THANKS! (you can skip this)
First off, I'd like to thank April Eagle. I don't know her personally, but I've read her stories faithfully, and am currently reading her new one, and I LOVE her work. Her idea of Uranus being a desert planet and Neptune being a watery planet inspired me to do the same for my story. Ever since I read 'For Peace' about 4 or 5 years ago, I've loved detailed fan fics, and now I am trying a non-song fic of my own. Many thanks to you for being such an inspirational writer. And also thank you to everyone else who's ever written a review for any of my fics. I hope you enjoy this one, too. The title of the story is a line of lyrics from the song 'Dance, Dance' by Fallout Boy, one of my favorite songs. I listened to it repeatedly while writing this story (it's a depressing song if you understand the meaning behind the lyrics); a sad song for a sad story. Also, the titles of the chapters are lines from some of my favorite songs, which I named in the Epilogue. It's a long story, so I hope you can suffer through it! Thank you, and enjoy.
IMPORTANT! (you should read this!)
I know what I'm about to explain may upset some people, but I hope it does not keep you from reading my story... If you have ever seen the Stars season, then you know that the Sailor Star senshi are disguised as men while on Earth, but when they turn into senshi they are women. This is sort of how Haruka is, I'll explain it in the story, though. She is a man who becomes a woman when transformed into Senshi form. I worked very hard on this story so I hope you can have an open mind about parts of it when reading it. When Haruka is Sailor Uranus, she is a she. When Haruka is just a normal prince, he is a he. I chose to do it this way because it was the only feasible way for Haruka to bear children with Michiru. Sailor Moon's creator and owner is Naoko Takeuchi, I do not own any of those characters, Insert legal mumbo jumbo here.
Characters:
Prince of Uranus/Sailor Uranus: Haruka (name meaning: "Distant")
Princess of Neptune/Sailor Neptune: Michiru (name meaning: "Maturing")
Princess of Neptune & Prince of Saturn's daughter/Sailor Saturn: Hotaru (name meaning: "Firefly")
Princess of Neptune & Prince of Uranus' daughter/the new Sailor Uranus: Mikarah ('Mika' means: "new moon")
King of Neptune: Toru (name meaning: "Sea")
Queen of Neptune: Nami (name meaning: "Wave")
Prince of Neptune/Michiru's younger brother: Yasuo (name meaning: "peaceful one")
King of Uranus: Hideyoshi (name meaning: "Good Sun")
Queen of Uranus: Megumi (name meaning: "Blessing")
Prince of Saturn: Yukio (name meaning: "Gets what he wants")
Queen of Moon/High Queen of the Silver Millennium: Queen Selenity
Princess of Moon: Usagi (name meaning: "Bunny")
Prince of Earth: Mamoru (name meaning: "Protecting")
Guardian of the Gates of Time/Sailor Pluto: Setsuna (name meaning: "A Moment")
Story Title: "It Can't Get Much Worse"
---- Present: Silver Millennium ----
--Chapter 1: These are the lives you'd love to lead...--
It was a tradition that at every birth of a Senshi that Queen Selenity of the Moon, the high Queen of the Silver Millennium, be present. During the birth of a baby girl on any given planet, the Queen would ensure that the senshi's gift was passed down into the next woman of the royal lines. If the planet's royalty had a baby boy, whomever the boy would marry in the future, would birth at least one girl, and it would be a senshi. It was tradition, it never changed, and it was always that way.
The Queen and King of Uranus, Megumi and Hideyoshi, were having trouble having a child. They were both sick with some incurable illness. Doctors came from miles around trying to help them, but they were unable to find the reason for their pain. They both periodically had abdominal pains accompanied with nausea. They were worried that if they did not have a child, their throne would be taken over by some distant cousin. After many attempts, they were able to conceive a child. However, the pregnancy was hard on the Queen of Uranus. Megumi was in a worse condition than Hideyoshi due to carrying around the extra weight of a baby that may very well end up as sick as it's parents. However, doctors assured the Uranusian couple over and over again that their child was healthy.
Finally, Megumi gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. However, the doctors also announced the death of their beloved Queen of Uranus who died while giving birth. Hideyoshi was extremely sad; this would mean he would see the end of his lineage in this baby girl. Queen Selenity was there for the birth of the new Sailor Uranus and the death of the old one to ensure that the gift would be passed down.
