All Hail The King
Summary: Once the supreme power and the center of the galaxy, the Kingdom of the Moon has fallen to ruin, forced to merge with the Kingdom of Earth to survive. Fortunately, Prince Endymion and Princess Serenity do love each other...unless certain discoveries can change that. SilMil, Alternate Timeline, Rated T for some violence, language, themes.
A/N: So, I had an idea years ago to write a Silver Millenium story. It was big, it was bold, it was daring, it may have flown too close to the sun...but I loved it. I spent months writing up backstory and character information, I was prepping to go all out on it, devote potentially years of my life to it…
And then...I lost my Sailor Moon muse, and fell out of the fandom, for an assortment of reasons that I'll pass on getting into detail on. And the story idea, still bold and risky as ever, fell out of my mind.
So, now, I find myself wanting to get back into Sailor Moon, as circumstances have given me the opportunity to consider doing so. So, I figured I could take a shot at the story I had conceived of so long ago. And here it is.
Once again, this is a very large, long-term project, that will go a lot of different directions, including some directions that some readers may end up being uncomfortable with, just in terms of the nature of the drama. So if you decide to take this ride, you may find yourself hitting some bumps. And this story is, by and large, a serious drama with many dark aspects, so prepare for that.
This story is sort of an alternate timeline, taking the (thin) information we have about canon Silver Millenium and greatly expanding on it, as well as taking some liberties. This story came to me while I was binging Breaking Bad, and there's a decent amount of influence and inspiration from there. You could call it a very loose adaptation of Breaking Bad, even.
I can't guarantee a steady flow of updates, my muse does not pump out a chapter every three days anymore, but I'll do the best I can.
"
Chapter 01: Museum of the Past
"Okay, just like we talked about," Jadeite hissed, leaning up close to Endymion's left ear. "You're in charge, you're the boss, these people need to know that. You command the room, rule over it, make sure everyone listening to you knows that you're the man."
"No, no, no," Zoisite protested from Endymion's other side. "That's all wrong, don't listen to him. This is about making them feel important, feel valued! Things are already delicate, we need to get them to like us."
Endymion swallowed down hard, caught between his two loyal guardians, conflicting advice fluttering through each ear and ending up a mishmash in his brain. He tried to block it all out, focusing on the carefully crafted plan he had synthesized over the last moon cycle, walking himself mentally through every step.
"I'm with Jadeite," Nephrite growled, stepping up by the Crown Prince of Earth. "This is a bailout, everyone knows it. A burden we take on to save their asses. Why should we pretend otherwise?"
"Well, you'll be keeping sentiments like that to yourself," Kunzite ordered, pointing over at Nephrite. "That sort of rhetoric is exactly what could make all this much harder than it needs to be."
"Hey, hey, everyone, back off."
Endymion felt a slight relief on the space immediately surrounding him being vacated as his guardians stepped back. He jolted a bit as a pair of hands came down on his shoulders from behind.
He glanced behind him to find Kasios standing there, hands up on his shoulders.
"This is his wheelhouse. He's got this. Last thing he needs is you bozos diluting his message." He rubbed Endymion's shoulders a few times. "Alright, son, get out there."
Endymion nodded, then turned back to the small curtain in front of him. With a deep breath, he stepped forward, reaching his hand out to sweep the curtain to the side.
He couldn't help but immediately let the breath go. He had spoken in front of large crowds before, in fact it was something of a strength of his, to present himself to an audience. But as he stepped out onto the small dais, the thousands of eyes in the tight crowd before him had an impact on him. It wasn't like on Earth, where he knew practically everyone present revered, respected, and liked him. Here, on the Moon, standing before a large percentage of the population of the small satellite, opinion on the royal family of the Earth was much more complicated and mixed. And recent events had only made things all the more complicated and mixed.
Slowly walking across the dais, cloak fluttering behind him, Endymion felt the weight of every one of those eyes. It was enough to compress his chest and prevent him from drawing breath. Fortunately, he had been well-trained to not display such obvious weakness.
Beyond the massive crowd, he glanced up at the landscape, stretching off into the darkness of the horizon, an endless stretch of grey rock pocked by craters. His mind focused for just the briefest moments on how, once you got beyond the beauty of some of the Crystal structures, the Moon was actually a rather dull and barren place. The natural terrain wasn't fit for growing anything of value, so unless it could serve as a location for a structure, there wasn't much that could be done with it. So large stretches of the moon were simply...there.
He fought to not view any of this in a business sense. It wasn't that to him. Of course it wasn't. But he was smart enough to at least consider that angle.
