No matter the era, Sailor Mercury is renowned for her wisdom. But all too often wisdom comes at a price... Manga canon. Written for Ami's 30th Anniversary.
Rated: T - Hurt/Comfort/Spiritual - Words: 2,683 - Ami M./Amy/Sailor Mercury, Zoicite/Zoycite, Saeko M./Mrs. Mizuno
A/N: I would like to thank warriorblood1 for beta reading this fic for me! You can find them on Ao3 under the same username.
This fic is a gift for Sumire and is partially connected to another of my fics 'All the King's Men'.
Through fields and forests they traveled until they finally came to a clearing and discovered…
"Oh my." Zoisite gasped breathily.
It was simply the most crystal clear lake either of them had ever seen, with golden sunlight glinting off the watery surface like a mirror.
The Shitennou's brown pony tail bounced slightly as he turned to his companion. "This is what you wanted to show me?"
Mercury blushed. "Well, this is what I had hoped to show you." Despite the weather having improved, the blunette wrapped Zoisite's cloak more tightly around herself.
"How did you know it was here though?"
"I can divine water," she replied cheerily.
Zoisite's eyes widened. "I had no idea. But, why didn't we just meet here then?"
"Well, I didn't know the lake was here exactly. On one of our earlier trips to Earth I thought I sensed some water beneath the field we were in."
"The same field we met at today, right?"
Mercury nodded. "I thought, maybe it meant there was an underground stream, which in turn might lead to somewhere like this. None of the maps I consulted confirmed that, but my powers have never steered me wrong. And, I thought, even if they were wrong this one time, the journey could perhaps be a little…" She blushed again and averted her gaze, practically hiding within the cloak. Slowly, as if trying to avoid startling a tiny bird, Zoisite approached her and took her hands in his.
An hour later, the pair were swimming together in the lake, splashing glittering water at each other, and making slow, almost rhythmic ripples in the lake when they grew more still, and moved in close. At the soft touch of Zoisite's lips, Mercury dreamily wondered why every day could not be like this one. A wise voice within however whispered that she knew exactly why that was not to be…
"I'm sorry Zoisite. But I can't see you anymore."
The Shitennou's face went deathly white. As his green eyes widened Mercury felt horribly cold. She twitched, as if motioning to wrap a phantom cloak about herself.
"Why?" He breathed out.
Her expression was still, practically frozen in ice. "... You know why."
Zoisite closed his eyes and almost winced. "But… But the others aren't… Your Princess and my Master still see one another."
It took all of Mercury's restraint to remain composed. "I know… but think of the research I had to do before that day at the lake. Trying to find the most tenuous of loopholes. Preparing what I'd say if we had been found."
"So that's it!" He spat. "You can't bear to waste time studying?"
Mercury's lip trembled slightly and it was all she could do to keep her words cohesive.
"Zoisite… If war broke out, there wouldn't be enough healers in the whole Solar System to help all the people who'd be hurt."
With that, she turned on her heel and left Zoisite, hurrying from him as fast as she could and returning to the Moon castle.
Alone in her chambers, she once again ran through all the reasons why this was the right thing to do. After several hours, she had at last reaffirmed her decision as the wisest course of action. However, no amount of 'wisdom' seemed able to staunch her tears.
"I think this would be the best direction Papa."
The blue haired adolescent pointed to her left, drawing her father's attention. "Are you sure Ami?"
"Well… I think so."
Her father shrugged; or least tried to whilst carrying his painting equipment.
Together, but not quite hand in hand, they slowly made their way through the woods for about ten minutes. It was then that a soft, rhythmic sound could be heard through the trees and they began to pick up the pace.
The sound grew louder and louder until the trees started to part more, unveiling a babbling brook flanked by green ground and inhabited by smooth stones.
For all the beauty of the brook, Ami's eyes were instead fixated upon her father.
"Perfect." Her heart leapt at the small, half smile that twitched at the corners of his mouth.
Together, they set up his equipment and took a seat next to one another, saying nothing for over an hour, simply drinking in the tranquility of the brook.
"So… you really just had a hunch Ami?"
Her father's words had come out of the blue, although Ami didn't let him see how he had startled her.
"Yes… Although I've had hunches like that before and they always seem to work out."
