"What are you guys doing?" Kunzite slipped up beside his friends, several days after the Tournament, who were hidden behind a clump of bushes and some trees. They shushed him, even though he had whispered, and pointed. Kunzite glanced over the bushes and blinked.

"Well I don't see why we have to receive the Star ambassador every time he visits," Princess Jupiter was saying, her hands working the soil around a flourishing rose bush. "The Queen can do quite well without us." She was elbow-deep in the dirt, not seeming to mind the stains being inflicted on her dress or the smudge on her cheek.
"We represent the other planets," Princess Mars replied idly from the bench. She was half-lying on it with feet drawn up on the seat and elbows supporting her, her red Grecian-cut gown pooling about those legs. "It would be rude if we weren't there – besides, our parents are too lazy to send ambassadors to do these things when we're already here."
Jupiter just scowled at her work and attacked the weeds with renewed ferocity.
Princess Mercury, who sat on the clean grass next to Jupiter, nodded. "She's right, Makoto. We can't pick and choose what duties we fulfill." Jupiter pointed and Mercury fell silent, bending forward – her cupped hands filled with water, which she poured on the rosebush roots.
"I wasn't saying we should," Jupiter lay back to rest, chest rising and falling quickly. "I was just commenting on the futility of it."
"I can live with that," Mars said, craning her neck to follow a bird across the sky.
Princess Venus sighed. She had been pacing absently behind Mars' bench and thinking of the new threat made to the Moon throne. It seemed as if everyone wanted to take over the Moon, and no one felt like giving the Senshi a break.
"Well," Jupiter sat up, and her mischievous tone caught the pacing Princess' attention. "I think I'd like to hear a little bit about Ami's new friend," she twisted to lay on her stomach, hand propping her chin up to look at the startled Mercury.
"What?!" Mercury blushed, feigning innocence.
"That Guard of the Prince's," Jupiter prompted. "Come on, Ami, we've all seen how he looks at you. What's the deal? Spill."
"It's nothing . . ." she insisted.
"Zoicite?" Venus paused and looked at Mercury, who nodded shyly. Venus smiled and winked. "Go for it – he's a keeper."
Behind the bushes, Zoicite blushed, Nephrite clapping him silently on the shoulder.
"So, Ami?"
"I," she began, then blushed and turned away. "He's nice, I guess." She fiddled with a piece of grass and sighed, slumping. "It's not that I don't like him, it's just," she lay back miserably, "I'm terrified of him."
Venus knelt beside her and smiled gently. "He won't bite, Ami."
"I know," Mercury moaned. "He's sweet, but it's just so . . . scary."
Venus stroked the silken blue strands absently. "I know." She sighed, mind wandering to a pale, blue-eyed General. There was a breathless silence over the area for a few moments.
"What about General Nephrite, Makoto?" Mars inquired softly.
Jupiter's head fell back in ecstacy. "He's dreamy," she sighed and smiled, settling back and putting her head on Mercury's stomach, who laughed because Jupiter's hair tickled her. Glaring at the laughing girl because she had ruined her daydream, Jupiter flipped around and started to tickle Mercury.
Mercury shrieked and managed to gasp out a distressed "Mako!" between her giggles and those talented, torturous fingers at her sides.
Venus was absently stalking the small area again, drawing the other girls' attention.
"I was thinking," Jupiter prodded. "What about you and Kunzite, Minako?"
The blonde girl froze, standing in front of Mars' bench with her back to the others. She picked up her skirts carefully and put one foot on the bench, tossing a cool look and faint smile over her shoulder. "That is none of your business." She stood up on the bench, Mars looking at her apprehensively, and climbed onto the back of the bench, trying to walk along the precarious edge. Mars' eyes went wide and she gripped the edge of the long seat as it tipped over and tumbled both girls into the grass. A disheveled Mars glared at Venus as Jupiter helped set the bench back up, Mercury smiling quietly at them all.
Jupiter shoved Venus over on the bench and smiled at Mercury. "So, Ami, what do you think of Zoicite's body?"
"What?!" Mercury was taken aback, a blush rising up her throat at the thought. "I . . . I . . ." she floundered, then regained herself and answered primly, "I haven't seen his body."
Jupiter smirked. "You've seen some of it. You've seen him shirtless! So, what did you think?"
Zoicite was promptly blushing as Nephrite grinned and nudged him (still happy about Jupiter's favorable earlier comment).
"I . . . I . . . You . . . You're . . ."
"Heartless and inhumane," Venus supplied, smiling, her knees drawn up on the bench.
"Quite!" Mercury nodded fervently. "Thank you!"
Ignoring the thanks, Venus looked at Jupiter, holding her giggles in with admirable control. "And Mercury is prim, proper, and very much likes Zoicite with his shirt off."
"And you like Kunzite with his shirt off," Jupiter turned on the blonde princess, who was stretching her arms high above her head with a lazy, contented look.
