Disclaimer: I own nothing blah blah blah.
Watching the shadows lengthen across her walls, Makoto sat on the floor just under the window, deep in thought. She wrapped her arms around her legs, drew her knees up to her chest, and rested her chin on top of them. Her teeth worried at her lip for a long time, not even pausing when the tang of blood touched her tongue.
Nephrite.
A word, a name that would have filled her with nothing but rage less than a week ago, now left her weak and afraid. He filled her brain, driving her to distraction, until she did not know what to do anymore. All she knew was she wanted to run to him and get lost in his embrace forever.
But there was another woman in his embrace now, a pretty, delicate lady, looking twice the princess Makoto had ever been. She felt very alone, far from even her pretty, feminine friends.
"What do I do? Mama? Papa?"
What would she do, when everyone else married and moved away? What would she do without the friends she had clung to for millennia, without her Nephrite to hold her, without anyone who truly knew her and understood her? Her height, her strength, made it so hard for anyone to approach her, even when she desperately wanted them to.
"I can't do this!" She buried her face in her knees. "I'm so afraid!"
The whole world seemed alien, terrifying, and so very lonely without someone to chase her fears away.
"I'm going to miss you all so much when you leave me," she whispered. "What will I do when I'm all alone?"
The sound of the clock pounded in her skull until she thought she was going to scream. Every tick-tick-tick brought her a second closer to eternal loneliness.
"STOP IT!"
She leapt up, grabbed the clock, and hurled it across the room. It shattered, pieces falling to the ground. She breathed a deep sigh of relief.
Tick-tick-tick.
The second hand still moved, bumping futilely against the ground.
"Please, stop!"
Makoto sank back to her knees. "I don't want to be alone."
The sunset skimmed along the wall, and painted the shards of glass scarlet. Watching them glitter, Makoto sat up a little straighter.
Why wait? A childish voice, almost like Hotaru's, but colder, whispered in her head, deep inside her brain. Why wait for them to leave you? Why be at their mercy, when you have the chance to be free?
Makoto crawled across the floor on her hands and knees until she came up beside the remnants of the clock. She reached out, and very carefully lifted a long, clear sliver. Testing it with one finger tip, she found it to be pleasantly sharp.
"Free from what?" she asked the whisper in her head.
Free from disappointment. Free from fading friendship. Free from watching him walk away without a glance back.
Makoto held it up to the light, watching the red play along the deadly edge.
"Free from life."
She rose up, clenching her fist around the glass, an empty smile curving her lips.
She did not even bother to put her shoes on. She would not be gone long, and it would not matter if she cut her feet. Straight down the stairs, and out into the night, she did not pause once, or seem to notice the trail of red droplets she left on the white pavement. She saw not a single soul on the street, but did not worry about encountering anyone else. Who would notice her? Who would care?
Makoto crossed the street, heading for the park. She knew he would be there, and she wanted to see his face one last time, even if he did not see her. Some things never made sense.
Namely, love.
The cool grass felt good on her bare feet. She stopped and wiggled her toes, enjoying way the blades cut between her toes. But after barely a moment, she continued on. There was no point in delaying the inevitable.
Through a screen of bushes, she caught the flash of bronze hair. She approached quietly, her fist tightening around the glass, the blood flowing faster into the grass. She bent to look through the leaves, and was rewarded with a glimpse of his beautiful face.
Nephrite sat alone at the picnic table they had all shared two days ago. He leaned back on his elbows, staring abstractedly up at the moon, a frown between his eyes. Makoto looked up as well. The moon always made her feel so peaceful.
"What are you doing?"
Sharper than glass, that voice cut through her. She closed her eyes to shut it out, but the other woman walked right past the bushes, her heartbeat as loud as a clock in her head. She opened her eyes to accept the truth.
The past was gone, their love was dead, and that happiness would never come again.
"Just thinking," Nephrite replied. "Things are so strange now, but the moon always looks so peaceful, doesn't it? So beautiful, glowing that brilliant silver, beckoning us all home?"
Naru sat between him and Makoto, leaning her head back as well.
"I wouldn't want to live up there. It would be cold, and lonely."
"A long time ago, it was the warmest, kindest place in all the solar system." He smiled. "Maybe all the universe. And it held the most lovely of all princesses."
"You're silly, Nephrite," she said on a girlish giggle. "Next you're going to tell me you've been there."
"I have," he whispered, just loud enough for Makoto to hear.
"Really?" Naru responded in a teasing tone. "Was it warm and peaceful?"
"No. It was covered in blood, and everything beautiful in the universe was dead."
Naru started back in surprise. "Nephrite! That's awful!"
"The truth often is. I thought all the sweetness was gone from the universe. I thought everything was beyond hope." He finally dropped his gaze from the moon to look at her "Until I met you."
Oh, Nephrite. How is it you can slice me to pieces without even seeing me?
Makoto went to her knees, her tearful eyes on the sky.
I want to go home.
She could not see Jupiter, but she felt it, wild and thunderous and mighty, deep in her heart. At last, she was ready to return to her planet, her home.
Will you miss me when I'm gone? Please, when you are lying beside her at night, and you happen to glance out your window, and you see the stars…
She held the glass shard, already slick with her blood, against the fragile white flesh of her wrist. One long, deep cut, leading towards her elbow, and her life began to flow free.
Remember me, Nephrite.