The songs and background music placed at pivotal scenes are from the "Sailor Moon in Paris" album, setting the ambiance to transport you to the 'City of (Three) Lights' and the romantic mood playing throughout the 3-part chapters of this special "Sailor Moon Eternal Movie."
We do not own "Sailor Moon" nor any of the characters.
"SAILOR MOON ETERNAL"
The 6th Season of the Sailor Moon Saga
Chapter 23
"Sailor Moon Eternal in Paris : La Destiny"
Part 1
"Spreading Light of La Moon"
By tomorrow morning, the Three Lights already had both a major record label and a big time movie studio's contract under their belts, with all the hectic business scheduling back in their youthful lives that went with it.
A call from their new agent, Mr. Charles Pym, came early in the morn, with news of a spy flick to be shot in the snow capped mountains of Nagano. So, that was the order of the already ambitious day, and 'oh, yes!' he saw the gossip columns and the reviews of last night's stunning concert, and 'oh, no!' please do not bring those three lovely young ladies who had adorned the stage—and caused quite a rumor mill stir already—with you.
"Terry, son, (these were Mr. Pym's exact words to him) to be proper idols you mustn't have permanent girlfriends hanging all over you all the time. Bad for your images. Flings here and there, yes, to show you are available and willing, but nothing too stable. Nothing as damning as last night's display. Especially the way you were all over that woman and the—ahem—tambourine incident, son. I must say that Moreau violinist was a nice touch though, but maybe a bit too classy for your fans. What girl could possibly compete with the money, likes and talent of that? Keep Robin away from her. Yes, I think that's best."
"Now, Sayer, he's got the right idea. Just strut your stuff and the women will fall all over you." Mr. Pym obviously didn't think there was anything between the sexy lead singer and the golden haired pianist last night in ways only eyes meeting eyes could express. "Believe me, it's for your own good in the end. So come on up today. Hotel's already booked for you. The studio scrambled its best men, got an A-1 director and an outstanding backup cast for you. This movie'll put your group back in box office heaven!" Coming from the west, Pym talks up the not much more than a B-movie spy flick with true Hollywood flair.
Knowing all of this was a show, Terry smiles to himself on the other end of the receiver, not caring for the fame or fortune, only really interested in a regular daily income of substance to get his goal on its feet.
Still…if only Susan...and Alex and Michelle, of course, could come with us. The filming is scheduled for at least a week. And we'll be there all that time…alone…
"…And come alone if you know what's good for you, son. Like how I have your best interests in mind." Mr. Pym had hung up, seeming to read Terry's mind, leaving the young man frowning, in quite a quandary.
Packed within the hour, the boys were soon off to the mountains, with a quick stop at the mansion on the outskirts of town. There, they explain their acting duties on this new and lucrative job. Alex and Michelle nod approvingly with a shared smirk, having no problem with sending their two gallant lads off to the loneliness of the peaks of Nagano unchaperoned.
But at the thought of separation, even if only for this proposed short time, Susan felt about to cry. This would be the first interim she and her fellow Time Guardian would be apart for more than a few hours.
And after more than a millennia spent in solitude, this lonely child of Pluto still held a tiny fear of being left out and soon forgotten.
"Susan, darling, it will only be a few days, I promise." Terry sees the distraught expression on her lovely features—feeling the same way himself. But he puts on a brave manly face for her.
"Yes, I understand. Forgive me. I'll be fine." Feeling childishly silly, Susan brightens up after the first shock, she herself trying to be brave for him, even if inside she felt like sinking down a hole.
"Don't worry about us." Michelle smiles sarcastically, insulted that her Robin didn't seem to care as much as his brother about leaving her behind. "I'm sure we'll find…..suitable company….while you're off playing in the snow." She flickers her hand at him innocently. Robin knew he was being snubbed, but at the moment he didn't comprehend her choice of words.
"You sure, Ally?" Sayer follows Alex as she opens the door for them to leave. "You gals could sneak in. We don't really have to listen to anything that stupid old agent of ours sa—" He starts to connive with a rascally grin.
"Oh, no. I'm perfectly happy to have some time on my own. I don't need you hanging around all the time. Maybe I can finally get some peace while you're gone." Alex grumbles, trying to conceal a smirk.
Taken aback by her rough words striking him hard, when he was only trying to be nice, Sayer twists his lip, calling back to his brothers.
"Come on, guys! Let's go somewhere we're wanted!" Sayer walks past an amused Alex without so much as a by-your-leave.
His mind reaching out to hers but drawing a blank wall, Robin, still looking confused over Michelle's words earlier, follows after him. But he pauses to kiss Michelle farewell, though the vexed female only offers him a closed eyes, snooty cheek to kiss goodbye.
Terry finds it harder to leave Susan behind, offering her a parting kiss. He feels the sadness on her lips as they whisper a sweet farewell.
Alex, sick of the dragged out sentimental parting, finally just grabs Terry's arm and shoves him to the waiting car. Sayer, miffed in the passenger seat, doesn't even exchange a final look with her, and pretends to be engrossed with studying a map in his hands.
"It's upside down." Alex smirks at his foolishness, sticking her hand in the window and flipping it right side up, the paper smacking Sayer on the chin as a result.
"I knew that." Sayer's cheeks flush red as he answers back sulkily. "Just checking to see if…if…you…if you…" His seeing red brain couldn't think of a good enough excuse. "Just drive, Ter." Deflated, he then abruptly slaps his brother on the back.
Terry slowly pulls out of the driveway, his eyes fixed upon Susan as far as he could still see her. Forlornly, the torn man drives down the road, her sad magenta eyes haunting him still, during the journey, now many miles away.
"Soooo, I told the waiter that it's called ketchup and not 'cat-sup.' What are we, dogs?" Sayer laughs aloud at his own lame attempt at humor and inane jokes, as he tries to fill the silent void in the vehicle. Robin rolls his eyes in the backseat, pulling his headphones over his ears harder, wishing he couldn't hear Sayer's annoying voice through them at all.
It's only been the half an hour and there's three hours left on this trip! ARGH! Robin thought he was going to go out of his mind with Sayer's especially cheery babble. It's because he had an argument with Alex before he left. I know it. But…when don't they argue? Who wouldn't argue with her? Robin smirks to himself about the mismatched couple.
But that's when his own final passing words exchanged with his ocean maiden hit him for the thousandth time this trip so far. And no volume of music on his headphones could drown out Michelle's whimsical words:
"…We'll find suitable company…?"
What exactly did she mean by that? Who was she referring to as 'suitable company' anyway? She couldn't be talking about seeing another man romantically—not after what she and I have found in each other…could she? Why would she do that? I'll only be gone, maybe a week. What's the big deal? I wonder what she REALLY meant…Robin's suspicious, secretly jealous mind tortures himself, especially finding his link with the capricious, psychic female in question quite blocked off as of right now. What could she and Alex be hiding…? Knit-brow Robin's suspicions had been gradually eating at him the whole trip thus far.
"Why are you so quiet, Ter?" Turning away from his obviously brooding fellow passenger in the rear minivan seat, Sayer turns his attentions to his silent-the-whole-trip-on-this-boring-old-road other brother, knowing there must be something wrong. "Want me to pop a CD in, maybe?" Sayer digs through the CDs in the drawer of the car, looking for something good to play (and finds only Michelle's violin concertos and ugly old composer guys to choose from). Oh well. "You want this long haired dude, umm…'Beet—ho-v-EEEEENNNN'!?"
CDs go flying through the air as Terry suddenly makes a radical 360 degree turnaround on the open country road.
"What's wrong?!" Senses on high alert, Robin screeches from the back seat floor. His trusty walkman had slid somewhere under the rear car bench just before a seatbelt-less Robin nearly hit the car ceiling with his strident yell. Along with "Beethoven" who would've pulled out all of his own messy hair if he had heard the way Sayer began to pronounce his name before the young man had cracked the cd inside its plastic jewel case in his tensed fingers.
"I'm going back." Terry announces, suddenly breaking his silence. "I don't care what our agent says, I'm going back to get Susan." He reproaches himself determinedly, this languid conservative driver now turning into a reckless hot-rodder on the road back.
"Geez, Ter, tell a guy when you're going to do that next time!" Sayer complains. CDs, maps, magazines, not to mention his almost (now for sure) empty soda can was all over the car.
"I am sorry, Sayer, Robin—but I have to. She was too distressed." Terry simply explains, his Susan's happiness meaning the world to him now. In a better frame of mind, the intelligent man couldn't help himself from smiling at the sticky mess all over Sayer in the front seat. "You really should wear your seat belt." Terry teases, now able to smile after his decision to fetch Susan. After all, he had been the only one in the vehicle with his own seat belt firmly in place.
"Yeah, right." Sayer mumbles, wiping himself up, leaving the seat, though, quite sticky from the spilled can of cola his other hand had squeezed too hard in the van's pit maneuver. However, a mental image of seeing Alex again, with perhaps the chance to undo their harsh parting, brightens his mood, too.
"Ally—and 'Chelle—will come too, don't you think? Tell Susie to make 'em come…but…don't tell them I said so, okay?" Sayer was a little too stubborn sometimes (an ill-advised trait when Alex was your targeted partner—the Soldier of Rebellion invented the word "stubborn") to apologize straight out, even if he was sorry they had fought before he left. But still, it wasn't my fault…..
"All right. I'll tell her to invite the other ladies." Terry lightly laughs as Robin's cassette makes a horrible crackling sound from his jarred walkman's speakers as the silver-haired idol gives the unresponsive sound device a few angered whacks.
"Broken." Robin finally chucks the busted mechanism down to the seat, all the bouncing around the car was apparently too much for the poor little thing (the walkman, not Robin).
"I'm sorry, Robin, I'll stop to purchase you a new—" Terry says into his rear view mirror at his scowling brother.
"Never mind. I wasn't listening to it anyway." Robin slumps grumpily in his seat, lime green eyes flashing in the window's reflection. Now at least I'll have a chance to ask Michelle just what she meant…and what she's hiding from me…He crosses his guarded arms like a peevish, jealous lover, he inherently sensing artifice of some kind.
But that chance would never come. A jubilant-upon-their-return-an-hour-later Susan was the only one still present at the mansion house on the outskirts of town.
"Where'd they disappear off to so fast?" Robin's anxieties were now peaked as Susan was escorted back to the minivan by a very gentlemanly Terry after going back inside to call Mrs. Hart. The responsible guardian needed to ask if Tara could stay over with Rini for a few days more, to which Tara was very pleased.
"So sorry, I don't know. They simply said they'd be gone for awhile, so 'don't wait up.' Those were their exact words." Susan explains innocently, too happy that Terry had returned for her to really care of her inscrutable housemates' variable tendencies.
