Hello. This is an edited, reformated version of a story I posted over a
year ago. New and old fans alike, please enjoy.
1 "Truth of wood, beauty of water."
by Michael Treiber
Ami stretched luxuriously in her large bed, instinctively reaching for Makoto. She was a bit confused when her hand didn't encounter her lover's strong, well-curved body. And then she remembered.
Her mother had been home last night. They never slept together when her mother was going to be home. Ami's mother's work schedule was the same as Ami's school schedule, so the two girls could only be together at Makoto's house on nights when it would raise no suspicion-which of course ruled out school nights-, or at Ami's house on nights when her mother had to work late.
Sadly, the elder Mizuno had gotten last night, a Friday, off... which meant that Ami was obligated to stay home and spend some 'quality time' with her. And the weekend before that she had been sick.
'This isn't fair.' She thought to herself. 'We should be able to see each other at least once a week! I can see not sleeping together on school nights...but why should we have to give up the weekends too!? It's just not fair.'
Grumbling slightly, the blue haired girl rolled over and looked at the clock beside her bed. A sudden grin split her face.
It was only 6:30... her mother should still be asleep. Ami could sneak out, leave a note, and go spend a private couple of hours with her beloved.
Her resolution firm, Ami put her plan into action. Nearly half an hour later, just before 7:00, Ami was standing before Makoto's door, shivering a bit in the rain.
The tall brunet answered a moment later, her disheveled hair and the green robe wrapped around her body suggesting that she had been pulled from bed.
"Ami? Is something the matter?"
The shorter girl just shook her head.
"No, nothings wrong...can I come in?"
Makoto opened the door for her girlfriend.
"Listen, Ami...I appreciate you coming over and all, but I'm dead tired...I was up all night finishing that report for history..."
Ami just smiled.
"That's ok...I'm still pretty sleepy myself."
Makoto was confused.
"Um...ok..."
Taking pity on her recently awakened friend, Ami explained.
"You're sleepy...I'm sleepy...why cant we be sleepy in the same bed for a couple of hours?"
That was such a damn fine idea, Makoto didn't even bother to say anything. She just smiled and started toward the bedroom.
Once in the bedroom, Ami wasted no time at all stripping down and crawling under the covers to join Makoto, who had shed her robe and was waiting for her.
They wriggled around for a moment, before finally snuggling down with Ami curled in a nearly fetal position, and Makoto curled around her.
'This is nice...' Makoto thought sleepily to herself, 'How do I sleep without her in my arms?'
The two girls were just falling into a contented sleep, when something cut through the tranquility like a beam-saber through butter.
Someone was knocking on the door.
Makoto stifled a curse, and rolled out of bed. Snatching her robe from the back of the chair she had laid it on, she was walking to the bedroom door when she heard Ami sleepily mutter,
"Get rid of them and come back to bed...I'm feeling snuggly and I don't know how long its gonna last."
Grinning to herself, Makoto though,
'Yeah, right.' It was kind of odd...In public, Ami was the most restrained person in the world. But in private, she was extremely physically affectionate. And not just in bed. She was always touching, hugging, wanting to cuddle.
Makoto didn't find herself minding at all.
Rearranging her robe one last time, Makoto opened the door.
To be greeted by Minako's cheerfully smiling face.
"Hi Makoto! I know it's kind of early, but my parents had to go out of town, and I was wondering if I could stay here today. Um...I didn't wake you, did I?"
"Uh...I've been up for awhile..." Makoto froze for a moment. How was she supposed to explain why Ami was in her room? Let alone why the other girl was naked, and curled up in her bed.
Her fear level jumped up a notch when the door to the bedroom opened to reveal Ami...but why in the world was she wearing one of Makoto's sweaters?
Smiling brightly, Ami nodded to Minako.
"Good morning, Minako. Are you here for breakfast too?"
The bubbly blonde nodded back.
"Good morning Ami. Yeah, I'm here for breakfast...But say...why are you wearing one of Makoto's sweaters?"
'Good question' the tall brunet thought to herself.
"Oh, it was raining when I came over this morning, and I got soaked. Makoto loaned me a dry sweater."
Makoto almost laughed out loud at her beloved's cleverness, but instead asked
"So...what do you all want for breakfast?"
A bit of the ham from last night's dinner, a few eggs, and some cheese later, Makoto had whipped up a batch of omelets.
Minako inhaled hers, and Ami made a good showing of herself, but Makoto could barely eat. Disappointment filled her belly like cold, bitter clay. She had planed to spend the day alone with Ami, but with Minako here... It almost made her want to just come out and tell everyone. After all, If the other senshi -and Ami's mom- knew that the two girls were lovers, they might have more time to themselves.
But of course, if everyone disapproved...
'You'd DEFINITLY have more time alone then...' a small voice hissed in the back of her head.
Makoto sighed. The benefits of coming out just didn't outweigh the risk...yet.
Ami knew that Makoto was disappointed but, to her credit, she didn't let it show in the way of hostility towards Minako.
The two girls tried to act perfectly normal, eating breakfast and then sitting down to watch a little TV with Minako. They tried to put on the 'Everything's normal here!' show, until Minako left the two alone to use the bathroom.
Quickly turning towards each other, Ami said
"I'm sorry about this...I really wanted to spend a little time alone."
Makoto sighed.
"I know...but there's nothing we can do about it. I mean, if they knew, we could tell Minako to buzz off, that this was an 'us' day. But since they all think we're just friends..."
Ami swallowed and looked down.
"Do...do you want...to tell the others?"
Before Makoto could answer, Minako came back into the living room.
"So..." She asked in that ever-so-cheerful voice, "Who wants to go hit crown for a few?"
And thus the day had passed. They went to the Crown game parlor...they saw a movie...they had lunch... basically, the whole day was wasted as far as Ami and Makoto were concerned. The two never got more than a few moments alone together...Minako was always there, smiling cheerfully, spouting her misquoted proverbs.
Ami sighed as she slumped through the door to the house she and her mother shared. It had been brutal, spending all day hanging out with Minako. Not that she minded Minako's presence or company...the two of them were friends. It was just that...
Sighing again, Ami slowly walked into the kitchen to get a glass of water.
As she was walking past the table she halfheartedly greeted her mother, who was sitting there reading a medical journal magazine. Ami got her water, and silently set down the wrapped plate of Lasagna she had brought home from the dinner that Makoto had prepared.
"Ah! Makoto's Lasagna! Thank you dear...I'd completely forgotten about dinner."
"You're welcome mother."
Ami listlessly sat down, and began slowly drinking her water.
Her mother was a bit worried. Ami wasn't usually the moody sort, but lately...
"You...seem a bit...under the weather."
The blue haired girl just shrugged and kept drinking her water.
Her mother smiled brightly.
"Well, I have just the thing to cheer you up! Your Aunt Megumi and your cousin Sakura are coming to visit next weekend! I'll take a couple of days of vacation, and we'll show them the sights!"
The elder Mizuno was REALLY confused when her daughter slowly set down her glass of water, cleared the table in front of herself, and began rhythmically banging her head.
"...so that's the whole story." Ami finished telling Makoto what her mother had told her. "I have to spend next weekend showing my hillbilly cousin around Tokyo."
Makoto was crushed. That meant it would be at least two weeks, if not longer, before they got any time together.
"So that's why I brought this!" Ami had continued speaking, but Makoto's mind had wandered. She forced it back on track and looked at the bag Ami was holding up.
Slightly confused, Makoto asked her girlfriend the obviously requisite question
"Um...what's in the bag?"
Ami had a sudden attack of shyness. The idea had seemed good while she was making her way over to Makoto's apartment, but now... She blushed and handed over the bag.
Makoto felt her jaw nearly drop off her face.
Inside the bag were two VHS (-AN: I think they might use a different format in Japan, but I'm not sure...-) tapes...and a camcorder. She looked up at her blushing partner, who tried to stammer out an explanation.
