Title: Moon Kingdom
Author: Nekkyoo Ema
Disclaimer: Sadly I don't own these charries, but I wish I did. However, I do own the storyline. If you want to steal... just ask. ^_~
~~
"No, no! Where are the beams?" Serenity said to herself frantically. She had already reverted back to her normal form, but in her search for the beams, changed back into an Earthian. Looking up in the sky to see if the moon would come out from behind the clouds, she heard the unmistakable rumble of thunder and crack of lighting. Soon the rain was pouring down upon her.
"Did I not already get wet enough yesterday!?" She screamed into the air. Her legs buckled under her and she fell to the ground, crying.
'Gi-chan, should you not be here already?' Minakos voice asked.
Usagi sniffled, 'Nako-chan, I will not be coming back. This is my last night to come home and it is raining. I cannot find a moonbeam. You will have to wait another two and a half months.' Quickly she shut the link to her cousin off and cried in the rain.
She wanted desperately to go home. She had left Ririnas and could not return there, it would be too rude. Left to fend for herself for an Earth month, all she could think of doing at the time was cry.
~~
The next morning, the soaking wet and freezing cold girl stumbled out of the forest. With nowhere to go, she just walked down the street, hoping it would either lead her to Ririnas, where she could rest; or to the town. Neither place was found. Soon she got tired and sat on a rock to rest.
'What has the Lunarian Princess down?' a small voice asked.
Serenity turned around to see a young fawn standing behind her, "the storms clouds, last night, hid the moon from shining threw. I could not get my ride home upon it. Now I am stuck on Earth for a month until the full moon is around again."
The fawn took a few steps closer and her head in Serenity's lap, 'do not worry. It will go by faster then you think. Do you not have a place to stay?'
"I did. But I do not know if it would be rude to ask if I could stay another month. Ririna seems nice, but I think I would just be a burden, little fawn."
'Oh, I have heard of that Ririna girl. She is not the nicest person to us animals if we get on her land, but there is a blonde boy that comes out to feed my family and I sometimes. Do you know him? He would take you in, he told me that he had a huge house somewhere.'
"Do you mean Quatre-san?" Serenity asked of the fawn.
'Yes! That is the one. Here, I will lead you to the house he lives in, I followed him home once.' She fawn lifted her head from Serenity's lap and soon the two were walking threw the forest towards Quatres house, or what Serenity hoped would be his house.
'Here it is, I don't know if he's there, but I can wait with you if he isn't,' the fawn said to Serenity when they reached the house.
"Thank you, little fawn. Though I think your mother will be wondering where you are off to, may Tyche watch over you. Good bye!" (AN: Tyche is the goddess of fortune.)
'Good bye, Princess!'
She watched as the little fawn bounded back into the forest and out of sight. Soon she walked up the stairs and felt an overwhelming sense of exhaustion. Sitting with her back against the stone wall railing, she closed her eyes and fell asleep.
What seemed like only a minute later to Serenity, was actually an hour, and she was being shaken by the shoulders.
"Serenity? Hello, you awake, Serenity?" a voice said as her mind was released from cloudiness. Her eyes, not completely focused yet, caught the outline of what she thought to be a girl, but was a guy from the voice.
"Where am I?" she asked the boy, finally taking in his long chestnut brown hair in a braid. She noticed the other teens from Ririnas house behind him, "Duo?"
"So you do remember us," Duo said with a lopsided grin. Serenity lifted herself to her feet and looked at them.
"I'm sorry. I didn't catch my ride home, so I'm kind of stuck here on Earth for about a month. I didn't really know who's house this was but I guess I fell asleep on the steps." She was about to go on, but was stopped by a voice.
"Why for about a month? Surely there is another flight today," Quatre asked.
Serenity smiled weakly, "no. My ride is not like any other. It only is around two days every month. And as you know, one of those nights I was unconscious, and the other was too cloudy," she looked up at the trees upon hearing the chirps of bluebirds.
'Look, it's the Lunarian Princess!' said a bird.
'What's she doing here? The full moon ended last night.' Another answered.
Serenity walked over to the tree and smiled up at the birds, "the storm last night caused the moon to be hidden. I guess I'm hear for awhile now, aren't I?" she whispered to the birds, causing even more chirping.
Quatre looked on curiously as Serenity smiled up at the birds. Duo looked confused, he thought he had seen her talking to them. Trowa raised an eyebrow because he *had* seen her talk to the birds. Wufei snorted and turned away, most likely claming her to be a 'weak onna.' And Hiiro remained his stoic self.
Serenity lifted up a hand to the tree and when she brought it back down, a baby bluebird was perched on her slender finger. "Hey there, baby. Can you fly yet?" she asked quietly, but all five ex-assassins could hear what she was saying. To their wonderment, the bird chirped in reply. "Oh, then you must show it off," they heard her say again.
Soon the little bluebird took off from her finger and hovered in the air above her, then flew around the boys and then back to Serenity and the finger-perch and started chirping.
