[Scene: Marrakesh, Morocco. Kunzite and Zoisite are seating at a low table, eating lamb and couscous and drinking mint tea.]
Zoi: So you really don't mind that I'll be spending time with Mamoru over the next few weekends?
Kunzite: [deadpan] As long as you understand that the moment he tries to touch you in an inappropriate manner, I'm going to kill him.
Zoi: [indignant] No! If he touches me, I'M going to kill him!
Kunzite: Good. As long as someone kills him.
Zoi: So you really don't mind? Because if you have a problem with this, speak up, and I wouldn't do it.
Kunzite: [stares into his tea in a solemn manner] It is good for you to spend time with people your own age. I keep trying to tell myself that. It's a lot healthier for you to be around Mamoru than me, and if you happen to discover you like being with him more-
Zoi: Oh, please! He's a nag! Even if I were even marginally attracted to Mamoru, which I'm not, you should see the way he treats his girlfriend! [makes a face] He was constantly bugging her to get her grades up, and now that she's going better in school, he is starting in on her weight.
Kunzite: [puzzled] I don't remember Usagi being particularly overweight.
Zoi: She's not! She's about a size 10, tops! But apparently he liked her better when she looked emaciated!
[Kunzite looks away glumly, and they eat in silence for a while]
Kunzite: [stern] So Mamoru wants Usagi to lose weight and improve her gpa does he?
Zoi: Pretty much… and that bothers you?
Kunzite: I'm just wondering how long it will be before he insists that she wears green contacts, and puts her hair in a ponytail.
[Zoi starts choking on his couscous. Kunzite leans over but Zoi stops coughing and drinks some tea.]
Zoi: Oh, my god. You are so bad! Don't make me laugh like that when I'm eating!…You really don't have a problem with me spending a lot of time alone with Mamoru?
[Kunzite draws Zoi close and looks into his eyes]
Kunzite: I'm torn between my need to have you always by my side, and my desire to let you have a normal life.
Zoi: Why can't I have both?
Kunzite: [caresses Zoi] Immortality is far more of a curse than you realize. I don't want you to look back 300 years from now and realize I robbed you of a normal adolescence.
Zoi: Since when have I had a normal adolescence?
Kunzite: Your adolescence is certainly a lot more normal than mine was.
[Zoi recalls that Kunzite was saved by Metalia at the brink of starvation. The last of a people driven to cannibalism, and marvels at how horrible it must have been to lose everyone he ever knew in such a horrible fashion]
Zoi: I..I'm sorry.
Kunzite: [shrugs] Don't be. Afterall, it is ancient history, and I was always coldhearted.
Zoi: [touches his face] You're not coldhearted.
Kunzite: I'm just glad I didn't know you back then.
[Zoi tries to imagine what it must have been like, being in love with Kunzite in such a setting, with no food and no hope of rescue, where each day only drove them closer to an inevitable extinction.]
Zoi: What was it like?
Kunzite: It was all very civilized…in the beginning… before only the most determined survived and everything broke out into utter mayhem. After the last of our food stores were depleted, and the sick and the injured had perished, we drew lots.
Zoi: To see who would get eaten that day?
Kunzite: [nods] We all stood in the square each week and each drew a stone from a leather sack. A black stone meant you were to be killed. A red stone meant you had to do the killing.
Zoi: [shivers] Thank goodness you were lucky.
Kunzite: I wasn't lucky… [looks down, shamefaced] I survived because I cheated, of course. I memorized the shapes of all the black stones in the sack.
Zoi: Just the black ones? Not the red ones?
Kunzite: Just the black ones.
Zoi: [squeezes Kunzite] Well…good for you!…But…I…I couldn't have done that. I couldn't have lived like that, watching everyone else die screaming and begging for mercy… I would have made sure to be the first to go.
Kunzite: I wouldn't have let them take you. If you drew a black stone…or even a red one… the lottery would have ended right then and there.
[Zoi cuddles against him and smiles in contentment]
Zoi: I wouldn't have been killed at the lottery. I would have hidden in your room or cave or whatever so you could have me all to yourself.
Kunzite: I could never kill you.
Zoi: I would have made sure I was already dead before you found me.
[kunzite holds Zoi close and trembles a little]
Zoi: Don't be sad. I would have died happy, knowing I was going into your belly, keeping you alive and strong and healthy for that much longer. I can't think of a better fate.
[Zoi looks up at Kunzite adoringly]
Zoi: Would you have eaten me?
Kunzite: I suppose I would have. No sense in letting you go to waste.
Zoi: [sighs happily] You say the nicest things.
Kunzite: [pets his hair] Of course there isn't much meat on you. After the internal organs I'd have to crack your skull open to get at your brain.
Zoi: [cuddles against Kunzite]…and then?
Kunzite: Then I would have cracked your bones apart to get at the marrow.
Zoi: [cuddles against Kunzite]…and then?
Kunzite: Then I would have waited until the next week's lottery and drawn a black stone.