A/N - Yo kiddies. Here is your next installment of Good Girl, Gone Bad (I owe Rihanna props for the title I guess - sigh). Anyways, thanks to everyone who has reviewed so far; I'm so glad some people get enjoy ment from this! A lot of love goes to impersonal - who is like my beta'ing God. Nuff said, on with the show!

CHAPTER 4 – I'M NOT ALONE

It's been two weeks since the ballet, and I have an hour until Diana gets here to spend the day here. Oh, perhaps I should explain... since we swapped numbers and e-mail addresses, we've been talking pretty much every day. If we're not on MSN or messaging each other's face books, then we're on the phone talking or texting. And yesterday, she called me... asking for a favour.

"Moshi, moshi?"

"Hotaru-chan? It's me, Diana."

I grinned as soon as I heard her voice – she sounded so nervous.

"Hey, Diana-chan, what's up? You sound nervous."

I listened as she giggled as a nervous reaction. "I... erm, are you busy tomorrow?"

My eyebrows automatically raised, but I saw Haruka-papa caught my gesture from the corner of her eye and began smirking. I could see Haruka-papa nudge my two mothers to gain their attention and suddenly I felt like a goldfish in its bowl – just being stared at.

"Tomorrow? No, I'm not busy... why?"

"Well, I was wondering could you take some photographs of me? I want to use them for art exhibit this year and I'm not sure if we'll get another chance."

"Sure, Diana-chan. Get here for about noon and we'll spend the rest of the day doing that."

She hung up swiftly after racing through her goodbyes in a muttered but excited way.

I looked down at the cell-phone in my hand and chuckled to myself. As I looked up, I saw all three parents looking at me. Haruka-papa was grinning, with a proud glint in her eye. Michiru-mama with a warm smile on her face – no doubt reliving the day Haruka-papa and her had their first date.

And Setsuna-mama?

She has one eyebrow cocked, a smirk on her face and she is slowly running her index finger around the rim of her mug.

"Date, Hotaru?" Her voice says my name thickly, almost sensually and I clench my jaw to prevent myself from drooling.

I nod smugly... knowing that it gets under her skin now. Before I can see her reaction, my papa stands; "Well, go you, Hime-chan... we'll leave you to your date tomorrow. Michi, Sets, it's apparently going to be such beautiful weather tomorrw, what do you say we hit the pool then? Barbeque and beer... and wine? Take advantage of this great summer weather!"

I see from the corner of my eye that Setsuna is smirking again. She places her mug on the table and crosses her legs – Oh God, those tanned smooth legs!

"Great idea, Haruka... I have this outfit I've been dying to wear in the sun."

Oh crap.

So... it's eleven thirty in the morning and I'm in the studio of my house. Michiru-mama said I could use the studio for photography, plus, it's just next door to the darkroom my parents has made especially for me. I'm preparing all of the equipment I may need for the day, as well as some lighting, when I hear the door creak open. I smile automatically, "You're early, Di-chan," I begin to turn my body to face her as I continued talking, "But no troub –"

"Sets...una?"

She pushes the door behind her and it creaked as it comes close to closing but not quite. She stood with one hand on her hip and she is frowning deeply. I glanced up and down on her to see what she's wearing. The lilac two piece bikini from our shopping trip is adorning her goddess-like figure, and a light white shirt is over her torso. She has some dark blue flip-flops on her feet. I'm drinking in the sight of her; and it stops my breath. She's beautiful. She's really beautiful.

"I need to talk to you, Hotaru."

I know I've already said I love the way she says my name, but have I mentioned I love the fact it's just Hotaru now? No more Hime-chan, no Hota-chan... just Hotaru. God, it is heavenly. I cleared my throat before I speak, afraid that words will get caught in my throat.

"Um... fine. What do you need to talk about?"

I turned back to my equipment and fiddled with my many lenses – no, that was not a metaphor for anything – and I felt her hand on my shoulder. My body tenses at her touch. It's only then I realise, she hasn't touched me since that time in the car when she placed her hand in mine. I smile at the memory before realising that she's speaking. I opened my eyes and blushed – I didn't hear a damn thing she said! I turn to face her and she's looking at me seriously. She sees me blushing and she cocks her head. I grin before giggling nervously.

