I'm sorry that my last chapter was so short, it just seemed like a good place to stop before I finished the rest of the day (the second day of rest.) So today is Friday and I'm really going to be able to get a lot done so hopefully this will be one of two chapters that are posted tonight… but please don't kill me if not!...well I'm in need of a pep talk so here it is… YAY ME! ... Wow... any ways... here you go!

P.S. Beta reader still needed!

My Thanx to:

MoonPrincessMagic – Thank you for every thing! (I could resist teasing him and making life a little hard for him)

Shadow's Moon Hime – Lol isn't teasing so much fun?

RoyalLovers1418 – Thank you for reading!

bunnykim89 – I'm happy you liked it!

Disclaimer: … Do I even need to have one? This is the 10th chapter people…

Chapter 10 of TsukiHime,

The Lessons

As Serenity walked up to her mother's room she could not possibly imagine why Serelaina was mad at her; she wasn't a little girl any more so her mother shouldn't be mad at her for sparring, could she?

She arrived quickly to her mother's rooms up in the east hall way, but stopped outside the door to gather her thoughts and take a deep breath before knocking. She raised her hand to knock when the door opened and Luna came out; Serenity didn't know what to think when she just shook her head and continued on with out a word. Watching Luna walk away for a moment she then went into face her mother; Queen Serelaina sat in a large, plush arm chair and watched her daughter come in with a grave expression on her face. Serenity curtsied and murmured a quite greeting and stood before her while starring down at the floor; when her mother didn't speak she began to wonder and get a little irritated, so when she stole a quick glance at her mother's face and saw open amusement her temper was greatly aggravated.

Not understanding what was going on and wanting to know why she was found to be so amusing she asked, "Do you find me amusing? Or perhaps it is my situation that you find funny? I believe I have the right to know why I am called here under the pretense that I've done something wrong and am to be punished." The punishment part was really true, yet, but she knew that when Luna was involved and her mother gave her that look, a punishment usually followed.

Yet again Serenity became irritated when instead of answering her mother laughed, but when Serelaina finally stopped and caught her breath she said, "My dear, I am only a little frustrated with you and more than a little embarrassed at that last little "attack" you pulled on Prince Darien. The reason I'm frustrated with you is that I wish you had told me about your sparring match with him. I wouldn't have told you no, you are an adult now, but that does not change the fact that I am your mother and would like to know these kinds of things. And as to you tackling and straddling the Prince of Earth, I really don't know what to say to that other than, What Were You Thinking!?"

Serenity cringed at this and knew her mother was right but yet she still didn't think she had been wrong, at the end of the sparring match she did what she thought was best and it had won her the match. She shouldn't be in trouble just because she pounced on, …err, tackled him when he was distracted from checking her out; and yes she had, maybe just a little, enjoyed him all hot and sweaty under her, and yes, maybe she did mean more by the question she asked then she let on, but she was not about to tell her mother any of this.

Her mother saw her cringe and was silent for a moment before she said, "I believe you were pushing your personal boundaries a bit considering you've only known him for a couple days my dear. Although I hear that he finds your company quite enjoyable, and no wonder he would if you act like that around him." At hearing this Serenity gasped and felt rather angry and embarrassed by what her mother was insinuating, and at the little bit of truth behind it. Her mother laughed at this and didn't say any thing more but instead, informed her that her lessons for tomorrow would be cut short and when Serenity asked why, she was appalled by the answer and beggared her to reconsider.

"No Young Lady! This is final; I am going to have you ask him to go riding with you and show him the town as a way of apologizing for your improper behavior. And now, if I hear one more word out of your mouth complaining about it, I'll cancel all your lessons and make you stay with him the whole day!" her mother said sternly, but Serenity had one more argument to try her mothers patience by saying, "This is a punishment to him! I don't think that he wants to spend a whole day with the girl who just won a sparring match against him, and is going to be known around the Palace as the guy who got beat up by a Princess."

From the look on her mother's face she knew that she was skeptical about this and more than a little peeved for her even attempting to use this as an argument. The afternoon chimes could be ringing through the Palace at this time and Serenity knew that she was supposed to meet Amy for her History lesson in about ten minutes and she was still dressed in her fighting attire and needed to change.

She quickly excused herself from her mother's room with a promise that she would ask Darien some time today or tonight, and that she would pay attention at the rest of her lessons. She almost ran to her rooms where quickly changed into a gown, let down her hair and sprayed some of the perfume that Rei had given her before going down to the Library for her lesson.