And then, he was at the small podium in the middle of the dais. Everyone present hung onto his every action, waiting for him to begin speaking. He looked down in front of him, a clear gemstone glowing a faint pink in the center of the podium. He tapped it with his finger a few times, an abrasive thunk ripping through the air and echoing all across the crowd.
And, with one last swallow of saliva, he was off.
"Aetius, famously of the Moon, but most certainly born on Earth, was considered by virtually all of his peers during his time to be absolutely insane. A respected botanist during the first twenty-six years of his life, Aetius shocked the entire planet when he decided he'd rather spend his life on the Moon. Married a Moonite woman, Chandra, and lived among the Moon population as if it was nothing. Back on Earth, of course, his name was stricken from the record books, made as if he never existed, his family disowning him and refusing to speak of his existence ever again. Oh, what was this otherwise seemingly smart man thinking, jumping from one civilization to the other as if he was deciding to have fish for dinner one night instead of chicken?"
Endymion paused for the briefest of split seconds, hearing the light buzz of some mild laughter from his audience.
"Well, three years after his departure, he tried returning to Earth. It went about as well as you might expect. He never tried coming back again. But, before he left, a curious scholar asked him what made him think such an action would be acceptable, and what made him do it. Aetius simply said that, given the Moon orbits the Earth, and does so via synchronous rotation...he just figured that the two worlds may as well be one and the same."
He reached down and picked up the oval-shaped gemstone in his right hand, taking a step away from the podium and putting the gem up near his mouth.
"That was over three thousand years ago, less than a century after our two Kingdoms began to communicate with each other. And although nobody could manage to be quite as impactful as Aetius, he did inspire a slew of people to follow in his footsteps and try to bring our worlds together. Twenty-six hundred years ago, Tor of Earth and Badar of the Moon co-write a book, the first ever summation of the known universe as told by the perspective of scholars of different civilizations. Twenty-one hundred years ago, the first constantly-running mass transport system between our worlds began running, a joint effort by both Kingdoms, which still runs to this day might I add. Thirteen hundred years ago, a crew of scientists made up of Terrans and Moonites alike develop the Aku-Dale mining maneuver, allowing for faster and more efficient extraction of resources."
He now started to pace from one side of the small dais to the other, a controlled movement meant to convey comfort and openness.
"A thousand years ago, Barson Tunneling is discovered by a team of scientists from the Earth and the Moon, allowing for quick and risk-free passage through the asteroid belt beyond Mars. Seven hundred years ago, it took the might of both Kingdoms to prevent the Ceres asteroid from striking the Earth and causing an extinction-level event."
He raised his left hand up in the air, ticking a finger up with each phrase as he spoke it.
"In the last five hundred years alone, we've had the Inner Solar System Treaty, the Theory of G, the splitting of the core of Boron Crystals, The Kelce line of starships, The Solarus line of deep space probes...all innovations made possible because the Kingdom of Earth and Kingdom of the Moon came together. We stand now, nearly thirty-two hundred Earth-years since recorded civilization began, truly the masters of our galaxy." He pointed up into the sky. "Every single planet and moon in our solar system, reachable in a matter of days. No resource of any kind untapped, nothing beyond our grasp." He slowly stepped across the dais yet again. "As we speak, the mysteries beyond our galaxy lay waiting for us, some perhaps mere cycles away from being revealed to us. In my lifetime, we may yet see planets beyond the known, past Neptune, discovered, visited, colonized, even!"
He paused, letting the weight of those words hit before he continued.
"Average lifespans have risen by twenty percent in the last three hundred years. Sixty percent of cancers, solved, cured, rooted out of our genetics, never to return, with the remaining forty percent on borrowed time. Blindness, deafness, prenatal deformities, dropping by the generation. Nerve damage that would have effectively ended a person's life two hundred years ago, now practically erasable with a couple years of treatment. How many of these miracles would we have today, were it not for co-operation between the Earth and the Moon?"
He stopped yet again, as if he was waiting for an answer.
"Would we be able to stripmine resources off the asteroids in the belt safely and efficiently? Would we be able to take a trip to one of Jupiter's lovely vacation spots as easily as we go on little sightseeing jaunts on Phobos and Deimos? Perhaps not." He turned slightly to the right, giving each section of the audience attention. "Which leads me to an obvious conclusion. The one that was so clear to Aetius over three thousand years ago, but continues to elude so many of us today." He blinked, twisting his head around a bit to look out at the many thousands before him. "Our two worlds may as well be one and the same."
