Celebration!
UsakoMamoru Second Anniversary Challenge
Danika Lareyna
Inner Senshi
"You let her go," Sailor Venus said, without looking up.
Sailor Jupiter slid the door closed behind her and flopped heavily onto the pristine, white couch. She did not bother to respond, it had not been a question. Shame-faced, she pulled a pillow to her chest, curling herself around it, rather than meeting the gaze of her companions.
The room was large and circular. Five doors branched from it at equal intervals, one each leading to their bedrooms and one, the one through which she had just entered, leading to a corridor. A door at the other end of that hallway led to the quarters of the Crown Princess of the Silver Millennium, the young woman that Sailor Jupiter and the other Inner Senshi had been sworn from birth to protect.
The young woman who regularly managed to 'sneak' past her guardians to rendezvous with the Prince of Earth.
Sailor Mars let out a growl of wordless frustration and the end table next to her chair started to smolder. Jupiter felt a flush rise in her face, clearly hearing the unspoken accusation.
"Calm yourself," Venus said, sternly, "We have all done the same, many times." Mercury quietly reached over to lay her gloved hand on the smoking piece of furniture. Beneath the blue-haired maiden's touch, the table quickly returned to it normal temperature. Mars muttered her thanks. It would not have been the first time her temper had necessitated new furniture in their shared sitting room.
A heavy silence filled the space between them as the women, little more than girls themselves, contemplated their failed duty. At last, their leader spoke once more. "Why do we keep doing this? Why can we not keep her from this folly?"
The four guardians exchanged a glance, all keenly aware of their own blame. At last, the most soft-spoken of them whispered, "She loves him."
Jupiter nodded her agreement with Sailor Mercury's statement and, giving the pillow in her arms a vicious squeeze, added, "And he loves her."
Crossing her arms and glowering into space, Mars muttered, "And we cannot deny her happiness."
Four sets of eyes, old beyond their years, simultaneously turned to stare at the glowing, blue form of the Earth, shining like a jewel in the night sky over their heads. The unspoken question hung in the air between them and, despite their combined resources, they could find no answer.
At what cost?