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Thanks to Neptune's inadvertent joke and Venus's overzealous intention to be a matchmaker for her friend, the senshi partners who supposed to meet years ago but kept missing each other finally came face to face at the party.
Neptune was too stunned to respond to Venus's misunderstanding. Her mind couldn't reconcile with what her eyes saw - the person standing in front of her was Haruka the Oberon guard whom she already knew; but he was wearing a prince suit in Uranian's official marine blue color. From all she knew Haruka was not in the royal household and there was no prince of Uranus on her partner's planet. This left with only one possibility of who he truly was.
Uranus was also stunned, but in a different way. She obviously wasn't expecting the young girl's friend to be Neptune and to meet her senshi partner officially in such way. She did not anticipate her senshi partner to look much different than the bodyguard she knew though, since Michiru was forthcoming about the alikeness of her appearance to Neptune. But she was rather astonished by Neptune's reaction.
While the two princesses stayed silent, Venus decided to break the ice. She turned to Uranus and said in a jovial tone, "Let me introduce - this is my best friend, the beautiful and talented Princess Neptune, she was the one playing the harp on the mezzanine just now." She then giggled and whispered next to the tall princess's ear, "I knew you would be shocked by how gorgeous she is. You're welcome!"
Venus then turned to her friend, preparing for an introduction. That was when she finally realized that she was too excited when she saw the blond and forgot to even ask who he was.
"Neptune, I haven't had a chance to ask who he is," Venus said and shrugged, "but he said he would love to meet and dance with you." She looked at Uranus again, "and you are…?"
Uranus gazed at Neptune and hesitated. It was the simplest and most straightforward question yet ironically she was unsure of how to answer that. She wasn't sure how Neptune would react to this.
Neptune felt anxious even though she already knew the answer she was going to hear.
"I…I" Uranus began but stuttered.
"Are you shy?" Venus teased. "You certainly didn't come off like that on the dance floor."
The short-haired princess remained silent. Her eyes were still on Neptune.
Venus glanced between Uranus and Neptune and tried to study their facial expressions. She repeated it several times and finally sensed that something wasn't right.
"What's wrong? Did I say something wrong?" She asked innocently.
"No, Venus," Neptune assured. She closed her eyes and swallowed. "Let me introduce instead."
"Huh? I'm confused-" Venus said frowning.
The aqua-haired princess opened her eyes, "This is Princess Uranus, my senshi partner." She said calmly but firmly.
Hearing her friend's introduction, Venus gave an agonized gasp and was about to scream.
"Venus, just-" Neptune wanted to downplay the surprise but it was too late.
"What?!" Venus shouted instead, she looked at Uranus and shook her head disbelievingly. "You?! You can't be U-"
The interaction between the three princesses started drawing attentions from the ballroom.
"Princess Neptune is right," Uranus assured, "I am Uranus."
"Why Neptune?" Venus returned her attention to Neptune, obviously still perplexed and bothered by the fact, "When did you two…? I thought...how come you never said anything about this?!"
"Venus, it's a long story…"
Instead of listening to Neptune's explanation, Venus pouted and gave Uranus an angry stare. Having known some details behind the dispute between Uranus and Neptune, she felt contrite for bringing Uranus to meet Neptune and even suggesting them to dance. She took Neptune's arm and whispered to her friend, "I'm so sorry, I shouldn't have brought him, I mean her, to you. Let's go!"
At this point more eyes were focusing on the interaction between the three princesses as Venus tried to pull Neptune away.
Being in the center of attention, Neptune wanted to make the best out of this awkward moment. She gently patted Venus's hand that was holding onto her own arm and said softly, "Venus, thanks for introducing the prince of my dreams to me, I really appreciate it."
Uranus and Venus were both surprised by her words.
Neptune then turned to Uranus. With a warm smile, she bowed and said politely, "It's a pleasure to finally meet you, Princess Uranus. I would love to dance with you."
Uranus understood Neptune's intent to mitigate the situation and decided to go with the flow as well. With the corners of her lips turning upward, she bowed as well and responded, "The honor is mine, Princess Neptune." She also thanked Venus for the introduction before extending her hand to Neptune.
The wavy-haired princess placed her hand on Uranus's palm. As Uranus's fingers closed around hers, she allowed herself to be led to the dance floor.
