STORYTIME—MYTHS AND LEGENDS
By Krysia
Disclaimer: Story is original…characters are not. Truly a non-profit endeavor. {sigh}
He schooled his features and lied blatantly, "I have no idea what you are talking about."
Chapter 6: A Secret for a Secret
Serenity had just entered the royal suites when she heard a loud thump come from the
direction of Chibi-usa's room. She thanked her lucky stars that she didn't have a time
key when she was Small Lady's age. Goodness knows what trouble she would have
gotten in! She squared her shoulders and prepared herself to reprimand her daughter.
She thought fleetingly of her husband and felt a tad bit of remorse for leaving him alone
to face the senshi. She dismissed those feelings quickly knowing that her husband was
much more capable at dealing with the inners than herself.
When she reached the door, Serenity quickly turned the knob, entered the room and
closed the door behind her. Chibi-usa guiltily hid the time key under her blouse, but not
without her mother noticing. Small Lady faced her mother, eyes downward; arms behind
her back and Diana perched between the cone-shaped buns on her head.
Serenity, with great effort, kept her features neutral. 'She is so kawaii!' she thought as
she resisted smiling at her daughter.
"Diana, could you excuse us please?" Diana jumped to the floor and scurried out the
door. She didn't even spare her charge a glance. When the Queen spoke in 'that' tone of
voice, you did what she asked…immediately.
"Small Lady, care to explain when you were?"
The use of 'when' was not lost on Chibi-usa. She swallowed hard. "I went into the
past," she admitted slowly. She looked up with earnest eyes. "When you told me that the
story of Endymion and Selene was about you and papa in the past, I wanted to see if the
rest of the stories in the book were the same as they happened in the past." Chibi-usa
made a face. "But most of the stories were about monsters and killing and after the Black
Moon family I wanted a happy story. So I went to Greece to see Atalanta run a race to
see……." Chibi-usa prattled on for a few minutes, sharing all the details of her time
traveling.
"Where is the book?"
Chibi-usa held out the book that she had been hiding behind her back. "Here it is."
"Put that in your desk for now. After dinner, we will discuss with your father what we
should do about this." Serenity knelt down and pulled her daughter into her arms for a
hug. "Small Lady, what you did was very dangerous. Not only was there a possibility
that you could have changed the past, but you could have been hurt. I know you had
Diana and Luna-P with you, but that's not the same."
"I went into the past alone before" argued Chibi-usa as she began to pull away from her
mother.
"But I was still there to take care of you, even if it was my past self." Serenity dropped
her arms and leaned back on her heels. "I'm your mother and I'm always going to worry
about you. Besides, you know the time key is to be used only in extreme
circumstance…not to satisfy your curiosity. I'm sure Sailor Mercury can teach you how
to learn about the past without using a time key." Serenity gracefully rose to her feet.
"Come on, it's time for dinner. I need to rescue your father from the senshi."
Chibi-usa giggled, tossed the book into a desk drawer and skipped out after her mother.
Then entered the dining hall in time to hear Sailor Mars.
"Come on, Endymion" She batted her eyelashes at him. "You know you want to tell us."
Jupiter snorted. "Give it up Mars. The only ones who can get anything out of him are
both named Serenity."
Endymion pointedly ignored the Senshi as they laughed at his expense. Serenity
smothered a giggle and approached the table. Everyone turned curious eyes to Chibi-usa,
who quietly sat in her chair trying not to draw any attention to herself. Serenity cleared
her throat to get everyone's attention.
"Small Lady and I have discussed her actions. She is well aware that she has used the
time key inappropriately. Please do not ask her about her adventure. Let's keep the past
in the past." At this, Mars and Jupiter pouted and Venus looked relieved. Serenity's eyes
twinkled as she noticed the senshi's reactions. Mercury continued to look at her evenly,
face void of emotion.
"Endymion and I will issue an appropriate punishment later."
Food was placed before them and the meal began in silence. After a while, the senshi
began to chatter about daily events and Small Lady's adventure was temporarily
forgotten. Endymion looked at his wife across the table and she beamed at him. He
found himself responding to her smile, as always. Everything was right in the world
when Serenity was happy.
