"Are you sure you want to do this alone, Usagi-chan?"
Usagi nervously smoothed down her hair and nodded. One strange effect of becoming Usagi again had been that her hair was short once more. She was definitely going to let it grow out, though. She hated it this short! "It might be nice to have all of you around when I see my family again, but somehow I think it will be easier for them if you're not all here." Usagi smiled. "I'll be fine. I'm just so worried about what's going to happen to me next. Will I go back to Japan? I mean, do you know how far behind I am in my schoolwork?!" A hint of a whine crept into her voice, but that was all. No full fledged wails escaped her anymore.
Minako nodded. "I understand. It's just-" She trailed of, then started up briskly again. "Well, it's a special moment for your family, and we don't want to intrude. Good luck!" Minako patted her on the back strode off. The other three girls followed her after giving encouraging looks to Usagi.
Mamoru looked down at her. "I know your father wouldn't like it if I was here for this-so I'll be standing over there with the girls. Don't worry, Usako. You're family will be so happy to have you back. If they're even just half as happy as I am...." Mamoru turned away with an embarrassed cough.
"Mamo-chan." Usagi smiled happily at him. "Arigato." He smiled back, and walked off.
Ron just stood there. He eyes roamed the airport terminal, and the way they seemed to always skip over her let her know how much he was thinking of her. She walked toward him, and took one of hands in hers. "Ron. I-I know this is hard for you." Usagi looked down as guilt stabbed her in the heart. "Maybe it was unfair of me to even ask you to take me in. If I'd known it would hurt you like this....."
Ron jerked a little with surprise at the worry he heard in her voice. This would be one of the most important events in her life, and she was sitting here worrying about him? "No! No, Serena-er-Usagi. For goodness' sake, don't feel guilty! I love you as if you were my own daughter-it's been wonderful getting to know you, and I wouldn't give that up for anything! If nothing else, you've shown me how wonderful having a family can be. I'm not nearly so scared of the idea of having my own family now!"
Usagi looked up. "Are you sure? I-I mean, I don't know when I'll ever see you again. My family will probably take me back to Japan soon. It'll be years before I can come back!"
"Of course I'm sure." He had to cheer her up! He reached out and tweaked her nose. "Besides, it's always nice knowing there's someone else who cooks as badly as I do!"
He teasing had the desired effect. She playfully batted his hand away. "Oh! Well, if that's all you can say..." she said with mock hurt. Her eyes softened, and she blinked them quickly to get rid of the tears gathering in the corners of her eyes. "Thank you, Ron. Don't go too far. I just have to introduce you to my parents right away!"
Ron nodded in agreement. He wanted to meet her parents as well. "Um...Usagi, does your family know about....well, you know-um.....Serenity?"
"No. Nobody except my friends over there, and now you." Usagi smiled. "That's not really me either, though, you know. It used to be, a long time ago. This-" she pointed at herself, "is the real me. What you see standing before you. Try not to think about it too much." She gave him a gentle push toward her waiting friends as she heard that her family's flight was disembarking over the intercom. "I'm still the same girl that can't boil water without setting off the smoke alarm, and can't pull off anything better than a C in geometry. I'll be right over. Go on, now."
Ron chuckled a little to himself as he walked over to stand by Usagi's friends. They all silently watched as Usagi stood in the airport, waiting for her first sight of her family in over two years.
In the background, a courtesy television in one of the waiting rooms blared out the song signaling the evening news was about to begin. Ami looked over and her eyes widened in surprise at what she saw. She strained her ears to hear.
"Our reporter, Beth Brink was at the scene of the mysterious devastation of Channel 3's studio's devastation, and her cameraman had this strange footage."
The television flashed to a shot of the sky, with a strange rainbow circling through the sky.
"While many scientists say that something like this could ever happen, and the film must be a hoax, the cameraman insists he wouldn't do something like that. Unfortunately, everyone in the area seems to have lost their memory of what exactly did take place on the scene today. We'll keep you up to date on developments in this bizarre chain of events as they occur."
Ami sighed. Their secret was still safe.
