Author's Note: I was feeling a bit blue, so I wrote this up. It's just a short little vignette, nothing too long. Love is such a theme that is too often portrayed as light and sweet and sugary, and I just wanted to write a story to express my understanding of love.

Disclaimer: No, none of it belongs to me, so back off!

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Ami stood out on her balcony, watching the ocean with tired blue eyes. Her elbows leaning on the railing, she closed her eyes briefly, as if in pain. Her delicate, long white fingers clenched briefly, her nails digging into her palms. The senshi of ice then forced herself to relax. She reopened her eyes and gazed out at the waves pounding against the beach. It was twilight, and the gathering darkness seemed to settle tangibly around Ami.

A wind picked up, and riffled through Ami's hair. The breeze seemed to whisper around her, "Ami... Ami..." Ami whispered back, her voice catching in her throat almost imperceptibly, "Yes?..."

"Remember... remember us... " Ami closer her eyes, and involuntarily shivered as she was taken back to another balcony, another ocean, another time, another place.

*Flashback*

*Underneath a sky full of stars, above the rolling ocean waves, clear green eyes gazed into Ami's blue ones. "Zoisite.." Ami murmured, somewhere between a sigh and a spell. Zoisite reached up to stroke Ami's cheek, and Ami captured his hand on her face, her sorrowing eyes painful and bittersweet.

"Beloved, I-" Zoisite was cut off by Ami, who gently placed a finger on his lips. The senshi of ice said gently, "I know. Your duty lies with Endymion, and mine lies with Serenity. You belong to Earth, and I belong to the Moon and to Mercury. And as long as that is, we'll just have to be-"

"Always apart." Zoisite murmured, part curse, part sigh.

"No." Ami's voice was surprisingly firm. "Never. It's clichéd, it's overused, but in the end, it's true. I love you." Ami's voice now had an edge of desperation. "I fell for you when I first saw you, and I'm still falling. I can't stop, couldn't if I wanted too. I look at you, and I don't know where I am, because it doesn't matter anymore, since you're with me. It's sometimes scary, knowing that I'll be forever falling, but if you fall with me too," Ami's eyes gazed into Zoisite's with an intensity so deep it transcended truth, "then everything will be all right."

"Can you doubt that I'm falling with you?" Zoisite's normally melodic voice was rough with emotion. "Ami, I love you past right, past wrong, past duty. Everything has become colorless except you, and it's like there is no good, no evil, only you." Ami pulled Zoisite into a tight hug, and her voice was muffled against his shoulder.

"I know. I know. But there are people depending on us, Zoisite. We cannot let them down."

The stars stood still and the waves ceased as for one eternal moment, a woman and a man held each other, untouched by time.*

Tears glimmered in Ami's eyes as she reopened her eyes. Something made of starlight, silk, and silver condensed into a shimmering, achingly familiar presence.

"Zoisite-" a sigh, a lament torn from the soul, Ami reached out to touch, but her long, delicate white fingers passed through her love.

*Beloved...* Zoisite whispered through the murmur of the wind. Ghostly fingers stroked Ami's cheek, as they had in another time, another place. *Look at you-*

"Look at where we are now?" the bitter laugh came out as a sob, sorrow beyond place, beyond time, beyond truth.

*Doesn't matter-* Zoisite murmured back through the wind.

"Doesn't matter because we're always apart." Ami's voice was bittersweet with the ghost of another starlit night.

*No. Where we are doesn't matter anymore, because I'm forever falling for you and can't stop, Ami.*

Ami closed her eyes to stop tears, and she could feel the presence of starlight and silk wrap around her once more, one more time. Ami reveled in the feeling of being in the embrace of her love once more, but deep in her gut, a knife twisted from the ghostly touch. They had always been separated; yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

*We're never apart because love transcends place, time, death.*

"Eternally together, but always apart. When will it stop, Zoisite, when will it stop?" Ami cried out, anguished.

*I don't know, Ami.* Ami could feel Zoisite's presence start to slip away, as if being there at all was a tremendous feat. Then, with a wrenching effort, Zoisite gave Ami back the words spoken so long ago, and yet so agelessly right.

*It's clichéd, it's overused, but in the end, it's true. I love you.* And with that, Ami felt the presence start to slip away. His fingers slipped away from her cheek, traveling down her arm as he was pulled away. There was one last moment of contact between the tips of their fingers, and then...

"Zoisite, I love you too, beyond place, beyond time, beyond death." the last word turned bitter in Ami's mouth, and as Ami reached her arm out desperately, imploringly, one last time to the fading presence of her beloved, a teardrop slid down her face, hanging for a moment, and then,

Forever Falling.