He let this statement hang in the air for several seconds, ears perked up and detecting a slight murmur taking over the crowd.
"As I'm not currently being smashed into oblivion by a meteor from the hand of the Gods Terra and Diana, I'm going to take that as confirmation that I'm right."
A hearty chuckle from his audience. Louder than the first one.
"Some time in the coming cycles, I will be marrying the Princess of your world. I do this because I love her, and I care for her. Of course, this will bring our two Kingdoms together, uniting them under one flag. There's been endless debate and discussion about what this means, what it represents, and what it will change. Today, I say to you, every last person listening to me and every last citizen of the Moon. That it's little more than the latest step in the journey of cooperation between our two worlds that Aetius started."
He relaxed his posture slightly, trying to give off an air of relaxed comfort.
"No Kingdom carries more historical significance in this Galaxy than that of the Moon. Advanced civilization was born here. The mere concept of actually travelling from one orbital body to another was conceived by a Moonite. For thousands of years, the Moon housed the very peak of civilization, the center of the known universe. The Crystal Salena Temple, the Deva Shrine, all stood and continue to stand here. The Law of Ethical Planet Colonization, written here. The Moon Chalice, The Holy Grail, The Crystal Carillon, stored here. And, for all eternity, so here those things will stay. We will have a relationship founded on trust, respect, and yes, cooperation. And because we will cooperate, we will continue to be the masters of our galaxy, and even beyond."
He glanced about as the silence hung in the gathering before him.
"So. To those of you who feel as if you know me, you already know that I desire nothing more than the peaceful and mutually-beneficial merger of the Earth Kingdom and the Moon Kingdom. And to those of you who do not feel as if you know me. Well, my name is Endymion. Prince of Earth. Son of King Kasios. And I would tell you that we're going to be best of friends. But, the truth is...we already are."
Endymion set the gem on the podium, waiting a couple beats before scattered applause began echoing through the tight crowd, building and building on top of itself until it was a deafening roar, a cacophonic series of claps that built like a wave and splashed out in all directions.
"
As the applause finally began to fade, Princess Serenity reached up to wipe underneath her eyes, a couple of loose tears having trickled down her cheeks as she had listened to her husband-to-be's speech.
Having watched the entire thing from a raised platform off to the dais's right, Serenity was beyond happy that the crowd had seemingly responded so well to it. She marveled over Endymion's mastery of language, a prodigy at the art of turning a crowd of people to his will and whim with subtle movements and enunciations. Nothing like her. In that way, they went well together, she supposed.
They went well together in a lot of ways.
She felt the curtain behind her flip up, and she spun around just in time to find a young, blue-haired woman in a dark blue dress walking up behind her.
"Oh, good, you're here!" Serenity exclaimed, getting to her feet and turning to meet her friend.
"Of course I'm here," Mercury replied. "You think I'd miss this, with all the promises I've made?"
Serenity reached forward and embraced Mercury in a big hug, just as another familiar face poked into the small open chamber. This one belonging to a particularly attractive blonde.
"Come on, out here," Venus insisted, waving towards Serenity. "His speech is over, come out!"
"Oh, wonderful, you're here too!" Serenity said, breaking the hug with Mercury and sweeping through the curtain. Coming out into a long hallroom, she was immediately confronted by two more very welcome sights.
Standing next to each other were the raven-haired Queen of Mars and the tall brunette Queen of Jupiter, both girls her age, and longtime friends and companions to Princess Serenity.
"O-oh!" Serenity said, bending low at the waist over towards Mars and Jupiter.
"Hey, hey, what is that nonsense?" Mars questioned, pointing at Serenity's bowed posture. "I won't have that, absolutely not."
"You're a Queen now, and I'm still a Princess," Serenity explained. "So, as such, proper etiquette demands that I show respect like this."
"Well, as a Queen, I command that you stop that," Mars said as Serenity straightened back up.
"I don't care what I am," Jupiter agreed, taking a step forward towards Serenity. "You start bowing to me, we're going to have problems."
"I wouldn't bow to those two if you offered me all the diamonds in Mercury's vaults," Venus snarked. "Not a chance."
The collection of five young women all embraced each other in a group hug.
"Oh, we're so happy for you," Mars said. "I can only imagine how happy you are, and I hope I can feel that happy one day."
"It's a special day," Mercury agreed. "You should be very proud."
"He's...he's wonderful, isn't he?" Serenity agreed, nodding. "It was a wonderful speech, wasn't it?"
