I apologize for how long it's taken for this chapter to come out, and would like to say that chances are it will take awhile for anything else to come as well. I'm just too busy with college. Gomen nasai, minna.
Disclaimer - SM no belong to me.
Introspection
Chapter Two
She had been so professional. Our first conversation did not go at all as I had planned. Rather a stupid fantasy, too, now that I know her better. I had imagined that I would sneak up behind her, and charm her with my looks, wits, intelligence… anything that may have attracted her. I should've guessed that those traits, so useful in winning over most women, would not work on her. Still, in no nightmare have I ever been so embarrassed, as for our first words to be, "Oh! Are you all right sire?"
"Itai… iie, I think my nose is broken."
She acted right away, pushing me up to a sitting position and, kneeling in front of me, examined my nose. There had been one bright side to our meeting this way though - she was closer to me than she would've allowed had I not been hurt. Knowing her as I do now, if she had not considered me a patient but as a man, she would not have touched me - much less my face - nor even have placed her sweet face so close to mine. She called up some sort of visor and hand computer. I suppose that night, underneath the stars, she had first shown me some of her capabilities as Princess Mercury. After she determined that my nose would be OK and had produced a bandage-brace thing from somewhere - I still know not where - we got to talking about other things. In a moment, when we moved to sit on the first step of the stairs, side-by-side, the doctor persona disappeared, and the shy girl returned. We exchanged standard information, like name, age, titles, hobbies, and the like.
When I asked her about her dream, she told me she would someday become a great doctor. I laughed, and said that was not a fit dream for a princess. She glared at me with such a feverish intent in her eyes, I was appalled. That night, she sure put me into my place. She told me that princess or not, she wanted to help keep more people from dying. I suppose, as Sailor Mercury, I had expected her to be more cold and calculating. The woman-child I had in front of me was anything but - she actually hurt for those she had to kill in battle. I remember thinking that someday, she would become a formidable doctor.
I told her about my dreams to become a scholar. I told her that I had always hated the corruption I found in the nobility of my kingdom, and that once I was King, I would do my best to bring justice back to the world. It was her turn to smile now. We argued, I know not how long, about the possibility of having a clean government.
Once, as she was heatedly discussing human nature, I heard the orchestra inside begin my favorite song. Heh. Jadeite always had two things to say about that song - first that I could hear it playing anywhere within a five mile radius (which is *not* true) and second that it was the only song that could ever get me to willingly dance. The latter statement probably was true. It's not that I couldn't dance; I was a pretty good dancer, if I do say so myself. I just didn't like dancing. In any case, once I heard it, I immediately stood up and asked her to dance. The look on her face had been priceless. I could see the millisecond my words rang an understanding in her mind reflected on her face, the sapphire blue eyes widening, the gentle arch of her eyebrows lifting and stiffening, her small, prim mouth opening and closing in utter shock. Finally, after some cajoling and promises that no one else would see us, I got her to agree to dance, "for one song only."
I had liked to think I was well on my way to becoming a friend of hers that night, and possibly even had the chance of becoming a suitor one day, hopefully not in the far future. But when she still hadn't told me her name by the end of the night, and I was left calling her Princess Mercury… I started to have my doubts.
Still, the next few days on the Moon were nothing short of magical. Now don't get me wrong; I am still a scholar and scientist and I don't believe in magic - outside of the extraordinary powers the princesses and senshi, Endymion, and other shitennou and I were born with, and of course, the powers of our enemies. OK fine, maybe I do believe in a little magic. But I don't believe in fate. Well, but then there's Sailor Pluto and the Gate of Time… OK fine. I believe in a sort of fate. I believe that there are these.. let's call them knots in the timeline of a person's life. There are many threads and paths one may take - some long, some short, some windy, some straight, some easy, some tough, you get the idea. Which path one takes is up to that person. But no matter what, those knots are the events that are destined to happen in that person's life - the fate that cannot be escaped. For instance, Serenity was always destined to marry Endymion - the only question was how long it would take and what would happen in between. But now I am way off topic again, aren't I.
So I was talking about the days after the ball, right? Well, negotiations were pretty standard, although on a higher scale. I mean, it was the first time any of us had represented our *planet* in forming an alliance. Even Jadeite was serious during most of the talks. Queen Serenity headed the table and the discussion, with her advisor Luna and the senshi leader's advisor Artemis at the bottom of the table. We, the representatives from Earth, sat on one side of the table. Our senshi counterparts - the senshi in charge of the same area - sat directly opposite us. I had known that Sailor Mercury was my counterpart as tactical commander; I just didn't expect her to be so skilled. I mean, the capabilities of the Moon Queen's senshi were legendary, but so were ours! Luckily both sides seemed to want basically the same thing, so everything had been working out OK.
