A/N: This one-shot has been a long-time resident of my hard drive. It's a throwback to my salad days (a whole seven months ago) when I only wrote depressing vignettes. I don't like it, but…it deals with a different facet of love. A less pleasant one.

By the way, the first sentence cuts off on purpose. It's not a typo or mistake.

Disclaimer: Sailor Moon belongs to Naoki Takeuchi.

Harder Than Diamond

"I hate you," she whispered. How can you leave me, how can you hurt me, how can you

"I hope that someday you find someone you love enough to keep. Because she'll die and leave you all alone centuries before you even reach the middle of your life, and maybe then you'll feel the pain I feel right now."

"It's quite obvious you don't love me the way you say you do, if you want me to hurt like that."

"Maybe I don't. Maybe it was all a fluke. But I won't repeat Serenity's mistake. I'm not going to waste any more of my life on you."

"You're doing it right now, by talking to me," he pointed out.

She regarded him coldly. "Not anymore." Then she turned and walked out the door.

Leaves fell. Leaves unfurled. The golden splendor of summer faded into the silver of winter; one moment the roses were in bloom and the next, snowflakes were falling. There was no autumn, no period of adjustment.

There was an eclipse. The city was dark. One of its citizens bumped into another.

"Long time, no see."

"Do you think it's just coincidence that it's so dark when we meet up again?"

"Why? Do you want me back?"

There was no reply. Just footsteps, receding in the void. And that was when he knew the world had changed.

Winter brightened to spring. But still the cold remained.

"Fancy meeting you here."

Silence answered him.

"It's been a while."

"But not long enough." Her voice, quiet and…serene. "Have you found her yet?"

"No…"

"You will." Her voice, quiet and serene…and confident. Unnervingly so. "Soon. When your eyes are open."

"Have you…found him?"

"Yes." She did not hesitate in speaking the truth. And it was the truth, he could tell from the break of her voice and the pain in his chest. "Your time is coming, too. Soon."

"And I…have no choice?"

"Oh, no." A small smile curved her lips; he stepped backwards from it. "We were soulmates. Severed or not, that bond forces you to feel the same pain that I did. Destiny decrees it."

"Since when did you become such a sadist?" he asked flippantly, in an attempt to regain control of the situation. "Is it some side effect of the silver hair?"

"No." And she held up a hand. Pale and slender as it had ever been, the ring finger was now encircled by a gold band that winked with diamonds. "Something had to fill the gap where my soul once was."

He watched, fixated, as the hand curved around a newly-arrived white sleeve. His eyes followed the sleeve up to its owner's face: a pale, pointed visage surrounded by milky hair and branded with a black crescent.

"This is…" he trailed off.

"Diamond," she said. "A stone that made good under pressure. He survived his trials, and became a better man for it." She leaned her head against the Diamond fellow's shoulder and regarded her soulmate with amused, cat-like eyes. "You have not shown such tenacity in the past…so I am thinking that you will end up just another worthless piece of coal to throw in the fire. But we shall see how you cope with the loss. Goodbye, Mamoru."

Diamond placed a hand around her waist and led her to the door. She leaned into him, throwing Mamoru a smirk before they exited.

The door swung shut behind them.

A/N: I feel bad plugging in this, but STC Chapter 22 will be out very soon. It's going to be long.