"I think some tea sounds good, Setsuna-san. Thank you."

The tea had been made and served, and everyone was sitting around the table in the dining room enjoying a pleasant conversation about nothing in particular. There was a bag by the front door, lovingly packed by Hotaru for her heartbroken Papa. Now they were just enjoying some time to themselves and helping Setsuna calm down after being excluded from the earlier danger.

"It's very strange. Usagi-chan, you should try to be vigilant until we can find out who is behind these strange occurrences and stop them. Don't go anywhere without one of us." Usagi nodded dutifully at the serious advice Setsuna was giving her, while she slid her hand beneath the table and onto Haruka's thigh. Already jumpy after the abortive reunion with Michiru, Haruka tensed at the sudden touch. Usagi squeezed her gently, reassuring but also slipping up higher, her pinky finger just brushing the top of Haruka's miniskirt.

"We should get going." Rei's voice was the one that interrupted them, and Haruka fought not to jump. She was sure Rei hadn't seen the caress, it must have been coincidence.

"Do you not want to stay for longer, Papa? It feels like ages since we saw you." Hotaru's pout was incredibly adorable, and almost impossible to resist. Haruka ruffled her hair and grinned at her manipulative daughter. Oh yes, she had learned all her parent's had to teach all right.

"The other inner senshi will be at the temple by now, we don't want to worry them by being late, even if we did call ahead to let them know." Rei answered Hotaru, smiling apologetically. Hotaru smiled that oddly sorrowful smile and nodded.

"Of course. I'll walk you out then, Papa." And she took Haruka's hand and led her out ahead of the others. Sharing looks with Setsuna, they shook their heads.

"She's still getting used to being older, I think she misses the four of us being a family the way we were when she was younger." Setsuna said by way of explanation. Rei and Usagi slowly rose from the table, giving the two a few moments alone before they caught up.

At the door Hotaru grabbed Haruka's bag and pushed outside, still holding on to her Papa's hand.

"Papa, I know you and Michiru-mama aren't okay right now, but come back and see me soon, okay?" Haruka smiled lovingly at her daughter and took the offered bag, dropping it into the front seat on the assumption Usagi would sit with Rei in the back again.

"I will Hotaru, I promise. Be good for your Mamas, alright?"

The sound of the door opening drew their eyes away from each other's – a powerful seizure twisted Haruka's gut in a painful grip. She sprinted towards the front of the house even as thunder clouds gathered in seconds above.

"Usa!" Haruka shouted, startling Usagi into turning away from Setsuna. Rei and Setsuna watched stunned as Haruka tackled Usagi, the two of them rolling to the floor only milliseconds before a blast of power too focussed to be lightning blew apart the step at their feet.

"Princess! Are you alright?!" Setsuna was quickly by their side, Rei right beside her. They helped Usagi to her feet as Haruka transformed, leaping up onto the porch of their building, then up again out of sight. Hard rain doused everything in seconds, the roar drowning out the sounds of Hotaru running to their sides.

"Haruka! Wait!" Usagi shouted, trying to wrest herself free of Rei's grip.

"Idiot Usagi! Transform first!" Rei scolded her, and Usagi shook her arms off to grab her brooch.

Haruka had glimpsed something that made her heart ache. In those sparse few seconds between her car and the house she had seen a figure shrouded in power on top of the roof. She swallowed hard, gripping her fists so tightly she felt her bones creak. As her feet found purchase on the apex of the rain-slick rooftop she looked across the length of the house with her eyebrows drawn tightly together.

"What's the meaning of attacking our Princess, Neptune?!" From behind her she heard several gasps. Looks like the others had followed her. That was annoying. Disregarding their presence, she focussed instead on the figure part-shrouded in storm clouds before her. The rain made her bangs drip over her eyes a little, and she flicked her head to move them aside. The rain pounded her head relentlessly, giving her a headache and chilling her to the core.

A two-fingered beckoning gesture was all the warning Uranus had before she leapt aside. Skidding on the slick roof tiles, she leapt towards Neptune as the flash of power threw debris from the spot she had just been standing in. Since when had Neptune been able to summon storms? Since when had she wanted to seriously harm her? And since when had she had any thoughts about anything but protecting their princess? Her breath caught in her throat, and she dodged aside as another bolt of power struck the rooftop, more tiles scattered to the wind.

