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. ^_~
Note: Nope, no one has gotten the words yet, I would give you a hint... but I do not want to. ^_~ Keep trying though, I got some pretty interesting answers so far. And I have gotten many, many requests to kill off Mamoru, *grin*, and many to have a Hiiro/Usagi fic. Maybe, just maybe, you will all get your wishes!
~~
"Arg!" Serenity screamed as she punched at the punching bag again. She had not wanted to take her anger out on Duo, nor anyone or thing else; so she had found the training room and was venting that way. "How could she do this without consulting me?! So much for the mother-daughter relationship I thought we had..."
After punching the bag almost to pieces, Serenity leaned an arm against it, then her sweaty forehead on the arm. "I do not even know what this 'Prince' looks like. ...Wait! I just might know somewhere where I can see a picture of him!" Quickly she changed herself back in 'Usagi' and ran towards a room on the other side of the mansion.
Knocking on the door, quite out of breath from running and having to say many apologies to the people she almost ran down, Usagi waited for the brown haired boy to answer his door. She smiled when he finally did. "I need your help."
~~
Minako sat on her bed, chewing nervously at her thumbnail. "Great Gods, what am I going to tell her? Surely she knows that I was not telling the truth about Endyimon. He is, in fact, not asking about her. Only talking himself... egotistical jerk."
"My child, what is wrong? If you keep at that nail it shall be no more." Aphrodite asked her daughter.
"Mother... I know that I was not to tell Serenity-hime about Endyimon, but I just could not sit around for two months waiting for her return and the guilt when she asks me if I knew about this... so I told her." Minako closed her eyes and waited for the hot-temperedness of her mother to fire at her.
"I figured you would," Minakos eyes flew open, "but you did the right thing. I do not want you to feel guilty over the 'egotistical jerk'."
Minakos cheeks turned scarlet, "I did not mean for anyone to hear that, I am sorry."
Aphrodite smiled, "I think he is, too. But do not tell anyone I said that." Then the Goddess of Love and Beauty vanished, leaving her laughing daughter behind.
"I just hope somehow Gi-chan can convince her mother she is wrong about the marriage." Minako muttered before leaving the room.
~~
"I need to learn about someone named Endyimon, do you know who he is?" Usagi asked, hope filling her eyes.
"Yeah, I've read about him, come on in." Trowa said quietly, and moved out of the way of the door as Usagi stepped in. "I don't know what book it's in, so we'll have to look."
Usagis' jaw almost dropped. There was a whole bookcase full of books; three of the shelves had mythology books on them. Sighing she said, "okay, let us get to work." She grabbed a book and looked in the index for the name, when she didn't find it she would put the book back in its place and grab another.
For almost an hour they looked, never finding what Usagi was looking for until Trowa finally said, "found it."
Usagi shut the book she was holding and put it back. She sat down next to Trowa, "what does it say?"
"Well, there is myth in here, but not a good one. But here is some information. 'Endyimon was the Prince of the Earth more then four thousand years ago, or so it is told.
'The story that was passed down from generation to generation is that there was a kingdom on the Moon. The Earth and Moon were not allies at the time, so the King and Queen of the Earth, and Queen of the Moon; who we know as Selene, arranged it so that the Prince Endyimon and the Moon Princess, Serenity, would be married. It is not known what happened with the delegation or marriage.'
"It's not a lot of information. Hey, here's a picture of what they think he looks like." Trowa said. Usagi looked at the picture of the dark haired, dark, cold eyed Prince.
"He is kind of ugly..." Usagi muttered, "it really say they do not know what happened with the marriage?" Trowa showed her the book and she smiled, "okay. Thank you so much, Trowa-san!"
"Why did you want to know that stuff anyway?"
"It just popped into my head. Got to run." Usagi said as she bolted from the room and ran outside. "That was close... but even the books do not say what happened!" She said with a squeal of delight. Turning around the corner to head out to the forest, she screamed in fright. "Oh, God, Hiiro-san. You scared me half to death!"
"Hn..."
"Maybe I should get a book on 'Hn'-ese, because apparently I shall have to learn it to have a remote conversation with you, Hiiro-san." Usagi said sarcastically, causing Hiiro to look at her almost oddly. "Do not look at me like that. You know very well that it is rude to just 'Hn' every time someone is trying to say something of importance, or non-importance."
Hiiro, just for kicks, was going to say 'Hn' again, but Usagi had already walked off. Trowa was standing behind the two, looked like he was about to laugh, but then remembered what he was going to ask Hiiro.
"Hiiro, what did Usagi say her name was when she introduced herself?"
"Serenity. Why?" Hiiro replied.
"Because she asked me about a prince named Endyimon. And guess what the name of his fiancée was that she didn't know?" For once, Hiiro had no clue as to what the answer would be and just shrugged. "Princess Serenity."
"Did you say 'Princess'?" Hiiro sputtered. Surely the sarcastic teen who had just walked off was not a princess.
"Yeah, but I think it's a coincidence, she doesn't act like the princess type." Trowa said, not to confident in his own answer.
"Hmmm... If the history books do not know what happened, then does that mean that either it will be added once I do something about it; or they just do not know?" Serenity mused to herself. When she had been thinking and walking, she had unconsciously changed back into her normal form.
