Chapter 1

Serenity was sneaking out again.

Venus forced herself to be calm as she quietly followed her princess from a safe distance, though she already knew very well where the girl was headed. There was only one destination she was interested in these days; the earth. Her guardians had tried to stop her many times, had scolded her for continuing to evade them despite their best efforts, and yet all of it had fallen on deaf ears.

Perhaps that was why today Venus didn't just catch her in the act even though she could've. She had seen the flash of blonde hair pass her by and had not attempted to stop her. Venus' curiosity was getting the better of her. She knew Serenity was infatuated with Endymion, the prince of earth, but she didn't understand why. And so she decided to follow them. Perhaps if she watched them long enough, she would get it.

Serenity had such a one-track mind when it came to Endymion that Venus shouldn't have bothered being stealthy at all. The princess wouldn't have noticed even if Venus had been stomping her way behind her. Still, the guardian kept herself hidden, and soon enough they arrived at the woods that had become the couple's regular rendezvous spot. If Serenity intended not to be caught, she could have easily picked another place, but it seemed she wasn't applying logic to a lot of things where Endymion was concerned. That was what worried Venus. She knew the princess wasn't trained the way the senshi were, but she was not being careful at all.

There was something about this lush greenery that Serenity loved, though. She once said it was what really reminded her of earth. This thick canopy of trees where only few patches of sunlight could shine through. The sound of birds chirping happily overhead. The soft grass on her bare feet that tickled her toes. All of it felt very… earthy was the way she put it.

The princess' giggles and delighted squeal told Venus that her prince had arrived. She had hoped Endymion's own guardians would have been able to manage him better, but apparently they were just as much at a loss as she was. When Endymion emerged fully from the trees, he picked up Serenity easily and spun her around as they both laughed. Children, Venus thought in disbelief. They are positively behaving like children. And these are meant to be the future rulers of the earth and the moon? They were clearly more concerned with each other than any politics or the well-being of their own kingdoms.

The prince lowered Serenity down on her feet again and they started to gaze at each other with almost literal hearts in their eyes. Truly, Venus could almost see it. She watched them intently as they moved closer and closer to one another, until she heard a branch crack under someone's foot right behind her. Her instinct kicking in, she turned swiftly and grasped the chain around her waist, already regretting not bringing her sword down here.

But what she saw was a tall white-haired man who was smiling in amusement at her.

"It's rude to watch, you know," he said simply.

Venus lowered her hand and scowled at him. "So you are here. Why aren't you doing your job and keeping the prince where he belongs?"

"I could say the same about you," he replied, still smiling. "Actually, I am keeping him where he belongs. In case you forget, we're on earth. Your moon princess is the one who's not supposed to be here."

Venus sighed and looked back at the couple, now entwined so completely she couldn't tell where one of them ended and the other began. "I should take her home."

"Why?" Kunzite asked. "You followed her all the way here. You could've stopped her at any time and carried her home. Instead you waited until this point. Would you really be so cruel to want to ruin this moment than prevent it from happening at all?"

"Alright! I'll let them be. But not for too long." Venus turned away and walked a couple paces deeper into the woods. "Let's give them some privacy, though I doubt they could even hear us through their love haze."

Kunzite followed her. Venus found a tree root thick enough to sit on a few feet away that still offered her a good view of the princess, so she settled on it. He remained standing a polite distance away. For a long time, neither of them said anything.

"So… are you going to tell me what you're really doing?" he finally asked.

"I'm watching my princess," Venus said matter-of-factly.

"Right. You're letting her… do this."

"So are you."

"Well, I asked you first."

She looked up at him with annoyance and took a deep breath before saying, "Fine. I'm… trying to understand."

"Understand what?"

"This." Venus waved at the scene before them. The sickeningly sweet scene where the prince was touching the princess' nose with his own and she was giggling girlishly again.

"What's to understand? They're in love."

Venus dragged her eyes away from Serenity and back to Kunzite. "No, it's just… childish infatuation. They just think they're in love."

Kunzite shook his head and grinned at her. "You seriously can't see it? You, the self-proclaimed goddess of love?" Venus bristled, but said nothing. "I swear, Venus, sometimes you can be the most oblivious to things that should've been the most obvious to you."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

He looked at her strangely. "You've… never been in love, have you?"

She blanched and averted her gaze. "I have no time for that. My duty takes precedence over everything."

"Poor Adonis. I've seen the way he pines at you from afar."

"What?" Venus spluttered. "He's… a soldier, same as I! Are you saying he… what, has a crush on me?"

"He's madly, head over heels in love with you."

"Nice try. You don't even live on the moon. How would you know? I don't have to listen to these foolish notions."

"I may not see him that often, but what I see is enough. Venus, you're… magnificent. Of course someone would be in love with you."

She was startled by the word he used to describe her. When she looked into his gray eyes, he was staring at her so intensely that she felt overwhelmed. He'd never looked at her that way before. There was so much emotion in his gaze, emotions that he usually kept shielded from her. She knew how well he could appear impassive and impossible to read. At this moment, just for a brief second, he seemed to have discarded his guard and let her see into his soul.

It scared her. She looked away before she could get lost, for she was afraid she couldn't find her way back from that.

"So… they're in love…?" she said instead, a question that might have been as much directed toward herself as it was toward him.

"They're in love," he answered, though his gaze never left her.

In front of them, the princess and the prince held hands, looking at each other as if they were the only two people in the world.