"Hmph! Who cares?" Sayer was back to being miffed again as he gets out and leans against the vehicle, trying to appear nonplussed. "Those two can just take care of themselves without us!" He could still feel the sting of Alex's words from earlier, all thoughts of reconciliation with her past tense. "Come on, Susie! We'll have loads of fun without them!" Sayer grabs Susan's arm, dragging her with him jauntily into the car. "Watch out, seat's sticky!" He decides not to think one little bit about a certain golden-haired person who doesn't need me 'hanging' around anyway, as these four now load up to start the long trip again.
However, along the way, Sayer's brooding mind couldn't help but keep returning to his and Alex's last harsh words together.
Just arriving on the beautiful slopes of Nagano's breathtaking mountains, Sayer, Robin, Terry and Susan go straight to the hotel Mr. Pym had booked for them.
Well for the THREE of them anyway—arrangements for "Secret Stowaway Susan" had posed a problem at first, since the boys had decided that the studio people crawling all over the hotel's front desk would recognize her as the girl from last night's stage performance immediately if they tried to book another room for her. And the managerial staff would pass it along to their old friend Pym, no doubt. So, wily Sayer quickly had come up with the perfect solution.
"Let Susie bunk with us! I'm sure there's enough room in the double suite's big, firm beds." He smiles a little wickedly at Terry, who swallows hard at his brother's insinuating terms.
"Yes, that would be wonderful." Susan bats her eyelashes at her suddenly stricken nervous man, a romantic ski lodge the perfect place for them.
Susan puts her hand on Terry's suddenly palpitating chest.
"Truly," Terry clears his throat, "I don't think these people would recognize you from the stage, Susan. Even though, you were very, extremely…memorable. And incredibly...striking...a female..." Terry feels Susan's teasing fingers playing at those little curls at the base of his neck as the four of them hide around the corner of the hotel lobby.
"So..." He clears his throat again, taking her wandering hand in his and placing a large wad of cash in it instead as he swiftly braids her voluminous dark green hair into a less recognizable braid. "Maybe you should go book yourself a room on your own. And spoil yourself a little to buy some warm winter clothes in that boutique over there." Gentlemanly Terry would normally do so for her, but not wishing to risk being spotted (and needing a bit of fresh air to evade his own urges), he knew Pym gave strict orders to all involved that the three of them were not to be bothered "by anyone."
"All right." Susan smiles at the thrilling sensation of Terry's desirable fingering of her tresses, artfully placing the thick braid her fella had tenderly dressed her hair in over her shoulder. Her other hand then reaches up and touches Terry's cheek, to which he takes in his own and kisses sweetly.
"We'll see you later, then? After we meet with the director and cast?" He kisses Susan's delicate hand in its palm again, gazing upon how lovely she looked in this new, languidly feminine hairstyle, as well.
"I'll be waiting..." Susan whispers, giggling as Terry kisses near her wrist once more before he could pull himself away.
"She's already got you in her hair, eh, Ter?" A winking at the romantic scene Sayer teases as he jabs Terry in the gut with an insinuating elbow. An eye rolling Robin, follows behind his two brothers into the hotel meeting hall.
After their meeting with the demanding director and crew, who were already angered at their unexplained delay, Terry, Sayer and Robin return to their rooms to change for their first shoot, scheduled in thirty minutes.
Opening the door of his bedroom, Terry is shocked to find Susan there, folding (and refolding) his clothes into the drawers of his dresser.
"Susan!? How…?" Terry's about to ask, knowing that his key (the already forewarned desk clerk assured him) was the only one that could open their suite of rooms.
"I did as you said. I do have my own room." Susan smiles slyly. "It just happens to be the one attached to yours. See?" She demonstrates, "Connecting doors." She slides closed the bolts, which were supposedly securely locked from the inside, with flirtatious ease.
I do wonder how she got them unlocked…Hidden door opening Sailor Soldier power, perhaps, my perspicacious Pluto…?
"Yes, Susan but—" Terry starts, not very certain just how long those locks could be kept closed, when Sayer comes in the door (without knocking, of course) in a pair of light blue long johns.
"Oh, hi, Susie. You here already? I didn't hear you come in." Wink. He shrugs it off, growing accustomed to finding Susan alone with Terry, now quite an ordinary occurrence.
"Do we have to wear these silly things, Ter? I feel stupid." Sayer whines at the indeed funny looking outfit (though not embarrassed to display himself in front of Susan at all—after all she had displayed of herself before…) Sayer smiles at the vivid recollection.
"It's for warmth in this cold weather, Sayer. No one will see them but us." Terry was a little ruffled for Sayer to be so casual with his 'lady.'
Ah well. Sayer is Sayer. Terry smiles at his younger brother.
"I sure hope not." He was still in a whiny mood, Alex preying on his mind. "You two hurry up. Only got a half hour, you know." He winks at them as he leaves, luckily grabbing hold of the loosened flap in the back before it slipped down. "Ooops." They could hear him saying as he rushes out the door.
"I like your brother." Susan and Terry laugh as she continues to fold his clothes into the dresser drawer.
"Yes, he is quite a character." Terry laughs again, seeing his own tight fitting blue bodysuit laying out on the bed. "Um, Susan, my love. I do have to get changed for the shoot." Terry opens the door connecting their rooms.
"I know." Susan smiles, going to the bed where she picks up the blue PVC and spandex bodysuit.
"Yes, thank you, my lady." Terry takes the blue outfit from her hands, gently maneuvering Susan into her bedroom side of the door.
"I'll see you later." He kisses her disappointed forehead, pressing two of his fingers to her protesting lips as he caresses her supple shoulders with his other tender hand.
In a sigh of self-controlled disappointment, Terry backs into his adjoining bedroom and closes the door to Susan's tantalizing gaze behind him.
But he does not lock it shut.
Hitting the icy ski slopes was the first order of the day, much to Sayer's hidden distress. He had wanted to practice a bit before having to perform in front of all the cameramen and crew. Skiing was by no means his forte—the last time he had tried, several Christmases ago, he had turned into a human avalanche.
But adeptly dexterous Robin was more than satisfactory on skiis and Terry excelled on them like a pro, as he always did in everything, so Sayer kept his pridefully ashamed mouth shut.
Watching bit part cast members professionally speed past, Sayer bites his lip, knowing his part in this latest addition to the Super Commander movie series was coming up. With trepidation, he stays close behind Terry, with Robin in the rear, as the three strike their entrance superhero pose at the top of the snowcapped mountainside.
The Three Lights were in their trademark bright colors, with Super Commander Blue Terry Starr playing the star of this episode. Imposing and well formed in the fitted stretch suit which left not much room for imagination, Terry looked quite manly in his tall white PVC boots and sleekly armored royal blue bodysuit as he launches his excessively masculine, perfect Olympic form down the mountainside.
Cool helmeted Robin Starr, dashingly displaying his own exquisitely matured, slender musculature, wearing his matching, tight 'Super Yellow' bodysuit, was carrying his silver crossbow secret weapon at the ready, as he flew down on slick mini black bat wings right on cue behind his brother.
Contrasting tiny white angel wings, gold shield wielding Sayer Starr, was, as always, in his choice colored and thankfully armored 'Super Red' superhero gear. He starts down the slope slowly enough, doing well, he thought, though not with any usual flair. Just hanging onto that silly little shield in this too tight stretch vinyl, wedgie inspiring black undies on the outside suit, whilst staying perpendicular on his ski poles for dear life was damn good enough for him until the action sequence begins.
Super Blue, the gallant, broad-chested hero, takes off down the center ski slope after the main villain, who had just zoomed by in front of them, chasing a pure hearted woman. Well, in reality, she was a stunt double of the main actress whom, in the storyline, the villain believed had stolen one of three sacred jewels he had been seeking out.
To throw even further red herring wrenches into the action/adventure/mystery tale, stunt doubles of two other puzzling figures, who had just re-entered the scene, join the pursuit to the poor hapless female as well.
From out of nowhere, the pair, darkly clothed in all black and dark grey, converge down the snow hills suddenly from the left and the right. In the script, Super Red and Super Yellow were to stop these new pursuers with as-yet-unknown intentions in the story plot, while Commander Blue rescued this installment's heroine from the chief bad guy.
Giving chase was fine with Sayer, as Super Red followed the wildly aggressive skier to the left, while Super Yellow instinctively took off after the more poised and chic assailant to the right.
Red's speed was increasing in the downhill run, though the cold wind seemed to be particularly in league with the expert stunt double doing figure eights in the snows in front of him.
Not wanting to be overshadowed by this mere bit player, who suddenly veers off the track to disappear into the wooded area, Sayer's egotistical bravado kicks in as he tries to avoid the sea of trees suddenly popping up before him with a fighter's zest.
Adrenaline was pumping as the dark blue ponytail helmeted superhero begins to gain on his targeted adversary, as the two were kicking up powder at an amazing rate, the hooded assailant glancing back at the would-be hero for a split second with eyes filled with mirth.
That's when, in a moment of inattention on his skiing, the stunt double reminded Sayer of somebody dazzling…
And in that moment of reckless distraction, Sayer rapidly winds up a huge snow accident again, crashing down the mountain at phenomenal pace. The snowball was building and building until he rolls right over the skier he was chasing, swallowing him up as well in the avalanche of ice and snow.
Smashing to a halt at the bottom of the steep hill, Sayer was glad that no one (especially not all those movie people I'm supposed to be impressive in front of!) were present to see his little "mishap." His only concern now was the well being of the poor stuntman, who got in the way of his unfortunate descent.
"Hey! Are you all right, buddy?" Yanking off his red helmet, Sayer starts to ask of the man pinned beneath him under a blanket of snow, beginning to panic that his stupid, prideful blunder might've actually caused someone real injury. However, when the breathing hard, fallen man pulls his ski mask off, Sayer's worried face goes shocked instead upon seeing that the stunt double was not a man at all…
"There's no place safe around you, is there?" The masked skiing stunt double turned out to be Sayer's own multi-talented Alex Sokova, as she tossed back her golden head with a witticism and crooked smile.
"Ally? What are you—?!" He asks the beautiful woman once again stationed beneath him, amazed at himself that he didn't recognize her earlier. (Yes I did! Well, sort of…)
"There was a call for stunt doubles who could ski well…and I am very good at it, so…Michelle and I decided to just pop in for a bit of fun. Nothing to do with you at all." Alex's teasing voice and laughing eyes give her bogus story away as she scratched at her cheek guiltily.
"Yeah, right. You just couldn't live without me for a week, admit it." Sayer looks down at her wryly, back into his brash and flirtatious wolf mode. This star liked having her planetary body pinned beneath him like this, helpless—he thought. That is, until Alex suddenly grabs his arm, and slaps him down flat onto the ground hard, making Sayer look like he was an angel in the snow, especially with those stupid weenie white angel wings affixed to his 'superhero' back.
