I do not own sailor moon. Sad, but true...

It was twelve o'clock and everyone was in their lunch "break", which consisted in a free hour for almost all the palace's servants, except the ones who served at the royal table. During this hour, most of them would sleep or have a bite to eat, while the Queen had her meal and maybe a short siesta afterwards. Everyone was away from their work… everyone but Nephrite, who thanked God for creating such a wonderful Moon Queen.

The auburn-haired man was currently walking inside the palace like a lunatic, searching for the bloody library, which he couldn't find at all… and that was starting to annoy him greatly. He had searched almost half of palace… and that building wasn't small at all. Half an hour of his free time was already gone and neither his running speed nor his usual luck seemed to be of much help today. He knew he should've asked Zoi for his exact location before splitting up that morning.

Suddenly, inside the completely silent hallway, seeming almost deserted, were heard several gasps and even laughter. Curious, Nephrite got closer to the noise's source… and discovered that there were two sources, not one. Silently, walking on the tips of his toes, he approached an opened door and glanced inside, making sure that nobody would be able to catch a glimpse of him. What he saw made his mouth fall open and his eyes widen in surprise: there, in the middle of a pretty large hall filled with shelves and thousands of books, stood one of his closest friends, laughing and talking to a young girl, maybe not a day older than eighteen, although she seemed much younger than that.

Nephrite leaned to the door more and managed to see her: small, slender body, hidden by some sort of blue gown, with short blue (blue?) hair and very pale skin. If her eyes hadn't been so alive and carrying such a strange and vivid sparkle inside, he would have easily taken her for some natural-sized China doll. Her delicate skin, small figure and strange outfit made her seem so fragile, giving the impression that she could easily brake at the first touch… and, apparently, his friend was about to reach that step. Smirking evily, Nephrite stopped hiding and got out, surprising the two, the man more than the girl.

"Ahem!" he cleared his voice and entered the room with absolutely no restrain. At the sight of him, the girl suddenly paid attention to his presence, while the man borrowed a deadly glare in his eyes. Now was definitely not the right time.

"Nathan! What brings you here?" Zoicite sent him a frozen smile, which Nephrite returned in a sadistic way. Oh, how he loved teasing people… and now he had the perfect opportunity.

"Well, I was close by and I thought visiting my friend here… however, I wasn't aware of the fact that he hadcompany of his own." He stared at the girl, with a charming smile on his face. Passing right by the wavy-haired man, he approached the water nymph and, not even noticing Zoi anymore, he leaned to her and, grabbing her hand, placed a gentle kiss on it. "Milady!" he bowed and she ackowledged.

"Sir…"

"Well, well, and how come you have been holding this beautiful creature all this time, Zander?" the taller man said, his eyes still locked on the young beauty in front of him. "I hope you haven't kept her away from lunch, have you?"

"Actually Lady Ami…"

"Oh, forgive me, I have forgotten all about the lunch… My friends must be dead worried for me… forgive me!" the girl suddenly turned a bit scared, but proved once again a perfect self-controll over her words.

"Zander!" Nephrite complained on a faked voice, which would have seemed hilarious to everyone, but incredibly mocking only to his closest friends. Zoicite sent him a deadly glare and returned a bit sad to the girl who had picked up several books already.

"Milady, I must apologize for my…"

"Nonsense!" she cut him off pretty fast and her cheeks gained a sudden blush. "I mean, I have never met a person to know so much about cold fusion devices before… and I am really glad that we've had this conversation… also, thank you for the advice you gave me considering the anti-heating systems, I'll be sure to follow them." She spoke quit hurried and smiled sweetly, not even looking at Nephrite anymore: her eyes were locked on the misterious stranger who, although was clearly not from Mercury, as he sustained, possesed a vast knwoledge in pretty much any domain. She found that quit amazing for someone who is supposignly a simple librarian. "Milord!" she ended and bowed. Before she knew it, her hand was once again trapped in his and her eyes were accepting his emerald gaze. One long and painful moment later he let go and bowed as well. She mumbled a "goodbye" to the other man and exited almost running.

Behind, Zoicite couldn't help but exhaled loudly, while Nephrite looked at him rather amused. Then, finally noticing that he wasn't alone in the room, the wavy-haired turned to his friend and glared once again at him.

"Didn't you see that I was in the middle of a conversation?" he burst aloud, forcing Neph to take few steps behind him. "I have never met a woman more intelligent than her and here you are, destroying all my intellectual fun!"

"I, um…"

"You what? Why did you come here for? Apart from the "ruining my day" part!" Zoicite barked and his furious eyes threw more and more daggers.

"Got any cooking books?" the auburn-haired man asked, almost whispering, remembering why he had looked for the damn library so desperate.

