"Small Lady?" The voice echoed into the grand library. "Small Lady?" Footsteps crossed over the threshold and entered the room. The room was vast- rows and rows of shelves lined the walls filled with the greatest stories of all time. The owner of the voice walked by the shelves, calling out her charge's name. She walked farther into the room, so accustomed with the room that she did not glance at the gold touched frescos and stained glassed windows. Her only concern was Small Lady.
She turned the corner and walked over to the seating area. She first saw the soft pink hair peeking out from the book. She quickened her steps as she approached the table. "Small Lady!" She called again. The hair did not move. "Small Lady, your mother is concerned that you did not make it to dinner…" The guardian bunched her leg muscles and leapt onto thee table that held both the pink hair and the book.
The lean grey cat walked around the book and glanced down at her charge. "Oh, Small Lady." The young royal's head was cradled between her arms while her hands clasped the book out of sleep. Her hair was tossed over her face in pink waves. Her eyes were closed but tears outlined her eyes.
Diana, Her royal highness Princess Serenity's guardian cat, began rubbing her face against the young heir of the Crystal Tokyo. "Small Lady, it is just another bad dream. Please wake up."
After a few moments of prodding, slowly the ruby red eyes appeared from under heavy eyes. She looked blankly at her friend. "What time is it, Diana?"
"It is almost eight o'clock. Your majesty was worried when you did not come to dinner." The cat looked up at the huge volume still gripped in the young royal's hand. "What were you reading?"
Small Lady quickly closed the book. "Nothing. I just got caught up in one of Mercury's histories of the 20th century. It seems so long ago that I traveled back, and sometimes I like to remember my old friends."
"But, Small Lady, the inner senshi are still here as well as your parents, Neo Queen Serenity and King Endymion. Why do you need to remember them from back then?"
The princess pushed back a strand on cotton candy pink hair behind her ear, and opened the volume to one of the illustrations. The protector from Mercury was always a scientist as well as a warrior, but she also had an artistic eye. With a careful hand, the author of the book had sketched a group of friends circled together. In the center of the group was a young girl with pink hair clasping her arms around a young Saturn, while the Sailor Moon stood behind her laughing. "I love Mama and Papa, but back then… They were different. Even after they knew who I was, the still treated me more like a friend."
Diana nodded, but Small Lady knew she did not understand. She allowed her guardian to lead her to her mother's office. Even though she had missed dinner, she was not hungry. She kissed the Queen on her cheek and gave her King a hug. They both loved her unconditionally, but she still felt pangs every time she saw their love. She still remember sitting on her mother's knee as she told her about the Silver Millennium and how she was always destined to be with her father. Small Lady witnessed this herself as she traveled back to the 20th century, first to save her parents and then to train as Chibi Moon. Her parents when they dated went through so many trials and tribulations, but always Small Lady could see the love blossoming on their faces. A millennium later, she could see the love had flowered into an amazing sight.
The princess returned to the library and returned to the volume. She had showed Diana the portrait of her past, but that is not what she had been looking at when she fell asleep. She turned the pages forward and sighed as she saw his face. Mercury had captured that brief moment so many years ago as if she had all day to draw the sketch.
Small Lady traced the curves of his face. He looked so intense as he stared down at the young child. Had she really grasped his robes so tightly as he said goodbye. Mercury had been genorus, and had not drawn in the tears that surely must have been on her face.
"Helios…"
Small Lady sighed. She sometimes wondered if he was still out there, or if she was just dreaming a lost dream. She closed the book and put her head between her arms again.
She was almost past her eighteenth year, and he still had not come to her, even just to say hello. Small Lady missed him coming to her and talking. Although she still wished she had been able to tell him about her dreams. He had trusted her with his secret but she had been so scared to tell him.
Every time she closed her eyes, she wished that he would come see her. Her dreams were pleasant, containing images of the past and possible frames from the future. But he was never there.
Maybe he had never really liked her, even as a friend. Her cheeks warmed as she remembered waking up to his passionate kiss when he had pushed his life force into hers. It was one of the few times he had been in human form and the touch of his skin still made her blood run hot. But she had been a child then, slowly coming into her powers.
Both a decade and a millennium had passed, and still all she had to keep her warm was the memory of his kiss.
Small Lady buried her head between her arms further. Her subjects were starting to ask how the princess would choose her husband. Crystal Tokyo was not like that of the Silver Millennium were eligible princes filled up the galaxy. Her mother's guardians had forfeited love in order to protect her mother, so their were no planetary equals to the princess. Small Lady knew her mother trusted her to wait for love but Small Lady was beginning to doubt that he would come.
