Chapter Four

"Venus! C'mon! Wake up!"

Venus opened her eyes to find Mars standing over her bed.

"Finally. Are you alright?"

Venus rubbed her eyes and sat up. "What?"

"What happened last night? I waited for you, but it just kept getting later and later. When did you get back? It must have been really late. I've never seen you sleep in before."

Venus pulled the covers back over her head and lied back down. "Yeah… it was a long night."

"Well, you'd better get up; you have to go meet with the Queen and the representatives in less than thirty minutes."

"What!?" Venus sprung out of bed and hurried to get ready. She'd completely forgotten about her meeting today.

Mars sat on the bed and looked over to Venus as she ran towards the door. "When you get back, I want to hear all about it, okay?"

"Sure!" Venus yelled and ran down the hall.

Venus fell back into the grass on the hill and sighed. The other girls looked over at her.

"Aw, poor Venus-chan. Long night?" Jupiter teased.

Venus rolled her eyes. They had no idea.

"Give her a break."

"Thanks, Mercury." Venus rolled over on her stomach.

Mercury smiled and offered Venus some of her lunch.

"You were supposed to tell me about it. How about now?" Mars asked.

Venus placed a grape into her mouth. "Alright." She chewed the grape, swallowed and then continued. "Well, I got lost because I forgot to ask where his room was and then I was chased all over the place. I almost got caught, and I dropped the letter without realizing it. And then this guard tackled me; He was so rude!"

"Sounds like an interesting night."

"That's not where it ends. After I get things sorted out, he takes out the letter and starts smiling in the most irritating manner. So I snatch it away from him and then he takes me to the prince. I wanted to wait for him to write back, but it was late and I was tired. I had to walk back through the palace with the numbskull, because the Prince asked him to. Oi!" Venus made her hand look like a gun and she held it up to her temple and "pulled the trigger." The girls laughed.

"Wait, wait, wait!" Jupiter composed herself. "He? Was he cute?"

Venus chuckled a bit. Jupiter was so boy crazy at times. She had felt an attraction of some sort towards Kunzite, but she wasn't going to reveal that to anyone. "It wasn't like that, though I can't say he wasn't attractive. He had these sexy grey eyes." She fell back laughing.

The girls all giggled and went on about the subject of guys. They all knew it was out of the question for them right now though: romance. It was duty before love. They'd all sworn their lives to taking care of and training the princess. There wasn't any time for other things. They all knew it, but they enjoyed talking about it anyway. There was never any harm in dreaming.

That night, Venus stopped in to Serenity's room before leaving for Earth. She stopped to inform her she was going, but also to make sure she hadn't gone herself. The princess was often impulsive, and she didn't know if she'd kept her word or not. To her surprise, however, the princess was in her bed, reading, of all things. Talk about motivation, Venus thought. She should have done this sooner. With a kiss to the forehead, Venus left the room and went to the garden.

As she reached her destination, she caught a sudden flash at the edge of the grounds. No one else is awake, who could that be? She sprinted to the spot, and her heart began to pound wildly as she saw who was standing before her. "Kunzite?"

"Ah," he turned to her. "Venus-dono. I didn't expect to be greeted by you."

"What are you doing here? You need to leave, now." She didn't even know how he'd gotten here. The only person on Earth she knew to have the power to get here was the prince.

Kunzite smirked slightly. "But I have to personally deliver this." He pulled out an envelope from his pocket. "Surely, you can understand the dilemma."

"I'm sure it will be fine just this once," she went to snatch the letter from him, "if I deliver it."

He smirked and pulled the letter away just before she grabbed it. "No. Now," he tucked the letter back into his pocket. "Will you show me the way, Venus-dono?"

Venus sighed. Instantly, her mind began to trace routes to and from the Princess. She was trying to figure out the quickest way in and out. She shouldn't be allowing him at all, but she knew that convincing him to hand that letter over wasn't going to happen, at least not without some force, and that might draw attention to his presence. She just wanted to get this over with. After a minute of thought, and some frustrated glances at her silence, Venus motioned for him to follow. "Please, follow me."

They began to walk down the hall. She gave him a suspicious eye. Why hadn't he just let me have the letter? It's not like he can't trust me, unlike the previous night; I had a reason not to give him mine. Was he doing it out of spite? Or was there some other reason? Bringing him to the princess' quarters was risky, and he knew it. This whole situation was making her uneasy. And why, why had she even agreed? They were only half the way to their destination and she was already regretting it.

"What?" he asked looking over at her, as they strode down the hall.

"Hrm?"

"It just looked like you wanted to say something."

She shook her head, it really wasn't worth speaking her mind right now. "We're almost—"

Now near the end of the hall, Venus could hear the Queen speaking to someone. Venus grabbed Kunzite's arm and pulled him back down the hall into her room. Shutting the door she pointed to her bathroom.

"Hide!"

He stood there confused. "What? Why?"

"Just do it!"

Doing as he was told, he hurried into the bathroom and closed the door partially. Venus grabbed a robe hanging on the back of a chair and slipped it on just as the Queen knocked on her door. Taking a deep breath, she opened the door and invited the Queen in.

"Good evening, Selene."

The Queen smiled and took a seat on Venus' bed and motioned for Venus to come sit next to her. "Is everything okay? You seem a little flustered."

Venus took a seat and smoothed her hair down. "Oh, no. I was just wondering what would bring you all the way down to our quarters at this time of night."

Selene smiled. "I was checking on my daughter; I heard she'd gone to the Earth again a few nights ago. I just wanted to make sure she hadn't gone tonight. I had a suspicion that she had sneaked away again."

