Seeking You

Chapter 9

The firework finale had finished, the vendors began packing, crowds were finding their way to taverns or to their beds. The only souls just waking up were the workers in charge of cleaning the streets for the next day of business to continue.

In the 2nd circle, a shadow crossed onto the glass wall of the green house. The outline looked like that of a lizard, but following the silhouette's origin was a man striding down an aisle of tea leaves. His hand grazed the plants, sweeping over them like a plane over fields. The green leaves started curling, like they were being tickled, but then turned a mustard brown like the soil they were potted in. Smoke started to rise from the plants' deaths, and engulfed the man. He simply disappeared, straight into thin air.

Serenity met up with the girls after Takeshi finally let her go with a "good-night," and plenty of kisses. She must have been glowing as bright as the Sun Globe, that is how she felt anyway; as giddy as a pre-teen. What was she going to do? Here she was, Princess of the Moon, celebrating a Earth holiday, and kissing a man she barely knew in the middle of the wide open ocean! Thank goodness her mom, the Queen, was miles and miles away. She was nowhere near her "destiny."

"Safety in numbers," Kunzite, as the Prince, called out to the group. Mina was on his arm, and it made Serenity curious what happened between them during the festivities. What was she going to do, this situation was a mess!

The carriages taking them back to the palace only seated two per car, and Serenity ended up being paired to Endymion. For being royalty, the carriage had close quarters, barely any room to move. There were windows to peer out to the roads, and the interior was covered in green velvet. Serenity couldn't help but have her shoulder touching the man next to her, especially with all the bumps and sharp turns on the road.

"Damn it!" Serenity cried out. Her head had hit the window, and it was already forming a goose egg. She was rubbing it furiously, hoping it would relieve the pain. It didn't.

"Silly girl, just lean against me, not like I have cooties" suggested Endymion.

"Somebody is in a better mood," said Serenity.

"I'm always in a good mood, you just get on my bad side."

He is such a contradiction, and he doesn't even know it, thought Serenity. Thank god all men of this planet aren't like that. Takeshi, now he was a good man. Intelligent, caring, funny, and strong... Serenity's thoughts strayed to his muscular back, his warm chest and arms embracing her. Serenity started leaning into the next best thing she could find, Endymion.

"What are you doing? I said you could lean against my shoulder, not rape me with your face!"

Bolting upright, Serenity came back to reality. "I wasn't 'raping you' I was just.. tired. Give a girl a break."

"I didn't think Sailor Soldiers needed those," scoffed Endymion.

"See! You are dong it again! Do you treat all women like this? No wonder you aren't courting anyone. Jeez, are we there yet? I need to get away from YOU!" sniveled Serenity while jamming her pointer finger into Endymion's bicep. They were hard as rocks.

"Somebody might think you're the 'Princess' by the way you're acting" Endymion retorted.

Serenity's face became blank. "...l-like you're the one to talk! You're the one acting like a superior ass around here!" He was only teasing, wasn't he? It had come across Serenity's mind that if one of the guardians really thought about the attack earlier, it wouldn't make sense if a demon was attacking a sailor scout. She prayed that the secret would stay under the radar, no one had brought it up as of yet.

"Me? Princely? I don't think so. I'm not the one sitting by your little dainty Princess up in that next carriage." Based on the look of the Mina's face, he knew he hit the right chord to throw her tantrum for a spin.

He just said 'dainty'! How dare he! As if the Princess was ever dainty. Serenity had been hunting with her father on a 3 month trace, been to places people on Earth could only dream of, and he was calling her dainty? Of course she had regular manicures, and hair appointments, but that was what the heir of a Kingdom was suppose to do; not look like she had been living in the wilderness. That was it, she needed out of here. Luckily, a servant had just opened the door to the carriage, and she moved like a freed animal from a cage.