"I was just thinking...Its Sunday, we have five hours together till I have to be home...I um, thought we could -deeper blush- you know...and uh...-delicate cough- record it. Then we could have dinner together while we use your VCR to make a copy (-AN: I don't own a camcorder...can you use a camcorder and a VCR to make a copy of the camcorder tape?-)...And since we might not get to...-slight nervous swallow- be together...for another couple of weeks..."
Sudden comprehension dawned on Makoto's lovely face, and she nodded approval.
"I get it...and if one of us is feeling -slight smile- ...lonely...we can just pop our copy of the tape in..."
Ami nervously asked,
"So...what do you think?"
Rather than waste precious time talking, Makoto took her smaller lover by the hand and lead her into the bedroom.
Nearly glowing as she floated through the door, Ami kissed her mother -who had greeted her as she walked in- on the cheek and handed her a wrapped plate of chicken parmesan (-AN: I know that I've been passing off Italian foods, but the only Japanese foods I know are rice and sushi...gomen nasi-).
"Well" The older woman said happily, "Feeling better are we?"
"Much" Ami said cheerfully. It had been a GLORIOUS couple of hours...and she had the tape to prove it.
The next week crawled by. Several times, Ami thought that the only way she got by was with that precious little tape. Luckily, school was as enthralling as ever, but when she wasn't in school, or studying, Ami was pretty miserable.
Makoto confessed, during one of their rare private moments, that she felt the same.
The tape idea was such a success, Ami was somewhat interested in making another...but the very thought of asking Makoto made her blush. Of course, if it was Makoto who brought it up...
Saturday finally arrived, and with it, Ami's Aunt and cousin Sakura.
Sakura was a rather pretty girl, if a bit on the plain side. Her hair was a darker blue than Ami's...almost black, and her eyes had more green in them, making them a kind of aquamarine as opposed to Ami's sapphire.
As Ami's mother lead the cousin into the house, Ami bowed to her and introduced herself.
Taking any excuse to escape spending time with her cousin rather than her beloved, as soon as Mrs. Mizuno took the two new arrivals on a tour of the house, Ami went into her mother's office to call Makoto.
Sakura was bored to tears. Her mother had insisted that she come visit her aunt and cousin in the 'big city' in order to 'soak up a little culture'. It was Sakura's personal thought, unshared with her mother, that the reason was to separate Sakura from her boyfriend before things went 'to far'.
She was just about to say something when her aunt's pager went off.
Cursing softly to herself, Mrs. Mizuno told her family
"It's the hospital...I've got to go take care of this."
Megumi looked interested.
"If um...I don't get in the way, can I come see where you work?"
Ami's mother thought for a moment.
"I don't see why not...how about you Sakura? Do you want to come too?"
Sakura passed, saying that she would use the time to get to know Ami.
As soon as the two left, Sakura went in search of her cousin. She only looked for a few moments before she heard Ami's voice coming from the den. Rather than interrupt -and possibly loss some prime entertainment- she listened at the door
"...yeah...they're here...No, I'll be fine...-giggle-...Stop it! You know I'd never do that! My mother would never forgive me if I ditched Sakura on the bullet train!...mmm hmm... I love you too...want to spend the night at your place next weekend? Great! Bye..."
Sakura was amazed! Her cousin's mother actually let her stay at her boyfriend's house overnight? Apparently unsupervised? But wait...what if her Aunt didn't know? Giggling to herself for a moment at how she might use this, she was almost surprised by Ami at the den door. But before her cousin could open it, Sakura knocked, pretending as if she had just arrived.
"Uh...our moms took off, so...what do you wanna do?"
'Spend a couple of days with Makoto' Ami thought to herself, but stifled it and said,
"Spend a couple of hours at the crown game center?"
Apparently Makoto had told the entire group what was up, because when Ami and Sakura arrived at Crown, everyone -save Setsuna and Hotaru, who were taking a vacation to America- were there.
Ami introduced her around.
"Everyone, meet my cousin Sakura. Sakura, this is Tsukino Usagi, Aino Minako, Hino Rei, Kino Makoto, Tenoh Haruka, and..."
Sakura had been nodding politely to everyone, until her eyes landed on Haruka. When they did, they nearly doubled in size.
"Ni...Nice to meet you..." she stammered, unable to look away.
Usagi giggled a bit.
"Um...Sakura? Haruka's not a guy. She's a girl. But don't be embarrassed...we all thought that she was a really hot guy at first!"
"Damn it Usagi!" Haruka playfully scolded, "You'll ruin all of my fun."
Michiru glared at her wife as if to say 'none of your games now!', but smiled politely at Sakura.
"Not only is she a woman, she's a happily married one at that."
Sakura sighed in disappointment, but shrugged it off and asked Michiru,
"Um...I'm sorry, but I didn't catch your name."
Smiling again at the younger girl, Michiru told her
"Tenoh Michiru."
"Tenoh? Are you and Haruka related?"
Haruka and Michiru shared a mysterious smile.
"Sort of." Michiru responded. Glancing at her watch, she frowned. "Sorry to cut this so short, but Haruka and I have to be going. I have a concert in three hours, but I gave Rei enough tickets so all of you can come if you like."
So saying, the newly married couple turned and walked out the door.
After the meeting with the two Tenoh's, the girls drifted into the game parlor.
Curious about the two older girls she had just met, Sakura wondered over to where Usagi was playing the sailor V game.
"So...um...are Haruka and Michiru stepsisters or something?"
Usagi didn't even look up from her game.
"Nope! They're married."
"Oh...so they're sisters-in-law? Did Haruka marry Michiru's brother?"
Giggling Usagi dumped another coin into the machine to continue.
"No...they're married to each other."
Sakura was confused.
"But, um...they're both girls, right?"
Usagi just shrugged.
"Yeah...but they've been lovers for a couple of years now, so they just decided to formalize it a couple of months ago."
Sakura didn't really talk to anyone the rest of the day, until dinner that night at the Mizuno house. They had just finished a rather good green salad when Sakura spoke up.
"Damn it Ami, why didn't you warn me that two of your friends were lesbians?"
Ami was shocked. Why the hell would anyone need a warning about something like that? But before she could speak, her Aunt Megumi sputtered
"What! What do you mean, two of Ami's friends are lesbians? Kethry (- AN: I'm really getting tired of calling Ami's mom Ami's mom, or the elder Mizuno and the like, so I'm going to call her Kethry, in honor of the sorceress in Mercedes Lackeys Valdemar series if you haven't read it, I HIGHLY recommend it...it rules^_^-), did you know about this?
Kethry just sipped at her coffee and said,
"Hmm? Oh yes...Haruka and Michiru...wonderful girls...I'm glad Ami made friends with them...lovely wedding too. In fact, Ami helped plan it. I'm really rather surprised that they invited me, but it was a beautiful ceremony, so I'm not going to look a gift in the mouth!"
Megumi was nearly speechless.
"You...you not only let your daughter associate with people like that...you actually approve?"
A bit confused, Kethry asked
"Why wouldn't I be? They're wonderful people, and good role models for Ami. Michiru is a concert violinist, and Haruka's a champion sportswoman. My daughter could model herself after a lot of worse people."
"But...what if Ami picked up their ways?"
Kethry was even more confused now.
"What do you mean, their ways?"
Ami was embarrassed speechless, and Sakura was having trouble holding in laughter.
"What if she becomes...a lesbian?"
Ami felt like there were a fist of ice clenching her heart, as Megumi said the last as if it were so vile a thought that she could barely speak it, but her sister just smiled at her daughter and said,
"What's so bad about that? Haruka and Michiru really seem to make each other happy. And if Ami found someone who could do that for her, male or female, I would welcome them into my family with open arms."
