Be in awe! Pie has posted a fic!
Note that this is AU, so not all of the details may be completely parallel to the manga or series.
Disclaimer: Pie does not own Sailor Moon, but Sailor Moon owns pie. D:
Date of Chapter: 08.17.2006
Chapter I – Now Hiring
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Priority. Capability. Responsibility.
Those were the very three words that marred the existence of the Lunar Kingdom's Princess Serenity. First of all, she could never get her priorities straightened out. Secondly, her capabilities consisted primarily of eating, sleeping, and bawling at the drop of a hat. Last but not least, Serenity was as responsible as a new-born whale. With horrible decision-making skills, she was the complete opposite of what was thought of to be a decent monarch of the future. She was a wonder—a wonder on how two honorable royalties such as her mother and father could give birth to such a lacking, inept child.
Excluding her closest friends and family, this was basically what everyone had seemed to think of her.
The moon princess was going to prove them all wrong—every last one of them.
In order for that to happen, she had attempted and actually managed to convince her four most bestest buddies that it was their duty to accompany and protect their beloved princess. Actually, the only reason why the inner Senshi even agreed to this was because of the beauties of blackmail, but Serenity would explain that in detail some other day (ex. never).
Mars was especially unwilling, emphasizing on how running away would only increase the princess's problems and how potentially dangerous it could be. The main reasons of her reluctance actually revolved around the fact of Serenity's plans being completely inane and overall stupid, but the former seemed like the more appropriate thing to say. Mercury, Venus, and Jupiter tried milder ways of coaxing the girl out of it. All four of them insisted, in their own words, that Serenity was just paranoid and really had nothing to worry about. All of them failed.
"If this will get you to cheer up a bit more..." Jupiter had said at last, sighing in defeat. Venus gave in almost instantaneously after she had been reminded of the rumors of all the incredibly gorgeous men there may be. Mercury's hope also included the possibility of the princess becoming more competent in her studies once this was all over and done. Of course, Mars was against it up to the very last moment. Poor Mars.
A few days later, a plan was set into action (albeit with a bit more reluctance on the Senshi's parts).
What exactly was this ingenious plan—one might ask? Why, the five girls would sneak onto the nearest teleportation ports, and head on straight to Earth. Serenity would then nail a life there, and manage it all by herself (and her bestest buddies) for no less than thirty days. Then all those court people would see how responsible she really was. But it was actually oodles more complicated than it sounded. For one, only few notables from the eight planetary kingdoms and their Lunar Capitol had any direct contact with good ol' Earth for well over a millennia. Not only that, but it was said that Terrans were the most ignorant and prideful of people in the Heliocentric Lands. –Not as if this had any effect on Princess Serenity's stubborn mindset. She would not be moved, even after being reminded of the countless flaws of her plans.
Serenity liked to think that her mother, the grand Queen Serenity, would be smiling at her daughter's brilliance; when in truth, she would be weeping at the idiocy of it all.
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King Endymion was less than pleased.
Not only was he being nagged to overkill about hooking up with someone and making babies, but he was maid-less as well. His last decent maid, Motoki, had resigned from his job only two weeks ago, and the king had already gone over nineteen replacements. That's right. Most of them could not even last a day. That's right again. Motoki was a dude. But he was a mighty fine dude, and a better maid than those nineteen female rejects combined. Motoki wasn't afraid to give up his dignity by doing someone else's laundry or wearing a frilly apron, nor was he afraid to do them well. Gods, why did Motoki have to leave again?
A king's maid was essential, more so than what one would think. A king's maid made everything in the king's quarters sparkly and clean. If the king's quarters were sparkly and clean, then there would be a happy king. A happy king meant happier moods when it came to icky political stuff. The happy and the icky would then cancel out and make a neutral king. A neutral king was oodles better than having a grouchy king. A grouchy king resulted from a messy king's quarters. A lack of a king's maid increased the chance of having a messy king's quarters. Therefore, lacking said maid was bad. It was logic; that's what it was.
But because the past nineteen of these maids sucked at their jobs, this certain king was far from happy. He missed Motoki, who had been with him ever since the both of them were little tykes. They were almost as good as brothers. It was awful timing for the man to leave right when Endymion was crowned king. Did he not know that that was the time when his skills were needed the most? The nerve. It must have been some sort of a conspiracy, now that the young monarch thought of it.
Endymion paced back and forth across the length of his study, his hands tightly clenched together behind his back. Maybe he a nap would make him feel better. Yes, a nap...
A soft yet sudden knock jerked him from his train of thought. His noble figure tensed, faintly irritated by the sudden disturbance. Damn. And the idea of a nap really did sound pleasant, too. Clearing his throat, he spoke in a tone loud enough for the intruder on the other side of those double-doors to hear, but soft enough to hide the fact that he wasn't feeling very chipper at the moment. "Enter." Did he sound kingly enough? He hoped he did.
When the intruder did enter, he could almost feel his tense muscles slacken with relief. "It's just you," the king stated, with a voice much more casual than with one someone would expect from such an important figure.
"It's just me? I believe you may have insulted me, Highness." Feminine features tinted with an indescribable humor, a lean figure took the liberty of mounting himself by the doorway. Judging by the gloomy atmosphere of the place, it was obvious that Endy had been sulking again. It was so damn depressing it was funny. "Burying yourself in nostalgia again? Very well, then. Carry on."