Laughing at how cute he looked, all spread out, with a dazed expression on his handsome face (You're more a devil than an angel any day…) Alex takes pity on him and leans down, lifting him up, with a teased open mouth blowing hot air between them hovering over his wanting lips.
"All right. I plead temporary insanity." Alex shrugs in defeat. Then she smirks, kissing his cheeks and trembling lips to taste the melting ice splattered on Sayer's face when he fell.
"I missed your touch already, Ally." Sayer's voice warms the cold air, as Alex brushes the snow from them both, digging out their tangled skis and poles.
"Here." She hands him his poles, shaking her head at his foolish antics, but secretly enjoying every moment of watching him careening to his death. "Just indulge my curiosity, why are you filming a movie where skiing is the main focus, and you can't ski a lick?" Alex asks smugly, hands on her hips.
"I can too ski!" Sayer defends himself like a child, turning as red as his outfit while his ski poles and skiis entangle about his clumsy form.
"Well-lll…I can ski a little…" He adds with a small pout.
"…Okay, I guess I never skied before we came to earth. We didn't have snow on Kinmoku. Guess it was kinda subtropical. It was always beautiful there..." Sayer, crimson faced to equal his superhero get-up, now looks down, as the sentimental side of this moody young man softly recalls a youth spent on his destroyed childhood planet.
"So, wouldn't you like to ask a very-experienced-with-snow individual if she can teach you how to ski properly?" Smiling down at his sweetness, Alex fishes for his smile she had come to cherish, to return to his handsome face.
"There's a lot of things I'd like to ask this individual to teach me to do…" Coming out of his melancholy soliloquy, the now mature wolf looks up flirtatiously, brushing the new fallen snow from her golden bangs.
"We'll just start with skiing today, okay, Starr?" Alex easily catches his drift. But this Russian ice queen turns on the cold when she scoops up his discarded red helmet from the snow and plunks it back over his head. Then she wraps her arms around Sayer's back, physically showing him how to correctly hold his ski poles.
Though Alex was giving out instructions, Sayer no longer hears her words, not since her hot breath was so close to his ear.
"There you two are!" Michelle's worried voice rings over the hill, causing Alex to pull away, guiltily.
Looking quite fetching in her skintight black assassin leotard, Michelle appears with Robin donning his glossy yellow superhero armor, right at her side. The two were in perfect rhythm with one another, as they come speeding down on their skilled skis towards Alex and Sayer.
After a rather entertaining game of mentally erotic temptations tinkling back and forth down the slope, with dangling icicle flirtations rimed in the hoarfrost, Robin had exposed his target stunt double's true identity as well, fairly quickly.
Oh, Robin…it would have been even more fun if you used that cute little cupid's arrow on me… Michelle had been enjoying the little bat and mouse chase immensely—especially when my sleek stud batman caught this crafty villainess in his clutches in that…ahem…bat cave we had found. But she only now noticed sleek bat-winged Super Yellow's silver crossbow which Robin had secured in his trusty superhero belt before accosting Michelle.
'Oh, well…There's always next time, dearest. Just bring that prop home with you, please…' Michelle requests with a gesture down to his Super Yellow crossbow at her good-looking model's midsection.
'…It's not just a prop, Michelle…' Robin's mint green eyes flash with some deeper meaning simile that excited her to no end. BAMM!
"We saw an avalanche and knew somehow you two must be involved." Robin quips after titillating his partner with a raised brow smile and tapped silver crossbow dangling below his slim waist. He haughtily gives Sayer and Alex's tensed reddened stance a knowing smirk that lectured he knew what they were up to.
But the smug look was wiped off his face upon receipt of an icy sliver down his smug neck as reward which Super Red had concealed behind his little gold shield.
"Ahh! Cold, Sayer! You loser!" Robin hisses and begins to hop around in a rather feverish dance, trying to remove the ice shard his naughty brother had just slipped down his thought-to-be-well-insulated jacket. Michelle comes to her cute silver fox's aid by snaking her long fingers artistically down his back until her warm wandering digits—or, more likely, his rising temperature due to their pervasiveness—melts the icicle completely.
"Now that was worth the price of admission to this movie. Good one, Starr." Alex chuckles at Robin's trials rather wickedly, even as Michelle gives her an indignant look.
"At your service, Sokova." Sayer, all pro again, lowers his helmet's visor over his eyes before braving the slopes yet again. His confidence was surging as he takes up the challenge in her green eyes taunting him back, to zip down the white capped mount at full throttle.
Once the day's shoot was over, our five skied out film stars return to the hotel they were all staying at. Michelle and Alex, in their nom de plume roles as 'stunt doubles,' had registered in the lobby under alias names for cover. Their rooms just happened to be, by total coincidence, on the same floor and quite close to the Three Lights' and Susan's suites.
Soon the group congregate in the Three Lights' hotel living room after their long day, dressed snugly in wintry gear. Susan had purchased in the lobby an especially tight purple and black variety of both sweater and pants, to Terry's pleased approbation. Alex and Michelle, as well in tight cozy knit sweaters and form fitting slacks, made very good eye candy for their hungry stars' appreciation after a rough first day on the set of the physically demanding flick.
"This is gonna be fun. All of us here in the mountains together for a whole week!" Sayer tries to wrap his turtlenecked self around Alex, who expertly slides away, poking at the burning embers of the lit fireplace rather than stoke his.
"Just remember, when we're on the set, you boys don't know us. Only in passing, and our names are 'Nerissa Waters' and 'Corinn Winds.'" Michelle plays with the cute tie around Robin's dressy purplish shirt as he purrs like a cat, enjoying her stroking.
"All right, Cory." Sayer couldn't help but tease Alex, who rolls her eyes and buries her head in her hands at his nonsensical nicknames for her.
"There is something…impressively metaphysical…about the awe-inspiring mountains." Terry gazes out the window at the scenic snow capped peaks, the poet in him already composing at the breathtaking sight.
"Yes, there is. Very romantic, too." Susan provides the word Terry had meant to say, going to him, quick as the mountain breeze to wrap herself around his back as he cranes his neck backwards to kiss her dark, rose-scented hair.
"Let's go get something to eat." Alex stands up, taking charge as usual, having had more than enough of her share of this mushy "mountain atmosphere."
"Amara! We can't all be seen together or we'll be caught!" Michelle was completely having fun with this little incognito cat and mouse game. Robin could see it in her mischievous eyes.
"Okay. Not the hotel, we'll find someplace in the village." Alex says off-handedly, rules not really her thing to obey as she pulls on her coat.
"All right! Let's go!" Sayer grabs up his long red trench coat, he too, ready for adventure—especially with Alex Sokova at his side.
"Just nowhere tacky. We stars require five star service and fine dining." Referring more to himself and his female sophisticate, Robin interjects as he helps Michelle into her expensive, long fur coat, giving a familiar fluff to her aqua curls as he does with the knowledge her tastes and his were one and the same.
Indeed the sextet do find places to haunt on their time off when they can travel incognito, enjoying the Nagano sites and simple offerings of this quiet mountain village life. They could enjoy it fully now, because they were all together, three 'normal' couples just starting their new relationships in times of peace.
Though the romantic setting (not to mention adjoining rooms) was very tempting, Terry kept himself and Susan just enough apart. In every spare moment off the job he was with her, writing poetry for his inspiring lady, shopping and spending a lot of happy times in a little coffee shoppe they had located just outside of the village.
Michelle and Robin met them there often as well for lattes, the elegant pair finding quiet niches in the hospitable village, where art and classical music reigned, or even simple library cozy nooks for Robin's head to nap on Michelle's comfy lap.
All this daytime romancing was going on for those two couples while Sayer and Alex chose to spend most of their time together challenging one another out on the slopes. The expert Russian skier had the intention to get this subtropical alien's sorry butt in tiptop shape for the movie. Afterwards, the two would disappear to who knows where for even more late night sports before returning to the hotel.
Though their attentions were not entirely on filming, the Three Lights (by even this director's high standards) turn out an A+ movie by the week's end. All the parts in the mountains were finished to the director's complete satisfaction. The trio of young men prove to themselves that their being actors and stars was not diminished (as their agent insisted it would be) by their serious relationships with these women. In fact, the director had commented, upon seeing their final run through shot, that the Three Lights' ability to shine and shine brightly was enhanced by whatever focus was now in their hearts.
A few finishing touches and the movie would soon be released for the public to adore the mature in stellar body and acting ability Three Lights a thousand fold more.
Upon arriving back in Tokyo, after the "Our Era" concert kickoff and career re-launch, the trio of musicians would find themselves soon to be swamped with calls from TV shows and demands for cameo shots in a new big budget movie. A fresh musical written especially for them, scheduled for the winter season, was already in the works, not to mention interviews and commercials galore.
All to which Terry now felt the stability of their careers coming into focus. So that meant that now his dream, his goal could soon come into fruition, too.
As soon as they arrived back home, Michelle rushes to the phone (leaving the work of unloading the car to Susan and Alex, of course) that seemed to have been ringing off the hook for nearly a week, her answering machine chock full of messages.
Just finishing the unpacking, Alex strides into the living room to find Michelle in a distressed mindset, her distraught blue eyes on the verge of overflowing with tears.
"Michelle, what it is?" Alex flies to her beloved, taking her trembling shoulders in firm hands.
"Oh, Amara! This is terrible! What am I going to do?!" The tears begin to come down, in the safe refuge of her cousin's strong arms.
"What? What's happened!" Alex quickly scans the room for any sign of danger that could have put Michelle in so devastating a state.
"Mamère has called from Paris." Michelle's simple reply between tears takes Alex by surprise.
"Well, what's wrong with that? Your mother calls you on the phone from time to time. Are your parents all right?" Alex asks, suddenly concerned for her foreign aunt and uncle.
"No, they're fine….it's…they've checked the bank records and saw the million or so I've just spent on the concert. They want to see me now." Michelle dabs at her eyes, mascara running in circles under them making her look even more sunken-eyed.
"Hmph. Can't blame them for that. You did just spend a mint on that shrimp. Heh heh heh. Just explain to them that you were helping to promote the concert for some frien—" Alex shrugs it off, Michelle's parents had never complained before about the lavish expenses she often wasted their vast monies on.
"That's just it! You don't know them that well! It's not about the money! That's not why they want to see me! I just know it! They're only saying that to get me there. That's not the real reason at all!" Michelle twirls at her aqua curls nervously.
"Then, why?" Alex asks, confused by all this sudden parental trouble when Michelle mentioned very little about Josephine and Henri Moreau in ages.
"They must've sent investigators to find out, just like they always did whenever I found somebody…" Michelle trails off fretfully, but Alex knew her shared family plight well enough to finish the sentence in her mind already with a gulp.
They know.
