Notes: This was a story I started a long time ago. It was actually one of the first Haruka-centred fics I wrote, but for some reason or other I stopped in the middle of it and never returned. Some weeks ago I found it again and I liked the feeling so much, that I felt I needed to finish it. I don't know whether it feels natural anymore... whether it's obvious that it's started when I was still new to Sailor Moon and finished when I've grown accustomed to the characters in it, but I think it's okay... It's longer than most of what I write in the moment and I hope you'll appreciate my effort with this.

It's not betaed as of now, because I really wanted to hear from my readers and friends in here if it works... does the characterisation work, does the idea of it work, does the plot make sense... does it start and end as it's supposed to? Don't be afraid to point out any critique... I'm really unsure about this piece of fiction, though I genuinely loved writing it. If you like it, I'll have it betaed.

I always loved Seiya and Haruka's interaction in the anime, but never felt their relationship came to a conclusion, so I thought I'd write one myself. This takes place at some point between the events of Usagi's battle with Chaos and the final shots of episode 200, when Seiya and the others leave for their own planet.

Not much Michiru in this one, which really shows that it was mostly written back when I was a raving Haruka fangirl, but as always with Haruka/Michiru she's detectable in the background as Haruka's quiet strength. Oh, I love my Michiru and I actually kind of missed her in this. I have to write some Michiru fic soon.

Now, enjoy!

Shooting Stars

Even through the thick glass of their bedroom window, the noise from the garden was loud enough for her to catch a stray couple of words in between Minako-chan's delighted squealing at the sight of Yaten and Taiki entering (closely followed by their Princess), and Rei's and Usagi's angry bickering.

"YATEN-KUN! TAIKI-KUN! I thought…" Minako's voice was high-pitched enough to pierce any eardrum exposed to it and – just as expected – Yaten came to a sudden halt, something that could resemble panic edged into every of his features. Taiki only raised an eyebrow, discreetly stepping back and out of the approaching girl's reach, Princess Kakyuu resting her hand on his shoulder in gentle, quiet support.

"…not fair, Rei-chan… meanie! I didn't… your piece of pie… Mamo-chan's and he'll never…" Usagi was sticking her tongue out at Rei, not noticing Mamoru-san coming up behind her.

"Honto, Usagi… I did wonder where my pie…" He was shaking his head at his blushing girlfriend, Rei laughing and jabbing her finger mockingly into Odango Atama's shoulder.

"You have to support it with your shoulder and hold it in place with your chin… yes, like that… and then… splay your fingers out just a bit more, Hotaru-chan… like this, see?" Michiru crouched down next to the girl, brushing a lock of dark hair behind Hotaru's ear as their surrogate daughter tried to balance Michiru's precious Marine Cathedrale on her shoulder in the same way the aqua-haired girl would usually do it.

Feeling a half-smile form on her lips, Haruka ignored all other sounds but Michiru's voice, concentrating on it and feeling the gentle breeze outside quickly adjusting to her focus, the conversation in question seemingly drowning out everything else. Leaning against the window frame, arms folded over her chest, she cocked her head, feeling relaxed for the first time since Chaos had been so close to overtaking this world. This…

… This is home. The thought came unbidden and it scared her, just a little. She had never had a place she'd truly considered hers before. The wind, after all, didn't rest until the moment it died out.

"Michiru-mama, how do you move the bow? I can't make it work… it only seems to scream at me… am I doing it wrong?"

"Looks good, Hotaru-chan…" Setsuna called as Mako-chan and she walked past, each balancing a full tray in their hands. Makoto had apparently been busy helping out in the kitchen… Usagi-chan would be happy to pay a batch of her favourite buns the proper attention, Haruka thought, only shortly following the two tall Senshi with her gaze before turning her attention back to the smiling Michiru.

"Now, watch, Hotaru-chan… it's not screaming at you, but it's like a cat. If you stroke it the wrong way, it will react, ne?" Michiru took the violin from Hotaru, letting it slide into place between her chin and shoulder in a way that indicated just how many times she'd done it before – the elegance of a truly skilled master – and called out a couple of simple tones that made Hotaru clap her hands, jumping up and down in excitement. Haruka felt something warm swell in her chest, something warm she hadn't experienced since moving to Tokyo, away from her family… and possibly not even before that.

Family…

Curling one hand into a fist and pressing it against the curve of her breasts, she recognised the sting of pain somewhere in there – but it was a kind of pain that was unlike any she'd ever felt. Tenoh Haruka knew about pain, but this… this she didn't know much about at all. After all, just as she had never had a place to call her own, she'd never had another person whom she would dare depend on as she had come to do it with Kaioh Michiru.