"Or maybe, there was a big scandal and the whole thing was called off?" She said, "no. That would not happen. You have been reading to many fantasy books, Serenity. ...Dear, look at me, talking to myself. I am losing it." She sat down under a tree that had lost almost all its leaves already.
"'Tis not fair. Nako-chan is not betrothed to anyone just for the 'good of the planet'. No, she gets to be a normal goddess-to-be and sprite." Serenity said as her head hit the tree hard. Somehow she thought that banging her head upon the tree would help. It did nothing but give her a headache.
And an idea. "Wait. What if I never went back to the moon? Then I would not have to be married and I could stay here! No... that would be far too rude to Quatre-san. And, I cannot survive without the power I receive from the moon and Ginzuishou. Darn it!"
'Gi-chan, there is no way to get out of this marriage, unless you talk to your mother. But she will be to far in by the time you return. I think it has reached the point of no return.' Minakos voice sounded in Serenity's mind.
'No! I will not believe that, I will not give up!' Serenity said, 'there has got to be a way to stop anything from happening. I just wish I was not stuck here on Earth!'
'Then I guess I will say that you should not give up hope that your mother will come to her senses about this marriage. I have to go now, you-know-who is bugging me again.'
Serenity could almost here her cousin sigh annoyingly. "Arg! This has got to be to most horrible point of my life! First, I get stuck on Earth because I miss the moonbeam; next, I find out that somehow I am now betrothed to a snooty, egotistical prince I have never met; and now, I have no way to contact my mother and get her to come to her senses!"
Serenity felt like crying in frustration, but did not. "I guess my life is more like an Earthian teenagers then I thought. My parent is ruining my life." She said in mid-disbelief.
"Bunny! Bunny, where are you?" Serenity heard Duos voice. It wasn't to far from where she sat. Quickly she changed herself back into Usagi, something that would drain her power if she kept having to do.
"Over here, Duo!" She answered. 'There has got to be a way I can get to the Moon. I need power...'
"What'cha doing all the way out here?" Duo asked as he plopped down next to her.
"Looking at the scenery," she answered. It wasn't a full lie, she was looking at the scenery now. "Duo, is there a way I can get to the moon?" she finally asked.
"Yeah, all you have to do is take a shuttle."
"You mean those loud bird-like contraptions. Well, if that is the only way, then I guess it shall have to do. Do you know when the next flight is?"
"No. But I think we can find out. Why on Earth would you want to go to the Moon, anyways?" Duo asked.
"I always wanted to ... see it up close. You know?" Usagi tired to pass as her reason why. Duo shrugged. It wasn't an odd thing that she wanted to go to the moon, she spent tons of time looking at it when it came out.
~~
Two days later, Usagi, Duo, and Trowa who had decided to tag along, boarded a shuttle to the Moon.
"You're going to feel a little jolt, it's not that different from an airplanes, so don't worry," Duo said to Usagi as they strapped in.
She was about to ask him what an airplane was, but the little jolt came sooner then she thought it would. She squeezed the armrest until she felt that they were going in a smooth path.
"Look at that view, Usagi." Trowa said to her as he looked, and pointed out the window at the Earth.
Usagi didn't even look at the window, just merely said, "I have seen that view many more times then I can count..."
"But you said that you've never been on a shuttle," Duo protested.
Usagi gave him a hard, regal look, "I have seen it a lot more then you think."
Duo looked to Trowa, silently asking him what that was all about. Trowa just shrugged.
'Darn it all. I need to get to the moon fast! I have been on Earth for almost two and half weeks without soaking power up from the Moon. Stupid me, I should have done that when everyone else was asleep. Now I have to actually *be* there to get energy.' Usagi thought furiously.
"Hey, Bunny, you better put this spacesuit on before you go out there. Otherwise you'll suffocate and die." Duo said as he handed the Lunarian a 'spacesuit' as he had called it. She wanted to tell him that she most defiantly would not need it, but she couldn't. So she complied and put the suit on.
When she stepped out of the ship she nearly gasped. The moon looked so... dead. It did not look anything like what she was used to. She looked for the gardens, the people, the... life. But there was none. All she could see was a bunch of people walking around in the suits.
"I am going to look around, do not worry, I will be okay." Usagi said to Trowa and Duo. She left them before they could persuade her to not go off on her own. When she saw that she was out of everyone's view, she rid herself of the suit and her Usagi persona all together.
Gasping as if she were a human who just surfaced from swimming under the water far to long, Serenity soaked up what energy she could find left in her home. "How could the Moon turn into such a dead place? It is nothing like home..." she said to herself.
Sitting down on the dust of what was left of her Moon home, she looked at the view of the Earth. "I guess it is different then what I see from my room. It looks more full of life then it does in my time." She said to herself. She ran her fingers back and forth threw the dusty terrain.
"Bunny?!" A surprised voice said from behind her. Involuntarily she turned around to see Duo staring at her, wide-eyed and mouth agape.
"Err... shoot! What a time for me to forget the incantation!" Serenity said to herself. "Oh! Glommer hursa du befogad sag!" She said, waving her hand in front of Duo's face while she changed back into the space suited Usagi.