"I, er... what did you say, Setsa?"

She looks like she's about to scold me but instead she sighs. "Hotaru... I... I don't want you around Diana."

What?

My eyebrows shot up nearly off my face. I was not expecting this. Hoping for it? Absolutely! But hearing her say it? It's so much more different than in my dreams – where after this something else follows that I know won't happen.

"You don't want me around her...? Is there any particular reason, Setsuna…mama?"

I added the mama just to annoy her. Her reaction said it all. Her head snapped up, her jaw clenched and she looked away from me. She looked back at me after a few moments and I could see tears brimming in her eyes. Not that I enjoyed the sight of it. I kind of regretted that.

"Don't call me that, Hotaru. Jesus, this is hard enough!" She threw her arms up in the air and turned away from me.

I didn't know what to do, so I just fidgeted around on the spot. I looked down at my shoes... I knew I made the right decision when I wore my plain black Airwalks. A lot of people say they're plain but I like that about them and –

"Hotaru?"

I should really stop rambling in my own head. About my shoes? God, I'm so lame. I looked up into her eyes. Her eyes lock onto mine and I can feel everything like never before. I can feel her pain, it matches mine. The uncertainty is equalled.

And want? It exists and it's there. Both want and lust are burning in her eyes and searing into my own. God, I could tell in that moment, that Setsuna wanted me.

Me! Hotaru! Oh God.

"Hotaru... I don't know what to do..." She steps forward to me again and I instinctively take her hands in mine. She stares down at my hand and back into my eyes, "Do you have any idea how hard this is for me? How hard it is to want and need something you can't have?"

I can feel her hand tremble in mine – I'm not used to being the stronger one, but all I want to do is make her happy, to comfort her. I tuck a stray lock of hair behind her ear and smile softly at her.

"Who says you can't have it, Setsuna?"

I don't know where the softness in my voice came from. All I wanted to say was 'Who the hell stands in your way?!' but Setsuna smiles bitterly.

"I think Michiru and Haruka would have something to say, Hotaru, if they knew about this... whatever this is. Or was, or going to be."

Oh... them. My parents. Yeah, they'd probably go ape-shit if they knew we were even having a conversation like this. My throat feels dry all of a sudden and every breath seems to cut at my throat; I force myself to gulp, bringing some relief to my throat.

"Th-They don't have to know."

Her eyes darted up to mine and she let go of my hands. Her eyes are searching mine and I feel inundated with her stare. Her hostile side gives in and she looks to me, a hand gently caresses my cheek and she sighs sadly. I know she's going to say no... I can feel it. In my desperation, I say everything that comes into my mind.

"It's not like you're my real mother! And you've not been here the past decade... and well, does it matter? I don't think of you as my parent anymore... I can't!"

Silence blankets us.

I sigh and I feel her hand leave my face, "Setsuna?" I open my eyes and see she is staring fixatedly at me. "Please say something... please?"

She moves over to the window in the studio, looking out and down onto the back yard. She closes her eyes and places her tan skin against the window, letting the sun's rays illuminate her; she is purity in this moment. I move to her side and she takes in a deep breath. I look over to her and she hasn't opened her eyes. I stay silent – I really don't want to break this moment. It's going to feel like I'm interrupting an angel's sigh. Or it'll make me feel like some sort of pollution to her purity.

"No-one would find out?"

What the fu - Speak, Hotaru, speak!

"N-n-no. No-one would know. I wouldn't say a thing. Would you?"

Her eyes snap open and she frowns at me. "Would I tell anyone? Hotaru, I don't have a death wish! Jesus!"

I giggle and catch her attention.

She raises an eyebrow, telling me to shush. I stifled my laughter and grin widely.

"I was just testing, Setsuna."

I looked outside and saw Haruka-papa and Michiru-mama looking up the studio. Haruka squinted because of the sun but then smiled and waved to us. Michiru-mama waved to us too and beckoned for Setsuna to go and join them. She smiled politely and walked away from the window.