After negotiations, we would have some time to ourselves, for resting and whatnot. Princess Mercury and I spent a lot of that time together. We started out by just taking walks, sometimes in the gardens, sometimes along the lake - pretty much anywhere we happened to be. We shared stories of our childhood and stories of training along with the others. She told me about when she first arrived at the Moon, and when they were first training with their powers. Her laughs were so carefree when she told me about how Sailor Mars had nearly burned off part of her own hair. She was different from the other women when listening to my stories, too - she actually truly *listened* to me. She wasn't one of those who pretended to listen and nodded every once in a while, all the time wondering when you'd shut up. No, she really wanted to hear what I was telling her.
When we found out that both of us enjoyed reading, we'd sometimes browse the huge Moon Palace library together, and search for interesting reads. We would curl up in a corner somewhere, and read together. It didn't matter what kind of book it was, whether it be fiction, non-fiction, science, adventure, romance, anything. As long as I was with her, I would've been happy reading the most boring of all books.
Sometimes, we'd have little disputes in beliefs, which would be brought up by the books. In some cases, we would start having mini debates about the issues. For instance, she favored science in everything, even in altering genetics. She was showing me her lab (which, by the way, was huge, even compared to mine), and I saw some models that looked very detailed about genetics. She started telling me about her gene decoding projects. She felt that if we could decode our people's DNA, that we could read in fetuses if they had any genetical defects. Then, by altering the unborn child's DNA, we'd be able to keep the defects from developing. I, on the other hand, think we should let nature take its course. I mean, you never know; what a doctor reading the DNA may have considered a harmful defect may actually turn out to be a beneficial mutation, demonstrating human evolution. In addition, perhaps some people are destined to have handicaps dealt to them in the beginning of their life, to last for a lifetime. Maybe it would lead them to one of the knots in his or her destiny. Perhaps it would help them overcome a worse difficulty later in life.
I really need help keeping on topic, don't I? Anyway, I noticed a chess set in her lab, so I asked her if she played. Now that was a stupid question - the set was in her lab, so of course she played. But if she noticed my slip-up, she didn't say anything about it. She just agreed, and we sat down for a game. It turned out to be one of the most interesting games of my lifetime – at least so far. I doubt many games can have anything like that happen again.
Disclaimer - SM no belong to me.
Introspection
Chapter Two
She had been so professional. Our first conversation did not go at all as I had planned. Rather a stupid fantasy, too, now that I know her better. I had imagined that I would sneak up behind her, and charm her with my looks, wits, intelligence… anything that may have attracted her. I should've guessed that those traits, so useful in winning over most women, would not work on her. Still, in no nightmare have I ever been so embarrassed, as for our first words to be, "Oh! Are you all right sire?"
"Itai… iie, I think my nose is broken."
She acted right away, pushing me up to a sitting position and, kneeling in front of me, examined my nose. There had been one bright side to our meeting this way though - she was closer to me than she would've allowed had I not been hurt. Knowing her as I do now, if she had not considered me a patient but as a man, she would not have touched me - much less my face - nor even have placed her sweet face so close to mine. She called up some sort of visor and hand computer. I suppose that night, underneath the stars, she had first shown me some of her capabilities as Princess Mercury. After she determined that my nose would be OK and had produced a bandage-brace thing from somewhere - I still know not where - we got to talking about other things. In a moment, when we moved to sit on the first step of the stairs, side-by-side, the doctor persona disappeared, and the shy girl returned. We exchanged standard information, like name, age, titles, hobbies, and the like.
When I asked her about her dream, she told me she would someday become a great doctor. I laughed, and said that was not a fit dream for a princess. She glared at me with such a feverish intent in her eyes, I was appalled. That night, she sure put me into my place. She told me that princess or not, she wanted to help keep more people from dying. I suppose, as Sailor Mercury, I had expected her to be more cold and calculating. The woman-child I had in front of me was anything but - she actually hurt for those she had to kill in battle. I remember thinking that someday, she would become a formidable doctor.
I told her about my dreams to become a scholar. I told her that I had always hated the corruption I found in the nobility of my kingdom, and that once I was King, I would do my best to bring justice back to the world. It was her turn to smile now. We argued, I know not how long, about the possibility of having a clean government.