After dinner, Serenity turned to her daughter. "Small Lady, go to your room. Your
father and I will be by in awhile to tuck you in. Chibi-usa looked ready to protest until
she noticed everyone staring at her. She nodded her head and left the table without a
word. Once Chibi-usa was gone, Serenity faced her senshi.
"I meant what I said" as she looked directly at each senshi. "You will not ask Chibi-usa
about her trip to the past. That would just glorify what she did and encourage her to do it
again. I didn't ask her any details of what she did, so I don't really know any more than
you. Probably the only other person that knows is Sailor Pluto and I'd like to see you get
any information from her." Serenity purposely left out that Diana was with Chibi-usa.
'That's all I need' she groaned inwardly 'is for Luna to grill Diana.' Serenity made a
mental note to speak to Luna and Artemis about what had happened tonight.
As the senshi got up and left the room, Mars and Jupiter grumbling about the injustice of
it all, Serenity grabbed Venus' arm and held her back for a moment.
"Golden apples?" Serenity whispered in her ear.
Venus looked panicked for a moment. Serenity took pity on her friend. "A secret for a
secret…she didn't see anything" and winked before she grabbed her husband's arm and
led him out of the dining hall.
Venus remained motionless for a moment before she smiled. 'A secret for a secret.' Then
she frowned. 'I wonder if Hippomenes got his girl' she thought as she exited the dining
hall.
As Endymion and Serenity walked towards the royal quarters, Endymion paused causing
Serenity to stop with him. She looked at him questioningly. He raised an eyebrow at her.
"Are you going to tell me what is going on or am I going to have to guess?"
Serenity patted his cheek and started walking again. "Once we are in our chambers dear.
I bet these walls have ears and I'm not sure I'd trust a curious senshi at the moment."
A few minutes later, they were safe in their quarters. As they settled onto the couch,
Serenity neatly tucked up against her husband and began to relay her conversion with
Chibi-usa.
"So, Venus was Aphrodite and gave Hippomenes some golden apples to win the race and
her love?"
Serenity rolled her eyes. "Any excuse to play matchmaker. Fortunately, Chibi-usa did
not see her. According to Small Lady, Hippomenes said that he had help from a friend.
She had only learned the Hippomenes got help from 'Aphrodite' from reading the story
in the book."
Endymion turned to look at his wife directly. "You knew that she was going to go into
the past with that book didn't you?"
Serenity sighed and avoided her husband's gaze. "I had a pretty good idea that she
would. I know that would be something I would have done. The night I borrowed the
book from Chibi-usa…." Serenity squealed as Endymion poked her in the side at the
word 'borrowed' "…I had looked though the book and realized most of the stories were
pretty gruesome for a small child, so I was somewhat confident she wouldn't go explore
one of those time periods. I was just hoping that she wouldn't go back to see for herself
if we were telling the truth or not. I was pretty sure Pluto would keep that from
happening."
Endymion sat quiet for a moment. His wife smiled serenely at her husband. "I trust my
senshi. I know Pluto would do everything in her power to protect the flow of time."
"I guess" Endymion answered grumpily. He really couldn't hold out against her when
smiled at him. "So, how do we deal with Small Lady?"
Serenity thought hard. "Well, the major problem will be the senshi. Even though I told
them to leave her alone, they will try somehow to get Small Lady to talk without
breaking her promise. Venus already knows, but she'll help to distract Mars and Jupiter
from finding out. She doesn't want them to find out her little secret. Mercury, I'm sure,
has a pretty good idea what it going on. Not much gets past her. Since she has figured
out the major details, she'll sit back and watch the drama between Mars, Jupiter and
Venus."
Serenity shook her head and looked up at her husband. "What we need to do is somehow
keep her away from the senshi for a while. If it looks like we are having her avoid them,
they'll only try harder to find out our secret. What they don't realize is that Small Lady
doesn't know either."
Endymion rose up from the couch nearly dumping his wife on the floor. As she righted
herself, she swung at her husband. He grabbed her fist as it came towards him and
tucked her arm with his. "Let's go say goodnight to Small Lady. Maybe we'll think of
something in the morning."
Serenity and Endymion headed towards their daughter's room to indulge in their nightly
ritual of hugs, kisses, tuck-ins and bedtime stories.