"What?" Zoicite's tone simply dropped from extremely angry to dumb, as one of his eyebrows rose and his sight gained an incredible look.

"A cooking book… I have officially been challenged to a cooking contest." He completed the missing information and the blonde did not know wheter to feel like comitting suicide or to fall on the floor in laughter… this situation was way too strange for him. "You see, there was this girl this morning…"

"Aha…"

"And she was stunningly beautiful…"

"I bet…"

"Unfortunately proved herself quite a…"

"Not surprised…"

"So I ended up baking some cake for the Queen's meal tonight." Nephrite ended, gaining one terrified look from his friend… or former friend.

"You what?" Zoicite narrowed his eyes.

"Yeah… kind of…"

"Nephrite, you nearly burned down the entire palace last year when you tried to make youself fried eggs… and then when you tried to make popcorn…" he remembered of several incredibly hillarious and dramatic events in the same time.

"I know… Still, think you could help me?" he wondered, with pleading eyes, which almost turned into puppy ones.

"You do realise that not even the most detailed and secure cooking book in the whole world could actually surpass you… "talents"… do you?"

"Thank you… Could I at least try to do my "job" before jumping to any conclusions?" he spoke sardonically and reached a hand to him, signaling him that he would very much like and need the books he had asked for. Zoicite stared at his hand for a moment, then chuckled loudly and turned to the wooden shelves to search. About ten minutes later he handed the general everything he could find. "Thanks!" Nephrite said and proceeded to the door. However, when he reached the doorway, he stopped and glanced back, speaking with an evil voice. "And don't think I'm done with you and Miss Blue there." He ended, running like mad, and dodging several dictionaries which seemed more than lethal and which were thrown by a very angry blonde man.

Kunzite took a deep breath and closed his eyes, enjoying deeply the peace and silence after the hard training session. He had to give the blue-eyed blonde points: she was good fighter, much, much better than he had expected… but she didn't have to learn that. He could already imagine the dumb remarks and proud behaviour that would follow such a confession. So, he just kept quiet about it and pretended that she was just another dumb, ditzy, klutzy, idiotic blonde with nothing else than a gorgeous body and a minimal IQ, just enough in order to breathe. Unfortunately, she wasn't all that. And she knew it… at least partly, but she knew it.

His muscles ached from all the running and dodging and hitting and jumping. It had truly been a while since he had been forced to such a hard period of effort, but he had liked it. It was good, because he was finally managing to get back into shape. She did have a lot of energy… at least that day. He could already imagine her in the middle of a bubble bath, cleaning her dusty skin and most probable complaining about the hard work he had forced her to. After all she was a princess… and all princesses were good at was complaining, gossiping and flirting.

Suddenly, his mind revolved 180 degreesback to the first mental image and his eyes shot open. The venusian princess in a huge bubble bath? How the hell did he end up thinking about that? His mind wondered, searching pretty scared to a straight answer. He was puzzled by his own reactions… though not quite surprised.

"Oi!" a loud voice filled the training area and, from his sitting position, Kunzite only turned back a little his head, so that he could see who was shouting at him, in the middle of his break. Still, judging by the noises and swears coming his way, he didn't even have to do that, in order to identify the man. Jadeite.

"What do you want?' the silver-haired man growled as soon as the blonde reached him.

"Oh, no "hello", no "How do you do, fair Jadeite in this afternoon?"?" he asked mockingly and received a rather bored glare from his friend. "Ok, so I've had the worst time in my entire life and I've come to share this special information with you."

"Do you have anything else to say, except for complaining over and over again about your clothes?" he adressed him a bored and ice cold look, that could make even a demon run away like mad.

"Just that I think that the martian women are the most beautiful and evilcreatures I've ever met. This priestess at the temple where I'm supposed to work has the most beautiful eyes I've ever seen… as well as… other body parts. Unfortunately, she is one mean witch with a huge mouth and a voice to match it. Anyway, the point is that I officially hate monk/priest life… and now I have good reasons to do so." He concluded and noticed the absolutely unimpressed and bored look on his friend's face. He sweat dropped and then changed the subject. "So, how did the training go with the venusian princess? She as beautiful and whiny as she is told to be back home?" the blonde asked. In response, the silver-haired man simply took off the black shirt he had on and showed him a pretty lerge wound in his shoulder… a wound she, of course, had no idea about. Jadeite's face droppedwhile Kunzite simply looked away and got fully dressed once again. His face, as usual, held no hint of the pain he could feel… or the emotions.

"Did that answer your question?" he inquired simply.

"Whoa… Kunz, not even Neph can take a hit like that… How did she do it?" he asked, with his blue eyes widened, and pointed at the hidden wound. Kunzite got up and stood right in front of the blonde, with his arms crossed over his chest.