"Knock knock," a male voice called from behind her, making Haruka swirl around, knees slightly bent and fists raised, ready to launch into an attack. Leaned against the closed door, Seiya Kou held up both hands in an apologetic gesture, a cocky smile plastered on his face. Haruka frowned, but straightened up, willing her muscles to relax. She didn't like being walked in on… she didn't like the fact that she hadn't heard him entering, but even more so she disliked that he didn't even seem ashamed at having taken her by surprise…

"When there's a door, it's a normal Earthian custom to knock before entering," she told him coolly, turning her back on him. Simply because Fighter had managed to keep Sailor Moon safe, did not mean she liked the Senshi's civilian form. Seiya-kun was irritatingly hot-tempered and immature… and his little flirt with Michiru didn't exactly help matters…

With a melodramatic sigh, Seiya pushed himself off the doorframe and walked over next to her. "Normal girls are happy to find themselves alone with me," he told her, his voice deepening a notch and becoming soft like silk. She couldn't help the twitch at the corner of her mouth at his words, feeling him look up at her out the corner of his eyes. It sounded like something she would have said herself to embarrass Usagi-chan…

"I'm not one of those girls," she answered, once again letting her eyes come to a rest on Michiru who was now laughing and clapping her hands, sitting on the edge of one of the garden chairs, as Hotaru successfully managed to produce a clear note with the bow against the strings. Haruka still didn't quite understand what made Michiru entrust their adopted daughter with her beloved Stradivarius – after all, the Senshi of the Sea hardly ever allowed anyone else to handle her instrument for her… the few times Haruka had been granted the honour, it had been under much teasing fuss and worried eyes following every movement she made. Apparently it was the kind of trust that came with motherhood rather than the link of a relationship.

Not because she was jealous of Hotaru… she wasn't; she loved the double-natured chibi-chan just as much as Michiru did…

"You're lucky," Seiya commented from his position next to her, having allowed her the silence of watching the antics outside this private sanctuary of their bedroom and this time there was no taunt or dare traceable in his voice – only a hint of melancholy that made his voice lighter until it sounded almost like Sailor Star Fighter's. "To have that kind of love returned…"

Haruka turned her head to look at him, but his attention was not on her, but rather on Michiru and the couple having joined Hotaru and her on the terrace.

"Would you love me more if I was able to play the violin, Mamo-chan?" Usagi was looking up at the taller man – their Prince, Haruka thought with a flash of pride – with bright eyes and an even brighter smile. Mamoru-san smiled softly, something in his eyes reflecting the feeling that Haruka had felt only minutes prior, and put his arm protectively around her shoulders.

"I like you just the way you are, Usako…"

"Mamo-chan…" Usagi was sighing happily and next to Haruka, Seiya turned away from the window. In his red suit and with the long, traditional ponytail he looked no different than the arrogant boy she'd found about to zip down Michiru's dress after their concert, but his eyes had changed… matured… she knew that the small hope he'd harboured ever since meeting Usagi had finally died out. Despite herself, she felt sorry for him.

"You know," she commented, more softly than she'd intended, stopping awkwardly to clear her throat. Seiya-kun looked at her over his shoulder, everything in his posture asking her not to pity him. Haruka sighed. She knew this stubborn pride from herself, however much she was unwilling to admit to anything connecting her and the strong Senshi from Kinmoku besides a tendency to fall for someone of the same gender. Trying with a teasing smile, she added in a deeper, more masculine voice: "All of us are a little in love with Usagi-chan. It's difficult not to. There's just something about her…" It was not the boyish voice she used when hitting on girls, but rather a voice that she somehow knew Seiya would be able to relate to more than anything else she could present him with. No words, no gesture, would make him more aware that she sympathised than this.

"I like her light," Seiya said, his voice a mere whisper as if he spoke more to himself than her. Then he shook his head, meeting her gaze with a cocky wink. Snorting, she rolled her eyes at him. She could almost see the aura of sadness dimming around him as he forced his momentary weakness back into a dark, hidden place inside.

"Don't we all," Haruka agreed, looking over her shoulder, Michiru's eyes meeting hers fleetingly on the other side of the window. They exchanged a smile, Michiru's soft chuckle – the laughter Haruka had dubbed Mask-of-Parenting – disappearing only to be replaced with a more edgy smirk; a promise of heated kisses and wandering hands hiding at the corner of her tastefully painted lips. Sighing an inward yareyare, Haruka turned her attention back to Seiya who was now busy scrutinizing a picture of Haruka and Michiru standing on the bedside table.