"Of course," Venus replied easily, laying her head in Jupiter's lap and picking at the grass by their bench. She fell silent and meditative, her easy smile slipping into something much sadder. The whole area felt her change of mood and reacted to it. Jupiter ran the tips of her fingers through Venus' soft hair and Mercury crawled over to them, taking Venus' hand. Mars sat on the far edge of the bench, by Venus' feet, and touched an ankle.
"And he's nothing like Ace," Jupiter said, voice low and reflective of the mood.
Venus snorted, her voice slipping into something bitter and frightening. "No, he's nothing like Ace." Her eyes were glazed and she gave a humorless laugh. "Probably not as good a lover, either." She looked up at Jupiter. "Earth men never are as good as Venusians, you know." The men in the bushes were silent, none of them looking at Kunzite.
"Well, he's dead now," Jupiter replied, stroking Venus's hair as she might a child's.
"Maybe," Venus corrected. "He was chased to the cliffs over the ocean and jumped off – nobody could prove he died." She took a deep breath and her voice softened. "The worst thing was . . . he was so gentle. Kind. He . . ." she chuckled, "doted. He was like a little puppy in love . . . I liked him."
"More than Kunzite?"
Venus blushed and looked away, embarrassed. "I don't know!"
"What if he's not as good a lover?" Jupiter teased.
Venus sat up and glared over her shoulder. "That wouldn't matter if I loved him!"
"Do you? Or are you going to let your history with Ace get in the way?" Mars asked, and the girls fell silent, eyes turning to Venus. She flushed deeply.
"Why do we have to keep talking about my life?" she said in an oddly strained voice, getting off the bench before they could pull her back and started to walk away.
Mars hopped up, angry, and called after Venus. "You have to let go of Ace sometime, Mina!"
Venus stopped. When she turned around and met Mars' angry, worried gaze, her blue eyes were full of tears and sorrow. She opened her mouth a little, trying to get something out of it, but she was trembling and words seemed to elude her, so she whirled and fled.
"Rei," Jupiter was standing, looking in concern after her blonde friend's retreating form.
"Don't even start," Mars spun around, her dark eyes furious and filled with tears. The lines of the her pale face were etched in worry. "You know it's not healthy to keep that with her for so long."
"The man she loved tried to kill her, Rei, how long would you keep it?" Jupiter snapped back.
Mars stepped forward fervently. "But do we know if she even loved him!?"
"She's Minako," Mercury said in her quiet, sincere way, looking meditatively to the grass where she sat by the bench, and the other two fell silent to hear her. "She's the Senshi of Love, the Princess of Venus, the planet of love. I'd say that she would love more deeply and more truly than any of us."
"I want to help her," Mars replied, tears falling from her cheeks to the grass. "But she won't let us! She won't let it go! And I hate seeing her in pain!"
"We all do," Jupiter said softly, putting her hand on Mars' arm.
"Maybe there's someone here who can," Mercury said, looking at the pair without seeing them. "As long as he doesn't break her heart, too."
"Kunzite," Jupiter murmured, and there was a brief silence.
"Come now," Mercury stood, brushing herself off briskly. "It's almost dinner time."
The other two nodded and headed toward the castle, but Mercury loitered a bit, checking Jupiter's work on the plants until the other two girls were out of sight, and she straightened, looking toward the trees and bushes nearby, raising her voice a bit.
"I hope you four found some useful information today, because next time I won't neglect to mention if we have eavesdroppers." Her eyes swept the expanse of bush one more time before she turned to go toward the castle.
The four men stood from their hiding places, watching her go.
"So, she likes you shirtless, eh, Zoi?" Jadeite asked calmly.
"Guess so."
"I'm almost jealous."
They all headed for dinner.

Kunzite stood by the window of his room, fingering a piece of red fabric and allowing the nighttime breeze to lift light strands of hair away from his face. He was thinking about a young woman on another side of the castle, wondering if she slept well, quietly, with golden hair spread about her body, or tossed and groaned with nightmares, grimacing and lashing out against phantasmic foes, legs tangling wildly in the blankets.

He was worried. That "Ace" the princess had spoken of was getting to him, fraying his nerves. What exactly happened with this man? Had she really loved him? Was she still harboring feelings for him?
What had it been like to lie with her?
Kunzite growled softly and clenched the red ribbon in his hand, very much disliking the idea that Minako had been with another man. If he could, he would go and rip this Ace's arms out, slash his belly to pieces . . .
Following the violent train of thought for a bit, Kunzite felt much better and more qualified for sleep. In lying down, however, the image of a beautiful blonde woman hounded him long into the night, and made his slumber uneasy.