A/N: EPILOGUE IS ONLY LEFT!!! WHOO! This story is coming to its end. I assure you that what happens in this story is crucial, so please keep an open mind! Epilogue is the best , and you'll see why, so don't consider all to be lost.

Thanks:

SailorMoon-MoonPrincess: This isn't exactly narrator POV but I think it was a good thing I did this.

Peaceful Moon: Of course not. I did not expect many people to like this story, I would personally read something a bit more dramatic. A story where the girl was not so... dark-thoughted. But for the lesson that I want to be put out in front of everyones eyes, I decided to do this. Enjoy and thanks for your review!

tiffany aka basketcase: It is, but the ending is my favorite! You'll see why in the Epilogue!

bunnie915: Yea.... I get that alot. :p Enjoy!

jupiter2005: Well, she didn't know that she was sick. It was because when she was weak she did not seek help. (Maybe you should reread the ending in the last chapter?)

Sweet-Angel of Love: Not exactly.... You'll see what I mean in the Epilogue, though it does seem like it in this chapter.

Credits: I DO NOT OWN SAILOR MOON! But the story is all a creation of my mind!

Summery: Tsukino Usagi, already facing a brutal life of an orphanage, now has to help Chiba Mamoru with his hate for life by attempting to be his friend and helping him see the wonders of love. All this proves to harden when she is a targeted with a sickness she would not reveal to anyone but the doctors. With her life-line reducing dramatically, how can she keep the promise she made to her new friend and herself when death could just as well be around the corner?

To Teach Him To Love

Chapter 7

My name is Mamoru Chiba. Not so long ago I arrived to Lilly Valley Orphanage, thinking it will be a rough life. I thought that this could be the worst possible thing to ever happen to me. But I was wrong. I was way off.

I lost my parents – that's one of the worst things to ever happen to me. I am losing the love of my life – that ties with losing my parents.

Now, I will be all alone.

Usagi, as I mentioned before, the love of my life, is the one thing I wish to not ever, ever lose. But you know what they say… Not all wishes come true.

Usagi's life is reducing every second. Before she fell unconscious, I gave her the letter I stayed up writing two nights in a row. I didn't eat, nor did I sleep. I think she noticed. She commented on the bags under my eyes and how they set off my 'beautiful' face.

She's ridiculous. Lying on her death bed and joking about how I am unable to sleep because of a fly or what not. She didn't know the truth until yesterday.

When I came to visit, she was in her bed, as usual, and looked even weaker than the day before. Trust me – it was not a pretty sight. She was breathing as if she had just run a marathon.

I had once thought – before she got whatever the disease she refuses to share with anyone – that she was skinny. Boy was I ever wrong. As I look at her now… her skin is like… I don't know. It's as if she has no skin. Her hand, which once fit perfectly into mine, now can't even be described as a hand. It looks more like bones than anything else.

There are black hues under her eyes. Their not bags, I know for sure. Her skin can't form bags! Her face and every other part of her skin is like a white piece of paper. No, I'm serious! It's… actually quite gross. But she's beautiful...

I rub her hand, which feels very cold to my own temperature.

The doctor rushes around, trying to save her life, but we both know it's useless. Every second she is slipping further and further away from us. She's almost gone.

"Usagi… Usako." I whisper. I had once heard that "Usako" meant "My bunny." "Usagi" meant "Bunny" so I think that "Usako" fits Usagi quite well. "Usako, you know… I know you're holding on for me. I know you're afraid to let go of life because you're afraid I'll make a big, big mistake after you leave. I read your note, Usako. I understand how much it means to you, now. I promise I won't do anything to my life. I will live for you. But you still have your end of the bargain. You still remember it, don't you? You promised to travel every millimeter of heaven if you had to, but you would visit me. I have been eating carrots." I laughed quietly, "So I expect you to come to me once you figure out how. You don't have to hang on for me."

I listened to the machine which rated her heart beat. It began to race.

"You can let go now. I know you're in pain. You can go. I love you. You don't have to fight any more."

The beeping slowed.

"I love you. I know you love me, too."

The machine beeped once.

I caressed her cheek, and then leaned down to peck her lips. "Good luck, Usako."

There was a pathetic excuse for a heart beat from her, and then…

The room fell quiet.

Usagi Tsukino was not with us any more. She is now in a better world….

My letter… I wrote to her all about what I felt when I first came to Lilly Valley Orphanage. I had answered a lot of her questions in that letter. It looks like she had the same idea as me. She wrote about her life for me.

I can't get used to the idea of her not being here any more. It just doesn't seem possible. It's as if… It's as if Usagi is unable to die.

What about that knot we made? Was it still there? Was it still strongly tied?

Oh, how I wish to have asked her when I still could, but now…

When a person dies, does the knot die, too?

Somehow, I know what Usagi would have said.

"No." she would have murmured in her delicate, quiet voice that never managed to stop the pleasurable shivers in my spine. "It becomes stronger."

I didn't know why she would have said that, or how it could have become stronger, but it definitely sounded like something she would say.

I remember, a distant memory of the many days we would spend with each other playing mindless games and teasing one another, just for the sake of being together, that I asked her if it was possible for her soul to die.

She had said it was. She said that if I forgot about her and did not think about her, her soul would not be remembered, and she would be forgotten, like many of the people who it had happened to.

Irene and Ken came in here. Irene took one look at Usako, and she knew. Ken was still holding on for the last thread of hope.

"She's gone," I murmured to him.

His fatherly expression turned grave.

"She was like my own child!" I heard Irene wail into Ken's shirt.

"I know what you mean. She's been with us for so long," Ken murmured.

I smiled at that. Usagi was wrong. She did have a family. Ken and Irene had loved her like one of their own…

I just wish that she had known that. She would have loved to know that. She had told me over and over again that she wished she had parents…

She did have parents. Her caregivers were like her parents.

Why hadn't they adopted her, though?

They would have brought so much happiness to her by doing just that.

I looked at Usako again. No… this wasn't Usako. Usako had gone. This is Usagi Tsukino. She is not the one my soul loves.

The one my soul loves is somewhere above. This body means nothing to me.

But I wish I could see her light blue eyes again. I wish that this disease had never happened. If it didn't, we could be playing on the swings right this very moment.

I got up and walked over to Ken and Irene. I put a hand on Irene's shoulder and she looked up at me.

"Usagi is still alive, Mrs. Wayne. She told me that if we remember her, that she will never die. That," I pointed to the lifeless body on the bed, "is just a shield that holds the soul of a person like Usagi for a while. Usagi is not dead."

Irene nodded her head at me.

The couple walked out of the room, giving me some time to say goodbye.

I walked over to the bed where Usako's shield was. I caressed the shield's cold cheek and played with its lifeless hair. "I'll be waiting for you, Usako."

Thanks to this amazing soul of a girl, I had learned a very, very important lesson about life. I learned that just because you do not see the person you love in front of you, just because you can't kiss or hug them any more, it doesn't mean that they're not there.

That means my parents are still with me, too.

Also, I learned that the mother of this beautiful creature must have been someone stupid and insane to have let such a tremendous fire escape from her grasp. She would have loved Usagi like the people around her love her.

But you know what? That mother of hers doesn't even deserve to be called her mother. She is nothing but a stranger. She is… nothing.

Usako… I love you. Ken and Irene do, too. If you can hear my thoughts, I hope you know that the kids at the orphanage are mourning you right this very minute.

You will be remembered....

TBC

A/N: Please REVIEW! I need your honest thoughts about this story.