"You really lack manners," Haruka told him, walking up to him brusquely and snapping the frame out of his hands. Raising an eyebrow provocatively, he raised one hand, letting his fingers run flirtingly up the side of her neck to cup her cheek.

"Well, people tell me it's charming…" His eyes sparkled. Had he not just minutes ago allowed her to see a part of himself that she was pretty sure he would show no one from this moment onwards, she would have slapped him. As it was, Haruka merely ignored his good-humoured attempt at hitting on her, pushing him a couple of steps back with a force that left no room for misinterpretations.

"It's not," she interrupted before he could start a self-satisfied rant. From what she'd heard from Yaten and Taiki, he was prone to those and it would only remind her why she originally wasn't supposed to like him at all.

Largely ignoring Seiya, she returned the picture frame to its original position on the table next to their bed. She hated when people started snooping around in her personal affairs… which was probably the reason she should be asking herself why she hadn't yet kicked the dark-haired, at the moment very male, Senshi out of Michiru's and her own private territory. He, more than anyone, had no business here.

"You're lucky," Seiya repeated after a moment of silence in which Haruka had let her eyes linger at the photograph – an everyday shot of Michiru and herself draped on the couch, eyes closed in sleep. They looked young like that, peaceful in each other's arms. While fulfilling their mission as Senshi in days blurred by battles, it was too easy forgetting that they were actually still high school students. Following the curve of Michiru's thigh, draped over her own picture self's abdomen, Haruka couldn't help but smile.

"I know."

Maybe they'd have time to rediscover their own youth now…

Shrugging nonchalantly, she returned her attention to the boy. For a second, their gazes locked – just like they had in the moment Uranus gave Fighter the mission of guarding Sailor Moon – and in his eyes Haruka saw no trace of envy, but only a faint shadow of loneliness that she vividly remembered from herself; from a planet in little light, from a life before she discovered the ocean.

"You should tell her," she continued, her voice casual. Seiya looked over his shoulder at the two figures of Mamoru-san and Usagi-chan outside. The others had joined them, enveloping them in a small circle of people, but as always Odango Atama was easy to make out in a crowd like that. Her light always shone so brightly…

Haruka cocked her head. Maybe she and Seiya did have more in common than either of them had wanted to acknowledge.

"It won't change anything." He shrugged and gave the picture of Michiru and Haruka another glance, eyes narrowing. "I'm not like you, Haruka-kun. Odango isn't my Michiru-san."

Uttering a wholly unconvincing laugh, he pushed his hair behind his right shoulder and walked to the door. Pausing in the doorway, he turned around. Haruka could see he did his best to focus on her and not the couple outside; the future king and queen of Crystal Tokyo. Their destinies were already carved in stone and he wasn't a part of it. Telling him that he could be would be a lie, but – when all came down to it – that wasn't what she was trying to tell him anyway.

"She has already made her choice." Seiya smiled crookedly, though it didn't reach his eyes.

"She has," Haruka agreed, because she'd learned from Michiru long ago that indulging people didn't equal doing them a favour. Honesty was the best way of reaching out. Michiru would know better than anyone and Haruka was more than willing to take her word for it. "But she will understand. She always does."

Her statement was followed by a tense silence, Seiya-kun's gaze boring into hers. They had fought as rivals in their civilian forms, as enemies in their Senshi forms and as allies in their ultimate forms. She hadn't always been fair towards him, but here they were… his Princess was safe and Haruka's world was not destroyed. Call her a romantic, but Haruka had always believed in second chances. Maybe this was her cue to grant him one of those. If they really did have all this much in common…

Walking up to him, Haruka gave him a sideways look, lips forming a teasing smile. At the sight, one of Seiya's eyebrows shot up a centimetre, his features changing into a mask of scepticism.

"What?" he asked, stepping away from her… just in case. Wise of him, really. She still owed him a severe punch for his little flirt with someone special who wasn't even close to being within the boundaries of his territory. At all.

"Let's make a deal," she started, leading him out into the hallway and heading for the terrace, closing the door to Michiru's and her own bedroom after herself. It was the most subtle way she could think of telling him not to mistake "mine" and "yours". "If I beat you at basketball, you'll tell her the truth before you leave with your Princess."

His footsteps died out behind her as Haruka opened the elegant glass door leading out to the back yard where the others were gathered. Before turning to wait for his answer, she caught sight of the clear, blue sky. The wind had calmed down. Finally.

