Uranus loathed her official princess' dress, the one that would become a queen's dress later, though by now she deeply hoped it would never happen, the reasons of which we shall find out later; for now, it's enough to know that she hated the long, elegant satin dress in the color of a starless winter night sky, with the compulsory veil of all planets' rulers finely pinned to her waist, with an uncomfortably deep cleavage, with all its revealing designs. She didn't dislike it because it looked ugly, it was far from that; however, it prevented her from two things: playing a man and moving free. Two things she enjoyed doing, two things that were her.
She was also abhorred by her right hand at the end of every day, because, starting from the late mornings, it got to be touched by lips, countless lips, lips of all kinds of people showing their fabricated respect and admiration to her, old men with dry lips and wet lips, young men with the same, and boys. Some of them even attempted to lick or suck on her fingers if she wasn't careful, matching the action with an undressing look or wink that was meant to sweep her off her feet. There was this particular boy once for exaple, son of some noble family nearby, he was ten or twelve, and already as ambitious as his father taught him. When introduced by a row of noble's names, as descendant of several grand heroes going back in Uranus' almost non-existent history, the prick stepped forward and produced the kiss of formality, staring deep into her eyes then and openly offering his excellent and flexible bedroom services, with a very polite choice of words.
The planet that was her home, where she had looked forward to returning to, the one she was supposed to rebuild and make flourish when the age of Crystal Tokyo came, had become her prison. It was a beautiful one at least; revived by the infinite power of the Silver Crystal, it was not a cold and sunless place any more; there was plenty of light, and there was no hard crust on the surface. There wasn't even a surface in the definite sense, the planet consisted mostly of gaseous clouds swirling in all colors. They were poisonous clouds. The people's world was built on floating islands high up in the sky, far from the killer atmosphere. It was the second most popular planet in the Solar System (following the Earth, cultural and political center), people from all corners came to look at its views at least once in their lives. The sky usually showed two or three faint moons at once, and a transparent but still visible stripe: the rings. But at night, when the cities quieted down and you stopped on one of the countless bridges to listen, chilling sounds came from deep below, from the endless swirl of colorful clouds. Most likely, they were noises of the planet's working, chemical reactions, but they certainly sounded like muffled voices, screams, roars, whining, yowling. That's how the urban legend was born that lost souls were crying for help there; the ones who had fallen in by accident or on purpose, perhaps thrown down there in revenge; rumour said they never stopped falling, as there was no bottom to the planet; the fate of these souls was to fall eternally, endlessly, until the end of time.
Of course it was just a rumour invented by bored ones. The planet did have a hard core somewhere, created by gravity, and if anyone fell from the cities in the sky, they were quickly killed by the deadly gases, perhaps even before they would have time to think about their situation. If anything was doomed to fall eternally, it was their corpses.
Falling eternally... it was like flying, wasn't it? Rushing forward with an unthinkable speed, the air wafting around you, wind embracing you like a passionate lover... the only lover Uranus would let near her ever since that time.
That time, that torturous period, at the end of which Neptune finally said goodbye to her.
That time, when much unwanted suitors started surrounding her, them, both of them, regardless of their opinion, or of the vehemence of Uranus' reaction. The former Sailor Senshis harbored the power of the nine planets in them, and they were destined to rule their own realms, but not as sole Queens. They were more of a sacred figure than a ruler. They were a symbol, and a guardian angel, a secret weapon, a priestess, a hidden power source, but not a ruler. Their destiny was to rule on the side of a chosen King. They would choose the King on their own. The King would be the face of the royalty, and the Senshi would be the holy figure, people would cry out to her in hardships. And when the people cried out, she would unleash her powers for protection.
At least that's how Uranus interpreted the endless rows of arguments she had had with the nobles in the first years of their awakening. She was firm, unrelenting, but their hearts were too dry to get intimidated by such humane terms. They were blinded by the might lying in front of their noses. But she would not give it to them. Nor would Neptune. After a while, they were the only ones left from the Senshis, struggling with the political situation of their planets, which also hindered development greatly. They were not able to center their power; rigid, ancient laws prevented it. Until the Princess chose her betrothed and took over her rightful position as guardian and moral leader of the nation, the ever-bickering, hoggish Nobles' Council would bear the fate of the planet on their shoulders, under the supervision of the Princess, of course. And they were highly talented at persuading her; if not in the heart, which was mostly the case, then through Law.
And Law sometimes made Uranus get lost in daydreams of jumping off one of those bridges. For example when it tricked her lover away from her. It made the daughter of the Seas admit that there was no way for them to go against the system unless they wished for it to crumble, their planets to turn into uncontrolled chaos instead of a flourishing world of people. Resisting the change might have saved their freedom and forced the people to rebuild a newer, better working community, but it would have taken too long, meanwhile destroying the entire defence mechanism of the Solar System, which their mission was to protect.
So Neptune, Michiru, she chose from the suitors. She described him as a presentable person, someone who would rule her planet well. Would she love him? Would he love her? Her answer was evasive, she said it was possible to communicate with him about important matters, which was a rare thing here in the Outer System, Haruka ought to look up someone like that, too. But it was a gamble, maybe he was just playing to get into the position provided by her; of course that possibility existed, but she shouldn't underestimate Michiru's people skills, she knows she's not that lost. She offered to help Haruka find the aptest one among her suitors, too. This note made Uranus' blood boil, even though somewhere behind the red-hot veil of anger she suspected that the sea-senshi said that on purpose, to offend, to distance her. The princess of the wind then wanted to slap her to show her pain, but she only commanded her to leave at this instant, and Neptune didn't hesitate to obey, she turned and left, said a short, lukewarm goodbye from the door, the kind you say to acquintances, and she didn't even look back; Uranus did neither say goodbye nor ask her to stay, her treacherous words were burning inside her. She had regretted that moment a million times since then, she wished she had remained level-headed, and even if she wasn't able to hold her back, she wished she had at least let her know her true feelings one last time, hid her face into her hair and told her what she already knew, that she was going to miss her until the end of times, that she was going to be here for her if she ever needed a place to run to, that nothing could stop her from protecting her if anyone dared hurt her, that she would never ever be able to choose anyone but her, that she would always stay here alone waiting for her.
She was repeating these self-pitying thoughts in her mind again while her royal spaceship descended into the Earth's atmosphere, the outlines of Crystal Tokyo slowly becoming visible in increasing detail through the gigantic window where she stood. The former senshis didn't often get to visit other planets, mostly on special occasions; which resulted in them making a special occasion of as many unimportant events as possible, to be able to meet good old friends for some private nostalgia.
The visit of the Starlights was one of these special events. Although Uranus doubted that she would exchange anything more than a greeting nod with the three former pop stars, she was glad about the opportunity to see Neptune again, finally. Queen Neptune. How despicable it sounded to her now. But she would cope with it, she would respect her will, and she wouldn't be rude. Unless the man she'd never met, King of Neptune, seemed to hurt her in any way.