Ami smiled to herself as she thought of this, carrying her sandals in her hands and enjoying the cool, gritty sand underneath her feet. In her other hand she held a torn scrap of paper from a spiral notebook, creased and unfolded so many times that it felt like a bill that had been washed in the laundry, about to crumble. Twice already she had moistened her chapping lips with her tongue, and the corners of her eyes stung a little from the salty mist.
The sand beneath her still sparkled, but its diamond-like glimmer was scattered all about the white-yellow shore, not as strong as the piercing starlight. For a moment it reminded Ami Mizuno of the sands in an hourglass, and the irony of it all stifled the lighthearted laugh that might have escaped her... if it was any evening other than this one.
Ami unfolded the note gingerly, just one last time, to read over the few short lines written in feminine, loopy cursive. The fringed edges were sloppily torn, and it was purple with navy lines, and Ami could almost smell her perfume, and in her mind she conjured up the sensation of that beautiful hair swishing by her when they briefly passed one another.
Anxiously, she pushed her short blue locks back behind her ears, feeling her heart hammer. It had been days since she told her they'd meet here, and now that tonight had finally come, and she was nowhere to be seen, Ami swallowed in her frantic despair, hearing nothing but the violent sea crashing into the shore and seeing only the cloak of a night so stony cold that it could have been late summer or mid-winter. The chilling wind feathered the hair at the back of her neck and the wild weeds among the rocks swayed helplessly. The young woman cast her navy gaze out into the chopping abyss, and the Pacific answered her only with endless miles of lonely rampant fury.
"I'm here, Ami-san." The half-whisper resonated only within Ami's mind, so unrealistically pretty and rich that the sound wasn't meant to carry through the earthliness of this beach. A soft blushing magenta was glowing from underneath the shadow of the cliff behind them, and Ami caught sight of the wondrous Garnet Orb, serving as a beacon that led Ami back to the heavy reality weighing upon them both.
Super Sailor Pluto was beautiful as ever, statuesque and gentle. Yet as far back as Ami could remember, there was always something grave about her. It wasn't so much that Setsuna Meiou was cold and stoic, but she had a striking bluntness to her even in her warm crimson eyes and modest, knowing smile. In one sense, Setsuna Meiou didn't even exist at all - it was purely the Senshi of Time and Space, not meant to delight in what life had to offer, not meant to truly be human. Perhaps in all of the woman's numberless years of age, this was the very first time she would return to her duties with something else possibly on her conscience.
The wind was whipping her loose, long spruce-green hair around, but Pluto stood proudly, seemingly unaffected, so powerful in her stance that it would have taken the end of the universe itself to shake her. She beamed with a shine that couldn't belong to any world, in her meticulous uniform that fit her long legs and shapely body so painfully well. As she stepped forward, her tall black boots pounded softly into the sand.
Ami shivered in her simple lace dress that was thin and off-white, only showing more how innocent and girlish she would forever be before a woman of Sailor Pluto's stature. She crumpled the note in her hand, avoiding the chronal princess's wine-colored eyes that seemed to scan across the beach rather than look directly at her. But Ami knew she was the center of her attention now, and she kept her chin pointed downward.
"Konbanwa," she said, bowing politely.
But Sailor Pluto didn't seem interested in formalities.
"In one hour I'm going back to the Gates of Time," she said forwardly. " One hour, that's all we have."
"So soon?" Ami peered up at her, feeling her heart sink down into her stomach.
"I'm afraid so. But I see that this bothers you. Why?"
In her heart of hearts, Ami honestly couldn't say. It seemed so pointless to even try to explain, when she hadn't uttered a word to anybody about it before. Looking back on their history, they didn't have anything to do with one another unless it was a battle. Sailor Pluto knew everything about all the Senshi history, who Ami was... but she would have nothing to say to her from the very start.
And every time, it was the Dead Scream, the attack of the underworld, and she even performed it with feigned interest because she already knew the outcome of every fight. She was only the strategist for the Outers, guiding Uranus and Neptune, and just pitching in for the sake of pitching in. Once every battle was over, she would only walk by Sailor Mercury, glancing only straight in front of her, but walking close enough for Ami to feel knocked over by her grace, and the same familiar swish of lovely green hair that would fall and drape back over her attractive uniformed body. It made Ami feel that even the Princess Mercury locked away inside her, along with her strongest aspirations and passion for intellectual pursuits, were ordinary, never monumental like Setsuna's allegorical wisdom and peaceful reflection that took a lot of guesswork to comprehend.
"I'm sure you know, I just wish you could stay longer," she admitted. "I can't really say why."
Pluto smiled amiably, though still showing hints of sorrow. It was like this every time she went back, Ami assumed. She had seen her with Haruka, Michiru, and Hotaru, in a café sometimes, and suddenly she would leave with that same sorrowful smile. By now she was able to leave without guilt, so this was probably her way of showing concern and compassion. It was a sad smile that said she knew when anyone wanted her around and she couldn't be there. It was a smile that she used when neither of them could say anything at all, because they knew she was bound by unbreakable obligation.
"You have a pure and dear heart, Ami-san. That is why you are a dedicated and noble warrior."
"Don't say that. I'm not strong enough to keep doing this for ages."
"You might be surprised, the things I know. And I daresay you will miss me."
"I already do," Ami admitted. This was just a repeat of what happens every time, like with Mamoru-san. With all her heart she wanted the impossible, but this was a bit different. Setsuna was timeless and independent, always there for anyone at least in times of crisis, and never to marry anyone, and so her hope was eternal. And this time, Ami would deal with the heartache listening to a soothing voice telling her no.
