Seeking Love
Chapter 18
Endymion looked around to the courtyard as Serenity pulled him along behind her. Assuming they had come to their destination, he took in the new sights and smells. Not that they were in particular 'new.' They stood underneath an old granite archway, made at least two or three centuries ago. The bustle of pots and pans clanking in the restaurant next to them was evidence that the lunch rush was over; Leaving behind a wafting scent of cooked fish and cabbage coming from the steam vents.
"Now why exactly did we rush over here?" Endymion inquired while holding his nose.
"Stand right here," Serenity ordered while pulling the shirt sleeve of the blue v-neck, turning the owner around to face out towards the center of town square. She couldn't wait for it to start! Keeping her eyes glued to her second watch, it seemed that the little dial couldn't be moving any slower. She felt like she was about to open a present, looking like a little ten year old girl again.
10 - 9 - 8 - 7 - 6 - 5 - 4 - 3 - 2 – 1...
A small dark gray circle landed in front of Endymion on the stone walkway near his left foot. Another made its way to the ground a few seconds later. Another, and then another. The time interval between each decreasing exponentially. One hit his eyelash, making him pull back his head in surprise. Soon it looked like the street had adorned a flare for polka dots. It was raining. However, nothing like the rain on Earth. Here, there were no clouds to be seen, and the drops falling from the sky shined like crystals. Each carrying a light inside until it reached its destination upon the pathway.
Serenity let go of Endymion's arm, which he hadn't noticed her holding on to till now, leaving his arm to bare the cooler air. She stepped away from their protection of the downpour. Lifting her arms high up above her head, she started to twirl around in small circles. Her yellow skirt flared out beneath her at the waist, and her long blond hair began to stick to her neck and face beginning to soak. Endymion's eyes followed the little dancer while she made her way towards the center of the court. Loosing his perception of the rain, he was lost in time, she had taken his breath away.
"Kunzite! Kunzite! Come on.. join me!" she called out to him.
"No, I think I'm okay just standing here watching you," he yelled back. His arms folded across his chest, and his legs were crossed at the ankles in a stubborn stature while he leaned against the granite.
"Come on Kunzite.. don't be such a downer." Serenity rushed towards him reaching for his hands.
"Last time I trusted you, an old quack told me I had mismatching socks."
Serenity wasn't going to be put off so easily. She used all her strength to pull the stiff man into the luke warm rain. He tried dragging his feet, but finally gave in to the girl's pleas. Her small and soft hands found his, and they began to spin together. They began dancing in time to the rain shower, it was nothing close to a waltz. Their carousel movements continued to the pitter-patter of the drops hitting rooftops and stone. The background of Endymion's vision was out of focus, and he could only stare at the face in front of him. Her cheeks had a pink rouge to them, and he could easily count the dimples around her eyes. Her lips were full, as if she had been biting on her lower lip making them swollen. Serenity could feel his dazed gaze on her, and finally stopped their spirited dance. They stood still in the rain looking at each other, trying to figure the other out; thinking how much they had to hide from the other.
"You must be cold," said Endymion breaking the silence. He moved forward to wrap his arms around the slim girl in front of him.
Stepping away from the gesture, Serenity headed back to the archway; they were drenched from head to toe. She began to slip off her wet jean jacket only to remember all she had on underneath was a white tank top. Not wanting to put her guest in that situation again, she would have to endure the discomfort.
What is up with this girl? It's as if we are on a never ending roller coaster Endymion thought. He was still out bearing the weather. Looking up towards the sky, he noticed something strange. There were no clouds, still blue skies. "Hmm.. this is a real puzzlement," he was rocking back and forth on his heels. "How can it possibly rain on this barren rock?" he asked. He wasn't even sure if she heard him, he wasn't sure if he cared.
"It rains like this at 2 o'clock everyday. That's why everyone was indoors, for some shelter. This 'phenomenon' is actually one of the things I look forward to in the afternoons. The smell of rain water filling the air, leaving behind a trail of new life. It surprises me that I don't see more people out here rejoicing in the delight. It's just water, not like it's going to hurt you. If anything, it's relaxing. Brings my soul to peace."
Relaxing? Endymion questioned. He went through the event, taking the girl out of the equation, he was left with wet clothes and water squishing in his shoes. "Relaxing isn't quite the word that comes to mind."
She blatantly ignored his statement. "You might be wondering why there are no clouds.. that's a matter better suited for Ami, but from what I retained from her long lecture about it, there is a reaction in our atmosphere that tricks the air currents into thinking it is cooler. Then the humidity begins to condense, and fall to the ground. There is something else, something that causes the crystal formation - but I can't remember." Serenity tilted her head to the side, her finger on her lips in deep thought.
"Huh? I thought it had to be magic!"
"No such thing!" She scoffed. Didn't a general know at least that?!
