Epilogue

"Otou-sama."

Slowly, Rei rose from her kneeling position in front of her mother's grave to face the man behind her. His face registered shock at her presence, and for a few moments, neither said a word. They simply stared at each other, unsure of how to act after so much time apart.

"I was just leaving," Rei coolly said after a couple of minutes, breaking the uncomfortable silence between them. "Sayonara, otou-sama."

She turned to leave, having no desire to stay as long as he was there, but was stopped by a surprisingly gentle hand on her arm. "Please, Rei-san," Keitaro said. "Don't leave on my account. I didn't mean to interrupt you. I'll leave, if that is what you want."

Rei lifted her gaze to meet eyes of stormy gray, backing away from his touch. Was that what she wanted? To be truthful, she wasn't completely sure. The rational part of her was screaming, "Tell him to leave me the hell alone," but for some reason, she couldn't force the words out of her mouth.

She silently cursed the part of her who still longed to be accepted by her father. Keitaro had made it perfectly clear when he signed the emancipation papers that he didn't care to be a part of her life anymore, so why couldn't she accept it?

"Stay if you like," Rei finally said in an emotionless monotone, wrapping her arms around herself as she stepped out of the way to stand under the sakura tree. "I won't stop you. You have every right to be here, I suppose."

Keitaro's eyes widened a little bit behind his gold wire-rimmed glasses; obviously he had been expecting her to answer in the negative. "A-Arigatou," he stuttered.

Kneeling down on the grass in front of Hino Takara's grave, with little regard to ruining the expensive suit he wore, her father clasped his hands together and bowed his head. Rei could just barely make out the words of a Catholic prayer coming from his lips, foreign inside the Buddhist cemetery, but beautiful and heartfelt just the same. When he was finished, he repeated the prayer in front of the second, newer gravestone beside her mother's. It belonged to her grandfather.

"Thank you," she said softly once he had completed the second prayer and stood. "You didn't have to do that."

Keitaro glanced over at her and smiled sadly. "He was a good man, Rei-san. Kondo-sama took care of you when I couldn't, and for that, I will be forever grateful."

"Yes, I miss him a lot."

Sighing, Rei came back around to the front of the two graves, staring at her grandfather's name carved into the granite, so final and permanent. For a long moment, the two stood in respectful silence until Keitaro finally cleared his throat, reminding her of his presence.

"I'm sorry I couldn't attend Kondo-sama's funeral," Keitaro apologized. "I-I wanted to come, but…"

"But you had work to do," Rei said, completing his sentence for him. There was a trace of bitterness in her voice that she couldn't hide as she remembered that day, ruining the unstable peace between them. "It's always the same old excuse, isn't it, otou-sama?"

He didn't deny it, his free hand sliding into the pocket of his grass-stained pants as he averted his gaze away from her to the graves. "Hai, that's true," Keitaro admitted, drawing in a deep breath. "But there was…"

"What?"

After a slight pause, Keitaro shook his head. "No, never mind. It isn't important now," he said with a defeated sigh. "I should probably be going now. I've overstayed my welcome here. I'll let you get back to your prayers. I'm sorry I interrupted you. It won't happen again."

This time, when he turned to leave, Rei was the one to stop him. It was an unconscious reflex on her part. She didn't even realize she was gripping his arm until Keitaro gasped, staring at her hand with the same look of shock on his face as before. Embarrassed, Rei let go, but didn't back away.

"Why did you come here today?" she demanded to know. "You never bothered to visit okaa-sama's grave before. Why today? Why now, after all these years?"

"It is Obon, is it not? I thought it was a time for people to pay respect to their deceased relatives."

"It is, but I've never known you to celebrate it, otou-sama."

"No, I don't," he said softly, looking away. "I don't know why I came. Maybe it was a mistake."

"Why? Because I'm here?" she asked, struggling to remain cool despite the tears of hurt she felt welling in her eyes. Rei turned her face away, not wanting her father to see. "Is that it?"

"No, Rei-san, of course not," Keitaro answered a little too quickly. He paused, most likely realizing how it must have sounded, and came up behind her, hesitantly resting his hands on her arms. "I wanted to see you, Rei-san."

"You did?"

Rei wasn't sure if she should believe him or not. Keitaro hadn't acted like he had wanted to see her when he realized she wasn't her mother's ghost or whatever it was he thought he saw. In fact, it seemed her very presence had pained him. If he had wanted to see her so badly, then why did he ask her if she wanted him to leave, practically begging her to say "yes"?