"Neptune! Is this because you're jealous?!" Uranus shouted across the windy rooftop, ignoring the stab of guilty vanity at the thought. There was a brief lull in the storm then, just for a moment. Using the short window, Uranus charged towards the shrouded figure of Neptune. Grabbing her shoulders, Uranus didn't think about her own impetus and they both flipped off the roof into the open air. Behind them there were several calls of their names, but Uranus only had eyes for Neptune. She'd gone limp as soon as Uranus had set her hands on her shoulders. Now Uranus gripped the wilted body to her as if she were a bride and landed hard on the floor, dropping to one knee under the extra weight.

Deep sea-coloured eyes stared up at her, and Uranus wasn't sure whether to laugh in relief or to get angry. She seemed like the usual Neptune, at least.

"Neptune, what are you trying to do here? If you're jealous, why have you been having all these affairs?" Sharp pain pierced Uranus' side and she dropped Neptune to leap back, a hand covering what felt like a gunshot wound above her right hip. The blue-haired senshi was on her feet in but a moment. In Neptune's hand was a dagger made of what seemed to be water. When Neptune lowered her hand, the water dripped out of it as though it had never been solid. Gritting her teeth, Uranus raised her gloved hand and flicked her gaze down for the smallest second – it was stained red with blood. Great. What was going on here? Even at her angriest, Michiru had never once lashed out physically.

"Say something, would you?" She asked, when Neptune stepped once towards her in silence.

"What would you have me say, Uranus?" With a thankful sigh to herself – at least it sounded like Neptune – Uranus considered herself. What did she expect Neptune to say, anyway?

"Uranus! Neptune!" Sailor Moon's urgent voice cut off any other thoughts Uranus might have had about it, and she watched as Neptune faded back into the storm clouds. Tch.

Warm hands on her back made her realise how cold she was; the rain was freezing and she'd made no effort to stop her blood loss.

"Uranus, you're bleeding!" Sailor Moon's worried voice bought Uranus' gaze from where Neptune had disappeared to her bright blue eyes instead. In an effort to stop her worrying, Uranus tried a smile. It was only half-effective, making Sailor Moon return it but also start crying all at once.

"Uranus, let's get you back inside." The sensible voice of Sailor Pluto broke into their moment and Uranus nodded. Glancing back over her shoulder to the place Neptune had disappeared she saw only the dissipating storm clouds. All around them the world brightened up as the sun broke through the black clouds. Uranus grimaced as she tried to weight bear on her right leg and it gave way beneath her. Mars materialised on Sailor Moon's other side, stopping the taller woman from falling. Concern was on everyone's faces as they guided her back inside.

By the time Haruka dropped to the hallway floor she was no longer in her senshi outfit and the blood had already stained to the bottom of her miniskirt and started dripping down her leg. She was breathing hard too, and only vaguely aware of the flurry of activity around her. Then there were warm hands on her cheeks, and Usagi's worried eyes filled her blurry vision. She leant forward, planning to reassure the beautiful woman with a kiss. Instead, she fell forward into darkness.


"Ouch." Haruka mumbled to herself as she tried to turn over and found it sent a sharp stab of pain down her leg and across her abdomen. After a few moments of trying to remember what had happened she opened her eyes, blinking to clear her hazy vision. She was in a futon, Usagi was lying next to her, pressed against her left side with an arm across her chest, and she was in a room she didn't recognise. Had they moved? She knew all of the rooms inside the home she had shared with Setsuna, Michiru and Hotaru.

Lifting her hand proved to be harder than she had anticipated, but with what seemed like a goliath effort she managed to drag it across herself and stroke it gently across Usagi's cheek. The smaller woman was tucked into her side, her head resting on Haruka's shoulder and her lips open ever so slightly. So tempting. Using more of her strength than she'd have liked, she managed to gently pull Usagi's chin up and prop her head forward. Their lips met, and Haruka sighed inwardly. So soft, and gentle, and warm. Those gorgeous blue eyes fluttered open after only a moment, and Usagi sat up suddenly, breaking the kiss Haruka had worked so hard to get.

"Yo, Usa. Where are we?" She asked in what she hoped was a casual manner, but her hoarse voice rather gave her away.

"I'm so glad you're alright Haruka. We're in the shrine at Rei's place. The house was uh… too wet to stay in." Haruka realised that after losing so many roof tiles in such a heavy storm it would have basically been flooded inside. Oh well. At least Usagi, Hotaru and Setsuna were alright. She gingerly propped up her good knee and levered herself up, flinching at the pulling feeling over her right hip. How could Michiru have done this? Attacking her, attacking their Princess. What was happening?

