Disclaimers: Refer to Chapter 1

Chapter 3

"Mamo-chan!"

Hotaru's POV

I knew my princess was awake before I heard the scream and understood immediately. Mamoru jumped up and charged into her room so fast he was but a blur to those of us still sitting...which wasn't many. Haruka-papa and Makoto-chan, along with a few of the others, were right on his heels.

"Matte!" I cried, and the girls jerked abruptly to a halt. Mamoru continued into the bedroom. "She needs him."

"Hota-chan, what's going on?"

"Serenity is awake but she needs Endymion. She needs to know he is alive. I can feel it." On the outside I looked calm but on the inside I was quaking. Something had changed. "We should let them alone. Anyway, we still don't have any food to feed her and she's already awake!"

"Oh no! I haven't made anything." Makoto looked absolutely horrified at the thought that she had let Usagi down but thankfully that didn't last long.

"We'll help ya Mako-chan." Rei said, getting up off the floor and gesturing towards Ami and Minako. Minako didn't look too impressed with that idea but she obediently followed the rest of the Inner Scouts down the hall to the kitchen.

I checked on the Princess one more time and found her to be just fine, but that's when I noticed the eerie silence that hung in the room. When I finally focussed on my surrounding I found Haruka-papa and Michiru-mama looking down at the floor and the Starlights all staring at the walls or ceiling. It was rather depressing.

"What's going on? Haruka-papa? The Starlights helped Princess Serenity during the battle. Doesn't that mean everything is okay?"

Michiru's POV

Oh no! That's right, Hime-chan doesn't know. She wasn't there for our meeting with the Starlights and she was gone before we argued with them during the battle.

"Your right Hotaru. Everything should be okay, but it's not. Do you know why?"

"No."

"It's because of something I haven't done." Okay, I'll admit at this point I was confused. I had expected Haruka to react somewhat differently. Myself, I was starting to feel a combination of embarrassment, guilt and anger. I was embarrassed and guilty about our actions towards the Starlights earlier but still angered over their obvious lack of trust, even after they had found out all our secrets. They had known about our loyalty to our Princess, had seen our Princess's compassion towards others. How could they not have figured out we would help them?

"I haven't apologized."

Seiya's POV

"NANI!?"

"I...we need to apologize. We should never had reacted the way we did. You were only trying to protect your princess, the same as we were. Things might have gone better had we Outer Scouts come and talk to you as equals, not given ultimatums."

"But we should have requested your help from the start, as soon as we knew about the girls identities. That would have made the talk unneeded." Taiki spoke up from the other side of the couch. "It is we who are in the wrong. Seiya kept trying to tell us that we should talk to you, trust you, but we wouldn't listen. Seiya is our leader and we did something unforgivable in disobeying her. In doing so, we caused many problems and almost lost the battle. I'm sorry." She looked at Yaten thoughtfully.

"We're both sorry, to you and to Seiya. You were right." Yaten tacked on the end. She was flushed a light red. Obviously this was hard for her. It isn't like Yaten to apologize for anything so the blush really wasn't that surprising.

I nodded once, "I hold nothing against you. It's your job to make sure my head is screwed on straight and my intentions weren't as pure as you make them out to be. I did want Usagi, and I would have used getting together with the Sailor Senshi in order to do that. You guys did right in keeping us apart, even if it caused some problems." I was going pink at this point myself After all, I wasn't used to apologizing either, or admitting that I'd gone a little nuts for a while.

Haruka's POV

She's blushing again....hehehe. Okay, so we were making up but that still doesn't mean I have to like the girl. I guess it'll take a while to get used to this. I'm having a hard time believing she got over my Koneko-chan so quickly.

"Thank you for protecting our Princess when we couldn't. It must have been hard. Arigato." Having finally said what I wanted to say, I stood up and walked over to Seiya with my hand out.

Michiru's POV

I stood up with Haruka and watched her cross the room. When her hand came up I wasn't surprised. I had known she would feel obligated to do this. After all, they had survived where we had failed. They would be our equals now, no matter how Haruka felt about it.

