DVD COMMENTARY: Hi! It's me again. Remember me? I'm the guy who writes this stuff! Sometimes I write several chapters in one night! Sometimes it takes me over a month to finish just one… I apologize again for the delay, but work has been very work-ish lately what with this certain big American telecom company going on strike and massively complicating my life, but that's not your problem, it's mine. I just wanted to pop in for a second to let everyone know that I am still alive and so is this story, but my output might remain a little on the slow side this summer. But hey, Sailor Moon Crystal recently started up the Infinity Arc, so you've at least got that to tide you over! Cheers!

CHAPTER EIGHT

"You said I'd do what?!" Makoto snapped.

Her voice was shriller than Ami had heard in quite some time which signified that she was extremely upset. Being as how anger was not one of Makoto's default emotions it was jarring to hear her throaty, jovial voice ratchet up so high. Whoever was on the other end of the phone (she suspected Minako because it was always Minako) was striking a rather unpleasant nerve. She turned to Rei who sat next to her at the kitchen table. The priestess' left eyebrow twitched in irritation and she repeatedly rapped a single ruby-tipped finger against the electronics-laden wooden surface.

"I want to own a bakery, Minako. Bay-ker-ey." Makoto stressed, "And maybe a flower shop, not run a full-fledged frigging restaurant!"

Ami allowed herself a tiny grin now that the caller's identity was revealed. Rei shrugged and let her chin drop into a waiting hand for support.

"Well I don't care what The Guys think. I haven't met any of them yet!" Makoto told her sarcastically and then waited as the voice on the other end of the line plead her case, "You know, when you say things like that it makes me seriously question your fitness to be our leader." After a few more seconds Makoto rolled her eyes, "No, I wasn't actually being serious..."

Ami's brow furrowed in confusion as to the other, muted half of the conversation.

"Fine. Whatever." Makoto finally caved with a skyward sigh, "Just don't do or say anything else until I get the lay of the land." She was about to hang up, but suddenly snapped, "And don't tell them I said yes yet!" The hum of an empty line replied and she clicked off her phone with an aggravated, "Damn it!"

"Something you'd like to share with the rest of the class?" Rei queried in an annoyed tone.

"Not really." She grumbled and slumped back down at Ami's kitchen table, "Apparently the Shitennou are opening a restaurant."

"Hah!" Not much got a full-fledged laugh out of Rei, but that did, "A what?!"

"Yuuuup." Makoto smacked her lips, "And Minako told Kaden that I'd be more than happy to help them out, what with my culinary prowess apparently available at her beck and call."

"Minako does have a history of, um…" Ami pondered, "Volunteering without consent."

"I think they call that slavery." Makoto replied.

"I'm sure she means well." Ami assumed, "Although I'm still worried that she's taking the Shitennou's reappearance much too lightly."

"Meh…" Makoto was dismissive, "From what I've heard they're harmless."

"What have you heard?" Rei wondered.

"Well, I mean between what you told us about meditating with Jiro and Minako and Usagi acting like they're long-lost members of our weird little family it just seems like they're, you know…" Makoto explained with a shrug, "Guys."

"Boys, more like it." Rei stressed and stood up.

"Where are you headed?" asked Makoto.

"Back home. It's been a long day." Rei answered as she slipped into her overcoat, "And Jiro swears he's coming to mediate tomorrow morning so I'll need to be rested for that."

"Heh. Good luck." Makoto chuckled.

"Ami, you'll let me know if you come up with any leads on Motoki and Reika?" Rei asked.

"Of course." Ami replied and motioned to the various electronics splayed before her, "I'm nearly finished recalibrating my computer to scan within the EM parameters of your visions at Crown."

"Hopefully we get something soon." Makoto murmured, "I don't like how they just dropped off the map like that... What does he want?"

"We'll find them." Rei reassured her friend knowing full well her fondness for the arcade's former caretaker.

Makoto's thoughts wandered far enough away from her friend's kitchen table that she didn't even notice Rei's exit. Images drifted into her mind and roiled into a kind of cloudy kaleidoscope. She thought back on the times spent in the Crown arcade with her friends and the many desserts in the quaint little fruit parlor above. She envisioned the explosion and Motoki's face deformed with alien cruelty. Her breaths became constricted as she imagined his reaction upon seeing what his possessed self had done.

All at once she redirected her concentration on the looming prospect of not only meeting the Shitennou again, but helping them, becoming close to them even, in their desire to open a restaurant. She almost laughed at the absurdity of it all. They had only recently reappeared into their lives and now they were young entrepreneurs? From what she remembered of Queen Beryl's kings it didn't seem to fit. Of course, they weren't kings anymore… They weren't knights either. Knights, she thought, And they call me the hopeless romantic…

The thought of those knights brought her back to that moment long ago in a foreign kingdom; her first visit to the alien Earth.