Even though her aunt just grumbled through the rest of dinner, Ami felt as if not only the fist had unclenched itself from her heart, it had left wings in its place.
"Ready Sakura?" Ami cheerfully asked at the door to the guest bedroom her cousin was using.
Sakura came out, garbed in a dark purple dress that Ami had leant her. They were preparing for Michiru's concert. Ami had taken four tickets from Rei, but Megumi had refused to come, so only three would were going to use.
'Oh well...' Ami thought 'Her loss'
Frowning a bit, Sakura asked her cousin, a bit suspiciously,
"What're you so happy about?"
'I'm happy that my mother isn't going to hate me when I tell her I'm a lesbian'
"I'm happy that my mother isn't going to miss this concert. She loves classical music, and Michiru is one of the best in the business."
Sakura just shrugged. 'whatever'
"Hey," she asked, "Isn't one of your friends coming over to catch a ride with us?"
Ami nodded.
"Makoto...the tall brunet."
"Oh..."Sakura said, "But why does she need to catch a ride with us?"
'Because this is the closest thing we get to a real date'
"Because this is the closest thing we have to a carpool, and Makoto doesn't own her own car."
"Oh."
It was, of course, a lovely concert. Michiru played at her best, and the audience absolutely swooned when Haruka joined her on the piano.
Afterwards, Kethry was driving the group home, and offered to drop Makoto off at her apartment building.
Makoto thanked her girlfriend's mom, and asked Ami to come up with her, on the pretense that she had a cake that they could take home.
Sakura watched Ami and Makoto enter the building, and then glanced over to where Makoto had been sitting...and where she had left her purse.
"Um...Aunt Kethry?"
"Yes dear?"
"Makoto left her purse on the seat...if you tell me which apartment she lives in, I'll run it up to her."
"218...and thank you."
Sakura grabbed the purse and left the car.
"214...216...ah, 218!"
Without even bothering to knock, Sakura opened the door, and walked in. Strangely enough, Ami and Makoto weren't in the living room, or the kitchen, which she could see from the doorway.
Curious, Sakura walked deeper into the apartment, until she heard voices.
"It was really nice, wasn't it?" Ami's voice asked
"Yeah...and you look great in that dress. It almost makes me wish that you could arrange to stay tonight..."
Ami sighed deeply.
"We're just going to have to wait until next weekend..." And then there was silence.
Her curiosity burning, Sakura looked around the corner, and got one of the biggest shocks in her life.
Ami.
And Makoto.
Kissing.
She quickly retreated to the doorway and called out
"Ami? Makoto? You left your purse in the car."
There was a muffled curse from the bedroom, and the two girls walked out, their hair ever so slightly mussed.
Makoto smiled at Sakura, and thanked her after recovering her purse.
"See you at school to Monday?" she asked Ami?
Ami smiled and nodded, before picking up the cake from the kitchen counter and turning to the door.
The whole way downstairs, Sakura couldn't look her cousin in the eyes.
'I can't believe it! Ami's a...a...lesbian! My moms gonna freak when she hears out!'
Then she recalled an earlier thought.
'And her mom doesn't know either! I OWN her!...wait...her moms cool with the whole gay thing! Damn it!'
She silently mussed for a while.
'But most people aren't...so if I threaten to tell everyone...'
Responding to her cousins chuckling, Ami smiled and asked,
"What's so funny?"
"Hmm? Oh...just a funny train of thought...maybe I'll tell you later."
'After I figure out just how to use this!'
The next few days passed rather slowly for Ami. In an effort to stave off boredom, she decided to watch 'The Tape'. But oddly enough, she couldn't find it. And having grown up in a house with a trusting mother and no intrusive siblings, the idea that someone might have gone through her possessions never even crossed her mind...
It was finally here. The glorious Friday...The Friday where, afterwards, Sakura and her offensive mother would be leaving, and she could spend the entire weekend at Makoto's house.
To celebrate their extended family leaving, Ami and her mother were throwing a dinner party. It was a pretty small affair, so Kethry asked her daughter to invite her friends.
About two hours before the party was supposed to start, Ami was in her bathroom preparing when Sakura walked in without permission.
"Sakura!? What do you want?"
The obviously -to us, the author and readers- evil cousin grinned slyly.
"Your mother gives you a pretty big allowance, doesn't she Ami?"
"I...suppose so...Why do you ask?"
Grinning even more broadly, Sakura said,
"I think you should start sending it to me. All of it. Every week."
Ami nearly laughed in the other girl's face.
"Why should I?"
"Because I know your secret."
Feeling a twinge of fear, Ami asked in a somewhat quieter voice
"Secret? What secret?"
"I saw it...I saw you and Makoto kissing...I know all about you."
Ami gasped
"How...? Wait...you don't have any proof. Why the hell should anyone believe you?"
Sakura's grin should have ripped the corners of the mouth as she held up an unmarked videocassette.
"Pretty hot stuff...I bet the boys at school would pay top dollar for copies."
Feeling faint, Ami could only stare in horror.
"Sakura? Are you ready yet?" Megumi's voice rang down the hall.
Winking at her cousin, Sakura said
"We'll talk after the party.
Makoto was just finishing the last of her preparations when Haruka and Michiru -her ride for the evening, since she didn't want to be walking to Ami's house in a nice dress- showed up....towing Usagi along.
When Makoto looked at the blonde princess askance, Haruka just shrugged and said,
"She needed a ride too."
Shrugging in return, Makoto took a quick trip into the kitchen, and cursed softly.
A bit concerned, Michiru asked
"Something the matter?"
Walking back to the living room, Makoto asked
"Haruka, I promised to bring a bottle of sparkling cider (-AN: I am a firm believer in legal drinking age...you might think it makes me a prude, but no wine for the senshi in my fics-), but I seem to be all out. Do you think you could run me to the store to pick one up?"
The tall blonde shrugged.
"Sure. Michiru, Usagi, why don't you wait here?"
The two tall girls had been gone for nearly five minutes, and Usagi was getting fidgety, so she decided to turn on Makoto's TV.
"Um...Usagi? What are you doing?" Michiru asked.
"I'm bored, so I wanna watch a little TV." And before Michiru could say anything else, she started randomly pressing buttons on the remote next to the couch.
"Oops...accidentally turned on the VCR...Hmmm...there's a tape in."
Michiru frowned. "You know, maybe you shouldn't play with others electoronics..." But shock cut her off in midspeach. What she saw playing on the screen completely blanked her mind, except for one rather ironic though.
'Wow...I didn't know Ami was so flexible.'
"...really great buy! You don't find this stuff just anywhere..." Makoto was telling Haruka as they walked up the stairs to her apartment. Opening the door, Makoto felt every muscle in her body freeze.
"Wow" Haruka said appreciatively, "Who knew Ami was so flexible?"
'My life is over...' Makoto thought to herself. When she and Haruka had opened the door, Michiru immediately grabbed the remote out of Usagi's nerveless hands and shut off the VCR.
Makoto carefully walked into the kitchen, set down the bag she had picked up, and slowly walked back into the living room, never saying a word, and never looking up from the carpet.
No one spoke for a minute, and then Usagi started babbling.
"I'm so sorry...I...I didn't know...I was just trying to watch TV! I swear!"
Sighing, Haruka nodded to her wife, the unspoken communication they used instantly letting them know what the other planed.
Michiru pulled Usagi into the kitchen, while Haruka took the stunned Makoto into her bedroom.
Closing the door slowly behind herself, Haruka waited a few moments before asking Makoto
"Are you gonna be ok?"
Makoto tried to hold it back...but the flood gates opened, and between racking sobs, she choked out, "Its over...My life is over...Ami's mom is never going to let us see each other again, and the other senshi are going to hate us...-sniffle- And...and....what if Ami's mother makes an ultimatum? I can't ask her to choose between her mother and me!"