"They've found out about Robin and I." Tearful Michelle plunks down on the couch, distressed, dejected and frazzled.
"So, what if they did?" Alex couldn't help but smirk at the mention of the shrimp's name in this trouble. "You're over eighteen now. They're way over there in France and you're over here in Japan. What's the big deal?" She tries to brush it off.
"'Big deal!?'" Michelle cries out in a high pitched squeak. "My mother told me to bring my 'new friend.' Do you know what that means?! They want to size him up! To see if he's 'suitable' enough for me. They're very selective of class and breeding! And if they don't like him…You know what happens next! Oh, Amara! What will I do?!" Michelle jumps up to Alex's strong embrace, and the golden woman holds her lifelong companion tenderly, although the situation posed quite amusing to Alex herself.
After all, Robin Starr was not one of her most favorite people in the world.
"Calm down, Michelle. Everything will be fine. Just take the shrimp with you to present him to your parents and hope for the best. That's all you can do." Alex strokes Michelle's teal waves, seeing her beloved cousin's subservience to her parents once again. Alex recalled how when she was younger, they had broken up multiple 'unsuitable' relationships between Michelle and other men before. Their only child was the golden treasure of the esteemed Moreau family name, and she was not to be given away so easily to those less than worthy.
And though Alex was grateful for their interference before she took over the task of protecting Michelle from the wolves of this world—or any other world as well, but that's another part of their long and winding road story—Alex herself could never submit to having such power held over her.
If there is something—or someone—I want badly enough, I take hold. I know my own mind. No one can tell me what I can and can't do. But Michelle is different. She always has been. Michelle needs her family. They've made her who she is—so they really can't be all that bad. Though her mother and I have had our moments… Alex smiles to herself in not so fond reminiscence of her domineering French aunt who had attempted to control her wild niece for a season.
Well…maybe it's for the best if they could finally get rid of that annoying shrimp for me. Her thoughts joke with themselves, a reflection of the uncertainty still in her own soul about Michelle and Robin Starr's pairing—not to mention that of a starry-eyed partner of her own in a love that should never have been.
"Please come with me, Amara. I need your strength." Michelle buries her eyes on Alex's unbuttoned white shirt.
"Of course, Michelle. You didn't need to even say it. And…I guess the rest of our happy troupe will be tagging along, as well, especially since it concerns one of them?" Alex grimaces, knowing where one Light of a star went, the other two were not far behind. She tried to cheer her depressed friend up with the pun.
"We'll make it a fun vacation, all right? You've never been to France before, have you, Susan?" Alex asks the dark haired woman who, upon overhearing the drama, had unobtrusively brought in a tray of green tea for them, like a silent servant.
"Where are we going?" Susan asks in pleasant surprise, gathering from the bits and pieces of conversation that there was international travel involved.
"Paris." Michelle answers, with a hopeful, wispy look on her face, recalling with fondness the romantic city of her childhood memories.
"And I thought we'd just finished unpacking." Throwing her hands up in the air at her yet unpacked luggage leaning in the hallway, Alex sighs with a smile. "Off to the in Seine races, eh, 'Chelle?" Using Sayer's nickname for her best friend in an intended to be silly pun, Alex was glad to see Michelle brightening up, even if it was just a little.
"Oh, Amara." Michelle giggles at the other half of her soul's unfazed demeanor, trying to push away her fears.
Maybe everything will be all right. She closes her eyes, feeling the warmth of Robin's presence within her, even at this moment as his soul reaches out in the darkness of her fears with his light of courage, though he had no idea of the details of what lie ahead for him.
It just has to be!
Deciding to put a good spin on the matter, and not scaring her Robin silly, Michelle explains the sudden trip to the three boys as a long-awaited reunion with her beloved parents. Nothing out the ordinary—nothing at all. Robin did have his suspicions though, with the cheery way Michelle bounced about, packing and repacking his clothes to make sure he had just the "right" ones, of course.
The boys were glad to get out of their hectic work schedules for the coming week which responsible scheduler Terry forgoes almost immediately. Without hesitation, he swiftly cancels and postpones all of the week's upcoming events. This sudden vacation to Paris displayed itself as the perfect setting for a secret agenda in his mind.
Sayer had announced he didn't care why they had to go, just as long as they had fun, to Alex's rolled eye disdain, calling him a 'baby.' She was always so hard to figure out to him, the way she was so hot and then so cold, ignoring him at times.
Susan arranged for Tara, who, although the thought of Paris was inviting, and she was welcome at any time, wanted to spend as much of her time with her time traveling best friend, who would be departing to the future again, very soon. So, the quiet young girl decided to stay on with Rini and the Harts' for another week while her fellow Outer Soldiers traveled to France. Serena's Mom, Irene, was glad to have Tara, with all the help she had been in caring for little stepinfetchit, "RiRi."
So, all responsibilities palmed off, packed and readied the next morning, the Three Lights and the three Outers drive the sedan to the airport and soon board the first flight out to the wondrously famed 'City of Lights'—Paris, France.
Play opening song from Sailor Moon in Paris: "A Natural Romance":
(Out there under la moon,
Yes, our love matures…)
Good friends looking out over the endless blue ocean
The long darkness of night moves on for the new day
Excited lovers travel to a far-off land
(Such a place under the full moon!)
So right, so good it is!
My heart is throbbing
Because of this miracle
More and more right it is
You think I'm beautiful…
Here I give my heart to you easily
This spell of love quietly overtakes me
Together our eyes gaze up onto the clouds
More and more my heart awakes to this new degree of love I'm feeling
I want only you to take part of me as yours
Come away with me, together we'll soar the skies
I love you!
Alone yours (Sailing my romance)
Alone mine (Sailing with you naturally)
Even the best of soldiers can fall to this
Seeking out danger not all—their hearts long for more!
It's so easy to fall in love with the right one
(Such a time under the full moon!)
So right, so good it is!
My heart is throbbing
Because of this miracle
More and more right it is
I think you're beautiful…
Now I give my soul to you easily
Repeating this spell of love over and over
Filled with confidence of a hint of wonder
To come between you and I
I'm in love with you, my destiny
This special day we'll always recall the simple joys
I have been transformed into a soldier of love too
Let's go, Love!
Not alone!
(Sailing with you, love)
Always you!
This spell of love quietly overtakes me
Together our eyes gaze up onto the clouds
More and more my heart awakes to this new degree of love I'm feeling
I want only you to take part of me as yours
Come away with me, together we'll soar the skies
I love you!
Alone yours (Sailing my romance)
Alone mine (Sailing with you naturally)
Ooh, ooh! La femme de la moon!
Sailors who dream of their loves
Ooh, ooh! La femme de la moon!
Sailors who have found their loves
Ooh, oh La femme de la moon…
No problems on the plane, this time—except for a seating switch with Sayer. The Outer Sailor Scout leader had placed everyone in separate seating arrangements on purpose, though somehow the couples all got together anyway, to her sighing discontent. Sayer insisted on having the window seat, so Michelle gave it up, knowing he just wanted, really, to trade places with her to sit next to Alex.
While she adored her cousin, Michelle was grateful to end up at Robin's side, where the tense young Frenchwoman wished to be in the first place. He gave her some inner peace in the companionable silence they shared. Robin was calmly listening to his collection of classical music by a certain favorite violinist on his new and improved walkman which pervaded through their shared mind link that composed her soul to relax as well.
At least on the nearly fifteen hour nonstop airplane flight from Tokyo to Paris where Michelle was glad to have his hand to squeeze.
There was an incident with the stewardesses, as Sayer kept "forgetting" which one was assigned to them, and instead opted to keep bothering the prettier, leggier blonde girl rather than the plump matronly woman who was the stewardess of their section. Even upon landing there was a luggage mishap as well, with Sayer nearly coming to blows, trading insults with a Frenchman who insisted that the particular traveling bag Sayer was questioning was his. And it turned out, after all was said and done, it was the man's, whom Robin sided with and was vehemently arguing with his 'stupid brother' over. Sayer had blamed the poor innocent Frenchman's broken English for all the confusion entirely, as Terry had to prolifically apologize for him in the foreign tongue the genius had quickly mastered through a self-help audio book just on this flight to Paris. Much to Susan's awe, for she listened to the muffled François voices through Terry's headphones on the skybound journey while he believed she was asleep leaning against his chest.
Finally, after all that kerfuffle, early in the afternoon our six weary travelers find their way through the city of lights in a taxicab which takes them along the scenic route of Paris, to one of its finest hotels.
Treated like a queen upon her arrival, after illustriously signing the register with her renowned last name in Paris, Michelle leads the team up to one of the most posh suites the hotel had to offer. The plush carpeting, golden trim Louis XIV style and classy décor of France exuded from every piece of expensive furniture.
"Where's the TV?" Sayer tramps around the set of rooms, sticking his head behind the stately settees and futons, even taking a quick peek around the monstrous bathroom, complete with sauna tub, as he was on the hunt for the elusive television.
"Are you just going to lie on that divan all day, lazybones?" Alex asks, walking in and watching Sayer in amusement after he finally located the TV in a separate recreation room, plopping down on the plush fur sofa in front of it like a lounge lizard.
"If I had someone 'divine' to lie with me on the 'divan,' I might. Our tight bodies will fit." The lyricist in Sayer smiles a comparison, flirting back, clicking off with his remote the nasally speaking French newscaster, to crawl on his knees across the expensive divan like a needy puppy to give Alex his full, panting attention.
"Just get off your ass and get your own suitcase unpacked. You can't expect your brother to do everything for you your whole life." With a no-nonsense smack down to his tight tush up in the air and a ruffle of Sayer's disheartened curls, Alex shakes her head at any chance of ooh-la-la-ing. She heads back through the suite's main living room to accomplish some unpacking of her own, alone.
Knock. Knock.
"Are you comfortable with your room here, my lady? Is the view to your liking? The temperature suitable? Shall I get you anything? A drink of cocoa, perhaps? Do you require any assistance with your luggage or—" Terry, gentlemanly as ever, enters Susan's Paris chambre d'hôtel (hotel bedroom) after a hushed knock entreaty, with more queries than an overwhelmed Susan could compute on one hand.
"Oh, no, Terry, I'm fine. The room is very nice and quite comfortable. Please don't trouble yourself over me." The modest woman demurely speaks, as she neatly was folding her clothing and placing them into the deep antique chest drawers of the fancy French boudoir.
"But I wish you to trouble me, Susan! Oh, that didn't come out correctly…What I meant to have said was…'you are no trouble to me, Susan'…But perhaps that came out too bluntly, as well, my lady…Foolish blunderer…" The tall, learned man uncharacteristically stumbles over his staccato words, Terry was strangely nervous for some unknown reason to the woman in question as he reaches out to caress her forearm.