It was the day on the hill, out on the vast green fields beneath the stalwart branches of a broad, looming tree. Before she even saw the four men standing there she felt the warmth of nature inviting on the wind. The emerald sea of grass begged her to lie down in the sun and forget her troubles. The towering tree beckoned and welcomed her, its mighty roots feeling a kinship with the guardian's indomitable strength. The whole planet felt fresh and verdant, so unlike ancient Jupiter. In an instant she understood why Serenity had fallen in love with the young planet. In another instant she understood why she fell in love with one of its people.

Endymion's knights stood beneath the tree. Each wore a double-breasted jacket lightly dyed in pastel shades of salmon, blue, red and green. Each wore a cape that reached to the ground and flowed out behind them in the steady breeze. They wore steel boots, but no other protection. She imagined they must have had full suits of armor of their own like Endymion, but for whatever reason chose not to wear it. Perhaps they were sparring which would explain why they carried swords. This meeting had been expected for weeks, but neither group yet approached the other. It was only a matter of time until Serenity's clandestine visits to the Earth and her guardian's retrieval missions were discovered. Venus' diplomacy, Jupiter was sure, was all that had saved their Silver Millennium from the wrath of the man she called Kunzite the first time a Sailor Guardian was discovered on Earth's soil. Now as she stood upon the planet facing their counterparts openly, she could not envision Kunzite ever raising a hand to do any creature harm, let alone Venus whose entire body seemed to lift off the ground at his gaze.

While three of the knights stood facing them, stern but hospitable, the fourth stood to one side, eyes cast downward seemingly aloof and uninterested. His hair was long at his shoulders and the dark brown tufts brought to her mind images of deep forests. His eyes were red, though ruddy like wine and not the piercing scarlet of a wild predator. His build was broader than the rest and he stood nearly as tall as Kunzite. Even without his uniform Jupiter would have detected the warrior within.

When he finally turned and caught her eye she realized that his contentious demeanor was not a symptom of boredom or haughtiness, but of duty. With Kunzite smitten as he was with Venus as anyone could plainly see, command of the knights fell to Nephrite. He was on guard, protective and vigilant. Jupiter's heart swelled and her stomach fluttered recognizing the same devotion in him that she felt to Serenity. A curt nod greeted her and in spite of herself she could not think of anything else than the chance to meet him again without Kunzite around, when he did not need to stay on his guard, and to know the man behind the knight.

"Nephrite." Makoto heard herself say and immediately felt her face grow hot.

"Mako-chan?" Ami asked.

"Nothing, sorry." Makoto covered and attempted to busy herself by milling about Ami's apartment while she worked. After finding herself unable to sit still on the topic any longer she finally broached, "What do you think about this whole situation?"

"If you're asking about Motoki and Reika, we'll know more for certain once we locate them." Ami studiously replied.

"No, I mean what do you think about the Guys?" Makoto elaborated, reclaimed her seat and slid closer to Ami all in one motion, "You know, the Shitennou?"

"Oh." Ami was slow to respond, "I… Agree with Rei's assessment. I don't think they are a threat."

"Come on Ami-chan, that's not what I'm asking." Makoto pressed, "How do you feel about them coming back to life?"

"To be honest Mako-chan, I don't feel much of anything." Ami said almost sadly, "I haven't given it much thought."

"Really?" Makoto seemed skeptical, "You never think about him? About Zoisite?"

"Of course I sometimes think about Zoisite." Amy blushed, "But you know as well as I do that our memories of those times are merely fragments of the whole." She continued pounding out code into her computer screen as she spoke, "Whatever relationship I, er… Mercury had with Zoisite, that chapter is closed. Those people are gone."

"I just thought if you had the chance to reconnect with someone from your past, wouldn't you want to take advantage of that?"

"I don't think of my past self as being a living part of me." Ami elaborated, "I don't believe we were reborn simply to continue the threads of our old lives."

"But if you were in love with him—" Makoto stressed.

"Who says I was in love with anyone?" Ami snapped, suddenly defensive, "Because Minako told us we went to Earth and fell in love we should take it as gospel?"

"She wouldn't lie about that and you know it." Makoto reminded her, "Usagi and Mamoru kept their love alive through so many tragedies; why shouldn't their guardians?"

"I…" Ami stalled trying to put into words exactly how she felt in a way that wouldn't offend the romantic warrior, "I don't want the same kind of love that you do, Mako-chan."

"What?"

"As a little girl I dreamed about meeting someone special; about what my wedding would be like. All the normal things." Ami fondly recalled, "But as I grew up and especially now with my life as a Sailor Guardian, I simply stopped thinking about those childhood fantasies. Between my studies, my family and friends, and my Princess, I couldn't devote myself to a single person anymore. And honestly, I don't feel any desire to do so."

