XII
I have a confession to make. I wrote this chapter on April 1, 2007… I had not thought about the day until after I wrote it. Also the previous chapter had not been in preparation for this day. It just happened to happen like this. So, enjoy fate. I love Corneal Flagg from MASH, he's very entertaining. I also try to use Serenity and Mina whenever somebody is not talking to them so it's less confusing. But in a situation like when Mina, Serenity and Endymion were together, I used Usagi and Serenity instead. I hope nobody got too confused by that because everybody but Endymion knows they are Serenity and Mina, not Usagi and Serenity… This is also a fairly long chapter, yay me! (For any of you taking notes, Taken away is a longer story with fewer chapters, and this is currently a more chaptered fic with fewer pages…(as of 4/3/07)- TA- 56 pages, XI chapters. TTB- 42. XIII chapters. I haven't actually finished any of these stories yet… Enjoy!
XII
Serenity whipped her hands off on her skirt; she'd just finished her prank. She slipped through the door and headed down the hall to tell a different servant to inform the prince that the packages he'd been waiting for had been found.
On her way to the bathroom to wash her hands she was snagged by a pair of hands. Looking up she saw somebody she hadn't seen in such a long time. She jumped up and hugged the stranger around the neck. "How are you?" She asked after she pulled away.
"Looking for you. Imagine my surprise, coming here and seeing Mina puttering around as the Moon Princess." That statement was followed by a bark of laughter.
"Oh, come with me, I'm going to go wash my hands in the sink in my room." It was actually Mina's room, but it didn't matter. Serenity gave the newcomer a smile and they agreed and followed Serenity to the side room.
"How did you find me? There was no way for you to know if I wasn't a new servant while you were gone."
"Please, I didn't need an informant to know you were the true princess. There is a way you hold yourself and an aura around you that I recognize, although I'm sure it'd be a lot harder if I hadn't known you forever."
Serenity shook her head and sat down in the communal room and the guest followed. "How do I live when you're not around?"
"A lot harder." The other agreed, a large white grin accompanied the response.
"What do you want to do before you have to entertain at court?"
"Let's go for a walk around town, I miss the strange eclectic style in such a small location."
"All right."
The two of them were out in the hallway and heading towards the open door when they ran into Endymion, who was in fact looking for Mina. "Ah, Usagi, I apologize, but do you have a moment?" He didn't notice the other one yet.
"Sure." Serenity agreed sweetly.
"Have you seen Serenity? I've been looking for her since her mother had a discussion with her, but it seems she's been impossible to get a hold of."
"I'm sorry, I haven't seen her. If we see her, we'll be sure to tell her that you're looking for her." Serenity said casually before slinking her arm into the third person's, one that had been ignored so far.
"Oh. I apologize, I had not seen you. I am Prince Endymion, and you are?"
"Haruka." Haruka held out a hand and Endymion shook it. "I'm glad to finally meet you Prince."
"It's nice to meet you as well Haruka." Endymion smiled before looking over at Serenity and then to their linked arms, his smile wavered momentarily before he grinned at Haruka stronger. "Well, I'll let the two of you do what ever it is that you were off to. Are you off duty Usagi?" He tilted his head towards her.
"Yep." She agreed. "I'm off until tomorrow afternoon. Isn't that right Haruka?"
"Yeah." Haruka agreed wryly. "Do you think we'll make it back in time from the far city though?"
"Hmm…" Serenity mused. "Maybe I should ask for the week off."
"Except I have to come back here tomorrow night." Haruka put a cabash on that idea.
"I guess." Serenity pouted. "Oh well, see you probably tomorrow Endymion!" Serenity smiled at him before dragging Haruka away from him.
When they were out of sight Haruka frowned at Serenity. "What?" Serenity asked when she noticed the look.
"Why were you trying to make Endymion jealous?"
"I wasn't." Serenity denied.
"Then why were you suggesting that you and I were going off to the city and wouldn't be back for a full night?"
"Oh you're a devious mind, get your mind out of the gutter. You were the one that said the far city; I just said maybe I should ask for a week off! I said it so he wouldn't suspect either of us of anything! He doesn't like me and I sure as hell don't like him. Why would he even think we were a couple, we're both girls!"
"He doesn't know that!" Haruka laughed at Serenity as her face fell and pouted. "Besides, we have magic that gets us there and back within the day."
"Well it's not my fault boys are stupid when it comes to things like that."
Haruka laughed harder and had to use the wall to support her to keep her from falling down. "That's a load of crap, and you know it."
"Hey! Language young lady!"
"You're younger than I am! Besides, all of your friends didn't know it for weeks and so far you and the queen are the only ones that have known I was a girl before I mentioned anything female related."
