Once again, long time without updates... Sorry, I just had (and still have) a lot of project waiting to be finished and I didn't find the time.
I don't own Sailor Moon! Sad... but true...
"Is she still there?" a blonde young woman asked, entering the large chamber and meeting the sight of two other girls, around her age, both of them gazing outside the windows, at the orchard surrounding the flower gardens. In the same time, the two turned their heads to the blonde and noded their heads. They were both clearly upset by the moon princess' present condition.
"Since this morning." The tall, auburn-haired girl said, shaking her head slowly and making the tail at the back of her head move.
"Her health is starting to worry me. It has only been a week and she already lost few pounds." The other one, with dark blue hair spoke quietly.
"And she's not even eating my cookies anymore!" Makoto turned angry towards the blonde again, scaring the mercurian genius and making her jump two feet away from her current position.
"Take it, Mako-chan." Ami said, patting her back, barely moments later, when she found the courage to return to her jovian friend.
"This can't go on!" Mina said, also looking outside the window and noticing the pair of ponytails walking around the pathways in the small, private park.
"Tell me about it! I don't have who to cook for anymore and that new jerk is taking care of mocking me everytime he gets the chance!" Makoto nearly roared, forcing Ami to jump away again and winning a curious look from the venusian.
"What new jerk?" she asked, all-of-a-sudden forgetting about the lunarian outside.
"Mina! Sometimes I think that you are even more air-headed than our broken-hearted friend out there. I've been groaning, yelling, shouting, even roaring lately about a certain new chef, who's been making me horrible days ever since he showed up." Makoto explained, trying very hard not to burst out in a Rei-type reaction. Still, it was good that the priestess wasn't there in that moment, because they might have destroyed the entire Moon Palace with their attacks, considering the level of rage they both carried right then. Rei could manage to calm down a bit during her fire session, but Makoto's only way to loosen up was to either train with the high-ranked soldiers or to bake. Unfortunately for her though, most of the skilled guards were either on their planets or already beaten and currently receiving medical atenttion. As for delicious hobby, it couldn't be practised anymore, due to a certain obnoxious brown-haired, blue-eyes chef who seemed to be able to perform any recipe. And that made the jovian princess ready to blow up.
"When did he arrive?" Mina went on with the questions.
"About a week and a half ago… One or two days after Darien showed up. His name is Nathan and apparently he's been one of the best cooks at the palace so far!" Makoto spoke with sarcasm. "God, he a pain in the…"
"You know, Zander showed in the same day too!" Ami exclaimed before the jovian could finish her thought. However, her line had more impact than she would have assumed. Two widened pair of eyes, one green and another one blue, turned to stare at her, while two mouths dopped open.
"Zander?" Mina asked teasingly, while the tall princess couldn't recover from her state. Ami blushed immediately and lowered her head, covering her face with her bangs.
"I… um…"
"And how come you've never told about this Zander before?" Makoto finally managed to mumble.
"I did!" the mercurian's head shot up and her looked at them almost hurt. "But You were too preoccupied in complaining about the new chef and you've been in another world for more than a week now. You know, ever since you new trainer showed up." Ami pointed out, trying to switch their atenttion from her. And she successfully managed to.
"That's right!" Makoto turned her head from one of her friends to the other. However, unlike Ami, Mina didn't even seem to have a reaction at all. "You never gave many details about the new guy."
"Well, he's the first trainer in years that can actually win against me… easily… And trust me, it hurts." Mina crossed her arms over her chest and immediately after she ended, she seemed to fall in her own world again.
"What the hell is going on here?" Makoto asked suddenly, after few long moments of silence. Both the princesses eyed her curiously.
"What do you mean?"
"If we wouldn't have found that Darien guy half naked in our garden, none of this would have happened." She spoke, unhappy with her life.
"Well, it's too late to solve anything. What's been done is done." Ami explained, with a sad tone herself, shrugging her shoulders. She wasn't that unsatisfied with her past week, but she did feel sorry for her friends.
In the following silence, Mina gazed over at Ami, who was staring outside once again, along with the now restless chef. The mercurian had said something about not being able to change back the harm that had been done. Deep in thought, Mina analysed all her possiblities. She could either talk to Darien openly, or lead a silent war. But there was something she could do… something only she could do. Not minding the other two anymore, the blonde venusian took off running and heading to some unknown place.
There it was again. The bloody feeling that annoyed him everyday during lunch, everytime he ended up alone in the large library, everyone else being away during their break. The feeling that never left his side in the past few days, ever since they reached the Moon and started their jobs.