"You don't want to fall in love?" Makoto seemed crushed.

"Like I said: not the way you do." Ami responded with a smile, "And that's fine for me. There's so much in the world for me to love already."

"I guess our hearts are just in two different places." Makoto shrugged.

"Indeed." Ami grimaced, but her friend didn't notice her discomfort.

"So…" Makoto almost considered not asking further, but decided there was no harm in asking, "When you were a kid, what would he be like?"

"Beg pardon?" Ami asked.

"When you would imagine your special someone." Makoto winked, "What was he like?"

"Oh really Mako-chan…" Ami sighed, "Don't we have more important things to do?"

"Come on, indulge me!" Makoto pried, "It's the least you can do after raining on my parade."

"Raining on—" Ami gasped, "Honestly!"

"I'm not going to back down." Makoto declared and propped her chin up in her hands, puppy dog eyes fully weaponized.

"Fine." Ami melted, "Um… Handsome, I guess. Kind. Funny."

"There's no way he would've been that boring." Makoto realized.

"Caring. Supportive." Ami continued and she finally stopped typing on her computer, "Strong, but compassionate and endlessly empathetic."

"Hmm…" Makoto sighed wondering how many of those traits Zora might possess.

"Intelligent, obviously."

"Well, obviously." Makoto agreed.

"But street-smart." Ami immediately added, "Someone who might have spent a lot of time on their own, having to grow up too soon and having to learn to fend for themselves when the world turned cold against them."

"That's… oddly specific." Makoto swallowed and the space between her and Ami suddenly felt claustrophobic.

"Someone genuine who doesn't care what people think of them. Someone secure in who they are despite how the rest of the world sees them." Ami continued and saw that Makoto's nervously shifted, "Someone full of love who can share that love freely with everyone around them and not even realize it. Someone who would always be there for me, no matter what…"

"Jeez, Ami…" Makoto blushed slightly, "If I didn't know any better I'd think you were describing me."

Ami didn't reply. Her eyes were fixed on her computer screen although she was staring a hole right through it. Makoto's heartbeat echoed in the silent kitchen.

"Ami…" Makoto asked slowly, breathlessly, "Do you- I, uh… Is that—" Ami finally turned to look at her, blue eyes shining, "I didn't know you thought about me that way…"

"I did. Years ago." Ami blinked away a tear, "You're my best friend, Mako-chan. I've always admired you and looked up to you. You're always there for me and you always see me at my best, even when I'm at my worst."

Makoto was stunned. She had always felt especially close to Ami within their small group of friends, but she never considered the love shared among them was anything other than the love of family. She was nervously shivering as she listened to her best friend speak words of admiration and affection that no one in this day and age had ever used to describe her. Confusion sparked a flame of embarrassment and though Ami could see the flush rolling over her, she continued.

"Your strength gave me courage." She said, "And your loving, caring, romantic heart, well… How couldn't that rub off on me?" She turned back towards her computer screen, "But through the years and after all the battles we fought together I realized that no matter how much I might have wished otherwise, you would always dream of something different."

"Ami, I don't know what to say." Makoto barely managed to gasp, "Why didn't you ever say anything?"

"Because I knew in my heart that if I told you, someday things would change." Ami said. Her voice betrayed no sign of regret, "And I couldn't risk damaging our friendship."

"But you can tell me now?" Makoto demanded feeling that short of Ami stabbing her repeatedly in the heart that no force in the galaxy could damage their friendship.

"I can tell you now because things have changed. Like I said they would." Ami revealed, "Because you feel like you might have the opportunity to make your dreams come true, and I want you to know that no matter what, I'll always be here for you."

"Wait, I…" Makoto stammered, "I feel like—I don't know. I—I should be saying something. What do you want me to do?"

"Nothing." Ami laughed, "It's okay. I just want to see you be happy!"

"Stop it, Ami! You're making me feel like a monster!" Makoto cried and reached out to embrace her blue haired companion.

"You're not a monster, Mako-chan." Ami consoled her, "You're a—" a harsh alarm-like tone from Ami's computer called her attention, "… Mansion."

"I'm a what?" Makoto croaked and pulled away.

"My tracking program finished its calculations." Ami answered and both women lurched fully back into full Senshi concentration, "If this is correct it's traced Motoki's movements to a mansion somewhere here in these mountains."

"A mansion?" Makoto puzzled at the location on the computer screen in the deep outskirts of the city, "Where did he get a mansion from? Is his family loaded?"

"It could be abandoned." Ami answered and her face immediately fell, "Or worse, it's not."

"We have to check it out." Makoto declared ready to rush out the door into the Tokyo night.

