Standard disclaimers apply. Another disclaimer needs to be applied to. This has only be very roughly edited but I have not had time to edit it never mind write anything new. So many of you messaged me for more of this story, though, that I thought it was not right to keep a basically written chapter from you. I have started another chapter but this chapter of my life keeps getting in the way. There is more to come, though. Thank you for your support and interest. On that note, I hope you can enjoy it, mistakes and all. I know Ami will ;)

Love,

Goldnhearts

Ami had a hard time not beaming.

Life was so much more than it had been up to now for the water princess.

Ami had always considered herself a fairly content person. She had so much more than most would ever have. She had any luxury she could ask for, a supportive family, friends she would give her life for and who would give theirs for her, a purpose for being, and access to knowledge only known by the few and the great. So it surprised her greatly to feel a sense of giddiness and longing mingled into her daily life.

That was for Minako, Serenity, and Matoko to sigh over, while she and Rei exchanged resigned looks. Yet, Ami suspected that Rei shared her secret curiosity at what made them giggle and sigh. But unlike Rei, it was not something Ami had ever had designs on. Rei had had lovers, had sought out what the other three longed for, like Matoko had, had attempted to find something magic. Only Ami and Minako had been unsuccessful in finding worthy admirers. While Matoko stayed optimist, the unfulfilling pursuits had left Rei something of a cynic when the others discussed love. Ami wondered which camp to join.

Ami, therefore, with the fervor with which she pursued all knowledge, researched the matter. She'd read all the science of the day on the chemicals in attraction, in bonded pairs, in the deviations from the average couples and those deemed soulmates, which researchers could still not understand. When that had not been satisfying, she'd read all the great love stories she could find time for in between training, and, now and then, some of the very bad ones.

She concluded, based on her research, that she was simply not the romantic type.

This last week threw all of that into disarray. She should have known Venus, once she noticed the change in her, would not let up about the anomalous reactions she had to one of the Shitennou. What she had not realized was that the Shitennou did not let up either and was unerringly charming and remarkable.

She'd ridden with him, the day they journeyed back to the capital, to get brought up to speed on their work with the transporter. She'd been surprised to see the tell-tale signs of attraction on his face, and wondered how much of it was mirrored on her own. His pupils dilated when he looked at her, he sought chances and reasons to touch her, helping her from her horse, for example, and he directed his body towards hers at all time, even when not speaking.

Matoko and Minako noticed too, even engrossed as they were with their own flirtations. Minako, who was, to her obvious annoyance, making less headway than Matoko, paid more attention to Ami's interactions with the man.

Ami tried to avoid assessing her own response to him too closely. She knew better than to overanalyze. She'd spent hours with Minako listening to her think herself into love. And it had never done Minako any good to get herself involved with men she had no future with. She remembered a request Minako had made, and got to work.

"General..."

"Zoisite." He corrected quickly, "Just Zoisite, please. We'll be working together for some time. Let's part with formalities."

She smiled, a little flustered. "Alright, Zoisite. Then you may call me just Ami." He nodded in reply "Now, I have a few initial questions."

"Ask away. I'll answer what I can."

"Well, I'm being sent to help you reconstruct you interplanetary transport, correct?"

"Correct."

"Then, will I be seeing much of my fellow Senshi or will we be apart while at the capital?"

"Ah. I believe you'll be able to meet up, most days, for at least dinner. Other meals, we may miss each other. But Endymion likes to have one group meal to catch up with the days progress, so I'm sure you'll see one another. I believe you will be housed near one another too, if I know Kunzite. He's very careful about details like that."

"And what about Rei? Do you think we'll have any contact with her? Endymion told her she would be out of range."

Zoisite hesitated. "I'm not fully briefed on her mission with Jadeite. But I do remember that it is unlikely that they'll be in contact. They're going out to the wilds."

"Zoisite." Endymion called from in front of them.

"I'll see you later." He said briskly, but with a smile, and rode forward to join the king.

Only later proved to be a long time coming. She didn't see him the next day.

Which was fine by her, she told herself. She, like Minako and Matoko, was exhausted from the entire day spent traveling. She spoilt herself with extra hours in bed, something Minako would never allow back on the moon. But then, she noted, Minako had taken the chance to sleep in too. She was sure she'd be told to get to the training grounds here at six the next morning. She wondered if she should remind Minako to ask for the right to use some of their facilities here.

She didn't have to wonder long.

"Gooooooood Morning, Ami, my lovely friend!" Minako said, dancing into the room.

"Good morning, Minako." Ami said, wondering to what she owed the energy of the greeting. Matoko strolled in a few steps and a few levels of intensity behind Minako.

"Morning." Matoko smiled, rolling her eyes at Minako.

Ami smiled back, "Morning, Matoko."

"So, Ami, what info do you have on Rei? Did Zoisite give up anything good?"

"No. He looked a little uncomfortable when he talked about it. Said that he did not have full information."

Minako frowned slightly. "Well, I know she's okay. She tugged on our bond last night. She was well. Tired, but well. And a little bitter."

They nodded at one another, silence slipping in.

"So..." Matoko started, "Why are you so happy, Minako? You were in your room all last night. And does anyone else feel a little off to be so sedentary?"

"I know what you mean." Ami said, stretching, "Out with it, Minako, you'll tell us anyways."

Minako just smiled, "I just have a feeling I'm going to make progress today. I can just feel it!"

Matoko smiled, "And hopefully you will feel it. I would laugh till I peed if his is small. Just because there has been so much hype from you."

Minako waved her off. "It will be amazing. I'm me."

Ami sat up straighter as something delightful caught her attention. "Oh, sweet Selene. They sent us coffee."

"And hopefully breakfast." Matoko said with glee, opening the door when the knock arrived, "How you could tell at that distance that coffee was coming is just frightening to me, Ami. Frightening."

She explored with the other two that day, trying to get the lay of the land. The palace's construction differed from the moon's. It was built in square, with concentric squares, each bigger then the last, like boxes stacked in boxes. It was terraced on a hill, so that the inner most square was the highest in height, and the other descended down from there, so that each level got maximum light. The inner most square was for the monarch and their immediate family alone, and from there out the tier in which you dwelled was assigned by rank.

They had been assigned to the third tier, quite an honor, they overheard the maids chattering about curiously. Apperantly their identities were not public information.

The Shitennou occupied the tier above theirs, which Ami noted was more for protection than for rank. Ami seemed to remember the highest guard or generals being in the third tier when she'd read reports by former senshi reconnaissance on the palace. She imagined that when the royal family had been bigger, other wives and lower ranked children would have lived in the second tier. She supposed it made more sense to have the guard closer to the monarch than to hold ceremony and have an empty tier between the king and his protectors. It was certainly what she would have advised Minako and the Queen to do, had they been in the same position.

There in the third tier, as in the rest of the palace, the scars of the recent wars could be seen. The grounds were still in rough condition, clearly lower on the list of priorities than the buildings themselves. Those too, especially in the middle tiers which were sparsely inhabited, whereas the lower tiers, where soldiers and civil servants lived, were very well maintained. Matoko nodded her approval.

"Always keep your troops happy. Or you won't have any and you won't have a head!"

They missed lunch, wandering through the maze of a structure, and were found by a rather frantic servant to have dinner with Endymion. They hastily followed the older woman.

"I'm sorry, I should have found you sooner. His Majesty has very strict rules about dinner." They shared a look of speculation, but went to the quiet, rather formal dinner with the Shitennou. Zoisite smiled at her when she entered, but did not otherwise engage her. Instead, she found herself seated next to Kunzite, having a surprisingly animated conversation, considering what Minako said of his personality, about the merits of novelty magic for safe defense against non-magical attackers. Minako shot her a violently jealous look as she flounced out of the room, and did not visit that night. So rest of the night Ami devoted to starting an initial sketch of the palace's structure and their purposes to update the old maps.

