Chapter 3

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"This just isn't your place?" he supplied, hoping to get a smile out of her. A dazzling smile that left all other severely lacking.

Thankful that he understood she did reward him with a grateful smile. "That would be the most polite way to put it. Thank you very much, General Zoisite."

He shook his head. "Just Zoisite, please, Princess Mercury. 'General' is too formal for my tastes."

"Then please, just call me Ami, or Mercury if you must," she replied, "I have never been much inclined to wearing my title as a nametag." Whatever reaction she was expecting it was not what she got. Zoisite couldn't help it, she looked so undeniably cute when she said that that he just had to laugh. Her eyes got big and her mouth got small and her eyebrows kind of furrowed together, almost a pout came across her face and he couldn't stop the laughter from bubbling out of him. "What?" she demanded indignantly, "What is so funny?"

Choking on his laughter, Zoisite bit back a grin. "My apologies prin- Mercury, but the look on your face was so adorable."

Ami was a little shocked. She had never been called adorable before. Her parents usually just told her she looked 'like a princess should' before she was forced off to another ball. A drunk had once called her 'cutie,' she had smacked him for it, and several men had raved about her beautiful looks, laying compliment upon compliment in hopes of securing themselves a throne. But adorable? That was a new one. To her it had always carried a sense of endearment with it, and now to be called adorable by a man who was nearly a stranger -- and a Terran at that? She didn't know how to respond. "Thank you," she told him softly, "I guess."

An uncomfortable silence hung between them for a few moments, neither knowing quite what to say. Zoisite had no idea why he was so nervous and boyish around her, he had always been suave around all women and couldn't understand why she was so different. Normally he hated being at a loss for what to say but for some reason, this time wasn't the same. And he couldn't for the life of him get why. Finally he brought up what seemed to be the safest topic between himself and the princess. Leaning against the railing with one elbow on the stone, he glanced down once more at what she held in her hands. "Starlight Rhapsody, hmm? It sounds familiar. Would you mind telling me what it's about, perhaps I have read it before myself."

Books were always something she was eager to discuss and she jumped right into it. "It's a love story and a tragedy, about two warring tribes on the moon's dark side. The son of one ruler meets the daughter of the other and by pure chance they fall in love. They know their parents would never accept them being together so they run off but . . ." She let her voice trail, not wanting to spoil the end.

He already knew it. "The son dies, does he not? It a skirmish with the girl's father? And then she brings the two families back together but almost dies herself?" Now he remembered reading the book. It was the one romance he had ever read, and only because it was a classic, but Jadeite had snatched it from his hands and tormented him endlessly about it.

She nodded exuberantly, delighted to have met someone else who had read it. "Isn't it lovely?"

"I am not too fond of romances, but the language was beautiful," he replied, not wanting to offend her.

Ami smiled softly and sighed. "It has always been a favorite of mine. I would spend eternity reading it if I had my choice." He raised a single eyebrow in almost sardonic surprise and she bit back a giggle. "Not really, of course," she admonished herself, "But I do love it. It was fairly given the title of classic."

"I thought you did not like titles?"

"Only when they are not rightfully given."

That surprised him just a little. "Do you not feel that you deserve the rank you hold?"

She sighed again, people always seemed to take offense at her philosophies. How could she be the guardian of wisdom if she did not hold beliefs of her own? "Princess was a title I was born into. I have done nothing to earn the status. You, however, have worked hard to achieve what you now have. Thus you are more deserving than I." But, being senshi of Mercury does not work the same way. The planet felt I was worthy and bestowed the title on me.' That, though, was not something she could tell him.

Understanding where she was coming from, Zoisite nodded. "I see where you are right," he told her, "But if you think about it in another way, princess, you could be wrong." Before she could say anything he continued, not knowing what possessed him to keep up this conversation -- argument? -- with the royalty sitting in front of him. "Your ancestors earned the title you now have and their blood flows in you, and so if one were to look at it indirectly . . . "

Ami shook her head. "It is not the same. Someday I will have the chance to earn my place, but as merely a princess I have done nothing. Which reminds me of something else." She smiled gently and he felt his heart melt. "I have told you to call me Ami. All of this 'Your Highness' and 'princess' begins to grate after hearing it for eighteen years."

That wasn't what he was expecting to hear. During the course of their conversation he had come to think that she was one of those with an old mind and a young face, in her early if not mid-twenties. Her ideas were fascinating, her intelligence astounding -- although he had heard the rumors of the Mercurian princess being the smartest in the galaxy he had never known if they were true or not-- and she was only eighteen. "For a brain such as yours, you are quite young, Lady Ami." Zoisite had been raised to treat royalty with respect and it wasn't a habit he was ready to drop.

She managed a weak grin, knowing it was the best she was going to get out of him. Again a silence fell between them and she found herself desperately wanting to know what he was thinking. No doubt he knew that she found him attractive but did he see her in the same way? Adorable was nowhere near beautiful. Holding in a soft sigh she resigned herself to the view off the balcony. As much as she might have disliked Mars, the night sky it presented was like no other. The stars sparkled just as they should and dark blue swirled across her vision to intermingle with the light-leeching black that covered its entirety. "It's beautiful out tonight, isn't it?" she breathed, barely voicing the question.

Somehow, he heard her and agreed on a different point. "Gorgeous." She was, really she was.

Ami fought to keep a blush from her cheeks, settling for the rosy hue that refused to fade as she felt his eyes on the back of her head. 'So much for whether he finds me attractive,' she mused to herself with an inward smile. "So, general," she asked to cover the silence that perpetually hung between them, "You've heard my views. What do you think of it here on Mars?"

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and now we hear his side of the story . . . oh, zoisite just told me he wants you to review.

Zoisite: I did not!

DemonHuntress: This is my fic. You did too say it.

Zoisite: ::grumbles:: review . . .