At this time, Prince Daphnis was playing a piece in lively tempo on the mezzanine. Many on the dance floor had opted to take a break rather than keeping up with the fast cadence. That left most of the floor space to Neptune and Uranus.
One would expect the gorgeous princess and the handsome prince to dance together elegantly, but this couldn't be farther from the truth for the two princesses who were about to dance.
Uranus and Neptune started off like untamed wind and treacherous sea. They were skilled but lack harmony and synchronization. Perhaps the ebullient tempo made it difficult to start as a first dance, but being their first official meeting plus having a history of misunderstanding each other certainly didn't help one iota. They began with dissonant moves and made quite a few missteps - Uranus tried to spin Neptune but ended up getting elbowed on her abdomen, and then the change of hands from behind ended up with their arms tied in knots instead. It was embarrassing and almost painful to watch.
Guests watching from the sides had expressions mixed between feeling sorry for them, trying not to grimace, and holding back laughter. Some even whispered and commented how horrible they danced together. Venus placed her hand across her face and shook her head disapprovingly, wondering if the two princesses had lost their minds from the shock. Pluto watched with an inscrutable facial expression, it wasn't clear whether she thought of them the same way as other guests.
Surprisingly, the only people who seemed to care about how Neptune and Uranus danced were everyone else but the dancers. As music played on, they continued to dance like nobody was watching. They carried on as if it were a mission that they needed to accomplish together and neither partner was willing to give up. They kept moving their bodies and tried to improve their coordination by making tweaks here and there in order to adjust. In between mistakes, they had short exchanges of words and even shared some laughter.
Gradually they made fewer mistakes and found more harmony. They were also seen giving each other encouraging smiles as they made moves more successful than the previous ones.
The next piece was played in a slower and more manageable pace, and the two princesses had much better control at that point. Their steps were more coordinated and their moves were smoother. It started to look more like the soothing breeze brushing gently over the placid sea surface, generating rhythmic and gentle rolling waves. It was surprising to see such improvement in a matter of only two pieces of music. Venus was shocked at the transformation and couldn't believe that it actually happened; and Pluto finally showed a smile of satisfaction on her face.
As Uranus and Neptune continued to dance together, they grew more comfortable with each other and were more relaxed. For a few moments, they even gazed into each other's eyes unknowingly.
The two princesses finally came to a stop after a few more dances. Standing on the sleek marble floor, Neptune and Uranus found themselves in proximity so close that they could almost feel each other's heartbeat. One of their hands was still engaged in the handhold position while the other was holding onto the partner's body. Their blue eyes looked fixedly at each other.
"Princess Neptune," Uranus smiled. She said in her low, deep voice, "thank you for dancing with me."
Neptune did not respond, but her eyes were still gazing at the blonde princess.
"Princess Neptune?"
Instead of returning a smile, the aqua-haired princess suddenly gasped lightly. She gave a few quick blinks and looked away, breaking their eye contact. She withdrew her hand from Uranus's hold and her other hand was no longer around the taller princess's shoulder.
"Thank you, Princess Uranus," Neptune said with a forced smile, appearing as if she just gathered herself together. "Pardon me, I need to get some fresh air." (Let's assume it existed on Saturn)
She bowed again to the blonde princess and left the dance floor, leaving Uranus wondered if she had said anything wrong.
Uranus tried to follow Neptune but was stopped by Venus.
"What did you say to Neptune?" The long-haired princess demanded.
Uranus was left with no choice but to shed some light on their prior encounters.
Neptune retreated to a quiet terrace in order to collect herself; she needed a moment to reconcile the conflicting thoughts in her head.
Who was the person she just danced with moments ago? Was it Uranus or Haruka? Obviously the question was redundant since she knew the answer already, but she barely knew her. Or did she know her because she had already known him? How could it explain why her heart was pounding at a beat that she never felt before?
Setting the dance aside, everything that happened this evening was far beyond her expectation. Besides not anticipating meeting Uranus or even dancing with her, she would have never imagined that of all people on the Uranian planet, Haruka was actually her senshi partner; the Oberon guard whom she thought was a boy, was actually Princess Uranus.
Not only she met Uranus on her very first visit, she was actually interacting with her the whole time, face to face, and in all subsequent encounters.
