AN - This is the censored version of the story, because of the the submission guidelines here. You'll have to visit my archive to read the story with all chapters included.
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Ami felt more than a little stupid, teetering about in a pair of borrowed high heels and the pink monstrosity of a dress that Usagi had managed to convince her to wear to the wedding. It was weird to feel so awkward in her own skin, but she knew she looked a lot different than the school girl that Nephrite was fond of. On the other hand, Nephrite looked a lot different than the awkward part-timer that Motoki had hired.
He stood before her, in the shade of the trees around the chapel, waiting for her to say something after she had announced she wanted to talk to him. In the background she could hear the excited chattering of her friends, but they might as well have been miles away, seeing as they were so oblivious to what she was up to.
Say something, anything! she urged herself. Nothing was coming to her, and she was feeling dumber and dumber by the moment as they both stood there in silence. Now that she had a chance to talk to him, she couldn't say anything.
His bright, blue eyes were watching her with a mixture of confusion and interest as she proceeded to try to avoid looking into them by watching the sky, the grass in the breeze, his cape, her own feet... As the seconds ticked by, she stared down at her toes with greater intensity. Finally, Nephrite spoke tentatively. "You wanted to talk to me?" he prompted her.
"Yes..." she studiously observed the cracks in the pavement of the path. "I... just wanted to, um, say thank you."
"Thank you?" Ami looked up as Nephrite spoke. He didn't look like he had any idea of what she was talking about.
"Yes, for saving me. From Kunzite," she swallowed loudly. The conversation was beginning to feel like pulling teeth as they stood in silence.
"Oh, that," It was Nephrite's turn to look away, although Ami wasn't sure if it was embarrassment she caught in his eyes. "I try not to think about any of that."
Mentally, Ami slapped herself. Why did you have to bring that up? "I'm sorry." I remind him of a crappy period of his life. Fabulous. Why don't I start talking about how horrified he looked when he stabbed himself in the stomach as well?
Nephrite's annoyed sigh broke through her thoughts. "Don't worry about it."
Two sentences and I've already pissed him off. She began to fidget with the ruffles of her dress as she tried to think of some neutral topic to talk about.
"You're welcome, by the way," his voice startled her again. A sardonic smirk twisted one corner of his mouth. "I was just doing it to return a 'favor'." Ami must have had a confused look on her face, because he asked, "You don't remember?"
"If it was something I did under the influence of Metallia, no." She had a feeling that her selective amnesia had more to do with the fact she didn't want to remember than her not being able to remember. "What did I do?"
"You goaded me into attacking you where you knew Kunzite was. That's what caused me to finally fall completely out of Beryl favor." Nephrite's eyes turned an unsettling shade of blue-black as he recalled the memory. "I owed it to him to make sure Beryl wasn't pleased with him either. Having him remember how badly he had screwed up every time he saw you was an added bonus."
Ami wasn't prepared for the sense of disappointment she felt. She hadn't been hoping for a different explanation, had she? "I see," she said carefully, keeping her eyes on the intricate clasps on Nephrite's uniform, rather than his face.
"Also, you-" Nephrite was cut off by another bout of screaming from the wedding guests.
Both of their heads swung to the noise. Mamoru was warming up with his motorcycle while the gaggle of girls surrounded Usagi.
"I've... got to go," Ami said with a sigh. She cast a surreptitious glance at Nephrite. He was shaking his head in complete confusion at the activities of the wedding party and paying no attention to her. She faked a cough. "I've got to go," she repeated, louder this time.
His expression was unreadable, "Oh."
There was another awkward pause.
"I'll see you?" it was impossible for her not to sound a little hopeful, even if there was no indication he shared the same sentiment. The answer she got was just a noncommittal grunt and another slightly confused look.
"What did he say to you?" Makoto asked again, sounding impatient next to her ear.
Ami shook her head violently to clear it. She shifted the phone to her other shoulder and picked up the fish food. Immediately her pets swam to the surface. "Not much really."
"Not much? I've been waiting a week to ask you. The least you could do is lie to me and tell me you're starting a passionate affair," Without seeing her expression, it was hard to tell if Makoto was really annoyed or just playing.
"With the way I keep secrets, do you really think you wouldn't have found out by now?" Ami retorted. She replaced the cover on the tank and flopped bonelessly onto the sofa. "We had the most awkward conversation I've ever had the misfortune of suffering through." Then she paused, remembering again. It had started to be less awful right before Usagi left. What was he going to say?
"Ami-chan are you still there?" Makoto asked.
"Sorry, sorry, lost in my thoughts again," said Ami. "Nephrite was trying to tell me something, but then Usagi started getting ready to leave and he never got to."
"Well there's something more than 'not much'." Ami could hear the excitement in Makoto's voice as she pounced on the tiny morsel of information. "Maybe he was planning to confess his undying love for you," she teased.
"Nothing so interesting, he was just explaining why he saved me from Kunzite," Ami laughed.
"I repeat, maybe he was confessing his undying love for you."
Ami smiled. Makoto just wasn't going to let it go. "He said got in the way because he wanted to piss off Kunzite."
"Duh. Kunzite was making a play for his woman." Makoto was definitely on a roll.
