Title: That Rainy Day
Rating: G Pairing: MakoNeph
Challenge: 34. Rainy Days (request for MakoNeph)
Disclaimer: not mine, cool? cool.
Fandom: Sailor Moon - AU

It never rained on the moon. Maybe that was why the Princess had always been afraid of thunder. But on Jupiter, rain had come often and hard.

On Earth though, sometimes there was rain, sometimes there wasn't. At least, that's the way it was in Tokyo. That's the way it always had been.

He had visited her on Jupiter once. She'd wanted to introduce him to her world. It had never been clear exactly what their relationship was before then.

"Father, Mother, this is my friend Nephrite. He's from Prince Endymion's court," she introduced him. He bowed, they bowed, everyone went on their own merry way.

Except their's hadn't been such an oh-so-merry way. "I'm just a friend?" Nephrite asked, almost teasingly. His eyes couldn't hide it though - his eyes never could hide anything. He was looking sideways at her as they walked through the forest she called her garden. There was a light drizzle that day, but neither of them were bothered by it under the heavy canopies of the trees.

"If you were anything but, Father would probably cut you into tiny little pieces," she retorted, unsure how else to respond.

There was a pause as Nephrite stared down at the path in front of him. She glanced at him, worried she'd broken something. "I wouldn't mind," he finally said, looking up at the branches overhead.

He had stopped walking then, and she had stopped also. She hated sappy stuff, but when it was Nephrite, she had never minded. He'd given her her first kiss that night. Maybe she wasn't meant to be so happy, because after the few weeks she'd had with him, after returning to the Moon, a disaster worse than any other in history had struck.

He'd been taken away from her. As if that hadn't been enough, her memories of him had also been taken away from her.

Even then, she hadn't been allowed to have much happiness. Even in her new world, everyone she loved had all been taken away from her. Her parents died - maybe she hadn't been able to love them as much as her original parents, the Jupiter royal family. She never could settle down with a boyfriend - maybe it was because by then, her heart already wasn't her's to give.

Disaster never seemed to feel like leaving them alone. But after the deep freeze, after Crystal Tokyo had been built, Rei had asked to explore the North Pole. "I feel like something's calling for me from there," she had said. It was the only explanation she'd been willing to give. Nonetheless, because she was a planetary princess also, as well as a senshi and one of their friends, they had gone to the North Pole that had brought around so much tragedy so long ago.

There, they'd turned over rocks and chipped through ice until they found them. Four stones, shining in the sunlight of the polar day. They shouldn't have been so bright given that they were varieties of jade, and not gemstones. Mercury, who'd been the only one still thinking properly at the time, realized they were lit from the inside with the light of the souls they carried.

They'd brought the stones back with them to the new palace in Tokyo. Serenity couldn't release the souls, but Endymion somehow was able to break any Earth-based seals.

"I'm sorry." As soon as Kunzite regained his human form, he turned to Endymion and Serenity, kneeled, and apologized. She heard Venus move, and saw the strong, silent girl they'd come to reacknowledge as a leader put a hand to her mouth as tears welled up in her eyes. Kunzite heard the sound also, and bowed his head even deeper.

Endymion touched the man's shoulder, and Kunzite looked up at him. "Go," Endymion said, "It's all right. We'll talk later." Kunzite had shot up and was in front of Venus before she could even blink. Venus looked at him, slowly backing away and shaking her head, before turning and running, Kunzite following in desparate pursuit.

Jupiter watched as Endymion next touched the deepest green piece of jade they'd collected - nephrite - and it slowly morphed into dark brown hair, black uniform with red piping, and eyes as green as the jade it had just been. Nephrite kneeled as Kunzite had.

She brought the reborn Nephrite to the palace gardens.

There had been light sprinkle in Crystal Tokyo that day too - she, Mercury and Serenity had once sat down and discussed the best weather patterns for fostering plant life. The gardens didn't have the sheltering properties of Jupiter's forest, though, and they were soaking by the time he'd finished trying to explain everything.

His words hadn't been enough, though. None of the explanations had been enough for any of the senshi. They'd agreed to working together again - Endymion, after all, had forgiven his friends and guardians. Nothing more.

She had cried. It was hard to discern tears from rain just by looking, but she had been able to taste the saltiness of her tears, and knew they hadn't been from the rain. Maybe he had cried, maybe he hadn't. Maybe he had already accepted that she would reject him in the two millennia since his first betrayal.

She hadn't accepted it.

She still hadn't.

Yet another one from LJ that I never bothered moving to FFN. :P Oops.

So all fics I've read have the senshi forgiving the shitennou... I've always wondered, would they really? I realize the ending is confusing; basically, she's rejecting him, but doesn't accept that she is. Conflict between head and heart, something I know all too well. >.-