Zoicite sighed deeply and rubbed his closed eyelids, realising that he was more tired than he would have thought. He also undestood the certain present emotion, but considered that trying to put in at the back of his mind would be the best solution.
After all, he and the rest of the generals had been for a while now there and they were running out of time, considering they wanted the Prince's "accident" to pass unnoticed by the others. Still, if they hadn't been forced to take this trip they would have never seen the lunarian wonders, nor they would have met the young women that now seemed to torment each one of them.
Jadeite had found his match in the fiery priestess and had ended up hating his days due to her and her attitudes. Is he had ever thought some things about religion and the people practicing a sort of belief, the martian woman had definitely changed his mind completely. Zoicite could prove that he had never seen nor heard his fair-haired friend swearing that much ever before. Still, he liked that every morning, just after sunrise, he would go back to the wooden temple, taking all the routine back from square one. It was simply suicidal, but it seemed to have a rather funny effect on the rest of his friends.
For example, Nephrite could only tease him lately, because he only got to see him complaining all day. The others were always away and Jadeite had always been one of the easiest persons to annoy ever. It must have been his volcanic character. Still, even the auburn-haired general seemed more calm than usual. It was probably because of the amazonian young woman that was in charge of the Queen's meals. Lately, it seemed that she had a new hobby… and that was to torture Nephrite and force him to cook more and more. Luckily for him, none of the servants had discovered his book of spells… yet. Yes, Zoicite knew about it, because he was the librarian, for God's sake. He could always tell when one of the books was missing, despite the fact that he was still new there. He just hoped that his friend wouldn't get killed once his "secret" was found.
And then there was Kunzite… the always strong and silent Kunzite… who had lately reacted more than unusual. At first it was the jokes, then the day-dreaming session and now the spending of more and more time at the training grounds, even when his v.i.p. student wasn't there. Everytime he would fall into his own unknown world, the rest of the shitennou eyed him strangely, almost terrified by their friend's reaction. Whatever the blonde venusian had done to him… it was more than working.
"Zander?" a quiet voice spoke behind him. In a second, the blonde general turned around, only to face the calm and warm blue gaze of his favourite visitor.
"Lady Ami!" he bowed, not necessary out of courtesy, but with the sudden need of hiding his blush.
"I thought we were calling each other only by our names." She smiled almost childish and even blushed a bit. He got up and stared at her almost surprised. He had never seen a girl act like her before… then again, she wasn't a terran.
"Yes, I had fogotten that… I'm sorry." He smiled and lightly hit his head.
"Oh, don't be! I mean…" she started trembling and blushed. "We had already consented to that… and I don't think that would have liked it any… other way…" she ended in a whisper and looked anywhere else than at him. His mouth fell open at her words.
"I wouldn't like it differently either…" he confessed and gained a shocked stare from her. She held her books above, covering half of her face, but allowing him to see her widened blue orbs. In a matter of seconds, not really thinking, he gently pushed her books down and gave the mercurian a light kiss over her lips. One moment later, they were both staring at each other, speechless, none of them believing that he had just done that. While Ami wasn't breathing and red as a tomato, Zoicite was panting and wanted to kick himself for acting that fast. A second later, he turned around and walked straight to the door, but stopped mid-way. Thinking for a minute, he returned and this time wrapped his arms around the blue-haired girl, kissing her harder that the first time, but still gently, and not allowing her to run in case that thought could have passed through her resourceful mind. In spite of both their expectations, she dropped the books from her hands and embraced him tightly, immediately responding to his lips' reactions.
"Don't you think that was a bit too hard?" Michiru played in Haruka' hair while they sat on a large blanket, enjoying the beautiful day below an old tree which gave them just enough shadow.
"No!" the princess of Uranus answered, already annoyed that the neptunian had chosen a time like this to start such a discussion.
"Still, I think she liked the young man you told me about."
"So? That doesn't necessarily mean that he liked her." She fought back.
"How would you know?" Michiru teased with a smirk playing on her lips.
"Let's just say that I can anticipate all male actions." Haruka answered on a sarcastic tone.
"Really? Then how could you not forsee that venusian general hurting the one you consider a younger sister? Or was that sense inexistent at the time?"
"You have no mercy, do you?" the blonde asked and she received a definite answer. "Fine! I made one mistake and because of that Mina was hurt… and she still is, no matter how many times she tries to deny it. I trusted the guy and he proved himself to be a rat. One that I would have immediately squashed like a bug if he hadn't flown away. But I guess it's better that he did so…" Haruka gritted her teeth and cletched her fists, once again remembering what had happened less that two years before the present time.
