The Last Odango
Chapter 5
Author: Nat-chan
E-mail: natalie. http/oceansofnat. Kissing G
Disclaimer: Although I am the all powerful nat-chan, I do not own Sailor Moon. Or Mamoru. Sigh.
Author's Notes: Little to nothing is known about how Princess Serenity and Prince Endymion met and fell in love.
And then came Nat-chan.
1000 years earlier…..
For Prince Endymion of earth, the fate of the Universe was decided in an instant by one,
small, incalculable detail. And that detail was the hairstyle of the Queen and Princess of the Moon.
He had always been a well-behaved boy—most of the time anyway. His parents had
never worried about his handling of the responsibility that awaited him as King, even after
discovering that life existed on the Moon. And very powerful and advanced life at that.
They prepared him for that first meeting with thorough education and patience. He was well
versed in the cultural differences, could greet them in their native tongue and was ready to be
as polite and dutiful as his position commanded him to be.
But the moment those two women entered the grand hall, with their hair in those matching
twin buns, it was all for nought. Endymion bit the insides of his cheeks and nudged his guard
and friend Malachite and made a not-so-graceful display of trying not to laugh.
The meeting ran smoothly. Endymion was not a Prince for nothing and only slipped up
once when he mentioned the formal "Ball" that was to be held in their honour and his
eyes wandered erringly to the Princess's hair as he said the word "ball"….he hoped she
didn't notice.
But out in the garden later, he let loose with Malachite and the two of them laughed
until their sides hurt.
"I've never seen anything like it—except in the kitchen when Cook makes those
dumplings….what are they called?" Endymion chortled.
"Odangos." Malachite replied, wiping tears from his eyes.
"How do they keep their heads up?" Endymion laughed.
"Must be the lack of gravity." Malachite jested and they both kept laughing.
But a faint tingling in his senses made Endymion turn and then Malachite. And there
behind them, having heard every word, was Serenity, Princess of the Moon, staring
open-mouthed at them in shock.
Endymion and Malachite froze too, mouths open and stared back.
But Endymion had just enough wicked humour to laugh at the situation and his
smile gave him away.
"It IS the strangest hairstyle I've EVER seen." He confessed and there was laughter
in his voice.
It can be said that the Princess never really forgave him.
In fact, after he met her that evening at the door to the Banquet Hall to lead her in
like a Gentlemen and then whispered, "Good Evening….Odango!" she made a point
of exacting revenge at every opportunity she could afford herself.
Endymion found himself on the receiving end of some unexpected magic. His soup ran
cold and turned his tongue a purple color that did not dissipate for three days. A frog lept
from his boots the next morning and nearly scared the life out of him.
It only made him enjoy taunting her more.
The Queen of the Moon and his parents seemed quite oblivious, too wrapped up in discussing
the sense of impending evil they all felt and how they could combat it.
It was only after the morning that Princess Serenity snuck into his bath that it became apparent
that there was issue between them.
Of course, as Princess Serenity claimed ever afterwards, the blame for that particular event lay
entirely on Prince Endymion who had swaggered by her that morning on his way to the baths
and hollered, "Hey! Princess Odango! Don't trip over your hair today!"
Princess Serenity, who had most unfortunately done just that the night before at the Ball, burned
with rage and indignation. It was not her fault that the wretched gravity of this planet made her
hair grow faster!
She had stormed off with his laughter behind her, then turned back and crept in while he bathed,
turning his last basin of rinsing water ice cold.
And the satisfying scream he had let out when he stood up and poured it unknowingly all over
himself had been music to her ears.
Unfortunately, sneaking in on a totally naked Prince was considered quite the breach of
etiquette—who knew?
Princess Serenity was young enough that his being naked hadn't phased her in the slightest,
nor had she even really looked. It was the scream she'd been after, and the scream she had
got in the end.
Her mother lectured and laid on the guilt but she could see by Serenity's smug face that she
wasn't the least bit sorry.
"Serenity, what has this boy done to you to make you treat him this way?" she asked.
Serenity turned quite serious then, "Mama, he made fun of our hair!"
The Queen of the Moon now bit the inside of HER cheeks to keep from laughing.
Visits between the Earth and the Moon were quite frequent after that, much to Serenity's
disappointment. Prince Endymion was just as obnoxious on the Moon as on Earth and
tormented her constantly, though never in anyone else's hearing.
Not that he didn't end up in his fair share of scrapes because of it. On her own turf,
Serenity employed some clever magic to exact her revenge.
But none of it mattered because he could use that nickname to flub her up so utterly
in the most ideal situations. She had ruined formal speeches, greetings to guests, even
magic spells because of his whispered Odango's. Even if he found himself covered in
half the cake and punch table later 'by accident' it was totally worth it. He'd never met
anyone who rose to the fight like she did.
