‘The Greatest Man I Never Knew’ by Reba Macintyre played in the background, overlaying the sounds of a busy restaurant. “I never really liked this song very much.” Shizuka commented, looking out the window to her left. “Why not?” Usagi asked, puzzled. She had never gotten the point of the song, but she liked the beat, and the lyrics sounded nice. “Because it reminds me too much of my family.” Shizuka took pity on her young friend and explained, “She wrote this song about the death of her father.” She said. “My father died when I was 10 years old. My mom and brother did, too.” She sighed, looking down at her cup of coffee. “The Reba in the song and I went through the same thing. We both felt the pain and loss associated with the death of a loved one. But we also experienced an implacable guilt because we never spent as much time with our fathers as we would have liked.” She looked out the window, and laughed bitterly. “We both figured that we’d have all the time in the world to be with them. We thought that they’d always be there for us, whenever we needed them for any reason. We both learned the hard way not to take our treasures for granted.” “Like Marie?” Usagi asked tentively. “Like Marie.” Shizuka agreed. “It took more than my family’s death to make me learn that lesson, though. I lost almost all of my friends and two of my guardians to the power of my Dark Crystal before I started protecting what I had left.” “You’ve led a pretty morbid life, Shizuka.” A voice from behind Usagi said, making her jump about a foot off the bench. “Hello Haruka.” Shizuka said, sighing. “Michiru. Where’s Setsuna? Still guarding the Gates?” At Michiru’s nod, Shizuka shook her head ruefully. “Care to join us?” she asked, gesturing at the empty half of the booth. “Of course. Thank you.” Michiru said, taking the seat next to Usagi. Haruka sat down heavily next to her old friend. “How do you three know each other?” Usagi asked, looking from Haruka, to Shizuka, to Michiru, and back again. “Moon Kingdom.” Michiru said simply. “Oh.” Usagi said.
They sat in silence for a few minutes, until Shizuka shooed Haruka off the bench and got up to leave. “You know what?” She said, turning to Haruka and Michiru. “Neither one of you has ever met my daughter. D’ya wanna meet her?” “You have a daughter?!?!” Both asked incredulously. “B-but you said you were never having kids!” Haruka stammered. Usagi and Shizuka looked at each other and chuckled. “We’ll tell you on the way there.” Usagi said.
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