"Yes, that was very good. I'm sure you'll be one of the best flyers in the forest." Serenity put the little bird back in the tree with its mother and walked back to the guys. "This is your place, right, Quatre-san?" she asked.
"Yes, how did you know that?" Quatre nodded and replied.
"A little fawn told me so," she said mysteriously, "but, um, would you mind if I stayed? I can go somewhere else if you don't want me to, it's okay."
Quatre smiled, "no, it's alright, you can stay here. As you can see there's plenty of room."
Serenity smiled and hugged Quatre, "thank you so much! I will try not to be a bother." With that the group finally headed inside with the exception of Hiiro who had disappeared.
~~
"You know, one would think that you were vain with the time you spent looking at yourself in the mirror, Duo-san," Serenity said with a smile. She had been standing behind the self-proclaimed 'Shinigami' for ten minutes and not once did he stop looking at himself.
Duo turned around and looked at Serenity, "it's not nice to sneak up on people like that," he scolded.
"Well, maybe people wouldn't need sneaking up on if they didn't constantly look at themselves in the mirror," Serenity said playfully. Then, with a squeal, ran down a corridor with Duo hot on her heals.
"Do *not* tease me about my hair, Serenity," Duo said with a mock growl as he chased her. She spun around a corner, still not quite aware of where she was going and ran smack dab into something hard. Soon she felt herself falling to the ground and landing hard on her bottom.
"Aj!" She cried out in pain. She then remembered that this part of the house had hard stone floors.
"Serenity, are you okay?" Duo asked when he caught up with her, whatever it was that caused her to fall was now gone.
"Aj, aj, aj... yeah, I'll be fine," Serenity said as Duo helped her up.
'Gi-chan, you should stop talking in our native tongue. You only confuse them.'
'Yes, I know that, but it is a habit.' Serenity replied, "hey, Duo, do me a favor..."
"Sure, what?" Duo replied.
"Don't call me Serenity, just call me Usagi," she said as she rubbed the sore spot on her lower back.
"You want me to call you bunny?" Duo said in a confused voice.
Usagi looked at him, she knew that's what it meant, but she was called that because of the royal moon hairstyle, "yeah. That's what my friends call me back home."
"Okay, Bunny."
Usagi smiled, then she tagged Duo's arm. "You're it!" She had learned the game of 'Tag' from Duo her first day there. It was her second time playing, but she was a fast learner. She shot off at a run and slid around the corners, Duo was again hot on her heals.
The blonde haired girl ran into what she thought was a dead end, but saw just one door and opened it and ran inside, closing it just in time to hear a *thud* coming from Duo hitting the other side of it. She turned around to see just where she was and smiled.
Looking around the Lunarian Princess' smile grew larger. She was in her second favorite place in any large home, first if there wasn't a library. She was in the training room. "Wow, it is almost like the one at home..." she said in awe as she walked around the room.
Duo had finally managed to get the door to open now that Usagi was holding it shut and watching her walk around the room. "Bunny... it's just a training room."
"How can you say 'just a training room'? This is a very *nice* training room!" Usagi replied. She grabbed the extra training suit and slipped it on in the changing room and walked back out. "So you want to spar?" (AN: This of Wufei's training outfit, if you must. ^_^)
"Spar? With you?" Duo said in surprise.
Usagi looked around, "well, do you see anyone else asking you to spar?"
"No."
"Good, then I guess you will spar with me," Usagi said triumphantly.
Duo sighed and got into position, Usagi opposite of him. She crouched down, like a tiger ready to spring an attack on its prey and waited for him to say 'start'.
"Start," Duo finally said when he was ready. He waited for her to start with the first move, but when she didn't, he did. He tried spin-kicking her to the floor where he could pin her down, but she jumped right over it and him.
"Got to do a little better then that, Duo." She said as she swiped her leg beneath his, causing him to topple to the floor below. Duo jumped back up and she waited for him to strike.
He tried a roundhouse kick and when that didn't work, he tried punching her stomach. When he made contact, she flinched, but didn't miss a step in jumping, grabbing his head between her ankles and flipping him to the ground with her. Upon getting up, she noticed that she must have hit his eye since it was getting blue-ish.
"Okay! You win." Duo said as he put a hand over his neck and rubbed it.
'Do you not think you were a little harsh on the boy, Gi-chan?' Minako asked.
'Does he look like he will keel over anytime soon?'
'Yes, he does, actually.'
'Nako-chan!' Usagi shot back playfully and her head was soon filled with the giggles of Minako.
"Where'd you learn all that stuff, Bunny?" Duo asked.
Usagi smiled, "that is a secret, my friend. Maybe one day I shall tell you," she said as she slipped back into her tank top, skirt, and shoes. "Oh, let us go get some ice on that eye before it turns ugly."
Duo looked at her with wonderment, where she got that properness he could never quite figure out. She did act at all proper sometimes. He lead the two of them threw the maze of corridors to the kitchen and instantly he was commanded to sit down on one of the stools.