I followed her.

She stopped in the middle of the room and turned to me, smirking.

"So... are you going to stop seeing Diana?"

I frowned as I thought hard. "That depends... what are we now?" She looked at me confused, and I sighed, should I really be explaining this to the one older than me? Clearly, yes, I should be, "I mean... are we... together?" I could feel my cheeks set aflame as I eked out that last word.

She clenched her jaw and looked me all over. I felt small under scrutiny once more. "We're not anything, Hotaru."

She looked at me for my response and I nodded slowly. I understood. This was weird, we needed time but we needed to know how the other felt, we needed to be open. To see where this weird and very fucked up road took us. After seeing my reaction, she pursed her lips together and watched me. I bit on my bottom lip... I have one thing on my mind. This one thing would clarify everything and would only take one second to make everything between me... and I'm guessing, her, clear too. I may as well give it a go – I mean, really now, what is there to lose? Oh yeah... my pride and dignity if she says no.

"Setsuna?"

She looks at me, her eyes signalling me to carry on talking... so I do, "Could I... erm... ah..."

FUCK! The words were about to just spill out! What the hell stopped me?!

"Could you what, Hotaru?" She sounds a bit frustrated now and I look at her and smile dopily, shaking my head. She grabs my wrist, firmly and looks me in the eyes, "What is it, Hotaru?"

The way she says my name. It flows from her. Like the syllables were only mean to be said from her mouth. In her delicious voice, travelling through and past her throat, over her tongue and released by the lips I yearn for... those lips...

"Your lips..."

My eyes widened as soon as I realize what I've uttered. She lets go of my wrist and looks at me in utter astonishment. As I'm about to open my mouth to talk more, there is a loud knock at the door and Diana pokes her head in, her face expressionless. Her eyes are looking all over Setsuna, then to me. We are coated in stillness.

"Am I interrupting anything?"

I look at her, my eyes wide – no way did she hear anything, right? How long has she been standing there? What if she –

"Of course not, Diana-chan, just having a chat with my Hota-chan," Setsuna's voice cuts through the silence, but I can't help but smirk inwardly at the way she called me her Hota-chan.

I'm hers! Yay!

"Well, I'll leave you two girls to it. Hota-chan... I'll talk to you later about... this, okay? Ja ne." And just like that, she's out of the door, Diana is still staring at the door after Setsuna has left.

I turn my attention to my camera equipment and sigh. I turn back around with a huge smile to greet Diana. She returns with a meek one of her own.

"Daijobu, Diana-chan?"

She looked to the door once more and as she turned back I see the hurt in her eyes. She did...

"Daijobu, Hotaru-chan... please, let's just get started."

She forces a smile. I can't help but think what a great actress she'd make. She'll get an Oscar on my stage, and I'll probably be the presenter, with this mess as the movie that will win her that. I grabbe my camera and the lens that I first had in mind then fixed the lens into its place. I look up at Diana and see the poignant expression her face adopts as she is thinking deeply. Her pensive disposition forces 'Photographer Hotaru' to go into auto-pilot. I lifted the camera and took the snap, instantly bringing Diana from her thoughts. She looks up at me dazed and I smiled. She really is cute. But she looks awkward as I smile; she brings her arms up and wraps them around herself.

"Why did you take a picture?"

I could respond and be witty and get a feeble laugh from her but I decide to keep a straight face as I speak.

"You told me to start."

Diana scoffs and laughs, somewhat amused and moves into a pose she wanted to do.

It's been over five hours.

We spent an hour and a half taking pictures. Most were digital but some were taken the old fashioned way. Diana said she wanted authenticity... so I'm just currently waiting for the photos to dry in the darkroom before handing them over to Diana. Right by then, we were sitting in my back yard. Haruka-papa had already done a barbecue... there are more burgers, chicken wings and steaks here than I think there ever were in the store. Haruka-papa decided not to have any beers just yet – she offered Diana a ride home, and Diana accepted. Michiru-mama is sipping on a white wine spritzer while lazing back into a sun-lounger. Diana was sitting beside me, both of us in shorts and a wife-beater – the weather was so good, neither of us could refuse an hour in the beautiful weather. Setsuna is sitting opposite me, in her bikini, with her Chanel shades on, reading a book on her lounger. Well, I think she is... I can see her eyes peeping over the top of her glasses every now and again and dart to me before going back to her book.