The third day, Zoicite showed her around the castle, and she stored the information he gave her, noting the names and purposes of the structures they'd passed yesterday. She spent most of the night with the others drawing out diagrams of the place, and making out her newly collected information. She also took down Matoko's new information on troop strength and Minako's frustrated notes on the new Terrian justice system, the rebuilding of the city, figures on troop recruitment. Minako whined about being treated like the lowest visiting dignitary, being led through to hem and haw at all their achievements.

"I was supposed to be used for my talents. Why doesn't he discuss strategy with me? Why aren't I in contact with Endymion about the moon's stability in light of this war? Why am I being bored out of my mind?"

"You wouldn't be so bothered by it if you thought Kunzite was appreciating you more." Matoko commented, laughing at the expression of disdain on Minako's face. Ami smothered her laugh, in favor of hearing the comeback, and leaned against the table where she'd stood drawing the map.

"Yes, well, he will. Just because Nephrite is already falling at your feet." Minako huffed.

"He is, isn't he. My god, his body is perfect. My day got so much better when he decided to take his shirt off." She murmured dreamily, eyes closed as though focusing on the image. "The beads of sweat made me want lick-"

"That's it!" Minako said loudly, heaving herself off Ami's bed. "I'm going to go see that ass and tell him I'm done being treated like I'm useless."

"Minako!" Ami said, a little taken-a-back by the swiftness of the decision and more than a little alarmed at the potential consequences.

Matoko reached out, stopping her from going after Minako. "It's inevitable. She's won't be content until this is settled. They have that kind of connection." Then she stood, kissed Ami on the temple, and left her thinking on inevitability and green eyes.

The fourth day, they got to work.

He led her to the room where controls for the whole of defense for the capital had once been kept. The room had of late only been inhabited by him, an assistant, and frustration.

Ami took in the state of the once massive chamber. At least twelve had worked in here at all times from the look of the various stations. Monitors for keeping up surveillance, a transporter, the machinery holding in place the energy barrier on the city, all of it would have once been a part of this room. To see it empty gave her an eerie feeling of disquiet. She tried to shake the feeling off, but it lingered with her in the room.

"This is what I have been working on restoring." Zoisite gesture to the transporter. It was, she noted, the standard model employed by all the planetary royal houses.

"I'm familiar with the technology. Have you identified the problem?"

"I've been working on getting the necessary parts." His face showed a strain that concerned her. He buried it quickly, smiling softy at her. "But there seems to be damage beyond the machinery. I would love having another opinion."

"I'd be happy to." Ami moved quickly, sliding into the crawl space beneath the machine with a comfort and ease which astonished him.

He sat back at the chair beside the control panel and watched her periodically tighten a bolt, tut at a sloppy repair, or run a scan of some component part. He found it increasingly difficult to focus on the few comments she threw out, most about the salvageable pieces, as her shirt grew increasingly damp against her skin, allowing him a better view of the sinues of her muscles, the planes of her stomach and hips, the rise of her breasts. He lost focus completely as he watched the sporadic beads of sweat from her elevated neck creep down her skin, slipping beneath the fabric of her light colored top.

Ami dusted her hands on her shirt, oblivious to Zoisite's rapt gaze. "Who last controlled the capital?"

He blinked, trying to recover use of his jaw, "Why?"

"Because whoever did shorted the system accidentally by trying to operate it on a non-compatible energy source. This was built to run on the positive magnetic force of your planet's poles. It looks like someone tried to crudely force it to fun on some alternate current."

"What type of power source?"

She sat up, entering information into her computer quickly. "I don't recognize it. I'll send away to the full moon archives for a match. Until then, you guess is just as good as mine. Better, even, since you know your planet better."

Zoisite sighed, stretching out to his full length. "Well, at least the problem is less asinine than the one I was having trying to replicate parts to fix it. At least there is a good reason it's not working." He offered her a hand up, which she accepted.

"Asinine?"

Zoisite smiled wryly, rubbing the back of his neck with one hand. "This is ridiculous; you'd have every right not to believe me except that in this case it's true. The reason why I moved to the capital to work on this machine instead of working on it from my own home, where all of my equipment is, was because the pieces kept getting stolen by the local vigilante monkey gang. With all my replacement parts gone, I had no choice but to return here and work on fixing the parts I already had."

Ami smiled and nodded. She noted then he looked at her strangely, as though waiting from some reaction. She scanned her mind, trying to place the word 'monkey' in her fairly through mental record. She came up blank. It had to be some group created after the revolution. But then why did he look at her like she should know what he was talking about? She entered it into a search quickly, making it look like she was taking final notes. No records.

"Well," Zoisite began, "We'd better go back up. I've kept you too long. Let me have dinner sent you your room so you can rest."

But Ami, being Ami, was not about to let this drop. "Not at all. I can have dinner with the others in the main hall. Won't you walk with me?"

"You don't wish to get changed?" He asked, for his own sake, but it came out more hesitant than he'd intended, since he was rather pleased at her request.

"I'm fine. Matoko and Nephrite come in every day in worse shape. I'm sure no one will think the worse for it. Unless you think I really should." She looked up at him, wondering if she looked the bad.

"No, no." He answered quickly. "I just thought you'd be more comfortable. But if you'd like it, I would love to walk with you to dinner. The others should be back by now." He offered his arm, even though the heat and bare skin made the gesture impractical.

She took it, all the same. "So tell me," She asked as they passed the first bend in the path back up the the living quarters of the palace. "How did these 'monkeys' undermine your mission?"

He grimaced. "Ah, I didn't think you'd let that go. You're kind not to laugh. Everyone else did. Well, they're horrible creatures by nature, I'm sure of it. They have about the same effect on my projects as Nephrite. They come in, get curious, poke around, and things inevitably break or go missing following their visit. I lost nearly all of my supplied with which to build a new transporter to them. Just the monkeys, not Nephrite."

She smiled widely, but her mind was processing. Creatures? They were some sort of animal then? "And they always tinker in your work space?"

He nodded solemnly. "The battle rages on. I'm still looking over my shoulder. You have anything like that? Something which always evades you."

Ami's eyes darkened. "Yes." Her voice filled with scorn.

He looked at her in amazement. Her features were hard as the ice she controlled, and just as fragile. "May I ask what irks you so, lady?"

She looked up at him, and then looked away, biting her lip slightly. "No, it's silly really." He coaxed and assured her of his interest until at length she mumbled a single word reply.

"I'm sorry, I missed that."

She frowned, blushed, answered a little more audibly, "Gardening."

Zoisite was sure he'd heard her wrong. "Gardening, Ami?"

She nodded solemnly, "Yes. I never seem to get the hang of it. I love flowers, and ferns- oh, I adore the ferns that Matoko keeps in her private garden! They come in the most beautiful shades of gold, red, and green. But I can never grow them myself."

Zoisite fought back a smile. Of all the things to covet, she coveted plants. "You tried?"

"And failed miserably. Matoko makes it look so easy. She saw me admiring them, and potted me a few of her cuttings. They grew beautifully for a few weeks, but the artificial light in my room, made to mimic the light back home, doesn't give them enough light. They died. I tried to start a few cuttings myself, so Matoko wouldn't know I killed them."

Zoisite coughed a laugh at the image of Ami stealing into Matoko's gardens and running off into the night with handfuls of ferns. She looked at him, a certain sharpness about her normally soft features, as though she was used to such treatment, and did not believe his cough, not for a second. "I'm sorry. Please, go on."

"Well," Ami began slowly, a little sullenly, "I tried to grow them in my office, where the light was better. Still no luck. I tried a patch of the palace garden, out of the way, where Matoko wouldn't see. But it just didn't work. It's so frustrating to have no ability what so ever with plants."