Endymion took his time climbing out of the carriage. A big smirk plastered across his face, he was starting to like this Mina girl. She was fun to tease, but most of all – it was oddly cute to see her flustered reactions. Somehow this pestering girl took his mind off of the sobering up Natsumi. He had left her tucked in her bed, but she shooed him out as soon as her head hit the pillow.

"Mina! We have a major problem, and I'm calling a meeting– I don't care how late it is," ordered Serenity.

The girls were back in their rooms, and were all surrounding their Princess. What could the bad news be now? Why did their perfect night with the Earth's guardians have to end like this?

"What is it Serenity?" asked Rei.

"We need to go back to the Moon, I need to break off this engagement. I don't think we can pull this off! What were we thinking? Someone else is bound to discover our secret. Furthermore, I'm falling for Takeshi, and falling fast. In addition, I just had one of the Prince's guardians, Kunzite, piss me off - that should be enough proof for my mother. Who would have such a mad man holding such a position." Serenity slumped onto a couch, and grabbed a pillow to cover her distressed face.

"You need to breath. In and out, in and out." Makoto was gesticulating with her hand as if they were the real body parts that controlled oxygen flow.

"That's not the end of it! I see how you are Mina, and I'm not saying I'm blaming you, but you are obviously not discussing the last seven years war with the Prince," said Serenity.

"Now now, I haven't just been flirting with the Prince," Mina stumbling over her words. "He really shows signs of a decent leader. He knows all about his kingdom – his people, the land, the economy, and even has his foot in a lot of the solutions to the major problems arising in education and immigration. He has stated multiple times that he was willing to give me anything, and everything."

"We all know what that means.." Rei said sarcasticly.

"No! he didn't mean it like that Rei! He was simply reassuring me that I, the Princess, would have just as much diplomatic say in the ruling of the Universe as he did," replied Mina.

"You know all men lie right? It can be historically proven," Ami claimed.

"You know all 'people' lie right Ami?" Mina retorted back. For some reason she was beginning to feel defensive for the Prince. Even against her future ruler! "Not to be rash Princess, but you haven't spent one minute with the Earth royals. How can you be so quick to judge them? I am still supportive of you, but you are barely opening your mind to any new ideas because you are dead set on ending this engagement. In all truth, I think the Prince would be good for you, he'd even you out on your dead set ways.

"Oh really Mina? Is that what you think?" Serenity was standing up now, pretending to look at the books on the shelves, hands on her hips. "Fine, well, seeing as you all are not just my protectors and advisors, but also my friends. I will listen to your qualms. It seems that Mina is onto something here, and I will admit I haven't been here as often as I'd like. So here and now, I swear to spend the whole day tomorrow with you all at court."

Over the next hours into the night the girls continued to discuss the situation of the marriage and the switch. After much debate, it had been decided that the secret would stay behind closed doors until they reached the Moon Kingdom. That meant what happened on Earth, stayed on Earth.

Endymion was lying in bed, the sheets pushed off to the floor. He was too scared to close his eyes and face his nightmares. They weren't the nightmares of a 5 year-old boy anymore with monsters under the bed. His nightmares were what he was most scared of as a grown man, and these evils, they sometimes turned into his dreams, his desires. They were things he should never wish for, that is what scared him the most. He had turned on a playlist of ocean sounds, ironic that it was only a few miles away – but nowhere close to hearing distance. His mind started to wander from his previous nightmare to his discovery of his room a few days back. Green velvet.. it rang a bell now. There was the same green velvet in those carriages! That had to lead him to his next clue. He had been out of the palace that night, but where? He was going to have to go ask the coachmen if they knew where he had ordered them to go.

With the new discovery fresh in his mind, it was even harder for him to sleep. Looked like he was going to have to go raid the pantry again.

Please be in bed.. Mina hoped that this morning wasn't going to be a repeat. Peering in through the door's crack she saw a mess of blonde hair on pillows. Thank god!