She was the least boring Princess he had ever known.
And he was the most obnoxious person she had ever known.
That year marked Serenity's last as a child though. She grew taller, filled out, and
matured into the lovely Princess her mother had always hoped her to be. She was
no longer clumsy or prone to mispronouncing unfortunate choice words in foreign
speeches or incantations resulting in disaster.
That was until the Earth family visited and Endymion was around again.
The Queen shook her head at him. He was older too, though he didn't seem to
have realized it. He was still as boyishly eager to taunt her into adventures he
could laugh at as he had been that first year they met.
But Princess Serenity finally had it. The week before his arrival she had finally
mastered the art of moon fan painting, a delicate and difficult art that had been
last on the list of skills she wanted to garner. She'd had quite enough of Prince
Endymion being the bane of her existence as Princess. This time she was ready for him.
She cornered him when he first arrived and he grinned at her, his eyes already
alight with mischief. They'd just come from Mercury, the quietest and most studious
planet of them all and the Princess there had bored him to tears. He'd been so excited
to visit the moon again he'd been beside himself all the way there.
"Princess Odango! Have you missed me?"
"Of course not you idiot!" she retorted, impressing him with her knowledge of earth
insults. Idiot had only recently come into fashion.
"I've had it with your constant tormenting! There is a delegation from Venus here this
week too and I have to deliver a very formal speech to them, followed by an incantation
so complicated I have written it on my hand." She flashed him the symbols scribbled hastily
on her palm and he laughed.
"I will NOT let you ruin it for me! I have mastered every last art of being a Princess and
you always arrive to muck it up for me! NO MORE!"
He merely smiled knowingly back at her, his eyes chiding her with promises the contrary.
But then she leaned in very close to him so that, pinned against the wall, he could see every
detail of her clearly and smell that clean, fresh moon scent off her. Every strand of hair in those
two famous Odango's was in focus, even the tiny beads woven about the base of them. His
eyes widened in alarm. One thing he did NOT want was to start looking at Princess Odango
like a GIRL. He took enough abuse from his parents about reaching a 'marriagable age'.
"Listen here!" she hissed angrily, and that anger flushed in her cheeks and sparking in her
eyes made her a child again so that he breathed out in relief, but her next words did not, "I will give you anything you want, anything, if you will just NOT say Odango ever again!"
Never again? He felt his heart constrict in his chest. Without Princess Odango all his visits would be the same. Every boring planet just like the next. Without Princess Odango he had to be a REAL Prince and start considering that whole marriageable age thing seriously. She watched the pained disappointment on his face with confusion.
Then he seemed to regain himself, "Now now, don't get all worked up Odango. If it's that important to you I won't breath a single Odango during your precious speech and spell ok?"
Her eyes narrowed though and his escape was short-lived.
"Mm-mm." she said, shaking her head, "I want it banished, never to be spoken again!"
Once again he looked quite crestfallen so she leaned still closer so that he tried to back up and found he couldn't. She was pressed against him now and he was forced to realize that she had rounded out quite a bit. When had THAT happened?
"Anything you want." She promised, "Anything I have the power to give you."
For a moment her eyes held his and he read something powerful and mature in their depths—something she had come to own this past year that he wasn't expecting. Then he shook himself and smiled that wide, irritating smile she so despised. It was the smile every other court woman tried in vain to get out of him.
"That's a pretty tall order. You'll have to give me some time to think it over."
She seemed relieved though and smiled eagerly at him, "Take your time!"
He waited for her to let go but she didn't so he said humorlessly but with a little fear in his voice, "Uh, you'd better let go, if someone sees us like this, they might think something they shouldn't."
She pulled back, looking at how close they were but then lifted her chin in a haughty huff, "You wish!" she snapped and stormed off, as offended as ever.
This comforted Prince Endymion greatly.
True to his word, he let her get through her speech and incantation clutz free but it made for a long, boring meal. He leaned over to Malachite with a sigh, "Could this be any less fun? And get this, Princess Odango wants me to stop calling her Odango! What's the fun in that I ask you? She's willing to give me anything I want to stop though. I'll have to think of something she would never ever give me…."
He waited for Malachite to reply and turned in surprise when he didn't to find him staring dreamily at the Princess from Venus.
Oh no.
These past six months his entire set of guards has all lost their minds entirely over women. It was disgusting. And now Malachite, his last sane friend.
Endymion sighed in disappointment. He turned his attention back to Princess Odango, hoping she might cause some calamity on her own. Instead he watched some simpering delegate ask her to dance, kissing her hand and standing too close while they waltzed. He leaned down to whisper something in her ear and it was the look of utter disgust he read on her face that gave him the idea.
He waited until she had rid herself of him and then surprised his parents to no end by crossing the room and asking her to dance. Endymion avoided dancing as much as possible. Women were always saying such inappropriate things to him when they danced. He did not like it one bit.
