Disclaimer: I don't own Aino Minako or Hino Rei.
Summary: Set in an Arabian and Eastern Asian like setting. Minako, Princess of Venus refused to marry, but then, she met Rei and fell in love. Complications? Neither one of them knew the other is a princess, Minako believes all Martians are savages...
I'm sorry if any of the characters is out of character. I tried to make Rei's personality to be more like the one from the live-action rather than the original manga and anime. But I think I sort of mixed her personality up with Natsuki from Mai-Hime a bit...
The story is mostly influence by my drawings: deviantart . com / deviation / 48004195 /
If anyone is willing to edit the story, please post a review or email me.
The Most Unlikely, Is the Most Likely
Chapter 1- Irony of Predictions
The kingdom of Venus is a prosperous and well-liked kingdom. It is a tropical city with warm weather year-round. It has plenty of water, wild life, plant and food. For this reason it is the Eternal Land's greatest merchant city and probably one of the land's most powerful kingdoms. It is here, that the story of a certain headstrong princess's story starts...
City of Venus—Castle
"What! You can't! I won't, I absolutely do not want to choose!"
"Now Minako dear, we've been over this many times before," the Queen of Venus calmly said from across the room. "We just want the best for you. But you've been putting off this way too long."
"But I'm not interested in any of them. I don't LOVE any of them, Mother."
"Yes, of course you don't love any one of them. You never showed-up to any of the banquet before. If you would just give them a chance, then maybe you'll get to know them better and perhaps fall in love."
Minako rolled her eyes and sighed. Yelling takes so much energy, especially a vocal battle against her mother. One could rarely see the graceful Queen raise her voice. To win vocally against her is futile; most people end up losing their voice by the end of the argument and could only submit to her speechlessly (or rather, voicelessly). Knowing the hard-way wouldn't work, Minako switched tactics and tried the soft-way.
"Mother, you know as well as I do that I know all the surrounding kingdoms' princes and princesses around here since childhood. They visit us every year. If I could fall in love with them, I would have a long time ago," said Minako while walking across the room to where the Queen was seated. Taking her mother's hand in her own, Minako continued, "You know as well as I do that this will get us no where. I know you love me dearly. Would you really let your daughter, your only daughter, and the pride of the Venusian, suffer an unhappy, arranged-marriage?
There, Minako had played her trump card. A small grin appeared at he corners of her lips. She knew she had struck a cord, for the Queen was silent. Surely her mother must be thinking through all the possibilities and outcomes. It is quite true that the Venusians regard their princess as the treasure of their kingdom. They would not want their precious princess to be unhappy. Riots and disorder would surely happen for the sake of the princess's happiness. Minako had to keep herself from breaking into a full grin. But, her little victory was short-lived.
"Flattery would get you no where, dear. Besides, this is hardly an arranged marriage. We are letting you choose who you'll marry," said the Queen, her calm pose not shattered one bit. In fact, a victory smile was appearing on her face.
"And if I don't choose one at the banquet tonight?" Minako said hopefully.
"Then your father and I would have to take the matter into our own hands and find one for you..."
"See...it is an arranged marriage then!"
"...But," the Queen quickly added happily. "That won't happen though...because you are so dear to us, your father was very thoughtful and practically invited all the nobles from foreign kingdoms here as well."
"He what?!"
"Yes." The smile on the Queen's face widened. "This is the largest banquet in Venusian history." The Queen rose from her seat and gestured with her arms. "This will be the grandest banquet for the Venusians most precious princess, the one and only princess, Aino Minako!" The Queen gracefully did a couple of spins to demonstrate her point about the "grandness" and "largeness" of the banquet.
Minako was speechless.
The Queen smiled her charming smile and gracefully walked toward the door while saying, "You must thank your father with his efforts. The poor man had to write a 10 foot long scroll of invitation." Stopping at the door, the Queen turned and added, "Minako dear, good luck getting introduced to all those fine gentlemen and ladies ♡." The Queen winked and exited.
Minako was still rooted to the spot, gaping at the retreated figure.
A chuckle came from behind the sash curtains leading to the balcony. "You can close your jaws now. You are starting to drool." A golden-yellow leopard came out from the shadows of the curtain.
Minako snapped back from her stupefaction and gave a glare to the leopard. "She just threw all my reasons right back at me!" Minako put a hand on her face and fell on her bed in defeat. "And the sad part was, she actually made it sound like they were the ones doing all the sacrifices here! URG...I'm the victim here!"
The leopard seated himself beside Minako and grinned mockingly at her. "But, you didn't object though."
"You know I was shocked. She actually twirled her way out of this! I totally feel for her surprise attack. I mean, have you ever seen her twirl before?"
"Sure, on the dance floor."
"You know what I mean."
"Well, that's why the Queen was here to break the news to you and not the King. She has never lost an argument before. You could probably easily side-step you father, but your mother, um...she's a tad bit more cunning than you," said the leopard sympathetically.
Minako let out a sigh.
"The outcome was no surprise. Cheer up... I'm sure it's not going to be that bad," the leopard leaned closer and nudged Minako with his nose in comfort.
Minako turned on to her side and patted his golden fur. "But even Mother said the banquet is going to be filled with an unrealistic number of candidates. It is impossible for me to meet them all in one night! Oh Kashar, how could I get out of this?" Minako embraced Kashar's head in a tight hug.