"I'm not asking you to stay, and I could never," she continued, causing Setsuna to double-take, with a sage, patient expression on the older Senshi's face. "In fact, I suppose I asked if I could talk to you alone one more time so that I could say goodbye in a way that would make me feel satisfied with myself."
"My pretty young child," Setsuna said calmly, reaching out and stroking Ami's hair with her gloved fingers. "I can only interpret but will never know the reasons why you admire me so. And I want you to know, I understand your words unspoken, and as much as I want to show you that they don't go unappreciated, I have no choice but to leave. In one hour."
"I know, I know." Ami lifted her head so that she met Setsuna's eyes. Hers were deep and oceanic, and widened with affection that she was failing to conceal. And she loved Setsuna's tender caress, the undivided attention she could finally have while she was petting her hair.
"You don't have to tell me everything. Just what you came to say." The Garnet Orb was still glowing vibrantly, as if it were part of a hazy dream. Setsuna never glanced at her talisman, only held the staff firmly in place with its rounded end in the sand and bright sphere casting a small crown of pink light around her hair.
Ami sighed deeply, breathing with vigor before she began. "Sometimes I wonder why it is that you ever return, when you leave so suddenly that I don't have the chance to run into you on my own. I know it's kind of silly that I'm interested in you so much, because you come and then you go, but it's a curiosity that hasn't left my mind for more than a year. I want to know you, and the more I think about this yearning to know you, I realize I already do. You're mysterious and yet obviously the most intriguing and brilliant person I've ever met."
Setsuna's eyes enlarged in surprise and then she returned to a flattered look, slightly blushing but humbly thankful. To Ami it was still so serene that Pluto almost seemed to be in a dream that she would never be allowed to enter.
"It's not like you to say such passionate things, Ami-san. I'm certainly less deserving of the flattery, but it's an honor all the same." She lowered her gloved hand to raise Ami's chin with her nimble thumb and fingertips.
Ami nervously dared to bring her hands to Setsuna's wrist.
"But I do feel this way!" she protested. "Although first it was just wanting to converse with you. Now I feel like I just want to be around you more and more, and this time I can't help running after you, at least pretending that you'll understand how deeply I want you to stay."
"I will always protect you, Princess."
"No, it's not like that either..."
Had Ami not remembered how skillful Pluto was, she would have believed that Setsuna would let her Garnet Rod fall, but instead she held it low and at an angle, letting her arm drop so that she could hold Ami's shoulder with the other.
"Ami-san. You know I don't have a choice. But what I will tell you is this. I know you, more than you think. This has happened a thousand years ago, on the Moon and on planet Mercury. In your past life you were more outspoken of course, and you and I would converse like this every time I departed for somewhere. We would exchange notes agreeing to meet somewhere after I'd already said goodbye to everyone else. We met on the largest balcony in your palace, and near Queen Serenity's reflecting pool on the Moon Kingdom, smiling to one another about it in secret across the table at banquets.
"Usually it was small talk, but it was understood that I didn't want to go for as long as you didn't want me to. But it had to happen, and eventually we always got to repeat it. Yet never, until now, have you actually said to me these words that I wouldn't expect to hear. I knew I was doing something right, inviting you to come and see me this time."
"I knew it was something I can't control," Ami whispered breathlessly, taking Setsuna's hand in both of hers and leading it back to her cheek. "But it's worse now. I can't stop you, but I want to. It's been a thousand years plus more. I've been waiting all this time. And you're just going to leave again."
"Princess, why do you think I've summoned you here to tell me these things? Just so you can let it all out? It never did fully occur to you before, but I'm here listening because it's what I want. I do so want to hear you to say these things to me." Setsuna maneuvered her talisman adroitly in her hand, pulling Ami into her arms and locking her embrace tight around her back.
Ami lay her head between Pluto's shoulder and chest, breathing in the natural clean scent of her soft skin and feeling the swell of her larger breasts against her, the ribbon on Pluto's Sailor Senshi uniform almost being caught in the front of her lacy dress. Almost delirious, she looked out into the freezing sapphire sea that no longer seemed angry and threatening. She could have been lulled to sleep if it hadn't been for the fact that she might never have another one of these moments again.
"I have no real reasons whatsoever, but I think I'm in love with you, and I'm afraid," she said.
Ami felt a deep, loud and uneasy sigh pass through Pluto's body.
"I just know that if I go against my better judgement and say this, I might never leave this beach. But now I feel it just might finally be appropriate. You now know that this has happened between us before, and now I tell you that it will happen many times more in the future, in this time and in Crystal Tokyo. It would be too awkward to fight closer to one another, but evenings like this will never be taken away from us, I promise you. I have always loved you, Princess Mercury. We've always loved each other, and known it. After a thousand years it's finally out in the open, and we really have waited too long for this."
Setsuna did let her Garnet Rod fall, and the sand cradled it, smoothly molding itself around the structure that was taller than Sailor Pluto.
She placed her arms on Ami's shoulders, and the younger blue-haired girl hooked her arms underneath Setsuna's, resting her hands on her shoulders also.
"And it's the first time, but I promise you this too will happen again."
Ami's eyelids fluttered shut as she raised herself to meet Setsuna's creamy porcelain face, and the sailor-suited Senshi held her closely by the shoulders, letting her full, moist orchid lips press against hers, first delicately and then with more tone and depth. It was a powerful, overwhelming kiss that Setsuna would enjoy even long after her departure, and Ami would cherish just as much as every next one, neither of them ever feeling totally incomplete again.