Usagi grabbed a dishcloth from a drawer after searching threw a few of them, then went to the refrigerator and brought out an ice tray and place five cubes of ice in the cloth and tied it up. "Here, put this on your eye and keep it there until I tell you to take it off."
Duo did as he was told and placed the cold bag of ice over his eye. "How is this supposed to help, Bunny?"
"Well, that and the magic words... you eye will be all better!" Usagi said in a motherly voice.
"Magic words?"
"Magic words." Usagi confirmed. "Kurerar den hyska," she said, waving her fingers over his covered eye.
"What the heck did you just say?" Duo asked when he looked up at her.
"The magic words, what else?" Usagi said with a grin. "Take the ice off in twenty minutes and I guarantee that the black eye will be gone." With that the Lunarian Princess turned and went outside for a walk in the forest. Checking around for anyone, she quickly went along the path to lake that was shown to her by the fawn.
"Anyone here besides those who know who I really am?" She asked loudly. Nothing. 'Good,' she thought, 'I do not want anyone around when I change back.' Usagi shut her eyes and reverted back to her Lunarian form, but instead of a gown, she was in a bathing suit. She walked to the edge of the water and hopped in.
'Hello, Princess,' many of the fish and creatures she swam by said. She responded with a smile and a hello back. After swimming for awhile under the water, she needed her air and surfaced only to hear a roar that sounded like thunder, but was not. She looked to the sky, but did not see any clouds.
"How can one hear thunder if there are no clouds around?" she asked herself. She was answered by another roar and soon large machines flying overhead. Not knowing if they were trouble or not, she dove under the water. "What are those things?"
'They are called shuttles,' a large crab answered.
"Shuttles? What do they do besides make a horrid noise?"
'I, personally, have never seen what they do, but my sister has and said that humans use them to transports themselves from place to place.'
"How odd..." she mused before thanking the crab and swimming back to the bank she had entered the water at.
Serenity sat under a tree for while, letting the sun dry her silver hair as she sat in her Princess gown. The swim had done her some good. It allowed her to have the fun she could not on the water-less moon.
'Serenity-hime! Serenity-hime!' the Princess heard the voice of the little fawn she had meet calling her frantically.
"What is it? What happened?" She answered back as the fawn came bounding out of the woods.
'My mother, she is caught in a trap of some sort! We can't get her out. Please, you must help her!' Fawn answered.
"Show me the way, Fawn." Serenity said with determination as she ran behind the fawn threw the woods to her mother. Serenity gasped when she saw the fawns mother. She was in a trap alright. And not a nice one at that. Her front hoof was stuck in a bear trap and her neck entangled in the rope that someone had tried to put around her.
'Serenity-hime,' the doe said, struggling to bow in respect. Serenity quickly went up to the doe and untangled her neck, wincing slightly at the rub marks and crusted blood that she knew she would also find on the leg.
"Okay, this shall hurt just a bit," Serenity said as she made her way to the does' foreleg and pulled with all her might to open the trap. "Lift it out, I cannot hold it much longer!" she said as the doe tenderly lifted her injured leg out of the trap and Serenity let it go with a clang.
'Thank you, Serenity-hime,' the doe said.
"Here, let me look at your leg. It does not look so good." Serenity replied as she felt gently along the doe's leg. "It is not broken, which is good. But you must let me clean it, if not, it will get infected."
'How would you clean it? There is nothing but the water of the lake around here.' The fawn asked.
"That is where you are mistaken. Quatre has first-aid kits all over his house. Come, I will carry you there, unless you feel you can walk on your own." Serenity asked of the doe. Her reply was a nod and a limp-walk towards the house of Quatre.
Slowly, but surely they made it to the edge of the woods where Quatres house was. Serenity quickly changed herself back into her alter ego and left the doe and fawn at the steps so she could run and get a kit.
No sooner had she left then Wufei show up. He started at the animals, then tried shooing them away. The fawn looked at her mother, then back to the stairs the Princess had climbed and was luckily descending at the moment with a box in her hands.
"Serenity, what are these animals doing here?" Wufei asked in his rudest voice possible.
Usagi did not answer him right away, but went to the doe and told her to lie down so she could fix her leg. Once again, Wufei was left in wonderment on how she could get an animal to do what she asked of them.
"This will sting slightly, so I want you to think about something else, okay?" Usagi said quietly and calmly. The doe bobbed her head up and down and then Usagi applied the stinging stuff. (AN: It's the stuff that your mom would put on your cuts when you were little that stung like hell. I can't remember the name of it. ^_^;)
"Shoot, I did not remember to bring a cloth." Usagi muttered to herself. "I shall just use my dress instead." Quickly and out of the view of Wufei, she made part of her royal gown appear and tore off just enough of the silky fabric to wrap securely around the doe's leg.
'Princess, that is the royal gown! You cannot ruin it,' the doe protested.