I don't think it's a very interesting book because she's been on the same page for the past hour.

I stirred the lemonade in my hand and look over to Diana; she's staring straight at me and it's putting me at some unease. She opened her mouth, but my cell-phone's alarm went off. I smiled and stood up, earning Michiru-mama to look quizzically at me. I brushed my clothes down with my hand and looked over to my aqua-haired parent.

"The prints are done."

She nods understandingly and turns to Haruka-papa. "Ruka, darling, come, we should get ready to take Diana home."

Diana stands up and bows respectfully to Michiru-mama and Haruka-papa. "Kaioh-san, Tenoh-san..." She turns to Setsuna and bows, "Meioh-san... thank you so much for having me in your home. Hotaru, I need to get home as soon as possible, could you grab the prints for me while I get my things to go home?"

I nod – but I don't get it, grabbing the prints would take all of thirty seconds... shrugging that off, I make my way back into the house. I see Diana walk over to her belongings and putting back on the shirt she took off to sunbathe in. I grab all the prints that Diana pointed out to me... okay, it's taken me two minutes. After grabbing the final one – the first picture I took of her – I headed back down the stairs, stopping as I hear my Michiru-mama talking to Diana... I know that tone of voice and I can't interrupt! How rude of me would that be? So, I just stand back on the stairs and just out of sight – I'd make such an awesome ninja – and I'm careful to not make a sound, and waiting for an appropriate moment for me to make my grand re-entrance... pretending I'd not heard a thing!

"Diana-chan, what's wrong, darling? You've been down ever since you got here... did something happen between you and Hotaru-chan?"

I could hear only silence as her response, but it's the kind of silence that speaks volumes. The kind that grabs you by the shoulders, shakes the shit out of you and says "YES!"

"I learned something today, Kaioh-san..."

Though I couldn't see Michiru-mama, I was one hundred percent sure she was making that face that said, 'carry on, the floor is yours'. Diana sniffled, for what reason I don't know, "I learned that wisdom can be foolishness... it doesn't always bless our elders."

What? Is this girl on crack? When the hell did she learn that? In between bites of her chicken burger?

"Style and comfort aren't the same. Style always wins over comfort. And I'm just a comfort."

I heard Diana sigh. I am utterly and thoroughly confused... she's a comfort? To who?

"Nani? Diana-chan, you've baffled me!"

Michiru-mama's delicate voice couples with soft laughter rippled through the air and I was tempted to laugh alone. Diana laughed softly but I could tell her heart wasn't in it.

"Hotaru loves her parents doesn't she?"

I could sense the look of pride in her eyes as soon as Diana stopped talking.

"Hai... she is our Hime-chan, Haruka and I love her very much too."

"And Meioh-san? Does she love Hotaru?"

My eyes widened... I had to make an appearance and soon. I began rushing down the stairs. "Of course, Setsuna loves Hotaru."

"Hai, but how does she lo-?"

I made it to the bottom of the stairs in time and held out the prints in my hand. "DIANA! Your prints! Wow, look at the time?"

Diana looked at the prints and took them, all the while staring into my eyes. My eyes were blazing with ferocity at the girl opposite me. Her eyes shone with remorse.

"Ja ne, Hotaru-chan."

As soon as I heard Haruka-papa and Michiru-mama return, I put all my attention back to my laptop screen; waiting for one particular person to log in. I had tried calling her cell-phone but she ignored it and all my texts went without response.

Four minutes later "PurpleFeline0657" logs in.

Instantly, I open up a box and furiously begin to type.

'Wat the hell was that abt mine, Diana?'

She takes her time to reply. And as I dread, her words appear on screen.

'U know wat it was about'

Shiiiiiiiiiiiit! Fuck... no, maybe I'm reading far too much into this.

'I know Hotaru... about you and her. I saw AND heard you both so dnt deny it'.

