When I say that I love my Prince of Earth, I mean that he made me feel...so complete. It is very difficult to describe, and though I hardly knew him I felt as if I had known him for a millennia. Yes, I was–am–young, and yes, I was and possibly still am foolish, but how could I help myself? My mysterious and dark Endymion...how could you do this? He had watched me from afar for some time, scouting me out for her I suppose. When I trained with my senshi, when I walked the grounds, when I slept. Were you evil all along, my love? Or was it something that she did to you?
But once again, I digress, and I make mention of things that have not happened in my story yet. Forgive me this small transgression amongst the far greater I have committed.
I was distraught the next day. My instructors became so frustrated with me that they threw their hands up and cancelled the lessons for the day. Of course, I hadn't seen my senshi in a few days either, nor could I find them when I went to their quarters. It seemed that they had abandoned me until I went to Mercury's room and discovered a note tacked to her door saying that they had gone to visit Venus, but if I should ever feel up to concentrating on the important task of working together with them that I should give them a beep on the wrist communicators.
This left me feeling despondent, being scolded so by Mercury, the calmest of us all, and I wandered aimlessly through the palace, in a self-pitying fog. It was just as well that my mother was in state meetings all day, or she might have worried greatly about my state of mind.
Somehow, I found myself at the entrance of the hedge maze in the palace gardens. Thinking that no one would likely be in there this time of day, I entered and followed the path to the center. The maze was in truth not really a maze, since there was only one path, but there were some confusing turns that could turn the unwary wanderer about.
When I reached the center, I slumped down on the bench, arms resting on my thighs and my chin in my hands. I stared at the rosebushes and heaved a great sigh. It was then that I felt a tingling between my shoulder blades–you know the feeling, it's as if you're being watched. When I turned around, irritated at the intrusion upon my solitude, my heart leapt into my throat. There stood my beautiful Endymion, his face unmasked and those intense azure eyes boring into me.
I was so shocked to see him that I remained rooted to the bench.
"Well," he said, smiling broadly, "are you going to greet me, or are you going to stare at me with your mouth hanging open all day?" What a gorgeous smile he had! I don't think I had ever seen him smile like that, and I hoped he would do it more often.
I stood up, but when I moved to go to him, I tripped over the hem of my dress and would have fallen on my face at his feet if he hadn't moved to catch me with that fluid grace that came so easily to him. How I envied him that as my face burned with embarrassment. Instead of laughing at me, he pulled me close and tucked my head under his chin, stroking my hair with one hand and holding me close with the other. I snuggled against him, happy since he had leapt from my balcony the night before.
"How long will you stay this time?" I asked. "I would very much like to introduce you to my mother."
"I'm afraid I can't stay that long, love," he replied. Oh, that smooth velvet voice! It made me melt, and I hate him for it as I look back on it.
No, I don't hate him. Curse him for hurting me like this, rail at him for betraying me, yes, but hate him? Never. But again, I skip ahead, I apologize. To continue...
"Why can you not stay?" I asked him, pulling away from him. "Why are you always disappearing? Are you some villain, that you are afraid of revealing yourself to others?" Ah, there, the key words. If only I had known.
He took a step back, looking hurt, but I wasn't about to relent. My anger had been stirred by his evasiveness, and I wasn't about to let him get away with it.
"You think you can just pop in and out without warning regardless of my feelings? You act as if you know me, as if you know everything about me, but how could that possibly be? I had never seen you before the night of my coming-of-age ball. And you call me 'love' like we've been together for ages and–"
He put a hand over my mouth, cutting me off just when I was settling into my stride. "Shh," he said. "I understand what you're talking about, but you're getting awfully loud and someone is going to hear you and wonder who it is you're yelling at when I'm sure you were seen coming in here alone. I know that I've been treating you terribly, and you're right when you say that I act like I know you. If I take my hand off your mouth, will you be quiet and listen to me?" I nodded reluctantly, since it was quite obvious to me that I couldn't overpower him when he had by far the better leverage.
He took his hand off my mouth and moved away, sitting on the bench. I sat on the opposite end of him and waited as patiently as I could–which, I admit, wasn't very patiently at all. I never was good at the whole waiting game.
At least I didn't have long to wait.
"The reason that I act like I know you is because I've been watching you for some time," he finally confessed. "I've seen you train with the senshi, I've seen you hang out with them, I've seen you alone and I've seen you with your mother. I guess I just feel like I know you from watching all of those things, and the more I watched, the more I became enchanted by you. I couldn't help myself. I came in the first place to see what the moon princess was like–after all, you were a possible match for a marriage alliance–and I couldn't help but come back as often as I could to see you, to feel close to you without actually being close to you. You looked so beautiful, so unapproachable. I didn't think that I'd be able to catch your attention in the normal matter, so I planned out our first meeting–at your ball, and though I was invited as the prince of Earth, I decided to send the invitation back with a note that I couldn't come due to an Earth virus that might bring disaster among the Moon people if they were exposed to it. I know it sounds stupid, but Queen Serenity sent back a note with her condolences, so she appeared to have bought it. I came to the palace dressed as a servant a few days before the event so that I could learn my way around and figure the best place to make my entrance."
He shrugged rather sheepishly, unable to meet my gaze, and said then, "I guess you know everything from there."
A little puzzled, I believed him, even though some part of me must have known even then that there was some hole in the story, something that wasn't quite right. The more fool I for not thinking it through, though we dropped the subject and spent the afternoon talking to each other, learning every nook and cranny of each other's thoughts and lives.
Well, obviously not every nook and cranny. I obviously missed the part when he said, "Oh, and I serve Queen Beryl of the Negaverse, perhaps you've heard of her? She wants to take over this universe and make it like hers. I'm merely helping her get it by making one of the main defenses vulnerable to my charm."
Perhaps I wouldn't have listened even if he had told me. I was such a fool. But the worst is yet to come: the story of how I betrayed my truest friends and protectors and cost them their lives in the doing.