"It is my dress, I shall do with it what I want. Plus, you are more important then some silly royal outfit." Usagi whispered into the doe's ear. With that, Usagi wrapped the cloth around the leg and smiled. "All done. Do not put to much stress on it until you feel like it is back to normal. Come back if you need a new bandage!" She said as the doe and fawn walked back into the forest.
Now was Wufei's time to ask her again, "Serenity, what was that all about?"
"Were you not watching, Wufei-san. She was in a trap, I merely released her and helped her out. Is there something wrong with that?" Usagi answered as she gathered up the contents of the first-aid kit and walked back up the stairs, Wufei in her wake.
"You are very odd, you know that?"
"Yes, I do. Thank you for noticing, Wufei-san," she said regally before turning away from him and putting the kit back in its proper place then disappearing around the corner with Wufei looking at her oddly.
~~
That night when Serenity was lying down to bed, Minako sent her a message that they would meet in the dream world. Apparently there was something that Minako just *had* to tell her cousin.
~Dream world~
Serenity entered the world and quickly projected her Princess form and clothes to her dream body and waited for Minako to show up.
"Gi-chan!" Minako said from behind the Princess.
"Nako-chan, what too thee so long?" Usagi asked.
"The thing I have to tell you about would not let me go to bed," Minako said.
"What is this 'thing' you speak of?" Usagi asked.
"I shall tell you later, but now I want to know how it is there on Earth." Minako said.
"It is wonderful. I have to hide who I really am, but I get to see things that I never knew existed. There are bird-like machines called 'shuttles' flying in the sky, making a noise like thunder. Um, there is a box that has humans inside of it... Trowa-san told me it was called a 'television' and that the people were not really trapped in there."
"Wow, that sounds so fun!" Minako said with a smile, "What has the weather been like? No snow soon I hope."
"Nope, 'tis been clear skies and summery weather since I got here. But something tells me were are due for some wet weather."
"Good thing you are not a water sprite, then." Minako said, laughing.
"Yes, I know. Oh! Will you remember to tell my mother that I shall need a new gown when I return. I did not have any cloth when I was fixing a doe's leg and had to use a piece of my dress..." Usagi said with embarrassment.
"Sure thing."
Usagi knew something was wrong, her cousin was as easy to read as a book. "What is it that you really needed me here for? Tell me, Nako-chan."
"Gi-chan, you know when you left that your mother was delegating with the Royal Earth family?" Minako started.
"Yes, but what does that have to do with anything?" Usagi asked.
"Well, she closed a deal so that the Moon and Earth would have an alliance."
"That is good, but...?"
"Part of the deal was that you would marry the son of the Royal family. He is who kept me from coming here right away, he was asking of you. Most of all, he wanted to know why you were not there to greet your new fiancée."
"What?!" Usagi screamed furiously, "how could my mother do that to me? I am but sixteen, I am not ready for marriage yet! And besides, I do not even know what this 'prince' looks like!"
"Gi-chan, calm yourself. He is handsome in your mothers eyes; but to me he is just a pampered, spoiled brat. I was not to tell you that you were betrothed, but I could not keep it from you. I would feel far too guilty when you asked if I had known when you returned and were told by your mother."
"What is his name? I have never heard of this prince before." Usagi asked, calming herself down slightly.
"Prince Endyimon, is his name. Gi-chan, I do not think he is right for you, nor does my mother. But Queen Serenity being the eldest of the two, my mother does not dare to speak ill of the man you are betrothed to."
Usagi felt the tug of her waking up pulling her out of the dream world, "I must go. But tell my mother that I shall never marry that Prince! I shall marry whomever I choose!" With that, the Moon Princess was gone.
~Real world~
Usagi screamed into her pillow in frustration. Today would not be a cheerful day for her. She got up and dressed herself, all the while muttering, "why in the Gods names would she do something like that without consulting me? It is my life she just gave away! I am but sixteen and she is expecting me to marry... I think not!" Storming out of the room she found her way to the kitchen and plopped down into a chair, her head in her folded arms.
"Bunny, what's wrong?" Duos familiar voice asked.
Usagi looked up, "have you ever had news told to you and that the news was made without even a thought of how you would feel about it?"
Duo looked confused, "no... why?"
"Because I just got the worst news of all my sixteen years!" Usagi exclaimed, then thought, 'Mother cannot do this to me. It is not fair.' But she knew all to well that her mother could, and had done it to her. At the age of sixteen, the Lunarian Princess was betrothed to a snooty prince from the Earth she loved so much.
~~
*Crappy dramatic music plays "dun, dun, dun!"* Oooh, isn't this fun? I decided it needed to be 'spiced' up a bit, so I threw in the charrie I hate: Endyimon/Mamoru!
Oh, two things. One: If you can tell me what language this is: "Kurerar den hyska" put it in the review and I will give you a sneak preview of the third chapter of this story before it is posted. And two: Hiiro and Trowa will be mentioned a lot more in the following chapters.
'Kay? 'Kay! Jaa!
