Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Future Past ❯ Chapter Two "Two Princes" ( Chapter 2 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Future Past
by Eternal SailorM
Chapter Two
"Two Princes"
Endymion, the prince of earth, was the only one on the landing platform waiting for him when he finally arrived. The princess had been supposed to be here too, but unless she'd changed drastically since the last time Endymion had spoken to him about her, her limited patience would never have managed to hold out over the unexpected two hour delay.
The prince of earth greeted him with a friendly smile and handshake. He was five years older than Trunks, but he was always nice to him - and he always seemed to be on the Moon. For someone who so narrowly escaped engagement to Princess Serenity, he certainly was around her a lot.
He wasn't able to stand his curiosity long and finally blurted out, "Well, where is she?"
Endymion stopped in the middle of his sentence and asked politely, "Who?"
"Serenity the baka, of course."
"I thought you hated her."
"I do! But, she was supposed to be here, and I was looking forward to insulting her again."
"Last I saw of her, she was in the traning room with Princess Uranus and Princess Neptune."
It seemed as good an opportunity as any to show her up, so he excused himself from Endymion and headed in that direction. His thoughts seemed to dwell on the girl he honestly tried to consider his arch rival. He couldn't help wondering if she'd changed much in the past eight years. Obviously she hadn't even been bothering to wait on him, so apparently she was still angry at him, and that bothered him, and. . .
And he was at the training room. The last time he'd been here, this room had been set up for his father to train, so it had included a lot of weights. Today, though, the floor was cleared, except for some padded mats, and there were three masked fencers.
The tallest pulled off the mask. "Welcome back to the Moon, P -," Princess Uranus began to say. The shorter of the other two placed a hand on her arm before she could finish her sentence and before she could really start her bow. They seemed to communicate silently, and Uranus backed away, picked up her sword, and tossed it to Trunks. She smiled evilly, stating, "Welcome back, Trunks."
The masked fencer went on the attack. She was good, whoever she was, trying her best to work her way through his defenses. "Not bad," he commented aloud. "How long have you been practicing?"
"Three years," Uranus answered for her.
A year less than he had; interesting, he noted. She was quick and fairly skilled, but he was still faster and a bit better. A sword stroke came rather close to his face, close enough for him to actually feel the wind from it, and he retaliated without thought, as he had been trained to. The next flash of a sword, one that she barely dodged, partially sliced open the front of her uniform. Embarrassment immediately rendered him nearly frozen, and she jumped in to press the tip of her sword to his chest, directly over his heart.
Somewhere through all the embarrassment and humiliation, he heard Uranus and Neptune laugh, both of them draping their arms over the other fighter as she lowered her sword and fiddled with her uniform, trying to make it decent again. "Oi, oi, koneko-chan," Uranus joked, "I think that was cheating."
She finally gave up her effort and pulled the mask off. Silvery-blonde hair, several shades lighter than he remembered, tumbled down past her waist and almost to her knees. "It wasn't my intention, you know, Uranus-san."
A man and woman laughed behind him. He turned to see Endymion and the princess of Pluto behind him, his arm slung carelessly around her waist. He knew he should be mad, but right now all he could manage was shock. "You all planned this?"
"Actually," Serenity stated, "they wanted us to just sit down and talk. The sword fight was Endymion's and my idea." She stepped right up to him, a bit closer than he would have really liked, and smiled and asked, "So can we be friends again now, Trunks?"
*****
Amazingly enough, that was all it took. Naturally, of course, though, they could never become friends overnight, not after ten years of being enemies. Nothing so simple could ever happen with those two.
*****
It had been his mother's suggestion that he continue his stay on the Moon, since he and his finacée were getting along so well, she said. Trunks had been there two months before he found out the real reason why: civil war on his father's planet. And it had been two weeks since he'd overheard the news of the war before Queen Serenity called him to the throne room.
Dread filled him as he slowly came to stand before the queen of the Moon. When she beckoned him to come forward, closer to her, he almost paniced and ran. Renity nudged him forward and even moved with him when he did come to stand before her mother.
Queen Serenity seemed to be at a loss on how to say. As she belabored over how exactly to begin, he simply asked, "Is he dead?" Renity grabbed his hand and held it tightly.
The older woman sighed. "They're not sure. He's missing. Gokou-san went to look for him; he left this morning."
Renity looked over at him. "If anyone can find him, Gokou-san can, Trunks" she added hopefully.
"Excuse me," he stated, slipping past the Moon Princess and running back to his room, locking the door behind him.
Half an hour later, someone knocked on his door. "Go away," he demanded as harshly as he could managed.
"It's not going to work this time, Trunks-kun. Let me in, please," Renity answered.
"No. I want to be alone, Renity."
"You may want to be, but you don't need to be."
"Says who?"
He heard her sigh and rest her head against the wood of the door. "Says your friend and the one you're engaged to," she answered wearily. "I will leave if you really want me to, Trunks-kun, but you're going to have to open this door and tell me that to my face. I'll stand here and keep knocking till I start bleeding on your door if I have to, Trunks-kun. I'm not going away this time."
Somehow, he found it odd that he wasn't angry and instead felt a bit relieved that she had insisted. With a sigh of impatience, he got up and went to the door, fully intending on opening it long enough to tell her to her face to leave. The moment he opened it though, she slipped under his arm and into the room. "Get out, Serenity," he stated tiredly as she surveyed his room.
She turned to face him, wearing the most serious expression he'd ever seen on her face. "I can't."
"Why not?"
"Because I'm your finacée and I'm supposed to take care of you," she answered.
"Says who?"
"Says my okaasan and your okaasan." She sat down on his bed, heedless of the mess, and motioned for him to sit beside her. "Come sit down over here, Trunks-kun.Quit standing there with the door open."
A bit numbly, he obeyed her, shutting the door and crossing the room to sit beside her. "Why are you here, Serenity?"
"To. . . talk," she answered slowly. She reached into the folds of her long dress and produced a few pictures, hesitantly holding them out to him. "And I wanted to show you these."
In the pictures, he recognized the girl sitting beside him, younger than she was when they first met, and a smiling, happy Queen Serenity; the man with the long hair and friendly smile, he didn't know. "Who is he?"
"That's my father. I don't remember much about him; he died when I was very young. I remember he smiled a lot and he smelled of nice things, like candy. Kaasan said I used to ride on his shoulders all the time and he used to call me 'Usagi' because of my odangos, but that's all I know about him; Kaasan doesn't like to talk about him anymore. Can you tell me what it's like having a father?"
Somehow he found himself pouring out everything, every detail, he knew about his father to her, talking until his voice grew hoarse. He didn't really remember falling asleep, but he knew he'd always remember how it felt waking up with a still-sleeping Renity wrapped around him. It seemed that she'd fallen asleep sometime after he had and that she'd been crying sometime during the night.
Two weeks later the news came in from Gokou, and it included a note from his mother to come to earth immediately. This time, Renity cried when he left.
::End Chapter Two::
19 November 2000
Yay!!! Done with another chapter! Wow, this one's just moving along so well.
A lot of people have commented on how mean Trunks was in the previous chapter. All I have to say is, they're children!!!! Get over it!