Disclaimer: You still don't get it? SM isn't mine; it belongs, apart from Toei, to Naoko Takeuchi.

Nepuchuun no Hime

I have been staring at you two play for a while.

It may be that Setsuna is snoring in the next room but I have gone deaf. Maybe I'm just thinking too hard?

Seeing you, my beautiful wife, playing with our daughter takes me to times that have already passed. When Hotaru wasn't here. It seems to me that I have known you for many decades, perhaps centuries; still, we're very young in age. But your smile, to me, is older than Earth itself; the feeling that it was meant for me and only me to see is maybe older.

A particular memento floats in my mind. Witnesses? Our favorite beach house, a thunderous storm and our bed.

I know you can see me grin.

It was that rainy afternoon that you whispered into my ear the most important statement in my life.

You were mine. My Nepuchuun no hime. My princess.

Before meeting you, me being like the wind was an understatement; I was the wind. Untamable, free to go where I pleased, free to do what I wanted. I still regret that: I hurt many people, including myself, in that stage of my life. I almost hurt you in the worst of ways; well, having met the way that we met, it isn't strange to me.

I have gone back to the present now. I still find my happiness in seeing how we grow up older, together, while my two precious hime-chan play hide and seek, wrecking our house and making me laugh whenever one of you finds the other.

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Yet another short piece. What do you think? I've had 'Nepuchuun (Neptune in japanese pronunciation) no hime' on my mind for weeks.

Incredible: the source of inspiration is a small vignette, drawn by Naoko, in which Pluto, Uranus and Neptune appear dancing, playing maracas and swimming, respectively. Overhead, it says 'Puru-puru Pluto', 'Ura-ura Uranus' and 'Nepu-nepu Neptune'. It's quite cute, I've gotta say; most fans know what am I talking about. It appears in the manga equivalent to SailorMoon S.

It seems I have a knack for leaving Setsuna sleep in some other place, don't I?

Haruka aka Wing-kun