Showing rare tenderness for someone other than her wife, Haruka gently enfolded Makoto in a hug.
"Ssh..." She softly whispered, "You're going to be just fine."
Sniffling loudly against Haruka's shoulder, Makoto asked
"How do you know?"
Smiling a bit at her own wisdom, Haruka asked
"Do you hate Michiru and I for being lovers?"
Makoto pulled back a bit, shock etched on her face.
"Of course not!"
"Do the other girls?"
"No!"
Pulling a handkerchief from her pocket, Haruka gently wiped tears from Makoto's cheek.
"Then why do you think that they'll hate you and Ami?"
Thinking for a moment, Makoto responded
"Its different. You and Michiru have always been 'you and Michiru'. That's how we've always known you. Ami and I though..."
"Oh..." Haruka said in an ever-so-slightly mocking tone. "I see...since they've always thought that you and Ami were straight, if they find out differently they'll HAVE to hate you. We sure do have some close minded, bigoted friends."
Shaking her head, Makoto said
"No! Not at all...it's just..."
Though the 'you and Michiru have always been you and Michiru' argument had sounded good in her head, coming out of Haruka's mouth it sounded as ridiculous as it was.
"But what about Ami's mom?"
Haruka shrugged.
"You never know...on the one hand, Michiru's mother and I get along fabulously. On the other, my mother hates Michiru and wouldn't even come to our wedding. But Ami's mother is a well educated woman, and I've never heard a bigoted remark pass her lips."
Makoto just nodded...it was all true.
Brushing the last, errant tear from Makoto's cheek, Haruka asked,
"Feel ready to go talk to Usagi now?"
Taking a few seconds to rearrange her hair and fix her makeup (-AN: I don't wear makeup, so I don't even know if a little crying would make you have to fix it or not...), Makoto summoned all of her courage, all of the heart and bravery that had let her face the most terrible evils the universe had ever know, pulled every fiber of heroicness she possessed forward, and stepped out...to confront a tiny princess.
By the time Haruka had calmed Makoto down, Michiru had Usagi sitting still on the couch - no small feat in and of itself.
Usagi didn't even look up at Makoto.
"Um...I'm sorry I was using your TV without permission...and, um..."
Makoto smiled gently at her princess, relieved that a painful round of accusations wasn't in the making.
"It's alright...after all, how were you supposed to know?"
"I'm, uh...still sorry though. But...are, um...about you and Ami..."
Sighing, Makoto decided to go for the full truth.
"We've been lovers for about three months now, but we wanted to keep it a secret. You can see how well that worked."
Her skin nearly instantly shifting from its normal milky pale to the blazing crimson, Usagi couldn't respond to that.
"Well" Michiru said cheerfully, "Who's ready to go to Ami's little party?"
Arriving a few minutes late, the quartet from Makoto's apartment took their seats silently and joined the dinner in progress. As she was walking past Ami, Makoto whispered,
"Haruka, Michiru, and Usagi know." But she was past whispering range before Ami could respond.
Ami suddenly lost her appetite, and for the next few minutes picked at her food.
'I cant live like this...' Ami thought to herself, 'I have to tell them.'
"Umm...mother? I...need to discuss something with you. Its kind of important."
Across the table from Ami, at Kethry's left hand, Sakura heard Ami and knew that if she was going to get any fun at all from the situation, she had to act now.
Standing up, she spoke in a voice loud enough to make everyone stop what they were doing and pay attention to her.
"There's something you all need to know!" She began.
Everyone was a bit confused, and Ami could hear slight mutterings. Looking up at her cousin, she silently begged her not to do this.
But if Sakura noticed the plea...she ignored it.
"Ami and Makoto are lesbians! And I have proof!"
There were several reactions to the announcement. The two aforementioned girls froze. Haruka, Michiru, and Usagi put on and expression of nonchalance. Minako and Rei looked a little confused. Ami's mother and aunt...
Megumi looked shocked.
"What proof? How dare you accuse your cousin of something so vile!?"
Smiling self-importantly, Sakura bent down to the purse she had set next to her chair and pulled out 'The Tape'.
In an effort to lighten the mood, Haruka whispered to Makoto,
"I don't blame you for making a copy...that was some pretty hot stuff!"
It didn't really help.
Meanwhile, back at the head of the table...
Megumi was sputtering in disbelief.
"Did you videotape your cousin with another girl? I don't want my little girl to get known for having a Voyeurism fetish!"
Sakura looked smugly at Ami before answering.
"I didn't have to video tape them...they did it themselves."
Minako looked over at Makoto in disbelief.
"Really? You and Ami made a naughty tape?...Is it any good?"
Makoto just buried her face in her hands and groaned.
Haruka grinned at the energetic blonde.
"Its great."
Rei looked over at the two.
"When did you see it?"
Michiru answered the question for Haruka.
"Usagi and I accidentally saw it while we were at Makoto's house...Haruka and Makoto walked in just as it was getting to the good part."
Makoto just groaned even louder when Minako said
"Haruka and Michiru have seen it...Usagi's seen it...Sakura's seen it...I think me and Rei are the only two who haven't seen it. Well...besides Ami's mom and her aunt."
While this exchange was going on, Kethry just kept calmly sipping her cider. At the last remark, she set the glass down and smiled a bit.
"Actually..." She said, "I have seen it."
Ami though that she was going to die. Actually, at that point, death might have been the easy way out.
Reaching down to her own purse beside her chair, she pulled out a videocassette identical to the one in Sakura's hand. Smiling to her daughter, she said,
"Two days ago I was looking for a tape to record General Hospital, and someone had left this in the VCR. I assume it was Sakura, checking to see if the tape was real or not."
Handing the tape to her daughter, she continued.
"I'm sorry if I embarrassed you dear...but I wanted to see if you'd tell me on your own or not."
As Ami was taking the tape from her mother's hand, a puzzled frown crossed Kethry's face.
"By the way...have you been taking gymnastics? I had no idea you were so flexible."
Makoto groaned and started thumping her head on the tabletop in front of herself. It really confused Rei when Usagi, Michiru and Haruka started busting up with laughter.
Megumi had had enough. Standing up, she pointed an accusing finger at Kethry.
"I can't believe you! You knew your daughter was a...a...one of them and you didn't do anything about it?"
For the first time Ami could remember, a look of anger crossed Kethry's face.
Snarling, she said, "What I can't believe is you! I love my daughter, and I respect, and yes I even APPROVE of the choices she has made with her life! As a matter of fact, I'm so tired of your bigoted, self-righteous attitude, that when you leave...I don't know that we ever need speak again."
Megumi started to say something, but instead turned, grabbed her daughter's arm, and stormed out the door.
Ami carefully set the tape which had caused so much trouble down and, tears freely flowing from her azure eyes, began hugging her mother.
"Uh..." Haruka began, "Maybe we should go..."
Kethry broke the embrace with her daughter long enough to look at Makoto, -who, by this time, had stopped groaning and banging her head on the table- saying,
"I think the three of us have a lot to talk about."
Nodding a bit nervously, Makoto shyly rose to her feet and followed Ami and her mother through the door toward the private living room.
Left by themselves, Haruka and Michiru told the other two girls left in the dinning room goodnight and made their escape.
"Well..." Rei said, "That was interesting..."
But Minako wasn't really paying attention. Instead, she was looking at the tape that Ami had left behind. Rei immediately knew what Minako was going to say.
"No."
"Why not?" Minako asked. "Everyone else has seen it...Aren't you the littlest bit curious?"
"I...well...a little."
Grinning, Minako snatched up the tape.
"We have an agreement then. My parents won't be home for a couple of hours, so lets go check this bad boy out!"
Rei sighed deeply. She KNEW that she should be acting as the voice of reason, but...
"What the hell."
Forty-five minutes later, sitting on the carpet in front of Minako's parent's TV, the same thought crossed the two senshi's minds.