Zoisite smiled at the idea it gave him. "You'd like my home, then, it's very green. Very easy to grow things there. Different from the capital. Beautiful flora."

Her eyes shone with a greedy, child-like excitement, "Oh, could we go?" She asked before she could stop, think about it, or be ashamed at seeking an invite. The shame hit her almost instantly, and she flushed, unused to being comfortable enough with any acquaintance to be anything less than textbook polite, never mind accidentally rude. "I'm sorry. I got ahead of myself. Don't think you have any obligation do anything as ludicrously familiar as to take me home with you."

His mind raced at the implications. "Oh, I'd love to take you home with me. I'm sure we can spare a few days, if you'd like, while the moon archives are being scanned. We can't do much till then, can we?"

She protested further about how she was rude to even request it, while Zoisite admittily maintained that he would be honored to show he his home and that she would be rude to refuse so many offers from him.

She thought for a moment as they turned the corner into the dinning hall. "Are sure there is nothing else you could use my help with?"

"Anything else would be beneath you talents, I assure you. We have others who can work on it. How much do you know about the earth's topography?" He asked, pulling out her chair for her.

"Too little, I'm afraid. I'm aware of variation in species and climate by continent, but I'd love to know more of the details."

They spent dinner in easy conversation.

Ami was walking so light she barely registered the blackness of the mood in the sitting room connecting the three suites of rooms.

"You two looked cosy." Matoko said, with a certain satisfaction.

Ami blushed lightly. "He's being very kind, trying to make me feel at ease. It makes it much easier to work."

"That's all? I haven't seen you glow like this, well, ever."

"I'm just excited about getting out for a bit tomorrow. He promised to show me his homeland. We'll be gone for three days. I thought I should let you know." She directed this more to Minako, who had been sitting in a stunned silence this whole time.

Minako's head snapped up, "Three days?"

Ami's head lowered at the tone, so accusatory. "Yes. It will take a day to get there, a day there, a day to get back."

"How is this him working on the transporter?"

"We have a few days before I get back the results I need from the Moon. I can't do anything till then. So, he said he'd show me another climate, his homeland."

"That's all well and good, so they get another of us off alone, separated from the others. I'm already worried about Rei."

"Minako," Matoko said firmly but kindly, "I know you're reeling right now, but she'll be fine. Both of them will be fine. It's natural to feel a little out of sorts."

Ami looked to Minako, whose face turned, so she only caught her profile. "Are you okay, Mi?"

Minako shook her head once and stood. Matoko stood with her, a distinctly protective expression on her face. Minako looked at her. "If I wanted to talk about, I would have told you I changed my mind. I haven't." She turned to Ami. "Be safe, please."

She was alone as they both left, Matoko flying after Minako without a word. It was then that Ami registered the bruises on Minako's neck and arms, and her absence at dinner.

Her guilt and anxiety ate at her all night.

She up with the sun the next morning, having not slept well. Her feelings about Minako were so at odds with the excitement she felt. He was at her door with a tray when she was barely dressed and certainly not emotionally settled.

"I rather hoped to catch you undressed; it's why I came so early. But I see you beat me to it." He smiled at her lazily.

She smiled softly. "I'm only letting you in because you have coffee." She quipped, voice light, opening the door wider to admit him.

"A fellow addict?"

She nodded, "Naturally." She took his offered cup with relish. "You're good to me, even if it was for unsavory ends."

He sat down across from her, feet up on the side of the chair. "So, you packed and ready to go?"

She nodded again, speech always too difficult in the mornings. "How are we traveling?"

"Oh, I have a little trick. It'll get us there faster, but we'll be exhausted or the rest of the day. That's why I thought we needed three days to make this happen. Ready?"

She set down her coffee cup, now empty. "As I'll ever be." She took his offered arm.

"It's a breeze. Just, don't think about it, and hold on. We'll be there in no time. Get ready."

"From here, I don't understand."

"You will."

She did.

She woke up the lamp light of a warm room. Someone was humming in the corner.

"Ah, you're awake." The humming had stopped, and she realized it must have been Zoicite. "That was easier than I expected. We're usually down for a whole day when we try to transport someone other than ourselves. It must be your power lending itself to the process."

"What do you mean, it's evening already." She looked distressed, "We've lost the whole day."

"Not at all." He smiled on her. "You've only been out a couple of hours. The time is different here than it is back at the capital. It has to do with the way the sun travels. It's night here while it is day where we just left. It will be morning here soon. We'll arrive very late day after tomorrow, when we return to the capital. Come, let me show you the house. We'll see the grounds and the jungle when there's light."

She stood from the low couch she'd been resting on, still a little shaky, and followed him out of what must have been a study, the walls paneled in books, the walls and furniture in carved dark wood, bright teal, with red touches and accents.

She followed into the open hallway, the warm, damp night air flowing in between the long sheaths of teal silk which hung from the open sides of the of the passageway. The light shone in gold, red, and teal from the hanging glass lanterns which were hung everywhere. She could see the boundaries of the compound by where the light stopped. Beyond that was darkness so profound she had never seen its equal, except in the expanses of the deep sea.

"Come on, lovely. This is the east corner of the place. It's where I do most of my paperwork, reading, that sort of thing. Over there," He pointed to the opposite hall, across the wide courtyard. "In the west corner, Are the guest rooms. I've had your things put there." He took her hand, leading her along.

"There is so much color. It's beautiful." She reached up, toying with the silk hangings as they walked. Her time on the moon seemed to be skewing her view.

"Wait till the sun comes up, if you think this is something." He beamed at her, glad to find a way to please her. "Like I said, you'll love it."

"This is the north side, where I keep my workshop. You can see where I've had such trouble." He lead her into the room, flicking on the lights with a snap, the candles catching all at once.

"It's so open air." She said, walking in, thinking of her own tightly, clinically contained space. And how different it was, this large, sunlight-ceilinged room.

She suddenly heard him curse and frantically begin smacking at his leg.

"Stupid..." He smacked at it again. "Watch where you step. I hate it when my maid leaves the windows open at night in here."

Ami felt a movement on her arm, where it rested against a table. She pulled up her arm, and came eye to eye with a strange blue-green insect whose wings flickered at her when she got too close. She remembered something, and smiled, understanding. "Ah, monkeys! These do look like they would be bothersome, flying all over, crawling into things. But how do they carry away your two-inch twisted bolts. They don't look strong enough." She looked up at him curiously.

Zoisite stood very still for a few seconds, trying to process what she meant. It was worse when it clicked. "You...you think these are monkeys." He more stated than said, his voice very calm, just the faintest hint of shocked disbelief noticeable in his slow words.

She paused, her face showing a wide-eyed trust. "They aren't?"

Zoisite laughed sporadically for the next hour but refused to explain as he gestured to the rising sun and led her to the east again to watch it rise.

Zoicite was right. She did love his home. The gardens and the jungle beyond were so alive. The heat seemed to make time move slowly, and the sun always seemed high, the shadows short.

They were lazy, walking through the dense jungle, examining the flowers she'd never seen before. He was patient, letting her linger to sketch one orchid in particular, grabbing down fruit from a nearby branch, making himself comfortable, leaning against the trunk of a high tree. When she'd finished, he took her to what he imagined would be her favorite spot.

Around the back of the compound they went, to the base of the mountain, where a small, bright green pool of water shone.

"Join me?" He asked. Pulling off his shirt, stepping in in his linen pants.

She looked down at her dress, which was made of layers of very light cotton gauze, as all the moon's gowns were. She knew what happened when they got wet. They were not only see, through, they got heavy. The worst possible choice for swimming.