"What? Oh, hey Bunny," Duo said as the 'forget what you just saw' spell finished its duty.
"Hey, Duo. Lets get going, we do not want to miss the shuttle back!" Usagi said as she dragged the braided one back to the shuttle. 'Oh, Great Gods, that was WAY to close this time. What if the incantation does not work because I was changing back into Usagi while it was working?' She thought, 'No! It will work, it has to. My life depends on it...'
They boarded the shuttle, ridding themselves of the suits.
"See anything interesting, Usagi?" Trowa asked when they were on their way back to the Earth.
"...Yeah," she replied. "Really interesting..."
"Was that a short trip, or is it just me? I mean, it feels like we were only there for ten minutes." Duo asked.
'If only you knew,' Usagi thought, "guess time just flies when your having fun." She said the age-old saying. To her luck, Duo bought it.
When they landed back on Earth, it was night time already. Usagi walked between Duo and Trowa so the moons beams could not touch her and show her secret.
"Bunny, why do you keep doing that?" Duo finally said after the fifth time Usagi had move from far side of Trowa to the far side of Duo.
"Doing what?" She asked as she moved to the middle of the two teens again.
"That! Every corner we turn it's a new place for you. What's with that?" Duo informed her.
"Um..." Usagi said.
'Youdonotlikewalkinginjustonespotsometimes. Soyoumovearound!' A flurry of words said in her mind belonging to the one and only Minako.
'Thanks, Nako-chan. ...I think,' Usagi thought, trying to suppress her laughter, "I do not like to walk in just one spot sometimes... so I move around."
Trowa looked down at the shorter girl curiously, "that's... odd..."
"I know," Usagi said with a smile as she moved to the far side of Trowa. She was only moving because every darn time they turned a corner a moonbeam could shine on her, so she had to hide behind the tall teens accompanying her.
'Oh, and by the way, Mr. Egomaniac went back to Earth. But mother told me he will be back. At least I have a few days of freedom from hearing about the man. He thinks he is so great, I think I shall puke the next time someone says his name.' Minako said to Usagi.
Usagi shuddered, 'I feel for you, Nako-chan. But in that case, I guess I have the advantage of being on Earth in a different time. Oh, and stop listening to my conversations, do you not have anything better to do?' She scolded playfully.
'Do you not remember that my life revolves around you?' Minako said in an equally playful tone, 'actually, there is something I have to do. See you in two weeks your time.'
'Okay.' Usagi said. She quickly moved to Duos' right side, almost getting caught off guard by the moonbeam. But luckily for her, they had just gotten to the house. "G'night, you guys." She said as she practically ran to her room. A moonbeam had hit her fingers when she had opened the door and soon she was going to start her change.
'Hurry, hurry, hurry,' she chanted to herself as she slid around the corner and into her room. She shut the door just in time, she started to glow, and then changed into a fairy-like Lunarian Princess. "I should really do something about the whole 'close call' stuff that has happened to me this week. It is getting out of hand."
She looked at herself in the mirror and forgot how much she loved to be the way she looked right now. She reached back and touched the feathery wings. "I still do not know what your purpose is..." she mumbled. Bathing herself and then lying down in bed she thought of all the things that she had seen, done, and heard about so far in her adventure.
~~
Serenity sat up and yawned loudly. She had gotten a very good nights sleep with her energy renewed. She could not get the images of the desolate moon out of her head, or the look on Duos face when he saw the Princess sitting there without a suit and with silver hair.
She looked out the window and noticed there was weird icy stuff on the corners of the windows. 'Wonder what that is...' she thought as she quickly changed into some clothes other then her nightgown.
Upon reaching the kitchen she noticed all the guys sitting around the table, most drinking the black stuff they called 'coffee'. She smiled at them and said good morning.
"Hey, do any of you know what that icy stuff is on the windows?" She asked when she saw that it was not just her windows that had it on them.
"It's frost, Bunny." Duo said as he ate the huge pancakes on his plate and sipped at his coffee.
Usagi made herself a cup of hot chocolate, which she had taken an instant liking to when she first tried it. "Why is it there? I did not think it was cold enough for frost yet..."
"There was a big freeze late last night. The whole city is in a blanket of snow. Only about an inch deep though." Hiiro replied as he got up to get himself more coffee.
'Blanket of snow' was all Usagi needed to drop her hot chocolate. Snow? How could things be so bad for her this week. Everyone looked at her. She seemed to be in a trance-like state, the hot chocolate just spilled all over the floor at her feet and the broken cup lying with it.
Snapping out of it, she quickly fled from the room at a full run to the nearest door, which happened to be the front one. She threw open the door and quickly halted. It was true. Everywhere she looked there was snow. On the trees, in the streets, on the door.
"She must really like the snow..." Duo said back in the kitchen where Quatre and he were mopping up the spilled drink and broken cup. Trowa had gone in search of someone who could turn up the heater, since it was freezing in the large mansion. Wufei muttered Chinese and left to the training room. And Hiiro disappeared to who knows where.
Usagi wanted to slam to door, hard. But she knew she could not so she just shut it again and walked calmly through the corridors to an unsuspecting punching bag in an unsuspecting training room. She walked into the room, never noticing Wufei since he was in the men's changing room, and started to assault the punching bag.