"Princess! Time to wake up!" she yelled. No movement. "Don't pretend you're dead, because that trick stopped working a years ago." Still not a stir. Mina prepared her legs, and leaped onto the bed. The springs were still bouncing when a hand came up to slap her in the face. Having already known the move, she swerved to the side, and started digging her hands into the Princess's side. "WAKE UP! You promised to spend the day with us!"

"I'm up! I'm up!" Serenity relentlessly groaned. Why did her scouts have to be so punctual?

At breakfast, hot oatmeal with cinnamon and blueberries was served, along with vodka and O.J. to help with the previous nights intake of alcohol. Serenity didn't feel too hung over; the memories of Takeshi were enough medicine to get her up and going for the day. She noticed only the Prince, Nephrite and Jadeite from the Earth kingdom were at the meal, where were the others? This seemed like a perfect time to grill the Prince.

"So, Prince Endymion, you don't expect your guardians to be up this early?" asked Serenity.

"Hmm?" Kunzite raised his eyebrows to the question, caught off guard. "...I don't actually. The day after the festival is actually a rest day, a lot of the shopkeepers need to restock. Many of our citizens probably had too much to drink, it is tradition to let everyone take it easy today. So I let my guardians rest, they are Earth citizens too," replied Kunzite. Actually, the Prince is lazy, and never makes it to breakfast anyway. Zoisite is probably trying to pull him out of the bed, thought Kunzite to himself while taking a sip of his coffee.

"Why do you ask Mina?" Nephrite asked.

"Oh, I was just curious what the Prince expected of his guardians. Also wondering when we were going to continue our talk about that lizard. I wanted to know if there were any leads or more information he found out," Serenity said.

"No need to worry, we will be meeting up with them after breakfast in the library. We like to start our day off casually. It helps keep the mood more upbeat, and makes the day go by smoother," Kunzite responded. More lies.

Endymion walked in, dark circles still fresh under his eyes. He had only gotten back to sleep a few hours ago. He was coming up empty handed once again with his search about the green velvet. He sat down in an empty seat, poured his mug to the top with hot coffee.

"Good Morning Kunzite," said Kunzite. He still wasn't use to saying his own name.

"Good Morning" repeated the others. Well, all except Serenity.

Serenity continued the conversation pretending to not have noticed Kunzite's entrance. He was still at the back of her mind as an overly self-righteous royal.

"Great then. I'm glad you are on top of things Prince Endymion. I just don't want my 'dainty' Princess to go unprotected. Especially since we are here on an unfamiliar planet and all." Serenity gave a good hard glare in Kunzite's direction. Mina just looked at her quizzically, where was that attitude coming from? Was this her retribution for having to stay with them the whole day?

I can't believe she is still holding that over my head. Can't she take a joke? Endymion grimaced. Obviously the lady wasn't one to play easy with. He did notice that however that Mina gave him no morning greeting, but satisfyingly- it meant he had wedged himself under her skin.

The doors into the dining room were slammed open, a servant came running in. Endymion noticed the young boy's brief pause of who to report to, but efficiently went to Kunzite. A few whispers and nods, and the servant went back where he'd come from.

Kunzite stood up, "I have just been informed that we are going to be spending the next two days at our private island. It seems that someone last night stole the Sun globe, and thus it is impertinent that we leave at once for security reasons. If you will please gather your things as soon as possible, servants will then help you get situated for travel."

Sending us to an island? What will that do? Oh right– make us helpless in the middle of nowhere, Serenity thought. She wanted to say it outloud, but she held her tongue. Alright then, looks like we are going on vacation, on a vacation.

Another chapter done, and more in the works. Thank you, once again, for reading. Just to let some of you know, for those who are still holding in there for some Endymion and Serenity interaction, there is more in the next two chapters.

As a reply to the review by "AM": Thank you for the corrections, I went through and fixed them. Also I took your advice about the names, I don't know why I didn't think of that earlier – guess that's why I love readers/reviewers. Just a quick note though, the 'nightmare' in Chp. 1 was an actual event – unlike the nightmare in Chp. 5. :D