Serenity sighed. "Fine, be that way." Her eyes lit up. "Will you be staying in your room or will you want to use Mina's? I'm currently staying in there, but it'll be a lot easier to avoid the fact that I come and go all the time from it if somebody is actually 'occupying' it."
"How about we say that I'm using it but in truth I have my own room? Michiru has been on my case recently about how much time I spend with you. I think she's a little jealous herself."
"Ok." That worked for Serenity. Haruka's real room was actually two doors down on the same bend as Mina's was. Serenity wasn't really missing her true room either, she was enjoying the freedom outside of prying eyes, and maybe that's why Mina insisted on her room being there in the first place when she got first dibs. The rooms had to be close to the princess, but as long as it was in the same wing, it'd be fine. Mina was a free soul, and being able to come and go with whomever she wanted was a benefit for the Venusian's Princess.
Michiru's was between Haruka and Mina's and Serenity felt that was a clever divider to keep Haruka from harassing the poor girl and to keep Michiru's sanity from worry and annoyance.
When Mina heard about the "room arrangements" the next day, she confronted Serenity. "Are we all just moving around now, and nothing is how it's supposed to be?" She had been annoyed at the loss of her precious room on the moon. Serenity had explained what the truth was and Mina had calmed considerably.
Haruka and Serenity had, had a fun evening viewing the shops and the local street venues as well as the live concerts that they had almost daily to celebrate accomplishments of the towns people. They even stayed the night at an inn in the city next to the palace. They hadn't actually gone to the far city, preferring to stick around town in case they were needed.
They came back the next day and walked passed several servants cleaning silverware and glasses. Mina and Endymion were talking in the corner as Mina continued with the preparations for the party that was due in a few days.
"Oh, Usagi, I must have a word with you dear!" Mina scuttled over to the two of them as they were headed for the private rooms that housed sleeping quarters and an entertainment for guests area.
"Of course your highness." Serenity curtsied.
"I shall see the two of you later." Haruka bowed out, and nodded at Endymion before leaving. The two smaller blonds watched her leave before heading to a different corner.
They had a quick conversation where Serenity towered over Mina before Serenity bowed her multicolored head and left the room.
"What was that about?" Endymion asked as he sauntered over to the Princess.
"Oh, I was just asking her about where she put some decorations." Mina responded brilliantly.
Serenity watched as the two of them flirted. Mina had told her that Selene had mentioned that another prince was coming to the party, somehow word got to him and he worked his way into an invitation. Neither of them had ever met this prince either, so it shouldn't be too difficult to lead him astray either, but Serenity was annoyed at the gall of princes these days.
Mina was leaning against the wall as Endymion leaned towards her, talking into her ear as one hand rested against the wall by her head. They kind of made a cute couple, Serenity admitted grudgingly. With Mina's fair head and his dark one, the height difference was a little off, Mina was a tad too tall for him, although she wasn't sure if he'd seem off with somebody like Lita or Haruka and they were a lot taller than Mina. Serenity frowned and instead went off to her chambers to take a bath; she was starting to feel sticky from the long walk in the hot air and sandy ground beneath her.
Endymion glanced up to see Serenity leave the room again; she had been watching Mina and him interact. There was something about that servant girl that was unlike any other servant he had known before. He got along with servants back home, and except a few that he'd made mad here, they at least were friendly to him. However this servant girl even went out of her way to help other servants, which was strange to him, but he shrugged it off and focused back on the girl he was trying to woo.
"What are you achieving in here except getting thoroughly frustrated?" Endymion inquired, brushing a lock from Mina's eyes and behind her ear, when his hand grazed for a few moments. Mina's bones felt like putty.
"I just can't seem to make this work." She said on a husky tone. Endymion's hand trailed from her ear across her cheek and to her lips, where his thumb brushed across the bottom curve and when her mouth opened, it went into the moist side of it.
Mina closed her mouth around his thumb and licked it. She closed her eyes as his head bowed and his lips replaced his thumb as they grazed across hers.
"How about we get out of here and go someplace with less eyes looking at us?" He whispered in her ear a few moments later.
Her blue eyes snapped open and they were perfectly clear as the fuzz of the kiss wore off. "Could we actually just go outside and sit?" She asked, perfectly innocent.
"Of course." Endymion agreed.
For quite a few minutes they enjoyed each other's company outside, gazing at the pool of water swirl in the breeze. Endymion had never seen anything like it before in his life. The water actually swirled around in circles as if the breeze made it do it, but when it brushed past his skin, it felt as if it was a light feather caressing his skin in a soft singular motion, not circular.
"Why does it do that?" He asked, pointing it out to Mina.
"I don't know." If she really had been Serenity, she would have answered without having to think about it, being ingrained in her brain since she was two, everything about this moon.
"Do you know anything about your planet's purposes?" He asked, slightly annoyed. He hadn't seen Serenity do anything besides the slight feat he'd seen when he stumbled upon them, and she couldn't answer any of his questions. He wondered what was so great besides her kindness and kissing ability she had to offer this place and if she could even heal a person with her huge gaps of knowledge.