Seiya looked somewhat taken aback. Meeting her gaze, he pursed his lips, frowning slightly. Haruka found herself smirking. He might have matured, but he still had a lot to learn.

"You're in for it," he laughed after a short pause of quiet consideration. Haruka hadn't picked him for the think-before-acting type and he'd just proved her right. Michiru would probably insinuate that it was yet another thing they had in common, Seiya and her, but Haruka would have to respectfully disagree. Most of the time she did think about the consequences of her actions. Most of the time, that was…

Nudging her with his right shoulder as he walked past her out onto the porch, Seiya spared her an overconfident grin.

"Make ready for defeat, Haruka-kun," he said in a loud voice and picked up a basketball from the box of toys next to the entrance, attracting the attention of the other girls. Rolling her eyes, Haruka followed him, noticing how both Minako-chan's and Yaten-kun's eyes widened a little at the sight of Seiya showing off his abilities with a ball, doing a complicated series of dribbles.

They were probably staring for two very different reasons, though.

Laughing, she narrowed her eyes at him dangerously. "We'll see," she warned, running up to him in two long strides and wrestling the ball free so quickly that he was still staring dumbly at his hands when she turned around a couple of feet behind him.

"That was pure luck," Seiya finally found his voice to respond, moving up to her and trying to tease the ball out of her hands. Stepping backwards lazily, easily keeping the ball out of the singer's reach, Haruka felt Michiru's questioning gaze on her. Looking up, she gave the woman a sideways smirk.

No words were exchanged, but Haruka got the distinctive impression that Michiru knew exactly what was going on. She had known back when it was Haruka who balanced on the edge of making her definite choice. And apparently, Seiya wasn't so very different. So Michiru knew now as well, Haruka felt sure.

"Maybe it was, but I'm still going to win this game…" She spun around and headed for the scoring basket, Seiya right at her heels. Feeling a sense of freedom, she hadn't experienced in a long time, Haruka allowed her legs free reign. Behind them Minako-chan was cheering, Mako-chan soon joining in and as she sped up, the wind in her ears drowning out every sound, Haruka caught sight of Hotaru-chan jumping excitedly up and down out the corner of her eye.

Home.

All it took was one forceful leap and her shoulder was scraping against the wall as she slammed the ball through the basket, the sound of it bouncing over the tiles of the terrace echoing in the silence that followed when she landed on her feet, turning around to face Seiya.

"One goal doesn't equal winning," he scoffed at her, not at all defeated. His eyes were glinting in a way that made gender irrelevant. She felt something inside her respond to it, this warmth that he emitted – not at all different from Odago Atama's.

"I'm lucky," Haruka told him with a snort, raising one eyebrow provocatively, the glimpse of understanding in his eyes not passing her by unnoticed. Especially not as Michiru walked up to her, dabbing gently at the small stains of blood on her shoulder where her skin had been scraped off by the bricks. His eyes were dark, colourless almost, but not without emotion. He didn't envy her, but just as she knew where he came from, Seiya knew where she had come to rest.

Cocking his head, a small smile forming on his lips, Seiya crossed his arms over his chest. It wasn't a smirk; there was nothing arrogant about it – all it reflected was an underlying note of peace. The exact feeling that had told Haruka she had come home, but probably told Seiya something entirely different.

"Maybe I'll get lucky as well," he noted. To their audience it would probably come off as a warning, but Haruka knew the true meaning of those words. She nodded at him, waiting for him to pick up the basketball, before answering:

"Not today, though…"

Seiya laughed and steered in a circle around her, his words only audible to her because the wind caught hold of them and threw them in her direction as he flew by:

"Maybe not today, but someday…"

Haruka allowed him the five-second start, feeling content enough with the sun warming her back and a blue pair of eyes stroking her cheek. She'd reached the finishing line already. And seeing that she had learned the virtue of patience over the years, she could wait for Fighter to get there as well.

Looking over her shoulder briefly, she watched Michiru pack away her violin, Hotaru and Setsuna discussing something quietly as they sat together on the bench a couple of feet on her left while Usagi-chan was slowly, but surely eating away on Mako-chan's chocolate cake. Haruka felt the echo of home in her heart and as Michiru raised her head and met her gaze, the ghost of an understanding smile haunting her lips, Haruka responded with a smile of her own.

Once she had been a shooting star herself, but now she had arrived at her destination.

Only then did she break into a run, quickly drawing closer to the soon-to-be ex idol.

Yes, Seiya and she might have a lot in common, but in this aspect she had come out the lucky one.