'Arg! Could this stupid week get any worse!? No, do not say that Serenity, that will only jinx it. Stupid snow. Now I really cannot go outside.' She thought. Taking one last and final blow the bag fell to the floor. "Anamma!" Usagis' native language curse flew from her mouth before she even thought about it.
Wufei, if he wasn't such a pompous ass (AN: *Grin*), would have dropped his jaw at the sight he had seen. When he heard someone punching the bag he was going to use, he had walked out and saw the flying fists of Usagi. His face registered confusion when he heard the curse.
Usagi sighed at the site of the fallen bag and quickly turned to leave the room. Never did she notice the stunned Chinese teenager that was standing behind her.
"Snowball fight!" Usagi heard Duo scream from somewhere around her as she saw the flying ball of white coming her way. Screaming she jumped out of the way.
"There's more where that came from, Bunny." Duo said as he popped out from his hiding place in a closet and threw another one at the teen.
"No, Duo. Stop!" She screamed as she dove out of the way again. She could not get hit by one of the snowballs. Once again, her secret depended on it. Usagi ran past Duo's onslaught of snowballs and fled to her room.
'Gi-chan, do you remember the incantation for invisibility?' Minako asked.
'No, I shall just have to do without it this time.' Usagi replied. She reached her room and ran inside, hearing the 'thump' of a snowball hitting her door.
"I'm going to get you, Bunny. You can't escape!" Duo said with an evil laugh as he entered the room.
Usagi quickly changed to Serenity who quickly used up some energy to make herself disappear and appear outside at the lake.
"Uh-oh. Snow..." Serenity said. In a trail of light, starting from her feet to the top of her head; Serenity changed into her Snow Goddess form. "Gee, this is just great! Not only did I use tons of energy just to get myself out here, I had to go and waste some more by turning into Nysno!"
"State your name and purpose." Hiiros monotone soldier voice said. He had almost forgotten it when he had seen the creature he was talking to. Nysno cursed to herself. She slowly turned around and smiled at Hiiro. Something about that smile and those eyes was familiar to Hiiro, but he didn't know what. He looked at the person. She was oddly dressed in a sliver-blue dress that matched the snow on the ground and her waist-long sliver hair flowing down her back.
"My name is Nysno. I have no real purpose here but to be the Snow Goddess that I am." She said. She really was far to exhausted to care if he knew that she was a Snow Goddess.
"Where is Usagi? I heard her just a minute ago." He asked.
"My, my, my. Aren't we full of questions, Hiiro. Maybe you should try talking to Usagi sometimes besides just saying 'Hn', that is very rude if you did not know." Nysno said.
"How did you know that about me? And how did you know my name?" He asked. He didn't have his gun out yet, but his hand was placed on it ready to pull at any time.
"I know these things. Maybe you should go talk to Usagi. She is in the library. Bye, Hiiro." With a wink of her eye and a grin, Nysno disappeared.
Inside the library Usagi sat, almost on the verge of a blackout from exhaustion, in a large and comfortable chair. She had heard Quatre letting Duo have it for throwing snowballs in the house, and at their guest of all people. When she heard the door of the library open, she had to admit she was a bit surprised.
"Hey, Hiiro," she said even though she could not see where he stood behind her.
"How'd you know it was me?" Hiiro asked as he sat in the chair across from her.
"Eh, call it a sixth sense. And besides, who else would walk into a library and try to be as quite as he can possibly be?" She said with the same wink and grin that Nysno had given him.
"Hn..."
Usagi sighed, "you are hopeless."
"I'm not hopeless." Hiiro protested, though he didn't know why.
Usagi gave him a skeptical look, "you never say anything to me besides 'Hn.' How is that not hopeless? Duo said something about you guys not having to do your job that I cannot know about for almost a year, is that your problem?"
Hiiro made a mental note to hurt the braided baka for even mentioning their jobs to Usagi in the first place, then answered, "no. This is how I am."
"Well how do you expect to get any friends that way? I mean, I try and try to get you to talk and try to be your friend but you just push me away." Usagi stated. She was so exhausted she could barely keep up with the conversation, or lack thereof.
'Friends? She wants to be my friend? Is she insane?' Hiiro asked himself. He then heard Usagi sighed.
"I take it your done talking, so I guess I will just leave you alone. Bye, Hiiro... and just remember, I am always around to listen." With that the exhausted blonde stood up from the chair and smiled. She only got but four steps away form the chair, one from Hiiros chair before she collapsed.
"Usagi!" Hiiro said as he tried to catch her from the descent, but didn't. He tapped at her cheeks with his hand when he flipped her to her back, "Usagi? Usagi wake up." He said over and over again. He could tell just by the way she looked that she was exhausted, he had noticed it right when he looked at her upon entering the library.
He lifted up the lightweight girl and placed her on one of the couches and tried again to wake her up.