"In the morning." Ami warned, "I think daylight would be a safer approach until we figure out what we're up against."

"You're the boss." Makoto agreed with a smile. Ami relaxed considerably feeling that their interrupted conversation seemed at least on the surface not to be affecting their continued camaraderie.

"I'll inform Rei tomorrow and we'll investigate." Ami unfortunately had to remind her friend, "But you have other commitments."

"You're not serious." Makoto balked, "I'm going with you."

"We can handle it." Ami assured her, "You have a mission of your own."

"I doubt even Minako would label teaching a bunch of clueless men the difference between sauté and puree as a mission." Makoto argued.

"Fine, then. Call it something else." Ami mediated, "A date?"

"Yeah, right." Makoto rolled her eyes, "Let's not read too far into this, Ami-chan." Makoto gathered her coat from the chair as she prepared to leave and her gaze drifted up slowly to Ami where she still sat behind the computer softly smiling, "Are you… okay?"

"Mako-chan, I'm fine." Ami assured her and stood up politely to walk her to the doorway, "I'm not sad and you shouldn't be either. It was the right time to tell you."

"Ami…" Makoto sighed and wrapped her petite friend in a bear hug once more.

Ami squeaked at the force of it, but warmly endured. After, opened the door and Makoto backed her way out, still confused by what she had been told, but visibly anxious about her "mission."

"We're not done talking about this." Makoto told her in a playfully stern voice.

Ami merely nodded in reply and seconds later closed the door as Makoto entered the elevator at the end of the hallway. She smiled softly to herself and a wistful tear stained the light cream carpet of her silent apartment.

"Yes we are."

The following morning a small coffee shop, a local favorite in the Azabu-Juuban area, was bustling with activity. A barista placed his customer's order on the counter (Turkish style with a hint of pistachio) and then swiped the credit card. After a moment of processing he indicated where to sign on the LCD screen.

Kaden had signed his name to loan applications, hotel registries, and extravagant dinner bills more times than he could recall (which was troubling for someone with an eidetic memory) without much thought, but today it halted him in his tracks. Kaden wasn't his name. Sure he was born with it and he would doubtless continue to use it in his daily life to respond when a colleague addressed him from across the conference table, or take pleasure when it was moaned in ecstasy, or— wait… where the hell did that come from?

"Sir?" the barista asked politely.

Kaden looked up at him with silver-gray eyes that caused needles to shiver up the young man's spine.

"D—did you want cash back?" he asked and hoped the tall, broad-shouldered, frightening man with shock-white hair and a slim dark suit on the other side of the counter wasn't, as he feared, a government assassin.

"Sorry." Kaden apologized and signed his name to the screen.

He sighed inwardly; nothing for it now. His mind was already running late this morning which was an extremely rare occurrence itself. He turned and began to walk across the tiny coffee shop to a waiting seat when a gust of wind hit him as new customers entered through the front door. His black top coat which stretched down to the top of his calves filled with rushing air and billowed out behind him. He never buttoned it for this explicit reason – he enjoyed the way the fabric twisted and flapped in the breeze and lent even greater volume to his already striking silhouette. He loved overcoats. They reminded him of a cape he used to wear. That thought brought him back to the one that had halted him at the Starbucks counter moments earlier: his name was supposed to be Kaden, but lately signing it and speaking it was feeling more and more like a lie.

Kunzite was returning and Kaden wasn't sure if he was ready for, or even wanted, that person to re-emerge from whatever psychological limbo he'd been living in for the past few years. He wasn't sure if it was finding Mamoru that triggered such an awakening, but thinking back over the past few days Kaden had to concede Zora a victory in one observation: he was afraid of his own power. Or rather, he was afraid of his lack of power.

The memory of his return to mortality was always fresh; how could punishing desert heat and coarse blasts of sandy wind against one's naked body not still be vivid years later? The first thing Kaden attempted to do when he regained life was to call on his magic to provide him with, among other things, clothes, and a swift teleportation to more pleasant climates. Unfortunately when he reached into the familiar well of strength that powered his magic he found it not only dry, but completely absent. He reeled from the shock after having spent much of his previous two lives relying on his superhuman abilities even for mundane tasks. It was for that reason, a guilty, embarrassing need to conceal his weakness, that he forbade his fellow knights from accessing their own powers. If they suffered the same lack of magic that he did for the last few years they did so in silence, but he knew his command would be followed to the letter and doubted if Jiro, Zora and Neil ever even tried.

Now, however, a familiar static charge danced at Kaden's fingertips and he forced all of his concentration into reigning in the energy that was actively trying to explode from his body. He hurried to the tiny table in the corner, set down his coffee, jumped into a chair and tightly folded his hands together under the table, out of sight, willing with all his might for the energy to fade back into the well it sloshed out of in the first place. Slowly the tingling power dwindled and the color began to return to Kaden's face.

