I'm on a roll, y'all! :3 Soon to come (I don't know when, probably when I run out of ideas on the normal track) I will let y'all in on Akira and Haru's past. I wonder if anyone actually reads what I have to say. Sailor Moon is owned by Naoko Takeuchi.

~The Next Morning~

The door to Rei's room slides open with a BANG!

"Good Mor~ning!" Usagi sings, and her partner-in-crime files in behind her, his hand to his face.

Rei rolls over and squints. "Usagi? What're you doing here?" she says, her voice a little slurred from sleep.

Usagi claps her hands twice. "C'mon, you slugabeds! We've got great news!"

Rei checks the time on her phone and swears. "What's so important that you gotta wake us up at seven-AM on a Sunday for?"

Usagi pulls Mamoru with her, and they sit between Rei's bed and Haruko's sleeping bag.

"What do you want, Usa-chan?" Haruko asks, annoyed.

"Well, we have decided…" Usagi tries to build tension. "Ooh, I can't hold it in anymore! We're getting married! Isn't it wonderful?"

"You've been officially back for two days," Rei says flatly, "and now you're getting hitched? Am I correct?"

"It hasn't been just two years, Rei-chan! I've been waiting for this for one-thousand years!"

"This is great news, Usa-chan! Congratulations! I'm so happy for you both!"

Usagi smiles triumphantly. "Now, that," she says, gesturing to Haruko, "is a normal reaction, thank you very much, Haru-chan!"

"Mako-chan, you know what this means, right?" Minako says, taking Makoto's hands.

"We get to plan a wedding!" they sing together. "Yay!" Usagi laughs.

While they're distracted, Mamoru whispers to Haruko, "I need to talk to you. In private."

~In the middle of the night~

There was a knock at the door. Usagi groaned.

"I'll get it," Mamoru said, sitting up to slip on his boxers. He threw on a shirt and jogged out to grab the door. "Comin'!" she heard him call.

Then, she heard the ka-chak of the heavy door opening. "What are you doing here? It's 5:30 in the morning!"

"I need to talk to you," an all-too-familiar alto voice said. Akira. "It's about Usagi."

"Come on in," Mamoru said. "I'll put on some tea."

"I'll put on some tea," he said, and walked off into another room.

Jose had scolded her about coming so early, but of course she couldn't have come during the day. Usagi would be likely to be here.

Akira noticed a little table with some framed pictures and vase of a single, red rose. Usagi had told her once that he always used those steel-tipped red roses as Tuxedo Mask. One throw was all it took to save her from a monster or enemy. Akira had scoffed and rolled her eyes, but inside she thought it had been kind of cool. Not that she would let on that she thought her brother was cool.

One picture on the table looked a little older. It showed Usagi standing there, gripping his arm, grinning bigger than she thought Usagi could grin. There was a little girl, about 10, with pink hair like Usagi's. In fact, she was the spitting image of her. Akira guessed that that was the little girl Usagi had told her about, their daughter who came from the future. The girl had her arms thrown in the air in excitement. and one knee bent up behind her. They looked like a happy family.

Akira picked up the frame and stared at it, trying to make sense of the picture-perfect family inside it. The older girl in the picture wasn't the Usagi she knows. That was definitely old Usagi.

Mamoru came out at that moment, holding a tray with two teacups and a teapot. Akira quickly set the frame down, and he eyed her curiously.

"So, uh, what about her?" he asked as he poured the tea, and handed her one cup.

"Thanks," she muttered. She took a sip. "Sorry, what?"

"What about Usako?" he repeated.

Akira sighed. "I'm kinda just wondering about what she used to be like, ya know? It'll help me, I think, decide what to do."

"Ah, let's see, let's see… Well, where to begin? To be honest with you, she was… well, a bit of a train wreck!" He chuckled lightly.

Back in his bedroom, Usagi had her ear pressed up against the cracked door, trying to listen in. She knew it was bad to eavesdrop, but they were talking about her, after all.

"To be honest with you she was, well, a bit of a train wreck!" Usagi narrowed her eyes and pouted. A train wreck? She hadn't been… that bad, had she?

He continued quickly. "She was never on time, always flunked her tests-in fact, the first time we met, she had tossed away a failed test that had hit me in the head!-and she enjoyed slacking off, you know, snacking, sleeping, playing video games, that sort of thing. Her only redeeming quality was that she always knew how to make people smile.

"But, that was not a small trait for her. She would always pick little fights with others, and she was prone to yelling and crying, which, even though we were a bit annoyed about that, we would always laugh, thinking 'Ah, that's Usagi for you!' I don't love her because we were 'destined' for each other, or anything like that. I love her because she's adorable. She's cute, funny, and could always cheer up the person who was deepest in the dumps."

Akira nodded. She had noticed a few of these qualities in her, the fight-picking, the kindness, the humor. And, to be honest, she was pretty cute.

"She was telling me yesterday what she thought about you. Wanna hear?" he asks quietly.

Akira shrugged. "Sure."

Mamoru smiled slightly. "Well, she thinks you're rude and annoying, and she hates how you never support her in anything."

Akira gritted her teeth. "Then why did she pretend to like me?"

"I'm not finished. She also thinks you're very strong and loves that you stand for what you believe in, even if you get hurt doing it."

Akira was quiet for a moment, pondering that. They call that a "love-hate relationship". Was that what they had. You love the person, but you also get so annoyed by them that you can't hardly stand 'em.

"What should I do now?" she asked.

"What do you wanna do?"

"Probably… I think I wanna go out and experience the world on my own. Would you tell Haru for me? And… Blondie… too, I guess."

Mamoru nodded. "Sure thing."

Haruko starts sobbing loudly as Mamoru finishes. "Akira, you idiot!" she shouts.

"What's going on in here?! Mamoru?!" Rei asks, sliding open the door to the room the two were talking in.

"Mamo-chan?!"

"I told her about Akira."

Rahhh! I think I get all these weird twists and cliffhangers like that from LOST. It's an American drama, and it's reaaaally good. On another note, I got really bored while writing this, and looked up the Japanese logo for Sailor Moon, and wrote the kanji/hiragana on my arm :D It kinda looks cool. I drew Naoko-sensei's little bunny ^^ Along with a heart, and a crescent moon, of course :D