As she recounted their interactions, things started to come together and she finally understood why they kept missing each other. But things were not crystal clear yet and she still had some unanswered questions that she wanted to explore further.
Soon Uranus joined Neptune at the terrace. She looked around and found the aqua-haired princess standing alone by the column, overlooking the courtyard and the entrance to Rhea Garden.
She walked closer toward Neptune, but stopped just steps away from her.
"Princess Neptune," Uranus greeted politely.
"Am I?" Neptune asked in a mysterious tone, without turning around to Uranus. "How do you know for sure that I am Neptune? I haven't shown you my Mirror."
Uranus smiled and said calmly, "Like Michiru said, that's my problem to solve – you don't need to prove anything."
Neptune stayed quiet.
"Hmm?"
"Well, I'm not sure if I trust a guard who frequently walks away from his own station," Neptune responded teasingly.
Uranus laughed softly, "But at least he didn't disobey Princess Neptune's order, right?"
Neptune giggled. Recalling their last interaction, she realized that she did miss Haruka. Well, Uranus to be exact. She thought. The same person standing behind her.
Suddenly, Neptune also realized that Uranus cared a lot about Michiru, because she raced to the garden looking for her shortly after arriving at Cordelia Naval Station. It explained that she was concerned over Michiru's safety when not seeing her evacuating Miranda Castle with everyone.
So when they were dancing, did Uranus see her as Neptune or Michiru? The warm smile on Uranus's face and the lingering eye contact that she gave, were those signs that she missed Michiru, or was she just being friendly to Neptune in front of everyone? Suddenly, she found her cheeks rose in temperature and her heartbeat was speeding up again.
"Neptune?"
Uranus's calling interrupted Neptune from her musing. The aqua-haired princess finally turned around to her senshi partner.
"Neptune, I know neither of us expected this evening to turn out like this. Plus, there are things that we still need to discuss, I-"
Just then, Neptune received a call from her planet.
"Pardon me."
It turned out Queen Beryl was sending troops towards Triton Castle. The force was not far away from the outermost moon of Neptune.
"Sorry Uranus, I'd love to discuss further but-"
"Is everything okay?"
"Enemies are approaching my planet. I must go now."
Neptune transformed. As she was preparing to take off, a hand held onto hers from behind. She didn't need to turn around to know who that was – she was just holding onto this strong but gentle hand on the dance floor moments ago.
"Now that we have met each other, are you sure you still want to fight alone?" Uranus asked.
Neptune paused. Frankly she had never thought of this since she had been fighting without a partner the entire time. When her planet called she assumed that it was just another day that she had to fight by herself and the thought of asking Uranus for assistance just didn't come across her mind at all. She realized that this was actually the opportunity for her to fight alongside Uranus that she had long been waiting for.
She turned around, and when she did she was shocked to see a transformed Guardian Uranus. She was stunned by how magnificent and strong her senshi partner looked.
"What do you say, Neptune?"
"No, I'd like you to come along," the aqua-haired guardian gave Uranus a sincere smile, holding onto her hand firmly.
Triton Castle
Uranus and Neptune arrived at Triton Castle in no time.
Neptune was surprised by the minimal time they spent to get there. She definitely had never traversed such distance in speed remotely close to this before.
"How did we get here so quickly?" She asked. All she remembered was that she summoned her Deep Aqua Mirror and Uranus summoned her Space Sword. While they held onto each other's hand, Uranus raised the Sword above them and the next thing she knew, they were standing in front of her palace.
"After that night my Sword sent lights towards your Mirror, it started to give me some sort of teleportation ability," Uranus answered.
Neptune was still amazed by its ability, but she knew it was time to get into action soon even though their early arrival would give them some time to prepare.
"What's your plan Neptune?"
The aqua-haired princess checked her Mirror, and then began, "Looks like the enemy force is quite large this time. Come on, I'll give you a quick walk-through of the castle so we that can better strategize this."
"But I am familiar with it already," Uranus said.
"You are?" Neptune asked, surprised.
"Well, your bodyguard told me all about it when we went through her sketchbook," Uranus said jokingly.
Neptune chuckled.