"Take it easy! I didn't mean it like that anyway!" Michiru explained.
"Then how?"
"Well, I only saw this man for a very short while… But I have a good feeling about him." The wavy-haired princess looked at the entire garden with her normal calm gaze.
"Tell me that you're kidding!" the blonde's rising tone demanded once again attention.
"No! I think that he really might be a good choice for Serenity." Michiru stared straight up at her lover.
"Whatever could make you think that!" she was almost enraged with what she heard.
"Well, he had managed to escape your wrath for the past week or so… and no one has ever managed to reach that record before… And then, he was actually acting properly to all the girls and I'm sure that he treated Serenity with special attention."
"I'll say special attention! Kissing her behind the roses, in the orchard, where no one could see them…" Haruka mumbled.
"They did need their privacy… and I'm sure that the girls wouldn't have allowed them alone if they didn't have a good hunch about this… especially Mina…"
"Michi, don't!" he blonde wished that she could just stop.
"You've seen how much she's changed and how protective she became. After Ace, she hadn't even allowed Makoto to get any more crushes and we both know how fast our princess of Jupiter can fall for a guy… even if it passes fast, in the end." The princess of Neptune ended her speech and watched Haruka let out a deep and heavy sigh.
"And what would you like me to do?" she finally turned to her lover, only to see her smiling kindly.
"You said that when he heard you calling Sere "princess" he looked shocked. So, it means that he had no idea who she was… and it is very strange for a lunarian or any citizen of the Silver Millenium to not recognize Queen Selenity's daughter… Which means only one thing…"
"He can't be coming from any of our planets…" Haruka ended for her.
"Except for Terra…" Michiru looked at her strangely, knowing that they had bumped into some very important information. Haruka suddenly got up and help her lover to rise from the blanket as well. "Where are we going?" she asked as the blonde dragged her through the orchard back to the palace.
"To find some answers!" the princess of Uranus spoke determined, silently announcing the wavy-haired that there was nothing that could stop her now.
A week had passed since the event concerning the princesses of Moon and Uranus, along with the stranger coming up from Earth, through some unknown way of transportation. After the kiss between shared by the two, Haruka walking up on them and the revealing of Serenity's true heritage, as well as her friends', everything had become ackwardly silent.
Darien kept sleeping in one of the girls' rooms, except for Serenity's, making the blonde princess sob panfully, because she didn't receive his attention anymore. Everytime they met each other in the hallways, he would greet her appropriately and then walk away, breaking all over again her heart. He treated the others pretty much the same, but none of them was as bothered by this fact as the lunarian was. However, they could see the regret in his eyes and sometimes even hear him whisper her name at night. Still, none of them would say anything about it, hoping that they would just pass this stage and get back to the way they were. Until…
"You have to do something!" Mina stop right in front of his chair, her hands holding her hips and her eyes glaring down at him. Slowly, he rose his sight to her, understanding what she meant, but deciding to play dumb.
"About what?"
"Don't toy with me!" she warned with narrowed eyes. "I might be a blonde, but I can clearly see your aura and Sere's. Whatever you would like me to believe, I know that you two had fallen in love with each other and I know that this forced separation hurts both of you in equal ways." Darien simply rose an eyebrow.
"What makes you think that I feel that way for your princess?"
"Because otherwise you would have questioned her thoroughly over the reason for which she hid the truth away from you. However, you did exactly what a lover would do… you started punishing her by cutting her off. It wasn't very nice of you, but it did confirmate my thoughts. You two are soulmates." Mina stated determined, as serious as possible. Darien chuckled.
"Princess of Venus, you disappoint me. I thought you would know everything about love and men. And yet, here you are, actually expecting a man to believe this load of crap about legendary love connections. You should have really known by now that men don't stand these kind of things." He mocked her and forced her to turn her back at him, walking few steps further away in order to hide the pained look on her face.
"Well then, it's a truly shame… I actually had the naivity of considering you different." She answered back and turned to him only enough to catch a glimpse of his sitting body. "After all, the princess was destined to someone else… It's just a shame that she had received this fake vision over love, prince Endymion of the Golden Kingdom" With those words, the blonde princess turned completely away and left her room and the man in it. Darien stared at her trail, almost ashamed of her words, understanding that she had found out somehow who he really was, and wondering what she had meant when saying that Serenity was destined to someone else. For the first time in his entire life, the prince of Earth felt the deep and painful bite of the jealousy.
Ok, that's it... I know, it's shorter than the others, once again apologies.
I hope you'll like it and that you'll take your time and write me a review. I don't ask much, just a few words if possible... Well, see you next time!