Behind her, Keitaro removed his hands from her arms and sighed. "This was a mistake. I don't know what I was thinking."

"What is a mistake?" Rei asked, turning back around. "Why did you want to see me?"

"I wanted to ask… To ask how you were doing."

"Oh." That was it? Rei frowned, unsure why she felt so disappointed by the question. "Well, I'm fine, otou-sama," she lied, refusing to look him in the eye. "You don't need to worry about me."

"That's good to hear."

"Is that all you wanted to know?"

"Yes," he said after a long pause. "I'm happy things are going so well for you."

"They are."

"Then…I suppose I will go now. I'm sorry I bothered you, Rei-san," Keitaro apologized with a polite bow before turning once again to leave.

Watching him walk away, Rei was overwhelmed by confusion. She didn't know why, but she sensed he had meant to ask her a much different question than the one he had asked. Why had he changed his mind at the last minute?

And even more importantly, why did she care so much?

"Otou-sama, stop," she suddenly called out, causing Keitaro to stop in his tracks and turn back around.

"Yes, Rei-san? What is it?" he asked.

"What did you really want to ask me?" she asked, her hands on her hips. "Why did you really come here?"

"I-I told you I don't know why I came," he stuttered. "I thought I could find it here, but I was wrong."

"It? What 'it'?"

Keitaro sighed, his head hung low. "I don't know, Rei-san. A sign, a vision, perhaps… I have no idea."

"Then how do you know you haven't found it?" she asked.

"What?"

"'It,'" Rei said, stepping forward so she stood only feet away from him. "If you don't know what it was you were looking for, then how can you be sure you haven't found it? For all you know, it could be right in front of you and you wouldn't even see it."

"I…don't know. I guess I wouldn't," he admitted.

"What was the question, otou-sama?" she asked again. "The question you wanted to ask me before but didn't? I know you changed your mind. Was it because you didn't find what you were looking for?"

Keitaro visibly paled. "Rei-san… I can't."

"You can't what?" she asked, growing frustrated with his vague answers and confusing riddles. "Why can't you answer me? Are you such a coward, you can't even talk honestly with your own daughter?"

"I don't have the right to ask you, Rei-san," he answered, his soft voice hard to make out over the sound of the approaching thunder. Rei had to strain her hearing to understand him.

"The right?" she repeated. "I don't understand. What are you talking about?"

Just then, the light drizzle that had been falling for the past few minutes became a downpour, the heavens showering them with their tears. Keitaro opened the umbrella he had the good fortune to bring with him and walked over to where Rei stood, offering shelter from the rain.

"Rei-san, let me walk you back home," he offered. "You're going to catch a cold if we stay out here."

"Why do you even care if I do?" she asked, stepping out from underneath the protection of her father's black umbrella and back into the rain. Her hair and robes were soaked within a matter of seconds, but Rei couldn't have cared less. "You never cared about me, otou-sama!" she accused, hating the tears she knew were running down her cheeks, mingling with the raindrops. "You never did!"

"That isn't true," Keitaro declared in a low voice, looking so defeated by her words, Rei almost believed him until she remembered all the pain and disappointment he caused over the years. She couldn't believe he had the nerve to stand there and insist he had cared about her after all he had done to prove he didn't.

"You don't have to pretend, otou-sama. I'm not your liability anymore," she reminded him, turning around and crossing her arms over her chest. "You gave up your responsibilities as a father when you signed the emancipation papers."

"Yes, I did, because I thought that was what you wanted, Rei-san. It was what you wanted…wasn't it?"

"What do you know about what I want? You never even asked me."

"But you were the one who had the papers drawn. I assumed that meant you wanted me to sign them."

"I did," Rei admitted, sniffling as she wiped her eyes with a rain-soaked sleeve. "At least I thought I did…"

"Thought? Rei-san, what do you mean?"

"It doesn't matter anymore. What is done, is done, and there is nothing we can do to change that, so just leave me alone."

Hearing a sigh coming from behind her, Rei thought Keitaro would do just that, but much to her surprise, he didn't. A pair of warm arms, hesitant at first, wrapped around her, and she found herself turning back around, burying her face in his shoulder as she cried the tears she had tried so hard to hide.

