12 Christmases

11.22.2015

Summary: The title kind of gives it away. I felt in the mood for pure, unadulterated fluff, so I give you this instead.

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AN: the summary kind of tells you what I'm going to say here, but there will be 12 chapters. If I do what I say I am, then you will get 3 chapters a week, some will be every day for 3 days, some might be 2-1 or 1-2, or every other day. That will be part of the fun too. :D

AN2: They won't be in order. Oh and did I say that they're going to be one-shots? So they might not even be in the same universe as each other? And that they won't all start out fluffy? I mean to feel goodness you need to feel darkness? It will probably be more manga based than anime now that I've actually read the entire manga start to finish (had only read stars in its entirety years ago and when I read it again it wasn't exactly how I remembered it, but it might have been the copy too). AND it won't all be Darien-Serena centric but they probably won't all get equal screen time.

AN3: I do warn you, I was in the mood for fluff but what I wrote... well... it's one of those things that you didn't realize you were thinking it/feeling it/cared about it until someone asked you or it just came out... I blame one of these on a novella I read and the feelings in the book were feelings I thought I had gotten over finally but then it stirred them up again, but, and here's the silver-lining, these might not all be fluff but they're all positive in their own ways, even if you have to look really deeply. (kind of like Just Something Stupid in reverse, that one is darker the more you think about it, this is lighter the more you think about it). And I will have purely fluff pieces in here too.

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Christmas 1: Twinkling Circus Lights

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One by one the lights in the sky were going out, leaving in it's wake a void that stretched over them like a blanket, but cold and suffocating. It happened slowly but with the way the people in this city behaved, as if they could never stop and look up, it didn't have to bother with subtly.

It was only when there were only a handful of spots dotting the sky above did people realize, too late to even wonder what was happening. Then those lights snuffed out too as they watched. Of course panic set in and unfortunately it wasn't just the silly humans that freaked.

The people the humans turned to in times like this, the senshi, they were already worried about what the stars going out meant, and had been doing things to combat it for almost as long as it had been happening but now they had a deeper sense on what it meant.

There was going to be an awakening.

"What should we do?" Jupiter asked, things had been looking up so much, yes, nightmares had slowly been suffocating their atmosphere but they were getting so much stronger, they had all proven to the world and to themselves that they had the power within them to transform into their crystal forms.

Yet their prince and princess were both sick, black roses taking over their lungs, black blood coming up from their chests whenever they coughed. They were missing the chalice that they had once poured their power into, the chalice that was so powerful. Their remaining senshi had shown up, finally and with them they brought the destroyer of worlds, death itself. Yet the chalice wouldn't appear, mainly because, the prince and princess had disappeared at the exact moment the stars were completely shut out.

The remaining senshi stood around at the place they last saw their royals and waited and hoped. Mercury and Pluto were trying to figure something out, the two planets that were the farthest from each other at almost any given time, except Pluto crossed many of their orbits and it was a wonder that they hadn't crashed yet.

Chibi-Moon scuffed her booted toe against the ground in front of her and thought, they usually had the Earth representative here as well to help them plan, 3 heads, 3 evenly distributed planets, the power of the triangle, but he wasn't here but his 900+ year old daughter was. By now she should have had all of his knowledge and all of Serenity's heart. They glanced at her speculatively, she was the Earth and Moon representative.

She lifted her head as if she just realized something herself. "What if I tried to bring the chalice back myself?" They gave a shrug, it was worth a try.

She held her hands out in front of her like Moon had and they all lent her their energies while she poured her own in. A faint outline appeared but it was of no use, they needed 10-11 separate energy signatures. Chibi-Moon stomped a foot in frustration. "What are we supposed to do now? This can't be the end!"

"It's not." Fingers ruffled through Chibi-Moon's bangs as a soft voice spoke from behind her and she twirled around to see with her own eyes if it was true.

It was, her parents' younger versions were there in front of her and she tossed herself at her mom and nearly took her out if her father hadn't been behind Moon with hands on her shoulders. "You're back!"

"Perfect timing." Mars said in an aside to Neptune who smirked and then they realized how close they were to each other and started tiptoeing apart trying to put as much distance between them as possible. Those two elements should really still away from each other but didn't want to hurt the other's feelings. Hell Uranus and her wind powers should stay away from Mars too as it could either create a terrible fire that got out of hand or Uranus could put the fire out.

"Are you healed?" Mercury asked pulling her palm-pilot around to them.

Moon pushed the device down and shook her head. "Elysian didn't have enough energy to completely heal us, but we're better, we're stronger."

"For now." Venus understood what she was saying and Moon caught her eye and gave a small nod. "You should have stayed away from him."

"He would have died." Moon countered

"Chibi-Moon would have died." Pluto added before anyone could say anymore and Venus had to acknowledge that.

It was a long, hard battle, and the royal couple fell a few times.

In the end though, they persevered and pushed back the enemy and eventually with all of their powers and the future powers and Helios, they managed to rid themselves of their enemy. A giant wave of energy of all colors hit their enemy fully.

Not all were sure if they were completely gone but they were gone for now. The senshi scooped up Chibi-Usa. Helios was gone, back to his sanctuary where he would preside over for a long time to come and a promise to his youngest charge that he'd always be there for her. The sisters had gone back to sleep in the Amazon and the royal couple hung back as the rest went home.

Chibi-Usa would be staying at the outers' for the night so she could catch up with Hotaru. Perhaps a lot of the girls would be staying at Rei's.

Usagi breathed into her hands to try and warm them and Mamoru wrapped his arms around her and rested his chin on top of her head. They would have an argument later about what he'd done, what she'd done but for now, they were happy to just be with one another. She felt instantly warmer within his embrace. "If you had your cloak I'd be even warmer." She teased and he lifted his chin to look at her.

"Then how would you feel with the gossip rags tomorrow threw that image onto their covers and the heading 'Moon loses out to a High Schooler'?"

Usagi laughed and leaned into his chest. "Probably be pretty upset, even if said High Schooler was me."

"And all the boys who would be chasing after you thinking you were easy."

"Easy? For dating a superhero?" She pulled away so she could look at him.

"Easy for dating a superhero and an amazing upperclassman." He wiggled his eyebrows.

Usagi laughed again and leaned back into him again. "All those girls ready to chop my head off for snagging the world's two most eligible bachelors."

"Then those who are angry at you breaking up the best couple in the world."

"And all of this of course falls on the woman's shoulders." Usagi shook her head.

"All of this falls onto your shoulders because they can't find me to castrate me." He countered.

They both laughed at the possible future, it'd probably happen that way too if anyone ever caught Kamen with the Klutz. "I'd be dead." She agreed.

"I'd protect you."

"As Kamen or as Mamoru?" She angled her head but all she could see was the underside of his jaw. He titled his head to look down at her, but it wasn't any better, all she could see now was the front side of his jaw and up his nose. She decided to look away.

"As both." He vowed and hugged her to him a little tighter. "Look, the stars are coming back out."

And one by one they watched as the stars reappeared in the blank canvas. They twinkled so much brighter now as if they were trying hard to catch everyone's attention. Or they might have been mad that they were ever hidden in the first place. Either way they shone down upon them in all their glory.

"It's absolutely breathtaking." And it was, unlike all the silly humans who had panicked when they finally noticed the stars going out, all they could see was the stars illuminating the sky.

"Merry Christmas, Usako."

"Happy Christmas, Mamo-chan."

Perhaps it was two or three days early but it would be a very merry one indeed.