-Ema
Author: Nekkyoo Ema
Disclaimer: Sadly I don't own these charries, but I wish I did. However, I do own the storyline. If you want to steal... just ask. ^_~
~~
"No, no! Where are the beams?" Serenity said to herself frantically. She had already reverted back to her normal form, but in her search for the beams, changed back into an Earthian. Looking up in the sky to see if the moon would come out from behind the clouds, she heard the unmistakable rumble of thunder and crack of lighting. Soon the rain was pouring down upon her.
"Did I not already get wet enough yesterday!?" She screamed into the air. Her legs buckled under her and she fell to the ground, crying.
'Gi-chan, should you not be here already?' Minakos voice asked.
Usagi sniffled, 'Nako-chan, I will not be coming back. This is my last night to come home and it is raining. I cannot find a moonbeam. You will have to wait another two and a half months.' Quickly she shut the link to her cousin off and cried in the rain.
She wanted desperately to go home. She had left Ririnas and could not return there, it would be too rude. Left to fend for herself for an Earth month, all she could think of doing at the time was cry.
~~
The next morning, the soaking wet and freezing cold girl stumbled out of the forest. With nowhere to go, she just walked down the street, hoping it would either lead her to Ririnas, where she could rest; or to the town. Neither place was found. Soon she got tired and sat on a rock to rest.
'What has the Lunarian Princess down?' a small voice asked.
Serenity turned around to see a young fawn standing behind her, "the storms clouds, last night, hid the moon from shining threw. I could not get my ride home upon it. Now I am stuck on Earth for a month until the full moon is around again."
The fawn took a few steps closer and her head in Serenity's lap, 'do not worry. It will go by faster then you think. Do you not have a place to stay?'
"I did. But I do not know if it would be rude to ask if I could stay another month. Ririna seems nice, but I think I would just be a burden, little fawn."
'Oh, I have heard of that Ririna girl. She is not the nicest person to us animals if we get on her land, but there is a blonde boy that comes out to feed my family and I sometimes. Do you know him? He would take you in, he told me that he had a huge house somewhere.'
"Do you mean Quatre-san?" Serenity asked of the fawn.
'Yes! That is the one. Here, I will lead you to the house he lives in, I followed him home once.' She fawn lifted her head from Serenity's lap and soon the two were walking threw the forest towards Quatres house, or what Serenity hoped would be his house.
'Here it is, I don't know if he's there, but I can wait with you if he isn't,' the fawn said to Serenity when they reached the house.
"Thank you, little fawn. Though I think your mother will be wondering where you are off to, may Tyche watch over you. Good bye!" (AN: Tyche is the goddess of fortune.)
'Good bye, Princess!'
She watched as the little fawn bounded back into the forest and out of sight. Soon she walked up the stairs and felt an overwhelming sense of exhaustion. Sitting with her back against the stone wall railing, she closed her eyes and fell asleep.
What seemed like only a minute later to Serenity, was actually an hour, and she was being shaken by the shoulders.
"Serenity? Hello, you awake, Serenity?" a voice said as her mind was released from cloudiness. Her eyes, not completely focused yet, caught the outline of what she thought to be a girl, but was a guy from the voice.
"Where am I?" she asked the boy, finally taking in his long chestnut brown hair in a braid. She noticed the other teens from Ririnas house behind him, "Duo?"
"So you do remember us," Duo said with a lopsided grin. Serenity lifted herself to her feet and looked at them.
"I'm sorry. I didn't catch my ride home, so I'm kind of stuck here on Earth for about a month. I didn't really know who's house this was but I guess I fell asleep on the steps." She was about to go on, but was stopped by a voice.
"Why for about a month? Surely there is another flight today," Quatre asked.
Serenity smiled weakly, "no. My ride is not like any other. It only is around two days every month. And as you know, one of those nights I was unconscious, and the other was too cloudy," she looked up at the trees upon hearing the chirps of bluebirds.
'Look, it's the Lunarian Princess!' said a bird.
'What's she doing here? The full moon ended last night.' Another answered.
Serenity walked over to the tree and smiled up at the birds, "the storm last night caused the moon to be hidden. I guess I'm hear for awhile now, aren't I?" she whispered to the birds, causing even more chirping.
Quatre looked on curiously as Serenity smiled up at the birds. Duo looked confused, he thought he had seen her talking to them. Trowa raised an eyebrow because he *had* seen her talk to the birds. Wufei snorted and turned away, most likely claming her to be a 'weak onna.' And Hiiro remained his stoic self.
Serenity lifted up a hand to the tree and when she brought it back down, a baby bluebird was perched on her slender finger. "Hey there, baby. Can you fly yet?" she asked quietly, but all five ex-assassins could hear what she was saying. To their wonderment, the bird chirped in reply. "Oh, then you must show it off," they heard her say again.
Soon the little bluebird took off from her finger and hovered in the air above her, then flew around the boys and then back to Serenity and the finger-perch and started chirping.
