Title: Childhood Memories: Anon's reply to Elysia's challenge
1/1
Author: Anon Masako
Email: sandryrose85@yahoo.com
Time Frame: Silver Millennium, sometime between chapter one of 'To Sing...' and chapter two.
Rating: G
Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor Moon. I do own Kunzite's appetite, Zoicite's sheep, Ayame's annoying questions, Ayame herself, Terrence, Terrence's goat, this story and it's plotline and adjoining story. There, I think that's it. ^_^
Notes: This is written in response to Elysia's challenge. I had to 'oldize' it a bit to work with the time and characters. This is a one-shot that has not been edited, and, as it is just a fun piece, probably will not be. (Sorry, Opal-chan. ^_^)
Ingredients: A sheep, six hundred tennis balls, an empty swimming pool (sort of), a pot of jam, and Tuxedo Kamen (~smirk/giggle~)
~~~
"Why are we looking at sheep, of all things?" Setsuna asked in a dry, questioning tone, glaring at Zoicite.
"My family have been sheep farmers for generations. It runs in the blood. Sheep make me feel... peaceful," he replied defensively.
Ayame groaned while Jadeite sighed.
"Whatever, Zoi," Kunzite said. "Let's leave. I'm hungry."
"You're always hungry, Kunzi," Setsuna told him teasingly.
"I am not!" he yelled, and began chasing her across the field.
"You can't catch me! Ha ha!!" Setsuna called gleefully back at him, which made him run faster.
"Go Sets!" Endymion called from his perch on the fence next to the sheep. "You can do it!"
Setsuna grinned as she rounded a walnut tree and started back toward her friends, narrowly dodging Kunzite's grasp.
"Sets! Get back here!" he growled, intent on revenge.
She merely chuckled in reply, and detoured over a hill. She glanced back to see how far behind her he was, and was surprised to suddenly slip on something round and go flying into the air.
"AUGHHHH!!!"
She landed awkwardly on her back, knocking the wind out of her lungs. As she gasped painfully for breath, her friends came barreling over the hill.
"Sets! What... happened..." Ayame said slowly as she saw the sight before her.
Balls. Tennis balls. Hundreds of them. "No way..." she whispered, before hurrying to join the others around Setsuna.
"Where did all these balls come from?" Endymion asked in awe as he helped Setsuna up.
"I don't know. But when I find out-" Setsuna began angrily, only to be interrupted by Nephrite.
"We get the picture, Sets. Come on, lets get out of here. It's time to get home for tea, anyway."
~~~
Kunzite eyed the pot of jam on the table hungrily. It was peach, his favorite, best on a piece of hot bread fresh out of the oven with butter... he unconsciously licked his lips. Setsuna and Endymion noticed and rolled their eyes before trading an amused look.
As Kunzite was slathering his first piece of bread with butter and jam, the others began discussing their plan of action for the rest of the afternoon.
"Let's go back to the tennis ball meadow," Nephrite said eagerly.
"Why?" Ayame asked curiously.
"I just want to!"
"Let's go get Terry first, whatever we do," Setsuna insisted.
"Why?" Ayame asked again.
"He could use a break after etiquette lessons all this morning. Poor Terry," Setsuna said sympathetically, knowing how dull the etiquette master was.
"It's his own fault he was stupid enough to let his pet goat into the Throne Room during the Weekly Audience," Zoicite cut in. "He should have known better. Some of the courtiers will never get over it!"
"But you have to admit it was funny," Setsuna replied.
Zoicite grinned. "Yeah, it was pretty funny."
Kunzite began reaching for another piece of bread, his fifth.
"Kunzi, leave some for us!" Ayame said, hitting his hand gently away from the diminishing pile of bread. He gave her a look and pulled away from the table, grumbling.
"Let's get Terry then go swimming," Endymion suggested.
"Sounds like a plan, Endy," Setsuna said with a smile. "How about it, minna-chan?"
The answer was unanimous. "Yes!"
~~~
Terrence streaked out the room in which he had been confined for the past five hours with a laugh. "Thank you for saving me!" he told his friends gleefully as they followed him out.
"Your welcome," they replied in unison. Setsuna and Endymion gave him mock bows, grinning impishly, and Terrence scowled, not appreciating the reminder of his torturous morning.
They chattered happily as they walked over to the swimming hole. Kunzite began giving a highly exaggerated version of the morning's adventures, which, although Setsuna tried hard not to show her amusement, soon had all of them laughing wildly.
"And stretching out before us was hundreds- no, thousands-, NO! Tens of thousands of tennis balls in a field. And there was Sets on her back, gasping for breath in the midst of all these tennis balls-"
"It was probably only about six hundred, Kunzi," Sets interrupted with a smile.
"What? Did you count them our something?" he replied with a grin.
"I have a certain instinct about these things," Setsuna replied mysteriously.
They all paused and glanced at each other, before breaking into laughter.
"Sets, if- HEY!" Nephrite yelled.
"What?" Sets said, confused.
"The water's all gone!" He gestured wildly around them.
"Oh- ah- hmm..." Jadeite sputtered, trying to find something to say.
"The water- the FISH- the... the rose?" Setsuna was confused.
For indeed, the water WAS gone, and the fish WERE flopping in soggy mud, and the WAS a perfect red rose sticking out of the mud on the bank.
"Weird," was all Ayame had to say about it.
Endymion frowned and walked forward to pull the rose out of the soggy dirt. "Hey minna-chan! Check this out! The rose has a-"
His revelation was interrupted as red, white, and black light surrounded him. His small form went through a variety of outfits, all which swamped him. A suit of royal armor surrounded his figure, then the garb of a desert soldier, before settling into a tuxedo, mask, and top hat (which was much too big for his head, and consequently settled to just above his nose, while the mask dangled around his neck). A cane dropped from thin air and landed on his head with a thump, before dropping onto the ground.
The light dissipated and the group stared at Endymion, and he stared back, an adorable confused expression on the lower half of his young face (which was all they could see because of the hat).
Then Kunzite broke the silence by laughing so hard he started rolling on the ground in the dirt.
As the others followed his example, a young woman garbed in a sailor fuku a few feet away, invisible to the children, smiled in remembrance, thinking how wonderful childhood was.

Owari