'When did Ami get so flexible?"
1 "Truth of wood, beauty of water."
by Michael Treiber
Ami stretched luxuriously in her large bed, instinctively reaching for Makoto. She was a bit confused when her hand didn't encounter her lover's strong, well-curved body. And then she remembered.
Her mother had been home last night. They never slept together when her mother was going to be home. Ami's mother's work schedule was the same as Ami's school schedule, so the two girls could only be together at Makoto's house on nights when it would raise no suspicion-which of course ruled out school nights-, or at Ami's house on nights when her mother had to work late.
Sadly, the elder Mizuno had gotten last night, a Friday, off... which meant that Ami was obligated to stay home and spend some 'quality time' with her. And the weekend before that she had been sick.
'This isn't fair.' She thought to herself. 'We should be able to see each other at least once a week! I can see not sleeping together on school nights...but why should we have to give up the weekends too!? It's just not fair.'
Grumbling slightly, the blue haired girl rolled over and looked at the clock beside her bed. A sudden grin split her face.
It was only 6:30... her mother should still be asleep. Ami could sneak out, leave a note, and go spend a private couple of hours with her beloved.
Her resolution firm, Ami put her plan into action. Nearly half an hour later, just before 7:00, Ami was standing before Makoto's door, shivering a bit in the rain.
The tall brunet answered a moment later, her disheveled hair and the green robe wrapped around her body suggesting that she had been pulled from bed.
"Ami? Is something the matter?"
The shorter girl just shook her head.
"No, nothings wrong...can I come in?"
Makoto opened the door for her girlfriend.
"Listen, Ami...I appreciate you coming over and all, but I'm dead tired...I was up all night finishing that report for history..."
Ami just smiled.
"That's ok...I'm still pretty sleepy myself."
Makoto was confused.
"Um...ok..."
Taking pity on her recently awakened friend, Ami explained.
"You're sleepy...I'm sleepy...why cant we be sleepy in the same bed for a couple of hours?"
That was such a damn fine idea, Makoto didn't even bother to say anything. She just smiled and started toward the bedroom.
Once in the bedroom, Ami wasted no time at all stripping down and crawling under the covers to join Makoto, who had shed her robe and was waiting for her.
They wriggled around for a moment, before finally snuggling down with Ami curled in a nearly fetal position, and Makoto curled around her.
'This is nice...' Makoto thought sleepily to herself, 'How do I sleep without her in my arms?'
The two girls were just falling into a contented sleep, when something cut through the tranquility like a beam-saber through butter.
Someone was knocking on the door.
Makoto stifled a curse, and rolled out of bed. Snatching her robe from the back of the chair she had laid it on, she was walking to the bedroom door when she heard Ami sleepily mutter,
"Get rid of them and come back to bed...I'm feeling snuggly and I don't know how long its gonna last."
Grinning to herself, Makoto though,
'Yeah, right.' It was kind of odd...In public, Ami was the most restrained person in the world. But in private, she was extremely physically affectionate. And not just in bed. She was always touching, hugging, wanting to cuddle.
Makoto didn't find herself minding at all.
Rearranging her robe one last time, Makoto opened the door.
To be greeted by Minako's cheerfully smiling face.
"Hi Makoto! I know it's kind of early, but my parents had to go out of town, and I was wondering if I could stay here today. Um...I didn't wake you, did I?"
"Uh...I've been up for awhile..." Makoto froze for a moment. How was she supposed to explain why Ami was in her room? Let alone why the other girl was naked, and curled up in her bed.
Her fear level jumped up a notch when the door to the bedroom opened to reveal Ami...but why in the world was she wearing one of Makoto's sweaters?
Smiling brightly, Ami nodded to Minako.
"Good morning, Minako. Are you here for breakfast too?"
The bubbly blonde nodded back.
"Good morning Ami. Yeah, I'm here for breakfast...But say...why are you wearing one of Makoto's sweaters?"
'Good question' the tall brunet thought to herself.
"Oh, it was raining when I came over this morning, and I got soaked. Makoto loaned me a dry sweater."
Makoto almost laughed out loud at her beloved's cleverness, but instead asked
"So...what do you all want for breakfast?"
A bit of the ham from last night's dinner, a few eggs, and some cheese later, Makoto had whipped up a batch of omelets.
Minako inhaled hers, and Ami made a good showing of herself, but Makoto could barely eat. Disappointment filled her belly like cold, bitter clay. She had planed to spend the day alone with Ami, but with Minako here... It almost made her want to just come out and tell everyone. After all, If the other senshi -and Ami's mom- knew that the two girls were lovers, they might have more time to themselves.
But of course, if everyone disapproved...
'You'd DEFINITLY have more time alone then...' a small voice hissed in the back of her head.
Makoto sighed. The benefits of coming out just didn't outweigh the risk...yet.
Ami knew that Makoto was disappointed but, to her credit, she didn't let it show in the way of hostility towards Minako.
The two girls tried to act perfectly normal, eating breakfast and then sitting down to watch a little TV with Minako. They tried to put on the 'Everything's normal here!' show, until Minako left the two alone to use the bathroom.
Quickly turning towards each other, Ami said
"I'm sorry about this...I really wanted to spend a little time alone."
Makoto sighed.
"I know...but there's nothing we can do about it. I mean, if they knew, we could tell Minako to buzz off, that this was an 'us' day. But since they all think we're just friends..."
Ami swallowed and looked down.
"Do...do you want...to tell the others?"
Before Makoto could answer, Minako came back into the living room.
"So..." She asked in that ever-so-cheerful voice, "Who wants to go hit crown for a few?"
And thus the day had passed. They went to the Crown game parlor...they saw a movie...they had lunch... basically, the whole day was wasted as far as Ami and Makoto were concerned. The two never got more than a few moments alone together...Minako was always there, smiling cheerfully, spouting her misquoted proverbs.
Ami sighed as she slumped through the door to the house she and her mother shared. It had been brutal, spending all day hanging out with Minako. Not that she minded Minako's presence or company...the two of them were friends. It was just that...
Sighing again, Ami slowly walked into the kitchen to get a glass of water.
As she was walking past the table she halfheartedly greeted her mother, who was sitting there reading a medical journal magazine. Ami got her water, and silently set down the wrapped plate of Lasagna she had brought home from the dinner that Makoto had prepared.
"Ah! Makoto's Lasagna! Thank you dear...I'd completely forgotten about dinner."
"You're welcome mother."
Ami listlessly sat down, and began slowly drinking her water.
Her mother was a bit worried. Ami wasn't usually the moody sort, but lately...
"You...seem a bit...under the weather."
The blue haired girl just shrugged and kept drinking her water.
Her mother smiled brightly.
"Well, I have just the thing to cheer you up! Your Aunt Megumi and your cousin Sakura are coming to visit next weekend! I'll take a couple of days of vacation, and we'll show them the sights!"
The elder Mizuno was REALLY confused when her daughter slowly set down her glass of water, cleared the table in front of herself, and began rhythmically banging her head.
"...so that's the whole story." Ami finished telling Makoto what her mother had told her. "I have to spend next weekend showing my hillbilly cousin around Tokyo."
Makoto was crushed. That meant it would be at least two weeks, if not longer, before they got any time together.
"So that's why I brought this!" Ami had continued speaking, but Makoto's mind had wandered. She forced it back on track and looked at the bag Ami was holding up.
Slightly confused, Makoto asked her girlfriend the obviously requisite question
"Um...what's in the bag?"
Ami had a sudden attack of shyness. The idea had seemed good while she was making her way over to Makoto's apartment, but now... She blushed and handed over the bag.
Makoto felt her jaw nearly drop off her face.
Inside the bag were two VHS (-AN: I think they might use a different format in Japan, but I'm not sure...-) tapes...and a camcorder. She looked up at her blushing partner, who tried to stammer out an explanation.
