Disclaimer: Michael, Susan and Fred own themselves. Setsuna, Michiru and Haruka are copy righted to the creator of Sailor Moon. The only thing I own is the poem, which I wrote. If anyone would like to use it in some way, please ask me. Its title is "My Trip To Hell".

Aftermath:

A few months after Michiru visited Haruka's resting place:

It was a bright Saturday morning and Michiru had the day off. The young, aqua haired woman stared intently at her computer monitor, wishing for little more than to pick up her violin instead of reading over these reports. Hotaru, Setsuna and Fred had gone on a two-week trip to Disney world and Michiru was using the time to catch up on back paperwork. She was just taking a sip of her green tea when the doorbell chimed.

"Hello, Mr. Ten'ou." Michiru was surprised when she reached and opened the door. She waved the older man in and tired to smile. Sadly, though he was Haruka's brother, Michiru lost respect for him longer before Haruka's death. "What brings you here?"

"Can we sit and speak, this might warrant a bit of a long explanation." Michael Ten'ou looked seriously at his sister's friend. She nodded and led him to the kitchen. She set a bottled green tea before him and took a seat across from him. Their age cap seemed much larger than the actual seven years that separated them.

"Please, explain."

"It all started just after Haruka's suicide." Michael began.

Flash back: Night of Haruka's Death

Michael Ten'ou was late getting to the hospital, having first had to find someone to cover his radiology machine in than a way to cross the miles between the two cities. It took so long that when he burst through the doors of the Emergency Entrance he saw Setsuna trying to comfort Michiru. Not long after he noticed Fred, silent tears running down the young man's face, and Susan who seemed to stare at nothing. He walked over to Susan, placing one arm around his older sister and resisting the urge to run away.

It took hours for the two siblings to finish all the paperwork after their sister passed and they sent her friends home a head. Susan stepped out of the room to get a soda just before an orderly entered with a white plastic bag. He handed it to Michael before pulling a blood stained paper from his pocket.

"We're not sure how she found the energy, sir." He said as Michael stared at the folded paper now in his hand. "But your sister wrote this while she was here. One of the nurses said she pulled the paper from her shirt pocket when they brought her in, that she wouldn't let them take it from her hand. I guess she finished it here because the nurse swore less was written on it before."

After he left the room Michael couldn't bring himself to unfold the paper. He stuffed it into a pocket of his blue uniform and waited for Susan outside the door. It was only the next day when he noticed that Haruka had written an M across the folded paper, and being her brother he'd assumed it was for him. He assumed that for a long time but never opened it.

End flash back

"Susan found it in my desk the other day, she was helping me move." Michael pulled the paper from his coat pocket and offered it to Michiru. On the surface was the large shaky M and she took note of the brown stain of dried blood spattering the paper. She looked at him with confusion until he weakly smiled. "I'm sorry, Susan opened it and told me it was meant for you. She said it wasn't addressed exactly but in some indirect way it was written to you."

"What's inside?" Michiru asked in a barely audible whisper as she held the old paper gently.

"I have no idea, I never had the courage to read it." The older man stood and stretched before holding a hand out to shake hers. She took it mechanically and did as he did. "Good-bye Michiru, I think this is the last time we'll ever meet."

"Good-bye, Michael." She watched mutely as he strode away and listened as the door opened and shut behind him. Once he was gone her attention was back upon the paper. With shaking hands she gently unfolded the paper, but it was much longer before her eyes could focus on the words. It appeared to be one of the unstructured and random poems Haruka wrote when she was extremely upset.

Never felt so weak,

Never lacked so much sleep,

Days come and go,

I just sit in my little hole,

Blades of steel,

Cold metal gleaming in the moonlight,

It'd be so simple to end it all tonight,

Here the ink color changed and the writing became very messy, some of the letters smeared a bit with blood.

Hope someday you'll forgive me,

My dear friends,

Wash this blood from my hands,

Wash this life from my mind,

I will never again see the light,

I may burn in hell's fire,

Or wander this house for a thousand years,

Anything is better than here!

Now the black is closing in,

My pain over as yours begins,

Good-bye dear Angel,

I wish you well,

Please forgive me leaving,

For this vacation in hell.

"I already forgave you, Haruka." Michiru whispered as she brushed a tear from her cheek. She smiled sadly and let her eyes fall again on one of the names Haruka had called her. "I'm no angel, love."

"Are you so sure?" Asked a quiet voice from the corner of the kitchen. Michiru spun to face the person, standing as she did and peering into the red rays of the dieing sun. She could make out a tall figure that seemed to gain in solidity as the light died. Waiting for the sun to finally set the young woman gasped at what she saw. There, in her kitchen, stood a translucent Haruka. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

Michiru didn't answer the comment instead she turned and walked from the kitchen to the stairs. She was surprised when the apparition was waiting at the top of the stairs. She walked past the translucent blonde and into her room, lying quickly on the bed as if to sleep.

"What are you doing Michiru?" Haruka quirked one ghostly eyebrow as she watched the shorter woman.

"Stop talking to me, you are a figment of my imagination and I am having some sort of midlife crisis." Michiru's muffled reply made Haruka smirk.

"You aren't forty, Angel." Haruka corrected the woman.

"I'm over you, don't haunt me like this again." Michiru commanded from her spot beneath the pillow.

"I'm sorry, dear, I didn't know you'd moved on."

"I meant your death, and its memories." Michiru sat up and threw her pillow at Haruka in frustration. Both watched dumbly as it passed through the blonde and struck the wall. Michiru raised an eyebrow and looked up at those teal eyes. "See, you aren't really here."

"Michiru, please listen." Haruka waited until the still slightly disturbed young woman nodded. "I'm not sure why I appeared here tonight but I am real. Well as real as I can be with out a body."

"Tonight? Whom do you normally appear to?" Michiru raised an eyebrow.

"No one, I just stand in my crypt all night." Haruka shook her head. "I refuse to leave until you do, I made that mistake once already."

"Oh my god, you are real aren't you?" Michiru's eyes were wide as she became sleepy. She didn't notice when her eyes did begin to droop, or when she fell asleep, only that the Haruka standing by the wall was no longer translucent. "What just happened?"

"You fell a sleep." Haruka smiled and held out her hand. "I didn't know I was such a bore."

Michiru carefully reached for her hand and was shocked when it felt as real as her own. Yes, she was definitely asleep now. With a shy smile Michiru decided that, breakdown or not, dream or reality, she was not going to waste this time. She reached up and wrapped her arms around the blonde's neck and played with the hair on the back of her neck.

"I'm sorry, Michi. I didn't do any of it to hurt you." Haruka would have said more but a finger gently touched her lips. She stopped and was surprised when Michiru grabbed her collar and pulled her into a sudden and deep kiss. When they broke Michiru buried her head in Haruka's chest.

"We both made mistakes, mine was not acting on how I felt until that night." Michiru muttered. "God I miss you."

"I know, and I miss you too."

Michiru woke the next morning and was fully convinced that it had been nothing but a dream. She stretch but froze when she saw the blood stained paper on her nightstand. 'Was it a nightmare?' She asked herself as she walked over the window and watched people drive by.

"I'll see you again someday, Haruka." Michiru whispered, unaware of the reflection of Haruka standing behind her in the glass. "I love you."

AN

The poem, written tonight, kind of inspired this. Thank you for reading, and thank you to those who reviewed "Coward's Way Out".