~~
^_^ Okay, not much of a cliffie, but it'll work. No one has gotten what the language is yet, so keep trying! When someone gets it I'll hopefully have the next chapter ready and I will send it to them so they can read it, and then post it up on ff.net. :) 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. ^_~
Note: Nope, no one has gotten the words yet, I would give you a hint... but I do not want to. ^_~ Keep trying though, I got some pretty interesting answers so far. And I have gotten many, many requests to kill off Mamoru, *grin*, and many to have a Hiiro/Usagi fic. Maybe, just maybe, you will all get your wishes!
~~
"Arg!" Serenity screamed as she punched at the punching bag again. She had not wanted to take her anger out on Duo, nor anyone or thing else; so she had found the training room and was venting that way. "How could she do this without consulting me?! So much for the mother-daughter relationship I thought we had..."
After punching the bag almost to pieces, Serenity leaned an arm against it, then her sweaty forehead on the arm. "I do not even know what this 'Prince' looks like. ...Wait! I just might know somewhere where I can see a picture of him!" Quickly she changed herself back in 'Usagi' and ran towards a room on the other side of the mansion.
Knocking on the door, quite out of breath from running and having to say many apologies to the people she almost ran down, Usagi waited for the brown haired boy to answer his door. She smiled when he finally did. "I need your help."
~~
Minako sat on her bed, chewing nervously at her thumbnail. "Great Gods, what am I going to tell her? Surely she knows that I was not telling the truth about Endyimon. He is, in fact, not asking about her. Only talking himself... egotistical jerk."
"My child, what is wrong? If you keep at that nail it shall be no more." Aphrodite asked her daughter.
"Mother... I know that I was not to tell Serenity-hime about Endyimon, but I just could not sit around for two months waiting for her return and the guilt when she asks me if I knew about this... so I told her." Minako closed her eyes and waited for the hot-temperedness of her mother to fire at her.
"I figured you would," Minakos eyes flew open, "but you did the right thing. I do not want you to feel guilty over the 'egotistical jerk'."
Minakos cheeks turned scarlet, "I did not mean for anyone to hear that, I am sorry."
Aphrodite smiled, "I think he is, too. But do not tell anyone I said that." Then the Goddess of Love and Beauty vanished, leaving her laughing daughter behind.
"I just hope somehow Gi-chan can convince her mother she is wrong about the marriage." Minako muttered before leaving the room.
~~
"I need to learn about someone named Endyimon, do you know who he is?" Usagi asked, hope filling her eyes.
"Yeah, I've read about him, come on in." Trowa said quietly, and moved out of the way of the door as Usagi stepped in. "I don't know what book it's in, so we'll have to look."
Usagis' jaw almost dropped. There was a whole bookcase full of books; three of the shelves had mythology books on them. Sighing she said, "okay, let us get to work." She grabbed a book and looked in the index for the name, when she didn't find it she would put the book back in its place and grab another.
For almost an hour they looked, never finding what Usagi was looking for until Trowa finally said, "found it."
Usagi shut the book she was holding and put it back. She sat down next to Trowa, "what does it say?"
"Well, there is myth in here, but not a good one. But here is some information. 'Endyimon was the Prince of the Earth more then four thousand years ago, or so it is told.
'The story that was passed down from generation to generation is that there was a kingdom on the Moon. The Earth and Moon were not allies at the time, so the King and Queen of the Earth, and Queen of the Moon; who we know as Selene, arranged it so that the Prince Endyimon and the Moon Princess, Serenity, would be married. It is not known what happened with the delegation or marriage.'
"It's not a lot of information. Hey, here's a picture of what they think he looks like." Trowa said. Usagi looked at the picture of the dark haired, dark, cold eyed Prince.
"He is kind of ugly..." Usagi muttered, "it really say they do not know what happened with the marriage?" Trowa showed her the book and she smiled, "okay. Thank you so much, Trowa-san!"
"Why did you want to know that stuff anyway?"
"It just popped into my head. Got to run." Usagi said as she bolted from the room and ran outside. "That was close... but even the books do not say what happened!" She said with a squeal of delight. Turning around the corner to head out to the forest, she screamed in fright. "Oh, God, Hiiro-san. You scared me half to death!"
"Hn..."
"Maybe I should get a book on 'Hn'-ese, because apparently I shall have to learn it to have a remote conversation with you, Hiiro-san." Usagi said sarcastically, causing Hiiro to look at her almost oddly. "Do not look at me like that. You know very well that it is rude to just 'Hn' every time someone is trying to say something of importance, or non-importance."
Hiiro, just for kicks, was going to say 'Hn' again, but Usagi had already walked off. Trowa was standing behind the two, looked like he was about to laugh, but then remembered what he was going to ask Hiiro.
"Hiiro, what did Usagi say her name was when she introduced herself?"
"Serenity. Why?" Hiiro replied.
"Because she asked me about a prince named Endyimon. And guess what the name of his fiancée was that she didn't know?" For once, Hiiro had no clue as to what the answer would be and just shrugged. "Princess Serenity."
"Did you say 'Princess'?" Hiiro sputtered. Surely the sarcastic teen who had just walked off was not a princess.
"Yeah, but I think it's a coincidence, she doesn't act like the princess type." Trowa said, not to confident in his own answer.
"Hmmm... If the history books do not know what happened, then does that mean that either it will be added once I do something about it; or they just do not know?" Serenity mused to herself. When she had been thinking and walking, she had unconsciously changed back into her normal form.