"Well then, Let me give you some other info that might be handy. There are only two entrances to the castle, the east and west wing. The east side is more elevated. There's a river that runs from the east side and ends at a waterfall on the west side"
"Got it."
"They are coming towards the east side – this troop is led by one of Beryl's generals, Esmeraude. My plan is not to meet them in the open space. With the size of the force there's no doubt that they will run into a bottleneck at the entrance, and-"
"Then we can attack them at the choke point?" Uranus speculated her partner's plan.
"Exactly," Neptune said, "but there's a chance that Esmeraude will do something before her entire troop gets wiped out at the choke."
"Good point, and it's quite unusual that they are coming in from only one direction." Uranus mulled over some possibilities before offering her suggestion. "Why don't you stand by on the west wing then? I can take on the choke."
The aqua-haired guardian nodded, secretly amazed by the fact that Uranus thought of the same thing she had in mind.
"And I'll set up the same marking spots I did at Miranda on the west entrance."
"But isn't that too obvious?" Uranus quickly asked.
The only response from Neptune was a sly smile. Uranus studied her facial expression and immediately understood.
"Good one, Neptune," Uranus agreed with a knowing smile. "What about your people? With your plan I assume you'd want them to stay here?"
"Sure, but I'll give you my permission to make that announcement at my courtyard if you must," Neptune joked.
Uranus laughed, "Let's go."
Uranus went for the east entrance to wait for the arrival of the Dark Kingdom's force, while Neptune marked spots along the pathway of the west wing and then concealed from sight.
The enemies soon approached the east wing. Uranus saw Esmeraude - she held a red war fan and commanded her troop from behind. The monsters lined up at the entrance, and the light-green haired general waved her fan and ordered them to rush in.
As soon as the first monsters stepped onto the stone pathway, Uranus raised her hand and called upon World Shaking attack towards them. It immediately took out a dozen of monsters.
"Obsidian Shield!" Esmeraude yelled. The Dark Kingdom's general unfolded her war fan and summoned a force field that shielded her troops from Uranus's World Shaking attack and gave them a chance to sneak in.
"Space Sword Blaster!" Uranus sent beaming light from her Sword and destroyed the force field instead. Some monsters had successfully crept in, but the Guardian of the Sky denied them from advancing any further. She briskly sent more powerful Space Sword Blasters to wipe out any monster that dared to set foot onto the stone pathway. Esmeraude continued to summon more force fields in order to distract Uranus and tried to push her troop inside, but Uranus was swift and powerful enough to hold off any advancement.
The Guardian of the Sky brandished her talisman with passion and pique – to her an assault on Triton Castle was the same as an attack on Miranda Castle. She was determined to punish every monster that came close to her partner's castle.
After a while, Uranus noticed that she had hadn't been destroying Esmeraude's force fields in her last few attacks. Glancing over, she couldn't see the light green-haired general anymore and the troop size seemed to have diminished much quicker than what she was expecting. She determined that it was time to notify Neptune.
She hurled her World Shaking attack towards the river, generating a powerful current, before returning to vanquish more monsters.
Neptune was standing by behind the waterfall, awaiting signals from Uranus. Suddenly, she noticed a powerful flow of water descending forcefully. It collapsed onto the plunge pool and formed a strong rotating whirlpool. The aqua-haired guardian knew that it was Uranus's alert. It was time for her to act.
As expected, Esmeraude brought a sizable troop and tried to enter from the west wing instead. The general's scouting unit confirmed to her that there were no senshi spotted on the west wing and it was clear to enter. The light green haired general led in the front and the troop followed her.
Esmeraude set her foot onto the pathway, she waved her fan to gesture her troop to hold position. Feeling a little dubious that Neptune would leave the entrance wide open for her, she wanted to make sure that there were indeed no traps. She looked up at the castle and saw nothing unusual. There were lights at the palace and everything appeared to be same as usual. Then she took a glance on the stone pathway, and spotted some marked spots, the same ones as Queen Beryl's adviser suggested her to pay attention to. She checked the surrounding again and felt pretty confident with what she saw.
"Humph!" Esmeraude huffed sarcastically, "this is all Neptune can do? Child's play."
"March forward!" The light green haired general ordered the troop to continue entering the west entrance. It took a while for the force to move in since the entrance point was even narrower than the east entrance.
