The prince lowered Serenity down on her feet again and they started to gaze at each other with almost literal hearts in their eyes. Truly, Venus could almost see it. She watched them intently as they moved closer and closer to one another, until she heard a branch crack under someone’s foot right behind her. Her instinct kicking in, she turned swiftly and grasped the chain around her waist, already regretting not bringing her sword down here.

But what she saw was a tall white-haired man who was smiling in amusement at her.

“It’s rude to watch, you know,” he said simply.

Venus lowered her hand and scowled at him. “So you are here. Why aren’t you doing your job and keeping the prince where he belongs?”

“I could say the same about you,” he replied, still smiling. “Actually, I am keeping him where he belongs. In case you forgot, we’re on earth. Your moon princess is the one who’s not supposed to be here.”

Venus sighed and looked back at the couple, now entwined so completely she couldn’t tell where one of them ended and the other began. “I should take her home.”

“Why?” Kunzite asked. “You followed her all the way here. You could’ve stopped her at any time and carried her home. Instead you waited until this point. Would you really be so cruel to want to ruin this moment than prevent it from happening at all?”

“Alright! I’ll let them be. But not for too long.” Venus turned away and walked a couple paces deeper into the woods. “Let’s give them some privacy, though I doubt they could even hear us through their love haze.”

Kunzite followed her. Venus found a tree root thick enough to sit on a good distance away that still offered her a good view of the princess, so she settled on it. He chose to remain standing. For a long time, neither of them said anything.

“So… are you going to tell me what you’re really doing?” Kunzite finally asked.

“I’m watching my princess,” Venus said matter-of-factly.

“Right. You’re letting her… do this.”

“So are you.”

“Well, I asked you first.”

She looked up at him with annoyance and took a deep breath before saying, “Fine. I’m… trying to understand.”

“Understand what?”

“This.” Venus waved at the scene before them. The sickeningly sweet scene where the prince was touching the princess’ nose with his own and she was giggling girlishly again.

Later that day, Chiba Mamoru left the locker room dressed in his school clothing, bag in hand yet again, and waved to other members of the soccer team as they broke for home. Practice had gone well, and the team was shaping up nicely; he felt strongly that they could win their next match, so long as the new goalie, Midori, continued to show up for practice. Mamoru had his reservations; the transfer student had long, wavy brown hair and a snarky attitude, and no matter what kind of skill the guy had with blocking the net, if he let that pride get the better of him the team was doomed to fail. … and the way he kept asking about the closest public school and the best place to find girls, Mamoru had an inkling that Midori’s pride and ego might rank higher than the good of the team.

When he got home he had a quick dinner, completed his homework, and read through the required readings for the day, writing down questions as he read and using the material to create an answer. When he finished it was nearly 22:00. He stretched, showered, brushed his teeth and put his pajamas on, then went about his small apartment turning off the lights. Leaving the curtains open to see the beautiful full moon, he climbed into bed, reached over, and shut off his bedroom light. As the lamplight faded suddenly and the moonlight overtook the apartment, Mamoru suddenly found himself face to face with a horse.

The noise he made was one that he had never made before. It was a mix of a scream, a shout, and a grunt, made as he jumped backwards into the wall and the windowsill bit into his spine. Arching in pain, he nevertheless didn’t miss an opportunity to grab the closest thing and toss it in the face of the strange intruder; as the horse stepped back and shook its head to free itself from the pillow, Mamoru tried to launch himself off of his bed and across the room, but was foiled by the sharp pain in his back, and merely stumbled off of his mattress and into his dresser. “Stay ba—“ the word froze in his throat as he spied the long, cruel-looking golden horn on the beast’s head, glinting threateningly in the silver light of the moon. Steadying himself, he grabbed his umbrella and positioned it before him like a sword, then he tried again, “Stay back, Horse, or I swear you’ll be glue by morning!”