*****
"Tou-san! Kaa-san! Shingo!" Usagi jumped up into the air and waved wildly when she saw her family come out of door. "Over here!" She waited impatiently for the crowd of people to thin enough so she could make her way close to her family. Finally she reached them. She threw her arms around her mother and closed her eyes as tears began to sting them.
"Usagi-chan." Kenji reached out hesitantly to touch her, as if she were an illusion, and would disappear if he touched her. He felt the fabric of her shirt, and she didn't vanish. "You're alive!" He wrapped his arms around his wife and daughter. Shingo stood there for a moment, unsure of what to do. He shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot. He'd missed his sister, but he couldn't lose face in front of all these people....he gave up, and crashed into the rest of his family, hugging them for all he was worth.
"Usagi....what happened. How did you get here? Why didn't you tell us where you were sooner?" Ikuko's eyes shone with her tears. "We thought you were dead! We gave up on you!"
Usagi shook her head. She'd already decided how to deal with these questions. No explanation would be believed, so..."I don't know, Kaa-san. I only woke up from a deep coma a few months ago, and I didn't remember who I was until I ran into all my friends."
Shingo's eyes went wide at the strange things that had happened to his own sister. "Wow!"
"But Usagi-chan, who took care of you when you got out of the hospital?"
Usagi turned her head to look over at her friends, and Ron. "The police officer who found me. See?" She squirmed until she got her hand out of the crowded mass that made up the Tsukino family, and pointed at him. "His name is Ron Williams. Without him...." her voice trailed off. "I'd really like it if you'd come over with me to meet him. He's very nervous about meeting you all." Her father let go and stood up straight. Her mother and brother backed off a little too, and Usagi led them all over to Ron.
Her father bowed toward Ron. "Thank you for taking care of my daughter." Usagi wanted to giggle at the embarrassed look in Ron's eyes. He made a passable imitation of Kenji's gesture, then stood up straight again, at a loss.
"Uh-no problem. She's a good kid."
"My daughter says you were the officer that found her. Could you tell me about that?" Kenji repeated his question in Japanese so Ikuko could join in the conversation, and the three adults began to talk.
Usagi's friends began to circle around them on their way to talk to Usagi. Usagi looked over at Shingo. His hands were in his pockets, and he was trying very hard to figure out exactly how he should treat his sister. It was like she'd risen from the dead or something, and he was more than a little confused. Usagi decided to take care of that right off. She crossed her eyes and stuck her tongue out at him.
He just stared at her, still uncertain of how to respond. She put her hands on her hips and looked down on him. At least she was still a little taller than him!
"All I have to say is that I'd better still have the same room when I get back. I'm still the oldest, so I still get the biggest room!"
He seemed to get what she was trying to do. He smiled back, uncertainly at first. It widened to a full fledged grin as he responded. "Oh, no! I've been moved in there for a year now! I'm not going to give it up without a fight!" He looked away for a second, but Usagi still caught the glint of light reflected off of tears as his head turned. She hugged him tight for a second.
"We're still brother and sister. We can't get along too well, or people will wonder what's wrong with us. I'm sure we'll quickly get into the habit of annoying one another, but until then, we can just pretend," she said softly, just for Shingo and her to hear.
She heard a small sniff, and then, "Who's pretending?"
She stepped back with a grin and nodded approvingly. "There we go! That's the spirit!"
Mamoru reached Usagi's side, and wrapped his arm around her waist. "It seems that went well. Ron and your father seem to be getting along." Usagi looked up at him and nodded.
"Yes. But, I'm going to be going back to Japan soon. I won't be seeing you again for a while." She snuggled deeper within his arms and closed her eyes. <I'll be leaving him soon. Then what?>
"If you go back, I'm going back. There's no reason for me to stay here if you're in Japan."
Usagi smiled at the determined note in his voice. <Mamo-chan.> She gave him a quick hug, then stepped away from him and walked up to her friends. "Minna, arigato. You helped me so much. I'm so happy I got to see you all again, even if I'll be leaving soon."