"Well, you have to take in all the facts. For one, your advancements are way beyond ours, and for something I can't explain – I call it some major hocus pocus. Which really brings me to the question to why we never consulted with the Moon earlier, it seems we could have learned a lot."
The rain was subsiding, and the restaurant keeper came out to clean off the windows. The stench of fish was now gone, and as Serenity had pointed out – Endymion could smell the leftover scent of sweet rain.
Oh great, politics. The one thing Serenity hated the most. She started walking away down the road in the direction towards Kate's house. "We both know that's why the Prince is interested in marrying, to get his hands on all of this." She opened her arms out in front of her.
"That's not true!" Endymion had always understood it as a long-term engagement, nothing more.
"Let me explain. As a kingdom, we always think about where our technology is going. We don't want it getting into the wrong hands. Could you imagine such a disaster? For example, with those DNA guns, I'm still not sure if I'm okay with that. If such a great power were put in the hands of someone with dark intentions, the outcomes could be catastrophic." Serenity moved her hands gesticulating a nuclear explosion.
"So that means the Moon thinks of the Earth as what?" asked Endymion in a half teasing and half serious tone.
"I'll just say, we have a hard time handing out our trust so easily." The conversation ended on a sour note, a bit to Serenity's disappointment since the day had been going so well. The next thing on her list was to meet up with Ami and Nephrite. A continuation of the rain water system – greaaat... Somehow, this man managed to ruin one of her joys in the day, simply by moving his gapping mouth.
Endymion, Serenity, Zoisite, and Mina were whizzing up into the air high above the city. The two were encased in a glass cube, an elevator of sorts, and were headed up to the Atrium to meet Ami and Nephrite. In order to fully show the capabilities of the Moon, it was necessary to show more of the Moon tech to the Prince. The best place for such a show would be the Atrium since it not only holds the main server for the rain system technology, but is also the storage center of the main databases for the Moon.
Ami began walking ahead of the group in a tour guide fashion. Waving her arms at this and that while explaining the functions of the object. Not one person knew what she was really talking about, and all nodded on queue in false understanding. "The Atrium is a collection of memories, a database of sorts. Stored here are collected memories from royals and of honored individuals who have represented the Moon."
The building they were walking in was in the shape of a circular ring that spun at just the right velocity to counteract gravity, and create a false force pushing objects against perceived walls. As an outsider, the six figures looked to be walking on the walls perpendicular to the Moon's surface.
Ami continued her speech inside a long hallway, "If you look around you, you will come to notice that each shelving unit stores a multitude of files. We have designed the storage product to represent a time before technology over ran the world, and when it was making its first mark with sound. A sense that is one of the easiest to recall, these memories have been stored on disc records. Each row represents a royal's life, and have been collected throughout a person's lifetime. For instance, these are the Princess's. If you'd like to take a look, all we need to do is strap you into the machine." She pointed to a flat bed at the end of the half-mile long walkway. "Would you like to try?"
Serenity, knowing all too well about the machine, quickly made a suggestion to her partner to steer towards the rain systems. Endymion, trying to keep his eyes from looking half lidded in boredom agreed. Together, they left the other four to poke and prod at the machine. Ami would find them later, and explain – in painstaking detail – the water system. For now, her proud treasure was waiting to be used on two new participants.
Kunzite was nodding away, not really paying attention to what he was volunteering for. He speculated the machine, what a strange type of equipment. There were headsets waiting to be picked up on a holder, but they were no ordinary ear phones. Putting them on, he started to feel a thread penetrate his eardrum, and Ami explained that it traveled to parts of his brain that controlled his senses. Scientific improvements had been made to help with memory defects within the human brain such as Alzheimer or other forms of short and long term memory loss. Ami continued to explain the complexity of how the technology worked. A part of the mind where memories are stored are like 'invisible files' or 'ghosts.' What Moon researchers have done at the lab is create a search throughout the brain's axons and neurons in order to retrieve and find fragments, cookie crumbs, to the center, or kernel. From there, memories are extracted, and converted to a more 'user friendly' file, a way to replay it back to a user.
Mina was still at square one with the 'invisible file.' She never quite understood Ami's mixture of computer and science analogies. Kunzite just wished that Zoisite was nearby to give him a lowdown on the sounds coming out of the girls mouth that he had no way to comprehend. It was as if he was listening to the beeps and tones coming out of his laptop when it popped up with an 'error.'
Long blond hair was hung over the seat's headrest, a strap stretched over the forehead, and Mina felt like she was going into surgery. She too had the headsets on, and was eventually connected into the machine to the same record that Kunzite was hooked into. She had never seen one of the Princess's memories, she didn't even know if Serenity would approve of this, but the Prince was so interested in the Moon's tech – there was no way to skirt around the situation.
"Just sit back, and take deep breaths" said Ami in a overly confident voice for such an experimental situation. Like when a doctor tells you that a needle 5 inches long wont hurt, but to 'relax'. What blasphemy! The pin reading the record fell into the grooves. A light static sound filled Kunzite's and Mina's ears.
