Caring Is A Gift To Be Given
By: DemonHuntress
Disclaimer: Sailor Moon is not mine in any way, shape, or form. Happy?
Summary: Finding the ball to stuffy for her own likes, Ami drifts outside for a breath of fresh air and a chance to read her book. But when she stumbles across Zoisite, or more accurately he stumbles across her, and sparks fly, neither knows what to do.
Rating: PG (2 swear words- and I don't like 'G' ratings)
AN: I don't know the character of the generals. I'm guessing as best I can.
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Now that she thought about it, she had never really been comfortable here. It was the whole environment that bothered her. Balls and parties and the like had never been her forte, she always had felt more out of place than her friends and would have preferred to hide away in her own quarters with a good book but that was out of the question for royalty. And this place . . .
Mars had never really worked for her. The Mercurian princess knew it but no one else did, or bothered to think about it. She was the senshi of ice stuck on the planet of fire in a huge, stuffy ball gown. She thought she was going to overheat in the layers upon layers of clothing required by her station. Being on Mars always made her uncomfortable, she constantly felt like she was in an oven turned to the highest setting. And her people had never been completely welcome here anyways, the Martian psychics were always at ends with the Mercurian brains and neither could make sense of the other. So overall, this was not the place for her.
But she was stuck. As princess of Mercury she had to attend the ball with the other girls and this one was held on Mars. With a small sigh, Ami wandered out to the balcony to rest in the cooler night air, thinking back on the last hour or so. She remembered the hours of preparation that had gone into this; the designing and hanging of the decorations, all of the workings with the gowns, the planning and cooking of the feast, planting of greenery, arranging of flowers, and everything else that they had worked so hard on. She was about to feel bad for hating it all so much until she remembered the heat.
Gathering her skirts close around her legs, Ami sat down on the stone bench that encompassed the edge of the balcony. The worst part of it all was the procession in, the parading of the royalty. As princess of the hosting planet, Rei was the first to walk, head held high above her people as her raven hair flowed out behind her to mingle with the red of her dress. Then crown princess Serenity of the Moon came stumbling out, holding her snow white gown above her feet so as not to trip on it only to catch a lock of long blonde hair around an ankle. After her it was the outer planets' turn. First Hotaru of Saturn, decked out in dark hues of purple and black. Then, looking surprisingly like a man in her tux, came the princess of Uranus, Haruka, followed by the graceful and gorgeous Princess Michiru of Neptune. Even the heir of Pluto, Setsuna, came down from her gates. Minako of Venus followed, bubbly and bouncy as always, then the Jovian princess Makoto. Leaving Ami dead last. She hated it.
Almost as much as she hated the actual ball. For the next half hour she sat in her chair, the last in the row of inner princesses, and watched as nobles from the rest of the galaxy filed in. Endymion, the prince of Earth and betrothed of Princess Serenity, had been saved for the last to be presented. As he walked out in all his handsome splendor she had distinctly heard Serenity gasp at her first sight of her future husband.
Trailing Endymion were his four generals, much like the inner senshi were the guardians of the Moon princess. The first was announced as Kunzite, first general and second in command to his prince. He had long silver-white hair trailing down his back in a stark contrast to his dark gray uniform and eyes the color of a storm. Behind him was Jadeite, a young man with short blond hair and laughing blue eyes. The third general was called Zoisite. He was a very handsome man, his long blond hair tied loosely behind his head and green eyes sparkling. She felt her breath unconsciously catch in her throat as their gazes met. Still staring she almost missed it when the fourth general was announced and would have not noticed him had Makoto not elbowed her and commented on how cute he was. Nephrite, the man in question, turned and winked one brown eye at the Jovian princess, his long brown hair trailing behind him. Makoto almost fell out of her chair.
Ami strangled a laugh as she thought about it. Poor Makoto and her boy-craziness. The Mercurian desperately hoped that her good friend would someday find love, she deserved it. Last she had seen, the senshi of Jupiter was dancing happily with her general, who knew where they were now.
Smiling Ami recalled the one good thing about large stuffy dresses. If under it, she were to strap a book to her leg, no one would notice. Sighing contentedly she took the book in her hands and sat back to read. If Rei or Minako or any of the others were to catch her she'd never hear the end of it but she was ~so~ sick of the ball. She sighed, thinking about her position. A princess could never show dislike of anything, much less the princess of Mercury. She was the calm one, the serene one, the quiet one, the basically unemotional one. She was tired of it.
Come to think of it, she was just plain tired.
Really tired in fact. Dragging herself around and forcing smiles after three days of getting measured and stuck with pins was finally taking its toll and all she wanted to do was sleep. But she couldn't sleep at one of these parties, could she? The others would freak if it were discovered that she was neglecting her duties as royalty. So she just leaned her head back against the rail and closed her eyes for a few moments. 'A little rest can't hurt . . . '
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betcha can't tell whats gonna happen next. review even if you didn't like it, it will help me know whether or not to continue.