Disclaimer: Same as before...repeat after me - Sailor Moon is not mine...She belongs
to Naoko Takeuchi-sensei. The story however, is mine...

Chapter Five - Allies and Enemies

The pair turned as they heard the Earth Queen's voice from the doorway but did not
break apart. This fact was noted with a smile by the Queen and with narrowed eyes
by her Lady-in-Waiting, Lady Beryl. Beryl was displeased to say the least. Prince
Endymion was hers! How dare this upstart from the Moon, if indeed that was where she
was from, come and try to take away HER Prince. Too bad... Beryl shut that idea away
quickly - one never knew who may be listening in to her thoughts.

The prince's mother grinned at the couple. "I'm so glad to see you're up and ready
to face the world again, my dear," she said to Serenity. "I couldn't help but over-
hear your tale, and while I agree it's quite fantastical, I have had some dealings
with your mother and if you like, I can try to smooth it over with her."

This last bit made Serenity catch her breath in surprise. She looked up at the Earth
Queen in shock. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Prince Endymion wasn't
faring much better and oddly this made her smile. Turning to face him, they both broke
into relieved laughter.

"I'll take that as a yes then," the Queen smiled and gestured to Beryl to precede her
from the room. As they left, she turned to them again. With a conspiratorial whisper,
she told the smiling couple, "And for what it's worth, I heartily agree with any
relationship my son decides to make," and with that, she followed Beryl out of the
room.

Endymion turned to Serenity. "How about that?" he smiled. "I never would have guessed,
I guess it's one of those things that you get to find out about when you're the reigning
monarch rather than a mere prince," he joked.

Serenity agreed with him, laughing. "I never guessed that my mother had dealings with
the Earth royalty either. We were always forbidden to go to Earth or have any contact
with anyone from your planet so I thought that extended to her as well. I'm so glad
Endymion, this means we won't have to give each other up. I'm not sure I could have
anyway..." she threw herself into his arms and gave him a quick kiss.

He grinned and kissed her back. "Shall I show you around properly?" he asked her
mischievously.

"Why not? I will show you around the Moon any time you ask," she replied with a grin
of her own.

"I'll let you get dressed then, and I'll show you round the palace when you're ready,"
he told her. "Just don't take forever?" he asked plaintively.

Serenity just laughed and rising, pushed him out the door to wait for her to finish
getting ready.

Outside the room, Endymion rested his head on the cool door. All of a sudden, he felt
someone touch him on his back. Whirling, he faced Beryl, who had come back.

"You scared me Beryl, what do you want?" he asked her breathlessly.

"Well, I might ask you the same thing," she replied in an innocent voice. "I've seen
how you look at that girl," she curled her lip in derision, "and I must say, I'm not
pleased. I always thought it would be us as a couple, Endymion darling," she purred and
made to kiss his lips.

Endymion grimaced and moved her hands away from him, narrowly escaping her kiss. "I have
no idea why you'd think that, Beryl, I certainly have never encouraged you. Now run along,
I'm showing Serenity around and I don't want you there spoiling things!" he hissed at her.

She recoiled as if struck. "You'll regret making me an enemy, Endymion. I have the ear of
your parents AND the council. I can make things difficult for you and that girl," she cried
as she stormed off down the corridor.

"Good riddance," Endymion sighed with relief. "At least Serenity didn't see that."

"No, but I could hear it," Serenity replied from the open doorway, giving him another fright.

He felt as if all the women in his life were conspiring to give him a heart attack. He sighed
again and took her hand.

"Ignore her, she doesn't and never has mattered one bit to me. As I said to her, I never
encouraged her attentions and never welcomed them either." He shuddered. "She's always been a
little...strange. I grew up with her, her family are aristocracy from way back and she feels
it's her Gods-given right to have whatever she likes, and in this case, it's me." Endymion
groaned. "Let's go on the tour and forget about her and her empty threats. I don't believe
her for one second when she says she'll make trouble for us," he continued and taking her arm
in his, led her down the corridor in the opposite direction from the way Beryl went, showing
her the unique tapestries and arms on the walls.

As he spoke, Serenity couldn't help but wonder what would come of Beryl's threats. They hadn't
sounded hollow to her and she shivered. Who knew what that woman could do?

Unbeknownst to the pair who were blithely chatting away about the various elements of the palace,
a slim figure watched them from behind a pillar with a murderous expression on her pretty features.
Seeing them stop and kiss briefly, she fumed and almost revealed herself but caught herself just in time.
she broke off her thoughts as she saw them
kiss yet again. Her rage was close to the boiling point and to avoid detection, she turned and slipped
quietly away, threatened tears of anger streaming from her eyes.

"Hey, watch where you're going," a male voice cried out in dismay as she crashed into him.

Strong hands held her up and kept her from an embarrassing tumble to the floor. Beryl looked up, containing
herself with an almost visible effort, forcing herself to smile as if nothing was wrong. She eyed the
blond man with a speculative gleam in her eyes.

"I'm so sorry," she managed to squeak out. "I wasn't paying attention. It won't happen again," she apologised
to the General Jadeite who had managed to keep her from losing her composure completely. She looked at
the young man coyly from under her eyelashes, well aware of the effect she had on men...well, most men, she
amended to herself.

"That's all right, no harm done," Jadeite flushed with pleasure at the glances he was getting from
the beautiful Lady-in-Waiting to the Queen. The ambitious General soon fell under her spell as she
wove her arms with his and they walked down the hallway, talking about nothing in particular.

Lady Beryl gave a predatory smile. Things were going better than she'd hoped. Yes, much better....


Hope this works properly....(lucky I've just been learning HTML innit?)
Cao