"Or maybe, there was a big scandal and the whole thing was called off?" She said, "no. That would not happen. You have been reading to many fantasy books, Serenity. ...Dear, look at me, talking to myself. I am losing it." She sat down under a tree that had lost almost all its leaves already.
"'Tis not fair. Nako-chan is not betrothed to anyone just for the 'good of the planet'. No, she gets to be a normal goddess-to-be and sprite." Serenity said as her head hit the tree hard. Somehow she thought that banging her head upon the tree would help. It did nothing but give her a headache.
And an idea. "Wait. What if I never went back to the moon? Then I would not have to be married and I could stay here! No... that would be far too rude to Quatre-san. And, I cannot survive without the power I receive from the moon and Ginzuishou. Darn it!"
'Gi-chan, there is no way to get out of this marriage, unless you talk to your mother. But she will be to far in by the time you return. I think it has reached the point of no return.' Minakos voice sounded in Serenity's mind.
'No! I will not believe that, I will not give up!' Serenity said, 'there has got to be a way to stop anything from happening. I just wish I was not stuck here on Earth!'
'Then I guess I will say that you should not give up hope that your mother will come to her senses about this marriage. I have to go now, you-know-who is bugging me again.'
Serenity could almost here her cousin sigh annoyingly. "Arg! This has got to be to most horrible point of my life! First, I get stuck on Earth because I miss the moonbeam; next, I find out that somehow I am now betrothed to a snooty, egotistical prince I have never met; and now, I have no way to contact my mother and get her to come to her senses!"
Serenity felt like crying in frustration, but did not. "I guess my life is more like an Earthian teenagers then I thought. My parent is ruining my life." She said in mid-disbelief.
"Bunny! Bunny, where are you?" Serenity heard Duos voice. It wasn't to far from where she sat. Quickly she changed herself back into Usagi, something that would drain her power if she kept having to do.
"Over here, Duo!" She answered. 'There has got to be a way I can get to the Moon. I need power...'
"What'cha doing all the way out here?" Duo asked as he plopped down next to her.
"Looking at the scenery," she answered. It wasn't a full lie, she was looking at the scenery now. "Duo, is there a way I can get to the moon?" she finally asked.
"Yeah, all you have to do is take a shuttle."
"You mean those loud bird-like contraptions. Well, if that is the only way, then I guess it shall have to do. Do you know when the next flight is?"
"No. But I think we can find out. Why on Earth would you want to go to the Moon, anyways?" Duo asked.
"I always wanted to ... see it up close. You know?" Usagi tired to pass as her reason why. Duo shrugged. It wasn't an odd thing that she wanted to go to the moon, she spent tons of time looking at it when it came out.
~~
Two days later, Usagi, Duo, and Trowa who had decided to tag along, boarded a shuttle to the Moon.
"You're going to feel a little jolt, it's not that different from an airplanes, so don't worry," Duo said to Usagi as they strapped in.
She was about to ask him what an airplane was, but the little jolt came sooner then she thought it would. She squeezed the armrest until she felt that they were going in a smooth path.
"Look at that view, Usagi." Trowa said to her as he looked, and pointed out the window at the Earth.
Usagi didn't even look at the window, just merely said, "I have seen that view many more times then I can count..."
"But you said that you've never been on a shuttle," Duo protested.
Usagi gave him a hard, regal look, "I have seen it a lot more then you think."
Duo looked to Trowa, silently asking him what that was all about. Trowa just shrugged.
'Darn it all. I need to get to the moon fast! I have been on Earth for almost two and half weeks without soaking power up from the Moon. Stupid me, I should have done that when everyone else was asleep. Now I have to actually *be* there to get energy.' Usagi thought furiously.
"Hey, Bunny, you better put this spacesuit on before you go out there. Otherwise you'll suffocate and die." Duo said as he handed the Lunarian a 'spacesuit' as he had called it. She wanted to tell him that she most defiantly would not need it, but she couldn't. So she complied and put the suit on.
When she stepped out of the ship she nearly gasped. The moon looked so... dead. It did not look anything like what she was used to. She looked for the gardens, the people, the... life. But there was none. All she could see was a bunch of people walking around in the suits.
"I am going to look around, do not worry, I will be okay." Usagi said to Trowa and Duo. She left them before they could persuade her to not go off on her own. When she saw that she was out of everyone's view, she rid herself of the suit and her Usagi persona all together.
Gasping as if she were a human who just surfaced from swimming under the water far to long, Serenity soaked up what energy she could find left in her home. "How could the Moon turn into such a dead place? It is nothing like home..." she said to herself.
Sitting down on the dust of what was left of her Moon home, she looked at the view of the Earth. "I guess it is different then what I see from my room. It looks more full of life then it does in my time." She said to herself. She ran her fingers back and forth threw the dusty terrain.
"Bunny?!" A surprised voice said from behind her. Involuntarily she turned around to see Duo staring at her, wide-eyed and mouth agape.
"Err... shoot! What a time for me to forget the incantation!" Serenity said to herself. "Oh! Glommer hursa du befogad sag!" She said, waving her hand in front of Duo's face while she changed back into the space suited Usagi.