The two fell into a time when Serenity was only 4 years of age. An age when a child had no comprehension of time, no recall, and could barely retain information day by day.
"I love it!" the little girl squealed. Short blond hair toppled out of the girl's head in a tumble of curls. She was wearing a baby pink dress with lace around the edges. A raven haired boy, a few years her older, had handed her the most perfect red rose. Dirt clung to his little man slacks, and his pressed white shirt was reclassified as brown. He looked like he had just returned from a hunt, or as boys are – scavenging in places they should not be, like the royal gardens. His face was a beat red, possibly from exhaustion, but due to his stammering sentences – it had to be something else.
The young girl, unaware of his jumbling nerves - as she was not the type to take notice of her surroundings, was enamored with the rose. It's succulent ruby red had captured her shining blue eyes. Holding it up to her nose, the smell of a succulent sweet honeycomb made an imprint upon her brain. This smell was part of a particular experimental family that was only being grown on Earth. Only 50 existed at the time. The thorns had been taken off, little Serenity hadn't noticed the small cuts upon the boy's brow and fingers. He had worked hard to retrieve such a priceless gift.
The raven hair bent down, and swept across the girl's forehead leaving a planted kiss upon the girl's brow. At the time, the gesture was a symbol of endearment as friends and 'puppy' love. The boy turned back towards a tall woman in a evening dress calling him. The name was unclear and was carried off by the wind.
Mina woke to a light running over her pupils. Ami was checking for dilation, hoped they didn't loose another consciousness in the void. It had happened once, but only one out of a thousand. The soldier felt nauseous, and didn't even try to stand on her feet. Looking over, the Prince came into focus. He looked to be having the same side effects. Who was that little boy?Thought Mina. She would have to bring it up to Serenity sometime. From what Mina could see, there was such a thing as 'love at first sight' and that little boy proved it.
Kunzite on the other hand was at a lost for words. He knew immediately who owned that bowl haircut, it was his one life's charge, no one other then the Prince.How did the Princess not know?He was just waiting for alarm bells to ring calling out their deception. Maybe she had been too young to remember such an event. Ami had mentioned that the machine was to help fill in 'blanks.' No matter what, he had to tell Endymion as soon as possible. Not only could this little tape reveal their scandal, but it could also push the engagement along with the peace of the Galaxy into a whirlwind of chaos.
Two Days Earlier: Earth
Endymion didn't know what to do with the waterfall of red hair lying on his chest. As his therapist prescribed, he went to see Natsumi. Since his arrival to her home, he went straight to the point, bypassing the strong urge to feel the satisfaction of pressing his lips against hers. He repeated Mr. Bald's voice inside his head. 'A healthy relationship isn't a physical one.' Damn you! It was like resisting a bowl of chip ice cream on a hot summers day. Endymion tried to speak his mind. He thought Natsumi would be a person he could confide in, someone outside of the royal circuit.
"Maaamoruuu, Maaaaamorrruuu.." Natsumi cooed. Her small hand was wrapped around his neck, her finger playing with his ear.
Her smooth voice was like a spell, whatever he was ready to say would inevitably get stuck in his throat. It was as if a damn was built around his voice box. "I... I.. I have something to say," he was finally able to spout out.
"And what would that be?" she asked.
"Either we talk like adults, or we stop seeing each other. What we do, it is turning my brain into scrambled eggs on rice."
"Brunch, now that sounds good." She stopped her hand movements. "Anywho, why would we want to be adults. They don't get to have any fun!"
He pressed his hands against hers to move it away from his body.'No physical..' He sat up, and starred into her blue eyes. It seemed to help organize his thoughts. "I'm being serious. Tomorrow, I'm leaving for the Moon. Hopefully it will give you time to decide what you want from this relationship."
"I think the real question dear Mamoru, is what do you want? I don't recall you discouraging my efforts the last time you came over."
"Don't get me wrong, I enjoy your company, but it was when we first met. You seem like a completely different person now. I don't understand what has changed, and maybe you aren't ready to share that with me. Hopefully, that day comes, but for now – I'm giving us space."
"Space. You make it sound like we've been in a three year relationship. We've barely seen each other. Sounds to me like you are trying to run away from something else, something entirely different then what involves you and me." Natsumi glared into his eyes offended. "So when you decide what needs to be changed, you let me know." She stood up and walked to the bathroom across the room, a few minutes later the sound of water turned on.
What was he suppose to do? She could see through him like rice paper. Back-burner? Pfft, like everything else in his life.
I'm back! Got back from my trip, no computer. Gah!
As always, thank you to those of you who have left reviews/comments. I read every single one, and are very encouraging.
MinnieMoosi: Thank you for catching that little slip, it has been fixed.
AM: I hope your comment was less of real confusion, and more of the excitement of all the tangled webs. If you have any pointers, please feel free to share them.