Prologue: Rose Kiss
It was in the season of spring in the climate controlled Moon Kingdom; in the courtyards of the Moon Palace, flowers were blooming everywhere imaginable, and trees and shrubs were waking up from a long winters nap, shaking off any snow that still lingered to their branches. The fields beyond the Palace that were not so long ago withered and snow-laden now had become lush green and flowers bursted right on schedule in the morning sun- blues, pinks, purples, and oranges were splattered across the fields in a beautiful display of artwork.
In the middle of such a field was a little girl dressed in elegant layers of multi-hued opaque and transparent silks. Her hair hung loosely around her shoulders and the gentle breeze kept getting the brown tendrils in her face. She groaned as a sharp upwind came from the west, causing her hair to go haywire, flying all over the place and blinding her temporarily. As the breeze fell, she fought to gain control of the tangled mess of locks so that she could get back to her task- uprooting unique wild flowers for the garden that she had started in the Emerald Tower of the Palace, where she stayed.
Suddenly, a shadow overcame her, causing her to again be incapable of finding what she was looking for. Furious, she stood up and spun around, her face a mixture of defiance and rage.
"Hello Lita," a boy looked down on her, his body rigid with seriousness, his face full of a pleasantly warm smile. He was slightly older than her, and taller, but appeared ageless in his formal fitted black dress pants, and black high collared blazer that was lined with his school colors, red, and gold, on the wrists and along the collar.
"Oh Darien, you startled me," the little princess's face was now a sweet smile and her voice was tender to match.
"I'm terribly sorry princess, but I wanted to surprise you," he pulled something from the inside of his blazer and presented it to Lita. It was a gorgeous English rose in a delicate pink color, "It's called a rose, we have a lot of them on Earth, so far it's the only planet they have been grown on. The flower reminds me of you Lita. It his extremely lovely to look at, but if you aren't careful, you might get pricked by its sharp thorns." Darien smiled coyly.
"Are you teasing about my temper?" Lita quickly went into defense mode and Darien laughed gently
"Of course my sweet rose, it is one of the many, many things that makes me love you so," Darien took Lita's chin in his hand and raised her head upwards towards his face as he leaned down to kiss her. His lips pressed firmly into hers, and her arms wrapped around him, bringing him close.
He gently pulled away and lovingly eyed Lita, "May the cold months be gone forever,"
Lita smiled and added, "And the warm be here in us forever."
It was an old Moon saying that the two children had been using for a long time as code talk. The only time they were able to see one another was the spring and summer, that's when they both lived on the moon, in their respective towers of the Moon Palace. When the cold weather came, they, along with all of the palace guests, went back to their home worlds. It was a long stay, but never seemed quite long enough.
Those days were full of this wonderful ignorance. Jupiter princess Alita and Earth prince Darien spent their warm months together, nestled in each others love, a love that grew only stronger with each passing year. Sadly, another thing grew with each passing year, quarreling between the Earth and Moon and political turmoil. Deep down, both knew of what their royal duties were, but deeper down, their love for one another surpassed all reason.