle in them I have not seen, until that night you kissed Yaten, the sparkle was back , for the first timein this lifetime it was back. Don't squash it out of duty."

Rei turned from her and then whirled back, "What do you know of being scared? Of hating love?"

"More than you know!" Usagi looked down at herself for a moment. And then blushed, "Can we take this back to my house so I could possibly get dressed? And we can finish hashing it out there?"

Yaten stood slowly and looked at Usagi, "I think I could do that. How about you Rei?"

THE reaven haired priestess nodded slowly and gathered up her things. Haruka pulled Usagi into a hug and took her hand. Yaten finally truly looked at the two of them. And saw what Minako and Rei had seen from the beginning. The tall proud Wind Senshi, endlessly in love with the Lunar Princess.

Up in a classroom a heart shattered and then began to piece itself back together again. After all it had been doing it at least once a lifetime since the dawn of time. It was used to it by now. Minako savored the pain. If she felt pain then she could still FEEL. Her eyes met Ami's and a trembly smile tilted the corners of her lips a bit. Ami gave her a wionk and blew her a kiss. Ami stifled a giggle and went back to work on her notes.

'Ice cream....healer of all broken hearts and wounded souls. I am getting her ice cream tonight on the way home from school.' Ami decided as she watch the Goddess of Love start to rebuild her world all over again....just like she always had before.

AN2: Okay here is the deal. I am SLEEPY! Going on two hours of sleep or less a night is not working well for me. So I am ending it here. I hope to have the second part to my first chapter in my epic up soon... It is now Kiss' turn. If you see her tell her to hurry because I wanna know what happens next. And EPM. I hope this was better! And I wanna see your story...