Neptune saw the movement. She raised her talisman to send lights onto the spots that she had marked earlier. They were not strong lights as the castle was still pretty bright inside.
"Carry on!" Esmeraude ordered, "it's just an old trick from Neptune. There are no traps or ambushes!"
When the entire force finally crossed the castle's boundary, Neptune raised her hand to hurl out her Deep Submerge attack. A powerful wave gushed out behind the waterfall and dragged along the flows of water from the cataract, forming a giant tsunami wave that engulfed the entire pathway. It instantly disintegrated many monsters.
"What?! They were concealing?!" Esmeraude was stunned by the sudden attack and her false speculation. The light green haired general panicked instead and frantically waved her war fan at the direction of the waves. As a result, she ended up annihilating most of her minions.
It was too late until the Dark Kingdom's general realized that she was baited, but she wasn't ready to give up. With a few monsters remained, the waves receded, and the waterfall returned to the natural flowing state, the vindictive general was determined to seek retaliation on Triton Castle.
But before she advanced further into the castle, Neptune re-emerged from the waterfall. The aqua-haired guardian leapt onto the pathway and landed just in front of Esmeraude and her depleted force, blocking their way.
"I knew you would end up coming in from the west wing, but you won't go any further than where you are!" Neptune declared.
"Why did you mark the spots if you knew I was coming in from this side?!"
"I purposely made you believe that I was using an old trick, otherwise you wouldn't be so confident that I wasn't concealing! All your moves are within our calculation!"
"You wily guardian!" Esmeraude yelled.
"I will do anything to protect my planet and castle!" Neptune defended. "And my partner Uranus will vanquish the rest of your troop on the east wing!"
The light green haired general was incensed. "You have nothing but deceiving tricks! But you won't prevail over me! You're going to be sorry!"
"Obsidian Shield!" Esmeraude summoned a force field and ordered her minions to attack Neptune but they were easily ripped away by the guardian's powerful ocean waves.
The Dark Kingdom's general then flipped open her fan and began to send attacks towards the Guardian of the Sea. Neptune blocked Esmeraude's attack with her Mirror's beaming light. She immediately called upon her Submarine Reflection as a return attack, but Esmeraude dodged it quickly.
"Humph!" Esmeraude quickly folded her war fan, and as the black crescent moon flashed on her forehead, she opened it again. Each metal rib of her fan had turned into long and sharp blade.
"For all I know Guardian Neptune has no combat skill!" She sprung and landed in front of Neptune, charging her fan at the guardian.
Neptune dodged quickly and Esmeraude continued to strike her bladed fan at her. The guardian had no advantage at this point since she did not have a melee weapon for a close combat. In order for her to have any chance of returning an attack, she needed to create some distance between them. Standing on the narrow pathway, she was constrained to a few moves and couldn't turn anything into her advantage.
She also realized that Esmeraude's speed was much quicker than she expected. A few times she attempted to jump into the plunge pool, trying to move the battle to a terrain that would let her regain upper-hand, but the general denied her by countering with faster strikes.
Then Esmeraude's attack escalated. She held her bladed fan vertically and cast flaming darts from the blade towards Neptune. The senshi swiftly dove to the ground to avoid them. Before she was able to get up on her feet, she found her chest being stood on by one of Esmeraude's knee high boots. She tried to struggle herself free but was constrained by her stiletto heel that was practically a dagger. It was pushing dangerously close to pierce through her skin.
"It's over Neptune!" Esmeraude laughed hysterically, preparing for her second strike. Neptune stared at her angrily while scolding herself for not being able to defend her own castle. At this point her only trick left was to pray silently for her senshi partner's rescue.
The Dark Kingdom's general cast her flaming darts again, and just inches before they struck the guardian, the Space Sword appeared and promptly suspended all of them.
Brisk like the wind came the Guardian of the Sky.
"Uranus!" Neptune exclaimed. Her eyes sparkled with excitement seeing her senshi partner.
Uranus swung her Sword at Esmeraude, forcing her to skip away from them.
"No wonder you need a bodyguard, Neptune," Uranus teased, looking at her senshi partner briefly. "I've got this."
The last few words from Uranus warmed Neptune's heart. She never knew that she could feel at such ease during a battle and trust anybody else with her life.