"Come on, it's your element right. Show me what you've got." He raised his hands out, in the universal gesture of challenge

Ami raised an eyebrow. She hated to admit it, but nothing brought out the worst in her like competition. "If you insist." She stood next to him. "To the other shore and back?"

"That's a long way, you sure?" He asked.

She nodded, "I think I can make it."

"On three. One. Two. Three." He was trailing behind her in no time, even thought the dress took down her speed by at least a fourth. She waited by the shore they'd took off from as he reached her, his expression amazed.

"I'll never challenge you again, Ami. I've learned. Could have told me you were the best in the universe."

"I'm not. Neptune can take me, if I'm off even a little. We're matched." He sat at her side, too close, she thought for a moment. She found herself leaning closer. He reached an arm out behind her, leaning on it, but not touching her. He noticed the wistful way she looked at the water.

"I should get us lunch. Or, well early dinner. You must be starving." He waved her off as she tried to stand. "Stay, swim. It calls to you, I can see it in your eyes. I understand." She thought to protest, but warm water was always a draw.

When he returned, carrying the tray himself, she was in furious laps back and forth across the pool. She was stunning: bright limbs, pale and perfect in the water, her hair that unearthly shade of blue, the same as her eyes, which though he could not see them now, he remembered the color of perfectly. She stopped at the end of this lap, looking up at him, not exactly smiling, eyes bright, a challenge. He'd never seen anything he wanted to prove himself to more, short of Endymion. She grabbed the gauze pile at the water's edge, holding it to her chest as she reached the edge of the water. He was amazed he hadn't noticed she was nude before.

"It was impossible to move in, and a sheer as if I wore nothing." She justified it. "But I'm afraid I won't be able to get out to join you. That doesn't look comfortable to sit on like this."

He thought for a moment. "Tie that on and swim to meet me at the dock's end, you'll be covered there still but I can hand you food."

She looked at him, expression uncertain, but followed his instructions. He met her at the end, offering her pieces of deep orange fruit, bites of a small fish, sips of a liquor which tastes exactly like honey, honey which turned to fire in your throat. "That's good. Serenity would like it. Sweet." She drank more from the cup he'd handed her.

"Easy now. It's potent too." Ami laughed.

"Then she'd love it." Ami began to flush before his eyes, and he noted that it suited her nicely. She tipped her head into the cool water and the image it gave him of her flushed and writhing beneath him was so clear that he gasped and turned away. "Everything okay?"

"Fine."

Ami drained the cup, sitting it back on the dock, turned her back to him, tossing her gown onto the dock beside him, diving back in. Zoisite had a very bad feeling about this. It was then that he heard it.

"Oh god. No. Not now." He stood, rushing to to put the tray inside the small room at the end of the dock, connected to the main house by another long corridor of pillars and silk, hoping that they would follow the tray of food and leave the couple alone.

"Zoisite?" He turned to see her, aghast face, point at the dock. Sure enough, at the end, three monkeys had descended on some fruit he'd dropped as he rushed away. What worried him more was that they had picked up his discarded shirt and her dress.

"DAMN MONKEYS!" He screamed, the endless frustration they caused him peaking, running after them as they swung, mocking him he was sure, into the tree and out of sight. Ami laughed at him openly.

"Oh, so that's a monkey. Quite troublesome. I see your point entirely. Oh well, it's no problem, I'll just borrow some of that." He froze, unable to look away, though he knew he should have, when she walked past him as if it were nothing. He made a vague effort of covering herself with an arm and a hand on her way past him reaching for one of the silk pieces hung between the pillars. She wrapped it around herself. "There. Decent."

Zoisite shifted uncomfortably, taking a seat on one of the benches lining the corridor. This was getting unbearable. Decent! The wet silk did nothing to hide her hard nipples or the movement of her thighs. And she said decent. She was doing this on purpose. That had to be it. No, no one could be as depraved as Jadeite.

"I should go get a change of clothes."

Zoisite thanked his lucky stars, until she walked past him, and slipped into his lap.

"Oh. I'm sorry about that." She reached for the silk, which had slipped, blushing. She pulled it back up, and moved to pull herself back up. Zoisite hissed painfully and Ami started. "What's wrong?"

He looked at her in disbelief. This was too much. She was the worst tease he'd ever encountered. She had to know where her hands were, but she kept looking at him in a tipsy innocence. "Nothing. Nothing. Here let me help you." He lifted her, setting her on her feet, keeping on arm around her waist since she was slightly wobbly.

She smiled up at him sweetly. "Thank you." She cocked her head coquettishly, and pursed her lips. "Hm."

Zoisite couldn't help but ask; he was enchanted. "What is, lovely one?"

"You're really pretty beautiful. Do you know that?" Zoisite felt the familiar comeback in his throat, to whenever he was called bitch-pretty by Jadeite, but he stopped himself. There was nothing malicious here.

"You find me beautiful?" She nodded up at him. He angled her so that she was facing him now. Her skin seemed to shine from the inside. "You're pretty beautiful too."

She blushed again. but did not look away.

"I'd like to kiss you." He said, already moving one hand to the small of her back, the other to her jaw. To his amusement, she pursed her lips again, brow furrowed.

"I think I'd like that too." She said, voice slightly amazed. He smiled at her reaction, and obliged.

He touched her gently, knuckles brushing her back, as his lips encouraged hers. Quickly, she began respond. Her lips met his, as he set up a playful rhythm, soft slow kisses, light brushes of their lips, dipping to kiss below her ear, tracing the line of her jaw with his lips, and back again to her lips.

Ami found her body thought it was too playful. Her hands were rooming, sliding down his waist, running back and forth against the lines of his hipbones.

Zoisite shuddered. It was slow, delicious agony. He pulled her closer, wanting to gage her reaction to this getting serious.

Ami stilled. Not a light haze of alcohol, a heavy haze of lust, or her own innocence could make her mistake that he wanted her, not when the evidence was hard against her hip. She pulled back to look at him.

Zoisite saw her hesitation and it cleared his mind, enough. "Not tonight, love. Not when you've been drinking. I want you to know you want this, stone cold sober. I want you that way. Just know that. Let me get you back to your room now." He picked her up, figuring it faster, and carried her back.

She didn't argue. Her mind was reeling and fluffy feeling, like it had been replaced with candy floss while her attention was, well, diverted. So much for being unromantic.

The next day, she awoke in the room adjoining his, cuddling a pillow, an arm and leg hooked around it, smiling to herself. She was grateful for the distance from the Senshi who would have given her hell about it, if they'd woken her in such a state. Especially if they known about yesterday.

Yesterday. Ami rolled onto her back, staring at the ceiling. She wondered if he'd let it go, if he'd be awkward, if she could avoid being the same. She didn't have much time to consider it because a maid was bringing her breakfast.

It was still fairly early here, she guessed from the play of the light. It would be noon or so back in the capital. She wondered how the others were. Her anxiety about Minako hit her like knife in the back, sudden and full of fury. Her original guilt at having not noticed her wounds was dwarfed by her guilt at having forgotten it in her contentment.

She stood at the balcony, taking in the beautiful expanse of green, with flashes of hot colors. She was hit with another rush of sadness when she realized she would miss this, back on the moon. She wondered if there this would all seem like a dream, insubstantial, unreal. She wondered if they'd ever have a chance to come back, ever have a chance to be like this again. She didn't feel good about the odds.

When she knocked on the door to his room, her mood was heavy as the oppressive air that had driven them to the water the day before.

"Enter." She opened the door and noticed his bedroom had the a softer color scheme than the rest of the house, more white, blue, and green. She told herself to ask him about that, someday.

"Ah, Ami," He said standing, "Awake already. I hoped you would be. We have a few hours yet before I should get us back to the capital. I'd like you to do something with me before we go."

She loved that he gave her no time to brood or be awkward. It just wasn't their dynamic, as Matoko would say.

