The Magic of a Solstice

by Lillie Bell

All around the Earth is power in the trees, the land, & the people. Only during the solstice is the power strong enough to be used. And Serenity and Endymion plan to use it on their present incarnations.

Title: The Magic of a Solstice

Author: Lillie Bell

Beta: Princess Kiki

Rating: PG

Disclaimer: Sailor Moon is owned by Naoko Takeuchi, and various production companies… not me.

Note: So this is a rather old story (really, I don't know... maybe 6-8 years?). Kiki was lovely enough to beta it for me and get some of the dust off. The semester's been insane, but hopefully there should be more from me than just this one story! P Everyone go check out Princess Kiki's stories since she was such a good sport about editting this one )

"The Magic of a Solstice"

(OR: The Good Viruses)

The winter solstice was fast approaching and with each day that led to its occurrence Endymion continued to lose more and more of his patience. He didn't understand how his incarnated self could be so incredibly blind. Endymion had spent months upon months trying to puncture through Mamoru's thick skull the idea that Usagi was meant for him.

But now, he didn't have any more months to convince the arrogant man he had been reincarnated as. Instead, he had three short days. To say the ancient prince was grumpy would be an understatement. He growled many times over, wishing his lack of confidence in himself had not manifested in his present self. Endymion knew Mamoru had feelings for Usagi. How couldn't he? Usagi was the present self of Endymion's fiancée from when he had lived. Endymion had made sure he followed her soul as it was reincarnated from their deaths so long ago. He was so close now. After all the searching he went through, he had finally found the young princess' spirit; the key to his happiness.

"Why are you being so difficult?" Endymion's astral body yelled from within the darkness that enveloped him inside Mamoru's psyche. He sat on the floor, or what would seem to be the floor, as red and black swirled around him. He hated being sealed inside this strange chamber. Since Mamoru had not remembered his past life as of yet, Endymion was forced to live inside a small chamber far back in the pit of Mamoru's many forgotten memories. While Mamoru experienced the pain of being unable to recall his younger years, Endymion survived daily the horrible occurrences that happened in his own life and the early years of Mamoru's. "As if I haven't got enough to think about," he bit out angrily.

But a maniacal grin spread across the man's features as he sat, arms crossed across his midnight blue chest plate, the long, metal gauntlets making a chinking sound as they rubbed together when he moved. His knee-high, black leather boots grunted under the sudden strain of his weight as Endymion leaned over his crossed legs. His black cape rustled, showing a crimson underbelly, as the prince let out a cruel chuckle. Baring white teeth that contrasted with his dark hair Endymion grinned, his sparkling blue eyes glinting with malice brought by impatience. "I'll get you, Chiba Mamoru. I'll get you at the winter solstice. Just you wait."

Usagi skipped to school, late as usual. Her pink lips were smiling brightly, showing glints of pearl as her teeth came peeping out. She giggled happily as she made small puffs of white in the cool air. Winter was Usagi's favorite time of year. Aside from Christmas, she loved the snow that would annually coat the small town of her birth. It was beautiful to see the shining trees, glistening streets, and the small, horse-drawn carriages that would come around this time of year. It had always been a dream of Usagi's to ride in one of those carriages with someone she loved. She bit her lip.

"Yeah, right, Usa," she said softly to herself as she continued towards the school.

Princess Serenity pouted in the furrows of Usagi's subconscious. Being in the same predicament as Endymion, she was following the same solution. "I can't believe I was ever this clumsy," she remarked as Usagi tripped on nothing, recovered herself and walked on. Serenity, however, was not at all saved from the fall. Not expecting the sudden trip, she flew forward into an invisible wall as Usagi kept herself from hitting the pavement. Groaning and rubbing her aching face, Serenity turned to the chamber of swirling blue and white. Throughout her time within Usagi's psyche, the princess had come to expect to be suddenly thrust into one of the invisible barriers around her when the young girl absentmindedly ran into something or tripped.

Serenity fixed her silver hair from its disarray and smoothed her white, silken, floor-length gown that hid her small, silver slippers. Angrily, the princess closed her eyes so that she could experience what Usagi was doing at that time. It seemed she was bowing, apologizing to her sensei once again. Serenity scoffed with her blue eyes still closed. She couldn't believe that someone with royal blood flowing through his or her body was prostrating him or herself before another like Haruna-sensei. The princess sighed, so many things had changed since the time that she lived.

She opened her crystal blue eyes, resolving to think of nothing but the winter solstice. That's what she would have been thinking about, if a quick jerk of Usagi hadn't sent her flying into the ceiling. Closing her eyes, Serenity remarked, "What did the ditz do this time?"

