Several days passed in which no one heard anything from Haruka. Seiya hadn't told them what had occurred while he was with her, he had only told them that when they had parted that night, she had been a bit upset. They had agreed that maybe they should leave her alone for a little while. But when another month passed and they still didn't hear from her, they knew that it was time that they went and tried to cheer her up. Usagi, now very much into her ninth month of pregnancy, helped to get everyone together and they planned another little party for Haruka like they had done before she left on the racing circuit.

Once they all arrived at her house, minus Setsuna who was busy at the Gates, Hotaru went up to knock on the door, and then scurry back out to stand in the yard with the others. Several minutes passed, and no one answered. With a bewildered look at everyone else, she went and knocked once more, lingering in front of the door this time. More time passed before she looked back to the others. "Maybe she went out somewhere...?"

Just then, a car pulled up into the driveway and a tall woman climbed out, looking slightly bewildered before beaming a smile at the group that was assembled on the lawn. "Are you all interested in this house...?"

"Uhm, excuse me? Our friend lives here..."

The woman looked at Rei, her brow furrowed momentarily as if she were confused, but the smile came back a moment later. "Oh, you mean Ten'ou Haruka?"

They all nodded cautiously, not knowing if they particularly liked the constantly smiling woman, but much more certain that they didn't like where this conversation was heading. The woman walked around to the trunk of her car, opening it and pulling out a large sign. "Well, she moved out about two weeks ago. Didn't even give a forwarding address for us to send the sale money to. Just said to put it into a college fund for a Tomoe Hotaru. She was out of here as soon as the paperwork was all signed."

There was a stunned silence for a few long moments as the woman began putting the sign up in the front yard, oblivious to the havoc she had just started in the lives of the people lingering on the front lawn until Hotaru broke into tears. "No, no, no! Haruka wouldn't do that! She wouldn't leave without saying goodbye to us! She wouldn't!"

"Oh, dear..." The woman muttered, seemingly sincerely distressed at the scene as Makoto went over to Hotaru and sat down on the steps, pulling her into her lap. Hotaru collapsed against her and sobbed into the brown-haired woman's shoulder. All else on the lawn was silent as Makoto rocked back and forth in an attempt to be comforting to the younger girl. "Uhm, well..." The woman now appeared completely uncomfortable with the bomb of information she had unwittingly dropped. "I'm terribly sorry about all of this... if you need anything, or want any information on the sale of the house, don't hesitate to call me," she said as she handed over a business card to Mamoru, who seemed to be the most composed of the group at the time. The three brothers were now in a small circle talking to one another.

The woman turned to leave, seemingly as quickly as possible.

"Wait. We want to buy the house."

The woman spun around as did everyone else to look Yaten and his brothers. The woman looked stunned for a minute before shaking her head a little. "Are you sure? I mean, have you ever even been in the house?"

"Well, Seiya has, and that's enough. We're outgrowing putting up with each other in an apartment anyway," Taiki admitted with a small grin.

"Oh, well... wonderful!" The woman went to her car and pulled out a manila envelope, stuffed with papers. "Would you three like to start the paperwork on your own, or will you require some assistance with it?"

Yaten gave her a small smirk and took the envelope from her. "Just because we're stars doesn't mean we're idiots. We can handle it."

The woman blushed before giving a nod. "Well then... Uhm, my contact information is inside the envelope as well when you are prepared to finalize the sale... But I will warn you, there is a long line of customers waiting to come and see this house, so you might not want to linger too long in getting that all done."

"Right."

The woman gave a sheepish smile to everyone after Yaten's curt answer, then headed back to her car and was soon gone. The others simply looked at the three brothers, awaiting an explanation.

Taiki gave a small sigh. "Well, we can do something nice for the group every once in a while. We can only hope that Haruka will be back here some day, and she'll want to be in the place where she feels at home."

The group of people still standing gave a small smile, but tears still streamed down the cheeks of Hotaru. "But what about Haruka? It's not like her to disappear like this without telling someone where she was going, if not at least why she would do such a thing... She's been gone two weeks without any kind of explanation to anyone. It's not like her. She wouldn't do this!"

Makoto gave another hug to the distraught girl as she broke into tears once more. Usagi glanced up to find Seiya heading away from the group. "Seiya...?" He stopped as his voice was called, but didn't turn around. She went forward, laying her hand lightly upon his arm. "Seiya, what's wrong?"

"I feel that I owe all of you an apology."

Rei gave him a bewildered look. "Whatever do you mean?"

"I should apologize because... it's my fault that she left. She told me once that our friendship scared her, and I kept pursuing it anyway because I was too stubborn to see how much it was bothering her. Or if I did notice, I thought it would be better for her to be annoyed at me than to go on how she had been... So I apologize, to everyone." Seiya paused, turning to glance back at them, and then his gaze landed on Hotaru, whose attention was focused on him as well. "Especially to you, Hotaru."

Minako went forward as Usagi released his arm. She picked up his hand and looked up at him. He glanced to her, letting their eyes connect briefly before looking away. She gave a soft smile up at him, tilting her head to the side. "Don't you try to hide from me, Kou Seiya. You just handed me all of the answers in that one look. Just because I'm ditzy sometimes doesn't mean you can hide that from me."

He pulled his hand away. "You are ditzy, Minako. I don't think you know what you're talking about." With that, he turned and left, his brothers not long in following.