Hideyoshi pleaded with the Silver Queen. He did not wish to see his lineage end. His life was coming close to ending. He explained to Queen Selenity how he and his wife had both contracted a terrible illness and no doctor was able to cure them. This healthy baby, free of their sickness, would be his last, and only, child. He begged for some sort of power to be used to change this baby girl into a boy. Queen Selenity mulled over it inside her head. Since the Senshi of Uranus was the previous Queen, it was possible that they could have a boy and still have a senshi in the next line of Uranusians. Queen Selenity nodded solemnly; she would try to grant this wish of his. She motioned for the nursemaids to hand over the child, and then the Queen disappeared with the child still in her arms.
Dark mist fogged around her, until she was greeted by the Senshi of Time. The immortal, beautiful, Senshi of Time: Sailor Pluto. There, in that dark dreary place, she stood guard over the Gates of Time. The Queen discussed the situation with Sailor Pluto. Pluto, although confused that her Queen was willing to do so, obeyed her orders. She tried to change the gender of the child. It took her several attempts, but Pluto was able to do as the King requested. The girl was now a boy. However, Pluto told the Queen she was unable to retrieve the power of the Senshi from the child. Therefore, the boy would require Senshi training and once transformed into Sailor Uranus, he would have the body of a woman. That was the condition, which was the one thing not even the Queen could not change since the gift had already been passed. The King was joyful, he was grateful to have a son to keep the throne of Uranus safe from outside rule. The Queen apologized for her briefness; she had other planets to visit that night, for other babies were being born as well. Queen Selenity flew off, leaving the dry, desert-like planet of Uranus, and entering the atmosphere of Neptune a few hours later. On the cooler, watery world, a young princess was being born.
The Queen was escorted into the room where everyone awaited her birth eagerly. Toru, the King of Neptune, burst from the birthing room and announced to her, and a room full of friends, of the birth of his lively daughter whom he would name Michiru. While the Queen entered the birthing room to greet Toru's wife and examine the small senshi, Toru talked with his friends just outside the door. He was explaining why he chose Michiru, meaning 'to mature', for he would raise her to be a polite, strong, and graceful princess. The Queen ensured the passing of the Neptunian gift unto this child, and exited the room. She touched Toru's shoulder gently to quiet him. Toru faced her and calmed down due to the Queen's serious face. He allowed himself to be taken aside to speak with her for awhile.
"Toru, I have done something which I wish to be kept a secret; however, I want you to know about it. The reason I say this is because your Michiru will play a large part in what will happen to our future, and you must do whatever you can to prevent the end of existence as we know it." The old man nodded carefully. He wasn't sure what he would do in the future that would help or hurt the entire universe from his little planet. However, when the time came, he knew he would know what to do, "Anything you ask of me my Queen. You are our leader, and in all the stars, I have never met someone I would bow down to and follow, other than you." The Queen smiled and explained what had happened on Uranus. Toru was a bit shocked that she had made such an exception but surely he would not question his Queen's actions. He sighed a bit and nodded, "I will follow any order you give me, when the time comes, My Lady." The Queen smiled and bowed her head a little in thanks, "You know you were an only child, and that your daughter will be the Senshi of Neptune, you must have her sent to the moon when she is of age..." her voice faded out as she turned to leave, and then disappeared around a corner, bound for a long journey from Neptune to the Moon, in order to get to her home, the Crystal Palace.
A few years passed and more senshi were born on Mars, Jupiter, Mercury, and Venus. Even the Queen herself gave birth to a baby girl, the Princess of the Moon, which she named Usagi, her little 'moon bunny'. The Queen began to train the senshi when her daughter was only 4, because the other senshi were between the ages of 5 and 8, and they all needed to start exercising their powers before they completely lost it altogether. When they were this young, it was mostly writing, techniques, etc., no exercising of their actual powers yet, merely training of the mind.
The Inner Senshi became extremely close friends, but Michiru and Haruka were distant from the others. Haruka's mother had died when he was born. None of the Inner Senshi could sympathize having their parents all close to them. Michiru, for some reason, felt very close to Haruka, and felt the same pain she did. To try and cheer her up, Michiru would draw pictures of birds flying freely in the skies and give them to Haruka. As her artistic talents progressed, she was able to paint on canvas with oils and acrylics instead of paper and pencil. Her paintings always cheered Haruka up.