"I-" Ami searched her brain for a moment. She certainly didn't remember any romantic entanglements with Kunzite, but she didn't remember much of the period. Suddenly, she wasn't sure that the relationship with the strongest of the Shitennou had been purely "professional". She shuddered. "I don't want to even think about that."'
"Oh come on now, it's not like he was ugly or something," Makoto teased. "Actually it wasn't like any of them were ugly. I think Beryl might have been on to something."
"I always had the impression that she was stringing along at least Nephrite and Jadeite," she flashed back for a moment, just enough to get a mental glimpse of Nephrite, forlorn and hiding in some dark corridor of the Dark Kingdom. Had she really been cruel enough to bait him into attacking when he was in that state?
"And then she got greedy," Makoto was saying. "Why was everyone after Mamoru, anyway? Beryl, Serenity, Usagi... now Mio. Not that he isn't handsome, but I always thought that the Shitennou were better looking."
Ami was inclined to agree. "I think the fact he was the prince helped."
"Yea, but they're the shi tennou, there has to be something to that," Makoto said. "Not that it matters."
It didn't matter, of course, but Ami found herself intensely curious. Why were they the Shitennou? Was it a titled position? Did they inherit the position or did they have to earn it? Her memories of the past life just weren't strong enough to remember, and she wasn't sure that as a guardian of the princess of the moon she would know that much about the guardians of the prince of earth.
The more she thought about it, the less she realized she knew about the Shitennou. Were Kunzite, Nephrite, Jadeite and Zoisite their real names? It seemed odd that they were all named after semi-precious stones, but she didn't remember much about the naming systems of the earth and moon.
No wonder I didn't know what to say to him. I don't know him at all.
"What was that all about?" Makoto asked.
"What was what?" Ami asked confused.
"You sighed," Makoto said.
"I was just thinking about the past life." Ami was careful to word it neutrally, but it did her no good.
"You know, you two could have been lovers in the past life," Makoto pointed out.
"With the animosity between the Earth and Moon, I doubt that," said Ami. She absentmindedly tapped on the glass of the fish tank, startling a goldfish.
"Well, that was only between the Earth and the Moon. What if the other planets were more friendly?" Makoto sounded thoughtful.
"You don't think we were from the moon?" Ami asked. Truth be told, she'd never really thought about it. They did have different ruling planets. If they were all from the moon, wouldn't they all be Sailor Moon? But the other planets weren't inhabitable. Neither is the moon, she reminded herself.
In any case, trying to remember the past life was giving her a headache. Luckily, she was saved from having to think about it anymore by Makoto informing her that Motoki was back and she had to go. "We're supposed to look at churches today," she said with a dreamy twinge to her voice.
"Good luck with that," replied Ami, absentmindedly. The phone started beeping at her before she realized that her friend had hung up.
Yawning, she got up and headed for the small kitchenette. The time difference made calling each other hard because it was always an odd hour for someone. At least Makoto made an effort not to call at strange hours in the morning. Usagi never seemed to remember there was a difference at all and consequently she called at some of the most awkward times.
The refrigerator was barren as always. There were a few condiment bottles and a carton of milk, but otherwise the shelves were empty. Cereal again, Ami thought sardonically, writing a note to herself on the white board to go food shopping. It wasn't that she was putting off going shopping, but she spent so much time at the hospital that she mostly lived on take out and whatever she could pull from the vending machine. That and instant ramen. If she never saw another cup of instant ramen in her life she would be overjoyed. I really need to learn to cook.
---
"Where are you going?" Jadeite asked, poking his head into Nephrite's rooms without warning. The four guardians of Endymion had taken to inhabiting the sub-space that had formerly been occupied by the Dark Kingdom. While it allowed them to stay in constant contact with one another in case of emergency, it also allowed Jadeite to annoy him on a daily basis, much to Nephrite's dismay.
"None of your business," Nephrite grunted, chucking one of the cushions from a nearby chair at the blond.
Jadeite dodged the projectile with an easy grace. "You're not going to get rid of me that easily." He walked fully into the room and perched himself on the back of the chair before replacing the cushion. "Why are you going to Earth?"
"What makes you think I'm going to Earth?" Realizing that ignoring his younger companion was not going to work, Nephrite resorted to becoming surly.
"Um... the fact that you're in human form," replied Jadeite with a sarcastic smirk. "How come you still have your human form?" he pouted.
"I don't know. Probably because I was in this form and not dead when that stupid princess released the power of the Mystical Silver Crystal," the red General paused for a moment, then added, "If you hadn't been such a prick you probably would have saved your form as well."
Jadeite fixed him with a petulant stare. "I was being loyal."
"That doesn't make you less of a prick," Nephrite glared at his reflection in the small mirror on the wall. Why did his hair have to stick up so strangely in this form? He tugged a particularly recalcitrant tuft, but it refused to go where he wanted it to.
"Well, you haven't told Kunzite and Zoisite that you were leaving, you're going pretty much incognito and you don't want me to know where you're going. Obviously you're off to visit Mercury," concluded Jadeite.
"Its none of your business," Nephrite repeated, with a growl.
Jadeite snorted, "You don't have to be so touchy about it. I haven't even started to make fun of you yet."
"Is there a reason you're bothering me, beside for the sheer joy of it," Nephrite asked sharply, biting off each word.
"No that's pretty much the-" Nephrite teleported away before he could even finish the sentence.