"He has a gift with words," Mercury said, nodding. "So, anyway, Serenity, we thought we'd do this now."
"Hm?" Serenity picked her head up.
"Some of us can't be back until the wedding," Jupiter explained. "So, we wanted to give you our personal gifts now, we'll have the fancier stuff for the actual wedding."
"O-oh!" Serenity said, face brightening even more. "Gifts, you guys didn't have to—"
"It's a very special day for you, of course we had to," Venus said, going down to one knee and whipping a long, thin dagger out from behind her back, presenting it up to Serenity. "One of the very blades carried by the great hunter Sita, she who brought the warring factions of Venus together two thousand years ago."
It was a silver dagger, shiny and reflective with a golden hilt that was studded with rubies. Serenity reached forward and took it by the hilt, looking it over.
"Oooh, I can open letters with it," Serenity muttered, waving it around in the air, not noticing Venus biting her tongue at this comment.
"My turn," Mars said, reaching her hand out and presenting a small red pearl towards the Princess of the Moon. "For generations, women of the Mars royal family would keep one of these on their person at all times when pregnant. Eases the spirit of the little one in the womb, improves the health of the baby when born." She glanced down at Serenity's stomach.
Serenity blinked a few times, eyes widening a bit. "M-...Mars, I...uh…"
Mars reached forward with her other hand, placing a palm on Serenity's stomach. "Don't worry, your secret's safe with us, we promise. It's just, you can't hide something like this from me."
"N-no, I…suppose not," Serenity acknowledged, grabbing the pearl between her index finger and thumb. "T-thank you, but...really, please, nobody can know."
"And nobody will," Mercury agreed, stepping in front of Serenity holding a stone slab a couple times bigger than Usagi's palm up. "Now then, Serenity, if I may present you with one of the original tablets carved by the ancient scholar Hermes."
The slab had a series of symbols and characters carved into it.
"Written in the old tongue," Mercury explained. "A true original, no others like it. One of the eighty-eight commandments chiseled by Hermes."
"You'll have to help me translate it one day," Serenity said, taking it in her hands, finding it thankfully light thanks to it's thin makeup. "I didn't do so well with my ancient language tutor."
And then, Serenity felt a great weight being added to her head, as Jupiter had come up behind her and had slipped a purple helmet onto her head. She gave a little grunt of surprise as the heavy piece of armor was placed atop her head, then spun around to look at the largest of the five girls.
"Crafted it myself last week," Jupiter explained, pointing at the helmet. "By hand, made entirely from hardened Exthermite gas. Absorbs any and all force applied to it, and will never crack."
"Well, I'm sure I can find a use for that," Serenity said, looking around at her friends. "Thank you all, so much, having you here today means the world to me! You're all so kind!"
Venus reached over and began to rub Serenity's back. "Not a force in the universe can keep me from your wedding, I give you my word on that."
"You've done a tremendous thing today," Mercury said. "You're not even a Queen yet, and you're already saving your Kingdom. This union with the Earth, it's going to...everything's going to be so much better from now on."
At this, Serenity swallowed down hard, and then gave a quick little nod. "Y-yes, it's...it's a good thing. Definitely a good thing. We...we need it."
"They need it too," Mercury assured her. "Trust me, the Earth has...desired a merger with the Moon for a thousand years."
"Well, a thousand years ago, it was actually desirable," Serenity said quietly.
"Hey, don't say that," Jupiter chided, coming up next to her. "You heard what Endymion said today, everything he said was true. The Moon is the most significant Kingdom in this galaxy."
"Was," Serenity corrected. "Was, let's...let's be accurate. Yes, of course I heard what Endymion said today."
"Then, you heard him talk about how important the Moon is," Mars insisted. "Because it is."
"Yes, uh...things that happened here...things that were built here, thousands of years ago...things that were taken by us thousands of years ago...things that were. No things that are." Serenity grimaced a bit. "Just things that were."
"Hey, those things are...still here," Venus protested. "Aren't they?"
"I appreciate the kind words," Serenity said. "But...I know my own birthright." She nodded. "I know what this Kingdom is now. A collection of things that used to matter, worthy of remembering...a museum of the past."
An uncomfortable silence hung among the quintet for a moment.
"But that's okay," Serenity said. "Alright, I...I have to go see Endymion now, I'm sure he's heading to the palace." She wrapped her arms around Jupiter and Mars. "Wonderful to see you all, I can't wait to meet up at the wedding." Mercury and Venus leaned in, joining in on the group hug yet again.