Apparently, more time had elapsed than the princess thought, because Usagi had run into someone in the street and was now on the ground, hunched over, helping them pick up whatever it was they had dropped. Serenity saw the person's face when Usagi finally looked up to apologize, and gasped. Her gentle hand twitched as a man of average height and magnificently stunning green eyes entered her line of vision. The princess bit her lip. "Aiken."

Somewhere, Usagi was sputtering apologies and blushing at the handsome man she had run into, but Serenity was suddenly growing pale. "Aiken," she repeated, looking to the transparent ceiling, into the blue and white mass of her chamber. The memory of a young prince asking for Serenity's consent for marriage thrust itself upon the princess. She had almost married him once, almost fell for his charms, almost loved him. With fists, she began to pound upon a wall near her as the incarnated form of Aiken proceeded to buy Usagi a cup of hot cocoa.

Serenity cried in frustration. "Please, Usagi," she whimpered as she fell to the floor, "please, Usagi. Please don't let him take you. You can't. He's not the one for you." And with a start, the young princess shrieked amid the floating thoughts of blue and white, "USAGI!"

Endymion, quite proud of himself for devising the perfect plan, was smugly gloating with himself as Mamoru walked into a small cafe on the corner that he seemed to prefer over all others. Personally, Endymion had tasted better horse dung, but he didn't have that much power over Mamoru. All the prince could do was try to push Mamoru by guiding him through his subconscious. This resulted in Mamoru being able to do many things instinctively. He was the head archer of his school, excellent with horses, and could beat anyone in fencing; all of which Endymion excelled in as well.

However, Endymion did not do well with relationships, and it seemed his present self had inherited the same problem. In his entire existence, Mamoru had never had a girlfriend. This was something unheard of for Endymion, and seemed quite peculiar and strange. Endymion himself had had so many relationships with women that he couldn't remember half their names. From what he could tell, Mamoru had certainly inherited Endymion's large appetite for the opposite sex, and had fine tastes, too. "He just never goes for it," Endymion grumbled, still sitting on the floor, arms and legs crossed, eyes closed.

Mamoru was walking to his normal seat behind the cafe's counter. A blonde-haired friend of Mamoru's who worked there popped into view and the two began to talk. Endymion anxiously awaited the entrance of Usagi, which almost always came a few minutes after his own. The small chime on the door sounded and the young, blonde schoolgirl came bouncing in on Cloud Nine. Endymion's breath caught as he saw her arm was linked with that of a boy's. His teeth gritted painfully as he saw the face of the boy. "Aiken," he seethed, growling angrily as the brown-haired boy escorted Usagi to a bench.

The prince could feel Mamoru's mix of confusion and anger. He almost screamed as his host passed off the feelings as nothing, and turned back to his friend. Aiken walked up to the bench, stood next to Mamoru, and ordered two hot cocoas. Endymion's stomach flipped and he was sure if he had eaten anything in the last thousand years, it would have been on the clear floor by now.

Suddenly, a hand slid through Mamoru's own arm, taking the prince completely by surprise. His rage completely forgotten, Endymion (and his host) looked to see who had touched them. "Oh, great," Endymion sat back on his rump as the foreign exchange student named Susano wrapped an arm around him. Disgusted shivers ran down the prince's spine as the woman whom he knew from his own life reappeared in his present. She was a red-haired, tempting woman and had had no problem seducing the prince to her bed many times. Endymion bit his cheek as Mamoru kindly talked to the green-eyed witch of his past.

The Prince of the Earth bit on his fingernail. "This isn't going to help me at all," he said gruffly. "What am I supposed to do now? I'm falling for Susano and Serenity's going out with Aiken again." This new thought hit him hard. Endymion knew that Serenity had pitied Aiken because she rejected him so painfully. She might be persuaded to return to him, and that was something he didn't want to happen. "I wasn't reincarnated for this!" he screamed angrily. He tried to withhold his ire, but it poured forth from his mouth.

"Two more days!" he yelled at the ceiling. "All I needed was two more days, and you're already making this harder on me than it would have been!" He clenched his fists. "This is a sick joke, Kami-sama."

The next day passed with few interruptions, though Endymion started to notice Mamoru succumbing to the temptation presented in Susano. The prince wondered how much hair he would have left after the solstice, as he seemed to be ripping it out every time Mamoru thought of the woman. One time, when Endymion had had enough of his present self ogling over her, he had presented a very seductive, very sensual image of Usagi in the man's mind. This seemed to deter him from thinking of Susano for a time. At least his host hadn't forgotten all about the young schoolgirl.

It was that night, as Mamoru slept, that Endymion arranged his thoughts. He began to draft the full-scale operation that would be needed to make his idea work. A surge of hope flooded through him as he imagined Serenity doing the same as he. It would be nice to know they would be working together on this.