"I was just thinking...Its Sunday, we have five hours together till I have to be home...I um, thought we could -deeper blush- you know...and uh...-delicate cough- record it. Then we could have dinner together while we use your VCR to make a copy (-AN: I don't own a camcorder...can you use a camcorder and a VCR to make a copy of the camcorder tape?-)...And since we might not get to...-slight nervous swallow- be together...for another couple of weeks..."
Sudden comprehension dawned on Makoto's lovely face, and she nodded approval.
"I get it...and if one of us is feeling -slight smile- ...lonely...we can just pop our copy of the tape in..."
Ami nervously asked,
"So...what do you think?"
Rather than waste precious time talking, Makoto took her smaller lover by the hand and lead her into the bedroom.
Nearly glowing as she floated through the door, Ami kissed her mother -who had greeted her as she walked in- on the cheek and handed her a wrapped plate of chicken parmesan (-AN: I know that I've been passing off Italian foods, but the only Japanese foods I know are rice and sushi...gomen nasi-).
"Well" The older woman said happily, "Feeling better are we?"
"Much" Ami said cheerfully. It had been a GLORIOUS couple of hours...and she had the tape to prove it.
The next week crawled by. Several times, Ami thought that the only way she got by was with that precious little tape. Luckily, school was as enthralling as ever, but when she wasn't in school, or studying, Ami was pretty miserable.
Makoto confessed, during one of their rare private moments, that she felt the same.
The tape idea was such a success, Ami was somewhat interested in making another...but the very thought of asking Makoto made her blush. Of course, if it was Makoto who brought it up...
Saturday finally arrived, and with it, Ami's Aunt and cousin Sakura.
Sakura was a rather pretty girl, if a bit on the plain side. Her hair was a darker blue than Ami's...almost black, and her eyes had more green in them, making them a kind of aquamarine as opposed to Ami's sapphire.
As Ami's mother lead the cousin into the house, Ami bowed to her and introduced herself.
Taking any excuse to escape spending time with her cousin rather than her beloved, as soon as Mrs. Mizuno took the two new arrivals on a tour of the house, Ami went into her mother's office to call Makoto.
Sakura was bored to tears. Her mother had insisted that she come visit her aunt and cousin in the 'big city' in order to 'soak up a little culture'. It was Sakura's personal thought, unshared with her mother, that the reason was to separate Sakura from her boyfriend before things went 'to far'.
She was just about to say something when her aunt's pager went off.
Cursing softly to herself, Mrs. Mizuno told her family
"It's the hospital...I've got to go take care of this."
Megumi looked interested.
"If um...I don't get in the way, can I come see where you work?"
Ami's mother thought for a moment.
"I don't see why not...how about you Sakura? Do you want to come too?"
Sakura passed, saying that she would use the time to get to know Ami.
As soon as the two left, Sakura went in search of her cousin. She only looked for a few moments before she heard Ami's voice coming from the den. Rather than interrupt -and possibly loss some prime entertainment- she listened at the door
"...yeah...they're here...No, I'll be fine...-giggle-...Stop it! You know I'd never do that! My mother would never forgive me if I ditched Sakura on the bullet train!...mmm hmm... I love you too...want to spend the night at your place next weekend? Great! Bye..."
Sakura was amazed! Her cousin's mother actually let her stay at her boyfriend's house overnight? Apparently unsupervised? But wait...what if her Aunt didn't know? Giggling to herself for a moment at how she might use this, she was almost surprised by Ami at the den door. But before her cousin could open it, Sakura knocked, pretending as if she had just arrived.
"Uh...our moms took off, so...what do you wanna do?"
'Spend a couple of days with Makoto' Ami thought to herself, but stifled it and said,
"Spend a couple of hours at the crown game center?"
Apparently Makoto had told the entire group what was up, because when Ami and Sakura arrived at Crown, everyone -save Setsuna and Hotaru, who were taking a vacation to America- were there.
Ami introduced her around.
"Everyone, meet my cousin Sakura. Sakura, this is Tsukino Usagi, Aino Minako, Hino Rei, Kino Makoto, Tenoh Haruka, and..."
Sakura had been nodding politely to everyone, until her eyes landed on Haruka. When they did, they nearly doubled in size.
"Ni...Nice to meet you..." she stammered, unable to look away.
Usagi giggled a bit.
"Um...Sakura? Haruka's not a guy. She's a girl. But don't be embarrassed...we all thought that she was a really hot guy at first!"
"Damn it Usagi!" Haruka playfully scolded, "You'll ruin all of my fun."
Michiru glared at her wife as if to say 'none of your games now!', but smiled politely at Sakura.
"Not only is she a woman, she's a happily married one at that."
Sakura sighed in disappointment, but shrugged it off and asked Michiru,
"Um...I'm sorry, but I didn't catch your name."
Smiling again at the younger girl, Michiru told her
"Tenoh Michiru."
"Tenoh? Are you and Haruka related?"
Haruka and Michiru shared a mysterious smile.
"Sort of." Michiru responded. Glancing at her watch, she frowned. "Sorry to cut this so short, but Haruka and I have to be going. I have a concert in three hours, but I gave Rei enough tickets so all of you can come if you like."
So saying, the newly married couple turned and walked out the door.
After the meeting with the two Tenoh's, the girls drifted into the game parlor.
Curious about the two older girls she had just met, Sakura wondered over to where Usagi was playing the sailor V game.
"So...um...are Haruka and Michiru stepsisters or something?"
Usagi didn't even look up from her game.
"Nope! They're married."
"Oh...so they're sisters-in-law? Did Haruka marry Michiru's brother?"
Giggling Usagi dumped another coin into the machine to continue.
"No...they're married to each other."
Sakura was confused.
"But, um...they're both girls, right?"
Usagi just shrugged.
"Yeah...but they've been lovers for a couple of years now, so they just decided to formalize it a couple of months ago."
Sakura didn't really talk to anyone the rest of the day, until dinner that night at the Mizuno house. They had just finished a rather good green salad when Sakura spoke up.
"Damn it Ami, why didn't you warn me that two of your friends were lesbians?"
Ami was shocked. Why the hell would anyone need a warning about something like that? But before she could speak, her Aunt Megumi sputtered
"What! What do you mean, two of Ami's friends are lesbians? Kethry (- AN: I'm really getting tired of calling Ami's mom Ami's mom, or the elder Mizuno and the like, so I'm going to call her Kethry, in honor of the sorceress in Mercedes Lackeys Valdemar series if you haven't read it, I HIGHLY recommend it...it rules^_^-), did you know about this?
Kethry just sipped at her coffee and said,
"Hmm? Oh yes...Haruka and Michiru...wonderful girls...I'm glad Ami made friends with them...lovely wedding too. In fact, Ami helped plan it. I'm really rather surprised that they invited me, but it was a beautiful ceremony, so I'm not going to look a gift in the mouth!"
Megumi was nearly speechless.
"You...you not only let your daughter associate with people like that...you actually approve?"
A bit confused, Kethry asked
"Why wouldn't I be? They're wonderful people, and good role models for Ami. Michiru is a concert violinist, and Haruka's a champion sportswoman. My daughter could model herself after a lot of worse people."
"But...what if Ami picked up their ways?"
Kethry was even more confused now.
"What do you mean, their ways?"
Ami was embarrassed speechless, and Sakura was having trouble holding in laughter.
"What if she becomes...a lesbian?"
Ami felt like there were a fist of ice clenching her heart, as Megumi said the last as if it were so vile a thought that she could barely speak it, but her sister just smiled at her daughter and said,
"What's so bad about that? Haruka and Michiru really seem to make each other happy. And if Ami found someone who could do that for her, male or female, I would welcome them into my family with open arms."
Even though her aunt just grumbled through the rest of dinner, Ami felt as if not only the fist had unclenched itself from her heart, it had left wings in its place.