"Of course I do!" Mina snapped, she almost blew her cover with Endymion, and she couldn't let that happen. "But I don't feel forthcoming about my planet when you have a secret lover back home that you were never going to tell me about!"
Mina gathered up her skirts and stormed into the palace. It had been the best divergence from his questionings that she could think of at the moment. Endymion had called Serenity's name towards her, but Mina ignored it, she just wanted to crash in Lita's room and be done with pretending for a little while, she didn't want to be the goody-two-shoes Serenity or her responsibilities for a little while, bet be damned!
She collapsed on Lita's bed and the two of them found a distraction from real life for awhile together while playing cards and making a mockery of everything they disliked. Lita didn't even need to ask for a reason, she accepted it at face value, often doing the same for Serenity when life weighed her down.
-
Serenity found Endymion near her altar. He'd gone for a walk, trying to explore in the palace grounds and had stumbled upon complete chaos. He touched one of the Lilies and Serenity cringed, but at least he didn't pluck it.
"How long have you been here?" She asked, making her presence known.
"About as long as you've been spying on me." Endymion responded politely. "I haven't done anything to it, so please do not yell at me as the redhead had."
"I wouldn't think of doing so." Serenity said calmly. "I try to keep most people out of here, as Serenity wishes it, but as long as you aren't messing with it, I'm ok with you being here." Serenity looked closely as a different color caught her eye. It was a red bulb, not ready to blossom, sitting at the bottom of the masonry.
"What's the matter?" Endymion asked, noticing the frown she had on her face.
She relaxed and looked at him in curiosity. "Sorry, I just was confused about something, do you know what this is?" She pointed to the flower; her finger brushing it and it opened its petals slightly.
"Oh yes, I didn't know you had it on the moon, it's a red rose."
Serenity repeated it to herself before looking at the prince. "I have never seen one before."
"Really? I must bring you some, someday, although red does symbolize a passionate love." Endymion almost blushed but he forced it down. "It seems slightly at odds with the rest of the flowers here, they are all pastel, except for the lilies, which are pure white."
"Yes, I have thought that myself, several times now." Serenity agreed. "The red rose may be an interesting addition on the altar, I'm surprised it's grown so fast already."
"Why is it called an altar?"
"It's just what it is called. I haven't a clue why it was named that, but I think back in the day it was where Queen Cosmos was annunciated."
"Queen Cosmos?" Endymion only heard the basics about it. He knew she was the first Queen of the Moon, but his people were a little testy about being ruled by somebody other than one from the Earth itself. Apparently she claimed she was a queen but actually dabbled in witchcraft and slowly brought her magic from bad to good, but there was always a negative in using evil magic.
"Ah, Queen Cosmos." Serenity smiled at Endymion and the sight flabbergasted him. Serenity continued her story. "Do you know who she is?"
"Your first Queen." He answered, not feeling like he could bash the queen from the stories he'd heard.
Serenity nodded while laughing at him. "Of course." She shook her head in amusement. "Queen Cosmos was special. You cannot be royalty on this planet unless you're born into it."
"Born into it? But if there was no royalty before Queen Cosmos, then how was she royalty?" Endymion interrupted.
Serenity laughed. "I'm getting to that. Hold your horses."
Endymion smiled. "Sorry about that."
"It's fine. As I was saying, you can only be born into royalty. Queen Cosmos is no different; how she was born into it was the only difference. Our elders formed a crystal from their natural elemental powers. Contrary to popular belief, none of the planets were there to help form the crystal. At this time the moon's dwellings were underground and it was by the help of Mercury that the generator started working to give the moon its oxygen. When Cosmos was born the crystal found her and made her Queen. It was of a very small number of people. At this time people could have more than two kids. I guess it is inappropriate to say that Cosmos was our first leader. She wasn't nearly. Her family for generations had been the most outspoken and looking for the good of the people. It was only when the crystal chose young Cosmos, she became queen. It chose her because she loved her people more than life itself. She had a daughter, and named her Celestia. Cosmos lived long enough to pass the knowledge on to Celestia before she supposedly died for her people and used the crystal's power to form the spheres that surround us now. And every generation afterwards has been female, and queens, with only one child, there's never been a boy in the line, at least for many generations."
"You said supposedly." Endymion pointed out when she paused.
"Supposedly what?" Serenity asked.
"Supposedly Cosmos died for her people, why would you say that?"
"I personally believe she's still alive. If not alive in person then in spirit. Somebody controls the creation of our stars."
"Why do you believe it's her, not someone else?"
"Because there are no records of her actual death or body. She just disappeared. One day, poof, she's gone and there's a dome in place to support our lives for millenniums to come."