Endymion was awake well into the night. Long enough to have to sleep half the day as Mamoru wandered through his daily routine. When he woke, the prince smirked, knowing that his present self had spent half the day unable to think as well as normal. "I may be dead," Endymion joked to the man, "but I need sleep, too!"

The prince chuckled to himself until he noticed what Mamoru was doing and whom he was with. At first, Endymion was dumbstruck as to whether he should commend Mamoru for finally doing something with a woman or bash his head in the walls for deciding to do it with Susano. Silently, he started to hope they were caught by a teacher and sent to the office. Of all the things he had seen in the future world, Endymion certainly knew this was a breach of "no public displays of affection".

Groaning at his host's stupidity, Endymion put his hand onto an invisible wall, gathered a small amount of energy into it, and pushed it through the barrier. He smiled as Mamoru ceased what he was doing and began to complain about the soft ringing in his ears. With the man's concentration pulled elsewhere, Endymion made a juicily sexual picture of his princess' present self and pushed it into Mamoru's thoughts. Happily, the prince felt his host's blush touch his own cheeks, and his present self made a hasty retreat from his presently embarrassing situation.

Endymion was much happier when Mamoru turned the corner and walked toward the cafe. Usagi would be there by now and that was all he needed for this plan to work. The prince smiled at his own cunning and hoped Serenity was doing well, too.

By the way Usagi and the present self of Aiken were looking at one another from inside one of the booths, Endymion suddenly thought otherwise. He wore the exact same wide-eyed, mouth open, surprised stare that graced Mamoru's face as they saw Usagi. The prince bit his lip. "Are you happier like that, Sere?"

Mamoru felt incredibly depressed as Endymion's confidence sunk to a new low. If Usagi was enjoying herself, maybe Serenity was, too. "Does she not want to be with me anymore?" Endymion sunk to the ground as Mamoru fell into his familiar bar stool. "What if she doesn't care about me? What if she thinks she was reincarnated in order to love Aiken? Kami-sama... what am I going to do?"

"Kami-sama, when will it end?" Serenity yelled angrily. Usagi refused to look passed the face of Aiken, whose present name was Allen. Whatever name he was under, Serenity had had her fill of him. "Please," she whined, "make him go away."

From the corner of Usagi's eye, Serenity had seen Mamoru walk in. She'd seen his shocked expression before he'd slumped down on his stool, too. She softly bit her fingernail. "I hope he doesn't take it the wrong way... Kami-sama, this isn't fair!" the princess yelped softly as Mamoru half-heartedly stirred his coffee.

Serenity growled when Usagi's attention was suddenly drawn to the window and away from Mamoru. "At least I don't have to look at Aiken," she reasoned. Outside the window, the sky had turned the purple and pink of sunset, and small, white dots were falling from it. With a sudden jump, Usagi's face was against the window, watching the snow as gleefully as the princess of her subconscious.

Serenity smiled sadly. "I met you in the snow," she said softly, turning to the place behind Usagi where Mamoru sat. She held out one hand, closing her eyes, and holding the other hand to her heart;

"You looked at me, and I looked at you,

and neither of us knew what to do.

We loved so little and had loved so much,

could either of us love as such?

You knelt and bowed and held my hand,

and I loved you like no other man.

We see ourselves, in a long-lost dream,

you're so close, I just might scream.

But you can't see me, and I can't feel you,

but we're together, just we two.

In our lives, we were lovers;

in our deaths, we've to discover

whether it be love or lust

into which we were thrust.

The pain and loss has been great,

I know, I've felt your heart break.

Understand, there's nothing left

of our old life; it's an ancient text.

And the only thing we have to hold

is ourselves, and that alone."

Tears streamed down Serenity's face. Something told her they were pouring silently down Usagi's, too. The princess left them unchecked as someone placed a hand upon Usagi's shoulder. Serenity cringed as she expected the girl to turn her vision back to Aiken, but was utterly surprised when it was Mamoru who led her away from the booth and out into the chilling air.

Usagi followed him blindly. His warm hand held hers, which was wet from wiping away the tears that would not cease falling. The dark-haired man led the girl into the town's small park and to the crest of a lake. The small droplets of snow continued to fall as Mamoru turned to her.

"You were singing," he said softly.

Usagi's eyes widened as the haze surrounding her vision cleared. "What was I singing?" she asked cautiously.

Mamoru smiled sadly, "I don't know. It was familiar, but I don't know where I've heard it before."

Usagi blushed madly. "I didn't know I was singing."

He smiled, placing a hand on her shoulder. "You sing beautifully, Usagi."

Her cheeks reddened as the girl fumbled with something in her hands. She blinked. Not remembering holding anything in her hands, she opened them to find an elegant, ivory, teardrop earring. Serenity gasped. It was the same earring she was looking for when she met Endymion.

"You dropped it in the snow."

