Ami stepped out of the shower and dried herself off, with a million "what ifs" about tonight's dinner swirling through her head. After she was sufficiently dry she wrapped herself in a towel and headed to her room to pick out an outfit for tonight.

"I could wear that new skirt. Heaven knows Mako loved seeing me in it on our last date." Ami thought with a smile and a blush. She suspected the reason Mako liked that skirt so much was because of how it accentuated Ami's…

"On second thought, let's not do that. Wouldn't want Mako to get distracted while we're making the big announcement." The thought caused Ami to giggle. The fact that Mako would get distracted by her was still something she couldn't quite believe, even after they had been dating for two months. To think there was a time when she had resigned herself to the fact that Mako would only ever see her as a friend, and that one day she would have to watch as some guy (probably one who reminded her of the guy who broke her heart) took her away from Ami forever. But now? Now Ami felt like she had everything she ever wanted. She finally looked forward to the future rather than dreading it, because she knew she would be sharing it with the one she loved.

There was one final hurdle she had to overcome, however: telling her mother. From what she could tell her mother wasn't opposed to same-sex relationships as a whole, so that was something. Ami couldn't be sure if that extended to her own household, however. And she couldn't very well ask without giving herself away. If she was honest with herself, she had no idea how tonight was going to go. She didn't believe that her mother would disown her or anything that drastic, but she also couldn't rule out that this would change things between them.

For as anxious as she was about the whole ordeal, however, she knew her girlfriend must be way worse. She had tried to hide it, but Ami could tell from the moment she proposed the idea that Mako was terrified of what was about to happen tonight. And while Ami wanted to reassure her… it was hard when she wasn't much more confident in it going well herself.

Suddenly, Ami was struck with an idea. She picked up her phone and dialed up the few people she knew who could maybe offer her some advice on this front.

"Hello! Tenou-Kaioh-Meiou residence! To whom do I have the pleasure of speaking?" Haruka chimed from the other end of the line.

Ami had originally considered going to Haruka and Michiru for advice before confessing to Mako, but they had been so busy with work at the time that it was all but impossible. They had both recently taken some time off, however, to help Hotaru get settled in at her new home after her father's passing. They had basically shared parenting duties with Tomoe before, but now everything fell on to them. Meaning they didn't exactly have an abundance of free time, but likely enough for a quick phone call.

"Hey Haruka, it's Ami."

"Oh, hey blue! What's up?"

"Well, tonight's the night that Mako and I are telling my mother that we're… y'know. And I was just wondering if you and Michiru had any advice?"

"Oh wow, that's a big deal! Yeah, gimme one sec, let me get Michiru in here."

After a brief period of shuffling from the other end of the line, Ami heard Michiru's voice, "Hello, Ami? Haruka said you needed to talk to us."

"Oh, yes, well-"

"Her and Mako are coming out to her mother tonight and she was hoping the previous token gays of the group could give her some advice." Haruka cut her off over the phone.

"Well I wouldn't phrase it exactly like that but… yeah." Ami said meekly, prompting a chuckle from Michiru.

"Oh, say no more, hon. But honestly it's really quite simple. Just tell her the truth, that you love Mako and that she's a good partner. She might be a little confused or surprised, but if she loves you, she'll understand." Michiru advised in the sweet, motherly tone that she tended to adopt in times such as this.

"Speak for yourself, it took forever for your parents to warm up to- ouch!"

"That had less to do with you being a girl and more to do with your lack of tact."

"Details. Anyway, Michiru's right. Just relax, everything'll be okay."

"Oh, but also maybe tell Mako not to put her feet up on your mother's expensive coffee table."

"Why would she-" Ami began to ask before being cut off by Haruka.

"ONE TIME!"

"ONE TIME THAT SHOULD NOT HAVE HAPPENED!"

"Uh… well I've still gotta finish getting ready so…"

"Oh, of course dear. Also don't forget you and Mako promised to come by and visit on Monday. That's all Hotaru has talked about this week." Michiru said.

"Don't worry, I'll remember. Anyway, I'll talk to you guys later, bye!"

With that, Ami hung up the phone and stood back up to continue looking for an outfit. She finally settled on ol' reliable, a button up shirt and vest with a skirt. While getting dressed her thoughts drifted back to her green-eyed lover. She desperately hoped Mako wasn't getting herself too worked up over this but… well… memories of her and Mako's first discussion of the dinner led her to believe that her hopes were likely in vain…

…

"So are you still coming over on Saturday?" Mako asked, looking up from her coffee at Ami, who sat in the booth across from her at the Crown café.

