"Hey, kiddo, you almost ready?" Haruka said as she opened the door to her adopted daughter's room. Looking in she found Hotaru sitting on her bed scribbling something into a notebook.
"Haruka-Papa! I told you to knock before you come in!" The black-haired girl said with a huff, quickly shutting the notebook.
"Sorry, sorry. Hey, what've you got there?" She asked, gesturing towards the notebook in her daughter's hands.
"It's nothing!" Hotaru replied quickly, a light blush crossing her face.
"Uh huh…" Haruka said, clearly not believing her, but deciding to respect the girl's privacy, "Well, anyway, we're leaving for the zoo in ten minutes so make sure you have everything you need." She finished while turning to leave.
"Um… Haruka-Papa… I have a question…" The young girl said timidly, stopping Haruka in her tracks.
"Yeah, what's up kiddo?" Haruka asked, entering her daughter's room and sitting next to her on the bed.
"Well… when do you think Chibiusa's gonna come back and visit?"
It was amazing how Haruka knew that this question was coming, and yet still completely failed to prepare herself for it. To be fair, however, Haruka couldn't even begin to figure out what the right answer would be. Not only was Chibiusa Hotaru's best friend (and basically only friend that was her own age), but Haruka could tell from a mile away that she was also Hotaru's first crush, which just made the situation… so much worse. How could she possibly tell her that it was entirely possible, and maybe even likely that the next time she would see Chibiusa… was when she was born? Especially when she was still dealing with the loss of her father.
"I… I don't know, kiddo." Haruka finally answered.
"Yeah, I figured." Hotaru said, looking down at the ground in disappointment, "I asked Setsuna-Mama if she could let me visit the future, just for a little bit, and she said no."
From what Haruka heard, it was less 'asked' and more 'begged'.
"Sweetheart, you've gotta understand that it's not that simple. Setsuna is very tight-lipped about the future, even with me and Michiru, but if she could I know she would-"
"She can and she isn't!" Hotaru blurted out in frustration, gripping the bedding underneath her. Almost immediately, her eyes widened and she covered her mouth in regret. "Sorry. I'm sorry. I just… I just really miss her… miss both of them." She said, tears beginning to roll down her cheeks.
"I know, kiddo." Haruka said, putting her arm around Hotaru and pulling her in close, "I know." She repeated, gently stroking her daughter's hair. "Hey, y'know what though?"
"What?" The young girl asked between sniffles.
"You, and me, and your mamas are gonna have a wonderful day together today, okay?" She reassured while rubbing her daughter's shoulder, "And on our way home we can stop by the video store, and you can pick out whatever movie you want for us all to watch tonight. How's that sound?"
"That… that sounds nice."
"Alright." Haruka said, giving Hotaru one last reassuring rub on the shoulder before standing up, "Well, we're all downstairs so whenever you're ready we can go."
"Okay. And… thank you." Hotaru said with a small smile.
"Of course." The Guardian of Wind responded before taking her leave from her daughter's room.
"Alright Haruka… that wasn't terrible." The leader of the Outer Guardians thought to herself as she made her way down the hall, "Just gotta keep it together."
While she tried not to show it, Haruka felt exhausted. Raising Hotaru on its own was already so much, especially with how terrified Haruka was of screwing something up. Sure, Sailor Saturn was a powerful warrior, but Hotaru Tomoe was just a little girl. A girl who needed a loving family. Not to mention that, even though she had taken a break from racing, there was still work to be done on that front. On top of all that was the fact that she felt like she could not truly settle into this new family life, for fear that a new threat could arise at literally any moment and disrupt it.
Michiru was faring a bit better than her, but not by much. Between the two of them they were getting just a few hours of sleep every night. The couple had essentially become a walking example of 'burning the candle at both ends'.
When she reached the downstairs and met up with the two women who were waiting for her, Michiru immediately picked up that something was amiss with her partner.
"Where's Hotaru? Is everything okay?" The Guardian of the Seas questioned.
"Oh, yeah." Haruka responded, rubbing her eyes in exhaustion, "She's still missing Chibiusa. But we talked it out. Personally I think it was a really strong parenting moment for me." She finished with a smirk.
"I'm sure you did great, honey." Michiru said with a smile.
The aqua-haired woman moved to give her partner a kiss, before hearing a scream come from upstairs.
"HOTARU!" All three women said in unison while dashing up the stairs. They each pulled out their transformation wands as they ran full speed towards Hotaru's bedroom. Before they could make it, however, a black shadow erupted out of the little girl's room and enveloped the entire hallway, swallowing up the three guardians.
…
Usagi had gotten much better lately when it came to sleeping in. While in the past it was almost a daily occurrence for the girl to do her morning routine in a frenzy and still get to school late, this was no longer the case. Now it was only a weekly occurrence.
The bun-headed girl donned her school uniform and checked herself in the mirror, adjusting her outfit and hair where necessary. That is, until her eyes drifted to a photo which sat on one of her shelves. Right next to a picture of herself and Mamoru sat a picture of her with her middle-school best friend, Naru.
How long had it been since she had exchanged words with the red-haired girl? While she was already spending less time with her during the end of her middle school days due to her Sailor Guardian duties, that divide only grew when the two girls got accepted into different high schools. Not helped by the events which transpired shortly into Usagi's high school career.
But even after the Galaxia incident had been dealt with, and peace had been restored to the world, the guardian of love and justice simply had not made the time to reconnect with her friend.