The Guardian of the Sky wielded her Sword and engaged in a melee combat with Esmeraude. Her attack was swift and forceful and the Dark Kingdom's general could only block with her fan and back away as defense. As Neptune got up on her feet to support her Uranus, she was amazed by how quick and powerful her senshi partner was. The way she brandished her Space Sword was like a beautiful dance – passionate yet elegant.
"Neptune!" Uranus yelled.
The next thing she knew, Uranus had already constrained Esmeraude the same way she was cornered by Esmeraude before. The Dark Kingdom's general had no chance to escape at this point. Neptune immediately raised her hand to hurl her Deep Submerge. Uranus also called upon her World Shaking at the same time. The two attacks coalesced and transformed into one powerful charge. It struck Esmeraude directly and the humanoid instantly turned into a dark void before vanishing.
The Dark Kingdom's scheme failed again.
The two guardians stood on the west wing of Triton Castle, watching the surging water falling over a cliff at the cataract waterfall. Everything had returned to normal and appeared as if there weren't an intense battle moments ago.
"Uranus," Neptune began, looking at her senshi partner, "thank you for coming tonight."
"You're welcome," Uranus said. She then asked with a teasing tone, "Here or to Saturn's birthday party?"
"I guess both," Neptune smiled. "If you didn't show up at Princess Saturn's party, we wouldn't have a chance to fight alongside each other."
"Maybe I would never see you again if I didn't show up."
"I know." Neptune sighed. "Thanks for saving me. I'll be in your debt for this one."
"Just one?" Uranus said grinning, "how about a couple of other instances where you tricked me?"
"Oh Haruka, you're just being petty," Neptune complained. "Plus, you're blaming the wrong person – you're going to have to ask Michiru to pay you back."
"Fine. But for this one, I want you to pay now."
"Now?" Neptune asked, surprised. "What do you want for return?"
"You'll know," Uranus said mysteriously. "Close your eyes."
"You're not using the same trick I used, right?"
"So you are Michiru?"
Neptune giggled. She held onto Uranus's hand and closed her eyes.
Titan Castle, Saturn
When Neptune opened her eyes again, they have returned to Saturn.
The two guardians had de-transformed and were now in the same outfits as they arrived at Titan Castle earlier – Neptune in a golden princess dress and Uranus in a marine blue prince suit.
"Uranus," Neptune said with an amused tone, "are you sure you still want to walk back into the ballroom?" She was referring to their embarrassing dance earlier.
"At least we ended on a high note," Uranus defended. "But you're right, we can't go back in there. Because you probably won't see me again – I'll be busy dancing with other lovely ladies."
"Okay, you tell me what you want to do, since I owe you one."
Uranus reached for the boutonnière that was pinned onto her suit and removed it.
"Still remember this flower?" Uranus asked, presenting it in front of the aqua-haired princess.
"Yes, the Windflower," Neptune answered, "the topical pain reliever."
"I'm going to give it to you." Uranus said as she started unwrapping the decorative ribbon around the stem of the zaffre blue flower.
"Oh?" Neptune decided to tease Uranus, "for the pain you have put me through for dealing with you?"
Uranus laughed, "If that's the case then you owe me a dozen of these."
She gently lifted up Neptune's hand and looked into her eyes. With a more serious tone, she continued, "Neptune, I should have trusted you for defending my castle. I never had a chance to tell you how much I appreciated your help but I'm glad that I am finally able to express my gratitude."
"Thank you Uranus, but I also didn't plan things very well at that time…" Neptune said, offering a contrite smile.
"When we were at Triton Castle, I finally got to see the strong, courageous, and astute Guardian of the Sea, and I realized how fortunate I am to have a partner like you."
"Uranus, I felt the same as well," Neptune added. "But better late than never, right? I am happy that we finally got to meet each other, well, at least officially." She chuckled.
"I know," said Uranus. She wrapped the ribbon around Neptune's wrist and placed a gentle kiss on her hand, then offered her a sincere smile, "As you know the Windflower symbolizes trust and loyalty - this will represent my trust in you and my loyalty to you as a senshi partner."
Neptune nodded and returned a warm smile.
"Okay, Uranus. So what are we doing here? We could have done this in Triton Castle."
