A few days later, they were all gathered once more, this time to bid good-bye to one another. Everything had been set up to fake the death of the world famous idols. Seiya had explained that when he returned, he had no intention of having to lead the same kind of life since they had already found their princess. Ami and Taiki were off to one side, sharing a rather tearful good-bye; Rei was taking advantage of Yaten's good mood and had actually drawn him into a rather long kiss; Kakyuu-hime was bidding farewell to her new friends; and Seiya and Haruka were hanging back and talking quietly for a few moments before kissing, then parting as the three brothers joined their princess. Yaten and Taiki were both blushing, having just broken away from first kisses. The Usagi, Makoto, Minako, Mamoru, Rei, and Chibi-Usa waved good-bye with a small smile as Ami, Haruka, and Hotaru did so a bit more sadly. The four waved back, joined hands and then were gone.

There was silence, then Rei gave a sigh. "They're so never coming back..." Usagi jabbed Rei in the side, who immediately blushed and glanced over at Haruka. "Oh, uhm... I mean 'they' as a group... of course Seiya's coming back!"

Haruka gave a small shrug of her shoulders. "It's alright. I know that he's never coming back. Why would he? He loved Kakyuu-hime before he even came to Earth, and loved her all the time he was here, and he left for her sake. He has no reason to come back."

Ami's eyes widened. "Oh, Haruka... you didn't! You told him, right?"

"Why? To keep him here when he doesn't want to be?"

Everyone else looked at each other to see if anyone else knew what they were talking about, but were only met with expressions as confused as their own. "Uhm... guys? The rest of us could do with a little filling in here. What's going on?"

Ami glanced at Minako briefly, then back to Haruka, who apparently had no intention of answering. She crossed her arms with a frown. "Haruka's a few days short of being two months pregnant."

Usagi gave an excited squeal as shock settled in on the others. A few seconds later, it hit Usagi as well. "Seiya doesn't know he's going to be a daddy!?" She frowned. "Oh, Haruka..."

"Stop it. In fact, don't even start. If Seiya really wants to come back here like he said, he will, and he can find out then. But if I'm right, I don't want to have held him here when he really wanted to leave. He'll be happy, and I'm perfectly capable of raising a happy child. Nina was always happy when everything that led up to her birth was a disaster. The circumstances that made this baby were happy ones."

Hotaru gave a small sigh and spoke what everyone else was more than like thinking, because she knew that Haruka would take her saying it with more ease than if anyone else were to say it. "We know that you can raise a happy baby, Haruka. We all watched you do it once before. But... it's not really fair for Seiya not to know that he's a father. You might think it would have held him here against his will but... his whole attitude would have been changed if he found something like that out. Leaving would have been the furthest thing from his mind because I know he would have been so happy..."

Haruka sighed as the others looked on. "I know that, Hotaru. At one point, before I knew I was pregnant, I was actually considering going with them. But... we had actually talked about having children before, and if love for me and just the thought of having a child with me isn't enough to make him return, then I won't force him to stay by telling him..." she trailed off, giving a small chuckle.

"What's funny?" Makoto asked with a small frown.

"It's just... a couple years ago I hate Seiya so much that I would have liked nothing better than to have killed him. Now... I love him enough to let him follow his heart and to have this baby on my own instead of marrying him and keeping him here..."

Usagi gave a sad smile, walked over and hugged Haruka tightly. She held on as she tilted her head back to look up at her. "You may not believe that love is strong enough to bring him back, but I do. He'll come back and the two of you will get married and bring up the baby together."

Haruka managed a small smile down at Usagi before breaking away and turning to leave. It was hard to be optimistic with her past. Right now, it hurt too much to be optimistic with everything that was at stake.

That night, Ami decided to take a walk to enjoy the warm spring night. The smell of cherry blossoms hung sweetly in the air as the stars shone down from overhead. She gave a small smirk as she thought over the situation she was in now. Here she was, the intelligent one who always made her decisions based on her knowledge or her common sense desperately missing someone that she knew was going to leave all along. Somewhere along the way, she had fallen for the one person that she should have known better than to get close to. She smiled as she thought over the past couple of years, slowly warming up to Taiki as she got to know him on an intellectual level, and then even more so as he began to trust her enough to read her some of his poetry. It hadn't been a typical romance, she knew. But it was going to be one that she would never forget.

As she was making her way past the amphitheater, she thought that she heard music, so she changed her course to go down and investigate. She slipped in through the gate, then started down the steps through the many rows of seats. As she got closer, it slowly became easier to make out who was seated at the piano on the darkened stage. She smiled and sat down about halfway down the stairs and listened to the sad notes as they lingered in the air, playing out a song she knew to be Kaze ni Nari Tai. There was a pause, then Unmei wa Utsukishiku filled the air, followed by a song that she didn't recognize. As it faded out in the middle of the song, Ami rose and walked up to the stage, lifting herself up onto it and walking over to sit next to Haruka at the piano.

She smiled a little over at her. "What was that last song you were playing? It sounded American..."