She followed him down to from his room, down the winding stone steps out to the other side of the gardens they'd been in yesterday. She looked at it, surprised at the bare dirt.

"I thought you might like to have a place to have that garden." He said it easily, simply, rolling up a sleeve on his light cotton shirt. "Well, are you going to give me a hand. I didn't know what you might like, so, I have some options. Some ferns I thought you particularly might like."

Ami bit back the tears which were forming and nodded, and focused entirely on picking out specimens.

They spent the day in quiet, laying out the plants, ferns and flowers in blues and golds mostly, in patterns of circles and arches. When they finished, it was well past noon. Ami sat on a bench in the newly planted space.

"Thank you, You don't know what this means to me." She said, voice heavy with emotion. He kneeled in front of her.

"No, I don't think you know what this means to me, Ami." She looked at him, questioning. "Listen, Ami. I want you to know that you mean something to me. I don't do this for just anyone. I'm not that generous. This garden is a lure, a promise, a common interest, a meeting place. It's my way of making you a piece of my home. It's my way of saying, this does not end here. This is going somewhere. Let it." She was silent, thinking it over. He sighed, but did not comment on it again.

He offered her his hand, and they were off, back to the capital.

Ami awoke the next day very early, before the sun rose, her internal clock all off from the time away and the time passed out after the return trip. She had no idea how long she'd been out or asleep.

She'd gone to see Minako and Matoko, but neither had answered.

Unnerved, she threw herself into her work, unwilling and unsure of how to respond to his demand that she decide what happened between them and to the absence of her sisters. Lucky for her, there was plenty to go over, newly sent from the moon's archives.

The energy they'd encountered matched nothing in the records exactly. She could only find three possible similarities. One was a reference to some organic material left in the aftermath of the dark moon uprising in the time of the founding of the current dynasty, when the first Serenity had used her magic to clear the white moon of the traces of evil left behind by the enemy.

The second was less useful, it just referred to a magical residue, in general, found in the aftermath of trauma to the energy of the land.

The third gave her pause. It referred to a profile left by the last Mars, an aunt of Rei's, who had spent a great deal of her time as priestess feeling compelled to study possession and control by external entities. It was the story of a woman Mars had taken down, a Plutonian, who had been exhibiting strange behavior and had to be exorcised. Her body showed the same traces of energy seen on the machinery.

She went to find Zoisite. She needed to check the Earth's records for similar stories. She asked one of the maids where he would likely be. They directed her a tier up, to his office, on the south wing, naturally.

She located the room easily, but was surprised by the sterility of the wing compared with his home. She knocked tenuously.

"Ah, Ami." He said, expression undeniably pleased. "I an beginning to be able to tell when it's you by the way you knock, or that you do knock, I should say. No one else is as worried about disturbing me. Come in and tell me to what I owe the honor."

"Well," The room was so white and cold, she frowned. "I need to see you archives here. I want to se if you have any matches to what the moon has seen with energy anomalies like this."

"Are you alright?" He asked, taking her hand. She swung to face him.

"Oh, yes, it's just." She blushed, "It's stupid, but the room. It's so..."

"Kunzite?" He smiled, "Yes, well, this is all a little new. No one has had time or the motivation to personalize it. Now, shall I show you to the records. I can't guarantee they're complete, not after the last king's reign. Things, well, got unorthodox."

He showed her to the fourth level and opened a nondescript little door and let her into the high ceilinged room, columns of floor to ceiling drawers.

"You want help?" She took a deep breath and nodded.

"Sure. I want records of possession, and I believe you call it demonic possession. Especially of important figures."

He eyed her strangely. "I'm trusting you on this, but I admit my doubts as to what this can yield. You could start here, palace history. I'll take the more general healer records for the city."

Ami dug right in. It seems there was rather a history of second sons going mad and being accused of possession. But she had a feeling that may have been just a convenient excuse for putting the dangerous spare heir somewhere where the could always be monitored than legitimate proof of possession. She wondered about a reference to sending them to Elysian to keep them sane.

She was midway through the records of the rule of Julian the fourth when she ran across a very unofficial looking document. It looked like a journal, a silk-covered journal, had been shoved haphazardly into the drawer. It looked younger than most of the records. She looked at Zoisite pouring over the last two centuries of records before opening it.

She nearly chocked when she read the opening not, hastily scribbled into the page.

"This is the account of my life and death, Ava, Queen of the Earth, wife of Theseus, given to my loyal maid to be put in the records. It you're reading this, one of my ladies has killed me and I seek vindication."

Ami nearly slammed it shut, glancing at the oblivious Zoisite. Then she did what she always did, she dug in. She flipped through the childish early writings, accounts of picnics with her father, squabbles with her elder brothers. She read through her ascension to the throne with particular interest. The story of almost lost love causing her heart rate to accelerate.

Ami felt a sense of panic rising in her as Ava recounted how in her shyness, the king had mistaken her nerves for indifference and had almost chosen an rival for his wife. She blushed when she read how Ava took matters into her own hands, waiting for him in his rooms naked, asking if she looked indifferent, recording that after,

"I could not believe how little effort it took on my part, except getting up the courage to walk over from the bath and drop my robe to confirm both of our feelings. After that, it had all been him, and my beloved professed his love in numerous ways..."

Ami did close it at that, slipping it into her gown, feeling flushed after her eyes skimmed ahead. Later, she promised herself, she'd pick up there.

But for now, for some reason, all she could see was him, hand twisted in his dark bronze hair, loosely tired back. She wondered what it would be like to get tied it in herself. She felt the familiar desire to run from feeling this rawly, this vulnerable. But Ava's story was too timely, too frightening for her to forget. She made a decision.

"Zoisite." He looked up, distant still, in his work. "I'm tired and I haven't seen the other senshi yet. Shall I find you later to finish here? Maybe after dinner?"

He stood stretching out his neck, "Ami, that sounds perfect. Can I walk you back to your rooms?"

"No, I think I should head to Minako's room instead." She noticed his smile faulter. "What was that about?"

He put a hand to the back of his neck, "You haven't seen anyone else since being back, have you?" He nodded, his eyebrows raising as he looked away, "Then I think you should be seeing your ladies now."

He kissed her hand gently and left her. Ami let the door slide shut before she took off in a run in the toward Minako's room.

Ami waited in the room for Minako to return. Matoko came in first, tension written all over her features.

"Thank goddess you're back." She sat down next to her, leaning her head back against the couch. Ami noted she looked much more manicured and cleaned-up than she had been looking before she left.

"Not training today?" Matoko looked up at her.

"No. We have found a problem. Minako has been taking care of it at Kunzite's bequest. I have been helping her rather than working with the troops."

"Is it serious?" Matoko tipped her head back and forth, pursing her lips.

"Maybe. Not for us, not as far as we've seen. But it could be fore the Terrians. It's been a trying few days for everyone."

"And Minako, how is she?"

"Better, I think. This is all new to her and her confidence about such things is low. He is not an easy man to love, either. And he takes to his relations with her unconventionally. I'm just waiting for the council to get involved after the oracle."

"The oracle!" Ami said slightly panicked. "When?"

"Yesterday. You missed all the excitement."

"They were found worthy?"

"Yes. Minako spoke truly about her feelings. It should give Rei some comfort to know the oracle blessed it." Ami just nodded in reply, slightly stunned. It was all happening too quickly.

"And you? How are you, Matoko?"

"Strangely happy despite it all. Nephrite and I are beginning to understand each other. He's a very generous lover." Matoko's smile was not gloating or dreamy as Ami was used to. It held a calm contentment which put Ami at ease.

"And you?"

"Yes, and you, Ami?" Minako's rich voice flooded the room.

Ami looked at her hungrily, but saw none of the bruises she'd seen earlier.