Minako watched him go for a moment before dashing forward and grasping his arm to stop him. At first, he appeared a bit angry, but she leaned over and whispered something in his ear. When she pulled away, there was a brief smile on his face before he glanced back to the others and then continued on his way. Minako came back with a small smile on her face.

"What did you say to him, Minako-chan?"

The blond goddess of love gave a small smile over to her tall best friend. "Something he should have already known." She turned her head to glance after the three brothers. "Haruka will come back when she'd ready to accept it. If not, when the time comes, he'll find her, and he had until they met again to figure out what to say to her. She can't run from it for forever."

"But... Minako... isn't it kind of cruel to say that she must be forced to accept Nina's death? I hope that she comes to terms with it eventually, yes... but that's not the sort of thing you can force a time limit on."

Minako looked to Mamoru. "Oh dear. I didn't really make myself clear... Ditzy me again!" She gave a small laugh, shaking her head. "No, of course no one should force her to accept such a thing before she's ready. But what Seiya can offer her will help her to accept that fact, given some time. But she has to accept what he has already offered her, and then accept that if she doesn't already, that in time she will return it."

"Uhm... Minako, you lost me. What are you talking about?"

Minako giggled, but looked up and allowed Ami to answer, who had just cleared her throat for just that purpose. "Really, Usagi, you're just as ditzy as Minako. I doubt she would have noticed if being who she was didn't allow her a certain amount of advantage in that department." She glanced over to Minako, who looked torn between being sheepish or proud. She then turned back to Usagi. "It's simple, silly. Seiya loves her... I just can't believe it took me this long to notice."

"Eh, don't feel bad Ami. You've been busy lately, and besides... You're more the bookish type anyway."

"Ah, Minako! Look who's talking! The Goddess of Love herself didn't notice it until a moment ago!"

"Uhm, well, you see..."

They two stopped as they heard Hotaru laughing. She smiled over at them, shaking her head. "You two are silly. But at least we know Haruka will come back to us someday, right?"

Makoto looked down at her and gave a soft smile along with a nod of her head. "Of course. She may be like the wind, but I don't think even the wind can escape love."

"Uh, minna..."

Everyone turned their attention to Usagi, who was now grasping the fence to help keep herself from falling to her knees.

Ami gave a glance to her watch as Mamoru rushed forward. "Oh no! I completely forgot! It's the thirtieth of June!" She ran forward to assist Mamoru with getting Usagi into his car.

Hotaru leapt to her feet. "Yay! Chibi-Usa is coming!" She ran forward to where the three cars were parked. She had come with Mamoru and Usagi, Makoto had come with Minako, and Ami had driven herself over from the hospital after stopping by to pick up Rei.

Makoto gave a laugh, rising to her feet. "Hotaru! We'll give you a ride to the hospital, okay?"

Minako beamed at her friend as they joined hands to run out to the car. Hotaru was quick to climb into the small back seat of the convertible, just before the other two got into the front two seats. Ami rushed to join Rei in her car after Usagi was safely in the passenger side of Mamoru's car, and all three vehicles seemed to come to life at once. Ami peeled out first, since she had been the last to arrive, followed by Mamoru who had been parked beside Minako, who was quick to follow as well. From the left-hand seat Makoto dug a car phone from the compartment between the two seats. She quickly dialed in the numbers, then waited for someone to pick up. "Yaten?" She grinned a little. "There's a certain little pink-haired princess on the way!" She paused to listen to the other end before hanging up and looking to the other two girls. "They're meeting us there."

Hotaru beamed, joyful as the news that had delivered such a blow not fifteen minutes ago seemed to take a back seat to this particular occasion. How often did you get to go to the birth of someone who you knew was going to be your beat friend, no matter what may come?

Three hours later, Rei, Minako, Makoto, Hotaru, and Taiki were seated in the waiting room in the maternity ward. They were silent in their waiting, and almost envied Yaten and Seiya who had been so calm about it all that they had headed down to the hospital restaurant to get tea for everyone. Well, more to the point... Yaten had been the calm one. He simply dragged Seiya along with him to help with carrying the tea back to everyone.

Rei gave a sullen sigh. "It's hard to believe that we finally get to be in this hospital for a happy occasion..."

Makoto gave her a small smile, leaning over to hug her. "I know. But let's not think about the reasons why we were here before when something like this is about to happen."

Rei gave a nod, and Minako began to start some little speech, but was stopped by the appearance of Sailor Pluto, who quickly let her transformation fade to leave behind her regular form. "Setsuna! You made it!"

The green-haired woman gave a smile to Minako. "What? You actually thought that I would miss the birth of Small Lady?" She glanced up, tilting her head as she gave another smile. "I'm glad you made it as well."

"You know better than that."

The others spun around to look, then Hotaru leapt up and ran forward. "Haruka!"

Haruka leaned down to scoop Hotaru up in her arms, seemingly without effort though the girl was definitely past an age where she was light enough for most to pick up, especially since she had been born again, she had been far healthier than before. She held onto her for a moment before putting her back down on the floor and crouching down to match her height. "I'm sorry I left like I did. But there are just some things I have to figure out on my own."

Hotaru giggled and ran back to the others. Haruka stood back up and gave them an odd look. "What's that about?"

"Oh really, Haruka..." Minako admonished lightly with a small smile. "Seiya can be so transparent sometimes... and it's never easy to hide love."

Haruka paled a bit, but gave no response and simply stood still. A moment later, Ami emerged from a door and beamed at them all. "She's here."