"Yes, that was very good. I'm sure you'll be one of the best flyers in the forest." Serenity put the little bird back in the tree with its mother and walked back to the guys. "This is your place, right, Quatre-san?" she asked.
"Yes, how did you know that?" Quatre nodded and replied.
"A little fawn told me so," she said mysteriously, "but, um, would you mind if I stayed? I can go somewhere else if you don't want me to, it's okay."
Quatre smiled, "no, it's alright, you can stay here. As you can see there's plenty of room."
Serenity smiled and hugged Quatre, "thank you so much! I will try not to be a bother." With that the group finally headed inside with the exception of Hiiro who had disappeared.
~~
"You know, one would think that you were vain with the time you spent looking at yourself in the mirror, Duo-san," Serenity said with a smile. She had been standing behind the self-proclaimed 'Shinigami' for ten minutes and not once did he stop looking at himself.
Duo turned around and looked at Serenity, "it's not nice to sneak up on people like that," he scolded.
"Well, maybe people wouldn't need sneaking up on if they didn't constantly look at themselves in the mirror," Serenity said playfully. Then, with a squeal, ran down a corridor with Duo hot on her heals.
"Do *not* tease me about my hair, Serenity," Duo said with a mock growl as he chased her. She spun around a corner, still not quite aware of where she was going and ran smack dab into something hard. Soon she felt herself falling to the ground and landing hard on her bottom.
"Aj!" She cried out in pain. She then remembered that this part of the house had hard stone floors.
"Serenity, are you okay?" Duo asked when he caught up with her, whatever it was that caused her to fall was now gone.
"Aj, aj, aj... yeah, I'll be fine," Serenity said as Duo helped her up.
'Gi-chan, you should stop talking in our native tongue. You only confuse them.'
'Yes, I know that, but it is a habit.' Serenity replied, "hey, Duo, do me a favor..."
"Sure, what?" Duo replied.
"Don't call me Serenity, just call me Usagi," she said as she rubbed the sore spot on her lower back.
"You want me to call you bunny?" Duo said in a confused voice.
Usagi looked at him, she knew that's what it meant, but she was called that because of the royal moon hairstyle, "yeah. That's what my friends call me back home."
"Okay, Bunny."
Usagi smiled, then she tagged Duo's arm. "You're it!" She had learned the game of 'Tag' from Duo her first day there. It was her second time playing, but she was a fast learner. She shot off at a run and slid around the corners, Duo was again hot on her heals.
The blonde haired girl ran into what she thought was a dead end, but saw just one door and opened it and ran inside, closing it just in time to hear a *thud* coming from Duo hitting the other side of it. She turned around to see just where she was and smiled.
Looking around the Lunarian Princess' smile grew larger. She was in her second favorite place in any large home, first if there wasn't a library. She was in the training room. "Wow, it is almost like the one at home..." she said in awe as she walked around the room.
Duo had finally managed to get the door to open now that Usagi was holding it shut and watching her walk around the room. "Bunny... it's just a training room."
"How can you say 'just a training room'? This is a very *nice* training room!" Usagi replied. She grabbed the extra training suit and slipped it on in the changing room and walked back out. "So you want to spar?" (AN: This of Wufei's training outfit, if you must. ^_^)
"Spar? With you?" Duo said in surprise.
Usagi looked around, "well, do you see anyone else asking you to spar?"
"No."
"Good, then I guess you will spar with me," Usagi said triumphantly.
Duo sighed and got into position, Usagi opposite of him. She crouched down, like a tiger ready to spring an attack on its prey and waited for him to say 'start'.
"Start," Duo finally said when he was ready. He waited for her to start with the first move, but when she didn't, he did. He tried spin-kicking her to the floor where he could pin her down, but she jumped right over it and him.
"Got to do a little better then that, Duo." She said as she swiped her leg beneath his, causing him to topple to the floor below. Duo jumped back up and she waited for him to strike.
He tried a roundhouse kick and when that didn't work, he tried punching her stomach. When he made contact, she flinched, but didn't miss a step in jumping, grabbing his head between her ankles and flipping him to the ground with her. Upon getting up, she noticed that she must have hit his eye since it was getting blue-ish.
"Okay! You win." Duo said as he put a hand over his neck and rubbed it.
'Do you not think you were a little harsh on the boy, Gi-chan?' Minako asked.
'Does he look like he will keel over anytime soon?'
'Yes, he does, actually.'
'Nako-chan!' Usagi shot back playfully and her head was soon filled with the giggles of Minako.
"Where'd you learn all that stuff, Bunny?" Duo asked.
Usagi smiled, "that is a secret, my friend. Maybe one day I shall tell you," she said as she slipped back into her tank top, skirt, and shoes. "Oh, let us go get some ice on that eye before it turns ugly."
Duo looked at her with wonderment, where she got that properness he could never quite figure out. She did act at all proper sometimes. He lead the two of them threw the maze of corridors to the kitchen and instantly he was commanded to sit down on one of the stools.