"What? Oh, hey Bunny," Duo said as the 'forget what you just saw' spell finished its duty.
"Hey, Duo. Lets get going, we do not want to miss the shuttle back!" Usagi said as she dragged the braided one back to the shuttle. 'Oh, Great Gods, that was WAY to close this time. What if the incantation does not work because I was changing back into Usagi while it was working?' She thought, 'No! It will work, it has to. My life depends on it...'
They boarded the shuttle, ridding themselves of the suits.
"See anything interesting, Usagi?" Trowa asked when they were on their way back to the Earth.
"...Yeah," she replied. "Really interesting..."
"Was that a short trip, or is it just me? I mean, it feels like we were only there for ten minutes." Duo asked.
'If only you knew,' Usagi thought, "guess time just flies when your having fun." She said the age-old saying. To her luck, Duo bought it.
When they landed back on Earth, it was night time already. Usagi walked between Duo and Trowa so the moons beams could not touch her and show her secret.
"Bunny, why do you keep doing that?" Duo finally said after the fifth time Usagi had move from far side of Trowa to the far side of Duo.
"Doing what?" She asked as she moved to the middle of the two teens again.
"That! Every corner we turn it's a new place for you. What's with that?" Duo informed her.
"Um..." Usagi said.
'Youdonotlikewalkinginjustonespotsometimes. Soyoumovearound!' A flurry of words said in her mind belonging to the one and only Minako.
'Thanks, Nako-chan. ...I think,' Usagi thought, trying to suppress her laughter, "I do not like to walk in just one spot sometimes... so I move around."
Trowa looked down at the shorter girl curiously, "that's... odd..."
"I know," Usagi said with a smile as she moved to the far side of Trowa. She was only moving because every darn time they turned a corner a moonbeam could shine on her, so she had to hide behind the tall teens accompanying her.
'Oh, and by the way, Mr. Egomaniac went back to Earth. But mother told me he will be back. At least I have a few days of freedom from hearing about the man. He thinks he is so great, I think I shall puke the next time someone says his name.' Minako said to Usagi.
Usagi shuddered, 'I feel for you, Nako-chan. But in that case, I guess I have the advantage of being on Earth in a different time. Oh, and stop listening to my conversations, do you not have anything better to do?' She scolded playfully.
'Do you not remember that my life revolves around you?' Minako said in an equally playful tone, 'actually, there is something I have to do. See you in two weeks your time.'
'Okay.' Usagi said. She quickly moved to Duos' right side, almost getting caught off guard by the moonbeam. But luckily for her, they had just gotten to the house. "G'night, you guys." She said as she practically ran to her room. A moonbeam had hit her fingers when she had opened the door and soon she was going to start her change.
'Hurry, hurry, hurry,' she chanted to herself as she slid around the corner and into her room. She shut the door just in time, she started to glow, and then changed into a fairy-like Lunarian Princess. "I should really do something about the whole 'close call' stuff that has happened to me this week. It is getting out of hand."
She looked at herself in the mirror and forgot how much she loved to be the way she looked right now. She reached back and touched the feathery wings. "I still do not know what your purpose is..." she mumbled. Bathing herself and then lying down in bed she thought of all the things that she had seen, done, and heard about so far in her adventure.
~~
Serenity sat up and yawned loudly. She had gotten a very good nights sleep with her energy renewed. She could not get the images of the desolate moon out of her head, or the look on Duos face when he saw the Princess sitting there without a suit and with silver hair.
She looked out the window and noticed there was weird icy stuff on the corners of the windows. 'Wonder what that is...' she thought as she quickly changed into some clothes other then her nightgown.
Upon reaching the kitchen she noticed all the guys sitting around the table, most drinking the black stuff they called 'coffee'. She smiled at them and said good morning.
"Hey, do any of you know what that icy stuff is on the windows?" She asked when she saw that it was not just her windows that had it on them.
"It's frost, Bunny." Duo said as he ate the huge pancakes on his plate and sipped at his coffee.
Usagi made herself a cup of hot chocolate, which she had taken an instant liking to when she first tried it. "Why is it there? I did not think it was cold enough for frost yet..."
"There was a big freeze late last night. The whole city is in a blanket of snow. Only about an inch deep though." Hiiro replied as he got up to get himself more coffee.
'Blanket of snow' was all Usagi needed to drop her hot chocolate. Snow? How could things be so bad for her this week. Everyone looked at her. She seemed to be in a trance-like state, the hot chocolate just spilled all over the floor at her feet and the broken cup lying with it.
Snapping out of it, she quickly fled from the room at a full run to the nearest door, which happened to be the front one. She threw open the door and quickly halted. It was true. Everywhere she looked there was snow. On the trees, in the streets, on the door.
"She must really like the snow..." Duo said back in the kitchen where Quatre and he were mopping up the spilled drink and broken cup. Trowa had gone in search of someone who could turn up the heater, since it was freezing in the large mansion. Wufei muttered Chinese and left to the training room. And Hiiro disappeared to who knows where.
Usagi wanted to slam to door, hard. But she knew she could not so she just shut it again and walked calmly through the corridors to an unsuspecting punching bag in an unsuspecting training room. She walked into the room, never noticing Wufei since he was in the men's changing room, and started to assault the punching bag.
