Hi everyone, I wanted to thank all of you who favorited, followed or commented on my story over the previous week. I hope you all enjoy the next chapter. I finally finished the full outline of the story so I'm pretty confident on the number of chapters.
"For every person that is born, there is another born just for them. It is both an honor and a privilege to encounter the one you are bonded too. There are times that magical individuals may never find who they are bonded to as the proximity of bonding is not limited to one's city, one's empire or even one's planet. Powerful beings can feel right away once their bonded mate approaches them. Unfortunately, those wielding less magical abilities often have to wait for a gesture of romance or love for the bond to become apparent."
- Soul Bonds over Centuries
Serenity laid in bed her covers pulled up to her chin as she thought about the previous night. She had been grateful that she had the foresight to clear out of the room as she had felt the clenching in between her legs. It would have been thoroughly embarrassing for everyone involved if she had become a wonton mess in the middle of the dining room. Still, the events of last night stayed in the back of her mind and she couldn't bear to look anyone in the eye at the moment.
So long she had stayed in bed that when a knock sounded on her door, she wondered why it had taken them so long. "Rise and shine, Princess." Princess Ami of Mercury slid herself through the doorway expecting to see Serenity still sleeping. Instead, the girl was wide awake with the covers tightly bundled around her. "Serenity, you're already awake. Are you feeling under the weather?
Ami rushed to the side of the bed to place her palm on her forehead. "I'm fine, Ami." Serenity waved the other girl's hand away and turned in the bed to face her. "I just don't think I'm up to doing much today."
"Your suitors are all excited to meet you, Sere. We have schedules all morning. It's just today and tomorrow left and we'll be all through." Ami said encouragingly. Usually, Serenity was excited to meet new suitors, especially handsome ones. "Today you get to meet with Prince Caelus. You've been looking forward to that since he announced his intent as a suitor.
"Honestly, Ami.." she began choosing her words carefully as she spoke, "I don't think we need to look anymore." The color in her face started to darken with each word. "I think I found him." Her last sentence came out as a whisper, her face flushing as she spoke.
It took the Mercurian princess a few seconds to process what Serenity was implying. "Wait! Your soul bond formed? When? Who?" Despite the embarrassment that beginning to well up inside of her, it was still humorous to see the usually reserved Mercurian sputter about.
"It was last night." She had dropped the blankets and was now sitting up in bed.
"Last night?! Why didn't you say anything? Who was it? It must have been your dinner companion. Hotaru had that shift and she didn't say anything either." Ami's mind was moving a mile a minute as it rushed to try and fit the pieces together.
"Please, Ami. I didn't tell Hotaru, either. I didn't realize what it was until this morning when I thought back on the evening." Not exactly the truth, not exactly a lie either.
"Well, what happened? We need to be sure it was him. The soulbond goes both ways so he should be affected also." Ami said tapping her finger against her chin in thought.
Ami was right. Soul bonds went both ways. Was it possible that he had spent his night similar to her own? Her eyes widened as she realized the implication of her thoughts shook her head to get the image out of her mind. Thinking back though, it was highly unlikely considering he looked completely unaffected. Did Terrans even form soul bonds?
"Serenity!" Ami called her name loudly causing the poor girl to jump and turn to face the blue-haired princess. "I've been calling you and you're just sitting down with your head in the clouds." She berated the blonde. "But you need to tell me how you knew the bond was forming and who it is."
Leave it to Ami to be completely wrapped up in the specifics. If it was anyone else she might be able to get away by bragging on Endymion's handsomeness, but the Mercurian princesses couldn't bring herself to care about such trivial and shallow matters. "Why does it matter? You wouldn't understand even if I describe it to you cause you're not bonded yet. Besides, we both know you're not the best person for these kinds of situations. " Serenity felt proud of herself for her quick thinking, but her face quickly fell with Ami's response.
"That's very true. Soul bonds were never my area of expertise and I don't have first-hand experience, but your mother does, and this is exciting news. I'll return shortly with her majesty and the others." Serenity's cry of indignation did nothing to detour the blue-haired princess from leaving the room in search of Queen Selenity. The Lunarian princess wanted to bury herself under the palace for that mistake. She knew she'd be interrogated thoroughly of what happened last night and couldn't bear the utter shame of having to explain it to her mother, of all people.
In the visitor apartments, Endymion hid away in a similar state to Serenity. This morning's episode had kept him awake, his mind either replaying what happened in the bathroom or trying to remember what his dream had been about in the first place. Morning wood wasn't something uncommon, but waking up from a dream in the middle of the night with a hard-on that wouldn't go away was something else entirely.