Haruka did things to cheer up Michiru in return. You see, our young artist was a very social human being. Being stuck on this moon far from her home depressed her sometimes. In order to cheer up Michiru, Haruka would try to draw her pictures of flowers. For one of their birthdays when they were 8, Michiru taught Haruka how to swim so that they could race one another on foot and in the water. For Michiru's birthday soon after Haruka's, he gathered up a ton of different flowers from the moon's garden and littered them all around Michiru's bed. When she woke up she smelled the sweetest fragrance and knew Haruka had done something special thing for her. They were the best of friends, always there for one another. They studied for all of their classes together; sharing notes and helping each other learn things, teaching each other techniques to help themselves with their senshi power training.
By the time the Inners are 8 and Michiru and Haruka are 12, the Queen realizes the power of each individual and has gotten a feel for their personalities. Minako and her daughter, Usagi, are both carefree but quite powerful; so she places Minako at the head of the Inner Senshi. Rei is steadfast and loyal, but has a fiery temper associated with her powers. Makoto is strong and very tomboyish. Ami is a bit of a bookworm and a perfectionist. Haruka and Michiru are very close friends and hate to be separated. Michiru is artistic, creative, and imaginative. Haruka is an active young man, competitive, and athletic to the core. They are the only 2 Outer Senshi since Saturn's royal family had a baby boy and Pluto is forever bound to the Gates of Time. As such, they do not need a leader, only each other. Michiru accepts the fact that Haruka turns into a female when he henshins, because she grew up with him, and did not find it odd in the least bit. However, the inners all question it, and somewhat alienate Haruka and Michiru because of it. After all, they did not switch genders when they henshined or de-henshined, why would he? However, Michiru would never alienate the one person who has always been there for her.
When they turned 13, the Queen started to notice how Haruka and Michiru looked at one another. She knew something was sparking between them. Haruka and Michiru knew it, too. Haruka noticed that when he would give his traditional birthday flower to Michiru that she would now blush, or maybe it was just the color of the rose being so close to Michiru's face? Michiru noticed that when they would hug, there was warmth that wasn't always there before. Whenever he would touch her, she felt her heart flutter. What were these feelings she was having? Was there something more than friendship? Or was Michiru just imagining things?
Soon after their 15th birthdays, the two Outer senshi were called into the Throne Room. The Queen watched as Sailor Neptune and Sailor Uranus entered, holding hands. They always had held hands before as children, but now it obviously meant something more than just friendship... The two released their handhold and bowed low before their Queen. "My dears, I'm afraid that I have nothing more that I can teach you. Your powers are fully awakened and whole. You are being sent back to your home planets as soon as you are packed." The two senshi stood up and looked to their Queen in confusion. "Why are we to be separated?" Uranus asked. Neptune couldn't speak; her words were stuck in her throat. She felt tears welling in her eyes. However, Sailor Neptune refused to let her body cry, even though Michiru wanted to. The Queen sighed and smiled, standing up. She walked closer to them and took Neptune's right hand into her own right hand and Uranus' left hand into her own left hand. "I love you both very much, and am impressed with how dedicated you are to me and each other. I know it is hard to be apart, but I need you to be strong. One day, I may need to call upon you to protect our universe and then you will see each other again. Until then, I am not your mother," she squeezed Neptune's glove-covered hand, "and I'm not your mother." she squeezed Uranus' glove-covered hand. "So as much as I want you both to stay, I must let you go back to your lives, to your families. Your senshi training has been wonderful; I've seen you two grow up from ages 7 to 15 and it's been a wonderful 8 years. However, your training is now done." She released their hands and, with a small bow of her head, she walked out of the room.
The two allowed their senshi forms to dissipate and in their places stood the shocked Haruka and Michiru. Michiru threw herself into Haruka's arms. She buried her face into Haruka's neck, crying softly, "I'll miss you so much..." Haruka fought back his tears, his arms tightening around Michiru's waist. He whispered in his deep, silky voice, "Not nearly as much as I'll miss you." Michiru kissed Haruka gently on the cheek and whispered, "Goodbye, my Prince." Haruka blushed, placing a gentle kiss on Michiru's cheek in return, "Farewell, my Princess."