Usagi grabbed a dishcloth from a drawer after searching threw a few of them, then went to the refrigerator and brought out an ice tray and place five cubes of ice in the cloth and tied it up. "Here, put this on your eye and keep it there until I tell you to take it off."
Duo did as he was told and placed the cold bag of ice over his eye. "How is this supposed to help, Bunny?"
"Well, that and the magic words... you eye will be all better!" Usagi said in a motherly voice.
"Magic words?"
"Magic words." Usagi confirmed. "Kurerar den hyska," she said, waving her fingers over his covered eye.
"What the heck did you just say?" Duo asked when he looked up at her.
"The magic words, what else?" Usagi said with a grin. "Take the ice off in twenty minutes and I guarantee that the black eye will be gone." With that the Lunarian Princess turned and went outside for a walk in the forest. Checking around for anyone, she quickly went along the path to lake that was shown to her by the fawn.
"Anyone here besides those who know who I really am?" She asked loudly. Nothing. 'Good,' she thought, 'I do not want anyone around when I change back.' Usagi shut her eyes and reverted back to her Lunarian form, but instead of a gown, she was in a bathing suit. She walked to the edge of the water and hopped in.
'Hello, Princess,' many of the fish and creatures she swam by said. She responded with a smile and a hello back. After swimming for awhile under the water, she needed her air and surfaced only to hear a roar that sounded like thunder, but was not. She looked to the sky, but did not see any clouds.
"How can one hear thunder if there are no clouds around?" she asked herself. She was answered by another roar and soon large machines flying overhead. Not knowing if they were trouble or not, she dove under the water. "What are those things?"
'They are called shuttles,' a large crab answered.
"Shuttles? What do they do besides make a horrid noise?"
'I, personally, have never seen what they do, but my sister has and said that humans use them to transports themselves from place to place.'
"How odd..." she mused before thanking the crab and swimming back to the bank she had entered the water at.
Serenity sat under a tree for while, letting the sun dry her silver hair as she sat in her Princess gown. The swim had done her some good. It allowed her to have the fun she could not on the water-less moon.
'Serenity-hime! Serenity-hime!' the Princess heard the voice of the little fawn she had meet calling her frantically.
"What is it? What happened?" She answered back as the fawn came bounding out of the woods.
'My mother, she is caught in a trap of some sort! We can't get her out. Please, you must help her!' Fawn answered.
"Show me the way, Fawn." Serenity said with determination as she ran behind the fawn threw the woods to her mother. Serenity gasped when she saw the fawns mother. She was in a trap alright. And not a nice one at that. Her front hoof was stuck in a bear trap and her neck entangled in the rope that someone had tried to put around her.
'Serenity-hime,' the doe said, struggling to bow in respect. Serenity quickly went up to the doe and untangled her neck, wincing slightly at the rub marks and crusted blood that she knew she would also find on the leg.
"Okay, this shall hurt just a bit," Serenity said as she made her way to the does' foreleg and pulled with all her might to open the trap. "Lift it out, I cannot hold it much longer!" she said as the doe tenderly lifted her injured leg out of the trap and Serenity let it go with a clang.
'Thank you, Serenity-hime,' the doe said.
"Here, let me look at your leg. It does not look so good." Serenity replied as she felt gently along the doe's leg. "It is not broken, which is good. But you must let me clean it, if not, it will get infected."
'How would you clean it? There is nothing but the water of the lake around here.' The fawn asked.
"That is where you are mistaken. Quatre has first-aid kits all over his house. Come, I will carry you there, unless you feel you can walk on your own." Serenity asked of the doe. Her reply was a nod and a limp-walk towards the house of Quatre.
Slowly, but surely they made it to the edge of the woods where Quatres house was. Serenity quickly changed herself back into her alter ego and left the doe and fawn at the steps so she could run and get a kit.
No sooner had she left then Wufei show up. He started at the animals, then tried shooing them away. The fawn looked at her mother, then back to the stairs the Princess had climbed and was luckily descending at the moment with a box in her hands.
"Serenity, what are these animals doing here?" Wufei asked in his rudest voice possible.
Usagi did not answer him right away, but went to the doe and told her to lie down so she could fix her leg. Once again, Wufei was left in wonderment on how she could get an animal to do what she asked of them.
"This will sting slightly, so I want you to think about something else, okay?" Usagi said quietly and calmly. The doe bobbed her head up and down and then Usagi applied the stinging stuff. (AN: It's the stuff that your mom would put on your cuts when you were little that stung like hell. I can't remember the name of it. ^_^;)
"Shoot, I did not remember to bring a cloth." Usagi muttered to herself. "I shall just use my dress instead." Quickly and out of the view of Wufei, she made part of her royal gown appear and tore off just enough of the silky fabric to wrap securely around the doe's leg.
'Princess, that is the royal gown! You cannot ruin it,' the doe protested.
