The author's words: Today is Oct, 30th (Well...at least it is in the GTM+8 time zone~), Happy Birthday, Zoisite!

To James Birdsong: Thank you for your warm encouragement!

And, to SailorCopperOwl: Thank you for reviewing and encouraging me so much~The idea of the memories of Kunzite and Zoisite having been distorted and getting their memory of love back was from some of the discussions with my online friends~

Sometimes we wonder whether Beryl knew about the relationship between Kunzite and Zoisite, and whether could she bear that her generals were caring about someone else other than their Queen~And then came the idea of this Rose Blooming in the Dark~ :D

And I had the idea of that Neph/Zoi twist when thinking about the hatred between Nephrite and Zoisite which wasn't been explained clearly in the anime~ Well, Zoisite was surely not that simple-minded as that certain 14-year-old school girl~^^

Sometimes I think Zoisite appeared timid to the Queen who was controlling his life, but in fact he had never been a timid crybaby inside. Actually he is strong in mind, and was just outwardly soft and inwardly hard~ :D

~Oo*oO~

The story:

All Kunzite could do was to teleport to Zoisite's castle and waited for him with anger in the parlor of that castle. However, he changed his mind soon and hid himself from the vision of that beauty, which allowed himself time to think twice about how to act to that innocent boy who had lost his memory of their love affair.

For the first time, Kunzite felt as human as in a daze, he had told himself to give up. It was his merciless coldness that had hurt that boy to make him make the choice to forget, then had Kunzite decided to release the youngest tennou letting him go for his own life and his happyness?

Then what was he being here for at the moment? Kunzite questioned himself.

A high-sounding reason was created in the silver-haired man's mind and seemed to be strong enough to persuade himself. Well, he had the responsibility to make sure that his student would concentrate his attention of his mission for the sake of both his own good and the reviving of the Great Ruler Queen Metallia-sama.

Not to mention the visible evil in the way Nephrite gazed at Zoisite!

Kunzite felt uncomfortable when seeing Nephrite teased Zoisite with touching his face, but he could handle his mood and didn't appear in front of them. However, this time Kunzite felt being badly challenged…though that poor stargazer indeed didn't know whom his ignorant action had offend.

At last Kunzite decided to leave quietly, without being found by his lover…his ex-lover. The fear and the estranged tameness in the eye of that boy messed up his mind, even froze his blood into the sharp ice blades, which stabbed deeply into his heart, made him deadly bleeding and even dying.

When Kunzite finally left Zoisite's castle, the youngest general was still working on the documents occupying his desk, and the boy was so disturbed by so many thoughts that he even didn't notice that someone had visited him secretly.

Walking up and down in his own castle, Kunzite suddenly recalled his words about punishing his student had he fail in his mission…

The ice king admitted to himself that he was expecting the failure of his student. Even though only once was enough. Only then could he hold that slender body in his arms and feel that delicate face, smooth pale skin once more…as he ought to do, at least appeared so.

However Zoisite mustn't be hurt. Otherwise he would pay more than billions times back to whoever dared to hurt his lover…ex-lover…student at least, just the same as what he had done to that brat named Sailor V. Although it was said that she was lucky enough to survive at last, she was definitely badly wounded that hadn't appeared in front of the public for quite a time.

Even though…even though that young beauty had already forgotten him who was his lover in the far away previous life. Kunzite thought bitterly, yet, he forced himself to freeze these feelings of him deep in his heart, beneath every other thing.

Although being frozen and hidden inside was definitely not equal to disappearing, it was all Kunzite could do as the highest-ranked as well as the most merciless general of Dark Kingdom to keep him from being mental wandering while he had to deal with his work.

During the following days, Zoisite had collected some more clues, yet most of them were proved to be useless. The legendry ginzuishou had never appeared. The youngest general had almost turned the whole Tokyo upside down, but still not even a figure of that silver crystal.

Zoisite had met the Sailor brat named Sailor V and the guy with quite an affectation who called himself Tuxedo Mask—or Tuxedo Kamen—whatever. However, Zoisite had never forgotten the lesson he learnt in London and prudently escaped every time.

Since the real ginzuizhou had never appeared, there was still no reason to define Zoisite's hard working a "failure" although he hadn't found that item yet. Kunzite was keeping an eye on the work of the youngest one.

It was a pity…No, it wasn't, Zoisite could not fail in the missions given by Beryl, or that evil woman would kill him instead of simply punish him. Kunzite shut his thinking about Zoisite's fail in the mission he was working on in time, and came up with a new idea.

The strict, harsh teacher no longer urged his student to find the ginzuishou as soon as possible, instead, he began to gave him some extra missions explicated as a part of his training.

Of course he would never let his sixteen-year-old student in real danger. Usually he just ordered the boy to find some particular things such as a special piece of stone, a metal card with some symbols on it in a dim cavern or a foggy forest. Some goblins or common-leveled youma would also be in the place.

Kunzite clearly knew that the youma would never match the ability of Zoisite, but it won't be easy to find what he was asked to find.

Since Kunzite always made it difficult when creating that virtual space with his magic of space…well, after all he was the king of space.