"Ready Sakura?" Ami cheerfully asked at the door to the guest bedroom her cousin was using.
Sakura came out, garbed in a dark purple dress that Ami had leant her. They were preparing for Michiru's concert. Ami had taken four tickets from Rei, but Megumi had refused to come, so only three would were going to use.
'Oh well...' Ami thought 'Her loss'
Frowning a bit, Sakura asked her cousin, a bit suspiciously,
"What're you so happy about?"
'I'm happy that my mother isn't going to hate me when I tell her I'm a lesbian'
"I'm happy that my mother isn't going to miss this concert. She loves classical music, and Michiru is one of the best in the business."
Sakura just shrugged. 'whatever'
"Hey," she asked, "Isn't one of your friends coming over to catch a ride with us?"
Ami nodded.
"Makoto...the tall brunet."
"Oh..."Sakura said, "But why does she need to catch a ride with us?"
'Because this is the closest thing we get to a real date'
"Because this is the closest thing we have to a carpool, and Makoto doesn't own her own car."
"Oh."
It was, of course, a lovely concert. Michiru played at her best, and the audience absolutely swooned when Haruka joined her on the piano.
Afterwards, Kethry was driving the group home, and offered to drop Makoto off at her apartment building.
Makoto thanked her girlfriend's mom, and asked Ami to come up with her, on the pretense that she had a cake that they could take home.
Sakura watched Ami and Makoto enter the building, and then glanced over to where Makoto had been sitting...and where she had left her purse.
"Um...Aunt Kethry?"
"Yes dear?"
"Makoto left her purse on the seat...if you tell me which apartment she lives in, I'll run it up to her."
"218...and thank you."
Sakura grabbed the purse and left the car.
"214...216...ah, 218!"
Without even bothering to knock, Sakura opened the door, and walked in. Strangely enough, Ami and Makoto weren't in the living room, or the kitchen, which she could see from the doorway.
Curious, Sakura walked deeper into the apartment, until she heard voices.
"It was really nice, wasn't it?" Ami's voice asked
"Yeah...and you look great in that dress. It almost makes me wish that you could arrange to stay tonight..."
Ami sighed deeply.
"We're just going to have to wait until next weekend..." And then there was silence.
Her curiosity burning, Sakura looked around the corner, and got one of the biggest shocks in her life.
Ami.
And Makoto.
Kissing.
She quickly retreated to the doorway and called out
"Ami? Makoto? You left your purse in the car."
There was a muffled curse from the bedroom, and the two girls walked out, their hair ever so slightly mussed.
Makoto smiled at Sakura, and thanked her after recovering her purse.
"See you at school to Monday?" she asked Ami?
Ami smiled and nodded, before picking up the cake from the kitchen counter and turning to the door.
The whole way downstairs, Sakura couldn't look her cousin in the eyes.
'I can't believe it! Ami's a...a...lesbian! My moms gonna freak when she hears out!'
Then she recalled an earlier thought.
'And her mom doesn't know either! I OWN her!...wait...her moms cool with the whole gay thing! Damn it!'
She silently mussed for a while.
'But most people aren't...so if I threaten to tell everyone...'
Responding to her cousins chuckling, Ami smiled and asked,
"What's so funny?"
"Hmm? Oh...just a funny train of thought...maybe I'll tell you later."
'After I figure out just how to use this!'
The next few days passed rather slowly for Ami. In an effort to stave off boredom, she decided to watch 'The Tape'. But oddly enough, she couldn't find it. And having grown up in a house with a trusting mother and no intrusive siblings, the idea that someone might have gone through her possessions never even crossed her mind...
It was finally here. The glorious Friday...The Friday where, afterwards, Sakura and her offensive mother would be leaving, and she could spend the entire weekend at Makoto's house.
To celebrate their extended family leaving, Ami and her mother were throwing a dinner party. It was a pretty small affair, so Kethry asked her daughter to invite her friends.
About two hours before the party was supposed to start, Ami was in her bathroom preparing when Sakura walked in without permission.
"Sakura!? What do you want?"
The obviously -to us, the author and readers- evil cousin grinned slyly.
"Your mother gives you a pretty big allowance, doesn't she Ami?"
"I...suppose so...Why do you ask?"
Grinning even more broadly, Sakura said,
"I think you should start sending it to me. All of it. Every week."
Ami nearly laughed in the other girl's face.
"Why should I?"
"Because I know your secret."
Feeling a twinge of fear, Ami asked in a somewhat quieter voice
"Secret? What secret?"
"I saw it...I saw you and Makoto kissing...I know all about you."
Ami gasped
"How...? Wait...you don't have any proof. Why the hell should anyone believe you?"
Sakura's grin should have ripped the corners of the mouth as she held up an unmarked videocassette.
"Pretty hot stuff...I bet the boys at school would pay top dollar for copies."
Feeling faint, Ami could only stare in horror.
"Sakura? Are you ready yet?" Megumi's voice rang down the hall.
Winking at her cousin, Sakura said
"We'll talk after the party.
Makoto was just finishing the last of her preparations when Haruka and Michiru -her ride for the evening, since she didn't want to be walking to Ami's house in a nice dress- showed up....towing Usagi along.
When Makoto looked at the blonde princess askance, Haruka just shrugged and said,
"She needed a ride too."
Shrugging in return, Makoto took a quick trip into the kitchen, and cursed softly.
A bit concerned, Michiru asked
"Something the matter?"
Walking back to the living room, Makoto asked
"Haruka, I promised to bring a bottle of sparkling cider (-AN: I am a firm believer in legal drinking age...you might think it makes me a prude, but no wine for the senshi in my fics-), but I seem to be all out. Do you think you could run me to the store to pick one up?"
The tall blonde shrugged.
"Sure. Michiru, Usagi, why don't you wait here?"
The two tall girls had been gone for nearly five minutes, and Usagi was getting fidgety, so she decided to turn on Makoto's TV.
"Um...Usagi? What are you doing?" Michiru asked.
"I'm bored, so I wanna watch a little TV." And before Michiru could say anything else, she started randomly pressing buttons on the remote next to the couch.
"Oops...accidentally turned on the VCR...Hmmm...there's a tape in."
Michiru frowned. "You know, maybe you shouldn't play with others electoronics..." But shock cut her off in midspeach. What she saw playing on the screen completely blanked her mind, except for one rather ironic though.
'Wow...I didn't know Ami was so flexible.'
"...really great buy! You don't find this stuff just anywhere..." Makoto was telling Haruka as they walked up the stairs to her apartment. Opening the door, Makoto felt every muscle in her body freeze.
"Wow" Haruka said appreciatively, "Who knew Ami was so flexible?"
'My life is over...' Makoto thought to herself. When she and Haruka had opened the door, Michiru immediately grabbed the remote out of Usagi's nerveless hands and shut off the VCR.
Makoto carefully walked into the kitchen, set down the bag she had picked up, and slowly walked back into the living room, never saying a word, and never looking up from the carpet.
No one spoke for a minute, and then Usagi started babbling.
"I'm so sorry...I...I didn't know...I was just trying to watch TV! I swear!"
Sighing, Haruka nodded to her wife, the unspoken communication they used instantly letting them know what the other planed.
Michiru pulled Usagi into the kitchen, while Haruka took the stunned Makoto into her bedroom.
Closing the door slowly behind herself, Haruka waited a few moments before asking Makoto
"Are you gonna be ok?"
Makoto tried to hold it back...but the flood gates opened, and between racking sobs, she choked out, "Its over...My life is over...Ami's mom is never going to let us see each other again, and the other senshi are going to hate us...-sniffle- And...and....what if Ami's mother makes an ultimatum? I can't ask her to choose between her mother and me!"
Showing rare tenderness for someone other than her wife, Haruka gently enfolded Makoto in a hug.