"Um… I actually wanted to talk to you about that." The bluenette replied, looking out the window at the cars driving up and down the street. "My mother has that night off and we were planning on having dinner together."

"Oh, I see. No biggie, I know you don't get to spend time with your mom all that often."

"Well, yeah, but also… I was wondering…" Ami began, fidgeting with her hands, "if you would join us?" Ami finished, her eyes finally meeting Makoto's.

"Oh… that sounds… that sounds great!" The green-eyed girl finally squeaked out with a forced smile. If the idea of simply meeting her mother brought this reaction out of Makoto, Ami was genuinely frightened at how she would react to the next part. But there was no turning back now, so she continued.

"And I also thought maybe that would be a good opportunity to tell my mom that we're… y'know…" Ami petered out while lightly gesturing between the two of them.

"Oh! Well… um… uh… don't you think it's a little soon for that?" Makoto said, visibly nervous.

"I mean, it's been two months. I feel like that's well beyond when most couples tell their parents."

"Okay, but hun… we… we're not…" Makoto began, clearly struggling to find the right words, "we're not like most couples."

Ami sighed, "I know." the Guardian of Water said, sounding deflated, "And I know I'm asking a lot of you with this. It's just… My mom is never home. And for these last three years, any rare occasion where we get to spend real quality time together has had to be filled with lies because I couldn't tell her about… our extra-curricular activities."

Ami picked up a spoon off of the table and began fidgeting with it in her hand, opting to look down at it rather than meet her girlfriend's eyes. "And that was fine. After all, I don't know if I really wanna have conversations with my mom about how I was almost killed by a monster with stars on its boobs."

Ami put the spoon in her coffee and began to stir it, despite the fact that the cream and sugar had been properly stirred in by this point. "But now… now I'm lying to her about something I desperately want to tell her about. Something I wanna tell everyone about, hell, I'd shout it from the rooftops if I didn't live in an apartment." Ami said with a small smile. "But I won't make you do it if you're not comfortable. After all, she is my mother I can come out to her without you there but-"

"Ami." Mako said while placing her hand atop Ami's, cutting off both her words and her continuous stirring, "I'll be there." The brunette said with a soft smile.

"A-are you sure?" Ami asked, somewhat stunned, "Because you don't have-"

"I know I don't have to." Mako said, cutting off Ami once again, "But I wanna do this for you."

…

"I don't deserve her…" Ami muttered to herself with a goofy smile as she finished buttoning up her shirt.

…

Unbeknownst to Ami, Makoto too was recalling the events of when she told Ami she would join her and her mother for dinner as she left the flower shop and began to head towards the Mizuno residence.

"I know what it's like to not be able to talk to your parents." Mako thought to herself as she walked down the street, "I would give anything to be able to tell them about… well, anything really, but especially about Ami. So there's no way I'm gonna take that from her too."

The rest of the walk Mako's mind simply wandered between different things that could go wrong at dinner.

"What if Ami's mother doesn't approve?"

"What if I make a fool of myself?"

"What if she's somehow seen my test scores and she thinks I'm too dumb for her daughter?"

"What if some food accidentally goes down the wrong pipe and while I'm choking my transformation wand falls out of my pocket and then we not only have to tell Ami's mom that we're gay and in love but also that we're secret superhero space people?!"

"Wait." Mako thought, bringing a halt to the vortex of thoughts in her brain. "Rei said everything would go fine. And when have her visions ever been wrong? Well… there was that time she saw the Messiah of Silence killing us all- but that doesn't count! We were trying to stop that one from happening, we're trying to make this one happen. It's different." Mako thought as she made her way up the stairs of Ami's apartment complex.

"Ami said it herself, the future is what you make of it." She thought, finally reaching the door to Ami's apartment, raising her fist up to the door to knock, "I've got this."

(So, yeah, while the anime is my favorite version of Sailor Moon I absolutely HATE that they had Professor Tomoe become a good guy at the end of season 3 instead of having Hotaru live with the Outers. But I also want to be canon compliant so... sorry Tomoe, you've gotta die. Probably of an illness related to having an alien demon stuck inside of him for several years.)

(But anyway, that's all for chapter 2! I know there was no Minako and Rei stuff in this one but don't worry, the next chapter will be alllll about them... (it'll also be a bit shorter than the first two chapters sorryyyy))

(But anyway! Please let me know what you guys think! Comments are much encouraged and greatly appreciated!
And come back next time for chapter 3.)