By Krysia
Disclaimer: Story is original…characters are not. Truly a non-profit endeavor. {sigh}
He schooled his features and lied blatantly, "I have no idea what you are talking about."
Chapter 6: A Secret for a Secret
Serenity had just entered the royal suites when she heard a loud thump come from the
direction of Chibi-usa's room. She thanked her lucky stars that she didn't have a time
key when she was Small Lady's age. Goodness knows what trouble she would have
gotten in! She squared her shoulders and prepared herself to reprimand her daughter.
She thought fleetingly of her husband and felt a tad bit of remorse for leaving him alone
to face the senshi. She dismissed those feelings quickly knowing that her husband was
much more capable at dealing with the inners than herself.
When she reached the door, Serenity quickly turned the knob, entered the room and
closed the door behind her. Chibi-usa guiltily hid the time key under her blouse, but not
without her mother noticing. Small Lady faced her mother, eyes downward; arms behind
her back and Diana perched between the cone-shaped buns on her head.
Serenity, with great effort, kept her features neutral. 'She is so kawaii!' she thought as
she resisted smiling at her daughter.
"Diana, could you excuse us please?" Diana jumped to the floor and scurried out the
door. She didn't even spare her charge a glance. When the Queen spoke in 'that' tone of
voice, you did what she asked…immediately.
"Small Lady, care to explain when you were?"
The use of 'when' was not lost on Chibi-usa. She swallowed hard. "I went into the
past," she admitted slowly. She looked up with earnest eyes. "When you told me that the
story of Endymion and Selene was about you and papa in the past, I wanted to see if the
rest of the stories in the book were the same as they happened in the past." Chibi-usa
made a face. "But most of the stories were about monsters and killing and after the Black
Moon family I wanted a happy story. So I went to Greece to see Atalanta run a race to
see……." Chibi-usa prattled on for a few minutes, sharing all the details of her time
traveling.
"Where is the book?"
Chibi-usa held out the book that she had been hiding behind her back. "Here it is."
"Put that in your desk for now. After dinner, we will discuss with your father what we
should do about this." Serenity knelt down and pulled her daughter into her arms for a
hug. "Small Lady, what you did was very dangerous. Not only was there a possibility
that you could have changed the past, but you could have been hurt. I know you had
Diana and Luna-P with you, but that's not the same."
"I went into the past alone before" argued Chibi-usa as she began to pull away from her
mother.
"But I was still there to take care of you, even if it was my past self." Serenity dropped
her arms and leaned back on her heels. "I'm your mother and I'm always going to worry
about you. Besides, you know the time key is to be used only in extreme
circumstance…not to satisfy your curiosity. I'm sure Sailor Mercury can teach you how
to learn about the past without using a time key." Serenity gracefully rose to her feet.
"Come on, it's time for dinner. I need to rescue your father from the senshi."
Chibi-usa giggled, tossed the book into a desk drawer and skipped out after her mother.
Then entered the dining hall in time to hear Sailor Mars.
"Come on, Endymion" She batted her eyelashes at him. "You know you want to tell us."
Jupiter snorted. "Give it up Mars. The only ones who can get anything out of him are
both named Serenity."
Endymion pointedly ignored the Senshi as they laughed at his expense. Serenity
smothered a giggle and approached the table. Everyone turned curious eyes to Chibi-usa,
who quietly sat in her chair trying not to draw any attention to herself. Serenity cleared
her throat to get everyone's attention.
"Small Lady and I have discussed her actions. She is well aware that she has used the
time key inappropriately. Please do not ask her about her adventure. Let's keep the past
in the past." At this, Mars and Jupiter pouted and Venus looked relieved. Serenity's eyes
twinkled as she noticed the senshi's reactions. Mercury continued to look at her evenly,
face void of emotion.
"Endymion and I will issue an appropriate punishment later."
Food was placed before them and the meal began in silence. After a while, the senshi
began to chatter about daily events and Small Lady's adventure was temporarily
forgotten. Endymion looked at his wife across the table and she beamed at him. He
found himself responding to her smile, as always. Everything was right in the world
when Serenity was happy.