Minako-chan sniffed. "It just doesn't seem fair. We all end up together here, because of you, and now you're leaving. It all looked like it was going to work out for us."
Ami-chan nodded. "We've sure come through a lot, to have to part like this..."
"Oh, I'm sure we'll se each other a lot, guys! Let's not do this just before she's going to leave." Mako-chan's cheerfulness rang a little false, even in her own ears.
Rei-chan didn't say anything for a while. Her eyes teared up, then and she threw herself into Usagi's arms. "Usagi-chan, I'll miss you so much! I'm just glad I got to see you again before you left."
When Rei broke down, the others couldn't hold back their tears any longer. With sobs they all held tightly to each other. Usagi tried to comfort her friends through her own tears.
"Minna, what we have can never be broken."
"But it almost was when you left us last time!" Rei-chan wailed.
"I'm not leaving you. I'll be a little ways away for a while-"
"She calls thousands of miles a 'little ways'," Ami-chan muttered darkly.
Usagi forged ahead. "For a little while, but we're connected in ways that distance cannot affect." She reached up and touched Mako-chan in the middle of her forehead. "Have you forgotten how we found each other? Just concentrate, and we'll connect. We'll still be able to keep in contact."
"It won't be the same." Mako-chan complained.
"But it's better than nothing." Minako-chan tried to put a bright face on things. They all tightened their arms around each other a little more, and just stood there. At least they were together for now.
Mako-chan released her hold first. "I'm going back to Japan too," she announced.
"What!?" Minako, Rei and Ami all said, almost in unison.
"I don't want to stay here any more. I'm sick of pretending to be Lita. I'm going back to Japan, under my own name, and I'm going to reclaim my trust fund."
"Mako-chan, it will be great to have you in Japan with me, but aren't you worried about the Night Mares?"
Makoto's smile faltered for a second, but her voice remained cheerful as she said, "I made my bed, I can lie in it." She shrugged, assuming an unconcerned air. "Besides, they've probably either forgotten about me by now, or assume I'm dead."
Ami looked down at the ground. "Night Mares or not, I consider Mako-chan the lucky one. It'll be so hard to be separated from you, Usagi-chan!"
"At least you're smart enough to be guaranteed full tuition at any college in the world, including any university in Japan. You'll be able to see her in a year or two," Rei grumbled. Minako cuffed her on the back of her head.
"And at least you have a chance that your dad will be reassigned back to Japan. I'm probably stuck here for good!"
Usagi just stood there, silent and glum, while her friends argued over who was the unluckiest one of the group. A hand fell on her shoulder. She looked up. Her mother stood there.
"Kaa-san!" she said, surprised.
"Dear, how are you doing?" The concern in her eyes made Usagi want to cry. She drew from her new reserves of strength and held them back.
"I'm so happy to remember everything, and to see you all again, but it will be hard to leave my friends behind." She leaned in for a comforting embrace, pretending she three years old again, and that Mommy could make everything all right.
"I know dear, but there's nothing that can be done. Maybe some day your father will get an opportunity to come here, but until something like that happens..."
She wasn't three. Mom couldn't solve everything. Usagi snuggled closer and buried her face in her mother's fuzzy sweater. "I know, kaa-san. I am so happy to see you all again. We're close friends. We'll never be completely apart. It's just a little hard right now." She lifted her head and turned to look at her still bickering friends. She concentrated.
<We'll never be completely apart, no matter what happens. We'll always be there for each other.>
Mako-chan, Rei-chan, Ami-chan and Minako-chan simultaneously stopped speaking mid-sentence, and turned to look at her with wide eyes. Usagi brought a hand to her mouth to smother a chuckle at the startled looks on all of their faces. While she was still giggling, she felt some responses whispered softly in the recesses of her mind.
|
<Always.> <No matter how far we are from each other.> <We'll always be the best of friends.> <No matter what.> Usagi nodded and wiped the tears out of her sparkling blue eyes. Echoing out from her thoughts to her friends, back and forth, growing softer and softer, but never disappearing, one comforting thought brought a small, secret smile to everyone's faces. <Forever.> |
 |