The knock on the door was most likely Zoicite, as Nephlite had knocked previously, and he knew that they were taking turns. "You were absolutely fine last night, Endy, and you don't get sick that quickly. Your immune system is better than that."
"Not against some foreign Lunarian illness or something else from the other edge of the solar system. You don't know who I picked it up from." Retorted Endymion.
"Can you stop acting like a child and open the door? We both know you're not sick. I don't get it. You said everything went well with the Princess last night. And we all went to sleep in a good mood and now you're like this." The general barely had time to step out of the way of the door before it swung open. Endymion reached out and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, dragging him inside.
"What I'm about to tell you, you're going to keep to yourself? If I hear that anyone has heard about this, especially Jadeite, I am going to sneak into your room in the middle of the night and give you a mohawk. Is that understood?" The blonde could only nod wide-eyed at his prince. "This is going to sound fucking weird, ok."
"You know, I'm pretty sure you didn't sneak any illegal substances up here with you, but that's just so bizarre," Zoicite commented after Endymion explained his late-night sexual encounter. "And you're sure all you had was some wine with dinner. What kind of wine was it?"
"For Gaia's sake, Zoi, I wasn't drunk, I wasn't high, I wasn't intoxicated in any fashion. I went to sleep sober and I had a dream that I can't seem to remember. I woke up horny as well, nothing was doing it for me and for some reason when I was jacking off, I saw and FELT the princess of the moon jacking me off too. The princess of the moon, with the small boobs who I really had no type of physical attraction too, at all. Except for her mouth, you really can't deny a mouth like that." Zoicite was unphased by Endymion's rant. The seeing part didn't really bother the general too badly. Endymion was sexually active and a sexually active mind that was sleepy, and had not gotten any in a while was bound to think up some crazy shit.
"Are you sure you really felt her and it wasn't just, you know, you're own hand?"
"Are you trying to imply that I don't know how a woman's hand on my dick feels?" Endymion had the absolute gall to sound offended.
"First of all, I would never. Second, given the fact that it was in the middle of the night, is it possible your brain was just overly tired and imagined it."
"Zoicite, it freaked me the fuck out. That's why I remembered it in the first place. That's why I'm held up in my room trying to figure out what happened. The Princess was really pleasant at dinner and to be fair, I figured I could even be friends with her, but my attraction didn't jump as much for me to even imagine that kind of experience."
The blonde held up his hands in defeat, "Ok, ok. Perhaps, it's some type of magic, there's tons of it floating around the palace."
"You think the Princess bewitched me?"
"Bewitched is such a strong word. No, I don't think the Princess cast anything on you. But Lunarians aren't the only ones here with magic. In fact, pretty much everyone here except for us can use magic." Zoicite responded and then brought his hand to run through his hair as he stared passed Endymion's head.
"What? I know that look. You have an idea."
"I do. I have to go to the library. You - No." Zoicite as Endymion motioned to throw on appropriate clothes to go with him. "No, you stay here. Relax, act normal until I return with what I've found."
"Serenity, truly, you're 45 years old this shouldn't be such a difficult conversation. I'm sure your dentist has it easier." Queen Selenity sat on Serenity's bed as she talked to her adult daughter who hid underneath the safety of her blanket. Serenity wished that Poseidon would send the Kraken to swallow her whole. Anything to ease her misery as she reluctantly told her mother what had occurred directly following her dinner with the Terran Prince.
"Well," Queen Selenity started, "I can see why you found this to be an awkward conversation. But it does give the idea that the two of you are soul-bonded some hefty merit. However, going out and announcing it directly like this, isn't a good idea. Besides, I want to conduct some tests first, just to ensure it's the real thing. We'll need it to be somewhere crowded, where the attention isn't simply on just the two of you, so Endymion doesn't realize that we're watching him."
"Shouldn't there be some type of string that connects us to prove that we're a bound pair?" Serenity asked finally poking her head from her covers.
"It's not a physical string, sweetheart, it's more a mental one. Only the two of you should be able to see it, and it only forms after the union ceremony." The queen reminded her daughter. "A crowded area with attention elsewhere," she murmured to herself. "Oh, I've got it."
"A ball?!" Endymion asked confused.
"A ball," Nephlite confirmed.
"Tonight?" he asked incredulously at the last minute affair.
"Tonight," Nephlite said nodding as he fanned himself with the invitation that he had just received. "Maybe Princess Serenity found someone."
"Maybe." Endymion muttered under his breath finding himself a bit upset at the thought, "And Zoicite isn't back yet."
The various Senshi were stationed at various parts of the ballroom, communicators in their ear, awaiting their next order while Serenity sat next to the queen overlooking the crowd. She played with the folds of her dress as she tried to concentrate on the task her mother had set for her. 'Find Endymion in the crowd of people,' she had said. Once a soul bond had formed, it should be simple for one to locate the other once they were in close proximity to each other.