'Arg! Could this stupid week get any worse!? No, do not say that Serenity, that will only jinx it. Stupid snow. Now I really cannot go outside.' She thought. Taking one last and final blow the bag fell to the floor. "Anamma!" Usagis' native language curse flew from her mouth before she even thought about it.
Wufei, if he wasn't such a pompous ass (AN: *Grin*), would have dropped his jaw at the sight he had seen. When he heard someone punching the bag he was going to use, he had walked out and saw the flying fists of Usagi. His face registered confusion when he heard the curse.
Usagi sighed at the site of the fallen bag and quickly turned to leave the room. Never did she notice the stunned Chinese teenager that was standing behind her.
"Snowball fight!" Usagi heard Duo scream from somewhere around her as she saw the flying ball of white coming her way. Screaming she jumped out of the way.
"There's more where that came from, Bunny." Duo said as he popped out from his hiding place in a closet and threw another one at the teen.
"No, Duo. Stop!" She screamed as she dove out of the way again. She could not get hit by one of the snowballs. Once again, her secret depended on it. Usagi ran past Duo's onslaught of snowballs and fled to her room.
'Gi-chan, do you remember the incantation for invisibility?' Minako asked.
'No, I shall just have to do without it this time.' Usagi replied. She reached her room and ran inside, hearing the 'thump' of a snowball hitting her door.
"I'm going to get you, Bunny. You can't escape!" Duo said with an evil laugh as he entered the room.
Usagi quickly changed to Serenity who quickly used up some energy to make herself disappear and appear outside at the lake.
"Uh-oh. Snow..." Serenity said. In a trail of light, starting from her feet to the top of her head; Serenity changed into her Snow Goddess form. "Gee, this is just great! Not only did I use tons of energy just to get myself out here, I had to go and waste some more by turning into Nysno!"
"State your name and purpose." Hiiros monotone soldier voice said. He had almost forgotten it when he had seen the creature he was talking to. Nysno cursed to herself. She slowly turned around and smiled at Hiiro. Something about that smile and those eyes was familiar to Hiiro, but he didn't know what. He looked at the person. She was oddly dressed in a sliver-blue dress that matched the snow on the ground and her waist-long sliver hair flowing down her back.
"My name is Nysno. I have no real purpose here but to be the Snow Goddess that I am." She said. She really was far to exhausted to care if he knew that she was a Snow Goddess.
"Where is Usagi? I heard her just a minute ago." He asked.
"My, my, my. Aren't we full of questions, Hiiro. Maybe you should try talking to Usagi sometimes besides just saying 'Hn', that is very rude if you did not know." Nysno said.
"How did you know that about me? And how did you know my name?" He asked. He didn't have his gun out yet, but his hand was placed on it ready to pull at any time.
"I know these things. Maybe you should go talk to Usagi. She is in the library. Bye, Hiiro." With a wink of her eye and a grin, Nysno disappeared.
Inside the library Usagi sat, almost on the verge of a blackout from exhaustion, in a large and comfortable chair. She had heard Quatre letting Duo have it for throwing snowballs in the house, and at their guest of all people. When she heard the door of the library open, she had to admit she was a bit surprised.
"Hey, Hiiro," she said even though she could not see where he stood behind her.
"How'd you know it was me?" Hiiro asked as he sat in the chair across from her.
"Eh, call it a sixth sense. And besides, who else would walk into a library and try to be as quite as he can possibly be?" She said with the same wink and grin that Nysno had given him.
"Hn..."
Usagi sighed, "you are hopeless."
"I'm not hopeless." Hiiro protested, though he didn't know why.
Usagi gave him a skeptical look, "you never say anything to me besides 'Hn.' How is that not hopeless? Duo said something about you guys not having to do your job that I cannot know about for almost a year, is that your problem?"
Hiiro made a mental note to hurt the braided baka for even mentioning their jobs to Usagi in the first place, then answered, "no. This is how I am."
"Well how do you expect to get any friends that way? I mean, I try and try to get you to talk and try to be your friend but you just push me away." Usagi stated. She was so exhausted she could barely keep up with the conversation, or lack thereof.
'Friends? She wants to be my friend? Is she insane?' Hiiro asked himself. He then heard Usagi sighed.
"I take it your done talking, so I guess I will just leave you alone. Bye, Hiiro... and just remember, I am always around to listen." With that the exhausted blonde stood up from the chair and smiled. She only got but four steps away form the chair, one from Hiiros chair before she collapsed.
"Usagi!" Hiiro said as he tried to catch her from the descent, but didn't. He tapped at her cheeks with his hand when he flipped her to her back, "Usagi? Usagi wake up." He said over and over again. He could tell just by the way she looked that she was exhausted, he had noticed it right when he looked at her upon entering the library.
He lifted up the lightweight girl and placed her on one of the couches and tried again to wake her up.
~~
^_^ Okay, not much of a cliffie, but it'll work. No one has gotten what the language is yet, so keep trying! When someone gets it I'll hopefully have the next chapter ready and I will send it to them so they can read it, and then post it up on ff.net. :) Jaa!
-Ema