Fuck. Fuckity fuck fuck fuck! FUCK! Okay... so, she does know... did I mention... FUCK?! But my window flashed again indicating a new message.

'Dont worry... I wont tell anyone.'

What? She won't tell anyone? Okay... I know she liked me a lot, and she saw that, wouldn't anyone else be pissed? I mean, c'mon, even I'd feel pissed that some girl led me on like this, only to find out there was some other woman? Emphasis on the woman there, people.

'Why wont you? not that im not happy but why?'

It was about two minutes later that she responded.

'I have my reasons. Ill call you 2moro about it. I g2g. Ja ne.'

My jaw dropped down with shock. That was it? That's all I was getting?

And she logs out. Fuck! In frustration, I log out – I can't even talk to Chibiusa about this because I promised her I wouldn't do anything stupid but yet I have. I throw myself onto my bed, landing on my back and put a pillow over my face and scream into it. Less than halfway into the scream, there is a knock at my door. I remove the pillow from my face and throw it to my side. I sit up on my bed and cross my legs Indian style.

"Come in."

Less than a second later, aqua hair comes flowing into my room, my head darts up, my eyes are alert and my heart is pounding against my ribcage. Oh God, it's going to come out of my goddamned chest! Fuck, fuck, stop beating so hard!

I can barely breathe!

"Hota-chan?"

Michiru-mama takes a seat at the end of my bed and furrows her eyebrows before looking up at me. I can tell she's getting ready to talk about something she doesn't want to talk about. It's the same look she has when Haruka-papa made her talk to me about 'the birds and the bees'.

"H-h-hai?"

Her deep azure eyes bear into mine. I can feel her; she's nervous, worried, unsure but she still loves me regardless.

"Is there something you want to tell me? About Diana?"

I sigh in relief and laugh slightly. Diana said she'd say nothing... I'm safe.

"No, mama... we just have some stuff we're going through... you know what it's like at this age." I smile, practically beaming purity with my acting – which has taken me years to perfect – and Michiru-mama forced out a small smile to me.

She wrings her hands. "And Setsuna?"

My throat is dry again. I know she left out saying 'mama'. All of a sudden I can't think or breathe. Michiru-mama is staring at me. I cleared my throat and smiled nervously.

"We had a misunderstanding... but it's all cleared up now."

She seems relieved; she smiles and ruffles my hair affectionately. I let out a sigh of relief and I raised my head. As I do I see Michiru-mama looking at me peculiarly? I tilt my head to one side and she shakes – it's like she's fighting with herself. She smiles at me and makes her way to my door.

"Goodnight, Hime-chan."

"Goodnight, Michiru-mama."

She was about to close the door when she stopped and looked at me once more. My heart sped up – Jesus fucking Christ, why can't this be over already?

"Hime-chan?"

I lifted my head up, there is no way I could actually speak now, so I just mumble out a 'huh?' Michiru-mama's eyebrows are knitted together and her lips are pressed together tightly.

"You know we love you, don't you, Hime?"

"I love you and Haruka-papa too, mama."

I grin and she smiled... but it doesn't reach up to her eyes.

"And Setsuna-mama?"

I swallow what little saliva there is n my throat. Is it me or did it just get a fuck-load hotter in here?

"I love her too," Just in a different way, mama, "Just habit from where she's not here."

"She's here now, hime."

"I know, mama... I'm kind of tired, I'm going to take a nap."

She opened her mouth as if she was about to say something else but instead she shook her head once more. It's like she physically wants to shake whatever thought is in her mind, out.

"Night, Hime."

I sighed as I laid back in my bed and my door closed. I reached over to my lamp and switched the light off, covering myself in darkness. Oh God, today has been hectic. Diana knows. She knows. Michiru-mama is questioning me now... and Haruka-papa? Thank God, she's so dense... and as for Setsuna? I thought I was going to die in the studio when she said we could keep it a secret.

In her two piece lilac bikini... just like in my fantasy.

My hand is sliding downwards.

Oh fuck, I'm so weak.

A/N 2 - So, there you have it ladies and gentlemen. R&R if you can. Ja ne - VR