This is a bit of a different fanfic than I'm used to writing. I thought it was an interesting premise, so I decided to write it. Here go the disclaimers: I don't own Sailor Moon, so don't sue me, yada yada yada…

Anyway, if you want to email me, it's at Guardian4@atlantic.net. However, PLEASE put Fanfiction or something like that in the subject line. I get a lot of junk mail and I may just delete it without reading it otherwise, though I won't mean to.

Onto the story…

Angelic Embrace

Part 10

As Rei walked out the door to the mansion the next day, she rubbed her arms with shame. As much as she enjoyed being with Jace, she couldn't be alone with him in a room. Last night proved that to her.

Even though the house was very large, Haruka and Michiru simply did not have enough bedrooms for all of them. They had paired up the couples, put Setsuna in a room by herself, and took their normal one. Jace and Rei had both said in front of everyone, with a certainty, that nothing would happen and that they hadn't needed to be separated. Part of the reason Rei had said so was because she didn't want to pull the other couples apart when they needed the time to themselves.

It had started out fine, a simple conversation. They hadn't even gotten around to asking who would take the bed, however, when they were both in it, him on top of her and slowly peeling off her shirt. She loved him so much and hadn't the heart to stop him, even if she had remembered Yuuichirou at all that night.

Shame burned in her face and heart. How could she face him when she got home? She had cheated on him twice now. Yuuichirou deserved better than what she could give him. He didn't deserve a cheating wife who would drop him the second her previous life lover came sauntering back toward her with a smile on his face and an expectant look in his eyes. One who would willingly risk everything for that very same said lover.

No, that wasn't right. She wouldn't have risked the princess or her friends. But did Yuuichirou fall under those categories? Did he? She just didn't know.

Rei stumbled down the street as another memory staggered her.

"Raye, listen to me carefully!" her father roared. "You will marry Prince Chad from Saturn if I have to drag you down that alter myself!"

"He is death!" she screamed back. "Death to my heart! I love another and you cannot make me wed someone I don't love! As a Senshi, I am given that privilege to marry the one I love, be he prince or pauper!"

"Are you tell me that the Princess of Mars is in love with a PAUPER?!"

"What would it matter if I was?" she retorted back, her violet eyes blazing with fury and her fiery red hair nearly flaming with her anger.

"Tell me who this man is!"

"He's Jadeite, Protector of the High Prince Endymion of Earth! He is a prince in his own right, Commander of the Far East division under him!"

For a moment, she thought her father would have a heart attack on the spot. Then red flowed into his face so fast that she thought his color would remain that way forever instead going back to a deep tan.

"You have the temerity to choose an EARTHLING over a prince of Saturn?!"

"'Love doesn't care what planet you were born on or what rank you have'," Raye quoted Mina. "I don't care if he is an Earthling. I don't care if everyone knows it or not! I love Jadeite."

Her father sat weakly on the throne. Her mother put a hand on her father's wrist. "Perhaps she is right, Ares. You said the same to your father when he tried to arrange a marriage for you."

"But that marriage was to you!"

"I know we are in love, but consider this: perhaps Raye is in love with this Jadeite as you love me? Are you not considering that possibility?"

"Love can be learned and Prince Chad already loves you right now," Ares said wearily.

"No, I will not marry Prince Chad," Raye said quietly.

"We need stronger ties to Saturn," he reprimanded sharply.

"Then marry my sister to him!" she cried. "He would never understand that I'm a Senshi anyway!"

"You will marry him!"

Raye's eyes filled with tears and she whispered her last final denial, "No."

She ran from the room as fast as she could and back to the teleporter. She had to get back to the Moon. The only one who could possibly understand lived there.

"Import destination," the computer bleeped dispassionately.

"The Moon Palace," she choked out.

"Understood."

The red light flew around her and obscured her already blurry vision from her tears. When the light changed to white/silver, she knew she was on the Moon. She stumbled helplessly down the hall and without so much as a knock, flung the door to the princess's room open.

Endymion and Serenity both jumped up from their compromising position, but when Serenity saw her face, she forgot everything else.

"Raye, what happened back on Mars?" she asked, alarmed.

Raye threw herself in her princess's arms with a heart-wrenching sob. Endymion touched the princess's arm and nodded. Slowly he closed the door behind him as he left.

The whole story flooded from her mouth into her princess's smaller chest, not even daring to look up. She sensed another's presence in the room, but she didn't look up, assuming it was another of the girls.

Serenity looked up and asked, "What did you say when he told you that you were to marry Prince Chad?"

"I told him…no. I told him that I loved Jadeite and I didn't care if everyone knew he was an Earthling. I told him that I would never marry Prince Chad. Oh gods, Sere, I would rather die a thousand torturous deaths over and over rather than live a moment without Jadeite. He sa-sa-said that I was going to anyway!" she whined quietly.