She went down stairs to the Palace Library and quietly went inside and took a seat at the usual table; she had just arranged her skirts and gotten settled in, her Guardian Amy walked in carrying a huge stack of books. Serenity flinched at the amount of books that fell on to the table and even more so as she read some of the titles; her history lessons had just reached a new era of the past and this one seemed promising that it would be as dull as the last one. Thinking about this she almost sighed but managed to catch herself before it could escape and Amy here it; Amy was pretty strict about her behavior and was always getting on her case about how she really lacked a work ethic. Amy always brought up the point that if she couldn't do her work then how was she supposed to run a whole planet.

When Amy was finished settling in and straightening out her lesson plans for the day they began; all the lessons followed a general guideline, so even when the material changed they would still cover it in the same manner. First was always a swift review of what they covered last time, then Amy stated the key points they would talk about that day and then went into detail, and finally they finished up with Amy asking her some philosophical questions for her to think about so or so she said, but Serenity knew that Amy asked these to see if she had understood and paid attention during the lesson.

Today's lesson was the most lackluster and uninteresting one yet, and the rest of this era was most likely going to be even worse. Serenity's thought and attention eventually drifted to this morning, Darien and what had happened between them; the fight had been a good one and she knew that she had tricked him by not using all her strength and by becoming predictable, then suddenly switching her attack power and how she came at him. Yet she had been getting really hot, sweaty, and tired and had to jump away to reassess her plan when he became distracted by her body; her shirt had stuck itself to her like it was part of her and she guessed it was more than a distraction for the guy she was fighting. When she saw his eyes wander down from her face to her waist and breasts, she felt a little sense of pride blossom at being looked at and being seen as an attractive woman instead of an untouchable, forbidden Princess.

She wasn't ignorant of the way her body looked or the quick appraising glances she got but no one had ever been so open about ogling her before, and some how that they were from a Prince made her feel them more. Normally she would have thought that he was just another arrogant prick that was used to getting his way with women, or he saw her as a pretty prize that came with power but Darien, when Darien looked at her it was candid and like he saw past the titles and to the young woman beneath it

In some ways this scared her but it also made her feel wanted, and when she docked him down to the ground and straddled him, she had quite enjoyed it and now that she thought about it, she had known deep down the effect this would have on him.

"Are you listening to me?!" Amy asked sounding a little aggravated, Serenity jumped and came out of her little thought bubble, and nodded her head yes that she had been paying attention. She knew what came next; Amy would ask her a couple questions about what she was supposed to be listening to. She knew this was next because she almost always spaced out at every lesson, but by now she had managed to learn to listen subconsciously so she could answer what ever Amy asked of her.

As she had predicted Amy asked her four questions about the first queen who had borne no girl child before she died and had no siblings to pass the throne to. Serenity got three out of four right and she suspected that the last one asked was about some thing Amy hadn't said yet, but she knew better than to argue. After these questions Amy decided to finish the lesson and let her go a little early to lunch and gave her no homework; for this Serenity hugged and thanked her before she set off to the Dining Hall.

Lunch and the rest of her Lessons were fairly uneventful; the only thing worth noting was that she caught a glimpse of Darien leaving the Palace. She wondered if she should go after him and talk to him, but she remembered that she was in a gown and knew she would have a chance later this evening. The final deciding factor was the mid-afternoon bell ringing and telling her it was time for her to go to her next Lesson.

She was done for the day and on her way back to the Dining Hall for supper, when a loud, bossy, voice called to her, telling her to hold up. Serenity turned to face a fiery looking Rei, who was a little out of breath; knowing her she had probably seen Serenity from the second story and chased after her. Serenity and Rei argued and fought a lot, and disagreed on a lot of topics, but other than that they got along ok. Serenity thought that she was really bossy and always assumed the Serenity was being ditsy when she had an idea that was different then normal. Serenity could have said that she had a right to say and think that when she was a lot younger but now she had grown up and matured over the years.

They walked side by side for a moment while she got her breath back and then she said, "The girls are going to eat dinner together tonight in the Parlor and I didn't think that you had had any time to go back to your rooms, which is where we had left your message, so I came to get you." And with that they turned around and headed to the Parlor where a special little feast had been brought in and set up specially for the girls. All the Guardians except for Rei, who had come to get her, where there and waiting for them; when they walked in the room, that completed this attendance and the feasting and girl talk began.