"Hee, hee, hee. You could never be a 'blunderer' my clever, clever darling. I understand perfectly your caring concern, and am terribly grateful for it." Feeling quite spoiled by all his doting attention, Susan just happened to be folding her lacy lilac undies and matching brassiere at the moment as Terry's long, charm point fingers unwittingly reach to fold the fabrics to aid her helpfully.
However, Terry's similar colored eyes widen in realization when his dilating pupils recognized those particular articles of clothing for what they were.
"Uh, oh, Susan...do forgive my gauche intrusion! Adieu!" Red cheeked and all the way down the rest of his suddenly warm body, Terry Starr makes a quick bow and clumsy exit from the surprised female's bedroom in utter embarrassment with the fond new French term of 'farewell' and 'hello' he had recently learned.
"Adieu...my prince from the stars." The tan skinned princess of Pluto whispers her own tickled pink air blown French kissed goodbye for now to her oddly behaving star of Maker as her own slender fingers wave her uncomfortable lover a sweet farewell.
"What do you think of this one?" Michelle soon floats into one of the attached bedrooms, wearing a light blue silk summer dress all trimmed in lace.
"It's just as nice as the last one, Michelle. You look good in everything I've seen so far." Robin compliments with a soft, amused sigh, this being at least the fifth time she had changed and asked the same question. "Why are you getting all dressed up anyway? We're just going to visit your parents, right?" Robin asks, a little suspicious of her fluttering to and fro. Her sparsely shared inner thoughts about the matter seemed selective to him.
"I wish to make a good impression! Don't you, dearest? Besides, I haven't seen them for almost three years now. I want to look my best." Michelle admires herself in the cheval mirror in Robin's hotel room.
Finally satisfied on her choice, she goes to his closet, now ready to work on him. "Does this one or that one compliment my ensemble better?" She asks with an inviting smile, holding up on their hangers, two of his finest suits she had chosen from his closet.
Robin shrugs with a bemused smile, turning his hands up in the air.
"I'll leave it up to you, my artiste. I trust your taste."
I wish everyone else did, too...Michelle snaps her eyes shut with the hope as she gazes out the window with a far-off stare.
Why does Michelle look so worried? It makes me wonder… What's she hiding from me about her parents…? Or is it me she's ashamed to show to them?
Bringing along a tentative Robin (and the rest of the gang tagging along for support) and making sure they were all properly dressed, groomed and spiffed up for viewing, Michelle makes the call to her "Mamère," announcing they have arrived. Swiftly, one of the family's limousines was sent to pick the group up, in a flash.
Right away, Sayer didn't take to the snooty chauffeur, who seemed to eye them all, looking down upon the young people in his rear view mirror the whole trip. But Michelle didn't notice, the way she was fussing over Robin. She was doing some last minute adjustments on his shirt, his tie, and his hair practically all the way to the front door of her stately family home.
'Stately' was nowhere near good enough to describe the palatial mansion before them. Its sprawling fenced in landscape, its monstrous stone columns, the statues and busts decorating the well-tended gardens surrounding, and the largest fountain any of them had ever seen in front of the mansion—were all quite breathtaking.
"Whew! Your folks must be loaded." After letting out a high-pitched whistle, Sayer whispers in awe. Michelle's eyes give Sayer's low-class rudeness daggers, praying he would not be so unsociable when they went inside.
"Please be good." She whispers back to him, almost pleadingly.
With a steadying deep breath that perplexes all save Alex, Michelle leads them to the house, with a well coiffed and perfectly attired Robin Starr placed purposely at her side. Although, Michelle keeps a proper distance, not clinging to him as she usually did.
Wordlessly, the huge door is swept open before them, revealing the interior of the residence, which was even more ostentatious and ornate than the outside.
The polished marble floors gleam, the many crystal chandeliers twinkle far above them, hung from the cathedral ceiling that was fashioned after the Sistine Chapel, with religious painting after painting displayed beautifully by an expert artist's hand.
Such opulence, such elegance, the works of art decorating every wall and every antique piece of furniture stun them all into utter silence as they pass the ancient family butler who bows solemnly, welcoming "Mademoiselle" home.
In a way, Robin, despite being awestruck by all the art and elegance around him, did not quite like the way he made it sound, as if Michelle was back for good and not merely visiting.
"You remember Amara, don't you Pierre, dear?" Michelle takes hold of Alex's arm-which was more muscular and toned than last the rebellious young teen had been in this house—but the old butler shows no sign of emotion, one way or the other. Michelle was very fond of the old man, who had been their family manservant for as long as she could remember. But there was something distant about him now.
"And these are my dearest friends I was fortunate enough to meet in my time abroad in Japan." Michelle spreads her talented hands over Susan and the Three Lights behind her.
Pierre nods cordially, though Michelle was taken aback by his unusual stiffness—of all the people in the house, darling old Pierre was always a sympathetic ear. This feeling was foreboding to her, a hint of what was to come. Nonetheless, Michelle gives all their names to be announced as he leads them towards the fifteen foot high double doors of the conservatory.
Upon entering yet another room, filled with high-class splendor and ostentation, in the otherwise empty, monstrous conservatory, a lone woman sits on a high-backed settee. Though tastefully dressed in the latest fashion for a woman of her age (she was no more than forty-five) the years of high-living had taken their toll on her complexion and features. Calmly leafing through a magazine of art, she gave off a well-bred air, the simple way she was seated and holding herself, belied the deportment of her class.
"Mamère!" Michelle dashes to her before Pierre has a chance to announce them. She drops to her knees and puts her head on her mother's lap, like a small child once again.
"My darling." There was a genuine warmth behind her words, as the woman strokes her only daughter's wavy curled head.
"Monsieurs Starr, Mademoiselle de Venici, and…" With his last introduction, for a moment, Pierre's eyes almost could be caught sparkling at his own memories of a wild child he favored once who had lived in the mansion for a time.
And turned it upside down all the while she was present.
"…Mademoiselle Sokova to see you, Madame." Pierre finishes with a graceful bow, closing the double doors behind him as he soundlessly leaves.
"Amaralexis, my dear! Is that really you? My! How you have grown, my little wild one! But of course it is you! You look just like your mother now…" Madame Moreau lets the words trail off as she leaves her throne-like seat at the settee and goes to Alex. Memories came back to her of a tiny, golden-haired imp, held in the arms of the departed cousin she had loved so dearly—and lost so tragically.
My poor, poor Katia. That Ukrainian brute! Josephine Moreau was certain then, so long ago, to take the abandoned and destitute child that Katia had brought into this world and care for little Amaralexis as her own—to grow up as the companion her own baby, Michelle, needed.
The two girls were so inseparable then, it seemed they were destined to grow into womanhood together, side by side, with the opulence and splendor of the Moreau mansion and prestige about them–but that vision of long ago was not meant to be. There was a wildness in Amara that had cried out for freedom at an early age. Josephine found her youthful charge at times unmanageable and unwilling to become a part of the society she and her husband were offering.
But wealth and elegance were not what Amara's soul longed for, and she begged to be set free to follow her heart's dreams. And though Josephine Moreau refused to let go of the rebellious child she had sworn to care for in her late cousin's memory, wild Amaralexis Sokova had taken flight on those independent wings. The independent teen had one day run away from the richness that money and power had to offer. She had blindly raced towards a path that destiny had already carved out for her—for her and Michelle both.
Josephine had kept track of her wayward charge, but from afar, as Amara wished it. As her strong-willed mother, too, doubtlessly would have wanted. When the day had come for her own little girl to spread her wings into the world, Josephine could think of no one better for Michelle to fly to. The friendship the two had forged as young girls, was a bond the older woman was certain could be renewed again, her meek Michelle needing the strength that Amara held a windswept abundance of.
And that mother's wisdom had proven itself a thousand-fold more, though Josephine never knew exactly how or under what circumstances. But she could tell from correspondence with Michelle that the two girls' bond was now deeper than ever—for what Michelle and Alex had was forged together in a destiny that had linked them together now and for eternity.
"Madame." Her low voice giving respect, Alex nods, her own memories of this house and this woman were bittersweet in her fight for freedom. Yet there was still that certain familial warmth and gratefulness Alex would never forget, for a woman who did so much for her—and gave her the ultimate gift of the perfect soul mate Alex had found in Michelle, too.
Shaking the tears that she would never weep in public, proud Madame Moreau pushes away the memories of the past to look at the upcoming situation of the present. Emotional eyes turn suspiciously cold upon the three male guests watching the reunion from the sidelines, especially the shortest of the trio, the silver-haired one.
"Ahh, and these must be the 'friends' you spoke of so highly in our communications." Her French accent was thick, but her usage of the English language was quite expansive. "Please…" She motions and Michelle rises, as her mother takes a few well-turned steps towards the group, extending her hand to them for further introduction.
"Mamère," Michelle was obviously happy to see her mother again, you could see it in her eyes, clinging to her mother's arm sweetly. "Let me introduce them to you." Michelle beams with a hopeful smile.
"This is Ms. Susan de Venici." They exchange polite greeting nods. "Monsieurs Terry and Sayer Starr." Josephine Moreau, was taken aback when the darker haired man vigorously shakes her extended hand. But she was impressed by the taller young man's gracious taking of her offered hand and brushing it lightly with his lips in true French gentleman style.
"Charming." She smiles approvingly at Terry. I like this one. Madame Moreau comments lightly to herself, as Michelle leaves her arm, and goes to Robin, taking his arm in hers, bringing him forward a bit more.
"And this is..." Michelle pauses, choking up all the courage she could muster, with a short prayer thrown in for luck, "…this is Monsieur Robin Starr." Michelle smiles up hopefully as her mother turns her attention to Michelle's latest conquest.
"Ahh." Madame Moreau says simply as she looks Robin up and down, from his chic silvery hairstyle, complete with an idol's long ponytail, modish dark blue designer suit which spoke of cool fashion, right down to his sleek, patent leather spats, with a critical eye.
"I'm very pleased to—" Robin starts with a very gracious, yet humble, smile, knowing how to push the aristocracy's right buttons.
He thought…
"A little short, though, isn't he, dear?" Madame Moreau cuts him off a bit rudely, but the best of the upper crust were all a little rude in true high-standard fashion.
"Mamère!" Michelle was shocked at her mother's rudeness upon their first encounter. She was accustomed to the general disapproving comments, made at least after the second meeting—when the cutting barbs and disparagements usually would be reserved for.
But the claws were out early, for Madame felt something immediately upon seeing the silver-haired boy and her daughter, more than with any other of Michelle's past flings. There was something rather serious about their relationship already that would not easily be discouraged, so she had to start early.
Unprepared for such a 'welcome,' Robin stands silent, holding his normally vindictively biting tongue for once at her insulting comment. That's when the doors squeak open again and a tall, stately looking man over fifty, with a greying moustache and beard, enters the room.