"Are you okay?" Minako asked from where she sat across from him.

"Of course." He lied and fidgeted trying to make the reappearance of his clenched fists from under the table seem natural.

"You're whiter than usual today." Minako told him cheekily and sipped her drink which started out as coffee before a landslide of sugar and syrups and additives transformed it into something Kaden couldn't even put his nose to without gagging.

"It's unseasonably chilly." Kaden replied and grabbed his black, boring cup of Turkish blend.

"You don't get cold." Minako reminded him.

"Perks of having a heart of ice." He smiled.

"Have you ever seen Frozen?" she asked suddenly.

"No…" Kaden was confused, "What's—"

"It's a Disney movie." Minako explained excitedly, "I think you'd like it!"

"Disney?" Kaden repeated and was taken slightly aback by the suggestion, "You mean the cartoon company?"

"Kaden!" Minako snapped and several heads in the coffee shop spun to glare at her, "Disney movies are not mere cartoons!"

"Okay, I'm sorry!" he tried to calm the outburst and forced her back down in her seat.

"Honestly!" she huffed, "Next you're going to tell me that anime are just cartoons too!" she looked down at him and he simply shrugged in ignorance, "My gosh, what kind of childhood did you have?!"

"I didn't really watch movies or anime, Minako." Kaden told her, "I was busy search—"

"—Searching for your Master, yes, I know." She talked over him, "I spent my first year as Sailor V searching for Usagi while pretending to be the Moon Princess and I still found time for Netflix."

Kaden didn't recognize that last word, but he nevertheless said, "Well… you're a goddess."

"I can't tell if that's supposed to be flattery or if you're just stating fact." She led him, but Kaden was still a bit shaken from his barely contained surge of magic and only nodded in response.

There was another possibility for that episode, he suddenly realized. Perhaps it wasn't serving Mamoru again that opened the floodgates and allowed Kunzite's power to return. Perhaps it was being around Her…

"So how did the guys react to your restaurant idea?" Minako redirected the conversation.

"It's evolved a bit." Kaden answered, "It's now a bar and grill."

"A bar and grill, huh?" Minako thought, "So is that like a steak and martini kind of place?"

"I think Jiro and Neil are leaning more towards an American roadhouse sort of aesthetic." Kaden revealed, "So less fine dining and more, um... food and booze."

"Sounds like Neil." Minako surmised.

"Mmm-hmm." Kaden mumbled into his coffee.

"What about Zora?"

"He's not so enamored with the prospect of having an actual job, so his contributions have been minimal." He explained.

"That's odd." Minako pondered, "I always assumed he was the one who was the most on the ball."

"What would ever make you think that?" Kaden chuckled.

"Well, I mean…" Minako spoke slowly hoping Kaden would make the connection himself. When he didn't she reminded him, "Zoisite took on all the Sailor Guardians at the same time and won. Twice."

Kaden's shoulders slumped and he shook his head down and away with an exasperated sigh.

"What?" Minako prodded.

"Do you have to bring something from that time up whenever we talk?" Kaden grumbled.

"Listen, Old Man." Minako spoke and Kaden instantly straightened up, stunned, "You've got to get over it."

"Old Man?" he seethed.

"Do you know how hard it was for me to even say hello to you after everything that happened?" Minako asked, "There are plenty of things I regret, but you can't keep burying the past."

"It's not buried." Kaden argued, "It's always there; right at the surface. I simply choose not to draw attention to it at every given possibility."

"That's all well and good, but you're still letting it control you." She observed.

"If anyone is being controlled by their past I'd say it was you." Kaden accused, "Since it seems to be all you want to talk about."

"Only because you don't!" Minako shot back.

"Minako, the reason I don't want to talk about the past is because my last, most vivid memories of the Dark Kingdom are of you." Kaden finally admitted in exasperation, "You were kneeling across from me in a dreary cavern tearful, beaten and bloodied. Your face was twisted in horror at the realization that Queen Metalia was about to effortlessly kill us all after everything you'd done to save us."

"But you see? That shouldn't be your last memory of the Dark Kingdom." Minako tried to assuage him, "It should be when you returned to Endymion, healed and pure, and showed him how to defeat Queen Metalia!"

"I gave my life to Prince Endymion." Kaden explained, "I gave my heart to you. And it broke to see you weep. The pain of losing my life was a kindness in comparison."

"And here you are." Minako looked him over, "Living and breathing, heart in one piece. You don't have to cling so tightly to that pain."

"That's why I don't talk about it." Kaden repeated and shook his head, "You never did understand that."

"What?" Minako asked innocently.

"That I don't need to talk about my problems in order to work through them." Kaden barked, "Everyone on this planet has problems they need to deal with. They don't need to hear about mine on top of it."

