Disclaimer: Mine. Not.
Trials
The meetings had been boring as hell. But Mars was used to them, by now. She'd gotten used to the glares from the Lunarian nobles, who didn't trust a Martian like her. She'd gotten used to the silence they treated her with whenever she tried to engage them in conversation. Their message was clear: they didn't like her, and they wanted her to know.
"The nobles are stuck up fools," Venus told her, "but there's nothing we can do about that. They have influence over us, since they've got wealth and all that. Of course, the Queen and Princess trust us more than any of them, but they're still, technically, of higher rank than us. Unless we get the designation of Advisor, we're outranked in the political field. On the battlefield it would be different, but that's not likely to happen anytime soon."
"But we're Princesses," Mars muttered, "they can't even respect that."
"Well…" Venus shrugged. "They respect the others, though they don't like any us. You're the one they absolutely refuse to show any respect to."
"I've noticed," Mars sighed. "Why?"
Venus snorted. "You have to ask me why they don't like Martians?"
Mars refrained from crossing her arms. "I just did."
"Well, these nobles are highly invested in the Venusian metalworking market. They buy metals from Venus, forge them into various items, and then sell them. Your planet has been interfering in their market for ages on the blackmarket. But what's really riling them up is the whole Earth deal."
"The weapons?"
"Yeah. Your Father's promoting friction between the Moon and the Earth. These guys stand to make a huge profit should the Moon and the Earth forge an alliance, and the Earth chooses to industrialize. Their space technology is crude; imagine the money Lunarian nobles can make from selling Earth new spaceships and new buildings. They'd make a killing."
"So they hate me… because my Father is keeping them from making money?"
"Pretty much."
"But my being here makes it pretty clear that I don't agree with my Father."
"True. But don't forget, there's a long history of tension between Mars and the other members of the Silver Alliance. Your ancestors haven't been the nicest individuals."
"Look, that was one rebellion, and it was centuries ago—"
"I know," Venus said, rolling her eyes, "trust me, I couldn't care less about that. But some people just can't let it go. It's stupid, but that's the way it is."
"To hell with that," Mars muttered. She glanced at the clock on the wall and held back from groaning. "Great. Break time's just about up. Back to another three hours of ignoring nobles and trying not to let my legs fall asleep from standing tall and acting like a proper Senshi."
Venus giggled as she and Mars headed back to the Throne Room. "You'll be fine. If you want, you can read my book."
"I noticed you were reading. I meant to ask—aren't you supposed to be paying attention, not reading?"
"Well, nobody's stopped me."
Mars quirked an eyebrow. "So I can bring a book and basically ignore everything around me, and nobody will be offended?"
"Oh, the nobles will be offended. But they already hate both of us, so there's no point trying to appease them."
"They hate you?"
"Yup. When I first arrived here and became Serenity's Senshi, I called them out about a backdoor deal they'd been making with a Venusian noble. I'd known about it for years, but I'd never been able to find proof of it; with my new status as Senshi, it didn't matter—Queen Serenity looked into it right away, and boom, issue taken care of. They lost a ton of money from that."
"These Lunarian nobles are greedier than the nobles in my Father's court," Mars marvelled.
"Yeah. They're used to being pampered. But that's the way of it," Venus said, shrugging. "Anyway, yeah. I'll lend you this book, if you want."
Mars considered it, then shrugged. "Nah. I should probably still pay more attention, at least until I familiarize myself with the politics my Father kept from me."
Venus shrugged, opened her book, and began reading. "Your loss," she said as they continued walking down a hallway.
Curious, Mars leaned over and glanced at the page. Her face immediately reddened, and she choked.
"Venus," she hissed, "put that away."
"What?" Venus asked, not glancing up from her book.
"Put that away!" Mars repeated, glancing around. "What if somebody sees?"
"Sees what?" Venus asked, finally tearing her eyes from her book and staring at Mars, concerned.
"That," Mars mumbled. "Your… the book."
Realization dawned on Venus' face, and then she smirked. "What? Something wrong with it?"
"No shit," Mars mumbled, "it's… completely inappropriate for this setting…"
"Ah," Venus chuckled. "Don't tell me you read a bit and spoiled your pure, innocent mind?"
Mars' face nearly turned magenta. "That's not appropriate to be reading in front of the Princess!"
Venus' smirk deepened, and so help her gods, Mars was this close to grabbing the book and chucking it out the window. "What, you think the Princess doesn't know what a coc—"
"Shut up!" Mars hissed, waving her hands in front of her. "Shut up, shut up, shut up, okay? Just put it up!"
Venus sighed and put it back in her subspace pocket. "Fine," she relented. "But just so you know, I am not happy. It was just getting to the good part."
Mars let out a shaky breath and rubbed her temples. "Hellfire," she muttered. "What is wrong with you?"
"Probably everything," Venus laughed. "But hey, what can I say—I'm a teenage girl, and we have our needs."
"Tend to those in private," Mars mumbled, "not in the Queen's Court."
"All right, all right, don't be such a stick in the mud. Yeesh."
A/N: Whoops, forgot to update again. Luckily for you, I promised a reviewer another chapter. And since I messed up and forgot about that, I'll give you ANOTHER extra chapter. So this'll be a total of 3 chapters all in one go! Woo-hoo!