"Papère!" Michelle flies to her father's warm embrace, the relation between this good-hearted man and his daughter still quite deep. No matter how old or elegant or important she grew into a woman, his little 'Michi' would be Daddy's little girl for all time. After the touching embrace, the lord of the manor turns his attention to his wife, who was still eyeing Robin disapprovingly.
"Josephine?" He asks the question that obviously had already been a pertinent, discussed one between them.
"I'm not sure yet, Henri." She answers, her diverted gaze returning to Robin. "Your parents, boy, your upbringing. Please tell us about them and where you come from." She commands more than asks, motioning the rest of the group towards the settee and the other seats around the room as she blatantly cross-examined the stylish young man.
Her investigations on this young man had turned up nothing other than his being a rock star—part of a disbanded, little singing group of teen idols who had been wiped off the face of the map for the past two years, and just reappeared on the circuit all of a sudden—which wasn't a very good start in her opinion.
"My parents? Well…I…" Robin starts, abnormally nervous under both Michelle's father and mother's critical glares—especially her mother's. Robin shrinks under the overpowering woman's gaze.
How do I explain any of that? What do I say of my family? Oh, just that I had a twin from a distant star across the universe, my mother was the Princess guardian of another galaxy's world, and my father…he was...they were all killed by a minifacial cosmic force, where I alone survived? Then I was adopted, along with two other orphans by the Queen of yet another far-flung planet to be her sworn Guardian Soldiers who continue to battle evildoers ay midnight, alongside you...
Suffice it to say, I am royalty. But will they even buy my story if I explained? Do they even know about you living as a Sailor Soldier?
What else could I tell them of myself? Michelle!? How could you put me in such a position!? Why didn't you warn me?! I need help! Mind screaming for assistance, Robin desperately searches for just the right words to say, knowing that his future with Michelle was now teetering in the balance. A future he would give anything to hold onto the endless sea of her love forever...
"It's…a secret." Abruptly Michelle fills in out of left field. As she said it, Robin had noticed a mischievous and daring glint spring to her eye.
"A secret?" Madame Moreau burrows her now intrigued brow beneath her pale blonde coiffure, for nothing could be kept a secret from her.
"Yes. You see, Robin Starr here—Starr isn't his real name of course, Terry and Sayer's parents merely adopted him when he was a baby—when his mother died in childbirth. His father would have kept him, but his family insisted on the whole affair being hushed up. The child, Robin, that is, was sent off to be secretly adopted. You see, his father was a member of one of the highest house of royals in Europe, and he and Robin's mother weren't…" Michelle leads off her totally farcical story with a pair of insinuating French eyes, her voice excited with this made-up mystery of her own creation.
"Ohh." Madame Moreau, being of the French persuasion herself, understood her daughter's meaning right away.
"So you can see why it's been all kept so quiet. He and his new brothers had been provided for until their own parents were tragically killed in a sailing accident a few years ago. So they turned to music to soothe their woes, and just recently had become quite popular in Japan…And now, by Providential grace, all over the world, since their recent concert has renewed their popularity and fame." Michelle's tall tale kept growing, as Robin's eyes pop out with every fibbing word.
"I see." Faithful Catholic Josephine Moreau's hard heart softens a bit for the unfortunate son of royalty, no less. Though illegitimate, he still was of aristocratic birth, and since the trail she had already set many top investigators on had turned up empty on this young man's past, the story was entirely possible.
"Poor lad." Henri Moreau breaks the silence he usually deemed to let his wife fill, as he personally gives Robin the benefit of the doubt, along with a sympathetic smile.
"Yes. But he truly is a hero, so modest, he'd never speak of how he often gives his time to school bake sales for charity, visiting and singing for little children going into surgery…" Flawless actress Michelle nods with a rather theatre award-winning, sad expression for her tragic tale and account of her new beau that she just had to embellish with some of his brothers' more charitable endeavors thrown in the mix, too. "Even personally reuniting little lost cats with their distraught owners!" Feeling her story had paid off with her feline-loving mother who had taken to approvingly stroke her prized white Persian 'Princess' on her lap, Michelle takes Robin's speechless hand without anyone seeing it behind their backs, and squeezes it affectionately—and a little triumphantly, too.
Though a little more open to the thought than when this group had first arrived, Madame and his lordship were still wary of the young man. While his being royalty (however it occurred) was a definite plus, his philanthropic works his brethren nodded of in testimony, admirable, but they were still very protective of Michelle. Their treasured only child would one day inherit all of this opulence, not to mention the good family name, and that sought-after blessing was not to be given away to just any man.
His background might have been shrouded in mystery, but more of his purportedly stellar character must be discovered of this young Robin Starr. We must see how well he fits in with this society you are destined for, ma cherie Michelle. Perhaps you have become too accustomed to those beneath your status while in Japan. Madame Moreau looks Robin's wild sibling, Sayer, up and down more disapprovingly when he starts eyeing the section of immodest female bust statuary in her husband's glass case collection of fine art sculptures on the other side of the room.
Then, the next moment her keen eye catches the dark haired rogue's glance making mischievous comparison at the tall blonde, from where the boy stood beside his more gentlemanly, astute looking brother, wonders if there was something between he and Amaralexis.
That goes for your cousin as well…
"Then it is well I have arranged for a soiree with many other benevolent humanitarians to commemorate you and your cousin's return to your homeland, my darling." Michelle must've inherited her mother's certain French charm, which she turns on full-blast, all benevolent smiles upon Robin. For a hopeful minute he almost believed that maybe he had been accepted and everything was in the clear.
Until Madame's fawned over pet Persian had had too much of her mistress' 'petting,' and scrambles away with a disturbed 'meow!' to hide under the desk full of Henri's rare porcelain figurines.
"I have invited everyone you know, all of your oldest acquaintances, to see you and Amara again. And to meet your new ahem friends.'" That sense of acceptance slips away from Robin soon though, with the way Madame Moreau looks at him, making him feel less like a 'friend' and more like an amoeba under a scientist's microscope.
Robin was glad that, for the rest of their first visit, Terry mostly took over, expertly skimming over important facts and delighting both of Michelle's parents with his intelligent conversation and freshly learned, yet concisely fluent French language.
Alex had jabbed Sayer in the gut twice with her elbow when he was about to slip up with an ill-timed joke, and every once in a while Robin felt Madame Moreau's critical eyes upon him, watching his every move.
Robin and Princess exchange a petrified look from where the white Persian cat was taking refuge, huddled under the futon now.
You're better off there…
After an hour of third degree grilling later…
"Michelle! Why didn't you tell me?!" Robin demands of her as they leave her parents' mansion and are being chauffeured back to their hotel.
"Tell you what, Robin dear?" Michelle says innocently, feigning ignorance. But the enlarged sea of her blue eyes was not going to be enough to calm him down this time.
"That I was going to be put on trial! Picked apart like—like—" His distressed mind searches for the word to describe how her mother had made him feel.
"A shrimp platter?" Sayer, who had found this whole situation funny, fills in.
"'Your Royal Highness.'" Alex was of the same mindset, teasing the poor guy when he was down.
"And where did you get that ridiculous story from?! I've never heard such a—" He starts to chastise Michelle and her tall tale, but stops when he sees her pretty smile turn into a pitiful frown, tears forming in her beautiful, wavering eyes.
"Oh, Robin, I'm so sorry! My parents are…I didn't want them to get a bad opinion of you…so I…" She bites her lower lip as it quivers dramatically. Her family knew nothing of her being a psychic or a Sailor Scout, and she didn't even want to think what they'd say of Star Healer's very…interesting…role in such matters, as well. "So I…"
"You filled in the gaps. Oh, Michelle." Robin sighs. People should accept me for who I am. That's what I've always gone by. If it's not good enough for them, then who needs them?! Robin's short temper was seething inside. Until his introverted lime green orbs pause to glance up at Michelle's wavering blues.
But I need you. Then he smiles, lifting Michelle's dejected chin to his now warm mint gaze.
"I'll just have to try to impress them the best I can tomorrow night." He says with a confidence he didn't quite feel inside, but would try to project for her sake.
One interrogation session with that mother of hers was enough to make the cat run…
"Oh, thank you, Robin dearest!" Michelle brightens at his words, gleefully wrapping herself around his wiry form in the limo's back seat, causing Alex, seated next to her, to twist her lip at the smooth-talking shrimp as Robin was deluged in showers of Michelle's kisses.
"Stop here, driver!" Through her inundated waves of adulation drowning her man, Michelle suddenly calls up, seeing something else almost as thrilling out of the corner of her eye in the side window.
"Why are we stopping here?" Alex asks, as Michelle drags a breathless Robin out of the car with her. She heads them toward a large building heralding a large sign called "La Belle Femme Hibillier."
"I need a new ball gown for tomorrow night, of course!" Michelle was in her element dressing up for classy social occasions and always wanted to look her best. "And so do you, Amara." Michelle treads on dangerous ground with that, as the six of them enter the plush decorated fashion show center.
"Ball gown?" Alex repeats incredulously. "Michelle, you know I don't wear dresses. For anything or anyone." She shoots a warning glance behind her at Sayer, who was admiring all the dressy models rushing to and fro getting ready for the show.
"Amara, please! You need to look stately and refined and…"
"I can do all of that in the fitted white tuxedo I brought with me." Alex continues to argue as Michelle flashes her name card around, getting them all front row seats, even at this last minute at the fashion show.
"Mamère wouldn't understand! You know how she is. She's from the old school and believes all women should wear gowns, especially to a society ball. She's already on edge over this all! Please, Amara, make her happy? I'll buy you any dress you want. You can choose yourself. Just have a look, I'm sure you'll like one. Pleeeeaase?" Michelle puts on her most pleading voice, to which her Amaralexis could never refuse.
"All right, Michelle. But don't expect it to be anything fancy. And don't ask me to ever do this again." Alex folds her arms watching as the models begin to strut along the runway in Paris' newest and most desirable haute couture. And more closely watchful of a certain star's glinting eyes at the 'scenic view' as Sayer gawks in wide-eyed enthusiasm beside her, Terry seating Susan next to him on Michelle's other side.
"Pass me a pen, Robin dearest." From distress to excitement in a few minutes span of time, Michelle swiftly whips out a piece of paper from her purse.
"What for?" Curious, Robin asks, puzzled as to what she could be writing, as he hands her the pen from his suit pocket she intuitively knew was always present, for autograph signing purposes.
"I have to write down the numbers of all the ones I want, of course. It does look like it's going to be a good season." She whispers excitedly, jotting down nearly every outfit presented thus far, to Robin's wide eyes.
Robin Starr certainly wasn't the type to be tight with money…but he did realize, as a male model himself, how much fashions like these exorbitantly cost.