Serenity's eyes fluttered closed as she thought of Endymion; his ink black hair that fell into his dark blue eyes, how the corner of his lips would lift ever slightly when talking fondly of his home planet and the pads of fingers had felt as they had brushed so gently over her own. She inwardly groaned in frustration as she felt the same heat from the night before starting to smolder in the pit of her belly.
But there was something else as if there was something wrapped around her heart, tugging her in a direction. She followed it with her magic, walking along its path until it seemed to disappear outside and through the terrace. Reaching up to the communicator hidden in her ear, she pressed to speak. "I think he's in the gardens." With her part complete, she waited to hear from the others.
The Senshi of Love and Beauty found her way through the Bougainvilleas and made a sharp turn next to the poppies to find the Terran prince admiring the Lavender Cottons. "Prince Endymion," Minako breathed out "What a surprise. What brings you out here, with all the festivities happening inside?"
"There's a bit too much going on in there right now. So, I came out here to get some fresh air and avoid the crowds. I've actually been quite curious about the types of flowers that can grow on the moon."
"I see. Unfortunately, I can't help with you that. The Princess Makoto of Jupiter, on the other hand, is much more botanically skilled than I. Any questions should be forwarded to her or to Sere."
"Sere? The Princess?" Endymion asked. He had never heard them refer to Serenity in such a casual manner.
"Yes, Princess Serenity spends a considerable amount of time lounging about the gardens. It wouldn't surprise me if she knew the name of every last one of these things, done to even the weeds." Minako wanted to reach over and shake the stoic look off of the Prince's face. Surely he must feel something from the bond, like Serenity had. She thought he would have been aching to get a glimpse of the Lunarian heir again.
"Well, the dancing's going to start soon so I hope you'd join us. Serenity enjoyed your time together and I know she's looking forward to seeing you again." She gave her trademark 'V' sign. "I'm rooting for you."
She turned on her heel and headed back inside. Touching her hand to the small device in her hair she spoke. "Princess, you were exactly right. He seems to have a liking for botany. I also urged him back inside for a dance, so get off your butt Sere."
Serenity rolled her eyes at Minako's antics and reluctantly got out of her chair. A piece of her wanted to go outside and drag Endymion in herself, but that would not be ladylike in the least. So she stood around, looking at the dance floor as if she was interested until some hapless suitor came to ask her to dance.
Dancing with Tristan wasn't unpleasant, it was simply not what she wanted. It was almost as if her body was starting to protest the very thought of someone else. Quick glances around the room told her that he hadn't returned inside as yet and she found herself frowning. Perhaps he was avoiding her. She wanted to use the bond to find him, but she'd need to sit down and concentrate.
The Plutarian noticed Serenity's absent attention and was about to ask her if something was wrong when someone tapped on his shoulder. "I don't mean to be rude, but I haven't had a turn yet." Tristan opened his mouth, but quickly shut it when he realized who the person was standing behind of him.
"Princess Haruka," he bowed deeply. "Of course." He graciously gave up Serenity's hand and returned to where he was standing earlier against the wall. Wearing a dark blue suit with a gray collared shirt, the Princess Haruka of Uranus could have easily been mistaken for one of the suitors. Having met the princess at one of the ceremonial events on Pluto, he knew that she had a rather nasty temper when provoked.
"What's wrong, precious? Tell me the word and I'll have that Plutarian in chains and in the gladiator pits." Haruka leaned down and whispered in Serenity's ear.
"Hush, Ruka. First of all, gladiator pits are barbaric and you should get rid of them. Second, Tristan did nothing wrong. I'm just ...distracted." Serenity scolded.
"That prince of Earth taking up too much space in your head?" She questioned teasingly and let out a small chuckle when Serenity nodded, blushing.
"I was looking for him, something tells me that he might be avoiding me." Serenity replied softly.
"Oh, beautiful, the bond is different for each individual. Some feel it more than others. It's possible that he only felt a small piece of the bond and hasn't recognized it or he got the full force of it and it scared the shit out of him. Or, he's just avoiding you cause he's an asshole. Men are fools, after all." Serenity remained silent, taking in the possibilities that the Uranian had put in her head. "But don't worry. Michiru and I have a plan." Haruka said with a wink. "Before that though," she said pulling Serenity closer than before so that their bodies were flush against each other, "let's enjoy this dance."
Thank you for reading. Comments, favs and follows are always welcome. Saturnkitty, thank you for your nice comments and readership. Astrea-rose silvermoon, I'm very happy that you like the story so far. I hope you guys liked this chapter too.