"She is told to be a senshi… Maybe she managed to hurt me a bit… bit I would've honestly expected much better from a senshi… even one so young." He ended and turned, wanting to walk away from the training area and back to his room at the palace.

"You're lucky… She's beautiful and she has fighting abilities. You must be on cloud number nine, huh?" Jadeite exhaled loudly and upset.

"Bubble bath…" Kunzite suddenly mumbled, making it almost impossible for the other to understand. Looking extremely puzzled at the blonde one last time, the shitennou's leader shrugged and walked away, leaving behind a pretty confused and highly unlucky general.

Serenity got out of her room and looked both ways, checking if there was anyone coming her way. Coast was clear. She entered again and came out one second later, pulling after her the dark-haired man we all know too well. She was taking him to Rei's room, where he was going to stay for the next two or three nights. Of course, the martian hadn't taken the news well… at all. But considering the virtues and stubborn mind, she and Ami were probably the only ones who couldn't be suspected at all of the entire group. However, Ami was pretty much day and night at the library, due to the upcoming exams she was going to take back on her home world. So, Darien was stuck with Rei during the next few days. After Rei, it was Mina's turn and then Makoto's… but everybody suspected he wasn't planning on staying that long.

"She's not going to kill me, is she?" Darien asked, more or less scared. Serenity suddenly stopped in the middle of the hallway, let go of him and turned around, glaring.

"Look, it you weren't so damn stubborn and didn't count so much on first impressions, you'd realise how Rei really is like.Yeah, she might be hot-tempered and that temper might be somewhat damaging, but she's already built her reputation over this part of her character, forcing everyone to picture her as a really bad person… when, in reality, she's actually a very caring and protective person." The blonde said with an incredible amount of emotions in her tone and eyes. Darien stared her, understanding how much she treasured those girls… her friends. Not many were able to care for the people around them and protect them with such a passion. "Come on, let's go…" she motioned him further.

"Look, odango… Forgive me for what I've said about your friend… I can tell that you're close to them… al of them… and the truth is, that I don't think I'd let anyone who'd say something like that about my friends get away with it either." He apologized and received a very surprising warm smile.

"Wow… you've actually taken back your words… I'm impressed." She linked her arm with his and guided through the hallways and halls, towards where Rei had her bedchamber. "Tell me about them." She asked him, several moments later, when they were walking in silence.

"Who?" he sent her a puzzled glance.

"About your friends." She answered and looked at him eagerly.

"Oh… you don't want to hear about them… It's a very long story!"

"Come on! You met my friends, both in reality and through my vision. I want to meet your friends from your point of view so that I won't seem a ditz when I actuallysee them." She pleaded determined and he finally surrendered.

"Alright, alright. Me and my friends go way back… pretty much like you and the girls. It's four of them and they've been my closest… and most protective friends since I can remember myself. We would always run away from our lessons and skip our homework… and Kunzite would always find a viable excuse. Even when he was four he could still give the most logical reasons I could think of. He's always been like that and he pretty much made a career from saving the day."

"Who's that?"

"Kunzite is the oldest of us. He lost his whole family when he was very young, so he closed pretty much his entire heart and soul. He never shows any pain or feelings… nothing. He seemes to be one large rock… but he wouldn't have done so many things in his entire life if he truly were like that. He's the only one who can boss us around… because he's most of the times right. Then there's Nephrite. He's my age and has a terrible passion for astronomy, stars, galaxies… anything that can be seen up in the night sky. I remember taking all of us on field trips with him. He would be capable of staying up an entire night, in the middle of nowhere, only with a telescope and a blaket so that he could see some forgotten sun or planet."

"He sounds really smart." Serenity chuckled.

"Yeah, well he's actually the teaser in the gang… but only when he really loses his patience. Apart from such moments, he's really a great guy… but can sometimes scare off people. Especially if he's with Kunzite… They are the strongest and tallest of us." He explained and smiled weakly. "The smartest is Zoicite and he's also the baby. When we were kids, everyone would pick on him. He's had long wavy blonde hair ever since I know him. He would always be the target of blonde jokes and always would end up with his pride and ego hurt, because he was thousands of times smarter and brighter than the older kids who teased him. That's when Jadeite stepped in. You see, Jade is a blonde too, but not as smart as the others. He's more like the type who whines and swears all day, but in the end does a heck of a job. He can stand teasings and jokes like no one I've seen before, but when he reaches the critical points, he bursts out and does real damage. And, that's it… no more friends." He ended his story and looked at Serenity, who seemed deep in thought, still clinging to his arm.