What? How had she found out? "You need not worry about that. Even if she had, I'd have her back quickly."

Selene smiled once more. "I know," she paused and looked around. "And then I decided to check on you. You didn't seem well today. Has something been bothering you?"

Venus smiled nervously as the Queen looked near her bathroom. Please don't see him… please don't see him. "Oh, it's nothing. I promise. Perhaps mildly homesick."

"Hrm…" she turned back to Venus and smiled. "Well, if you say so." She kissed Venus' forehead. "If you do need to talk about something, just tell me."

Venus smiled. Selene had always been like a mother to her. "I will."

"Good."

With that, the Queen stood and walked towards the door. Venus stood and walked with her.

"I am going to fix our problem with the princess visiting the Earth, however. So, you need not worry about that any longer. Get some sleep."

After the Queen left, Venus pulled the door closed and fell back onto the cold, stone wall, sighing in relief. The Queen hadn't found out about their "guest."

"Is it okay yet?" Kunzite peeked out from the bathroom.

Venus' face grew hard and she glared. We wouldn't be in this mess if it weren't for you. Grr. "For now, but we have to wait for the Queen to return to her room."

"So that was the Queen…"

Venus rolled her eyes and took off her robe. He hadn't seen her before? How had this General not seen the Queen of the Moon at some point, but somehow knew who she was? There were so many things about him that she didn't understand.

Kunzite took a seat in a chair in the corner near the window.

"It'll be a few minutes. I can still hear her."

He nodded and took out the letter he was to deliver.

Venus eyed him suspiciously. What is he doing? She gasped in shock as he began opening it. "What are you doing?"

"Hrm?" He looked up at her. "What?"

"You're going to read it!?"

"Didn't you read hers?"

"No!" She lowered her voice, blushing slightly. "I would never—"

He took the folded piece of paper from the envelope. "It's for security reasons only. Don't worry."

'Don't worry.' Why was everyone saying that to her? And what an invasion of privacy! She rolled her eyes and put her ear back up to the door. I can't believe he's reading his letter. How rude! What could the prince possibly say that would breech security? It's just a love letter! As far as she knew, the Earth's leaders were fine with the Moon. It was the people of Earth that held a grudge. Unless—

"What?" He looked to her questioningly.

"I didn't say anything."

"I know. You just have that look on your face again."

What look? Rolling her eyes, she went back to listening. This sure was turning in to quite the undertaking.

Kunzite finished the letter, stuffed it back into its envelope and started looking through Venus' things. On the table, he noticed a small, leather bound book and opened it: It was her diary. He smiled and set it back down.

Venus looked over just as he set her diary down. "Hey! Leave that alone!"

"I didn't read it!"

She glowered, and then motioned for him to stand up. "C'mon. I heard her walk back by."

He nodded and joined her out in the hall.

They reached Serenity's room moments later. Serenity hugged Venus when she entered and started babbling about her mother and how she thought she'd catch Venus out this late, and was worried she'd find out about their letter system. After a moment of calming her down, Venus introduced Kunzite to her princess. He handed the excited girl her letter and she ran over to her bed to read it.

"Serenity, I'll be back after I escort the messenger outside, alright?"

Serenity nodded and Venus and Kunzite left the room and walked down the hall back to where they came. The air in the palace was cool. A light breeze blew down the open hall, and a faint light shown through the large windows lining the passage. The only sound to be heard was the rustling of their clothing as they walked.

Kunzite was the first to break the silence. "You are irritated with me, aren't you?"

Surprised, Venus looked over at him, who hadn't turned to even so much as look at her. "Why do you say that?" She was irritated, but, she wanted to see why he thought so.

Kunzite slowed his pace a bit, intentionally, so this conversation could last longer. "Oh I don't know, you've glared at me several times, rolled your eyes at least a dozen times. Overall, I just had a feeling." He paused briefly, and continued with slower, less sardonic speech. "Though, I suppose I don't blame you. I have caused you a bit of trouble tonight."

Venus smiled slightly. "Not nearly as much as I caused you yesterday." He chuckled, and it seemed to echo down the hall. Venus couldn't help but laugh too. "It's okay. I didn't mean to be so cool. I just don't quite understand how to deal with this yet."

"This?" his tone seemed to suggest they were talking about something other than the obvious.

She felt his eyes on her, and she blushed. "The letter arrangement." She cleared her throat. "We will have to come up with something more efficient, it seems."

"Oh. Well, of course."

They reached the end of the hall and walked back to the garden where she'd found him earlier. "Another time, perhaps? You should really be going. I have to get back to Serenity. Take a day to think about it? I'll come find you next time I go."

His eyes were full of disappointment. He had hoped the conversation would have gone a bit differently. "I will keep an eye for you. Next time I hear there is a person running amok in the castle, should I assume it's you?"

She shot a confident glance, her tone almost arrogant. "No. I won't get caught a second time."

"Ah ha, I guess we'll have to see." With that, he took out a small pendant from his jacket and then took her hand. "Until next time." He kissed her hand before releasing it and raising the jewel to the sky.

Much to both their surprise, nothing happened. Kunzite examined his pendant over a few times before trying again, but he was not successful.

Venus waited a moment before speaking. "Is there something wrong?"

"There shouldn't be. I've used this plenty of times before. I don't understand why it isn't working."

"Give me your hand."

Kunzite, without question, did what he was told. "What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to take you back myself." She smiled as she raised her other hand high into the air. "Just hold on."

AN: I know I used the term "bathroom" in this chapter, which isn't super accurate for the time period. For the sake of keeping things easy, let's just assume that there is a bathing/changing room in her quarters. Even modern plumbing if you like.