"Haruka, don't move around too much. Hotaru healed you as much as she could, but Setsuna had to stop her when she wore herself out. We nearly took you to Ami-chan's mother's hospital, but Hotaru said she'd managed to heal the worst of it. Now you're awake, take some painkillers and have a glass of water before you sleep some more." Haruka half-smiled at her princess. It felt strange to be so carefully taken care of. Taking the glass that Usagi handed her, she obediently took the pills she was offered too. Her gaze never strayed from the younger woman. Overcome with guilt and not sure how to express it – whether she even should express it – she put the glass down only half finished and took Usagi's hands in both of hers. It surprised her again how heavy her limbs felt.

"Usagi, I'm so sorry. I don't know what's happened to Neptune, but I'm sure she didn't mean you any harm before." A pause as Haruka considered the power of the energy blast that had been directed at their precious princess, then "Well, I'm not sure what she was doing, but I swear I won't let any harm come to you."

"Idiot Haruka!" Usagi sobbed, slapping Haruka's chest loudly rather than hard. Dumbfounded, Haruka only stared as Usagi grabbed her cheeks and forced their gaze together. "Don't apologise and take responsibility as if anything is your fault! Don't tell me no harm will come to me when you are here hurt and still bleeding! Think of yourself first! Don't be so ready to sacrifice yourself for me! That doesn't make me happy at all!" Usagi could barely see through her tears now, but Haruka had no response to give her. Instead of replying, she leant forward and Usagi released her cheeks so their lips could meet. Haruka sighed thankfully into the kiss when Usagi leant down over her, allowing her to rest her head back on her mound of pillows. When Haruka slowly opened her eyes again Usagi pulled back, squeezing Haruka's arm as she settled back into the futon beside her.

"Usa, I loved you as our princess and I love you as my gorgeous girlfriend. I'm not going to let anything happen to you – it's not a choice I make, it's something my body and mind does before I know what's happening. Yours does the same thing – don't tell me you don't remember any of our battles. You leap in to save others without even thinking about yourself. Neither of us can promise not to, even if we wanted to. We'll just try our best, alright?" Usagi nodded tearfully, then settled her head on Haruka's shoulder with a sigh. Despite what she'd said, Haruka knew that she would always, always, do whatever it took to protect Usagi. In battle, in love, in life, she'd always protect her wonderful lover.


It was long after Usagi's breathing had evened into the deep rhythm of sleep that there was a quiet knock on the shoji that clearly led into the main hall. Haruka didn't wish to disturb Usagi's sleep, so she said nothing. When the shoji clacked open a small fraction to reveal large purple eyes, Haruka held her free hand out to her daughter with a smile. With a muffled cry, Hotaru flung herself into the room and into Haruka's side, careful to avoid putting any pressure on her Papa's injured hip.

"Haruka-Papa, I was so worried about you. How do you feel?" Haruka ruffled her hair and then pulled her in for a tight one-armed hug. When she spoke she kept her voice low and calm to keep from waking her precious princess.

"I'm much better Hotaru, you helped me out a lot. Are you ok? You must still be tired. Setsuna will be mad if you got up without asking her." Hotaru laughed, muffling it into the thick futon cover.

"Haruka-Papa I'm not such a child anymore remember! I'm fine, I slept all the way here and then some more after dinner. How are you?" Without waiting for an answer she shuffled the futon back and ignored Haruka's quiet protests as she pulled aside the bloody bandages to look at the still rather ugly wound beneath.

"Michiru-Mama really got you bad." She whispered, her glowing fingers tracing a circle around the wound. Haruka didn't see that there was anything to say to that, so instead she just sighed as she felt Hotaru's peaceful energy surround her.

"You will want to sleep some more once I'm done." Haruka opened her eyes when she felt the warm hand withdraw a little "Papa, don't let her hurt you anymore. You can stop her, I know you can. Try to save her while you save yourself too." And before she could even think about the depth behind those sorrowful words the warm aura was back and she was slipping into sleep.


When Rei came to check on Usagi later that day (it had been remarkably quiet, and with Usagi that was usually a bad sign) she found Haruka with Usagi on one shoulder and Hotaru on the other, all three sleeping soundly in the dark room. With a small sigh, Rei shut the shoji silently and returned to the other senshi, who were trying to come up with a plan against Michiru and her storms.

They hadn't been very effective with their meeting so far, and Setsuna had left almost at the beginning saying she had something to check out. Without her, and with Haruka and Hotaru being too close to Michiru to really be of any help, they had resorted to coming up with ideas as if Michiru were some new kind of Daimon. That made everyone uncomfortable, but they could hardly just forget about it when the majority of Michiru's attacks thus far had included Usagi. Returning to the room everyone was in, Rei updated them on Haruka (and Usagi and Hotaru), and then took her place next to Ami with a sigh. It would be a long day.