But now he led Serenity out onto the floor with a devilish smile and she knew he was up to something.
"You promised!" she whispered fiercely.
"Relax Odango, I won't make you clutz up tonight….no matter how tempted I am. This evening just couldn't be more boring."
She sighed in agreement, surprising him, "It was a total snore." She replied, "But at least I didn't humiliate myself!"
"Spoilsport." He teased.
"Jerk." She returned and his eyes widened in surprise.
"Is that from earth?"
When she nodded he shook his head, "I've been away from home too long."
Then he smiled wickedly at her, "I've thought of the one thing you can give me."
Her face momentarily lit up but the smile died on her lips when he leaned in close to her ear and whispered, "You have to kiss me!"
She pulled back in shock and he laughed quietly as they kept dancing.
She realized he thought he'd won and her face set in all its angry lines, "You think I won't do it!"
He scoffed, "You won't!"
But that stubborn chin went up, "You just wait, the second I can get you alone, I'll do it!"
He looked disbelieving and nodded in mock agreement.
To her credit, Princess Serenity would have kissed him, if she could have got him alone. But after that night, her mother decided it was vastly important that they earn loyalty from Earth. And what better way to do that then to send Prince and Princess all over the globe to formally address that issue and participate in ceremony after ceremony to show the friendly relations between the two planets?
Endymion and Serenity found themselves thrown in close and highly supervised quarters for nearly a month. And at first Endymion found his usual volley of Odango caused catastrophes very enjoyable indeed. But since the point of these visits was to show positive relations between the two planets, his father threatened him with one or two very nasty things if he pranked the Princess again.
That left Endymion very bored and dejected indeed. Until Serenity came up with a few pranks of her own, to play on the besotted generals and Princesses of the other planets who often attended.
Poor Malachite found himself on the receiving end of several of those pranks in front of his lovely Mina and could never prove the two of them did it.
Endymion never forgot that first burst of camaraderie when she succumbed to boredom and plotted with him to spice things up.
Not that he didn't take every opportunity he could to trip her up with the hated nickname, often when they were dancing so that he could catch her and make it look like he, the dashing prince, had saved the clumsy princess from her own misstep.
"Just you wait," she would promise, "The first chance I get I'm kissing that smug look of your face forever!"
Even this kind of baldly obvious statement of eminent get together was lost on them both until some weeks later when Endymion's father presented him with an Earth lady to consider for marriage.
Endymion danced politely with her but was horrendously uncomfortable. She seemed alright. She was pretty and well educated and came from the right family. But she was quite dull. An uneasy glance over the Serenity, laughing with the Princess of Venus as they did something rather naughty looking to the punch that was later to color Malachite's tongue purple for weeks, that he had the sudden thought; wouldn't it be better to have for a wife, someone who interested him? Someone would made him laugh? Someone who made the dullery of everyday life bearable?
He had watched her more closely after that. Her mother had attempted a few matchmaking schemes of her own, introducing her to this fellow or that and she hadn't seemed the least interested in any of them.
It would certainly please their parents, Endymion thought, what better way to say that relations between the Earth and the Moon were good?
He didn't think he let anything slip. She seemed quite oblivious to his change of heart. Until they got back to his home and she finally had the opportunity to get him on his own. He had almost forgotten but she cornered him that first night, out in the garden, near the very spot he had first teased her so long ago.
"Ha ha!" she had pointed with satisfaction, "Finally I have you on your own! Say goodbye to Princess Odango forever!"
With that she had stalked over, taken him by the folds of his jacket and pulled him down to meet her.
And the moment their mouths met Endymion realized he had been quite wrong about his feelings for her for some time….possibly since they had first met.
She pulled back from that kiss and his heart froze in his chest. Her wide eyes betrayed her surprised, "Y-you like me?" she squeaked out and he realized lingering too long in that kiss might not have been the best way to first tell her.
He just stared back at her numbly, his cheeks burning, unable to think of anything to say.
He watched her shock face, the way her mouth had fallen open, then his eyes wandered down and saw her trembling hands. And suddenly the corners of his mouth turned up in the same way they had that first moment. His eyes met hers and he broke into a huge grin, "I don't ever want to say goodbye to Princess Odango!" he proclaimed and caught her up in his arms, tipping her back with a laugh.
"Princess Odango is what makes it all worthwhile!" he announced and then touched his nose expectantly to hers.
He was well rewarded as she slowly smiled back and reached up to kiss him again.
It was after all this that the terrible evil on Earth began to turn people to its side---including Endymion's parents who broke contact with the Moon and forbid him to see Princess Serenity. But that did not stop either of them from sneaking back and forth, or from Endymion standing in front of her in that last, gruesome battle.