Title: The Watchers 
Author: Starsea 
Theme: Midnight 
Genre: Present, General 
Version: Manga 
Rating: PG 
 
Her eyes snapped open. It was a small sound, the tiniest sound. Most 
people would have dismissed it, but she didn't. She automatically 
sat up, slid her feet into the slippers waiting neatly by the 
bedside and drifted (sleep slipping from her shoulders) down the 
corridor, turning left just before she reached the stairs. One of 
the balcony doors had been left open and the white curtains were 
floating on the breeze. Had the sight of them awoken her? Or the 
breeze? The reason wasn't important now. She was awake, that was 
what mattered. 
 
Setsuna bent down and slipped her arms into the cot. Hotaru's small 
rumbles of discomfort vanished, and the bright eyes blinked. Setsuna 
almost smiled. Once somebody was holding her, Hotaru hardly made a 
sound. Really, she was a quiet baby, Setsuna thought, walking 
towards the window. Not one of those red-faced squallers who cried 
at every single thing. No, Hotaru took life calmly. 
 
She glanced at the eyes of the clock on the wall, visible against 
its white face. Both were pointing straight up. 
 
"Well," she said, looking down at her daughter, "that's almost 
civilised for you, isn't it?" 
 
Hotaru giggled, almost as if she'd understood the words. Setsuna 
wasn't ruling out the possibility. Hotaru was not exactly 'normal'. 
In three months, she'd gone from a newborn bundle of skin and bones 
to a solid, wriggly baby who looked about six months old. And 
growing by the day. 
 
Setsuna pushed away the thought. It was that irritating tendency 
again... to look into the future. To see what was coming. No. Live 
in the moment. Like Hotaru. 
 
"Now, why are you awake?" she murmured, walking out onto the 
balcony. A soft summer breeze caressed her face and hair. Hotaru 
reached out a small white hand, opening and closing her fingers. 
 
Setsuna laughed softly and gently closed her own brown hand over the 
pearlescent fist. "You can't catch the wind, Hotaru-chan," she 
whispered. "Nobody can catch the wind, no one commands it... well, 
almost no one. There is one person. A person born with the power to 
run like the wind and to control it. Just as there is someone who 
can command the ocean." 
 
Hotaru made a sound, almost like a question. Setsuna sighed. "Why am 
I telling you that? It doesn't matter anymore... it's all behind us. 
Our old mission. You're our new mission." She kissed Hotaru's cheek, 
soft as rose petals, and breathed in the smell of baby lotion, new 
skin and the lavender sachets which Michiru always put in Hotaru's 
wardrobe and drawers. 
 
The lights of Tokyo were distant enough for her to see the 
constellations and pick out the various planets. Her own planet was 
not visible, of course. 
 
"Look, Hotaru," she whispered, "the stars. I'll teach you their 
names when you're older. Cassiopeia... always on her head for her 
arrogance. Orion the Hunter, and his faithful dog, Sirius... and 
your constellation, Capricorn. The Sea Goat. Half fish, half 
mammal." She glanced down at the baby in her arms. Hotaru was 
staring up at the sky, her mouth half open as if in wonder. 
 
"You know," Setsuna said softly, "I sometimes wonder if it is all 
over. All those years... all that fighting... all done. Finished. I 
can't believe it's that simple. Nothing is simple, Hotaru-chan. 
Believe me." 
 
The baby looked at her, blinked and yawned. Setsuna stroked the 
thistledown of her hair. "What am I doing, talking to you like 
this?" she muttered. "You're a baby. You need sleep, not advice and 
doom and gloom." She walked back inside and shut the balcony door 
behind her. Hotaru caught a strand of hair that had slipped out of 
her plait and chewed on it. "No," Setsuna told her, pulling it back, 
"that's my hair, thank you. You do not chew on other people's hair. 
Wait until your own's long enough." 
 
Hotaru giggled and then yawned in the middle of it. Setsuna put her 
back down in the cot and tucked the cotton blanket around her body. 
She drew up a chair and waited for sleep to come and claim the baby. 
It wouldn't be long now. 
 
She glanced up at the clock. It was three minutes past midnight.


DISCLAIMER: I do not own the characters and places of Bishoujo 
Senshi Sailor Moon. That honour belongs to Naoko Takeuchi. End of 
story.