Once, as she was heatedly discussing human nature, I heard the orchestra inside begin my favorite song. Heh. Jadeite always had two things to say about that song - first that I could hear it playing anywhere within a five mile radius (which is *not* true) and second that it was the only song that could ever get me to willingly dance. The latter statement probably was true. It's not that I couldn't dance; I was a pretty good dancer, if I do say so myself. I just didn't like dancing. In any case, once I heard it, I immediately stood up and asked her to dance. The look on her face had been priceless. I could see the millisecond my words rang an understanding in her mind reflected on her face, the sapphire blue eyes widening, the gentle arch of her eyebrows lifting and stiffening, her small, prim mouth opening and closing in utter shock. Finally, after some cajoling and promises that no one else would see us, I got her to agree to dance, "for one song only."
I had liked to think I was well on my way to becoming a friend of hers that night, and possibly even had the chance of becoming a suitor one day, hopefully not in the far future. But when she still hadn't told me her name by the end of the night, and I was left calling her Princess Mercury… I started to have my doubts.
Still, the next few days on the Moon were nothing short of magical. Now don't get me wrong; I am still a scholar and scientist and I don't believe in magic - outside of the extraordinary powers the princesses and senshi, Endymion, and other shitennou and I were born with, and of course, the powers of our enemies. OK fine, maybe I do believe in a little magic. But I don't believe in fate. Well, but then there's Sailor Pluto and the Gate of Time… OK fine. I believe in a sort of fate. I believe that there are these.. let's call them knots in the timeline of a person's life. There are many threads and paths one may take - some long, some short, some windy, some straight, some easy, some tough, you get the idea. Which path one takes is up to that person. But no matter what, those knots are the events that are destined to happen in that person's life - the fate that cannot be escaped. For instance, Serenity was always destined to marry Endymion - the only question was how long it would take and what would happen in between. But now I am way off topic again, aren't I.
So I was talking about the days after the ball, right? Well, negotiations were pretty standard, although on a higher scale. I mean, it was the first time any of us had represented our *planet* in forming an alliance. Even Jadeite was serious during most of the talks. Queen Serenity headed the table and the discussion, with her advisor Luna and the senshi leader's advisor Artemis at the bottom of the table. We, the representatives from Earth, sat on one side of the table. Our senshi counterparts - the senshi in charge of the same area - sat directly opposite us. I had known that Sailor Mercury was my counterpart as tactical commander; I just didn't expect her to be so skilled. I mean, the capabilities of the Moon Queen's senshi were legendary, but so were ours! Luckily both sides seemed to want basically the same thing, so everything had been working out OK.
After negotiations, we would have some time to ourselves, for resting and whatnot. Princess Mercury and I spent a lot of that time together. We started out by just taking walks, sometimes in the gardens, sometimes along the lake - pretty much anywhere we happened to be. We shared stories of our childhood and stories of training along with the others. She told me about when she first arrived at the Moon, and when they were first training with their powers. Her laughs were so carefree when she told me about how Sailor Mars had nearly burned off part of her own hair. She was different from the other women when listening to my stories, too - she actually truly *listened* to me. She wasn't one of those who pretended to listen and nodded every once in a while, all the time wondering when you'd shut up. No, she really wanted to hear what I was telling her.
When we found out that both of us enjoyed reading, we'd sometimes browse the huge Moon Palace library together, and search for interesting reads. We would curl up in a corner somewhere, and read together. It didn't matter what kind of book it was, whether it be fiction, non-fiction, science, adventure, romance, anything. As long as I was with her, I would've been happy reading the most boring of all books.
Sometimes, we'd have little disputes in beliefs, which would be brought up by the books. In some cases, we would start having mini debates about the issues. For instance, she favored science in everything, even in altering genetics. She was showing me her lab (which, by the way, was huge, even compared to mine), and I saw some models that looked very detailed about genetics. She started telling me about her gene decoding projects. She felt that if we could decode our people's DNA, that we could read in fetuses if they had any genetical defects. Then, by altering the unborn child's DNA, we'd be able to keep the defects from developing. I, on the other hand, think we should let nature take its course. I mean, you never know; what a doctor reading the DNA may have considered a harmful defect may actually turn out to be a beneficial mutation, demonstrating human evolution. In addition, perhaps some people are destined to have handicaps dealt to them in the beginning of their life, to last for a lifetime. Maybe it would lead them to one of the knots in his or her destiny. Perhaps it would help them overcome a worse difficulty later in life.
I really need help keeping on topic, don't I? Anyway, I noticed a chess set in her lab, so I asked her if she played. Now that was a stupid question - the set was in her lab, so of course she played. But if she noticed my slip-up, she didn't say anything about it. She just agreed, and we sat down for a game. It turned out to be one of the most interesting games of my lifetime – at least so far. I doubt many games can have anything like that happen again.