He had never called in sick. He was never late. He always returned to the office halfway into his holiday, and there wasn't one occurrence of his assignments not being completed on time. His work was as precise as Swiss clockwork, his manners as refined as those of the Japanese royalty and his buildings stood as tall and proud as those of the Ancient Greek.

For years, he had defined himself through his high reliability. It was more than usual for him not be in the office soon after dawn, but he had a different agenda today, one that surpassed the new skyscraper in the Chiyoda district both in personal and professional importance.

The sort of dark suits he normally wore were not fitting for meeting his friend. But they had become his modern uniform, one without which he felt at unease, so he put it on regardless. It was a thin layer of armour between his soul and the world. So many bits and pieces about himself had fallen into place since he had discovered his past, present and glimpses of his future and he yearned for someone to make light-hearted jokes about this. Well, the time had come. He would finally meet Nephrite.

Mars had given him the address of Makoto Kino's shop, but had warned him that it was a place Venus frequented as well. The advice to arrive there before ten o' clock had been as much a command as a warning. But the senshi of war and fire failed to understand that he wasn't keen to meet Aphrodite in this time and day.

When the clock struck seven, he was already outside the small shop, leaning against the walls of the building opposite it. The windows were still dark, and all he could make out were the two flower buckets framing the entrance, lovingly filled with forget-me-nots. The soft smell of the flowers clawed at his nerves, clenching his stomach.

The sun was finally awake, shedding some light onto the cobbled street. A quick glance on his watch told him that he had been waiting for almost an hour, but what was time to him nowadays? A small sign in the shop windows told him that it would open at nine, so he expected Nephrite and the woman Mars had called Makoto Kino to appear soon.

Indeed, his thoughts were followed by the sounds of footsteps, but it were those of a woman only. Standing a bit taller, he waited for her to approach. So Makoto Kino was Jupiter, just as he had suspected. Nephrite wouldn't fall for anyone else.

She stopped dead in her track, standing so still that she seemed to turn into a statue in front of his green eyes. But the moment passed and she slowly advanced her shop, and thus him as well.

Her hands were steady as she pushed the key into the lock and turned it. Entering, she called over her shoulder: "Please come in."

Following her invitation, he carefully stepped over the threshold. "I am very sorry to disturb you, I am looking for Nephrite."

A half-smile played around her lips as she gracefully lifted two upturned chairs from their position on the table and put them on the wooden floor. "I know." She gestured for him to take a seat, but didn't join him. Instead, she went over to the coffee machine and turned it on.

Her absolute confidence and lack of fear surprised him more than he let on. Mars' reaction had been so different, and he wasn't sure whether this was because black-haired woman was more perceptive of his demons or because she had disliked him from the first moment they had laid eyes on one another in the entrance hall of the Moon Palace.

Jupiter dialled a number on an old-fashioned telephone. It actually had a cord, a proper dial and it fit the shop and the woman herself perfectly.

Her clear, fearless voice sounded through the room.

"Good morning. There is someone at the cafe for you, would you mind coming over?...Good. I'll see you in a bit."

She set out to prepare him a cup of coffee, and put it in front of him. "He will be here in a minute. If you need me, I will be in the kitchen, which is just behind the door. There are a few magazines on that shelf, and today's newspapers should be delivered any minute. If you were so kind as to accept them for me...?"

His slow, but affirmative nod set her into motion and she disappeared behind the white painted door at the back. The delivery boy brought the newspapers only minutes later, but he couldn't focus on the letters enough as to turn them into words. For the first time in his life, Takeshi was nervous, but his straight back and unshaking hands gave nothing away. He sipped some of the coffee, but found that his stomach had not forgiven him for the generous amounts of liquor he had drunk the evening before. Pushing the cup away from himself, he looked at some of the paintings on the walls.

The door flew open, and another, equally tall man bounded in, knocking over a table and several chairs on his way, before engulfing the silver-haired man in a bone-breaking embrace. Nervousness died away, and instead a seed of hope was planted in the wasteland that had been Kunzite's heart.

In the kitchen, Makoto smiled.