"What was Selene's mother's name?"
"Why do you ask such a random question?" Serenity countered with a teasing note in her voice.
"I was curious to find out if all of their names are celestial names."
Serenity laughed. "Oh no. One of them was named Tuna, another Acuna, Selene's mother was named Selenity and before her, Serene. There is a theme though. It either rhymes with or starts with the same letter or conceptual idea." She explained.
"And Serenity's daughter, what will she name her?"
Serenity took a step away. "I doubt there will be a daughter."
"Why?" Endymion questioned.
"Serenity will never marry. You shouldn't pursue her."
"Serenity wishes never to marry?" Endymion caught Serenity by the elbow. "Why not?"
"I cannot tell you that." Serenity tried to tear herself away, but Endymion held on strong.
"No, listen to me, tell your princess this if you have to. I will only marry for love, I never thought to never get married. I know people are after my title, but that's no reason to not want to get married. Marry another royalty who doesn't care about titles, why should they, they know what royalty entitles."
"Except when some princes want to marry the moon princess because she's the moon princess and in charge of so much power and want to manipulate her into doing what they want."
"Serenity is strong, I doubt she's easily manipulated, even if she does come across originally as easy and an airhead."
Serenity bit down on her lip, she would say no more on this matter.
Endymion sighed and let her go. "I didn't hurt you did I?" He asked when she rubbed her arm. She shook her head in the negative. "I don't love easily." Endymion admitted as he looked upon the chaos that this little maid was so fond of.
"Then why search for it?" Serenity had no right to be bitter or against the sanctity of marriage, and she really wasn't, she just wanted to marry someone who had no idea who she was or cared. That wasn't right, she wanted somebody to know exactly who she was, inside, and cared, very deeply.
"Because I'm a romantic, I idealize things and then when the dream doesn't happen exactly how I wanted it to, I take it into stride and accept it for what it is." He explained. Serenity tilted her head as she listened, why was he telling her this? The same thing was running through Endymion's why did he like to share true things with this little maid where every other female had only been to practice his flirting?
"Are there many wars on your planet?"
"Tribal disputes." He agreed. "We try to temper the wars, so there aren't as many causalities. I guess that's what we get, having the purity of the moon on one side, the planet of love on another and the planet of war on the other."
"Jupiter and Uranus have somewhat civil disputes as well, strong planets, and usually end the fight because they take over."
"The Greeks will be surprised that their stories about Zeus, Ares and the rest of their gods are true."
"Not everybody on Earth knows the truth about the other planets?"
"Just the people of Elysian." Endymion saw her distrustful look. "I know it sounds bad, but the people of Earth are, I was going to say as diverse as all of the planets in one but they are more so because not everybody could handle that knowledge. There are some places that are still getting food by digging it out of the ground. We like to be self-sufficient without outside help, and so some are slower than others."
"So only the privileged gets the knowledge?" Serenity questioned.
"No. It's the ones that prove they can handle the knowledge by what they do before we tell them." Endymion sighed. "I'm sure there is stuff that is kept from you so you don't become worried."
Serenity relinquished that point, she was the princess of the moon and she'd finally heard about something things that the military finally released, even her senshi knew more than she did sometimes. She almost missed being the princess so she could find out the information anyway she could, being in control of the situation. But it was nice as well, just being able to talk to somebody who wasn't her senshi.
Endymion was just glad that he finally found a servant who wasn't trying to please him every two seconds even though he tried to be friends with them. It was a refreshing change, and it was a female, he tired of his male companions.
After going through his items that were finally found he changed and headed to dinner.
Throughout dinner, between talking with the princesses and queen, his mind strayed to the tall, multicolored-haired maid; she really was quite charming even if she did look crazy. His eyes rested on the queen with her silver, not gray, hair and purple eyes. He itched throughout dinner, and he figured, Serenity would eventually look as strange as her mother, maybe it was royalty and that was why they didn't look as strange as the servants did until they were a lot older.
He was still itching as he headed to bed that night.
XII
EAN: I apologize ahead of time, I was looking through my notes and I have realized I have way too much going on. This is what happens when I try writing this over years. The first five chapters or so had been written two years ago and then the other ones I wrote so much more recently. Hopefully I remember to add everything that I wanted to add. I also, not physically, but telling you now, that I changed the name of Endymion's cousin to Chad. I wanted to leave my options open. As I was writing this chapter I realized that it was going in a slightly different direction than I had hoped. But if you stick with me, maybe I can fix it and not thoroughly confuse all of you. I just realized that sometimes I put spaces in my stories to denote a change in scene without going into a new chapter, and I hadn't caught that FF takes it out for its own space. So I'll try to remember that from now on and put - instead in the FF version...
I am right now trying to focus mainly on this story than my other ones and adding to them later. So there'll be more updates from this story than those.
Thank you.