"Hmm…" Ami couldn't quite read her father's expression behind his hat and glasses, but she could nevertheless tell he was pondering something. "Ami… I was just thinking… Do you have an appointment or anything like that in about three weeks? On the weekend I mean?"
A murmur of excitement whispered within Ami despite herself. Not trusting herself at that moment she simply shook her head.
"Well… I was planning to take a trip up North to paint this waterfall… Maybe, if you'd like, you could join me."
Ami's insides practically leapt for joy. "Yes Papa. I'd like that very much."
It was only when Ami's insides landed again, that she pondered if perhaps there just might be something she had to do that weekend.
Three weekends later, Ami took in the sight and sound of falling water. Then she closed her eyes and finally stepped into the shower.
She was washing a little later than she normally did. Not that it mattered. She wasn't disturbing anyone and there would still be plenty of hot water left for her mother whenever she'd get back from the hospital. Dimly, she remembered her father constantly complaining about 'Saeko's late night shifts'... at least until the day he had left the house.
Ami didn't mind though. She knew how important, how demanding being a doctor was. After all, when you are helping heal people all day it just doesn't leave as much time for things like friends or family. Even aspiring doctors like herself should know better than to get overly distracted by such things if they ever hoped to become qualified. They couldn't waste whole weekends when they had an upcoming biology test to study for. That'd be unforgivably… unwise.
However, as the water ran cold, Ami found little comfort in the perfect '100' on her practice test.
One hundred. That was how many people Sailor Mercury had treated that week alone. The number seemed to weigh heavily upon her mind as she traversed the still devastated Jȗban district of Crystal Tokyo. Guided by the water running through the still usable pipes of the city, she had spent many days and nights locating survivors from the Black Moon Clan's attack, noting that she was starting to run low on medical equipment.
As a teenager, she had dreamed about becoming a practicing doctor… but not like this.
Although Neo-Queen Serenity's healing powers were mighty, they still had some limits. As such, for the first time in centuries Sailor Mercury found all the hours she'd spent studying medicine of practical use. However, she also found herself feeling rather guilty about it. It was a guilt compounded whenever Serenity, Endymion, or even Small Lady, commended her for continuing to study the field in her scant off-hours. They all seemed to think her studies had been an act of preparation, an attempt at future proofing herself just in case a situation like this arose.
Being kind to herself for a moment, Mercury conceded that could have been at the back of her mind all those years she'd spent in the Tsukishima library. In reality though, studying medicine had become a mere hobby. Something that had become so habitual in the years before Usagi had transformed the world into a glittering utopia that she found it difficult to give it up. Or maybe she was just unable to let go. Unable to accept that all those years, all those sacrifices she had made in the name of her dream, had been a pretty much a waste of time because destiny had decreed an entirely different career for her. It wasn't that she begrudged her role as Serenity's protector. She just lamented that, not for the first time in her existence, she had been denied something she had truly wanted.
But, as she turned the corner, all thoughts of her wants were abruptly exiled from her mind. Her very breath caught in her chest as she laid eyes on an all too familiar building amidst the ruins.
Osa-P barely stood as a structure, much of the store face hanging open like a rotting wound. Mercury knew Naru and her family were safe, but it still hurt to see her friend's home, the site of many warm memories, utterly befouled like this. A water pipe, presumably the same one she'd been tracking, jutted out at an ugly angle, pouring filthy brown liquid into the once welcoming building. The water had pooled in the store and flowed out into the street, littering it with once glittering stones of diamond, pearl and-
Mercury's heart somehow sank further. Even from this distance, she would recognize a necklace of purest zoisite stone.
With that, she turned on her heel and walked in the opposite direction. Her steps were rhythmic, like steady drops of water. And with each step, each 'drop' she was horribly reminded of a decision she had made long, long ago. A decision that she had hoped might help avert war, might avoid countless people being hurt, of needing to be healed. A decision that, at this moment, seemed achingly pointless to her. As pointless as all those years she had spent studying to be a doctor…
"Calling it a night, Doctor Mizuno?"
Mercury nodded to the resident, the motion causing her glasses to slip a little down her nose. "If I don't get at least a little sleep I'll go even more grey."
The resident rolled her eyes. "If only we could all age as gracefully as you retired Senshi."