After dinner, Serenity turned to her daughter. "Small Lady, go to your room. Your
father and I will be by in awhile to tuck you in. Chibi-usa looked ready to protest until
she noticed everyone staring at her. She nodded her head and left the table without a
word. Once Chibi-usa was gone, Serenity faced her senshi.
"I meant what I said" as she looked directly at each senshi. "You will not ask Chibi-usa
about her trip to the past. That would just glorify what she did and encourage her to do it
again. I didn't ask her any details of what she did, so I don't really know any more than
you. Probably the only other person that knows is Sailor Pluto and I'd like to see you get
any information from her." Serenity purposely left out that Diana was with Chibi-usa.
'That's all I need' she groaned inwardly 'is for Luna to grill Diana.' Serenity made a
mental note to speak to Luna and Artemis about what had happened tonight.
As the senshi got up and left the room, Mars and Jupiter grumbling about the injustice of
it all, Serenity grabbed Venus' arm and held her back for a moment.
"Golden apples?" Serenity whispered in her ear.
Venus looked panicked for a moment. Serenity took pity on her friend. "A secret for a
secret…she didn't see anything" and winked before she grabbed her husband's arm and
led him out of the dining hall.
Venus remained motionless for a moment before she smiled. 'A secret for a secret.' Then
she frowned. 'I wonder if Hippomenes got his girl' she thought as she exited the dining
hall.
As Endymion and Serenity walked towards the royal quarters, Endymion paused causing
Serenity to stop with him. She looked at him questioningly. He raised an eyebrow at her.
"Are you going to tell me what is going on or am I going to have to guess?"
Serenity patted his cheek and started walking again. "Once we are in our chambers dear.
I bet these walls have ears and I'm not sure I'd trust a curious senshi at the moment."
A few minutes later, they were safe in their quarters. As they settled onto the couch,
Serenity neatly tucked up against her husband and began to relay her conversion with
Chibi-usa.
"So, Venus was Aphrodite and gave Hippomenes some golden apples to win the race and
her love?"
Serenity rolled her eyes. "Any excuse to play matchmaker. Fortunately, Chibi-usa did
not see her. According to Small Lady, Hippomenes said that he had help from a friend.
She had only learned the Hippomenes got help from 'Aphrodite' from reading the story
in the book."
Endymion turned to look at his wife directly. "You knew that she was going to go into
the past with that book didn't you?"
Serenity sighed and avoided her husband's gaze. "I had a pretty good idea that she
would. I know that would be something I would have done. The night I borrowed the
book from Chibi-usa…." Serenity squealed as Endymion poked her in the side at the
word 'borrowed' "…I had looked though the book and realized most of the stories were
pretty gruesome for a small child, so I was somewhat confident she wouldn't go explore
one of those time periods. I was just hoping that she wouldn't go back to see for herself
if we were telling the truth or not. I was pretty sure Pluto would keep that from
happening."
Endymion sat quiet for a moment. His wife smiled serenely at her husband. "I trust my
senshi. I know Pluto would do everything in her power to protect the flow of time."
"I guess" Endymion answered grumpily. He really couldn't hold out against her when
smiled at him. "So, how do we deal with Small Lady?"
Serenity thought hard. "Well, the major problem will be the senshi. Even though I told
them to leave her alone, they will try somehow to get Small Lady to talk without
breaking her promise. Venus already knows, but she'll help to distract Mars and Jupiter
from finding out. She doesn't want them to find out her little secret. Mercury, I'm sure,
has a pretty good idea what it going on. Not much gets past her. Since she has figured
out the major details, she'll sit back and watch the drama between Mars, Jupiter and
Venus."
Serenity shook her head and looked up at her husband. "What we need to do is somehow
keep her away from the senshi for a while. If it looks like we are having her avoid them,
they'll only try harder to find out our secret. What they don't realize is that Small Lady
doesn't know either."
Endymion rose up from the couch nearly dumping his wife on the floor. As she righted
herself, she swung at her husband. He grabbed her fist as it came towards him and
tucked her arm with his. "Let's go say goodnight to Small Lady. Maybe we'll think of
something in the morning."
Serenity and Endymion headed towards their daughter's room to indulge in their nightly
ritual of hugs, kisses, tuck-ins and bedtime stories.