"Don't worry. We're in Paris. My parents will foot the bill for everything I buy." Michelle giggles at his silly expression and passing thought. "Ooooh, that is the one for the ball!" Michelle nearly squeals with delight as she chooses an airy, shawled black and white polka-dotted, pure silk evening dress.
"It is very lovely." Fashion designer Susan agrees, amicably, from where she was sitting a few seats from Michelle. But that's just when her polite smile turns into an awestruck mouth, hanging open at the next selection of a gorgeous slinky black velvet number, with a low cut (extremely low-cut) cleavage line, draped with diamond and garnet jewels all around. Seeing her interest, Terry takes note of its number, but doesn't say anything. Susan remains silent, this self-sacrificing woman would never ask anything for herself at all.
"Woo-hoo!" Sayer whistles his approval at the next dazzling fashion, a sparkling glitter red evening dress, with long red gloves and a slit all the way up the shapely model's long, long leg. "Very nice." Sayer approves aloud as the model passes by their front row seats.
The French model apparently noticed her most vocal—and drop dead gorgeous—onlooker, as well, pulling a small piece of paper from inside her revealing and ample cleavage, and tossing it to him with a wink. Sayer winks back the open flirtation, sticking the inviting phone number in his pocket for safe keeping and further reference, perhaps later tonight.
"Michelle," Alex's rumbling low voice was filled with foreboding anger, "get me that dress." Alex Sokova would not be showed up by any model to the…person…she was interested in. Giving Sayer a threatening look, she roughly grabs his jacket pocket, pulls out the slip of paper just secured there, and smashes it in her fist meaningfully, dispelling it with a wind-tossed thrust, clear across the room.
"Same thing'll happen to you." The force that was Uranus aims her flashing green eyes at the wolfish star before turning her sullen attentions away.
After the show was over, the three couples return to the hotel and partake of its finely recommended five-star restaurant, with Sayer making a big fuss over the snails Michelle ordered for their dinner.
"They're escargot, Sayer, don't say 'snails!'" She said snootily as he made faces all the way up the elevator they took to their triple room hotel suites.
"You're such an idiot. It's embarrassing to be seen with you." Robin had defended Michelle's disturbed sensibilities from his loudmouth brother, nearly causing a public argument that Terry, once again, had to deftly diffuse the situation of.
But for all best interests—and tense, frayed nerve sanity, as well—the young couples decide to make use of this vacation in Paris separately the next morning, going off to see the sights of this famed city of romance with only their chosen partners.
Even though Alex was a smidge more than miffed at Sayer's blatant behavior at the fashion display yesterday, she found herself forgiving him easily, somehow already coming to accept that this flighty, wandering starlight was a little too amorous for his own good.
So maybe it was up to someone strong of heart to hold him down and tame him to her will—or not.
At least, every now and then, and the fun of wrestling all over again would start the next unpredictable day.
Maybe that's what you like about this one, Alex. The challenge. She poses the question to herself as they move at a clipped pace down the street, choosing to walk Paris' narrow roads rather than join Michelle and Robin in the limo's guided tour, or Terry and Susan's private taxi.
"So where are we headed first, Ally?" Sayer asks, forgetting all about yesterday's outburst of anger, just as any memory of that enticing model the evening before was gone with the wind as well.
"Where does everyone go when they come to Paris?" Alex smiles with the dangled query before him. She could see the wheels turning in his head that only skimmed over geography in high school days as Sayer's nose and mouth screws up in the most comical way as he tries to recall. It was so hard to stay mad at his childish attitude for very long when the fool continually made Alex feel like laughing.
"Tower of Pizza?" He asks, with a hopeful grin. Earth geography was not one of his finer subjects in school. (But the food group that included pizza was!)
"It's not the 'pizza" you eat, it's 'Pisa.'" Alex chuckles, wondering if he was just stupid or if he actually had just said it to put her in a better mood. Either way, it worked. "Besides, that's Italy, not France, you idiot." She softens the harsh word with a flick of his constantly askew navy black curls atop his dark head.
"There." Alex points forward, the morning breeze, carrying Sayer's gaze to what she was pointing at.
"The Eiffel Tower! See? I knew it was a tower!" Sayer snaps his fingers at his sudden ingenious recollection.
"Come on, moron." Alex sprints off, full of the morning's fresh energy, as memories of the Tower come flooding back to her.
Sayer, still a little bit sleepy at this early hour in the morning, takes off after the golden professional sprinter nonetheless.
"Whew-whew! 1665 steps! That's a lot of steps! Can I transform to Fighter and just star jump it? What're we supposed to do when we get way up there, anyway?" Once the panting pair arrives at the Eiffel Tower's 'lobby,' Sayer asks as he leans, bent over his knees. This dynamic young man not much for simple sightseeing, was a bit bored already.
"You're just supposed to look, silly." Alex whacks her unwilling companion on the head with the pamphlet from his hands that he picked up at the tower entrance. "Let's go higher up." She feels that strange force calling her to rise upwards all over again.
No, it isn't strange—just an old dear friend. She feels the wind brushing across her face as she climbs the flight of stairs leading up. Although there were a few early riser tourists on the bottom level of the tower, the higher up they went, the fewer people were present.
Until, once past the not-yet-open-restaurant and observation deck on the second level about 400 feet up—taking Alex's climbed over the roped-off, 'prohibited' edge, 'secret entrance to the non-accessible top level' trip the rest of the way up the long spiraling flight of stairs not-meant-for-the-faint-hearted-tourist later—Alex and Sayer found themselves quite alone at over 1000 feet up.
"Ally…" Sayer finds himself still huffing hard from the sprint up the steps and acrobatic climb over the barred area exertion. This well-exercised fighter realized that even though he was in tip top shape, he could barely keep up with Alex. She effortlessly displayed such endurance and did not look a bit tired out, when he felt like he was going to keel over from the steep stair climb and run. "How far are we going to go up?" He huffs breathlessly again, but Alex never even slows her pace.
"As far as it goes. Athletes can do the 'Vertical Race' in ten minutes. At least, I used to when I was younger and came here every morning I lived in Paris. No one else was awake at sunrise—and that's how I liked it. Quiet and peaceful. Just me and the wind."
She looked somewhat ethereal in Sayer's dazzled eyes in a moment of sweet recollection of days past, Alex tosses these words over her shoulder at him. It was only just then she noticed the man lagging behind. "Can't you keep up, Starr?" She taunts, running a hand through her golden hair.
"Anything you can do, Sokova, I can do just as well!" He dashes forward, his easily damaged ego giving him the extra energy boost he needed. "Or better!" It was his turn to toss bravado words back as Sayer dashes up the stairs, pushing ahead of Alex, ponytail flapping in the wind streaming behind him to smack against her shocked lips.
Maybe that's why, too. Alex smirks at his competitive spirit, a close rival to her own, the likes of which she thought she'd never find in another, let alone in a man. But he's not just a man, is he? The wind on her side,Alex quickly catches up to him, but Sayer keeps the pace, the two of them racing side by side on the flight of steps, until they finally reach the top.
On the final flight of stairs, Alex puts out a halting arm, allowing for them both to rest. The pair sits close together on the narrow stairwell, until they both could catch their panting breath.
"You're hard on a guy, you know?" Sayer smiles teasingly, his breath just coming back to him, feeling triumphant he could keep up.
"And I always will be. Don't forget that." Alex teases back. "Let's go get our reward now." Up the final few steps they climb, until their eyes are indeed rewarded by a sight of sights. The sun was still rising in a beautiful melon orange sky, fresh and sweet, with colorful birds flying high on the wind. The gentle breezes flow through Alex's waves and Sayer's unruly curls alike, making them feel as fresh and as part of the morning's magnificence, so high up in the air as the soaring gulls.
After a quiet moment of welcoming in the coming winds, remembering how magnificent a sensation it all was once again, Alex turns to the dark haired man next to her, watching with delight his loosed hair scattering on the breezy winds. "Do you still wish you didn't come up now, Fighter?" Alex asks with a satisfied smirk as she watches Sayer easily retie his three foot long, wind detangled tail up in that steel blue ribbon before her entranced eyes.
"Nah. Right now, I couldn't wish for a single thing more than to experience this here with you. Just you and me—the wind and the sky." He declares rather lyrically through closed eyes the alliteration, just feeling the high altitude stratospheric atmosphere breeze wash over his star and the sky they were both a part of. The genuineness in his silky smooth voice makes Alex feel a strange closeness to him at this very moment, she glad that only the two of them were here to feel this together.
'Just you, me—the wind and the sky.' I like the sound of that. She closes her eyes as well, the most unlikely pair of lovers taking all of Paris in from above the windblown skyline.
From their eagle's eye view high above the city of Paris, Sayer and Alex could see (that is, if they were looking close enough) a scenic, tall treed city park. It slowly filled with varied tourists—children at play and young lovers strolling or eating their breakfast on the go. And every one of them wanted to explore the green forest area together with someone special this early in the morning.
(PLAY 'Sailor Moon in Paris': "Spreading Light of La Moon")
(I feel your arms
Our era and times
Such pure delight...)
One such couple stood out more than the rest. A beautifully stunning tanned woman in such a short mini skirted dress, made such an impression that even the bluebirds were whistling at her. Contented, she strolled along with a tall and handsome, wide-shouldered and strapping, young man on her arm, the protective look in his wisteria eyes keeping her safe from any amorous passing Frenchmen.
In this white sunlight, more and more
At this time right now
Here in this place of
The city we have come to
And it's because of you, my love
Precious scent that is yours
I'll not tire of
Uncertainties gone
Shining light of La Moon!
"Carriage ride, my lady?" Terry sees a horse and buggy on the side of the park's gravelly lane, and immediately thinks of bringing Susan pleasure with it.
"Yes, please, my lord." Susan delights in their proper, yet oh-so-fond titles for one another. In the few short weeks since he came back to earth, Terry Starr truly had claimed complete rule over her heart. He was looking so strong and attractive in one of his more casual outfits, a pair of dark blue jeans and simple white and violet t-shirt.
But you look gorgeous in anything you wear. The fashion designer in her could not imagine a more suitably stunning model, as Susan smiles to herself as he helps her to the carriage.
The two startle awake the snoozing carriage driver from his peaceful slumber, who then good-naturedly takes the handsome couple around the park's often horse trodden path, past all of the beautiful sights that the lush greenery late July had to offer.
This love that I feel here in my heart
You so delicately see within me
And yet can you accept this degree of love
That you see within my soul?
A thousand empty years I've dreamed of this
The chance to fall in love and to touch it
And we'll be together through eternity
With this fascinating love
Wanting it to last forever
The sun rises high into the sky, and Susan was grateful for the covering of the carriage roof over them—but not for its shade alone. Together in such close quarters, she could drown in the soft, subtle waves of his freshly applied cologne, the faint scent of lavender, iris, clover, heliotrope, sandalwood, thyme, tonka, musk and vanilla made Susan feel quite lightheaded.