"We're here to dance," Uranus replied matter-of-factly.
"Are you serious?" Neptune asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Well, you have accepted my corsage, so you'll be my dance partner tonight."
"What?!"
"Come with me."
The blonde princess took Neptune's hand. The next time the aqua-haired princess opened her eyes again they were standing on the ring of Saturn.
"Why are we here? Uranus we can't just trespass the Saturnian territory."
Uranus mocked her, "Princess Neptune, you are certainly no stranger to trespassing. You trespassed multiple forbidden territories and broke several laws on my planet and you didn't seem to care."
"Did I?" Neptune asked incredulously.
Before her question was answered, Uranus had already taken one of her hands and put her other hand around her back. Neptune shook her head with a smile and obliged by placing her hand around her partner's shoulder.
The two princesses spent the rest of their evening dancing on the icy ring of Saturn. Whether their dance was elegant or coordinated, it seemed to be the least of their concern. As they glided along and spun around on the polychromatic ring, they shared chatter, jokes and laughter. They enjoyed each other's company and learned a lot more about one another that were beyond Haruka and Michiru.
After a while, they stopped dancing and walked hand in hand towards the edge of the colorful icy ring. The blonde princess relaxingly looked up to the vast space.
"Tired?" Neptune asked softly.
"No," Uranus shook her head. "Come on, let's stargaze together." She guided Neptune to sit next to her.
Frankly Neptune was physically exhausted after a long day performing at Princess Saturn's birthday party and then defending her castle. Not to mention, mentally her mind still hadn't fully reconciled with the facts that she officially met her senshi partner and fought together with her, and that Haruka was actually Uranus.
Unknowingly but naturally, she rested her head on Uranus's shoulder.
"Neptune," Uranus said in her deep voice, taking Neptune's hand, "thank you for being my dance partner tonight."
"Well, I had no choice, since I owed you one." Neptune teased.
Uranus chuckled and shook her head. She wanted to counter Neptune's sharp words but seeing her resting comfortably on her shoulder, she decided to let this one go.
Suddenly, the aqua-haired princess spotted something interesting.
"Uranus, look!" She pointed at it. "It's a meteor shower! How beautiful!" She then immediately closed her eyes and lowered her chin.
Uranus took a glance and smiled, "It's indeed beautiful. But why do you have your eyes closed?"
Neptune opened her eyes and looked at her senshi partner disbelievingly, "You didn't know that you're supposed to make a wish when you see a meteor shower?"
"Oh Neptune, a princess like you still needs a wish? Isn't your wish everyone's command?" The blonde princess asked grinning.
"Hey, careful with your uninformed accusation," Neptune jokingly used the same line when she acted as Michiru, warning Haruka to be mindful of his words.
"So what did you wish for?"
"I'm not telling you," Neptune answered playfully, turning away from her senshi partner.
Uranus pondered for a while, and then she began.
"That's okay, I already know what it is," she said confidently.
"Then tell me."
"It's something beyond anyone's control so you really have to wish for it."
"What is it then?" Neptune inquired curiously.
"Well," Uranus giggled mischievously, "you wished that I won't find the right girl so I could consider you for a courtship."
"Haruka!" Neptune almost jumped. "Who wants to court you?!"
"You! That's why you gave me the Skyflower!"
"I've already told you that was not my intention!"
"But you already knew what it meant before giving it to me!"
Haruka and Michiru started arguing again.
Thank you so much for following this story! I really appreciate it. To be honest, I'm not quite sure if I want to continue this further. The original ideas (was intended to be a short one) and plots have changed a lot throughout the story but I'm pretty content with the derailment. I still have some plots in my mind but felt like this chapter would make a good ending too. (probably just need to add a short epilogue to make things more logical) Would love to hear some feedback – if anything it would be a much longer work since my schedule will get tighter.
Note1: I don't think Esmeraude exist in Silver Millennium but I made a plot for her anyway.
Note2: I did a chibi drawing for the last scene of this chapter. I would love to have a mini-gallery for the story but unfortunately FF only allows one cover image, so I made the drawing my profile avatar instead. I've uploaded this to DeviantArt:
deviantart . com (slash) thekissinghand (slash) art (slash) Sailor-Moon-Uranus-and-Neptune-stargazing-Chibi-729487610