"It is my dress, I shall do with it what I want. Plus, you are more important then some silly royal outfit." Usagi whispered into the doe's ear. With that, Usagi wrapped the cloth around the leg and smiled. "All done. Do not put to much stress on it until you feel like it is back to normal. Come back if you need a new bandage!" She said as the doe and fawn walked back into the forest.
Now was Wufei's time to ask her again, "Serenity, what was that all about?"
"Were you not watching, Wufei-san. She was in a trap, I merely released her and helped her out. Is there something wrong with that?" Usagi answered as she gathered up the contents of the first-aid kit and walked back up the stairs, Wufei in her wake.
"You are very odd, you know that?"
"Yes, I do. Thank you for noticing, Wufei-san," she said regally before turning away from him and putting the kit back in its proper place then disappearing around the corner with Wufei looking at her oddly.
~~
That night when Serenity was lying down to bed, Minako sent her a message that they would meet in the dream world. Apparently there was something that Minako just *had* to tell her cousin.
~Dream world~
Serenity entered the world and quickly projected her Princess form and clothes to her dream body and waited for Minako to show up.
"Gi-chan!" Minako said from behind the Princess.
"Nako-chan, what too thee so long?" Usagi asked.
"The thing I have to tell you about would not let me go to bed," Minako said.
"What is this 'thing' you speak of?" Usagi asked.
"I shall tell you later, but now I want to know how it is there on Earth." Minako said.
"It is wonderful. I have to hide who I really am, but I get to see things that I never knew existed. There are bird-like machines called 'shuttles' flying in the sky, making a noise like thunder. Um, there is a box that has humans inside of it... Trowa-san told me it was called a 'television' and that the people were not really trapped in there."
"Wow, that sounds so fun!" Minako said with a smile, "What has the weather been like? No snow soon I hope."
"Nope, 'tis been clear skies and summery weather since I got here. But something tells me were are due for some wet weather."
"Good thing you are not a water sprite, then." Minako said, laughing.
"Yes, I know. Oh! Will you remember to tell my mother that I shall need a new gown when I return. I did not have any cloth when I was fixing a doe's leg and had to use a piece of my dress..." Usagi said with embarrassment.
"Sure thing."
Usagi knew something was wrong, her cousin was as easy to read as a book. "What is it that you really needed me here for? Tell me, Nako-chan."
"Gi-chan, you know when you left that your mother was delegating with the Royal Earth family?" Minako started.
"Yes, but what does that have to do with anything?" Usagi asked.
"Well, she closed a deal so that the Moon and Earth would have an alliance."
"That is good, but...?"
"Part of the deal was that you would marry the son of the Royal family. He is who kept me from coming here right away, he was asking of you. Most of all, he wanted to know why you were not there to greet your new fiancée."
"What?!" Usagi screamed furiously, "how could my mother do that to me? I am but sixteen, I am not ready for marriage yet! And besides, I do not even know what this 'prince' looks like!"
"Gi-chan, calm yourself. He is handsome in your mothers eyes; but to me he is just a pampered, spoiled brat. I was not to tell you that you were betrothed, but I could not keep it from you. I would feel far too guilty when you asked if I had known when you returned and were told by your mother."
"What is his name? I have never heard of this prince before." Usagi asked, calming herself down slightly.
"Prince Endyimon, is his name. Gi-chan, I do not think he is right for you, nor does my mother. But Queen Serenity being the eldest of the two, my mother does not dare to speak ill of the man you are betrothed to."
Usagi felt the tug of her waking up pulling her out of the dream world, "I must go. But tell my mother that I shall never marry that Prince! I shall marry whomever I choose!" With that, the Moon Princess was gone.
~Real world~
Usagi screamed into her pillow in frustration. Today would not be a cheerful day for her. She got up and dressed herself, all the while muttering, "why in the Gods names would she do something like that without consulting me? It is my life she just gave away! I am but sixteen and she is expecting me to marry... I think not!" Storming out of the room she found her way to the kitchen and plopped down into a chair, her head in her folded arms.
"Bunny, what's wrong?" Duos familiar voice asked.
Usagi looked up, "have you ever had news told to you and that the news was made without even a thought of how you would feel about it?"
Duo looked confused, "no... why?"
"Because I just got the worst news of all my sixteen years!" Usagi exclaimed, then thought, 'Mother cannot do this to me. It is not fair.' But she knew all to well that her mother could, and had done it to her. At the age of sixteen, the Lunarian Princess was betrothed to a snooty prince from the Earth she loved so much.
~~
*Crappy dramatic music plays "dun, dun, dun!"* Oooh, isn't this fun? I decided it needed to be 'spiced' up a bit, so I threw in the charrie I hate: Endyimon/Mamoru!
Oh, two things. One: If you can tell me what language this is: "Kurerar den hyska" put it in the review and I will give you a sneak preview of the third chapter of this story before it is posted. And two: Hiiro and Trowa will be mentioned a lot more in the following chapters.
'Kay? 'Kay! Jaa!
-Ema