Sparing the long-haired man with a helpless look, Endymion ran a hand through his raven hair—another casual gesture. "You sadden me, Zoisite." Of course, a bimbo could have figured out that the man's previous remark referred to the whole Motoki and maid dilemma. Half of him wanted to feel pissed and smite his old friend with all his kingly might, but the other half was relieved. With Motoki gone and completely out of the picture, there were then only four more people left whom he knew he could occasionally play about with. Aah, what would he do without his beloved generals? (Probably be a lot better off.)
With a more businesslike notion, he noted the poorly-organized stash of documents held by his friend's arm. "And those are?"
"Oh, these?" Zoisite, on the other hand, felt like laughing even more at this sudden solemnity. "The respective papers for your Maid Issue, Sire. Shall I make public advertisements?" The corner of his lips twitched visibly.
Public advertisements. Ouch. That was definitely worth a wince. Numbers eleven through sixteen (out of nineteen) were results of public advertisements, and all of them ended up either as spies, too goo-goo eyed over the king to work properly, or insane. Numbers eleven through sixteen all failed to last even a day.
After a brief period of thought, the answer was, "Do as you see fit." He was quickly growing tired of the search, and his options were beginning to run out. Zoisite was supposed to be smart. The man had invented countless battle strategies in the blink of an eye. It wouldn't kill him to figure out something with this.
Pivoting on his heal, Endymion turned away and plopped down onto his rather comfy and missed seat. Zoisite's nonchalant "Sure, sure," rang in his ears, followed by the creak and click of a door. This signaled that he was alone in his room again. Finally. And now for that nap...
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"How do you do it, Venus... How..."
Three Senshi looked at the magnificent building before them in awe. Venus, the fourth, stroked a snow-white cat in her arms. She bore a look of pure satisfaction, if not pride, on her youthful face.
"You all couldn't have thought that I would've come here willingly without being sure that we'd have modest accommodations, yes?" The blonde guardian giggled innocently, still pleased with herself.
The building in question paled in comparison to their familiar palace on the moon, but it was still a mansion, and far more luxurious than what Mercury, Mars, and Jupiter even imagined. It was thankfully located in a secluded area. Trees and plantation were more sporadic in this area than around, so there was a fewer chance of materializing right in the middle of a trunk. Venus, who had taken over in figuring out the coordinates to their teleportation, had to be made sure to land right in front of what she called their "contemporary housing". Even the intelligent Mercury applauded her estimations.
"You are all princesses who bear intimate bonds with the court of the Lunar Kingdom. Queen Serenity would be grief-stricken if she had ever found out that her daughter and friends were living in anything less," the white cat, leaping from Venus's caress, stated matter-of-factly. "Yet it confuses me still, on why Her Highness would send you girls to Earth of all places."
Nervous, hesitant laughter broke among those said girls.
"Ohohohoho hoho—! Why would you say that, Artemis? Oh dear, this Earth's heat is making me faint! L-Luna's probably waiting for us inside!" Venus chimed, a shaky larger-than-normal smile breaking across her face. The blonde waved her hands about and made ushering movements toward the entrance of the building. "Let's go in—!"
"Wait." It was Mercury who broke in. "Princess Serenity... isn't here."
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Though hidden by the thick, green foliage that belonged to the forests of Earth, the missing princess was not too far away. In fact, she hadn't even realized that the other Sensei were out of sight in her ponderings. Serenity fiddled about with a long lock of hair, and strode about with no sense of direction whatsoever. So they were on Earth now—now what?
Crystal blue eyes flickered almost in fascination at the surrounding trees, as if they would provide as a source of inspiration. They were indeed different than the plantation back on the moon—in color and in shape—though beautiful in their own ways. –But that was far from the point.
Serenity needed more ideas. The plans of whisking herself away to Earth had come up so sharply that she had neglected to think of what to do when she actually got there. Just living on Earth for thirty days wouldn't be of any help to her current predicament. She needed to get out there and actually do something. But what?
Ideas. Gaining stupid courtiers' stupid respect. Any sort of idea. Even if it smacked her right in the face.
Like an answer sent from the heavens, a sudden gust of wind appeared and billowed Serenity's skirts and hair far behind her figure. Using common sense, she ducked her head downwards and shut her eyes, attempting to relinquish the chances of getting attacked by flying twigs and leaves. A small yelp escaped her lips as she frantically brought up her arms to help shield her.
What the hell. This was supposed to be an answer? Damn you, heavens!
But then the real answer came, and that smacked her right in the face. A piece of parchment had come flying out of nowhere. For a while, it seemed to believe that its main purpose in life was to be plastered over her nose while she fought against the windy currents. But then the wind died down, and the respective parchment proceeded to detach itself and flutter down innocently right in front of the princess's eyes.
Serenity blinked, then snatched the parchment from the air and held it an arm's length away from her cheeks so she could read what it said.
The first word was bolded and in big fancy-shmancy cursive letters. So cursive that it took an excruciating amount of effort to read. Notices in the Lunar Kingdom were simpler, and got straight to the point. Serenity was really beginning to miss the Lunar Kingdom. There were a bunch of other ridiculously long words on the parchment, but she was able to make out at least the main pointers of what it said.
Endymion (the decorated-to-extreme-overkill word)
Now hiring
(personal maid)
A maid? Those stupid heavens wanted Princess Serenity to be a maid?
Well, it was a start.
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TBC
Well, that's the end of chapter one! How was it? Good? Bad? So disgustingly filthy that you wanna feed it to your pet monkeys? Tell me!
Also, I'm still wondering if Serenity/Usagi's hair should be silver or yellow. I could always cheat and forever label it as "silvery-blonde" but meh...
We'll see what happens, I guess. ;D