"Except those of us whose job it is to help people." Minako pointed out.

"I don't want your help, Minako!" Kaden shouted and several other patrons of the coffee shop jumped in alarm. He calmed himself and clenched his eyes shut, "That… came out wrong."

"I'd say it came out just right." Minako replied evenly. Her voice didn't waver but Kaden could detect the undercurrent of shock and resentment.

"I'm sorry." He apologized, "I just…"

"This was a mistake." Minako said and glowered at the table. She absentmindedly turned her cup of coffee in a circle with her thumb and forefinger, "It's too soon. I knew it would be too soon…"

"What is?" Kaden was lost.

"I rushed into this." She sounded defeated, "I shouldn't have kissed you."

"Well…" Kaden stalled hoping for something profound to say, "I disagree."

She laughed ruefully, "Of course you do."

"Let's go for a walk." Kaden stood up and grabbed his coffee in one move.

"Why?" Minako asked puzzled.

"Because I think these people are sick of hearing us." He answered and gestured to the other customers in the shop.

She hesitated for a moment before finally conceding, "Fine."

Kaden moved for the front door and held it open for Minako as she exited. The brisk winter wind hit them immediately and Kaden's coat flared out again. Catching a glimpse of the garment Minako couldn't help but picture the man as a knight once more: jacket crisp, armor polished, cape flapping the breeze. Similarly the wind caught her river of golden hair and Kaden envisioned her not as a princess, but the soldier of love and beauty standing at the head of her Guardians. They walked in silence for ten minutes before finally happening upon a small park and a conveniently vacant bench beneath a hibernating flowering dogwood tree.

Kaden sat down and took a long sip of his coffee while he tried to think of a way to diplomatically continue their conversation. Minako sat down as well, the space between them a chasm, and beat him to the first word.

"How's your coffee?" she asked.

"Cold. And bitter." He grimaced, "Just like me."

"Good try." She congratulated, "But stop trying to make me laugh."

"Okay then." Kaden agreed, "What were you expecting would happen after you kissed me?"

"I don't know." Minako replied, "Not this."

"This?" he repeated, "Talking?"

"Confusion." She corrected, "Yelling. The past. All of it."

"To be fair, you brought up the past." Kaden reminded her.

"Yeah, well to be fair that's what I think of when I look at you." She answered and turned to face him. She shivered under his gaze, "My god, it's like you're Him and you're not."

"This was never about me and coming to terms with the Dark Kingdom was it?" Kaden inferred.

"I don't know what I'm doing." Minako confessed and her fingernails squeezed indentations into her coffee cup, "But Usagi…"

"What about her?"

"She could tell I was nervous about … you." Minako revealed, "She said I didn't have anything to worry about, but I told her that a miracle romance like she has with Mamoru wasn't something that happens to everyone."

"Fair enough." Kaden approved.

"But of course she's Usagi." Minako smiled tenderly, "She gets under your skin."

"She convinced me that meeting you was no big deal and that everything would work out. So I thought maybe, just maybe, there would be a chance that when I saw you, when our eyes met, and if I ran into your arms and kissed you that…" she very nearly trailed off, "… that things would happen for us the way they did for Usagi and Mamoru."

"Didn't you just say you told Usagi that you weren't interested in a fairytale romance?" Kaden wondered.

"Of course I told her that." Minako rolled her eyes at his occasional density, "But do you really think me of all people doesn't have a Disney princess fantasy every now and then?"

"There's that Disney reference again." Kaden sighed.

"Shut up, you don't know what you're missing." Minako pouted.

"Apparently I'm missing unrealistic relationship expectations." Kaden only slightly joked.

"I know, I know, shut up." Minako's face began to take on a bright reddish hue, "It's naïve and childish and I'm embarrassed enough the way it is. I don't even know what to say when I look at you now. I don't even know if I should."

"Minako, I'm not angry with you or anything." Kaden said unsure as to the direction this conversation was turning, "I don't think it's childish to want to return to the kind of relationship we used to have."

"And what kind was that?" she lanced a question straight through his heart.

"You know the answer to that." He dodged.

"I fell in love with you; that's all I know." She told him, "But I don't even remember how or why. All I have is a feeling. And a memory."

"What are our lives if not just a collection of feelings and memories?" Kaden asked philosophically.

"I'm used to being confident in what I feel and what I do." Minako explained, "Especially when it comes to matters of love. I'm a soldier of love; I was a goddess of love…"

"When I became Sailor V I remembered everything." She continued, "Adonis told me that I would always choose duty over love, but he never knew that I'd met someone with the same curse."