This was a rare gathering and something that they almost never got to do, so they had to make up for lost time and the only thing was exciting and worth talking about was Serenity's sparring match with Darien this morning, and when Mina brought it up and recounted the whole thing in detail, all heck broke loose.

Lita was really proud of her and had been bragging about it all day, and Serenity was mortified to find out what she had said to Darien when she helped him up after the fight. She now knew that talking to him tonight was completely out of the question and that she would have to do it in the morning when the memory of his hot body pinned underneath hers was not fresh in her mind and the memory of being told it was ok to get your butt whooped by a girl was fresh in his.

Rei's reaction was fairly easy to predict; all the girls knew that she didn't not like guys that where typically like Prince Darien and she thought that he deserved to get tackled for ogling her in a fight. She sounded her opinion that she thought he deserved a lot more than that for ogling the Princess of the Moon at all. Serenity knew that this was more for the pride of the Moon Kingdom than more for Serenity's virtue; she also knew the reason why. Rei had courted a guy that looked and acted very similar to Darien about a year ago, if she remembered correctly, and when they had been talking and he told her some of the things he thought about the Moon Kingdom and it's women, she had dumped him and from then on become very prickly with men.

Amy laughed shyly at hearing about and said that now she understood why Serenity had been spacing out during the History Lesson. Amy was a pretty shy individual and became even more shy around guys, but this almost always worked to her advantage and drew then to her like flies to honey. A couple years ago it would have been funny to see how shy she was, but Serenity began to suspect that part of it was an act now and a very successful one at that. She didn't really have much of any thing else to say after that and just sat and listened to Mina tease their Princess.

"So girls what do you think, she says she doesn't like him, even with all the time they spent together the first night he got, the walk they had out in the Gardens, and the Sparring. But we can't have him even if she says she doesn't want him because she's afraid we'll leave her for him. Sounds like somebody is jealous and smitten to me, especially after you purposefully straddled him this morning." Serenity's face she beat red by this point and the rest of the girls were snickering and giggling hysterically. With all the teasing she was getting from the girls she knew it would even worse if they found out about tomorrow's plans.

The bantering and teasing continued on after this, and by the time they were all giggled and gossiped out it was very late; the girls parted ways and all went up to their room for the night. When Serenity reached the doors to her rooms, she was almost falling asleep where she stood but she suddenly felt a little more wide awake and wondered if Darien was still up and as she approached the carved diplomat's doors a loud choking snore could be heard from behind them. She took this as her queue that he was in fact not still awake and went into her own rooms.

Lisa wasn't there when she walked in and knew that someone must have told her that she wouldn't be needed for the night, nevertheless her sparring attire was picked up and gone and a fresh night gown was folded on top of her vanity; there was also a note stuck to the mirror left by Lisa. It read:

Dear Princess,

I returned to your rooms for the evening when I saw that the doors to your room were slightly ajar, seeing this I hastened to go inside and see if you were missing any thing. Every thing was in perfect order (you may even check for your self) and when I was done, I found something for you in your sitting room, it had a note attached. I put it on your pillow for you to find and left for the night when I was informed of your plans. I will see you tomorrow morning.

Your Loyal Servant – Lisa

After reading this, she set the note down, then dressed quickly and didn't even bother to pick up her gown from where it fell and went to crawl on to her canopy bed to see what it is. Lying on her pillow was the most beautiful and perfect red rose she had ever seen; the note next to it was very simple and sweet and read:

Here is a Rose for the Rose of the Garden

It was unsigned and in an elegant scroll; Serenity's first thought was that it was from Mr. Thompson, but he would have no reason to do such a thing, and so she decided that she would find out in the morning and now it was time for her to sleep. She took the rose and smiled when she noticed another little thing from Lisa; it was a simple little vase sitting on her night-stand, just perfect for a single rose. Serenity quickly filled it with water and put the gorgeous flower into it and then crawled into bed where she was asleep before her head hit the pillows, a contented smile on her face.

So a little mystery is going on... ok... or not so much... but hey... I like a little mystery and romance...oh yeah! Ok, So by having Serenity invite Darien to go riding, I actually mean they will go on horse back... sorry but no other kind of riding will occur in the next chapter... but I guess you can still fantasize… and I have nothing against Rei, I like her, I just don't think that they get along very well.. Well hope you enjoyed this chapter!

Please read and Review!

W/ Love, Hime-chan xoxo