"It's okay, Rei-san," her father whispered as he awkwardly stroked the back of her head. "It's okay to cry."

Rei, surprised those words had come out of the mouth of a man who gave new meaning to the word "emotionless", glanced up to find his stony gray eyes were also filled with tears. "You're crying, too, otou-sama," she said with amazement. "Why are you crying?"

"I-I don't know," he said, looking about as shocked as she was when he reached up to wipe away a teardrop from his cheek. "I didn't realize…"

"Realize what?"

Closing his eyes, he pulled Rei back into his embrace and held her tighter than before. "How much I wanted this," Keitaro whispered. "I-I'm so sorry, Rei-san. For everything."

No matter how many times she had dreamed of hearing those words come from his mouth, nothing could have prepared Rei for the actual experience. She lifted her head back off his shoulder and met his gaze, unsure of how she should respond. "You're what?" she asked, thinking she must have heard him wrong. "What did you say?"

Keitaro sighed, releasing her from his grasp. "I said I was sorry," he repeated, his voice stronger the second time. "I know I have no right to ask for your forgiveness, but I truly am sorry for everything I have done to cause you pain. I thought I was doing the right thing by keeping you away from me, but I realize now I was wrong."

"I don't understand… Do you realize how long I've waited to hear you apologize and to take me back to the manor with you so we could be a family again?" Rei challenged, not waiting for him to hazard a guess. "It's been ten years, otou-sama. Ten years. Why are you doing this now, after so much time has passed? Did you honestly think I would be able to forgive you just like that? That I would be able to forget all the times you made me feel as if I didn't even exist in your life?"

He shook his head. "No, of course not. I have no expectations of you, Rei-san. I would understand if you couldn't find it in your heart to forgive me. I know how difficult that is."

"Do you really?" she wondered aloud, stepping back. "You don't even know me, otou-sama. How can you possibly claim to understand how I feel, what I am thinking?"

"You're right, I don't know you," he admitted. "But I do understand your feelings toward me, Rei-san, much better than you might think. They're the same feelings I've dealt with practically my whole life."

"You're lying. You couldn't possibly know…"

"…how it feels to be rejected by the one person who should have loved you most? To feel as if you were nothing to that person? To think you weren't good enough, no matter how hard you tried?"

With every question he posed, Rei felt a part of her anger fade away. She couldn't believe it. Her father was rattling off a list of every emotion and thought that had plagued her heart for years. He may as well have been reading an entry from one of the private diaries she used to keep when she was younger.

"B-But how do you know?" she asked.

"It's a long story," he replied with a sad smile. "And one I'd rather not rehash here in the rain. Look at you, you're soaked to the bone."

Rei shivered, only then realizing how cold she was, and began rubbing her arms. "I'm okay," she lied.

"Let me take you home, Rei-san," he insisted, once again offering the shelter of his umbrella. "It's the least I can do."

She hesitated at first, but slowly Rei took the hand her father held out to her, allowing him to pull her underneath the umbrella. Then, without a word, they left the cemetery.

Rei still didn't know if she could ever forgive Keitaro for what he had done. It would take a lot more than a simple "I'm sorry" to make up for the years of pain he caused, but as they walked together back to Hikawa, his hand grasping hers, Rei knew she was willing to at least try.

She glanced up at the sky. The clouds were beginning to disperse, and she saw a tiny patch of blue. It was small, but for now it was enough.

It was enough.

AUTHOR'S NOTES: Finally, it's over. Hallelujah! I hoped you liked the story and weren't too disappointed over the lack of a clear resolution.

For those fans of PGSM, the live-action version of Sailor Moon, I really did write this epilogue long before Act 34, the episode where Rei and Ryoji (her father) have a similar confrontation in the church graveyard where Risa (her mother) is buried, aired. Honest. Like one of my editors (Luna Hope) said after she watched the show, Takeuchi Naoko and I must think a lot alike. In any case, it's just a weird coincidence that the scenes are so similar.

As always, special thanks to my fantastic editors Krysia, Xing (Starsea), and LunaHope, as well as Viper Inferno for his wonderful critiques posted at Redhawke FR. Thanks also to my friends I Abibde, Kate (superkate), and anybody else I might have missed who gave me the will to keep writing this story even when I wanted to quit (which was probably like a hundred times). I couldn't have done it without you. Oh, and I also want to thank a new friend, blue, whose wonderful stories about Rei were the inspiration behind SOF.