"You know…" she started, looking up at him, several moments later. "Your friends remind me of mine. You said that Kunzite was the only one to boss you around. He sounds like Mina, because she's also the oldest of us, well with a few months, but she can get out of any situation… no matter how messy it is. Then, that man, Nephrite, his stubborness is very similar to Mako's. Last year, for my…" she suddenly stopped and looked at him strangely "The Queen's birthday party… she stood up two nights to bake all the necessary cakes with her owntwo hands." The blonde spoke rather fast, hoping that Darien did not notice her hesitation. "She can be scarry when she wants to. As for Zoicite, he's definitely like Ami. When we were kids and even now, sometimes, there are bad-mannered persons who call her a bookworm with absolutely no restrain. She's never had the desire of responding people with the same coin, so Makoto and Rei would end up protecting her. And, Jadeite sound like Rei… protective… and capable to stand a lot. It's true, Rei tends to burst from the first moment, but I've seen cases and… well, cases." She gave her opinion and smiled.

"You know… I think we're both very lucky to have such friends." He said, as he noticed that they were approaching the dark-haired beauty's bedchamber, because the entire hallways was turning into an obvious shade of red.

"Do you think that they will come for you?" Serenity inquired curiously.

"Pardon me?" he turned to her, allowing her arm to fall from around his. They were now staring into each other's eyes.

"Do you think that your friends will come to save you?" she bowed her sight, afraid of what his answer might be.

"Odango… I believe so… although I would prefere to reach home without their help… However, I do not believe that I need to be "rescued"… or at least I don't… want to…" his voice drifted away, as he looked away. He could almost feel the sparkles within her eyes… as well as he weird feeling gathering around inside his soul.

"Darien…" she whispered and smiled at him, taking his arm once again and pulling him after her, to Rei's room.

"I officially hate the guy! You should have seen him! He thought he was the best chef in the world and he didn't even had the respect of asking for MY permission, so that he could cook in MY kitchen!" Makoto paced around the room like mad, greeting her teeth and glaring at everything and everyone within a five meter range. The pink apron was thrown somewhere on a chair and her green dress was still impecable, in spite of the few hours spent baking in the morning. They all had to give her credits for managing to keep herself spotless. Not many had that incredible ability.

"I think I saw him… He interrupted the discussion I had with the new librarian." Amy put away her glasses, from an armchair near Makoto's bed.

"We have a new librarian?" Rei's voice was heared from the bed, where the beautiful martian princess, still dressed as a miko was laying, facing the tall ceiling and enjoying the fresh air entering through an opened windowsteps away.

"Yes, his name is Zander… and, the strange thing is that he says he's from Mercury, he knows many things about the planet, but I can clearly tell than he's not mercurian. Neither his aura nor features say that." Amy said, rather puzzled and annoyed, because she couldn't figure him out.

"Hmm, that's exactly what I felt about the new guy down at the temple. It's the same as in your case: he claims he comes from Mars, he has all the common knowledge, but I have never seen in my whole life a martian with suchfair hair. Something's not right here." Rei spoke, already deep in thought and examining the ceiling above.

"Who cares! I tell you, he had a weird sparkle in his eyes… as if he were holding some dark secret inside. I tell you, if the Queen herself ends up choosing his cooking over mine, I'll kill him!" the amazonian exclaimed and she continued pacing around the room in a continuum rhythm.

The only one silent was Mina, who stood in another armchair, right by the window, with the soft wind carressing her bangs and beautiful features. She sat curled in the large seat and her blue eyes gazed outside, admiring for the thousandth time the beauty of the moon's gardens. As her eyes wondered around, her mind was captured back in the memories of her barely finished training session. The trainor, who was apparently sent by her father, had known exactly what to answer to her questions and still… Mina could tell that he wasn't a venusian. Venusians were never than silent and dark. Yes, his features were light, with silvery hair and the most strange lavender eyes she had ever met, but his entire personality was dark. He seemed to her more like a demon than an angel… and yet, such an attractive demon.

All her other teachers had even tried to hit on her… yet, this one, was like one huge rock… or block of ice. For the first time in years, she had been dead tired when the session was over… tired and even hurt. But she'd be damned if she'd let him see her weakness. It was a small, but painful enough, wound in her leg, which he didn't even seem to notice. It was anyway going toheal until the following day… when their second encounter was programmed. Mina couldn't help but feel somewhat strange towards the fact that she was going to see him on a daily basis… strangely content.

She had only once thought that she had been in love… and it failed painfully. But this time she was ready to face her inner demons and win the battle. This time she wasn't going to let herself be impressed by minimal facts… this time she was going to stand hard… and not even consider the option of falling in love. Yes, that was for the best…

Hey people! I have finally ended one hell of a week, so I updated the fanfic. So, if you either like or dislike this new chappie, feel free to click the submit button below and share your thoughts with me. Feel free... free as a bird!