Haruka gave a half-hearted smile to her in response. "Yeah... it's off this romance movie that Michiru got me to watch one of the times we were there... the song's called 'Time of My Life'."

"Sounds like it should be a little more up-beat than how you were playing it..."

"It is."

Ami smiled faintly, wrapping an arm about Haruka's shoulder. "I know this is going to sound cheesy, but... you've grown up a lot in the past couple of years, Haruka... and a lot of it had to do with Seiya."

"How do you mean?" Haruka turned her attention back to the piano as she lightly played a few notes.

"You're not running away from something that's hard for you to face. Michiru got you to face you destiny as a senshi, but somewhere along the line, Seiya's the one that got you to stop being such a loner. Instead of running away from hard problems to figure them out yourself, you're hanging around here and talking to me, of all people."

Haruka gave a small laugh. "Why not you? You're going through the same thing I am. Usagi and Mamoru are together, Rei and Yaten really never developed real feelings for each other, Hotaru's never really had a chance to fall in love, Minako and Makoto... well..."

Ami laughed softly. "Took a page from your book."

She smiled a bit. "Yeah... and then Setsuna's still off at the Gates."

Ami took a deep breath, looking out over the darkened seats before looking back to Haruka with a smille. "You know, a vacation does sound nice."

Haruka looked at her a moment, then chuckled, looking back to the piano. "Ami, are you talking about running away?"

The blue-haired girl grinned at her. "I guess I am."

"What is it with you water types wanting to run off with me?"

She swatted her arm. "Don't look too much into this, Haruka. I just thought about it because the hospital is pretty much insisting that I take a vacation... they think that I work too hard."

"They're right."

Ami blew a rasberry before standing back up. "Maybe we could find a way to get Setsuna to come with us."

"You know, this is almost starting to sound like a very odd sitcom... Cute, pixie-like pediatrician who works too hard gets her heart broken the same way as the former lesbian loner who has a thing for running and suggests they run off along with the older woman who's in love with the man she can never have."

"Think anyone would watch?"

Haruka chuckled, gathering her jacket and keys as she stood up. "Why not? I'm interested. Now all we have to do is get -"

"Me?" The two friends turned and found Setsuna standing a couple rows back from the stage. She smiled as they both hopped down from the stage and walked to meet her. "Knowing the future sometimes has its perks... like the fact that I knew what you two were going to be planning... But I'm still not ready to face any of the others yet..."

"We could always pull a Haruka and disappear without telling anyone."

Haruka scowled a bit as Ami grinned at her. "You'll at least have to tell the hospital... with how you're usually so against taking time off, they'll think you were kidnapped and send the police after Setsuna and me."

Ami laughed a bit. "Alright, alright... I'll go in tomorrow and tell them I'm going to take a couple of weeks off... Haruka, you should probably make whatever travel plans we'll need to start off... and I'd better get home. Usagi's supposed to be coming over tonight." She waved to the two of them as she left the out-door arena and disappeared into the shadows of night.

"It never ceases to amaze me how smart she is at times..." Setsuna said with a small smile, sitting down in one of the seats.

"Yeah... running off by myself never solved anything, and staying around people who either look at me like they pity me or try too hard to help me just seems to make it worse." Haruka sat down next to her with a small sigh.

"It helps to have other people know what you're going through, that have cried the same tears as you." She smiled faintly as Haruka turned to glance at her. "I see the future, remember? I've watched all those times you've cried, even when no one else was there. I'm just sorry I couldn't prevent it..."

"No, it's okay... to prevent the things from happening that cause pain, you'd have to stop all the good things from happening too. I used to think that that was the way to do things, but..."

"Amazing how friends and the people you love can change your life so drastically, isn't it?" Setsuna gave a sigh, leaning back to look up at the sky. She smirked a bit. "Did Seiya ever point out his old planet to you?"

Haruka lifted an eyebrow at her. "Point out a planet that's light-years away? Why?"

Setsuna pointed up to the sky to an arrangement of four stars. "See the stars that sort of form a triangle? The larger one in the middle is Kakyuu's, of course... the one above it is Yaten, the one below is Taiki, and the one beside it is Seiya." She looked back to Haruka, smiling faintly as she saw her. Wrapping her arms around her, she held on tight as Haruka allowed herself to cry in silence for a while before pulling back and wiping off her cheeks, muttering a small apology. "It's not a bad thing to cry, Haruka. It kind of lets others know that underneath all that tough exterior, you're still human... well... basically." She gave a small smile. "Things won't always be this hard to handle, Haruka. There will come a time when looking back on your life the past couple of years won't cause you as much pain because you'll have so much that will make you happy. Something will always be happening to remind you, and bad things will never stop happening... but there will come a time when it won't hurt as much because you'll have something to make you happy again, without having to run away."

"Just not today."

Setsuna smiled a bit at her. "No. This is going to hurt for a while... Ami too. But, without going against the rules... things will change, Haruka. Look you quickly they changed with you and Seiya... Happiness will come again. I promise."

Haruka smiled faintly and the two fell into a comfortable silence and spent the rest of the night gazing up at the stars.