Ami huffed out a small laugh. "You youngsters don't know how good you've got it. Back when I was a girl people didn't live as long as they do now. You were old when you were in your 80s. What're you? 80,000 and something?"
The resident balked a little. "How did you know?"
"Educated guess. And I'm very educated if I do say so myself."
With that she bid the resident goodbye and headed for the hospital teleporter. In a flash she was back on Earth and exiting that branch of the hospital.
From beneath the hospital canopy, she looked up into the grey sky, sensing something within the clouds themselves.
"Good evening Doctor."
Mercury's gaze drifted to the left where a handsome elderly gentleman with a ponytail stood.
"Zoisite? What're you doing here?"
"I was lonely back at my place, so I thought I'd surprise you."
"But it's so late in the night," Mercury uttered matter-of-factly.
Zoisite shrugged. "I don't mind you working late nights."
A familiar warmth welled within Ami's chest as Zoisite smiled at her with those wonderful green eyes of his.
"Alright then. Why don't we go get a drink or something."
"Excellent," Zoisite said, clapping his hands together.
At that moment, something else clapped above them. In less than a second, the heavens had opened up, drenching everything in sight. Automatically, Zoisite removed his coat and moved to drape it over Mercury.
"No," she said, gently yet firmly.
He raised a confused eyebrow. "Why?"
"... You know why."
With a sigh, he withdrew the coat, and seemed to brace himself as she took him by the hand and, smiling herself, ran out from beneath the canopy.
As they ran through the streets towards the bar, Zoisite called out to her over the pounding of the rain. "Every. Single. Time," he said, spluttering rain water from his soaked lips. "You know, Doctor Mizuno, I'm not sure, medically speaking, this is the wisest thing to do."
Her blue-grey hair slick with water, Ami glanced over her shoulder, her smile growing into an outright grin. "Sometimes, what makes you happy is the wisest thing to do."
A/N: Thanks for reading!
I had never intended to write manga canon anniversary fics for ALL the Inners (and no promises on Mars and Jupiter as of this writing), it was supposed to just be Venus because she had her own manga.
But as I talked myself into it I kept getting hung up on structuring the Inners fics similarly to Minako's. Which I felt was too much to do. SIX scenes, 2 for the SilMil, 2 for the 20th century and 2 for CT, and they have to connect but also kind of tell a mini story in each era? AND they have to touch on something distinct to the manga versions of the characters that still represents something over all essential to each character. Not to mention, I should probably include the Sen/Shi ships in these fics too right? I'm not doing a dedicated fic about that so that aspect of the canon needs to get some love somewhere.
So I was freaking out (not least because I am not so well read on manga canon) and considering the nuclear option of just giving Ami, Rei and Mako a ficlet or drabble each, Ami's in the SilMil, Rei's in the 20th century and Mako's in CT.
But then, when asking around, I discovered that Sumire (who had so wonderfully betaed for me in the past) liked Ami and was particularly fond of her her connection to water. That really helped my ideas to, ahem… flow… So I began thinking up different ways to associate Ami with water and use her divining water power that is (essentially) unique to the manga version.
Dreaming up those scenarios and then applying them to the broad structure I had done for Minako's story 'Doomed Affairs' (which was tailored specifically to Mina) made everything gradually click into place. Mina's fic was written in part because I wanted to explore how in the manga she is seemingly (depending on your interpretation) doomed to not have her dream fulfilled.* So applying that with Ami gave me an ending in mind that I could extrapolate backwards from. And the fact that Mina's fic revolved around Love, the thing that she represents as a Senshi, gave me the idea to use wisdom as the final element to make this story work.
Also just to let you know I am involved in a discord called 'Moonlight Legends' which is dedicated to sharing all sorts of Sailor Moon fanworks, including other fanfics. If you would like to join so you can share your own work, get help with your current projects or just connect to other fan creators shoot me a PM and I'll send you an invite. All are welcome!
P.S. For the record, my headcanon for the ending there is that Zoisite and Kunzite are in an open relationship.
*Okay, so the fic wasn't about her becoming an idol per se, but to me Minako places a greater value on finding love than becoming an idol, and she still became an idol in my fic anyway by virtue of everyone knowing she was Sailor Venus.