Seiya was obviously surprised but she stood up gracefully (it must be odd switching your centre of balance all the time) and took her hand in a warriors grip. Oh, she's smarter then she lets on that one. That just cemented her in Haruka's good books I'm sure. Kaykuu also looked much happier with the situation as she was finally smiling a true smile.

Just then Makoto and the others came bustling back into the living room, carrying two huge trays of food.

"This one is for Usagi" she said pointing to the one Rei was carrying, "and this one is for you guys." she said gesturing to other tray that Mina was setting on the coffee table. "We figured we'd all be hungry after the battle and being dead and all." Then she knocked quietly on the bedroom door and waited for a response.

Chapter 3b

Luna's POV

I quietly followed Mamoru into the bedroom and slipped behind the half open closet door. From there I had a perfect view of the two in the middle of the room.

Mamoru had rushed to the bed and promptly been attacked by this girl friend. "It's alright, it's alright." he kept repeating in a mantra as he held her tightly. When his head turned slightly as he settled more on the bed I was shocked to see tears falling down his cheeks.

Usagi's POV

I was just starting to believe what he was saying when I felt his tears on my hair. Suddenly I knew that he knew. "NO it's not alright Endy!." I pushed away from him quickly, ashamed of myself. "You know, so it can't be alright. What I did was unforgivable. But I missed you so much! I was so angry! Why did you leave me?" I knew in my heart that it wasn't his fault but I was crying so hard that I couldn't speak to tell him that.

"Oh Sere, all I thought about while I was in there was you. It was all that kept me sane."

"That makes what I did even worse!" I cried, quilt completely overwhelming all my other emotions. My chest felt like someone was wrapping a vice around it and I was crying so hard that I couldn't see properly. I had only mentioned this to one other person but ... "I didn't know you were dead! You were gone and I didn't feel it. I should have known. Instead I wallowed in self pity and did horrible things!" I felt so ashamed of myself. I profess to love him so much and I didn't even feel a thing when he died!

"Oh honey, that's not your fault." He tried to reach for me again but I resisted and pulled back.

Mamoru's POV

Her withdrawal hurt. Not because of the physical distance she was putting between us (although I didn't like that either) but because of the self disgust I saw in her eyes.

"But I didn't die Usako. I got my star seed stolen. In a sense my soul still existed in my star seed so of course you wouldn't have felt me die. It's our souls that are bonded. You did nothing wrong. You needed a friend and you found one. That's all that happened. I'm glad you were able to do that, I didn't want you all alone."

I was relieved to see she was seriously considering what I was saying. I made a second attempt to touch her and she let me. I pulled her slowly in for another hug and she came willingly, crying again, in relief I hoped.

Usagi's POV

I was comfortable in my Princes arm's and would have gladly stayed there forever had my Scouts not chosen that moment to knock on the door. I sat up quickly, still cuddled against Endy's chest and called "Come in."

Makoto threw open the door, worry etched on her brow. In fact she threw it open so fast it banged into the half open closet door which then mysteriously emitted a high pitched, "OUCH!"

"Luna! What are you doing down there?"

"Well I wanted to make sure you were alright but couldn't stop in time before the door got closed and I didn't think I should interrupt so I just sat here. That is until Mako-chan beaned me with the door." Turning a disapproving glare onto Makoto she continued, "What did you think you were doing, opening a steel door? You didn't have to push it so hard."

"I was worried too Luna! I wasn't thinking about the door. Sorry Mamoru-san."

"It's alright Makoto-chan. My doors aren't high on my priorities list right now either."

"Thanks. Usagi we made some diner, would you like some?" Makoto asked gesturing towards Rei who was holding a tray piled high with food.

Makoto's POV

"Diner?"

I watched her eyes light up with the thought of food and smiled. I had cooked all her favourite foods, those that wouldn't take long anyway.

"I would love something to eat. Please bring it in."

Wait a second, something was wrong with this picture. Normally Usagi would be half way across the room by now picking things off of the tray, or at least crawling up the bed towards it. Instead she was pulling herself upright and was sitting against the pillows waiting with a huge smile on her face for us to bring it in. What was going on?

****

More to come....I've got a few more ideas to work with.