As Kaden listened his mind wandered back to the green fields of his ancient home. He remembered the day the Sailor Guardians came down to Earth once again chasing their wayward princess, but this time they were intercepted by a quartet of knights. He had arranged the "chance" encounter along with his beloved Venus: a chance for acquaintances to be made away from the prying eyes of their kingdoms.

"With Kunzite I had found someone who, like me, saw love and duty as one in the same." Minako persisted, "As Sailor V I knew you were deep within the Dark Kingdom and I vowed to find you and set you free."

"Which you did." Kaden assured her.

"But then you were gone!" she snapped, "After everything we did to try and save you we still couldn't stop Queen Metalia! Not even Usagi and the Silver Crystal could bring you back. And when I heard you whisper from beyond, "Don't cry, your princess needs you!" and "You still have a mission to complete," I knew you were saying goodbye. So I had to accept that and I learned to live without you…"

"And now…" Kaden steadied himself.

"Now you're back." She finished, "And I don't know what it means." Minako looked up at him, eyes glassy, "In the end I did choose duty over love."

"There was nothing you could have done to bring me back." Kaden guaranteed her, "Your only choice was to move forward."

"No." she said plainly, "I could have chosen not to abandon hope. I could have believed in what my heart yearned for, that one day you might somehow find your way back from… wherever you were. But I chose to silence my heart, to accept that this was what my destiny had always been: standing forever at my Princess' side, but with no one at mine."

"Please, Minako." Kaden reached forward and laid a hand on her slender, deadly arm, "There's no reason for you to feel like you abandoned anything or made the wrong decision. You've done amazing things in your life; don't let me be the thing that makes you question yourself."

"What should we do?" Minako asked and swung her head down miserably, "Where do we go from here?"

"I think coffee was a good start." Kaden nudged her.

"Don't make fun of me."

"I wasn't." Kaden reassured her, "You think this is any easier for me? I was dead, at least I had an excuse to be so nervous, but you? You're the leader of the Sailor Senshi! You face down Chaos itself! You're a rock star, Minako."

"And you were a rock. Literally." She giggled at that, "Maybe that's what I'll call you instead of Old Man. I'll call you The Rock."

"That's marginally better, I suppose." Kaden forced a smile.

"And you can call me Hard Place." She announced.

"What?" Kaden asked utterly confounded, "Why?"

"Because there's always something getting stuck between us." Minako revealed and took a drink of her long forgotten coffee.

Kaden hesitated a moment, but eventually worked up the necessary nerve impulses to snake his arm up across the back of the bench to rest slightly atop Minako's shoulders.

"Those are terrible nicknames." He candidly observed.

"But you love them." She sing-songed in reply.

He did.

The roar of the earth moving equipment muffled Jiro's approach on the opposite sidewalk from where construction was commencing on the new building which would replace the destroyed Crown Arcade. Neil watched the machines in contemplative silence from where he was perched against a panel fence encircling a neighboring residence. He was seated on a large rolling cooler which Jiro assumed contained more cans of the same beer clutched in his companion's meaty fist.

"You know, you're not supposed to drink in public." Jiro greeted him.

"Who's it hurting?" Neil returned.

"Good point." Jiro responded after a moment of silent pondering.

Neil stood and retrieved a beer for his friend and the two took up positions leaning against the fence as they watched the construction unfold. Dusk was coming on rapidly as the fires of the evening sky between the distant skyscrapers began to smother into the gray of twilight. Jiro yawned long and loud, stretching and spilling a few drops of his beer in the same motion. Neil didn't join in. He was the only person he'd ever met for whom yawns weren't contagious.

"Busy day?" Jiro said. He nodded to himself for no other reason than that he could.

"Oh yeah." Neil half-assedly agreed and took a swig of his brew.

"What did you get up to?" asked Jiro.

"You're looking at it." Neil replied.

"You've just been sitting on the streets drinking beer all day?"

"I bought a twenty-four pack and our refrigerator blew up along with our house." Neil elaborated, "I didn't want it to get warm."

"Hence the cooler?" Jiro asked.

"Hence the cooler."

"You know…" continued the blonde, "You could've just bought less beer."

"Why in God's name would I do that?" Neil was honestly offended.

"Just a suggestion."

"Yeah, I'll just get a twelve ounce steak instead of the sixteen ounce. I'm watching my svelte figure." Neil rolled his eyes and rolled back another draught.

"There you are!" a third voice angrily approached.

"Speaking of svelte." Neil burped.

"Where have you two been all day?" Zora demanded in a huff, "I've been trying to call you!"

"I had my phone turned off." Jiro answered, "I was meditating."

"Yeah?" he seemed unimpressed and turned to Neil, "What's your excuse?"

"I was ignoring you." Neil answered squarely.

"You're a piece of work, you know that?" Zora grumbled.

"Shut up, I'm in mourning." Neil returned and finished his beer off in a gulp.