"I'm concerned about you, Minako." Ami said shortly.

"I'm well. As you can see." And Minako, who always seemed to glow in her beauty really did shine more brightly now, though not in the contented way Matoko did. "My, my, look at you Ami. Just look at you! Someone has been treated well. Your eyes are all glowy. But you're so tense too! Like you're hiding something...did you sleep with him?"

Ami looked at Minako incredulously. When she'd last left her, she'd raged at Ami for getting too close to the general, and now all Minako was doing was teasing her? "No, Minako. I did not sleep with him. You warned me to be on guard."

"Oh Ami," Minako waved her off, sitting on the coffee table in front of the two women on the couch. "You know better than to take me that seriously when I'm angry."

Ami did not tell her that she hadn't really taken her that seriously, just that she hadn't slept with him yet. Yet. The very word surprised her, but she knew what was coming. She felt the pressure of her own feelings and of a warning from the past circling around her, pushing her forward to a certain end.

"I will remember, Minako." Minako looked at her closely.

"You're falling for him." She said simply, holding Ami's eyes. "That makes three of us. I'll have to count on Rei to hold out. So are you going to sleep with him."

"Do I have to answer that, commander? Or am I allowed to keep somethings private?"

Minako raised her hands in a gesture of submission. "Of course, of course. You don't have to get so cold about it Ami. Though I do respect you becoming such a romantic about it that you won't share what goes on between you two even with your friends. Good luck, my sister. Go with my blessing." She kissed Ami's head gently. Ami smiled back; Minako's blessing was indeed always welcome. "Dinner?"

Dinner was an altogether warmer affair than Ami remembered. Everyone had paired off, leaving Endymion with an amused, slightly amazed expression on his face as he watched the three couples. Ami felt herself blush when he turned his attention away from the scorching, silent tension between Minako and Kunzite and the playful tentative banter between Nephrite and Matoko, the former appearing to be trying to win the latter's favor, to look at Zoisite's undivided focus on her.

Her heart was beating too fast as they leaned into one another, mostly talking business, some back and forth teasing, monkeys and silk.

After dessert was served, Endymion asked the generals to meet him before seven, and left the table first. Ami took a moment to observe the silent agreement pass between the other two couples to meet on another later and looked to Zoisite. He smiled at her expectantly.

"We should be done by nine. Would you like to come up and talk or can I come bother you?" Ami smiled at his presumption.

"I'll find you." She said smoothly, her confidence rising. He smiled at her, looking up at the room. The others had left. He smoothly pulled her up from her chair and kissed her roughly on the lips. Ami pulled back after a few moments seeking his eyes. He smiled slightly sheepishly.

"Wanted to do that all day. See you tonight."

Ami took a bath with Ava's diary, half expecting a summons from Minako. None came.

Instead, she delved into the rather raunchy records of Ava's early marriage, and the birth of her first son. It kept her distracted as she went about dressing her hair and putting on make-up, carefully ignoring the fact that she was not changing out of the dressing gown she'd been sent with her other things from the Queen.

She inspected her work and left the room. Her heart beat spiked erratically at the sounds in the hall, so sure at any moment she'd get caught. She hardly breathed before she turned the corner onto his wing. She knocked lightly.

"Come in, Ami." Zoisite's voice called. She took a deep breath and entered. He didn't appear immediately. His voice called from the next room. "I'll be right there. I'm just picking up some files Endymion asked me to review again about the incidents with the soldiers. Make yourself at home."

He came out, head buried in the file.

"So strange! The men have complete background with credentials. I don't see any sigh of them being forged. I don't understand it. It-" He looked up to see her sitting there in a white satin robe and nothing else, her hair and make-up flawless, everything about her lumionus. "Ami..."

She raised the courage she'd honed since childhood to face down anything and stood, looking at him defiantly.

"I'm sober Zoisite. Stone cold sober. It's not a matter of needing more time to choose now." Zoisite stared at her, his usually lightening brain slow. His brain seemed to entirely cease activity when she untied her robe and let it slip from her shoulders. When his eyes made it to her face and saw her cheeks burning and her eyes glued to the floor.

"Ami. Ami tell me you mean it." But already he had crossed the room and was standing so that any further movement would allow him to touch her. He could see her shaking and it gave him pause. "Are you sure?"

"Yes." She said softly. He lifted her face to meet his. His eyes were hot and yet unsure. "Yes. I am sure."

She shivered as his hands brushed against her breasts slowly as they travelled to her up her chest to her neck. He moved slowly, breathing growing labored.

"Since that day at the lake, I've been tormented by the memory of the light on your skin, of the way you tasted like honey and the bright clean way water tastes from a spring." He brushed his lips against hers gently, his tongue dipping in to taste her. "Yes, that taste. Heaven."

He kissed her again, trailing his fingertips in light strokes across her back, her hips, her abdomen. Ami trembled at the coolness of his fingertips as they brushed lower before continuing their travels.

His lips moved to her neck and she heard herself make a sound she'd never made before another person in her life, a deep satisfied purr. Zoisite's hands became firmer in their caresses

"Gods, you're magnificent." He cooed into her chest in the space between her breasts. He lifted her up, relishing the way her legs instinctively wrapped around his waist, and carried her to his room. "You deserve something finer than my undecorated room to be worshiped in." He took a deep breath of her skin and stepped back, his expression rapt, hand extended. The surrounds began to shift, until she was back in his vibrantly colored bedroom from his home.

"How-"

"It is my gift. Jadeite can do something similar, changing the appearance of people. It's only an illusion, though. But I thought it might be more hospitable than some sterile white room." Ami smiled at him brilliantly. Tempted as she was to ask for details, he was looking at her nude form with too much awe for her to focus on anything else.

Ami stretched out against the soft blue sheets, "Yes, much better. But aren't you coming to bed?" Zoisite practically leaped across the room and onto the bed, yanking off his shirt before assaulting her lips. This time he held nothing back, letting his hand slip between her legs.

He drew his wet fingers up his mouth and tasted them, holding her eyes, "Delicious. I want more." He drew his head down, lingering at her breasts, before locking eyes with her, watching her watch him pull her legs over his shoulders and taste her slowly.

She could hardly even breath as he continued to vocally trace her sex, moaning into her skin, slipping in two fingers, starting a rhythm in tandem with his mouth.

"You're so tight" he managed in between strokes. Ami tensed slightly, realizing she had yet to tell him why, but the thought was chased from her head as his pace picked up, causing her legs to shake., pulling the mews from her lips

"Please!" She called out, unable to stand it much longer, knowing that she was at his mercy. He pulled back, slipping off his pants and throwing them across the room. She took the moment to admire the slender, perfect grace of his limbs, the contours of his torso and abs as he flexed in the gesture. He too stood back, admiring the sleek lushness of her figure, the perfect form of the virgin huntress, so often modeled in stone, her figure just as carved and smooth and curved.

"With pleasure." He said, pulling up one of her legs, wrapping it around his hip.

"Wait!" She said swiftly, and he looked at her curiously. "I haven't, I mean, I'm still, I-" His gaze was very curious and mildly concerned now.

"Ami, what's wrong?" She felt her self beginning to panic.

"I'm a virgin!" Came the declaration, causing Zoisite to waved for a moment.

"Do you not want to continue?" It required all the gentlemen in him to even ask as his cock throbbed at the heat of her just an inch away.

"No! I want to, I just, I don't know what to do." She said, agonized at how badly she was ruining the mood.

At that, Zoisite smiled. "Then, by all means, allow me to show you. May I?"

Ami nodded and he positioned himself between her legs and then set about kissing her thoroughly to distract her, running his length back and forth across the slick flesh between her legs. She was trembling so badly and moaning into his mouth so loudly she'd find it embarrassing later, in the endless replay of the night, but she was too far gone to care.