Usagi stared at Mamoru's face. Something about the earring was familiar, but she didn't know what it was. Serenity started banging her fists against the wall of her chamber, angry with herself for not being able to tell Usagi what it meant.

"Thank you, Mamoru-san, but I don't have an earring like this one."

Mamoru smiled. Usagi had never seen him smile with such tenderness. She was taken by surprise when he replied, "It is yours, Usako. You lost it long ago, and I kept it so that you would have to come back to me one day."

Serenity smiled triumphantly at Mamoru, tears rolling down her cheeks. She understood now that Endymion had taken over the man's mind, just as she had done in the restaurant to Usagi. "The power of the winter solstice," she said softly, "is the power of the mind. It is when many things can overcome the mind. Endymion, show me you're puppetteering skills."

Mamoru was continuing to smile down at a shocked Usagi. By now, the moon had risen but the snow did not stop falling. Gently, he put his warm hand on hers and pressed the small teardrop into her hand. Pulling her closer, he leaned down and touched her forehead softly. For a moment, Usagi wished he would kiss her. His lips were so incredibly near to her own. Serenity's dream was squashed, however, with the thought that his kisses would not be as divine as Allen's.

"Of all the childish excuses!" Serenity fumed. Although Endymion seemed not to have a problem with overtaking Mamoru's mind, the princess thought it quite rude and had done it the first time unintentionally. She bit her lip. This may be their last chance, for all of them. With a deep sigh, Serenity raised her eyes resolutely.

Before Mamoru could do otherwise, Usagi's arms had wrapped around his shoulders and one hand was planted at the nape of his neck, her fingernails softly falling into his hair. Endymion smiled and brought Mamoru's arms around the girl's waist. With a hand, he brushed a renegade strand from her flushed cheeks and softly placed a delicate kiss on her awaiting lips.

Mamoru backed away but Usagi followed his lips and, smiling, he placed a more lingering kiss upon her as his hand enveloped the one holding the earring. His strong arms pulled her closer than before and Usagi thought she would be sucked into him if she was brought any farther. Mamoru gently tipped her head back and deepened their kiss. He heard her gasp as his lips touched her cheeks, her jaw line, and her neck. She moaned softly as he came back to her lips so that she found herself melting into him. A single snowflake drifted down and touched their noses, and from the earring came a great burst of white and yellow light.

Mamoru and Usagi blinked haphazardly as they realized what it was they were doing. With a flush of pink, they separated from each other and found themselves disagreeing with the sudden space between them. Then they saw it: the light held inside their hands. Their hands that held the earring would not break apart and a faint warmth was emanating from inside their fingers.

Stepping closer together, the pair looked at their hands as they unfolded to reveal two miniature people, one with sword and armor, the other with a white gown and shining symbol on her forehead, kissing gently beneath their gaze. Each gasped as the couple in their palms separated their lips and the woman gently laid her head on the taller man's shoulder as he wrapped his cape around her and pulled her into an embrace.

"They—" Mamoru started.

"—they look like us," finished Usagi.

The couple turned to face their respective incarnations, smiling happily.

"Understand?" Endymion asked Mamoru.

"We are your past selves," Serenity said softly.

"Long ago, it was forbidden for us to love," Endymion continued.

"But we did. Nothing could stop us from being with each other."

"It wasn't until someone from my kingdom, the Earth, challenged the Moon that our secret relationship faltered."

"You see, the Moon Kingdom, my kingdom, watched over the Earth. And the people became suspicious."

"'No one would watch a country, Prince', is what they told me. 'They want to destroy us.'"

"And so the woman who started the rumors of my kingdom's tyranny came to destroy it."

"I tried to warn Sere-chan, but I was too late."

"Endy found me near the Prayer Tower. It is the source of power for my kingdom."

"Beryl, the one who started the war, was about to kill Sere."

"But, instead of killing me, she killed Endymion. He jumped in front of me before she could strike."

"Sere didn't want to live with the destruction of the Moon and Earth alone, so she killed herself as well in an ancient right of seppuku."

Mamoru and Usagi stared at the small versions of themselves. "Understand," Endymion repeated, "understand. Just as I love Princess Serenity, you love Usagi, Mamoru... "

"And just as I love Prince Endymion, you love Mamoru, Usagi."

"You two have repressed your feelings for each other for far too long," Endymion smiled.

"We were reincarnated to live 'happily ever after'. We can't do that if our present selves will not admit their feelings for one another."

Mamoru and Usagi both nodded, and the pair in their hands smiled triumphantly.

The apparitions walked slowly up the arms of their hosts and disappeared behind their ears.

Suddenly, thousands of memories flooded through Usagi and Mamoru. Mamoru caught the girl as she fell forward and the two looked at each other in a new light. With a small smile on his face, Mamoru bent and kissed his love softly on the lips.