"So you sit out on the street just swilling booze all day?" Zora screeched, "You're coping so well!"

"I'm not actually mourning, you idiot." Neil insulted and fished two more cans of beer out of his cooler, "I'm supervising construction."

"You getting paid for that?" Zora sassed.

"You getting paid to be a bitch?" Neil sassed back and extended his hand.

"I don't want your shitty beer." Zora turned his nose up.

"Come on Zora, lighten up!" Jiro invited him, "What's so important that you were trying to call us for?"

Zora reluctantly took the beer and slumped against the fence as well, "Like you care."

"Hey, we're at least putting forward the possibility for caring." Neil pointed out.

"Fine." He whined, "I went to visit Mamoru this afternoon."

"Social activity!" Neil clinked his beer can against Zora's, "Good for you!"

"Listen you ass!" Zora chastised him, "I'm trying to tell you that while he's in the hospital Usagi has been staying with her parents since it's a shorter commute."

"Good for her?" Jiro wondered.

"The point is: she and Mamoru told us that we can stay in their apartment until he's cleared to go home!" he finished giddily, "Isn't that great?!"

"But I just got comfortable here!" Neil mock pouted.

"By all means you can remain a vagrant." Zora exclaimed, "I'm sure our Master would appreciate coming home to an apartment that didn't smell like a diseased farm animal."

"You know, I'd shower more often if it didn't take you three frigging hours a day." Neil accused.

"I does not!" Zora declared.

"With all the fussing and the primping and the goddamned hair!" His adversary spat.

"Oh you can't even accuse me, you shit!" Zora countered, "It's like pulling a small dog out of the drain after you wash that ridiculous mess on your head!"

"And yet somehow it only takes me fifteen minutes." Neil combed a hand through his woodsy locks for effect.

"I'll never understand you guys and your long hair." Jiro interjected.

"I'll never understand why you wouldn't want to look like a complete badass." Neil gasped.

"Oh my god." Zora's face drained of all color, "Do you think Kaden will make us cut our hair for the restaurant?"

"Bar and grill." Jiro corrected.

"Do you think he'll make us wear hair nets?!" Zora nearly sobbed in his growing hysteria.

"Nah." Neil dismissed the concern, "Whitey's balls aren't that big."

"How big are they?" Kaden asked, appearing seemingly from out of nowhere.

"Gah!" Jiro shrieked and jumped away from the fence, "How the hell do you do that?"

"Fearless Leader! How nice of you to join us." Neil welcomed him as his voice took on a painfully forced Russian inflection, "Come, comrade. Have a brewski."

"Oh. Beer. Who would've thought?" Kaden accepted and took up the last vacant position against the fence.

"So?" Zora squealed expectantly, "How was your date?"

"It was…" Kaden chose his words carefully, "Not… bad…"

"Thrilling." Neil commented.

"You didn't correct me." Zora chuckled, "So you admit that it was a date?"

"No, I just don't have the energy to argue semantics with you right now." Kaden replied with a long stretch of his arms above his white head.

"What did you guys do?"

"We drank coffee and then we went to a park." Kaden answered, "And we talked about Disney movies."

"Jesus Christ." Even Neil had to turn to glare at that summary.

"What the hell are you, eight years old?!" Zora strained against his laughter, "Did you play in the sandbox too?"

"Be about the only box he's playing with." Neil crudely remarked.

"I'm giving you the abbreviated version because my personal life isn't any of your business." Kaden replied and cracked the tab on his beer, "And because I don't want to make you jealous."

"Ooh. Shots fired." Jiro cooed.

"I'm not jealous!" Zora immediately shot back.

"It's alright, Zora." Neil consoled him, "Kaden was never interested in you to begin with."

"None of us were." Jiro joined in.

"Huh." Zora snorted, "Your fucking loss."

Neil leaned over to whisper in Kaden's ear, "You know the worst part is he's probably right."

"Could you stop?" Kaden grumbled.

A tremendous crash called their attention as across the street the crane operator at the construction site accidentally knocked a bundle of steel conduit against an upright beam and scattered the lengths of metal tube across the ground. A chorus of "Woah!" rose up from the assembled crowd of four followed by Neil's call of, "Just put that anywhere!"

As Kaden watched the workers scramble about he became acutely aware of how the rocky start of construction on their new home and business venture mirrored the shaky beginnings of his new relationship with Minako. Rock and a Hard Place. He snickered to himself.

"Yep." He finally said and took a long drink of his beer and put one foot up against the fence behind him.

"Yep." Zora agreed.

"Yeeeeep." Jiro drawled.

"Mmm-hmm." Neil finished.

He swore somewhere above the din of the city he heard the unmistakable twang of a slide guitar adding the final punctuation to their monosyllabic dialogue.