"Ssh..." She softly whispered, "You're going to be just fine."
Sniffling loudly against Haruka's shoulder, Makoto asked
"How do you know?"
Smiling a bit at her own wisdom, Haruka asked
"Do you hate Michiru and I for being lovers?"
Makoto pulled back a bit, shock etched on her face.
"Of course not!"
"Do the other girls?"
"No!"
Pulling a handkerchief from her pocket, Haruka gently wiped tears from Makoto's cheek.
"Then why do you think that they'll hate you and Ami?"
Thinking for a moment, Makoto responded
"Its different. You and Michiru have always been 'you and Michiru'. That's how we've always known you. Ami and I though..."
"Oh..." Haruka said in an ever-so-slightly mocking tone. "I see...since they've always thought that you and Ami were straight, if they find out differently they'll HAVE to hate you. We sure do have some close minded, bigoted friends."
Shaking her head, Makoto said
"No! Not at all...it's just..."
Though the 'you and Michiru have always been you and Michiru' argument had sounded good in her head, coming out of Haruka's mouth it sounded as ridiculous as it was.
"But what about Ami's mom?"
Haruka shrugged.
"You never know...on the one hand, Michiru's mother and I get along fabulously. On the other, my mother hates Michiru and wouldn't even come to our wedding. But Ami's mother is a well educated woman, and I've never heard a bigoted remark pass her lips."
Makoto just nodded...it was all true.
Brushing the last, errant tear from Makoto's cheek, Haruka asked,
"Feel ready to go talk to Usagi now?"
Taking a few seconds to rearrange her hair and fix her makeup (-AN: I don't wear makeup, so I don't even know if a little crying would make you have to fix it or not...), Makoto summoned all of her courage, all of the heart and bravery that had let her face the most terrible evils the universe had ever know, pulled every fiber of heroicness she possessed forward, and stepped out...to confront a tiny princess.
By the time Haruka had calmed Makoto down, Michiru had Usagi sitting still on the couch - no small feat in and of itself.
Usagi didn't even look up at Makoto.
"Um...I'm sorry I was using your TV without permission...and, um..."
Makoto smiled gently at her princess, relieved that a painful round of accusations wasn't in the making.
"It's alright...after all, how were you supposed to know?"
"I'm, uh...still sorry though. But...are, um...about you and Ami..."
Sighing, Makoto decided to go for the full truth.
"We've been lovers for about three months now, but we wanted to keep it a secret. You can see how well that worked."
Her skin nearly instantly shifting from its normal milky pale to the blazing crimson, Usagi couldn't respond to that.
"Well" Michiru said cheerfully, "Who's ready to go to Ami's little party?"
Arriving a few minutes late, the quartet from Makoto's apartment took their seats silently and joined the dinner in progress. As she was walking past Ami, Makoto whispered,
"Haruka, Michiru, and Usagi know." But she was past whispering range before Ami could respond.
Ami suddenly lost her appetite, and for the next few minutes picked at her food.
'I cant live like this...' Ami thought to herself, 'I have to tell them.'
"Umm...mother? I...need to discuss something with you. Its kind of important."
Across the table from Ami, at Kethry's left hand, Sakura heard Ami and knew that if she was going to get any fun at all from the situation, she had to act now.
Standing up, she spoke in a voice loud enough to make everyone stop what they were doing and pay attention to her.
"There's something you all need to know!" She began.
Everyone was a bit confused, and Ami could hear slight mutterings. Looking up at her cousin, she silently begged her not to do this.
But if Sakura noticed the plea...she ignored it.
"Ami and Makoto are lesbians! And I have proof!"
There were several reactions to the announcement. The two aforementioned girls froze. Haruka, Michiru, and Usagi put on and expression of nonchalance. Minako and Rei looked a little confused. Ami's mother and aunt...
Megumi looked shocked.
"What proof? How dare you accuse your cousin of something so vile!?"
Smiling self-importantly, Sakura bent down to the purse she had set next to her chair and pulled out 'The Tape'.
In an effort to lighten the mood, Haruka whispered to Makoto,
"I don't blame you for making a copy...that was some pretty hot stuff!"
It didn't really help.
Meanwhile, back at the head of the table...
Megumi was sputtering in disbelief.
"Did you videotape your cousin with another girl? I don't want my little girl to get known for having a Voyeurism fetish!"
Sakura looked smugly at Ami before answering.
"I didn't have to video tape them...they did it themselves."
Minako looked over at Makoto in disbelief.
"Really? You and Ami made a naughty tape?...Is it any good?"
Makoto just buried her face in her hands and groaned.
Haruka grinned at the energetic blonde.
"Its great."
Rei looked over at the two.
"When did you see it?"
Michiru answered the question for Haruka.
"Usagi and I accidentally saw it while we were at Makoto's house...Haruka and Makoto walked in just as it was getting to the good part."
Makoto just groaned even louder when Minako said
"Haruka and Michiru have seen it...Usagi's seen it...Sakura's seen it...I think me and Rei are the only two who haven't seen it. Well...besides Ami's mom and her aunt."
While this exchange was going on, Kethry just kept calmly sipping her cider. At the last remark, she set the glass down and smiled a bit.
"Actually..." She said, "I have seen it."
Ami though that she was going to die. Actually, at that point, death might have been the easy way out.
Reaching down to her own purse beside her chair, she pulled out a videocassette identical to the one in Sakura's hand. Smiling to her daughter, she said,
"Two days ago I was looking for a tape to record General Hospital, and someone had left this in the VCR. I assume it was Sakura, checking to see if the tape was real or not."
Handing the tape to her daughter, she continued.
"I'm sorry if I embarrassed you dear...but I wanted to see if you'd tell me on your own or not."
As Ami was taking the tape from her mother's hand, a puzzled frown crossed Kethry's face.
"By the way...have you been taking gymnastics? I had no idea you were so flexible."
Makoto groaned and started thumping her head on the tabletop in front of herself. It really confused Rei when Usagi, Michiru and Haruka started busting up with laughter.
Megumi had had enough. Standing up, she pointed an accusing finger at Kethry.
"I can't believe you! You knew your daughter was a...a...one of them and you didn't do anything about it?"
For the first time Ami could remember, a look of anger crossed Kethry's face.
Snarling, she said, "What I can't believe is you! I love my daughter, and I respect, and yes I even APPROVE of the choices she has made with her life! As a matter of fact, I'm so tired of your bigoted, self-righteous attitude, that when you leave...I don't know that we ever need speak again."
Megumi started to say something, but instead turned, grabbed her daughter's arm, and stormed out the door.
Ami carefully set the tape which had caused so much trouble down and, tears freely flowing from her azure eyes, began hugging her mother.
"Uh..." Haruka began, "Maybe we should go..."
Kethry broke the embrace with her daughter long enough to look at Makoto, -who, by this time, had stopped groaning and banging her head on the table- saying,
"I think the three of us have a lot to talk about."
Nodding a bit nervously, Makoto shyly rose to her feet and followed Ami and her mother through the door toward the private living room.
Left by themselves, Haruka and Michiru told the other two girls left in the dinning room goodnight and made their escape.
"Well..." Rei said, "That was interesting..."
But Minako wasn't really paying attention. Instead, she was looking at the tape that Ami had left behind. Rei immediately knew what Minako was going to say.
"No."
"Why not?" Minako asked. "Everyone else has seen it...Aren't you the littlest bit curious?"
"I...well...a little."
Grinning, Minako snatched up the tape.
"We have an agreement then. My parents won't be home for a couple of hours, so lets go check this bad boy out!"
Rei sighed deeply. She KNEW that she should be acting as the voice of reason, but...
"What the hell."
Forty-five minutes later, sitting on the carpet in front of Minako's parent's TV, the same thought crossed the two senshi's minds.
'When did Ami get so flexible?"