"
The dark yellow liquid sloshed into the crystal cup, immediately taking on the shape enforced by the container. The fluid bubbled and frothed violently before settling.
"Don't waste any of this," Jadeite said as he repeated the act of pouring out the bottle's contents into another small crystal glass. "Goes for two hundred thousand a bottle."
Nephrite grabbed the filled glass, lifting it up in front of his face delicately, surveying the contents. "And what, exactly, are we paying for?"
"That's seventy-five percent kick, my friend," Jadeite explained, delicately filling another little cup as Zoisite took the one he had just filled. "And it kicks alright. Kicks like an angry elephant."
Nephrite gave a small scoff. "Child's play. You should see what gets mixed in the towns over east. Ninety-six percent."
"Does it come with a free sarcophagus?" Kunzite asked dryly, watching from the other side of the ornate wooden table where Jadeite was handling distribution.
Only a small portion of Kunzite's attention was on the banal conversation, however, his eyes darting about the small marble room in a sweeping pattern. The entrance to the chamber to his left, protected by only a pair of curtains hung from the top of the threshold. A low-hanging crystal chandelier, right above the table that the group was crowded around. A thick, oak shelf behind Jadeite, bearing assorted glassware.
And of course, above all else, Crown Prince Endymion, seated to Jadeite's immediate left, with his fiance draped over his right shoulder. The one he could never afford to take his eye off of. His charge. His master.
His friend.
"Well if it's so easy, get to it!" Endymion enthused from his seat opposite Jadeite, motioning over at Nephrite. Without hesitating, the brown-haired guardian lifted the glass to his lips and downed the potent drink in a single motion, maintaining a stoic and flat expression as he did so.
"Alright, alright, I'm impressed," Jadeite admitted, filling another couple small crystal cups. He passed one of them over his shoulder, Kasios taking it. "Hey, Zoi, you sure you can handle this?"
Zoisite cautiously looked his glass over, grimaced, then accepted the challenge, gulping down the concoction. Immediately, he dropped the glass to the table, then began pounding the table surface rapidly with his right palm, keeling over. His face wrinkled and contorted as his mouth fought an intense battle. However, after several beats, with a final wince, he stood back up straight and nodded.
Kasios gave a couple little laughs, stepping over from behind Jadeite and clapping Zoisite on the shoulder. "Alright! There you go!"
"Ahhh…ah!" Zoisite groaned, still wincing. "I don't see how this is fun." He gave his head a quick shake.
"Oh come on!" Kasios said. "Don't tell me that kick doesn't get you off." The King of Earth followed that up by quickly downing his own little glass. He gave a small shudder, but otherwise passed it through without ceremony. "Nothing like it!"
Endymion reached over in front of Jadeite and took one of the filled glasses. Immediately, all the focus in the room shifted to the Crown Prince, everyone silent as he braced himself. Kasios quietly walked over behind his only child, gently grabbing Serenity's shoulder and tugging her away from Endymion.
"Hey, son, you don't...y'know, maybe it's not—"
"No, no, I...I can do this," Endymion insisted, with little weight behind his words. He took in a deep breath, feeling a dozen eyeballs bearing down on him, then took the glass to his lips.
Immediately, the liquid exited via the entrance, Endymion rocketing up to his feet as the drink poured out of his mouth in a haphazard splash, staining the front of his tunic. He spun around, darting past his fiancee and over to the door behind Kunzite, unable to help making a rather embarrassing series of sounds as he moved.
"A-are you crying?" Jadeite followed him out into the hallway, sticking his head out as his charge disappeared into an alcove. "You're crying, aren't you?" Jadeite turned back around, pointing over his shoulder with his right thumb. "Yeah, he's crying," he reported, smirking.
"It occurs to me that we're supposed to be protecting him," Zoisite said dryly. Kunzite moved away from the table, taking one step towards the door, only for Jadeite to block his path with his arm.
"Yeah, from assassins," Jadeite replied, turning to Kunzite. "And buddy, pretty sure the hall is secure."
Kunzite just stood there, a disapproving look at his younger colleague, eyes rolling up to look at the ajar door.
"Come on man. Give the Moon Palace security team a little credit," Jadeite said, moving back around Kunzite. "Pretty sure things aren't that bad up here yet."
"Yeah, he's alright," Kasios agreed, taking one of the little glasses, full of drink, over to Kunzite and holding it up in front of him. "Now kick one back."
Kunzite turned to look at the King, glancing down at the glass. "I'm working," he said dismissively.