Without warning, she tensed as she felt him inside her body, slipping past her barrier. She hissed at the sting, feeling herself stretch around him. He held very still, breathing hard into her neck, and pushed through the final inches, his body hitting her swollen clit and causing her to pulse against him

"There you go," He said in a tight voice, pulling up on his arms to smile at her. "What a fast learner." And she began to move with him, feeling the most delicious tension building, better than any she'd experienced on her own. She was caught off guard when he pulled her up and turned her over, propping her up to sit astride him.

"Move for me, Ami. I want to see you ride me." Ami bit her lip and rolled her hip tenuously against his, and grabbed at his hips when the wave of pleasure washed over her. She moved slowly, taking in just the tip, experimenting with the feeling. "Oh god, Ami, deeper. This is torture." He tried to pull her deeper, but she resisted, taking him in again, slow and shallow. She giggled as she heard his shuddering moan. He looked up at her with unrestrained awe.

"My god. You are a tease!" She laughed again, enjoying her power over him, and rolled her hips, watching his eyes roll too. But quickly the teasing became less satisfying, and she allowed him full thrusts, much to Zoisite's pleasure, the agonized yet satisfied groan indicated.

Her movements, as fluid as her element, brought them both to the edge. As they both grew close, he sat up, pulling her to him, wanting to get closer, deeper. The scent of her skin was driving him insane. One arm held her back, allowing him more leverage, while the other slipped between her legs.

"Come for me, baby." He whisper in her ear in a litany. She held onto him, feeling her whole body tense and shudder. The feeling of turning to liquid pleasure hit her as her orgasm overtook her and she collapsed against him, shaking. "God, Ami." Zoisite called to her as his body responded to hers and he flowed into her, watching her perfect skin flush, as her head rolled back, exposing her her swollen breast to his eyes, giving him the perfect visual as he finished.

"Zoisite." She leaned back into his body, "Amazing." He smiled, toughing her tighter.

"You were fantastic. So beautiful and unmerciful." He said, running his hands though her thick, damp locks. "Again?"

The next morning, she wanted to lie in bed, spending time with him, exploring all the contours of his flesh, learning his body, loving how he learned hers.

That was not to be. She felt her heart shock as Rei's power was suddenly interjected into this plane of the world.

"What in..." She jumped out of bed, throwing on her robe. Zoicite let the glamour fade and she was in the white room again. And the spell was broken.

"What's wrong?" He asked sitting up in bed.

"Rei's back." He nodded.

"Yeah, so is Jadeite. I felt it a second ago." She looked at him incredulously.

"That wasn't weird to you? To feel them teleport here?" Zoisite smiled, and shrugged a shoulder.

"Why would it? We do it all the time. You and I did just last week. No one panicked, or at least one of my men talked them down before anyone came bursting into your room in a panic." Ami stopped in the door way and blinked, before smiling sheepishly.

"Oh. Yes. I suppose you're right." But she frowned. "She is unconscious though. And they did just come from the wilds, without any warning. Don't you think we should check on them?"

Zoisite stood, walked naked to his dresser, grabbing out pants and a shirt. Ami stood stock still, mouth hanging open slightly. It was one thing in the heat of the moment, but men walking around her naked was something she had yet to encounter. "You're right." Zoisite threw the clothes on without ceremony, "There is not reason why Jadeite should have returned like that, not when he was so set on not revealing any of our capabilities to your senshi. Something must be up." He looked at Ami, taking in her tension. "Hey, I'm sure Mars is fine."

Ami's mouth snapped shut, blush racing across her skin. "Yes, yes. Rei. Her name is Rei. No, I would know if anything were really wrong. But I think I'll go down and get Minako and head to the infirmary now." She turned to flee from the room. He caught her hand.

"So that wasn't what you were gaping at then?" His smile held a sultry warmth. "Still my shy one, hm? Even after all the things you did to me last night?"

The images of his pained, delighted expression as she'd tasted him flashed through her head. She blushed harder, but placed her lips to his ear, nipping at his neck lightly. "Yes. Now I have to go; I have work to do."

Zoisite stood back, dazzled. "How do you always do that to me?"

Ami kept walking, a smile spreading across her lips, confidence higher than ever. She felt her hips sway, seemingly with a mind of their own. She did not look back, even at his low whistle of appreciation.

She stopped in her room to throw on clothes before rushing to Minako's. Sure enough, Minako was with Kunzite, discussing something serious, her expression indicated. The presence of his hand on her wrist, tracing circles, and the way Minako leaned into him were the only indications of any developments between them. Even that changed the instant Kunzite noticed Ami's presence. He let go, stepping back, as Minako's head snapped to the door.

"Good. I was hoping it would be you, Ami. Kunzite was just telling me that Rei and Jadeite are back, as I'm sure you know. Rei was placed in the infirmary; I'd like you to see how she is. I have no idea what she encountered out there. I'd like to just make sure."

Ami nodded. "I understand. Anything else?"

"Not yet. I'm still being briefed myself on the basics."

"Jadeite has been compiling a report of their experiences and findings." Kunzite's deep cool voice added, "I am having a copy made for Zoisite, since the original is with Endymion. I'll ask that he share it with you too. I'd very much appreciate your opinion. What I've heard briefly from Jadeite and am now sharing with Minako to pass on is very interesting."

"I would be happy to give you any help I can. May I go now, Minako?" Minako nodded, and said nothing more. Ami left as quickly as she could, before Minako notice that she had not showered yet.

Rei's vitals were all normal. She was a little dehydrated, but nothing worse. She'd be awake shortly. Matoko had come in to check as well, after having spent the morning training again after a few days spent dealing with the other problems.

"How is she? Still out?" Nephrite followed her in, thumbing through something.

"Fine. Still out, but she should be around soon. Just the usual side-effects, as I'm learning." Nephrite smiled warmly, and nodded at her, tipping the document he was reading to Ami.

"Thank you for reassuring her. I've been trying all morning that just because Jadeite took her to the infirmary first did not mean she would necessarily be in any worse shape then you were when you got back, which was just fine." He put an arm around Matoko, who looked up at him in an annoyed look that clearly said this would be discussed again, but otherwise did not react. "And I come bearing gifts for the good doctor. More work!"

Ami laughed. "It's the kind of gift I always get. I won't blame you."

"I'll appreciate it always." He dropped her a bow. ""Jadeite should be here any minute. He was dancing around Endymion's office as he answered questions, as though him moving while he did would make him tell it faster! Eager to get back to her, I'm betting. He's been eyeing her since the moment she stepped foot on this planet."

"Must be. He only left a little while before I got here, the nurse tells me. I was the first one down after Kunzite came to tell him to take his report to Endymion."

"Whipped. Just how Rei likes them." Matoko said with a week. "See you later girl." She tugged Nephrite after him, who grinned back at Ami and waved on his was out.

Ami laughed, and picked up the report and started to read.

Jadeite came sliding in shortly. "Rei?"

"Not up yet." Ami answered. He looked at her and nodded, expression grateful but eyes distracted. He sat silently on the bed until Rei woke. Ami watched their exchange, noting the playfulness. She responded to Rei's questions, holding her hand, so glad to have her returned to them.

She felt herself flush slightly when Zoisite was mentioned, who had probably gone to Endymion when she'd left. She avoided Rei's eyes, and gave her permission to leave, granting a smile for Jadeite.

She picked up the report, and continued to read.

She finished the report. The uneasy feeling was over-ridden by the sense that, perhaps, the two were connected, this energy Rei encountered, the stuff affecting the locals, and the strange energy sludge left around the transportation device. The answers were there, somewhere. She was sure of it. There was just something missing to put them all together.

