This story initially was planned to be something Rei would memorize from her past in Night Jade. But then Nigth Jade was complex enough on its own, and I didn't want to force Rei to do things because of past memories. Actually, I had always liked her approach to focus on the present. So I wrote up this story separately.
Maybe I should give a non-warning: Don't expect romance. Jadeite is twelve here. A one-sided crush is all he can hope for. Yes, I play with the shotacon issues that PGSM Jadeite and his hair unfortunately brought up, that whole buttload of oedipus issues he has inherited from anime Chibi-Usa, because it bugs the hell out of me. I usually avoid the topic by making Jadeite older, or behave more maturely... but for this one, I wanted to address it clearly while at the same time not crossing the line.
Sigh, I feel a lot like giving a long rant about all the missed opportunities for character moments that the choice of a Shitennou roughly the age of the senshi would have had... probably saving that for later...
For now, have fun, and don't leave the reviewing to someone else.
Earth Kingdom, the distant past.
A sandy field outside the palace walls served as training area for the young boys who were to become palace guardians or officers in the King's army one day. The young prince himself wasn't excused from the training routines either, even if his skills were already outstanding.
But he was to give a good example for the younger ones, and team up with Nephrite, prince's guardian and combat instructor, to teach armed combat. It was a good way for Prince Endymion to get to know, and if possible impress, the boys who would one day serve under him. In particular, it was a good way to keep Nephrite from losing his temper over Jadeite, the youngest of the prince's personal guardians, who was lousy at everything besides magic.
Today was archery training. The group of boys just entered the field with their instructors when another group was leaving. A group of guests from the moon. Women. Female warriors. Beautiful women wearing weapons and very short dresses.
Nephrite complained to Prince Endymion that he hadn't been told that the field was already in use, because he damn sure wouldn't have taken a hoard of impressionable youngsters to where they would see bare legs and probably forget manners over it. The boys were of course very excited, as noone had seen the visitors up close so far. They had arrived the very morning, and not only impressionable youngsters would have held their breath at their sight.
Prince Endymion gave his youngest personal guardian a side glance and was amused about the enthusiasm on Jadeite's face. The big blue eyes were shining, and the whole boy was one open-mouthed picture of awe and admiration, openly staring at one of them, a woman of striking beauty with long black hair and an air of pride around her.
"Never seen you so excited about anything that wasn't magical," Endymion said.
"But she is magical," breathed Jadeite. "And she's the most beautiful woman in the world."
Endymion smiled. It had to happen one day, he thought.
Jadeite was only twelve, and still very childish in appearance and behaviour. As a sourcerer, he was forbidden to interfer with girls, and the only female being he had ever paid attention to since Endymion's mother had died, was either a cat, a mare or a youma.
"Do you want to greet her?" he grinned, as the group from the moon had already cleared all the distance to the palace and would soon be out of sight.
Jadeite turned his head, and stared at him out of big eyes. "If that's okay..." he said. They both knew it was not okay.
"Of course. She's a guest, you just say hello, right? A matter of manners if you accidently happen to run into honored guests of the palace. I'll distract Nephrite for you. Just be polite."
Jadeite felt something heavy slip into the pouch he wore at his belt.
"Oh no, Jadeite," said Endymion aloud. "I think I forgot my feather knife on my table. Would you run and get it for me? Thank you, there's a good boy."
Jadeite grinned at him, bowed, and dashed away, leaving his quiver with the arrows at Endymion's feet.
Endymion grinned and picked it up.
"Now what was that about?" he suddenly heard Nephrite next to him. "It's news to me that he's allowed to drop his weapons to the ground like that. I don't know what you are planning, Master Endymion, but Jadeite is not going to skip his training hours like this. You know he'll need every minute of exercise he can get."
"I'll see to it that he does some extra time when he's back," said Endymion. "And we're planning nothing, really."
"We?" said Nephrite. "I hope 'we' aren't as guilty as we look, and 'we' will behave well with the visitors. It's the first time a moon delegation comes to visit us primitive Earth barbarians, we'd better make an excellent impression."
Endymion sighed. He hadn't even been introduced to the visitors yet, that would come in the evening, with a formal dinner. So much for his father's confidence in his ability to "make an excellent impression". But Moon royals had a reputation of being extremely refined and incredibly easily offended, and Endymion's education had focussed more on military and magical abilities than on what Moon people thought were good manners. Seriously, who would have thought there would be a necessity to deal with them anyway?
But then he thought of his guardians, and grinned. Magical guardians on Earth, that had gotten their attention. They didn't like it. He couldn't wait to see their faces tonight when they would be introduced to his guardians, and he couldn't wait to hear what Jadeite had to report about them.
"Ah!" he hissed when the bowstring pinched his arm when he did his first shot.
Nephrite sneered his unique "didn't I tell you" sneer.
"And that's the most educational way to learn how not to be distracted," he lectured the younger boys, and they weren't afraid to grin at their prince. He grinned back.
Now where was Jadeite, and what was he doing that long?