"You're always working," Kasios countered.
"What's your point?" Kunzite asked.
Kasios gave him an exasperated look. "Just take it. Come on. We're in a safe place."
Kunzite hesitated, but ultimately swallowed whatever response he had and took the little glass. Quickly, without much ceremony, he swallowed down the beverage as well. Jadeite took the window to pour himself his own little shot and gulp it down, face wrinkling as he did so.
"You can take your job seriously and still have a little fun, y'know," Kasios said as Endymion re-entered the room, a dark stain still on his tunic front and lips held tightly together in embarrassment.
"Aw, shit, see—" Jadeite turned and gave Zoisite a little tap on the back of his head. "The royal bib is your responsibility, Zoisite! Yours!" He pointed emphatically at the stain on Endymion's front. "That's on your head, Zoi!"
"How are you not fired yet?" Serenity asked, giving Jadeite a wry look. "I mean, you're...like his servant, right?"
"Hey, I don't appreciate that term," Jadeite said, bristling slightly.
"Valid question, though," Endymion muttered under his breath, sitting back down at the table hurriedly.
"You'd miss me," Jadeite said dismissively, grabbing the bottle and a clean glass from the table. "Now, Princess Serenity, would you like the chance to out-drink your husband-to-be?"
As he was about to fill the glass, Kasios stepped over and put three fingers over the top of the cup. Jadeite froze before pouring, glancing up into the King's slightly darkened expression for a moment.
"O-oh, right," Jadeite said awkwardly, setting the bottle back down on the table. "Totally forgot." His gaze went over towards the Moon Princess, glancing down at her stomach. "Right, sorry. I mean you're...not very far along yet, are you? It's...probably safe, right?"
"Probably," Serenity said, right hand unconsciously going to her stomach, palm resting on the fabric of her dress. "But given the circumstances, we're not taking any chances."
"Yeah. Come on, Jadeite," Kasios chided, dropping his hand from the top of the glass and pointing at Serenity's stomach. "Might be a future King of Earth in there."
"Oh, so if it ends up being a girl, you wouldn't care," Jadeite said, setting the glass back down. "Well, can't blame you there." Kasios kept from a verbal reply, settling for a dry glower, as Jadeite suddenly picked the bottle back up. "Alright, everyone give me your glasses back, let's do one more!"
"Ah, maybe one's enough," Zoisite suggested, as Jadeite took his glass over his protests and refilled it. "Maybe—"
"No no, we forgot to toast, gotta do one more," Jadeite insisted, setting the filled glass back on the table. Zoisite eyed it with trepidation as Jadeite moved on to Nephrite.
"Speaking of all that, Zoisite, remember we've got a bit of a ticking clock." Kasios turned to look at the blond member of his son's guardians. "You negotiate things any way you want to, you get everything squared away fairly, but we need everything squared away in five cycles. And the weddings has to happen in six." He gave his son a bit of a dirty look. "Bad enough that he went and planted one in like that, but I'm not having a grandchild out of wedlock." Endymion could only grimace, not turning to look at his father.
Zoisite gave a curt nod. "I'm entirely confident the finer details of the alliance will be ironed out well before that becomes a concern."
"Right, right," Kasios said, going up behind his son and clapping him on the shoulder again. "Because that's very important! Isn't it, Endymion?"
"I really think we've had this conversation enough times," Endymion grumbled from gritted teeth.
Kasios gave a little laugh. "Oh well. Guess it just means you're really potent."
Kunzite finally came to his charge's aid, bringing a small glass bottle up from underneath the table. He took a clean glass and filled it, silently sliding it over in front of the Crown Prince, giving him a tiny smile as he did so.
"Thank you," Endymion said tersely. Jadeite swung around behind him.
"Alright, I'll take this one," Jadeite said, holding his glass up high in front of him.
"Haven't you talked enough today?" Nephrite said snidely.
Jadeite cleared his throat. "Okay, uh...Endymion, buddy...you're the smartest guy I've ever met...which is good, because it means there's something good about ya—"
"Okay, Jadeite," Kunzite said, putting his palm out towards him.
"Okay, okay, seriously, uh...Endymion...you know, the Earth Kingdom has wanted a union with the Moon for...thousands of years now...and at long last, you're the one to do it. You did it before you turned twenty. You did it before you took the crown. And...you did it with love." He nodded. "That's exceptional. And it takes an exceptional person to manage that. So, to the exceptional Prince of Earth!"
"See? You can be charming when you want to be," Zoisite said just before everyone gulped down their drinks.