She found time to shower, and took a seat beside Zoisite, who reached for her hand when she sat down, smiling at her. Rei and Jadeite were notably still absent, but everyone else seemed too absorbed in discussing the new turn of events to notice.

Endymion was planning something urgent. He and Kunzite sat at the head of the table, heads together, discussing something with animation, periodically jotting notes, or nodding at a comment. Zoisite and Nephrite seemed distracted too, as though listening in at a distance. As a result, the meal seemed too quiet, and increased Ami's anxiety.

Zoisite promised to come by her room when he was free, but that it might be late.

She nodded, and went off herself.

Hours later, after much discussion with Minako and Matoko, and the tousled Rei who joined them later into the conversation after much teasing, Ami was back in her room waiting.

It seemed clear that the capital had the energy Rei had encountered in the wilds in places still, fading mostly, but was fresh elsewhere. It was news Endymion would want. Minako promised to pass it along.

The energy at the transporter site made sense now, the current that was being used to force the system matched as well. The question she still had now was what the girl they'd captured had meant, was who her master was. And now Ami had no idea where to start.

She brooded over it until Zoisite came. He said nothing, picking her up, and carting her to the bedroom without a word. It wasn't until after he collapsed onto the slick skin of her back and caught his breath that he told her about Endymion's plan, which would mean his leaving. His hands moved over the length of her arms, and his jaw moved against her shoulder blade.

Ami felt tears slide down her face and could not say why. He would be back soon, he comforted, and negotiations were going well with the Alliance, so he would be allowed to visit her, and visa versa.

Still, her heart felt the weight bearing down on it.

She parted with Zoisite early. It took half an hour to finally get out of bed, dressed, and out the door, as Zoisite attempted to sabotage her at every turn. His invitation to join him in the bath was tempting, as was his constant changing of the surroundings of the room. She was especially loathe to leave when he changed her floor into hot sand being swept by gentle waves, beckoning a dive into the warm aqua sea beyond.

That image of them lying in the sand, and the feeling of his hands, rough textured but gentle, buzzed in her mind as she sat cloistered with the Senshi that morning.

To say it was good to have all of them together in one space was an understatement. Balance always seemed off with anyone gone. Even now, without Serenity, some of the lightness was missing, but even then, it was better than it had been.

Minako was back to laughing and teasing Ami and Rei freely, the two most recent to succumb to the generals' charms. Matoko was smiling, joining in, being the reinforcement which got Minako's threats answered. Rei was alternating between going tit-for-tat with Matoko over whose conquest showed their skill more, and fuming when Minako tried to talk to her about how romantic it all was.

And as for herself, she felt more comfortable than she had with the out of sorts Minako and concerned Matoko she'd been left with. Rei's return let her fit into any conversation more easily, and to slide away from topics she did not feel comfortable in, allowing the louder Senshi to target one another. In this way, she kept her daydreams and new desires to herself.

Instead, she chimed in when the talk turned serious, to the experiences of Rei in the tundra and of the soon departing generals. She was mildly comforted to see the faces in the room so clearly reflect her own feelings of sorrow and fear. It made her feel a little more justified.

"Two days, no more. That's what Kunzite told me this morning. I don't know how he gets word at all hours of the night unless they have a bond like we do with the Queen with Endymion." Minako said.

"I suspect as much as well." Ami replied. "I've noticed it at dinner. Like they're distracted all at the same time, focusing inward."

"It's to be expected," Rei said, "They are our equivalent here. I wonder what he wants of them."

"We'll find out soon." Matoko replied. "I wonder how your readings of the capital and the tundra affected their decision. I imagine finding the energy is the same, and as fresh here in places as there must be alarming. But this reaction, and Jadeite's to your prisoner...I keep just feeling that they know something they're not sharing, or at least suspect."

Ami nodded. "I've gotten that feeling too. There is something missing every time I try to fit the pieces together. I guess we'll have to wait."

"Then, I suggest we all spend these last two days well. Go find who you're missing ladies. I can feel it, and it is giving me a headache." Minako said with a smile, waving them off. Ami frowned slightly a her; something was still had her overly-brilliant smiles sliding off her face the instant she forgot to hold them up. But Minako was surprisingly quiet about this relationship with Kunzite which seemed to be developing. All of them were, when she thought of it, at least with regard to emotions. Ami closed the door, the last to leave. She hoped it spoke of a good kind of growing up for all of them, rather than the birth by fire they were used to.

Zoisite was in his rooms, head in a book, hand tugging at his hair. He stood to join her when she entered, but she waved him back into his seat. There was a passage she'd read in a book once which had always stuck with her, and she was very interested in trying out sex on multiple surfaces. She decided the chair was as good a place to start as any.

After the chair, the wall, the window sill, and the desk, they made it to floor, which is where they lay in lazy comfort. It had been transformed, courtesy of Zoisite, into the beach from her morning fantasies.

"I think you know I'm leaving soon." Zoisite said.

"How'd you guess?"

He laughed, pulling her closer. "Most men do not get assaulted this throughly and delightfully unless there's a good reason. And you, while you are a surprising little tease," Ami giggled, "are shy and would not have come at me, so quick to put your fantasies on the table, unless you felt there was a time-limit on them."

She laid her head over his heart. "You're right. I know. When? Two days?"

"Three at most. I don't know when we'll be back. But you will be the first thing I'll seek when I do." She smiled. "Do you want to watch the sunset?"

"They are so strange here. I'd like that."

"They're even more lovely over the ocean." He released her, letting her sit and watch.

It was about half beneath the horizon when Zoisite felt the call and Ami sensed Rei's distress and Minako's subseqent summons.

"I have to-"

"Me too. Go."

And he did.

She meet up with the others in the lowest tier's entrance way, transformed, and exited as one. She immediately began scanning the parimeter.

"Is it an enemy?" she heard Endymion ask.

Mars' voice answered. "No. Both have very pure energy. One I believe I recognize, but it is still too unclear through the barrier for me to tell for sure. Their energy is similar."

It was true. Nothing on her scan matched the energy from the tundra of the transporter.

"I am holding you accountable if I open this gate to an enemy, Senshi."

She felt Venus reach out o her heartstring. She tugged back as a confirmation.

She heard Venus answering. "Of course. Go ahead." but remained focused on her scans, trying to note any sudden changes.

The gate opened and flashed a bright blue as the protective barrier, usually unseen, was lifted. Her scans read a burst of pure light energy, child-like, earthling and yet not quite like any other she'd seen, when the horse came into view.

The horse reared up at the new figures and weapons were drawn.

She tugged on Minako when she picked up on the signature of the moon's energy close at hand.

"Wait!" Endymion shouted. The Shitennou and Senshi held their position at the sheer power in his command. "I know this energy. Look!"

At that moment, the horse reared up and took flight into the palace walls.

"My god." Zoisite said. Ami tried to keep a read as the creature barrel directly towards the inner most pavilions.

At that moment, a smaller figure approached, and Ami spun back to get a read. The figure pushed back its hood, shaking out dark curls, and Ami removed her visor. She needed not scan.

"My mistress comes," the figure said simply.

Ami felt the collective anxiety rise. She heard Venus draw in breath sharply beside her.

"No. She can't. How could you let her come alone, Luna?" Venus exploded in anger.

The woman blinked. "She would not be stopped. It was safer that I went on her powers first to see if anyone would attack her. They did not, and this way, she can enter and find refuge here, if the King here, Endymion, will give her welcome."

"Whoever asks for my hospitality in friendship shall have it. Who is you mistress?"

"Princess Serenity of course. She comes now."

Ami saw Luna channel Serenity's power through her and saw the princess emerge from the shared mark on their brows. She beamed at the gathered crowd, as usual.

Endymion dropped the blue barrier again. The princess' smile dropped too as above them the sound of a child screaming issued forth.