"I'm sure you could somehow make it. And, you could always play the disappearing act if you got fed-up with it," Kashar lightly smoothed.
Minako let go of Kashar and blinked.
"What's wrong?" Kashar stared at her, puzzled.
"What did you just say?"
"That...I'll always believe in you?"
"No, the phrase after that."
"Um...ditching the banquet?"
"Right!" Minako embraced Kasher into a tight hug again. "Kashar, you are a genius!"
Hours Later—City of Venus—Inside an Inn
"Is it really okay not to attend the party, Rei-sama?" Deimos cautiously asked the raven-haired, young women beside him.
"I'm sure they wouldn't be missing a couple of people today. After all, us 'savages'are'definitely' not welcomed." Rei gulped down the wine in her cup and slammed the empty cup down onto the table.
"But it's your High-I mean Rei-sama's fault for making them believe so. You can't blame the guards. The image you set for Martians weren't a pleasant one, especially when you even offended one of the Venusian royalties."
"I don't know what you are saying."
"10 years ago at her Highness Princess Aino Minako-sama's birthday banquet..."
"I don't believe it was my fault. I was forced to go there by Father. What did you expect me do? Submit to my father's will?!"
"But you didn't have to be rude to that little lady, she was just..."Deimos insisted.
"I don't recall that," said Rei, her brows frowned in annoyance. Rei gulped down another cup of wine and death glared Deimos, daring him to continue questioning her any further.
Deimos knew his master's patience well. Knowing there's still more room for pressing, he continued, "And this time?"
"It was a Venusian order we couldn't refuse. And...I happened to be around the area, unfortunately," Rei muttered through clutching teeth. "Besides, the next mission is close to here."
"It was a friendly invitation and what about all those times that you skipped the other Venusian banquets? I don't see the Venusian royalties chastising you. Why bother come here in the first place? They won't blame you for not showing up."
Rei's patience was reaching her limit but Deimo kept charging on, testing his luck and her capacity. Just as her anger was about to erupt, Phobos who's sitting on the other side of Rei interrupted.
"Ah, give the kid a break, Deimos," said Phobos. "We both know clearly that last time she just didn't know how to react to that confession and this time, she's just stubborn and won't admit that she actually wanted to go to the banquet, but was denied entry." Phobos gave Rei a big knowing grin.
Rei calmed down a bit and sighed. Okay, so what Phobos said was true, but she could not admit that. "Like I said before, I didn't want to go to the banquet. In fact, I'm quite happy that I was denied the entry. Now I have an excuse for not attending."
"Sure, then why did you knock out the two palace gate guards who refused your entry into the castle?"
"I was just simply defending Martian pride. We are not their lap dogs who come and go as they command."
"Like I said, it was your behaviour that caused..." Deimos still would not give up.
"Doesn't matter. Just because Father is grateful towards the Venusians, doesn't mean I am."
"But that was no reason to knock them out," said Deimos. "What if someone tried to sneak in?"
Rei waved her hand. "There's no way anyone would want to sneak in there."
"Yep. The castle is practically packed with nobles. You'd be lucky if you don't get squeezed to death in there," Phobos joked.
"The guards are more likely there to keep people from sneaking out from the banquet!" Rei laughed. She was glad that the topic had been dropped. "It is fate that didn't want me to meet the princess!"
Meanwhile—Venus Castle
A young woman and a leopard sneaked through the royal court, toward the castle gate.
"I can't believe you actually took my word seriously this time," Kashar said.
"Do I have any other options? And besides Kashar, I do listen to your ideas, just not all of them."
"Right, like once in a million." Kashar rolled his eyes.
"Well, not all your ideas were rational."
"You call running-away from home rational?"
"Yeah, this is the most brilliant idea coming from you," said Minako, hiding behind a bush close to the gate. "Now Kashar, you know you are the only one I could depend on now and how dearly you're to me. So, go distract the guards at the gate so I can sneak out."
"As you wish, my princess." Kashar bowed and headed toward the gate while muttering under breath, "How come I'm not convinced." Half-way there, he paused in his track.
Seeing Kashar taking no action, Minako ran up to him. "What's wrong?"
"Weird, the guards are asleep," Kashar said and poked one of the guards with his paw. "Your father's too generous to these low-lives." A disgusted look appeared on his face.
"They are useful now, aren't they? Saves us all the trouble," Minako said happily, not minding the knocked out guards one bit. "No complications. Let's go now, Kashar."
And so, just like that, under the newly raised moon, a lone figure and a large leopard slipped easily out of the castle gates...undetected...
Chapter End
Big sweat-drops on her forehead, her face pink from heat. Dehydration had finally taken its toll on her. She could go no further. Her head felt dizzy. She was losing consciousness. Her view focused in and out. The last thing she saw was an angel with amethyst eyes.
The chapter didn't turn out as well as I liked. There's too much dialogues and lacks detail. And Rei's character...just awful...I can't decided whether if I should just make her a cold person who has difficulty expressing her emotions or a quick tempered person who is easily embarrassed...Maybe a mixture of both? I don't know...improvements?
This story will probably be a short story, maybe around five chapters…and definitely needs revision later on.