With that thought, Usagi looked over at her phone, "Well, no time like the present." She thought to herself, reaching for the phone "I'll just give her a ring, see how she's doing, and see if she's free to do something this weekend! Easy…"
Usagi's hand slowed to a halt before it reached the phone, however, "But I mean… it is pretty early. If she hasn't already left for school she'll probably just be mad at me for choosing now to call. And I wouldn't wanna make her late or anything." She mentally justified to herself, "I'll just call her later… yeah, later…" The blonde thought as she gathered her things and exited her bedroom, closing the door behind her.
"Later…"
…
Ami met Minako in the school library during their free period to continue working on the song. She couldn't help but chuckle to herself. In years past she would have been appalled at the mere thought of spending good study time on such a frivolous task.
"What is she doing to me?" Ami thought, a big, goofy grin spreading across her face.
"Uh, hey, Earth to Ami." Minako said, waving her hand in front of Ami's face. Ami sat straight up, her face turning red.
"Sorry! Sorry, I was just… um…"
"Off in Mako land again?" Minako said with a devilish smirk, causing Ami to turn even redder.
"Anyway!" Ami said, trying to get back on track, "I've got some rough ideas for lyrics I was hoping you could look at. How's the melody coming along?"
"Alright. I don't have a ton of practice but I'm working with what I've got." Minako replied.
"Well, I was thinking, what if we asked Rei for help?" Ami questioned, causing Minako to immediately stiffen up, "After all, she's got experience writing music, she could probably be a big help."
"Um… well I uh… I don't know if that's a good idea." Minako said, avoiding eye contact.
"Why?"
"Well… um… ya see… I was hoping you could help me write a song like the one we're writing for Mako for her as well." Minako finally managed to say, blushing profusely.
"Oh. Well, I guess we could do that. I don't know how we'll be able to make it work though, since the song we're writing for Mako is a love song." Ami said, before taking a second to think about what Minako said, until the realization hit her like a ton of bricks, "Wait…" Ami muttered, just under her breath, "YOU'RE IN LOVE WITH R-?'' was the last thing the blue haired girl was able to say before Minako quickly silenced her by covering her mouth with her hand.
"Shhhh! Keep your voice down!" Minako hissed through gritted teeth. She eventually removed her hand from her friend's mouth, revealing it to still be hanging agape.
"Wow, I… what?! For how long?" Ami finally questioned.
"Oh, y'know… awhile…" Minako said nervously, fiddling with her hair.
"How 'awhile' are we talking here?" Ami asked.
"Well, I…" was all Minako could say before letting out a massive sigh, "I've thought she was beautiful since the moment I first saw her. And her fiery personality (no pun intended) was just… wow." Minako said with big, dreamy eyes, "But you know me, I have a crush on a new person every week! So I figured that this very… inconvenient one, would just go away when I got on to the next one. And it did! Well… kind of…" Minako continued, lowering her gaze down to the table and her notes, "Every time I thought I had moved on, thought I found someone new to obsess over, I always came back to her. Not like she was my rebound or anything! More like… like I was delaying the inevitable. But I kept telling myself that that was the only choice I had."
"Because you didn't wanna mess up the team?" Ami questioned, pulling from personal experience.
"I mean, there were a lot of things. Obviously the big question mark was whether or not she would even be willing to date another girl. But seeing how hopelessly in love she was with Usagi I figured-"
"Wait WHAT?!"
Minako simply rolled her eyes, "Geez, Ami, for a genius you sure can be dense when it comes to this stuff." She said, "Anyway, even after that I told myself I couldn't do it. First of all, I'm supposed to be your leader. If I were to date one of you it would just… complicate things. But even more than that, to be completely honest…"
"You would rather hold it in and have hope than risk having that hope taken away by telling her?" Ami finished for her.
"Yeah. But then we… y'know… we died." Minako said with a faint, forced chuckle. "And that kind of… shook me a bit, y'know? Made me… reevaluate some things."
"Trust me, if anyone knows how that feels, it's me."
"And after hearing your idea for Mako I thought maybe a song would be the best way to just… get it all out there. If it works out? Great! And if it doesn't… well…"
"At least you won't have to worry about losing your chance." Ami once again finished for her friend, to which Minako simply nodded in response, "Alright, well, I guess we'd better get to work if we're trying to double our output now."
"Right. Well, what have you got so far?" Minako asked.
"Not as much as I'd like, to be honest. I want this song to capture how I feel about Mako but… well… easier said than done. I was trying to describe how I felt when I first met her but I'm completely drawing a blank."
"Oh I get it, I'm in the same boat." Minako replied to her friend.
"I mean, it was something so new but also…"
"So familiar."
"It was… exciting but also…"
"Comforting."
"Terrifying but…"
"Calming."
"It almost felt like…"
"Deja Vu." The girls both said in unison. The pair simply stared at each other for a moment afterwards, before Minako finally spoke up.
"Ami."
"Yeah?"
"Write that down! Write that down!"
Aw, look at them go, working on their songs...
But hey what was that with the Outers and the shadow thing and-?
ANYWAY, that's where we'll leave chapter 3.
NEXT TIME:
The Sailor Guardians make their triumphant return to save the city from destruction once again, will they be able to pull it off, or will they need the assistance of a brand-new transformation? Find out in Chapter 4: Moon Spectrum Power.