Swaying in the carriage's bumpy travels, Susan collapses into Terry's strong arms, rendered dizzy at his gentle, mature air and subtle, underlying sex appeal.
Seeing the future
I'll keep reaching
Out towards you now (It's only you, my love)
My intuition says you want to carry me (Away with you)
If we may part on some distant day
We'll encounter love again
I'll return to you
In my heart always
Kiss of time—La Moon!
"My love?" He asks, worry behind those beautiful violet eyes. Susan closes her own eyes, immersing herself in his scent, so precious to her, her head pressed against his warm chest, so as to hear his kind heart beating.
"Terry, darling." Such calmness wafting over her in his rich scent, Susan whispers, feeling the palpable romance in the very air of Paris. "Do you know how much you mean to me?" Everything about this setting was indicative of his gallant appearance. This moment filled with this Maker's appealing scent gave the usually shy and reserved woman reason to articulate her no longer denied emotions.
"I could never be as much as you mean to me, my precious." Terry strokes Susan's dark forest green hair, wondering if this was the right moment…
A love like this will always be close to each other
This beautiful mystery together
The happiness of love will shine in our eyes
Throughout the galaxy!
There could be no one more wonderful
I want to share my time and place with you
Your deep soul, I yearn for, you are the one
I need you to tell you this now
Wanting it to last forever…
But as they were smoothly rolling along, the carriage suddenly hits a huge rut in the road and comes to a crashing halt. It slams the couple within sideways, and Terry finds himself pressed atop Susan's body. Once he established his weight was displaced as not to crush his tender beauty, Terry thought it wouldn't be so bad if there wasn't the danger of the carriage collapsing to the ground entirely.
Agilely lifting himself and Susan out the side door, they find the wheel broken off its axle. Terry kindly assists the older man who was driving, helping the carriage driver put the wobbled off wheel back on and rounding up the wayward steed.
The Frenchman. who spoke no English, was very grateful that there was still a responsible, good—and 'très fort!' (very strong!—young person in even the foreign youngsters of today.
"Tu es très gentil! Merci!" ('You are very kind! Thank you!') The carriage driver calls out to Terry as he leaves, smiling, though the man never knew just how foreign this star really was.
Terry jogs over to the side of the park where Susan had been hiding from the bright sunlight while she waited for him, under the shade of a stately oak tree.
This love that I feel here in my heart
You so delicately see within me
And yet can you accept this degree of love
That you found within my soul?
"I am sorry, my darling, but—" Terry starts to apologize for the mishap, though no fault of his own, but Susan presses a finger to his lips.
"It was very kind of you to lift the carriage up for that man, to put his wheel back on it. He must've thought you very strong." Susan sighs, leaning back against the tree, having watched her muscular stud the whole time.
"What's more important—do you think so, Susan?" A playful glint comes to his eye as Terry displays his large hands after cracking his large knuckles together.
"Why, yeeee-sssss!" Susan feels weightless when those powerful hands wrap around her, lifting her from the shade of the tree, out into the blinding sunlight, twirling her around in his strong but gentle way, both of them laughing. Her long legs dangling, Terry leans against the white fencepost, Susan still hanging defying gravity in his grip, midair.
Oh, Terry! In a millennia, I've never imagined anyone could treat this ancient soul like a normal woman...I never knew there could be such sheer joy in living like everyone else...in loving like anyone else...feeling special by being loved by a special man like you...
Laughter rings all through the park, so all could hear their happiness of being together, of enjoying the day, the mood of Paris, the bright sunlight and most of all, each other.
A thousand empty years I've dreamed of this
The chance to fall in love and to touch it
We'll be together throughout eternity
With this fascinating love
Wanting it to last forever
"I love you, my lady." Terry holds her in his arms, looking adoringly down into her magenta eyes.
"And I love yo—" Susan begins to say, but was stopped by Terry's crushing kiss on her lips that expressed all he had pent up inside to say this day.
Anyone would think this perfectly normal for a perfectly normal couple on this perfectly normal morning. But these were precious times of youth for Susan and Terry, the sun was blazing down upon the extraordinary, timeless pair in the middle of the park, the white clouds rolling by on this perfect Paris day.
(So much in love
this fated love, you and I)
"Robin, dear! It's almost eleven o'clock! Don't you think it's about time you got up?" Michelle knocks at his locked hotel door, receiving no answer after several tries.
"Portier." Michelle says simply in French, telling the dutiful hall watchman to unlock the door for her, which he does immediately and without question. Mademoiselle Moreau's every whim was their implicit command.
"Merci." Michelle lets herself in Robin's suite of rooms, without a second thought waltzing right into his bedroom to find him still fast asleep. He was curled up in an adorable little ball like a kitten, sheets pulled up to his sweet chin, which Michelle tickles playfully, delighting in the minute unshaven stubble beginning to form there.
"Michelle?" His eyes still tightly shut, Robin didn't even have to look to feel her presence in the room. "I had a really bad night. Your mother gave me nightmares. Let me sleep a while more, please?" This whiny cat napping meows the pitiful request, turning over and pulling his sheets up tighter.
"Forgive me, my dearest." Michelle smiles at his lazy form wriggling beneath the sheets. "I am a little tired, myself. Perhaps you wouldn't mind some company then?" Unexpectedly kicking her shoes off and getting halfway into the bed with a stifled fake yawn, the siren of the sea lithely slides under the sheets beside her prey, like hand in silk glove.
Musical digits play notes down his sleek, night shirted back, as sculptor's fingers trace along his well-defined abs beneath, before artistic license begins to creatively delve lower…
That's when sleepy Robin Starr suddenly jumps up, wide awake now.
Proud of her audacious self that needed this playful letting loose, Michelle giggles girlishly at his physical reaction.
And the mental one, too, my furtively turned-on sweet knight whom I sense is afraid of yourself more than of me sometimes...
"So where are we going today?" Resigned, Robin quickly changes the subject as he selects clothes from the closet, not even bothering to put on his velvet night robe, Michelle already having seen all of him in his silk nightshirt glory anyway.
Seen, and now touched!
"I thought we'd do a spot of shopping. I need a new wardrobe and Paris is the only place to do that properly in." Michelle licks her glossy lips as she lazes on the unmade bed. The very thought of doing the simple task of making it never even entered her high-class mind.
The hotel's femme, or maid, would do it, of course.
"Shopping? All right." Robin chooses a conservative dapper black suit and grey tie for himself, as if to convey his dulled mood. Then he turns to Michelle. "Your parents don't like me very much, do they, Michelle?" He asks, vainly glancing in the mirror as he removes his nightshirt and tosses it on the bed beside Michelle.
"It's not that they don't like you—it's just, they're very selective of a suitable match for me." Michelle leaves the bed, draping herself across Robin's bare back and meeting his worried pale green eyes in the mirror. "They don't know you like I do." She whispers in his ear.
"Michelle, I didn't like lying to them." He says, feeling he and Michelle's honest feelings for each other had been degraded somehow by the bold-faced lies.
"It wasn't lying—exactly...it was merely...embellishing the truth." Michelle replies, trying to smooth it all over, deep inside knowing it wasn't right.
I only did it because I don't want to lose you! Not like the others. My parents were right about them. But they're wrong this time. Because, Robin, you are my beautiful destiny. I love you. She vehemently justifies to herself, with only a tinge of guilt.
"I love you, too, Michelle. It doesn't matter what they think. As long as you want me, you won't lose me." Picking up her easily surfacing thoughts,Robin projects back at her determinedly. Michelle was startled for a split second, forgetting herself how he could read her unshielded heart as easily as he could hear her physical voice. Sharing a sweet morning kiss full of promise, Robin caresses her cheek reassuringly, leaving Michelle dreamily smiling in the bedroom, to go shower and change for the day ahead of them.
Though inspired by her declaration of love, he was still as uncertain as she, and deep inside, a little scared, too, of what would happen tomorrow tonight. And not only of what might befall their shared destiny if her parents did not approve, if they shunned him away...
Oh well, Robin sighs as he shuts the bathroom door as succinctly as he shuts out those thoughts again. We'll know if I'm satisfactory enough in their eyes by tonight. He concludes to himself while gazing at his svelte naked form in the full length cheval bathroom mirror.
As the hot water runs and steam fills the room to cloud the mirrors, the mere thought of all those scrutinizing gazes upon him later tonight slowly begins to erode away even this prideful starlight's confidence on the heretofore unexplored matter of love's mysterious experience…
...to be continued...
Dear Sailor Moon friends,
We thank you for coming along on this 3-part journey of true love's path of destiny for our star-crossed lovers, set in the breathtaking backdrop of romantic Paris! w\We hope you enjoyed all the romance and drama set to the lovely 'Sailor Moon in Paris' album music that inspired a lot of the three starring couples' interaction and scenes in this famed 'City of Lights' (The gorgeous Three Lights fit right in here romancing their intended Outer Sailor Scout partners, didn't they? ;) Sing along with the catchy translations of the wonderful Japanese/ French songs from the cool cd! ^0^
In honor of the 25th anniversary of when this beloved Sailor Moon saga was first written, back in 1998 when I was a young teen, (it seems but just yesterday for this timeless series…;) after carefully rereading and proof combing through this story that I scripted to continue the SM saga into its 6th season and beyond, over two decades ago, we will be re-publishing the remainder of the chapters regularly, continuing with this "Sailor Moon Eternal" movie, moving through the rest of the season's chapters, and FINALLY this author's scribbled handwritten papers are ready - after 25 years, of patiently waiting in a folder - to be typed up and released to finish our original "Sailor Moon Eternal" plotline! ^0^
We plan by this year's August birthday that our Sailor Moon 6th season 3 part 'Movie' will be COMPLETED, and then the remainder of the novel by this year end, every couple of weeks, God-willing. It promises to be chock full of romantic relationships, exhilarating battles and mystical excitement for our favorite Pretty Soldier Sailor Scouts and their intergalactic friends!
Please come along for the long awaited, exciting, cosmic powered ride! ^-^ Thank you for always patiently supporting this saga through the years! Your friendships have been dear to me otomodachi!
We would enjoy hearing your reviews of this continuing tale, chapter by chapter, told from the heart replete with love for these wondrous characters who come to life again in the thrilling world of our imaginations!
"MOON ETERNAL MAKEUP!"
God bless you always!
We'd love to hear your reviews of this 'Paris' movie series so dear to our hearts! ^0^ Doumo arigatou!
HarukaKou
p.s. My talented big sister Setsuna had illustrated a few of the scenes from this movie way back when I first wrote it, and I dug them up in my paper files! You can check them out on her face book now, too! ;)