"Oh, Raye," said a voice behind her.

Raye whirled and saw Jadeite standing in the doorway, his face stricken with sadness and love. Endymion had obviously informed him of her upset state and he had come running, like she knew he would.

Serenity stood up and slowly left the room. Jadeite walked before her and kneeled. She looked down at him from her perch on the end of Serenity's bed.

"Did you really mean that?"

"Yes. With all of my heart that beats in my breast with the fires of my planet."

"Oh, Raye." And he pulled her into his arms without a word. She cried into his shoulder until she fell asleep…

Eventually her father had blessed the couple and that was what the Martian Princess had wanted all along. She was happy for that for a long, long time. It had taken nearly a year of no communication with her father and a year on the Moon with Jadeite to prove her point. What point? As Mina had put it, 'Love doesn't care what planet you were born on or what rank you have'.

Rei put a hand on her heart and the other on her head as the image of Prince Chad filled her eyes. Chad was him! Chad was Yuuichirou!

"Oh gods, what am I going do?" she whispered. She had sworn to her father that she would never marry Prince Chad, never. But she had done it without even knowing it. She had given up on true love the day she had said 'I do' without even realizing it. If only she had waited a little longer, believed just a little more...What she said back in the Silver Millennium still rang true to her. "He is death! Death to my heart!"

She was denying her love for a chance to save her marriage. And she knew Yuuichirou would never accept her being a Senshi either. She started walking again, more slowly this time. And, she admitted to herself, she wanted to be with Jace more than anything else in the world that she had ever wished for before.

When Rei entered the shrine, she had already firmed her heart for what she was about to do. Even if he made declarations of love before or after, she would not waver. She loved another; he must understand that. What if he doesn't? She shook the thought ruthlessly from her head. He had to understand. He just had to.

Yuuichirou smiled at her when she entered, but she could not bring herself to smile back.

"What's the matter, Rei? You've been more distant than usual."

"Sit down, Yuuichirou. We have to talk," she commanded.

He did so, with a puzzled frown. She sat down across from him at the table.

"Yuuichirou," Rei took a deep breath, "I…I…" She steeled her heart for whatever reaction that he would give, "I want a…divorce." Nevertheless she winced at the word.

At first he was silent, but Rei would not look away. He deserved that much at least. Finally he asked, "Is it another man?"

She laid her hands on the table and looked him in the eye, calling on all her priestess training to help guide her and keep her calm. She could not bear to break down in front of him for he would not understand why she was crying.

"Yes and no. There are a lot of things that have happened in the past week and I cannot explain any of it to you simply because I don't understand even half of it myself. But the main point of it is this: I don't love you anymore."

His face was white and his hands were clenched around each other. Any moment she expected his bones to break. He had such a strong grip, she mused. There were times she had admired that about him, but there had never been a deep love, if there had been any love at all. Perhaps in passing, she thought, but it had burned out; it was not the eternal flame of the love that she shared with Jace; that Mars shared with Jadeite.

"Look, Yuuichirou, we both know it would come to this eventually. Ever since we started fighting," she said gently.

He jumped to his feet and she looked at him in surprise. "It's those friends of yours, isn't it? They don't like me and they're trying to break us up?"

Rei leapt to her feet in anger, but she forced herself to keep her voice low and with reason, though her fury was lacing her words anyway. "Listen to yourself, Yuuichirou. You're talking nonsense. When have I ever let someone else's judgment influence anything about my life?"

His shoulders deflated and looked down at the ground. "I know, you're right. I was just hoping that I would be right and this could be saved. I was hoping that what you said wasn't true; hoping that if I said something this bad dream would break and we'd be back to normal the way it was three years ago."

She took his hand in hers. "It was a good marriage, it had its high points, but you and I both know it wouldn't have lasted. Tell me the truth, Yuuichirou: aren't you the least bit surprised that we lasted this long as it was?"

He laughed a little, even though it was sad. "Yeah, I am. I'm surprised you even agreed to marry me. You've always been so strong-willed and even the people at our wedding said we made an odd couple." He laughed shortly again then lost his small smile. "Tell me one thing, Rei: who is he?"

Rei pulled away and looked at the wall, but her face filled with love that she couldn't hide when she said his name. "Jace, the man that you saw at the temple with Minako, Keagan, and Makoto."

Yuuichirou nodded. "I saw the way he looked at you. He loves you as well, deeply. Perhaps you will be as happy as those two I told you about were. You know the ones in the battle."

Inside, Rei blanched. "I hope so too."

"Well, I'll get my stuff."

"I'll pick up the papers tomorrow," Rei said quietly.

Yuuichirou winced, but nodded.

There was silence for a long time after he had left.

End part 10

Another short one. Haven't had one of those in a while…