With her bright eyes closed, she felt her self-falling into another dream.
"Chibiusa!"
She ran down the street, as Usagi chased her. She was back in the 20th century. Mamoru was laughing as she approached him. Usagi was grunting like a cow as she ran, and like her clumsy self she tripped over a small crack in the street.
"Mamo-chan!" She cried as she went sailing into the ground.
"Oh, Usako…" He tried to keep that handsome smile of his face, but he winked at her as he walked past and helped up Usagi. He gave her a hug as she cried.
"Honestly Usagi, I don't know how you save the world so many times…" She began her usually taunt against her mother's much younger self.
But then the dream shifted. Her eyes widened in disbelief, but it was as if her friends were frozen. But she could move. She was taller than her 8 year-old self that had just been in the dream. She was 18 and dressed in her royal white gown with crescent moon embroidery.
"Chibi Moon…."
That voice… Small Lady turned her head. His arms wrapped around her, so familiar. He smelled like roses and jasmine and felt so real.
"Helios…"
"I am sorry I can only meet you like this."
"I haven't seen you since you said goodbye…"
She could not turn her body to face him, his hold on her that tight, but she felt safe nestled in his arms like she always dreamed of.
"Chibi Moon, you forget again. I don't know why with all my power, I can't have you remember this dream."
She felt his lips kiss the nape of her neck. Her body felt very warm.
"Helios, I don't understand. You flew away to go back to Elysium, but you said I would see you again one day. Where have you been?"
His fingers dug into her waist as his warm breath caressed her ear. "I have been protecting your father's crystal for almost a millennium, waiting for you to be born in this reality. As soon as you returned from the past that last time I came to you. You told me about your dreams of being like your mother and I told you how I wished to always protect beautiful dreams. Please remember. Please."
His voice was desperate. She pulled his hands off her waist and turned around to face him. He looked the same as she remembered him. His eyes were as golden as the horn on his head and sparkled with an unfamiliar look. His skin was as pale and translucent of the finest china and his hair was as white and smooth as his Pegasus form. His hands clasped hers as he pulled her against his lean body.
"May I?" He asked softly with that same look on his face. She felt almost improper, but she nodded and opened her mouth in a sigh as those lips pressed into hers. She felt the push of power and blinked when he filled her with his memories of their time together.
She pulled her head away as he kissed her cheek. "I remember. But why do I keep forgetting?"
Helios clutched her closer to him. "I wish I knew. You retain memories of our dreams together when you were in the past, but since you came returned to this time its as if you are lost to me."
"Do I still hold the golden mirror?"
He sighed, "You have grown past the age where your dreams are that innocent. I have grown stronger since I have been joined with my corporal being."
She looked up at him, "The girls mentioned in the past having a vague recollection of you as Pegasus. They did not have the golden mirror. Maybe since I am no longer host to Pegasus that is why I can't remember you in this world."
Helios kissed her again and then he pulled back. "We won't have to be this way much longer, my princess."
She reached up both her arms and encircled his shoulders. "Why do you say that, my love?" She felt her skin blush, but she knew from his memories that this was not the first time she called him that. In fact, there were many things that they had done in the dream world… no wonder he greeted her in such a way!
"I have found one to replace me as guardian of the golden crystal. I can transfer to him my immortality and join you in Crystal Tokyo… as long as I can get your father to agree. He is the reigning king of Earth. His will decides my fate."
"And how can he not allow you to be with me?"
"Exactly!"
Small Lady pulled him down and boldly kissed him. She knew they were in the dream, but she could feel him as if they were together.
He tugged on her dress as his kiss seared her lips.
The walls of the space shown with color and the world began to spin.
She clutched to him as they rolled. His hair was so soft, his skin so smooth, but his muscles were so taunt.
He whispered about how much he loved her. She told him the same.
As she heard the familiar sounds of her guardian calling her from her dream, she felt his release along with hers.
"Soon, you won't forget me." He called out, as she broke free from his magic.
She opened her eyes and saw the concerned grey face.
"Another bad dream, my highness?" Diana asked.
Small Lady lifted her head off the book and looked at her childlike face upturned staring at the drawn image of Helios. She whipped a tear away from her face, and said to her friend, "I don't remember but this time I think it was good." She felt a flash of his lips against hers, and she smiled.